Overnight, Gang Rojun had gone from a gloomy—or perhaps hideous—monster to possessing a face so beautiful that even the phrase “god-tier handsome” fell short. And that very Rojun was now displayed on the main screen of the “AI Simulation” app on his phone.
A characterized Gang Rojun.
Faced with an app that looked completely different from yesterday, Rojun was flustered. Even more so because his brain had already short-circuited. On the phone screen he was looking at, there was a background that roughly depicted a studio apartment, a Gang Rojun character standing in the center, and various buttons arranged around him.
As for the Gang Rojun character, of course—
“It looks exactly like my face.”
It matched his newly changed face. In other words, the face he had customized had been applied both in reality and to the character. After staring down at his own character for a while, Gang Rojun’s gaze moved.
—Slide.
He checked the buttons placed around the character. Words were embedded on them.
“What the hell is this? Is it really a raising simulation? Some kind of game like that?”
If it were only the app, he might have been able to ignore it somehow, but since even his real face had changed exactly as he had made it, this was definitely an insane situation. Rojun tousled his hair with both hands. His abundant black hair swayed.
“Having thick hair… feels damn amazing.”
If he had still had that hideous face, it would have sounded sinister, but now it clearly came across differently. Rojun, who had smiled without realizing it, went back into the bathroom and looked at his face again.
A heavenly appearance that easily surpassed the human realm.
Gang Rojun muttered quietly,
“I’m fucking handsome.”
Gradually, his smile deepened. It was an absurd situation, yes. It made no sense. So what? Did he care? He wasn’t that hideous monster anymore, was he? Soon, rapture, joy, and similar emotions surged inside Gang Rojun, and the hope and passion that had vanished—or that he had lived forgetting—exploded.
‘I feel like I can do anything. Seriously, anything.’
Rojun quickly raised the phone in his hand, then came out of the bathroom and sat cross-legged.
“First, I need to figure out what this is.”
He was trying to understand the “AI Simulation” app.
A little while later.
Gang Rojun was sitting, but his character inside the phone was standing.
Above the character’s head, these words could be seen.
-[User: Gang Rojun / Age: 24 / Height: 182.8 / Desired Occupation: Idol / Coins: 0]
Rojun narrowed his brow slightly.
“The stuff I wrote yesterday— But what are coins?”
Coins, out of nowhere. There was no way to know right away. Gang Rojun’s eyes moved again. This time, to the two buttons lined up on the left side of the character.
-[Status] / [Enhance]
Of the two, Rojun tried tapping the “Status” button first. The app screen changed immediately.
-[User Gang Rojun’s Status]
[Appearance (100/100)│Singing Ability (2.3/100)│Rap (1.5/100)]
[Choreography (0/100)│Talking Skills (5.7/100)│Acting (0/100)│Lyric Writing (0/100)]│[Composition (0/100)│Arrangement (0/100)]
There was a lot. What was all this?
“Roughly speaking… is my current status being shown as numbers?”
In game terms, it was like stats. Since he had written idol as his desired occupation, related statuses seemed to have appeared. Starting with appearance and extending to instruments, what stood out was his appearance, which had already hit the maximum value. Of course, the rest of Rojun’s stats were awful. Some were even zero. That made perfect sense.
‘Obviously, damn it—when in my life would I have ever sung or danced or anything like that?’
For now, back to the main screen. Gang Rojun pressed “Enhance,” the button to the right of “Status,” and messages appeared one after another in the center of the main screen.
-[Insufficient coins. Enhancement is impossible.]
-[Welcome to the start of “AI Simulation.” As a gift, 50 coins have been granted.]
-[Then, please enjoy “AI Simulation.”]
As soon as the messages disappeared, he saw a change.
-[Coins: 50]
The coins that had been at 0 had become 50.
“Oh—”
Before he knew it, Rojun was completely absorbed in the “AI Simulation” app and pressed the “Enhance” button again. Perhaps because he now had coins, the screen changed properly this time. The stats he had just seen appeared the same way, but with one difference.
-[······Singing Ability (2.3/100)↑│Rap (1.5/100)↑]
An upward arrow attached at the end. For Gang Rojun, who had played games before, it was a familiar sight. Without hesitation, he tried pressing “Singing Ability.” A message popped up in the center of the screen again. It was roughly asking, “Would you like to use 1 coin on Singing Ability?” When he pressed confirm, it was applied immediately.
-[Singing Ability (2.4/100)↑]
From 2.3 to 2.4. In other words, each coin raised the value by 0.1. That meant 10 coins raised it by 1, and 100 coins raised it by 10. Was that reasonable? No, it also felt like it barely went up at all. Rojun muttered to himself, set the numbers aside for the moment, and thought of something else.
“But—if I enhance a stat, does it actually apply to me in real life?”
