5: Chapter 5: A stunning debut, the entire audience fell silent.

Wang Pingan's fist rose slowly. The movement was very slow.

It was so slow that everyone in the classroom could clearly see the trajectory of his arm rising, and every tiny angle of his wrist's rotation.

In the eyes of the crowd, this did not look like gathering strength; it looked more like hesitation, a display of lacking confidence.

The muffled chuckles in the corner became a bit clearer.

"Look, he's already losing his nerve."

"No kidding. After just being 'comforted' by the teacher like that, I'd be losing my nerve too. Isn't this just a public execution?"

"I reckon hitting seventy or eighty kilograms would be decent; at least he'd count as a quasi-martial artist."

The homeroom teacher, Liu Jianguo, stood to the side, his brow furrowing imperceptibly. He felt a bit of regret in his heart.

Perhaps his words just now had been too blunt, hurting this student's self-esteem.

But then again, realizing the reality early was better than holding onto unrealistic fantasies and ending up battered and bruised on the single-plank bridge of the college entrance exam.

He was already prepared to offer a few words of encouragement to Wang Pingan once the test was over, no matter how poor the results were.

Li Moran, sitting in the front row, couldn't even be bothered to turn his head.

A guy who was a perennial bottom-feeder, a poor student who needed special "care" from the homeroom teacher, was simply not worth even a second of his attention.

He just tapped his fingertips against the desk, thinking about whether he could have used just a bit more strength in his own punch earlier, to push the data to one hundred and ninety kilograms and put a more perfect period at the beginning of his Grade 12 year.

In the entire classroom, only Wang Pingan knew how steady this punch of his was.

In his mind, the force-generating techniques of the "Federal Military Body Boxing" instilled by the system were like the most precise program, mobilizing every muscle and every sinew in his body.

Vital energy surged from the soles of his feet, spiraling up along his spine. His waist twisted, accelerating this force a second time. His shoulders sank, and his arm thrust out.

All the power, without a single shred of waste, gathered entirely at one point. The fist tip.

Amidst all the gazes of either sympathy or amusement, Wang Pingan's fist finally moved.

There was no whistling sound of breaking wind, nor any shocking aura. It just landed, plain and simple, right in the center of the strength-testing sandbag.

"Bang." A muffled thud. It wasn't loud, but it was so dull it made people's chests feel tight.

Everyone subconsciously looked at the electronic screen above the sandbag.

According to convention, the numbers would start jumping from 0, then stop at a two-digit number or one just over a hundred.

However, what happened in the next second overturned everyone's perception. The numbers on the display screen went crazy!

Hum! The numbers started from 0, without the slightest pause, and jumped straight to "100"!

"Not bad, it's over a hundred!" a classmate shouted subconsciously. But before his words finished, the numbers showed absolutely no sign of stopping!

120! 140! It was still jumping!

The noisy chatter in the classroom was suddenly cut short, as if gripped by an invisible giant hand.

Everyone's smiles froze on their faces. The few students who had just been chuckling now had mouths open wide enough to fit an egg, their eyes bulging round.

Liu Jianguo's eyebrows instantly shifted from a tight frown to being raised high; he adjusted his glasses, his body leaning forward involuntarily.

Li Moran, who had been facing away from the testing device, finally sensed the eerie atmosphere. He frowned and slowly turned his head.

Just in time. He saw that string of numbers, with an unstoppable momentum, shatter the range he had just been proud of. 180!

Hum— Finally, amidst the almost frozen breath of the entire class, that string of crazily jumping numbers finally slowed to a stop. 186 kilograms.

The classroom was so quiet that one could hear everyone's frantic heartbeats. Time seemed to have been pressed on the pause button at this moment.

186 kilograms! This number, like an invisible slap, struck hard against everyone's face. It stung with a burning pain.

What did this represent? It meant that Wang Pingan's punch strength had firmly stepped into the realm of the late Stage 1!

It meant that he was almost standing on the same level as the class top student, the school-famous genius Li Moran!

How is that possible? How the hell is that possible?!

A bottom-feeder who was stuck at 96 kilograms before the summer break, barely able to touch the threshold of a quasi-martial artist, a loser who had almost had his funeral after a car accident—how could he possibly hit a score of 186 kilograms after one summer vacation?

After a brief silence, there was an eruption of discussion like a volcano!

"It must be fake! The machine is definitely broken!"

"186 kilograms? What kind of joke is he making! How could he hit 186 kilograms?"

"Cheating! He must have cheated! Otherwise, he must have eaten some banned pill! Yes, that must be it!"

Sounds of questioning, jealousy, and incredulous roars instantly drowned the entire classroom. No one was willing to believe the fact before their eyes.

To admit Wang Pingan's strength was equivalent to admitting their own mediocrity and incompetence.

"Quiet!" Liu Jianguo roared, suppressing all the noise. But his own expression was no better than the students'.

