CHAPTER 4:
I woke up in pain. It felt like my muscles were being stretched in some places and contracted in others all over my body. It was a tolerable pain, not agonizing, but still painful. It felt like every part of my body was undergoing a deep stretch. I let out a ragged breath of air as my body convulsed, arms and legs spazzing. Within a few seconds, it was over and I laid still once more, covers only partially covering my body. I took in a few deep breaths trying to process what had just happened. I reached over to my desk and checked my phone. The time read: 3:33 AM. I sat up and climbed out of bed, throwing the sheets and comforter to the side. As my feet touched the floor I noticed something, my body felt extraordinarily light. As I walked to the bathroom, my legs moved gracefully and powerfully. I hurriedly flicked on the lights and turned on the sink, splashing water on my face. Hands on the counter I looked up at myself. My body had noticeably changed. Although I previously had solid muscles on me, I had gotten more shredded and my muscles looked denser. I seemed to have shaved off some body fat while also getting slightly more bulky. Additionally, my muscles now seemed to be in perfect symmetry, everything dialed in like a Greek statue. My abs which had previously been uneven were now tight and perfectly placed.
“What the fuck?” I murmured, admiring my improved physique in the mirror. “Hold on.”
I pulled up my status window and it appeared before me. My stats now read:
Strength: 15
Agility: 12
Ability: 6
I seemed to have gotten 50% stronger and faster. My ability stat had also gone up four points since last night due to all my telekinetic training.
“Holy shit!” I thought to myself. “I gotta go test out this new body in the gym.”
I quickly threw on a pair of old athletic shorts I had gotten in high school gym class and slipped a wife beater over my head. Grabbing my wallet I left my apartment and headed to the elevator. The elevator only took a few moments before it dinged on my floor, probably because everyone else was asleep. I was lucky to have a gym on the first floor of my building where I worked out all the time. It was much better than the intramural gym everyone at school had access to, since only a few people ever used the gym at one time even in peak hours. It was a nice gym too, brand new equipment, the only problem was that it didn’t have a squat rack, there was only a smith machine. I still squatted on the smith machine, but I didn’t use it to bench. I instead used the dumbbells.
The elevator dinged once more and the doors slowly opened. I walked out and over to the gym, scanning my wallet on the keypad next to the door. I kept my apartment key in my wallet to save me the hassle of keeping track of it with something like a lanyard. I heard a click and the light on the keypad flashed green granting me access. Pulling open the door I headed inside. As I had expected the gym was empty, the nice big windows outside were dark but the lights above shone bright as day. I walked over to the dumbbell rack and grabbed the 75-pound dumbbells. They felt light. Still a little heavy, but felt as if I were holding around 40 in each hand. The 75s were the heaviest on the rack as our gym was more casual, so I didn’t have the opportunity to try anything heavier. Because of this, they were the heaviest I would do for bench press, though back home I had hit 225 lbs for one rep at my max. I was around 150 pounds before this sudden transformation, and I was left wishing I had a scale to see where I was now. If I had to guess, probably around 160 from the looks of things. Though even though I didn’t gain much size it seemed my muscles had gotten extraordinarily powerful, it felt like I had the strength of 30 to 40 pounds of fresh new muscle mass. I set the dumbbells back down, deciding to instead test my strength on the smith machine since I could more accurately see how much my max lifts had risen. Loading the bar up to a total weight of 225 pounds I slid onto the bench beneath it. Laying down, I squeezed my shoulders back and planted my feet firmly. Gripping the bar I unhooked it from the machine and let it sink to my chest, sucking in a breath as the bar lowered. With a heave, I pressed the bar up and it flew upwards. I repped out a few more presses and hooked it back onto the machine. It was almost effortless, it felt like a warm-up weight. I threw another 45 pounds on each side and slid under the bar once more. The weight was now at 315 pounds. I unhooked the weight and pressed it, the bar took a good amount of effort to move, but I knew it wasn’t my max. I hooked the bar back onto the machine and sat up.
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“Wait, what’s exactly one-half of 225?” I thought to myself doing the calculation in my head. “112.5. That plus 225 is 337.5. If I gained exactly 50% more strength then that should be around my max.”
I added 12.5 pounds to each side and sat back down on the bench. The bar was now at a total of 340 pounds, a number I could only dream of hitting just last night.
