Chapter 296

“Is this really all you’ve got? I’m disappointed.”

“…Argh!”

Five chicks lay collapsed on the floor, gasping for breath as they looked up at me. One of them, clinging to his pride, propped himself up on his knees, teeth gritted as he endured. And then there was me—standing above them beneath the practice room lights, shadows falling across my face, looking down at them with eyes full of contempt.

It was a sight that seemed like it should have a ‘ boom !’ sound effect.

“You have five seconds. Get up.”

Of course, this wasn’t the middle of a dusty battlefield or a martial arts tournament arena. This place was just a practice room with a single mirror. Among the members, all of them sweating nervously while staring at my reflection, it was Do Yuda who bravely took the initiative.

“…Hyung, please, just spare us this one time. We’ve been practicing nonstop!”

“Five, one.”

“Aaahhh!”

It would be better if they all went on strike; at least then, the practice would have to stop. But these docile guys, as soon as I started counting, scrambled to get back on their feet. Was it the habits they had since childhood that they couldn’t break free from?

No, maybe it was just based on rational judgment.

If they even think of plotting a rebellion, I might just bury them alive…….

“You said it was 5 seconds. But it was 2 seconds. This is fraud. I’m going to sue.”

“Earlier, you definitely said we’d do twenty more practice rounds, but I’ve completely lost count of how many times we’ve repeated those twenty!”

“In the practice room, I am the law.”

“Isn’t that how it always is, even when we’re not in the practice room…….”

We’ve always counted numbers that way, so I wondered why they were suddenly pointing it out now.

I never said we’d only do twenty practice rounds. We did twenty, then another twenty … Yeah, this should be seen as a concept similar to sets in muscle workout.

“Does it make sense that guys who have way better stamina than me are already complaining and whining about being tired?”

“Ugh, owwwww.”

“It’s because you lack mental strength, mental strength…….”

My fighting spirit was boiling up so much that I couldn’t hold it back, and before long, it felt like my hair would spike up like a Super Saiyan. Whether the members were bawling their eyes out or dozing off in the corner of the practice room, I didn’t care. I’m going, and of course, I’m dragging those idiots along with me.

‘I … have really held back all this time.’

We were given practice time for the final competition, and it was the moment we began practicing for Domination .

“Make sure to eat a balanced diet. If someone starts whining about not having enough energy to practice because of their picky eating habits, I don’t know what I might do either.”

“There better not be some brainless idiot in our group who’d eat cup noodle with capsaicin and get a stomachache at a critical time like this. Even the hamster Cha Woon-sunbaenim raises, with a brain the size of a peanut, has enough sense to know better. If you really crave something spicy that badly, I’ll let you experience the true spiciness of life.”

“How do you even know that Cha Woon-sunbaenim raises a hamster! Besides, hamsters die if they eat capsaicin, so obviously they wouldn’t eat it!”

“Should I kill you?”

After eating, since moving too much can give you a stomachache, focus on vocal practice first. Once you’ve digested a bit, practice your dancing like a madman. Then, when your body feels like it’s pushing its limits, switch to singing practice, and when your vocal cords feel the strain, go back to dancing.

“Hyung, I’m going to throw up.”

“Swallow it.”

Once both hit their limits, we’d replay Prism’s performance at a slower speed and analyze it side by side with Pantheion’s practice video. In a nutshell, it was like a laser-focused tutoring session 1 .

“Alright, Prism-sunbaenims all have great physiques, so even small movements look big on them. On the other hand, you, Lee Danbi. Look at this tiny Chihuahua-like body.”

“Danbi has grown so much that now his build is even sturdier than Seungbeom’s…….”

“With these adorable little arms and legs, how are you supposed to even come close to that vibe? You’ll have to move way bigger and put in way more power than Prism-sunbaenims.”

“Yes, hyung.”

“But no matter how much you try to make up for it, it’s still hard for a Chihuahua to perfectly replicate the vibe of a tiger. That’s why, unlike Prism-sunbaenims who perform all the choreography together as a group, we changed up the choreography and formations for the non-center members. That way, the center could deliver impact through elements other than just dancing. Got it?”

“I understand. So that’s why Kangwon-hyung’s part was the only one that didn’t really change. Since his physique is similar, you wanted to keep as much of the original feel as possible in his part.”

