As soon as Kaas touched the program start button, Adri reappeared.
He looked around the room busily and immediately got down to business:
"Ha-ha, second lesson of the day, you are a great guy! Although you are engaged in martial arts, you will not need this simulator now, moreover, it will only interfere."
Adri waved his hand, and the white column of the punching bag smoothly plunged into the floor.
"This is your first class in this course", Adri continued, "and also your first class in a dynamic suit. Therefore, the simplest exercise will be the best exercise."
Kaas stood and listened attentively, nothing changed in his interface and he just waited for what it would be, the simplest exercise for general physical fitness.
At this time, Adri went to the far wall and pointed to the floor, said:
"Today we will do only one exercise."
With his words, the contours of footprints appeared on the floor, crossing the room in the middle, from one wall to the other, and two body contours located along these opposite walls, that were oriented in the same way, with the head's contours in one direction.
"I'll show you once", said Adri, stood near one of the circuits and began to instruct:
"It's more than simple, first you lie on your back", he said and laid down directly on the outline drawn on the floor.
"Then you turn and get up", he continued to say, while making these movements.
"Now you go to the opposite wall and lay down there, that's the whole exercise", he summed up with a smile.
"You only need to do this 20 times. Starting the first time, the suit will only add 5% load, but the twentieth time it will be twice as difficult to move." Adri said in an encouraging tone. One might think that he was not suggesting a workout, but resting and eating a serving of ice cream.
"Today you have already practiced, and if you do it at least 10 times, this will be enough, but try to do as much as possible, I need to collect data to draw up a further training plan." He finished explaining on an optimistic note.
"Get started."
And Kaas, shaking his shoulders and arms, began.
I don't feel any difference yet, it's too simple, he thought, walking up to the wall. He sat down and lay down gently on his back, listening to his feelings. Then he rolled over onto his stomach and somehow got up.
This guy doesn't even have the strength to do a push-up once normally, Kaas resented his own weak state in his thoughts and went to the opposite wall. In total, there were ten short steps that Kaas took quite naturally.
Then he laid down again.
Now it should be + 10%, he thought, standing up.
And this is already interesting, indeed, the suit did not add gravity, and if you walked or raised your hand, there was no big difference, but if you wanted to get to your feet, you had to raise the whole body and then the change from 5% to 10% of the extra weight was already noticeable.
"One"
"Two"
"Three"
Adri counted, reciting the number each time Kaas successfully completed his short cycle.
For the fifth time, Kaas has already begun to rethink his attitude towards this exercise.
Short steps, no one knows what would be better, be they longer or shorter, each step is given with difficulty, as if walking in water. And even clenching and unclenching my fingers becomes more difficult.
Getting up is getting harder and harder, this guy was so weak that he could not do one push-up, and here you have to do twenty, it's good that there is no such requirement.
But how much do I weigh in general? If, for example, 30 kilograms, then now I will get up as if lifting an additional 9 kilograms, and 20 times, as if I will weigh all 60.
Despite all these pessimistic thoughts, Kaas smiled, it was really cool, all the muscles worked harder, and it was even better than just the higher gravity in the science fiction stories.
I wonder if there are artificial gravity rooms here? He thought dreamily, if I combine high gravity with such a suit, this would be training ...
Reflecting on this, Kaas continued to do this exercise, trying to focus mentally on his body, on the load, every movement, every inhalation and exhalation.
It became more and more difficult, and not only from the increased load, but also from the growth of fatigue. The exercise only seemed simple, but it was thoughtful enough.
First, it was necessary to lie down on his back, it just seems simple. In the past, he had similar exercises in training, but they required just lying on the floor, immediately doing push-ups and standing up.
Secondly, it was necessary to roll over, taking into account how the position of the body was oriented, near one wall had to be done over the left shoulder, and against the other wall, through the right, which created a load balance.
The short steps didn't seem so short anymore, the legs seemed to be shod with steel boots, but the extra weight was only when he lifted them. The body weight did not change at all, and if Kaas were standing, there would be no additional load, and one could rest easy.
However, he was not up to rest, he was really carried away by this fantastic novelty. The suit was dynamically highlighted in places where muscles were tense, and in augmented reality some numbers popped up.
Kaas hasn't opened any data windows yet, simply because he hasn't even thought about it. Now he was only worried about his next movements, and how the suit reacted to them. He fantasized, as if breathing, muscles were filled with strength. And as if in response to this, the contours of the suit glowing in the same places helped him with visualization.
"Ten", Adri continued to count, watching as Kaas once again struggled to his feet.
… ..
"Eleven"
… ..
… ..
