No Pain, No Gain.

Just when Nigel arrive at the gym, he was surprised by the grandness of the building. The gym building has 4 floors and from the outside, it looks like a car showroom where the walls were covered by the dark tempered glass make it barely visible to see the equipment lined up from the outside.

'So this is where I will be working out, and here I thought it was just a gym, this is clearly a sports center. A little splurging is fine, I guessed.' Nigel quickly walks into the building and go to the counter to ask the receptionist for more details.

"Hello sir, good afternoon. Welcome to 'The Club' where we provide a comprehensive workout plan for you with our complete, latest, and top of the line equipment and experienced coach to guide the training you will be having. Is there anything I can help you with?" Behind the counter, the female receptionist said to Nigel with a charming smile making two cute dimples appear on her cheeks.

Nigel takes a look at her elegant uniform with black color and a gold stripe beside the shoulder and sees Vania on her nameplate that located in her left chest area, "Hello, Vania. Can I ask you how much the gym charge for a month and this place is so grand what's there on each floor?" Nigel said to Vania with a dashing smile across his face.

"Eh, s-sir w-we charge any customers with a base price of 50$ / month excluding the coach, towel, and protein supplement. And it's 120$ / month if you want our gold membership that includes the use of swimming pool, coach, towel, protein supplement intake before and after your workout." Vania said blushing with a red face before continuing to say, "As you can see, on our first floor, there is the lobby, sports store, swimming pool, restaurant, locker, and a shower room. On the second it's usually used for aerobic exercise and yoga while on the third floor, is where the gym located and the fourth floor is used for a futsal match."

"I hope it's worth it, here I will be paying for a golden membership for 3 months." Nigel said while rummaging his jeans back pocket and took out his wallet before giving his bank card to Vania.

"Right away sir, but before that can I have your ID and contact information to register for our membership." Vania handed him a paper form that was full of questions.

Nigel takes a look at the paper form that was in his hands and quickly fills up all the information required before returning it to Vania and input his bank pin into the electronic data capture machine.

"Wow, are you sure you want the high-intensity interval training exercise, Mr. Oneal?" Vania said to Nigel after she registered his information.

"Yes, I'm sure of it. I'm going to the store to buy my workout clothing and can we start today?" Nigel said to Vania with a determined gaze.

"Of course you can Mr. Oneal, I will inform the coach for you immediately, and if you want I can show you to the store."

"No, thanks. Just inform the coach and I will be going there alone, tell me where it is."

"Right, from here you just have to walk into the hallway on the left and you'll see it on your right side."

After Nigel chooses his workout clothing and buys it, he quickly put the workout cloth on and packs up his casual attire into the bag he bought. When he just got back to the lobby, he was startled to see the man beside Vania, if she is right. Then, the man was his coach for his training.

What makes Nigel startled was that he knew the man beside Vania, it was James Peter where he just got to know this morning at Brian's restaurant. As Nigel approaches them, he can also see a surprised expression on James's stoic face.

"What brings you here Nigel?" James asked Nigel with his now recovered stoic face.

"As you can see from my getup, I will be working out here, James." Nigel answered James as his hands point to his workout clothing.

"Oh, so you two already know each other, that makes it easier to reintroduces you. Mr. Oneal, this is James Peter and he will be your coach here during your exercise. And James, he is the one I told you about who wants a HIIT* exercise and he will be your new client from now on." Vania said to both of them.

"Ah, so you are the one who wants the HIIT exercise huh. Alright then, are you ready? If you are ready, then follow me." James said to Nigel as he walked into the elevator.

"Mr. Oneal, here is your supplement for your today training. You can drink this pink beverage now before your workout and this brown beverage along with this pill after you finished your training." Vania hands Nigel a pink looking drink in the transparent bottle and brown looking one.

Nigel instantly drinks up all the pink drink, it's tasted awesome with a strawberry flavor infused in the drink.

"Ok... Alright then, thank you, Vania. I will be going up with James see you soon." Nigel said to Vania before parting with her and follow James to the elevator.

As they wait in the elevator that goes up to the third floor, James asked Nigel "So, what makes you want a HIIT exercise, Nigel?"

"Just some exercise to make me more healthy and I didn't know you have a good body when you use a jacket before." Nigel said to James as he eyed James's body that wearing a polo-shirt showing his firm muscle with little to no fat underneath the shirt.

"It is totally reasonable to cover my body when I'm in public as I don't want people to stare at me. And did you ever have training before? Your punch from this morning shows me the use of your force, it is quite a good technique." James said to Nigel as they exit from the elevator and go into the treadmill station.

"No, never. You can see from my slight beer belly that I'm unused to working out." Nigel replied to James as he takes a look at the sophisticated treadmill that has a futuristic feel to it.

"Then you will experiences hell, I hope you can persist. Put your bag on that bench before you get on this treadmill for your first warm-up" James pointed to one of the benches before he set up the treadmill machine and stood beside it.

