Conditions for Becoming a Perfect Idol Leader

“Ah, damn it. Seriously.”

Gyeo Yeong-in muttered curses under his breath as he buried his face in his hands. A groan escaped involuntarily.

[ Loading… ]

[ Processing… ]

[ … ]

[ Reset Complete. ]

A vibrant 3D hologram hovering in the air blinked intermittently, projecting text that resembled a status bar from a game.

His eyes, visible through the gaps between his fingers, turned toward the hologram,before losing focus as if he had lost interest.

The dark circles under his eyes and his pale complexion suggested he hadn’t slept properly for days, giving him a sickly appearance.

This was yet another reset, the number of which he lose count.

He had returned to the past again.

He had no idea how long he would have to endure this tedious cycle.

He let out a long sigh.

“Damn status window.”

This time, he was in a situation where all he could do was sigh.

* * *

─Ding

[ < 100 Rules to Become a Perfect Idol > ]

[ We will help you become the best idol. ]

“…What is this?”

Gyeo Yeong-in gazed blankly at the translucent something that suddenly appeared in front of him.

The sudden appearance of this entity came without warning, catching him completely off guard.

‘Am I dreaming right now?’

A translucent screen was floating in the air, it was resembling as a status window in games.

Even while looking at it, it felt absurd, and he couldn’t grasp the situation properly.

He had just been walking down the street as usual. So why?

“I must be going crazy.”

[ Article 18 │ A perfect idol does not act or speak recklessly anywhere. ]

“Eh…?”

Gyeo Yeong-in blinked in confusion.

What was he supposed to do with this?

‘Not acting recklessly? And what about being an idol?’

He had never thought of becoming an idol, nor did he have any interest in it.

“What does it matter if I act recklessly or curse? What are you going to do about it?”

─Ding

As soon as he finished speaking, the suspicious hologram, the status window, responded with a notification sound and displayed a new message.

[ You will face disadvantages if you violate the rules. ]

“…Are you answering me? What kind of crazy talk is this?”

[ Article 18 │ A perfect idol does not act or speak recklessly anywhere. ]

[ Warning! ]

Gyeo Yeong-in scrunched his nose.

It felt ominous. His instincts warned him that the phrase “Warning!” was not a good sign for him.

[Acumulated Status: 1 Warning, 0 Alerts ]

“No way.”

In disbelief, a curse slipped out of his mouth.

After realizing what he had done, he anxiously glanced at the status window.

[ Article 18 │ A perfect idol does not act or speak recklessly anywhere. ]

“Wait a minute!”

He shouted out in panic, but the status window had already displayed its message.

[ Warning! ]

[ Accumulated Status: 2 Warnings, 0 Alerts ]

“What the hell is going on? What is this? At least explain it to me before giving me warnings!”

Did his cries of injustice reach anyone? The status window chimed again.

Gyeo Yeong-in stared at the status window for a long time, ultimately finding himself in disbelief.

[ ‘2 Warnings’ will change to ‘1 Alert.’ ]

[ Accumulated Status: 0 Warnings, 1 Alert. ]

[ If you accumulate 5 Alerts, you will be ‘Reset.’ ]

[ You will receive a ‘Warning’ each time you violate a rule. When ‘Warnings’ accumulate to 2, they will change to 1 ‘Alert,’ so please keep that in mind! ]

Hahaha… ha ha……

“Ha…”

‘Ah, I get it now.’

He chuckled softly.

It seemed he had gotten overheated.

He didn’t know what it meant to reset, but he was clearly losing energy and seeing things that weren’t there.

At that moment, the sun was pouring down on him like a piercing ray, giving him a headache.

‘Right. If I keep worrying about this, I’ll end up looking crazy.’

Though a sense of unease lingered in the back of his mind, he decided to ignore the status window and continued walking.

‘What could possibly happen?’

Fortunately, the hallucination didn’t follow him, merely flickering quietly in the spot where it had appeared.

It simply existed silently without a sound.

─Ding

[ Penalties will apply as warnings accumulate. Effects and durations are random. ]

[ You have been afflicted with the status ailment ‘Headache.’ ]

[ Remaining Time: 12 hours. ]

Did he hear something, or was it just his imagination?

Was he really overheating? His head suddenly began to throb.

Grasping his aching head, Gyeo Yeong-in lightly shook it from side to side and turned into an alley.

At that moment, the strange status window that had been floating in the air quietly disappeared as if it had never existed.

* * *

Now, nearly a week had passed since he experienced that strange incident.

“Hey, have you ever thought about becoming an idol?”

“No, thank you. I’m not interested.”

