Chapter 919: Muscular Girl

This operation was far more than she had anticipated; even suppressed, the rules of the Painted World kept trying to rebound to their default values, so she had to modify while using data streams to suppress the rules' rebound, feeling like she was simultaneously playing ten games of Tetris, each set to maximum speed.

The changes on the panel were as follows: the numbers in the basic attribute columns were jumping up at a visible speed, from C to B to A and then to some levels she wasn't sure what letter to use.

In the skill column, the originally gray entries lit up one after another.

Those skills originally marked as 'sealed' turned from gray to gold, one after another.

She dragged the last parameter to the position she wanted, then stepped back and reviewed her modifications.

All the numbers on the panel were flashing, the newly written parameters were undergoing final adjustment with the rules of the Painted World.

Occasionally a few numbers would briefly rebound to their default values, then be pushed back by her data stream; after several back-and-forth saws, they finally stabilized.

Heimu turned off the panel and stepped back a few paces.

Hua's body underwent a sudden change.

It began with trembling, starting at her fingertips and spreading along her forearms to her shoulders and torso, as if an invisible current were traveling stepwise along her nerves.

Then her muscles rapidly swelled.

The process was absurdly fast.

Hua's figure was originally that of a slender, tall seventeen-year-old girl, with smooth but unremarkable arm lines and narrow, flat shoulders.

But now her biceps were bulging at a geometric rate, straining the uniform's sleeves to their limit.

Her shoulders widened, her back thickened, and a three-dimensional back-muscle outline protruded from her white uniform shirt.

Her height also shot up, her spine like a stretched spring, each vertebra emitting a faint clicking sound.

The hem of her pants was pushed up several inches.

The only fortunate thing was the uniform's surprisingly good quality; despite this degree of muscle swelling it didn't tear, merely being stretched tight enough that every muscle contour was clearly visible beneath the fabric.

Heimu stood in place, his dark-purple eyes fixed unblinking on Hua's back, the curve of his mouth completely frozen on his face.

Her mind was simultaneously running several parallel complaint threads, each jammed at her throat, wanting to be the first to burst out.

Aha!

First: she only wanted to modify a panel capable of fighting a Herrscher; she swore she only changed numbers, she hadn't touched any parameters related to 'muscle volume', 'physique', or 'art style'.

Absolutely not.

Second: this effect can no longer be explained by mere data modification; it's the product of some existence forcibly bending the underlying code, and this manipulation style is so familiar it makes her want to roll her eyes.

Third: a two-meter-tall Hua, her whole body bulging with muscle, looking from behind like a bodybuilding champion, stood at the edge of the Apocalyptic Wasteland, assuming a standard horse stance, ready to charge forward and clash with the Flame Herrscher.

If this scene were placed in a hot-blooded manga, readers' blood would boil.

Faced with it, she just wanted to cover her forehead.

Hua turned her head to glance at Heimu.

That face was still Hua's; the structure of her features hadn't changed, her ice-blue eyes remained those ice-blue eyes, and her gray-blue low ponytail remained that low ponytail.

But her expression was now completely unlike her own.

It was a cold, oppressive calm, her lips pressed into a straight line, her chin slightly tightened.

She spoke a sentence; the voice was Hua's, but the timbre had an added layer of low, thick depth.

That voice made the surrounding air tremble slightly!

"Teacher. I'll be right back!"

She turned back to face the still-burning pit ahead; that mass was slowly turning to lock onto her Flame Herrscher.

Then she took a sudden step forward.

The road surface was directly pressed into a shallow depression; the surrounding flames automatically split to either side as she approached, as if pushed aside by an invisible force field, forming a flame-free circular area around her body.

Heimu stood by a fallen utility pole in the distance, watching Hua draw nearer to the humanoid flame at the pit's bottom.

She took a deep breath and slipped her hands back into her pockets.

All right!

Muscular girl version Hua versus the Flame Herrscher.

All she could do now was stand at a safe distance, observe the battle's development, and confirm whether her modifications could withstand the Painted World's rules' continual backlash in actual combat.

If the panel suddenly rebounded to its default values during battle, Hua's muscles would collapse right before the Herrscher; that image would be unimaginably worse than the muscle swelling itself—by a factor of ten thousand.

Hopefully Aha's 'joyification' only tweaked the appearance of the modifications, without touching their core stability.

Hopefully!

She repeated those two words in her heart, and the corner of her mouth twitched.

The Flame Herrscher at the pit's bottom moved.

The humanoid flame slowly raised one hand, fingers spread, condensing in its palm a high-speed spinning incandescent white fireball about the size of a washbasin.

The fireball's surface temperature was so high that the surrounding air crackled with popping sounds, and its light bathed the entire pit bottom in a harsh white.

Then it hurled the fireball toward Hua.

The fireball's trajectory through the air left a twisted heat-wave trail, scorching the gravel it passed over until it glowed red.

Hua did not dodge.

She merely raised her right hand, meeting the fireball head-on with a simple, direct motion.

At the instant her palm touched the fireball, the flames exploded directly in her palm, orange-red light scattering outward, a heat wave spreading in all directions and blowing away nearby rubble several meters.

Yet her palm remained unmoving; the fireball in her grasp writhed like a snake seized at its seventh inch, then she crushed it outright.

The fire shattered into countless tiny sparks that fell from between her fingers; she turned her palm over to inspect her hand—completely unharmed!

Then Hua accelerated!

She switched directly from a slow walk to a sprint; as she pushed off, the ground beneath her foot exploded into a washbasin-sized crater, sending gravel and asphalt chunks flying behind her.

Her afterimage trailed a straight gray-blue line in the air, her speed so great that a muffled sonic boom sounded in the atmosphere.

The Flame Herrscher was obviously startled by this sudden speed increase; both hands rose simultaneously, spewing two thick fire pillars from its palms that crossed to sweep across Hua's charging path.

Hua, moving at high speed, ducked sideways; a Flame pillar swept past above her head, scorching several strands of hair that had floated up.

She did not slow down; instead, while ducking sideways, she pushed off the ground with her left hand for leverage, launching herself sideways, sliding beneath the Flame pillar to appear before the Herrscher, then she drove her right fist upward, landing a solid blow on the Herrscher's chin.

Bang!