April 3rd, early morning.

Accompanied by the howling wind.

Zoe frowned as she swung the barbell and the prop hammer, weighing over 400 kilograms in total, while listening to the flawless traffic broadcast.

After finishing her experiment at the nightclub earlier in the morning, she returned home.

To dispose of a body, she added a small mound to the nearby hill.

Once back home, she followed her short-term plan, read some novels, had snake soup for breakfast, and then began her morning exercise.

However, it wasn’t long before her brow remained tightly furrowed.

Light! Too light!

It felt similar to the first time she used the prop hammer.

Now, with a constant strength of six tons, the combined weight of the barbell and golden hammer, less than half a ton, felt absurdly light.

It wasn’t that the equipment felt heavy when she had over three tons of strength before.

Back then, it also felt unwieldy.

But it was still bearable, and she could fool herself into thinking it was enough, convincing herself that she’d be hitting the sea for training in a couple of weeks.

If the frequency of training was high enough, it still had some effect.

So, she hadn’t bothered to replace the equipment.

But now, things were different.

With her strength doubled, she couldn’t tolerate such light weights any longer.

No matter how often she trained, it wouldn’t matter.

Replacing her current equipment had become an urgent matter to consider.

Unable to bear it anymore, she set down the prop hammer and barbell and opened her computer to search.

After briefly browsing, she found tungsten steel to be a good option.

Tungsten steel has a density of 15 grams per cubic centimeter, almost the same as gold.

If she were to make a tungsten steel block as weight, it would easily meet her needs for a long time.

For instance, a tungsten steel sphere with a 40 cm radius would have a volume of 267,900 cubic centimeters, which is over four million grams.

That’s just over four tons.

A 40 cm radius tungsten steel sphere would weigh exactly four tons.

This density was perfect for her weightlifting needs.

Additionally, tungsten steel also seemed like a solid choice for weaponry.

It has high hardness, wear resistance, good strength and toughness, heat resistance, and corrosion resistance. Its hardness and wear resistance remain stable even at temperatures as high as 500°C, and it still maintains a high degree of hardness at 1,000°C.

It’s often referred to as the "golden egg of modern industry" and has a wide range of uses.

Though it’s slightly more brittle, it can still be used for cutting tools like car knives, milling cutters, planers, drill bits, and boring tools.

Therefore, it could definitely be used for weapons.

However…

It seems that no matter the weapon, tungsten steel can only reach about 100 kg in weight at most.

Even with tungsten steel, weapons still wouldn’t be particularly heavy or comfortable to wield, unless they were hammer-like weapons.

If they weren't comfortable, Zoe felt that her claws and heat vision would be more effective. Those two abilities were much fiercer than any weapon.

So, for now, using tungsten steel to make large metal blocks for weightlifting was the best option.

As for the cost, which could run into the tens of millions, Zoe didn’t need to worry.

If her newly recruited subordinates couldn't handle the task, they’d just become experimental materials.

With this thought, Zoe decided to discuss the specifics of tungsten steel with Rohmund later.

But as she looked at the introduction to tungsten steel on the search page, her mind wandered to the distant future.

Looking further ahead…

Would tungsten steel soon be too light for her training?

Tungsten steel is already a high-density material, and anything denser would be nearly the same.

If something like the material of a neutron star, with a density of millions of tons per cubic centimeter, existed, it would be far beyond reach and unnecessary to consider.

So…

The future couldn’t involve lifting hundreds of meters of tungsten steel for training, right? She could accept it, but the material and the ground wouldn’t.

But this brought her back to the issue of pressure and the biological force field.

If she had a biological force field, there would be no need to worry about any of this.

No need to worry about finding materials with higher density.

With a biological force field, she could resist trucks or buildings with ease; there would be no need to worry about the effects of pressure, and carrying a mountain for training would be possible.

With that thought, Zoe couldn’t help but chuckle.

She had indeed been worrying too much.

It had been clear from the start that, without a biological force field, Earth’s materials would eventually fail to meet her training needs.

Her plan to go to Orel Province in just over a week to train in the sea was part of this consideration.

In the ocean, there would be no need to worry about carrying weights.

