Book During Orion Locke’s first combat mission, after he killed an enemy in a burst of gunfire, a strange book suddenly appeared inside his mind.
It was bound in some unknown animal hide, completely black on the outside, with no title or markings anywhere on its surface.
At first glance it looked ordinary, but whenever Orion focused on it, he felt an inexplicable sense of vastness and ancient weight.
At first, Orion thought he was hallucinating.
The Black Book could not be physically removed from his mind, yet with a single thought he could summon it clearly within his consciousness.
When he wondered what purpose it served, the cover opened by itself, and lines of text slowly appeared on the first page beneath an image of his face.
Name: Orion Locke Age: 18 Life Level: Level 1 Physical Fitness: 0.21 (+) Constitution: 0.29 (+) Skills: Shooting Lv.1 (+), Combat Lv.1 (+) Normal Energy: 1 Point Orion stared at the simple information displayed by the Black Book and immediately felt that the numbers were strangely low.
He had consciously trained his body since he was six years old, partly to stay healthy and partly to avoid being bullied.
By the time he enlisted at eighteen, Orion was already over six feet tall and weighed nearly two hundred pounds, with a lean and muscular build rather than excess fat.
His natural strength had always been impressive.
Even without professional coaching, Orion could lift around 350 pounds when pushing himself to the limit, so seeing his Physical Fitness listed as only 0.21 left him confused.
Acting on instinct, he mentally selected the plus sign beside the stat.
The single point of Normal Energy he had gained from killing the enemy immediately disappeared, while his Physical Fitness increased from 0.21 to 0.22.
At the same moment, Orion felt a faint wave of heat spread through his muscles, and his body seemed to become slightly stronger.
“What the hell?” Orion clenched his fist and could clearly feel the difference.
Later that night, he secretly went to the base gym and tested himself, confirming that his strength had increased by roughly ten pounds.
After a long period of experimentation, he gradually understood what the numbers inside the Black Book actually represented.
Physical Fitness did not refer to one specific measurement.
It represented the overall development of his body, including strength, explosive power, endurance, speed, reflexes, agility, coordination, and resistance to physical impact.
Constitution, meanwhile, represented his internal condition, covering his organs, immune system, resistance to disease and toxins, recovery ability, and perhaps even lifespan.
Ordinary people could improve through years of hard training, but the human body was complicated and fragile.
A mistake in training could easily damage muscles, joints, or organs and cause permanent problems instead of improvement.
With the Black Book, Orion could directly strengthen his body without those risks as long as he had enough energy.
The only real limitation was obtaining that energy.
The Black Book granted Normal Energy only when Orion personally killed another human being.
For most people, such a requirement would have been horrifying, but Orion had already joined the military.
After he eventually passed special operations selection, killing enemies became a regular part of his work.
Kill, gain energy, become stronger, and then kill more easily.
It formed a perfect cycle.
However, roughly one year before his discharge, Orion discovered that he had reached a bottleneck.
No matter how much energy he accumulated, neither Physical Fitness nor Constitution could be increased any further.
The energy gained from later kills could only remain stored, which was one reason he no longer cared much about staying in the military.
Now, twelve years after first discovering the Black Book, Orion summoned it again inside the abandoned gas station and looked at his current status.
Name: Orion Locke Age: 30 Life Level: Level 1 Physical Fitness: 1.00 — Cannot Be Upgraded Constitution: 1.00 — Cannot Be Upgraded Skills: Combat Lv.4, Shooting Lv.3, Infiltration Lv.3, Mobility Lv.3, Espionage Lv.3 Normal Energy: 43 Points Looking at the familiar numbers, Orion felt a quiet sense of satisfaction.
He had already developed his body to what the Black Book considered the limit of Level 1.
If the outside world ever learned the full extent of his physical abilities, he suspected some government agency or research institution would immediately become interested in studying him.
Orion currently stood about six-foot-three and weighed a little over three hundred pounds.
His muscle and bone density were far beyond normal, and his physical performance was even more frightening.
In terms of pure strength, he could lift more than eleven hundred pounds and strike with enough force to damage thick concrete without seriously injuring himself.
His speed and endurance were equally abnormal.
Orion could maintain running speeds that ordinary people could only reach in a sprint for distances that should have been impossible.
By normal human standards, his physical capabilities had already reached an almost fictional level.
As far as Orion knew, however, this was still an ordinary world.
There were no mutants, armored superheroes, web-slinging vigilantes, or aliens publicly flying through cities.
Because of that, he sometimes jokingly considered himself the strongest human alive.
Even though Orion always tried to hide his true strength, it was impossible to conceal everything during twelve years of military service.
His size, combat record, and destructive power earned him several nicknames among soldiers who had served with him, including Crusher, Wrecking Ball, and Night Reaper.
The Black Book’s skill rankings were even stricter than its physical statistics.
Orion’s Combat Lv.4 already represented extremely high fighting ability, and during actual missions he had rarely encountered anyone capable of lasting long against him.
Even his former instructors had eventually stopped being meaningful opponents, yet the Black Book still classified him at only Level 4.
Skill upgrades also became dramatically more expensive with each level.
Increasing a skill from Level 1 to Level 2 required only 1 Energy Point, while Level 2 to Level 3 required 10 Energy Points.
The cost continued increasing afterward, so even after years of combat and accumulated kills, Orion had only managed to raise his best skill to Level 4.
“Whew.” Orion grabbed a bottle of water beside him and drank most of it in one go before pouring the rest over his head.
Feeling somewhat refreshed, he picked up his backpack, which weighed somewhere around seventy or eighty pounds, and casually slung it over one shoulder.
He then left the abandoned gas station and continued walking down the empty highway.
After more than two hours beneath the scorching Louisiana sun, Orion had barely broken a sweat when he heard the growl of an engine behind him.
A newer blue Land Rover sped past, continued several dozen yards, then suddenly slowed and reversed toward him.
“Hey, soldier!
Where’re you headed?” Orion looked toward the driver and saw a young, muscular man with long brown hair sitting behind the wheel.
The unmistakable smell of marijuana drifted from inside the vehicle as the stranger looked him over and pointed toward the back seat.
“Get in.
I’ll give you a ride.” (End of Chapter) 500 = +1 Chapter] [Review Goal: 10 = +1 Chapter]