Feedback from the Physical Body in Reality

"After one week in reality and idling in the dream, I've already lived to twenty-one."

Zhu Zhengwei opened his eyes, a trace of maturity flashing through them. "Thousands of Autumns in a Dream—what year is it tonight?"

Zhu Zhengwei looked at himself in the mirror. Over the past few days, the genes deep within his bloodline had continually reorganized, causing his appetite to surge. He had eaten like mad to replenish his body's energy expenditure.

Correspondingly, through the Dream World feeding back into reality, he had also become his twenty-year-old self from the dream. That self had begun to overlap with his real twenty-year-old self, completely finishing the feedback and reconstructing the past.

He had originally been only 1.73 meters tall, lanky and thin. Now, after loading a save and reshaping the past twenty years, he had shot up another five centimeters and gained a considerable amount of weight!

His formerly frail body was now covered in muscle.

Not the exaggerated, bulky muscles of a bodybuilder, though. More than twenty years of squats, bench presses, and burpees had perfectly trained every muscle, bone, and meridian in his body. He was explosively powerful—practically perfect.

His temperament had improved as well. Combined with the Tear Mole at the corner of his eye, he always gave off a strange, dreamy, mysterious aura, as though he did not belong to this world—a character who had stepped out of a two-dimensional dreamscape.

Still, to prevent anyone from noticing anything unusual, Zhu Zhengwei continued covering that Tear Mole with concealer every day.

All in all, grinding this Initial Account had gone perfectly!

Even his Hemophilia symptoms had eased considerably. As expected, having a strong body came with far too many benefits.

However, the genetic defect rooted in his blood still could not be eliminated merely through physical training or cultivating qi.

"How did you get so damn buff after working out for just one week?"

Even the two beasts in his dorm were dumbfounded. "Good lord, how much protein powder did you drink? Did you take steroids? This is insane!"

Zhu Zhengwei had already laid the groundwork beforehand.

He had said he would be working out this week, leaving early and coming back late.

Though when he went out during the day, it was really just to avoid suspicion. He browsed materials and data online or scanned books at the library—medical knowledge, fitness knowledge—providing training plans for his dream self and researching various health-preserving methods. That was how he had achieved twenty years' worth of fitness results.

"Isn't this too ridiculous? Who was your fitness coach?"

They kept firing questions at him. "I mean, people can still grow taller at twenty, but it looks like you've grown two or three centimeters?"

But they only had a superficial understanding of such things, and they were naturally carefree types. They did not even know Zhu Zhengwei's exact height, so he managed to bluff his way through.

After fobbing them off, Zhu Zhengwei left the campus and wandered down the streets. He could feel a current of qi circulating through his body, and he could barely suppress his joy.

"So reality really did synchronize. That stream of qi came over too!"

"Still, the dream's idle time synchronizes with my age. If I keep living in the dream, I'll eventually become older than I am in reality."

He had a premonition that if his dream self outlived the age of his real body—reaching thirty or forty—then it would no longer feed back into him, or the feedback would be greatly weakened.

In other words, any training done in the years after age twenty would be wasted effort.

"But I can still accumulate experience and continue studying the mysteries of the human body." Zhu Zhengwei decided to let that other self keep living and continue researching the Qi Consumption Method.

The benefits of that would be immense.

It was profoundly mysterious—the fundamental path to strengthening the human soul.

However, Zhu Zhengwei had also discovered a serious problem these past few days.

His Mining Machines only mined while he slept at night.

During the day, there was practically a blank period. The Dream Realm Local Area Network shut down because no one was dreaming, meaning it only operated at night.

"I need to find a batch of Mining Machines that sleep during the day, so there'll be people mining then too." Zhu Zhengwei silently calculated. "That'll fill the daytime gap when no one is mining. I need Servers online twenty-four hours a day, the Local Area Network constantly operating, and Zhujing Village's territory steadily expanding."

There were quite a few people who worked night shifts.

Many factories operated on that model, but infiltrating them and bringing in large numbers of people would be a huge problem.

