Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols Chapter 435 - Deception (2)

Previously, I had threatened the system with my life exactly once. It was back when my sister’s survival was still uncertain.

 

Back then, I assumed there had to be a reason why it had to be me becoming an idol, and that if I deviated from the path, the system’s design itself would simply collapse. But because my sister’s situation was urgent, I put off thinking deeply about why it had to be me.

 

When the system adjusted my perception of negative emotions or showed me other members’ pasts, I thought it was just meant to support me in completing the mission. Like a kind of benefit.

 

But the more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed. Even if the system presented itself as some black company, at its core, it was just an abnormal phenomenon. Why would it have any obligation to look after my welfare or my mental and physical health?

 

‘Nudge***…’

 

If I assumed the system’s actions had a different purpose, the pieces started to fit together.

 

It pretended to help me achieve KPIs, but in reality, it had a completely different intention. Every element it had shown me so far was meant to hide its true motive. Currently, the most likely candidate was that I ‘must perform something without dying’.

 

For example, even the system’s damn way of speaking…

 

Manager Nam

[I’m going to the client’s office tomorrow before coming in]

[Assistant Manager Kim, you handle the onboarding for the new hire]

[Come in early and set things up]

 

…could have been adopted because Manager Nam was the one who turned me back when I had walked all the way to the Hannam Bridge. Because Kim Iwol was someone who habitually did whatever his superior ordered. Because even when he was about to throw himself away, he would turn back and do what needed to be done.

 

By imitating a black company, the system knew I would instinctively put the brakes on any extreme actions and voluntarily learn the framework it presented.

 

‘F*ck.’

 

A hollow laugh escaped me. My body trembled so much that I had to take several deep breaths to calm down.

 

If this was nothing more than a series of stages designed to induce specific behaviors, and the KPIs and rewards themselves had no actual utility…

 

If the system had a separate ultimate goal for me, but since it couldn’t control variables like my emotional fluctuations or synchronization, it made me believe that it was managing even those uncontrollable areas…

 

If it cornered me into thinking I was in a position of absolute subordination, and even used my sister and Spark as tools like KPIs…

 

‘Tell me your real purpose.’

 

I snapped at the system.

 

‘I’m not going to die, so just tell me. It’s clear now that one of your conditions is that I stay alive. That’s the direction you’ve been pushing me toward this whole time. What do you want me to do?’

 

I asked again, but the system didn’t respond.

 

‘I’ll go along with what you want. If nullifying the car accident doesn’t require some huge cost or effort, wouldn’t it be better to just make a direct deal?’

 

To my question of why it needed to take the long way around when there was a shortcut, the system gave a half-hearted answer.

 

[SYSTEM] A work instruction from the ‘Superior’ has arrived.

▶ Assistant Manager Kim still doesn’t understand himself. Why don’t you try taking a vocational aptitude test?

 

I don’t need one to know I’m a desk worker, you prick. What do you even know?

 

[SYSTEM] A work instruction from the ‘Superior’ has arrived.

▶ Superiors don’t just give orders for no reason. They tell you to do things because they have all the previous data and experience. Just imagine if I dumped work on Assistant Manager Kim without any feedback. Would Assistant Manager Kim even know what the core is or what the vision is?

 

Why?  Are you getting nervous because the synchronization rate keeps rising, and I’m starting to doubt your KPI system? Did the fun drop now that you have to stop the roleplay and actually negotiate?  Did you think I wouldn’t fulfill a single one of your demands unless you did it this way?

 

At the very least, you shouldn’t have deceived someone who was desperate.

 

Stop giving me… any more guilt…

 

[SYSTEM] A work instruction from the ‘Superior’ has arrived.

▶ Assistant Manager Kim.

 

The system flickered. It slowly began to write out text.

 

You seem to think you can do anything, but you can’t.

Assistant Manager Kim…

 

[SYSTEM] A work instruction from the ‘Superior’ has arrived.

▶ Still has a long way to go.

 

With those words, the system vanished.

 

* * *

 

What is something a person must do in order to survive? I tried to think about it whenever I had even a bit of spare time.

 

It wasn’t easy. An idol during a promotion period barely had time to blink, let alone think.

 

Since Park Joowoo, who had suffered through the controversy, was working hard and focusing on his main job, I couldn’t afford to wander around in a daze. I tried hard to pull myself together.

 

≫ Spark gallery collaborating for a pop-up event

The gallery concept is pretty freshㅋㅋ

 

≫ Everyone said the posters and jewel top-loaders were pretty, so I went to look and ended up having an uncontrollable urge to buy Green Apple Kang Kyeon

Sorry, wallet.

└ I saw the goods lineup and the mini posters are so pretty.

└ The jewel top-loaders were a bit pricey for merch, so I was debating whether to buy them or not;;; then I saw the sample image with an album photocard inside and immediately added it to my shopping list.

└└ FR, I wondered what they were thinking mass-producing jewel top-loaders that usually only circulate in the commission market, but it was solely to fit the birthstone concept… They even picked the colors amazingly well.

└ I had screenshotted a million frames of Green Apple Kiyeon from the MV, but I’m so happy they made it into an actual pictorial

└└ Sparkler: ‘the mini apple is so cute~~’ → Kim Iwol: gives them apple green faustite

└└└ I’m glad Iwol didn’t buy friendship bracelets. If he did, they’d all be birthstone bracelets

 

≫ Today’s Spark fan-support mini bouquets.

