Bryan returned with the biggest water fsk he could find and was quite confused by the sympathetic looks some of the young girls were giving him as they left the gym in smaller groups, "Good luck in the competition." He said while returning the hand waves a few of them gave him with one of his own.

  "Thank you~"

  'Why does it feel like that was the wrong thing to do?' He thought once he heard them reply while acting awestruck and bashful for no reason when he was trying to be supportive, 'Whatever. I guess it worked since it boosted up their mood to the positive but I hope they're not distracted and that they'd stay focused on the task ahead of them.'

  "Do you mind wearing this vest?" Celest interrupted his thoughts by asking and his eyes fell on the stocky and solid-looking vest with straps on the sides and many pockets on both the back and the front.

  He could tell that each and every pocket on it isn't empty and filled with what would seem to be small hand-sized bck rectangur ptes!

  "No I don't but, why?" Bryan asked while fttening the vest and getting his head inside then locking the straps on both sides.

  Celest was immediately able to notice the way he handled the heavy vest which weighs fifty kilograms as if it's an effortless thing to do, 'Judging by how he initially raised it from the ground by a single finger while the form of his body was so terrible and completely cking in bance then I bet his core is incredibly strong since I already saw what kind of strength he has in both arms and shoulders.' She thought to herself while answering : "To save time in the tests to come so we can have time afterwards to get a feel of how you're going to perform in advanced strength and conditioning." After gesturing for him to start doing push-ups Celest added : "I'm going to schedule a thorough medical examination for you tomorrow night in the gym's facility."

  "But I'm not sick." He said while twisting his neck to look upwards towards her with confusion written all-over his face.

  Celest did her best to stop herself from rolling her eyes at Bryan while thinking : 'You have a rare and weird type of illness, which is too much nonsensical strength.' But she still patiently said : "That's not the point of this medical examination. As your personal trainer, I'm going to need all the accurate data I can get about you before I set the perfect training program."

  Bryan twisted his neck to look upwards once again while asking : "You're going to be my personal trainer?"

  "Uh-huh." She nodded while humming the answer with a smug smile on her face but her thumb never stopped clicking the button on the side of her stopwatch to keep and exact count of how many reps of push-ups he's doing.

  "Cool," He nodded while twisting his neck to focus on the exercise because his arms were starting to feel the burden just a tiny little bit now, "But what does my tailor-made training program going to be? Like... what should I expect?" Bryan asked while taking a long breath and pushing against the floor with his hands.

  Celest fell silent for a short while before answering : "Targeting the weaker muscle groups is the priority in the beginning that's for sure but I think what you need the most is to work on your co-ordination and hone your reaction speed, your form is also terrible while doing certain actions and we need to work on that because you're lucky that you have decent strength otherwise you would've injured yourself long ago.

  "Technique is very important for you since you do have a bnk background when it comes to exercising and training while taking care of your body but don't worry I'll make sure to ease you into it step by step until everything drilled into you properly where you don't have to worry about thinking about what to do and when.

  "Recovery is essential for someone like you who can possibly overwork himself out of ignorance which would set you back on the fitness road, so I'm pnning to include swimming and other water exercises to the training program which we call Hydrotherapy, then there's Cryotherapy and lots of cold plunges before you start training then sauna immediately afterwards.

  "Lots of massage and yoga sessions in your rest days while we're trying to keep your body inactive which we call passive recovery, of course there's also cupping, foam rolling, and electrical muscle stimution.

  "Once you get your medical examination done I'll contact an expert nutritionist and have her send me a diet that perfectly fits your data and training program, that way we can tell you when and what to eat, when to sleep, when to train, when to rex, when to work or have fun living your life.

  "The final part to work at is your responsibility." Celest intentionally deyed the following words to enjoy adding to the suspense, especially when Bryan finally started to show clear signs of actually slowing down and struggling against the force of gravity.

  "And... What is that?" He asked while feeling like his eye balls are going to jump out from their sockets!

  "We call it the aspect of Mental recovery, starting from today I'm going to need you to meditate.

  "Immediately after waking up you wash your face brush your teeth and find the quietest pce to sit down, just cross your legs rex your shoulders and arms then close your eyes and calm your breath.

