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Chapter 5
Cha Seong-yoon was a social worker. She had been working at a nursing facility for the elderly for nearly twelve years, making her one of the veterans there.
There were three social workers at the facility, but Seong-yoon was practically the representative among them.
Seong-yoon’s hobby was taking care of plants. Her husband also loved plants, so whenever the couple had a day off, they spent their time tending to their flowers and plants. They had even had their first date at a botanical garden, so it was easy to tell just how much the couple loved plants.
“You’re already asking me to come pick it up?”
The plant Seong-yoon had been most interested in lately was called a ‘Monstera Albo,’ a foliage plant that had become extremely popular among Korean plant enthusiasts after imports from overseas were banned.
As she had told Hoyeon, she had paid a whopping 1.2 million won to acquire a single leaf of the Monstera Albo. That alone showed how passionate she was about it and how expensive the plant had become.
Unfortunately, however, the Monstera Albo leaf she had cherished had already been in poor condition when she brought it home.
Because of a severe lack of chlorophyll, the plant had developed extreme variegation and was now practically dead. Seong-yoon had used all the knowledge she had and sought help from everyone around her to save it, but nothing worked.
“Yes. Or should I bring it to the facility tomorrow?”
Then she noticed the small garden at her workplace. It had been overgrown with weeds, and the lettuce and other vegetables they had planted were practically dying. Yet overnight, they had somehow become fresh and green again.
Seong-yoon asked around to find out who had performed this miracle, and it wasn’t difficult to discover that it was one of the public service workers at the facility.
With nothing to lose, Seong-yoon entrusted her Monstera Albo to him. Even though she knew there was almost no chance of her precious 1.2-million-won plant recovering, she still hoped that a miracle would happen to her once again.
“Wait, it’s only been two days…?”
But the miracle had come far too quickly.
She had given him the plant on Wednesday, and he was already telling her to come pick it up after only two days? It was Friday today. Could that really be possible?
Even Seong-yoon, who desperately wanted to hear that the plant had recovered, couldn’t believe it when she was told that a plant which even expert advice and 180,000-won nutrients had failed to save was already alive again.
“Oh my goodness! What do I do? Really… this, this is really…”
Social worker Cha followed me to my house, half believing and half doubting my claim that I had saved the plant in only two days.
Then, when she saw the Monstera Albo, which looked as though it had been reborn, tears of emotion even filled her eyes.
“From what I could see, I think the problem was the light and the soil’s acidity. The pot wasn’t draining water properly either, so I replaced it with a new one.”
“Thank you, Hoyeon! Really, thank you!”
Honestly, it had been pretty close.
I could save a plant that was dying, but once it was completely dead, there was nothing I could do. Cha’s Albo had been practically on the verge of death.
“These are the nutrients, soil, and lighting I used, so take them with you. Keep the light on regularly, and once you’ve used up all the nutrients, you only need to put one more in next time. You can use the soil when you repot it later.”
I handed her the things I had put into a large plastic bag, along with the original pot left over after I had moved the plant.
The social worker covered her mouth with both hands, apparently unable to contain her overwhelming emotions, and couldn’t say anything.
Well, I had saved a plant worth 1.2 million won, so I could understand her reaction.
Seeing how happy she was, I felt that saving it had been worthwhile.
“Hoyeon.”
“Yes?”
“Give me your bank account number.”
“Ah…!”
She took out her phone and opened her banking app.
Give me your account number.
I was touched too.
“Are you sure it’s okay for me to accept it?”
Still, I felt a little uncomfortable, so I asked once.
Technically, she was my superior during my public service period. She wasn’t the kind of person who would cheat me out of money, but was it really okay for me to stand there grinning and accept money from her?
“Mr. Chu Hoyeon. Do I look like someone who would steal money from our public service workers?”
“Ah, I’m sorry!”
Apparently, even having such doubts had offended her.
I obediently gave her my account number, and soon she transferred 350,000 won to me.
“Huh? 350…?”
“I roughly included the medicine, lighting, and everything else. Is that enough?”
Of course it was.
Even if I added everything together, it had cost me only around 100,000 won. She had given me 150,000 won more than that, so it was a pretty profitable deal.
