Chapter 167: Hedonic Adaptation
Chapter 167: Hedonic Adaptation
【※Warning※】
【Beneficial Spoiler (A+) has detected a threat!】
...What?
A warning like this, right when I was about to receive a reward along with the congratulations for achieving the goal.
Could it be...
Was it related to the reward?
It had been a few weeks since [Beneficial Spoiler]’s cooldown had ended.
That was a perfectly plausible guess.
First, I needed to confirm it.
But wait... there’s no way to check, is there?
Normally, along with the warning, a message like “Would you like to view a precognitive dream now?” should have appeared.
If I chose “Yes” there, I would fall asleep and glimpse the future. That had been the pattern before.
But now, only the warning window flashed, and there was no other response at all.
【You cannot use this function while an update is in progress.】
Damn it.
So it was telling me to claim the reward first.
What an overbearing system.
Then again, if you thought about it, hadn’t it started with overbearing force from the moment of regression?
Without any explanation at all, it suddenly told me to set the goal for my next life, then immediately rebooted my life.
Well, the result had been satisfying in the end.
This time too, it did not seem like I had much of a choice.
To freeze up in fear here and do nothing...
That did not suit my personality, and in the end it would only be a loss.
A vague threat from the future eats away at a person.
Because it makes you suspect everything one by one.
If I did not know when or how an accident might happen, I would probably become afraid of even going outside.
It was the perfect setup for turning into a nervous wreck.
Rather than that, it was better to claim the reward, clearly confirm the threat that would come because of it, and prepare for it.
I had already experienced changing the future.
There had been the precedent of me intervening and twisting the future of Moon Ganghyeok’s false accusation as well.
No fear. Just check it.
【Congratulations! You have achieved the first objective.】
【Would you like to claim the reward? (Y/N)】
I stared at the (Y) button.
Bang! Bang-bang!
A flashy fireworks effect burst out.
Normally I would have been happy, but right now it only felt unsettling for no reason.
【Before providing the reward, an interim evaluation will be conducted.】
An interim evaluation?
The status window flashed.
【Influence】
【Recognition: 84/100】
【Favorability: 82/100】
【Ripple Effect: 53/100】
【Evaluation: Your performance has exceeded expectations.】
...So it was thoroughly evaluating all of my results up to now.
It felt like I had become an office worker again and was receiving a performance review.
No, I did not think I had ever received this kind of qualitative evaluation even when I worked at a company.
【Abilities】
【Appearance: A+】
【Acting: A+】
【Mentality: S】
【Physical: B】
【Singing: B+】
【Evaluation: You have almost drawn out your potential to its very limit. We commend your efforts.】
Even so, being praised did not feel bad.
But shouldn’t Acting be close to S?
Only Line Delivery was A+.
Emotional Expression and Physical Acting were both S-rank.
It seemed to judge quite conservatively.
Then now that it’s checked all my results, the reward...
Just when I thought it was over, another evaluation category slowly dropped down.
【Life Score】
【Current Occupation: Actor】
【Professional Achievement: 81/100】
【Financial Success: 85/100】
【Relationships: 51/100】
【Self-Actualization: 87/100】
【Happiness Index: 72/100】
【Evaluation: Overall, your results are excellent, but the balance is uneven. You need to look around at the people close to you.】
My face grew hot.
To point out my relationships this nakedly.
51 points... is it really around that level?
Thinking about it carefully, I really had been so busy working that I had not formed any deep relationship with anyone.
Overall, these were not scores that could be said to be drastically better than my previous life.
For now, Financial Success was high, but it was at a similar level to my previous life.
In my previous life too, I had been quite successful as an advertiser, saved money obsessively, and was pretty good at investing, so I had made money work for me.
The problem was that I never had time to spend it.
On the other hand, Professional Achievement had actually dropped a little.
Which made sense.
Back when I was an advertiser, I had been at the top of the industry, with results counted among the best in the world.
But as an actor now, I had only just been recognized as the best in the country. I had not yet firmly established a position for myself on the world stage, had I?
Winning at Cannes meant I had only just reached the stage where people were starting to notice me.
As for the rest, it was only natural that Self-Actualization had risen sharply.
My Relationships were just as much of a mess as in my previous life.
What caught my eye was the Happiness Index...
72 points...? Why is it lower than I expected?
That surprised me.
I thought I was very satisfied with my current life and living quite happily.
Apparently the system did not think so.
...Was it just that my job satisfaction was high?
My Self-Actualization score had come out quite high at 87.
Because of that, I imagined something.
What if, for some reason, I could no longer work as an actor?
How much happiness would I have left then?
...Quite low, probably.
Other than work, I could not really see anything that would fill me up.
I had no choice but to admit why my Relationships score had come out that way.
What a nasty system.
Needlessly accurate.
