Chapter 69
Translator: TrueDetective
Chapter: 69
Chapter Title: 20. An Idol's Past Must Be Clean (2)
[Chat] Best friend turns out to be a serial killer but says they won't kill me.
Friend: do vs don't
- Just let me survive before I die
- After death:;
- How many did they kill? Why? Is anyone I know among them? If they're all bad people, isn't it okay to be friends? If they get caught, will I be considered an accomplice? Can I pretend to be friends on the outside while treating them like trash inside?
└Dizzy af;;
└You're an MBTI N aren't you lololol
└Fucking good friend on the outside, bad friend on the inside lololol
- Uh... if I asked you to kill someone, would you?
└Wtf is this lolololol
└Someone you wanna kill huh lololol
“…….”
I carelessly left a comment below it.
- What if the serial killer is a murim person?
Wait, why the hell did I post that here?
I went to hit delete, but comments started flooding in underneath in an instant.
└Next up Beggar Clan disciple
└Please escape the wuxia brain, friend!! lololol
└Little bro, in the jianghu, no one makes a fuss over killing one or two people.
└Not one or two, but a hundred thousand?
└Asking shit like this, this guy's a Heavenly Demon stan lololol
└Not a Heavenly Demon stan.
└Yo in wuxia novels even passing beggars kill one or two people
└What do you think the Heavenly Demon is? You think the Heavenly Demon Cult is some religious volunteer group?
└Yeah, Heavenly Demon stan. Go ahead and stan away lol
└No, I'm not a Heavenly Demon stan.
What the hell am I doing right now.
I deleted all my comments, then glanced at the Heavenly Demon, who was in the middle of makeup.
I'd hoped he'd trust me enough not to kill his friends.
And then he confesses to slaughtering a hundred thousand orthodox sect members.
Did he think that since I believed him, there should be no secrets between us?
I'd known for a while that this guy was the Heavenly Demon, the head of the Demonic Cult who treats murder like a joke.
I just didn't have much resistance because it was all in the murim world.
Even if the Heavenly Demon massacred orthodox sect members, they'd killed Demonic Cultists too.
That's the jianghu I'd seen in wuxia novels.
The reason my mood was all messed up now was probably because, after spending time together, I'd unconsciously started thinking of the Heavenly Demon as a good guy.
At first, I thought I had to play nice to protect the people around me from this dangerous figure called the Heavenly Demon.
But actually, the one who'd been protected all this time was me.
But just because he seemed like a good guy to me, did that mean it was okay to let the Heavenly Demon who'd killed a hundred thousand do idol activities?
Well... I couldn't decide that right now. I'd have to think about it more.
For now, it was time to focus on the collab activities.
The download count for the <Mancheonhau> mixtape track hadn't been officially tallied yet, but according to Kichi, it was over a million.
The behind-the-scenes video for Mancheonhau had also quickly surpassed 10,000 views.
So Nine Beggars and Green Forest decided to do a thank-you live collab stream.
Right now, they were setting up an outdoor studio on the tennis court where they'd filmed the MV, preparing for the shoot.
They were dressed in the exact same outfits as for the collab.
The Heavenly Demon seemed to really like the big round glasses from the MV, since he wore them out today too.
I checked that all the members were seated properly, did a final mic check, and slipped behind the camera.
"If you're all ready, I'll start the stream."
At my words, the members all made circles with their fingers in unison.
I nodded and hit the stream button.
[Nine Beggars] ●U-Live Start!
Nine Beggars×Green Forest: Ask Us Anything Woo Woo Woo♥
The screen came on, and the blond Alliance Leader with his hair half-up plastered a bunny-pattern band-aid on the bridge of his nose and cheerfully clasped his hands in greeting.
"Nine Beggars!"
"Gal!"
-Wtf crazy collab outfits
-Bunny band-aid what too cute sobbingㅠㅠㅠㅠ
-Came to check out the glasses long-haired guy since they said he's here
With the senior group Nine Beggars calling their chant first, Uchi, who'd been watching, followed up with Green Forest's chant.
"Steal Your Heart!"
