My name is Jung SooHwan. Yesterday morning when I woke up and looked into my bathroom mirror to brush my teeth, there were several words floating above my head.

 

Jung SooHwan. Level 1. Title: None

 

A voice echoed through my head with clear instructions as a panel appeared before me.

 

“Would you like to learn the basics? Yes or No?”

 

Without hesitation I pressed yes and patiently waited for further instructions from the mysterious voice.

 

“To check your status please say ‘Stats,’ say ‘Inventory’ for the objects you are currently carrying…..” The voice died down as the end of the sentence drew near.

 

“Wait! That’s all you’re going to tell me?! That’s not even a tutorial!”

 

“Remember… continuous practice will help you level up.”

 

At this point, the voice had completely disappeared as I kept staring at the mirror yelling at myself for answers.

 

My mom knocked on the bathroom door, “I know you’re nervous now that you’re going to be trying to, once again, find a job. It’s ok to be jobless for the first few years that you get out of college. I’m sure you’ll find one soon so don’t go crazy and talk to yourself in the bathroom.”

 

I decided that I probably shouldn’t tell her about what I just experienced and splashed water on my face as I prepared to leave. I sat down at the table that already had food and chopsticks ready for me. My eyes glanced towards my mom. “What would it say over her head? Anything?” I thought.

 

Mom. Level --. Loving her son.

 

I my chin as I tried to think of a reason as to why my mom wouldn’t have a level. “Loving her son? Hahaha. That’s supposed to be her job?” Laughing to myself caught my mom’s attention.

 

“Laughing to yourself. Yelling at yourself in the bathroom. Are you going crazy son? It’s ok. You can stay home and live with mom for the rest of your life.” She said all too seriously.

 

Walking out the front door after waving to my mom, I thought about what the voice said.

 

“Stats!”

 

Name: Jung SooHwan

Age: 25

Level: 1

Basic Attributes

Strength: 20

Intelligence: 25

Agility: 15

Flexibility: 10

Athleticism: 18

Dexterity: 13

Stamina: 10

Toughness: 30

Cleanliness: 7

Secondary Attributes

Singing: 2

Dancing: 3

Appearance: Average

Height: Average

Weight: Average

Additional Secondary Attributes LOCKED

Skill Tree LOCKED

Job: None (Loser)

Job Perks LOCKED

Income: Begging from Mom

Income Perks LOCKED

Relationships:

Mom loves you!!

Make some friends!

Relationship Goals And Perks LOCKED

Language Status:

English: Fluent

Korean:

Japanese: Even worse than Korean

Unlock more languages!

 

“Stats…. close?”

 

The screen in front of my eyes vanished without a trace. I winced at the thought of some of the descriptions, “Loser? Make some friends? My Korean ? What’s with the Japanese description! Pretty rude….” It was now apparent that whoever or whatever was making my life into a game enjoys tormenting me.

 

“Inventory”

 

A screen with a large blank box appeared with only the word “wallet” inside. “I guess I don’t really have anything with me. Hmmm… ‘Won: Hahahahahaha’ What’s that supposed to mean!” I checked my wallet, I really didn’t have any money.

 

“I think the worst part about this stupid game is that it’s making fun of me… but it’s all painfully right. Inventory close.” I thought before closing out the window.

 

Suddenly a vibration on my phone snapped me back to “reality.” Before I could actually get my mind back to the real world, I read the text.

 

Quest: Find a Job!

Go to an Idol Audition and PASS!

Reward: 500 exp

(Y) or (N)

 

“What the hell…. Why not?” I clicked the (Y) and a glowing path appeared in front of me. As I followed the path, a tall building appeared in front of me. A large banner just over the front doors read, “IDOL AUDITIONS! BECOME AN IDOL ALL THE AGENCIES WANT! TRAIN WITH THE TOP IDOLS OF THE COUNTRY!”

 

Shrugging my shoulders as I approached the sign in desk. Without asking any questions, they accepted my application and walked me into the waiting room.

 

“Ok. This is obviously a joke someone is playing on me somehow…. Like they would just accept people into an audition like this. Does this mean that I actually will pass this audition?!”

 

My number was called over the intercom so I walked into the judges’ room. It was completely white except for a table placed towards the back of the room with three judges seated behind it.

 

I had gotten this far without much thought, and it just dawned on me that I’m going to need some kind of talent to show off to the judges. I didn’t have any flashy talents, otherwise I wouldn’t be jobless right now.

 

“You may begin.”

 

Without knowing what to do, I started to do random dance moves that I had seen from dance videos on youtube.

 

“Stop stop stop. I see that you are older than most trainees, what do you think gives you a leg up on the younger more talented potential trainees that are auditioning today?”

 

I smiled shyly and tried to gather my thoughts quickly to answer the question all in English instead of Korean, “Well I’m from America so I can bring a different kind of diversity to the kpop world. I graduated college already with a bachelors degree. I have a strong work ethic.”

 

They waved me out of the room so all there was left to do was wait until the results were announced. Time seemed to drag on forever as people continued to file in and out of the audition room.

It couldn’t have been less than eight hours before the judges walked out of the room with a single piece of paper to tape on the wall. All the dreamers that auditioned rushed to the wall begging for their name to appear on the sheet. I decided that it would be better to wait until the mob of people started to disperse but the sight didn’t give me much hope. Countless men and women alike cried their eyes out, but it was hard to tell who was crying because they made it and who was crying because they failed.

 

Finally after most of the people left, I walked up to the list. I fist pumped into the air as I saw my name written at the bottom of the list. A message was written in big print at the bottom of the page, “All accepted trainees please arrive at the XXXX building at 8am sharp!”

