Chapter 34: The Second Desire Quest
Seo Juhwan lay staring blankly at the ceiling, lost in thought.
"College..."
Before his regression, he had returned to university after his military discharge. His mother, as well as his father, had recommended that he go to college.
With some anticipation, he had re-enrolled in university.
Naturally, there was no such thing as a campus life filled with dreams and romance.
At that time, Seo Juhwan was already older than his classmates and had a higher grade level, but due to his withdrawn personality from his school days and military service, he had failed to build proper relationships with others.
"Hmm."
Thinking back to that time, it would have been better not to return to university. It would have been a wiser choice to have written just one more line instead of wasting that time.
However, the situation now was completely different from then. He had to consider that point.
Currently, his mind was 32 years old, and he had overcome the previous trauma to some extent. Moreover, since he planned to take responsibility for Han Soo-ah's case and prevent it, that couldn't be a reason not to go to university.
"Sigh. This is difficult. Lucy, what do you think I should do?"
[I don't have the ability to calculate the future for you. If necessary, I recommend acquiring talents of the 'foresight' type.]
"What? Haha. That's not what I meant to ask. I was just curious about what you think."
[...You want to know my thoughts?]
"Yeah."
Lucy fell silent for a moment.
Did I ask something unnecessary?
Just before he was about to say it was fine, Lucy's response came back.
[You should go to college, Master.]
"Really? Why?"
Seo Juhwan was flustered, having never expected such a firm answer from Lucy, so he asked again. Then Lucy spoke once more in a resolute tone.
[Because you have no friends, Master.]
"...What?"
[If you don't go to college, Master will just live in a room all day. Then you'll live another life with not a single friend.]
Lucy's words hit like a bone.
Seo Juhwan made excuses anyway.
"Well, uh. That's not necessarily true? There's an age difference, but Soo-ah is at least a friend, and... once I finish writing what I'm working on now, I'll go around learning various things. I'll learn singing, and I'm thinking of learning instruments and sports too. Oh, since I have the boxing talent I got from Jeong Sora, should I learn martial arts? I can make friends there."
[If you do as you say, that would be good, but... according to my data, humans are beings that are difficult to change all at once. Especially without external stimulus.]
"Ugh."
Seo Juhwan couldn't simply deny this.
He knew well enough how difficult change was. Weren't most people not the type to do as they set their minds to?
Lucy continued speaking.
[In that sense, I think it would be best for you to go to college to live a happy life, Master. And...]
"And?"
[You said something earlier, Master. That you would live this life doing as you please. If you're really going to live as you please, then worrying about college is meaningless. Just try it, and if it doesn't suit you, you can quit.]
"What?"
Seo Juhwan's eyes widened.
Could Lucy really say something like that?
He soon let out a choked laugh and then burst into uncontrollable laughter, holding his stomach.
"Puhahahaha! Thank you, Lucy. I feel much better because of you."
[I'm glad your worries seem to have been resolved.]
"Yeah. Really, thank you."
Seo Juhwan made the decision to go to college.
Just as Lucy said, hadn't he decided to live this life doing as he pleased? He would just go to college first, and if it didn't suit him, he could drop out.
There was no need to worry about it so seriously.
*
"Oh my. Are you really going to re-enroll?"
"Whatever choice you make, do it without regret."
His mother was delighted, and his father gave his shoulder a pat as if to say he trusted his decision.
"Yes. So actually... I'm thinking of starting to live on my own once I re-enroll."
Once Seo Juhwan made his decision, he moved quickly. He immediately began searching for one-room apartments. Naturally, the closer to campus and the better the convenience facilities, the faster they got rented out. Since it was already January, if he didn't contract quickly, he would have no choice but to commute by train.
"You want to live on your own? Just commute from home."
His mother seemed to hope he would commute. She was reluctant to see her son, who had only recently been discharged from the military, leave.
"I'm sorry, Mother. I don't have the confidence to endure the packed trains. Instead, I'll come visit often."
School was only about an hour away, not that far, but the transportation was the issue.
During morning rush hour, the trains were literally hellish.
He didn't want to experience packed trains every time he had an unavoidable morning class.
"Hmm. How much do one-rooms cost these days?"
While his mother seemed disappointed, his father tried to support his living expenses. When Seo Jaepil asked about the deposit and monthly rent, Seo Juhwan waved him off.
"I'll handle the money myself."
"You haven't even been discharged yet. Where would you get money?"
"I wrote before enlisting, didn't I? I have enough left for living expenses. If I fall short, I can work part-time."
The returns on his Bitcoin investments had exceeded 300%. He was thinking of contracting a two-room apartment, not a one-room.
Seo Jaepil, unaware of his son's methods, thought highly of him. His son had changed to be very reliable, though he didn't know what kind of experience he had gone through.
Meanwhile, Seo Juhwan was mentally tapping on a calculator.
'I'll only withdraw what I need.'
Bitcoin wasn't the right time to seriously cash out yet. It seemed better to dispose of only what was needed and set aside money for rent separately. And if there was a way to make money, there was more than just Bitcoin.
'Instead of part-time work, I can just keep writing.'
Seo Juhwan chose writing over part-time work. Even so, before his regression, he had been a full-time writer making a living from writing.
Writing would pay better than the minimum wage.
In 2016, the minimum wage was only 6,030 won.
'Once the series I'm currently serializing takes off, I'll make some money, right?'
The opening performance of "The Possessed Master is a Martial Arts Criminal," which he had started serializing a few days ago, hadn't been bad. If it really took off, he could achieve even better results than before his regression.
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