I Figure I Could Take on Ten (Follow for More)

Time ticked by, second by second.

The mechanical arms worked in an orderly fashion, occasionally swapping out their tool heads through the portal:

Sometimes it was a nozzle that sprayed a mist of catalyst, sometimes a transmitter that emitted energy waves at a specific frequency, and sometimes a pipette that collected tiny tissue samples.

Oil-Guy had already pulled out a crude Dataslate he'd redeemed from the store. It had cost him 50 coins, and was essentially an electronic notepad with scanning and recording functions. He was documenting every detail.

Tax Brother and Xue Brother went from shock at first, to numb acceptance, and finally to yawning.

"This is more boring than watching a Servitor get oiled..." Tax Brother muttered.

"But it's effective."

Xue Brother stared at Wang Zhong's bare arm. As the mechanical arms worked, silver light occasionally rippled beneath his skin, and the contours of his muscles seemed... a little more defined.

At the fifty-eighth minute, the mechanical arms stopped working all at once.

They slowly retracted, their tool heads folding back into the arms, and the three arms withdrew in unison through the gear-shaped portal.

The portal began to shrink, and the complex machinery within gradually faded away.

At the very last moment, Wang Zhong seemed to catch a glimpse of an extremely indistinct logo made of light deep inside the portal.

Its shape... looked like an abstract brain surrounded by gears?

The portal vanished completely.

The countdown hit zero: 00:00.

[Basic Physique Enhancement (Type I) modification complete]

[Carrier bone density increased by approximately 12%, muscle efficiency increased by approximately 15%, maximum basic stamina increased by approximately 8%]

[Minor metabolic acceleration activated, estimated wound-healing speed increased by 5%]

[Adaptation period begins. Avoid extreme loads or high-intensity combat for 24 standard hours to allow the body to fully integrate the enhanced effects]

[Current Type I enhancement completion: 1% (will naturally increase as the adaptation period progresses and the carrier remains active)]

The force field holding his body in place disappeared.

The numbness around the injection site on his neck quickly faded as well.

Wang Zhong tried moving his fingers.

He could move them.

He slowly sat up on the bed.

His first impression was... lightness.

His weight hadn't changed, but it felt as if his body had shed some invisible burden.

Every movement was smoother, more effortless.

Wang Zhong had long since sensed how real this game was, but feeling his body grow stronger so directly still left him deeply shaken.

He clenched his fist.

His knuckles made a faint crackling sound—not his bones, but his tendons and fascia adjusting to their new strength.

He could clearly feel the power in his palm.

"How do you feel?" Tax Brother asked impatiently.

Wang Zhong didn't answer right away. He got out of bed and walked over to the construction materials piled in the corner of the dormitory. Bending down, he picked up a metal panel that had previously taken two people to lift.

The panel was heavy, but... he could hold it.

He took a deep breath, braced his core, and managed to lift the panel over his head!

His arms trembled slightly, and his face turned red with the strain, but he really had lifted it!

"Holy crap!"

Tax Brother's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "You call this a minor improvement? System, how the hell is this 'minor'?!"

Wang Zhong set the panel down and took a few breaths, smiling. "Feels... amazing."

"Is this what it feels like to gradually become a big guy?"

"The needle in my neck hurt a little, though. The system said it reduced pain to 5%, but getting stabbed in the neck is just scary to begin with."

He rolled his shoulders. "Right now, I feel like... I could kill a bull."

"Obviously, I mean the degraded cattle raised in a Hive City, not Khorne's Steel Bull."

Oil-Guy hurried over, Dataslate in hand. "That phase-penetration technology, the non-invasive skeletal enhancement, and the energy signature of that portal..."

"This definitely isn't technology the Imperium currently possesses! It doesn't even resemble any known Xenos technology!"

Wang Zhong shrugged. "The game system gave it to us, so we might as well take it."

"Still better than getting dragged off by the Mechanicus to have cybernetics installed. I don't want to wake up one day and find out half my brain's been replaced with a Cogitator Array."

