Preparation

Time passed and day by day…

Tang Hong's progress in his research of further trigger mechanisms for the increase of his Individual Value was steadily moving, right on track.

There was absolutely no need to attempt things that were too simple and too easy.

Unless he had a lot of time to burn.

But whenever he had that kind of time, it was usually better to use it in attempting other things.

Apart from that, the messages that he had sent to Fang Nanxun never received a reply.

He sent a private message and even asked Fan Yu about it.

But Fan Yu herself was confused.

She only knew that Fang Nanxun was still carrying out his task.

The situation at North Lake Province was serious

Other than the consultant from the Yunhai branch office, Consultant Liu also had to be there.

Tang Hong gradually felt a strong sense of urgency.

The end of May was approaching.

One more month and he would have to head to the Imperial Capital to participate in the special training camp sponsored by the Yellow River Organization's headquarters.

He had to become strong as fast as possible.

Otherwise, what else could he do if he couldn't even be within the strongest top three of the training camp's entrance test?

Fang Nanxun had given him a lot of help.

The former also had high hopes for him. Although Fang Nanxun did not make any demands from him for the entrance test, it was probably either he didn't think much of him or perhaps he didn't care.

But Tang Hong had high expectations for himself.

In the beginning, he felt that the goal of standing in the first place was rather distant.

His goal was being a part of the top three back then.

It was understandable, however, for his competitors had a much further starting point. They had probably started their training for the special training camp a year ago, so they were at least in a half a year headstart against Tang Hong.

But Tang Hong knew that he couldn't give up.

The rewards were just too enormous for him to give up.

The upcoming training camp was akin to that of a 100-meter dash.

Those people who started ahead were the ones closer to the finish line.

'But what's there to fear?'

'I'll catch up.'

Ambition gradually sprouted in Tang Hong's heart.

"I want to get first place."

It could be said that he had a debt of gratitude to Fang Nanxun due to the fact that the latter appreciated his abilities. The more outstanding he performed, the more potential he could show to the others.

If that happened, then it would be the best way to repay his gratitude to Fang Nanxun.

Moreover, taking first place and being in the lead would give him a temporary advantage against the others. If his lead continued, and so would his advantage.

"Transcendents…"

"Break through the limits of one's human body. Break through the limits of Willpower."

These days—through his interactions with Fan Yu—Tang Hong learned about two key factors in becoming a Transcendent being.

If one wanted to be a Transcendent, none of these factors could be ignored.

Although the former was easier, while the latter was harder.

Some people would probably spend their entire lives tempering their Willpower, but they would still fail to break through the limits of Willpower itself.

Tang Hong brought out the system interface.

Mortal: Extremely small and weak creature.

Willpower: 50%

Strength: 35%

Realm: 0.00

Individual value: 25

Pondering for a while, Tang Hong made a decision.

Six points of Individual Value were added to Strength.

The percentage value of Strength blinked for a moment before it rose up to 41%

.

"That's enough for now. According to my calculations earlier, I will now have absolutely no problem bench pressing 100KG worth of weights."

Tang Hong never went to the fitness center since that day.

Because there was no need for him to go there anymore.

Swoosh!

His heart rate suddenly increased as his skin began to flush red. Tang Hong could also vaguely hear the sound of his muscles and bones snapping and cracking beneath his flesh. His bones were changing as they became harder to the touch.

Tang Hong felt that he could probably lift his bed if he wanted to with his body strength alone.

"Strength: 41%."

Tang Hong clenched his palms.

He could vaguely feel the strong energies coming from within his body.

The muscles on his arms became more apparent.

But what surprised him the most was the clear outline of his pectoral muscles and abs…

He lifted his short-sleeved shirt and he saw how it was a little tight.

Tang Hong took a deep breath. He felt surreal, almost like he was in a dream.

His chest and abdomen had intimidating clear edges that seemed to be filled with strength.

"Too strong."

"Compared to adding them one at a time, adding them all in one go made me feel even stronger and physically fit. It's entirely different from that sensation before. The addition of six points in Strength made my body even stronger than before."

Tang Hong could not help but look at the back of his hands.

His green veins stood out beneath his skin.

Then, his line of sight landed on his arms and legs as well as his soles that were stepping on the white plastic sandals. His skin still carried that light flush as if he had just walked out from the sauna.

"Fortunately, I live alone."

Tang Hong shook his head and planned to walk out of the bedroom to take a shower before anything else.

His left palm rested on the door handle…

Tang Hong suddenly recalled that this house was loaned to him by Fang Nanxun. Other than the four bedrooms and two bathrooms, there was real-time monitoring in all the other areas.

Changing his mind, Tang Hong sat down on the bed once more.

It was still the best if he changed his body ever so slowly, yet surely in the future.

Undergoing a tremendous change in strength overnight would definitely attract suspicions and if someone asked him about it, there was no way he could explain it.

"Mm."

