Chapter 2
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: The Cute Girl's PC Bang Time Gets Charged Tenfold
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Approximately a week.
The time it took to restore the three songs I'd created in my previous life.
During that time, I showed up at the PC Bang every single day, to the point where even the owner now recognized my face.
"Huh. What's this? That's a ton of time."
I always charged exactly a thousand won and left promptly when the time ran out.
It wasn't because of any curfew or anything like that.
Evergreen Sky Nursery was a place where even the teachers had long since given up on keeping the kids in line—there were no rules to speak of. You could tell just from the fact that middle and high schoolers smoked openly without any consequences.
I simply had no money right now. In fact, even blowing a thousand won a day was dipping into the pocket money that Seo Siyeon had scrimped and saved before I possessed her.
Today, as usual, I'd charged a thousand won for one hour... but for some reason, it showed a full ten hours credited!
I hopped down from my chair and scurried over to the counter.
"Owner, the time charge is wrong."
"Ah, that? I threw in the extra myself. Come by here a lot from now on. I'll load up as much time as you want, so visit often! Kid."
The owner, who looked to be in his mid-forties or so, winked at me as he said it.
I had no hobby of watching middle-aged men wink, but if he was doling out favors like this, I could put up with it.
Still, there was no way he'd show me this kind of kindness without a reason.
I was well aware that my looks were an irregularity.
In other words, excessively cute.
Probably, customers had been asking if I hadn't come in today, and to hook them, he was trying to turn me into a regular.
The first place I ever milked my appearance for perks was a PC Bang... talk about a twist of fate. But it wasn't bad.
Computers were essential in this modern world no matter what you were doing. Especially for a kid like me without a smartphone—the only way to get online was at a PC.
The Nursery's computers were monopolized by high schoolers grinding League of Legends, so if I wanted machine time, the PC Bang was my only option.
With the PC fees covered, even if it felt burdensome before, now I could put that money toward something else.
Like renting a cheap recording studio, for instance.
"I want to buy a proper MIDI program too..."
The composing software I was using right now was, of course, freeware.
It showed—abysmal performance and missing most virtual instruments.
In my past life, I'd composed with programs costing well over a million won, shelling out for all sorts of real instruments along the way. No wonder this bargain-bin slop rubbed me the wrong way.
"Gotta make money fast, and it'll sort itself out."
In the end, everything boiled down to cash.
No matter what you wanted to do, money was the baseline requirement.
Which meant a broke orphan like me had fewer options than you'd think.
I shook off the stray thoughts cluttering my head and plugged my USB into the tower out of habit.
The free program lacked cloud saving, so I had to manually export and save each track to the drive.
This drive held the fruits of my week's labor.
Sure, the instrumentation was crude, and the melodies had plenty of gaps. But these three tracks boasted melodies I could confidently call my biggest hits—brimming with killer hooks and raw emotional punch.
Any real pro would spot the diamond in the rough, buried under the cheap gear.
From my research, I'd fired off emails to a bunch of solid small-to-mid-sized labels. The big agencies wouldn't bite on unsolicited demos anyway.
Honestly, I wasn't even sure they'd bother opening them.
They might just rot unread in some inbox.
But hey, what choice did I have? It was this or nothing.
And if this fell through, I still had Plan B.
It'd put my face out there, but it beat scraping by in this hellhole until adulthood, hands down.
"Sigh. Just to be safe, maybe hit up some tinier outfits too?"
No harm in spamming more—the tracks wouldn't wear out from overuse.
With that in mind, I punched in a few extra emails and hit send.
And just like that, today's to-do list was cleared!
Twenty minutes after logging in.
Which meant it was time to head back to the Nursery... but...
The owner's plea to drop by often echoed in my mind.
Still, bailing after just twenty minutes when he'd comped me ten hours? That felt rude.
I decided to stick around a bit longer, kill time with something else.
It wasn't because I dreaded going back to the Nursery. Absolutely not.
I fired up YouTube.
Randomly pulling up idol fancams for an internal critique fest. I cracked open Notepad and started jotting down my takes on this world's idols.
This world didn't have those globe-dominating Korean juggernauts from my past life. Not yet.
So I had no guarantee a K-pop boom like before would even happen here.
Lately, anxiety had been creeping in—what if history diverged and my future music knowledge turned obsolete?
To shake off that worry, I'd started scouting groups with parallel-world potential to globalize K-pop...
"Yeah, no surprise there."
No way a Grammy-sweeping K-pop monster would pop up that easily.
I quit the fancams and muscle memory took me to League of Legends.
"Argh. Kids can't even make accounts."
Guardian consent required for signup—basically impossible. Begging the Director for a LoL account? Yeah, no.
About then, an alarm pinged: two hours burned.
I gave the owner a polite bow and headed out.
Cosplaying the well-mannered kid worked because adults instinctively adored polite little ones.
And with my cute looks? Overkill.
Might as well get good at leveraging what I was born with.
Not that I'd ever play damsel-in-distress in some guy's arms.
Rationally, I knew my face could unlock huge advantages, but instinct screamed no.
Guess romance was off the table this lifetime too.
No dating guys, and girls didn't spark much interest either.
Barring an alien bride, lifelong singleton status confirmed.
"Eh, married to music, whatever."
I didn't love it that much, but it made a fine excuse.
About a week later.
I hit the PC Bang daily.
Venturing out confirmed it: my looks turned heads.
Already cute features, plus those heterochromic eyes? Magnet for stares.
I suspected that eye color explained why Seo Siyeon was such a friendless loner.
Kids rejected anything different on instinct.
At the PC Bang especially, glances came from all ages and genders.
Couples bought me snacks cooing over how adorable I was; one creep offered chocolate to "make friends."
The owner straight-up banned the guy, and poof—gone.
Of course, I scarfed the chocolate. Pricey stuff tasted great.
In a few years, it'd be jail time over a PC Bang ban, but civic awareness hadn't evolved that far yet.
After that scare, I knew I needed big money fast—for safety's sake.
Being a weak little girl meant cash was the best shield.
"But that's not the real issue."
The crisis was my pathetic submission success rate.
Only one reply.
And it was a polite turndown.
I'd figured they skipped the emails unread, but nope—over half showed as opened.
"This can't be happening..."
Sure, they might sound rough or cluttered right now.
Future-trendy vibes on bargain synths.
But those melodies and beats? Chart-toppers, addictive as hell. One even camped Billboard's upper ranks for ages.
I despaired at their tin ears and felt utterly stuck.
Plan B existed, as mentioned.
But it was risky as hell. Not even sure I could pull off the first step.
"Hmm... Season 5."
A massive music audition, open to all.
Judges: heads of the Big 3 Entertainment Companies. Aired on network TV.
Truth was, this era marked the sunset for broad music auditions—idol and rap survival shows were surging.
This world followed suit.
If a certain madlad from Season 4 hadn't obliterated the charts, the trend might've peaked there.
Now? Season 4 winner's tracks blanketed the charts.
Swept every major award; the frenzy showed no signs of fading all year.
Definite divergence from my past life.
Shows like this should've all tanked or fizzled into obscurity, yet Singer Star Season 5 had the whole nation buzzing with hype.
"No choice but to enter this."
Can't break out as a composer yet? Fine—debut as the genius kid prodigy.
Best move I could make right now.