The lights flashed bright as I walked to the center of the Tokyo Dome. Immediately, the sound hit me. Tens of thousands of fans shouting my name.
Sora Hayashi!
Sora Hayashi!
Sora Hayashi!
My name roaring through the crowd validated every sacrifice, every sleepless night, every struggle. The summit was mine at last.
Tonight… this stage, this arena…it was all mine. The status of "idol" had been shed like old skin.
Now? I'm the best in the world.
The microphone felt weightless in my hand as I smiled.
"Thank you for coming here to support me tonight. Everything I've achieved… it's all because of you."
My voice echoed across the dome, each word well articulated, and the crowd answered with another wave of cheers.
Girls dominated the audience, drawn to both my talent and appearance.
Under the lights, my white coat gleamed, reflecting my silver hair and the vivid red of my contact lenses.
Another roar of my name. One smile from me, sent hundreds of girls in the front row fainting.
Then the music kicked in. The beat was fast and powerful; the kind of sound people expected from my songs. My lips parted, and the first lyric emerged.
"I am a hero."
Glow sticks waved like stars as the crowd followed my rhythm. Each movement flowed into the next, the music pushing me forward.
The voice, the dance, the energy—these elements drew people in, left them utterly mesmerized. This was the formula. This was perfection.
"I am the legend, the world is my playground!"
The last note hit. The beat slammed to an end. One final signature pose.
"Sora Hayashi! Sora Hayashi!"
The crowd exploded. The Tokyo Dome shook with the sound of it.
The performance transcended mere singing—it became everything my fans believed possible.
BANG!
Sharp pain burst in my forehead. Instinct brought a hand up, only to feel warm blood slipping between my fingers.
Thud!
The floor rushed up and slammed into me. Through my failing vision, a familiar face emerged on the front row—a fan from my earliest days.
She was smiling.
Her lips moved slowly. "If I can't have you, then no one can."
As the world went dark, a single thought pressed against my mind: I gave them everything. Was it still not enough?
And then, silence.
—————————
I opened my eyes and immediately panicked. Darkness. Complete, endless darkness.
No body, no sensation, nothing. Am I dead?
Is this what comes after? Some kind of purgatory?
My thoughts raced, desperate for answers, when a translucent blue window flickered into existence before me.
(Congratulations, Host, for obtaining the absolute, ultimate, ridiculously overpowered, totally godlike system in existence.)
I raised an eyebrow. This felt like walking into one of those over-the-top commercials, where the product does maybe 1% of what it promises on TV.
"Wait… am I supposed to buy this?"
As if trying to impress me, fireworks erupted all around. The explosion of light was blinding. Too bright, too much. Then the darkness rushed back in, and with it, the sensation of falling.
Thud!
"Ouch…" Pain radiated through my skull after tumbling off the bed, half the bedsheets still clinging to my body.
Slowly, I used my hands to climb back onto the bed, and immediately noticed something was wrong. My body wouldn't move like it used to. It was too heavy. Too fat?
"What the fuck—!" I yelled, staring at the mirror on my bedside.
The perfect body? Gone. The face capable of melting hearts? Also missing.
Who stole my god given genetics, and why does it feel like I've been replaced with a sack of potatoes?
No exaggeration here—messy black hair, sunken eyes like sleep was a distant memory, pimples covering every surface, and when my reflection smiled... months without brushing, apparently.
Before I could even figure out what the hell was happening, the door to the messy bedroom creaked open.
Peeking through was a gorgeous young woman with platinum hair neatly tied in a bun, and eyes as blue as the sea. Her looks would make any man stare ten times before walking away with a stiff neck.
No joke. Not even the top female idols I knew came close to her.
"What are you looking at?" She stepped into the room, covering her nose and mouth. "This place stinks. Hey, stop being a pig and clean it up!"
I kind of understood where she was coming from, but it still hurt—especially when she looked at me with those judgmental eyes. I wasn't used to that.
A question formed in my mind. Who was she? But a window materialized in my vision before the words could escape.
(DING!)
A series of numbers flashed across my vision, moving too fast to read.
My body was locked in place as the girl turned to leave, slamming the door behind her with more force than necessary.
(Hello, Host)
The voice came as sweet and smooth; quality that surpassed even the finest female singers I heard.
"What's happening here? And where am I?"
My voice trembled. Each breath came out short and thin. This body was so unhealthy that even breathing felt like exercise.
(My name is Null, your System Assistant.)
Struggling, I pushed with all the strength I could muster, trying to lift my overweight body off the ground.
"Null? System? I don't understand…can you get me back to my old body?"
(That's impossible. Your previous body is already dead. In fact, you should be grateful—you've been given a second chance at life.)
Hearing her words made it all come back.
That's right. I was shot by my own number one fan. All because of rumors that I was dating the most popular actress in Korea, Kim.
They were only rumors. I would never risk the reputation I had built for years.
To think my life ended over lies that paparazzi made up just to sell a story.
Looking back at the translucent window, I had no choice but to accept that this wasn't a dream.
Somehow, I ended up in one of the most overused genres in both anime and novels. The kind I'd binged during my free time. Reading them was one thing. Living it? Completely different.
Worse, most of those stories made the main character absurdly attractive. Meanwhile, I was stuck in a body that looked like it had been designed by someone who hated me.
"So… what now?"