Chapter 38:Money and Talent Pour In

 Chapter 38: The Chartist’s Eyes (1)

He took in the hologram that had floated up before his eyes.

[That mistake everyone makes at least once?]

[On a hot summer day, the road has been sprayed with water to keep it cool, leaving the pavement slippery and in poor condition. Meanwhile, the zipper on the bag a student is carrying is wide open. If the items inside fall out and break or get wet, it’ll be a disaster. Make sure the things in the bag don’t fall out!]

[Remaining time: 5 minutes.]

[Success Reward: Random Card, Good Deed Points.]

[Quest Failure Penalty: Your foot will slip into a puddle of water.]

The moment he received this quest, some of his questions about the activation conditions were resolved.

There was definitely a condition for quests to appear.

But it was different from before.

In the beginning, a quest would appear just by looking. As long as there was someone nearby who needed help, the system would notify him.

Now, one more thing was required.

Clear intention.

He had to have the will to help — the conscious desire to do so.

He had suspected this for a while.

However, even when he tried to summon that will, quests still wouldn’t appear sometimes. Maybe a truly sincere heart was needed on top of that.

Anyway.

The puzzle was starting to come together.

“Excuse me, student?”

“Yes…?”

The student turned around, tilting their head in confusion.

“Your bag zipper is open. It looks like your books and everything are about to fall out.”

“Ah, oh! Thank you…!”

The student bowed while thanking him.

The bag shook with the motion.

All the items inside shifted around dangerously. They looked like they would spill onto the ground at any moment.

“Uh, wait…!”

He felt like the quest was about to fail.

“Wait, just a second!”

Startled, he quickly stopped the student.

“Hold still for a moment. I’ll zip it up for you.”

“Ah, okay! Thank you!”

The student thanked him again, and the bag nearly spilled for real this time. He hurriedly moved behind the student and pushed the wobbling pencil case and notebooks back inside.

Whew.

Carefully, he zipped up the bag.

Ziiiip.

Thankfully, nothing fell out. Everything was safely secured without any issues.

[Quest Cleared!]

[Calculating rewards…]

[Calculation complete.]

[You have acquired a Low-grade Random Card.]

[You have earned 1 Good Deed Point.]

A sigh of relief escaped him.

“Thank you!”

“No problem.”

“Have a good day!”

The polite student bowed once more and walked away. Bright and courteous — it was nice to see.

“Well, at least I secured 1 point.”

Ryu Seong also continued on his way.

Thanks to today’s points, his total had reached 21.

He now needed just 9 more.

He wandered around for a while longer, but situations where genuine sincerity welled up were not easy to come by.

*

Not long after arriving home, another quest was completed.

[The quest ‘Have you ever scolded someone with money?’ has ended.]

[Quest Cleared!]

[Additional rewards granted for exceeding expectations.]

[Calculating rewards…]

[Calculation complete.]

[You have acquired a Mid-grade Random Card.]

[You have earned 5 Good Deed Points.]

A subtle smile appeared on Ryu Seong’s lips — a mix of slight disappointment and satisfaction. The points were a little lower than he had expected.

Still.

His current total had reached 26 points.

He now needed only 4 more.

The regular sponsorship quest from last month had given him 3 points, so he was still short by 1.

Since the number of sponsors had increased, there was a chance the reward might be 4 points this time. But that was uncertain. He wanted to be more sure. No matter what, he wanted to buy the information rights by September 1st at the latest.

“There’s only one answer.”

He had no choice but to work harder and move around more.

“Lucky, come here.”

Meow?

“Before checking the cards, let’s get some proper Lucky energy first!”

It might have been an excuse, but whenever he checked cards with Lucky around, they somehow felt like they turned out better. So this time too, he decided to have a healing session with his cat.

“Hehehe.”

Rubbing the cat’s belly made him feel relaxed and drowsy.

Meow?

Maybe it was getting annoying, because Lucky lightly bit his hand. It didn’t hurt, so he just rubbed the belly even more enthusiastically.

Meowww!

