Chapter 3: An Ordinary Daily Cultivation Routine

I arrived at a small restaurant at the entrance of the residential complex and ordered a serving of boiled beef. I couldn't tell if it was real beef or not, but I was so hungry that I just wanted to eat meat. I paired it with the restaurant's complimentary pickled radish cubes and polished off seven bowls of rice before I felt full. Hmm... I ate a bit too much of the radish cubes; the owner stared at me for a long time, probably afraid I'd finish off his small bucket of them. Hmm... I'll come back to eat at his place next time and eat more of the free radish cubes.

After the meal, I took a walk around the complex to familiarize myself with the area, then bought a large amount of food, which successfully halved my savings. After all, cooking for myself is much cheaper than eating out, especially when I'm strapped for cash like this; every little bit helps. As for the taste, that's secondary. Although my cooking skills aren't great and can't compare to restaurants, it's at least edible and doesn't qualify as "dark cuisine."

After shopping, I went straight home, too lazy to wander around anymore. I'd already gotten a general understanding of this world from the internet; on the surface, it looks about the same as my original world. As for whether there's some deep "inner world" or something, I haven't discovered it yet, and even if there were, it's not something you could find just by walking around and looking.

Once home, I started training without a moment's delay. When I got tired from the physical training method, I'd switch to the mental training method to recover. After recovering, I'd eat a little something, rest, and then continue training.

Sure enough, only visible gains can give a person the motivation to strive for progress. One of the functions of the attribute panel is that it allows me to see the harvest after my efforts. In this situation, I don't need anyone else to urge me on; I'm full of drive, consciously working hard and consciously cultivating.

Although I thought about training constantly except when sleeping, I'm not a true cultivator in seclusion who is oblivious to the passage of time. Physical fatigue can be recovered from, but the monotony of the mind is a real test for a person over long periods.

So, Zhao Lingyu set a training schedule for himself: a session of physical training plus mental training in the morning, then a rest before cooking and eating, followed by browsing the internet to familiarize myself with the world and look for anything unusual. In the afternoon, another session of physical training plus mental training, then cooking and eating, followed by a rest to watch movies or TV shows from this different world to relax for a while. Finally, one last session of training at night before going to sleep—balancing work and rest.

With this fulfilling arrangement where I make progress every day, although I don't have that feeling of "not knowing what year it is," I'm also not as sensitive to the passage of time. The key is that I can see the progress every day, so it doesn't feel as agonizing as a regular job; instead, I actually find some joy in it.

Unknowingly, twenty days passed. During these twenty days, other than going out once to buy food, Zhao Lingyu stayed home and trained. After this last shopping trip, besides the 500 yuan left for next month's rent, I only had two hundred yuan left.

Now that the food is almost gone, this kind of seclusion-like life is coming to an end.

"System, open the attribute panel."

"Ding, the attribute panel has been opened. Host's attribute details are as follows:"

Physique: 8

Speed: 8

Intelligence: 8

Techniques: Physical Training Method, Mental Training Method."

Eight times the strength, speed, and reaction of an ordinary person, and under the training of the methods provided by the system, I can perfectly control my own power. I can reach the point of "lifting heavy as if it were light," so I don't have to worry about accidentally crushing a bowl while eating, nor do I have to worry about accidentally crushing my phone because I couldn't control my strength while using it.

Besides that, my physique has become much sturdier; even wearing loose clothes, you can vaguely see the muscles on my body. It's literally visible progress in getting stronger.

Zhao Lingyu himself feels this the most deeply. From the beginning, when doing one set of the physical training method left me panting for breath, to when my attributes reached 5 points and I could do two sets in the same amount of time it took for the first, up to now, when I can complete three sets in a row.

After twenty days of hard work, looking at the gains from my efforts, the sense of achievement is maxed out.

Another thing is that I haven't had any luck finding abnormal events on the internet. I don't know if they are hidden too deep or what; I can only find some dubious stories that sound like web novels and are clearly unreliable. Therefore, even though Zhao Lingyu plans to go out and make money immediately, I don't dare to show off my strength too extravagantly. After all, Zhao Lingyu's predecessor lived here for over a decade and knew quite a few people. If someone discovered this exaggerated strength, saying I was "born with divine strength" wouldn't hold up—I never showed it in all those years before.

