Chapter 963: Nothing Goes According to Expectations (17)

Everyone panicked at the sight of the rabbit doll suddenly moving.

"Wooju?"

"Yeah?"

"Did... did that rabbit doll just move?"

An earthquake was practically happening in the CEO’s and Director’s eyes.

"Ri Hyuk made it."

"Ri Hyuk did?"

Ri Hyuk explained on his behalf.

"There’s a frame inside it. It’s a voice responsive mechanism. Depending on changes in voice input, it randomly raises either its left hand or right arm."

"I I see. H how did you even make something like this?"

"With parts I got from KAIST graduate students."

"...?"

The longer the conversation went on, the more confused the CEO became.

Director Jo Gyuhwan let out a hollow laugh while staring at the rabbit doll holding up a [YES] sign.

"You seriously startled me. I thought the rabbit doll had actually come alive."

"The timing really was perfect."

The moment someone asked, "Will the animation project succeed?" Tosam immediately raised [YES].

Director Jo laughed.

"Exactly. There’s no way a doll could really be alive."

Bzzzt—

The rabbit doll raised [NO].

"!"

"!!"

Jiho yelped and jumped behind his back.

While everyone held their breath, the CEO swallowed hard.

"I am bald."

Rabbit Uncle raised [YES].

The CEO asked with complete seriousness,

"Will Lemon Entertainment prosper? Is Lemon Entertainment’s future bright?"

Rabbit Uncle raised [YES], and everyone exploded with excitement.

"T this is real!"

"Rabbit Uncle is aliveee!"

"Whoa... I think this place is blessed or something!"

While Ri Hyuk looked at everyone like they were idiots, they all crowded forward.

"Will NewBlack stay together forever?!"

[YES]

"Will Wang Jiho win an Oscar?! And will the hyungs keep calling him cute forever?!"

[YES]

Watching the rabbit doll answer without hesitation, he asked,

"Kim Deoksun smiles warmly every day while thinking about her grandson!?"

[NO]

"It's fake."

He spoke with a cold expression.

"This thing is nothing more than a machine randomly responding to human voices."

"That’s exactly what I’ve been saying."

He crossed his arms alongside Ri Hyuk and looked down disdainfully at the cackling underlings.

Then he turned toward Lemon Entertainment’s cold voice of reason, Director Jo Gyuhwan.

"You can’t seriously believe something like this, right Director?"

"H huh?"

Their eyes met just as the director was calmly writing down a list of questions for Rabbit Uncle.

"..."

"..."

The three of them all avoided each other’s gaze.

Meanwhile, Biju looked at Junghyun.

"You ask something too."

"Hold on. I need to choose carefully."

"...?"

"There’s something I really want to ask."

Junghyun clasped his hands together with sparkling anticipation and asked Tosam,

"Uncle~ Will the KG Dragons win a championship within the next ten years~?"

[NO]

"Then within twenty years~~?"

[NO]

"This thing’s fake."

"..."

"There’s no way. There’s no way......"

With moist eyes staring blankly into space, Junghyun’s shoulder was quietly patted by the others.

Needless to say, Rabbit Uncle was not real.

Ri Hyuk threw out a test question.

"NewBlack avoids success."

[YES]

"Heh. Wrong. NewBlack pursues success, not avoids it. See? Rabbit Uncle isn’t real."

[NO]

'Feels like the rabbit’s glaring resentfully at him.'

'That was kind of dirty.'

It had been a slightly underhanded question, but he wasn’t wrong.

As they kept tossing out random questions for fun, they gradually realized Rabbit Uncle really was randomly raising [YES] and [NO].

"But......"

Director Jo Gyuhwan asked blankly,

"What exactly were we talking about... before this?"

"G good question?"

Ri Hyuk checked the notes.

"The last thing was thirty minutes ago. Someone asked whether the animation project would succeed."

"Ah, right. That."

Director Jo returned to the main topic.

"Honestly speaking, there’s no way to know whether the Rabbit Uncle animation project will succeed or not. Usually, children’s animation projects like this take at least a year and a half to produce."

