"You mean you could talk with the system?"
Rayen nodded as if it was a normal occurrence. Stupefied, Adrian just stared directly at him without saying anything more.
'Did this writer's brain just malfunctioned?'
Moments later, Adrian wiped away his blank expression and nodded.
He covered himself with the blanket. "Okay, go on. Don't disturb my sleep again."
Then he slept.
'What's this guy's deal?'
Scratching his head, Rayen proceeded to go out of the bedroom. But unbeknownst to him, after he closed the door, Adrian emerged from under his blanket and stared at door Rayen just came out of.
In the living area, with the Boom Boom Body page in his hands, Rayen scanned the barcode on its back using his phone.
The buff information immediately appeared on his status window. Unlike the booster, which appeared beside his Dance Skill Stats, the buff icon appeared at the top corner of his display picture.
The buff indicator was just a small icon, so Rayen tried holding it to see its information.
[Boom Boom Body (14 days remaining)
Description: Enhances your body control.
Body Control: +200%]
'Will this +200% do it?'
Rayen immediately recalled the dance routine he had done on the practice room with the woman to try out its potency.
Arm Wave.
This was the routine he had failed countless times back then even with the Dance Fertilizer's epiphany. It was just too hard for somebody like him with inflexible body.
Stretching both his arms sideward, Rayen tried imitating a flowing wave starting from his left arm.
Yet he couldn't!
If he could look at the mirror, he'd probably look like a baby chick struggling to fly.
Was this Boom Boom Body a scam too?
But he remembered Mini Plotter's words.
"Don't rely on book pages that much!"
Then what should he do?
Another line from Mini Plotter sounded in his mind.
"Don't you use your imagination?"
Imagination...
Rayen recalled the woman on the screen, demonstrating the step by step process. That time, she wasn't using her whole arm, but instead, started the movement with her fingertips. The way she moved was with each parts of her body, her joints, and slowly pushed the initial wave to the next part of her body which was the wrist.
After that, Rayen tried doing it the way he imagined. He felt the parts of his arms that he would use and clearly determined its location.
If he didn't have the Boom Boom Body, he would probably be confused which part he was moving. But now he could clearly differentiate which was the wrist, the elbow and shoulders, and didn't mix up which part to move.
"Ah! I did it!"
Genuinely happy, Rayen rejoiced by himself.
After trying it for a few more times, even if he just pictured it for a second, he could now do it. He memorized the sensation until he didn't even need to rely on his imagination to execute the move, he decided to try out some of footworks too.
The next morning later, when Rayen came to the dance practice studio, the people inside the room gasped at his appearance.
"What happened to you, Brother?" Binh asked worriedly.
Under Rayen's eyes, there were two deep, dark circles.
'I was too distracted with practicing and enjoyed myself that I didn't even noticed the time.'
Rayen laughed deprecatingly. He enjoyed dancing. What an unexpected thing to say.
That night, Rayen continued practicing by trying out the routines he forcefully memorized back then from the dance marathon. Yet, as the moves got more complicated, he had to use more energy.
After feeling tired again, Rayen fell on the ground tiredly, deciding to take a breather after exhausting his energy. Just two hours of trying those hellish routines, and he was already exhausted.
He hadn't even tried Yeo Haru's choreography!
When he looked at the clock, it was already five in the morning, and their call time was at six, so he hadn't gotten any sleep.
Rayen thought he could just ask for Mini Plotter to issue him another mission, but the annoying character didn't appear on his screen even after Rayen called for him several times. So he took a look at the Memorial Shop and discovered that Revitalizing Drink was too damn expensive.
It costed 1,000 MC.
Not willing to spend the remaining coins he had, he just went to the cafeteria to recharge with food before going directly to the dance practice studio.
'I'll just buy it if I can't really last this day.'
For now, he could still move. Unlike the time when he felt like dying during the dance marathon, he could probably last for a few more times if he wouldn't practice nonstop. Besides, that woman said that as long as his seed was intact, they could revive him again.
Although he doubt they would even do it for the second time.
Probably not.
But that Revitalizing Drink was like a cheat item. Maybe that's why it was expensive, so they wouldn't abuse it.
He determined its price when he looked at the mission lists. The next missions would only reward him with a thousand coins, which was a bit of a bummer. The first mission gave him 15,000 in one go, so why give 1,000 after that?
It was even harder than the first one. The first one, he just needed to pass the audition, so he only had to appeal to at least three people. But now...
[Main Mission: Gain 1000 fans. (56/1000)
Reward: 1000 MC, 1 Random Book Page]
Maybe next time, he'd ask the system to issue him a simple temporary missions for some coins.
Rayen looked around the room but only found Binh, Renjiro and Minho inside.
"Where's Liam and Yeo Haru?"
"They still haven't come," Binh replied.
Rayen nodded and sat at the corner to sleep until the whole group had completely gathered, but the three members were too loud.
Binh and Renjiro were practicing their own lines, and Minho's shoes would always make a screeching sound whenever he dragged his feet on the floor. To make it even worse, Binh would always scream as he tried to reach the high notes.
How could he sleep in this state?
"Don't scream for God's sake!" Rayen yelled, "You'll lose your voice, ah!"
Binh stopped singing and tilted his head. "But isn't that how it was sung?"
"No! He wasn't screaming at all."
"But it sounded like that."
"Not at all. Come here. Didn't I already told you? Use this!" Rayen made a jabbing gesture and lightly hit Binh's stomach. "Don't scream with your throat. It's hurting my ears."
"Okay..."
Binh tried again with Rayen's instructions and experienced more jabs to his upper stomach before he was finally able to use his diaphragm. Renjiro and Minho's attention were also caught by this unexpected lesson.
These three all had C- vocal stats, just barely passing the mediocrity threshold. Although they had a bit of control to their voices and weren't out of tune, their techniques were a bit raw, so Rayen became their mentor for the day.
Finally, Binh was able to hit the notes without stretching his throat, but it still didn't sound right for Rayen. His eyebrows were knitted together as he contemplated what was missing about it.
Only after Binh repeated it did Rayen realize—it lacked impact.
Binh's voice was just too light and high-pitched for it. Rayen's voice also didn't suit this part since both of them shared the same type of voice.
"Maybe we should try to sing this part together to bring an impact. Let's try," Rayen said.
"Take my hand!" Binh, Renjiro and Minho sand together.
"Can you take my hand?"
Rayen sang in harmony with them.
"Take me!!!"
The four people tried singing together, and Rayen finally felt satisfied.
Suddenly, the door of the studio swung open. Liam entered first with Yeo Haru following after.
Looking at Yeo Haru, Binh could help but ask, "Eh, Brother Haru? Why do you also look like a panda?"
Yeo Haru looked at the mirror to inspect himself, then shifted his focus on Rayen and saw his dark eyebags. They both looked like dead zombies.
"Well, I added some new things to the dance steps. Hope you wouldn't mind! Okay, let's practice!"
Despite the lack of sleep, Yeo Haru was still full of energy. Unlike Rayen. But he had to muster himself. This was the last day of his ranking mission.
"Let's practice!" Rayen yelled to boost himself up.
Inside his mind though, 'Another tiring day...'
[Skill Ranking Mission
Mission: Memorize the whole choreography of your first round song.
Deadline: 22:48:04 remaining
Penalty for Failure: 24 hours practice room session]