The tasty food and its ordered energy wasn’t some kind of cultivation aid. Jason just truly enjoyed the artistry within it. Satisfied, Jason leaves behind a crowd of clapping elderly and stunned teens. The older crowd appreciating his ability to put down food and complimenting him on his strong body. The teens were shocked and disgusted that one of their own would show such unchained gluttony and eat food that might have come into contact with the skin of someone not in his direct family.

All that behind him, Jason takes a quick jog to a nearby public gym. Well, a semi-public gym. The back corner of the place is set aside for military and mercenaries to work out, separate from the general populace. Not from any worry of them starting something, but when the lowest weight dumbbells require two hands to lift for most normal people, you keep things separate if only to prevent accidents. A broken foot might not be the hardest thing to fix, but better safe than sorry.

Of course they aren’t exactly checking everyone’s military id either. In fact, the biggest thing that keeps the back corner private is how heavy the gate is. Sure, you could just hop the fence, but everyone would see you do it. Though when Jason approaches, a couple of the ladies pumping iron near the gate put down their weights. It wouldn’t be the first time some cocky kid had tried to open the gate and got themselves trapped.

While it wouldn’t squeeze someone enough to injure them, they definitely wouldn’t be able to get out on their own. If more of the people in the corner had been regulars, they wouldn’t have worried. Even before moving up to military grade training dummy, Jason had been able to get in on his own. So while the people who only visited on Sundays watched on for a show, the few regulars and the owner all went back to their activities.

Jason, of course, can’t let things go at just this. As with anytime there is a strength challenge, people compete to see who can make it look effortless. Sure he hadn’t ever been in the running before. Now though?

Sure, Jason’s strength hadn’t actually jumped by too much no matter what those who observed his dummy might think. All of that seeming jump in strength came purely through his realizations from training the war stomp skill. A skill created and improved by a being that Jason now believes was close to throwing off the yoke of NeoRealm’s System. Something so special that even now the move was still mostly an enigma to him.

So he strolled right up to the gate. The two ladies smirked as they low key flexed their impressive muscles. Jason didn’t even pause as he brought up his right foot and kicked aside the gate, which narrowly missed the lady on the left. Sure, Jason wouldn’t have been able to put on such an act if he tried to shove the gate open, but that doesn’t matter. What does matter is the look of appreciation from the owner who glances up and the cheers from the handful of regulars.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

They hadn’t seen Jason in a while as he had been focused on finishing up school. Now, though, they cheered him on for not having lost his edge. They cheered him on for advancing, maybe not to their level, but ever closer. Because while they appreciated his stick with opening the door and all but maybe the owner hadn’t a clue how he did it. They could see it wasn’t strength that opened the gate.

Though the cheering is short-lived. While seeing such a promising youth return even stronger brought a tear of joy to the owners eye, no one here was going to waste their Sunday. Jason was fine with this and made his way over to the lightest equipment. Sure, he could kick the stuffing out of even the heaviest dummies, but that would really be training.

No, Jason spread the training out over his whole body. Even if the weights on his legs seemed light, that didn’t matter. If anything, Jason was upset that his legs had advanced so much. A balanced body might not have a particular strength, but it also didn’t have glaring flaws. It would take a while to rebalance his body but the few hours spent today had set him well on that path.

So, with only a minor bit of embarrassment, he uses the button next to the gate that would open it for him. As while everyone inside the area could open the gate coming in, sometimes leaving just isn’t in the cards without help. They might not be overexerting themselves, their personal trainers would be happy about that, everyone that came was serious about getting a proper workout.

Out on the streets again, Jason considers going back to the burger joint for a few milkshakes, but decides against it. Instead, he grabs a couple of sour drinks from a vending machine. Jason, having just been at the burger joint laughs as he watches the drink be dispensed. The machine had a direct hook up to more flavors than even the most specialized franchise machine had ever even dreamed of including alcohol if one was inclined.

Just a simple hook up to a bunch of special chemicals and this machine could dispense everything from half decent coffee to one of those milkshakes he had been craving. It wasn’t quite scifi magic, and the multipurpose part was more about replacing most of the insides, but the machines had really taken over. If it wasn’t for the fact that half decent was the limit of what they could do, Jason wouldn’t be surprised if the art of cooking didn’t die out.

Though Jason didn’t buy into the conspiracy that the government was locking the machines down to not produce better. To perfect a single recipe would require the opposite of multipurpose. With a final look back at the machine and a small smile, Jason walks off having realized another factor. Since knowledge of cultivation was going to get out, there would be even more demand for hand cooked food. No chance of automating the act of smoothing out the power within food.