[Check your character information.]
Character information.
The information window popped up like a hologram.
[Individual Trainee, On Raon
Level: 1
Experience: 00.00%
HP: 50/50
Fatigue: 20
Strength: 10
Power: 10
Agility: 10
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 10
Charm: 10
Luck: 10
Fame: 0
Remaining Stat Points: 0]
“Wow, this sucks….”
After unintentionally blurting out a comprehensive review, I began to look in more detail.
I didn’t even know why there was Fatigue and HP in a game like this.
Seeing these hard-to-look-at values from one to ten, I naturally felt overwhelmed.
Most of all, my Charm was at 10.
I had a feeling there was a reason I looked so unattractive.
After that, the system briefly explained the simple information that anyone who has ever played an RPG would be familiar with.
If you think or say keywords like “character information,” “skills,” and “quests,” a window will appear in front of your eyes.
I also checked other useful features for users, such as a minimap, inventory, and cash shop, in case I needed them.
But nothing worked, no matter how often I tried using different terms, so I gave up.
Thus, the first quest was merely a process of confirming that this was really a game.
And it was a terrible game at that.
“Logout! Please!”
[Logout has been denied.]
“This stupid game. Why on earth is logout denied? Tell me why I’m possessed by this game!”
I didn’t expect a response, but one came.
[You have agreed to the following terms and conditions.]
“Terms and conditions?”
[Article 11 (■■ Service)
- Users of this game are considered to have agreed to the use of ■■ services.
- If it is confirmed that you have agreed to these terms and conditions, the service will start even if the ■■ has the same wavelength as that of ■■.
- The company is not responsible for any disadvantages arising from this process…]
There were more trivial explanations following.
I didn’t know if such a garbage clause existed, but what could I do now?
While I regretted my mistake by tearing at my hair, a message appeared saying the tutorial was over.
[The tutorial has ended.
Quest complete!]
“What did I do for it to be over already….”
[Did you think it was over already? Life is a field without any tutorial. From now on, learn by rolling on the ground. Fighting! (^^)]
Why was this guy picking a fight…?
When I felt like I wouldn’t get along with this system in the future, the reward calculation began.
[Experience and cash will be awarded as quest rewards.
Level up!
You have stat points to distribute.]
Before I could even think about investing all the stat points into Charm—which was my identity—several windows popped up one after another.
It seemed like the notifications that had been off until the end of the tutorial were now flooding in.
[Data transfer…
Data collision warning…
User recognition failure…
User recognition retry…
ERROR!
ERROR!
ERROR!
ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!]
Countless eerie error windows appeared, turning my vision red before suddenly disappearing.
There were a few intact ones in between, but I didn’t have time to read them.
Whew, what a surprise.
A perfectly normal popup finally appeared in front of my now clean view.
[Synchronization complete
Some abilities have been reset due to incomplete synchronization.]
Cancel. It’s not perfect.
Reset, huh?
So that’s why my stats were so low?
[Error correction process activated
Please select one ability to synchronize with the main body.
Recommended abilities: Korean, Charm]
Wait a minute.
Did Korean count as one of the reset abilities?
Was the reason I couldn’t understand what the high school student or the person on the phone was saying because I couldn’t speak Korean?
If I couldn’t read or listen, of course, I wouldn’t have been able to speak properly either.
That’s why my pronunciation seemed a bit strange.
Was this difficulty level seriously insane?
How could I live in Korea if I couldn’t speak Korean?
In the end, without the confidence to relearn Korean from scratch, I tearfully chose Korean.
Goodbye, Charm.
Farewell, attractiveness.
[You have chosen Korean!
Advanced Korean will be synchronized.]
I could finally read the warning sign in front of the non-operational fountain.
Yes. I am Korean!
I felt like my insides were clearing up.
However, the system’s mischief didn’t end there.
[Main quest arrived!
“From a shut-in gamer to an idol in another world?!”]
I didn’t know who came up with the quest name, but they should change the person in charge. Quickly.
[▶ Quest description:
Having completed the tutorial, you are now preparing for the first filming of the idol survival program Pick Your Heart 3. Pick Your Heart is a cruel, cold, and stimulating survival program that selects 10 trainees – 7 by public vote and 3 through a combination of votes and expert evaluations – from a pool of 100 trainees. You are slated to participate as an individual trainee. The first shooting is tomorrow morning. Show your presence in the first evaluation, even though you are a newbie at level 2, with all your stats at 10.
▶ Confirmed rewards:
Attention from trainees and mentors, a small amount of experience points, money, lodging for four days, and a place to get some clothes and necessities.
