Progress

The palm-sized, old-fashioned steamed buns were oozing with golden oil, and after being steamed again, they were piping hot and fragrant.

Chen Chong polished off one every two bites, his eyes squinting in contentment.

The other dishes in the cafeteria were mediocre regardless of the time of day, but these buns were truly decent.

Especially after burning energy from a workout and beating those who had been unconvinced into submission, the food tasted even better under their watchful eyes.

Most of the fighters had returned to the cafeteria, and watching Chen Chong eat with such gusto, their expressions were complex.

This complexity was a mix of envy and jealousy, but compared to before, the defiance was gone.

Moreover, seeing Chen Chong eat so heartily and with such a massive appetite—it seemed he might actually finish it all—the other fighters felt a strange sense of relief.

He truly loved to eat.

That was fine; at least he wasn't like Zhang Yao, who just put on airs and wasted their food.

Chen Chong was naturally not that low-class. If he didn't genuinely need the sustenance, he wouldn't have bothered.

But having grasped the way of survival here, he only wanted to strengthen himself as quickly as possible to live a little longer, and then a little longer still, in this Wasteland.

As for the others, since they could survive on Nutrient Paste before, they wouldn't starve to death later.

Chen Chong couldn't be called a bad person, but he couldn't afford to be a good one either; he had to look after himself first.

On the other side of the cafeteria, there was also steaming food on a table, where a female fighter—a rare sight here—was seated.

She had short, masculine hair, a square jaw, neutral features, and calm eyes, and she was meticulously drinking her porridge, bit by bit.

The bowl was already bottoming out, but she lifted it and used her tongue to lick it clean, not letting a single grain of rice go to waste.

Chen Chong had taken his meal directly according to the portion Zhang Yao had previously occupied, but Zhang Yao hadn't been able to hoard everything.

This was naturally not because Zhang Yao was kind-hearted, but because he couldn't. If even Zhang Yao hadn't snatched that portion, the strength of the person who held it must have made him extremely wary.

Such people were few and far between, and if it were a woman, her strength might be ranked even higher.

After all, there were only two types of women who could survive among a pack of men: one was very dangerous, and the other was even more dangerous.

Peng Wei, with half his face swollen, walked over slowly and sat down, grumbling in a muffled voice:

"Didn't win."

He reached out to grab something from the tray, but was met with a sharp thwack from a pair of chopsticks.

"If you can't win, eat the Nutrient Paste; it's better for training."

The woman's cold voice drifted over.

Peng Wei bared his teeth and grimaced:

"But it's bad for my mindset! How can I train if my mindset is bad? Besides, why aren't you eating it?"

"Because I can win."

The woman said indifferently.

Peng Wei instantly turned serious and whispered:

"I heard he's going back into the ring soon, Zhou Hu ordered it. Will they send you?"

"Zhou Hu? Since you've already gone, they probably won't send me."

The woman finally finished all her food, licked her fingers as if still wanting more, and then said:

"They'll choose between the two of them, or perhaps it'll just be that guy."

"Him..."

Peng Wei's expression was heavy.

"Well, we're in for a good show. Whether he's a dragon crossing the river or a clay bodhisattva, we'll know in three days."

The woman stood up, and she was actually taller than Peng Wei. Her long legs, in particular, were stunning—thick at the top and tapering down, slender, straight, and alluring, yet incredibly athletic, giving off an aura that was both beautiful and dangerous.

In fact, many male fighters had once drooled over those long legs, boasting that they would play with them personally.

But after more and more men ended up with shattered joints or strangled to death beneath those legs, the surviving fighters finally began to avoid her like a plague.

After finishing breakfast, Chen Chong went downstairs to practice his punches.

With the first match over, Yu Feng no longer came to guide them specifically.

They only learned later that Yu Feng usually didn't spend this much time with newcomers.

As the head fighting coach of the Thunder Dragon Park, his status was second only to the bosses, and most of the time he was busy teaching the fighters from the security department and the bar.

Whether he showed up or not depended entirely on his mood; even the essential training for newcomers rarely lasted ten consecutive days, and the people in the neighboring training rooms had long felt it was unusual.

He couldn't continue training in the room where Yu Feng held his main classes, but Chen Chong found that he had his own perks.

The medium-sized training room here was too crowded. While the Thunder Dragon fighters were under survival pressure and trained diligently, most could only squeeze into this collective space.

To get better training results, one had to go to the small Exclusive Training Room nearby—undisturbed, with higher privacy, and safe from having one's true strength gauged by potential rivals.

Chen Chong originally didn't have an exclusive room, but Peng Wei did, and Zhang Yao had an even better one.

So now he had one too, and no one dared to voice an objection.

Moreover, Zhang Yao's legacy did not end there.

The Earth Dragon Soup, originally served every other day, was now provided twice daily.

Ordinary Official Fighter status seemed to only grant it once a day.

On average, this would accelerate his daily progress by about 2% until it slowed down again in the later stages.

The prize money split for matches was also higher; although there was no universal currency, the tokens here could be exchanged for food, medicine, firearms, women, or combat techniques, expert guidance, and so on.

Aside from being unable to buy freedom, money here was even more useful than money on the outside.

In a word, Zhang Yao's treatment was sweet.

But Chen Chong knew this was only temporary.

He was holding a three-day trial pass given by Zhou Hu; if he lost the ring match after three days, perhaps everything would be settled at once.

Chen Chong did not overthink it, simply turning to the Iron Man Dummy in the Exclusive Training Room to begin his practice.

Two full meals had provided him with ample stamina, and having experienced a real fight—even if it was short—brought subtle changes to both his mindset and technique.

During the first run of the Combat Drill, his strikes showed a tendency to be faster and more ruthless. He noticed his previous hesitation and immediately discarded it. After all, there was no room for weakness in a real ring.

On the second run, he recalled his recent bout with Peng Wei and specifically focused on his footwork.

Then came the third run, the fourth... In between, he drank a bowl of Earth Dragon Soup delivered by a staff member, feeling his chest and abdomen warm up, his punches and kicks becoming noticeably faster.

A morning passed.

Chen Chong's movements were visibly more concise, and his footwork was even more decisive.

From an observer's perspective, his speed had increased, making him harder to keep up with.

He nodded to himself:

"That's about it. I've found some methods; now it's just a matter of step-by-step training. To gain any further insight, I'll likely need more real combat..."

Combat is not an aerobics class; it is the art of actual fighting, so one always progresses fastest through real combat.

However, the next real fight would be the ring match in three days, which would likely be the greatest challenge he had faced so far.

Therefore, Chen Chong decided to make good use of these three days to improve.

He spent the morning focusing on honing his combat techniques and the afternoon focusing on his breathing method.

His breathing method was already quite proficient, and he could practice it in sync with the Combat Drill, which would rapidly increase his physique and cultivation level; three days was definitely enough to reach the next level.

As for the massive consumption of the Dynamic Breathing Method, with the replenishment from three hearty meals and two bowls of Earth Dragon Soup, he should be able to maximize his training efficiency.

As long as there was sufficient food, given his energy conversion efficiency and his comprehension...

Everyone thought he would lose?

Chen Chong did not think so.