The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 64

“Since I know the importance of this group benefit is high, I’ll first call out the names of the three trainees who will receive individual benefits.”

This meant that they had put in guaranteed survival spots while fully knowing the situation.

Until now, they had always announced in the order of group → individual, but today they’re going in reverse order.

I shook my head slightly to clear the chaos that had briefly visited my mind while waiting for the names of the protagonists who would take 100,000 votes at once.

‘It’s just that the term guaranteed survival is so shocking, but these 100,000 votes are also an incredible figure.’

The number of votes I received as the 1st round winner benefit was 10,000 votes.

Comparing then to now, it’s a benefit that has increased by a whopping 10 times.

Back then, we had to swallow regret and bitterness even with 10,000 votes, but now it’s 100,000 votes.

When analyzed coldly, this ranking would naturally go to trainees with large individual fandoms.

They would have voted with the mindset of somehow saving their favorite no matter how the group stages turned out.

Looking at it that way… in the end, there’s a very high probability it will become a fight between people who ranked high in the last ranking announcement.

“First, I’ll announce from 3rd place. The trainee who recorded overall 3rd place in the individual voting held on-site and will receive the benefit of 100,000 votes is trainee Chae Ha-ru. Congratulations!”

Huh?

Contrary to my expectations, a tremendous upset occurred right from the start.

“Congratulations, our center!”

“Ha, I want to live with Brother Ha-ru’s face too! I’m jealous!”

“Ha-ru, congratulations!”

“Th, thank you everyone.”

As soon as Chae Ha-ru’s name was called, the 〈Winning Shot〉 team members pounded his back almost to the level of assault.

Chae Ha-ru maintained an expression showing he had no idea he would reach 3rd place and slowly walked up to the stage.

“Trainee Chae Ha-ru received 128 votes out of the 1,000 national managers who came to the scene. You’ve gained the benefit of 100,000 votes—how do you feel?”

“Um… I still feel like it’s a dream that I really got 3rd place. First, I want to say thank you to my 〈Winning Shot〉 brothers and junior who worked hard with me, barely sleeping properly…”

Chae Ha-ru, who recorded 9th place in the 2nd ranking announcement, could definitely be called a high-ranking trainee.

But I thought at least the trainees within the top 5 would compete for the benefits.

The fact that Chae Ha-ru, who was our team center, grabbed 3rd place in on-site voting was pointing to one possibility.

‘If the remaining 1st and 2nd places also come from our team… it’s not just wishful thinking, we could take the group benefit too.’

If individual rankings truly result in a complete ‘kill’ within one team, this connects to meaning that many people voted for that side in the team-based voting as well.

And in the following 2nd place announcement, another upset occurred.

“2nd place also came from the 〈Winning Shot〉 team. Congratulations, trainee Ma Si-hyeok!”

“This makes no sense.”

Ma Si-hyeok, who always made that “this makes no sense” expression whenever his name was called, collapsed again this time.

Ma Si-hyeok, who recorded 10th place in the 2nd ranking announcement, also caused an underdog rebellion and proudly took home 100,000 votes.

‘I thought Seong-hwi or Kang Seon-woo would definitely be up there, but what the hell is this…’

Does this mean those two shone incredibly on our stage?

I knew that the stage center time was almost equally distributed among all seven members since I had given out parts as fairly as possible.

We started from almost equal starting points.

This means they clearly showed their presence with pure individual ability more than ever before.

“And the protagonist of the final on-site voting 1st place… also came from the 〈Winning Shot〉 team. And it’s a trainee who already has memories of sitting on the throne once. Congratulations, trainee Ryu Si-hwan!”

I thought the probability of my name being called had dropped significantly since Seong-hwi and Kang Seon-woo’s names weren’t called.

In the continuous development I couldn’t have predicted at all, I walked up to the stage in a dazed state.

After delivering brief but sincere remarks formally, I briefly met eyes with Ma Si-hyeok and Chae Ha-ru.

‘…Both of them still don’t seem to know what situation this is.’

I probably had a similar expression to them.

When I returned to where I was originally standing, Seong-hwi was the first to welcome me.

“Congratulations, Brother.”

“…Thanks.”

“Why are you making such a dark expression? Don’t tell me you’re sad that I couldn’t receive the benefit?”

