Badass Beyond Belief

Renting the place went smoothly. Perhaps Uncle Wang took into account that Shen Bing was still a college student, because he didn't ask for much: just a thousand yuan a month for a single room with its own Health room. The room was even newly renovated.

Shen Bing was quite happy with it, apart from one of the other tenants.

He often heard about guys sharing apartments with beautiful women, sometimes even finding romance along the way. His housemate, though, was a burly man nearly six feet three, with a powerful build and an intimidating air. The man looked imposing enough on the street, let alone under the same roof.

What was more, the man seemed rather withdrawn. Shen Bing had greeted him, and he hadn't even responded.

"Pretty stuck-up, aren't you? Not like I want to talk to you either." That was Shen Bing's verdict on the guy, though "stuck-up" hardly seemed the word...

Nothing in the room was high-end, but everything was brand-new, saving Shen Bing a lot of trouble.

This was only a temporary place to stay, and he didn't have much to move. He went back to his dorm, picked up the laptop he had bought when he started college, and settled in.

He also remembered to let the other guys in his dorm know.

Those jerks teased him about whether he'd found a beautiful woman to live with, but didn't ask much else. They were seniors now, and plenty of students rented places off campus.

Once he was settled, Shen Bing couldn't wait to start testing things.

His phone was precious to him now, but he knew phones weren't exactly reliable. Who knew when it might break? A thief could even swipe it while he was walking down the street.

After a series of tests, Shen Bing felt reassured.

First, when he viewed his phone Screen through a camera, the Gate to the Immortal Realm icon still looked like the original A Chinese Odyssey icon. Even after he opened it, the camera still showed the old game screen.

Shen Bing was fairly certain that anything relating to the Gate to the Immortal Realm was visible only to him. Even if someone else got hold of his phone, all they would see was the A Chinese Odyssey mobile game.

Second, he couldn't get rid of the phone now. Whenever it moved more than a hundred meters away from him, it automatically returned to his pocket. He had confirmed this through repeated tests.

Finally, since the Gate to the Immortal Realm had appeared, the phone's performance had improved considerably. More importantly, it was now waterproof, impact-resistant, drop-resistant—resistant to just about anything.

“Even the Heaven Realm must've thought my life was too dull. I'm about to be X beyond belief.” Shen Bing had been this excited for a whole day. His dopamine was working overtime...

With the phone's safety settled, Shen Bing finally turned his attention to the items in his Inventory.

The one he wanted most was naturally the Aperture-Opening Pill. It could develop his brain to fifty percent capacity. Just thinking about it thrilled him.

Made in the Immortal Realm meant top quality.

"Transfer the Aperture-Opening Pill."

Transferring the Aperture-Opening Pill costs 1 Immortal Jade (the transfer fee equals the item's price). Transfer it?

"Transfer it."

Shen Bing cursed the stingy Gate to the Immortal Realm in his heart. Talk about taking a cut of everything.

Completing missions required transfers, and buying transfer talismans required Immortal Jade.

Buying items from the shop required Immortal Jade.

Transmitting technical data required Immortal Jade.

Even transferring an item required Immortal Jade.

Whenever Shen Bing thought about how much it cost to buy one Immortal Jade, his liver hurt.

There was no way around it. The Aperture-Opening Pill's actual price was ten thousand Immortal Jade.

Fine. Shen Bing admitted that buying one was a distant dream, never mind transferring one out.

As Shen Bing waited in anticipation, the Aperture-Opening Pill appeared directly in his hand.

"So generous this time?" Compared with transferring Little Doudou, this transfer was blissfully fast.

Shen Bing examined the Aperture-Opening Pill, which was only the size of a pea.

It was crystal-clear, with a pale golden sheen and a faint glow.

Even someone who had no idea what it was could tell at a glance that it was a treasure.

Could eating it cause problems?

It should be fine, right?

It came from the Immortal Realm, after all...

But I'm a mortal...

In the end, the Aperture-Opening Pill's overwhelming allure conquered Shen Bing's fear. Deep down, he had an adventurous streak. Once he took it, his life would never be the same.

Besides, Shen Bing had some grounds for confidence.

The Gate to the Immortal Realm was fairly considerate when it came to safety. The Basic Spiritual Wisdom Potion derived from analyzing the Aperture-Opening Pill, for instance, had come with a warning that mortals couldn't use it. Since the pill had no such warning, it probably wasn't dangerous.

Shen Bing gritted his teeth and put the Aperture-Opening Pill straight into his mouth.

It tasted sweet and slid down his throat...

"Tastes pretty good... Uh... My head hurts a little. Damn it... It hurts too much! Ah..."

