5. Singing? Just go to a coin karaoke.
Jinha was discharged from the hospital not long after.
After finishing several examinations and finding nothing wrong, there was no need to remain in the hospital room for no reason.
"Thank goodness for real. We almost got scammed by that quack doctor."
"Right? How could he make such a misdiagnosis? Should we sue him?"
Walking toward the parked car, Gitae and Ayeong grumbled incessantly.
It was truly fortunate that the injuries weren't severe, but to think there was such a misdiagnosis in this day and age.
Feeling displeased was unavoidable.
"Excuse me…"
"Yes?"
Someone tapped Jinha on the back.
When he turned around, it was the little girl Jinha had saved and her mother.
"Huh? Aren't you Seongyeon's mother? Is the child okay?"
Gitae stepped forward and greeted them first.
"Yes, thanks to you, my child survived. I'm truly grateful. And I'm so sorry for coming to see you so late. I was completely out of it…"
The little girl named Seongyeon, hiding behind the woman, poked her head out and stared at Jinha.
"Look at her. Come out here and say thank you."
"No…"
"Oh, this girl!"
"It's fine. She must be shy."
"She's not usually like this… I'm really sorry. But are you alright? I heard you were badly hurt…"
"Well… they say there's nothing seriously wrong."
"What? Really? Thank goodness. I was so worried. This isn't much, but please accept it."
The woman repeated "what a relief" several times and handed Jinha a shopping bag.
"Oh, macarons!"
Inside the shopping bag, in a paper box, were the very macarons that Ayeong had been singing about.
There were also two envelopes, one of which seemed to be a letter written by Seongyeon.
"Seongyeon's mother runs a macaron shop across the street."
"Ah. Thank you so much. We'll enjoy them."
"No. We are the ones who are grateful. Then we'll visit again later. Thank you so very much once again."
Seongyeon's mother bowed deeply at the waist and firmly pressed Seongyeon's head beside her to make her bow.
After Seongyeon's mother left, they decided to look at the letter envelope later, and when they opened the other envelope, it contained 300,000 won in cash.
300,000 won. He didn't know the exact value of money, but it looked like quite a lot.
"Is it okay for us to accept this?"
"Of course. She gave it to say thanks, so we should accept it. Thankfully it all worked out well, and we can keep running the shop, so let's go home in a good mood and have a macaron party."
"Macarons are nice, but a macaron party? We should buy meat and have a meat party."
"We'll put macarons next to the meat, that's what I mean. Anyway, let's go! I don't have decades-old whiskey, but I've got Geumjeongsanseong makgeolli that's been sitting in the fridge four months past its expiration date, and I'm opening it today."
"Ah, what is that? Why would you drink something past its expiration date?"
"If you don't know, just don't drink it. Do you even know how makgeolli tastes?"
The three returned to the shop and held a modest party.
Though not plentiful, there was meat and various side dishes, making for quite an impressive spread.
Especially the makgeolli Gitae had mentioned—it tasted beyond imagination.
Even the macarons set aside for after the meal were divine.
"Anyway, our Jinha saved someone and didn't get hurt! What day could be better than this?"
After some drinking, Gitae's voice grew louder.
"Dad, stop drinking and go upstairs now. The neighbors will report you for being noisy."
"Huh? What did I do to get reported?"
"Right now, Dad, your voice could probably be heard in North Korea, you know? Go up and sleep. I'll clean up here."
Hearing Ayeong's words, Gitae looked embarrassed, pouted, and went upstairs.
Gitae seemed utterly devoted to Ayeong.
With his large frame, Gitae climbed the stairs awkwardly and cast a glance at Jinha as if asking, "Want one more drink?" with a hint of regret.
"Stop drinking now. If people from North Korea come looking with clubs like Ayeong said, what then?"
"I didn't go that far."
Jinha also wanted another drink, but it seemed better to send Gitae up for now.
"Ah, forget it, forget it! It's foul, I won't drink it!"
