From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 79: Schedule from H*ll (3)

The contestants in D-Class (2) genuinely thought that they had somehow signed up for a boot camp from h*ll that was run by the literal devil.

They were the poor, innocent souls who were being tricked and tortured, and their torturer was a slim boy wearing a brown tracksuit with the cute face of an animal on the hood and a weird green mask on his face.

The devil in the green mask had been leading the choreography practice for the past several hours, making them redo each 5-second segment until the angle of each person’s arm, legs, and even their heads were perfectly aligned.

If he heard a single step or jump that wasn’t unified when their foot hit the ground, the whole choreography had to start from the beginning, and he would repeat the dreaded words.

’Again.’

’One more time.’

’Let’s keep going.’

’This is the last time I promise.’

The entire team was sick of it. Their strong motivation in the beginning had dwindled into hatred for the person forcing them to work without a break.

And what made it worse was the person who was forcing them to dance hard didn’t have a single drop of sweat on his body or painted face, the few times he took off the mask.

The one-sided competition to outlast Ari in stamina ended because he seemed like a robot.

After they all collapsed to the floor after pleading for a break, they heard the sound of nightmares.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

The annoying sound of an alarm clock going off filled the room, and then the devil’s voice could be heard.

"The five-minute break is up, so let’s start from the beginning. Get up and in your positions within 10 seconds, or the next break is canceled and you won’t get released early."

"Ughhhh"

"Demon!"

"Dictator!"

"6 seconds." The cold voice sounded out as the owner didn’t bother looking at them.

Multiple groans could be heard, but without a doubt, every single person stood up and got to the right position as Ari began playing the song as he positioned himself in front, and waited for the instrumental to get to his part.

In the mirror, he could see 10 exhausted faces glaring angrily while his own face was covered with a green snail mask that only exposed his eyes and lips.

Giving his teammates a little wink and wave, Ari began singing right on cue.

As the beat was about to drop, he sang the lyrics while extending the high note.

Woooooooahhhhhhhh~

Then, while smirking at the camera, he yelled out the letters.

P. S. A

DUM DUM DUM DUM

The drums sounded out, and Ari stepped back cleanly to the right and backward as Vishal cleanly mirrored the move in the opposite direction as he began rapping.

What’s your aim?

When we play this game

We want to make it

As always, the rap wasn’t confident, but Vishal cleanly conveyed all of the words before pivoting with Ari once more so he could sing the introductory verse.

His voice rang out cleanly, hitting all the notes, and even to his Picky Listener (B) skill, it sounded incredible.

As his last notes faded away, Ari slid and pivoted to the left while Caleb did the same on the opposite side.

Caleb completed the move successfully, then opened his mouth to sing.

Except, instead of singing in the normal way, he began singing in the way he did when he wanted to stand out.

"Nope." Ari quickly stepped out of the formation and stopped the music before looking at Caleb, while the rest of the team groaned.

"What? I didn’t do anything." Caleb said while pretending to be confused.

"Sing normally without the weirdness, like the judges told you. We have to get through the entirety of the song 11 more times before we can leave, so each time you mess up, we’ll restart."

"You can’t tell me what to do. I’ll sing however I want." Caleb glared at Ari angrily, but the masked boy just shrugged and restarted the music.

"Then have fun being the only person who not only ignores the feedback of the judges, but also sounds terrible." Ari replied before restarting the music, "Everyone, get in position. Let’s go again."

Moving with almost military level smoothness, each person smoothly got into their positions.

The intense bass and trumpet sounds of the instrumental, and Ari performed the intro. Vishal completed his verse, and Ari finished the first verse before transitioning to the side as Caleb moved forward to perform his part.

The moment that Caleb intentionally sang in that uniquely bad way again, Ari just restarted the music without saying anything to the boy.

In the mirror, everyone got into position once more, while glaring at Caleb and repeated Ari and Vishal’s portion while being stopped on Caleb’s portion again, and again, and again.

After the tenth time, Ari’s voice was getting hoarse from the back-to-back singing as Caleb continued to do the same thing, so he stopped the music.

Michael and Diego looked as if they were about to blow up from anger, everyone else looked irritated, and Caleb had a slight smirk on his face as he stared at Ari in a challenging way.

Ari sighed before finally giving him the attention that he so clearly wanted.

"Do you plan on acting like this?"

"Acting like what? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m singing, you’re the one being picky and wasting everyone’s time, Mr. Dictator who likes to steal other people’s jobs."

You’re the one wasting everyone’s time!!! I know you know how to sing normally, so why are you doing this, you annoying punk?!

I didn’t even want to be the leader; it was forced on me!

Rather than scream the way he wanted to, Ari took a calming breath before grabbing the tablet.

He opened the MP3 file and duplicated it before editing it by snipping off the first three verses that belonged to him, Vishal, and Caleb. That way, they could just avoid Caleb’s turn directly.

"We’ll start with Diego’s portion, which comes right after Caleb’s section, and run through to the end. Everyone in position, Caleb to the back, let’s power through to the end."

As everyone rushed into their position, Caleb angrily stood in the center area but seeing that they really planned on skipping his part, he angrily stomped to his position in the back.

Diego began his rap portion and went a bit faster than the beat, causing him to end early and mismatch the timing as Michael was supposed to slide into his spot for the next verse.

Without Ari having to say anything, he bowed his head and restarted the song himself.

And they continued performing it again and again, until another timer went off indicating that it was 11 o’clock.

Although they had not been able to completely get through the song, it was miles better than what they had shown the judges earlier.

Ari went to the front of the room, clapping his hands to get everyone’s attention, "We’re done with group practice for the night. Everyone show up here at 5:30 am, if you’re not here, it’s 15 extra minutes of practice per person, and in the process of dragging you here, I’ll wake up your entire room up and tell them it’s your fault. Sleep well :)"

Ignoring the groans and complaints coming from everybody, Ari went with Vishal to the mini computer lab that the staff had set up. The two of them planned on splitting the work, with Ari looking up stage ideas and Vishal putting together costume ideas from the list of clothing he had gathered from their teammates.

As they were heading there, a bright head of orange hair ran past him at a high speed.

It was Daniel Kim. frёewebηovel.cѳm

"I’ll be right back so go ahead without me!" Ari quickly yelled at Vishal before following after him.