"How can I help you" The woman at the counter asks with a smile.
"Hello, I'd like a gym membership and a personal trainer if available, please." I reply.
After awakening my class and thinking over my options, I decided to try my best to raise my physical stats through hard work. If I can reach a hard limit for my stats before investing stat points and resources into them then I can maximize my gains.
I'd predict that every stat point will matter at the highest levels of 'play', and I don't know how long the system will take for my stats the higher they become, so I'd like to set myself a strong foundation.
"Of course, a membership is 15 dollars a month, and a personal trainer will be an additional 85 dollars per month, you'll get an hour a week, alongside a detailed plan for your daily nutritional intake and the exercises you should be doing. You'll also get a discount on the drinks and meals available here in the gym. Will that be alright?"
"That sounds fantastic." I smile, using my phone to go through with the payment.
I'm introduced to a friendly trainer who asks me a series of questions before formulating a diet and exercise plan tailored to my body and goals.
Deciding to mostly ignore the diet plan due to [Gamer's Constitution], I start with the workout plan immediately, taking breaks to check the Awakened Platform for skill books.
Seeing price tags with a frightening amount of zeros for the higher tier abilities, I filter them by only F-Class, and manage to find a few abilities and spells that seem useful.
Right now my highest stats are my magic related stats, which does work well with [Mana Imbuement] and my combat experience, but I'd like some more mage-like spells as well to compliment my fighting style.
Being able to do some damage and maybe apply some debuffs or damage over time (DoT) abilities before going in for melee would be very useful, and the Combat Mage playstyle has always been something I've enjoyed.
Unfortunately the cheapest useful ability is a staggering 500$, and I'd like to be able to afford a PC as soon as possible, so I close the Awakened Platform and get back to the grind.
-
Elsewhere, in a dimly lit alleyway, a team of agents in suits were busy analyzing the strange mana signatures emanating near the corpse of a level 1 Gate Wolf.
"Sir, these reading are highly alarming, they're eerily similar to a gate, but the power fluctuations are significantly higher than even an S-Tier Gate." An awakened with a glowing purple hue in one of his eyes said respectfully.
"I'm seeing the same thing you are, dumbass. Hurry up and figure out what we're actually dealing with, the old man is expecting a report on his desk by tomorrow morning." A gruff older awakened man responded curtly.
Adorning the suits of the men was an insignia of a swirling purple gate cracked in half in the middle. A well known insignia throughout the world, earning respectful glances from passerby's, though very few people could be found in this neighborhood, and most tended to avoid anyone in suits.
"Sir, this is unlike anything we've seen before, I don't know how long it'll take to analyze in full or if we'll even get a conclusive answer about what happened here. It may be best to forge some results for now and look into things ourselves." the first awakened replied.
"Are you suggesting we lie to the Chairman of the U.S. Awakened Association, recruit?" The older man asked.
"Yes sir, I am." The first awakened replied, no hesitation in his voice, his posture unwavering.
"Heh. I like you, kid. You're gonna do well in this division. Very well, write me some bullshit excuse about what this thing is and then I want you to gather every spec of DNA available here and have our guy run it through the labs off the record." The gruff man replied with a hearty laugh.
"Of course, sir." The first awakened replied, the slightest grin forming on his face as he got back to work.
The gruff man began walking off, before he suddenly kicked off the ground and began nimbly hopping from the rooftops, eager to get home to his wife and kids.
-
Back in Buford's recently acquired accommodations...
"I am fucking TIRED man... Who knew working out for 5 hours straight could tire a man out to this extent." I muse to myself sarcastically, sinking into my couch and pulling up the Awakened Platform and idly scrolling through Awakened Shorts.
Awakened Shorts is a section of the Awakened Platform with short-form 1-5 minute videos, some of which were informational, some were nonsense, and some were high-tier awakened showing off the destructive power of their spells or sparring with each other to advertise their guilds.
Watching through whatever shows up on my feed, I manage to drag myself to the restroom, clean up, cook myself a nutritious meal, and plop my ass back down on the couch to eat and scroll.
Checking my stats after the meal, I find that my wisdom and intelligence have gone up by 2 points each, and I allocate my extra 800 resources equally into the aforementioned stats.
I finish my meal, take the dishes to the sink and clean them off, put them on the drying rack, and head to my bed to sleep. Exhausted, but feeling proud of myself for my hard work today.
When I wake up, I buy myself a cheap laptop to game on while I save up for a nice PC. I spend the day with a similar routine, adding playing games on my newly acquired laptop to my schedule.
The next few weeks pass by uneventfully, gaming, working out, allocating my resources to grow my stats and skills, and sleeping, completely unaware of the unexpected storm my appearance in this world was brewing in the background.