Chapter 44: Physical Strength Twenty Times 19 |
Chapter 44 Body Strength x20 (19)
Wu Zhong chased after Feipeng with full confidence. With his body strength multiplied eightfold, he carried Yang Chunsha with one arm and sprinted like mad.
His running speed was extreme, his whole body light as if flying, like a leaping leopard.
Across the hilly terrain his footfalls launched him over ten meters with each push.
Wu Zhong estimated he could run at 16 meters per second, which meant a 100-meter dash in 6.25 seconds.
At that speed, he soon caught sight of Feipeng’s back.
The man’s rear was just too conspicuous — a staff stuck in him, laughing wildly, his mobility ruined. Even though he’d had a head start of more than a minute, Wu Zhong still closed the gap.
“Cack cack cack… Captain, save me!” Feipeng screamed hoarsely, blood soaking his pants.
He had a staff lodged in his butt, springing him along. Without a weapon, he still used his palm like a sword to block Wu Zhong.
His figure darted like a shuttle, an iron fist met Feipeng’s blade-like palm, and the air howled and detonated.
Dong!
The armored iron fist clashed head-on with the opponent’s palm-sword. This time, it was Feipeng who was sent flying.
Wu Zhong didn’t retreat an inch. His current punch force was at least one and a half tons, and the arm armor offset a ton of recoil for him.
After the blow, his feet still pushed him forward.
“What power!” Feipeng was terrified inwardly.
“I can be stronger…” Wu Zhong’s eyes were cold.
Even while holding Yang Chunsha in one hand and carrying the Giant Door Shield on his back, Feipeng had no chance of defeating him.
Feipeng’s face collapsed in fear, but his mouth kept laughing wildly: “Hohohoho, where did you find so many crazy people for him to suck, hahaha…”
He genuinely wondered why Wu Zhong had surged so much in such a short time.
Would Wu Zhong tell him about the original Mad Blood Clan? That was probably not common knowledge in their circles.
Slap!
Wu Zhong stepped up and kicked again.
Feipeng was heavily wounded and flipped through the air, slamming his butt into a tree, convulsing in pain, grit and blood in his mouth as he still tried to laugh.
“Heh heh heh, why is the inner power still here… I turned Multivariate Moment off…”
“Hoho? How many traits do you have exactly?”
Feipeng laughed maniacally, baffled. Extraterrestrial-law forces from other universes are not permanent; they only exist temporarily when Multivariate Moment is activated.
An arm armor symbiote like Wu Zhong’s must rely on Infinite Summer keeping Multivariate Moment on for a long time.
Likewise, Wu Zhong’s inner power came from Feipeng; if Feipeng shut it off, the inner power should vanish into thin air.
Yet it didn’t — Wu Zhong’s recent strikes still carried a bit of inner power.
Feipeng was devastated. Wu Zhong displayed so many traits: psychic resistance, unhealable, forced silence, indestructible wood-and-stone items, and an unbreakable Life Gate.
If he had any one of these and learned to use it, he could become a golden mercenary, but Wu Zhong had a whole bunch.
“It’s impolite to interrogate someone’s abilities to their face.”
Wu Zhong raised his right arm and stopped him outright.
However, the purple-melt ordnance was intercepted mid-flight by a teal-green figure who leapt out.
Swoosh!
The purple blast struck but caused no damage; the other party flew back two steps and then stopped.
“Vegetable People?”
Wu Zhong stiffened, looking left and right, then spotted someone hiding behind trees about ten meters away.
It was the taciturn young man he’d met earlier.
“Gourd… hahahaha…”
Feipeng noticed Gourd too, but speaking was a struggle.
Gourd nervously drew a pistol into a standard shooting stance, but when he saw Wu Zhong’s purple cannon aimed at him, he hurriedly ducked back behind the tree.
Unbelievable — Feipeng and Ya Bai actually fell?
“Brother Feipeng, what happened? Where’s Ya Bai?”
“Ha ha ha! Ya Bai’s dead, Ya Bai’s dead! Hahaha!” Feipeng laughed as he reported the death.
Gourd was stunned — was Ya Bai’s death really cause for such joy?
“Did you kill him?”
Boom. Wu Zhong vaulted sideways in a rush, bypassed the Vegetable People, and fired a single shot that killed Feipeng.
Feipeng’s laughter cut off abruptly. His chest was blasted to pieces, his flesh bubbling and mangled.
Hiss!
Gourd turned and ran. Ya Bai dead, Feipeng dead!
Their squad’s two main fighters were both down, felled by a newcomer — absurd.
Boom!
The shot pierced the tree trunk and exploded behind Gourd. Because of the cover, Wu Zhong missed precise aim, but still melted half his waist.
Gourd coughed blood, clutched his side, and sprinted away, firing wildly behind him.
At the same time, he ordered the Vegetable People to protect him with their lives.
Wu Zhong focused on him, pivoted while lifting the cannon. A Vegetable Person fearlessly lunged and took the blast to the hands, then latched on and pounded his neck with fists.
If not for his robust body, his Adam’s apple would have been crushed.
Wu Zhong struck back with a punch, trying to pry the nuisance off, but the Vegetable Person climbed right up his torso and, surprisingly, knew grappling techniques.
