8. SOMEDAY(1)
“Why aren’t you saying anything? And when did you study songwriting?”
The director is glaring at me like he’s about to kill me!
Unable to bring myself to tell the truth, I felt my insides burning dry. I had always read every article without fail, so I must have heard the episode behind this song, too…. I desperately tried to recall the story behind it.
“Idols who release self-composed songs are getting good reviews these days. So I’ve been studying it little by little.”
I gave him a plausible excuse, but I felt like I could hear the tiny bit of conscience I had left crumble to dust.
Ah, I remembered.
The fairly famous lyricist Ethan had met his first love at a school reunion, drunk a ton that day, and worked on this song afterward.
That was why this song was incredibly fresh and heart-fluttering, while the follow-up that would come later was about the narrator parting with his own memories through the bitterness and pain he felt at her wedding.
“Hmm. Who knows about this?”
“Aside from me, only you know now, Director.”
“Good. Don’t tell anyone else, and bring it to me later.
If you have a talent like that, you should be appealing to your manager or team leader. Why are you hiding it?”
Because it was a talent I didn’t originally have! I still don’t have it!
Unfortunately, the cry in my heart did not reach Director Jeong Yun, and all I could do was maintain an awkward smile and nod.
Leaving aside whether it was possible or impossible, my insides burned black at the thought that I was about to steal someone else’s creation.
And right then, a notification window suddenly flashed.
- Update history exists. Please check the status window.
I stared blankly at Director Jeong Yun’s retreating back, then massaged my slightly trembling legs and headed to the practice room where the other members would gather.
If I went in later than the others just to check this, it wouldn’t look good. I thought it would be better to be there first, even if I had to sit in a corner.
‘Check status window.’
[Status Window]
Name: Gong Jihwan
Job: Trainee Who Has Felt the Limits of His Talent
Lv: 6
Traits: Do or Die(1), The Giving Tree(1)
Skills: I Can Hear Your Voice(1), Tenacious(3), Inner Familiarity(1)
Why did my level go up?
My confusion lasted only a moment. In the place where the word “Undetermined” had been, a new trait called “Do or Die” had appeared, and both The Giving Tree and Do or Die were giving off a glittering light.
I had a feeling that, like last night, I would see an explanation dangerous to my mental health, but I couldn’t resist the flashing light that seemed to be urging me to check it quickly.
‘The Giving Tree.’
The first part of the skill description hadn’t changed, but something peculiar had appeared at the end of the explanatory text.
*Currently Designated Targets
Min Hajun(63), Kim Yeongbin(48)
I frowned, unable to tell whether it was 100 out of 100 or 100 out of 1,000, when a thought suddenly occurred to me.
A reasonable suspicion: if things worked the way they had until now, wouldn’t I be able to see an explanation for that, too?
‘Trust level explanation.’
[Trust Level]
A numerical representation of how much you and the other person trust each other, and how much the other person can give up for you. This number is highly fluid and is affected by everything you show for the other person.
Below 10: A relationship where they wouldn’t believe you even if you said fermented soybean bricks are made from beans.
…
40 or above: A relationship where they grant your words a certain degree of credibility and consider whether there are any logical flaws.
…
60 or above: A relationship where they look for validity in your words and can understand and let pass things that are somewhat suspicious.
70 or above: A relationship where they would believe you had a reason even if you suddenly danced in the street, and would applaud you.
…
100: Someone who would believe you even if you said you were an alien.
※ However, if the person takes your sacrifice for granted, your Sucker Level rises instead of your Trust Level. Please be careful.
What the hell is this….
When I asked for an explanation, an explanation actually popped out.
To think there was such an unfriendly, arbitrary system.
Did the developer make it while harboring some serious grudge against the world?
My reasonable suspicion had become reality. After checking the numbers, I suddenly found myself wondering.
I could understand Hajun’s trust level to some extent.
We had had quite a few deep conversations, and as the explanation said, it was highly fluid, so his trust level could have risen today.
But I couldn’t understand why Yeongbin’s was an ambiguous 48. No matter how much I searched through “my” memories, we had never had a long conversation.
It couldn’t be because of the food, could it….
Even to me, it was a ridiculous conclusion, but trust level meant that the other person trusted me, so I decided to take it as a good thing.
And just as I finished checking all the trust levels, a new notification window appeared.
- As the user has recognized how to use the system and all traits have blossomed, a special benefit has been activated. The user’s current state will be quantified and displayed, and 30 points have been granted as an effect of the special benefit.
