The Trashy PD Has To Survive as an Idol - Chapter 231

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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231

The body cradled in my arms was remarkably small.
Ten-year-old Seo Ho-jin had a slight frame and youthful features, often mistaken for two or three years younger than his actual age.
Warm body heat transferred to every point where he made contact with me.

“Seo Ho-jin….”
“…Mmph.”

Eyes so large they seemed to occupy half his face turned toward me.
Exactly as I remembered ten-year-old Seo Ho-jin.
Yet, at this point in time, Seo Ho-jin should have been twenty-three—roughly my size.
Which meant this was likely some kind of System manipulation.

As my gaze hardened, the child fidgeted with his fingers, his expression troubled.

“Idiot.”

In my lowered line of sight, I saw the young Seo Ho-jin exhale a long, resigned sigh.

“Put me down for now.”

I carefully lowered him until his feet touched the ground properly, then knelt and gripped his shoulders. The one wearing the mask of young Seo Ho-jin easily removed my hands.
Suspicious as it was, I couldn’t bring myself to speak hastily, struggling to find the right words, when he opened his mouth first.

“I’m the guide of this place.”
“What?”
“This is your Unconscious Mind. It took the form most deeply imprinted in your memories, sunk in the depths of your consciousness.”
“…You’re saying you’re Seo Ho-jin from my memories?”

I stared at him with narrowed eyes.

“…Think of it however you find comfortable.”

He added casually, as if asking “Would you believe me anyway?” and moved forward.

“Seo Ho-jin… no, wait.”

I quickly caught up to him, speaking as I went.

“Why are you in the form you were at ten years old?”
“Because that’s when your guilt and sense of responsibility were deepest.”
“…For a ten-year-old, you talk way too well. Seo Ho-jin never spoke like that.”

The one claiming to be Seo Ho-jin didn’t answer. He simply quickened his pace.
I pursued him closely, pressing the question.

“But why did you run away?”
“…I never intended to guide you while facing each other like this. I only meant to help from a distance.”
“Why? You said you were a guide.”
“Seeing me directly might shock you too much.”

He wasn’t wrong.
The moment I confirmed his face, the first thoughts that flooded my mind were dark ones—what if something had happened to my younger brother? That remained true even now.
My head felt tangled. Noticing my expression, the boy turned his head away with a sly smile.

“I know what you’re worried about, but nothing’s happened to the real Seo Ho-jin, so relax your face.”

This bastard really did seem to be Seo Ho-jin manifested from my unconscious mind.
Otherwise, there’s no way the fool could see through my innermost thoughts so clearly.

“Just trust me and follow. I’ll help you escape alive.”
“….”

I stared at him for a moment, then pinched his cheek. The soft, warm sensation of a child’s skin registered against my fingertips.

“What, what….”

And I stretched it out slowly.

“Ow! It hurts!!”

He swatted the back of my hand with weak force, his expression serious. I released him reluctantly, feeling a slight pang of regret at having to stop.

“…It’s still warm.”
“What are you talking about?!”

The upturned corners of his eyes were identical to how Seo Ho-jin looked as a child when he used to squawk and complain.
He glared at me, then spun sharply and climbed the staircase.

“I don’t even understand why you came here in the first place.”
“What do you mean?”
“Surrendering your body to Min Ji-heon like that. What if he deceived you?”

It seemed that in this Unconscious World, all my memories were being shared as well.
As I reached the top of the staircase, through the windows of the buildings pressed abnormally close together, I could see people working inside them.

“It wasn’t about trusting Min Ji-heon.”

Seo Ho-jin, who had been walking ahead, turned to look back at me.
I simply had no choice.
Facing what I thought was imminent death, I had to grasp at even a rotting rope.

‘Though that’s not all there is to it.’

To find clues about my physical condition and the missing memories, Min Ji-heon seemed like the most suitable person. And hearing the words “unknowable things are tangled together, and that’s what’s causing all this chaos,” I found it reasonable.
So I didn’t particularly counterattack.

I didn’t want to lay out all these tedious details to the person standing before me.
Suspicion still lingered in one corner of my heart, and besides, he was wearing the outward appearance of Seo Ho-jin, even if it was just a facade.

“…Hmm, perhaps this form wasn’t ideal. There are too many restrictions.”

Yet he shook his head as if he knew everything, letting out a deep sigh.
Then he swept his hand through the air. The buildings began to undulate like waves, returning to their original positions. Vibrations resonated in a steady rhythm.
After conjuring this still-unbelievable sight, he pouted his lips and turned his body toward me, meeting my gaze directly.

“Anyway, you can’t stay here long. Don’t you hear that sound ringing out?”
“Sound?”
“Like a heartbeat—that thump-thump sound.”

With those words, he snapped his fingers, and cracks spiderwebbed across the walls. The ceiling split in half and opened wide. A dry, biting wind brushed against my cheeks.

“Hold on tight.”
“Come here!”

The ground beneath us buckled and heaved upward. Fearing he might slip, I snatched his small hand—delicate as a fern frond—and held firm.
The boy’s eyes widened in surprise, then he smiled faintly.

“That sound you’ve been hearing since earlier is a real heartbeat—.”

We had risen impossibly high into the sky.
He raised his free hand, pointing toward something. There lay a rhythmically pulsing heart—vivid crimson, beating with steady determination.

“—that’s your heart, Hyung.”

I thought I’d seen everything by now.
The grotesque mass—blood-red and visceral, nearly the size of two trucks—quivered with faint, labored beats.

“It’s still beating now, but the longer you stay here, the slower it will become. We need to leave quickly.”

