Chapter 1 A Competitive World
"The competition in this world is so intense!"
Haicheng City.
Haicheng Martial Arts High School.
A handsome figure in a black martial arts suit sat alone in the corner of the training ground. The more he thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt.
Lin Mo, 18 years old, a third-year student at Haicheng Martial Arts High School\'s class 10. But in actuality, he was not from this world.
Five years ago, Lin Mo had transmigrated to the "Blue Planet" where the environment was very similar to Earth.
At that time, as a first-year student, he walked into Haicheng City\'s Seventh Experimental High School with his head held high, preparing to amaze everyone in the first-year joint examination.
However, when he saw the exam, he was dumbfounded!
\'Martial Theory Foundation\'?
\'The Chronicles of the Grandmaster of Martial Arts\'??
\'A Brief Introduction to Muscles and Bones\'???
He had never seen any of these classes before!
After handing in a blank test with a dumbfounded expression, Lin Mo finally realized that this world was completely different from Earth!
Here, martial arts reigned supreme. Mathematics, physics, and chemistry had become unorthodox.
Moreover, martial artists on the Blue Planet had superior privileges. As for ordinary people, no matter how high their achievements were, they would always be considered inferior to martial artists.
Therefore, there was only one way to stand out—by becoming a martial arts master!
After realizing this, Lin Mo became quite excited.
"A bunch of brats, knee high to a grasshopper. They\'re probably just thinking about horsing around every day, how can they compete with me? I\'ll definitely stand out quickly and become nurtured as a genius!"
But soon, Lin Mo was dumbfounded again!
These junior high school students were all working as hard as they could with their entire focus. Even the students who were the worst in their grade seemed to have been injected with motivation as they trained diligently.
In such a learning environment, Lin Mo, a transmigrator with more than 20 years of life experience, is nearly losing to a group of children!
He put in quite a lot of work to to barely get accepted into Haicheng Martial Arts High School, and only then did Lin Mo realize what it meant to truly have intense competition!
However, this also stimulated Lin Mo\'s fighting spirit.
"Come on!"
"In my previous life, I never lost in the 996[1.China\'s working schedule of 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week.] workplace! In this life, I will not be afraid of a group of mere high school students."
"Come! Let me see just how intense the competition in the martial arts high school can be!"
In the end…
Lin Mo had actually ended up losing to them.
The competition in the martial arts high school was so heated the world seemed to turn on a different axis!
Lin Mo\'s punching force was only slightly more than 500 kilograms after he just became an intermediate martial arts apprentice not long ago, but there was already a genius in his class with a punching force that exceeded 800 kilograms. He became an advanced martial arts apprentice.
By the time Lin Mo became an advanced martial arts apprentice, the force of the genius\'s punch had already reached 1,200 kilograms and he gained the quasi-martial artist title!
Currently, among the thirty students in Lin Mo\'s class, there were five quasi-martial artists, nine with a punching force of 1,100 kilograms, and fourteen with a punching force of 1,000 kilograms!
There were only two people with a punching force below 1,000 kilograms. One of them, 985 kilograms; the other was Lin Mo, 903 kilograms…
He was ranked last in the class!
There was only half a month left until the martial arts college entrance exam, and according to the previous years\' experience—
There was hope to enter a key martial arts university as a quasi-martial artist!
With a punching force of 1,100 kilograms, there was hope of getting into an ordinary undergraduate university.
Most with a punching force of 1,000 kilograms could get into a vocational school.
As for those with a punching power of 903 kilograms… he had never seen any Martial Arts college accept any! Not even if they paid hefty donations to the school!
"I\'m actually no match for a bunch of children?"
From junior high to now, for a whole five years, Lin Mo had finally lost every ounce of his past ego.
Speaking of which, he\'s an embarrassment of a transmigrator!
"The competition in this world is so intense!"
The more Lin Mo thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt. He was so depressed that he plopped down on the ground.
"Since I can\'t win, then it will be fine if I stop competing right?"
"I\'m not going to attend Martial Arts University!"
"I\'ll just become an ordinary person and live my ordinary life!"
At this moment, Lin Mo recognized his limit and decided to give up.
Ding! A mechanical voice played in Lin Mo\'s mind without warning. "System has detected that the host has chosen to give up. The system\'s activation conditions have been met. The [Idle Upgrade System] has been successfully activated!"
"What… the f*ck?" The activation of the Goldfinger should have been an exciting event, but Lin Mo couldn\'t help but curse.
