Chapter 128

Chapter 128

“Are you all ready?”

“Of course we are!” Big Sejin cried.

“Let’s do this!” Eugene grinned.

Chungwoo’s question was met with a lot of confidence. We’d rented out an entire PC cafe to film ourselves trying to get tickets for the concert, so we and the staff were the only people in the room. Each member was sitting in front of their own PC, visibly extremely excited that their concert was approaching so rapidly.

“The tickets we buy today will be sent to a few lucky Loviewers, signed by the members!”

“We’ll try to get you a good seat!”

My group mates were enthusiastic and didn’t seem all that worried.

They probably think they can nab a seat at the back in the worst-case scenario. It wasn’t surprising that they thought so since there were a total of 26,000 seats available over both days. In other words, there were 13,000 seats per day. There was an odd air of confidence among them—they were attempting ticketing with top-of-the-line PCs. Surely they could get at least one ticket each. I had my doubts, of course.

I don’t think any of them are going to succeed. Just listening to the conversations around me was enough to tell me this.

“The ticketing starts at eight, so... We can click in exactly at eight, right?”

“Seems like it.”

“I want to grab a seat on the first floor!”

I was willing to bet they wouldn’t even make it to the seat selection screen—all they’d get to see was the loading screen, and maybe a couple of them would eventually get a seat in the back.

I guess I’ll have to make sure I get one. It wouldn’t look good if all of us failed. It was probably best for at least a couple of us to succeed, for diversity’s sake. The truth was, though, I’d never really gone to that many concerts myself, other than the few times I’d been commissioned to go and take fancams. I’d bought tickets for other people quite a few times, though, and my success rate wasn’t bad.

I earned myself quite a few expensive meals that way. I’d stopped before long, since if I’d gotten carried away I could end up on the police’s radar. Ticket scalping wasn’t a gray area in the law—it was a straight-up crime.

Regardless, I expected we would be able to nab a few seats, at the very least.

Ahyeon leaned over from the station next to mine and spoke. Looking at his screen told me that he’d only managed to access the ticketing site.

“M-Moondae, which zone are you going to go for?”

“Uh... maybe zone eight on the second floor?”

“The s-second floor?”

“Moondae, aren’t you setting the bar too low?” Big Sejin asked with a massive grin.

“Let’s go for first-floor tickets together!” Eugene said.

The others had overheard our conversation. Their ignorance was making them brave.

Ahyeon nodded, however. “Sh-should I aim for the s-second floor, too? H-how should I g-go about it?”

It was noteworthy that he was both aware of his lack of experience and seeking advice.

Maybe I’ll tell him everything I know. I gave him a bit of advice about server time and the proper setup for the ticketing process.

“First, you go to this website and click the link that takes you to the ticketing site...”

“Oh! Moondae’s teaching him something!” Big Sejin exclaimed.

“I want to hear as well!” Raebin said.

“What are you teaching us?” Eugene asked.

“...it shows the server time on the ticketing site. You can use this as a reference to know exactly when to click in.”

That’s a lot of background noise today. I left my brief explanation there for now.

“Oh, I see!” Ahyeon quickly got to work on his PC, and soon the name of the server appeared, as well as the current server time.

[The Magical Boys, TeSTAR’s magical seats!]

[19:47:49, February 26]

“Wow!”

The others who overheard excitedly did the same, and even Chungwoo and Bae Sejin began to look over the other member’s shoulders and follow my instructions.

Hmm. I suppose this is better than just going in blind. Only ten minutes remained until ticketing began. I quickly told them everything I knew.

“Open the ticketing site with every available web browser, in multiple tabs. You click in one second before ticketing starts according to the server time...” When I’d finished giving my concise explanation, their expression grew more serious.

“S-so this isn’t s-simple after all...”

“I think we would have all failed if Moondae hadn’t looked into it first.”

The tips I was giving them were probably more detailed than they’d expected and showed just how desperate someone needed to be if they wanted to succeed. The mood grew more intense as the ticketing time approached.

