Chapter 32:

Congratulations!

You are able to complete the daily quest "Hand stand push up 200X"

-You received 350 XP

Jung Hee groaned in relief as he slid down the side of the gym wall upside down. Fortunately, he was in the Gungho Gym and his antics weren’t surprising to the other clients of the establishment. He did get a lot of dirty looks from them since, to them, he looks like he is just showing off. Besides, he is just the maintenance crew of the building and not exactly a paying customer.

But if old man Dongyun, the owner of the gym, had already seen him and did not say anything, then none of them would confront the kid about it. Jung, who is oblivious to all of this, suddenly did a kungfu kick up and sprang to his feet. He was frowning and was still deep in thought while he did so, and now he has his hands across his chest.

Jung hee is still thinking about his work in aunt chung-ha’s home. For a few months now, he taking orders to fix mostly wooden furniture in their town. It is a lot of work but he enjoyed them. That being said, it seems fixing electronic items are much more lucrative business than fixing just furniture’s. And with his skills, almost every electronic item is child’s play to him. He is actually constantly looking for more complicated things to sink his teeth into, since he enjoys doing puzzles.

He remembered Aunt Chungha mentioning that repair cost of appliances and even tools are very expensive. So maybe he should look it up and see the actual price range for fixing electronic stuff and what it cost these days. He might get more money that way.

Jung was still feeling a bit guilty since the majority of the money he got from Aunt Chungha went directly to the gym since he still owed the manager 1 month of service fee. But now he paid that loan and for 2 more months in advance. Jung is a bit guilty since he only bought a few essentials at home and did not even buy his mother something, and yet he placed the remaining money in his savings stash.

He couldn’t help it since he wanted to ease his embarrassment a bit. For years now, he is able to keep his gym membership in the Gungho gym without the help of his parents, but there are a lot of closed calls. He was determined never to let his loan to old man Dongyun be more than a month behind but he is always constantly asking for a grace period. Jung didn’t know that Dongyun, the gym owner, already thought of him as a reliable cash cow, but Jung still felt like he is taking advantage of the old man, so he continued to volunteer to be the unofficial maintenance man of the gym.

With his new expanded venture, maybe he can buy his mother a new dress and his dad new glasses. Then he can complete his savings and guarantee a nice gift for Eun Mei on her birthday. Jung smiled while thinking about it.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

And maybe I can also buy Kwang an expensive lunch with lots of chicken that he loves. Hell, maybe I even invite the rest of the guys.

Suddenly, he shook his head vehemently. Stop daydreaming, he thought to himself angrily. First, you need to plan your execution of this new service you are offering.

I need to tell everyone in the coop that I am now confident enough to fix other things like tv, rice cooker, fan, washing machine, and other stuff. And I have to set expectations that it will cost more to get that service. Still, bartering for items is still negotiable.

Now, placing a few signs in strategic places in town should not be a problem, but just to be sure, I needed to go to the local commissariat and explain what I plan to do. Then-

“Hey brat!” shouted Dongyun as he peeked from his office. “Are you finished with your exercises?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Good, now wax the northern mirror while no one is still using the exercise mat. And stop doodling around!”

“Coooming!!”

*******

22 minutes later, while he is cleaning the dumbbells with alcohol spray, Jung hee remembered another problem that he has. For the last couple of weeks now, Jung had not yet decided to use his free attribute point. Originally, he planned to keep it so he can use it later when he has another Evolutionary Point, which he plans to use to unlock the third category in his stats that he hasn't opened yet: the Spirit category. He wasn't exactly excited to do so, but he is curious what it would offer him. Once he unlocked the main category, then the attribute point will be useful to unlocking the subcategories, which he doesn't know yet.

I mean, MIND and BODY is rather self-explanatory, but SPIRIT?

But as the days passed by, his inquisitive mind started to wonder if maybe it was just better to just see what would happen if he just unlocked PERCEPTION of the MIND category instead, since that one is still zero. With a sigh, Jung opened his status screen once more.

Name: Kim Jung Hee

Age: 12

Class: Peasant

Level: 11

Attributes:

Body: 1

*Strength: 2

*Endurance: 1

*Agility: 1

Mind: 1

*Perception: 0

*Intelligence: 1

*Wisdom: 1

Spirits: 0

Having limited points sucks, Jung thought glumly. Especially since, after all these years, he still hasn't fully grasped what the system can do and offer him. He is still relatively in the dark about it all.

He thought about ti a moment longer. Then he opened his status screen once more and simply placed his only free attrib point to PERCEPTION instead. He stopped for a moment, trying to feel if there were any changes in him now that he updated one of his subcategories. But he didn't feel any different. He nodded to himself since he sort of expected it, and then closed his status screen once more.

Old man Dongyun came out of his office and turned to him. "Did you clean the dumbbells?" He asked.

"Yes, sir!"

"Good," was all he said. "Everything looks fine here where I am standing, so you can go now."

Jung blinked, surprised. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. Go home, kid."

Shrugging, Jung changed clothes, then stepped out of the gym and took a deep breath as he prepared to go back home. One of the regulars, a boy named Bon Won if Jung recalled properly, shouldered past him. "Watch it, shrimp," he growled. "Stop blocking the door!"

Jung scratched his head in confusion as the boy proceeded outside to throw away the accumulated trash of the gym in the side alley trash bin.

Oh well, he thought. He was about to move when a new prompt invaded his sight.

New Quest!

Your pet Bongcha is hungry. Please feed him before 6:30 p.m. local time.

Reward: 100 XP

Failure to complete the quest will result in a level decrease in 1 random skill.

Jung cursed to himself and then started running home.