Vitality Index Score
Entering the elevator, Principal Smith pulled a silver key from his suit's breast pocket and inserted it into its mainframe.
Then, to Adam's surprise, another button, one that wasn't there before, appeared. And without any surprise on his face, Principal Smith pushed it.
"Is there a hidden floor, Principal?" Adam probed curiously. It wasn't hard to guess what the button the principal just made appear did.
Principal Smith nodded at this.
"Though I don't like this rule, I have to follow it. So I have to keep this floor hidden," Principal Smith sighed.
Through the exhale of exhaustion, Adam could tell how much the principal didn't like this rule, whatever it was. However, the older man stopped talking, and Adam, slightly scared of his strength, didn't speak further.
After Principal Smith pressed the mystery button, the elevator started moving upward. A few dozen seconds passed, and they arrived before Adam got used to his new movement.
Opening the door, Principal Smith calmly walked out. After turning back toward Adam, he explained where they were.
"Welcome, Adam, to the Federation's Lab."
—
The floor that the principal brought Adam to wasn't a large one. It was nowhere near as spacious and lengthy as the others. In fact, it wasn't even as big as Adam's own alchemy lab.
It was more like an attic that the principal had access to than a floor. However, what the attic contained made Adam's nerd nature come out.
Adam's eyes glistened like diamonds in the sun while he walked through the Federation Lab.
And because of the room's small size, there wasn't much in there. However, at the center of the room was a tall, tube-like chamber. Connected to it were dozens, if not hundreds, of wires that were plugged into a nearby supercomputer.
"Principal, what is this room?" Adam asked with bright eyes. He had always been a medical nerd, so seeing such an advanced piece of medical technology, Adam couldn't help but reveal his nerdy side.
"This is the room where we store the greatest piece of technology that our Federation has created, Adam." Principal Smith answered with a smile. Seeing the boy liven up so much gave Principal Smith a warm feeling. Though he had brought many students up here over the years, Adam's reaction was the most innocent.
However, Adam wasn't satisfied with the half-answer and asked a more specific question.
"What is the big tube in the middle?" Adam asked, pointing at the elephant in the room.
Walking over to the medicine chamber, Principal Smith put his hand on it as if admiring it before turning back to Adam.
"In essence, it's just an extremely advanced MRI machine. However, through the hard work of the Federation's scientists, it has evolved into a machine that can scan every inch of the human body and give an extremely detailed report on the person's entire inner body. From their health problems down to their strength." Principal Smith answered.
"This is why Sam told you to stop cultivating and not to break through. If you broke through without entering the medicine chamber, you'd likely cut your future strength short by a realm." Principal Smith finished.
The fog that Sam left in Adam's head slightly cleared up after hearing the principal's words, but he still had a belly full of anticipation. So, after making sure he could, Adam stepped into the medicine chamber.
"Just stay still and calm, Adam. While it might feel odd at first, nothing bad will happen to you." Principal Smith's calm voice sounded. And after closing the glass door, he started up the machine.
In the medicine chamber, Adam felt hundreds of lasers trace against his body while a few needles went into his skin and poked and prodded his insides. It was a weird feeling, but eventually Adam got used to it.
A minute quickly passed, and it was done before Adam became too uncomfortable.
"Ding! Analysis complete!" A mechanical voice sounded as the doors opened, and Adam was let out.
A series of words soon appeared on the screen in front of Principal Smith. They were Adam's stats.
–
Skin Strength: 94 points out of 100
Blood Strength: 92 points out of 100
Bone Strength: 75 points out of 100
Viscera Strength: 98 points out of 100
Muscles and Tendons: 97 points out of 100
Vitality Index Score: 91.2
–
Seeing the stats displayed on the machine, Principal Smith couldn't help but whistle in admiration.
"Other than your rather low bone strength stat, you're a monster, Adam. If I didn't know your background myself, I would've thought you were a genius raised by a conglomerate family." Principal Smith said with admiration.
He wasn't being petty with his praise at all. Though Adam knew nothing of what these numbers meant, Principal Smith did. And a vitality index score of 91.2 was something amazing.
"Principal, what are all of these numbers? Do these numbers represent how strong my body is?" Adam asked as he walked over.
Adam had no idea what the numbers meant, but from Principal Smith's praise and the extremely high numbers, he could tell it was really good.
Seeing the boy's confusion, Principal Smith decided to give Adam a small lecture.
"As you know, the Body Refining Realm is all about strengthening the mortal body and creating the best possible vessel in preparation for the true journey toward immortality. However, it's extremely hard to cultivate this realm perfectly."
"Sometimes you have a habit of tempering one part of your body over the rest during your training, and that one part of your body becomes far stronger than the rest, or perhaps you are lazy and maybe all of your body is equal in strength, but lacks in overal strength, kind of like a jack of all trades but master of none, and you don't reach your full potential."
"But with this machine, we can find the deficiencies in someone's Body Refining Realm and then help them perfect it."
"That's what the vitality index score is—the overall rating of your body's strength. So a score of 1 would be the strength of the average mortal human body, while 100 would be the strongest a person can make their own body without the help of Spiritual Qi." Principal Smith announced proudly.