When Jinha deliberately ignored the look, Gitae grumbled and went up to his room.
"Oppa, you should stop drinking too, right? You seem fine, but drinking so much right after being discharged from the hospital…"
"I'm not loud, though."
"You're plenty loud enough. When people get drunk, they never know they're being loud."
"Like you?"
Being loud seemed to be a trait of the people in this house.
Even after Gitae went up, the conversation continued naturally, and they emptied another bottle of alcohol.
"By the way, is there a place around here where I could practice singing?"
To clear the quest he had received this time, he needed to practice singing, but practicing in a corner of the room seemed difficult.
Since the rooftop room wasn't properly soundproofed, complaints from neighbors were sure to come, just as Ayeong had said.
"Singing? Just go to a coin karaoke."
"Gono?"
"Sigh… Kono. Coin karaoke. We used to go often before."
"Ah, did we?"
"Oppa, do you know you've been acting strange lately?"
Ayeong narrowed her eyes and glared at Jinha.
Lately, something had definitely been off. Jinha's behavior, his way of speaking—everything.
They had lived in the same house for years; there was no way she wouldn't notice.
"Ah… I've just been a bit out of it lately. But that gono… where is it again?"
"Changing the subject makes it even stranger. Oppa… are you really okay? Could it be some kind of accident after-effect or something? Now that I think about it, 300,000 won and macarons seems a bit inadequate."
"It's not like I saved her to earn a living, so that's plenty enough. And I got a letter too."
"Let's go."
"Huh?"
"I said let's go to the coin karaoke. I'll go with you."
Ayeong roughly cleaned up the drinking area and took Jinha to the coin karaoke.
The karaoke was not far from the shop.
The building was somewhat shabby, but inside, it was quite clean and spacious.
'Ooh…'
Inside, people were bustling about.
Seeing everyone enter small rooms and sing felt somehow familiar yet amazing.
'To think this is a coin karaoke.'
Upon entering the room, Jinha deliberately looked straight ahead instead of gawking around to avoid arousing suspicion.
"I'm singing first! Pick what you're going to sing."
Jinha glanced at Ayeong choosing her song and tried to pick one for himself.
Finding a song worth practicing among thousands on his own was nearly impossible, but Ayeong recommended various songs from beside him.
"Do you know this song?"
"I don't really remember it."
"Oppa, this is really serious. Listen to this one first. You might remember if you listen to it."
Ayeong searched for the song on her smartphone and played it for him.
"Hmm, hmm."
He was surprised to see music coming from this tiny device, but he accepted the smartphone as if nothing were unusual.
After listening to the song three times, he started the song Ayeong had recommended.
'Let's see how good it is.'
It wasn't with this body, but he had always been confident in his singing.
He thought that if he sang, he could quickly master about three songs.
3, 2, 1… Jinha opened his mouth following the lyrics on the screen.
"…"
In that instant, the air inside the coin karaoke booth grew cold.
Jinha's mind went blank.
'Huh…?'
With this voice, why had he failed at that place called an audition?
Standards might differ from listener to listener, but this was clearly an exceptional tone and volume, plus a unique vocal color.
Though he made mistakes here and there since he hadn't yet grasped the entire song, he sang to the end.
Even after the song ended, Ayeong stared blankly at the screen for a while before turning her head toward Jinha.
"Wow… our oppa is really good after all. But why do you tremble so much at auditions?"
"Me? Tremble? I don't usually tremble."
"No, last time too, you couldn't do anything and failed…"
Ayeong abruptly closed her mouth.
"Ah, sorry. I just feel frustrated that you can't show your true skills properly."
He didn't feel offended or anything.
It was the original owner of this body who had trembled; it wasn't him.
Jinha paid no heed and sang the same song again, intoxicated by his own voice.
The more he sang, the more emotions welled up naturally, and he became immersed in the song according to the lyrics.
"Oh my, our oppa is really the best. When you become a real singer later, what will you buy me?"
