Cold concrete.

  White clothes

  But today wasn’t like the others. Three days. I’d kept going for three days and the change in pace had been relieving but… frustrating. I could feel myself growing stronger, unlike anything I’d ever experienced in my whole life. It was intoxicating, like a drug. I put on my clothes and they felt lighter. My whole body moved faster, stronger. I could breathe easier. And the most shocking change was during my workout. It felt… so much easier. The bag still stood steady, but now hitting it hurt less. My endurance lasted longer. Every single part of me was just… different. Changed. I even saw the punching bag sway when I hit it as hard as I could.

  And that wasn’t the only change.

  For the first time since I got here, I sat down on the chair, just taking a moment.

  And looking up.

  [2]

  Two. My power level… was at two. My whole life, it’d been at one. My whole life I’d never even known the exact number. I still remember thinking it’d be at three or two when I’d first put on my family’s Vambrace out of curiosity. On that fateful day. How I’d only seen the number one as amusing.

  And then… the pain. The years of pain. Of being the weakest creature in an ecosystem of predators, whether they be human or not. Of trying to adapt. Of the snarky responses, the looks, the difficulty of getting a job in any place. Of being looked down upon, of being made lesser than, of being… weak.

  Of seeing a number, mocking me, floating over my head, and never leaving me, always reminding me of my failure as a creature. My failure no matter how hard I trained or worked out or tried or sought improvement.

  Of dying, as my blood poured out on the ground from picking a fight I could never have won. As death came for me. Because I was too weak.

  And now… I was twice as strong, as powerful, as durable. I’d barely been 20% human… and now I was 40%.

  Tears welled up in my eyes.

  I was still weak. So weak. But I wasn’t… the same. The difference between [1] and [2]... it was more than just a doubling. People would still look at me with shock and disgust, I’d still lose in a fight, I was still the weakest… but it meant that for as long as I lived, my number would never go down.

  It meant… the death of Mutai, power level [1], who couldn’t save his family. Who could never improve. Who would die in a gutter as a drunk hobo.

  I had become Mutai, Power Level [2], martial arts student, Warrior, and future killer of Vega.

  I breathed in. I breathed deep. And then slowly, I let it out.

  I clenched my fist, feeling the power, looking at it. I could do this. I could do it. No. No, I knew that already.

  I smiled.

  I will do it.

  *****

  “Faster. Harder. Punch it.”

  It was the first time in a while that I’d heard those words. It’d been a week now and the changes were shocking and unbelievable.

  [3.33]

  I was really learning to value this new Vambrace my Master had gifted me. Without it, I’d only know I was at [3].

  Heh. Only. As if that wasn’t literally life changing. Then again, I could certainly feel the difference now.

  No longer did the punching bag stand there silently like an obelisk out of hell as I rained down my fury upon it. Now, it swayed and moved, even if only barely, from every single one of my punches. I had nearly choked up with emotion at seeing how far I’d come. The current me could take on three of the past me. Maybe more. My strength felt incredible. I’d actually opened a door the other day before training, when Master had asked me to fetch him some… odd… magazines. And it’d felt so light! Were doors not meant to be heavy?

  Every day was learning a new experience. It felt like I was actually turning into a human, or more like, that I’d never truly realized how separate I was from everyone else. That I’d all along been some kind of otherwordly creature and only now was I waking up and becoming what I was always meant to be.

  That thought soured me as I took it to its logical conclusion.

  It was one thing to feel human… but what if I was above something? I’d only ever been ‘stronger’ than insects and even then, not all of them. Most animals, besides the truly pitiful, could annihilate me. Even a cat or dog probably could’ve won. What would it be like if I had a power level in the triple digits? Or even in the quadruple? As far as I knew, only Vega had that and even then… it was practically at quintuple.

  Would I see humans the same then? Did others see humans the same then? Was the reason Vega was so horrifically evil… because he barely even thought of the rest of the people like humans? Did he see them as below insects? What would it be like, if mountains weighed the same as doors and a wave of your hand could destroy a civilization? What did that do to a person? What would do that to me?

  “Get your heads out of the clouds.” My Master’s voice shook me awake.

  I glanced, habitually, at my power level. Only to blink in surprise.

  [3.52]

  “Master… is this level of growth normal?”

  The first few days had been the same .25 increase, more or less. But the rest had grown bigger and bigger. It felt crazy to me that it hadn’t been half a day and already my growth was twenty times what had caused me to feel so incredibly strong just a week ago. I felt like I could’ve stopped and marveled at my own body and power for years and enjoyed and discovered new facets about it forever.

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  But of course, there was no time to slow down. I needed more power. I could rest on my laurels and explore it later. Right now, I still needed to gain as much as I possibly could. But still, it felt like my growth was incredible right now.

  Master waved his hand back and forth in an ‘ehh’ gesture.

  “It’s hard to say. Most people grow into an average of five by the time they’re an adult. Some children are born stronger than that. So it’s hard to say if your body is just catching up or not and it’ll become more regular at the average or that it’s going to keep going past that point till it naturally slows down.”

  “I see, so… we’ll know more at power level five?”

  “Around there. Something like that.”

