Chapter 54: VX 500
The next morning,
In the Glacier Palace training room,
Scar exhaled a sharp breath, wiping a towel across the back of his neck as he completed two of his daily quests. The system notification flashed in his face, allocating the expected rewards.
[You have received: +5 Exp, +2 Strength, +2.5 Stamina]
[You have received: +10 Exp, +5 Durability, +2.5 Stamina]
[Exp: 475/1800]
[Strength: 46]
[Durability: 81]
[Stamina: 156]
Scar threw the towel onto a bench and walked out into the grand hallway of the Glacier Palace. He headed back to his room, took a quick, scalding shower, and changed into a red and black track suit. He went down to the dining hall, aggressively devouring a massive plate of eggs and proteins, before walking out to the estate’s front pavement, the gates closing behind him.
Scar dropped into a sprinter’s stance, took a deep breath, and—
Boom.
The sonic displacement shattered the morning quiet as he took off, running down the avenue, a blur of kinetic force moving unimpeded through the private sector. The trees smeared into a continuous wall of green, and the wind whipped across his face. He hit the brakes right at the entrance of Arcadia Central Park, his shoes smoking as the system chimed.
[Daily Quest Complete: Run 10 Kilometers]
[You have received: +5 Exp, +10 km/h to top speed]
[Exp: 480/1800]
[Top Speed: 780 km/h]
Scar closed the tab and grabbed a burger as always, before breaking into a sprint once again.
This time, he pushed deeper into the sprawling metropolis of Arcadia. He kept his speed strictly moderate, conserving his stamina and energy points for the assessment ahead, effortlessly weaving through the morning commuter traffic and pedestrian.
Within two minutes, the towering architecture of the city parted, revealing his destination.
The National Stadium.
It was a colossal, open-air coliseum of white marble and reinforced steel. But what made Scar stop dead in his tracks was the statue looming over the grand entrance. It was a staggering, ten-story-tall monument forged entirely from solid gold. It depicted a winged woman stepping forward, holding a laurel wreath high toward the sky, her robes perpetually flowing in a sculpted, invisible wind.
Scar stared up at the towering face of the statue and deduced her identity instantly. "Nike. The Goddess of Victory." he blurted out.
Just then, a strange chill ran down his spine.
Wait. How did I know that? he thought.
It hadn’t come from the first Henry’s inherited memories, neither had it come from his own. He had never opened a book on classical Greek mythology in his life. So how did he instantly, inherently recognize the exact name and title of the deity?
He shook his head, discarding it as a good guess. He couldn’t afford to be distracted.
He walked through the massive archways into the stadium. The vast, circular interior, capable of seating hundreds of thousands, was entirely empty. Except for a single figure standing at the edge of the pristine, metallic running track. Alicia.
Her red hair caught the morning sun, flowing gently. She was dressed in a big white hoodie and black joggers, her brow furrowed in deep concentration as she rapidly tapped away at a complex holographic screen projecting from her wristband.
Scar didn’t walk over. He simply leaned forward, engaged his speed, and in the span of a single second, he cleared the hundred-yard distance, materializing directly beside her.
"Hey," Scar said from behind, hoping to startle her.
But Alicia didn’t even flinch. She didn’t even look up from her screen.
"You’re late," she scolded, her voice entirely devoid of its usual playful, teasing lilt. Her expression was dead serious, intensely focused on the cascading lines of data. It was such a drastic contrast to the girl who had playfully terrorized him in his bedroom, and Scar briefly wondered if she had a dissociative disorder of her own.
"I lost track of time warming up," Scar deflected smoothly, offering zero apology. He looked at the floating numbers. "So, are we going to do this or not?"
"Give me a sec," Alicia muttered, her fingers flying across the digital keyboard. "I’m setting up the biometric speedometer."
Five seconds later, she turned to face him and tapped a button on her wristband. A red, grid-like laser swept over Scar from head to toe, scanning him. Instantly, an holographic interface popped into the air between them.
On the left side of the screen was Scar’s face, his name blinking below it. In the center floated a highly detailed, 3D schematic representation of his entire body, monitoring his real-time vitals—heart rate, muscle tension, oxygen levels, etc. And on the far right was a digital speedometer currently resting at 0 km/h.
Alicia swiped the diagnostic tab to the side, looking him in the eye.
"Okay, the telemetry is locked," she stated, her tone purely professional. "So, here’s what you’re gonna do You are going to run around this track as many times as possible until I tell you to stop. I want you to accelerate rapidly until you hit your limit. I need to determine your maximum velocity."
Scar raised an eyebrow. "So that’s why we’re here today? You just want to know my top speed?" he asked, slightly amused.
"Yes," Alicia said. "I can sense when you’ve gotten faster, but I can’t determine your exact maximum velocity value just by looking at you. I need a standardized metric to build a baseline."
Scar hummed quietly to himself. His System already provided a built-in speedometer and constantly notified him of his top speed, but there was no reason to tell her anything about that.
"Okay," Scar nodded. "Let’s get it over with."
Alicia reached into her spatial storage ring, pulling out a tiny, magnetic ear-comm device. She handed it to him. "I’ll use this to communicate with you while you run."
Scar placed it in his ear and turned toward the starting line.
"Wait. One more thing," Alicia called out. Then she reached into her ring again. In a flash of light, a sleek, futuristic visor materialized in her grip. It looked incredibly advanced, pulsing with a faint, cobalt-blue light along the aerodynamic frame.
"Put this on," she said, handing the visor over. "It should help you navigate better."
Scar took the visor and slipped it over his eyes. Instantly, his entire field of view transformed. The stadium was overlaid with a high-tech augmented reality display: Real-time distance calculations, thermal readings, and a dynamic white reticle projected onto the running track, mapping the perfect trajectory for a high-speed curve. It felt similar to an advanced combat HUD.
But what truly stunned him was the cascade of system notifications that erupted in his vision.
[VX 500 (A-Rank) Equipped]
[Temporary Stat Boost in Effect: +50 Perception]
[Perception: 62 >> 112]
[Alert! Host has equipped an item that possesses a Passive Accelerated Perception Skill: Perception Index has been modified]
[Perception Index: 4.5x >> 6.5x]
[Host can now observe his surroundings 4x faster (Passive State) than a normal human brain. And when Accelerated Perception (Active State) is engaged, Host’s perception rate is scaled up to 6.5x]