“Home sweet home,” Zane said. Taking in the usual smell of his bachelor’s pad. First thing first, the man went to his bedroom and stashed his new guns in a storage box different from the one he kept the tasers. He placed it inside his cupboard and covered it with a bunch of his unfolded clothes, a perfect place for cover. Where no one in their right mind would touch a pile of clothes that was at the border between being clean or dirty.

He changed clothes and jumped on his bed. Staring at the ceiling as he wondered what he should do tomorrow. His eyes grew heavy quickly and he fell asleep.

The next day, Zane was up early in the morning. Having his usual breakfast at a hawker close to his house. He went for a light jog afterward just to get his body warmed up for the day. And it wasn’t a normal jog. He stopped by a few pawn shops different from the one he visited last time and managed to snag another ten thousand dollars for three sapphires. And nothing felt better than cold hard cash in the morning. Smiling, Zane went off to his next destination, the bank. He deposited fifteen thousand dollars in total and kept half of the first day sell he made. Checking through his phone, having that amount of money in his bank account really felt great.

“Now time for some training,” he requested an Uber. Taking him to the closest batting cage he could find on the internet.

He paid his fees and got inside the batting cage. Setting the speed at the highest, he watched a baseball swooped through the air and hit the back of the mesh cage. Zane had second thoughts about this. Yup, I’m definitely going to lower that. He lowered it by a notch and stood in the middle of the ball’s path. Taking a few good breaths, Zane readied himself as he blindfolded himself with a bandanna he brought from home.

He waited in silence. Sharpening his senses to detect whatever was out there in the darkness of his sight.

“Ow!” Zane growled. Folding his body as he stirred away to the side. Shit, that kinda hurt. He rubbed his left chest as the ball hit him right on target. For some reason, he started regretting this decision of his as he wasn’t the masochist type of guy.

Nonetheless, he pushed forward and stood once more in the path of the ball. “Let’s do this,” he pumped himself up as the training full of pain began. Two hours went by and Zane didn’t even manage to dodge a single one. His breath grew ragged and his body aching all over the place. Even with his high vitality, the pain was still there. Yet there was a hidden surprise over all of this masochistic tendency.

[Physical Resistance][Lv.2]
[The body's durability increases, allowing for less damage taken. 2% decrease in damage taken by attacks.]

He was grateful. But he preferred not getting hit. “Okay, Zane, you can do this. You can dodge it,” he gave himself a pep talk. But a voice came from his side.

“Um, sir, what are you doing?” one of the workers of the batting cage finally had the courage to throw the question at Zane. Well, it wasn’t actually courage as the lad just pulled out the shortest straw among the other workers. No one in their right mind would want to confront a possible crazy dude that liked being hit by baseballs.

Zane lifted his bandanna up a bit and saw the worker behind the mesh cage. “Oh,” Zane said. “I’m just doing a couple of swings that’s all.”

“But you’re not holding a bat, sir,” the worker pointed out the obvious.

“Yea, well . . . Um . . . I’m doing image training, it’s like a precursor before swinging the real thing,” Zane explained.

“Sorry sir, but I’ve been watching and you’re just standing there,” said the worker. “The insurance policy says that you can’t sue us if you’re deliberately injuring yourself.” The worker finally said what he wanted to say. It wasn’t the first time this establishment dealt with people trying to sue them for a bit of fortune. But this was the first time, someone actually got hit continuously after the first ball. Usually, after the first ball, they would end up crying and screaming in pain while also shouting to sue the establishment for faulty equipment.

Whatever Zane was doing, the workers definitely had a certain idea about him. He pulled him closer to the worker, prompting the unlucky lad to back away a bit, fearing what Zane might do.

“Come closer, kid,” Zane said.

But the young worker shook his head.

“Relax, I won’t hurt you,” he goaded the part-timer who was fresh out of high school. “Come on, a customer is asking for help here, you don’t want to leave me hanging do you?”

The young worker relented. Coming closer to the mesh cage, and came face to face with a crazed lunatic that liked being hit by a deadball.

