"Fang Yu, you aren't the only one wondering about this. In fact, all of us are curious,"
Xia Yao said in a low voice. "Whether we're in the Safe Zone or the Wilderness Zone, as long as we kill a dire beast, an immediate alert appears on our communication star rings displaying the Primordial Points we've earned.
"Even if a beast flees out of our sight and bleeds to death, we still receive a notification.
"Likewise.
"In a squad like ours, if Qin Yang snipes a dire beast from a distance, the Primordial Points should logically go to him... But if we carried out reconnaissance or stood guard, we also receive our share of Primordial Points.
"Take today, for instance.
"I accompanied you to search for dire beasts. You earned 2.2 points for hunting them down, and I gradually accumulated 0.2 points." Xia Yao sighed with emotion. "It feels as though something unseen is monitoring everything on the Primordial Star... All our actions as martial artists are under surveillance."
"Surveillance?" Fang Yu mused.
"There's no need to look too deeply into it," Xia Yao said. "In the end, all we can do is follow the rules and maximize our benefits within what the rules permit."
"Yeah."
"Head back and get some rest. Tomorrow at two in the afternoon, we assemble at the captain's room."
...
Back in his room, Fang Yu took a refreshing shower. Looking at the chiseled lines of his muscles in the mirror, he could not help offering a self-satisfied grin. "Seems my face has gotten a bit more handsome too."
He got dressed.
He handed the full battle suit, combat boots, bracers, and other gear he had taken off—along with his battle saber—to the two service robots that had arrived at his door.
One robot carried the items away to have them washed and maintained.
"Warrior Fang Yu, you have been promoted to Tier-1 Warrior."
The other robot spoke, its voice no longer quite so cold. "Your complimentary privileges now include free daily laundering and maintenance of your combat gear, two free high-energy meals per day... and two free hours in the gravity chamber each month."
In a single breath, the robot rattled off nearly ten newly added privileges.
Of course, most of them were trivial, but the final privilege made Fang Yu's eyes light up.
The gravity chamber!
Two hours of access.
*I haven't used a gravity chamber yet. After a good rest, I'll go try it out tomorrow morning,* Fang Yu thought, quickly submitting an application through the Primordial Net.
Just ten minutes later, his request was approved.
*It seems the space base has far more gravity chambers than martial universities do, with plenty of them vacant,* Fang Yu realized at once.
The space base was held in high regard by many civilian martial artists, which was why Jiang Wei had advised him to come here from the very beginning.
One crucial reason was tier privileges.
The higher a Civilization Warrior's tier, the more cultivation privileges they received.
Back on Blue Star, only martial universities, martial artist conglomerates, and a handful of other institutions possessed gravity chambers, and the requirements for using them were stringent. At Huguang Martial University, for instance, only elite students had a certain amount of access, while ordinary students never even saw one.
At an institution like Wuling Martial Junior College, there was not a single gravity chamber to be found.
Yet on the Primordial Star, merely becoming a Tier-1 Civilization Warrior granted access to a gravity chamber. Even if it was only two hours, that was still out of reach for most martial artists on Blue Star.
This was something money could hardly buy.
Tier-2 Civilization Warriors, Tier-3 Civilization Warriors...
The higher one's tier, the more staggering the training privileges and purchasing rights became.
For example, the omnipotent auxiliary device worn on the wrist of that Uncle Gu Fang Yu had met possessed mind-boggling functions, and only a Tier-4 Civilization Warrior was permitted to purchase it.
*There are also various free perks that seem ordinary, but they save a huge amount of time and money,* Fang Yu thought. *If a civilian martial artist wants to keep progressing in the martial path, venturing onto the Primordial Star is their best choice.*
The risks were high, but so were the rewards.
Most importantly, venturing onto the Primordial Star depended entirely on strength—and for the vast majority of people, that was already the greatest form of fairness.
...
The following morning, at nine o'clock on the nineteenth.
After a full night of rest, a refreshed Fang Yu followed a guide robot and arrived on the sixth floor of one of the metal buildings right on time. Aside from their room numbers, all the rooms here looked identical, and very few people were coming or going.
They stopped in front of room 677.
