Li Ang didn't care about that. All of his attention was now on the huge ten thousand US dollar prize in front of him.
According to the previous plan, his share amounted to a full 7,500 bucks—he had never fought such a lucrative battle in his life.
Even converted to domestic currency, it was worth half a year of his previous salary.
By now, he was already silently planning how to use this money in his heart.
After the competition, the group naturally gathered for a big meal.
Achieving such unexpected results, Eric wasn't stingy and took everyone to a high-end restaurant.
Red wine, Wagyu beef, foie gras, caviar, and other expensive ingredients allowed Li Ang to have a real taste.
Of course, the meal definitely wasn't as indulgent as the buffet they had a few days ago, but the culinary delight brought by high-end ingredients and chefs was not something a buffet could match.
The meal cost Eric over seventeen hundred dollars, but after a brief pang of pain, he felt somewhat excited.
This expense was nothing compared to the reward that grandfather had promised to give him and Rick.
In fact, the post-race feast was not only what the Erick Brothers wished to have with Li Ang—Falcon Cycling Club also reached out to him.
However, without much hesitation, Li Ang chose to go with Eric's side. After all, they had won the championship together as a group of four.
To leave now would seem rather heartless.
He didn't outright reject the Falcon Club; although he didn't agree to join their club, both parties exchanged contact information.
They promised that under certain conditions, they would invite Li Ang to represent their club in some races.
For them, Li Ang's strength was indeed formidable, but what they valued most was his underage status and the fact that he was not yet a registered professional cyclist.
That meant he could participate in a wide range of competitions.
For Li Ang, this was certainly great news, as it meant having an additional channel to earn extra money.
After returning home, Li Ang didn't rush to train but opened up his panel immediately.
He needed to plan his training for the upcoming period based on his current situation and decide how to use his funds.
Name: Li Ang
Strength: 8.41
Constitution: 11.50
Response: 10.37
Spirit: 15.01
Breakthrough Points: 0.31
Skills:
[Cycling] 790/1000 (Master Level)
(Trait: Lower limb strength and endurance increased by 40%)
(Trait: Cycling stamina consumption reduced by 10%)
[Running] 21/400 (Mastery)
(Trait: Lung capacity increased by 20%)
[Tongbei Fist] 42/200 (Proficient)
(Trait: Reaction and nerve aggregation ability increased by 10%)
In the past five days, his physical attributes had undergone a huge change.
The first was the [Cycling] skill, which had reached the Master Level.
What surprised him was that he thought the proficiency required for each level to upgrade was already incredibly high, doubling as it did. He hadn't expected that at Master Level, the proficiency requirement would rocket from 400 to 1000.
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However, he wasn't in a rush to improve in the short term, so it could be put aside for the time being.
As he aimed for improvement, Master Level [Cycling], in addition to raising the original 20% enhancement to 40%, had also added a new Trait, reducing the stamina consumption of his riding.
Next were [Strength] and [Physique], which had both grown considerably in the past few days.
Thanks to the [Cycling] Trait that increased leg strength, his [Strength] had improved more than expected.
Now the thickness of his thighs was nearly that of a healthy adult, except his upper body muscles were still weak, which made his overall figure still look somewhat frail.
In terms of [Physique], he was now 15% stronger than a standard healthy adult.
The combined force of these factors was also the key assurance for his outstanding performance in cycling competitions.
Master Level cycling techniques allowed him to have a much higher power efficiency than the average person.
Strong physique, leg endurance, reduced cycling consumption, and the increased lung capacity from [Running] enabled him to endure the entire cycling process like a perpetual motion machine, without any visible signs of exhaustion.
At the same time, Li Ang discovered that after winning the race, his body seemed to undergo a subtle but certainly positive change.
However, this change wasn't reflected in the attribute panel.
Of course, amidst a pile of good news, there was also a piece of bad news.
That was his [Spirit] attribute, which seemed to have reached the threshold that his body could currently withstand.
Continuing to add points and enhance it now brought not the previous cooling sensation, but instead a piercing pain in the brain.
Li Ang had anticipated this to a certain extent; he had already started feeling his brain's consumption increasing over the past two days, and such enhancements would eventually reach a degree that his body couldn't handle.
After checking his attribute panel, Li Ang confirmed that the next focus of his improvement would be his [Strength] and the skill level of Tongbei Fist.
Strength was an easier matter. Li Ang opened the online shopping app, intending to order weight training equipment such as dumbbells, barbells, a bench press, and a squat rack.
But after checking, he found that this equipment wasn't cheap at all.
A full set would cost over three thousand US dollars, and if not for the seven thousand five hundred US dollar prize he had just won, his entire net worth wouldn't have been enough to buy it.
Li Ang hesitated for a moment and chose not to place an order.
His funds were limited; they had to be spent wisely.
In his memory, an annual membership at a downtown gym only cost four hundred US dollars.
With that money, he could use the gym for seven or eight years without any problems.
Besides, the gym facilities were more complete and perfect than what he could buy.
From a safety perspective, someone would be there to help him if he made a mistake with heavy weights.
With that in mind, the advantage of a home gym was just its convenience and privacy; there wasn't much else to it.
As for privacy, Li Ang wasn't too concerned about it at the moment.
Upon aiming for substantial earnings, he would inevitably be exposed under the spotlight in the future; a little bit of privacy during training was trivial.
If in the future his body reached an inhuman level, he would certainly already have his own private gym.
Having resolved the issue of Strength, next was the practice of Tongbei Fist.
Practicing Tongbei Fist for half a day now only added about twenty proficiency points, which roughly translated to six points per hour.
And this was after the improvement from his increased [Spirit], overall, the progress was still too slow.
In pondering how to speed up his training progress, Li Ang meticulously studied the materials he had purchased.
One of the suggestions was to choose a suitable place for martial arts practice.
The ideal location would be spacious, have high oxygen content in the air, and abundant sunlight; if there were mountains and water, even better.
After considering his options, Li Ang realized that the best nearby location was the town's park.
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