New York City, Old Town Bar. 

 

Two men found themself in front of it. Having just come out of the bar, both men faced each other and shook their hands as a gesture of goodbye. “ John, thank you for giving me this chance. I will make good of it. ” 

 

Nodding, John replied. “ Don’t worry about it, but let me give you some more advice. Yesterday I met a man who was on the brink of a psychological breakdown. He had nothing to lose, as everything he cherished had been from him. Maybe he would have recovered on his own, or maybe he wouldn’t. What I can tell you is that the man I see in front of me has found his purpose in life. It may be for revenge, but I do not care about that. What I care about is this; never, ever forget, that while your purpose may be revenge, do not let it consume you to the point of making you blind to the World around you. ”

 

Agreeing to his proposal, Daniel reassured him. “ I will try. ”

“ Good. Here is the last piece of advice. Once you have time on your hand, go over the dream you had. It should contain some clues as to which path you should take in the near future. ” Stopping for a second, he added one last thing. “ And if you ever need some help, you have my number, so just give me a call. ”

“I appreciate everything you did, and I will if the situation calls for it. ” Saying his last gratitude, they had one last handshake, and each went their ways. Where and what John’s next action was, Daniel didn’t know, but he knew his own. If I am truly destined to meet some Eldritch thing the next time I sleep, it’s best if I tire myself first. Otherwise, I won’t be able to sleep at all. 

 

But where should I go? Daniel thought. I… could go to the usual place, but I don’t want to be near … my home. Let’s just take a random one. If I remember correctly, there should be one just a street away. 

 

Minutes later, Daniel was in front of it. Its name was Complete Body gym. 

 

***

 

Phu… Phu… Phu

 

Breathe in, stress the muscle, pull at the contraption, hold in position, release slowly, relax the muscle, only to repeat it again and again. That’s all I did, going from one contraption to another. For every muscle group that you want to train, there is a contraption invented to ease the exercise. 

 

Sweat was all over me as I pushed my body to its limits and sometimes they were ignored altogether. It was all I could do to take my mind off the recent revelations that came to me. 

Power, abilities, the possibility they bring. Yet no matter how grand it all sounded, it just couldn’t overcome the seething anger that had built up inside me.  

 

The lungs burned as they gathered and expelled air. Muscles screamed I was overdoing it. Despite my stressed body and anger, strangely, my mind was calm. If one could interpret that calm as having your mind single-handedly focused on a few scenes that should be best forgotten for one’s sanity. 

 

Only when my body truly couldn’t go any longer did I break out of that fugue state of the mind, and it was only then that the aftereffects of the prolonged exercise hit me. My entire body burned, but most of it was focused on my upper body, and even there it could be focused more on the heart and lungs. The heart was beating madly as it struggled to supply the oxygen to the rest of the system.

 

Taking minutes for it to calm slightly, I take my vest that was beside the equipment meant for shoulder and arm exercises. From one of its pockets, I took out my phone. Unlocking the screen, I search for the App and open it. Taping in the silly cartoonish version of me, a display of my status appeared. 

 

Looking at it, I found nothing changed. Why? John said I just had to find a gym and exercise the body and it should update. Am I missing something? Thinking for a second, it came to me. Ah, Body represents the statistics for the entire body, so that means not just physical prowess. Let’s do some running for endurance.  

 

With that idea, I made my way to the treadmill and, with a few clicks, it turned on. At first, it was just a walk, a few speed-up button clicks more, and it was a light jog, a few more and I was running. There I kept it. With my focus on my breathing, I entered another fugue state where all my focus on the exercise left me and my mind wondered. Most of the wandering thoughts that came to me were of my family and that day it happened, but recognizing it this time, my thoughts focused on the relevant need for confirmations I was currently experiencing. 

 

Running and running I did, and the more I run the more my breath evened out as if I could go on forever with this. Unfortunately, it was decided that I was not meant to test it out as I heard a very familiar and yet strange sound. 

Ding

It reminded me of my phone and the sound it makes when a new notification arrives. As for the strangeness? The sound couldn’t have been from my phone as I set it on silence, not to mention that in my current state of focus I tuned out my surroundings long ago. Recognizing this, a few clicks later on the controls of the treadmill, I slowed my steps until complete standstill. Still, I waited till my breathing turned shallow. 

 

Once it was down, I picked up the phone in question. The moment the screen turned on I saw 2 notifications waiting for me to read. 

 

Ding! Congratulations Detective, your Body stat has been evaluated, and you have received a grading of 6 points out of the maximum 10. 

Ding! Congratulations Detective, your Will stat has been evaluated, and you have received a grading of 7 points out of the maximum 10. 