"Twelve! ... Stop!" suddenly commanded Adri, "Twelve times is not bad, I see that you could do a couple more times, but you are almost at the limit, and this is your first lesson."
Kaas sighed with relief. A couple of times? He's kidding! I can barely stand on my feet.
Adri's task was to motivate, and Kaas's task was to be motivated, it's a pity that these cunning moves didn't work on him as expected.
"This lesson is over, do the next exercise with a load in two days, your muscles should properly recover and get stronger", said Adri and disappeared.
The program turned off, and the exhausted Kaas literally fell to the floor from fatigue and lay on his back to rest.
"Aska, are you there?" he called.
"I didn't go anywhere", she replied. "What do you think about the suit? is there any benefit from it?"
"The suit is just super", he honestly admitted, "but if it is the cheapest, then what is the difference from the more expensive one?"
"The limits of increasing the load, reaction speed, strength", she answered and clarified, "the maximum load that this model can create is no more than 100 kilograms per square meter of its area, and it will not be effective for training martial arts when your reflexes and speed improve and will rise above a certain level."
"And which of them is the best then?"
"Costumes in the upper price range start at the star price level, and depend on the purpose. You really don't have any reason to think about it now."
Kaas only took a deep breath and asked almost with a pleading voice:
"Aska, please return the bed."
Aska did not keep him waiting, the bed rose right in the middle of the room, where Kaas was lying, carefully lifted him and moved to its old place with him.
At the moment, Kaas did not have the strength to be surprised, and he lay there for almost 2 whole local minutes (about 14 Earth minutes), restoring his strength.
"I only have a minute left", Aska said, "your first scheduled day has already ended, you have 2 more sets of food, you already know, from tomorrow, food will be delivered in accordance with your plan."
"Thank you", he sincerely thanked in a tired voice.
"Get some rest, see you tomorrow", Aska said and disappeared with her room without waiting for an answer.
Kaas was left alone, tired after training, lying on the bed in a dynamic suit.
Thoughts about the last training session quickly faded into the background and were replaced by the economic overview that Aska gave him.
He did not remember at all which numbers made up his budget, but the elements of the monetary system were quite simple, and he said them in his mind, checking himself, copper, silver, gold, ruby, sapphire, emerald, star, moon, sun, that is Zeos.
Three metals, three minerals, three celestial bodies. It was easy to remember and navigate. One Zeos = 1 with 16 zeros of copper, and there are almost 2 billion of these Zeoses, it is impossible to cope with such numbers without such fragmentation. Even if you are a genius, it would be simply inconvenient for everyday tasks.
For the food package that Aska needs, you need 10 sapphires, or 100 thousand golds, and this is a benefit for 10 thousand days or more than 30 years. How cool is this thing if it costs 20% of the price of an android?
And the most interesting thing is, what should I do to make that kind of money in my current state?
Kaas felt that he had already rested a little, got out of bed and went to the shower room.
To take off the dynamic suit, it was enough just to select the appropriate option in the interface, and it self-assembled back into the belt, and then easily unfastened. Kaas put it in the used clothes spot, turned on the shower, fiddled with the settings to make water consumption more economical, and sat down under its soothing jets.
Perhaps this is the best place to think, Kaas summed up, and to collect his thoughts, he began his breathing exercises again.
So, what do I have right now? He asked himself a question, and immediately answered it:
Right now, I have nothing at all but an allowance and a small income from the ratings of the former Kaas.
But if Aska did not focus on this, then most likely they are too small, we can assume that they are not there at all.
We need to understand what knowledge from my past could be useful here, but how to do it? How can you expect that this world will need the achievements of 'prehistoric' man?
Do not try to offer everything in a row? After all, for sure, most of the achievements of humanity known to me from Earth have already been achieved here. For this it is necessary to study the entire history of the planet 300 or even 500 years ago, which is almost unrealistic.
Now, the best thing I could do is to understand if my sports activities can give a financial result and what exactly. But even so, how many years will it take?
With these thoughts, Kaas stood up and using the mirror made sure that he was still exactly the same as before, an ordinary human child who had clearly never played sports.
Finally, he decided to examine the means that were supposed to be used in the shower, of which there were very few. Each of them, be it a hairbrush or a small container of mouthwash, they were all in their neat cells right in the wall. For each of them there was a hint in the interface.
There was a shower gel that did not need to be used all the time, because in the first seconds of the shower, there were already detergents in the water. To his disappointment, there was no washcloth, either it was not needed, or it was replaced by something else.
