“Son, slow down. You’ll make yourself sick.”
“You could quit being a Hunter and become a mukbang streamer.”
I finished my meal amid Mom’s concern and Hayeon’s admiration.
That was after five heaping bowls of rice, a whole pot of cheonggukjang, and dozens of kimchi pancakes had vanished.
“Whew. I’m finally starting to feel full.”
“……Are you insane? How much do you usually 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 to a degree that couldn’t even be compared to before. These days, I could put even professional food fighters to shame.
“Maybe I really should become a mukbang streamer.”
“No. Those people need to make a living too. Let humans compete among themselves.”
“Are you saying I’m not human?”
“Yeah. In my eyes, you’re something beyond a pig.”
Hayeon could only shake her head in disbelief as she put down her spoon. I glanced into her rice bowl and saw that half of it was still there.
“If you leave rice, you’ll be punished.”
“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 your cold to go away faster.”
“I don’t have an appetite. My head hurts too.”
“Did you go to the hospital?”
“I did. I took the medicine they prescribed, too.”
I stared at Hayeon in silence. Her face was flushed, and beads of sweat had formed on her forehead. She had left school early and stubbornly tried to study, but it seemed her fever had risen even higher than before.
The medicine she was prescribed doesn’t seem to be working very well.
Honestly, there was a much simpler way to cure an illness.
She could get treated by a professional healer or drink a potion sold on the market. But most ordinary people avoided doing that because of the expense.
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 over as if I were 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.”
I raised my internal energy more carefully than ever. Slowly—very slowly—I let a thread of internal energy flow along my hand and into Hayeon’s body.
“Aah!”
Hayeon let out a startled cry. She had clearly noticed the strange sensation caused by my internal energy.
I was worried that 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 simple demonstration test was over. Now came the real test.
This time, I guided my internal energy toward Hayeon’s dantian.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been as easy as breathing. But Hayeon’s body was different. Her acupoints were narrow, and her insides were clogged with waste.
This is going to be difficult.
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, however, was an ordinary high school student. The waste accumulated over her nineteen years of life was only natural.
Still, I should do everything I can.
I could only attempt this because I trusted the Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique’s stability and my own control.
I also remembered to warn Hayeon in advance, just in case.
“It might hurt a little, so bear with it, okay?”
“What? What are you doing?”
“Hmm. I suppose you could call it a particularly stable form of traditional Korean medicine.”
Mom, who had been washing dishes, opened her eyes wide.
“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 kind of thing.”
“Then trust me and put up with it for a little while.”
“Mom, thank you for raising me all this time. Your useless daughter is leaving without even getting the chance to repay 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 joking. It’s not like you’d do anything bad to your only little sister, right?”
“Then shut up and stay as still as possible, 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, Teacher. But when exactly are we starting?”
“Right now.”
As soon as 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 two breaths that escaped us simultaneously after I let go of her hand carried completely different meanings.
Mine expressed relief.
Hayeon’s expressed refreshment.
Ding.
System
- Circulate Qi for Healing has been completed successfully.
- Internal Energy increases slightly.
As the System had announced, Circulate Qi for Healing had ended successfully.
The Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique was an internal energy cultivation technique that accumulated internal energy slowly but possessed exceptional stability. Hayeon had accumulated so much waste that the process took some time, but it ended without any major problems.
“Oppa, what was that?”
The fact that she naturally called me Oppa showed that she had been surprised too. I wiped away the sweat that had formed from the tension and answered.
“I told you. It’s a stable traditional medicine treatment.”
“That worked when you were only holding my hand?”
Do you think it would? It’s all thanks to your brother’s excellence.
I smoothly changed the subject.
“So? How was it?”
“It hurt at first, but as time passed, it started feeling better and better. My body feels lighter, and my headache is gone. What should I call it…”
Hayeon furrowed her brow before defining it in a single phrase.
“Like I was reborn? Like all the bad energy inside me was 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, then go wash up.”
“Huh?”
“What do you mean, ‘huh’? Is your nose stuffed up? You stink, so go take a shower. Now.”
“I washed this morning. What do you mean I smell—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…
Grrrbl. Pffft.
Well, it could come out that way too.
“…….”
But maybe it was because there had been so much waste. The smell was unbelievable.
At this point, I had to wonder if she had actually crapped herself.
“Aah.”
On top of the sweat soaking her body, her stomach had begun sending strange signals. Hayeon almost crawled to the bathroom, while Mom stood there with her mouth hanging open.
“My goodness.”
“It works well, doesn’t it?”
“It really does. I went to a traditional medicine clinic a few times when I was young, but this is amazing.”
“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? As it happens, I’ve been having some 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.”
There was only one bathroom in our house.
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 wasn’t an exaggeration.
Even Hayeon, who was only nineteen, had needed more than an hour to expel all the waste from her body.
Mom was middle-aged, so the amount of waste she had accumulated was proportional to the years she had lived. After more than two hours of circulating qi for healing, her condition must have improved to a degree that couldn’t even be compared to before.
“Right? Until just a little while ago, I had a headache and felt dizzy, but now I’m completely better. I took my temperature as soon as I came out of the bathroom, and it was normal.”
Hayeon looked at me as if I were some kind of marvel. The moment she came out of the bathroom, she ate two bowls of rice as if she had never once complained about having no appetite.
“Where did you learn something like this? Were you a healer, Oppa?”
“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.”
If she knew those ‘needles’ were actually knife stabs, what kind of expression would she make?
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 fact that they were separate seemed more unfortunate the more I thought about it.
Taking just a few high-grade potions to the Murim would be no different from bringing along a few extra lives.
Well, I should be satisfied that I can recover to some degree by leveling up.
I clicked my tongue inwardly and pulled my hand from my pocket. Two small bottles filled with red liquid were sloshing in my palm.
Item Window
Lesser Potion
- Type: Medicine
- Grade: Third Rate
- Description: A liquid infused with weak healing magic. It is 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.
I’m technically supposed to return them.
Even lesser potions cost more than 200,000 won apiece. It was difficult to find an employer as generous as Team Leader Choi, who handed them out so freely.
“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 recommending them to restore their vitality. Circulating 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 is it?”
Hayeon finished hers in one go and tilted her head.
“I feel a little stronger, maybe. Or maybe not. How would I know? It’s not like I’ve 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?”
“At about 200,000 won each, fifty would be… ten million won? Oppa, are you crazy?”
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 won will disappear in no time.”
“It’s fine. I’ve been earning well lately.”
“I searched online, and I heard that when you become a C-rank Hunter, you have to replace your equipment and all that. They said you can burn through hundreds of millions like it’s nothing.”
“I told you, it’s fine. I made four billion won yesterday, too.”
“Even if you had four billion won, you shouldn’t throw money around like—wait, how much did you say?”
“Four billion won.”
“…….”
Hayeon’s body went completely rigid.
She stared blankly at me, then turned toward Mom.
“Mom, Oppa says he made four billion won.”
Mom gave an awkward smile and nodded.
Only then did Hayeon ask in a trembling voice,
“Is that true?”
“Yeah.”
“Four billion won?”
“I’m telling you, it is.”
Determination filled Hayeon’s eyes.
“Oppa. Can I drop out of school?”
“…….”
Didn’t you say there was no end to learning?
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