He was a patriot by nature, so whenever he talked about the accomplishments of the Federation, he felt as much pride as the creator did. And during his speech, he let it out.
"Of course, this isn't a foolproof system. Not every person can unearth every inch of their body's potential. So, rather than staying in the Body Refining Realm, they choose to break through to the Martial Apprentice Realm. After all, perfecting the foundation can sometimes take years. Wasting so much time during the Body Refining Realm can sometimes do more damage than just breaking through." Principal Smith continued.
"In essence, the entire point of the Body Refining Realm is the sharpening of the axe. And while, as the old saying goes, If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend the first four sharpening the axe, if you waste 5 hours sharpening, you won't have nearly enough time to cut down the tree."
"Granted, some people are more talented than others, and so people can complete the Body Refining Realm quicker than others, but the underlying message is still there."
Adam was in awe after hearing all of this. But as much worship as he had, Adam also had a question.
"Is that why there are no Martial Apprentices in the college exam ever, but just peak-stage Body Refining Realm martial artists?" Adam asked.
No matter the year, without fail, there was never a martial artist in the Martial Apprentice Realm. The peak power was also a few dozen children who were half a step into the Martial Apprentice Realm, but none truly in the realm.
Adam had noticed this a few months ago, but always attributed it to a lack of potential or resources.
But now that he had heard the principal's lecture, he finally knew the actual reason.
"Yes, indeed. Since our Federation of Humanity is in an extremely peaceful era, the government made it a rule for all children under 16 to stay in the Body Refining Realm. Only during the college exams can they break through. This way, we can create as many geniuses as possible while also hiring the ceiling for each generation." Principal Smith nodded.
"But what if a kid reaches 100 in all categories? Wouldn't they be wasting their time by continuing to stay in the Body Refining Realm?" Adam asked.
Adam didn't know how rare people with his stats were and instead thought that his stats were common. So he thought that it was a common trend for people to reach 100 in all categories before 16.
"Adam, I know you're ignorant about this subject, so I won't make fun of you, but you must understand. People with stats like yours aren't cabbages. They are extremely rare, with only a few popping up every year. Your vitality index is 91.2. And the score only goes up to 100 points."
"Moreover, the only reason your score is this low is because your bone strength is an outlier and much lower than the other 4. If they were just as much as your other four stats, you'd have an average of 95 or 96." Principal Smith awkwardly said.
However, Adam didn't know what these numbers meant, so he continued explaining.
"Adam, humanity's average for students entering college is only 74. You're almost 20 points above them." Principal Smith said, shocking Adam, "If anything, your bone score isn't an outlier but the average. Your other scores are the statistical outliers."
He almost couldn't believe he was that talented. Adam knew that his talent was average. In fact, the only reason he managed to have a high cultivation base was because of his alchemy skills.
Though Adam couldn't create a Tier 1 pill before, he was able to concoct unrated pills and lotions. Using those, Adam was able to speed up his cultivation by almost 1 level and was comparable to some high-grade cultivation talent holders.
But the Federation had been around for an extremely long time. So high-grade cultivation talent wasn't that rare. And with such a long history, there were millions of such people. Yet even with such a huge sample size, the average was only 74. And as Principal Smith said, his was almost 20 points higher!
No matter how fast he cultivated, Adam couldn't believe he was such an outlier. His stats were far too high to be reasonable.
'Is it because of the high-quality pill I just consumed?' Adam thought.
While he was refining the high-quality pill, Adam felt every inch of his body being tempered, from his blood and bones to his muscles and skin. He wasn't like Achilles and didn't leave a single inch untouched.
That was the only reason he could think of for his stats to be so high. Other than that, Adam was just another person. Just another drop of water in the vast sea of Federation talents.
"Adam, have you consumed pills or practiced unorthodox techniques?" Principal Smith suddenly asked, bringing Adam out of his thoughts.
"If you have, please tell me. I'd rather be angry now than grieve over your death in the future. Consuming potential sapping pills or cultivating reckless techniques may be extremely beneficial now, but they are helpful as poison. They are a fast track to destroying your life."
"Huh? No, of course not. Why would I?" Adam replied. Adam knew what Principal Smith was talking about, and he denied it instantly.
Professor Singh had told him many times never to do either of those things. And after learning from the woman for almost four years, he knew how bad they were.
The universe was vast and contained everything in existence, so it went without saying that some dangerous things inside should be avoided at all costs. The potential sapping pills and the unorthodox techniques that Principal Smith was talking about were some of them.
Both of these items gave a quick boost to strength and cultivation speed at the cost of future potential.
They were just as helpful as steroids in his own era. The short-term gains were amazing, but eventually they would leave just as quickly as they came, leaving you whittled and aged beyond what you should be.
And as a youth with dreams of becoming immortal and roaming throughout the cosmos, Adam had no desire to sacrifice his future for some short-term gains.
He despised those items and wouldn't even touch them with a 100-foot pole, let alone use them himself.
"That's good then." Principal Smith sighed in relief. While he didn't think Adam would resort to such means, he still had to make sure.
"However, that does beg the question. Why are you so talented?" Principal Smith asked as his gaze turned curious.
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