The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 150

It wasn’t for nothing that Kang Seon-woo’s body was trembling like an aspen tree.

The announcement about selecting a new roommate meant.

“P, PD.”

“Yes?”

“Please tell me this time it’s not a roulette! Please!”

This heavily implied the high possibility of a device appearing that would leave their fate to luck.

And Kang Seon-woo was an unlucky existence who had been unable to escape from roulette hell for a long time.

He had somehow managed to break through extreme odds in the last roommate roulette and won my room.

Knowing better than anyone that such divine luck wouldn’t come to him twice, he was desperately pleading with PD Jo Seung-soo.

“Hahaha, honestly we also wanted to milk the roulette based on Seon-woo’s reactions alone—.”

“You’re saying such scary things so naturally!”

“But running the same thing twice in a row would be a bit boring, so this time we brought a different concept.”

As his words ended, staff who had been waiting somewhere appeared dragging thin, long strings.

Looking at the total of 6 red strings placed in front of us, I immediately figured out what scheme this was.

“It’s a real-time ladder game.”

“Correct! Through rock-paper-scissors, you can freely choose the strings in front of you. And if you follow the direction your chosen string leads, you’ll naturally arrive at a new room, right?”

“……With a new roommate!”

Yu Ha-woon, who was unusually energetic today, couldn’t keep his butt glued to the sofa.

Before he shot through the roof, we quickly proceeded with rock-paper-scissors to determine the order.

“……”

“Did the sun rise from the west today? How come Brother Si-hwan is in last place?”

“Yeah, it’s about time this guy fell from the tree too.”

I looked at my scissors that had been completely defeated by Ma Si-hyeok’s rock and swallowed the bitter taste of defeat.

I was always the one who took 1st or 2nd place whenever CENTIX played games.

‘I really have a bad feeling about today.’

If I end up as roommates with Kang Seon-woo again twice in a row……

My room would clearly be placed right in the center of a typhoon’s path again.

While the other members were carefully choosing their strings, Cerberus, who had been quietly chewing gum, spoke in a languid voice.

{Ah, if only master hadn’t come in last place, I was going to tell you which string would be good.}

‘Don’t I have bad energy today or something?’

{But no matter how bad master’s energy is today, if the other humans’ misfortune is greater, it doesn’t matter at all.}

That was also a valid point.

Even if I’m forced to be chosen for the last remaining string, it doesn’t mean the strings the other guys chose are unconditionally good.

“Then please start now!”

The first fork in the road came sooner than expected.

At the stairs leading up to the 2nd floor rooms, Yu Ha-woon and Seong-hwi separated from the main group first, completing one combination already.

“Brother Hwi! Please take good care of me!”

“I should be the one saying that. Make sure to wake me up whenever I oversleep.”

“Leave it to me!”

The remaining 4 of us crossed the narrow hallway in single file.

Why am I even getting nervous about something like this?

“Si-hwan.”

“Yeah?”

“If we become roommates again, I’ll really work hard at cleaning—!”

“Even if you promise to clean properly now, nothing changes. Want me to switch strings with you right now?”

“I knew you’d switch strings this quickly. I should have made Ryu Si-hwan clean more when I had the chance.”

The speed of his attitude change was practically 5G-level.

5 minutes later.

In a room where the previous owner hadn’t moved their stuff out yet, I threw a thumbs up at the camera.

“Ha-ru and I ended up sharing the same room again after a long time, everyone.”

It was a fairly satisfying result.

Chae Ha-ru also had a neat personality and sometimes woke up even earlier than me.

His biorhythm was completely different from Kang Seon-woo’s, so I felt like there would be many comfortable aspects.

After the roommate decision was over, we gathered in the living room again.

“Looking at your expressions, it seems like everyone got good results?”

“Actually, whoever came would have been fine for us.”

“I welcomed everyone except Seon-woo.”

“Hey, friend, why are you shooting arrows again?”

“Do you know how much I suffered cleaning up your clothes every day?”

Still, Ma Si-hyeok, who ended up sharing a room with Kang Seon-woo, nodded his head reliably and said something responsible.

“I’ll work hard at cleaning from now on.”

