Chapter 4: Daily Training

 Chapter 4: Daily Training

Liang Yuan's gaze lingered on her for a moment before shifting to her eyes. He smiled and said, "Sister Mei, what do you think the time is? This torrential rain has been going on for half a year, and the floodwaters have risen ten stories high. Who in their right mind still has any food left?"

"If you don't have any, then my family doesn't either."

Yang Mei's face instantly went pale. She pleaded, "Little brother, Sister knows you must have food at your place. I can even smell the meat. I'm at my wit's end here... just give me a small bowl of rice, that's all. I won't even ask for any side dishes..."

Liang Yuan shook his head. "Sister Mei, you should go back. You at least have a place to live. Go look at the people in the corridor—they don't even have shelter, let alone food. Dressed like that, you can't let those people upstairs see you, or else..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but Yang Mei's face instantly turned ashen.

With half a year of isolation from the outside world, social order had long since collapsed. The wicked were running rampant, and among the people upstairs, some had already descended into savagery. Through her peephole, she had personally witnessed a female neighbor from the seventh floor being pinned down by three men in the hallway and assaulted. The neighbor's desperate screams still echoed in her mind at random moments at night.

The thought made Yang Mei tremble. She hurried back to her own door, and after a series of frantic knocks, a man opened it.

"Well? Did you get any?"

The man asked urgently.

Yang Mei stammered, trembling, "He... he wouldn't lend any to me."

The man immediately flew into a rage. "How could you be so useless? If he won't lend it to you, couldn't you beg him for it?"

"I... I..."

Clang! Clang! Clang! Suddenly, a banging sound came from the rooftop, startling both of them.

Yang Mei hurriedly squeezed back into the room, and the man quickly locked the door behind her.

Just then, a burly man rushed up the stairs. Hearing the door click shut, he began to curse loudly, "Fuck you, Li Zhiqiang! If you've got the balls, keep hiding! Let's see how long you can last!"

The man rushed over and kicked fiercely at Yang Mei's apartment door several times.

Li Zhiqiang was Yang Mei's husband, and this man clearly knew him.

Liang Yuan had long since closed his inner door and, from start to finish, never even opened the outer security door.

Listening to the curses from outside, he waited. After a while, it seemed the man was loitering around his own doorstep again. Eventually, he left.

Liang Yuan silently set down the nail gun and turned back to the dining table to continue his meal. But he knew these people were at their breaking point. Hunger would drive anyone mad.

After finishing his meal and washing the dishes, Liang Yuan began his daily workout. First was strength training: five hundred push-ups daily. Next was cardio. Without a treadmill, he opted for jump rope to improve his cardiovascular endurance. Following that was marksmanship practice. He didn't have any bows or arrows, only a slingshot he had originally bought as a Children's Day gift for his young nephew. After finishing with the slingshot, he moved on to spear fighting. By "spear technique," he meant a steel pipe with a fruit knife welded to the end—a makeshift long spear, of sorts. The practice consisted of only the most basic movements: thrust, jab, flick, parry, block, grasp, twist, scoop, press, chop, snap, and flourish. He had learned these all from online videos.

Logically, in a time of such scarce resources, it wasn't ideal to be expending so much energy. But for one, he was incredibly bored at home and couldn't bear to waste electricity, so practicing was a way to kill time. For another, with the state of the world, it was clear things weren't going to improve. Those vicious neighbors outside could storm into his home at any moment. He had to maintain his physical fitness and ensure he had the means to defend himself. The slingshot trained him for ranged attacks, while the spear was for close-quarters combat. Push-ups and jump rope corresponded to his strength and cardio training, respectively. One enhanced his muscle's explosive power, while the other increased his lung capacity. With the world outside submerged in floodwaters, if he was ever forced to swim, a strong cardiovascular system would be essential.

In addition to these, he also focused heavily on pull-ups. With the floodwaters still rising, there was no solid ground to be found outside. The only direction for survival was upward—to climb the tall buildings. Therefore, he had to diligently train his upper body strength.

After practicing for these past few months, he was beginning to see results in all these areas. With the slingshot, his accuracy was over ninety percent within ten meters, sixty percent within twenty meters, and dropped to fifty percent beyond thirty meters. His spear technique was fluid, with a full set of movements flowing like water. He had practiced the offensive moves—thrust, jab, flick, and parry—the most diligently. Now, he could pierce his home's two-centimeter-thick wooden cabinet door clean through with a single thrust, demonstrating considerable power. In his upper body training, he discovered a natural talent for fitness. In just these few short months, he could easily crank out fifty to sixty pull-ups and push past one hundred with a determined effort. He had even mastered the muscle-up, capable of easily doing thirty to forty in a row. His cardio training was also highly effective. Every day before washing up, he practiced holding his breath. His current best record was three minutes and thirty seconds. Never underestimate that figure. An average person, without any training, would consider a one-minute breath-hold to be quite good. With practice and decent natural lung capacity, two minutes is achievable. But anything over three minutes is already in the realm of professional training. Liang Yuan had read online that professional divers could supposedly hold their breath for up to ten minutes, though he didn't know if that was true. For now, three minutes and thirty seconds was his limit.

By the time he finished all his training, it was nearly noon. He took a quick shower. He bathed with the seawater from outside, and after heating and sterilizing it, it was perfectly fine for washing. He had seen some neighbors even showering in the hallway with unheated water without any issues.

After washing up, it was already one or two in the afternoon. He ate a pack of instant noodles and began to consider his plans for the rest of the day. According to his original plan, he was supposed to spend the afternoon monitoring the radio for any news from the outside. He also planned to read some books on basic electrical engineering. Although the power grid was down, generators were still functional. If he ever managed to leave this place, Liang Yuan wanted to take a generator with him. Without electricity, human civilization would truly take a giant step backward. Learning about electrical systems would also allow him to repair simple appliances in the future. Of course, all of that was for the future.

But for now, he had no intention of continuing his reading.

Liang Yuan looked at the newly appeared lottery system, a thoughtful glint in his eye.

"The system is the key to my survival from now on. I have to find a way to get enough points."

"The system requires points that can only be earned by killing mutated creatures. Maybe it's time I tried going outside to see what's out there."