Chapter 2: Encounter with Prehistoric Civilization

  Looking around at the surroundings, now my surroundings are all towering trees, and a few rays of sunlight shining through the dense branches above show that it is already daytime. But I encountered that saber-toothed beast last night, so did I really ride on its back for a whole night? Now I don't even know where I am, heaven knows if I can still escape from the terrifying predators surrounding me, especially when I don't have much strength left to stand up. However, I have to be grateful that no carnivores have come here yet, it seems that this saber-toothed beast's intimidation is not small either. The big commotion last night probably scared away all the wild beasts around, which is the only comforting news for me who is seriously injured.

  Suddenly, a scene on the left caught my attention. It was a huge cave, covered with dense vines that wrapped around it tightly. What drew my attention was that under the illumination of a beam of light, through the layers of vines, something inside seemed to reflect a metallic luster. "That's strange," I muttered to myself. Vines couldn't possibly produce such reflections; apparently, there was something inside.

  With great effort, I pushed aside the dense and tangled vines, allowing a large amount of sunlight to pour into the cave, illuminating the interior. On the inner wall of the cave was a metal door, which was reflecting the sunlight. I didn't know what material it was made of, but despite being covered in dust and moss after years of abandonment, its occasional glimpses still shone with a metallic luster. It seemed that someone had once lived in this cave, even building a room inside. I couldn't help but wonder who could live in such a place.

  I carefully examined the door, but after a long time, I was still disappointed. There were no handles on the door, and no matter how hard I pushed or pulled, it didn't budge at all. On the right wall of the door, there was a strange box with several buttons, which were numerical keys. I carefully tried pressing them a few times, but there was no response. I continued to press, still without any reaction. I don't know how long I pressed for, but my patience had already been worn out. In one swift motion, I drew out my knife and slashed at the box.

  "A burst of sparks exploded out of the mangled box I had just hacked, giving me a big fright. A dull 'thud' sound came from it, and to my surprise, the door which hadn't reacted at all until now suddenly swung open by itself."

  "Ah!" I was startled by the sudden situation, and quickly jumped back, grasping my knife tightly, staring intently at the door, on guard against any danger that might suddenly rush out. However, after waiting for a long time, there wasn't a single sound from inside. Finally, curiosity overcame fear, and I cautiously stepped forward into the doorway, constantly paying attention to any movements inside. If there was any danger, my knife would strike at the first moment.

  It's okay, it seems there's nothing dangerous inside, I walked slowly into the door. As soon as I entered, "bang" - the door suddenly closed without warning. I panicked, if I was trapped inside and couldn't get out, it would be over. I hurriedly pushed the door with force, but to no avail, and the intense movement made my chest ache again. Damn it, I gripped the knife tightly and hacked fiercely at the metal door.

  "Clang", sparks flew out from the knife and the door, it hurts so much, what is this thing made of? One slash down, not even a scratch mark was left, my hand was instead numbed. It seems that breaking out is hopeless, only continuing to move inward may have a chance to find a way out.

  I walked further in, and at this time I noticed a strange phenomenon. The door was closed, it should have been pitch black inside, but now I could still see the things around me clearly. There were no torches around either. What's going on? I observed carefully, and finally found that the light seemed to be emitted from the walls and ceiling, but I didn't find any torches behind them. It seems that the room itself can emit light.

  "It's truly amazing!" I exclaimed in my heart, being able to make the wall glow is simply an unthinkable thing, it seems that the owner of this house is really extraordinary.

  As I walked through the glowing passageway, the road seemed to be going further and further down. After a while, another door blocked my way, with a line of words on it. How strange! Isn't this the ancient script that the elder mentioned? It's said that these characters were used during prehistoric civilization times, how can I encounter them here? Is this building also left over from prehistoric civilization? That's tens of thousands of years ago, how can things in this house still be usable, and the air inside is so fresh, how did they do it? Countless questions appeared in my mind.

  Whatever, I used to study some ancient languages when I had nothing to do, let me see if I can translate the words on the door. After carefully identifying those characters and recalling what I learned before, I finally figured out the words: "Third Person Body Enhancement Laboratory".

