The Beginning of Change
Today really was a great day.
As he showered in the gym bathroom, Seong-min felt a deep sense of satisfaction. Of course he did. He had hit the goal he’d set for himself—jogging on the treadmill at speed 10 and stepping off. The important part wasn’t simply that he’d run and gotten down; it was that he’d leveled up in the process. Yet there was something even more significant. Seong-min’s original goal had been a single level-up on the treadmill. Since he’d stepped on at level 12, that should have meant finishing at level 13. But that wasn’t what happened.
Instead of getting off at level 13, when he finished his workout and checked, he’d gained two whole levels. He’d come down at level 14. Seong-min was stunned. He’d leveled up more than he’d planned. It made perfect sense, though. He had stayed on the treadmill far longer than intended—not just an hour or two, but over three hours of running. And when he stepped off and checked, it looked like just a little more would have earned him a third level-up. The experience points made that clear.
With this much EXP, if I just move around diligently for the rest of the day with everyday exercise, I should be able to level up.
His EXP was already past 70 percent, so if he paid attention to walking or ordinary daily activity, he could probably squeeze out one more level. He was currently level 14. That would make him level 15.
Let’s do that. Even the ten-minute walk home after I finish showering can get me 5 percent EXP.
Walking home at a normal pace was roughly the same as speed 6 on the treadmill—the speed of an average person walking down the street. At that pace, he could gain 5 percent EXP in ten minutes.
Nice. Time to set little goals like this too.
While washing the sweat from his body and hair in the gym shower, Seong-min set himself another small goal. Naturally, the two Stat Points he’d earned from the two level-ups while running on the treadmill went straight into his Physicality stat.
"Hello~!"
Hye-suk, who’d come out to take out the trash and run into Seong-min, wore a gentle smile at the corners of her mouth.
"Did you have a good workout?"
"I sure did~!"
"You’re late today."
"I got so into the exercise that time just flew by."
"Aren’t you overdoing it a bit?"
The two of them stood there chatting.
"I have to work hard...! If I want to get my body’s rhythm back after a month of recovery, this much doesn’t even feel like enough."
"Still, don’t push yourself too hard. Exercise has to be done properly—if you overdo it, you can hurt yourself and get injured."
"I will."
"Alright, go on in. I’m going to stop by the mart first."
"The mart?"
"Yeah, I need to pick up some groceries and a few other things."
"Then I’ll come with you~!"
"You too, Seong-min? Do you need something?"
"No~! Just want to look around the mart with you, Auntie, and if anything catches my eye I’ll grab it."
"You don’t have to come along if there’s nothing you need."
"Don’t worry~! I’m coming because I want to."
Seong-min knew the mart Hye-suk was heading to was a big supermarket about fifteen minutes away. The reason he was tagging along was that she usually drove if there looked like a lot to carry, or walked for exercise if not.
"Let’s not take the car today—let’s walk there and back."
"Walk?"
Since Seong-min was coming along, Hye-suk had been planning to drive.
"Yeah, it’s exercise too. The weather’s nice and cool—perfect for walking to the mart and back."
"You sure? We could just drive..."
"What’s not to be sure about? Come on, let’s go~!"
Watching Seong-min start walking first, Hye-suk smiled with her eyes.
Honestly... there’s no talking him out of anything.
The mart’s about fifteen minutes away, so round trip is thirty minutes just in distance. At 5 percent EXP per ten minutes, that’s 15 percent...!
Plus the roughly ten minutes walking from the gym to here, total EXP would hit around 20 percent. When he left the gym he’d been a little over 70 percent, so just going to the mart would push him past 90 percent.
"Nice!"
Seong-min clenched his right fist and pumped it in excitement.
"What’s with the sudden ‘Nice’?"
Hye-suk let out a wry laugh at the sight of him clenching his fist and shouting.
"Haha... yeah. I guess I’m just in a good mood because my body’s better and the workouts are going well."
"Hohoho, you’re such a funny kid, Seong-min~"
"R-right?"
Seong-min awkwardly scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed at having shouted “Nice” without thinking.
After a fifteen-minute walk, they arrived at the big supermarket. Naturally, Seong-min pushed the cart. They took the moving walkway up to the second floor first, heading to the electronics, furniture, and household goods section to buy what they needed. Batteries were low, and they tossed in toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, and other daily necessities, plus a box of tissues.
"While we’re here, you should grab anything you need too, Seong-min."
"Then I’ll get some new shampoo and a razor."
So Seong-min found what he needed and added it to the cart. Next they went back down to the first-floor food section, loading up bananas, apples, melons, and other fruit, then pork neck, jowl, and pork belly since it was on sale—500 grams of each. Of course, once you buy meat you can’t forget the wrap vegetables like lettuce and perilla leaves.
"Should we get some canned beer too?"
"Beer?"
"Yeah, last time we had soju with it, but this time let’s have it with nice cold beer."
"Won’t it be heavy?"
"Aw~ it’s fine. I’m a guy who works out, you know~"
"Hohoho."
Hye-suk covered her mouth and laughed at Seong-min striking a pose with his arm raised. They also added milk, drinks, bread, and a bottle of sesame oil since they were out.
"We bought too much. If I’d known, I would’ve brought the car."
Just looking at the cart, it looked pretty heavy.
"Don’t worry~! I’ll carry it."
"How are you going to carry all this heavy stuff by yourself?"
"We’ll find out when I try~!"
