Arthur headed back home while still thinking about what happened between him and Kaede. He just couldn't get the fact that he just befriended the most beautiful girl he had ever met and even got her number.
Throughout his life, he never had any female friends let alone girlfriends. So, this was completely new to him, and rightfully so, he didn't easily digest it.
"Ugh, am I even doing the right thing by accepting her request?" In his opinion, it was a valid question to ask.
Not only was Kaede an extremely popular model, but she was also the beloved daughter of one of the richest businessmen in the country. If that man heard that his daughter befriended a nobody like him, he might come after Arthur.
Just the mere thought of it scared Arthur greatly.
"Ah, well, she will probably forget about this whole meeting soon." Shrugging, Arthur opened the door to his apartment and entered inside.
After organizing the groceries, he headed to his room before he opened the AC, and started stretching.
'Ok, so I need to do 5000 push-ups and 5000 squats which means that I need to do… Hmm, I'm not good at math." Rubbing the back of his head, he calculated the number. That's when he realized it.
"Fuck me! I need to do 167 of each one every day! That's insane! How the hell am I supposed to do that now? Sigh, well, I guess I need to try first."
Sighing in defeat, he crouched down and positioned himself on his two arms. The first thing that he noticed was that the muscles around his body had noticeably grown bigger. Not to the point where anyone would see it but for Arthur, his body most certainly changed.
He also felt more energy within him that seemed to grow more and more apparent the more he felt it.
'Maybe it will be easier.'
"Hng!" So, with that in mind, he started doing push-ups.
The first 10 or so were easy since he now had the strength of an average person. The 20th, 30th and 40th also didn't pose any problem. But, by the time he hit the 50th mark, he found himself struggling greatly.
His muscles contracted powerfully and his exhausted arms started shaking as he tried to continue.
"57… Hng! Fuck! Come on!... 58!"
At the 58th one, he fell down to the ground, dead tired.
"Damn, 58! Hahaha, that's not too bad!"
Arthur felt extremely delighted by the number. Before, he would struggle to do 20 but with one single stat boost, he could now easily do more than double of that. The change was simply drastic.
"Hah, ok, let's rest the arms and try squats." He murmured to himself before he stood up and started doing the squats.
The process went smoothly at first, just like the push-ups. By the time he reached 55th, Arthur's legs wobbled as he fell down to the ground with a loud thud. He felt intense pain in his thighs and calves.
"No pain no gain, Arthur! Hng! Let's continue."
With that, he bent down and started doing push-ups again since he had just rested his arms. The second attempt was shorter than the first one as he fell down to the ground around the 75th one.
So, he simply did the squats which also stopped around the 70s. With that, he spent a long time going between the two as he tried to increase the number as much as he could.
The more he exercised, the more exhausted he felt and the more intense the pain in his arms and legs felt. It was as if someone was torching his limbs with fire.
By the time he reached 110th on both of these exercises, he couldn't continue anymore. His whole body was completely covered in sweat and his limbs were shaking furiously.
"S-Shit… I can't move… Hah, this is brutal! I couldn't even finish the goal! Which means that I will need to do even more tomorrow!"
He knew that even if he forced himself to continue, he wouldn't be able to add another one. He was utterly destroyed. So, instead, he decided to call it a day and sleep and wake up early tomorrow to actually start a day properly instead of his messed up sleeping schedule.
Laying down on the cold ground, Arthur heaved up and down for a long while before he slowly stood up and walked toward the table where a bottle of cold water rested quietly. Picking it up, he chugged it all down greedily, finishing it in a second.
"Hah, this is life!"
After that, he took a shower and changed his sweaty clothes for the second time in one day before he jumped into his comfy bread and fell asleep instantly. That day was the most hectic day of his life and he anticipated the foreseeable future was going to be even more hectic.
The night passed quietly and the next morning, Arthur's phone alarm rang at around 8 am.
"Hnng, I want to sleep… more…" Closing the alarm, Arthur intended to continue sleeping. Because of work, his sleep schedule was always messed up, he would spend whole nights drawing and then sleep the entire day. So, waking up this early, apart from going to school, was something that Arthur hated.
However, this wasn't a normal day. He had too many things to do that day so he couldn't just continue sleeping like before.
So, with pure will, he dragged himself out of bed with great difficulty before he went and washed his face.
"Maybe I should get a haircut. This much hair is annoying." He murmured as he noted down that he needed to go to the barber that day or the day after.
Then, he changed his clothes and left for a run. Yesterday, because of his errands and his walk to Kaede's house and back, he ended the day surprisingly reaching 6 kilometers which were way better than he expected. Granted, he was behind by 700 meters than the required daily goal but he still, didn't do too badly.
That day's run went visibly better than yesterday. He was able to run for a longer period of time even though according to MangaVerse, his stamina was still the same. Perhaps that was because his body was starting to condition itself for the brutal training.
So, by the time he returned dead tired to his apartment, the number went from 6 kilometers to a shocking 10 kilometers.
He actually achieved 4 kilometers in one run which was so much of an improvement that Arthur couldn't almost believe it.
But, he knew he couldn't celebrate yet as he hadn't finished the goal for that day yet and he still had to do many other things.
So, After taking a shower, he sat down at his desk. In his hand was the Divine Pen and in front of him was a gigantic stack of papers that would make anyone shudder by just looking at them.
These were the homework questions that he needed to solve across multiple subjects. Because of his lackluster performance at school, his teachers had to give him extra work for the summer break. This happened multiple times before but Arthur almost never finishes them since he'd always be busy drawing.
But, today was different. Today, he intends to finally take his studies more seriously.
'Well, mostly, I just don't know what to use this Divine Pen for other than homework and 100 hours of using it would be brutal anyway so I might as well take the opportunity to finish this work too.' He thought to himself with a gulp.
"But… Where should I even start?"
As he was contemplating what he should do, he heard a ringing sound coming from his phone. He had just received a message.