Jibeom arrives at the filming place for Aether and is surprised to see how amazing it all looked. He was quickly rushed into a confessional to talk about himself and was asked many things which he gave short answers but he was always told he is quite likable so he wasn't worried. He is quickly rushed over to one of the 80 seats and as he looked around he saw many different trainees and as this show is meant to debut a global kpop boy group he sees many foreigners and popular trainees and even some former idols from popular companies, just overall a bunch of different people. He takes his seat and sits next to a very handsome guy who was looking down a lot and looked quite shy. Jibeom decides to look at his stats and strike up conversation "Hi I'm So Jibeom, what's your name?" He says kindly. The man looks up and puts on a small smile and says "I'm Jung Ryunwoo, nice to meet you!" The man was very handsome having a nice jawline, height on the taller side, honey brown hair, and eyes relative to a dog or puppy. Jibeom examined his stats and was amazed
[Stats]
Jung Ryunwoo
182 cm
20 y/o
Vocals: B-
Dance: A-
Rap: A (S-)
Visuals: A+
Stage Presence: (C-) B+
[Traits]
"I Believe in You!" A Rank
The more friends around you all stats get a 2 letter buff
Jibeomwasamazed his stats as he seemed to be one of the better trainees and his ability is amazing. Jibeom kept the conversation going with Ryunwoo always giving a small answer with a smile that anyone would fall for. The two become fast friends and Jibeom smiles as he notices the camera noticing them. He quietly asked "Hyung are you part of a company?" Ryunwoo immediately answers shyly "Not anymore, I couldn't debut because I'm shy on stage." Jibeom than noticed his C- In stage presence but it had a B+ next to it than he got a quest.
"Help Ryunwoo with his confidence before the show ends!"
Reward: 2 stat points, one draw ticket
He looked extremely confused at the quest but he decided not to worry about it and they start talking again. The producers yell their gonna get started as the filming finally began. Everything was quite uneventful with them just talking until the mentors came out. There was TJ, the main rapper of the boy group RipJaw which was a rap focused group, Kim Soojin who is a main dancer of one of the top girl groups NewDream, and there was the two soloist vocalist Gina Lee and Won Jihoon both of which are very popular. The mc was Sim Seoyoon, the center of the shows sister group made from the show NYX: Choose Your Idol which had a bad relationship for it being rigged. She spoke introducing the mentors and then she told everyone what was going on "All trainees will come on stage and perform something that we told you to prepare as you all know and you will all be given a rank from A to D, 20 in each rank, This will determine if you will stand more in the front or back during the signal song and to tell you where we think your skills are. Jibeom used his last skill point on his vocals for extra reassurance as he was worried of getting a low rank. There were a bunch of trainees who all got C or D until the trainees of Sky Media, ReJoy's company, came on to the stage. The three of them all had this aura and amazing stats.
[Dylan Ji]
176 cm
20 y/o
Vocals: A-
Dance: B
Rap: C
Visual: B+
SP: A-
Trait:
"Best Producer" Rank A
Gives the ability to produce 75% faster when motivated
[Lee Gun]
179 cm
21 y/o
Vocals: A-
Dance: B+
Rap: B-
Visual: B
SP: B-
Jibeom kept looking in amazement until they said something that interested him. TJ asked the oldest trainee there "You were on a survival show prior to this one right?" The trainee quickly answered "Yes sir." Jibeom decided to look at his stats and was surprised
[Yasumoto Koki]
178 cm
24 y/o
Vocals: B
Dance: A
Rap: B-
Visuals: A-
SP: A
Traits
"We will win" Rank S
Whe activated boost team efficiency by 75% making everyone better
"Perfect Leader" Rank A
Team cooperation increases by 50%
Jibeom saw his broken ability and how amazing his stats were and was surprised. He looked at them perform the ReJoy song song Ricochet which was know for its high energy dancing and vocals and they all performed it perfectly with all 3 of them getting an A immediately with not too much criticism. Soojin says "Koki your dancing and stage presence is amazing and you are an adequate vocalist and rapper. Dylan you are very well rounded and your stage presence is also well. Fun you are also well rounded but you need to work on your stage presence a bit. The next set of Trainees all got C or B until they got to another bigger company named Limit Productions. They had two trainees with remarkable stats and one had only trained for 1 year apparently or that's what Jibeom heard as he didn't care much for the talking but he did notice one was quite tall but looked young.
Kim Taegeon
175 cm
18 y/o
Vocal: A+
Dance: C
Rap: B
Visual: B+
SP: B
Trait
"Voice of an angel" Rank A
All group vocal training increases by 60%
His eyes are glued as he is suprised to find such a amazing vocalist but then he notices the other boy.
