Gaining Reaction [Part 2]

Flash!

“Ugh, f*ck! This sh*t again!”

“Meow!” Rika was eating, but she paused to meow in response to the sudden shout.

Jaegun buried his head in his palms in front of the computer. It was showing a bright blue error screen.

“I fixed it just the other day. Why is it doing this again?”

Despite his complaints, he knew his computer was old. He’d been using it since college, so it was at least seven years old.

“Damn it. But I’m glad that it lasted long enough for me to send over the text.”

Jaegun had sent three full books of wuxia novels to his editor. But just as he’d begun writing the fourth book, the error screen had appeared. Although he’d gotten a lot done, he wasn’t sure how he would write from now on.

“Do I have to buy a new computer?”

That might not be too bad. He still had about 1.5 million won of down payment left, even after spending 300,000 won on his father’s birthday gift and buying Rika’s food and some essential products about two weeks ago.

No, not yet. I shouldn’t spend it all yet.

Jaegun shook off the brief thought. Even though the remaining amount seemed sufficient, he was aware of how easy it was to keep spending money.

After paying rent and utilities, his reserves would go down below 1 million won.

Buying an expensive computer without thinking about next month? That was only possible for someone who was only living for today.

I should just go to an internet café. I can pay monthly for a while.

His head was filled with the contents of novels he wanted to write. He felt an urgency to get them down as soon as possible.

Jaegun stood up, slamming the table. And then—

Right! I have that thing!

Jaegun’s attention moved to a corner of the room.

Gunwoo Seo’s laptop was sitting there. Although it was an extremely old model, that wouldn’t affect simple writing work.

It had a word processor installed. Since it works normally, I should use that for now.

Jaegun removed his broken computer from his desk and put Gunwoo Seo’s laptop there instead. He plugged in the adapter and pressed the power button, and it started booting up with a beep.

“You’re much older than my seven-year-old computer,” Jaegun said to the laptop as he connected his keyboard and mouse. He was more used to his keyboard than the laptop keyboard.

Vzzz!

His phone buzzed with a call from his editor.

He picked up the call while double clicking the word processor icon on the desktop.

“Yes, hello.”

“Hello, Mr. Ha. How were you able to write three books in just two weeks? Had you written them in advance?”

“Ha ha, no. The story just kept coming into my head.”

Jaegun wasn’t lying at all.

Since he’d gotten a part of the deceased Gunwoo Seo’s memory, his process had completely changed. He couldn’t exactly put his finger on it, but it seemed like the memory wasn’t the only thing he had absorbed. His inspiration was endless, and his writing had become much higher quality. He could feel the clear difference the whole time he was writing.

“Wow, so you really wrote them in two weeks?”

It was understandable that his editor was surprised. Jaegun’s usual writing speed was one book a month at the fastest. He used to spend two weeks completing the first draft and the remaining two weeks revising it.

“I’ve skimmed through them, and the third book is also good. I don’t even see anything to edit. You seem to be working hard, Mr. Ha.”

“No, you must be working hard editing my writing. Thank you.”

“Ha ha ha. Anyway, Mr. Ha. I have surprising news.”

“Surprising news?”

“You better hold on to the phone tightly.”

Jaegun clenched his hands. “What is it? Is it bad news?”

“It’s probably good news. No writer would mind an additional printing, would they?”

“Huh?!”

For a moment, Jaegun thought he’d heard wrong.

Additional printing? My book? Jaegun couldn’t believe it.

The editor’s voice over the phone was still going. “You’re still listening to me, right? Mr. Ha? Hello?” he asked, knowing well that Jaegun was still listening.

Jaegun stood up, walked around the small studio a few times, and answered after sitting back down.

“Yes, yes... Yes. I’m listening. Additional printing?”

“Yes, that’s right. The bookstore managers have been giving positive reviews. I think it will reach sixty stores, so we decided to print a thousand more.”

“Pardon? How many? A thousand?”

Jaegun was echoing back what he’d heard like a fool, looking down at his trembling legs.

