Some time later.
With blackout curtains covering the windows, I had no way of telling what time it was.
“Shall we organize things from here? Was entering <Idol Inc.> an excellent choice for you, hoobae?”
Sitting across from me again, Cheongryeo calmly explained while writing keywords in some notebook.
“In terms of getting past the initial mission, it was highly efficient. You must have chosen it without knowing the next mission existed… so it was an excellent judgment.”
Not grateful in the slightest.
“But looking at it long-term, it was a somewhat disappointing choice. The image consumption over a short five-year period is too severe… and the company lacks structure, while contract renewal is uncertain too.”
Cheongryeo smiled faintly.
“If you’re confident you can get through the beginning, it’s better to avoid survival programs.”
“…….”
“If you restart, come find me at LeTi. I’ll put you in a position where you can debut right away.”
I could practically hear what he really meant.
I’ll keep you nearby so I can reset immediately if my team screws up again.
I suppressed a snort.
All talk.
The Status Abnormality in this bastard’s Status Window that triggered resets, ‘Correction,’ was inactive.
In other words, the option of restarting by killing himself had already been blocked.
And since this bastard understood the concept of ‘failing a mission means dying and going back,’ he had probably already guessed that now that all his missions were complete, dying wouldn’t take him back anymore.
So he intended to use me instead…
But there was one point where I got stuck.
Why is he so certain?
Why was he convinced that if I died, everything would start over?
Even if he was insane, did he actually believe in this that fanatically?
I wanted to dig into it and shake some information out of him, but the timing was bad.
If I slip up, I’m one sledgehammer away from disaster.
Provoking him directly right now would be a bad idea.
He might say, Apparently you have no intention of voluntarily exiting this life. Then have a taste of the sledgehammer, and smash something into me.
So I had to rely on another advantage.
Something only I knew and he didn’t.
My Status Window.
My Traits.
Think.
But before that, I was pissed enough to grind my teeth, so I could at least answer him this much.
“So your goal is to have me debut at LeTi, and if another problem happens with your career, tell me to reset again?”
“No. Of course not.”
…Cheongryeo looked slightly embarrassed.
“I’m sorry about this time. As you heard, it’s a situation without any real correct answer. If you want, next time I’ll definitely help you finish all the missions faster than you did now.”
“…….”
“Of course, we can also carefully plan things together so your group activities are more comfortable and beneficial than they are now.”
The fact that he seemed sincere about this right now was the biggest headache.
This bastard will do the same thing again the moment anything similar happens.
Of course, I didn’t think killing me would actually restart anything in the first place.
But regardless, wasn’t it obvious?
Once he’d done it successfully once, he’d keep trying to make me do it.
What made matters worse was that, inside this lunatic’s thought process, he considered the current situation exceptional and one-time only, and genuinely believed he had prepared adequate compensation for me.
It doesn’t feel like that big of a deal to him.
Because his baseline was different, forcing me through one reset was apparently just something mildly awkward and regrettable.
Naturally, that made it even harder to get through to him.
I sighed.
Cheongryeo stood from his chair again.
“You look tired, so let’s stop here for now… Is there anything you want for dinner? If it’s within reason, I can get it for you.”
At least I learned that it was currently evening.
One tiny piece of information.
“I don’t want anything. How about you simply let me go so I can take care of myself?”
“That would be difficult. Hmm, give me a moment.”
Then Cheongryeo left the room again.
I hadn’t expected anything, but seeing that perfectly nonchalant reaction made one thing clear.
Appealing directly to his emotions wasn’t going to work.
…Not without buildup, at least.
I hope this works.
While wasting time on pointless conversation, I checked one Trait I had selected in my head.
[Trait: Bacchus 500 (B)]
-A clear mind and healthy body!
: All fatigue accumulation speed -50%
Bacchus 500.
A Trait for maintaining my condition.
Thanks to this, I could survive for several days during comeback week on only one or two hours of sleep.
