Hard Mode Idol

I closed my eyes for a moment and took time to mourn the 18-year-old boy. I wanted to let him know that there was someone here grieving his death and empathizing with his pain. Hoping that if my words reach Deus, he might pass them on.

After composing my emotions, it was when I carefully hung the school uniform back in the closet. Along with a system message, a window popped up.

Several words spun crazily like a roulette, then slowly reduced speed. Only then could I read the written text.

The spinning text stopped at ‘Muscle Pain’. My whole body throbbed with pain. Needless to say, it was muscle pain symptoms.

“No…”

Was this what an abnormal condition was?

There were quite a few symptoms that would be troublesome if they occurred in front of people. Well, I guess they won’t just give double the growth rate for free.

…It has everything it should have. I don’t know if it’s because I experienced an abnormal condition or saw the memories, but I got a skill. The muscle pain was at a level I could ignore, so I raised my hand to check the skill. I needed to check the conditions for triggering abnormal conditions anyway.

“Ugh, ow, argh!”

I said I could ignore it, but I didn’t say it didn’t hurt. Every time I moved, the shocking pain was no joke.

After much endurance, I pressed the skill. There were a total of four skills.

Die Hard (F): The passing necklace given to you who concentrated until death.

When the skill is activated, health is not consumed.

However, health is collectively consumed after the skill ends, and if the remaining health becomes 0 or lower, an abnormal condition occurs.

The amount of health consumed after ending differs according to skill duration.

One that looks useful. I tried to turn it on for a bit but received a message that I couldn’t use it yet. Judging by the pale color, it seems to be deactivated. Are there separate conditions to use it?

Come to think of it, there was ‘health’, right? I called up the status window to check, and 80 remained though I don’t know what I did.

Looking at the detailed information, there was a lot of mumbo jumbo written, but to summarize in one sentence, it falls when you’re tired and rises when you rest. Abnormal condition activates at 0!

The funniest thing was the tiny text that said ‘God’s arrangement to prevent karoshi’ for health.

Yeah, an abnormal condition is better than dying. I’m not sure if it’s really better, but it’s definitely better than dying. It’s confusing.

Now then, next skill.

Spin, spin, the roulette wheel~ (F): This is a passing necklace just given.

You can consume 100 health and 40 points to obtain random points.

1%: +1000 / 2%: +500 / 5%: +300 / 45%: +55 / 30%: -60 / 10%: -80 / 5%: -300 / 2%: -500

It’s Gacha. He’s really a god who loves gambling. I examined the probabilities with a dry laugh. The range of success and failure was very wide. 40 points are from completing the weekly quest twice? Once if doubled.

Putting that aside, the problem is the required 100 health. One abnormal condition per gacha spin. But there’s a 45% chance to get 15 more, so how can you not do it?

Let’s think about it first and move on.

Deus’ Blessing: Once in your life, at the most desperate moment, Deus will be summoned. He will grant one of your wishes.

Is this the skill Deus had in mind when he said see you next time? I thought he meant meeting again after I die.

Last skill.

Deus’ Grace: When the golden gods’ game ends, the soul who provided the body and the soul who participated in the game will be saved.

However, if the participant gives up midway or fails the game, they cannot receive the benefits.

Targets: Jin Haon, Park Yooyeon

Reward: God’s grace will be engraved in the soul. You will enter the eternal cycle of reincarnation.

So, your original name was Yooyeon. Yooyeon. Yooyeon. I rolled the round name around in my mouth a few times.

Only now could I understand the meaning of reconstruction Deus mentioned. The person named Park Yooyeon disappeared from this world and was replaced by me. What I can do for Park Yooyeon is succeed.

Yooyeon is in an eternal cycle of reincarnation. The last turn won’t come again. I’ll work hard so you won’t have sad and painful things like this life.

I clenched my fists as if solidifying my welling determination, then groaned and collapsed from muscle pain. This is no joke.

The muscle pain abnormal condition lasted a full day. Fortunately, there was no health decrease when an abnormal condition occurred, and experience didn’t rise either.

Anyway, thanks to that, I could find out a lot without neglecting Internet searches on the laptop despite suffering from muscle pain all day.

It was miscellaneous information about this world. There were things the same as where I lived and things that were different. For instance, if it was the same person, their publicly known personality and achievements were similar. However, there were differences in timing.

