Saturday, in the upper part of the town.
A young man walked up in front of a second-floor building that have some large glass windows beside the walls, making a part of the interior to be seen outside.
It was a gym that contains almost all of the training equipments.
The young man, Liam, who was standing outside and carefully observing the building, grinned as if he found himself in front of a fortune-making building.
"I'll test the result of my basic training here."
While his appearance was calm and composed, his eyes were burning with motivation.
Liam soon hurried inside the gym and headed straight to the management room.
Before he went in, he saw all the types of equipment that he was seeing almost every day, mainly because it was his job to check them.
From machines and free weights, training benches, treadmills, some punching bags, exercise balls, and some accessories.
The second floor also contained the same things that were down where he was.
Creak.
Liam opened the door and saw an old man, who was sitting in a comfy office chair in front of a wooden table, that also have office stuffs.
He soon stepped in and tried to close the door.
"Manager, It's me, Liam. I'm ready to do my job for toda–"
Just as he was about to turn around, a few books were already flying towards his face.
But he managed to dodge it all easily.
"You dare to come back here even after making me clean the gym myself for a few days!"
The old man stood up while shouting at Liam with anger that showed in his face.
"Sir? Why didn't you let the helper do the work."
Liam asked in return.
"The other guy has a more important reason to do a break than yours!"
"What? I was injured, sir. What even is his reason...?"
"To think that you can even lie to me right now. How are you standing here if you're injured! That guy said his girlfriend broke up with him and he needed some space... How pitiful..."
"..."
Liam was speechless.
How can the manager of such a good gym be this stupid?
"Ah, sir. Sorry, but didn't you hear that my leg can't be moved for almost a week? Though, I even hurried here as soon as it healed."
Liam made a barely conceivable excuse but the manager seemed to believe it.
He even breathed out a heavy sigh to sum it up.
The old man soon sat down back again.
Although Liam didn't remove his straight face that can make his excuse to be obviously fake, the manager thought of his expression as dejection.
"Hm... I didn't know you're injury was that bad. I feel sorry."
He paused for a moment and thought before letting Liam do his rest.
"Okay, you can rest here for an hour if you want until you can finally clean and fix some things."
Liam tilted his head and didn't expect the old man to believe him completely.
Either way, it was a good thing.
"Our manager is really thoughtful. I don't need a break and will immediately continue my job..."
Liam said before opening the door behind him.
The old man smiled thinking that his kid changed somehow.
"One last thing, sir. Can I use some of the gym equipments?"
Liam spoke, not reading the atmosphere.
"Y-You..."
"Ah? Did I say something wrong, sir?"
"You son of a...!"
Some time passed before Liam finally been able to convince his boss to let him use some of the gym equipment.
Although, it cost him half of his paycheck, he was satisfied.
After assisting some of the customers and fixing some stuffs, he finally got his break.
He went to the second floor were people barely come to every weekend.
He strolled in front of the free weights and grabbed two dumbells.
He lifted it high without difficulty and was once again pleased.
That was the result of his training.
"Alright. I'll do the twenty kilograms as a warm-up."
After doing the dumbells for god knows how many, he went towards the area where barbells were placed.
He grabbed the 50 kilograms weight and soon started lifting it.
Pushing it up high and slowly bringing it back down.
Huff.
He did over again it for a little over thirty minutes.
After doing some weights, he soon went for the cardio training area.
He eventually went to the treadmill.
Then after it was the exercise ball for stretching one's body and strengthen its flexibility.
In just over an hour, he already used like four to five gym equipments.
He was about to do the free weights again until two guys went up the second floor.
He stopped doing his kind of training because it was simply absurd for his body in other people's eyes.
Even though he already have quite a strength to lift some weight that was even heavier than himself, it was only because of the system's stats that he increased by using also the system's points.
His body was nothing more than 55 kilograms of weight as of now, like the ideal body weight of a male.
Otherwise, he can still improve his outer physique by using the normal means of training.
That's why he went for the training mat and can only do some push-ups and sit-ups as he looked at the two guys wandering around the area.
"Hey, Kel. Who's that guy?"
The man, who seemed to be a boxer due to his ripped muscles, asked his friend beside him as he took a side glimpse at the random guy doing push-ups in the corner of the room.
"Huh? Ah, he's a gym assistant here."
The friend said. He was a regular customer of the gym and already knew what Liam's job inside it.
"Hm. He's easily doing push-ups with his average body and without losing his breath... I heard there's an underground ring here for some sparring and betting matches."
"Ah, yes, there is. It's an open-secret though. Why do you ask?"
"I want to spar with him."
"What?! I said he's just an assistant, Enma. Don't joke now. Hold back your competitive self."
The other man, or Enma, once again glanced at Liam.
"I'm not joking. He seems different... The aura he's giving off is different..."
He narrowed his eyes.
"Although, I started to learn boxing a few months ago, it's my first seeing something like this. heh. I really want to try him now."
"What aura are you even talking about? Tsk. It looks like I can't stop you. But if they knew you beat up a mere assistant..."
"hehe. You're crazy. I said sparring not a real fight."
"It's not the first time you said that. Alright, let's ask the manager."