Of course, I wasn’t about to say something dreamy like I would use this to begin exploring once that bastard went to sleep.
He cleaned the place disgustingly thoroughly.
There was nothing in this room to begin with.
Even the bathroom, which I had managed to check earlier through an uncomfortable and ridiculous series of movements, contained nothing but bare fixtures.
Feels like he’s done this a few times already.
I had no idea which related person he’d threatened during one of his resets to extract information, but it felt like a pretty plausible guess.
Anyway, that meant the timing when I intended to use this Trait wasn’t ‘while everyone was asleep.’
It would come at a different time.
Until then, I wait.
Until that bastard thought I had given up.
Until he thought I had adapted.
I needed to watch the situation carefully.
I looked down at the handcuffs and clicked my tongue.
This was going to be one exhausting vacation.
And then, several days passed.
Judging by the intervals between sleeping and meals, I guessed three or four days.
To keep his recommendations of suicide from becoming more aggressive, I adjusted what I said during that time to make it seem as though I was slowly going along with the ‘new life plan.’
Like this.
“Does LeTi start settling payments only after charging trainees for all their training costs too?”
“No. Once revenue starts coming in after debut, settlements begin immediately. Pretty good, right?”
“Sounds like a nice place. …I have no intention of going, though.”
“Haha.”
After repeating that pattern several times, I started touching on slightly more sensitive subjects in order to gather information.
“Even if I’m on vacation, people are obviously going to get suspicious if I don’t contact them. Has no one reached out separately?”
“Who knows.”
“…Looks like someone did.”
“Haha, is it obvious? I replied appropriately, so don’t worry. In your style, hoobae.”
“…….”
This bastard knew my phone unlock pattern too?
Was it during that insurance commercial?
I remembered unlocking my smartphone while filming the puppy back then.
Damn it.
I couldn’t expect outside help until the vacation was completely over.
Still, now I knew he kept checking my smartphone.
Then there was a high chance it was somewhere inside this house.
I decided to remember that.
Several more days followed, filled with useless persuasion and excuses and, annoyingly, Cheongryeo’s surprisingly high-quality briefings of idol-related tips.
And finally, the moment arrived.
“Today… Hoobae?”
“…Sunbaenim.”
My third waking.
Probably morning or dawn.
I buried my head in the pillow and sighed.
My nose and throat burned whenever I breathed.
My head felt heavy.
I spoke slowly.
“Do you happen to have medicine for body aches?”
It was the brutal full-body sickness that always came whenever I finally got a chance to rest.
Once again, the moment vacation arrived, an enormous fever and burden crashed down onto my body.
Even though, this time, it wasn’t actually a moment when I had relaxed mentally.
As expected.
Meaning my guess had been correct.
So these body aches really are backlash from the condition-maintenance Traits.
It had happened not only with Bacchus, but also with the one-time Trait ‘Sleep is for the Dead.’
Every single time, I only got sick after using Traits like those to the fullest and then reaching a point with no ‘activity schedule.’
No matter how I looked at it, that pattern had seemed strangely artificial.
That was why I had formed the hypothesis, and this time had made me almost certain.
It’s a mechanical classification involving the Status Window.
The burden on my body always arrived specifically when I was taking a break from idol activities.
And this timing for getting sick was something I could use.
“…Medicine?”
To make this bastard lose his composure.
It would have been difficult for him to imagine that after three or four days, I’d suddenly collapse from ordinary body aches rather than an external injury.
“Wait here.”
Cheongryeo, who had been entering, closed the door again and left.
Good.
At least he hadn’t immediately said something like, Since you’re sick anyway, this is the perfect time to die.
The direction was pretty good.
He let his guard down.
Because he thought he had the situation completely under control, he had instinctively relaxed.
In his head, he had probably already accepted a reset within the next few days as a foregone conclusion.
When Cheongryeo came back, he was holding medicine and water.
