Chapter 13 – Level 10 Protagonist Promotion
“…Done!!”
I took my eyes off my phone, let out a whoop, and jumped out of bed.
I spent over two hours customizing my avatar.
As a result, I was able to complete two transformation designations.
Let’s take a look at the skills.
[Transformation]
◆ Rank: 08
…….
2. Transformation Designation (Active)
– Cooldown: None
– Consumption: None
– When Used: You can designate the appearance to transform into. Up to 2 can be designated.
– Currently Saved Transformations (2 / 2): Charm Mode, Threat Mode
“Alright, alright~.”
Currently, there were a total of two transformations that could be saved in the ‘Transformation’ skill.
I named the two ‘Charm Mode’ and ‘Threat Mode’ respectively and saved them.
I wanted to save them with cooler names, but since I couldn’t think of any good names, I just went with intuitive and simple ones.
First, I set Charm Mode to be an incredibly handsome man.
I created an avatar of a man with looks that could rival a celebrity, from his face to his body. Flawless skin, distinct features! Having played many games, I was confident in setting up avatars like this.
On the other hand, Threat Mode was purely for intimidation. I didn’t care about looks at all.
A height of nearly 2 meters and a reddish, bulging body. It was a body that looked like it should be in a bodybuilding competition right now.
I added several small scars to the body to enhance its threatening nature. On top of that, a menacing expression was a bonus. With his face and slightly tanned skin, he also had a foreign feel.
I decided to try using the skill.
‘Since Threat Mode is the one that changes the most, if Threat Mode works properly, Charm Mode should work properly too, right?’
Before transforming, I quickly took off my clothes. If the transformation was successful, the clothes I was wearing wouldn’t fit.
Thinking about using the skill, I shouted into the air.
“Transform!”
Then, unlike before, the message asking me to set the designated appearance first didn’t appear. Instead, two appearances popped into my head: Charm Mode and Threat Mode. I continued.
“Threat Mode.”
– Crack, crack
As soon as I spoke, I heard the sound of my flesh and bones twisting all over my body. The bones in my body were being restructured, and my flesh and muscles were swelling. My body began to grow.
[Skill, ‘Transformation’ has been used. 30 coins have been deducted as consumption. (Remaining coins: 460)]
“Ooh….”
The transformation was completed in an instant.
I was worried about what would happen if there was pain, but surprisingly, there was no pain at all. I was amazed as I looked at my transformed appearance.
First of all, my field of vision had become very wide. I wasn’t that short, but with a height of nearly 2 meters, the scenery itself was different from before.
Haha.
It felt like I was standing in the sky. I was very satisfied.
“Ah, ah.”
And, my voice had become a deep voice that was completely different from my previous one.
In the avatar settings, the voice could also be set. I roughly set it to a low voice, which was a good match for the transformed appearance.
I looked at the full-length mirror.
There stood a giant I had never seen before. The intimidating muscles and bulk, and the pressure coming from his large height, were definitely on a different level from ordinary people.
And there was one more noticeable part.
– Dangle, dangle
Since I wasn’t wearing anything, the thing in my lower body was dangling grandly in the mirror.
“Wow.”
It was definitely bigger.
I didn’t usually have a complex about the size of that area, but still, if I looked like this, shouldn’t that area be bigger too?
Since the size of that area could also be set, I increased the thickness and length a little more than my own.
“Good thing I made it bald.”
I took my eyes off my lower body and looked at my upper body, smiling with satisfaction.
I purposely set it up to be bald. If I put on sunglasses here, it would feel like a foreign mafia member.
‘I hope my hair doesn’t fall out when the transformation is undone…?’
A sudden sense of unease came over me, but I shook my head.
That wouldn’t happen.
Surely….
“I like it for now.”
I struck various poses in front of the full-length mirror and enjoyed myself, smiling at my transformed appearance.
When I exerted force, my muscles swelled up hard, and the thick veins all over my body made anyone who saw them shrink back. It wasn’t an illusion; my body had really changed.
In this state, it felt like I could easily lift the bed next to me. I tried lifting the bed as a test.
“Yeah. That’s not happening….”
I chuckled as I looked at the king-size bed that didn’t budge. It seemed that only the appearance changed, and as the skill description said, my stats themselves didn’t change.
