Tokyo: The evil god doesn't want to be the top star

After asking a few questions indifferently, the man called "President Matsudaira" ended the call in a calm tone.

"The old site of the Matsudaira clan, the spirit summoning formation that was hidden so secretly, was actually discovered by the authorities. Is it a coincidence, or did someone with ulterior motives notice it?"

"The 'resurrected' relatives in the community, as well as the ancestors in the Soul-Calming Tower, must have died."

"If it weren't for the favor of the Buddha, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to gain freedom, and I wouldn't be able to escape the cycle of reincarnation at this moment..."

Staring intently at the bustling city below, his arms trembled subconsciously, and the phone in his palm broke into two pieces with a "click".

"complex."

The next second, Matsudaira uttered a word, and the phone was restored to its original state as if a video was played in reverse.

"Amitabha, for a moment I forgot the true meaning of the Buddha and violated the precept of anger."

“Always have compassion for all living beings, even those who are not living beings…”

Then, he bowed his head reverently and recited some obscure scriptures.

"Boss, who made you angry so early in the morning?"

A handsome, muscular young man in a bathrobe got off the bed and leaned silently against his side.

"Nothing to do with you."

"Speaking of which, you are going to rejoin the crew for recording at noon today?"

Matsudaira skillfully reached out and grabbed the other person's slender waist under her robe.

"Well, it's been a while since I can stay at the president's place. I really don't want to leave."

"In this show, Xia Fan from the Burning Department has Yayoi Tsuki's hype, and he's too popular. I have to work extra hard to live up to the president's expectations and take the first place as planned."

If there are viewers who follow the "Idol Birth Festival" here, they will definitely recognize that he is the five-star trainee of the local group, Takahashi Yu.

Although Takahashi Yu received a five-star rating for his first stage and his overall popularity ranking was hovering in the top four or five, he did not have many screen times in the first few episodes of the show, and his presence was relatively weak among the five-star trainees. He only left the audience with the stereotype that he "seems to be very good at dancing."

Only the top management of J Company knew that although Yuta Hirano from the same company was a talented singer and dancer and had good looks, his long-term overseas life had made him have a hot temper and was assessed by the company as having "many uncontrollable factors", so he was not the first candidate for debut.

On the contrary, Takahashi Yu, who was also a trainee selected by J Company, got the "training counterattack and championship script".

According to the plan, in the later stages of the program, he would show obvious "growth" in all aspects of his abilities through "unremitting efforts", step by step surpassing several trainees who were in the limelight in the early stages, such as Hirano Yuta and Kishi Sho, and unexpectedly take the first place in popularity.

But now, Xia Fan, a man with dazzling appearance, perfect dancing and touching singing, suddenly appeared. From the very beginning of the show, he took advantage of the hype of Yayoi Tsuki to attract traffic and took the first place in the gap, disrupting the "script" that several companies had discussed in advance.

Chapter 249 I Don’t Create Idols

2024-07-13

"Xia Fan...in which year's talent show was there no small surprise?"

After saying the name, President Matsudaira smiled nervously: "Don't worry, go and participate. Akimoto Manjiro has promised me that he will get the program back on track."

"If you say so, I will have confidence."

Takahashi Yusaku acted like a little bird and smiled with relief.

If Manjiro Akimoto is the "creator of girl groups", then the person next to him is the "pioneer of male idols".

President Matsudaira, whose full name is Jenny Matsudaira.

Several decades ago, after the war, Matsudaira Johnny returned to District 11 from overseas. He was originally a baseball team coach, but one day he suddenly switched to the entertainment industry and founded the original four-member boy band "Naniwa Boys" with several baseball club members...

At that time, the war had just ended, and the entertainment market in District 11 was still full of big, burly male artists with fists bigger than sandbags...

These four "wave boys" who are good at singing and dancing and look prettier than girls immediately crushed the tradition and opened up the initial "boy group market".