The pressure and force of the waves would provide ample resistance without the need for added weight.

The Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the world's oceans, is often called the "fourth pole of Earth." Its deepest point is about 11,000 meters, roughly the combined height of Mount Everest and Mount Ben Nevis. The water pressure at this depth is nearly 1,100 times that of the Earth's atmosphere, enough to crush a tank.

It’s like the weight of a small car being supported by the size of a fingernail, or having 2,000 African elephants standing on your back.

This is enough for Zoe to train for a long time.

What matters most is that the water pressure evenly distributes immense pressure across every inch of skin.

While it doesn't exert gravitational force on every cell, it’s the most efficient method of weight-bearing after gravity.

Thinking about this, Zoe stopped dwelling on it.

Before heading back to Orel Province without gravity as a training tool, she decided to use a 4-ton tungsten steel ball as a substitute, as the 400-kilogram weights with the bell hammer and barbell were too light for her to continue progressing.

...

1:00 PM.

After lunch and confirming the tungsten steel arrangements with Rohmund, Zoe practiced adjusting her breathing to automatic mode at home.

She needed to head to Benny’s house at 2 PM to learn the remaining material.

She couldn’t appear lifeless when she went there.

Since the sixth evolution of her sleep cycle, she no longer needed to breathe, and her body emitted no visible breath.

Zoe didn't know what that meant exactly, but she knew that as long as there was social interaction around her, she couldn't stay this way indefinitely.

So, she tried to manually simulate breathing. Given her body’s coordination and control, it wasn’t difficult to mimic real breathing convincingly.

The real challenge would be turning this manual control into automatic mode.

For most people, this is difficult.

The moment they try to manually control their breathing, they can’t stop thinking about it, which hinders them from returning to automatic breathing.

They often control their breathing out of fear that without it, they might stop breathing entirely.

However, for Zoe, converting her manual "pretend" breathing to automatic was not hard.

All she had to do was this, then that.

Zoe found it hard to explain to ordinary people how easy this nearly instinctive task was.

It was so simple to her that she thought: "What? You don’t know how to do this?"

After maintaining the simulated breathing for a while, Zoe’s phone pinged with a message notification.

She glanced at her phone.

It was a message from Benny:

[Zoe, don’t worry, enjoy yourself this afternoon.]

Zoe raised an eyebrow at the message.

She focused her attention on Benny, who was now standing in front of a mirror, grooming his thinning Mediterranean hairstyle with a high-end comb.

Benny’s cologne smelled like a forest at dawn, with woody notes and a hint of freshness, subtly revealing the calm and restraint of a mature man, drawing people in with its peaceful depth.

Of course, Zoe was not impressed.

Knowing that Benny was indeed going on a date, Zoe rolled her eyes and replied with a sarcastic message:

[Delete it. One of my friends is breaking down. I’m fine, but my friend is beside me crying and making a scene, and it’s getting a bit too much. Of course, I’m not losing my cool. I’m completely fine. It’s just that my friend is making a scene and it’s getting on my nerves. Delete it, don’t make me beg you!]

After sending the message, Zoe didn’t wait for Benny’s reply. She turned off the automatic breathing simulation, returned to the sofa, and relaxed.

Since Benny had plans in the afternoon, she could take a break from studying.

With that in mind, Zoe opened a messaging app, which she hadn’t checked in a while, to casually browse through some groups.

Her gaze passed over numerous messages, and she randomly opened an author group she hadn’t posted in for a while. She quickly added a message, repeating in a robotic fashion: [Sigh, new subscriptions have been dropping.]

This was typical for author groups.

They never discussed plot or writing techniques. Instead, they were filled with countless people repeating the same phrases or posting inappropriate images and memes.

When the conversation truly begins, it's usually a group of prominent figures with thousands of subscribers watching the achievements of newcomers, then cheering and asking for 'coffee''s while the mature authors happily divide up the newcomer’s generous gifts.

Zoe was casually mingling in the group, just enjoying the chatter.

Suddenly, the editor, Lucas, who was also in the group, zeroed in on her.

“Alright, alright, no time to reply, but you have time to bully newcomers in the group, huh?”

“Your book is doing well. How about I schedule it for release on the next week?”

