A Little Bit of Progress

Fu Junlin had no time to curse Big Black.

This feeling of paralysis was maddening.

He exhausted all his strength and struggled for at least six or seven minutes, sweat beading on his forehead, before he managed to move his right hand and touch his Battle Banner Satchel.

Storage items like satchels and belts were black-tech equivalents of wallets from centuries ago.

They could hold things.

Even humans could be transported to the outer enclosures through Teleportation Arrays by recording, breaking apart, and reassembling their genetic sequences.

Storage was even less difficult.

And depending on one's profession, one could expand one's storage space.

However, the portion expanded through one's own energy control could only hold items related to that profession.

For example, a Mecha Belt's expanded portion could only hold mechas.

Only its original storage space could hold most other items.

Naturally, the expanded portion of a War Banner Master's Battle Banner Satchel could only hold battle banners or battle-banner-related crystal blocks.

He took out a Battle Flag Crystal Block. Slowly healing white light enveloped his entire body, and Fu Junlin let out a long breath.

The icy sensation throughout his body was soothing at first, then it began repairing his muscle tissue.

More than ten minutes later, Fu Junlin was fully revived.

"You put me through hell all night??"

Fu Junlin snapped at Big Black irritably.

"Yep."

"Are you even human??"

"Nope."

Fu Junlin was speechless. It really was not human.

But he could not keep having all his meridians shattered like this.

"Sigh, I'm tired. I need to sleep for a while."

Big Black said weakly.

"Oh, you actually know how to get tired!?"

Fu Junlin howled angrily. If he had a way, he would definitely drag this bastard up and make it suffer, but he had no way to do so.

Today was a rest day, perfect for overtime work.

Fu Junlin tidied himself up and prepared to visit the factory. He also wanted to see how things had gone between Wang Kai and Zhang Cheng.

If they had not managed to talk things through, then he would have to consider finding another factory job ahead of time.

However, as he climbed down the ladder, Fu Junlin clearly felt that he had become much stronger.

It was not a subtle change. He could distinctly feel that his muscles had gained far more power.

After reaching the ground, he ran, jumped, and stretched a little.

He really was stronger.

Made sense. After being put through hell all night, how could there be no results?

Passing a fitness area, Fu Junlin grabbed a rusty horizontal bar and tried doing a few pull-ups.

One, two, three... seventy-seven, seventy-eight... one hundred sixteen, one hundred seventeen...

He kept going until one hundred seventeen before the swelling pain in his muscles became unbearable, and only then did he jump down.

Standing there, Fu Junlin was utterly dumbfounded.

Before yesterday, his best record for a single set of slow pull-ups had been seventy-nine.

After one night, he had improved by over thirty.

Do not underestimate those thirty-odd pull-ups.

Reaching one hundred met the standard for a Level One Master Sword Enchanter.

Reaching one hundred twenty met the standard for a Level One Master Boxer.

Those were incredibly impressive numbers.

After all, physical enhancement was extremely important to Subspecies.

Superior Species possessed Energy Shields in addition to physical enhancement, while Subspecies only had physical enhancement.

With excitement and unease in his heart, Fu Junlin let out a long breath. Instead, he felt grateful to Big Black.

The pain of having his meridians shattered had been worth it.

War Banner Factory.

The place was already in full swing.

Every production line had long been operating beyond capacity, and they had not started working this morning.

They had started in the latter half of last night.

Wanting to get the products onto the market as quickly as possible before this wave of middle school entrance exams, Zhang Cheng had been too anxious to eat or sleep.

He had not even finished dinner properly yesterday before deciding to begin production overnight.

He called every full-time factory worker and summoned them back in the middle of the night to start the machines and work.

Naturally, Fu Junlin, a temporary worker, had received no notice.

And not just him.

Even Wang Kai, the person in charge of the C6 Line, had not come.

Zhang Cheng was still angry with him, and Wang Kai was also holding in his resentment, so he had not shown up at all today.

No matter what, though, more than six thousand expanded Battle Flag Crystal Blocks had been rushed out overnight.

Once this batch entered the market, recovering one-sixth of the funds would be enough to start another batch. Zhang Cheng could already see their bright future.

Zhang Cheng and Chen Changming stood in the loading area, watching Battle Flag Crystal Blocks being loaded one by one, as though they were stacks of cash. They felt thoroughly pleased.

But just as the loading was underway.

Several people in gray trench coats, with shield insignias on their shoulders, strode over quickly.

The leader had slicked-back hair and gold-rimmed glasses, yet he possessed an imposing presence. He seemed to bring a gust of wind with every step.

The instant Zhang Cheng saw him, his heart skipped a beat.

The Quality Supervision Bureau.

"Zhang Cheng??"

The trench-coated man walked up and asked Zhang Cheng coldly.

"Yes! Section Chief Song, why have you come personally?"

The trench-coated man was unfamiliar with Zhang Cheng, but Zhang Cheng knew him.

"Are these the sample Battle Flag Crystal Blocks you sent in for inspection overnight yesterday??"

The trench-coated man handed a stack of documents to Zhang Cheng.

"Yes... y-yes, they are."

Zhang Cheng took them with a stammer, glanced at them, and nodded.

"They failed quality inspection. All goods under this batch number are prohibited from entering the market."

The trench-coated man said coldly.

"They failed inspection? How could that be..."

Shocked, Zhang Cheng opened the report and examined it carefully.

The photos in the inspection report were horrifying!

The entire testing platform had been blasted black, while the Battle Flag Crystal Block had exploded and twisted into a mangled lump, with less than half remaining...

"Hmph. You should be grateful our testing platform was high quality. I won't fine you. After all, if you dared to start production early, you would lose quite a bit of money."

As the trench-coated man spoke, he casually glanced toward the energy crystal blocks being loaded.

Then, without saying anything else, he turned and led his people away in long strides.

Zhang Cheng gripped the report so tightly that the paper began trembling. His vision darkened, and the world spun around him.

If this entire batch was like that.

He would not merely lose quite a bit of money.

He would lose everything.

He had spent a huge sum purchasing this batch of Capacity Expanders, not to mention labor costs and the cost of crystal block materials.

It was all his savings.

"That's impossible! Let me see!"

Chen Changming snapped out of his shock and snatched the report away to examine it carefully.

Zhang Cheng could not even be bothered to curse him.

He turned and rushed to the loading area, took down two Battle Flag Crystal Blocks, and ran to a testing machine.

The nearby junior supervisors and many workers had seen the trench-coated man arrive earlier, and they all came over to watch.

After placing one into the testing machine, Zhang Cheng used a remote mechanical arm to inject energy into the Battle Flag Crystal Block and activate it.

The first activation.

Three rings of white healing light burst outward. The output was extremely high, and the effect was excellent—far better than the previous Battle Flag Crystal Blocks.

More than ten seconds passed.

The second activation.

Three more rings of white light spread out, but the Battle Flag Crystal Block visibly discharged a burst of electrical arcs, which Zhang Cheng caught sight of.

Zhang Cheng felt his heart violently lurch.

The third activation.

Bang!!

With a deafening explosion, everyone leaped backward in fright. The testing machine's mechanical arm had already been completely twisted by the exploding energy block.

Thick smoke billowed out of the testing machine. The Battle Flag Crystal Block was still spewing flames, which slowly died out as its energy ran dry...

Zhang Cheng felt his vision go black.

An enormous mental blow crashed down upon him.

With a thud, he collapsed onto the ground.

It was over. Everything was over.