Chapter 152
The members of Orca and Cheristine all stepped forward together to cheer on Gyun Seong-ha and Hyun Eun-jae, who stood side by side.
“Seong-ha, it’s okay if you get eliminated in the preliminaries, just don’t get hurt.”
“That’s right. Your body comes first. If it seems impossible, don’t push yourself and just forfeit.”
“It doesn’t seem that difficult, though.”
Perhaps fired up by watching the previous matches, Gyun Seong-ha couldn’t take his eyes off the set. He seemed unaware that his partner, Hyun Eun-jae, was such a huge burden that her colleagues had easily acknowledged it.
‘It’s better if he doesn’t know.’
Knowing wouldn’t help anyway, and it would surely have a negative impact on his mentality.
Before the start, there was a time officially given for members to cheer. Yoo Hana, receiving a signal from Kang Ji-woo, handed me the microphone.
“Seong-ha, do well. You wouldn’t send me back to the dorm without even trying, would you?”
– That sounds more like a provocation than a cheer.
Incidentally, such words act as a tonic rather than poison to Gyun Seong-ha’s mentality.
“Are you confident you’ll pass the preliminaries?”
Seong-ha was simple-minded enough to respond to my pricking comments just as I expected.
“Seong-ha, do well.”
“Yes, hyung.”
He seemed perfectly fine when talking to me, but as soon as he received a rather mundane cheer from Seo Moon-gyeol, he looked around as if choking, searching for water.
Was it burdensome when Seo Moon-gyeol cheered and a provocation when I did it?
Seeing him get nervous and swallowing dryly, I brought him water, feeling a bit irritated that he seemed to look down on me. But in reality, I was superior to Gyun Seong-ha in many aspects except for height, so I decided to generously overlook his arrogance. The leisure of a superior, so to speak.
[Just the height?]
Well, strength too…!
[Is that all?]
That’s all.
[State of conscience? TP +5]
Damn it. I told you not to give away such points.
The members of Cheristine also said something to the somewhat nervous Hyun Eun-jae.
Just before the start, Ban Yo-han called out to Gyun Seong-ha.
“Seong-ha.”
“Yes?”
Ban Yo-han whispered something in his ear.
Gyun Seong-ha, who instinctively disliked Ban Yo-han and tried to avoid him, slightly nodded as if he understood.
– Then, get ready…
Bang! The signal gun held by the referee went off with a sound not loud enough to hurt the ears, marking the start.
– Go!
Gyun Seong-ha started at a surprisingly moderate speed. Judging by his expression, it was clear he wasn’t going all out.
However, thanks to Seong-ha adjusting his speed, the distance between him and Hyun Eun-jae, who was running beside him, didn’t widen too much.
Hyun Eun-jae was running at a pace that was passable at best, honestly, a bit slow to the point of being frustrating.
The members of Cheristine, watching the match from the side, proudly mentioned that she was the best runner among them.
If Hyun Eun-jae, running like that, was the best, how on earth did the other members run?
Running ahead, Gyun Seong-ha manipulated a device on his side to remove an obstacle set up for Hyun Eun-jae, then glanced at her before pausing to catch his breath.
The A-course where Hyun Eun-jae was running and the B-course where Gyun Seong-ha was running were separated with a certain distance, enough to be jumped across, but not blocked, allowing them to see each other.
Of course, invading the other course was a violation.
The fact that Gyun Seong-ha slowed down without much difficulty overcoming the relatively more challenging obstacles on his B-course was entirely out of consideration for Hyun Eun-jae.
– Ah, Seong-ha is fast. Eun-jae needs to push a bit more.
At that point, Hyun Eun-jae, who had just entered a stage requiring balance and was precariously walking, seemed aware that she was holding Seong-ha back, showing a slightly awkward expression.
“It’s okay, take your time!”
Hearing Seong-ha calmly shout from ahead, Eun-jae quickly regained her composure and steadily made her way through her course.
– That’s right. It’s important to consider your partner in this race. Just like Hyowon and Erin earlier, it doesn’t help if one person rushes ahead alone.
It seemed that Ban Yo-han’s advice from earlier was about this.
Originally, with his personality, he would have been more anxious and stomped his feet in such a situation, but considering the other person like this was not the Seong-ha I knew. The kid who always looked ahead.
Of course, Ban Yo-han was also far from being mature, but…
This was this and that was that.
He liked winning.
It could be said that Ban Yo-han gave him an appropriate piece of advice for Seong-ha, who had a weak mentality.
Finally, as Hyun Eun-jae passed her obstacle, a loud cheer erupted from the Cheristine fans’ side.
### Genius Idol’s Strategy to Conquer – Chapter 152 (continued)
– “Now, the two of you need to work together and run!”
The two gathered together.
Unfortunately, their record so far was somewhat below average.
If they wanted to pass the first preliminary round, Gyun Seong-ha had to reduce the time here by directly supporting Hyun Eun-jae.
