Godsent Top Star [EN]: Chapter 294

294. Otherworldly Idol (1)

The atmosphere was strange.

“No matter how much I think about it, I don’t see why someone like Kang Yeon-woo would benefit from giving us the championship.”

They wouldn’t know.

How could they know that one of their abilities would be taken as a price?

Yeon-woo has a system [referring to an ability or interface unique to him], but they don’t.

“Honestly, I still don’t know the reason, but… um…”

Min-chan chose his words carefully.

“Thank you. Actually, no one has ever thought we could win until now. Even our manager just said we were lucky, and we ourselves were just participating for the sake of it…”

The members’ gazes turned to Yeon-woo.

“Only Kang Yeon-woo really said we would win. When I think about it, it seems better to have Kang Yeon-woo with us than to bring in a famous composer and just be mindful of their mood.”

Min-chan said in a much softer tone.

The members, who had been standing awkwardly, nodded as if they had finished talking with just the looks they exchanged.

“Kang Yeon-woo wouldn’t benefit from us, but thank you for saying that. Thank you for giving us courage by deliberately saying that.”

Then, with a very embarrassed face, he hesitantly reached out his hand.

“I think I’ve become defensive because I’ve been through so much. We didn’t even believe in ourselves, but it was hard to believe at first when Kang Yeon-woo said he believed in us… Anyway, then… I look forward to working with you.”

Yeon-woo shook his hand in a daze.

‘What? That wasn’t my intention?’

However, the soaring favorability rating in the corner of his vision made him shut his mouth.

[Favorability: 25%]

[Favorability: 34%]

[Favorability: 49%]

.

.

.

[Favorability: 75%]

The favorability rating, which had fallen to single digits, soared to 75 percent.

The credibility rating, which had reached 45 percent, is now a whopping 65 percent.

Considering it started at 0.1, it was a miraculous figure.

It seems like they’re misunderstanding something big time.

‘Well… I guess… the better, the better…?’

The members applauded as the two shook hands.

What is this cringe-worthy situation?

However, the members were very serious, and the intention analysis also told him that Min-chan’s words were ‘true.’

“Then how about we talk comfortably now? Everyone except the leader is the same age as Yeon-woo hyung [older brother or male friend] or younger.”

“Yeah, right. Please treat us comfortably.”

Once the favorability rating went up, it didn’t seem to drop like before.

But only one person.

“You guys… aren’t you falling for it too easily?”

Among them, the leader did not join this cringe-worthy applause procession.

It was a relief.

The leader, who had been sitting with a stiff face, got up and strode over.

‘There’s still a sane person left…’

Suddenly!

“You’re deliberately making up reasons to help us so we don’t feel embarrassed, so we shouldn’t just gloss over it with a handshake. Kang Yeon-woo. Thank you. You’re the only one who believes in us and tries to help us this much. We’ll try to repay that faith.”

It seemed like all the difficult feelings and overwhelming emotions that he had been through were rushing in.

Well, it could be. It could be…

‘Why are you hugging me…?’

There were no sane people in this place after all.

Yeon-woo had to seriously consider it.

He had to wonder if he had accepted the sudden quest too quickly because he was blinded by his abilities.

*

“But, Yeon-woo hyung. If we really don’t win, are you really going to support us all?”

“Raon, I told you not to ask things like that.”

Min-chan narrowed his eyes and scolded the youngest, Raon, who was sprawled out in the practice room.

“Ah, I’m curious. How much is that all? Aren’t you curious if he’s really going to do all that? I actually thought Yeon-woo hyung was crazy!”

He pushed forward, saying he would even get it notarized, for something that would cost at least hundreds of millions, no, tens of billions [Korean currency, roughly equivalent to millions/billions of USD depending on the specific amount and exchange rate].

It was no wonder Raon was amazed.

“Oh, well… I don’t have anything to spend money on.”

The countless amounts of money Yeon-woo had earned were piled up in his bank account.

