The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

I used Insight once again.

Ziiing—!

I thought the system might be getting tired by now; it probably had no idea I would use Insight so much after giving me full power over Insight in a state of urgency. I also didn’t expect to use it this much either. However, as I kept using it, I felt that events where I needed to use it kept increasing.

Tick, tick, tock...

The sound of the clock’s secondhand moving slowed down, and I sat still and stared into space as time slowed down a hundred times more. What I was trying to do now could be quite reckless as I was trying to challenge the system’s authority. However, I recalled the mission in my head once again.

Then, the memory began to ‘ring’ in my ears. This part had been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. Usually, missions didn’t ring in user’s ears in stories; instead, they normally saw them in front of them with their eyes. Of course, since this was my first regression, I had no clear basis to judge whether this was normal or abnormal, but I intuitively thought that the system’s way of relaying missions by ‘ringing’ them in my ear was abnormal.

Thus, ‘I’m going to make it visible.’ I planned to make all my missions float in front of my eyes like a status window, and that was why I thought this wasn’t going to be easy, as it was something that intervened with the system’s authority. I stared at one point in the air, using my Insight.

Insight was a power that let people see through the very essence of things, and after using it multiple times, I realized that depending on where I focused on, the amount of information that entered my head varied. For example, if I intently focused on the TV, information about the TV poured into my head more intensively. And what I was focusing on right now was empty space; it was a blank space with no information to deliver. Perhaps the system knew what I was trying to do as a notification rang inside my head.

[You do not have permission to access this function.]

However, I paid no heed to the system’s voice and kept looking at the air. The deeper I focused my Insight into the empty space, the more I could see beyond the outward information I could see with my bare eyes. This was also a whole new playing field for me. After all, who would try to look at the very essence of the world- at least, unless they were Greek philosophers from a long time ago.

However, I continuously stared at one spot in the air until I could see through the inside and outside of this small space, which was the size of about an A4 paper. I began to write down the contents of the mission one by one on top of that space.

Ziiiing—!

Did I use too much of Insight again? I began to have a headache again. However, I ignored it and continued to increase my concentration.

Zzzskkkk-!

Letters began to rise one by one over the air.

[You do not have permission to access this function.]

Even though the letters were already coming up, the system kept telling me I didn’t have access to this information.

[You do not have permission to acc...]

The system seemed to now slowly get to the point where it couldn’t accurately assess the situation due to unexpected errors, so it suddenly stopped while talking.

‘It must have literally been a system.’ My thoughts that the system was like a computer code that utilized specific input and output values solidified.

‘But besides that, I should concentrate.’ I focused on engraving the mission into the air. Frankly, I wanted to engrave Woon’s death mission in the air and rewrite his risk of death. However, since it was close to the so-called “main” missions that the system periodically gave, I thought the system would have strongly protected the conditions from changing. Furthermore, the moment I tried to engrave that mission in the air, I felt a strong resistance, as if the Insight would come off.

Thus, I approached the music video view count mission, which was given as a ‘surprise mission,’ and I was able to make it appear into the space the size of an A4 paper much easier than Woon’s death mission. This feeling felt similar to pulling a file from a computer desktop. And as a result, I was able to do the following:

[Get more than 10 million views on the music video for the title track of your debut album in a week.]*

[Upon success, meeting with the 27th regressor.]

[Upon failure, Precognitive Vision will be retracted.]

‘...I did it!’ The ‘status window’ of the surprise mission appeared in front of my eyes. I raised my hand and touched that ‘window.’

I could not only touch it but rewrite the contents myself. ‘Let’s fix it.’ My goal right now was to modify the success reward of this mission. However, in order to modify the reward of this success, I needed to first modify the content of the mission as even while using Insight, I couldn’t change every mission as I wanted to. Thus, I tried to change the mission first, but—

[You do not have permission to access this function.]

The system that I thought was down came back.

‘What?’

Shahhh-

It deleted the mission window that I left in the air. I looked at the same spot once again, wondering if the system was trying to fight with me, but—

Ziiing—!

I ran into the limits of my Insight. It felt like I was going to get a nosebleed—no, nosebleeds were the least of my problems.

‘...My head...!’ My head hurt so much that I was worried I might collapse. After going to the emergency room after a nosebleed, I might fail to debut in the third week of June if I fainted on this sofa.

Swoosh!

Gasp! Thus, I had no choice but to deactivate Insight. However, I might have strained myself too much.

Drip.

Blood dripped down my nose. Although it wasn’t pouring like before, I couldn’t help feeling peeved.

Sighh. I pulled out a tissue and wiped my nose. My head rang so much that it was hard to sit down. I stretched out on the sofa and looked at the ceiling. I was so close to changing the mission. However, judging by the fact that I failed at the end, it appeared the system did not accept my bet unless I was at the brink of death.

‘As expected...unless I push the system by putting my life in danger, it won’t work.’

