*A week after.
Jim managed to do a benchpress of 50 pounds. And got a strength related notification.
"Finally 2.3 on each stat!", he screamed with some kind of arrogance.
Truth was, I pained to catch up to Jim. To test out my theory I had to have all my stats at the same level. I could only manage to put the rest of my stat to 2.2 while my intelligence stayed at 2.8 (without the title boost). My title was a super blessing, but for this month it was a problem.
"Don't be too cocky", I replied.
-"Never"
We continued to train in the gym for an hour and then went eating. After a good protein meal, we went to our small apartment and went to sleep.
If you want to know how. Simple. The gouvernment gave a 1000 bucks to the titled people. (That's what they called us)
I felt so happy when I got the news. A bit less when I understood what they were trying to do; they wanted to have the name of each "talented people" to get them in the army with money or through pressure.
Apparently, they didn't want my participation since I was a famous criminal of some sort.
A story for an other time.
We used the money to get a super small place to sleep and to get two gym memberships. We also had enough for some healthy food that could last a month. The next day, we went infront of the mall's one shop that had the news on. Simply to check if our opponents had seen through the potential training stats stuff. And today, it seemed to be the case. The shopkeeper showed us a video posted an hour ago of someone raising weights and saying he got a notification. We thanked her for the news.
"I'm Anna by the way. ", she said.
"I'm Jim and I'm 26 and you?", he said while shaking her hand.
He isn't 26, but who was I to butt into his flirt performance.
"I'm 24, is this your kid?", she said while pointing at me.
-"No, no, not at all. He's my nephew."
"That's cute that you are taking care of him."
-"Thanks, we have lots of uncle and nephew bonding time in the gym these days."
"Yeah, I also think I'm gonna start since …", she said while pointing at the video.
-"Oh, you could come to our gym if you want to ?"
Here we go. I already prepared for a no and was about to reach for the exit until I got stopped by her response.
"I would love to.", she said.
Now we had to share our secrets to Jim's little crush. Great!
He then told her the name of the gym and that she had to buy a membership fast because of the video and stuff. We proposed to meet at 4 pm to start our first session.
After that conversation, we had a big argument me and Jim. I was mad that he would stop training with me and would start trying to impress her. He told me to stop acting like a toxic ex and start growing up and doing things solo.
To defend myself, what I said exactly happened. That blonde dumbass started showing her every way to get each stat up like intelligence as if it didn't take us days to find how. He also wanted to show her how every move was done before she could do one machine. I started doing stuff alone in some corner. It was boring. I had to listen to his corny compliments for an hour. I'm pretty sure he made a guy quit early next to him. I was close to that point too. I had to remind myself of the fear and stress I had in the arena.
"Wow! Perfect form Anna. You're already better than Morek!", he said with a smile.
I now prefered the arena's stress than going to the gym.
-"Who is Morek?", she said.
"My nephew", he replied.
"Weird name", she said.
He then went closer to her ear and said,
"Don't ask him about it."
I hated it. Using me for romance. I knew he had no reason to get this close. I'll get my revenge.
But in the end this day was a good one. I moved all my stat by 0.2 and that was my training record for a day. Jim tried so hard to impress her that he got 0.2 stat points more in strength and stamina. What a lover boy.
We separated outside of the gym and went into our respective home. When we arrived, Jim started flexing that he got her number and that she would come to the gym each day from now on.
"This training got more hellish", I thought.