Meeting the surprised green eyes covered in white paint, Steven Choi nodded in a comforting manner.
"I understand everything."
"Pardon me?" Ari quickly put the lipstick down and turned to the priest, who was backing away slowly.
"Don't worry, son. Your secret is safe with me and the lord."
"What secret? There's no secret here! I can explain the situation very easily! Please wait!"
"Aaahhhh!!! No, no need to feel burdened by doing that!. You can take your time! I'll be in my office! And if you ever need somebody to talk to who won't judge you, just know that I'm here for you." Steven Choi began shouting while backing away even more.
"What is happening right now-?"
"Shhhhh- it's okay, little lamb. The Lord loves all without judgment. I accept you for who you are!"
Before Ari could say anything else, the priest had left, shutting the door behind him.
"What kind of misunderstanding is he having??"
Ari was completely confused.
*********
After the awkward interaction of being caught trying to practice painting his face for the audition, Ari quickly wiped it off and went to find the priest to try to explain what was going on, but he was quickly waved off.
The difficult discussion of employment and living here that he thought was going to happen also didn't happen, as Steven Choi seemed to have made an important decision overnight.
In fact, Ari was given an overly favorable deal.
The priest would be satisfied as long as he cleaned the bathrooms once a day and did a deep clean like he did twice a week.
If he couldn't do it, he just had to notify the man in advance, and it would be fine.
As for pay, his room was free, he was paid an hourly minimum wage for however long he cleaned weekly, and he was allowed to use the church's kitchen to cook and store his food.
It was way too generous, and Ari said as much.
But despite his protests, the priest insisted, saying it was what the church did for the community.
The previous old man who had died had the same opportunity, and now it was Ari's turn.
If and when he left, it would go to somebody else brought by his mother.
Feeling it was only the right thing to do, Ari confessed about his plans for auditioning and following his (fake) dream of being an idol, which caused another round of concessions from the priest and his insistence on being the guardian who would personally take him to the audition instead of the person who Ari hired.
As a priest, he was considered a father and could be a guardian in a pinch.
Very thankful for the man's kindness, Ari made a personal promise to himself to clean the church daily and to help at the bathhouse and restaurant when he could.
Completely in a daze, he went back to his room, canceled the rent-a-family mother for hire, and continued practicing choreography for his presentation.
While mouthing the words to the song, Ari was doing his best to follow the kindergarten-level choreography with a serious expression.
Hand over the head and run around in a circle.
Dramatic spin here.
Both hands thrown out.
Wave wave wave
Wiggle wiggle wiggle
Wiggle wiggle wiggle.
Kick kick kick
Run around with your hands on your head
Floss floss floss
Crazy legs, crazy legs
Criss cross criss cross
As the music played at 0.25 speed, Ari slowly followed along until the end of the song.
[Ding!]
[Don't Be A Slab Of Wood! Move Your Body A Little! - Dance the choreography of a song longer than 2 minutes 10 times! - Complete!]
[Reward: + 1 Stat Point]
[Dance the choreography of a song longer than 2 minutes 10 times! - has been removed from the Repeat Missions Board.]
[Current Rewards: 4 Stat Points & 1 Skill Selection Token & 1 Skill Token]
"Finally. That took way too long!" As Ari sighed in relief, the system couldn't help but add.
[Although it was a childish song, it seemed you used your brain well to select it and reduce the speed so it was that slow.]
[Although it would be better if your skill improved, even ants find a way to survive, I guess.]
"Thank you!" Ari was completely pleased that his trick of slowing the song down to compensate for his nonexistent dancing skills had worked.
Thanks to that, he had gained several stat points over the course of the night.
[What would you like to do with the stat points?]
"All in on vocals."
[Understood.]
[Vocals + 4]
[Vocals: C- -> B]
"Phew. Okay, let me view all of my stats," Ari whispered as he sat down and chugged some water.
