9 "New Location Discovered"

11:00AM

Marcus had just woken up and was behind on his daily training schedule. He hadn't sparred with Cross the previous day, due to Phoenix needing a place to stay. He had decided he was strong enough for now, and called Cross to let him know he was gonna take a break. Obviously Cross chewed him out for this decision, and Marcus had to listen to him yell for almost an hour.

Marcus decided to get ready for the day. He brushed his teeth, showered, and got dressed. On his way downstairs he saw his siblings arguing. Instead of trying to stop them like he normally used to, he kept walking. Their feud didn't affect him after all.

Joshua noticed Marcus acting strange and called out to him, but was ignored. Marcus simply shrugged off his concern and told the twins that he was gonna go outside for some "practice".

Marcus went outside and instead of running across town like he normally did, he turned left and sprinted as fast as he could for as far as he could go. Sweat dropped from his body like he was a sponge someone had just squeezed dry. His skin began to glisten with sweat, and his muscles looked extremely defined. If anyone could see what he looked like, they would think he looked decently attractive, with a nice physique. Sadly, no one could see anything when he ran by except a blur and the occasional drops on the sidewalk from the sweat he left.

4:27PM

"Huff...Huff" Marcus began to struggle for breath as he had reached his destination. He looked up and saw a bright sign that flashed the words:

"Welcome to Las Vegas"

Marcus fell back and looked at the sky. He had done something impossible for anyone else on the planet, even the popular Olympic athletes that the world was familiar with. He had beaten them in both speed and endurance.

Marcus didn't even have the time to fully rest before he noticed that someone had pulled over to the side of the road next to him and called out, "Hey, are you okay?".

He turned towards the voice, and it came from a trio of young adults who were probably taking a trip to Las Vegas for the casinos. He got up from his position sprawled out on the floor and greeted them.

"Hey, I'm alright, thanks for asking" he told them. As the words flowed out from his mouth Marcus was surprised. His voice sounded deeper, with an alluring tone; the kind of voice you would expect from a popular politician or singer. It was probably due to his new title "Silver Tongue". He wondered how he had obtained it, but he was glad he had it regardless.

The people that had called out to him were shocked. The two girls that were concerned seemed to calm down with his affirmation. The guy sitting in the driver's seat felt that Marcus was no harm and offered him a ride into the city.

"If you're offering, then thank you." Marcus replied as he took a seat in the back with one of the girls. She seemed shy and reserved, but was instead quite extroverted. She began asking Marcus all sorts of questions about himself.

"Where are you from? Why were you in front of the sign? Do you have a girlfriend?" She was relentless in her interrogation, and Marcus couldn't help chuckling as she questioned him.

"Alright, Alright. To answer your questions in order; San Francisco, I just kinda ended up there, and finally, no, I don't." He told her.

The girl sitting in the front seat also listened in with obvious curiosity. She was satisfied with the results and quickly realized they had forgotten something.

"Wait a minute, who are you? How old are you?" She asked him. The two other people in the car also realized that they had simply overlooked these details.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that. My name is Marcus, and I'm 18 years old currently." He pulled out his driver's license and showed it to them.

"Huh, is it me or does he look a lot better now than when he took this photo?" The girl who was sitting with him in the back asked the other two.

"Yeah he does, how old is the photo?" The girl sitting in the passenger seat asked Marcus.

"He probably got it when he was like 16 years old." The guy sitting in the driver's seat remarked.

"Actually, that photo is about a month old." Marcus informed the group.

All three of the strangers he had met couldn't help but be shocked by this information.

"You're joking right? There's no way that is a recent photo." The blonde girl asked turning back to look at Marcus' face once more.

"He has to be, he looks completely different." The brunette to his left said with a shaky confidence.

"I've been working out a little for the past few weeks, that's probably why I look different" Marcus said with a smile.

"Bullshit! I've been working out for nearly 6 months and all I did was gain a little muscle, you're a completely different person!" The guy roared from the driver's seat.

Marcus stopped and thought about it. He hadn't stopped to look at himself in the mirror since before he got his system. He decided to ask one of the girls for a hand mirror. The blonde one handed him one from her purse and waited in excitement to see his reaction.

He pulled the mirror to his face and was astonished. His face was clearly much more defined than it used to be, but that wasn't the only thing different. His face seemed to give off an aura of beauty. His features were still the same, but they seemed to be improved.

He looked like a very athletic idol. His appearance was far greater than average now. He wondered how he had changed so much without using a skill or raising his stats. He decided to open his menus to check.

A notification appeared like it normally did informing him of something important. This time however the text read;

"All men are not created equal, you've witnessed this ideology in action and now it's time for you to experience it."

"Level Up"