Chapter 9
Chapter 9
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: Level Up!
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Sangjin looked at Woojin and grinned.
"I'm excited too, bro."
With just one final click left to make, Sangjin did one last check to ensure nothing was missing.
Still, it seemed solid enough.
He could always check later and fix any issues that came up.
The two brothers were filled with anticipation.
This was their first step forward, achieved through their own efforts for a better future.
It might seem trivial to some, but to the brothers, it was profoundly moving.
"We really launching it now?"
"Y-yeah! Finally! Hey! Me too! Let me click with you!"
In a rush, Woojin reached for the mouse, and the two clicked it together.
"One, two!"
Click!
The brothers clicked the mouse in unison.
For this moment, there were no jokes—just pure seriousness.
The mouse click sounded louder than ever, marking the monumental instant their first product went live on the online shopping site.
"D-did it work?"
Sangjin carefully verified everything and nodded at Woojin's question.
"Of course it did."
The brothers faced each other and slapped their hands together in a mighty high-five, as if competing to see who would go first.
Smack!
"Hahaha, awesome. Having a college kid for a little brother really makes everything smooth sailing, huh!? Now all that's left is getting rich?"
"College has nothing to do with it. You can do all this just by looking stuff up online."
As Woojin started to protest, a thunderous rumble echoed from his stomach.
Grrrrrrowl—
"Ugh... I'm starving... I haven't eaten since you dragged me into this till now. You haven't eaten either, right?"
Sangjin glanced at the clock before answering Woojin's question.
"I rushed over without eating. What, you gonna cook for me again, bro?"
Woojin suddenly remembered one item from his bucket list he'd missed out on since returning.
"Hey, let's have ramen! Ramen! I'll run to the convenience store up front and grab some quick."
"Oh, ramen for lunch sounds perfect! I was just about to suggest it myself."
Were they brothers for a reason—their minds synced up perfectly?
"Be right back!"
True to his word, Woojin returned home in minutes with five packs of ramen.
As if he'd anticipated exactly when his brother would return, Sangjin already had a pot of water on the stove.
"Kuh! My little bro's got killer instincts as always."
"How could I entrust precious rations to someone who hasn't boiled ramen in over ten years? Hand them over."
"You bought them, so obviously you're boiling them."
Ramen always tasted best when someone else made it.
"Grab a couple eggs while you're at it, sir."
"Heh heh heh, you got it!"
Watching Sangjin boil ramen after so long was... well, kinda crazy.
Woojin felt like the ramen might end up tasting like chemicals, with his brother using a measuring cup and stopwatch to time everything precisely.
"...Do you really need to go that far?"
"Ramen tastes best when you follow the instructions exactly. You dissing big corp PhDs right now, bro?"
"...Damn it."
The nagging rose in Woojin's throat, but seeing his brother boil ramen for him, he summoned superhuman patience and held it back.
'As long as it tastes good, whatever.'
Soon, the ramen was served before Woojin, emanating its elegant aroma.
Woojin whipped out his Goblin Chopsticks and scooped a portion onto his plate before Sangjin even set it down, blowing on it furiously before slurping it up in one go.
"Hey! At least set it down and serve yourself first!"
Ignoring Sangjin's complaints, Woojin kept blowing on the noodles and inhaling them.
"Hoo haa! Hoo haa! Slurrrrp!!"
Sangjin scowled at the massive noodle-slurping assault.
"Ugh! Stop slurping noodles like that! Why do you even do it? The broth's splashing everywhere! This is disgusting!"
Woojin crammed an enormous amount of ramen into his mouth, then stabbed a big piece of kimchi with his chopsticks, shoving it into the empty space and chomping it down in seconds.
Then he stared blankly at the ceiling, savoring the感動 flavor.
"Kuh... This is insane... Ramen tastes this good? I'm about to tear up. Dude, noodles are meant to be eaten like this. Noodle slurping's the norm over there."
"Jeez..."
And a moment later.
"Ta-da, check this out, bro."
"...What the hell is that...?"
On Sangjin's side plate was a drawing.
A snake with multiple heads from Japanese mythology.
"3-enhancement chopsticks can do this, huh?"
"...Playing with food gets you cursed."
"Call it Ramen Art! We should use this for promo."
"You're nuts..."
The brothers polished off their ramen in no time, mixing in rice too. Right after eating, Sangjin plopped back down at his laptop, tinkering with something.
"Sangjin, what're you doing? We gotta do dishes."
"Ah, old habits die hard! Just handle it this time, bro! I boiled it too! Gotta make ads now."
Woojin bought the ramen, Sangjin boiled and washed up.
It was their longstanding unspoken rule. The only difference today was that Sangjin was swamped.
"Ads? Don't those cost money? We haven't sold a single one yet—why ads?"
"Not paid ads. Just highlighting product features for SNS. No idea if it'll work, but better than doing nothing. Product's unique, so once it gets some exposure, it'll blow up quick. Gonna post that ramen art too."
Woojin whistled, impressed by his brother's expert response.
"Whew~ My little bro's a marketing pro? Alright! You be the CEO!"
"You'd claim chairman for yourself. So childish."
Woojin chuckled awkwardly, busted.
"Don't be a buzzkill. Takes long?"
"Made SNS accounts in advance just in case, so it'll be quick. Older accounts work better for promo than brand-new ones."
Woojin briefly suspected his brother might be running other online shops on the side.