The creature wrapped itself around Wu Zhong’s back, limbs binding him tightly.
“Get off!”
Wu Zhong pounded and blasted but couldn’t shake it, not even causing a scratch.
In reverse, the Vegetable Person’s attacks were real and effective.
If it had stronger force beyond human level, Wu Zhong’s neck would’ve been broken.
Hum…
The Vegetable Person jabbed at Wu Zhong’s eyes. Wu Zhong squeezed his eyelids shut and endured.
He discovered that if his eyelids were treated like a closed door, others couldn’t easily poke them — but the pain was still intense because eyelids are soft.
“This thing is insanely clingy!”
Wu Zhong fumed. Though he wouldn’t be mortally harmed, something hanging on him still had to be dealt with.
Even with eightfold body strength he wasn’t invulnerable; he still had weak points that hurt when struck repeatedly.
Worse, the creature pulled out a knife.
Ah — it was Wu Zhong’s own knife, the one he’d filched from Unit 985’s Gu Yue earlier. It had been kept at his waist and was already dull from use.
The Vegetable Person retrieved it and stabbed again and again.
Wu Zhong easily held its hand, completely overpowering it.
But trying to wrest the knife free was problematic — no matter how much strength he applied, the Vegetable Person held on.
Thud thud thud!
Wu Zhong’s head slammed into it, his back hit a tree, he fell backwards and landed on the ground, yet the creature refused to let go.
Physical damage immunity combined with grappling made it an indestructible sticky pest.
Only vegetables could effectively harm a Vegetable Person — Xia Heng had shown that before — but back then there had been many Vegetable People. Now there was only one; what could they do?
“Vegetables, vegetables! Where are the vegetables?”
Wu Zhong gritted his teeth with the Vegetable Person clamped on him, looking around. He should have pulled some produce while leaving the village.
Seeing Gourd trying to escape, Wu Zhong thought of carrying the Vegetable Person as a makeshift weight while chasing, but he couldn’t abandon the gravely wounded Yang Chunsha.
“Right! De Biao!”
“You brought a cucumber, didn’t you?”
Wu Zhong remembered Yang Chunsha’s usual comms tool: cucumbers. He squatted and searched.
Sure enough, in a clothing inner pocket he found one and quickly pulled it out.
With that cucumber in hand it became a weapon.
Wu Zhong slashed and stabbed fiercely, and then heard a crisp cracking sound. The Vegetable Person was stabbed full of holes, its body snapping apart.
“Die!”
On the final strike, a single cucumber smashed the Vegetable Person’s skull. The thing finally stopped moving.
In an instant it disintegrated into dust, leaving only rings of vegetable holes on the ground.
Wu Zhong collected the rings and found two vegetable seeds among the remnants.
“Oh? It even leaves seeds?”
He accepted the seeds with a grin, then looked up — Gourd had already vanished.
He chased at full speed but never caught a glimpse.
“Running that fast?” Wu Zhong shook his head slightly.
Since the man had disappeared, there was no point to pursue. Gourd hadn’t engaged him directly, so no need to waste effort.
They’d been fighting in the village for a while, so Unit 985 must have been alerted already.
This place was remote, so they hadn’t been seen yet, but Wu Zhong guessed 985 operatives were already en route and might even be forming a vague encirclement.
He didn’t dare linger. He chose a more isolated direction and dashed off.
This direction wasn’t where Xia Heng or Luo Yi and the others were.
“I can’t return to the initial battlefield. If I head there now, 985 will likely be waiting.”
“No need to worry about Xia Heng — he can teleport instantly. Luo Yi probably has his own ways. I’ve got De Biao with me. There’s no need to rendezvous now.”
“Forcing a meetup would only be a burden.”
Wu Zhong didn’t even retrace his steps to get Feipeng’s wooden staff; decisively, he sprinted into the deep mountains and forests with Yang Chunsha.
He kept his senses sharp, always attentive to surrounding sounds.
They ran until nightfall, the moon rising above the treetops. The forest was pitch black. After covering several hundred li, Wu Zhong finally stopped to rest.
It wasn’t that he was exhausted — Yang Chunsha had recovered consciousness.
“You okay now?”
“There wasn’t much to eat, just some wild bananas.”
“I tried one. They’re edible, in season now.”
Yang Chunsha took the wild banana, blinked and nervously touched her neck: “I dreamed I died.”
Wu Zhong comforted her: “That wasn’t a dream. You didn’t die.”
He then recounted how he turned the tide, saved her, and everything that happened afterward.
She was shocked by the story.
Yang Chunsha had always wanted a reliable backing. When she said she joined Infinite Summer’s team, it wasn’t just for survival.
On the way she had thought about running and escaping, but fear kept her from acting — she wasn’t sure if Infinite Summer’s group could be trusted.
Now, while some members might be unreliable, she felt Wu Zhong was genuinely dependable.
“Little… Brother Wu, you really are something.”
“It’s actually my first time fighting mercenary elites, but I feel even more like a rookie than you.”
Yang Chunsha admired him, thinking no wonder Infinite Summer valued him so much.
