Shen first awakened the ability to access this space a few years ago.
It was an ordinary day like any other, sun shining, birds flying. As he was walking down the street, he noticed a ball roll onto the middle of the road and a small child running after it. At the same time, he heard a screeching of tires followed by an out-of-control truck heading straight towards the child. [T/N Truck-kun Strikes Again]
Without any thought, his body moved forward on its own and at that critical juncture, Shen felt his entire mind clear up. As his heart started beating rapidly like a war drum, a surge of energy erupted from within his body and everything seemed to slow down around him. Even truck that was approaching at such high speed seemed to be getting slower and slower.
At that moment of crisis, the sudden eruption of potential helped Shen to move beyond the limit and carry the child to safety. He even managed to shield the child from the whiplash all the while escaping the wheels that were supposed to crush them.
After that incident, Shen found that his body had become much stronger. His thoughts and reaction time became faster, even his memory was enhanced. The most incredible thing was the appearance of a Rubik's cube sized storage space in his consciousness. He was able to store and withdraw any object in the space with just a thought. [T/N Best part, he didn't even need to make wishes or beg a mouthy system like other peasants]
The sudden awakening of his powers made Shen very excited. But at the same time, he had read enough comics and watched movies to know that he had to be very careful. He couldn't stand out too much without gathering information and understanding the situation he was in. There could be hidden "supernatural communities" or greedy powerful corporations kidnapping people like him.
So, in order to prepare himself to face any kind of situation in the future, Shen began to train both his mind and body. He began to study books after books, on various subjects that he could find. Whether they from local libraries or online, he soaked them all like a sponge. He worked out relentlessly everyday and practiced various forms of martial arts. Although he didn't have experience in fighting opponents, it was enough for self defense. This also helped him to control his new found strength. After he was a hundred percent sure that he wouldn't blow a hole into someone accidentally, went on to join various Martial Arts Dojos to gain experience in fighting.
Although his personal skills were developing rapidly, the growth rate of his storage ability was much slower. He wasn't sure how to improve it besides using it constantly like he used his muscles. After a few years, the size of the cube increased from 10 cm to 20 cm. This also had the added benefit of improving his physical fitness even further. His strength, speed, endurance, reaction and other aspects had reached the level of top athletes who have been training almost all their lives. Along with this, his thoughts, memory and learning ability, were enhanced once again. He would've considered himself to be one of the smartest people on Earth but he wasn't sure if there were other enhanced beings so far. So, instead of flaunting his achievements, he decided that it was better to err on the side of caution.
While experimenting with his storage space, Shen also learned various throwing knife techniques. Now, he could easily shoot a flying sparrow within ten meters, and its formidable power at close range was not weaker than that of a pistol.
As Shen was dedicating a lot of time and energy into improving himself by training, studying and researching on his abilities, he was not interested in getting rich or famous.
His grandfather was a retired veteran and his parents had very relaxed jobs. Although they were not very wealthy, they could be regarded as well-off. His family lived a warm and happy life. Therefore, Shen did not have much desire for money at all. He knew that as long as he wanted to, he would be able to achieve anything he wanted and surpass any ordinary person. [T/N Chinese mum, American dad]
What he was worried about however, was his awakened powers bringing unwanted attention and unforeseen disaster to his family. So, in order to be fully prepared for any situation, he decided to keep a low profile and bide his time.
Several years of growth had indeed made Shen stronger but in the process, he had completely neglected Murphy's law. As he was preparing himself against powerful supernatural entities and greedy organizations, he wasn't prepared for an "arrogant young master" and "rich old fool" situation to completely blindside him so soon. He realized that in this modern society, only having personal strength is not enough. Wealth, power and influence are all needed for one to do as he pleases, whether it is to challenge the law or support the weak.
The calm but fulfilling life had lulled Shen to settle for the status quo, as he was silently accumulating strength in this tranquility. Zhou Tianhao's atrocities, and his own grandfather's scuffle with life & death forced Shen to wake up to reality.
While in the villa, he made Zhou Tianhao transfer all his money to an untraceable international bank card he opened in a different name. He also made him open the safe in his room and put all the cash in a travel bag. After successfully getting the money, he killed him with a single, decisive blow and left the villa. [T/N He hasn't noticed the space expansion yet so he didn't put the bag of cash in there]
Before leaving, Shen double checked the entire area again and then lit the house on fire, destroying the entire crime scene in a sea of blazing flames.
Shen didn't have time to think about the changes in the storage space. The explosion just now would soon attract the authorities so he had to leave here immediately. He walked away quickly after storing his travel bag into the expanded space.
A total of more than 8 million yuan was obtained from Zhou Tianhao, enough to cover Chen Jingde's medical expenses for a couple of years. He rushed to the hospital to quietly hand over the bank card and money to his parents. After a quick explanation, Shen directly rushed to the airport, and took the first flight to Los Angeles. [T/N Dad's old stomping grounds]
Although he had made enough preparations and was very careful throughout the entire process, he decided to hide abroad first for the sake of caution.
It was not until the plane took off that Shen had time to calm down and think about the changes to his ability. He had always felt that his ability wasn't that simple and that there seemed to be something more powerful that he hadn't discovered yet.
After killing Zhou Tianhao, the sudden expansion of storage space also helped Shen grasp the key to improving his ability.
Combining these years of research on various superpowers, Shen guessed that the improvement of his abilities should be related to mental strength.
