New Talent

"Are these my current physical stats?"

Wu Ming stared at the screen in surprise. "Strange. Why hadn't it shown this before?"

He had tried countless times to make the Equipment Bar display his physical data, but he had never succeeded. He hadn't expected it to appear on its own today.

Before he could think it over, though, the text on the screen suddenly blurred, then vanished. The panel returned to blankness.

Wu Ming froze for a moment, then keenly noticed that his remaining 23 points of stored energy had already been completely drained.

Considering the panel data's sudden disappearance, the connection between the two was not hard to imagine.

Wu Ming pondered, "So the Equipment Bar had always had this function, but I couldn't use it before because I had no stored energy?"

"No, it seemed to be more than just energy."

He suddenly paused, recalling how, while training a few days ago, he had felt that relying solely on the punching machine to test his strength was too one-sided. He had even complained about the Attribute Panel, yet the Equipment Bar had not responded.

At the time, he had accumulated plenty of stored energy.

"Then there's only one conclusion."

Wu Ming stated with certainty, "The cheat ability's functions are tied to my physical qualities... or rather, my level of life. The higher my level of life, the stronger the cheat ability becomes."

It was only a guess, but he felt it was probably right.

As for proving it... there was no rush. He would definitely keep growing stronger, and he would naturally learn the answer then.

"No matter what, it's a good thing that the cheat ability has gained a new function, even if it lasted only a short time."

Regarding the newly appeared Attribute Panel function, he planned to buy some glucose solution tomorrow to replenish his stored energy. Then he could test its energy consumption.

For now, Wu Ming closed his eyes and recalled the physical data he had just seen.

The attribute panel had appeared for far too short a time, likely only two or three seconds. Most of his attention had also been focused on the panel itself, so he had only glanced over the data and had not formed a deep impression.

Yet soon, detailed figures flashed through his mind: a limit strength of 689 kilograms, 32.5 times cellular activity, and a neural response time of 0.013 seconds... He recalled every number with perfect accuracy.

Wu Ming opened his eyes, delight written across his face. "My memory has improved!"

Aside from those recent figures, he could now easily recall much older memories, as well as the somewhat hazy memories from his previous life.

Naturally, those memories also included... the contents of Swallowed Star.

As Wu Ming concentrated on recalling them, he could even remember more details. He still could not recite the book word for word, but he already had its major plot points firmly in mind.

Most importantly, through those memories, he already knew the approximate locations of several ruins on Earth. If he handled things properly, that would be enough for him to plan for some future opportunities.

Of course, not now.

Wu Ming mused, "It seems genetic optimization affects more than just physical qualities. My brain capacity has probably improved as well."

"My memory is even better now than when I had the steel pen equipped. It's probably at least two or three times better than before, making it four or five times that of an ordinary person."

"Unfortunately, once my base attributes improve, the talents provided by equipment also weaken. Otherwise, I'd like to try equipping the steel pen again and see whether I could achieve photographic memory."

This involved another hidden rule of the Equipment Bar: the talents gained from equipped items were not fixed. They were dynamic, and their specific effects depended on his own base attributes.

Thus, after Wu Ming's body completed its transformation, the talent attributes provided by the knight's armor he had originally equipped had already fallen considerably.

[Equipment Bar 1: Steel Armor]

[Talent 1: Bronze Skin, Iron Bones. Skin toughness +50%, bone strength +20%]

[Talent 2: Body Cultivation. Physical cultivation talent +20%]

Compared with its attributes before his transformation, the armor's talents had now dropped by more than half.

However, Wu Ming had expected this.

After all, it was only an ordinary metal suit of armor. Its effects had limits. Expecting it to ignore the gap in realms and provide the same talent bonuses was wishful thinking.

In fact, the armor retaining nearly half its talents had already exceeded his expectations. His physical qualities had increased nearly tenfold, after all.

If it had shrunk proportionally, it would have been normal for the armor's talents to retain only around ten percent of their original effects.

"That's an unexpected bonus too." Wu Ming was in a very good mood. "Although the talent effects have weakened, my base attributes have increased. In terms of actual values, the bonuses I receive are greater instead."

If his attributes before the transformation were set at "1," then the Steel Armor's previous bonus had been 0.5.

But now Wu Ming's attributes were equivalent to 10. Although the talent's percentage bonus had decreased, the actual increase was now 2—four times higher.

