“It’s okay. You can do better next time.”
“Haa..”
Seung-ho sighed deeply and shook his head. Today’s total had been 3 kills and a whopping 51 deaths. It was certain he had no talents in gaming.
“We’re going that way. You take the bus over there, right?”
“Yeah. Today was fun.”
“Agreed! Let’s have another 6-person queue later.”
After exchanging goodbyes with the guys, Seung-ho walked to the bus station. The bus arrived as soon as he arrived.
‘Nice timing.’
The third row from the front, on the left side. Seung-ho’s favourite seat was empty.
‘Luck is on my side, today.’
As soon as he sat down, his heart calmed down. He felt unsatisfied; if he had done just a little bit better, he could have had more fun with his friends while gaming.
‘Should I raise my gaming stat with my ability?’
Pro-gamers these days easily earned an annual salary of over a hundred million won if they had the talent for it. It was a career with promising possibilities, not to mention the fact that with Seung-ho’s abilities, he could be a top gamer with no problem.
‘But I still don’t want to do it.’
Apart from RPG games, Seung-ho couldn’t game well. If he wanted to be pro-gamer, he had to play games that had a certain victor for every round like AOS or StarCraft, but he didn’t like nor was good at those kinds of games.
He did enjoy RPG games; however, he didn’t want to make a career out of them.
‘Let’s just study. I’m a third year now.’
-----
“How did guys do on your tests yesterday?”
“Boooo~”
“We completely bombed it~”
“I’ll repeat the grade!”
As if having expected the answers, the teacher sighed and shook his head.
“Since it was just a mock exam, don’t worry about it too much. So let’s pick the cla.s.s president.”
“What?”
It was Teacher Ryu Han-shin’s special skill - abrupt change of topics.
“Raise your hand if you want to be the cla.s.s president!”
As soon as he finished speaking, two names rang throughout the cla.s.sroom.
“Jun-seok!”
“Ha-eun!”
The students, who were deskmates in a corner of the room, nominated each other. Even the teacher knew that they were just joking around, but wrote the names on the board as if nothing was amiss.
“Lee Jun-seok, Park Ha-eun. Anybody else?”
n.o.body raised their hand after that. It seemed as if the students were still in shock from the mock exams.
“You should do it.”
Choi Seul-hwa abruptly turned to Seung-ho and egged him on. Seul-hwa had been his desk mate last year, but somehow had become his desk mate again this year.
Of course, being in the same cla.s.s was complete coincidence, but Seung-ho still didn’t know that Seul-hwa had planned on being desk partners with him.
“Me?”
Fl.u.s.tered, Seung-ho shook his head. Even if it sounded good, becoming a cla.s.s president was still too much.
‘I still have a hard talking in front of the guys, so being a cla.s.s president…’
But before he could finish his mental screaming, Choi Seul-hwa had grabbed Seung-ho’s hand and raised it.
“Seung-ho says he wants to do it, teacher!”
“Woah~”
Exclaiming in awe, all the students looked at Seung-ho. His cheeks instantly flushed red.
‘T-the f.u.c.k!’
When he looked over at Seul-hwa with surprised eyes, she smiled and slowly let go of his wrist.
Seul-hwa had just been trying to initiate physical touch and joke around, but Seung-ho recalled a moment in the past when the bullies had recommended him as a cla.s.s president in order to humiliate him.
His outer appearance had changed, but internally he was still the Choi Seung-ho that Choi Seul-hwa had extremely abhorred. No matter how pretty and shapely Seul-hwa was, there was no way Seung-ho would have had any good emotions towards her.
“Okay, Seung-ho.”
The teacher wrote Seung-ho’s name on the board expressionlessly.
“Haa.”
Seung-ho sighed deeply and slowly laid his arm, which had lost strength, on the desk. Abruptly, a quest panel popped up in front of his eyes.
QUEST:
Become the cla.s.s president.
Reward: 10 points
‘What?’
Up until 10 seconds ago, Seung-ho had been frustrated that he would probably get humiliated, but his emotions changed in an instant.
