Chapter 2: Home.
The northern base, Ice City, was a rectangular parallelepiped land that was about 100 miles in length and 80 miles in width. And although the north part of the base only occupied one-fifth of the total land, it accommodated for half of the city's population. Reason being that it was the civilian area.
In Ice City where every inch of land and every piece of money was precious, those who lived in bungalows were considered rich while those who lived in tall buildings were poor. Why? In order to make full use of space, to put it simply, the civilian area used dozens of square 'rooms' and stacked them on top of each other. Therefore, every family lived in a small space.
But no matter how crowded they were, the people would not leave Ice City because leaving the protection of the tall city walls meant that they’d have to fend for themselves in the outside world where mutant beasts were rampant. The outside was a restricted area for ordinary people because they would just die. Only powerful warriors could survive outside.
Lin Zhen walked through an alley and, according to his memories, quickly found his own residential complex.
"This building has 30 floors. In order to save electricity and space there is no elevator, meaning the higher the floor, the poorer the people living there. My family lives on the 28th floor..."
"Daddy Lin Liye should already be home at this time. He usually sells breakfast downstairs in the community so he's probably preparing tomorrow's soy milk and buns right now."
"Mum should be doing handicrafts. She has no job so she can only earn a little by making hand-made embroidery. The low income is already pitiful as it is, but here I am consuming the money for my schooling."
Lin Zhen walked into the dim corridor and walked towards the 28th floor step by step.
"In my last life, in order to get my parents to move out of this slum, I tried my best to practice martial arts. Although I passed the high school entrance examination, I was distracted by Ouyang Yu and was abruptly delayed for half a year before I managed to join the Bikong Martial Arts Dojo. It was only a year later that I was able to let my parents leave this community. But at that time, my parents had already gotten sick due to fatigue and they never managed to recover from it."
"This time, it will definitely not be the same result as last time..."
Lin Zhen thought, unknowingly, he had already arrived at their door.
It's been a long time since he last saw his parents, so Lin Zhen was a little excited.
However, he stabilized his emotions quickly. After all, he had lived for a long time already and was practically an old man in a teen's body. Much more, he had already been through so many things, hence he was able to easily control his emotions.
He reached into his pocket and took out a simple key.
"This kind of anti-theft door is said to be a product of the A.D. calendar period. It can only be used to defend against ordinary people though. Anyone who knows a little bit of unlocking skills can bypass the lock. This type of security is used in slums, those wealthy families have long abandoned it. The advanced sensor door developed by the Science and Technology Department of the city is now available."
He inserted the key into the keyhole and opened the door and the scent of food wafted over to his nose.
In the cramped room, his father Lin Liye, was using an old-fashioned soymilk machine to squeeze soy milk. This machine looks ancient to Lin Zhen, but it is the hope of the family. Without this machine, I am afraid that Lin Zhen would've not been able to study that easily.
His mother was cooking with a gas stove, and there was a carp stewing in the pot. But Lin Zhen knew that although this fish was bought by his mother through her embroidery money, the two elders were reluctant to eat it for themselves...
"Dad, Mom, I'm back." Lin Zhen tried his best to smile.
"My son is back, hurry up and wash your hands, your mother is stewing fish, dinner is about to start." Lin Liye smiled and greeted his son. His son is their family's hope and although Lin Liye prefers Lin Zhen to become a scientific researcher in the army, he knew that his son wanted to become a warrior.
Mother Li Qin even walked over and took the initiative to take off his outer clothes: "You're tired so take a good rest. Your exam is also near, but don't put too much pressure on yourself."
"Mom, dad, don't worry, I'm fine, the exam is nothing to me."
Lin Zhen quickly returned to normal (emotion-wise). He smiled and took off his shoes and went into the house. He wanted to help his parents with their work, but his parents refused and instead let him clean up first.
Their home is only forty square meters. The living room and kitchen plus his parents' room are actually the same area. Only a small bathroom and a small bedroom was separated out. It was Lin Zhen's private space.
Back in his bed that he hadn't seen for a long time, Lin Zhen laid down and grinned despite the bed's rigidness. Although he had indeed experienced a ton, it was true that he hadn’t slept in this kind of bed in a long time.
It would take a while before dinner started so the first thing Lin Zhen did was examine his own situation.
Lin Zhen still remembers the specific situation when he graduated from high school. His grades in culture classes were good, and there is nothing difficult in it. Historical knowledge, including the history of the A.D., followed by the divine change and the birth of divine change calendar. So on and so forth. Lin Zhen isn't troubled by simply memorising these.
There was also the knowledge of mutant beasts, but for this topic, Lin Zhen knew it better than anyone else. No problems with that.
The most important thing is the physical data and pass the set benchmarks. After graduating from high school, the major martial arts Dojos have strict standards for recruiting students.
The three physical data are punch strength, punch speed, and nerve response. The benchmark for punch strength is 200kg, so if it is below this standard, you are unqualified.
The punch speed requires five punches, that are not less than 80% of the maximum strength, per second.
If your punch strength is 200kg, then you should hit five punches of no less than 160kg in one second for it to be considered an effective punch.
Nerve/neural response refers to the evasive action that can be made when encountering an attack. 0.1 second is the passing line. If you do not meet this, you are unqualified.
The martial arts dojos select students based on these three criteria. If all the benchmarks are met, the martial arts dojo will basically accept the student. The cultural classes are only an aid, as of course, one should not be too ignorant of the world. After all, basic knowledge still must be learnt.
If one criteria is not up to standard, but another criteria is particularly outstanding, one could still be recruited.
Lin Zhen remembers that his left punch currently is at 206kg, while his right punch is at 232kg. His punch speed is currently at 5.3 per second, and his nerve response is at 0.096. All of which barely pass.
It is precisely because of this that even though he has reached the standard, he has not received too much attention from the martial arts dojos and so Ouyang Yu succeeded in sabotaging him. If he is talented enough, then even with Ouyang Yu's intervention, it's useless.
"If I want to change my destiny, I must do something in this graduation exam. And I can't let Ouyang Yu succeed."
"There are still three days to go. Within these three days, I must improve my strength, at least to the point where the martial arts dojos will not buy into Ouyang Yu's talks. This should be my primary goal for now."
"As for Ouyang Yu himself, I will play with him sooner or later."
"And then there's... Spirit."
(TL: Hello, I forgot to mention this on Chapter 1 so I'll do it now, update schedule is every other day/once per two days. Thank you for the support!)
2 Comments
Thank you for the chapter
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