Astrid held his breath as his eyes stared downward, shimmering with both fear and hope.
The light faded to reveal his fate. It was…
A little strip of paper with some scrawling on it.
"Well…good game."
Astrid embraced his doom tightly like a long lost lover. In his head, he wrote a bucket list of things to do over the next and final month.
[You have gained Divine Strength Multiplier (Consumable, Rare) x1]
"Wait. Divine? That should be a good thing. Then why does this look like a note someone would pass in 3rd grade? The paper isn't even big enough for me to write a goodbye letter to my family."
After a while, Astrid surmised that humans just wouldn't be able to understand the artistic sense of whatever god or demon created this system. Instead of pondering the imponderable, he sought more information about the item.
[Divine Strength Multiplier (Consumable, Rare) x1 - Use to gain a training regimen that boosts your strength stat points]
Astrid's breathing became heavy. 'This is it...' He spotted a glimmer of light up above, a possibility of escaping the deep crater he was stuck in. This little scrap of paper could be his life-saving rope.
'With this, I can train to be even stronger!' he thought
[Congratulations! You've unlocked the Achievement: Rare Recruitment (rare) - Get a rare graded item]
[Distributing reward: 50 SP]
"HELL YEAH!" he yelled out loud
---
"Who is screaming?"
"That fat ass otaku, probably his first time masturbating."
---
"Use item!" Astrid yelled. Soon the paper burned to glowing blue ashes and the ashes traveled toward his head into his brain!
Soon memories of a person's immense training flooded his head. The man ran 1,000,000 kilometers each day! He didn't take breaks and ran the whole time. By the end, his legs were begging to fall off. Then he lifted mountains as if they were dumbbells for 5 hours! After that he did 1,000,000 sit ups at lightning speed! Astrid went through these memories for about 5 years in mentality but it was an instant in real life!
"Ahhh, that hurts!" Astrid felt that he had grown less heavy and went to check in the mirror.
"Holy shit! I'm skinny!" Astrid yelled. In truth, the stress and energy consumption of the process was so taxing, that it had to used Astrid's "fat" to fuel the process.
"Imma go sell so of my stuff, then go exercise!" he said cheerfully as he exited his apartment.
Astrid was going to the supermarket around the block when, the landlord's daughter blocked him.
She had large amber eyes, a small and exquisite nose, cherry lips, and silky black hair that fell on her shoulders. She was wearing a beautiful black skin-suit. She had an ample chest, and she was wearing black boots going up to her fair thighs, which seemed especially tender. The distance between her suit and the boots created a mesmerizing territory filled with the attractiveness of youth.
If this had been Earth 100,000 years ago, all the guys would stare at her as she walked down the street, and she'd be able to do cosplay or be a fashion model without makeup—a top-class beauty! But in this world, it seemed that she was only above average.
"You fat, skinny pig? You're already behind on rent by half a month—when are you going to pay up!?"
When the beauty opened her mouth, insults spewed out instantly, and her expression was filled with contempt and impatience.
Astrid could only smile wryly inside; after all, it was his fault that he attempted to molest her in their first meeting, but he regretted it immensely now, since his soul corrected his thoughts in the black void, he could be in the best mental shape possible! Still, it was only natural that she would have such a negative impression of him.
Astrid sighed helplessly. There's nothing wrong with being an otaku, but if you act as disgusting as he did before, even without being an obese otaku, it was only natural that all his friends and family would abandon him.
"I'm so sorry, Miss Amber. Please give me two more days; I'll come up with enough money for you."
Astrid kneeled on the floor and lowered his head in a formal apology.
Even though all of this was the previous Astrid's fault, since he had obtained a new mind now, he couldn't complain; he might as well attempt to fix things.
The girl whose name was Ichika Amber was stunned for an instant; this was the first time she had ever seen him being so confident and sincere. Before, it always sounded like he was mumbling every word, and every sentence was sexually harassing, which made her feel disgusted.
She hated having to talk to this skinny pig, but she was worried about her kind and gentle mother having to collect rent from him. Unfortunately, her father died young, so she needed to become strong on behalf of her mother and to protect their family!
And seeing this skinny pig acting so sincere for the first time, she was slightly moved.
"We've already given you such a long period…"
"I know, it's my fault, but I really don't have any money right now. Give me two days' time; I'll sell some of the things in this room and give you the rent." Astrid raised his head and gazed directly into her eyes.
Just looking at that skinny face made Ichika Amber feel disgusted again, but that sincere look was something she'd never seen before, which piqued her curiosity.
She took a look around the room; just two months after moving in, this guy had made it into a pigsty: CDs, games, fast food trash, drink bottles, and a huge amount of dirty tissues were everywhere…
Just by observing her glancing around and her expression, Astrid knew what she was thinking, and it was also expressed by the three conversation options that suddenly appeared in front of him.
[New System action unlocked! Choose one of 3 options to progress the conversation!]
[A: You'll get your money anyways, so get the hell out!]
[B: I know that my previous actions made it difficult for you to trust me, but please give me one last chance!]
[C: I really don't have any money, I'm begging you!]
This shocked Astrid tremendously as this was his first time seeing such an OP feature! If he just used the correct phrase, he could be a positive response, but if wrong, he could anger the other tremendously!
The correct answer was obviously B.
"I know, I was very rude to you before, and it may be difficult for you to trust me. However, I've self-reflected on my previous actions, and I've decided to start living a new life; please give me one last chance!"
Astrid bowed his head once again in a sincere request.
[*Ding!*] After making his choice, he heard a sound in his mind.
This was the system telling him that he had successfully raised her friendship level!
"O… Okay, one last chance." Ichika Amber pouted with her lips. "I… I'll come back in a week."
He requested two days, but this girl gave him a week.
"Thank you so much!" Astrid thanked her in a clear, deep voice.
"You're welcome…" Hearing such sincere gratitude, Ichika Amber felt for an instant that this skinny pig didn't seem as disgusting as before.
Her departure meant that he wouldn't be evicted, so the corners of Astrid's mouth curled upwards in a small smile.
[Congratulations! You've unlocked the Achievement: Talk Jitsu (rare) - Turn a girl with (Mortal Enemy) status into (Neutral) status]
"HELL YEAH!" he yelled
[Ichika Amber Status: (Neutral) --> (Disgusted)]
"Dammit!" he whispered to himself.
Then, he immediately went to the bathroom to wash himself.
He washed his face, took a shower, cut his messy hair, shaved all his facial hair, and put on the cleanest clothes he could find.
*Ding ding ding!* A brand new skinny pig has now arrived!
He was now a relatively normal-looking stick instead of a fat otaku that everybody hated; his charisma stat had even increased by five points as proof of this.
Just taking a shower improved charisma from 0 to 5—just how uncaring was the previous me about his appearance?
Well, Astrid didn't wish to dwell on the past self-serving lifestyle, so after cleaning himself up, his next task was cleaning the room.
He threw away all the trash, organized all the things that were still useful, and made a pile of what he could sell.
Let's do the important stuff first before finishing the final organizing and cleaning later.
Astrid ate some snacks that he found in the room for breakfast, before gathering up a huge bundle of CDs and games to sell and walking out of the room with them.
Outside, the sun shone brightly.