Chapter 1100: I am New Black, Class of ’18 (24)

In truth, the place that gave us the biggest headache while preparing this festival was the Korea National Open University.

"Guys... what are we supposed to do?"

"G-Good question..."

We'd accepted the invitation because the idea of a university festival streamed live online sounded interesting.

The problem was that we had no idea what form it should take.

Most university festivals followed a familiar formula, but this one had no established format at all.

"Come on, why overthink it? Just treat it like an online concert. Rent a studio and stream it."

Our youngest member offered the most straightforward suggestion, but none of us found it particularly appealing.

It felt... ordinary.

We spent ages huddled together, trying to think of something, until Ri Hyuk finally found the breakthrough.

"Just because it's streamed online doesn't mean the event itself has to be online. I actually think an offline festival would be much more meaningful."

"Why?"

"Look at this. It's the university's age distribution."

People in their forties made up the largest group, but every age bracket was represented surprisingly evenly.

Unlike a typical university, this school had an unusually diverse student body.

And there was another notable characteristic.

Its students came from every imaginable walk of life.

"Soldiers earning bachelor's degrees through remote classes."

"Office workers pursuing higher education after work."

"Older adults who could finally afford to attend university."

Among them, the group that caught our attention most was the people attending university for the very first time through the Open University.

"They've never experienced a normal university campus before, right? If that's the case... what if we gave them the chance to experience a real university festival?"

That led to discussions with the university, and together we selected audience members through a lottery among eligible students.

At the same time, we settled on the event's concept.

[A Nostalgic University Festival with NewBlack!]

A special event giving older first-time university students the campus festival they had never experienced in their youth.

Preparing it, however, wasn't easy.

We simply had no idea what belonged in a university festival.

We asked people around us for advice, but it wasn't particularly helpful.

"CEO! Back in your day, what did you do at university festivals?"

"In our day..."

"Yes?"

"We learned how to make Molotov cocktails..."

"Ah... I-I see..."

All we learned was just how turbulent university life had been during the 1980s.

According to the TF team's research, what people now considered a modern university festival didn't really take shape until the 1990s.

Footage of students from Seoul National University and Ewha Womans University wearing hanbok at Gyeongbokgung Palace, or festivals centered around student protests in the '80s, weren't exactly references we could use.

So in the end, we simply decided to make the kind of festival we wanted ourselves.

"Broadcast and Communications!"

The auxiliary stadium beside the main field.

More than five thousand audience members answered our shout with a deafening roar.

"Talent Show!!"

Under the warm noon sunshine sat elderly spectators wearing sun visors, young students, people in their thirties...

Facing the audience of every generation, we gave them a thumbs-up.

"You all did an amazing job! When the actual broadcast starts, can you be just as enthusiastic?"

"Yeeeeees!"

"Alright! One more practice! Broadcast and Communications~"

"Talent Show!!"

"Wooooooo!!"

After running through the rehearsal several more times with the audience, we finally began the online festival broadcast.

"Broadcast and Communications~!"

"Talent Show!!"

"Hello, everyone!"

We waved to the audience.

Smiling faces stretched across the stands, banners fluttering everywhere.

『Cheongpyeong's Pride! Go Jung Oksoon!』

『I skipped every other university just to watch this♡』

『NewBlack!! I'm the rice cake!』

As the audience waved balloons of different colors for each age group, we delivered our opening remarks.

"To all our students and their families who joined us today, thank you so much for coming!"

"And before we officially begin today's program..."

"You've got to see today's opening performance first!"

"It's NewBlack!"

Since the audience spanned so many generations, we prepared two opening performances.

The first was just like any other university festival.

We performed Night Sea.

"Wooooooo!"

The younger audience, up through those in their forties, screamed themselves hoarse.

Meanwhile, those in their sixties and older clapped with warm smiles that practically said, These youngsters really know what they're doing.

Then, after Night Sea ended...

Today's guest singer appeared.

