Quentin stood in the center of the debut stage, golden confetti raining down all around him as the massive crowd below erupted into a thunderous roar.
The host’s excited speech filled his ears, with instructions from the production team occasionally coming through his earpiece. He and the six young men stood in a V formation, and the camera lingered on each of their faces.
Those young faces, some with tears glimmering in their eyes and others barely able to contain their excitement, always drew screams from different areas. The seven familiar names, chanted by the fans, filled the air with a heart-stirring power.
The camera finally stopped on the young man, who had his head slightly raised. His usually calm face revealed a complicated, unreadable emotion.
No one knew what he was thinking at that moment, but one should never underestimate a fan’s ability to fill in the blanks. Those green eyes, reflecting the stage lights and the ribbons of confetti, shimmered with a watery sheen that made their hearts ache.
From Quentin’s perspective, he felt that his journey through the show had been far too smooth. He had both looks and ability; he couldn’t even imagine how he could lose.
It was said that die-hard fans were made by being put through hardship, but Quentin didn’t think he had any point that would inspire such devotion. His fans, however, didn’t think so.
By now, Quentin probably didn’t even realize that a large proportion of his fanbase were die-hard fans. In comparison, the casual fans and passersby weren’t nearly as formidable, after all, it had only been three months.
Quentin stood in the C-position onstage, his eyes not blinking under the excessively bright lights. His gaze swept across the audience below and paused for a moment on the light signs that were lit for him.
Although they were so far away that he couldn’t make out the words on most of the light signs, he still looked at each one carefully.
Most idols are easily moved by their fans when they have just debuted. However, as more time passes after their debut and their popularity soars, their threshold for perceiving “love” gradually rises. Ordinary fan support becomes something they see every day, and naturally, they are no longer easily moved.
But “most” didn’t mean all. Logically speaking, given Quentin’s experiences in his previous life, his threshold should have been raised infinitely high, but that was not the case.
Precisely because his experiences in his previous life could only be described as legendary, and because he had seen too many strange people and bizarre things, the love from his fans was all the more precious in his eyes.
Unfortunately, he was only good at feeling love and not good at expressing it. He could never learn those “fan-pandering” tricks. His stage style, even with the bold and open standards of the West, remained remarkably restrained. He made up for it with top-tier stage presence and flawlessly executed performances.
Thus, in the eyes of casual fans and most music fans, Quentin was an extremely pure creative singer-songwriter who didn’t care about the fan circle, didn’t concern himself with traffic or chasing trends, and only focused on his own musical world.
Ironically, this refusal to pander to his fans or engage in “fan-service” ended up “PUAing” them instead.
In his previous life, Quentin’s die-hard fans could be said to have spoiled him to the extreme. Any so-called “career fan” who tried to nitpick or cause trouble would be labeled as a toxic follower and swiftly blacklisted and silenced.
It was also fortunate that Quentin had never made a misstep in his career, and his haters could rarely find any legitimate points to mock him over. Otherwise, such a fandom culture would inevitably have backfired.
But this time, everything had only just begun. The Little Butterflies (Quentin’s fandom name) were already following the same path as his fans in his previous life, and because of the combined attributes of “survival show” and “idol”, they were walking this road even more excessively.
It could be said that every move Quentin made had countless layers of filters added in the eyes of the Little Butterflies. Any unintentional expression or movement from him would trigger all kinds of loving associations among his fans.
“Ahhhhhhh, did Quentin just look at us?!”
“I don’t know, ahhh, maybe? Damn it, my photo album is going to explode. This is crazy…”
“I originally thought there might be a chance to see Quentin cry. I didn’t expect him to be this calm even after debuting in the C-position. As expected of the man I took a liking to at first sight.”
“Exactly! This is called being unmoved by honor or disgrace. He’s destined to accomplish great things!”
“Are you guys serious? Quentin is obviously very moved, okay? His eyes changed too, wiuu. I wonder if he’ll see that bunch of idiots biting people randomly after he gets his phone. Quentin just became an adult… Seeing all those malicious comments will definitely make him sad…”
“I’m so pissed off. We have to take more god-tier photos and praise him more! Push all the negative comments down!”
