Chapter 36: Smack

Ninety-nine… Hundred.

Hoo!

Doing push-ups is a tough thing.

I had seen many people doing them with ease, never knew it was this difficult.

My daily routine now comprised what Arthur called warm-up in the morning. And by that he meant destroying every unit of energy in my body.

Using mana makes things much easier, but the bastard had locked my mana core.

I looked at the bracelet-type things on my wrists. These were used to completely block one’s mana supply or, in most cases, reduce it to a near-negligible level.

So running for ten miles combined with the hellish schedule of these push-ups, pull-ups, and whatnot weird exercises left me with no strength.

And the interesting part is…

This was just the beginning of my training for the day.

After the so-called warm-up, Arthur would ask me to swing the sword for the entire fucking day!

I mean, has the old man lost his—

Cough.

My master might be a very trained fighter, a veteran of the mightiest battles, but I must say…

He was shit at training someone.

I could understand having me follow this monotonous routine for a couple of days, a few weeks at most.

But no—

I had been doing these very same things for the entire three months.

“…?”

How pathetic can this man get.

Though I must admit my physical endurance has increased by a solid margin, and so has my body.

Now I could clearly see a well-defined physique every time I glanced in the mirror.

My abs were like solid bricks; even the most elite weightlifters and influencers on Earth wouldn’t come a percent near my level.

“….”

Okay!

That was an exaggeration.

Still, my body had now grown more muscular and better defined. I could now easily balance myself in any form or posture.

And swinging those swords for the entire day had made my wrists…

They looked like fucking monsters.

My forearms now bulged with veins spreading all across my wrists. It really looked marvelous.

Careful!

I never said my Master was useless at teaching.

Or did I?

Well, at the end of the day, aside from these improvements, I hadn’t learnt shit about combat.

As for D.X., the progress on that front was better than mine.

I had given a detailed list of all possible useful villains that we could possibly recruit to Arthur and Julien.

And I must admit…

These guys were good at their jobs. They had recruited almost ninety percent of the twelve hundred villains whose details I had given them.

Yes, the number was huge.

And this wasn’t even close to all the villains on this planet.

You could just imagine the total number of villains in the game.

It was ridiculous. Many pro gamers had protested against such absurd logic of the game, but the developers didn’t budge an inch.

They continued releasing updates according to their own scripts.

Never bowed under the pressure of the demands in the market.

And for that, I must really appreciate them. It wasn’t easy to go against the market flow and still create a game that was considered one of the best sellers in the history of gaming.

As for the recently recruited villains, I won’t mention much about them.

Not that I was disrespecting their place in D.X.; it’s just that they were minor villains.

Among them, many had caused horrific crimes, and some of them were the ones who were wrongly accused and hunted by the world.

It was a dynamic grouping, but I didn’t care for the smaller details.

No matter their characters or intentions, all these villains, despite having minor roles in the game, were individuals with a good amount of talent.

I mean, mostly the people with talent are the ones that go on the path to become evil.

The ones with mediocre or no talent just have no right to become a villain…

Even a minor one!

That’s how the world works. To be able to influence it, you need to have a decent amount of power to make people notice you.

So in the end, you are either respected or hated; there’s no middle ground in such stuff.

So back to the point—today Arthur was returning along with Julien…

Back to Tamyr.

And that meant—

My real training would now begin.

I hoped to have some company while training, and Julien was my first choice…

But that fucker gave me some enlightenment about efficient resource utilization.

’Boss, I would just be a drain on the resources… better they be used for your growth on my behalf. Sniff… sniff… hic… With immense regret, I must strive to make your dreams come true… so just let me leave!’

He barked some cringe lines and ran away with Arthur.

Though he did his fair share of work, I just couldn’t digest the fact of burning alone.

Is there no thing as bromance?!

That traitor.

Haa.

The sun had nearly dipped down the horizon.

I raised my sword in another swing. Every cell of my body was screaming for rest.

My clothes were drenched in sweat. I must have smelled like shit.

The thought of taking a warm bath reignited my spirits.

“Bosss! Bosss!”

Huh.

I could hear a high-pitched voice.

I looked around to find the barren lands around me.

Looking closely… was it a squirrel?

The little guy was running with his mouth filled.

Sigh.

I had just seen a heist in broad daylight.

“Hereee!”

Two figures could be seen approaching from the west, and one of them was vigorously waving his hands at me.

The traitor was back, and so was my—

Master.

Rage boiled in my mind as I took deep breaths to steady my beating heart.

“Hey.”

Gritting my teeth, I waved in return.

“There’s still time for night to come, so don’t stop. Continue!”

Arthur’s not-so-cheering voice fell on my ears.

They were beginning to itch, and so were my hands.

I badly wanted to slap someone…

“Boss?”

Julien cautiously approached me as I stared at him with… bright eyes.

Heh.

“What happ—”

Smack!

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