As Sangjin worked on the ads, he tossed a comment Woojin's way.
"Hey bro, you got a portal site blog or...?"
"Nah, no clue how."
Sangjin continued before he even finished.
"Not asking you to make one. Any old blogs lying around? You might've made one by accident."
Woojin had no memory of such a thing. He was the classic computer illiterate, using just one ID for email, portals—everything.
"Doubt it. You know my ID—check it."
"It's clean. Blank slate like your head. My bad for asking."
Sangjin teased his computer-illiterate brother sometimes, but deep down, he felt responsible for it.
When they were kids and Sangjin wanted to hit up a PC bang, Woojin didn't just sit idle.
He got permission from the orphanage director, found student-friendly part-time gigs, scraped together money so at least Sangjin could hang with friends, game at PC bangs, and eat treats.
Woojin had never even used a PC bang himself—just popped in a few times to drag Sangjin out.
That was the story behind Woojin's computer phobia.
Recalling the bittersweet memory, Sangjin spoke to Woojin.
"I'll handle computer stuff as much as possible. But bro, you really gotta learn someday. Computer illiterate in this day and age? That's why I put you in charge of business registration."
"Was gonna anyway. It's not that I can't—I'll pick it up fast. YouTube tutorials make it easy these days."
Woojin held back from saying he'd been too busy working to support Sangjin to learn.
Sangjin secretly wished his brother would blame him just once.
Oblivious, Woojin shouted.
"Oh yeah, when do orders come in? It's been like 30 minutes already?"
Thinking his brother was getting ahead of himself, Sangjin sighed.
"If stuff sold that fast, everyone's be rich. Wait it out. Lucky? Today. Otherwise, days."
Woojin was shocked.
"D-days?"
"Make chopsticks and stock up in the meantime. Our product's small volume, low cost—stocking's smart."
Bored with nothing to do, Woojin grabbed the hoodie he'd tossed off earlier and put it on.
"They sell the same chopsticks at the mart—grab some?"
"Hmm... Get 100 for now."
"Huh? Just that?"
"See if they sell first. You can only make 20-30 a day, right?"
100 would take 4-5 days. To boost mana, Woojin needed to level up via skills anyway. Best thing now: use skills.
Best leveling? Hunting monsters, obviously.
But combat-weak production classes couldn't.
Alternatives existed.
Slower XP than fighters, but production activities granted XP too.
"Got it. Be back. Keep working."
"Yeah, no rush. Grab me a coffee on the way. High caffeine. Busy day ahead."
"Roger!"
A bit later.
Woojin handed Sangjin a coffee.
Too busy to look up, Sangjin said,
"Thanks, bro."
Woojin eyed the coffee he offered and smirked slyly.
Two days passed like that.
Sangjin, who'd drunk the coffee Woojin gave him, hadn't slept a wink in two days.
"What... did you do to this coffee...?"
Woojin's eyes trembled.
"W-what do you mean? Why can't you sleep?"
Sangjin rubbed his bloodshot eyes.
"Ugh, driving me crazy. Can't sleep. Just from that one cup."
"R-really? Try this then."
"What's this?"
"Sleep inducer. +2 enhanced, so it'll knock you right out."
"...Not the kind where you never wake up, right?"
"I tested it myself! Sweet dreams guaranteed. Sweet dreams."
Sangjin narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"For real...?"
"You gonna live life getting scammed? Trust me. Would I kill you?"
"...Fine... I'm dying without sleep anyway. One shot."
Over the past two days, Woojin had already run clinical trials on himself with the +2 Sleep Inducer.
It was magical—pure bliss sleep the moment you swallowed it.
Of course, deep enough sleep and you could wake normally.
Luckily, Sangjin passed out in 2 seconds flat after taking it.
Today was Saturday.
No classes for Sangjin.
While Sangjin slept off the Sleep Inducer,
Woojin checked his status window.
Just from enhancing chopsticks, he'd leveled up once.
As expected for a production class, physical stats barely budged, but Magic Power, Mental Power, Dexterity rose nicely.
And something caught his eye.
Hitting Lv.2 unlocked the formerly locked 'Imbue' skill. By engraving advanced techniques into the chopsticks, Mana Manipulation had become a full skill.
Plus a new stat: Luck.
Advanced Mana Manipulation aside, Woojin focused on 'Imbue'.
'Is this what I think it is?'
Detailed description confirmed it—exactly what he'd hoped.
This was a type of magic mainly used by mages.
It imbued gear with elemental magic like fire, ice, lightning—temporarily boosting power.
Permanent imbues like magic swords were possible too, but required tons of materials and master smiths.
Irrelevant to Woojin for now.
Just in case, he tried Imbue on chopsticks.
'What? Useless then?'
Woojin knew no elemental magic, nor did he have items with special abilities or attributes for Imbue.
Useless solo.
If Earth yielded mana stones with attributes someday, it'd shine then.
'Better than nothing.'
Truth be told, Woojin was happier about Enhancement hitting Lv.2.
Skill levels were harder to raise fast than body levels—capped at 10.
Body levels could grind forever, but skills maxed out.
Still, Lv.2 this quick.
'Take it slow. No rush yet.'
He could just earn money quietly and live.
No need to scramble for survival levels like in Unriworld.
Enhancement alone held infinite potential.
With that resolve, Woojin closed his status window and waited for his brother to wake.