[Ariel Matisse]
[Age: 17]
[Vocals: B]
[Dance: F]
[Visual: F]
[Rap: F]
[Charm: F+]
After staying awake all night while singing, he successfully sang a song 10 times and then 100 times, which granted him two stat points.
The rest had come by dancing slowly to kindergarten-level choreography eleven times, which had somehow taken 3 hours.
He wanted to gain the point for practicing 100 times, but he doubted he would make it since he had to begin his makeup prep and leave for the audition because of traffic.
Since that was the case, it was time to use the other two rewards he had gotten.
There was 1 Gacha Gift Token and 1 Skill Selection Ticket.
Since what he needed right now wasn't gifts but stats or skills, especially in singing…
"NOVA."
[What?]
"I'd like to use the Skill Selection Ticket."
[For the first and only time, you may personally select an attribute instead of leaving it to chance.]
[Please note that this opportunity will not happen again, so choose wisely.]
A list written in green text appeared.
[1. Pen Pal]
[2. Pitch Machine ]
[3. Bendy]
[4. Circular Breathing ]
[5. No St-st-stuttering]
[6. Not A Robot]
[7. Greedy Fingers ]
[8. Power Hungry]
[9. Sticky]
[10. Needy]
"Can I get details on what each of those skills does?"
[No.]
"…will I ever be able to see any details?"
[When you select it.]
[Obviously.]
"Tsk. How helpful."
This system was getting sassier and sassier.
But…looking at the names, Ari felt as if he could somewhat guess what they did.
Pen Pal was maybe lyric writing?
Circular Breathing was for instruments.
Pitch Machine would involve singing.
Not a Robot or Bendy was maybe dancing?
No Stuttering was probably rapping or singing diction. Maybe public speaking?
As for the 7th through 10…they looked like nonsense just thrown in there to make up the numbers.
Since none of the skill names were calling out to him for now-
"Let's save it for now. I'd like to use the Gacha Gift Token."
[If you insist.]
As Ari watched, the blue screen in front of him transformed into a gumball machine with hundreds of rainbow-colored balls inside.
The little animation of a coin entering the slot played, and the silver turn key cranked five times to the right before-
POP!
A lime green ball popped out of the opening, into the air, and fell into his hands.
Good to know. Never use that in front of people.
Ari turned the little green ball around several times, but since he couldn't see anything special about it, he split it open.
One half of the ball disappeared, and the other half turned into a large, ugly, green and brown plastic face mask in the shape of a snail and its shell.
With the rounded top and long green horns, it looked like a swamp monster or a hideous alien.
Ari wondered what the heck this was and if he had been duped. NOVA automatically provided a description.
[Reusable Snail Snot Face Mask]
[Use: just wet it with water and stick it on your face. Hang to dry when not in use.]
[Performance: Boosts moisture, heals and repairs skin damage, eliminates acne, dark spots, eye bags, fine lines, and wrinkles. When worn on the face, it will permanently increase your visual stat by 0.05 points for every 12 hours worn.]
Oh?
It was a stat-increasing item, which was nice. But…
"Why is it only increasing by 0.05. Wouldn't I need a hundred days to go from F rank to C in visual?"
[You should be pleased since your current visual is less than pleasant to observe.]
[However, if you don't want it, please return it .]
[Naturally, there will be no refunds allowed.]
"Tsk."
There was no way he could give it back.
And honestly, with that F-rank Visual, anything was better than nothing.
Ari poured water on the mask and put it on his face before turning to look at himself in the mirror.
The mask magically contoured to his face like a face mask, but the horns and the shell part of the snail stuck out, making him look scary and comical at the same time.
Like an alien from Space Wars.
It would be a perfect Halloween costume...if only it were Halloween and not a couple of months away from summer.
Let's just wear this to sleep, where nobody else could see it.
Ari quickly took it off and hung it to dry.
Then, after putting on the clothing he had bought for the audition, he began painting his face with thick white and black paint, carefully drawing the designs over his eyes and then painting his lips with red lipstick.
Several hours later, he was on a church bus with a priest wearing full white robes, headed to his first-ever idol survival show audition.