Awakened as a Money-Spending Genius Enhancer - Chapter 12
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 12
Chapter 12. Oh My!
Finally.
────Craaack!!
Even without opening his eyes to look, Kang Hoon could tell.
“S-success…”
His throat burned for a moment.
“Enhancement to +4… success…!”
Moistening his throat with saliva, he looked down at the bracelet.
The aura emanating from its appearance was different.
A brilliantly sparkling purple aura that only Park Kang-hoon, an Enhancement Specialist, could see!
[Germanium Jade Bracelet of Vitality Enhancement +4]: A mid-boss level of pseudoscience! Known to have effects of blood circulation improvement, pain relief, immunity enhancement, and fatigue recovery, but there is absolutely no scientific evidence. However, this [Germanium Jade Bracelet of Vitality Enhancement] has truly gained vitality enhancement effects through enhancement!
The item description up to this point was the same as before. Except that the enhancement count had risen from ‘3’ to ‘4’.
What mattered were the options attached below!
* [Vitality Status +15] * [Vitality Status +15] * [Vitality Status +15] * When used by someone who does not possess disease resistance and aging suppression status, generates basic 5 disease resistance and aging suppression status
“Oh, ohhh!”
Not only had a fourth option appeared.
All the existing option values had increased by ‘5’ each!
Moreover, the existing options were [Vitality Status] – the exact option the customer had hoped for most!
The total value that had been ’30’ at +3.
Had risen to ’45’ through +4 enhancement.
‘This is absolutely incredible value!’
Numbers that fully met expectations!
“S-success! The total vitality status is plus 45!”
In his joy, Kang Hoon shouted proudly toward Baek Ye-ri.
“This is more than double the performance of the original item!”
“Kyaaaah!”
It was an item that had been satisfactory even in its original state.
News that an item exceeding twice that performance had been born!
At this, Baek Ye-ri forgot all dignity and let out a joyful cheer.
That wasn’t all.
Kang Hoon clearly and proudly read out the newly acquired fourth option.
“A new option has appeared! Disease resistance and aging suppression status generation. Of course, a Hunter like yourself wouldn’t need it, but…”
Before Kang Hoon could finish speaking,
“Kyah! That’s absolutely perfect for my husband!”
Baek Ye-ri poured out her admiration!
Disease resistance and aging suppression.
Two options that came to mind at once.
To Baek Ye-ri, this was like winning the lottery.
Her husband was an ordinary person.
Different from Baek Ye-ri, who was an Awakened Hunter.
The poor man who was losing weight day by day and whose cheeks were disappearing from being tormented by her every night.
‘What if he gets exposed to pathogens from other dimensions brought from Gates?’
She no longer needed to worry about such things!
‘My stamina is so good that my husband seems to be aging quickly.’
She didn’t even need to worry about that anymore!
Just one item.
Simply by wearing one light Germanium Jade Bracelet!
“Y-you can create such an amazing item?!”
Baek Ye-ri’s tone became much more respectful.
With sparkling eyes, she looked at the item resting on Kang Hoon’s hand.
At the same time, Kang Hoon felt an ominous feeling for some reason.
And for good reason – Baek Ye-ri’s gaze was even more unsettling than before.
“W-wait. Wait a moment!”
The whites of her eyes had turned red with heat.
Her pupils had turned black like a carnivorous beast that had spotted prey!
Before Kang Hoon could return the item to her in his nervousness.
Baek Ye-ri shouted.
“One more time! Just one more time!”
And then she started tapping on her mobile banking app.
As if it had become a habit, in an instant!
[Transfer to Park Kang-hoon
40,000,000 won
Completed!]
This made it 120 million won total.
Sitting in one spot, Kang Hoon had earned 120 million won.
“C-customer…”
While blinking in bewilderment at the surreal sensation.
Kang Hoon couldn’t overcome his conscience and warned her.
“If you keep this up and it fails even once and gets destroyed, it can’t be undone.”