“Exactly. There’s a big difference between performing with a full understanding of why it’s directed this way and just doing it without knowing the reason. So, make sure you don’t forget this whenever you practice from now on.”

“It’s a lost cause. It seems like both the one who should be receiving the feedback and the one supposed to give it aren’t listening to a word we’re saying.”

In their spare time, the members received 24-hour intensive care, following a meticulously planned schedule that ensured they didn’t skip warm-ups, cool-downs, or massages to prevent injuries—leaving no room for wasted time.

Autonomous growth? 2

They already had plenty of time to do that in the first and second competitions.

Babies might use plastic knives when playing house, but when it’s time for war, they have to pick up a bazooka. The situation had simply changed, that’s all.

“What’s wrong with them? Except for Han Seungbeom…….”

“Why do they all look so disheveled? Except for Han Seungbeom…….”

Pantheion, trudging around every day looking completely wiped out and pale as ghosts, became a legend among the cast.

As a result, and it was to be expected, the production team put the spotlight on Pantheion for the mid-round interviews. When asked, “We’ve heard Han Seungbeom-ssi puts you through grueling practices. What’s that like? “, Nagi Zen responded like this.

“Madness. Leada is not in his right mind right now.”

“Have you ever tried telling him it’s too hard?”

“Didn’t I just say he wasn’t in his right mind?”

I couldn’t stop.

Bus … I knew it was less like a bus and more like a runaway locomotive, but I didn’t stop.

“Seungbeom-ah, what if we’re unlucky and don’t get first place?”

“…We can’t get first place?”

“What if, Seungbeom-ah! What if! We’re only human, so unexpected things could happen, right? Like one of us suddenly getting sick…….”

At my fierce glare, Woo Kangwon, who had been curled up with his bulky body, shook his head frantically and started adding more explanations. I silently watched his desperate gestures, then fell into deep thought. After a while, I finally replied.

“That’s right. Sometimes we can lose, we’re only human, after all.”

“…….”

“Then give up on being human.”

“Huh?”

“Just think, ‘I am a practicing machine’. It’s hard because you’re all trying to do it like humans.”

‘This is not enough.’

Even when they weren’t specifically preparing for Domination , the members of Prism practiced at this level every single day. On top of that, Jo Inchan always spent much more time than this on practice, and Yoo Jay, after completing all that practice, didn’t return to the dorm but instead stayed in the practice room analyzing my videos, eventually falling asleep on the floor.

‘Although it was only possible because those guys are in great shape and have monstrous stamina…….’

The gap was already wide, and if the difference in practice volume grew even bigger, they wouldn’t even be able to keep up with those guys’ toes.

“Huff huff, all the other practice rooms have their lights off.”

“Don’t pay attention to that. Their house is their house, our house is our house. The detail in your footwork is getting more and more sloppy.”

“…Hyung, you sound just like my mom.”

I ignored Do Yuda, who was muttering words close to giving up while his legs trembled uncontrollably, and glanced over at the practice room next door.

“…….”

Just as Do Yuda said, all the other practice rooms were dark except for Raize’s. Everyone else seemed to have already finished their practice and gone home.

‘Everyone but Raize is already out of the running. Their motivation has completely been crushed.’

When faced with a difficult task, they should have naturally invested more time and made more effort. But strangely enough, for this final competition, the cast seemed to be practicing even less than they did for the first and second competitions.

The reason for this was simple.

They just gave up.

‘If you take a bunch of kids still working on Czerny 30 3 and suddenly ask them to play Liszt 4 , of course they’re going to be totally thrown off.’

In the other groups, there were barely any members who could stably hit high notes in the fifth octave or quickly master and teach complicated choreography. With such little time to prepare and not even the basic skills in place, they must have felt pretty hopeless.

It was inevitable that their motivation would be crushed if they weren’t getting any results whatsoever.

‘They might be busy looking for excuses to drop out of the competition by now.’

Originally, when people were pushed hard enough, they somehow managed to tap into their resourcefulness and produce impressive results. But if you pushed them past a certain point, it just led to burnout.

