The morning after the rooftop meeting with Li Chu, Lin Chen woke up with a rare heaviness in his chest.
Not emotional, not exactly.
Physical.
It was a strange sort of pressure, like the weight of an unseen hand pressing against his sternum. He sat up in bed, wincing slightly as his muscles tensed. Every nerve in his body felt alert, overstimulated. There was no message on his phone. No alerts, no danger. Yet something was undeniably different.
Then it happened.
A piercing chime echoed through his mind—not from the outside world, but from within.
[System Update: New Module Unlocked]
Module: Combat Simulation Training GroundsStatus: AccessibleDuration: Unlimited (Passive Sync Enabled)Description: Welcome to the battlefield of potential. Use this virtual module to train physical strength, hand-to-hand combat, strategic reflex, and supernatural resistance. Time Ratio: 1:5 (1 real hour = 5 hours in-simulation).Access via System Core Menu or Sleep Sync Mode.
Lin Chen's eyes widened.
This was new. Very new.
Salvator had always focused on intellect-based upgrades—business models, financial algorithms, predictive foresight. But this? This was something else. Something primal. A preparation… for war.
And if the whispers from Li Chu were anything to go by, war was definitely on the horizon.
Lin Chen slipped out of bed, took a quick cold shower, and sat cross-legged on the carpeted floor. His apartment was still minimalistic, a luxury unit he barely had time to decorate. He closed his eyes, breathing slowly as he reached for the System Core mentally.
The moment he activated the module, his consciousness was pulled in like a tide.
A void.
Then—
He stood in the middle of a battlefield.
Not a literal one. It looked like a training compound built in sleek digital space—gray architecture, gravity-defying physics, and a faint humming of electric tension in the air. The space stretched endlessly, lit by an ambient white glow.
A panel appeared before him:
Choose Simulation Focus:
Endurance Training
Reflex Combat
Weapon Handling
Supernatural Resistance (Locked)
Neural Overclock (Locked)
Lin Chen selected Endurance Training first. He had to understand the limits of this space.
The environment shifted immediately. A running track materialized beneath his feet, hundreds of meters long, with rising hills and moving platforms. An AI voice echoed in his head:
"Starting simulation: Level 1. Please run. Obstacles incoming in 10 seconds."
Before he could process more, the ground surged forward and metallic spikes rose from the floor.
Time was distorted here. He knew that intellectually, but feeling it was something else. Five hours passed in what felt like barely an hour—and during those five hours, he pushed his body harder than he ever had in real life.
The first run had ended with him face-first in an electric barrier. The second with a pulled shoulder muscle. The third he completed—barely—gasping as the AI announced:
"Endurance Threshold Increased: +7% Physical Durability"
Sweating and panting, he sat on the virtual floor of the simulation space. Everything hurt.
Then he smiled.
He was getting stronger.
After a short break, Lin Chen chose the second training path: Reflex Combat.
This time, the space transformed into a dojo-like chamber. Humanoid figures appeared—digital opponents with blank faces, dressed in training armor. The first level began with a single opponent.
The moment the round began, the AI opponent struck without hesitation. Lin Chen blocked instinctively—but the force still knocked him flat.
He grunted, rolling to his feet. Blood wasn't real here, but the pain felt real. Too real.
"You need to think faster than your eyes," the AI intoned. "You're used to analyzing data. Now analyze movement."
Round two.
He watched. He waited. He predicted.
He moved.
A punch grazed past his ear. He twisted, elbowed the opponent's ribs, and kicked back. It wasn't elegant, but it worked.
[Combat Score: 68/100 – Room for improvement]
He trained until his limbs felt like jelly.
When Lin Chen exited the module, five hours had passed inside—but only one hour in real time.
He opened his eyes to the morning light streaking across his living room.
A quick scan from the System confirmed:
Physical Stat Upgrades:– Reaction Time: +9%– Strength Output: +6%– Endurance: +7%– Combat Skill Level: Initiated (Rank F)
His body ached, even outside the simulation. Apparently, the system was syncing physical memory through neural feedback loops.
"Perfect," Lin Chen muttered. "Now I can die faster in real life."
But deep down, a fire was building.
He wasn't just becoming rich anymore. He wasn't just playing the market.
He was becoming something more. Something... dangerous.
As if timed with fate, someone knocked on his door—not the digital knock of a notification, but the very real sound of knuckles on glass.
He opened it.
Li Chu stood there again.
Only this time, her usual coolness was tinged with something else.
"You're bleeding," she said, nodding at the edge of his temple.
Lin Chen touched it. Just a scratch. Odd. Probably from the reflex training sim.
"Training accident," he lied smoothly.
Her eyes narrowed. "You don't train."
"Maybe I started."
"You're preparing for something."
He didn't respond.
She took a step closer, crossing the threshold into his apartment. "They're moving, Lin. Umbra. I got word from one of my old contacts."
His pulse quickened.
Umbra.
He'd only heard the name once—in a half-glitched system warning from Salvator. An organization not listed in any national record. A name mentioned in the same breath as "Forbidden Enhancements".
"What do they want?" he asked.
"Same thing I do," she said softly. "To understand you."
System Notification: Shadow Alert
Just then, the system flared with crimson light.
[Emergency Alert: Shadow Agent Near Detected]Location: 50m radiusThreat Level: UnknownSuggested Action: Evade or Engage with Caution.
Li Chu's eyes met his.
"You saw it too, didn't you?" she said.
He nodded.
The world had just shifted again.