"Everyone! Today's special guest, the handsome prince of trot music..."

"Please welcome Mr. Baek Sanggyo!"

We gestured dramatically as the stage doors swung open.

An elderly trot singer with a full head of white hair emerged wearing a white suit that made him resemble Colonel Sanders, flower petals raining around him.

"Oh my! Wonderful to see you all! I'm Baek Sanggyo!"

The idol of Korea's middle-aged and senior generation had arrived.

Immediately, the older audience members began bouncing happily in their seats.

While Baek Sanggyo performed, we stood behind the microphones providing backup vocals.

"Sha-ba~ Sha-ba~"

Wearing sunglasses while dancing and singing chorus parts, we had the entire audience laughing.

Maybe it was the entertainer in me.

I honestly didn't know why making people laugh felt this satisfying.

Once the opening stage ended, we returned backstage with Baek Sanggyo.

"Ohhh..."

The veteran trot singer rubbed his lower back.

"Maybe I shook these old hips a little too enthusiastically."

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine. As long as I can still go fishing."

He waved dismissively.

"I did this one for free, so you boys better come back on Honey, Let's Go Fishing later, alright?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Honestly, you've gotten so famous these days it's hard to even see your faces anymore. Tsk."

We tried to escort our senior off after his performance, but he simply waved us away, telling us to get back on stage.

Returning to the audience, we began the next segment.

Broadcast and Communications Talent Show.

Just like the famous program it parodied, students came up one after another to show off their talents.

"Could you introduce yourself?"

"What?!"

The first contestant was an elderly gentleman in his eighties, Kim Pilbu.

Wearing a checked shirt tucked into his trousers, he frowned.

I tried again, speaking slowly.

"Could you introduce yourself?"

"I can't hear you if you speak that quietly! My ears aren't working too well today."

"YOUR NAME!!!!!"

Our youngest member's booming shout made the old man's eyes snap open.

Everyone burst into laughter.

The man himself looked delighted at Jiho's voice.

"Ah! Now I can hear again! Nice to meet you! I'm Kim Pilbu, eighty-five years old!"

"What have you prepared for us today?"

"A song."

Without another word, he started singing.

Gripping the microphone with unexpected confidence, the eighty-five-year-old stepped into a wide-legged dance.

"Yoooour naaame~ is so preeettyyy~"

The audience erupted.

Keeping a perfectly straight face, I picked up the xylophone.

Ding!

"The wooorld is so looonely~ my heaaart is so looonely~"

Ding!

Ding!

Ding!

I kept striking the xylophone to signal him to stop, but apparently he couldn't hear it and proudly finished the entire song.

Looking around at the audience rolling with laughter, the old man smiled in satisfaction.

I turned the sketchbook toward him.

"Our judges have awarded you..."

"Thirty-seven points."

"..."

His shoulders drooped.

"But fifty thousand points for making everyone laugh."

His face instantly lit up.

Promising we'd give him a special Comedy Award later, we sent him off the stage.

And so the talent show began amid nonstop laughter.

"So many unique people."

"We're actually the normal ones."

A contestant in his twenties who dreamed of becoming a hip-hop artist suddenly launched into an improvised diss rap.

"Yo! Your mom's kimchi tastes terrible!"

The middle-aged women and elderly audience members—who clearly had no idea what diss rap was—instantly went stone-faced.

Then a man in his thirties sang while performing the most ridiculous comedy dance imaginable, sending the audience into hysterics.

After finishing, the aspiring dancer raised his hand proudly.

"My dream is to join Lemon Entertainment!"

"We'd love to have you! Our doors are always open!"

"Thank you! I want to debut as an idol!"

"Closed."

Junghyun mimed pressing an elevator's "close door" button, making everyone burst into laughter.

As the office worker shamelessly kept smiling, Biju innocently asked,

"By the way... what exactly was that dance?"

"...? It was your song. It's the dance from 'Nine.'"

"H-How could that possibly..."

