538: Chapter 538 New Charged Ejection, Half-Step Flight

Chapter 538: New Charged Ejection, Half-step Flight

Sunlight poured down through the floor-to-ceiling windows, spilling unreservedly onto the light blue sports flooring inside the room.

Amidst the diffuse reflection of the strong light, the entire room seemed to be plated with a layer of transparent azure hue.

The boundary between the walls and the floor became blurred.

In a daze, it felt as though a piece had been cut out from the vast sky and paved into this tiny square room.

A vigorous figure shuttled freely within this "artificial sky".

With his playfulness thoroughly aroused, Fang Cheng bounded up and down continuously in the spacious living room like a child who had received a new toy.

At times, he would hook onto the steel beams under the ceiling with one hand, swinging and leaping widely in the air like a pendulum.

At other times, he used all four limbs, relying on that freakish friction to move swiftly while clinging to the vertical walls.

He was like a bird that had broken free from the shackles of gravity, needing no ground at all to support his body.

With his fingertips gently pressing against the ceiling and his body stretching out incomparably, his entire being glided lightly across mid-air like a horizontal bar.

Then, with a twist of his waist and abdomen, his body adsorbed firmly onto the vertical wall surface.

Without the slightest pause, followed immediately by a dexterous backflip, his body flew upside down toward that large floor-to-ceiling window.

"Pop."

An extremely slight contact sound rang out.

Fang Cheng spread his hands and feet, and the nano-setae evolved on his palms instantly locked onto the glass surface like hooks.

Just like that, in the classic crouching posture of Spider-Man, he adsorbed steadily right in the center of the transparent glass of the floor-to-ceiling window.

Viewed from this upside-down perspective, the world outside the window presented a different kind of grandeur.

Below was a tree-shaded high-end residential garden, with winding paths looming vaguely among the bushes.

Extending his line of sight outward was the bustling and busy coastal highway, where the endless stream of vehicles looked like moving colored beetles.

Further away, crossing the sparkling bay, was a dense cluster of urban business districts.

Countless skyscrapers rose from the ground, their glass curtain walls reflecting dazzling white light in the sunlight, resembling a forest forged from steel.

Thinking back a year ago, these out-of-reach towering buildings were merely a background board to Fang Cheng, an insurmountable obstacle.

But at this moment, looking at the mirror-smooth outer walls of the buildings, what surged in his heart was no longer awe, but an eager desire for conquest.

As long as he was willing, he could now completely act like those superheroes, breaking the walking logic of ordinary people and treating those vertical walls as broad avenues.

Without needing to be restricted by support points like before, he could freely shuttle and come and go as he pleased above that steel jungle.

This sense of freedom in controlling space and ignoring terrain was simply intoxicating.

For even a split second, Fang Cheng truly wanted to directly push open the window and jump out to actually experience the thrill of scaling walls at a height of one hundred meters.

"Hoo..."

Until a trace of slight soreness came from the hand muscles maintaining the adsorption state did Fang Cheng put away his playfulness with lingering affection.

After all, it was daytime now; if he really jumped out so brazenly, he would probably make the headlines of Dongdu news the next day as a "human-shaped monster".

At this thought, he released his hands and feet, his upside-down body quickly flipping in the air and landing lightly and silently.

"Clack."

With his soles stepping steadily on the rubber flooring, Fang Cheng let out a long breath, pulling his attention back to the light screen floating before his eyes.

Besides Absolute Control, the changes to another skill effect were equally impossible to ignore.

Fang Cheng's gaze narrowed slightly as he looked at the latest explanatory notes for Charged Ejection:

[When you perform Pull-up-like movements, you can maintain a charging state of 1 to 6 seconds. Your special physiological structure grants your back core muscle groups the energy-storage ability surpassing physiological limits; the longer the charging time, the more energy stored.]

[Under training mode, you can choose not to release this potential energy, enduring a terrifying internal pressure equivalent to ten to sixty times your own body weight in static confrontation, while deeply tempering the deep muscles and fascia of your shoulder and back areas with an efficiency several times surpassing the conventional.]

[Under combat mode, you can choose to release this potential energy accumulated to the critical point, thereby increasing the explosive power of your back core muscle groups by 100% to 600%, launching yourself out like a cannonball. The longer the precursor time, the greater the explosive force, and simultaneously, abnormalities will appear in the related muscle groups.]

"Sixty times internal pressure... six hundred percent explosive power..."

Fang Cheng muttered to himself, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.

If Absolute Control granted him the grip that ignored terrain, then Charged Ejection equipped him with a high-power engine.

The combination of the two was the true complete form.

