Monday Morning. The Day of the Expedition.
I woke up before the alarm.
I lay in bed for a moment, staring at the ceiling. A strange flutter of excitement sat in my stomach. Today was the Freshman Expedition. The first real arc of the game. The tutorial was over.
"Finally."
I threw the covers off and walked to the full-length mirror in the corner of the room.
I paused.
The person staring back at me wasn't the same person from a week ago.
All my hard work had paid off.
I no longer looked like the weak, skinny "pimp" that Maya had bullied. The hollow cheeks were filled out, giving my jawline a sharper definition. The ribs that used to show through my skin were now covered by a layer of lean, wiry muscle—the kind built for speed rather than bulk. My shoulders seemed broader, my posture straighter.
My height had even increased by a centimeter or two, probably due to the improved posture and the nutrient-dense "bodybuilder diet" I had adopted from my 21st-century knowledge.
