Previously on Starting to Gain Experience from Push-Ups...
Fang Cheng tracked an invisible child who evaded mutant beasts and led him to a collapsed subway entrance. There, the child met three figures in makeshift survival suits, armed with crude weapons. Fang Cheng observed them from above, ready to act.
"Pike, regulate your breathing! Your filter is running on empty!"
The burliest man, his firearm heavily modified, spoke in a low, commanding tone.
His voice, muffled by the mask, was steady and experienced.
He clasped the child's shoulder, drawing him into the glow of a cold light tube. "I sent you for perimeter recon, why the panic? Did you run into a Black Monster?"
"Black Monster?"
Fang Cheng, positioned above, heard the term and his eyebrows twitched.
From the man's taut muscles and the involuntary upward aim of his weapon,
it was clear that the so-called "Black Monster" was a truly dreadful entity in this desolate wasteland.
"No... no Black Monster, Uncle Kael."
The child, Pike, shook his head vehemently, the filter canister on his mask rattling with the movement.
He swallowed, his voice quavering undeniably. "It was a person... a very peculiar-looking person!"
"A person?"
The slender woman beside them, holding a steel spear reversed, stepped forward.
Her voice, transmitted through her mask, held a frigid edge. "Pike, did you inhale too much sulfurous gas and start seeing things? In these deep radiation zones, who else besides us hunters from Iron City could possibly be moving alone at night?"
"It really was a person, Sister Ira!"
Pike gestured with urgency, trying to convey what he had witnessed. "He wasn't wearing any protective gear or a mask! His skin was incredibly pale, and he was taller than Uncle Kael."
"Furthermore... when I saw him, he was sitting by a fire, eating meat!"
At the mention of "eating meat," Pike visibly gulped.
Even through the mask, Fang Cheng could sense the child's mouth watering uncontrollably.
"No protective gear? Eating raw mutant flesh in the radiation zone?"
The third man, who had remained silent until now, let out a low, chilling chuckle.
He leaned against the wreckage of a ticket machine, a long rifle with crude sights in his hands. "Pike, even if you're fabricating a story, at least make it credible."
"Never mind consuming unrefined, irradiated meat; merely standing on the surface without a mask for half an hour would turn your lungs to bloody mush. You're just starving, aren't you?"
"Roken has a point," the woman, Ira, said, patting Pike's head. "You must have mistaken a recently deceased mutant carcass for a living person."
"I wasn't mistaken!"
Pike stamped his foot in frustration, turning to their leader. "Uncle Kael, he was definitely eating meat! A large chunk, cooked and dripping with grease!"
"Could he be... from some other survivor enclave? Or perhaps the legendary...?"
"Enough!"
Kael cut Pike off abruptly.
He tightened his grip on the heavy machine gun, a cold glint appearing beneath his mask. "Whether it's a lunatic from another tribe or a figment of your hunger-addled mind, our focus remains singular: our quarry."
Kael surveyed the other three, his voice resonating with grim determination. "Folks, the Iron City Tribe has been subsisting on synthetic fungal paste for two weeks now. Old Grego won't survive the coming winter. The Savior's light remains a distant hope in this hellscape; we can only depend on ourselves."
"If we fail to bring back enough meat tonight to sustain the whole settlement for a week, none of us hunters will make it back alive..."
High above in the darkness, Fang Cheng listened intently to the exchange among these denizens of another world.
"Iron City," "fungal paste," "Savior," "Hunter"...
Each fragment of information rapidly coalesced in his mind, sketching a rough portrait of the natives' desperate existence.
In this utterly ruined, post-apocalyptic world, they scurried like vermin within an underground refuge known as "Iron City."
The dual gravity of the surface, the toxic atmosphere, and lingering radiation forced them to don cumbersome protective suits for any expedition outside.
Their dire food scarcity compelled these "hunters" to risk their lives, pursuing mutated beasts within the irradiated zones.