Unable to endure the tidal wave of pain, Shen Bing passed out spectacularly.

His last thought was, Was that a fake pill?

When Shen Bing woke up, the feeling was... how could he describe it? Like eating a huge slice of chilled watermelon on the hottest day of summer.

Wonderful...

His mind felt completely clear, and he seemed to have boundless energy.

Well... apart from being rather hungry.

"What a mistake! I should've prepared some food." Shen Bing berated himself. The hunger was so intense that he forgot everything else, flung open the door, and rushed out.

"Meow..." Little Doudou sprang up and followed him.

At a restaurant outside the Residential Compound, Shen Bing ordered two dishes and polished off two entire buckets of rice.

Yes, buckets, not bowls.

The owner and servers stared in disbelief, and even Shen Bing could hardly believe it himself.

It was probably a side effect of his Brain's extensive development. It consumed too much energy, and humans had only one way to replenish energy: eating.

Once his hunger subsided, Shen Bing got up and headed back to his rented room.

He had taken the Aperture-Opening Pill. Now he had to test its effects.

As he walked, Shen Bing noticed that his mind was very different from before.

Countless things from childhood that he had forgotten came back to him, as vivid as if they had happened yesterday.

Even tiny details from everyday life—things he had barely registered at the time—were there in his memory, as though engraved in it.

He could glance at an advertisement along the way and remember every word. He couldn't forget it even if he tried.

But when he tried to make sense of the Quantum Teleportation Technology data in his mind, he was still completely lost.

That wouldn't do. The knowledge in his head was too advanced.

He was smarter now, no question, but he lacked the foundations of quantum technology. Reading those materials was like trying to decipher an ancient scripture.

“Never thought I'd end up following in Old Yang's footsteps. Library, just you wait.”

Back home, Shen Bing began testing just how absurdly powerful his brain had become. This was, after all, the first human brain in history to reach fifty percent development. He was curious himself.

First came memory. He had already tested it a little, but decided to try again.

He turned on his computer and found an extremely obscure academic paper. It ran over fifty pages and contained forty to fifty thousand words. Shen Bing read the whole thing in less than two minutes.

Amazingly, he remembered every bit of it. More than that, he thoroughly understood the arguments the paper presented.

Shen Bing even felt he could go faster. For now, the only thing holding him back was that his eyes and brain weren't working together smoothly yet. Once his eyes caught up with his thoughts, he would read even faster.

Next, he tested his calculation speed. To his astonishment, he could multiply dozens of ten-digit numbers and give the answer instantly. That beat a calculator!

Shen Bing also discovered that, as his brain improved, his control over his body had reached an outrageous level of precision. He could even throw a thin Iron wire through the eye of a needle five meters away.

That tested not only the dexterity of his hand and his control of force, but his eyesight as well.

The moment Shen Bing looked at an object, he could determine its dimensions to within 0.001 micrometers—one nanometer.

"This is badass beyond belief!"

Who else could do that?!

Shen Bing took a deep breath. His thoroughly transformed brain told him he needed to plan his life properly. Squandering an opportunity like this would be asking for punishment from the Heaven Realm.

First, the Gate to the Immortal Realm on his phone was the foundation of his future. His goal was to keep transferring items out of it, opening up endless possibilities.

Second was making money. Whether he bought items from the Gate to the Immortal Realm's shop or transferred them out, he needed Immortal Jade, and Immortal Jade meant money. Not a little money, either. A staggering amount.

At the very least, his family's savings were practically useless where the Gate to the Immortal Realm was concerned.

Well... not entirely. They might be enough to buy a few Immortal Jade.

There were plenty of ways to make money. With his current brain, Shen Bing could think of countless options in an instant. The fastest would be to learn hacking and then... heh, heh. Every major bank would become his personal ATM.

But the idea had barely crossed his mind before he rejected it.

Shen Bing wasn't worried about whether it would put him in danger. He had absolute confidence in his brain now.

What worried him was that the Gate to the Immortal Realm might not approve of that method, or that it might have other harmful consequences.

Since the Gate to the Immortal Realm accepted Chinese Yuan for purchases, it clearly had a close connection to the real world. If he hacked his way into stealing vast sums, it would inevitably cause financial turmoil...

"Maybe the Gate to the Immortal Realm wants me to research advanced technology. But why does that sound so strange?" Even with a brain that was practically a divine artifact, Shen Bing couldn't figure out what was going on.

"With advanced technology, making money will be easy, won't it?"

"Good! It's settled, then. I'll make my first fortune, then open factories and build companies. Once I develop Quantum Teleportation Technology, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Airbus, Boeing—I'll leave them all in the dust..."

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