Tang Hong let out a sigh as he rubbed his six-pack abs.

In the near future, he planned to stop increasing Strength once again.

He planned on not increasing his Strength until he was inside the training camp.

Willpower was the most important part.

He stared at the system interface and pondered. 'I still have 19 points of Individual Value. I'll try adding seven points to Willpower first.'

He did not wish to continue saving up these Individual Value points.

Therefore, he decided to use all of them today.

But…

Since the effect of increasing the Strength was so strong, Tang Hong inadvertently became worried.

Would adding too many points into Willpower in one go damage his brain?

One could not be too careful especially when it involved his consciousness, brain, and whatnot.

"Add it!"

Tang Hong closed his eyes and braced himself.

Boom!

He felt like the area between his eyebrows was being punctured by needle tips.

There seemed to be a will-o-wisps pulsating inside his brain.

'It's fine. It's not too painful. It's still within the range I could tolerate.'

Tang Hong proceeded to plan for the future.

In consideration of Fan Yu's description, breaking the limits of Willpower was a great ordeal.

It was also random as nothing was definite.

He had to make plans for rainy days and he also had to make preparations in advance for emergencies.

"Breaking through the limits of Willpower."

"Perhaps it is really as difficult as Fan Yu had said."

"In the event that 1 point of Individual Value isn't enough to break through the limits, 10 points or even 20 points of Individual Value should be enough. I need to familiarize myself beforehand just in case I don't know what my upper limit is, or if I've even reached the critical point yet."

"It would be horrible if I forcefully added more points into it and accidentally turned myself into an idiot."

To put it bluntly, Tang Hong wanted to experiment and find out the upper limits of his Willpower.

"More!"

The remaining 12 points of Individual Value that he had saved up was instantly depleted.

The percentage of his Willpower suddenly blurred. It blinked and pulsated!

Rumble!

As if a phone's tempered glass had cracked, a spider web of cracks started to spread out from the center of Tang Hong's mind. The sensation was too strong that he almost keeled over onto the floor.

Tang Hong hurriedly used his right hand to support his body.

"Mm…"

"It's indeed a little painful…"

He did not know if it was because he had grown accustomed to living alone, or because his Willpower had gone stronger by 7% than before, but Tang Hong discovered that his endurance truly had become stronger.

He knew that if he experienced such pain before he got the [Power of One] support system, then he would've probably collapsed on the spot and twitched on the floor in agony.

Dong Dong~

Two to three notification alerts came from his phone.

At some point, it vibrated until it had fallen off the bed.

Tang Hong gasped for air.

He picked up his phone while rubbing his temples. Two people had joined the WeChat group chat that had been silent for several days.

They bombed the group chat with red packets.

Red packets!

His eyes brightened up.

His fingertips tapped and felt that the pain on his head had instantly subsided.

"200 Hua dollars!"

"200 again. 200 again. Why is it still 200?"

Tang Hong tapped on six red packets successively. In total, he received 1200 Hua dollars.

He was a little surprised. The tips of his fingers slid as he went through those red packets.

Each red packet was a total of 3000 dollars, divided into 15 portions.

Hence, whoever collected the red packet would get 200 dollars.

"Such generous red packets, should I pay it forward?"

"Forget it."

"I'll just send a full red packet like this when I finally have my internship pay."

Tang Hong pursed his lips and smiled.

Now, he could be considered a rich man too, right?

In the very next moment…

Two more messages popped up in the group chat.

That person said, "Other than Sister Fan Yu, we have a total of 14 people in the group chat… Let's take this opportunity before we head to the Imperial Capital to meet at least once. We can all get to know one another by then. @everyone"

Soon after…

That person sent a location message.

Tang Hong looked at the location, then he looked towards that person's profile picture.

It was a photo of a red-haired young girl facing the afterglows of dusk with a small smile.

The red-haired young girl asked in the group chat, "@TangMonkBigBoss are you coming?"

Hmm?

Tang Hong was dumbfounded.

When did he become a big boss?

Suddenly, a notification resounded.

A red number appeared in the contacts list at the bottom of his WeChat interface.

Tang Hong tapped into it for a look. It was the red-haired young girl who was organizing a gathering in the group chat earlier.

She had even sent a verification message to him.

Big boss, big boss, add me, add me, chirp chirp chirp.

Shouldn't it be 'wuwuwu'?

Tang Hong felt that he had been living alone for too long that he seemed to have lost his touch with the times.

The names of the members in the group chat were all their real names.

Tang Hong could still vaguely remember this fact the last time he opened his WeChat App.

Accepting the red-haired young girl's friend request. He changed her WeChat name for her in their private message session into her real name—Jiang Lulu.

"Hello."

Tang Hong greeted.

But the red-haired young girl Jiang Lulu directly sent a voice message like they were already good friends. "Come on, come on! It's our first WeChat group gathering."

"Sure," Tang Hong replied.

"But I have a bold request…"