“Your face is too precious. You know, if you just put your mind to it, I can support you to become the best idol, right? Here, let me give you my business card. If you change your mind later, please contact me.”

Gyeo Yeong-in stared blankly at the business card thrust in front of him.

DD Entertainment, Rookie Development Team, Assistant Manager Kang Bada.

Normally, he would have offered some polite words and accepted the card, but hearing the word “idol” reminded him of a recent event, making him hesitate.

“No, I really don’t want to. My parents would oppose it too. But thank you for thinking so highly of me.”

Adjusting his backpack, Gyeo Yeong-in bowed slightly and brushed past Kang Bada.

Kang Bada clicked his tongue, watching Gyeo Yeong-in’s back.

That face could be anything.

Regardless of what Kang Bada thought, Gyeo Yeong-in quickly disappeared without looking back.

Walking briskly, Gyeo Yeong-in checked that there was no one around and took a deep breath.

‘This feels really strange. Why do I have such a bad feeling?’

They say people can instinctively sense discomfort. Ever since he saw the hallucination, he had been feeling off.

Something seemed fundamentally wrong.

‘No way… It can’t be.’

But Gyeo Yeong-in’s doubts were chillingly accurate.

He didn’t take long to realize this fact.

“Hey, student! Do you like singing?”

“Excuse me. I just happened to pass by and didn’t want to miss the opportunity. Do you belong to any agency?”

“Don’t you want to shine on stage as a star? You have potential! You’re like a hidden gem!”

Numerous people claiming to work for entertainment agencies approached Gyeo Yeong-in one after another as if it were planned.

They immediately started asking if he had any thoughts of becoming an idol.

He hadn’t even been walking near any idol agency; he was just taking his usual route.

Each time, Gyeo Yeong-in would utter a refusal and hurriedly escape.

Some people persistently followed him even after being rejected, stalking him all the way home.

When he started taking different routes, they somehow ended up waiting in front of his school.

He vividly remembered the panic he felt when he saw them and fled through the back door.

‘Please… Why are they doing this to me? Who said I wanted to? If they keep this up, even someone who wanted to become an idol would run away!’

Gyeo Yeong-in gritted his teeth in frustration.

After being tormented so much, just hearing the word “idol” made him feel sick.

“Crazy bastards! Come out! Show yourselves!”

He felt the need to confront whoever was behind this, but when he tried to summon the status window, nothing appeared, as if it were truly a hallucination.

Strange people continued to relentlessly approach him, and each time, Gyeo Yeong-in did his best to flee.

He wondered if he should just pretend to go to an audition at an agency, but by this point, his pride wouldn’t let him give in.

Gyeo Yeong-in began to avoid them even more meticulously and desperately.

As he continued to evade and refuse, the surrounding situation started to become bizarre.

He would suddenly find himself standing in front of idol agency buildings if he walked without any thoughts, or his friends would exclude him from conversations if they weren’t about idols.

He would randomly enter a store, only to find a member of some idol group as a customer.

And to top it off, a close relative got a job at a broadcasting station.

Fortunately or unfortunately, just like the persistent situations that suddenly appeared and disappeared, they all vanished simultaneously at some point, leaving Gyeo Yeong-in alone.

‘I feel uneasy.’

However, he couldn’t relax completely. He never knew when they might return to torment him again.

As nothing happened, his nerves became even more sensitive. It felt like being in the calm of a storm’s eye.

But to his relief, those strange occurrences never resurfaced again, and eventually, after a few years, Gyeo Yeong-in could finally relax and stop worrying about those events.

Slowly, the bizarre and eerie happenings faded from Gyeo Yeong-in’s mind.

Before he knew it, Gyeo Yeong-in had become an adult.

After completing his first year of college, Gyeo Yeong-in quickly applied for military service and enlisted.

He wanted to get over from the unpleasant task as quickly as possible, believing it was better to face it head-on.

Fortunately, he completed his tedious military service without any major incidents, and he returned home safely.

Celebrating his discharge with friends over light drinks, he relaxed and finally fell asleep comfortably in his bed.

And the next day…

─Ding

“…”

When Gyeo Yeong-in woke up, he looked down at his smaller hands. His eyes were wide with disbelief.

‘No way… It can’t be. No, no, no.’

Thinking it might be a dream, he clenched and opened his hands.

The weak feeling in his smaller hands was too vivid to be just a dream.

─Ding

[ < 100 Rules to Become a Perfect Idol > ]

[ We will help you become the best idol. ]

“…What is this?”

Young Gyeo Yeong-in stared in astonishment at the translucent screen that appeared before him.

[ Reset Complete. ]

It was Gyeo Yeong-in’s first ‘Reset.’