Chapter 34: Sure, Let’s Shower Together

[Reward: 5★ Card]

As I stared at the words floating before me, everything else lost its importance.

A five-star card...

Such a card cost fifty Eclipsie Points in the System’s store. I currently had only three, and considering how many points I earned from each mission, saving fifty could take months.

Even Umbrella, which had come from a three-star card, could change shape, absorb the energy of incoming attacks, and repair itself after being destroyed. It was difficult to imagine how powerful an ability or item from a five-star card might be.

This reward was priceless.

Unfortunately, the System wanted me to sacrifice every last scrap of my dignity in exchange.

I would have to walk onto a stage in cosplay before thousands of people, imitate a character, and earn points from a panel of judges. Simply participating wouldn’t be enough either. I needed to place in the top three of an extremely competitive contest filled with professional cosplayers.

I remained motionless while comparing the reward with the price I would have to pay.

The excitement on Eris’s face slowly faded.

The hand holding my phone lowered slightly as she studied me with concern.

"Noc?"

I heard her, but I couldn’t answer.

A five-star card...

Perhaps I could gain an offensive ability. If I ever wanted to close the terrifying distance between myself and monsters in the world rankings like Lucian Evernight, I couldn’t afford to miss opportunities like this.

On the other hand, there was the cosplay.

Short skirts, thigh-high socks, wigs, makeup, and embarrassing poses I would have to perform in front of other people...

My stomach tightened again.

The System had discovered exactly how much it would cost to buy my dignity, and unfortunately, it had chosen the correct amount.

Eris lowered the phone completely and sat in the chair across from me.

"I didn’t think you’d be this angry."

My gaze moved from the System notification to her face.

"Angry?"

"I entered you without permission." Her fingers tightened around the phone as all her previous excitement disappeared. "You said you wanted to participate every year, then backed out, so I thought I was helping you this time. But I should have asked first."

For the first time, she looked genuinely regretful.

"We can cancel the registration if you don’t want to do it," she continued. "You aren’t required to compete just because your application was accepted. I only wanted to surprise you."

I silently watched her for several seconds.

Eris knew nothing about the System or its mission. She had interpreted my sudden silence as anger over what she had done. In reality, I felt far more fear, embarrassment, and growing determination than anger.

Besides, she had genuinely been trying to make me happy when she entered me.

She knew the real Noctis loved cosplay, wanted to enter this competition, and backed out every year only because he lacked the courage. There was no way she could have known that I hated wearing those kinds of clothes.

"Thank you," I said.

Eris blinked several times.

"What?"

"Thank you for entering me."

"You aren’t angry?"

"No. I know you did it for me."

The concern on her face slowly disappeared. Her red and blue eyes began shining again as she leaned slightly closer, as though she wanted to make sure she had understood correctly.

"Are you really going to compete?"

I looked at the contest poster again.

The thought of appearing before all those people dressed like that still made me sick. However, when I considered the reward offered by the System, powerful motivation formed beneath my reluctance.

I could recover my dignity later.

I had no idea when I would see another five-star card.

"I’ll compete."

A broad smile appeared on Eris’s face.

"Great! We can start choosing your character immediately. We have enough time for the costume, but we’ll also need to prepare your stage performance."

"Of course, I have one condition."

"What condition?"

"You entered me in this competition, so you’re helping me with the preparations."

Eris nodded without hesitation.

"Of course I’ll help! We’ll handle the costume selection, makeup, and stage rehearsals together."

Hearing the word makeup dealt a small blow to my motivation.

Without noticing, Eris picked up the phone again and began reading through the competition rules. As she excitedly talked about the categories, stage time, and judging system, I picked up the fork and piece of chicken from the floor.

I could continue worrying about the cosplay disaster later.

For now, my priority was reaching forty pull-ups.

After eating, I carried the plates to the kitchen and cleaned the counter. Instead of offering to help, Eris lay across the couch and continued studying the profiles of famous cosplayers entering the competition.

When I finished cleaning, I was still wearing my workout clothes, and some of the exhaustion in my arms had already faded thanks to White Snake. Despite the morning run, my body was recovering far faster than normal.

I moved to the empty space in the living room and lowered myself toward the floor.

Eris looked up from her phone.

"What are you doing?"

"I’m continuing my workout."

"Right after eating?"

"I only have one week to reach forty pull-ups."

"If you throw up on the floor, I’m not cleaning it."

"What a supportive friend."

I placed my hands shoulder-width apart, stretched my feet behind me, and held my body straight. My stomach felt slightly heavy from the meal when I completed the first push-up, but it wasn’t bad enough to stop me.

The first ten repetitions were comfortable.

By the fifteenth push-up, the ache in my arms had become noticeable again. The pull-ups from that morning and my earlier training at home had exhausted my muscles more than I realized.

Eris sat on the edge of the couch and began watching me.

"Keep your back straight."

"It is straight."

"Your hips are a little too high."

I corrected my posture and lowered my chest toward the floor again.

"Sixteen..."

"Your nose didn’t touch the floor."

"My nose isn’t supposed to touch the floor."

"I think it is."

"Stop counting."

Eris rose and crouched in front of me. With a mischievous smile, she held her index finger a few inches above the floor.

"I’ll count each repetition if your nose touches my finger when you lower yourself."

"I don’t need that."

"Do the seventeenth."

I clenched my teeth and lowered myself. When my nose lightly touched the tip of her finger, Eris nodded in satisfaction.

"Now that one counts."

