Four days passed relatively quickly as I settled into a routine: wake up at 4:00 am and perform body weight exercises, run with mom at 6:00 am, attend university at 8:00 am, try to beat either of my friends in arm wrestling for bonus War Points and STR points, body weight exercises again at lunch time usually around 12:00 pm, go home around 4:00 pm or 5:00 pm and perform the lasts sets of body weight training around 7:00 pm, eat dinner, try to walk around town until about 11:00 pm. My initial theory on the benefits of moderation were proven correct as I was able to maximize my stat gains to about 3 points per stat with only the body weight exercises, excluding the daily 1 point every time I jogged with mom, and the 1 point I gained for beating either of my friends in arm wrestling.

So, after four days of constantly grinding, my stats improved massively.

STR – 25
DEX – 20
VIT – 25

I stared at my reflection in the mirror in my room and knew that I'd done something right. First and foremost, I felt amazing. Absolutely freaking amazing. I had never been this alert and energetic in my entire life, never been this hale and hearty. My muscles were... defined, very much so. I didn't resemble a bodybuilder, of course, but I did kind of look like a Greek Statue or the cool stuff carved by Michelangelo. Burpees, sit ups, and push ups were too easy now, however, so I ended up doing like 800 reps for each by the fourth day just to get any sort of muscular fatigue and, therefore, progress. Still, to achieve such progress within only four days was... amazing. There were probably not a lot of people who could do the same as I. And there definitely wasn't anyone else on the planet – probably – who could go from lanky kid to fitboy with only four days of constant effort. Jogging with mom became effortless, too; as I was pretty sure I'd developed the stamina of a marathoner or someone close, maybe an Iron Man?

Of course, the only way I'd progress further was by increasing the overall repetitions and, honestly, I didn't like the idea of having to do ten thousand burpees and push ups just for a flat increase of 1 point. I would do that, because the whole point of Gamer Powers was the ability to progress indefinitely, but it'd be an absolute slog. More specialized training would be necessary at some point, like running and climbing with weights or just lifting weights. For now, at least, I was still within the range of what genetically gifted humans could achieve with extreme training and discipline.

Furthermore, I now had a grand total of 900 War Points from winning the arm wrestling contests four times, over the last four days. Though, at some point, I was pretty sure my friends were just letting me win because they were either weirded out or simply didn't care. Not that it mattered, because the System counted any win as a win. I figured that, even if some form of unfairness was afoot, as long as I wasn't aware of them, then the win was counted.

That opened up... interesting avenues, honestly. But, I couldn't think of any at the moment.

Whatever the case, 900 War Points was just enough for me to dare browse the more powerful stuff. Though, I didn't bother too much with the weapons section, since I already had a [Las Pistol] and, as far as I'm aware, that thing could punch through anything and anyone within my immediate level. What I needed, I thought, was protection, which was why I brought up the armor section first.

[Flak Armor] - Among the most basic forms of armour in common use by the Imperium. It is a relatively primitive form of armour, used most commonly by Imperial forces. That said, compared to 20th century Terra body armor, the Flak Armor is superior by several orders of magnitude. This one is tailor-made to fit you perfectly, a luxury most Guardsmen never receive, and comes with a helmet. Costs 500 War Points

[Carapace Armor] - Carapace armour consists of large rigid plates of armaplas, ceramite or some other strong material molded to fit parts of the body. While heavy to wear and unable to cover flexible areas such as joints, it offers far better protection over lighter types of armour such as flak armour. This particular model of Carapace Armor is Kasrkin Stormtrooper Carapace, used by the elite Cadian Shocktroopers, featuring a suite of highly-advanced technologies. Fits its wearer perfectly. Costs 900 War Points

I wasn't sure which of the two I wanted for myself. On the one hand, I could just keep these in my [Inventory] and didn't have to go through the actual trouble of having to put them on as I knew that I could, quite literally, summon the armors over my body instantly. On the other hand, I didn't feel like I'd need them just yet. Or, rather, I wasn't done browsing through possible options.

For instance, I just remembered the fact that I could summon people and living creatures in general.

[Guardsman] – A single Guardsman, whether male or female, armed with a Lasgun, Las Pistol, and donned in Flak Armor, and fully trained in the Basic Guardsman Regimental Training. There are many like him or her, but this one will be unquestionably loyal to you as a good and honest Guardsman should be with their Commanding Officer. Costs 600 War Points.

[Hormagaunt] - A fearsome but expendable Tyranid creature usually deployed in the billions which often precede a main Tyranid attack. It is a subspecies of Tyranid Gaunt armed with razor-sharp Scything Talons and move on powerful hind legs in a series of exceptionally fast, bounding leaps that appears as a skittering, insect-like gait. In short: claws and teeth on legs, very deadly and very fast. There are many like it, but this one is yours. Costs 500 War Points.

