In the cold, damp basement.
Lu Chen leaned against the mold-spotted wall, his chest heaving violently.
The violent heat flow within him was gradually subsiding, melting into his limbs and bones.
This sensation of fullness gave him an illusion—that he could not only tear steel apart with his bare hands but could also punch this entire building into dust.
"What level am I at now?"
As a science student, Lu Chen disliked vague feelings.
He chanted silently in his mind: "System, expand detailed panel."
Buzz——
The ice-blue light screen floated on his retina again.
[Player: Lu Chen][Race: Human (Tier 1, Stage 5 · Gray Fog Adapter)][Status: Healthy (Energy Overflow)]
[Base Attributes] (Note: Adult male standard value is 5)
Strength: 14.2 (Evaluation: Humanoid Hydraulic Press. Your current grip strength can crush a skull like a cookie.)
Agility: 12.8 (Evaluation: 100 meters in 2.9 seconds. Running in a straight line, not even a Ferrari beats your start.)
Constitution: 15.5 (Evaluation: Humanoid Tank. An ordinary fruit knife leaves only white marks on your skin.)
Spirit: 8.5 (Serious imbalance. Your neural response lags behind your body; high latency exists.)
[Talents/Skills]
Inherent Talent - Bio-Furnace: Digestion rate 99.9%. Eating makes you stronger.
Derivative Passive - Overclocked Heart: Pumping pressure is 5 times that of a normal person. During intense exercise, weak individuals within two meters may feel suffocated due to infrasound pressure.
[Source Energy Reserve: 5/100][Experience Points: 1 / 100]
[System Evaluation: A small fry with slight potential. Suggest finding a substantial meal first.]
...
Lu Chen stared at the pitiful "1 Experience Point," his brows furrowed tightly.
"System, isn't this wrong?"
"A Slime is a monster, right? An ordinary person could be insta-killed if they didn't dodge. How is it only worth 1 point?"
[System Notification: Triggered "Life Hierarchy Suppression" mechanism.][Verdict: Smurfing/Noob Stomping. Killing creatures below one's own tier only yields a mandatory 1 point base experience.]
"Fine..."
Lu Chen was speechless. His gaze then fell on the glaring "Spirit 8.5".
He rubbed the space between his eyebrows. "So that's why..."
No wonder when he grabbed the Slime just now, he clearly saw it, but his hand felt half a beat slow. His brain couldn't keep up with his body.
"By the way, my stats are too—"
Gurgle.
Lu Chen was just about to make a grand statement when his heart skipped a beat.
"Crap! The box!"
He was so focused on the system he almost forgot the main business!
He hurriedly looked down at the metal box by his feet, half-corroded by the Slime. That was his "entry ticket" for the 20,000-yuan scholarship. If it was ruined, the money would fly away!
Fortunately.
The Slime had started gnawing from the corner. Although the files inside were a bit damp and sticky with mucus, the core parts were still intact.
"Phew..."
Lu Chen let out a long sigh of relief. He was just about to lift the heavy archive box.
"Hmm?"
Again, that alluring "roast meat aroma."
But it wasn't as intense as before; it was coming from the corner nearby.
Lu Chen froze, then jerked his phone flashlight in that direction.
The beam swayed, revealing the darkness.
They were crowded together, squirming—a wall of black sludge pushing forward.
If the Slime just now smelled like a sizzling, top-tier Tomahawk steak fresh off the grill, so fragrant it made one lose reason...
Then the smell emitted by this group was, at best... leftover pork with garlic shoots that hadn't been reheated.
Still fragrant, still tempting, but not enough to crash his brain into total madness.
"Make it quick."
Lu Chen sighed. He gently placed the archive box on the ground and cracked his neck.
Crack.
Then, his figure, poised to charge, suddenly froze.
Lu Chen's face changed drastically, as if remembering something terrifying.
He looked down at the concrete floor by his feet, pitted and corroded.
Wait... these things have strong acid!
That metal box got chewed up just now. If my hoodie gets even a drop on it...
Lu Chen gritted his teeth and made a decision that defied common sense but perfectly followed the logic of poverty.
This hoodie was his battle robe, won for free after a whole night of bargaining on the Pinxixi app. If it got ruined, where would he find another one so durable and dirt-resistant?
Skin heals on its own. I have [Thick Skin] anyway. That's free.
Clothes cost money to replace.
Faced with this simple yet brutal math problem, Lu Chen didn't hesitate to sacrifice his dignity.
"No one's coming down here anyway."
In a flurry of motion, he stripped himself naked.
He carefully folded his clothes and, along with his worn-out sneakers, stuffed them into a safe corner.
Done. Lu Chen stood in the cold basement, bare-chested, muscles cast like copper and iron, flexing his joints.
Those clearly defined muscles bulged slightly in the darkness, brimming with explosive power.
"Phew..."
Without the restriction of fabric, Lu Chen felt lighter.
He turned around to face the encroaching wall of black sludge, a savage grin curling his lips.
"Now, no worries."
The next second.
Lu Chen's right foot stomped violently.
BOOM!
The originally hard concrete floor exploded instantly, creating a shallow pit half a meter in diameter, gravel flying everywhere.
Using this terrifying recoil, Lu Chen launched himself like an out-of-control heavy dump truck—or rather, a Humanoid Semi—tearing through the air with wind pressure, crashing straight into the Slime swarm!
