Free Web Novel[Look at this scene right now. Instead of dodging the bat backward, she let it slide to the side, right? That’s footwork you can’t do unless you’ve actually learned it. Most people’s instinct is to step back, but if you do that, you give the other side the distance they need to attack, so you keep getting pushed into a defensive position. But when you dodge to the side like this···.]
↳Yeah, when an active UFC fighter explains it, it just clicks
↳I knew she had talent from the moment Lee Sion broke a roof tile with her head
↳But they said Lee Sion’s never learned boxing, so how does she move like that?
↳How are normal people like us supposed to understand a genius, just feel it
↳What a shame, if this wasn’t the idol scene she was someone who could’ve brought our country a gold medal
↳But instead we’re getting one pretty girl group, honestly that’s a bigger win
↳For real, that face is a face that has to be an idol
“Even the reaction is flashy.”
Raon, watching a YouTube video on a tablet, let out an exclamation without realizing it.
What Raon was watching was an analysis video of Lee Sion’s 7-on-1 fight, personally uploaded to his YouTube by Kim Hyundong, the most famous combat sports athlete in Korea.
Not only had it already surpassed a million views, it was such a popular video that it had thousands of comments.
‘Lee Sion’s power is no joke.’
And it wasn’t just Kim Hyundong.
[Lee Sion? Ah, yeah, I saw her. She was good on stage. Thank you for the 10,000 won donation, Sionhu Akbar. You want me to say “Lee Sion fighting” just once? I’ll do it if Lee Sion hits Gold.]
↳If you don’t want to, just say you don’t want to, asking for Gold from a Silttak is a bit much···
↳Is Lee Sion actually a League addict?
↳Yeah, doesn’t seem like a concept either, if you watch the dorm behind-the-scenes videos she’s always praising Faker to the other contestants
↳And the fact she talks about Season 14 T2 means she’s just a real Faker stan
↳Ronaldo and Faker? Why is this coming out of a girl idol’s mouth?
↳Lee Sion would love this video
A video where a famous pro gamer briefly mentioned Lee Sion got plastered across all sorts of communities under the title “the reason Lee Sion can’t get Faker’s support, lol,” to the point that even Raon, who didn’t usually enjoy browsing communities, ended up seeing it.
And it wasn’t just Lee Sion.
-Agbaek contestants’ pajamas! ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
-A list of foods the contestants ate at the convenience store
-The cosmetics Kim Suyeon mentioned in Episode 7···
Outside right now, it was like you could slap the name Agbaek on anything and it would work—everything connected to the program was becoming a topic, from the clothes the contestants wore to the food they ate.
It had a level of impact that was hard to see as just interest in trainees who hadn’t even debuted yet.
‘This is basically top idol group level.’
Raon thought this level of buzz was something even she only had at her peak.
From what she’d heard from the production staff, there were even rumors that advertisers were taking a number and waiting to sign contracts with some of the contestants as soon as the program ended.
And the Agbaek contestants Raon had seen in person were definitely characters attractive enough for that.
First of all, the visuals were outstanding, not even worth arguing about.
To the point that even Raon, who’d lived in the entertainment industry since she was young and met all kinds of top stars, felt a desire to properly style a few contestants, including Lee Sion.
Their skill wasn’t bad, either.
It definitely wasn’t stable enough to call it solid yet, but that was what made it interesting.
It felt like looking at a blank white canvas you could paint any color onto.
Especially in Raon’s personal opinion, Seo Ryujin and Ryu Ayeon were debut-team material—skills that would be fine to debut right away.
And if you added contestants with distinctive flavors, like Kurosawa Yuri or Geum Shinyu, she thought the group’s overall completeness would get even higher.
And when Raon pictured Lee Sion standing at the center of those members.
‘The picture looks believable.’
It would depend on who was drawing it, but if a capable producer took charge of the contestants debuting this time, it felt like they could turn them into a masterpiece that would remain in K-pop history.
And on top of that, how was everyone learning so fast? Watching the contestants look different today from yesterday, Raon had struggled all day trying to hide her surprise while observing training.
Raon had watched a lot of trainees back when she was under SY, but compared to those trainees, maybe because these ones were on a survival program, the Agbaek contestants had a different kind of viciousness inside them.
