Big Life

Chapter 23: It Calls for More Celebration! (1)

‘Let’s try them out one by one.’

Now that Ha Jae-Gun found out that the laptop and Rika both possessed their own abilities, Ha Jae-Gun just had to verify if Seo Gun-Woo’s other talents or abilities were transferred to his other belongings.

‘Let’s try the fountain pen first.’

Ha Jae-Gun picked up the pen and started writing on a memo pad. He was contemplating what to write, but he eventually decided to write his own name.

‘Hmm.’

Nothing special happened.

Ha Jae-Gun started writing out an entire verse from the national anthem, thinking that some sort of effect would show if he wrote out sentences. However, nothing else happened even when he had just penned the final period on the memo pad.

‘Sigh, I don’t know anymore. Maybe I’ll try again in the future.’

Ha Jae-Gun put down the pen and went for the brown horn-rimmed glasses. The glasses fit him nicely and had no special prescription on them. Ha Jae-Gun did not have to wear glasses in his life since he was blessed with perfect eyesight, so wearing the glasses felt awkward to him.

‘Hmm, this doesn’t seem to have any special abilities either.’

Ha Jae-Gun went to the window and opened it, looking out. The sight before him hadn’t changed a single bit. The buildings did not look different, nor did he spot anything out of the ordinary or new in the scenery before him.

‘What if I were to read some text?’

Ha Jae-Gun thought that he should read a book, so he decided to open up the manuscript to his Records of the Modern Master.

“Huh? What’s this?”

Ha Jae-Gun’s eyes shook at the sudden realization while he was reading. A minute had yet to pass, and yet he had already read over a third of the first volume.

“Did I read that fast because it’s my own work?”

Still doubtful, Ha Jae-Gun picked up a book from the bookshelf. The book’s name was Lecture on Korean Literature, and it was a book he often had to read during his university days. The book was thick and filled with small texts.

Ha Jae-Gun could still remember that he had put lots of effort into studying it.

Ha Jae-Gun flipped open the book and started reading the first page. The first sentence from the first chapter soon appeared after he read the introduction of the book. Words and sentences dug into his mind through his eyes, and his fingers were flipping through the pages without resting.

“What the! This is—!” Ha Jae-Gun muttered, and his face had turned pale by the time he arrived at the final page of the book. It probably took him five minutes at most to finish the entire book.

He had finished reading that thick book in just under five minutes.

Ha Jae-Gun picked up another novel from his bookshelf and tried it again, but the results were the same. In fact, he had gotten even faster, and he managed to finish a volume in just three minutes.

He also discovered another unique phenomenon. There were words highlighted in bold throughout the book while he was reading it, and he realized that those were typos and grammatical errors.

‘These glasses are helping me spot grammatical errors?’ Ha Jae-Gun’s heart pounded loudly.

The brown horn-rimmed glasses were like the eyes of an editor. An editor’s job was to fix typos, grammatical errors, and other mistakes while reading at high speeds. If he wore these glasses whenever he was revising his work, the quality of his work would increase by ten—no, a hundredfold.

‘I’m… finally left with the cup, then?’

The moment Ha Jae-Gun picked up the gray cup from the sink, something kicked into action in Ha Jae-Gun. It was a vivid muscle memory. He opened a pack of instant coffee into the cup. Right then, Ha Jae-Gun knew the answer to his question.

Ha Jae-Gun quickly made himself a cup of iced coffee as he wanted to verify the effects of it personally. As the cold drink flowed down his throat, he soon emptied the cup in seconds.

‘My fatigue is all gone…!’

The fatigue that had been building up in his body vanished in the proverbial blink of an eye as if he had slept for a good ten hours. He felt refreshed.

Ha Jae-Gun was sure of it now. He would feel invigorated, as if he had slept for a decent amount of time regardless of what he drank as long as it was placed into this gray cup.

‘The bottom of the cup turned white? Wasn’t it originally gray?’

He hadn’t really paid much attention to the bottom of the cup before, but he finally noticed that it had turned white. He definitely saw that it was gray before he made that cup of iced coffee.

Ha Jae-Gun put the gray cup down and looked at the bottom of the cup. Soon, the same shade of gray slowly spread out from the middle of it and filled the entire bottom. Ha Jae-Gun felt like he was watching paint dry, but he remained patient.

He kept on watching, but it seemed like it would take some time for the gray to completely paint over the white bottom of the cup.

