I'm Not Bald, but I Got Stronger Anyway

[Push-ups +1, current count: 99]

[Push-ups +1, current count: 100]

[Ding! Today's push-up plan is complete]

The moment the system notification sounded, Chen Feng collapsed onto the training ground. Soreness, weakness, and cramps hit him all at once, nearly making him pass out.

The fat guy, who had just finished eating, stared. "Holy crap. We've got an athlete in our dorm."

Li Guolong asked with concern, "Are you done?"

If only I were.

The thought of another hundred sit-ups and squats made Chen Feng's head pound.

Then the system's warning sounded in his ear again:

[Host's training progress is too slow...]

"Sorry! I'll get back to it right now!"

Right in front of Li Guolong and the other two, Chen Feng spread his feet, straightened his arms, and squatted.

The fat guy pointed at the Public Toilet on the first floor. "What are you doing? If you need to take a dump, go outside."

Chen Feng said nothing. He just stood, squatted, stood, and squatted again.

Li Guolong caught on. "Squats?"

The fat guy whispered to Yellow Hair, "I've figured it out. This guy went to a veterinary clinic with a fever as a kid, and it fried his brain."

Yellow Hair saw it differently. "What do you know? At his current level, he can't beat the boss, Professor Sheep. That's why he's training so hard to level up. Get it now?"

The fat guy looked at Yellow Hair like he was an idiot. "Yeah, I get it. You two went to the same veterinary clinic."

After squats came sit-ups.

Chen Feng lay on his bed with his legs together and his hands raised. He went up and down until the whole Metal Bunk Bed creaked. At last, he finished every exercise before midnight.

"It hurts. I'm so sore. I'm not getting rhabdomyolysis, am I?"

Chen Feng had heard of rhabdomyolysis. People had exercised beyond what their muscles could withstand, suffered acute kidney damage, and dropped dead.

"If this keeps up, I'm going to drop dead too. This Proficiency System is such bullshit."

[Ding! Today's training has been successfully completed]

[If you suck, train more]

[Your physical constitution has permanently increased]

As the system's voice faded, Chen Feng felt strength well up throughout his body. The fatigue from overexertion vanished without a trace.

This actually feels pretty damn good!

Chen Feng smiled from the heart. A tremendous sense of accomplishment rose within him: he had overcome himself.

Who said the Proficiency System was bad? It's amazing!

The other three, who were getting ready for bed, heard him laugh and suspected he had exercised so much he'd scrambled his brains.

Over the next week, a busy figure became a fixture around the Academy.

"Yellow Hair, I bet he won't last three days."

"Fatty, it's been three days."

"I misjudged him, but there's no way he'll last a week."

"Fatty, he's lasted a week."

"Holy crap, he actually kept it up? What a man. If he calls me a woman, I'll buy a pack of sanitary pads and slap one on right away."

The truth was, when it came to training,

Chen Feng had resisted at first.

But as his physical stats kept rising, the feeling of transforming step by step from a shut-in into someone strong became impossible to resist.

On the seventh day,

Chen Feng was sweating buckets on the training ground.

[Push-ups +1, current count: 73]

[Push-ups +1, current count: 74]

Li Guolong and the other two quietly approached. Seeing no one else around, Li Guolong said gravely, "It's time we talked business."

Here it comes!

Chen Feng perked up. "We're making our move tomorrow?"

Li Guolong nodded. "Yes."

Yellow Hair spread out a map. "In game terms, clearing the Fourth Mental Hospital takes three things: stealing the key that gets us across the training ground from the Professor's Office, defeating the Pig Instructor guarding the main gate, and slipping past the Imposter Model Students patrolling at night."

The fat guy cut in. "Yellow Hair, you're usually pretty unreliable, but explaining our escape plan like it's a game actually makes it sound convincing."

Li Guolong handed Chen Feng a key. "Brother Feng, this is the office key. As agreed, you'll go to the office. Leave the security room to us."

