Stable Progress

Imaginary Training was surprisingly effective, and it also gave Gaoxin a huge appetite.

No matter how well he imagined things, he still had to eat.

The Physical Laws were immensely powerful, and the conservation of energy was unbreakable.

When Gaoxin shouted, Qiao Long checked the time. It was just past eleven.

"It's mealtime. Everyone, stop for a bit. Let's go eat together and welcome Boss Gao."

Everyone agreed with a laugh. More than thirty people marched downstairs in a grand procession and headed for the cafeteria.

The cafeteria was huge, and the ingredients were fairly varied. There was meat if you wanted meat, vegetables if you wanted vegetables, and more than enough rice and bread.

The taste, however, was hard to praise, because the cafeteria workers were all slaves from the Laborer Group.

Even if any of them happened to be good cooks, they would be sent first to serve the customers coming and going along the commercial street, or transferred to other team departments. They would never get assigned here.

But if they were only talking about nutrition, there was absolutely no problem.

"Can we get food outside mealtimes?" Gaoxin asked.

Qiao Long laughed. "No problem. I'm familiar with the kitchen staff. If you get hungry at night, I'll have them make you a midnight snack."

Gaoxin quickly ate his fill, then packed a large amount of meat and vegetables with Sule to take to the training room.

Just as they were about to leave, a commotion came from a corner of the cafeteria.

"Damn it, you think you're worthy of eating?" Two burly men surrounded a table. One of them swept the food onto the floor.

A frail man who had been eating was slapped so hard that he covered his head and crouched on the ground, trembling.

The other man slapped him repeatedly. "You didn't earn a single Redemption Voucher last month. If I hadn't earned enough, you would've gotten our whole team killed."

"There are plenty of people without Redemption Vouchers besides me. Besides, I earned a lot the month before last, so why can't I—"

Before he could finish, the burly man kicked him away. "You dare talk back?"

"You could earn them the month before last. Why couldn't you earn them last month? Are you trying to screw me over? Do you want me dead?"

The frail man clutched his stomach and stubbornly said, "I can't earn any. Even if you throw me into the game, I won't be able to produce any more Redemption Vouchers."

"If you don't meet the quota, use me to settle the debt and send me to the Prey Group."

Gaoxin found it amusing from nearby. Those words amounted to a roundabout admission that the man wanted his captain dead.

If a team failed to meet its quota, the captain was the first one to die.

That was why captains used their previous savings to make up for members who had earned less. Their main goal was to keep themselves alive.

For this team's captain to have driven his own members to wish him dead was truly something else.

After all, when Qiao Long did the same thing, every member under him remembered his kindness. That was the difference leadership made.

Still, there was something strange about the frail man's words. He sounded extremely confident that if he were sent into the game, he would definitely come back alive.

"Fine! Fine! You can't produce any, right? Drag him to the execution ground!"

"You think I can't deal with you?"

Soon, the two burly men dragged the frail man away.

The cafeteria workers immediately came over to clean up the mess. They picked up all the food scattered across the floor, packed it carefully, and carried it away.

The members of the Redemption Squad eating nearby lowered their heads and continued eating. Not one of them paid it any mind.

"Let's go, Gaoxin. That's the captain of Team 12. That team is infamous for being a Meat Grinder." Qiao Long patted Gaoxin.

As they walked, several people asked, "Meat Grinder?"

Qiao Long gave a cold laugh. "You know how newcomers in the past had no choice unless they were Superior Glass People? They were assigned first to teams that were short on members."

"Team 12 was often the team with the fewest members, because its captain recruited a group of strong people who rarely went into the games, while heavily exploiting ordinary members and sending them into the games."

"He forced them to bring back Redemption Vouchers. Otherwise, even if they survived, they would still suffer all kinds of punishments."

"That led to an extremely high death rate. But it didn't matter, as long as they met the quota in the end. Newcomers would be added afterward anyway."

"Many teams had used similar methods, but none were as excessive as Team 12. By the end of almost every month, that team had only a dozen or so people left—and they were all the captain's loyal followers."

Sule's expression turned ugly when he heard that. No wonder they called it the Meat Grinder.

"But the system has been reformed. There won't be as many newcomers each time now," he said.

Qiao Long nodded. "That's right. This reform is a particularly heavy blow to teams like the Meat Grinder. It seems the higher-ups in the Yakuza also felt that the Redemption Squad couldn't continue operating like this and planned to focus on elite soldiers."

Sule recalled, "It seems the problem was with the source of the new prisoners..."

Qiao Long shrugged. "Who cares what the problem is? My team has never been short of people."

"And Team 12 only has a dozen or so members left. When the system suddenly changed and he couldn't get any newcomers, of course he panicked."

Gaoxin suddenly frowned. "Wait. Was Meimei assigned to Team 12?"

Qiao Long nodded, confirming that a woman had indeed been assigned to Team 12.

Gaoxin and Sule exchanged a glance. Meimei had avoided the Prey Group, but being sent to this team was hardly any better.

"Can she switch teams?"

Qiao Long frowned. "There are cases of people being traded between teams. If she were in one of my allies' teams, I could ask them to trade."

"But I have a bad relationship with Team 12. They're Peter's people."

"And with so few people in Team 12, it's already good enough that he doesn't come asking me for someone."

Gaoxin narrowed his eyes. He realized that he absolutely had to attend that appointment tonight.

Back in the training room, Gaoxin continued his high-intensity special training.

Imaginary Combat and Imaginary Body Tempering.

He even imagined himself standing on a coast, facing raging waves and throwing punches nonstop.

