Song Eun-ni looked at the team invitation sent by her in-game friend "Min".
She was almost certain that Min was Ryu Shi-min.
The genius mid-laner of the new generation of esports.
Logging on to play a game right after finishing the global championship—it seemed he was truly addicted.
She clicked accept, entered the game, and picked the support role just like last time, while "Min" took the mid-lane marksman.
But strangely, today's "Min" was playing so terribly it was beyond words.
His skills were timed wrong, and his positioning was always too slow to dodge.
Barely halfway through the match, their team was already getting completely destroyed.
SOONI: "Did your account get hacked?"
Kwon Yoo-min looked at the friendly greeting sent by Song Eun-ni, his brow furrowed so tightly it could crush a fly.
What the hell, were his skills really that bad?
He looked down at the stats of the character he was controlling—0 kills, 5 deaths, 0 assists. It was as disastrous as a car crash.
He looked up and glanced at Ryu Shi-min's tightly shut bathroom door. The sound of running water was still going, splashing continuously.
Min: "It's me."
SOONI: "..."
SOONI: "Then can you stop feeding?"
Kwon Yoo-min stared at that sentence, feeling an unprecedented humiliation from the very depths of his soul.
It was all that damn Ryu Shi-min's fault; his account only matched with absolute maniacs capable of playing in professional leagues!
He glanced at the score, then at the bathroom door. Ah, he couldn't keep feeding like this. He ran over to the bathroom door and started pounding on it.
"Hey! Shi-min!! Hurry up and open the door!"
His fists banged against the door panel, thump thump thump.
The water stopped, and there were two seconds of silence from inside the bathroom: "What's wrong?"
"Hurry up! We're going to lose!" Kwon Yoo-min's voice carried a sense of extreme urgency.
The door opened.
Ryu Shi-min stood in the doorway wearing a bathrobe, drying his hair with a towel: "What are you doing?"
"Hurry, hurry!"
Kwon Yoo-min handed him the phone, so anxious he was practically stomping his feet.
0 kills, 5 deaths, 0 assists.
His fingers paused on the towel for a moment, then he draped the towel over his neck, his fingers already subconsciously starting to control the game.
The tempo changed.
All the positioning and skills switched from "malfunctioning" back to "precision" mode.
Step by step, he turned the tide of the match.
"Do you not have your own phone?" Ryu Shi-min asked, his eyes never leaving the screen.
"Ah, well..." Kwon Yoo-min's voice suddenly grew quiet, as soft as a mosquito's buzz, "I can't play on my own account."
"Is it because you got banned for swearing at people?"
"No."
Kwon Yoo-min paused for a moment.
"If Jae-hyuk finds out I'm playing games with her, I'll be dead meat." Kwon Yoo-min's voice was even quieter than before, so quiet it was like he was talking to himself.
Only then did he notice that the support player was SOONI, the one Jae-hyuk had brought along to play last time.
Ryu Shi-min looked up from the game interface and gave Kwon Yoo-min a deeply speechless look.
Kwon Yoo-min stood in front of him, hands stuffed in his pockets, shoulders slightly hunched, looking a bit guilty.
The tips of his ears were flushed with embarrassment.
"So I won't die?" Ryu Shi-min asked, his tone flat, as flat as if he were asking "What day is it today?"
Kwon Yoo-min looked at him and blinked.
"You won't die," Kwon Yoo-min said. "You just came back from winning glory for the country in the tournament. You're at the height of your popularity. If anyone dares to lay a finger on you, the media will dig up their ancestors from the grave."
Ryu Shi-min lowered his head and continued playing the game.
"We won." Ryu Shi-min put the phone down, leaned back on the sofa, and looked up at the ceiling.
Kwon Yoo-min leaned in to glance at the screen—the victory emblem was glowing right in the center, golden and sparkling, like a freshly minted coin.
Kwon Yoo-min completely relaxed. He let out a long breath, as if he had just completed a daunting task.
SOONI: "Got your account back?"
Min: "I told you it was me!"
Kwon Yoo-min felt extremely speechless. Couldn't she just interpret it as him deliberately playing badly in the early game just to ambush the opponents later? Why did she have to be so sharp!
Ryu Shi-min found her message amusing.
"The unrequited love of Jae-hyuk you mentioned, is it her?"
It was obvious.
Kwon Yoo-min didn't dare to say it out loud.
"Guess for yourself. If you guess right, that's your own business."
Ryu Shi-min said nothing.
"She doesn't like Jae-hyuk?"
Kwon Yoo-min rolled his eyes at him: "It's perfectly normal not to like a mad dog, right? She likes good boys like Hyun-soo."
"Hyun-soo?"
Kwon Yoo-min felt it was a bit inappropriate to say that, so he changed his tune: "I don't know. Anyway, Hyun-soo likes her. He likes her so much that he's almost ready to fight his brother over it. It's a total bloodbath."
"A femme fatale," Kwon Yoo-min rested his head on his hands, sighing inwardly. "You'll understand when you see her."
Ryu Shi-min smiled: "What about you?"
Kwon Yoo-min rolled his eyes at him: "What?"
"Risking your life just to play a game with her, what are your intentions?"
"Shut up, can't I just love playing games?"
Ryu Shi-min laughed: "If you just love playing, what does it matter if you lose a match in front of her?"
"Shut up!"
Kwon Yoo-min buried himself in the sofa, covering his head with a throw pillow.
Ryu Shi-min looked at Kwon Yoo-min's awkward behavior and found it truly fascinating. There was actually someone who could make the people around him fall into her trap one after another.
Is she a succubus?
[Ding. Detected that your potential online dating target, Min, has reached full interest. He has been converted into an official online dating target. Current fantasy points: 5.]
5?
Ryu Shi-min?
How strange.
Song Eun-ni put down her phone and looked at the system panel to check her current fantasy points.
Wow, a full 6860 points.
Wealthy, truly wealthy.
But it was still a little short of being able to redeem those academic and skill-based items.
If it was just to improve IQ, it cost about 5000 points for 1 IQ point.
An astronomical figure.
"Why must it be so harsh? Can't you just generously give me a smart and sexy brain?" Song Eun-ni stretched lazily, being a bit unreasonable.
[No can do.]
"Why?"
[If you were suddenly given a massive amount of intelligence and abilities, you would probably get bored of this state very quickly.
According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you are currently between the third and fourth levels. If you suddenly became too smart,
You would directly skip to the fifth level and pursue self-actualization.
If you stop online dating, I would lose my value.]
Song Eun-ni chuckled, still trying to negotiate: "But what should I do? If I don't have a smarter and clearer mind, how am I supposed to conquer those even smarter, more complex online dating targets?"
She wanted a smarter brain, clearer vision, and the ability to make wiser decisions.
[According to calculations, your current IQ is completely sufficient.]
"Sufficient?"
[Of course. You don't need to add any IQ points at all. Relying on your current situation, you can already perfectly manage your present identity and successfully conquer one online dating target after another.]
"System, it's not enough."
[Not enough?]
"Not enough."
She wanted freedom, she wanted ambition, she wanted to climb higher.
She was greedy, she was utilitarian, she was insatiable.
She tore down her past self, rebuilding a brand-new identity from the ruins.
This new self had to be strong and confident, which meant she needed to be brilliant and composed.
But it was not enough.
Nowhere near enough.
