Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Be Careful When Purchasing Products

Translated by LyraDhani
Edited by LyraDhani

Because the pork wasn’t cut separately, it was somewhat insufficient for two adult men to eat. It didn’t matter to me because I could cook something else.

“Am I really going to die soon… Did you just cook rice with your own hands? What’s going on?”

Why is he doing something he has never done before? The manager still gave me a suspicious look.

I took the boiling stew back to the table.

“Hurry up, blow out the soup first and eat.”

Kimchi-jjigae with the sour smell of fresh kimchi and the greasy, savory smell of tuna…

The visual alone looked salivating.

It was cooked by someone.

“I don’t know, I might die after eating.”

The manager grumbled into his first drink, blew the soup, and put it in his mouth. The moment the soup touched his tongue, his eyes shook and flashed open.

“Oh? This tastes good?”

‘Of course.’

There were no ingredients that could enhance the flavor, it wasn’t possible to just go out and buy them.

Throughout my 25 years of experience in the restaurant industry, I was proud to be faithful to the original taste of kimchi-jjigae.

“I followed the recipe on the internet. I’m tired of ordering food…”

I smiled nonchalantly as I felt sweat trickling down my back. The manager still glared at me with a sharp look. At the same time, he ate the white rice greedily.

“I never thought the day you’d cook would come to my life.”

“It’s popular to cook by yourself these days. There are meal kits and stuff like that.”

“You know how to point fingers at someone else to make it, who would have thought you’d stand in front of the kitchen?”

I lifted my spoon cautiously, lightly smiling.

For now, I only knew a small part of what kind of life Cheon Yise had been living… Although I knew this guy had been in a mess.

He did whatever he wanted, and whined when things didn’t go his way.

The diet must have been unhealthy, repeating binge eating and extreme dietary restrictions, and gradually dampening the body.

Meanwhile, an accident happened and he couldn’t even be on stage properly…

I know how it feels. It would have been better for him to live like a fool while devouring his own body.

‘With the support of the Cheonsu group, you could have been anything other than an idol. I can’t believe you tried to die with sleeping pills just because things go wrong…’

I shouldn’t talk about other people’s business. But he had a very weak and wretched ego.

“Hey, I… I’m embarrassed to say this because I’ve been saying hateful things until now.”

My mind was wandering for a while and I suddenly came back to my senses when I heard the manager’s words.

“Do you have more rice?”

Before I knew it, the instant rice in front of the manager was cleanly emptied.

***

“First of all, I’ve solved it for now…”

The manager finished two bowls of instant rice. Not only that, he chewed on the stew as if he was running out of time and went back.

‘I was worried because other members couldn’t contact you. Especially Kyunghwa, he asked me to call to make sure you’re okay. Talk to the kids on the phone, don’t be late. Check the messenger or something. The vice president was really worried, too. Listen to your mother. Don’t worry.’

Members… My mind got lost imagining kids who I didn’t even know.

‘I was worried about you… Anyway, keep in touch.’

When the manager went back and the tension was relieved, I felt hungry again.

“I’ll cook first and call later.”

As soon as I took a breather, the status window blocked my eyes.

“What is it now…”

[<Event>Congratulations on the successful completion of the event! Points to celebrate achievement +20]

Ah… Yeah. There was something I was worried about earlier.

Posil ran around in circles, happy to see the increase in points. I asked Posil.

“Come to think of it, you’ve been talking about points, deductions, and tips. What’s that?”

[<Important> Let me explain briefly for Hyunsung who has a lot of questions!]

Can’t we get rid of that inequality sign? I held back my irritation and sighed.

[What is a point? It’s a prize given as a means of support for each successful quest]

[You can buy tips to help you carry out your quest by collecting points]

“If I can buy a tip, does it mean I can choose as if I’m shopping?”

[I’ll show you a list of tips that you can buy now!]

Somehow, the status window’s tone seemed strangely excited. Soon after, a shopping mall catalog-like screen opened in front of me.

At the bottom of the status window, Posil wore a bow tie and straightened his head as if he had become a host of some show.

[>Replay service – 30 points per episode]

[>Listening service – 15 points per episode]

[>Case Intervention service – 100 points per episode]

And below it, my status was listed as if it were a game status window.

[Cheon Yise (Lim Hyunsung) – 24 years old]

[Current points: 30 points]

[The tutorial is in progress, so you can’t purchase the Case Intervention service yet.]

“Well…”

Of course, none of what I have been going through feels realistic.

However, a game development window popped up so earnestly that I had to rub my eyes.

“What’s a Case Intervention service?”

When I asked the status window, a small window popped up and added an explanation.

[Case Intervention service – Emergency provided when the quest is blocked or impossible due to unavoidable circumstances]

I didn’t know what it was, but it seemed to be a service that I could use in X situation.

“Wait. Let’s get this straight. I don’t know about you… or you guys. Are you saying the half-year period as Cheon Yise includes the process of my natural adjustment?”

Then, the pop-up window shook its body and answered as if in remedy.

[<Congrats> You understand it perfectly!]

What a very annoying answer.

[Tutorial is currently in progress for Lim Hyunsung to adjust.]

“The manager that just came in is a part of the tutorial?”

[That’s right! Shall we start the second tutorial event?]

Posil also nodded and expressed his affirmation. The black nose at the end of the protruding bulge glowed.

