# Chapter 2: First Grind
The alarm clock's shrill cry cuts through my meditation at 5:30 AM, but for the first time in years, I'm not exhausted. Instead of the usual bone-deep fatigue that makes getting out of bed feel like climbing Mount Everest, I feel... energized. Alert. Like my body has been running on fumes for decades and finally got a full tank of premium fuel.
I've been cultivating for eight hours straight. Eight hours of sitting in lotus position, cycling spiritual energy through meridians I'm still not entirely sure exist, practicing the Lightning Palm technique until my hands crackle with electricity. According to the system, I need two more hours to complete today's quota, but reality has other plans.
[Daily Progress: 8/10 hours completed. Warning: Interrupting cultivation sessions reduces efficiency by 15%.]
"Yeah, well, tell that to my landlord," I mutter, dismissing the blue screen with a thought. Amazing how quickly you adapt to having a magical interface in your brain. "Rent doesn't pay itself."
I stand and immediately notice the difference. My legs should be cramped from sitting in one position all night, but they feel loose and limber. When I stretch, my joints pop with satisfying releases of tension, and I can swear I feel electricity dancing along my spine.
The mirror in my bathroom reflects someone I barely recognize. Same face, same build, but there's something fundamentally different. My eyes are clearer, more focused. My skin has a subtle luminous quality, as if lit from within. Most importantly, the constant tension I've carried in my shoulders since childhood—the physical manifestation of poverty and stress—has vanished entirely.
Body Refinement Stage One isn't just about getting stronger. It's about becoming more than human, one cellular improvement at a time.
My phone buzzes with a text from Boss Liu at the construction site: "Zhang! Where are you? Concrete delivery in 20 minutes. You're late!"
Shit. In my excitement over the system, I completely forgot about work. I throw on yesterday's clothes and race out of my apartment, taking the stairs three at a time. Normally this would leave me winded by the third floor. Today I reach the bottom without even breathing hard.
---
The construction site sits in the heart of Beijing's endless urban expansion, another glass tower rising to house people who can afford what I make in a year. I arrive fifteen minutes late, expecting Boss Liu's usual stream of creative insults about my parentage, work ethic, and probable future as a street sweeper.
Instead, he takes one look at me and frowns.
"You look different," he says, circling me like I'm a piece of equipment he's considering buying. "Taller? Did you get taller?"
"Same height as always, Boss." I grab my hard hat from the trailer, eager to deflect attention. The last thing I need is people asking questions I can't answer. "Where do you want me?"
"Foundation work. North corner. Try not to break anything expensive."
The morning passes in a blur of concrete and rebar. What usually takes me forty minutes now requires twenty. When I lift a steel beam that normally needs two people, I have to pretend it's heavier than it is, grunting and straining to maintain the illusion of normal human limitations.
The other workers notice. How could they not?
"Zhang's been hitting the gym," jokes Old Wang during lunch break. "Look at him go. Maybe he found some of that Hunter protein powder."
I force a laugh and change the subject, but unease gnaws at my gut. If I'm this much stronger after one stage of body refinement, what happens when I advance further? How do I explain sudden superhuman capabilities without revealing the truth about cultivation?
[Host is experiencing advancement anxiety,] the system's voice notes in my mind. [This is normal. Previous Zhang family cultivators faced similar challenges when integrating supernatural abilities into mundane life.]
"Any advice?" I whisper, pretending to check my phone while the other workers gossip about last night's Hunter Association raid on a B-Class Tear.
[Gradual revelation. Allow others to believe your improvements stem from natural causes—better diet, exercise, determination. Humans readily accept explanations that fit their existing worldview.]
[More importantly: focus on cultivation progress, not social integration. Power solves all problems, given sufficient application.]
Typical system response. Coldly logical, completely practical, and utterly dismissive of human complexity. Then again, maybe that's what I need. I've spent twenty-seven years worrying about what other people think, and where has it gotten me? Broke, exhausted, and living in a shoebox.
Time to prioritize differently.
---
The afternoon brings an unexpected complication. Around 2 PM, air raid sirens begin wailing across the city—the universal signal for Tear activity. Construction stops immediately as workers crane their necks skyward, searching for signs of spatial distortion.
"There!" Someone points northeast. "Look at the clouds!"
I follow his gesture and feel my blood freeze. The sky above the Chaoyang district is... wrong. Twisted. Reality bends and warps like heated plastic, creating a nauseating optical illusion that makes my eyes water to look at directly. Through the distortion, I catch glimpses of an alien landscape—crimson skies, floating rocks, vegetation that moves with predatory intent.
A Tear. A big one.
[Dimensional breach detected. Estimated classification: C-Class based on spatial distortion patterns. High probability of entity emergence within 30 minutes.]
"Everyone off the site!" Boss Liu shouts, his usual gruffness replaced by genuine fear. "This is not a drill! Government protocols are in effect!"
The evacuation proceeds with practiced efficiency. Beijing has dealt with seventeen Tears since 2019, and the population knows the drill: get to designated shelters, stay there until the Hunters clear the threat, then return to pick up the pieces of whatever got destroyed.
I follow the crowd toward the nearest metro station, but something makes me pause. A strange pulling sensation, like a magnetic force drawing me toward the Tear instead of away from it. The feeling intensifies with each step I take away from the distortion, until it becomes almost painful to ignore.
[Host is experiencing Spiritual Resonance,] the system explains. [Your Thunder Path cultivation responds to dimensional energy. This is both an opportunity and a danger.]
"Opportunity how?"
