20 Transformation

Upon arriving on the 3rd floor, Siddharth saw the reception desk behind which stood a beautiful girl brimming with youthful vitality. 

When she saw him walk over, she immediately put on a professional smile and greeted, "Good evening, sir. How may I help you?"

Seeing that she didn't give him a stink eye after looking at him, he smiled, "Good evening, miss. I want to join your gym. Can you do the admission process?"

"Ah, yes. Of course, sir. But don't you want to see if the gym, equipment and other things are to your satisfaction?" She asked, even as she started typing on the computer.

"It's alright. I'm sure it'll be fine." Siddharth shook his head.

"Alright then. I'll register you. Please give me your I.D." the receptionist asked.

Nodding, Siddharth presented I.D. card to her.

She scanned it in the machine, and his information appeared on the computer screen. 

A few seconds later, she was done.

"I've registered you, sir. Now, you only need to select the package and pay the fee." She said, showing a charming smile.

It was as though her smile was contagious, Siddharth also found himself smiling.

"I'll go with the normal one." He said,

"Alright, sir." The receptionist nodded and then gave him the scanner to pay. "The monthly subscription fee will be 100, sir."

Siddharth sucked in a deep breath. 'How expensive! It's one third of my salary.'

But gritting his teeth, he scanned the bar code with his phone and paid.

As soon as he did, a system panel popped up in front of him

[Congratulations! You've completed the mission. (Join a gym.)]

[The reward, low-grade physique refining potion, has been transferred to your inventory.]

'It's worth it.' He thought.

Right then, another panel popped out.

[Mission: Exercise for an hour.]

[Reward: +1 Charm, +1 appearance.]

'I planned to... but it's better this way.' He shrugged happily.

Then turned around to walk inside, but suddenly stopped, looked at the receptionist and asked, "If you don't mind me asking, what's your name?"

The girl froze for a moment at the unexpected question before she smiled. "No problem, sir. My name is Divya."

Siddharth looked deep into her eyes to see if he had made her uncomfortable by asking her name, but it wasn't the case.

He then extended his hand toward her and smiled, "It's nice you to meet you, Divya. I'm Siddharth, but you already know it."

Divya looked at him, her eyes briefly roaming over his body from top to bottom, but she didn't show any expression and shook his hand. 

"Nice to meet you, too, sir." She said with a sweet smile.

Siddharth nodded and turned around to walk away when he heard her voice... in his mind this time.

{It would have been better if he had taken some more costly subscription. I would've earned a little more. Sigh!}

He halted in his tracks and thought, 'It just heard her thoughts, right?'

Divya looked at him, puzzled.

{Did he forget something?}

"Sir, do you need my help with something else?" She asked,

"N-No. It's nothing." He said and walked inside the gym. 

'So, for the telepathy to work on someone, I first need to touch them?' 

He mused and felt his guess to be true because he didn't hear the taxi driver's thought and he hadn't heard hers either until he shook hands with her.

'I need to test it again to confirm it. But for now... let's focus on getting shape. Then I need to return to the cultivation world. It has already been over 10 hours since I logged out. I don't think the original Arthur slept for so long.'

He sighed. 'It'll take some time to get used to everything.'

...

As he entered the gym, he noticed there weren't many people, and all of them were busy exercising. So, no one bothered to look at him, which he liked.

He knew after he drank the physique refining potion, his body would go through a glaring transformation. So, it was better if few people saw his current self.

Glancing around, he quickly found a blind spot for the surveillance camera and, thankfully, there was no one around the area. He walked there, looked around to ensure no one was looking, opened the inventory, and clicked on the box that contained the potion.

Swoosh!

As soon as he did, a small glass bottle filled with red liquid appeared in front of him.

He grabbed the bottle and looked at the glistening liquid inside.

Then he uncorked the bottle, took a deep breath, and poured the contents into his mouth before storing the empty bottle back into the inventory.

Rumble!

As the liquid slid down his throat, he felt an intense burning sensation engulf his entire body—which made him want to howl in pain, but he had to hold back since he didn't want to attract everyone's attention.

The burning sensation lasted for over 30 seconds, but felt like an eternity.

Huff! Huff!

He panted, cold sweat covering his face.

"Hm?" He, however, frowned when he didn't notice any change in his body. 

'Maybe I need to exercise now?' He thought, remembering the mission. 

Wasting no time, he started exercising, starting off with the chest exercise machine.

Right after a set of 10 reps, he noticed the fat burn over the targeted area and muscles becoming stronger.

'Woah!... this is amazing!' He thought, touching his chest, which had lost quite a bit of fat.

Motivated by the results, he became mad for the next one hour and used every exercise machine he found unoccupied while making sure no one noticed him.

...

An hour later…

Huff! Huff!

Panting, he stood looking at his reflection in the mirror, his clothes drenched in sweat, sticking to his now lean and slightly muscular body.

"It worked!" He exclaimed, his lips curling up into a wide, joyous grin.

Just then, a system panel popped up in front of him.

[Congratulations! You've completed the mission (Exercise for an hour).]

[+1 Charm, +1 Appearance.]