Chapter 386

Chapter 386

I was shocked that Ryu Chungwoo’s name had appeared now of all times. I wondered if the companion draw system was like the trait draw system Big Moon had operated in the past, giving me just what I needed precisely when I needed it.

Come to think of it, I got Lee Sejin when I wanted Lee Sejin. Of course, it was the other Lee Sejin with the same name. I decided to just ask.

Can you use your powers here, too?

[N-no. I don’t think I can do that sort of thing anymore… I have actually tried a few times.]

A small pop-up came up, giving the impression that he was rather put out by this.

No, this is a good thing. I like things this way. I don’t want you mixing with the system any more than you already have. Who knows what problems that might cause?

[…]

Got it?

[Ah. Y-yes!]

Right. There was something else that required my attention at the moment.

[Awaken the companion Ryu Chungwoo?]

- Uses 1000 EXP

It was whether I should awaken Chungwoo. I lifted my head, and I was met with the sight of his eyes glowing with the immersion and satisfaction that he hadn’t felt in a long time.

Hmm.

Watching him as he waited for an answer, I said, “You should have a speech ready in case they ask.”

I decided I would press the button later, to allow him to enjoy the moment in full without him learning the truth ruining the fun.

Perhaps after the disqualified contestants are announced.

“A speech?”

“The moment you’re accepted, the production team is sure to ask you about your feelings.”

A bashful look appeared on Chungwoo’s face for a moment. He seemed to think I was saying this to encourage him, telling him he was certainly going to win.

What I was doing was actually offering him advice.

“Hmm… Shouldn’t I just thank them?” he asked.

“It’s probably better to be more honest and show them how moved you are. Make it dramatic,” I said.

“…?”

Any production team capable of thought was sure to treat his success as a massive twist.

Moments later, after the audience had been ushered out of the studio, the disqualified participants were finally revealed one by one.

“And here comes the reveal!”

[Ryu Chungwoo (Supplementary Team)]

[Contestant confirmed!]

Chungwoo really ended up winning in all of this. In fact, he was the only survivor from the supplementary team. The production team had expected that the viewers would select someone familiar to them even if there was a similar level of skill between the contestants, but Ryu Chungwoo was apparently the exception.

“Thank you. Uh…” he said, taking up the microphone and trying to remain calm, even though his voice was trembling.

I hadn’t seen him so shaken since he’d passed Idol Inc.

“It’s been a very long time since I’ve applied myself with so much enthusiasm to anything… It’s frankly a little overwhelming. Thank you for giving me a chance. I will do my best to make sure I don’t waste it and show you what I am capable of. Thank you!”

It was a simple speech, but it was enough to show just how serious he was about this.

Excellent. In addition, anyone who heard this would misunderstand and think that he must have had some unavoidable reason for quitting archery. I hoped that this would be the case anyway. The stronger the backstory that formed around him, the better.

“And that concludes the announcements for the disqualified contestants.”

The nightclub guy vanished among the nine disqualified—which included two people selected by the president himself. That left twelve of us.

“Do you know how many members were originally in my group?” Cheongryeo had asked me.

“Nine.”

We were getting closer to that number, though I had no idea how many we would eventually end up with this time around. I wondered how many people Cheongryeo thought were appropriate for this short-term project, which was not his own group.

We might have to discuss that. But that aside. I need to get to work.

“Thanks, Gunwoo,” Chungwoo said as soon as the cameras were off and we were tucked away backstage.

“It was all you,” I replied.

Then he said in a slightly more serious tone, “I am going to have to practice hard in order to keep up.”

“Hmm,” was all I said in response.

It seemed that he had made this decision after taking in the mood. It sounded like he intended to stay up all night practicing until our next day of filming.

Doing that will destroy even your stamina and have the opposite of the intended effect.

“Perhaps I should’ve joined you initially when you said you were going to do this. Seems a bit of a waste.”

“Why? Because you don’t think you have enough time?” I asked.

He nodded a little, looking visibly disappointed, which was rare. He seemed to think that there wasn’t enough time to improve his skills.

Well, you won’t have to feel that way anymore. I can give you back all your practice hours.

“Here,” I said.

“Huh?”

Take it. I pushed Chungwoo’s “awaken” button.

[Unlocking potential…]

And for the first time, I saw firsthand what happened when a companion awakened. Chungwoo staggered immediately, and more violently than I’d expected.

“What— Oh.”

“…!”

Do they always react so strongly?

“Are you all right over there?”

“Who is that?”

Even the staff reacted. Chungwoo hunched over next to the wall, completely silent.

F*ck. Is there something wrong? I was about to call up the status window or 911—anything to deal with the emergency—when he raised his head, to my great relief.

He sounded calm. “Oh… Uh, it’s all right.” There was a gentle look on his face. “Sorry. I guess all of this was a little too intense for me.”

“Oh, okay!” The staff members retreated, noticing that he was smiling normally.