They were made by drying the real flowers used during Seongbin’s MV shoot. The boys collected the flowers themselves + only the drying was handled by a company!

└ Why couldn’t I go to the fan meeting…

└ I heard the boys even did the packaging themselvesㅠㅠ I’m envious, jealous, and spiteful of the Sparklers who went to the fan meeting.

└ That’s not ‘mini’ though

└ If the boys said they’re mini, they’re mini.

└ Our boys just have big hands

 

≫ I’ve seen idols tie ribbons on their faces before

But Cheonghyeon, you’re the first idol I’ve seen with a pearl ribbon.

└ How can a person look like a vintage doll like that

└ It should be illegal for that Cutie Pretty Visually to bite pearls

└ And then he gave pearl ribbon charms to fans to decorate their lightsticks that day… he really knows his fans

 

≫ Honestly, the funniest thing in the world is how Kim Iwol nags Choi Jeho all the time but praises him endlessly during ‘El Dorado’

I guess even if he’s a frustrating friend, his face is handsome

└ Jel-dorado is a legend.

└ Excuse me, it’s not that Jeho is gold. Gold is Jeho.

└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└ Jeho X Gold is a combination that can’t fail… the ‘Bright’ MV proved that

└ How could Natural Light X Choi Jeho X Chandelier ever fail?

 

Since everyone liked it this much, I had to live up to the expectations. What did we spend all those days and nights researching and filming for?

 

Just because of some trouble with the system, I would let all that effort turn into nothing? No way. Who would that even benefit?

 

No matter how much the system tried to treat Spark as a tool, I had no intention of treating Spark as one.

 

There was a time when achieving the goal in front of me was my number one priority. But not anymore. I had received too much love to only chase rewards. Now that I clearly understood what truly mattered and what drove me, I resolved to keep doing what I had to do, no matter how difficult it was. Only now, at this age, did I realize how important it was to have something or someone that kept you going.

 

As if the heavens were helping me stay out of idle thoughts, there was plenty of work besides album activities. Just this week, Choi Jeho shot a pictorial with a new magazine. The timing was perfect, as his appearance in Jang Junhoo’s music video was being spotlighted again right before spring.

 

At first, it started small with fans posting things like ‘I miss Autumn Jeho’. Then, a powerful outcry of ‘Who says Coat Jeho can only come in Autumn? Come in Spring too!’ exploded. Ultimately, it became a heartwarming story where Choi Jeho, who once made a name for himself as the ‘Autumn Coat Guy’, completely cleared out the inventory of an outerwear brand and shot a spring coat pictorial.

 

Jeong Seongbin… somehow, he became a master of reaction memes and was spreading all over the internet. A brave Sparkler compiled all his past antics—despite his usually cold, composed image that made people say, ‘No wonder he leads a group full of intimidating guys’.

 

≫ Something’s weird about Spark’s Seongbin

*   Trying to fix a friend’s knocked-over flowerpot but getting confused and sticking artificial flowers in it.

*   Carrying around a notebook titled ‘Humans are Made of Three Parts and Flesh’.

*   Picking up a bag a younger member threw away and bringing it back.

*   Making animals out of towels.

*   Leaving work wearing fairy wings.

*   Taking photos at graduation wearing someone else’s name tag.

*   Drinking grape juice out of a flower vase.

└ One of these isn’t even Jeong Seongbin

└└ ?

└└└ The one about taking a photo with someone else’s name tag is his younger brotherㅋㅋ They’re twins and he came wearing Seongbin’s name tag.

└└└└ So there were two Jeong Seongbins at the graduation ceremony that day.

└└└└└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Ah ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└ I thought he was just a handsome and upright young man…

└└ He is handsome and upright.

└ My Ballad Prince… is weird.

 

In an era where even quirks become selling points, Jeong Seongbin drew attention in a new market.  Since traffic from memes and short-form platforms couldn’t be ignored, it was good for the team. Thanks to the leader’s self-sacrificing contribution, I just hoped I’d slowly be forgotten among the flood of memes.

 

Lee Cheonghyeon was so busy that the eyelashes he had grown by being fed expensive supplements were fluttering nonstop. When a guy who rarely complained said he might get placed on academic probation, that alone said it all.

 

“But when there’s work, you have to work hard! Cheonghyeon is going to go make money!”

 

Seeing him not lose his energy despite the murderous schedule was admirable, so I started opening a pouch of cabbage juice for him every morning—something I had now started ordering regularly. Even if I couldn’t be a VIP at Woo Yoonjae’s ssamjang shop, I could at least be a cabbage juice VIP.

 

Kang Kiyeon shot a perfume ad. Until now, advertisers had hesitated because he was underage, but with the new year, they became more proactive. After all, promoting a man’s fragrance with a high school senior would have felt off.

 

The public image of him being young compared to his mature face was completely overturned in ‘Bright’. The energetic Kang Kiyeon perfectly pulled off a calm and relaxed atmosphere. Having both an antique and a modern impression at the same time was a huge advantage for Kang Kyeon. The advertising industry recognized this brilliantly. I bought one for myself since the sample scent was good.

 

There was only one individual activity left: Park Joowoo’s Genre-Switch.

 

—

*** Nudge Effect: A method of inducing another’s choice through flexible and gentle intervention rather than forced instructions.**