Truth be told, Ari really, really, REALLY wanted to fix his F stat visual.
Each time he looked at his bare face in the mirror, he was quite frightened.
The swelling had significantly gone down, and the bruises were slowly fading, but….he was just plain ugly.
Each time he looked at his ID photo and compared it to his current appearance, Ari wanted to break down and cry.
His previously good-looking face had become…..this.
He wanted to dump all of his free stat points and take it from an F to a D.
But then he remembered the two issues that would definitely trip him up.
The first issue was one of the missions on the mission board.
2. [Don't Be Quiet! Spit out those words! - Rap a song longer than 2 minutes without skipping a word or stuttering! Reward - 1 Stat Point]
Rapping.
It was currently a Big. Fat. F on his status.
Ari remembered how difficult it was to complete the singing mission with F rank.
Although he hoped that he would be able to raise the stat naturally since they would be assigned teachers who would train them, it would be more detrimental for him in the long run if he were stuck on a mission for a long time, so the stat points had to be saved just in case.
Secondly.
The PDs had mentioned learning the signal song of the show.
After researching what a signal song was, Ari understood that it was the opening song and the first official video of the program.
It would be many people's first introduction to the contestants, who would be singing while performing choreography on an official, elaborate stage.
Although Ari was somewhat confident in his vocals, he realized that he was well below average in rapping and dancing.
And he had never sung and danced choreography at the same time.
With over 100 contestants, it would be difficult for him to stand out, especially if he were an unredeemable dancer.
With his dancing stats the way they were, he would probably just be stuck in a hidden corner with no screen time.
Add in the fact that he would be wearing the strange makeup until his Visual stat was high, they probably wouldn't want to display him much, which was extremely detrimental to his survival.
And he couldn't forget about the elimination criteria that they hadn't heard about yet.
If it depended on him dancing, he would be eliminated immediately.
So, in other words…
The stat points couldn't be used carelessly!
They had to be saved and utilized depending on the situation.
With tears in his eyes, Ari reluctantly spoke to NOVA.
"I'll save the stat points for now."
[Smart of you.]
"Instead, I'd like to use the Gacha Gift Tokens."
[Sure.]
[Would you like to use them one at a time or use them both at once?]
"What's the difference?"
[If you use multiple gacha tokens at once, there's an increased likelihood of receiving a set item that gives bonuses when two or more items from the same set are worn simultaneously.]
"Let's use them both at once."
[Excellent choice.]
[For once.]
[You seem to be on a roll today.]
[Good job.]
Ari: ಠ_ಠ
[Beginning Now.]
As Ari watched, a blue screen appeared in front of him, transformed into a gumball machine with hundreds of rainbow-colored balls inside.
The little animation of two coins entering the slot played, and the silver turn key cranked 10 times to the right before-
POP! POP!
Two yellow balls popped out of the opening, into the air, and fell into his hands.
Ari immediately split one in half, and a fuzzy brown headband with a cute face, whiskers, and rounded ears on the side popped out.
"…what is this?" he waved the floppy thing around before NOVA provided an answer.
[Otterly Adorable Headband (Set 1/3)]
[Use: just put it on your head.]
[Performance: Helps keep your scalp healthy, your hair stands strong (even when bleached or dyed), and prevents balding when worn for at least 6 hours a day.]
[- Increases the Visual stat by 1 when worn.]
[- When worn as a set of two or more, it increases the Visual stat by 1 and the Charm stat by 1 for each additional item.]
"Oh, this is nice! Very useful!"
With a bit of excitement and expectation, Ari opened the second yellow ball, which transformed into dark brown track suit pants and a dark brown zip-up jacket with a lighter brown hood with a cute animal face on it.
Ari pulled at the ears and black nose on the thing before NOVA provided him a description.
[Otterly Adorable Tracksuit (Set 2/3)]
[Use: wear both the pants and the jacket.]
[Performance: When worn, it helps increase body flexibility and prevent overheating while making you look cute like an otter~❤︎.]
[- Increases the Dance stat by 1 when worn]
[- When worn as a set of two or more, it increases the Visual stat by 1 and the Charm stat by 1]
"This….is also good…but why is it shaped like this??? What happened to plain black? Plain gray!"
Ari looked at the two items with a sigh of resignation.
He wasn't particular about his own fashion sense in the slightest, but even he felt this was a little too much.
This was…completely not his style, especially to wear while filming, but when he considered the increase in the stat points, he reluctantly changed, putting on the tracksuit pants and jacket over his boxers and T-shirt.
Ari stared at his reflection in the mirror while shaking his head.
He had to admit, the tracksuit was really comfortable.
The material felt very breathable, and when he tested some light exercises, it didn't restrain him in the slightest.
But unfortunately, he looked like a child, especially with the hood up.
Ari then placed the snail face mask on his face before putting his otter headband over that.
Ari: "...."
He looked completely stupid.
But he wasn't willing to sacrifice the stat gain from either item.
"Do I have to wear this on my head? Can I wrap it around my wrist or something?"
Ari held out the otterly adorable headband.
[Is that not what the instructions say?]
[Feel free to wear it as a fashion item, however, you will not receive the effects]
"There is no need to be that snarky.
[There's no need to ask questions that you know the answers to, yet here we are]
With a resigned sigh, Ari placed the headband back on his head before rearranging his wildly curly hair to cover it up.
Checking to make sure that it wasn't visible in the mirror, he decided that this would be his outfit tomorrow.
"Yawn~ I'm so tired." Rubbing his aching eyes, Ari grabbed his duffel bag, placing the few pieces of clothing he had, his face paint and makeup collection, and his shoes.
Once everything was packed nicely, he locked the main section of the duffel bag with a mini padlock and set it aside.
Tomorrow, he would place his toiletries in there and call in to his school to tell them he would be sick for the week.
For now, it was time to sleep.
*******
Beep! Beep!
The sound of Jamie's car horn could be heard and Ari lugged his duffel bag and the bag of snacks that had been shoved into his hands by Granny Choi at breakfast.
Jamie took one look at the green facemask and the otter-branded clothing before bursting out laughing.
Flipping him off, Ari jumped in the front seat.
"Is this what they call cosplay? Are you pretending to be an alien wild animal?" Jamie asked while wiping away tears from his eyes.
He was always on the receiving end of Ari's teasing, so he was happy to finally get a chance to fire back.
"Shut up and drive, country boy," Ari muttered.
"Why so cranky? Are you hungry? Do you need me to catch you some fish?" Jamie grabbed the ears on the hood and began playing around with them.
For some reason, it reminded him of his childhood dog, a sheepdog that he used to take to his uncle's farm so it could run around.
"Don't talk to me."
As Ari batted his hand away again once more, Jamie laughed before he began driving to the location given by the PDs.
When they arrived, Jamie pulled out a large suitcase and his guitar from the car.
After glancing at the two bags with no wheels that Ari carried, he handed over his guitar and hung Ari's bags on his suitcase, and they both approached the large, over 20-story-tall building that said Pop Star Academy in large letters on the front.
Seeing it, Ari couldn't help but whistle.
The organizers had clearly spent a lot of money if they even had a tall building like this in Los Angeles.
With a slightly expectant gaze, he approached the electric doors that slid open and walked in.