Biju completely failed to maintain his expression.

His trembling face sent fresh waves of laughter through the audience.

There were countless other unforgettable contestants.

One delivered a rock performance worthy of a professional singer and stunned everyone.

Another impersonated famous vocalists.

Another somehow sang entirely through belches that sounded like a cow.

After contestant after contestant took the stage, the winners were finally decided.

"Congratulations."

Most of them were ordinary working adults making a living.

I leaned toward them and quietly pointed at the prize wheel.

"Which prize do you want the most?"

The contestants exchanged surprised glances before whispering among themselves.

"I'd like the travel package."

"I want the refrigerator..."

"The dishwasher."

As I silently matched each face to the prize they wanted, the rock vocalist who had taken first place looked at me curiously.

"But... isn't this wheel spun by hand? I thought the machine somehow selected the prize you wanted."

"...? It doesn't."

"Huh?"

"I'm the one spinning it."

"...????"

Looking at the thoroughly confused contestants, I smiled and raised a hand dramatically.

"Heh heh... Today, you're about to witness what the Hand of God really is."

"Hahahahaha!"

Everyone laughed as I theatrically blew into my hands.

They all thought I was joking.

Five minutes later...

"...?"

"...??"

Each contestant stood there frozen, staring at the exact prize they'd wished for.

Smiling contentedly, I folded my arms.

After the talent show, NewBlack spent another three full hours hosting games, reading audience stories, and performing songs before finally saying goodbye.

"This has been NewBlack!"

"Have fun and enjoy the rest of the festival~~!!"

"Wooooooo!!"

"You thought it was over?"

"Encore!"

"Kyaaaaaaa!!"

"You thought that was the end?"

"Nope!"

"Encore again!"

"Wooooooo...!"

"Encore after the encore after the encore!"

"Did you really think we'd leave that easily?"

"Wooooooo...!"

NewBlack kept returning until the audience was nearly hoarse from cheering.

Only after we finally disappeared for good did the background music from Overcooked begin playing over the speakers.

An announcement informed everyone that booths would soon open around the venue, and that it was time for a short break.

Because NewBlack leaving didn't mean the festival itself was over.

[Fresh sashimi prepared by a seafood master with thirty years of experience]

[Autumn grilled gizzard shad]

[Certified sommelier]

Unlike the amateur food booths normally seen at university festivals...

Middle-aged chefs with streaks of gray personally prepared the dishes, giving the entire event the unmistakable atmosphere of a professional food festival.

"Wow. Look at the crowd."

The venue buzzed with people.

Unlike the concert, the entrance restrictions had been lifted, and visitors poured into the festival grounds.

While students wandered around enjoying everything the festival had to offer, there was one undeniable topic of conversation.

NewBlack.

"They're such sweet kids. They looked like babies—I couldn't believe it."

"They're so handsome."

"I heard they're flying back to America after this for some Billboard thing."

"They're going to America again? They must be exhausted."

Strictly speaking, it was the American Music Awards, but to them it was simply "one of those Billboard award shows."

Either way, the affection in their voices was unmistakable.

That was so much fun. Seriously.

The singers had spent more than three hours doing exactly what entertainers were meant to do.

Making people happy.

The gratitude welling up inside the audience was genuine.

When the terrestrial TV stations covering the event interviewed students, microphones were passed around.

"I had such a wonderful time. I hope they do this again."

"NewBlack, fighting!"

"I've never had the chance to attend university before... but thanks to NewBlack, today really felt like I finally did. Hahaha."

After expressing their thanks, students and their families ate together, browsed the booths, and chatted.

"By the way, those boys kept asking us to vote in some survey earlier. How do we do that?"

"I don't think we can choose to do it ourselves. I think they call people on the phone or something."

"Really?"

The middle-aged attendees turned to their children for an explanation.

"Isn't Gallup the company that does opinion polls?"

"Yeah. Every year they conduct surveys for things like Singer of the Year."

