There was nothing like this before.
Even staring intently didn’t reveal the hidden text.
Right, what problem here could I understand with my common sense? It’s a bizarre phenomenon that disappears and reappears at will.
“Hey. Long time no see?”
The Quest window didn’t react at all to the rough greeting.
“Flower Path-ssi, didn’t you miss me? I really wanted to see you sometimes.”
Same as before.
This was never an existence you could communicate with. It only unilaterally conveyed tasks that had to be performed.
At first, I thought the ‘failure penalty’ the Quest window mentioned was nonsense.
But looking back at the past, all the penalties the Quest window mentioned were only valid ones.
For example, the final quest of yACE winning 5 grand prizes.
The penalty was yACE’s permanent disbandment.
If we hadn’t swept the grand prizes at that time, yACE wouldn’t have been able to renew their contract with K-dum under groundbreaking conditions.
At the point six months before contract expiration, K-dum became desperate and with the single thought of ‘Just do whatever you want, we’ll create a division for you! Just don’t leave!’, they established a new division and gave leader Kwon Taeyoung the division head position.
Thus they made an extreme move to entrust all activities entirely to the members’ autonomous will. Accepting those conditions, all six members stamped their renewal contracts.
Thinking about that, the talk of permanent disbandment upon failure to win 5 grand prizes was also reasonable.
…Then, when Go Won fails his debut, losing all my achievements, and… Kwon Taeyoung dying would also come true, right?
“Don’t talk crazy, fuck….”
Why should we be tied to that kid’s success or failure?
Of course, Go Won seems to have some kind of price too.
Because above my ability loss, there’s a penalty written as ‘Go Won: ■■’.
‘But so what?’
Honestly, since we’re complete strangers, even if something goes terribly wrong, I’m less moved than by Kwon Taeyoung’s lifeline being held hostage.
Since nothing changed by glaring at the letters in the semi-transparent window, I roughly rubbed my face again and asked.
“Right, since I’m experienced, let’s say it continues not to stage 1 but stage 119. …No, shit. Why are the numbers this messed up too? Anyway, if I strain my brain to accept it, since I benefited from quests in the past, now I should do some talent donation?”
I won’t make petty excuses like I originally had talent for creation even without the quest.
I can’t deny that the Quest window steered that toward success.
“But… even for talent donation, you need at least minimum treatment to make it worthwhile. The failure penalty has a lifeline at stake, but the success reward is just ‘successful debut’ and ‘rookie singer title’? This doesn’t motivate me at all.”
If you can’t avoid it, shouldn’t you try to extract as much as you can receive?
“Isn’t this too unfair? Flower Path-ssi, why have you become so harsh while we haven’t seen each other? You disappeared without a word and then suddenly came back doing this, so I’m really hurt.”
As I grumbled cheekily, text began to be added.
Success: Singer ‘Go Won’s’ successful solo debut, Title [Rookie Singer] acquired
Additional Reward: ‘Baek Hanje’ Title [Cool Sunbae] acquired
“Oh fuck.”
It was wordplay that made me curse reflexively.
Just then, an alarm appeared on the monitor. Something arrived in the work email inbox.
chat
Kwon Taeyoung | [Division 5] New Singer ‘Go Won’ Debut Album Division Distribution Materials Sent
It was Go Won’s materials that Kwon Taeyoung had already sent.
“…I get that I have to debut him even if it kills me, so get lost now.”
Pop.
The Quest window disappeared as if it was going to leave anyway. I opened the attachment file of the email that had just arrived.
chat
Name, Go Won. Currently 20 years old.
Age 18 when first appearing on broadcast.
After finishing half a year of fierce survival, prepared for debut in the year he turned 19, then the <Debut Chart! 100> PD’s corruption exploded, faced all kinds of turmoil, and debut fell through.
<Debut Chart! 100> ranking progression: 47th place – 16th place – 3rd place, and final 1st place.
In the first episode of the broadcast, he was completely edited out, but his individual cam video became a hot topic. As the possessor of perfect looks and ruined skills.
However, Go Won, who was clumsy at both dancing and singing, showed improving skills as the competitions continued.
Off the record about the program appearance: he was originally an ordinary person with no connection to the entertainment industry whatsoever, but came to do delivery part-time work at the broadcasting station and was grabbed by the PD.
The PD had an eye for people, so why did he commit corruption?
