Chapter 177 - 176 Play Ball

Chen Xuantian opened his eyes and found himself lying on the dormitory bed, his mind a mess and he felt a bit confused.

Then he smelled the aroma of instant noodles, so he peeked outside and saw a skinny person sitting next door, holding a washbasin eating instant noodles, with an action movie playing on the computer.

"... Old Zhou?"

"Sssss, huh?"

The guy slurped the noodles, looked back with a sidelong glance, showing a pimpled, oval face.

"... Save me some soup."

"Call me dad!"

"You good son of your grandpa!"

"Hey!"

Chen Xuantian stretched lazily, rolled out of bed, went to the bathroom to wash his face, and recovered his clarity.

He was back.

After all, in the Primordial Spirit Illusion Realm, there isn’t that complex aroma mix of instant noodles, toilets, detergent, sweat, foot odor, and hormones like in the boys’ dormitory...

Anyway, this pimple-faced, noodle-eating skinny guy is Chen Xuantian’s classmate in the same school, same department, same dorm, Zhou Chu... uh, probably not that "Chu", but a homophone obscure character, although Chen Xuantian never checked his household registration book, he just followed everyone calling him Chu Chu.

Of course, among boys, giving nicknames is understood, usually called Old Zhou, jokingly called ’brute’, and when begging for food, called dad...

"Going to play basketball, brute?"

"In this heat you still want to go, you’re more of a brute... Oh yikes! Holy moly! Since when did you build such a big chest! Let daddy have a feel!"

"Ah, get lost!"

Chen Xuantian wiped sweat, put on a jersey, looked at the packed luggage on the floor,

"What, going back home to get married?"

Old Zhou slurped the noodles in the washbasin clean, handed the basin over,

"Nope, civil engineering internship, this time we have to build eight towers in one go, what a load of bull~~"

Chen Xuantian drank the soup,

"Towers? Oh, pulling antennas."

Yep, being in the same school, same department, same dorm, naturally means being in the same project group.

Quantum communication sounds so high-end, as if you could get by with just keyboard strokes, but in reality, someone still has to go into deep mountains and forests to build base stations, pull cables, erect antennas, and adjust devices.

Besides, for such a confidential project, you can’t just outsource it to construction workers, so they drag students from the department for internships. If it weren’t for the higher-ups deciding that Chen Xuantian should lie in a virtual cabin, he would’ve had to go to the site and work as well.

"Ah, that’s the flavor... but why build so many?"

"Right? Logically, there’s no need to build so many!

The system’s bandwidth doesn’t depend on our side, as long as there’s one amplifying antenna to keep the communication environment with the cloud stable and smooth, that’s enough!

To simply speed up, you could directly connect to the public network, isn’t there enough computing power already? Why build so many secretive base stations, in this scorching heat, it’s killing us!"

Speaking of which, Old Zhou was also grumbling, but complaints wouldn’t help, once the higher-ups make a decision, the people below have to work hard to implement it.

Chen Xuantian shrugged as well, in the professional courses at the academy, his grades were only middle-ranking after all, as he mainly came through genetic selection adjustments, unlike Old Zhou and the others, many of whom transferred from places like Electronics Science University, top scorers, he couldn’t really join in too much of the specialized discussions, so he finished drinking the noodle soup, smacked his lips, flicked up the basketball with his toes,

"Really not going?"

"Not going not going, this time going to the construction site for at least a month, I need to work hard a bit. Close the door!"

"Mad you ghost brute!"

So Chen Xuantian went to the basketball court alone, playing under the blazing midday sun, which was indeed quite mad, but this was part of his daily uninterrupted routine influenced by Tie Dan.

Indeed, for cultivation and body refinement, the most important thing is persistence, one day missed makes it everyday missed, fat would pile up soon.

Of course, the main goal for Chen Xuantian now isn’t muscle sculpting, nor playing, but controlling his strength well.

After all, Chen Xuantian’s body now is, in the literal sense, superhuman, and the strength contained within continuously increases. With each upgrade from Tie Dan’s side, this mirrored body also strengthens along with it.

And under the already completed special body structure, even if Chen Xuantian doesn’t cultivate himself, each breath automatically cultivates, and each circulation of essence blood enhances his muscle refining and body sculpting.

So now, Chen Xuantian needs even more to constantly pay attention to his body condition, grasp the limits of his strength through continuous training, to fully control this power, and to avoid accidentally turning ordinary people around him, like Old Zhou, into a flattened pancake...

