Chapter 74

I shuddered as he rattled off things that even the company did not know, stories known only to the members of Young Ace.

The way he grinned without a trace of resentment while recounting all the trouble he had suffered because of me made it undeniable.

This was Yunjin.

“Hmm... If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve come back to Korea when I found out you’d gotten involved with Gowon. So, our youngest. Can you tell me now what happened and why you’re here?”

“......”

After spending so long with no one to confide in, hearing him call me the youngest and ask what had happened made the tip of my nose sting.

“You know when I was doing the quests, right?”

“Yeah. When you were seventeen. That whole year when we climbed back up the charts and won the grand prize.”

“...Right. It disappeared after saying everything was over because we’d won the grand prize. But the day I met Gowon, the quest window appeared in front of me again.”

Haltingly, I told Yunjin everything that had happened so far—the process of helping Gowon grow, the quests that had gradually unfolded, all of it.

Even though the story would have sounded perfectly reasonable coming from someone who had lost their mind, Yunjin listened with an unexpectedly serious expression.

“All right, I understand the broad outline... but how did you end up in here?”

“I thought it was strange that Gowon won Debut Chart, so I started investigating....”

Ah, wait.

“When I say it was strange, I don’t mean I doubted he had the skill to win! It just made no sense that someone with no one backing him could survive a rigged variety show. Gowon’s naturally gifted, and he practices insanely hard too!”

“Uh... I watched his preliminary performance earlier, and he did seem talented. I didn’t say anything....”

“......”

“......”

I was glad the person standing in front of me was Yunjin and not one of my foxlike older members.

Even when the corners of his lips twitched, one glare telling him to keep quiet was enough to make him do his absolute best to hold it in.

“...Anyway, there weren’t even any stage clips left, so I was wondering what the hell had happened when I got dragged into this place. Then it told me to fulfill something called plausibility one hundred percent.”

“Ah, it sounds like something interfered with that junior again. But then you noticed....”

“That’s what I thought too.”

“Then you have some idea what you need to do, right?”

“Yeah.... I think I have to help Gowon become an undisputed winner.”

“......”

Yunjin covered his mouth for a moment and sank into thought before continuing.

“First, Hanje, I’ll give you a hint that might help in this world. This place is like a copied file of the original world. There is only one result that needs to overwrite the original world: Gowon’s victory.”

“......? What... does that mean?”

“Let’s say the world is a giant robot. If there’s a problem with the robot’s knee, you wouldn’t destroy the whole thing and rebuild it from scratch. You’d only try to replace that part, right?”

“Right....”

“But if you manufacture only the knee separately, it might not line up properly with the upper and lower sections when you install it in the body later.”

“......”

“So you temporarily copy one entire leg and use that as the basis for making a new knee. Then you remove only the knee and transplant it into the real robot.”

“Fuck..., I’ve hated science fiction ever since our debut song.”

I would rather have an angel descend into a dystopia and start rapping.

Still, the analogy gave me a rough idea of what he meant.

The program Debut Chart! 100 was the leg, while only “Gowon’s undisputed victory” was the knee the real world required.

“But Young Ace doesn’t exist here. How is that a copy? They even turned me back into a seventeen-year-old.”

If they had copied the leg properly, I should have entered this place as a vocal coach or arranger.

“That’s exactly what I was getting to. Look. What they need is a prettier, sturdier knee than the original. As long as they can take that one part back, it doesn’t matter whether the copied leg has eight toes or scales growing out of its thigh.”

“......”

“In fact, they would probably alter the conditions in whatever direction might produce a better result.”

“......”

“In this case, it decided that inserting you as your junior’s helper would be beneficial. To make that happen, it manipulated this world so that Young Ace never debuted.”

That was the most revolting manipulation imaginable.

“And... recreating every detail of reality would require too much effort, so it probably compromised where it could.”

...Maybe I could think of it as Young Ace’s existence being too large to fit within the leg’s storage capacity.

“So, conversely, we can do whatever we want with anything that isn’t an important part of the ‘knee.’ Break the ankle, paint pictures on the surface, whatever. As long as the ‘knee’ remains intact.”

“I was starting to understand, but now it’s getting complicated again.”

Yunjin gave me a vacant smile.

“Just behave however you please, the way our youngest does best. Eventually, you’ll understand what I mean.”

Then he reached out and vigorously ruffled my hair.

Damn it. If I had been even eighteen, I would have shot up enough that he could barely reach.

“You vanished completely and ignored everyone’s calls for years. Don’t start acting like an older brother now.”

But there would be no chance for Yunjin’s hand to touch my head in reality, so I decided to let him have this moment.

“I’m sure you have a lot you want to ask me, but let’s wait until we get out of here. It seems there are many more things I can tell you now too.”

Yunjin jerked his chin toward the space behind me.

A camera had been installed in a position where it might or might not capture us.

There would be nothing good about broadcasting a judge and a contestant having a private conversation.

“...Haa.... Fine. How do I get back as quickly as possible? Before they rig the votes, should I hit the producer over the back of the head and get them replaced?”

“No... If you go that far, you’ll end up with an elbow instead of a knee... You still have to preserve the basic framework.”

“What? If you know something, give me more hints.”

“What else is there? Hmm....”

After thinking for a moment, Yunjin smiled brightly.

“I don’t know whether it’s a god or simply the law of this world, but... you are being shown a remarkable amount of favoritism.”

“What?”

Can’t you see how much fucking suffering I’m going through right now?

“You’re... Ah, um. I can’t say this—mph.”

The smile vanished from Yunjin’s face.

He suddenly covered his mouth and grimaced in pain.

