Ch.12Monster Rookie Appears

Sims – Real Life.

A game that combines life simulation and roguelike genres.

Its distinctive features are providing situations through various scripts,

and having tens of thousands of different endings depending on your choices.

But if this process was filled with only randomness, players would get bored.

The solution to this problem was special benefits.

These benefits exclude unpleasant events and increase the probability of comfortable situations occurring.

And among these benefits, the most powerful one is-

‘Smooth Sailing.’

Having life go smoothly encompasses multiple meanings.

Everything you do succeeds as a basic premise, and you live without major misfortunes.

The biggest factor at work here is luck.

Smooth Sailing allows you to artificially adjust this luck element.

I was curious how this would apply in reality, unlike in the game.

‘To think I can know information about the future.’

Even though it was fragmentary information, the fact that I could confirm it didn’t make sense.

Of course, my answer to this message was ‘Yes.’

-[As your future has been determined, your future information will be focused on ‘actor’ related matters.]

-[We are attaching a photo of the future where you can be most successful.]

-[Photo]

Smooth Sailing sent no more messages after the photo.

It seemed to be saying that this was all the fragmentary information it would provide.

‘I wonder what will be in the photo.’

When I checked the photo with such curiosity.

“Huh.”

I immediately let out a scoff.

‘I’m going to go there?’

In the photo, I was at an audition.

‘This is High Dream.’

High Dream, a drama that aired in 2011.

It was one of the hit productions jointly produced by a broadcasting station, an idol agency, and an actor agency,

with a large-scale audition and quite a substantial capital investment.

A story about the youth of students at an arts high school.

Not only was it popular, but it recorded tremendous ratings despite mostly featuring rookies.

‘So many actors became successful because of it.’

Tap tap.

Wondering if there was anything else to see, I zoomed in on the photo to examine it more closely.

But I noticed something strange.

‘Do all the kids auditioning have managers behind them?’

The auditioning children all had someone standing behind them.

Their faces were blurry, but they all looked like managers.

‘I don’t have one though?’

What could this mean?

Could it be.

‘Am I supposed to audition without an agency?’

Why?

‘Because of the price tag?’

The price a rookie can command is fixed anyway.

Even with a good agency, a rookie with no experience can’t get paid much.

The advantage would be a higher chance of passing the audition?

But that wasn’t something I needed to worry about.

Because.

‘I’m handsome.’

It would be ridiculous not to cast someone with this face.

So the message was to go as a complete rookie, appear in High Dream to raise my value,

and then have the upper hand in the process of finding an agency later.

‘Or maybe I’m just reading too much into a single photo.’

I put my phone in my pocket and left the bathroom.

My goal was to create a profile for the open audition.

The first thing to do for that was.

‘To show my musical talent.’

+++++

Time flew by quickly and it was Saturday.

Finally, the day for band activities had arrived.

Ding dong! Ding dong!

>My agency is going crazy telling me to try out for the High Dream audition, so I think I’m going to do it.

>You should definitely audition too. They’re having open auditions.

>I’ll really be mad at you if you don’t audition.

>Reply right away when you read this!

<Okay, I’ll audition too.

After getting her contact information,

I sent a casual reply to Kim Sujin’s KakaoTalk message that she’d been sending steadily, then looked up.

“Donghu! I found out it’s at KBC, and applications are due next week!”

“Really? Thanks for letting me know.”

Right after I mentioned that I was going to audition for High Dream,

Kim Minhyeok eagerly volunteered to find out various things.

Most of what he brought was information I already knew, but

I really appreciated his thoughtfulness.

“But is it really okay for just us to practice separately?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

Shin Yerim asked if it was okay that only she, Minhyeok, and I were in the music room.

Understandably, since band clubs usually rent external studios and have teacher advisors,

she found it strange that it was just us.

“I got permission for everything.”

When I told the school that I needed to prepare for an audition,

everyone nodded readily, thinking it was only natural.

Since I had gained unlimited trust from the teachers after dealing with the school bullies,

they completely trusted me even with such independent activities.

Of course, my handsome appearance played a big role in that trust.

When someone who’s clearly handsome and tall says they’re preparing for an audition,

most people are eager to help.

“But Donghu, isn’t this really expensive?”

Minhyeok trembled looking at the installed camcorder.

He had to hold it to film, but it looked expensive to anyone, so he was nervous.

“Oh, well… my uncle gave it to me.”

That wasn’t a lie.

It was bought with the rent money from an unnamed “uncle.”

“Really? Your uncle must be rich.”

“O-o-oh. I-I’ll h-help too.”

“…But Kangsik, are you sure you can do this instead of joining the computer club?”

