Chapter 2

“T-Two.” I grunted as I forced myself up. Pushups were not easy, and my arms were still jello, but it was really good experience.

*100 Body XP Gained.*

Turns out I was now strong enough to do basic exercises, and while lifting my arms and working my incredibly weak body did give me XP after a while of doing it, actual direct exercise was a whole other class.

The first time I did an actual pushup I gained XP every rep. Of course I could only do one rep at a time at the start.

But with the ability to go to sleep and wake up fully recovered. I was cheating while Jun was out of the house. Normally the amount of muscle pain I would be in would put me out of commission for days. If not more considering how weak I still was.

But with a nap I was back and ready to push myself again. Turns out I could actually adjust how much time I slept for as well. There was an actual 24 hour clock when I decided to sleep. I just hadn’t seen it because I don’t usually keep my eyes open when trying to sleep.

Stupid weird Gamer system.

“T-Threeee!” I grunted, managing a third pushup but it left me on my stomach gasping my arms burning and I realized they weren’t going to be any help getting me back on my feet.

“Okay I’m out.” I whispered as I simply rested on the floor for a while. Until I realized just how gross the floor was.

“Damn, when was the last time we cleaned this place?” I grunted being able to look at the ground I could see just how much dust and trash had been stuffed in the corners.

Grumbling I rose up mostly without my arms since they were dead and I wandered around the apartment really taking it in. We were really poor huh? I couldn’t help but think. Most of the stuff was old. Worn or badly repaired. With that I realized I was looking at the metal slats that blocked the window and pushed the button to open them. Taking in the world outside the apartment for the first time since the drive home.

The world was full of trash.

But there right outside the window was a pretty sakura tree in full bloom. The pink petals not the only color I could see, but they were the only natural color, surrounded by faded graffiti or punks walking around in neon clothes.

It sorta fit. This city. It wasn’t a prison like a certain girl once thought.

It was just… Overgrown. A neglected garden.

“Huh. I’ve been inside too long. I’m getting philosophical.” I couldn’t help but mutter to myself as I decided to refocus.

Exercise like this might be pretty boring. Wearing out every part of myself until I couldn’t go on, and then sleeping for a few hours until I was fully recovered to do it again, but there was something…

Well it was like playing a game. Grinding out some stats in a game, except this was more real. More important. So instead of drifting off in my head I got back down on the floor and started trying to do a crunch.

It didn’t go over well, but the effort gave me some more XP.

—–

*Body Leveled up!*

I blinked, breaking my concentration on my failed attempts at squats to stare at the alert.

I quickly threw the alert to the side and opened my stats.

“Body level 1. I’m actually human again.” I muttered as I rose up my body was burning and I was sweaty, but this time as I rose up.

My body didn’t wobble. I didn’t feel weak other than normal exercise tiredness. I started walking around the small apartment and it didn’t tire me out, or make me feel like I should stay close to the wall.

I breathed in deeply and let it out. I felt… Normal.

Well…

I was hungry. I headed into my room and put on a few more clothes. A jacket over my light shirt I had been wearing while I exercised, a hat over my head, the hat looked like it was something I wore when I was younger. With a cute cat image on it, that had been covered in Tyger Claw stickers but I put it on anyway. And then my shoes. Which were weird.

Crazy neon boots. This fuckin city.

But with that I stepped out of the apartment for the first time since I entered it. The hallway was quiet other than old equipment struggling along. I decided to take the stairs to start. See if I could handle them, plus get some extra exercise.

I opened the heavy gate with the code I had and started down. My body handled the strain easily enough. Even if my legs were still aching from my previous exercise. But it felt nice, to just. Go.

Not be trapped inside anymore.

Two weeks. Not bad. I was partially thankful that Jun was sort of an idiot. He hadn’t thought it was weird that I was already able to walk. Just thankful that I could.

The doctors probably hadn’t bothered to tell him it should have taken me months to be able to walk on my own again.

I wasn’t going to bring that up to him. Instead I steadily walked down the stairs enjoying the feeling of moving farther and farther away from where I had been stuck until I hit the bottom floor.

“What a trash pit.” I scowled, noticing plenty of trash lying around. The whole bottom of the apartment complex was a mess. As I entered the lobby I noticed the two old asian men sitting in the corner

Since I was hungry I walked over to the vending machine only to swiftly turn around as I realized what it was they were offering.

SchwabSchwab Grape sold grape flavored fried ants.

I shuddered at the very idea of that. So instead I turned around and walked out into the street where a street vendor was cooking up some sort of meat balls on a stick right outside the door.

Did I have any idea what they were? Nope. But they weren’t ants.

I spent a couple eddies on buying one as I looked around.

