Invasion from Seoul (12)

The original song’s boisterous disco-pop melody and vocals continued without a hint of humor. But underneath them lay an industrial metal sound. As people listened to what could only be called a dizzying song, they wondered how on earth they were supposed to score it. The atmosphere was sharply divided: those who liked it burst out laughing, while those who disliked it recoiled, saying they had no idea what they were listening to.

But that feeling did not last throughout the entire performance. As the song reached its climax toward the end of the second verse, a guitar solo came in.

“Waaaaah!”

Several bands let out cheers before they even realized it as a pitch-shifting solo in the extreme high register, played with a whammy pedal, poured forth.

Suyeon played the solo as though the dizzying song shown up to that point had merely been buildup for a twist. Her outfit was still the helmet and flare skirt, but what unfolded from her fingertips was a furious guitar performance without a hint of humor.

As the solo progressed, even the complaints of audience members who had been negative about the performance gradually subsided. They could tell that the strange opening had not been done merely for laughs—the girls had done their absolute best to bring the song to life somehow.

“Thank you.”

When the performance ended, applause filled the venue. It was closer to encouragement than praise. Reactions like, “They seem like they’re really good, so why did they give them a song like this?” began to drift through the audience. Donguk let out a sigh of relief. At least it had been a performance he could find an editing angle for.

“And finally… Group Sound, out of a total of twenty-four bands! An audience score of 68! A band score of 73! A mentor score of 82! With a total score of 74.2…”

This round weighted audience scores at 30 percent, band scores at 20 percent, and mentor scores at 50 percent. A score of 74.2 out of 100 was not particularly high, but…...