Became The Leader of a Girl Group Destined To Fail - Chapter 191

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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Chapter 191.

After the two-day concert wrapped up.
StillBlue finally received their first vacation since debut.
But the fans weren’t granted the same luxury.
While they reviewed all the plot threads that had accumulated and waited for the next one.
An announcement for the year-end awards ceremony dropped.

Platinum Music Awards scoring criteria announced

Digital sales 30% + Physical albums 30% + Judges 20% + Voting 20%
Voting methods summarized below
Since paid voting and free voting are separated, it’s complicated so read carefully and follow along

BMA voting dropped

Digital sales 50% Physical albums 20% Judges 15% Voting 15%

I only learned this after getting into collecting

Why do they charge for voting?
When I was a casual fan I naturally assumed this stuff was free;
There’s paid voting too;;

Sometimes paid is actually better lolol
└2222 lololol
This is truly the frontlines of tedium
Just let us vote once and be done with it, why make us vote every single day
└Every day is the easy part… some are every hour lololololol
Some fandoms even run macros because of it
└Ugh… let’s be real with each other, we’re not avoiding macros because we don’t know how
A 200 won text vote during live broadcasts is considered cheap
But isn’t the female rookie award basically locked for StillBlue this year?

The male rookie category seems a bit split
But the female side only has one real contender
Wasn’t this year basically StillBlue’s year anyway?

And yet, in this filthy world where we still have to vote…
Just give it based on actual performance, for crying out loud
But shouldn’t StillBlue get the Grand Prize instead of the Rookie Award??

StillBlue was #1 in digital sales this year though

No, they should get both the Rookie Award and the Grand Prize; you only get the Rookie Award once in your lifetime, so why wouldn’t you give it to them
The Rookie Award means so much to us… the Grand Prize is special too, but please give them the Rookie Award
?I will accept the Rookie of the Year award, but the grand prize is also Svl? Haha, that’s not true… There are many idols who have sold more albums than Svl.
└It’s not digital, it’s just physical albums. Does anyone not know that StillBlue dominated digital sales this year? Paper Doll’s Eternal Summer and both were mega-hits;
“I’m saying that both digital releases and physical albums are evaluation factors, so why are you only looking at digital releases lol. And there are lots of idols who had mega hits with physical albums too~~~~I’m saying it’s not on the level of being a guaranteed thing like Seventeen”
Just give them both

Even if StillBlue was overwhelmingly dominant in terms of performance alone.
The fans could never let their guard down.
In idol fandom, the word “letting your guard down” was like a death flag.
The moment you relax, you lose….
If my group seems like a lock, I have to push even harder.
Why?

We have to beat them in voting numbers at least

Honestly, we’re still a bit behind in digital and physical sales
So let’s go hard on voting firepower

If you focus on areas with high voter turnout, it’s totally doable.
Let’s break through at least one category

The stronger we became, the stronger the opposing fandom’s unity grew as well.
Because the Rookie Award was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, fans of every rookie idol group were sharpening their blades.
Especially at award ceremonies that didn’t divide male and female idol categories and only gave the Rookie Award to a single group, the competition was fiercer.
There was no award ceremony where you could afford to be careless.
And.

“You won’t acknowledge me unless I win the Rookie Award solo?”

There was one more person who couldn’t let her guard down here.

-Of course not. I never agreed to a joint award.
“….”

I’d been thinking this for a while, but the Cotton Ball Entity really did have exacting conditions.
That’s right.
From the moment the Cotton Ball Entity presented the Quest with 【Platinum Music Awards】 explicitly written in it, I’d felt uneasy.
But there was nothing said about joint awards being impossible!

-That’s something that goes without saying, isn’t it? I find words like ‘sole’ and ‘exclusive’ quite appealing.
“….”

I glared at the Cotton Ball Entity as it cheerfully drifted around me.

“The Platinum Music Awards have plenty of joint awards. Even the rookie award has been given as a joint award three times in the last five years. Don’t you think you should be understanding about this?”
-Why should I?

The Cotton Ball Entity grinned widely, its mouth stretching impossibly.

-I want to see you win it solo. Other humans prefer sole awards over joint ones anyway, don’t they?
“…What if.”

I snatched the Cotton Ball Entity and pulled it right in front of my face.

“What if I don’t win it there, or I end up with a joint award?”
-Then our deal fails too.
“You won’t save my mother?”
-Why are you asking something so obvious?

The Cotton Ball Entity spoke as if it couldn’t fathom the question.

“Do you have any idea what I’ve suffered through for the past year? You… don’t know?”
-That’s your situation. It’s not my situation, Baek Nok-ha.
“And.”

I said what I needed to say, regardless of what the Cotton Ball Entity was spouting.

“How can I be certain you won’t interfere? You could meddle with those strange powers of yours.”
-….

At the word “interference,” the Cotton Ball Entity’s mouth split wide open in laughter again.
It was an eerie smile.

-That’s right. You wouldn’t understand, Baek Nok-ha.

The Cotton Ball Entity easily slipped free from my grasp.

-But I won’t use my abilities to interfere with you. I have no intention of meddling in this world to that extent.

The Cotton Ball Entity exhaled a sigh.

-You know this too, don’t you? That I dislike interference.

