Chapter 1

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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If you opened your eyes and saw an unfamiliar ceiling, wasn’t it the national rule that it was another world?

It wasn’t for me. I woke up in some moldy motel room.

“Ugh….”

My head felt like it was going to break. I grabbed my forehead and lifted my body. A blanket emitting a musty smell fell to my feet.

So… let’s see, I thought I had fallen asleep after drinking alone after confirming that I had failed the exam again this time.

Was I saying I had crawled from my studio apartment all the way to a motel?

“Am I crazy…?”

I poured curses at myself and entered the bathroom. I intended to check my appearance while also relieving myself. Even without looking, it would be a civil service exam student soaked in alcohol.

And looking into the mirror, I fell with a thud.

“Ugh! …… F*ck.”

Even while reflexively spitting out curses, I couldn’t believe the situation, so I clenched my teeth.

I shook my head with trembling hands. And I looked into the mirror again.

Inside the mirror, an unfamiliar face was still visible.

It was a skinny, pretty young kid.

…I took a breath to avoid falling into a panic. I was desperate for a cigarette that I had already quit.

“…Hah.”

I only realized then that even my voice was unfamiliar.

I felt like I wanted to bite my tongue.

Just what kind of situation was this?

While barely keeping my senses, I led the unfamiliar body and searched the motel room.

I discovered a note that looked like a suicide note and an empty medicine bottle on the bed. It seemed this fellow had attempted suicide by poisoning with sleeping pills.

Roughly reading the contents of the suicide note, it was about being an orphan who dropped out of school, and because it was unfair and bleak, he was leaving the world.

My mouth felt bitter for no reason. Even if the body changed, why was it an orphan again?

I also found a wallet that was placed on a cheap vanity. Rummaging through it, a few banknotes and this body’s resident registration card came out.

[Park Moondae 0X1215 – 3XXXXXX]

“The back digit starts with 3….”

It was rejuvenation. I made a lethargic sound and examined the photo on the resident registration card. It was better than the appearance I had seen in the mirror earlier, but the face was quite dark.

Still, for having a dark impression, it was a handsome face and looked young. Was he 23 years old then? I had thought he would be younger.

“…….”

No, then was not the time for those thoughts.

I struggled to think calmly.

In any case, I calmed down while roughly grasping the situation. I thought I should gradually search for the whereabouts of my original body and devise a countermeasure. This fellow who had attempted suicide might have entered my body.

I took the wallet and opened the motel door.

And I froze.

Snow was scattering from the window visible in the front.

…It was July before I drank alcohol and passed out.

“My god.”

I swallowed hard. And I hurriedly went back into the motel room and lifted the desk calendar.

[202× December]

…It was a calendar from three years ago.

My vision became dizzy.

It didn’t take that much time to calm down again. That was because the shock of the body changing was greater than coming to the past.

I sat on the edge of the bed and let out a sigh. Why specifically then when there weren’t even any lottery numbers I remembered?

Then, I lifted my head at a flashing piece of nonsense.

…Actually, couldn’t it be another world instead of the past?

It was a crazy thought, but it sounded persuasive because I was overwhelmed by the crazy situation.

It seemed that these things appeared quite often in the webtoons or web novels I occasionally looked up. Did they call it hunter genre…?

I muttered small words in a dazed tone. I bet I looked quite lacking.

“Status Window…?”

Naturally, nothing happened.

Damn it.

I pounded the bed with my hand in shame.

As if it would appear, you stupid…….

[Name: Park Moondae (Ryu Gunwoo)]
Level: 0
Title: None
Vocal: C
Dance: ?-
Appearance: C
Talent: ?-
Trait: Infinite Potential

It appeared?

I rolled off the bed.

“Ugh!”

While groaning because my back hurt, I thought.

The contents of the status window… weren’t what I had expected?

* * *

“…….”

Since even a status window had appeared, I was able to become as calm as I wanted instead.

Since it was definitely a situation that ignored the laws of physics, the fact that this wasn’t a joke right then hit home.

Right then, I came out of the motel and entered a nearby internet cafe. It was to search if there were other variables besides this world being three years ago.

For reference, I asked the counter and tried calling my original number, but the guidance came out saying it was a non-existent number.

Logging into my university account was impossible, and the social media account I had made for assignments had also disappeared.

In other words, it seemed that the original ‘me’ did not exist in this world.

It wasn’t like I had great lingering regrets.

My parents had already passed away in an accident when I was in middle school, and all my relatives had lost contact by the time I had entered university.

It wasn’t that I had a decent network of people, and the human relationships I did have all disappeared as my life as a civil service exam student grew long.

Furthermore, thinking about the years I had wasted as that exam student, it meant it was a body that wasn’t strange to cut ties with in effect.

“Here is the ham ramen you ordered.”

“Ah, thank you.”

I finished the cold assessment of myself and received the tray. And while slurping the ramen into my mouth, I looked through the search engines.

Hmm, if it was three years ago, it was when I was making a fuss about doing ‘serious studying’ for a while.

Since it was a time when I had canceled my smartphone and cut the internet line, these pages didn’t feel very familiar.

Even so, I didn’t feel a sense of incongruity.

It felt exactly like three years ago. Things that were trendy at that time caught my eye. Games, movies, songs… idols.

