Hard Mode Idol

Let’s see.

My current points are 2,340.

Thanks to the commotion that occurred right after raising it to B yesterday, my current experience is 0. If I invest 2,100 points, it will go up to A-. Originally, I was going to raise it up to A- while learning from the teacher and use the points accumulated during that time to raise it to A all at once.

Of course, the higher the grade, the slower the experience accumulation speed. If I gain the same 500 experience, it will take much longer at A than at B. That’s why I was purposely saving up, but…

Since the main mission seems far off, it seems better to quickly secure a position. I have a bad feeling for some reason. It feels like I’m missing something but I don’t know what it is.

I don’t want to save what I can use and have it turn to shit, so I’m modifying the plan. It’s a shame I can’t gain the extreme benefit, but… A-grade shouldn’t be too inferior, right?

If S-grade is assumed to be the skill of a solo singer, A- can be considered decent for a growing rookie idol main vocalist. I’ll know once I raise it and observe the reactions around me.

Without thinking more, I invested 2,100 points to raise vocals to A-. Then a problem arose. The weekly mission changed.

─ Receive S-grade on 1 song (0/1)

─ Receive B-grade on 1 dance (0/1)

O 2x points gained if S-grade received while singing and dancing together

O Gain 10 points upon success

O Next week’s mission cannot proceed upon failure

Dance… I have to raise dance. S-grade is absolutely impossible with C+. I have 240 points left so I can’t even raise dance. I need 400 just to raise it to B-!

No one said anything about the weekly mission changes! Cancel! Cancel the promotion! Retrieve points! Reallocate!

I tried calling out in various ways, but seeing the system stay silent, I guess it doesn’t work. Ah, it feels like I made a mistake. Ah, it can’t be helped. I already invested…

But I can’t give up this week’s mission.

First, let’s try and if it doesn’t work, let’s do them separately and at least get 10 points. I can’t ruin it until next week too. Let’s see what A- level singing is like. If it’s below expectations, the loss is big… It’ll be fine, right? I need to quickly go see the vocal teacher.

“Teacher!”

“Haon, you’re here again?”

“Yes! But teacher.”

“Yeah?”

“Is it okay for me to keep taking your time?”

I asked out of curiosity after hearing the members would all practice together. The teacher sat down and said nonchalantly,

“I was watching over the debut lineup kids, but we decided to prioritize you for the time being.”

“Aha.”

This makes me look more like a parachute. Come to think of it, I’ve only been receiving vocal training since I passed. It was a condition where misunderstandings could pile up endlessly. Moreover, to think the teacher was for the debut lineup too.

I thought the person who judged me during the audition became my teacher. Well… Since I’m also in the debut lineup, I guess that’s why.

To the members, I was a stone that rolled in after forcibly pulling out the stuck stone. On top of that, the person who was taking care of the remaining stones was taken away too, so of course they’ll hate it. I understand. If there’s a reason, I can accept it too. Now that it’s come to this, I should monopolize to my heart’s content.

“Then please take extra care of me!”

“Yes, yes. Let’s hear you sing excitedly.”

“Yes!”

I swiftly entered the booth, put on the headset, and stood in front of the mic. The teacher gave the signal. The intro of the song I had been practicing flowed out.

The effect of A- was tremendous. The teacher’s eyes grew round. His mouth gaped as wide as his wide-open eyes. Seeing the teacher standing still as if paused made me proud. At this point, it definitely sounded decent to my ears too. Still, the me from my past life sang better.

I couldn’t confirm with numbers so I didn’t know, but comparing to the current me, in my past life, wasn’t I around A or A+?

“…Ah, no… No, wait. No, Haon? Did something happen? What’s with this all of a sudden? The slight instability when hitting high notes completely disappeared, and it became much smoother! The occasional pitch deviations during vibrato all disappeared too! Haon, you were already amazing at conveying emotions, but it deepened even more in the meantime? It’s like entering my heart and striking it, like I’m hypnotized and drawn in? What in the world happened?”

The teacher’s stuttering reaction exploded like a character that had lagged started moving again. I raised my chin, smiled, and confidently said,

“I did well, right? I think I sang really well this time too!”

“You did well! Extremely well! Is this even possible? Changing like this overnight? It’s unbelievable. If I hadn’t heard it with my own ears, I don’t think I could ever believe it.”

The teacher’s round eyes revealed his emotions without filtering. This absolutely can’t happen without stats. This was my unique privilege. I smiled proudly with my shoulders confidently straightened. I’m glad I raised it!

“Our Haon was a huge talent. The CEO really has a discerning eye. How did he know to cast you?”

“Hehehe. It feels good to be complimented.”

