Chapter 145: Human Body Juicer

After breakfast, Chen Jue first went to the Cainiao Station to pick up a package. The replacement 165kg hand gripper had finally arrived.

He opened the box, adjusted the maximum resistance, and tried squeezing it with his normal grip. With his current 1.30 [Strength] Attribute, he could squeeze it to about the 105kg mark.

‘Should I try that special force technique?’ Chen Jue was a little dissatisfied with this result. His grip strength had only increased by about 5kg in several days. He readjusted the hand gripper’s maximum resistance.

Recalling the force technique from his stance training, he dropped into a Horse Stance, tensed his core, and inhaled. The hairs on his arm stood on end. He squeezed hard once more, and he completely closed the hand gripper, which was set to its 115kg maximum.

However, when he returned to his normal posture, Chen Jue couldn’t close it at the 115kg setting at all. The handles remained a good distance apart.

‘In other words, this so-called [Outer Force] technique just allows my body’s strength to erupt more effectively.’

‘The burst multiplier is around 1.1, temporarily increasing maximum power output by 10%. It’s kind of like adding a turbocharger to a car’s engine.’

‘No, no… It’s not like adding hardware. It’s more like rewriting the ECU for the engine that is the human body, recalibrating the power output structure,’ Chen Jue analyzed inwardly.

Anyone familiar with car modification knows that if a stock engine is rated at 100 horsepower, a tuning shop can rewrite its ECU and squeeze out 200 or even over 300 horsepower.

This [Outer Force] technique was like that ECU control system. It couldn’t create new strength out of thin air; it simply allowed the body to more efficiently unleash its maximum strength from its existing foundation.

Chen Jue had only just recently grasped [Outer Force] and hadn’t yet mastered the skill of closing his pores all over his body. It was like a Stage 1 ECU tune for an engine; Stage 2, and even Stage 3, awaited him.

The increase in strength didn’t seem like much—only about 10% for now—but it was a significant help in practical application.

If Chen Jue were a top athlete, a 10% improvement on his existing records would absolutely be enough to contend for a gold medal championship.

‘Looks like the ancient martial artists really had their own system,’ Chen Jue thought, feeling this special force technique still had a lot of potential to be unlocked.

He first returned to his room to note down this new discovery about [Outer Force], then shouldered his large sports backpack and jogged to Jiang University carrying a 10-kilogram load.

The 2-kilometer trip took 10 minutes. By the time he reached the classroom for his lecture, he had generated 0.01 Free Attribute.

‘Not bad efficiency!’

‘I’ll gradually add more weight once I get used to this load.’

Seeing the growth in his attribute points, Chen Jue was in a great mood.

He entered the classroom, found his usual spot, and sat down. This was a sports training lecture, and the professor was still Li Rui.

He was already familiar with Ma Qiang and the others sitting next to him. Chen Jue put down his textbook and casually placed the brand-new hand gripper on his desk.

“Got a new one, senior?”

“What happened to your old hand gripper?” Ma Qiang glanced over curiously. He had tried it before and found he couldn’t budge it at all, which had left a deep impression on him.

“The last one broke, so I bought a new one.”

Compared to the old gripper Chen Jue had squeezed loose, this new model looked much more professional. Not only was the spring thicker, but it also had a small hydraulic rod in the middle. At a glance, the design looked incredibly futuristic.

After all, he’d paid good money for it. It was nothing like those cheap models you could get for a few bucks.

“This one has a smoother feel. Wanna try it?” Chen Jue offered the gripper to him.

Ma Qiang didn’t refuse, cheerfully taking it to have a look.

For hyperactive physical education students like them, sitting through a theory lecture was absolute torture.

But upon taking the new gripper, Ma Qiang was stunned to see that the resistance was set to 115kg. With a look of utter shock, he asked, “Senior! Your grip strength is over a hundred kilograms now?”

“Just broke a hundred. Why?” Chen Jue replied quietly.

“Holy shit!”

“Really over a hundred? Quick! Who’s got apples?” Ma Qiang was suddenly excited. He quickly asked the students around them and managed to get two apples from a girl.

“Senior, try breaking this apple into eight pieces! I want to film a short video, post it online to flex a little, and bring some glory to Jiang University.” Ma Qiang handed over the two large apples with an eager look, explaining the apple-breaking contest that had recently gone viral.

The apple-breaking challenge was first started by some fitness influencer. Breaking an apple into two halves earned a 100-yuan reward, four pieces got you 400, and finally, breaking it crosswise into eight pieces won a 2,000-yuan prize.

As soon as the challenge was out, it became a hot trend and a major topic of discussion among universities.

Universities started competing, sending out their strongest students in grip and wrist strength to take on the challenge. They would film a video, geotag their school’s location, and post it. So far, only a handful of schools had managed to complete the eight-piece challenge.

“Break an apple?”

“Just be careful not to get my face in the shot when you film,” Chen Jue agreed with a nod.

He took the two apples, fiddling with them for a moment. They were just common Red Fuji apples, reddish-yellow on the surface and very firm.

An average person with decent strength could break one in half, but breaking it into eight pieces was genuinely difficult. It couldn’t be done with brute force alone; it also required proper technique and explosive finger strength.

First, Chen Jue gripped the apple’s dimples on either side. Using only half his strength, he easily broke it open with a loud CRACK.

He then put the halves back together, changed his grip, and squeezed hard again. CRACK! Two halves became four quarters.

Finally, with a crosswise twist, the apple—already split vertically into four quarters—broke apart as if sliced by a knife, separating perfectly into eight pieces.

The entire process was as smooth as flowing water. Even the broken surfaces of the apple were as clean as if they’d been cut with a knife. Ma Qiang and the other students who had gathered to watch erupted in cheers.

“Senior, you’re a beast!”

“Did you record that? Post it to the challenge page, quick!”

“The Jiang University Phys Ed department can’t lose to the other sports colleges!” The students were ecstatic. Apparently, no one from Jiang University had completed the apple-breaking challenge yet.

Just as Ma Qiang was about to stop recording, Chen Jue held up a hand to stop him. “Keep rolling! Don’t cut!” With that, Chen Jue picked up the other apple with his left hand.

Before Ma Qiang and the other nearby students could figure out what was happening, they saw Chen Jue’s left hand suddenly clench inward. His knuckles whitened, the hairs on the back of his hand stood on end, and with an explosive burst of the [Outer Force] technique, the once-firm, bright red apple was crushed in his hand as if it were made of clay, turning into a pulpy mess!

Apple flesh squeezed out from between his fingers, reduced to a mush, and the juice that seeped out splattered all over the desk.

“Holy shit! He actually crushed it?”

“With one fucking hand, too!”

“That senior’s grip strength is insane!”

“He squeezed it into apple juice!”

“He’s a human juicer!”

“Badass Plus~ The Jiang University Phys Ed department has finally saved face.”

The shocking scene of the apple being crushed didn’t just leave Ma Qiang dumbfounded; the other students watching from the side also started whooping and hollering.

After all, the difficulty of breaking an apple versus crushing one weren’t even on the same level.

Even for people who specifically train their grip, it’s no easy feat to crush an apple and squeeze the juice out with a single hand.

This was because Chen Jue had crushed it with the pads of his fingers, not by digging in with his fingertips, which made the feat exponentially more difficult.

Only professional weightlifters, Rock Climbing athletes, or specialized grip-strength competitors who trained their grip to over 100kg could even hope to crush an apple single-handedly.

Jiang University’s athletics department primarily recruited for sports like track and field or Swimming. Coincidentally, it had no students who specialized in this area of strength. And so, the honor of representing Jiang University online happened to fall to Chen Jue.