My mood plumted straight back to hell.
I had traveled back 9 whole years, only to voluntarily board the overti train again. How miserable.
In exchange for losing my energy, happiness, and sense of achievent, I gained the basic step and 20 exp.
“F*ck, what a fulfilling day.”
I felt disillusioned with life.
Still, instead of giving up everything, I began cleaning up. I had to vacate the practice room before the security guard left at midnight.
No one should have to work overti because of . If that happened, I might die from the guilt.
When I turned off all the lights in the practice room, the already deathly silent company building felt even more desolate. The familiar air of overti engulfed .
Just as I was about to get lancholic, I sensed soone in the lobby. Soon, a tall shadow stretched into the hallway.
The owner of the shadow was Choi Jeho.
Choi Jeho looked very grim even though he was only standing at the desk.
I was not just selectively seeing his negative traits because I disliked him. Really.
As Jeho approached and our eyes t, he took out his earphones. I asked him in a doubtful tone.
“You haven’t left yet?”
“Yeah.”
“Were you perhaps waiting for ?”
“Yeah.”
Choi Jeho consistently gave one-word dismissive answers, as if annoyed.
“Why were you waiting for ?”
“Do you think a guy who’s here for the first ti could find his way back to the dorm?”
“Are you being considerate?”
“Jeong Seongbin said he wanted to stay, but it was too late for the kids to go out.”
aning Choi Jeho didn’t stay because he wanted to, but what did it matter?
Our future leader was eighteen years old. If Choi Jeho had any conscience, it should be him staying late instead of a minor.
Still, knowing Jeho’s loner personality, I gave him a pat on the back with a strained smile, wordlessly praising his consideration.
Choi Jeho looked deeply displeased.
* * *
When we got back to the dorm Lee Cheonghyeon, who used the top bunk of our two-floor bed, was waiting for us instead of sleeping.
“Why aren’t you asleep yet?”
“I was waiting for you, hyung!”
When I pointed to Choi Jeho, Lee Cheonghyeon confidently pointed to .
Did idols have hazing rituals for new mbers too?
Like making the newbie buy 30 cups of coffee alone. Or washing everyone’s shoes in the dorm.
When I looked at him with eyes that seed to say, ‘I didn’t know you were that kind of guy…’, Lee Cheonghyeon looked flustered.
“Why are you giving such a fierce look?”
“No, I was wondering if you’d start hazing from now on.”
The most vicious thing he could do at this hour would be sothing like making buy lunch boxes from each convenience store brand, or packing pork bone hangover soup from a 24-hour hangover soup restaurant and having it delivered to the front door before it got cold.
Having run cigarette errands from Gangnam to Gangbuk before, that was nothing to .
As I steeled myself and tried to recall the restaurants we passed on the way back, Cheonghyeon said.
“No one’s going to haze you!”
“You won’t?”
“Of course not! Why would you say sothing so scary?”
I was already running simulations in my head of asking the soup place owner to pack so radish kimchi too. Well, if he wasn’t going to haze , then never mind.
When Choi Jaeho, who had long since lost interest in us, went to shower, Lee Cheonghyeon sat on the floor beside my bed. I ended up sitting on the floor with him side-by-side.
“Kang Kiyeon had inflammation in his ankle. I saw him wearing an ankle brace earlier.”
It seed Lee Cheonghyeon was waiting for to talk about Kang Kiyeon’s ankle.
He seed the most panicked when I told them Kang Kiyeon was hurt, but now he seed more composed.
“Then he’ll have to take a break from practice for a while.”
“Right. He’s really stubborn.”
That seed to be the case. I nodded in agreent with Lee Cheonghyeon.
“How did you know, hyung?”
“Know what? About Kiyeon’s ankle?”
“Yes. None of us knew.”
“Well, I didn’t notice up close either. But when I looked from a distance, I could tell.”
If I said here…
‘I ca from the future, and thanks to proxy fan duties my boss made do at the company, I learned about Kiyeon’s weak ankle, so I was confident I wasn’t wrong.’
…He probably wouldn’t believe . I didn’t really want to explain in detail either.
Lee Cheonghyeon’s eyes widened as if he genuinely believed my half-hearted answer.
“You must have really good eyesight, hyung. It’s not easy to notice sothing like that with just a glance.”
Normally, when soone who didn’t know much luckily guessed sothing right, wouldn’t people just chalk it up to a beginner’s luck?
This kid seed to have a tendency to value people positively.
“I just got lucky. If you rewatch the footage, you’ll probably see it too.”
“I watched the video with Seongbin hyung when we got back to the dorm, but we didn’t notice anything. Your keen eye is no joke.”
It wasn’t keen eyesight but the benefit of years of accumulated big data, but I kept that to myself.
If it was about being recognized for improving through practice, I could still accept it, but I preferred not to stand out for odd reasons.
Taking the chance when Choi Jeho returned from washing up, I got up, saying I needed to wash up too.
Lee Cheonghyeon seed a bit disappointed but obediently returned to his spot. He was quick to read the room.
Once I finished my shower and lay on the bed, it finally sank in that the day was over.
‘If possible, I’d like to get a better grasp of the system at tis like these. Will it be difficult?’
There was nothing more troubleso than unexpected issues popping up while you were diligently working.
