18: Chapter 18 The Solitary Man

Chapter 18: The Aloof (Please Keep Reading)

Sunday morning, November 29th.

The rain was falling even harder than last night, showing signs of turning into a downpour.

As dawn broke, the entire city seemed shrouded in a layer of gray mist.

The old houses on Jiuchang Street had an especially wet, half-hidden sense of secrecy.

Downstairs, white smoke curled up from the breakfast stall, which had already opened for business.

A man sat at a plastic table under the rain canopy, gulping down meat buns with soy milk.

In the distance, one could vaguely see a small hotel that stayed open all night, its red sign having just been turned off.

Two young women in short skirts wrapped in fur stood under the eaves with weary faces, smoking to pass the time.

Some were waiting for the rain to stop, while others were admiring the rain in the storm.

Fang Cheng glanced at the street scene outside.

Then he closed the window to keep the splattering raindrops from wetting the floor.

In the past, he really liked the rain.

Rainy days were great days to stay at home.

The rain could also wash away many worries and noise, letting one enjoy a moment of tranquility.

But right now, he truly hoped this damn weather would stop soon.

Because it was severely delaying his level grinding.

Waking up early in the morning, Fang Cheng carried out his daily training as usual.

First, he did some stretching and leg pressing, then practiced Shadow Boxing as a warm-up.

Many top boxers had this habit.

For Fang Cheng,

Shadow Boxing not only gained experience but also maintained his rhythm and feel, allowing him to enter a combat state at any time.

After finishing Boxing,

next, Fang Cheng reviewed the Sanda Kicking Techniques he had just learned yesterday.

After all the warm-up exercises were finished, it was time for his usual physical training.

According to his training plan, which had been adjusted many times,

Fang Cheng now needed to complete 60 Tiger-bend Push-ups, 60 Jackknife Push-ups, 180 Single-leg Half Squats, and 300 Flat Straight Leg Raises every day.

The Push-up was known as the "king of fitness," mainly training upper body strength, with various advanced postures having their own advantages.

Among them, the "Tiger-bend Push-up" focused on training the deltoids and triceps.

The "Jackknife Push-up" trained the upper body while helping to build body control for practicing Handstand Push-ups in the future.

The Squat was known as the "men's refueling station," mainly training lower body strength and the waist-glute core muscle groups.

The Single-leg Half Squat was a stepping stone to challenging the full single-leg Squat, and its difficulty was nearly double that of close-stance Squats.

Leg Raises belonged to the "abs shredder" category, focusing on training the rectus abdominis while stretching smaller muscle groups in the legs and hips along the way.

Flat Straight Leg Raises were considered a standard posture of intermediate difficulty.

The four fitness exercises had different focuses.

Grouping and combining exercises like this prevented the same muscle group from remaining activated for too long, which would lead to over-fatigue.

Furthermore, after completing each set, Fang Cheng would rest for about 3 minutes, doing some relaxation and massage exercises to dispel the lactic acid produced in his muscles in a timely manner.

This guaranteed his physical recovery speed and workout efficiency, allowing him to stick to his daily training as scheduled every day.

Convict Conditioning itself was a systematic training method aligned with scientific principles.

When the Prisoners Six Arts reached their peak, they could train almost every muscle in the body.

There was simply no need to go to a gym to buy expensive personal trainer courses or use those dazzling auxiliary equipment.

Training to this day, Fang Cheng had accumulated enough experience.

This level of exercise volume was neither too high nor too low; he could basically overachieve it within two hours.

However, today, he unexpectedly encountered a setback.

The cooldown for Potential Activation had already ended.

As usual, Fang Cheng should have continued to challenge his physical limits and unlock Pull-ups, the fourth art of the Prisoners Six Arts.

But the terrible weather and real-world conditions forced him to interrupt his plan.

The book "Convict Conditioning" described how prisoners used all crude conditions in prison to work out.

For example, one could rely on the iron bars of the cell door to practice Pull-ups.

A normal person staying at home, ironically, didn't have such conditions.

Fang Cheng had tried gripping the narrow upper ledge of the door frame to practice, but ultimately chose to give up.

Pull-ups required a very high degree of standard posture.

If a beginner rashly attempted high difficulty, not only was the workout effect poor, but it was also easy to hurt oneself, leading to muscle strains, joint wear, or even issues with the cervical spine and lower back.

