The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 47

Whether it’s movies or novels, they say the buildup in the middle part determines the direction of the ending.

This applies equally to broadcast programs.

‘That’s why this moment is the most crucial!’

The homma clicked on the camera memory file and scanned through the photos that had been taken.

A smile naturally bloomed on her lips.

There had been reward for her persistent efforts at that chaotic scene.

‘Since KNet can even run IP tracking, I’ll upload it to the scaffold briefly and take it down after people check it out.’

The photo displayed in the editing program was none other than Ryu Si-hwan from the 2nd competition.

Slightly damp-feeling hair, a white shirt with buttons undone, and the key point—a black tie.

It was practically a perfect photo with almost nothing to edit.

‘Look how much I suffered to salvage these few shots.’

Originally, she had only thought of it as perfect source material for growing her channel.

To the homma, Ryu Si-hwan had been nothing more, nothing less than that.

But as she continued searching for materials, watching the main broadcasts, and even taking direct photos like this, she had unknowingly become deeply immersed.

Her mind, optimized for stanning idols, was officially complaining of severe obsession syndrome.

That’s how the homma’s attention naturally turned to attending the live broadcast.

The moment she saw the post recruiting audience members for 〈ISL 2〉’s 2nd competition, she contacted homma acquaintances around her and expressed her determination to definitely get within the 500 people limit.

Though what actually broke through that competition was her own fingers.

Anyway, having achieved her original purpose, she disassembled her camera piece by piece and hid it where security wouldn’t check before entering the filming site.

And with her skilled technique, she succeeded in salvaging Ryu Si-hwan’s photos from within the crowd.

Looking at it again, it came out so well.

Her impression after seeing the real thing in person, having only seen him through screens until now, was.

‘……Is there anything special to say.’

Like any idol, he was naturally much thinner and more handsome than what came through the camera.

But beyond simply being handsome, should she says Ryu Si-hwan had an invisible aura?

There was a mysterious power that drew the audience throughout watching the stage.

The homma had originally gone to the scene to see and photograph Ryu Si-hwan, but even without deliberately focusing, her gaze naturally concentrated on him.

Even when he was with Seong-hwi, that master of facial expressions, he wasn’t overshadowed at all.

She remembered that the cheers were loudest when Ryu Si-hwan’s solo parts came out at the scene too.

‘Since the stage order was also the very last, it’ll come out next week instead of today. It couldn’t be better.’

After saving Ryu Si-hwan’s eyepatch cut that needed little touching up, the homma accessed her secret account timeline.

And she uploaded the photo with a brief caption.

[Ryu Si-hwan 2nd competition direct fancam.jpg]

Sure enough, the timeline filled with only Ryu Si-hwan’s individual fans was instantly flooded with hearts and retweets.

—Is this possibly coming out today?? Please tell me it’s coming out today T_T T_T

—Oh my goodness gracious, I’ve lost my sight

—Right now Homma saw that live…… I’m so jealous I almost got angry, but since you left us photos like this, I’ll just be grateful

—But we’re fine seeing spoilers like this early, but what if it gets cut for being a spoiler??

└Probably will take it down in a bit?

└Everyone grab the pics before it gets taken down,,,,

—Everyone, you can’t just look at photos, you’re all doing your daily votes, right?

└Holy shit, I almost forgot thanks to you

└Please don’t forget T_T Look how narrowly he missed 1st place at the 1st ranking announcement…….

Fortunately, it seemed everyone properly realized how important daily voting was after the 1st ranking announcement ceremony.

But the homma thought that result wasn’t derived solely from being unable to vote.

If you dug deep into community posts, you could see that Seong-hwi’s fans had said to invest all money in the ‘Benefit 5,000 votes’ item before the 1st ranking announcement ceremony.

Conversely, Ryu Si-hwan’s fans had bought high-money, high-efficiency items like ‘Subway & Bus Billboards’ to support him, and there wasn’t much mention of the ‘Benefit 5,000 votes’ item.

The vote gap probably split there.

While 5,000 votes might seem like a small number immediately, if over 100 people bought it all at once, it becomes a whopping 500,000 votes.

Thinking about it differently, there’s a possibility that Ryu Si-hwan’s pure all-star vote count was actually higher.