The boy snapped his fingers together with a sharp click, and the risen ground began descending slowly. After setting us safely on the rooftop, the building returned to its original form.
I followed him through the rooftop door and down the stairs.

“…The heartbeat is so faint.”
“You must have some idea what’s happening, Hyung.”

So it came down to ignoring the System’s warnings.
I remembered the messages flooding my vision just before entering the Unconscious World.
The text had been corrupted and barely legible, but it seemed to involve Quest failure or something related to debt.

“Well, the Shining Star incident played a role too. When the penalty and Quest success collided, it created a massive system error. And more than anything….”
“….”
“You were suspected.”

[Character ‘Sung Ji-won’ suspects the Player.]

As the boy listed each reason, the picture became painfully clear.

‘I’ve really done it this time.’

Every single thing had deviated from the System Window’s intentions.

“Maintaining the world where you exist right now requires considerable power. But because you keep creating errors, the energy needed to process them gets distributed, and that burden falls squarely on you. That’s why you’re in pain.”
“….”

Just from a few mistakes?
I found the System incompetent. My mind raced, calculating whether I should act against the System going forward or adapt everything to align with it.

“…They said to find what Min Ji-heon is suppressing.”
“That unlucky bastard….”
“Did you just curse?”
“…No?”

The young-looking Seo Ho-jin turned his head shamelessly. I was so exasperated I almost flicked him on the forehead, but instead, I only squeezed the hand I’d been holding tighter.
He moved toward the increasingly crowded street.

“PD Seo, where are you heading in such a rush?”
“Huh?”
“Oh, PD! Hello!”

Then, people I recognized began speaking to me.
Though they should have shown interest in the young child beside me, they all acted as if he were invisible.

“Why doesn’t everyone speak to you?”
“I’m not visible. The Seo Ho-jin in the Unconscious World isn’t seen by the Broadcasting Station staff.”
“Why?”
“Because you wanted the company people not to know about me.”

The corner of my mouth twitched slightly.

“Ah! There it is.”

A massive LED display I’d never seen before was installed in the Broadcasting Station Lobby.
The screen crackled with static noise before displaying a video.
The first scene showed children dancing.
Soon the screen shifted, and my image appeared from behind the camera—brow deeply furrowed, arms crossed.
It was an expression I wore often when dissatisfied.

The scene changed again, and a man handed me a shopping bag as I smoked in the Smoking Area.

[Yes, haha, this is a holiday gift… Please take good care of our trainees.]
[Hmm.]

I took a cigarette between my lips and flipped the shopping bag upside down, shaking its contents onto the floor.
Banknotes tumbled out. Several loose bills fluttered and scattered in all directions.

[What are you doing right now?!]
[What? You said it was a holiday gift. I was curious, so I opened it.]

I neatly folded the shopping bag and placed it in the man’s hand.

[Well, do pick it all up.]
[You really think you’ll get away with this?]
[Oh, of course. I always do.]

It was something that had actually happened.
Working as a PD, it wasn’t uncommon for people to come asking me to feature them on air or increase their exposure.
Despite always responding firmly, and despite the widespread rumor that flattery had no effect on me whatsoever, people never seemed to tire of trying their luck.
The small figure beside me watching the video with me narrowed his eyes and murmured.

“It’s not even surprising, but your personality really is….”
“….”

Even if he was an entity from my unconscious mind, showing such a side of myself felt somewhat embarrassing.
Then, the System Window that had only ever appeared to me until now surfaced on the screen.

Ding!

[A portion of your memory is being unlocked.]

[I’m Song Ji-on. Please take care of me!]

Then a face that appeared to be in her late teens came into view.
Song Ji-on, a trainee of low rank.
Her agency was a mid-sized company, and as far as I recalled, despite her lack of talent, her ambition was boundless—she had subjected the trainees to immense pressure.

[PD, I really… what do I do?]

I couldn’t bring myself to cry out loud—only tears streamed down my face in silence.
Even though I hadn’t done anything special for Song Ji-on, rumors circulated that my agency had pressured me to manipulate the results and even offered me bribes.

[Why do you even stay at an agency like that?]

Setting aside her talent, the situation was genuinely tragic.
It seemed like it would be better to use the devil’s editing to portray myself as a trainee blacklisted by the PD, generating sympathy instead.

[…You’re right. I don’t know what to do either.]

Her downturned gaze was saturated with melancholy.

[For now, clear your head and think things through from different angles.]

Even as I dispensed this advice, my mind was furiously calculating behind the scenes.
How could I arrange things so they’d be best for her and for me alike?
—But trainees like her weren’t one or two.

“I watched it, sure.”

I turned my body sideways and asked.

“But why show me this? Seems like a waste of time.”

He uncrossed his arms, mirroring my posture, and spoke.

“Because this is the turning point.”
“The turning point?”
“Watch.”

The moment his words ended, the scene on the LED display shifted. He lifted his head and looked directly into my eyes.

“Things probably went wrong starting from here.”
“…?”

A sinister premonition crept up my spine.

On the screen, I saw myself rummaging through a cigarette pack in front of the smoking area.

[PD!]

In that instant, a sharp voice cut through the air.
My nerves already wound tight as a bowstring, I ran a rough hand through my hair and greeted the voice’s owner with a bitter smile playing at my lips.
The camera slowly panned, bringing the figure into focus.

[Huh?]

The day before I arrived in this world, this was the trainee who had hurled curses at me—.

[What brings you here?]

—the one who had placed fourth in the Survival Program.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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