Fortunately, since we had more vocalists than Prism, we were able to distribute Seo Yuseong’s parts among several people and somehow manage to pull it off. Do Yuda and Baek Kiryang had prior experience with Domination from Survive IDOL, so compared to the other groups, we were in a much more advantageous position.

‘Whether we can fully bring out the flavor is another matter, but at least we’re in a state where the basics are more than enough.’

It seemed like some of the cast complained about it among themselves when the cameras weren’t around.

“I heard there’s a member in Pantheion who’s already done a performance with this song? And he even had the main vocal part.”

“Ah, I’m jealous. So they were on a completely different starting line than us from the get-go.”

Are you upset? If you’re bitter, maybe start making a habit of practicing different kinds of songs.

“Huff huff, but still, working hard while everyone else is resting makes it feel like we’re winning, so I like it. Aren’t we going to totally crush the final competition at this rate?”

Nonsense.

At this rate, there’s no way we’re going to crush Raize in a landslide.

‘Raize may not reach Pantheion’s highest points, but they don’t fall as low either 5 . Aside from that one member Cha Woon pointed out last time, the rest of them are pretty skilled. And since Gong Seonghwa has watched Prism’s performances like it’s an addiction, their stage direction is probably solid too.’

The only member in Raize who wasn’t very skilled had dropped out of the final performance, citing an ankle injury, so their lowest point just got a whole lot higher. They were likely on track to deliver the best cover performance to date, even counting the one Do Yuda’s team did in Survive IDOL .

‘All the members of Raize have such strong basic dance skills … you can’t just ignore a performance that makes the strongest visual impact right off the bat.’

Both groups had areas where the quality dropped significantly.

Raize didn’t have a vocalist capable of covering Seo Yuseong’s range, so they had no choice but to lower the key. Even though the high notes would still be quite high, which might get a good reaction from the audience, Pantheion had prepared the performance in the original key, so the trick would quickly become apparent. They wouldn’t be able to convey the feel of the original song properly either.

‘Well, it’s better than having their voices crack, so they must have made that decision knowing all that.’

On the other hand, Pantheion cleverly hid the individual flaws in their choreography through the overall composition. As a result, the performance appeared to be of high quality when viewed as a whole, but if you examined the movements of each member, it was clear that they fell short in comparison to Raize.

‘I had a rough idea since I saw the position rankings in the second competition results … and as expected, it turned out this way.’

The two groups had each other’s strengths as weaknesses and each other’s weaknesses as strengths. Aside from that, rap was an issue, but since both groups found it equally difficult, it likely wouldn’t make a significant difference.

“Phew…….”

The tug-of-war had already begun. With both sides fully aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses, the red cloth swayed precariously around the center, not leaning toward either side.

Now, what would determine the victory or defeat was how wisely the remaining time was spent , along with a few other variables.

“…Let’s practice, until we’re about to die.”

In that way, the day of the final competition was now looming right in front of us.

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Translator’s Corner:

No guys, I’m still alive, just asdfghjkl

Idk, I think I mentioned this to the SSS Cafe readers before ? I cut off contact with my father and went to college, and later my father left home to live with his new wife and brought my youngest sibling with him (My other sibling is taken care of by my relatives). My mother’s family has a bad feeling about it for a long time, and yesterday, they finally forcibly took my youngest sibling back because … well, to no one surprise, my father’s new wife is that stereotypical abusive worse than Cinderella stepmother. So, I was busy cleaning the house, washing my sibling’s old clothes, etc etc and spend a day crying because she looks (she’s an elementary school student) like your textbook child with severe malnutrition … omg irl men are so useless, you’ll never see me getting married….. if I die leaving my children and my good for nothing husband married a psycho, I will be too pissed to go to the next life…..

Anyway, I hope everything will go well now. I really need to get a job in a big city (they have better wage standard), so I’ll be a religious person for some time … why it feels so long to reach chapter 300 … we’re so close …..

If I don’t get reicarnated into a good life in the next life, preferably in the same universe with Seo Yutae, God really will hear a lot from me

OH IT REMINDS ME I received a lot of heartwarming comments lately, thank you so much T_T It means so so much to me. I’m sorry if I don’t reply … I’m really not used to kind words, and I think I will never will, so Idk how to reply to those kind comments other than thank you … and reading it makes me shy too ….. so it left unreplied …..

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