This time Lucky lightly swatted with his front paw.

“Huh?”

The claw was sharper than expected and scratched his skin.

“They’ve grown quite a bit, huh?”

These definitely needed to be trimmed.

He got up, brought out the cat nail clippers he had bought earlier. He had never actually used them before. So he sat Lucky in front of him and searched for related videos on YouTube.

“Reasons why you need to trim their nails and how to do it easily.”

The first video that caught his eye was exactly that

Pressing the play button, narration began to play over the video of someone trimming a cat’s nails.

[Cats’ claws should be trimmed.]

[So, why is that?]

[To prevent them from scratching furniture?]

[To avoid hurting people?]

[There may be many reasons, but those are actually secondary issues. The biggest reason to trim a cat’s claws is to prevent the cat from getting injured. While dogs’ claws naturally become blunter and shorter with frequent walks, cats are different.]

[Even if they scratch a scratching post vigorously, their claws don’t wear down — they only become sharper.]

[This is especially dangerous for older cats or those with joint problems. If their claws aren’t trimmed, they grow thick and curve into large circular shapes, eventually piercing into the cat’s own paw pads. This can lead to ingrown claws, and in severe cases, may even require amputation of the toes.]

[So, let’s trim their claws before it’s too late.]

The video ended there.

It also included easy trimming methods in the middle, so Ryu Seong found himself nodding along.

He decided he would definitely trim Lucky’s claws.

“Shall we give it a try too?”

He first prepared some Churu treats, sat on the floor, and took Lucky into his arms, exposing the cat’s belly. Following what he saw in the YouTube video, he carefully trimmed one claw.

*Snip.*

With a clean sound, the sharp tip was cut off.

Meow?

Lucky didn’t seem to dislike it at all.

He didn’t resist either.

He stayed quietly in Ryu Seong’s arms, entrusting his body to him.

“Aww, good boy.”

After finishing one front paw, he gave Lucky a little Churu as a reward.

Uwaaaang, uwaaang!

Lucky made strange noises while vacuuming up the treat. It was that unique purring-gurgling sound he only made when eating something especially delicious.

“Hehehe, you’re so cute.”

After feeding him an appropriate amount, Ryu Seong continued trimming the rest of the claws. Whenever Lucky showed signs of resistance, he calmed him down by offering more Churu. Thanks to that, he was able to finish all the back paws quickly as well.

As a final reward, he gave Lucky the rest of the Churu.

Uwaaaang, waaaang!

Excited, Lucky’s purring went into overdrive, turning into that weird gurgling again.

The sight was so adorable that Ryu Seong couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

It was a genuinely pleasant, healing time.

Now that he had enjoyed enough healing with Lucky, it was time to check today’s rewards. He first opened the Lowest-grade card he had obtained from helping the student with the bag.

[Better luck next time…]

It was a dud, but he didn’t feel disappointed. He moved on to the Mid-grade card he received from the “scolding with money” quest.

“Right, this is the real one.”

Cards spinning in circles appeared in his view.

The sight was almost dizzying.

While still holding Lucky in his arms, Ryu Seong gently extended the cat’s neatly trimmed front paw and lightly tapped one of the cards. The spinning card stopped abruptly and flew toward him.

Lucky, I’m counting on you.

Soon, the result was revealed.

[You have selected the Lowest-grade ‘Talent’.]

[As a reward, you have acquired ‘Chartist’s Eyes (Consumable)’.]

[You can check the details by thinking of the talent.]

The moment he saw the talent, Ryu Seong hugged Lucky tightly and let out a roar of excitement.

*

After calming his mind, he checked the talent again.

[Chartist’s Eyes (Consumable)]

[These are eyes that read charts to analyze the past and predict the future with high probability. This ability can be used for 3 hours, during which you can read charts almost infinitely. However, once the 3 hours are over, everything that was amplified by this ability will return to normal, and the talent will disappear.]

[Would you like to use it?]

[Yes / No]

He naturally chose ‘No’.

It wasn’t the right time yet.

Most of his money was currently tied up, so he needed to wait a little longer.