Shock, bewilderment, disbelief. Various emotions flashed across his face alternately.

He rushed to the equipment in two or three steps, circling the testing device twice as if looking at some rare treasure. He reached out and patted the sandbag, then checked the cable connections at the back. No problem. Everything was normal.

He pulled up the backend data again, looking at the clearly recorded "186kg" peak value, as well as the smooth yet steep power output curve; his facial muscles couldn't help but twitch.

The curve was perfect. This meant that the force output of that punch just now was stable and concentrated—textbook-level force generation.

This was definitely not luck, much less a machine malfunction. He rubbed his eyes, looked again, and finally had to accept this outrageously absurd reality.

He turned his head abruptly and stared fixedly at Wang Pingan, his gaze as if he were meeting his own student for the first time.

"Wang Pingan... you..."

And the other focal point of the class, Li Moran, had an expression that was now ugly to the extreme.

The trademark faint smile of composure and superiority on his face had long since vanished without a trace. Replacing it was a cloud of gloom.

His lips were tightly pressed into a rigid straight line, his eyes sharp enough to seemingly cut open Wang Pingan's body to see what secrets were hidden inside.

For a long time, he had been the only sun. Everyone else could only be the stars and the moon setting him off. He was accustomed to being surrounded by stars, accustomed to this kind of absolute, gap-widening lead.

But now, an ant he had never taken notice of, a random passerby whose full name he couldn't even remember, had suddenly leaped up and stood at almost the same height as him!

This feeling made him extremely unhappy. This was no longer a challenge. This was a provocation! It was an insult to his reputation as a genius!

Facing the questioning of the whole class, the shock of the teacher, and the scrutiny and hostility from the genius, Wang Pingan, at the center of the storm, appeared exceptionally calm.

He withdrew his fist and gently shook his wrist, his joints emitting a series of faint cracking sounds. The feeling of this punch was even better than he had expected.

The proficient-level "Federal Military Body Boxing" was indeed awesome.

He raised his head, met Liu Jianguo's complex gaze, and revealed a somewhat shy smile, which formed a huge contrast with the punch he had just thrown.

"Teacher, I was lucky during the summer break. I luckily broke through while practicing at home."

"And my dad was guiding me on video to practice Federal Military Body Boxing the whole summer."

Lucky? Good luck? These few words, light as a feather, almost made quite a few people in the classroom vomit blood from anger.

You call this luck? Going from a quasi-Stage 1 bottom-feeder to a late Stage 1 in one leap—you call that good luck?

Then what about those of us who practice diligently and only gain a few points of vital energy in a whole summer? Are we children of heaven's condemnation?

Li Moran's fist clenched quietly under the desk. He could tell, this wasn't an explanation at all; this was adding fuel to the fire!

Liu Jianguo opened his mouth, but the words "Kid, don't joke with me" reached his lips and were swallowed back down.

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. No matter how bizarre the process was, the result was right before his eyes. A second good seed in the class capable of aiming for top universities had emerged—this was a huge piece of good news!

"Good... Good! Very good!"

"No wonder your strength is so great; it turns out your Federal Military Body Boxing broke through."

Liu Jianguo patted Wang Pingan's shoulder heavily; this time, the force in his hand was immeasurably greater than before. "It's good that you broke through! It's good that you broke through!"

The joy on his face was overflowing. "Since your strength has broken through, you must perform well in the subsequent tests!"

"Yes, teacher." Wang Pingan nodded.

In the subsequent speed test and reaction test, Wang Pingan didn't hold back anymore. He stably performed at the level of an early Stage 1.

Every time a test result came out, it drew a muffled gasp in the class, and it also made Li Moran's expression one degree uglier.

When all the mock exam projects were finished, Wang Pingan's total score ranked fifth in the class. This result completely confirmed his "early Stage 1" strength and shattered all talk of "machine malfunction" or "luck." Facts were facts. They could not be refuted.

With the mock exam over, Wang Pingan undoubtedly became the biggest news of the day for the entire Grade 12 (Class 7), and even the entire Shencheng No. 1 High School. The former bottom-feeder, returning from the summer break, had staged a comeback as a dark horse. This topic was enough for everyone to discuss for a week.

On the way home from school, Wang Pingan could feel gazes from all directions, mixed with curiosity, jealousy, and inquiry. But he didn't care at all. He walked quickly back home, closed the door, and shut out all the clamor.

He impatiently pulled up his system panel. Showing off so much at school today was fun, sure. But he also clearly realized that there was still a gap between him and Li Moran. That 188 kilograms was definitely not Li Moran's limit. And his own 186 kilograms was already the best score he could currently achieve.

He must become stronger faster! He looked at the very bottom of the system panel. There, a glaring number was lying quietly. [pay-to-win points: 0]

Wang Pingan leaned back on the sofa and let out a long breath. The feeling of becoming stronger was too addictive. Once experienced, there was no going back. But... where would the money come from?