Virus Outbreak

Three days passed in a flash.

Over the past three days, apart from eating and sleeping, Wu Ming did only three things: equipped glucose, trained his body, and constantly refreshed news pages about the epidemic.

Wu Ming dug out the boxes of glucose Shen Xinglan had left behind that very day, then was delighted to discover that this stuff could actually be equipped in the Equipment Bar!

After all, not just any item qualified to be equipped in the Equipment Bar.

The high-energy foods he had bought earlier had received no reaction from the Equipment Bar. He had never expected an ordinary-looking glucose solution to work.

[Equipment Bar 1: Glucose Solution (500ml)]

[Unique Talent: Body Energy +10 (Consumable, solidifies after 2 hours)]

The solidification time alone showed that the glucose solution was of even lower quality than Vitamin B4.

Its effect was not particularly miraculous either. This so-called Body Energy was not the "Genetic Energy" he had imagined, but something similar to fat that could replenish the body's survival-related expenditure.

Compared to eating normally, the only advantage of this energy was convenience. With a thought, he could replenish his expenditure at any time, saving the time needed to eat and digest food.

After testing it, Wu Ming learned that the storage limit for Body Energy was 100 points, while 10 points of energy could roughly cover an entire day of his basal metabolic expenditure.

In other words, if he equipped glucose up to the limit, Wu Ming could go ten days without food or water while keeping his body in peak condition.

Of course, that was assuming he did not engage in intense exercise during that time. Otherwise, it would accelerate the consumption of his stored energy.

To Wu Ming, this was an unexpected delight. It meant he could ensure that his body had sufficient energy to cope during the viral invasion, greatly reducing the risk of genetic collapse.

"According to the three key factors Mom mentioned for resisting the RR Virus—Cell Activity, energy reserves, and physical fitness—I've already solved the first two. Now all that's left is physical fitness."

After testing the effects of Body Energy, Wu Ming pondered this.

Unfortunately, before the RR Virus appeared, physical fitness had never been part of his life plan.

It was not that he never exercised. Compared with pursuing great strength, he simply cared more about keeping his body healthy.

In fact, Wu Ming had always gotten perfect scores on physical fitness tests. His physique was well-proportioned, without huge muscles, but he could not exactly be called skinny either.

Compared with those senior high school students who focused solely on academics, Wu Ming's physical condition was already quite good.

Still, he had never undergone professional training, so he was certainly no match for fitness enthusiasts.

Since there was still time before the virus arrived, he might as well train hard. Any increase in physical fitness was an increase.

So Wu Ming went to the residential complex's public gym and began his training plan.

The gym was fairly well-equipped, with treadmills, cable machines, dumbbells, and all sorts of other equipment. Residents could use everything for free.

Under the guidance of an enthusiastic uncle at the gym, Wu Ming quickly learned how to use the various machines and began training according to the man's suggestions.

Then he was surprised to discover that his physical fitness seemed much stronger than he had expected.

To verify his guess, he went to the punch-strength tester in the corner of the gym, took a deep breath, and threw a punch.

A number appeared on the screen—64 KG!

"It really did increase." Wu Ming looked pleasantly surprised. He had tested it several days ago, and his punch strength had only been 53 kilograms then.

In other words, in just a few days, his strength had increased by around 10 kilograms out of nowhere, despite him not having exercised at all!

"Strength doesn't increase without reason. It must be related to the changes in my body over the past few days."

Wu Ming thought, "The most obvious change is naturally my Cell Activity, which is four times that of an ordinary person."

"Could it be that increased Cell Activity not only made me eat more, but also improved my physical fitness?"

An idea flashed through his mind. He had been eating and drinking excessively these past few days, yet his figure had not changed in the slightest. He could not help guessing that the energy he had consumed had most likely been converted into physical fitness by his Cell Activity.

As for the conversion process... it was probably because increased Cell Activity caused a greater demand for energy. Cells that devoured more energy could naturally support greater strength.

This strength was not the result of exercise, but the natural growth of his body.

"In other words, there is still more potential within my body waiting to be developed!"

Wu Ming's eyes lit up. "And through high-intensity training, I can quickly turn that potential into even greater physical fitness!"

To verify this guess, he immediately put it into action.

After an entire day of insane training, Wu Ming stood before the punch-strength tester again the next morning.

Bang!

A number quickly appeared on the screen: 75 KG!

Seeing that number, Wu Ming could not help taking a deep breath.

In just one day, his punch strength had increased by 11 kilograms.

"Is this the true effect of Cell Activity? Can it even raise the upper limit of physical fitness?"

Previously, he had always thought that aside from stabilizing his genes, this attribute's main function was increasing his body's healing ability.

Now, it seemed that Cell Activity was far from having such a single-purpose function.

"Right. Reality isn't a game. It's not like adding one point of strength only increases the strength of the arm muscles while every other part remains completely unchanged."

