Apgujeong Station.
Since Baekya had rented a room after graduating high school, it had been quite a while since he last came here. He gazed at the old apartment complex.
‘Is it just my imagination?’
For some reason, it felt more run-down than he remembered.
‘Though the outside looks rough, the inside seemed pretty decent.’
Baekya frowned and entered a convenience store. Even though it was a dream, he didn’t want to visit his sister’s place empty-handed after such a long time. He used the T-money card in his pocket to buy a box of orange juice.
But as he thanked the clerk and turned around, he felt an odd chill.
Sure enough, with the sound of the convenience store door opening came a voice filled with excitement. The status window popped up again as a bonus.
“Haakssaayaaang!”
It was the same man he met in front of the school.
“W-what are you doing, mister?!”
Startled, Baekya stepped back, but the ID casting manager was already right in front of him.
“No way we meet here too! It must be fate, I’m telling you?!”
“W-why are you here...?”
“Oh! Just to be clear, it’s not what you think. The company is nearby, so I was just returning. We don’t follow people around like that.”
Yeah, right!
So the chase at the snack bar in front of school was someone else? Baekya’s eyes cooled sharply.
But more annoying than the man was the status window right in front of him. Baekya faced the choice again.
[Q. I want to become an idol! (1): Accept the audition offer]
▶ Okay, I’ll go.
The choice he had desperately avoided while shouting “Elephant!”
‘Why is there only one option this time…?’
Baekya pursed his lips.
With no option but to accept, Baekya had no choice but to answer.
“Okay, I’ll go.”
No way this would happen in real life, so at least he could try in a dream.
Besides, it wasn’t real, so no chance of making a black history. As soon as he answered, the status window appeared again — quest complete notification.
[<I want to become an idol! (1)> Complete!]
[Level Up! Lv.1 → Lv.2]
[Quest reward granted: 1 Star Point]
[Level-up reward granted: 1 Star Point]
“Star points?”
Feeling déjà vu, Baekya muttered quietly, and the status window changed again.
▷ Current Star Points: 2
[Use your earned star points to ‘Draw Skills’ or reduce your ‘Stress Level’ ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و]
‘Where have I seen that emoji before…?’
Then something suddenly came to mind.
“Survive as a Genius Idol?!”
Baekya shouted. The ID casting manager Dongman was startled as well.
At first, refusal. Then running away.
The stubborn rejection vanished, replaced by Baekya’s sudden strong resolve to survive as a genius idol, which moved Dongman.
It was a rewarding moment for the convenience store clerk who’d been guarding the entrance like a laser beam.
“Yes! Genius Idol! The student has plenty of potential!”
Though he looked more spaced out than before, that was actually a good thing. What he needed now was speed.
His urgent task was to bring this raw gem to the company before he ran away again.
“Then since we’re talking, let’s head to the audition right now!”
“Wait a minute…! I’m not really in a situation to...”
Baekya struggled as Dongman grabbed his arm. The relentless popping of the status window left him even more dizzy.
[A new quest has arrived!]
[Q. I want to become an idol! (2): Pass the audition]
“It’s fine! Strike while the iron’s hot. ID is just ahead. Today happens to be a closed audition day, so we can go right now.”
Baekya, held by Dongman’s arm, was being dragged away for the second time today.
And the result.
[<I want to become an idol! (2)> Complete!]
[Quest reward granted: 1 Star Point]
He passed the audition.
“Your tone is good, and your vocalization is decent. Have you really never taken singing lessons?”
“No, I haven’t…”
“Your dancing is lacking, but your sense of rhythm isn’t bad, so you’ll catch up quickly.”
Baekya couldn’t believe this situation at all. He knew he could sing a bit, but it was just average for a normal person.
So there was only one reason.
“Your glasses... Is your eyesight very bad?”
So it really was about looks.
The atmosphere hadn’t been like this when he entered the audition with the man. But as soon as they took off his glasses for the camera test—
“Oh my! We have to accept him!”
Manager Kim showered Dongman with praise, wondering where he’d found such a guy. At that moment, Dongman was certain.
‘He’s passed!’
Meanwhile, Baekya felt dizzy from the flood of status windows.
[A new quest has arrived!]
[Q. I want to become an idol! (3): Debut
※ Passive skill enhancement on failure]
“……….”
What is this passive thing?
How do I do it?
He barely escaped signing the contract by saying he needed guardian consent. Baekya left with the orange juice.
“This dream is getting too long...”
He started feeling uneasy, thinking maybe it wasn’t a dream.
The traffic light turned green, and Baekya stepped forward.
‘First, I’ll think after going home...’
Then a brilliant idea hit him.
‘Wouldn’t I wake up from a shock?’
Crossing the street, Baekya stopped when he saw the green light flashing.
It was a bit horrifying, but nothing bigger than being hit by a car.
While gathering his thoughts, the green light turned red. The stopped cars began to accelerate one by one.