He heard that Kwon Seong-hyun was managing it and Woo Do-gyeom was partially delegated to invest it, and that it had been multiplied by dozens of times the principal…

‘Actually, I’m not that interested in that.’

If he had been interested in money in the first place, he would have coveted the lead role with a high appearance fee.

Instead of taking on the role of a psychopath killer, who is at best a supporting role.

“Wow… I felt it back then, but hyung is really something else. Wow… Anyway, that means you’re that sincere!”

“It’s not that I’m that sincere, it’s just that I really am.”

As if he had never been unwelcome in the first place, Yeon-woo blended in too well with UTT.

“I think I know how the female lead in dramas feels these days.”

The youngest, Raon, said.

They were currently performing the magic of turning three packs of ramen into ten servings.

Min-chan, who was performing a miracle on the level of feeding five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, stopped stirring.

“Park Raon. If you’re going to talk nonsense again, shut your mouth.”

“Why? You watch it with me, why are you pretending not to? You always say that the male lead has to be a chaebol [wealthy heir] to be worth watching.”

“Hey! When did I ever say that!”

The youngest, Raon, silently turned on his social media and held out his phone.

Min-chan’s mouth snapped shut.

He turned his head away and focused on using magic to turn 3 into 10 servings again.

“It seems like we’re enjoying all kinds of luxuries. Except for one thing…”

Raon looked at Min-chan.

The members’ gazes all turned to Min-chan.

“Ah, why, what, what, what!”

Min-chan glared.

“Hey. We may not have money, but we have a conscience, right? We’re not beggars, we can’t just keep getting handouts!”

“That’s true, but.”

“It’s hard enough for us to change our equipment and move our practice room because of us, how shameless would we be if we asked you to feed us too? Right? Anyone would think we’re beggars. If we even mooch off you for food.”

“Right. We have a conscience.”

“Oh. Daniel, you said the sentence right this time.”

“Really?”

Yeon-woo stared at the ramen being made in front of him with a B-grade ability, ‘Boiling 5 servings with one pack of ramen.’

‘That’s more like… porridge than ramen? It’s closer to ramen porridge.’

Taste aside, it smelled very salty.

This is the taste of tear-soaked ramen…

“But it doesn’t seem like you’ve bought anything properly? Because you guys kept stopping me.”

From the start of the program until the first competition.

The number of times Yeon-woo bought food was exactly two times, no more, no less.

‘Actually, I was a bit shocked at first.’

After deciding to work together, he also checked the current state of the UTT members.

He spent quite a long time with them in the practice room.

In fact, the practice room itself was a bit strange.

‘That’s strange. Dong Ja-ryeong said that idols practice while looking at a full-length mirror because dance is important?’

There was a mirror.

Whether it was rusted or not, the surface of the mirror was full of red marks.

The corners had been broken off for a long time.

Decisively, the mirror in the very front had cracks radiating out as if someone had hit it.

That wasn’t all.

“Let’s eat and then do it!”

When it was time for a meal, everyone gathered in groups of three or five.

Yeon-woo thought that lunch boxes or delivered food would come out.

But what came out was a portable gas burner.

“…?”

Aren’t these people who were just doing physical labor and sweating like crazy?

“Since we have a guest today, two packs, call?”

“Call.”

“We have eggs, should we put them in too?”

“How many are left?”

“Two.”

“Ah… that’s for tomorrow morning… Okay. Let’s put it in! Since we have a guest!”

Yeon-woo, the guest in question, was speechless.

Moreover, there were only two eggs, and when he heard that it was the breakfast for five people the next day, it was almost a culture shock.

The tragedy was not the end of it.

“Ah!”

Thud.

The sound of something small breaking and a squishy sound were simultaneous.

Screams erupted from here and there simultaneously.

“Euaaak!”

“Aak!”

“Daniel! You crazy bastard!”

“Oh my god!”