I smacked my lips and looked at my phone again.
There was still one skill I hadn’t seen. Now it was the last skill, ‘Summon’. I touched the ‘+’ button next to Summon.
[Summon]
◆ Rank: 08
◆ Description: A skill created from the Heroine App. You can summon a designated target to your location.
◆ Options
1. Summon (Active)
– Cooldown: None
– Consumption: 30 coins
– First Use: Summons the designated target to your location.
– Second Use: Returns the designated target to the place before being summoned. Can be used within 6 hours of summoning. Can be used as ‘Release Summon’.
2. Designate Summon Target (Active)
– Cooldown: None
– Consumption: None
– When Used: You can designate the target to summon. Up to 10 people can be designated.
– Currently Saved Summon Targets (0 / 10): None
“Hoo….”
You can summon a designated target to my location?
Like magic?
“Shall I try it out?”
I said the name of the skill option.
“Designate Summon Target.”
Then a message appeared on the screen.
[Loading list.]
[Please wait a moment….]
I waited for about 3 minutes.
Unlike when setting up the heroines, it took quite a long time.
[Please select the summon target to designate.]
A list of a lot of people appeared.
I scrolled down the list slowly. The scroll bar was so small it was almost invisible.
“It seems there’s no limit to the connection this time either.”
There was also a search bar at the top, so I guessed that maybe everyone on Earth was a target.
I pondered for a moment.
‘Hmm. Since it’s just an experiment, I’ll exclude Kang Su-jeong. It’s better to exclude people too close to me, right?’
Then who would be a good person to experiment with?
I want to know the results right away….
“Ah.”
Then, a convenience store 5 minutes away from my house suddenly came to mind. It was a convenience store I always stopped by when buying snacks, and the same person had been working there for months.
‘At this time… he should be working.’
I seemed to have seen him there on weekend afternoons too.
“His name was definitely….”
I recalled the name tag with his name on it.
“Was it Kim Geun-seong?”
His name was quite unique, so I remembered it.
I didn’t usually have a reason to remember the name of a convenience store worker, but after seeing him arguing with an old man when I stopped by the convenience store before, it was firmly etched in my mind.
“Just give me the usual! Can’t you even remember that one thing? Tsk, tsk. …That’s why these days kids are like this.”
“Sir, just tell me the name of the cigarette once….”
“What? Look at this? Remembering the cigarettes that customers use is the attitude a worker should have! Attitude! Tsk, tsk… Your name is Geun-seong, but you have no Geun-seong. Your parents gave you a good name. Huh? Live gratefully and diligently!”
The old man’s voice seemed to echo from beyond time and space.
‘Let’s see.’
I typed ‘Kim Geun-seong’ into the search bar.
“Wow… there are 23 of them?”
Of course, there was only one ‘Kim Geun-seong’ in his 20s working at a convenience store.
I selected him.
[Do you want to designate the person ‘Kim Geun-seong’ as the summon target for the ‘Summon’ skill?]
[(Yes / No)]
Yes.
[The person ‘Kim Geun-seong’ has been designated as the summon target for the ‘Summon’ skill.]
‘Should I summon him right away?’
Wait, let me put on some clothes first.
I grabbed the clothes I was wearing in my original body and went back to my studio apartment through the portal.
“I don’t have any clothes….”
I didn’t have any clothes that fit this body. I had no choice but to return wearing only a stretched-out pair of underwear.
The lower part was sticking out, and my entire upper body was exposed, but so what?
It was a transformed body anyway. There was nothing to be ashamed of.
“Summon, Kim Geun-seong.”
[Skill, ‘Summon’ has been used. 30 coins have been deducted as consumption. (Remaining coins: 430)]
– Poof
As soon as I said summon, along with the message that coins had been deducted, a man appeared in front of me.
“Thank you… Huh? Huh!? Where is this…? Ack!!”
The man who was summoned, ‘Kim Geun-seong’, was greeting me, but suddenly looked around, wondering what was going on, and then stepped back in surprise when he saw me.
I took a step closer to him.
“Are you Kim Geun-seong?”
His age was listed as 25 in the list, but I didn’t use honorifics.
I was in a transformed body now. Then I should act according to this body.
“Ack! Yes? Yes… I am. But who are you… and where is this?”
“You don’t need to know that. Just answer my questions.”
