Chapter 18: Strength Test
In the world of Family Guy, in front of James Woods Regional High School.
When Chris opened his eyes, he found himself back in the Family Guy world.
The location was exactly where he'd left from, without the slightest change.
Based on this alone, Chris could confirm that during the time he was gone, time in the Family Guy world hadn't moved at all.
Otherwise, according to the theory of relativity, he would have been flung an unknown distance from Earth by now.
After all, the solar system is constantly moving through space; if time hadn't stood still, when Chris returned to his original spot, he would have been floating in the vacuum of space like some kind of space zombie, instead of peacefully enjoying the sunshine.
Of course, if Chris's dimensional travel was another form—merely re-inserting him into the timeline at the moment after he left—then everything he just theorized would be nonsense.
But no matter what form Chris's travel took, it made no difference to him; it wouldn't waste a single second of his time in the Family Guy world.
So Chris stopped dwelling on it; such brain-busting research should be left to Stewie.
It would be a good way to challenge the kid's intellectual development and see if this infant genius could reach even higher levels.
As for Chris himself, he would, of course, continue to play to his strengths, train his body properly, and then achieve a solid position in society.
Casually planning his future moves, Chris headed into the gym.
The moment he entered, everyone working out there noticed him.
This was the reputation he, Chris Griffin, had built up over the past two and a half weeks.
With his absolute strength of bench-pressing 880 pounds, he'd established an almost legendary status among these fitness enthusiasts.
"Yo, boss!"
Seeing Chris arrive, his buddy Marvin quickly jogged over to greet him, followed by Chris's other friend, Hank.
However, Chris didn't respond to them immediately but first nodded to the others who were watching him.
People paying attention to him was a sign of respect, and his acknowledgment was an acceptance of that gym brotherhood.
Only after receiving Chris's nod did the others resume their routines; those on treadmills kept running, and those doing squats kept squatting.
"You two are here pretty early! Been waiting long?"
The politeness shown to others vanished when it came to his buddies.
Chris chatted casually, not really expecting an answer.
Marvin and Hank were very familiar with Chris and knew he wasn't really asking, so they replied just as casually, "Not long, but Chris, why didn't you bring your gym bag today? Forget it?"
"I'm just here to test my strength today; not planning to train for too long."
Chris's gym bag had been left behind in the Creeper's world; he'd left in such a rush that he was lucky to have put on clothes in time, let alone grab his bag.
So he casually made up an excuse.
"Oh man! Chris, has your strength increased again? How many days has it been? Are you going to break your own record again?"
As soon as Marvin heard Chris's words, he immediately got excited.
Chris was his boy, so the more powerful Chris was, the more his own status and influence would naturally rise.
Since Chris's bench press hit 880 pounds, his position on the basketball team had been climbing rapidly.
Originally, he could only warm the bench and watch others play, but now he could choose his own position.
So if Chris could break his strength record, Marvin figured he could even aim for team captain.
Chris looked at the excited Marvin, a little curious about what this kid was so hyped about, but still nodded and said, "I'm pretty confident, so you two spot me."
Ever since he absorbed that white energy from killing the Creeper, Chris felt his body being continuously strengthened.
Up to now, Chris felt his strength had increased by at least twenty percent recently, but he didn't know the exact amount.
He'd originally planned to ask Stewie to help him check, and just test it privately.
But since Marvin asked about his gym bag, Chris decided to test it here, just to have a baseline.
Just as Chris was about to lie down on the bench, he realized his two buddies were being too cautious.
They'd only loaded up 790 pounds for him; were they trying to make him warm up first?
Seeing this, Chris got up and added another 220 pounds, directly bringing the weight up to 1,010 pounds.
This completely freaked out Marvin and Hank, making Marvin's pale face even paler, and Hank's dark complexion also turn ashen.
"B-boss! This is no joke! Why don't you try adding forty-five pounds first to test the waters?"
Marvin saw that Chris wasn't joking and immediately tried to stop him.
With such an insane weight, if Chris had a spotter cage or safety bars, Marvin wouldn't be worried at all.
But now Chris had no safety equipment whatsoever, which, in Marvin's eyes, meant his boss was basically committing suicide.
So he directly grabbed Chris's arm, preventing him from lying on the weight bench.
Even the usually silent Hank, seeing Chris's crazy move, started to protest.
However, these two kids, whose bench press max barely reached 220 pounds, had no ability to stop Chris, did they?
Chris pushed them both away with ease.
"I appreciate the concern, but your lack of faith disappoints me. Both of you just watch carefully; this weight isn't even close to my limit!"
With Chris's declaration, 1,010 pounds of weight was easily pressed up.
This confirmed his suspicion; his strength had indeed increased by at least twenty percent, which meant an increase of at least 175 pounds of strength.
After pressing it a few more times, sensing that his condition was still good, Chris added another forty-five pounds of plates.
Then it went up just the same.
However, this time he felt slightly strained, a feeling of approaching his limit.
But to test his current strength ceiling, Chris continued to add weight under the awestruck gazes of the gym-goers, who looked at him like he was superhuman.
After doing this three more times, Chris finally measured his current strength limit.
No more, no less, it was exactly 1,100 pounds.
However, Chris knew this was only his current limit; as that mysterious energy continued to strengthen him, he might break through this threshold again at any moment.
"Here, boss. Have some protein shake to refuel, orange-flavored."
When Chris took the shaker bottle Marvin handed him and took a couple of swigs, he knew he'd just broken through the 1,100-pound barrier.
This was because that energy current, after the protein shake went down, seemed to be stimulated and surged even more intensely.
In just a moment, it increased his strength by a few more percent.
He couldn't calculate the exact value, but he realized the current situation was clearly abnormal.
He immediately dropped everything, put down the bottle, and sprinted toward his home at full speed, not even waiting for the bus.
Marvin watched Chris run off like his life depended on it, then looked at the orange-flavored protein shake Chris had left behind, and wondered, "What's up with the boss? Is he maybe lactose intolerant or something?"
Hank glanced at Marvin and deadpanned, "You'd better hope not, otherwise the boss might use you for bicep curls."
"Ha ha, that... that wouldn't happen, right?!"
At Hank's dry joke, Marvin forced out a nervous laugh, then couldn't laugh anymore.
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