"If that stain isn't gone in five minutes, Han Yoo-jin, you're fired."
The threat hung in the air, sharp and ugly. Yoo-jin didn't even look up. He was already on his knees, dabbing frantically at the dark brown coffee stain spreading across a pristine white dress.
The fabric was worth more than his entire apartment. The idol wearing it, a girl from his agency named Rina, was already sobbing. "My career is over! This was my one big shot!"
Director Park, a man whose gut hung over his designer belt, loomed behind him. "Are you listening to me? Five minutes."
Yoo-jin's mind was numb. This was his life. Assistant Manager at Starforce Entertainment—a title that meant he was everyone's personal servant. He cleaned up messes, fetched coffees, and absorbed the tantrums of talentless idols who thought they were royalty. He was a cog, easily replaced.
Ignoring the noise, he grabbed a bottle of sparkling water from a nearby ice bucket and a half-used tube of hand sanitizer from his pocket. He mixed a bit on a clean napkin. A trick he'd learned from a veteran stylist.
He dabbed, blotted, and repeated. The stain began to lift, fading from a dark blotch to a faint shadow, then to nothing.
"It's done," Yoo-jin said, his voice flat.
Rina stopped crying instantly, turning to check herself in the mirror. She didn't thank him. Director Park just grunted, his eyes already scanning for the next disaster. "Go get me a bottle of Evian. And don't take all day."
Yoo-jin pushed himself to his feet, his knees aching. He walked away from the stage lights and into the dimly lit backstage corridors, a ghost in the machine. Just another Tuesday in hell.
He took a shortcut through a less-trafficked service corridor to get to the vending machines. The distant roar of the crowd was muffled here.
Suddenly, a storm of flashing lights erupted from the end of the hallway. A pack of reporters and bodyguards surged forward, a human tidal wave. In the calm eye of that hurricane was a single person.
Jung Sae-ri.
Korea's biggest star. An actress so luminous she seemed to bend light around her. Yoo-jin froze, pressed against the concrete wall. The C-list idols he managed were flickering light bulbs. This woman was the sun.
She moved with an effortless grace, her smile calm despite the chaos. It wasn't the fake, practiced smile he saw a hundred times a day. It felt real. For a second, the crushing weight of his life lifted. He was just a man watching a star.
As her entourage swept past him, a tiny, brilliant object came loose and skittered across the floor, stopping near the toe of his worn-out sneaker. A diamond earring.
Without thinking, he bent down and picked it up.
He stepped forward, holding it out. "Excuse me."
The bodyguards tensed, but Jung Sae-ri paused. She turned, and for one impossible second, her eyes met his. The world, with all its noise and flashing lights, fell away.
Her gaze was clear and deep. She wasn't looking at a nameless staffer; she was looking at him.
"Thank you," she said. Her voice was as calm and beautiful as her smile.
She took the earring, her fingers brushing his for a fraction of a second. Then she was gone, swallowed by the storm of her own fame. Yoo-jin stood there, the warmth of her touch still tingling on his skin, clutching a forgotten bottle of water for his boss.
He woke up to the smell of stale ramen and the grey light of dawn filtering through his tiny window. His one-room apartment was a glorified closet, a testament to his dead-end career. The glamour of last night felt like a dream.
His head throbbed. He stumbled to the bathroom, the cracked linoleum cold beneath his feet. He splashed his face with icy water, trying to wash away the exhaustion.
When he looked up into the stained mirror, his heart stopped.
A shimmering, transparent blue box was floating over his own reflection. It looked like something straight out of a video game.
[Han Yoo-jin]
[Potential: ? ? ?]
He blinked hard, shaking his head. It vanished.
"I'm losing my mind," he whispered. Too many sleepless nights. Too much stress. He was hallucinating.
He stumbled back into his room and switched on his small, flickering television. The morning news was on, running a segment on a veteran actor who was making a comeback.
The blue box appeared again. This time, it was hovering over the actor's face on the screen.
[Name: Lee Kang-min]
[Potential: A-Rank (National Star)]
[Talent: Acting (S), Charisma (A+)]
[Current Status: In career decline due to typecasting. Needs a transformative role.]
Yoo-jin's breath hitched. His heart began to hammer against his ribs. He frantically changed the channel. A music show rerun. A popular idol group was performing.
Stat screens popped up over every single member.
[Name: Kang Ji-won]
[Potential: B-Rank (Lead Idol)]
[Talent: Dance (A), Vocal (C+)]
[Weakness: Lacks stage presence during non-choreographed segments.]
[Name: Yoon Cha-young]
[Potential: A-Rank (Top Visual)]
[Talent: Visuals (S), Variety Sense (A)]
[Hidden Issue: Severe vocal cord fatigue. Risk of permanent damage.]
It was real. It wasn't a hallucination. It was happening.
He saw their potential. Their hidden strengths and fatal flaws. It was all laid out before him in stark, simple text. The secrets the industry spent millions to manufacture or hide were now as clear as day to him.
What was this? Where did it come from?
His mind flashed back to the previous night. The blinding lights. The brief touch. The moment his eyes met Jung Sae-ri's.
Did she… do this to him?
Yoo-jin threw on a hoodie and burst out of his apartment, running into the morning rush hour. The world looked completely different.
He stared at the people hurrying past him.
A woman in a sharp business suit. [Potential: D-Rank]. An office worker walking his dog. [Potential: F-Rank]. A student listening to music. [Potential: C-Rank].
Most people were just… normal. But the system worked on everyone. This impossible, insane power was his.
His entire life, he'd been powerless. A disposable part of a ruthless system that chewed people up and spat them out. He'd watched as untalented kids with the right connections became stars, while true gems were discarded for not fitting a mold.
But now… he could see. He could see the truth.
This power could change everything. Not just for him, but for anyone. He could find the hidden jewels. He could spot the fatal flaws before they became scandals. He could build an empire.
His phone buzzed violently in his pocket, a harsh drill sound that shattered his trance. He fumbled to answer it.
It was Director Park.
"Han Yoo-jin! Get your ass to the Starforce training center. Now." His voice was a furious bark. "One of the trainees is about to get kicked to the curb, and I want you to handle the paperwork."
Handle the paperwork. The final, bureaucratic nail in some kid's coffin. A task for a nobody like him.
As the call ended, Yoo-jin stared at the gleaming Starforce Entertainment building in the distance, a new, dangerous light in his eyes.
He wasn't just going to file paperwork. He was going to see for himself.