The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 48

As expected, Song Ji-won’s tablet caught fire the moment 〈ISL 2〉 episode 6’s live broadcast ended.

[ZUM meeting participation request!]

“Why do we have to do a video call when we could just chat through messages?”

“Of course we have to! Song Ji-won is the only one here with tons of money!”

“Hey, but you could lose it all in one shot if you’re not careful. You need to manage that well!”

“I know, I know.”

Song Ji-won’s friends who initiated the group video call focused intensively on discussing the [Benefit 500,000 votes] item that had appeared with the outrageous price tag of 10 million money.

Currently, when the average per person was at most 1 million or 2 million money, whether it was possible to raise it to the ten million range or not.

To make such a large amount of money, you’d have to boldly bet on the real-time predictions that appeared sporadically and get the problems right with daring odds.

But the risk level was too high, so all your money could really return to nothing.

“Hey, but how else can you earn money with regular match predictions? Even knowing which team will win only comes out during the ranking announcement ceremony, right? That means Ji-won would have to double her money with just one 2nd ranking announcement ceremony. Similarly, isn’t this too risky too?”

“What were the regular match prediction odds like?”

“I think it was between 2.5x to 3x per team.”

“Then you’d really have to get everything right to barely reach 10 million money. Wow, KNet is really something. They probably think no one will reach 10 million money.”

The absurd number of 500,000 benefit votes.

This was beyond simple benefits—in a word, a game changer.

KNet, which wasn’t running audition programs for the first or second time, would have calculated this thoroughly too.

They were certain that absolutely no national manager would possess money in the tens of millions.

The number of times they’d tempted people with the high odds that real-time predictions had and turned them into paupers in one go would be quite a few.

When such expensive products came out, even more national managers would jump into real-time predictions.

People who became impatient would find it difficult to make proper judgments.

“Still, we have to try once. I’m tempted.”

“Right, once you’ve made up your mind, you have to go all the way!”

“But why don’t they open functions like joint sponsorship? Would it be because sending sponsorship items would become too easy?”

At one friend’s words, Song Ji-won thought carefully.

Certainly, rather than making individuals buy items with their own power alone, they could also make multiple people fundraise together.

“If a joint sponsorship function came out, wouldn’t it be complete chaos? For example, if a total of 1,000 people could fundraise for this item, I think trolls would put in 1 won each and quickly fill up the number of people before fans could properly collect money and send it.”

“Ah……”

“That’s entirely possible. Well, everyone’s really competitive between individual fan groups.”

Everyone nodded at Kang Eun-young’s short and concise explanation.

Song Ji-won touched her forehead and let out a small sigh.

In the end, was the answer to somehow collect as much money as possible with her own capabilities?

“I personally think [All Team Members Designation Rights] looks good too. The 3rd round will definitely be team battles too, right? Then wouldn’t it be good to let them pick all the kids they like?”

“Like Ji-won said, that looks good too.”

“It’s just that those 500,000 benefit votes are too powerful, otherwise the other things are pretty good too.”

“For now, we’ll have to see how much money accumulates by the 2nd ranking ceremony.”

Before they knew it, it was almost dawn while chatting enthusiastically.

After saying good night to her friends, Song Ji-won lay on her bed and browsed various communities.

As expected, it was buzzing with talk about the shop renewal that appeared this time.

Most of the posts flooding up like a storm had titles like [How much money do you guys have?], so it seemed like everyone was going to do everything they could to save their favorites.

With natural hand movements, she entered NeoTube and checked the announcement on Ryu Si-hwan’s fan channel that she subscribed to.

‘This person seems to have quite a bit of fangirl experience too.’

Sure enough, there was a piping hot post uploaded 30 minutes ago.

[From now on, everyone should save as much money as possible! Other people probably won’t spend money on benefit items during the 2nd ranking ceremony either, and everyone will probably be saving money to buy big items. Let’s also work hard to get the match predictions right and give Si-hwan lots of good support. Don’t forget the daily vote either!]

The announcement comments already had over 50 replies.

That was proof of how deeply people were immersed in 〈ISL 2〉.

‘And I’m among those people.’

Song Ji-won looked at Ryu Si-hwan, who had even taken over her phone’s wallpaper, and smiled with honest amusement.

