LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 5
Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: NicoleTempest
Chapter 5: Be Careful When Buying Products
There wasn’t enough food for two grown men to eat, since there was no pork that I had sliced separately. I didn’t care, since I could eat something else.
“Is this really the time to die…? You cooked me a meal with your own hands? What’s going on…?”
Why was he doing something he never did before?
The manager looked at me with a suspicious gaze.
I brought the stew that was boiling vigorously again to the table.
“Quick, blow on the soup and try it.”
The kimchi stew, with the sour smell of fresh kimchi and the oily and savory aroma of tuna, was…
It made my mouth water just by looking at it.
Whoever cooked it.
“I don’t know if this is going to kill me or not.”
The manager grumbled and scooped up a spoonful, blowing on it and putting it in his mouth.
As soon as the soup touched his tongue, his eyes shook and widened.
“Huh? This is delicious?”
‘Of course it is.’
I couldn’t buy any ingredients that could enhance the flavor, but
I could boast that I was faithful to the original taste of kimchi stew throughout my 25 years of culinary experience.
“I saw a recipe on the internet and followed it. I didn’t like ordering food…”
I felt sweat dripping down my back and smiled calmly.
The manager still glared at me with a sharp look. But he also ate the white rice greedily.
“I never thought I’d see the day you cook in my life.”
“Cooking for yourself is trendy these days. There are a lot of things like meal kits and stuff.”
“I thought you’d just order someone else to make it for you, or just point your finger. Who would have thought you’d stand in front of the kitchen?”
I shrugged it off with a light laugh and carefully picked up a spoon.
I didn’t know much about what kind of life Cheon Ise had lived until now, but… I think I knew that he had lived a mess.
He did whatever he wanted with the Cheon Soo Group on his back, and whined when things didn’t go his way.
His diet was a cycle of binge eating and extreme dieting, and his health was deteriorating.
And then he had an accident and couldn’t even perform properly…
I understood how he felt, but.
He didn’t even know he was eating himself up and lived like a jerk.
He deserved it.
‘If he had the support of the Cheon Soo Group, he could have done anything, not just an idol. But he tried to kill himself with sleeping pills because the situation got messed up…’
I shouldn’t meddle in other people’s affairs, but.
He was really weak and pathetic.
“Hey, I… I’ve been saying bad things to you until now, but this is embarrassing to say.”
I snapped out of my reverie when I heard the manager’s words.
“Is there no more rice?”
The instant rice that was in front of the manager was already empty.
***
“Well, for now, I’ve solved it…”
The manager had eaten two bowls of instant rice.
And he also slurped up the stew without giving me a chance to touch it, and left.
‘The other members were worried because they couldn’t contact you. Especially Kyunghwa, he said to call him as soon as possible. Call them soon. Or check the messenger. The vice president was also very worried. You should call your mom. Don’t worry her.’
The members… I imagined some kids I didn’t even know, and my mind went blank.
‘They were worried… Well, I have to contact them anyway.’
When the manager left and the tension eased, I felt hungry again.
“I’ll contact them later, but I have to make something to eat first.”
As soon as I sighed, the status window blocked my eyes.
“What is this…”
[Event> Congratulations on successfully clearing the manager’s visit! Achievement bonus point +20]
Oh, right.
There was something about points and stuff.
Pposili also jumped around happily as the points increased.
I asked Pposili.
“By the way, you’ve been talking about points, deductions, TIPs and stuff since earlier. What is that?”
[ We’ll explain it briefly for you, Hyun-seong, who has a lot of questions!]
Can’t you get rid of that inequality sign?
I swallowed a sigh as I felt a strange irritation.
[Points!? It’s a currency that is given as a sign of support every time you complete a quest successfully.]
[You can collect points and buy various TIPs that will help you with the quest.]
“Does that mean I can choose TIPs like shopping?”
[We’ll show you a simple example of the TIP list that you can buy now!]
The status window sounded oddly excited.
Soon, a shopping mall catalog-like screen unfolded in front of me.
Pposili put on a bow tie and raised his head proudly at the bottom of the status window, as if he had become a show host.
[>Replay service – 30 points per session]
[>Re-listen service – 15 points per session]
[>Event intervention service – 100 points per session]
And below that, there was a game status window-like thing that listed my status.
[Cheon Ise (Hyun-seong) – Age 24]
[Current accumulated points: 30 points]
[You are currently in the tutorial, so you cannot buy the event intervention service yet.]
“Hmm…”
Of course, none of the things I’ve experienced so far were realistic.
But when a real game development window popped up, I couldn’t help but squint.
“What is the event intervention service?”
When I asked the status window, a small pop-up window popped up and added an explanation.
[Event intervention service – an emergency escape service provided when the quest progress is blocked or impossible due to unavoidable circumstances.]
I didn’t know what it was, but it seemed like a service I could use if I felt like X.
“Wait. Let’s get this straight. You guys… or you, I don’t know. The six months you’re talking about include the process of me adapting naturally as Cheon Ise, right?”
Then the pop-up window shook its body as if it had taken a drug and answered.
[ You understood it exactly right!]
It was a really annoying answer.
[We are currently running a tutorial for your smooth adaptation, Hyun-seong.]
“Was the manager barging in just now part of the tutorial?”
[Yes! Shall we start the second event of the tutorial right away?]
