"What’s gotten into you? First, you clean your room without complaining. Then you help with the housework. And now you’re talking about your parents."
She was bound to question my changes eventually, so I steered the conversation in this direction on purpose.
"To be honest, Aunt Celine, I still get anxious whenever my parents come up. I still feel guilty about what happened."
I tightened my grip around the spoon, and her expression softened.
"But... It’s been seven years since the accident. I realized my parents wouldn’t want to see me wasting my life like this. That’s why I want to change."
I raised my head and met her eyes, doing my best to look sincere.
She didn’t argue, and my EXP bar jumped again. Good. I was getting through to her.
We kept talking, and while it was mostly her nodding along, I caught her smiling at a few of my jokes. That was good enough for now.
There was no need to push it and risk making her suspicious of my motives.
When dinner was over, I offered to wash the dishes.
She left me to it and went to her room earlier than usual.
It was kind of cute. She acted like she didn’t care, but the EXP said otherwise.
After washing the dishes, I headed back to my room. I was about to lie down when I noticed a new message on my desktop.
It was from the same group I contacted earlier. Their short reply included a URL.
The gathering was this week at an event venue, so at least I wouldn’t have to worry about losing a kidney.
It also gave me enough time to level up and hopefully gain some abilities to protect myself.
I wasn’t saying these people were violent, but if things went south, I would rather not find out whether "sacrifice" was part of the membership package.
With that done, I closed my PC and was about to sleep when the System notified me.
[Experience Points +5]
[Experience Points +5]
I raised an eyebrow. I didn’t do anything, yet I still earned XP. Could it be that she was thinking about me right now?
[Experience Points +5]
[Level Up!]
[Attribute Points +10]
"Now we’re talking."
"Status."
The window appeared, and my finger hovered over Strength.
Just like an MMORPG, a small [+] appeared beside the stat.
Naturally, my first instinct was to start clicking.
Then I stopped.
I only had ten points. Better not waste them just to see what happened.
My eyes immediately went to Agility.
Moving around in this body was still a pain in the ass, and if improving it shaved off some of the excess weight along the way, even better.
I tapped the [+] and pushed it up a few ranks.
[Agility: F → F+ → E- → E → E+]
[AP: 1 + 2 + 2 + 2]
[Cost: 7 AP]
Oh.
So that’s how it worked.
Each step within the same letter rank cost the same. The price only went up when I crossed into the next.
Simple enough.
This would leave me with three points. Just enough to push Agility to D-.
But I remembered how hard I was breathing earlier.
Speed wouldn’t do me much good if I ran out of breath after a couple of steps.
[Stamina: F → F+ → E-]
[AP: 1 + 2]
[Cost: 3 AP]
[Total Cost: 10 AP]
[Confirm Allocation?]
"Yes."
Heat immediately rushed through my body, spreading from my chest all the way down to my legs.
Then my stomach cramped, hard enough that I looked down, just in time to watch my shirt go slack around my waist a little.
Sweat stung my eyes, and I felt like I was in a damn sauna.
Little by little, the pressure in my body began to stabilize. When I finally took a deep breath, the difference was night and day.
My lungs didn’t feel like they were fighting me for every breath, and my body felt lighter.
Excited by the change, I hurried over to the mirror.
With my clothes on, the change was barely noticeable. But my stomach was without a doubt smaller, which was a relief. Belly fat was notoriously difficult to burn.
Not only that, but after losing weight, my double chin had also become less prominent, making me look slightly better.
"Status."
Name: Raven Park
Level : 2 [0/200 XP]
— Personal Attributes —
Strength: E
Agility: E+
Stamina: E-
Intelligence: B-
Charisma: D
Attribute Points: 0
My eyes drifted to Charisma, which had also gone up by a rank.
If getting leaner really was enough to improve my Charisma, I could save my Attribute Points for stats that were harder to raise naturally.
Getting more attractive after losing weight? Who could’ve possibly imagined such a revolutionary concept?
With that earth-shattering discovery out of the way, I closed the status window and started planning what to do tomorrow.
BANG!
A loud crash came from outside my room.
What was that?