He walked into his apartment's private gym.
The room was exactly as he'd left it that morning, the equipment arranged in neat rows beneath soft, indirect lighting. He hadn't stepped inside since yesterday's basketball practice. Between the system upgrades, the Bone-Tempering Pill, the Jade Purity Elixir, dinner with Maya, the rebate cycles, and his study of the Dao Language, the day had simply left no room for exercise.
He walked over to the dumbbell rack. The heaviest pair in the collection weighed two hundred and fifty pounds each, purchased the previous week at his trainer's suggestion, partly as a joke, partly out of curiosity. Even with his system-enhanced physique, lifting them had once required genuine effort.
He reached down and picked one up. He nearly threw it. Not because it was too heavy. Because it wasn't.