This is enhancement addiction!
You should go home now!!
It was a sincere warning filled with such concern.
However, this whale customer had already tasted the flavor of ‘enhancement gacha’.
Her brain, pickled in dopamine, had lost its proper function.
Her eyes gleamed like a starving tiger.
“D-don’t look at me like that! If it fails, everything will be gone! Are you even listening to me?!”
For Kang Hoon, stopping her was beyond his capabilities.
“Just one more time! If we enhance it just one more time, I’ll stop!”
A strange situation where the paying customer was begging to pay more,
while the earning Enhancement Specialist was trying to stop her.
“Really! Really truly just one more round! Let’s go for the real final round!!”
“…”
Kang Hoon reached for the melting iced americano glass on the table.
Then he gulped down the drink that was half ice water, half coffee.
Gulp, gulp!
“Kuhh! If you insist… I understand.”
And the status window message that appeared before his eyes.
He read its contents aloud to Baek Ye-ri.
【 Success rate is 10%. Do you want to proceed? 】
“Success rate is 10%. Do you want to proceed?”
A tense moment.
Baek Ye-ri also picked up the hot latte cup in front of her and gulped it down.
And without long deliberation, she gave her answer.
“Please proceed, Enhancement!”
Kang Hoon immediately closed his eyes and attempted +5 enhancement for the first time in his life.
“Enhancement!”
Then.
What rang in Kang Hoon’s ears this time was a different song than before.
‘Huh? What is this strange melody?’
A low sound like someone humming.
The nasal voice of an unfamiliar man echoing in Kang Hoon’s head like ‘Hmm~ hmm hmm~ hmm~!’
At the voice that didn’t suit the situation, Kang Hoon raised his head.
But Kang Hoon was the only one flustered.
Baek Ye-ri sitting across from him kept her gaze fixed on Kang Hoon’s hands.
More precisely, on the item covered within Kang Hoon’s two hands.
It seemed this humming sound was only audible to Kang Hoon.
【 Oops! 】
Then a status window suddenly appeared!
He’d never seen a message like this before!
【 My wrist slipped~! There was one mistake~! 】
What… what kind of ominous message and voice is this!
‘No way!?’
A feeling like all the hair on his neck was standing up.
Kang Hoon hunched his shoulders.
And carefully,
He lifted his two hands that were clasping the Germanium Jade Bracelet.
He couldn’t bring himself to open them wide.
Instead, he pressed his eyes to the gap between his hands.
And when he slowly, very carefully opened them.
Rustle rustle rustle…
Iron powder and plastic fragments fell to the floor.
The +4 magic item with fantastic options was nowhere to be found.
“…”
“…”
As if unable to believe that fact, Baek Ye-ri crawled up onto the table.
Then she grabbed Kang Hoon’s hands and checked with a trembling face.
“Wh, wh, wha-what…”
…Nothing.
There was nothing in Kang Hoon’s palms.
This was almost like magic.
─Magic that made a +4 item disappear in an instant.
If there was a difference between magic and reality…
You could make it disappear.
But you couldn’t bring it back.
Her head swayed back and forth helplessly.
After a moment of silence.
“Uwaaaah…”
Kang Hoon’s quiet sigh and,
“Kyaaaak!!”
Baek Ye-ri’s regret-filled scream echoed.
“What, what have I done! Kyaaaaaaak!!”
The first enhancement failure he’d ever experienced.
The price was brutal and harsh.
A whole +4!
A magic item where even all the options had rolled perfectly!
That fantastic treasure was nowhere to be found.
It had instantly turned to powder and scattered.
Along with the commission fee Baek Ye-ri had paid.
* * *
The dim road home.
‘I wonder if something called flow really exists or what.’
Tsk.
Clicking his tongue, Kang Hoon sighed.
As they parted ways after their brief meeting, Baek Ye-ri’s retreating figure looked truly pitiful.
