Chapter 68
Chapter 68
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: TrueDetective
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: Idols Must Have Clean Pasts (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
- Holy shit lol Baek Nah Han's the only one with an MP4 lmao
- Baek Nah Han voice clip? No way I’m not clicking that lololol
- Skipped the GIF and clicked Baek Nah Han's voice first
- Is that really Baek Nah Han's voice? There's dubbing controversy but Kichi hasn't addressed it?
└Addressed my ass lolololol
└An idol gets dubbing rumors from just one line in their own MV?
└Idol fandom's three big debates: Sesame leaf debate / Shrimp debate / Baek Nah Han dubbing debate
└Don't shoehorn it in lololol
- ㅠOur kids did a fresh school uniform concept for the first time ever and it got buried because of Baek Nah Han talking
└Caps? Your oppas would've gotten buried anyway without Baek Nah Han
└ㅠI'm poor though.....
└Buried? It hit 200 million views on N-Tube lololol
└Sexy Buddha's charting again too lololol
└All my normie friends lately only talk about Mancheon Hawa
[Gupailbang] Analysis: Why Mancheon Hawa Hit 200 Million Views in Two Days (+456)
Gupailbang has been this cringey wuxia idol concept up until now.
Obviously normies don't care about wuxia idols, and even among idol fans, barely anyone likes wuxia.
Gupailbang's popularity now is Kichi's capital + members' visuals and skills + synergy from global wuxia fans.
It wasn't mainstream pick, right?
But they shot that Lion 6 ad recently? Total flop with the public, right?
Nah, here's the thing.
Banggeom Phone guys are like Korea's K-pop singers, collabed again -> Curious, check out the collab MV -> Perfect timing, light refreshing concept instead of wuxia -> Group that's all about hard lyrics and anti-English like Heungseon Daewongun, but this time Mancheon Hawa wow wow wow makes it easy for foreigners to sing along -> ☆200 million views achieved☆
- This
- Mancheon Hawa wow wow wow
- I think so too, honestly their fame didn't match their skills and visuals until now
└They gave up Joo Ja-ha to Anyang and you say Gupailbang has no recognition? Bold lol
└But check out Gupailbang's stages, are these idols? It's like Freakshow Legends. They need at least Bruce Lee level fame
└Bruce Lee wasn't an idol ffs lololol
- But once they get this famous, fans always start begging them not to enlist. Isn't the group leader pretty old?
└? Don't care if our kids enlist?
└Don't care????
└Honestly our kids aren't meant for idols, they're meant to defend the country, form an Avengers or something
└Watch the vid of Gupailbang doing back-to-back stages in midsummer heat without a drop of sweat, smiling the whole time, then you'll get it lololol
- I'm Caps but Gupailbang grew on me... What do they gain collabing with flops like our kids... Such humble guys.....
└Too harsh on your own fandom, too soft on others
- Gupailbang being likable is true, no idol has as clean a past as them
└Clean? Gupailbang has no past at all??
└Weird group where not a single high school pic of any member floats around
└That's why there was that rumor Kichi made them in a lab lololol
└Still, others have at least one trainee story, but I've never heard any about Heavenly Demon
└My friend worked part-time at Kichi for 2 years, never saw Heavenly Demon pre-debut
└For real? They didn't drop from the sky, how?
└It's one of two things. Either their past is so clean there's nothing...
└Or it's crime-level black history they scrubbed.
* * *
My ears were muffled like I was underwater.
My head throbbed like it might split open....
Voices drifted in sporadically.
"...hyung is... a normal person... sane...!"
"...that guy... no manager... none...."
Alliance Leader and Heavenly Demon, maybe....
Why was the Alliance Leader raising his voice like that?
Thinking that far, it hit me—I'd passed out on Bukhansan because I couldn't withstand Heavenly Demon's killing intent.
I twitched, and the Alliance Leader and Heavenly Demon stopped their argument.
"So hyung!"
The Alliance Leader looked down at me lying there, his face full of worry.
"You okay?"
"Uh... yeah...."
I snuck a glance at Heavenly Demon, but he wasn't looking my way.
That jerk—whose fault was it I passed out?
...Not that I felt like blaming him much.
"Where's Nah Han?"
He'd come back with me for sure, but Nah Han was nowhere, so I asked. Instead of answering, the Alliance Leader turned on his phone and showed me the clock.
Right in the middle of schedule time.
Wait, more importantly, I'd been out for quite a while?
"I heard the gist."
The Alliance Leader said as he laid me back down.
"Nah Han and Heavenly Demon had a go at it. You got caught in the crossfire and passed out."
...Had a go at it?
"They come bursting through my bedroom window, clothes all torn up, and you're passed out. You have no idea how shocked I was."
I looked at Heavenly Demon again, and he pretended not to notice.
Now I saw—he was avoiding eye contact because he knew he was in the wrong.
Nah Han fighting was surprising, but given that killing intent back then, Heavenly Demon must've done something.
At least neither came back seriously hurt. Silver lining, I guess.
That's when the Alliance Leader's face turned terrifying.
"Hyung... you just thought it was good no one got hurt fighting, right...?"
"...Yeah?"
"You collapsed, hyung!! You're a normal guy with no qi whatsoever, and what the hell were Heavenly Demon and Nah Han thinking!"
The Alliance Leader exploded, and Heavenly Demon made a fed-up face like here we go again.
Looks like he'd been putting up with the Alliance Leader's nagging the whole time I was out.
"But Alliance Leader, don't you have a schedule soon?"
"Don't change the subject, hyung."
Scary, Alliance Leader. As scary as Heavenly Demon.