  One of the things I had stopped slacking off on, was asking questions while I worked out with master. He was a wealth of information. It was only too bad I didn’t know what to ask. I’d tried asking about Ki but…

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  “What?”

  “You’re not strong enough to worry about Ki.”

  And that had been that. Master had a literal lifetime of experience in both teaching and fighting. Who was I to say I knew better? So, I’d just have to learn about Ki when I got stronger. Stronger. It put a smile on my face. No longer was that just a dream and a hope. It was a reality I was really living. No matter how frequently or how often I’d look at the number above my head, I’d always be happy.

  “And there’s the problem.” Master said.

  What?

  “Huh?”

  “Walk with me Mutai.”

  We left the training room, which felt bizarre in its own way. I’d always woken up and left at the beginning and end of the day, minus that one time master asked me to get him some magazines. That bizarre feeling only heightened as we turned right for once, exiting into the dojo proper, where I’d sat on a mat and Master had agreed to make me stronger.

  But I was floored when we kept going. Right outside the main doors.

  For the first time in probably over a month… I was outside.

  Somehow, in that single month alone, the world felt different. Honestly, I didn’t even really know where we were. I hadn’t expected the Dojo to be on some secret hidden mountain but all I saw was a dirty alleyway.

  “Master… is this the back entrance?”

  “Nah, this is the only one. Makes it easier to keep people out.”

  Master had clearly decided less was more… and that obscurity via decline was the best way to hide. The front of the Dojo looked… run down at best. More like it’d been fifty years since it was made and in all that time, no one had cleaned it or taken good care of it. There was graffiti on the side. One that even showed a stick figure drawing that looked like… a woman and donkey were… ah.

  “Master… do you want me to clean this?”

  “Hmm? No, not at all. Doing graffiti is fun. I personally made that one.” Master said, before pointing at the aforementioned woman and donkey.

  Of course. Why would I ever think Master made sense or did anything but what he wanted?

  “Now come on, time for some real food.”

  My mouth began drooling. Food! I hadn’t had food in over a month! Food food food food- Ah. Wait.

  “Master, I haven’t begged on the streets in a long while. I have no money.”

  “Bah, I’ll pay for it.”

  “Thank you Master. I’ll repay you when I can.”

  “I’m rich, it doesn’t matter.”

  I blinked at that. It should have been obvious, given the healing tank and Master owning his own Dojo. Not to mention whatever strength he’d reached. Frankly, it should have been more shocking if he’d been broke. But…

  “You choose to live like this?”

  Master huffed and continued walking.

  The city was big and I’d been all over it. I knew a lot of the general areas and certain places you just shouldn’t go, ever, at all. That said, I would’ve liked to be able to say I knew where we were at. I didn’t. The city was just that big. It had to have a few million people in it at least. Actually, wait a minute.

  “Master, how many people live in the city?”

  “What am I, the internet? Booble it, but it’s probably around fifty million.”

  “Ah, I don’t have access to Booble.”

  “Do you think your fancy Vambrace is useless? Explore it, it comes with internet access, calls, blah blah. You know they’ve started replacing cell phones these days? So weird… I hate video calling yet now they’re all the rage. I remember back in my day…”

  I fiddled with it while listening to Master speak of the good ole days. It hurt. It reminded me so much of Cranky Tuwa and the elders at that moment. The way they’d always complain about how things had changed or how good things used to be and how much easier the youth had it now. A timeless classic from the old to the young.

  By the time I found the video call function and how to open the browser, we were on the main street. People passed us by and my eyes were flooded by a sea of numbers, if I focused right.

  [5] Man walking his dog.

  [??] Old guy

  [6] Dog man walking his monkey.

  [6] Fit woman talking on her Vambrace. Master gave her a frown, clearly missing cell phones.

  [??] Rock Golem ice cream vendor

  [2] A young child-

  I stopped and stared.

  [2]

  The number was [2].

  I stared at her. In shock and awe. My heart pounded like a drum and-

  Slowly, Master grabbed my face and turned it away, towards him. He raised an eyebrow, demanding an explanation. His look brooked no argument.

  “I’m… I’m stronger than her.”

  “Ah. Well… never do that again. Or at least stare at adults, like a normal creep.”

  “I’m not- Master!”

  He chuckled while forcing me to speedwalk to keep up with his pace. But my mind still felt in turmoil.

  Yes. It had been a child… but it was the first time I’d ever known I was stronger than someone else. Anyone else. The very idea, the very fact… it was the first time in twenty years that had ever happened. I could… well I would never… but I could beat her in a fight. That… wasn’t true a month ago.

  I’d never be weaker than children again. Rather than anything like pride… all I felt was existential relief. Children could be worse than gang members if they thought they had an advantage. Now if only I could be stronger than teenagers, I’d really be living large…

  We finally reached the hot dog stand and Master got us both ones with everything on it. Not my favorite, I preferred mine with just ketchup, but it was still delicious. It was the first time I’d eaten food in gods knows how long and good food? Well, it wasn’t like beggars were choosers and the homeless had easy meals around…

  “So,” Master said. “Let’s talk about why you’re about to fail.”

  My heart nearly froze.

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