From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 359: Is This Your Prince (7)?

'Get down on your knees, and I'm going to be your idol!'

As the last line was sung by that unique and instantly recognizable voice while pyrotechnics flared into flame wings in the background, Grace could only stare, mouth open, as intense green eyes locked on the camera before curving as the owner laughed mischievously into the microphone.

[That's our performance. Thanks for watching.]

"Grace, am I hallucinating? What did I just watch? Did the PD suddenly have kindness in her heart and add in special effects?" Rachel whispered, her eyes never once leaving the screen.

Definitely not.

There's a caption at the bottom of the screen stating that no editing was used; it was simply captured according to the team's instructions.

"Is this an award show? Are we being punked and are watching the MTV Awards or something? Grace? Please answer me!" Justine cried out, even as her fingers were already searching online, hoping someone had recorded a high-quality version of the performance she could watch repeatedly.

Why are you asking me when I'm wondering the same thing?! Grace wanted to reply.

She couldn't even monitor the comments because even though her eyes were fixed on the team onstage, listening to the audience cheer as they introduced themselves, her mind was replaying the performance that was as close to perfection as she had ever seen.

Everything from the different camera angles, the different props that were used to guide her eyes from one side of the stage to another, the building intensity of music, the hauntingly chilling atmosphere of the chorus, she could go on and on.

Her gaze couldn't help but focus on the red-haired boy in the center, forcing everybody to talk while managing the stage atmosphere and crowd interactions with a lazy smile.

Ari, what the hell are they feeding you and your teammates?

What kind of brainstorming session did you guys have that led you to come up with such a thing?

How did you fix the song and turn it into something amazing?

How did you come up with this? How did you execute this?

Why won't the PD show us the nitty-gritty details, because I need to understand how it all came together?

I can't be satisfied with the edited snippets; the public needs to see everything because there's no way this idea came from putting William on your moodboard.

As a matter of fact, who's going to be talking about misogynistic lyrics, or copying songs or copying concepts when your team's performance blasted all the others into the stratosphere!

Forget coughing baby vs a hydrogen bomb, this is a coughing baby vs a god.

No wonder everyone wanted to beat you!

And did you all just blow the entire show budget on the performance?

Huh?

Grace was so shocked by the performance that she missed the entire round of judges' feedback and only snapped back into her body when Areum appeared on stage and called the rest of the contestants to reveal the final audience vote.

"They're getting first place, right?"

"Obviously. No offense to the other teams; their performance was good, but Ari's getting first. I think most likely Jamie's getting second. And that copycat is third."

While Justine and Rachel sounded extra confident in Ari's placement, Grace suddenly remembered the furious comments and posts from some of her mutuals that had been deleted right after the performance, and her cousin Esther's shifty answers.

If her suspicions were correct, Ari's team didn't come in first place, likely due to strategic voting.

He was probably second, which was fine if a bit disappointing considering how good the performance had been.

At the very least, he would still get a couple of extra votes from being in second place, which would help bolster him a bit since he might fall from first place to second or third.

With her heart set on Jamie's team coming in first place, Grace focused on the television screen.

[The team that came in 3rd place, receiving 599 votes, is… the Your Idol Team, led and produced by Contestant Ariel. Can we please get a round of applause for this team's amazing performance?]

Areum announced with a smile, even as she double-checked the folded card in her hands.

"Huh?" Justine literally froze in place at the announcement.

"I beg your pardon?" Rachel glanced around as if she couldn't believe what her ears were hearing.

"Did I hear 3rd place?" Justine shouted as she fell to her knees.

"No, no, no, that doesn't make any sense. Nooo!" Rachel screamed as she stared at the television in disbelief.

Even Grace was frozen in shock.

Third???

What do you mean by third place?

Does that make any sense?

You mean to tell me that the performance with an amazing song created by an amateur and visuals that make it look like a professional music video shot by a famous director, even though it was created from scratch by 5 contestants, was voted 3rd?

Look!

The judges don't look like they believe it either!

Jelissa looks absolutely shocked, and even Larry Jackson is surprised, and he doesn't even like Ari!

Idol Areum has checked that card 5 different times, and she still doesn't believe the name that she called out.

Even the other contestants don't look like they believed it either.