“I did think about that at least a little, but seeing your face now, I guess it was needless worry.”

“Hahaha! Ah, I really like this honest side of Brother Si-hwan.”

Seong-hwi really gave off an atmosphere showing he wasn’t mentally affected at all.

Rather, should I say his tension went up even more?

“This made me certain my thoughts are absolutely right. Brother, didn’t you think so too? If we monopolized individual voting to this extent, there’s a high possibility we’ll win in team voting too.”

“I did think that.”

“Then that’s it, right? What’s important is that we all survive together, and this level of 100,000 vote benefit can be made again with this stage’s fancam. Isn’t that right?”

I waited for Seong-hwi’s words to settle in the air for a moment.

I was aware that I myself had changed a lot while proceeding with 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉.

At first, I just chased debut to prove that the 50 years I spent gritting my teeth in hell weren’t wasted in vain.

But at some point, I found myself thinking it was fun to clash with these guys and create good stages.

And I newly felt that Seong-hwi, whom I had pegged as a self-centered person from the first impression, had also changed like me.

What’s important is that we all survive together.

“Did you eat something wrong?”

“What? No way. I don’t eat anything before going on stage. But why all of a sudden—”

“It’s nothing.”

As the trainees’ atmosphere gradually calmed down, MC Go Hyeon-ju grabbed the microphone again.

“Now that all the owners of the 100,000 vote benefits have been announced, there’s only one thing left. The results of the team voting with ‘guaranteed survival rights’ at stake. First, I’ll reveal the candidate teams for 1st place.”

This time I could read the production team’s psychology.

Since the most important benefit was at stake, they wouldn’t announce this result right here today. They’ll just announce the 1st place candidate teams here and then reveal who got 1st place during the next 3rd ranking announcement filming.

“Please reveal it now!”

The large LED screen split into two.

Then on the left appeared the tightly united 〈Winning Shot〉 team.

‘This much is obvious, so what about the other side?’

Yu Ha-woon, seeing the members of the team on the right, muttered small enough not to be caught on camera.

“We absolutely have to win this. We can’t lose.”

The team that decorated the ending was the EDM house rock genre 〈Get High〉 team that came up as the championship candidate.

And one of the trainees in that team was none other than Park Chang-jung.

I immediately understood Yu Ha-woon’s statement.

‘Park Chang-jung barely survived by the skin of his teeth even after pulling that shit during the 2nd team battle, but if he receives guaranteed survival rights here and makes it to the finals… we’ll be really pissed off and division will occur among the national managers watching the broadcast too.’

There’s definitely public opinion that Park Chang-jung, who’s already running at the extreme end of unlikability, can’t make it to the finals.

However, if he somehow gets guaranteed survival rights here and makes it up there, criticism will pour down like ‘why did those idiots who went to the audience save a kid like that.’

“The 〈Winning Shot〉 team and 〈Get High〉 team will compete for the ‘guaranteed survival rights’ benefit. Which team will receive the honor of this benefit and advance to the final round? The results will be revealed at the next ranking announcement ceremony.”

As expected, they finished today’s follow-up filming with the statement that they would announce the winning team at the 3rd ranking announcement ceremony.

“Thank you for your hard work!”

“Thank you for your hard work! See you at the next filming!”

We, who received about ten days of rest, quickly returned to the dorm to soothe our tired bodies.

Before drawing the curtains and turning off the lights, I tried to leave a word as the leader thanking everyone for following along well.

“Brother Si-hwan, sorry for interrupting.”

“Why?”

“The best gift you can give us right now is sleep.”

“Ah, is that so.”

Ma Si-hyeok’s single comment settled the situation.

As soon as the lights went out, the dorm room filled with snoring sounds.

I smiled faintly watching the team members who got sucked into dreamland less than 3 seconds after putting their heads on their pillows.

Well, they hadn’t slept properly for several days while devoting themselves to stage preparation.

My body was also clamoring to hurry up and sleep, but strangely my mind was clear.

Cerberus, who had been waiting for me, jumped onto my legs after a long time.

{Master, did the stage go well?}

‘Yeah, it was really tough but I think we finished it well.’

{That’s a relief! Then hurry up and sleep!}

‘I can’t fall asleep yet.’

