Chapter 3

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Nothing much happened at the broadcasting station I visited as if being dragged by the writer. It was just to the extent of having a light interview in front of a camera.

There wasn’t even a request to show some dancing, even if only as a formality. Naturally, there was no advice on how about attending a dance academy either.

It was also evidence that the role expected of me was firm.

Well, that didn’t really matter. The important thing was the fact that I had put my name on the participant list.

However, there was an unexpected element.

The first filming date was much closer than I had expected.

“…Ten days later?”

“Yes. Park Moondae-kun, you just entered at the very end. Normally, a spot like this doesn’t open up, you were really lucky~ You caught this spot because Moondae-kun was so good.”

She packaged the word ‘replacement’ quite well.

Even while being slightly taken aback, I thought listlessly.

Since it didn’t cost anything to refine her words, it was worth being as amiable as possible.

Of course, if I turned out to be not very useful once the lid was opened, she would change her attitude as if she never had been.

Few fields were as quick to cut people off as this neighborhood.

Furthermore, wasn’t it an improper demand to tell an ordinary person, without any advice, to prepare for a shoot and evaluation song ten days later all by themselves?

Even though she was talking nonchalantly as if it were nothing, it was a situation where the company might have protested if I were a participant with an agency.

It meant I should just throw on some instrumental or whatever, perform poorly, and get cursed at. If I wasn’t even bad enough to be cursed at, I would be completely edited out.

But I expected this much.

“…Yes. Thank you.”

I bowed my head as if I hadn’t noticed anything, yet appearing a bit nervous about the filming date that was right around the corner.

A look of satisfaction flickered through the writer.

“We are the thankful ones~ Then, I’ll contact you again for more details.”

It was a dismissal. Leaving the broadcasting station without lingering regret, I established a plan for the next ten days.

Since the preparation time was short, it seemed I would have to use a more extreme method than I had planned.

* * *

After those busy ten days, the first filming day arrived.

As a matter of course for a survival program’s structure, it began with an evaluation to judge each participant individually.

The 1st Evaluation.

Anyone who had seen an idol survival show even once would roughly guess, but it wasn’t rare for the impression formed at that time to last until the end of the program.

Therefore, for a participant with no special element to be noticed, performing averagely was the worst.

It was better to fail completely and become a laughingstock so that a growth narrative could be attached depending on the future editing direction.

However, if one was completely edited out without showing any characteristics there, there was really no answer.

Though I wasn’t saying I was aiming to be the viewers’ target for hatred, of course.

“You remember your own number, right? You will be called by your number. When guided, please enter through this corridor~”

The filming began with the artificial scene of participants walking through the set corridor one by one.

It would be produced for teaser use, but the filming time spent for that 40-second video had already exceeded two hours.

That’s because there were as many as 77 participants.

‘They’re all just kids.’

As I glanced around at the faces scattered and sitting in the set’s open space, which was embarrassing to even call a waiting room, my motivation slightly faded.

No matter how much it was about the status window and regression, it was because the realization that aspiring to be an idol among these kids was an embarrassing thing finally started to sink in.

“Excuse me, hello.”

One of the kids who was going around talking to people here and there spoke to me.

I didn’t know whether this fellow was just excited or trying to get acquainted by being quick-witted.

The important thing was that he looked like a middle school student.

To think I was introducing myself with the purpose of forming social connections with a middle schooler at this age…….

“Did you apply alone by any chance?”

“Yes.”

“Wow, me too. Oh, how old are you…?”

“…I’m twenty.”

My mouth felt itchy at cheating about nine years, but I surprisingly felt good.

“Do you have an agency by any chance?”

“No.”

“Ah, right! Usually, many cases in Ajusa appear after coming out from an agency. I was asking which agency you were originally from…….”

“I didn’t have one originally either.”

“Ah… I see.”

Immediately, the middle schooler’s sincerity completely vanished.

And after wrapping up the conversation roughly, he left to talk to another person.

He was a fellow whom I felt would succeed as he was already grasping society well.

Of course, that attitude of calculating in his head should be hidden from the camera, but that’s something he’ll have to handle himself.

Anyway. To think even a middle schooler was acting like that, it was a cold-blooded field.

This time, a doubt arose whether I had made an absurd judgment after being caught up in an unrealistic situation. However, the die was already cast.

“We’ll be moving the set!”

The main broadcast filming finally began.

I moved my steps along with the middle and high school students who were moving in groups like meerkats.