Enma nodded as he finally freed his gaze away from Liam.
They soon left and went downstairs towards the management room.
Liam, who was on his 60th count of doing push-ups, smiled as he saw the two guys left the second floor.
Clearly, he heard the conversation between the two while he was training.
With his enhanced perception, and by getting it to level 20 in the system's stats, his senses were strengthened.
That includes his hearing and accidentally he heard them talking about him.
"So I'll be sparring, huh. I forgot to train my limbs so it's a good idea. Besides running, I definitely need to punch some things."
He stood up after getting into the 100th mark and stretched his body some more.
"Ah, this is also my first time going underground the building... I'm really lucky today. Oh, here it is."
Liam placed the towel in his shoulder and glanced at the old man coming from the stairs.
"Ah, sir. What are you doing here?"
The old man glanced back with his intently-looking eyes.
"Hmm...? Is your body always like that? Anyways, do you want to go to the underground floor? Although, you'll be sparring with someone."
"Ah. I always wanted to go down there, sir. And I also don't hate sparring so it's fine for me."
Liam grinned as he spoke.
"Hoho. You're interested, huh. But I heard the guy was a boxer so be careful. And he also gave me 400 dollars for it so make a good fight."
Liam looked at the manager stupidly.
"In the end, you only like money, huh..."
"Huh? What was that?"
"It's nothing. It's nothing..."
Soon, both of them went down to the second floor and walked inside the elevator hidden behind a door that only the gym staff can get in.
The entrance opened and the underground floor can be seen by the two people coming from the elevator.
The place was filled with dozens of people encircling one of the four matching rings.
"We are here."
The old man spoke as he stepped out of the elevator.
Liam followed and was a bit amazed that the place they're in was better than he expected.
He imagined the room to have a fainter light than normal because it was 'underground'.
But the lightings were the same as the ordinary floors of the gym, making the place bright as it reflected on the white walls and the polished floor.
The old man gave a light cough after Liam who seemed to be surprised by his surroundings.
"As you can see there are four matching rings here. The two rings are for the sparring matches while the other two are for the betting."
Liam slightly tilted his head as he heard the old man's words for him.
"Betting?"
"Yes. That is why this is a secret place. Gambling is illegal, but here are the two rings were people fight each other while the watcher bets. Of course, the winner will also receive a payment from the loser."
Liam nodded.
"Ah, right. The two guys are waiting for us at the back let's go."
"Okay."
Liam and his boss arrived in front of a ring which the two guys from earlier were standing.
It seemed that the boxer was already prepared since his torso was already unclothed and the gloves were already put in his fist.
The boxer glanced at Liam and gave him a strange stare. He kept thinking that there's really something odd about him.
Liam and the boxer eventually met each other's gaze.
"Ah, nice to meet you. I'm Liam."
"Hm. I'm Enma Lee. Call me Enma. Are you ready for our match?"
"Ah, yes. I'm prepared."
"Good. You can come up now."
Liam nodded, wore off his shirt, and got on the ring.
Breathing out a sigh and stretching his body first, Liam was eager to go a fight.
Though it's just a sparring match, he was somehow excited but didn't let it show out to others.
The two guys, Liam and Enma, walked in the middle of the ring before making their own stance.
With the friend of Enma making the starting signal with his hands in the middle of the two...
It soon started.
Hmph.
As soon as a snort came out, Enma shot up a straight punch towards Liam.
It was a fast happening.
Already a straight punch?
He wanted to test Liam in that way.
The hard way.
So he immediately did a straight punch.
And also towards the face.
With the sound of the rippling air, the strike was obviously strong and not hasty like an unexperienced boxer would do.
Though he did it in the first few seconds since the fight, he did it with brains, and let his fist contained the force of his body.
The watchers can also see what he did.
The owner of the gym and Enma's friend was surprised. They didn't expect to already try hitting his opponent in the face.
And there's also Liam.
Although he wasn't surprise, but...
Confused...?
'This is wrong...'
Liam frowned.
"isn't this a bit?"
He spoke inwardly.
He easily dodged the fist that was about to land on his face and brushed to his left.
'Why is he throwing a kid's punch. Is he testing me?"
To Liam's perspective, the punch was like an expected pat to his head from a friend that can be easily dodged if he felt uncomfortable.
It really was like a child's punch.
'I'm still yet to be heated up. I'll dodge for now.'
With his two fists on the front of his chest, Liam carefully and effortlessly dodged all the strike that was given by his opponent.
His opponent, Enma, was slightly surprised.
He expected Liam to dodge a few punches because he have a light body, but he didn't expect that he would also not throw a punch.
'Is he not trying because he knows that he can't hit me? Is he really just a normal assistant?'
A few more punches were thrown and were also avoided.
Until Liam's face began to twitch.
'This... This is a bit boring.'
Did his opponent still assumed that he was weak?
If that is true, then I need to throw a punch.
Liam thought seriously.
But it was just an excuse.
He just wanted to strike after only dodging for quite a while.
Soon, as Liam dodged a left hook by lowering his center of gravity, his face turned serious.
He took one step back, folded his arms, stretched it backward, and in a blink of an eye, shot it towards his opponent's face.
THWACK!