“Hey, Ug-Face!”
“What? Oh.”
Seung-ho ran over, surprised at Han-joo’s summons.
Ug-Face. “Ugly Face”. That was Seung-ho’s nickname. Even though it was hard to call him that, the fact that it signified his less-than-stellar looks still stood.
“Buy me two Keruru pastries and a Jeti.”
“Aren’t you uncomfortable when ordering him to buy pastries?”
“It’s okay. He’s just touching the exterior of the packaging, after all.”
Han-joo retrieved a 1000 won bill from his wallet and tossed it to Ug-Face - no, Seung-ho.
“Uh, Han-joo. If I buy all that, it’s going to cost 1200 won - “
“You’re going to dirty my name if you keep saying it! And if that’s not enough money, then use some from your own pocket! Why do you have so much to say?”
Han-joo clenched his fist and punched Seung-ho in the chest.
“Hurry up. There’s only 5 minutes left in the break.”
“Oh, right!”
Seung-ho ran like his pants were on fire to the corner store and bought the aforementioned goods. However, the bell rang the second he stepped foot into the cla.s.sroom.
“Here.”
“The bell rang! d.a.m.n it, I have to eat it later.”
Han-joo hit Seung-ho’s arm, which was pulling the baked goods out of the bag. A flash of shock runs up the limb.
‘Son of a b.i.t.c.h.
Han-joo wasn’t done however, and glared as he opened his spoke.
“f.u.c.k off.”
Seung-ho was mad, but had no choice but to return to his seat. Inability to control anger? That was all bulls.h.i.t. It was in the human nature to be able to control temper really well in front of those that were stronger than you.
“Huu..”
He sighed deeply as he sat down.
“Hey, Pig. Stop breathing.”
Hanna, who was sitting next to him, huffed annoyedly and moved to another seat.
The guy that everybody hated and ostracized. That was Choi Seung-ho.
“Hey, Ug-Face. Where’s my food?”
“You’re going to be contaminated by the ugliness if he buys it. Hehehe.”
The boys snickering in the back row were shredding an eraser, flicking little pieces of it at Seung-ho.
‘Just ignore them.’
Since tomorrow was the start of break, he just needed to ignore them for today. Since he didn’t apply for remedial education this time, he didn’t need to see these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds for a month.
Before the teacher entered, he retrieved his textbook from his desk drawer. He needed to study hard.
‘If I study hard and get into a university, I can get a girlfriend.’ This thought was his only hope.
Eraser crumbs had been hitting Seung-ho’s head the entire time. Seung-ho didn’t react. It was a given that nothing was going to change.
QUEST:
Yell at the bullies tossing the eraser to stop.
Reward: 10 points
“f.u.c.k that.”
That was something he could never do. No, something he would never do. The second he shouted at them, their fists would fly towards Seung-ho’s face.
However, the reward flashing at the bottom of the screen felt too tempting to pa.s.s on.
‘Should I?’
He sorted his thoughts out for a moment. If he did it right when the teacher came in, they wouldn’t be able to do anything. He might get beaten up after cla.s.s, but it may be over with after a good hit or two.
The history teacher opened the door just then and entered. Seung-ho quickly turned around and spoke.
“S-stop it.”
“What?”
The boys in the back row glared at him, but the scary history teacher had already come in. No matter what they wanted to do, they had to stay quiet in front of him.
QUEST COMPLETE!
You told the bullies to stop. Who knows what will happen afterwards, though.
Reward: 10 points
Unconsciously smiling at the pane that popped up in front of him, Seung-ho turned back around. With that amount, he would be able to see for sure if changing the statistics had any effect.
“Hey, what did you say?”
The bully sitting right behind him extended his leg and kicked Seung-ho’s chair. Seung-ho could feel the boom from his bottom. Thoughts of ‘I’m f.u.c.ked’ filled his mind.
QUEST:
Flee right after cla.s.s in order to avoid being beaten up by the bullies. You succeed if you don’t get caught before the bell for the next cla.s.s rings.
Reward: 5 points
Another panel popped up in front of his eyes.
‘Ah, why is this popping up when things are serious?’
He had already a.s.sumed that he would get beaten up with this quest. ‘What should I do?’ were the only words swirling around in his head.
“Be quiet back there!” The history teacher, standing on the platform, scolded Seung-ho and the others. For now he was safe.
“We’ll see you later.”
Apprehension filled Seung-ho. He was going to be beaten black and blue for sure.
Tempted by the points, he hadn’t thought of the aftermath when he completed the quest. His thumping heart calmed a bit and he looked at the still-hovering panel.
‘Will I really be able to run away?’
