From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 127: Black Swan (4)

POV Caleb Adams

- You are eliminated, Contestant Caleb.

- eliminated, Contestant Caleb

- eliminated Caleb

- Eliminated

- Eliminated

"No! No! No! No! It’s not fair! It should have been him, not me!" Caleb screamed as he woke up from a nightmare where MC Ryan Leary had morphed into a gigantic head that was circling him and yelling ’Eliminated’, while an ugly monkey with green eyes and a strange green mask pointed and laughed at him.

"Huff huff huff, it should have been him!" panting while covered in cold sweat, Caleb climbed out of his bed and instinctively grabbed his phone to browse Twitter and Readdit about Pops Star Academy.

Ever since he was eliminated and came home several days ago, it had become his habit to obsessively search for news about himself and other contestants in the different communities online with his burner accounts.

There were numerous posts and clips, breaking down everything that had been released by the production team, as well as what had been dug up by internet detectives.

Naturally, there were popular contestants with huge followings like Benjamin, who had a cult like following due to his past experience in different idol shows and cyphers, his multi-ethnic cross-continental family, and handsomeness with a fun personality, several of the Korean trainees like Rex and Daniel who were previously backup dancers for big kpop acts, Mathew who had won several dance competitions including World of Dance at a young age, Levi the only son of two major actors, William Forbes, Jamie the youngest son from a country music family, and more.

Then there were contestants who were gaining fans at a slow but steady pace, like Vishal, Alfonso, Chen, and Jerome, who were drawing fans due to their diverse backgrounds and standout looks.

Unfortunately, no matter how Caleb searched for his name, he didn’t fall into either category.

Whether in the Readdit communities or other forums, there were no more than 10 posts about him in the Pop Star Academy community, and on Twitter, the threads made about him were minimal, with only a few likes.

Even on TokTik, when other contestants had fan cams created by the public, he barely had 2 in total.

When Caleb went to look into the details, all he saw was basically getting criticized for his Warrior performance, or people saying he wasn’t as noticeable as others on his team.

Furious at people disregarding his talent, he looked up each and every member of his former team, seeing that they each had more people talking about them.

With hands shaking from anger, he searched for the face-painted weirdo’s name and saw hundreds of posts and threads about him.

There were plenty of posts criticizing his painted face and dancing, but quite a few praising his singing, composing ability, and fun personality.

He even had a cult following of rock, punk, emo, and goth fans praising his rebellious dressing style and his face paint, who were battling hard for him online. Additionally, a sound snippet of his showcase traffic song had hundreds of videos under it on WeTube and TokTik.

It made him angry!

How dare that ugly, garbage dictator who stole his position as leader, stole his song parts, and stuffed him in the back of the performance be more popular than him?!

It was because of Ariel that he didn’t gain popularity from the Warrior video, and it was his fault for making him sick and not helping him practice the signal song, which ultimately led to his elimination.

Each time Caleb scrolled, his face became redder and redder.

He wasn’t supposed to be eliminated; Ari was.

As he began seeing red, he pulled out his laptop and began making all kinds of posts insulting him.

Unfortunately, they were all immediately taken down by the mods for hate speech before he finally remembered the conversation he and Ian had about Ari.

Changing to a different burner account, he made a post on Readdit.

[Contestant Ariel is a mean, hideous dozen who hides their goblin-like face under pounds of makeup and bullies other contestants. + (Proof)]

Under the post, he completely vented about everything Ari, listing some factual and fabricated experiences about him after recalling how the first episode had been edited.

Immediately, his post and thread became hot with people demanding proof of his claims.

Remembering the pictures that Ian had secretly taken of Ari when he didn’t have his makeup on, Caleb selected the ugliest ones, uploaded them, and told people to wait for the first episode to see if he was telling the truth.

As a new hate train started with other accounts picking up his posts, Caleb laughed to himself.

"Heheheheheheh."

"Shut the hell up, Caleb! Some of us are trying to sleep since we have a real job! Ugh, I can’t wait for you to go back to that damn program and get out of the house!"

Hearing his sister yell at him from the room next door, Caleb shut his mouth so that she and his parents wouldn’t ask him any questions about the program.

After all, he still hadn’t told them he was eliminated and didn’t plan on telling them until he had no choice.

Seeing the huge amount of hate being piled onto Ari online as he silently scrolled on his phone, Caleb went back to sleep with a smile.

*****

And the PD Ji-ho, who was seeing the different communities for Pop Star Academy heat up once more, as the live performance date drew closer, couldn’t help but laugh to himself.

The video editing staff who were around him continued doing their jobs as they were used to him, and PD Emily randomly cackling at all times of the day.

PD Ji-ho quickly scanned through the discussions and got the general trend of which contestants were being talked about and which videos became popular.

It seemed that Emily was right.

Just by existing, it seemed that the contestant drew attention to himself, sometimes even outshining the popular front runners by the sheer number of people speaking about him.

Even if it were negative, attention was still attention, and if the public were thirsting for drama, it was only right to feed them, especially if the content was readily available.

It just had to be balanced so as not to completely alienate one side too soon.

Just like that, with multiple parties plotting, contestants practicing hard in preparation for their first live performance in a while, before they knew it, the day was here.