She continued doing the same thing over the next few repetitions. Every time I lowered myself, she moved her face slightly closer to distract me and refused to count the repetition whenever my form slipped.

My arms began trembling on the twenty-third push-up.

"One more," Eris said.

"I’m doing five more."

"Finish one first."

I bent my arms and lowered my chest toward the floor. After my nose touched her finger, I tried to push myself back up but became stuck halfway.

"Come on, Noc."

I clenched my teeth so hard that my jaw began to ache. My arms shook as they slowly extended, but I eventually managed to lock my elbows completely.

Eris raised her hand.

"Twenty-four."

Despite breathing heavily, I didn’t collapse.

I lowered myself again for one more repetition. Rising took much longer this time, but I refused to give up and completed the movement.

The moment my elbows straightened, bluish light flashed before my eyes.

[Natural Growth Threshold Exceeded]

My eyes opened wide.

[Strength: 11 → 12]

"That’s what I’m talking about!"

I tried to raise one arm in celebration. The moment all my weight shifted onto the other, I lost my balance and fell sideways.

Eris burst out laughing while I rolled onto my back and stared at the System notification.

I had gained another point.

If raising my Strength to eleven had allowed a body that once collapsed after a single pull-up to reach five repetitions, the effect of the twelfth point could be even greater.

I might surprise my angel when I returned to the park tomorrow.

Eris leaned over me.

"I can’t believe you’re this happy about doing twenty-five push-ups."

"It isn’t just a number. I surpassed my limit."

"You were dying on the floor a minute ago."

"That doesn’t change the result."

After resting for a few minutes, I moved on to training my abdominal muscles. Eris held my ankles while I did sit-ups, but she managed to turn even that into a game designed to irritate me.

Every time I rose, she brought her face a little closer, then pulled away just before my forehead could touch hers.

"Eighteen," she said.

"Move your face back a little."

"Why? Are you embarrassed?"

"You’re distracting me."

"You wouldn’t complain if your angel were here."

"Leave her out of this."

Eris pursed her lips slightly but continued counting.

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have remained at home this long. After a short rest, I would have returned to the park and trained with running and pull-ups until my body gave out.

Still, it was nice to see that I could strengthen my muscles at home too.

Eris mocked me and irritated me whenever she had the chance, but spending time with her felt more pleasant than I had expected. I still couldn’t tell whether that was due to the memories left behind by Noctis or because I genuinely liked her myself.

By the time we finished training, it was past three in the afternoon.

For the next few hours, we reviewed the contest rules. Eris showed me different characters, while I immediately rejected every costume I considered too revealing or feminine.

Unfortunately, the costumes I rejected were the ones she liked most.

As six o’clock approached, I sat down at my computer.

I had originally planned to begin the stream a little later, but since Eris was spending the night, I decided to move it forward. I could stream for two hours, then spend the rest of the evening resting.

The first thing I checked after opening my streamer dashboard was my follower count.

[Followers: 673]

"Wow..."

When I ended yesterday’s stream, I hadn’t even had half that many.

I checked the statistics to understand why my followers had risen so quickly. Short clips of the moment I shot the dragon from a distance, my death while trying to steal the loot, and several scenes of me arguing with the chat had been shared by different accounts.

Some had been viewed tens of thousands of times.

Apparently, people truly weren’t interested in my best moments. They preferred the parts where I humiliated myself the most.

Still, new followers were new followers.

At exactly six o’clock, I started the stream and opened the game I had played yesterday. I completed several matches over the next two hours, sniped a few players from a distance, died twice entirely because of my own mistakes, and managed to reach the final eight in one match.

Nothing particularly different happened compared to the previous day. The chat mocked every mistake I made, and I tried to silence them by reminding them that they were mere mortals.

Eris remained in the living room throughout the stream. I occasionally heard her muffled laughter from the other side of the door, so I was certain she was listening to everything I said.

After two hours, I said goodbye to the viewers and ended the stream.

Once the room fell silent, I refreshed my follower count one final time.

[Followers: 817]

I had gained hundreds of new followers in a single day.

Reaching one thousand no longer felt like a distant goal. If the next few streams continued like this, I might not even need to wait until the end of the week.

I stood from my chair and stretched my entire body. After the morning run, two separate workouts, and the stream, I felt both sweaty and sticky.

When I entered the living room, I saw that Eris had already changed into her spare clothes. She wore a loose T-shirt and short shorts as she lay on the couch, watching clips from my stream on her phone.

"I’m taking a shower," I said. "If you need the bathroom, you can go first."

Eris looked up from her phone. A mischievous glint immediately appeared in her eyes.

"How about we shower together?"

My steps stopped.

Eris smiled, clearly waiting to see an embarrassed expression appear on my face.

"Like old times," she added. "We bathed together a few times when we were children, remember?"

She was obviously only saying it to provoke me.

This time, I wasn’t going to give her the reaction she wanted.

I shrugged casually.

"Sure."

Eris’s smile froze.

Her mismatched eyes slowly widened, and she remained completely speechless for several seconds.

I continued toward the bathroom. When I reached the door, I stopped and looked back at her over my shoulder.

"What’s wrong?" The corner of my mouth curled upward. "Come on. I’m waiting."

Eris’s face turned red all the way to her ears.

She grabbed the cushion beside her and threw it at me.

"Pervert!"

The cushion flew past my head and struck the wall. I burst out laughing before stepping into the bathroom.

For the first time, I had won a decisive victory against Eris.