Chapter 354: Recovery and Deception
I lay on the gym floor for several minutes, looking at my body and trying to process what had just happened. The dream—or whatever that had been—felt more real than most of my actual memories. Mark’s scarred face, his final warning about regret, the vivid scenarios of my own death... all of it lingered in my mind with uncomfortable clarity.
But more immediately pressing was the state of my physical form. I flexed my fingers experimentally, expecting the sharp agony of my broken wrist to flood through me. The pain was there, but it felt... muted. Manageable. The Pain Resistance skill was working exactly as advertised, filtering the worst of the sensations while leaving me functionally capable.
More surprising was how much my body had actually healed. When I’d collapsed, my wrist had been swollen to nearly twice its normal size, my bicep had been torn into a grotesque knot, and I’d been bleeding from multiple internal injuries. Now, while I could still feel the damage, the acute symptoms had diminished significantly.
I sat up carefully, testing my range of motion. My wrist was still clearly injured—I could feel the broken bones grinding against each other when I moved it—but the swelling had gone down considerably. My bicep still showed signs of the tear, but the muscle had somehow reformed into something resembling its normal shape.
Physical Recovery Efficiency had clearly been working overtime while I was unconscious. Actually...if I made that skill level 10...just how fast would I regenerate? A thought for later I guess.
I had no idea how long I’d been out. It could have been an hour, or it could have been several. The gym had windows, but it was already nigh time by the time I started working out. Based on how much my body had healed, it had probably been at least two or three hours.
Which meant the others were probably wondering where I was.
I forced myself to my feet, using the wall for support as I tested my weight distribution. My legs were shaky but functional, and while my spine still sent occasional jolts of pain through my nervous system.
Looking around the gym, I could see the evidence of my extreme training session scattered across the floor. There was a pool of vomit near the pull-up bar where I’d lost control of my stomach, and several dark stains that were probably blood from various injuries. The sight should have been horrifying—proof of just how far I’d pushed my body beyond any reasonable limit.
Instead, I felt a grim satisfaction. I’d broken through another barrier, discovered another capability that the System could provide to those willing to pay the price. The question now was what other "impossible" skills I could unlock if I continued pushing boundaries that weren’t supposed to be crossed.
The sound of footsteps in the hallway interrupted my contemplation. I quickly moved away from the worst of the evidence, positioning myself near the free weights as if I’d just been doing a normal workout. The last thing I needed was for the others to see the full extent of what I’d put myself through.
"Rey?" Camille’s voice drifted through the gym door. "Are you in there? It’s almost midnight—we were starting to get worried."