"Hello, it's Green Forest!"
-Do it again.
-Tsk tsk, 6-year vets with zero discipline~
-Oppa, your chant was wrong? Do it right?
-The chief instructor is disappointed......
-‘Heart Stealer’ Green Forest. Begin.
That's right.
Green Forest's full chant was actually ‘Steal Your Heart! Heart Stealer Green Forest.’
At the flood of chats, Uchi squeezed his eyes shut and called the chant again.
"Steal... Your Heart!"
"H-Heart Stealer Green Forest!"
-Pffft lolololol heart stealer lolololol
-My... my heart... g-give it back!
-Police uncle! Over here! These guys are gonna steal hearts?
-...Green Forest fans are the most serious about roasting Green Forest huh?
-Our kids aren't the only ones with the world's hardest job
Unlike the Beggar Clan fans, who were still in a fluffy atmosphere, the Cops fandom was so jaded they couldn't tell if the U-Live chat was the world's greatest roast fest anymore, and it really was.
"You guys are fun, Cops fans."
The Alliance Leader, reading the chat, smoothly opened.
"Today we turned on the stream with our Green Forest friends to give thanks. Collab MV 20K views, behind-the-scenes 10K views. Total 30K views! All thanks to you. Really grateful."
"Thanks, pups~"
"Cops, thank you!"
-Collab 30K views congrats~!
-Ilgeom♥Taeguk♥Hwajin♥Jaha♥Jun♥Nahan♥
-Our kids breaking records every time ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
-Lion6 ad shoot and my babies world starsㅠ
-Our Green Forest oppas are national stars now too it seems
-§§Uchi§§※Lupin※【Robin】∫∫Zoro∫∫☞Just one click for 30K views ~scam Nㅇ~
-Green Forest fandom always this merciless to their own singers?
Amid the nonstop chats, the members took turns reading some safe congratulatory messages.
As the chat speed slowed a bit, Ilgeom took over again.
"Just thanks would feel lacking, right? We uploaded the collab behind-the-scenes, but I figured you still have more questions."
-Um... oppas the behind-the-scenes was just eating scenes?
-I accidentally hit rewind thinking it was a mukbang lololol
-When Green Forest kids ordered just two chickens I thought it was a docuㅠ
The Alliance Leader saw the last chat, unwittingly cracked a wry smile, then startled and fixed his expression.
"So... today we're doing an ask-us-anything segment. We'll do Q&A for 30 minutes, and to answer as many as possible, we'll keep it speedy. Don't be sad if answers are short. We'll compile all the members' answers later and post on the official site."
-Awesome great
-Was wondering how with so many members but they'll post later!
-Cops... Nine Beggars always does Q&A like this but Nahan doesn't talk during streams
-Nahan's lines in MV dubbed?
Taeguk, who was watching the chat for the first question, answered.
"Nahan said it himself."
-Even this answer wasn't from Nahan
-Hwajin oppa, do the glasses have a prescription?
The Heavenly Demon answered with a blank look.
"What's a prescription?"
-Huh?
-Top student Hwajin doesn't know what prescription means?
-Fuck lolololol can't tell if concept or real lololol
-Hwajin top student is too much even for you...?
-What were those self-intro lines in the MV?
Jaha answered brightly to this one.
"What we wanted to be in school!"
-Oh so class pres top student lololol
-Wait, so Leader wanted to be a flunkie?
-Not Kim Deokman, what name does Uchi wanna change to?
Uchi answered solemnly.
"Ted Kim."
-Wtf couldn't imagine an English name
-Dude name popped out instantly how bad did he want it lololol
-But we'll never call you Ted even if you die, got it? Our Deokmani♥
-Lupin! Hardest part composing Mancheonhau?
They went back and forth like this, and the 30 minutes flew by.
Since two groups were doing Q&A together, I'd been super tense about fan wars breaking out.
Luckily, the two fandoms yielded to each other on questions, so it wrapped up without incident.
‘Just one more question and we're done.’
I was thinking that and starting to relax.
- Best friend turns out to be serial killer but says won't kill me. Friend: do vs don't?