However, in this world, no one could wrestle and train strength with him, nor were there special equipment for him to lift weight at school. And wielding sword or boxing seemed too pretentious and embarrassing, so the path Chen Xuantian chose for body refinement was the one he was most familiar with, playing basketball.

Of course, if he wanted, he could now start from the baseline, take three steps, leap across the court, and slam dunk on the other side, smashing the backboard into the concrete with ease.

But there’s no need, playing four hours of basketball daily is already eye-catching enough. The people around already point fingers, it’s better to stay low-key...

So starting from the basics, dribbling, ball handling, pacing round the court, grasping the magnitude of strength, avoiding the sudden increase in power, bursting the ball.

Then trying to shoot, further training eyesight accuracy, further controlling stability, shooting hundreds of times a day, doesn’t matter if it’s not accurate, as long as he doesn’t accidentally throw the ball onto a snowy mountain it’s a success.

After accumulating the first steps, he could try dunking, without worrying about smashing the basketball hoop or concrete into a meteor crater.

So yes, to hide that superhuman strength, Chen Xuantian chose to become a basketball trainee...

But being called Chen the Basketball is still better than smashing people into walls around him.

So Chen Xuantian also, day after day, continuously dribbled and shot, adapted to controlling his strength.

"Yo, Xuantian classmate, playing basketball again."

Chen Xuantian sighed,

"What is it this time?"

"Did you just sigh?"

The principal walked into the court, tossed his suit aside, unbuttoned his shirt,

"Come, let’s have a match."

"..."

Chen Xuantian squinted, looked at the guards with guns who blocked the basketball court, knowing that something had probably come up again.

Thus, Chen Xuantian didn’t refuse, just dribbled past, easily scored a basket.

Well, since the principal was still in suit and dress shoes, and his moves seemed like he never played basketball, better be careful not to bump him flying...

The principal, however, was all smiles, ran over to pick up the ball, imitating Chen Xuantian’s dribbling,

"The last experiment was very successful, the higher-ups are very satisfied with our project!"

Chen Xuantian casually intercepted, turned around, scored again,

"Another third-class merit huh..."

The principal laughed,

"What, you don’t want it?"

"Whether I want it or not isn’t up to me... And what use are those? Honestly, I’ve never even seen the physical medals, are they golden?"

"What are you thinking, they’re of course gold plated copper, but medals are just honorary awards. Let you see them should be enough.

Then what do you want? Tangible benefits? Power? Status? Gold? Women? Men?"

The principal seemed slightly serious, but Chen Xuantian speeded up, still snatched the ball away.

"I don’t know..."

Chen Xuantian dribbled, thought a bit,

"Me, I really don’t have anything special I want. Playing some ball, sleeping a bit, it’s pretty nice as it is now..."

Then the principal also speeded up, intercepted, scored a point backwards,

"So, students these days, full of ideals, childish, naive.

When you’re most valuable to recruit, you don’t take the chance to ask for more, later you won’t have another shot!"

Chen Xuantian picked up the ball, thought for a moment, then shook his head,

"With my project, who knows if I’ll die in a dream sometime, those things aren’t really necessary, are they?"

The principal came up to contest, actually squeezed Chen Xuantian who was guarding the ball, pushing him out of the court,

"Heh, that’s why I say you’re naive, do you think the world you see in your dreams is your world?

Don’t get too involved! Only the place where you live is your world!"

The principal actually blocked and intercepted Chen Xuantian’s ball! Leveling the score!

Wow, so you actually know how to play? And you were putting on an act before?

This stirred Chen Xuantian’s interest instead, slightly raising his interest,

"So, principal, what do you want? Spectacular performance? Explosive eruption? Turning into light?"

The principal grinned,

"Since you asked sincerely, I’ll mercifully tell you!

I want to reverse the future! Light the Path of Stars!"

... What, what? Reverse the future? Path of Stars?

Unexpectedly, after dressing up as a serious person, the principal threw out such embarrassing and awkward lines, Chen Xuantian shivered involuntarily, lost focus, and the ball was snatched by the principal.

The other side made a layup in three steps, securing that match, then clapped hands,

"Best of five, I won, not playing anymore."

Damn it, such a bastard...

"Oh, right, almost forgot the important matter."

The principal picked up his suit, turned his head and said,

"We have a traitor among us, pack up, prepare to relocate."