NoveLight ™
“Seriously, no joke, I gained 5kg after coming back from New York, 5kg! My diet has completely failed, no lie.”
“Why did you gain so much weight?”
“It’s all because of someone!”
Swish.
Dais, who was holding a drink, put it down and lunged at me, so I grabbed her cheek and pulled it to successfully subdue her. There’s a reason why alcohol is often referred to as a courage potion. Or perhaps it was allowing her to subtly voice things she hadn’t been able to say until now.
As proof, I could present Harmony. She actively expressed her agreement with Dais’s opinion, and just as she said, whenever I was in New York, I had always brought these two along whenever I ate something delicious. Moreover, the food at the hotel was quite impressive… In short, they thoroughly enjoyed the gourmet experience.
And the result was this flabby belly they were discussing now.
Of course, if you think about it, they were the ones who indulged, so I wasn’t really to blame. Naturally, Dais didn’t seem inclined to argue either. It was simply harmless banter among friends.
In the meantime, Kim Stone—Kim Hyun-a added:
“Well, still. Even if you say that, it’s not like you have a big problem, right? If it’s Dais with her tight schedule, maybe, but you can just cut back on food from now on.”
“That’s true, but… this week is already a write-off. I’ll really cut back starting next week.”
“Are you coming to the gym?”
“What you’re doing isn’t exercise; it’s torture, torture.”
With Hodduk skillfully inserting herself, I took a big bite of bibim-myeon, which contained about one-third of the total amount of meat inside. If it didn’t taste good, there was something wrong with my tongue. Within seconds, the thoroughly crushed contents went down my throat. Afterward, I rinsed my mouth with water and took a sip of the whiskey Dais had brought. I wondered if this was the right order, but it didn’t seem like a big deal.
Anyway, since the alcohol was brought, I couldn’t not drink it, so I had no choice but to partake. As the alcohol went down my throat, I felt a slight boost in my mood. Perhaps Dais had intended this all along. I honestly couldn’t remember any other reason for her openly bringing alcohol.
Of course—
“Someone is sneaking up and touching my tail. I’m annoyed that you brought alcohol.”
“Ew!”
Everyone looked bewildered.
In the midst of it, Dais, who was choking my tail, made brief eye contact with me. To summarize the unspoken exchange, it was “Can I say this?” After pondering for a moment, I simply nodded my head slightly. It was a signal that it was okay. After all, I had mentioned during the Asia qualifiers interview that I was weak with alcohol, and for some reason, I felt an unwarranted confidence.
So, with tacit approval, Dais spoke up.
“Oh, thinking back, you all don’t know Eugene’s drinking habits, right? This person gets really tipsy easily.”
“Excuse me, what?”
“Really? Wow, I never imagined that.”
Dais spoke rapidly as if her tongue had loosened due to the alcohol, and I was at the point of half-dazedly wondering, “Why did I allow this?”
But it was already too late. Dais was about to continue explaining when suddenly the topic bounced around like a ping-pong ball and took a different direction.
“Wow, I really never imagined she would be weak with alcohol. Do manifestors usually have low tolerance?”
“No, Hodduk here is completely insane. She can down three bottles of soju while sitting, and the next morning, she goes to the gym looking fine. It’s just different for each person.”
“That’s crazy in its own right. If you keep that up, you’ll crash one day.”
“Hey, why is the talk about Eugene turning into an attack on me?”
Of course, the topic quickly returned to its original form.
Dais added,
“Anyway, Eugene gets tipsy quickly even after just a little bit of alcohol… I mean, it’s that kind of feeling. Like a steel wool turns into cotton candy? She becomes really soft and more human…”
“…Do you think I’m some kind of Terminator?”
“Look. You’re already looking a bit fluffy now. It’s finally giving off a human vibe.”
I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of image I had of myself in their minds…
Anyway, a human vibe. Perhaps it was because I always expressed emotions filled with confidence and only showed an unshaken demeanor. People say that someone too perfect lacks humanity—But Dais’s story didn’t end there.
