Chapter 48: Dark Respiration
Translator: Noodletown Translations Editor: Noodletown Translations

“Dark Respiration?” Mu Fan repeated these two words.

“Eh, it is a breathing technique, and it can also temper your body.” The Gladiator retracted his metal short staff and said softly, “Just watch me.”

Mu Fan widened his eyes at the next scene!

Breath in… breath out… breath in… The Gladiator was still there as Mu Fan could hear his breathing, yet he faded in front of Mu Fan. It wasn’t that he disappeared in an instant, but he slowly faded away and became more translucent until he completely disappeared.

He’s just gone like that?

“I’m still standing here, but you just can’t sense me.” Mu Fan was shocked to hear a voice pop up out of nowhere.

“I can’t see you; is this the effect of the Dark Respiration?” Mu Fan asked with excitement, but he didn’t understand what the purpose of simply disappearing was.

“Of course not.” A short staff suddenly appeared, and Mu Fan was knocked onto the ground before he could react to it. He frowned and covered his head while looking sulky.

“Respiration. As the word indicates, it’s the process of inhalation and exhalation. What you see could be deceiving, and you will need to use your ears, nose, and senses all around to feel what are real around you,” the Gladiator said as he reappeared in front of Mu Fan with the short staff.

“Dark Respiration is the technique where you control all of the muscles in your body through respiration, close all the pores on your body, and reach the effect of disappearing into the dark night. Then, with the help with some visual deceiving methods, this would achieve the so-called stealth effect.” The Gladiator played with the short staff in his hands, and the mystical green arcs that it left in the air attracted Mu Fan’s attention.

“But this is only the most basic function. The ultimate goal of this technique is to allow you to be calm in any situation and enhance all your senses. To put it in words that you would understand in this era, this technique will… directly improve your mental power!”

Mu Fan only knew about physical power and levels, and he only had a vague feeling that mental power should be connected to his state when he had the red vision; he had a clear feeling of being in control of himself.

“This martial arts technique is divided into ten tiers, and every tier in quantitative terms would be equivalent to two levels in UGF terms. When you reach the fifth tier, you will notice an obvious increase in your overall control of every muscle in your body. You’ll understand what this means by then.”

Mu Fan didn’t quite understand; he didn’t know that this martial arts technique the Gladiator showed didn’t even exist within UGF. The brain was still an area relatively unknown to humans, and people only started to learn how to use their mental power. Therefore, a martial arts technique that would directly increase mental power didn’t even exist yet!!!

How many geniuses would be stunned if they learned about this? How many forces would fight to the death for this technique?

Why? Because the first mental lock was at level 10! And less than 0.1% of the people in UGF had opened the first mental lock! One’s overall understanding of themselves would be restricted by mental locks. After the first lock opened, they would notice that all the limits that they experienced in practicing martial arts techniques and mech operations were no longer there, and it was only the beginning!

Mental lock, that was the key to surpass one’s limit!

“Your mental energy is only level 3 right now, so it’s too early to explain everything to you. Now, follow me and learn.”

“Slow down your breathing rate and use your mind to control your senses to feel as much of the muscles as possible. Calm them down; let them slow down. Control your heartbeat and merge yourself with your surroundings. Use your mental power to sync your body with the environment. When the night comes, you are the dark night itself…”

The Gladiator slightly lifted his head and deeply stared at the young man in front of him who was hypnotized into an unmoving state. Desolation, Happiness, relief, and a trace of heated anticipation flashed in his eyes!

He suddenly lifted his left hand that was inside an aged gauntlet, and a soft dark-green light appeared and levitated on his palm. Then, he pushed it towards Mu Fan’s forehead. The moment that his palm was in contact with Mu Fan’s forehead, the light disappeared, and Mu Fan’s brows twitched a bit and returned to normal in reality.

“Ha…ha, it is a match. The seedling is able to continue growing in this world… The inheritance of my clan…”

…

Mu Fan opened his eyes; Chubby Harry’s private chat message woke him up. He looked around and realized that he had left the training base as he was standing in the middle of the corridor. The Gladiator was gone again. Even though he felt weird every time he came here, he couldn’t disobey this instructor as this man was much stronger.

