Thump. Thump. Thump.
‘I haven’t been caught, have I?’
His thundering heart wouldn’t slow down.
“You’re home?”
Seung-ho didn’t hear his mother’s greeting due to his nervousness and quickly entered his room.
‘Ha, I’ve done it.’
He slumped down on his bed as the adrenaline left him. He’d been so scared that he didn’t even remember how he got back.
In any case, he couldn’t undo it. He brushed it off with thoughts of dealing with it when things went wrong.
‘But before that, I should raise my stats.’
He opened the stats menu with practiced gestures. Due to repeatedly opening and closing so many windows, he was used to it as if he’d done it for years.
STAT MENU:
Name: Choi Seung-ho
Career: High School Student
Height: 168 cm (+ -)
Weight: 95 kg (+ -)
Strength: 5 (+ -)
Agility: 3 (+ -)
Stamina: 2 (+ -)
Intelligence: 7 (+ -)
Appearance: - (+ -)
Charm: - (+ -)
--
Available points: 20
‘Aaaah!’
Seung-ho shook his hand and was happy. It was really 20 points. He could become a regular person with that amount.
‘Hoo, calm down and let’s do as planned.’
He had planned somewhat yesterday at the convenience store. The most important thing was not getting any suspicions from the others.
If he did as he wanted, he would raise his height to 180cm then and there, but that would be too noticeable.
One centimeter a day or two. If he was being honest, his p.u.b.erty had stopped a while ago and he’d stopped growing 2 years ago, but he could shoot up during the vacation as if it were a last minute growth spurt.
‘Even if Mum gets suspicious, things will basically be okay with that much.’
In the same way, he would lower his weight 1 kg a day. His goal was to be at 186 cm and 75 kg. He didn’t know how much that would be, but since it was around the size of the celebrity ‘2 Jong-seok’, the size suited him.
‘First, a point each for height and weight.’
18 points remained. He had to leave some for his weight and height goal. However, he did also want to attempt to change his appearance straight away.
‘Still, there should be a quest in the next 2 days, right?’
He left four points and spent the remaining 14 on his appearance.
“Wow!”
Surprised, Seung-ho shouted without knowing about it. Appearance - his appearance had become a whopping +3. Keh, what a touching moment it was for him.
Knock knock
“Seung-ho, is something wrong?”
It was Mum. It seemed as if she’d heard his yell and had come to check on him.
“I-it’s nothing. There was just a funny thing. I’ll be quiet.”
“Alright.”
Seung-ho spoke calmly but was spazzing out on his bed. Shaking his hands and feet and donning an ecstatic expression; this was the definition of a soundless clamor.
He had invested as much as 23 points into his appearance. To reiterate, his original appearance had been -20. It was really amazing just how ugly he’d been.
He looked at the mirror with a thumping heart.
‘There doesn’t seem to be much of a difference.’
Seung-ho felt as if nothing much had changed, apart from his acne disappearing.
‘Will it have change after I wake up?’
As his nerves settled down, tiredness overwhelmed him. Today had been full of heart-racing moments.
Additionally, he’d stayed up all night working at the convenience store, so it was a given that he was extremely sleeply.
Seung-ho laid on the bed, pulled his blanket up to his chin, and fell asleep straight away.
He didn’t know it, but his appearance had changed a lot. The face that had been so ugly that it would have been hard to look at during plastic surgery had become just a little unseemly; to the point that it was tolerable.
If a regular person’s average statistic was 10, Seung-ho’s appearance with 3 points was at the ugly level. However, Seung-ho was making rapid progress towards changing that. The audience would probably start applauding and then give him a standing ovation if he’d been on ‘Get it Beauty’.
Seung- ho was fast asleep with a guilty heart, not knowing this fact.
“That will be 10,000 won.”
He put the four-pack of the Aca2 beer in a black plastic bag and handed it over to the customer as he accepted the 10,000 won bill.
“Take care.”
The convenience store was peaceful at night. Sometimes there were times when drunk customers would fuss and make a scene, but it was a place set some distance from the liveliness so those things didn’t happen often.
