0-6-9-8-6-8-1-0.
After Gin punched the numbers into the keypad, the glass doors opened in front of him, of which he eagerly walked through. The incident at the hospital had ignited in him a desire to get stronger, and his first thought was to immediately work out at the gym.
Force Force was no ordinary gym. It was the place where the best of the best trained. Membership was extremely exclusive, however 5+ Star Medics of the CMC were granted free membership. A minimum mastery of sOr of at least Rare Class was also required.
You see, the gym was filled with machines and equipment with minimal weights at least 5x that of regular gym equipment. For example, plates started at 100kg and Base Resistances of machines at 200kg. For any base level Zephyrian, these were simply too much. This required advanced usage of sOr to be able to train with.
After he had changed into sweatpants and a tee, Gin entered the free weight section with a sense of uncertainty. Though he had been a 5-Star Medic for a couple years, he had never used this facility before. In fact, had only been to any gym once in his life (as with a large portion of human society who sign up lol), and that one time he was accompanied by his younger brother, Ton. Unsure about what to to do, he picked up his phone (powered by common processOr [Smart]) to call him for advise.
"Bro, I'm at the gym and I don't know where to start."
"Gym? You?" Ton questioned on the other line, before bursting into laughter.
Gin frowned, slightly offended.
"I was about to go after my study session, but I got caught up in a few things and.. I'm on a date right now. I can probably catch up with you later.."
"No its okay, you won't be able to. I'm at Force Force. Just tell me where to start." Gin replied.
"Force Force? Gee you've never made use of your access. Hm, just remember what we did during that one chest workout a while back, but now applying your sOr. Anyway gotta go, good luck with that LOL."
After providing his useless advice, Ton quickly hung up and rejoined Elektra at their boba booth.
"It was my brother." he said. "It's his first time at Force Force."
"Ah okay, that's cool :3" Elektra replied with enthusiasm. Unbeknownst to Ton, Elektra was actually a regular at Force Force, holding all the speed records.
Back at the gym, Gin had equipped his work gloves that utilised the sOr embedded in the palm socket. His sOr was of Super-Rare Class [Root], incredibly ideal for surgery. Once activated, these gloves would spawn and manipulate roots that could perform everything in the surgical room, from multiple inciscions at once to anesthesia. This ability allowed him to perform surgery without an anesthesiologist, circular nurse or any assistant for that matter. These gloves certainly were handy when it came to handling delicate objects, but they also had the potential for large physical feats too.
He approached the lowest weighted dumbbells to warm up with, labelled 50kg. As grabbed the pair, roots sprung forth from his palms and wrapped around the handles. He waddled to an empty bench (in fact, the entire floor seemed to be empty) and sat down, placed the weights on his thighs. He tried to recall his last, first and only workout.
"Ok. We did chest, a warmup of 10 reps before hitting the heavy weights" he thought to himself.
He laid back onto the bench, thrusted the weights up to the sides of his chest and pressed. As he performed the first two reps, he realised that with his sOr powered gloves, these weights were liftable. He progressed to the 10th and final rep with moderate effort, dropped the weights to the floor and sat back up.
"Wow that wasn't too bad!" he thought to himself. "I can do more!"
He was so wrong. Not only because his from was incredibly off (and dangerous), but he could definitely not lift more.
After placing the 50's back, he unwisely grabbed the 100's and waddled back to his bench again. As he repeated this procedure, he immediately came to find that these were much, much more difficult to carry. Regardless, he continued. He sat down then thrust the dumbbells up again, but this time his arms truly felt the heaviness of the dumbbell. Instinctively, roots quickly sprouted from his palms, wrapping around his entire arms and chest for support. He attempted to press for one rep, slowly and shakingly lifting as the roots supported his body. His uneven and unconvincing form was extremely telling that he was way out of his depth. Once the weights reached the top if the rep he could not hold the weight any longer, his roots tore apart and the weights fell to his face. He closed his eyes expecting immense pain, but instead hearing a deep but calm voice.
"Woa there, bud. That may be too heavy for you."
As he opened his eyes he saw that a large, muscular (but not overwhelmingly so), handsome man had caught the weights with one hand. With the other he helped Gin to his feet, then placed the weights onto the rack. Gin had instantly forgotten that he had almost died, because what he saw was unbelievable. That man was holding the 200kg with one arm, with no effort at all. It doesn't take a regular gym goer to understand that this was very impressive.
"That certainly seems too light for you." Gin responded in a concerned tone.
Yami let off a faint smile.
"Well, having good form goes a long way."
This man had never seen Gin at the gym before, but his posture was was the immediate tell that he was a noob. He had a few minutes before starting his own workout, so he used this as a small opportunity to give some pointers to the unexperienced. He walked to the opposite end of the rack and grabbed the 1000kg dumbbells and vacated the adjacent bench. Gin's eyes widened at the sight of this, as he carried them with no less ease than the 100s. He placed the dumbbellss on his thighs, noting to Gin that legs can help with getting the dumbbells in the starting position. He pressed up in one clean motion, pointing out breathing techniques and correct posture, before proceeding to perform 20 clean reps. Gin tried taking a mental note of these techniques, but the sheer strength and complete lack of effort was all he could focus on.
