Deep in the night.
Lu Chao, dressed in a yellow-striped cleaner's uniform, emerged from the dim station platform.
He stuffed the torn wrapper into a roadside trash can, chewing on a piece of bread as he twisted open a milk bottle and gulped it down.
GULP!
GULP!!
The milk slid down his throat, somewhat easing the fatigue and hunger from a full day of training. He subconsciously glanced at his panel.
[Potential Progress: 53%]
'Still a long way to go...'
After scanning a few lines of information, Lu Chao's gaze lingered on his Potential Progress, and his brow furrowed slightly.
His Potential Progress only accumulated by drawing a portion of his daily nutritional intake. To speed up the process, he had to eat more nutritious food.
But this was a key point mentioned in the *Life Energy Development Theory*: the higher one's Life Energy, the more nutrition the body required to maintain its functions and stay in peak condition.
Just as a fire needs more fuel to burn, the demands of his training were a bottomless pit.
With these two factors combined, his current rate of Potential growth was the absolute maximum his savings could support.
'I have about two thousand yuan left. I'll see about buying some Exotic Beast Meat tomorrow.'
'This is an expense I can't skip...'
Crushing the empty milk bottle, Lu Chao shook his head to himself and tallied his remaining funds.
The Patrol Department's internal assessment was just over two months away. The safest bet was to awaken another Talent as soon as possible.
He had high hopes for it.
As for the money he owed Zhao Yuanqing, the man didn't need it back urgently, so it wouldn't be too late to repay him after reaching the Fighting Level.
TAP, TAP!
His decision made, Lu Chao tossed the milk bottle into the trash can and headed across the street.
After finishing his training for the day, he had received a work notice from Fatty Cui in the group chat.
He even had to find a security guard colleague from his bar job to switch shifts with him just to be available.
"Hurry, hurry! Pick up the pace!"
"Old Cheng, Wan San, get the tools counted, and quickly! Where's everyone else? Are they all here?"
Hearing Fatty Cui's shouts from a distance, Lu Chao subconsciously quickened his pace as he crossed the road.
Although this was still the Iron Ring District, the infrastructure here was slightly better.
A neon sign beneath a residential building flickered faintly, and the streetlights were bright enough to illuminate a supermarket on the ground floor.
Two blue-and-white patrol cars were parked on the side of the road, and the familiar cleaning truck was already there.
Yellow caution tape cordoned off an area beneath the residential building, where a crowd of curious onlookers had gathered to watch the commotion.
"Well, well, if it isn't the Fighting Master."
The voice dripped with sarcasm.
As soon as he reached the cleaning truck, Lu Chao was met by Fatty Cui's puffy, fat face, his beady eyes full of cunning and derision.
Lu Chao didn't react. He wasn't surprised.
News that he was training had somehow gotten out to his colleagues and gradually spread. Recently, Fatty Cui had often used it to mock and even reprimand him.
"Been training all day, have you? Got any strength left?"
"If you can't handle the job, just say so now. Don't want you holding up company business."
Fatty Cui stood at the front of the truck, sticking out his beer belly and blocking Lu Chao's path with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
His passive-aggressive tone made everyone fall silent.
Several colleagues glanced over. Though some looked sympathetic, most of them chose to remain silent, deciding it was none of their business.
"The tools are counted, Leader Cui! We just need you to sign off on it!"
At the critical moment, Old Cheng, who was still counting tools, shouted from a distance, breaking the stalemate and defusing the situation.
Fatty Cui's eyes narrowed, but he eventually turned and walked away.
'That guy, Fatty Cui...'
Watching him go, Lu Chao was puzzled. He couldn't recall ever offending the man, so why was he being targeted like this?
"That's just how people are sometimes."
"In his eyes, we're just a bunch of grunts he's used to bossing around. If one of us suddenly makes it big, how's he supposed to deal with that?"
A minute later, Old Cheng came over and spoke softly.
The acrid smell of cigarette smoke hung in the air around him.
Lu Chao fell silent. He understood what the man meant.
The nail that sticks out gets hammered down. This was exactly why he hadn't wanted his colleagues to know he was training.
"But seriously,"
"this is my fault, too. I shouldn't have said anything in the first place..."
Old Cheng sighed, a cigarette dangling from his lips. It was obvious to anyone what Lu Chao was planning—he was most likely aiming for the Patrol Department's internal assessment.
And as it happened, Old Cheng was the one who had told him about it in the first place.
"Putting aside what a piece of work Old Cui is, let's just talk about the training itself."
"It costs a fortune, and you need talent. If you don't make it in the end, you'll end up hating my guts, won't you?"
He felt his words were what had pushed Lu Chao down this path.
"Am I that petty in your eyes?"
Lu Chao retorted with a smile, which made Old Cheng pause, slightly taken aback.
"Don't worry, Old Cheng."
"This is my own decision. Even if I fail, I won't blame anyone for it."
Lu Chao said softly, patting the older man's shoulder.
He was absolutely certain he could break through to the Fighting Level.
Unaware of Lu Chao's secrets, Old Cheng opened his mouth to speak.
'Fighting Skill wasn't that easy to master.'
Over the years, plenty of the dozens of guys on the cleaning crew had tried.
And the result?
Forget passing the Patrol Department's internal assessment—how many had even gotten good enough to make a living from it?
Almost all of them ended up full of regret, having not only wasted more than half a year of their lives but also blown through all their hard-earned savings.
"All right, then."
