Genius Idol’s Strategy to Conquer the Entertainment Industry

Chapter 14

After meticulously establishing both Plan A and Plan B, I immediately started working… no, persuasion.

“Hyung, we need to practice.”

“Just trust me this once, okay?”

“Yohan hyung, do you want to be an idol?”

After much persuasion, Ban Yohan nodded his head with a twitching smile on his lips.

See? Sincerity always gets through.

[Ban Yohan thinks it would be better to practice rather than listen to you any longer.]

Well, never mind that.

Anyway, I began to work hard on training Ban Yo-han.

I had a feeling he would become my early shuttle.

“Earlier, the teacher said to ease up here. You’ll get hurt.”

“Got it.”

If Muk Hyesung was a strict and excellent teacher, Ban Yohan was a laid-back yet clever student.

Ban Yo-han, with his intelligence that made me curious about his actual IQ, absorbed my crappy explanations perfectly, which gave me another sense of crisis.

“No, here, you have to stomp hard and move over.”

I demonstrated simply.

“Okay. But you don’t seem to be doing it right either.”

“Teaching and skill are separate matters.”

I was confident. Thanks to my understanding, I knew theoretically this was correct.

Watching me intently, Ban Yohan obediently corrected his dance moves as I had said to.

“Like this?”

“Yes, yes.”

[Ban Yo-han feels cumbersome gratitude towards you for helping him despite not being able to take care of yourself. Affection +1. Current Affection +18.]

This guy’s inner thoughts are getting worse. Who can’t take care of themselves?

[Heart attack: 31.99%]

It means I had raised my understanding of this nauseatingly difficult dance to over 30% in half a day.

The effect of Muk Hye-sung’s direct criticism was the biggest.

My understanding improved each time he pinpointed the parts I was particularly bad at.

How much will I improve tomorrow?

I’m already looking forward to the class.

In addition, the understanding I gained from teaching other trainees was not insignificant, and the understanding I gained from practicing alone was quite considerable.

As I looked at my understanding with satisfaction, Ban Yohan, who was gasping for breath while leaning on his knees, asked,

“Can we take a break now?”

“No. We have a class with teacher Muk tomorrow morning. We don’t have time to rest.”

“Did I do something wrong to you?”

“You say that, but I know you’re grateful to me.”

[Ban Yo-han feels exasperated, wondering how you know that. Ban Yo-han’s Affection -1. Current Affection +17.]

I can hear all your inner thoughts. You tricky bastard…

Our roommates practicing a bit further away glanced at us and whispered to each other.

“That hyung has been particularly nasty today.”

“Right. People should live kindly.”

You make it sound like I’m torturing Ban Yo-han.

Look properly.

Isn’t this a heartwarming scene where I’m diligently taking care of a struggling Idol trainee?

‘PD-nim, Writer-nim, if you’re watching this scene, please push me as the ‘kind’ character this season.’

The most important thing in this program is screen time, followed by a wonderful narrative.

No matter how good your skills are, if you’re not on screen, it’s over.

However, if you’re on screen for too long, you might quickly become disliked if you appear self-centered, causing your ranking to plummet.

On the other hand, if you do nothing, you won’t get enough screen time, creating a dilemma.

These kinds of shows always grind down the trainees’ mental states.

“We’re going ahead. Don’t stay up too late since we have to do this again tomorrow.”

“Good job.”

“Good job.”

The trainees who came to practice first packed up and left.

Ban Yo-han, who was surreptitiously resting on the floor, looked longingly at the door they exited through.

No, you can’t go.

I stood cheerfully blocking his way.

* * *

We only finished practicing when the staff knocked on the practice room door, saying it was time to go.

After one last dance to the music, Ban Yohan lay sprawled on the floor with his eyes closed, not getting up. Was he dead?

Jing Xiao, thinking the same, poked Ban Yo-han’s cheek.

“Don’t touch me right now…”

As soon as his finger touched the cheek, a sinister voice flowed out as if a recorded message had been played.

Jing Xiao quickly backed away, making Nagase Ritsu giggle.

For the record, I was also sprawled out next to him. I swear, if I close my eyes now, I’ll fall asleep.

A notification flickered before my eyes, warning me that my fatigue had reached 95.

I didn’t even have the strength to move a finger to dismiss the notification.

“Move…”

I mumbled, as if to Jing Xiao, who gave up teasing Ban Yohan and was now poking my cheek. The system window disappeared.

It felt nice not to have anything blocking my sight.

Honestly, I hadn’t planned on exerting myself this much.

Like the trainees who left earlier said, we’d have another shoot tomorrow after sleeping.

But maybe because I could see my skills improving with practice, I didn’t realize how time flew by, despite it just being repetitive practice. Dancing and singing were fun.

I even liked the sound of shoes scraping the practice room floor, spinning in sync with others, and my throat hurting from gasping for breath.