“Three minutes to go.”

“Oh!”

“Let’s get good seats and give them to our Loviewers!” Big Sejin said.

“I’ll do my best!” Raebin said.

“G-good luck!” Ahyeon called to the room at large.

They seemed to have forgotten that it would be Loviewers buying the tickets anyway, even if they failed. At least we’d be preventing a few tickets from falling into scalpers’ hands, so I guessed that was something positive coming out of this.

I shrugged my shoulders, adjusting my grip on the mouse. The staff gave us a countdown with their hands from one of the camera’s blind spots.

“Ten! Nine! Eight... three! Two! One!”

Mouthing the countdown, I began to frantically refresh all my open tabs right before the clock hit eight o’clock. Nothing happened after that. The screen had frozen entirely.

Goddamn it. That was the only way to describe it. Every tab was loading endlessly, and I sat watching the unmoving screens for about seven minutes, wondering if the traffic would ever clear up. Nothing changed.

There was quite a bit of noise coming from all around me as well. None of the members seemed to have even seen the ticketing screen yet.

Looks like the server gave out. I abandoned my PC and turned to the mobile app.

[41,502 users in queue]

I’d been utterly defeated in the ticketing war. It seemed I’d been wrong to wait to try it on my phone since I’d wanted to avoid using it while the cameras were running.

I failed? I didn’t get a single seat... Me, of all people? It was hard to believe.

I managed to successfully get tickets to a VTIC concert. That was three years ago, of course, but they had been top-tier idols even then! The server had crashed at that time, too, but I’d somehow managed to wriggle my way in by switching tabs. I had no idea why the same technique hadn’t worked this time.

I was ticketing for my own concert, too... I was in shock, to be honest. Only after I’d checked the PC screen and the app several more times did I accept the reality the white screen represented.

Nothing I can do about it now, I guess. It was a pity, though, that we wouldn’t be able to give away any tickets.

Since I failed, it isn’t likely any of the other members managed to—

“Huh? Whoa!” Ahyeon suddenly began to shout, moving his mouse around frantically. He had reached the payment screen.

“No way! Ahyeon, you did it?”

“How did you get in?” Raebin asked.

“I-I have no clue... I j-just d-did as Moondae told me to!” Ahyeon explained to the members, who’d rushed to look at his screen, all while following my instructions to the letter.

Entering all the personal details he’d written out in advance, he chose to pay via bank transfer before moving to the next page. The ticket was even located in the center of the second floor, which was what he’d been aiming for.

“No way!”

“Ahyeon did it.”

“It’s a huge relief that at least one of us managed to buy a ticket.”

The members were patting him on the shoulder, already celebrating. I stared at Ahyeon’s screen, resigned.

Big Sejin suddenly slapped me on the back. “Hey, Moondae! Don’t tell me you’re upset because Ahyeon’s the only one who succeeded?”

Ahyeon looked shocked. “I-i-it was thanks to Moondae... It was a-all thanks to him!”

“No, that’s not it...” Before I could explain, Ahyeon’s screen changed.

The message I’d been expecting popped up.

[An error occurred during the payment process.]

A deathly silence settled over the PC cafe.

I knew it. The payment was taking too long to load. This is usually what happens if the screen just keeps loading. Ahyeon was rooted to the spot, unable to accept the awful truth. The other members seemed stunned as well.

I’ll bet a lot of people got this error at the payment stage. Wondering if I still had a chance, I checked my tabs again. They were still all blank.

F*ck. Had anyone actually managed to succeed? It seemed the ticketing server hadn’t been ready for this sort of traffic, which meant everyone could be seeing the same screen right now. I considered this calmly.

There might not be that many people who actually succeeded. I was wrong, of course. When I finally managed to access the ticketing page three minutes later, the open ticketing page proved it.

[0 seats available]

Shockingly, a huge amount of people had managed to force the terrible server to work for them.

