LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 80
Chapter 80
“Ah, I’m not blaming On Raon. I’m blaming you, the main culprit… What are you doing?”
As I spoke, getting excited without realizing it, 14227 was pressing the area where his eyes were supposed to be with a handkerchief that appeared from somewhere, as if deeply moved.
“Your words were so impressive… Anyway, I understand now.”
What a strange guy.
“But can’t you read my mind? You should have known without asking.”
“You’re half right and half wrong. I can only read thoughts within the range of expectations. In that sense, your words just now were quite unexpected. Completely beyond my expectations.”
14227 took a sip of tea and continued.
“Indeed. It’s a fascinating discovery that someone can feel attached to a world where an alien crash-landed.”
14227 tilted his head, asserting in his unique, peculiar voice.
“And I’m sorry to say this, but as I’ve mentioned several times, this is not a game world. It is the reality where you, On Hae-jae, should live. There’s no way for you to return to where you originally were, nor should you.”
I accepted those words more calmly than I had expected.
Seeing that I even felt somewhat relieved, it seemed that I hated the place I lived as much as I had affection for it.
Even the fact that I didn’t completely hate my life there, I only realized after leaving it.
I would continue to miss it. People naturally regret what they’ve once let go.
However, there were very few things from that place that couldn’t be entirely replaced by what I had here.
Looking back, it was a rather sad statement, but given the circumstances, it wasn’t entirely bad.
I thought.
Living in a new environment, liking new things, and perhaps among people who didn’t dislike me might not be such a bad thing after all.
—
We continued talking for a while after that.
I had many questions about the game system, which seemed like a form of compensation for losing about 20 years of my life.
“Isn’t it true that stats and actual abilities are not directly proportional?”
“Yes. Simply put, it’s a logarithmic function relationship with the x-axis as the stats and the y-axis as the manifested ability.”
“What function? I didn’t study math in high school.”
“To put it simply, when you increase the stats from 0 to 10, the ability increases this much.”
14227 spread his arms wide.
“But when you increase them from 100 to 110, it only increases this much.”
He then showed a small gap between his thumb and index finger.
“It’s similar to how the experience required for leveling up increases as you get to higher levels.”
So, in the beginning, it’s more efficient to balance rather than focus on one thing.
“Then why are the levels different for the same stat value?”
For example, when my initial stat was 10, my charm, that is, my appearance, was relatively decent by societal standards, but my stamina was trash, to say the least. Of course, it’s still trash now.
“We synchronize your abilities to feel no sense of alienation from the body you originally had….”
“What does that mean?”
14227 looked at me as if saying, ‘This is why humans…’
“Do you remember the error message when you first returned? On Hae-jae, you experienced some errors during the possession process.”
“Is there anything you guys do right?”
“Hmm, it’s such a complex and difficult process that we don’t know why it works when it does or why it doesn’t when it doesn’t. There are many uncertain factors, so I can’t give a definite answer, but the existing stats are not inputted precisely as numbers.”
14227 paused, seeming to think the explanation might get too long, then continued.
“To put it simply, your original stamina was trash, and that tendency was significantly reflected in the current data. On the contrary, your charm was the opposite. In other words, consider your basic stamina score to be 1 out of 100, and your charm score to be around 88.”
Given the physical capabilities of a gaming addict, it made sense that I had no room to complain about being called trash.
“According to a rough investigation of your data, your charm, willpower, agility, intelligence, and wisdom have good efficiency proportional to the stats, while stamina and strength are better off being moderately given up on….”
“Shut up!”
I extracted the optimal growth route from 14227.
Holding a fist that packed a punch worthy of One-Punch Man, I threatened him, and he cooperated well.
It seemed it hurt when he got hit.
From now on, whenever my level increased and I earned stat points, he would take care of allocating them for me.
One less thing to worry about.
I also got him to promise to find a way to compensate for the limited stamina and strength.
As a bonus, I slyly asked if he could use his managerial authority to max out all my stats, but he replied that it was impossible for various reasons.
“This is quite difficult. If we mess with it incorrectly, your information could be completely erased due to errors….”
I didn’t expect much, but he was still an incompetent guy.
I also asked about ‘On Raon,’ who was now living in my body.
“At the time, On Raon was in such bad condition that he seemed like someone writing a will rather than a letter. Living over 15 years in an alien world, it would be strange if he were in good condition.”
“What? But the letter….”
