Chapter 28 - Fusion

“To summarize the whole point, our gym has a special piece of Exo Tech installed within the walls of this hall, it has the ability to produce waves to stimulate the Exos inside of your body to enhance the effect of a normal training session by 5~10 times. The best thing about it is that it doesn’t actually consume your Exos at all since the stimulating Exos waves only stimulate your muscles to achieve a minimized effect of how Physical Aspect Awakened strengthen their body.”

‘As expected, it’s indeed something else. Also…’

Hearing the gym staff member explain the ‘Exos Bodybuilding’ service, Chrome confirmed some of the main suspicions he read during his search on the internet, but while he was fascinated by that, there was something else that made him almost dumbfounded.

After waking up to find himself within the parallel world once more, he had experienced a very weird thing, his mind felt clearer!

He had originally received a hint of that feeling when he received his report card back at the testing facility, but after he woke up this time, it was amplified by several times.

The most important part of this was that when he actually went to the Self-Reliance Palace to use today’s candy piece for a point, he realized that his status was different!

Even right now, while he was still listening to the staff member’s important explanation, he couldn’t help but take another look with his mind.

__________________________

Name: Chrome Blue

Age: 18 

Energy Points (EP): 10/13

_________________

Physical status:

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Strength: 9

Agility: 10

Vitality: 8

Intelligence: 19

Perception: 14

Charm: 10

_________________  

Both his intelligence and perception have increased!

While still slightly unbelieving of such crazy fortuitous occurrence, he came up with a suitable assumption considering several factors.

‘It’s possible that alter Chrome’s consciousness has fused with mine.’

Having also realized that most of the rubbish scattered memories in his mind have been erased, while the needed ones that he sorted as such got even more consolidated in his mind, Chrome quickly came to such a conclusion.

Exactly like how everything regarding the world travel of his that he knew nothing about and just assumed certain things using his observations, Chrome also assumed that by achieving the long term impossible target of alter Chrome which was to miraculously enter the Extra Academy had triggered some sort of a response from what was left of his consciousness, allowing Chrome’s current consciousness to ascend by a few points.

‘This is an unexpected gain…’

While the increase in the two stats wasn’t double the previous number, the current increase was visibly effective, human minds had limits, and going forward you would always slow down, so even this much was amazing to Chrome.

He had simply tried the test for his own agenda to give this ‘superhero’ life a try since he was forced to spend time in this world, but in the end, it did result in something that couldn’t be normally obtained in both worlds, but his main concern was…

‘Would it also be inapplicable to my normal reality…?’

Considering the fact that he didn’t receive this liberation of mind effect that came along the boost to both his Intelligence and Perception once he returned to his normal reality and only did so after he came back to this world, Chrome doubted that would be possible, but everything was up in the air for now until he went back and confirmed.

“So what do you think, will you be subscribing to our ‘Exos Bodybuilding’ Service?”

While he was still thinking about the whole mind boost thing, Chrome was still in fact also considering what he heard from the staff member, which wasn’t that hard with how his Intelligence grew, multi-tasking or more specifically double-thinking wasn’t that hard to achieve for him anymore.

He did immediately leave to check this gym once he left the Self-Reliance Palace even when he was still contemplating possibilities after all.

“I…”

`~~~`~~~`~~~`

“Alright, your subscription contract for the next two months has been finalized, you are officially a golden member of our gym for that full-time period, you immediately gain access to the specialized hall and are able to receive the guidance of the specialized trainer of this service. He will give you a suitable training routine and you can ask him about anything you are unsure of after that, he will explain things more thoroughly than I could.”

“Thank you.”

Receiving the piece of paper handed to him by the gym’s staff member as well as two small cards, one golden and another black, Chrome kept the black card, his credit card in his pocket and checked both the contract and his golden membership card before nodding towards the smiling man, turning around and walking towards the special hall he just paid to enter.

‘It should be worth it!’

Standing by the outer walls of the hall, Chrome once again felt the light waves that he felt a few minutes earlier when the staff member was explaining the special use of training inside this hall.

The energy within his body was indeed slightly vibrating from this subtle interaction with the emission tool that was embedded within the inner part of the wall. If such an effect could be felt just from standing outside, then how effective would it be to train inside where the waves were directly concentrated at!

This demonstration as well as the verified status that this gym received as a true provider of the ‘Exos Bodybuilding’ service was mostly what convinced Chrome to subscribe to something that took a hard chop on his savings, but he definitely felt as if it was worth it.

Not only was building a fit body something very important for most aspiring Extras in the following stages, considering that they would perform true combat in the academy, Chrome didn’t hesitate to pay six grand, nearly half his savings!

‘Better than nothing…’

Using his eligibility card for the Extra Academy had allowed him to cut down the original cost from 8 grand to this, so he at least could be considered to have gained some benefits.

Increasing the rest of his physical stats seemed to be extremely worth it to Chrome especially after he experienced the effect of an enhanced stat and the fact that all of his living expenses would be taken care of by the Academy once he reported in allowed Chrome to overspend for the sake of his future development.

Two months may seem sufficient to increase his Exos rating to a very impressive level but they would barely make him lose some weight and gain little muscle if he took the conventional route, so Chrome believed that it was worth the risk anyway.

‘Let’s not waste any more time!’

Calming down his fast-beating heart that was almost going to explode from expectation as this was Chrome’s first time at a gym not to mention a special one, Chrome passed the gold card by the door which opened automatically as he stepped in...