Chapter 94
Chapter 94
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Punctum
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Two weeks had passed since I reinforced the Scales of Good and Evil and added a new law to the world.
[Drug Cartel Boss Dies of High Blood Pressure While Pooping in the Bathroom]
[Japanese Entertainment Veteran in Sex Scandal Slips on Rainy Stairs, Suffers Severe Injuries—Is Burst Testicle Karmic Retribution?]
[Chaebol Heiress in Power Abuse Scandal Chokes on Rice Cake While Lying Down, Now in Critical Condition]
Villains lose their luck and get caught up in unfortunate accidents.
Virtuous people gain luck and unexpected opportunities come their way.
Just watching these incidents unfold was plenty entertaining, so checking internet news every day became part of my routine.
That said, stories about the virtuous were rare.
'Modern news is pickled in stimulating dopamine. Misfortune of villains is more entertaining than the virtue of the good.' And the luck that comes to the virtuous doesn't show up dramatically, making it even harder to spot in the news.
“Hmm.”
Anyway, does this count as good karma? They said acts tied to transcendent beings aren't calculated as karma. 'The Scales of Good and Evil have a sense of self, so maybe it doesn't count as karma, but as a tool, it might.' I pulled out the Forgotten Alchemist's Equivalent Exchange Scale to check.
Cost: All current good karma possessed
[1. One Can of Zero Pepsi Cherry Flavor 355ml]
[2. Ability for Two Kelp Sheets to Appear Inside a Sea Slug You've Personally Opened]
[3. One Autograph from a Random Ordinary Person Living in Los Angeles]
As expected, nothing impressive.
“Well, if it were, I'd be able to infinitely duplicate good karma.”
The fact that I could even get these must be thanks to helping people who visited the office.
“Should I use the Forgotten Alchemist's Equivalent Exchange Scale to help people too?”
The next day, I headed to the office.
“Ugh, I'm worried about my hair loss. Is there anything you can do?”
“I'm a college student taking the CSAT this year. Honestly, I've slacked off on studying, but my parents promised to buy me a car if I get into a Seoul uni. Please help!”
“......A novel I was enjoying got hiatus'd. Please, bring it back to life!”
I introduced the Forgotten Alchemist's Equivalent Exchange Scale to the visitors.
“Such a great item! I'll give it a try!”
“I heard all the precautions! Yes! I'll use it well!”
“Heh heh, with this, I can read that hiatus'd novel again!”
There wasn't much I could do to help once they started using the scale.
The cost of equivalent exchange had to be something material or conceptual that they themselves possessed.
Since they had to operate it themselves, all I could offer was a prior explanation and a warning that the cost could bring irreversible changes.
“Ha ha ha! My hair grew back! I'm free from hair loss! If it means losing a kidney or whatever, I can give that up no problem!”
“Hee hee! Traded 10 years of lifespan for Seoul uni admission—total steal! Am I the winner here or what?”
“The notice says the hiatus'd work is back! And they've stocked up episodes all the way to the end! Huh? The cost? No big deal. I just can't eat my favorite food for the next 10 years!”
Instead, I could provide guidelines.
I let quite a few people use the scale and surveyed the costs presented, then created guidelines for the six most common悩み.
[Table summarizing costs for the following rewards.]
[Costs may vary by individual—use as reference only.]
Reward: Healthy body equivalent to a diligently maintained 20-year-old's physique
Costs:
[1. Body aging accelerates by 30 years]
[2. Cannot eat fried or flour-based foods for life]
[3. 2 billion won]
Reward: 2 billion won
Costs:
[1. Body aging accelerates by 30 years]
[2. Cannot use the internet for life]
[3. 2 billion won]
Reward: Brain with IQ 150
Costs:
[1. Total removal of erogenous zones from entire body]
[2. Cannot masturbate or have sex for life]
[3. 5 billion won]
Reward: Meeting and marriage with ideal type
Costs:
[1. Knees that feel stabbing pain like an awl when it rains]
[2. Become spice-weakling who tears up even at Scoville 300 foods]
[3. 500 million won]
Reward: Employment at desired location
Costs:
[1. Ingrown toenails on both big toes for 10 years]
[2. Cannot eat food made by others for 3 years]
[3. 1 billion won]
Reward: Family happiness and peace
Costs:
[1. Four wisdom teeth regrow every year]
[2. Cannot drink alcohol, smoke, or gamble for life]
[3. 3 billion won]
I posted the guidelines in the office break room and on the desks.
“It's an entity, so it's not perfectly equivalent in material value terms.”
3 billion won for family happiness and peace?
Some people would trade 300 billion, not 3 billion.
Others would pay 1 billion instead of 500 million to meet and marry their ideal type, or 10 billion instead of 2 billion for health.
“The value of money is measured by humans, not entities.”
Anyway, thanks to the Equivalent Exchange Scale, I was able to help a lot of people.
Interestingly, unlike the Scales of Good and Evil, using the Equivalent Exchange Scale to help people increased my good karma.
“The Scales of Good and Evil had a very human-like ego. The Equivalent Exchange Scale feels like an old-model AI reciting a fixed manual. Must be the difference between a transcendent being and a tool.”
The more it stacks up, the better for me.
But one worry cropped up.
[Mission: Grand Prize win in an international art competition, festival, etc.]
[Deadline: 60 days]
The quest ticket penalty is coming up soon.
Exactly one month from today, the mission deadline ends.
