Song Eun-woo looked up, surprised to find Han Soo-jin standing at his desk, not Kim Do-hyun.
She was fully back in her disguise—the thick, oversized glasses, the hair a deliberate curtain. The fleeting goddess of the exam hall was gone, replaced once more by the timid "Ghost" of Class 3-5.
"Th-thank you for the medicine," she mumbled, her voice barely audible over the classroom's post-exam chatter. "I… I noticed you didn't write anything. So, here."
She placed a thick, well-organized notebook on the corner of his desk, then turned and fled back to her seat before he could utter a word, her ears burning a bright, telltale red.
A few of the boys nearby exchanged smirks and nudged each other. One muttered, "Looks like even 'The Ghost' feels sorry for the class dunce." But a sharp glance from Eun-woo silenced any further commentary. His reputation for being quick-tempered still held some weight.
Ugly? Eun-woo thought, a private smile touching his lips. If they only knew.
He picked up the notebook. It was heavy, its cover worn soft at the edges. Flipping it open, he was met with pages of immaculate, meticulous notes for every English grammar point and vocabulary list from the past three years. Hanul and Roman script flowed in perfectly straight lines. It was a masterpiece of academic diligence. He understood about ten percent of it.
A warm, foolish feeling bloomed in his chest. A token of gratitude… or maybe…?
He shook his head, cutting off the daydream. Don't be an idiot. She's just a good person. She's repaying a debt.
The final bell of the day rang. As his classmates streamed out, Eun-woo carefully slid the notebook into his backpack, treating it with a reverence he usually reserved for new video game releases.
Kim Do-hyun, who had caught the tail end of the exchange, sidled up, his face a mask of exaggerated confusion. "Hyung, what was that? Some new four-dimensional chess strategy? My brain's ttokttok (tapping head) trying to figure it out."
"It's called having a vision for the future. Something your ttokttok brain, fueled only by tteokbokki and webtoons, wouldn't understand," Eun-woo retorted, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "While you're aiming for some local university, I'm setting my sights on SNU. Gotta step up my—wait."
He stopped mid-sentence, his eyes going wide. A spark, then a full-blown idea ignited in his mind.
"You're the one going to a vocational college! My grades are solidly mid-tier!" Do-hyun shouted after him, but Eun-woo was already gone, bolting from the classroom like a shot.
He didn't head home. Instead, he jumped on his bicycle and pedaled furiously toward the nearest yakguk (pharmacy).
That careless taunt to Do-hyun had unlocked it: the most straightforward application of his power yet. If he could turn cheap cold medicine into a miracle cure, then what about…
Inside the brightly lit pharmacy, he marched straight to the counter, his school uniform drawing a curious look from the elderly pharmacist.
"Hyeongnim," Eun-woo said, slightly out of breath. "Do you have anything for… improving memory? Brain function? For studying."
The pharmacist, ajusshi, nodded understandingly. It was that time of year. "For the Suneung? Of course. Many parents buy these." He gestured to a display shelf. "We have Ginkgo Biloba supplements, Omega-3 capsules, and this one—" he pointed to a prominently placed box, "—Brain Power Up! It's very popular. The advertisement with that actor, you know, says it helps with focus and recall."
Eun-woo's eyes scanned the options, but his gaze locked onto the bright yellow Brain Power Up! box. It looked cheap, generic, and mass-produced. Perfect.
"That one. I'll take one box."
"Just one? The recommended course is usually six boxes for noticeable—"
"One is enough," Eun-woo cut in firmly, pulling a worn 10,000-won note from his pocket. "Please."
Back in his room, the box of supplements felt heavy with potential. Now came the hard part: waiting. The system's one-a-day rule was a brutal constraint. He tossed the box onto his bed and tried to do homework, but Han Soo-jin's face and the phantom sensation of a clear-headed mind kept intruding.
Dinner was a gauntlet.
"Eun-woo-ya, how was the mock exam?" his mother asked, stirring a pot of doenjang-jjigae.
"Daebak," he grunted around a mouthful of rice, not meeting her eyes. "Totally aced it." He finished eating in record time and retreated to the sanctuary of his room, ignoring his father's skeptical grunt from behind the newspaper.
The hours crawled by. He stared at his phone, watched the minutes tick toward midnight with agonizing slowness. When the digital clock finally flipped to 12:00 AM, he lunged.
"Finally!"
He ripped open the box of Brain Power Up! pills, spilling the seven bland capsules into his palm. Closing his eyes, he focused his will.
System. Decompose these. Reconstruct them. Give me… a 'Super Cognitive Enhancer.' Something that'll make this," he gestured at Han Soo-jin's notebook on his desk, "make sense."
A soft swish of air.
The capsules vanished from his hand.
[Host has reclaimed seven units of 'Common Nootropic Supplement.' Deconstructing…]
[Supplementing molecular matrix… Reconstructing…]
[Host has obtained: 'Neural Optimization Tablet' x1.]
Lying in his palm was a single, smooth tablet the size of a small blueberry. It was a deep, iridescent azure, unlike any medicine he'd ever seen. It seemed to pulse faintly with a cool, internal light.
"Yes! It worked!"
He pumped his fist in the silent darkness of his room. The system was real, and it obeyed. The proof was this mysterious, beautiful object in his hand.
He examined it closely. It felt dense, slightly cool to the touch. How would it work? Would his head start steaming? Would knowledge just… download?
Remembering the instantaneous relief of the cold capsule, he didn't hesitate. Tipping his head back, he dry-swallowed the blue pill.
He sat on the edge of his bed, waiting.
A minute passed.
Then two.
Nothing. No surge of energy, no sudden clarity, no headache, no tingles.
"…Seriously?" he whispered to the empty room. "That's it? System! What gives?"
[Host, please remain calm. The tablet's primary function is neural restructuring and memory consolidation. Its optimization protocols are designed to synchronize with the host's sleep cycle.]
Sleep. He needed to sleep.
"Why didn't you lead with that?" he grumbled, but a wave of anticipatory exhaustion was already washing over him, as if the pill had heard the command.
He fell into bed, his mind abuzz with questions, but his body felt like lead. Sleep claimed him almost instantly, deeper and more profound than any he could remember.
When his alarm blared the next morning, the wake-up was different. There was no groggy fumbling, no desire to smash the clock. His eyes snapped open. His mind was… quiet. Not empty, but serene. Alert. It felt like a fog he never knew had been there had lifted overnight. The world seemed sharper, the sounds clearer.
He sat up, blinking in the morning light filtering through his blinds.
Is this… the effect?
[To Be Continued…]
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ChubbyChaebol here!
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