Left with nothing to do, Max exercised—an exercise he learned from Apocalypse Online.
It was taught by a warrior instructor inside the Apocalypse Online, which surprisingly produced proportional physiological and neurological benefits in the player's real-world body.
At first, the players thought it would only be effective to players with warrior class, but it turned out it was effective to any players regarding their class.
Before the apocalypse descended, there were five categories of exercise that the player performed whenever they were off from gaming.
The strength conditioning, endurance training, reflex training, balance and coordination training, and breath regulation training.
Of course, to exercise the five categories in one set, especially to Max who was not exposed to exercising, would certainly shock his body, resulting in burnout.
Hence, he exercised the first four categories in swift and simple sets and then spent the rest of his hours in breath regulation training.
He told Enzo to wake him up once it was already 12:00 am.
Enzo nodded and tried his best to study for the next hours but was inevitably distracted by his brother's strange behavior.
He frowned whenever he caught him in his peripheral vision. Why is he exercising and meditating? Does it help in his gaming?
He shook his head and discarded the thoughts out of his mind to focus on his studying.
There was a clock in his study desk to keep track of the time he mostly ignored.
Hence, he was quite five minutes late from waking Max.
At the moment, Max was already meditating, seemingly focused on his breathing.
He said to him, "It's 5 minutes past 12 am, brother."
Max abruptly opened his eyes and nodded. "Thanks."
He opened his phone and scrolled through social media.
As expected, there were many posts about virtual games. Some expressed their frustrations to the developer of the games they invested most of their money and time in as it was suddenly deleted without prior notice, and some were intrigued about the new single game that obliterated the other games.
Max beamed a smile. An hour later, their complaints will die down. The Apocalypse Online far surpassed every game combined.
Without hesitation, Max climbed up to his gaming pod and his consciousness disappeared into the game.
Since there was only a single game present, there was no need for him to set the game on his gaming pod. Every player would inevitably log in to Apocalypse Online.
…
[Welcome to Apocalypse Online.
Please choose a village you want to be designated.
Your decision will be irreversible, so please choose wisely.]
Max saw 7 villages with an image of an aerial view and a brief description in the background.
The Oakshade Village, which was a logging and hunting settlement built inside a massive ancient woodland.
The Stoneford Village, which was a fortified agricultural outpost near old battlefield ruins.
The Emberfield Village, which was a supply village supporting nearby magitech workshops.
The Frostmere Village, which was a fishing and watch settlement overlooking monster-infested waters.
The Sun Hollow Village, which was a stable agricultural settlement supplying the capital.
The Greyfen Village, which was a reclamation village trying to rebuild lost territory.
The Redridge Village, which was a mining outpost with a strong militia tradition.
Out of the seven villages, Max randomly chose a village in his past life, the Frostmere Village.
There, he became an Ice Mage.
However, this time, Max chose Greyfen Village.
Out of the seven villages, there was only one mage who solved a main quest from a village, leading him to become one of the Tier 5 players before the apocalypse descended.
He was a streamer and in one of his videos, he explained how he discovered the main quest and how he became an arcane caster, a strongest variant of Mage class at Tier 1.
However, to become an arcane caster requires strong control and high mana reserves.
In other words, the mage must have a strong and solid foundation before he earned the arcane caster class.
Thankfully, Max watched his video and his story has been embedded in his mind.
Although Max was slightly guilty that he had stolen the humanity of a Tier 5 mage as a result, he was confident he would replace him anyway, becoming far better than him.
He said, "I chose the Greyfen Village."
[You have chosen the Greyfen Village.
The destination coordinates of the Greyfen Village have been locked.
You are now being teleported inside the Greyfen Village.]
Afterwards, the scenery in front of Max's eyes blurred, causing him to feel sick.
Suddenly, he found himself standing on the main road.
At the moment, there were already many players walking and talking with each other, of how they were excited to explore the vastness of the game.
Max ignored and didn't approach them as he said in his mind, "Please show me my status."
A wall of text appeared in front of him.
[Name: Maximus Grant
Level: 1
Exp: 0/10
Tier: 0
Class: None
HP: 120
Mana: 50
Stamina: 40
Base Stats:
Strength: 13
Agility: 12
Durability: 11
Intelligence: 15
Skills: None
Free Stat Points: 0
Skill Points: 0
Status: Unawakened.]
Max chose Mage because of his base stats. The minimum requirement to become a mage was to have 15 intelligence points. If he wants to become a warrior, he must have 13 points in strength and durability and 50 stamina.
Hence, despite most of the players choosing warrior since it was the easiest path, Max chose Mage. It was also what made him earn money since Mage was also one of the difficult classes.
Of course, with his intelligence points, he could have chosen a support class, but Max refused to be a player on the backline supporting others.
He was introverted, after all.
He thought. As expected, my base stats remained the same as far as I remember.
Just as he fell into deep thoughts, a feminine voice echoed in his mind.
[It has been detected that you possessed a soul-bind item.
The scroll of the hidden legacy class has been bound to you.
To gain access to the scroll, a Tier 2 Summoner class is required.]
After hearing what she said, his eyes widened.