Gym

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Inside a well-lit gym with high-end equipment.

A woman with red shoulder-length hair and amber eyes was running on a bulky treadmill with blue neon lights lining up its side.

The contrasting blue lights and her wavy scarlet hair created an atmosphere that further accentuate her attractiveness.

She had a white skin, oval-shaped face, and well-toned body with just the right amount of muscles to captivate every man looking at her.

Just the figure of her running in regular sportswear already turned a couple heads from the other people at the gym.

"...Hey, who's she?" One of the trainers asked his colleague on the side as they idled around the facility.

"Heh, I just saw her file this morning, her name is Medea Dormer. Don't know much, but I heard the owner said that he had to personally go and invite her to work out at our gym." His friend answered.

"You... searched her file? Why?" The first guy asked with a somewhat creeped out look on his face.

"Y-you know, research and stuff... I'm curious, shut up!" The friend became nervous at the question.

"Still, for the boss to invite her himself..."

"Right? Our Orthos Gym is the most high-class gym in the area, we even have our own Arena fields and restoration pods. Being invited here for marketing purposes must mean that she's a renowned athlete of some kind!"

"Well, you're half-right."

A low and heavy voice suddenly resounded from the back of the two trainers.

"!!"

"Boss!" "Owner!"

Very quicky the two guys stopped loitering around and stood at attention the moment they turned their backs and saw the middle-aged man in a suit.

The man was called Mister Faulkes by his colleagues, and either owner or boss by the employees inside the gym.

He was the CEO of the newly-founded Orthos Gym, the most expensive and high-class gym in the surrounding Eastern Zeta area.

"What do you mean we're half-right boss?" One of the two trainers asked.

"She's not a famous athlete or anything like that... Not yet anyway, you may consider her an investment for our Orthos Gym. She's a highly talented Arena player."

"Wait, her? A Battle Arena player?" The trainers shared a surprise look.

"What are you surprised about? Even if the majority of its players are males, Arena is still a mixed-gender sport!" Mister Faulkes harrumphed in a displeasing tone,

"With both Genetic Enhancements and Genetic Modification supporting most Arena athletes, there's practically no differences between the two genders' physical prowess pass the Stage-1 Human."

"That's True..." The guy nodded apologetically.

Although around 80% of the players in Olympus Pro League were males, there were still many exceptional women athletes among them, and not few had been crowned MVPs throughout the history of Battle Arena.

"She was the ace player in the school that won the Championships last year. However, she resigned from the team for her senior year because she wants to focus on preparing herself for the Arena License..."

"Damn... That means she's still in high school." One of the trainers mumbled, "Is she strong?"

"What do you mean strong? She'd wipe the floor with you!!" The owner snarked at the remark,

"...From what I can see of her performance, the chances of her passing the test is above 90%."

"Above nine... Then why hasn't she applied for it yet?"

"She just turned 18 this February. Don't worry, she said she already applied for the end-of-april test..." The owner's words trailed off at the end,

"After that, our gym will be known for being the gym of a Starseed Player!" His eyes seemed to shine with anticipation when he looked at the red-haired girl's running form.

"Wow, a Starseed..." The two trainers' mouths gaped following the statement.

The term Starseed Player had been used for every generation of prodigies who had managed to attain the Arena Athlete License and Gene Modification subsequently before entering college.

Most of these athletes had smooth journeys into going pro. And though not all of them produced good results in the league, most of them were able to hold themselves well in the pro scene with some of them even becoming Arena all-star players.

*pant* *pant*

Medea, which was the main subject of their conversation, didn't notice the gossiping that had taken place behind her as she kept focusing on her runs.

Actually, it was more like she was sprinting at full speed rather than simply running. She had been doing it for the past couple minutes she was on the treadmill.

'2 more weeks...!' Half of the time, her thoughts were only occupied with one thing.

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Saturday morning.

Back in the Lang residence.

Irvine was eating his bacon and egg breakfast in the dining room while browsing some sports news on his phone.

'Muscle Strength of 14.8... I need to quickly optimize my physique in these 2 weeks!'

He had realized during his personal morning training today that he was truly not used to his current body.

He was back to his weaker 'Stage-1 Human' physical state with only a one-time Genetic Enhancement on stamina.

This fact not only affected his performance whenever he'd wanted to exert some strength, but also made it impossible for him to execute more advanced maneuvers that required irregular movements.

"I can't perform at my best like this..." He mumbled.

'Is it too much of a stretch to get my body to the peak Stage-1's 20.0 points muscle strength before the test?' Irvine pondered with food in his mouth.

In the current age of Universal Date (UD), mankind had successfully invented the 2 ways of strengthening methods which was 'Genetic Enhancement' and 'Genetic Modification'.

From the two, Gene Modification was a highly-regulated procedure with several binding laws related to it because of its effect of granting 'Superpowers' to people.

Furthermore, there was also the moral and ethical implication of changing one's genetic structures into something less similar to that of human. But this was a concern from the early days of Genetic Modifications.