"I see~"

No one knew whether they'd actually receive a call.

But if they did...

They had already decided they'd vote for NewBlack as Entertainer of the Year.

That's about the only thing I can do for them.

NewBlack's carefully calculated campaign to win the Entertainer ranking was working perfectly.

Had the five members known what everyone was thinking, they would've been clapping their hands together, laughing,

"Our plan worked! Hehehe!"

As nearly one hundred thousand Korea National Open University students silently resolved to vote for NewBlack...

"Whoa..."

The Souffles stared at their monitors with wide eyes.

Maybe it was because there had been so many memorable contestants.

Online communities were exploding with posts.

[Korea National Open University festival contestant who absolutely nails Cha Woohyun's voice lol]

[Average university festival talent show]

[Kim Pilbu just stole the show live]

Not everyone had watched the festival from beginning to end.

But thanks to clips flooding the internet, it felt like everyone had.

The short videos were already racking up enormous view counts.

People laughed nonstop.

Biju absolutely losing it when the guy said it was NewBlack's choreography LMAOOOOOOOO

Grandpa contestants have insane star power lol

The rock singer has to be a professional, right?? No way that's an amateur.

Ri Hyuk looking physically pained every time someone sang off-key is killing me lol. You could see him thinking, No... that's not it...

Why would anyone perform "Yo! Your Mom's Kimchi Tastes Terrible" there of all places? LOL. The atmosphere died instantly.

That silence was REAL. I broke into a cold sweat watching it.

The buzz was far beyond what anyone would expect from a university festival livestream.

The reason everyone online talked as though they'd watched it themselves was simple.

The viewership.

"..."

"..."

NewBlack's TF team, which had organized the online festival, stared blankly at the screen.

Seo Mingi turned to Yoon Seokhwan, who absentmindedly adjusted his glasses.

"Team Leader."

"Yeah?"

"Is this what you meant when you said today's livestream would get huge numbers?"

"...I expected it to do well."

Before the event, the math genius had confidently declared,

"The audience numbers are going to be enormous."

NewBlack's international fans who watched every online release.

Souffle, the country's largest fandom.

One hundred thousand Korea National Open University students.

Tens of millions of NewBlack TV subscribers.

"I expected it to be high."

Yoon Seokhwan continued,

"But I was thinking... maybe a few million."

"..."

"..."

Even his most optimistic prediction had been around five million viewers.

Instead...

Displayed before them was a number no one had imagined.

"When Wooju performed Like The Sun before, wasn't it around eleven million?"

"That's right."

"..."

"..."

Everyone swallowed hard as they looked at the monitor.

The cumulative number of people who had watched any portion of today's online festival filled the screen.

[Total Cumulative Viewers: 23,517,433]

Rounded up...

Twenty-four million.

In an instant, NewBlack had set the record for the most-watched online concert in the world.

"H-How is this even possible?"

"I'm looking at the analytics right now. India and South America are especially strong. The numbers are exploding across the board."

Manager Hong Seoyoung pointed at the data.

"We knew Overcooked was a huge hit, but we never really understood just how big it had become."

"That's true."

"This..."

She looked around at everyone.

"...is the result."

"...!"

As everyone involved with NewBlack stood frozen in shock at the impact being generated by the global success of Overcooked...

There were others, thousands of miles away, staring at the news with considerably more concern.

"Did you see this? NewBlack held an online concert at a Korean university, and it drew twenty-three million viewers."

"What was our audience last year?"

"9.2 million."

"..."

The American Music Awards, one of America's three major music award ceremonies alongside the Grammys and the Billboard Music Awards.

The production team for the 2018 AMA exchanged stunned looks.

The executive producer turned toward the staff.

"How much screen time do Moonlight and NewBlack currently have?"

"Moonlight has slightly more..."

"Change it."

"Yes, sir."

Twenty-three million viewers.

For a university festival.

It was the kind of number that made television professionals instinctively stand up a little straighter.