Chapter 129: Saying Goodbye to Sun Miao, Parameters Soar, Mutual Astonishment

In the gym, Ren Zhong, clad in a fifty-kilogram weighted training suit, sprinted flat-out on the treadmill. He had dialed the speed up to the maximum, and his legs moved like spinning wheels of fire.

Sun Miao stood to the side, gazing intently at the holographic human body projection.

Sensors were scanning and reading Ren Zhong's physical parameters from all angles.

Three hours later, Ren Zhong began his frantic feast once again.

This time, it consisted of over a dozen hearty dishes ordered via the Delicacy Express and enough rice to feed seven people.

Sun Miao shook his head. "It seems you really aren't going to experience any pain response at all. Sigh."

"What do you mean by that look of disappointment, Brother Sun? Were you hoping the pain would kill me?"

"Ha, not quite that. I just can't wrap my head around it, that's all."

Ren Zhong patted Sun Miao's shoulder with a solemn expression. "Brother Sun, there are plenty of things in life that make no sense. Who can figure everything out instantly? Taking it one step at a time is the only sensible way."

"True enough."

Sun Miao pondered for a long time. In truth, Ren Zhong had pondered for a long time too, yet still, no one knew why it had turned out this way.

Ren Zhong suspected his anomaly was related to the regular icosahedron structure within the atoms.

Much like the lethal dose of a medicine, if the proportion of the regular icosahedron inside oneself did not exceed a certain threshold, it could not form a resonant reaction, failing to transmit the pain-nerve signals recognizable by the human body. This resulted in no obvious physical reaction when the injection took effect.

However, this was not Sun Miao's field of expertise. Even if he explained it, Sun Miao—a man focused on practicing biological pseudoscience—would not understand, and it would only needlessly increase risks, so he kept it to himself.

Sun Miao observed him for another two hours. Convinced that Ren Zhong truly had zero issues, he stood up, packed his things, and said, "Since you really are fine, I can finally head back with a clear mind."

Ren Zhong looked at him. "Brother Sun, was that a pun?"

"You bastard can interpret it however you like. From here on out, let's not meet again."

"Mm, I understand."

Sun Miao said, "Take this. I won't have any use for it anymore."

Sun Miao pulled a small glass vial from his case. It was precisely the glowing green fluorescent injection he had prepared in the heat of the moment when he was ready to fight Ren Zhong to the death, and had nearly stuck into his own arm.

"Thanks, Brother Sun. Under what circumstances should I use this?"

"When you're ready to die."

"Is it expensive?"

A look of physical pain crossed Sun Miao's face. "Give it back to me!"

"Brother Sun, when you throw a meat bun at a dog, it's never coming back, right?"

"Damn it."

"Thank you for everything, all this time. You really are a good person, Brother Sun. To be honest, looking back, I haven't helped you all that much, but I've constantly been in your debt. You've truly treated me well."

"You cheeky bastard really have no shame. I actually thought you were heartless. I don't know what kind of grave sins I committed in the first half of my life to have run into you. Alright, I'm off."

Sun Miao slung the medical kit over his shoulder, hoisted it with a single strap, pivoted abruptly, and strode toward the door.

After taking two steps, his body staggered slightly. His right hand instinctively clutched his abdomen, a ferocious and painful expression flashed across his profile, and two beads of cold sweat dripped from his temples.

Yet, almost immediately, he straightened his spine once more, his expression returning to normal.

Then, without looking back, he pushed open the door and stepped out.

Ren Zhong walked to the window, parted the curtains slightly, and watched that slender figure striding out of the small courtyard.

At this moment, Sun Miao still looked lean, but his retreating figure appeared so grand.

His pace was not fast, yet it was filled with such resolute determination.

Ren Zhong wasn't entirely certain what kind of enemy Sun Miao intended to challenge.

Presumably, it must be a great dream no less formidable than his own, one sufficient to muster his courage to return to a place filled with nightmares and prepare to lay down his life for it.

A true warrior dares to face a bleak life and confront flowing blood.