Baek Ye-ri had originally brought two +2 items.
The second item she handed over with trembling hands as soon as the first item was destroyed.
Even that failed as soon as they attempted +3.
Baek Ye-ri was left empty-handed with nothing.
She was truly devastated.
For her sake as she was on the verge of tears, Kang Hoon hurriedly opened his bag.
And he enhanced two spare Germanium Jade Bracelets on the spot and sold them.
One of them he even enhanced one more time to +3.
‘Good thing I brought spares.’
In the end, Baek Ye-ri only received +1 enhancement.
Even that had mediocre options.
The ‘Immunity Increase and Anti-aging’ option that had luckily appeared once didn’t appear again.
Baek Ye-ri seemed quite disappointed by that.
She held the item with the ordinary [Vitality Status +10] option and pondered for a long time.
But the shock of destruction was great.
In the end, she shook her head and completed the transaction.
Trudge trudge.
Her dejected figure walking away was pitiful.
‘If only she hadn’t seen the +4 item.’
Now +3 items definitely wouldn’t satisfy her.
Since she’d learned there was a higher peak.
“Enhancement is gambling.”
Kang Hoon came to that conclusion.
“I shouldn’t become an addict like that.”
As he made that resolution, he suddenly became curious about something else.
“So how much money did Baek Ye-ri lose today in total?”
That would be exactly how much Kang Hoon himself had earned.
Fumbling around, Kang Hoon took out his mobile phone and opened the banking app.
And checked his transaction history.
[Deposit: 40,000,000 won
Deposit: 40,000,000 won
Deposit: 40,000,000 won]
And after the first bracelet was destroyed, again.
[Deposit: 40,000,000 won]
The second bracelet was also destroyed.
Two new [Virility Enhancement Germanium Jade Bracelet +2] were purchased.
[Deposit: 100,000,000 won]
Only one of them was enhanced again.
[Deposit: 40,000,000 won]
Adding it all up?
“…Huh?”
Why, doesn’t everyone have that kind of experience?
You think you spent just a little bit here and there, but the total amount is a snowball bomb.
Kang Hoon’s end-of-month settlements had always been like that.
But today was the opposite.
The total amount of payments that came in one after another without rest was—.
“300 million?!”
Kang Hoon’s mouth fell wide open.
His dream apartment.
He had gotten so close to its entrance so suddenly, unexpectedly, all at once.
It felt like he’d already bought the shoe cabinet and corridor!?
“I, I earned 300 million from just one first enhancement transaction?”
Real-time gacha shows are this dangerous!?
* * *
Early morning.
Han River Walking Path.
“Huff, huff, huff!”
His two legs running automatically as if driven by momentum.
“Huff, huff, huff!”
Every time his running shoes hit the ground, Kang Hoon’s chest and back became drenched with sweat.
The sweat drops wetting his face fell like Hansel and Gretel’s breadcrumbs.
As if marking the Running Way along the Han River Bank that Kang Hoon had run.
‘Rushing out of the house and running in the morning breeze!’
This was something the old Kang Hoon would never have imagined doing.
The only ‘exercise’ he’d done was some half-hearted attempts long ago.
And even that was because of a game called 【Ring Fit】.
Because it could be done at home and was also an otaku game.
‘Even that I quit using the excuse of being busy—.’
Three-day enthusiasm, wasn’t it?
There are reasons why people end up that way.
No leisure in life.
—That’s the typical reason.
But Kang Hoon was different these days.
He had gained something called leisure in life!
‘Of course, since my bank account is full of money!’
So today Kang Hoon opened a new chapter of his life.
The kind of thing rich male leads in dramas used to do.
Healthily tanning his shoulders in the sunlight while jogging along the Han River Bank!
‘This is real power! The power of those who have money!’
A luxury greater than any other luxury.
That was ‘self-care’!
“Huff, huff, huff!”
The [Virility Enhancement Germanium Jade Bracelet +2] glinted on both his sweat-soaked wrists.
