Getting in Shape

What was worrisome, however, was that there were barely any posts online about something vital to our futures, meaning one of three things. 

First, people found out and hoarded the information to satiate their greed.

Second, so that there wasn't an explosion in power, creating a vacuum of chaos in its wake, 

Third, there needed to be a radical change in a person's daily habits to develop said subsequent stat increases.

In my opinion, there was probably a bit of all three involved, as greedy individuals were a dime a dozen, governments didn't want people going off the deep end again, and it was a massive change in daily life to work out enough to increase your stats potentially.

So, since the human race is generally extremely lazy, it wouldn't be surprising if very few people succeed in forming new healthy habits. 

With this information in hand, I began working on my physical stats, working out with Brenden in the garage to the best of my capabilities, and I even quit smoking and followed a particular diet plan until, sure enough, after nearly a month, I began seeing changes in both my physical offense and defense. 

{Physical Offense: 0.9} *+0.2*

{Physical Defense: 0.4} *+0.3*

With these increases, I noticed my body becoming slightly better, the pain in my legs reduced, and I even shed nearly 50 pounds, bringing me down from 260 to 212 pounds.

But with these changes came an expected response from my family, in the form of a bunch of "I told you so's," "You should have started working out sooner," and "See, a healthy lifestyle gets you fit,"

Honestly, they were correct in their thinking but wrong at the same time. Working out, eating healthy, and quitting smoking naturally would have made me healthier, but I knew it was different.

For years, I had tried doing the EXACT same fitness routines and eating the EXACT same foods, hell I even quit smoking half a dozen times over the years, and NEVER ONCE did I get as drastic a reaction from my body as I did in the last month. 

It didn't take me long to understand what had changed, and once I brought it up to Brenden, he, too, believed I was correct.

Alpha particles. 

It had been over two months since the Arkadia System Descended, and with Christmas right around the corner, the Progress count was getting close to completion. 

It had been steadily increasing by 1% every 24 hours, and the day we finished confirming the theory about training to increase stats, the date was December 20th, and the progress…

[Earth Particle Saturation Progress: Alpha 75%]

Things had been so hectic that the progress meter had fallen to the back of my mind, and I hadn't even calculated what day it was supposed to be completed nor how much it had been increasing daily. 

These thoughts stirred me into action, and I swiftly ran to my computer to complete the calculations. and upon finishing, my eyes widened in shock…because the date the saturation would reach completion…January 14th…was a date I had been familiar with my entire life…it was my birthday. 

Standing behind me, Brenden, too, was stunned into silence.

"January 14th, 2029…at 3:27 pm…that's when the Particle Saturation will hit 100%...and if these particles have had such an effect on my body before reaching full saturation…how drastic will the changes be when it does?" I muttered while staring at my monitor with the calculation on display.

"Taylor… I know this looks weird, but don't go getting any strange thoughts or ideas." The silence, being too much for Brenden to handle, caused him to grab the back of my chair and spin it around so I could face him. 

"Strange ideas? What strange ideas could I possibly be formulating?" I stated absentmindedly before his words brought me to a conclusion. 

The conclusion caused my facial expressions to morph from a state of shock to one of a cross between excitement and insanity."

"Taylor…don't say it," Brenden chided; the two of us were so close that even a minor change in my expression was enough to let him into my thoughts; however, when one was as drastic as what I was wearing, he knew he had fucked up. 

"If the Particle Saturation is completed on my Birthday, doesn't that make me the protagonist?"

Well, as expected, after calling myself the protagonist, Brenden proceeded to bully the hell out of me in more ways than one. From increasing my "workouts," which became a glorified game of "let's see how far we can push Taylor before he breaks," to the hand-to-hand sparring sessions where I would end up covered in bruises half conscious. 

Eventually, the idiotic thought of me being the world's main character evaporated from my mind under the constant beating from my little brother, which, although it sounds odd to say aloud, wasn't. 

The reason is the wealth of combat knowledge stored in Brenden's head. Unlike me, who had been practically wasting away physically since my military accident ended my career a decade and a half ago, he had been training in multiple disciplines. 

Muay Thai, Kick Boxing, Boxing, MMA, you named it, he trained it and had even been appointed as the combat instructor for his police department. 

Then there is all the infantry knowledge he has from going to literal war when in the military. Unlike me, who was just a glorified security guard with a badge and gun in the Air Force, Brenden spent years slogging it in the desert or jungles, so apart from standard combat, he was good at the dirty side of fighting, the kind of fighting one needs if their life is on the line. 

Although I could put up a decent fight for a short period and had spent the better part of my younger days training in similar martial arts, my body could no longer keep up with my brain. 

Having the proper knowledge and being able to act on it were two different things. For example, let's say Brenden loads up a four-hit combo.