Chapter 24

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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It was about time.

I turned off the comment window of the October 31 stage video I had been looking at until just now.

First, to speak of the result of grasping the overall situation…….

‘It hit the jackpot to a scary extent…….’

Really, there was no other way to express it.

From the view count to the article comments, the figures easily exceeded five or six times that of the other teams aired in the 3rd episode.

Ryu Chungwoo’s team’s buzz amount had risen in a different sense, and it seemed I had benefited a bit from that reflection too.

Anyway, as long as I didn’t slip up here, it seemed I could smoothly pass until the 2nd round.

Therefore, the next shoot was even more important. Since I realized the power of editing, I should be more careful.

Then, let’s look at things that will help with the next shoot.

I entered a new search term in the search bar.

[Park Moondae Individual Fan Cam]

When I searched, the official video with the posting date displayed as ‘1 day ago’ appeared first.

I hadn’t watched it for a day to look at the feedback objectively.

And then. The unit had become more than expected.

[View count: 320,000]

Considering that I am a participant whose strength is not dance, it was a figure higher than expected.

I looked at the other participants in the related videos that appeared at the bottom.

“30,000, 120,000, 7,000, 20,000, 60,000…… hmm.”

There were few figures higher than mine. No, in the first place, half of the participants didn’t even exceed 50,000.

In terms of view count alone, I seemed likely to easily enter the top 12.

It was an even more amazing result considering that the stage had already been released.

‘But the substance is more important.’

I sorted the video comments by recommendation order and scanned through them.

– Look at the expressiveness of Park Moondae in every part, he’s a total genius idol, he was born to be an idol ㅠㅠ

– Moon Daeng-daeng, to think this kind of concept also fits him perfectly, it’s amazing

– Popcorn, chicken feet, and now even horror, is Park Moondae a god

– Thank you for the bridge ear-pleasure

– Moondae-ya, being a fan of SoftSweet-nim and being slightly fluttered by yourself when the song selection was picked lol so cute!

The last comment seemed to have a bit of… misunderstanding, but since they seemed to have looked at it well, let’s think of it as a compliment.

Other than that, most were complimentary posts.

When I sorted by latest order, I occasionally saw malicious comments, but even those soon disappeared as if being washed away, pushed by delayed English comments.

This time, I searched my name on SNS. ‘Park Moondae’, and ‘Moondae’.

Posts with videos and images attached immediately filled the screen.

– Moondae is so cute (individual fan cam gif)

– How did he think of horror there ㅠㅠ Our Moondae, from skill to personality to sense, a trinity idol ㅠㅠ

– Park Moondae sings well but I don’t know if he’s that exceptional, but his face is my type (production presentation photo)

– Moondae is Moon Daeng-daeng, he eats well, please love him ♡ (puppy Mukbang composite photo)

It was to the point of being a bit flustered because there was an overflow of reviews about all sorts of things.

Face, voice, expression, shoulders, eating movements…. Even a post that liked my habits, which I didn’t even know, saying they were cute came out.

I fiddled with the back of my neck with my hand.

It was a bit embarrassing but… it didn’t feel bad. I was also grateful, and the feeling of motivation rising strangely was quite okay.

Of course, this wouldn’t be the entirety of the internet public opinion.

I fell into deep thought.

Let’s see, if they transformed ‘Moondae’ so it wouldn’t be caught in a search…….

“Hmm.”

I entered a search term without having to worry for long.

[Gom-mer]

It was a simple transformation where ‘Moon’ was flipped and ‘Dae’ was changed to a similar notation.

At least when I was selling data, this was almost the standard, so it should be roughly correct.

As expected, results poured out.

– Gom-mer is ugly and even at popcorn-level he’s f*cking bad at dancing, where the hell are you rubbing the editing lol hate it so much, die-die-die

– Honestly, since there’s no decent main vocal candidate in Ajusa, they seem to be pushing Gom-mer while gritting their teeth. The sound is so;; typically retouched clean… ugh

– Even the thing about Gom-mer being a SoftSweet fan clearly looked like a concept~

– No, I want to see Gom-mer’s chest, the next stage must have exposure

– Normal person lol Gom-mer? He must have been a trainee at some small company and then laundered his identity~ I can even bet my account, when I see him he’s so contrived that I can’t bear to watch

There was an overflow of malicious comments where not one could be ignored.

Oh, even though I had prepared my heart, it’s shocking.

Something strange was sandwiched in the middle though…. Probably because it could look like sexual harassment, they made it so it wouldn’t be caught in a search.

The interesting thing was that among the accounts posting malicious posts, a quite high number chose Cha Yujin’s photo as their profile.

