Chapter 10
It was Nobel, helpfully repeating herself in case I’d misheard.
[I said I can’t.]
[Didn’t I tell you, Master? My powers may be unreasonable, but even so, you have to entertain God. I can’t do all the work for you.]
“……”
[If I did everything for you, then it wouldn’t be you doing it. It’d be me.]
[It’s fine to borrow an AI’s power.]
[But you mustn’t depend on AI. That would be pathetic—giving up even the authority humanity was granted for itself.]
At first, Nobel’s words had stung, but when I thought about them calmly, she wasn’t wrong.
Come to think of it, I’d said I wouldn’t do that, yet I’d been quietly trying to rely on Nobel alone.
“You’re right. That makes sense.”
Whew.
After taking a small breath, I spoke again.
“Then I’ll change the question. What kind of help can you give me? I need to know that before I can decide what to do.”
[This is why I like you, Master.]
[Should I say you’re quick on the uptake? You accept reality fast and pull yourself together right away.]
[What I can do is tell you someone’s potential as an idol.]
“For example?”
[When you get close to someone you think has potential, I can tell you their grade.]
[A, B, C. And grades like S.]
“Hmm, I see. For now, I’d like to get a feel for how it works. That okay?”
[Of course.]
I said that, then pulled up performances by NTS and Novel Pink, the hottest groups in the world right now, on my phone.
But I couldn’t see any grades above the people on screen.
“So I can’t check through a screen.”
[Correct.]
[I can’t tell you everything, but I can tell you whether something you’ve already figured out is right or wrong.]
[If you could check through a screen, it would be too easy, wouldn’t it?]
“You’re right. Catharsis in entertainment comes after a suitable crisis. This is actually good, now that I think about it. It’d be weird if I solved everything too quickly. Even if I got good results, I’d be bound to raise suspicions.”
In that sense, a moderate adjustment to the difficulty was actually a good thing.
Too much of a good thing is bad.
It shouldn’t be excessive.
“Well, then. How about I check out the practice rooms?”
I took the elevator down to the second floor.
This was where trainees and active idols usually practiced dancing and took lessons.
Even today, I could see pretty girls with lovely figures working hard to debut and succeed.
“One, two, three, four……! One, two, three.”
Squeak, squeeeak-.
Beyond having insane visuals you’d rarely see out on the street, seeing them work hard and coordinate their movements made anyone want to cheer them on.
And then.
[Lee So-ra, A]
[Mina, S]
[Serina, A]
I could see them.
The grades Nobel had mentioned.
They were proudly displayed above their heads in translucent windows.
‘Those are the girls Park Ju-yong said he brought in.’
I didn’t know exactly how good an S was, but just watching those girls practice made it clear it wasn’t a bad grade.
You could definitely see S-grade Mina leading from the center.
“Hmm. Good. At this rate, there’s nothing I can’t do.”
After confirming how it worked, I hurried outside so I wouldn’t get tangled up with Park Ju-yong again for no reason.
Wearing a designer suit and sunglasses, I casually scanned the people walking along the street.
[Wang Gyeong-hwa, B]
[Lee Gyeong-hye, B]
“Hmm.”
After scanning people for over two hours, I realized something.
It seemed true that all the handsome and beautiful people in Korea got snapped up by entertainment agencies or idol academies.
I saw quite a few B grades.
That meant there were plenty of above-average-looking women.
But celebrities—idols—were supposed to shine.
They were supposed to captivate people with an overwhelming presence.
Naturally, you couldn’t succeed with a B grade.
“Hmm. This won’t be easy.”
As I checked the grades floating over people’s heads, it felt like my eyes were getting tired faster.
They weren’t exactly easy to see clearly.
[It’s the minimum price you have to pay.]
“This much is nothing.”
I didn’t have any reason to complain.
You can know a person’s grade in advance?
I thought that alone was practically getting things handed to me.
“In the end, all I have to do is invest the time.”
I’d probably find an S-grade talent just by continuing to walk around the streets like this.
But to me, that seemed like an enormous waste of time.
[What are you going to do?]
“You’re a god-tier AI and you couldn’t even predict that?”
[I don’t predict what Master will do. That’s what makes it fun.]
I lowered my sunglasses slightly and said,
“The kids at Hanbit High are really pretty. And you said it’s graduation season, so they’re about to become full-fledged adults, right?”
They look best at the perfect age to be ripe for the taking.
* * *
[The 28th Graduation Ceremony of Prestigious Hanbit High School]
Beneath the dazzling banner, another banner hung.
How many got into Seoul National, how many into Yonsei, how many into Korea University. KAIST, and so on.
The names of famous universities stretched out one after another.
“For a school that goes out of its way to emphasize how prestigious it is, there sure aren’t many decent people.”
Not that all chaebol were like that.
But among the chaebol, there were plenty with truly rotten personalities.
[You’re going straight to the school?]
“Yeah. This is the method they used most often when casting first-generation idols.”
These days, auditions or picking up idols who’d already been trained at academies were the main methods.
But I didn’t need to do that.
“If I’m going to raise them anyway, I thought it’d be fun to start from the very beginning. There’s a certain satisfaction in bringing them up. And they’d definitely follow me, too.”
[That’s interesting.]
I arrived at the school a little early, kept some distance from the main gate, and checked the grades of the Hanbit High students going in.
