Card

In the gym, Lin Rui was working a rowing machine.

His feet braced against the footplates and his back straight, he gripped the cable handles with both hands, drove with his legs, and used his back muscles to pull his arms and move the load.

Every pull was a painful tearing of muscle. His arms ached, swelled, and tingled with pain, while his back muscles burned.

With one low grunt of exertion after another, beads of sweat traced winding paths down Lin Rui's forehead until he reached exhaustion.

Twelve reps per set, five sets in total.

Lin Rui glanced at the rowing machine's weight pin. It was already in the fifth slot, currently the limit of what he could sustain in training.

After finishing, he panted for breath, feeling as though his lungs were on fire. His body had reached its limit, and his arms no longer felt like his own. He could only sit there and wait for his strength to recover.

The effects of "Steel Lungs and Viscera" showed themselves now. His enhanced oxygen and blood supply rapidly cleared away the lactic acid buildup caused by the intense exercise.

Waves of prickling pain ran across the skin of his numb hands, but eased after just two or three minutes.

The aching tightness in his muscles soon diminished too, replaced by the pleasure and sense of reward brought on by his brain releasing dopamine.

Lin Rui grabbed the water bottle beside him and poured his homemade salted soda into his stomach, eating a piece of chocolate as well to replenish a little energy.

When he first started training, his mere six points of "strength" meant he could not use heavy weights at all. Whether barbells or dumbbells, he could only pick the lightest ones.

As for squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and the like, even an unloaded barbell made him bare his teeth and grimace, quickly leaving him utterly exhausted.

In an hour of training, he spent ten minutes exerting himself, twenty minutes gasping for breath, and thirty minutes thinking, Why come here to suffer like this? Should I just stop right now and go sell burgers to make money?

"I can't fucking run a food truck my whole life. I've got to aspire to something." Only by constantly encouraging himself did Lin Rui endure the repeated aching, swelling, and exhaustion.

"No wonder gym memberships are cheap. Most people can't keep it up for long at all. Coming to the gym is just handing over money for nothing."

Lin Rui had a poor foundation, but with "Steel Lungs and Viscera," he recovered quickly and had great potential. After only a week of training, his "strength" had risen from 6 to 7, with faint signs of breaking through to 8.

Once his breathing steadied again, Lin Rui rose from the rowing machine and walked to the squat rack, planning to begin today's real workout: "leg training"-the most soul-crushing fitness exercise, and also the most rewarding.

Train without training your legs, and all your effort goes to waste.

Just as he was loading plates onto the barbell, a knock came from outside the gym, and someone called, "Leon, it's Toby. School's out."

Lin Rui checked the digital clock on the wall. It was three thirty in the afternoon, and he could not help marveling at how early elementary and secondary schools let out in the United States.

Not long after this abandoned gym reopened, Mrs. Jones had Toby join too. The principle that "those near vermilion turn red, those near ink turn black" was simple enough. She wanted her son to learn from a good role model.

Lin Rui put down the barbell and went to the entrance, looking left and right. Only after confirming no one had followed Toby did he open the iron gate and let him inside.

"Do you have to be this careful? Nobody dares mess with me." Toby tossed his schoolbag aside and hurried to the changing room to put on his workout clothes.

"There are too many punks around here. We have to be on guard." Lin Rui quickly locked the iron gate again.

Tall and broad, with a body full of fat, Toby would also be a target of ridicule at an ordinary gym. Under the influence of the "Suggestion Technique," he had steeled himself to lose weight, but he was also happy to find somewhere quiet.

Lin Rui welcomed Toby's arrival. For one thing, they could keep an eye on each other and push each other along. For another, working out carried certain risks, especially with heavy weights, when someone was needed to assist.

"Leon, what are you training today?"

"Today's leg day."

"Oh-ho, your looks might really appeal to my three sisters, but you seriously aren't manly enough. Can you squat a hundred kilos yet?"

At Toby's smug grin, Lin Rui rolled his eyes.

An ordinary person could squat between 0.8 and 1.2 times their body weight, but Lin Rui had "previously" spent all his time solving practice questions, so his physique and strength were naturally lacking.

When he first started squatting, he could not even shoulder fifty kilos. Even if he forced himself to lift it, once he squatted down, he could not get back up-the kind of thing that was both humiliating and pure suffering.

