gone soya

[ep0] Level: 0

[ep0] Title: None

[ep0] Singing: C

[ep0] Dancing: -

[ep0] Physical Attractiveness: C

[ep0] Charm: -

[ep0] Traits: Infinite Potential

[ch1] Level: 0 → 1

[ep2, ch1] inc +1 point from 1st attempt (karaoke)

[ep2] Singing: C → C+ 

[ep2] Level: 1 → 2

[ch2] inc +1 point from 10 attempts

[ch2] Singing: C+ → B-

[ch2] inc +2 points from singing a lot? singing: 100, 200, 300, 400, 500.

[ch2] natural inc vocal +1

[ch4] Singing: B- → A-

[ch5] Level: 5

[ch5] Dancing: - → D

[ch5] Physical Attractiveness: C → C+ (natural inc phys +1 from visiting a salon)

[ch5] Charm: - → C

[ch5] inc +1 point from Achievement: First Performance (initial screening) (brings it up to lvl 5)

[ch5] Points Remaining: 1

[ch5] Trait: “Sleep is For the Dead” from “A successful performance!”

[ch6] Level: 7

inc +2 points from every hundred attempts gives a reward up to 500. Being able to not sleep let Moondae practice a bunch. dancing: 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 (brings it up to lvl 7)

[ch6] Points Remaining: 3

[ch8] Dancing: D → C

[ch10-11] Trait: “Come to Think of It, You’re Right!” from Start of Fame (1,000 viewers)

[ch11] Level: 8

[ch11] inc +1 point from Achievement: The First Broadcast (airing of episode 0) (brings up to lvl 8)

[ch11] Points Remaining: 1

[ch11] Physical Attractiveness: C+ → B-

[ch11] 3 potential points (300, 400, 500) left until singing achievement has reached 500 times. pmd intends to level up that day and get an extra point. 

inc +3 points from practice achievements while practicing for the Oct 31 concert (one is from the 500th dance practice). dancing: 100, 200, 300, 400, 500

[ch16] Level: +1 (500th dance practice) but hadn’t used the point yet. likely one point remaining now.

[ch27] Singing: A- → A (happened before Oct 31 concert)

[ch27] Dancing: C → C+ (happened before Oct 31 concert)

[ch16] trait “Look at Me!” from “A successful performance!” (October 31 stage)

implied in [ch17], when Moondae says his visuals can’t get out of the B-ranks, that Moondae has at most 2 stat-upgrade points, but he likely only has one. 

[ch19] inc +1 point from “start of fame (2)” 10,000 ppl remembered your existence (episode 1’s airing)

[ch19] rare trait from “call of fame” 50,000 ppl remembered your existence. (episode 1’s airing). moondae doesn’t roll yet. 

[ch22] by now, most practice achievements have been filled up to 500 times apparently

[ch24] Physical Attractiveness: B- → B+ (also when moondae dyes his hair blond. there’s a month break before the next filming) (now 0 points remaining)

[ch27] Level: 12

[ch27] inc +1 point from call of fame 100,000 people after the airing of episode 3 (apparently this earns a level up. even tho the rest of the fame series didn’t give one. hahahahahaha)

[ch27] Points Remaining: 1 

[ch27] rolled rare trait from “Call to Fame” 50,000 ppl. Got “Look at Me!” and merged to “I want to be the center!” already accounted for in ch19

[ch27] Charm: C → C+ (“I want to be the center!” trait)

[ch29] Charm: C+ → B- (preparing for the heroes’ anthem concert)

[ch38] trait “Bacchus 500 (B)” from Call of fame! 500,000 people draw hero trait (acquired after heroes’ anthem concert)

[ch53] Level: 12 → 13

[ch53] inc +1 point from 1,000th practice achievement from Moon Rabbit practice. 

[ch53] Points Remaining: 1

[ch53] trait rejected “Unmoving Heart (B)!” from “Call to Fame” 1,000,000 people.  