I guess I got arrogant after I successfully made a deal with the system for the first time today. However, if I had to risk my life to make a bet with the system every time...

‘I’ll have a really short life.’ I thought I should give up on good health and a long life by now.

‘Let’s aim for another chance.’ Preparing for our debut was urgent right now. After clearing my cluttered mind, I went back to my room.

***

We made our final push for our debut again the very next day. The A&R team immediately passed the lyrics I sent out without much feedback. They gave a general comment that they were good enough to be used as it was without additional revision.

‘Is this okay?’ I wrote these lyrics while dealing with many incidents. Of course, I hadn’t written them carelessly, but I sent them with the intention that I would have to revise them a few times.

‘I must have gotten better at writing lyrics.’ In the end, I concluded that my songwriting skills got better than I thought.

Besides the system and missions, various accidents and incidents occurred while preparing for our debut.

“Hey! Park Dong-Jun! I told you to stop putting tilde every time you talk!”

“How can a person put a tilde whenever they talk~”

“See, see! Even now! Please stop putting weird symbols while recording!”

“Geez, you sure talk a lot.”

“What did you say, punk?”

“If you’re so good, you come and do it!”

“This brat!”

“Ahhhhhh!”

Do-Seung and Dong-Jun had a huge blowout once while recording. Of course, considering their personalities, it was not a huge conflict that would impact their relationship in the long run.

“Wooow! He really hit me! Kang Do-Seung is hitting a person!”

“You’re the one who pushed your face towards me so that I could hit you. And I didn’t hit you. I just pushed you a bit!”

“Ahhhhh! I can’t hear you!”

Sigh. “You’re so annoying. What the hell!”

I always thought that Dong-Jun might get hit someday if he continued to act like that, but he finally got hit by Do-Seung that day. Of course, Do-Seung didn’t really hit him. When Dong-Jun kept pushing his head towards him, Do-Seung just pushed Dong-Jun’s head to the side in frustration. However, due to his massive strength, just a push from Do-Seung inflicted significant damage.

This was a small conflict that occurred before the debut process, and a slightly bigger conflict came to me.

“Tae-Yoon, there are people who saw you in the emergency room. Did you check the responses?”

“Ah, yes.” The fact that I was taken to the emergency room spread among fans, and there were signs of spreading into a controversy. Of course, the size was not big enough to be called a real controversy so it could be used as a method to stir up one more buzz before our debut. However, I didn’t want to get attention in a way that made our fans nervous.

So I said, “I just got reviewed by the PR team to post on social media before I came into the recording studio. They said they would check one sentence that might pose a problem and upload it right away.” freewe(b)novel.com

“Oh, really? Thank goodness.” Woon sighed in relief.

In perfect timing, I got a SNS notification, and the official statement I wrote was posted on SNS. The content was simple. In a bit more polite and formal language, I relayed to my fans that I went to the emergency room for a bit because I didn’t properly take care of my body and got some IV to recover from fatigue. I had no health problems at all and would take better care of myself. I apologized for making my fans worried and told them that I’d be a more professional Bong Tae-Yoon of Siren.

“Wow, it’s well written!”

“That’s a relief then.”

My statement must have been accepted well without misunderstandings as speculations about the agency and the team quickly faded and began to return to normal. After Dong-Jun came out, I went inside and began recording. Then Woon went in and recorded his part. Lastly, Yeon-Hoon went inside and recorded.

“Wow, Do-Seung, you could smile like that?”

“What now?”

“Booo, Kang Do-Seung shows so much favoritism...”

“Be quiet.”

As soon as Yeon-Hoon started singing, Do-Seung broke out into a wide smile. Then, he pressed the talkback button and said, “Yeon-Hoon, come out. It was perfect.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah, it was!”

Like this, the debut recording had entered its final stage. Our preparation for our debut progressed fast but stably as we had been waiting and looking forward to it for a long time.

***

It was Sunday weekend afternoon. People who were fans of Siren and Only One, started to get busy on Bluebird as everyone already knew that both Siren and Only One were going to release their first teaser today. There were many people who felt upset that Siren and Only One’s teasers overlapped, considering that they were rivals in The Showcase 2, but thanks to their famous rivalry, both groups’ debut became famous in the idol industry and garnered new viewers and fans.

—Ah, I can’t wait any longer!

—fuck Won-Dong!! Hurry up and release the teaser!

—Today...is the day Siren’s teaser is coming out...please give a lot of attention...

Siren fans seemed to focus only on their idols instead of being conscious of the fact that Only One was releasing their teaser on the same day. Their biggest interest was the teaser’s concept, whether it was an individual or group teaser, the beat of the song, and the outfit. And while Siren fans chatted and predicted the debut concept amongst themselves that evening, the teaser was finally released on Siren’s official SNS.

—???

—Tae-Yoon...?

Contrary to expectations that the group’s concept would become clearer once the teaser was released, fans became even more confused.

This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