His face was filled with confusion.
But after seeing my body and face, he was terrified and could only nod his head without saying anything.
“…Yes!”
His expression was very subdued. He was trying his best not to look nervous, but it was clear that his whole body was stiff.
Well, it couldn’t be helped.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes and was in an unknown place, and in front of him was a menacing-looking muscular man.
Moreover, he was on the slightly weak side. The height difference was roughly 25cm.
I asked him.
“What are your name and age? And what do you do now?”
“…Kim Geun-seong, twenty-five years old. I, I work part-time at a convenience store.”
“Do you not do anything else? Where is the convenience store you work at?”
“I, I don’t do anything else… The convenience store is in Wolgok-dong.”
I nodded at his words. It was the same as the information I knew about him.
“I see.”
After saying that, I threw a coin I was holding in my hand to him. It was a 500 won coin.
“? What’s this…?”
He was bewildered as he received the coin and had a puzzled expression.
“It’s a coin. I’ll send you back soon. Keep that coin quietly, and if you go back, throw that coin out of the convenience store with all your might.”
“T, the coin, you mean?”
“Yes. Are you not working right now?”
“Ah, no. I’m at the convenience store right now.”
“Okay. Then do that.”
I said that and threw myself into the portal.
“W, wait…!”
I heard a voice calling from behind, but I ignored it and immediately closed the portal.
“Black Room.”
At my words, the portal disappeared cleanly.
Now, the man named Kim Geun-seong was trapped alone in that subspace.
“Hmm. I should hurry. Transformation release.”
– Crack, crack
My body returned to normal. I quickly put on my clothes and went out of the house.
“Hoo.”
It was summer, so it wasn’t obvious, but it was already evening. When I looked at my phone, the clock showed 6 o’clock.
‘I wondered if it would be different in the subspace, but time seems to flow the same even in the Black Room.’
I ran to the front of the convenience store where Kim Geun-seong was working.
“Ugh. That was hard.”
I arrived in 3 minutes after running.
I glanced inside, and there were two men and one woman inside the convenience store, each holding the items they wanted to buy, looking around the counter with troubled expressions.
That was understandable.
Because there was no one inside the counter.
I waited outside the convenience store for about 2 more minutes. But still, no one came to the counter.
I quietly watched the inside, and then, taking advantage of the timing when the two men and the woman holding items were all distracted, I quietly muttered.
“Release Summon, Kim Geun-seong.”
– Swoosh
Then, suddenly, a person appeared at the counter. It was Kim Geun-seong.
“Oh….”
It was amazing to see it in person. It seemed that the release summon was possible no matter where I was.
The two men who were standing in front of the counter, looking around and getting annoyed, looked back at the counter and were surprised. The woman was also quite surprised and dropped one of the items she was holding.
Kim Geun-seong looked around blankly for a moment, then quickly came to his senses and proceeded with the calculations.
– Jingle jangle
“Hey. But what was that just now?”
“I don’t know, man, where the hell did that part-timer come out from? I thought he went to the bathroom.”
“Right. Is he maybe some kind of psychic? Hehe.”
“Wow, crazy. Aliens really do exist.”
The two men who had finished their calculations came out of the convenience store, talking to each other. The woman also finished her calculation and came out.
After all the customers had left, Kim Geun-seong quietly slipped out of the counter.
– Jingle jangle
“…….”
Kim Geun-seong, who had come out of the counter, opened the convenience store door and looked around for a moment with a sullen expression. I was hiding, so he didn’t see me.
“Hoo….”
He sighed and clenched and unclenched his fist, pondering something. But then he shook his head, threw something outside with all his might, and quickly went back into the convenience store.
“Oh. Nice shot.”
The thing he threw flew in the direction I was in. I quickly ran and picked up the 500 won coin he had thrown and examined it.
“2001 coin. It’s the right one.”
I smiled after checking the coin.
The summon skill was real.
It worked well, and the person summoned was a real person from reality. He was actually not at the counter when he was summoned, and as soon as the summon was released, he returned. Also, the 500 won coin I gave him safely returned to me.
“Black Room, Transformation, Summon, huh….”
I smiled wryly as I thought of the three skills.
“I see why the name of the strategy style is the perpetrator behind the scenes.”
I felt like I knew what to do with these skills.