Kaas's interest was attracted by the device, the name of which was translated as 'biter'. This was the ultimate remedy for the teeth, which, according to the instructions, made it possible to solve all the 'small questions' a huge list of which was attached for review. The exceptions were problems that required a visit to the medical center, to which this device will send him if necessary. 'Biter' should be applied once a week before going to bed, but the week in Kiva was 8 days, and it has not passed yet, and there was no reason for extraordinary use.
Kaas rinsed out his mouth with a refreshing fruit liquid. Turned off the shower. Seeing that the place for used clothes was already empty, he made sure that the dynamic suit, like his usual clothes, was already available in the interface of his wardrobe, which contained several more things that he had not seen before.
Apparently Aska turned on access to my belongings when I had to use the simulators.
Kaas just sighed wearily, and stood in the illuminated circle on the floor, in which the 'dryer', as he called it, was activated. At first, a warm stream of air enveloped him, then it changed to a cool one and disappeared, and the circle on the floor went out, which meant the completion of the work. As a result, 'dryer' not only dried him, but in some unknown way brought his hair in order. Then, he dressed and went straight to bed, where he fell asleep almost immediately.
***
"Kaas, get up, stop lying", he heard Aska's calling voice.
"But I'm still asleep", he answered in an unmistakable sleepy voice.
"You are definitely not asleep, you just have a synchronization level now of only 2% and you need to quickly put yourself in order."
Kaas opened his eyes with difficulty and got up on the bed.
"But why such weakness? This was not the case yesterday!"
"I can only conclude", Aska replied, "it's because of the difference between syncing you with the adapter and your body."
"In the morning, you have a low degree of synchronization, and apparently corresponds to the real adaptation of the body. Thanks to the adapter, synchronization is greatly enhanced while you are active."
"But didn't I boost my sync yesterday?" Kaas began to gradually come to his senses.
"Yesterday, when I left, you were already at 10.5%, and apparently, the greater the difference between the initial level and the maximum, to which you are already accustomed, the worse you feel, hence the trembling in your hands and morning weakness."
Kaas raised his hands and worked with his fingers, indeed, a slight tremor had already begun to appear.
"Then, maybe we are in such a hurry in vain?" He asked.
"The higher your level of synchronization, the faster and better your body will adapt, this is a fact. These inconveniences will only be temporary. Think for yourself, the difference is more than 5 times, of course, in the morning you will feel unwell."
"But what can I do about it?" he asked, looking at his palms.
"Isn't it obvious? Get in the shower, it helped you yesterday." she answered in a cheerful voice.
Kaas turned, winced at the sunlight falling on him from Aska's room, got out of bed and trudged into the shower room.
At first, he turned on warm water for himself, but this time he did not arrange meditations. Kaas was angry at his weakness, and instead, experimenting, gave himself a real contrast shower, which literally pulled him out of the sleepy state in which he was.
Not lingering in the shower for a long time, having come to his senses, he immediately dressed and left.
"What kind of synchronization do I have now?" he asked Aska immediately.
"4.8%" she answered shortly, and asked, "are you feeling better now?"
"Yes, and noticeably", he answered, stretching, "hands do not tremble and sleep vanished."
"You see, a two-fold difference is quite acceptable, when the body adapts by 50%, then there will be no problems at all". she reassured him.
In Kaas's interface, he blinked and the already familiar food icon appeared. He looked at the shelf, where something new was added to the two sets of cans that were already there.
"What is it?" Kaas asked looking at a small beige rectangular box.
The box had rounded corners, next to it were two familiar cans of drinks, which hinted that there was food in the box.
"I canceled an order for food in cans, this is an ordinary, randomly selected food for breakfast, now you know everything you need to know about food and delivery, and you can decide for yourself what would you like next time."
Kaas took the box and a couple of cans of drinks with interest and sat down at the table that Aska had 'conjured' for him earlier.
The box was easy to open, it was enough to lift the lid. Inside there were eight skewers, each with one beige ball. The skewers were located compactly, and through one, they were directed either to the left or to the right.
"Now you see why the food icon is exactly like that?" Aska asked him, and immediately explained, "this is food on skewers, traditional for Kiva."
Kaas took one and took a careful bite.
On top there was a glaze, and under it, something similar in consistency to a paste. The taste was unfamiliar, it wasn't sweet or salty, but it was definitely refreshing and tender. It was delicious and Kaas wanted to take another bite, which he immediately did.
"This is really good", he praised, picking up another skewer.
"Delivery cost 2 golds", she answered, and explained, "this is the minimum cost for such a format."
"Until the release, we have a maximum of 13 days left, in the worst case, it will take only 130 golds for delivery", Kaas quickly calculated, "let the food be varied, and in the future, I will visit the cafe."
