Chapter 6

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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It was tiring.

My eyes were stiff.

Those ignorant people had kept the participants from leaving the set while they judged all 77 people.

Even during the break, they were only allowed to go to the bathroom in groups.

It was likely for the convenience of managing dozens of energetic kids, but thanks to that, my patience was gradually running out.

From my perspective, where I could see everything once I looked at the status window, every stage was incredibly boring.

I had seen enough active idol stages to get sick of them while going to take event photos, so there was no way a trainee’s stage would be deeply moving then.

Of course, there were about two or three times that were impressive.

I glanced at the two people sitting on the excessively fancy sofa up there.

They were then in 1st and 2nd place. They were from the same famous agency, and they were certainly good. Their status windows were also flashy.

Both of them would debut, and one of them was in 1st place.

I should probably stick with those guys to increase my chances of debuting, but… the thought of playing the adolescent hierarchy game that would have suited me ten years ago made me feel exhausted.

I would think about it again when the team battles started.

And fortunately, the judging was finally coming to an end.

“Participant Ryu Chungwoo is… 9th place!”

He pushed someone out. The last participant squeezed into the already crowded upper ranks. In that case… my rank was then 22nd.

That was quite a good defense.

In fact, numerically, it seemed I had overtaken about… 7 participants who were more skilled than me.

I should continue to manage things well so that the overestimation didn’t become obvious.

“Thank you!”

The former national archery representative with a pleasant impression stepped off the stage with a grin.

I heard he had even won a gold medal in the Olympic team event, but I wasn’t sure. I only remembered that he made it into the debut group.

Anyway, he wouldn’t be going to the military, so he was a talent any agency would love.

Wait.

Come to think of it, did I… have to go to the military?

In my previous body, I received Level 4 and was assigned to social service at the city hall.

Just before the scary topic I had never thought about could occupy my mind, the filming ended.

“Cut! Good work, everyone! Participants, please move immediately~”

“Yes~”

Applause and responses broke out sporadically from here and there.

While moving according to the staff’s guidance, my head felt dizzy.

I should check Park Moondae’s physical examination status as soon as this filming was over.

“Please receive your ranking table and… board the vehicle!”

The dormitory was located a 10-minute walk from the set. It was a dormitory newly built on the site behind the broadcasting station after the great success of Season 1.

However, they specifically used transportation, and the reason was obvious.

They wanted to get some broadcast cuts.

The transportation varied depending on the rank.

“Participants! Up to 10th place, please come this way~”

“Heh, a limousine!”

“Wow~ It’s really good!”

“Awesome.”

Behind the top-ranked participants boarding the black limousine with thumbs up to the camera, the bottom-ranked participants could be seen.

From 51st to 77th place, they moved on foot.

They tried hard to pretend to be positive and humorous, but I could see them suppressing expressions that looked like they were about to cry everywhere.

The cameras persistently followed those participants.

They were experts at provocatively extracting misfortune.

Honestly, it was a bit disgusting.

“Oh, this is good?”

A premium bus was waiting for those from 11th to 25th place.

Lee Sejin boarded the bus first with a beaming smile.

I wanted to avoid the misfortune of sitting together, so I waited a bit and then boarded appropriately.

Then, someone hurriedly followed and boarded the bus behind me with a clatter.

And he sat down hesitantly next to me.

It was Seon Ahyun.

“……?”

Why you…?

Well, whatever. It was nice and quiet since he didn’t talk.

* * *

The dormitory was reached in an instant. And like last season, they used different floors for each rank this time as well.

This pseudo-caste system would continue until the team mission appeared.

A spacious 5-person room was assigned to those from 11th to 25th place. Thanks to the rooms being divided by 5 people per rank, I was separated from Lee Sejin, who was 20th. I was lucky.

“Wow~ I! I claim this bed!”

As soon as we entered the bedroom, which consisted of two bunk beds and one single bed, one guy jumped onto the single bed in a contrived manner.

He probably wanted to look playful and cheerful to the camera.

