NOVEL NEXT Chapter 6 - Boomer System (5)
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[SYSTEM] Task completed.
▷ Reward: Exp (20)
▷ Total exp: 60
▷ Total points: 0
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Up to this point, it was fine. I was gradually getting used to the stingy points system.
What pissed me off was the message that followed.
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[SYSTEM] Work instructions from ‘superior’ have arrived.
▶ New hires these days don’t seem to know how to do anything. Back in my day, even if our seniors didn’t teach us, we learned by observing over their shoulders. Working at a company has gotten too easy, huh? Assistant Manager Kim, you need to step it up. Be grateful that you have someone giving you this advice.
▷ Consolation prize: 40 exp
▷ Total exp: 100
▷ Total point: 1
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Consolation prize?
Anyone could see it was just a way of saying cheer up after being publicly humiliated.
This b*stard was definitely enjoying the situation.
Still, I was the one at a disadvantage. With no choice, I invested the single welfare point I had painstakingly earned from that humiliating consolation reward into my dance proficiency.
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Performance Evaluation (100)
– Vocal proficiency: 4/20
– Dance proficiency: 2(▲)/20
– Self PR: 12/20
– Attendance management: 18/20
– Organizational adaptability: 10/20
Total exp: 0
Total point: 0
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The effect of the increased proficiency was immediately apparent in the next individual practice session.
I could follow the videos without getting the directions wrong.
I used to flail around even when watching the mirror mode!
‘Can’t you even remember which hand you use to eat?’
‘Why can you mimic what you see in a regular video but mess up when watching mirror mode?’
It was the moment Choi Jeho’s torrent of insults finally ended. I was overjoyed.
Feeling the joy of growth, I was diligently watching the video the trainer had recorded when Park Joowoo approached me.
“…Looks like you’re getting the hang of it?”
Park Joowoo asked in his characteristically relaxed tone, then squatted next to me.
“I’m not trying to be funny, really.”
I could understand it in my head just fine. I could roughly figure out how each movement connected after watching it a few times.
But whether I could actually output it with my body was another story.
Just being able to see the moves didn’t mean I could perfectly imitate them.
In the first place, if I had been able to do something like that, I wouldn’t have chosen to be Hanpyeong Industry’s punching bag.
As I was bitterly reflecting on my career path, Park Joowoo said,
“If there’s a part you’re struggling with… I can help teach you from there.”
I felt moved by this guy’s silk-like patience toward the new trainee who had just suddenly barged in.
However, I was not a foolish adult who would rob the precious time of a budding talent.
Even if he was my enemy, there were rules that must be followed.
Park Joowoo was not someone who should be wasting his time managing fleeting connections like Kim Iwol; he should be dedicating himself to practicing and honing his powerful high notes.
So I politely turned down Park Joowoo’s offer, to which every second of his time was precious.
Park Joowoo probably had no desire to teach a beginner who only felt resentful toward him either.
“No, I already imposed on you yesterday.”
“…Then just one section.”
Then Park Joowoo fiddled with his phone to play the video.
“Here, move your left foot, one, two… Yes, like that.”
“Really? Is this how you do it?”
“The movements… are correct.”
The silence that followed the words ‘movements’ conveyed a complex feeling.
No matter how positively I tried to think, Park Joowoo’s words could only mean that I still had a long way to go.
To someone who couldn’t sing and dance well, my future must be looking grim since I couldn’t sing well and my dancing skill was even worse.
However, this was a remarkable improvement. Clearly, until yesterday, it took me over 30 minutes just to move my feet twice.
Though, Choi Jeho and Kang Kiyeon had to hold me from both sides and move me themselves. Thanks to them, I knew what it felt like to be a puppet.
‘Is it possible for someone to improve this much from just a 1-point increase in proficiency?’
No matter how I looked at it, this system was truly a cheat code for life.
I reflected on how I had been whining just a few hours ago about my life being the hardest.
As I wobbled like a newborn giraffe and completed one step, Park Joowoo asked.
“Aren’t you getting tired?”
“You look more exhausted than me.”
“Hyung, you really… have great stamina.”
Park Joowoo smiled awkwardly, looking all drained.
Perhaps because he was still young, he reminded me of a happy puppy one might find in a countryside house.
But no amount of 1:1 training and a single smile could make up for him saying just five words on a 50-minute radio show.
If I had the time and opportunity, I would definitely get my revenge by making him practice smiling for 30 hours.
Nevertheless, the practice ended fairly smoothly. It was thanks to the fact that I showed noticeable improvement after greatly lowering my expectations.