‘There’s no rule saying I can’t be one.’
“You’ll be a cla.s.s president.”
Seul-hwa pumped her first as she cheered him on with a “You can do it!”
‘I don’t know if she’s making fun of me, or if she’s being sincere.’
The number of candidates for cla.s.s president were three in total. When the teacher called them, the three students stood in front of the lecture podium.
“In the order of the names written on the board, give us your pledges. First up, Lee Jun-seok.”
Jun-seok nonchalantly placed his hands on the podium and began to speak.
“If I become cla.s.s president, I’ll make this a cla.s.s that knows how to party like crazy.”
“Oooooh!”
“Hey, you rascal. Who parties in third year? You need to study.”
Teacher Ryu Han-shin flicked Jun-seok on the forehead and called Ha-eun up.
“If I become cla.s.s president, I’ll treat you all to snacks! You all like sweet and sour chicken, right?!”
“Woaaah!”
The students roared in an instant. Who knew sweet and sour chicken was this popular?
Teacher Ryu Han-shin shook his head and spoke.
“When it comes to food, you kids can’t use any of your limbs. Next up is Seung-ho.”
He’d thought that he might as well give being cla.s.s president a try, but standing in front of everyone made him feel extremely nervous. His cheeks flushed red, his breathing quickened, and he started sweating without realizing it.
Seung-ho shuffled his feet in front of the podium.
“I-if I become cla.s.s president, I’ll make us a friendly cla.s.s.”
“Woaaaah!”
As the students applauded, he felt a bit relieved. However, he thought that his chances at becoming the cla.s.s president were shot.
‘I got so nervous that I said something that would fit in at an elementary school election.’
Sullen, Seung-ho returned to his seat.
-----
“Choi Seung-ho: 25 points, Park Ha-eun 13 points, Lee Jun-seok 2 points. Seung-ho is cla.s.s president, and Ha-eun is vice-president.”
QUEST COMPLETE
You’ve become the cla.s.s president.
Reward: 10 points
“Woaaah!”
Seung-ho yelled in exaltation before he realized it. Seul-hwa, who’d been next to him, patted his arm with her palm and cooed.
“Congratulations!”
The other female students were also happy that Seung-ho had become cla.s.s president, but they were displeased at Choi Seul-hwa’s actions.
‘That b.i.t.c.h purposely sat next to Seung-ho and is acting that way.’
‘That fox-like b.i.t.c.h.’
‘How dare she flirt.’
“Next cla.s.s is gym, right? Get to the auditorium before the bell rings. I’ll be going. Do the greetings well next period, cla.s.s president.”
“Yes, sir!”
Seung-ho looked at the quest completion panel as he calmed his pounding heart.
‘To think that I’m cla.s.s president.’
It was the first time in his life that he’d become one. Of course, 17 of the 25 votes he’d received were from the female students, but that wasn’t very important to know.
“Hey, congrats!”
As soon as the teacher left, five friends including Sang-wook were the first to approach him and congratulate him.
“You’re the cla.s.s president, now.”
“Now that you’re the president, you should do service work for the students. Bring some water.”
“I’m good, hahaha.”
Then Park Han-seung abruptly walked up. Chang-min and the other kids slowly backed away.
“Congrats, Seung-ho.”
“Ah, t-thank you.”
He’d become part of the same cla.s.s as Han-seung, but it was Seung-ho’s first time conversing with him since that time behind the gym. It was still a bit scary.
“I also voted for you.”
Han-seung laughed as he laid a hand on Seung-ho’s shoulder, and then returned to his seat.
“Are you close with him?”
Seul-hwa asked the question as if surprised. He’d thought things were quiet, but her expression was that of one looking at popular kids.
“N-no. We just know each other.”
As the atmosphere started getting awkward, someone called Seung-ho.
“Cla.s.s prez~ The gym teacher said to take the keys to the auditorium.”
“Ah, I-I’ll take them.”
Seung-ho left the students behind and headed toward the staff room.
