Chapter 72

A trainee participating in <Debut Chart>?

The staff member pointed at the confidentiality agreement as if telling me not to be a nuisance. Still dumbfounded, I scrawled a signature across it.

Not my own signature, but Kwon Taeyoung’s.

I had no idea what was going on, so let us say I had left my guardian’s name.

After handing over the document and rushing outside, I found Gowon already striding out of the building.

I was walking fairly fast myself, so why could I not catch up with him?

It irritated me and wounded my pride, but in the end I broke into a run, closed the distance, and grabbed Gowon by the shoulder.

“Hey!”

Gowon was already scowling before he even turned around.

Then he knocked my hand off his shoulder as though throwing it away.

“What?”

Judging by the way he was treating his practically heaven-sent big brother, this one was also eighteen-year-old Gowon, who did not know me at all.

...Then we were strangers meeting for the first time, so I should speak politely to him too.

Mr. Gowon...? Could we talk for a moment...?

Oh, I can’t do that.

I had spent so long treating even Gowon, who had begun to carry himself like a proper celebrity, as an easy target....

Eighteen-year-old Gowon, who knew nothing about the world, looked like nothing but a brat to me.

“What song are you doing for the first evaluation?”

Gowon looked down at me for a moment, then simply ignored me and turned away. His legs felt especially long today. His eye level also seemed strangely higher than mine....

I caught up with him again.

“I asked what song you’re doing.”

“Why do you care?”

“...Just tell me—”

“Stay out of my business.”

...Right. Eighteen was an age when he really would have been going through puberty.

It might be faster to communicate with an unfiltered, raw adolescent through his mind instead.

Gowon’s status window.

But there was no response before my eyes.

Quest window. What are you doing?

Q. Establish Plausibility in the Past

Correcting erro r

Stabilization in progress

“......”

I did not know what that meant, but it had better hurry up and fix itself. Dealing with eighteen-year-old Gowon was going to make puberty contagious.

While I hesitated, Gowon once again strode farther away.

“Hey, hey. I was going to recommend a song that suits you.”

I chased after him at nearly a run and barely managed to draw alongside him again.

“How about Young Ace’s ‘What a Waste’?”

“Young... what? What’s that?”

“......”

The ominous feeling that had been creeping over me became certain with that.

Young Ace did not exist here.

The illustrious career of Young Ace’s Hanzel had vanished as well, leaving me as nothing more than an aspiring idol named Baek Hanje.

Q. Establish Plausibility in the Past

You said this was the past, you bastard!

What kind of past is this? This is fabrication!

In any case, recommending <What a Waste> to Gowon had only been a probe to understand the situation. What I actually wanted to say was something else.

“The Way’s ‘Not Home.’ Prepare the choreography too and use that.”

That was a classic megahit with nothing to do with K-Dom, so surely even that achievement had not been erased.

This time, Gowon did not ask, “What’s that?” Instead—

“I don’t like it.”

“?!”

Wow.

Gowon was talking back to me.

Gowon! He’s talking back to me over song selection!

How could this possibly happen in Baek Hanje’s life?!

Of course, even when we first met, he had built a wall as tall as himself and bristled with raw sensitivity.

To think that had actually been him treating me with respect because I was his senior.

Gowon turned away without hiding how annoyed and irritated he was by me.

The sheer absurdity of having to cling to him so pathetically struck me all over again, but—

“It’s because I think it suits you. At least look it up once. To my eye, nothing fits your tone and choreography better.”

“And who are you?”

“......”

I revised my earlier assessment.

Gowon, this bastard.

When I first met him at K-Dom, he had actually been incredibly kind and polite.

The moment the seniority ranks disappeared, his temper became completely unbearable.

“Just listen. Whatever plan you’ve made, this is better.”

“......”

“You’re going to watch it, right? Huh? I’ll keep following you until you say yes.”

“......”

“Are you ignoring me? God, what a rude little brat.”

At that, Gowon narrowed his eyes.

“? How old are you—no. How old are you?”

“Older than you.”

<Debut Chart> had aired two years before the “present.” In other words, I had been twenty-four.

So I must be the oldest trainee here, making one final attempt at becoming an idol....

Gowon looked at me with displeasure, then let out a deep sigh. As though he wanted to avoid dealing with me any further, he tugged his hood forward and covered his face.

“I’m not going to make it anyway, so stop worrying about me and focus on yourself.”

Gowon finally left me behind and walked ahead.

But a few steps later, I saw his thumb tapping repeatedly against the screen of an old phone.

Q. Establish Plausibility in the Past

Plausibility increased!

Current Plausibility: 3% (▲3)

Do it like th is! Please.

...Fine, but you need to hurry up and... get a grip.

Anyway, even the quest window agreed that song would work for you, you punk.

And now I understand what it wants.

It was the same structure as the first quest in <A Senior Paving the Road to Glory>.

Back then, the task I had to accomplish was “A Flawless Debut.”

This time, the task was to make him a “flawless first-place winner.”