* * *

‘Hmm, it’s chaos as expected.’

Lying in the empty dorm looking at my phone, I frowned slightly.

Then Cerberus, who was chewing on a sausage, barked once.

{What’s wrong, Master? Can’t you see well already? Is it presbyopia?}

“I’m still in my prime.”

{Hey, that’s a lie. If you calculate by soul age, Master is already over 70 years old, a grandfather.}

“You don’t need to confirm and finish off those kinds of details.”

No matter how much 〈ISL 2〉 had devices everywhere to encourage the national managers’ excessive immersion, I didn’t expect them to spit at each other to this degree.

The bomb called ‘Support Shop Renewal’ that appeared at the end of episode 6’s broadcast was tremendously effective.

Starting from the topic of which items would be best to gift, it spread to arguments about whether it wasn’t too unfair, whether trainees with many fans weren’t at an advantage.

Now they were just biting, tearing, tasting, and enjoying each other between individual fan groups for no reason at all.

Especially, public opinion was particularly focused on the whereabouts of me and Seong-hwi, who hadn’t appeared in episode 6.

It seemed to be because we had competed for 1st place at the 1st ranking announcement ceremony and our individual fandoms continued to grow.

‘……That means non-fans are also deliberately coming to stir up trouble.’

Isn’t it true that the higher the population density, the higher the probability of strange people being mixed in between?

Right now, the idol community felt exactly like that.

—But are Seong-hwi and Ryu Si-hwan really on the same team? Personally, I really hate that… I hate seeing Ryu Si-hwan’s fake nice guy act lol

└??? Si-hwan must be getting really famous these days, I feel like I see comments like this dozens of times on Ha-ru

└The fact that there are similar stories means that’s the truth, right? Hwan-aunties getting worked up~

└LMAO. I’m in my twenties and getting called auntie, ridiculous. And I meant there are more people like you guys with unverified IPs just posting troll messages

└People who properly watched the broadcast would know right away that Hwan-brother isn’t fake but just naturally kind

└——Feeding prohibited——

—Setting aside whether it’s trolling or not, I hope Hwi doesn’t get paired with RSH. Their positions overlap and I feel like Hwi, who has leadership, might get overshadowed by RSH T_T

└I’m smacking your head right at the part where you said Seong-hwi has leadership~

└Hey lol I’m really a muggle who doesn’t stan anyone, but Seong-hwi having leadership? That’s a bit much

└Leave them alone, they just think anyone who speaks harshly and acts rudely without backing down has leadership

└You guys badmouthing Seong-hwi, I’m going to take screenshots of everything and send them to X2 later. Watch your mouths…

└What’s with the pdf, go make team project PPTs, Hwi-fans lol

—LOL. People saying they hope Seong-hwi doesn’t end up on the same team as Si-hwan, their logic is just funny. If you think about Seong-hwi’s public opinion and narrative so far, wouldn’t going up against Si-hwan be the best?? From what I see, Si-hwan seems like he could even tame Seong-hwi

└This is honestly right. I acknowledge Seong-hwi’s skills, but he needs someone to hold his reins

└He does perfectly fine without someone to hold his reins…

└Ah, so he did perfectly fine that’s why he caused that disaster during the 1st team battle? LOL

└That was because the rest of the team members were complete trolls, it wasn’t Seong-hwi’s fault

└No matter what, people’s personalities don’t change, realistically speaking

└I’m worried about Si-hwan…… If they really ended up on the same team, he would have suffered a lot mentally trying to accept that kind of personality

Except for the absence of severe profanity, comments determined to tear each other down poured down like a violent storm.

In a way, it was a bit deflating.

The people involved don’t have any particular bad feelings toward each other, but the people supporting us are fighting while consuming emotions.

‘If me or Seong-hwi were participants who didn’t receive KNet’s attention, who knows how the scene of our team working together would be edited.’

Looking at the past episodes, I could be faintly confident that the probability of devil’s editing being applied to Ryu Si-hwan had become very low.

The production team wouldn’t destroy the ‘Hwan-brother’ image they had built with their own hands.

But if I were a participant who didn’t receive such attention and editing advantages, the scene where I spoke well with Seong-hwi would likely disappear.

‘Of course, even saying this, we won’t know until episode 7 comes out.’

