Ray was still strolling toward the cardio area, that dumbass grin stuck on his face and taking forever to fade. Every few steps, his right hand sneaked up to his nose for another quick whiff of that leftover victory scent.
Man… this shit actually works. These ten minutes are straight-up heaven, he thought, smirking like an idiot.
He slipped into a quiet corner near the water station, checked left and right.
Coast clear.
He hurried and tapped the fingerprint icon on his chest again.
Tap.
The panel popped right back up.
But this time, new text appeared.
---
[Global Alter Active — 00:07:12 remaining]
Feature locked until duration ends.
Reward will be granted upon completion.
---
Ray swallowed.
"So I gotta wait till the timer's done?"
"Fuuuuck…" he muttered under his breath, clearly annoyed.
He closed the panel with an irritated swipe and headed back out onto the gym floor.
"Fine, whatever. Still got time left. Might as well smack a couple more asses while it's legal."
He was just about to roll up on a chick stretching near the dumbbells when—
"Yo, my boy! Over here! Clean this shit up!"
The senior trainer pointed at a massive protein shake puddle spreading across the floor.
Ray's face scrunched up.
"Fuuuuck. For real…"
Those last seven minutes vanished in the middle of pure chaos.
---
[Ding!]
[Global Alter Ended]
[Mission Complete]
[Reward Granted: +10 EXP, +20 Alter Points]
---
All of a sudden—
The whole vibe snapped.
No more SLAP… GRAB… echoing through the gym.
Everything returned to normal instantly.
Guys passing women now only offered awkward smiles or polite nods. Nobody even thought about touching anyone's ass.
Cold, hard reality kicked Ray straight in the nuts.
The gym was absolutely packed that day.
Ray didn't get another chance to "greet" anybody.
Instead, he got worked to death.
Mopping floors.
Loading heavy plates for ego-lifting dudes.
Cleaning toilets that were nasty as hell after someone puked in one—no idea why.
Changing overflowing trash bags.
Even helping the front desk check in new members.
"Ray! Men's bathroom upstairs is disgusting—go clean it now!"
"Bro, help me rack these twenties real quick, I'm in a rush!"
"Yo, free-weight area trash is overflowing—swap it out!"
Ray could only force a bitter grin and take a deep breath.
The same hand that had been squeezing the boss lady's thick assets earlier was now gripping a sweaty, chemical-smelling mop rag.
He glanced over at the gym owner's wife chatting with her husband.
Now, nobody even got close.
Everything was back to "normal."
Ray pushed the cleaning cart forward, sighing heavily.
"Damn… ten minutes of paradise. That's it. Back to being the gym's bitch," he muttered.
Still, his eyes were lit with pure joy.
That warmth?
That memory?
Yeah. That was living rent-free in his head forever.
—
Ray dragged himself back to his tiny apartment around eleven at night.
Body wrecked from the double shift. Legs throbbing. Back killing him. The smell of sweat and floor cleaner clinging to his clothes.
"Man… I just wanna die right now," he muttered as he unlocked the door.
He collapsed onto the busted couch.
After a moment, he hauled himself up, splashed water on his face, chugged an entire bottle of cold water, wiped his neck with a ratty towel, then dropped back down.
Phone in hand.
Doomscroll time.
The moment he opened social media, his feed exploded.
Every short video had blown up hard that afternoon.
"Global Mass Ass-Slapping Incident at Gyms Worldwide?!"
Ray's eyes bugged out.
"What the fuck…?"
Without him realizing it, those ten minutes from earlier had been recorded everywhere.
Live streamers.
Gym CCTV footage.
Members' phones.
It was all going viral.
The comments were pure chaos.
Some people swore it was the work of the "Ass Devil"—a demon that possessed people just to smack cheeks.
Others were convinced it was a Matrix glitch, or a government mind-control experiment using 5G towers.
Big-name streamers got caught too. Guys mid-workout stream suddenly "greeting" female fans. Female streamers getting slapped by random dudes who showed up to gym events.
The wildest part?
While it was happening, nobody thought it was strange at all.
Chat spammed things like "W man, Chad respecting women fr."
But once the alter ended, the footage stayed.
Now everyone was losing their minds.
"Mass AI deepfake?? But thousands of identical videos—no way it's fake!"
Ray—the only person on the planet who actually remembered what really happened—burst out laughing alone in his apartment.
"Hahaha! This is insane!" he wheezed.
"I'm literally the only one who remembers! Y'all are collectively hallucinating now!"
He kept scrolling, laughing his ass off at people arguing like idiots in the comments.
Then he stopped at one video and squinted.
A group of pale, sleep-deprived dudes sat in front of a full podcast setup.
"This is the universe's punishment for gym rats overdosing on protein!" one of them declared, slamming the table weakly.
Ray frowned.
"What the fuck…?"
The guy next to him looked like he was about to cry.
"It wasn't enough for them to chug that chemical powder… no…" he said, staring into the camera with watery eyes.
"They had to consume the flesh of living creatures! Creatures with families! Mothers! Children!"
Ray chuckled quietly, shaking his head.
"Aaaah… these people."
He turned off his phone, stretched out on the couch, and smirked.
"May God bless 'em with some fried chicken," he muttered.
---