Chapter 3

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Surprising Gift

A gift? How absurd.

I don’t deserve it, do I?

I couldn’t raise you properly and left you helplessly, so what kind of gift could there be?

My throat tightens.

"Baby, can’t you be born? I’ll be a good dad. Your mom is really a kind and good person."

Woo-hyuk said in his heart.

The baby fairy still smiled without a trace of blemish and gave no answer.

Instead of answering, the baby fairy approached and kissed Woo-hyuk’s forehead.

At that moment, he felt a mysterious light seep into his brain.

The light gradually faded, and the baby fairy appeared before his eyes.

The baby fairy smiled brightly and waved, then moved away to the back.

"Baby! Wait!"

Woo-hyuk stretched out his hand and called out in a hurry.

But the baby fairy moved further away, stubbornly to the back.

***

Yeeun woke up startled by her husband’s voice.

"Baby, don’t go. I’ll raise you well. Please come back, baby!"

Her husband was stretching out his hand, pleading.

Yeeun gently shook her husband to wake him up.

"Oppa!"

Her husband opened his eyes.

Then he sat up abruptly and looked around.

"Oppa, did you dream?"

"Dream...?"

Her husband’s gaze was lost and lonely, like a child who had lost his mother.

Her heart ached.

She hugged her husband.

A tear streamed down Yeeun’s cheek.

She was grateful to her husband and felt sorry for him.

It had been 49 days since the baby left.

She thought her husband would forget about the baby.

But it seems he hasn’t forgotten.

So she is grateful.

And so she feels sorry.

***

"It’s okay. Go to sleep quickly."

Woo-hyuk comforted his wife, whose eyes were brimming with tears, and then lay down on the bed.

His wife lay beside him, tightly hugging his left arm, as if it were a lifeboat.

Woo-hyuk closed his eyes, entrusting his left arm to his wife, hoping to see the baby fairy again.

But the baby fairy did not appear again.

Instead, some text appeared.

Perhaps the baby could return to us?

There would be no reason to refuse such a gift.

Then a new sentence appeared.

Re-experience Database?

What is this?

He didn’t understand what it meant. The concept of re-experience was vague. The dictionary definition of feeling as if you had experienced something someone else had done didn’t clarify the concept.

Familiar names and photos appeared.

Bruce Lee, Marlon Brando, Charlie Chaplin, Robin Williams, Kim Seung-ho...

It was true.

These were the actors he had thought of during the audition earlier that day.

He rarely thought of Bruce Lee in his daily life, but after the audition, he kept thinking about him.

When a fellow auditionee in the same group demonstrated Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do, he found it impressive and envied the talent as an actor.

Re-experiencing someone’s life?

It takes 7 hours to re-experience one person’s life?

Is that possible?

It’s like dreaming someone’s life as if watching a movie?

His eyes widened.

Part of the experience and ability is transferred?!

If that’s true, it would be an incredible boost for an actor.

Re-experiencing Bruce Lee would mean gaining his martial arts skills, and re-experiencing Marlon Brando would mean gaining his acting skills.

The transfer of "part" of the experience and ability was intriguing.

He would find out by trying it.

He wanted to try re-experience right away.

Now he understood the mechanism of the "Re-experience Database."

He couldn’t be sure what it was without trying it, but one thing was clear: it was an incredible gift!

The baby fairy came to mind.

The baby who had briefly stayed in his wife’s womb and then left.

He hadn’t done anything for the baby, yet received such a great gift!

He had another reason to live hard and become a good actor.

For the baby, he must become a good actor.

After taking a deep breath, he stared at Bruce Lee’s photo for 5 seconds.

***

The next morning.

His whole body ached as if he had been beaten up.

"Why are you sweating so much?"

His wife asked with a worried expression.

Woo-hyuk looked at his wife with a dazed look.

"Oppa, are you okay?"

"I’m fine."

"Are you in pain anywhere? You don’t look good."

"I just couldn’t sleep well. Don’t worry."

He smiled at his wife.

His wife smoothed his messy hair and touched his forehead with the back of her hand.

"You don’t have a fever..."

"I’m fine, really."

"Get some more sleep. You look tired."

His wife quietly got up and left the room.

Woo-hyuk sat on the bed and looked around the room.

The events of last night came vividly to mind. It was too vivid to be a dream.

He couldn’t believe it. How could such a thing exist in the world!

Surely it couldn’t all have been a dream?

To access the "Re-experience Database," he just needed to close his eyes and think of the phrase "Re-experience Database."

He closed his eyes and thought of "Re-experience Database."

A list of databases appeared with a guide.

He opened his eyes, and the list disappeared.

It was definitely not a dream.

Last night, he re-experienced Bruce Lee’s life.

The re-experience was incredible.

He had seen all the movies Bruce Lee starred in and documentaries and TV series about his life.

But the re-experience last night was on a different level from watching documentaries or movies.

He didn’t dream Bruce Lee’s life from a third-person perspective.

He reincarnated as Bruce Lee and lived his life, from his birth in 1940 to his death in 1973 at the age of 33.

How was that possible?

He didn’t know.

But he had actually experienced it.

He had slept for no more than eight hours.

During that time, he reincarnated as Bruce Lee and lived a 33-year life.

It reminded him of Zhuangzi’s butterfly dream.

One day, after dreaming of flying as a butterfly, Zhuangzi said he couldn’t tell if he was a man who had dreamed of being a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming of being a man.

Woo-hyuk felt exactly the same way.

He was confused whether he had reincarnated as Bruce Lee last night or if Bruce Lee had reincarnated as him now.

According to the guide of the "Re-experience Database," after re-experiencing a person, part of their experience and ability is transferred. Was that true?

His body felt heavy, but Woo-hyuk got down to the floor and started doing push-ups.

Thirty-three.

Thirty-four.

Thirty-five!

Usually, his speed would drop significantly around this point.

But today was different.

Forty-eight.

Forty-nine.

Fifty!

His speed started to drop now.

He would have stopped here if it were yesterday morning.

But he wanted to do more.

Soon he reached his limit. His arms trembled, and he couldn’t do any more.

"Never, put, limits, on, anything."

Woo-hyuk muttered and continued doing push-ups.

"The moment, you, set, limits, you, become, that."

This was Bruce Lee’s philosophy.

Woo-hyuk stopped doing push-ups and lay flat on his back.

So, part of Bruce Lee’s experience and ability was transferred? Is this it?

He sprang up from the floor, not by putting his hands down but by doing a tumble.

Woo-hyuk looked down at the floor where he had just been lying.

"Did I do a tumble?!"

It was the same morning as yesterday, but it felt completely different.

A morning filled with confidence.

When he woke up, he felt heavy, but now his body and mind felt light.

He had received the amazing gift of the "Re-experience Database."

If he couldn’t succeed with such a gift, it would be a shame.

He had a feeling that wonderful days were ahead.