  "Once you do that your next goal would be to begin your visualization techniques, the purpose is to refine your imagination be that thinking about what you're going to do next that day or recalling the events of something you did earlier and to deliberate all possible situations or to analyze what you did before and how you did and where could you improve while doing it and what mistakes you can avoid." Celest said then waited for his shaky arms to straighten before pushing the button to officialize and count the final rep of push-up Bryan did then added : "Take off the vest and do the pose then your stretches and don't forget to drink your water before we hit the pull-ups bar."

  But once her eyes fell on the number of reps he did while she was expining everything, Celest gawked in silence before turning to face away from him to hide her expression.

  It took her a few seconds to calm herself before adding his results on his file on her tablet while thinking : 'Holy cow! Even with the weight of fifty kilograms on his back he still did 329 reps of push-ups without taking a single break... now I'm even more excited to see what kinds of heights he's going to reach with the right nutrition and discipline in the future.'

  During the following thirty minutes Celest had Bryan doing pull-ups, burpees, weight squats while holding two 25kg kettlebells on each shoulder in addition to the vest he's already wearing, in the end his final two tests were jumping side to side over two separate line set one and half meters apart then doing a side-lunge followed by an upright row before jumping to the other side of the other line then repeating it all-over again with one-hundred kilograms holding him back.

  'Take that you freak! Feels good to sweat righ- huh!' Celest thought while watching Bryan wiping his face with his clothes since he wasn't prepared enough while coming here and had no towel, but she got to see the fascinating sight of his shredded and defined abdominal, ts, and lower-chest muscles.

  "How come you're in such good shape when you spend your time setting on your desk studying all day?" She asked with a tone of bme in her voice and doubt in her squinted eyes, clearly frustrated because she thinks that he lied to her.

  Bryan sensed that Celest was getting emotional and he couldn't bme her for it since he himself would've felt wronged if he were in her shoes but he decided to shed light with a bit of truth, "There's two dies sitting in the reception who can prove that when I got here I looked nowhere like this."

  Celest studied him with a pair of hawk-like eyes for a few seconds before saying : "This is serious."

  "Just go and ask the receptionists or the two security guards down in the lobby if I looked like a mummy or not, I'm also being serious." He said while shrugging his shoulders and spreading his arms.

  "Alright then." She said while turning on her heels heading for the reception.

  Bryan opened his mouth to say : "Wait."

  Celest couldn't help but smile triumphantly while pausing then her smile disappeared once she twisted her neck to look back at him, "Getting cold feet, are you?" She didn't even know why she said that but Celest quickly attributed it to her being annoyed after he tried to deceive her or maybe because there was some sort of satisfaction in having some kind of superiority or control over someone like him.

  "Not at all," He instantly shook his head, "But there's something I'd like you to do for me once you realize that I'm being honest with you." Bryan made his request in a sincere manner but judging by her expression he immediately noticed that Celest might've misunderstood his meaning.

  Indeed her body nguage changed as she crossed her arms and asked : "What would that be?" Celest was panicking inside because after personally witnessing what this freak can do she knows that she stand no chance in resisting him if he's going to do something "Funny" to her.

  'He wouldn't force me against my will is he?'

  "It's simple really," Bryan opened his right hand, "If I'm honest everything reted to me stays private and share it with nobody. Keep it only to yourself, be that my personal data, training program, and medical records." He said before opening the left hand while adding : "If I'm lying you're free to make whatever demand you feel like and I can't go back on my word, worst case scenario... I go back on my word and in that case you should keep your distance and stay clear from a scumbag who lies and not even worthy of being a decent human being since decent human beings keep their promises which makes me an animal or maybe worse!"

  "Bffft..." Celest put a hand on her mouth but she still couldn't stifle her ughter once she heard his answer, first because she was worried for her safety around him for no reason and second because his reasoning was quite childish which was funny.

  "Deal," Celest straightened her waist and wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes, "You better keep your word." She said before walking away.

  "And you better keep yours." Bryan shouted while opening the second water fsk and drank while thinking : 'Once I gain her trust it gives me the opportunity to improve myself in private within a harmonious environment, but I can change the situation for good once I sell my shares at the end of month.

  'When that happen I can buy myself a good piece of nd, hide away from prying eyes and really start making some progress on preparing before the outbreak.

  'I just hope Linnet would agree to come with me, I really don't want for her to stay away from my eyes for too long... I owe her at least that much.

  'There's also this ring. What was that about? How come I'm no longer able to see that grassnd anymore? That experience was so painful but how come I feel deep and instinctive attraction towards that weird pce? It's as if it's calling my soul to come over for another visit!'