Knock. Knock.
"Oh, Is something the matter, Chrome?"
Sarah, who seemed to be taking care of some papers on the desk inside her room, turned her head towards the door and asked.
Knowing her son who usually stayed in his room most of the day holding his phone or doing other silly things, she knew that there had to be a reason for his sudden visit to the room, it seemed like he had a request this time as well...
'I wonder what is it this time?'
It wasn't like he was the type to ask for a lot of things with short intervals between his requests, but every time Chrome asked for something it was usually not a small request. For example, three years ago, he asked for a smartphone since the computer was getting too old for his use. One year ago, he asked for a laptop since the old computer was completely out of service and not everything could be done using a smartphone.
Of course, he did contribute at least half of the price from his savings for every request and most of them weren't overboard and had some logic to them, and that was exactly why Sarah was curious as to what it would be this time.
'Is it something related to his recent round of changes?'
The first thing that came to her mind as Chrome went in was that he was going to do something out of habit like he had recently done for the last month, but…
"I want to go to the gym starting today."
She simply didn't expect such a request at all!
"Hmmm?"
'Isn't this too exaggerated for a simple change of temperament?'
Although Chrome wasn't exactly fat due to having a slightly high body metabolism, he was still the type to spend his whole day in the bed!
Other than going to school or going on simple errands, he could be described as the incarnation of laziness, the only moves he did would be to flip to the other side to look at the phone easier or something of this sort, suddenly saying he wanted to go to the gym really seemed to be too much for Sarah to believe…
"You said you wanted to go to the gym? Did I hear this correctly?"
"Yes," Chrome hurriedly nodded in affirmation.
Looking at his mother's face, Chrome couldn't help but sigh slightly in his head. He had actually expected such a reaction at the very first moment he made this decision, but he still denied the fact that he was lazy deep inside!
There were obvious logical reasons as to why he always spent his time doing nothing, it was because he simply felt that spending effort into doing something proved to be of little value to him.
He was already used to being the 'slightly above average' type of character, studying more didn't necessarily help him achieve better, so he set a certain minimum studying time for himself. Similarly, his body didn't necessarily require him to exercise nor could he aim to be an athlete or something like that, so he found little value in practice.
Since there was a ceiling above his head that he couldn't breakthrough and rise higher then why wantonly spend effort all around, it was better to enjoy the rest of the time in order to not build up stress and at least preserve his current state.
'Well, it's different now though…'
It had already been exactly 30 days since he started going to this parallel reality in his dreams and he had already experienced all sorts of new things and even gained benefits to his own reality, the ceiling above his head didn't simply just crack, it was completely shattered!
His intelligence wasn't simply 'slightly above average' anymore, just that was enough to completely change this label of his that he was caged within, not only that but there were even hopes of him gaining more!
Strictly speaking, while Chrome decided to exert effort in this parallel reality and try to achieve more than 'slightly above average' giving the advantages he had there, his main concern was still his real world, the world he lived in for 18 years.
A world that could be entered like a dream naturally had the potential to vanish just as abruptly as it made its first appearance. If such a thing were to happen, withdrawal symptoms were bound to affect him.
Though he didn't dive too far into the abnormal aspect of this parallel reality, what he saw already astonished him greatly, his dull life could no longer compare and he already had goals there that pumped him with excitement!
As such, Chrome also wanted to try the challenge of making his normal reality as exciting as possible, which no longer seemed like a dream with what he received from the parallel reality too far. Striving on two paths was much more fruitful in his opinion.
Not only would a success in one reality motivate him in both realities, but in the case one of the paths vanished, life wouldn't be as empty as if he poured everything into just one path!
Unlike the parallel reality which had too many aspects to improve on, this normal reality only had two aspects to it, other than Intelligence which he already unintentionally received a boost to, the physical aspect was the only thing left to improve on.
Considering that he still didn't know the reason behind how the normal him was thrown into that abnormal parallel reality that he was put into without his permission. It was also a good idea to build up some strength in the case the reverse happened and the abnormalities of the parallel reality moved over...
"...Alright, since it's a good thing, I won't question you as to why you made this decision."
Sarah quickly retracted her amazement, as shocking as Chrome's change has been, she didn't plan on seriously questioning the reason behind it as long as Chrome himself didn't want to speak about it. He was still her own son, that wouldn't change no matter what happened. Besides, what kind of parent wouldn't support his child in his way to improvement?
"So, still only going to ask for half the cost? I don't mind giving you the whole fee since it's a positive decision that I'm willing to support..."
As a proud smile replaced the previous shocked expression, Sarah who was sitting on the chair opposite to Chrome who sat on the bed stood up as she went to grab her purse…
"Nope, this time I plan to shoulder it all, I'm only going to give it a try for the month that's left of the break before deciding whether to continue anyway. I only came to tell you about it not to ask for the fees."
Chrome shook his head, he hardly spent money anyway so just a month of normal gym membership would hardly make a dent on it. It was also better to mention that it would be only a trial-month since he didn't want to show too much of a change by saying he would commit.
All in all, he had yet to try normal exercising without the stimulation device's help, so who knew if he would continue if the effort wasn't worth the result?