And since they were the final twenty-five, when you watched them practice, it was to the point you could feel a sharp edge, like a blade honed to a fine point.
More than anything, the strength of Agbaek’s contestants was that each of them carried their own big or small story.
[If you look at Ryu Ayeon, she’s seriously totally different from the start]
「At first her skills were good, but it felt like she lived off how great she thought she was, so I didn’t like her. But at some point, she changed as a person. Even the way she shows up on the broadcast looks way more comfortable than before」
↳That, too, must be Lee Sion’s grace
↳It’s not just Ryu Ayeon, it’s nice that you can see all the contestants’ real selves coming out as the program goes on
↳Yeah, ah, seriously this is a devil program, you get attached to every single contestant so I feel like I’ll be sad no matter who gets eliminated
↳Even I never thought I’d borrow my parents’ phone to vote, saying I have to save my baby
↳This is what makes you realize why people watch growth dramas
‘Other idol groups build a story that can take years even after debut, but Agbaek’s contestants have built it all through the program.’
From the clumsy versions of themselves at the beginning to the way they improved.
Watching them struggle fiercely to prepare stages through the TV screen, viewers had already started empathizing with the contestants before they knew it.
That meant it had gone beyond simple support—an intense fandom, tightly bonded between idols and the people cheering them on, had already formed.
When you thought about how much effort, money, and time idol agencies poured in to create that kind of relationship, Idol Ground 100 had achieved a miracle in an absurdly short amount of time.
Raon understood why agencies had their eyes on the contestants of Idol Ground 100 right now.
Because Raon was starting to want them, too.
-Raon, have you ever thought about taking the producer role?
Yesterday, as Raon left work after watching Idol Ground 100 contestants’ stage as usual, main PD Park Hyungsoo invited her to dinner.
At first, Raon tried to refuse, thinking it was an obvious trap, but she couldn’t help feeling interested in what Park Hyungsoo said next.
Producer.
‘Did Hyeryeong tell him?’
In truth, after quitting as a singer three years ago, Raon had been working as a composer under a pseudonym.
Raon had realized many things after stepping away from the nonstop singer life she’d lived since childhood and working as a composer instead.
Like how athletes say their eyes for the game got better after retiring, Raon came to see many things she couldn’t see when she was actually in the field.
And maybe it wasn’t just Raon’s personal impression—she was fairly successful as a composer, too.
At first, she only gave songs to people she knew, but the response was good, so word spread by word of mouth, and now she was doing well enough to make songs even for quite famous idols.
And Raon had kept that fact strictly secret, but somehow Park Hyungsoo found out and offered her the position of producer for this Idol Ground 100 project group.
He even said he’d secured a promise of full support from the parent company, and if Raon just chose to do it, as a PD he would recommend Raon as the producer of the new idol agency KJ was establishing.
It was a perfect offer for Raon, who’d recently been interested in moving beyond composing into producing.
And it wasn’t strange.
Because no matter how good you were at making songs, a producer position wasn’t something you could get easily.
Especially for idols, people even said a producer’s ability accounted for more than half of the “success share.”
It was extremely rare to entrust producing to someone unproven.
So a new producer couldn’t even dream of starting as a producer at a big-name agency, and even with luck, the best they could do was produce for an idol at a mid-to-small agency.
In that situation, Raon joining as the producer of an agency a conglomerate like KJ was newly creating was a huge opportunity.
And the members were already ready-made, field-ready rookies who could debut right away, so if Raon didn’t want it, that would be the strange part.
Click.
Raon entered the workspace set up at home and pressed the computer’s power button.
As the screen lit up, Raon clicked a folder on the desktop labeled “Treasure Vault,” and among dozens of songs inside, clicked the first one.
‘This was something I was really saving.’
Even if Raon accepted Park Hyungsoo’s offer, that didn’t mean she would automatically be appointed producer.
-In five days, you’ll have to present in front of the parent company executives and investors. If the next group’s concept gets approved there, we’ll immediately move into establishing the new agency. If not, we’ll have to sign with one of SY, TSP, or Logic.
Park Hyungsoo had said it like that, explaining that since it was a business expected to require tens of billions as a baseline, a minimum level of verification was necessary.
So Raon brought out a treasure she’d been saving.
In fact, ever since finishing the song, she hadn’t been able to give it to anyone, because this track was the complete opposite of current idol trends.