  What's the Human Enhancement Laboratory? What does it mean? I know "enhancement" means to train and become stronger, but is this a training facility or something? Luckily, the door wasn't locked, so I pushed it open and entered. However, there weren't any of the knives, guns, or other training equipment that I had imagined. The room was enormous, with pure white walls on all sides. In the center of the room, a massive crystal was placed, surrounded by several metal beds, each covered with a transparent crystal lid. Around the beds were various metal instruments and bottles filled with unknown substances.

  While pondering the purpose of these things, the crystal in front of him suddenly flashed and a woman's face appeared. A strange voice spoke in an ancient language: "Welcome to the Third-Person Strengthening Center, how may I assist you?"

  "Ahh!" I shouted, hastily retreating backwards without care, but unfortunately my foot caught on something and I fell heavily to the ground, my head making intimate contact with the floor. Everything went black as I fainted.

  In my daze, I seemed to see a slender figure floating before my eyes. When I looked closely, it was Ailei. She was silently gazing at me. I ran towards her and asked: "Aren't you supposed to get married today? How can you be here?" "Fool! It's always been you that I liked." This sentence shattered all my hesitation and self-doubt. Happiness filled my chest like it had descended from the sky. I opened my arms, wanting to hug the lovely girl in front of me, but ended up hugging air. Before I knew it, her figure suddenly appeared far away, accompanied by a strange man. Ailei was smiling at him. The intimate scene between them made my heart shatter, and I felt a tearing pain in my chest.

  "NOOOO!" I woke up with a loud roar, my face covered in sweat. Looking around, I was still lying in that strange room, it was just a dream after all. No, it wasn't a dream! Ai Li really did get married today. Thinking of this, the pain from my broken rib seemed to fade away, but what truly hurt was my heart.

  "What is your identity? Database information has been damaged, and some personnel data has been lost. The system will be rewritten." That ghostly voice I just heard again echoed in the room.

  "My name is Weite." The heartache just now made me no longer afraid of this ghost, at worst it's just death. The loss of composure just now was only a natural reaction to not having expected to really meet the rumored ghost. My ancient language wasn't learned in vain, although I don't understand what it means by "database" and "system", but I can answer its questions with my ancient language too.

  "Database rewrite successful, Dr. Wei Te, welcome to this place, what services do you need? Just as you entered an unconscious state, the system scanned your body and found severe damage, with 37.5% physical harm, would you like to proceed with repair?"

  Repair and improvement? It's probably treating wounds. Of course, I want that. I said to the woman in the crystal: "Then treat me."

  "Understood, please take off your clothes and lie down on the examination bed." As the voice fell, a crystal cover rose from the bed, apparently that was the examination bed. I took off my clothes and lay down. Fortunately, there were no women around, otherwise I would have been at a disadvantage. As for that female ghost, she was no longer human, so she didn't count as a woman.

  The hood came down again, covering me inside. My heart felt a wave of unease - what if she was deceiving me? If I wasn't careful, she would take my life away.

  "The voice sounded again: 'Test subject preparation is complete, execute Super Enhanced Warrior plan.'"

  Super-powered warrior plan? Isn't this supposed to be healing me? Damn it, I've been cheated. I struck the transparent crystal with all my might, but the sensation that came back told me that this thing that looked so thin was not any softer than iron. Suddenly, a white mist sprayed out from the hood, and as soon as I smelled it, I immediately blacked out.

  The machine continued to work silently, slowly filling the hood with a green liquid. Innumerable small tentacles extended from the metal bed, probing various parts of my body. In the silent room, only one sound could be heard.

  "Target cell analysis executed... Analysis complete..."

  "………design target DNA rearrangement sequence………design complete………"

  "Scanning target brain wave status... scanning complete... completely normal..."

  "………Muscle reinforcement design completed………"

  "Skeletal reinforcement design completed"

  "………Combat skill design completed………"

  "………Immunity enhancement design completed………"

  "...According to the analysis of target brain wave intensity... can enhance rate by seventy-three percent..."

