Dalvin sighed as he rubbed his forehead that was covered in sweat. He currently sat on the padded floor of his neighborhood's gym, resting from having run 5 kilometers at an 8 kilometers per hour speed on the treadmill.
His legs were shaking even as he sat down, and he began to gingerly rub them with a difficult expression.
"Come to the gym they said, it will change your life they said." He muttered complaints under his breath as he winced from each pass over his thighs and calves.
Hm?
Soon, he was distracted by the large flat-screen TV of the gym advertising something. It was an anime-style advert for a new mobile game focused on Eastern Fantasy, with a handsome young man in brocade robes riding a sword and defeating demonic creatures with ease as well as a beautiful young lady dressed up with a lot of jewelry in ancient Asian attire who spun around like a dancer, making her skirt billow.
An old man with a needle-shaped white mustache and white hair tied behind his back floated through the air with an arrogant expression. Upon seeing some bandits, he casually smashed a palm down that manifested into a golden translucent hand.
The ad's POV changed to the bandits who helplessly watched the majestic palm coming down on them, and the screen went to black. Then the title of the product came up, which was "Path to Heaven," and it was a mobile game that was launching today.
Dalvin was interested. He had played one or two Asian MMOs with such a theme and found it to be quite amusing. He had only started reading novels of that genre too in his adulthood after the market began to expand to the rest of the world, so he was not entirely clueless of the tropes.
Seeing the details, he was immediately interested and opened his iPhone to check the app store for the game. A quick search brought it to light, and it was downloadable despite the servers for it not being up yet.
Dalvin frowned when he saw that it was 10 whole GB, an astronomical size for a mere mobile game. Given that it wasn't an AAA product or from an IP that was world-renowned, he wondered what justified this huge size.
Still, he had the space and he had come this far, so he casually downloaded it and then switched his screen off. He was about to continue massaging his legs when he spotted a pair of thick thighs in tight sportswear walking over to him.
Dalvin's heart sank as he raised his head to see the lovely visage of his friend, Selinam. She was a tall young woman at 5 feet 11 inches, her rather long yet slightly toned arms cast akimbo as she glanced at Dalvin with a frown.
"Before you say anything, I did my sets. I have proof right there!" Dalvin said quickly, not wanting to be chastised just yet.
Selinam was speechless. "Am I a monster that is coming to chew you up or what?"
"Pff, don't act innocent. It took me 3 weeks to build the stamina to reach this current level, and you made sure I didn't skip a day since." Dalvin chuckled with a pointed look.
Selinam smiled. "Well, isn't that a good thing? Look at you now."
Dalvin agreed with her statement. 3 weeks ago he had been growing a beer belly and was extremely unkempt due to his life as an artist, drawing a mixture of contract-based work and commission-based work.
After a sudden terrible episode where he fainted behind his computer while gaming with friends, they pushed for him to visit the hospital. Unfortunately, when there, they kept prescribing this and that, kept telling him to go to this counter to pay this fee, and pay that fee.
In the end, Dalvin lost his patience and decided to sign up for the gym instead, something which won the approval of his mates. On the first day, he - like every ignorant person who came without a plan - overexerted himself and broke both his body and will.
Luckily for him, he happened to meet his old schoolmate Selinam here, where after chatting and rekindling their friendship, she decided to help him out with his commitment. Dalvin was then pushed to come the fourth day - he had to rest for two days to let the soreness disappear - and had come every day since then, except Sundays.
The current him had not slimmed down right away, especially not since he didn't really change his diet of fatty foods, but his overall stamina was up, his skin was shining slightly, and his eyes were bright.
When he looked in the mirror, Dalvin could almost trick himself that he had regained his youthful handsomeness.
Almost.
"You're doing a good job, keep it up. Just stick to your plan and maintain your discipline and leave the rest to time," Selinam advised before walking off.
Dalvin watched her go and then sighed. He had to admit that doing this allowed him to be more productive overall, finishing commissions and contracts much faster than before, but the downside no one seemed to talk about was the testosterone.
Being a NEET, he only had to do the 'work' about once every two to three days and be fine. Ever since he started exerting himself daily in earnest, he now felt more energy coursing through him, which led to… intensity.
Maybe part of the reason why he dreaded Selinam coming closer was not entirely because she would chew him out…
Hence, why he downloaded that game. With a good mobile game to keep him distracted, he could have something to do at the gym that prevented his eyes from roving around the extraordinarily fit women who wore tight clothes because Dalvin did not fancy being called a pervert.
He stopped his break and continued to do his remaining sets before closing for the day. He trekked back home, which was about two streets away, and tiredly hopped into the shower, letting the cold water pass over him as he brooded for a while.
After getting a delivery from a nearby diner that made awesome pizzas and burgers, Dalvin ate while browsing the web and watching YouTube videos. In the end, he got a message from his lads that they were going to be on soon, so he smiled and booted up their usual game.
After playing together, raging on enemies, insulting the game, insulting the developers, and then insulting each other, they all bid farewell and left knowing that they would do the same thing again with each other tomorrow.
Dalvin sank into bed and began reading some xianxia on a novel publishing platform, about a demonic disciple who had been betrayed by his inner sect elder brother and left to die, but suddenly awakened a system and swore revenge on everyone for some reason.
It wasn't very good in terms of raw quality, but it was interesting. It was like junk food, Dalvin couldn't get enough of it even though he knew it was bad.
In the end, he fell asleep with his phone in hand, which was the usual day in the life of Dalvin Everton.
Unbeknownst to Dalvin, all of that would change the very next day...