The Lion Grass Mercenary Group’s attack left Wu Zhong essentially fighting two at once, and those two weren’t small fries.
They weren’t world-famous, but among Silver-ranked mercenaries they were top-tier.
Back then Yang Chunsha wouldn’t have dared face such people.
She added, “Those two golden mercenaries act like slackers.”
“Act all calm and confident, but when faced with a tough enemy, neither can protect the other.”
Wu Zhong cut her off as she was getting carried away: “Alright, stop praising me. If Summer hadn’t made me the original Mad Blood Clan, I’d be dead for sure.”
He admitted that the most desperate moment was when he gambled his life. Before confirming he was originally Mad Blood Clan, facing Ya Bai had left him truly hopeless.
After learning he was original, his mindset changed. Although there were setbacks, nothing was as despairing as seeing Ya Bai’s heart shredded and then becoming stronger.
“De Biao, come, let me power you up a bit.” Wu Zhong waved his hand. Crackling air, he explained the original Mad Blood Clan mechanism to Yang Chunsha.
He had held back earlier on the road for fear she might die suddenly. Now that she was okay, he intended to boost her body attributes.
“Here!” Yang Chunsha readily extended her arm and even bit her skin.
Wu Zhong lightly touched the blood, quickly absorbing her hallucinatory-type psychosis, and then re-applied the Embrace to give her insomnia.
With a buzz, Wu Zhong felt invigorated, his stamina replenished — it felt like over-treatment.
Again and again he repeated the absorption and Embrace. Yang Chunsha didn’t feel much, but Wu Zhong sometimes felt ecstatic, sometimes every sinew and bone cried out as his physique surged.
Ten times, eleven times, twelve times… repeat, again: thirteen, fourteen… repeat, repeat…
Wu Zhong kept using Embrace to level up. The more it progressed, the more repetitions occurred and fewer new effects surfaced.
No matter — a few more rounds would do; it was pure profit.
After several minutes his physical attributes reached twenty times that of a normal person!
Twenty times! Ridiculous power. With one punch he snapped a tree.
Wood chips flew far like sharp projectiles, embedding in other trunks.
He jumped and kicked, even more absurdly, splitting a tree that two people could hug in half.
Yang Chunsha shrank back in awe; it looked like an explosion.
“Twenty times? Without the arm armor, your punch force should exceed three tons, and your leg strength near five tons — basically a humanoid heavy weapon!”
“As for running speed, it’s not linear, but you should at least reach 21 meters per second, a 100-meter time of 4.7 seconds.”
Wu Zhong nodded, picked up a stone and crushed it single-handedly to powder.
He touched his body: “My organs are stronger too. Immunity and recovery are notably better.”
“This kind of super physiology should be nearly immune to toxins and disease, with extreme endurance.”
Yang Chunsha looked on enviously: “Can you keep improving?”
Wu Zhong wanted to continue, but after a few more minutes of repeated treatment, only redundant healing occurred.
“Seems I can’t improve further. Are there only so few types of mental illness?” Wu Zhong wondered.
But this was already plenty. The sensation of power was intoxicating.
He felt that if he fought again, he could finish Feipeng and Ya Bai without taking a scratch…
“Try jumping.”
He performed a vertical leap and cleared ten meters off the ground — enough to reach the height of a four-story building.
“Try full force…” Wu Zhong murmured, squatted, muscles taut.
Boom!
Earth and stones exploded under his feet, and he shot into the air like a shell.
But a sharp pain hit him; his head buzzed and he blacked out for a moment, only regaining consciousness as he fell.
Thud. He landed steadily, clutching his head, feeling numb.
“What happened? How did you jump yourself dizzy?” Yang Chunsha asked, surprised.
Wu Zhong stood and felt pressure on every organ, bone, down to each cell. But it passed in an instant, leaving only numbness.
“I felt a buzzing in my head… a sudden intense pain and a moment of fainting.”
Yang Chunsha blinked: “Huh? You fainted from the jump?”
“You just jumped as high as ten floors… I know — that instantaneous burst put too much acceleration on you; the brain was overloaded.”
Wu Zhong looked stunned: “What? Acceleration overload? I have twentyfold physique; shouldn’t I have matching tolerance?”
“It’s just acceleration — why wouldn’t you handle it?”
Yang Chunsha tilted her head: “You did handle it. If you hadn’t you’d be dead. The fact is you only got dizzy and recovered, which actually proves your body can endure the acceleration.”
“But you still fainted.”
“Because the Mad Blood Clan trait strengthens your body out of thin air; it doesn’t change your anatomical structure or material composition.”
“You know how absolute traits work — they apply something onto you regardless of consequences, and they don’t care whether there are side effects.”
“Your blood is still human blood, not some deep-sea acceleration fluid…”
Wu Zhong’s mouth twitched: “Right, that’s the absolute trait.”
Physique was granted by the trait, but he wasn’t a biologically different organism. He was still human, just abnormal — hence bursting acceleration could make him dizzy.
From a systems perspective, having multiversal energy that came with matching natural laws would be better.
Wu Zhong tried a few more jumps and finally determined that in combat his optimal maximum jump height was 17 meters.
…