Ding dong
“Welcome!”
It was a really pretty customer. She was so beautiful to the point that he worried someone would kidnap her as she walked the streets at this time of night.
“Excuse me, where do I find stockings?”
“Ah, it’s that way.”
He politely directed her with an open hand. Seung-ho gazed blankly after her. Why would she be out this late?
Briefly, he thought that she could be an escort, but she didn’t look like one with such an innocent look.
‘If I raise my appearance really high, will I be able to date a girl like that?’
The second such a futile thought entered his head, a half-transparent panel popped up.
QUEST:
Get the number of the girl who’s currently picking stockings.
Win: 10 points
Fail: 5 points
‘Wow.’
There was nothing to lose. Even if he did fail, he got 5 points. Furthermore, if it wasn’t for this kind of quest he would never have thought to talk up such pretty girls.
‘Hopefully, she doesn’t put in a complaint.’
He was slightly worried, but he had a bit of self-confidence due to his acne disappearing.
The girl chose black stockings and laid them on the counter. While pondering about how he should get her number, he was scanning the barcode when he saw the condom laid under the stockings - the kind with b.u.mps.
‘f.u.c.k.’
It looked like she’d come with her boyfriend. They probably had been planning on a cozy night and had come to buy a much-needed item.
‘Ha, right. I didn’t even think that I could get her number. I’ll get points even if I fail, so let’s just get that.’
“That will be 6,000 won. Would you like it bagged?”
The girl nodded as she held out a card. ‘It would be so blissful to spend a night with such a beautiful girl,’ swirled around in his mind.
“Here you go. And…”
The girl, who had accepted the bag and had been on her way out, seemed embarra.s.sed to be talked to and looked at him.
“Yes? Did something go wrong?”
“Not at all. May I have your number, please?”
He said it. Seung-ho’s heart began rapidly beating like crazy. There were so many circ.u.mstances that warranted his heart to thump erratically these days, that he was afraid he would really die of a heart attack.
“What?”
The girl was extremely taken aback and didn’t know what to do when Seung-ho held out his phone. Usually, he would have been afraid to even talk to other people, but he’d changed a lot. This was how dangerous points were, dear readers.
“Uh..”
When the girl hesitated, Seung-ho began to feel a bit sorry for her. What a weirdo he was, trying to pick up a girl who was buying stockings and a condom. The situation was admittedly funny.
The girl abruptly took the phone, typed in a number, and handed it back to Seung-ho. 010-582x-3xx0.
After handing the phone over, she dashed out of the convenience store.
‘Woah. Is this a dream or real life?’
He’d actually gotten her number. While aiming for at least the 5 points, he’d actually succeeded.
‘Cool! What an awesome thing to happen.’
As soon as the girl left, Seung-ho yelled and celebrated.
“Woooaaaaaaahhh!”
He was finally dating.
‘Nothing’s started yet, but she has to have given me her number because she’s interested in me, right?’
He couldn’t be more thankful to the G.o.d he’d met a couple days ago. While he had no religion currently, he thought that he should start attending a church, a temple, a cathedral, or just anywhere.
A translucent panel appeared in front of his eyes.
‘It’s bound to something about completing the quest and giving me 10 points, hahaha.’
QUEST FAILED:
You failed in getting the number of the beatific girl.
Reward: 5 points
“What is this saying?”
He’d just gotten her number but he’d gotten a fail? It must be joking.
“I got her number!”
He yelled into thin air, but there was no answer. How dumbfounding; he’d gotten the number but to think it was a fail.
He opened the stat menu thinking that it was a mistake, but in addition to the original 4 points he’d left, he saw only 9 points.
‘What went wrong?’
a.s.suming it was because he hadn’t saved the number, he saved it into his contacts but the quest panel still showed the word ‘Fail’.
‘No way.’
An unwarranted, uneasy thought struck him. It was possible that she had given him the number of another person or a number that didn’t work.
Seung-ho called the saved number just in case.