{You were the same in hell too. That’s a chronic condition, Master.}

I definitely need to sleep.

Usually when you use your phone, don’t you get a little sleepy?

So I casually skimmed through communities to check public opinion and gradually fall asleep.

I entered thinking it was the time when people who came to the audience would have returned home and excitedly dropped spoilers.

Sure enough, more than half of the popular posts that rose to the main page real-time rankings were all spoiler posts.

Should I check the post that’s currently rising to #1 first?

[〈Rising!!〉 Third audience verification post (with photos too) +1112]

There’s nothing to be careful about now LOL. This is already the third spoiler post and I haven’t been caught yet, so it should be fine! ^_^ And today I have to write this post even if I get caught because seriously

First off, I got properly blindsided from the start. No, I thought KNet would somehow manipulate the order to make the Avengers appear at the end, but what? The Avengers come out not first, not last, but second? What? Teacher?

Anyway, after getting smacked in the forehead once there and coming to my senses to watch the stage, the kids’ coordi, seriously who did it… Sister Stylists, you just wanted to destroy keyboards. It felt slightly like troublemakers? Rebellious people? That appropriate restrained smoky makeup and some of them came out with stuff painted on their faces to look injured, I seriously went blank

But what was the stage like, you ask? I thought I came to some concert. And I’ll make one sincere statement – they do live way better than most current 1st-tier boy groups LOL. Anyone who went to the scene will definitely agree with this. Is it possible to tear through speakers with that vocal power using those notoriously bad-quality in-ear mics? Ryu Si-hwan was seriously legendary for real. I got goosebumps when he doubled an octave higher by himself, and I almost found my ancestors when I saw him hit high notes even while out of breath in the final chorus

Plus, center Chae Ha-ru, I don’t know how he’s so handsome no matter what concept he does… No, I naturally thought Seong-hwi would be center with that combination, but from the first start Chae Ha-ru’s close-up shot pops up and wow… I almost dislocated my jaw trying to cover my mouth + every time Kang Seon-woo’s silver hair swayed, my heart fluttered and the kids took turns shooting at us, you know? I actually felt like getting pierced, maximum immersion

And those who saw it properly would know, right? When our Ma Si-hyeok’s button got ripped off, seriously lmao. Wow, was that intentional or not, how can we tell, teachers? If that was on purpose, he’s totally Fox himself. You guys kept calling him retriever retriever, so maybe Ma Si-hyeok got pissed off? I almost got a nosebleed

Ha, anyway the story got incredibly long but 1. The song was fucking good 2. The members go without saying 3. The choreography was more tiring for me watching than them 4. The live vocals were insane

Just throughout seasons 1 and 2, personally I think this was the best. I already used up all my sleep today

(Group photo taken from a bit far away)

People who want to zoom in can do it themselves. I was so out of it I could barely take this one photo

—You say it’s a spoiler post but there’s only one actual content?? Is this right??

└Yeah this is right. Honestly for this 3rd round, if you just watch their stage you’ve seen everything lol

└No, that’s one thing but somehow you used a lot of fancy words but there’s no substance T_T We know our kids are handsome and the members are amazing, but what song did they do with what choreography

└You can’t know more than this without paid subscription. Please take the post down

└I’ll swipe my card, I’ll swipe it so please tell us!!

└Nope, won’t do it. Go away~

—LMAO. From someone who went to the audience, this post is seriously a masterpiece LOL. It has all the essential content for real

└Extreme agreement lol. There’s practically no content left out. This person writes really tastily

└Am I the only one who doesn’t know here? Who exactly is in this Avengers team? I didn’t check the community today because of work so I feel like I’ve gone blind

└RSH SH KSW CHR MSH YHY HSH

└I’m speechless now

└LOL. Is the person who asked still breathing?

└I can’t imagine how that combination came about lol. I’m going crazy, when is Friday coming!!

└Unfortunately, even when Friday comes, it won’t air this Friday. Kekeke

└Fuck

‘…Everyone seems too excited.’

I’d never seen such a long spoiler post in my life.

And I’d especially never seen a post that focused on just one team instead of the overall story.

I remembered this flow of unbroken interest toward us in my heart and closed my eyes.

‘It’s been a really long time since I’ve looked forward to the actual broadcast.’