“Really?”

“Just like that?”

It was over. And then the articles began to come out.

[TeSTAR’s first concert is sold out]

[All 26,000 seats sold... Server crashed because of TeSTAR’s concert]

[TeSTAR’s first concert sells out both days in under ten minutes]

It seemed as though I’d simply lost to the fans, and without ever getting to the seat selection screen at that. It was yet another defeat for this former paparazzo.

***

Though the fans were excited and happy about TeSTAR’s first concert, it wasn’t really big news to the general public. Most people never gave a second thought to attending an idol concert.

TeSTAR had announced their comeback date, and this news had garnered so much interest that the concert itself seemed to be passing under the radar—that is until the video of TeSTAR failing to ticket was uploaded.

========================

[The idol group who failed to ticket for their own concert LOL]

: Seon Ahyeon got to the payment screen, but even he was hit with an error LOL

They’re all stunned and speechless afterward (screen capture)

========================

- My god LOL

- It looks like they’re going to cry haha

- This is even funnier if you watch the video. They look like they’re about to lose it

- It’s hilarious that they apologize for not having tickets to send LOL. What is this, a WeTuber apology video?

- It was the server’s fault T_T

- TeSTAR’s confident social media announcement two days ago (screen capture)

└ LMAO

└ The reality: none of them succeeded

- They’re so cute. I feel such a connection to them LOL

- That was my exact experience! But you guys will be at the concert. As for me... I... have no ticket...

└ Oh T_T

└ I hope you manage to buy one of the canceled tickets...

TeSTAR’s chaotic ticketing attempt was such a magnificent crash and burn that it became the talk of the town just for being so purely funny. One particular member who had appeared to do his absolute best and was still utterly wiped out got a lot of attention—Park Moondae.

- Park Moondae did everything he humanly could. I didn’t think he’d end up using multiple browsers and even the app LOL

└ He’d probably have succeeded under normal circumstances. The server crash was just bad luck... It was cute to see him so shocked though haha

- Why is Park Moondae so serious about everything he does? I mean, he’s been like this since the chicken feet mukbang. He looks like the sort of guy who takes nothing seriously, too

└ The way he pretends to keep calm then falls apart when he fails is the best part T_T

└ I’ll bet he does that on purpose

└ Why would a good-looking main vocalist like him do that, you asshole?

- Moon Puppy has done nothing wrong. It was the server’s fault

- Park Moondae was like an excited puppy when he was sharing the stuff he’d researched, but he turned into a Tibetian fox afterward LOL

- F*ck that’s hilarious

└ I knew it, the Tibetian fox face is his real face. The puppy persona is just the one he wears in public. Now we just need the emoticons to come out

Netizens, along with the fans, chatted about Park Moondae and TeSTAR’s cuteness for some time. The fans were very happy with this cute, heart-warming marketing method, which had actually been successful this time. At the same time, they mourned the terrible server and the failures it had left in its wake.

This bore an unexpected side-effect, however. TeSTAR’s concert-related content had started to gain a lot of interest online.

- Wow, they’re showing the subunit stages on WeTube? Please upload it here when it goes up, guys. This reminds me of the Idol Inc. days

- So there will be a first reveal of the new songs at the concert? I guess they’re putting a lot of work into this haha

└ Maybe that was why the failed ticketing event was so shocking to them. LOL

└ They wanted to send tickets, but there were no tickets!

└ This is so funny haha! I’m looking forward to the concert

Before this excitement was able to die off, trailers for the concert and the behind-the-scenes episodes about the sub-unit performances appeared on WeTube. There was even the early announcement of a VOD streaming service in response to the overwhelming demand for the concert.

The excitement was reaching a peak.

- T1 is killing it. What is going on?

- I’m so excited for the concert...

- Good thing the director was replaced, huh? T_T

As a result, the fans felt like their hearts would explode out of their chests as the first day of the concert finally arrived.