A faint illusion arose in Ren Zhong's mind: Sun Miao seemed intent on using his crumbling, frail shoulders to smash against a suffocating mountain.

Ren Zhong murmured inwardly, *Take care.*

Sun Miao had indeed been speaking in puns.

If Sun Miao had never crossed paths with him, he would never have contracted late-stage cancer cells. He might have continued living happily as a cultured, easygoing quack running a unique business in Spark Town, peacefully living out the rest of his days.

Yet Ren Zhong's appearance had altered his destiny.

An arrow drawn from a bow cannot be called back; now, Sun Miao had made his choice.

*Rumble...*

Ren Zhong's stomach began to roar and growl again.

Fortunately, the second batch of high-absorption nutritional meals, dispatched via drone express by Ju Qingmeng, arrived right on schedule.

Eat! Feed me! Eat heartily!

Tonight, Ju Qingmeng returned home at nine-forty-five. Exhausted from his training, Ren Zhong had already fallen fast asleep in the master bedroom's large bed more than an hour earlier.

Ten minutes later, Ju Qingmeng also entered the virtual reality training grounds. Ren Zhong had already been practicing alone for over an hour.

At a single glance, Ju Qingmeng caught on to the development.

Ren Zhong had advanced to Level 3.

It was still the same overly demanding equipment configuration designed previously, still hampered by amplifier latency, and he was still facing massive hordes of Level 3 ruins beasts. Yet his maneuvers had become vastly more relaxed. In particular, his timely reactions to sudden sneak attacks from outside his field of vision—including behind, above, below, and from the ground and air—showed a qualitative leap.

When launching attacks, he no longer relied solely on experiential judgment, doggedly aiming only at certain fixed weaknesses of the ruins beasts as he used to.

Now, he was already capable of capturing newly generated weaknesses arising during the combat process.

For instance, certain joints of ruins beasts would exhibit overheating and embrittlement phenomena after being repeatedly bent and folded.

Or perhaps Ren Zhong would swing his dual pistols to strike parts of a ruins beast's hard armor that were not originally weaknesses, leaving minor cracks behind that served as breakthrough points to further breach their defenses.

The aforementioned phenomena did not count as weaknesses when a skirmish first began, but as the slaughter deepened, a hunter could exploit them.

Identifying new weaknesses with the naked eye alone was extremely difficult; after all, the battlefield changed in a fraction of a second, and the sheer volume of information was overwhelmingly complex. However, the visual resonance information boost from the Level 3 helmet solved this very predicament.

Clearly, Ren Zhong, who had just completed his advancement, had perfectly mastered the new skill of visual resonance.

Ju Qingmeng waited a few more minutes before Ren Zhong, down below in the training ground, finally had his armor energy depleted, causing him to be swamped and torn apart by the swarming Level 3 ruins beasts.

***

Ren Zhong's figure re-aggregated, appearing beside Ju Qingmeng.

"How long did you hold out this time?"

"From eight in the evening until right now. It feels like if the armor energy limits and physical decline settings were canceled, I could keep killing forever, slaying until the end of time and creation."

Ju Qingmeng shook her head. "That's no good either. Mental exhaustion is exhaustion just the same."

"Mm."

"What are your parameters now? How much have they increased? Do you need to go to the mall to measure the exact values?"

Ren Zhong shook his head. "The parameter changes are too violent. Measuring exact values before they stabilize is pointless. This morning, before the injection, I measured them with a portable device. The load-bearing power was 242.2 kilowatts, the neural reaction index was 385.2, and the comprehensive physical index was 242.2. But now... past nine o'clock, I read them again. Those three figures have become 350.1 kilowatts, 412.4, and 350.1 respectively."

Ju Qingmeng calculated mentally and was utterly shocked. "If that's the case, your average daily increase in load-bearing power and physical index is as high as over two hundred and ten? After the other two indices caught up, your neural reaction index increased by over a hundred as well?"

Ren Zhong answered, "Yes. Also, I didn't measure the neural-machine synchronization rate, so I'm not entirely sure."

