Han Joon-seong was at home, finishing up his calisthenics routine. The afternoon had stretched into early evening, and he was sweating through his shirt. His muscles burned pleasantly, the familiar ache of a good workout settling into his body.
His phone buzzed.
He stopped, picked it up, and saw a message from Han Do-yun. He let out a small sigh and opened it.
"Hello, Mr. Han Joon-seong. How are you?"
He typed back: "Hi, Han Do-yun. I'm fine, taking care of some things at home."
A moment later, the reply came: "Good, good. I just wanted to ask for your bank information so I can send you the payment for your last job."
Han Joon-seong blinked. "Ah, right. I forgot about that."
He sent his bank details. A few minutes passed, and then a notification popped up on his phone. In total, including his first job, he had received a payment of 36 million won from Han Do-yun.
He stared at the notification.
Cheon Seul-ah was sitting on the bed, her legs crossed, looking out the window at the street below. She glanced over at him.
"With 36 million won, we could probably buy a car," she said.
Han Joon-seong considered it. "Yeah, but is that a good use of our money?"
She turned to look at him fully. "Do you want people staring at us all day?"
He paused. Then sighed. "Yeah, okay. You have a good point." Being stared at as a woman was very different from as a man, after all.
He stopped his training, and Ervin pulled up the status window.
[[System]
Player: Ervin Mandor
--> Character 1; Han Joon‑seong
Character 2; Cheon Seul-ah
[Characteristics:
Adaptation(Perfect)
Talent(Perfect)
Auto Pilot(Perfect)
Money(Perfect|Middle‑class)
Intuition (Lvl. 1)
Looks(Lvl. 5)
Speed(Lvl. 4)(21/80)
Strength (Lvl. 6)(13/320)
Endurance (Lvl. 5)(76/160)
Vigor (Lvl. 5)(31/160)
Intelligence (Lvl. 3)(31/40)
[Fighting|Muay Thai (Lvl. 1)]
[Tasks:
[Scouting - Check out the Arriving talents in Busan - Reward: 50 Points]]]
He studied the numbers, thinking about how the system worked. By now, he had figured out the pattern. He had a chance to obtain one XP for every 30 minutes of effective training. For every hour of training, he was guaranteed at least one XP, but there was a chance he could earn more depending on the intensity.
He had been training for about four hours since he and Cheon Seul-ah returned from their meeting with Kang Dae-hyun. In that time, he had gained six points of Strength — not eight, but still solid progress.
He had also noticed something else. Training at full intensity produced better results than half-hearted effort. If he really pushed himself, he had a much higher chance of gaining XP. Going through the motions barely did anything.
Another thing he had confirmed: different attributes required different training methods. He was doing calisthenics — pull-ups, dips, muscle-ups, L-sits — and he was also paying attention to his breathing, controlling it the way the videos taught. He noticed that his Endurance was also increasing alongside his Strength because of the extra effort.
After four hours of testing this, he looked over at Cheon Seul-ah. She was still sitting on the bed, legs crossed, staring out the window at the street below.
He spoke. "Alright, I think it's time we figured out your training."
She nodded, stood up, and walked to the middle of the room. She began stretching, preparing for her workout.
She was wearing casual house clothes — a white t-shirt and gray shorts. The shirt was loose enough to be comfortable, but it still clung to her curves in certain places. When she raised her arms to stretch, the hem rode up slightly, revealing a sliver of her toned stomach. When she bent forward to touch her toes, the movement made her chest shift beneath the fabric.
She started her routine — push-ups, squats, lunges, core exercises. With each movement, her body moved in ways that were hard to ignore. Her chest bounced with each rep. Her shorts hugged her hips tightly. Her skin glistened with a light sheen of sweat as she worked.
Ervin watched from above, trying to focus on the training itself rather than the distractions.
After about thirty minutes, a notification appeared in his vision.
[Strength is being trained...]
[Strength has gained experience (1/160)]
He nodded to himself. 'So the same rules apply to her. Good.'
He pulled up her status window.
[[System]
Player: Ervin Mandor
Character 1; Han Joon-seong
--> Character 2; Cheon Seul-ah
[Characteristics:
Adaptation(Perfect)
Talent(Perfect)
Auto Pilot
Money(Perfect|Middle‑class)
Stealth (Lvl. 1)
Looks(Lvl. 5)
Speed(Lvl. 6)
Strength (Lvl. 5)(1/160)
Endurance (Lvl. 3)
Vigor (Lvl. 4)
Intelligence (Lvl. 5)
[Tasks:
[Scouting - Check out the Arriving talents in Busan - Reward: 50 Points]]]
He studied her stats and sighed. Her Endurance was at Level 3. That was concerning.
