I Became a Producer Who Rewrites Idols

0 – The End of the Cash Cow

Generally speaking, everyone has something they are good at.

Whether it connects to making money or not.

For some reason, I was good at idol training games.

While I was terrible at other genres of games,

strangely, idol training games were not difficult for me.

Among numerous idol training games,

there was one I spent a lot of time on.

“Idol Producing.”

Although it was a Korean game, it was actually a rip-off of Japanese idol games.

It hardly had any novel features,

but I enjoyed it because it caught at least the fun points for me.

The drawback was that, due to the copycat controversy, it didn’t have a thick user base…

But it continued to operate, and I was a ranker among the few users.

Today also, I pressed the app icon featuring a blonde-haired female character to launch it.

“Idol Producing Service Termination Notice.”

“Damn it…”

Could it be they wanted to make a last big score?

I noticed that they had been heavily promoting it, doing new character pickup gachas for the first time in a long while, since two weeks ago.

How much money have I poured into this?

They must have seen the users as cash cows, bastards.

I even reduced my food expenses to spin the gacha.

“Yeah, I’m the idiot, damn them.”

I deleted the “Idol Producing” app.

And I went outside.

I won’t touch gacha games for a while, until the feeling of being backstabbed fades,

so I might as well go out and eat something delicious after a long time.

What should I eat, let’s have sushi.

Ah, damn it, all the sushi is reversed today.

I’ll eat until I vomit.

While walking on the street, something…

Something was different.

The convenience store I usually go to was surely named “GS25,”

but it had changed to “CS25.”

“Olive Young” had become “Vanilla Young.”

Did corporations collectively change their brand names and relaunch?

Or did I catch onto the news late?

Things changed one by one, maybe I didn’t notice because I was absorbed in the game.

I arrived in front of a sushi restaurant I had visited once before.

“SushiPia.”

Weird, it was definitely “Sushiya” before.

Did the owner change?

“Welcome.”

The wife of the owner, who was at the counter, was the same person.

I sat down, ordered, and after a short while, the owner personally served it.

The owner was also the person I had seen before.

Did they just change the sign?

Anyway, I ate assorted sushi without even knowing what kind of fish they were.

It was a meal that felt much more rewarding than the terminated data bits.

-We will now show you the comeback stage of Eunjin, the idol who returned as a solo! Music on!

…Huh?

Music on?

Eunjin?

I lifted my head to look at the TV hanging from the restaurant ceiling.

After the two MCs exchanged some light banter, they showcased a solo female idol’s performance.

An idol I’ve seen a lot, but never actually met—Eunjin.

She was not a person who exists in reality.

Because she was an idol “character” that players raised in the “Idol Producing” game.

But a being that should be nothing more than a character,

was dancing and singing in the TV as if she were really alive.

“Music On,” a music show, was also a virtual TV program in the game world, non-existent in reality.

It held a place like Music Bank or Music Core within “Idol Producing.”

Am I dreaming right now?

Ah, maybe the “Idol Producing Service Termination Notice” was also a dream?

I pinched my left cheek.

It hurt.

I also pinched my right cheek.

It hurt as well.

I pulled both cheeks at the same time.

It hurt enough to bring tears to my eyes.

“Um, customer…? Is there something wrong with my sushi…?”

The owner, misunderstanding my actions, came to my table and asked.

“Sir.”

“Yes…”

“Did you… change the sign? Or did the owner of this place change?”

“Huh? I’ve been running this place for 20 years… Did my sushi taste different than before…?”

“No, no.”

If I’m not a mental patient now,

and some crazy scientist hasn’t put my brain in a vat and is stimulating it with electricity,

then I am currently in the game world.

Thinking that way, I immediately understood the “CS25” and “Vanilla Young” from before.

They were convenience and drug stores that briefly appeared in “Idol Producing.”

They only appeared small in the background of event CG, so I just didn’t remember them immediately.

Ding-a-ling—.

A bell sound rang from my smartphone.

“Manager Jeong Songi” appeared on the screen.

…I didn’t remember registering such a person in my contacts,

but I knew who it was.

In the game, she was the assistant character who helped the producer manage the idols,

a manager character.

I swiped the screen with my finger to answer the call,

“Hello.”

I spoke with a slightly trembling voice.

-What do you mean hello, Producer. You went out saying you left something at home and it’s already been three hours. The department head is in a huge uproar!!

Jeong Songi, who was a nagging character even in the game.

Her words pierced my ears like a machine gun over the phone.

More than the nagging, it was the title ‘Producer’ that the manager used for me that froze my thoughts.

If this is not a dream now,

While I was in the game world,

I became a player—producer within the game.

“sh*t!!”

I uttered a joyful curse, forcing all the ordered sushi into my mouth,

and went to the counter, extending my check card to the owner.

The sushi restaurant owner inserted my check card into the card machine.

“Sir, it says there’s insufficient balance.”

“……”

I managed to borrow money after calling Manager Jeongsong again.