Terms of the Deal
Saturday, October 29th — the day of Yun Seo-a's concert.
And then another day passed, and it was Sunday.
Ssa-yo appeared on stream looking thoroughly haggard and announced the evaluation results for the third mission of the Wooga-dol audition.
"Right there. That exact part. I really liked this. Ideas like this are genuinely fresh."
He had pre-marked the standout moments from each contestant's content and was airing them on his own stream as short highlight reels.
Watching those clips alongside the viewers, I barely managed to suppress the laugh that threatened to slip out.
To someone who already knew the future, Ssa-yo's intentions were painfully transparent.
He wasn't just playing the contestants' videos at random. The future passers already sitting in his heart got more airtime and more enthusiastic reactions — all so that when the results dropped, the whole thing would feel justified.
Seeing him go through all that while looking so worn out, I almost felt a little sorry for him.
Love him or hate him, he's the one who opened the floodgates for the virtual scene on Pangea TV. I hope things work out for him, at least.
The truth was, I didn't dislike Ssa-yo. In my previous life he'd never gotten tangled up with Lucy, and even now I hadn't taken any real damage because of him. If anything, I was the one deliberately using him — so I was the one coming out ahead.
Which was why, in the spirit of a mutual win-win, I sent him a Discord message. A serious request for a deal.
I set the timing of that deal for after the third-mission results of the Wooga-dol audition were announced. Ssa-yo had fretted and pushed to hear the terms early, but I shut him down cold. Reveal the contents of the deal now, and he'd have room to maneuver. Only after the passers were announced would my chips be worth their maximum value.
Maybe I've got a tiny share of responsibility for how wrecked his face looks right now?
Still, once the deal went through, his situation would improve from where it was. With that thought settled, I turned my attention back to Ssa-yo's stream.
"Next up is Seo-a's concert. Ha, this one was genuinely moving. From the very start, it was just… really…"
In his heart, Ssa-yo had almost certainly already crossed me off the list of potential passers. But he didn't dare take the risk of cutting my airtime on today's broadcast.
Pangea TV's first-ever virtual concert. Peak concurrent viewers: 15,783. Even a mid-tier streamer as solid as Ssa-yo couldn't touch a number like that without a major production. After generating that kind of buzz, treat me like a supporting act? The backlash would hit immediately. The conspiracy theories already smoldering against Ssa-yo in the communities would catch real fire.
Knowing that full well, I could watch his stream at my leisure.
"Next is Yun Seo-a's turn. Yun Seo-a also held a concert yesterday. I was deeply impressed as well."
Yun Seo-a's evaluation followed — and compared to mine, it was inevitably shorter. No helping it. We'd competed in the exact same category — a concert — and the quality gap, plus every broadcast metric, had made the ranking crystal clear. Even so, you could tell Ssa-yo was still giving Yun Seo-a careful attention. She was still one of the final-passer candidates, then.
A short while later, with Baiyo as the last entry, every third-round contestant's video had finished airing.
So what decision would Ssa-yo make?
"For a full week, I watched every contestant's streams with real dedication. Not just me — Jerry and Great Moon as well. We held our first meeting last night, and a second one this morning. The question was: who do we pass?"
Mentions of me dominated the chat, followed by popular picks like Yun Seo-a and Baiyo. Then, gradually, the current of public opinion flowed in one direction: if possible, they wanted to see every last one of them make it to the final stage.
Had he anticipated that sentiment?
"Everyone passes. We've decided to put all fourteen contestants on the final stage."
Ssa-yo's bold call. The more people on the final stage, the more individual performances you had to build — labor and production costs climbing in lockstep. It was clearly a burden for him, yet he was running full tilt for the sake of the Wooga-dol audition's success.
As far as I was concerned, that was great news. The higher the Wooga-dol audition's prestige rose, the higher the evaluation I'd receive for having made it to the end.
Alright. Time to make a deal.
Time to soothe the fretting, whining Ssa-yo.
What I wanted from Ssa-yo was simple.
My withdrawal — and Lucy's — from the Wooga-dol audition. But it needed a proper justification, and active care afterward. Getting branded as traitors by the Wooga-dol audition fandom would be a real headache.
From Ssa-yo's perspective, there was zero reason to agree. Just manufacturing that justification was a pain, and on top of that he'd have to keep covering for Lucy and me every time the withdrawals came up. A lot of work. A lot of hassle. We weren't even family — why would he do all that for free?
Which was exactly why I'd proposed a deal — carrying a gift so powerful Ssa-yo would come running with his mouth watering.
Still in the dark about any of this, Ssa-yo answered the Discord call in a voice thick with wariness.
"I'll say this upfront — if you make some weird proposal, you'll pay a fitting price. A deal in the middle of an audition? This has to be run fairly."
He came out swinging from the first word. Apparently those two days since my Discord message had given him a lot to think about. Judging by his tone, he was also laboring under some kind of misunderstanding.
"Ssa-yo, I think there's a misunderstanding here. Lobbying for a Wooga-dol pass is the furthest thing from my mind."
"……"
"It's actually the opposite."
"What?"
"I want to drop out of the Wooga-dol audition."
I dropped the bomb right at the start, seizing the initiative. The effect was apparently so strong that silence stretched on Ssa-yo's end for a while.
"Hello? Are you still there?"
"Ah — yes. I, uh… um."
"You haven't broken down on me, have you?"
"……No. More than that — I thought you only talked like that on stream, but you're actually really good with words in real life too."
"Ahaha, I'll take that as a compliment."
This was the silver tongue I'd built grinding sales floors back when I was still Seo Min-jun. And given my original age, Ssa-yo and I weren't that far apart — so speaking casually with him didn't feel awkward at all.
With things having gone this far, Ssa-yo seemed to shift his thinking as well. He let out a short sigh, then spoke.
"Since it's come to this, let's drop the formalities. And let's agree to be honest — no hiding anything."
"Works for me."
"Alright. So what you said just now is true? That you want to drop out……"
"That's right. And honestly, you want that too, don't you? You're not exactly fond of members with strong opinions like me. But I'm the most visible contestant, so you can't just cut me because of viewer sentiment."
"You're playing me like a toy in the palm of your hand. Are you seriously a two-month rookie?"
"Spare me the baseless suspicion. We've got constructive things to discuss. Helping Lucy and me withdraw smoothly — that's the condition I want from this deal."
"And what do I get out of it?"
"Ah! Before that — one more thing. Let me try guessing what you're thinking. The pass candidates you've got in mind right now. Berry, Kyurings, Jiho, Bomyeoreum, Na Haeri, Yun Seo-a — about right? Roughly that lineup."
"……"
Silence from Ssa-yo again. He was thoroughly rattled. The withdrawal proposal had already been a shock — and now he was speechless a second time.
"Don't bother hiding it. Just tell me straight. I'm not the type to go running my mouth lightly."
"Have you been able to see things other people can't since you were a kid? Or is there someone in your family who got a divine calling or something?"
"Tsk. Always going off on tangents. So — the candidates I listed?"
"Well… it's pretty close, but. Ha. This is really……"
From Ssa-yo's perspective, it must have felt like a ghost was playing tricks on him. Like I'd peered straight into his mind. Naturally, everything I said next carried that much more weight.
"If you help me, I'll help you. Isn't that a pretty good set of terms?"
"What kind of help are you even talking about?"
Ssa-yo's voice had already gone fully grave. The atmosphere was ripe enough. I boldly dropped a weight onto his side of the scale.
"Among the pass candidates you're thinking of…… there's a bomb. A powerful bomb that could shake Wooga-dol from the very start."
"……!"
A single devastating move — one that rocked Ssa-yo to his core.