537: Chapter 537 Horrifying Grip Strength, The Real Spider-Man

The warm sunlight poured down, forming a translucent mirror layer on the glass.

Fang Cheng stood in front of the window, looking at his beast-like, muscular self in the reflection, sinking into deep thought.

First, Physique needs to be ruled out.

Although the blood tank effect brought by 80 points of Physique had benefited him immensely,

but according to previous speculations, the next major hurdle for the Physique attribute was probably at 100 points.

Even if all 15 free attribute points were added in, it would be at most 95 points, still unable to touch that so-called human limit barrier.

Under the rule of diminishing marginal returns, the gap in actual combat between having 15 extra points or 15 fewer points was actually not that big.

At least for now, there was no urgent reason to immediately invest in Physique.

Then, the remaining choice was between Strength and Agility.

Fang Cheng rubbed his chin, his gaze flickering slightly.

If all 15 points were all-in on Strength,

his Strength attribute would instantly surge to 85 points, directly breaking through the 80-point human limit barrier.

This meant that his most direct attack power would usher in a terrifying dimensional leap.

If that S-Rank assassin Ghost Sickle were to experience Rebirth right now and stand before him once again,

with 85 points of Strength, combined with the instant burst of Qilin Arm and Infinite Combo,

without needing to use any other trump cards, he could detonate all the clay bombs the opponent had prepared in advance during the initial encounter.

In just a single exchange, Ghost Sickle might be forced to cast the Infinite Explosion Domain, forcibly resisting the destructive power of his fists.

He might not even last long enough to grow wings and fly up into the sky before being beaten into a puddle of flesh and mud.

The temptation of this ultimate violence was simply too great.

But Fang Cheng quickly shook his head, forcibly suppressing the thought.

"No, the risk is too great."

A sudden surge in Strength was often accompanied by a drastic expansion of muscle dimensions and body size.

Given his current physical condition, if he were to forcibly push Strength above 80 points

without a matching high Agility to control and compress muscle density, the consequences would be unimaginable.

His height would probably instantly shoot up to nearly two meters, and his muscles would bulge like an inflated balloon, turning him into a Hulk-like super muscular monster.

In that case, let alone living a normal life with his family, even going out to buy groceries would attract crowds of onlookers and invite an investigation by the Special Investigation Team.

The disguise of an ordinary office worker that he had worked so hard to maintain would fall apart completely in minutes.

"According to past experience, the safest evolutionary route should be to raise Agility first..."

Fang Cheng furrowed his brows slightly, constantly weighing the pros and cons in his mind.

Only when the Agility attribute was high enough, and his neural reaction speed and control over every single muscle fiber reached the Realm of meticulous detail, could he forcibly compress those bulging muscles into a normal person's body shape while his Strength surged.

Which was the so-called "look thin in clothes, muscular without".

Furthermore, Fang Cheng always had an obsession in his heart that he couldn't let go of.

That was, relying on the power of his Physical Body to soar freely through the skies.

And right now, he was only short of 0.02 seconds of airtime to meet the conditions for unlocking the hidden skill and activating the Flight ability.

This seemingly insignificant gap had become an uncrossable chasm.

If he could push the Agility attribute to the 80-point major barrier, triggering a qualitative change in his bodily functions,

this mere 0.02 seconds definitely had hope of being achieved.

Once the true Flight skill was unlocked, it would not only make up for the final shortcoming on the capability level, but also allow him to seize more initiative in future battles.

If he couldn't beat them he could run, and whichever target he wanted to chase, whether flying in the sky or burrowing into the earth, no one could escape.

"Therefore, Agility is the optimal solution at present. However..."

When Fang Cheng's gaze fell back on the panel data, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but twitch.

"64 plus 15... equals 79."

It was precisely 1 point short of the coveted 80-point major barrier.

It was identical to the situation he encountered with the Physique attribute.

Within the panel's judgment mechanism, a mere step away was the difference between a Mortal and Transcendent as vast as heaven and earth.

Without breaking through that critical point, there would be no qualitative change effect, let alone expecting to improve his airtime capacity.

"This is quite awkward..."

Fang Cheng was quite speechless.

The current situation was like playing a game where the experience bar was stuck at 99.9%, which was simply driving one crazy.

If he didn't break through 80 points and directly added these 15 attribute points to Agility, the enhancement to combat power would also be very limited.

Especially under the current undercurrent-churning situation.

Noah, Utopia, or even the Special Investigation Team—danger from any side could descend at any time.

What he urgently needed was immediate growth in strength, not these good-looking numbers.

Adding to the Strength attribute would cause combat power to skyrocket and turn him into a monster.

Adding to the Agility attribute would maintain his human form, but he would still be stuck within the Bottleneck.

He might even drop the ball at a critical moment because of this slight gap.

Fang Cheng stared at the glowing number "15" on the panel, falling into a dilemma.

At this time, the sun outside the window had risen high into the sky.

