The first thing I felt wasn't power. It was the sensation of drowning in dry air.
My eyes snapped open, but all I saw was a blinding, glitchy white light that burned. I tried to gasp, but my throat felt tight, like I'd just finished a heavy set of squats and forgotten how to breathe. This wasn't the gym. This wasn't my room. The last thing I remembered was the screech of tires and the sudden, violent impact of cold metal.
Slowly, the white light faded. I was lying on moss so thick it felt like a mattress. Towering ferns arched over me, blotting out a sun that felt way too hot. In front of my face, a blue screen flickered like a dying lightbulb.
[System Initialization: 100%]
[User Identified: Haon]
[Status: System Energy Depleted]
"What is this? A hallucination?" My voice was different. It was deeper, vibrating in my chest in a way I wasn't used to.
I looked at my hands. I'd spent years in the gym working for every bit of muscle I had, but these hands were different. They were thick, calloused, and looked like they were carved out of stone. I had the mass, but I felt heavy and uncoordinated.
[User Haon, listen,] the text scrolled, glitching in and out. [The bridge between worlds is gone. I have used the last of my energy to rebuild you.]
[Gift 1: The Perfect Body. You have been granted the absolute peak of human physical potential. However, your current Software is incompatible with the Hardware. You must synchronize.]
[Gift 2: The Copy Talent. You possess the theoretical mastery of the legendary fighters from Lookism World & You can mimic and adapt any physical technique you witness.]
"Lookism?" I tried to stand up, but my legs were like coiled springs. I pushed off the ground with the force I usually used for a heavy squat, but without the barbell to hold me down, I launched myself three feet into the air. I panicked mid-air, flailed, and landed face-first in the mud.
"Dammit..." I spit out a leaf. I was clumsy. It was like driving a supercar when I only had a license for a scooter. I had the muscles, but I didn't know how to balance them yet.
"Wait! Don't go!" I shouted at the screen. "I don't even have a map! I'm in a jungle! How do I eat? What about water? I can't just bench press my way out of a prehistoric island!"
[Location: Little Garden. World: One Piece.]
"One Piece?!" My heart dropped. I knew this place. It was a death trap. "Are you kidding me? There are dinosaurs here!"
[The Perfect Body will help you digest almost anything, Haon. But you are no longer in a gym. Lookism was a playground. This is the sea of monsters. If you want to live... don't stop moving.]
The screen shattered. The blue sparks vanished into the humid air, leaving me in a silence that was quickly broken by a heavy, wet thud nearby.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
I turned. Emerging from the brush was an Allosaurus. It was covered in scars, its skin a sickly, muddy green. The smell of rotting meat hit me like a physical wall.
"Okay," I whispered, my voice trembling. "Perfect Body. Copy talent. Don't stop moving."
The dinosaur lunged. It was fast, way faster than anything I'd ever seen on a screen. My brain lit up. Images of Tom Lee and Gun Park flashed in my head. My body recognized the lunge as a telegraphed attack, but my clumsy legs didn't move right. I tried to pivot, but I tripped over a root, stumbling forward instead of to the side.
The dinosaur's jaws snapped shut inches from my hip. The force of the snap sent a gust of wind that nearly knocked me over.
"Move!" I screamed at myself.
The beast swung its tail. I tried to dodge, but I was too slow. I raised my arms to block, a move I'd seen a hundred times. The tail slammed into me like a speeding truck. I went flying, smashing through a thicket and hitting a tree with a bone-jarring thud.
I waited for the pain, but I just felt sore. The Perfect Body had absorbed the impact. I scrambled up, coughing, the dinosaur coming back for seconds. It let out a low, vibrating hiss and lunged again, swinging its massive head like a battering ram.
I tried to use a James Lee evasion, aiming to spin off to the side, but I pushed off the ground too hard. I launched myself sideways and tumbled into a cluster of thick, thorny vines.
"Crap!" I grunted, the thorns tearing at my skin.
The dinosaur charged again. I scrambled up, my heart hammering. As the beast's head came down, I snapped out a left jab, then a right.
Thwack. Thwack.
The punches landed, but they were shallow. I was too stiff. The Allosaurus let out a roar and swiped with its front claws. I ducked, feeling the wind of the razor-sharp talons passing just inches above my hair. I retreated, my back hitting a massive tree trunk. I was cornered.
The beast lowered its center of gravity, preparing for a final pounce.
Okay, Haon. Stop fighting like a guy in a gym. Fight like a monster.
I reached into the theoretical mastery for something heavier: Tom Lee's Wilderness Style. I didn't have his size, but I had the mechanics. As the dinosaur leaped, its jaws wide enough to swallow my torso, I didn't move back. I dropped low, my knees creaking under the sudden tension of my new muscles. I waited until the very last millisecond.
"Now!"
I exploded upward, driving a Wilderness Uppercut right into the soft tissue under the dinosaur's jaw. I felt the impact vibrate through my entire skeleton. The Perfect Body held firm, but the sheer force sent a shock of pain up my shoulder.
CRUNCH.
The dinosaur's head was snapped upward with such violence that its feet actually left the ground for a split second. It crashed backward, its massive tail thrashing and snapping a smaller tree like a toothpick. It lay there, chest heaving, stunned into silence.
I stood there, my knuckles raw and dripping blood. I had won, but I was shaking. I looked at the beast, then at my hands. I actually did it.
"SHYASHYASHYA! Did you see that, Brogy? The little ant tripped, but he still stung the lizard!"
The laughter was like thunder. I looked up, and my victory felt very, very small. Two giants, taller than skyscrapers, were standing at the edge of the clearing, watching me like I was a particularly entertaining beetle.