Chapter 200

Chapter 200

A translucent hologram appeared next to Cha Eugene, displaying his stats.

[Name: Cha Eugene]

Singing: B- (B+)

(Rapping: B+)

Dancing: S- (S+)

Physical attractiveness: A (S)

Charm: S (EX)

Trait: Black Hole (S)

I nearly swore.

Is he even f*cking human? His dancing had improved, apparently, and now he had two S-ranked stats. He’d been doing more vocal parts lately, and his singing had leveled up to B as well. The icing on the cake was his trait.

Black Hole (S) Draw everyone in with your irresistible power and attraction!

+180% in audience immersion

An A-ranked trait had turned into an S-ranked one, boosting 150% to 180%. I had no idea his trait could evolve as well.

Maybe that’s the reason his charm stat went up. It made me sweat.

I’m f*cked no matter what I perform with this monster. For the first time in a while, I felt like I was back on Idol Inc. My survival instincts were kicking in.

Did I agree to do it without giving it enough thought, just because the fans liked us together? No. I need to stay calm. One subunit stage with him that might make me look bad wouldn’t spell me having to leave the group. It would be slightly embarrassing, and that would be it.

I’m not like Big Sejin, whose goal was to beat Eugene somehow. I could already picture my fans trying their best to say both of us had done well, though, while Eugene’s solo stans laughed at me for getting cocky. In fact, it might even impact my reputation for being a solid performer.

And that, I can’t allow. This wouldn’t do. I would have to rethink the situation from scratch, so that didn’t happen.

“Eugene.”

“Yes?”

“Tell me all the props you wanted to use for our subunit performance.”

Eugene, who’d been playing around on his phone, bounced out of bed. His eyes were gleaming.

“Water! Fireworks! Lights and dancers! A huge, moving prop!” he exclaimed in English.

So he wanted to incorporate absolutely everything he could think of. “You do realize that our budget won’t allow us to use all of them, right?”

“Yeah! But let’s still use as many as we can! It’ll be great!”

“All right.”

This was true. Our draft choreography and the stage equipment had already been approved, and quite a few of the elements that Eugene had mentioned were actually commonly used in performances. In the behind-the-scenes footage, it would appear as though I was accepting his suggestions, but this was actually the outcome I wanted. The fancy equipment was supposed to draw the audience’s focus to the stage as a whole, rather than just us. Seeing Eugene’s stats, though, had shown me that this tactic was shallow.

They won’t distract anybody. There was no doubt that everyone would be focusing on Eugene, with the equipment only aiding him. I needed a way to wrest attention away more forcefully. The easiest way, of course, was to give myself a boost.

Status window. This time I took a look at my own stats.

[Name: Park Moondae (Ryu Geonwu)]

Level : 18

Title: None

Singing: S-

Dancing: B+

Physical attractiveness: A-

Charm: A-

Trait: Infinite potential, Words of Persuasion (A), Energy Drink (B), Catch-All Ears (A)

Status abnormality: Grow Your Audience or Die!

Points Remaining: 2

I’d believed my stats were starting to look pretty good, but seeing Eugene’s told me that I wasn’t quite there yet.

There’s nothing worthy of note happening here. The only things I noticed were that my level had gone up, and that my dancing stat had increased naturally. In my opinion, it had gone up a rank because I’d been forced to learn new choreography frequently and perform it during our tours. My usual tactic was fairly straightforward.

It would be raising dancing from B+ to A-. It was the most efficient method, and it was easy to assume that doing so would allow me to catch up to Eugene in his specialty, which was dancing. But this wasn’t a sure-fire winning strategy.

Even if I throw all my points into dancing, I’ll still end up ranked lower than Eugene. His dancing stat was at S-. It was a subunit stage, which meant that I might only barely manage to keep up with him even if I did my absolute best at A-.

This wouldn’t change even if I invested both points and raised my stat to A, since he had more charm than me and a better trait than mine. No amount of using points at the current time would win me a leg up over him.

Should I upgrade my singing to S+? It would draw people’s ears to focus on Park Moondae, even if their eyes were on Cha Eugene. That’s a pretty desperate strategy. I would delay the decision for now and look into what other factors remained.

Hmm. I brought up the pop-up messages that had piled up thanks to our recent concerts and rise in popularity because of the reality show.

[A Successful Concert!]

You’ve impressed the majority of the audience!

There were a few like this, including one that showed I’d improved my fame. Most of them gave me a moderate trait draw, which meant I now had five attempts. Plus it had been proven so many times that I would be given one that suited my situation perfectly whenever I spun the slot machine—2

it was now embarrassing to doubt it any longer. I was almost certain of it now.

I’ll use them all now. Please give me something useful. I started with a lower-ranked one. I spun all the ones with treasure and heroic in the names, which guaranteed rank C or B traits, respectively.

The lever moved, and the tiles flashed. Confetti went off.

[“Cutie (B)” obtained!]

[“Angelic Heart (C)” obtained!]

[“Crocodile Tears (A)” obtained!]

[“Imperturbable (B)” obtained!]

Nope. Not necessary. Doesn’t suit the situation. None of them had any bearing on the performance, instead all having something to do with public activities.