As Nigel got ready for the exercise, he forgot how long ago the last time he workout his body, he hopes this time the consequence isn't too dire.

After using the treadmill for warming up, James quickly instructs Nigel to more warm-up moves for 10 minutes.

Just as the warm-up is done, Nigel can feel his body sweating already and he continues to follow what James told him to do, from kettlebell swing, burpees all the way to bicycle crunch before James told him to rest for a bit before starting the second set.

"How is it? Fun isn't it?" James asked at the panting Nigel and his sweating face.

'Fun my ass' Nigel cursed James and ignore him as he gasps and inhale for air to fill up his lungs, Nigel sense all his muscle crying as he feels the burning feeling he got after just one set.

"Times up, let's continue the training" Nigel feels like cursing James as he heard James told him to resume the training. But, Nigel quickly stood up and start his second set.

After what feels like forever, Nigel finally finished his 45-minute workout with his brand new workout clothing now wet all over, looking like he just got thrown into a swimming pool with his clothes on.

"You alright, Nigel?" James asked the pale looking Nigel that was drench in sweat.

"No, I'm dying." Nigel said to James as he got a flashback to the first time he feels like dying when he ran away for his life for 10km to avoid the zombie's horde.

"I'll take that as a yes then. After you catch your breath, don't forget to drink the supplement Vania gave to you and you can come back tomorrow at the same time for your training." James said to Nigel reminding him of the supplement Nigel supposed to take after the workout before he continues to say, "I'll be leaving first then, as I need to write up your workout program and your nutrition meals intake, you can go see the report for you at Vania before you leave. And it is nice seeing you again Nigel."

Soon, Nigel can see James got into the elevator. After that Nigel drink the supplement and packs up his belonging into the bag he brought and sat down at the bench before asking Iris, 'Iris, are you there?'

[Iris at your service, Mr. Oneal. We are always with you and we just watched your exercise, is there anything we can help you with?]

'What do you think about this exercise? Is it up to your requirement for the delivery energy you talked about?' Nigel is still curious about the Shopping System delivery requirement that Iris talked about.

[It is barely qualified, if you can increase the training and persevered, we think it is enough for the day of the delivery.]

'...' Nigel has an urge to talk bad to Iris as he got the answer.

'Alright then, I will ask James to increase the workout intensity just for you, Iris.'

[Please note that what we do is for your own good, Mr. Oneal.]

After he heard Iris talk like that, he ignores it, Nigel tries to stand up with trembling knees and heads into the elevator to go to the first floor for a shower and change.

When he got into the male locker, he got surprised again by how this sports center grandness as the locker looks like a lounge set up with a sofa, tv, rug, and refrigerator.

Nigel search for an empty locker and eventually find it, after that he goes into the shower room, 'This place really is magnificent, I can't help but think about changing this place into a basecamp after the apocalypse.' Nigel can't help but think like that as he walks slowly into the showering room that was better than 3-star hotels as he looked around the floor was covered with grey to almost black looking tiles and the walls were grey with white lighting and there was a shower along with a bathtub, a pricy looking ceramic sink with a mirror adorning the wall of the sink.

Nigel can't help but stare at the mirror reflection, on the mirror, there stood a younger version of himself, a 28-year old, average looking oval face with smooth white skin, short wavy black hair, neat lush eyebrows, round eyes with slight eye bag under it, a faint mustache that just reached the side oh his upper lip, small upper lip, and slightly thick lower lip.

When Nigel sees the younger him in the mirror, he smiles and reminisces the old rough him that was full of wrinkles because of the stress he got from living in the apocalypse days for 8 years.

When Nigel finished cleaning and dressed up he came back to the lobby looking for Vania.

"Hey, Vania. Does James hand you my report?" Nigel asked Vania

"Yes, here is the report for your future workout development, nutritious meal recipe with a guideline on what to do's and don'ts for you, Mr. Oneal." Vania gave Nigel a compact report book for him.

Nigel take a quick look at the training schedule that James set up for him, before he said to Vania, "Can you told James to raise the workout for me?"

"But, you should just follow James's recommendation as he already took in the risk factor for you." Vania said worriedly to Nigel.

"Just told him that I wanna get rid of my beer belly faster, he will understand." Nigel spoke jokingly to Vania.

'If it isn't for that damn Iris who told me to increase my training, I wouldn't even want to.' Nigel thinks to himself.

"If you insist then, I will tell him after this." Vania relents to Nigel's request and just let James decides it.

After Nigel bid farewell and part ways with Vania, he gets back to the parking lot and planned to go to his 'old friend' workshop that makes a variety of cold weapon.

But, when he saw a dozen thug-like people surrounding his old car with the security personnel lying on the floor with blood coming out of his nose, and seems to be unconscious.

He knew that some troubled found him.