A Storm in the Kingdom
Along with the sound of a tie-up train, a slap bass sound flew in—razor-sharp yet heavy enough to run you over. Behind the sound battering her entire body through her ears, a low, boiling finger-picking intro began. What resonated was a pitch-black anxiety and foreignness that crept slowly into her ears and slid stickily down her spine. And before she could even complain about it, an unidentified shout repeated over a powerful beat.
Gasp...
She unconsciously brought both hands to her mouth. She didn't know what it was. She didn't know what genre it was. She didn't know the identity of this music or who composed it. But she could tell that something incredible was happening right now. The kind of thing you'd regret if you didn't listen to it at this very moment. Even the people in the chat seemed to agree...
Stand here and stare into my eyes
The truth boiling up from deep below
— gasp
— Female vocals?!
— Who is this band?
— Whoa...
An artificially lowered tone, made slightly rough. A clear tone that carried a strange sense of dissonance. That was why the first voice felt all the more fitting. And following close behind was a second voice, naturally low and distinct.
Take on all the hatred of the world directed at me
There's nowhere to run, and no time for that anyway
The animation locked in with it, creating a powerful contrast of darkness and explosion. A subway station enveloped in pitch-black darkness. A fear that made one shrink back. And a battle within it.
Beyond this darkness, beneath that sky
Even if my life is completely spent
Two vocals with distinctly different vibes merged. The subtle modulation was stripped away, soaring higher and higher. The lyrics occupied both vocal ranges, steadily ratcheting up the tension. Drums and bass rolled like tank treads.
There's no time for that, I won't wait any longer
Right here, right now, Claim My kingdom
And then, an explosion.
The shapeless masses lie beneath my hand
No matter how many worms in the dirt gather
A fleeting pain is merely your shield
Even if you howl and wander, even if you crawl and scream
The boiling lava erupted in an instant. The shouting grew even more violent. The drums. The bass. The piano, the guitar. And all of them supported the two vocals. As if to say the only thing you should be listening to at this moment was this voice.
All of creation only whispers to me
To become infinitely great, endlessly vast
At the end of the labyrinth, a shadow lingers
The moment you cross the boundary, everyone is an enemy
The animation layered over it. A meme-worthy moment that slammed into people's minds as if all of this had been a joke. While that irony felt even more stimulating:
Claim My kingdom
The declaration drew out a void, and a fierce guitar solo of less than ten seconds covered the air as if filling the empty space. And the humming of the two vocals continued to carry the atmosphere.
— Insane
— This is dangerous
— What is this?
— ❗️
— Oh my god
— Are you serious?
— Eh?
And so ended the 1 minute and 26 seconds. While the explosive reactions of the viewers lagged slightly behind due to YouTube's delay, three words slowly stamped themselves onto the screen. The publisher's name. Studio Red Rock. And, Group Sound.
[TV Anime "Train Trail" Season 1 Credit Movie / OP Theme: Group Sound "Kingdom"]
As the playback ended, the title of the video changed. The band's name was clearly stamped alongside the credits.
— Group Sound??
— Eh?
— For real?
— Eh??? ??
— Seriously??
— What is this—
— Is this real!!
— lololol
— !!!!!
— Is this actually real?
— Oi!!
— What the hell?
— Don't joke around
— ???
— Group Sound??
— No way
— Show us the real one
— Seriously, stop messing around
— This is crazy
— This is a disaster lol
— They actually pulled it off
The explosive reaction that erupted as the song ended accelerated once more when the final band name appeared. A chaos as if tens of thousands of people were all shouting at once. A silent clamor, like a stadium packed with people all muttering something to themselves.
No, this makes no sense...
She wanted to add her own voice to the noise, but she quickly closed YouTube and opened Twitter. Her fingers flew across the screen without a moment's rest, briefing the world on the current situation.
And when she checked Twitter's trending topics, she was shocked once again.
#toretore. Trending.
#Groupsound. Trending.
#Kingdom. Trending.
Even through Twitter's sluggish interface, she could feel the sheer volume of tweets skyrocketing in real-time. The view count on her own tweet surged in an instant, and likes—which she rarely ever got—began to pile up.