He needed to organize things first.

Currently, he had 150 million won invested in a movie and the same amount invested in bio-related stocks. In addition, he had 130 million won in liquid cash. In total, his assets amounted to 430 million won, but he felt regretful that the amount of immediately usable cash was relatively small.

“Should I sell the stocks?”

The movie investment still needed more time.

He wouldn’t be able to withdraw the principal and profits until at least mid-September.

Stocks were a different story.

If he simply sold them, 150 million won would be available in three days. Combined with his current cash, that would give him a massive 280 million won.

What if he used Chartist’s Eyes while holding that much money?

Even in just 3 short hours, he would be able to generate considerable profits.

“Then I can buy more bio stocks with the multiplied money.”

It didn’t sound bad at all.

No — this could actually become the best possible scenario.

He finished organizing his thoughts.

He decided that tomorrow morning he would sell the stocks, and as soon as the cash arrived in three days, he would immediately use the talent.

[Limited Quest Activated!]

[An opportunity to showcase the Chartist’s Talent!]

[Enjoy day trading to your heart’s content together with the broadcast viewers. Points will be awarded based on the day trading profits made by the viewers, and the higher the score, the greater the reward. However, the points given will differ depending on each viewer’s past participation history in the broadcast.]

[Remaining time: Until the talent is consumed]

[Success Reward: Good Deed Points.]

[This limited quest does not provide a random card upon success. However, there is also no failure penalty.]

A limited quest had appeared.

“Heh.”

He had been a little disappointed since the Liar Coin incident because no limited quests had shown up since then. This was one of the reasons he had continued broadcasting steadily — he believed that a limited quest would eventually appear.

“It’s finally here…!”

Hoping he could earn even more points than last time, he quickly sold off his bio stocks.

*

As soon as three days had passed, he withdrew all the money from his securities account and deposited it into the coin exchange, Downbit. Then, as he was taking out the Hahoe mask from the drawer under his desk—

Creak.

The door suddenly opened.

“Son…?”

His mother, who was about to enter the room, froze.

It was a bit awkward, but he hadn’t done anything wrong.

He straightened his shoulders confidently.

“You said you were doing YouTube… what’s with the mask?”

“It’s because I don’t really want my face shown.”

He lifted the mask and gave a brief explanation.

“Well, it’s not good to show your face too much anyway.”

“Right.”

“I was going to cut some fruit for you, but I guess that won’t work with the mask on.”

“Yeah, I’ll eat it after I’m done.”

“Okay. Let me know later. I’ll be home all day today.”

“Got it.”

“Lucky, let’s go with Mom. Come here, sweetie.”

His mother took Lucky and left the room.

In the now quiet space,

Ryu Seong put on the Hahoe mask and started the live broadcast.

“Hello, everyone.”

Viewers began entering one after another.

After some light conversation,

once roughly 100 viewers had gathered, he brought up the main topic.

“First, I have something to tell you all. I actually sold all my bio-related stocks a few days ago.”

Laughter erupted from the viewers.

Altang: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Oh man

Ant Collector: I knew it ㅠㅠ

Jjakbal: Wait, didn’t I tell you? I said that wasn’t it!

Nyangnyangi: Huh? What?! This is boring!

Nwarak: I predicted this would happen!

He watched quietly for a moment before continuing with his explanation.

“I needed cash, so I sold them temporarily. I’ll buy back in today or tomorrow. The winds are about to start blowing favorably soon — there’s no way it would end like this, right?”

Altang: Ah, so that’s what it was?

Ant Collector: Hmm, suspicious… but I’ll trust you for now.

Nwarak: So why did you withdraw the money?

“Nwarak, that’s a great question. So, why did I pull out the money? I wanted to try investing in a slightly different way than before.”

Altang: Different? How?

Ant Collector: Ooh, I wonder what it is?

At that exact moment,

he had the illusion that the corners of the Hahoe mask’s mouth were lifting into a smile.

“It’s simple — day trading.”

It was time to use the Chartist’s Eyes.

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