“And um… after drinking, Eugene also has a habit of sleeping. Can I talk about this too?”
“Not particularly special, so go ahead.”
Then, Dais kindly and thoroughly disclosed that I had turned into a “pillow princess” after drinking during the previous Asia qualifiers.
I pondered what kind of reactions would arise. Looking around, the responses varied, but they converged into one sentiment. In short, everyone was looking at me with the expression one makes when they see something cute. I could almost guess why they made such faces. The chatroom was also in a similar uproar.
So what was this reaction?
“Eugene’s drinking habit is very cute. I don’t know if it’s okay to say this, but it’s super… adorable.”
“It’s really precious. But what should I say, I feel like if I hugged her with her manifestor physical ability, something bad might happen…?”
“People seem to adjust their strength depending on the person. I didn’t know that either.”
In the meantime, I glanced.
Of course, unrelated to that, I suddenly felt the urge to punish Dais. There was no particular reason. I just wanted to do it. Since everyone seemed to be waiting for a demonstration, I wrapped my arm around Dais’s neck, coiled my tail around her waist, and pulled her in hard.
With cracking sounds from her joints, the person being hugged began to scream.
“Kyahhh! Let go of me!”
“Why? You brought alcohol for this, didn’t you? Isn’t that right?”
“But! No, let go! Kueeek…!”
Thus, Dais ended up collapsing on the spot.
Meanwhile, Harmony looked at me with a very annoyed expression, so I opened my arms toward her. Of course, Mina also timidly hugged me, then sprawled out on the floor with a happy expression. It seemed the alcohol had loosened some of my brakes. While my remaining sanity resulted in such an outcome, well, I guess future me would regret it.
As the two who clung to me wobbled back to their seats, I added,
“Please don’t keep asking me to hug you. If I lose control, it could turn into a big deal.”
“Now that you mention it, that makes sense. Originally, Moni is quite fearless. I’m honestly feeling a bit uneasy. I wonder what kind of trouble she’ll stir up somewhere.”
And so, the conversation gradually shifted back to normalcy—until suddenly, a donation came in.
<Yujin Tail Enthusiast donated 50,000 won.>
“Thank you, Impure Nickname, for the 50,000 won donation. Well, I’m not sure either. To be honest, aside from running a gym, I don’t know much… I’m sorry.”
“Haha, no, it’s fine. I just have a channel where I do whatever I want, so those who don’t know won’t know unless the algorithm catches on.”
Now that the superficialities were over,
Hodduk spoke up first.
“I don’t know if this is okay to say, but… what’s your total strength?”
“Hmm. Let me think.”
“Teacher Yujin! She’s at 1320kg! She’s completely insane!”
Ah.
I nodded while recollecting memories. To be honest, I hadn’t worked out that hard in the past. I did some for physical training, but the main purpose was more for improving muscular endurance rather than strength training. At most, Logan or Rorentina would lift in ton units.
In short, when I roughly measured it, it was around 2200 for the total strength. Even that was something I could lift relatively easily. Logan had a total of 3600, and I didn’t think I couldn’t reach that level.
Still, it seemed they hadn’t properly seen the broadcast from New York.
“I’ve been training for about three months, and my total is around 2200.”
“Eh…?”
“Total strength… you mean bench press, deadlift, and squat…?”
“That’s right. To be honest, I’m not particularly high up there, but I remember Logan lifting around 3600 since he’s been training for a while.”
Gulp.
While everyone was astonished, Hodduk swallowed nervously and made cautious eye contact with me.
And then came the follow-up line.
“...Can I request an arm wrestling match?”
“Of course, anytime.”
I used to do a lot of arm wrestling back in the day.
Thinking so, Hodduk and I stood up from the table and leaned over to the empty floor. I had broken several tables in the past while doing it.
We clasped hands.
And—
“Ugh, if we’d done it with my right hand, it would have been a disaster. I might not have been able to eat.”
“Seriously, it’s a spectacle. It’s a spectacle.”