“The number you’ve dialed is not in service. Please check the number, and try again…”
Foreboding hunches were never wrong. Seung-ho collapsed into his chair in frustration.
Of course. No matter how handsome Ug-Face Seung-ho got, he would never catch up to regular people. Not only that, a girl with a boyfriend would never give Seung-ho her number.
“s.h.i.t!”
- Link for the leaked video from yesterday, please
- Currently waiting in front of Nople High School
- Does anyone have the Nople High School video?
- Don’t the kids have supplement cla.s.ses?
CD Inside Internal Baseball Forums was abuzz with the story. Truthfully, there was nothing much to the video except for the point that they were high school students. Their curiosities were p.r.i.c.ked with the knowledge that it was filmed a mere couple days ago.
Besides, the fact that the video had disappeared quickly meant that there weren’t many people who’d been able to download it and therefore hard to leak out, which played a large role in spicing up the topic.
‘What should I do?’
Things were blowing up bigger than he’d expected. If he’d made a mistake, there was a large possibility that he would be caught and taken away.
‘Please don’t let me get caught.’
He felt ill at ease. Seung-ho kept pacing around the convenience store like a madman.
Ding dong
“Welco - you’re here?”
It was Su-ah. Already it was time to change shifts.
“Yeah, hi. Wow, do you put on makeup or something?”
“What?”
Su-ah suddenly approached and took a scrutinizing look at Seung-ho’s face. It was his first time that a woman, apart from his mother, was this close to his face.
Seung-ho’s face blushed tomato-red in an instant, and he took a startled step back.
“W-what do you want?”
“Ah, it’s not makeup. How did you get your face to get better in such a short time? Tell me the secret.”
Su-ah smiled brightly and slung on her work uniform.
‘Is it that noticeable? I didn’t know it was that big a change.’
Seung-ho’s mood was instantly uplifted at the first compliment he’d received in a while.
“I don’t even know. Maybe it’s because of a growth spurt?”
“Whew, I’m jealous. I was pretty too, when I was your age.”
“Hey, you’re still…”
QUEST:
Make Su-ah into your girlfriend.
Reward: 50 points
“Crazy!”
Seung-ho’s eyes widened. A whopping 50 points. As a matter of fact, it was the quest-making system teasing him, since it knew that wouldn’t happen anyway.
“I’m still crazy?”
Su-ah squinted and looked at Seung-ho. While he was talking the panel had popped up, and the conversation had taken a weird turn.
“N-not at all. I suddenly had a different thought. I meant that you’re still pretty.”
They said that compliments would make even whales dance, so humans were no different. Giggling, Su-ah approached the POS equipment and started inspecting the inventory.
‘I have to get those points somehow.’
Be that as it may, if he started asking her out all of a sudden, it was obvious that he would get rejected. He had to find a good idea somehow.
Due to thinking different things while checking inventory, errors were found twice in the inspection.
“What’s wrong with you today? You’re not usually like this.”
“Ah, I’m sorry. I kept thinking about other things.”
It was after inspecting the stock three times that no problems were to be found. Seung-ho took off his uniform and tapped Su-ah’s shoulder.
“Su-ah.”
“Yeah?”
“Can I ask you a favour please?”
It was Seung-ho’s first time talking to Su-ah this actively. Ordinarily, he felt a bit embarra.s.sed to even look at her because he was so ugly, and she thought that he was extremely timid.
“What is it?”
Seung-ho hesitated for a long time before opening his mouth.
“Su-ah, I’m really sorry about this.”
“Ah, what. How burdensome - you do know that I won’t do it if it’s something hard, right?”
“Ha, that is...”
Even though Seung-ho had thought it up himself, he felt too embarra.s.sed to say it out loud.
Because he was so hesitant, it was guessable what the favour was from Su-ah’s point of view.
“Do you need money? I’m living from paycheck to paycheck these days, so it’s hard for me to lend some.”
“N-not at all. That’s not it.”
