Gym Sensei

"Ray, get up and get your lunch," Slippy whispered.

After sending Guy sprawling onto the ground with his "special" kick. Ray took a slight breather and left, though, not before taking Guy's other shoe and tossing them into the trash can, in which Slippy was proud at Ray for doing.

"At least he's not a total wimp," thought Slippy as Ray staggered through the hallway from his injuries. The delinquent from earlier was laughing at Guy as he picked him up with one hand.

"Bro are you ok? You got your di*k kicked in!"

Guy looked at him miserably. Do I look ok to you, you blind piece of sh*t? Sending the delinquent a glare with teary eyes, Guy felt a wave of nausea as he collapsed onto the ground.

The delinquent grinned at Guy, "Well, you should get stronger and beat the shit out of this guy or else you never live this down lmao."

--

Having surviving his second day at school, and the brutal mauling by Guy, Ray decided to resume his gym workout to avoid another mauling.

"Good on you for remembering about your mission!" Slippy mentally patted Ray.

Ray just shrugged. The missions could be accessed in his system menu that he usually saw in the corner of his vision. As long as Ray had a visual reminder, he could do things on his own. He appreciated that the system left mission information available, and wished it also had a calendar function or something. Also, he had his own reason for going.

He was lucky that he had an eccentric hobby of studying weird facts online. He had just so happened to have seen this interesting Youslide video about this martial art called Lethwei (more similar to Muay Boran which is where both arts originated from) that discussed if Muay Thai fighters would transition into it? Both martial arts had really only three differences:

One, Lethwei is primarily fought with bare knuckles or wrapped hands unlike the gloves used in Muay Thai; two, in traditional Lethwei, there is only one way to win and that is by KO; and third, headbutts are allowed and plays a central part in Lethwei. This meant that when the usually-dominating Muay Thai fighters were pitted against a Lethwei fighter, the Lethwei fighter would most likely knockout the Muay Thai fighter with headbutts, but in turn, the focus on headbutts meant that the Lethwei fighter would be less technically skilled at their other "eight weapons" (also known as the eight-point of contact, 2 elbow, 2 fist, 2 knee, and 2 legs). So the average match between a Lethwei practicer versus a Muay Thai practicer would start off with the Muay Thai practitioner thrashing the Lethwei practitioner. That is until the Lethwei fighter starts using his head both literally and metaphorically. Their headbutt is an ugly and hard-to-understand form that requires years of training to fully grasp. In other words, the dangerous brutal move called 'headbutt' that normally would be thought of as brain-damaging and a "high risk, high gain" manoeuvre to both the user and receiver was turned into a controllable and powerful human weapon, making it the ninth and final weapon of Lethwei.

Ray, who had a love of learning (when he didn't suck or not "get it") started researching it after getting sucked into the Youslide video. He managed to grasp the bare minimum of it around the end of grade 9 and could physically do it in real life at grade 10. This was back when he was going through "8th-grade syndrome" (middle school syndrome). After starting grade 10, Ray grew tired of learning any combat-related subject and moved on to ants. He loved watching Ants Canada.

He was lucky that he went through 8th-grade syndrome, otherwise, he would never have had the slightest clue on how to headbutt Guy. It may have looked easy and clumsy to the onlookers, but only Ray knew how hard it was. Hours and hours of research, muscle memorizing, and tons of luck and determination! Not even mentioning the modified positioning since he was grounded. For once, his Asperger's was an advantage to his victory and personal safety.

His win against Guy was something Ray chalk up to luck. Instead of feeling pride or happy it only served to motivate him. If he wanted to survive another encounter Ray has to improve his overall self, otherwise, he wouldn't be so lucky next time!

The instant the school bell rang, Ray sprinted out the schoolyard (huffing) and made it to the gym.

At the gym, Ray checked his Mission details again as a refresher, in case it updated. However, there were no changes as Slippy didn't sneakily add more to his training regimen just because he won his first fight.

[Mission Info!]

--

Mission: Go to the Gym

[Basic Strength Training]

Time Limit: 1 year

Goal: Reach 15 Strength

Current Strength: -9835

Side mission(s):

(1) Pushups 0/20

(2) Squats 0/20

(3) Crunches 0/30

(4) Plank 0/30 seconds

(5) Running 0/10km

--

Last time he barely knew how to do a proper pushup, but with Mark's help, he was able to complete his 20 pushups part of the mission! However, he was exhausted just from doing proper pushups that the first day, so he went home without completing his mission criteria.

Today, Ray managed to complete his pushups, although slowly, and he had to take breaks every 3 pushups or so, with Mark watching in the background and nodding in approval.

"That noob finally gets it!" Mark wept tears in his heart as he observed, and his body cried tears of manly sweat as he did his squats with 94kg (206lbs) attached to his bar.

Ray got up from the mat as he finished his pushups, and looked happy as he wiped his sweat, reading that his pushup count is now at 20/20 in his mission menu.

Slippy: Okay, today we will try to do 20 squats as well!

Ray nodded and proceeded to squat down as if he was trying to take a dump right here in the middle of the workout floor, and then stood straight back up, and then repeated himself a few more times before a voice interrupted him.

