“Son, slow down. You’re going to make yourself sick.”
“You could quit being a Hunter and become a mukbang1 streamer.”
I finished my meal amid Mom’s concern and Hayeon’s admiration.
By then, I had polished off five heaping bowls of rice, an entire pot of cheonggukjang,2 and dozens of kimchi pancakes.
“Whew. I’m finally starting to feel full.”
“……You’re insane. How much do you normally eat?”
“If it’s tasty, it just keeps going in.”
I had always eaten a lot, but never this much.
Maybe it was because my metabolism and internal organs had improved beyond comparison. These days, I could put even professional food fighters to shame.
“Maybe I really should become a mukbang1 streamer.”
“No. Those people need to make a living too. Let the humans compete among themselves.”
“Are you saying I’m not human?”
“Yeah. To me, you’re beyond even a pig.”
Hayeon shook her head in disbelief and put down her spoon. I sneaked a look into her rice bowl. Half of it was untouched.
“You’ll be punished for wasting rice.”
“You sound like an old man.”
“Don’t you know Koreans run on rice even at death’s door? You have to eat if you want to get over your cold faster.”
“I don’t have an appetite. My head hurts too.”
“Did you go to the hospital?”
“Yeah. I took the medicine they prescribed too.”
I stared at Hayeon in silence. Her face was flushed, and beads of sweat dotted her forehead. She had left school early, then stubbornly tried to study anyway. It looked like her fever had risen even higher than before.
The medicine doesn’t seem to be doing much.
Honestly, there was a much simpler way to cure an illness.
She could be treated by a professional healer or drink one of the potions sold on the market. But most ordinary people avoided both because of the cost.
What a fool.
The reason I had worked nonstop was so my family could live safely, happily, and without getting sick.
Even though I knew why they couldn’t spend money so easily, I couldn’t help feeling frustrated. How much could one lousy potion cost?
At the very least, circulating qi once would make her feel much better… Huh?
A thought suddenly flashed through my mind, and I stopped.
Wait. Could this actually work?
“Give me your hand for a second.”
“Huh?”
“Tsk. I said, give me your hand.”
Hayeon looked me up and down as though she had discovered some rare creature.
“What is happening here? Why are you being so gross?”
“You’d rather die than listen to a word I say.”
I grabbed her hand.
“We’re siblings, okay?”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
More carefully than ever, I drew up my internal energy. Slowly—very slowly—I sent a single thread of it through my hand and into Hayeon’s body.
“Ah!”
Hayeon cried out. She had clearly noticed the strange sensation caused by my internal energy.
For a moment, I worried it might scatter, but the Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique had already reached a realm stage. It obeyed my control without resistance, even inside someone else’s body.
This much should be enough.
The trial run was over. Now came the real test.
This time, I guided my internal energy toward Hayeon’s dantian.
Normally, that would have been as easy as breathing. Hayeon’s body, however, was different. Her acupoints were narrow, and her insides were clogged with waste.
This might be tough.
Even if I separated the modern world and the Murim and considered them independently, I possessed a body far beyond that of an ordinary person.
Hayeon, on the other hand, was an ordinary high school student. It was only natural that nineteen years’ worth of waste had accumulated inside her.
Still, I should do as much as I can.
I could attempt this only because I trusted the stability of the Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique and my own control.
I also remembered to warn Hayeon in case anything went wrong.
“It might hurt a little, so bear with it. Got it?”
“What? What are you doing?”
“Hmm. I suppose you could call it a particularly stable form of traditional Korean medicine.”
Mom’s eyes widened as she washed the dishes.
“Oh my, traditional medicine? You know how to do that too?”
“I just learned a little.”
“That’s wonderful. Give it a try.”
Hayeon, on the other hand, looked less than enthusiastic.
“Why traditional medicine? I’m not really into that stuff.”
“Then trust me and put up with it for a little while.”
“Mom, thank you for raising me all these years. Your useless daughter is leaving this world without ever repaying you.”
“…….”
What the hell, you little shit?
I almost lost control of my internal energy. I could run around for an hour without sweating a drop, but I was starting to feel a little hot now.
“I’m kidding. It’s not like you’d do anything bad to your only little sister, right?”
