The first stage the participants performed was a new theme song.

As the season was endlessly successful, the second theme song was urgently added to the show to match the variety.

'I think I've heard this song somewhere.'

Park Moondae hoped that it was because he had heard the song in the future, and not because the song was plagiarized. In any case, the audience's response to the song was tremendous, even though it was a new song they weren't familiar with. It was just fun for them to be able to see the participants in real life.

Of course, the reaction of the TV viewers watching the show differed.

Comments cheering for the participants quickly turned the page, and got updated so quickly that they almost became unreadable.

"Huuu.."

"I'm sweating."

Performing in front of thousands of people for the first time, the participants came down the stage and enjoyed themselves while breathing hard.

'I don't even know what I did.'

Because he had to learn the new song in such a hurry at the last minute, Park Moondae focused all his attention on not making a mistake on stage.

There seemed to be a lot of people, but because the audience was far away from the stage, it almost looked like a hologram. Because this didn't feel real.

And before the participants came to their senses and the tension took over, everyone was busy running around changing clothes to meet the time schedule.

In the meantime, the MC appeared on the stage and was leading the show.

"Ah, what a wonderful first performance!"

Since it was a live broadcast that would last over three hours, there were different people hosting in different parts of the show to reduce the fatigue of one person.

"We still have a lot of performances left! Everyone, please stay tuned!"

The MC, who had hosted in various audition programs several times, skillfully added ad-libs to pass the time until the VCR appears.

"The team performance prepared by the participants for this final, in what order the performances were decided?"

Soon, a light-hearted video of the participants deciding the order through a mini-games was screened.

'I couldn't sleep because this was filmed at midnight.'

Park Moondae who was below the stage, heard the video playing and recalled the situation of that time. Ryu Chungwoo had complete victory in the chosen game 'chicken fight'.

'Shouldn't this be a predictable result, since he's an athlete?'

What's surprising is that Seon Ahyun did well. Thanks to the fact that he was able to stay in the game until just before Ryu Chungwoo, Park Moondae's team secured the second priority for choosing the performance order.

Of course, we couldn't just comfortably choose the number of performance order that was still left empty.

The production crew let the teams starting from the last place choose the order first, and the teams choosing after that were able to push the former team out and take their chosen performance order. It was a cruel method that always appeared in any survival programs.

Of course, the participants who were already used to this kind of gimmick, skillfully avoided the trap. Everyone reacted exaggeratedly and laughed, softening the mood.

Park Moondae heard the sound of Keun Sejin laughing as he pushed another team out of the order they wanted. Since the opposing team had already been pushed out before, I could hear them making strange noises as they got the performance order they didn't want.

"Woah, it's scary."

Just at that time, Keun Sejin, who was arranging the microphone on his clothes next to Park Moondae, heard the sound from the stage and stuck out his tongue.

Although his rank was on the rise, he felt more nervous, because the level of his rank did not guarantee that he could debut.

It was rare for Keun Sejin's hands to be trembling. Park Moondae clicked his tongue.

"I heard that Kim Raebin has calming medicines"

"It's fine~ I've never taken those pills before."

Keun Sejin waved his hands as a refusal, and behind him the other team members who had all changed their clothes came running.

"Team Park is going up~"

The staff shouted and ran to their side. Because of the lack of numbers in staffs, who were needed both behind and on the stage, they had to run here and there.

"We're also going, right?"

The moment the participants were about to follow along, Seon Ahyun raised his hand.

"Ho-hold on, ca-can't we cheer first... and then go?"

"Shall we?"

Park Moondae held out his hand without saying a word. Then the team members quickly put their hands on it. Lee Se-jin also reluctantly put his hand on it.

"Fighting!"

The cheer that wasn't broadcasted ended shortly.

"I'd like to make a wise speech, but we don't have any time, so let's run."

Laughing at Keun Sejin's humorous remarks, the team members quickly ran in the hallway.

And at the same time in the concert hall.

After the VCR which ended without showing the final sequence, the MC finally moved on to the next part.

"Introducing the first team performing that was decided after a fierce battle for the stage order..."

The profiles of the participants appeared on the big screen where the VCR was shown.

"Team is the first to be on stage!"

The profiles disappeared from the screen, and a scene of the participants high-fiving each other was shown on the screen with their team name shown as No.1.

Fans, who were bewildered by the general competition program, soon realized the situation.

The votes don't start after the stage. They are already receiving votes now, so it's definitely advantageous to go first. Of course, if you have the confidence to do well!

The audience reaction changed in an instant.

Besides, it was a pretty gutsy choice to choose to be the start anyway.

People watched the stage preparation process in anticipation.

Participants sitting inside the PPL franchise cafe and talking over drinks were first broadcasted.

As the cuts on the screen was tensionless, the tension in the comments was also eased briefly.

The caption passed by on the screen.

Of course, the reason why it looks more mellow on the screen is because they were being filmed again for the PPL after they had chosen the concept.

After those words, there was a moment of silence, and the caption came out.

It was Park Moondae who broke the silence.

Then Seon Ahyun raised his hand. For reference, Seon Ahyun's stuttering was finally not included in the subtitles, after the production team got cursed at for several episodes.

Exclamation marks appeared above the participants' heads all over the screen.

Even Lee Se-jin, who nodded, appeared on the screen.

The screen was switched to the smiles of the participants who clapped their hands enthusiastically. And the theme keyword was never mentioned again. There were only a few cuts in the video of the participants practicing and being praised while recording.

Seon Ahyun's ears turned red. He nodded and went back to his seat with his head down, and the following part which was sung by Park Moondae went okay at once. The composers smiled and looked each other, and then asked Park Moondae.

Obviously, they didn't show the singing again from the beginning, and interview cuts with composers were inserted instead.

And the heartwarming recorded scenes of other team members also crossed several cuts. There didn't seem to be any evil editing since it was the finals, so they didn't force any weird cuts.

However, it was impossible to guess the theme of the recorded part of the lyrics because only that part was sensored like a ghost.

Thanks to this, viewers were wallowing in curiosity about the sensored word 'beep'.

While the viewers were chatting, the team, who had decided on the main dancer without any conflict, seemed to have been practicing the choreography endlessly, and then the VCR quickly ended.

Along with the phrase

When the viewers were a little bewildered by the screen that ended in a flash, the backstage screen was caught on the viewing screen that returned to the concert hall.

The black screen crackled, then blue and red glitches popped up and a white text appeared.

//TN: Challenger in Korean.

After a while, the screen went off with a sharp mechanical sound.

And the theme melody of the song began to fill the venue. Transformed into 8-bits.

The blatant electronic note started with one melody and gradually developed into a harmony.

As the sequence on the screen evolves from a classic game to a modern console game, the melody quickly became three-dimensional. And as soon as the theme melody changed, the backstage screen opened.

Swoosh-

Participants walked out of the dark stage with blue and red lasers. As they settled down, the 8-bit melody changed and disappeared into a small accompaniment.

"......"

The audience also reflexively stopped cheering and shut their mouths.

The silhouettes on the stage slowly formed into a formation.

//TN: this chapter made me so hyped. i wanna know what happens next so i'm just gonna keep translating. rip school assignments..