Sighing to himself, he saw that Lu Chao had made up his mind and didn't try to persuade him any further.
The group of seven or eight cleaners fell silent, each lost in their own thoughts. The only sounds were the rustle and clatter of them putting on their gear.
A patrol officer at the caution line broke the quiet atmosphere, urging them to hurry up.
Lu Chao pulled on a pair of black boots and began equipping himself with body bags, iron hooks, and other tools.
He appreciated Old Cheng's good intentions and could also sense what his other colleagues were thinking.
'Training is difficult, it's expensive, and my talent is ordinary...' In their eyes, his actions were just a case of a fool overreaching, bringing trouble on himself.
But he didn't like to over-explain himself in the face of doubt.
He pulled on his mask, leaving only the upper half of his face exposed.
With all his tools ready, Lu Chao strode forward, ducked under the caution tape with his colleagues, and entered the apartment building.
...
CLICK!
CLICK!!
A camera shutter clicked repeatedly, its brilliant white flash dazzlingly bright.
Lu Chao, his face masked, stepped into an apartment on the third floor.
The apartment had brown hardwood floors. In the living room, a white-and-brown-veined marble coffee table sat between the sofas.
Four or five patrol officers of varying ages were present, along with a few medical examiners. They seemed to have just finished their initial investigation of the scene.
One was pressing a shutter, documenting the scene, while another, wearing gloves, was bagging certain items.
"Good heavens..."
Old Cheng gasped in shock. Lu Chao, who entered the room a step behind him, felt his own breath hitch.
His gaze swept the room, taking in the four bodies strewn across the living room. Some were slumped on the sofa, others lay in pools of blood on the floor.
Scorched bullet holes marred the white-painted walls. The entire balcony window was gone, and shards of glass littered the floor.
Normally, a scene like this wouldn't have been so shocking. They were used to cleaning up bodies and had seen their share of death.
The key difference was...
...the marble coffee table in the living room had been smashed to pieces, as if struck by some massive hammer. Debris was scattered everywhere around the impact point.
The hardwood floor was also marred by several bowl-shaped craters, the wood fibers around the edges compressed and splintered outward, as if someone had brutally stomped the floor apart.
And the four bodies didn't belong to ordinary people, either.
"[Falcon] third-gen cybernetic legs. They can bring a user's speed and leg strength up to the Fighting Level. See the wound on the chest? He also had bionic lung implants and modified glands."
"This one's unusual, too. Chest is this broad... likely implanted with a [Potent Recovery] bio-module. The right arm is also a [Baiyan] series prosthetic from Lianwei Heavy Industry. It's only a first-gen, an older model, but it can still give someone a punching force of three hundred kilograms."
Old Cheng had a keen eye. He walked toward the balcony, sizing up two of the bodies in a pool of blood as he spoke in a low voice.
Hearing this, a patrol officer glanced over, and even the two medical examiners who were inspecting the wounds gave him a second look.
"You're pretty knowledgeable, old-timer. You recognize all this stuff?"
The female patrol officer surveying the scene had shoulder-length hair and wore a blue uniform. She looked to be in her early twenties and was regarding him with a suspicious expression.
Old Cheng chuckled, pulling off his mask to reveal a wrinkled face. "You're too kind, Officer. This old-timer has just been in the business a long time. I've seen plenty of cybernetic parts, so I recognize a few."
"If you want to talk about professionals, that would be these two medical examiners here!"
He gave a thumbs-up to the two medical examiners crouching by the bodies, his face wreathed in a deferential smile.
The medical examiners' expressions softened at his words. They nodded slightly and picked up the thread of the conversation, causing the female patrol officer to drop her line of questioning.
Lu Chao paid little attention to the exchange, his focus fixed on the fatal injuries of the corpses.
One had a caved-in chest, bearing the clear imprint of a fist.
Another's neck had been snapped—also a single, fatal blow.
'Even Augmented individuals comparable to the Fighting Level were no match for the killer?'
He was inwardly shocked. The killer's strength was exceptional; their Life Energy was probably at least forty.
Then he looked at the middle-aged corpse on the sofa.
This one clearly had a history of martial arts training. He had a sturdy physique, with corded muscles and thick calluses covering his palms—obviously a fighter who had spent years conditioning his body.
The body near the bedroom entrance, however, was the only ordinary person, with no such distinguishing signs.
"Captain, the Department just got a call. An Alchemist from Biotechnology is missing."
"His last call was connected to this location. Looks like he took a private job to inspect these guys' cybernetics and mix a custom neural stabilizer for them."
"We haven't found his body. Do you think he could be..."
Lu Chao suddenly overheard a snatch of conversation between two patrol officers standing at the bedroom entrance.
As if sensing they were being overheard, the one addressed as "Captain" gave a slight wave of his hand, cutting his subordinate off. His gaze swept over the members of the cleaning crew.
Lu Chao feigned ignorance, silently lowering his head and starting the work of bagging the bodies with Old Cheng.
The room grew quiet, the only sounds being the zipping of body bags and the clatter of cybernetics being dismantled.
Eventually, the patrol officers left one by one, apparently having found a new lead to pursue in their investigation.
Lu Chao suppressed his curiosity, silently filing the information away.
Alchemist...
It wasn't because of the patrol officers' conversation, nor was it because he wanted to get to the bottom of the murder case.
It was because he had suddenly recalled certain passages in the *Life Energy Development Theory*.
'It seemed that this profession... could help accelerate his Potential Progress?'