It was six in the morning, but Zohan was on the roof, arguing on his phone.
Zohan:[No, that's now how things work. Consciousness is divisible, you have split brain experiments where different hemisphere of the brain have different choices and different beliefs. There is no process of the MIND which can be attributed to anything supernatural.... And even the concept of self is an illusion, a subjective experience that is not what it seems. There is no such thing as a self, nobody existing behind the eyes inside the head. It's a tool we attained from evolution which helps in our survival. Both I and Me are constantly changing narratives of the mind to provide framework for our thoughts and behavior.]
He was debating with an online friend. He never argued with his friends that knew him in real life, so while his friendships had much more stronger bonds, they felt much superficial.
Zohan: [ I is conscious awareness of present, while self is all your sense of personal identity created based on your past and various stuff]
But, while his friendships online were much more real and honest, they didn't last.
Zohan: [No, I do call myself a spiritual person but that has nothing to do with supernatualism. I have to use it because mystical has far more negative connotation and contemplative is way too restricting. Think in terms of poetry, meditation and art, if you'd like]
People were trying in their own ways, following their own beliefs. Perhaps they were really inefficient, lost to foolish beliefs, as they weren't really working as hard on skepticism as him.
Zohan:[ NO, I'm not a materialist! You're the actual materialist, with your idea of a heaven, soulmates and all kinds of stuff. Do you even know that space and time are both created by matter? They can't exist without matter, they are created by it. Gravity for example bends space time!]
However, he didn't get along much with skeptics either, since he was always seeking something, using skepticism to examine- while others had found their goal in freedom from things that they were previously bound.
Zohan:[And you're wrong in both cases. If different dimensions of physics exist where different timelines are created at different points, that has very little to do with your illusion of choice, we cannot choose the factors that ultimately influence what we do and think. Science doesn't prove that free will exists, it disproves it. In fact, we know that your brain makes decisions even before you become aware of them.
Ugh! It's pointless to continue this conversation, you're too stubborn. What you call open mindedness is actually in fact gullibility! You won't find me gullibly accepting everything you say, even though I might entertain you. And honestly, I don't want to entertain this anymore, I've wasted too much time on you. Bye]
And he finally hanged up.
What awaited him where 20+ notifications on Twitter. Apparently some big shot had quote retweeted him. Along came lots of hateful tweets from people in the person's eco chamber.
Zohan:[ I've uninstalled the games off my phone recently, plus I have to reduce my phone usage from half a day to 2 hours. So, I guess I should know better than to engage with the keyboard warriors]
He then quickly used up his two fast passes on webnovel on reading updates. Now he was bored.
It was time for working out before having some breakfast.
Zohan: [A peanut butter sandwich has 2 pieces of bread, which is 5 and 5 grams, so 10 grams of protein. There is two or three spoons of peanut butter and if two, that's six plus six which is twelve and if three that's eighteen grams of protein. eighteen grams and ten would give me twenty eight grams of protein, which is more than three medium size eggs and three ounces of lean beef]
Mom: [I don't care, you're going to drink this yoghurt, I'm not going to make you breakfast everyday. You'll be poor if you rely on your fancy food items, just drink milk and eat yoghurt. If you don't drink yoghurt, your brain would heat up!]
Zohan:[There's no such thing, Mom!]
The protagonist was someone who wouldn't even kill a fly.
While most guys would hit the gym, he'd take Karate classes.
???:[Ippon!]
It was Shotokan Karate where you had to touch or have three inches distance between your strike and your opponent. If you did a face kick, you'd get three points. If you kicked their chest or sides, you'd get two points. If you punched, you'd get one point.
Zohan was having a conversation with one of his seniors.
Senior: [Well, I don't see any problems, apart from the fact that your kicks seem to be in slow motion. You're trying to do the three Karate blocks that the teacher taught, nobody else does them during spars, so that's good. Looks very movie like when you do succeed]
When you practice a martial art which actually doesn't work, which is pretty much just fancy stuff, you end up becoming someone who choreographs their attack too much like movie actors.
Also, execution of blocks work only in demonstration, there is no way you'd be able to execute them in an actual fight. That's why people actually have guard up or evade, instead of doing fancy blocks.
Senior:[You also keep staring at people's belly and often your eyes give away what you'd do]
Since the form of Karate might be really horrible for self defense, it was pretty much a sport which has some significance, there was often some valuable advice.
But advice that helped only in the sport alone!
Grazing at opponent's navel pretty much is a good way to watch out for kicks in actual fights, along with takedowns. But in Shotokan, you have no takedowns or kicks below the belt, not even at your knees. So, while in a real fight you'd have your knee shattered, in Shotokan you can totally ignore that and graze in the other person's eye.
Sadly, Zohan knew nothing about these things.
After Karate Class there would be a cooking class with some middle age women. Often he had to get something or another for the class, so that's why it's very highly likely that you might've run across him in a supermarket.
Sometimes he wouldn't have the ingredients for the recipes, because either they were very expensive or against his morals, so he'd just watch.
It would pretty much be a class on making delicious recipes, with lots of cooking, addition of all sorts of spices, lots of salt directly or indirectly through things like soya sauce. Often things were cooked in oil and had high saturated fats, often they had quite a lot of sugar.
After the cooking class, he'd go home and practice art. Often he wouldn't and just doze off a little because he was terrible at art. The art practice was about overcoming shortcomings for him.
As soon as noon would pass, he'd pack his bag and leave for classes. They were classes for scoring high in different competitive exams. If you scored high in any, you could land a good job.
But, the classes were hell, since he was stuck in a batch where almost everyone would stonewall him. Everything went downhill when his former friend started dating the girl that he liked, after betraying him using an actual conspiracy. Zohan foolishly played right into his hands and became the villain, after he beat his fake friend up.
The more helpless someone was, the more they'd rely on fantasy for escape.
And so, while he was doing really well in his classes at the beginning, he'd started spending most of his time on his phone.
The classes were held at a place where the signal was actually weak, so he'd spend most of his time reading all sorts of webnovels.
Some were about reincarnation and some about regression. Some about a system and some about cultivation. Often he'd be reading them secretly instead of his books at home, after dinner.
While reading such stories was quite fun for him, reading them was good enough. He didn't actually desire escaping like them.
He had though about somehow regressing back in time and doing things differently with the girl he liked, but that only brought insanity and headache.
Zohan: [Don't wanna be on my phone, my laptop needs new hard disk, there's nothing on TV- I need to get out of here. I guess I should get my friends together, spend some time out]
He changed clothes and wore his running shoes but as soon as he stepped out, bright sun light greeted him.