"Warrior Fang Yu," the robot said in a deep voice, "this is your first time entering a gravity chamber. Therefore, I must first emphasize the precautions. An elementary gravity chamber can adjust gravity up to thirty-two times Blue Star's gravity, or 32G. However, when starting out, you should gradually ramp it up from 1.5G to avoid unnecessary injury to your body.
"Although the gravity chamber is equipped with protective mechanisms, quite a few martial artists are injured every year.
"Furthermore, training in a gravity chamber tempers your muscles and bones comprehensively, but it also places an extra burden on your skeleton, internal organs, and other systems. It is recommended that each session last no more than one hour.
"As a Tier-1 Civilization Warrior, you may split your access into two sessions.
"You are currently only an Intermediate Martial Artist and have not yet cultivated star force... Once your body is damaged, it cannot recover quickly. In short, prioritize safety above all.
"Please also note: when your time expires and the chime sounds, please exit the gravity chamber as quickly as possible. Overstaying will result in a deduction of Primordial Points at a rate of one thousand Primordial Points per hour," the robot stated coldly. "Any duration under one hour will be billed as a full hour. If you lack sufficient Primordial Points, the debt will be converted into a 'malicious loan' with an annual interest rate of one hundred percent."
*That's ruthless!* Fang Yu muttered inwardly, though he understood this was how the space base ensured no one violated the rules.
Soon, the heavy door of the gravity chamber swung open. The interior was not overly spacious—a metallic chamber measuring six meters on each side, with silver-white metal walls and flooring made of an unfamiliar alloy.
Following the instructions, Fang Yu stripped down to his underwear and stood in the center of the chamber.
*Boom~*
The metal door sealed shut.
"Activate gravity: start at 1.5 times Blue Star standard gravity, gradually increasing to 6 times Blue Star standard gravity," Fang Yu instructed.
*Buzz~*
The moment the machinery engaged, Fang Yu felt as if hands were pressing down on his shoulders. His entire frame seemed to sink, every bone feeling weighed down, and even his blood flow appeared to slow.
Even breathing gradually grew difficult.
"Vault of Stars Pillar Stance." Fang Yu spread his limbs, settling into the posture of the Stake Stance Training. As the gravity rose rapidly, he felt a crushing pressure weigh on his body and mind.
When it reached 6G, a pang of agony shot through him.
It felt more agonizing than carrying thousands of kilograms on his back.
*This gravity chamber truly is extraordinary.* Fang Yu fought to maintain his stance, striving to calm his mind. *Before the Great Sky-Burning Era, a famous animated series featured a similar technological device.
*Now, it has become reality.
*Cultivating inside a gravity chamber will cause my training efficiency to skyrocket, and my Life Level will advance much faster,* Fang Yu thought. This principle had been touched upon during classes at the junior college.
Gravitational pressure was all-encompassing.
Conventional fitness equipment typically targeted specific muscle groups.
Even for masters who possessed micro-level control over their bodies, circulating vital energy and blood could not reach the cellular level... Gravity, however, acted directly on the body's finest subatomic particles, penetrating deeper than the cellular layer.
*Why does Entering the Minute allow someone to tap deeper into their physical potential? Because their control over the body is fine enough to allow for deeper, more thorough training.
*The more refined the training, the better the body absorbs vital-energy potions and star force.
*A gravity chamber acts as an external force that tempers the body profoundly and from every angle,* Fang Yu reflected. *If I practice Stake Stance Training and the Basic Twenty-Four Fist Forms under these conditions, my cultivation efficiency will be even higher.*
Even an ordinary person's training efficiency would surge under such conditions.
For a technical expert, the boost was even greater.
The strong would only grow stronger!
*For ordinary martial artists, training at their absolute limit for one hour per session is best.
*However, my mastery of Entering the Minute has reached Great Accomplishment. Even if I push through for two straight hours, I can maintain peak efficiency.* A glimmer of anticipation rose in Fang Yu's heart. *I hope this won't disappoint me.*
There was a reason he wanted to exhaust both hours in a single session.
Fang Yu wanted his body to feel 'hunger' once more—only then could he ingest even more Crimson Star Pills.
Chapter 46