Become A Music Monster Overnight! [EN]: Chapter 155

Music Genius Overnight! Episode 146

The work on the second full album progressed smoothly.

In particular, the title track, ‘Tears,’ produced a satisfying result far more easily than I had anticipated when I first composed it. But this wasn’t strange.

The reason I thought this song would face difficulties was because of the challenge in explaining the meaning of tears in ‘Tears’ to Kang A-young.

However, since Kang A-young had already shed such tears before, she filled the song with her own colors, even more so than the title tracks I had previously pushed.

“I like it. Well, now that it’s come to this, let’s have her digest these songs as well.”

Before releasing ‘Tears,’ I decided to release ‘Lies,’ ‘Night Sea,’ and ‘Mother,’ which I had shown her as potential title tracks, in her version first.

She seemed a bit worried about my idea.

It seemed she was concerned that the attention might fade when I released my guided version of the music later, as promised.

Noticing her worries, I flicked her forehead lightly and said,

“Wow, you’ve got a lot of confidence~”

“……Oh. Ah!”

She looked surprised by the sudden contact, but upon hearing my admiring words, she seemed to realize how presumptuous her thoughts had been.

That’s right.

It wasn’t me who should be worried, but her.

When my version of the music came out later, she, as the perceived original artist, would be constantly compared.

Watching her face turn red, I playfully smiled and said,

“You’ll really have to do your best to avoid embarrassment.”

“……Yes.”

Kang A-young, answering quietly amidst her embarrassment, continued recording with a firm resolve.

‘She might be able to take another step forward through this opportunity.’

If I hadn’t seen that potential through ‘Tears,’ I wouldn’t have pushed her like this.

I taught her as a truly strict mentor, as she seemed to desire, showing a slightly burning passion.

I repeatedly pushed her to the very edge of her limits, and in the process, Kang A-young shed tears several times.

But I wasn’t surprised by her tears.

I knew that those tears weren’t from sadness but rather the passion felt by someone facing another world that had begun to crack at its limit.

“I’m sorry.”

Her eyes and nose were red from how much she had cried. I thought about taking a break, but I quickly regained my composure and continued teaching.

As a result of receiving concerns and threats from the uncles, such as, ‘You’re going to ruin her. How dare you treat Kang A-young like that!’ I was finally able to obtain a satisfactory result in ten days.

“Well, at this rate, you won’t be completely eaten alive.”

“……Thank you. Master.”

“Yeah. Good job. You really worked hard.”

Teacher or master felt too old for me, so I told her to call me ‘Sabu’ [a Korean term for Master, often used in martial arts], and it seems she had gotten completely used to it.

She says ‘Sabu’ more naturally than ‘CEO.’

‘Well~ she is an excellent disciple.’

Kang A-young was truly an excellent disciple, as much as my first disciples, the G1 band, who are making great strides on the world stage.

With that, the work on Kang A-young’s second full album came to an end.

Of course, there were still some parts that needed directing, but there was no need for me to do even that.

In the past, it was because I had no money or manpower, but now YC Entertainment had more than a few engineers with world-class skills.

It was obvious that they would produce excellent results no matter who I entrusted it to.

“Then, shall we finish the work that has been put off until now?”

Considering the company’s internal tasks that had been difficult to handle for a while, starting with concert preparations, all that remained was to move diligently.

* * *

“Finally! A Black Tiger concert in Korea!”

Lee Da-hye received news that she had longed for even in her dreams while at work.

The news was so joyful that she almost screamed, but fortunately, she suppressed her joy with the experience of already being a second-year working adult.

For her, Black Tiger was by no means a small connection.

From her idol-loving life that started through her sister in elementary school, to her most passionate high school days.

At the time, she was a first-generation fan of the top idol group EX.

As a somewhat well-known figure in the fandom, she couldn’t believe that her *oppas’* [term used by women to refer to older brothers or male friends] music was being pushed back by old geezers making outdated music.

Therefore, despite the advice of the fan managers and executives, she watched Black Tiger’s music video.

Burning with a fierce fighting spirit to protect her *oppas* at all costs.

However, the moment she watched the ‘Old Soldiers Never Die’ music video, she was mesmerized.

-Thump, thump-

‘Ugh. What is this?’

Her heart, which had been trained through years of idol fandom, found all that training meaningless in the face of the true presence that revealed an overwhelming aura.

No, it wasn’t entirely meaningless.

Thanks to her past idol activities, she immediately knew that this *deoktong* accident [being hit by a car because of being distracted by something related to your idol] was real.

So, before she knew it, she found herself repeatedly watching the music video, and when she finally managed to tear her eyes away from it, she had become a full-fledged Black Cat [Black Tiger’s fandom name].

Afterward, she even committed the legendary act of shaking up the EX fandom within the Black Cat fandom, successfully uniting the fan base of prospective Black Tigers in a state of denial.

In these early days, she had a significant presence as a well-known figure within the Black Cat fandom.

However, as Black Tiger devoured Japan, China, Asia, and even the United States and Europe, gaining an enormous global fandom, her presence naturally diminished.

Furthermore, it became difficult for Black Tiger to pay much attention to Korea, which had a relatively small market.

The Korean Black Cats were disappointed in this regard, but they didn’t dislike it.

The path taken by an idol who was creating a new history of K-pop, no, a legend of world popular music, was so awe-inspiring that just watching from afar made their hearts swell.