The only people who looked unfazed were William, who had a smug smile on his face as he stared over at a particular contestant, Levi who looked completely stoic, and Ari who calmly grabbed the microphone and began thanking the fans for their support for his teammates hard work and then passed the microphone to Daniel who was voted as the MVP of the team performance.

Grace quickly checked the comments and saw that they were filled not just with Ari fans, but also with fans of his teammates crashing out.

└ No wonder Korean Angels were rioting! If I saw my fave put on an amazing performance, heard the cheers after each of the kids talked about how they contributed, and thought everyone agreed with me that it was an amazing performance, then saw that they didn't vote for it, I would absolutely riot.

└ f*ck you f*ck the president f*ck the pope f*ck the attendees f*ck the motherf*cking production crew! You gave this team third place?

└ I'll slap the nonsense out of the live voters. Give me their names so I can find where they live and slap the nonsense out of them! What do you mean you voted them third????

└ You mean to tell me that the people who voted aren't blind, deaf, and dumb? Because that's the only way they could have voted this performance 3rd.

It was absolute chaos.

And then to make matters worse, Areum continued her announcement.

[The team that came in 2nd place, receiving 608 votes, is… the Roar Team, led by Contestant Benjamin and produced by Contestant Jamie. Can we please get a round of applause for this team's amazing performance?]

.....

[And that means that the team coming in first place, receiving 793 votes, is the Idol Team led and produced by William!]

Areum announced as she clapped politely, not knowing that she was throwing blood at frenzied sharks.

└ This is a complete setup. An absolute setup. You mean to tell me that the people who attended the performance saw greatness, greatness, and then a team full of rubbish, and decided rubbish was in first place?

└ They need to drop the names of those who voted no, 'cause I wanna ask them something real quick.

└ The live audience was definitely made up of paid voters; they need to open an investigation.

└ So you're saying the solo performance won? I don't believe it!

Jamie and Benjamin's fans joined the protest and began harassing William's fans, but, surprisingly, not only William's fans but also his teammates' fans jumped out of the woodwork and fought back.

└ Didn't you guys write off our team as full of extras? Well, the extras won, so take that!

└ Now that the popular kids aren't winning, all of a sudden it's rigged, and the audience is full of paid voters? You guys are hypocrites!

└ The audience voters did a good job! You need to humble those popular contestants!

└ So you didn't vote for the best performance, you just wanted to humble the other teams because they have popular members?

└└ And what about it?

└└└ You do realize that if your pick was on the popular team, you would hate people who act like this, right? You should vote for the best performance!

└└└└ IDC! IDC! Next time, put my pick on the popular team, and maybe I'll vote then!

As the chat and timeline just became a mess, Grace slowly realized what might have happened.

Those live voters weren't voting on which performance they thought deserved first place; it was all a strategy.

Ari and Benjamin's team had many high-ranking contestants with large fan bases, but a live audience could only have so many voters.

And since the members of Ari and Benjamin's teams were pretty close in popularity, with Ari and Benjamin at the top, they would inevitably split the vote.

Based on how close their votes were, 599 vs 608, it could have gone either way.

Which left William's team.

Given how the teams were selected, many fans were upset that their pick wasn't chosen and were basically dumped onto a team with a troublesome producer.

And to make matters worse, when they watched the performance, they saw that their contestant wasn't even being valued; they were just shoved in the back, which would create a sense of panic that they would be eliminated.

So they did the only thing they could do: vote to keep their contestant alive, even if they didn't like the team leader.

This led to William's team winning.

It wasn't a situation where lots of people voted for William; it was a situation where the fans of the other 9 members of his team voted to keep their contestant alive by any means necessary while sabotaging the other teams.

And the votes displayed that.

Of the 2000-member live audience, only 793 people voted for William's team.

599 vs 608 vs 793.

Honestly, the gap wasn't that big.

If William and Ari had each selected one more person for their team, Grace was willing to bet her future college scholarship that the team that came in first place would look entirely different from what it did now.

But they hadn't, so William had lucked out and won.

So was life.

And while she understood the strategy used in idol survival shows, when it was used against the contestant she supported, it was very irritating.