The song was definitely good, but since it wasn’t the kind of music that was trending lately, it was hard for Raon to hand it over easily.
But if she was going to do it, Raon wanted to properly open a new era, so she planned to show this song in the presentation.
***
“It’s fine. If anyone says anything, I’ll take responsibility.”
“No··· The PD really said you can’t show stuff like this to the contestants.”
“Rules are made to be broken. I’ll seriously just watch it once, okay?”
Facing the staff member who looked troubled, I clasped my hands together and begged earnestly.
“Ah··· You’re really just watching it for a second?”
“Of course, of course!”
And maybe he couldn’t refuse my desperate eyes, because the staff member let out a sigh and pulled out his smartphone.
“Lee Sion, why are you bullying Minsu again!”
“I’m not bullying him, I asked him.”
“You’re hilarious! Because Minsu keeps giving in to you, you’re getting bad habits!”
Kim Nayeon interrupted my secret negotiation with the staff member—no, with Kim Minsu.
Since we’d been living and suffering together for three months while filming, we’d gotten pretty close with the production crew before we knew it.
And among them, one of the staff I cherished most was AD Kim Minsu, who had a soft heart. If contestants acted even a little pitiful, he would begrudgingly hand over snacks or lend a phone.
Right now, I desperately needed Kim Minsu’s help.
-Hey, Sion, you’ve made it. Faker said he knows you this time.
Something I happened to hear during a break in practice while shaking down the staff for snacks like usual.
I couldn’t stand it.
“Nayeon, come over here too. I’m about to show you something insane.”
“Please fix the way you talk!”
“No. Just come sit down.”
When I urged her, Kim Nayeon grumbled but still came over and sat down. I gave Kim Minsu a look, telling him to hurry up and do what I wanted.
“You seriously can’t tell anyone about this, okay?” frёewebnoѵēl.com
“Don’t worry, I’m a person who lives and dies by loyalty.”
“You’re so full of it, lies just roll off your tongue. Last time you sold me o—mmph!”
I quickly covered Nayeon’s mouth with my hand to stop her from adding useless details.
Kim Nayeon had a bad habit of distorting memories.
That wasn’t “selling him,” it was more accurate to call it a strategic choice.
Seo Ryujin had been so afraid of getting her chocolate stolen by me that she’d even put a padlock on her suitcase, but I broke it and looted it anyway, turning her into “extremely furious Seo Ryujin” for the first time in a while.
If Mega Seo Ryujin caught us in that situation, our entire Chocolate Expedition would be on the brink of death, so I had no choice but to offer Nayeon as a sacrifice.
“Ohhh!! It’s coming up!”
“I told you it’s real. Faker mentioned you, Sion.”
With my hand still over Kim Nayeon’s mouth, I watched the video playing on the staff member’s smartphone screen and fell into ecstasy.
-Lee Sion? Ah, yeah, I saw her. She was good on stage.
“It’s here··· The Faker that didn’t exist anywhere in the world is right here···!”
Could the Sanctus from the Libera Choir be more sacred than this?
Even with the phone’s poor audio quality, the voice of God rang clearly in my ears.
-Lee Sion fighting just once? I’ll do it if Lee Sion hits Gold.
“I’ll do it!! I’m coming soon!!! I can do it all day if I have to!”
At Faker’s last line, I slammed the practice room floor in injustice.
Gold.
I regretted it so much—how I hadn’t been able to climb tiers because on my last break I got sick of playing ADC and fell into top Xerath.
If I’d just played safe and got carried, I would’ve hit Gold ages ago. Why did I waste so much time on something so pointless···.
“Show it one ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) more time!”
“Ah, seriously, I barely showed you this. It’s not allowed in the first place···.”
“We have the friendship we’ve built up until now, you know, Minsu.”
“What friendship! You just always steal food from me!”
“Anyway, one more time!”
“Ugh, fine. Wait a second···.”
Under my repeated urging, Kim Minsu pulled the smartphone back out after putting it away.
And he clicked to go into the community where Faker’s video had been uploaded earlier, but—
[I figured out Lee Sion’s League ID]
“Huh?”
“Uh?”
“Lee Sion’s League ID?”
A deeply unsettling post title caught my eye at the top of the community’s popular posts.