The intense backlighting from the side acted like a sharp carving knife, refining the contours of his upper body to near perfection.

Every muscle fiber was filled with explosive power, and sweat slid down the undulating lines of his pectoral muscles, refracting a dazzling halo on his skin.

Fang Cheng thought quietly, looking at himself reflected in the glass.

This Physique had been polished to the extreme.

Relying solely on a pair of Iron Fists, he could go toe-to-toe with those so-called S-Rank ability users and even blast them into slag.

If it came to solo fights, there were actually very few beings left in this world who could threaten him.

Compared to stronger attack power, his current self should actually consider issues regarding mobility.

Instead of always relying on high health and high defense to brute-force through things like before.

No matter how powerful his Strength and defense were, facing those ability users who possessed strange arts and could kite from a distance, or encountering encirclements by multiple otherworldly experts and armies, he would still appear clumsy and struggle.

Therefore, unlocking the Flight ability and gaining all-terrain air supremacy should definitely be ranked as the top priority.

Furthermore...

Fang Cheng's gaze condensed, focusing once again on the skill list presented on the panel.

When his line of sight swept over Jiu-Jitsu and Qigong, he paused slightly.

The progress bars of these two skills had already exceeded 400 points, and upgrading was not far off.

By then, there was a high probability that he would also receive an attribute enhancement reward.

Although it might not be as much as this time, it would definitely be more than enough to make up for that missing 1 point of attribute.

"Since that's the case, there's no need to rush for a moment."

Fang Cheng calculated repeatedly and finally made a rational decision.

Store these 15 free attribute points for the time being.

If during this future period of Cultivate there were no sudden life-or-death crises, he would wait until the two skills successfully upgraded.

After obtaining the new attribute points, he would boost the Agility attribute in one go, directly breaking through the 80-point major barrier and perfectly unlocking the Flight ability.

If midway he unfortunately encountered a powerful enemy that was difficult to defeat...

then he would go all out and smash all these points into Strength, breaking through the 80-point limit barrier of Strength first!

Turning into the Hulk at that time would be troublesome and ruin his image, but by comparison, life was still the most important.

As long as one stayed alive, there would always be a way to change back.

As for the massive amount of food needed to replenish his body after its drastic mutation from stat allocation?

Fang Cheng's mouth curved slightly upward, revealing a row of white, chilling teeth.

Naturally, he would eat whatever was around him.

In front of the will of starving cells, even the terrifying and powerful crimson eye was nothing more than protein maintaining life's operation.

Having figured this out, Fang Cheng's state of mind suddenly cleared up, and he became relaxed all over again.

"Since the attribute points are already arranged, let's take a look at this second big gift package."

Fang Cheng reined in that fleeting murderous intent and continued to view the prompt information for the skill upgrade.

[Enhancement Reward Two: Under the command of the King-Rank, all previously mastered related skill special effects will receive a chance to be upgraded.]

His gaze flickered, turning instead to the skill bar interface on the light screen.

At this time, the two special effect descriptions behind the Pull-up skill unexpectedly showed new changes.

The original description was heavily rewritten, replaced by more intuitive and powerful data.

First was Absolute Control.

[Your control over the muscle strength of your hands and shoulders has reached an unbelievable degree. Without any preparatory actions, you can explosively increase your grip strength by 200% in an instant.]

[In addition, your climbing ability has been specialized, and the friction per unit area of contact between your fingertips and objects has increased by 3,000%.]

Fang Cheng raised his eyebrows slightly.

Grip strength increased from the original 150% to 200%?

Doesn't this mean that this pair of hands of his, which were already like hydraulic pliers, had taken their lethality to a new level?

To verify the specific enhancement effect, Fang Cheng walked to the corner and picked up a 30kg dumbbell from the rack, which was specially used for practicing arm strength.

The cold, hard touch of cast iron was clearly transmitted from the skin of his wrapped palms.

Fang Cheng took a deep breath, and his five fingers began to slowly tighten.

As strength was applied, the hard metal beneath his fingertips began to transmit slight feedback of deformation.

Even without using any skill special effects, along with the improvement of his basic attributes, his normal grip strength was already much stronger than before.

"Creak—"

The touch in his hand sank slightly.

Fang Cheng loosened his five fingers and observed carefully.

I saw that on the dumbbell's hard knurled grip bar, five clear fingerprints unexpectedly appeared.

Compared to the last test, this mark was obviously several shades deeper, with a depth of fully three or four millimeters.

But this was still not the limit.

Fang Cheng's gaze suddenly condensed, and he shouted in a low voice:

"Break!"

The next second, his tiger-like body shuddered slightly.

The broad latissimus dorsi on his back instantly opened like bat wings, and the muscle groups frantically wriggled and squeezed under a congested state, outlining a grim and weeping ghost face.

Following closely, the forearm muscle groups bulged violently, and the knotted muscle lines were like intertwined steel cables.