Although the past Charged Ejection could also erupt, constrained by grip strength, he often dared not execute it with full force at all.

Otherwise, the fulcrum would collapse first, or his fingers would slip off first.

But now it was different.

Possessing 3000% friction and 200% grip strength, he could completely "nail" himself onto any object.

Then he could uninhibitedly initiate a six-second charge, releasing that earth-shattering 600% explosive power.

That split-second acceleration would probably really allow him to be like a missile out of its chamber, instantly crossing a distance of over a thousand meters and giving the enemy a "surprise" descending from the heavens.

Perhaps, it could be called "half-step Flight".

"Gurgle—"

Just as Fang Cheng was immersed in wonderful visions of future battles, a round of stomach rumbling sounded untimely.

A strong sense of hunger struck like a tide, instantly pulling his thoughts back to reality.

Fang Cheng rubbed his deflated belly and shook his head with a bitter smile.

Just now, in order to make a Breakthrough in the Pull-up skill in one go, he had already overdrawn quite a bit of physical energy.

Coupled with this tossing and turning over his new abilities, the consumption increased exponentially.

The little food he ate earlier had long been turned into fuel and burned down to nothing.

He casually picked up the phone placed to the side and lit up the screen.

"It is almost nine o'clock..."

Looking at the time displayed on the screen, Fang Cheng muttered to himself in a low voice.

Unknowingly, this morning exercise, which began at past three in the morning, had lasted for nearly six hours.

Today's training volume could be said to have severely exceeded the standard, especially since having just broken through to LV4, his body was in a reorganization period after extreme depletion, so it was indeed inadvisable to continue squeezing it.

The Dao of exercising lay in perseverance rather than rushing for a moment.

If the situation hadn't been tense recently and in order to cope with potential crises, he wouldn't have gone into seclusion to practice bitterly day and night these past few days.

"Since I've broken through, it's also time to go out and get some fresh air."

Fang Cheng put down his phone, pondering his itinerary for today in his heart.

During these days of seclusion, the accumulated matters were indeed quite numerous.

First, he had to make a trip to the club; he hadn't gone to punch in and go to work for a long time.

Although he didn't care about that bit of salary at all now, to get by in this society, he still needed the cover of a proper "office worker" identity.

He couldn't possibly truly act as a vagrant, could he?

In addition, as the chairman of the Illuminati, he couldn't be a hands-off boss either.

Recently, the construction of the two bases encountered some problems. Whether it was personnel arrangement or fund allocation, it required him, the backbone, to make the final decision to resolve them.

But before that...

Fang Cheng sniffed that refreshing smell mixed with sweat and grease on his body, wrinkling his brows in disgust.

He had to take a bath first, and then fill his stomach.

Having made up his mind, Fang Cheng turned and walked toward the bathroom.

Soon, with the sound of running water, swirling steam began to rise and permeate behind the frosted glass door.

...

The afternoon sunlight slanted in through the windshield, spilling onto the black leather steering wheel.

Holding the steering wheel with one hand, Fang Cheng maneuvered the washed Land Rover SUV into the traffic stream of the main road in Jiangdong District, which looked like a long dragon.

Soft jazz music flowed within the carriage, and the cold air from the air conditioner dispelled the sultry heat of late spring and early summer.

This morning had passed quite fulfilling.

After the morning exercise ended, he took a comfortable bath in the apartment, and then fried five catties of M9-grade Wagyu ribeye, rewarding himself nicely.

The sense of satisfaction of the meat juices bursting in his mouth seemed to still linger on his taste buds at this moment.

After eating and drinking his fill, he drove straight to the "Global Elite Club" in Jiangdong.

Because regular client Brother Jie had booked a sparring lesson.

This guy had recently fought his way into the final round of the National Free Kickboxing Championship, and was looking everywhere for high-level sparring partners.

Previously, he had bombarded him with phone calls several times, constantly sending warm regards, asking what he had been busy with recently and why he never came to work.

Fang Cheng truly couldn't shirk it, and since he finished Cultivate today, he reluctantly agreed.

Just half an hour ago, he had finished the sparring lesson and came out of the club.

Counting the days, ever since he came back from Tiannan Province at the beginning of the month to report for duty after canceling his leave, plus today, he had only worked two days in total.

It was basically a retirement state of slacking off and skimming.

However, this couldn't be blamed on him for malingering and lacking enthusiasm for work.

Fang Cheng looked at the countdown of the traffic light ahead and shook his head helplessly.

Truly, the combat level of these professional athletes in the club was too low.

As ordinary people, they could no longer keep up with his pace.

