Chapter 662: Do You Want To Play A Game?

June woke up with a loud gasp, feeling like he was in another dimension.

He quickly sat up and looked around, ignoring his pounding headache.

June sighed in relief when he realized that he was in his room.

Wait—his room?

Just then, the door opened, revealing Jay with a glass of water in hand.

Jay halted when he saw June and sighed in relief. "Oh, you're awake now."

June pursed his lips as he took the water from Jay and drank it all in one go.

"What happened?" June asked.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?" Jay asked. "I found you in the waiting room, sleeping, when you said you'd meet me at the parking lot. Then, when I woke you up, you mindlessly walked to the car without explaining anything."

"Afterward, you went here on your own and slept once again," Jay explained.

"I was supposed to get annoyed since you made me wait for more than an hour, but you must be exhausted, so I'm forgiving you."

June clicked his tongue before holding onto his head, trying to recall his memories.

After his system started going haywire, everything just went into a blur.

Then, that was when it hit him.

He quickly visualized his user interface to see if everything that had happened was real. His eyebrows furrowed when he saw that Fu was still a different color.

It was not the glaring red that made him collapse a while ago, but a grayish interface—one that made him feel uneasy.

Then, he went back to his stats and found that his vocal, visual, and dance aspects were still gone.

With that, he started singing once more, ignoring the weirded-out stares from Jay.

Jay scratched the back of his head as June suddenly stood and busted into a spontaneous dance and song.

"Maybe I should book that medical check-up sooner," he muttered.

June performed Luster until the end of the first chorus before smiling to himself. It seemed like he was still okay. Maybe the blunder that happened a while ago was due to his lack of rest.

Now that he had slept it off, it seemed like his skills were still intact.

However, he still didn't know why they suddenly disappeared. What was worse was Fu was keeping him in the darkness—like he always was.

"Are you done?" Jay asked, a little bit creeped out.

June turned to him and nodded, feeling slightly embarrassed for what he had done. However, he felt that it was essential.

Besides, Jay was definitely weirder than him, even if he had done all that.

"Join us for dinner then," Jay said. "I'm sure you're hungry."

"Yeah," June said, now feeling his stomach grumble after the mention of food.

As the two of them arrived at the dining area, the members flocked to June.

"Are you really alright?" Jisung worriedly asked.

"Yeah," June nonchalantly nodded.

Jisung clicked his tongue. "You ignored us when you first came in."

Akira nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it almost seems like you were on auto-pilot or something."

Jay sighed and led June to sit on his usual chair.

"Let's eat, guys," he said, changing the subject.

Fortunately, the guys didn't pry any further as they all sat back down on their seats. Then, they started eating the Jjampong noodles that Jay bought for the team.

They slurped the spicy broth and munched the chewy noodles deliciously, feeling their fatigue roll away with its taste.

June enjoyed the food, too, which made him calm down a bit.

But then, he felt someone's gaze on him, so he lifted his head and was met by none other than Casper.

June narrowed his eyes in confusion.

"What are you staring at?" June asked, causing the rest of the team to look toward his way.

"Casper stares at you from time to time," Jisung said like it was a normal thing.

Well, it was indeed normal. Casper just liked staring at June whenever he missed his cat!

Casper shook his head before pointing at June's face.

"You have something right there," he said.

June raised his eyebrows. "Oh," he muttered. "Where?"

"On your nose," Casper said. "There seems to be a red speck. It must be a chili pepper."

The others looked at June and nodded in agreement.

"Oh yeah. Want me to get it out for you?" Jisung asked with wide, bright eyes, already reaching out his hand.

June shook his head. "I'll do it myself."

With that, he wiped his nose with his fingers, only to freeze when he felt a tender bump instead of the so-called chili pepper.

Jaeyong tilted his head to the side as he looked closer at June.

"That's not a chili pepper."

"That's a pimple."

***

"A pimple?" June exclaimed as he looked at himself in the mirror, constantly turning his head in all angles to confirm his suspicions, even hoping for it to disappear the more he looked at it.

He looked at it for a few more minutes before sighing in defeat and sitting on his floor.

It was, indeed, a pimple.

"What the heck is happening?" he muttered.

June wasn't a stranger to pimples. Everybody had skin problems! When he was participating in Rising Stars, he would have a couple of pimples whenever he got stressed, ate too much unhealthy food, or stayed up too late.

However, he was different now!

After his visuals were upgraded to an A+, he hadn't encountered any skin issues. Even when he pulled all-nighters and drank bottles of sugary energy drinks to keep him awake, a single pimple didn't appear on his skin.

However, now that his visual aspect was gone, a pimple suddenly popped up?

June had no choice but to believe that the two of those were correlated.

"When are you going to explain what's happening?" June groaned in frustration, raking his hands through his hair and even pulling at some of the strands.

He sat there for a while, waiting for a response...until it finally came.

[The host achieved three strikes.]

June clicked his tongue when Fu finally responded.

"Took you long enough," June muttered.

"And I already know that. But I don't know what it means."

[Do you remember what I said to you back then?]

June frowned in confusion.

"Yes, you told me two things—life has three strikes..."

"...and find the origin."

[You have unlocked one of the criteria for unlocking the system's full potential.]

[However, you can lose before you win.]

[You can also win without losing.]

[And lastly, you can lose everything.]

[Are you willing to play?]