As before, he woke up sick.
He looked at the white, dazzling neon lights above him in despair.
'Don't tell me it's some kind of mysterious illness again.'
Learning from past mistakes, he didn't bother to move too much. He just surrendered to the sick feeling enveloping his body.
[No, no, the disease is already known. You are in a hospital.]
"What is it now?" He was tired of feeling bad in his body.
[Your current body was supposed to be a rising star on the entertainment circuit. Yet to his misfortune, he fell at first sight for the director of a competitive entertainment company when they both were in college.
This led him to sign with the director's startup company instead of the big one that offered him a contract, which gave him fewer resources. The more he fell in love with the director the more stalkerish he became and the more depressed and strange he appeared to the outside world.
Even now, four years after he entered the circuit, his fans can be counted in the thousands, and they are all weird types.
You got an upset stomach during a concert after eating chocolates one of your fans gave you, and a video of you doing bowel movements on stage went viral. The first to be so, sadly.
You arrived at the hospital due to dehydration.]
'It sounds terrible, but is this related to me?' There have always been and always will be small irregularities in the book world, but irregularity does not equal abnormality. Xiao Xun didn't want to believe that the fall of a small star would be the reason he hadn't lost his virginity yet and was dragged here.
[One of your biggest fans, Mr. Yeon, is a North Korean dictator. After learning of your impending retirement he became so emotional that he launched a nuclear bomb, destroying significant parts of humanity after landing on a secret nuclear power plant.]
The system can't be serious... Right?
'God, this whole world is going to be idiotic, isn't it?'
[So you would fit right in, how lucky.]
Xiao Xun ignored the system's words and looked around, it was the classic setting of a hospital in the twenty-first century. Clumsy machines along with touch screens showed the old and advanced technology together. The small private room, apart from a bed, only had a simple office chair, which already contained someone inside.
"Song Eun-Kyung, how do you feel?" The woman in the chair finally noticed that he had woken up as he examined her. She looked up from the phone and gave him a look at her beautiful face, which was only slightly damaged by age.
"Better." He preferred not to talk too much as long as he lacked information, he didn't know what behavior would be considered out of character here. Luckily, the woman did it for him.
"If so, let's part our ways."
He still doesn't respond, afraid to make a mistake.
The woman thought his lack of reaction to shock and continued without suspicion: "We've been trying to make you popular for how long, three years? It doesn't work, the audience just doesn't like you.
You're still relatively young, go find a job somewhere and live a normal life, the chaos on the internet will stop soon."
"Here," She took a check out of her gray business suit and placed it on the table, "2,000 dollar contract break fee, as we agreed upon when you signed."
She looked at him, waiting for his response.
'System, next time give me the character traits right away, it's so hard to play around with it.'
[I only have one brain, I cannot read character traits and plot at the same time.]
Xiao Xun doubted if it actually had a whole mind just for itself - it clearly wasn't using it - but he had to focus on the conversation without going out of character.
He nodded, looking down and trying to seem as depressed as possible.
[The host is being warned; this is a 10% ooc. In return, 5,000 points have been cleared from your account. Please pay attention.]
Fork, how is anyone supposed to react to that other than being sad? Didn't the system say that the original person is depressed and weird? What is he supposed to do, go out in revelries and do some folk dances?
If he didn't do something soon, the ooc percentage would continue to grow, and within minutes the mission would be declared a failure and he would go straight to the worst prison known to non-humanity.
All thanks to a system that withdrew from the speed reading course he sent her after two weeks.
[Here, I found it!]
The voice of the system that he resented in his mind until a moment ago sounded to him for the first time like an angel descending from the sky, singing heavenly blessings to him.
[The body you took, Sung Eun-Kyung, 27 years old, is known as manic, dirty talker and prone to extreme moods! Congratulations!]
Xiao Xun wanted to shove its 'ConGRaTulatioNs!' down his throat, silencing the heavenly blessings he thought it was singing to him.
'Why did you let me take this maniac's body? Can't you just put me in the Korean dictator's body or something?! Why?!'
[Na-ah, problems need to be ripped off from the root~]
[It is not that serious of a problem, just throw tantrums all the time, you're doing it anyway.]
Xiao Xun took a deep breath, wanting very much to say some very creative words to his system but doing so would only prove the its point.
Breathe in, breathe out. All you have to do is yell at people, it's easy.
Don't lose it on your system, it is just the messenger. Breathe in, breathe out.
Use this energy for your job.
He opened his eyes with a calmness and peace that hadn't been there before, attaining for a split second the aura of a monk before lashing out as hard as he could.
"Stupid slut! You think I care about your shit! It's all your fault! You don't get to resign, you are fired! I don't need your money! Do you think I'm some sort of a beggar?! Huh?! Are you looking down on me?! I will do very well on my own, very well! Whore!"
The woman did not seem surprised by the harsh words. On the contrary, she smiled a smile of relief.
And behind the door, the shiny teen who recorded the words that the entire hospital ward could hear smiled too.