What... is happening?
It was, quite literally, the beginning of a storm.
Group Sound was, fundamentally, a band that pulled in massive YouTube views. Even their casual, self-produced content and promotional videos easily surpassed a million views. The first episode of their promotional video for Train Trail and Tycoon had already reached 1.7 million views, the second had surpassed a million, and the third was well into the hundreds of thousands.
Moreover, this "view-printing machine" wasn't limited to content produced by Group Sound themselves. Reaction videos, anti-Korean videos, pro-Korean videos, covers, listening reactions, "Do you know Group Sound?" Shorts, "Visiting Jongno-gu, the birthplace of Group Sound," "What kind of place was Club Paradox, the home base of Group Sound?" and so on.
It had gotten to the point where tips were circulating on places like the Shorts Minor Gallery advising people to shove the girls' names in somehow because putting "Group Sound" in the title was a guaranteed view cheat code.
But all of that was a mere trifle compared to what was happening now.
[TV Anime "Train Trail" Season 1 Credit Movie / OP Theme: Group Sound "Kingdom"]
"This isn't view manipulation, right?"
"How do you even manipulate views... into the tens of millions..."
"No, but isn't this number just absurd? That's the only explanation I can think of."
"Hey. We just did a good job. Deal with it."
24-hour views: 2.4 million.
48-hour views: 3.8 million.
72-hour views: 5.1 million.
96-hour views: 6.2 million.
The views were climbing so steeply that even Suyun, the composer of the song, was left speechless. The total views of the entire Group Sound official channel barely scraped ten million, yet Kingdom had surpassed ten million in the blink of an eye and was still climbing without any signs of slowing down.
There were plenty of reasons for this. As Jung Hyun-ah's obsession proved, Train Trail itself had a massive cult following while simultaneously enjoying mainstream popularity. The opening animation was intense and exceptionally well-made, treating the viewers' eyes. And the "short-form friendly" moment in the latter half, suggested by Yoo Seoha, had gone viral due to its sheer irony. Challenge videos were being uploaded not just daily, but every few minutes, with even celebrities copying the bizarre, mysterious dance.
But even if you stripped all of that away, Kingdom would have still pulled in massive views. This wasn't just one person's opinion; almost everyone who heard the song and watched the opening felt the same way. Because the song was just that good.
[Any good songs to listen to lately?] Recommendations please T_T
— Group Sound's "Kingdom" is really good.
↳ Huh? But that's an anime opening, and it's a Japanese song;
↳ Just listen to it, it's good.
— Never in my life did I think I'd put a Japanese song on my playlist lol
— "Kingdom" is a banger.
↳ Isn't this an anime song?
↳ ??
From casual anime fans to music enthusiasts scouring YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music for something good to listen to.
— Honestly, it's not some incredibly special, pioneering track like the normies are making it out to be. I'd bet my neck on it.
↳ What is your neck even worth?
↳ But what's seriously insane is that these guys did that kind of music for their 2nd album, hit it big with "I'll Wait" and "Faintly, But Surely", got scouted, and then out of fucking nowhere they drop a sound that completely shatters their existing image and is miles away from the mainstream.
↳ It's literally not an idea a sane person would have.
↳ But the crazy thing is that it's actually fucking good lol. It's honestly ridiculous. What is Ha Suyun even? Do geniuses actually exist in this world?
↳ Hey you punk, is Teacher Ha Suyun your friend? Put some respect on her name.
Even the picky hipsters were won over. Kingdom and Group Sound satisfied countless people, and the view count proved it. And those views exploded once more, because the reaction to the first episode of the Train Trail anime was also phenomenally good.
— Red Rock fucking sharpened their blades for this lol
— The animation quality is insane.
— Are they refusing to be outdone by the opening's popularity? The actual show is incredible too.
— Tycoon is absolutely stonking lol
— I'm watching this anime Train Trail lately, and it's so good T_T the art is crazy
— The voice acting literally gave me goosebumps.
— Holy crap, this anime is insane!