“You two really seem to be good at dancing now.”

At Jing Xiao’s comment, Kim Jun-woo nodded. It was satisfying.

[Room 312 trainees acknowledge you as unexpectedly diligent. Overall Affection +1.]

When we entered the dorm building, a staff member sitting in a chair stopped us.

“We need to do a brief interview before you go up. Yohan, you come up.”

The staff, who looked as tired as we were, took Ban Yohan into a nearby room.

Meanwhile, I looked at the mirror on the wall and tidied my bangs stuck to my forehead.

It didn’t make much difference.

After a while, Ban Yo-han came out with a rather pleasant smile. Did he badmouth me?

“They’re calling you in.”

Feeling a bit uneasy, I entered the room Ban Yohan had come out of.

They set up a small set similar to the one in the studio during the day.

“Just sit there. It’s no big deal, so answer comfortably.”

“Okay.”

Yeah, I know how you also turn trivial things into a big deal.

The red light on the camera glowed like the eyes of a goblin.

“What grade are you aiming for?”

“I want to learn well from Teacher Muk and get an A.”

“Today, Raon helped his classmates a lot. Wasn’t it tiring?”

“To be honest, both dancing and singing are really hard. Especially since some people in our class aren’t used to this kind of dance. Of course, I’m not saying I’m good, but if I can help in any way possible, I think it’s the right thing to do.”

“They said you were particularly harsh on Yohan during practice.”

What the hell did Ban Yohan say?

Regrettably, my goal was to win together rather than just torment him, so I explained with a smile, trying to paint a positive picture.

“Yohan hyung is really smart. He memorized the choreography, but since his trainee period is still short, he seems to have trouble figuring out how to do it physically. Since we’re in the same class and roommates, I wanted to help him more.”

“Yes, you worked hard. Tell the next person to come in.”

After finishing the interview, I found Ban Yohan had already gone up to wash.

I told Kim Junwoo, who was lingering near the door, to go in and headed upstairs first.

After quickly washing up, I returned to the room and saw a thick blanket laid out on the floor. That was my spot.

On the way back from practice, Jing Xiao suggested we properly decide who would sleep on the floor with rock-paper-scissors.

“…”

“How can you lose in one go? And alone at that.”

“At this point, it’s fate.”

I couldn’t believe how much I resented my confident fist.

Maybe my luck, which had dropped from its initial 10 to 8 after trying to master the dance, was the problem. It’s a reasonable suspicion.

It reminded me that in the entertainment industry, luck was as important as charm.

You need luck to succeed, even if you have talent.

So, I’ll add luck to the stats I need to raise in the future.

“Good night.”

“You worked hard today.”

“Good night.”

I turned off the lights and crawled into my makeshift bed.

I had been worried about sleeping in a strange place, especially in a game, but surprisingly…

As soon as my head hit the pillow, I almost passed out. Like pressing a button to turn off a machine.

And then…

Blink.

‘Huh?’

[You had a restful sleep. Fatigue -50.]

The notification helped me understand the situation. Restful sleep meant I had slept, right?

‘Did I sleep?’

No, I had closed my eyes just three seconds ago.

It felt less like I had slept and more like I had just blinked.

Did this mean I had a deep sleep?

As I pondered this, a system window appeared before my eyes.

[Tip! This game offers two sleep modes.]

[In the default fatigue recovery mode, the player is forced into a deep sleep until their fatigue drops below 50.]

[In the normal mode, you can sleep normally. However, fatigue reduction is minimal.]

[Would you like to change the settings?]

[Y/N]

Given my current stamina, managing fatigue was almost impossible, so I decided to keep the settings as they were, despite the slight risk.

[N]

Even though my fatigue had noticeably decreased, I still felt oddly like I hadn’t slept. I sat up with a mixed feeling.

“You’re up? You slept like the dead.”

Kim Junwoo, who was applying lotion to his damp face, glanced at me and said.

“Really?”

“Yes. While I was coming down from my bed, I accidentally stepped on something and realized it was your arm. I think I stepped on it pretty hard, but you didn’t move at all. If you hadn’t been breathing, I would’ve thought you were dead. Do you sleep very deeply? Or maybe I didn’t step on you as hard as I thought.”

… Now that he mentioned it, my left arm did feel a bit numb.

‘Forced deep sleep must mean you don’t respond to anything.’

The faint pain would soon disappear, and it didn’t seem to affect my dancing, so I just shrugged at Kim Junwoo.

“What time is it?”

“7:30.”

“When did you wake up?”

“Around 7.”

“You got up early.”

“My eyes just opened.”

“…”

After a brief silence, we exchanged meaningful smirks and simultaneously looked at our still-sleeping roommates.

“Ha ha.”

“Ha ha ha.”

Like third-rate villains with secret plans, we smiled mischievously and rushed towards them.