Gene Enhancement Serum

An hour later, the army-wide gravity test finally came to an end.

The atmosphere in the square was even more oppressive and grim than it had been at the morning assembly.

Compared to ten days ago, nearly a third of the once-packed Square Formation of thirty thousand was now Emptiness!

The recruits who had failed to last the passing mark of ten minutes had all been loaded onto transport ships. Without even leaving their full names behind, they had been stripped of their military status and sent to lightless mine pits.

Of the more than twenty thousand who remained, most were injured. The air was thick with the smell of blood and medicine.

"Silence, all of you!"

On the platform, Chief Instructor One-Eye stood beside Chief Examiner Iron Wrist. One-Eye swept a hand through the air, and the enormous Holographic Projection above the square lit up again, becoming a long, blood-red ranking list.

"The test is over! We will now announce the Gravity Resistance Test rankings!"

"The Empire rewards the brave! The top one thousand in this test are the elite prospects of Floating Continent 17! Gene Enhancement Serum and Military Merit Points will be awarded according to rank!"

The numbers on the holographic screen spun wildly. Every recruit held their breath, eyes fixed on the list overhead.

Ten names hung at the very top, blazing with golden light.

"First place: Chu Lin. Maximum gravity endured: 4.0 times. Duration: 21 minutes!"

"Second place..."

At the sight of that terrifying lead, sharp intakes of breath swept across the square.

"Four times gravity?! For a full twenty-one minutes?"

A recruit beside Jiang Yue went weak at the knees, his face full of despair. "We couldn't take even 2.5 times for more than a few seconds. Are these people made of alloy?!"

Jiang Yue quietly studied the names at the top of the list, his expression undisturbed.

Martial Path talent differed from person to person. Add in the foundations they had built before enlisting, and although they had joined in the same batch, the gap in their strength was already enormous.

But given the military's style of training, the advantages gained from childhood medicinal baths and supplements would eventually be leveled by talent. That was how they would identify the soldiers truly worth training.

The list kept scrolling down.

Soon, a murmur of awe and fear broke out among the crowd.

"Look! Forty-eighth place! Shen Qing!"

"Holy shit, that lunatic made the top fifty? He doesn't even have a family backing him!"

"I was right next to him. His bones were almost crushed and blood was pouring out of him, but he forced himself to endure 3.2 times gravity until he passed out. He fought like he didn't care if he lived or died..."

In the distance, Shen Qing stood wrapped head to toe in special-grade bandages like a mummy, staring hard at the list. Savage excitement flickered in his bloodshot eyes.

Jiang Yue's gaze swept quickly down the middle of the list. At last, he found his name.

[Rank 876: Jiang Yue. Maximum gravity endured: 3.5 times.]

At the sight of his ranking, Jiang Yue's tense expression eased almost imperceptibly.

Breaking into the top thousand out of thirty thousand was as close to perfect a result as he could have hoped for.

Although he had fallen at 3.5 times gravity, he could not match the endurance of Aristocratic Family heirs who had conditioned their bodies since childhood, or a lunatic like Shen Qing who had pushed himself to the brink of death.

This ranking was already good.

Bzz—

Just then, hundreds of small logistics drones rose from the Armory around the square and flew into the Square Formation like a swarm of bees.

One drone stopped precisely in front of Jiang Yue. A hatch opened in its mechanical belly, presenting a silver metal refrigerated case that gave off wisps of cold air.

At the same moment, the Military Terminal on Jiang Yue's wrist chimed.

[Jiang Yue. Rank 876.]

[Rewards issued: 100 Basic Military Merit Points; Primary Gene Enhancement Fluid ×1.]

Jiang Yue reached out and took the cold metal case.

A dozen envious gazes landed on him at once.

A hundred Points were a fortune, enough to buy a large amount of high-grade Exotic Beast meat!

And that was nothing compared to what the case held: a military-controlled Gene Enhancement Serum that could directly alter his underlying genes and accelerate the evolution of his body!

To a new recruit, it was a miracle drug that could change everything overnight!

Sensing the restless gazes around him, Jiang Yue made no attempt to hide the case. Instead, he slowly turned his head and swept his cold gaze across the crowd, his eyes deep and still as an ancient well.

Having just crossed the 500-kilogram threshold of a Quasi-Martial Artist, his formidable Blood Energy radiated a faint but deeply dangerous pressure through his dense Skin Membrane.

The recruits caught in his gaze suddenly remembered what they had seen three days ago: this seemingly unremarkable young man crushing someone's finger bones with one hand, then killing an opponent with a single punch.

Fear doused their greed in an instant. The surrounding recruits looked away as if shocked, and some even stepped back half a pace, leaving an Emptiness around him.

Jiang Yue ignored the cannon fodder and gripped the metal case tightly.

Through a gap in the case, he could sense the deadly allure of the dark blue serum inside.

"Don't envy them too much. If you reach the required ranking next time, you can get enhancement fluid too!"

"The rest of you are dismissed. You may turn in early today. Those ranked in the top thousand, come with me."

On the platform, Instructor One-Eye gave a cold snort and dismissed the crowd, keeping only those who had received Gene Enhancement Serum.

"Don't think getting a dose means you've become superhuman overnight."

One-Eye's icy gaze swept over the thousand people below as he ruthlessly shattered their fantasies. "Many of you think this Primary Gene Enhancement Fluid is some magic strength pill—that one injection will give you hundreds of kilograms of punching force for free. Wrong! Dead wrong!"

"The human body has limits! Think of a cup of fixed size. Once it's full, any more water spills over. That's the thousand-kilogram force barrier you'll encounter in the Skin Tempering Realm!"

"The gene fluid is a key!"

"Its sole purpose is to forcibly tear apart and reconstruct your ordinary, closed-off Gene Chain!"

"It violently expands your body from a cup into a bucket, perhaps even a water vat! Only by unlocking this Gene Lock can you advance freely along the Martial Path!"

At that, One-Eye looked past the crowd to Chu Lin and the dozen or so youths with Martial Path inheritances in the front row.

"But you have no need to inject this."

One-Eye waved a hand, and Logistics Robots immediately brought over more than a dozen smaller crimson metal cases that radiated astonishing heat. "Your genes were optimized at home long ago. Injecting you again would not only be a waste, it could even cause genetic collapse."

"So your reward has been changed to Exotic Beast Blood Essence!"

"The same goes for everyone else. Once you've had this injection, your future rewards will change if you maintain your rankings."

"Now go and grow stronger."

Half an hour later.

Underground Level Three of Floating Continent 17, inside the Special Medical Restricted Zone.

It was a vast Biological Modification Hall with a cold, futuristic feel.

One thousand silver-white, egg-shaped Medical Pods stood in a matrix. Their dim blue indicator lights twinkled like stars in the dark underground space.

"Everyone, remove your training uniforms and enter a pod!"

A cold-faced Military Medical Officer in a white coat stood on a platform and gave one final warning. "I'll say it again. Genetic reconstruction will be excruciating. It will feel as though every bone and organ in your body is being crushed and rebuilt, inch by inch!"

"If your will breaks and your body instinctively gives up resisting, you'll die in the pod. Or your genes will collapse, and you'll never advance another step along the Martial Path."

"If you're afraid, there's still time to withdraw."

"As for those who choose to stay—"

"You will embrace evolution, or be condemned to mediocrity forever."