Ring-
As Ari opened the door, a loud bell rang.
Seeing the elderly Korean woman at the register immediately frown while picking up the phone, Ari held up the cash and his ID with both hands in the air as he began to explain.
"I'm not on drugs or crazy. I got beaten up and thrown in a dumpster. I have cash and would like to take a bath and buy some clothes. Is that okay?"
"Hmmm." Seeing the old woman's doubtful expression, Ari rushed to explain.
"I promise I'm not lying! You can check my ID. I'm a high school student! Also, I have a referral card as well."
"Let me see the ID. Walk slowly and keep your hands up."
Approaching closer, Ari held out his high school ID, and then his state ID, which had a small silver star on it.
"Flip the State ID." He quickly flipped it as ordered, and she quickly scanned it with a handheld scanner before nodding.
"Okay. I'll charge you extra because you're filthy and smell bad. As for clothes, we only have a spa shirt, shorts, and slippers for purchase. The total is 50 dollars. What's your size?"
Wincing at the steep price, Ari glanced down at this disgusting clothing before responding. "Medium."
"Okay. Pay first. And give me your things to hold in a cubby. Shower at least four times before heading to the baths. Throw all your clothing in the trash, and don't touch anything until you're clean. Understand?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good, you may call me Granny Choi. Follow me."
Respectfully bowing his head and following behind her, she pointed him toward the men's section and even opened the door for him.
Immediately stripping once he got inside and tossing everything into the trash, Ari took a shower, thoroughly scrubbing himself repeatedly until his skin and scalp felt raw and he couldn't smell the scent of garbage.
As Ari walked past a mirror on the way to soak in the bathtub, he couldn't help but gasp at how bad he looked.
His body was covered in black and purple bruises, but his face was 10 times worse.
It was a variety of different colors, from purple, yellow, black, and green.
Both his eyes were swollen and red, and he had small cuts everywhere.
Thankfully, he had no loose teeth, but for some reason, even with the injuries, he really couldn't recognize his face at all.
It felt like his usual features had shifted a bit, and the bruising and wounds made it worse.
"What did you do to me? I look like a monster."
He whispered harshly to the system as he stared at the unfamiliar monster in the mirror.
He had thought Grandma Lisa was exaggerating, but he looked terrible.
[Visuals: F]
[Everything had to be used to bring you back to life.]
[You should be thanking me instead of whining and plan on working harder.]
Hearing the familiar heartless words, Ari just rolled his eyes before going to soak in the bathtub.
Even if he wanted to have a pity party, it was clear that a certain something wouldn't let him.
He might as well continue to work on testing his skills out.
Since he was alone and the bathrooms were said to have good acoustics, he decided to listen to what his F-rank vocals sounded like in here.
After all, the pollution in the air outside was really bad. That could be why his singing sounded terrible earlier.
"T̴w̵i̸n̴k̵l̶e̸ ̷t̴w̵i̴n̸k̶l̴e̸ ̵l̴i̶t̸t̵l̶e̸ ̸s̷t̶a̵r̷ ̷h̶o̷w̴ ̵i̶ ̴w̴o̸n̵d̸e̸r̴ ̷w̵h̵a̵t̵ ̴y̸o̵u̶ ̷a̸r̸e̴?̴"
All of a sudden, the familiar lullaby that every child over the age of two could sing on key sounded as if it were coming out of the throat of a demon.
A husky voice came out lower than expected and cracked each time.
The pitch changed by itself without him doing anything.
Garbled words that he wasn't sure existed in the English language.
…at least it was better than the previous times.
Ari could only comfort himself that way.
"Maybe I should try another rapping instead? My speaking voice is fine. Rapping is poetry, so it should work, right?"
"H̴i̷s̵ ̷p̷a̶l̵m̶s̷ ̸a̸r̴e̸ ̸s̷w̴e̵a̴t̷y̵ ̴k̸n̴e̵e̶s̸ ̸w̸e̸a̴k̴,̶ ̸a̶r̶m̸s̸ ̷a̶r̶e̸ ̷h̷e̶a̴v̶y̵…"
This time, it sounded like two rocks rubbing against each other.
And somehow completely off key.
At this point, Ari had to admit.
F-rank was truly F-rank.
A fantastic failing flop.
His face, singing, and rapping were all terrible.
Although he had no hopes for his dancing, Ari still felt the need to check.
Mentally preparing himself for the worst, Ari ran to the mirror to perform snippets of choreography that anybody would know:
Single Women
Cat Daddy
Nae Nae
Irish jig
Gangnam style
Thriller
No matter how simple a move he tried, it looked like a stiff tree suddenly learned to move like a human or a baby who just learned how to walk.
Everything was jerky and uncoordinated, as if his body was spasming while he was trying to move.
