Chapter 4

Ex-Internet Celebrity Becomes Top Star - Chapter 4 (4/110)

4

From the moment he started rummaging through his phone, something felt a bit off.

But I didn't expect it to be this bad.

"Rowoon? Don't misunderstand, just listen calmly, okay?"

The manager spoke very carefully, choosing his words with great caution.

"Bro, you know? They really appreciate your dedication to acting. What method you use doesn't matter! The fact that you want to act is already a sign of effort!"

Moved by his meticulous and heartfelt consideration, Rowoon decided to stop tormenting this kind person.

'At this point, my reputation in the industry must be at rock bottom.'

There was no need to ask the manager; it was obvious.

The only thing he was curious about was how a person with such terrible acting skills managed to appear in so many productions.

'...Was it because he had a lot of money? But where did he get the money from? I heard you can make money with a lot of SNS followers, but his feed didn't look like it had any ads.'

Instead, his SNS seemed more like a showcase of how well he could manage money.

I could imagine him shouting, "How dare you bury such trash in my feed!" if someone dared to post an ad.

'So, it must be... his family, right?'

Thinking of this, he decided to ask.

"Ah! Right, bro... I have another question. What's the deal with the family? I checked the phone, and there were no family members saved. And considering he's a doctor, it's strange that there's no contact with anyone. I'm just curious."

"Ah... about the family..."

Fortunately, this time the manager didn't have an earthquake in his eyes.

However,

"I'm not very familiar with that... Rowoon, you really hated talking about your family. Mr. President might know, though. He handled the contract directly since you joined the agency as a minor... He might know about your family. If you're curious, you can ask him?"

Unfortunately, there was no useful information.

"No, it's fine. I'm not that curious."

If the original person deliberately hid it, there must be a reason.

'What if the relationship is bad?'

When it came to family, Rowoon was also clueless.

If he dug up some old issues, it could be problematic.

'Right. He didn't even want to talk about it. I'll just leave it for now.'

What was important now wasn't whether his family relationship was good or bad.

The most urgent thing was to figure out how to accumulate 'merit' to avoid dying.

As time passed, night deepened.

And then,

Ding!

It appeared.

With an unknown notification.

* * *

Rowoon instinctively knew.

'Ah, I need to do something about this quickly or I'm screwed.'

Even when the members caused accidents, he didn't have such a foreboding feeling.

Compared to now, those times were like a drop in the bucket.

"Bro, are you really okay to go? Isn't it a bit strange to leave you alone? I should stay with you... You lost your memory, are you really okay?"

After the mysterious countdown appeared,

The first thing Rowoon did was to send the manager away.

"I'm fine. You need to rest too. I'm perfectly fine, so what could go wrong?"

Despite the unsettling notification, Rowoon tried to remain calm.

"No, really, I can stay the night. If you're okay with it... Or, wait, are you...?"

But the manager looked doubtful.

After a moment,

"No, he wouldn't make up a strange excuse to make me leave. He wouldn't be so polite. If he wanted to go, he wouldn't care about the schedule. Not that he had many schedules anyway..."

Muttering to himself, he shook his head as if thinking.

"Besides, he's not that talented an actor. He always had seizures when he saw the doctor, but now he's so calm, it can't be an act..."

"..."

"Ah! Right, he doesn't have the brains to pull something like that! I was just overthinking it."

"..."

In a maddening situation with an unknown countdown,

These were still shocking statements.

Rowoon was confused.

'Is this distrust or trust? It seems like trust, but the content is a bit...?'

Just how bad must the original person have been for the evaluation to be so harsh?

"Alright, I'll trust you and go home today. The doctor said it's important to reduce your stress."

"Th... Thank you..."

"Since you lost your memory, I'm hearing all these thanks. Maybe amnesia isn't all bad..."

Bro, your inner thoughts are all spilling out...

Despite the distrust, the result was good, so it's fine.

"That's really ominous."