"What......"
I saw the question pop up in chat and was so shocked my voice slipped out.
I barely remembered we were live and clamped my mouth shut.
My heart pounded.
Was this question random?
Or was it trending like that lettuce debate?
The Heavenly Demon seemed to have seen the chat too, but his expression didn't change.
If the members just skipped the random question, no big deal......
"This question's so random. Serial killer who won't kill friends?"
I'd forgotten for a sec that our group had Jaha, aka the Terror Mouth.
Jaha innocently read the question aloud.
"Best friend turns out to be serial killer but says won't kill me. This the balance game that's trending? Serial killer's too harsh wording, let's murim-ify it for this album concept! Last question anyway, so let's pick quick. Start with Ilgeom hyung!"
Suddenly called out, the Alliance Leader blinked in surprise.
"...Me first?"
"Friend or no? Balance game rule: no hesitating over 5 secs. 5, 4......"
"Ah, I wouldn't."
"Manly answer. Taeguk hyung?"
Lee Taeguk, Namgung Mu, Baek Nahan—all picked no friend.
Uchi hesitated a bit but said even Green Forest couldn't befriend the jianghu's public enemy, picking no.
Lupin, Robin, and Zoro said conditional yes.
"If we're friends, no more killing! Haha."
"Saw the public enemy MV, seems like they have a sad backstory."
"If no friend, they die! Then we can't see our Cops!"
Probably not deep thought.
Since everyone before picked no, picking yes to make the stream fun.
"And Heavenly Demon hyung?"
Jaha finally turned the arrow to the Heavenly Demon.
The Heavenly Demon sneered shortly.
"No."
"What! Our team all no friends."
Jaha furrowed his brows in dissatisfaction, and the Heavenly Demon tilted his head slightly and asked.
"You orthodox brat wouldn't wanna hang with the jianghu public enemy either, right?"
At that, Jaha blinked his big eyes and replied in a voice full of genuine confusion.
"I'd be friends though?"
"You'd be friends??"
Uchi cut in in disbelief, and Jaha snorted.
"Don't know the code of brotherhood? I'm Jaha, live and die by loyalty. Once besties, even if they're a vicious killer, they're friends. Plus I like people who give me special treatment."
"You're... mentally on another level."
"Hear that a lot."
It was perfectly timed question, but Jaha's trademark cheekiness smoothed it over somehow.
With the last question answered, the Alliance Leader gave the wrap-up for Q&A.
After Q&A, short game then end stream—that was the plan.
The Alliance Leader held up the bubble wand set toward the camera and smiled brightly.
"Collab stream but no team mini-game would feel off."
Our game was biggest bubble blowing.
Rep from each team comes out, bigger bubble than opponent wins—simple.
There was a prize too.
"Super special!! Two-plus Hanwoo!!"
"Uchi hyung, you gotta win. Your name's Uchi!"
"Name irrelevant but if I lose I'll change to Hanwoo!"
Green Forest kids looked super motivated.
On the other hand.
"Who's going for us?"
"Hm... good lung capacity? No... bad......?"
Our kids seemed to pity them a bit... would this even be a game.
"C'mon, whoever's good goes. I like beef too!"
The Heavenly Demon stared at the sulky Jaha and quietly asked.
"You want that?"
"Yeah? And I gotta win games."
"Got it. This lord'll go."
The Heavenly Demon stood, elegantly removing his glasses.
"Jaha, you just prep to eat the Hanwoo."
"Woo! Heavenly Demon hyung best!"
That Heavenly Demon... even faking it, Jaha's answer must've touched him deep.
I was spacing out watching the Heavenly Demon go all out even against an elementary schooler—no, a bumpkin villager.
A message from the rep arrived.
[Cow seed.]
[See you briefly after U-Live.]
'The time's come.'
Normally I'd meet the rep to talk quitting.
But with Nahan's condition, for now I had to keep my mouth shut to stay in the rep's good graces.
But......
'He... watched the U-Live?'
Next instant, my fingers moved on their own.
When I came to, I'd already sent the message to the rep.
[Last question, was that from you, rep?]