“Quentin didn’t even sign with a big company. The company he signed with is obviously some small independent operation. Although he’s now the C-position debut with his popularity completely breaking away from the rest, who knows how Galaxy Entertainment will treat him? They’ll probably suppress his popularity while sucking him dry. Sigh… Thinking about it this way, Quentin really is completely isolated and helpless…”
“It’s fine. The tougher we fans are, the less Galaxy will dare to suppress Quentin. To be honest, even if the fans of the other six people were added together, they might not be able to beat us. What are we afraid of?”
Quentin had no idea that one absent-minded look from him had easily aroused the protective instincts of so many Little Butterflies.
In fact, his attention was no longer on the debut-night stage.
Just as the host announced MagicX’s official debut, the system’s electronic voice suddenly rang out in his mind, but unlike its usual lively tone, it sounded more like an actual AI.
[Initiating, system update in progress…]
[Querying world protagonist information…Loading missions…]
[￥%&*#…Detected error in the task progress bar…@#￥#% World line has severely deviated…]
Quentin suddenly remembered that the system had once said, “After the original MagicX boy group debuts, the plot of ‘Next Stage’ is just a briefly mentioned prelude. The training, performances, and eliminations the trainees go through are only background details.”
He, on the other hand, was a bug who had interfered with the plot too early.
Because of the missing original plot, Quentin didn’t even know who the trainee who originally debuted in the C-position was. Perhaps it was Yan Qiao, who was currently ranked second?
As he was thinking, his gaze unconsciously drifted and happened to meet the eyes of the teammate beside him.
“What are you thinking about, Team Leader? Why so serious?”
Yan Qiao raised one corner of his mouth, lifted his hand, and patted Quentin on the back. He leaned slightly toward him “Don’t act cool at a time like this. Smile a little.”
He still wore that lazy smile on his face. Compared with Xue Mingzhu, who was raising a clenched fist and waving, and Wen Xinyi, Cui Yan, and the others who were high-fiving each other, his emotions weren’t as openly displayed.
But Quentin could see the relief and relaxation in his eyes, as well as the glimmer of hope.
In the moment their eyes met, an enormous influx of information suddenly poured into Quentin’s brain.
In an instant, Quentin saw many overlapping faces on Yan Qiao’s face, some crying, some laughing, some indifferent, some despairing. An older “Yan Qiao,” seemingly many years older than he was now, seemed to cast a distant glance across time and space.
The dead silence in that gaze covered the young man’s smiling eyes. Hope flickered within them, like stars hidden behind dark clouds.
[Aligning timelines…Loading world script…]
[Beep! The script has been delivered. Host, please check and receive it!]
[Task progress updated. World protagonist identity card refreshed!]
Quentin stared intently at the young man before him, and then heard:
[One of the main characters, Yan Qiao, has escaped the original work’s fate line of being forcibly bound into a CP with Zhong Qu and dragged down by his scandals. The current hot CP is favorable, his popularity has increased significantly, and he has successfully debuted in second place. Progress +30%. Current redemption progress bar: 80%.]
The subsequent plot concerning Yan Qiao in the original work was also filled in.
Quentin saw Yan Qiao, after being quietly shelved for half a year, make a comeback and participate in another stage-competition variety show with Inferno’s main dancer, Chen Yueshan. Because his dancing ability was slightly superior, Chen Yueshan’s fans spread malicious rumors about him across every platform, while Zhong Qu’s scandals were also dragged out and repeatedly used to stir things up.
Although Yan Qiao and Chen Yueshan’s companies were both BKL Entertainment, the company’s favoritism was not something that had started only recently. Black marketing and smear campaigns were unleashed upon Yan Qiao like water from a broken dam, determined to use such underhanded tactics to nail him to a pillar of shame and ruin his reputation.
The music variety show ultimately succumbed to public opinion and drastically cut Yan Qiao’s scenes.