-----
The female students were gathered in twos and threes on the mats, gossiping. The male students were either playing badminton or following Park Han-seung and going out to smoke.
Due to the fact that the gym teacher was looking at retirement that year, the students didn’t really pay attention to him and so the situation looked like this.
“Then 3 versus 3?”
“Yeah, let’s play half-court.”
“Betting on ice cream?”
“Agreed.”
Six friends, including Seung-ho, were on the basketball court and decided on teams with a hand-flipping game.
“Sang-hyup, Seung-ho, and me. Geum-taek, Chang-min, and Sung-yun. Those are the teams.”
Following Sang-wook’s words, the kids split up into groups. When they started the game, a few girls here and there started focusing their attention on the basketball court. The word was that the handsome Seung-ho worked out, so they were looking forward to it.
Seung-ho felt the gazes as well, but his re-found appreciation for gym cla.s.s was more important.
‘Ah, I can’t wait.’
He didn’t know how many years it’d been since he voluntarily partic.i.p.ated in sports, and not because the teacher had told him to.
“Start!”
Following Sang-wook’s words, the ball headed straight toward Seung-ho. Fl.u.s.tered at the faster-than-expected speed, Seung-ho barely caught the ball.
Thankfully, Seung-ho remembered the basic rules due to watching basketball on TV during his childhood. Walking while dribbling for a bit, he pa.s.sed the ball to Sang-hyup with a grounder.
“Nice!”
Sang-hyup received the ball, stepped once inward, and took a shot.
Unfortunately, the ball hit the rim and bounce off.
“Seung-ho, rebound!”
He’d jumped as soon as Sang-wook had yelled, but the timing was too late. Geum-taek, who was slightly shorter than Seung-ho, caught the ball and pa.s.sed it to his teammates.
After that, things became helpless. Every time he caught the ball and dribbled, it was stolen from him. Every time he tossed the ball toward the basket, the ball fell without even hitting the rim.
No matter how much he hadn’t worked out, Seung-ho hadn’t known himself that he’d be that bad.
‘If it’s this frustrating to me, how much more frustrating is it to the guys?’
He abruptly thought of his ability. Seung-ho temporarily left the basketball court and called out to his friends.
“Time out, I need the bathroom.”
“Hurry up.”
Seung-ho hurriedly rushed into the bathroom. After checking that there was n.o.body around him, he opened the ability modification panel.
Although he tried to input ‘Athleticness’ as a new stat, a panel saying that it was impossible popped up.
‘Is it because the range is too broad?’
After thinking for a while, he entered ‘Basketball Dribble’, ‘Basketball Shooting Accuracy’, and ‘Basketball Pa.s.sing Accuracy’ as new stats.
‘It works!’
STAT MENU:
Name: Choi Seung-ho
Career: High School Student
Height: 186 cm (+ -)
Weight: 73 kg (+ -)
Strength: 35 (+ -)
Agility: 12 (+ -)
Stamina: 13 (+ -)
Intelligence: 21 (+ -)
Appearance: 41 (+ -)
Charm: 32 (+ -)
Luck: 5 (-)
Basketball Dribble: 4 (+ -)
Basketball Shooting Accuracy: 3 (+ -)
Basketball Pa.s.sing Accuracy: 6 (+ -)
Left Vision: 1.5 (+ -)
Right Vision: 1.5 (+ -)
--
Available points: 10
‘Ugh, it’s only this?’
Even when he thought about it, the stats were quite low. The good thing was that he had become cla.s.s president, so he had 10 points in stock.
‘Ah, but I can’t just use the points like that.’
But he had to use them. Ice cream was dependent on this game; not only that, but pride was on the line as well.
‘I can’t lose. It’s the first proper gym cla.s.s in my life.’
Pondering between dribbling and shooting, he decided that he’d choose only one of them. If he raised both by a little, he’d be pushed back by the opponent team.
‘As a man, I have to go for shooting.’
After investing all 10 points into shooting, he returned to the basketball court with a resolutely determined heart.