Seung-ho shook both his hands and denied it. He had to say something before the misunderstanding got even worse.
“Can you date me for just one minute?”
“What?”
Su-ah had an expression that was so taken aback, that it was like she’d chewed on a t.u.r.d. To suddenly ask for a relationship. And not just a normal relationship, but to date him for one minute - she couldn’t figure what the meaning was behind all of this.
“That truth is, I’m a lifelong bachelor. Even if I date for just one minute, I can get out from that label. So I want to get away from the word “bachelor”.
“Hahahahahahaha. What is that? You’re hilarious.”
Su-ah clutched her stomach and laughed hysterically.
‘Is it really that funny?’
Waiting for her answer, Seung-ho scratched his head and bowed it in embarra.s.sment.
“Alright.”
“Really?”
Su-ah nodded her head coolly.
“It’s not like it’s difficult to do.”
As expected, it was because she was older that she was more tolerant about these kinds of things. If she were a high school student, she should have shouted that she wouldn’t even for a second, let alone a minute.
“For real?”
“Yeah. Hurry up before I change my mind.”
Seung-ho suddenly became nervous for no reason. Since confessing to Soo-jung when he was in the Elephant cla.s.s in Starlight Kindergarten and making her cry, this was his first time asking anybody out.
“S-su-ah, um..”
“Stop being frustrating. A customer might come.”
“Would you go out with me?”
Su-ah beamed and nodded her head.
“Alright.”
As soon as she answered, a notification panel popped up.
QUEST COMPLETE!
You started dating with Su-ah.
Reward: 50 points
“Oh yeah!”
A whopping 50 points. And he’d earned it this easily. Swinging an uppercut in mid-air, Seung-ho leaped with joy.
“Are you that happy?”
In Su-ah’s point of view, Seung-ho was that joyful because they were dating. She couldn’t have known that in lieu of the 50 points that he received, Su-ah was nothing in Seung-ho’s eyes.
“Thank you, Su-ah!”
“No problem. Let’s break up now.”
“Okay!”
Seung-ho’s hands trembled as he enjoyed the happiness.
“I’ll be going now!”
“Hahaha. Alright, go safely.”
“Okay!”
Whistling, Seung-ho went back home.
It was finally the day to go back to school after a month-long vacation. He’d ridden the bus for the first time in a while, and it was his first time having the bus handle be lower than his line of sight.
“Wow, he’s really good looking.”
“Amazing.”
“I call dibs!”
“Bulls.h.i.t. Anyone can see that he’s my type, okay?”
The 5 female students who were sitting cl.u.s.tered together in the back row gushing over him. However, Seung-ho couldn’t hear them from where he was standing.
‘Are they dissing me?’
He was used to attracting attention like this. Seung-ho though that they were obviously gossiping about him behind his back.
‘I thought I turned pretty good-looking, but maybe it’s not enough.’
“This station is Nople High. Nople High School. The next station is the back gates of Nople High School.”
Seung-ho had just traversed between his house and the convenience store all throughout the break, so he didn’t know how people’s view of him had changed.
Before getting off, he opened the stats menu to bolster himself.
STAT MENU:
Name: Choi Seung-ho
Career: High School Student
Height: 186 cm (+ -)
Weight: 73 kg (+ -)
Strength: 35 (+ -)
Agility: 12 (+ -)
Stamina: 13 (+ -)
Intelligence: 9 (+ -)
Appearance: 41 (+ -)
Charm: 32 (+ -)
--
Available points: 5
The statistics were truly amazing. The fascinating thing was that as he raised the appearance, the charm rose automatically as well.
‘It looks like that’s not enough. I should invest more points soon.’
The statistics of an average person was 10. If they rose to 20, the person was good-looking enough for someone to turn around right after seeing them on the streets. 30 was the level of a general celebrity.
But Seung-ho was an astounding 41 points. He’d invested all but 5 of his available points at the thought of coming back to school, and in the process had become ‘handsome as the devil.’
Today marked the historical moment of Seung-ho attending school for the first time after transforming over the month-long break.