[ch66] trait “Snatching ears (A)” from “successful stage” pop up during the live broadcast of Idol Inc.’s last episode. replaced “I Want to Be the Center!” Charm: B- → C+

[ch66] [ep68] natural inc charm +1 Charm: C+ → B- 

[ch66] Points Remaining: 1

[ch76] Dancing: C+ → B- now points remaining is 0

[ch103] level 15

[ch103] inc +1 Talent: B- → B from “great performance” pop-ups

[ch103] inc +3 Points Remaining: 3 (stage achievements: 100+, practice achievements: 5000+) (assume two are from stage and one is from total practice achievements. stage: 1, ?, 100; total practices: 1, 10, 1000, 5000)

[ch103] trait rejected govern those tears (B) (trait likely acquired between the two “great performance!” pop-ups that gave stat points.

[ch108] S: A → A+

[ch108] P: B+ → A- (now points remaining is 1)

[ch134] inc +1 level 16 from The First Concert achievement (now points remaining is 2)

[ch134] natural inc dance +1 D: B- → B

[ch134] trait international student (A) (from draw heroic characteristics from a “successful performance!” pop-up)

[ch134] Points Remaining: 2

[ch147] S: A+ → S- (most likely artificial increase. now points remaining is 1)

[ch170] inc +1 level 17 (unsure what achievement. gained a point, so now points remaining is 2) 

[ch170] natural inc charm +1 C: B → B+ (sometime before)

[ch170] Points Remaining: 2

[ch170] trait [The true taste of fame!] 10,000,000 people remembered your existence! : Draw Legendary Characteristics ☜ Click!

[ch171] international student replaced with Now that I heard it, it's true(A)

[ch171] C: B+ → A- (artificial increase. now points remaining is 1)

[ch200] inc +1 level 18 (unsure what achievement. gained a point, so now points remaining is 2)

[ch200] Points Remaining: 2

[ch200] natural inc dance +1 D: B → B+ (sometime before)

[ch200] C: A- → A+ (now points remaining is 0)

[ch200] 4 traits. has a bunch of successful performance popups from concerts and variety shows. they’re “precious” or “hero” traits. ['Soft and cute (B)' Acquired!] ['Angelic Heart (C)' Acquired!] ['Crocodile's tears (A)' Acquired!] ['Unmoving Heart (B)' Acquired!]. removed “now that i hear it” for “unmoving heart”. 

[ch200] trait removed “unmoving heart” for “a time for yearning” a time for yearning (S). “a time for yearning” acquired from a “draw legendary characteristics” pull, the last draw received after the tour.

[ch228] inc +1 level 19 (unsure what achievement. now points remaining is 1)

[ch228] natural inc singing +1 S: S- → S

[ch228] Points Remaining: 1

[ch228] 2 traits draws. 

[ch228] trait Bacchus 500 (500) → Bacchus 1000 (A) now there is one trait draw remaining

[ch232] draw treasure attribute (check exact wording). it uses the one trait draw remaining. 

[ch233] trait A-grade blank attribute → bacchus 1000 (A) → Nectar (S) now there is 0 draws remaining. 

[ch252] all status abnormalities removed. reward screen wording

[ch253] title: none → a successful person (idol) title screen wording

[ch253] reward is a permanent status window

[ch254] trait missions are my thing from draw legendary attribute gained from the online charity concert

[ch346] level -

[ch346] natural inc appearance +1 P: A- → A (sometime before)

[ch346] natural inc charm +1 C: A+ → S- (sometime before)

[ch346] Points Remaining: 1 (the point from ch228)

[ch348] S: S → S+ (now points remaining is 0)

Apolocelot had an idea for an aquarium themed ghost story. I came up with a monster that processes living things into pearls + a stamp rally you must complete to escape

1st guideline

So back when GDCG first came out in Oct 2024, immediately it was obvious it would be a hit. It was by the author of the mega-hit DoD and the first 50 episodes that were released on the first day had already grabbed a ton of people.