“I’ll straight up be honest to you, kid or Malik is it?” Zane said. Noticing the name tag on the young worker’s left chest. “I’m doing this for training. I’m trying to dodge the baseball while blindfolded you know.”

The words barely registered to Malik as the reason was nothing short of being ridiculous. Despite that, the kid still nodded. He didn’t want to say anything else as he had already marked Zane as one of those not in their right mind.

“Here take this,” Zane slipped something from his pocket and pushed it through the larger hole mesh.

Malik was surprised to see what it was. A roll of cash, and from the look of it Zane was offering it to him. “Sir?”

“It’s not much, but it is two hundred dollars,” Zane said. “So take it and just look away from what I’m doing, okay?”

“Are you bribing me?”

“Oh, not at all. It’s not like I’m doing something bad, is it? I’m just minding my own business and so do you. just think of it like a tip for your hard work, okay? No big deal, am I right?”

Malik took the roll of cash and slid it into his pocket. “Have a good time then, sir,” Malik slightly bowed and took his leave. But before he could do so, Zane called him back.

“Can this thing get a lot faster?”

His training went on. Feeling the aches on his body as he slightly felt progress in dodging these balls. Usually, they would have just straight-up hit him without him noticing it. But now he could at least tell something was heading towards him. He still failed to dodge it, but the sensation was there. He knew he could do it, and he only needed more time.

Three hours passed, and a shout of a man reverberated through the batting cages. Zane was all smiles as he finally grasped that sensation. Even though it was just once, he still thought of it as a success. And he wasn’t alone in thinking so.

[Break the limit! You have gained +1 Perception.]

It couldn’t get any better than this, Zane thought. Yet that slight euphoria dulled his senses a bit. “Ow,” he forgot that the machine was automated and the ball still kept on coming.

He continued on. Using that first success to consolidate that sensation he felt when dodging the ball. Soon he was making progress, dodging a few times, then got hit a few times in a row. The process kept repeating itself for another hour, and by then he was shocking the heck out of the workers who had been watching him from afar. The one who couldn’t believe it the most was Malik as his jaw fell in disbelief.

“I guess that’s enough for today,” he stopped himself. As his see-able progress stopped at the first dodge he did. Nonetheless, he knew he had improved. He gain a point in perception and also raised his Physical Resistance to level three.

He left the premises and waved a hand at those gawking bystanders. Deep down, he kind of felt cool proving people they were wrong about him, and it seemed he was getting addicted a bit over it.

Zane continued his training at another place. Spamming his Force Beat spell, emptying out his mana reserve as the spell finally managed to reach level four. He had gotten quite fluid using the spell as if it was the extension of his arm, directing the invisible force in a variety of ways. But one thing for sure, the spell was definitely not for a precise and detailed movement like picking up something on the ground. He tried to use it like telekinesis, but none of his attempts had worked. The spell was solely used to attack and more attack.

Getting back home, he freshened himself up and went down to his computer. His training for stats had been progressing smoothly except for Arcane Power. And now he needed a particular training that involved his new guns. He searched through the web and voila, Day Shooting at Singapore Rifle Association. He booked a session and he was done for today.

Zane spent the rest of his evening laidback, resting. Watching movies, trying expensive menus from the delivery app, and he even registered a new account for Apex, playing a few games, dominating the whole lobby. Making his ten-year-old opponents cry and screamed in rage.

The moment he was done, he got banned again. But he wasn’t mad. He knew it was coming, so he kinda expected it to happen. Looking at the clock on his phone, the time reached eleven. He would have liked to get back to the other world, and leveled himself up. But he needed to get back to Singapore through the usual way to avoid any sort of suspicion. He also needed to settle his vacation in Malaysia with Tiz so that she wouldn’t get suspicious over his constant disappearance. Since it wouldn’t bid well for him in the long run since that cousin of his had a sharp sense of detecting things like these.

He vanished to the hotel room in JB city and Zane immediately retreated to his bed for the night.