Godsent Top Star [EN]: Chapter 307

307. The Importance of a Fandom (2)

2022.09.03.

“……?”

At first, I thought I was seeing things.

‘Is it rigged?’

That was my next thought.

‘But that can’t be possible?’

The production company strictly prohibited vote manipulation.

And they were confident that they had the technology to prevent rigging.

So, at least according to the production company, rigging was impossible.

‘Then, is this really happening?’

1st place.

Yeonwoo blinked, checking the online vote count on the website.

No matter how many times he looked, it didn’t feel real.

‘If it stays like this…….’

Yeonwoo, having entered the practice room, recalled UTT’s ranking, which was overwhelmingly in first place.

The members were dedicating every minute and second to practice, as if even a moment of rest was too precious.

They were only lacking in two things.

‘One is solved.’

The remaining one was in an area that Yeonwoo couldn’t control.

That was the number of fans, which determined the online voting portion that could affect the competition results.

But…….

‘If it stays like this, we might actually win?’

There’s no need to worry about their skills.

The theme of the second competition was a bit bizarre, but…….

That level of penalty would be the same for other teams as well as UTT, so it didn’t matter.

Rather, the second competition theme was somewhat more advantageous to UTT.

It’s still too early to jump to conclusions since I can’t peek at the other teams’ situations, but.

‘We might actually win.’

Yeonwoo was confident in UTT’s skills.

And.

“Now, we will announce the winner of the second competition.”

“The winner of the second competition is!”

“UTT! Congratulations!”

It really looked like they were going to win.

*

The theme of the second competition was none other than ‘Switch.’

‘It reminds me of my ability’s name…….’

As the name suggests, the theme of the second competition was to switch the roles of each member.

Yeonwoo didn’t know this, but idols often have assigned positions.

“Positions?”

“For example, Raon is the best singer among us. So, Raon is the main vocalist.”

“Park Raon sings!”

Raon, whose name was called by leader Lee Seungmin, jumped up and started singing.

Lee Seungmin ignored him and continued his explanation.

“Daniel is good at dancing, so he’s in charge of dance with Minchan. Doyul was a fairly well-known rapper even in the underground scene. Doyul helps a lot with the rap parts.”

“Ah…….”

“I’m in charge of overall producing. If I had to divide it into positions, I’d be a sub-vocalist?”

According to Lee Seungmin’s explanation, once each person’s position is decided, it doesn’t change much.

Unless someone leaves or a member is added due to unforeseen circumstances, it’s mostly fixed.

Main vocalist, sub-vocalist, rap, main dancer, etc…….

You can think of it as staying in the same position once you’ve taken it.

‘Limit Break changed that.’

The task of Limit Break’s second competition was to boldly change these member positions.

Yeonwoo, who went to watch the filming of the second competition task, witnessed several teams simultaneously expressing shock.

“Are they crazy?”

“Are they trying to screw us over……?”

“Could it be a surprise? Last time, they decided the order of the cue sheets by lottery to gauge the reaction.”

Some teams said this where there were no cameras.

There were some more colorful swear words, but let’s just skip over that.

Well, they say people swear even when the king isn’t around.

And that wasn’t even the end of it.

“Arrangement?”

“We have to arrange again?”

The more detailed competition content was announced.

The studio was filled with shock.

“That’s right. However, for the second competition, you can choose a song from your own team, not another team’s song.”

To be more precise, the second competition doesn’t just end with a position switch.

The first competition had them choose a song from another team and arrange it, but the second competition requires them to choose one of their own songs, arrange it, and complete the stage with a position switch at the same time.

‘They said they’d show diversity, but it seems like they’re forcing us to pursue diversity even if it’s against our will…….’

I thought there wouldn’t be any malicious editing, but the PD [Production Director] was actually the final boss.

If that’s the case, there’s no need to do malicious editing.

The sight of the participating teams struggling will be a great source of broadcast material.

That’s how the second competition was decided.

UTT’s situation was a bit better.

“It’s a bit difficult, but let’s do well since we always do this.”

“It’s like going back to our roots after a long time.”

Even the other teams with many fans were momentarily flustered enough to lose their composure.

I don’t know if that will be edited out or aired as is, but UTT was surprisingly calm at the time.

‘Are they so shocked that they’re completely out of it?’

If so, that calm appearance makes sense.

But UTT, who returned to the practice room, was even calmer than Yeonwoo thought.

“Seungmin hyung [older brother/male friend] said that positions are set, but we were a bit too small to divide it so strictly.”

“That’s right. We did it as a cottage industry.”

“…….”

It couldn’t be a more pitiful reason.

There’s no money to pay for choreography drafts.

There’s also no money to commission composition or lyrics.

Even the stylist was absent, so they had to procure their own clothes, the extreme idol group UTT.

All they could do was self-sufficiency.

“Seungmin hyung is much better than us now, so he’s in charge of producing, but at first, we all touched it a little bit. If we only knew how to do it according to our positions, we would have starved to death a long time ago?”

Raon is the main vocalist, but he’s not bad at dancing.

Minchan is in charge of choreography, but he’s not bad at singing.

The other members go without saying.

UTT was too difficult of a group to bring in someone who was lacking.

“That’s good.”

The past is unfortunate, but the fruits of effort are sweet.

