The Price of Maximum Charm

When the unfamiliar ceiling greeted me as a frail beauty, my heart had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠already calmed down a little. After all, even if I raised hell in China, how much of a commotion could it really cause? I'd just brush it off and head back to Korea, and that would be the end of it.

"More importantly, it's been ages since I last slept."

To be exact, maybe I should call it fainting instead of sleeping? The body created through black magic and illusion arts didn't really feel fatigue, so the act of sleeping itself had been nearly impossible.

'Still, spending time with my consciousness faded away before waking up again... isn't that basically the same thing?'

More than that, banging my head on the dining table had revealed one clear fact: this body had no stamina gauge whatsoever, so it was safe to say there was no stamina consumption. But...

'The durability is seriously...'

Collapsing after a single sip of alcohol, going down completely from one head bump... both inside and out, it was far weaker than I'd expected. I'd spent every day cooped up in the house, so I hadn't felt any of this until now. Stepping outside and experiencing it firsthand made me realize just how fragile this body truly was.

"...You didn't make it like this on purpose because you have a thing for frail beauties, did you?"

Even I thought that was going too far, and I let out a small laugh. That moment was cut short by a voice from the doorway.

"Since when did you know...?"

My sister stood frozen at the door, her pupils trembling violently as she spoke. No... why did this have to be real?

"Sigh... Why are you giving me a headache the second I wake up?"

In the end, I even slipped into casual speech as I coldly pressed her. My sister apologized profusely and explained the whole story.

"S-sorry... I'm really sorry! But, um... when I did the reconstruction, if I invested in one area, I had no choice but to cut from somewhere else..."

"...Then what exactly did you gain from it?"

The somewhat reasonable explanation softened me a little compared to before, but I still asked with a sharp look. My sister hesitated before answering in a small voice.

"Ch... Charm stat..."

Charm stat? What?

"Ahaha... Charm stat... You invested in the charm stat..."

Was she joking right now? So every time my face had been revealed, people lost their minds even worse than during my Saintess days. And right after I dropped the illusion near VKC Stadium, all those men who ignored my sister and rushed straight toward me just to get ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my number — every single one of those incidents happened because of this damn charm stat?

"...Are you really mad?"

"How could I not be?"

"I mean, what part of my appearance was so lacking that you felt the need to dump points into charm?"

At this point, it had gone beyond anger. I was genuinely curious why she was so obsessed with the charm stat.

"No! How could your appearance be lacking? It's practically perfect!"

Then why on earth would you cut a person's durability just to invest in charm?

"The reason I invested in the charm stat was... I thought, to create the greatest beauty no one in this world could ever rival, what if I added extra charm on top of that? So I put the points in..."

"And yesterday I got way too drunk and..."

"...I'm really sorry."

My sister couldn't even meet my ice-cold gaze as she confessed everything bit by bit. Of course, the fact that she'd fed me alcohol and accidentally revealed my face was also the result of her drunken self saying she'd feed me something delicious... so there hadn't been any great malice behind the incident itself.

'But... the biggest problem is that you drastically cut my durability just to raise a useless charm stat by one.'

And the reason behind it all was trying to make me the world's most beautiful woman? No matter how I looked at it, I couldn't understand.

"Still... I don't like the idea of even one person being called more beautiful than you..."

.....

Even while getting scolded, that level of conviction was starting to cross from anger into fear.

'Whew... Let's think about this more calmly.'

The durability issue couldn't be fixed right away anyway. Plus, if I kept getting angry at my sister — who was technically my supervisor while also providing for my daily needs — it wouldn't look good to the other team members.

'For now, I should calm my emotions as much as possible and try to reach some kind of compromise with Sis.'

"Sigh... I'll count this as you owing me one huge debt and let it slide. From now on, answer every question I ask with nothing but the truth. No hiding anything."

"Yeah... I understand."

"First, what's the situation in China after my face was revealed?"

But from the very first question, it seemed incredibly difficult to answer. My sister couldn't bring herself to speak right away. It was only after she saw me momentarily lose my temper that she hurried to reply.

"Tell me."

"Uh...? Well... to be completely honest, it's more serious than I expected..."

Hesitating, my sister walked over to the curtains and pulled them open just a little. Instead of showing me community reactions on her phone, that ominous gesture filled me with a sense of unease as I approached.

"Don't tell me... they're all here to see me?"

When I peeked through the gap, dozens of men had completely surrounded the building. Police were intervening as the men pointed cameras at every floor without its curtains drawn.

"We even changed the lodging location midway, but it kept turning out like this..."

"At least back in Korea your appearance was hidden with illusion magic and makeup, and even when it was broadcast you kept managing the chat. But as you can see, here..."

...I roughly understood the situation. A regular match in the domestic league and the main match of the Swiss stage in the first VA World Championship in history carried completely different weight. On top of that, the World Championship was being hosted in China, of all places. With the world's largest population, China had an especially high number of aggressively passionate people, so this was the natural result.

"Ugh... My head hurts."

"Sorry..."

"...I'm going to organize my thoughts alone for a bit. Please take care of the others first."

"Okay..."

After my sister left, I stayed behind alone, scrolling through the community and pondering. Suddenly, a thought occurred to me.

'If I can't avoid it, I might as well enjoy it.'

Thinking about it again, they were still technically my fans. Now that news from the World Championship hosted in China had spread to the domestic community and across the entire world, there was no way their interest would cool down. Besides, after Worlds ended, starting from Season 40 Spring, I would be debuting as SC's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠captain and mid laner anyway.

Considering the advertisement shoots and international competitions that would follow my debut, it was basically inevitable that my face would become known worldwide. If I just thought of this as the news spreading a little earlier than planned, it wasn't such a terribly serious problem.

"Yeah... It's much better than becoming gossip and having people talk behind my back."

With a somewhat steadier mind, I opened the door and stepped outside. Park Seongjun and my sister were raising their voices in an argument. Kim Yohan stood beside them, looking completely lost, while Jaehyun simply sighed and shook his head.

'Wait, when did I ask you to fight? I told you to manage them...?'

I had no idea why everything kept going wrong ever since we'd arrived in China.