Chapter 10

Translator: Noodletown Translations  Editor: Noodletown Translations

Five scoops. It only took Mu Fan five scoops to finish an entire meal box. He could feel his bones becoming lighter as he sensed the thrill from his stomach quickly absorbing the nutrients from the food. It was like a dry farm finally absorbing nutritious water.

Mu Fan’s eyes reddened as he stared at the next meal box, wondering why he didn’t come here earlier. He was so focused that he didn’t realize the people around him were starting to notice him.

He finished the second meal box in four scoops and finished the third meal with another four scoops. That slim figure of his was like a black hole; his stomach didn’t even bulge a bit from three boxes of compressed nutritious meals.

A bald guy who sat across from him was just halfway through his first meal box as he ate one spoonful at a time. His spoon froze in mid-air as he watched Mu Fan finish his three meal boxes in an instant. Mu Fan only paused a bit before he stood up and grabbed himself a big cup of water. Gulp! He then chugged down the water and walked straight towards the meal counter again.

He even drank a large cup of water! Isn’t he going to feel bloated from that? The bald guy’s jaw dropped. It only took him a few minutes… No, one minute to finish three meal boxes! And with that much water, the meal will quickly expand in his stomach! That should send people to the emergency treatment room!

“Ten boxes please, thanks,” Mu Fan said as he stared at the dining staff member in the white hat with desire in his eyes.

The dining staff had just handed another person two meal boxes and was about to wipe his sweat when he saw Mu Fan standing in front of him again.

“Didn’t I give you three already? Finish that before you come again!” He sounded slightly angry. Only about a minute or so has passed since I gave this kid food, and he’s back here again. Is he playing with me?

“I did finish them. Please give me another ten boxes, thank you,” Mu Fan said respectfully. Even though he came from a poor background, his adoptive parents had taught him well to always appreciate others and to treat people with respect.

The dining staff with the white hat looked over Mu Fan’s shoulder and saw three empty meal boxes by where he had sat, and next to that was a bald guy with a spoon in his hand and his jaw dropped.

Mu Fan’s actions already attracted more attention from that group of people; they originally thought that he was going to make a fool out of himself in about ten minutes, but they just sat down when they saw him up at the counter again.

The dining staff couldn’t really wrap his mind around the situation, but he handed over more meal boxes blankly as he reminded Mu Fan out of kindness. “I’ll give you another three boxes. It’s not good to eat too much, you know.”

“It’s missing seven more.” Mu Fan stood still and continued to stare at the dining staff with a white hat with desire in his eyes.

“Oh… Alright…” The dining staff felt uneasy from Mu Fan’s glare and handed him the rest of the nutritious meal boxes in a stiff manner.

Then, Mu Fan held the ten boxes in his arms and turned around as he was about to head back. Only now did he notice that everyone was standing still in the cafeteria and staring at him. Seeing the pairs of eyes looking in his direction, Mu Fan thought that they wanted his meal boxes. He protectively tightened his arms around the meal boxes, telling others that those were his and that they couldn’t steal these boxes from him.

Everyone was in shock, especially Jereff as he looked down at his two empty meal boxes and then looked back up at Mu Fan’s half-meter tall stack of meal boxes; he suddenly felt bloated.

“What. The. Hell!”

“Is he even human?!”

“Is he a star beast in disguise with a sheet of human skin? Look at how skinny he is, and yet he’s eating more than Jereff!”

“He definitely won’t finish,” someone said confidently to themselves.

“But what if he really can finish all that?” a person next to him reminded kindly.

“Huh? There’s no way!!” a few other people murmured quietly in disbelief.

Mu Fan returned to his seat and organized his ten meal boxes into two rows. He was just about to take a bite when he saw the bald guy who sat diagonally across from him staring at him with his mouth open. Instinctively, he pulled his meal boxes even closer to himself.

…

Five minutes later, the crowd in the cafeteria was sent into an uproar.

“Oh my god!”

“He really finished!”

Mu Fan laid back onto his chair as he touched his stomach out of satisfaction. His entire body was feeling warm, and he felt like today was a day most worthy of remembering. He even felt happier than when he had picked up the black egg. That black egg needed him to work hard to earn money for an optical computer, but today was the first time in his life that he experienced what it was like to be full.

Burp! Mu Fan let out a quiet burp and squinted his eyes together as it felt great to have energy in his limbs! He clenched his fists as he never felt this strength before; he felt like there was endless energy within his body, ready to be used!

The stacked-up meal boxes on the table shocked everyone, including Jereff.

