35. Pro Gamer Strats

"When solving problems, dig at the roots instead of just hacking at the leaves." — Anthony J. D'Angelo

After completing their skill evolutions, Lazarus and Holly, feeling a mix of accomplishment and fatigue, returned to the area around the slaughterhouse. They exchanged contact information, a sign of their growing bond, before deciding to log off the game for the night.

Having spent essentially 16 hours playing a game straight was mentally tiring, so he decided to establish contact with her before getting some sleep.

Typing in her phone number, he quickly realized that she had the same area code as him, which seemed like an unlikely coincidence, considering he knew that in a year, she would be living over a thousand miles away from him in Miami. 

-Hello, this is Lazarus confirming that this is Holly's number.

It took a short time for a response to come.

>Yes, this is Holly.

Seeing the confirmation, he quickly messaged her before getting ready and heading to bed. 

-Get a good night's sleep, and we will talk at 10:00 AM tomorrow about what you should be doing.

>OK, sounds good. 

 Seeing her concise response, he quickly got ready and drifted off to dreamland. 

After having a dream he could not remember, Paul woke up, made breakfast, and took a shower before waiting for the time to call his recently made friend.

Once the time struck 10:00, he clicked the video call button on her contact icon.

After the second ring, the call was answered, and his screen began to show the sleepy face of a young woman in her early 20s who was looking blankly at her phone for a few seconds before shrieking.

"AHHHH-"

The call instantly dropped, and Paul looked at his phone in confusion before quickly realizing that she had probably not woken up yet.

After waiting for over 10 minutes, he received a callback and answered it, deciding it would be best to ignore what had happened a few minutes before. 

When the call connected, he could tell that she had brushed her hair and changed, seemingly wide awake now.

"Good morning, are you ready to start your daily exercise routine?"

"Umm, yeah, is there a reason we are video calling for this, though?"

Feeling like it was a weird question, considering that your characters in Harbinger's Call closely resembled their real-life appearances. Paul had to think for a moment about how to respond. 

"It would be easier to show you what you should be doing and check to see if you are doing it correctly, but if you do not feel comfortable with a video, all that is fine too."

Hearing his logic, he could see her conflicted; he was not trying to be overbearing or weird; it would add many extra steps to have her watch a video, then tell her about what she should be doing, and then not be able to critique her form.

Shortly after, she came to a decision and nodded.

"Ok, let's start." 

Putting on a pair of wireless headphones so he could speak and hear when he was further away from his phone, he set up the camera to be able to see the open area of his room before beginning his explanation.

"So first of all, it is important to understand where you are right now so we can devise a plan to improve. Can you do a full push-up currently?"

"Definitely not."

Hearing her sure answer, Paul moved towards the wall.

"Okay, then we will start with wall push-ups. We will start easy with four sets of 5 reps, so 20 wall push-ups split up into four groups. Working slowly, feeling the movement, and squeezing your muscles are important. This may seem like a lot for right now, but after a few days of this, it will get easier and easier."

He began showing her how to do them with good form, moving slowly and steadily to maximize the movement. 

After doing 5, he stopped and looked at his phone, motioning her to try. 

Watching her, it was not hard to tell that she had done them at some point.

"Good job. After you do 20 of those, we will move on to squats. Let me see you do a few."

While watching, he quickly noticed that Holly was very skinny, probably around 100 pounds, which was pretty light for someone who was probably around 5'4, from what he could tell from the game. 

"Ok, you are doing great; just make sure you keep your back flat as you go down. If you look straightforward, it will make that easier. You also do not need to go so far down that you are almost sitting on the ground; going until your leg makes a right angle is perfectly fine." 

After watching her fix what he suggested, he was quite happy with her squats. She was able to do five good ones before her form started falling apart.

"Great, now we will end it with a quick 30-second plank; it is fine if you can't make it at first; 30 seconds is the goal we are working towards right now."

As she quietly began planking, he could instantly tell she would not last very long, and he was correct around 10 seconds later.

As she lay there panting, he started talking again.

"We are going to keep it this simple for now: do this every morning before we log in and every evening after we log out."

Looking at her phone with a tired expression, Holly looked at him and spoke exasperated.

"30 seconds is a really long time."

Hearing her remark, Paul's eyes shot open.

"I know, 30 seconds is long enough to do so many things. Don't worry about being unable to last that long for now."

Seeing that she seemed reassured, he moved on to the next topic. 

"Now, in tandem with this is your diet, let me see what you eat daily."

After crawling around for a few seconds, she stood up and took her phone with her to the refrigerator in the kitchen. 

From what she told him during their chats, he knew she lived with her dad, but he was rarely home.

Thinking about it, that was not something a young woman who mainly lived alone should be saying to a stranger.

He sighed. He could not believe how negligent she seemed regarding safety. On top of that, they lived in the same area code, meaning that it would not be surprising if they lived a short distance from each other. He felt she was lucky he was not a weirdo who might do something strange. 

While she was showing what she usually ate, Paul watched her, feeling saddened by her diet. 

"That yogurt you eat every morning is not very healthy, mostly just sugar; those pre-made refrigerated meals are also filled with preservatives and cheap ingredients. You also eat only around 1400 calories daily, which is insufficient for an adult."

Thinking for a moment, he began asking her questions.

"Are you a vegan or vegetarian?" 

"No, I eat meat, but it is pretty expensive, so I have been eating these premade Indian rice meals."

Hearing her response, he sighed; he knew she did not have much money, but it was not good to be eating so little protein and so few vitamins and minerals. Thinking it over, he quickly came up with a plan.

"Ok, we will both be making a lot of money in less than a week, so try to eat a few hundred more calories a day to gain some mass; once we get paid, we can talk about more nutritious meals."

Paul knew that he was not eating much healthier food currently since he also did not have a lot of money and was putting on weight to gain mass and not be as skinny as a twig.

After talking for a bit longer, he decided to finish the call.

"Ok, we should both take a shower and eat before logging in; we do not have lunch longer to farm in the slaughterhouse, and after deconstructing that armor yesterday, I have the third tier passive to increase drop chances on upgrade material; we need to make as much money as possible before the end of the second week."

Hearing about money, Holly seemed much more interested, talking the most out of the entire time they had been on the phone call.

"I was thinking, I have one more energy credit, and you said that we would use that the night before the update, but if I used the rest of the money I have, I could buy two more; we would make a lot more money that way, right?"

"Hearing the question, Paul was stunned. There were five days until the update, and he had just seen her refrigerator; she probably had around two days' worth of food max."

Seeing his sad gaze, Holly instantly shivered. She knew what her question entailed, and seeing that he realized the hidden meaning, she felt somewhat scared. Although it was somewhat humiliating to be seen like that, she was willing to starve herself for some more money; the potential payout was much too tempting. 

After a long silence, he calmly answered.

"That would indeed allow us to make a lot more money. I will not tell you what you should and should not do since we are both adults, but it is very unhealthy to do that. With that said, I am in a similar situation and will let you decide; if you decide to buy those energy credits, I will too." 

Leaving the ball in her court, Holly instantly felt guilt; it was one thing to voluntarily starve yourself for some money, but now that he had attached himself to her decision, the ethical problem became entirely different for her.

Seeing her conflicted expression, Paul decided to give me space to think.

"You think about it and give me an answer before we log off tonight. I am going to take a shower, so see you in the game in around 30 minutes."