‘Hmm, does this mean that I have to wait until the original color returns before it goes off cooldown?’

He couldn’t come up with any more theories. He decided to test the effects once more the next time anyone else visited, be it Park Jung-Jin, Lee Soo-Hee, or Jung So-Mi.

Ha Jae-Gun placed the cup on the dish rack for clean dishes and returned to his desk. He started recording details about Seo Gun-Woo's belongings.

1. Laptop - Allows me to write ten thousand characters per hour.

2. Fountain pen - To be verified.

3. Brown horn-rimmed glasses - Allows me to read a book in three to five minutes. Helps me spot typos and grammatical errors as well.

4. Gray cup - Regardless of the type of drink, drinking it from this cup erases all my fatigue and energizes me.

5. Rika - A medium that helps convey the feelings and emotions of others to me. Her ability worked with Ms. So-Mi, but not with Soo-Hee. I think there has to be some sort of standard to it. To be verified.

Ha Jae-Gun stopped after typing out the details on Rika, but rather than closing the document, he hit enter and started typing on the next line upon recalling something else he had to add.

6. Ha Jae-Gun - I have inherited the talents of a certain Great Writer.

Ha Jae-Gun grinned at the words he had written. Outside the window, the view of the wilderness where Seo Gun-Woo's tombstone was came into view. He stood up upon recalling something he had to do.

"Rika, I'm going to clean up Elder’s tombstone. Do you want to join me?"

"Meow." Rika raised her tail and walked over to Ha Jae-Gun as if she understood what he had said. Ha Jae-Gun picked her up and headed to the door after wearing his shoes.

"Let's head to the mart first. We'll need a weed cutter and serve him a drink as well. I think he’ll like it if I made him Fifty Years Rice Wine[1], right?" Ha Jae-Gun stepped out of his house with vigor.

Now, he was no longer afraid to face anything in this world. Ha Jae-Gun was filled with overflowing confidence that he would be able to overcome whatever obstacle he would have to face.

***

"Hey, you punk! Drive properly!" The yells from a passing driver did not get to Oh Myung-Hoon.

Oh Myung-Hoon was driving his sports car and was zipping through the city roads. His average speed starting from his house was above a hundred kilometers per hour, and he was headed for Lee Soo-Hee's office in Nextion.

— The new writer is called Ha Jae-Gun. I heard he had published a few martial and fusion genre novels. Sounds like he's classmates with Team Leader Lee Soo-Hee, so don't you know him as well?

This was what Oh Myung-Hoon's high school senior and Nextion's marketing team's Section Chief Lee had shared with Oh Myung-Hoon over the phone.

Oh Myung Hoon’s fury broke through the roof upon hearing the news, and he was now on his way to look for Lee Soo-Hee.

'What nonsense was that…?! How dare she dismiss me, Oh Myung-Hoon, and hire that wretched fellow with no awards to his name as a scenario writer?! That man only knows how to bark!'

The news that he had been replaced by another writer drove him crazy, but he became even more furious when he heard that the writer who replaced him was Ha Jae-Gun.

His teeth chattered in fury, and it looked like they would shatter at any moment. His eyes were bloodshot as well, and he seemed determined to throw everything within his hand’s reach to the floor.

Screeeech!

Oh Myung-Hoon ran toward the elevator as soon as he was done parking his car in the car park. Even after arriving at the lobby and pressing the button to call the elevator, he was still panting and trembling.

The female employee at the information desk opened the door for Oh Myung-Hoon and greeted him. "Hello, what brings you here?"

Oh Myung-Hoon didn’t even fix his tie slung over his shoulder. He immediately said to the female employee. "Call Lee Soo-Hee."

"Pardon?"

"Lee Soo-Hee! Call the planning team's Team Leader here now!" Oh Myung-Hoon slammed his fist on the table, eliciting a loud noise that attracted everyone’s attention.

The female staff turned pale. She was scared, and she stepped back out of reflex.

Just then…

"Why are you making trouble here?"

Oh Myung-Hoon's eyes turned to where the voice was coming from, and his face visibly twitched as he glared at the woman standing there.

Lee Soo-Hee was standing a short distance away while hugging a file.

1. The original drink is Baekseju, which translates to 100 Years Rice Wine, that is made with ginseng, ginger, cinnamon, and all manner of herbs; and it’s said to have properties that aids in reaching the ripe old age of 100. This particular variation mixes Baekseju and soju, a thrift version of the original. ☜