“Wow, boy! That’s amazing. I, Jereff, always believed in one rule, that those who have a big appetite must be bad*sses! I don’t know how badass you are in other areas, but I’ll accept that you’re better than me in appetite!” Jereff said as he felt defeated when he looked at the dismal five empty meal boxes in front of him in comparison to the 13 empty boxes in front of Mu Fan.

“Haha!” Mu Fan stood up and stretched as he said, “I’m finally full! So, this is what it feels like to be full! Such a great feeling!”

The sound of joints cracking came from Mu Fan’s body as he squeezed his fists and moved his arms around. He didn’t notice that everyone in the cafeteria stared at his flat stomach as if they were staring at a vicious beast.

Mu Fan walked out of the cafeteria nonchalantly, completely unaware of the impact he made to the crowd. The only thing different was that he walked slower in a noticeably happy mood compared to when he entered the cafeteria.

…

Ten minutes ago, the maintenance staff was doing daily maintenance in training court No. 5 and one of them walked towards the target punching machine Mu Fan was at.

“Huh? Why was this hydraulic pressure switch turned off?” The maintenance staff shook his head as he looked at the irreversible punch mark left on the target. “Who was dumb enough to punch this hard on a machine that wasn’t switched on? This is equivalent to punching four tonnes of hard steel; he must be in the treatment room by now. Well, I have to change this target into a new one,” he murmured to himself as he turned on the hydraulic pressure switch.

Whoosh!

Then, he changed the target that had a punch mark on it and went back to doing his work.

This small event was like a drop of water that fell into a pond. Without generating many ripples, the water surface returned to its usual calmness.

By the time Mu Fan walked out of the cafeteria with a full stomach, there were already some customers arriving at the Budokan for training. It was still part of the lunch break, so he touched the digital screen in the hallway and read up on the facility introduction of the Budokan.

[First floor: Training courts No. 1 to No. 9. Equipment includes: combat robots, 4T hydraulic punching targets, 1A standard strength analyzers (with an upper limit of level-20 at 5,350 kg of explosive force in punches), iron-sandbags, muscle training machines, gravitational room (adjustable gravitational force from 1X to 4X, cost: 100 star coins/hour)…]

Mu Fan’s eyes brightened up as he felt the urge to try all the equipment after watching the videos and reading the texts, especially the gravitational room at the end of the video. But, he quickly gave up on that thought as it would cost him a day’s worth of wages in a few hours.

After going through the rest of the introduction, Mu Fan had a rough idea of the facilities in the Budokan. The training court on the first floor was mainly for staff and regular customers. The second floor was for beginner-VIP customers, and every training court had an ID-recognition device and was booked for one person at a time. The third floor was for advanced-VIP customers, and the size of every training court doubled those on the second floor and each had a practice partner. The customers could choose a specific practice partner for training. The equipment on the third floor was also more advanced than the first and second floors. For example, the adjustable range for the gravitational room on the third floor was 1X to 8X, but the price was also unbelievably high. Therefore, those who could afford to train on the third-floor were definitely either individuals with a high-status or possessed great wealth within District 22.

Mu Fan shook his head and stopped thinking further. Then, he walked back to the training court. The maintenance staff had finished daily maintenance and had gone for their lunch break, so the training court was empty.

Mu Fan walked from one area to another and occasionally tried one of the pieces of equipment. He felt full after lunch, and he had an endless stream of energy that he wanted to release on something. Mu Fan returned to the target punching machine that he was using before while zoning out, and he held up his right fist and punched towards the target with the force generated from his shoulder. A loud thud sounded as a response, and he felt the machine move back slightly to absorb the force.

Was this broken? Mu Fan pondered as he didn’t get the hard feedback like he did before. While he thought the machine was broken, he also didn’t find it thrilling. He quickly looked around and walked away when he saw that no one was watching; he couldn’t afford to pay for this machine with his tiny salary if it was damaged.

A huge strength analyzer was ten meters away from Mu Fan, and its presence was like a planet in the universe. It was laying there quietly, but it wasn’t to be reckoned with.

Mu Fan glanced at it as he walked by and quickly confirmed that this was a strength analyzer. It was four times the size of the target punching machine.

This shouldn’t be damaged, right? With the thought that the strength analyzer wouldn’t break like the target punching machine, Mu Fan took his stance, concentrated, and punched with his right fist straight at the analyzer like a cannonball that was shot out.

After a loud thud, a set of data appeared on the electronic screen: 3,597 kg!

Level-17!!!