All the power of his entire body passed through the flexor muscle groups and synergistic muscle groups, instantly pumping into the palms like a high-pressure pump, converging on the five fingers.

A 200% grip strength burst poured out in an instant!

"Snap!"

A harsh explosion of metal breaking burst open in the room.

Fang Cheng felt the resistance in his hand suddenly loosen.

He spread his palms again and looked closely.

I saw that the middle part of the solid knurled cast iron grip bar had been severely twisted and deformed by the pinch.

At the intersection of the thumb and the other four fingers where the force was most concentrated, the metal structure could not bear the weight and actually cracked open several ferocious gaps.

The entire dumbbell grip bar, which was a full 20 millimeters thick, was almost sheared in half.

At the fracture, it unexpectedly presented the pale luster of metal after being violently torn.

"Hiss..."

Fang Cheng looked at the almost scrapped piece of iron in his hand, couldn't help drawing a sharp breath.

Last time he barely managed to pinch out fingerprints, but this time he actually snapped half of it off just like that?

If he accidentally shook hands with someone and didn't control his strength slightly, I'm afraid the other person's hand bones would instantly turn into a pile of powder.

Of course, with such a massive enhancement range, besides the bonuses from the Absolute Control and Demon Back skill special effects, there should also be the reason that his base Strength attribute had broken through to 70 points.

"It seems that the enhancement of the Agility attribute is indeed very important."

Fang Cheng exclaimed with emotion, putting the scrapped dumbbell back on the rack.

At the same time, he secretly warned himself in his heart.

While this kind of destructive power was fascinating, if there wasn't enough control to harness it,

his self in daily life would be like an unconstrained beast, very easily harming relatives and friends around him.

Calming his mood slightly, Fang Cheng shifted his attention to the second data change.

"Friction from 1,000% to 3,000%..."

Compared to the change in grip strength earlier, the enhancement magnitude of this value could simply be called terrifying.

If the enhancement of grip strength was still within the Realm of biology,

then the skyrocketing of this data was simply rubbing natural rules against the ground.

Fang Cheng's eyes lit up, raising his head to look at the wall painted with latex paint.

Then he stepped closer, extended his right hand, spread his five fingers, and pressed them directly onto the smooth wall surface.

"Sizzle—"

As soon as his fingertips made contact, a sticky feeling several times stronger than before instantly transmitted from his nerve endings.

Through introspection, Fang Cheng could clearly perceive that countless nanoscale setae had unexpectedly grown on his fingertips.

Compared to before, these setae had become denser and thicker, resembling countless hook locks, latching onto the tiny pores in the wall that were invisible to the naked eye.

In this tactile feedback, the originally smooth-as-a-mirror latex paint wall seemed to have secreted superglue, firmly adsorbing with his fingers.

"This is somewhat interesting..."

Fang Cheng lowered his head to look at his palms, squeezed his five fingers, making a cracking explosion sound, and then placed them on the wall again.

This time, he didn't do a run-up or borrow momentum like last time.

He just pressed the wall firmly with one hand, then tentatively raised both feet, letting his body hang in the air.

A miracle happened.

The palm actually didn't slide down, and there wasn't even a trace of loosening.

He just hung on the vertical wall against all reason, relying solely on the static friction generated between one palm and the smooth wall surface.

"This is practically going to flip Newton's coffin lid!"

Fang Cheng felt this stable sense of support, deeply shocked in his heart.

A 3,000% coefficient of friction meant that as long as a little normal pressure was applied, he could obtain enough friction to support his entire body weight.

His current state was no different from a humanoid gecko.

Following closely, Fang Cheng exerted force from his waist and abdomen, trying to move on the wall.

His left hand reached out, pressing the upper wall surface, his right hand let go, alternating upwards.

The movement was relaxed and effortless, walking as if on flat ground.

With his playful mood greatly aroused, Fang Cheng aimed at the steel beam under the ceiling above his head, kicked off with both legs, and leaped up like a big bird.

"Thud!"

This time, he didn't even grab those protruding edges.

He simply pressed his palms against the bottom of the rough square steel tube, and then tenaciously clasped the metal surface with the fingers of both hands.

The whole person was thus incredibly "sucked" beneath the steel beam.

Of course, compared to the vertical wall, this upside-down posture with completely no force-bearing points was much more difficult.

After all, gravity was no longer trying to make him slide down, but rather stripping him directly from the steel beam.

This anti-gravity adsorption state could only be maintained for a very short time.

Fang Cheng had to rely on his core strength to continuously dart forward, using dynamic grip to offset the downward trend.

But no matter what, this could already be called a miracle.

Without grasping, without leverage points, purely relying on that perverted friction.

Fang Cheng was like a real spider, hanging upside down under the ceiling in the room, coming and going freely.

"Before even learning to fly, I've instead evolved into Spider-Man."

Fang Cheng hung in mid-air, feeling this unhurried sense of control, a satisfied smile curving the corner of his mouth.