All the first-level exercises are: 12 reps of bench press; 12 reps each of butterfly machine chest fly and reverse butterfly machine fly; 12 reps of cable crossover; 12 reps of bent-over fly; 12 reps of lying bicep curls... Finally, it ends with 20 jumping jacks. After finishing all eight exercises, the set concludes with a 1-minute plank. These eight muscle training exercises all target the upper body.

At lunch, John had already boasted that he would train however Brian Carter trained.

As a result, after just three exercises in the first set, John collapsed at the butterfly machine...

But Brian Carter still had a decent foundation. After all, he was an athlete back in high school. With a C- level of physical fitness, Brian Carter estimated that before slacking off this past year, he probably had at least a C or above. He never really trained for explosive strength, but his endurance should be better, especially his speed. If he had trained as hard as other NCAA team members this past year, it would be even higher. That was also his original ticket to possibly making the University of Phoenix team. Although overall, his physical fitness was just decent by NCAA standards—since fitness isn’t just about speed—at least he had what it took to compete with those wild American college athletes.

However, after finishing one set, when it came time to do the plank to adjust his core strength, after just over twenty seconds, Brian Carter's muscles started to tremble. He barely managed to finish the whole set.

“Stage explosive training task: First round, first set completed.”

When he held the plank for one minute just now, a transparent, text-only “screen” flashed a prompt that a set was completed, but it disappeared before Brian Carter could read it clearly, letting him know the first set was done.

A few minutes of rest were almost up. Seeing the system had already started the countdown for the next set, he stood up from the chair and said to John, “No way, I’m fine. Back in China, I was the school’s little sports king!”

After saying this, Brian Carter began the second round of devilish training.

John just shrugged helplessly. He knew this guy was serious, and he couldn’t keep up. He couldn’t play around with someone who used to be the top high school athlete...

After morning classes, before noon, they went to the sports equipment store. Brian Carter explained to the owner about the equipment that needed to be replaced and the new items to purchase. Then, Brian Carter and John went for lunch, where John complained that Brian Carter wasn’t eating high-calorie food anymore.

After lunch, the two of them, along with a massage therapist John had somehow found, returned to the villa.

The staff from the fitness equipment store arrived just as Brian Carter got home, ready to remove and recycle the broken equipment and install and test the new machines.

Once everything was ready, the “Stage Explosive” item in the system inventory became available.

When Brian Carter decided to use it, he saw the training requirements: 6+6+6 rounds of devil training. Just seeing it made his legs go weak.

But... he was stubborn. Once he decided, he had to do it. He wrote down all 24 training items and started preparing.

Each round lasted 6 hours, with three rounds of different training content, from upper body to core and lower body, to basketball training... Each round had 10 sets, each set lasted 30 minutes, each set had eight exercises, and the rest time between each exercise couldn’t exceed 20 seconds. After finishing a set, there was a 6-minute rest. After a round, there were three hours for rest and energy replenishment—that is, eating, digesting, and preparing for the next round...

As the second set of training began, Brian Carter finally experienced what “devil training” really meant.

After one set, Brian Carter was still okay—his foundation was still there. But after the second set, he already felt like his lungs were about to explode, and the tearing sensation in his muscles filled his entire upper body.

“Note: After the rest period following each set, your stamina will recover to the point where you can complete the next set, but the physical aftereffects of exercise will not disappear.”

This “note” was something Brian Carter had guessed at first, but he hadn’t truly understood what it meant. After finishing the first set and starting the second, he got it.

The first set was fine, but in the second set, Brian Carter started to feel the explosive soreness in his muscles...

It seemed like the training volume for each set wasn’t especially high, but it was as if it was calculated exactly to his limit, just reaching the threshold of his endurance.

His chest already felt like it was about to burst. After a short rest, starting the second set, the explosive feeling came even earlier than in the first...

He finally understood why this training was called “Devil 666.”

At the start of each exercise, a semi-transparent instructional screen would appear in front of him. As long as his form wasn’t up to standard, the system would correct any improper movements. So, even though each exercise was only 12 reps, it often took three or four minutes to finish, since any rep with bad form wouldn’t count as completed.

The movements had to be slow...

At first, he just thought that training for 18 hours out of 24 was excessive, and the sheer number of exercises, tearing every muscle in his body, was terrifying.

But in terms of time, he thought there would be plenty, maybe even more time to rest.

But once he started, he realized that if he lost focus even a little, he really might not be able to finish.

What would happen if he couldn’t finish?