If the plot had only gone this far, it still wouldn’t have been enough to bring Yan Qiao down. What truly sent him toward an irreversible BE ending was…the major stage accident that occurred during the music variety show’s finals.
Quentin slowly blinked. The man sitting on a hospital bed with a numb expression disappeared like a phantom. Nineteen-year-old Yan Qiao, whose brows and eyes still carried a trace of youthful innocence, raised an eyebrow at him, waved his hand twice in front of Quentin’s eyes, and said with a smile, “You’re still spacing out? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I suddenly realized that you’re quite handsome.” Quentin said seriously.
Yan Qiao choked. “…Ahem, so suddenly? Then, thanks?”
“No need to thank me.”
Quentin turned his head and looked away, not noticing that Yan Qiao behind him silently lowered his head and stared intensely at his own reflection on the floor.
The system’s electronic broadcast continued.
[Wen Xinyi. The spearhead of his fierce rival’s attacks from the original novel, Shen Yuchuan, has been redirected, and the number of negative PR articles has decreased. His popularity has increased, and he has successfully debuted in third place. Progress +25%. Current redemption progress bar: 50%.]
[Xue Mingzhu. The false rumors that had entangled him for half his life in the original novel have been initially clarified. His popularity has increased significantly. He has successfully debuted in fourth place. Progress +40%. Current redemption progress bar: 40%.]
[Cheng Shaozhi. The original plotline involving “an obsessive fan jumping into a lake for love” has deviated. His popularity has increased. He has successfully debuted in fifth place. Progress +20%. Current redemption progress bar: 42.5%.]
[Cui Yan. His popularity has increased. He has successfully debuted in sixth place. Progress +25%. Current redemption progress bar: 25%.]
[Qi Yang. The original plot has changed too drastically. He withdrew from the competition midway and failed to debut. Current redemption progress bar: 0.1%.]
This system update directly stuffed the complete original plot into Quentin’s head all at once. He finally no longer had to blindly feel his way forward like before.
Now that the detailed progress-bar report was complete, the identities of the six main characters were crystal clear, and the reasons behind the inexplicable increases in the redemption progress bars had also become clear.
What was surprising was that apart from Qi Yang, the redemption progress bars of each of the other five had all increased to different degrees after tonight’s debut night. In other words, MagicX’s official debut had caused the fate lines that originally led them toward BE to deviate by a huge amount.
Quentin had now learned the original debut rankings from the plot in his mind. Hmm… How should he put it? The original rankings were actually quite different from the current ones.
In the original work, the trainee who debuted in the C-position was Wen Xinyi. But interestingly, his vote count was less than half of the votes he had received as the third-place contestant this time.
Moreover, because Wen Xinyi’s performances in several rounds of public performances in the original plot weren’t particularly outstanding and failed to showcase his exceptional main-vocal ability, many viewers believed that his first-place position was undeserved.
Thus, after debut night, before he even had time to be happy for long, he was attacked by fans from all sides. In the end, he didn’t even have the qualification to compete for the position of team leader despite being in the C-position.
Yan Qiao still debuted in second place in the original work, but his vote count was also nearly two times less than it was now.
This main dancer was essentially a dark horse in the original novel, holding a sacrificial script and making a comeback against all odds. In the early stages of the show, due to the conflict between BKL and Youth TV, his screen time was pitifully low. His total appearance time in an entire episode was even less than that of a trainee eliminated in the first round.
Fortunately, his outstanding performance in offline public performances won him a huge number of fans. His ranking shot straight from the elimination zone at the bottom into the debut positions, and he ultimately made a spectacular comeback. The only flaw was that he was bound into a CP for hype, planting the fuse for his being shelved for half a year.
Quentin also learned from the original novel that the reason Zhong Qu was able to successfully bind himself to Yan Qiao and solidify a popular CP was half due to his own willingness to go all out and shamelessly sell the CP, and the other half was thanks to BKL’s heavy investment in marketing and hype.
