The Beginning of Change

Having invested a single point into Physicality, Seong-min kept walking on the treadmill.

That day he didn't get off after thirty minutes — he stayed on for a full hour. In experience terms, that came out to roughly sixty percent. Swept up in the rush of it, he simply kept walking until the hour was gone.

Water after a hard workout really does taste like honey!

The cold water from the cooler was so good he went back for more than one cup. Even though it was only walking, an hour left the gym's workout clothes soaked clean through with sweat.

And the next day, right on schedule, he headed for the gym again.

The same trainer from yesterday was manning the counter. Being a weekday around ten in the morning, the floor was comfortable and sparsely populated — most members, he was told, piled in during the afternoon or after work.

Same as the day before, Seong-min stretched and put in ten minutes of walking on the treadmill.

"Today let's learn some bodyweight exercises."

Under the trainer's guidance he threw himself into bodyweight work, dumbbell technique, and pull-ups — back work, in other words. Once the instruction was done he practiced on his own: squats, push-ups, pull-ups, and bicep curls with the dumbbells, exactly as he'd been shown. He finished with walking on the treadmill for cardio.

Seong-min focused hard on stacking experience through exercise and raising his Physicality stat. As that number climbed, he pushed to make his sessions longer still.

The more he worked out, the more experience he earned.

For the time being he treated this as a gym-intensive period — grinding Physicality higher so he could train longer, bank more experience, and level up. That was where he poured his effort.

A week passed like that.

He was Level 11, and his Physicality sat at 20.

"Heading out to work out again?"

Seong-min was coming down the stairs, practically bouncing on his way outside, when Hye-suk stepped into the sunlit yard with a laundry basket, ready to hang the wash. She smiled as she called out to him.

"Yes~!"

"Hohoho. You really are serious about this exercise thing, aren't you?"

"I have to be~! The harder I work, the healthier and stronger I get...!"

"Exercise is fine, but always keep safety in mind. All right?"

"Yes, ma'am~!"

Watching him hurry out through the front gate, Hye-suk's eyes curved into a smile.

There's no talking him out of it.

Still, seeing him so lively and healthy put her in a good mood.

"What weather...!"

Cotton-candy clouds drifted across a clear blue sky — the kind of day that looked like it had been painted. Was there anything better than heading out to train under sunshine like this?

There used to be days I felt this good going out to earn money.

Heading off to gombang work, or when a solid job came through — those mornings had felt just like this.

Physicality's at 20 now. Time to push even harder.

To mark hitting 20, Seong-min planned to take the treadmill all the way up to speed 10.

Raising Physicality has definitely improved my cardio endurance.

At the start he'd only been able to walk at speed 6. A week later, he was moving at 8 — not a casual stroll, closer to race-walking. And yet an hour on the treadmill at that pace left him no more spent than speed 6 had the first time around.

That had been when Physicality hit 15. After a single point he'd wondered if anything had even changed — then at 15 he shifted from an hour at 6 to walking at 8, and the fatigue felt about the same. That alone told him how much his stamina had improved. Point by point, Seong-min was feeling the changes in his own body.

And come to think of it — maybe it's just my imagination, but I wake up feeling more refreshed than before.

It could have been nothing. But after a solid night's sleep he really did feel cleaner, more rested, than he used to.

Is that another effect of Physicality?

There was still a lot he didn't know, but it seemed possible.

Then maybe these stats aren't as simple as they look. Raising Physicality might not just boost stamina — it could improve recovery too. Side benefits like that.

That was only a hypothesis. Whether real secondary effects existed was something he'd have to test by keeping the numbers climbing.

Either way, Physicality at 20 means I can train harder and longer.

It wasn't just the treadmill. During strength work, muscle fatigue seemed to set in a little later too — which would mean better muscular ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠endurance. He couldn't be sure of that yet either. He simply kept training, watching the process of his own transformation, and judging from what he felt.

For the first few days Seong-min did full-body sessions; around the one-week mark he switched to a two-day split — upper body one day, lower body the next. Serious lifters broke things down further into three- or four-way splits, but he was no expert. A simple upper/lower split felt like the right fit.

He walked to the gym in high spirits, greeted the trainer, collected his clothes, changed in the locker room, and came back out. By now he didn't need anyone to walk him through it — he stretched on his own and put in an easy ten minutes on the treadmill.

Up through Physicality 15, even the ten-minute warm-up walk had been at speed 6; only the finishing hour of cardio went up to 8. Starting today, he meant to take the warm-up to 8 as well.

After strength work, light run ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at speed 10.

