The Reincarnated Idol Hard Carries an Indie Band - Chapter 41

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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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Former Idol, Now Leading an Indie Band
Chapter 41
The impact of Oktatop’s appearance announcement post exceeded expectations.
At first, I thought there’d be little reaction.
But people who saw the post began spreading the word far and wide.
Comments started flooding in.
—Wait, Oktatop is next?? What?? This is huge!!!
—The order seems off though? Nabitsumo, then Bulryangyang-pa, then Oktatop? Hmm……
—OMG our boys are finally on broadcast ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
—Wow, that casting lineup is insane. The first two episodes didn’t get great views, so they’re pulling out the heavy artillery.
—Oktatop is a view-count guarantee, that’s for sure.
—I came to watch the first two episodes after hearing Oktatop was coming, and now I’m really excited.
—Wait, why is an idol on a band content show?
—Ugh… I became a fan after seeing the music broadcast, and now the setup finally pays off.
—But isn’t their agency dropping the ball here? Why’s there no buildup? It’s just the camera show and the broadcast and YouTube.
Kim Min-sang, the planner at Killing Band, opened the YouTube Studio for the announcement post he’d uploaded to the community tab.
89,000 views.
The graph had been climbing steadily since the beginning.
Especially from day three onward, the graph was shooting up sharply.
“And it’s not even the full episode, just an announcement post……”
What was interesting was that the proportion of external traffic overwhelmingly outweighed organic subscribers.
Most of the early exposure came not from the recommendation feed, but from search.
This meant people weren’t coming through YouTube’s algorithm—they were searching directly for the post.
Judging from the circumstances, someone had spread the word about Oktatop’s appearance.
Oktatop’s prediction about becoming a scapegoat was coming true.
“This is really happening……”
Even though the main episode hadn’t dropped yet, Kim Min-sang felt a glimmer of hope breaking through.
Would this dying project actually come back to life?
“Director!”
“Hm?”
“I, um, have some not-so-good news.”
“What is it?”
At the junior writer’s troubled expression, Kim Min-sang asked in alarm.
“It’s nothing major, but some of the indie bands we reached out to earlier said that after hearing about Oktatop’s appearance, they don’t want to participate, so they want to cancel the casting……”
“Ah, they were all just tentative anyway. Tell them fine.”
“Pardon?”
The junior writer was taken aback by Kim Min-sang’s response.
“Um, Maruru Band also said they won’t appear.”
“That’s unfortunate, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“……?”
Maruru Band was a group Kim Min-sang had personally wanted to cast.
There were many other bands he’d hoped to feature on his show.
Some of them had declared a participation boycott.
It hurt, but it couldn’t be helped.
Dango Music—and by extension, himself—was a businessman before being a creator of content.
Oktatop had taught Kim Min-sang a lesson.
That achieving goals, realizing dreams, required sacrifice.
Even if he had to take criticism himself.
Even if he had to abandon romance somewhere in the process.
He’d learned that for the sake of dreams, you couldn’t afford to be choosy about means and methods.
Keep pushing forward, giving up pieces one by one, and eventually a moment would come where he’d have everything.
There would come a day when Maruru Band, or some even larger outfit, would reach out to Killing Band wanting to participate.
“That’s how the band scene is anyway. Defying media was their whole identity from the start.”
“But you really wanted to cast them……”
“Of course they’d hate it. How could they not resent Oktatop, who blew up through media without any credentials? They’ve been grinding for years, doing honest work.”
Kim Min-sang understood their position well.
In his own judgment, Oktatop wasn’t the most authentic band.
But for this market to grow, Oktatop had to grow.
At this point in time, Oktatop had the greatest potential in the band scene.
* * *
I owed my friends an apology, but the relentless push during break had paid off.
With school starting up, we’d have far less time to gather, but now we just needed two more songs to drop the album.
And even those two songs were already taking shape.
Just finish those two and we’d be done.
Of course, the reason our progress was accelerating wasn’t just because I was driving them hard.
Kim Ji-hu, who’d been moving independently, had written three songs on his own.
And when we worked on my compositions, the guys executed my directions perfectly.
Sometimes I explained things abstractly or vaguely, yet somehow they grasped it perfectly and played it spot-on.
We’ve only been together for less than a year, but there’s something connecting us.
Maybe this is what destiny feels like.
It was a day when everything was flowing smoothly.
“Oh!”
It was the break between afternoon classes, right after lunch.
I was dozing with my head on my desk, lulled by the drowsy spring weather, when a classmate’s brief exclamation jolted me awake.
What?
“Hey! Our class celebrity Dango just dropped!”
Ah, so it’s up.
