After waking up Jibeom realizes that his audition is in a couple hours and he gets ready and heads out. It is December and very snowy with not many people out apart from him. Luckily he threw together an audition from a girl group he used to listen too and be fan fan of called NOVAAA and they were known for easily danceable choreos and with his abysmal dance stat that was all he could really handle. He decided to sing a ballad from ReJoy titled Digress which was about loving someone but not knowing if they love you. This was decided to show off his vocal abilities to cover up how terrible he was at everything else. "I wonder why they are taking participants this late and if I'm a year back, why don't I remember this show." Nari suddenly appears before him "The timeline has been tweaked to hel benefit your mission!" Jibeom jumps a little yelling "Where did you come from!!" He looked around and noticed he was getting odd looks and hustled to the nearby open audition. He took his number and waited as he was of the last contestants "That's what I get for being late" he thought. He looked at his stats and realized he had a draw ticket and decided to finally utilize the ticket and operate the draw for the first time. He saw the digital looking claw fish around and he got… an S tier trait! He looked excitedly probably looking crazy to other people, he looked at the trait and saw that it said "Unique Vocal Color !" The skill gave his body a 7% faster vocal learning speed but what wa interesting was that the color of his voice changed to a better sounding one suddenly without him knowing what was going on and the crazy thing it was his voice but it just sounded better. He knew this was going to help him get into the show but he got another stat point for the achievement first draw and put it into dancing putting his stat at
Dance: D+
He looked around and noticed something interesting and asked Nari "since when could I see other people's stats." Nari answered "You always could do it but you can only see trainee stats like their abilities like yours and some potentially develope or are born with traits." Jibeom was impressed by how much his situation was actually like a manhwa until his name was called "So Jibeom, number 128" Jibeom than yelled "Here" and walked ito the room. He saw that they were all producers on the show and started his introduction "Hello I am So Jibeom, I'm 18 years old, and I am a vocalist." After his intro he started singing. Lee Hyuna is a producer for the show and wasn't expecting much as open auditions don't really bring anyone interesting in. She looked and listened to Jibeom's voice and almost immediately fell in love with it. She kept listining and thought to herself "Who is this guy? Why is he so good? Why hasn't he been picked up by a company?" She caught herself immediately loving his tone which was like honey as he went from note to note very well. After his vocal audition the producers clapped but of course there was still comments. One said it is clear his vocals are carried by his tone and that he can be way better and another talked about how his face didn't move much and that he needed more expression. Hyuna finally spoke about him "I love your tone and I think with some improvement you will be amazing" she said with a huge smile on her face. She than said "It's time for your dance audition, begin please." They play the song he registered and he started dancing extremely clunky. He missed steps, he was stiff, he had no expressions with his face or body and he barely got by. All the producers now looked unsure about him and how he would do on the show but Hyuna pushed for him and they all eventually decide to let him in with Hyuna excitedly saying "Congratulations you are one of the 80 contestants on Aether: Idol Paradise!" Jibeom let out a huge sigh as they tell him not to make them regret their decision. He leaves the adition extremely happy as he decides to train for the entire time he goes to the show but he also starts doing part time work along with it as he is extremely broke. While going to his apartment he sees the young boy that he had saved a year in the future and his head starts hurting and he trips. He gets up and sees the boy "Mister are you okay." The kid asks curiosly. Jibeom responds "I'm alright, you should get home, it's almost 5." The boy looks at him curiosly and follows him to his apartment complex. Jibeom stares at him and tells him "Go home." The boy follows him up the stairs and knocks on the door next to his as an older women answers and says "Doyoung, stop coming back home so late" she says with an annoyed tone and she locks eyes with Jibeom and Doyoung says "This is my new friend." Jibeom is extremely surprised but doesn't deny it as he is just a kid. The woman says "Oh really" and then she looks at Jibeom and says "Would your friend like to come in for dinner." Jibeom being extremely broke and not being able to say no to the extremely generous request says sure. He has a nice meal with the two and they all get to talking and he realizes they are really nice people "Your just 18 living by yourself." Mrs Han, Doyoungs mom, asks him and he answers "My parents died when I was young so it was me and my older sister and she works as a producer in the kpop industry. She sends money for me to make sure I can pay my rent but everything else is just me." His sister Jia was the one who truly got him into kpop groups and is the reason he knows all the big names and many smaller ones. She asks him what he wants to do as he is still young and he says "I'm a trainee and I'm gong to be on a survival show. Ever heard of Aether?" She suddenly takes out her phone and looks it up and tells him that she and Doyoung will watch his new friends show and root for him as she kinda felt bad about his situation. Doyoung enthusiasticly and with sparkles in his eyes says "Yes, I will root for my friend!!" They get to more talking and Doyoung goes in his room to get ready for bed. He eventually asks about Doyoungs dad and finds out he's working abroad and Doyoung doesn't like to stay home as he knows he's not here. Jibeom finally leaves and thanks them for the meal and she says that she can feed him whenever he is hungry as they always have leftovers. Jibeom goes to bed and wakes up and first thing in the morning he applies to a convenience store and immediately gets the job. He practices and works the entirety of the 2 weeks before the show and he finishes his other side quest and gets some money up a little bit to pay for food along with the food he gets from Mrs Han and Doyoung.
[Stats]
So Jibeom
Vocals: B
Dance: C
Visual: B-
Stage Presence: C-
Quest completed
50 Hours of dancing
Reward Granted!
Jibeom looks at his stats proudly as he enters the studio for the first recording of Aether with a skill point to spare.