Blood Energy

The recruit mess hall.

Aside from the brutal Gravity Chamber exam that morning, no extra drills had been scheduled today for once.

For recruits who spent every day on the edge of life and death, it was an almost extravagant chance to relax.

That was, assuming they had made it through the exam in one piece, without serious injuries.

Those who hadn't were still lying in the medical ward's recovery pods, groaning in pain.

The mess hall was packed, but an inexplicably strange mood hung over it.

Nearly half the recruits kept glancing, openly or otherwise, toward a table in the corner, watching a terrifying feat that bordered on suicide.

The broad metal table was piled high with food like a small mountain!

Every bit of it was Exotic Beast Meat, giving off intense heat and a pungent, gamey smell!

There was everything from ordinary Black-Haired Pig meat worth one Point to high-grade Iron-Armored Ox steak worth ten Points—meat that would send an ordinary recruit's Blood Energy surging from a single whiff.

At a glance, the Exotic Beast Meat on that table had cost at least seventy or eighty Military Merit Points!

The watching recruits' eyes turned red with envy. They could only keep swallowing.

In a military camp where Exotic Beast Meat was treated as a strategic resource, only someone who had placed in the top thousand of today's exam and earned a Points reward could afford such extravagance.

But—

Even the highest-ranked recruits would never dare eat that much Exotic Beast Meat in one sitting!

The body had its limits. Even a Quasi-Martial Artist would need a long time to digest and absorb so much violent Blood Energy packed into their stomach.

Force it all down, and there was only one outcome: ruptured blood vessels and injuries from Blood Energy running wild.

Yet under everyone's baffled, even horrified gazes, Jiang Yue sat at the table devouring it like a starving man.

It wasn't just the high-grade Exotic Beast Meat. More than a dozen free tubes of Gray Nutrient Paste were piled in front of him too.

He really was hungry.

After his Gene Lock had been blasted open by force, the upgraded green trait [Gluttony] had become a terrifying bottomless pit, pushing his digestive system to its limits.

Rrrip—

Expressionless, Jiang Yue grabbed a half-cooked Iron-Armored Ox steak and tore off a mouthful, sinew and bone together.

He didn't bother chewing. His Adam's apple bobbed, and he swallowed it whole.

The violent energy that would have sent an ordinary recruit's Blood Energy out of control reached his stomach without causing so much as a ripple. [Gluttony]'s ruthless digestive power crushed and absorbed it instantly, turning it into pure Life Essence that flowed into his newly expanded Gene Lock.

In barely ten minutes, Jiang Yue cleared the entire mountain of meat while everyone stared as though they'd seen a ghost!

And to ease the bottomless hunger of [Gluttony], he ignored the enormous Blood Energy already contained in the meat, crushed several free tubes of Nutrient Paste, and squeezed the gray paste into his mouth in great gulps.

"Phew..."

Jiang Yue swallowed the last mouthful of Nutrient Paste. He felt a faint warmth in his stomach, but his brows remained slightly furrowed.

"I'm still hungry."

He stood, strode to the serving window, and spent the last of his Points on another large plate of still-bloody Exotic Beast Meat.

Back at the table, Jiang Yue divided the meat in half and pushed one portion toward Li Tai, who sat across from him.

"Eat," Jiang Yue said simply.

On the night they'd enlisted, Jiang Yue had stayed up late to train, and Li Tai had shown him a rare bit of kindness.

Jiang Yue wasn't cold, but he wasn't particularly sociable either. He seldom made friends, and he knew kindness was hard to come by.

After waking in the Medical Pod and completing his genetic optimization, he'd stopped by the general ward and dragged Li Tai, who had suffered only minor internal injuries, to the mess hall.

"No... Brother Jiang, Brother Yue! I really can't eat another bite!"

Li Tai looked at the meat pushed toward him, its violent Blood Energy rolling off it. His face crumpled.

He rubbed the calf he'd strained during the gravity test, which still hadn't fully healed, and waved both hands.

"That piece of Exotic Beast Meat you made me eat earlier is still sitting in my stomach! One more bite and a scrawny guy like me will start bleeding from the nose."

Li Tai gave a wry sigh, then looked Jiang Yue up and down as though he were a monster. He couldn't help lowering his voice.

"Jiang Yue, how are you digesting that much energy? That was seventy or eighty Points' worth of high-grade meat! You haven't even broken a sweat. Is your stomach made from an alloy furnace or something...?"

The recruits eavesdropping nearby were quietly dumbfounded too. The jealousy in their eyes had given way to deep awe.

Being able to fight didn't necessarily make someone a monster. But anyone who could eat like that without batting an eye definitely was one!

Just as everyone was reeling, the heavy, synchronized thud of military boots came from the mess hall entrance.

The noisy mess hall fell silent at once.

Two soldiers in dark black coats strode in, their faces blank. On their chests were badges bearing crossed blood-red blades, the mark of authority over life and death.

They belonged to the most feared organization on the Floating Land—the Supervision Team!

The air seemed to turn freezing cold.

Every recruit held their breath, not daring to make a sound.

The two Supervision Team members swept hawklike gazes across the hall, then fixed precisely on Jiang Yue in the corner, surrounded by empty plates.

One stepped forward. A cold, synthesized voice cut through the silence.

"Who is Jiang Yue?"

Jiang Yue stopped wiping the grease from his hands and slowly raised his head. Not a ripple disturbed his deep, still eyes.

"I am."

The Supervision Team member looked him up and down, his voice hard and devoid of emotion.

"Come with us. The instructor wants to see you."

Without a word, Jiang Yue rose and followed the two expressionless Supervision Team veterans straight out of the mess hall.

They passed through one heavily secured armored corridor after another. Jiang Yue's gaze remained calm, though he was puzzled.

Head Instructor One-Eye wanted to see him alone?

He ranked fairly high among the thirty thousand recruits, but 876th was only enough to catch an instructor's passing notice. It was nowhere near the top.

The truly outstanding recruits were Martial Arts Prodigies like Chu Lin, who ranked in the top ten.

Why would One-Eye pay so much attention to a recruit from the middle of the pack?

Maybe it has something to do with how I reacted to the Gene Potion...

As Jiang Yue pondered this, the veterans stopped before a fully enclosed High-Tier Private Training Ground. One scanned the airlock open and motioned for Jiang Yue to enter alone.