"Is there something you want?"
"Oh, you'll really buy it? Not an item—send me on a trip, a trip."
"A trip?"
"Yeah, my wish is to go abroad once."
Abroad.
Even Jinha, who had traveled the entire country with a troupe of performers, had never been abroad.
If he could go, Jinha wanted to go too.
"Alright. Let's make lots of money and go together with Uncle Gitae, the three of us."
"Oh, really? You promised. No taking it back."
"I've never gone back on my word once in my life."
Jinha and Ayeong spent two hours at the coin karaoke.
Jinha had never had so much fun singing before.
No matter how much he sang, he didn't tire; he felt like he could sing all day.
'As expected, it's fun when you're good.'
After leaving the karaoke, Jinha kept humming the songs he had learned at the coin karaoke.
He couldn't perfectly master three songs in two hours, but he could learn the lyrics and melodies.
At this rate, it seemed he could clear this quest before long.
"Ah, I sang to my heart's content, really. It's fun since it's been so long since I came."
Seeing Ayeong's expression brighten, Jinha felt good too.
They sang to their hearts' content with the money from the hospital, yet only had to hand over two out of thirty bills. That lady must have given quite a lot of money.
Jinha returned home, asked Ayeong, downloaded the songs on his smartphone, and practiced them on infinite repeat.
And before long, a quest completion message popped up.
[Learn the Songs 3/3 Target Value Complete.]
- You have acquired 'Essence of Stamina.'
- The next quest has been activated.
▶ Essence of Stamina [Stage 1]
- You can use additional stamina beyond basic stamina.
- Next Stage: Learn the Songs 0/50
* * *
Easy.
Too easy.
The quest difficulty was so low that he wondered if it was okay to receive rewards this easily.
Jinha sat alone in his room and examined the next quest.
◆ Fifth Quest (Repeatable)
[Walking 10,000 Steps (0/10000)]
- Walk 10,000 steps or more (Daily repeat)
- The power that makes everything begin. Stamina. Let's build basic stamina by walking 10,000 steps every day.
- Reward: Pill of Discernment
This time, it was a quest in a slightly different format from before.
"A repeatable quest… they really have everything."
He had a hard time understanding exactly what was different, but since he just had to walk 10,000 steps, this too was not a difficult quest.
"This is the first letter I've received in my life."
Jinha dismissed the letters floating before his eyes, sat at his desk, and took out the letter Seongyeon had given him.
When he opened the letter made by cutting thick drawing paper, there was a picture that seemed drawn by Seongyeon and a short message.
It was a short message, but just from the deeply pressed handwriting, he could feel that it was a letter written earnestly over a long time.
"This feels pretty good."
A pleasant warmth spread through his entire body from the pride of having saved someone.
He did feel uneasy that the fire itself might have been because of the quest, but…
"Huh?"
He hadn't noticed before, but there was something bulging on the back of the letter envelope.
It was a colored pencil.
"She gave me her entire fortune."
A soft laugh escaped him.
It might be a trivial thing, but even if it wasn't all of Seongyeon's possessions, it must have been something precious.
"Celebrity, huh…"
Jinha looked at the ceiling and recalled what had happened at the hospital.
The spectacular stages of the idols he had seen on TV. The cheers of the audience.
And the dance he had performed and the joyful expressions of the patients.
For Jinha, who had lived his whole life as a performer, it had been the greatest experience.
'Could it be that I came to this place to live as this world's performer?'
Jinha looked at his reflection in the full-length mirror in the corner.
Compared to the celebrities he had seen on TV, he was somewhat lacking, but this was above average.
If he had the skill to overwhelm everyone, and the rewards obtained from clearing quests, then he had a chance.
'No, not just a chance.'
1000%.
Confidence blazed within Jinha that he could become the greatest performer in this world.
"Let's do it!"
Jinha took out paper and began writing down the things he would do from now on with the colored pencil Seongyeon had given him.