[Knight's Path: Stage 1, Apprentice Knight]
[Quest Description: A true Knight should not be content to wallow in the mud. As a Knight's Squire, you must strive to become a true Knight.]
"Wait a minute," Li Wei scratched his head. "When did I ever agree to be a Knight's Squire?"
[The Knight's Ordeal: Within 14 days, raise your Strength, Agility, Constitution, and Spirit stats all to 1.2. A strong physique and noble character are essential to becoming a Knight.]
[Stage 1 Reward: Reach the target for any one stat, receive 3 Gold Coins.]
[Stage 2 Reward: Reach the target for any two stats, receive 7 Gold Coins.]
[Stage 3 Reward: Reach all targets, receive 10 Gold Coins and unlock the Class Promotion Trial.]
"Okay, forget I said anything," Li Wei's eyes lit up. "I'm in!"
Putting aside the whole "Class Promotion Trial," the 20 Gold Coins alone were worth more than 10,000 USD.
This sum was enough for him to move out of his basement and rent a small apartment fit for a normal person.
Li Wei couldn't help but look at his status panel again.
[Name: Li Wei]
[Age: 17]
[Strength: 0.8]
[Spirit: 1.0]
[Agility: 0.9]
[Constitution: 0.9]
[Skill: Poor Eloquence]
[Equipment: None]
[Unassigned Attribute Points: 0.1]
'Raising all my stats to 1.2 in 14 days doesn't seem too hard,' Li Wei thought. 'If I wander around a bit over the next few days, I might be able to trigger some quests and get it done.'
"I wonder if I can raise these stats by working out?" Li Wei looked around the empty basement. "I need to find a gym."
Deciding to act immediately, Li Wei grabbed a few changes of clothes from his suitcase, stuffed them into a bag, and headed out.
Night had already fallen and the crowds on New York's Eighth Avenue were thinning out, but when Li Wei followed Google Maps to the nearest gym, he was still shocked by the fitness culture in the United States of America.
It was a gym that had pretty good reviews on Google Maps. However, the inside wasn't filled with beautiful women in yoga pants, but rather with tattooed, hulking Black and Latino men, surrounded by old, rusty equipment.
At 10 PM in the Brooklyn District of New York, the gym was still buzzing with activity. All sorts of muscular brutes—men of every color with arms thicker than Li Wei's legs—were sweating up a storm in the temple of iron.
Li Wei's arrival went unnoticed. He walked up to the front desk and tapped lightly on the counter.
A massive white man with a neck thicker than Li Wei's thigh was sitting at the desk, idly watching a football game on TV.
When he saw Li Wei, he shot him a casual glance.
"Day pass is 15 USD, monthly is 60. Bring your own towel."
After saying that, he looked Li Wei up and down. "Private sessions are 150 USD each. First-time purchase comes with a free shot of topical testosterone and one of steroids."
"Uh... no, thank you," Li Wei politely declined the front desk's "power-up package," handing over his money and passport. "I'll just take a monthly pass, please."
"You sure?" the white man at the desk asked, looking down to register Li Wei's passport. "It's hard to see results when you train natural."
"The main thing is, it lets you break past your human limits, you know?" he said, striking a double bicep pose from his seat. The veins on his arms bulged so much that Li Wei worried they might actually burst one day. "I was just like you before I started hitting the gym—a scrawny little chicken. But look at me now, man."
"Bench 160 kilograms, squat 270," he said, handing the 40 USD in change, the passport, and the monthly pass back to Li Wei. "And I've only been at it for five years. If you change your mind, come find me. I'll give you a discount."
Li Wei just thanked him, asked where the showers and locker room were, and went to get changed before heading to a treadmill.
Consistent training was a must, but first, he needed to test his current physical condition to better gauge his potential for improvement.
First up was his 0.8 Strength. Li Wei estimated he should be able to bench press around 45 kilograms, which he figured was his current limit.
But the reality was even worse than he had imagined. A standard Olympic barbell weighs 20 kilograms. After adding just one 10-kilogram plate to each side, Li Wei barely managed to push up the 40 kilograms for a single rep before failing completely.
His squat was slightly better than his bench, but not by much. In the squat rack, he wobbled his way through a single, full-depth squat with 50 kilograms on the bar. Afterward, his trembling legs told him he couldn't manage another.
Li Wei looked at his single remaining unassigned attribute point. After some thought, he decided to add it to Strength.
[Strength 0.8] → [Strength 0.9]
The moment the number in his vision changed, Li Wei felt a faint tremor run through his entire body. Every muscle fiber seemed to pulse, and he could clearly feel an incredible transformation taking place within him.
Muscle fibers that would normally take years of effort to thicken were now growing and spreading wildly throughout his body.
Li Wei remained seated quietly on the bench press, feeling the pulsing in his body as he waited for the strength enhancement to finish.
Less than a minute later, Li Wei felt his long-sleeved T-shirt grow a little tighter.
He felt his arms and abdomen and was surprised to find that the spots where he could once feel his ribs were now covered by a thin layer of muscle. His entire frame had swelled slightly, almost imperceptibly to the naked eye.
When he tested his max strength again, Li Wei found that benching 40 kilograms was no longer a struggle.
In fact, with 0.9 Strength, he could now even bench 50 kilograms. His weighted squat also jumped to 65 kilograms.
To achieve this kind of progress through normal training, he would have had to hit the gym four times a week for at least a month, if not longer.
As for Constitution, his 0.9 stat allowed him to run for 1 kilometer at a 5:30 pace before he was gasping for breath and had to stop the treadmill.
As for Agility, his 0.9 stat translated to a 5.8-second 40-yard dash and a 15-second 100-meter sprint.
After running these tests, Li Wei had a rough idea of his current physical condition.
With stats like these, forget winning a national high school football championship; he'd have trouble even making the school's team.
Still, Li Wei was optimistic and confident. If all went as expected, his uncle's sleepwalking tonight should provide him with another opportunity for an interactive quest.
Just as a satisfied Li Wei was heading back to the locker room to change, he overheard a conversation between two large Black men just outside the door.
"Man, I've been on that cycle you told me about. My strength has shot way up."
"See? Told you. Learned it from a pro bodybuilder. Five tabs of Anastrozole and one tab of Caber a week. Then on Monday, five ml each of Masteron, Equipoise, and Tren. Then five tabs of A50 Anadrol pre-workout."
"How're your lifts lately?"
"I'm pushing 150kg on bench. Think I can try for a 230kg PR on squat soon."
"Holy shit, that's insane."
"You could do it too if you just up your dose."
"But I'm worried about what it'll do to my liver..."
"It's fine. You just do TRT afterward."
Li Wei finished changing without a word, slung his bag over his shoulder, and walked out of the locker room, glancing at the two Black men as he passed.
One of them looked to be around his age, but he was more than a full size bigger. His back was covered in a dense carpet of acne and pimples that looked like they could fester at any moment.
For some reason, Li Wei was suddenly reminded of the signature opening line from a social media influencer he used to follow:
Tragic news from the world of bodybuilding...
'Good thing I have the System.'