【The interim evaluation has been completed!】
【The reward will be adjusted according to the evaluation results.】
Right.
Now let’s at least see what it’s giving me.
【Reward granted: S-rank Trait Draw Ticket x1】
Huh...?
My worry turned out to be unnecessary, because it had given me an incredible reward.
An S-rank guaranteed Trait Draw Ticket.
Even the [Beneficial Spoiler] I had right now was only A+ rank.
If it was a rank even higher than that, then how broken would that ability be?
No way... was it not a threat to me, but a threat from the perspective of an existing trait? Because it might get pushed aside by an S-rank trait? So that was why it had warned me?
Just as I let out a hollow laugh—
【For efficient objective completion, the ‘S-rank Trait Draw Ticket’ will be used immediately.】
The system moved on its own.
It forcibly used the draw ticket.
It was not a huge issue since I would have used it myself as soon as the settlement was over anyway.
Something feels off.
Clunk!
Unlike the previous trait draws, a roulette wheel filled with golden light spun with insane speed.
It was spinning so fast I could not even tell what was on it.
Then—
Bang!
【S-rank Trait acquired! Infinite Regression (Permanent)】
The result appeared.
And the moment I acquired the trait—
Zing—
【Would you like to view a precognitive dream now?】
Only then did the notice appear saying I could view the precognitive dream.
After a brief dizziness, I opened my eyes inside the dream.
This time, I could see myself from a first-person point of view.
But I was unable to move my body.
It felt like watching footage recorded through POV filming.
......!
A red status window floated before my eyes.
【You have failed to achieve the final objective.】
【Trait: Infinite Regression (S-rank) is activated!】
Along with the notification from the status window, the scene before my eyes changed.
Screeeeeech—!
Bang!
I opened my eyes once again at the scene of the car accident.
It was that exact moment from when I had first regressed.
The place where I would be burned.
...Here again?
The Ryu Sunho inside the dream bit his lip slightly.
Then he ran toward the trapped Han Seungwoo.
He was far faster and more skillful than when I had first regressed.
He moved Han Seungwoo to safety with plenty of room to spare.
Boom!
The car exploded.
Then he went to the hospital for an examination and met Han Seungwoo’s father.
It was the scheduled sequence of events.
After that, everything rushed by in huge jumps, like a videotape being fast-forwarded.
I walked a path not very different from the one I had already lived through.
And I smoothly achieved the first objective.
Huh? Then can I see the future after that in advance?
I had hoped so, but everything after that was blurred over, and it passed by even faster.
So it’s telling me not to even think about taking the easy way out.
Then the status window appeared before my eyes again.
Judging by the surroundings and the feel of the season, it seemed to be around the same time as when the first precognitive dream had begun.
【You have failed to achieve the final objective.】
【Trait: Infinite Regression (S-rank) is activated!】
...Failed again.
Screeeeeech—!
Bang!
When I opened my eyes again at the accident scene, this time I moved without any hesitation at all and rescued Han Seungwoo.
It showed a determination to move faster and head toward success more certainly.
Just as that determination indicated, this time I achieved the first objective in only two years after debut.
And yet—
【You have failed to achieve the final objective.】
【Trait: Infinite Regression (S-rank) is activated!】
I still failed to achieve the final objective.
After that, I became trapped in an infinite regression loop.
......
Up to the first ten regressions, dream-Ryu Sunho wrung his brain dry and came up with the most efficient methods possible.
Strategies so bizarre that even I, watching, was astonished kept pouring out.
And yet he failed time and time again to achieve the final objective.
By around the twentieth regression, the Ryu Sunho inside the dream began to change.
The life disappeared from his eyes, he lost his motivation, and his mind became worn down.
He drifted farther and farther from his dream of becoming an actor and gradually became lethargic.
Naturally, the system acknowledged the failure and made him regress again.
Boom!
Now he did not even save Han Seungwoo at all.
He immediately fled the scene.
He simply lived a dissipated life, seeking cheap pleasures like alcohol and gambling.
No one came looking for me first, and only people with dirty secrets remembered the name Ryu Sunho.
I could see myself collapsing.
My mind was wearing away, I could no longer feel excitement, my motivation was fading, and I became afraid of regression itself.
At last, this time, the moment I regressed, I even tried making an extreme choice, but—
“Aaaaaaaagh!”
I felt only searing pain.
The moment my breathing stopped, I regressed again.
It was a prison I could not escape even through death.
After that, I completely lost my reason and ended up living confined in a psychiatric hospital.
I could see myself scratching at the wall and screaming.
“Gasp...!”
As if I had burst out from underwater, I woke from the dream gasping roughly for breath.
My whole body was drenched in cold sweat.
I checked my hands and feet first.
I could move, and they were fine.
I was not in the state of a dried-up living corpse like the one I had seen at the end.