Chungwoo continued to wear the same smile even after the staff members had all disappeared. His face slowly grew red, however.

There was a protracted silence.

“Uh… Is that you, Moondae?” he asked.

“Yes.”

The pause that followed was short but powerful.

“Phew…”

He hung his head again and sighed at length.

[Wait, he…]

Yeah. Before confusion, fear, relief, or anything of that nature, he was feeling overcome by embarrassment. I quietly turned a blind eye as he recalled how he’d acted like a twenty-one-year-old.

“So uh… This is an emergency of sorts,” he said.

“Yes.”

Moments later, after he’d pulled himself together as he packed his things, I quickly briefed him on the situation. I found myself reverting to the formal tone I’d always used with him because he was technically older than Park Moondae.

There was no reason for me to be careful that other people might hear us, since even if somebody did, the topic of conversation was so unrealistic they would just assume we were talking about a movie or video game. Since he’d already known about my body swapping, he quickly got a hold of what was going on.

“I did feel like something rather strange was going on. I get it now. The parts that were different from reality were what was making me uncomfortable.”

Instead of talking about alternate universes and whatnot, he seemed to think this was some kind of lucid dream or hallucination.

“It’s like I’d made choices that I knew were out of character for me,” he said. He was probably thinking of a few examples, not just archery, but he didn’t get into them. He did say, however, “So a way for me to wake up came at just the right time.”

“Yes.”

“You waited until the disqualified members were announced before you did it. You wanted to let me enjoy the satisfaction of winning through a viewer vote after my first ever performance, right?”

I said nothing.

“Thanks…”

“It was because we were in the middle of filming. There is no need to thank me.”

“Haha!” Chungwoo laughed and added, “You can talk to me casually again. I mean, you really are older than me.”

“…!”

“No wonder I felt like you were older than me, even though I knew we were the same age.”

Pointing out that this had also bothered him a little, he smiled bashfully. “You can keep that up after we get back. We’ve known each other for over five years. It’s about time,” he said.

“As you wish…” I said.

Chungwoo laughed, then changed the subject.

I mean, I knew what to expect from him, but this is still embarrassing as hell. I ended up waiting awkwardly for the others to arrive. Thankfully, I had already told the members in the high-tier team where we were, and they came running to meet us at the back of the lobby as soon as they had changed into their own clothing.

“Moondae! Does Chungwoo remember now?” Eugene said.

“Eugene,” Chungwoo called to him.

“Wooow!”

Eugene ran over and gave him a high five. He kept referring to me as Moondae even though Raebin was present.

Kim Raebin seemed to think, however, that it was just a nickname, and did not react with confusion. He simply greeted us eagerly. “Hello, guys! You were as impressive today as always.”

“Oh, did Raebin…” Chungwoo said.

“Uh…”

Chungwoo quickly put together that Raebin didn’t have his memories back. “My goodness. I shouldn’t have assumed such an informal tone with you,” Chungwoo suddenly said.

“What? Not at all! It’s fine. You are another contestant, and you are older than I am,” Raebin said.

Chungwoo laughed. “He hasn’t changed a bit.”

“…?”

“Yeah! Raebin’s exactly the same!” Eugene said.

“Do you mean to say that I haven’t improved at all since the last time you saw me on the show?” Raebin said.

“No, you idiot!” Eugene said.

“…?”

I left the three of them to talk and turned to the guy coming up behind them. He was joining us slowly after saying his goodbyes to the other contestants.

“Congratulations. They’ll send you to the high-tier team next,” he said.

It was Cheongryeo.

“Who knows? There are fewer members now,” I said.

“Hmm? It would be troublesome if you didn’t make your way back up even now,” he said.

“Is that really what you think?” I stared.

“I’m kidding. I believe in you, Gunwoo.”

His words gave me the chills.

“You defeated the main vocalist who always managed to secure a spot on the debut team. You’re going to move up to the high-tier team starting from the next filming session, there’s no question about it.”

I watched the rest of the contestants filter out of the lobby and made sure the other three were occupied by their conversation before lowering my voice and asking,

“How did he manage to stay on for seven years?”

“He was easy to control,” Cheongryeo said with a smirk.

“But people change. Their ego grows, and unfounded confidence sometimes leads to the emergence of new patterns. Well… Missing it was my mistake, so I won’t make any excuses,” he said.

Thinking back, I tried to recall what the guy who left VTIC had done following the controversy about the nightclub. It was easy. He had done absolutely nothing. He hadn’t even created a social media account, and there had been no articles about what he was up to or any online sightings. This was completely normal.

“But those with clear weaknesses are easy to manipulate. Isn’t it a bit of a shame? I could have kept him on a leash this time without much difficulty.”

“Have a consolation match if that’s how you feel,” I said.

“Haha!” he laughed with a grin. “It’s all right. I’m not disappointed at all. I only asked because I thought you might be, Gunwoo.”

