Sang-hyup trembled as he spoke.
“Ah, I really hate it. My mum heard something from the academy teacher yesterday, and it’s something really burdensome.”
“Why? What did they say?”
“They said that the scores for the mock exam in March connect with the university entrance exams, so we have to do well. Ah, this is frustrating.”
“Oh my G.o.d! I heard that, too. What do I do? I haven’t studied at all.”
“Me neither.”
Sang-hyup and Sung-yun giggled and high-fived each other. Seung-ho watched them as he washed his hands beside them.
‘I want to goof around with someone, like them, without worry.’
“Are your preparations for the exam going well, Seung-ho?”
“Exam?”
The March mock exam was next Wednesday. He was concerned about it since the homeroom teacher had mentioned it that morning, but he had no special plans.
“I should start studying now.”
“Woah~”
Sung-yun laughed as he raised his hand up high. Seung-ho almost flinched as an ingrained habit from past beatings. However, he pretended like nothing was wrong and high-fived Sung-yun.
Clap
He felt the stinging through his palm.
‘Now this is a high five!’
It was his first time doing a high-five, which was something he saw only in TVs. He finally felt like the so-called ‘in guy’ rather than an outsider.
‘I don’t think he washed his hands, though.’
Seung-ho turned on the water and washed his hands again. Sung-yun c.o.c.ked his head and asked a question.
“Why are you washing your hands again?”
“Ah, I-I don"t I washed it completely.”
After carelessly washing his hands because he’d already washed them once, he returned to cla.s.s as the third period of evening study hall began.
‘Since I’m studying, I’d like to go to a good university and get a scholarship while I’m at it, so I don’t burden mum so much.’
Raising his intelligence would definitely have a good effect on him. If he increased it to the level of his appearance, he could be as smart as Ph.D. doctors.
But at the thought that he’d have to study regardless, he felt a bit like playing tricks.
‘Should I make a choosing skill?’
If he raised his choosing skill, the probability of him choosing the right answer would skyrocket.
‘But it’d be a waste of points to do that.’
While he pondered, a good idea struck him.
‘Luck!’
If he raised his luck statistics, the luck would not only be applied to his choosing skill, but also the entirety of his life. The problem was that he could only make abilities that were related to the physical body.
‘I’ll just check.’
Seung-ho pressed the plus b.u.t.ton on the ability modification panel.
[Enter the desired ability]
It said to enter the ability, but there was no visible way to do so. Maybe if there was a touchpad, if could, but there was no reaction even when he tapped the panel here and there.
‘Do I just say it out loud?’
Seung-ho took a glance around before opening his mouth and speaking very quietly.
“Luck.”
[The Luck ability has been created! Please check the statistics menu.]
‘Yes!’
He shook his fists and mentally celebrated, just in case someone overheard him.
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 (+ -)
Luck: 2 (+ -)
--
Available points: 40
Having seen the panel, Seung-ho couldn’t help but become sullen. As expected, his luck had only 2 points.
‘Yeah, even if it’s a bit low, I can at least raise it. Others can’t do anything about their statistics.’
Seung-ho comforted himself as he pressed the (+) b.u.t.ton next to ‘Luck’. When he pressed the plus b.u.t.ton for the third time, it disappeared.
‘What the…?’
Only the (-) b.u.t.ton remained.
‘Can I not raise my luck anymore? Haa, I can’t be happy!’
As he pounded the blameless letters that spelled out ‘Luck’ with a disappointed heart, a small window popped up.
[This is a limited ability. You may increase it after completing a special quest.]
‘Hm?’
It was his first time knowing that there were abilities that had restricted increase. He suddenly became a little relieved.
‘Because that means that it’s possible someday.’
Not knowing that the average for other people was 5, it was a bit inconvenient to Seung-ho’s point of view, but still a relief.
‘But this isn’t important. I should start getting ready for the exam.’
Perhaps it would have been better to study in the time that he pondered, but it seemed like Seung-ho had no inclination to study.
‘Should I increase my intelligence a bit?’
Scribbling in the guiltless notebook, he stared blankly at the board while resting his chin on one hand. There was something written in small letters on the top left corner of the board.
‘What’s written there?’
