John came home from school in the evening and was greeted by a mouthwatering aroma of meat. He sniffed and licked his lips.
"Mom, what kind of meat is this? It smells amazing!"
Mom peeked out from the kitchen: "It's spinosa meat, fresh from the market today. Come and get some soup."
"That's for your brother." His father Jason Walter said from the living room, coughing. "This meat is 50 stars a pound."
Stars were the currency that humans used in the galactic era. They were very valuable. One star was worth one gram of gold.
John's parents earned more than 100 stars a month together, which was enough for a comfortable life for the family, but not enough to afford all kinds of luxury supplements.
The spinosa beast was a rare and elusive creature from the stars, but its meat and blood had amazing benefits. Drinking its soup could enhance one's physique, boost one's strength, and tone one's muscles.
It was much more potent than any earthly herbs like Cordyceps or ginseng.
John's family was well-off, but they could only afford to eat it once a year.
"Dad, I understand. Brother needs to nourish his body now." John said, shrugging. He was a good kid. He knew his brother had the best grades, so he deserved this kind of luxury meat.
Boom boom boom…
Someone was coming up the stairs. The door opened and a young man walked in.
The young man was Tedd, John's younger brother.
He was tall and muscular, standing at 1.9 meters. He towered over John by a head, even though he was only sixteen. He had a strong and athletic body, with eyes that gleamed like eagles. He radiated a fierce and confident energy.
He was as popular as Lottie at school.
John was seventeen and 1.75 meters tall.
They were both students, one in tenth grade and the other in twelfth grade.
"Dad, Mom, Brother, I'm home."
"How was the exam today? Did you break through your vitality?" Jason Walter asked eagerly. His wife also came out of the kitchen to listen.
"I scored 0.95 on the vitality test. I made it and got a 30-star scholarship." Tedd pulled out a red envelope.
"Okay…okay…" Jason Walter's face lit up with joy. "Keep it up, son. You have to get into Star and Space University! You're our family's hope! Your mother made you some spinosa meat soup. Go and have some."
"Brother, you should have some too." Tedd said to John. "Your vitality score is always 0.7. You need more nutrition. If you eat more spinosa meat, your physique will get better for sure."
"No, thanks." John shook his head. "I don't have your talent. It's no use for me to eat it. Besides, you better finish the meat before our sister comes back. She'll want some too and make things awkward for Mom and Dad."
They were a family of five: their parents, John, Tedd, and Selena, their thirteen-year-old sister.
"Wow, brother, your vitality is 0.95?" A cute girl walked in through the door. It was Selena. "There are more than 20,000 students in your grade, right? You must be in the top ten."
"Ha! Look who's here." Tedd made room for his sister. "0.95 is impressive at school, but it's not enough for Star and Space University. I'll get to 1 sooner or later."
"Brother, don't push yourself too hard." John looked worried. "There are over 80,000 students in our school, and only a handful have a vitality of 1. They're mostly rich kids who eat super supplements every day. We can't afford that. If you practice too much without enough nutrition, you might hurt yourself."
"I'm fine." Tedd shrugged. "Brother, I've reached the third stage of Deep Sleep. I've started meditation training lately! I'll show those people that talent beats resources any day!"
"What? Meditation training?" John gasped. "Are you serious, brother?"
"Really?" Jason Walter, his wife, and Selena all exclaimed in disbelief.
Tedd was a prodigy who showed his talent early on. Since he was in junior high school, he could practice every night and enter the state of "Deep Sleep".
That meant he only needed an hour of sleep a day and still had plenty of energy.
John, on the other hand, had to sleep for eight hours to barely function.
How could he compete with that?
But his brother was even more amazing now. He had started "Meditation" training!
The Buddhist scripture "Great Wisdom Theory" said: Those who meditated would be immune to water and fire, and would never die.
That showed how powerful this state was.
But in modern science, meditation was also a way to unlock one's potential, change one's endocrine system, and make one's body stronger and stronger.
Endocrine was a very mysterious thing.
Some people who had gigantism or dwarfism were affected by endocrine changes.
"Peak Zane is so full of himself. He's nothing compared to Tedd."
John felt a bit better.
Peak Zane depended on resources and spices to achieve Deep Sleep every night, while Tedd could do it even while exercising.
Deep Sleep during exercise made the body tireless, powerful, and able to control adrenaline hormones.
But the true meditation, Samadhi, was much harder than the third stage of Deep Sleep. It required strong mental will and power to clear one's mind of distractions.
The mind was like a monkey, restless and unpredictable. It took great determination to tame it.
There were over 80,000 students in the school, and maybe only one or two could meditate in Samadhi.
Maybe none.
His brother lacked resources, or he would have reached vitality level 1 a long time ago.
And above Samadhi, there was also "Fetal Breath".
"Fetal Breath" was only possible for spiritual masters and human elites.
It meant stopping breathing through the mouth and nose, and entering a state of hibernation. The cells in the body breathed on their own, and kept improving themselves. Over time, the human body would become incredibly strong.
There were also higher and deeper spiritual states beyond "Fetal Breath", but they were only studied by some human spiritual masters in the elite area. Ordinary students had no access to them at all.
But one could still become strong without practicing the mind.
Because there were supplements to compensate for that. Many super supplements could boost one's physical fitness, and some wealthy and powerful kids in the school had high vitality.
The human leaders were either resourceful, like Peak Zane, or talented, like Tedd.
Of course, if one had both resources and talent, one would be unstoppable.