The lobby of Titan Entertainment looked like a battlefield after the ceasefire.
Movers were hauling out expensive leather sofas. Foreclosure notices were plastered over the gold-framed posters of Apex and Aurora. The reception desk, once guarded by intimidating security, was empty except for a half-drunk coffee cup.
Han Yoo-jin walked in. He didn't wear a mask. He didn't need to hide anymore.
"Mr. Han!" a liquidator in a cheap suit ran over, sweating. "You can't be here. The asset auction hasn't started."
"I'm not here for the furniture," Yoo-jin said, stepping around a pile of cardboard boxes. "I'm here for the people."
He walked straight to the elevators. The keycard Director Min had given him still worked.
The elevator rose to the 10th floor. The Practice Studios.
The hallway was filled with crying teenagers. Trainees. They sat on the floor, hugging their knees, their dreams evaporated overnight. Other agencies were there too—scouts from mid-tier companies circling like vultures, offering predatory contracts to the desperate kids.
"You there," a scout from a third-rate agency pointed at a crying girl. "You have a good face. Sign with us, and we'll debut you in three years. But you have to pay for your own plastic surgery."
The girl looked up, hopeless. She reached for the pen.
Yoo-jin snatched the pen out of the scout's hand.
"Hey!" the scout barked. "Who do you think—"
He saw Yoo-jin's face. He froze. Everyone knew that face. It was the face that killed a giant.
"Get out," Yoo-jin said softly.
"This is a free market," the scout stammered. "Titan is dead. These kids are free agents."
"These kids are victims of fraud," Yoo-jin corrected. "And I don't let scavengers eat the victims."
He turned to the hallway of trainees. Fifty pairs of terrified eyes looked at him.
[System Scan Activated]
[Analyzing Potential...]
The numbers floated over their heads.
Grade C... Grade D... Grade B...
Most of them were average. Titan had hoarded them for their looks, not their talent.
Then, Yoo-jin saw a glow at the end of the hall.
[Name: Park So-eun]
[Potential: S-Rank (Vocals)]
[Current Status: Despair]
It was the girl the scout had been harassing. She had no makeup on, and her eyes were puffy from crying.
Yoo-jin walked over to her. He crouched down.
"Do you want to sing?" he asked.
"There's nowhere to sing," she whispered. "Titan is gone. My contract is void. I have debt."
"I didn't ask about your contract," Yoo-jin said. "I asked if you want to sing."
She nodded, a fresh tear rolling down her cheek.
"Then stand up," Yoo-jin said. He handed her a business card. It was heavy, black cardstock with a silver logo.
STARFORCE ENTERTAINMENT
Chief Producer: Han Yoo-jin
"Be at my studio at 9 AM tomorrow," Yoo-jin addressed the whole hallway. "We are holding an open audition. Anyone who passes gets their trainee debt wiped. Anyone who fails gets a bus ticket home and a severance package."
The hallway erupted. Hope, sudden and violent, returned to their faces.
The scout glared at Yoo-jin. "You can't sign them all. You don't have the budget."
"I just released the best-selling album of the year," Yoo-jin said, standing up. "I have plenty of budget."
Yoo-jin took the stairs up to the penthouse. The Executive Floor.
He needed to see one more person.
The door to the CEO's office was open. Inside, sitting on the floor amidst a sea of shredded documents, was Min-ji.
The center of Aurora. The girl who had sneered at Sol & Luna on national TV.
She was packing a box. Her perfectly styled hair was a mess.
"Here to gloat?" Min-ji asked without looking up. "Go ahead. Take a picture. 'The Fall of the Queen'. It'll get you a million likes."
Yoo-jin leaned against the doorframe.
[Target: Kim Min-ji]
[Status: Ruined]
[Hidden Stat: Vocal Range (S) - Suppressed by Agency]
"I'm not here to gloat," Yoo-jin said. "I'm here to ask why you sang Phantom Pain like a ballad when you knew it was a tragedy."
Min-ji stopped packing. She laughed bitterly.
"Because Director Yoon told me to. He said, 'Look pretty, sing soft, don't scare the boys.' If I sang it with real emotion, he cut my lines."
She threw a trophy into the box. It shattered.
"I was a doll, Yoo-jin. A very expensive doll. And now the toy store is closed."
"You have a good voice," Yoo-jin said. "A real voice. I heard it when you screamed at your manager in the hallway last week."
Min-ji looked at him, startled. "You heard that?"
"I hear everything," Yoo-jin said.
He walked over and kicked the box gently.
"Sol & Luna are lonely at the top. They need competition. Real competition."
"You want me to join Starforce?" Min-ji scoffed. "Your fans hate me. My fans hate me because I was part of the rigging scandal."
"The public loves a redemption arc," Yoo-jin said. "But you have to earn it. No more lip-syncing. No more cute concepts. You start from the bottom. You scrub the floors if I tell you to."