"A year and a half from now means......"

"Probably around January or February of 2020? And that’s the bare minimum."

They immediately understood what he meant.

There was no guarantee the children’s song would still be popular by then.

"And just because a children’s song becomes popular doesn’t mean the animation will too. Just like movies where only the OST gets praised."

However, Director Jo continued,

"That said, I still think there’s more than enough reason to push this forward. It aligns with our company’s vision of becoming a content enterprise. More importantly... I’ve got a good feeling about this project."

From there, Director Jo Gyuhwan began explaining the project in detail.

Where the investment money would come from.

What kind of staff they would work with.

Nothing was finalized yet, but they could roughly see the picture he was drawing.

-An animation kindergarteners will love!

It seemed they were planning a project aimed at children ranging from kindergarteners to elementary school students.

"Of course, we’ll need to meet with the company owner regarding the character related aspects...."

"The owner?"

"The rabbit doll factory owner."

"Ah."

CEO Park Gyuho spoke up.

"The doll you used was personally designed by that owner."

"The owner designed it personally?"

The members all looked surprised.

They didn’t know who the person was, but they must have had an incredible eye for design.

Tosam’s overflowing star quality.

Part of the reason Rabbit Uncle was currently so popular was because of that appearance.

CEO Park Gyuho laughed.

"You’ll get the chance to meet them soon. The owner’s been saying nonstop how much they wanted to meet you guys."

"Really? We’d love to meet them too."

Rabbit Uncle was currently causing a worldwide craze.

They wanted to personally thank the designer who had created the original Tosam character that started it all.

After agreeing to meet together later for discussions related to the animation project—

"Then we’ll get going now~"

"Oh, right."

Director Jo Gyuhwan grinned.

"Congratulations on 200 million views, guys."

"...?"

"It happened while we were talking."

On Director Jo’s phone screen was the number [200,087,382].

Biju asked,

"Is that... the fastest ever?"

"Yep. Fastest 200 million views on record."

They all slowly closed their eyes.

Honestly, he was technically the real body behind Rabbit Uncle, and he was happy that the song he made had become globally popular.

But seeing something outside his main profession become this massive of an issue felt a little strange.

Director Jo burst into laughter.

"Don’t think about it that way."

"...?"

"Rabbit Uncle and you guys aren’t separate things. Strictly speaking, this phenomenon happened because of you."

Everyone immediately perked up.

"What do you mean by that, Director?"

"Rabbit Uncle was definitely a catchy song, but the reason it exploded this much isn’t simply because the song was good. First of all, it was possible because it got uploaded to your MyTube channel."

"...?"

"How many subscribers do you guys even have now?"

"We stopped counting lately."

Once they passed tens of millions, they stopped paying attention.

Director Jo shrugged.

"The important thing is that you guys sang Rabbit Uncle. If you eating instant noodles on livestream can increase overseas sales by 500 percent, then what do you think happens when you release a children’s song like Rabbit Uncle?"

In other words, NewBlack TV’s influence had been decisive in spreading Rabbit Uncle worldwide.

Souffle spreading the song across social media.

The media paying attention simply because NewBlack sang it.

"You can think of Rabbit Uncle’s current success as the culmination of everything you guys have built up until now. If this were an ordinary children’s song, it never could have spread this quickly. Normally it would take at least two months."

As he said that, Director Jo added meaningfully,

"And this phenomenon is also foreshadowing something even bigger to come."

Ri Hyuk immediately summarized the point.

"Promotion."

"Exactly."

"Rabbit Uncle increases public interest in us... and that leads into the new song."

"Correct. That’s exactly it."

The members nodded.

Right now, it wasn’t just Rabbit Uncle the children’s song becoming popular.

[Global superstar NewBlack has returned with the children’s song Rabbit Uncle!]

[It’s NewBlack’s song. Let’s listen to Rabbit Uncle now! Stay tuned~!]

[Did you see this? It’s a song made by NewBlack......]