But his schedule was imminent, so he just hesitated a bit.
No more nagging followed.
"I'll... talk after schedule."
He compromised like that, shooting Heavenly Demon a resentful glare right up to the door before leaving.
The moment the Alliance Leader was gone, Heavenly Demon clicked his tongue and grumbled.
"Tch. Now there are two nags."
Two? One of them me?
I stared at Heavenly Demon blankly, and he flinched back a step.
"Don't stare like that. Spit it out if you have something to say."
"You first, Heavenly Demon."
He furrowed his brow slightly at my words.
"You too, you monk...."
"Wanna go another round?"
"...Not now."
I'd planned to dive back into episode 27 of Penthouse: The World of Married Couples the second we got back. Unexpected.
"But why are you standing so far away?"
"It's beneath my dignity to say this, but... it's my mood."
I couldn't help but chuckle.
"So, what's this about you and Nah Han going at it? Did you really fight?"
"Would we fake it?"
I studied Heavenly Demon's face closely as he answered, but that killing intent from before was gone.
Arms crossed, he stared at me for a moment before blurting out,
"That monk's got more than a few suspicious points."
"Suspicious?"
Sure, there was another martial artist before Heavenly Demon, and the story of learning martial arts from him was hard to swallow....
"But that guy used the Soul-Absorbing Demonic Art."
"The Soul-Absorbing Demonic Art!?"
The Soul-Absorbing Demonic Art is what the Masked Expert uses.
I'd heard it counters the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, but Nah Han using it?
"But the monk swears he's not the Masked Expert."
"Nah Han knew about the Masked Expert?"
"Seems like it. Then he said if I want to know how he uses it, go check out the CEO's mansion."
"The CEO's mansion?"
"Depending on what I find, he'll decide whether to cooperate with us or not."
"...."
Nah Han having a martial artist master.
Using the Soul-Absorbing Demonic Art.
Still reeling from that.
And if I want to know what's up, go snoop around the CEO's mansion.
Something's definitely there.
We need to check on that otherworldly portal scroll anyway.
The CEO said after the righteous-demonic sleepover chaos, crash at his place, so no issue.
"I'll talk to the CEO."
I said that, and Heavenly Demon blinked slowly before dropping his gaze.
"You're deliberately not asking?"
"About what?"
"What the monk... asked."
"...."
I remembered what I'd heard right before blacking out.
-The demon who tore his comrade, the Mount Hua Sword Saint, to shreds and took the North Sea Ice Palace Saintess's heart for inexhaustible qi. Is that you, Heavenly Demon?
Mount Hua Sword Saint and North Sea Ice Palace Saintess.
I'd heard those names from Heavenly Demon during the sesame leaf debate live.
I figured they were old ties from the central plains.
But the nuance when Heavenly Demon mentioned them back then held a touch of longing.
Nothing about ripping them apart or taking hearts.
That's why I didn't ask.
Not because I was afraid it'd upset Heavenly Demon.
But I did think he might've killed someone named Changhye.
The man before me was Heavenly Demon first, idol second.
I couldn't imagine a being called Heavenly Demon never having killed.
I stayed silent, and thinking I was scared to bring it up, Heavenly Demon spoke calmly.
"Asking won't get your head chopped off right away. You're not like the monk."
...So he was gonna chop Nah Han's head off?
"No... I'm just not that curious."
"Not curious?"
"Yeah."
"Even if I'm a madman who slaughters even his comrades?"
He didn't sound angry.
I missed the timing to answer, not getting why he'd ask that, and replied a beat late.
"Yeah."
"Hah!"
Heavenly Demon scoffed.
Looking oddly disappointed, he ran a shaky hand through his hair and muttered in a defeated tone.
"I... didn't kill them."
His voice lacked confidence at first, but he added firmly right after.
"I didn't kill them. Not the Sword Saint, not the Saintess. ...Not Changhye."
Not Changhye?
It stung a bit since I'd suspected that one.
Heavenly Demon stared at me quietly, then twisted his lips.
"You wouldn't believe me anyway."
"Why do you think that?"
"You're not foolish enough to take a Heavenly Demon at his word."
He still knew he was Heavenly Demon.
"And I know what's in that head of yours. Just dying to send me back ASAP."
"You're the one who wants to go back, Heavenly Demon."
"You think I don't notice you looking at me like a ticking time bomb?"
"You're the ticking time bomb. Why do you think I'm lying in the Alliance Leader's bed right now?"
"...You always have a point. It's infuriating."
Maybe because he already had the precedent of knocking me out today, Heavenly Demon shut his mouth like he had nothing more to say.
Smartphone addiction on top of puberty now.
"Heavenly Demon."
I called softly, but he pretended not to hear.
...No way this petty guy's as brutal as Nah Han said.
Me still being in one piece was proof.
"You didn't think I helped the CEO with human sacrifices or massacres either."
"You lack the ability."
"...."
This fucker? I'm being nice?
"I don't think you're that kind of person either."
"For real?"
"A guy addicted to smartphones, talking like a middle schooler, bingeing morning dramas? No way he's that scary."
"Sounds like shade, or am I imagining?"
"No illusion. It's shade."
"...Soi? What makes you so cocky?"
His words were menacing, but he didn't seem to hate my conclusion.
His address upgraded from manager to name, at least.
Heavenly Demon went quiet for a bit, then said lowly.
"Soi, I never killed a comrade, but...."
Something ominous coming, so I kept a straight face on purpose.
"Their deaths are on me."
Heavenly Demon's words didn't end there.
"And for revenge, I slaughtered a hundred thousand righteous faction scum."