"Why would I do that?"
"Because you're angry," Yoo-jin said. "And angry women make the best music."
Min-ji stared at him. The mask of the "perfect idol" cracked, revealing the hungry artist underneath.
"9 AM," she whispered.
"Don't be late," Yoo-jin said.
Yoo-jin walked out of the Titan building. The sun was setting, casting long shadows over Gangnam.
His phone rang. It was Director Park.
"Yoo-jin! Where are you? The stock market just closed. We're up another 30%. We have so much cash on hand I don't know what to do with it!"
"Don't spend it," Yoo-jin said, walking to his car. "I'm about to make a very large purchase."
"What? A new building? A yacht?"
"A legacy," Yoo-jin said.
He hung up and dialed a different number.
"Chairman Moon."
The Chairman of TK Group answered on the first ring. "Mr. Han. You decimated my competitor. The board is impressed. We are preparing to acquire Titan's assets."
"Don't," Yoo-jin said.
There was a silence on the line.
"Excuse me?"
"Don't acquire them," Yoo-jin said firmly. "If TK Group buys Titan, it's just one conglomerate eating another. The public will hate it. They'll see it as corporate greed."
"And what do you propose?"
"Let Starforce buy them," Yoo-jin said.
"Starforce is a peanut compared to Titan, Mr. Han. You don't have the capital."
"I have the narrative," Yoo-jin countered. "The hero who exposed the corruption buys the ruins to build a sanctuary. It's a Cinderella story. The public will support it."
He paused, playing his ace.
"And I have the Source Code."
The Chairman's breath hitched. "The algorithm? The one Version 1 built?"
"I have the key to the next ten years of K-Pop trends," Yoo-jin lied. He didn't have the algorithm fully unlocked, but he had the System. It was the same thing. "Back my bid, Chairman. Let me buy the Titan building. Let me rebrand it. And I will give TK Group exclusive distribution rights for every hit I produce for the next decade."
It was a deal with the devil. But he needed the castle.
"You are ambitious," the Chairman chuckled. "Very well. We will back the loan. But if you default, I take your eyes. I hear they see things others can't."
"Deal."
One week later.
The giant "T" logo was being craned down from the roof of the Titan building. It crashed onto the pavement with a satisfying metallic crunch.
In its place, a new sign was being hoisted up.
STARFORCE.
Yoo-jin stood on the roof, the wind whipping his coat.
He had done it. He hadn't just survived the industry; he had conquered it.
Behind him, the roof access door opened.
Hana and Mina walked out. They were holding coffee cups. They looked different now. Confident. Relaxed. They were no longer rookies fighting for survival; they were the queens of the castle.
"It's a nice view," Hana said, leaning on the railing next to him. "You can see the whole city."
"It's terrifying," Mina admitted, looking down. "It's so high up."
"That's why we don't look down," Yoo-jin said.
He turned to them.
"The remodeling is almost done. The trainees are settled. Min-ji is crying in Studio B because the vocal trainer—me—is too harsh."
Hana laughed. "She deserves it. But she sounds good. Her new track is fire."
"We have a company concert in a month," Yoo-jin said. "The 'Reboot' Concert. Sol & Luna headlining. Min-ji opening. And the new trainees as backup."
"And then?" Mina asked.
"And then we go global," Yoo-jin said.
He looked at his System interface.
[System Update Complete]
[New Title: The CEO]
[Unlocked: Global Market Map]
[Current Objective: Billboard Hot 100 #1]
The game wasn't over. The map had just gotten bigger.
Yoo-jin smiled. He felt the phantom weight of Version 1 lifting from his shoulders. He wasn't a shadow anymore. He was the source.
"We need to record," Yoo-jin said, checking his watch.
"Now?" Hana groaned. "We own the building! Can't we take a day off?"
"The charts don't take days off," Yoo-jin said, walking towards the door.
But he stopped. He looked back at them.
"Actually," he said. "Forget recording."
He pointed to the helipad on the roof.
"Let's order chicken. Let's eat it right here, on top of the world."
Mina's eyes lit up. "Fried or seasoned?"
"Both," Yoo-jin said. "We're rich now."
He pulled out his phone to call for delivery. As he did, he saw a notification from the System. A small, quiet one in the corner of his vision.
[Hidden Quest Complete: A Life for a Life.]
[Yuna's Happiness Level: High.]
[System Curse: Lifted.]
Yoo-jin touched his nose. No blood. No headache. The static in his head was gone.
For the first time since he woke up in the hospital, there was silence.
And in that silence, he could finally hear his own music.
"Make it three chickens," Yoo-jin told the operator. "And extra radishes."
He hung up and looked at the sky. It was a clear, brilliant blue.
The Scandal-Proof Producer had finally cleared the scandal of his own existence.
"Let's eat," he said.
And for the first time, he really was hungry.