He guessed that his former self had simply been too weak to reach the upper limit of the armor's talents. Now that his strength had surged, the equipment's potential had finally been truly unleashed.

When that increase gradually failed to keep pace with him as well, it would be time to replace it with better equipment.

Thinking of equipment, Wu Ming subconsciously glanced at the pure steel pen in his backpack.

Unlike the armor, the pen's material was far from ordinary. It was not regular steel, but a special steel produced by the factory owned by Ruan Qingzhu's family, Xingzhu Group.

Ruan Qingzhu's father, Ruan Zaixing, and Wu Ming's father, Wu Zhanguo, had been close friends since childhood. They had enlisted together, then left the military compound together.

However, Ruan Zaixing had ultimately not remained in the army. After retiring, he met Miao Yueling. Together, they founded Xingzhu Group, specializing in metal materials.

In fact, when Wu Ming was young, Xingzhu Group had only been a small factory. Later, for some unknown reason, it suddenly transformed into a military-industrial enterprise, supplying special steel to the army. Its assets began growing year by year, and it had now become the leader of Shushi's metal industry.

Fortunately, Ruan Qingzhu's relationship with him had not become distant because of the changes in their status.

Ruan Qingzhu had even been the one worried about it. Taking Wu Ming's preferences into account, she had asked the group's engineers to machine this pen as a birthday gift for him.

Their friendship had continued ever since.

Wu Ming returned from his thoughts.

He now intended to check the changes in this unusual steel pen and see whether the special steel gave it a higher talent limit.

If so, then when he needed to make equipment in the future, he would need powerful materials. Perhaps he could consider going through the Ruan family.

However, the moment his hand touched the pen's body, he suddenly froze.

The screen before him displayed—

[Equipment detected: Steel Pen]

[Talent 1: Hidden Weapon Genius. Throwing talent +100%]

[Talent 2: Study Hard. Learning talent +40%]

[Talent 3: Strive Upward. Memory +40%]

[Talent 4: Virus Controller (RR). Can fuse with the RR Virus to increase physical strength (limit: 800 kilograms)]

[Equip?]

His guess had been right. Because the pen was made of stronger material, its talents had not declined by much.

But that was not the important part.

Wu Ming's pupils contracted as he stared fixedly at the final talent, his heart surging with emotion.

"It can actually... continue fusing with the RR Virus to improve my physical qualities?"

He was stunned!

This was the first time he had encountered such a situation. The pen, which had originally possessed only three talents, had actually gained a fourth.

Virus Controller... Could it be because this equipment had been contaminated with the RR Virus?

Wu Ming quickly recalled it. That was right—he had carried this equipment with him the entire time he was outside today. Especially when he had gone into the water just now, the pen had been left on the riverbank!

After his surprise came joy.

"To me, the RR Virus has become a resource? As long as I keep absorbing it, I can keep improving my physical qualities, even ignoring the antibodies in my body?"

"Although the limit is only 800 kilograms, my body has already reached a bottleneck after its transformation, and further improvement would be extremely difficult. Now I only need to keep fusing with the virus? That's too easy!"

Wu Ming's eyes widened, and he was overjoyed.

Eight hundred kilograms—he was not far from the 900-kilogram standard for a Quasi-Martial Artist.

If he trained normally, it would take at least one or two months before he could possibly break through, and that was only because his cellular activity was thirty times higher than normal.

For an ordinary person? Even with genetic optimization to his current level, they would need at least two or three years of hard training to break through.

After calming down, Wu Ming looked at the steel pen in his hand again and pondered, "Eight hundred kilograms? Based on my guess, this figure might not be the talent's limit."

"If I let the pen's surface come into contact with more of the virus, such as soaking it directly in Suzhou Creek... could that further raise Virus Controller's limit?"

No sooner thought than done!

Wu Ming left the hotel again and headed straight for the place where he had been infected with the virus earlier.

Because his physical qualities had transformed across the board, he ran extremely fast this time and reached the riverbank in less than ten minutes.

At the water's edge, Wu Ming held the pen by its shaft and lowered the metal pen into the river. After waiting several minutes, he fished it back out.

When he opened the panel and looked, a smile immediately spread across his face.

Virus Controller's limit had risen from 800 kilograms to 850 kilograms!