“C’mon, Atticus, you can do this,” I tried hyping myself up, fists curled into balls on my thighs. “Let’s go!”
I laid under the bar and got in position, pinching my shoulders back and planting my feet firmly close to the bench. I unlatched the bar and held it for a second. It was heavy, but I could handle it. I let the bar fall to my chest and as it touched I pressed it upward with all my might. I let out a strained grunt and the bar slowly moved toward the ceiling. It was definitely close to my max weight if not the max itself.
“I got this!” I thought to myself, pushing hard against the bar.
Once my arms were fully extended I latched it back on and sat up breathing heavily. Excited, I stood up and turned to admire the weight I had just put up. Quickly, I took off the weights and hung them on studs that jutted out from the side of the machine. I chuckled to myself and looked in the mirror. Taking my wife beater off I went over to my spot in the gym with optimal lighting and flexed, muscles popping. I grinned, throwing a few boxing combinations. Even though I had gained more muscle, my punches felt smooth and a quicker than they were previously. Normally when you put on mass you get slower, but it seemed the opposite was true for me. My life was truly getting more amazing. First I had unlocked superpowers and now I had gotten a boost in strength and physique. Quite the unexpected turn in my life, for the better of course. I then remembered my agility had gone up too. I hardly did cardio, only once a week at most. I had gotten most of my cardio from doing jiu-jitsu, but I hadn't gone in around a year because my schedule didn’t match up with class times. Hanging my wife beater around my neck, I walked over to the treadmills and stepped onto one. Slowly I started to ramp up the speed, going from a walk to a run. I had never tested my top speed before and usually felt comfortable just jogging on the treadmills at around 5 to 6 miles per hour. As the speed kept rising, my legs started moving faster. 9 miles per hour, 10, 11, 12, 13… I was now in a full sprint, my legs flowing smoothly beneath me. The numbers on the treadmill's display blurred as I hit 14, 15, then 16 miles per hour. My breathing was heavy, but controlled, my focus entirely on the rhythm of my stride and the quickening beat of my heart. 17, 18, 19... the sound of my feet pounding against the conveyor belt was almost hypnotic. At this point, I felt I could barely run any faster, though I pushed myself to keep going. 20, 20.5, 21, 21.5… I felt my legs begin to max out. 22, 22.2, 22.5, 22.7. I pushed, but it didn’t seem like I could go any faster. My lungs were already giving out, my breathing ragged. I started slowing down, a bead of sweat running down the side of my face. The numbers on the display began to decrease, 22, 21, 20... I leaned forward, resting my hands on the handrails for support. My chest heaved as I took deep breaths. As the treadmill came to a gentle stop, I stood there for a moment, catching my breath, feeling the satisfaction of achieving something I never thought I could. Despite the exhaustion, a smile crept onto my face. I was fast. Really fast. Probably up there with Division 1 sprinters. I would have to improve my endurance though, I gassed out far too quickly.
Stepping off the treadmill I looked around the gym. Suddenly, an idea hit me, maybe this would be a good time to test out my telekinetic abilities. I walked over to the smith machine and held out my right hand, aiming at one of the 45-pound plates hanging off of its side. It didn’t move, not even a fraction of an inch. I let out a sigh, it seemed the 45-pound plate was too heavy. I decided to aim for something a little lighter, moving my hand to the 25-pound plate. I furrowed my brow as I focused on moving the plate off the stud it hung upon. Once again, it didn’t move. I let my arm fall to my side.
“Damn,” I thought to myself. “Is my telekinesis really that weak? I guess I had only been using it on light objects and clothes before. I’ll try something a lot lighter.”
I made my way to the dumbbell rack and held my hand out aiming at the 5-pound dumbbells. The dumbbells started to shake as I focused hard, flexing my hand. Then, they slowly lifted into the air and off the rack, wobbling slightly. I tried to spin them around like I had done with the pen and they slowly began rotating. I could feel myself getting tired so I placed them back on the rack and let out a breath. It seemed that was as heavy as I could manipulate right now, but I was pretty sure with training I could increase the load. A yawn escaped my lips and I felt my eyelids getting heavy. I realized I had only slept an hour and testing my skills had exhausted me. I had a long, yet exciting day ahead of me. I was eager to mess around with people using my telekinesis. I chuckled to myself as I walked out of the gym.