The first step

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/Rub rub... Wash.../

/Splash!/

(I know what you're thinking)

"All done, is there anything left to clean?" Dale asked as he finished cleaning the dishes

"No, thank you, son." Dale father replied with a nod as he returned to watching his video on his tablet

"In that case, good night Mom, dad."

"Going back to your room? Don't tell me you're going back to that game?"

Dale smiled awkwardly… While his father let out a small sigh.

"Yes?..."

"Really? It hasn't even been 2 hours!" Dale's mother exclaimed

Dale's father tried to say something, but he was interrupted by his wife...

"At least stay for dinner instead of missing it like you did yesterday..." She said worriedly

Her expression then changed to a serious one:

"Just to be clear, I don't want to wake up at 3 am to drink some water and see you here eating in the dark like a ghost. Are we clear about that?"

But before Dale could reply, his dad came in for the rescue:

"Now now, there's no need to pressure him so much dear, Dale is the definition of someone living a healthy lifestyle, not only were his grades in University high, but his body is something your gym friends can't stop praising right?"

"This isn't the point..."

"I know I know, Dale isn't a kid, he understood what you said loud and clear."

"Aside from that, don't deny it, you keep flaunting his pictures to your friends."

"Mom…"

His father turned to him and said:

"And you…"

"Your mother is right, I know you've been extremely diligent about maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and it's okay to break out from the norm from time to time, that isn't the problem."

"What your mother wants is to make sure you don't keep this up for long as eating at 3 am after missing dinner due to playing on the Pod isn't healthy."

"It was just that time, besides, you're one to talk!" Dale said as he pointed at his father's small bear belly

"Me?" His father asked

'Brat, I'm defending you and you now point fingers at me?'

"Aren't you always waking up at night to eat some sandwiches?"

His father rolled his eyes.

"A sandwich is a sandwich, I'm not the one missing dinner and eating an entire plate of rice and beans at 3 am, my small egg and ham sandwich is completely honest and harmless as compared to that."

"..."

Dale looked at the ceiling, defeated.

"Look, I warned you two about this before, that I would be taking this semester to focus on this game and relax my mind..."

'Even if I were to maintain this sort of eating habit, nothing would happen to my body unless I kept it up for like... Several months.'

'In the first place, mom is exaggerating things... Only a single day has passed... Why is she like this?'

Dale's parents were always rather free, rarely pressurizing him to do anything.

Even when he used to stay up till 2-3 am when he was younger, his mother wouldn't bother him as long as he didn't cause too much noise.

It was only during school days that she would make sure he would stop playing at around 10 Pm to sleep...

What Dale didn't know is that meeting him at 3 Am eating in the night scared his mother so much she ended up escalating this issue...

"And we heard it, not only that, I encouraged you to do so, we're only warning you to not keep this up for long."

"You can play as long as you like, just be sure to stop to eat lunch and dinner at the right time." His dad replied with a small nod

"Alright, I got it, besides, only one day has passed, and the only thing I missed was yesterday's dinner and today's lunch, and it wasn't by much."

"I logged out to go to the bathroom, I took my showers, and even went to the market to buy groceries as you asked, I'm in no way excluded from the outside world as you like to describe me."

"Nevertheless, I can't stop logging into the game, the start is the most important time, don't make me repeat it because I already explained this before…"

"Once things calm down, I'll not miss a meal again." Dale said as he left the kitchen

After a few seconds…

"... See? I told you this was going to be the result." His father said as he went back to see his video

"He'll be okay, Dale was always a methodic individual."

"Enough, before I change my decision." His mother replied, slightly frustrated as she ate her salad in silence

Dale's father rolled his eyes, looks like they would be ordering food today…

/A minute later.../

"Hm? You're back?" He asked as he saw Dale coming back into the kitchen, this time, with another set of clothes

'Where is he going now?'

"Yes, I forgot that I had to buy something in the convenient store." Dale said as he passed through the table

He turned around and asked:

"Is there anything you two want? Oh, and Dad, I'll be borrowing your card…" Dale said as he raised his father's card

But he didn't seem angry by that, treating it as normal.

"Bring me some Soda, the 2L one, and 2 Lemonades, you know the one." His father said after thinking for a moment

"Buy some soap and toothpaste as well." His mother replied, calming down slightly

"And uh… Buy some Bacon as well, the one you always buy, at least 2 small packages of it."

"Bacon? Are you making spaghetti today?"

She nodded.

"Sure."

Dale asked them one last time if they wanted something, but they couldn't remember anything else.

So with a small smile, he grabbed the house keys, closed the door, and made his way to the elevator.

