I nearly tripped over when I heard his shout at me.
'Jesus! He's got a loud voice. Now I know where Sawamura got his vocal cords from.' I thought as I continued running down the street.
It was a joyful run. It was a bright day. The wind was blowing. The trees and houses whisking past me as I kept a decent pace.
I was taken back to my past life where I used to join my older brother on runs.
How he always sped ahead of me and tried my hardest to catch up, never being able to.
That didn't stop me though I kept pushing myself harder after each run, every time to try to catch up to him.
When I think back on it. I knew he was doing it on purpose to help me push myself.
Obviously at the time, I just thought he was making fun of me.
But after they had all passed and all I could do was reminisce, that's when I realised what he had done for me.
But, at the time, it only made me feel more guilty for not understanding his motives back then and then the mourning I had just went deeper.
It was the same whenever I thought about my parents as well.
When I thought back on how I took the things they did for me for granted. The guilt I had never stopped ripped a part.
'Mum, Dad, brother. I don't know if you can hear me. Thank you for all you did for me. I will never forget it you, no matter what happens in this life. I feel weird calling out others mum and dad but I need to do it to fully grasp this life without ruining relationships. I hope you can forgive me.'
I zoned into my own thoughts as I kept running.
It was only when my heart pounding in my chest that I snapped out of my thoughts.
I stopped for a minute to catch my breath and little.
'How long have I been going for?' I thought to myself.
My hands were behind by head as tried to keep a straight posture. It was a habit I had developed after my brother taught me it was the best way to breathe in, instead of leaning forward.
[User has completed 6/10km so far.]
'Thanks Max.'
[You're welcome.]
'I should turn back now that I've passed the halfway point.'
I turned and started jogging back the way I came.
Luckily, I didn't take any corners so I could keep a straight line and focus on my breathing instead of where I was going.
***
When I finally got back home, I was drenched in sweat.
My breaths were deep and frequent.
My heart was beating so powerfully and fast that it was pulsing my entire chest.
I was extremely exhausted, but at the same time, I was strangely feeling liberated.
At the end of my past life, I could hardly breathe at all, let alone run a full 10km.
It made me happy.
Just as I was about to head back inside, I saw a bottle of water next to it with note.
'Don't let ya self-dehydrate. - Dad'
As I read the note, I smiled slightly with a chuckle.
'These are good people.' I thought. 'I won't neglect them. Even if I am not truly their son. I will treat them as my parents from now on.'
Instead of heading inside, I went round to the back yard.
It was nice, bare grassed lawn. A decent size too.
I had a couple of ideas creep into my mind about what I could do with it for training but I pushed it back for the moment.
'I need to complete the tasks set first.'
After I rested and rehydrated for a while I got to the sit-ups and push-up tasks.
I decided to switch between the two between reps so I could recover and not over work one task and not be able to finish.
When I did 30 sit-ups, I then switched to do 15 push-ups.
I repeated this 3 times until the last rotation, where I did 10 sit-ups and 5 push-ups to finish off.
After I had finished, I was absolutely gassed and my muscles in my core and arms were spent.
I laid down with my back on the grass with my arms spread out wide, laying heavily as I recovered.
It took a lot longer to recover than from the run.
'It's probably because my stamina stat is higher than the others.' I thought as I was breathing deeply.
After I recovered somewhat. I reluctantly got myself back up.
'Come on. One more task to go!' I thought as I slapped myself on the face lightly with both hands.
'Max, how should I go about this task?'
[I have compiled a couple of yoga exercises that will focus on the flexibility of your back, hips, shoulders and wrists. I also have some for general recovery for fatigued muscles.]
'Holy shit, Max! You're the best! You know that don't you?' I said as I looked through the exercises and instructions on how to do them.
They were the perfect exercises I needed to help advance my flexibility and recover from the daily tasks.
[I know. I'm the best.]
I went through the exercises slowly and gradually.
I focused on loosening my muscles whilst also stretching them thoroughly.
There were some exercises that were especially perfect for my body as the flexibility of my joints were further emphasised the exercise.
There was one that freaked me out a little bit because it truly showed the flexibility of my wrists.
I was on my knees, leaning forward completely, my arms were stretched out in front of me to keep balance but instead of using my hands as support, I was using my wrists. My hands were completely folded inwards, touching my forearm with my fingers.
It was truly fascinating and disturbing at the same time. It will definitely take some time to get used to being able to do that.
After about an hour of the exercises, I heard a notification from the system.
*DING*
[User has completed the daily task. Congratulations!]
[User is being rewarded with a C-grade random elixir]
'Great! I finally finished!'
I practically jumped up with joy.
[Does user want to implement the C-grade elixir?]
"Is that even a question? Of course!" I said.
[User has accepted. Implementing elixir now.]
I suddenly felt a chill throughout my body.
At first it was manageable, but it gradually became worse.
It wasn't bad enough to scream, but it really hurt.
Like getting pricked with needles throughout my body. Making my body flinch and muscles twitch.
Finally, it started to calm down after about 30 seconds.
When I finished, I felt fantastic. Like an unknown force started flushing through my body.
*DING*
[User's Strength stat has been advanced from D- to C.]
I practically started skipping round the garden when I saw the message.
'Let's goooo!!!!'
I must have looked crazy to anyone who saw but right that moment I didn't care at all.
After a while, I calmed down.
'This is just the start.' I thought to myself. 'In fact, this isn't even the start. The start line is when I get into Seido.' I clenched my fist tightly.
I could feel the new strength in my hand.
It was an addictive feeling.
'I need to get stronger.' I thought to myself with determination.
Suddenly a glint in my eye started to flicker into a small flame as I had a thought.
'I want to pitch.'