Early in the morning, Xu Tui woke from a deep sleep and slowly opened his eyes.
He felt refreshed.
His mind was sharp and clear.
"Looks like the Mental Power Old Battery Theory is probably right."
When he had forced open his fifteenth Gene Point, Xu Tui had passed out on the spot.
He suspected he'd blacked out because his mental power had run dry.
When he'd woken up that morning, his head had felt heavy, and he'd been listless.
By contrast, during the following two days of training, he had fallen asleep as soon as the extreme fatigue hit—that was, as soon as his body showed the first signs that his mental power was about to run out.
After waking, he'd felt refreshed.
Xu Tui silently added another rule to his training guidelines.
When he got up, the first thing he did wasn't relieve himself. It was step on the scale.
The day before, he'd trained after taking F-grade and E-grade Energy Supplement Potions.
If he'd lost weight again that morning, he could forget about training for a while.
130 pounds.
The number put Xu Tui at ease.
He hurried to relieve himself.
Afterward, he weighed himself again: 129 pounds.
Xu Tui finally let out a breath of relief.
He hadn't lost weight. He'd even gained a pound.
But the increase was too small. Compared to how quickly he'd been losing weight, it was painfully slow.
Xu Tui wasn't in a hurry to eat breakfast. Maybe it was because he'd taken the energy potions, but he didn't feel very hungry that morning.
Instead, he eagerly began testing how his body had changed.
The seventeenth and eighteenth Gene Points had opened one after the other the previous night, and each had given Xu Tui a distinct sensation in his limbs as it opened.
He felt sure both Gene Points were related to the Limitless System and would improve his basic physical abilities.
His left leg really was different.
When he walked, it felt heavier.
He almost seemed to limp.
His jumping ability, basic strength, and even speed were all noticeably better in his left leg than in his dominant right.
The increase should be over ten percent. It seemed to be an all-around improvement.
If he'd been in the same shape today during the incident outside the milk-tea shop two days ago, his kick would have been faster. That traitor codenamed "Long Underwear" would probably have been left on the ground for good.
That was what Xu Tui concluded after testing for a while.
He had limited testing conditions and a simple method, so that was the best he could do.
The feeling in his right hand surprised him.
It wasn't his hand speed.
It was his finger strength.
At that moment, every one of the five fingers on Xu Tui's right hand brimmed with power.
He could feel how strong they were without even testing them.
His finger joints were also exceptionally nimble.
He flicked a finger, and it made a whoosh as it sliced through the air.
Xu Tui stared in astonishment. His fingers were that strong?
After a moment, he suddenly pulled a deck of playing cards from his desk drawer.
He pinched one between his fingers and snapped it forward.
The card shot out and struck the wall.
It didn't pierce it.
Back when he'd been an edgy teenager, Xu Tui had practiced the Playing Card Dart Method plenty of times to look cool.
Xu Tui paused, then suddenly realized the problem.
The Playing Card Dart Method required not just technique and finger strength, but wrist strength and help from the muscles in the forearm.
At present, he had only unusually powerful fingers.
His gaze swept around the room. From the bowl of dried fruit on his desk, he picked out a few round, dried soybeans.
He placed one on his fingertip.
Then he flicked.
Whoosh!
A sharp crack and an impact sounded at the same time.
The dried soybean had been pulverized, and not a trace of it remained.
But there was now a hole in the wall of Xu Tui's bedroom.
A crater two centimeters deep, with chipped edges.
The wall was made of concrete blocks, covered only with a thin layer of wallpaper.
Xu Tui stared at the crater for a long while.
Only one thought kept circling through his mind: What if the target had been a person?
What if he'd hit a vital spot, like the head or the eyes?
What if he'd used a piece of metal instead of a dried soybean? How much damage could it do?
If he'd had this ability during the milk-tea shop incident two days ago, there wouldn't have been any need for all that trouble.
"Accuracy!"
Xu Tui thought of another problem.
Power wasn't enough. He needed accuracy, too.
A critical hit only mattered if it struck a vital spot!
For the next hour, Xu Tui seemed possessed. Every so often, another soybean shot from his hand, clattering around the house.
Fortunately, he'd learned to control the force. Otherwise, he might not have been able to tear down the house, but he'd have wrecked half the furniture and appliances.
Then, instead of seeing him off, his mother would probably have chased him out with a kitchen knife!
He'd learned a lot, though.
Xu Tui discovered that his Bean Flicking Divine Ability wasn't very accurate.
Against a target roughly the size of a fist, his hit rate was seventy percent within five meters and under fifty percent between five and ten meters.
Beyond ten meters, hitting the target wasn't much use anyway.
But at around three meters, something surprising happened.