The philosophy of Convict Conditioning was step-by-step progression, unlocking the body's potential in the simplest way rather than intentionally tormenting oneself.

Besides, Fang Cheng's main purpose was to unlock the skill slots on the panel.

"If the weather were better, I could go to a nearby park. There are Pull-up bars and parallel bars there..."

Seeing the rain getting heavier with no sign of stopping,

Fang Cheng cast his gaze toward the panel to check the progress displays of other skills.

[Leg Raise Lv. 0 (55/100)]

There was still a lot of experience needed to level up.

Because his abdominal muscles were relatively weak, the efficiency of training Leg Raises was slightly lower than Squats and Push-ups.

After passing the halfway point of the progress bar, doing an average of 20 reps gained 1 point of experience.

He needed to do over 300 a day just to barely keep up with the leveling speed of other skills.

Even with the help of Potential Activation to restore his stamina to full, there was no way Fang Cheng could perform over a thousand Leg Raises in a row.

Of course, he could choose higher-difficulty exercise options to increase workout efficiency.

But the advanced "Hanging Leg Raise," like Pull-ups, also required a Pull-up bar to perform an effective, standard movement.

Fang Cheng looked at another skill.

[Squat Lv. 0 (93/100)]

Read the original content here!

The progress bar was only 7 points of experience away from Perfection and an imminent Breakthrough.

It was roughly a difference of doing 65 to 75 more Single-leg Half Squats.

He turned his head and glanced at the clock hands.

6:41.

It was still early, and his body was well-rested.

Fang Cheng focused his eyes again and quickly made a decision.

"Although it's a bit of a waste..."

"Today, let's level up the Squat first!"

The wonder of Potential Activation lay in its effect of having two health bars, capable of dispelling muscle fatigue and minor exercise injuries in a short time.

If not for challenging limits and speeding up skill unlock progress,

in daily training, high-frequency, low-repetition set training was actually more suitable for practicing skills and gaining experience.

Barefoot on the floor, Fang Cheng extended his left leg straight out off the ground.

He also extended both hands forward at the same time to help his body maintain balance.

This movement was called a "Single-leg Half Squat," which, as the name implied, was doing a single-leg Squat only halfway down.

For ordinary people, the difficulty was very high; it tested body balance and required sufficient explosive power in the muscles of the thighs, waist, and abdomen.

Fang Cheng tightened his waist and abdomen, slowly bending his knee to Squat.

Until his body descended so his right thigh was parallel to the ground, with his right knee joint at a 90° angle, and then he stood back up.

After completing 1 set, he rested for about 3 minutes.

Then he switched to his left leg as the supporting leg and continued repeating the exercise.

[You completed 9 Single-leg Half Squats, Experience +1]

[You completed 9 Single-leg Half Squats, Experience +1]

[You completed 10 Single-leg Half Squats, Experience +1]

...

[You completed 12 Single-leg Half Squats, Experience +1]

About half an hour later.

As Fang Cheng expected, when he did the 72nd Squat,

the panel flashed brightly, and a prompt message immediately floated up before his eyes.

[Congratulations! Through unremitting effort, your skill has reached Expert level.]

[Squat Lv. 1 (0/250)]

"Phew—"

Fang Cheng exhaled a long breath, already starting to feel his legs aching and numb, growing heavier and heavier.

Today's exercise volume was indeed somewhat excessive.

Without sufficient physical therapy and recovery conditions, recovering afterward would take at least one or two days, which would inevitably mess up his daily training plan directly.

Fortunately, Fang Cheng had the divine skill Potential Activation!

He just needed to grit his teeth and do another twenty or thirty in one breath, and he would be revived at full health, enjoying the top-tier service of a gold-medal technician.

As Fang Cheng gritted his teeth and persevered, he split his attention to check the rewards gained from this level up.

[Enhancement 1: 6 Free Attribute Points]

"Similar to Boxing, there are two choices..."

Fang Cheng nodded with satisfaction.

But as his expectant gaze shifted downward, he froze instantly, and his Squatting movement ground to a halt.

[Enhancement 2: 1 Strength Attribute Point, Skill Effect "The Aloof"]

[Note: Sustained Squat practice causes abnormal testosterone secretion. During the effective duration, male stamina and the recovery capability of skeletal and muscle tissues can reach up to more than three times the Physique attribute.]

Looking at the enhancement options provided by the panel,

Fang Cheng could not help falling into deep thought.