To wait for my turn beside the main stage where the first evaluation was taking place.

I was called around the beginning of the middle part.

* * *

“Participant Lee Sejin B is…… 15th place! Please take your seat.”

“Thank you!”

One of the participants who was being evaluated bowed his head at the MC’s words.

He was one of the four participants who were evaluated together because they were from the same agency.

He was a piece worth keeping among them, but the production team’s hearts were not very comfortable.

‘It’s extreme.’

The writer, Ryu Seorin, who was spinning a pen, frowned.

Season 3 had less investment than the previous season. It was natural. Because it was a season that barely started again after Season 2 flopped.

Attaching even a ridiculous subtitle like ‘Re-listing,’ all the production staff prepared the broadcast while clenching their teeth to eliminate the shadow of Season 2.

But there were parts where it showed even if they covered and hid it somehow with connections and planning.

One of them was the talent pool.

A number of moderately trained candidate groups had leaked to other audition programs.

Since they filled it with guys who looked plausible on the outside to match 77 people, the ratio of hollow shells increased.

If there were too many incompetent guys, there was a limit to how much they could bring the fun to life through editing.

In a Korean audition program, it was close to impossible to promote a guy without skill. If they made even a slight mistake while trying to package non-existent skill somehow, all sorts of talk would pour out.

Not with hatred accompanied by buzz, but centered on keywords like ‘no fun’ and ‘deception.’

At least they filled the number of Tier 1 participants they had marked for the debut line, but organizing the program without a dark horse up to that point was no small difficulty.

‘The kid coming out now too.’

The participant who would be evaluated this time was a complete novice who was put in ten days before the first main filming.

There was no special expectation since he was picked hurriedly after one of the participants was caught drunk driving and quickly kicked out at the last minute.

‘What was… his name? Well, he’ll say it when he comes out for the evaluation.’

That participant had a moderately good voice and his look was not bad, and he even had a story to be used in case of emergency.

Thanks to that, he had leaped over her threshold, which had been lowered by urgency.

However, even combining all those strengths, he was eventually just at a level better than the fillers.

The judges were also in the middle of chatting with uninterested expressions after flipping through the documents that had no special matters other than his family history.

So she also secretly had such a thought.

‘Right, it’s better if you’re extremely bad. So you can draw aggro.’

It was tiring if mediocrely bad guys kept coming out, but a few people being exceptionally bad would fill the richness of the program. Under the wise saying that even mockery was interest.

Since it was a stage prepared by an ordinary person in ten days, and alone at that, there was a fair probability that he would be laughably bad.

She glanced at the stage with a weak sense of expectation.

“Next participant, please enter the stage!”

Just then, that ordinary participant was coming up onto the stage.

Fortunately, his face looked more handsome than then, perhaps because they caught him properly at the shop.

The problem was the subtle atmosphere, as if he were bored or depressed.

Last time she thought it might be because of his family history, but that kind of attitude even in front of all these cameras?

Actually, it was because he had seen scenes crowded with cameras countless times while going around for proxy filming, but the writer, who had no way of knowing that, was puzzled.

‘…Is he the type whose nervousness doesn’t show much?’

It didn’t really matter. Then she could just catch him with an image of acting arrogant despite being incompetent. The writer worked her brain hard.

In the meantime, Park Moondae, who had come up to the stage, was listening to the MC’s words.

“Yes. Participant. Please introduce yourself.”

“…I am Park Moondae. Please take care of me.”

And he bowed his head. Then, small chuckles and snorts came from the judges’ seats.

“Wait, is that all?”

A male judge holding a microphone asked with a voice mixed with laughter.

It was a tone with a subtly negative nuance. He probably meant whether he wasn’t going to speak properly, but Park Moondae nodded seriously.

“Yes. I have no career worth introducing.”

Then, bursts of laughter broke out from the judges’ seats.

“Phew, a unique friend!”

“It’s fun~”

A few whispered quietly. Of course, so that it could be caught well by the microphone.

“Ah, looking at the application here, there’s really nothing.”

“Truly.”

It was also about time for statements like ‘Why did you come out?’ to appear.

But perhaps thinking it would be more impressive if they did it after the stage, the judges all hid their laughter moderately.

And the writers thought. We might be able to get some usable cuts.

“Then, let’s see the stage.”

“Yes.”

Along with malicious interest, the participant accepted the microphone handed over by the staff.

Before long, the prelude began to flow out.

And everyone was flustered.

That song was coming out there?