Like the day before, I practiced two more hours and wrapped up the long day’s work.
There was no overtime reward this time, but it couldn’t be helped.
Just because you can shift your feet a bit doesn’t mean you can easily debut.
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The only time I could deeply contemplate the system was at dawn.
During the day, I was too busy rolling left and right to be able to firmly grasp my train of thought.
At night, I had to stay behind in the practice room, dancing alone to the music playing from the device.
“Huft.”
So as soon as I showered, I collapsed onto my assigned bed. I needed time to organize my cluttered thoughts.
‘The system said I was set as a producing member.’
If so, it was likely that this aspect was considered even during the street casting that led to me becoming an idol.
In fact, Spark never had a producing member in the past.
If there was any problem, it was that UA had no experience producing idols either.
I still remembered the post that went up on the day UA suddenly dropped a surprise comeback promotion live broadcast.
≫ UA, you dumb f*ck. You won’t let SPARK, a 5-year debut group, do a live broadcast without staff when all the other boy groups get individual lives? If this is how it’ll be, just announce a monthly live schedule instead of sticking [Surprise] on things and turning on broadcasts without warning.
Even if the company posted a few pictures of Spark eating meals, they probably would have only gotten cursed at with things like ‘UA is so senseless, so emotionless’. It was truly an incompetent company.
I didn’t know what they saw in me to give me this position, but if I wanted to debut safely, I had to steer towards the producing role as directed by the system.
I racked my brain that I hadn’t used for a long time. It took a lot of effort to rev up the rusted gears of an office worker’s mind.
The saving grace was that Lee Cheonghyeon would eventually be in charge of composing for the team.
As unlikely as it might be, it was a great relief that I wouldn’t have to come up with ideas, write songs, and lyrics, and decide on concepts all by myself.
Of course, I couldn’t guarantee that anything I wrote would actually be singable.
The saying ‘Even if the sky falls, there is a hole to escape through’ fit perfectly.
As I thought about Spark’s dizzying concepts that flashed through my mind, the system appeared again.
But I no longer felt a surge of anger when the system popped up. It seemed I had reframed the system as just a welfare point notification.
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[SYSTEM] Work instructions from ‘superior’ have arrived.
▶ I don’t care what Kim Assistant Manager used to do before. People who did sloppy internships elsewhere just pick up bad habits. Let’s put aside whatever you did before and start fresh. Refresh, got it?
[SYSTEM] ‘New task’ has been assigned.
▷ Check your current personal information
▷ Consolation prize: Exp (60)
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Nope. It pissed the f*ck out of me.
It took a special talent to say something that obnoxious. Anger surged within me.
But the most ominous thing was the 60 exp.
And the attribute was ‘consolation prize’.
My vision darkened as I thought that something worse than public humiliation in the dance class would happen.
At this rate, by next month, I might end up shouting, ‘I love you, guys!’ from UA’s rooftop.
Though, unless it gave me four consecutive weeks off from working seven days a week, there was no way I would say ‘I love you’ to Spark.
‘What am I supposed to check in my personal information?’
The back of the ID card I had checked yesterday had a sticker with the address of Spark’s current dormitory. This meant the transfer of residence had been completed.
My resident registration number was the same, and my name had been properly changed too.
‘Name, resident registration number, address, education, military service, work history…’
As I went through the basic personal details one by one, my thoughts stopped at one particular point.
Education.
‘What day is it…?’
February nine years ago, more specifically the second week of February when I had just turned twenty.
That was the week I got street-cast while on my way to meet my sister.
It was the week I borrowed 15 million won from my sister.
It was the week that I registered for college on regular admission.
‘No way.’
My mind went blank.
With trembling hands, I opened my phone, which showed the date as February 13.
Unfortunately, if my memory was correct, this date was two days past the regular admission registration deadline.
I looked up to all the gods I knew and borrowed a laptop from Lee Cheonghyeon.
Then I accessed the regular admission confirmation page.
After a few clicks, the same acceptance confirmation page from nine years ago appeared.
My exam number on the screen had switched to ‘registration forfeited’ status.
No matter how many times I refreshed or logged in and out, the situation didn’t change. The education that had at least allowed me to work at Hanpyeong Industry was gone.
In addition, I learned something that I didn’t really want to know.
The 15 million won I had borrowed from my sister was still intact in an account under my name.
‘Three years of high school gone to waste.’
My head felt empty.
If I didn’t debut as an idol, the penalty was rejoining Hanpyeong Industry.
When I first saw that, I thought it was the worst possible outcome for my life.
But as the saying went,
there's an underground beneath the ocean floor
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