Chapter 21:

An 8-year-old Kim Jung hee opened his eyes a split second before the rooster in their barn announced it was early morning.

He let the damn bird make his announcement three times before raising himself to a sitting position. He shivered as he groggily stared out the window and into the darkness beyond. Jung’s cold breath is now a familiar sight to him as the chill of the morning air outside remained throughout the month.

He was short and skinny for his age, mainly because of a lack of nutrients for years growing up. But his almost permanent smile filled his brown eyes with hope and general goodness in the world that he could have been a Korean model for the television show called sesame’s street.

With a sigh, he stood up from his bed and started preparing for his day. While not precisely eager, he is alert and moving with purpose. He never seems to experience what others mention as morning sluggishness. It is just another thing that made him different.

There is a washbasin next to his drawer, and he washes his face in it. Good thing his short crop hair doesn’t need maintenance. Then he washed his entire body with a small towel despite the chilly breeze from the window. He is used to it.

Yawning, he passed his parents’ room as Jung started the fire on their old burner. He noted that the heat was getting weaker and weaker, and he knew it meant they needed to replace the small gas kerosene soon. That is another expense that his parents needed to shoulder. He hoped he earns a few more coins soon, so hopefully, he can help them out.

He placed the ceramic water jar for the tea and then the gruel that they ate last night for breakfast.

He heard his parent’s room opening and noticed his tired mother with disheveled hair coming out. He remembered that his hair was supposedly a close match to his mother’s thick, wavy black hair.

When he was younger, he got infested with ticks and his father shaved his hair in near skinhead style to keep it clean. Jung has been using that same hairstyle ever since. Having his hair cut real close to his skin almost religiously made a lot of things easier for him. For one thing, he never experienced the morning hair.

“Good morning,” he said brightly.

His mom muttered something about cheery young boys in the morning while she went to the bathroom. Meanwhile, Jung cleaned up a bit and prepared to do his morning chores.

He went outside, shivered again at the cold mist, and started checking on the animals. Old Buching, the cow, looked up when he entered the barn and wiggled its ears when Jung went straight to the small heap of fodder on one side of the barn and dumped it inside its small pen. Then the two pigs received some corn for breakfast. His pet owl is still sleeping for no reason, so he just let her be. The chickens did not receive any since they were ranging on their own. Jung gathered the few eggs scattered around their farm.

Once the animals were taken care of, he grabbed the old broomstick and started cleaning the backyard of animal manure and the front of their wooden house of dried leaves and other debris accumulated during the night.

Finished with his chore, he helped his mother prepare the table and then went to the bathroom himself to ready himself for the day. He dressed quickly after bathing and grabbed cold bread on the table before announcing that he was off for school. His dad, who is now also sitting at the table by this time, just grunted while his mom blessed him before he went out.

“Try to come home early!” His mom said as he opened the door.

“Yes, mom.”

When he left the house, his dad guiltily looked at his wife. “Did... did you give him any coins?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

His mother couldn’t even look at her husband as she shook her head slowly. Jung’s father sighed and continued drinking his coffee.

**************

It was still dark outside as Jung hee started walking towards his school. He wasn’t in a hurry, but he was still power walking since the trek will take him two hours at a minimum. He just thanked the heavens that it was not raining, else he needed to bring an extra shirt. During those times, he will be soaking wet when he arrived at Guanzu town, where his school is located.

He admired the red sky as the sun announces her imminent majestic arrival behind the mountains on the horizon. At 8 years old, Jung Hee is a remarkably well-adjusted young boy. He didn’t complain about his lot in life, nor did he envy others what they have or could have, and especially he is not bitter about things that he doesn’t have any control over. Although as a 3rd grader in primary school, he wished his academic studies were more... challenging. Or at least more advance than what the teachers are teaching them now. But besides that, Jung Hee has no real problems in life.

He is, for all intents and purposes, a happy young person.

Of course, it helped a bit that he differs from all others, mainly because he has superpowers.

Ever since he could remember, Jung can see this weird blue screen in front of him every time he does something specific. The bizarre thing about it is the fact that no one else seems to see it except himself.

When he was way younger than he is now, he thought that everyone else has access to this blue screen. It is just that only the individual themselves can see it. But as time goes by, after asking several innocent questions, he realizes he is a unique person.

He couldn’t even read the damn thing until he was 4 years old. He reached a milestone when the system announced he reached level two, whatever that means, and then suddenly, the words that used to be these complex glyphs and runic symbols coagulated into Korean, his native language.

He tried manipulating the screen by clicking on it using his fingers, but nothing happened. It took him another year to realize that he could control the screen by thinking about it. At first, he just thinks about closing and opening it up again (usually, he just waits until the screen closes itself). Then he learned to navigate the screen by concentrating on each tab and button. By his 6th birthday, he can look at his blue screen and close it whenever he wants by a mere thought.

Since then, he started manipulating the system and treating it as a game. He couldn’t help it. The system itself operates everything like a game, so he couldn’t do anything but follow.

Almost as a reminder, Jung stared at the screen that popped up the moment his mom gave him an order.

Quest mission:

Your mother is worried about you and, more likely, has more chores for you before evening. Try to return home as early as possible.

Come back home before 6:30 PM this evening, local time.

Reward:

-1 skill point

-30XP

-Failure to do quest: unknown

-You get additional 10 XP bonus for every 15 minutes you arrived early.

Jung smiled and accepted the mission. He’d been receiving tasks like this for a long time now, and he gets a few XP this way for his troubles..

At first, it bothered him he is the only one who seems to have the system, and he wondered what it all means. But as the years passed by, it became a secondary concern. Jung always treated it as a game and thinking about the kind of skills he can increase or discover kept his interest.

There is something about having a visual representation of your progress that makes it easier for a person to readily give that extra “oomph” if he can see that his strength is about to reach the next level.

Now that he was thinking about it, he displayed his character sheet once again:

Name: Kim Jung Hee

Age: 8

Class: Peasant

Level: 7

Attributes:

Body: 1

*Strength: 1

*Endurance: 1

*Agility: 1

Mind: 1

*Perception: 1

*Intelligence: 1

*Wisdom: 1

Spirits: 0

Skills: (Only skills that are activated)

-Literacy lvl 10 *

-Strong Back lvl 4 *

-Thick skin lvl 4 *

-Swift Learner lvl 5 *

-Breathing lvl 9

-Running lvl 7

-Walking lvl 8

-Jumping lvl 4

-Climbing lvl 8

-Cooking lvl 2

-Creative writing lvl 1 *

-Tumble Lvl 6

-Tasting lvl 3

-Smelling lvl 3

-Listening lvl 3

-Touching lvl 2

-Danger Sense lvl 2

-Gardening lvl 5

-Tailoring lvl 4 *

-Parkour lvl 1 *

-MetalWorking lvl 1

-WoodWorking lvl 2

-Animal Whisperer lvl 2 *

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With a simple mind gesture, Jung hee closed the screen in his eyes and continued walking to school which was still several miles of trudging the mountains and hills of his great nation.