I like ‘our kid’ but I also like ‘our Haon’. I liked how they put ‘our’ in front of my name. It felt like I was inside the same fence.

“But I really can’t believe it. How did you change so much in a day?”

“I’ll do even better in the future! I’m aiming for the spot of teacher’s best disciple!”

“I think you already became that?”

“Hehe.”

I floundered in the fountain of praise the teacher was feeding me while laughing happily.

“It’s really rewarding to teach. If we do a bit more, it will be perfect. I think I’ve grasped the sense now, want to try a bit more?”

“Yes!”

The teacher’s passionate coaching began. The compliments were just the driving force for the present. Where would the teacher’s ‘a bit more’ lead to? Maybe S+?

The compliments I fed Seoho were all things I learned from the vocal teacher. The sharp points that flew along with the compliments hurt a bit, but since this all becomes experience, I need to take it to heart.

Like that, I was holed up in the vocal room until 10 PM. The manager came to take me, saying it was time for minors to go home.

The vocal teacher made a fuss, bragging that my skills had improved by leaps and bounds. I magnificently sang a song in front of the manager too. I received compliments and exclamations similar to the teacher’s but much more subdued.

It feels really good. If I were to rate today, it would be 10 out of 10.

…I’m revising today’s rating to 5 out of 10. It was all because of the dorm. Unfamiliar faces I was seeing for the first time swarmed. In front of the manager, they spouted things like ‘Yes, yes.’ ‘I’ll be good to you.’ ‘Don’t worry.’ but the moment I was left alone, they transformed into two-faced men.

The dorm was no different from the notorious hell of the morning commute. It was just packed with men. I also never had a good experience being squished between people, and since even the manager, my only ally, disappeared, I instinctively shrank back.

When will I fix this pushover personality? Can it even be fixed? It’s become such a deeply ingrained defense mechanism. Tsk.

These guys must have a clear reason to hate me too, right? We’re all doing trainee life because we want to debut, but I dropped from the sky. Maybe the influence of that Junhyung or Jihoon guy reached these kids too.

Usually, the leader type who controls people like that lumps them together and makes them be on his side. There was one among the heads of the guys who actively bullied me. The most vicious one.

Will I be bullied here too? I’m a bit worried about my health. Everything is fine, but the health system alone is not great. I understand having low base health. Since the growth rate is quadruple in the guise of double. But abnormal conditions are too much.

I can’t blame anyone since I chose it. Even if they wrote it in detail, I would have chosen it thinking ‘I still can’t resist the growth rate buff!’

Yeah. Balance is important in everything. If there’s something good, there’s also something bad. I can only accept it and research ways to overcome it.

“Hey.”

“Yeah.”

I answered yeah when he called hey, but why is he lighting the fuse? It’s said that you reap what you sow. Hasn’t he heard the saying that kind words elicit kind replies?

I’m not even dreaming of him calling me ‘Haon’ affectionately. Even with the same ‘hey’, the tone for picking a fight and the tone for just calling are different. His was clearly the former.

“This guy’s got some nerve.”

This time, it seemed like he was talking to himself, so I didn’t answer. Instead, I headed to my room, which the manager had told me about. I put down my bag, washed up, changed clothes, and went straight to bed. That’s the shortcut to recovering my health. I don’t have time to pointlessly argue.

But before I could even take a few steps, my shoulder was roughly grabbed. The guy who grabbed my shoulder turned my body around. No, why are there so many kids with bad hand habits? At least Seoho is cute. This one is like a thug.

You, whose name I don’t even know, I’ll call you thug from now on. It’s useless even if you tell me. I can’t remember. I was confused about Seoho’s name, you think I’ll know your name? Honestly, I forgot all the debut lineup members’ names except Seoho’s.

“It hurts.”

Pain rose from my tightly grabbed shoulder, and my face crumpled. I grabbed it tightly to try to make him let go, but it didn’t budge. Am I too scrawny? But using it for exercise is such a waste of health that drops…

“It hurts? It huuurts? Fuck, this bastard says it hurts?”

The thug laughed while looking at the other kids and snickering. I also heard voices roughly agreeing, saying ‘Y-yeah. It’s funny.’ Seeing them flinch and look around, the thug must be the boss.

“It hurts? You asking if it hurts? Huh?”

It hurts, so I’m saying it hurts. What’s the problem? Well, have I ever met only one or two people who picked fights in the most creative ways? The characteristic of these kids is that they beat you up for disliking you even if you just breathe.

This is creative instigation. Kids who forcibly create reasons to pick fights even when there are none. No matter what I do or what I say, they hate it. Therefore, I lived saying everything I wanted to say. I might as well say what I want to say if I’m going to get hit anyway.

That thought hasn’t changed even now in my second life.