That's not how you exercise. (1)

A large fitness center located in Gangnam, Seoul. One side of the office for the staff.

"Hello, members of the Fallen Gang! This is the mighty Cho Kang-hyuk from the Ultimate Muscle TV! Today's content is none other than~ Mukbang!!"

A man with well-defined muscles. Cho Kang-hyuk was pouring out his words in a lively tone in front of the camera.

"Yes! Thanks to the enthusiasm and comments of the Fallen Gang, we are once again doing a mukbang. And today, we'll be trying out the menu that received the most comments! Chicken with cheese balls. And of course, the essential companion for chicken! Let's have some beer!"

After his remarks, Cho Kang-hyuk tilted the camera towards the chicken, cheese balls, and beers he had brought, filming them one by one in close-up shots before starting to enjoy each item.

"Darn it. I'm worried about losing my gains."

"Ha, damn it. It's disgustingly delicious."

He felt two conflicting emotions simultaneously.

With his well-defined muscles, he was naturally living the life of a fitness enthusiast.

However, he hadn't always been a fitness enthusiast.

The reason he had no choice but to become one was that his body had been so damaged at one point that even walking was difficult without maintaining his muscles.

Having served in a special forces unit in his youth, his body was completely wrecked. He started receiving hydrotherapy and physical therapy for rehabilitation.

Afterwards, he gradually picked up exercises like yoga, fitness, and Pilates, known to be good for the body, and even studied nutrition to create his own diet plan, unknowingly becoming a famous fitness trainer.

And after serving in the special forces for seven years, equipped with the perseverance he had developed passively, he managed to become the owner of Strongest Fitness Center, with five branches in Seoul, after digesting a workload close to workaholism for several years.

So why was a successful fitness center owner like him worrying about losing his gains while doing a mukbang?

"Damn you, Corona!!!!"

It was because of the disaster that struck in 2020.

Due to Corona, he had to start YouTube to cover the maintenance costs of the gym that had to close.

At first, he uploaded videos about various exercises and stretches that could be done at home without any equipment, following the trend of home gyms due to Corona, occasionally sharing stories from his days in the special forces.

Then, one day, unable to contain his stress, he showed himself eating and drinking while watching a mukbang.

After that, his mukbang content under the name 'Fallen Fitness Enthusiast' became a hit, leading him to do mukbangs occasionally like this.

Of course, even so, YouTube revenue was barely enough to cover the maintenance costs of the five branches, but it was indeed a great help in enduring the Corona period.

And now, it's 2021.

Despite the start of vaccine administration and the relaxation of social distancing measures, he continued to upload mukbang videos on YouTube.

Even though social distancing measures had eased, there was no change in the fact that the number of members had drastically decreased compared to before Corona.

"Well then, members of the Fallen Gang! I'll see you again with a new video tomorrow! Please subscribe and like!"

After eating all the chicken, cheese balls, and beer, Cho Kang-hyuk sent his regards to the camera and then let out a deep sigh as he turned it off.

"Phew. I'm worried about tomorrow."

He had just eaten a bunch of oily cheese balls and chicken. He wanted to burn it all off with exercise right away, but he had already consumed two cans of beer.

As a competent fitness trainer, he knew very well how detrimental it was to engage in strenuous exercise after drinking.

"For now, I should just rest when I get home. The doctor also advised me to take it easy."

In fact, what Corona brought him wasn't just mukbangs. Cho Kang-hyuk recalled the words he heard from the doctor during their recent consultation.

* * *

"It's stress-induced hair loss."

The doctor's words were like a thunderbolt.

"What? Stress? But I'm perfectly fine."

He had been exercising regularly and managing his diet so well that he didn't have a single ache. Stress-induced hair loss? What nonsense was this?

But in response to Cho Kang-hyuk's question, the doctor sighed lightly before speaking.

"Your body is so healthy that the signs aren't showing, but your body is on the verge of breaking down due to stress. And the symptom is manifested as hair loss."

"So, what should I do? Is there any medication or something, some kind of solution?"

"I can prescribe medication, but the most important thing is to reduce stress. Please honestly tell me, how many hours do you typically work in a week?"

"I work about 90 hours a week..."