In the quiet, spacious house, Rowoon bit his nails and paced around.

"In novels and movies, that usually means you'll die in 7 days..."

His crisis instinct, honed from years of dealing with the members' accidents and rumors, whispered fiercely to him.

Moreover, the clue Chinghua left before disappearing.

'Rent.'

That word strongly stimulated his sense of crisis.

'Accumulating merit usually means doing good deeds, right?'

Isn't that the lesson from folk tales?

'Or religion?'

Unfortunately, Rowoon was an atheist.

If he had known, he would have believed in something!

The original person was lucky if he didn't believe in demons, so there was no expectation.

'Right, there was a donation?'

Money, after all, can buy forgiveness, right?

The problem was that the original person had no money.

How did he know? He didn't really want to know.

'How can someone living in such a luxurious and spacious house, surrounded by all kinds of luxury items and expensive alcohol, have 0 won?'

It wasn't exactly 0 won, but he was very poor.

How did this person afford to live like this?

'What other options are there?'

Biting his nails, he paced around the house several times.

It was a good decision to send the manager away first.

Otherwise, he might have been seen kneeling, looking up at the sky, raising his arms, pounding the ground, and crying, then standing up to bite his nails and pace around again...

"Mr. Chinghua! It's not time to sleep yet!"

"System!"

"Status window!"

He would have been seen as a madman.

Perhaps his earnestness reached someone.

Ding!

"Ah?"

A clear notification sounded.

And an unexpected notification appeared before his eyes.

"..."

Was the countdown already decreasing?

'Stars?'

Just as he thought that,

Another notification appeared.

For some reason, he felt a piercing gaze.

'Stars? Could it be... above?'

Chinghua mentioned celestial secrets. Could it really be beings from the sky?

Just as Rowoon was looking up,

Ding!

A clear and pure sound echoed throughout the world.

...

A window appeared with numbers counting up endlessly.

Rowoon had a hunch.

'This is it.'

He finally found the clue he had been desperately searching for.

* * *

Rowoon's mind was racing.

'Could the 'people' Mr. Chinghua mentioned be these beings?'

He couldn't let this clue slip away.

If his life before was like a drifting leaf,

Now, after waking up from near death, his will to live was burning fiercely.

So he asked,

"Are you the ones who created this system?"

If the manager had seen him talking to the air, he would have been terrified.

Sending him away first was indeed a wise choice.

To his surprise, he got a response.

'Something about taboos, I guess?'

Though there was no clear answer, Rowoon understood.

There were many questions, but...

The most urgent and important thing was this.

"Do you know what this countdown is about?"

The message window, which had been buzzing, suddenly went quiet.

It felt like everyone was holding their breath, watching Rowoon.

It was as if they were waiting to see who would speak first.

Then,

A message appeared.

"Look around?"

His instincts kicked in.

This is definitely a clue!

Nothing to lose. Rowoon immediately started searching the surroundings.

'First, I've already searched the bedroom, dressing room, and kitchen, so I need to look elsewhere.'

There was no point in searching places he had already checked.

The problem was that the remaining areas were vast.

'First, I'll search everything.'

A penthouse with two floors.

A huge house with a spacious garden on the top floor.

He needed to hurry to check everything.

Rowoon's steps quickened.

* * *

Rowoon thought,

'Is this really a clue?'

With only 7 days left,

Every second was precious.

After frantically searching the house for hours, Rowoon was filled with doubt.

"Can you give me something other than encouragement?"

The high beings in the sky seemed to have many restrictions.

Even so,

When 12:00 passed, the countdown number decreased by one.

'It really is a week left.'

I didn't want to confirm this.

"I've been searching for five hours now. Is there really something here?"

"..."

Can I really trust this?

The other party was a special being from above.

'But it feels like a small sparrow, fidgeting and hopping around...'

Rowoon suppressed his rising doubts.

Why does the old saying about taking your time when in a hurry come to mind?

Anyway, there was only one place left.

The study.