So no one could ever wonder, “Isn’t it a little strange that he came in first?”

I had to prepare everything around him—good circumstances, good colleagues, timely help—and allow his talent as an idol to bloom completely.

I muttered at his retreating back as he walked away without a trace of regret.

“Trust me. Listen to your big brother, and good things will fall into your lap even while you sleep.”

***

“Baek Hanje~ Wow, your specialty is producing? Where did you learn production at seventeen?”

Ah.

I was not the big brother.

...I felt an incredibly sharp gaze from somewhere.

This morning, I arrived at the broadcasting station for the level evaluation, the first stage of the audition program. At the same time, the quest window appeared before my eyes.

Q. Establish Plausibility in the Past

You discovered the contradiction in time!

Before a greater disaster could occur, you were moved to the ■■■ dimension to correct the timeline.

Increase the plausibility of an impossible event in the past in order to produce the same result as the present.

Current Plausibility: 3%

Target Plausibility: 100%

Success: Return to reality; influence on your fame in reality

Failure: Quest terminated; ■■ excluded from the ■■ line

Time Limit: 1990h 32m 08s (D-83)

The window, which had previously used warped lettering and bizarre phrasing, had become as clear as the one I originally knew.

Its explanation had also become slightly kinder.

In other words, I had been assigned the role of helping Gowon win as a trainee.

...By rejuvenating me nine whole years, from twenty-six to seventeen.

No, was producing the same first-place result all that mattered? Were they really allowed to adjust someone’s age like they were trading it for candy?!

“...I’m independent trainee Baek Hanje. I taught myself production.”

“He’s handsome, and his voice is good.”

“He doesn’t shrink in front of the camera either.”

“His expressions are practically professional.”

That was because I had been an idol for thirteen years....

This absurd fabricated dimension had also produced ridiculous developments at the judges’ table.

The five people sitting on the elevated platform, looking down at the stage.

—Introducing the judging panel! Leading Korea’s greatest hip-hop crew, Master Big Room!

One of them was Bangwon—Young Ace’s Big Room.

It seemed that here, instead of being Young Ace’s main rapper, he had risen to the top as an independent rapper....

—And joining us is world-renowned musical actor Master Yunjin!

Yunjin.

That damned main vocalist who had flown off to Africa, overflowing with boundless humanitarianism, had appeared with an entirely different career.

What the hell is this... hah....

With settings that felt like a fever dream in broad daylight sprawled everywhere, it actually made me want to squeeze my eyes shut.

Fine. For now... let me focus only on the quest directly in front of me.

They had cut my age down and forced me into the role of a trainee. There was no reason the Young Ace members would remain normal.

Starting today, I would make Gowon grow like a madman and push him until he became a once-in-a-thousand-years idol.

Then I could escape this fake world and return to the reality where the real Young Ace existed.

But there was one major problem I had to overcome.

This audition was crawling with manipulation and corruption.

To help Gowon up close, I would also have to survive at least until the final round.

For that, I first needed to avoid being completely edited out of Episode 1 and raise my Recognition.

There were three ways to receive screen time on a corrupt idol survival show.

Be insanely handsome.Be outrageously funny.Have handed over money in advance.Gowon would survive on his own through the first method. No matter how unpolished he looked, his height and face would be used as trailer bait.

And as for me, it was not that I lacked confidence in my appearance, but after objectively concluding that I was not quite center material—

“What is trainee Baek Hanje’s position?”

I went with the second method.

“I’m a rapper.”

More than ten years as an idol had been enough to compensate for my formerly lacking dance skills.

But there was one weakness I had never needed to overcome.

In reality, there was Bangwon, who had even won a hip-hop survival show, and Kwon Taeyoung, who punched out every syllable of his rap in a low voice. Why would I ever need to rap?

I could leave it all to them and just sing, which I was good at.

But no matter how well I sang, if the production staff’s favored pick was another vocalist, there was a high chance all my footage would be cut.

So instead, I’ll push a funny concept.

After this, I could simply build a growth narrative in which my ranking steadily rose....

“Pffkhurk.”

But why was someone who, at this point, was supposedly meeting me for the first time reacting so bizarrely?

Yunjin belatedly composed his expression and raised the microphone.

“Ah..., you’re a... rapper?”

“Yes.”

“Why in the world would he....”

“Then, trainee Baek Hanje. Please begin your performance.”

“Wait! Wait a moment! Please hold on!!!”

Yunjin suddenly shouted.

Everyone’s attention turned toward him.

“Not rap! I want contestant Baek Hanje to sing.”

“Hm? Why is an actor suddenly acting like this?”

“Please sing a song that showcases powerful vocals.”

“Come on. Even as judges, we can’t interfere to that extent. It’s the contestant’s choice.”

Rapper Big Room pointed that out in a rough voice. The production staff looked around, trying to understand what was happening, while continuing to roll the cameras to capture this intriguing moment of conflict.

“That’s not what I mean.... Trainee Baek Hanje, there must be an area you’re far better at. Uh... you know what I mean, right?”