His face had changed, so the stats would apply too, right? Gang Rojun briefly warmed up his throat and sang any song that came to mind. It was a rock ballad that had been famous more than ten years ago, and also a song his late parents had liked.
—♬♪
It was absolute trash. He was even tone-deaf. Rojun tilted his head as if used to it. He knew he was tone-deaf too.
“Seems the same. Well, it would be weirder if something changed from just 0.1 going up.”
Gang Rojun roughly let it pass and returned the screen to the main menu. This time, there were two buttons on the right side of the character.
-[Missions (Only 5 per day possible)] / [Shop (Inactive)]
Of the two buttons, “Shop” could not be pressed. Inactive? Then it would probably open later or something. That left the “Missions” button. In an instant, countless missions filled the screen.
-[Available Missions 0/5]
-[Have men or women ask for your number 3 times (1 coin)│Ask men or women for their number 3 times (1 coin)│Hear that you’re handsome 3 or more times (1 coin)│30 push-ups (1 coin)│30 sit-ups (1 coin)······]
Even when he kept scrolling down, missions appeared endlessly. Was it unlimited? Most were worth 1 coin, but 5-coin and 10-coin ones appeared from time to time too.
“So if I just do them, it gives me coins?”
Curious, Gang Rojun abruptly started doing push-ups. He was trying the “30 push-ups” mission. He exercised regularly anyway, and with the muscles he had trained through manual labor, it wasn’t difficult at all.
He finished it in no time.
A message immediately appeared on his phone.
-[Mission “30 push-ups” complete! 1 coin granted!]
Sure enough, his coins, which had been 49, returned to 50. On top of that—
-[Available Missions 1/5]
-[31 push-ups (1 coin)]
The available count increased by 1, and the push-up mission, which had been 30, changed to 31. Gang Rojun understood the system up to this point.
“Missions are only possible five times a day?”
Back to the main screen where the character appeared. Now, only the final button remained. The largest button at the bottom of the screen.
-[AI Automation]
The letters were large too, making it look the most important. When he tapped it right away, a message appeared.
-[Through “AI Automation” analysis, it is possible to derive the desired result. What would you like to derive? (Only things related to desired occupation: idol are possible)]
-[Example: I want to perfectly learn a certain song.]
“AI Automation” analysis? Derive the desired result? Looking at the example the app had kindly provided, Gang Rojun rubbed his chin.
“I don’t know what it means, but for now, let’s try it with the song I just sang.”
Gang Rojun quickly typed the song he had sung in peak tone-deaf fashion, when he had sounded like absolute trash, into the empty field that appeared.
-[AI Automation: I want to perfectly learn the song “Farewell by Death.”]
When he pressed confirm, a loading circle spun. Soon after, the answer was displayed.
-[AI analyzing······ Analysis complete!]
-[30 coins are required to derive your desired result.]
-[※The number of coins may vary depending on the difficulty of deriving the result.]
As expected, it wasn’t free. 30 coins.
“Hm—so depending on whether what I want is easy or hard, the price gets cheaper or more expensive?”
Having understood, Rojun pressed permission to use the coins. The message changed immediately.
-[Using 30 coins.]
-[Applying······ Application complete!]
At the same time—
“Ugh!”
Gang Rojun flinched. The reason was simple. The side wearing the smartwatch had tingled. A familiar sensation. Rojun waited for a moment. But after that tingling, everything was quiet.
Was that really it?
Gang Rojun, puzzled, warmed up his throat despite wondering what that had been. He was going to sing “Farewell by Death,” the song he had requested to learn, again. He was slightly nervous. All it had done was sting a little—would he really change? Tone-deaf Gang Rojun slowly opened his mouth, and from that moment on, he sensed the change.
‘Huh?’
The lyrics that had been vague in his mind came back clearly.
—♬♪
And his singing ability, which had been absolute trash, was now good enough that it wouldn’t be strange to call him a singer. Gang Rojun, who had stopped after singing just the first phrase, widened his eyes.
‘It actually works.’
After calming down, Rojun began singing again from where he had stopped. With Gang Rojun’s naturally slightly low voice, a unique and unparalleled vocal color, and a singing style that seemed to scrape slightly at the ends. His gloomy tone had become an advantage. His pitch was also singer-level. On top of that, his emotions and control of dynamics were perfect as well.
After singing almost all the way to the first chorus, Rojun—
“······”
As if he had something in mind, sang a different song instead of “Farewell by Death.”
—♬♪
This time, it was trash. Gang Rojun immediately stopped singing and chuckled.
“Yeah, that’s the taste I know.”
Compared to “Farewell by Death,” which had been singer-level, this was the level of pure tone-deafness. Afterward, Rojun tried singing “Farewell by Death” several more times, but his high-level skill was maintained. That meant there was only one conclusion.
‘It really only learned “Farewell by Death.”’
