Comparison and Balance

"Alright, your fee for this month is settled, you can go ahead and start. Feel free to ask me if you have any minor questions, but you will need to pay the extra 50% fee in case you want complete supervision."

"No problem."

Receiving the normal cardboard ID from the guy sitting at the reception desk, Chrome tugged it into his bag which he put away in the public locker, before heading towards the treadmill for a quick warm-up.

Despite it being a gym that shared both location and name with the one he went to in the parallel world, it wasn't hard for Chrome to notice the vast difference between the two.

The size and space of the parallel gym was simply at least three times this one, not to mention that even the basic equipment that was stationed outside the special hall still looked more advanced than the ones he saw around here.

Naturally, the price was also much cheaper being only 55.55$ when compared to the parallel gym's price of 150$ for the basic membership, there was an obvious gap of standard in place.

It was only expected that the gym simply stayed the same and didn't take any step forward without the life-changing event that came with the emergence of Exos.

'It's not that bad still…'

On the other hand, Chrome didn't mind the downgrade at all. After all, the change of size and quality wasn't a negative one.

Similar to how the size was downgraded, the number of those who were working out wasn't that big so it couldn't be called crowded, while the difference in quality was only that the equipment looked just less fancy.

Through making such a quick mental comparison, Chrome was once more able to confirm the core fact about how both worlds were indeed parallel to each other. It was like both words were identical twins who lived exactly the same, yet a rock being thrown at one of the twins changed both his looks and behavior.

After finally finishing his quick warm-up, Chrome went for a bench press, but… he just couldn't shake the big gap he felt.

'As expected, it just feels odd.'

Going back to using 5KG weights for each side of the barbell with his mind registering that this was actually a heavyweight felt extremely horrible, especially since he had already tripled this value and was even getting quite used to it.

However, Chrome had obviously decided on starting training from scratch in his normal world while knowing that this was bound to happen, he just had to bear the difference of perception for the time being.

'At least not all the side effects are negative!'

After bearing through the uncomfortable feeling of being downgraded, Chrome felt that other side effects that he received as a result of parallel training, which was actually a highly positive one!

His pain tolerance was carried over!

Not only did the pain he received feel much lighter when compared to his very first session, but even the pain that originated from prolonged training felt like a breeze!

Chrome could tell that this had to do with how screwed his mental perception of pain had become thanks to the herculean training that he did in the parallel world, so he had mixed thoughts about it.

While it was indeed considered positive to skip the pain stage of working out, having such a wrong perception of pain could also have a negative side to it. Feeling pain in itself was a hidden gift of the body to adapt to danger.

'Well, it's not that dangerous as long as I set average limits…'

Since he didn't plan on doing hardcore training like he did in the parallel world anyway, Chrome didn't really find a problem concerning natural limits set by pain. He had already become semi-experienced in self-training thanks to the help of Clarke and knew about most training sets, so he only had to take down the dose to a normal number of sets and he could train without any fears of over-training or whatsoever.

In fact, in his current situation, there was nothing better for Chrome than being able to go to the gym on a daily basis without suffering much yet receiving results like others. He didn't even have to pay the fee for a coach's supervision!

`~~~`~~~`~~~`

Click.

"I'm home."

Closing the door carefully, Chrome put down his bag as he announced his arrival and collapsed at the chair next to the door before announcing his arrival.

"Welcome back. You can go ahead and take a shower, do you want me to heat up the chicken for you?"

As the kitchen was quite close to the door, Sarah responded while she was doing the dishes left from lunch.

"That would be great!"

Thanks to Chrome shouldering his own fees for the gym, Sarah didn't really refuse his simple request of getting extra protein meals after gym which was mostly just chicken meat. After all, he did finally seem to be committed to doing something useful after so long, which she evaluated to be something that should be supported.

"Haaa…"

Going under the cold shower for the seventh time since he started going to the gym, Chrome let out a satisfied sigh as he felt like he was just revitalized.

For him, nothing could beat this feeling, especially thanks to his experience in the parallel world. Cooling down his 'engine/body' was one of the blissful moments that came as a bonus to working out.

While it was true that he hardly felt pain from training, the exhaustion of the body was still there and the cold water was at least able to wash away half of that exhaustion.

"Here you go."

Putting on his clothes and going out of the shower, Chrome sat on the table as Sarah brought him a plate of lightly pan-fried chicken.

"Thanks, mom."

Not forgetting to thank her before he started replenishing his protein reserves, Chrome couldn't help but once again compare his life in both worlds…

A world where he trained day and night, had to prepare his meals himself, stay alone with little sources of entertainment.

A world where he only trained from two to three hours max, received familial support, was really never alone, and had quite the amount of entertainment sources.

Having gone through this routine in both worlds for the last week, perfecting his 'normal' dose of training, Chrome appreciated the balance that living in both worlds brought.

Being stuck in either world had only resulted in disappointing 'Chrome(s)' so far, it was only now that his life truly started to change!

'I should start 'that' tomorrow now that the training routine has been settled…'

Finally taking a different, solid, step in his own normal world, Chrome could finally move to the next step in his parallel one...