After that, Matsudaira Johnny founded J Club and created many popular boy groups such as Yamakaze, Saitama Boys, V9, SIXY ZONE, etc., almost monopolizing the male idol market in recent decades.

To date, even though the business scope has continued to expand and become one of the top three conglomerates in the entertainment industry, "boy group idols" are still J Company's core business that no one else can interfere with.

From previous boy band talent shows to this year's "Idol Birth Festival", no matter how the organizers and program teams change, J-Corp has always been the largest sponsoring capital behind the scenes. Even this time's producer representative Goro Kimura was originally trained by Johnny Matsudaira.

"Takahashi, you are just a trainee. Being able to spend the night in the president's 'Buddha Hall' is already a special privilege. You still need to work hard to make your debut..."

"That's right. During this period, we will accompany the president well."

Several other men who were also good-looking and tall came around shirtless and glanced at Takahashi You with jealous eyes.

These people are all new idol members of boy groups that J-company has been promoting in recent years. Although their popularity is lukewarm, they can be regarded as Takahashi Yu's "predecessors" from various perspectives.

"What the seniors said is right. I will definitely work hard and debut with the best results, so as not to let the president down."

Takahashi You narrowed his eyes, suppressed the disdain in his heart, and nodded in a meek manner.

For local young people in District 11, if they want to debut in a boy band with the best resources, their only option is to become a trainee at J-company.

At J-Company, no matter how outstanding a male trainee is, if he wants to debut as a group, in addition to the iron rule that the training time must not be less than two and a half years, he must also consider the mood of Matsudaira Johnny.

Matsudaira Johnny has always been a Buddhist, and there is an entire separate area on the upper floor of J Company, which is called the "Buddhist Hall" within the company.

It is a semi-public fact within J agency that male trainees who stay overnight in the "Buddha Hall" can debut earlier than others and gain a steady stream of subsequent exposure resources.

"It's time for morning classes."

Matsudaira Jenny turned quietly and walked into a spacious hall next door.

"Since you have followed me into the 'True Word Path', you should believe in the One Word Lord as God for the rest of your life. Regardless of whether you are in the temple or not, you must not miss the daily morning prayers..."

In the center of the neatly arranged cushions is an exquisite Buddha statue carved from the bones of some unknown creature.

"Even if it's just one word for evil, or just one word for good, the god who judges everything by words..."

"You said that the mind of spiritual clarity and understanding is actually within the body, just like a person in the hall..."

Led by Matsudaira Jenny, more than a dozen handsome young men followed, sat down on the cushions, and chanted scriptures to the Buddha statue.

"Buddha saves those who are destined to be saved, and I do not create idols..."

"I just inject infinite love into you children so that your natural talents can be displayed to the world..."

As everyone was reciting the sutra devoutly, Matsudaira Jenny stood up with a compassionate look on his face, and the men on his left and right, looking up and down...

"Company B, you want a mere Xia Fan to shake the stage I created for you. That's simply foolish."

……

Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokohama City.

The night was as dark as water, and the Yokohama Port was quiet and deserted under the moonlight.

"Amabie..."

"Amabie..."

"Amabie..."

Inside the dark container, a crowd of people huddled together, wriggling instinctively like maggots.

In the center of this group of "maggots" is a wooden sculpture of "Amabie" with a bird's beak, a human face and a fish body.

"The previous home... uh... wasn't it very convenient?"

"Why...oh...let's disperse...ha...and why do we need to notify everyone so soon...and choose a place like this in the wild...to hold the ceremony?"

In the center of the crowd, Shibata Makoto was standing there, sweating profusely and breathing heavily.

After recording the show, he received the news from the "Master"...

The "Healing House" is now deserted, and believers can only hold "purification ceremonies" secretly at irregular intervals according to temporary notices.

"Who made... the pseudo-government... um... afraid of the power of the Lord God... and targeted us..."

"Several...sisters' homes...were destroyed..."

