Intro
I like the smell of books.
Playing internet games, reading books on computer and phone, lately I"m wondering if all the books are being written by the same person, but……….
I like books. Despite being able to enjoy books online, I like the first page of a book, I like the sensation of the pages when flipping them.
And so, I once again went to the second hand bookstore today.
Chapter 1
The Experience Book
High schooler Lee Jong-suk went towards the second hand bookstore " Ghosopang "
Tring!
Along with the ringing of the bell, the shop owner"s accustomed voice sounded from behind the doors.
"Jong-suk you’re here again?"
"h.e.l.lo. Did any new books come?"
"Yes, they"re at the same place. Search carefully"
"Yes."
After hearing the owners reply Jong-suk went towards the accustomed bookshelf place.
Lee Jong-suk was familiar with the store as he had been coming here since elementary school.
Thousands of books ranging from reference books to magazines, and novels to medical science journals are stacked up in numerous rows.
Even the shop owner himself isn"t certain regarding the total number of books available inside the store. That is why the customers are to search for the books of their choice themselves.
At any rate the after hearing the shop owners words, Lee Jong-suk entered the path leading towards an acc.u.mulated book stack. And saw the pile behind the book shelf. Most of the books that are available in Ghosopang are second hand books.
Of course, most of the books are sold to the shop by students, however it is possible to find a few rare and antiques books.
Though the sack contained papers or books left by other people, and the content inside the sack is unknown. Lee Jong-suk liked it.
For Lee Jong-suk it was similar to a treasure box, what if something great might come out of it?
"So, what do you have inside of you?"
Asked Lee Jong-suk as if talking to a friend, and then began untying it.
One after the other Lee Jong-suk started taking out the books from the sack.
"Jong-suk ah, don’t forget to organize the books later."
"Okay!"
Agreeing with the words of the shop owner Lee Jong-suk continued taking out the books.
Books inside the sack nevertheless contained student reference books with depreciated prices. Just the way how science and math cannot change, similar to the bulk of reference books and its various contents I came.
And what became of the money was a novel. Definitely a novel, neither a new one nor a second hand one, if there is a difference it is the content or it is the words.
No, on the contrary in this case the novel didn"t look like a second hand one. It contained the print like the books that most people would buy.
Reference books on one side and novels on another side, Lee Jong-suk"s fingers started arranging them quickly.
"Nothing in particular."
Taking out the books from the sack to see if they are worth looking into, inquisitiveness arose on Lee Jong-suk"s face.
A thick hardcover book was lying at one side of the sack.
"It"s a hardcover."
A hard covered book was one of Lee Jong-suk"s favorite types of book.
The cover just had a gray background with a pattern in gold and the book had no t.i.tle. Even the pages looked golden in color from the outside.
"Eyes?"
At first glance the golden pattern looked like the eyes of a human. The book with golden design was opened by Lee Jong-suk.
The book with no t.i.tle had an interesting rope on it.
Opening the thick hard covered cover page, inside a kind of yellow paper was revealed.
"The paper quality seems to be fine."
Upon being touched, the page felt warm like the hanji on the fingertips.
Like that after caressing the pages for a moment Lee Jong-suk began turning over the pages.
Along with the pages being flipped from one to two, and two to three, confusion arose in Lee Jong-suk face.
"What is this?"
Despite being turned, none of the pages contained anything on them. And once all the pages were turned till the end, Lee Jong-suk"s head began hurting from disappointment.
"What is this? This isn"t a book, it looks more like a note book."
The hard covered notebook held a very high cla.s.s feels to it, yet it was a pity. Such a book contained nothing inside it.
After looking at the book for a moment, Lee Jong-suk picked the hard covered books of all kinds from the different piles and started categorizing them.
After spending time at the second hand book store Lee Jong-suk went back to his home.
"I"m back"
As soon as he opened the door the nose of Lee Jong-suk was over thrown by a strong spicy smell.
"Researching on the sauce again."
After Lee Jong-suk"s father retired they moved their home near to an elementary school. At first it seemed that catching the attention of elementary kids would be effortless, but things didn"t turn out as planned. And so Lee Jong-suk"s parents began researching with the sauce.
Entering the home with that thought, Lee Jong-suk saw that his father was carrying a bucket filled with red sauce.
