Chapter 1359

<Chapter 1359> 1359. Spirit’s Atlantis

The group name was decided to be “Povitz.”

“So, what do we do now?”

Elena muttered while looking at me. The other members also looked at me. Honestly, even with all those stares, I had no idea either.

“Uh… practice?”

What else would idols do? Practice dancing and singing.

Since Povitz doesn’t have its own songs or choreography yet, it makes sense to practice other girl groups’ performances.

“Our goal is to debut within a week. For that, we need songs and choreography… Guess there’s no choice but to ask the agency. A big company like this probably has some tracks and routines stored away.”

“What to do?! Obviously, we need to write contracts first!”

Excited Lilith left for a moment after telling us to wait, then returned with a middle-aged man in a suit and glasses who looked strict.

“Hello, I am Stephan, the head of Lilith Entertainment’s legal team.”

In a calm voice, he introduced himself, quietly glanced around the Povitz members, and nodded.

“Indeed, now I understand why our CEO got so excited. Your visuals alone are extraordinary. The entertainment world will definitely shake when you debut.”

“Stephan! Bring out the contracts already!”

“Don’t rush me. Here’s the contract. The contents are the same as Miss Joo Seohyun’s, but please read carefully before signing.”

After handing over the contracts to the members, he frowned slightly while looking at me. I’m an odd presence in Lilith Entertainment—no contract, nothing. The company must find my existence bothersome.

“To be honest, I don’t like these kinds of contracts.”

Yuria and Elena thoroughly checked their contracts. Meanwhile, Miling skimmed hers quickly, picked up a pen, and signed it. Then she sneaked closer to me and proudly showed off her contract.

“Producer! What do you think? Isn’t my signature cool? I prepared it just in case something like today happened.”

“…You prepared it? Did you want to be an idol?”

“Just in case.”

I looked at Miling’s signature—it was her name scribbled in Hangul.

“Actually, I wanted to use Chinese characters, but there were too many strokes, so it got annoying. So I just used Hangul. Pretty, right?”

It *was* pretty. Fans would probably love getting a signature like that.

“Is it okay to sign a contract like this?”

My reasonable question was answered by Stephan.

“It’s fine. As long as the person signed it themselves, the contractual conditions are satisfied.”

「Current managed celebrities: Joo Seohyun, Miling」

「You gain contribution points based on your managed celebrities’ popularity. You earn AP equivalent to monthly contribution points.」

「Joo Seohyun’s Popularity: 2」

After checking the system notification, I nodded. Soon after, Yuria and Elena also signed their contracts.

「Current managed celebrities: Joo Seohyun (Povitz), Miling (Povitz), Yuria (Povitz), Elena (Povitz).」

After collecting the contracts, Stephan adjusted his glasses and said,

“With this, you are officially entertainers under Lilith Entertainment. Looking forward to working with you.”

“Yay! We hit the jackpot!”

Lilith exaggeratedly cheered, then quickly composed herself into a proper CEO-like demeanor.

“You’ve passed visually, but… we still need to assess your skills.”

“Hmph.”


“Guess I should do this, huh? We’ll start the real practice tomorrow, but let’s go ahead and take a test run today.”

“President. I’ll be leaving now.”

“Hm. Stefan. Before you go, tell me—what do you think about these guys?”

“They’re gonna blow up. With visuals like these, there’s no reason they *wouldn’t* make it big. Top 20 seems pretty much guaranteed. If their skills back it up… we might even aim for top 5.”

“You didn’t mention ‘peak,’ though?”

“The level of *monster* at the peak right now… You know as well as I do how absurd it is.”

“Yeah, fair point. That obnoxious goddess isn’t one to mess with.”

Stefan left the practice room.

Lilith glanced around at the members and smirked.

“Don’t be nervous, everyone. This is just a test, after all. So, who wants to go first? Let’s have Miling go first.”

“Huh? Me first? Out of nowhere?”

“It’s tradition to start with the youngest member.”

“Ah, got it. Alright then! Let me show you my finely honed singing and dancing skills from personal broadcasts!”

“Personal broadcasts?”

“In another world.”

“Ah, so you’re an experienced rookie. What kind of songs do you prefer?”

“Summer Sunflower. Is that song available here?”

“It’s a Korean song, right? We’ve got most of them covered.”

Miling began singing and dancing.

“Whoa…”

Lilith clasped her hands together in awe. Miling’s performance was nearly flawless.

“Great job, Miling. That was incredible. Honestly, I can’t find much to criticize. If I had to nitpick… your dancing feels a bit too sticky, maybe even overstimulating. Is it because of the personal broadcasts?”

“It’s just natural charm—I’m a fox spirit who lures men, after all.”

“Hmm? That’s your concept? Not bad. But aren’t you supposed to be a pure and innocent girl group? Maybe tone down the allure a bit.”

“Pure…”

Miling looked around. None of the members could really pull off “pure.” They all had killer figures, radiating allure even when standing still. Elena was probably the closest to the pure type.

“Can we actually pull that off?”

“Of course you can.”

“Yes. If Producer says so… then we must be able to do it.”

Miling skipped over and hugged me from behind. Soohyun and Yuria stared at us sharply, while Elena openly frowned.

“Hey, fox. Don’t get too clingy with the Producer. Trying to stir up controversy before debut?”