“If I'd known, I wouldn't have accepted it.”
Sarang woke up and nagged me.
“But that would prove I lacked confidence in my own work. I didn't want to do something so cowardly.”
“......Sometimes I think, what if I'd been born a hundred years later?”
Ouch, that cuts deep.
“Really? When?”
No sooner had she finished than a call came in to Sarang.
I switched to speaker. Since it was a foreigner, “[Translating]” appeared on the screen.
—Mr. Lee Seung-hoon?
“Yes, that's me.”
—Hello.
From the smartphone came words from an unknown voice.
—Congratulations on winning the Grand Prize at the World Porn Festival!
[A global adult film festival co-hosted by the world's top erotic film fests: FICEB, Venus Berlin, LA EroFest, Sexpo, Japan Adult Expo, AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, etc.]
[Like the Porn Olympics, it selects the most creative, obscene, sensual, alluring, and shocking porn—poised to be the Ballon d'Or of porn.]
[First event scheduled for the first half of 2025.]
I looked up the World Porn Festival online.
“......So you entered it here?”
The prize itself was nothing special.
Just screening my work in multiple theaters.
For something created by various international groups, there was no ceremony and few awards, but since it was a brand-new festival, and per Sarang's research, it seemed due to internal coordination issues.
“It'll be better next year. More than that, I want to see the audience reactions.”
Videos played of foreigners reviewing "Possibility".
[Wow! Amazing! This is Salò's 120 Days reborn in the 21st century!]
[A feast of every fetish humans can imagine! Damn, I was hard the whole time!]
[A work containing every sexual possibility of humanity, true to its name "Possibility." Only flaw: too long!]
[Not just erotic—it's got human history too. Philosophical and beautiful. I learned about humanity's obsession with bestiality, the taboo of orgies in collective society, and new sexual orientations in our future. First thing when I get home: try the exhaust pipe.]
[Philosophy and visuals in harmony. Feel the philosophy and tears flow from above; appreciate the visuals and tears flow from below.]
Audience reviews were top-notch.
[A new discovery in porn—both a step from clichés and into new frontiers at once.]
[Beauty lasting over 6 hours. Dopamine surging so much my head hurts.]
[If you haven't seen this, you don't deserve to watch porn.]
[Citizen Kane of porn.]
As expected for a grand prize, the judges' praise went without saying.
“Regular film festivals would report it. But here, they recognized me.”
What recognition needed wasn't time—it was the subject.
'What created this difference?' The gaze had changed. Whether they saw my work as regular film or porn. 'Those who saw it as regular film only felt disgust and missed the philosophy inside. Those who saw it as porn read the philosophy hidden in the eroticism.' Regular films require cultivation. The studium—trying to evaluate the object from the gaze of others, prioritizing societal norms and collective human perspectives over personal meaning.
“That's why people share films. To check if their experience and feelings match others', gaining studium-like stability by sharing reactions.”
But porn isn't like that. In modern society, porn belongs to the utterly private realm.
“Porn can only be truly understood through personal, private, subjective experience—not cultivation.”
Only by shedding societal cultivation. Only by dropping the mask of the ordinary person can one finally peer fully into my work.
“Punctum.”
An impression and realization received instantaneously, linked not to general understanding but to personal taste, experience, unconscious, etc.
“So modern people can only understand my film through punctum.”
People who enter a porn festival naturally enjoy porn. Their punctum stood out, and by shedding the mask of cultivation, they recognized the true value of my work.
“I need to write this feeling down.”
I turned on the computer and logged into communities.
Still blocked from most, but I couldn't hold back this emotion.
“Tor time.”
I'm innocent.
I just wanted to debate as a polemicist, but got unfairly banned.
As an aggrieved individual, bypassing IP felt like admitting guilt despite innocence, so I hadn't before—but now I couldn't contain the urge to write.
“No need for Tor. Sarang, help me out.”
“Unban me from all communities.”
“And send all the pre-made highlight clips of "Possibility" to my computer.”
“Oh, and please post what I write from now on simultaneously to every community I'm joined to.”
The spirit of debate ignites.
[Author: IAmAPolemicist]
[Title: Studium and Punctum, Personal vs. Societal Desire, Porn and Everyday Life, the Boundary and Philosophical Discussion on Art]
Haven't written in a while.
[IAmAPolemicist, Who Is He?]
[Posting obscene content across all Korean online communities—extremely dangerous, horrific, disgusting photos.]
[Disguised as philosophy, but utter nonsense with no meaning.]
[Countless netizens reporting trauma from this, plus headaches, chills, nausea, etc.]
“My writing wasn't enough to change the world of studium.”
Unfortunately, people didn't recognize the movie used in the meme as "Possibility".
No one cared about the World Porn Festival, and thanks to the Scales of Good and Evil, the previous arrest was nullified with no evidence left.
“Pity, but can't be helped. Anyway...”
The moment I got the award message.
An inexplicable power surged through my body.
“I need to test my driving.”
Just then, the doorbell rang.
“Ah! Mr. Lee Seung-hoon, Fixer?”
“Yes, that's me.”
The visitor was a police officer.
“Did IAmAPolemicist bring you here?”
“Huh? No? That's handled by the sex crimes division and cyber terror team.”
“I see.”
“We came for something else we want to request from you, Fixer. You weren't at the office, so we cheekily came to your mansion...”
Damn.
I wanted to check my driving skills.
“Come in first.”
But people in need come first.
“Black tea or coffee?”