Venting

Mu Fan's body jolted again. He felt as if both feet had been suctioned to the ground; every attempt to lift a foot required several times more strength.

Yes, this was the feeling! The energy within his body burned fully! The energy produced by the massive amount of food he had eaten earlier was now released from his cells, and an endless stream of power surged from every part of his body.

Creak! His bones gave off a clear grinding sound as his muscles exerted force.

Puff, puff, puff. White Rubber Bullets came flying at Mu Fan like a cheetah. In the Gravity Room's Level 35 setting, twelve Rubber Bullets were fired each time, rapidly sealing off every escape route around him.

Ahh—hah! The stray hair on Mu Fan's head was flung backward by his rapid movements, and even his sweat converged into a thin line in midair.

Mu Fan turned into a gray blur, crouching, rising, leaping, and kicking off the wall. A sharp whistling sound came from his right! He forcibly twisted his body, his right hand flashing out like lightning to snatch the Rubber Bullet that had just passed his brow.

As he descended, Mu Fan braced himself with both hands again. His body was like a compressed spring, tightly wound before exploding outward in an instant! His legs swept through an arc in midair, stomping two Rubber Bullets into the wall before his figure shot away again!

A gray bolt of lightning darted wildly through the enclosed space.

"Smack! Smack!" Damn it. Two Rubber Bullets struck the wall and rolled to the floor. Mu Fan had missed two; out of the twelve bullets that had come simultaneously, he had knocked down or caught nine.

Since he couldn't knock them all down, he would raise the stakes and see how many rounds he could evade. Mu Fan's chest rose and fell rapidly. Exploding with force under high gravity made his chest feel as though it were burning with flames, and even the air he exhaled was scorching hot.

Rose-red light flashed through his eyes.

Level 38!

3.8 times gravity!

Fifteen Rubber Bullets!

The bullets were 15% faster than before!

White trails flashed through the air, interweaving into a net!

Yet Mu Fan's movements suddenly became lighter! He attacked like a fierce tiger and leaped like a cheetah! Don't get hit. Don't get hit.

Mu Fan gave up chasing after the bullets. The intense exertion under such gravity allowed him to clearly feel his stamina draining away.

Mu Fan began consciously conserving his strength. He could no longer attack recklessly or rely solely on brute force.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. The fat man in the hall could not hear the rain-like impacts intertwining within the nearby Gravity Room, much less see Mu Fan moving with them, his figure nearly becoming an afterimage.

Yah!! Hah! This time, the fifteen bullets came in a dense formation. Seeing that he could not evade them with small movements, Mu Fan tensed and leaped, running diagonally up the wall from bottom to top.

"Tap tap tap tap tap tap!" The Rubber Bullets slammed rapidly into the wall behind him.

Every bullet missed. With unparalleled leg strength and reaction speed, Mu Fan evaded this wave of attacks.

Huff, huff! Since the training began, Mu Fan felt he had expended more stamina than he normally would in two whole days.

He had to use greater strength to make his lungs breathe, stronger contractions to force his heart to unleash surging power, and stronger willpower to make himself focus on sensing every attack.

In the fifth round of attacks, all fifteen bullets missed again...

Level 40! Mu Fan let out another low roar.

This time, he had not raised it by three levels. Level 40 was the dividing line between the hall and VIP area. He felt as if he were nearing his limit; his body was growing heavier and heavier.

"Ah!" Gravity bore down on him, and Mu Fan's muscles tightened again. But this time, seventeen bullets came even faster—crack, crack, crack! There was almost no interval! It was completely different from before, firing and chambering like a machine gun. In one tiny pause, Mu Fan's sharp senses caught it. One second! There was only a one-second interval, not even enough time to think.

Several white lines crisscrossed downward, sealing off nearly all of Mu Fan's escape routes.

Mu Fan noticed one opening on each side where he could break through the blockade. The left! Without hesitation, Mu Fan stepped forward and leaped. But this time, he felt that his muscles had already exerted their full strength. He was just a little short of breaking through, only a little short.

"Smack!" A Rubber Bullet struck Mu Fan's calf hard, instantly raising a swollen red welt.

One misstep forced his rhythm to break, and then a dense rain of bullets came at him. Mu Fan protected his head and rolled.

"Crack, crack!" His back burned with pain, but what bothered Mu Fan more was the frustration in his heart. In the end, he still had not cleared Level 40.

"Player detected as having been hit ten times. Training stopped." With a tremor, the lights rapidly illuminating the surrounding floor gradually slowed, and the room's bright white light source switched on.

"Gravity decreasing. 40, 35, 30..."

His body suddenly became lighter, as if an invisible boulder had been removed from his chest. Mu Fan curled up on the floor and let out a long breath. He was somewhat shaken. He was still only good enough to train in the main hall!

"Giving up already?" A suddenly annoying voice sounded in the room.

"Black Egg!" Mu Fan immediately recognized it.

"Please call me Lord Black! You are Egg Lord! Don't call me in a way that includes yourself in the name." Black's voice came again from the room's speakers.

After Black interrupted him like that, Mu Fan realized that his mood had inexplicably improved quite a bit.

Mu Fan stood up. "Hiss." The movement tugged at his back. This training room was vicious.

The room's surveillance device turned toward Mu Fan, and Black's laughter came again. "Hahaha, Mu Fan, I've already hacked into this martial arts gym's system. That training session just now wasn't recorded. Also, I forgot to tell you beforehand: normally, there is no Rubber Bullet training before Level 40. Only the Level 40 to 80 settings open to VIP rooms have Rubber Bullet training."

Black paused, then said cheerfully, "So you don't need to be discouraged, young man!"

If Black had actually been this Gravity Room right now, Mu Fan believed he would have torn the room apart himself.

Black's irritating laughter continued for a while, then his voice came again. "Mu Fan, did you feel any discomfort in your body under that high gravity just now?"

"No." Mu Fan seemed to understand what Black meant.

"What did it feel like? Describe it in detail. I need the data you provide to make a judgment," Black pressed.

"Although my body felt heavy, when I was dodging, it didn't feel much different from normal."

"At Level 32, did your brain suffer from oxygen deprivation? Did your vision go dark?" Black suddenly asked.

"No." Mu Fan thought about it, then answered with certainty.

"Your bloodline... Hmm, the current inference is that you possess hereditary genes. One of your parents must have come from a high-gravity planet, and their blood carried special genetic factors. Based on reverse calculations using the formula for the generational decline of bloodline factors, your people's habitat should have gravity above 3.47 times the standard level. It is not on Luoqie Star, nor is it among the planets within ten light-years listed in Luoqie Star's database. Calculating farther distances requires you to further develop the interstellar network so I can synchronize more data. So work hard, young man."

"I'm going back to browsing the planetary network. This world is very interesting. Remember to hide my carrier when you return; it will be needed in the future. I'll contact you if necessary."

Black's voice disappeared after he finished speaking.

"Oh, right. I left a backdoor in this room's permissions. When you enter, Rubber Bullet mode will automatically be enabled by default." Five seconds later, another sentence suddenly appeared on the wall.

Mu Fan was speechless. Was this free-range care? It was convenient that he did not need to manage Black, but Black should at least have left a contact method. What was Mu Fan supposed to do if he wanted to find him?

Ever since entering the network, Black had become increasingly unreliable.

Mu Fan felt that he needed to get used to Black's unreliability and his tendency to appear and disappear without warning.

Moving around still felt quite comfortable. Time was almost up; it was probably time to go out and wait for the fat man. Mu Fan stretched lazily.

Hiss, that hurt.

******

P.S. Thanks to reader "Yesterday's Beauty" for the generous reward!