"According to Master Jizi's order, we can only disperse and temporarily select a place to hold the ceremony every week, oh!"

Above, the kind-hearted "master" lined the streets to welcome them.

"Be careful, be careful..."

The strange image of Jizi, who was as beautiful as a flower and had a body covered with fish scales, flashed before Shibata Makoto's eyes.

"Even Jizi's whereabouts are uncertain... Where should I go to lick every week... worship!!!"

His expression, which had been forcing himself to be patient, relaxed and turned into a roar like a downpour of rain.

"The time has come... Tsk tsk... Lord Jizi will naturally inform you..."

"Now... just concentrate on recording... that program..."

"But... you seem to be... at the bottom of the popularity list..."

"Can we really debut smoothly like we are doing now... and bring us more family members?"

“Master” fell to the ground like mud, gasping for breath and asking.

"Humph, I was just being low-key before because we hadn't reached the knockout stage yet."

"I have mastered the extraordinary power given by Lord Amabie. How could I lose to those ordinary people?"

"From the next performance onwards, no one will be able to stop me from moving forward..."

Shibata Makoto, with his limbs exhausted, was floating in the sea of ​​people, his narrowed eyes full of anticipation.

……

Shinjuku, Shibuya, NHK Studio Park.

"Everyone, take your positions. The fourth episode of "Idol Birth Festival" is about to begin..."

"Three, two, one, ACTION!"

"Dear trainees, after a short break of a few days, welcome back to the recording site of the fourth episode..."

"After the baptism of the first stage and the theme song, you are about to step onto the exciting first performance stage."

"Next, let me explain the competition rules for the first performance stage..."

Goro Kimura, a handsome middle-aged man wearing a black printed kimono and with shiny black hair, stood on the old wooden stage, looking like the host of a festival in the Edo period.

Chapter 250 Performance Selection

2024-07-13

"For the first performance, the 'International Group' and the 'Local Group' will each form seven teams, and they will each draw the same program and compete against each other in pairs..."

"During the official performance, four instructors and 1,000 audience members will rate the overall performance and individual performance."

"The winning group will receive 5 million popularity votes, which will be distributed to each trainee based on their individual performance..."

The trainees, wearing the same suit uniforms and with exquisite makeup and hair, lined up obediently under the stage and listened carefully to the program rules.

"After this performance ends and the show is officially broadcast, there will be two days of online audience voting."

"After that, the production team will eliminate the 51 trainees with the lowest rankings based on the accumulated popularity votes!"

"In addition, the popularity votes of personal direct-shot videos will continue to accumulate, and the popularity votes corresponding to the initial stage ratings in the early stage will also be added to the individual's name from now on."

At this point, Kimura Goro's expression also became very serious.

"what?!"

"51 people will be eliminated... that means more than half of the people will leave..."

The trainees in the audience couldn't help but burst into an uproar.

Although they knew the general rules in advance, when the crisis of having a 1 in 50 chance of being eliminated really came, they had a more real understanding of the positioning of the program as a "survival talent show"...

This so-called talent show is essentially an indiscriminate battle royale among 101 people, and stage performance, talent, appearance, popularity, etc. are all just weapons in their hands to fight each other.

"If that's the case... those five-star guys... have already survived, right?"

"Damn it... I can't be eliminated in the first performance... I must get... the bonus tickets for the performance..."

The gazes cast upon those "five-star trainees" were filled with jealousy and resentment.

After all, several five-star trainees were already ranked high in popularity in their personal straight-shot videos, and now they also had 500,000 extra popularity tickets awarded during the ratings...

You know, Xia Fan, who ranks first in the straight-shot video ranking, has only 1.3 million popularity votes in total.

The second-placed Hirano Yuta received less than 600,000 votes.

This is only the first performance, and the audience's investment of emotions in the trainees, as well as their willingness to spend money to vote for the shows, are still at a relatively low level.