And I even got the pot cheaply from Gamja Market.
Of course, I had chosen a good one, but I had bought it for only a few thousand won, so it was practically free.
“Thank you, really! I never knew you had this kind of talent, Hoyeon! Seriously, thank you so, so much!”
Social worker Cha thanked me with the exaggerated enthusiasm typical of an older woman, then hugged the revived plant and went home.
Ding!
[Quest completed!]
[Reward: Maximum number of plants that can be affected +1]
And so, the number of plants that could simultaneously benefit from my third ability increased by one.
This time, the one-plant limit hadn’t been a major problem because I only needed to save a single plant within a short period of time.
But if I intended to make money through what people called plant investment, then the more plants I could care for at the same time, the better.
“How much have I made so far…?”
After recently gaining my hobby abilities, I decided to calculate how much money I had earned.
1) Coding
Total income so far: 1.37 million won.
2) Photography
Total income so far: 200,000 won.
Technically, this money had been given to me by Jiah’s father as spending money for my hard work, so I could also consider my actual photography income to be zero.
3) Horticulture
I earned 350,000 won today, but if I counted the 100,000 won I spent on nutrients and other supplies, I had made about 250,000 won.
Surprisingly, coding is the most profitable one.
Well, with coding, I didn’t need any capital as long as I had my ability, and it had the best time efficiency.
The downside was that there weren’t many jobs available.
The money I had earned from all three abilities came to 1.82 million won.
Even after subtracting the 100 won I spent on every photograph, I had still made more than 1.8 million won.
It had been one week since I awakened my ability.
In that one week, I had simply enjoyed my hobbies and made 1.8 million won.
In reality, I had only spent four or five hours actually working on coding. Taking photographs was practically just a matter of clicking the shutter, and the plant had taken about an hour to repot, add nutrients to, and water.
So even if I calculated it at 300,000 won per hour, it was still an absurdly high hourly wage.
“Still, I want to make more.”
Just as the system had said, I could make a perfectly decent living simply by enjoying my hobbies like this.
1.8 million won a week. That’s around 7 million won a month.
Earning a monthly salary of 7 million won from a hobby was like a dream.
But if it was a dream, couldn’t it be an even bigger one?
Couldn’t I make much more money than this, and make it even more easily?
Ding!
As I burned with that desire, the system once again scratched exactly where I was itching.
[You have a new quest.]
“What is it?”
[Quest (Coding): Create a simple program, distribute it through donations, and earn more than 1 million won in revenue.]
[Reward: Hobby Lottery Ticket]
“Oh?”
Ding!
[Quest (Photography): Publish a digital photo book online and sell a total of 100 copies.]
[Reward: Hobby Lottery Ticket]
“Two quests?”
Ding!
“Huh? Another one!?”
[Quest (Horticulture): Take care of a plant owned by another person.]
[Reward: Maximum number of plants that can be affected +1]
[This is a repeatable quest.]
Ah, so the quest that increased my plant limit was repeatable.
In any case, these were extremely interesting quests.
Create a program and sell it.
Make one million won from it.
Create a digital photo book and sell 100 copies.
Why is everything 100?
The system seemed to have a strange obsession with the number 100.
“What kind of program should I make?”
I had already made several simple programs through requests on Gamja Market.
A program that counted the views of a specific webtoon.
A program that changed the names of multiple files at once.
With my ability, these were relatively simple things to make.
But what kind of program could I distribute in exchange for donations?
It would have to be useful, first of all, and it would have to be attractive.
I didn’t want to make something too impressive.
If I gave away something truly amazing just in exchange for donations, I might regret it.
People always said that if you were good at something, you shouldn’t do it for free.
There needed to be a proper balance between the value of the work and the compensation.
“Maybe the photo book would be doable.”
I thought it would be easy if I chose the right theme.
After all, the quality would practically be that of a top-level professional photographer’s work.
I might be able to complete the quest surprisingly quickly.
How about a plant-themed photo book?
There seemed to be quite a few plant enthusiasts like Social Worker Cha.
If I sold it just to those people, I might be able to sell 100 copies.
“If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve taken some pictures of that Albo.”
I regretted not taking pictures of the plant after I revived it.
Well, I didn’t necessarily have to make it about plants.