"You visited the second hand book store again!"
As soon as his mother saw him, she began retorting him regarding what he did today.
"Didn"t he just go to the bookstore? Why do you to raise your voice for that."
Listening to the words his dad spoke, Lee Jong-suk"s mom"s eyes began glaring daggers towards him.
"Always going to the second hand bookstore, and it"s not even to study."
"Leave it. Just be grateful that he isn"t causing any trouble."
"Because you always talk like this, the kid isn"t even studying."
"Then do you want him to cause trouble like all the other kids?"
Leaving behind the arguing parents, Lee Jong-suk silently walked into his room.
It was a regular thing in the house hold anyway.
Lee Jong-suk placed the bag on the desk and pulled out the hard covered book from inside it.
Though there wasn"t any thing written inside it, just for its texture Lee Jong-suk had to spend a 1000 won.
"Hmmm."
Lee Jong-suk opened the book and took out a pencil to write in it.
Though it was a little different from the regular notebook and was rough, he wrote his name in it.
[Lee Jong-suk]
"Writing always feels good…."
Before he could finish speaking Lee Jong-suk"s eyes went wide.
[Do you want to record your own experience inside the experience book?]
Just below what of what he wrote, along with a golden light letters began appearing.
"What is this?"
The light once again flashed while Lee Jong-suk was mumbling to himself. It was almost as if the book was asking him to answer quickly.
"How do I put down my experience…."
While he was thinking over what to do, Lee Jong-suk found a few more characters on the book.
[Experience book"s new writer has been registered.]
Lee Jong-suk started getting more confused with the new characters that started appearing.
"What is this? Experience book?"
[Please write down your experience]
After the engraved letters appeared Lee Jong-suk started to write down.
[What happens if I don’t write down my experience?]
[If the writer doesn"t write anything, no other writers experience can be used.]
[By other writers do you mean there have been previous writers?]
[Yes.]
[Experience? About what?]
[What do you want to experience?]
After thinking about what he wanted to do, Lee Jong-suk started to write down again.
[What can I obtain?]
[As long as a writer has recorded it, you can obtain anything.]
[Anything?]
[Is there any experience that you need?]
Skill that he needed….. after seeing what appeared Lee Jong-suk"s hands started to itch from antic.i.p.ation.
[Like a fantastic rice cake sauce? Is it possible?]
He knew about the hardships that both his mom and dad were suffering, while staying up nights to make a good rice cake sauce.
He thought if there was something like that and if the books letters held some truth to it. So he had nothing left to do, other than placing his trust in this book.
[Experience regarding food is available.]
[Rice cake?]
[There is no experience about rice cake.]
[The previous writers wrote nothing about rice cakes?]
[Yes.]
While Lee Jong-suk was thinking, a new set of characters started to appear on the experience book.
[Please write down your experience.]
After thinking over if for a moment Lee Jong-suk put down what he did today.
[ I went to the ghosepang today and picked a hard covered book….. came home and in here am writing down in the book.
I haven"t written much before….
So I’m going to write today.]
[Common experience has been written down. You got 25 experience points.]
Lee Jong-suk face froze after he looked at the characters that appeared below his writing.
"Common experience? How is this a common experience?"
He wrote down what he did and his story by himself in the experience book, and there was a thing called common experience in it.
Then suddenly Lee Jong-suk understood the meaning.
"Ah! This experience book records all the experiences that are noted in it… then there is nothing to write outside the common."
The experience registered in the experience book by the other people is very less, and it seems to be very rare to write something out of the common area.
"Even though it is a common thing, it still records the experience. Then if I write something that is not common then will I gain more experience? "
After thinking over it for a moment Lee Jong-suk wrote again.
[Please show me the existing experience in cooking.]
[How many experience points should I use to change my experience to cooking?]
[25.]
The notebook automatically turned to the next page.
[Basic cooking is available. From salty, sweet, spicy, sour till bitter all five flavor with appropriate harmony among them from the start to the end are completely available.
The use of high quality ingredients for making the dishes is not needed.
If the quality ingredients do not go well with each other, then it is just trash.
However, the taste of every person varies. Hence it is tough to make a perfect dish.]
[Received 25 points in exchange for the cooking experience.]