In short, he constantly used his brain to stimulate himself. The stronger his imagination, the more spectacular his training plan could be.

No assistance, no venue, no equipment!

This was probably the best training method in the world for a pauper.

Whenever he trained himself to exhaustion, he immediately soaked in Sule's Homemade Exclusive Petal Bath to recover his strength and injuries.

After only half an hour, he would be brimming with energy and immediately go eat.

After eating, he continued his special training. He repeated the cycle endlessly, enjoying every moment of it!

That was how he trained all the way until nightfall.

When everyone went to eat and called out to him, he refused to go. He only said, "Just bring me a portion. Get extra meat! Beef would be best!"

He still lacked experience with Imaginary Training.

At first, he had somewhat neglected his material foundation. When he noticed that the results of his later training were no longer as pronounced as the first time, he realized that he still needed to reinforce his material foundation.

No matter how well he could imagine things, this was still a body whose potential had been completely drained. To grow stronger, he needed external nourishment, using an increase in body weight as his foundation.

He tried all kinds of food and discovered that none of them were as effective as the beef he had eaten at Luo Yan's place that morning.

Two kilograms of beef had converted into 1.5 kilograms of muscle for him. Compared with that, the other foods were far inferior.

Even so, after training bitterly until ten that night, he had still increased his weight all the way to eighty kilograms!

He could also unleash his strength perfectly, with a lifting capacity of 240 kilograms!

"Bang!"

Gaoxin threw a brutal punch at the Punching Power Machine. It measured his full-force punch at 400 kilograms!

His community had once had an old boxing champion who was a regular on the gambling ring circuit. He had even defeated a Radiation User, simply because he could unleash more than 400 kilograms of punching power with one blow.

Many mediocre Radiation Users from the outside world only had four or five times their body weight in strength. They were nowhere near as terrifying as the people on Sin Prison Island.

Of course, the defeated Radiation User eventually surpassed the old boxing champion. After training hard for a month, he easily defeated him in a rematch.

That boxing champion ultimately left the ring in disgrace, even becoming disabled and working as a security guard at a bar.

Even so, he had still been the pride of the Glass People in their community.

Gaoxin had never expected that he would reach this level as well.

"But I'm still far behind Daishan Beida... I still only have half that guy's strength!"

"Thinking about it now, Daishan Beida was truly powerful. At 150 kilograms, he could lift a 400-kilogram water buffalo. His full-force punch might have reached 750 kilograms!"

"Damn... No wonder the captains in the Redemption Squad respected me so much after I killed him. Even Peter, their leader, was extremely wary of me."

"I actually managed to defeat a monster like that. I was truly lucky."

Gaoxin sighed, his eyes reddening.

Who could have imagined that just over a day ago, he had still been a weakling?

He was moved by the fact that he had finally fought his way out after repeatedly risking his life.

"Praise the Great Holy Spirit."

He silently thanked himself and praised the cosmic mother who allowed everyone to become divine.

At that moment, a commotion suddenly came from outside the window.

"Those from Team 09, all of you get out here!"

"Gaoxin! Qiao Long! If you're scared, just beg for mercy. Don't force me to lead people in there and kill you."

It was Peter's voice from outside the window. The area outside was extremely noisy, and evidently many people had arrived.

Qiao Long rushed to the window and shouted, "What are you yelling for? Can't you let people sleep? My men still have to play the game tomorrow. Can you afford the responsibility if you delay them?"

"You want to come in and fight? Then come on! If you've got the guts, come in and cause trouble."

He was not panicking, because if people entered another team's base and started a fight, the Wa people would intervene once things got out of hand.

But if they fought at the execution ground, they could scream until their throats split and no one would care.

Peter did not lead his people inside either. He simply blocked the entrance and cursed from outside, mocking the weaker teams of Team 09 as cowards.

Qiao Long closed the window and said, "Ignore them. As long as we don't go out, it's fine. Tomorrow, those who have games will play, and those who need rest will rest."

Gaoxin had originally thought the same thing. They were all slaves, yet they still had to rank themselves into different classes. How exhausting.

But when he thought of Meimei being in Team 12, he still said, "How many people who can fight can you gather?"

Qiao Long froze. "You want to go?"

"Don't be impulsive. He'll leave once he gets tired of shouting. He's brought together Teams 02, 03, 10, 11, and 12."

"All five teams have more than ten Superior Glass People."

"His Team 02 alone has more than twenty capable fighters. He's even stronger himself, with a strength of 300 kilograms. He's skilled in combat, and his full-force punch reaches 600 kilograms. No one in the entire Redemption Squad can beat him one-on-one."

Gaoxin glanced outside the window. With more than seventy people there, Peter had clearly brought everyone capable of fighting.

After serious consideration, he said, "Leave the leader to me. Just say how many teams you've gathered."

Qiao Long said, "Ten teams! But at most, sixty of them can fight."

Gaoxin glanced at Qiao Long's waist. "You have a gun."

"We can't use guns. If we fight at the execution ground, the Wa people won't interfere. They'll treat it as us punishing our members. But if they hear gunshots, people from the Enforcer group will intervene." Qiao Long's expression turned solemn.

Gaoxin nodded. "Fine. Call everyone you can. Let's go meet him."

Qiao Long asked, "All right, but... are you confident?"

Gaoxin smiled. "There are some moves I never used even against Daishan Beida. This is the perfect chance to test them."

Qiao Long was stunned. What did that mean?

He hadn't used his full strength when he killed Daishan Beida?

P.S. Sorry.