Chapter 5: Progress
The second day was more difficult to him than the first. Raghav awoke in the middle of the night and the sky was black, and all his muscles were remonstrant.
This was due to the training of yesterday.
A great, inmost pain had already taken root in his members--a bodily complaint at the unusual oppression of the day before. It was the agonizing process of getting out of bed.
His flesh urgently requested that he should lie in bed some hours longer, and should give in to the alluring snugness of his blanket. But the mission interface kept on floating in his mind, an ugly silent reminder of his commitments to be the best cricketer.
His eyes were blazing with the desire to train again.
[Mission: Founder of a Champion. Progress: Day 1/7.]
[Complete the daily routine to continue.]
The continuation was the word which was a challenge and invitation at the same time. He groaned to himself as he struggled himself up.
The race was utter, untainted discomfort.
His legs were stiff, muscles were like shredded ropes, and the phantom stitch in his side of yesterday came back with a strong throb in the first two hundred metres.
But a strange thing happened. As the suffering was greater, his thoughts were more distinct. The terror was over, and in its place was a sullen obstinate determination. He had experience in pain now; it had been familiar to him.
He knew its boundaries. And he was aware, as a man who had lived his life full of remorse would have known, that he might push past them.
he had completed the kilometer a few seconds more slowly than he had done the day before, and fell in the same position under the banyan tree. The computer alerted of its acceptance.
[Task 1: Run 1 kilometer (Complete)]
[Your body is adjusting to the new strain. Stamina has achieved a little experience.]
The push-ups and sit-ups were of the same kind of tortures and mind power. His shape was dreadful, his movements were shaky yet he performed all repetitions. The quiet park was the only place where his grunts and gasps could be heard.
When he had finished the sky was lightening and he was covered with a new coat of sweat over the persisting soreness.
[Day-to-day management of a Champion Foundation complete. Progress: Day 2/7.]
The following few days mingled into a cycle of agony, hardship, and very small, but steady progressions.
On day three, the muscle soreness was the greatest. He replaced his steps with a lame walk, and all his actions were deliberate.
Priya stabbed him with her arm at school.
"Why is it you are walking like an old man", she asked, half looking curious, half ridiculing.
He only grunted back, too fatigued to make an adequate rejoinder.
On the fourth day he experienced a slight change. The run was now all too hard, but the fire in his lungs was no longer an inferno, it was now a controlled burning.
He was able to do fewer sets of his push-ups. It was the first indication that his body is starting to give in, to restore itself to be stronger than before.
On the fifth day, he felt that his school uniform was slightly looser at his belly and a bit tight at his shoulders.
He was losing the soft, childish fat and the building of lean muscle. He completed the run and he has never collapsed in the first place. He stood on his legs, stooped, with hands on his knees, puffing but erect.
This change did not pass without attention. His mother's worry deepened.
She began to put more ghee into his rotis and attempted to get him to take glasses of milk, believing that he was getting sick.
His father was staring at him letting out no expression.
The little academic concentration of his son some startled Umesh, in his reserved manner. The teachers of Raghav had noted that he was more involved, and his current test scores were the best he had ever done.
This made Umesh happy, although he could not accept it with the boy who was getting himself up at 5 AM every morning and running himself to rags.
It made him feel the discipline and not the motivation, and there was an unspoken and searching gap between them.
The greatest shift was his relationship with Abhinav. Raghav continued to refuse his invitations to go out and play gully cricket, and he had an excuse of homework.
A week later, Abhinav confronted him after school in an agitated way.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Raghav?" he asked.
"You're never coming to play. And you're always tired. Did I do something?"
Raghav saw the unhappy and the puzzled expression of his best friend and his heart sank.
"No, Abhi, it's not you. I promise," he said earnestly.
"I'm just… trying something new. Getting ready to the school trials. Properly this time."
"Preparing how? By not playing cricket?" Abhinav shot back unconvinced.
"It's more than that. I must get stronger, I said a little inadequately. "Just trust me. It'll make sense soon."
Abhinav did not seem convinced, but he changed the subject, and there was an awkward silence between them that had by no means existed before. It was another price to pay.
At last, there came the seventh of days. Raghav woke up feeling . . . different. The pains were not as great, a background music one recognized, and no longer were enormous. He had a kind of wirey strength in his extremities, an energy that was coiled about and he had never been acquainted with it. He visited the park; this had become the order of things.
He began running and this time he could feel it--there was something light in his step. His breathing was sweet and smooth. It was the lap where he did not feel the stabbing pain in his side.
The second lap elicited a greater push of his legs and the wind was cool in his face. He completed the kilometer and, had he ever felt it, experienced, in its place, not weariness, but a pleasing exhaustion.
His push-ups were tight and his arms like solid steel. He completed two sets of ten. The sit ups were still tough, but he could no longer have to hook his feet underneath the root. After performing the last rep, he lay back on the grass with his smile of victory.
A series of alarms flashed in front of his eyes:
[Task 1: Run 1 kilometer (Complete)]
[Task 2: 20 push-ups (Complete)]
[Task 3: 30 sit-ups (Complete)]
[Congratulations, Host!]
Mission Complete: Foundation For A Champion.
[Objective: Do the fitness routine every day for seven days] (Completed)]
[System Points (SP): +15 (Strength Points), +2 (Stamina Points), and Reward: +2 (Stamina Points)1 (Strength Point) ]
A stimulating energy - infinitely more owed than the trickle felt after his first mission - rushed through his body. Feelings when you reacted to a refreshment: It felt like drinking a cold glass of water on a burning day.
The deep-seated soreness which had been his constant companion for a week seemed to melt away, and in its place there was a feeling of the deepest vitality.
He hurriedly checked his status screen.
[Host: Raghav Roi]
[Age: 12]
[Stamina: 17/100] (+2)
[Strength: 13/100] (+1)
[Batting Technique: 11/100]
[Bowling Skill: 5/100]
[Fielding: 8/100]
[Cricket IQ: 25/100]
[System Points (SP): 20] (5+15)
The changes were still small in absolute numbers but the increase was sharp.
He could feel the difference between each muscle fiber. With 20 System Points he knew exactly what to do.
He thought, "System Store." The menu appeared. He went through the Stat Points section to the end.
[Batting Technique (+1 Point) – 20 SP. ]
In his mind, he commanded the action to buy.
[Are you sure that you want to spend 20 SP to upgrade the Batting Technique by 1 point? ]
[Yes/No]
'Yes.'
[Purchase confirmed. Batting Technique: 11 -> 12. System Points: 0]
Another warm sensation flowed through his hands and arms as he shadow-batted an imaginary straight drive. His movements were fluid and smoother as the muscle memory began to change.
He got up and looked at the horizon where the sun was now out in all its glory. The school experiments were for three weeks. He had made it through the first phase of his making. He had hurt in pain, and had been rewarded. However, now the real test is about to start.
(To be Continue)