From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 66: D Class (4)

Their great leader Caleb decided that they should practice singing the song first and not practice the choreography at all until the trainer came.

Although Ari disagreed, thinking that they should work on the dance before the dance trainer came, he just quietly went along with it for now.

Afterall, he had clashed with the great, amazing leader Caleb one too many times.

They all lined up and the super, great, amazing, leader Caleb started the instrumental, letting the bass and trumpet sound resound through the room.

Daaa dan dan dan dan dan da da

As the bass died off, Ari stepped forward and sang the long sustained high note before rounding out the program acronym.

Wooooooa~

P. S. A

Then Vishal stepped forward with a slightly nervous expression as he began the rap portion.

What’s your aim

When we play this game

We want to make it

Straight to the top right now

Vishal’s voice was a bit low and shaky, and he kept his head down solely focused on the lyrics on the sheet of paper he held.

After stumbling through the verse, Vishal stepped back and Ari stepped forward one more time to sing through his verse.

It’s a battle to get to the top

And we won’t stop till we’re there (bang bang the war will never stop)

Blood, sweat, tears, heart and my soul

Pour it out until there’s no more (bomb bomb throw it all away, gonna fight to see another day)

In the mirror, Ari could see people turn to look at him in surprise as his voice rang out clearly, not missing a single note or line as he cleanly sang through it like he had practiced in his vocal class with Jelissa.

He focused on taking deep breaths and pushing the air from his lungs outward and his naturally loud singing voice became even louder as he sang, the slight rasp and unique tone catching the ear and making others want to listen more.

Soon enough, his part was over, and he stepped back for another boy to take the first chorus.

Then Caleb stepped in for his first verse as another boy supported him with ad-libs.

A boy named Diego followed with his rap portion before Michael followed with a verse with adlib support.

A boy called Junho had the third rap portion with somebody supporting him with ad libs.

Then the chorus leading into the dance break was sang by Michael who did a worse job than earlier by trying to sing in a higher key.

As the precise claps of the dance break sounded out, Ari just closed his eyes, once again thankful that he was wearing his green face mask because it hid the frown on his face.

To put it lightly, they sounded like sh*t.

Off tune, off beat, and it sounded like somebody was freestyling the lyrics at some point.

The rest of the song was sang by the remaining contestants and when the music ended, Ari opened his eyes to find the contestants staring at each other in the mirror.

Some people looked depressed as if they had given up on life, some people looked angry as they glared at the contestants besides them for screwing up, and some people just looked resigned to failure.

Amidst these emotions, there was only one person who looked pleased with themselves.

"I definitely nailed my part, but some of you definitely need work." Caleb spoke loudly while staring pointedly at Michael who took the part he wanted, and the other contestants who had mumbled, whisper sang and were off tune during the song.

"Why don’t I help you guys out one by one. You can think of me as a mini vocal trainer." Caleb continued in a tone deaf manner, even though he was one of the worst offenders.

"I’d rather let the only actual good singer here help us. There’s a reason he has a B-grade vocal badge." Diego muttered under his breath and the people around him perked up and turned to look at Ari with bright eyes.

He was the only person who had sung his parts perfectly and was even comparable to the original song vocals.

Plus, he sounded even better than during his performance so it was clear that his B-grade vocal badge was well deserved even if he was a masked weirdo.

"Hmph, well I have a C-grade vocal badge so why don’t we split the class. I’ll help coach half and Ari can coach half and we’ll start again in twenty minutes."

As soon as Caleb was done speaking, 3 people rushed toward Ari, completely surrounding him.

"Help us."

"Yes help us. Your part sounded perfect."

Ari: "...?"

At the suddenly fervent gazes, Ari took a step back and calmly replied.

"I’m not an expert but I can try my best to help you with the singing. I can’t do anything about rapping though."

"Then me first! How do you think I did? How can I do better?" Sachi, a Japanese boy asked him with a heavy accent.

"Uhm...."

’Everything!’

Ari wracked his brain for a kind way to convey his thoughts before thinking about how Jelissa had handled the contestants in the vocal class today.

She had basically sandwiched the feedback between the two compliments so Ari closed his eyes to recall Sachi’s portion which was a chorus and some adlibs.

"I think your timing for your ad-libs was really good and you seem to have the lyrics down, but I would say your chorus is a bit, hmmm, out of tune? Could you sing your part again?"

Ari waited as Sachi sang through the chorus acapella, doing his best not to wince before speaking again, "it should be more like this."

Ari then sang the chorus part but seeing Sachi rubbing his throat, he stopped.

"If it’s too high for you, you can just sing in a lower key and I’ll adjust my part to match once you nail it. How about this?"

Ari sang it again in a slightly lower key, a bit thankful that Jelissa had made him practice so much earlier.

"Why don’t you try it?"

Sachi took a deep breath, closing his eyes to block out the contestants staring at him before he opened his mouth to sing the chorus.

"No no no no noooo~"

Sachi’s voice sounded out with the correct pitch and Ari couldn’t help but smile as his ears stopped ringing.

It wasn’t the most amazing thing he had ever heard, but, it was in tune and that’s what mattered.

"That was it. Good job."

"Thank you so much! And my throat didn’t hurt this time!"

"You’re welcome."

Just as Ari was about to turn away, a blue screen appeared in his vision.

[Those who can’t do, teach! Your skills may be sorely lacking, but your mouth isn’t! - 1/10]

[Reward: 1 Stat Point]

One of his missions on his mission board updated.

Just as he was about to smile, NOVA had to bring him down of course.

[Congratulations, you finally remembered that you had missions.]

[Work hard while helping others so your pathetic dance skills can go up.]

[And clear the mission board so you can draw a new skill.]

[Maybe something to help you with that shameful dancing.]

Ari simply rolled his eyes at the systems words.

But when he looked over the mission board again, seeing the stat point rewards and the possibility of drawing a new skill, his motivation immediately surged up and he turned to to the next person.

"What did you say your issue was? Let me help you! No. I must help you!"

Although he couldn’t do anything about generating buzz, he could definitely regurgitate the advice he was given earlier.

****

By the time 3 hours passed and they had a quick dinner, Ari had helped 5/10 people including two people from those who went to Caleb for help.

Although his throat felt a bit dry from singing a lot, Ari was pretty happy with himself since all the advice he gave was what he had heard from Selena.

If this continued, he should be done with the mission by tomorrow.

He happily hummed to himself as he slowly performed the warmup he had learned while waiting for Caleb to come back from the bathroom so they could practice a little bit before the dance trainer came.

But unfortunately, that happiness disappeared with one sentence from Selena.

"What the h*ll have you guys been doing?"