Peerless Perverted Actor Has a Celebrity Harem?!

[Ding! Two Insta-Boost Cards received.

Use: upon allocation, the selected aspect will rise according to the tier of the card and the difficulty of its current rank. Host may allocate one card to a single aspect or allocate both cards onto one aspect]

Insta-Boost Card Tier: Gold]

Note: Insta-Boost Cards cannot be used to increase the Host’s Overall Standing rank]

Park read the last line twice.

"Fuck."

Because of course that was the first thing he’d thought of, and of course the System had gotten there before him and nailed the door shut on his way to it.

’The bastard can read my mind.’ That, or Park was just that predictable.

Because the very first plan that had walked into his skull, holding flowers and grinning, was to throw both cards at his Overall Standing and jump straight from Bronze to Silver — skip the entire miserable stretch where a rookie had to smile at insults, beg for scraps, and act grateful when some director gave him six seconds of screen time half-hidden behind a decorative office plant.

’A whole rank upgrade in one tap.’

No auditions, grovelling and praying that some man with three divorces and a nicotine problem looked at his face and saw a future instead of a threat to his leading man’s ego.

Bronze today. Silver tomorrow. Gold by next Tuesday, maybe, if the System kept experiencing this beautiful temporary insanity.

’Apparently not.’

"Anti-cheat armor," Park muttered, "on the cheat code itself. Wonderful."

He could see the logic even while he hated it:

The System would hand him gifts, abilities, glowing nonsense, whatever career steroids it had crammed into the Beginner Package — but his actual Standing only moved when he earned it. The public had to recognize him. The industry had to recognize him.

And, most annoyingly of all, the System itself had to recognize him.

So even his cheat refused to let him cheat properly.

’Is this,’ he thought, staring flatly at the panel, ’what people mean by responsible parenting? Because if so, I understand now why so many rich kids turn out insufferable. The rules were always for someone else.’

He clicked his tongue against his teeth.

"Such a shame."

Still. Two Gold cards were not loose change, and his brain had already started rummaging through the possibilities like a teenager left alone in a house with somebody else’s credit card and a two-hour head start.

"Can they be used on Traits?"

[No]

Park waited.

Nothing else came.

"No explanation? Just — no?"

[Traits are inherent conditions of the Host. They possess no conventional ranks and cannot be advanced through Insta-Boost Cards]

That, unfortunately, made sense.

Traits weren’t skills he trained or talents he sharpened. They were closer to permanent laws stapled onto his existence. Marvelous Halo had no rank sitting beside it — no A, no S, no SS waiting quietly in line to be bullied upward.

It just was and already out there doing its level best to turn his face into a municipal safety hazard.

Which left his Attributes.

One card could push his acting from S to SS. Same for his voice. Or he could take On-spot Creativity and Wit from A+ to AA — which, honestly, was tempting for a man about to spend the rest of his life surviving interviews, variety shows, scandals, and women sharp enough to catch him mid-lie.

"Not bad," Park murmured. "Not bad at all."

Then another thought arrived, elbowing the others aside.

"What about the physical stats?"

[A single Insta-Boost Card may be allocated to the Physical Attributes category]

He leaned forward.

[When allocated to the category, the boost applies across all physical stats rather than a single stat]

Something bright and stupid lit up behind his ribs so fast he nearly sat up hard enough to insult the couch.

All of them?

He wouldn’t have to burn one card on Strength, another on Stamina, then sit there staring mournfully at the empty space where his remaining generosity used to be. One card, dropped into the Physical category, lifted the whole physical stats at once.

If the bump was even three points, that meant three additional points on Strength, three on Stamina, three on Agility, three on Endurance, three on whatever else the System had tucked away in there.

That wasn’t a boost but his entire body getting an illegal software and hardware update overnight while it slept.

"Holy moly."

He glanced around the empty room, quietly grateful Quinn wasn’t there to watch the future terror of the entertainment industry react to a menu screen like a nine-year-old finding out dessert was free and unlimited.

"That’s actually amazing."

Of course, the size of the bump and the number of stats it touched would depend on the card’s tier. The System had already made it painfully clear that nothing good came without enough fine print to wallpaper a small courtroom.

He studied the two golden cards drifting on the panel.

"So what would this tier card do?"

[The effectiveness of an Insta-Boost Card is determined by both card tier and the current rank of the selected aspect]

[Lower-ranked aspects receive greater advancement when a card is allocated to it.]

[Example: a Silver-tier card used on an F-rank talent may raise it up to three ranks, an A-rank Attribute may rise to AA, An S-rank Attribute may rise only to S+.]

Park’s excitement took one careful step backward and sat down.

The higher the rank, the harder every extra step became. A weak talent could sprint up the ladder because it still had all that empty room above it. A great one had to drag itself across each tiny inch with the whole universe hanging off its ankle like a clingy ex.

A Silver card could rescue mediocrity if used on a lower talent or ability.

A Gold card could barely polish greatness if used on an already great rank just like all his current talents.

Which meant these two Gold cards were worth a great deal more than they’d looked at first glance — especially now, with most of his important Attributes already parked at A+, S, or higher. Every one of them was expensive real estate to improve.

Park tapped a finger against his knee and reconsidered the whole thing.

He could spend them tonight. Push acting to SS. Sharpen his voice to another tier. Slam the physical card down and walk downstairs tomorrow morning looking like puberty had received military funding.

’But — why, though?’

He was already ridiculous. The Abilities Box alone had dragged him a full continent past the old Park. What he had right now, tonight, untouched, was already enough to rattle casting directors, steal auditions out from under better-connected boys, and make people pause whatever they were watching just to ask the screen who the hell he was.

Spending the cards tonight wouldn’t be ambition.

’It’d be greed wearing a motivational quote.’

His story had barely opened its first page.

The System’s rewards were only starting to trickle in, and he had no idea what mess was waiting for him a month from now; a year from now.

One spectacular scandal too many from now.

There might come a day he desperately needed an instant jump in some talent he didn’t even have yet, or a career saving ability if he did something threatening his career, maybe something life-saving — or a day when one extra rank was the exact difference between grabbing an opportunity and watching it stroll off into some other actor’s career while he clapped politely from the sidelines.

Torching both cards tonight just because they were shiny would be painfully, memorably stupid.

He’d already died once.

He didn’t need to go murdering his own future planning on the same day.

"Can I keep them?"

[Yes. Insta-Boost Cards and any unopened reward the Host chooses to preserve may be stored indefinitely and accessed later.]

Park waited for the catch.

There wasn’t one.

No storage fee, expiry date no small print quietly informing him that unused rewards developed abandonment issues and would resent him later.

’Finally. Something free.’ A rare and beautiful event, roughly as common in his experience as an honest landlord.

He settled back into the couch, satisfied. The two cards folded neatly out of sight, their golden glow tucking itself away into storage.

"Good. Keep them warm for me."

His eyes drifted to the next unopened reward, and the grin came back before he could talk it down.

The Abilities Box had already rebuilt his career from the studs, the Insta-Boost cards could rebuild almost anything else, whenever he decided the moment was worth it; which left only the reward with the most arrogant name in the entire package still sitting there, glowing, smug, waiting.

Park rubbed his palms together like a man about to do something his mother would not approve of.

"Alright, you gorgeous bastard. Open Perfect Crown."