His words made the other players in the dormitory, who'd been sneaking glances over the whole time, burst into laughter.

"Brother Loyalty actually tried it?"

"How's it work? Can you really turn into a strongman?"

"Was it worth a hundred coins?"

Wang Zhong walked to the dormitory entrance and called out, "Any brothers want to test their strength? How about a tug-of-war?"

Three players immediately came over. They were all still on the fence about getting enhanced.

Someone pulled over a tough vine they'd collected while cutting through the jungle earlier. It was about as thick as a wrist.

Wang Zhong grabbed one end, and the other three players grabbed the other.

"Three, two, one, pull!"

Both sides heaved at once.

The vine snapped taut!

The three players gritted their teeth and dug their feet into the ground, straining to pull backward.

Wang Zhong planted his feet wide. His newly enhanced arm muscles contracted at full strength for the first time, and the veins stood out slightly.

He could feel the force coming through the vine. The combined pull of three adult men would have overwhelmed him in less than three seconds before.

But now...

His heels seemed nailed to the ground. His body leaned back slightly, while his arms stayed steady as hydraulic pistons.

Five seconds.

Ten seconds.

Twenty seconds!

The three players opposite him were red-faced with effort. One of them slipped and nearly fell.

The vine began to inch toward Wang Zhong!

"Holy crap! We really can't pull him!"

"Brother Loyalty's a beast!"

"A hundred coins! That was money well spent!"

Wang Zhong let go in time. If they kept pulling, the vine might snap, and he could feel a slight ache building in his arm muscles. That was a normal response during the adaptation period, so he couldn't overdo it.

But the results spoke for themselves.

Someone who'd just completed a Type I enhancement had overpowered three unenhanced adult men in a test of pure strength!

"The system wasn't lying."

Wang Zhong shook out his arm. "The description says 'minor improvement,' but a minor improvement in the Warhammer World is a qualitative leap for carriers who used to be ordinary people like us."

He looked at the players watching. "I'd recommend that anyone with coins to spare consider getting a Type I enhancement first."

"It'll be useful for future exploration, combat, or... well, hauling bricks and building houses."

"But remember, the modification takes an hour, and you have to be somewhere absolutely safe. It's best to have someone watching over you."

He paused, then added, "Also, from what I can tell, the enhancement doesn't happen all at once. There's an adaptation period."

"Don't go doing anything stupid as soon as it's done. Take it easy and let your body adjust."

The players erupted at his words.

"What are we waiting for? I'm going now!"

"I've got enough coins! I'm getting one too!"

"Wait for me! Let's go together! We'll watch each other!"

"Damn it, we should've gotten enhanced sooner! If I'd had this kind of strength in the industrial district, I could've stolen a few more chunks of ore!"

The crowd surged toward the dormitory area.

Before long, silver-white light began to shine from the portals in one cubicle after another, and mechanical arms extended out.

The dormitory filled with a cacophony of shouts: "Holy crap, this needle in the neck feels weird," "Don't move, don't move! The game system said not to," and "Bro, why do you look so peaceful? Are you dead?"

Wang Zhong, Tax Brother, Xue Brother, and Oil-Guy stepped outside the dormitory.

Watching the lively scene within, Tax Brother rubbed his hands together. "I'm getting one too! It's only a hundred coins!"

Xue Brother nodded. "I'll get enhanced too."

"But I want to check my psychic aptitude first... If I have high psychic potential, then taking the psychic route might suit me better."

Oil-Guy was still frowning at his Dataslate. "The technology's origins are too complex. It doesn't fit the Warhammer World's logic for modifying gene-enhanced warriors."

"But the modification process itself is safe, efficient, and harmless."

"I recommend that everyone complete the basic enhancement as soon as possible. It's the fastest way to improve the Chapter's overall survival rate."

In this fucked-up Warhammer universe, strength was the price of staying alive.

In the dormitory, a player finished his enhancement and charged out excitedly, punching the air:

"I figure I could take on ten Daemons now!"