Chapter 46: Maze (2)

Chapter 46 - Maze (2)"PD Park! PD Emily! We have a problem!" one of the junior members of the production staff in charge of the maze ran into the monitoring room with the two main PDs, holding a tablet in her hands with a panicked expression on her face. The only person in the room was PD Emily, who was currently in charge of organizing the contestants that had already made it through the maze, glanced up with an irritated look. "Why are you screaming? Use your words and tell me what the problem is." "Some of the contestants are cheating!" The junior production staff member yelled. "Show me and quiet down." "Yes, ma'am." On the tablet that the staff member handed over, a blonde boy with a cowboy hat was in the lead, another boy wearing a green mask and some type of animal tracksuit was in the middle, and a handsome Hispanic boy with slicked-back black hair and a leather jacket at the end were seen walking unsteadily along the top of the green maze walls. As the boy in the middle of the two taller contestants passed a camera that rotated to face them, he pulled the two people close together to pose for a picture before they continued walking out of the camera's sight. "W-what should we do? Should we disqualify them?" the panicked staff member asked. S~eaʀᴄh the Nôvel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Nope, just let it be." PD Emily responded while clicking her teeth as she watched the scene of the boy wearing a cowboy hat boosting the green mask-wearing boy up the 10-foot wall, and then, with a running leap, easily muscling his way up as well. Oh, to be young again and have a strong body. "Bu-but, if they do that, they'll make it to the end in time by avoiding all the stops and games. I thought we didn't want people to make it through on time?" "It's not that we didn't want that, it would just be boring if everybody made it in time. Or grouped up in large groups and charged. That's why we spaced the check-in time so much." "But-" "It's fine, plenty of other contestants are cheating as well." PD Emily pointed to the lined-up monitors with starred clips of contestants she planned to keep an eye out for. "A staff member accidentally replied when Carrot Top asked to use the bathroom, and after he used it, he used the staff door straight to the end. 6 minutes, 22 seconds." "No way!" "Angry buzzcut over here kept body slamming the exit sign on the 22nd floor until it opened, went around the whole thing, and ended up being the first one through. 1 minute, 35 seconds." "Eeep!" "Some kid found the gaps in the maze and just slipped through like a lizard." "...how?" "Tall, handsome, and British over there flirted with a staff member who was trying to fix the LED and openly walked through like he was in a pageant." "He is very handsome. Especially that accent." The staff member muttered quietly. "Smarty pants took the steps from the first floor to the 21st floor and ended up completing it without ever entering the maze doors." "Wha-what the heck? So many?" The junior staff member looked appalled that so many contestants were already breaking the rules. "These are just some examples. We just wanted a good way to capture the kids' personalities for the intro video, so whether they solve it in time, follow the rules, or not, it doesn't matter. The reward is nice, but it's not the end-all be-all. Although..." PD Emily tapped her finger on top of the screen, which showed Ari leaping off the wall with a catlike grace and then stumbling and being caught by two other boys when he landed. Somehow, the animal hood got stuck on the horns of the green mask he wore, covering his entire face. For some reason that she couldn't explain, she found it particularly charming as his slim fingers pulled the hood and the green mask off, exposing the white and black painted face, unruly curly black hair, and cat-shaped sea green eyes that blinked slowly as they looked around before he put the green mask back on. "I will give him props for being creative and allowing us to catch a good picture. I knew he was a troublemaker once I saw that face paint and the cheeky smile." And he kept grabbing her attention despite other, more attractive people being on screen beside him. PD Emily smiled as she tapped the frozen image of Ari making a peace sign at the camera and then turning to wrestle the cowboy hat-wearing boy when he messed his hair up. "It's too bad. His group would have made the top twenty if it weren't for that annoying prince and his court of yes men. F*ck all of them." Her smile disappeared, and PD Emily's cold, hazel eyes turned to the screen showing William Forbes and four team members, apart from carrot top and angry buzzcut. She had no proof yet, but she was sure that there was an insider leaking information not just to William but to a few other contestants as well and it pissed her off. Plus, she had gotten an order from higher up to ensure his editing was positive, which grated on her nerves even more. The only people who should be playing god were the PDs who crafted the show's direction. The fact that somebody was interfering with her home base, with her project, shortened her already short temper. But for now, there was nothing she could do. She just had to work and slowly investigate and snip off the rotten bits. "PD Emily, please watch your mouth!" the junior production staff member looked around in a panic, as if somebody might hear PD Emily's words. "I know. I know. It's fine, so continue observing the kids who come through the maze. We seem to have a bunch of overachievers this time, so we can probably get started early. And stop freaking out over every little issue." "Ugh. I-I mean, yes, ma'am!" As the junior production staff member walked away, PD Emily yawned and continued observing the escape of the rest of the contestants that trickled in, while slowly planning the editing direction of the first episode. They planned on properly building the profiles of the contestants, making sure that each was spotlighted at least a little bit so that the public would grow attached to them, want to know them, and pour their money into them. Then they would begin the pruning process of the show, making sure to fill it with drama, narratives, a variety of scenarios, and of course showing the growth in the boy's skills to hook even more attention from the public eye as they slowly identified who would become the top 7 idols. By the end of it, not only would Pop Star Academy become a highly rated survival show, but the public would be entranced with these boys and want to follow their careers. She just had to hook them properly in the beginning. A cold smile filled PD Emily's face as she remembered the trick she had planned for the first round. Although she hated outsiders messing around with her show and contestants, she herself had no qualms about doing the same thing. After all, all she cared about was making a popular show for television, streaming services, and WeTube. Her goal was to be the number one idol survival show, not just in the Western world but in Korea as well. That's why the program would take place in those two countries and provide translation services to both sides. This would be a global phenomenon that the world had never seen before. And it all started with the intro. PD Emily tapped the desk for a couple more seconds before calling over a production team member, "Start gathering clips of these contestants and prepare them for posting on TokTik and WeTube. Let's get these boys trending."