“Huh.”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
[Jeong Han-ju, A]
[Ahn Hae-sook, A]
Even on the street.
There were A-grade girls everywhere, the kind you’d have trouble finding even in a popular downtown district.
“Wow, that prestigious reputation really is something to be proud of.”
Even so, I couldn’t see any S grades.
Just that alone showed how rare people with S-grade talent and potential were in the world.
“Looks like they’ve almost all gone into school now?”
[Looks that way.]
[I’m curious why you’ve been waiting here all this time.]
“I’m just trying to spend my time wisely. You could say I’m drawing on the wisdom of the past. The casting methods they used back then weren’t wrong at all.”
Thinking that, I approached the few students still arriving and carefully asked them.
“Excuse me, student.”
“Yes?”
Most of them were startled by my sudden approach, but when I begged them to hear me out, plenty of kind kids agreed.
Adults wouldn’t even have given me a glance.
Kids really hadn’t been jaded yet.
The question I asked was simple.
“Could you tell me who the prettiest person at Hanbit High is? Please, do an old guy a favor.”
Nine out of ten gave me the same answer.
“Jo Yu-na from Class 3……”
“Senior Jo Yu-na.”
“Jo Yu-na, I think? I heard she got into Yonsei this year, too.”
Jo Yu-na, Class 3, Senior Year.
Jo Yu-na.
Even her name was pretty.
As I’d said over and over, being pretty didn’t guarantee success.
But a good face was a basic requirement in the entertainment industry, and if that look was overwhelming, it could be a talent in itself.
‘And if she got into Yonsei, she must be smart, too.’
Where had a total package like her come from?
Jo Yu-na from Class 3.
I etched that name into my mind and headed straight for the school, but the guard on duty in the gatehouse stopped me.
“Now, now, you can’t go in. The hours when the general public is allowed in are posted right here.”
Just as he said, the hours when ordinary people could enter were posted at Hanbit High’s main gate.
Early morning.
And around the evening.
“Oh, yes…… Sorry.”
Ignoring the guard and going in could be a crime, so I obediently backed away.
Instead.
“Hup!”
I circled around a little from the main gate.
Then I quietly vaulted the wall connected to the school’s storage building.
“Ugh!”
Damn.
My knee and Achilles tendon had throbbed with sharp pain in the process, but.
What could I do?
If I didn’t do it now, I might miss out on the greatest treasure.
“Ha, fuck. I really am getting old.”
Back in high school, I could skip ten steps at once without a problem. Now my knees and the backs of my ankles were screaming just because I’d jumped over a wall barely two meters high.
“Nobel. It’s time for you to help. Show me a route to Class 3, Senior Year, that avoids getting caught by teachers or anyone else.”
[Since you’ve made it this far inside, I can do that much for you.]
[Let’s go, Master!]
[First, walk straight to the central area behind the school, then enter through the back door of the main entrance.]
[The teachers are all gathered in the second-floor teachers’ office right now, and since the weather hasn’t warmed up yet, hardly anyone is coming out into the halls or outside.]
I followed Nobel’s directions.
“It’s been a while since I smelled this.”
And the [Keep to the Left] sign on the staircase stirred up some nostalgia, too.
Back when I was a student, I’d seen those things until I was sick of them.
“Is this why trends keep coming back around? I guess people are bound to miss the past.”
[Come on, hush.]
[Next, hurry up to the fourth floor, go into the bathroom, and wait there for 30 seconds.]
[The second-year homeroom teachers went to their classes to pass along something.]
[For the record, even though it’s vacation season, general academic high schools don’t get breaks like that.]
Just as Nobel said.
Hiding in the corner of the men’s room, I heard someone who sounded like a homeroom teacher open the door and speak. The voice carried into the bathroom.
[Finally, dash up to the fifth floor! Go left from the central staircase, and Class 3, Senior Year is there.]
Once I got to the fifth floor, there wasn’t much to worry about.
It was practically a madhouse.
Maybe because they were about to graduate, there were guys playing baseball and soccer in the hallway.
Some were even dancing with headphones on.
Some were brazenly smoking in the stairwell between the fourth and fifth floors.
“Well, they’re twenty now.”
They’d probably already been drinking, too.
Besides, whether they’d gotten into college through early admissions or regular admissions, their schools or career paths had already been decided. They only came to school for the morning to meet attendance requirements or prepare for graduation, so what could anyone do?
And so I arrived in front of Class 3, Senior Year.
“That has to be her. Jo Yu-na.”
She was wearing just one elegant, pretty coat over her uniform, and it suited her perfectly.
She clearly had a sense of fashion, too.
Above all, the face and figure attached to her neck were a cheat code.
You could say she had a mature figure that was hard to believe belonged to a girl who’d just turned twenty.
[Jo Yu-na, S]
S grade.
The grade Nobel showed me was unmistakable.
If there was one thing that worried me…
“Damn, we’re graduating already. Fuck. Heeju, you’re gonna miss me, aren’t you?”
It seemed she was a delinquent.
She was sitting on a desk and bullying a girl.
And she was being a lot rougher than I’d expected.
“What am I supposed to do, then? Fuck.”
Still, she was S-grade, so should I try to do something?
I was in the middle of wondering that.
“Wait a second.”
My eyes caught the text floating above the head of a girl who was dazed, kneeling at Jo Yu-na’s feet.
[Eun Hee-ju, SS]
It was a grade I’d never seen before.