There was a problem even if he did run away. He couldn’t run away every time there was a break; he was bound to get beaten up anyway.
Even though it was the lecture of the history teacher who was rumored to be terrifying, Seung-ho had a hard time focusing.
‘Should I run? Or should I just get beaten up like a dog and get it over with?’
If he got caught, his beating would be even worse. More than anything, the problem was that Seung-ho’s legs were slow. He didn’t even have the confidence to run away.
To top it off, the next period was lunch. Break time was an hour long, which was not a short time to stay hidden.
Although he pondered over different ways to escape, the bell for the end of cla.s.s rang before he had an answer.
‘I’m doomed.’
The Korean history teacher was starting to wrap up. Unlike the students who were getting ready to go to the cafeteria, they were doing nothing but staring at Seung-ho.
‘It doesn’t matter now. It’ll be the same whether I get beaten up now or later.’
The history teacher put down of the chalk with a clack and spoke.
“End of cla.s.s. Bon appet.i.t, everyone!”
The moment the teacher started toward the cla.s.sroom door, the entire cla.s.s rose uniformly and split into three groups.
Group one: the students who would hurry to the cafeteria through the backdoors;
Group two: the two bullies who would hit Seung-ho;
Group three: Seung-ho who was going to run with all his might.
“Hey, come here.”
The tormentors, who had very intimidating expressions, gestured at Seung-ho with a ‘come hither’ motion. He abruptly stood up and looked at them.
‘If I get hit now, I’ll have bruises for at least a week.’
Just like that, Seung-ho dashed towards the cla.s.sroom’s front door. Caught off guard at his unexpected escape, the two boys momentarily froze in place.
“Hey, is he running away?”
“Ha, crazy b.i.t.c.h.”
“Just wait ‘til I catch you!”
The two of them, however, didn’t look like they were in the mood to chase. Typical high schoolers. Sating their hunger came before beating people up and getting hungry in process.
“Let’s come back after eating.”
“Sounds good. If we see him in the cafeteria, we can just dunk soup on him.”
“Yeah.”
The two students fist b.u.mped each other and headed toward the exit side-by-side.
Meanwhile, Seung-ho was gunning it in the opposite direction of the cafeteria.
“Huff. Huff. Huff.”
An empty place. At the end of a hallway on the 4th floor there was a science laboratory. Gasping for breath, he entered the room. He looked like a bizarre mix between an orc and a troll. To be honest, a ghost would run away if it saw him at that moment.
It’s dark and empty outside. A few years ago, while the cla.s.s was doing an experiment with acid, the teacher had momentarily left the cla.s.sroom and a fight had broken out. The room was never used again after one student had poured acid on the other’s hand.
The door was unlocked but n.o.body entered due to rumours about a ghost. In addition, the curtains were closed, not letting a single ray of light in; n.o.body could see in from the outside. It was the ideal place for hiding.
“Haa. Haa. I’ll hide here and leave when the bell rings.”
Following his loser instinct, he said in the innermost corner of the cla.s.sroom. The room had become more of a storage room rather than a lab, and thus had all sorts of gym equipment and furniture, like broken desks and chairs, stacked up here and there.
After regulating his breathing somewhat, he opened the stat menu icon on the far left.
STAT MENU:
Name: Choi Seung-ho
Career: High School Student
Height: 165 cm (+ -)
Weight: 95 kg (+ -)
Strength: 5 (+ -)
Agility: 3 (+ -)
Stamina: 2 (+ -)
Intelligence: 7 (+ -)
Appearance: - (+ -)
Charm: - (+ -)
Available points: 10
A plus and a minus sign had become visible just like yesterday. He also had the 10 points he’d received from the previous quest. To top it off, his height had stayed 3 cm taller, like he’d changed yesterday.
‘I should go to the school clinic and measure it later. But first, what should I increase?’
He wanted to increase his height, but if he came back from break 10 cm taller, everyone was bound to think it strange and get suspicious. He would then get beaten up again while getting asked what he had done.
‘Eeeh, I don’t want that. Should I increase the height by just 3 cm first?’
A guy’s pride was 170c m. People who were a little short of 170 always said that they were 170 cm tall. 168 cm was the minimum height that was allowed to pretend to be taller.
‘Then I’ll raise height by only 3 cm, and raise it slowly later. That way I’ll get less suspicion.’
He pondered again after putting 3 points into his height.
‘Appearance? Intelligence?’
He was going to pick one of the two, but wasn’t sure which one. When he thought about going to university, he wanted to pick intelligence, but when he thought about looking into the mirror with his current appearance, it was better to pick appearance.
Da-re-rek
“I told you, no one’s in here.”
“Really?”
Suddenly, someone slid open the door and stepped into the science lab.