Dalvin took up his drawing pad as well as his stylus and began going to town on the design. Immediately, he understood why he was able to finish things far faster than before.
Once upon a time, there was an artist named Dalvin who loved to create digital art. He spent hours sitting at his computer, trying to bring his imaginations to life.
But something was missing.
In his former 'NEET' form, he lacked strength and agility. His movements, while superior for an average artist, were sluggish, and his body often felt weak after just doing a few hours of work, not to mention the lack of mental discipline to stay focused.
This naturally made it hard for him to sit for long hours and focus on his work, even affecting personal passion projects.
Then, something extraordinary happened.
Dalvin was forced to take up the practice of martial arts to secure his life in an alternate world and trained (relatively) diligently. With every punch on a stone wall while overdosing on pills, his body grew stronger and more flexible.
He gained superhuman strength, able to move with precision and speed in all aspects of his physical exertions, not just running up and down with boxes of electronics in hand.
Now, when he sat down to draw, it was like a whole new world. His increased strength and agility allowed him to sit comfortably, possibly for hours at this rate, focusing on his art without feeling tired or sore.
Somehow, the martial arts training which consisted of crying like a little girl while hitting a wall also sharpened his mind, improving his concentration vastly while his brush with death somehow inspired his creativity.
He could now visualize his artwork and the exact specifications that the commissioner wanted more vividly than before as well as execute his ideas with precision. It was the perfect combination of his mind drawing up the image and his hands being surgically precise enough to recreate those visualizations.
In a matter of minutes, he had finished the current design he was working on and could not find anything to touch up anymore. Dalvin could only export the files and then sent them to the commissioner and wait for them to come online and verify the work then pay up the second half.
With this one as a benchmark, he immediately began with the rest, clearing them rapidly and uploading them within minutes. However, unlike in the simulation, he did not put an ad up for more work, choosing to rather close his commissions for an indefinite period of time.
After running about today and especially after seeing how his current upgrade in power affected his work, Dalvin understood that he could now pursue newer and faster ways to earn money, and in larger amounts too.
But that was for later. Even though he Had emptied his account to near bleakness, he would be receiving a strong influx soon from his completed commissions, so he was not in the deadzone yet.
Right now, the more important thing was to test out his theory. As such, Dalvin opened up the protein shake and poured himself a serving before downing it all one gulp. It tasted alright, but it was not something you'd like to drink recreationally.
He did feel a bit of heat that was likely due to his enhanced digestive and processing abilities, but he could only see progress in practice. However, Dalvin glanced at the wall of his apartment and hesitated.
Putting aside whether the wall was sturdy enough to handle his punches, this was where he lived. He couldn't just go to town with full force on his own walls, not to mention the noise that would make.
As such, Dalvin could only put on a track suit that was a dark blue color and check the maps for the area to find a nearby construction site. He couldn't find one of those, but he did find a nearby factory for cement working that was largely inactive due to legal issues.
He quickly jogged over there while making sure to take his new phone and his storage pouch which held the pills as well as the necessary ingredients to make more protein shake in case he wanted to imbibe more of it.
The distance was quite long, being almost 15 kilometers, and Dalvin easily jogged the entire distance at a light and stable pace. There was some slight activation of his blood qi through exertion, but as it did not follow any proper technique, it did not refine his skin nor did it enhance him in any tangible way.
It was more of an all-round sort of thing.
When he got to the target area, the sky was already beginning to darken. This allowed him to easily jumped over the wall of the factory that was covered with some simple barbed wires. It would be tough for the previous Dalvin to scale this without lacerating himself, but it was a relatively easier task for the current him.
Once in the area, he tied the pouch to his waist and placed his phone in his back pocket before heading to the sturdiest wall he could find within the darkness of the factory and entering the horse stance.
Immediately, he began to punch with his full force, the dull thuds of his flesh striking the cement being thunderous in the silent environment but not able to go really far in the grand scheme of things.
With short bursts, his blood qi was immediately activated as he got into the rhythm of his practice and Dalvin almost welcomed the feeling of martial practice which was slowly becoming familiar to him.
He felt his body's reaction to the training and found that while there was some strong activation, it was nowhere near the level of the xueqi pill. This did not disappoint him as he was fully prepared for the basic protein shake to not have any effect at all.
The xueqi pill was a specially made creation using near supernatural processes and extraordinary reagents, how could it be equal to the mass-produced protein shake from a random brand?
The fact that the protein shake could even achieve some effect was purely the credit of science and its advancement to allow us to understand how the body works. If the protein shake along was so good, imagine if Dalvin could get his hands of steroids?
If… if his plans worked out and he acquired a substantial sum of money and influence, he could even establish his own R&D department of a company to research the xueqi pill and replicate it using cheaper materials as well as the scientific process.
However, Dalvin calmed the rising excitement and fanciful thoughts right away. He had neither the strength, the status nor the money to even begin laying groundwork for such a future, but the early plan was set.
The best thing he could do now was to stay alive while in the Immortal Locking Prison while steadily increasing his strength and accumulating the various things needed to kickstart his plan.
However, in the dead silence of the night, many things that Dalvin could not have predicted were beginning to move. After all, he was in his current situation not just because of the awakening of his bloodline, but because a powerful being had placed a curse on him.
Being home on earth was no reason to be complacent, for it could strike at any time, like right now.