“Quickly, put some ice on that wrist, you fool!”
Hodduk’s hand was sprained.
The world was a curious place.
“Everyone, put on a plastic glove, or it will be a disaster if you touch your face with hands that touched these snacks.”
“Wow, look at the packaging! It’s red and black, with skulls and fire…ugh.”
“It looks more like poison packaging than snacks… Anyway, I’ve prepared ice cream, milk, and Coolpis, etc.”
After tidying up the table, we filled it with kilograms of ice cream and 2.3L milk cartons, along with seven bottles of Coolpis. We all wore surgical gloves. The reason for preparing all of this was simple.
The One Chip.
All those gathered here had come to suffer the pain of spiciness from the New Year onwards.
“First, let’s open the packaging.”
“Wow, it’s not red, it’s black.”
“Is there a Geiger counter? If we bring one, it might show radiation.”
Just as mentioned.
The chip, a bit smaller than the palm of my hand and shaped like a triangle, was indeed black. Of course, you wouldn’t eat it all at once; you would break it into small pieces and eat little by little.
As the packaging opened, the hell that is the name “wrapper” was unleashed, and everyone started throwing in comments. Their expressions were peculiar. Some looked as if they were realizing they had come this far, while others simply laughed uncertainly, not knowing what might happen next.
Meanwhile, Kim Hyun-a placed a chip in the small box set aside for isolation and urged Hodduk to smell it.
“Okay, okay. Since you’re a tiger, you have a good sense of smell, right? Let’s do a precision test!”
“Yujin unni, I want to kill her first, so please assist me in forcing her mouth open.”
“Hey! If I smell it, I’ll die, but your chances of surviving are higher!”
Whether this was a proper excuse or not was up for debate.
Anyway, after cautiously smelling it, Hodduk added with a more ordinary expression than expected.
“…It’s better than I thought? It smells a bit burnt…”
“I guess it’s hard to judge just by smell. So we have no choice but to taste it. How should we go about the order?”
“I strongly recommend that Teacher Yujin, who came back after placing first at the Final Championship, goes first.”
“Why do I have to be first when I didn’t even win a penalty contest?”
Ultimately, the order was decided by drawing straws.
Surprisingly, the first turn was Harmony. And the next was me.
Naturally, Harmony, who had suddenly become the first, wore a look of disbelief or a face as if she had lost a country or two and carefully placed a small piece of the chip on her hand. Everyone prepared buckets, saying that it was about spitting it out as soon as she felt the spice.
“…Why are we doing this again?”
“Hey. How many things in the world do you do that have reasons?”
“Then can I kick you in the shin without reason?”
“Whoa, that’s harsh.”
Harmony had weathered the storms of time and had developed a rather foul mouth.
Of course, what came out of her mouth wasn’t just foul language, and it took only a few seconds to prove that—she placed the chip on her tongue with a peculiar expression, closed her mouth, and began chewing. For a moment, the sound of crunching echoed, and the unlit hellfire was being crushed into shards in her mouth.
And how long did it take—
“Kyahhh—!”
“What’s happening, what’s happening?”
“Oh, I’ve activated the mosaic function.”
Harmony turned bright red.
To relieve the atmosphere, classical music played, and her face was fully mosaicked via the mosaic function. Of course, everyone present saw Harmony unleashing hellfire into the bucket.
As she dashed into the bathroom, many regrets passed through my mind. The main point was blaming my own foolishness for bringing this as a New Year’s party item. I should have pretended I didn’t receive anything in New York and tossed it into an incinerator.
Of course, it was too late. The high-pitched sounds from the bathroom confirmed that fact.
All I could do was hope there would still be ice cream or drinks left for the people who would eat after me.
[Laurentina: This reminds me of the resistance training we did back in the day! XD]
[Laurentina: Is it some kind of self-training?]
[Logan: Please stop with the nonsense.]
[Laurentina: XDXDXD]
What on earth were they doing?
From about ten kilometers away, Logan thought so.