Save a Failed Idol's Life

“Uh…”

I couldn’t answer right away and stuttered. Then, Pposili barked at me as if to tell me to explain quickly and ran towards me.

“Pant pant pant, woof-! Pant.”

He was much more friendly and close to me than when he dealt with the others. Seon-woo and Yi-jun both looked at me.

What should I say? I shouted in my head.

‘If this is the materialization function, is dematerialization impossible?’

It was impossible to handle. I had firmly told Seong-won that animals were not allowed in the dorm, so this was a big problem.

[You need to activate the materialization function to use Pposili’s 2nd level function.]

[Do you want to downgrade Pposili and lose the 2nd level function?]

Why is this so extreme? Yi-jun’s eyes narrowed as I hesitated.

‘What is the 2nd level function?’

[Pposili can detect and cure some of the partial actions/status abnormalities of some of his companions.]

What is that? What does that even mean?

As soon as I thought of that, Pposili quickly jumped into Yi-jun’s arms.

“Ack! Why do you suddenly run at me!”

Pposili hugged Yi-jun tightly and licked his face. A small sub-layer appeared next to the main status window.

It was a layout like a chat window that appeared at the bottom when doing live broadcasts on SNS or Y Live.

[※‘Oh Yi-jun’ is ‘suspicious’ of the user.]

Did I not know that? I could tell that without seeing the chat window.

I had enough sense to read the mood. Should I just say he’s my dog and I’ll take care of him for a while and then send him away?

I had to make a good decision. I felt a headache and thought for a moment.

Then, Pposili went to Seon-woo as if to show him and another line appeared on the sub-layer chat window.

[※‘Na Seon-woo’s’ condition has entered the ‘very bad’ stage. If he does not rest soon, he will enter the status abnormality ‘overwork’.]

I glanced at Seon-woo’s face and sure enough, his face was paler than usual.

But it wasn’t so obvious that I would have thought he was not feeling well if I didn’t know.

‘This… might be more useful than I thought?’

I decided to see how it goes. I nodded to myself and opened my mouth.

“Uh… I don’t know why he’s here all of a sudden. He’s my dog.”

“What?”

Yi-jun stroked Pposili with his hand and looked at me.

“Your dog?”

“Uh… I’ll call home right away. He’s well-trained, so he won’t cause any trouble.”

I dodged the question and Pposili barked as if to agree.

“I’ll call home right now, so Seon-woo, you go wash up. You look pale.”

I ignored his incredulous look and pushed Seon-woo’s back. He grunted and went to the bathroom.

I pushed Seon-woo into the bathroom and sneaked a peek at Yi-jun’s expression. He was looking at me and Pposili alternately with suspicion.

[※‘Oh Yi-jun’ is ‘suspicious’ of the user.]

Well, what can I do if he suspects me? There was no way he could figure out Pposili’s true identity with his common sense and imagination.

Now I had to think of a reason to keep him at my place until I could confirm how valuable that function was…

I pretended to call home and went into my room with my phone.

“You should go and wash up too. If you’re going to turn on the live stream before bed, you have to hurry.”

As I waited for the call to connect and tried to send Yi-jun to the living room bathroom, he looked at me with a suspicious eye.

“Hurry up. Don’t make other people wait for the bathroom.”

“…Fine, I got it.”

Yi-jun nodded slowly. Pposili, who had been stroked by Yi-jun for the last time, ran back to me with his short legs.

Only when Oh Yi-jun went back to the bathroom did I sigh and pat my chest.

What am I supposed to do with this? I put down my phone and grabbed my head.

“Kiiing, kkuung…”

How can he look so real when he’s not even a real dog? I hugged Pposili with a flash.

Unlike other small dogs, he was quite heavy, probably weighing at least 10kg.

“What am I going to do with you…”

As soon as I sighed, the status window scrolled down.

[Do you want to view the Lv.2 ‘Pposili’ breeding guide?]

[Yes/No]

I didn’t have much time, but of course I chose ‘Yes’.

Then, just like the terms and conditions, a series of flashy contents followed.

‘The letters seem to have gotten smaller?’

Then Pposili growled softly, as if to deny it.

What do you mean, no? I reflexively squinted my eyes to read the letters.

“Ah.”

And then I realized in a second. With this body, I didn’t need to frown to see small letters anymore.

I’ve been living for over a thousand years, but I still have some unfamiliar things left. I coughed and read the explanation.

It was not much different from the general guide for raising a dog.

Except for the last line.

[However, the above guide content is based on the general breeding method of mammals and animals, and the system management artificial intelligence does not require any measures for life maintenance.]

In other words, to summarize.

I could feed him, walk him, clean up his toilet, and do whatever I wanted, but it wouldn’t be a big deal if I didn’t.

