Gourmet Hunter - Chapter 206

Chapter 206: A Tough Start

At a normal walking speed, humans cover about 5 kilometers per hour. From the starting point to the sparse grove, the distance is roughly 15 kilometers.

If one walks at a normal pace, they could arrive at the destination by 7 p.m., around the time when it starts to get dark.

However, Luo's current walking pace is slower than walking through deep snow, about one-third of a normal person’s walking speed. This means that without improving efficiency, it would take 9 hours to reach the grove.

Bisky’s requirement was to arrive before it gets dark. Without speeding up, clearly, it would be impossible.

Watching Luo's struggling steps, Bisky looked indifferent. She and Sanbica continued to walk slowly beside him for thirty minutes, covering only about 1 kilometer.

"It’s indeed a forced Zetsu; this is best. Otherwise, given Luo's condition, he would inevitably use aura to assist his body." Bisky noticed no aura leaking from Luo, a perfect execution of Zetsu!

For a Nen user like Luo, who heavily relies on aura, practicing in a state of Zetsu, if the process becomes too difficult, they will inevitably use aura, causing the training to fail.

When dependency is ingrained in one’s bones, it’s not something that can simply be suppressed by will, as demonstrated by Luo's current painful steps. Each step he takes, he must grit his teeth and proceed, enduring pain he has never experienced before, yet still maintaining the state of Zetsu.

This is a good thing, as it allows the training plan's efficiency to reach one hundred percent.

His body feels heavy, as if carrying hundreds of pounds of stones. His feet, stuck in the mud, feel glued down, requiring full force to lift.

Each step he takes feels like a final sprint, but the distance covered is usually only 0.75 meters. This discrepancy becomes a worm eating away at his will.

"My legs are starting to ache; the side effects are coming on too quickly without the boost from aura."

Luo bites down, not looking at how far the destination is, but focusing on each step, no matter how difficult, not reducing speed but instead slowly increasing it.

An hour quickly passes, and Luo has only walked 2 kilometers, with about 13 kilometers still to go.

Sweat beads form and slide down Luo’s face to his chin, then drop to the muddy ground.

"You have two more hours, but you've only completed one-seventh of the journey. If you don't speed up, it’s impossible to reach the destination before dark. If you don’t make it, you’ll have to do 500 push-ups immediately upon arrival," Bisky announced, checking her pocket watch at this moment to declare the consequences of being late.

Being late means... doing 500 push-ups with a body that's almost at its limit!

This statement added a mental burden to Luo.

"I need to speed up!"

Luo clenched his teeth, abandoning any rhythm in his movements, and sped up recklessly.

Watching Luo exert his full strength without reservation, Bisky added coldly, "If you collapse here, then I'm not accompanying you."

Sanbica frowned upon hearing this; all she could do was watch Luo, drenched in sweat, emitting urgent and heavy breaths, struggling to step forward.

Luo heard Bisky’s words but didn’t respond, because even speaking would waste precious energy.

"Physical qualities include agility, strength, flexibility, endurance, and human senses, while mental strength includes willpower, adaptability, judgment, creativity, etc. If we link these two with a line, then willpower will affect endurance."

"Though it's a forced Zetsu, it also has the effect of speeding up physical recovery. If not for this, one hour would have been almost the limit."

"Because the will hasn't fallen, the body naturally responds. In a disadvantaged fight, if will falls before the body, there's no chance of victory."

"If you fall here, that would be it."

Bisky muttered to herself. The last thing she said to Luo wasn't a joke. If Luo fell so easily at the start, what qualification would he have for her to train him for a year?

Unaware of Bisky’s inner thoughts, Luo’s body and mind endured dual torments, moving forward step by step.

Time slowly passed, and the horizon darkened, leaving only the fading twilight, while Luo still had about half the distance to go.

Trapped in the mud, he lifted his foot to step forward, then got stuck again, repeating this mechanical action continuously, maintaining the state of Zetsu throughout.

Muddy water covered Luo’s entire body, including his face and hair, looking extremely disheveled—a hardship he had never experienced before, but only by enduring could he move to the next step.

After three hours of slow walking with Luo, Sanbica

 realized how difficult and harsh Luo’s training would be for the next year, since this was just the first day!

It was completely dark now, and Luo had only completed half of the journey, meaning he still had to do 500 push-ups upon arrival.

As night deepened, Luo did not disappoint Bisky. Four hours later, he finally crossed the muddy area and reached the vegetated grove.

Upon reaching his destination, Luo’s knees buckled as if he was about to collapse to the ground in relief.

Sanbica, seeing this, was about to shout to prevent Luo from lying down, for that moment would signify the collapse of his will, after which it would be hard for him to stand again.

She couldn’t speak because Bisky covered her mouth with her hand.

Luo’s body leaned forward, tilting at a 45-degree angle, but then he suddenly stepped forward, stabilizing himself.

His chest heaved like a bellows, his eyelids drooping heavily, his lungs numb with pain, but he knew he still had to do 500 push-ups.

His legs were numb and trembling, but fortunately, it was push-ups and not squats; he wouldn’t have been able to do a single squat at this point.

"Five hundred..."

Luo slowly went down to the ground and started his first push-up.

The journey here had relied almost entirely on his legs, but now, the push-ups required his arms.

He had to hold on... his will tightened once again.

In this moment, Luo truly understood the difficult process of conditioning his body to the utmost.

Bisky had come this far step by step, and so had Antomu, likely through unimaginably harsh training to achieve such physical condition.

Now, Luo had also taken his first step, a step toward mastering the Heartsource Flow.

Seeing Luo initiate the push-ups without being reminded, Bisky smiled silently. From both the process and the result, she was quite satisfied—though this was merely the minimum start.

After Luo continuously completed 500 push-ups, his will relaxed, and he collapsed to the ground, falling into a deep sleep.

Seeing Luo seemingly pass out, Sanbica hurriedly checked on him, confirming that it was just a normal reaction from sheer exhaustion before she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Still lacking in completeness, but it passes," Bisky remarked as she walked to the side. Raising her hand, she extended her index finger, opening her body’s energy nodes, releasing a rich flow of aura. From this, she slowly formed a young woman in a short skirt uniform.

Now, it was time for her Nen beast to make an appearance.

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