I appropriately took the bottom of a bunk bed.

Then, Seon Ahyun quickly put his luggage on the bed above mine this time too.

“…….”

When I looked at him, he lowered his head. It felt like I was dragging a lackey around….

He followed me around even when we changed into the training suits we were given and gathered.

Looking at him, it seemed he found the strong-willed aspiring celebrities burdensome. He probably felt more comfortable with a relatively quiet ordinary person.

Since he didn’t seem like someone who would cause problems by being involved right now, I just let him be.

However, since just an argument could lead to my personality being criticized, I shouldn’t get close enough to specifically choose him for the same team.

“From now on, you will enter full-scale training! It’s called~ Customized Moving Classes!”

The MC introduced the system that everyone likely already knew in an exaggerated tone.

“Your vocal and dance grades have been determined based on the scores you received from the judges!”

“Yes!”

“Each class is divided into advanced, intermediate, and beginner levels, and we will aim to improve your skills through customized training for each level.”

Up to here, it was similar to other auditions. The next part was the problem.

“And your classes can change in real-time at any time!”

“…!”

“Everything depends on your effort and progress!”

For example, if someone in ‘Vocal Intermediate’ had absorbed the teachings like a sponge during training and suddenly became good, they would have received training in ‘Vocal Advanced’ from the next session.

Of course, it also meant that if they did poorly, their class would drop immediately.

They would do this for ten days, and then the final grade would be determined through an individual evaluation of the theme song.

It meant they would extract content by mercilessly burning the mental state of these kids.

“This badge goes to… Participant Park Moondae!”

“Yes.”

As expected, I received ‘Vocal Advanced’ and ‘Dance Beginner’.

It was a bit embarrassing to wear the gold-shining vocal badge and the dull bronze dance badge on my shoulders.

The badges were so exaggerated that they looked cheap.

For reference, there were cases where no badge was given at all.

On the internet, these cases were called ‘trash’.

“Those who didn’t have a badge were… outside the grades. These people would attend the beginner class together, but they also had to receive special training outside of hours at night.”

Honestly, if someone did it with clenched teeth, they were in a better position to get camera time than just the beginner class. It was good for building a story.

However, when one actually became the person involved, they might have had different thoughts.

The former child actor over there, whose hands were trembling, was a good example.

I heard he appeared in a thriller movie that ten million people watched ten years ago, but after that, he couldn’t promote due to unfortunate circumstances, or so he said at length.

That participant received an outside-the-grade judgment for dance and beginner for vocal. On the status window, they were Grade F and Grade D, respectively.

He probably came out aiming for a broadcast comeback rather than the idol itself.

One slightly surprising point was that his name was also ‘Lee Sejin’.

I didn’t know there would be someone with the same name. Of course, the Lee Sejin who debuted would be the other one.

Why didn’t I think he was the Lee Sejin who debuted? Because at a glance, he looked like a card that would be used for early buzz and then discarded.

First of all, he openly expressed it as if he couldn’t stand being upset.

‘The PD will like it.’

Soon after all the badges were distributed, the giant screen lit up.

“Now, the song you will practice is being revealed. For the next ten days! You will do your best to master this song and present it to the shareholders of !”

It was a song that would be heard in all sorts of places until next year. Even I, a civil service exam student who had cut off media, remembered the chorus choreography.

It wasn’t quite at the level of , but it was a movement worth following.

“The song for this relisting season is… .”

With a beat that stuck to the ears, appropriately overwhelming and endurably childish lyrics began to flow.

-Standing on the stage
You probably won’t know yet
The STAR LIGHT fluctuating inside me
I’ll approach you like a flash

A dancer appeared on the screen and performed the choreography. Exclamations and subtle groans broke out from here and there.

And I realized it too.

The difficulty of that chorus was a fake.

For public appeal, they made only that part easy to follow, while the intro was composed in a horribly complex way.

The first verse passed by in a flash without me even daring to memorize it. And the chorus burst out.