People were walking back and forth all around and for a moment I felt like… This was real. These were actual people, not just NPC’s in a video game. I couldn’t help myself but keep moving.

Even if I promised myself just a once around the block. I didn’t want to be gone for too long.

So I walked. The smell of the city was… Strong. But it was the people that I watched. Hobos sitting in filth and just… Dying. Punks kids that were looking towards their future even if they had no idea what it would entail stalked around. Some in the neon looks of Tyger Claws, a few of the other gangs wandered. I saw a Mox girl saunter down the street, a bag of clothes or something hanging from her elbow.

She caught me watching and threw me a wink. I just smiled at her as I walked past. There were so many people. So much life, and so much death. I could hear shouts coming from alleyways. Which I purposefully made sure to walk as far away from as I could. In the distance over the sound of the vehicles rumbling around I heard a gunshot and then two, and then twenty. But it was far in the distance.

And all the while people just lived. Chattered either to each other or on a call. As I circled the block I came across a little restaurant out on the side of the street. The set up was cooking more of the meatballs on a stick. Still hungry I stopped and ordered a second helping, the taste was better at this place I noticed to my pleasure. Passing the eddies over and thanking the cook who looked quite pleased and gave me a very Japanese bow, which I returned.

Then I continued on. I realized where I was as I turned the corner. I could see the little underground shopping area. It took me a few minutes of walking before I found the name on a sign to confirm. “Cherry Blossom Market. Nice I live right next to it.” I muttered looking down into the glass roof into the market.

I decided to keep walking though. That would be an adventure for another day.

Continuing on I noticed the massive concrete structure that led up from the street lots and lots of stairs.

I walked around them for now, but I already had an idea forming in my head as I continued my walk around the block. I reached the front of my apartment complex. Giving a nod to the vendor that I bought the food from as I stepped back inside.

Time to get back to work.

I stopped at the bottom of the steps. “Five floors.” I reminded myself. As I started walking up the steps.

*100 Body Experience Gained.*

—–

“Ah Jun-Nii, welcome home.” I called out as I continued to do my crunches.

“Ah… Thanks.” He muttered, having stopped to stare as I continued to do my exercise.

“You aren’t overdoing it right?” He asked finally after a few moments but I shook my head on my upward bend.

“Nope! Just making sure my muscles aren’t all jello!” I tell him as I lay back down to get ready for another.

Body had leveled up again. Being able to do some basic running and be able to do more than just wave my limbs around had caused my XP to come in much faster.

Which did allow me to learn how leveling stats worked.

Each stat needed a thousand XP per level which multiplied by the level up. So to get to level 1 in a stat. I needed a thousand XP. To reach level 2 I needed 2000.

Of course as I learned, sometimes it was actually easier to level once you hit a point. Since I could do more than one pushup at a time, the amount of experience I was earning had gone up crazy fast. Which is when I learned that the more pushups I did the less experience I would get for each one.

I guess as my body grew stronger, weaker exercises wouldn’t help as much.

But for now it still gave me XP and I had switched to lots of different exercises to see. Crunches pushups squats jogging. Using the stairs in the apartment to go up and down.

All of it gave XP. Hence why I was already at Body 2, and working towards 3.

“Well don’t overdo it.” He demanded with a growl before wandering into the apartment losing his gear as he did, slowly going from a gangster to an irritable teenager.

“Oh, do I have a weapon? A knife or a gun or something?” I asked as I continued exercising.

“What? Why do you want a weapon?” He demanded. “Did someone bother you?”

“No no. I ugh hold on.” I groaned, taking a moment to lay back and catch my breath. My core was absolute fire. I rolled onto my side and got up that way knowing my stomach would be no good for a while. “No, I went out on a walk earlier.”

“You what!? Motoko you don’t know anything! You can barely walk, and-”

“And I can walk better actually.” I told him as I stood up and walked around showing him just how firm I was as I walked around the apartment. “And I know I don’t know a lot, which is why I need to learn. But from what I can see it’s dangerous out there, so I wanted to know if I had a weapon or something?”

“Your katana was lost when… You don’t currently. I’ll get you something. A knife, and a gun at least.” He tells me firmly as he turns his back and plops a pair of burritos onto the table. “Come eat first. You must be hungry.”

“We have to talk about your burrito obsession Onii-San.” I say plainly as I sigh and grab the burrito. Causing Jun to look surprised as he looked at his own burrito in confusion.

“What’s wrong with them?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

—–

Jun was a teenager of his word. The next day he came home to me doing pushups as I listened to the Netrunner guide, which had surprisingly given me some Intelligence XP as well. So I was definitely doing something right there.

“Here.” He said as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a pistol, and a combat knife. Laying them on the table.

