0133 Static Apnea Under Technology

"To think I have actually mastered the method of voluntarily triggering adrenaline secretion?" Chen Jue was shocked by the new notification that popped up on his panel.

Previously, during his high-altitude climbing, he had triggered an intensified secretion of adrenaline several times. He had not expected that simply attending a lecture would evolve this passive hormonal response into an active one.

If this were to get out, the entire medical, biological, and even athletic communities would be stunned to the point of absurdity; they would surely want to capture Chen Jue for dissection and study.

Most hormones in the human body are passive in nature, secreted only at specific times and under specific physiological conditions. Adrenaline, for instance, acts by stimulating the heart to increase myocardial contraction, accelerate heart rate, and raise blood pressure. In medical practice, it is even used as a life-saving drug for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Even top-tier athletes require a warm-up period to raise their hormone levels and slowly bring their bodies into an excited state.

For Chen Jue to control adrenaline secretion voluntarily is like having a built-in switch. Press the switch, and he applies a temporary buff to himself, with his physical attributes increasing accordingly. Although the bonus isn't massive and the effect doesn't quite match specialized supplements like pre-workout powders, for Chen Jue, it is already incredibly powerful—a true game-changer.

"This academic nerd Zhou Chuan is truly my lucky star!"

"Last time, listening to his lecture triggered the gallbladder function, and this time, it has actually added an adrenaline secretion function."

"If I finish reading all the research projects and papers in his hands, I wonder how many new panel functions I could unlock?" Chen Jue muttered to himself, a faint sense of anticipation growing within him.

...

Zhou Chuan's seminar lasted over an hour, and Chen Jue listened with great interest. As the bell rang, thunderous applause filled the large lecture hall. Even the teachers and professors seated in the front rows were impressed by Zhou Chuan's well-cited paper and went up one by one to congratulate him on having his work published in an international journal.

For a student at Jiang University, daily course credits are merely the foundation; the ability to publish in international journals and boost their SCI impact factor is their higher academic pursuit. As a mere auditor who had only graduated from a vocational college, Chen Jue was not part of these elite academic circles. As long as he could learn useful knowledge about the human body, he was perfectly content.

Seeing Zhou Chuan surrounded by teachers and professors, Chen Jue didn't go over to disturb him. Noticing it was already noon, he went to the cafeteria for lunch.

The temporary attribute buff gained after secreting adrenaline clearly had significant side effects. Beyond the increased heart rate, it also accelerated the consumption of nutrients in his body. After the temporary buff faded, Chen Jue felt much hungrier than usual and experienced a lingering sense of fatigue throughout his body. After a hearty meal in the cafeteria, he hurried back to his apartment for a nap.

When he woke up, it was past 2:00 PM. Chen Jue checked his training schedule; this afternoon was once again the swimming session. After taking his pre-workout, he put on his 27kg weighted vest and jogged slowly to the swimming pool.

Perhaps because he had been grinding his attributes quite hard lately, his strength and endurance were growing rapidly; the 27kg load was starting to feel a bit light. Fortunately, the training effect of the weighted jog remained, and after a 15-minute jog, the panel refreshed to show an additional 0.02 free attribute points.

He changed into his swim trunks, put on earplugs, and went to the shower area to rinse off and adapt to the water temperature before entering the pool. Since it was winter, the pool's heating system was humming loudly. Coach Wang, whom he had seen last time, was still at the side of the competition pool, sternly training Ma Qiang and the other swimming athletes from the university team.

Like these athletes, aside from injuries or the occasional weekend break, they spent nearly every day in training, and their daily exercise intensity was actually no less than Chen Jue's. The only difference was that they lacked a panel for real-time monitoring and could not witness their progress as intuitively and cumulatively as Chen Jue. This is the limitation of ordinary people, and the current limitation of the human species.

"Senior! You're here again!"

Seeing Chen Jue appear by the poolside, Ma Qiang, who was still splashing in the water, immediately poked his head up to greet him. Chen Jue responded with a few words and then dove into the water, swimming a few laps to adapt.

With the dual buffs of the pre-workout and adrenaline, Chen Jue’s temporary physical attributes had increased by a full 15%. His physique attribute alone had surged to 2.30, a significant jump compared to his last visit. So, after warming up for two laps in the 50-meter lane, he started his favorite activity: underwater swimming.

Through his previous basic swimming knowledge, Chen Jue knew that the best posture for underwater swimming was the breaststroke pull-out, and that one should maintain momentum while minimizing large limb movements to reduce oxygen consumption, allowing him to stay underwater longer and travel further.

After taking a few deep breaths on the surface to increase oxygen intake, he took one final deep breath and dove to the bottom. With a powerful kick off the mosaic tiles of the pool wall, Chen Jue began to move steadily down lane 8 under the watchful eyes of Coach Wang.

