NOVEL NEXT Chapter 233
Chapter 233
Ultimately, the idea that Director Joo Yeol-eum, who was in charge of related tasks, finalized was On Raon’s.
The reason was simple.
It was calculated that the most diverse additional goods could be produced and sold with just one official cheering stick.
Director Joo Yeol-eum’s eyes sparkled with greed as he stayed up late gauging the profitability of the cheering stick.
In fact, Ban Yo-han and Seo Moon-gyeol’s magic wand design, which they hated in front of the camera, had some appeal to Director Joo Yeol-eum, who was obsessed with concepts.
However, it was eliminated as it did not quite fit the image of the group, Orca.
Aeris, who accessed the merchandise sales site, cheered after checking the design of the cheering stick, which started pre-orders today.
A professional designer refined the rough sketch that On Raon had drawn, making it exceptionally beautiful.
(Picture)
(Picture)
(Picture)
Today, the pre-order for Orca’s first official cheering stick started!
The cheering stick was designed with an idea by member On Raon, and it can be customized by attaching decorative parts as shown in the example photos.
– Wow, it really gives off an aquarium mood light vibe. I love the ocean feel. I’m going to buy it right away.
– Wow… I’m not even a fan, but I want one. It fits well with the group’s image.
– The pouch also looks really cool. I know it’s just a pretty piece of trash that I won’t use, but I’ll buy one anyway.
┗ Me too, lol. But the stick fits perfectly, and the storage space is quite spacious. A power bank can easily fit in there.
– (Picture) Some parts were released this time, and they all look amazing.
– But customization seems a bit excessive… Will those parts even sell?
┗ Well… They wouldn’t sell them if they wouldn’t.
– I’m not a fan, but I was looking forward to the magic wand, lol.
┗ Same, the magic wand and live fish were so unique, lol.
┗ So, would you buy your idol’s cheering stick if it came out as a magic wand and live fish?
┗ Sorry.
– I liked Seong-ha’s design because it was cool, but this one is also pretty.
– But if Kang Joo designed the live fish cheering stick as a mood light, lol (Picture)
┗ LOL, it looks pretty when it’s just decoratively placed, not for waving around, lol.
Along with the official cheering stick, Seed released a mood light based on the cheering stick designed by Kang Ji-woo.
They emphasized its function as an ocean mood light by allowing water to be put inside the horizontally long killer whale shape.
What shocked and angered the delighted Aeris was the pre-order commemorative event for the cheering stick.
[ORCA Official Cheering Stick Pre-order Event]
**Event 1**
(Picture)
During the pre-order period, those who purchase the ORCA official cheering stick will randomly receive one of the special parts that can replace the basic whale in the center of the cheering stick: Liberation Whale, Present Whale, Dream Whale, ??? Whale.
* The special parts are given 1:1 with the product while stocks last.
**Event 2**
(Picture)
For those who purchase the 1+1 event product composed of the ORCA official cheering stick and the ORCA mood light, one of the limited edition ORCA members’ birthstone treasure chest decoration parts will be randomly delivered.
* The birthstones are not real stones but cubic zirconia.
* The special parts are given 1:1 with the product while stocks last.
– (Screenshot of notice) Are they crazy with the random?
– It’s clear that Seed doesn’t know what 1+1 means.
┗ Since when did 1+1 mean buying two different things, lol? It means getting one more of the same thing, geez. They all see fans as cash cows.
– (Payment confirmation picture) Hello, I’m Seed’s fool **.
– Wow, the Liberation Whale is so pretty! But what is the ??? Whale?
┗ Isn’t it the whale from this comeback concept?
┗ Wow, that must be it.
– Looking to exchange the pre-order bonus for the Orca official cheering stick! I’ve placed a reservation, so let’s exchange if we get the desired members.
Me: Seong-ha/Ji-woo reservations are available.
You: Raon
Orca Kang Ji-woo Ban Yo-han Seo Moon-gyeol Gyun Seong-ha On Raon
– Seriously, the fact that it’s not even real stones but cubic zirconia is the funniest part, lol.
– But isn’t it weird to put real stones in something that you don’t even wear, just put inside the cheering stick, lol?
– I see a lot of people complaining about Seed, but they’re not even selling the whale or treasure chest parts for money, just giving them as bonuses. Why so many complaints?
– It’s ridiculous to see fans rely on companies for their self-worth, even if Seed is a lousy company, it’s still bigger than the fans.
– (Payment confirmation picture) …^^ Exchange? No way, just buying it.
– As a student Aeri, the cheering stick is too expensive,ㅠㅠㅠ.
