228: Chapter 228 Naming the Fourth World - The World of Demons and Martial Arts

Jiang Wanting's matters were handed over to the security department and the counter-espionage department to handle.

Su Mingyuan finished signing the last approval document, put down his pen, and stretched his wrists a couple of times.

The encrypted phone on the desk rang once, which was a receipt from the counter-espionage department — the encryption software in Jiang Wanting's phone had been extracted, and the technical team was reverse-tracking the other party's communication node.

The sketch of the man in the gray jacket had also been pulled out and was being compared with the CIA's known peripheral agent database.

Su Mingyuan glanced at the receipt and tossed it aside.

This matter had nothing to do with him anymore. He was the chief person in charge of Otherworld development, not the counter-espionage director; professional matters should be left to professional people.

He opened the drawer, locked the document inside, and casually flipped through the crystal core production daily report of the Zombie World and the skyfall steel mining progress of the Giant World — the data were all rising, the first phase of the breeding plan had entered a stable output, and the monthly mining volume of skyfall steel had broken eight hundred tons.

Over on the Zerg World side, it was slightly delayed; the chemical defense troops' rotation cycle was too short, and hands were tight.

Three worlds, three lines running simultaneously.

He closed the last report and stood up.

Outside the window was the night view of Tianmen Base.

In the distance, the light of the four portals was reflected on the dome: blue, red, black, and the newest dazzling golden one.

Four beams of light rushed up from the ground, hitting the inner wall of the concrete dome poured after hollowing out the seven mountains, refracting a mottled halo.

The entire portal area was inside the mountains. From the outside, this was just a stretch of ordinary continuous mountain ranges.

Su Mingyuan stared at that golden light for a few seconds.

Fourth World.

Ever since the portal opened, this world had never had an official name; documents uniformly wrote it as "Fourth World".

But it was different from the previous three.

The Zombie World only had zombies, the Giant World only had giants, and the Zerg World only had zergs — a single species, a single threat.

The Fourth World had Yao Beasts, Martial Artists, a Spiritual Qi Cultivate System, cities, and civilization.

A single "Yao Beast" could not summarize it.

Su Mingyuan leaned against the window and thought for a while.

Yao Beasts were the biggest threat of that world, and Martial Artists were the backbone of the humans over there.

He picked up the phone and dialed the secretary: "Notify the administrative group. Starting tomorrow, all documents involving the Fourth World will be uniformly changed to use the official name — Yaowu World. The information System will be updated synchronously, and previous archives will be changed as well."

"Understood."

He hung up the phone and glanced at his watch.

Nine-forty.

He took his coat off the coat rack, went out, and walked toward the portal direction.

The night passage of Tianmen Base was quieter than during the day, but the transport fleet did not stop for twenty-four hours.

In the distance, car lights were lined up in strings, moving from the direction of the material warehouse toward the portal.

Passing through the area of the first three portals, he didn't stop.

In front of the blue portal, flatbed trucks escorting crystal cores were driving out; in front of the red portal, engineering fleets fully loaded with skyfall Ore were lined up; the black portal was the most deserted, with only a few chemical defense equipment vehicles on standby.

The golden portal was on the far east side, brighter than the other three.

Taking a deep breath, Su Mingyuan stepped inside.

The moment he passed through the portal, that familiar sense of comfort came again.

The on-duty officer trotted up to greet him and saluted: "Group Leader Su! Your accommodation has been arranged."

"Is the cafeteria still open?"

"It's open, our base's cafeteria is open twenty-four hours."

Su Mingyuan went to the cafeteria first to eat a bowl of noodles.

With bone broth as the base, chopped green onions and oil spots floated on top; the poached egg was fried a bit too old, with crispy edges and a soft center, and the yolk flowed out as soon as it was poked with a chopstick.

The noodles were chewy, the soup was a bit salty, but it was hot.

He slurped it all clean, leaving no soup behind.

After eating his fill, sleepiness followed.

The night in the Yaowu World was very quiet, and before long, Su Mingyuan fell fast asleep.

...

One week later.

