The night was unusually quiet. Crickets hummed outside Yu Chen's small wooden home, their chirps carried faintly through the thin paper windows. At fifteen years old, Yu Chen's life was as plain as the dirt road leading out of his village. His father worked in the fields, his mother managed the home, and he had no lofty ambitions beyond surviving in a world that cared little for nobodies.
That was, until the voice came.
"Ding. Binding complete. Congratulations, Host Yu Chen. You have obtained the Invincible Growth System."
Yu Chen sat bolt upright in his bed, heart pounding against his ribs. The words echoed directly inside his mind, like a whisper from the heavens.
"System?" he muttered, his voice trembling. "What... what's happening?"
The voice was calm, mechanical, emotionless.
"Daily Mission: 1000 push-ups. 1000 sit-ups. 100 km run. Complete the mission to receive attribute rewards. Failure results in no growth."
Yu Chen blinked. Then he laughed nervously. "This is... Impossible. A hundred kilometers? In one day?"
Still, something inside him stirred----curiosity, maybe desperation. He had no power, no talent, no future. If this was real, if even a sliver of it was true... then he had to try.
The next morning, Yu Chen dragged himself out to the village's barren training field. He lowered himself to the ground and began.
One push-up. Two push-ups. By fifty, his arms burned. By two hundred, he was shaking, violently. Sweat drenched his shirt until it clung to his frail body. At five hundred, he collapsed into the dirt, gasping like a drowning man.
The sit-ups were no easier. By the end, his stomach cramped so hard he thought he'd vomit blood.
Then came the run. The System demanded 1000 kilometers. Yu Chen's legs gave out after barely five. He crawled home, his throat dry, his body screaming.
But when the sun set and he thought he had failed, the System chimed again:
"Daily Mission Completed. Reward: Strength +5. Constitution +5, Agility +5, Intelligence +2."
And just like that, the pain dulled. His body, thought battered, felt a faint energy coursing through it. Stronger. Lighter. Sharper.
Yu Chen awoke the next morning to a glowing screen before his eyes.
[STATUS PANEL - DAY 1]
NAME: Yu Chen
AGE: 15
STRENGTH: 35
CONSTITUTION: 32
AGILITY: 30
INTELLIGENCE: 25
POTENTIAL: LIMITLESS
His hands trembled. he had been weak, average boy. Now... he was stronger than any adult in his village. And this was only the beginning.
Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months. Each morning Yu Chen woke before dawn and threw himself into the torturous routine. His body broke over and over again. Blisters tore open his feed during runs. His bones ached as if ground by stone. More than once, he collapsed unconscious mid-training.
But the System never allowed excuses. No matter how close to death, he pushed through.
And every day, his body grew harder, faster, sharper. His mind cleared as his intelligence grew, giving him memory like flowing water. He memorized entire books after a single reading. He begun studying martial arts manual borrowed from distant markets, and every technique etched itself into him like he was born with it.
[STATUS PANEL - YEAR 5]
NAME: Yu Chen
AGE: 20
STRENGTH: 280
CONSTITUTION: 260
AGILITY: 250
INTELLIGENCE: 180
POTENTIAL: LIMITLESS
By now, Yu Chen's body was not human anymore. with one punch, he shattered boulders. With one leap, he crossed rivers. His mind could recall a hundred thousand words in perfect detail. He read ancient philosophies and obscure records not for pleasure, but to temper his mind as fiercely as his body.
Yet, he told no one. To his neighbors, he was still the quiet, unremarkable boy.
[STATUS PANEL - YEAR 10]
NAME: Yu Chen
AGE: 25
STRENGTH: 1,500
CONSTITUTION: 1,400
AGILITY: 1,350
INTELLIGENCE: 1,100
POTENTIAL: LIMITLESS
By twenty-five, Yu Chen had become something unimaginable. His fists could flatten beasts, his senses could hear whispers across a crowded market, his body healed faster than wounds could linger. His intelligence had grown so keen he began writing his own treatises on combat, on philosophy, on the meaning of strength itself.
But he remained hidden. Instead of glory, he chose obscurity.
Yu Chen took a humble job in the city as a library custodian. To others, he was a quiet man dusting shelves and stamping borrowed books. No one knew that behind his calm eyes burned a strength vast enough to tear mountains apart.
As the years passed, he watched kingdoms rise and fall, kings proclaim themselves great, and warriors fight for titles. To him they were children playing with sticks in the mud.
And so, Yu Chen trained in silence. Each day, each year, his stats climbed higher. Each moment, he became more untouchable.
The world had no idea what was sleeping in their midst.
--- End of Chapter 1 ---