I wanted to minimize such mishaps, and right at that mont, the system appeared before my eyes. It seed it would show up if I wished for it earnestly.
This ti, it was the sa text I had seen before.
[SYSTEM] Hand Over Progress
▷ Notification of work period: February XX, 20XX (Synchronized and cannot be changed)
▷ Check manual
▷ Check processes
But two of the points were crossed out. It seed to indicate they were completed.
‘The manual must be referring to the life reuse manual.’
Thinking about that manual only made angry, so I decided to set it aside.
The only thing left to do was to check the process.
I imagined checking the process in my head. Then, naturally, articles related to the process appeared. The speed at which it connected with the brain was impressive.
[SYSTEM] ‘Process’ is applied to ‘subordinate’.
▷ ‘Subordinate’ will receive ‘tasks’ or ‘KPIs’ irregularly.
▷ Welfare points will be awarded based on the task performance of ‘subordinate’.
▷ Awarded ‘welfare points’ can be added to ‘proficiency’.
▷ As the process is applied and the handover progresses, the difficulty of ‘tasks’ will increase. (Penalties occur for task failure)
[SYSTEM] The job role of ‘subordinate’ is set to ‘Producing mber.’
F*ck you, If you’re going to make do sothing like producing, can’t you just appoint as the new mber of planning team instead of the group mber?
The fact that penalties could occur was also annoying.
If I didn’t debut, I wouldn’t be able to save my sister, and I would have to re-enter the company. What more penalties would I need?
I should have distanced myself from this crappy, old-fashioned system from the mont it started sounding exactly like Manager Nam.
I almost tried to find an option to change it, like changing the navigation voice, but I held back. I didn’t want to look deeper into this system.
Still, I liked the idea of using points to improve my abilities instead of buying ice cream.
Part of felt bad about so easily taking the fruits of others’ hard work and effort, but with my family’s life and a lifeti contract on the line, I had to use any ans necessary, whether it was an underhanded thod or not.
‘At least it doesn’t say I have to stay active for 7 years.’
The condition for completing the tasks was clearly debuting.
In other words, it could an that as long as I made my debut, it didn’t matter if I left afterward.
I could just take out a loan to pay the penalty fees and spend a lifeti paying it back.
It would be better for the team if an incompetent person like left early on.
Technically, this was fraudulent employnt anyway, so I had to contribute enough to cover the losses caused by my early departure.
With a guilty conscience, I opened my pathetic hologram resu.
Performance Evaluation (100)
– Vocal proficiency: 4/20
– Dance proficiency: 1/20
– Self PR: 12/20
– Attendance managent: 18/20
– Organizational adaptability: 10/20
Total exp: 40
Total point: 0
There were the precious 40 exp I had earned through relentless dance practice and overti.
Wait a minute.
So you’re telling … even after dancing like a rabbit at a tiger’s birthday party and voluntarily doing overti, I can’t raise my proficiency by even 1 point?
This wasn’t even an underhanded trick anymore; it was the ultimate life speed-learning.
I was looking for conscience in the wrong place. How naive I had been, not realizing my life was a sh*t storm.
Anyway, my imdiate task was clear: diligently accumulate exp to earn points.
At the ti, earning another 60 exp felt imnsely far away.
However, the very next day, I quickly maxed out the exp and earned points.
* * *
The incident started with a new task notification flashing at demandingly first thing in the morning.
[SYSTEM] A ‘new task’ has been assigned.
▷ Attend your first dance class
▷ Reward: Exp (20)
Since the system got caught only giving out 20 exp, it didn’t even bother to hide the amount of rewards anymore.
Since it was the company’s first ti forming an idol group, they were still in the process of creating a training program for trainees.
Because of this, instead of having an in-house trainer, UA had vocal and dance trainers visit once a week each.
Today was the day when the dance trainer ca.
It was also the day I would, for the first ti in my life, perform sothing resembling a dance in front of an expert.
I flailed around, giving my absolute best in front of the dance teacher, whom I had seen a few tis on Spark’s reality show.
Ultimately, it proved that I was nothing more than an empty barrel.
The faces of the prospective Spark mbers were filled with shadows, not a hint of a smile.
They seed disheartened by my helpless display, despite having helped so earnestly the previous day.
Their lack of smile was the reason why even when I sent edited videos to Manager Nam, he still said, ‘Can you make our kid’s mouth curve up just a tiny bit? It’s nothing big, do it quick.’ Just thinking about it made feel mad again.
The teacher, seeing floundering in a daze, hesitated before speaking.
“Iwol…”
“Yes.”
I stood upright with my hands clasped politely.
I could sense the teacher was carefully choosing their words.
This pause, this tension.
It was a perfect situation to crush .
The teacher who tried to choose their words even in such a situation was truly virtuous.
“You need to practice a lot.”
“Understood.”
“Just practicing a lot isn’t enough. You need to practice more than anyone else, with utmost diligence.”
“Yes, I will do my best.”
I could say with the utmost sincerity that I would work hard more than anyone else. My sister’s life and my future depended on it.
Moved by my sincerity, the teacher said no more. I was grateful for that.
The problem was that the system had to pop up and open its mouth.
User Comments
0 comments from readers