Heat recovery

"Huff, hah!"

"Huff, hah!"

Inside the Training Center's training grounds, Lu Zhan was sweating profusely.

He had struck while the iron was hot and had already been training for an hour.

"Huff, huff, huff!"

Lu Zhan moved like a darting hare across the training grounds, each punch stirring up a powerful gust.

His forceful performance stood in stark contrast to his earlier feebleness.

It's not just my strength and speed. My body's flexibility has improved dramatically, too.

In fact, that might be the biggest change.

Before, when I practiced Basic Combat, so many of my movements went wrong because my muscles and bones weren't flexible enough.

If I forced them, at best I'd be in agony and unable to walk for days. At worst, I'd injure my muscles and bones.

But now, I've been completely transformed.

And all because I attended a single Gourmet Appreciation Class.

Lu Zhan moved faster and faster, his movements becoming increasingly fluid.

Once his body fully "got going," he actually felt waves of warmth flowing through him.

Instinctively, Lu Zhan knew this was the heat his body produced.

Previously, during strenuous exercise, that heat would rapidly dissipate to maintain his normal body temperature.

Now, however, the heat was trapped inside him, yet Lu Zhan felt no discomfort whatsoever.

Is it because every cell in my body has become stronger and can withstand higher temperatures?

But my bodily functions haven't adapted to the changes in my cells. They're still operating the old way—sweating.

Normally, with my current physique, this level of exercise shouldn't leave me steaming.

Lu Zhan sensed that every cell in his body was instinctively reclaiming "heat."

Before this, his body had possessed no such "recovery" mechanism.

Now Lu Zhan was absolutely certain that his body really had changed after the Gourmet Appreciation Class.

Body heat recovery?

Is this another manifestation of my talent?

Since my talent is hunger, it makes sense that it would consume the heat my body gives off.

That means my body will not only work far more efficiently, but also conserve more energy.

In other words, at the same level of output, I can keep going longer than before—far longer.

The more Lu Zhan understood the changes in himself, the more apprehensive he became about this world's humans—and the world itself.

Just how brutal did the environment have to be for humans to develop the talent of "hunger," and from it, the ability to "recover heat"?

During the month since he had entered the Training Center, Lu Zhan had constantly tried to work out the shape of the world, or at least its general geography.

Yet he had learned nothing.

Not only that, he had not even managed to get a clear picture of Yero City.

All he knew was that the outer city had thirty-six districts, while the inner city was protected by high walls.

The wilderness outside the city was constantly threatened by Wasteland Beasts.

Beyond Yero City, there had once been a vast cluster of cities, but they had now been reduced to ruins.

As for anything farther afield, it was a complete blank. Lu Zhan had no access whatsoever to information about it.

Often, Lu Zhan felt as though he were playing a single-player game.

The fog of war shrouded everything, leaving him only a tiny patch of visible map.

Train, train!

Su Yuyan was right. Practicing Basic Combat today really does yield twice the results for half the effort.

But she still underestimated me—or rather, she couldn't see all the changes taking place inside me.

My body has changed enormously, even down to some of the rules governing it—metabolism and heat recovery.

My body's hardware and software have fallen out of sync. I need intense training to bring them into alignment.

That's the human body's powerful ability to adapt!

With a deeper understanding of himself, Lu Zhan was brimming with motivation to train.

He had decided to devote every remaining moment of the day, apart from dinner, to practicing Basic Combat.

In this class, he was determined to shake off his reputation as the worst student.

Over at the Training Center, Lu Zhan was drenched in sweat.

In the Wutu Gang, Ma Yancheng was drenched in cold sweat.

Branch Chief Ma, who usually cut such an imposing figure before the rank-and-file members, now stood like a schoolboy being punished, scrutinized by the gang's senior leaders.

"Ma Yancheng, how did things end up like this?"

"Never mind Lu Zhan getting away. Why did something happen to Wang Yang?"

"Wang Yang was our Wutu Gang's only remaining man in the Public Security Office. How did he end up in the Inspection Office's sights?"

Inside the hall, Hall Master Yin of the Disciplinary Hall sharply interrogated Ma Yancheng.

In recent years, the Wutu Gang had been steadily declining.

The clearest sign was that they had fewer and fewer of their own people in official positions.

For a gang, this was no different from losing an eye.

"Hall Master Yin, I don't know why something happened to Wang Yang either!"

"Could another gang have made a move, trying to squeeze us out even further?"

Ma Yancheng felt terribly wronged. He really had done nothing, yet somehow the blame had landed squarely on his head.

Had he known things would turn out this way, he would not have tried to "cut corners" that day. He would have forced Lu Zhan to sign the contract on the spot.

"It couldn't have been another gang from District Nine!"

"Even if they wanted to make a move, they wouldn't use the Inspection Office, never mind the fact that we reached a ceasefire agreement long ago."

"They wouldn't play with fire like that unless they'd lost their minds."

Hall Master Yin rejected Ma Yancheng's speculation outright.

Gang conflicts might be treacherous and underhanded, with all manner of vicious tactics fair game, but there were still lines they would not cross.

One of those was never to "alert" the Inspection Office.

After all, none of them had clean hands.

"Old Wei, dealings with the authorities—

"—have always been your responsibility."

"Have you found out why something happened to Wang Yang? Is the entire Public Security Office in trouble, or are they only targeting our Wutu Gang?"

Deputy Gang Leader Chen Wansen, who had summoned everyone, turned toward Wei Tong beside him, whose face bore a distinctly mercenary look.

After a moment's thought, Wei Tong slowly spoke.

"According to the information I've received, Wesker disappeared from contact along with Wang Yang."

"Although he was on good terms with Wang Yang, he isn't a member of our Wutu Gang!"

"Given the current situation, it's difficult to determine whether the Inspection Office is targeting our Wutu Gang."

"There's actually something else that deserves more of our attention."

"The Inspection Office commissioner who placed Wang Yang and Wesker in isolation for questioning was Xin Ya."

"Before that, Wang Yang and the others had been helping her investigate the Mutant Beast attack."

"No matter how you look at it, there's something strange about this."

Once Wei Tong finished explaining the details, everyone present was baffled.

Was Commissioner Xin "repaying kindness with malice"?

Even if she wanted to pad her record, surely there was no need to be so ruthless?