A flicker of understanding appeared in Wu Ming's eyes. "The body should be viewed as a whole. Any tiny change will affect the entire body—pull one hair, and the whole body moves."

This change in Cell Activity proved that principle.

Who would have thought that increasing Cell Activity could also raise the upper limit of physical fitness?

"This really is an unexpected delight."

A smile appeared on Wu Ming's face. He had not expected his physical fitness to improve drastically in such a short time, but under the influence of Cell Activity, he now saw hope.

After confirming his theory about Cell Activity, Wu Ming completely let loose.

The training intensity he displayed even made the enthusiastic uncle at the residential gym's eyelids twitch.

After watching for several hours and seeing that Wu Ming still had not stopped, the man could not help advising him, "Young man, training is one thing, but don't torture your body. If you keep this up, you probably won't even be able to get out of bed tomorrow."

"Thank you. I know my limits." Wu Ming smiled and nodded slightly in thanks, but his movements did not stop.

Seeing this, the uncle shook his head and sighed. He did not try to persuade him further and simply turned to leave.

Wu Ming's expression remained unchanged as he continued his intense training from dawn until dusk. He did not eat during that time, nor did he even take a sip of water.

Naturally, he had his reasons for daring to train like this.

Four times the Cell Activity gave him a recovery speed far beyond that of ordinary people. The bodily damage caused by high-intensity training would require normal people at least two or three days of rest, but he only needed one night's sleep to recover completely.

More importantly, Wu Ming had 100 points of stored energy as a safety net. Whenever he felt his body had expended too much, he would draw on those reserves to replenish himself.

After all, the effect of the glucose solution only took two hours to solidify once. The reserves he consumed during the day could easily be replenished by night, so he had no intention of holding back. If he needed it, he would use it.

There was another advantage to using the reserves: he could directly replenish the energy into every cell in his body, skipping every step of converting food into energy.

This allowed him to consume and replenish energy at the same time, keeping his cells constantly full.

That was why, after noticing this, Wu Ming cast aside all concerns and began the kind of high-intensity training that made people's hearts pound.

Besides that, he also had a trump card hidden in the storage room at home.

It was a full-coverage suit of metal armor he had bought from an online armor shop with his Lunar New Year money back in middle school, when he had been testing the rules of the Equipment Bar. It was the kind worn by Western knights.

Unfortunately, this armor's talent had not met Wu Ming's expectations back then, so after testing it for a while, he had tossed it into the storage room to gather dust.

Now that he had begun training and had an empty Equipment Bar during the day, he naturally dug the armor back out.

[Equipment Bar 1: Steel Armor]

[Talent 1: Bronze Skin, Iron Bones, skin toughness +100%, bone strength +50%]

[Talent 2: Body Cultivation, physical body cultivation talent +50%]

High-intensity training did not only damage muscles; it also damaged bones.

Muscles could be rapidly repaired through Cell Activity, but bones and joints took far longer to recover. The bonus to bone strength provided by this Steel Armor happened to make up for that weakness.

Stronger bones could naturally withstand greater wear and tear, completely eliminating his worries.

Combined with the Steel Armor's second talent, every drop of sweat Wu Ming shed in the gym yielded fifty percent more results than it would for anyone else.

With talents like these, how could he not train like crazy?

Thus, after more than ten hours of training, Wu Ming finally returned home only when the gym closed at dusk. He checked the news and replenished his energy reserves along the way.

For three full days, ever since his first punch-strength test, this was how he had lived.

On the evening of the third day, before the gym closed, Wu Ming once again walked up to the punch-strength tester and threw a punch.

91 KG!

"The rate of improvement has slowed."

Wu Ming blinked, but he was not surprised.

In fact, he had tested it once before leaving last night. At the time, the result had been 84 KG.

From dawn to night yesterday, an entire day of grueling training had only increased his strength by 9 kilograms. Today, it had dropped to 7 kilograms.

But that was normal. A punch strength of 91 kilograms was already no weaker than that of many experienced fitness enthusiasts. This meant his physical fitness had approached the peak of what ordinary people could achieve and was beginning to charge toward the limits of humanity.

The further he progressed, the slower his training efficiency would inevitably become.

"Still, this is pretty good. After all, I only used three days to catch up to what ordinary people achieve in several years."

Wu Ming was already very satisfied. "And my upper limit is higher. Over the next period of time, although my strength gains will slow down, they'll still far exceed those of ordinary people."

"At this rate, my strength should reach more than 200 kilograms in at most a month."

"By then, wouldn't a mere viral invasion be a piece of cake?"

With that thought in mind, Wu Ming left the gym and returned home.

Sitting before his computer, he first equipped a bag of glucose to replenish his energy reserves, then habitually opened the news homepage to check the latest developments regarding the RR Virus.

Suddenly, a pinned news article caught his eye, making his pupils shrink slightly.

[Tragic News! Magic City Reports Its First RR Virus Infection Case; Prevention and Control Efforts May Face New Challenges]