In other words, the “AI Automation” button was, in game terms, like paid content or spending real money. He could slowly enhance his stats, but it was also possible to gather a lot of coins and learn quickly. In the end, whether slowly or quickly, he would become overpowered all the same.
Gang Rojun’s smile was filled with interest.
“This is killer.”
He had roughly finished figuring out the main functions of “AI Simulation.” It wasn’t as complicated as he had thought.
“First, I absolutely have to do five missions a day. I don’t know if there are other methods, but right now, missions are the only way to earn coins.”
From what he could see, “AI Automation” was the most expensive, and in order to use this app freely, stockpiling coins was essential.
“The 5-coin or 10-coin missions are hard to clear right away, so I’ll do the 1-coin ones. Five missions a day makes 5 coins.”
If he did that every day for a month, it would be about 150 coins.
He didn’t know what other events might be hidden inside “AI Simulation,” but that was the calculation for now. Well, if he kept going, maybe something like the “welcome gift” from earlier would pop up again.
Soon, Gang Rojun got into position. It was to do a mission.
-[30 sit-ups (1 coin)]
When he quickly completed it, 1 coin was added along with the now-familiar message.
“Next, let’s see, something easy—sing 3 songs, dance for 5 minutes.”
But he had already sung 3 songs, hadn’t he? Did songs through “AI Automation” not count? Rojun tilted his head, then sang the national anthem 3 times. Fortunately, the mission was completed.
Next was 5 minutes of dancing.
Gang Rojun busted out random moves. Lost in a trance. Fortunately, the coins were granted. His coins became 23. Now there was one mission left. The mission that caught Rojun’s attention was this.
-[Have men or women ask for your number 3 times (1 coin)]
Having others ask for his number. With his current god-tier handsome face, wouldn’t it be easy? Besides, he wanted to go out into the world with this face. His insides were the same, but his exterior was no longer gloomy or sinister. How would people see him? How would they react?
And how would Rojun’s world, which had once been hellishly difficult, change from now on?
Having made up his mind, Gang Rojun washed up right away. All he put on his face was lotion. He dried his abundant hair roughly too.
‘Clothes? I’ll just wear anything. I don’t have many clothes anyway.’
The outfit he decided on was just a plain white short-sleeved T-shirt, jeans, and the sneakers he usually wore. Around then, the black hat and mask he always wore caught his eye.
‘···I don’t need them anymore.’
How many years had it been since he went out without a hat and mask?
After putting on his shoes, Gang Rojun let out a short breath before opening the front door. Nervousness and anticipation were appropriately mixed together. Soon, he opened the door without hesitation and stepped outside.
—Slide.
Gang Rojun walked leisurely, yet with strength in his steps. His steps kept getting tangled. Because it felt awkward.
—Step, step.
He had no destination. He simply walked. Every time warm sunlight fell across his face, goosebumps rose on his skin. Just then, from the direction of the convenience store up ahead, two women approached while giggling. They looked to be in their early twenties.
“······”
Rojun’s expression became a tangled mess.
And then—
“No, when I said that, he— huh?”
One of the two women noticed Gang Rojun two steps ahead. Her friend did as well. Soon, both women’s eyes widened sharply, and Gang Rojun passed by them. Naturally, the gazes of the two women followed Rojun.
“Did you see him? His face is insane.”
“S-so, so, so, so god-tier handsome.”
“Wow, hey, call me over.”
One of the women abruptly ran quickly in front of Gang Rojun. Then her friend called her name.
“Jeongmi!!”
The running woman whipped her head around.
“Huh???”
While doing so, she checked Gang Rojun’s face again. Rojun looked at the woman in front of him. Their eyes met. Gang Rojun forced himself to stay calm on the outside, but inside, he was a battlefield. Since he had absolutely no experience, he had to choose what to say first.
‘If she asks for my number, what do I answer? Thank you? That’s too flippant. Calmly, “Here”? Or indifferently, “Give me your phone”?’
But the woman froze, unable to do anything.
“······”
All she could do was admire Gang Rojun’s face as if her soul had left her body. Rojun looked at her for a moment, then passed by and grew farther away again. Her friend approached and shook the woman’s arm.
“Hey, hey, what’s wrong?? You saw his face properly, right?”
“···Yeah. No—wow, he was seriously insanely, insanely handsome, so I got intimidated for a second.”
“But I get that reaction too. When you meet a heavenly-level handsome guy, it’s actually kind of hard to talk to him. Like a demigod vibe?”
“Agreed. That was exactly me just now. The moment I saw him, I just stopped breathing.”
This mission might actually be difficult instead. Gang Rojun, who had no way of knowing that—
“Mm—where should I go? It has to be somewhere with a lot of people. Gangnam? Seongsu? Hongdae? For now, should I go to Gangnam?”
He set his first destination as Gangnam Station.