The kind of medicine one could reasonably stock without a prescription.
…He prepared basic medicine.
That was slightly disappointing.
Meticulous psycho bastard.
“They’re a painkiller and antipyretic. Take some.”
They were sealed in the packaging.
There would have been no reason to mix some other liquid drug into them, so I took them.
Then I casually tested the waters.
“…What about a hospital?”
“The two of us would draw too much attention. Sorry. Hmm… if you restart, your body will recover immediately.”
In the end, we came right back to this.
It was still phrased as a suggestion, though.
Hit him now.
I hesitated, then spoke quietly in a hoarse voice.
“…As I told you before, I actually like my current team. Even if I started again and formed the exact same team, it could never be identical to what we have now. The incidents and stories we’ve shared would be different.”
“…….”
“Couldn’t you just… let me go so I can keep living here? Please.”
Well, it wasn’t the sort of thing I normally said.
But people could get a little sentimental when they were sick, couldn’t they?
And right on cue, the Trait activated.
[‘Now That You Mention It, You’re Right (A)’ activated!]
Excellent.
Of course, it only caused ‘emotional agitation’ in the other person.
It didn’t guarantee persuasion.
Look.
“…I’m sorry.”
Cheongryeo murmured briefly with a somewhat expressionless face.
Apparently all it had created was a little ‘feeling sorry.’
Fine.
Got it, you bastard.
Exactly as planned.
“…….”
I deliberately stayed silent for a while before slowly opening my mouth.
“……My head hurts so much I can barely move. Could you support me… just to the bathroom entrance?”
“Sure.”
I knew he wouldn’t refuse.
Cheongryeo supported me under the shoulder, like helping someone with an injured leg.
The moment his thoughts had been shaken.
The moment his attention was divided.
Meaning…
The moment when he was more conscious of his own thoughts than of my movements.
Now.
I swung both arms around and hooked them over Cheongryeo’s head.
“…!”
Then I caught his neck in the handcuffs and started pulling.
“…You!”
The metal between the cuffs pressed hard into his throat.
Naturally, the resistance was fierce.
Even when I dropped my body weight onto him and destabilized his posture, he kept landing blows.
Fuck.
I think he broke one of my ribs.
But there was no way I could let go.
I forcibly twisted my arms and torqued his neck.
“…!!”
“Ghh.”
Obviously, in this condition, with both hands restricted, I wasn’t realistically going to break a healthy adult man’s neck.
I just had to keep squeezing until this bastard’s consciousness blurred…!
“…….”
Even while his face went pale from lack of oxygen, his eyes rolled toward me and glared.
Fuck.
Creepy as hell—
Didn’t matter.
Just like I simulated it!
At the end, I twisted the handcuffs and smashed them against the back of his head.
Thud.
A short, violent sound.
Then the pressure disappeared.
“…….”
Subdued.
“Haaah.”
I got shakily to my feet.
“Fuck, seriously.”
My wrists were completely wrecked.
This was fucking awful.
Still, the exhilaration was so strong that I barely felt the pain.
I wriggled along as best I could, opened the door, and luckily found something I could use as a blade.
Namely…
a light bulb.
Crash!
I threw a book at the light, shattering it and spilling sharp fragments across the floor.
It was an old product, so it broke even worse.
“Good.”
I cut my hands a few times, but I managed to get through the bundle of cable ties around my legs.
Now escape would be easier if something unexpected happened.
So I moved according to plan.
I rolled my stiff neck.
Read only on MUGEX
There was still a long way to go.
“…….”
“You’re awake.”
Cheongryeo, who had been tightly bound to the chair opposite me with cable ties, lifted his head without even groaning.
“You bought an impressive number of spare cable ties.”
“…….”
“You also prepared plenty of tools, so I managed to get the handcuffs off without much trouble.”
I raised both now-free hands.
“You’re very thorough, sunbaenim. It made things convenient for me.”
Then I grinned.