Change with the Times (2)

The next day on Earth Noah was at the gym early in the morning. Still following his daily routine. Over time training daily he had gotten back in peak condition. What he found weird was that he was still improving afterwards.

Normally it would be fine but he hadn't yet changed his routine for further improvement. This meant he wasn't improving because of working out rather it was something else. He guessed it was because of Secret of the Four Seasons: Winter Style, he had been spending a lot of time doing its movements.

Not only was he doing it daily in the gravity chamber in the Eternal Battlefield but also every day on earth. So he was improving in the secret art. When he first unlocked Cold Mind he had gotten much stronger physically as well as mentally, so it made sense.

This newfound strength was why he was willing to take on the leader straight on. He was confident that he would be able to take the detonator away in time and his aim had improved so hitting the man at the back also wasn't hard.

In the gym, he got out his new phone and jumped on the treadmill. He put on light music as he opened Explore the Eternal.

The app was different from yesterday. It had a complete redesign in a single night. Its interface had changed, and multiple new features were added. One was video guides, a lot of videos posted around on the internet were brought onto the platform with their creators. They also added a database for monsters, skills, awakened talents, traits, etc.

Guilds had their own section and were ranked by popularity. At the moment Moonlight was still dominating as number one, with Bloodhood in second and Fallen Heroes in third.

The top guilds had stopped recruiting online and now had set points for recruitment in the Eternal Battlefield as well as Earth. They now used more mainstream ways of advertisement, from celebrities to digital ads. A lot of celebrities being members of the guild themselves.

Guilds were now worth joining. They had gone through the initial development phase and had set up proper rules and regulations. Being Specifically useful for newcomers, they gave basic equipment, information, and helped in forming a team instantly. This helped a lot of people grow stronger faster.

This whole redevelopment all happened because large corporations around the world all invested in the Eternal Battlefield together. The Explore the Eternal App was currently the main App for the Eternal Battlefield so it was priority number one. It had been run by a few people at first now was run by thousands.

Noah opened the monster database and wanted to see what he could find inside. As he jogged a person joined him on the treadmill next to him.

The man recognised Noah after taking a second look, "You're Noah Sinfero?"

Lowering the volume of the music he was listening to, Noah nodded.

"Don't take this the wrong way, I used to think you were just another spoiled rich kid, but Ohff! I was so wrong!" The man said excitedly.

Noah nodded, barely listening. The man was talking about him standing up and saying he'll pay for everyone left during the attack. He had already gotten enough praise on that for the news. As for everything after that, he had made sure the first bullet the leader shot hit the camera to destroy any evidence. So he didn't expect others to know what happened after.

Getting off Noah went to get some water, the man followed.

"The video of you pulling the detonator and pushing the assault rifle out of the away at the same time is crazy!" The man went on.

Noah stopped, he took off the pods in his ear, "What video?"

"You haven't seen it? It already has a billion hits." The man unlocked his phone and showed the video to Noah.

It was a short clip recorded by someone in the crowd showing the scene where the leader pointing his gun at Noah noticed something was wrong and was about to press the detonator. Noah had moved managing to get control of both. Just as Noah used his body as a shield the scene ended as the smoke came in from behind hiding the rest.

"There was a vlogger in the crowd, he had a hidden camera on him that recorded the whole situation this is the current most popular highlight."

'Nothing I can do about it now,' Noah thought. He wanted to hide his strength since anything he showed that seemed abnormal would directly lead to people guessing if he had entered the Eternal Battlefield.

He still hadn't logged in back into his accounts on his new phone, doing so, he saw that his notifications had reached 10K. He put it away in silence, He would never be able to go through all the messages.

...

Later in the day, back at home and Alice had woken up the two looked at their phones. They had gotten a message from the school detailing the changes they would be implementing.

"School day will be extended by two hours. Classes will be more practical in learning. New courses such as survival training, combat analysis and fitness will be added. They are seriously doing this?" Alice said as she sipped on a glass of juice.

She went through the course outline for each then saw the last screen with a schedule of classes they would be following.

"What is this!?" Alice shouted. Noah looked over to see what surprised her.

"They sawed lunch in half to make time for other lessons," Alice said falling back on Noah. She now had so much fun in lunch hanging out with Noah and Kira. They had taken it away.

"We can also take Archery and Kendo as extra classes," Noah said. "Everyone must join a sports club, physical or virtual?"

"Everyone's already complaining on the group chat. I get why they did all of this but will it even help?" Alice asked.

"It probably will, it might not make a big difference but it'll help new people adjust to the sudden change next month." Next month a tenth of the population was going to enter, that was 1,000,000,000 people. It was when things would get serious, the world would really go under an earth-shattering change as one in ten people stopped normally functioning in society.

...