It was a terrible atmosphere as if he had accidentally killed someone.

“H-How could you break that precious egg?!”

“Sorry! My hands went crazy…!”

Daniel, who usually insisted on using Korean even if it was clumsy, was so surprised that he spewed out English like a machine gun.

Yeon-woo felt dizzy looking at the scene.

‘No… it’s just one egg…’

Moreover, these were the people who had been dancing for hours to show off their music until just now!

‘They danced like crazy and only ate two packs of ramen and two eggs…?’

Where is the balanced diet with carbohydrates, fiber, protein, and fat in harmony!

If he hadn’t taken out the eggs to treat Yeon-woo, the first meal after practice would have been a lump of carbohydrates: ramen and rice.

‘What kind of crazy agency takes care of their celebrities’ meals like this?’

Koreans said that they get their strength from rice.

But how can you not feed them rice in Korea?!

Yeon-woo immediately picked up his phone and contacted Lee Joo-ha.

-“Is that all I have to order? Okay. I’ll order it like that. By the way, you’re not being held captive by your friend Kwon, are you?”

“Pardon?”

-“How can you not know how to use a delivery app at your age? Did you have your phone taken away or something? If that’s the case, shake a carrot during the next shoot. I’ll break in and save you right away.”

There was some nonsense mixed in, but anyway, that day, UTT had to be careful not to pop their eyes out while looking at the amount of food that made their eyes pop out.

Of course,

“We can eat this for a week!”

“There’s not enough space in the freezer…”

“Ah… then how about we distribute it between the dorm and the practice room?”

“Oh. That’ll work.”

True to their habits, instead of eating it all, they carefully scraped it with a communal spoon to avoid spoiling it.

It goes without saying that Yeon-woo was once again dumbfounded when he saw that.

And that night.

-Ting!

[Successfully harvested lifespan.]

[Lifespan harvested: 3 days]

-Ting!

[Successfully harvested lifespan.]

[Lifespan harvested: 4 days]

-Ting!

[Successfully harvested lifespan…]

For the first time in a long time, Yeon-woo was able to hear the lifespan harvesting notification that was not automatic, but single.

*

After that, as the youngest Raon said, a so-called money-spending spree continued, no less than a drama chaebol male lead.

It wasn’t like they were a failed idol, but how could an idol who was doing reasonably well be so impoverished?

This was a misery that you wouldn’t know unless you experienced it yourself.

“Um… is it okay to broadcast this…?”

Even the person in charge of the VJ or the writer in charge who heard the story from the VJ asked if it was okay to broadcast it.

“Ah, of course. Is there any problem…?”

There are many problems.

But there’s nothing to say when the people involved don’t feel anything strange.

“It might be good for UTT. Um. This is also a kind of image making… I don’t think the UTT members intended it… Anyway, the selling point will definitely be clear.”

Yeon-woo sensed it at that moment.

How UTT would be broadcast.

And until now.

The raw, unedited appearance, which couldn’t even be called image making, had already caused quite a stir since the trailer was released.

Anyway, thanks to that, if you were to pick the team with the biggest difference between the pilot and the main episode, it was definitely UTT.

The situation during the pilot episode, which was at the end of its poverty, had completely changed with Yeon-woo’s joining.

“This is the taste of a chaebol male lead…!”

The problem was that even if he pushed through with the equipment, their eating habits could not be improved right away.

After the first day of buying a lavish meal.

They refused whenever Yeon-woo tried to buy more, saying that there was still food left.

‘…I have to tame them little by little.’

If he made them overeat right now, they would only get indigestion.

First of all, he couldn’t leave these people in charge looking miserable, starving like young breadwinners and sharing one pack of ramen among five people.

“What song did you decide to do?”

When he asked while slurping ramen, the youngest Raon shuddered, saying that he was talking about work while eating.

Regardless,

Yeon-woo looked at leader Lee Seung-min and asked.

“A girl group song came out in the draw. What are you going to do?”