There was no rush, so I could think about it slowly.
Saturday afternoon.
Mom had already gone to open the restaurant, and I was sitting alone in front of the computer.
“Haaah…”
What should I make?
What kind of program would make people willing to donate money to download it?
I couldn’t come up with an idea at all.
And this computer is seriously a piece of junk.
I wasn’t making a game, so I didn’t need a high-end computer with incredible specifications.
But a computer that took five or ten minutes just to boot was unacceptable not only for coding but for everyday use as well.
During the compiling process, when I tried to run the code I had written as an actual program, the computer lagged so badly that it drove me crazy.
“It’s ridiculously expensive…”
I couldn’t think of an idea, and my computer was painfully slow.
Before I knew it, instead of coding, I was browsing the internet looking at computer parts and different PC builds.
Bzzzt-
Then my phone vibrated.
Since it didn’t vibrate repeatedly, someone had probably sent me a message.
But there was nothing on the PC messenger I had open on my computer.
A text message?
I checked my phone and found a message from an unknown number.
Usually, messages like this were spam, so I would ignore them.
But the content was far too specific to be spam.
-Hello. Did you happen to visit Starstrap Wedding Hall last Sunday?
That was the wedding hall I had gone to with Jiah’s family.
I had given my phone number to several people there, including acquaintances of the bride and groom, so this person might have been someone I had taken pictures for.
-Yes. Who is this?
-Hello. I’m Manager Kim Jumin from Starstrap Wedding Hall. I happened to see some of the photos you took that day, and they were so excellent that I wanted to contact you.
A wedding hall manager?
There hadn’t been any wedding hall employees among the people I had taken pictures of that day.
-Do you have a moment to talk on the phone?
Judging from his comment that the photos were excellent, it didn’t seem like he was contacting me because I had done something wrong.
But how had he gotten my phone number?
-Yes.
I replied, and only a few seconds later, the other person called me.
“Hello?”
-Hello, sir. This is Manager Kim Jumin from Starstrap Wedding Hall, who contacted you by text. Is now a good time to talk?
“Yes. What is this about?”
-I’m sorry for contacting you so suddenly. I understand that you visited our Starstrap Wedding Hall last week and took several pictures of the venue. Is that correct?
He kept emphasizing the name of the wedding hall.
Come to think of it, could taking pictures of the venue without permission have caused a problem?
I had only taken pictures of it because it happened to be in the background while I was photographing people.
Were they planning to sue me for copyright infringement or something?
“Yes. The bride and groom and some of the guests asked me to take a few pictures for them. Is there some kind of problem?”
-Oh, absolutely not. Our social media promotion manager happened to see the photos you took. All of our staff saw them together, and they were so good that we’d like to ask you to take some promotional photos for our social media accounts.
Promotional photos?
It sounded like they wanted to hire me for a job.
Still, the word ask bothered me a little.
“Are you talking about a formal contract?”
Technically, I wasn’t a photographer, and I’d never signed a contract like this before.
Still, I pretended I knew what I was doing.
-We can give you a contract if you’d like. But we’re not asking for anything complicated. We just want you to take a few pictures of the exterior and interior of the wedding hall for our social media.
The fact that they were willing to sign a contract meant they would pay me.
So the important thing was the rate.
-The post our manager found said you took the photos with a cell phone. Do you normally work with a phone?
“Huh? Well, that… it depends on the situation.”
I felt like he’d caught me off guard.
As I awkwardly gave a vague answer, the manager spoke in a casual tone.
-To be honest, we don’t really care what you use as long as the photos turn out well. If I’m being honest, we’d actually prefer it if you didn’t use expensive equipment and increase the cost.
I agreed with that.
-I heard that the person in charge really wants to post your photos on our official social media account. If you visit us, we’ll cover your transportation expenses.
Free transportation there and back.
That meant all I had to spend was my time and effort.
-As for your quote, that’s naturally up to you, but we’ll make sure the payment is competitive with the market rate. We guarantee a minimum of 100,000 won per hour.
Free transportation.
The exact amount would depend on the quote I gave them, but the minimum hourly rate was 100,000 won.
If I turn this down, wouldn’t people be justified in calling me an idiot?