Even repetition didn't help.
Seeing that it was getting worse and not better, Ari thoroughly hid his anger behind a smile and gently called out to the system.
"NOVA?"
[What?]
"Materialize just once so I can hit you."
[Rejected.]
[Instead of whining, focus on completing your missions so that you may gain stat points to increase the level.]
"Tsk. Always got something to say, don't you, Nova?"
[Apparently so do you.]
[ Focus on finishing a mission, stinky boy. Or make an appointment for professional vocal coaching to build the skill up naturally. ]
[ Although seeing your circumstances, I doubt that you can afford it.]
[Tsk.]
"Tsk to you too."
Clicking his teeth in annoyance, Ari went back and submerged himself in the water and tried to relax.
It seemed that he would have a lot of work to do in the future.
Dance classes, singing classes, rapping classes.
How was he supposed to afford it all?
After soaking for hours while avoiding the large elephant in the room, an old man finally came to collect Ari since the bathhouse was closing for their midday break.
Feeling resigned to having to try to book a less-than-reputable motel at least for the night and waste money to accomplish the mission, Ari went back to the locker room and found mint green shorts, oversized short-sleeved shirts, socks, and slides lying by his locker. There was even a pair of matching boxers.
Although he was a bit embarrassed about the boxers, he quickly put everything on.
As he examined himself in front of the mirror, he noticed that the bruising that was previously covered by his long sleeves and pants was exposed.
[Ding!]
[Peee Yeeew! You Stink Worse Than A Sewer! - Complete!]
[Current Rewards: 1 Stat Point & 1 Charm Stat Point]
Ohhh? That was quick.
Before Ari could celebrate accomplishing one thing, a sarcastic message filled his vision.
[Congratulations on smelling like a human being and not a garbage dump.]
[Shall we spend points to increase the vocal stat before you summon a demon with that voice, since you insist on singing even though it doesn't get better?]
"Isn't there a saying that practice makes perfect?"
[There's also a saying about the blind leading the blind.]
[Guess who the blind person in this situation is.]
[It's the person who has this stat -> Vocals: F]
Ari: "...would it kill you to be kinder to me?"
[Yes.]
'Then Die!'
Feeling his blood boil at the sarcastic response, Ari bit back what he truly wanted to say.
Through gritted teeth, he spat the words out, "Let's save the points for later."
[Ears all around the world weep at your choice and beg you to reconsider.]
Ari: ಠ_ಠ
'Shut up.'
When Ari arrived at the cash register, the old lady had his ID cards ready to go.
As she held out his cards, she stared at his face, glanced down at his ID, then at his face, and down to his ID before sighing and rummaging through the desk drawer.
'Yes, yes, I know I look hideous. It wasn't just the filth covering me earlier.'
With a look full of pity, she held out a small, plastic-wrapped package.
"Pardon me?"
At Ari's look of confusion, she glanced at his ID card and face once more before sighing and opening the package to reveal a mint green baseball cap and a matching baseball cap.
"A gift. To help cover that up. Your face looks ugly now. Take it." Despite the harsh words, her hands were soft as she patted his damp hair down and carefully placed the hat on his head.
"Ah, thank you."
Ari accepted the gift, his eyes watering slightly at the unexpected kindness.
He was so touched that he didn't even hear the notification going off from him completing a mission.
"Find better friends instead of running around riff raff. Look at what they did to your handsome face. You're too young to be looking so ugly, okay? Focus on school and doing better with your life, hmm?"
Hearing the kindness hidden behind the gruff words that reminded him of Grandma Kim, Ari swallowed once more before nodding.
He was about to thank her once more, but then….
Grrrrrrumbllleeeeee-
His stomach began growling hungrily.
Quickly turning red, he took back his ID cards in a hurry, not even noticing that the business card was gone.
"Uh, could you tell me the t-"
Grrrrruruuumbbbbllleeeee
His stomach cut in angrily again, and Granny Choi stared at him with a scary expression.
"Young man, are you hungry?"
"No."
Grrrrruruuumbbbbllleeeee
His stomach immediately grumbled again.
"If you lie to me again, you'll regret it. Answer honestly, are you hungry?"
Grrrrruruuumbbbbllleeeee
As his stomach sold him out once more, Ari bowed his head lower and whispered.
"...yes."
Granny Choi stared at him for a moment, examining the bruises exposed by his clothing and remembering the conversation with her distant friend, before wiping her hands on her bright yellow apron.
Then she walked over and opened an unobtrusive door to the side before yelling.
"Yeobo! Grace! A hungry chick is coming, so put some meat on the grill and bring out some side dishes!"
And before Ari could say anything else, a small old lady grabbed his hand and dragged him through the door into a place that smelled heavenly.