– “Now, they need to climb over that high wall. Both of them can use the ropes attached to the wall, but it’s quite challenging, isn’t it?”
– “Yes, that’s correct.”
– “So, the previous teams chose to lift one person over the wall first.”
– “Once over, there’s a button on the other side that can tilt the wall more gently.”
– “Anyway, just getting over the wall is not easy, and the previous teams faced some difficulties in this section.”
– “When you look at it from the front, the wall appears much higher than expected. No matter how strong you are, lifting someone over it isn’t easy.”
Just as Yoo Hana was explaining this…
Gyun Seong-ha calmly lifted the recently arrived Hyun Eun-jae over the wall in one swift motion.
Gyun Seong-ha’s strength, combined with Hyun Eun-jae’s lightness, made the whole process look effortless.
By coincidence, a Cheristine fan had displayed the phrase ‘Feather Eun-jae’ on their phone’s LED app.
That phrase was accurate.
Although Hyun Eun-jae had appeared somewhat frustrating so far, she looked as light as a feather when she stepped on Gyun Seong-ha to climb over the wall.
The two worked together so smoothly, as if they had practiced beforehand, that Han Gi-joon didn’t even have a chance to make any needless commentary.
– “Ah, what’s that?!”
We all stood with our mouths agape at what happened next.
Gyun Seong-ha grabbed the rope attached to the vertical wall and climbed up using only his strength.
Usually, the person who had gone over first would press a button on the other side to tilt the wall, making it easier to climb…
While Hyun Eun-jae, who had returned to the turtle pace, carefully descended the ladder attached to the high wall, Gyun Seong-ha simply climbed over using his strength.
This must be where the saying “if you have a good body, your mind suffers less” comes into play.
The screen showed Gyun Seong-ha jumping down from the high wall with the agility of a special agent.
‘What if he injures his ankles and knees…!’
Fortunately, Gyun Seong-ha, who seemed very adept at jumping from high places, landed skillfully and without injury.
The cheers from the Airies were the loudest they had been so far.
“Waaaah!”
“Gyun Seong-ha! Gyun Seong-ha!”
Even I and the other members joined in the enthusiastic cheering.
Honestly, even as a fellow guy, he looked cool.
His fanbase would likely grow after this broadcast.
After that, Gyun Seong-ha continued to shorten the time with his creative movements.
Everyone said he was good at sports, and it was evident even to my untrained eye that his athleticism was exceptional.
Fortunately, it seemed that trusting his strength and moving ahead like that did not violate any rules.
Finally, Gyun Seong-ha passed through the manual zip line set up over the water, and the two crossed the finish line.
– “They’ve finished!”
– “5 minutes 58 seconds! The Orca Cheristine team is currently in 3rd place!”
‘Wow, they might actually pass the preliminaries.’
In truth, until the midpoint, I had somewhat given up because Hyun Eun-jae was so slow, but thanks to Gyun Seong-ha’s amazing performance in the latter half, their record significantly improved.
It was also easier for Gyun Seong-ha to shorten the time since the high-difficulty obstacles that could reduce the record were all concentrated on his B-course after the two split up. Additionally, Hyun Eun-jae performed well in the quiz section at the end of the A-course.
Kang Ji-woo and Ban Yo-han, who had been exclaiming “How could he do that!” or “Nice!” whenever Gyun Seong-ha did something, hugged Seo Moon-gyeol and me and jumped up and down before rushing to Seong-ha as he came out of the set.
“Gyun Seong-ha! Gyun Seong-ha! Gyun Seong-ha!”
Fans also shouted Gyun Seong-ha’s name in unison. I could hear Cheristine fans mixing in shouts of Hyun Eun-jae’s name as well.
“It’s frustrating!”
“Seong-ha, we believed in you!”
“It’s frustrating, I said…!”
Gyun Seong-ha, unable to use any of his energy, had to remain still as we held him tightly.
A staff member barely managed to hand a microphone to Gyun Seong-ha, who had extricated himself from our grasp.
– “Let’s hear from you now. What were you thinking while running?”
“……”
I was sure he ran without thinking a hundred percent.
Honestly, what else could you think of while running other than that you have to go fast…?
“The voices of our fans, the Airies, cheering for us gave me a lot of strength.”
Fortunately, even if he didn’t have any thoughts, he seemed to have listened to something along the way, and Gyun Seong-ha gave an answer.
The Airies responded to Gyun Seong-ha’s words by waving their makeshift cheering sticks and shouting.
“And Ji-woo hyung’s voice was really loud…”
Everyone, including myself, laughed in agreement at Gyun Seong-ha’s words, which seemed a bit overwhelmed.
Kang Ji-woo, who had been screaming like a pterodactyl to cheer on Gyun Seong-ha, looked embarrassed.
Gyun Seong-ha said a few more words, and after interviewing the visibly proud Hyun Eun-jae, we returned to our seats.
After waiting for quite a while, the first preliminary round finally ended.
By then, I really wanted to go home, but we advanced to the second preliminary round in 6th place.