CHAPTER 322: PRODUCER (1)

"The contestant that ranks in 20th place is Contestant William. Congratulations on making it. Please come give a speech."

Hearing William’s name called, Ari felt as if he were being played with.

After everything the blonde boy had done, he still wasn’t eliminated.

What kind of people were voting to keep him here, and were they crazy????

With a touched expression, William walked to the stage, forcibly shaking Areum’s hand before taking the microphone.

"Thank you to all the people who voted to give me a second chance so that I could learn my lesson, grow as an individual, and achieve my dreams. To my fellow contestants, thank you sniff, for not giving up on me. I vow not to let you all down again, sniff. And I’ll sniff, grow to become a person you can all be proud of sniff."

Hearing the fake sniffling as William wiped his tears, it took everything in Ari’s power not to gag at the fake-sounding words.

At the age of 19, do you still need to learn how to be a good person?

Wasn’t it something everybody learned in primary school?

If so, quit and enroll in a school to learn.

You want to make me proud?

Just quit! I’ll be the proudest person in the world!

"He’s a bit of a cockroach innit?" Benjamin whispered with his mouth covered, and Ari had to agree.

Seeing William glare at him as he walked to his seat, Ari didn’t pay him any mind.

If a glare actually did something, wouldn’t William be vaporized to dust by now from all the enmity he had brewed in other contestants?

Ari himself glared at William at least 30 times a day, and here he was looking as healthy as ever.

"Now that the ranking ceremony has been concluded successfully, let’s give a round of applause to the remaining contestants who will come up and say their final words. We appreciate them joining us on our journey and wish them well in their next steps."

"Now, shall I announce the next challenge?" Areum asked with a smile.

- yesss

- Let’s do it.

Hearing the positive response, she gave them a mischievous look before continuing.

"I’m sure you’ve noticed that some of you are wearing special badges. Something a little like this?" With a dramatic flip of her hands, like magic, two buttons suddenly appeared in her slender hands.

One had a gold P like the one Ari and Jamie had, while the other had a red ’C’ on it.

Seeing that they were all focused on examining the badges, with another flip of her hands, Areum made them disappear, causing audible gasps from the contestants.

With another flip of her hand, she made them reappear and took a bow as the contestants applauded her.

"These badges highlight very special talents that some of you have. Those with a P badge, please raise your hands."

Of the twenty remaining contestants, only Ari, Jamie, and William raised their hands.

"Memorize these faces. Those with C badges, raise your hand please."

At Areum’s command, Justin, Daniel, Rex, and Mathew raised their hands.

As the contestants turned back to her, confused, Areum explained.

"If you remember your first rounds of auditions, some of you were asked to produce and perform a song in the second round. I believe contestant Ariel created and performed the ’Traffic song’ during the second audition round, and contestant Jamie composed and performed ’Holding Me Back’ during the same round. Contestant William, on the other hand, auditioned with a self-produced song called ’I am the best’. As a result, the three of you have received a production badge, meaning that you’re capable of producing a song. A talent very necessary in the music industry."

As the contestants nodded in understanding, Areum continued her explanation, "The same goes for contestants with a C badge; you either choreographed your first audition dance performance or were asked to choreograph something in the second round. Now, this is very important because the next round of the condition is... a production mission!"

"Since the inception of survival shows, this has been a tried and true staple! Pop Star Academy was all about teaching you all the basics of being a pop star, singing, dancing, rapping, and, to some extent, arrangement. Now that’s done, and we’re transitioning to Dream Academy, where you make your dreams come true. You’re all equipped with skills, and we want to see how you execute your own dream and vision on stage. And now, due to an unprompted, generous donation, the budget has increased tremendously. So for this production mission, you contestants can go all out and basically have a blank check to do whatever you want. Pyrotechnics, a live band, it’s all up to you. With one of the three contestant producers, you’ll produce a song, create the choreography, design the stage, and arrange a performance from end to end. Doesn’t that sound fun?"

- ooohhh really?

- I want fireworks!

- I want a water floor and flames!

The contestants began getting excited at Areum’s words, and began listing the things they thought would be cool to add to their performance.

Ari was quite excited too and had one goal in mind-

Spend as much of the production team’s money as possible.

Fireworks, pyrotechnics, flying through the air, artificial rain, live band, etc.

If it existed, he wanted it!

Somehow, he would find a way to spend all their money for the amount of suffering he had received so far, in the name of making the best performance possible.

"I’m glad to see you’re all excited, so let’s get right into team selection. To make things fair, each team will have one producer, and since Benjamin was the leader of the winning team the last time, he gets the special privilege of selecting which producer he wants, as well as his other team members. The remaining producers will select their own team members in turn. You may have as few or as many people on your team as you want. Only after you choose a person can you close off your team. Once two teams are closed off, the remaining people join the last team. The choice is yours. It’s your dream and vision that you’re bringing to life. Benjamin, please come forward."

Areum pointed at Benjamin, who hopped up from his seat in excitement while looking between Ari and Jamie.

In the end, he clicked his teeth as he smiled at Ari apologetically.

"Sorry, mate. As you like to say, that is that, and this is this. Our discussion aside, I want to do my best to get first place, and in song production, Jamie edges you out just a bit, so Big man Jamie, I want you as the producer of my team."

"That’s fine. May the best team win."

Jamie got up and stood beside Jamie while Areum glanced at Ari.