That was the same for local figures, dramas, programs, movies, singers, and idols. Instead of Bupyeong-gu, Incheon, there is Bujin-gu, Incheon. An idol audition program has never aired, but there is a K-pop audition program. And among the top idol groups, the most notable thing was that there was a group called Theos that didn’t exist in the previous world.

I organized the idol lineage I needed to know and put hit song tracks in a playlist. And lastly, I rummaged through agency information. It was to choose the agency I would audition for.

After finding the agency I wanted, I crammed the programs that were famous here, but I didn’t know and needed to be aware of. Since I just needed to know the characteristics roughly, I mainly watched famous clips on YouTube.

After the abnormal condition was lifted, I went outside. I went to the bank to change the PIN, made a new account, and got a certificate of family relations issued. I had no choice but to buy two sets of sweatpants because Yooyeon’s clothes were awkwardly loose. When I ran, the waist part of the pants kept sliding down, which was troublesome.

Only after returning home did I examine the cell phone. There were a total of four contacts, all family. Of course, there were hardly any exchanged messages or call history. As the last names were different, I was curious about the family relationship, but the last names of the father and siblings had all changed to ‘Jin’.

Seeing a family’s lineage changed felt really unreal. It would have been fine even if my last name changed. I thought they’re really preserving the participant’s identity, but then wondered if this is why there’s only one reincarnator per dimension. If reincarnators get entangled by mistake, that’s what happens. Setting clash.

After that, it was only dance and song. I locked myself in the room alone and danced until my stamina allowed, and sang. When my stamina dropped, I took a break to recover it again, and when it recovered, I repeated it. The low-grade stats rose rapidly.

Dancing and singing endlessly was so fun that I even forgot about the weekly mission. So I was startled when a ‘Weekly mission complete!’ message suddenly popped up. Getting B+ isn’t difficult.

Weekly missions seem to be a bonus.

Finally!

The message I had been waiting for appeared. Check information!

[F-grade Jin Hahon(18) – Ordinary Person]

Health: 100

Charm: S

Singing: C+

Dance: C+

Acting: F-

Lyric Writing: F-

Composing: F-

Remaining Points: 40

Nice! I’m proud. My dance and singing have finally reached the level of ‘a somewhat decent ordinary person’. It’s undoubtedly from objectively evaluating my skills to make a judgment. My eyes and ears haven’t lowered just because the stats are low.

I sneaked glances at ‘Remaining Points: 40’. Just enough to spin the gacha once…

No, hold it. I have to endure.

After clearing the weekly mission, I kept thinking of the gacha but scraped the bottom of my patience to hold back. If an abnormal condition occurs, I can’t raise experience. Moreover, muscle pain alone lasted a whole day, didn’t it? I don’t know what the other abnormal conditions will be like, so it’s right not to do it now.

Above all, today is Sunday. Since my dance and singing stats reached C+, I plan to go outside starting tomorrow. But 100 health is needed to spin the gacha, so I can only do it tomorrow morning.

The main mission has a time limit, so I should put off the gacha. I have to be cautious now when I don’t know what will happen. I want to avoid stat reset. I firmly closed my eyes and lowered the status window. Let’s do the gacha as a ceremony when I pass the audition.

The most important thing is still the trainee audition after all.

I’m a bit anxious about going with just one S-grade charm stat. If I take out charm and only consider dance and singing skills, there’s no reason for them to pass me. It’s an idol audition of all things.

It will be full of kids with good looks, and quite a few of them will have both dance and singing skills. I’m lacking in many ways right now, so an audition is too early.

But casting is different. That means my visuals, in other words, my charm stat was effective. They said I can receive favorable impressions even if it’s not their taste, so I might get cast if I stand out.

If I take an audition through casting, I’ll pass unless something happens, and I have the skills for that unless something happens. I have just enough skills to barely put me in 2nd-tier and think about teaching me. If I just pass, I’ll get 500 points, so I can raise my stats and aim for 1st-tier too.

I’ve also pinpointed a cafe as a casting spot. It’s a place where an SR Entertainment casting manager appears from time to time. It’s also near the SR Entertainment building, and it was credible as I saw an SNS review post saying they received a casting offer.

Let’s diligently scope it out until I raise either dance or singing to B-. If I can’t meet them by then, I’ll take the audition.