Nowadays, it was considered normal for a person to have undergone Gene Modification as long as he/she was an athlete, a law enforcement officer, or was someone in the army.

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The other side of mankind's genetic advancement however, was a lot more accessible and easily acceptable even when it was first introduced to the populace.

Genetic Enhancement could be said to be a process of refining the physical limit of human DNA.

It allowed a person to experience certain strengthening effects that increased the performance of skins, bones, and internal organs, while also releasing the threshold limit of one's muscles development.

It worked like this:

Normal humans have the average muscle strength from 5.0 to 10.0 points max. Which put them at the physical state of Stage-0 Human.

However, once one reached the peak of 10.0 points muscle strength, one would be eligible to undergo a Genetic Enhancement that increased the toughness of his skins and bones, and also the performance of one's internal organs.

After the enhancement procedure was complete, one could be considered a Stage-1 Human with the muscle strength limit of 20.0 points. Exceeding human's previous peak to double its original value.

The following development continued with the same patterns with 30.0 points limit for Stage-2, 40.0 points for Stage-3, and so on and so forth.

Although all Genetic Enhancements generally have that same effect. One would be able to choose their preferred specification for each enhancement they went through.

Stamina specification would give priority to the enhancements of your lungs and heart.

Strength specification would give priority to muscle growth speed and density.

Mental specification would give priority to the overall brain function.

Etc.

In conclusion, Gene Enhancements were capable of increasing the limit of muscles development because they strengthened the other parts of the body that supported those muscles such as the skins and the bones.

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Average citizens were usually on Stage-0 to Stage-1 of their physical state, depending on their interest towards physical activity.

But for high-level athletes, police officers, or the military. Stage-1 would be the minimum bar for entry into their world.

With that said, Irvine who was currently a Stage-1 Human with 14.8 points of muscle strength in his senior year of high school could be considered well above the average even if he wanted to consider a career in law enforcement or the army.

But he's not satisfied with that!

Especially if he wanted to yield great results in the license test!

"Might be impossible to get it to 20.0 points, but I have to do all I can to rise it... A training facility is my best bet."

'Preferably one with combat rooms at least. That way I can spar freely and get used to this weak body.'

"You want to join a gym?"

Just as Irvine was about to finish his breakfast, the soft voice of his sister echoed from the dining room's partition.

"You just got back?" He asked.

Her figure was wearing a sweat shirt with her hair neatly tied to the back. It's pretty clear that she had just finished her exercise.

*nod*

"From my morning jog."

"You are the epitome of a healthy responsible adult."

"I'm not an adult yet though."

"Still." Irvine only shrugged at her nonchalant answers.

"But you also go on a morning exercise. Even earlier than me." She plainly retorted.

"Yet I'm hardly a responsible person..."

"So, are you really looking for a gym?" Althea asked again.

"Yes. Why? Oh, want to go to gym togethe--"

"No." He was cut off before he could even finish his suggestion.

She was still wearing the same emotionless face, but Irvine could somehow notice a tint of red on her cheek.

Althea continued to her main point, "Why don't you check out this gym?"

She suddenly pulled a flyer from her sweat shirt pocket and put it on the dinner table.

[Orthos Gym Grand Opening] was written in bold letterings at the center-front of the flyer.

"Hm?" Irvine was a little curious as to why his sister picked up this pamphlet even though he hadn't mentioned anything about wanting to go to gym until just now.

But the answer quickly revealed itself the moment he saw one of the points under 'Facilities' on the flyer:

[-Private Arena field and Restoration pods for combat training...]

'Truly... What a considerate little sister.'

"Where did you get this?" He picked up the flyer to give it a more thorough read.

"Some people were distributing them all over the city."

"And what are you doing in the city?"

"...Mom said we ran out of some ingredients last night."

"See, responsible adult." Irvine grinned widely as he looked at his sister's face.

"..."

He had truly come to miss these sorts of exchanges with Althea. Although the dynamic might've been slightly different from back when he was a 'real' teenager.

'At least this time I can try to look the part of a real older brother.' Irvine smiled wryly.

In the future, he had become more and more distant to both his sister and his own parents starting from a few years into his pro career.

"..."

He stared into space for a bit longer before turning his attention back to the flyer.

'Orthos Gym... They seem like a good choice, but still rather expensive. The name does sound familiar though.' He contemplated,

'I should probably go take a look since it's the weekend and all.'

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When Althea saw that her brother had started to concentrate on his plans again after seeing the pamphlet, she left his side and went upstairs to her own room so as not to disturb him any longer.

As she walked up the stairs of the house, she kept on replaying in her mind every interaction she had had with her brother ever since he'd returned home yesterday.

'He's truly different somehow! How did he suddenly look all mature-like??' Althea complained quietly.

'...It's not a bad change though... Should I try to visit the school's Arena team sometime?'

She entered her room quietly wearing an almost indiscernible tinge of excitement on her face.

The two brother and sister quietly spent the rest of their Saturday morning each with their own thoughts.