No fancy techniques. Didn't even need to throw a punch.
Ek = 1/2mv^2
When Lu Chen, a "high-quality rigid body," collided with a pile of "low-density non-Newtonian fluids" at extremely high initial velocity, the result was singular—
Perfectly Inelastic Collision.
Lu Chen turned himself into a heavy artillery shell.
The moment that body full of explosive power slammed into the soft mass, the Slimes didn't even have time to deform and disperse the force. The massive kinetic energy triggered a terrifying cavitation effect directly inside their bodies.
SPLAT—!!!
Like rotten tomatoes stomped on by a giant.
The black liquid didn't just splash; it exploded into a mist, instantly coating the walls and ceiling of the entire corridor.
Those Slimes trying to corrode Lu Chen with acid didn't even have a chance to react before being smashed into a black fog by unreasonable kinetic energy!
The acid splattered on Lu Chen's skin with the [Thick Skin] trait, merely making a slight sizzling sound and leaving fleeting red marks before being evaporated by his overheated body temperature.
Just two seconds.
Charge over.
Lu Chen stood at the end of the corridor, standing over a floor of black residue.
[Combat Ended][Targets Eliminate: Dark Cavern · Corrosive Slime x 13]
Lu Chen didn't rush to put his clothes back on.
The fight had consumed some stamina, and after that impact, "high-energy protein" was splattered everywhere.
Adhering to the principle of "waste not, want not," he crouched down and began cleaning up the battlefield.
He casually grabbed a handful of gelatinous matter that hadn't fully dissipated—the essence residue of the Slimes. Not minding the dirt, he stuffed it directly into his mouth.
Chomp, chomp.
The texture was like aged aspic jelly. Not as potent as the first one, but hey, mosquito legs are meat too.
...
Meanwhile.
Old Laboratory Building, Main Entrance.
A slightly balding, middle-aged figure ran in, panting heavily. It was Old Wang, the counselor from the Math Department.
"Oh my... this broken building..."
Old Wang held his knees, wiping sweat from his forehead, looking anxiously at his phone.
On the screen, the WeChat message sent to Lu Chen half an hour ago still had no reply.
"This kid, why is there no movement at all?"
Old Wang's heart drummed. Although Lu Chen looked fierce, he was solitary and honest.
Plus, rumors said this Old Lab Building wasn't clean. He just heard some passing students say there were strange noises coming from inside.
"Could something really have happened?"
The more Old Wang thought, the more panicked he got.
As a responsible counselor, he disregarded his fear, gritted his teeth, turned on his phone flashlight, and shouted into the pitch-black basement corridor:
"Lu Chen? Lu Chen, are you in there?"
No response.
————
Why was there no response?
Deep in the corridor corner.
Lu Chen was squatting on the ground, completely focused on dealing with a piece of Slime core in his hand that was as tough to chew as a car tire.
This core was too dense to swallow; he had to chew it into pieces.
Crunch—— Crunch——!
Because Lu Chen's skull density was already four times that of a normal person (a precursor to metallization), according to acoustic principles, the sound transmission efficiency of high-density solids is far superior to air.
This led to an awkward side effect—Bone Conduction Noise.
When he chewed forcefully, the sound of teeth crushing high-toughness colloid bombed his auditory nerves directly through his skull.
In his own world, the noise decibel level was comparable to a renovation team drilling into his brain.
Never mind Old Wang shouting; even if thunder struck outside, he wouldn't hear it. He was currently in a state of physically induced "Noise-Canceling Immersive Dining."
————
From the depths of the corner came strange slurp, slurp sounds.
Like a beast feeding.
Old Wang's scalp went numb, but he emboldened himself to walk in.
"Student Lu Chen? It's Teacher Wang! Don't scare me!"
He followed the sound and turned a corner.
Then, the flashlight beam illuminated the scene before him.
This glance.
It impacted Old Wang's worldview like never before.
Deep in the gloomy basement, the ground was covered in unidentified black liquid, as if a massacre had just occurred.
And in the center of this mess.
A two-meter-tall, stark naked giant was squatting on the ground with his back to him.
Old Wang thought: That size... is it a mutated gorilla?
The muscle groups on the giant's back bulged hideously like a demon's face, trembling with his movements. In his hand, he held a clump of black, sticky stuff resembling asphalt, stuffing it incessantly into his mouth.
Old Wang thought: What is it eating? A black lump... is that human organs?!
Hearing the light and footsteps.
The naked giant paused, then slowly turned his head.
That mouth, stained with unidentified black liquid, was still chewing, a trace of black residue hanging from the corner of his lips.
Under the pale illumination of the flashlight, those eyes glowed with an eerie light.
Gulp.
The giant swallowed whatever was in his mouth, looked at the dumbfounded Old Wang, his expression somewhat dull and innocent.
Dead silence filled the air.
In this moment.
Countless horror movie titles flashed through Old Wang's mind:The Silence of the Lambs, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Guinea Pig: Mermaid in a Manhole...
"Teacher... Teacher Wang?"
The "Cannibal" finally spoke, his voice slurring slightly from just having eaten:
"Why are you here? Want... want a taste?"
The string named "Reason" in Old Wang's brain snapped completely.
He's inviting me to dinner?
Am I the main course?
"Ugh—"
Old Wang's eyes rolled back.
Clatter. His phone hit the ground.
Then his body fell straight backward, stiff as a board.