The choices were certainly very interesting, but what was more interesting, however, was the fact that I could purchase and implant knowledge directly into my brain, which was something I hadn't even thought was possible. But, looking back, maybe I should've expected something like this.

[Full Guardsman Regimental Training] – Run, jump, crawl, shoot, fight, and kill like a proper Guardsman; standard for the 40th millennium, but would likely be considered elite training in the 20th century. Gain five years' worth of training in an instant. Costs 500 War Points.

See, this was interesting to me, because having a [Las Pistol] was not the same as knowing how to shoot or operate it. And how to not make it explode in my grasp. And, of course, it probably came with some level of martial arts training, because being strong and tough didn't count for shit if a 70 year old boxer could knock me out in five seconds. I needed to know how to use my body, to leverage my strength, and that meant training. But, I didn't have time to train for four to five years. And I didn't want to. 500 War Points seemed like a good trade off.

The other options were just more weapons, objects I had no use for, and random cantrips that I had no interest in. Thank god for whoever came up with the "For You" automated section that filtered out the stuff I'd turn down immediately anyway. Otherwise, I'd go crazy having to browse through all the random junk.

Still, me being me, I didn't choose immediately. But, of the available choices, the [Full Guardsman Regimental Training] was definitely at the top. And the only thing that stopped my from buying that immediately was the possibility that I might find and unlock something better. However, to keep myself from falling into a trap of doing nothing, I gave myself a deadline; if I found nothing better by tomorrow, Saturday, then I was going to buy it.

Now, despite my efforts to actively search for Hidden Quests and Objectives for the last four days, however, I didn't really find any, which was why I decided to take a break from my usual grindset routine today, in favor of looking for anything odd and random that might result in my completing or unlocking a Hidden Quest. Portland was a pretty big place and I was pretty sure I'd run into something weird eventually. And if that didn't work, I'd walk around the woods and see if I ran into a werewolf or a wendigo or something. There have been a few sightings here and there, usually by crazy conspiracy guys on the radio or dogman podcasts or something. Most of those were probably hoaxes, but at least a handful of them probably saw something, at least. And, after all, I was told that the supernatural existed in this world; I just wasn't aware of them my entire life.

Was bigfoot real? What about a leprechaun? Where would I even begin to look for these things? Surely, they weren't all out in the woods, just waiting for a dumb hiker to bump into them at night?

And it was precisely with these questions in mind that I set out for the day. Both mom and dad were already at work by the time I stepped out of the house. I technically had classes today, but I honestly didn't care too much about it, since I had perfect scores in Chemistry, Physics, and Biology every single time; and so missing a day couldn't hurt. And, honestly? Medical School didn't seem so important now that I possessed this gift. I was destined for far greater things and so it was only natural that I chased after greater goals, greater and grander things. What was becoming a doctor compared to becoming a god? Yeah, there was no comparison.

My plan was to just... walk, I suppose, following all the pedestrian walkways until I just kind of encountered something that was out of the ordinary. My one hope was that I wouldn't be wasting a whole day just walking all over Portland, saying hello to everybody and getting absolutely nothing done. The first few hours were... boring. I was, in terms of statistics, in one of the safest cities in the United States of America and, honestly, I wasn't sure what I expected here. I encountered a lot of people, most of them walking to work or from work. I passed by restaurants, gyms, offices, salons, and all sorts of places and I honestly found nothing out of the ordinary. It was still morning, however, and the most likely time for weird supernatural things to start happening was probably when the sun went down. I mean, just about every ghost sighting or story that I've ever heard about all happened at night.

Still, I couldn't leave anything to chance. What if I stayed at home and someone suddenly said they saw an angel flying overhead or something and I missed it? Nah, not letting that happen.

I ate some shawarma for lunch at a new place that mom's been talking about all the time. It was good – nice and spicy. I moved on quickly. I walked through back alleys and streets, places where people might sell drugs or whatever. But I found nothing – a few junkies and homeless people here and there, but no crime and certainly nothing supernatural. Not surprised. I moved on, though being among such people did give me an idea. If I wasn't going to find anything out of this world today - and, honestly, I didn't have much hope for seeing or encountering anything supernatural – I could, instead, see if there were Hidden Quests related to crime.

And I knew, based on what little crime we did have, that a lot of drugs were passing through Portland from Toronto. There had to be traffickers or runners here, somewhere. I just had to find them and apprehend them. Or, maybe I could just stop a random mugging or something. No idea.

And, just as I walked into an open street, the building across me, which was a bank of some sort, suddenly had a portion of its wall explode.