Gulp, gulp—
I barely managed to raise myself up, took water from the refrigerator, and drank.
“Khk...!”
The cold water ran down my throat and jolted my mind awake.
...So that was why [Beneficial Spoiler] had activated.
The reward called [Infinite Regression].
At first glance, it looked like an incredible ability that gave me another chance every time I failed.
This is absolutely not a reward.
It was no different from the jaws of an abyss, gaping wide open and waiting to devour me.
The me inside the precognitive dream had been slowly losing my mind in a life repeated countless times.
On an eternal stage play that never ended, I felt as though I had become a puppet reciting the same lines over and over.
But—there was one part that did not sit right with me.
I repeated regression dozens of times, and not once did I achieve the goal...?
Just as that question rose in my mind, the system window appeared again.
【Restoring the initial preset objective.】
【Final Objective: Become the Best Actor in the World】
At the same time—
【A new additional objective has been assigned.】
【Additional Objective: Achieve a Life Score of 90 or higher in all categories】
......!
So that was it.
No wonder.
I had thought it was strange that I kept failing to achieve the final objective.
There was no way I had never once achieved the goal of becoming the best actor in the world.
There had been a variable.
That variable is probably... the Happiness Index.
In psychology, there is a phenomenon called hedonic adaptation.
No matter how intense the stimulation or pleasure, if it is repeated, the brain adapts to it and grows numb.
The joy of success, the pain of failure, even the thrill of love.
Before infinite time, all of it eventually fades into gray.
No matter how S-rank my mentality might be, it would still wear down in the face of eternity.
And this—would hit even harder because of my personality.
People who choose advertising as a profession usually tend to be like that.
They grow weary of repetitive work and constantly seek new stimulation.
That was why they kept coming up with new ideas in new industries every time.
This... absolutely has to end in one try.
The moment I fell into the swamp of Infinite Regression, I would be doomed to run forever on a cursed treadmill.
I had to achieve the final objective in this life, no matter what.
I checked the status window again after the update had fully completed.
It doesn’t look like much has changed.
My abilities were the same, and my influence was the same.
Since the stage had shifted to the global level, I had thought it might recalculate my influence based on the world’s population.
But it seemed it was still measuring things based on the domestic standard.
Instead, a new category had appeared.
【Reputation Value】
【Ryu Sunho’s current Reputation Value is ‘3.5 billion won.’】
It felt like the system had bluntly pasted a price tag right onto my forehead.
From my guess, it was probably meant to roughly represent my current annual advertising contract fee.
The contract I signed with Singgeut had been 2.5 billion won, and this number had come out around that range.
Since my market value had risen even more after winning at Cannes, my estimate was probably about right.
【※ This amount is shown after converting value into Korean won.】
Judging by the fact that it had added that explanation, it seemed this category now included recognition, favorability, and ripple effect accumulated on a worldwide scale.
Right.
If it was going to call itself an update, it should at least feel like one.
In addition—【You may now use all functions of the status window overseas without restriction.】that notification had appeared as well.
In other words, overseas roaming had been enabled.
Everything getting updated here and there did feel refreshing, but...the newly added objective kept pricking at my mind.
It says I have to achieve at least 90 points in every category...
It almost made me want to check my current score with my own eyes again.
But—
【Life Score】
【Current Occupation: Actor】
【Professional Achievement: ??/100】
【Financial Success: ??/100】
【Relationships: ??/100】
【Self-Actualization: ??/100】
【Happiness Index: ??/100】
It had hidden everything.
Apparently, this was not something I could check whenever I wanted.
Well, it did not matter too much.
I had already memorized all of it when I saw it earlier, so there was no real cause for concern.
I only wanted to look at it again with my own eyes to calm my uneasiness.
【Life Score values are only displayed when the target score for each category has been achieved.】
Ah.
So that was how it worked?
Then maybe I should ease my anxiety a little.
If I cleared even one of the categories first, maybe it would erase some of this helplessness and anxiety.
And—
there was one category I thought I could achieve right away.
That was Financial Success.
There’s a reason I’ve been living so desperately without spending the money I earned.
Why else would I have kept living in a semi-basement apartment for a while even after becoming successful as an actor, and bought a compact car to drive around?
I checked the calendar.
As it happened, the timing was approaching.
A few days later, the financial news pages were burning hot.
[U.S. Big Tech Firm GETA Abruptly Acquires Korean AI Startup Neural Bridge]
[Acquisition Price Alone Reaches 5 Trillion Won... Largest M&A Deal in Korean Startup History]
[The Myth of Korean Startups... Company Value Soars in Just 3 Years Since Founding... Beyond “Unicorn” to “Decacorn”]
And an interesting article appeared in the entertainment news section as well.
[Ryu Sunho Revealed as an Early Investor in Neural Bridge... 2,500% Return Jackpot?]