"Sun Miao has talked about how other people react to Star-Source Fluid injections. The enhancement cycle generally lasts anywhere from three to four days up to seven days. The average daily increase ranges roughly from thirty or forty to seventy or eighty. What kind of ghost-like increase is this for you! Besides, I feel like you don't even need to test your neural-machine synchronization rate—truly, it's bound to be 39.99%. Once you finish digesting the potency, will all three of your indices surpass 1000, skipping two tiers to directly promote to Level 4?"

"I can't even bear to watch anymore! Are you even human? Suddenly, I feel like compared to you, Sideris is utterly mediocre, and Ma Xiaoling is nothing special either. Lin望 can't even catch a glimpse of your taillights! You are simply a born warrior!"

"You spend so every day pondering design concepts for armor modifications and scheming all those plots—you're really putting the cart before the horse! As long as you don't rush and steadily improve for a few years, forget Spark Town; even looking across both Prairie County and Chongyi County, I doubt anyone could suppress you."

Ju Qingmeng had always fancied herself as knowing Ren Zhong's talent well enough; having seen it all, she had long since cultivated the "composure" of remaining expressionless even if mountains collapsed before her.

Yet right now, she still cracked, her mind buzzing with a dull hum.

Ren Zhong, who had been accustomed since childhood to all sorts of flattery from those around him, felt rather embarrassed by Ju Qingmeng's unreserved and heavy praise.

He could only scratch his head in modesty. "Actually, it doesn't feel like that much. I didn't put all that much thought into figuring those things out; I just did it casually. They were all obviously very simple, weren't they?"

"Uh..."

Ju Qingmeng's excited mood was instantly subjected to a metaphorical bone fracture.

She had a thousand words she wanted to retort, but she was left speechless by Ren Zhong's entirely nonchalant expression of, "This is obviously a trivial, everyday matter, why are you so astonished?"

After a long while, she waved her hand somewhat listlessly. "Forget it, forget it. Let's not talk about this anymore."

She was tired.

Mentally exhausted.

For reasons unknown, having once more confirmed Ren Zhong's astonishing talent, she became all the more certain that Ren Zhong would undoubtedly be able to take her along to break through the shackles of fate. Her mood ought to have been extremely agitated, yet her heart felt inexplicably and profoundly peaceful.

What was there to look forward to? With this guy growing so fierce, as long as he stayed alive, wasn't that the destined outcome?

"Hey? The expressions on you two lovebirds look a bit off. What were you chatting about just now? Did you have a fight?"

At that moment, Ma Xiaoling's mildly curious voice rang out before the two of them.

Judging by her tone, she seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood.

Seeing the two of them turn their faces away in opposite directions as if each lost in their own thoughts, Teacher Ma's soul of gossip ignited.

Ren Zhong deftly changed the subject, saying only, "Teacher Ma, you're several minutes late."

"Hey, don't sweat the small stuff. Don't you often run late too? Come, come, come, Stock God Ren, hurry up and start your training. My mentor's soul is burning."

Ren Zhong, however, didn't rush to move. Instead, he asked, "Teacher Ma, did you sneak into the market and buy stocks?"

Ma Xiaoling was greatly startled.

"How did you know?! I clearly hid it so well! Did my dad secretly betray me?"

Ren Zhong and Ju Qingmeng exchanged glances.

Ren Zhong pinched his lips to keep from laughing out loud. "Teacher Ma, you really did hide it well. I just asked casually—I didn't expect you actually bought them. Let me take a look at your trading record."

Since the other party was his major creditor and he wouldn't be able to pay off the debt anytime soon, Ren Zhong felt a twinge of guilt. He truly couldn't bear to watch Ma Xiaoling get duped into jumping into a fire pit and losing her entire dowry.

That would make his sins unforgivable.

Ma Xiaoling smiled somewhat sheepishly. "Then... please give me some critique, Teacher. I'm making a fool of myself."

Ren Zhong looked over the trading records of the stock account Ma Xiaoling shared with him, and a mere seven words echoed in his mind:

*Oh my god! Even this works?*

As it turned out, over the past two days, she had ultimately ignored his advice. Seemingly performing magic, she had scraped together around one hundred thousand and scattered it across quite a few small-cap stocks.

