5 Chapter 04- The Life Of a Failure (Part 1)

Taking a deep breath in, Arthur opened the Objectives to see what kind of things were added there. He was a little excited and worried at the same time since this was his first step in this path.

[Objective: (1-Month Ordeal): Finish the tasks below in one month to gain 10 Ink Points and +5 to all stats.

-Run 200 Km (0/200)

-Do 5000 Push-ups (0/5000)

-Do 5000 Squats (0/5000)

-Use The Divine Pen for 100 hours to write down or draw. (0/100)]

"G-Godamn… That's a brutal list of tasks!" Arthur rubbed the back of his head as he read the objectives. For some reason, he expected something more… mystical. After all that happened to him, to simply be tasked with training and writing, was rather underwhelming.

But, that by no means indicate that this was going to be an easy task. After all, Arthur was probably the least athletic and healthy person in the world. Except for PE classes in school, Arthur never really found himself moving a lot even as a kid. 

His sole hobby was drawing and writing unlike other kids his age. That obviously made his parents concerned a lot and slowly ignited the conflict he would have with them in the near future.

"Ugh, *Slap* What am I doing?! I need to stop whining like a coward and get down to work!" Slapping his cheeks powerfully, he immediately closed the menu and headed out of his room.

Arthur was living in a small apartment in Tokyo, Japan. He had moved in alone nearly 2 years ago. His expenses were covered by his parents whom he weirdly didn't talk to in perhaps over 2 years.

Since his name was Arthur Colbert, it was easily determined that he was a foreigner. But, the truth was he actually wasn't. Well, his father was certainly a foreigner who came to Japan to marry his mother. But, Arthur was a Japanese person, born on the soil of that land.

But, who would care about that? His name was Arthur so he was by default a foreigner in the eyes of everyone around him. That turned out to be a huge problem during his younger years. 

Moving through the squeaky, old apartment, he entered the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror.

Arthur was tall, over 184 cm (6ft) with a rather skinny build which made him look like a scrawny tree branch. Because of his obsession with Manga, he usually barely ate once or twice a day at most. That obviously had a really bad effect on his health, skin, hair, and everything else.

Rubbing his messy blonde hair, he pulled it back as he stared at his face in the mirror. Ignoring the unhealthy dark circles around his eyes that made him look like a human panda, Arthur wasn't bad-looking at all. In fact, he could be considered good-looking by most people because of his foreign genetics.

He had a pair of beautiful green eyes that he surprisingly inherited from his mother's side rather than his dad who had darker eye color. He had thin lips, a good jawline, and a perfect nose. 

However, even those good looks only ended up turning his childhood into a living hell. All the kids around him always avoided him because he looked different and even those who did approach him would either want to bully him or use his money since his parents were well-off.

But, in contrast to how most kids in his situation would react, Arthur was a wild one. If he was getting bullied, he would fight back and beat up the other kids using his height advantage. The other kids found him to be intimidating, especially with his angry-looking expression.

So, apart from coming home every day in a dirtied and bloodied state, he was always alone. He had no friends he could talk to in school. Teachers tried to help him integrate better into the class but Arthur completely defied those attempts.

'Fucking hypocrites, I'm also Japanese! Don't treat me like I'm some fucking exchange student.' He thought to himself.

That was what he saw, a complete and utter rejection by the environment he lived in and for a reason he had no hand in. That sprouted in Arthur the feeling of hatred toward most people.

Even those who treated him with kindness, Arthur could see in their eyes that they didn't see him as one of them. 

Shaking those memories away, Arthur focused on the mirror again.

"Tsk, I look like a drug addict with how red my eyes are." Cursing inwardly, he opened the faucet and washed his sleepy face before giving himself a few more slaps to wake up.

After that, he turned around and left the bathroom before he went to his wardrobe and picked some good training clothes he found that he hadn't worn before and wore them. After that, he picked up his phone and left the house.

The time was still early in the morning. Arthur hadn't slept last night since he was eagerly waiting for the results of his One-shot Manga.

"Ugh, too much sunlight." Covering his face, he tried to adjust to the bright sun and then inhaled a deep breath.

The fresh air of the morning woke him up completely as he finally took in the sight in front of him. Arthur was living in the suburbs of Tokyo, far away from the bustling streets of the city center.

He chose this place, even though it wasn't the best, because it was quiet and beautiful. From what he found out on the internet, nature was a great source of inspiration for authors and Mangakas alike. However, he never even made use of this beautiful nature since he rarely left his house.

However, even then, the beautiful nature of the quiet streets of his neighborhood was truly a sight to behold.

"Well, maybe going out isn't too bad after all." He murmured to himself as he turned around and started jogging down the stairs from the second floor of his apartment complex.

'And our journey begins!' 

Leaving the apartment complex, Arthur ran through the quiet streets. Since it was the start of the summer break, the weather was very hot and humid, making Arthur sweat quickly. 

After running for a few hundred meters, his breathing started to get ragged and his leg muscles started to feel exhausted.

"Hah, hah, are you, hah, serious? I didn't even run for 2 minutes straight, hah, hah…" Eventually, Arthur had to stop to rest.

Looking back at his path, he could still see the apartment complex not that far away. That made him feel even more ashamed of his physical state.

But, he knew that he couldn't just simply stand there so he clenched his teeth and continued running through the streets of the neighborhood.

"200 km split over 30 days… That's around 6.7 km every day. Wait, hah, 6.7?! How am I supposed to run that much?! Hah, hah…" Realizing how brutal this was going to be, Arthur felt like the crushing weight of the task grew heavier.

However, he wasn't going to stop. Not now when he barely started. 

"Hah… Hah…" As he ran, Arthur opened the Objective menu and put it in the corner of his retina where it wouldn't obstruct his vision. The counter was motionless for a while but eventually…

[-Run 200 Km. (1/200)]

"Yes! Hah, hah, hahaha! I'm making progress!" Arthur smiled slightly as he felt his determination increase.

***

Fast forward 20 minutes, Arthur was lying down on the ground, completely exhausted. His face was as red as a tomato, sparkling with beads of sweat. His chest was heaving up and down powerfully. His vision was disturbed and his head felt nauseous, threatening to make him throw up at any second.

"I can't… I can't move…" He cursed as he found his limbs dead tired.

Looking at the counter, Arthur paled slightly.

[Run 200 km. (2/200)]

"Shit."