( One month later )
Rocky hit an astonishing 1 million subscriber count by the time he reached day 30 of his 90 day hard challenge on MeTube.
Over the last 30 days, his physique had improved by leaps and bounds and the exercises that once left him in heaps and exhausted, were now more tolerable as he could at least reach the 6-7th set for each exercise without his muscles feeling the need to revolt.
His aesthetics improved rapidly as the challenge progressed, with his body looking much more toned and athletic on day 30, compared to when he first started the challenge.
Although working hard and eating right could improve the physique of anyone, Rocky's growth within one month was akin to what non-climbers achieved with 1-2 years of consistent efforts, as he benefited greatly from the after-effects of his awakening.
For climbers, the first awakening was like a deep body cleanse. An event that opened their mana pathways and improved their innate constitution, however, to make the most of it, one needed to train their body hard in the days following the first awakening to build a solid foundation.
While humans of Earth were not too aware of this benefit, there were many other races across the cosmos who were also connected to the tower that understood the importance of building a solid physical foundation.
Rocky's system, which already had access to this information, issued missions to Rocky to guide him on the right path, even though he himself did not understand the real logic behind it.
For Rocky, the benefits did not end at just the aesthetic and strength improvement, though as with 1 million subscribers under his belt, Rocky had officially become a real life influencer.
Thousands tried out his workout and lifestyle routine across the globe, trying and failing to keep up as they realized just how hard the challenge that Rocky was performing really was.
The few that did manage to follow his routine past day7, became cult loyalists who heaped mountains of praise on Rocky as they were secretly convinced that Rocky was in a world of pain after the disappearance of his sister and that he was doing all this to forget about his pain as in their understanding, no-one in their sane minds could consistently do what Rocky was going, if they did not have some sort of clear goal to train for.
Rocky's usually aloof attitude, coupled with some viral interviews of his classmates and teachers narrating tales of how indifferent he was to everything, mixed with his pitiful circumstances made him an internet sensation with a cult following as he had all the ingredients to become an internet sensation.
Girls drooled over his body.
Guys respected his work ethic.
NEETs appreciated his indifference to the world around him
And Critics could not help but appreciate his role in starting a youth fitness trend instead of uploading cringe content.
At this point in time, Rocky could do no wrong and any hate comment under his post was usually met with fierce opposition from his loyalists.
However, the best villains often started out as spotless heroes who could do no wrong, as the higher the pedestal they were placed on, the greater was their fall.
[ Strongest System Notification :- You have a new event quest!
The popular TV show 'Dinnertime With Sunny' has invited you to be a guest on their show as a result of your increasing popularity.
Accept this invitation and follow the live system script while answering questions on the show.
Time Limit :- 42 hours.
Rewards :- 5x Body Strengthening Potion.
Failure penalty :- Your next vlog video will accidentally be switched to a porn video featuring a prominent actress, resulting in your account being banned and you being sucked into a whirlpool of controversy.
Note- Not accepting the quest, not following the system script, not delivering the system script convincingly will all be deemed as failure ]
Rocky had received many invitations from popular podcasts and news channels over the month, once his MeTube channel started to explode, however, the system did not seem to react to any of those invitations uptil today.
'Dinnertime With Sunny' was by far one of the most popular shows in country X and all over the world, with almost every prominent climber having featured on it at least once.
It was a big deal to be invited to such a show, however, if not for the system coercing him into going, Rocky would have politely declined the invite if it were left to his discretion.
He did not like getting unnecessary attention, however, with the system giving almost inhumane failure penalties, Rocky had no choice but to play ball as under duress, he accepted the proposal to feature on the show.
**********
( Meanwhile, on floor 92 of the tower )
"The lamb is fattening up well, don't you think so brother?" Ravan, the younger of the Gemini brothers said as he looked down on Rocky's life with his omniscient eyes.
"He needs to get much fatter brother…. A few million followers won't be enough.
He needs to become the most famous man on Earth for him to be of any real use to us.
This is but the start" Shakuni replied, as Ravan laughed heartily listening to his response.
Since it was his brother pulling the strings from the shadows, the upcoming events were sure to be extremely entertaining.
—-------
/// A/N - Hey guys! I have some excellent news to share.
The novel has just gotten contracted today with the platform! So it's here to stay as an exclusive work.
Cheers to us all, because it's probably the fastest book to be contracted of all my previous works! ///