Earlier, during their dorm chats, Yan Qiao had hinted at the company’s cold treatment towards him. But no one, including Yan Qiao himself, expected that BKL would ignore an SR card like Yan Qiao and forcefully promote other N cards.
The N card that was heavily promoted in the original novel was Zhong Qu. However, reality was different from the original novel. Under the joint operations of Quentin and the system, this brother with an overflowing romantic history was eliminated early, so BKL’s attention naturally shifted to other N cards.
For example… Lu Kui, whose ranking had skyrocketed after the third public performance?
But this time, even the heavens were standing opposite BKL. Quentin hadn’t even made a move, and this guy collapsed on his own. His votes had been inflated and he was currently in a relationship, making the forums engage in conspiracy theories and wonder whether all of BKL’s trainees in this generation were secretly busy dating.
The butterfly’s wings had flapped again and again. In the end, Yan Qiao still suffered innocently. The difference was that this wave of criticism was far less intense than in the original work, and he wasn’t the only one who got attacked. All five members of Inferno were put under scrutiny as well.
So this time, BKL had completely tried to steal the chicken only to lose the rice, only bringing trouble upon itself.
Qi Yang, who ranked third in the original novel, had already withdrawn from the competition, and only his redemption progress bar had not been affected by debut night.
Quentin had previously suspected that Qi Yang’s BE might not have much to do with whether he debuted or not, or with his career development in the boy group.
After all, withdrawing from the competition was such a major event, yet it hadn’t shifted the BE by even a tiny bit. If he remembered correctly, this 0.1% had come from some strange fan who was suspected of being a man dressed as a woman.
Cheng Shaozhi, who debuted in fourth place in the original novel, had dropped to fifth place this time, but his votes were nearly twice as high as in the original work.
According to the original plot, Cheng Shaozhi’s was basically brought about by an immature extreme fan and her family of narcissistic relatives who exploited the deceased and were blinded by money.
Just as Quentin had previously guessed, the reason that little girl who had traveled thousands of miles to meet her idol had impulsively decided to end her life was not simply because she failed to get a ticket. More importantly, the negative emotions she received had already far exceeded the limit she could bear.
What crushes the camel’s back is often this final straw. In the original novel, the girl returned to the hotel filled with regret and self-blame, only to face belittlement and abuse from her family.
In reality, this girl had fortunately encountered Quentin and Yan Qiao, who had gone together to a convenience store to buy drinks. Although she wasn’t able to see the public performance, she obtained something even more precious…an autograph and a photo together…and she also received the envy and comfort of many fans on the forum.
This powerful wave of positive emotions effectively cushioned the impact of that final straw, subtly and silently averting the original tragedy.
Xue Mingzhu, who debuted in fifth place in the original novel, was fourth this time, with his votes nearly tripling.
Cui Yan, who debuted in sixth place in the original novel, was still sixth this time, while his votes had increased by more than double. As for Zhong Qu, who barely debuted in seventh place, well, he was naturally butterflied away this time.
Fang Xu, on the other hand, was quite surprising. He had almost no presence in the original novel. Because he was eliminated too early, even his specific ranking was unclear. It wasn’t until the later stages of the plot, when Cui Yan’s BE line had passed halfway, that Fang Xu’s name was mentioned by Cui Yan and the others.
In the original plot, although Next Stage was the first domestic boy-group survival show, it wasn’t an S+ project heavily supported by Youth TV. In terms of rating, it reached A+ at most. Both investment and sponsorship were ordinary, and its popularity after airing was also lukewarm.
MagicX’s true explosion in popularity began with the release of their first album. When BKL deliberately targeted them using Inferno’s first album, MagicX unexpectedly took the annual championship.
It was precisely this comeback against the odds that made them a thorn in the side of many peers, while also laying the groundwork for the tragedies of the six young men.
After reading the original novel, Quentin finally realized that the greatest change he had made to the fates of the six protagonists so far was not the trivial details he had previously believed, such as “Zhong Qu withdrawing from the competition,” “the rumors about Xue Mingzhu being clarified,” or “Cheng Shaozhi’s fan thinking things through.”
