Studying?
Studying?
"Ugh-cha."
I brought the jajangmyeon in.
I was living almost like a bum. It was only natural. I was still a minor, so there wasn't really anything I could do. I mean, I could play, but there wasn't really anything that caught my interest. I didn't have friends, and it wasn't like I had entered high school either.
Of course, I had plenty of money, so there were many things I could do. Like playing games or eating delicious food, I suppose. I wondered if I was just unable to have fun because my imagination was so poor.
Slurp-
The noodles were alive. That was because I'd ordered from an authentic Chinese restaurant that boasted a high price tag. I was staring blankly at the large TV screen. The TV was constantly talking about Jaeseong Bio. It was the company that had helped dementia patients find a new life.
There was an expert talking about how the dementia treatment itself was a monumental achievement. In reality, it was made with a single click. If I said that, would that expert believe me? Probably not.
After finishing the jajangmyeon, I lay on the sofa and spent some time. The life of a bum suited me well. They say the most enviable job in the world is a rich bum, don't they?
Other people were sweating and enduring insults to earn money. But a rich bum was completely free from such constraints. I could live doing whatever I wanted. In a capitalist society, money was equivalent to power.
It had the strength to make anything possible.
Beep-beep-beep-!
My phone alarm went off. I picked up the phone and checked the screen. It was a photo uploaded by Mom and Dad. It was a world tour that they had planned for a whole year. Maybe that's why Mom and Dad left photos like this on the chat app.
They said they were currently having fun in Europe. I sent a text saying to have a good time. Just the fact that the worry had disappeared from Mom and Dad's faces was satisfying enough for me.
It was much better for them to be traveling the world, laughing and having fun, than to be waking up at dawn and going out to painful workplaces.
I got up from the sofa and went into the training room to work out. Maybe because the house was so huge, I had built a private gym inside. Should I call it my own gym that had everything?
"Hmm... nice."
I couldn't help but smile with satisfaction as I looked at myself in the mirror.
Maybe because quite a bit of time had passed, the Human Body Editing Technology on the Medical Ship was showing its effects.
Originally, I was only 170cm tall. Considering the average height of Korean adult men is 173cm, I didn't even reach the male average.
But now, I had grown 7cm.
I had become 177cm tall. According to what I heard from Soyeon, I could adjust my height as I pleased. Being too tall was a bit much, so I planned to just pass 180cm and grow another 3~4cm from there.
That was a sufficiently tall height. It was a height that wouldn't make me feel inferior to others. After all, I think I heard somewhere that for a man, just passing 180cm is a pass.
Of course, since I was still young, it might have been a height I would have reached naturally anyway.
And the thing I liked most was that my face had changed. My ordinary face had now become a look that would catch women's attention when I walked down the street. It wasn't quite at the level of a model on TV, but it was a look that would make people say I was handsome among regular folks.
I swept my hair back. My hair had become thick, too. I didn't have much volume originally, but now my hair was so dense that I couldn't even remember those days.
Long live future technology.
My muscles were also well-balanced.
I didn't have bulging muscles like I was on steroids, but I had lean muscles. In a way, it was the kind of muscle women would really like. Women preferred smooth, well-balanced muscles over monster-like, bulging ones.
Men also preferred the lean muscles with straight abs that women liked, rather than the kind of muscles you'd see at a bodybuilding competition.
I worked out again today. There was nothing better than this to kill time. I planned to work out hard until I hit a 3-lift total of 500kg.
While I was spending time working out, Soyeon entered with a ding sound. I welcomed Soyeon.
When Soyeon got off work like that, I felt like I had become a "shutter man" (a househusband who waits for his wife to come home).
Wasn't I living a lifestyle where Soyeon was out working hard, and I was spending time doing housework? I had thought about going out to work too, but I hadn't been able to yet because Soyeon stopped me.
She said that even though Jaeseong Bio had grown a lot, it wasn't the right time for me to step to the forefront yet.