If there really were an "inner world" and I were discovered and recruited by a department like the Dragon Group, that would be fine, but what if there isn't? This possibility isn't zero. According to what Zhao Lingyu has looked up online these days, it's possible this world really doesn't have any extraordinary power right now. You have to know that Zhao Lingyu was a programmer in his original world; although not some top-tier hacker, my technical skills in this area were better than the average person's. If even I couldn't find any events related to the extraordinary, it's very likely this world truly lacks such power at the moment.

So, in this situation, I must be cautious about revealing my power. After all, eight times the strength of an ordinary person can't stop a machine gun, an RPG, or other high-tech weapons. If I were caught and interrogated about how I got this power, would I have to reveal the secret of the system? Or hand over the Physical Training Method and Mental Training Method? Stop joking, how could that be? People are selfish, and Zhao Lingyu is no exception. How could I let others know about the things I rely on for survival? At the very least, I have to train until I can take a nuke to the face without my defenses breaking before I can consider revealing a little bit.

So, after thinking this through, Zhao Lingyu decided that until I can resist a nuke with my bare body, I should try my best not to do anything like "manifesting holiness before others." Of course, if my own safety is threatened, I'll still have to fight back.

"However, this world shouldn't be that simple, right? After all, the system said it would issue tasks from time to time. It's impossible that it would issue a task for me to bully ordinary people. Maybe one day, this world will suddenly experience a spiritual energy recovery, or a portal to another world will open, or a meteor shower will fall, and extraordinary or eerie things will start appearing. This situation isn't impossible."

If that's the case, I have to work even harder at training. In case some god wakes up and wants to destroy the world, even if I can't save the world, I must have the power to protect myself. After all, no one stipulated that spiritual energy recovery must start from low to high, from little to much, or from a small area to a large one. What if spiritual energy recovers tomorrow and a world-destroying evil god crawls out the day after? That would be ridiculous.

After thinking about this, although Zhao Lingyu immediately wanted to bury his head in cultivation, a person still has to eat to live, so making money is the top priority right now.

"Sigh, I don't know when I'll be able to cultivate to the point of 'inedia' or absorbing the essence of the sun and moon so I don't have to eat. But if I don't get some money in these next few days, I'll really be sleeping in the open and drinking the northwest wind."

I say I want to make money, but other than getting a job, I don't have any good ideas. After all, most ways to make money quickly and without cost are written in the criminal law. But if I go out to work, with my current high school diploma, I can't find a good job. The money I'd earn wouldn't even be enough to cover food; after all, my strength is growing, and my appetite is increasing. In the last two days of staying home and training, I've started eating a whole pot of rice with a bag of pickled mustard greens. Eating just that, even if I eat a lot, is enough to fill me up, but it clearly doesn't keep up with my consumption. It might not be obvious in just a few days, but if it goes on for a long time, who knows what kind of problems might arise? What if my energy can't keep up, and I train in vain without increasing my strength or attributes?

As for going back to being a programmer, although the salary is still decent, the problem is that I don't even have a degree now. Whether I can find a company to hire me is one thing, and the other is that Zhao Lingyu really doesn't want to enjoy that kind of "blessing" of a job again. I finally got my hair back; what if it all falls out again? I only got my hair back because I transmigrated; if it falls out next time, can I transmigrate again? Moreover, the reason I was able to transmigrate to this world was because of too many "blessings"—my fortune was thick but my life was thin, leading to sudden death from overwork. Although my current body could handle 007... uh... 007 might be too much, but 996 shouldn't be a big problem. But even if I went back to being a programmer and did 996 every day, where would I find the time to train? If I ended up dying suddenly again while training, that would be it. So, let others enjoy that kind of "blessing"; I have no such luck to enjoy it.

"Damn it, if all else fails, I'll use this face of mine and these eight-pack abs I've recently trained to find a rich woman and live off her. Hmm... preferably one of those thirty-year-old 'royal sisters' in black silk stockings. If that doesn't work, a rich 'loli' is fine too."