Gambling Battle Rules

At noon, District B cafeteria.

Under the red warning lights, the air was thick with a rich, overbearing aroma of grease, a stark contrast to the cold, industrial synthetic smell of District A.

Jiang Yue carried his specially made alloy bowl and found a corner to sit down.

In the bowl was his entire fortune—the [Black-Armored Scaled Ox Meat Soup] he had exchanged for 15 points.

The soup was blood-red, with a thick layer of golden fat floating on the surface.

Though called "minced meat," each cube of meat was neatly cut, tumbling in the scalding broth and radiating a dizzying amount of high-energy heat.

At a few nearby tables, some new recruits who had pooled their points to "split a share" and try it were sipping cautiously.

With every sip, they closed their eyes and paused for a long time, some even turning red-faced, clearly too weak to handle the nourishment, struggling to guide their qi and blood for digestion.

Jiang Yue didn't hesitate.

He lifted the bowl, tilted his head back, and like gulping down strong liquor, poured the scalding soup and the tough bits of crushed bone into his throat in large mouthfuls.

Gulp.

The hot stream rushed down his esophagus into his stomach, like swallowing a burning lump of charcoal.

At the edge of his retina, the long-dormant panel instantly lit up.

code
[Action: Eating]
[Status: High-Energy Substance Intake!]
[Current Entry: Food Digestion (White)—Overloaded Operation.]
[Description: Stomach motility increased by 300%. Stripping the violent essence from the Black-Armored Scaled Ox's flesh and blood... Conversion initiated.]

Jiang Yue felt a thunderous rumble in his abdomen.

If an ordinary person had binged like this, they'd probably have a stomach hemorrhage by now.

But under the crushing force of the [Food Digestion] entry, the energy that would have burst a normal person's blood vessels was forcibly shattered and ground down.

Stream after stream of pure, almost tangible heat surged out of his stomach like magma, frantically pouring into his long-dry limbs and bones.

His skin, once sallow from chronic malnutrition, now visibly flushed with a healthy red, even faintly glistening with an oily sheen.

Ten minutes.

In just ten minutes, Jiang Yue set down the empty bowl. He had even chewed up and swallowed the marrow dregs at the bottom.

The [Food Digestion] progress bar had jumped up by a huge chunk.

He stood up, feeling every pore on his body spewing out scorching white vapor.

This feeling of fullness after a long drought made him want to throw his head back and roar.

Late night, two in the morning.

The lights in the Honeycomb Barracks were long out, and snoring rose and fell in waves.

Jiang Yue lay inside his capsule pod, eyes tightly shut.

The [Calm Spirit] entry was dutifully trying to force his brain into deep sleep.

But this time, his body was restless.

The energy from that bowl of Black-Armored Scaled Ox soup was too potent.

For his body, which hadn't fully matured yet, it was an excess of nutrients.

The hot qi and blood rampaged through his blood vessels. If he didn't vent it, the accumulated heat poison would burn his internal organs.

"Can't sleep."

Jiang Yue's eyes snapped open, and he sat up.

He quietly opened the pod door, moving like a nimble night cat, dodging the patrolling mechanical guards as he slipped toward the edge of the floating continent.

Five minutes later.

Floating Continent 17, G4 Abandoned Deck Area.

This spot faced a massive ventilation shaft, where the cold interstellar wind howled in, enough to freeze an ordinary person's blood.

But Jiang Yue stood shirtless in the wind, finding it merely cool.

"Hah..."

A mouthful of turbid breath came out as a long white plume.

Jiang Yue took his stance, the first form of the Federal Basic Body Tempering Technique, "Draw Bow."

Crack!

This time, the dry meridians inside his body felt as if they'd been soaked in lubricating oil.

With ample energy supply, [Tough Skin] tightened, his muscles flexed, and he threw a punch. The air let out a crisp explosive crack.

Refreshing.

Jiang Yue's eyes were bright, his movements unceasing.

Second form, third form...

He tirelessly repeated that set of motions, long since etched into his bones.

With the unending energy support from [Food Digestion], every punch he threw was rock steady, every burst of force precise to the extreme.

Sweat had barely seeped from his skin before it was vaporized by the high temperature on his body's surface, forming a mist that shrouded him.

Just as Jiang Yue was immersed in the pleasure of circulating blood and qi—

A jarring electronic tone abruptly rang out from the dark shadows.

Jiang Yue's movements halted instantly. He spun around, every muscle in his body tensing into a defensive stance.

"Who's there?"

The shadow stirred.

A thin, frail figure slowly stepped out.

It was a youth wearing heavy tactical goggles, looking bookish and refined, even with an unhealthy pallor.

In his hand, he held a modified old military data terminal, its screen's glow illuminating a face that bordered on fanatical.

"Easy, easy."

The youth raised his hands to show he meant no harm, but his gaze was locked onto Jiang Yue as if he were a rare treasure. "I was just passing by... and, incidentally, collecting some data."

Jiang Yue frowned. "Data?"

