From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 115: Crazy Director (3)

Ari truly felt like he was in h*ll, and even if his current surroundings were far from the typical description, with a little bit of imagination, he was sure it would fit.

The large studio with numerous bright lights pointed at a flat triangular stage was clearly the pit of flames and fire, and he was the prisoner roasting under the bright lights.

The stage was filled with 100 boys wearing matching grey school uniforms, dancing and singing passionately to a bright, cheerful pop song as the innermost triangular stage rose straight into the air, lifting 15 boys closer to the ceiling of light, while expensive RED cameras captured their every movement.

The second innermost triangle stage, along with two smaller parallel stages, which contained a total of 60 boys, rose up as well, lifting the performing boys to a medium height as their bright voices overlayed the cheerful song that hid their despair.

The final layer of this elaborate stage had the remaining 25 boys spread out in a double-layered pattern on the flat ground.

These boys were singing and dancing hard, and toward the back corner, a tiny painted white face with black graphic designs and red lipstick could be spotted dancing with an expression full of passion.

So much passion could be seen shining from the sea green eyes as the owner danced while staring at the director, who seemed to be in ecstasy as he watched his creation.

Then, as the beat became even livelier, the stages on the top level began rotating in one direction while the secondary stages began rotating in another direction.

The voices of the contestants on those rotating stages wavered as they tried to move in the right direction to be visible to the camera without getting hit by the rotating wall of the stage behind them.

On the ground stage level, several individuals, including the boy with the white painted face, were hit by the rotating wall, causing them to stumble before righting themselves.

On the stage tier that was higher than them, a few figures were hit as well, but quickly righted themselves while continuing to dance and sing.

In fact, the only stable group of people was the 15 at the top, whose stage revolved in a leisurely manner as they sang and danced with no need for them to avoid the rotating walls.

As nobody had fallen, the director gestured for them to continue singing and dancing, so with forced smiles, the next verse of the song began.

This precious dream I’m chasing here

Thud!

Someone on the second tier of the stage got whacked by the wall and fell to the ground.

Seeing the body falling down from above him, Ari conscientiously took two steps backwards and let the person hit the ground.

Hard!

As Caleb glared at him with tears in his eyes, Ari shrugged before turning to the director, who was going to begin his rant once again.

And as expected-

"No! No! No! No! No!" Director Cooper Braggs threw down the clipboard in his hands while messing up his already crazy looking hair as he stalked to the front of the triangular platforms that were descending back to their neutral point while completely ignoring Ian, who was clutching his knees.

"When the lyrics say ’chasing here,’ the platforms will continue rising and rotating! Those of you on the second levels need to move in a counterclockwise direction, while those on the ground move in a clockwise manner while performing the choreography! Again! Do it again. It’s easy, so I don’t understand why you keep messing it up!"

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

Because you keep changing the directions, you bastard!!! frёewebηovel.cѳm

First it was one way, now it’s another.

Ari could only stare at the crazy director, wondering why he was hired in the first place and why PD Ji-ho wasn’t saying anything to stop this madness.

After forcing them to perform for a couple more hours with brief five-minute breaks, Director Cooper Braggs had finally relented, allowing them to have a tiny standing lunch of mini sliders and bottled water.

Once they were done, he dragged them back to already raised triangular stages and made them perform for several more hours, and now he insisted on having the triangular stages move since his vision wasn’t complete yet, despite the apparent exhaustion of all the contestants.

Maybe it was because he was artistically challenged, but throughout the whole process, Ari really couldn’t understand why the director wanted them to look like a three-tiered dancing wedding cake.

And it would be one thing if there was a clear direction or end point, but the director just kept changing their movements and the rotation of the stages, which confused those on the lower stage tiers who had to avoid getting hit by the triangular walls.

Several people had already fallen repeatedly, and there had been a few complaints about aching legs, which had been ignored.

Ari was simply convinced that the director enjoyed torturing them and secretly wanted them injured because he couldn’t understand why they had to keep repeating the same thing over and over again when it was clearly not working.

In an effort to protect his throat, Ari had stopped singing and just mouthed the words while dancing.

He was hidden in the very back of the bottom tier of the stage, so he doubted that his face would be shown for more than a couple of seconds.

As Ari watched the director continue to rant, he zoned out until he realized somebody was standing in front of him,

"You! White face!"

"Yes?" Ari blinked in confusion at the strange name.

"Take his position and you, repeat faller, stay down here." The director announced before moving on and swapping people on the other side of the stage.

"I didn’t fall! Somebody pushed me!" Caleb muttered with a red face as Ari glanced at him.

"If you say so."

Ari simply moved to the other boy’s position while waiting for the music to start once more.

"Pick Me Signal Song - Rotating Stages - Take 40 - Mark!"

"Mark!"

Click!

"Action!"

The familiar sequence of words rang out, and Ari began dancing with the little energy in his body while mouthing the words.

As the stage began to rise and rotate, he moved forward and to the side accordingly while performing the choreography, but still felt something bump into him, making him stumble.

Since he was unable to glance back while they were still performing, Ari moved forward a bit more until his feet were at the edge of the triangular stage.

Once again, as he moved forward to avoid the rotating wall of the stage behind him, Ari felt something bump into him again and stay longer.

Turning to look, he realized that it was Mathew, a tall contestant who had F-grade vocals but A-grade dancing, stumbling with his eyes slowly rolling into the back of his head as his whole body fell toward Ari.

Ari made an effort to catch the boy, but as the entire weight of the tall, limp, and surprisingly heavy body pressed down on him, he inadvertently took a step back and his foot slipped at the edge of the platform, and they both fell off.

Crash!