Probably because he’s the most popular participant, I suspect they set it up as a check, but there would be real ones too.

And that seemed to be creating a strange sense of tension.

An atmosphere where they like participants who were on the same team in the 1st team battle together, and attack participants of other teams.

Well, it wasn’t particularly surprising because it was a flow that was always observed in this type of audition program traditionally.

It was also something I had experienced personally when I was selling data.

A person who buys the data of the audition participant they push and the data of the participant they are checking against together, and then discards the latter.

And to put it bluntly, it seemed that Cha Yujin and Park Moondae had come to belong to opposite camps.

‘Should I say it’s a side effect of the jackpot from the team battle stage going exceptionally well.’

Anyway, since it was something worth enduring, I let it pass.

Rather, I had to look if there was any content worth extracting from the malicious comments.

‘First, talk about singing is not necessary.’

Since objective stats exist for this, it can’t help but be continuously verified as the broadcast proceeds.

The next thing that comes out a lot is… the talk about my character.

Mainly words saying I’m contrived and unpleasant, or reactions like ‘With that much face, that concept? lol’ criticizing Park Moondae’s appearance.

No, if the face isn’t good, does that mean I shouldn’t even have a character….

Even though I never liked that editing direction, I became a bit bitter.

But I soon realized it was an unnecessary emotion.

‘As for the face, I can just make it.’

The next shoot is the rank announcement ceremony.

Compared to the 4th episode to be aired soon, the filming timing had a gap of about a month.

It meant they would take it as a given even if the appearance changed a bit.

“Status Window.”

I poured points into the appearance stat without hesitation.

And after contemplating for a moment, I pulled out my smartphone, turned on the group messenger room, and posted a message.

[Does anyone know a decent shop?]

Since I’m doing it, let’s do it properly.

* * *

From a few days before the 5th episode, which was the rank announcement ceremony, was aired, all sorts of rumors claiming to be rank spoilers were going around in related internet communities.

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[Ajusa Rank Spoiler]

: I’m a staff myself (unclear photo of the filming set)

1st place Cha Yujin

2nd place Ryu Chungwoo

5th place Kim Raebin

6th place Seon Ahyun

Child actor Lee Sejin dropped sharply and is outside the top 10. Cried like a baby during filming

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– It looks like a fabrication but I hope Lee Sejin drops sharply lol Where does an old child actor crawl out to an idol survival show lol

└ I took a PDF.

└ Yeah lol go ahead and take it lol

– As expected, is Cha Yujin 1st.

– Ryu Chungwoo is 2nd due to the editing effect, I’m envious lol

└ You idiots, it’s a fabrication, don’t pretend to be hooked, it’s really disgusting

└ There’s a verification shot, isn’t it real?

└ Here, it’s a theft of behind-the-scenes photos from another variety show that was posted last year (Link)

└ Heok….

In this way, fabrications were discovered and cases of the posts being deleted eventually occurred frequently.

The production team did their best to block spoilers, and that effort succeeded half-relying on luck.

Thanks to that, right before the 5th episode where the rank announcement ceremony appears began, viewers became full of anxiety and sat in front of the screen.

Here, a woman sitting in front of a desktop felt the same way.

She was in the middle of praying with her two hands together.

‘Please let Moondae hit the jackpot…….’

In a minimized tab of the desktop, Park Moondae’s fan cam that she took at the production presentation was being uploaded.

That’s right. She was none other than the owner of the big cannon camera who fell for Park Moondae while watching the 1st team battle as an audience member.

She was in a state of completely switching her fandom to Park Moondae through the PR broadcast and the program’s main broadcast.

She had even settled down as a Hommaster while posting the photos she took.

And today was the long-awaited rank announcement day. She thought anxiously.

‘There’s no way Moondae dropped out. But he has to receive a high rank here once for the recognition of being in the upper ranks to be firmly established.’

It was a reality that latecomers were hit everywhere, and it was originally hard to break through a already firm concrete layer and rise.

‘Therefore, the first rank announcement ceremony is important.’

Thinking so, with one hand, she wrote a post on her account through her smartphone.

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FullMoon Baby

: I’ve uploaded Park Moondae’s production presentation fan cam. (Wetube link)

#ParkMoondae #ParkMoondaeStockPurchase #AjusaParkMoondae #MoonDaeng-daeng #Moondae

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It was a post with the production presentation fan cam, which had completed uploading just before, attached.

The number of shares increased rapidly as soon as it was posted.

‘Good.’

Looking at the phenomenon with proud eyes, she immediately added promotional phrases.

– Please give our Moondae a lot of support! :D♡ (Idol Inc. stock purchase link)

After posting the message, the last advertisement was passing by.

