039 The Deliveryman's Astonishment!

At his current speed, Chen Jue didn’t even need a minute to run from his house, through the village paths, to the entrance several hundred meters away.

Upon spotting the delivery guy, who looked about his age, Chen Jue hurried over, greeted him, and gave his Taobao username.

“So you’re Mr. Chen?”

“Hey, brother! What on earth did you buy?”

“Why is it so heavy! Four of us struggled just to get it onto the van,” the delivery guy grumbled as he got out and slid open the side door of the little minivan.

There, lying across the doorway, was a large rectangular wooden crate, securely nailed shut on all sides, clearly to guard against any mishap during transport.

“Just picked up some fitness equipment!”

Chen Jue looked a bit embarrassed at the question, laughed it off, and stepped over to the crate to lift it.

The first thing he felt was the sheer weight!

This custom set of chrome-plated dumbbells weighed a total of 800 jin—about 400 kilograms. Even with his newly boosted strength, Chen Jue couldn’t manage to hoist it straight up.

“No way, huh?”

“What you’ve got in here is too heavy! No way you’re moving it alone. You’d better call a few friends over to help,” said the delivery guy, a teasing smile on his face.

After all, it had taken several of them at the depot to get the thing onto the van. Now, seeing Chen Jue, he was clearly hoping to watch the hapless customer struggle.

But to his surprise, after failing to lift the crate on his first attempt, Chen Jue lowered his stance, took a deep breath, and his skin seemed to flush with a bluish tint. Gripping the protruding edges on either side of the crate, he gave a short shout, and right in front of the delivery guy, summoned every ounce of his refined force. The huge crate lifted several inches off the van, then with a sideways tilt and a heavy motion, he slammed it down onto the roadside.

“Whoa—whoa! You’re a strongman!” The delivery guy’s eyes widened as if witnessing the impossible.

Chen Jue, having unleashed his full strength, relaxed his pores and sweat beaded across his skin. The bluish hue faded, and his complexion returned to its healthy, rosy glow.

Though the burst of strength had been brief, the load was so heavy that it felt no easier than sprinting a couple hundred meters.

“Sorry to take up your time!”

“Getting it off the van is enough. I’ll break open the crate and carry it home in pieces,” Chen Jue said with a grin.

“Impressive, brother! With strength like yours, you’d out-earn everyone on a construction site,” the delivery guy finally blurted, giving him a big thumbs up.

He never expected a rural delivery would lead to such an encounter!

A crate that took several sturdy young men from the depot to lift had been singlehandedly unloaded by this man.

And from his posture, he looked like someone who’d trained in martial arts—truly eye-opening!

But what the delivery guy didn’t realize was that Chen Jue had used a bit of technique. He hadn’t really carried the full weight; he’d used leverage to tip and slide the crate off, not lift it outright. If he’d had to carry all 400 kilograms in his arms, he wouldn’t have managed a single step.

Unless his strength attribute increased again in the future, it was simply impossible.

…

After chatting with the courier from SF Express for a bit, and expecting to order more unusual things in the future, Chen Jue decided to add him as a contact so he could message him directly for deliveries.

The delivery guy didn’t mind. He covered several villages in Panlong Town and had already added many villagers to his contacts. After a few more words, he hurried off to his next stop.

Glancing at the crate lying beside the road, Chen Jue grabbed it and wrenched off the wooden lid, revealing a pair of gleaming, chrome-plated dumbbells wrapped in foam.

Each weighed 200 kilograms, with eight separate plates on either side, each 25 kilograms—absolute king-level equipment for any gym.

“Thank goodness they can be taken apart, or carrying them home would be a nightmare.” Chen Jue smiled to himself, squatted down, dismantled the dumbbells, and started trudging home with four plates in hand.

The atmosphere in Chen Village was good and sparsely populated. The remaining dumbbell parts left by the roadside would be perfectly safe.

Carrying two plates, a hundred kilograms in all, for several hundred meters would be tough for most, but for Chen Jue it was just about manageable—just a bit more effort.

He made eight trips, walking and sometimes jogging, to bring all the dumbbell parts home before reassembling them.

As for the packaging crate, Chen Jue simply left it by the trash bin at the village entrance. It’d make good firewood for the local elders.

Back home, Chen Jue tested the dumbbells and found he couldn’t even lift a full 200 kilograms with one hand!

But he’d expected this. He removed the plates one by one and after several tries, discovered his maximum single-handed lift was 100 kilograms.

This was only by using refined force and holding his breath for a burst of power.

Relying solely on raw strength, he could only deadlift 75 kilograms with one hand and couldn’t sustain it for long—hardly enough for serious training.

“I’ll need to push my strength to above 2 before I can really make use of the 200-kilogram dumbbells,” Chen Jue mused. After a short rest, he adjusted the dumbbells to two plates of 50 kilograms each, took one in each hand, and began his daily workout.

…

The new dumbbells lived up to their reputation as powerful training tools. After only a few sets, Chen Jue noticed his strength stat increase by 0.01.

After three hours of persistent training, his strength had climbed by 0.05—a remarkable leap.

However, for some reason, his agility stat, after surpassing the baseline of 1, no longer increased in tandem with strength. Only after the 0.05 increase in strength would agility creep up a little.

As for his constitution, which had dropped earlier, Chen Jue restored it through Ba Xian Zhuang and the Twelve Forms of Muscle Transformation, keeping it steady at 1.94. The only side effect was a 1% drop in his health index, which would recover after a day’s rest.

In addition, 0.02 free attribute points appeared.

With a strength stat of 1.21, Chen Jue’s muscles had visibly swelled, and with fat burning away, his body was quickly regaining a lean, athletic look.

In a few days, he’d surely have the physique he’d been aiming for.

Player: Chen Jue
Age: 27
Health Index: 98%
Strength: 1.21
Agility: 1.06
Intelligence: 1.23
Constitution: 1.94
Skills Mastered: [Boat Fist Lv2 (52/500)], [Twelve Forms of Muscle Transformation Lv2 (5/200)], [Ba Xian Stance Lv2 (57/500)], [Shaolin Iron Body Lv1 (2/200)], [Inner Strength: Child’s Kung Fu (Mastery)]
Free Attribute Points: 0.19