"Boom... boom boom..."
Dust splattered across the ground as the sound of breaking air echoed continuously. Tang An stamped his right foot repeatedly, but nine and a half times was still his absolute limit.
After his right foot began to cramp from the strain, Tang An switched to his left, spending the entire morning practicing Shave.
"Still a bit off, still a bit off."
His pale face was covered in sweat. Tang An was stripped to the waist, his six-pack abs sharply defined, his muscles strong and powerful. Compared to when he had first transmigrated, he was now practically a completely different person.
Another month had passed since he pulled the Diamond Dog-Legged Knife in the previous month.
It had already been two months since he arrived in the Attack on Titan world.
If he factored in the month and a half in the One Piece world as well, Tang An still hadn't successfully mastered Shave.
Tang An was growing anxious. At first, he thought he would succeed within a month, but now two months had passed, and despite high-intensity daily training, he still couldn't break through that final half-step.
"Damn it."
It was almost like an obsession; Tang An's mind was filled with only a single sound now: shave, shave, shave, shave...
"Whoosh..."
Without any warning, Tang An suddenly vanished from his spot. Accompanied by a loud crash, he appeared on the wall, plastered against it in a giant sprawling shape, before slowly sliding down to the ground in a daze.
A fist-sized stone fell from above, striking Tang An squarely on the head.
"Hiss..."
Drawing in a sharp breath, Tang An clutched his head and rolled back and forth on the ground, alternately grabbing his face and chest, then holding his head again.
His entire face twitched--it hurt like hell!
After easing the pain for a moment, Tang An stood up. Although his body ached fiercely, he was filled with excitement.
"What was that just now..."
He looked up at the shallow, human-shaped indentation on the wall. It was unmistakably shaped like a body.
After examining the impression, Tang An looked back at the spot where he had been training earlier. It was at least five meters away.
"I did it, I actually did it."
Joy burst across Tang An's face. He clenched his fists and anxiously began stamping his feet once more, but the unexpected breakthrough refused to repeat itself.
It was still just nine and a half times, with no change whatsoever.
Refusing to give up, Tang An tried a dozen times in a row, but after half an hour, it still wouldn't trigger.
"What's going on? It clearly worked just a moment ago."
The excitement gradually faded. Tang An's feet were beginning to swell, cramp, and turn red.
Under these conditions, he had to rest, or else his legs might be permanently ruined if he wasn't careful.
Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Tang An began to recall the sensation he had just experienced.
The sense of rhythm, the sense of continuity...
There was an ineffable, elusive feeling, as if a layer of fog was blocking his vision, leaving him completely baffled.
"The closer we get to this moment, the less I can afford to rush. Victory is right in front of me."
Taking a deep breath, Tang An knew haste made waste. His legs needed rest, but he couldn't just sit here doing nothing.
Flipping over into a handstand, Tang An supported himself with his fingers and began doing push-ups.
Next, he alternated between his left and right hands. Even though his body was working out, Tang An's thoughts had long since drifted off to who knows where.
Looking at the human-shaped mark on the wall, Tang An felt an unprecedented surge of excitement.
It was no different from being in rut; his brain was flooded with hormones.
As long as he mastered Shave, he would be virtually invincible in this world, and that would guarantee the success of his subsequent plans by one hundred percent.
Two hours later, feeling that the pain in his legs had subsided, Tang An resumed his training.
Yet, try as he might, once, twice, and right up until dusk, he didn't succeed even once, which left him feeling somewhat impatient and irritable.
If his stomach hadn't started protesting, he probably would have continued beating his head against a brick wall.
Pulling open the light screen, the countdown background for his lifespan remained blood-red and terrifying, with one month and five days remaining--a jarring sight.
He could roll the second natural-month dice tonight; he just hoped to land on something good.
Midnight, 12:00.
The dice spun and leaped, the toy airplane skipping across six blank spaces. After the light vanished, an item appeared.
"A box of pull-up diapers."
"Description: Dry pull-up diapers keep infants sleeping soundly through the night, providing leak-proof, breathable, urine-absorbing, and antibacterial protection, along with increased elastic waistbands, three-dimensional leak-proof guards, and various other functions."
Tang An took a deep breath.
Pull-up diapers? Weren't these just regular diapers?
He didn't even wet the bed, damn it.
Tang An's capacity for acceptance was quite high now; he had gotten more or less used to these things.
What he cared about most were still Shave and Moonwalk.
Originally, he had planned to pull strings through the merchant shop owner to enter the Training Corps and learn omni-directional mobility gear, but now that Shave was at such a critical juncture, that plan was temporarily shelved.
The next morning, as soon as the sky began to brighten, Tang An got up.
The weather was slightly chilly, and the dew was heavy.
Bare-chested, Tang An loosened up his body and immediately began training.
It was still the same old nine and a half stamps, but the tenth stamp stubbornly refused to break through.
It was almost as if yesterday had just been a dream.
Tang An sweat profusely, and finally, after an unknown number of stomps, he vanished without warning. The next moment, he crashed five meters away, burying himself headfirst in the weeds like a leek planted upside down.
Pulling his head out of the ground, Tang An wore a look of ecstatic joy. This time, there was no way he was dreaming! He had succeeded again.
However, the trigger probability was still a bit too low, and once it activated, he couldn't control his body.
With his blood running hot, Tang An trembled all over, continuing his training as if he were completely tireless.
After stamping more than fifty times, his feet began to swell and cramp again, leaving him deeply reluctant to stop.
Unwilling to risk crippling his legs, he halted his footwork. Although his legs couldn't train anymore, his hands were fine, so Tang An refused to waste any time.
Remaining in a handstand, he alternated push-ups on his fingers.
He was no longer who he used to be; through high-intensity training, his overall physical fitness had comprehensively improved, surpassing the limits of humanity.
Thus, he succeeded once in the morning, and after lunch, he succeeded once more in the afternoon. However, the probability of triggering it remained far too low.
By dusk, Tang An had only succeeded twice in total.
When he resumed practicing Shave the next day, perhaps his hard work was finally paying off, as he managed to succeed seven times that day. He even began to grow familiar with the technique, gaining some ability to control his direction.
Eighteen times on the third day.
Thirty times on the fourth day.
It was difficult, but he made progress every single day, driving Tang An to work even harder.
Finally, on the sixth day:
"Shave!"
With extreme speed, Tang An vanished in the blink of an eye and appeared five meters away, though his balance failed him, causing him to tumble headlong to the ground the moment he manifested.
Tang An reacted quickly, pushing off the ground with his hands and executing a few backflips to land steadily on his feet.
Six days had passed from his very first success until now.
Counting his time in this world, he had spent two months and six days, but he could finally use Shave at will.
However, his balance still had a few minor issues, and his range was still hovering around five meters.
None of that mattered, though.
"Haha..."
Tang An couldn't help laughing wildly. He had no idea how much sweat he had shed over the past two months, but success was finally right in front of him.
On the seventh day.
On the eighth day.
"Shave..."
In the dilapidated courtyard, a figure materialized out of thin air five meters away, vanished once more, and reappeared, moving as if by teleportation.
Without a doubt, Shave had been thoroughly mastered.
Lying sprawled out on the ground, Tang An stared at the darkening sky, his broad chest heaving continuously, his entire body reeking of sweat.
"Next is Moonwalk."
Reaching out his hand as if he could grab the entire world, Tang An's gaze grew sharp.
Once he mastered Moonwalk, there would be no one left in this world who could stop him.
And the foundation of Moonwalk was Shave--which he could now use at will.
Ten days. He only needed ten days, no... he only needed five days to master Moonwalk. Such was Tang An's confidence.