Immortality Starts With Selling Pills

Chapter 13: Chapter 13: Battle Power

[Bank Account: 5000 Social Credits have been transferred to your account.]

The Bonus was transferred to Derrick’s bank account right away. He even received a notification regarding it.

He opened the app old Derrick used to handle his money. Thankfully, his retina and fingerprints remained the same, so he did not have to recall the pin.

[Baldn

The first thing he did with his bonus was to give a portion of it to Rebecca.

[2000 Social Credits have been successfully transferred to the account number XXXXXXXX3443.]

Rebecca was already asleep, so she had not seen the notification yet.

Derrick thought about sending 1000 credits to Cassie as well but decided to wait for the week and see how much income he would earn the first time.

He needed some funds for himself in case he needed them in an emergency.

’This way, I will be able to help her carry the burden of the financial problems at least.’

For some reason he felt like he owed Rebecca. He may not have killed her son or had anything to do with their situation, but the feeling never went away.

”Good night, Cassie.”

”Night.” Even though she went to bed before him, she did not sleep until he had turned the lights off and had fallen asleep.

.

.

The next day, Rebecca found Derrick and asked him about the money.

”It was the signing bonus for the book I told you about.” Derrick took a big bite of the butter toast on his plate. His eyes kept wandering between peanut butter and a chocolate spread.

”That’s not what I am asking. I want to know why you sent me that—”

Just as she was speaking, Derrick did something that made her stop speaking and Cassandra stop eating.

He spread peanut butter on one toast and the chocolate spread on the other before smashing them together and taking a bite.

Seeing him chew upon that abomination, the two women shivered in disgust and leaned back into their seats.

”I just threw up in my stomach a little. Excuse me, but I will take my breakfast some place where I don’t have to see good food being butchered by heretics.” Cassie got up with her plate in hand and half-eaten toast in her mouth before moving to her room.

”Hey, you don’t know what you are missing out on.” Derrick smirked and turned the toast in her direction, offering her to try it. But that only made her run away faster from him.

”Son, are you okay?” Rebecca asked with worry on her face, ”It seems the injuries messed you up pretty bad. Should we go see a doctor just in case?”

”It is surprisingly good; you should try it sometime.” Derrick chuckled; he used to love this stuff in his previous life and still did in his current one.

But not everyone understood his taste or appreciated it.

”I will send the money back to you; don’t do that again. We are not in desperate need of money; I have my savings, and I have been looking for a new job.” Rebecca returned to the topic, her fingers already moving on the phone before Derrick heard the notification.

”I even got some interviews lined up.” She picked up the dirty plates and put them in the sink.

No matter how much he tried to insist, Derrick could not get her to take his money. And that selfless attitude of hers only made him look up to her more.

How am I supposed to live up to her expectations?

...

A week of training later, and Derrick finally understood what it meant to have a body built by heaven itself.

Every morning before sunrise, he ran until his lungs burned. Every night, he did push-ups and sit-ups until his muscles screamed for mercy.

And every time, his body recovered faster than it used to in his past life. He could feel himself growing stronger every other day.

’This isn’t normal.’

He remembered his old life. The gym sessions that took months to show results. Even that was with protein shakes, creatine, and days of lying in bed, unable to move.

Now? He felt like this was not even a human body anymore.

Maybe it was because he was in a different world, but everything worked differently here.

The proof came on a random Tuesday morning, when he grabbed a steel pipe from the balcony railing to steady himself during a stretch.

It bent.

Derrick stared at the caved pipe, turned towards him, in his hand for a long moment.

And the first thought that popped in his head was, ’...Okay. I have to put it back or Rebecca would kill me.’

’If I’m already this strong without taking a single pill... what happens when I actually start taking those pills?’ He had not even reached the physical strengthening realm, and this was already the case.

Derrick could not help but imagine how powerful those who were in the realm actually were.

His excitement only lasted so long before the quest window popped up before him.

[Quest: Find the Truth]

Progress: 40%Time Elapsed: 7 Days

He still had a long way to go before he could get his hands on those drugs and take them.

’Patience. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was a murder investigation. I have to find the next clue about what happened. What Gwen had said about that kid also sounds suspicious. But he might already be at the academy... How do I proceed from here?’

Just as he was lost in thought, something happened again.

Buzz!

His phone buzzed with a notification he had been waiting obsessively for the past week.

[Royalty Payment Received: 30,000 Social Credits]

Derrick blinked at the number twice to make sure he wasn’t misreading it.

’Thirty thousand? I knew the numbers were good but not this good...’

It was the first week of his release, and he had already crossed a major line in his career. Who knows how long it would take a new author to achieve the same thing as he did.

Derrick was glad he finally had some financial backing to rely on.

’Old me would’ve ignored small numbers like this, but now, they are my everything.’

With money in his hand, Derrick did what every responsible adult would do with it.

Spend it.

He did not directly spend a credit, but instead he started looking for things he needed to get.

One of the main things he needed was a membership. Gym Membership.

After a week of training and exercising, Derrick had realized that his growth had stagnated and he could not get stronger as fast as he used to do.

So he decided to join a Gym and try out their equipment to increase the difficulty of his training.

The moment he searched for affordable Gyms around him, an ad appeared in his face.

A holographic banner flickered at the top of the page, rotating between flashy graphics of a person punching a glowing panel and numbers exploding across the screen in bright cascading digits.

”TEST YOUR TRUE POWER — RhoTech Combat Simulation Chambers — First Session For 5000 Credits ONLY!”