Chapter 142

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

Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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

TeStar was achieving great results domestically, but that was strictly limited to Korea.

Just looking at WeTube views, they were sometimes pushed back by groups that ranked in the top 50 on the music charts.

It meant that overseas, their recognition was lacking compared to groups from other large agencies.

‘But why Billboard all of a sudden?’

Did they make it onto the World Albums chart? That seemed to be the most realistic possibility.

But it wasn’t.

“Alternative Digital Song Sales Chart…?”

“Yeah!”

I had never heard of it before in my life.

Without exception, everyone reflexively looked at Cha Eugene, the native speaker.

Hmm, he had a face that said he had never heard of it either.

“Oops! Wait.”

The manager, who was supposed to explain, ran back out because of a call from the company.

‘What a mess.’

While we headed back to the waiting room on our own, we threw questions at Cha Eugene.

“Do you happen to know that chart from earlier?”

“I know the Alternative Songs Chart…. I don’t know that one.”

Everyone except Kim Raebin made awkward faces.

“What is… that Alternay… chart…?”

“It only has Alternative Rock. I like it!”

“Ah.”

It seemed to be a type of rock genre. It felt like he was talking about a genre-specific chart.

‘Then the fact that Digital Sales is attached at the end… means it’s a chart that purely measures digital track sales volume.’

As soon as I found my smartphone in the waiting room, I checked exactly what kind of chart it was.

…It was a minor sub-genre chart that only listed up to 25th place.

‘And it’s for paid members only.’

Beside me, Kim Raebin muttered with an awkward expression.

“None of our title tracks are alternative rock though…….”

First, using a cached page from a search engine, I checked the previous chart.

“Oh, is that it?”

Keun Sejin jumped in and swiped down the screen.

“Hey.”

“Haha! You can tell just by looking at the album cover here……?”

As a result of scrolling down, TeStar’s album art… wasn’t there.

“……?”

What?

“This one!”

At that moment, even Cha Eugene’s hand invaded my smartphone screen. Then, he moved it around and pointed to one song.

[ Bonus book / TeSTAR]

“…!!”

“Whoa.”

“Our game song!”

That was it.

The song for the game , that game with no dreams or hope which we had collaborated with while releasing our 2nd album, had made it onto the chart.

The experience of dressing up as the fellow characters who get massacred in Chapter 1 naturally came to mind.

“But it’s not our album?”

Just as Keun Sejin said, even the album art was different.

I immediately found the song on Spotify.

‘…It’s a game OST album.’

After moving to the car with the returned manager and hearing all the news, the situation was cleared up.

“A global game launch?”

“Yeah! But it seems it did incredibly well. They say it’s a craze!”

It turned out that had a global launch centered on the English-speaking world this time, and it had become a huge hit.

The manager chuckled.

“So they released an OST album too, and your song made it onto the chart there! Hey, wouldn’t it have made it because the song is good too~”

“Is that so?”

“It’s, it’s happy news…!”

The members, who had roughly grasped the situation, smiled and relaxed.

It was because it was moderately good news.

‘That’s why the news came out of the blue on a Sunday.’

The Billboard charts were supposed to be updated on Wednesdays.

Strictly speaking, this wasn’t TeStar’s achievement but the game’s achievement.

Since it wasn’t a big or urgent matter for either the agency or the fans, it made sense that it took a few days for the news to reach the manager’s level.

‘T1 must be happy.’

The small game company they acquired had produced a hit. Of course, they must have poured an astronomical amount of capital into it.

Anyway, it was a good thing for us that the OST was doing well. It was a song that was closely linked to our album.

‘Did it work because it was all in English except for the verses?’

Although it didn’t even show a sign on the main charts and only appeared briefly in the lower ranks of that minor chart, it was still interesting and good news.

I shrugged and was putting on my neck pillow when I suddenly felt a sense of incongruity.

‘Even so, a game OST entering the charts…?’

I would have understood if it was a movie OST, but for a game OST to enter, even if it was a minor chart? Especially a mobile game that had just launched?

Furthermore, I didn’t even know what criteria were used to classify it as alternative rock. I thought it was just K-pop that borrowed rock elements.

‘It’s a bit strange.’

I had to check exactly what happened.

After a very long time, I went around the game communities on my smartphone.

And I grasped the situation.

‘They used the TeStar comeback trailer as a game advertisement again.’

It seemed that had carried out advertisements on WeTube and billboards overseas to match the global launch, and they had actively used our trailer video.

‘The quality was indeed quite good.’

It was at the level of a cinematic trailer. I would have recycled it too.

Anyway, it seemed that the English-speaking foreigners who encountered this advertisement thought that TeStar appearing in the trailer were just commercial actors playing game characters.

‘Since they didn’t dance or sing and only acted.’

Game enthusiasts who were not interested in K-pop could easily think that.

We weren’t as well-known overseas as VTIC, were we?

At any rate, since the reaction to the trailer advertisement was good… the game company went one step further.

In the global version of the game, they had even inserted parts of the trailer on the screen where players wait for additional data to download within the app.

Thanks to that, it seemed that overseas users also naturally experienced the spicy taste of ‘guys who seemed like they would be important getting massacred as soon as Chapter 1 ended’.

And it was said that uploading videos of being shocked after playing Chapter 1 was currently a trend among game streamers.

When I searched, I found videos with view counts in the hundreds of thousands or even millions.

[Never play 127 Section… NEVER!]