After a moment's thought, Li Guolong added, "Remember, we have to move tomorrow night."

Chen Feng nodded.

Li Guolong couldn't help asking, "Aren't you going to ask why it has to be tomorrow night?"

Because the professor won't be here tomorrow, of course.

Though he already knew, Chen Feng asked, "Why?"

Li Guolong said, "Because at the end of July every year, the professor disappears for half a day. That's why we have to wait until tomorrow."

Chen Feng was stunned. "Every year? How long have you been trapped here?"

This place turned people into one of its own. How strong would someone's will have to be to avoid becoming a Model Student for an entire year?

Li Guolong waved a hand. "Not me. It was a senior named Chen Xinran. They say she's the only student who ever escaped the Academy. She secretly left this map and the office key in a notebook."

Li Guolong looked a little embarrassed. "Fatty, Yellow Hair, and I have only been here six months, so we can't be sure the professor will leave that day. If you don't want to do it, we can swap jobs."

"No way!"

The fat guy panicked. "If the professor doesn't leave, he'll zap us into electric boys!"

No. The professor will definitely leave.

A sharp gleam flashed in Chen Feng's eyes. He knew their last escape attempt had failed because something in the plan went wrong.

But he was certain the problem hadn't been the key.

Chen Feng remembered something. During the loop when he'd acquired the Ghost-Catching System, he'd grown tired of Old Li's stories and listened to the radio in the car for a while.

He remembered one news report with perfect clarity.

The annual youth mental health briefing would be held at nine in the morning at the end of the month, and renowned professors in the city's mental health field would be invited!

He had no idea how the professor attended meetings with a goat's head, but one fact had already been confirmed: the professor would be away from the Academy tomorrow night and wouldn't return until the following afternoon.

That meant the problem had to be the Pig Instructor.

Chen Feng asked the three of them, "How are you planning to deal with the Pig Instructor?"

Li Guolong told him the Pig Instructor loved drinking and eating meat. All they had to do tomorrow was bring him some good liquor and get him drunk.

Chen Feng was curious. "You have good liquor?"

The fat guy nodded. "Yeah. Borrowed it from the cafeteria kitchen."

Borrowed? You mean stole.

Chen Feng glanced at the fat guy. Now he understood how the man had stayed so fat after six months here.

"Then that takes care of the elite Drill Instructor and the mini-boss professor," Yellow Hair said. "As for the remaining Imposter mobs, we should be fine as long as we move carefully."

Fine... really?

Chen Feng narrowed his eyes.

From what he remembered of the last attempt, the Pig Instructor had indeed been groggy that afternoon, so they had probably managed to get him drunk. And with Professor Sheep gone, they should have had no trouble stealing the key.

Yet Fatty and Yellow Hair had still been caught and brought back.

So they must have run into trouble with the Imposter patrol.

Yellow Hair jokingly called the Imposters mobs, but Chen Feng had dealt with them. Once they went berserk, several grown adults couldn't hold one down.

But this time, they have me.

"Ninety-nine."

"One hundred."

After his hundredth push-up, a system notification sounded in Chen Feng's mind.

[Congratulations! Through hard work, you have completed the C-rank Hero Training plan]

[Host's physical strength has reached Brick-Burst Level]

[Unlocking the subsequent B-, A-, and S-rank plans requires 1, 10, and 100 Points respectively]

[Warning: Host's Imposter transformation has reached 50%. Once transformation is complete, training will be interrupted and fail, and Points spent will not be refunded. Please find a safer area]

"I can't keep training. If I do, I'll turn into an Imposter."

Chen Feng picked up a brick from the ground and gave it a casual squeeze. It crumbled in his hand like tofu, leaving a pile of powder on the ground.

"Brick-Burst Level really is terrifying!"

Chen Feng's eyes shone. Splitting a brick with a knife-hand strike and crushing one into powder with a squeeze were two entirely different things. Some street performers could do the former, but the latter surpassed human limits.

What bullshit Imposter could withstand one punch from me?