Apgujeong Station.
It's been a long time since he has been there ever since he rented a room after graduating from high school. Baek-Ya looked at the old apartment complex.
'Is it because of the mood?'
Somehow, it felt older than he remembered.
'Even if it's like that outside, the inside is pretty good, though.'
Baek-Ya tilted his head and walked into the convenience store. Even if it was just a dream, he has not been to his sister's house in a long time, so he didn't want to go there empty-handed. Baek-Ya bought a carton of orange juice using the T-Money card in his pocket.
However, as he thanked the cashier and turned away, somehow, there was a weirdly prickling feeling.
Sure enough. With the sound of the convenience store door opening, an overjoyed voice could be heard. As a bonus, the status window popped up again.
"Studeeent!"
It was the man he met in front of the school.
"Wha- what is it, ahjussi?!"
As Baek-Ya, bewildered, stumbled backward, the casting manager of ID approached right in front of his nose.
"I can't believe we're meeting here! This must be destiny?!"
"Why, why are you here…"
"Ah! I'm saying this just in case, but it's absolutely not like that. The company is around this neighborhood, so I was on my way back. We do not follow anyone from behind."
Not? What do you mean not!?
Was it someone else who chased him at the snack bar in front of the school then? Baek-Ya's eyes turned cold.
However, the status window right in front of him was even more annoying than the man. Baek-Ya was faced with a choice again.
[Q. I Want to Become an Idol! (1) : Accepting the audition offer]
▶ All right. I'll take a look.
The choice that he desperately turned away from while shouting 'Elephant'.
'Why is there only one this time…'
Baek-Ya pouted his lips.
With the quest that he was coerced to accept, Baek-Ya had no choice but to answer.
"All right. I'll take a look."
It was something he would never see in real life so he might as well give it a shot in his dreams.
Moreover, since it wasn't real, there would be no dark history left behind. Upon that, as soon as he answered, the status window appeared. It was a quest completion notification.
[ Complete!]
[Level Up Lv.1 → Lv.2]
[Quest Reward Granted: 1 Star Point]
[Level Up Reward Granted: 1 Star Point]
"Star points?"
When Baek-Ya softly muttered, as if recognizing it from somewhere, the status window changed once again.
[Current Star Points in Possession: 2]
[You can use the Star Points to bring down the 'Skill Draw' or 'Stress Index' ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و]
'I've seen that emoticon a lot somewhere…'
And suddenly, something occurred to him.
"Surviving as the Genius Idol?!"
Baek-Ya yelled out. For a moment, even Dong-Man, the casting manager from ID also got surprised.
The first time, rejected. The second time, escaped.
Wherever that stubbornly refusing attitude has gone, Dong-Man was moved by Baek-Ya, when he suddenly expressed his strong aspirations to survive as a genius idol.
Even while receiving lasers from the convenience store part-timer, this was the moment that made standing guard at the entrance worth it.
"That's right! A genius idol! Student, you have plenty of potentials!"
Somehow, the boy looked even more distraught than before, but that was all the better. All that was needed now was speed.
It was pressing that this gemstone he found would be brought back to the company before it escaped again.
"Now that we're talking about it, let's go to the audition right away!"
"No, wait a minute…! I'm not in a situation to…"
Baek-Ya struggled as his arm was being held by Dong-Man. He was even more disoriented by the barraging status window that it was hard to grasp the situation.
[A new quest has arrived!]
[Q. I Want to Become an Idol! (2) : Passing the audition]
"It's okay! The iron should be struck while it's hot, and ID is right ahead. Today is also the day of private auditions, so we can immediately go now."
Baek-Ya, whose arm was being grabbed by Dong-Man, was being dragged away for the second time today.
* * *
And the result.
[ Complete!]
[Quest Reward Granted: 1 Star Point]
He passed the audition.
"Your tone is good, and the vocalization is also okay. Have you really never learned how to sing?"
"No, I haven't..."
"Your dancing is lacking a lot, but your sense of rhythm isn't bad, so I think you'll catch up quickly."
Baek-Ya could not believe this situation at all. He knew how to sing a bit, but that was only by ordinary standards.
In that case, there was only one reason.
"Your glasses… Is your vision very bad?"
As expected, it was his face.
The atmosphere was not like this even after he entered the audition room with the man. He was even scared to remove his glasses for the camera test.
"Oh, my! This one has to pass!"
All kinds of praise poured out towards Dong-Man, asking, 'Where on earth did assistant manager Kim manage to find a kid like this'. Dong-Man was sure at that moment.
'He passed!'
On the other hand, Baek-Ya felt dizzy from the status window pouring on him.
[A new quest has arrived!]
[Q. I Want to Become an Idol! (3) : Making a debut
※ Reinforcement of passive in case of failure]
"..."
Passive, what was that?
How was he supposed to do this?
* * *
He barely managed to escape, saying that he would need to have parental consent first to sign the contract. That was how Baek-Ya left with his orange juice.
"Isn't it too long for a dream…"
He was getting anxious by the fact that it might not be a dream.
Seeing the traffic light change to green, Baek-Ya took a step forward.
'For now, I'll go home, then think of…'
Then suddenly, an amazing idea emerged.
Wouldn't I wake up from the dream if I was shocked?'
Baek-Ya, crossing the street, confirmed that the green light had started to blink, and stopped walking.
It was a little scary, but there was no greater shock than being hit by a car.
While he was collecting his thoughts, the green light changed to red. The cars that had been stopping began to speed up one by one.
'Still, it's better to be hit with my eyes closed than be hit with my eyes open.'
Baek-Ya closed his eyes and braced himself for the coming impact. The oncoming car was unable to stop the speeding and honked.
