LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 2
Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: NicoleTempest
Chapter 2 The Price of Rejuvenation is Idol
As soon as I opened my eyes, I found myself in a strange space.
The surroundings were filled with blue light.
It was a weird space where there was no place to step on, but I was floating in the air without being affected by gravity.
I didn’t understand what was going on.
As I looked around, a translucent status window popped up and blocked my face.
“What is this…?”
[Do you accept the special quest?]
[Yes/No]
Wasn’t I dead?
It was too strange to be in the afterlife.
I doubted my eyes, wondering if I was seeing things.
Then I noticed a small puppy sitting under the status window.
It had thick fur mixed with white and orange, perky ears, short legs, and a pointed snout.
It was a Welsh corgi that I had only seen on TV.
“What is a special quest?”
The puppy seemed to be waiting for me to speak and answer.
Woof!
As the puppy barked – I didn’t hear any sound – the message window enlarged like a billboard and poured out a huge amount of text.
[Special Quest: Idol, Cheon Ise]
[You, the CEO of Jo Young Food and a successful restaurateur, were killed by your family who had no blood relation to you.]
Was it a dream or a hallucination?
I was really dead. How futile…
I wanted to deny it, but nothing changed. I nodded my head.
[As it is, all your assets will be transferred to them through your biological father.]
Of course, I knew that too.
[There is another young man who is facing a miserable death.]
A small figure of a man appeared on one side of the screen. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t remember his name.
[Cheon Ise, a five-year-old unknown idol, attempted suicide due to despair. He is currently in a critical condition at his home.]
“What does that have to do with me?”
An idol?
Not even a girl group. He was a person from a world that had nothing to do with me, a middle-aged man in his forties.
[Read the text to the end and ask questions.]
Argh…
The puppy on the side of the screen glared at me.
I hated animals that showed their teeth to humans.
But unlike his expression, his fluffy tail was wagging gently. He didn’t seem really angry.
I clicked my tongue and scrolled down.
“Let’s see…”
As I scrolled down further, Cheon Ise’s life was recorded in detail.
He debuted as the main dancer of a common male idol group. He was a so-called failed idol member who had never entered the top 100 of the music charts.
The highest ranking song he had was his debut single, and after that, he lost his freshness as a new group and went downhill.
To make matters worse, he was seriously injured in a car accident.
Fortunately, he had no problem with his daily life, but…
He could no longer perform acrobatic and intense movements.
The problem started from there.
His vocals were mediocre, his variety skills were mediocre, and he couldn’t handle intense choreography.
He had no use anywhere.
Cheon Ise, whose biggest weapon was dancing, had no confidence to go back on stage.
‘He somehow managed to avoid being kicked out.’
Cheon Ise received a notice from the agency’s president that he could take a break from the group activities for a while.
It was thanks to the fact that the agency was operated with the capital of ‘Cheon Soo Group’, where his father was the head.
Otherwise, he would have been kicked out of the group right away.
It was that miserable to be an idol who didn’t make it.
But that consideration was also just giving him a rest until his body recovered. If the rest period was prolonged, it would lead to expulsion.
Anyone could have guessed that.
At a glance, Cheon Ise’s life had no other goal than ‘idol’.
If he lost his once-in-a-lifetime goal at a young age, he must have had a hard time.
I nodded my head and scrolled down.
[Our Human Happiness Death Wish System wants to give you the opportunity to fulfill Mr.Lim Hyun-seong’s ‘wish’ through Mr. Cheon Ise’s ‘wish’.]
[Client: Cheon Ise]
[Wish: Success as an idol]
[Client:Lim Hyun-seong]
[Wish: Revenge on the fake family]
[ If you complete the special quest safely, we will give you the opportunity to realize Mr.Lim Hyun-seong’s wish!]
What nonsense is this?
Woof!
The puppy from before gave me a congratulatory message with a burdensome look, as if he had called me.
No. What are you talking about?
“Opportunity? Are you going to resurrect me?”
[Resurrection is difficult to support due to the limit of causality.]
“Then how are you going to help me with revenge?”
[ If you become Mr. Cheon Ise and fulfill his wish, the linked quest for Mr.Lim Hyun-seong’s wish will proceed!]
I doubted the message that appeared in front of me.
“So… You want me to become Cheon Ise and succeed as an entertainer, and then you’ll give me a chance to get revenge?”
[Ding♪Dong♪Dang♪-. You understood correctly!]
What ding dong?
I sighed at the situation that I couldn’t understand.
It sounded like I had nothing to lose. But my intuition as a twenty-year franchise owner told me.
“There must be a catch to giving me this opportunity. What’s your scheme…”
[Time left until the forced quest progress 10…]
The status window appeared and blocked my eyes before I finished speaking.
“10 minutes?”
[9… 8… 7…]
“Wha-wha-wha?! What kind of coercion is this? What do I have to believe…!”
The numbers jumped in an instant.
[3…2…]
“Why don’t you count from 6 to 4?! You scammer!”
[…1!]
[Thank you for accepting the quest. Our Human Happiness Death Wish System is grateful for your efforts and will do our best to provide you with a more satisfying quest.]
“Who said I accepted, you crazy…!”
I had no time to refuse as the surroundings darkened.
I felt my consciousness fading and closed my eyes.
Woof!
Somewhere, a puppy was barking cheerfully.