After a while of surfing through his memories, Axel recalled the sensations he had felt while activating his KI and reaching Rank 1 of the Trainee Grade. He also recalled some articles saying that advancing in the game did not have any restrictions, but in order to advance in real life, he needed to sit cross-legged on the ground, and calm his breathing and heartbeat. This process was not known to the general public currently, only known to the few people at the top of the federation unclouding those belonging to Ray Holdings and the Ocean group. Only later on, nearing the end of his life 10 years from now would this method be made available to the public, along with other information regarding KI.
Once he had successfully brought his heartbeat to a crawl and his breathing to a speed that would be something only an unconscious person could use, Axel began sensing a faint mist of energy already present within his body. This was KI that was present in every human, but this KI was not in a form that could be used or presented to anyone other than Axel himself, simply existing.
Back in his memories, the game headset had filed signals into his brain to make it preform these tasks, including the following steps, which was why Axel knew exactly what he needed to do, since technically he was the one doing them, just that he did not have any control over what was happening last time.
Axel spread out his concentration, a feeling similar of spreading out his hands without actually moving them, and then catching hold of the energy, before pulling it together in the centre of his chest. Then, he began putting pressure on it to compress, and as time passed, the KI became smaller and smaller, becoming denser and more concentrated, until it formed a ball of KI.
In his previous life, the VR headset had made him condense the KI into a bronze KI core, but after that, it did nothing, just letting it remain within the centre of his chest for a while until it fully settled into place.
Only later did Axel learn that when activating your KI, and when advancing from one Grade to the next; both of which involved forming a KI core, you should not let it settle down. Instead, you had to move it to one of 3 locations based on preference; their dominant hand, their dominant leg, or their head.
The reason had something to do with future potential and growth speed. Putting it in the head would give the person better reflexes and senses, while putting it in the hands would increase strength and vitality and the dominant leg would have to do with speed and stamina. Leaving it in place would have an overall increase in everything, however, it would also prevent you from increasing in grade above Trainee.
Advancing to a new Grade involved the process of condensing a new KI core, which would naturally form at the centre of the chest. However, if there was already a KI core at that place, you would fail to condense a second core, in the best case just losing the energy you accumulated over the course of time, and in the worst case, the KI would implode on itself causing your insides to turn into paste before our body erupted in a violent explosion.
This was naturally not a problem for Axel, since neither did he know how to collect KI from the surroundings, nor did he know how to condense a KI core himself, only reaching till Rank 3 of Trainee through 3 profession changes within the game.
Since Axel had already made the decision to take revenge on Ray Holdings, he needed power. To protect those close to him including Lily, Dan, and his parents from meeting their fate that they had met in his previous life, he needed even more power. And how could he gain this power? Simple, he needed to reach at Least Expert in KI cultivation, and he needed to earn an absurd amount of money in order to content with Ray Holdings. And what better way to earn money than through the game; Evolution Online, which he had a vast sea of knowledge about? The game that would release tonight, would be a place where Ray holdings would invest an incredible amount of capital, nearly putting in 25% of all their wealth and connections, and throwing it in the game. If he could also enter the game, become strong enough within the game, and after Ray holdings invested enough into Evolution Online, enact his revenge and destroy everything, he could make all their investment go to waste, dealing a huge blow to them.
However, this was a plan for the long-term, much further down the line; in the future. For now, Axel pondered for a few seconds on where to put his KI core, and finally decided to put it in his right hand. What he currently needed was strength. Speed, stamina and sense would not help his current weak body too much. Instead, he needed his strength and vitality the most. After deciding, Axel began pushing the core, but soon found it to be an extremely arduous task. It felt like he was walking through mud, the further he walked, the deeper it got and the harder it was to keep moving forward.
However, there was no turning back, and all he could do was persevere, and after what felt like house, he had finally successfully moved the KI core to his right palm.
Panting, Axel opened his eyes, and instantly felt the difference. Although he was covered in sweat, his clothes sticking to his skin, Axel could feel his strength had greatly increased. It was a similar feeling to when he had reached Rank 1 Trainee through the game, only that he felt that his senses, speed, and stamina were lowered compared to back then, while his strength had been boosted.
Removing his clingy and uncomfortable clothes, Axel looked at himself in the mirror, shocked to notice that his scrawny figure had gained a bit of muscle. Originally, he was basically a stick-figure, with his ribs nearly showing. At least, he did not have too much fat on his body thanks to that.
Now, after condensing and shifting his KI core into his right palm. Axel had grown an inch taller, reaching 5 ft 10 inches in height. Furthermore, his body had gained a layer of muscle, comparable to a moderately fit person. Although he did not have any abs, or bulging muscles, he could no longer be considered an extremely scrawny kid, uplifting his mood greatly.
Leaving his room, he noticed it was already dark, and Lily was waiting at the table, clearly hungry and for a while at that.
"Brother! What took you so long. I was hungry!"
"Yes, yes. Your brother was handling some urgent matters. But don't worry, It's all done now. Food will be ready in 5 minutes."
While speaking, Axel had already begun preparing the food. Thankfully, he had already put the rice in the cooker, and it was already prepared.
Due to the lack of time Axel picked up a sachet of instant curry and, without the slightest hesitation, put it into a pot of boiling water, waited for the mixture to reduce a little and become thicker, before pouring it onto the rice on two plates.
"Brother! This is really bad!" Lily exclaimed after tasting the food.
"I know. Just have it for today. I promise I will make something good tomorrow. Besides, this can't be as bad as the school lunch now can it?"
"Hmph. Alright. But you should not break promises, alright?" She scolded with her mouth full of food.
"And you should not speak with your mouth full" Axel said, his mouth full of rice as well.
"Hehe"
The two casually ate their food and chatted for a while until they finished their meal. Lily went to her room to play a little with her friends online, and Axel went to wash the dishes and put them away after drying them with a cloth.
"Spark, put an alarm for midnight tonight, and only wake me up, not Lily."
[Done]
With all his chores of the night complete, Axel put on his VR headset and lied down in bed. Excluding the prototypes, all the headsets made by the federation were made in such a way that using it while laying down or seated on a reclining chair, would register in your body as having slept, with no long-term short-falls whatsoever!