"Since Contestant Ari came second in the team performance and first overall, he gets to choose next. Who would you like on your team?"

"Carlos. His vocals are phenomenal," Ari replied quickly as he stood up.

There was no need to think about it; if he was going to give a performance worth getting first place, if Jamie was gone and had joined Benjamin, he had to have the best singer in the competition.

Carlos got up with a smile, patting Ari’s shoulder as he stood behind him while Jamie glanced over despondently.

"Oh, this should be fun. Two of the top three vocalists are on the same team? I’m quite excited to see what you come up with. Then, William, who would you like to be on your team?"

With an irritated expression that he quickly tried to hide, William looked around before pointing, "I’ll take Choi in-su, who has phenomenal vocals too."

The Korean boy went to stand behind William, and Areum turned to Ben.

"Benjamin?"

"Mathew. Need the best dancer and choreographer on my team."

"Great choice. Ariel?"

"Daniel. I think he’s a great dancer, and his deep voice is a good surprise to everyone, which will help round out our team vocally as well as rapping-wise."

The orange-haired boy smiled as he hopped to his feet before erasing it when William glared at him.

"William?"

"Rex. He’s a great dancer too, since he’s done backup for groups like BTZ, he can sing pretty deep as well, and he can rap, which will round out our group."

Despite looking slightly uncomfortable, Rex stood behind William as Areum nodded.

"Great choice. Benjamin?"

"I’ll go with the idea bank drama kid, Justin. He’s a 2 for 1 and we need someone to compete creatively against Ari, who’s sure to pull something insane out of his brain. Look at him smiling, his brains churning with ideas, innit?" Benjamin turned to Ari with an exasperated smile.

"Maybe? Maybe not. You’ll have to wait and see." Ari replied noncommittally.

"I see. Contestant Ari?"

"Levi. Need a rapper to wipe the floor with Benjamin."

"Oi! Getting bold, croissant boy?"

"Do beans on toast belong in the trash? The answer to both questions is yes, by the way."

"I keep telling you, it’s a delicacy. A delicacy."

"A delicacy that belongs in the trash."

"I don’t want to hear that from someone who thinks a proper meal is butter and chocolate on hard bread!"

"Wrong! Le goûter is an iconic snack, and the whole of France disagrees with you."

"Call the French prezi up, and tell him I got words for his country’s tastebuds, yeah?"

As Benjamin joked around while Areum laughed at them, Ari nodded at Levi as he stood beside him.

"Okay, okay. Enough, you two. Contestant William? Your choice."

"Jerome. He’s a rapper who can wipe the floor with the other two."

"Hmmm..."

[How odd.]

[Is he copying you?]

[Does he think that will make him stand out like you do?]

[It seems you’ve broken him?]

At William’s repeatedly similar choice of words to Ari, Areum paused before smiling.

"Very good. Benjamin, we’re back to you."

"Hmmm," Benjamin looked around in deep thought.

It was no offense to the remaining contestants, but personally, he wanted to close his team off right here and now since he had everyone that he really wanted.

But aware that it would look bad, especially if he did it alone, he glanced at Ari, who raised his eyebrow quickly, blinking slowly and looking away.

Hint received.

"I’ll take Jin since he’s a solid all-arounder and close off my team."

"Very good. Benjamin’s team is closed off with a total of five members. Contestant Ari?"

"I’ll take...Suzuki Rei and close my team off as well," Ari replied with a conflicted expression.

Truly, he was between Alfonso, whom he had worked with multiple times, and Suzuki Rei, who had better overall stats but had been slightly antagonistic toward him at the beginning of the show.

But remembering how Rei had mellowed out and worked hard when they had teamed up and was even cordial these days, Ari chose him and shut things off just like he and Benjamin had agreed on.

While he could continue choosing people, he preferred a small, efficient team where everyone could execute perfectly because he really, really wanted to get first place to complete the mission.

And since he was going up against the pair of Benjamin and Jamie, he needed all the edge he could get.

And there was no guarantee that William wouldn’t choose Alfonso next.

It was better not to risk it.

"Very well. Contestant Ariel’s team is closed off as a 5-member team, leaving the remaining contestants to join William’s team. The current distribution is five people on Benjamin’s team, five people on Ari’s team, and 10 people on William’s team. Are you all satisfied?"

"Yes."

"Yep."

"Do I even have a choice?"

"Unfortunately, not. All the remaining contestants, please come and join William."

At Areum’s announcement, the remaining contestants stood beside William, looking a bit offended that they had been left behind in one massive team, which hadn’t happened since the beginning of the show.

As they stood there, they began remembering the struggles to get enough lines and stared at Benjamin and Ari, who had loaded their team with high-ranking members with bitter expressions.

Unfortunately for them, the two people whom they were staring at didn’t care.

They just stared at Areum while ignoring William.

"Well, since the team selection is done, I’ll add a couple of things.

Firstly, while your performance can be anything you dream of, the production team recommends incorporating a fantasy creature or setting into your performance details. It could be in your costumes, your stage design, or even lyrics; the choice is up to you.

Secondly, although we expect you all to do the majority of the work in producing and arranging everything from song to performance, you’re not being thrown to the wolves.

Jelissa and Larry Jackson will be available to help you with recording and mastering the songs, Kim Young-woo and Jaywalk will be available to help with choreography, we have laptops with the correct software and instruments, and there are helpers everywhere.

The midterm check is in a week, so good luck to everyone. I can’t wait to see what you come up with!"