As ebooks and paid subscription services became more popular, the hard copy market was a complete mess. Even printing two thousand copies of each book was rare in this market. It was impressive that he got any additional printing in this situation, and even more unbelievable that it was four digits.

“M-Mr. Kwon. Y-you’re not lying... are you?”

Despite knowing that his editor wouldn’t just say something he didn’t mean, Jaegun couldn’t help it. He was still staring around his empty, shabby studio.

“Can you really not trust me? Why would I lie about this? Congratulations, Mr. Ha. I think you’re finally seeing the light after all your hard work. You’ll make more profit and be much happier.”

Jaegun had signed a contract for 8% of royalties per book. Since one book cost 8,000 won, he would get 640 won every time a book was sold. A thousand books would get him 640,000 won. Although 3.3% would be taken off for tax, that was about how much he’d make.

While Jaegun was speechless, his editor brightly finished the conversation.

“Keep writing. I’ll look forward to the next book. Don’t push yourself too much, though. Oh, and let’s grab a meal sometime.”

“Sure, of course... Mr. Kwon, thank you so much.”

After hanging up the call, Jaegun walked up to the fridge and gulped down some cold water.

He was too excited to calm down. He had to share this uncontrollable joy, but he couldn’t think of anyone. He wanted to call his sister or Jungjin, but both of them would be busy working at this hour.

Eventually, Jaegun scooped Rika up high and yelled out loud. “R-Rika! Did you hear? I got additional printing! A thousand of ’em!”

“Meow.”

“Now, they’ll sell three thousand copies of each of my books! That’s about 1.9 million won. Wow, seriously! It’s unbelievable! I can’t believe I’ve made it to the point where I can make close to two million won on one book! This doesn’t make any sense, does it?”

“Meow. Meow.”

Popular writers would say it’s not that much money. But for Jaegun, who had barely made anything after writing for so long, it was a remarkable achievement.

“Nice. I’ll stay on a roll and continue writing the fourth book! I’ll write this one in two weeks too! Look forward to next month, Rika! I’ll make a lot of money and buy you a real nice cat tower or something!”

Jaegun sat down excitedly and started writing with Gunwoo Seo’s old laptop.

The overall structure of the fourth book was already established, so all he had to do was put that in writing.

Ta-tak! Tak! Ta-da-tak! Ta-da-tak!

The letters Jaegun was typing poured out on the screen. Those letters formed words, sentences, and paragraphs at lightning speed.

Now, the main character gets backstabbed here. Take a step back in order to build dramatic effect... Hmm?!

While he was focused on writing, Jaegun suddenly stopped his fingers on the keyboard.

Something feels strange.

Normally, when he would write fast like this, he often felt as if his typing speed couldn’t keep up with his thoughts. But he felt completely opposite right now.

It felt as if his typing speed was faster than his thought process—by a lot.

Wait, what’s this?

After seeing the entire number of pages, he gaped in amazement.

It had only been an hour since he’d begun writing. But the number of pages, set to B6 size, was already past twenty.

Huh? That can’t be right. How much did I write?

Jaegun skeptically clicked on the document information. Then he gasped in shock and felt chills go through his body.

Words: 10,798

Oh my god! I wrote over ten thousand words in just one hour?!

Jaegun’s usual writing speed wasn’t slow at all. He was faster than average, even compared to other writers.

However, even when he was at his best, 3,500 words per hour was his usual limit. It required at least two and a half hours to write ten thousand words.

This can’t be explained by being on a roll...!

He wasn’t copying an already existing book. He was creating something completely new. Writing ten thousand words per hour was beyond human level.

Jaegun fell into a deep confusion while staring at all the work before him. He couldn’t believe he’d created so much.

If I can maintain this speed, I can write a book a day.

The length of the wuxia novel he was currently writing was around 140,000 words. If he could maintain this writing speed, he could complete one novel in just fourteen hours. It was unbelievable to think that he could write a book in only one day, when before, he could barely write one a month.

Let’s give it a try.