Then, on twt, somebody started advertising for their Braun dolls.

I didn't see this first hand, but as far as I know, it quickly became apparent that this person was ready to make and sell a lot of Braun doll merch to fans, only days after the novel's launch. This made a lot of people frown, and it was widely suspected to be a for-profit business that was using a popular ip without permission rather than a fan making merch at small scale. Another issue was that the Braun doll was such an obvious merch item that the publisher itself would surely sell, so was it right for there to be 'fan-made' merch that could basically be confused for the official?

The Braun doll was eventually canceled due to the heavy backlash.

Soon afterwards, KWBOOKS announced their first guideline regarding fanwork.

In their first guideline, they forbid some things, including :

fanwork that may be misunderstood to be KWBOOKS's official product

for-profit sales of fan merch

reproducing (scan/tracing etc) official text, illustration or other visual content, or creating/distributing official text etc with no creativity added.

They also specified (in the twt) that

if fanmerch is made by a business, this would be considered ip infringement, no matter the scale

regarding mass production, both individuals & businesses must sign a contract with them before production.

After this guideline, fans basically unanimously agreed to not sell Good Friend dolls, even at a small scale, and only distributed patterns & sold DIYs.

2nd guideline

The second guideline came in May 2025.

X에서 KW STORE👾 님 : "KW북스 작품을 향해 보내주시는 많은 관심과 애정에 진심으로 감사드립니다. KW북스에서는 원칙적으로 KW북스가 제작, 유통하고 있는 모든 IP에 대한 무단 상업적 이용을 금지하고 있습니다. 다만, 독자분들이 콘텐츠를 즐기는 방법 중 하나로 존중하여, 비상업적인 영역에 대해서는 그간 별도로 https://t.co/rGPm3CXDaq" / X

The second guideline was mostly about not making merch that may be misunderstood to be official merch.

To be brief, the issue was that

there seemed to be for-profit large scale manufactures

people had (again) started making merch that could be misunderstood to be official merch

I personally was seeing a lot of merch that were like, for example, USBs with 'Disaster Management Bureau' simply printed on it. (No additional fan illustration or anything...) I feel that that's an example of using official text with no creativity added / making merch that may be misunderstood to be official merch.

Around this time KWBOOKS was also privately contacting several dollmakers and asking them to stop selling their GDCG dolls, bc it may be confused with official merch that was coming. We know this bc one of the contacted dollmakers posted the convo.

(personal thoughts : people were wondering about the doll designs potentially being similar to the dolls that KWBOOKS asked to be stopped. In retrospect I think it may have been just that they were 5cm dolls of the same characters. Based on their interview, I suspect KWBOOKS took care to make the official doll designs not similar to any of the preexisting fan doll designs.)

As we all know, official 5cm dolls were then sold, as were official Good Friend dolls. But then...

3rd guideline

The third guideline was announced Nov 2025.

X에서 KW STORE👾 님 : "KW북스 2차 창작 통합 가이드라인 최종 안내 안녕하세요, KW북스입니다. 먼저, 자사 작품을 향해 보내주시는 애정에 깊이 감사드립니다. 그간 KW북스는 반복적인 안내가 독자분들께 피로감을 드릴 것을 우려하여, 가이드라인 위배 행위에 대해 선별적인 권고 조치를 진행해 왔습니다. 하지만 당사의 https://t.co/a3u4gzGP3O" / X

According to the twt, KWBOOKS had been seeing a lot of cases that were going against the guideline. So as to not cause fatigue for the readers, instead of making additional announcements, they had been privately contacting the offending parties. However, some people just turned their accounts private and kept producing the problematic merch.

Due to the repeated incidents, they made a final guideline.

From after Nov 30th, 2025, all '3d merch' related to DoD and GDCG will be banned from being sold. (making for your personal use and/or distributing a small amount for free is okay.) This includes

character based 3d merch (ex. dolls, doll clothes, figures, light sticks)

related, clothing and other items (ex. badges, rings, weapons)

Why are people talking about some hotel?

