𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐈𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐏𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲 ―𝐝.𝐨.𝐝

Chapter 57

[ Park Moondae's POV ]

The manager was a decent guy.

"If you need anything, just tell me!" he told us as we were driving to the T1 building.

"Once you start the album activities, there will be another road manager, so don't worry!" he continued to say.

"Yeah, we're already too popular to just be treated as rookies," I thought with a small sigh as I looked out the window.

I glanced at Seungmin through the reflection in the window.

[ Name: Cho Seungmin ]
Vocal: ? (Rapping: ?)
Dance: ?
Visual: ?
Charm: ?
Characteristics: On the spot!
!Status abnormality: Sealed truths & Make money or die!
Animosity progress: 11%

Obviously there was a big change from the last time I checked his status page. There was no status abnormality when we finished the show, but it was added when we finally entered the dorm.

================================
[ Make money or die ]
: If you don't make 1 billion won within the time limit, you will die
Remaining period: 357 days
================================

And now, his animosity meter was a ticking time bomb for him leaving the group.

"Does the system really think he'll be able to amass that much money? That's just an execution order," I thought bitterly.

Rookie artists shouldn't even make less than half of that amount in their first year. Even taking into account the fact that TeSTAR was much more popular than the average rookie groups, 1 billion won was still too much.

But I couldn't ponder it any longer because we arrived at the office room of the new director of the new agency.

The meeting that hasn't even gone on for 5 minutes was already shit.

From the moment I met and greeted the director, I knew he had no experience in the entertainment business.

"Worldview?" Seungmin echoed the word of the director's strange rambling. It seemed he didn't know what that meant.

"Well, these days, most idols who are aiming for a global fandom have a worldview, right? All you youngsters like cartoons and stuff."

I held back a groan.

We were a group that didn't even release a song yet. I wasn't sure how we were supposed to build a worldview already.

"And Idol Inc. already provided content for fans to give us characters."

This meant that the agency only needed to give us popular songs, nice choreographies, and eye-catching costumes. It didn't matter if we didn't have an established worldview yet because we could build it slowly with the upcoming albums.

"I binge-watched the auditions! Everyone is great at self-production," the director boasted. "So, you're going to perform two songs. Only one will be provided by the company. The other will be managed by the talents of TeSTAR!"

He continued to talk about it like it was a brilliant idea, how self-produced idols are the trend, blah blah blah.

Beside me, Ryu Chungwoo sat up straighter.

"Thank you very much, but it might be difficult with our capabilities alone..."

"Of course~ the staff is here to help you," the director reflected. "I just mean to make good use of your creativity and your inspiration."

The high-ranked boss, probably more than twenty years older, was so adamant that the leader swallowed his words with a bitter smile.

Kim Raebin's expression was turning blank.