Hikaru placed the barbell back. He then put on some more weight plates.
30, 20 kg extra on each side.
Since Hikaru was only adding half the weight he put on last time, they figured that this was the limit of the magic trick or Hikaru's true strength.
Daitaro believed the trick was in concealing the muscle mass. Just like how makeup in movies would make a hole in someone's face for a wound, even though they were putting more layers and mass on top.
He knew that this magic trick must be more complicated than that but did not know how.
Back on the bench, Hikaru pushed 200 kgs. This time, however, his arm was wobbling, and he started sweating.
After a couple of reps, Hikaru was struggling to push it off his chest. If his strength had a time or stress limit, then he was in a bad spot.
As Hikaru struggled, it seemed as if his magic trick was coming unravelled. His muscles bulged out, becoming bigger and bigger.
Only then was he able to push the barbell off him.
It looked like the magician grew muscles to get himself out of a pinch but this was obviously part of the show.
Hikaru now looked much bigger because his shirt looked like it was about to rip. People wondered if this was his true form.
However, the professional bodybuilders like Daitaro and the owner of TankTop gym who had just come out of the toilet and saw this spectacle, knew that one had to be bigger than that to lift that much weight unless they were only specialised in bench presses.
People began forming a circle around Hikaru.
He did several reps before putting it back. He sat up and felt the pain in his chest.
People whispered among the crowd. One of them stepped forward and spoke up.
"Hey, kid?"
"What is it?"
"How did you do that? Is it a magic trick?"
Hikaru looked at him for a moment before smiling.
"A magician never reveals his secret."
He then went to the restroom area that was walled off from the rest of the room. There were two sinks and a mirror there.
Hikaru unbuttoned two from the top of his shirt and saw that there was a big purple bruise on his chest spilling over to his armpits. His triceps were red and sore.
The big purple bruise however was slowly shrinking at the edges. His body must heal at a rapid rate.
Hikaru could also see that his upper body was bigger, and he had new muscles bulging.
From what he had seen, he could make a couple of deductions.
First, he could perform feats of strength because his body's limiter was removed.
People don't use 100% of their muscle strength all the time because then the muscles would be heavily ripped and damaged, making those muscles useless for a long time until they finish healing.
Naturally, self-inflicted injuries like fracturing a bone or breaking someone's back during lifting is a common thing, and this was already kept in check by placing restraints on the output of muscle power.
Second, it damaged his muscle tissue, this rules out the idea that his human muscle cells were replaced with foreign muscle cells.
As the strength would have come from the higher efficiencies of the structural integrity (muscle fibre organisation, different building blocks etc) and functioning processes (like energy consumption rates, higher energy to mechanical force conversion ratios, superior molecular energy carriers, steeper proton gradients, alternative modes of energy conversions etc) and therefore would unlikely result in damage.
So if the muscle cells were not human, they would have a superior form and function because of the increased strength and so there shouldn't be any bruising. The bruising meant that he was still using human muscle tissues but without the body's limiter.
This is similar to how human muscles involved in climbing would have lower endurance, power, and resistance to tearing compared to the same muscles in chimpanzees. As humans have evolved to walk more so than climb and swing from trees.
Last, when Hikaru reached his strength limit earlier with the barbell, his muscles grew in response to his desires much like his tentacle morphing.
He subconsciously made them grow.
Although, just like when he reached a limit on how long he could grow his tentacles and how much muscle tissue he could shove into the tentacle, how much muscle he can grow now depends on his limiting factor.
The factor being his biomass. Such as proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and vitamins.
To create more muscle tissue, he needed more muscle mass or the key ingredients such as amino acids to produce muscle mass.
After absorbing Aimi, he had already taken all her muscle mass which was bulging out of him right now. However, she was a small girl. So some of his muscles didn't come from hers.
Some were produced without him being conscious of it from most of his amino acid stock. Just as a regular person would grow muscle cells without thinking albeit at a much higher rate.
He could gain more of the ingredients from eating food or the faster way would be to absorb a whole person.
Hikaru looked to Daitaro in the mirror who was glaring at him from behind and leaning against a wall.
"How the hell did you do that?" His voice oozed with hatred.
Hikaru turned around.
"Magic," Hikaru said indifferently.
"Think this is a game? I know who you are."
Hikaru raised his eyebrows.
"Then who am I?"
"Don't f*** with me."
Daitaro walked up to Hikaru and looked down at him. His face inches away.
They stared at each other, neither giving ground. After a moment, Daitaro broke the silence.
"You don't even look Chinese. Are you a half-caste or a traitor?"
Hikaru was thinking of how Daitaro associated him with the Chinese. He looked through his memories to make sense of the clue. He pulled out a folder from a filing cabinet like a breezy office worker humming to a tune.
A line connected from one part of his brain to the other like an aeroplane flight route.
He just needed to confirm it.
"The Triad sends their condolences."