The number of stocks she held totaled over thirty.

In just two short days, the number of buy and sell transactions she executed reached over two hundred.

Among certain small caps, she had repeatedly bought and sold more than thirty times in a single day, frantically trading T-bills and day-trading with an obsession she couldn't shake.

This was the textbook path of a stock market novice paying tuition fees.

A newbie employing this operational methodology had a 99.8% probability of losing money.

However, Ma Xiaoling's overall win rate was over 80%.

In merely two days, her floating profit had already exceeded 70%, rivaling Stock God Ren's peak state when he played with small caps.

Ren Zhong swallowed hard and said, "Not bad. Tell me about your rationale."

Ma Xiaoling grew happy. "It's rare for you, Stock God Ren, to be willing to discuss stock theories with me first. Have you found your conscience? Look, I'll start with this particular stock..."

About twenty minutes later, Ren Zhong fell into a prolonged silence.

She genuinely hadn't bought blindly with her eyes closed; she had really applied that hindsight-based analysis methodology Ren Zhong had spouted nonsense about.

For almost every single stock, she could find a rational reason to enter the market.

Although these reasons were utterly absurd—such as a certain company's chairman just "liking" the official social media account of an inspirational movie, or a certain company's employee having just earned enough money to repay their debts...

To Ren Zhong, these reasons were pure hogwash.

Yet she believed them, convinced she had grasped the wealth code, and struck decisively—with absolute decisiveness.

The process didn't matter at all; the results were all that mattered.

Random punches beat the seasoned master; Ren Zhong wouldn't dare touch stocks anymore, yet she had actually made a profit.

This couldn't be summarized by the simple word "luck," especially since her sample size had already reached over two hundred trades.

Ren Zhong silently looked at her, beginning to doubt himself.

Was Ma Xiaoling truly a stock market prodigy who managed to conjure genuine internal energy out of the *Nine Yin Manual* he had randomly scribbled, or was his stock guide genuinely a peerless masterpiece?

Or else...

***

Wait, let me take another look.

Ren Zhong traced Ma Xiaoling's account back to the stock index interface.

Fine, the market conditions were just a bit too good; although there was no explosive surge, the index was steadily climbing.

Seeing Ren Zhong's expression shift through myriad changes while remaining silent for ages, Ma Xiaoling asked nervously, "Stock God Ren, is there a problem with my method?"

Ren Zhong's mouth twitched. "Not bad, I suppose. It possesses about one-third of my power. Keep up the good work. However, this habit of yours of staying heavily invested for the long term isn't good either. Pick an appropriate time to trim your positions; after all, floating profits aren't real gains, and money is only truly yours once it's in your pocket."

"Huh? Are you hinting that there's risk coming up? Alright, I'll listen to you."

*Slap!*

Ma Xiaoling tapped the one-click liquidation button.

Ren Zhong's mouth twitched again.

*I said trim your positions, not clear them out!*

Such a reckless brute!

At 3:50 AM, the five-hour training session came to an end.

Ma Xiaoling's mouth hung wide open as she stared at Ren Zhong with an incredulous expression, thinking to herself:

*"What's going on? How did this guy reach Level 3? There's no reason for it! Could it be he took a Star-Source Fluid injection? That makes even less sense!"*

Ren Zhong also gazed at Ma Xiaoling with equal astonishment.

Earlier, using his own empty account, he had taken another glance at the stock market.

About two hours ago, the stock index had turned from red to green, initiating a small downward correction.

Ma Xiaoling's previous reckless one-click liquidation operation had turned into a textbook-perfect profit-taking move, blowing his mind.

The two of them stared at each other once more, simultaneously thinking: *What on earth is going on here?!*

Ma Xiaoling demanded, "Confess, Ren Zhong, did you take a Star-Source Fluid injection?"

Ren Zhong spread his hands. "No, what are you imagining?"

Ma Xiaoling said, "I figured you didn't. You couldn't possibly get your hands on that stuff. But what's going on with these parameters? I also heard you were injured—and that it was psychological trauma?"

