The Crust

"1..... 2... 3" Dan counted the number of jumping jacks he was doing as he huffed and puffed.

His feet struck the wooden floor in a rhythmic pattern as the exercise continued.

His breathing was heavy and the white T-shirt that he was wearing was now transparent because of all the sweating he had done in the past half an hour of his workout.

Lang had given him a workout routine that would help him improve his overall body as it was very important to improve every aspect of his body to combat any situation rather than focusing on improving only one aspect like strength or agility.

"I'm done. "Dan muttered and fell to the wooden floor as he gasped for air like a fish out of water. He had barely completed the routine and that was only with breaks in between. And the day he would be able to finish this routine was the day he would be fit enough to consider leaving the city or that was what Land had said.

But he was still in a 15-year-old body which meant that he probably wouldn't even be as strong as an average adult who didn't work out even after achieving that feat.

"Why didn't I wake up in a 20-year-old body? "Dan grumbled as he stood up. His body was now shivering from over-exertion.

Ian wasn't a gym guy. He probably had never even lifted something heavier than fifteen kilograms. So now when this body was being put through some basic exercises like jumping jacks squats and push-ups, it had already reached its limits.

"It's trash just like the owner. Fucking psycho. " Dan cursed. That kid had left him with a mountain of problems. This body had no potential to awaken without external help and its fitness was like a ten-year-old's body.

Dan shook his head and stood up slowly. Cursing that kid wasn't going to help. He needed to gather enough money to buy a fake metahuman license and then leave the city, get a good bounty, sell it and then buy a mana core. It was a crude and extremely dangerous plan. But Dan had no other way.

The beginning of that plan was to buy a fake metahuman license which was just as hard as Dan's first workout that he had completed just now.

He did find some shady sites claiming to sell fake metahuman licenses that were better than originals but Dan would be an idiot to trust them. And Dan was a lot of things except for an idiot.

But those shady sites did leave him with some clues as to where he could get himself a license and that was the Crust or in a fancy language, it was the place where lowlifes, criminals and the poor folks of Zyron City who couldn't afford to live in the city lived.

Crust was a small section of Zyron city located on the edge of the city and near the gigantic wall surrounding the city.

Those walls were very far from the actual city with almost a couple of kilometres of empty land between the two. And that was where the Crust was located.

And after the Crust, came the suburbs that Dan lived in and then came the inner city where the skyscrapers were located.

The Crust was a lawless place but that was only for the residents of the Crust. If any normal citizen were to go there, nobody would touch them but that person would come under the radar of the police because no upstanding citizen of Zyron City should have a business in the Crust.

So the way to visit Crust was in disguise but then the people from Crust would no longer be afraid to slice the person's throat.

Both were risky but it was better to fight a couple of criminals than to fall under the radar of police or worse the military that were actually stationed on the wall and fought against the beasts that might try to climb the wall or fly above it and enter the city. After all, birds were animals too and Dan didn't even want to imagine the size of an eagle in this world.

So the Crust was where all illegal business happened including making fake metahumans license. It wasn't a very nice place to have near the city but the authorities left the Crust alone as it would act as a distraction if a beast did manage to get over the wall attack the city.

And that was the place Dan wanted to visit after he felt like he was ready.

But first, he had to collect the money. A fake license according to those shady sites cost around ten thousand but that was probably a bait price. So, Dan estimated he would need at least fifty thousand Zemos.

"That is a lot of money. "Dan sighed as he walked towards the bathroom. He was full of sweat and without a shower, he would stink like a dead dog in half an hour.