I, the Superhuman

One day, when Xi Gu was fifteen years and three months old, he suddenly realized that he had become a superpower user.

There were no glaring signs at first. On one Sunday morning, when he got out of bed, Xi Gu felt distinct changes in his body.

It wasn't a fundamental change.

There were no odd patterns on his skin.

Neither of his eyes changed color.

No horns grew on his head.

His limbs hadn't mutated.

And no eerie aura surrounded him.

—It was just a slow, gradual evolution.

"Has my eyesight improved a bit?"

Xi Gu curiously took off his 350-degree glasses and realized the world looked even clearer without them. It seemed as if his myopia had reduced considerably overnight.

He jumped in place and felt his body was much lighter than before.

Although he noticed these changes, Xi Gu just attributed it to his growing body and didn't think much about it.

The next day, the changes continued.

Upon waking up, Xi Gu felt his body was even lighter than yesterday, and his eyesight had improved even more.

Removing his glasses completely, the world before him was brightly clear.

In addition, when he tried to throw a punch, there was a 'whoosh' sound, reminiscent of fabric tearing.

Xi Gu's spirits lifted.

During the physical education class that day, in the 1000-meter test, Xi Gu ran it in 3 minutes and 20 seconds for the first time with ease. Although he could have run faster, he restrained himself to avoid drawing too much attention.

Still, his friends noticed.

"What's with you today?"

A friend teased, tapping his chest, "Hey, Xi Gu, did you fall for some girl? Running so hard today, you're really outdoing yourself... Wait, where are your glasses?"

Brushing it off with laughter and remarks like, "No, no... I've been exercising lately. Also, I realized my eyesight improved, so I stopped wearing glasses... Maybe it was pseudo-myopia?", Xi Gu's heart was filled with joy.

He thought, if his physical attributes kept improving, maybe he could make a name for himself, become a national athlete, and enter a top-tier university without taking the tough college entrance exam.

— A simple wish, but for a high school student like Xi Gu, who studied in a third-tier city and had mediocre grades, this was an ambitious dream.

On the third day, as expected, his physical attributes improved compared to the previous day.

That evening, after school, Xi Gu went to the gym in his neighborhood, got a membership card, bypassed the weightlifting hulks, and went to the corner where the punching test machine was. He recorded his scores.

"105kg."

"107kg."

"104kg."

...

Gathering his strength, he threw dozens of punches. Summing up the results, Xi Gu found that his median punching power was around 105kg, quite consistent.

With that data in mind, a content Xi Gu went to the school track. Holding a timer, he pressed the start button and sprinted forward with all his might. He only stopped, panting heavily, after crossing the 200-meter white line, looking at the timer in his hand—

"24.07 seconds, not bad."

On the fourth day, as expected, he woke up to the familiar sensation of his physical capabilities improving once more.

In the evening after school, a prepared Xi Gu returned to the community gym and delivered a series of punches on that overlooked punching test machine.

"107kg," that was the median result of the day's tests.

Xi Gu began to understand.

"An increase of 2kg in punching power each day? That's just impact force. I wonder how much the core strength for bench pressing has increased... It should be roughly the same, I guess."

He continued testing himself on the school track, running 200 meters—

"23.58 seconds." A day-to-day speed increase of this magnitude was uncommon. But Xi Gu recognized that this was due to the adjustment of his running posture and starting stance that day. For a novice on the track, a difference of more than a second in a 200-meter run is quite normal.

On the third day, the increase in punching power remained consistent. "109kg." But the 200-meter speed saw only a slight improvement, "23.56 seconds", as expected.

However, Xi Gu clearly felt that most of his punch test data for the day consistently read "109kg." Also, despite running the 200 meters multiple times, the results consistently read "23.56 seconds." It was clear that the stability and stamina of his body were increasing in tandem.

"If I continue to progress at this rate, I might become an Olympic champion in all events... But better to be cautious. To avoid attracting unwanted attention and getting investigated by relevant authorities, I'll focus on the 100-meter dash in the future—it's the event that reaps the most fame and fortune."

With a mix of anxiety and anticipation, Xi Gu harbored modest hopes, drawing a bright blueprint for his future.

However, the next day, his modest expectations turned into astonishment.

"112kg? Why has it increased so rapidly?"

Staring in disbelief at the punching machine's reading, a realization hit Xi Gu.

"Wait a minute... Could my physical capabilities be growing exponentially?"

With this new understanding, Xi Gu shifted his approach. To avoid drawing attention, he no longer tested himself at the gym. He spent a little ten thousand yuan from his parents' inheritance and bought a series of equipment, including a weightlifting bench and barbells, for his home. He wanted to test his raw, undistorted strength without the influence of his punching speed.

Despite the pinch in his pocket, if things were as he suspected, the matter would be of great significance.

From then on, Xi Gu ceased the 200-meter sprints at school. Instead, every morning after waking up, he tested his strength limit on the weightlifting bench.

After several days of progression, the consistency of his body had reached an admirable level. Therefore, Xi Gu could easily gauge his body's limits. He diligently recorded his daily test results—

"101kg,"

"102kg,"

"103kg,"

...

On the tenth day, Xi Gu felt that lifting "110kg" had become effortlessly easy. By the fourteenth day, he managed to lift "115kg." Fifty days later, the test results showed that his strength had surged past "164kg."

For a high school student, these results were undoubtedly impressive. However, Xi Gu didn't care much about this achievement—because for him, by tomorrow, he would surpass this benchmark and effortlessly add another kilogram or more to his bench press strength.

After meticulously examining his strength growth data and plotting it on a chart, he drew a smooth curve and deduced the corresponding exponential formula.

Finally, at this moment, Xi Gu truly understood the pace at which his body was growing—

"Does this mean... for every day that passes, my physical capabilities grow by one percent compared to the previous day?!"