Training Grounds

I am.

As Zen's words sounded, his vision turned black and the same feeling of weightlessness assaulted his senses making him feel nauseous.

***

After a while, he sensed that he had his two feet on land and opened his eyes.

"Woahhh! It feels so real!"

"Yeahhh, I thought it was a scam like the others."

"This is the real deal!!"

…

Zen heard many shouts of amazement from the people surrounding him. It was normal as he was part of the first batch of players who entered the game.

'It really is just like the real world…'

Zen became overwhelmed with excitement.

He couldn't help but kneel down and touch the ground with his own two hands.

'Finally! Finally…'

As he couldn't believe what was happening, he became overwhelmed with joy and giggled unconsciously.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Maybe he has mental problems?"

"Well maybe he had been bedridden his whole life and was overwhelmed with joy because of the realness of the game?"

"It's possible… Yeah, no. Go ahead and write a novel with that idea of yours."

…

Zen came to his senses and stood up as he heard the whispers around him.

'Shit, what an embarrassing situation.'

Zen scratched his head sheepishly.

After a few seconds, he calmed himself and looked at his surroundings.

He seemed to be in the center of a plaza, what greeted his sight were stands and stalls which offered various kinds of things.

In the north, he could see a tall, majestic building. It was white in color and it looked like a giant cathedral.

There was also a symbol of a cross on it, which radiates a holy feeling.

Zen was tongue-tied by the size of the giant cathedral.

'It's far away but it already looks so big…'

'Hmmmm, the place I'm in right now seems too large to be a town so it must be a city or even a kingdom of some sort.'

He assessed the structures and designs of the structures such as the buildings and roads in his sight.

He soon discovered that although they looked medieval, there was also a special feeling to them.

Zen saw street lamps lined up on the side of the road, some carriages with different designs some looked more luxurious than others and many more.

What caught Zen's attention were the people in different kinds of outfits. Some wore heavy armor, while some wore robes.

'Oh my lord…'

Thought Zen in shock.

Although he is now 20 years old and has matured from an early age, being bedridden for 10 years would result in some immaturity still being left within him.

Well no matter who it was, if they were a fan of the fantasy genre, then they would also be excited by the sight in front of them.

After he sorted out his thoughts, he began to walk around and explore.

He saw shops selling colorful liquids in glass bottles of different shapes.

He also saw many stalls selling swords, daggers, shields and other kinds of equipment.

There were also people bargaining with each other, kids playing, old people chatting, and all kinds of people minding their own business.

'You really can't tell the players and natives apart huh…'

Considering that there was a chance that this world was real, he chose to address the people in the game as natives.

As Zen was exploring, he cherished the feeling of being able to walk with his own two feet.

He was a little surprised by how much happiness this simple action can give him.

'The saying was right. You can only truly know the importance of something when you have already lost it.'

Sigh~

A sigh escaped his mouth as he wandered around.

Soon after, he saw a place resembling a training ground.

It looked dilapidated but it still has all kinds of training equipment. There were many training dummies and a huge running field.

There were also a few dilapidated buildings surrounding it.

He got curious and walked closer to a training dummy.

An information window appeared in front of his eyes.

[Training Dummy

Grade: Common

Tier: Low

Description:

Punching this 100 times increases the player's strength stat by 1.

Note: Restricted to level 1 players.

Note: Strength stat gain capped at 10.]

"Well since I've just finished exploring and got nothing to do, I might as well train here and be productive"

Zen said to himself while curiously looking at the training dummy.

He soon raised his fists and got into a stance.

'I can barely remember what dad taught me in the past.'

Zen's father taught him basic combat when he was still 8 years old. His father always said that it was better to start young and that it was needed if he wanted to protect his sister.

And so the young Zen rigorously trained.

Remembering happy memories from the past, Zen couldn't help but shake his head and chuckle.

'Well now I really need to work hard in order to protect them…'

Zen knew that there was still a chance that the so-called apocalypse wasn't true. Whether it was 0.01% or 0.00000001%, there was still a chance.

But still, he did not like betting on chances. After all, since when did a person that was diagnosed with a one of a kind cancer be lucky?

Although he was happy that he was given the opportunity to change his life, he didn't want the possible destruction of the world to be the consequence of it.

'It's not like I can do anything as I am now.'

Thinking of this, Zen cleared his mind and started punching the training dummy.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5…"

He tracked the amount of punches he made in order to not slack his mind and stay focused.

It was one of the tips his father, Ren, gave him when they were training.

Soon enough, only the sound of counting and punching could be heard in the training grounds.

Though unbeknownst to him, in the far corner of the training grounds where the few dilapidated buildings were located, a figure was watching him.