Mentions of NewBlack were exploding across social media and search engines.

All thanks to the overwhelming power of children around the world.

Ordinary people overseas who had never cared about or even known about them before were now discovering them.

-Who’s NewBlack?

-Bunny bunny Uncle Bunny. Bunny bunny Uncle Bunny....

-They’re handsome. The kids are cute too... but the names are kind of unfamiliar. Woo... ju?

-Bunny bunny Uncle Bunny. Bunny bunny Uncle Bunny... Bunny bunny... Um Bunny Uncle Banmehhome......

-Wooju, Biju, Junghyun, Ri Hyuk, Jiho......

The basics of promotion were exposing a hundred people to something and getting even one person interested.

But if the song had 200 million views....

The promotional effect they were getting was something even billions could never buy.

At that moment, everyone’s eyes widened.

"!"

"!!"

What if Overcooked came out right now?

With Tosam generating this much attention, what would happen if their English song dropped now?

Their Overcooked thumbnail appearing dramatically with all of them dressed as chefs holding knives.

"I think people would at least check it out once. Even just out of curiosity."

"Seriously...?"

"We really don’t have to worry about the next song’s momentum anymore. Even people who weren’t Souffle are going to listen."

The members all beamed and hugged Tosam.

"Tosam!"

"Good job! New Tosam!"

"You are the newest pride of the New family! Ahahaha!"

It felt like the doll was cursing them with its eyes, but that was probably just their imagination.

Watching them spin around while dancing with the doll in their arms, the CEO and director burst into laughter.

Director Jo Gyuhwan nodded as if to say exactly.

"The more successful Tosam becomes, the better it is for you guys. Because honestly, Tosam’s popularity is your popularity."

He and the others nodded.

'That’s true.'

'Not Tosam’s popularity ours...!'

Bzzzt—

Tosam raised [NO], but everyone simply laughed it off.

Tosam’s popularity continued skyrocketing.

-Lemon Entertainment acquires Rabbit Uncle company, rising as a global IP business?

-Children’s song Rabbit Uncle surpasses 200 million views, "The world is currently in the grip of Rabbit Uncle fever"

-Ruby Button NewBlack TV surpasses 50 million subscribers, the driving force behind Rabbit Uncle’s popularity...?

"Hehe!"

"Well done, Tosam! Keep going!"

"Just hold out until our song drops...!"

Some trends faded quickly, while others lasted surprisingly long.

Tosam clearly belonged to the latter.

Hollywood celebrities kept adding fuel by posting covers.

"Did you see this? Moonlight did a cover."

"Really...?"

Even their self proclaimed rival group Moonlight reluctantly posting a dance cover showed just how huge it had become.

Naturally, offers flooded in as well.

Foreign car companies wanted Tosam riding inside advertisements.

Famous American beverage and cereal companies were sending proposals like, "How about a Tosam cereal collaboration?"

Of course, every commercial offer was rejected.

-From now on, we need to minimize image consumption as much as possible.

There was no point plastering Tosam all over cereal boxes and car ads before the company’s new business officially launched.

More importantly, carefully controlling exposure was the key to maintaining long term popularity.

Too much exposure exhausted the public.

Still, they accepted a few requests.

Mainly campaigns related to children’s safety.

Crossing at traffic lights safely.

Washing hands and brushing teeth properly.

[Lalala! Everyone needs to wash their hands and brush their teeth properly!]

And every time, articles would appear about "Rabbit Uncle’s positive influence."

All they could do was smile warmly.

"That’s right, children. Grow up healthy and become Souffle."

"Right now you may be watching Rabbit Uncle, but before you know it, you’ll become Souffle."

"Seriously, if we hook kindergarteners now, won’t we still have fans in their fifties when we’re doing our seventieth birthday dinner shows? That sounds amazing."

They could already picture energetic fifty year old fans applauding during their dinner show livestream.

What a beautiful future.

While neatly organizing Tosam’s activities—

"Hello."

They finally met Rabbit Uncle’s designer as well.

