The halfway point came and went almost without Jason realizing it. His phone vibrated softly in the pocket of his shorts.
He slowed just enough to glance at the running tracker before turning around at the one-kilometer mark.
"Halfway."
He muttered the word between breaths before pushing himself forward again.
The return trip immediately felt twice as long and his legs had stopped listening.
Each stride carried a little less force than the one before it, his breathing growing rougher with every passing second. The cool evening breeze that had felt refreshing earlier now seemed completely useless against the heat radiating from his body.
Sweat rolled down the side of his face, dripping from his chin before disappearing into the collar of his shirt.
His shoes slapped unevenly against the pavement.
Left, Right, Left...
"No."
"Absolutely not."
Jason pulled out his phone while jogging, squinting at the tracker through blurry eyes.
Distance Remaining: 0.20 km
He stared at the number then stared at the road ahead and then looked back at the number.
"My motivation has officially expired."
"It served the nation well."
He pointed accusingly at the tiny number on the screen.
"You’re telling me it’s only two hundred meters?"
"My body is telling me it’s another two countries."
His legs slowed into an awkward shuffle.
"I genuinely cannot."
"I’ve reached the subscription limit for suffering today."
With all the dignity he could salvage, Jason surrendered and his jog dissolved into a slow walk.
Every muscle protested with each step, his calves tight, his thighs burning and his lungs still trying to negotiate a peace treaty with oxygen.
"Tomorrow."
He nodded to himself.
"We’ll pretend today’s workout never happened and start fresh."
A beat passed.
"Actually, no. If I pretend today never happened, I’ll have to do it again."
"Forget I said that."
By the time his apartment building finally came into view, he had already accepted that death by exhaustion was a very real medical condition.
He climbed the stairs like a man ascending a mountain.
One hand clung stubbornly to the railing.
The other rested on his hip.
"Why does my apartment feel taller today?"
Somehow, against all odds, he reached his door and the key slipped from his sweaty fingers twice before finally finding the lock.
He stumbled inside.
The moment the door clicked shut behind him, Jason dropped his keys onto the nearby table and leaned against the wall with a long, exhausted sigh.
"Home."
"I missed you."
The familiar pink screen unfolded before his eyes.
Daily Quest Completed.
Jason blinked.
Once.
Twice.
"Completed?"
He straightened immediately.
"What?"
His brows furrowed.
"I didn’t finish the run."
"I still had two hundred meters left."
The screen shimmered.
Another line quietly appeared beneath the first.
Remaining distance has been compensated using unfinished running distance recorded earlier today.
Morning Run: 0.27 km
Evening Run: 1.80 km
Total Recorded Distance: 2.07 km
Daily Requirement Met.
Jason stared silently.
Then slowly looked toward the ceiling.
"You’re kidding."
A grin spread across his face before he could stop it.
"So I actually ran over two kilometers today."
The realization settled warmly inside his chest.
Yesterday, walking to class without feeling lazy had sounded like effort but today he had somehow completed every single task the system had thrown at him.
A quiet laugh escaped him.
"Not bad."
He pointed casually at the floating screen.
"My guy"
"I’ll admit it."
"That was generous."
The screen rippled once more and a new notification quietly surfaced.
Daily Reward Issued.
Reward: Full Body Recovery
Before Jason could even question what that meant he felt warmth spread through him in a single instant.
Not from outside but from within his body. It coursed through every aching muscle, every strained tendon, every exhausted fiber that had spent the entire day screaming in protest. The soreness dissolved so quickly it almost felt unreal, like someone had reached inside his body and erased fatigue itself.
Jason’s shoulders loosened.
His breathing steadied.
The heaviness weighing down his limbs simply disappeared.
His eyes widened and he slowly clenched and unclenched both fists.
Then rolled his shoulders and bent his knees.Nothing. there was no pain, no stiffness and no burning
He felt light
As though his body had been reset to the moment before he’d started exercising.
"What?"
He bounced lightly on the balls of his feet and then did it again a disbelieving laugh escaping his lips
"What the hell?"
"My muscles, they are actually fine."