With dead fish eyes, Grace watched as the scene transitioned into personal interviews with the different team members, asking them how they felt about their placement and the audience voting.

When it got to Ari's team, she paid a bit more attention as they gave generic responses to the pointed questions asking why they didn't win.

A few people were mocking their previous confidence in the chat, which just devolved into another name-calling session.

Rolling her eyes, Grace watched as they each gave a trained PR response, even though they were probably disappointed, but then the Production team switched up their question.

— Production Team: [If you had to select an MVP on the team, who would you pick?]

— Ari: [I said it on stage. It's between Levi and Rei. I think Levi slightly edges him out, though, because he really helped with everything, and even though he was forced out of his comfort zone. I'm actually pretty proud of him, but don't tell him I said that. We have a thing.]

— Rei: [Ari.]

— Carlos: [Ari, easily.]

— Daniel: [Ariel.]

— Levi: [Ari.]

— Production Team: [Oh? Why?]

— Rei: [Honestly, he scares me sometimes, with his crazine…I mean intensity. I don't think we have the same 24 hours in a day, and his work ethic is really crazy, not to mention his talent. He can be a little rough around the edges, but inside, he's kind and never asks of others what he's not willing to do himself. Even though I'm older than him…I have to say he inspires me a lot. Absolutely the MVP of the team. I would love to work with him again.]

— Carlos: [Ari is…like a hurricane or an earthquake. A veritable force of nature that you have no choice but to be swept up in, yet it still makes sure not to destroy you in its wake. He makes things seem really easy from the outside, but when you actually see how he works, you realize the immense effort he puts into things and into people and how considerate he truly is. It's really amazing to witness and be a part of. I think he deserves the MVP without a doubt, and everyone on the team would agree.]

— Daniel: [I just think that he's really amazing. Not just with his own individual skill, which has improved at such a fast rate, but with managing everything else, making it inclusive of all of us. If he doesn't know something, he's not embarrassed to ask for help and to learn, and he makes sure to take part in every part of the process. This is probably the best team I've ever been a part of in my life, and he's been the best team leader I've had so far. Even though we didn't win, I think we put out something that will last forever.]

— Levi: [I said it before. He's the director and producer, involved at every step, driving the vision and serving as the team's center and anchor. Without him, that performance would not be possible.

And I guarantee that even if you swapped in the other two blonde producers into this team, while the song might be good, nothing would have been executed to the same level of detail and perfection, and they wouldn't even know how to pull out the hidden skills of the other team members the same way he did. He pushed everyone to meet an impossibly high standard and led by example, creating the best possible piece of art for the fans.

Usually, I wouldn't say anything since art is subjective and people are free to vote as they like, but I despise hypocrites.]

— Production Team: [What do you mean by that?]

Levi stared blankly at the camera for several seconds before speaking in his usual sharp way.

— Levi: [Watching people vote on strategy rather than their honest feelings is quite disappointing, especially because they enjoyed it live, they'll probably secretly enjoy it later, and try to justify their actions later. It's disgusting.]

— Production Team: [Aren't you afraid of your votes falling and dropping in rank when you say such a thing?]

— Levi: [Just because I was being honest? Let my rank fall. My conscience is clear. Our team should have won, Ari should have been MVP, and the audience knows it.]

Done saying what he wanted, all that was seen was Levi's back as he walked away.

And that was how the episode ended.

Before anybody could even process what had just happened, a bright, cheery ad appeared, featuring a blonde woman with a scammer-like smile.

[Are you interested in learning more about our contestants' performance creation process? Are you sad you missed out on seeing a performance of a lifetime because it wasn't in Korea? Are you desperate to save your favorite contestant from being eliminated at the next elimination rounds before the finals? Then do we have an offer for you!]

[We're having a special showcase in 8 days at the XX location, where our contestants will be performing not only the signal songs and the original songs created by our producing contestants, but they will also be performing. If you buy tickets and attend the event….]

As the ad selling extra behind-the-scenes content, extra votes, and performance showcase tickets began airing, the three girls stared at each other before screaming.

"They're having a performance showcase?"

******

"We're having a performance showcase? Since when? Aren't we supposed to be on vacation?"

As Ari wondered what the heck the ad was about, he received a text message from [Evil Production Team].