The Agony of Growth

I had just left the officetel and was walking down the street when my phone buzzed. I checked it and saw a deposit alert.

‘I’ve lost it… This is insane… Fuck…’

I couldn’t help but marvel. Even after receiving a million won, I hadn’t placed complete trust in the app without a shred of doubt. No normal person could. Everything about the app was simply too abnormal.

I’d been worried it might throw a generous million at me only to slowly suck it back out through these endless mission-like schemes. It was a near-zero possibility, but the moment an unknown app had installed itself on my phone and a million won had landed in my account with a single tap, all talk of “possibility” had gone straight to the dogs.

Seeing the deposit message pop up again, I had no choice but to admit it.

‘This shit is real… It’s a genuine fucking lunatic app…’

I still had no idea how it knew I’d had sex at the oppa and sent the payment instantly. No app store carried anything called The World Is Money and Women, and even a deep internet search turned up zero information. The app was pure mystery. There wasn’t a single thing I could figure out about it.

‘Then again, who cares? It pays up just fine.’

One thing was certain: as long as I listened, this crazy app delivered the promised money immediately.

Just to be sure, I checked my bank balance again. Third time now.

Just as expected, the three hundred thousand had arrived neatly. I’d only had around four hundred thousand won yesterday. In a single day I’d earned 1.1 million. All I did was tap the screen a few times and fuck a pretty, kind-hearted, big-titted noona. One-point-one million won!

This couldn’t be stressed enough. Hell, if I could, I’d scream it like a madman in the middle of the street.

‘I had sex and got paid!!! Everyone, I make money by fucking!!!’

And it wasn’t ordinary sex, either. Mihee noona was top-tier pussy among top-tier pussy. The fact that she worked as an op girl was a tiny flaw, but she had so many advantages that the flaw barely registered. Getting to have mind-blowing sex with a woman most average guys couldn’t even speak to in their lifetime and earning three hundred thousand won on top of it? No matter how many times I turned it over in my head, it was a miracle I could hardly believe.

‘Post-nut clarity? Buyer’s remorse? Fuck all that!’

One of my few friends had once bragged about visiting an op. He said it felt great during, but the post-nut clarity hit him like a truck and he swore never to go again—the same old tired story. But I felt zero post-nut clarity. If anything, my heart was completely full. I wondered if this was what it felt like to meet God in person.

No, never mind. Let’s set God aside. From today onward, the only deity I would worship was the God of Money and Women.

‘Sex and money! Thank you so much. Loyalty! Loyalty!’

The moment I got home I launched the app. My fingers had been itching to open it outside, but I was afraid a pickpocket would snatch the phone or a sinkhole would open beneath my feet. This must be how a first-place lottery winner feels, I thought. I finally understood.

“Come on… Isn’t this going a bit far?”

Even as I grumbled, my finger moved and tapped the [Appearance Enhancement] button exactly as instructed. It was unrealistic as hell, yet an undeniable surge of anticipation rose inside me.

What was appearance, after all? If money and women were everything in this world, then appearance was most of life itself. Since humans are born as humans, they cannot escape the influence of innate aesthetic standards. A person’s entire life changes depending on how closely their looks match the beauty standards of human society.

For example, when a man makes a dirty joke to a woman, an ugly man might get reported to the police, but a handsome man has a high chance of ending up in bed with her. Even if we set the bed part aside, no one could deny that handsome men had an overwhelmingly lower chance of being reported.

In any case, being handsome was absolutely wonderful. Aside from money, there was no other tool in life that granted such certain and powerful benefits. Some people blabber that inner beauty matters more than outer, but that was the stupidest shit imaginable. No matter how great your inner self was, if your outer shell was garbage, you rarely got the chance ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to show anyone what was inside. People took one look at your disgusting face and ran away before your inner beauty could even wave hello. And if you lived like that long enough, even a saint would rot with inferiority complex and depression. In other words, a trash exterior had a high probability of turning the interior into trash as well. A vicious cycle if ever there was one.

In that sense, life was truly fucking unfair. The appearance you received was decided the moment you were born. Will and effort had no place in it. Plastic surgery existed, but it only worked if your base features were decent to begin with, and it was still difficult for surgery to match natural handsomeness. So from the moment of ovulation, fertilization, and implantation, your appearance level was already set. Some people are born with +9 appearance reinforcement, while others are born with a failed enhancement that exploded in their face.