It was Kang Hoon’s money-making product with vitality status increase options.
What is ‘virility’ to a man?
—It’s strength and vitality!
Kang Hoon’s poor stamina was also boosted thanks to the bracelet.
Even after running for a long time, he still had energy left!
“Hyaaah!”
The feeling of sweat drying in the morning breeze was refreshing!
It would be even better if there was an even more refreshing drink to wet his throat.
Gradually slowing down his running pace, Kang Hoon looked for a convenience store.
And turned into a side street, walking slowly.
“Let’s see.”
The convenience store refrigerator blowing out cold air.
Standing in front of it, he carefully chose a drink.
He hadn’t known before.
That food consumed after exercise, whatever it was, was precious.
The taste seemed to feel twice as vivid.
“Drinks good for the liver? Tea with medicinal herbs? They make all sorts of things these days.”
After scanning everything from yuzu tea to hangover remedies.
Kang Hoon picked up a bottle of plain barley tea.
That’s when it happened.
“Oh… finally coming out!”
An admiring voice caught Kang Hoon’s attention.
It was the voice of the part-timer who had been standing at the counter in the distance, just looking at his mobile phone.
“Crazy. I saw it go in yesterday.”
Click, click.
The part-timer hurriedly taking pictures outside the window with his mobile phone camera.
Kang Hoon’s gaze followed him toward outside the convenience store.
And he was amazed.
“Wow… What is that?”
Muttering blankly, Kang Hoon stood close to the glass window.
Through the clean window.
A green soccer field with goal posts.
The once-blue grass field now had cracks running through it out of nowhere.
Literally ‘crack’.
Like splitting a watermelon.
And through those ‘cracks’, people were walking out?
“Looks like they’re coming up subway stairs or something.”
People naturally emerging from the ground.
A bizarre sight he’d never seen before.
But Kang Hoon wasn’t surprised.
Their identity was obvious.
“Must be Hunters returning from a Gate.”
There were already dozens of locations domestically.
Gates that weren’t completely sealed existed.
And official Hunters could take missions to visit Gates anytime.
Sometimes to find items or materials only obtainable in Gates.
Sometimes to rescue missing people who were unluckily sucked in when Gates opened.
And sometimes the Government commissioned them for research purposes.
‘Inside Gates are infinite other worlds.’
But outside Gates, it’s relatively simple.
‘You just enter through the cracked entrance, then walk back out through the same hole as an exit.’
The convenience store part-timer was basically a CCTV for this area.
Judging from his muttering, those Hunters seemed to have spent a full day in the Gate.
‘No wonder people were gathered around.’
He’d thought all the citizens living with Han River views were this diligent.
Apparently not.
The people surrounding the field were staff supporting the Hunters.
‘I wonder if there are any Hunters I recognize?’
While thinking this and watching.
“Cleric! Where’s the cleric!?”
The long-haired female Hunter who emerged last from the Gate shouted.
She was carrying a young man slumped on her back.
A sharp, scream-like cry.
Soon, staff began rushing toward her.
Among them was apparently a Hunter with ‘cleric’ abilities.
The unconscious young man was laid on the ground.
A white-haired elderly Hunter placed his hands on him.
Then light began pouring out from the old man’s hands.
“Ooh…!”
His beard flowing as he chanted what might have been prayers or something.
Whoooosh!
The skill effect was incredibly flashy.
“Wow, lucky him. I just say ‘Enhancement’ and that’s it.”
Clicking his tongue enviously, Kang Hoon focused on the drama unfolding in the distance.
“Anyone watching would think they’re filming a movie…”
However.
‘Interesting and entertaining’.
That impression didn’t last long.
The white-haired cool old man, the Gandalf-like cleric said something.
Then the female Hunter let out a heart-wrenching scream.
“No, Ji-seong! Don’t die!”
Then she grabbed the man’s upper body and began to despair.
“Huh…?”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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