"Let me introduce myself. Xu Bo. A recruit from Barracks 302."

Xu Bo pushed up the goggles on his nose, his tone carrying an irrepressible excitement. "I watched you for half an hour from the side. You threw eight hundred 'Thrust Punches' and three hundred 'Whip Legs.'"

He turned the terminal screen toward Jiang Yue, which displayed a nearly perfectly overlapping wavy line.

"See this line?"

Xu Bo's voice trembled slightly from agitation. "Without any mechanical assistance, the angle, force, and even the rhythm of your breathing on every punch—the error rate is controlled within 2%."

"Even those geniuses from martial families who've trained since childhood—when their stamina drops later in practice, their movements deform. Their variance fluctuates wildly."

"But you're different."

Xu Bo stared at Jiang Yue. "Your variance is as low as a machine's. Extremely rare stability."

Jiang Yue relaxed his stance, but the wariness in his eyes didn't fade.

He knew his own situation—it was the absolute control granted by the panel. As long as an action was logged, it would be faithfully executed.

"So what?" Jiang Yue asked coldly. "What are you trying to say?"

"I want to make a deal with you."

Xu Bo stepped closer, speaking rapidly. "I've got a hundred formulas for optimizing force output in my head, but this broken body of mine... you can see it yourself. I can't execute them. I need a living model that can perfectly carry out my instructions to verify my theories."

As if afraid Jiang Yue would refuse, Xu Bo immediately dangled the bait:

"In exchange, I can help you fine-tune your movements. Your force output is stable, but some points are dead angles—inefficient. For example, that punch you just threw: if you raise your elbow by three more degrees and delay your breath by 0.1 seconds, your blood and qi conduction rate could increase by at least 5%."

Jiang Yue's heart stirred.

A 5% increase in blood and qi conduction rate?

If it were true, that meant the progress accumulation on the [Body Forging] trait would accelerate again.

"Try it." Jiang Yue's words were concise.

He followed Xu Bo's guidance, adjusted the angle of his elbow slightly, and threw another punch.

Crack!

This crisp sound was even more penetrating than before.

At the edge of his retina, the [Body Forging] progress bar jumped by a noticeably larger margin than before.

"You've got something."

Jiang Yue's gaze toward Xu Bo shifted. This guy was a true theoretical talent.

"Heh, naturally."

Xu Bo smugly put away his terminal. "But just training isn't enough. Judging by how your blood and qi are surging, you just ate something good, right? Meat from District B?"

Jiang Yue nodded. "Black-Armored Scaled Ox."

"Good stuff, but way too expensive."

Xu Bo sighed and plopped down onto the deck. "Fifteen credits a bowl. For us new recruits, we only get that pittance of a salary each month. If you want to eat meat every day, relying on training rewards alone—you'd starve before you saved enough."

That one sentence struck Jiang Yue's sore spot.

His pockets were cleaner than his face right now. Those fifteen credits had already turned into heat in his stomach.

The day after tomorrow, he'd have to go back to gnawing on that damn gray toothpaste again.

"You have a way?" Jiang Yue looked at Xu Bo.

"Not exactly a way, but I know where we can get some points."

Xu Bo pointed mysteriously toward the center of the Floating Land, that brightly lit area where faint sounds of commotion could even be heard.

That was the garrison zone for the Supervision Team and instructors, the only area on this Floating Land where veteran soldiers were allowed to operate.

"The military bans private fights, but that's aimed at us newbies."

Xu Bo lowered his voice, a mix of longing and fear in his tone. "For those grizzled vets who've crawled out of piles of corpses, training us is too boring. They need entertainment."

"Entertainment?"

"Yeah, betting fights."

Xu Bo explained: "Not the kind where you go up on a stage and fight to the death—that's too prone to accidents. What the vets play is the 'Quality Stakes.'

Like betting on who can do more weighted squats, who can last longer under high-voltage current, who can take more hits."

"They set up the odds, and they'll personally step in to run the games. As long as you've got a specialty and dare to risk your life, you can win their points."

At this point, Xu Bo gave Jiang Yue a thorough once-over, a sharp glint in his eyes:

"Your strength isn't top-tier, but that endurance and stability of yours, like a machine...

It's practically tailor-made for this kind of 'Endurance Stakes.' Those vets will definitely underestimate you, thinking you're just a pushover who can only tough it out."

"Are the odds high?" Jiang Yue asked the most crucial question.

"Scarily high. After all, in the vets' eyes, we newbies are all weaklings."

Xu Bo adjusted his glasses. "So? Want to go take a look? Even if you don't have points to bet now, scoping out the place and learning the rules won't hurt."

Jiang Yue was silent for two seconds.

He touched his stomach, which had settled down a bit.

That surge of power from the meat was fading, replaced by a craving for the next meal.

"Let's go."

Jiang Yue grabbed the shirt hanging nearby and casually draped it over his shoulders, hiding the chiseled lines of his muscles.

"Lead the way."