"Oh! Is this him? The soon to be violinist?"
"Hello. I am Yeon Woo. Please take care of me.", I bowed as I introduced myself.
"Omo (Goodness)! What a well-mannered child. I'll be in your care. You may call me teacher."
Having met my violin / music instructor, it didn't take long for her to realise that I took her lessons like a sponge and that I was a little prodigy.
Though, she's yet to see what I'm truly capable of.
I had only sped up the process of learning the violin so that I'm able to advance from a rookie to something at an intermediate level.
Honestly, for a child, it really came down to discipline and focus, which is too little to ask for, given my mental age.
It's surely not because I wanted to skip the whole basic finger exercises etc..
Yeah... definitely not.
I'm already familiar with holding down the notes from playing the guitar and, if you take into account that I'm playing a note perfectly 200 times, then I'd really want to not dwell on being on the same level for too long.
Did I say perfectly? I meant perfectly, because the system doesn't take any other note otherwise.
Speaking of the system, not only is it not sentient, it seems to be severely associated with my intent.
It's as if what I will or want at a higher need, I would receive a response in return.
I had confirmed it during the dire situation that I was in, to get Ji Eun a gift which I had no money to.
I was thinking of crafting something with the little budget I had saved up but I wanted to give her something special.
Turns out, the system gave me a quest to help out my neighbourhood which rewarded me the cash I required.
With the winnings, I had more than enough to purchase both a Gamegirl Colour and the newest Pokebeast game.
However, I still can't figure out if there's a 'higher' being involved with my situation.
-----------------
It's been about a week and half that's passed since Ji Eun's birthday and at school, she had came up to me during lunch to inquire about her gift.
"Yeon Woo-ah, the Pokebeast game you gave me is in English.. (ó﹏ò｡)"
"I know," I spoke as a matter of factly.
"Huh? You knew? Then what should I do? I can't play it if I don't understand..", she fiddles her fingers contemplating for an answer.
'Ah right, I forgot about that..'
"Why not we play it together? I'll teach you the language as we play."
"Really?! Yay!! ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝ Wait a minute. Since when did you learn English? We've barely covered it in our curriculum," she asked as her mood changed from a joyful expression to a serious detective-like one.
"My mother's an actress, it's good to learn multiple languages to gain connections and stuff. You should learn it too. Once you're a star, I'm sure many international fans would be overjoyed to hear you speaking to them in English," I hurriedly came up with an excuse to reason my knowledge for knowing the language.
'Luckily she hasn't heard me speak it yet.'
"⸜(✧ᗜ✧)⸝ You're right! I knew I could count on you!", she quickly pulls me into a hug which surprised the students hanging around in the classroom as it was still lunch break.
""OooOOoooo"" - goes the audience after seeing the hug between two opposing genders.
Swiftly detaching herself from the hug a huge blush appeared on her cheeks as she left not before adding, "(,,>﹏<,,) I'll see you after school!".
'Ah, youth... (ᵕ—ᴗ—)'
* * *
After school, I went over to Ji Eun's house to watch her play Pokebeast and taught her English at the same time.
"This function means, 'Save'."
"..Save? Like rescue?", she looked at me bewilderedly.
"It saves your game progress. How far you've ventured on your journey, that progress can be saved with this function."
"What?! That's amazing! That means I don't have to play the whole game from the beginning, every time I play!", she exclaimed, surprised by the discovery.
"Yeah, I guess it is for the current year..", I muttered to myself, not as enthused as she is.
"What was that?", she questioned.
"Nothing. This function is really useful especially when there could be hard battles ahead that you're unprepared for or have lost to. If you'd save before one, you can restart your game and make adjustments to your team before the battle.", I quickly changed the subject of questioning.
'Maybe after she finishes the game I'll introduce the Nuzlocke challenge to her', I thought to myself.
"Whoa!! That's really amazing! It's revolutionary!", she stood up, feeling euphoric at finding. "Wait, how do you know so much when you don't have a Gamegirl, yourself?"
I froze but quickly added, "*ahem* of course, I've been researching a lot about it!".
Then she had the look of sadness and handed me the Gamegirl Colour.
"Here, we can take turns playing it."
"Nah, it's yours. Plus, you can only have one save file. So one of us either has to continue that journey from the save point or, start from the beginning each time we play.", I swiftly stopped her before continuing, "besides, I don't really have time to play games yet."
'Also, I'd rather play on a GameGirl Advance SP that'll be released in the future.', I silently reasoned.
"Huh? What're you so busy with?", she had a curious look as she asked.
"I've got a tutor at home waiting for me at 5pm."
"Mwo? Really? That's too bad then.."
'Well, it's a tutor for music, but she doesn't need to know that.'
It's not that I don't want her to know that I'm learning music, I just want to surprise her by composing her a song once I've finished studying.
Plus, I could teach her what I know, anyway.
"It's getting late, I gotta head back. Let me know your progress in game tomorrow, okay? I've researched a lot so I know most of what'll happen already.", I stood up and started packing my things.
"You're not staying for dinner?", she looked dejected.
"Nope, tutor. Remember?"
"Ah, right.. I'll see you off then.", she pouted, hoping I'd reconsider.
* * *
As I'd reached home and completed my musical lessons for the day, I was greeted with a surprise from my system.
[ For completing the Daily Quest for exercise, Strength and Appearance is increased by 0.01. ]
[ For practicing the Daily Quest for vocals, Charisma is increased by 0.01. ]
[ For comprehending the lessons during class, Intelligence increased by 0.01. ]
...
[ For teaching the language, English, Intelligence is increased by 0.1. ]
[ For comprehending the lesson, Intelligence is increased by 0.1. ]
[Due to the increase of overall stats, Template is increased by 1%! ]
[ ... ]
Yes... this is it. Let the grind begin.
-----------------
Consequently, three years had passed.
The current year involves having the ability to join common clubs and activities.
'Having Kise Ryota's template, I can't help but join the basketball club in honour of him.'
Hence, here I found myself at the basketball tryouts, surrounded by unfamiliar faces.
"Hello. Please register your name, birthdate and class on this form, thank you.", a voice came ahead of me as he handed me the paper.
"Ah, okay. Thanks."
With the forms out of the way, I joined the entrants as we proceeded to do running drills.
I assumed it's to look at the current rundown of participants.
When it came to showcasing my skills, I made an average attempt despite my superior agility based on my Strength stat.
I just didn't want to stand out for all the 'casual' games in the sport.
Regardless of paying homage to the person that I'm currently templating, I've no passion to basketball as compared to music.
Though, I'll still go hard on myself during practice as it's beneficial for my Strength, I just won't show it to others.
And so, where there are a total of 5 strings for our school in the sport, I was placed in the third string.
It was great considering I did just above average, but I also managed to make a few acquaintances in the same string.