Muscle Crusher-Big Black

"How did you want to play?"

Standing in the plaza, Fu Junlin helplessly kept his hands in his pockets and glanced around the empty fitness area.

It was mealtime. Who would be here?

Still, whenever he had to hand over control of his body to someone else, Fu Junlin always felt uneasy, as if he were about to be raped.

"Why do you care? I've taken over the body. I'll play however I want!"

Big Black said smugly.

"Fine, but wait half an hour."

Fu Junlin nodded helplessly, then found a seat and sat down.

"Hm? Why? Did your mom tell you not to exercise? Hahahaha..."

Big Black burst into teasing laughter.

To his surprise, Fu Junlin nodded seriously.

"Yes!"

Big Black: ...

Fu Junlin sat there without budging for half an hour, occasionally getting up to stroll around. Once he felt that he had mostly digested his meal, he said to Big Black,

"Come on."

The moment the words left his mouth, they sounded even stranger—more like rape, and the kind where the victim had resigned himself to it.

"Alright!"

In an instant, Fu Junlin felt his body being controlled. His movements were a little stiff, mainly because he had not adjusted to it yet.

"Hey, don't resist so much. Relax a little. You're making this no fun for me!"

Big Black howled.

The more Fu Junlin listened, the more wrong it sounded.

Still, he gradually relaxed.

Then he felt himself turn into a bystander. It was like autopilot; although he was not in control, his body remained incredibly energetic.

Or rather, even more energetic.

This sense of losing control was indeed uncomfortable.

Of course, what made him even more uncomfortable was...

Big Black was running around like crazy.

Controlling Fu Junlin's body, Big Black hopped and ran circles around the plaza, occasionally leaping high into the air.

The passersby all had the feeling that, despite there clearly being no one around, some monkey was entertaining itself nearby.

A few people who had planned to sit in the plaza for a while gave him strange looks and hurriedly moved far away.

"Please tell me you don't have some kind of mental illness."

Fu Junlin said speechlessly.

"I'm warming up!"

Big Black spat.

"Do you know how hard this is for me? I take over your body and still have to exercise for you. Can't you work out on your own for once? Reap what you sow."

Big Black complained as he started throwing wild punches in place.

"That's called supporting yourself, thank you. I'm a War Banner Master. I don't need to work out. I only train sprinting. When monsters chase us, I just need to run faster than my teammates..."

Fu Junlin said as though it were perfectly reasonable.

"You're really going places!"

As he spoke, Big Black flipped over, dropped to the ground, and began doing push-ups.

One hundred wide-grip push-ups, one hundred narrow-grip push-ups, one hundred diamond push-ups, one hundred tiger push-ups, fifty one-arm push-ups on each side...

At first, Fu Junlin did not think much of it. He bickered with Big Black while keeping track of the time.

But gradually, he realized that Big Black seemed not to have left the ground for over ten minutes.

"Brother, are you trying to work me to death? Aren't you going to train any other parts?"

Although Fu Junlin had not counted, thinking back on it, he had probably done at least seven or eight hundred push-ups.

Whenever he got tired, he did planks and jumped in place. Once he recovered, it was back to push-ups.

While Big Black controlled his body, Fu Junlin could not feel anything—no pain or any other sensation.

However, Fu Junlin could still take control of his body, or forcibly seize it back, because Big Black seemed to become exhausted when occupying his body. There was apparently a fatigue limit.

Once that fatigue reached its critical point, Big Black could not control him even if he wanted to.

Normally, unless Fu Junlin gave permission, Big Black could at most control a few muscles. Even then, once his fatigue built up, Big Black had to hibernate for a while.

"There are only forty minutes today. What's the point of training other parts? Train only one body part per day."

Big Black said irritably.

"Oh... right, that Gene Lock you mentioned last time—how exactly do you unlock it?"

After thinking for a moment, Fu Junlin finally asked the question.

Ever since experiencing Biological Vision, he had become deeply curious about it.

"Isn't that exactly what I'm unlocking for you right now?!"

Big Black said angrily.

"Huh? Through working out?"

Fu Junlin was instantly baffled.

"What else did you think?"

Big Black said, at a loss.

Fu Junlin immediately grew doubtful. Fitness training was a required course for the Subspecies. Among the Subspecies, there was no shortage of people who trained their physiques, because that was all they could train.

Yet he had never seen anyone unlock a Gene Lock like Big Black had.

Sensing Fu Junlin's confusion, Big Black explained,

"Working out isn't ordinary exercise. The reason the Gene Lock in living beings is called a lock is because it places all kinds of restrictions on life.

Break through those restrictions, and you can break the Gene Lock and advance toward deeper genetic secrets.

The lowest-level lock of the Gene Lock is muscle cells. Although ordinary exercise also damages muscle cells, which then regenerate and grow stronger,

the intensity is nowhere near enough. What we need is not damage, but shattering! Let them experience annihilation again and again, followed by arduous reconstruction.

Repeat that cycle, and you can break through the first layer of the Gene Lock. You will also gain superhuman abilities related to your muscles.

The second layer of the Gene Lock will have a second set of restrictions that must be broken. You'll naturally understand when the time comes."

Big Black's patient explanation quickly helped Fu Junlin understand quite a bit.

Come to think of it, it made sense.

Damage meant soreness. Shattering meant disability...

People only said they could not move after working out. He had never seen anyone exercise until they truly could not move at all afterward.

But Fu Junlin...

Forty minutes quickly passed. Fu Junlin could not remember how many push-ups he had done, or how many variations.

He only knew that the moment Big Black returned control of his body,

Fu Junlin collapsed face-first onto the ground and could not get back up.

Because both his arms were ruined...

His pectoral muscles and triceps had swollen enormously.

Two waves of piercing pain seized all of Fu Junlin's senses, as though someone were roasting the muscles from within with blazing fire.

Fu Junlin trembled from head to toe in agony.

Yet this time, he did not complain about Big Black putting him through it.

If they had to be shattered, then let them be shattered!

It was just that...

"Big Black... can we discuss something? Next time, before you return control of my body, help me take out a Battle Banner first."

Fu Junlin's powerless arms hung at his sides. As he spoke, he struggled to brace his head against the ground, bent his legs forward, and pushed himself into a kneeling position.

If a child eating a lollipop came along right now, the kid could beat him senseless, and he would have no ability to fight back.

"Got it. I'm so sleepy. I'm going to sleep first."

Big Black seemed extremely exhausted, his voice heavy with drowsiness. After speaking, he went silent.

"I really wish I had telekinesis that could move things from afar."

Fu Junlin murmured. His arms now felt as though they were on fire even when he did not move them, and forcing his muscles to move would bring an unimaginable kind of agony.

But he had no choice.

Fu Junlin gritted his teeth and swung his swollen, blood-engorged arms, trembling as he reached for the Battle Banner.

Under the dim sky, in the deserted plaza, Fu Junlin's suppressed screams echoed from deep in his throat...