The position switch wasn’t as easy as it sounds, but UTT bickered and quickly adapted to the new roles.

Except for the official group meeting time given twice a day for an hour each time, the second competition prohibited discussions between members.

All communication or discussion had to be done through a mentor.

‘Can people like trot [Korean pop music] composers, musical actors, or pansori [Korean genre of musical storytelling] prodigies mentor well…….’

If you think about it, there’s only one answer.

This is made so that the power of the mentor can only be borrowed to a very limited extent.

In fact, unless a team is lucky enough to have a composer or professional producer attached to them, the efforts of the participating team are more important for the arrangement itself.

The mentor is not someone who presents solutions.

They just broaden the limited perspectives of the participating teams and show them a slightly more diverse path.

‘PD Gong…… he was a scary person.’

But it fits the purpose of the program very well.

No matter what, it’s right that the participants are the main focus.

The mentor should only be a supporting role.

So Yeonwoo did only what he was good at, assisting diligently.

[Kang Yeonwoo. This scary guy.]

Yeonwoo was a bit wronged.

‘Isn’t PD Gong the scary one? I’m just helping them do well.’

He just sent the child spirit to train the weak parts.

He also gave them sleep paralysis a few times.

This is a method that was very useful for Park Junghyuk when filming Dramatic Tempest.

Of course, the effect was also very excellent.

[Aren’t you sorry for those poor kids?! They say they run in their dreams every day, and they struggle and kick their feet while dreaming!]

But this also had good results.

They became sensitive enough to detect even the slightest movement.

While watching the second competition stage, Yeonwoo was able to clearly confirm the results of the training.

It was natural for UTT, who had superior skills and even overcame their weaknesses, to win first place.

UTT was the most outstanding on stage.

But one question still remained.

‘What the hell is that crazy number of votes?’

*

“I still can’t believe it.”

“We might actually win like this…… Ack! Why are you hitting me!”

“I told you not to say things that bring bad luck, right?”

After winning the second competition.

UTT’s atmosphere was very good.

In particular, their self-esteem score was close to the late 80 percent.

The figure, which had been below 80 percent, jumped up.

Minchan, in particular, broke through 90 percent on his own.

“Yul hyung! Kim Minchan hit my lips!”

“Where?”

“Kiss it to make it better.”

“Ah, you disgusting bastards! Park Raon, are you two years old? Why are you asking for a kiss to make it better?”

“Our Yul hyung isn’t a cold-blooded person like Kim Minchan?!”

“Don’t fight, you two.”

“Yul hyung told me not to fight, so I’ll hold back!”

“Aish. You little thing!”

“Ack! Yul hyung! Kim Minchan is going to hit me!”

It was natural that the already good atmosphere became more friendly.

“If I catch you, you’re dead.”

“Heh. Try to catch me!”

……I guess it’s friendly, right?

I can read sincerity from that duo who are always bickering.

“…….”

Still, they’ve come this far because they have a good relationship.

Yeonwoo decided to think that way.

What I need to pay attention to now is not those two beagles.

“Could it be canceled?”

Unlike the leader of a team that has won first place in a row, the problem was leader Lee Seungmin, who was digging into the ground alone.

“Why?”

“No…… it’s like, how can we be number one in online voting? Yeonwoo, you were there too. You saw the numbers, right? Do you think that’s possible?”

Daldaldaldal

He’s trying hard to hide it because he’s the oldest, but he’s already failing at the point where his legs are shaking like crazy.

“Why so serious?”

“……Daniel, you don’t know.”

“Seungmin is always too serious. You need to look at the world lightly.”

“……Don’t speak Korean fluently only at times like this.”

“What?”

“And where are you subtly dropping the ‘hyung’?”

“Oh, did I get caught?”

“You got caught, you rascal!”

Daniel chuckled and ran away.

Then, he joined Minchan and Raon, who were still spinning around Doyul.

“Ack! Daniel, you crazy bastard!”

“Oops. My bad.”

I clearly saw him walking calmly and tripping him, but he just shrugged and said it was a mistake.

Minchan’s target shifted to Daniel, and Yeonwoo thought once again while watching them.

‘He’s not normal either…….’

Do you have to have such unique characters to be an idol?

Leader Lee Seungmin, who is in charge of worrying more than anyone else in the team, sighed.

“What if we get hit by a backlash and our first place is canceled and we get dishonorably discharged?”

“Why would we get discharged?”

“The numbers are weird, the numbers…….”

The score for the second competition is determined by a total of three items.

The first is the score of the judges.

The second is the on-site score of the audience evaluation group.

The third is the online voting score, which is newly applied from the second competition.

UTT received a fairly high score in the first and second items of the second competition.

It was a total of 2nd place when combined.

I was thinking that was fortunate.

“Isn’t someone…… trying to film a hidden camera on us without us knowing? Or did they deliberately manipulate it to drop us?”

The third online voting score was revealed.

And at that moment.

UTT, who was in 2nd place, became the overwhelming 1st place.

“PD Gong was confident. He said he had taken solid precautions to prevent view manipulation. And he said he checked internally after it was over, right? And. Do we even have the money to request manipulation?”

“……No.”

“Does the company have enough employees to manipulate it?”

“……No.”

“Is the company big, famous, or anything like that enough to push your group?”

“Absolutely not.”

Yeonwoo shrugged.