▶ Penalty for failure:
On a cold winter day, poor you with nowhere to go will face a tragic ending called freezing to death.
(Failure and rejection are treated the same)
Y/N]
“?”
I rubbed my eyes and looked again.
[▶ Penalty for failure:
On a cold winter day, poor you with nowhere to go will face a tragic ending called freezing to death.
(Failure and rejection are treated the same)]
“…”
I couldn’t help but lose my reason.
Why was an idol training game so extreme?
I breathed a deep sigh, and my breath came out like dry ice smoke.
My hands, buried deep in my pockets, were freezing, and my ears seemed ready to fall off.
Feeling like I would become the first idiot to freeze to death on the first day of the game possession, I pressed the acceptance button with my trembling hands.
It’s not because I was mad; it’s because I was cold.
Really cold.
Damn it.
* * *
Barely accepting reality, I decided to spend the night in a 24-hour unmanned café.
I used the money I received as a tutorial quest reward to get a hot chocolate latte from a vending machine-like coffee machine.
Holding a cup of hot chocolate in one hand and sitting in an uncomfortable chair, my current state was truly pitiful.
Whether it’s a game operator or a god, please send me home. Fragile game shut-ins will die if they stay outside too long.
However, it wasn’t an exaggeration.
Either because I hit my head too hard at first or stayed in the cold for too long, my HP dropped by 20 instantly.
What kind of crazy balance was this?
Would the game really kill you if your HP reached 0? Would an idol training game give such a miserable death to its players?
Scared, I allocated the stat points I received from leveling up to Health, Strength, and Agility with a 2, 2, and 1 distribution.
As a result, my HP increased by a tiny bit.
It was still a pathetic amount—I felt it would drop to 0 and be game over if I hit my head anywhere.
I inevitably left Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charm alone for now.
Someday, I am going to be handsome again.
Right?
Suddenly, I felt like crying.
I quickly shook off the sadness and searched for the program with the same title and name as the game on my phone.
Pick Your Heart. Shortened to Pick Heart.
Pick Heart was already an ordinary idol survival program in real life, drained of all its novelty.
It was a cruel program that ranked trainees by viewer votes and eliminated those with low rankings.
The program ultimately debuted the remaining trainees as a group.
It was clear that viewers were already getting tired of idol audition programs, as this was already the third season.
I noticed an article about Pick Heart 3 introducing an “expert evaluation” to differentiate itself from the flood of other programs and aiming for a self-produced idol.
The details were not specified, but it was not completely ignoring votes.
It’s a system perfect for manipulation.
Searching a bit more, I found quite a few people expressing doubts about the results of Pick Heart 1 and 2 and raising suspicions of vote manipulation.
The game even had such unnecessary realism in this aspect.
This is clearly biased.
I remembered my favorite contestant, who might have debuted if not for vote manipulation, and felt bitter.
Anyway, it seemed there were no particular issues in the game’s 2017 Korea.
Season 1 debuted a male group called UPon, but they disbanded after a year and a half of activities. The second season debuted a female group called yoUs and was about to disband at the end of this year.
Both did very well.
The results must have been produced by grinding the participating trainees.
And now I’d be joining as a dirt-spoon individual trainee.
I sipped the hot chocolate I hadn’t touched because it was too hot.
Some sugar should help my brain function.
[Chocolate is good.
Fatigue -5]
Only 5? Stingy.
[Come to think of it, it’s so sweet that you feel like vomiting.
Your fatigue increased by +5]
“Crazy, I’m sorry.”
I apologized immediately, but the system didn’t return my fatigue level. It even put the swear word filter back on.
You bastard.
From now on, you’re a dog system.
Anyway, with something sweet entering my system, my brain started to work a little.
It’s not like I can just go and say, “Play any song!”
There must be a song scheduled for me.
I thought I should check my only possession—my phone—again.
When I checked my files, there was an MP3 file called PickHeartEvaluationSong.
I thought that this must be it and pressed play immediately.
“…”
It was my first time hearing this song.
Listening to the melody, it seemed like a vocal-focused song rather than a dance song.
I listened to the pleasant female singer’s voice until the end, and a system window popped up.
[Song: Hello, world!
Do you want to memorize it?
Y/N]
“Wow.”
Was this the possessors’ buff?
Was I finally walking the superstar path, not crouched miserably in a 24-hour unmanned cafe?
I was willing to call the dog system a system again if my prediction was correct.
I pressed “Y” with an excited heart.
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