Bruce stood in the pocket dimension's replica of Wayne Manor's private gymnasium, staring at the equipment he'd used for nine years. The weights that used to challenge him now looked almost quaint.
Time to see what peak human actually meant.
He walked to the bench press station and loaded it systematically. Two hundred pounds. Four hundred. Six hundred. Eight hundred. One thousand pounds of iron sitting on the bar, more weight than any natural human should be able to move.
Bruce lay down on the bench, gripped the bar, and lifted.
The weight came up smoothly. Too smoothly. He pressed it ten times, feeling barely any strain in his muscles. His form was perfect, his breathing controlled, his body working with mechanical efficiency.
'That's not even close to my limit,' Bruce thought, adding more plates.
Eleven hundred pounds. He pressed it eight times before feeling genuine resistance.
Twelve hundred pounds. Five reps, muscles burning pleasantly.
Thirteen hundred pounds. Two reps, maximum effort required.
He racked the weight and sat up, barely breathing hard. Peak human strength meant being able to bench press over twelve hundred pounds. That put him in the same category as the strongest powerlifters in history, except they specialized in one lift.
Bruce could do this across every physical metric.
Next test: speed.
Bruce moved to the pocket dimension's outdoor track, a quarter-mile loop he'd measured precisely years ago. He set NEXUS to time him via the monitoring system he'd installed.
NEXUS. Neural EXecution and Universal Strategy System. His AI companion, more advanced than ARIA had been. He'd upgraded her six months ago with cutting-edge neural network architecture, giving her the ability to process and analyze data with frightening efficiency.
"NEXUS, ready to time my hundred-meter sprint. Mark on my signal."
"Ready, Bruce," the AI responded. Her voice was smoother than ARIA's had been, more natural. "Timing system active."
Bruce crouched into starting position. His body coiled like a spring, every muscle fiber ready to explode into motion.
"Go!"
Whoosh!
He launched forward. The world blurred. His legs pumped with perfect rhythm, each stride covering more ground than should be possible. Arms driving, core stable, breathing controlled despite the explosive effort.
He crossed the hundred-meter mark and slowed gradually.
"Time: 8.87 seconds," NEXUS announced.
"New personal record. For comparison, the current world record is 9.58 seconds. You are significantly faster than the fastest human ever officially recorded."
Bruce grinned despite himself.
8.87 seconds.
That was insane. Olympic sprinters trained their entire lives and never came close to breaking 9 seconds. He'd just done it casually, on his first attempt at peak human capability.
"Run the mile next," Bruce said. "Time me."
He settled into a distance pace and took off.
Four laps around the track, maintaining speed that would make professional runners weep. His enhanced endurance meant he could sustain effort that would destroy normal athletes.
Three minutes and forty-one seconds later, he crossed the finish line.
"Mile time: 3:41," NEXUS reported. "World record is 3:43. You have exceeded it by two seconds."
Bruce walked it off, cooling down. His breathing was elevated but not labored. His muscles felt warm but not exhausted. Peak human recovery meant he could push hard and bounce back fast.
Combat testing came next.
Bruce moved to the sparring area and activated the combat dummies he'd built over the years. They were sophisticated machines, capable of simulating attacks at various speeds and skill levels. He'd programmed them with techniques from all 700+ martial arts he'd mastered.
"NEXUS, activate combat simulation. Level ten difficulty, multiple opponents."
"Acknowledged. Activating five opponents with master-level programming."
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