Beeeep!!!
'It's hitting…!'
Baek-Ya, with his eyes tightly closed, cowered his shoulders. At that moment, large arms wrapped around him, and he rolled to the ground.
"Hey! You bastard! Have you gone crazy?!"
The driver, who had stopped the car by a hair's breadth, rolled down the window and shouted as passersby who witnessed the accident murmured.
Darkness once again engulfed Baek-Ya along with the distant noises. In his darkened view, he was certain at that moment that he was not mistaken.
Perhaps it was because of the motion of rolling on the ground before regaining his consciousness. The sound of tinnitus rang in his ear as his stomach churned.
"Uugh!"
"Brother-in-law, are you all right?!"
With a familiar voice, someone raised Baek-Ya's body up. It was his sister's husband, Ji-Hoon.
Baek-Ya frowned at the sudden brightness in his vision. Perhaps his glasses flew away as he rolled on the ground because the rims of his eyes felt empty.
Ji-Hoon examined Baek-Ya's body with a worried face as he still seemed to be out of it.
"Why were you just standing there? You startled me."
He didn't seem to be hurt. Ji-Hoon pulled Baek-Ya's hair back asking if he felt uncomfortable anywhere else. He himself also looked like a mess for rolling together on the ground.
"…Brother-in-law?"
"Yes, Han Baek-Ya. Where have you left your mind? You almost got into big trouble. You know that?"
Gently smacking Baek-Ya's forehead, Ji-Hoon stood up from his place. Then, he approached the driver, who was opening the car door and getting out, and apologized on Baek-Ya's behalf.
Only then did Baek-Ya come to his senses and slowly looked around.
It was blurry, but the yellow liquid around the car seemed to be orange juice. When he belatedly lifted his hand from the pain, he saw a shard of glass stuck in it. There was quite a lot of blood on the ground where he remained.
"Aigoo, what to do… Your hand is bleeding profusely, student."
A local resident who witnessed the accident from the beginning approached and handed over a handkerchief.
"Shouldn't you go to the hospital right away?"
The middle-aged woman felt sorry as she looked at the wound.
She checked on the dazed Baek-Ya and approached Ji-Hoon who was apologizing again and again. However, it was not the wound that mattered to Baek-Ya right now.
"I'm feeling… the pain…"
But he wasn't supposed to feel it.
A cold sweat formed over Baek-Ya's forehead.
* * *
It has been a long time since he has seen his sister, but this was not a touching reunion. For a moment, she was surprised at the look of the two disheveled men. She was busy scolding him after hearing the details of the accident.
"Don't even think about stepping out of your room!"
Sentenced to confinement, Baek-Ya lay on his bed and stared blankly at the ceiling. The status window has not opened the quest to the end.
In truth, from the moment he opened his eyes, he had already thought that this might not be a dream, but perhaps he ignored it for thinking of it as a dream made him feel more comfortable.
However, that mental triumph was short-lived due to what happened at the hospital. That pain of his raw skin being stitched up without anesthesia… was an experience he never wanted to go through again.
So, right now he was inside a game.
Usually, when it comes to games…
"Exit game?"
Hm. No response.
"Leave!"
However, the response that came back was very different from the one he anticipated.
"Leave? Where do you think you're leaving?"
It was his sister's severe scolding that he couldn't take a step out of the house today.
"Hnng. What is this?"
Baek-Ya covered himself with the blanket and made a pained sound. If he really entered that idol game, the outcome would be as plain as day.
The reviews were so searing that he couldn't forget it.
A synonym for a shitty game of luck.
Raising a sunfish.
99% chance of a bad ending.
"..."
It was cold.
It was like a dagger was piercing his chest.
Baek-Ya, his complexion rapidly deteriorating, sprang up to his feet.
'The reviews say that you'll die no matter what you do. But that's unless you succeed as a genius idol.'
He needed a plan.
"No, but shouldn't they at least give me something like tutorials or information through the process?"
This is just too much. Even the regressors in modern fantasy novels knew about their future, so why not him!
He screamed under his breath as he couldn't let his sister hear him, and the status window appeared in front of his eyes. The system, which has consistently been ignoring him throughout all this, responded.
Lv.2 Baek-Ya (Synchronizing)
Appearance: B
Vocals: A
Dance: D
Talent: -
Stress: 5%
Title: Genius Idol (Inactive)
Passive: R
It was Baek-Ya's information window.
"Wow… This is wretched."
As if hinting at a bad ending, the grades were also bad in sequence.
'It really is taunting me.'
If something like this existed, it should have shown him earlier!
Baek-Ya's fists were trembling.
'Still, the passive seems good.'
Wasn't 'R' an abbreviation for 'Rare'? He didn't know what it was about, but anyway, it was a good thing. It had to be a good thing.
"Calm down, Han Baek-Ya. Keep it calm."
He began to look at the information window again. Baek-Ya raised his hand above an unknown grade. Then, like a hint, an explanation appeared.
: Take off your glasses, and you'll become a beautiful boy.
: Become a vocal tone gangster, a musical sense gangster, and a vocal range gangster.
//TN: ggang = ggangpae = gangster
: Move your body with the energy of the universe.
"Wow~"
How nice. It was all good, but why were the skill names like this?!
Why did he have to be the one to carry this sense of shame? Baek-Ya felt like he was going to cry.
'Then, is the passive the only thing I can rely on now?'
Baek-Ya raised his hand over the R-grade which seemed to illuminate like a halo.
Usually, a passive was the general attribute of the subject themselves. In fact, even if it was the only thing that turned out to be good…
: Extremely fragile, so it dies very easily.
"The f*ck?"
He couldn't help but cuss.