Chapter 4
The matron asked me to watch the kids around my age while she took care of the smaller children, I naturally tried to refuse but I couldn't as she threatened to reduce the amount of food I was given, you would think it was unethical to reduce the amount of food a child need, however, my case was different I ate more food than the other kids which is to be expected since I'm constantly exercising and practicing my Ki control so the amount of energy expended needs to be replenished.
I had offered to help hunt for food with the adults of the village, but my request was refused as the matron didn't want me to do anything too dangerous and she wanted me to experience more of my childhood, while I thought the sentiment was sweet but as child with the mind of an adult it only feels like punishment.
I naturally wasn't going to let the kids reduce the amount of practice I got so I continued to train the movement of Ki around my body while I watched them, great news is that I can finally sense peoples Ki unfortunately I am not yet capable of distinguishing who is who from their Ki signatures but I just need to increase the status of my Ki mastery and my power level and it should be a walk in the park.
While practicing I noticed 6 Ki signatures crowded around one weaker one so I decided to stop my practice to observe them, I can't let them do anything that can mess with my food, I mean that can get themselves hurt yes, its all about their safety cough.
I moved closer to see what was going on and it was just what I see usually, and what was that you ask? The bullying of one of the girls in our orphanage, if I remember correctly her name is Anais normally I wouldn't even bother to remember any of the kids names however Anais had a very distinguishing feature that you can never forget, she was very unattractive and that is me being kind in my description, she had muddy brown hair, her skin is very rough, her two eyes are different and her facial structure is very far from symmetrical and I could continue to list many of her flaws but it would be best if I just stopped them.
Tatsumaki: "If you don't stop bullying her, I'm going to have to tell the matron and you know how upset she gets when she catches you bullying her right?"
Orphan kid 1: "ugh you're no fun anymore, you used to love making fun of her now all you do is train and boss us around"
Orphan kid 2: "yeah, you keep acting like you're way better than us and try to avoid us"
Tatsumaki: "why don't you keep bullying her and watch me show you how much better than you I really am"
They eventually left and I was alone with Anais, I tried to help but she flinched which is to be expected like one of the kids said, before I got my memories back, I was one of the kids that bullied her heck I think I was the one that bullied her the most.
I was quite shocked when I was how ugly she was then I thought about it and I it made a bit of sense, if there can be super attractive people in an anime word then there can also be ugly people, it wouldn't be noticeable as they are side characters so the creators wouldn't put to much focus on their designs but seeing it in person and not from a screen really changes ones views, I'm a little scared to see the ugly aliens in the universe. Out of curiosity I had a look at her status, and I was quite shocked to say the least
[Status:
Name: Anais
Age: 5 years old
Race: Human
Health: 100/100
Mana: 5/5
Power level: 1
Vitality: 2
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 8
Charm: 0
Luck: 1
]
I never thought I would ever see a person with a zero in any stat, I feel her luck was also influenced by her charm status thus the constant bullying that happens to her surprisingly her intelligence and wisdom stats are higher than most people her age, most likely because she is always reading since she cant play with others.
I naturally feel bad for her no one can choose how they look when they are born I had even once wanted to use my system to improve her looks but then I thought about it and it was a pointless action, why would I help someone that I would likely never meet again after I start my journey to be the strongest and if by some miracle she gets an extremely high roll and becomes incredibly attractive she wouldn't show any appreciation and would most likely become someone terrible due to the bullying she got as a kid.
If I'm going to make a girl beautiful then she must be mine or its pointless I've seen too many light novels where the female gets an item from the protagonist that makes her beautiful and she abandons the protagonist because she feels that she is now out of their league, I don't plan on following in the footsteps of those protagonists if I'm going to help people at my expense they must be absolutely loyal to me, wait loyalty… can that be influenced?
System show me the loyalty stat of Anais
[Status:
Name: Anais
Loyalty: 39/100
]
Hmm that isn't a high enough value also I am not sure who the loyalty is for, but it seems the number of points needed for loyalty isn't high in fact its very negligible I wish I could see who the loyalty is for though
[Calibrating…]
[Status:
Name: Anais
Loyalty
Matron: 57/100
Tatsumaki: 2/100
]
Huh would you look at that, I had no idea the system could adapt to suit my needs this was an unexpected boon I wonder how long it would have taken to discover such a thing is possible, she no longer looks as ugly to me but I'm sure this feeling will fade away with a bit of time.
Should I consider making her loyal to me? While it would be nice it wouldn't make sense if she just became loyal to me all of a sudden the matron will start to think I'm forcing her to follow me I guess ill try to show kindness to her and get close to her, while I can probably just use it on a different girl it would be annoying as the other girls have groups and they wouldn't be willing to stay away from them just to watch me exercise or join me, with Anais it could be seen as me protecting her from the kids that want to bully her.
Is it a scum move to manipulate a kid and make her loyal so she can be mine in the future? Yes, but why should I give a fuck? I'm doing her a favor she will no longer be ugly I get an attractive loyal girl, but I can't have a weakling around me so I'm going to have to have her train with me.
Tatsumaki: "Yo, are you okay?"
Anais: "I-I'm fine, th-thank you for helping me"
It seems she's too scared of me to make any progress, I guess this kind of thing isn't something that can be rushed, it would most likely have the opposite effect if I pushed it any further, so I decided to leave after warning her to be careful and possible protection
Tatsumaki: "You should stick close to the matron if you don't want to keep getting bullied, I guess you could also stick close to me if the matron is too busy to have you around her. I doubt anyone would be willing to bother me while I'm training, anyways see you later"