They went to the checkout, ringing up each item one by one with barcodes or price entry. Since boxes were inconvenient, they decided to split everything into two 20-liter trash bags. After all, trash bags weren’t single-use—they needed them for regular garbage anyway. Once packed into two bags, it was a full armload.
"Want me to take one?"
Hye-suk asked worriedly after paying.
"I’m fine. This is nothing—you know I used to do Gombang Work, Auntie~!"
Gombang Work was seriously tough. You had to haul heavy loads on your back up stairs to the second, third, fourth, even fifth floor. That was Gombang Work. So no matter how heavy these bags felt in both hands, compared to that, it was easy.
"Alright, let’s head back~!"
Seong-min strode off cheerfully with a bag in each hand, and Hye-suk followed with a resigned look.
It is pretty hard, though.
After walking outside for about five minutes, the weight was definitely making itself felt. On top of that, Seong-min’s body had gotten used to a month of recovery. Even though he’d been going to the gym for the past two weeks trying to build muscle and raise his stamina, the fact that this felt hard meant he’d clearly lost some muscle over the past month.
Weird. My Physicality seems to be rising fine, but why isn’t my muscle changing?
After two weeks of exercise, his muscular endurance had definitely improved thanks to the Physicality stat—like his lung capacity had increased. But the actual strength of his muscles didn’t seem to have grown much. Seong-min couldn’t help finding that strange.
Does the Physicality stat not affect muscle power?
That was the only conclusion he could draw for now.
Then what do I need to do?
What he’d realized over two weeks of training was that he wasn’t growing his body through ordinary exercise—he was stacking EXP through exercise and investing the Stat Points into his attributes to build himself up. That was the foundation of raising Physicality to improve recovery and endurance. But building strength seemed to be something else. Even raising Physicality increased muscular endurance, but it didn’t feel like the muscles themselves had gotten stronger. He could feel that when lifting free weights or using machines.
So how do I build strength, then?
While he was lost in thought—
"Seong-min, aren’t you tired?"
"Huh?"
"Want me to take one?"
"Ah, I’m fine. This much is nothing!"
Under Hye-suk’s worried gaze, Seong-min insisted he was okay. They had less than ten minutes left to home, and with his stamina it was no problem at all.
And my EXP should be over 90 percent by now. Hehehe...
Just thinking about it put him in a good mood.
"Good work. Just set them down here."
Once inside the front door, Seong-min set the two bags down to one side and flapped the collar of his shirt with his hand.
"It’s definitely getting a little hot—summer’s creeping up on us."
"Hohoho, after carrying that heavy load in both hands, of course you’re hot."
"Is that so?"
"Go sit on the living room sofa and rest. I’ll make some coffee."
Seong-min picked the bags back up and headed for the kitchen. He set them down near the sink again.
"Even when I rest, I should finish things properly first."
If he left them, Aunt Hye-suk would have to carry them to the kitchen herself, so he’d brought them all the way.
"Honestly~ there’s no talking you out of it. Go rest already."
"Yes ma’am!"
Watching Seong-min walk to the sofa, Hye-suk smiled softly. Sitting on the sofa, Seong-min sank back into thought.
So how do I build strength, then?
Having more stamina so he could exercise longer and stack more EXP was great. But to properly earn money with things like Gombang Work, he needed strength too.
Status Window.
Seong-min opened his Status Window. Then he examined his current state.
Less than 10 percent left now. Hehehe...
Just about 8 percent more EXP and he’d hit level 15. Just looking at that made him feel full already. But that wasn’t the important part.
Is there a stat among these that builds strength?
First was Banter, second Appearance, third Vigor, fourth Martial Power, and fifth was Physicality. He was already feeling the effects of raising Physicality clearly. So it had to be one of the other four.
Not Banter, and not Appearance. Vigor, maybe?
He thought of energy, but no matter how he looked at it, Vigor seemed deeply tied to sexual matters. So not Vigor either.
That leaves...
The Martial Power stat.
Martial Power basically means martial arts or fighting, right?
To be good at fighting, what do you need? A quick, agile body. Good motor skills and reactions. But there was something crucial: the actual strength to fight properly against an opponent. You needed the power to overpower them as a foundation.
Yeah, no matter how I look at it, Martial Power seems connected to strength too. I don’t know how fighting would go, but if I raise Martial Power, wouldn’t my strength increase as well?
Once his thoughts reached that point, Seong-min came to a conclusion.
I’ll raise Physicality to 30 first, then try putting points into Martial Power.
He planned to push Physicality, which was already over 20, up to 30, then raise Martial Power to see if it affected strength. Even raising Martial Power by about 10 should let him feel whether there was a change or not. It had been that way with Physicality, after all.
In the meantime, Hye-suk finished putting things away roughly and brought over two glasses of cold iced americano.
"Thanks, I’ll enjoy it."
Seong-min took the glass she set in front of him and took a sip to wet his throat.
"So you’re planning to start working again next week?"
"That’s the plan. I can’t keep living like this forever."
He couldn’t jump straight into Gombang Work right away. It would be nice if there was Gombang Work available, but there wasn’t. That didn’t mean Seong-min couldn’t work, though.
"Is your leg completely better?"
"You saw me walking to the mart. And at the gym I jog on the treadmill."
"I’m so glad... When I heard about the accident, my heart was in my throat."
"Don’t worry anymore. I’m healthy like this now."
"Yeah..."
Looking at Aunt Hye-suk, Seong-min felt a warmth spread through his chest. He was just a tenant, yet she looked after him and cared for him like this. It made him wonder if this was what a family’s warmth felt like.