-The one shining on the stage today is
Just me!
Yes, the Shining Star you made is
Just me!
Finally waking up and radiating light
Look closely, this moment~
I am the one shining the most!

Even ‘that choreography’ of the chorus, when looking at the footwork, looked like I would fall over while doing it.

I made up my mind immediately.

“Status window.”

I decided to just… not sleep.

“…Activating ‘Sleep is for the Dead’.”

* * *

Calories. I had to calculate calories well.

What I mean was, I should have realized sooner that since I was active without sleeping, the calorie consumption would be severe. I almost got annoyed because I was hungry when I stayed up the first night.

‘W-W-Would you like… to eat this?’

And Seon Ahyun gave me a chocolate bar. Because I was thankful, I spoke a few words to him and we started speaking informally.

He was the same age as ‘Park Moondae’. Speaking informally with a young kid really made me feel like I had become younger.

From the second day on, I crammed three meals a day and even drinks into my mouth as much as possible. The food… well, it tasted like military food, but it was good that there was no limit on the amount.

And so, on the ninth day.

I memorized the choreography. From beginning to end.

Being able to use all the night time without fatigue definitely had an effect.

Furthermore, several stages of level-up occurred.

[Name: Park Moondae (Ryu Gunwoo)]

Level: 7

Title: None

Vocal: A-

Dance: D

Appearance: C+

Charm: C

Trait: Infinite Potential, Sleep is for the Dead (D)

!Status Abnormality: Debut or Death

Remaining Points: 3

Fortunately, there were quite a few achievements in units of hundreds up to 500.

However, I didn’t distribute the points on purpose.

Because even if I did it then, there wouldn’t have been a big impact.

‘Up until today… 5 people.’

Already 5 people had been promoted from Dance Beginner to Intermediate.

Since it was rare for someone’s skills to increase dramatically just by receiving a few days of training, most of them probably messed up the first judging and were then finding their actual skills.

If I were included here, there was a high probability that I would just pass by grouped together.

Then there was no point in the promotion. I had to show that my skills had increased more dramatically.

Moreover, I even had enough usable scenes.

It was because I was scolded by the choreographer from the first day.

-Again!

-Foot, bend your left foot!

-Why are you swinging your arm? Hold it up!

On the first day, as soon as the class started, the choreographer spoke informally and mercilessly scolded the participants in all directions.

Thanks to that, the atmosphere gradually became as heavy as a funeral home.

And towards the end of the class, the choreographer specifically pointed at me and spoke.

-Moondae.

-Yes.

-If you keep going like this with the choreography, there’s no hope for the next evaluation.

-…….

It wasn’t that I was particularly bad in this class.

In the first place, it was a ‘beginner’ class. If I were to be specific, was I about average? It was the level of an ordinary person who wasn’t a klutz trying hard.

But I had the highest initial rank among them. So this was a matter of expectations.

As expected, lines similar to last season came out too.

-No, I even have this thought. I gave the rank wrong. I don’t think you were at a skill level to receive that rank in the first place.

He was right. He probably knew it himself but was doing this for the fun of the broadcast.

-Let’s do it properly, okay? Get it together.

-Yes.

Unless it was a case of being truly lucky and having talent, basic skills that didn’t exist wouldn’t suddenly appear just by being trained for a few days for most people.

But it was possible for me, so I just nodded my head as if I had made a decision.

Hollow criticism and advice didn’t move me. But what was important was that it looked like something that would hurt one’s feelings to others.

I had to keep such provocative material even if it was a waste.

So I had to wait.

“Good work, everyone!”

“Yeah, don’t give up.”

The choreographer nodded at the greetings of the participants who were panting and soaked in sweat.

And after confirming that the staff were packing up the cameras, he left the class while looking at his phone.

The morning dance class ended with this.

Now it was the vocal class after the meal.

For lunch, Bulgogi and seaweed soup were served.

I ate as much as I could. And after a quick shower, I moved alone to the Vocal Advanced class.

Ah, come to think of it, I had a confession to make.

“Then Moondae should try singing~”

I was then cruising through vocals.