It wasn’t that it disliked interference—there had to be restrictions.
Rather than directly approaching people to extract feelings of joy,
the fact that it employed contractors like me was likely due to some constraint the Cotton Ball Entity possessed.
I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what that constraint was, but….
At least I had confirmation.
The Cotton Ball Entity had deceived me through deliberate omission before,
but it had never outright lied to me.
…except for that one time.
Just to be safe, I’d verified this with Da-hwin and Dan-ha as well.
Both of them said the Cotton Ball Entity had never lied to them.
That’s what troubled me all the more.

“But here’s the thing.”
-Hmm?
“Then why did you lie at the beginning?”

I stared directly at the Cotton Ball Entity.

“You clearly told me that ‘a person named Baek Nok-ha has never existed in this world.’ But Baek Nok-ha definitely existed in this world.”

I thrust the documents that Baek Ju-ha had investigated toward the Cotton Ball Entity.

“Isn’t that a clear lie?”
-….

The Cotton Ball Entity closed its mouth.
Instead, it opened eyes I had never once seen before.
This creature.
It had eyes?

-I have never lied to you, Baek Nok-ha.
“But you did.”
-The concept of ‘Baek Nok-ha’ differs between you and me. That’s all this misunderstanding is.

What in the world was that supposed to mean?
I gazed into the Cotton Ball Entity’s eyes.
They were peculiarly large, dark pupils that seemed to swallow light itself.

-The ‘Baek Nok-ha’ you know, and the ‘Baek Nok-ha’ that existed in this world….

The Cotton Ball Entity stopped there and swelled its body enormously.

-Are different.

As it expanded, it seemed poised to engulf me entirely.

-I think about it every time… you truly are someone who knows nothing of gratitude.

The larger the Cotton Ball Entity grew, the heavier my eyelids became.
No. Not again.
This creature was doing it once more….

-I have never lied to you.

Even as my consciousness grew distant, I strained with all my remaining strength to hear the Cotton Ball Entity’s final words.

-Someday, you will come to realize that truth.

***

The Platinum Music Awards.
The most recognized awards ceremony in South Korea, yet simultaneously the most controversial.
Some called it the most prestigious ceremony.
Others dismissed it as nothing but a trash awards show with inflated recognition.
Regardless, it was undeniably the most famous and talked-about ceremony.
Of course….
Its notoriously exploitative voting system had earned it a notorious reputation among devoted fans.

Does the Platinum Music Awards really have an obsession with money?

Hahaha
“Stone-loving bastards are easy targets, aren’t they? You damn fools…”

You have to pay~ to vote~
At least only the Popularity Award requires paid voting, thank goodness
└If the other categories had paid voting too, I would’ve boycotted long ago
The major categories at least offer free voting out of mercy…but you have to check in daily haha,,,
Voting only counts for 10 percent anyway, so it’s not like you can skip it—total disappointment

Regardless.
The fans worked hard to secure at least one award for their beloved group.
And so the long-awaited awards ceremony day arrived.

Crazy Pmu Awards Svl Hemeko ㄹㅈㄷ

Looking at the red carpet, all 5 of them in black dresses is crazy.

StillBlue really does hair and makeup consistently well
The shop isn’t even that famous, but the makeup artists really bring out their faces
Love how well they’re styled since the coordinator changed
Today’s Platinum Music Awards Rookie Award nominees

Rookie Award Category
-StillBlue
-Enliven
-Arecks
-Deadline
-Eight Cases

No distinction between male and female idols

StillBlue should’ve gotten this…
Didn’t Enliven strike first this year too?
└If Enliven threw the first punch, StillBlue’s throwing a mega punch
Didn’t Alex have good album sales this year? They probably sold the most among them
└But their digital sales were a total disaster lol Honestly, for a group that barely scraped into the top 50 digital charts, giving them the rookie award is ridiculous
└└Plus the album sales gap between them and StillBlue isn’t even that big, but the digital performance is like heaven and earth
Stop trying to draw aggro as a rookie, Alex… where are the Stone fans who don’t know about the rookie ranking system?
But doesn’t the Platinum Music Awards sometimes make really dumb decisions?

They do well overall, but sometimes they pull some seriously weird stuff in major categories

Yeah, judges are 20% and voting is 20%, so sometimes you get weird results
Of course, it’s usually just the second place getting what should’ve gone to first, but that drives fans absolutely insane
I wish they’d just scrap the whole judges thing and voting thing and award based purely on performance metrics
They’re affiliated with TMM, so they sometimes push TMM artists lol
└For real?? Then Enliven could get the rookie award
└└Honestly, Enliven definitely shouldn’t get the rookie award…lol…no matter how braindead TMM is, they wouldn’t go that far
└└└You still have faith in TMM…that’s nice
For those unfamiliar, is this your first Platinum Music Awards? They’ll probably give it to both StillBlue and Enliven
└Ugh, that’s even worse

While everyone was arguing about who would win the rookie award.

“Gyeong-a unnie!”
“Ju-seon, Ju-seon, Ju-seon!”

StillBlue was buzzing with excitement at seeing people they hadn’t met in a while.

+

【Member Profile】

Name: Kim Geum
Height: 163 cm
Shoe Size: 225
Vision: L: 0.8 R: 0.9
Position: Main Rapper
Family: Mother, Father, Older Brother
Education: Haneul Elementary School Graduate, Haneul Arts Middle School Graduate, GED
Birthday: September 23rd
Blood Type: B
Hobbies: Composing, Spending time with the members
Motto: I suppose it’s because I’m too adorable

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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