Chapter 1

Intro

Lee Jong-Suk liked the smell of books. He liked playing internet games and reading books on his computer and phone.

He liked books, and despite being able to enjoy books online, he preferred reading the hard copy ones. He liked the way he felt when he opened the first page of a book. He liked the sensation he felt when flipping the pages of a book.

And so, once again, he went to the second-hand bookstore that day.

……..

Chapter 1

The Experience Book

High schooler Lee Jong-Suk headed for the second-hand bookstore, “Ghosopang” and entered.

Ding!

As soon as the bell rang, the shop owner’s familiar voice sounded from behind the doors.

“Jong-Suk , you’re here again?”

“Hello. Did any new books come in?”

“Yes, they’re at the usual place. Search carefully”

“Alright, thanks.”

Jong-Suk

immediately headed for the bookshelf. He was quite accustomed to the store as he had been going there since elementary school. Thousands of books were available in the book store. There were reference books, magazines, novels of different genres, medical science journals, and many others arranged neatly in numerous rows. The owner himself wasn’t certain about the number of books he had in his store. The store owner had always postponed cataloging his books, for as long as Jong-Suk could remember.

At any rate, Jong-Suk knew exactly what he was looking for, so he went in that direction. He saw the bookshelf and looked behind it. Sure enough, the sack of books he was looking for was there.

Most of the books that were available in Ghosopang were second-hand books. Many of the books were bought from students; however, it was possible to find a few rare or antique books. The sack contained papers or books left by other people, and the content of the sack was unknown, Lee Jong-Suk liked it. For Lee Jong-Suk, going through the sack was like hunting for treasure. Something great might be hiding among the ordinary-looking books.

“So, what do you have inside of you?” Lee Jong-Sukplayfully asked the sack while untying it.

One by one, Lee Jong-Suk started taking the books out of the sack.

“Jong-Suk, don’t forget to organize the books later.”

“Okay!”

Lee Jong-Suk proceeded with his task of taking out the books from the sack. There were many books in the sack. Some of them were reference books that were looking quite old. Others were novels. Jong-Suk decided to sort them into two piles; reference books on one side, novels on the other side. He immediately set to work, his hands working quickly. As he was sorting out the books, he kept an eye out for any novel that looked potentially interesting.

“Nothing of interest, so far,” he muttered to himself.

He continued sorting, looking through some to see if they were worth reading.  Jong-Suk stopped sorting as he brought out a book from the sack. It had a thick hardcover. Jong-Suk loved books with hardcovers, and he was curious about what that one would contain. The book had no title. The cover had a plain, gray background with a pattern of gold on it.

At first glance, the golden pattern in the book looked like the eye of a human. Jong-Suk opened the book. The color of the pages were an interesting shade of yellow. He gently caressed the pages, and they were warm to the touch.

“The paper quality seems fine to me,” he muttered to himself.

He carefully flipped through the pages. The more he flipped, the more confused he became. The pages were blank.

“Why are the pages blank?” he asked no one in particular.

He was gradually nearing the end, and there was still nothing in the pages. He finally got to the end, and he couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

“What is this? This isn’t a book, it looks more like a note book.” he grumbled.

The hard covered notebook had an expensive look to it, yet it contained nothing. What a pity. How can such a book be left blank? After looking at the book, Lee Jong-Suk picked up the hard covered books of all kinds from the two piles and started categorizing them.

…………..

After spending some hours at the book store, Lee Jong-Sukwent back home.

“I’m back!” he called out, while opening the door.

As soon as he opened the door, his nose was filled with a strong, spicy smell.

“Researching on the sauce again,” he said to himself.

After Lee Jong-Suk’s father retired, they moved to a house near an elementary school. At first, it seemed that catching the attention of elementary kids would be easy, but they were soon proved wrong. And so, Lee Jong-Suk’s parents began researching how to make a very good sauce.

Lee Jong-Suk saw his father carrying a bucket filled with red sauce.

“You visited the second hand book store again?!” his father asked.

His mother was quick to come to his aid.

“Why did you raise your voice as if he committed a crime? Didn’t he just go to the bookstore?” she asked her husband while shooting daggers at him with her eyes.

“He’s always going to that second hand bookstore, and he’s not even going there to study.”

“Just leave him alone and be grateful he isn’t causing any trouble.”

“The kid doesn’t study because you’re always talking like this.”

“Do you want him to be troublesome like all the other kids? Is that what you want?”

Jong-Suk silently walked to his room, leaving his arguing parents behind. He was used to them arguing all the time. Lee Jong-Sukplaced his bag on his desk and pulled out the hard covered book from inside it. He had purchased it from the store. Nothing was written in it, but he liked the book’s texture and bought it for a thousand won.

Lee Jong-Sukopened the book and studied the texture again. He took out a pencil to write in it. Though it was a little different from the regular notebooks he had, and it was a little bit rough, he wrote his name in it.

[Lee Jong-Suk]

“Writing always feels good….” he mumbled to himself.

Before he could finish speaking, Lee Jong-Suk’s eyes went wide. Words were appearing below his name.

[Do you want to record your own experience inside the experience book?]

He was confused and surprised. What was going on? How did that happen? The letters of the question seemed to be bathed in a golden light.

“What is this?” he asked in an awe-filled voice.

The golden light flashed while he was mumbling to himself. It was almost as if the book was asking him to reply quickly.

“How do I put down my experience?” he asked himself.

While he was thinking over what to do, new words appeared in the book.

[Experience book’s new writer has been registered.]

Lee Jong-Suk became more confused with the new words.

Experience book?”

[Please write down your experience]

After the engraved letters appeared, Lee Jong-Suk started to write.

[What happens if I don’t write down my experience?]

[If the writer doesn’t write anything, no other writer’s 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 writing again.

[What can I get?]

[As long as a writer has recorded it, you can get anything.]

[Anything?]

[Is there any experience that you need?]

He thought that over. A skill that he needed. There were many things on his mind, but he knew the top one on the list. Jong-Suk’s hands started itching from anticipation.

[Like a fantastic rice cake sauce? Is that possible?]

He knew about his parents’ hardships while staying up at night to make a good rice cake sauce. He thought if there was something like that and if the book’s words held some truth in it, he would be glad to help them out.

[Experience regarding food is available.]

[Rice cake?]

[There is no experience about rice cake.]

[The previous writers wrote nothing about rice cakes?]

[No.]

While Lee Jong-Suk was thinking, new words started to appear in the experience book.

[Please write down your experience.]

After thinking it over for a moment, Lee Jong-Suk put down what he did that day.

[I went to Ghosepang today and picked a hard covered book… I came home, and I’m here 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’s face froze after he looked at the words that appeared below his writing.

“Common experience? How is this a common experience?”

He wrote down what he did himself in the experience book, and the book called it a common experience. Then suddenly, Lee Jong-Suk understood the meaning.

“Ah! This experience book records all the experiences that are noted in it. There is nothing to write outside the common.”

The experience registered in the experience book by the other people were mostly common experiences, and it seemed 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?” he muttered to himself.

After thinking it over 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 of cooking?]

[25.]

The notebook automatically turned to the next page.

[Basic cooking is available. From salty, sweet, spicy, and sour to bitter – with appropriate harmony in 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.]