Didn’t I just send out the manager? I became full of expectations with the intention of filling my hungry stomach.

“When does it start?”

I didn’t know when I started starving, but I was very hungry as if it had been a long time since I had a proper meal.

This guy should at least eat well. If he had, he wouldn’t have been driven to the cliff and tried to kill himself.

It should be a law that people had to solve their problems with meals.

I had enough meals, but I got thrown off the cliff, literally.

[Tutorial 1. Melting perfectly into Cheon Yise – Event > Face-to-face with members]

[Time remaining until the event starts. 10…]

“No, you have to give people some time to get ready, I can’t even eat the meal that I prepared.”

I rolled my brain to buy more time. Come to think of it, my manager told me to talk to my mother earlier…

[The Human Happiness Praying System is not human, so we don’t respect moral principles]

[Resuming the count]

[8… 7…]

Then, whether by chance or fate, the phone rang.

“The sweet time we spent together, back then – ♪”

The count stopped abruptly because the status window didn’t know a call was coming at this time.

When I hurriedly checked the phone screen, three letters [Mom] were shining.

“I just need to get this call, huh?”

If Cheon Yise sent suicide messages to his parents as he did to his manager, I had to deal with them as well.

For a very short time, the System shook with a slight vibration as if it were in agony, and then a message popped up.

[Good! We’ll give you 15 minutes because we’re moved by your positive attitude]

“Whoa…”

I checked the count that barely stopped and swept my chest.

‘I should at least get some information before picking it up.’

You said earlier that I can’t use the Case Intervention service during the tutorial. I have experienced the Listening service for free.

So can I use the Replay service using points?

As I spun my head to think about it for a short time, the status window was updated in front of my eyes.

[Tip Shop > Select Replay service]

[Do you want to purchase the Replay service?]

[Yes/No]

I didn’t even say anything, but you read my mind and say it. It sounded like a trap but I couldn’t choose no.

“Yes.”

I don’t think the point payment is too tight. It shouldn’t matter if I use about 30 points now. Posil jumped in place pretending to bark.

[Play the Replay service. You can replay the video you purchased later on the Video Viewing service.]

Fortunately, I could watch it more than once and it wasn’t confiscated like before.

[Video streaming starts]

A small status window announced the reclaim and disappeared, and at the same time, the surrounding area was dyed black for a moment.

And pat, the light came back on as if it was turned off in the middle of the night. I stood alone in the living room of a rich house I had never seen before.

And as if to prove this wasn’t the reality, a real dog, not a flat icon, was looking up at me.

“Are you blaming others again?”

An elderly man sitting on a single sofa in the higher seat shouted at Cheon Yise. Then a middle-aged woman sitting next to him shouted.

“How can you be so hard on this little boy? It’s not a solo activity, but a team effort, right? What do you want him to do when it doesn’t work out?”

Then the man clicked his tongue and blatantly dismissed it as pathetic.

“That’s not an excuse! You can’t do it like this, you can’t do it like that. How much money do you think was spent when you apply? What are the members doing? They’re the ones who stick to the Cheonsu group like bedbugs and pay for their operational expense!“

Judging from the situation, the man sitting at the top screaming was Cheon Youngtae, the chairman of the Cheonsu group, and the woman sitting next to him seemed to be Ahn Junghee, the vice-chairman.

It felt strange to see the face that I had only seen on the news so close.

‘These two… Are they the ones who raised him wrong?’

“You can do well next time! We will show you the results so you don’t have to feel embarrassed!”

Unable to resist the series of insults, Cheon Yise stormed out of his seat and left. Soon after, the reaction like a scene from a morning drama continued.

“Aigoo, What I am going to do… What to do with that… Jihyung and others are all good, but he’s the only one all over the place…”

“Why were you provoking him again? If you trust him a little more, Yise will show you good results.”

The eldest son of Cheonsu Group… What kind of people are the eldest daughters?

I didn’t remember anything because I wasn’t that interested in factional fights of the third generation of chaebol.

However, the memory was clear that Ahn Junghee, who was currently sitting as vice chairman, was not the chairman’s first wife.

‘I can roughly predict what’s going on in the family.’

The indescribable performance of the elite third generation of the ordinary chaebol family.

 And, on the other hand, there was the pathetic son of a second wife who had never shown any insignificant results.

If he had made his debut with the support of the Cheonsu group, he should have achieved something remarkable as a singer.

The boy group “Climax,” which Cheon Yise belonged to, was an unknown idol group that had never even been in the top 100 of M’s real-time chart.

That’s why he lost his mind.

Soon, the surroundings shook and the lights blinked as I quickly returned to reality.

“Um…”

[Replay service – 20 years old, September 26th]

‘Oh, you were 20 years old then?’

No wonder he looked younger than the reflection in the mirror.

It’s time for me to play the childish son, Cheon Yise.

Then, I suddenly noticed a stopwatch floating in the status window.

It seemed to be counting the 15-minute grace period.

“I have about 10 minutes left.”

The length of the video was shorter than I thought, so there was some time left.

Wait, 10 minutes…

“Should I fill my stomach with something simple to make?”

I am always serious when it comes to food.

I’m sorry, Yise’s mother. I’ll call you back later.

I left my phone to ring and then walked back into the kitchen.