Anyway, due to such circumstances, her chances of contacting Black Tiger decreased compared to the past, so she changed her mind.

“I’m going to get into YC Entertainment no matter what.”

However, her family’s opposition was considerable.

The reason she and her sister could receive support for their idol activities, which required them to spend a considerable amount of money, was because they still boasted excellent grades.

In fact, in exchange for the support, she eventually graduated from law school, following the family’s tradition of legal professionals, and entered a company related to her family.

But even after becoming a working adult, her idol activities did not end.

No, they burned even more fiercely.

She even pulled her precious company vacation forward last year to participate in the US stadium tour, which shows how great her fan spirit was.

In fact, she watched ‘The King of Arrogance,’ in which YC appeared as the villain ‘Jin,’ 20 times, so she might have had a somewhat dangerous level of fandom.

Anyway, this news of a Korean concert that was suddenly given to her was as joyful as receiving all the gifts she would receive this year.

-YC Temporarily Suspends Acting Activities After Second Series of ‘The King of Arrogance.’-

-Black Tiger Launches ‘World Tour’! First Tour Location is Korea!-

-Revealed to Hold a Whopping 13 Concerts in Korea for Fans Who Have Been Waiting!-

-920,000 Domestic Seats for the World Tour! But There Are No Worries.-

-YC Entertainment Announces Early Crackdown on Ticket Scalpers as Talk of Scalpers Already Emerges.-

“920,000……”

Perhaps other singers would have considered it an excessive number of seats.

Even for Korea’s top idols, it would be difficult to fill that many seats unless it was a market like Japan.

But Black Tiger was a different story.

“The competition will be fierce……”

Lee Da-hye couldn’t help but worry.

If her prediction was correct, at least ten times that number of people would rush in as soon as ticketing started.

This was an attitude shown because not only domestic fans but also overseas fans were aiming for this world tour.

So, if the server didn’t crash, it might sell out in the shortest time ever.

“10 seconds……”

Lee Da-hye judged that she had to win within 10 seconds at the latest.

“I changed the internet to gigabit and the computer to the latest model……”

More sincere about ticketing than anyone else, she spent money to change the internet environment of her well-functioning home.

And ahead of the highly anticipated ticketing.

After completing her purification ritual, she began moving her fingers like lightning as soon as it became 00:01.

-Click! Click! Click!-

Without even breathing, she quickly manipulated the mouse and keyboard to attempt ticketing, and when the screen she wanted finally appeared, she calmly selected her seat, quickly typed in the security code, and moved on.

Fortunately, she passed without errors…… and she successfully completed everything in those few seconds, raising both arms in the air.

“……I did it!”

What she got was the seat she had put in the first rank.

It was the seat where she could see YC the best, and her whole body was trembling with the joy that was already washing over her.

The emotions were even more overwhelming because it was a moment when all the hardships she had endured were rewarded in an instant.

-YC Effect? Black Tiger Concert 920,000 Seats! Sold Out in 11 Seconds!-

-Over 13 Million People Rushed to Ticketing!-

-Enthusiasm Exceeds Expectations! And Scalpers’ Transactions Have Already Begun?-

-YC Entertainment Arrests 3 Scalpers in Less Than a Day!-

-Black Tiger Concert Tickets Released as Scalped Tickets! Exceeds 3 Million Won in Two Days!-

-Royal Seat Prices Double? Some Groups Say Parents’ Backbones Are Bent by Concert Ticket Prices!-

Sold out in a whopping 11 seconds.

It is unlikely that it will be a record that will be difficult to see again in the future to sell out such a huge number of 920,000 seats in Korea like that.

A big role in achieving this great record was thanks to the participation of overseas fans beyond Korea, but in addition, Miracle, a cloud data center acquired by YC last year, also played a role.

The massive server capacity of the Miracle Cloud Data Center, which is expanding the server to more than twice its current size, received all 13 million people without stuttering.

Young-chan, who once again felt the potential of the Miracle Cloud Data Center through this incident, decided to increase support for the expansion of domestic data centers.

This was also because the domestic usage rate of YC Revolution was exceeding 60%.

In addition, as services using data centers are expected to gradually increase in Korea, such investment in center expansion will eventually be done later.

In that case, since there is a huge amount of money available in coins, increasing the size of the data center from the beginning was a cost-effective thing to do.

As the date of the world tour gradually approached, scalper prices were soaring without knowing how high they would go.

There was even talk of buying one royal-class seat for 30 million won [approximately $23,000 USD].

Even though they were cracking down, it was this much, so if the crackdown had not been carried out, it would have been traded at more than double the current price.

“Finally, today has come!”

Lee Da-hye was fully armed with a highly excited face.

She was holding the official Black Tiger cheering stick that came out in commemoration of this world tour, and she was carrying a huge bag.

It was to buy limited edition goods that are only sold inside the World Tour concert hall.

“……The line is huge.”

Despite the early morning, the area around Jamsil Olympic Stadium, where the concert would be held, was crowded with people. Among them, the most impressive was the sight of tens of thousands of people lining up as if a huge snake was coiled.

“I heard that some people have been lining up for 5 days.”

The ones who create this huge spectacle are the owners of the standing seats, and the reason they line up like this is because they enter in the order they lined up.

In short, it is because they can secure a better seat, and in the case of concerts by such large singers, it is not uncommon to see people camping out and lining up.