He stretched both arms high above his head before twisting his waist from side to side, waiting for the familiar soreness to punish him.
It never came.
"This..."
He looked back at the screen, unable to stop smiling.
"...Okay."
"This reward is insane."
He pointed at the system again.
"My guy..."
He swung his hand in a motion as if to dap up the system
"You’ve officially redeemed yourself."
The screen remained perfectly silent.
Jason nodded anyway.
"I know."
"You don’t have to say you’re welcome."
The screen did not react.
"Still rude, though."
He checked the time.
5:45 PM.
"Crap."
His eyes widened.
He shot toward the bathroom so suddenly that, this time, his legs responded effortlessly.
He actually stopped halfway down the room, blinking in surprise before grinning to himself.
"Right."
"No more muscle pain."
"Yeah"
"I can definitely get used to this."
The shower lasted barely a few minutes just long enough to wash away the sweat.
By the time he stepped back into his room, towel draped over his shoulders, he glanced at the clock again.
Still cutting it close.
"No fashion show today."
He yanked open his wardrobe.
His eyes swept across clothes that somehow all looked equally average.
After several seconds of intense consideration worthy of a military operation, he grabbed a clean black hoodie, a pair of fitted grey sweatpants and simple white sneakers.
Jason gave himself one last glance in the mirror.
His hair was still slightly damp and the hoodie sat neatly on his shoulders.
Nothing special.
But he looked better than he had this morning.
"Alright."
He took one steady breath before reaching for the doorknob.
"Let’s not be late for my totally-not-a-date."
Jason wrapped his fingers around the doorknob and took one last glance around the apartment.
The room looked exactly as he’d left it.
The bed was still slightly unmade from his unexpected five-hour coma.
A faint scent of soap lingered in the air from his rushed shower.
The pink system interface had already disappeared, leaving the apartment feeling strangely normal again.
He reached toward the switch beside the door.
Click.
The lights blinked out.
Only the soft glow spilling in through the curtains remained, painting the room in muted shades of blue and amber.
Jason stepped outside and gently pulled the door shut behind him.
Click.
He had barely taken two steps down the hallway when his body suddenly froze.
"..."
"Hold on."
His eyes slowly widened.
Then he turned his head back toward his apartment door.
"I’m actually unbelievable."
A slow sigh escaped him as he unlocked the door again.
The room greeted him with darkness.
He reached inside, flicked the light back on and immediately spotted the culprit.
His phone.
It was still lying peacefully on the small table beside the entrance exactly where Sarah had handed it back to him.
Jason walked over, picked it up and stared at the shattered screen for a long second.
Then he looked at himself in the black reflection.
"I’m going out to repair my phone and I forgot to bring the phone."
He nodded once.
"Honestly, Jason. At this rate, natural selection is going to start sending you warning letters"
A quiet laugh escaped him.
He slipped the phone into his hoodie pocket before turning the lights off once more and locking the apartment behind him.
This time, he actually made it downstairs.
His footsteps echoed softly through the stairwell as he descended, his mood noticeably lighter than it had been only a few hours ago.
Halfway down the stairs, another thought quietly wandered into his head slowing him down
"How am I even supposed to meet Sarah?"
He frowned.
He didn’t have her number but even if he somehow did...
He glanced toward the cracked phone in his pocket.
"Yeah."
"That would’ve been a useless discovery."
He scratched the side of his head while continuing down the remaining steps.
There wasn’t really a way to contact her.
Jason thought about it for several moments before eventually shrugging.
"Well. The convenience store."
He nodded to himself.
"That’s literally where we always meet."
"If I just stand there eventually one of us has to find the other."
It wasn’t exactly a flawless strategy. Actually it depended almost entirely on luck.
But considering his alternatives consisted of wandering around the neighborhood hoping she’d magically appear, it somehow became the most logical option available.
"Good enough."
With his hands tucked into the pockets of his hoodie, Jason made his way toward the familiar convenience store.
The evening streets had begun filling with people returning from work, the warm glow of shop signs spilling onto the sidewalks while passing cars drifted lazily through the intersection.
Jason stopped a short distance away and his eyes scanned across the entrance.
"Guess now we wait."