Pposili seemed to understand and lifted his front paw to scratch my leg.

‘What kind of robot dog…’

No. If I thought about it properly, that was right. This thing… was it artificial intelligence? Or a system interface? It was composed of something unknown, not a machine.

‘If he doesn’t eat or poop and he’s fine, what is this made of?’

As I lifted Pposili and hugged him, I felt his warm fur and his beating heart, just like any other dog.

He looked no different from a living creature, but how could he not be a real dog?

As I stared into Pposili’s brown eyes with a doubtful look, he licked my face with his pink tongue.

“Hehehehe, hehehe, woof!”

“St-stop it.”

Do all dogs love licking this much? It couldn’t stay still for a moment, and its wagging tail was no different.

It was cute, sure, but!

“Ugh…”

I finally fell over from its body slam and collapsed on the floor. Kyunghwa came into the room with a pale face.

“What’s going on? Where is that barking coming from… Huh?”

Kyunghwa rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, as if he doubted what he was seeing.

“Huh? Huhh?”

Then he looked at the dog with a dumbfounded expression and said.

“Am I still very sick?”

“So, it’s your family’s dog, but they had an urgent situation and asked you to take care of it? Its name is Pposili.”

I nodded quietly as I sat on the sofa, and a status window popped up.

[※‘Ryu Kyunghwa’ is ‘suspicious’ of the user.]

[※‘Oh Yi-jun’ is ‘suspicious’ of the user.]

[※‘Son Seong-won’ is ‘suspicious’ of the user.]

I know, okay. I saw the three suspicion marks pop up one after another, and I wondered if my excuse was too unbelievable.

I was grateful that Seon-woo didn’t show up, but it wasn’t helpful at all. How was he going to survive in this harsh world? I was worried about him, even though it was none of my business.

“Well, I have some personal reasons that make it hard to explain. I trained it well, so it can take care of itself and eat on its own. It’s smarter than most people, so don’t worry. I’ll manage it well.”

Then Seong-won immediately complained.

“Even if it’s smart, it’s still a dog. It has a lot of energy and it’s hard to handle.”

He was being quite hostile, even though I hadn’t said I would keep it in the dorm forever.

It was because he had been nagging me to send away Aeongi, to put it up for adoption, to not get too attached to it, since before I brought it.

“It’s much smarter than you think. You can think of it as a middle schooler or above, if you compare it to a human.”

A middle schooler? It understood speech better than the average adult.

“You were telling me to get ready to send it away soon.”

That was because I didn’t know that Pposili would suddenly show up like this.

Woof! Pposili barked as if to agree. Aeongi flinched slightly at the sound of its bark, then slowly approached Pposili.

“Krrr?”

Pposili tilted its head as if to ask what it was, then spun around to let Aeongi smell it.

“Meow?”

Then Aeongi plopped down on Pposili’s soft and fluffy fur and belly, using it as a cushion.

“Aeongi seems to like it…”

[※‘Na Seon-woo’ is ‘sympathetic’ to the user.]

He must have wanted to help me out of the pinch.

His intention was very noble, but it seemed to make Seong-won more negative towards me.

“It might spread germs, don’t go near it.”

Seong-won snatched Aeongi and hugged it to his chest. Was he jealous of the dog? How childish.

Then Pposili ran towards Seong-won with its warm and moist tongue out.

“Get away, what are you doing!”

Seong-won struggled as much as he could, but there was no way to get rid of the 10kg puppy unless he pushed it away with all his might.

“Ugh, stop licking me! I said stop!”

Yi-jun watched Seong-won being licked as if he was being tortured by Pposili and said,

“We have to go buy some food for him tomorrow morning.”

He felt a surge of anxiety, thinking that tomorrow would be another long day like today.

The next day. Yi-jun woke me up by shaking me before 8 a.m.

“Get up quickly. We have to take Pposili for a walk and stop by the vet to buy some food.”

I wondered what he was talking about with such a gust of wind, but then he lifted Pposili up and put him on my face.

“Ugh, what the hell, ugh…”

“What do you mean, what the hell? It’s a belly attack.”

10kg was too heavy to bear with just my face. I gave up and got up.

[Welcome, Cheonise (Lim Hyun-seong).]

[Test successfully ended]

[Press the [Start] button to start the first main quest.]

As soon as I got up, I checked the status window. It was neatly organized, unlike the previous countdown message.

Now… what is this main quest?

I wanted to check it right away, but Yi-jun and Pposili were in front of me.

“Get up already-.”

He’s not even a kid. He nagged me to go for a dog walk in the morning, so I had no choice but to get up.

“Just a minute. Let me clear my head.”

First, I checked how the rankings had changed overnight.

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