"It's not a bad plan, but then you should pay more attention to how the food is eaten here. For this, in my language lessons, I will include more scenes when Kaas interacted while eating."
"Yes, Aska, about the plan", he caught himself and continued, "I suddenly realized that I didn't understand anything."
"You decided to confuse me?" she asked, frowning.
"Not at all, can you tell me exactly how much money comes from the ratings earned by Kaas and how I could raise them?"
"You have sports in a minute, do you want to postpone the conversation for later?"
"No, it's better now, two hours are allocated for sports, and one will be enough for me, at the same time I will finish off one more set of cans."
"Okay", she immediately agreed and continued:
"In total, from the ratings, 5.9 golds are received per day. For you to understand, this is not a lot, as you already know, talents receive extremely large payouts, but Kaas was always only slightly above average."
"However, even these payments are not eternal, because you need to confirm your rating every month, otherwise it stops being paid. Thus, this rating is in two tables, one for general achievements, where absolutely all citizens of the Kiva have ever been in the rating, in the other, only fresh records for which payments are made."
"Therefore, these payments will soon disappear and should not be counted on."
"But can I do anything with your help?" he asked.
"Of course not, during the test the assistant must be turned off, because your knowledge and abilities will be assessed. Even your in-game rating cannot be maintained this way. The only possibility is if you yourself become smarter and more active. But you still have to learn the language, what can we say about school knowledge, or game skills?"
Kaas thought for a second.
"Well, then the questions of these ratings can be postponed for now. Aska, can you talk about sports? How could I make money from this?"
"It's actually pretty simple, like everything else. After all, it is enough to be active. If you are successful in Zemtsu, then any beginner tournament can bring up to 10,000 golds."
Kaas's eyes lit up, 10,000 golds, this is a benefit for 1,000 days! And it's even a whole sapphire!
"Aska, tell me more about this", he asked enthusiastically.
"These are small beginner tournaments, each of them is held only in a group of the same age and level. For example, your first tournament might be among 10-year-olds who have never been in the top five of that tournament."
"In total, 11 fighters take part in such a tournament, and they are held in the form of a duel, all against all. Thus, you will have a total of 10 battles, one with each participant."
"For each victory, you will receive 100 golds, a draw or defeat is not paid in any way. If you win all 10 fights, then your reward is increased by 10 times, so you can earn 1 sapphire."
"If you have 6 or more victories, then you will be considered a level 1 beginner, and the next tournament will be among the same level 1 beginners."
"Every day of the tournament, you will have 1 fight, so the tournament lasts only 11 days, but you must remember that if you suffer too much, and this requires a long recovery, then in each missed fight a defeat will be counted."
"This is almost all the information about the tournaments."
"However, there are also ratings. Here it should be divided, there is only one that concerns tournaments, and those that relate to your physical abilities, for example, speed and power of blows. But the tournament, of course, is the most prestigious, because in the ratings of physical data there are many more people and with more competition, even the former Kaas tried himself in them."
Kaas listened intently, absorbing the information like a sponge. He didn't even notice how he finished those delicious balls on skewers and proceeded to the set of cans.
"But you must remember the main thing, the tournament rating is exactly the same as the others, it must be confirmed at least once a month, that is, you need to participate in 10 tournaments a year. Strength ratings are easier, you can pass fitness tests during training with Adri when you are ready."
"And finally, all these ratings only work while you are a child, becoming an adult, they will no longer bring money."
The last phrase shocked Kaas a little and cooled his ardor.
"Aska, but then what's the point of all this?"
"The point is to motivate children and teach them to develop. On one hand, they can rise in the ratings, show themselves most fully in their most important years of life, try themselves in creative and investment activities."
"But then, what's the point of becoming an adult ahead of time? Don't you lose more than you gain?"
"Your words are true, many, especially the most talented, stay in the status of a child until the extreme age of 30 for this very purpose. Despite the fact that they are limited in many ways and cannot start their own full-fledged business, this does not mean that they are completely cut off from the opportunity to earn money."
"But if you have the ability and goal to start working in the public service, like Vasi Kariz, or open your own business, which requires the attraction of significant funds, or if you have the goal of establishing a relationship with another person, all this requires a greater level of responsibility. And to become an adult, you need to confirm your mental competence and it's not so easy. Most of those who receive adult status 'by time' would not be able to pass the required tests."
"Now you understand?" Aska took a glass of drink from her table and walked over to the window, letting Kaas digest his new knowledge.
Kaas put the empty container on the shelf, where it safely disappeared, and he laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling.
Looks like I had no choice but to …, he thought.