Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Frankly speaking, I’d been pretty nervous when it came time to turn on my phone and check the Internet’s reaction to the first episode.

I was afraid I was going to be a laughingstock…

Surprisingly, the viewers’ outlook seemed to be favorable more than anything else. In fact, public opinion had shifted completely by the time the chorus for “POP☆CON” began playing—in my favor.

- Holy cow this is so fun.

- He’s so cute T_T I’m mesmerized

- Why do I get the feeling he applied to the show just so he can perform this?

- Nothing wrong with working hard. I appreciate his attitude

- I wasn’t expecting this after seeing his interview, LOL

- He’s so cute

This is cute? It was true there had been a fair amount of strategy involved in my song selection. I had been expecting to simply be considered passable since I’d obviously put in a lot of effort—not for everyone to gush over me like this. Doesn’t the audience usually sneer at people who try out for audition shows, but aren’t skilled enough?

I was a little confused, however, before long I felt as if I understood what was going on. It’s because I sang so well earlier. Since I’d already met the expectation that a singer should be able to sing well, people were willing to forgive my sub-par dancing since it wasn’t actually terrible. I’d even made them laugh, endearing the audience even more. I wasn’t sure I particularly enjoyed being characterized as a bit of a clown, though.

So this is how I came out in the edit, even though I went with only the most generic responses? I’d been trying to avoid giving them even the slightest thing to find fault in me about. In addition, to emphasize my position as the main vocalist, I’d kept my responses to everything strictly neutral and subdued.

The things I’d said in the interviews had all been politically correct, free of private opinion, and very much in line with what the general public wanted to hear. I had no idea they would end up portraying that as a lack of enthusiasm. In any case, what mattered most was getting the outcome I wanted. If I ended up at the desired destination, what did it matter if I took the train or the bus?

That’s the first step successfully done with, at least. It was clear I’d been able to gain recognition from the general public early on in the game. This wasn’t just some gut feeling I had either, but based on visible results—a status window pop-up appeared as I watched the show.

[The Beginning of Fame! (2)]

10,000 people have taken notice of you!

+1 point

[The Call of Fame!]

50,000 people have taken notice of you!

Pick a rare trait ☜ Click!

A single episode had pushed the number of people taking note of Park Moondae to over fifty-thousand. This feels a little unreal. I decided to worry about my new rewards later and pulled up a search engine first.

[Viewer ratings for “Relisted! Idol Incorporated”]

My query turned up instant results.

[Average audience share: 3.7%, Highest audience share: 6.8%]

Holy sh*t. Is this seriously the first episode of a cable variety show slated for failure? It seemed the show had succeeded in getting the attention it needed. Of course, objectively speaking, these numbers were not anything all that special, but if fifty-thousand people had taken notice of Park Moondae, it meant that I’d made quite an impression, regardless of whether they actually liked me or not.

I decided to look more closely into what exactly people were saying about me now. Finished with checking the general reaction to the first episode, I found a clip of my evaluation.

[The complete amateur’s shocking turnaround. Park Moondae]

Cringing so hard I thought my neck muscles would cramp up, I thought, I need to delete that title from my brain. I checked the top comments first.

- What? Unexpected popcorn (👍7326 / 👎181)

- This one woke me up. I’m buying your stock until you take off, Moondae (👍4522 / 👎294)

- Main vocalist of the season is Park Moondae, period (👍2061 / 👎372)

“Hmm.” It was a good sign that such positive comments, so effusive that they made my skin crawl a little, were at the top. It felt a little strange, but I was grateful. The fact that there were so many downvotes, however, was a bit of a cause for concern.

Compared to the other contestants who’d also been favored in the editing, for example, Cha Eugene, I probably had about 1.5 times as many. It meant that quite a lot of people had not liked the Park Moondae that had appeared on the show. It was probably because I hadn’t been portrayed with a particularly outgoing personality.

What can I do at this juncture for maximum effect? I couldn’t do much against any negative opinions that had already formed, but many idols would often use criticism to their advantage and turn it into a funny gimmick.

Off the top of my head, I could think of at least one person in every popular idol group that had done so. That meant there was only one thing for me to do during the next day of filming. I need to look more approachable.

I thought of the search word I would need next.

[“Relisted! Idol Incorporated” intro videos]

The next recording would be of our video introductions. I had three days. During that time, I would try and research the best examples from previous seasons.

***

The contestants’ intro videos for “Idol Incorporated” would be live. The preparations for the live stream, however, were being pre-recorded like a variety show normally was. The footage would be used as B-roll when the rankings were announced.