"Anyway, have a good one bud!" the man said after placing the weights back (proper etiquette ;)) and bumping fists with Gin. As he watched the man walk towards the stairs to the lower ground floor, Gin remained impressed, just as he was an hour ago with Aloe's shenanigans.
"Who is that guy?" he thought to himself.
That guy was Yami, who had been working out since the age of 6. His unique natural super strength without sOr allowed him to excercise and keep up with adult body builders who WERE powered by sOr. At the age of 11 he gained his PT qualification and at 15 he had become the Zephyrian Power Lifting Champion. At 16 he had opened his first gym and at 18 he had recieved from the Royal Family sOr of Ultra-Rare Class [Mass], to which he decided to utilise in combat and opened his own combat class (which is now commonly referred to as "The Dojo") at Force Force. Now, at age 24, the gym was known to be the elite spot for powerful people, and his combat class had grown to possess the martial might comparable to the military divisions. The Empress had recognised it as such and officially placed it under the Order of Zephyria. Yami gained the epithet of "The Grandmaster" and honorary 7-Star Knighthood.
He had also recently been appointed to Vanguard.
As Yami entered the lower ground floor (positioned intentionally as to not collapse onto any lower floors; it's weights were 10x of the room above), he took off his shirt and equipped his own pair of gloves, both attached by a strap that around his chest. These gloves were more like gauntlets and powered by his [Mass] sOr embedded in the connecting strap. This sOr enabled Yami to increase the density and tensile strength of both his body and each gauntlet to unknown limits, thud increasing his lifting and striking power exponentially.
Sidenote: Upon further inspection of him topless, we can conclude that he certainly was ripped.
After setting his hip hop playlist onto the sound system, Yami immediately went into mandatory stretches before setting up his own chest workout. He mounted 2 ton plates onto each side of the 4 ton bar and adding an additional 2 additional 100kg collars to keep them in place. As he lay on the bench, his gauntlets activated and his body became empowered. He started to push.
8 tons, 10 rep set.
After a 1 minute rest, he added an additional 4 tons to each side of the bar and lifted.
16 tons, 10 rep set.
He continued like this, each set getting progressively more difficult. Yet he pressed on. Though he had always gotten stronger, he had also always pushed himself to the upmost intensity, every single set, every single rep. He did not compromise form ever (though he probably did compromise a few sign up forms of those with bad attitudes, though a strong argument could be made that they compromised themselves.)
Yami strived for strength with the mind of a perfectionist. He knew very well of the natural power he was blessed with, yet he was not complacent. He micromanaged every action he did, knowing that incrimental improvements would build him up to show huge gains. Whether it was his form, conditioning, diet, workout plans, combat techniques or rest, he put his focus on everything, all to get stronger. He did not care about comparisons with others, focusing solely on his craft, and his calculated, persistent approach allowed him to stand above the rest anyway.
Some would point out that his work approach was comparable to Aloe's. After all, both were among the most accomplished Zephyrians (which at this point it could not be further emphasised LOL.) Aside from that, it's a fair comparison, as both put their all into everything they did. Where they differed was their methods.
Aloe demonstrated complete mastery over her sOr orbs, focusing her entire workstyle on the orbs, without having to lift a finger. Yami, on the other hand, focused completely on being hands on, constantly improving his physique, utilising his singular sOr to further his abilities.
They were also similar in that both understood the need for (and therefore appreciated) rest, though again they'd differ in how they'd acknowledge this. Aloe would simply fall asleep when fatigued regardless of location or activity, whilst Yami controlled and planned his rest to help further his condition.
As he lay down for his final bench set, he looked above at the bar. It weighed 220.2 tons (and looked ridiculously large; 40 ton plates are massive). This was heavy, even for him.
He grabbed the bar with his gauntlets and lowered it to his chest. He thought back to the guy downstairs, who had faltered due to inexperience and therefore lack of strength and correct form. Yami cared not about his comparitive strength, but rather aimed to not to fall to the same mistakes. He lifted with conviction, managing his form, breathing, sOr control.
200 Tons, 10 rep set, new personal best.
Though it may have been a new record, Yami reacted to the feat with a mere, faint smile, and proceeded to go onto his next exercise. To him, this was progress, but there was more to be done. Each time he lifted, he knew he was elevating himself to new heights, and that there was no limit for his growth.
There was a limit to, however, the amount of noise the neighbouring civilians could handle. After having put away the weights and wiping down the bench (again, proper gym etiquette), Yami exited the gym, only to be greeted by an annoyed neighbour who threatened to file a complaint on the excessively loud music.
Perhaps deep down they just didn't agree with the choice of music, and would've much rather have heard bubblegum pop.