Chapter 30: Exercise Beginner?
Seo Juhwan finished his meal and returned home. The unfamiliar yet familiar old house welcomed him. As soon as he entered his room, he turned on the computer.
"The computer is quite old."
When he started the boot-up, it made a loud whirring sound. It was an old model purchased before his parents opened the tteokbokki restaurant, so it was at least five years old.
"Min Byeongkyu must have bragged about something around this time?"
Min Byeongkyu was a fellow soldier who had come on leave like him today. He claimed to be a master of stocks.
"Master of stocks, my ass."
While he called it stocks, what Min Byeongkyu did was closer to gambling. He didn't study stocks, nor did he investigate information. He didn't even have basic knowledge of financial statements or company information. He just believed in rumors he'd picked up from somewhere and threw money at them. What else would you call that but gambling?
When Min Byeongkyu occasionally made money from stocks, he'd brag about it to soldiers he was close with by buying them meals. Conversely, when he lost big, his expression would be rotten all day long. The gap in his personality depending on his mood was so huge that he was treated as a complete nuisance of a soldier.
Even now that he'd become a sergeant, Min Byeongkyu's bragging continued. Especially around this time, a new investment he'd made had hit jackpot, and his head was in the clouds. The jackpot wasn't from regular stocks but from cryptocurrency—Bitcoin, to be exact.
"Let me see. The coin that skyrocketed…"
Seo Juhwan browsed the site for a while and found a specific coin.
"Ah, this one. Cloud Moon."
He found the coin he was looking for.
"Insane… Does this even make sense?"
Down 60% from the previous day? He knew cryptocurrencies had faster fluctuations than regular stocks, but seeing the actual numbers was shocking. When he switched tabs to check the daily ups and downs, it had been falling dramatically for almost a week.
"Phew. Let me buy in now."
Seo Juhwan's seed money was 20 million won. It was money he'd accumulated by writing before enlisting and money from military savings that he'd cashed out.
He calmed his racing heart and first purchased 10 million won worth of coins. He planned to buy more later if it fell further. Cloud Moon coin was falling endlessly now, but from what he remembered, it would hit its lower limit around this time and then rebound with a force that seemed to break through the ceiling.
"Man. How do other people do this?"
Even knowing the future rebound, he worried about potential losses. But what kind of people were those investing large sums with no information at all?
"Didn't Min Byeongkyu say he completely got wiped out around this time?"
Originally, Cloud Moon coin was something Min Byeongkyu had invested in. However, he couldn't access the coin site during extreme cold training, and when he came on leave and saw how much the coin had fallen, he sold it at a massive loss. And then later, when he saw it rebound endlessly, he reportedly beat the ground in regret.
Well, anyway, that had nothing to do with him.
*
Third day of leave.
"Time really flies fast."
The subjective experience of time was completely different from when he was in the military. The military clock definitely moved slower than the outside world. There was no other explanation for such a difference. Military service wasn't called a place where mind and time stopped for nothing.
"I wonder if it's soaring well?"
After investing the remaining 10 million won two days ago, Seo Juhwan didn't interfere with the coins at all. Actually, he avoided accessing the site altogether. He accessed the site only once to check if the future was flowing as planned, but he happened to go into the community and saw posts from people going crazy.
[Post]
▶ Damn damn damn damn damn. What kind of bullshit is this? It was going up just yesterday, and now what? Give me back my 10 million won, damn it.
└ Stop whining. You're annoying me. I got wiped out for 30 million.
└ Author: screw it
└ I lost 40 million, so everyone shut up c8
└ 40 million is doing okay.
└ How much did you lose?
└ 90 million.
└ WTF you lost 90 million and still have the mind to be on the community?
└ 90 million won you bastard ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Shit.
▶ I have shards in my hand bleeding all over, but I'm so pissed I don't even feel the pain.
└OMG this is scary.
└ WTF bleeding everywhere.
└ WTF this is crazy. You crazy bastard ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ And he's still posting proof ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
▶ I threw all my borrowed money into it and got so depressed that I just made ramyeon. Then after one chopstick-full, I suddenly got so angry I just flipped the whole table.
└ Uh huh huh. The Grim Reaper came... It's already over?
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Hurry and pick it up. That might be your last meal.
└ Look at the way you chopped up the green onions. The ramyeon looks delicious ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Just one bite.
└ One bite addict ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Did you by any chance throw money at Lolita?
└ Author: ㅇㅇ. I thought it would soar because of the name, but damn.
└ Moron. This is why you shouldn't invest like this.
The cryptocurrency community was overflowing with people who couldn't be understood by common sense. Despite losing anywhere from hundreds of millions to over a hundred million won, they wrote and talked with laughter. Some posts made him genuinely worry whether people might commit suicide. If he kept looking, he felt like he himself would become strange too, so he stopped accessing the site altogether. Just watching made him oddly cheerful in a scary way.
"Let me go work out instead."
Seo Juhwan grabbed his gym clothes and left the house. There was a gym he'd recently registered at about 10 minutes away from his house.
The gym's name was Reborn Fitness.
Reborn Fitness meant "to be born again" through physical training. He liked the name so much that he registered immediately. For him, living life again after regressing, it was a name that fit perfectly.
'Though honestly, that's not the only reason.'
Seo Juhwan cleared his throat unnecessarily and entered the gym.
"Huff. Huff!"
"Ahh. Protein after working out really is the best."
"Hey, stop resting and move. You're losing muscle."
Despite it being midday on a weekday, there were quite a few people in the gym. Especially the people in the free weight zone stood out. It was full of older guys flaunting their muscular, toned physiques. The atmosphere inside the gym was hot and steamy.
"I definitely made the right choice registering here."
Despite the considerable number of people, there was plenty of space to work out. The gym was that spacious and had diverse equipment. As the saying goes, exercise is best when done without interruption. If you have to take long rest periods because there's no space, nothing is more inconvenient than that.
Beep.
Seo Juhwan scanned his membership card and entered the changing room to change into his workout clothes. When he came back out and looked around for what exercise to do, his eyes met those of a female staff member. She approached with a characteristic smile that showed off her dimples.
"Member, you came early?"
"Oh, Trainer Lim Soo-hee. Hello."
"Oh my, you remembered my name?"
"Haha. I'm good at remembering people's names."
Lim Soo-hee was the type of name that was impossible to forget. With her well-proportioned, long, slender legs, firm buttocks, and breasts estimated to be a C-cup, the sensual charm emanating from her exercise-trained body was remarkable.
Seo Juhwan checked the status window that appeared next to her.
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