Training

"If I could meet him, I would really like to hear his views on the self, life, and the human experience."

Stepping out of Fish Head Xu's home, Yang Chu walked to the elevator and pressed the button, his mind still occupied by the host he had seen on television.

With his subconscious gone, his physiological desires absent, and his emotions largely muted, Yang Chu had become increasingly interested in the unknown aspects of humanity and metaphysical concepts.

He knew nothing of the host's scholarship or character, nor did he care.

However, the man's statement that he would provide money and effort whenever needed made Yang Chu feel that he might be a man of genuine temperament.

The appearance of this news also prompted Yang Chu to reflect slightly on his own situation.

He had anticipated from the start that the perverted taxi driver would be discovered and that the police would come looking for him.

He simply hadn't had the time to worry about it before, and he had no intention of turning himself in or waiting for a court verdict.

He hadn't even figured out his own identity yet; the ID card he was using still belonged to the hoodlum he had killed in the warehouse.

What Yang Chu was actually considering was the matter of that hoodlum.

Why did the man kidnap him? What kind of trouble had he been dragged into? What had become of the two hoodlums who escaped? Would there be other forces coming after him?

The information was too scarce, and with his own strength alone, he had no way to begin searching.

"Given the current situation, all I can do is equip myself with the power to protect myself as quickly as possible to better handle any crises that may arise."

Yang Chu had not inherited the memories of this body; he knew nothing of the predecessor's social connections, nor did he know who might recognize him as "Black Fish Zai."

These were all uncertainties, and the only thing he could do now was to ensure he had the capacity to face a crisis.

This was also the purpose of Yang Chu heading downstairs tonight.

He needed to train himself as quickly as possible.

Emerging from the elevator, the night was already deep.

Yang Chu stood in an open space downstairs, stretched his back, and began to run along the cold, quiet streets.

His destination was Tongzhou Street Park, not far from the residential area where Fish Head Xu lived, which he had asked about while in the car earlier.

The park featured basketball courts, seven-a-side hard-surface soccer fields, a squash center, and naturally, plenty of fitness equipment like pull-up bars and parallel bars.

In the near-midnight hours, Tongzhou Street was empty, save for the occasional taxi or private car.

Before long, Yang Chu arrived at Tongzhou Street Park.

His heart had already been beating faster than usual during his light jog, as had his breathing; all the major systemic cycles within his body had accelerated in response to his movement.

After finishing his run, Yang Chu did not stop for long, moving straight into pull-ups on the bars, push-ups on the ground, sit-ups on the grass, frog jumps, squats, and sprints.

He moved from one exercise to the next with almost no pause in between.

After his training the previous night, the changes in Yang Chu's body were remarkably evident.

His strength, flexibility, and overall physical coordination had improved significantly; otherwise, he likely wouldn't have been able to pull off the stunt he performed during the day, let alone to a degree that had the professional stuntmen applauding.

Tonight, Yang Chu's goal was to further increase the intensity—or rather, the complexity—of his training, aiming to bring his physical hardware to a level that satisfied him as quickly as possible.

Yang Chu's current state was one where his brain consumed an extremely high amount of the body's energy.

Because the body had lost its subconscious, it no longer maintained itself automatically and thus did not compete with the brain for energy; the brain had become the key to sustaining the entire body, consuming over half of his total caloric intake.

The intake of sufficient energy and nutrients allowed the brain to function at full capacity, further unlocking his memory, logic, and cognitive abilities, which in turn allowed Yang Chu to exert greater control over his internal systems.

At the beginning, it had been extremely difficult for him to maintain basic bodily functions like heart rate and breathing; he would frequently forget to breathe or keep his heart beating.

But now, even though little time had passed, he could already begin to think while engaging in complex physical exercise.

With adequate nutrition and energy, he did not suffer from the muscle soreness or overtraining issues that plagued ordinary people. With his primary consciousness controlling his systems and accelerating physiological metabolism, he could recover in a short while from what would take others days.

The results of his training were naturally profound: nerve conduction became more rapid, muscles grew thick and resilient through the cycle of destruction and repair, and bones were strengthened through repeated impact and movement.

Of course, this method came with a price; it placed significant stress on his body and organs.

However, through his reading over the past two days and his own self-perception, Yang Chu had come to understand that the human body was far more fragile than imagined, yet simultaneously far more powerful than most people realized.

Its fragility lay in the fact that there were too many points on the human body that could lead to death.

The temple bone plate was only 1-2 millimeters thick, with an artery beneath it, unable to withstand a heavy blow. The brainstem at the back of the head was the seat of human biological instinct and the subconscious.

The cervical spine was the most vulnerable nerve corridor. The major arteries in the limbs, the heart, the kidneys, the numerous organs in the soft abdomen, the eyes, the eardrums, the reproductive organs, and even various nerve acupuncture points—these were all points of vulnerability where a single mistake could lead to death.

Yet, its power was equally incredible.

Take the beating of the heart, for example.

The heart's limit could reach 200 beats per minute—nearly three to four beats per second—a terrifying capacity for endurance.

If one calculated based on an average of 70 beats per minute over a 70-year lifespan, the heart would beat nearly 2.6 billion times, a testament to an incomparable, long-lasting durability.

Then there was the muscle tissue: each fiber could generate about 0.3 micronewtons of force, and every square centimeter of muscle could produce about 100 newtons (roughly 10 kilograms) of force.

Based on human physiological structure, the theoretical limit of human endurance could reach 5,000 kilograms.

People usually only exert less than one-third of their body's limit; the reason for this restriction is that exceeding one-third makes the body prone to injury.

If a person has a need that exceeds their current limits, the body's subconscious will demand the continued growth of muscle to achieve a higher threshold, rather than simply unleashing raw power.

Yang Chu was naturally still far from reaching his limit; in fact, he was still somewhat behind the physical standards of an average person. However, the reason he could exert strength greater than that of an ordinary man was that his motor system lacked those subconscious instinctive restrictions, allowing him to utilize the strength he already possessed to a much greater degree.

Furthermore, while Yang Chu could perceive pain and various other sensory nerve responses, he remained entirely unaffected by them.

The generation of pain is a protective mechanism, a way for the body to signal that damage has occurred so that one might choose to evade further harm or stop exacerbating the injury.

Some individuals with immense willpower can endure these intense neural reactions, but that does not mean the reactions cease to exist; subconscious symptoms like muscle spasms and sweating will still manifest.

Yang Chu, however, could actually control his own nervous system, directly shielding or ignoring these signals so that they had no impact on him whatsoever.

Throughout the night, Yang Chu exercised with almost no pause, and the changes in his entire being were even more pronounced than they had been yesterday.

Although he still looked thin, his posture had gradually become upright, and the muscle definition in his shoulders, waist, back, and arms had become increasingly clear; standing there, he already carried a faint air of toughness.

Thank you all for your support! Seeing questions about whether I will abandon this book, I only want to say that I intend to pick up the integrity I lost, bit by bit.