Let's Create a Baseline!

When I opened my eyes, the same ceiling as always greeted me.

"Ugh... Uuuupu! Blargh!"

But, as expected, I would never get used to the sensation of dying. I rolled to the side of the bed and emptied my stomach. I repeatedly did this until nothing was coming out anymore.

After that, I lay down without wiping my mouth, staring at the spinning ceiling. No, it's my vision spinning, isn't it? Sh*t, the sour taste in my mouth is threatening me to vomit once more.

I wanted to stand up and go wash myself, or maybe take a shower, but then I noticed an anomaly.

"...!"

My lower body wasn't responding!

Did the image of me losing everything below my waist impact my mind? If it did, then this is bad... I can't move my legs at all!

*Peek*

I also turned to look at my willy, but as expected, it didn't react even after I tried to wake it up. I'm too young to have E.D.!

"... D*mn it all."

I raised my arm, covering my eyes, trying not to cry. Why? Why do I need to suffer like this? Can't I just die now and end this harsh cycle? Probably not...

In the end, I fell asleep.

When I woke up, the first thing I did was check the date and time. Fortunately, I only slept for about 12 hours, making the current time exactly noon on December 30th. I looked down and saw that I could finally move my fingers on my feet.

Even my little guy was standing strong! It was too late for a "morning wood," however.

"Looks like a good sleep is all I need to fix what's wrong."

I'm still scared that one day I will suffer an injury I can't recover from. I'm not sure yet what that could be, but for now, I should just shower. I stink, smelling like puke, and my mouth tastes funny.

My current situation reminds me of how I felt the day after my first time getting piss drunk. Such a memory wasn't anything I should be proud of, but my lips curled into a smile, thinking of it as a funny occurrence now.

After a quick shower, brushing my teeth, and changing clothes, the first thing I did was... not open my computer, but check my status panel.

"...!"

As I did, I was surprised by something I saw. In the level section, the value was written as 2 instead of 1!

"My level gets preserved upon every reset?!"

This is good news! Although I could remember turning to level 3 after killing the wolf, I wonder why it's shown as level 2 now? Did my level drop after dying? What is this, some MMO? Losing experience upon death?

I tried opening and closing my hand, but I couldn't feel any difference. I did level up, right?

"Let's try benchmarking first."

For sure, a level-up would increase my physical abilities. By how much? That's what I need to figure out. I quickly turned around, picked up my helmet and keys, and ran to the parking lot. After riding my beloved bike, I went to the Pine Mall's exercise section. There, I "borrowed" a grip-strength tester.

I pulled it hard for a total of five times on each hand, each with an interval of 10 seconds between. My grip strength values had an average of 70 kg. I'm not sure what my grip strength was from before, but I'm pretty sure it's not that high.

After that, I borrowed a few more things. A stopwatch, timing myself for a 40-meter dash. I repeated it for three sets, taking my own time. It may be inaccurate, but I timed myself at 4.88 seconds on average.

This one, I'm confident, has improved. I could still recall how my best time was only 4.9 seconds back in college, so this means I'm even better now than when I was younger!

The next test I performed was the reflex test. For this one, I used a tennis ball-pitching machine. The rules were simple. For a set of 100 balls, I would need to catch as many as I could. I was standing 3 meters in front of the machine, by the way.

This, being as time-consuming as it is, was only done twice.

In the end, I managed to catch 35 balls on the first try, and 41 on the second. It was a pretty good score... I think.

"Anyway, with this, I have a baseline."

Strength, agility, and reaction time. These three are the basic values I need to rely on when fighting. To be specific, they're the ones with the highest impact.

I should keep the values I have deep in my mind. If only I could write it down and keep the note after my death... Like, after my death, I could check the previous chapter to read the actual values. That's an easy solution, for sure.

Anyway, I have no choice but to memorize them for now.

After finishing my experiment, I returned to my bike, with the grip-strength tester with me, and left. It's time to return to my room and begin the stream!

With the speed of my bike and the proximity of the mall to the building where I reside, I returned in the blink of an eye.

Back in my room, I turned on the PC and made sure my appearance was presentable. Compared to how I looked after my first few deaths, with eyebags and all that, I look so refreshed right now.

Soon, the stream started, and the usual three jumped in at the same time. "Great! Garuda's here!" I cheered immediately. "You want to ask about your abilities, right? Pyrokinesis is a great skill, enough that you can even kill small to medium-sized monsters!"

"Woah, how did you know my ability?"

"Bro, can you guess my ability too?"

"Are you just spouting nonsense? Garuda's riding in on the joke too!"

Of course, the three were still clueless about my ability right now. However, before that, I need to talk to Selen. "Right, Garuda. You're with Selen, a.k.a. xXSerenityXx, right now, aren't you? Tell her that I want her to make me a weapon with her ability."

"..."

"..."

"... Stalker."

Sh*t, it's not that! It's a misunderstanding!