I belonged to the exploded side. Not completely beyond repair, maybe about halfway? At least that’s how I saw myself. In any case, I had never lived a life that benefited from my looks.

And now, out of nowhere, appearance enhancement?

The enhancement window popped up with a flashy sound. It felt like I was entering a proper reinforcement phase, but I was still half skeptical. No matter how miraculous the app was, could it really change my appearance? Half in doubt, my hand still moved toward the recommended part: (Height).

It was oddly more trustworthy because it broke everything down by specific body part like cuts of meat and even gave a recommendation.

‘Hmm…’

I had never spent a million won in one go in my entire life. It was a hefty amount that gave me pause, but in the end I tapped [YES].

Click.

‘Phew. I guess it’s right to just go for it, right?’

The money I had right now was mostly earned thanks to this app anyway, and I’d already made over a million. Even if this was a scam, I wouldn’t actually lose anything. Besides, at this point the odds of the app being a scam were almost zero. If it wanted to scam me, it would have done so already. Whether it could actually enhance my appearance was still unknown, but…

The messages appeared the instant I pressed the button. One million left, two million came back in. It definitely wasn’t a scam.

“Nice!”

I clenched my fist. Another million earned with a single tap. Now that the money was secured, I headed straight for the bathroom. Honestly, I hadn’t really believed tapping a few times could overcome my genetics and make me taller. I figured I’d at least feel growing pains or sore muscles, but I felt nothing at all.

As expected, when I looked in the bathroom mirror, I didn’t feel any taller.

“Is it just a process to give me the money? If so, they didn’t have to make it this dramatic… Gahhh!!!”

I was muttering to myself when a brutal pain suddenly exploded in both my knees.

“Ugh!! Fuck!! It hurts so fucking bad!!!”

It hurt exactly as bad as it sounded. Was this what people ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with gout felt when even the wind hurt? No—if gout hurt this much, every gout patient would have died long ago and never passed on the gene.

“Aaaaargh!! Ugh!!!”

The pain kept coming in waves. I collapsed onto the bathroom floor, curling up like a shrimp, clutching my knees with both arms and rolling around. My body slammed into the toilet and tiles, skin scraping, but the agony radiating from my knees was so intense I barely felt anything else.

It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts like I’m dying.

I lived alone, so there was no one to call for help. I could only writhe on the floor, hugging my knees and rolling. I don’t know how long it lasted. The pain was so severe my mind grew hazy and I lost all sense of time. Right when I thought, Am I actually going to die like this? the excruciating pain that felt like someone was smashing my knees with a hammer and drilling through them vanished in an instant.

“Huu… Heee…”

I lay there panting for a long time, drooling, before I barely managed to stand up from the bathroom floor. I swore to the God of Money and Women—this was the greatest pain of my entire life. I had always wondered if facing extreme agony really made a person’s mind flicker in and out of consciousness. Turns out it was true. I just never imagined I’d experience it myself.

Fucking hell.

“Fuck… Height… Height… Height…”

Figuring out why the pain had come was easy. I had paid a million won to become taller. Then my knees had felt like they were being shattered. The connection was too obvious. My prediction that growing taller would come with growing pains had been exactly right. Damn it, that was one prediction that didn’t have to be accurate.

“Damn it… Did it actually make me taller?”

I checked the mirror, but I couldn’t tell. I had been crying so hard that everything was still blurry. Blink. Blink. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them wide, trying to focus.

If it hurt that much, it had better have actually made me taller. It had to.

“Holy shit…?”

I finally focused on the mirror and stood there with my mouth hanging open.

“It really… It really grew?!!”

Even if it was only one or two centimeters I might not have noticed, but three whole centimeters was obvious. Before, when I stood straight in front of the bathroom mirror, I only saw up to my waist. Now I could see all the way down to my pelvis.

“Huu… Calm down… Calm down…”

My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. I tried to chant “calm down” but it had no effect. Of course it didn’t. I had actually grown taller. It was unbelievable. It wasn’t magic, it wasn’t a cartoon, it wasn’t a movie or a drama. This was reality. Yet it was completely unreal.

“Huu… Huuuu…”

Terrified my heart might actually explode, I took desperate deep breaths, picked up the phone that had fallen on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the bathroom floor, and launched The World Is Money and Women with trembling fingers. The mysterious app that possessed impossible, unreal abilities.

“...”

Sex Scouter, Sex Rinnegan, Sectaechang… Just reading the names made my mind go blank. Fuck, what the hell are these abilities?