Besides, they could not be too far from him, or the Servers would not connect.

His current sensing range was one hundred meters, but in practice it could extend much farther. Each host had WIFI bridging capabilities, allowing them to form signal relay points, connecting one after another all the way back to him.

"But the nearest factories are still too far away. Should I build a human Mining Machine corridor to link them over here?" Zhu Zhengwei quickly checked QianDu Map and decided it was unrealistic. They were too far.

As he mulled it over, he wandered aimlessly along the streets outside the school. Passing through an alley, he suddenly spotted an older woman in heavy makeup standing at a doorway, craning her neck in anticipation.

"Isn't there a group of workers here who sleep during the day and work at night receiving clients?" Zhu Zhengwei suddenly thought of something. He took out a mask and put it on, then added a sun hat before slowly entering the alley.

When the heavily made-up woman saw Zhu Zhengwei concealing himself so thoroughly, she immediately understood and smiled at him. "Little brother, want to come to big sis's place for a foot wash?"

Zhu Zhengwei paused, his voice calm. "How many sisters do you have? Would you take a job where everyone just sleeps properly for one night?"

Well, damn.

Standing at the threshold of the alley, the older woman thought to herself, Young men these days are bold. He has such a serious expression, yet he can say something so beastly?

Impressive!

This kid was no simple fellow. He had a bright future ahead of him!

Then he had come to the right people. Their shop usually involved perfectly proper sleeping, while foot washing was only an occasional, improper side gig for extra money.

The older woman beamed. "We've got quite a few good sisters here—six for you to choose from. Every one of them is as lovely as a flower, waiting in the shop."

She gave him a professional once-over.

A student. A high-quality customer.

With that extraordinary bearing, could he be some rich second-generation heir?

Looking at Zhu Zhengwei's tall, perfect figure and the ethereal aura around him, as though he were untouched by the mortal world, she felt a faint stir in her heart despite not seeing his true face. Those young ladies were in for a treat.

That flicker of expression did not escape Zhu Zhengwei.

At that moment, he found himself extraordinarily sensitive to souls and emotions.

He did not care in the slightest. Instead, he hesitated somewhat. "Sis, if I book everyone at once, can you lower the price?"

The woman froze, her face full of shock.

Then she understood. The young man was young, after all. He had asked how many sisters there were—did young people really think things were like television dramas?

With that body of yours, forget a discount. Even if they broke your bones, it would still be fine.

"No problem," she said.

Having received a satisfactory answer, Zhu Zhengwei looked at the heavily made-up woman, who still possessed some lingering charm, hesitated again, and asked, "Sis, can you count as one of them?"

"..."

The woman in heavy makeup was utterly stunned, but soon revealed the bashfulness of a young girl. "All right."

Several hours later.

Zhu Zhengwei strode out of the alley, refreshed and full of vigor.

Civilized society rejects pornography, gambling, and drugs. Let you and me be honest businesspeople.

"Perfect. As long as someone has entered the dream once, they'll be marked by me. Whenever they are nearby in the future, I can easily pull them into the dream. I'm doing this for the young ladies' own good—giving their brains some exercise. When they get old, they can use their minds to find decent jobs. It'll count as a way out for them."

It was just that they did not care for character customization in games, so he arranged a beautiful dream of the Muscular Golden Wheel for them instead.

Early the next morning.

The older woman's legs were weak as she trembled her way to the entrance. As she shut the door, she hung up a sign reading, "Shop Closed for Rest." Her pale lips quivered as she continually muttered, "Such a loss... Never seen someone that fierce before..."

Over the following days, Zhu Zhengwei put on a baseball cap and wandered around again. "Keep looking. Young ladies are the best Mining Machines—they sleep during the day and sleep at night too. Perfect Local Area Network bot Servers."

And so, a mysterious urban legend began that very day.

It spread in a small circle within that industry, leaving people terrified and weak in the knees. A great legendary underworld figure—the Peerless Fierce Man—had risen to prominence.