Within the range of his Mental Induction, his Bean Flicking Divine Ability hit every time.
It was powerful, too.
Two days earlier, in the class teacher's office, Xu Tui had estimated that his Mental Induction reached about three meters.
Today, it seemed to have increased a little, though he hadn't measured it precisely.
Xu Tui felt he should keep a record of the range.
It was easy enough to test.
He closed his eyes and sensed the farthest point he could reach. After marking that spot, he fetched a ruler and measured the distance.
3.12 meters.
Xu Tui made another note in his little notebook.
Whether the range had grown over the past two days or might grow in the future, he'd be able to tell by comparing the numbers.
It was time to set off.
His mother was terribly worried. She worried that Xu Tui wouldn't get enough to eat, that the food away from home wouldn't be good, that someone might bully him, that his clothes would get dirty with nobody to wash them, and that he'd be mistreated while he was away.
"What's there to worry about? He can video-call you once he gets to school."
With that blunt reassurance from his father, his mother wasn't too worried anymore.
Still, as Xu Tui was leaving, she practically wanted to send a refrigerator along with him.
She only regretted that his suitcase was too small.
She wanted to stuff it and his bag completely full of food.
Better yet, she wanted an alternate-dimension storage space.
In the end, Xu Jianguo stopped his wife.
"They should be well taken care of on the way. Pack too much food, and it'll spoil and go to waste. You'll just make the kid carry a heavier load."
"True."
Even so, Xu Tui packed a few extra bags of snacks.
They were for Cheng Mo.
The feeling of hunger twisting your stomach was awful.
Xu Tui also packed a big bag of soybeans.
For snacking, of course.
They could also be used for his Bean Flicking Divine Ability.
He brought a box of magnetic balls, too.
They were little toys for relieving stress.
He used to play with them now and then while studying.
He'd brought them today because they were supposedly made of iron.
They were a little heavy.
Xu Tui didn't know if they were solid, but they were definitely much harder than soybeans.
After the tailing incident and the trouble at the milk-tea shop, Xu Tui had become increasingly conscious of protecting himself.
"Study hard when you get there. The world ahead is exciting, but it's also cruel. Keep working hard!" At the departure point, Class Mom Yu Zeping gave Xu Tui a firm hug.
"Cheng Mo, that goes for you, too. You may eat a lot, but as long as you burn enough, you won't get fat." Class Mom encouraged him.
"Don't worry, Class Mom."
"I hope you'll come back to visit me in a year with a girlfriend. Preferably one who smiles."
Cheng Mo, who'd been grinning, felt a pang in his heart. He released Class Mom from the hug, turned, and headed off to stow his luggage and board, waving as he went.
"Class Mom, don't worry. I will. In a year, I'll bring the campus belle of Huaxia Gene Evolution University to see you."
"Good!" Class Mom Yu Zeping beamed, then called out, "Don't forget to bring a carton of Huazi!"
Xu Tui and Cheng Mo were just about to board. They both stumbled, nearly falling over. That was a sharp change in tone.
"Hey, Cheng Mo, you little brat! Don't tell me you've forgotten?
"That carton of Huazi I left in the drawer for two months—each pack was already open, with only one or two cigarettes left. Wasn't that your doing?
"Are you going to make me say it was the pig who smoked them?" Class Mom Yu Zeping shouted.
"Class Mom, you smoked them too," Cheng Mo replied quietly over his shoulder.
Class Mom Yu Zeping froze.
Once it sank in, she hopped around in anger.
Cheng Mo began boarding.
On the maglev bus, one voice made Xu Tui frown in annoyance as he boarded ahead of the others.
"You think you'll bring the campus belle of Huaxia Gene Evolution University back? Dream on." A stocky boy with an unusually streamlined build and big ears sneered.
"He's not just dreaming, Tong Qi. Do you even know who he is?" He Mingxuan, who had already boarded, chimed in with a laugh.
"Who?"
"He's Cheng Mo, the guy who opened the Rice Bucket Gene Point. Oh, did you see yesterday's news?
"He's the gluttonous kid who got kicked out of the all-you-can-eat restaurant and wound up on the news." He Mingxuan pointed at Cheng Mo, who was boarding, and laughed.
"He opened the Rice Bucket Gene Point? And he still thinks he has a shot with the campus belle? He doesn't even stand a chance with the campus heartthrob.
"You'd have to be an idiot to dream that big, wouldn't you?"
He Mingxuan laughed right on cue.
Before he could finish laughing, Xu Tui had already stormed up in front of him, his face full of anger!
On Valentine's Day, Zhu San had a question: shouldn't Valentine's Day be a two-way street? Why did girls always get presents while guys got nothing?
Zhu San didn't get anything either. Did you?
Before you continue