Martial Arts Worlds
Chapter 457 - 457: Maximized Charm

Ding! Ding!

The final school bell of the day rang throughout the school, and with quickness in everyone's steps, the students rushed to their lockers to grab their belongings before heading home for the day.

However, they saw something strange in the school gates, as there were a lot of people gathered outside.

Cameras in hand and microphones in place.

"Paparazzi?"

"There is even a proper camera crew for one of New Rakuya's top news stations!"

"Why are they here?"

"Is there a celebrity visiting our school or what?"

At that moment, with a backpack on his back, Kiernan walked over to the school gates amidst the commotion.

But at that moment, a person with a camera noticed him and pointed at him, shouting:

"It's Kiernan!"

With a raised eyebrow, Kiernan saw everyone rush over to him and surround him like a swarm of bees.

They talked over each other with flashes of cameras blinding him anddeafening chatter.

"Hey, Kiernan! How do you feel about representing our country in the Junior Martial Arts Championship?"

"What's your goal for the championship? Do you think reaching the top hundred is a possibility?"

"Are you feeling nervous? Or are you more excited than anything else?"

The students looked over with shocked faces as they heard the words "representative" and "Junior Martial Arts Championship."

It was the first time that they heard about Kiernan being chosen as the representative!

"Oh my god, Kiernan was actually chosen?!"

"Of course he would get chosen! He destroyed that cheater Zachary and led Karuza High to win the nationals!"

"There would be no way that they wouldn't choose him!"

Kiernan scratched his cheek, as there were so many questions that he had already forgotten most of them.

'If I answered them all, I would spend all day answering them. Thus… I'll run.'

Kiernan brushed past the crowd of paparazzi, dodged their questions, and then ran off.

…

"Huff…"

Kiernan ran all the way to his home, breathing heavily, but when he saw his home, he noticed that it was surrounded by news vans.

'All of these news stations have come from all corners of New Rakuya. If they had only found out about me being representative today, there is no way they all would've already been here.

'Thus, they heard beforehand or just guessed that the decision would be made public shortly and guessed that I would be chosen as representative.'

Kiernan sighed heavily and walked over to his home.

It didn't take long for them to notice him and swarm him with questions, but Kiernan simply walked past and entered his home.

"Oh, you're back."

Karma peeked from the kitchen with a coffee in hand and looked out of the windows with a tired look.

"Yeah, they've been waiting outside for four hours already."

Karma said with a wry smile and looked at his son, almost not being able to recognize him.

It was because this young man before him—his son—was now the most popular person in New Rakuya.

The representative of New Rakuya for the Junior Martial Arts Championship.

It was only a few years ago that Kiernan was ranked bottom in his high school and had no chance in hell of having any kind of martial arts career.

"They'll leave soon after they figure out that I have no intention to speak with them."

Kiernan said and headed to the stairs.

"Where's Julian?"

Karma asked.

"Martial arts club. The whole week they're weeding out the new recruits, and I suppose today is the last day of trials. Julian is there to help the coach."

Kiernan said, and then ran straight to his room, where he hung his backpack on the hook by the door.

As soon as he sat on the desk, the dark blue-furred Fen jumped from the bed and snuggled up in his lap, purring softly.

He gently patted the "dog" on the head and looked out of the window at the crowd of paparazzi.

The neighbors were looking from their windows as well, looking at the crowd, whispering to each other in confusion.

"Yip! Yip! Yip!"

Fen heard the commotion on outside, and didn't seem to enjoy it.

"Yeah, I know. It's so noisy."

Kiernan said, and at that moment, his phone buzzed on the desk.

While caressing Fen's fur with one hand, he grabbed the phone with the other hand and pressed it against his ear.

"Yes?"

Kiernan said without checking who called him.

"I heard you're getting harassed by the paparazzi."

Azer's voice sounded from the other side of the phone. It was probably something he expected to happen.

"Yeah…"

Kiernan said with a wry smile.

"Unfortunately, they won't leave you alone without answering a few of their questions. However, I can schedule a proper interview with Irio's Sunshine News Station if you're interested.

"That should be enough to shoo them away for good."

Azer said.

"An interview, huh. It'll be shown… in the news, won't it?"

Kiernan asked.

"Yes. Are you perhaps a shy person? I didn't expect that from you."

Azer said with a laugh.

"Sigh, it's just bothersome, but sure, I can do the interview to get these people off my back as they're just a bother."

Kiernan said.

"Alright. I'll schedule the interview to be as soon as possible, maybe even for today. I'll keep you updated, alright?"

"Alright, thanks."

Kiernan said, ended the call, and put the phone on the charger after noticing that the battery had dropped below ten percent.

"Interface."

***

[Name: Kiernan Hunter]

[System Level: Advanced]

[Martial Rank: Low Stage Martial Master]

[Age: 18]

[Level: 10]

[SP: 0]

[Gold: 32,812]

[XP: 3605/64000]

[Strength: 130]

[Agility: 110]

[Stamina: 107]

[Vitality: 165]

[Charm: MAX]

[Quests]

[Quest Store]

[Shop]

[Inventory]

[Lottery]

***

'Level 11 sure is far away.'

Kiernan yawned, and with a wave of his hand, made the system interface disappear from in front of him.

'It looks like the Charm has also been maxed. Its max was only 100 stat points, while everything else has a much higher max, apparently.'

Kiernan just looked at his window reflection, and since his Charm had been maxed, this was apparently the limit of his attractiveness.

"Hmm~"