"There you go! You're working and living so much, even if your body is healthy, your insides are rotting away!"

Cho Kang-hyuk couldn't say anything in response to the doctor's exclamation. Because even reducing to 90 hours was already a shortened time for him.

"You need to reduce your working hours from now on. Otherwise..."

"Otherwise?"

"You'll lose all your hair."

"!!!"

Afterwards, the doctor repeatedly warned about the potential harm to internal organs or the body due to stress, but Cho Kang-hyuk didn't even hear it.

Ten years of living obsessed with work and exercise.

Suddenly, he was thirty-seven, having successfully grown his company in his own way. His recent goal was to pursue dating and marriage.

"If I go bald, I'll be single for life!"

He had a gut feeling that he was currently in a very precarious situation.

* * *

Recalling the dreadful memories from a few days ago, Cho Kang-hyuk remained silent.

But even after arriving home, he still had one concern lingering in his mind.

Ten years of living consumed by work and exercise.

"But what do I do to relax?"

He had no hobbies.

"Hmm."

After contemplating briefly what hobby to try, he settled on something he used to enjoy during his school days.

"I wonder if the recent ones are interesting too?"

He searched for martial arts novels on his phone and found access to a web novel platform.

Reading martial arts novels used to be his main hobby during his school days.

Growing up in poverty under the care of his grandparents without parents, the joy of borrowing a martial arts novel from the local bookstore for 700 won was quite precious to him.

Just like how people waste time contemplating what to watch on Netflix, he scrolled through the martial arts novels on the platform, only reading the titles and descriptions before pressing the 'back' button.

While he was wasting time like this, he pressed the search button and typed in the keyword "Gagyeong."

And his pupils dilated as he read the contents displayed on the screen.

[The Return of the Demon Lord] 

[The Chronicles of the Unorthodox Tyrant] 

[The Chronicles of the Divine Shaolin Monk]

Gagyeong was his favorite martial arts author during his school days. And the novels "Return of the Demon Lord" and "The Chronicles of the Unorthodox Tyrant" that appeared on the screen were his favorite martial arts novels from that time.

"The Chronicles of the Divine Shaolin Monk?"

But the novel at the bottom, "The Chronicles of the Divine Shaolin Monk," was one he had never read before.

With a curious mind, he touched the novel with his thick fingers, and through the content displayed on the screen, he could see that it was a recently serialized novel.

"Wow."

Why did it feel like he was being drawn back to a fragment of childhood memories?

Feeling a strange excitement after a long time, he eagerly touched the "first chapter" button, moving his thick forearm.

"Hmm~"

How long did it take for him to read each sentence and savor each word?

As the tension from the long journey down memory lane eased in his body, the fatigue from the past ten years flooded in.

Thunk.

Before fifteen minutes had passed since he started reading the novel, he was already immersed in it.

* * *

"Mu-jin, wake up!!"

"Mmm."

Startled by the noise right in front of his nose, Cho Kang-hyuk groaned and rolled over.

Perhaps because he had finally relaxed after ten years, Cho Kang-hyuk, who had fallen into a deep slumber, unexpectedly couldn't wake up.

"Mu-jin! We need to go for morning exercise!"

"Morning exercise!"

But at the mention of exercise, his pupils flashed as if they were reflexively reacting.

However, before he fully woke up, what appeared before his eyes was the figure of a young novice monk whose identity he couldn't ascertain.

"...Kid, how did you get into our house?"

With a puzzled tone, Cho Kang-hyuk asked the little bald-headed figure.

"No, seriously. Who shaves their son's head like that? He's not even a newborn."

As Cho Kang-hyuk's suspicions about domestic violence escalated, the little troublemaker who snuck into someone else's house started babbling nonsense.

"What are you talking about, Mu-jin? You're smaller and younger than me, why am I the kid?"

"...Am I smaller than you?"

Kid, did your eyes go bad?

With a height of exactly 180 cm, a muscular body weighing around 90 kg with a body fat percentage fluctuating between 8-10% and capable of lifting 650 kg in a 1-rep max on the "Big Three" lifts, Cho Kang-hyuk wondered what nonsense the kid was talking about.