┗ Compared to other groups, the unit cost of the cheering stick is actually on the cheaper side… The customization is a bit much, but it’s not necessary to do it.
– Joo Summer, I won’t let this slide…
– Joo Yeol-eum, the god of merchandise… Even if I try not to buy, everything is so pretty that I can’t resist, knowing I’m being a fool.
– I thought On Raon was nice, but he’s not. He ended up adding these microtransaction elements to the cheering stick…
– But I feel like Seed didn’t make it random to make money, they just thought random would be fun without much thought, lol.
┗ I just thought, “Wow, this small company really sucks at their job,” and moved on.
– When Joo Yeol-eum was in charge of Jupiter at CYY, every single piece of merchandise and concept he handled was the golden age. When you see StarTel, it’s clear he loves merchandise design as much as a hobby. We used to cry and buy every time new merchandise came out,ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
– But aren’t the treasure chest parts so pretty..? The slightly open lid, the birthstones of the members visible inside… The corners of the chest cut to look like it’s buried in sand… So delicateㅠㅠㅠㅠ I don’t think there will be a reprint, so I’ll do anything to collect all five this time.
– Oh no, I can already see myself sweeping all the cheering stick decorations into my cartㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
– What if they end up selling the parts themselves in random boxes later?
┗ I’ll still buy them.
┗ What do you mean, “what if”? I’ll just be a fool and buy them.
Though Aeris cursed Seed for randomly distributing special bonuses,
When they saw the actual cheering sticks held by the members with bright smiles in the group B-app live broadcast, which they hadn’t done in a long time to celebrate the release, they quietly swiped their cards.
That day’s group V-app ended in a cheerful atmosphere.
There were a few overseas fans of HuntRed causing a ruckus in the chat, but the members didn’t pay attention.
[We’ll go back to preparing for our comeback!]
[We’re really working hard as if we’re debuting again, so please look forward to it.]
[Oh, right!]
[What is it?]
[I saw that meme. The one where I’m holding up a tuna.]
[Oh, I saw that too.]
[I wanted to show you guys properly today since it wasn’t done well. Can I show you one last thing before we go?]
[Well, if you really want to, go ahead.]
Kang Ji-woo, unable to let go of his attachment, held the mood light that he had enthusiastically waved like a cheering stick above his head.
– LOL, Ji-woo!
– He looks so brave.
– The pose is perfect. By tomorrow, he’ll be holding up the Earth.
– Our captain whale never disappoints.
– Why is it so funny that the others don’t stop him? LOL
[Then, we’re really going to practice our choreography now.]
[See you again soon!]
[Ting~]
[Shara-rang~]
[Yap!]
* * *
Preparations for the third album’s activities were also in full swing.
There was a bit of a rushed feeling during our debut and last comeback, but this time it felt especially more so.
Several events occurred in succession, delaying the start of preparations for the next activities, and to prevent losing our buzz, the comeback timing was set quite tight.
I stayed up several nights revising the title track, listening to opinions from CEO Ban Ga-eul and the company’s production staff through her.
Yesterday, I roughly finished the recording with some direction from Ban Yo-han, who participated in the arrangement again this time.
And from today, we started practicing the choreography.
Fortunately, the difficulty of this choreography was not too high.
There weren’t many intricate details to pay attention to; rather, the movements were simple and big.
In a way, it felt similar to the Pick Heart second competition’s Eolssu Eolssu stage, which was full of energy and excitement.
Of course, Ban Yo-han, who was the weakest dancer in our team, was still much better than Jing Xiao, the legendary choreography hole at the time, so it wasn’t as easy as Eolssu Eolssu.
This is only in comparison to Liberation and Dream.
However, the frequent and large movements made it incredibly tiring to dance all the way through even once.
‘…Isn’t this actually hard?’
When I mentioned the difficulty to Kang Ji-woo, he looked at me with a puzzled expression and asked if I thought it was easy. So, I decided to agree that it wasn’t easy.
Around late July, about two months before Chuseok, when we were extremely busy preparing for our comeback,
The pre-recording for MBS’s Idol Chuseok Sports Day, which rivals the Seol special idol variety show broadcast every year, started mercilessly.
About 200 idols were divided into four teams: Blue, White, Red, and Black, for the Idol Chuseok Sports Day, which consisted of common school sports day events.
Short-distance running, strategic tug-of-war, quiz competitions, group cheerleading, soccer, basketball, relay races, etc.
Events like archery, swimming, and rhythmic gymnastics were occasionally added as unique events, but since the events changed every year, we wouldn’t know until MBS officially announced them.
Since most of the events involved physical activity, it was also infamous for causing injuries every year, drawing a lot of complaints from idol fans.