He couldn’t see well, even though he wore gla.s.ses. Only after he raised his gla.s.ses slightly and leaned forward, he could see that small letters said, ‘Prepare your individual gym clothes for gym cla.s.s.’
‘Ah, there’s gym tomorrow.’
It was obvious that they were going to play either badminton or basketball. There were such a small number of students that it’d always been that way.
‘I have to change my gla.s.ses or something. Since I can’t even see the board properly…’
In an instant, a good idea occurred to him.
Seung-ho went into the ability modification panel and pressed the plus b.u.t.ton. He covered his mouth and spoke quietly again.
“Vision.”
[The Vision ability has been created. Please check the statistics menu.]
Seung-ho smiled with satisfaction and opened the statistics menu once more.
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 (+ -)
Luck: 5 (-)
Left vision: 0.2 (+ -)
Right vision: 0.3 (+ -)
--
Available points: 37
He could finally take off these tiresome gla.s.ses. He had raised his appearance to an incredible amount, but even he knew that the gla.s.ses played a role in knocking off some on the points.
‘Let’s raise the numbers.’
As he pressed the plus b.u.t.ton to the left vision, 0.1 jumped up to become 0.3. That was a decent increase.
The prescription for his current gla.s.ses was 1.0. He wished that he could see a bit better than that.
‘Then should I raise it up to 1.5? I feel like raising it to 2.0 would be a waste of points.’
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 (+ -)
Luck: 5 (-)
Left vision: 1.5 (+ -)
Right vision: 1.5 (+ -)
--
Available points: 12
As soon as he looked at the statistics menu, he began to feel dizzy.
‘Why am I like this?’
When he shook his head and took off his gla.s.ses, the dizziness disappeared instantly.
‘Ah.’
He could see the world with clarity; he couldn’t feel any more gratified. The words that he’d had to squint at to be able to see earlier were as clear as day.
‘Awesome.’
Now he no longer needed gla.s.ses. He folded his gla.s.ses and placed them in the desk drawer. Once again he felt that he’d been given an incredible power. He felt as if he was experiencing something new every day.
‘But that isn’t what’s important. How should I get ready for the exam?’
He could only think of one thing. Increasing his intelligence. It was better than playing tricks.
‘I’ll just raise it all, then. I should earn the points back with quests later, right?’
Planning on raising it only up to 15, Seung-ho increased the intelligence statistic.
10, 11, 12.
‘Oh?’
The moment he went past 10, he felt as if his head was suddenly clear. It felt as if he’d broken through whatever it was that was m.u.f.fling the thoughts in his brain.
He began to raise the intelligence again. 13, 14, 15.
Perceiving the words ‘retentive memory’ with his whole being, he increased the intelligence statistic but decided that he couldn’t end it there.
16, 17, …, 21.
He used up all of his points. Seung-ho realized that he’d been wrong all along.
‘Ah, my intelligence was low all this time, so I didn’t think of raising it earlier. To think that my head could be so clear. If I’d raised it earlier, I could have distributed my points more effectively.’
He hadn’t thought of growing his intellect because it had been so low. Just thinking about it made his heart rip to pieces.
Ding dong
The bell that signified the end of night studies rang. While he was trying this and that, time had flown by and it was already 11 o’clock.
‘I changed a lot today, too.’
With a proud heart, he stood up and packed his still-unopened book back into his bag. Though he wouldn’t look at it at home and wanted to leave the book at school, he still had a basic courtesy to keep as a student.
“Woah, did you take off your gla.s.ses, Seung-ho?”
“I’m seeing your bare face for the first time. I think it’s is a lot better, though.”
“Weren’t your eyes really bad?”
He felt a bit fl.u.s.tered at the sudden barrage of questions.
“I had LASIK surgery a while ago, but I kept wearing gla.s.ses because I was embarra.s.sed. I took them off, though, because I felt a bit stuffy.”
Considering that he’d made it up on the spot, it was a pa.s.sable excuse. Convinced, the other kids nodded and made “Ah~” noises.
“That’s that. Travel home safely; I’ll be going first!”
“Yeah. See you tomorrow!”
He exchanged good-byes with the students and hurried out of the cla.s.sroom.