As planned, he moved to the treadmill and started race-walking at 8. It felt almost the same as walking at 6 used to — and that only made him feel better. He could feel himself changing in real time.

This week's still training week. Go all out.

He couldn't live on the gym alone. He needed money to eat, and to start paying Hye-suk rent again from next month. But today was Monday — the start of week two, the final stretch of his intensive training block — and he intended to stay late, not head home early.

After the ten-minute warm-up on the treadmill, he got into proper machine work for upper body. Chest press for the pecs first, then the Smith machine, shoulder press, and so on. Next came lat pulldowns — seated, bar in hand, pulling the way he would for a pull-up, lighting up the back and lats. On top of that: pull-ups, arm pulldowns, push-ups, dumbbell curls for the biceps, then triceps and delts — cycling through every upper-body movement he could hit.

"Whew~ That's rough."

Trips to the cooler for cold water were a free bonus in between.

Seong-min was no professional bodybuilder; this was simply how he trained on a two-day split, hammering upper one day and lower the next. By the time he'd rotated through machines, dumbbells, and bodyweight work and thoroughly worked his upper body, more than an hour had gone by.

Hard as it is, treat it like gombang work. Go hard.

This was tough — but gombang work ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was tougher. If he brought that same willpower, he could keep going a long time.

After a short rest, he ran the upper-body circuit again from the top. It was harder than the first pass and the rep counts dropped, but showing up for the work was what ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mattered. Two full cycles later, he'd pushed past the two-hour mark.

"Hah... hah... Damn, that's hard."

Drinking from the cooler, he opened the Status Window.

Status Window.

He looked it over — and a low whistle of amazement slipped out on its own.

Whoa... I gained way more!

He already knew hard strength work paid out more experience. Same with the treadmill: race-walking at 8 gave more than strolling at 6. But grinding through another cycle of lifting — fewer reps, sure, but still pushing — had been enough to level him up once.

He didn't hesitate. Straight into Physicality.

Oh — I can actually feel the fatigue easing a little.

Raising Physicality taught him something else. Placebo or not, the instant the point went in, it felt like he'd just downed a recovery drink — a sudden, partial wipe of the fatigue.

Honestly, it hits cleaner than an actual recovery drink.

Maybe it was placebo. But if he felt it every single time he raised the stat, it might be real.

All right!

He made up his mind.

One more level today, then I go home!

To celebrate Physicality hitting 21, he decided he wouldn't step off the treadmill until he leveled again.

It's doable. At speed 6 I was getting five percent every ten minutes, right? At 10 I can cut that time way down...!

Roughly speaking, speed 10 could squeeze five percent of experience into something closer to five minutes — almost a forty-percent time cut. Framed that way, another level before heading home was realistic.

Let's do this...!

In a good mood, Seong-min stepped onto the treadmill, set the speed to 10, and started running — a pace a notch above race-walking. He didn't stop. He kept running until that next level came.

A few days later.

This guy really trains hard, doesn't he?

The trainer who'd taught Seong-min form, breathing, and machine use watched him work even harder than the week before and found himself taking an interest. On Monday Seong-min had stayed on the treadmill well past an hour; today — Friday — he was already past three hours and still going, holding a jogging pace.

How long is he planning to run?

His treadmill speed seemed to climb every day. On Friday he'd finally broken three hours. And the pace the trainer had seen yesterday — last week it had started at a light walk of 6; today he was jogging at 12.

Sure, some people cranked it to 15 for short bursts of actual sprinting. But members who knew their way around a treadmill usually jogged at 12 for thirty minutes to an hour. Seong-min was only in week two, and here he was jogging at 12 for over three hours straight. That was startling.

Natural cardio monster, maybe?

He'd said this was his first real attempt at training. Two weeks in, holding a jogging pace for more than three hours on a treadmill was impressive by any measure.

The trainer stepped closer and asked carefully,

"Sir, you've already been at it over three hours. You all right?"

"Sorry? Yes~! I'm fine~! I can keep going a bit more~!"

As if to say don't worry about it, Seong-min uncapped the personal water bottle he'd been carrying the last few days, took a drink of cold water, grinned at the trainer, and gave him a thumbs-up.

"......"

The trainer watched in silence, then tried again.

"Maybe call it here for today...? Overdoing it isn't good for you..."

"Don't worry about it, Trainer! This is a fight with myself! Today I'm going to win that fight fair and square and head home!"

"......"

Watching Seong-min tear along the belt while casually dropping lines that belonged in a youth drama, the trainer quietly turned and left the floor.