For bench presses, he could only press the empty bar. Add even a little weight, and he would be fighting for his life.

Even with "Steel Lungs and Viscera," after a week of training, his squat had only just passed fifty kilos. Any higher, and his spirit was willing but his strength fell short.

As for a hundred kilos, he had plenty of training ahead of him.

Yet that weight was a breeze for Toby.

There was no denying that "a big body doesn't lack strength." This black kid's height of over 1.9 meters was no empty boast. Though a little fat, he still had strength.

After changing, Toby moved to come over beside Lin Rui, who immediately refused. "You... go over there. Stay ten meters away from me."

Toby instantly looked aggrieved and muttered, "My body odor isn't bad. I showered, and I even put on antiperspirant. You should get used to the smell, or you'll never be able to pursue my three sisters."

Lin Rui said in disgust, "You stink like a boar, and you have the nerve to say your body odor isn't bad. I'd love to tie you up and send you to a hospital to have every sweat gland in your armpits and groin cut out."

"There's surgery for that?" Toby asked curiously.

"Of course. Apocrine sweat gland excision."

"Is it expensive? Does health insurance cover it?"

"It's a minor operation in Country Z, but I don't know how much it costs in the United States."

Toby was reasonably obedient. He went ten meters away, climbed onto a spin bike, turned the resistance to maximum, and began pedaling with heavy huffs.

Recently, through controlling his diet and exercising, he had indeed brought his weight down. He looked leaner and stronger, and was more confident as a result.

Half an hour later, Lin Rui was trying to push his squat past sixty kilos when a notification suddenly sounded in his mind.

"'Fond of Teaching Others' mission complete. Target successfully lost twenty kilograms. Distributing mission reward..."

The voice came so suddenly that Lin Rui nearly exerted his strength the wrong way. He hurriedly lowered the barbell from his shoulders and turned to look at Toby nearby.

The black kid was sweating buckets, drenched from head to toe as though he were in a sauna. Sweat had fallen all over the floor beneath his spin bike, soaking the ground.

"What was the reward?" Lin Rui opened his attribute page again. "A card."

"Lesser Attribute Enhancement Card-'Toby.' Using this card grants half the target character's attributes for six hours. Usable once per day. Valid for one month."

"Appendix: Toby's current attributes: strength 12, constitution 13, spirit 6, agility 7, charm 5."

Toby's strength and constitution far exceeded those of ordinary people, and after losing twenty kilos, even his charm had gained a point.

Lin Rui froze at first, then rejoiced and immediately activated the card. His personal attributes were strengthened at once.

Strength 7+6, constitution 8+6.5, spirit 12+3, agility 8+3.5, charm 15+2.5.

An enormous mirror covering half a wall was mounted toward the back of the gym. With a slight turn of his head, Lin Rui could see his reflection.

At that moment, it was as though someone had pressed fast-forward on time.

His pectorals swelled first, his flat chest instantly filling out into a full, rounded shape.

The muscle fibers beneath his collarbones emerged clearly, one by one. His skin stretched until it shone, showing the dark red flush of blood underneath.

The trapezius and deltoid muscles around his shoulders bulged at the same time, forming two steep little hills. The lines separating the front, middle, and rear heads of his deltoids stood out distinctly beneath the lights.

Veins bulged along his neck, climbing from the hollows of his collarbones onto his shoulders, then running down his thick arms.

His biceps were like fully inflated balloons, his triceps like solid horseshoes, and the tendons in his forearms pulled taut like steel cables. Every clench of his fists made those blood vessels swell a little more.

His abs went from faint, indistinct outlines to suddenly looking as though they had been carved out layer by layer with a sculpting knife. His thighs grew several centimeters in mere seconds.

Only five or six seconds had passed.

The person in the mirror had already transformed from a slender young man into a beast with coiling veins and muscles erupting like rock.

Facing his reflection, Lin Rui's Adam's apple bobbed heavily. Even he was so awed by this engorged, swollen, powerful body that he could not speak.

Nearby, Toby briefly stopped for a drink of water. One glance at Lin Rui made him exclaim, "Fuck, Leon. You're on gear, aren't you? What high-tech drug works this well?"