“……Now I look like the only bad guy?”

“Ahaha, that’s why you should have cleaned up properly in the first place, brother.”

“Seong-hwi, you’re not one to talk either?”

“Why not? I at least didn’t throw all my underwear around like you—.”

“I was wrong! Please stop!”

Kang Seon-woo’s pitiful fight ended without him even breaking even.

Following that, the concept of ‘abandonment’ that had been dropped like a bombshell earlier was explained.

“From now on, except for the cameras installed in the dorm and the assigned VJ staff, our production team won’t directly visit this place. We plan to truly abandon you while filming your natural appearance.”

“Uh…… Then how will the proceedings and such work?”

“That’s why we prepared something special.”

We watched with wide eyes as a colorful super-large TV set entered the living room.

I couldn’t even guess how much money they poured into this reality show.

“From now on, every morning at exactly 8 AM, you’ll turn on this TV and randomly select one capsule. Inside will be various random missions. You can only finish that day’s schedule after successfully completing all those missions.”

In short, the concept was similar to reality season 1, but everything would be conducted remotely.

To better highlight CENTIX’s usual appearance.

Although I had a feeling that these chatterbox guys’ completely natural state being broadcasted might cause problems in its own way.

The production team would probably handle that themselves.

“Then shall we start with organizing the rooms first?”

“Yes—!”

It was like a great migration.

In the end, as Kang Seon-woo’s last wish, I was destined to clean our room until the very end.

‘Was this what my bad luck today was about?’

{Still, I think you did pretty well considering, Master?}

‘That’s because you don’t have to push the vacuum cleaner yourself, man.’

{I’ll just take a nap! Fighting!}

Fortunately, Chae Ha-ru, who finished packing his stuff before me, had already tidied up the room, so I could suffer less.

“I thought brother would have had a tough time, so I cleaned up a bit in advance.”

“Thanks to you, I survived, really.”

“Not at all. This much is basic.”

Thinking I could rest a bit, I went down to the living room, but the production team had already withdrawn completely as promised beforehand.

Only a large question mark was floating on the super-large TV set.

“Everyone ready?”

“Yes!”

“Honestly, since it’s the first day today, something easy will probably come out.”

Everyone was unanimously hoping for an easy mission.

The moment I, who stepped forward as representative, touched the screen, the question mark disappeared and a performance occurred where a capsule tumbled down from a lottery machine.

The identity of the mission that came out was,

[Today is the day CENTIX cooks directly! Make a dinner that everyone can eat their fill of! The cookable menu is in the first drawer of the kitchen. ※However, the acknowledged cooking king Si-hyeok can’t cook directly and can only give instructions from the side!※]

“Huh.”

“We’re screwed.”

“Si-hyeok can only give instructions……?”

Collective sighs poured out.

I also temporarily held my forehead and suffered from a headache.

‘I haven’t done much proper cooking.’

Even while living as CENTIX, I only ordered food or ate dishes that the skilled Ma Si-hyeok occasionally made, so I’d never prepared anything myself.

First, Chae Ha-ru came out with the cookable menu with a worried expression.

“Stir-fried pork, spicy braised chicken, spicy seafood stew……”

“Can we really do this?”

“I’m already feeling hopeless about the future.”

“I’ll try my best somehow.”

First, Ma Si-hyeok quickly looked over the menu and picked spicy stew, judging it had the most potential.

We each took positions and divided tasks like seasoning paste duty, vegetable chopping duty, water boiling duty, etc.

“Br, Brother Si-hyeok! I think too much garlic went in!”

“Si-hyeok, is this how you cut it? Aren’t the pieces too big?”

“Si-hyeok?”

“Brother Si-hyeok, help me.”

“……I want to learn cloning techniques.”

Only the sounds of people calling for Ma Si-hyeok filled the audio for several dozen minutes.

One side failed at seasoning ratio adjustment.

One side failed by cutting radish into weird stair-like pieces.

One side failed at water amount adjustment.

A total catastrophe struck.

Still, after a tearful struggle, the spicy stew was roughly completed by covering fish over the strangely cut radish and green onions.

Kang Seon-woo, who had been sweating profusely while doing knife work, declared in an uncharacteristically short tone.

