Inside Lefu’s mind realm, the black space had transformed. It had turned into a sea of flowers with a mansion in the distance. The mansion appeared to be made of pearl-white marble with porcelain wood style flooring. When Lefu entered the building, his shock continued to grow.

A bald man appeared. Lefu guessed he was about sixty. He wore a black tuxedo highlighting his shiny white beard. Analyzing the man’s stance, Lefu discovered he was well-trained in martial arts. The man stood ready to attack at any moment.

“Greeting, I am Grandmaster Dugu Qingrou, and I have been brought here to train you in ancient Kung Fu,” The man politely spoke before he spun on the sole of his foot. “Now if you will follow me, we are lacking time.”

Giving the man a small nod in agreement, Lefu silently followed. The two appeared inside the training field. Lefu scanned the field, finding the layout quite simple. The training equipment was in the middle while a track surrounded them.

“Grandmaster Dugu Qingrou-“

Grandmaster Dugu interrupted, “You may call me Master Dugu.”

“Master Dugu , what are we starting with?” Lefu politely asked.

“Well, you’re going to RUN!” Master Dugu voice echoed throughout the training field.

Unprepared for the shout, Lefu raised his hands to cover his ears. When Lefu looked back towards his master, a familiar whip made its appearance. “Your strength increased rapidly in such short period of time. So, now you have to adjust to this level of strength before the system will unseal it .” Master Dugu explained.

“And your method is to…run?” Lefu questioned unsure if his master was thinking correctly. How is running suppose to help? Lefu thought.

Master Qingrou replied calmly, “Don’t you use your legs to walk, run, and jump?” he answered calmly “Now imagine what would happen if you put too much power behind either action.”

Lefu imagined launching himself ten meters into the air and crashing into a building. Next, he imagined himself crushing his parents or destroying the gym. Before he knew it, Lefu nodded to himself, knowing the master was right.

“You just imagined launching ten meters into the air and crashing into a building, didn’t you?” Master Dugu asked. ”Well, that is only one problem. If you fail to control your power you’ll be destroying your own body. Your body may have strength but that doesn’t mean it can handle that strength.”

“How long do I run for?” Lefu asked.

Master Dugu smiled, readying the whip. “Until I stop.” .The whip cracked in the air.

Lefu subconsciously stepped back with full strength. He flew threw the air, his leg having transformed into a tattered rag. His bones felt like they were ground into dust, and every strand of muscle torn. Landing on the ground, Lefu’s leg regenerated and returned to normal within minutes. Amazed at his recuperative prowess, Lefu sat staring.

“What are you still sitting for? Your leg already healed. In a fight, the enemy is not going to care if you’re wounded or not,” Master Dugu sounded like demon, as the whip cracked again. “No, that’s not quite right. He’ll be even more vicious than before.”

Placing his hand on the ground, Lefu created a ten-meter-wide crater. Silence filled the air between the two as they looked at the crater. With a light cough, Master Dugu tried to play it off. “Have you consider becoming a wrecking ball?”

‘What do you mean a wrecking ball?’Lefu retorted with a thoughts. ‘I can at least walk normally.’

A few seconds passed. The crater filled in without a trace. After few seconds the whip landed between Lefu’s shoulder blades. The whip left a burning sensation.

“What are you wasting time for?” Master Dugu said, cracking the whip.”The faster you adjust, the sooner we can get to actually training.”

Five hours passed.

“Congratulation, you have gained basic control of your strength,” Master Dugu said as he hovered over Lefu.

Lefu laid on the ground panting. He just finished running five hours straight. When he heard Master Dugu comment on basic control, his middle finger raised reflexively. Master, if it was only running, I could have gained control sooner,’ he thought. ‘But why did you have to whip me?’

Whenever Lefu slowed down, he was whipped. If he ran at a constant speed, he was whipped. If he took steps that were too big or too small, he was whipped. Lefu had been whipped so many times in the last week, he wondered if he was gaining a whip fetish.

“Let’s move onto the next part, controlling your arm strength,” Master Dugu said producing ten weights. The lowest weighed one pound while the heaviest weighed 100,000 pounds.

“What am I supposed to do with these?” Lefu asked as he picked up the weight labeled 50,000 with little effort.

Master Dugu answered “You’re going to juggle them. This will help advance your control. Do you want to throw things into the stratosphere?”

One thing Lefu learned between the whippings was that Dugu Qingrou is fond of jokes. Whether good or bad, Master Dugu would tell the joke. Not even having the energy to respond, Lefu ‘gently’ tossed up the weight.