"Pike, report the location. Where did you scout the prey?"
Kael inquired swiftly.
"It's... at the intersection two streets north," Pike finally managed to breathe, reporting in a low voice. "A Thorn Armor Pig is foraging for moss in the ruins there. It's large enough to feed us for many days."
"Thorn Armor Pig? Excellent."
Kael operated the rifle bolt, producing a sharp metallic click.
He transitioned instantly into combat readiness, issuing precise commands: "Standard procedure: Roken, lure the beast towards this collapsed pit. Ira, restrict its movement; prevent it from breaking our formation."
"Little Pike, you'll provide stealth support, securing our evacuation route."
"Everyone comprehend? Prepare for action!"
"Understood!"
The three scattered with practiced efficiency.
Fang Cheng remained motionless in the shadows of a load-bearing pillar, his breathing undisturbed.
His sharp eyes fixed intently on the hunter known as Roken.
Hunching low and utilizing the surrounding ruins for concealment, Roken swiftly moved towards the north.
Within a few moments, the distant sounds of shattering glass bottles echoed, immediately followed by two brief flashes of gunfire.
Roar——
An extremely unsettling howl thundered from two streets away.
Heavy footsteps pounded like a dense drumbeat, scattering the volcanic ash from the ground.
Fang Cheng's eyes narrowed minutely as he perceived the subtle vibrations coursing through the load-bearing pillar.
Under the strain of double gravity, any creature capable of creating such a commotion must possess considerable weight.
"It's arriving, prepare yourselves!"
Kael, positioned behind a stone pillar, lowered his heavy rifle onto the debris, his aim locked firmly on the street's corner.
Roken's silhouette suddenly burst from the corner.
He sprinted in a panic, his movements visibly hindered by the cumbersome protective suit.
Just as he reached the edge of the collapsed pit, he dove.
A mutated wild boar, exceeding two meters in length and covered in sharp, black bone spurs, emerged into view.
It barreled through half of a brick wall at the corner like an out-of-control armored vehicle, letting out a furious roar.
Its eyes blazed with bloodlust, and its tusks, adorned with fragments of unknown organic matter, gave it a particularly savage appearance.
"Fire!"
Kael bellowed, squeezing the trigger.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The crudely fashioned weapon unleashed deafening roars, spitting out flames half a meter long from its barrel. The immense recoil repeatedly jolted Kael's shoulder backward.
Bullets as thick as a man's finger tore through the air, striking the Thorn Armor Pig's head and chest with precision.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sparks flew in wild profusion.
These projectiles, potent enough to pierce ordinary steel plates, managed only to etch a few cracks onto the pig's bony armor, failing to inflict any mortal wounds.
The intense pain served only to enrage the beast further.
It stomped the ground aggressively, obliterating large sections of concrete and abruptly altering its charge trajectory directly towards the source of the most intense firepower—Kael.
"Ira! Control it!"
Kael shouted forcefully, making no move to retreat but instead firmly bracing his rifle barrel to sustain his barrage.
Ira sprang up from the opposite side.
Discarding her steel bar, she tore off her heavy gas mask, revealing a pale face etched with pulsing blue veins.
Her gaze became fixed upon the charging Thorn Armor Pig, her hands gesturing in the air before her chest.
Buzz——
From his vantage point, Fang Cheng clearly perceived an unusual, high-frequency distortion manifesting in the air surrounding the collapsed pit.
This was not the work of True Qi or any other known abnormal energies.
Rather, it was a manifestation of Psychic Telekinesis, possessing the power to disrupt the physical laws of reality.
However, under the oppressive weight of double gravity, attempting to halt a multi-ton, high-speed charging mutated wild boar solely through telekinetic force seemed akin to a mantis attempting to stop a war chariot.
Observing this, Fang Cheng's eyes lit up with keen interest, his attention fully absorbed by the unfolding battle.
The true nature of this world's power system might very well be unveiled in this very moment.