“Guys.”

“Yes?”

“Even if this tastes bad, let’s all say it’s delicious while eating.”

Everyone seemed anxious that if we made faces while eating, the production team might seize the opportunity and drop orders like “Cook again!”

Still, don’t they say all cooking becomes half-decent once it goes through fire?

When I opened the steaming pot, surprisingly, a delicious aroma spread through the kitchen.

“I’ll taste it once. Ha-ru, could you prepare some water just in case? If it’s salty, let’s add water and boil it again.”

Ma Si-hyeok, who took on the role of the tasting court lady, carefully brought a spoon to his mouth.

We swallowed our saliva and waited for his fierce expression to brighten.

“Huh.”

“Why, what’s wrong, brother?”

“Did it really turn out bad? Is it beyond salvaging?”

“……No. It’s actually delicious?”

“Really?”

It was a moment when I felt the reward for an hour of suffering.

Once the head chef’s takeoff permission was granted, everyone threw their spoons toward the pot to satisfy their hunger.

Since I had exhausted all my energy cleaning fish, I also grabbed a handful of the white flesh and ate it with rice.

Surprisingly, it tasted like spicy stew you’d buy outside.

“Hey, this is delicious. Did we really make this?”

“Right, brother! Amazing!”

“This is all thanks to making the seasoning paste well.”

“Brother Hwi, if you hadn’t put in too much garlic from the start, we would have finished quickly!”

“How can you say that so loudly when you were trying to sneak credit, youngest?”

True to CENTIX’s reputation of having an appetite that wouldn’t lose anywhere, we cleanly emptied the spicy stew in just 15 minutes.

The five of us, excluding Ma Si-hyeok who had worked incredibly hard, did the dishes and cleanup, and only after receiving a [Mission Clear!] stamp on the TV screen could we rest.

Even though it was the first day and first mission, I already felt fatigue accumulating.

“Brother Si-hwan. What time should we do evening practice today?”

“I was planning to do it at 8 originally, but let’s rest one more hour before going out. I’m tired too.”

“For brother to say he’s tired. I’ll have to make brother cook when I want to tease him in the future.”

“You’ll die.”

After kicking out Seong-hwi, who was making an expression like he’d gained another weapon to use, my new room finally found peace.

On the bed across from me, Chae Ha-ru was watching NeoTube on his phone without moving at all.

“What are you watching?”

“Brother, do you like documentaries?”

“Documentaries?”

Chae Ha-ru nodded and showed me the screen.

An adventurer cutting through deep jungle with a machete and saying something in English. Soon the perspective switched to show him cutting thick tree branches to make a temporary shelter to avoid rain.

“Is this a documentary?”

“It’s actually closer to survival than documentary, but it’s uploaded on a documentary channel so I was just watching.”

“You liked this kind of thing?”

“This person catches really weird stuff and eats it well. I started watching because I was curious at first, but now I’m into it enough to binge the series.”

Just how weird could the food be?

Unable to overcome my curiosity, I watched the entire [48 Hours of Survival in the Amazon River] video with Chae Ha-ru.

“That, that’s not a tarantula, is it?”

“Apparently there’s quite a bit of meat on it so it’s delicious. I saw him catch and eat one in another jungle before.”

I was quite shocked to see him roast a tarantula larger than a human palm over fire and eat it deliciously.

I’d seen plenty of disgusting things in hell so they didn’t particularly affect me.

But exterminating them versus catching and eating them had quite different nuances.

“Brother, want to watch this channel too? He builds huts and sets up fish traps and everything.”

“……You watch extra hard for my share too.”

While Chae Ha-ru departed for the world of NeoTube algorithms thoroughly soaked in his personal taste, I used the break to play the pre-recorded video of our 〈Sketchbook〉 choreography.

Really, there wasn’t much time left until comeback.

Four more days passed like that.

While we were still in a state where the promotion scheduler hadn’t even been posted yet, predicting what content would drop after the trailer, a new bomb was dropped on MILLENNIUM.

[Centix 2nd Mini Album 「Sixth Wing: 육익(六翼)」 Concept Photo Void Version]