I Debut with 100 Billion Won

Chapter 2

A light enveloped him as he was informed that he was about to start a Special Mode, and he wondered how he was supposed to make sense of the situation in this small studio.

Staring blankly at the room for a long time.

No matter how much he tried to pinch his cheek.

“Ow!”

He could only feel a numbing pain, and there was no going back to how things were.

‘Damn it.’

‘What the hell is this?’

How can he possibly comprehend this?

No one will ever be able to grasp any of this.

After spending money on an idol nurturing game, he ended up entering into that game

Even as a joke, the unbelievable story unfolded before him.

Two hours in the room.

He searched the room thoroughly, hoping to find a clue to return to the original world, but to no avail.

‘The only thing I found was.’

Frames with torn photos and yearbooks from elementary and middle school.

And a few worn-out clothes.

In this cramped room with only one bed and one desk, these were the only things present.

The middle school student ID carefully placed in the drawer had a unfamiliar face with the name Yoon Gun-ha written on it

-Yoon Gun-ha.

Same name as him.

But a different face.

He knew what this meant.

‘They mentioned something about “My Idol Special Mode” ‘

It was undeniable that he had become possessed by Yoon Gun-ha, the idol trainee who existed in the game.

No matter how many times he thought about it, the same conclusion emerged.

Otherwise, there was no other explanation.

Staring at the unfamiliar reflection in the mirror.

A man with an unfamiliar face that moved with him every time he moved his body.

Not handsome enough to be called good-looking, but just a little bit average to pass for normal.

A young man with a soft demeanor.

In place of the wrinkles on his brow caused by his habit of frowning whenever he conducted business, and the dull skin that hadn’t been able to withstand the passage of time despite his care, was a face with firm skin and no trace of wrinkles.

The man in the mirror, slightly more mature than the photo on the student ID card, stared at him in the mirror with an odd expression.

‘Yoon Gun-ha.’

A twenty year old by the looks of it.

Should he lament the disappearance of his life as an entrepreneur?

Or should he rejoice in his newfound youth?

He was confused.

‘Possession.’

It’s an interesting situation.

Becoming a character with the same name as someone in the game is quite something.

He decided to open the phone to see if he could gather any information about this ‘Yoon Gun-ha’.

The contacts left on the old phone that had been lying around for years.

– MAE Director Yang Hyun-woo.

– Dad.

That was it.

‘MAE?’

It was undoubtedly the name of a competing entertainment company that appeared in the game.

‘Was he originally affiliated with this company?’

Well.

That was about as fuzzy as it was.

As much as he enjoyed the game, the prologue story was a distant memory.

It didn’t come back to him easily. However, he distinctly remembered that MAE consistently competed with the player company GH in the game.

‘So, I’m going there because I got kicked out of here?’

He’ll have to think about that later.

The only contacts on the phone were the Entertainment Director of the company and the father.

‘Did he not save the numbers of his colleagues?’

It seems like they aren’t that close.

“Even the recent calls are all from Director Yang.”

They talked on the phone periodically, at least once a week.

The call records show 3, 5, and 7 minutes….

It was probably about exchanging greetings and discussing how things were going with his recent arrangements.

The last call with his dad, the only one he can find, was a year ago.

It’s even a missed call.

That meant he didn’t even pick up that call.

He didn’t know what had happened in the past, but it was clear that it wasn’t pretty.

The torn photo in the frame was probably a picture of him with his father.

‘I don’t have a good relationship with my father, and I’m not very social.’

And then he looked at the photo album.

“Hey….”

The photo album was filled to the brim with countless videos.

Most were between one and three minutes long.

The background was a practice room filled with mirrors on all sides.

He played one video.

– Hello, this is Yoon Gun-ha. Today’s dancer cover is ‘My Love’ by Blue Cover Seniors.

In the video, Yoon Gun-ha on the screen started dancing along with the accompaniment as the prelude flowed.

Dancing along to the fast-paced song, Gun-ha didn’t stop dancing until the song was over.

After more than three minutes of singing, the video ends with Gunha wiping the sweat from his forehead and running over to grab his phone.

There are hundreds of such videos.

The volume was staggering, as if he took one almost every day.

-Hello. I’m Gunha Yoon. The song I’ll be singing today is….

Not only dancing, but also singing.

The amount of videos stored on the phone was enough to give him an idea of the intensity of the training.

There must be a lot of things that never got filmed.

There are even videos from five years ago, when he was still in middle school.

“So this is why the floor is so worn.”

The floor was worn out and polished.

In addition to practicing in the practice room, there were traces of practicing alone in the room.

The traces of Yoon Gun-ha’s desperate efforts were evident all over the room.

– Today’s activities: Dance practice 5 hours, singing practice 3 hours, exercise 2 hours, GED preparation 3 hours.

– Today’s food: One piece of sweet potato for breakfast, two eggs for lunch, 100g of chicken breast, salad…”

The calendar was filled with a detailed list of what Gun-ha did every day.

At the end of each day, he wrote down what he did, what he ate, and so on.

Today might be May 11, because there were no notes from that day forward.

And a big star marked a month later.

– Our team debut.

But was he still included in the debut group?

The big star, drawn with a yellow marker pen, was full of anticipation.

‘I’m ready.’

However, objectively speaking, Yoon Gun-ha’s singing and dancing on the screen didn’t seem to be good.

There was nothing that really stands out.

No wonder he’s being ridiculed as an F-grade idol trainee in the game.

Both in-game idol characters and players alike.

‘A hardworking trainee.’

No matter how hard Gun-ha practiced, his lack of talent meant that this was his limit.

And then there’s the “GED preparation”.

There was a particular word that stood out conspicuously on the calendar.

GED Preparation.¹

Could it be that he graduated from middle school but didn’t attend high school?

Come to think of it, there were albums from elementary and middle school, but there was no sign of a high school album.

He wondered if perhaps after graduating from middle school, he had given up on high school and joined an idol group.

“You’ve had quite a rough life.”

There were glimpses of Yoon Gun-ha not just as the F-grade trainee seen in the game, but as a ‘person’ that couldn’t be seen through the game.

‘Is this something one can only find… in the game?’

He wasn’t sure.

But one thing is for sure.

Right now, he’s inside the body of this Yoon Gun-ha, and he needs to find a way to get back to his original world.

It’s good to be in a young twenty-year-old body again.

But there’s no way he’d go through that arduous journey ever. Absolutely not!

As much as he enjoyed watching his Idols grow up on My Idol, that is another matter.

He enjoys watching his idols strive to fulfill their dreams, but he doesn’t necessarily want to do it personally.