The body fat percentage was also kept around 8-10% for health reasons. Going too low would actually be harmful to health.

But was it because of this nonsense?

As he gradually began to wake up, his surroundings started coming into view.

"...Kid, where on earth is this?"

It looked like the interior of a hanok house, similar to what broadcasters who experienced traditional hanok stays showed on TV or YouTube, constructed in a very old-fashioned manner.

Even the quilt, made in the same old-fashioned design, seemed to be somewhat stiff, making one wonder if it really provided proper insulation.

"Wait? Did that kid just call me Mu-jin? If he said Mu-jin, then..."

The protagonist of "The Legend of the Shaolin Monk"!

Though he had fallen asleep in just ten minutes, he had still read two chapters of the novel, so he could remember the protagonist's name.

With that thought in mind, he could somewhat grasp the situation.

Why he was suddenly in this quaint place. Why there was an unidentified novice monk in front of him.

"It's a dream."

Cho Kang-hyuk concluded that he was dreaming because he had fallen asleep while reading the novel and had become the protagonist of the story.

"Hehehe. It's been a while since I experienced something like this."

Back when he was deeply immersed in martial arts novels during his school days, he occasionally had experiences like this.

"What have you been talking about all this time?"

Having understood the situation, Cho Kang-hyuk began to find each action of the little novice monk endearing.

"Sigh. We'll be late for morning exercise at this rate. What should we do?"

"Okay, okay. Sorry. Let's go together."

Realizing that this was a dream, Cho Kang-hyuk, or Mu-jin, decided to enjoy the situation and followed the novice monk.

After running with the novice monk for a while, Mu-jin arrived at a place where dozens of novice monks were lined up in neat rows at a training ground.

"Oh my! Being late for the first task. I'll be in big trouble!"

"Hurry up and find your place!"

Perhaps because Mu-jin and the little novice monk were the last to arrive, a middle-aged monk and some younger monks scolded them sternly.

"We're sorry!"

"Sorry!"

Mu-jin mimicked the novice monks somewhat, then shouted and jumped into an empty spot following the novice monk.

"It's a dream, but why does it feel so real?"

The scene of the training ground, the expressions and movements of the novice monks and monks felt incredibly lifelike. Moreover, despite it being a dream, he even felt out of breath from running.

However, whether Mu-jin thought about it or not, as all the novice monks gathered, the monks shouted again with their solemn voices.

"Start with horse stance!"

"Everyone, get into position!"

As the monks' voices thundered frighteningly, all the novice monks swiftly assumed the horse stance with agile movements not befitting their age.

And Mu-jin, too, properly widened his legs shoulder-width apart and assumed a squat-like posture with discretion.

"Hmm. He seems to know something."

Mu-jin liked the fact that they started with leg exercises.

Sometimes, he saw members or trainers who neglected their lower bodies and focused only on building their upper bodies, but Mu-jin didn't quite approve of that approach.

Especially since the reason he started exercising was for rehabilitation, he placed great importance on leg and core training.

A life where he constantly pondered over exercise, even in dreams. That was the life of a gym fanatic.

"Hmm. My legs are already trembling! Maybe because I still have a child's body?"

While others groaned in pain, he felt pleasure in the screams of his muscles.

But only for a moment.

"Something's wrong."

After maintaining the horse stance with bent knees for over five minutes, he began to feel that something was going wrong.

"No... If I exercise like this, my knees will be ruined!!"

The muscles around his legs and knees had already reached their limit. He didn't feel any stimulation, and now it felt like he was just torturing his knees.

Especially for him, who had experienced his body breaking down in the military and had studied exercise and muscles for ten years, this ignorant exercise method naturally furrowed his brow.

Even if it was a dream.

"No. Is this really a dream? Why do my knees hurt so much in a dream?"

As Mu-jin began to grow suspicious.

"The legs are the foundation of martial arts!"

"If the legs cannot maintain balance, then no martial art or technique can be executed with strength!"

The young monks, who were monitoring the novices' movements with keen eyes, shouted at the novices who collapsed due to their legs giving out.

And Mu-jin was not the kind of guy to overlook such sloppy exercise techniques.

"Hey, you ignorant fools who don't even know how to exercise!"

Even if it was just a dream.