“Then shut up and stay as still as you can, even if it hurts.”
“Okay.”
I took a deep breath. From this moment on, I was going to clean out Hayeon’s acupoints.
The cleaner was me.
The broom was fifteen years of internal energy.
“Ready?”
“Yes, yes, Doctor. But when exactly are we starting?”
“Right now.”
The moment I answered, I sent my internal energy flowing.
Whooosh.
A wave of gentle yet powerful internal energy began sweeping through the minor meridians throughout Hayeon’s body, washing away the waste that had built up inside her…
“Hoo.”
“Phew.”
The moment I released her hand, we both exhaled, but for entirely different reasons.
Mine was a sigh of relief.
Hayeon’s was one of refreshment.
Ding.
System
- Circulate Qi for Healing has been completed successfully.
- Internal Energy increases slightly.
Just as the System said, Circulate Qi for Healing had ended successfully.
The Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique accumulated internal energy slowly, but its stability was exceptional. The process had taken a while because so much waste had built up inside Hayeon, but I completed it without any serious trouble.
“Oppa,3 what was that?”
The fact that she called me Oppa3 so naturally showed how surprised she was. I wiped away the sweat brought on by the tension and answered.
“I told you. It’s a stable traditional medicine treatment.”
“That worked just from holding my hand?”
Would it? It only worked because your brother is amazing.
I smoothly changed the subject.
“So? How was it?”
“It hurt at first, but the longer it went on, the better it felt. My body feels lighter, and my headache’s gone. How should I put it…”
Hayeon furrowed her brow, then summed it up in a single phrase.
“Like I was reborn? Like all the bad energy inside me got washed away. Ah, damn it. I don’t know.”
That sounds pretty accurate to me.
In any case, seeing how much better her complexion looked made all the effort worthwhile. I let out a short laugh and said,
“Yeah. Now go wash up.”
“Huh?”
“What do you mean, ‘huh’? Is your nose stuffed up? You reek, so go take a shower. Now.”
“I washed this morning. What smell are you talking abou—Aagh!”
Hayeon realized that a terrible stench was radiating from her own body, grabbed her nose, and began making a huge fuss.
It’s only natural.
Where else would the waste inside her body go? It had to come out somehow. Through sweat, for example, or maybe…
Grrrble. Pffft.
Well, it could come out that way too.
“…….”
Maybe it was because there had been so much waste, but the stench was unbelievable.
At this point, I had to wonder if she had actually crapped herself.
“Ugh.”
As if the sweat soaking her body wasn’t enough, her stomach began sending strange signals. Hayeon practically crawled to the bathroom, while Mom stood there with her mouth hanging open.
“My goodness.”
“Pretty effective, right?”
“It certainly is. I went to a traditional medicine clinic a few times when I was young, but this is incredible.”
“I learned properly. If you ever want to go to a traditional medicine clinic, just come to me. You can do it right now, if you want.”
“Should I? Come to think of it, I’ve been having trouble digesting lately…”
Mom smiled brightly and held out her hand.
That was when—
Bwaaaang. Frrt. Frrt.
“…….”
“…….”
Mom quietly withdrew her hand.
“……Should we start when Hayeon comes out?”
“……Yes.”
Our house had only one bathroom.
Whooosh.
Some time after the sound of the toilet flushing, Mom emerged with the most refreshed expression in the world.
“How do you feel?”
“I feel ten years younger.”
That was no exaggeration.
Even nineteen-year-old Hayeon had taken more than an hour to expel all the waste from her body.
Mom was middle-aged, and the amount of waste she had accumulated matched the years she had lived. After more than two hours of Circulate Qi for Healing, her condition must have improved beyond comparison.
“See? Until a little while ago, I had a headache and felt dizzy, but now I’m completely better. I checked my temperature as soon as I came out of the bathroom, and it was normal.”
Hayeon stared at me in wonder. As soon as she had emerged from the bathroom, she had polished off two bowls of rice as though she had never complained about having no appetite.
“Where did you learn something like this? Were you a healer, Oppa3?”
“A healer? No. I just happened to learn it.”