“Pfft. This? It’s nothing. Nobody’s watching anyway. Just a friendly gesture.”

Friendly gesture or not, the squishy sensation of her chest pressing against my back felt far from platonic. Lucky for us, no one else was around; otherwise, this would’ve been problematic physical contact.

Still, I didn’t defend Miling. I just kept quiet and waited for the storm to pass. Defending her would only make things worse.

Next, Yuria took the stage. Lilith widened her eyes in amazement.

“Yuria, did you also do personal broadcasts or something? Your singing and dancing are almost perfect. It’s hard to find anything to critique.”

“I practiced idol dances a few times in the past.”

Yuria replied nonchalantly.

Her statement wasn’t false. In the [Baekhwan] world, she’d practiced idol dancing and singing because I’d ordered her to do so—she and the maids performed for me.

Then came Elena.

“Your singing’s fine, but… your dancing feels a little flat. Tia doesn’t seem like someone who moves much, does she?”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve tried dancing like this. I’m confident in my swordsmanship, but dancing is different.”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry. You’re not terrible. With a bit more practice, you’ll be fine.”

“…”

Elena tightly shut her mouth and crossed her arms. Her eyes clearly showed her dissatisfaction. The prideful Elena clearly didn’t like being outdone by the other members in dance.

“Let’s have Soohyun try next.”

President Lilith turned to Soohyun, who stood there hesitantly.

“Me too? I already danced yesterday.”

“C’mon. There was nobody around then. Don’t chicken out. Go on, give it a shot. Okay?”


It stuck. In the end, Joo Seo-hyun ended up taking the test in front of the members.

“Ooooh… Your dancing has gotten even better since yesterday!”

Rilith made a fuss. After finishing her dance, Joo Seo-hyun nodded from her spot. Not a single breath was out of place. With her stamina, she could probably perform ten idol dances in a row without issue.

“Well, then… let’s sit down first? I’ll give you a rough outline of the schedule ahead.”

Under Rilith’s lead, everyone sat down on the floor.

Clang.

As Joo Seo-hyun sat down, a clang sound rang out. Since no one was talking at that moment, the sound seemed especially loud.

Everyone’s eyes turned toward Joo Seo-hyun. Her cheeks turned bright red.

“I, it’s… well…”

“Why are you so flustered? You just put your smartphone in your back pocket. Is your phone okay though? That sound was pretty loud.”

Mirei approached Joo Seo-hyun. Joo Seo-hyun shivered and quickly stood up to avoid Mirei.

“Why are you avoiding me? I’m not going to do anything. Am I that disgusting? That’s too much, really.”

“No, it’s not that….”

Mirei’s eyes moved toward Joo Seo-hyun’s rear. Joo Seo-hyun was wearing loose training pants.

“…Huh? There’s no back pocket? Then what was that sound just now…?”

“Did she wear steel panties or something?”

“There’s no reason for anyone to wear literal steel panties. Maybe it’s a chastity belt?”

Of course, it was Yuria. Who would’ve thought she’d immediately guess that Joo Seo-hyun might be wearing a chastity belt?

“Chastity belt! I’ve only heard about them, but this is the first time I’m seeing someone actually wearing one! Hyun-nee, can we see it once?”

“What? Are you telling me to take off my pants here?”

“But we’re all members here. It’s just us girls. What’s the problem?”

“A-Ah, no way! Sung Yoo-jin is here!”

“Wasn’t that chastity belt because of the Producer?”

“……”

Joo Seo-hyun didn’t refute while her face turned red. She was likely too embarrassed to argue. I had locked her into the chastity belt this morning because she annoyed me.

“Alright, focus! We’ll deal with that issue later… let’s talk about the schedule first. Debut is in one week. This wasn’t my decision—it was decided by the Gender Manager… no, the Gender Producer.”

Elena frowned.

“One week. Isn’t that too tight? I don’t know much about idols, but I think one week isn’t enough for anything substantial.”

“No, you guys can do it.”

I said it with complete confidence. Given their skills and talent, memorizing songs and choreography within a week should be possible.

At my words, everyone nodded. Joo Seo-hyun looked a bit uneasy but didn’t object to what I said.

“You will debut through a music show in one week. There are a few prepared songs and choreographies. We’ll need to tweak them slightly to suit you, but the song and choreography will be ready by tomorrow. And this is just my opinion… wouldn’t it be good to promote yourselves on SNS beforehand? Nowadays, securing fans through SNS before debuting is a trend. It means having many fans even before the debut.”

That’s a solid idea. Their beauty alone would attract a lot of fans even before they debut.

‘Exploding onto the scene during a music show debut would also be cool…’

But we don’t have much time. To boost popularity, it’s better to actively engage in SNS activities starting now.

“Is there anyone opposed? Let’s set up SNS accounts later and start by taking some casual photos. Shooting introductory videos of yourselves wouldn’t be bad either.”

Rilith looked happy as she planned things out. I asked her seriously,

“Director. We need to shoot the music video. And it needs to be done within a week. So… how much budget support can you provide?”

“I saw potential in Pobitz. Would you think I’d skimp on the budget for an idol group almost guaranteed to succeed? PD Sung, don’t worry about the budget. Even if one of the company pillars shakes, I’ll support it.”

“Director Rilith truly possesses remarkable insight.”

“Haha. I guess I do.”