Am I supposed to figure this out on my own or something? Or maybe it was a hint that bombing out in the subunit stage wouldn’t have much of an impact. I looked over the pop-up windows, displeased. Then, quite an unpleasant thought came to me.

Or maybe… the time is approaching soon. Obviously, my status abnormality would be lifting soon.

[Grow Your Audience or Die!]

: Perform for 200,000 people or more as your audience within the given timeframe or die.

Audience counter: 199,997 / 200,000

I had only three more people left. I only needed to wait until the encore concert—no, it didn’t matter if a freak natural disaster occurred that canceled the whole thing. A single performance with at least three people in the audience would be enough.

And then… I’ll have to endure the horrible truth being revealed again. Considering what I’d seen up until now, it wouldn’t be strange if I was forced to watch someone die again. That meant it could affect me in some way, which could be why traits that could help me during public activities were appearing, to help keep my attitude from attracting criticism.

It makes sense, which just makes me even more pissed off. What is this, cat and mouse? Just stop showing me that f*cking stuff. It’s unnecessary. I worried my lip, but for now chose to be reasonable and replaced a trait.

[Trait: “Words of Persuasion (A)” has been deleted!]

I replaced it with Imperturbable, which was the more useful option among the traits I’d drawn. It was lower in rank, but it could be used in a variety of situations. Crocodile Tears, which I’d been tempted by for a moment because it was ranked A, allowed a person to cry and make a crowd sympathetic—an upgraded version of Govern Those Tears. In other words, it was garbage.

There. I cracked my neck.

Time to empty my head. Only one thing to go. There was a final draw that was pretty promising.

[Pick a legendary trait ☜ Click!]

It was the last one I’d acquired as a reward for completing the tour. When it came to any item in a game, be it in a mass-produced, sh*tty mobile game or a great one, the word legendary had to mean something good. The same applied to this odd game-like system.

I’m guessing I’ll get my first A-ranked trait. Give me something to enhance my performance abilities, damn it! The lever of the hologram’s slot machine was pulled, and tiles filled with platinum began to spin rapidly. There was a fast grinding noise as traits that sounded pretty good flew past. Then it slowed down on a tile I’d never seen before—it shone with rainbow colors.

A burst of confetti exploded.

[Trait: “Time for Yearning (S)” obtained!]

F*ck! It was an S-ranked trait! I punched my bed without meaning to, but Eugene was thankfully busy with his phone and didn’t notice.

This is nuts. I’d never made a big deal over draws like this, but seeing something so high-ranked sent a thrill down the length of my entire spine.

But wait. I need to calm down and see what kind of trait it is first. Based on the sound of it, though, I’d guess it’s a stage-related trait. I opened the details of the trait.

[Trait: Time for Yearning (S)]

- The stage is where you feel truly alive.

: +150% in stage immersion (self)

That’s nuts. This was just Eugene’s Black Hole trait under a different name. I exhaled deeply, sitting on the edge of my bed.

An additional 180% in stage immersion… If I was efficient with my points and practiced a lot, I could attempt to match Eugene on stage.

Wait a second. I noticed something odd about the description.

stage immersion (self)

Self? It meant I’d be immersed in my own performance, instead of drawing the audience in.

Son of a b*tch. So I’ll be caught up in my own dancing, is that it? If this had been a real game, I’d already have requested a refund and left a single-star review.

The f*ck is this supposed to be? I gritted my teeth, glaring at the status window, but soon calmed myself.

I’ll compare it to Imperturbable and see which one is objectively better. First of all, the trait was S-ranked, which meant its effect would be huge. It would really help me become absorbed in my own performance. I considered what I was usually like. Did I not usually engross myself enough?

Performances are… fun. They were rewarding, and I believed I managed to embrace every concept, without being embarrassed. In other words, I was performing passably, at the very least. What was so great about immersing myself even more?

It’ll look more natural. If the performer was fully focused, it could follow that the crowd was more immersed as well. And I would be able to ignore any interruptions should they occur and complete the performance without trouble.

And it might be more fun, too. But that didn’t matter at this current point in time, so I moved on.

“Hmm.”

After some thought, I realized it would be pretty helpful, even if it wasn’t as shockingly effective as Black Hole. Given that our group tended to move between our fair share of concepts, it could only be a good thing that I’d be able to perform without feeling any awkwardness. It would make it seem more natural, and fewer people would feel ashamed or embarrassed to watch.

It’s slightly different from being skillful, but I’ll be able to go in without a hint of shame. That was when a radical thought came to me.

But this might be good if I can make proper use of it. It was all or nothing, anyway. My options were exhausted.

I have to give it a shot. I reached for the pop-up.

[Trait: Imperturbable (B) was deleted!]

The Imperturbable trait was quickly replaced with my new one, Time for Yearning. Then I put the rest of my points into charm.

Charm: A+

Good. This is my strategy.

“Eugene.”

“Yes?”

“Why don’t we make the subunit stage more fun?”

His response was immediate. “Yes!”

Right. Just as I thought.

And so, with only fifteen days to go until the encore concert, Eugene and I revised our performance slightly. Both of us were happy with the result.

“Are you sure this will be okay?” Chungwoo asked.

“I love it!”

“Well, if you say so…”

Chungwoo asked the same question several times, but Eugene repeatedly responded with a thumbs-up. This was unsurprising, since we were each going to do what we were best at.