'She doesn't agree, huh… Or rather, she can't because she has to study and can't really play action games.'
Max sighed in disappointment as he walked through the city. With Nina not playing with him, he needed to find a friend if he wanted to try the run before the program was announced in three days. However, he couldn't think of anything and definitely couldn't force her to play with him if she didn't want to.
So, he went to the market to get some ingredients for lunch and dinner for the next week.
As a former traceur, an athlete, he often prepared his meals himself. He couldn't do so for the past six days because he was still getting used to this world.
And now that he had everything on track and could make money from streaming, he thought he could begin to focus on his health again. That hopefully would make him able to stream longer. Just ten minutes of improvement would be a massive help for him.
The market was located in one big building 2 KM from Max's apartment. There were many cheap public transportation available around the city, but he chose to walk to build up his stamina.
'I am really weak and skinny.' He lamented at his body's condition. 'But it won't be for too long. A few months… Or maybe even only a month is needed if I have that supplement. However, I also need to exercise, so I need to find an affordable gym too.'
While the former was out of his current budget, the latter was fortunately easy to find. With people finding out one's body condition could affect how many hours people could spend gaming, they began to look out for their health.
Gyms began to pop up one after another. There was even one in each block. At some parts of Lime City, two gyms stood side by side and were still full of people training.
While thinking so, Max had arrived in the market. He already knew what to get, so he just asked the employee where they were located and got it done quickly in under 10 minutes.
'Shopping should be done fast. I don't understand people who never planned what to buy first and then took hours to shop.' He thought as he paid for all the ingredients he bought.
Because he prepared for a week, the total came to $240, which was higher than he initially thought. He thought it would cost similar to his past life, but it seemed like vegetables in this world were more expensive due to the demands from people.
'I need to fix my sense of money… Now, all the donations I got didn't seem to be that much. I am saved with the apartment given by the government. I would be homeless without it. And…'
Max called out the system window as he waited for the street light to turn green and cross the road. It popped up in front of him, showing his current progress.
- Can I Eat from Donation?!
Obviously, a streamer needs money!
Let's get your first donation milestone before the end of Knight's Journey.
Progress: 35,600/50,000 Diamonds or 712/1,000 Dollars
Reward: 1x B-grade nutritional supplement.
Deadline: Fifth Livestream (2/5)
Failure to complete the Quest will result in the system being uninstalled.>
A smile appeared on his face. The donation was nice. He already got $712 in his third stream. Just a little bit more, and he would get that B-grade nutritional supplement.
When he checked the market earlier, he found a D-grade nutritional supplement and it cost $1,000 a bottle. No other grades were sold in the market, but Max heard about their price before.
The C-grade was said to be twice as expensive as the D-grade, and the B-grade was thrice the C-grade. That meant that one bottle he would get from the system cost $6,000.
'The system is really generous.'
The light had turned green, but Max didn't cross immediately. He looked left and right first, making sure that no vehicles were flying past, and only then did he cross.
There was still a bit of trauma when crossing the road, thanks to the accident in his past life. But that didn't stop him from going out, as he loved the city situation and liked to take a walk.
Before long, Max arrived at his apartment and put all the ingredients he bought in the fridge. Then he sat on his bed, bringing up the hologram screen of his smartwatch, and began to find a gym where he could sign up for morning training.
Of course, because of his limited money, only around $2,700 now, he planned to choose a good place with an affordable price. And even if he had money, he definitely wouldn't squander it away.
Just by typing affordable gym, many options sprung out on the screen and created a list. The price listed was also all reasonable, seeing that there was apparently an inflation in both vegetables and gym. But still…
'$500 a month to become a member is a bit much. I will skip that one. Hmm… This one is $400 a month, seems rather good, and it's also close.'
It was still more expensive than in his past life.
Exercising alone was also an option, but gyms around this era got advanced equipment that could allow one to gain more with less effort. This equipment was expensive, thus leading to the increase of the monthly membership.
There was also a trainer for the members who would help them exercising. Max needed that trainer because he might be outdated with the training menu and the current diet type.
Max scrolled down to find the perfect gym and found an interesting one among the lists.
"A VR room?"
He pressed the details and read what this VR room was about.
The description said that for someone who aimed to game and increase their movement in VR by making the synchronization of their brain and the machine as high as possible, this gym would help them.
Also, the members were free to use the VR capsule in the gym to play together. It was like an internet café but free for the gym's members.
However, Max wasn't focused on that.
"Play together…"
The connection between the VR capsules in the gym was through a local server. That means all capsules were connected, and one didn't need to add friends to use the co-op function.
With so many people in the gym, some of them would definitely play a rather famous title like Knight's Journey. If he invited them to play the co-op fort siege together, there was a chance they would accept it.
"This is perfect for friendless people like me!"
When he checked the price, it was also within a reasonable range of $450 and $600 with a trainer. The place was also clean and vast. It was just a bit far, 3 KM away from his home.
"Let's visit this place and sign up immediately. Then I will start the gym tomorrow if that's possible."
Max was excited about this gym, and he was actually also curious about his synchronization rate with the VR capsule.
So, after deciding, Max spent no time thinking about it twice and exited his apartment once again, running with a smile on his face.