Zoe chuckled when she saw Lucas’s message, then flipped through the chat history and noticed that Lucas had already asked her about the release two days ago, but she had missed the reply.

After a brief pause, she casually tapped a reply: “Sure.”

She was still working on this book.

Even though she had the power to trigger emotional abilities and had gained a loyal follower, making her no longer in need of money, she didn’t plan to abandon the book due to her personal changes.

She wasn’t writing for money anymore.

Zoe remembered when she first started writing full-time, she told her mom that she would become a great writer!

She knew her mom didn’t believe her, and she herself was just joking. But now, with this ability, wasn’t it too much of a waste not to fulfill that playful promise and dream?

So, even if it wasn’t for money, Zoe decided to keep writing the book.

Besides, with her current abilities, she didn’t need to worry about the effort it took to write. Her mind and hands were incredibly fast, and she could easily write 60,000 to 70,000 words in a single night.

Writing wasn’t a burden for her—it was just a way to pass the time.

“Alright, save some drafts and remember to update a lot on release day.”

“At least 10,000 words,” Lucas followed up with a voice message.

Apparently, Lucas had no idea how many drafts Zoe had stored up. This suggestion of “at least 10,000 words” was based on his past experiences with Zoe’s laid-back attitude and slow writing pace.

“100,000 words? Isn’t that too little?”

Zoe joked in a boastful message.

She knew Lucas meant “at least 10,000 words” and not “at least 100,000 words,” but she couldn’t resist showing off a bit.

Now that she had evolved from a lazy writer to a powerhouse, it felt strange not to flaunt it.

After her cheeky response, Lucas was silent for a moment before replying with “???”

Then, a voice message came through: “Are you serious?”

Obviously, Lucas didn’t believe her.

“I’m serious. 100,000 words is too little. How about 500,000 words?”

[Picture.jpg]

Zoe sent a screenshot of her stored word count along with her message.

When Lucas saw it, he stayed silent for a long time before sending a “Speechless” meme.

Seeing that, Zoe smiled and left the chat with Lucas.

Happiness was often simple and straightforward.

Next, Zoe casually engaged in a few other group chats to kill time.

However, in a local gaming group, her attention was caught by a message.

“If we talk about the so-called red rose, the picture you all can’t see, it actually blooms with layers of vivid, intricate color gradients. The edges of the petals are tinged with a delicate blue-violet, and the pink in the flower’s center gradually deepens. It’s not just a single red; it also has a warm orange-yellow undertone. The veins on the petals are outlined in a nearly transparent turquoise, the channel through which nutrients flow. In certain lighting, some parts even shimmer with a faint golden glow…”

This message was sent by a group member with the nickname “Amigo.”

At first glance, this seemed like an ordinary description of a colorful rose. However, someone else in the group had posted a photo of a pure red rose, claiming to show off their photography skills.

Then Amigo sent this long description, which seemed completely unrelated to the red rose in the picture.

Immediately, the group was filled with question marks.

A bunch of people praised Amigo’s writing, while others discussed ways to improve the photography technique of the red rose.

No one took Amigo’s words seriously; they just assumed it was a creative exaggeration.

Someone even quoted Amigo’s description and mocked, “Isn’t this just a pure red rose? The group members may be not aware, but they’re not blind. You’re not fooling anyone with that.”

This comment received many “+1” responses.

Amigo, however, calmly replied, “I didn’t say this picture. What it captures is far from everything you can see,” and then didn’t engage in any further discussion.

Watching all this unfold, Zoe couldn’t help but widen her eyes.

Her vision was normal, but her spiritual perception was different from others—she could see more colors than regular people could.

So, she was certain that what Amigo had described bore a 60-70% resemblance to the red rose Zoe usually saw through her own heightened perception. The main elements were practically the same, only Zoe could see even more rich colors.

“Is this… another like me?”

ShoujoDirector

I may not be able to write much longer; my cataracts, which I've had for over a year, have worsened. Now, I can barely write without holding my hands up like a telescope to shield my eyes from overwhelming light. I hope everything turns out okay. Unfortunately, I can’t afford eye surgery—it’s just too expensive for me. I'm terribly sorry for dissapointing you guys