Su Mingyuan discovered that there was a slight problem with himself.

To be precise, there was a problem with his body.

He sat in front of the office desk at the Forward Base, looking down at his hands.

His left hand, fingers spread open, then clenched into a fist.

His knuckles let out a crisp sound, crisper than before.

This hand felt different from a week ago when touched.

The muscle lines under the skin had hardened a bit, the calluses on the web of his hand hadn't changed, but the sense of strength of the entire hand had changed — like a towel wrung dry of moisture, tighter and more crisp.

Not just the hand.

Last night he continuously processed documents until three in the morning, only taking a nap in the middle for fifteen minutes. After waking up, his brain unexpectedly wasn't groggy.

Placed a week ago, staying up for two consecutive nights would give him a headache for half a day, his temples would throb, and the words on the documents would double.

Now there was none.

And his vision.

This morning he stood on the roof of the Command Center and glanced toward the eastern treeline.

Usually, he could only see a green outline; what specific tree species it was and what shape the leaves had were all blurred together.

Today, he actually saw the trunk texture of a large tree beside the treeline clearly.

Visually estimated distance was at least one kilometer.

He rubbed his eyes, thinking his vision was playing tricks on him, and looked again.

It wasn't a vision trick; he could indeed see it.

"Tao Zhe."

"Here."

Tao Zhe poked his head out from the next office.

"Have you felt like your body hasn't been quite right lately?"

Tao Zhe was stunned for a moment, thought for a few seconds: "There actually is. Moving experimental equipment the other two days, I usually had to move that box in two trips, but this time I lifted it up in one trip. At first, I thought the box had been changed. Later, when I weighed it, the weight hadn't changed."

"What else?"

"My sleep quality has improved. Insomnia used to be common, tossing and turning until two or three in the morning. This week here, as soon as my head hits the pillow I fall asleep, and I wake up in five or six hours while feeling quite spirited."

Su Mingyuan nodded. It was similar to his situation, but the magnitude seemed a bit smaller.

"Take me for a physical examination."

"Now?"

"Now."

The medical station of the Forward Base was equipped with a set of portable medical examination equipment, mainly used for routine health monitoring of stationed officers and soldiers.

Su Mingyuan and Tao Zhe did a full set one after another — blood pressure, heart rate, vital capacity, grip strength, reaction speed, vision, hearing.

When the data came out, the military doctor took the report and flipped through it twice, looking up at Su Mingyuan with a slightly odd expression.

"Group Leader Su, your data has changed quite a bit compared to the archives from two months ago."

"How much?"

The military doctor handed over the report.

Su Mingyuan turned to the comparison page.

The baseline data from a week ago and today's measurement results were listed side by side, with the magnitude of change marked after each item.

Grip strength: Increased by 12%.

Reaction speed: Increased by 8%.

Vital capacity: Increased by 11%.

Resting heart rate: Decreased by 6 beats/minute.

Vision: Left eye from 4.8 to 5.1, right eye from 4.9 to 5.2.

Comprehensive physical fitness assessment: Increased by about 10% compared to the baseline.

Su Mingyuan closed the report.

Ten percentage points, one week.

Without taking medicine, without training, without doing anything deliberate, just living in the Yaowu World for seven days, all physical indicators improved by an average of ten percentage points.

He glanced at Tao Zhe's report again.

Tao Zhe's improvement magnitude was between 5% and 7%, nearly half lower than his.

"The same environment, the same time, why do I have nearly twice as much as you?" Su Mingyuan asked.

Tao Zhe took the two reports, compared them for a few seconds, and pushed his glasses: "Individual differences. Soaking in Spiritual Qi, some people absorb more, some people absorb less. Just like sponges and stones soaking in water — different materials result in different water absorption amounts."

Hearing the metaphor of "sponges and stones", a thought flashed through Su Mingyuan's mind.

"What you said is... the same thing as the Root Bone that Zhao Hu mentioned?"

Tao Zhe's action of flipping through the report in his hand stopped.

The two of them looked at each other for a second.

"I'm making a phone call," Su Mingyuan said.