Just like the so-called high-intensity confrontation with Brother Jie just now, after a whole class, it only added a mere 1 point of experience value.

The professional-grade offensives that he used to think were somewhat sharp were now, in Fang Cheng's eyes, as slow as an old man practicing Tai Chi in the park.

With the leap in life hierarchy, this "high-end match" in the eyes of ordinary people had lost its meaning for tempering him.

Fighting with these professional players was not even as substantial as hanging from the ceiling at home to do a few Pull-ups.

If it weren't for having the identity of a normal job, there was indeed no need to waste time on this.

But thinking of how Chairman Shen took such good care of him, giving him the highest salary in the entire club, and even specially hiring him as the image spokesperson.

Even with skin as thick as Fang Cheng's, there was still at least a trace of guilt in his heart.

"Forget it, I'll try to go once a week from now on, consider it as going to help alleviate poverty."

Fang Cheng glanced at the time on the dashboard, then gently stepped on the gas pedal, changing lanes to overtake.

Today's itinerary was relatively tight; besides going to the club to work and enhancing his sense of presence, there were more important matters to handle in the afternoon.

When he stayed at the company for a free meal at noon, he took the time to call his mother to confirm the family's situation.

The nagging voice coming from the earpiece was full of breath and there was nothing abnormal, which slightly eased his mind.

Actually, according to the original plan, Fang Cheng intended to arrange a few covert sentries to keep an eye on Wanghu Town.

He wanted to replicate the defense model over at Jiuchang Street.

Much like the way Dachui and Monkey guarded the Tubular Building, he wanted to lay down a cordon around his grandfather's house, closely monitoring all unfamiliar faces appearing around the residence.

Reporting immediately at the slightest sign of disturbance, nipping all hidden dangers that might threaten his family in the cradle ahead of time.

It was a pity that the Illuminati had been newly founded for a short time, and manpower was truly insufficient.

Although with just a word from him, Xu Hao or Xiaosa could immediately mobilize the underlings of the Red Tiger Gang to go over and help handle things.

But after thinking about it over and over, Fang Cheng still vetoed this notion.

Those mixed in the underworld had too heavy a bandit aura, and their character and abilities were also uneven.

Having them protect ordinary people might trigger goodness knows what kind of chaos.

"I still have to wait for the professor to return..."

Fang Cheng's eyes narrowed slightly, glancing at the road conditions behind through the rearview mirror.

Then he slammed the steering wheel, neatly overtaking and merging into the ramp leading to the suburbs.

According to the estimate during the last phone call, within these couple of days, the professor should be able to finish matters from other provinces and return.

By then, in the name of a foreign trade company, he would recruit a batch of demobilized soldiers or extraordinary Martial Artists with clean backgrounds and strict discipline.

Then, having Monkey conduct professional training to establish a formal security team, that would be the long-term solution.

As his thoughts flowed, the scenery outside the car window had quietly changed.

The originally dense skyscrapers were gradually left behind, and the bustling urban scenery was replaced by large areas of farmland and self-built houses.

The green belts on both sides of the road became sparse and messy, and large trucks on the road also increased significantly.

Ahead was the western suburb of JB District, Dingqiao Industrial Park.

This was a place with a strong sense of age.

Decades ago, this used to be the heart of Dongdu's manufacturing industry, with chimneys standing in forests and machines roaring.

But with urban regional changes and soaring labor costs, low-end manufacturing continuously moved outward.

Here was like a beach after the tide receded, leaving only mottled traces left behind by the era.

The Land Rover SUV turned a corner and drove into a slightly bumpy cement road.

Within view, large areas of semi-abandoned red brick factories were scattered unevenly.

Many wall skins had peeled off, revealing the steel bars and masonry inside.

Although it looked dilapidated, because of low rent and convenient transportation, it gradually evolved into a gathering place for various warehousing and logistics companies.

Container trucks hanging license plates from various places could be seen parked on the roadside everywhere, and loading workers were bare-chested, busy amidst the dust.

Fang Cheng slowed down the car, and through the car window, his gaze swept across rows of buildings.

Soon, his vision locked onto a detached factory building not far ahead.

Against the industrial background full of dust and rust, a brilliant and charming figure appeared particularly eye-catching.

That was a tall woman wearing high heels.

She was standing beside the open iron-picket gate, letting the afternoon breeze tousle her smooth hair strands.

A well-tailored dark suit skirt outlined her already mature and graceful figure to the fullest.

Even across a distance, Fang Cheng could feel the intellectual charm and seductiveness emanating from her bones.

She was none other than Lin Chuqiao, who was waiting here for him.