[MY FIRST TIME PLAYING 127 SECTION. (I hate it)]

The thumbnails were foreigners wearing headsets, crying, shouting, or with eyes popped wide open.

‘It’s really quite a craze.’

Anyway, based on that buzz, was currently a hit in the English-speaking world, receiving great reviews for its storytelling and UI… That was the summary.

‘I did think the game’s UI and visuals would suit their taste.’

It seemed to be compared to several famous indie games recognized for their artistic quality and world-building. Talk of GOTY was already coming out.

However, unlike the global market which was currently booming, domestic game communities were a mess because of this.

First, searching on anonymous sites revealed…….

“……Hmm.”

This… won’t do. It was at a level that would make Seon Ahyun or Bae Sejin faint if they saw it.

‘It’s a bit disgusting.’

So I looked for a very moderate community, although it was less active.

There were traces of arguments breaking out in several posts on the board for suggestions to the development team.

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

[Let’s end the promotion using idols at this point]

: Let’s say advertisements are unavoidable. That’s the current trend.

But it’s a different story when the game keeps reminding us of real-life celebrities. I hope that won’t happen anymore.

I thought it would be okay since those collaboration characters all died in the first chapter, but baits keep coming up, and there’s a considerable nuance that they might reappear.

Still, recently the idol image had faded a bit, so I was trying to see them only as game characters, but then the idol appeared again in the global advertisement.

Westerners might be okay with it since they don’t know the idol well, but we are not.

I’m worried they’ll pull another stunt after seeing the success of the global version.

Please, let’s just end it with the launch advertisement.

(I have no hard feelings toward the idol.)

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

-Right, I hope there’s no case of bringing back something that was enjoyed and ended in the early stages.

-I understood needing to promote it during the launch, but I’m a bit worried now. The domestic update cycle is getting longer too… Has Deserted Factory still not come to their senses?

-In the first place, it’s not even a nerd game. T1 just made an unreasonable move to grow the size while acquiring it.
└A male idol in a nerd game…?
└I meant a female-oriented nerd game.
└Are you crazy? They hate it there too lol.

-I liked it though ㅠㅠ Wasn’t the trailer cool?
└I liked the trailer too. TeStar was okay, but I think you’re overreacting… There’s no word about a new collaboration either.
└We have to set the tone now so they won’t bring it back after seeing the reaction. Let’s read the room.

-What, why did this place change so much? Wasn’t it originally God-Star?
└That hype ended in a month, what era are you talking about… lol.
└Hmm, back then there were a lot of fans of that idol group ㅎㅎ.
└This seems like a bit of a malicious comment. Back then, it was just launched, so everyone was excited to run with it. Those idols also promoted a lot of things through the collaboration.

-I think advertising with that video globally was intense and good. It showed the power of money. But when I see Western fans’ fanart, I see the idols and it’s a bit gross. But it’s bearable. But don’t do it again.

“Mmm.”

After seeing a few more posts and the flow of popular posts, I roughly understood.

‘It’s cooled down completely.’

To put it vulgarly, the hype had worn off.

At first, they must have become abruptly favorable toward the new work of a game company that might go bankrupt, since capital and recognition were being injected. Since immediate success was urgent.

‘And once they saw it, the result was actually good, so it must have heated up quickly.’

Furthermore, because all the early companions died, they must have been even more excited thanks to that shock factor.

Since there were many TeStar fans who were introduced through TeStar’s promotion, that atmosphere must have lasted to some extent.

But they had already died, and the characters had exited. Naturally, TeStar’s fans wouldn’t feel the incentive to continue, so many would have left quickly.

As the story of the massacre of the early companions became common knowledge and the proportion of people who entered through the ‘successful mobile game’ increased, the usual flow had been re-established.

‘They’re not interested in idols.’

It meant: don’t stick uninteresting and heterogeneous guys into the game content I like.

Moreover, because the reaction to the early companions was so intense, the game company seemed to have kept dropping baits about the early companions even in the updated content.

However, since TeStar advertisements appeared even in this global version, I could also understand the heart of being worried that another collaboration might be included.

‘Then there’s only one way.’

Just don’t get involved. I turned off my smartphone and organized my thoughts.

Let’s just end it with the fun of seeing the group’s name on Billboard out of the blue.

And as expected, it wasn’t long before a subtle probing came from the company.

“Guys, by any chance, a game collaboration once more……”

“No. I don’t think that’s it.”

“We have to prepare for the next album~”

“…?? Guys?”

The manager was flustered by the clean refusal.

‘I had even held a short briefing with the kids after gathering them, knowing this would happen.’

-Co, the collaboration was fun though…….

-Haha, it means we should leave while they’re still applauding~

There were some who felt a bit disappointed, but anyway, everyone understood. The point that doing it again would only make things tiring seemed to have resonated strongly.

From to the controversy over the Rookie of the Year award, it was understandable that they would be tired of just being a topic of debate on the internet.

So, the first project refusal situation since the group’s formation broke out.

‘Have we been too obedient all this time?’

The company was disappointed and tried to persuade us a few times, but because TeStar’s results had been so good recently, the group’s voice had become stronger, and it was successfully settled.

Then one day, while we were juggling new album preparation and the May festival schedule.

This time, a different story came out.

“A stage in the US?”

“Yes! And it’s a program that’s rising these days! It’s small, centered on WeTube, but the viewership base is solid……”

The company employee spoke excitedly, then coughed slightly.

‘…Checking the room?’

I had a bad feeling.

“But… um, well, they’re asking you to sing the game collaboration song?”

Ah, as I thought.