‘Still, better to be hit with eyes closed than open.’
Baekya closed his eyes and braced for impact. The speeding car didn’t stop and honked loudly.
Braaang!!!
‘I’m hit…!’
Baekya squeezed his eyes shut and tensed his shoulders. Then, a large embrace wrapped around his body and rolled him on the ground.
“Hey, you bastard! Are you crazy?!”
The driver who stopped the car by a hair’s breadth shouted through the window, and onlookers murmured.
With faint sounds, darkness covered Baekya again. Though briefly sure he wasn’t mistaken.
Maybe because of the sensation of rolling on the ground before waking, ringing in his ears overlapped with nausea.
“Ugh!”
“Are you okay, brother-in-law?!”
A familiar voice helped Baekya up. It was Jihoon, his sister’s husband.
Baekya frowned at the brightening sight. His eyes felt empty, probably because his glasses flew off while rolling on the ground.
Jihoon, worried that Baekya still seemed out of it, checked him over carefully.
“Why were you standing still there? You scared me.”
There didn’t seem to be any injuries, but Jihoon asked if anything else was uncomfortable as he brushed Baekya’s hair aside. He himself was a mess from rolling on the ground.
“...Brother-in-law?”
“Yes, Han Baekya. Where was your mind? You almost got seriously hurt, you know?”
Jihoon lightly tapped his forehead and stood up. Approaching the driver who had just opened the car door, he apologized on Baekya’s behalf.
Baekya, a little more aware now, slowly looked around.
Though blurry, the yellow liquid near the car seemed like orange juice. Feeling a late pain, he raised his hand and noticed glass shards embedded in it. The ground under his hand was stained heavily with blood.
“Oh my, what to do... The student’s hand is bleeding a lot.”
A local resident who witnessed the accident approached, handing a handkerchief.
“Shouldn’t you go to the hospital immediately?”
A middle-aged woman inspected the wound with concern.
She then approached Jihoon, who was repeatedly apologizing to Baekya. But none of that mattered to Baekya.
“I can... feel pain...”
Wasn’t I not supposed to feel this?
Cold sweat formed on Baekya’s forehead.
Though it had been a long time since he’d seen his sister, there was no touching reunion. The two men’s disheveled looks shocked her briefly, but then she was too busy scolding after hearing the incident.
“Don’t move from your room!”
Sentenced to house arrest, Baekya lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. The status window hadn’t appeared since the quest.
From the moment he woke up, he suspected it might not be a dream, but he pretended otherwise to keep his peace of mind.
However, Baekya’s mental victory failed after the hospital ordeal. The pain of sewing raw flesh without anesthesia... an experience he never wanted to repeat.
So this must be inside the game.
Usually, in games...
“Game over?”
Hmm. No response.
“Exit!”
But the reply was far from what he expected.
“You’re not going anywhere today!”
His sister’s order forbidding him from stepping outside.
“Ugh. What is this.”
Baekya groaned, buried under the blanket. If he really was in that idol game, the ending was obvious.
Too harsh not to forget even the reviews.
The epitome of a luck-based trash game.
Raising a sunfish.
99% bad ending.
“……….”
Cold.
A dagger flew into his chest and stabbed.
Baekya’s face suddenly darkened as he jerked upright.
‘According to the reviews, I die no matter what. Unless I succeed as a genius idol.’
He needed a plan.
“Then at least give me a tutorial or some info to work with?”
This was just too much. Even regressors of cliche novels knew their futures, so why not me?
Baekya silently yelled, knowing his sister might hear, when the status window popped up.
Lv.2 Baekya (Synchronizing)
Appearance: B
Vocal: A
Dance: D
Charisma: -
Stress: 5%
Title: Genius Idol (Inactive)
Passive: R
This was Baekya’s info window.
“Wow... pathetic.”
Like a bad ending warning, the grades spelled BAD.
‘Who’s messing with me, seriously.’
If this existed, they should’ve shown it earlier!
Baekya’s fists trembled.
‘Still, the passive looks good.’
R stands for Rare, right? Whatever it means, it had to be good. It had to be.
“Calm down, Han Baekya. Stay composed.”
Baekya looked at the info window again. He hesitated to put his hand over the mysterious grades, and a tooltip appeared.
<When a Nerd Takes Off His Glasses (B)>
: Turns into a handsome boy when removing glasses.
<One-Day 3-Kkang (A)>
: Becomes a vocal, pitch, and range master.
<Dance of Courtship (D)>
: Moves the body with cosmic energy.
“Wow~”
Good. All good, but why do these skill names sound like this?!
Why am I the only one embarrassed? Baekya felt like crying.
‘Then maybe the only thing I can trust is the passive.’
He raised his hand over the R-rank, which seemed to emit a halo.
Passives are traits of the target itself. If only this part was good...
<Sunfish (R)>
: Extremely fragile and dies easily.
“F*ck?”
He couldn’t help but curse.