“I don’t think it’s coming back,” Lefu simply commented. The toss had caused a sonic boom.

“This is going to take a while,” Master Dugu mumbled.

***

Outside Lefu’s mind realm, Clare was lost in thought. Unbeknownst to her, more than two and half hours has passed. But she thought it was minutes. During that time, she tried to sort out her feelings for Lefu. But in the end, she only became more confused. When she thought of him as just a friend, her heart hurt. At the same time, she didn’t think of him as a lover either.

“What are you to me?” Clare mumbled to herself.

[Would you like the Omni System to display the relationship tab?] A mechanical voice, ran through her mind.

Hesitating, Clare felt tempted to look, but ultimately decided against it. “No, feelings can’t be put into numbers.”

[Mission Alert: Figure out your feelings,

Time limit: 1 week,

Reward: ???,

Failure: Lefu’s opinion of you drops.]

What? His opinion of me will drop? she thought as small tears gathered. Clare’s mind went wild. ‘Will he hate me?

Clare couldn’t stop thinking about failing the mission. Her thoughts ran wild for twenty minutes, before a servant knocked on the door. Upon exiting the room, Clare was told that her afternoon snack was ready.

When Clare heard it was afternoon, she looked at her watch. Realizing the time, her stomach rumbled. She blushed in embarrassment. Dismissing the servant, Clare took one last look at the door before heading towards the dining room.

Inside the dining room, Camilla stood by Kevin’s side as he typed. When Clare walked over, she looked at his computer screen. On the computer screen was a contract for buying Thousand Wood Logging Company.

“That name looks familiar,” Clare softly said.

“It the company that lost its heir in a crash last week,” Camilla explained , “Also, the CEO is sitting in jail under suspicion of bribery. We decided to buy the company since it’s profitable and the market price is at its lowest.”

Her curiosity sated, she lost interested and grabbed her snack. It was a fruit bowl with a box of strawberries. Picking out a piece of watermelon, Clare ate it before asking about the strawberries.

“Why is there a box of strawberries?” Clare asked.

Replying to her question, Kevin smiled, “Those are for Lefu. I bought them from a man who called himself Old Mino. When I mentioned that they’re for Lefu, he happily gave couple of boxes.”

“Why did he give you more?” Clare couldn’t understand.

“He has known Lefu for years as the boy that buys strawberries from him. He was worried when Lefu hadn’t appeared the last couple days. So, I kindly mentioned that Lefu was busy acting for an episode of ‘Vampire Life’,” Kevin began laughing, “Old Mino gave me the strawberries for free.”

Clare was about to reply when the door opened. In the doorway Lefu appeared worn out. Holding his hand to his head, he scanned the room before approaching her. When Clare noticed the serious look in his eyes, she felt scared he might hate her for what she has done to him.

“Can you take a step to the left? You’re blocking the strawberries,” Lefu’s first words to her after his transformation.

Stepping to the side, Clare didn’t know how to feel. She seemed to have lost to strawberries. Feeling a little hurt, Clare asked in icy tone, “Why is your first thought strawberries? Why not like ‘How am I alive’ or ‘What going on’?”

“These are Old Mino’s strawberries, so those questions can wait,” Lefu replied in serious tone.

How can you be that calm. At least worry about yourself a little, Clare thought, but forgot their mind’s were linked.

I do worry about myself, but it is already done. So, what can I do about it? Lefu replied calmly.

“Why not wonder if there is a way back to normal or not!” Clare shouted at him, before covering her mouth. Glancing back to her parents, she received confused stares wondering what happened.

Lightly shrugging his shoulders, Lefu continued to focus on his strawberries. As Clare watched him eat more strawberries, she saw his strength returning rapidly. Are the strawberries giving him strength? She wondered.

Old Mino, your strawberries are the best, the juiciest, and the taste is heavenly, Lefu thoughts echoed inside Clare mind. The more Lefu continued to describe them, the more Clare wanted to try one.

“Lefu can I try one?” She asked fluttering her eyes subconsciously. But Lefu hissed like a cat, refusing to give up a single one. Backing away, Clare grumbled, “It just one, what the big deal?”

Kevin who was watching, decided it was time to intervene. “Lefu come here a minute,” he called out.

“What is it?” Lefu asked when he stood next to Kevin.

“I got somethings to explain and a training regimen for you,” Kevin said. The glow in Lefu eyes vanished. Only dull and lifeless eyes remained.