Anyway, Go Won, who was merely a numbers-filling member, had a mega hit with a sexy concept competition song, and at that point fans attached exponentially and his ranking skyrocketed.
From this point, the broadcasting station started pushing Go Won with the thought ‘He has no agency anyway, so let’s raise him and use him.’ And the kid didn’t miss the faint spotlight that came to him.
Thus, he seized final 1st place with such an overwhelming number of votes that even manipulation couldn’t do anything about it.
From afar, a poor student’s reversal drama; up close, a genius’s awakening period belatedly finding his place?
The materials flipped along with the mouse wheel’s rotation. Having roughly skimmed the artist’s personal details and past, now it was time to grasp the album concept the company intended.
Flip. The screen turned, and the album’s concept photo appeared.
At that moment, I let out an audible “Huh.”
I immediately picked up my phone thrown beside the mouse pad.
Got the materials
Crazy crazy Shin Namwon did it again this time;;
Shin Namwon Team Leader
Yeah I know better.. Damn
If that bastard was going to cause an accident, he should’ve done it quickly, why spray shit water at this stage
“He had a right to be pissed….”
Just moments ago, Go Won sitting blankly in the meeting room, looking between boy and young man.
The kid was expressing himself in an unexpected way in the concept photo.
Title track <DRIFT>, album name <Go One>.
Go Won was wearing motorsports attire.
A man with a helmet tucked under one arm, head tilted back with wet bangs hanging down, was enlarged on the screen.
An overall-style racing suit, with the top part folded down to reveal the tight clothing worn underneath. The gaze looking to the side had a youthful rebelliousness.
The provocative appearance of a rookie and the sexy image shown on the audition program. It was a concept photo taking both simultaneously.
Shin Namwon Team Leader
Ha..ㅋ Our Won had a whole life plan from here to age forty..
? What about me!
You never told me anything like that!
Plan mine too!
Shin Namwon Team Leader
Haha
<Baek Henzel Life Plan>
(Subtitle – If you just do this, you’ll be published in a biography as a fine idol role model after death)
Drink and smoke where others don’t see, and only date publicly with the person you’ll marry..
ㅠ….. Not that, I mean concept..
Shin Namwon Team Leader
Hmm
Just..
Just?
Shin Namwon Team Leader
Thuggish supporting male lead who can’t let go of pride even if he dies..
Keep doing that
ㅡㅡ
“Someone gets a cool concept, why do I get a weird one?”
The hand pouring grumbles into the message window stopped with a sound from outside.
Knock knock.
“What.”
If it were someone I was close with, they would have just opened the door and come in. However, the owner of the knock was waiting for an answer from inside without moving.
Eventually I got up from my seat and headed to the door.
“Oh.”
When I opened the door, there was the pretty face I’d seen earlier.
The studio had double doors for soundproofing. Go Won was awkwardly wedged between the double doors with his large frame.
His expression, stiff with tension, soon turned into a deeply bowed crown of his head.
“Henzel sunbae-nim, hello. I’m Go Won, who you saw earlier in the meeting room.”
Why is he here?
I said to the kid who had politely bent at the waist.
“Yeees…, hello.”
As if he hadn’t yet learned how to organize his expression, his face that he slightly lifted showed a clearly stiff look.
Separately from that, as I felt earlier too.
I understood anew why the company finally approved the crazy act of snatching a survival program winner from a broadcasting station-affiliated entertainment company.
Go Won. The definitive center type that K-dum has been crazy about for over a decade.
It’s not an exaggeration—it was a face that reminded me of Cha Yeonsu from yACE’s heyday. Even when yACE was being called flop idols, at least Cha Yeonsu’s face received attention.
Moreover, demand for beautiful-type faces is even higher now than back then. Go Won wasn’t just pretty but had good physical conditions too, earning extra points.
Seeing that his height seemed similar to or slightly taller than mine, he’d easily surpass 180cm.
In a word, even if he were plowing fields in the countryside, he’d have debuted as a celebrity eventually.
“What brings you here?”
“…You told me to come.”
“What?”
I searched my memory.
‘You and I need to talk separately later.’
I think I did say something like that.
I did need to discuss the situation, so I shifted my shoulder that had been blocking the studio aside.
“Come in.”
“…Thank you.”
Go Won hesitated once as if he hadn’t expected to be invited inside, then awkwardly stepped on the studio’s rug.
