Chapter 45: Why Is It Always You!
“Hiss~”
“My legs hurt so much...”
When An Han woke up the next morning, he felt like his legs didn’t even belong to him anymore.
He sat up in disbelief, pressing on his sore thighs and calves, completely confused about what was going on.
Maybe... he hadn’t exercised for too long?
But it was only a few days of resting during the National Day holidays. A slow run of a few kilometers shouldn’t have caused this much pain, especially since he had done proper stretching before and after running.
Something had felt strange during the run yesterday too.
As he rubbed his calves, he noticed that the firm, lean muscles he used to have from running often were mostly gone. When he pressed down, most of what he felt was soft flesh.
He could still feel some muscle strength when he tensed up, but it was far less firm than before.
“I thought I was just getting a bit more feminine...”
He muttered under his breath, forcing himself to get out of bed little by little despite the soreness in his legs.
“Who knows what my body will turn into if those stats keep increasing...”
He didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if his body stats kept rising. What if his chest got even bigger, like some over-the-top female character in an anime?
Too horrifying to think about.
No, he had to stick to his stay-in-the-dorm plan!
Stumbling to the balcony to wash up, he looked up, only to see Su Peng brushing his teeth and washing his face on the neighboring balcony.
“Morning,” Su Peng greeted him across the narrow gap between the balconies.
“Morning.”
“Wanna play duo later?”
An Han shook his head coldly. “No.”
Su Peng clearly didn’t expect that answer. He stared for a second, then scratched his head.
“What’s wrong? Someone made you mad?”
The system!
But of course, An Han couldn’t say that. He just lowered his head and looked gloomy.
He actually hated people who clearly had something on their mind but wouldn’t say it and just sulked in silence, yet now he was acting exactly like that.
However, Su Peng didn’t find him annoying at all. Instead, he showed more concern and asked, “If something’s bothering you, just say it. We’re close, aren’t we?”
Who’s close with you!
An Han silently rolled his eyes and chose to ignore him, focusing on washing up.
“You don’t look happy. Been staying in the dorm too long?”
“You’re so annoying. Leave me alone.”
“How about going out for a walk?” Su Peng leaned against the railing, leaning forward slightly. “If it’s boring with just the two of us, we can call Kexin too.”
An Han took a deep breath and said in disgust, “Not going! Stop bothering me!”
There, now you should be mad enough to leave me alone!
Even though he felt a bit guilty for snapping at Su Peng, avoiding system-triggered missions was more important right now.
“Oh yeah, the dorm next door is holding a mixer later. Want to go check it out?”
“No!”
“I heard there’ll be a lot of girls there, it’s a singles mixer,” Su Peng tempted.
An Han would never admit that he was tempted, but he still refused.
“Games are way more fun than girls.”
“tsk, fine, I’ll go by myself then.”
A singles mixer meant that everyone who went there was basically a college student looking for a relationship…
If Su Peng wanted to go, that clearly meant he was trying to find a girlfriend.
At least that meant he wasn’t setting his sights on me.
An Han had worried that Su Peng’s affection level, which was already close to ninety, meant he was starting to fall for him. But thinking about it carefully, men were creatures of “broad love,” right? Especially handsome guys like Su Peng, he was probably the kind who secretly had many girls around him.
While secretly grumbling about Su Peng, An Han forced himself not to sound jealous and waved his hand coolly.
“Then go ahead. I’m staying in the dorm to rest today.”
“Rest?”
“I twisted my ankle from running yesterday.”
“You really are something,” Su Peng said with a helpless smile.
Seeing that An Han clearly didn’t plan to go out, and even seemed to be avoiding him, Su Peng didn’t say more. He wiped his face and went back into his room.
Who knew why this guy could be as moody as a woman?
Yesterday, he had quietly apologized, the day before that he’d been oddly clingy and passionate, and now, all of a sudden, he was cold and distant again.
Was An Han’s personality also turning more like a girl’s now?
Meanwhile, after finishing washing up, An Han returned to his room and sat in front of the computer looking lifeless, crossing his legs while rubbing his sore calves.
His legs hurt so much that he didn’t even feel like gaming. Instead, he opened a trending TV drama to pass the time.
“These dramas these days are really bad...”
As he massaged his legs, he kept muttering under his breath.
“The actors all look so filtered I barely recognize them. They call this an esports show, but all they do is fall in love, it’s so cringe.”
“If I saw a real player saying they’d throw a match like that, I’d be the first one to roast them online…”
“If Wang Sheng saw this, he’d probably die from anger.”
He had picked this show because it was getting roasted all over the internet, but it turned out to be even worse than he expected.
He’d rather go out and accidentally trigger a new system mission than let his eyes suffer any longer. So he closed the webpage and just stared blankly at the screen.
Then he suddenly remembered, when the system upgraded, it had given him a new item, a Transform-as-you-like Camera.
An Han quickly went to his closet and pulled out a toy-like camera.
The camera’s function was simple, take a photo of someone, and it would let you copy that person’s hairstyle, makeup, and outfit. Basically, one camera was worth a whole team of stylists.
It sounded amazing, but An Han had no need for makeup. And more importantly, every single system item came with some kind of hidden side effect!
Who could’ve guessed that a simple chest binder would make him charm men?!
“If I ever use another system item again, I’m a dog!” he shouted.
The memory of yesterday’s disaster was still fresh.
Even though curiosity burned inside him, he still cursed under his breath and raised the camera high, ready to smash it to pieces.
If it was completely broken, he wouldn’t be tempted to use it.
But after holding it up for a full minute, he hesitated… and slowly lowered it.
What if… what if it was useful later?
So he shoved the camera into his drawer. It looked like a children’s toy anyway, leaving it there shouldn’t be a problem. Nobody would steal something like that.
Besides, modern phones had great cameras already. Who’d steal an old toy camera?
“Things are really getting worse...” he muttered.
An Han stood up and pulled out a regular chest binder he’d bought online.
He had tried it before, but the result was terrible. Compared to the custom-made system one, the difference was huge.
It could flatten his chest, but it made it almost impossible to breathe. And in summer, when clothes were thin, it was too obvious that he was wearing something under his T-shirt.
“Return this junk! They said it was invisible, invisible my foot!”
He quickly stuffed the binder back into its package, grabbed the box and his ID, and headed out.
Just as he stepped into the hallway and turned to lock the door behind him, he suddenly saw someone walking straight toward him from the far end —
“Counselor?”
“An Han, I need to talk to you about something,” said Ren Chi.
“You…”
An Han quickly interrupted him, “I, uh, have something to do right now. Maybe go ask Su Peng for help instead?”
But the very next second, he realized something and immediately hid the binder box behind his back.
Standing there awkwardly, hands behind him, he forced a stiff and uneasy smile at his counselor.
Oh no, he definitely saw the package!
Why is it always you?!