Noticing that he’d tacked my name on at the end of the sentence pointedly, I turned around. The other three had finished their conversation and were turning toward us. Cheongryeo looked at them as well—or at Chungwoo, to be exact.

“Him, too?” Cheongryeo asked. He was probably asking if he had his memories back.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Hmm…” Cheongryeo ran his eyes over Chungwoo as if appraising him.

No, not “as if.”

[Trait: [Appraisal (A)]

That which is valuable is rare, and there’s garbage everywhere you look.

: - Human resource appraisal ability +150%

He was probably making use of his trait. He soon smiled and held out his hand.

“Nice to meet you,” he said.

“Same here,” Chungwoo said.

The two of them shook hands. He wasn’t making a fuss like the first time that he had met Eugene, at least.

As long as they’re not fighting, that’s good enough for me. Things probably wouldn’t escalate immediately, so I decided to take a moment to look at my status window. A main quest had just been cleared.

[Quest: Awaken companions] -> Complete!

I had awakened Cha Eugene, Bae Sejin, and Ryu Chungwoo so far. It seemed that awakening three people had been the condition for completion.

Does that exclude Cheongryeo? Are you seriously treating him like a starting character? In any case, if I had succeeded in gathering enough companions, it was obvious what would come next.

Performances, of course. Time for the main event.

[Quest: Collect Reputation 1/?]

- Gather reputation

Needed accumulated reputation: 1,000,000 EXP

This was an absurd amount, but I didn’t need the deadline to be adjusted since popularity always grew exponentially. Moving on.

I called up the pop-up at the very bottom—the companion status window.

[Companions List]

[Shin Jaehyeon: Assessing new resources (*^-^)]

[Cha Eugene: Looking back on a pleasant memory (+^+~♬)]

[Ryu Chungwoo: Checking on his own physical condition (•ᴗ•])]

There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary with any of them, including Chungwoo, the new addition.

That is, except the one who isn’t here.

[Bae Sejin: Watching as the president of his agency prostrates himself (ˋ^´=3)]

I stared.

What in the world are you up to? Picking up my phone, I had every intention of contacting him immediately. Then, I noticed a message at the top of the stack.

[Lee Sejin: Hello, Gunwoo! I watched the fifth episode. (smiling face emoji) I think your performance will turn out amazing!]

I’d gotten a message from Lee Sejin two days ago.

***

Lee Sejin was in the Xyrop dorm. His phone vibrated.

“Mmm…”

He had gone to bed before midnight for a change and was just about to fall asleep. But he picked up his phone immediately as a force of habit. His eyes skimmed over the response that had arrived somewhat late.

[Ryu Gunwoo (Wise): I just got back. Sorry about the late response.]

[Ryu Gunwoo (Wise): Thank you for the compliment. I really do hope it turns out well.]

“Oh.”

It seemed filming was finally over.

Lee Sejin had only sent the text habitually, as part of his work maintaining contacts, but he was glad to see this reply for some reason and quickly typed up a message.

[No need to apologize! I’m the one who texted you during filming (crying face emoji)]

[And please feel free to speak casually to me! You are older than I am, and it’s not like I have that many more years of experience.]

Soon, the messenger indicated that the text had been read.

[Ryu Gunwoo (Wise): Thanks]

[Ryu Gunwoo (Wise): You should do the same]

“There we go!”

He hadn’t debuted yet, so he wasn’t as guarded as he otherwise might be. Lee Sejin responded even more quickly this time.

[LOL I’m not refusing! Thanks, Gunwoo!]

[ Please save me as “Amazing Sejin” in your phone haha]

Only after he’d sent the message did he realize that he had gone completely overboard. Most people would see that text and think he was a con man or someone desperate for friendship.

What is wrong with me? He was about to try and do some damage control when a response arrived.

[Ryu Gunwoo (Wise): All right]

“…?”

Wait, that worked? Is he trying to be nice to me because I’m more senior in the industry? He had made a mistake, but for some reason, he didn’t feel too bad about it. That was not the end of their communication.

[Ryu Gunwoo (Wise): I’ve never met a younger Sejin before. I know an older one.]

What is that supposed to mean? Is he making small talk?

[Cool! My name is rather common, that’s for sure]

Lee Sejin quickly typed out an appropriate response. He was suddenly no longer focused on wrapping up this chat and going to sleep. The response took him by surprise.

[Ryu Gunwoo (Wise): You probably know him as well. He has the same surname as you, even.]

Wait, I know him, too? Someone with my name whom I know? There was only one person he could think of who was older than Ryu Gunwoo.

A few more messages appeared.

[Ryu Gunwoo (Wise): He’s an actor, and I am going to meet him and hang out in a few days]

[Ryu Gunwoo (Wise): I think it would be fun if you came. What do you think?]

Lee Sejin abruptly sat up.