In the afternoon Kira visited Vince again. She had noticed that both his parents were busy people and he wouldn't have people to take care of him so she decided to come by.

Sitting down inside she noticed Vince was training with light weights as he sat on the bed.

As Kira walked in Vince put them down and smiled, "You came?"

Not answering the question she asked, "Did the doctor allow you to train?"

"He said it was fine as long as I don't overwork myself," Vince answered.

"Shouldn't you rest? There is no need to train while injured." Kira sat down near the bed.

"No, I still need to prepare for the national taekwondo competition in two months. If everything goes well I should be able to recover enough in time to participate. I hadn't been planning on participating first but after training with you I felt like I had a chance this time. I don't want to lose this opportunity."

"It's so important, even compromising your health?"

Vince looked at Kira, "You came in second when you participated, so if I come in first aren't I stronger than you?"

Kira had her eyes widen hearing his reasoning. He was doing this because she said she liked guys stronger than herself? She had participated six years ago, where Noah was the one to beat her. It had been so long since then, her strength was nothing like six years ago, his logic was so flawed that it was astonishing.

Seeing Kira speechless, Vince laughed, "I know I won't be stronger than you... but if I come first I'll take the opportunity to confess to you."

He had already made it obvious that he liked her, so he didn't shy away anymore. Kira also didn't seem to avoid him, so he felt like he had a chance. He was going to win, confess while giving the gold medal to Kira. This injury wasn't going to stop him.

Kira shook her head, "Do what you want." But she liked that he was determined. She was confused by what her feelings were for now.

She found Vince to be smart, determined and kind. His smile was bright and honest. He was even a little clumsy at times but she thought it was cute. If Alice and Noah hadn't said anything she would have not seen anything wrong with him. Their words were stuck with her, until she cleared out what happened between them she couldn't make a decision.

Happy that Kira hadn't rejected him Vince celebrated that he hadn't read wrong and had a chance.

They talked for a while, Kira accompanied him as he went for a walk in a wheelchair. Then walked out of the hospital at sunset.

As she got out of the door her phone buzzed. She opened it and saw it was a message from the MMA club group chat.

"...Due to circumstances, the National taekwondo competition has been brought forward to the 30th May..." The message went on apologising for the sudden change.

Kira looked around and saw that it was an official post. The competition had been brought forward. She turned to look back at the hospital, Vince wouldn't be able to recover in time. She thought of his reaction to seeing this message and her chest felt weird.

"I injured him so I need to heal him." Kira thought. She texted someone as she got in her car.

...

Noah looked at his phone as he sat with Alice, then got up.

Alice was playing Online Martial Arena so he wrote down that he would be leaving the house for twenty minutes. Then wore his shoes and walked out of the apartment.

Outside the building, he walked into a cafe, then saw Kira sitting with two cups of coffee already ordered.

He sat down, "Why'd you want to meet without telling Alice?"

"She's easier to convince than you. I want Vince to enter the Eternal Battlefield through the access point to heal his leg." Kira went straight to the point.

Unlike entering the Eternal Battlefield from the mana wave the access point moved your body from earth to the eternal Battlefield, so if Vince did that he could use a healing potion he would be able to instantly heal his injury.

"No," Noah answered sipping on the coffee. He kept a straight face but his coffee had been filled with sugar to the point he could feel crystals in his mouth. Kira knew he didn't like sugar in his coffee. She was here for war, not a friendly conversation.

"Fine, instead help me get in contact with these people. I know your family has invested in their research." Kira showed her phone. This was her actual goal.

The people she wanted contact with worked with athletes to help them fully recover from injures as fast as possible with no long-lasting effects, increasing their career life. They had shown great results and had been able to treat bone fractures in a fifth of the time normally taken.

The problem was that the team was highly sought after, even her family would have to use a lot of resources to get them to help Vince. It was unlikely her parents would be willing to spend such a fortune for him.

This team worked under a company owned by Noah's family. Even his mother had helped with the research. So Noah could easily ask them to help Vince recover in time for the competition.

Her eyes were resolute, she knew Noah would never help people he didn't like. If she didn't show she was serious, Noah wouldn't agree to help. She was making a bit of a power move. Knowing Noah, he wouldn't mind it. However, If she had gotten to Alice first and used her against him, he would have never let it go.

"I'll help," Noah answered. Kira had clearly thought things through when she came to see him. Vince had also gotten injured trying to help Kire. Those two were enough for him to agree.

Kira lightly smiled, "Thanks." A weight had been lifted off her. She then got up to leave.

"You should go rest up when you get home, you look as if you haven't gotten proper rest for a few days," Noah said with concern.

"I will."

Noah watched Kira leave, still sipping on the coffee hoping its sweet taste would remove the bitterness from his mouth- is that's why she put so much sugar in it?