Finding Excuses

"Host? Have you thought of how you're going to explain everything to the others yet?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe the reason why you needed new clothes? Oh or how about why your looks have suddenly changed?"

"This.... right." Yue Qin scratched her head. That was indeed a problem that had to be solved soon.

Although Bing Bing was usually an utterly adorable little girl, she seemed to have taken her role as "the elder sister" too literally. With them being in the same school, Bing Bing had taken the duty of "protecting" her extremely seriously. Not that she needed any protection from a girl younger than her.

As such, if she didn't have a good reason why she needed a change of clothes, she could already predict that Bing Bing would create a mountain out of a mole hole. Moreover, although the changes in her looks weren't that big, it had still changed far too much from when she had left the house this morning to be easily excused away.

Dozens of excuses flashed past her brain ranging from mild ones like spilling water on her clothes to eating a magical fruit that caused her appearance to change. Then she remembered an age-old proverb that seemed to suit her situation rather nicely. "The best lies are built on truth."

Instead of trying to come up with a far fetched reason on why she looked different from this morning and why she needed to change her clothes, why not just tell everyone the truth? After all, even if she succeeded in covering up the truth today, she couldn't lie forever. The more lies she told, the easier it would be to find a flaw and for everything to unravel.

Today was the day that all the 14-year-olds in her cohort formed their Class Cores. As such, it would also serve as the most suitable excuse for her current changes. After all, many people who had special physiques only awakened said physique after forming their Class Core.

This was because although physiques were innate, many of them had pre-requisites that one had to fulfil to awaken them. With her Class's Core forming and her physique awakening at the same time, it gave her a ready-made excuse on why she suddenly changed.

Of course, she wouldn't immediately declare it as they would question her on how she knew that she had awakened a physique. However, she was sure that once others heard her explanation, they would reach the same conclusion.

Nonetheless, there was one problem with this excuse... That was, one would assume that a change in physique due to Core Formation would occur immediately after the Core was formed. However, there were many people who witnessed how she was perfectly normal after the formation of her Core.

Hmmmm. Yue Qin paced up and down in the small cubicle. What was she going to say?

Then, a light bulb went off in her head. Right, changes always occurred gradually right? Since she did not spend much time in the hall after she had formed her core, she could just say she felt a tingling sensation all over her body and rushed towards the toilet. As the tingling got more intense, she found herself sweating small black beads before it turned into a trickle and then came pouring out. And while the black sludge was flowing out, she realised that her body was also changing at the same time. This would help explain why the changes did not occur immediately.

"See Host? The intelligence points really did help. You've become so much smarter now. You can even think of such a reasonable plan."

"I could have figured that out even without the points alright!"

"Hehe. Whatever you say Host."

"Right, since I've come up with a good excuse on why I've become more beautiful, shouldn't I do it all the way? After all, I won't have such a convenient excuse in the future again."

"..."

"Apollo, add all my remaining points to charm!"

"Are you sure you won't reconsider adding them to something else? Such as strength?"

"And become an iron barbie?! No thanks. Just add everything to charm!"

"But didn't you just say you wanted to save your points so that you could better plan your future development?"

"That was then, now is now. If I don't add the points now, it'll be hard for me to come up with a suitable reason my looks changed again once someone sees me. On the other hand, if I do so now, I can attribute everything to my physique awakening! Besides, it's not like it'll be too late to add the points to other attributes later!"

"I guess your IQ did increase after all... Just that you've put it to use in the wrong place."

Yue Qin could almost imagine the system rolling its eyes if it had any. "Just add it!"

"Ding! 27 points have been added to charm. Host's new charm value is 36." Apollo droned with fake enthusiasm. "Congratulations, Host, you have gained 5 free stat points for having your first attribute reach 30 points."

"Add them all to charm!"

"Ding! 5 points added. Host's new charm value is now 41."

Although her dialogue with Apollo seemed rather long, in truth, it happened in the blink of an eye within her brain. Now, Yue Qin felt a sharp pain shoot through her body as the effects of her choice made itself known by altering her body further. Nonetheless, this pain was nothing compared to the pain she felt earlier when her physique was upgraded.

As the pain slowly ebbed away, Yue Qin could already feel some of the changes to her body without seeing them. For instance, just as she glanced downwards, she could see a pair of twin mountains standing proudly to attention on her chest. She also felt taller than before with her height shooting up by at least a head and a half. Her hair had also grown longer, cascading down towards her waist.

That was something she had to correct once she left, Yue Qin reminded herself silently. The current length of her hair made her feel like a ghost. The type of classic creepy ghost from a Hollywood Halloween movie. As to the rest of the changes, she supposed they were something she would find out later. There was no hurry as of now. She was sure that she would only have turned prettier.

Just then, Yue Qin heard a set of squeaky footsteps walking towards the cubicle she squirrelled herself away in.

"Yue Qin! Where are you?" Bing Bing's voice reverberated through the toilet.

"Here!" Yue Qin called out. Conscious that she was still as naked as the day she was born, Yue Qin carefully opened the door slightly. Then she extended her hand out of the cubicle while hiding behind the door, unwilling to let Bing Bing see her current state before she got dressed.

After all, she wasn't a masochist. What if Bing Bing refused to give her the clothes? She didn't want to have to explain everything to Bing Bing in her birthday suit. She could already imagine the scene of the wind blowing past her body as she tried to hide herself from her sister's prying eyes.

As soon as Yue Qin felt the weight of a bag being placed into her hand, she retracted her hand and slammed the door shut. Hastily, she wiped herself dry with the towel and was about to dress herself, before realising that.... she seemed to have finally remembered what she had forgotten.