"Her Endurance is so low," Han Joon-seong muttered. "She's barely better than I was when I first started. That's bad. If she takes a hit with that kind of Endurance, she could die. She definitely wouldn't survive a hammer blow to the back like I did."
He started searching online for ways to increase Endurance. He found something — a kung fu training method where practitioners would punch themselves in the stomach to build resistance.
He stared at the screen.
'Yeah... that's not a great idea.'
He looked at Cheon Seul-ah. She had a strange expression on her face as she stared back at him.
"Beating up a woman inside the house doesn't exactly sound great, you know," she said.
He shrugged. "But you're my character."
She tilted her head. "But it's still kind of weird."
He paused and nodded. "Yeah. It is a little weird."
He scrolled further. There were other methods online — techniques that supposedly increased Endurance — but the most common approach was simple: training the muscles used for defense. Forearms, shins, shoulders, core. Strengthening those areas would help absorb damage.
He looked at the information and nodded. "Ah, so that's why lifting weights was still giving me some Endurance even though it wasn't giving me Strength. Makes sense."
He thought about it. "Does pain tolerance training increase Endurance?"
She considered her own situation. "Neither of us really feels pain the same way a normal person does. I don't think it would make much of a difference. So I guess the best method is just weightlifting and strength training."
He sighed. "Alright. Let's get back to training."
They trained for another five hours. Han Joon-seong gained ten points of Strength, eight points of Endurance. Cheon Seul-ah gained eight points of Strength, ten points of Endurance.
By the time they finished, it was late at night. Both of them collapsed on the floor, completely exhausted, the "Vigor Exhausted" notification floating in front of them.
Han Joon-seong let out a long, tired sigh. "I can't wait until I have enough Vigor that this never happens again."
Cheon Seul-ah, equally exhausted, nodded. "Yeah. Me too."
After a few minutes for recovery, they dragged themselves to the bathroom to shower. It wasn't as awkward anymore, since Ervin had already settled the fact they were just the same person, so they just washed off the grime of the day and got dressed for bed.
Afterward, they climbed into bed and fell asleep almost immediately.
---
The system interface flickered to life.
[Day Finished, awarded points [61 Points]]
[[Showing Store]
[Strengthening pills:
Looks
Speed
Strength
Endurance
Vigor
Intelligence
Cost: 30 points each
Description: Strengthening Pills Level up a Characteristic by 1 when consumed]
[Weakening Pills:
Speed
Strength
Endurance
Vigor
Intelligence
Cost: 20 Points each
Description: Weakening Pills Decrease a Characteristic by 1 for 24h when consumed]
[Fight Styles:
Street Dog Fighting Style - 150 Points
Kickboxing Fight Style - 150 Points
Boxing Fight Style - 150 Points
Karate Fight Style - 150 points
Muay Thai Fight Style - 150 Points
Taekwondo Fight Style - 150 Points
[...]]
[Misc:
Character File - 750 points.
Recovery Pill - 100
Characteristic Card - 200]
[[Tasks Available:
[None]]]
Ervin looked at the store.
His eyes immediately locked onto the most important thing that had happened since Cheon Seul-ah arrived.
"The Looks Pills are back!" he thought, excitement surging through him.
His imaginary hand reached out, ready to purchase multiple pills. But then he stopped. He paused, and slowly pulled his hand back.
"No," he said firmly. "I can't spend my points like that. Not this time. People are already looking at Han Joon-seong and Cheon Seul-ah without any kind of shame. If their looks are doubled, won't we just be attacked in plain daylight?"
Since the day Cheon Seul-ah appeared — just yesterday, in fact — he had noticed that the Looks Pills had been restocked. Combined with Han Joon-seong's Intuition, he had come to a conclusion: perhaps whenever he acquired a new character, the store reset itself, giving each character the chance to purchase their own set of pills.
If that was the case, then the easiest way to get stronger wouldn't be training at all. It would be buying more characters, resetting the pills, and funneling all of them into a single person. That way, each new character would come out stronger than the last.
But then he looked at the Character File.
The price had changed. It wasn't 250 points anymore. It was 750.
He stared at the number, letting out a long, resigned sigh.
'Of course. That makes sense. Effectively speaking, a single Character File doubled my effective combat strength. The new character has all the same stats as Han Joon-seong. If I keep buying them, each new character will have similar attributes, which effectively triples my overall power. So the price tripling... it makes sense.'
He was a little sad that he couldn't just keep buying an endless stream of characters, but he understood the logic. He accepted it.
His eyes drifted to the Weakening Pills again. He scoffed in irritation.
"I still don't understand why the hell this exists," he muttered. "What's the point?"
He let out a frustrated huff.
"For today, I don't want to buy anything. There's nothing I really need. But those Looks Pills are tempting. I'll have to think about whether I should get more of them or not."
He paused, his expression shifting to something more cautious.