I shouldn’t be hasty in being certain about anything.

Seong-hwi also still had the reckless image created during the 1st team battle.

No matter how much public opinion had reversed and he received some consideration, who knows what variables might occur.

The day of episode 7’s live broadcast was two days away.

Since 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉 valued group living and controlled order, the period when you could use overnight stays was short this time too.

I also didn’t particularly want to go to my empty house, so I continued staying at the dorm.

While fiddling with my phone, I casually looked at the group chat.

‘……Should I watch with the kids and give them some mental care on the side?’

Yu Ha-woon’s team also didn’t appear in episode 6.

I could guess there were enough scenes that could become issues.

If that’s the case, it felt a bit wrong to leave Yu Ha-woon, who still had fragile mental tendencies, alone.

‘Or should I just dump it on Kang Seon-woo?’

If the five of us gathered again, I’d have to exchange Kang Seon-woo’s sly jokes.

I fell into contemplation again at that thought.

[Yu Ha-woon: (Rabbit waving emoticon) Brother Si-hwan! Do you want to watch episode 7 together?? I haven’t asked the other Brothers yet, but Brother Seon-woo said if I convince you first, everyone else will follow along lol. Let’s watch while eating delicious snacks together (Heart-throwing hamster emoticon)]

“……”

It seemed like he had purchased a whole bunch of new emoticons.

How could his taste be so consistent?

Having been beaten to the first move, I had no choice but to reply that I understood.

Then, almost like an automatic response program, five emoticons with consecutive thumbs up and hearts were immediately sent.

Still, on one hand, it was fortunate that he seemed okay considering he’d been mentally tortured among those terrible trolls.

The moment I thought it would be better to practice rather than just lying around and got up.

[Seong-hwi: Brother lol hi]

“……?”

A message flew in from an unexpected person.

I quietly read the message sent by Seong-hwi, who was saved in my phone book as ‘Crazy Narcissist.’

[Seong-hwi: Oh, Brother, you read the message quickly? lol]

[Seong-hwi: Our team comes out in episode 7 lol. Do you want to watch together to see if we all got ruined by evil editing or if we survived?]

[Seong-hwi: You keep reading but why are you ignoring me, Brother]

This guy also had quite an obsessive stalker vibe.

If I kept leaving him on read, it seemed like he’d even call, so I gave him a brief reply.

[Ryu Si-hwan: I already promised to watch with the kids first]

[Seong-hwi: Oh, finally a reply lol]

[Seong-hwi: The 4 kids who are close with Brother? Then I’ll ask Brother Seon-woo if it’s okay to watch together lol. If they say okay there, you’re okay with it too, right?]

[Ryu Si-hwan: Sure]

I felt like things were getting bigger than just watching episode 7’s broadcast together.

I imagined Seong-hwi caught between the five of us in my head.

I naturally laughed remembering Ma Si-hyeok’s face, who had been awkwardly using formal speech with each other just a few days ago.

‘It’ll be chaotic.’

Two days later, Friday night arrived.

When I finished showering and lay on my bed, my phone rang.

Looking at who sent the message, it was Kang Seon-woo.

[Kang Seon-woo: Hey Hwan-hwan Si-hwan~]

[Kang Seon-woo: (Sent a photo)]

[Kang Seon-woo: Put both hands up and wait obediently! LOL]

Wondering what photo it was, I looked and it was some group selfie.

I could see a familiar face among the kids with their arms around each other’s shoulders.

It was Seong-hwi under Kang Seon-woo’s forearm, making a somewhat uncomfortable expression.

And looking closely, the background was very familiar.

The white walls with doors arranged in a row in the corridor…….

‘This is the dorm corridor!’

The moment I realized it belatedly.

“Guest delivery for Ryu Si-hwan!”

“Come in, come in!”

“Brother Si-hwan, chicken delivery made it all the way here! Chicken! Chicken!”

“Excuse me.”

“Haha, what excuse me. This is our room, Si-hyeok.”

“Ah…… right.”

I let out a deep sigh with the towel around my neck.

Then Cerberus, who had finished eating his sausage, also sighed along.

{I’m just going to hide and sleep, Master. If I stay awake, I don’t think my eardrums will survive.}

‘I agree.’

No matter how I looked at it, it seemed like it would be a long night.