His appearance, or rather, his joining NS as a trainee, had the greatest impact on the original plot.
From the small venue that could only accommodate 500 spectators during the first public performance, to the stadium accommodating 1,000 spectators during the second public performance, to the 1,500 spectators during the third performance, and finally to the finals, where many currently popular celebrities appeared as guest performers, major brands invested and sponsored the show, and the number of livestream viewers broke the record for a variety-show livestream…
The originally unnoticed, low-budget survival show had suddenly become a top-level mega-hit variety show. Of course, this couldn’t have happened without the protagonists’ hard skills, but the most important factor was still Quentin himself.
If he hadn’t gone viral so many times, if he hadn’t had such wonderful chemistry with the other trainees, NS would never have reached this point no matter what.
The increase in votes for the debut group members was the most direct change. Quentin speculated that at the moment MagicX officially debuted, the changes in the progress bars were most likely related to their final vote counts.
The greater their increase in popularity compared with the original work, the greater the increase in their progress bars. Xue Mingzhu ranked first in this regard, followed by Yan Qiao. As for why the two of them were able to eat so much of the benefit, it was probably inseparable from the 3A combination.
*
The debut night ended and Quentin and the others got into the business vehicle on their return journey but the system still didn’t come online again.
Quentin could browse the original plot in his mind at any time, and he could also independently check the BE redemption progress bars of the six main characters, but he simply couldn’t contact the system.
Had it lost its connection? Or had a bug occurred?
According to the meaning of those few system prompts, he had entered the book three months early, and it seemed that he had caused quite a considerable impact on the world line. But this wasn’t their fault. The system couldn’t possibly have been called back by the legendary headquarters to answer for something so trivial, right?
Only the seven trainees who successfully debuted were in the business vehicle… well, now they should be called boy group idols.
The driver in the front and the PD in the passenger seat remained silent. The young men in the three rows behind them chattered nonstop, each of them exceptionally excited, with an unprecedentedly strong desire to share their happiness.
After making noise for a while, someone finally realized, “Hey, where are we going? This isn’t the road back to the base.”
Wen Xinyi silently raised his hand. “You’re only realizing it now? When we left just now, everyone else got on buses. Only the seven of us were brought to this vehicle.”
Xue Mingzhu joked, “Oh? So, some bad guys are kidnapping us seven in broad daylight? Hey, driver, are you one of us?”
“The seven of us should be worth quite a lot of money now, right? I wonder how much the production team is willing to pay…”
“Do kidnappers have to record everything now? There are cameras everywhere in this van. Are they livestreaming this?”
“Pfft, no way, no way. I guess they’re recording footage. Maybe the company wants to make something like a ‘Complete Debut Record’ vlog?”
Fang Xu coughed. “Speaking of which, can they return our phones to us now? None of you have your phones, right?”
“?! Oh my god, I forgot.”
“I was so excited that I even forgot about my phone. I haven’t told my family yet. I wonder if they watched the livestream.”
“Hehe, my parents were sitting under the stage at the time, but I forgot to wave to them before I left. Sigh, the directors were urging us so urgently. I thought something had happened, but it turned out they were just calling us to get in the car.”
Without the system, Quentin had no way to secretly go online now. He wasn’t familiar with Yanhai City, and watching the fleeting scenery outside the car window, it all felt increasingly unfamiliar.
The night was deep, and the pitch-black window reflected his face. His eyes blinked open and shut with the motion of the car, as if he might just fall asleep at any moment.
Xue Mingzhu, sitting beside him, leaned over and asked, “Tired? Why don’t you sleep for a while? I’ll wake you when we arrive.”
Quentin was just about to shake his head when he heard the PD’s voice from the front passenger seat.
“Alright everyone, we’ve arrived! Welcome to our MagicX’s base. This will be the shared home of all of you. Hurry up and get off the car and have a look!”
Thank you for the update! I hope your move went well 😘😘
Thank you for the update ♥️
Thank you for the update! 🫶🏻☺️