From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 91: Traffic Song Boy (3)

When Justine checked the comments below the video, it was a complete mixed bag.

- this team is trash. I just finished watching the first video and its 1000x better than this slop

- eww, 00-ari has to be ugly asl behind that mountain of makeup. Idk why his face looks like that. Prob why his number is 0 🤮🤮🤮

- if he wants to be an idol, he should take that ugly face paint off

- why is he in the front so much, he’s not even good

- you can tell he’s greedy and selfish, hogging the spotlight and all the parts for himself. Poor team members.

- imagine working hard on your performance and a guy in clown makeup joins your team. Ewwww

- the mime clearly came to the wrong competition

└ the lips are red, so it’s a clown

└└ I said what I said

└ └└ What you said is wrong

└ └└└ sybau

└ └└└└ u first bozo

└ └└└└└ I f-ed ur mom

└└└└└└└ I f-ed ur dad first

A large number of people mainly hated on Ari, compared the performance with other groups, or devolved into something unrelated.

- emo representation! Yahhhhh!

└ ewww weirdo

- It’s not ugly, it’s a rockstar look. Like the band Smooches

└ Nobody cares about that old ahh band

└ then go be a rockstar? Get off the idol program if you’re ugly and can’t show your face.

└ └ Who says he’s ugly?? Stop making assumptions and judging people by appearances

└ └ └ it’s literally an idol show????? We’re here to judge?

└ └ └└ sybau

└ └ if you don’t want to judge people on appearance, go watch masked vocalist or something

└ └ └ the furry show. Ewww

- that voice is crazy good, but that face, bruh. I cannot take it seriously

- joker lite fr

- did you hear that one boy screech? he looked so embarrassed as he moved to the back.

└ bro thinks he’s the main character

└└ never let bro cook again

└└ bro is not even top 11 on his team

└└└ there are only 11 people?

└└└└ exactly

There were a few people who were trying to defend him, but that also devolved into fights and jokes about his face.

- #7 is so fine 😍

- Thick boy Michael does it for me. Those thighs

- me to all the abs in the room 👅👅👅

- I want to be your towel Diego 👅

└ I want to be his washing machine and dryer 😮‍💨

- Sachi, あなたの胸の水滴を舐めさせて!!🙏

- All of them can get it, including face paint boy Ari. Choo choo!🚂｡🚋｡🚋｡🚋｡🚋˙⊹⁺.

- Whoever recommended the water stage, chose white shirts, and labeled them with the boys’ names, I want to have your babies

└ op ur pfp is a boy??

└ └ I said what I said

- Why is the dancing terrible, but completely synchronized?

- synchronization gods fr. Even when you play it at .5x, every angle is the same. What kind of military dance boot camp did they go to??

└ Instead of being idols, the military needs soldiers, bros, go enlist

└ bros went to ruler school to get those angles

└└ I think you mean protractor school

└└└ well, actually 👆🤓 sybau!!

And there were those who just liked looking at the boys or wanted to fight while writing crazy comments.

As Justine looked through the comments, she was a bit saddened to find that the hate comments about Ari’s face were the most common, followed by how he hugged the spotlight, and how ugly he must be.

There were a few people praising the performance and discussing other team members, but the ratio of Ari being mentioned vs other comments was crazy.

When she checked the likes versus dislikes, it was neck and neck, while the views continued to climb at a breakneck pace, and literal arguments broke out between fans, haters, casuals, and trolls.

Feeling bad about seeing so many comments bashing Ari, Justine decided to write a comment to support her favorite.

- Don’t you think Ari did really well? He’s definitely the best member of the team. He composes his own music, he’s actually really nice, and if you listen carefully, you can hear his vocals supporting the team throughout the performance!

└ 0/10 rage bait.

└ Ari, is this you?

└ └ gotta be him. Bro, take off the makeup. If you’re ugly, we won’t laugh!

└ └ └ ngl, I’m laughing if bro looks like Quasimodo underneath all that makeup.

└ └ └ What if this is him looking good?

└└└ Someone ask Chat to take off the makeup and see what he looks like.

As she began getting dog-piled and Ari got insulted even worse, Justine quickly deleted her comment while trying to like and boost comments uplifting and supporting Ari.

She remembered how nice and cool he had been at the showcase and wished she had managed to sneak a video so she could show people.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t, and it was just her fighting against the tide, and she was losing.

As Justine refreshed the video and continued scrolling the comments while checking Tweetster, she came across somebody called Trafficboylover01 who had reposted the performance video along with two short clips and a caption saying ’the duality of man’ #tarararara #P777 #trafficsongboy.

The first one showed Ari standing on stage wearing a grey school uniform, a black turtleneck, and leather gloves.

He held a trumpet in his hand, and as he brought it to his lips, somebody in the audience screeched "Tararara" at the top of their lungs.

The video of Ari had him laughing slightly as he comforted and thanked the screamer with a slight accent to his voice before playing the trumpet while the audience passionately sang along to a song about traffic in the city.

The second clip showed Ari and a blonde boy in a cowboy hat sitting in a white truck wearing the same school uniforms.

Ari held the trumpet, and as he played it, the other boy sang at the top of his lungs.

The two repeated the song for a bit, looking as if they were thoroughly enjoying themselves while waiting in traffic.

Eventually, the two boys drove off, but then the cars stuck in traffic began honking their car horns to the same tune.

Before Justine knew what was going on, the tweet blew up, and people began commenting about everything from Ari’s makeup to the handsome blonde boy beside him, to people using AI to remove the makeup to expose his face, and criticizing or praising his performance and the traffic song.

By the time an LA influencer posted a TokTik of them honking their horn to the ’Tarararara’ melody while they were stuck in traffic, traffic song boy was trending and had turned into a challenge that kept on growing and growing.

And while Internet discourse was happening with people trying to figure out what the identity of the traffic song boy was, Ari who had slept for a full 24 hours, completely dead to the world, woke up with a completely dry throat, crusty eyes, and an unbearable urge to use the bathroom.

As he staggered into the hallway bathroom in the church, his vision was filled with multiple blue windows.

[Ding!]

[[Bzzzz. Bzzzzz. Generate Some Buzz Part(2) - Complete!]]

[Reward - 1 Stat Point & 1 Charm Stat Point]

[Ding!]

[Surprise Mission: I Am The Leader, Hear Me Roar! - Complete]

[Reward: +5 Stat Visual Points(dispensed)]

[Ariel Matisse]

[Vocals: A]

[Dance: D+ (Currently C- with Otterly adorable tracksuit)]

[Visual: D (Currently D+ with Otterly adorable headband)]

[Rap: F]

[Charm: A]

[Skills: Picky Listener (B), Pen Pal (C)]

[Current Rewards: 1 Stat Point & 1 Charm Stat Point & 0.95 Visual Stat Points]

Staring at the sudden deluge of information being shown to him while using the urinal, Ari was completely confused.

What the heck was going on??