Erik left the area as soon as possible. It wasn’t the first time members of the crystal cross gang had come to Mister Fox’s farm to extort his money. Still, the young man wanted to stay as far as possible from them, especially from Mister Fox when they came since he usually took it out on him.

The young man ran toward the train station that was only ten or so minutes away by foot; there were no other means of transportation available since he didn’t have money and could only take the train.

Erik walked down the street, arriving at the city, the farm was not close to it after all, and then he went toward the station. Around him, countless flying cars flew around, each one carrying someone inside, while others stood still, waiting their turn at some stopping point. The young man watched them with awe, thinking about how amazing it would be to have one of such cars. Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough money to afford such a vehicle.

He then arrived in front of some staircases on the side of the road. They had plastic and transparent protection that shielded people from the rain and allowed people to see the road below. The stairs led to a building and then to an elevator. The young man took it, and after more or less twenty floors, he finally arrived at the station.

The place was massive; it had multiple shops inside the building selling various goods like clothes, food, books, electronics, and weapons. Everything one could think of, really. However, Erik just looked at the window displays, unable to spend his money on anything. Multiple floating tracks were going out of the building and toward every direction, north, south, west, east, the sea, and the mountain.

The young man searched for the right track to return to his home in the eastern district. After searching for some time, he saw trains coming to the station through the openings on the side of the building. The trains were approaching a platform full of passengers surrounded by a barrier that stopped people from falling. He waited until it arrived and had to wait for people to get off the train before he could enter and sit near the door. The train at this hour was really crowded since many people were returning home, but he luckily found a seat.

When the train departed, Erik began looking outside, admiring the scenery passing by, the buildings, the mountains, and the ocean in the far distance on two opposite sides. All these things amazed him, making him happy even though he never left the safety of the city. Yes, he went to the farm, but the place was still on the premises of the city’s barrier, which protected from thaids attacks.

Luckily, on his continent, there weren’t many thaids, and the ones present were not that strong. Also, they were killed relatively fast once seen by the blackguards or the militaries, so even if some managed to enter the city, it was relatively hard to see them.

So, Erik looked at the mountain, at the sea as if they were not even real. He never went there and now was starting to hope that, one day, he would be strong enough to fend off all the thaids living there so that he could see these two mythical places.

After what seemed like forever, the train reached its destination: the east district. The difference between the east and the north, where the farm was locate was that the latter was much bigger than the former; several streets lined up together, forming long lines of shops, small businesses, and factories.

It was dark already, the sun setting over the horizon leaving behind the orange color of the sky. It was a beautiful sight to watch, but the young man couldn’t appreciate it because he knew that tomorrow would start another scary day.

As the train entered the eastern station, Erik got out of it. As usual, he went straight towards his house, but he had to walk through the usual streets where everyone knew him. The look of the people watching him with scorn didn’t make him feel well, but he didn’t let this stop him. He finally had an opportunity to make things better. He only had to make two daily quests a day, and he would be able, in five days, to acquire enough DNA points to briefly unlock the power that would allow the supercomputer to fix his brain crystal. This way, he would finally be able to improve his rank by making more neural links, which would allow him to become stronger, faster, and more powerful. It would stop people from harassing him; maybe they would even respect him. But first things first, he had to complete his quest.

Erik looked at his surroundings while walking down the street. He arrived at a park that wasn’t too big, and as he passed by, he admired the birds chirping over the trees. He then looked at a bench and saw a woman sitting. She wore a white dress that contrasted with her dark skin; she was wearing a pair of open shoes and a necklace made of beads. Her head was covered by a shawl, revealing only her face.

On the other side, two men were walking down the street talking about something. They were both tall and muscular, their hair cut short, blue eyes, and pale faces. One of them held his phone in his hands, while the second had a water bottle. Both of them wore heavy clothes, probably due to the cold weather. As Erik observed the people, he started wondering if there were many people in the same situation he was in. With a weak power that made them subject to discrimination. Though, albeit possible there weren’t many people who suffered like him since most people had an E-ranked power, and being F-ranked was rare.

The young man went past the park, and after walking down a bit, he finally arrived home. The building was not in good condition, the paint was peeling off, and there were multiple cracks in the wall. But despite that, Erik liked the place.

He walked into the entrance hall, then went upstairs, taking the stairs slowly, trying not to disturb anyone. When he got to the third floor, he opened his apartment door and entered. He closed the door behind himself and leaned against it, sighing heavily. His mind wandered away from reality for a moment, thinking about how great it would be to have a normal life without worrying about his survival and the bullying. Then he remembered what he had to do, the daily quest.

“Show quests,” Erik said as soon as he was sure of being alone.

—————————–

[Quests List]

[Daily]

<Eating Habits: COMPLETE>

-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points

-Failure Penalty: None 𝐞𝗻𝐨𝘃𝗹.𝐜𝐨𝗺

(Eat a healthy meal)

<Physical training: ACCEPTED>

-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points

-Failure Penalty: None

(Train for at least an hour. The Host may choose whatever exercise to complete the quest.)

—————————–

Erik looked at the screen in front of his eyes and immediately realized there was a problem; he had never trained and didn’t know what to do.

<I should look at some exercise on the internet,> the young man thought.

He then looked at the computer; he had turned it off the night before to save money, so he turned it back on.

[CONNECTION TO THE DEVICE: ERIK’S PERSONAL COMPUTER, COMPLETE.]

The connection to the device was automatic, then his desktop appeared in his vision, and he willed the computer to go on the browser and search for training information. He searched for videos and books, and by using some totally legal means, he downloaded them all.

<I want to inject information> the young man thought after he had everything ready. Still, he willed to get only the information about the training. Then a list of multiple things appeared on a window in front of him.

———————————————–

List of available information:

– How to build massive biceps: explanation of the optimal workout

-Eight Best Shoulder Exercises for Boulder Shoulders

…

…

…

-Nine Exercises To Build A Big Back

-Human Anatomy

-Old School leg training

…

…

———————————————–

These were all videos and books Erik had downloaded, he had already seen them, but he wanted to be sure he remembered them before starting to train.

<Inject all the books> the young man willed.

Again, he experienced a tremendous surge of energy rushing through his body and mind and absorbed the information immediately; he could recall the videos as if he were watching them. Recall the human anatomy book lines as if he was reading them.

After absorbing the knowledge, Erik felt dizzy and fell onto his sofa. It took him several minutes until he regained control over his senses again. After checking everything twice, he sat up and read the texts he had just received.

[DOWNLOAD OF THE INFORMATION COMPLETE.]

<What do I do now?>

The young man thought about the exercise to complete the quest and started with simple pushups, squats, sit-ups, Reverse lunges, Squats and presses, Planks, and others. He pushed, jumped, stretched, and after an hour, he was done. The problem was that if he wanted to train properly, Erik had to go to the school gym since he couldn’t afford to buy the equipment. The problem was, would people leave him to train in peace? He wasn’t sure about that.