He could've run down the stairs, it would've been faster and it would barely tire him down, but the last time he did that, his parents received noise complaints so since then, he stopped doing so.

'I almost forgot about this…'

The moment Dale closed the door, his expression turned 180...

'Now that I'm in the real world… I need to test it... I can't resist the urge to try it out.'

'I forgot about it last time I logged off, but it's not like it matters as nothing would've changed... But now it's different, I have the method to experiment with.'

He raised his left hand but soon dropped it at the sight of the camera in the upper corner of the elevator.

'This isn't the place.'

Dale yawned, inspecting the nails on his hand as he waited for the elevator to come down…

…

/Ding/

[First floor]

'I hope no one is working there at this time...'

Dale took a step forward and turned to the left, instead of walking forward into the front gate of the apartment complex.

Instead, he made his way to the other entrance as it was closer to the convenience store.

No one would question his decision... In a normal scenario, no one, even the security guard would bother.

But midway through, Dale took a sharp turn, before descending another flight of stairs and into the underground parking lot, effectively disappearing from the security camera feed.

There weren't that many cameras in this complex for him to evade, this wasn't a military base, it was a home for normal civilians located within an equally as safe city block.

But still, Dale didn't want to leave excessive clues behind...

He knew the security guard that worked at this time, and he knew very well how he acted.

At this time, he should be reading some magazines in front of his computer instead of paying attention to the 20ish cameras...

If he wanted to test Mana in the real world, there was a good place he knew of where he could do so...

His room was a good place, however, if anything went wrong, how was he supposed to explain it to his parents?

There were simply too many variables there...

So after thinking a little, he went with the next obvious option, and that was to test it outside, somewhere safe he knew no one would see...

Many choices went by his head, from the abandoned house half an hour on foot from here, to the halted construction of another apartment block nearby...

…

/A few seconds later/

"Here." Dale said as he looked around

Dale stood in the middle of a small construction ward, concrete blocks could be seen all around and sacks of sand and other things were scattered around the place.

"They were reforming this section of the garage, I guess I have God to thank for them taking so long to finish this." He said jokingly as he looked around

'No cars are on sight, and the cameras aren't even installed...'

'I don't have much time, I'll try this out once and leave to buy the groceries.'

He started walking, stopping near a pile of large concrete blocks.

Each block was at least 30Kg in weight, still, he grabbed it effortlessly with 2 fingers and carried it next to the wall, placing it on top of another larger block, just enough for him to place his hand on top without having to bend down.

He placed his right hand on top of the block, and closed his eyes…

'Now I just need to... Feel it.'

Nothing else, only the sound of the distant cars and the loud noise of the airplane's turbine flying high in the sky…

/Inhale… Exhale…/

The faint sound of his breathing mixed in with the background noise, someone passing nearby wouldn't even notice him due to how dark this section of the complex was…

/CRACK!/

Suddenly, the sound of something breaking echoed all around!

"... Shit…"

As Dale slowly lifted his hand, he was met with a horrifying scene:

A portion of the concrete his hand was resting upon had been pulverized into small chunks and the block itself had been broken into several large pieces as if a bullet had struck against it.

Dale had to close his eyes for a moment, the hot feeling on his chest wasn't an illusion, it was reality…

A very scary one.

His eyes trembled for a moment, his throat was dry, a feeling of excitement and estrangement, fear and power...

For Dale, breaking a concrete block wasn't impressive, even before the game launched, he could easily do so, and so he did, several times in fact to test how strong he was.

But things change now, he didn't move his hand, he didn't punch the block, he didn't crush it with his fingers… His hand… It did not move in the least.

Yet the block was left in this state.

"I gotta go." He said as he lost his cool, he couldn't keep calm after this

Feeling like a criminal who had just completed his biggest heist yet, Dale turned around and left...

But midway through he stopped, taking a quick glance at the block.

"I can't leave it like that..."

"Phew..."

Dale's mind slowly soothed, his emotions stabilized, and his focus returned.

"I'll think about the rest later, for now, I need to clear the evidence."

'It's not like they'll investigate a broken block of concrete like the CIA and check for fingerprints, but they may get upset about it...'

'In that case, I just have to make sure this was a simple accident that happened due to someone else's oversight...'

Dale grabbed the block and placed it at the edge of another block, making it seem as if it had fallen onto the ground and broken.

To make it more believable, he broke a few more pieces of it, and after scattering them around the place, it was perfect.

"I wasted enough time here..."

Today he had accomplished something in the dreams of many...

But what did this mean?

It meant everything…

As his right hand faintly glowed in the dark, Dale could now use Mana in the real world.

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Notes

Wow...