The mechanical voice continued to introduce the system, "Idle Upgrade System: As long as you don\'t try to compete, you can continuously become stronger! The speed of your leveling is mainly affected by the \'Idle Index\' and the \'Involution <anno data-annotation-id="fcc32c74-c2ae-4879-b197-620d867bf587">Index\'."</anno>
"Idle index? Involution index?" Lin Mo began to investigate the system.
"Idle index: Most places on the Blue Planet are the same. Only in certain special environments the idle index may vary."
"Involution index: it will fluctuate constantly as it is affected by the intensity of the competition around. The stronger the competition, the higher the index will be and the faster the leveling!"
"Host, do you want to check the detailed data panel?"
"Check it!" Lin Mo said in his heart.
Soon, an illusory panel that only he could see appeared in front of him.
[Lin Mo:
Cultivation: Unleveled Lifeform Body
Realm: Stage One (equivalent to a seasoned veteran on Earth)
Punching force: 903 kilograms
Overall combat power: …
…
Idle Index: 1
Involution Index: 2.1
Leveling Speed: Punching force increases by 0.42 kilograms per hour
Note: Idle index and involution index both affect the speed of leveling up in real time.]
"If the punching force increases by 0.42 kilograms per hour, then for 24 hours a day I would gain… 10 kilograms!?" Lin Mo\'s eyes widened.
He had worked crazy hard for five years to produce a punching force of 903 kilograms. But now, the system told him that he could increase his punching force by 10 kilograms in a day without doing anything at all!
After a month, he could break through 1,200 kilograms and become a quasi-martial artist!
After a year and a half, he would be so strong that he would have no <anno data-annotation-id="83217469-d3c1-43b7-be72-6db2697380b0">friends</anno>!
It\'s strong!
This system is really so strong!
It was simply heaven-defying!
However, Lin Mo was so angry that he almost cried.
"Five years!"
"Do you know how I\'ve spent the past five years?"
"If I had known that I could activate the system like this, I would have recognized my weakness sooner and given up sooner!"
But, Lin Mo was also a little glad. "Fortunately, my punching strength was only 903 kilograms. I knew that I wouldn\'t be able to get into a university no matter what, so I luckily chose to give up in time. If my punching strength reached more than 1,000 kilograms and I got into a lousy university, wouldn\'t I continue to be mediocre in the intense competition and never have been able to stand out?"
Lin Mo felt a lingering fear and broke out in a cold sweat.
Fortunately, he lost the competition!
If he didn\'t, it would have been a tragedy!
"There\'s still half a month before the martial arts college entrance examination. If I increase 10 kilograms a day, my fist strength will reach 1,050 kilograms by the time the college entrance examination comes. Although it would be hard to get into an undergraduate university, there\'s still a chance for a vocational school!"
After half a month, he could easily enter a martial arts university! If this was in the past, Lin Mo would not even dare to think about it.
"That\'s not right!!!" Suddenly, Lin Mo reacted. "It\'s too narrow! My perspective is too narrow! I\'m a person with a system now. Why am I going to a vocational school? I don\'t even need to go to an ordinary undergraduate school! I could go to a key school! A top school!"
As the long-time lowest ranking student, his perspective was not adjusted correctly nearly fast enough.
"I want to go to Qingmu University! To Jingdu University! To Xia University!
"Vocational school? Hah!"
However, if he wanted to enter a top school, a punching force of 1,050 kilograms was far from enough. Even a quasi-martial artist at the 1,200-kilogram level was not enough. He would probably have to reach at least 1,300 kilograms!
Although Lin Mo had activated the system, time was still tight. His strength was far inferior!
"If only I had activated the system a month earlier, I could have chosen any martial arts university to attend." Lin Mo couldn\'t help but frown slightly.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up as he read a line of words on the system interface. "The more competitive the surrounding people are, the higher the involution index and the faster the leveling speed!"
Lin Mo couldn\'t help but look at his lovely classmates.
<annotations style="display: none;"><ol class="tinymce-annotation-container"><li data-annotation-id="fcc32c74-c2ae-4879-b197-620d867bf587">Involution is taken from the term agricultural involution in Indonesia, coined by Clifford Geertz. It occurs when external pressures and internal pressures lead to intensification(such as the competition in this world) rather than change.</li><li data-annotation-id="83217469-d3c1-43b7-be72-6db2697380b0">Chinese slang for being so strong that everyone would be jealous and not want to be friends.</li></ol></annotations>",