When I said I was joining the band club,

Kangsik quietly followed me and applied for the band club too.

Why would someone who needs to make AAA-grade games suddenly join the band club?

When I asked that, Kangsik’s answer was quite adorable.

“I-I m-might make a m-music game l-later.”

Right, for a 14-year-old, the most important thing wasn’t a distant future dream.

Is there any other time when friends are more important than at this age?

I completely understood Kangsik’s choice.

Plus, surprisingly, Kangsik had talent for bass, and even knew how to play it.

“M-my dad… used to say it would be f-fun to play together.”

For reference, Kangsik’s father played guitar.

Wouldn’t he normally teach guitar then? But there was a reason for this too.

“He said bassists get hired easily in any band…”

Just as healers are nobility when forming parties in games,

he was targeting the scarcity of bassists in bands.

‘Wait, he considered even that when teaching his kid an instrument?’

This explains where Kangsik gets his occasional quirkiness from.

“Anyway, let’s get started.”

“Okay, I’ll film you well.”

“Leave the accompaniment to me!”

“D-doom, d-doom… I’ll do it.”

Shinbit Middle School Band Club #2 was ready to deploy.

+++++

KBC Drama Production Office.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.”

Currently, the casting director, CD’s screams were echoing through the place.

“We need new faces, fresh and handsome, you know? All fluffy!!!”

“…Here we go again. Who exactly are you looking for?”

“Rookies!!!! Super fresh rookies! Vibrant!!! Like in-season fruit!”

Bang!

CD Shin Youngsook grabbed her head.

“It’s fine that the broadcasting station, idol agencies, and actor agencies are co-producing! But! They shouldn’t push their influence too strongly!”

High Dream, a drama set in an arts high school.

Since it inevitably needed both actors and idols, they had to co-produce with agencies,

and it was okay that a considerable number of castings came from those agencies.

But.

“How can they influence the open auditions? This is our territory!”

The problem was that they were trying to fill everything with people from their own agencies.

While understanding their reluctance to share the pie,

this was clearly the broadcasting station’s domain.

However, a problem had arisen.

They had announced open auditions claiming it was the broadcasting station’s domain,

but no particularly impressive applicants had appeared.

“Ugh, ick! Ack! Eck! Aaaaargh!”

Shin Youngsook had no idea where or how to resolve this anger and frustration.

“And the director’s words are ridiculous too! He says he wants super-special rookies from the broadcasting station, but why allocate such a small budget for audition promotion?!”

At the peak of her anger,

just as that anger was about to be misdirected somewhere,

“Oh, Team Leader. We received a new application? There’s a video with it too.”

New blood!

Shin Youngsook suppressed her anger and rushed to her team member’s computer.

“Profile? Is the face visible?”

“Yes, but it seems… heavily edited?”

“…You’re right, what’s a 14-year-old doing with that much editing.”

As soon as she saw the application, Shin Youngsook sighed deeply.

This was exactly what made her more angry.

What’s the point of using amateur Photoshop to make yourself look extremely handsome?

It would all be exposed in the attached video anyway.

She couldn’t understand why people did such meaningless things.

“But didn’t we set the age requirement to high school students? How did a 14-year-old apply?”

“It says he’s 170cm tall?”

“…Argh! How long do we have to deal with such fraud?”

Despite her words, she was curious.

The exaggeration was so extreme that she became curious about what he would actually look like.

Click click.

Shin Youngsook, too tired to say more, immediately played the video.

-I-is this how you record?

The first scene that greeted Shin Youngsook was a severely shaking screen as if there was an earthquake.

Evidence that the person filming was a novice.

Meanwhile, the video quality was good, suggesting the equipment itself was quite expensive.

-A-am I being filmed now?

-No, but let’s film each person before starting the performance.

The next person on screen was a slightly chubby 14-year-old boy.

He was holding a bass and seemed to have trouble speaking.

At this point, Shin Youngsook’s brow furrowed deeply.

“Don’t tell me it’s him?”

“Ah… probably not. His name tag says Na Kangsik? The applicant is Kim Donghu.”

“Fast forward a bit, why would they send something like this for an audition?”

She was about to ask if they didn’t know how to edit, but held back.

Well, how would a 14-year-old know how to edit?

Then suddenly she had a thought.

‘If they can’t edit, maybe the resume is genuine?’

So the video was fast-forwarded.

Past a model-like girl awkwardly smiling while touching a keyboard.

Finally, when Kim Donghu appeared.

“Wow.”

Shin Youngsook let out a short exclamation.

The wrinkles between her eyebrows had completely disappeared.

“Accepted.”