“Oh. That was fast, Jun-Nii.” I told him. “Thank you.” I grinned as I went to check them over but his hand firmly pushing them against the table kept me from touching.

“Do you even know how to use a gun?”

“Mostly?” I offered which was the truth. I knew enough to at least not accidently shoot myself, or someone else. Although I didn’t have a lot of practice firing them. Shooting hadn’t been big on my hobbies in my last life.

“Then I’ll walk you through some of it. I’m not going to have you kill yourself after everything.” He ordered settling down on the couch as he grabbed the gun and casually unloaded it, putting the magazine and bullet that had been in the chamber down on the table. “Alright, first this is a Unity handgun. Twelve round standard magazine. Let me show you how to hold it, so you don’t shoot yourself. Or lose control of it.” He started firmly.

After an hour of focused training from Jun I felt my alert sound off.

*Handguns Experience Gained.*

*Skill not unlocked, no XP gained.*

*Handguns Unlocked.*

I smiled as I felt myself growing more confident. Whatever I was doing was right. And a skill? Yeah I liked that.

—–

I slept like usual that night, waking up the next morning feeling refreshed, and instantly got up to grab my pistol.

My normal exercise right in the morning usually left me pretty wrecked to do anything else. So instead I was going to practice with my handgun to make sure the skill was raised up.

I didn’t want to die after all, and a handgun was only like barely above unarmed in this city.

So as Jun continued to sleep as I opened the windows in the living room spotting the Sakura tree with a smile I began practicing drawing and falling into a stance with my pistol. Over and over, Every few times it gave me an alert.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

*125 Handguns Experience Gained.*

Over and over. Because drawing your weapon and getting on target was more important in real life than just accuracy.

Although I would like both.

Slowly I was even gaining Reflex XP as well as I was training in moving very quickly, and not just exercising.

At least I had found a way to raise that one as well. It was currently at 1. Just like most of my stats, other than body.

I grumbled 1 Intelligence? I was smarter than that! Stupid Gamer system!

With a grin I got another alert.

*100 Handguns XP gained.*

*Handguns skill level up!*

Instantly I felt it take effect. With a gasp I went from my own guessed draw of my handgun to a smooth surety.

I knew a better way to draw my handgun. Not guessed, knew. It wasn’t like it had been downloaded into my head, it was more like… I just knew instinct muscle memory. The whole thing.

I could feel my grip shifting becoming better. My stance adjusting naturally to better aim and control the gun.

It felt great. I kept grinding, if this is what it was like at level 1 Handguns, what would level 2 be like?

Unfortunately no Handguns alert came, only a few more for reflexes until finally I stopped to check my stat screen.

What happened?! It had been way way too long since I got something!

Then I noticed it.

Handguns was listed as *Max* at level 1?!

With a bit of struggle I managed to focus on Handguns and that is when I noticed it.

Good knews. I would be able to raise my skill above level 1. Bad news, skills were limited by their governing stat. Without raising Reflex which had Handguns listed under it, I couldn’t raise Handguns anymore.

Which was like the Cyberpunk game, now that I thought about it.

“Dammit.” I cursed. I had really wanted to keep that feel good gamer feel. But now I am stuck, unable to raise the skill anymore! Ugh. Nothing worse than being mid grind only to have to stop.

“What is it?” Jun asked sounding tired as he stuck his head into the living room.

“O-Oh. Sorry Jun-Nii, I was just… It’s nothing. I was practicing my draw a bit. Just in case.” I told him with a sigh as I realized I was already feeling pretty sweaty this morning just from that.

Ugh. I hadn’t even done my morning workout yet either.

“Alri-Yawn!-ght. Just don’t blow a hole in the wall.”

“It’s unloaded!”

“Just don’t be a gonk.” He reiterates and turns back around to his bed. I guess it was still pretty early for Jun. He was a teenage boy and it wasn’t even noon yet. I sighed before settling the gun on the table beside its magazine.

Then my hand twitched towards the knife.

I would still have to practice with that too. If I needed to stab some.. Gonk. Heh. Gonk. If I had to stab some gonk I better know how to stab.

So I grabbed the knife and started working into a rhythm of stabbing outward. It was… awkward. I was really glad Jun had gone back to bed, because if he saw how awkward I was he might just take it away.

But that didn’t matter because minutes into the practice I got an alert.

*Blades Experience Gained.*

*Skill not unlocked, no XP gained.*

*Blades Unlocked.*

With a grin I continued to practice. Rushing towards that high of gaining a skill up.

I became a lot more practiced with the gun in just one skill up, how would that translate to my Knife?

*100 Reflex XP Gained*

Another alert popped up reminding me that moving like this wasn’t just increasing my Blades skill.