Ren Zhong offered, "Maybe that impact from the dream-weaver worm opened up my Governor and Conception meridians?"

"What are the Governor and Conception meridians?"

Ren Zhong countered, "Why don't you check your stocks again?"

Ma Xiaoling shrieked aloud, "They really dropped! Oh my god! Stock God is awesome!"

Ren Zhong gave a light cough. "Still want to learn?"

"Yes!"

"Then please keep it a secret for me—you must keep it a secret. My parameters skyrocketing cannot see the light of day for now."

Ma Xiaoling nodded. "Fair enough. For you to surge like this without taking a Star-Source Fluid injection means your talent is truly too terrifying. And since you're a wastelander, it's very easy to provoke untoward trouble."

"Mm, thanks."

This nightly special training safely landed amidst all sorts of shocks.

At 4:00 AM, the breeze-heavy truck once again hurtled straight toward the abandoned mine pit.

***

At 6:00 PM, Lin Wang and Bei Lihui paid another visit to Ju Qingmeng's villa.

"Manager Ju, how is Ren Zhong doing?"

"Lin Wang, go upstairs and see for yourself."

Lin Wang stood beside the bed, frowning as he gazed for a long time at Ren Zhong, whose face was pale as paper, eye sockets deeply sunken, and cheekbones protruding.

At this moment, Ren Zhong was covered in all sorts of micro-electrical stimulation patches, seemingly caught in a state halfway between coma and consciousness. He twitched from time to time, drenched in cold sweat, soaking a large patch of the sheets and quilt.

"Manager Ju, what are these patches?"

Ju Qingmeng sighed, biting her lips tightly. "Sun Miao suggested I put these micro-electrical stimulators on him to keep his muscles and meridians contracting on their own, so as to prevent muscular atrophy from being in a coma for too long."

In truth, the real purpose of these items was high-efficiency training.

Ren Zhong felt that wasting sleeping hours was a terrible pity, so he might as well use external stimuli to keep himself in a state of high-frequency muscle tension and relaxation even while hypnotized. Although the effect was inferior to normal exercise, it would at least accelerate the digestion of the drug's potency.

Lin Wang sighed again. "Is that so? Sigh."

Bei Lihui, whose face was equally dark, chimed in from the side, "I really hope he wakes up soon and lends a hand. Damn it, over the past two days, we've barely been able to complete the basic hunting quotas assigned by President Yang. Crap."

Though Ju Qingmeng maintained her persona of anger, she couldn't resist probing.

With a gloomy face, she sneered, "Oh, what's wrong? Isn't Team Leader Lin the strongest professional team leader in Spark Town? How can you fail to even complete the basic quotas? Tsk tsk, since Ren Zhong is so important to you guys, why didn't you protect him properly in the first place?"

Lin Wang's expression stiffened, but since it wouldn't do to lash out at Ju Qingmeng, he could only say, "Manager Ju, you don't understand. For two days running, I've headed into the abandoned mine pit along the classic hunting route I scouted out, only to come up empty-handed. There are signs of battle at the scene; my ruins beasts have already been poached by someone else."

Ju Qingmeng said with feigned "surprise," "You don't say? Didn't you professional teams all informally divide up the hunting zones in the abandoned mine pit?"

Lin Wang nodded. "That's why I suspect someone is deliberately targeting me. I'm afraid some people see that my team has suffered heavy casualties lately and have gotten restless ideas again, becoming unsettled. Alright, that's it for today. Sorry to trouble Manager Ju with taking care of my team member. Ren Zhong really... is sincere about you. Your citizen's view on love really is different from ours. We're leaving."

Once Lin and Bei departed, Ren Zhong and Ju Qingmeng shared a hearty chuckle for a long time.

Ju Qingmeng said, "Stop laughing already! You're spilling the nutrient paste! Are you really that happy? Isn't this all within your expectations?"

"Hey, no, it's not just that reason. Ah, I can't explain it all at once."

The exact same plotline, but with different victims.

The plight Zheng Tian and the others had once suffered was now manifesting in Lin Wang in an even more extreme fashion; how could he not be happy?

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