The day passed without any incident. Han Joon-seong had spent the entire day in a state of constant, grueling motion, as Ervin relentless wanted to improve, and the immense effort had finally given visible, quantifiable fruits! The system screen, when Ervin called it forth, glowed with satisfying progress.
[[System]
Player: Ervin Mandor
Character 1; Han Joon-seong
[Characteristics:
Adaptation(Perfect)
Talent(Perfect)
Auto Pilot(Perfect)
Money(Perfect|Middle-class)
Looks(Lvl. 2)
Speed(Lvl. 2)(2/20)
Strength (Lvl. 2)(6/20)
Endurance (Lvl. 3)(0/40)
Vigor (Lvl. 4)(10/80)
Intelligence (Lvl. 2)
[Tasks:
None]]
"From what I've noticed," Ervin mused, analyzing the data with a gamer's eye, "Every time a Characteristic levels up, the amount of XP needed for the next level doubles, but the actual capacity, the benefit of the Characteristic, must also double." It was a classic grinding loop, familiar from countless RPGs. A higher level meant greater power but exponentially greater effort required to attain it. He stared at Joon-seong through his third-person view, taking in the full picture.
His body had lost a considerable amount of weight over the course of the day. Not just a little—it was, upon reflection, ridiculous, considering it was the result of a single day's worth of near-constant jogging and exercise. The transformation was startling. Ervin had always been a bit flabby, with a soft, hanging gut and a layer of stubborn fat on his arms and legs, the physical souvenirs of a sedentary life and cheap food. But now, in just one day, that fat had reduced considerably. He wasn't slim or fit by any athletic standard, but he looked normal, average. For the first time in years, it was possible to see the underlying muscles he had built during his time working in a warehouse starting to become more prevalent, hinting at a stronger frame beneath the softened exterior.
He had planned to continue training through the evening, but after reaching [Vigor (Lvl. 4)], the progress had slowed to a painful crawl. After almost four more solid hours of running, pushing Joon-seong to the absolute limit of his new endurance, he had gained a paltry 10 points of XP! The diminishing returns were brutally efficient.
"What a waste," Ervin complained to the empty air, a wave of gamer's regret washing over him. "If I knew it would be this ineffective I would've grinded strength instead!" He was optimizing a human being as if he were min-maxing a character build.
Strength was, in fact, the only physical characteristic he had not gained much progress in. The others had increased fairly consistently with his jogging regimen. Thinking about it logically, it made perfect sense. The muscles worked while long-distance jogging didn't directly influence a person's core, brute strength; it could contribute indirectly, but that wasn't the main focus of the activity, so it wasn't as intensely worked. Focusing on upper body strength with push-ups or finding weights would probably be the best choice for that specific stat. "The attributes must all have their own specific ways of increasing, too," he deduced. "Jogging is for Vigor and a bit of Endurance... I figure straight-on sprinting would increase Speed more effectively... Intelligence... Reading, I guess?" The idea of making Joon-seong sit down and read a textbook to gain INT points was both absurd and completely plausible given the circumstances.
Then his eyes fell on the last, most perplexing stat.
"Looks... How the heck does one become more beautiful??" he wondered, utterly baffled. Was it posture? Skincare? Specific facial exercises? "Do I need to do weight lifting with my tongue or something?" The level also bothered him. "Lvl. 2... dang it, is that good or bad?? My strength was also at Lvl. 2, and from what I could feel, it was considered above average. Were my looks also that?" He sighed, a soundless exhalation in his disembodied state. "No use overthinking it. I'll figure it out somehow... For now, I need to go home."
As he directed Joon-seong back toward the apartment, he noticed the avatar had started to walk with a slight, almost imperceptible limp. Looking more closely through the body's first-person view, Ervin could feel the feedback—a dull, persistent ache in the heels. The muscles and tendons there weren't moving very well; he had probably overused them, pushed too hard without proper rest or stretching. "Ah. Looks like leaving him to do EVERYTHING alone isn't always the right call," Ervin realized. "He may have auto-pilot, but he also messes stuff up if I don't micromanage properly." The body was a sophisticated tool, but it still required a wise user.
Ervin came back home, and upon entering, he was still quietly amazed. Although the country outside was completely different, a vibrant Korean neighborhood instead of his old, familiar streets, his apartment inside was exactly the same. It was a perfect replica. He had never had a proper bedroom; it was a studio layout with one big living room that had a bed in the corner, a TV on a stand close by, and a worn but comfortable sofa. There were two other doors: one led to the small bathroom and the other to the narrow kitchen. So, he had always used the main living room area to sleep, and that precise layout was recreated here.
Ervin concluded, with a shiver that wasn't quite physical, that whoever or whatever had done this to him really knew him closely, intimately. All the details of his room were perfect, down to the last, tiniest detail—the specific chip on the edge of the kitchen counter, the faint stain on the sofa arm, the way the light switch wobbled slightly. It was all there.
Joon-seong walked to the bathroom on aching feet and took a quick shower, then changed into loose sleep clothes, and climbed onto the bed. Immediately, the moment Ervin released control and thought the command to sleep, the body's eyes closed and its breathing evened out into the deep, regular rhythm of unconsciousness.
"He even falls asleep immediately," Ervin thought, a mix of awe and unease coloring the observation. The Auto-Pilot function was terrifyingly efficient.
Now, Ervin was truly, and completely, alone. The connection to the sleeping body was minimal, just a faint hum of life-signs. There was nothing but the sound of his own racing thoughts and the faint, muffled noise of the city from outside the apartment window. He didn't feel lonely, though. He didn't feel much of anything. The emotional connection to the world was severed. It was just... a silent, observational nothingness.
Then, breaking the profound silence, a calm, synthetic voice spoke, and a new screen materialized in his vision.
[[System]
[Day Finished, awarded points [98 Points]]
[Showing Store]
[Strengthening pills:
Looks
Speed
Strength
Endurance
Vigor
Intelligence
Cost: 30 points each
Description: Strengthening Pills Level up a Characteristic by 1 when consumed]
[Weakening Pills:
Speed
Strength
Endurance
Vigor
Intelligence
Cost: 20 Points each
Description: Weakening Pills Decrease a Characteristic by 1 for 24h when consumed]
[Fight Styles:
Street Dog Fighting Style - 150 Points
Kickboxing Fight Style - 150 Points
Boxing Fight Style - 150 Points
Karate Fight Style - 150 points
Muay Thai Fight Style - 150 Points
Taekwondo Fight Style - 150 Points
[...]]
[Misc:
Character File - 250 points.
Recovery Pill - 100
Characteristic Card - 200]
And finally, a new prompt:
[[Tasks Available:
[Rescue - Save the young Lee Hye-Jin from her bullies, beat the five assailants. Reward - 100 Points]]
Staring at the new screen that had popped up, Ervin was stunned, thunderstruck, frozen. He couldn't speak, he couldn't even form a coherent thought beyond sheer disbelief. "T-This is just ridiculous," he finally managed to whisper into the void, his mental voice tinged with hysterical laughter. "This can't be real." But it was. It was all very, undeniably real, and right there, glowing right in front of his eyes!
It was the thing that only existed in web novels and old tales... the thing that all humans on Earth secretly craved for, a shortcut to power... the one and only...
"[Looks Strengthening Pill]!!!" he exclaimed, his focus zeroing in on the item with the intensity of a laser.
Yes, the most valuable thing in all of human history, an item so coveted that people would absolutely kill to get their hands on it. A pill that could actually make one look objectively prettier, bypassing genetics, surgery, and effort... was certainly, undeniably, invaluable!! The sheer, absurd power of it was breathtaking.