The first emergence of the space was after the truck incident. The huge crisis stimulated his mental strength to evolve rapidly which enhanced his brain first. After the mental breakthrough, his body's potential was stimulated which resulted in the awakening of his ability to access the space.
In addition to surpassing ordinary people in physical fitness, his thoughts, intelligence and memorization abilities were are also enhanced. This should be a manifestation of the improvement of mental strength and development of the brain.
This time, Shen had gone through an adversity that put him under a slow but constant mental and emotional pressure. He had to be cold and decisive to break free from the metaphorical "shackles" that were holding him back. When he broke through the shackles and resolved the adversity, he went experienced another qualitative transformation. After all, diamonds are created under pressure.
Now, not only has the storage space increased again, he could feel that his mental strength had evolved once more.
But does this ability stop there?
As Shen sat on his seat, using a lighter to practice his "quick draw and store" ability from the space, a sudden violent tremor interrupted his thoughts.
The passengers on the plane were also jolted awake from their sleep making the entire cabin chaotic.
The increasingly dreadful violent tremor of the aircraft was eventually accompanied by two muffled noises. It was obvious that the entire aircraft suddenly stalled for a second and then began to descend.
Shen looked outside the window, and found the aircraft descending rapidly, getting closer and closer to the clouds, towards their impending doom.
Panic began to spread throughout the cabin, as the flight attendants tried their best to calm the frightened passengers.
"Please remain seated and fasten your seat belts!"
At this time inside the cockpit, the captain was holding the joystick tightly and working hard to stabilize the aircraft while the first officer was constantly checking various instruments and reporting the situation at any time.
With both the engines being stalled, the aircraft was no longer able to produce lift while the control system had also malfunctioned making it difficult to maneuver.
The aircraft soon descended through the clouds approaching the endless sea below.
"The altitude is 6000 feet, and the speed is 220 knots." The first officer's voice trembled.
Although the captain was trying his best to control and stabilize the aircraft, it was diving at a relatively difficult angle making it impossible to perform an emergency landing on the sea.
At their current speed, once it touches the surface of water, the huge resistance of the sea would instantly tear apart the aircraft into pieces, and sink them to the bottom. The probability of survival of everyone on board is practically zero!
Suddenly, the captain caught something in his line of sight. A touch of green could be seen in the middle of the vast blue sea. And as the plane descended closer, the touch of green gradually enlarged.
"Island!" The captain who had remained calm couldn't help getting excited.
"What?" The first officer, who had been staring at the instruments in a panic, suddenly raised his head.
"There is an island ahead! If we can make a forced landing on the island, there is still a chance of survival!" The captain was obviously excited by this discovery, and a trace of hope finally appeared in this desperate situation.
By this time, the distance between the plane and the island was quite close but their altitude was still decreasing rapidly. They had no idea whether or not they could make a smooth landing on the island. The size of the island wasn't very large so, the captain has to control the altitude of the aircraft and ensure that it is forced to land on the island. Even a slight error would result in the aircraft being buried at the bottom of the sea.
The captain opened the intercom and announced "This is your captain speaking, brace for impact!"
The passengers panicked and bowed their heads in accordance with the flight attendant's demonstration. Shen peeked out the window and saw the the plane was very close to hitting the sea. His heart began to beat violently, every contraction of the heart was strong and powerful. As red hot blood pumped throughout his entire body, the space in his mind also began to mobilize and expand rapidly.
The aircraft was getting closer to the island, only a few hundred meters away. Unfortunately, it wasn't able to hold on. The captain had beads of sweat oozing from his forehead. At the last moment, he held the joystick and pulled up the nose of the aircraft with all his might while yelling at the intercom: "Brace for impact!"
At this breakneck speed, the surface of water would have a tremendous impact. As the tail section of the aircraft touched the sea surface, it was torn apart in an instant. The violent collision caused fierce tremors to reverberate through the aircraft throwing everyone forward and soon, the fuselage began to tilt.
When the tail end broke, the huge pulling force quickly reduced the speed of the aircraft but this pulling also made the position of the aircraft to tilt. The left wing was the first to touch the surface and the engine below it was torn apart in an instant. Then the entire left wing broke apart under the huge pulling force. The body of the aircraft slanted to the other side and soon the right wing was also torn apart immediately. The captain was stunned, as there was nothing he could do at this point. So, he let go of the controls, slumped back and resigned himself to fate.
As the wings on both sides broke, the aircraft was completely out of control. With inertia, it rolled and smashed into the surface of the sea. From time to time, the passengers, seats, and luggage were thrown around with the damaged cabin. Flying debris and aircraft parts were flying around, some people were was hit by heavy objects while others were violently thrown away from their seats, hitting other passengers or the bulkhead, blood splashing across the cabin.
At the same time, Shen was also undergoing drastic changes. His heart was pounding like a resounding war drum, palpitating faster and faster as the surrounding scene began to slow down.
The entire cabin seemed to rotate very slowly, luggage and magazines flying by slowly, and everything around him it slowed down.
Finally, the space in his consciousness expanded into a one-meter cube, and it seemed to have reached a certain limit, where new changes took place.
He sensed a boundary between the space and void which slowly became transparent. Outside the storage space, there were countless points of light and dark scattered around like stars, weaving a bright starry sky. In the area closest to the space, there was a bright light of sphere which was quietly exuding mysterious brilliance.
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