"Jaeseong-nim."
"Soyeon! You worked hard."
Soyeon looked at me with a gentle smile. Seeing Soyeon like that, I turned my head slightly. Whenever Soyeon smiled like that, my mind would go blank, not knowing what to answer.
Because Soyeon was pretty.
"Did you have a good day today?"
"Uh... uh! I was working out."
I showed off my lean muscles with an exaggerated movement. Soyeon also looked at my muscles with a satisfied expression. I pulled my body back because it felt like she was going to touch something. Soyeon said with a disappointed expression.
"Jaeseong-nim."
"Yeah, why?"
"By any chance, are you not interested in studying?"
"Studying?"
Studying... I wasn't exactly close friends with studying. It wasn't that I was completely terrible at it, but I wasn't good at it either. My grades were such that I couldn't even make it into the top 10 in my class.
And the hype around studying was too intense. I thought doing well enough to be in the top 10 was good, but when you actually listen to people, they think you didn't study unless you got a Grade 1. Even getting a Grade 2 was difficult.
Getting into the top 11% wasn't such an easy thing.
"I'm not particularly interested..."
"The Medical Ship has a function that helps you study well. As you go on living, Jaeseong-nim, your academic background will be important, so going to a good university is also a good method."
"Really?"
My ears perked up at Soyeon's words. Come to think of it, wouldn't people's gazes change if I said I graduated from a prestigious university? I think I saw an internet post saying that academic background is like a man's precious "down there."
If you say it yourself, it looks a bit pathetic, but if it comes out of someone else's mouth, you could say it makes you feel triumphant. After listening to Soyeon, I said.
"Can I really become good at studying?"
"Yes. It stimulates the brain and increases overall study efficiency. Of course, there is also the function to increase intelligence itself, but that cannot be used yet due to the Medical Ship's current functions."
Unfortunately, the Medical Ship's function to increase intelligence itself was unusable. But the function to rapidly increase study efficiency was available.
Come to think of it, it would be strange if I, the owner of a company called Jaeseong Bio, couldn't study. If I graduated from a prestigious university and became the CEO of Jaeseong Bio, that would also be good.
Furthermore, I thought about going to medical school, the highest-ranking department.
I set the goal of being able to say I was a medical student, just for the sake of having a business card. It was obvious that if I told people I was a medical student, they would look at me with eyes full of respect and jealousy.
Honestly speaking, medical school was so good that people said the top 100 scorers on the CSAT would all line up to get in.
Medical school was a profession where even if you graduated at the bottom of your class, you could earn 20 million won a month. If you did that in engineering or liberal arts, which you could get into with the same grades? If you were at the bottom, you might get into a large corporation, but you couldn't expect that kind of salary.
Isn't that why they say doctors are "overpowered"?
Of course, I had no intention of working. I wasn't going to become a doctor and treat patients with a sense of duty; it was just a business card needed to boost my reputation.
And I could do the treating by gathering energy and using the Medical Ship's functions.
"I'll do it! Studying!"
"Understood, Jaeseong-nim. I will create the best curriculum for you, Jaeseong-nim. I will also recruit private tutors."
"Thanks!"
It felt like I was moving according to Soyeon's wishes, but I thought Soyeon had suggested it in a good way.
Rather than living like a surplus human at home, going to a good university by studying didn't seem like a bad idea.
Besides, I could attend university with a completely "vacation" vibe.
To put it bluntly, it didn't matter if I got Cs or Ds in all my classes.
There was no reason for me to get high grades. I just needed to graduate smoothly. For a college student whose livelihood was already taken care of, the meaning of university was just a gathering place to meet women or join clubs.
It had no meaning beyond that.
I grinned, thinking about that future. I thought I wanted that future to come quickly.
Like that, I ended up entering the capsule in the Medical Ship that stimulates the brain.
The feeling was very strange.