This is bc people are discussing what might have been the final straw for KWBOOKS.

Recently there was a rather pricey fan event announced, themed after the Flower Golden Resort, where the staff would be cosplayers. It was to be sold with a one-night check-in to the hotel.

The sheer scale of the event, as well as them basically recreating Flower Golden Resort, caused many people to question whether it wasn't going way too far and infringing on the GDCG IP rather than being a small scale fan event. Even if they weren't doing this at a profit, the hotel would be seeing revenue of tens of millions of won based on the GDCG IP, all without the publisher or the author even being notified, so was that okay?

After a heavy backlash including input from other fandoms, the event was eventually canceled, on the same day that KWBOOKS put up the announcement. So that's why some people suspect the hotel was the last straw.

(Personally I think the hotel was unrelated to the announcement, bc surely KWBOOKS took some time to make their decision. I've been seeing several fanmade merch that worried me, such as :

griptok(popsocket) that looked exactly like the official griptok merch, only with the cross being red like in the official illustration

Bureau themed jacket that was basically a jacket with the words 'Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau' written on the back, as well as their official logo.

Both of the fanmerch were canceled after backlash, but I think any one of them may have been the last straw. There were probably a lot more that I didn't see. So who knows.)

I was going to make fanmerch, am I doomed?

To be clear, only the '3d' fanmerch specified above are banned.

This means that flat stuff like doujins, stickers, photo cards etc are all fine.

The common consensus is that stuff like acrylics and corottos are fine as well, since they're a) original illustrations, unlikely to be misunderstood to be official, and b) they're such popular items that KWBOOKS not mentioning them at all must be a statement in and of itself.

As for the explicitly forbidden stuff such as dolls, rings, weapons etc, you can still make them for yourself, or distribute them (small scale) for free. You just can't sell them. Some dollmakers have been distributing their doll designs so that people can make their own.

Just once. Only the one time, and then I would wave the white flag of surrender and go back to doing whatever Manager Nam wanted. Just as usual.

Amazingly enough, I got the first job I applied to.

It was at a reputable pharmaceutical company, for a marketing role I thought that hours of editing idol photos had inadvertently made me qualified for. To be honest, I didn’t care much for the role description, but again, the work-life balance and benefits seemed excellent.

The interview was suspiciously easy. In fact, the interview was suspicious in general. Aside from the assessments of my competence, which I expected, my interviewer also wanted to ask me fun questions to break the ice and put me at ease. Did I like horror movies? Was I scared of ghosts? Was I familiar with supernatural phenomena? How would I handle a situation that involved the possible deaths of myself and my colleagues?

I probably should have been more suspicious at that point, but again, I was distracted by the offer of free housing in a prime area and restricted stock units.

It was after I signed the NDA that it turned out these questions were relevant. Daydream Inc was certainly a pharmaceutical company, but it was one that ran off of collected energy from ghost stories.

I knew exactly what this situation was called.

“It’s a scam.”

Immediately, I felt like my world was ending. Of course it was a scam, getting a new job so easily. But it was unforgivable to give me a glimpse of hope of getting out of the hell that was Hanpyeong Industry, and then laugh at me for being a naive pushover.

Of course, my newly-low spirits were addressed. I was taken to observe the assessment of the Field Exploration Team, at which point I instantly became a believer.

As I watched the brightly laughing young man in the lecture hall, reveling in his newfound youth, I had a thought.

“...Manager Han.”

My interviewer smiled at me. “Yes?”

“The Marketing Team is also eligible to receive that Wish Ticket, right?”

“Yes, I should have explained that more clearly. It’s a benefit of our top employees – we believe that every employee should have incentive to work hard! Any employee is eligible to receive it, and get any wish they want granted! Whether it’s rejuvenation, or reviving the dead, or finding love – the Wish Ticket will handle it for you!”