“We were also surprised by the lively content of the letter, but well, sometimes people flare up with energy before they die.”
“Don’t kill him off on your own.”
“But don’t worry. Over the approximately three months by Earth standards, I’ve learned that On Raon is extraordinarily tenacious, strong-willed, and determined.”
14227 sighed briefly, seemingly having had a tough time.
“With the mental strength to endure nearly 20 years in an alien world, he will accomplish anything he sets his mind to in the world where he originally belonged.”
“That’s enough.”
“This applies to you as well, On Hae-jae. Enduring and even forming an attachment in a world gone wrong is something unheard of. You will accomplish anything too.”
Even though it was a service employee’s service comment, it felt good.
If the system continued to speak to me like this, we might move toward a good relationship.
Of course, right now he was being polite because I was holding a deadly punch in front of him.
Given the personality ruined by a crazy boss, fixing it to be usable in a day seemed impossible, making it a meaningless assumption.
“This conversation has gone on too long. Let’s conclude this first interview.”
“No, who says so?”
I still had many things to ask!
“There will be a gift waiting when you return. It was nice meeting you, and see you again. Have a happy day, customer.”
With those words from 14227, I abruptly returned to reality without any warning.
### My Reality
That fact suddenly felt new and I slowly blinked, looking around.
‘What kind of gift… huh?’
A notebook-like object, which wasn’t there before I went to meet 14227, was lying on my desk.
Looking closely, it was a passport.
But the passport…
“Blue?”
[ON
DAMIAN RAON
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA]
Could this be…?
[It is what you think. Luck +50]
It felt like fireworks were exploding from somewhere.
Although it was almost midnight, I instantly forgot all the things that had happened in the last few hours, jumped up, and ran to the window, happily shouting to the world.
“I don’t have to go to the army twice!”
It was a beautiful night.
* * *
“What did you do yesterday that your face looks like that? Did you stay up all night?”
The next day, when our group of boys gathered at the Luisen building for the final practice, Ban Yo-han asked.
“No?”
I had stayed up until almost 4 AM, reading and organizing my thoughts from the letter On Raon left behind.
‘I slept for about four hours, so it’s not like I pulled an all-nighter.’
The remaining letters were packed with information about On Raon.
Details like how he was a Korean-American who grew up in the US since early elementary school, had a mother, father, and an older brother, had a distant relationship with his family, especially his brother, that his middle name Raon was a Korean name used by his family or relatives, and that after starting his trainee life in Korea, he mostly used the name Raon to quickly adapt to the local environment instead of his first name, Damian.
There was much more information, written in much greater detail than what I just listed.
It felt unfair.
‘If they had sent me there from the beginning, I wouldn’t have had to struggle with house issues and past problems all this time.’
[If that had happened, you would have just stayed home playing games….]
It was so true I couldn’t argue. It’s not easy for a person to change suddenly without being pushed to the edge.
And the gift the system gave wasn’t the blue passport.
It had simply placed On Raon’s original passport in an easy-to-find spot for me. The real gift was something else.
It was a stat synchronization ticket.
Just like when I first acquired my Korean language skills, I could synchronize one skill, and without hesitation, I chose charm.
The system mentioned that this would be the last synchronization.
I didn’t care.
Charm was my alpha and omega.
Having that, there was nothing else I needed.
Aegyo? If I could get my face back, I could do it without shame morning, noon, and night… probably.
Unfortunately, because my charm stat was so high, my face wouldn’t return instantly, and it would take some time to be fully patched.
Even now, my charm stat was slowly increasing by 2 points at a time. At this rate, it would soon surpass 300.
‘This is like getting more handsome just by breathing…’
As I sat there, blankly watching my charm stat rise on my info screen, Kim Jun-woo clapped his hands.
“Alright, let’s practice.”
“Let’s do it.”
“It’ll be over by tomorrow…”
I stood up from my seat.
Just because I had decided to take this place as my reality, nothing had drastically changed.
Today, I would practice today’s routine, rehearse tomorrow’s schedule tomorrow, and perform the day after tomorrow.
It would probably be like that in the future as well.
Suddenly, I realized that I was very happy.
‘Is it okay for me to be happier here?’
I felt slightly uneasy, but I thought it would be okay.
“Are you alright?”
Ban Yo-han, who had been watching me as if observing since we met today, casually asked.
“I’m alright.”
Yeah. I would be fine.