“Which traditional medicine clinic did you learn it at? If it’s nearby, I’ll go there too.”
“……You’d be in big trouble if you went there.”
“Why?”
“You don’t need to know. Just know that there are lots of scary men there.”
“Do they stick the needles in painfully?”
“……They do tend to.”
What kind of face would she make if she knew those “needles” were actually knife stabs?
I pushed Hayeon away as she kept peppering me with questions and slipped a hand into my pocket.
Open Inventory.
A translucent inventory window appeared along with the familiar System notification.
If I had been in the Murim, it would have been packed with the spoils I had obtained after defeating Jopil and various weapons.
But this was reality.
It would be nice if the inventories were integrated.
The more I thought about them being separate, the more disappointing it seemed.
Taking just a few high-grade potions to the Murim would be no different from bringing along a few extra lives.
Well, I guess I should be satisfied that leveling up restores me to some extent.
I clicked my tongue inwardly and pulled my hand from my pocket. Two small bottles filled with sloshing red liquid rested in my palm.
System
Item Window
Lesser Potion
- Type: Medicine
- Grade: Third Rate
- Description: A liquid infused with weak healing magic. Readily available on the market.
- Effect: Restores the body when consumed. The effect is minimal.
They had been issued as raid supplies yesterday. Since I had no particular use for them, I had put them in my Inventory and left them untouched.
Technically, I’m supposed to return them.
Even lesser potions cost more than 200,000 won4 apiece. Employers generous enough to hand them out as freely as Team Leader Choi were hard to find.
“Take one each.”
“Huh? It’s a potion.”
“Why go as far as using a potion? I’m perfectly fine now.”
“I’m worried there might be side effects. If you don’t drink it now, it’ll cost you more later.”
In truth, I was only offering them as a tonic. Circulate Qi for Healing had no side effects.
“Drink up. You too, Hayeon.”
Mom hesitated, then took hers first. Hayeon cautiously took her cue from Mom and followed suit.
Gulp. Gulp.
“How do you feel?”
Hayeon downed hers in one shot and tilted her head.
“Maybe I feel a little stronger. Or maybe not. How should I know? It’s not like I’ve ever had a potion before.”
“I guess I don’t really know either.”
“You’ll definitely notice the effect when you’re tired or sick. I’ll buy a box and keep it here, so drink one whenever that happens.”
“A box? How many come in a box?”
“Fifty, if you buy the large one?”
“They’re about 200,000 won4 each, so fifty would be… ten million won5? Oppa,3 are you insane?”
Hayeon smacked my forearm.
“Just because you made some money this time, are you really going to spend it so recklessly? If you keep overspending like that, that 300 million won6 will disappear in no time.”
“It’s fine. I’ve been making good money lately.”
“I looked it up online. Once you become a C-rank Hunter, you have to replace your equipment and everything, right? They said you can blow through hundreds of millions7 like it’s nothing.”
“I told you, it’s fine. I made four billion won8 yesterday, too.”
“If you have four billion won,8 then spending like this… Wait. How much did you say?”
“Four billion won.8”
“…….”
Hayeon went completely rigid.
She stared blankly at me, then turned toward Mom.
“Mom, Oppa3 says he made four billion won.8”
Mom gave an awkward smile and nodded.
Only then did Hayeon ask in a trembling voice,
“Is that true?”
“Yeah.”
“Four billion won?8”
“I told you.”
Determination filled Hayeon’s eyes.
“Oppa.3 Can I drop out of school?”
“…….”
Didn’t you say there was no end to learning?
Footnotes
-
Mukbang is a broadcast in which the host eats while interacting with viewers. ↩ ↩2
-
Cheonggukjang is a Korean stew made with fermented soybeans. ↩
-
Oppa is a Korean term a woman uses for an older brother or an older man she is close to. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6
-
200,000 won is about $140 or €130; the potion costs more than that. ↩ ↩2
-
Ten million won is about $7,100 or €6,500. ↩
-
300 million won is about $210,000 or €190,000. ↩
-
Hundreds of millions of won refers to roughly 100–999 million won, or about $71,000–$710,000 and €65,000–€640,000. ↩
-
Four billion won is about $2.9 million or €2.6 million. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5
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