"STOP, STOP, STOP! What are you doing?!"

Mark had set down his weights and walked over to Ray. Ray recognized him as the nice guy who helped him with his pushups last time.

"I am doing squats."

Mark had his hand to his forehead in exasperation. Nevermind, this kid was NOT independent. Last time he looked like he was dry humping the floor in his pathetic push-up attempts. This time he was squatting as if he was about to give birth to a big, brown food baby in public!

"Do you know how to do a squat..?" Mark asked.

Ray showed him what he thought was a squat, and other people in the gym just turned their eyes away and tried not to laugh too rudely.

Mark: …

"Look, kid. What's your name again? You should go join the Corefit class, it will really help you understand your own body better."

*Ding!*

[Support member added]

Name: Mark Ng

Title: Experienced Fighter

Age: 19

Strength: 3

Skills: Basic Uppercut Lvl.3, Knee Strike Lvl.3...

--

It seems as if Mark had finally decided in his heart to take Ray under his wing, at least until Ray stopped being an embarrassment to himself as a human being with bones and… minimal muscles. Slippy analyzed Mark's stats, and mused, "He isn't so bad for your first proper trainer, excluding me, of course!"

Either way, Mark still had around 600 times more strength than Ray at the moment, due to Ray's ridiculous start line of over -9000 strength.

".... Ray," Ray mumbled in reply.

Mark slapped him hard on the back, "Say it louder! First, we've got to start with your self-confidence!" he laughed loudly.

"MY NAME IS RAY!!!" Ray boomed, startling the other gym members with his sudden shout.

Mark could feel his regrets creeping in, "That was way too loud." Ray was shouting his name as if he were calling out to his mom from across the parking lot at Wallcart.

Slippy: I take things literally, so please be mindful of that when you tell me to do something.

Mark turned his head. What was that? Did Ray tell him that? But his mouth didn't move! I must have been imagining it, Mark thought to himself as he shook his head.

"Anyway, Ray. I'll teach you how to do a squat first, then you can sign up for the Corefit class. I actually am one of the instructors, so I'll help you along if you sign up!"

Mark then kindly modelled how to do a proper squat, had Ray attempt to copy, and then moved Ray's joints and limbs in place as Ray held the pose. He spotted the young man as he attempted to do the squats on his own after Mark let go of his body.

*Ding!*

Mission: Go to the Gym

[Basic Strength Training]

Time Limit: 1 year

Goal: Reach 15 Strength

Current Strength: -9835

Side mission(s):

(1) Pushups 20/20

(2) Squats 20/20

(3) Crunches 0/30

(4) Plank 0/30 seconds

(5) Running 0/10km

--

The mission menu notified Ray that he had successfully completed the second part of his mission. Feeling inspired, Ray turned around and asked Mark, "Can you teach me how to do a crunch and a plank too?"

Mark felt tears of gratitude roll down his cheeks as Ray actually asked him how to do an exercise BEFORE embarrassing himself! "Sure, no problem, kid!"

Minutes turned into hours, and Ray had only running to complete before he could finish his [Basic Strength Training] for the first time since it was assigned to him.

"I want to run the 10k!"

Ray, overflowing with confidence excitedly said as he ran toward the treadmill. However, Mark grabbed onto Ray stopping him from going onto the treadmill. Both Ray and Slippy turned to frown at Mark.

Mark returned with a frown.

"Can you even walk 8k?"

"He's got a point," Slippy gave in.

"Huh, did you say something?"

"Oh, I said you've got a point."

Mark had to turn in a circle in exasperation, "... I don't get you at all."

….

Ray didn't try to refute Mark. Even though it was an only basic exercise that most people could do, Ray suffered and had to take many breaks in-between his reps in order to get them done. Doing things properly was actually harder than he thought. He had to tighten and flex muscles he didn't know he had in order to do those exercises. From what he had already seen of Ray, Mark knew that if he pushed Ray too hard he would collapse. Fearing a total body breakdown, he gave Ray plenty of rest, but in doing so they had spent over half an hour doing crunches and planks.

"I have to pick up my girlfriend now. See you on Thursday, at 4:30 pm. Corefit."

Ray watched as Mark walked away.

Slippy wiggled his way to the top of Ray's backpack, "Ray, you should probably check the time."

"Ok."

Ray looked around as he realized that there was much of the gym he had never explored yet. The only part he was familiar with was the free weights areas (dumbbell and barbell were separated by different padding), the recipient desk, the bathroom, and the soft matted areas. There was still the area with the odd-looking contraptions, the many cardio machines, and the weird stuff lying on the shelves by the Eva-foam matted area.

Ray's glinted when he found an electrical clock above a weird bench beside the front desk.

It was 5:24 pm. He somehow spent approximately 3 hours on a basic workout that would take the average person less than 45 minutes.

"Ray, we should probably head back and take a shower. Run there as added practice. You gotta get used to running here and back anyway. Might as well use it as a reason to exercise more."

Ray nodded and walked outside the entrance and started his long run back home.