Trembling At A High Altitude

Above the box, there was a screen on the lid.

Inside the screen was an exchange menu.

There was only one item available for exchange.

A knife.

An ordinary-looking chopper.

However, the exchange price had reached two hundred thousand Time Index points!

It was twenty times the price of the Alloy Spiked Hammer Li Teng held in his hand!

From the external appearance in the picture, it was hard to see what made this chopper so good; its metal color just appeared slightly darker than that of Li Teng's Spiked Hammer.

The figure of two hundred thousand meant that Li Teng had to hunt at least two hundred giant rats or forty bear rhinoceroses to earn that many Time Index points.

This piqued Li Teng's curiosity.

How strong was this chopper to be priced so high?

Currently, Li Teng's Time Index account balance was just over sixty thousand. To exchange for this chopper, he still needed to earn more than one hundred thirty thousand Time Index points.

Converted to giant rats, he needed to hunt over one hundred thirty.

Converted to bear rhinoceroses, he needed to hunt twenty-seven.

There was an opening in front of the platform. Hesitating for a moment, Li Teng returned to the initial entry point, put on his equipment, and picked up the Spiked Hammer to prepare for an exploration in the cave ahead.

The stone slab beneath his feet did not move again, it seemed that as long as one completed the level, one did not need to run through it a second time.

After reaching the platform where the treasure chest was located, Li Teng walked a few steps and entered the cave ahead.

Once inside, there was a space of about a hundred meters with a bear rhinoceros wandering around.

With no fog to obstruct the view, when it turned and saw Li Teng, it immediately roared and charged at him with its horns.

Li Teng immediately swung his Spiked Hammer and engaged in battle.

After many days of training to his extreme running capabilities, Li Teng's legs were now full of explosive power and he moved very quickly and agilely, easily dodging the bear rhinoceros's charge, and then struck its side face with his Spiked Hammer.

In less than ten minutes, Li Teng had easily ended the life of this bear rhinoceros, earning his first 5000 points.

This space had two more openings extending outwards.

Li Teng chose the opening on the right.

After entering this time, there were two bear rhinoceroses inside.

With no fog to block the view, both bear rhinoceroses almost simultaneously saw Li Teng and then charged towards him with their horns at high speed.

Facing the attack of two bear rhinoceroses at the same time was initially daunting for Li Teng, but once the battle unfolded, he found that with the increased strength in his legs and greatly enhanced mobility, facing two bear rhinoceroses wasn't as terrifying as he had imagined.

As long as he was not hit by their charges or given the opportunity to be kicked, they hardly posed a big threat to him.

After more than twenty minutes, there were two more bear rhinoceros bodies on the ground.

In the following cave spaces, there were two bear rhinoceroses wandering in each. Hunting them became increasingly more manageable for Li Teng, who could generally control the battle to be resolved within about twenty minutes,

and could also ensure that he was not injured.

While the spaces within this cave were connected by the openings, they seemed to be set with some kind of restriction.

Li Teng could freely wander among these openings, but the bear rhinoceroses could not. They only stayed in their own space, and if Li Teng moved to another cave space during their fight, they would not follow.

Walking back and forth in this maze-like cave, Li Teng even found a cave space without a bear rhinoceros.

Inside, there was actually a gym.

Li Teng looked around the gym but couldn't find the treasure chest.

However, he did find something new.

Along the wall, there was an energy drink vending machine, and next to it, a protein powder drink vending machine.

It wasn't very expensive—1,000 points a bottle. Li Teng bought a 2L bottle, which was quite a bargain.

After drinking it in one go, he was basically not hungry anymore.

But he felt very bored.

Li Teng left the place and continued hunting the Bear Rhinoceros.

By noon, Li Teng still hadn't accumulated two hundred thousand Time Index points, falling short by over forty thousand points. He could only continue the next day.

...

After twelve hours of grueling effort, Li Teng returned to the cave and continued hunting the Bear Rhinoceros.

Two hours later, Li Teng had completed the hunt of nine Bear Rhinoceroses and accumulated two hundred thousand Time Index points.

He excitedly returned to the platform's treasure chest and exchanged the two hundred thousand Time Index points for the machete.

After confirming the exchange, Li Teng opened the lid of the chest and took the actual machete out of the box.

As soon as he held it in his hands, Li Teng felt that something was not quite right.

The machete seemed light and thin but was actually very heavy; he estimated it to be about a dozen or so pounds, possibly even close to twenty pounds.

The knife was good, made of high-tech material, and the blade was incredibly sharp.

However, Li Teng struggled to wield it, unable to use it properly.

Human strength is actually very small.

In fantasy Xianxia novels, the heroes' weapons typically weigh hundreds of thousands of pounds, which is impractical for ordinary humans.

In historical novels, the first hero of the Sui and Tang periods, Li Yuanba, had hammers that weighed 800 pounds, Pei Yuanqing's lighter hammers weighed 300 pounds, and Qin Shubao's metal club weighed 60 pounds.

In "Water Margin," when Lu Zhishen went to the blacksmith shop to forge a Chan Staff, he first asked for one weighing one hundred pounds. After being questioned by the owner, he said, 'Lord Guan's Knife weighs 82 pounds, am I not up to Lord Guan?' Eventually, the owner made him a 62-pound smoothed Chan Staff.

Are these realistic?

Wrong.

With just a bit of thought, anyone would know it's impossible; even well-trained fitness enthusiasts in gyms, lifting 10 or 20 kg dumbbells or barbells, can't continuously perform for half an hour.

Even super strong men like Dwayne Johnson and Tyson couldn't continuously perform various swinging actions with dumbbells, not to mention that wielding heavy cold weapons is much more complex than using gym equipment like dumbbells or barbells, which makes it easier to cause muscle fatigue or even injury.

Modern athletes, with reasonable nutrition and systematic training, can't continuously use weapons weighing dozens of pounds; ancient warriors, who lacked nutrition and scientific training, couldn't do it either. Archaeological artifacts and literature also indirectly prove this, as the heaviest weapons used on battlefields were all under 10 pounds.

Ancient people were also mere mortals; those weapons weighing dozens or hundreds of pounds only exist in the artistic creations of movies and novels, and for normal humans, a twenty-pound weapon is already the limit.

Therefore, even though Li Teng had already trained his sprinting and leg muscle strength to the limit, he still could not wield the machete freely when he picked it up.

Not to mention using it to chop Giant Rats or Bear Rhinoceros.

This made Li Teng feel very frustrated.

If he wanted to use this weapon, he would need to spend another several days, or even longer, in the gym to train the strength and muscles in his arms, shoulders, back, and chest.

The two hundred thousand Time Index points seemed to have been wasted.