Pposili nodded and gave a positive sign. The black nose at the end of the puffy tail shone with a shine.
The manager just left, right?
I was looking forward to filling my hungry stomach.
“When does it start?”
I didn’t know when I was starving, but it seemed like it had been a long time since I had a proper meal.
You should eat well and go. If I had done that, I wouldn’t have been driven to the edge of suicide.
People have to solve problems with their stomachs.
I was starving, but I was really thrown off the cliff.
[Tutorial 1. Melt perfectly into Cheon Ise – Event> Meet the members]
[Time left until the event starts… 10…]
“No, you have to give me some time to prepare, I haven’t even eaten the rice I just cooked.”
I tried to think of a way to buy some time. Come to think of it, the manager told me to call my mother earlier…
[Our Human Happiness Death Wish System is not human, so we do not respect ethical principles.]
[Count resumes 9…]
[8… 7…]
Then, whether it was by chance or fate, the phone rang.
“Our sweet time together, back then-♪.”
I didn’t expect a call at this time, and neither did the status window, as the count stopped abruptly.
I hurriedly checked the phone screen and saw the two letters [Mom] shining.
“I just need to take this and go, okay?”
If this bastard Cheon Ise had sent a suicide text to his parents as he did to his manager, I had to fix that too.
The system shook slightly for a moment, as if it was thinking, and then a message popped up.
[We are impressed by your proactive attitude! We will give you a grace period of 15 minutes.]
“Phew…”
I checked the stopped count and brushed my chest.
‘I need to get some basic information before I make the call.’
The event intervention service was the only thing I couldn’t use during the tutorial period. I had just experienced the replay service for free.
So I should be able to use the replay service again, since I have some points left, right?
As I racked my brain for a short time, the status window was updated in front of me.
[TIP Purchase Shop > Replay Service Selection]
[Do you want to purchase the replay service?]
[Yes/No]
It read my mind and showed me this. Isn’t this too much of a trap? But I couldn’t choose ‘No’.
“Yes.”
The point payment didn’t seem too steep. I think it’s okay to use about 30 points now.
Pposili was king!
He barked and jumped on the spot.
[The replay service is playing. You can replay the video you purchased later in the My Video Service.]
Thankfully, it didn’t just play it once and take it away like before.
[Video playback start]
A small status window popped up and disappeared, and at the same time, the surroundings turned black.
And then, as if I had turned off the light in the middle of the night and turned it back on, the light came back on.
I was standing alone in a splendid mansion living room that I had never seen before.
And as if to prove that this was not reality, a real puppy, not a flat icon, was looking up at me.
“Are you blaming others again?”
The middle-aged man sitting on the single sofa that looked like the main seat shouted at Cheon Ise. Then the middle-aged woman sitting diagonally next to him yelled.
“How can you be so hard on this young child? Ise was not doing solo activities, but group activities, right? How can you tell him to do what he can’t do?”
Then the man snorted and clicked his tongue, as if he was contemptuous.
“Excuses are only good for a day or two! This time it’s because of this, and that time it’s because of that. How much money did he spend to get in with the support of that guy? What are the members doing? Aren’t they just leeching off the Cheon Soo Group and wasting the operating costs?”
Looking at the situation, the man who was sitting on the main seat and shouting was the chairman of the Cheon Soo Group, Cheon Young-tae,
And the woman sitting next to him was the vice-chairman, Ahn Jung-hee.
I felt strange to see the faces that I had only seen on the news so close.
‘Are these two people… the ones who raised Cheon Ise wrong?’
“Next time, I’ll really do well! I’ll show you a proud result that won’t embarrass you, brother and sister!”
Cheon Ise couldn’t stand the repeated insults and got up from his seat. Then a reaction that looked like a scene from a morning drama followed.
“Oh, what am I going to do with that… that… My brother and sister are doing well and living well, but only that guy is like that…”
“Why are you provoking him again? If you trust him a little more, our Ise will show you a good result.”
Who were the eldest son and daughter of the Cheon Soo Group?
I wasn’t very interested in the factional fights of the chaebol third generation, so I didn’t remember much.
But I remembered clearly that the vice-chairman Ahn Jung-hee sitting here was not the first wife of the chairman.
‘I can roughly guess how the family situation is going.’
The elite third generation of the ordinary chaebol family, who showed enviable achievements as the children of the first wife.
And on the contrary, the pathetic bastard son of the second wife, who had never shown a decent result.
It would have been nice if he had shown some achievements as a singer, having debuted with the support of the Cheon Soo Group.
The boy group ‘Climax’ that Cheon Ise belonged to was a nameless idol who had never entered the top 100 of the M company’s real-time chart.
No wonder his mental strength was gradually eroded.
Soon, the light flickered as if it was turning off, and the surroundings returned to reality.
“Hmm…”
[Replay Service – End of September 26, 20 years old]
‘Oh, he was 20 years old then?’
No wonder he looked younger than the reflection in the mirror.
Now it was time for me to act as that brat son Cheon Ise.
Then, I noticed a small stopwatch floating on the status window.
It seemed to be counting the grace period of 15 minutes.
“Is there about 10 minutes left?”
The length of the video was shorter than I thought, so I had some time left.
Wait, if I have 10 minutes…
“Should I fill my stomach with something simple?”
I was always serious about eating.
I’m sorry, mom. I’ll call you back in a bit.
I left the phone ringing and headed to the kitchen again.