That’s how significant the influence of benefit vote items that can have direct impact is.

The homma accessed her NeoTube channel to check her subscriber count.

[HwanFather: 2.9k subscribers]

With Ryu Si-hwan’s solo cut videos up to episode 5 uploaded, approaching 3,000 subscribers was a good sign.

Knowing for certain that Ryu Si-hwan’s parts would be abundant in episode 7 airing next week, this episode 6 was even more of a turning point.

The homma hadn’t just been idly playing on her day off.

She had rewatched all of 〈ISL 1〉 and analyzed what aspects might apply to this season too.

At this midpoint timing, there had been a particularly prominent announcement.

[To mark the turning point of 〈Idol Stove League〉, we’ve prepared ways for our national managers to send even more support. That’s right, it’s the ‘Support Shop Renewal’!]

The time when the support function that could determine participants’ fates was comprehensively renewed.

The current hottest items like ‘Benefit 5,000 votes’ or ‘Team Member Designation Rights’ would look cute compared to the massive products that had come in.

If they picked just a few, ‘Benefit 200,000 votes’ and ‘All Team Members Designation Rights’ had drawn all kinds of attention.

Of course, the prices were several times more expensive than existing items, so they couldn’t be bought easily, but their existence alone had thrown national managers into great chaos.

With 〈ISL 2〉 currently running an even more successful course than last season.

KNet would be more than capable of bringing these items back.

‘I absolutely have to hold out until today’s broadcast.’

She didn’t know for certain if the shop renewal would definitely appear in today’s broadcast, but the possibility was high.

The homma herself hadn’t spent any of the money earned from match predictions, so she was just waiting for big products to come in.

[Dear fans supporting our Hwan-father! Writing briefly through the community. It’s nothing else, but just like in Season 1, shop renewal might suddenly hit us……]

After leaving a post in the NeoTube community tab saying to save money while watching the situation, the homma turned on all electronic devices in her house to prepare for 〈ISL 2〉’s main broadcast as usual.

Before that, scanning idol community posts once was basic.

As expected, what immediately rose to best posts at this timing was spoiler posts.

[BEST: I’m someone who went to the live audience (with verification photos too) +1043]

Won the click battle and went to the audience with great difficulty

(Roughly shaky stage photo) (Audience verification wristband)

You all know the 2nd team battle round theme was fans’ favorite, right? This was openly posted on boards and they even took votes, so I think knowledgeable fans know

Anyway the songs were generally good overall but there weren’t many that made me go wow! while watching

These guys will probably come out next week, but first their members are such cheats… I don’t know how they picked them but just by pure rankings it’s a total cheat team. This group covered a famous girl group song and they were really good, rankings really don’t lie….

—If rankings are so good it’s called cheat level, doesn’t that mean people in top 5 got grouped together

└That would be too unbalanced lmao. The production team would probably prevent this

└Two people in top 5 being on the same team is right

└Really??? No way it’s not the big agencies fighting each other

└Who are the big agencies?

└Big agency kids Seong-hwi Kang Seon-woo

└I’m curious about this combo too

—I also went to the audience so I know, those two mentioned above are SH RSH

└This is really just speculation lol

└Seong-hwi and Ryu Si-hwan individual fans must hate each other so fucking much LMAO. What kind of novel bullshit is this

└Whether fans hate each other or not, the people themselves might end up fighting?

└This will be fun to watch the mud fight

└Seong-hwi stans have been calling RSH an individual trainee and putting him down all this time, but now they could end up on teams together~? Why is this so funny

└No lmao. When did we openly call him an individual trainee? We just said it’s weird for someone with that level of skill to get 1st place~ that’s what we said

└Look look, your true feelings are showing right away? You were determined to put him down no matter what, right? LMAO. As expected, that idol, that fan

‘The spoiler is true but it just got buried.’

It was true that Seong-hwi and Ryu Si-hwan ended up on the same team, but the comments themselves faded due to individual fans fighting each other.

It was source material that was just perfect for people to bite and tear at each other, so there was no way around it.

The homma was also very curious about how Seong-hwi and Ryu Si-hwan ended up on the same team, so she hoped today’s broadcast would show even a little.