25 meters, 50 meters, 100 meters. Seeing Chen Jue complete a lap in the competition lane without surfacing, the look in Coach Wang's eyes shifted.

"This kid is improving really fast!"

"His technique is more standard than last time, and he knows how to pre-load oxygen!"

"No wonder he hasn't come up after 100 meters!" Coach Wang looked on in amazement, as he had essentially watched Chen Jue's swimming skills grow with his own eyes.

By the time Chen Jue reached 150 meters without equipment and surfaced at the end of the lane, not only Coach Wang but even Ma Qiang in the adjacent lane was shocked.

"Damn! Senior, did you inhale pure oxygen before going in?"

"I watched you swim three laps in one breath without gear; that's almost at a professional level!" Ma Qiang, who had just finished swimming and was resting on the lane line, looked at Chen Jue with disbelief as he surfaced, unfazed and not even out of breath after 150 meters.

Compared to his 50-meter swim last time, his underwater performance had tripled! Even with divine intervention, such an improvement would be rare! It was as if he were using a cheat code!

"Inhale pure oxygen?"

"Does that help with underwater swimming?" Chen Jue chatted with Ma Qiang while taking a breath.

That last long-distance swim hadn't just granted him 0.01 in physique; it had also triggered a "+200" notification for his swimming proficiency. If he kept this up, he might be able to level up his [Swimming] skill again this afternoon.

"Of course it helps!"

"The people setting static apnea records nowadays all inhale pure oxygen before going in. They can hold their breath for over 20 minutes; it's like they're possessed by a toad spirit."

"For those of us who train normally, 4 or 5 minutes is our limit. Compared to them, the gap is definitely not small." Ma Qiang mentioned a niche sport involving breath-holding.

It was a sub-discipline of freediving that involved both pure oxygen and normal oxygen intake, requiring athletes to perform static apnea underwater after extensive preparation. During the competition, they wear professional blood oxygen monitoring equipment to monitor oxygen levels in real-time, preventing accidents caused by holding their breath too long.

"You can hold your breath for over 20 minutes by inhaling pure oxygen?"

"Even if it's static, that's incredible!" Chen Jue was stunned. He had only spent three minutes on his 150-meter swim; any longer and he would have been on the verge of passing out. It was hard to imagine professional athletes holding their breath for over 20 minutes. If he had that kind of lung capacity, swimming seven or eight hundred meters back and forth would be a breeze.

"As expected, the more advanced technology becomes, the more hope humans have of breaking their physical limits."

"If I use [Designated Points] to enhance my lungs, I wonder if I could hold my breath that long." Chen Jue speculated to himself. After chatting a bit more with Ma Qiang, he took a deep breath and dove back into the water.

...

Compared to the awkwardness of his first session, Chen Jue found his second session much smoother. During his breaks, he continued to ask Ma Qiang and Coach Wang for advice, correcting his technique, which caused his [Swimming] skill proficiency to rise rapidly. After about an hour of underwater training, the panel popped up with another notification:

——————

【Ding~】

【Proficiency reached 100%, skill level increased.】

【Swimming Lv3 → Completion】

【Your technique for swimming has reached a point where it can no longer be improved. Your body is beginning to adapt to the underwater environment, and your swimming speed has increased significantly.】

【Under the influence of water pressure, your cardiopulmonary function has been enhanced, your muscular endurance and explosive power have increased slightly, and the nerves in your hands and feet have undergone adaptive changes.】

【Physique +0.01】

【Strength +0.01】

【Spirit +0.01】

——————

"Hoo... hah..."

"Not bad, another maxed-out skill! And the efficiency of attribute improvement is on par with the first time. Indeed, the influence of water pressure makes physical improvement much faster than in a normal environment."

"In martial arts novels, Yang Guo trained with his heavy iron sword in a waterfall pond, and after coming down the mountain, he transformed from a third-rate fighter into a top-tier master. That approach likely draws from similar concepts of water pressure and resistance."

"But my skin on my palms... it doesn't wrinkle or turn white after soaking in water anymore?" Chen Jue surfaced and rubbed his fingers in wonder. His hands and feet, which would normally wrinkle after a bath or a medicinal soak, were now perfectly smooth. It was clear that long-term underwater training had induced neurological changes in his body.

PS: The current world record for underwater breath-holding is 24 minutes and 37 seconds, which requires inhaling pure oxygen to keep blood oxygen at 99% concentration before entering the water. Without pure oxygen, the record for holding one's breath is over 9 minutes; the domestic record is 8 minutes and 54 seconds held by Jin Ming. This record changes daily, and because it is such a niche sport, this is all the information I could find.