"My name is Lee Hyein. It’s such an honor to meet you...!"

"Hello! We really wanted to meet you too!"

She was the owner running the Rabbit Uncle doll factory.

Since it was a doll factory, they had imagined someone around the CEO’s age, but she was a woman in her thirties.

Apparently she had inherited the small factory her father used to run.

"I was honestly about to shut the business down."

Sipping tea on the office sofa, the owner spoke quietly.

"Sales were terrible, and it felt like the longer I kept going, the deeper into debt I’d sink......"

"And then we appeared."

"Exactly."

As if recalling the moment, she wrapped both hands around her cup.

"Suddenly Wooju appeared holding a doll I made... then my doll showed up on MyTube, and Americans were dancing with it......"

"Sorry. That must’ve been overwhelming."

"No no! I’m just so happy. It feels like winning the lottery or something, so I’m still kind of dazed."

She glanced toward Director Jo.

"When the director first visited me, I honestly didn’t think much of it. I figured it was just appearing briefly on a variety show, so how big could it really get......"

Everyone smiled awkwardly.

Biju asked curiously,

"Did you design all the dolls yourself?"

"Yes. This was originally my major, so... I’ve been trying to make use of it. Collecting dolls is my hobby too. As for how this rabbit came to exist......"

The moment the topic shifted to dolls, the owner became much more talkative.

Just like he lit up whenever discussing music, a glow remarkably similar to Tosam’s sparkled in her round eyes.

"And now there’s even an animation project...! I seriously love cartoons too. This is honestly a dream come true."

"She’ll be consulting on the animation character designs this time."

At Director Jo’s explanation, they all nodded.

Considering how perfectly designed Tosam already was, it really felt like they’d found the ideal person.

While they continued exchanging cheerful comments like, "My life completely changed thanks to you!" and "We got incredible promotion out of this too"—

"Would it be okay if we heard any ideas you might have?"

"Ideas?"

"Yes. You took my rabbit doll and gave it the Rabbit Uncle story. The character fit perfectly. So if you have any additional ideas related to the character, I’d love to hear them."

"Hmm......"

Especially with her staring at him like, The real Tosam himself!, he awkwardly smiled.

"I usually get pretty harsh criticism whenever it comes to design related things......"

"That’s okay! There’s no such thing as a bad idea in this world."

"I if you say so......"

At her expression telling him to say anything freely, he picked up a marker.

Scribble scribble.

"Do you like ballet?"

"Yes!"

"You know how artistic fields like ballet require certain physical qualities? Like how professional sports prefer specific body types or abilities."

Scribble scribble scribble.

"That’s true."

"When all the other pretty animal friends are doing ballet, imagine a child who can’t become a ballerina because she doesn’t meet the physical standards."

"...!"

The owner’s eyes widened.

"M more. Please keep going, Wooju."

"It’s about a child who keeps working hard despite all the ridicule around her and eventually becomes a ballerina."

Then he showed her the completed drawing.

The owner’s pupils trembled violently.

Ƹ̵̡ Ӝ̵̨̄ Ʒ

Cute antennae.

Wings.

Four pairs of eyes.

Eight legs.

"This character’s name is Lina."

He held up the drawing proudly.

"She’s a Ballerina Bug."

"...!"

"The male version would be Ballerino."

"...!!"

"So? What do you think of my idea...?!"

The composers waited in the studio while preparing work on Overcooked.

"When are the kids getting here?"

"They’re still in a meeting in the CEO’s office. Apparently they’re talking ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) with the designer who made the Rabbit Uncle doll."

"It’ll probably take around thirty minutes."

Right as they were chatting—

Click.

"...?"

Shuffle, shuffle.

NewBlack’s leader entered looking like a defeated soldier and collapsed onto the sofa.

"I’m here...."

"What? Why are you back so early?"

"Well......"

Wooju wore a miserable expression.

"The members kicked me out......"

"...?"

"Sniff......"

The composers tilted their heads in confusion at the sight of Wooju sadly shriveling up on the sofa.