Now the broadcast would start in 5 seconds.

She looked at the logo on the screen while shaking her feet.

[Relisting! Idol Inc.]

Soon the screen switched, and a short trailer was broadcast to heighten expectation.

[30th place participant, 20th place participant, …who is the 49th place participant who grabbed the last advancement ticket?]

The appearances of several participants bowing their heads, biting their lips, and bursting into tears passed by quickly.

It was a provocative editing that considerably created tension, but she was not in a state of mind to care about such things.

Just now, Park Moondae’s cut was caught…….

A new hairstyle with a soft perm, the hair was….

“G-gold.”

She spoke the words blankly, then realized the meaning once more and covered her mouth with her hand.

‘Moondae is blonde!!’

In reality, it was a hair color closer to gold-brown and less unconventional, but that didn’t matter.

It suited him insanely well and was cute!?

Being well-suited for dyed hair is also a virtue of an idol, but how did Park Moondae come to have even that.

It was clear that God had pushed this and that for him to absolutely be an idol.

As she refreshed the timeline of SNS with hands trembling from emotion, as expected, similar monologues were pouring out.

– Crazy

– Heok, blonde

– Is the hair insane

– Moon Daeng-daeng must be… determined to kill me today…….

– A perfect fit ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

– Actually, the academic theory is that he had been dyeing his blonde hair black until now. Anyway, it is

Park Moondae’s fans poured out posts of suffering without a break.

In fact, Park Moondae’s gallant investment in the appearance stat played a major role in these reviews.

However, since everyone firmly believed that the change in hairstyle brought about the appearance transformation, it passed naturally.

Because that one cut came out so well, their explosion continued for quite a long time.

[PR Broadcast Production Diary]

It was at the very point when the PR broadcast preparation filming began right before the rank announcement, after all the trivial production behind-the-scenes were finished.

On the screen, the participants were shocked by the MC’s announcement.

[You will find the treasure balls for the next 15 minutes!]

[Pardon?!]

‘I was a bit curious about this.’

She regained her senses and focused on the broadcast content again.

Thinking that it would be good if they illuminated even a little bit how Moondae came to choose chicken feet.

[Ya-ap!]

[Awesome! Gold!]

However, on the screen, for a long time, only the appearance of participants flocking around, finding and snatching balls, was shown.

‘What. There’s no screentime for Moondae.’

Park Moondae’s fans grumbled that the production team guys had no sense.

Even among ordinary viewers, similar remarks appeared not unusually.

– Will the story of the Chicken Feet Guy not come out until the end?

– I guess he just did chicken feet because he failed

– lol

However, these reactions changed in an instant.

Because Park Moondae suddenly appeared secretly in the quiet dorm cafeteria where there were no people.

– ??

– What is it, why is no one there

– Why is Park Moondae alone?

Park Moondae, who entered the cafeteria, signaled behind his back.

Then a head poked out from behind the door.

[Lee Sejin (B): No one’s here, right?]

[Park Moondae: Yeah. Going right away.]

[Ha Iljun: Okay!]

The viewers fell into more confusion.

– Eh?

– How are only they here

– Is it some benefit?

Even the subtitles added to the confusion.

[How are these people here…?]

– No, we want to ask lol

– Tell us!

On the screen, the appearances of the three participants searching the cafeteria quickly and accurately were caught briefly.

And whish, the scene was rewound.

[◀◀◀]

And click.

[AM 09:30 Treasure hunt starts]

The screen started again from the point where the participants ran out to find the treasure balls.

But this time, it displayed Park Moondae’s movements.

[Going to the back door?]

Big Sejin and Gold 1 had unilaterally followed, but on the camera captured from afar, it looked very natural.

And the three people began to find balls in the back where there were no participants in an instant.

– ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Crazy

– It’s a jackpot

– Wow. Did he think of that in that short moment

– The idea is really good

– Park Moondae’s personality is annoying but let’s acknowledge what to acknowledge. He is a talented guy. That’s why it’s more annoying.

└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Correct

As the three were so well-coordinated, as soon as they heard the sound of other participants coming, they quickly cleared the area and moved to another place.

The viewers were impressed, and Park Moondae’s fans liked it even more.

– As expected, our Moon Daeng-daeng is smart

– Since all three have the physique, it proceeds smoothly, as expected of Octobers

– But Moondae found so many balls like that, why was it frozen food lol

‘Exactly.’

Park Moondae’s Homma clicked a heart on the most recent post and quickly focused on the broadcast again.

And she confirmed that scene.

The scene where Park Moondae, who had swept the balls so coolly, received only one bronze ball from Seon Ahyun and handed over all of his balls.