—(Oktatop)’s Killing Band Live!! ┃ Rendezvous, Cruise!!, Your Time, Album Pre-Release Song Untitled Series.
After confirming the video was uploaded, I quickly turned around—Heo Jun-sung was already watching it, and Lee Do-young’s eyes met mine.
His grinning smile lifted my mood.
Oktatop was pretty famous at our school.
After the performance at the school festival and appearing on a music broadcast, it made sense.
To the class, we were basically celebrities.
Though we didn’t really think of ourselves that way.
During the break, the friends watched the video, cheering and shouting and throwing textbooks around……
It was absolute chaos.
Cute kids.
* * *
Kim Min-sang counted down the hours until Killing Band episode 3 went live.
The announcement post had gotten good traction, but what mattered was the main episode.
He’d been worried about the view count, but there was no need.
“It’s here! It worked!!”
—Views: 127,000
The moment it went live, the view count breezed past 100,000.
“Wow, this is really happening!”
“Director, you worked so hard.”
“Ah, congratulations. You pulled it off.”
“Should we schedule the Cho Hyun-woo Band shoot?”
His colleagues showered him with praise.
Everyone had said it wouldn’t work and told him to give up.
Kim Min-sang looked back on the entire journey—from the moment he’d planned this full of hope, through the despair and disappointment, to now.
Cha Seo-ha had played a huge role in this success.
I’d written him off as just some cocky kid.
But he had exceptional insight.
His confidence had solid grounding.
Thanks to that boy, a piece of content like cool rain had revived the dying band scene.
And the public was talking about it too.
—Wow, Oktatop saved what even Nabitsumo and Bulryangyang-pa couldn’t
—It’s because they hit the algorithm ㅋㅋ
└But they pulled it off, right?
└Yeah, true
└The algorithm’s important, but Oktatop’s been pretty famous lately anyway
—Wow, rock band fans must be thrilled. Is this becoming a regular series like the Killing Verse and Killing Voice?
The public didn’t know the real source of the traffic influx.
Only the channel manager could know that.
It wasn’t the algorithm selecting them—it was people spreading the word that drove up search volume.
Regardless of the cause, it was true that Oktatop’s performance had brought a refreshing wind to the band scene.
* * *
After school, we gathered in the practice room.
To watch the video together and have a meeting about the remaining songs.
“Hey, you all watch the video?”
Heo Jun-sung asked with a slightly irritable tone.
“Yeah, we all saw it. Why?”
“Then you saw this too?”
Heo Jun-sung held up his phone.
—Thanks to Oktatop, the views on Nabitsumo and Bulryangyang-pa’s videos are going crazy too
—Hope of the band scene ㅠㅠ You guys need to do something like this……
—Are you serious? Sucking views with kids who have no credentials? Don’t call that a band scene boom—get a grip
└This guy leaves hate comments on every Oktatop video
└Talentless nobodies, aren’t you sick of this?
—Crazy, how do they perform this well?
—Everyone’s insane. I only knew Kang Min was this good, but the others are all amazing too?
—Dango Music, just stick to hip-hop and ballads. Don’t you understand bands?
└In three episodes, all credibility gone
—Wow, the ensemble is incredible
—The pre-release song is insane
—They’ve got that agency advantage though. Even rookies get on shows like this
—Seems like some editing magic too ㅋㅋㅋ
—Wow, all the pre-release songs are so good
└I think the second pre-release track is the best one
There was some negative feedback, but overall the opinion was good.
The ratio was roughly eight to two, with positive comments overwhelmingly dominant.
But Heo Jun-sung’s expression was the opposite.
“Weren’t we supposed to get hate? This isn’t the reaction we expected……”
Hmm, this guy doesn’t get it right now……
“Heo Jun-sung. Did you forget why we wanted to get hate?”
“Huh? Getting hate is good though, isn’t it?”
“……”
Maybe I should just find a new guitarist and keep going.
“Hey, you idiot. Whether we get hate or not, as long as we get a ton of attention, that’s what matters.”
Kim Ji-hu said it dismissively.
“Oh, that’s how it is?”
“Hey, Cha Seo-ha. Let’s find a new guitarist.”
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
“Hey! Why! I might not understand, but I can learn! Kang Min, did you get it?”
“Of course. How could you not understand that? I knew for sure from the start.”
Judging by his tone, he obviously didn’t understand either.
“But what Jun-sung showed was just the YouTube comments. The community’s probably different.”
At Lee Do-young’s words, Heo Jun-sung quickly scrolled through his phone.
“Oh! That’s true!”
Heo Jun-sung’s expression brightened.
Like the hate itself is what matters, jeez.
This is so frustrating.
The community was filled with countless posts related to Oktatop.

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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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