Idols.

“Hmm.”

I placed the chopsticks on the finished ramen bowl. And I crossed my arms.

That status window, no matter how I looked at it, was specific to idols.

I didn’t know the reason why I had entered this body, but was it related to the contents of that status window?

Did the original owner of this body, ‘Park Moondae,’ pray for a wish because he was an idol trainee?

……Or was it because of my tracks during my university days?

I really didn’t know. But I should use what could be used.

“Status Window.”

When I muttered small words with almost only the sound of my breath, a translucent status window popped up abruptly in my vision again.

Vocal was Grade C, Appearance was also Grade C. The rest were blank spaces.

Was it because I hadn’t tried?

Such a thought suddenly came to mind, but I decided to set it aside first. There was no way I would want to radiate dance and talent right then in that situation.

Then I would check other contents of the status window.

I recalled the karaoke sign I had seen while entering the internet cafe.

* * *

“Oh.”

First, to speak of the confirmation result, Grade C didn’t seem to be a low grade.

I was able to sing quite well. First, the vocal color was good, and the vocal volume was favorable. Since the vocalization was also clean, it was a feeling that ‘the basics were good.’ I thought he definitely had talent.

And what was more surprising than that was the fact that this window appeared.

[Achievement Unlocked! ]
Level 0 -> 1
Gained 1 Point!

“Achievement?”

I only asked myself back, but another window appeared.

[Achievements in Progress]
10 Attempts (0/10)
100 Attempts (0/100)
First Experience (0/1)
10 Experiences (0/10)
…….

The scroll bar continued endlessly downward. …So it was grinding. Even the units jumped shamelessly as it went on. Furthermore, half of them were blank spaces as if confirmation were impossible.

My interest cooled down a bit, so I closed the window.

Still, since I had received something called a point for then, I would try using it like a game.

I called up the status window.

At the bottom, ‘Remaining Points: 1’ was newly displayed.

“Distribute 1 point to Vocal.”

Then the contents of the status window changed.

[Name: Park Moondae (Ryu Gunwoo)]
Level: 1
Title: None
Vocal: C+
Dance: ?-
Appearance: C
Talent: ?-
Trait: Infinite Potential

Vocal became C+ immediately.

Was this really reflected?

I immediately selected the song I had sung earlier again. And I tried singing it the same way.

“……It was good?”

There was definitely a difference. It became more comfortable to hear, and a more refined sound came out. It was a feeling that the throat acquired the way of singing like that on its own.

And the ‘Trait’ that appeared in the status window.

“So it was Infinite Potential.”

Ordinary people had different results compared to effort depending on their innate talent. And there was a limit even if they tried. The maximum value they could grow, the limit of potential.

But right then, this status window was showing that it was absurdly high efficiency compared to effort and that there was no growth limit.

Furthermore, I confirmed that the skill actually increased when I tried it.

I thought while stroking my chin.

Idol….

Did it mean to take it as a career path for the new body?

And at that moment, a pop-up jumped up over the status window.

“…!!”

[Outbreak!]
Status Abnormality: ‘Debut or Die’ occurred!

The writing continued in a row under the blood-red letters.

[‘Debut or Die’]
If you fail to debut as an idol within the set period, Death.
Remaining period: D-365

“What?”

It was absurd content, but I had an ominous premonition.

Since the very fact of entering another person’s body was already a crazy situation, there was no guarantee that even stranger things wouldn’t occur.

As soon as I finished reading, the weird pop-up disappeared.

And as expected, a strange item was added to the status window.

[Name: Park Moondae (Ryu Gunwoo)]
Level: 1
Title: None
Vocal: C+
Dance: ?-
Appearance: C
Talent: ?-
Trait: Infinite Potential
!Status Abnormality: Debut or Die

Was this for real?

“F*ck…….”

I spat out curses and covered my forehead. Cold sweat was smeared on it.

I was already in a state of confirming that the status window worked. I couldn’t ignore the possibility that this sh*tty phrase would also be realized.

Just why did this kind of thing pop up? Was it because I thought of an idol?

I was so dumbfounded that a hollow laugh popped out. But at the same time, even this thought occurred.

‘…Could I be receiving punishment because I did some data-selling business in the meantime?’

Right, idols.

Actually, it was a familiar field due to personal circumstances.

That was because I had taken surrogate photos for idols during my university days and earned decent living expenses. In that process, I also tried some… money-crazed deeds.

I saw all sorts of sights and heard all sorts of rumors.

Furthermore, as they say environment makes the person, since I had gone around taking photos so much, I even went as far as unnecessarily over-immersing in this field at one time.

At that time, I also voluntarily looked up various things, so it was a field where I had some knowledge.

I rubbed my face and wiped away the cold sweat. And I crossed my arms and glared at the status window.

I didn’t know what was what. It was ridiculous and infuriating.

But I had no intention of dying.

So, I decided to become calm.

Right, in any case, it was a trash-tier life, and it was saying it would give me a new start. Moreover, with such advantageous conditions.

Furthermore, to track down the reason why I had entered this body, I would use and confirm this unrealistic status window more.

“Hmm.”

The self-justification was finished. I smiled broadly while being out of my mind.

…Around that time, one idol survival program was a huge hit, wasn’t it?