[Tears emit pure spiritual energy during formation. Cultivating near an active breach can accelerate advancement significantly. However, risk of entity encounter increases proportionally.]
I stop walking. The crowd streams around me like water around a rock, everyone desperate to reach safety. But I'm thinking about last night—about sitting in my cramped apartment, grinding through meditation while the city slept, making progress one agonizing hour at a time.
How long will it take to reach the next stage at this rate? Months? Years? And meanwhile, Hunters get stronger every day, the wealth gap widens, and people like me fall further behind.
Unless I take risks. Unless I grind where the rewards are highest.
"I'm insane," I mutter, then turn and start walking toward the Tear.
[Excellent decision, Host. High-risk cultivation builds character and power in equal measure.]
"Easy for you to say. You're not the one who'll get eaten by interdimensional monsters."
[Previous Zhang family cultivators regularly fought demons and spirits. Your bloodline is optimized for combat against supernatural entities. Have confidence in your heritage.]
The closer I get to the distortion, the stronger the pulling sensation becomes. By the time I reach the edge of the evacuation zone, marked by abandoned police barriers and flashing warning lights, my skin tingles with ambient energy. It's like standing next to a massive electrical generator, except instead of electricity, it's pure spiritual force.
I find an abandoned office building three blocks from the Tear's epicenter and climb to the roof. From here I have a perfect view of the dimensional breach—a jagged wound in reality roughly fifty meters wide, crackling with energies that make the air shimmer like a heat mirage.
And it's growing.
[Optimal cultivation distance achieved. Begin Thunder Path meditation immediately. Estimated advancement bonus: 300% efficiency increase.]
I settle into lotus position on the building's roof, surrounded by discarded cigarette butts and pigeon droppings, and begin the breathing pattern. The effect is immediate and overwhelming. Instead of the gentle trickle of spiritual energy I experienced in my apartment, power floods through my meridians like a tsunami.
My body convulses as electricity races through my nervous system. Every cell seems to vibrate at a frequency just shy of destruction, rebuilding itself stronger with each pulse of energy. The sensation is agony and ecstasy combined—like being struck by lightning while ascending to heaven.
Through the pain, I feel myself advancing. Not gradually, as I had the night before, but in sudden quantum leaps. My muscles density increases. My bones become harder than steel. My nervous system rewires itself to handle voltages that would kill a normal human.
[Body Refinement Stage 2 breakthrough achieved!]
[New abilities unlocked: Lightning Step (short-distance teleportation), Enhanced Physical Capabilities, Electrical Immunity]
[Warning: Entity emergence detected. Multiple hostiles approaching your position.]
I snap out of meditation just as something crashes through the office building's roof access door. The creature that emerges defies easy description—imagine a wolf crossed with a praying mantis, then given too many joints and covered in scales that reflect light like broken mirrors. Its eyes burn with malevolent intelligence as it spots me.
Two more emerge behind it, then three more. Within seconds, I'm surrounded by five alien predators on a rooftop with nowhere to run.
The old me would have panicked. Would have frozen with terror or tried to bargain with creatures that probably don't understand human speech.
The new me, powered by Stage 2 Body Refinement and flooded with spiritual energy from the Tear, simply smiles.
"Perfect timing," I say, standing slowly and letting electricity dance between my fingers. "I was just thinking I needed some practical application for my Lightning Palm technique."
The lead creature snarls and lunges.
I activate Lightning Step.
The world blurs. One moment I'm standing in the center of the roof, surrounded by monsters. The next, I'm behind the lead creature, my palm pressed against its spine. Electricity erupts from my hand with the force of a lightning bolt, coursing through the creature's nervous system and cooking it from the inside out.
It collapses, smoking and twitching.
The remaining four creatures react with inhuman speed, turning to face me with coordinated precision. But I'm already moving, Lightning Step carrying me from position to position faster than they can track. Each teleportation ends with another Lightning Palm strike, each strike frying another monster.
Within thirty seconds, all five lie dead on the rooftop.
I stand among the corpses, breathing hard but uninjured, watching electricity dance across my skin like a living aurora. The power coursing through my body is intoxicating. For the first time in my life, I'm not the weakest person in the room. I'm not the one who gets pushed around, overlooked, or forgotten.
I'm dangerous.
[Combat performance: Excellent. Five D-Class entities eliminated without injury.]
[Bonus experience gained from actual combat application. Stage 2 consolidation accelerated.]
[Daily quest progress: 10/10 hours completed early due to high-energy cultivation environment.]
[Rewards: +50 System Points, New Skill: Combat Instinct (Passive), +1 Thunder Affinity]
In the distance, I can see Hunter Association helicopters approaching the Tear. Professional cleanup crews coming to handle what they consider a routine threat. They'll never know that five monsters escaped and died on this rooftop, killed by a construction worker who learned martial arts from yellowed family notes.
Good. The less attention I draw, the better.
I make my way back down the building and blend into the crowd of returning civilians. Just another face in Beijing's millions, heading home after an eventful afternoon.
But as I walk, I'm already planning tomorrow's cultivation session. The system mentioned something about Stage 3 requirements, and I have seven more hours before my daily quota resets.
Time to get back to grinding. After all, in this world of Hunters and monsters, the only security is strength.
And I'm just getting started.
[End of Daily Cycle. Cultivation efficiency: 127%. Congratulations on exceeding expectations, Host.]
[Tomorrow's recommendation: Seek out stronger opponents. True advancement requires greater challenges.]
I grin as I head home. The system wants stronger opponents?
I know exactly where to find them.