— This might sound crazy, but I think Train Trail is the best anime this season. Yes, even after watching just the first episode.
Perhaps refusing to be outdone by the explosive popularity of the opening theme, Kingdom, the anime itself showcased incredible animation quality and delicate voice acting, practically cementing its status as the undisputed king of the season. The publisher and Studio Red Rock were in a festive mood, and while not quite to that extent, Zenith Music Entertainment and Label Echo Sound—who were guaranteed to be showered in money—were also cheering.
Yet, the very creators of Kingdom, Group Sound, were holed up in their practice room.
"Summer's going to be hot, right?"
"Of course it's going to be hot. The last time we traveled here was in the summer. Back then, seriously..."
"No, that was a trip. Now it's work, so it's on a completely different level, isn't it?"
Under the cool draft of the air conditioner, two girls were chatting idly while nibbling on ice cream. Suyun watched them and let out a soft sigh. Back in Korea, it definitely wasn't the season to turn on the AC yet, but after coming to Japan, the weather was just...
Wait, does Korea turn on the AC around this time of year nowadays too?
Thinking back to her childhood memories, she didn't recall it ever being this hot at this time of year. Global warming really seemed to be creeping up on them. Was it really okay to blast the AC like this? Shouldn't they try to endure at least this much? If you think it's cold, it's cold; if you think it's hot, it's hot. It was summer, so of course it was hot, and one should accept what is natural. Blasting the AC like this felt like defying the laws of nature.
"Where are you going?"
"Just checking how hot it is outside."
With those thoughts, Suyun opened the window to check the temperature outside, only to slam it shut immediately. Whatever. She'd heard that once carbon capture technology or whatever was developed, things would work out somehow... It would probably be developed before the world ended, she figured.
"It's already this hot, so thinking about performing in August makes me feel so hopeless. When did they say the festival was again?"
"Mid-August. We're on Sunday."
Suyun grabbed an ice cream from the fridge, popped it in her mouth, and opened her email inbox on the computer to look at the message sent by the festival organizers. It was an email containing information about the festival, along with a request to coordinate the stage setup and song selection.
Where are we...
"Where are we performing?"
Before she knew it, Choi Iseor had slid over and slumped her weight onto Suyun, while Yoo Seoha watched with an amused expression. Despite glaring at Iseor's face due to the heavy weight, Suyun operated the computer to bring up the festival map and the venue layout.
If categorized by tiers, they were in Tier 3 out of Tiers 1 to 4. It was by no means high, but...
"Look at the headliner. Shouldn't we go watch them too?"
"Not my style."
"Heol. Are you disrespecting our grand seniors right now?"
"What seniors?"
"Anyone with a longer career than us is a senior."
The headliner of the main Ocean Stage was none other than the illustrious Radiohead. A massive name they couldn't even dream of looking up to right now. Suyun scrolled down while listening to their pathetic banter. There, on the third line of the Sonic Stage, was their name.
"We're here."
"It looks a bit small."
"But it's actually pretty good. First of all, it's an indoor venue."
Since they were a band known for their stage production, perhaps they had been assigned here for that reason. With that thought, Suyun showed the girls the environment of the Sonic Stage. It was quite a large space for an indoor venue. The stage. Other performances. After playing the video, Suyun stared at the ceiling for a moment.
Should we release a remix or a new arrangement specifically for the festival?
"E-Everyone!"
What broke Suyun's train of thought was Jung Hyun-ah, who suddenly burst into the room. She was panting heavily, completely unlike her usual self.
"What is it?"
"Th-Th-Th-Th... Look at the news right now!!"
"What's wrong? Did something happen?"
"The Train Trail... voice actor!! Ah, it's, it's hard to explain...!"
Hyun-ah stumbled in and shoved her phone screen in front of Suyun. As Suyun stared at the screen, she couldn't believe her eyes. What in the world... How was this even possible?
"Affair, assault, abortion... uh..."
"...Is this really news about Train Trail? Are you sure you read it right?"
While Suyun was processing this, Iseor muttered. Suyun couldn't agree more.