“Hey everyone! Are you ready?”

“Yes!”

The contestants replied enthusiastically to the emcee’s standard scripted lines. I think he says the same thing every single time we film something. Or am I mistaken? In any case, what mattered was that the contestants were more desperate than ever.

“I’m happy that you’re all doing well! Now then, do you know what we’re doing today?”

“Preparing our introductions!”

“Self-introductions!”

“Correct!”

Everyone had probably seen the first episode air and now understood this—no matter what the camera caught, it might as well have never happened if it didn’t make it to the final cut. That’s why they’re so eager for this since it’ll be live.

It wasn’t a fair competition in all honesty. The first episode had already created huge gaps in popularity between the contestants and a live face-off wouldn’t do much to change that. But every season, there had been at least one person who had gotten their lucky break during this segment. That was probably why nobody was complaining and they were all keen to get started.

Since it was a live stream consisting of seventy-seven amateurs, though, there was always a certain amount of controversy. Nobody seemed worried about that at the moment. The contestants probably didn’t care as long as it wasn’t them getting dragged under, and as for the production team, the more buzz the live generated, the better.

“Today at eight PM, you’ll each be going individually live on the TNET global WeTube channel!”

“I’m so nervous,” whispered Big Sejin, who’d ended up near me again. He didn’t look nervous at all. He’s so two-faced.

“Wait a second! I think I just spoke incorrectly!”

“?!”

“This livestream isn’t just for you guys!” the emcee shouted, encouraging the shocked response with an enthusiastic wave of his arm. The contestants, taken aback, hollered at him. “What do you think is every celebrity’s dream?”

“Dream?”

“Advertisements, everyone!” The emcee opened his arms wide. “You must each choose a product that you will advertise, then promote both yourself and that product!”

“What!”

These sons of b*tches, they’re making us do the ads for them? I was willing to bet an arm and a leg that these so-called “products” were distributed by T1, TNET’s parent company. They were probably hoping to get some viral marketing going for at least a couple of the products, and even if nothing happened, they had nothing to lose. It was one of the most egregious and greedy business tactics the TV show had employed yet.

Maybe someone higher up the chain wanted to quickly get a slice of the pie since the show they’d given up on is suddenly doing so well. In any case, the emcee was pretty persuasive.

“I know you might feel like this is a lot of pressure all of a sudden, but remember that if you pull it off, it will be just another way to show off your charm!”

The contestants all accepted this easily enough. It was wise of them since it wasn’t like they could refuse to do it anyway.

“Now then, how do you think you will go about choosing your product?” the emcee asked.

“A race?”

“Rock paper scissors?”

“Karaoke?”

Common methods from previous seasons and similar programs were suggested left and right. The emcee shook his head with a falsely sad expression on his face. “It’s… a treasure hunt!”

“Whoa.”

“Our staff have hidden treasure balls that contain product names throughout the dormitories. For the next fifteen minutes, you’ll be allowed to go and look for one!”

Big Sejin looked impressed. “This sounds pretty fun.”

“Right…” I replied.

It would be fun for the viewers, that was for sure. For the contestants, on the other hand, this was the perfect setup for a fight. People were bound to get upset since seventy-seven people were going to be searching the same building.

Of course, this extra content was only meant to go with the ranking announcement to help lighten things up a little, so I didn’t think things would end up getting too serious, but I knew that the show wouldn’t hesitate to edit the footage to hint and suggest the contrary. I can already picture the rumors that will flood the internet.

“Oh! And since this is an audition show, the treasure balls have different grades. Remember that and examine any balls you find closely!”

I’ll bet they’re gold, silver, and bronze again.

“Now then, ready, get set…”

Everyone prepared to run.

“Go!”

The seventy-seven contestants dashed into the building, screaming. I fell back from the crowd slightly, turning in a different direction. I’ll take the back door.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that going in through the front door would get me exactly zero balls. If I used one of the back entrances, there would be less competition. Big Sejin and Goldie #1 followed me shamelessly, grinning smugly.

“Thanks, Moondae. It’s nice to be carried, sometimes,” Goldie #1 said.

“You’re so smart,” Big Sejin cried.

Since there were only two of them I wasn’t all that concerned but still found myself feeling rather irritated. Goldie #2 and Ahyeon, who’d been standing a bit further away from me, had been carried away by the crowd. Timing was everything. Oh well.