 

A loud chiming sound rang throughout the room, or I guess it was just my head since nobody else made any acknowledgement, and a “Mission Passed!” bubble popped up along with another bubble, “Level 2!!”

 

I got 2 points that could go into my first basic attributes. Not sure what to put the points in, I saved them for distribution at a later time.

 

I arrived at the destination early the next morning, along with close to fifty other new trainees like myself. We were all put into groups, which I guessed was because of our auditions. Well, everyone except for me. I stood in the middle of the room all alone while everyone else dispersed to their group’s room.

 

“You. Come here. I am Sung Ji Hoon, a new CEO of a brand new company, and I have tons of money which I am not afraid to throw around. The only reason I am starting this is to help ordinary people become the idols that they have always dreamed of becoming. Unfortunately, as you are right now, you are untalented and have no hope of ever being an idol if you continue the way you are right now. BUT. We believe that if we can get you in shape with some training, then you could be the face of our new up and coming company. It’s actually going to be a collaboration idol company so we will have the ability to train you with other idols from different companies. How does that sound? Also… we have your first mentor in this practice room. Get to know him well because you will be spending A LOT of time with him.” One of the representatives told me.

 

The initial statement hurt, but getting trained by an idol sounded appealing to me. I rubbed my hands together excitedly as I entered the room to meet the idol.

“Hello. My name is Kim Jong Kook and I am going to help you get in shape. For the next two months, you will only see me. It is my job to get you into the best shape of your life!”

 

I stood frozen in place, somehow this was not how I planned my first day going. I was pulled onto a treadmill and forced to run while my new trainer upped the incline and speed. Luckily I wasn’t in terrible shape so I managed to stay on the treadmill longer than I had thought I would. Meanwhile Jong Kook was running on the treadmill at a higher pace and higher incline while making it seem almost effortless. The longest I could manage was 9 minutes and 42 seconds before I had to get off the machine. My trainer didn’t even seem tired as he hopped off the machine and escorted me to the bench.

 

“How much can you bench? I think we’ll just start at 45kg on each side.”

 

Weights were not something that I liked to do so this was going to be the most challenging part of the workouts without a doubt.

 

“Ya! Let’s go!”

 

The workout went on for about 3 hours before Jong Kook stopped to go to one of his schedules.

 

“This is only the first of many….” I thought.

 

A bubble popped up in front of my face, “Strength +2. Endurance +1. Level up, Level 3!”

 

Now I had two levels worth of points to put towards my abilities, but I still felt determined to save them for the right time. Walking exhaustedly back to my house reminded me once again of how awful these  next two months were going to be.

 

Two months passed relatively quick considering the amount of dread I was anticipating but it passed none the less. After the two months my stats had improved drastically, physically wise at least. I even unlocked one new skill!

 

Level: 12

Unspent Attribute Points: 22

Basic Attributes

Strength: 48

Intelligence: 25

Agility: 26

Flexibility: 21

Athleticism: 50

Dexterity: 25

Stamina: 35

Toughness: 60

Cleanliness: 7

Secondary Attributes

Singing: 2

Dancing: 3

Appearance: Athletic

Height: Average

Weight: Slim

Additional Secondary Attributes LOCKED

Skill Tree

Athletic Prowess (Running, weight lifting, anything that requires exceptionally physical abilities is increased by 10%)

Job: Trainee (Less of a loser)

Job Perks LOCKED

Income: Begging from Mom

Income Perks LOCKED

Relationships:

Kim Jong Kook: Sunbae-Hoobae Relationship

Mom still loves you!!

Make some friends!

Relationship Goals And Perks LOCKED

Language Status:

English: Fluent

Korean: Sketchy

Japanese: Even worse than Korean

Unlock more languages!

 

CEO Hoon met me at the front door of the company building with a new task.

“You are now going to meet an idol that is willing to help you with your singing. There will be two vocally sound idols coming here periodically to provide you with the necessary teachings to improve your singing ability. Today you will meet a female idol that is known for her singing, go through there and meet her.”

 

Finally I was going to get to meet a real idol, and hopefully someone that was going to be more lenient than Jong Kook.

 

A piano sitting in the middle of the room hid the girl from immediate sight.

 

“Who could it be? IU? Luna? The girl must be short if the piano is hiding her entire figure.”

 

I walked around the piano and was face to face with one of my favorite idols out there.

 

“Hello! My name is Kim Taeyeon! I am here to help you sing better. Hopefully I can help you as much as possible. Nice to meet you!” The small girl said with a friendly handshake.

 

I introduced myself and sat down next to her on the piano bench. I could smell her girly shampoo and her cute appearance was making it hard for me to concentrate on her lesson. The practice commenced according to plan, but I was having a lot more trouble putting all my concentration on the lesson this time around than when I was with Jong Kook. I caught myself staring at my mentor more than a few times and I’m pretty sure she caught me also.

 

After a couple hours of practicing I received my first indication that the practice was paying off. A bubble shot up in front of my face, “Singing ability +1.” Singing was a talent that I always longed to have but was not blessed with the talent. Fortunately, with this new…. gift… I was given a chance to become talented in something I was not given.

 

“I got better! My singing ability went up thanks to you!” I said loudly as I unintentionally gave her a tight hug. The small girl blushed with widened eyes and pushed me away.

 

“Y...Ya! I have a boyfriend. S...So don’t think that this is ok.” She said with her arms still extended and her head pointed straight down.

 

“Ahh! Sorry sorry. I forgot about Baekhyun!” I apologized while rubbing my hands together in front of my face.

 

We both decided that the lesson should end here so that the awkwardness could wear off before our next meeting.

“Don’t worry SooHwan. If you keep practicing like this then you’ll debut in no time!” The girl group leader said with a smile.

A bubble popped up in front of me, "Relationship status change: Taeyeon- idol crush"