 

Wait, shouldn’t it have just been Body? Why was Will included? I asked myself. No, wait. John said that Will was the basest of the basest of consciousness. If so, could that be the reason as to why I achieved such a focus when I exercised? I have trained before, and I don’t think I ever achieved such a state of focus before. So, what could be the reason? 

 

I asked myself that question, and yet in the next moment, my mind cooked up the answer. Could it be the dream I had last night? Could it be that I received more from it than just a revelation of the future? If so, I should follow John’s advice and reflect on the path forward, but first. 

That revelation aside, I opened the Dream the App and went to the perks shop. In my earlier glancing at it to see what it entailed, I found a normal shop with lots of options and categories. It divided its screen into two. The upper part marked the perks I had and below that was a button to open the shopping part. 

 

Opening the shopping part, a new window appeared with lots of options divided in their purpose. It categorized every perk with their use and those were; single effects, continual effects, and miscellaneous effects. The names said everything. Single effects had perks that could only be used once when purchased and the continual had a longer duration. As for the miscellaneous, it was in that category that I found the perks John mentioned.

 

Opening the single effects tab, I found what I glanced at in my earlier exploration of it. 

Perk; After Exercise; If used, will send the Body into recovery and development mode no matter the intentions of the user. 

 

• Effect 1; Increases the development factor of the physical body for 1 day.

• Effect 2; Increases the recovery fatigue factor of the physical body for 1 day.

• Purchase Cost; 0.1 LEp

• Be Warned; The Perk works on a biological basis and will initiate the sleeping mode for the user. Any usage aside from intended is up to the user’s risk.

 

 

Purchasing the perk, I leave the shop and find it there, just waiting for me to activate it. One month of living for one night of recovery. Does not feel fair, but if the effects are good, I won’t mind buying similar ones.

Done with it, I went back to the shop to explore it. Out of all the perks that were shown, most had the development of the body as its dominant theme. From the muscles to bones and blood production. Some even went for individual organs. 

The next theme was for Healing. It went from basic accelerated healing to reconfiguring innate disabilities like blindness among other things. As for how a blind man would get the app and be able to use it, I put little thought into it. It probably had some way to work, maybe a voice-activated version. 

The last one had a cosmetics theme. It belonged to the miscellaneous category and there one could purchase perks that improve one’s physical standards like beauty for one and the other was bodily conveniences like no babies after sex.

Interestingly, it was in that category that I found an interesting perk.

Perk; Vision of Life; Creates a permanent Life Essence construct in the iris of the user’s eyes. 

 

• Effect; Grant’s vision geared towards Life.

• Purchase Cost; 10 LEp

 

 

It would cost a whole 10 years of my life to pay for it and its explanation was minimal for such an enormous price. What is an essence construct? Considering the way it’s mentioning Life Essence, does that mean I should be able to create it myself and forgo the enormous cost? Probably, let’s leave it for later.

 

Closing the App I put the phone back into the west to continue my day in the gym. The goal was to exercise as much as possible and strain the body to test out the effects of the perk. If the After Exercise Perk worked as stated, then a continual version of the same perk would be a much better investment. 

 

***

 

With the gruesome physical extortion that I had not felt in years on my body, I entered the hotel room I had found myself in this morning. Once there, I ignored everything aside from drinking some more water. Then I made my way into the bedroom and consequently into the bathroom. After a bath, I was on the bed. 

 

Like that, I stayed for a few minutes before I noticed my eyes closing from exhaustion. In a hurry, I found my phone and opened the App, and went to the perks window, and there I taped on my recent purchase. 

 

Unlike what I had imagined, I felt nothing when I thought I would. The only indication that it even was used up, was the confirmation prompt asking if I was sure of my decision and the immediate vanishing of the perk in the window. 

 

Maybe it’s not an immediate effect like I had imagined. I thought to myself. Placing the phone on my chest, I closed my eyes and allowed the drowsiness to overcome me.

 

Slowly darkness came as I felt myself float for some time before a sudden light came to me and with it images of my past appeared in my mind. Being the memories of my life as a kid, they held an innate quality that pulled me to immerse myself into them. At first, I resisted, but soon after the resistance vanished and I lost myself in them.

 

***

 

Rattled an old front door and a second later it opened. Coming through its frame was a man of age between 30 and 35. He had a tired face, but even it could not conceal the look of happiness he felt returning home from work. 

 

He wore a police officer’s uniform, and on his badge stood NYPD. Once inside, he closed the door and shouted. “ Marge, Daniel, I am home. ” 

Immediately in response, he heard the light sound of thumps as a tiny body ran on the apartment floor. Once he saw the man, he called. “ Papa “ With a smile the kid of age around 9-10 ran into the arms of the man. 

With a healthy hug from both of them, the boy asked. “ Did you catch any criminals today? ”