  "………Super Reinforcement Warrior Program initiated………Data writing in progress………"

  Only the metal tentacles inserted into my body began to move, countless bubbles churned inside the mask, and even in a coma, I could still feel the unbearable pain. It was an indescribable pain, as if someone had torn off every piece of skin on my body, then cut off my muscles one by one, and it was like countless needles were piercing every pore on my body, it was already an unspeakable suffering. But that's not all, a numbness spread across my head at the same time, followed by countless things flooding into my mind, so many that it felt like they would burst my head alive, and there was no way to stop it.

  In this torment that's worse than death, my mind has only a thread of clarity left, struggling to get through wave after wave of suffering. If I could open my mouth, I'm sure I would have been wailing long ago.

  Slowly, I don't know how long it took, my nerves had become numb to the intense pain, and it didn't seem so unbearable anymore. In my mind, something seemed to emerge, countless moves and actions, as well as methods of using weapons, seemed to have existed in my memory all along, but some weapons I had never seen before, like that small box held in one's hand, which could spray fire with the press of a button, even the most knowledgeable elder would not be able to say what kind of thing it was. And those combat skills, each move and style simple yet incredibly powerful, absolutely lethal techniques.

  I don't know how long it took, but the tearing pain finally gradually disappeared. I slowly opened my eyes to find that the canopy had already been lifted up. I hurriedly flipped over and got out of bed, in case that thing came down again, I wouldn't have to go through another near-death experience.

  It's strange, the chest that was in pain just now is fine now. I touched the injured area and it's really amazing, the bones have been put back together as if they were never broken. Not only that, but my body is full of energy now, the moves that appeared in my mind are pouring out one after another, my body is like it originally knew how to do them, involuntarily displaying them, fists and claws flying out, occasionally kicking out with both feet, each move as fast as lightning, striking out with a "popping" sound. In the excitement of the fight, I charged forward several steps, let out a loud "Ha!" and punched the wall.

  “Bang!” A dull sound echoed throughout the entire room, and I stared blankly at the spot that had just been hit, hardly daring to believe my eyes. The originally hard-as-steel metal wall had caved in unnaturally from the inside, with a deep fist print embedded in the center of the indentation.

  Is this... still human strength? I looked at my hands, which were originally rough and veiny from years of training, but now they're smooth and glossy, as if there's a faint glow on them. No, it's not just my hands, my arms, shoulders, and every part of my body seems different now. The metal that can withstand my curved knife without leaving any marks... I'm afraid my own hardness is no less than that unknown metal.

  "Congratulations, you are the first successful candidate of the Super Warrior Program." At this time, that female ghost, no, I just received information in my mind and knew she was a human-made tool called an intelligent computer, and the avatar of that computer character appeared on the screen again.

  Wait, first of all, wasn't I in extreme danger just now? She didn't even know if it would be successful herself, yet she used me as a test subject. I'm sure my face is extremely unsightly right now, and I couldn't help but ask her: "What will happen to me if the experiment fails?"

  "According to past experiments, some test subjects died during the strengthening process due to excessive pain, while others lost control of their internal energy, causing it to expand excessively and ultimately leading to a self-explosion phenomenon. The remaining test subjects suffered extreme physical deformation due to failed strengthening.

  It's not just my face that looks bad now; cold sweat is pouring out of me nonstop. It's too dangerous - I just barely escaped death's clutches, only to find myself wandering around the gates of hell again. That I can still speak is a testament to my unyielding will and incredible luck."

  "What did you do to my body?" I asked with a puzzled tone after calming down my uneasy emotions.

  "Based on your physical condition, the system has calculated the most suitable enhancement plan: Your skeletal hardness has been enhanced to a level equivalent to titanium alloy; Your muscle explosive power has increased by 1/16,711 times its original value, with each strike estimated to have an impact force of 15,374 kilograms; Your body's cellular metabolic capacity has been enhanced, allowing for rapid recovery from injuries; All immune cells in your body have been re-adjusted, granting you the ability to resist all unfavorable viral infections; Brain wave enhancement rate is 73%, and preliminary estimates suggest that some special functions can be produced. At the same time, combat techniques and weapon usage skills are being input into your brain, adjusting your body's automatic coordination for use." A series of technical terms left me dazed, but at least I knew that my current body was even more powerful than that of a saber-toothed beast.