SherkovGrigoriy(Grisha) Chung-Grigorievich
184 cm
16 y/o
Vocal: B-
Dance: A+ (S)
Rap: B+ (A)
Visual: A (A+)
SP: A+
Traits
"Boring…" S Rank
All stats improve 50% quicker but cap no sooner unless you keep motivated
Jibeom kept looking at Grisha amazed by his stats as they were remarkable. Soojin spoke saying "You are one of- if not the best dancer in the competition and your rap and stage presence are extremely good especially as you are a one year trainee, it is obvious you will go extremely far." Grisha and Taegeon were immediately put into A rank after their earth breaking performance with Taegeons vocals and Grisha's Presence and Dance they were remarkable and even someone as amazing as Ryunwoo was impressed beside him. A couple more trainees passed with some memorable Bs and some others until it was the individual trainees turns. Ryunwoo went up first and did a self written rap and choreography and it was going well but you could tell how nervous he was and and his voice started shaking a bit along with little to no expression being shown. He started to stumble a lot but his talent was obvious. TJ speaks first "The lyrics are good and you had a obvious flow but you need to work on your confidence on stage." All the other mentors gave the same advice with skin praising his dancing and he gets a B and he comes back to his seat a little disappointed. Jibeom asks what's wrong and Ryunwoo says "I might not be able to debut if I don't get over my stage fright" he says sadly. Jibeom looks at him and says " Hyung you are too good to not debut, if you ever need help with the stage I can help you." Ryunwoo looks at him and gives him a thankful smile as they go back to watching the performances together with one last trainee duo came from a Chinese entertainment and are former members of a Chinese boy group that disbanded after a year apparently. Jibeom took a look at their stats and realized that they are amazing as the mentors began speaking to them. Gina starts speaking "Wang Xulan you speak english and korean, correct?"
Xulan answers quickly "Yes I do." They than ask what they'll perform and they naturally chose one of their songs and do extremelly well. Jibeom checks their stats and was again suprised
LongXulan
183 cm
22 y/o
Vocals: A
Dance: A-
Rap: C+
Visual: A
SP: B+
Wu Jin
178 cm
20 y/o
Vocals: B-
Dance: B-
Rap: B
Visuals: A
SP: A
The judges spoke with Gina saying "Xulan you are an exceptional vocalist and dancer and Jin your stage presence is incredible although you can still improve in other things. I can tell you guys are debuted idols." Jibeom finally realized how fierce the completion was and how much work he would need to put in. He was called on stage and the judges spoke "It said here that you are an individual trainee and you put vocals down as your strength, correct" said jihoon in a monotone voice and Jibeom answered "Yes sir" in a somewhat nervous tone as Seoyoon says "You may now begin." Jibeom nervously puts on his ear mic and starts singing while dancing and his voice was extremely stable which is another aspect of the vocal color trait. He was hitting every beat quite adequately and his vocals are shining very much. He did an extremely good job for his skill level and he knew he would get an alright rank. After he finished he was exhausted and was breathing heavily as he was now exhausted. They all gathered together to discuss as Jihoon speaks "I would just like to say you did really good and your vocal color is exquisite" Gina immediately chimes in saying "I completely agree, your voice felt like a warm hug if that makes sense." Jibeom was smiling ear to ear hearing that and then Soojin intervened saying "Your moves are still a bit clunky and your still stiff in your upper body movement but you are on the right track." All the judges agreed to give him a B. Jibeom was overjoyed and went back to his seat as Grisha who towers above him from behind taps his shoulder and tells him "I like your voice." He was one of the younger contestants and his Korean wasn't fluent yet but you can tell he was trying so Jibeom said thank you in English which put a smile on Grisha's face that hadn't been seen in the recording at all as Taegeon watched him like a proud older brother. Seoyoon comes up and explain that the group will be decided 50% by the judges, 25% from domestic votes, and 25% from global votes and says that was the end in the ranking with every rank now being full with surprisingly minimal rearranging of trainees. They announced that it was time to show the signal song and they did not want to waste anymore time as filming has been going on for 8 hours. The song was called "Paradise With You!" It was an upbeat and heartfelt song and had very hard vocal and dance lines. They discussed how there would be a performance for the show with fancams and a street performance to get the shows name out there a little more. Everyone was then told to get up as it was time to get sorted into dorms with 4 people per dorm and that all the judges would also be mentors and help everyone handle the harder parts of the performance. Jibeom was excited as this was the real start of everything.
End of Chapter 4