The Dark Respiration that the Gladiator is trying to teach me… I felt like I fell asleep during practice? Mu Fan scratched his head in embarrassment as he recalled what happened.

Now that Mu Fan thought about it, he felt like the training method appeared inside his mind smoothly. He couldn’t describe this feeling, but it was like he had known everything from the beginning to end. He felt different this time compared to when he visited the Gladiator before, but he couldn’t pinpoint the difference. If he had to summarize it, then he would say that this world and him in it appeared to be clearer in his senses.

It was unfortunate that he was interrupted by Chubby Harry’s messages before he got a deeper comprehension.

Mu Fan logged out still with some questions in his head.

Chubby Harry was eating a pineapple from somewhere when Mu Fan took off his optical computer helmet, and it looked yummy as the juice dripped onto the ground. Mu Fan grabbed the other one in Chubby Harry’s hand ate it together with Harry.

“Mu Fan, why isn’t the Broken Axe making a move yet. I’ve been anxiously waiting for them to come, and the exercises that I’ve done these days are more than the ones I’ve done in the past half a year. My dad is satisfied with me, but I’m not!”

Mu Fan squinted his eyes as he ate the pineapple and answered. “I’ve got a feeling that they will come. I just hope that it won’t interrupt the UGF enrolment exam.”

“No way; those Interstellar pirates wouldn’t dare to cause trouble during those few days. Those few days have the highest security measures every year, and we will probably see patrol mechs on the streets.”

“I hope so,” Mu Fan nodded. Then, he said to Harry with glistening eyes, “Harry, did you know? If I didn’t meet you, my world probably wouldn’t be as fascinating as it is now,”

His honest words made Chubby Harry stop devouring his pineapple, and Harry replied seriously, “That’s because we are friends! Come over to my house in a few days if nothing is happening. My dad wanted to meet you for some time now. There’s a banquet coming up soon, and you should come to check it out.”

Mu Fan nodded and agreed.

“There will be many girls too!” Chubby Harry moved closer to Mu Fan and said to him quietly with a dirty smile on his face.

Mu Fan pushed his face away as all he could think about was killing off the interstellar pirates and attending the UGF enrolment exam!

What about stealing a military mech? Black said it could take care of it.

What if I can’t beat them? Then, I’ll use the Dark Respiration that the Gladiator just taught me to run away; probably no one would notice me.

The more that Mu Fan thought about it, the more hope appeared in his eyes. He didn’t know that this was the same as asking for death in other people’s eyes.

Another afternoon had gone by with Chubby Harry howling from the training, and Mu Fan quickly returned to this base, wanting to see if his APM had improved.

Mu Fan took a deep breath and sat down onto the ground. Then, he put on the helmet with a straight face and pressed the power button.

“Mech operation training.”

“Beep, access failed. Please listen to the following message. [Lord Black is very busy today. Mu Fan, you can go and put what you learned into practice today.”

Don’t you know that the Interstellar pirates are coming? Mu Fan was at a loss for words.

…

Meanwhile, Black was in the form of a streak of codes, and it was carefully trying to decode the government’s network on Planet Loga, including some of portals that it had with the military as well.

Black felt proud as it successfully hacked one of the nodes of the network without triggering any alarms.

“I wouldn’t have to do all these complicated works if my actual planetary-level core is here. Decoding this network is so annoying! Taking up a little bit more of resources would trigger an alarm. Sigh, Mu Fan, I’ve done so much for you on the frontline here that you get to rest a bit at home. Relax a bit; your APM recorded last time was automatically deducted by at least 30. With only Irregular Shift, you’ll be able to rule this place here; I’m obviously too nice.”

Black continued to murmur to itself in the virtual space, and it didn’t think that it was cunning. Also, it was clearly a talkaholic. “Hm? This streak of data is interesting; let me go trace it down.”

A few streaks of data in the military portals all showed up in the government’s administrative network, and they all pointed at the same time – June 2nd.