***

“Wow, Moondae! Nice.”

I found a ball right behind the door as soon as I entered the back doorway. It was silver. Just as I expected.

Big Sejin glanced at the opaque silver ball and nodded. “Looks like they split the balls into three ranks, huh?”

“Hey now, let’s be accurate! Bronze, silver, and gold! It sounds much better if you put it that way,” Goldie #1 said.

“Hehe, he’s a stickler for details.”

I decided I’d leave them behind if they kept up the mindless small talk for much longer. “Why don’t we hurry it up?” I suggested. “The others will get here soon.”

“Okay!”

“I’m relieved to see at least you’ve got your wits about you, Moondae,” Goldie #1 said.

I quickly went deeper into the building, and the other two followed with surprisingly little banter after that. We checked in one of the storage rooms first.

“We need to put ourselves in their shoes. Where would the staff hide the balls? Uh, here, maybe?” Big Sejin grinned and removed a bronze ball from a chalk case in front of a camera.

“Ugh, seriously? Bronze?” said Goldie #1.

“Damn it. I never have good luck with this kind of thing,” Big Sejin said.

They’re more useful than I expected them to be. They had quick hands. As a result, we split the storage room into three zones and finished searching it in no time.

“I found another silver one! Should we move on now?” I said.

“Okay.”

“Agreed.”

They were quick on their feet, too. We swiftly moved on without wasting time.

“Where to?”

“Let’s go to the dining area first,” I said. “There are cameras in there.”

“You’ve got a good eye, Moondae.”

“Yep, as expected from the guy who thought to use the back door.”

I’d much prefer it if you guys just didn’t talk. We didn’t waste any time in the cafeteria, either. All three of us silently made a beeline for where the cameras were installed. I opened a spoon holder. “Found one,” I said.

“What the heck!”

“It’s gold.” I’d found a golden ball.

“We’re the ones in gold grade. Why does Moondae get to find a gold ball first?” Goldie #1 said.

“Can’t be helped,” said Big Sejin. “I guess Moondae is just lucky.”

“I suppose. There’s no beating good luck, I guess!”

“The other guys are coming,” I said.

“Oof.”

So that’s how I can get them to shut up, by giving them something to do. Hearing a crowd’s worth of footsteps coming our way, we hurried out of the cafeteria.

“Up?” Big Sejin asked.

“Yes.”

We employed the same search method on the second floor as well. It was efficient.

“We did well, teaming up like this!” Goldie #1 said.

“Yeah! Be honest Moondae, don’t you agree?” Big Sejin exclaimed.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Woo!”

I was being honest. I’d benefited from having the two of them with me. It was more efficient searching as a team—they were both observant and quick, making searching both swift and convenient. They were also pretty smart, and because they were fairly easygoing, we were able to split the balls between us without mishaps.

“Now then… we’ve found four gold balls, two silver ones, and four bronze ones, right?” Big Sejin sorted the palm-sized plastic balls.

Goldie #1 suggested carefully, “Yes. Hmm… Why don’t we take one of each color, and give Moondae the extra gold since he took us along for the ride? How does that sound?”

“That’s fine with me!”

I liked that things had been settled so quickly, but I didn’t want to leave any room for malicious editing. I couldn’t help but feel anxious after experiencing firsthand the power of editing.

“Oh, in that case, I won’t take a bronze one. You guys take two each.”

“Wow, thanks!”

“Great!”

An announcement played throughout the building as we gathered up our balls.

“200 seconds remaining!”

We’d returned to the storage room next to the back door to hide from the other contestants. It would have sucked to have the balls stolen from us at this point.

“There’s a bunch of guys coming our way!’

“Hey! Run for it!”

We rushed out the back door and headed to the area the contestants were supposed to gather.

“That was some nice farming, eh?”

“Our teamwork is the best. We freakin’ rock.”

They began to chatter away again, now that the hard part was over.

A few contestants who’d already found a couple of balls each were opening them nearby.

Nobody seemed to be trying to steal from anyone else just yet. They can’t ignore the cameras everywhere. They didn’t seem to be too drawn to the idea of open theft.

“Wow! Shall we open ours?”

“Sounds like a plan!”

“Yeah,” I said.

We returned to our spots and began prying our balls open. Big Sejin and Goldie #1 got a lot of envious glances since they had a few balls each. I figured having two higher-graded ones was still better, though. Getting a bunch of subpar choices would only cause me trouble.

I twisted the two gold balls and opened them. Then I froze.

Wait a second…