“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Jason.

He stared at the blue windows for a whole ten minutes.

 

“Mr.Park, you can get your medication at the pharmacy counter,” a nurse came in breaking him from his daze.

 

“Ah yes, thanks,” Jason replied.

 

He put himself back in clothes yet his eyes still lingered upon the blue notification window depicting his so-called statistic.

 

“Close?” he wasn’t sure but it worked.

 

The status window closed disappearing from sight. Jason tilted his head while adjusting his shirt. He left and grabbed his medication. He popped a painkiller to stave off the ache on his body. It took him for a while for the medication to kick in but as soon as the pain faded off, he walked out of the hospital’s door.

 

“At least I’m not hospitalized,” standing there in front of the busy entrance of the hospital, it got him thinking for a while.

 

On second thought, shouldn’t I be hospitalized or something? Didn’t I lose quite a lot of blood?

 

A second too late since he was already out of the hospital. From what he recalled, he lost quite a lot of blood. He glanced upwards seeing the blue sky.

 

“Well for better or worst, at least I save some of my money,” said Jason.

 

Being hospitalized would be worse for him since he didn’t have any insurance. Compared to Canada, the states really had a pretty mess up way in the health care sector.

 

“The alleyway,” Jason said as he figured something out.

 

He hailed a cab and went his way back to the alleyway. A rather stupid move but he figured that it might be related to the thing he’s experiencing. The cab was driving through the street and Jason was about to go out from the cab before seeing a group of people flocking by the side of the street. Jason saw a few police cars parked by the side of the streets as well as a news van.

 

“Hey, where’s your stop?” asked the cab driver.

 

Yellow tapes were set-up around a perimeter with policemen keeping the reporters away from the crime scene. A few curious pedestrians flocked around. From the look of it, it was definitely a bad idea for Jason.

 

“Ah, never mind. Just drop me off at Out-N-In,” said Jason.

 

The yellow cab drove off leaving Jason standing there alone. He stared towards the direction of the alleyway. He scratched his head and went inside ordering a take-out.

 

--

 

A burger in his right hand and cola in his left. While his pair of two eyes staring at his status window. Jason was calm, trying to accept this new reality of his. He was trying his best not to judge this merely as a hallucination. If he was hallucinating, then were those goblins part of his hallucinations? He couldn’t tell since the other eyewitness was pretty much dead with her intestines sprawling out.

 

I don’t think my family has a history of mental illness.

 

He tried to convince himself, since taking a psych exam would be torturous and a hassle.

 

Hmm, but there is a way to find out whether this is all real or not.

 

He had an idea in mind.

 

--

 

There’s a gym close by to the apartment. A bit rundown but quite famous for those oldies gym junkies. The sound of men grunting and barbell dropping filled up the air. Jason smelled the sweat and tears lingering within this old gym. His appearance in the gym was mostly ignored. Since he was kind of like those gym newbies dressed up pretty much like going for a morning jog.

 

Back in Canada, he was definitely not one of those people who care about muscles and a healthy lifestyle. Jason stood in front of the bench press as he stretched his body from top to bottom. He wouldn’t want to get a muscle injury from a lazy habit.

 

Like they always said, the bench press is the man’s way of testing strength.

 

His reasoning was flawed, influenced by those macho-genre movies. But it wasn’t that far from the truth.

 

“Time to bench,” said Jason.

 

He loaded up the barbell and benched for the first time.

 

“Oh shit, too heavy. It’s too heavy,” with his hands trembling like chicken feet, he placed the barbell bar back on the rack.

 

Propping his body up, his chest was heaving up and down. Jason heard a few chuckles around him. He was definitely being ridiculed by these oldies around him.

 

“Too much for you little boy? Haha,” a rather buff grey-haired man teased him a bit as he was loading up some heavy plates at the squat rack just beside the bench press.

 

Jason could only laugh it off. He didn’t mind since his reason was to determine whether he was insane or not. He checked his status once more and confirmed his strength at the measly number of three. A few plates dropped on the floor as Jason lightened the barbell bar. He tried a few times and determines his limit was at 10 kg excluding the weight of the barbell. At least he wasn’t shaking like before.

 

“Fuh, let’s do this,” he opened the status window and sat there staring at it.

 

Shit, how do I distribute the points?

 

He has no clue on how to use this game like status. It wasn’t like there was a manual for the whole pseudo-hallucination.

 

Add one point to strength?

 

A muttered in his subconscious mind and to his surprise.

 

Oh, it works.

 

He saw the number changed right in front of his very eyes. From three turned four. The plates are locked and loaded with the total weight numbering thirty kilograms. His back lay on the bench seat. His fingers wrapped around the metal bar. Taking a few breaths, he pushed it.

 

Jason was tilting his head.

 

How come it’s lighter than 10kg? Did I load the wrong plate?

 

He benched a few times, with his arms going up and down in an effortless manner. After placing it back on the rack, he checked the weight and it was definitely heavier than before.

 

Can it really be true?

 

He was still unsure and went on to loaded more plates. Jason was testing his strength and kept on going until reaching his limit. Each time he did, he put another point in his strength. The most newbie looking guy in the gym was putting on a show for these old gym rats.

 

“I’ll be damn, this kid is not playing around. Wasn’t he trembling with those weak ass stick arms of his,” said the grey-haired man who was squatting while witnessing Jason’s feat of strength.

 

After spending five points in strength, Jason was benching 150kg without breaking a sweat. He even completed a set of ten reps.

 

“Fuh,” Jason was smiling from ear to ear.

 

This pretty much seals the deal. There’s no way I can bench 150kg with this flimsy arms of mine.

 

Even he admitted he has skinny arms but results are results. At least now he knew, he didn’t need to go to a mental asylum. Jason packed up his things and was about to leave.

 

“Hey kid, are you on some kind of new steroid or something? There’s no way you can bench like that,” the grey-haired man questioned Jason while pointing at his weak-looking arms.

 

“Organics. Eat healthy organics, sir,” Jason left after spilling some bullshit at the old-timer.

 

The grey-haired man only chuckled with his hands on his waist. He stared at the back of Jason who made him pretty intrigued by his feat of strength.

 

---

 

Scrolling through his browser, Jason was searching for something. He just got out of the shower, clean and tidy after working out a sweat. Well, he wasn’t sweating hard but at least a few drops made it count.

 

Let’s test something out.

 

A new idea in mind. For the twenty-eight-year-old Jason, his younger days were filled with games. From consoles to pc, every known RPG was like the back of his hand. He adored the RPG-genre more than anything, and the fantasy series was definitely his favorites. Yet for every happy time, there would always be an ending. He abandoned playing, in hope of making it big. Big in a world where the money, is the power to do anything that you like.

 

But here he was now, excited like a little kid again. As if he found a new game. He even forgot the sight of the gruesome death of that woman that pleaded for his help. Well what could he do, he encountered a ground-breaking ability that defied common sense itself.

 

“Bingo,” Jason’s lip other end curled upwards as he was staring at his smartphone.

 

On the screen was Amazonian, a shopping website catering to numerous customers throughout the whole world. You can buy particularly anything from this site and for Jason, he found what he wanted to buy. His finger clicked the buy button without hesitation. On the screen, showed his desired item.

 

A katana.