In the end, Luo Yifang simply could not stand the little girl's wailing in his head anymore. He could not block out a voice from an unknown source! After much coaxing, he finally soothed her and settled on the name Paqi.
"Yay, I'm someone with a name too—no, a book with a name!" Paqi sounded delighted, with none of the heartbroken misery from before.
"Say... you weren't pretending just now, were you..." Luo Yifang suddenly realized something. This assistant of his did not seem as innocent as he had imagined.
"Hehe, what do you think?" Paqi's sly laugh gave Luo Yifang a bad feeling. Even a little girl knew how to play tricks? Where had all the trust between people in this world gone? (A salted fish ate it...)
Helpless, Luo Yifang did not dare bicker with the jumpy Paqi. What if she started crying again? A 360-degree surround-sound system with stereo effects and ear-splitting volume—were you scared? Hmm, scared or not?! Decisively admitting defeat, Luo Yifang stopped paying attention to Paqi and began studying the results of his ability development.
"Hmm..." Perhaps because the assisting items and procedures had been too simple, even Luo Yifang did not know exactly what superpower he had developed. He could not sense the slightest change. "Other than being a little hungry... wait... a little hungry?"
Luo Yifang knew his appetite was not large. He had eaten a high-calorie breakfast earlier, so he should not have been hungry now. Yet the emptiness in his stomach could not lie. It was indeed hunger signaling his brain, urging Luo Yifang to replenish his energy.
Ten minutes later, Luo Yifang expressionlessly stared at the pile of ready-to-eat boxed meals and coffee he had taken from the kitchen refrigerator. Then, still expressionless, he heated all the meals at once. As his hunger grew stronger and stronger, he had no choice but to open a can of coffee. He frowned. He did not particularly like coffee's bitterness now—at least not on an empty stomach. "There's a reason this body is in such bad shape. Eating this stuff all day, how could it possibly be healthy..."
After two gulps, the can was already empty. Yet the instant the coffee entered his stomach, his hunger seemed to worsen. With no other choice, while waiting for the meals to heat up, Luo Yifang began frantically drinking coffee, trying to drive away the strange hunger.
By the time the meals were ready, the kitchen trash can was nearly full of empty coffee cans. What shocked Luo Yifang was that he had consumed at least two liters of coffee, yet he did not feel full at all. On the contrary, that boundless hunger had become even clearer. He could barely restrain his body's primal urge—to eat!
Thus, amid Paqi's astonished cries, Luo Yifang ignored how hot the food was. In just a few minutes, he swept an entire boxed meal into his stomach like a whirlwind. Only then did he understand why he had not felt full. The moment food entered his stomach, some unknown force seemed to digest and absorb it, assimilating it into Luo Yifang's body.
As Luo Yifang ate, he also felt the changes in his body. After some more time, the kitchen was nearly filled with food waste. Once he had eaten almost everything edible, Luo Yifang finally put down his chopsticks. He had already noticed the enormous changes in himself while eating.
He held out his right hand. Defined muscles bulged from his once-thin arm. Pulling up the hem of his shirt, he saw eight tightly arranged abdominal muscles and powerful pectorals. Even Luo Yifang's height had increased. He had originally been only 168 centimeters tall, but according to the information returned by his vectors, he should now be 170 centimeters.
With his perfect, smooth muscle lines, Luo Yifang looked like a humanoid cheetah. He was not overly bulky, yet he brimmed with wild strength, lean and agile—completely different from before! Paqi naturally noticed Luo Yifang's drastic change as well. Somewhat surprised and confused, she asked, "What kind of superpower did you gain? Does eating make you stronger, or does eating make you more handsome?"
"I don't know what to call it either." Luo Yifang lowered his head, deep in thought. "This sudden improvement in physical fitness resembles an enhancement-type superpower, but it's also somewhat different. The only thing I can be sure of is that it's definitely an LV.5-level superpower."
"LV.5 physical enhancement?" Paqi sounded doubtful. "You don't seem like the sort of person with muscles for brains. I thought you'd awaken some kind of telekinesis ability."
Luo Yifang shook his head. "Superpowers do not have much to do with a person's physical condition. They are closely connected to one's personality, subconscious, and true inner heart. In other words, if you long for warmth and light, you are very likely to awaken fire or light-based abilities. But what I wanted most was simple: a healthy, strong body. So it is not surprising that I developed a superpower similar to physical enhancement."
"But isn't this kind of superpower just synonymous with being weak..."
"No, that is not really the case. You probably think it's weak because, among Academy City's 2.3 million espers, none openly has a similar superpower above LV.3. Or rather, any superpower that reaches LV.4 cannot possibly be weak, no matter what it is." Luo Yifang raised one finger and wagged it.
"What about in secret?" Curious little Paqi really had a lot of questions.
"I don't know about that. But even if there are, so what?" Luo Yifang chuckled. "I don't care whether they are strong. No matter how strong they are, they won't be stronger than me. Even if they're an LV.5, I can hang them up and beat them!"
"Tch..." Paqi sent over a burst of disdain.
"Besides, my physical enhancement does not seem that simple." Luo Yifang completely ignored Paqi's contempt. "This enhancement seems able to exist independently of my superpower. It seems that I only need to provide calculations during the enhancement process. Once it ends, my physical fitness genuinely improves."
"That does sound pretty amazing," Paqi said, not entirely understanding but feeling impressed. "But how often can you use this ability? Wouldn't it be over if you could only enhance yourself once?"
Luo Yifang burst out laughing when he heard Paqi's words. "How could that be? Though saying 'how often can it be activated' is not quite accurate. As long as I want to and can provide enough energy, this ability can stay active indefinitely. Hmm, now that I think about it, that might be absurdly strong. Tearing tanks apart with my bare hands... no, maybe tearing apart Gundams?"
Luo Yifang was not joking. Based on the preliminary information returned by his ability, he discovered that his muscle toughness, bone density, cell activity, and various other physical indicators had already surpassed the realm of ordinary humans. He simply did not know exactly how strong he was, since there was no comparable human data to use as a reference.
"So, an Luo Yifang version of Captain America? No, with how much you talk, you're probably Deadpool!" Paqi continued firing off sarcastic remarks at Luo Yifang.
"You know about that too?" Luo Yifang had not expected this little-girl book to have watched movies as well. But he did not have time to ask further, because he had something else to deal with—cleaning up the garbage left over from his meal...
"Sigh, what a tiring life..."
At the request of our readers, we now offer an ad-free VIP membership feature.
Click to view
Before you continue