“What’s wrong?!”

“I bith my thongue....”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake! You’re still acting like an idiot even here. Let me see!”

“Aah....”

How hard had he bitten it to make a face like that?

After grimacing for quite a while, Yunjin finally managed to smooth out his brow and spoke haltingly.

“Anyway... I’ll investigate the external circumstances too. You should focus on doing everything you can as a trainee. Understood?”

“...Yeah.”

“And never spout that nonsense about being a rapper again....”

“All right, I got it.”

***

Before I had even finished processing my baffling conversation with Yunjin, a new ordeal arrived before me.

—Energy, becoming one through dance and song

A fantasy that passes through dawn and becomes reality

I’m gonna superstar.... Forever shining star....

I listened to the signal song for Debut Chart! 100 while feeling my aesthetic sensibilities being destroyed.

I was only able to keep my expression under control because I was conscious of the cameras frequently sweeping across the upper seats where the S-grade contestants sat.

The other contestants’ expressions as they exclaimed, “Wow, what an incredible song,” looked roughly the same.

After we watched the demonstration video for a song with childish lyrics and brutally difficult choreography—

—Then allow us to reveal the first stage you will perform on.

Bright lights came on behind the host with a grand sound effect.

What emerged from the darkness was a tiered stage shaped like a pyramid.

—The triangle at the very top will belong to the nine S-grade contestants! Below them, in order, are the places where the A-, B-, and C-grade trainees will perform! And we have prepared a very special stage mechanism found only on Debut Chart!

At that moment, the pyramid split apart to the left and right.

A sloping runway appeared in the center, extending all the way down to the floor.

—After performing the first verse on the pyramid stage, you will advance to the extended stage for the second verse, led by the trainee who places first in the center evaluation among the S-grade contestants.

I see.

So the person in first place pushes through the center, and everyone else descends one by one in rank order behind him, like a conglomerate family trailing after the chairman during a formal procession.

Then they would form up again with the first-place contestant at the center.

If the signal song was three minutes long, this setup would put the first-place contestant’s face on screen for at least one full minute.

Good.

My immediate objective had been decided.

I’m putting Gowon up there.

To do that, I would have to drag Gowon’s skills up from C grade as quickly as possible.

The atmosphere in the room stirred at such an extraordinary benefit.

Soon, the trainees moved out to practice the signal song.

Since there were a hundred participants, even external practice rooms outside the building had been rented.

“B-, C-, and D-grade trainees, use the practice rooms across the street!”

And according to the laws of survival of the fittest, everyone in B grade or below had to endure the inconvenience.

I kept an eye on the one head that stood conspicuously taller than the others among the C-grade trainees and moved whenever he did.

“Hanje, where are you going?”

Who was this?

His name tag said Jeong Garam, but I did not remember him.

“I’m going outside to practice.”

“Huh? Why? They said the S-grade trainees could stay wherever they wanted.”

“Yes. That’s why I’m going.”

Being allowed to go anywhere meant I was allowed to mix in with the C-grade trainees too.

Gowon had definitely glanced my way, but he left the building without even acknowledging me.

Tell me to come with you, you bastard!

God, raising a teenage boy was fucking exhausting.

I gave the boy named Jeong Garam a vague fighting gesture, then followed Gowon.

It was nearly midnight when the trainees began returning to the dormitory one by one.

After I waited a little longer, only Gowon and I remained.

Even though the room had become spacious once everyone else left, he stubbornly stayed in a corner.

Now I understood why the cameras had barely captured him during the beginning of the program.

Yes, he was handsome, but his expression was unbearably gloomy.

How could he possibly catch the editors’ attention when they were rapidly flipping through footage of a hundred different boys?

As for the other problems... his neck and back are slightly hunched, for one.

His overall styling, including that attitude, was also severely lacking.

That stood out even more when compared to the trainees from various agencies, who had arrived with elaborate dyed and permed hairstyles and brought a wide variety of fashionable casual clothes.

Even that boy who had spoken to me earlier—Jeong... what was it again?

Maybe I could not remember because I had not particularly taken to him.

Anyway, he had been wrapped head to toe in luxury brands.

Gowon, on the other hand, had hair that looked as if it had been roughly cut at a neighborhood salon, pants that might have been part of a school gym uniform, and a T-shirt with a badly stretched collar.

No matter how exceptional someone’s looks were, if they stood there covered in dirt, their shine would inevitably be dulled.

“Is there anything you can’t do?”

And the most critical issue is his ability as an artist.

He used his body fairly well.

He also had a natural sense of rhythm.

But because he had no foundation in dance whatsoever, he looked like he was creaking with every movement.

“Mind your own business.”

Furthermore, the response to my kind question revealed an appalling lack of social skills.

Did this bastard not fear the cameras installed in every direction just because he was not wearing a microphone?

“Why? Tell me. It’s better if we help each other with whatever we can’t do.”

“......”

Gowon ignored me, moved about five steps away, and resumed practicing.

“I’m sure I could be useful. Hey, lift your arm higher there. No, snap the elbow out more sharply. Hit the front, bounce, then turn. Good. One more time. One, two, three, four. There you go. Very good.”

“Hey.”

Apparently irritated at last, Gowon turned toward me with a deep scowl.

I had seen him drive away the other trainees who approached him earlier in exactly the same way.

Naturally, I did not find him frightening in the slightest.

If anything, it was laughable.

That was all for show.

By now, he was probably drenched in cold sweat inside from this unexpected situation.

“Hey, what comes next?”

I stared at him as though daring him to say it.

I had not even done anything, yet he fled one step backward.