The status window suddenly began to change.
[Status Window]
Name: Gong Jihwan
Job: Trainee Who Has Felt the Limits of His Talent
lv: 6
Traits: Do or Die(1), The Giving Tree(1)
Stamina: 22
Agility: 35
Vocal: 40
Lyrics: 15
Composition: 7
Acting: 5
Luck: 51
Skills: I Can Hear Your Voice(1), Tenacious(3), Inner Familiarity(1)
A status window that looked like something you’d really see in a game had appeared. Ah, the numbers alone made my eyes hurt. I just wanted to quit everything.
In the meantime, it was strange that my luck was so high, but come to think of it, I had died and come back to life and was currently living with my favorite idol. Even if it were higher than this, I probably wouldn’t have anything to say.
Still, I comforted myself by thinking how fortunate it was that I’d been given points when I had to write a song and take it to him, then dumped all of them into lyrics and composition.
If I had sung a decent song with a vocal stat of 40, I figured I needed to at least make similar numbers to bring something that would make sense to the director.
It was called a special benefit, so I had no idea when something like this would happen again, but if I got on their bad side here, I would obviously end up far, far away from Unravel in this life, too, and Gong Jihwan’s dream and my life would be ruined in one blow.
I poured 10 into lyrics and 20 into composition, barely making the numbers look presentable.
Starting today, I was in a situation where I had to give up on sleep and dig into lyric writing and composition. It was so bleak that tears almost welled up in my eyes.
“Haa…. My life….”
I wiped at the damp corners of my eyes and got up, looking at myself reflected in the mirror.
Standing there was an idiot who had spent two years with the label of “trainee” without properly grasping a single thing with his own hands.
I couldn’t say I had worked less hard than the other trainees, but that didn’t mean I had worked harder, either.
I didn’t even know what I could do better. I hadn’t honed any special talent to set myself apart from others.
Being a trainee meant being in a place where only kids who shone with charm or talent, whether in looks, singing, dancing, or anything else, were gathered.
And I had lived without any distinguishing feature at all. That time in the past felt far too precious to have wasted.
I guessed that the reason only stamina, agility, and vocal were high was because the past “me” had done nothing but repeat dancing and singing as if his life depended on it.
They often say in games that a jack-of-all-trades character is a ruined build, but in some old games with a high degree of freedom, all the veterans were jack-of-all-trades.
I had to become that kind of jack-of-all-trades.
I had too many useless thoughts. Thinking it would be more effective to move my body a lot and shake off the distracting noise in my head, I began practicing the dance that now naturally surfaced in my mind.
If I couldn’t perform sharp choreography, I would look comparatively worse among the other members, and to the viewers, I would probably look like the perfect ugly duckling.
At the very least, I needed to be able to finish my movements crisply.
I slowly checked the same movement in the mirror again and again, and tried to imitate Sebin’s movements, which had looked the best.
I was comforting myself by thinking that I had done crisp, disciplined movements plenty of times while being hounded endlessly in the military. And then, at that moment, one very important fact flashed through my mind.
“Ah, f*ck….”
Right now, I had not completed my military service.
* * *
Meanwhile, Poing, who had been busy in its own way elsewhere, frowned as it thought of the contractor it had been assigned.
“What, you went off to play?”
From beginning to now, he had been consistently clueless and there wasn’t much about him worth praising, but if there was one thing he was good at, it was that he knew how to pet Poing fairly well.
So Poing had considered him rather commendable….
Poing was truly very busy.
Poing was still a novice fairy. It could only be promoted if Gong Jihwan, with whom it had formed a contract this time, became satisfied with his life.
Until now, like other novice fairies, it had only worked with beings whose satisfaction levels rose relatively easily—creatures with low intellectual levels or almost no intelligence, such as plants, animals, and monsters.
But from intermediate fairy onward, one was assigned beings with high intellectual levels.
Accordingly, the amount of information it had to learn increased exponentially, and the basic manual alone was not enough to understand everything. In particular, there was still much it did not know about the traits or skills that appeared according to each individual’s disposition.
During the initial period in which Gong Jihwan adapted to his new life, Poing also had to study ceaselessly for its new target.
The human, who knew nothing of this arduous fairy life, complained a lot.
Cat fairies were already a species born with a lot of sleep, yet he grumbled without knowing that Poing was working hard while giving up all that sleep.
Poing resolved to pick a day and give him a good scolding, busily moving its paws.
Next, it was time to go receive additional training on the system.