〈ISL 2〉 episode 6 began with the lively EDM sound of theme song 〈HIT〉.

The homma, who had been watching while fully immersed, had no choice but to fly to her computer the moment she saw the new announcement that appeared at the end of the broadcast.

She had to write a new announcement post immediately.

‘This is crazy. Just crazy.’

* * *

Song Ji-won was watching 〈ISL 2〉 episode 6 with great interest.

Her heart was at ease. She knew Ryu Si-hwan absolutely wouldn’t appear today.

Although she had failed at this audience visit, Kang Eun-young had gone directly and given excellent spoilers.

He ended up on the same team as Seong-hwi and Ma Si-hyeok?

They even tore up the stage and received encore requests?

Game set. Game set.

Since the actual stage was also in the very last order, the broadcast would be the same.

So this time she focused on observing the narrative of Life B-cuts members’ teams.

[We have a face genius, so it’ll be comfortable!]

[Let’s vote for center right away, vote!]

Team 1, which Chae Ha-ru belonged to, finished center voting swiftly.

The ample screen time for Chae Ha-ru, who was chosen as center, gave Song Ji-won satisfaction.

One surprising thing was that Team 3, led by Kang Seon-woo, decorated the end of episode 6.

‘I naturally thought they’d also come out in episode 7.’

KNet seemed to think they needed to put out someone of Kang Seon-woo’s caliber in episode 6 to satisfy fans’ expectations.

The real-time talk public opinion was definitely decent.

—I thought they wouldn’t show Hwi or Si-hwan but it’s true lol. Still, I’m satisfied seeing Seon-woo

—Stop holding our kids hostage T_T I’m going crazy

—But seeing both Seong-hwi and Ryu Si-hwan not appear, they really ended up on the same team, didn’t they?

└I also came after seeing that spoiler post LOL. Is it real?

└I’m getting curious about people’s reactions lol. Will Seong-hwi still want to curse even if Si-hwan carries the bus

└Like hell lucky RSH who rose through luck would carry Hwi’s bus LMAO

└There they go fighting again, stop fighting and just watch the main broadcast

Of course, with the two most popular individuals possibly being on the same team, trolls were still rampant.

‘I’m curious too about what really happened.’

Episode 6 seemed to end smoothly without any special incidents.

There didn’t seem to be any teams that received devil’s editing like it looked.

However, true to the broadcast masters, next week’s preview suddenly popped up.

[**! Are you really going to do this? If you were going to do this, why did you come out! Huh?]

[Please answer me! Where are you going!]

“……Wasn’t that just Ha-woon’s voice?”

The preview with only voices recorded on a black screen was too confusing.

It definitely seemed like Yu Ha-woon. That youngest really raising his voice and speaking that intensely?

It didn’t end there.

[It seemed like it would be fun, from the beginning.]

[But what do I do about this? The choice has come to me?]

[Let’s do well together?]

[I told you to rest.]

[Ugh……!]

Following Seong-hwi’s interview scene, Ryu Si-hwan’s face standing in the practice room.

And the unidentifiable sound that came out at the end.

Just when she couldn’t understand what was what, Go Hyeon-ju in a black suit walked out from the darkness.

[National managers. 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉 has reached a turning point. I want to sincerely say thank you for all the love and interest you’ve shown us so far.]

The feeling was ominous.

It was clearly a tone that had some scheme behind it.

[Furthermore, we received statistics that you’re using the support system really well. This support function that can create differentiation and variables in this competitive arena. If we raise this importance even further and draw our national managers’ immersion even more powerfully. What kind of landscape will unfold, I wonder.]

With those words, the text [Full-Scale Support Shop Renewal!] was generated.

Among the renewed products, the 3 most expensive items appeared on a sparkling golden podium.

[All Team Members Designation Rights, 5 million money]

[Metropolitan Subway Billboard 7-Day Rights, 6 million money]

[Benefit 500,000 votes, 10 million money]

Song Ji-won froze in place for a moment looking at the money price tags on screen.

Then she turned on her phone and checked her account logged into the 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉 homepage.

[ID: SONGJW’s current money holdings? 〈5.68 million money〉]

“……I could do it?”