From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 352: Temple Run (3)

"No?"

"Cool. I’m going to get the others at the door. Here are the menus of restaurants in the area that are familiar with the house’s delivery procedures. If you want something outside of these, let me know so I can instruct them on the process."

...There are delivery procedures?

What kind of life do you live, Levi? 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

As his brain was still trying to wrap around the fact that someone would intentionally make every item in their house excessively heavy and have an entrance like that, Ari just sat on the chair Levi pulled out for him while watching Benjamin and Jamie struggle to move theirs after refusing help.

If they wanted to exercise needlessly on their day off instead of accepting Levi’s help, more power to them. He just wouldn’t be joining in.

[Lazy.]

It’s called rest!

I’m resting my body!

[Righttttt.]

[Just like you’ve been resting without accomplishing your Mission Board.]

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

You’re really not going to stop bringing that up, are you?

[I’ll stop when you’ve accomplished the task!]

If you’re so pressed about it, then make it a surprise mission or something.

Swiping away the transparent blue screen, Ari absentmindedly paid attention to the discussion about where to eat as other people began trickling in.

Mathew, Justin, and Vishal came in together, with Justin praising Levi about the exciting(?) drive and props in his house.

Then Rex, Jin, and Rei came in holding fruit baskets and flowers.

And lastly, Alfonso came in by himself.

Although they had been invited as well, Daniel and the remaining contestants had other plans and wouldn’t be coming.

And of course, William wasn’t invited.

At first, even though the kitchen was packed, it was a little bit quiet since this entire group had never hung out with each other outside of the show, but with the help of Benjamin the social butterfly, and Levi’s strange house, the ice was quickly broken as the boys began challenging themselves to open the door, move the chairs, and try to pick up the crazily heavy plates and cups that Levi brought out.

As the food ordering was quickly forgotten for a weightlifting competition MC’d by Benjamin, Ari glanced at Carlos, who was just watching the events with a doting smile.

"...aren’t we supposed to decide and order food?"

"I think they forgot. Should we just get pizza and wings? Everyone seemed to like that place. And they have coupons for large orders."

Carlos pointed at the Dominoes menu.

"Might as well. There are 12 of us, so let’s get 6 boxes. 1 regular meat lover, 1 veggie, 2 cheese, 1 meat lover no pork, 1 meat lover no beef, and 4 packs of wings? 2 sweet, 2 spicy. Sound good?" Ari quickly swept through the menu, remembering most people’s food preferences.

"We should get two packs of sauceless wings. Rex and Jin didn’t seem to like the flavor options. And get some drinks too. Levi only has bottled water." Carlos corrected

"Got it." Ari quickly noted it before turning to the group, who were now having a push-up competition.

"Oi!!!!"

As 10 sets of eyes turned to look at him, Ari quickly rattled off the order.

"I’m ordering. Pizza: 1 reg meat lover, 1 meat lover no beef, 1 meat lover no pork, 1 veg, 2 cheese. Wings: 1 spicy, 1 sweet, 2 plain. And a variety of sodas. Does anyone have problems or requests?"

As they all shook their heads, Ari nodded.

"I’m paying, either give me cash or send me the money later. Carry on."

"Aye aye, captain." Jamie gave Ari a mock salute.

"Where are you ordering from?" Benjamin asked as he snagged a bottle of water.

"Dominoes."

"Rahh. Love their crust. Now come along, lads, back to work. First to 40 gets an extra slice of pizza."

As the push-up contestant transitioned into a sit-up contest, Ari called the order and then began monitoring the time closely.

If the delivery time was over 15 minutes, it meant the food was free, and Ari planned to cash in on that deal.

After all, with the way the city traffic was, they would never get here in time.

Unfortunately, less than 10 minutes later-

Ring ding ding ding!

The doorbell began ringing.

Dang it! There goes the free order.

"Pizza’s here. I’ll be back," Levi muttered before leaving the kitchen.

As the doorbell rang frantically again, likely from a driver who didn’t want to be responsible for giving them a free order, Benjamin began beatboxing, then randomly rapped, using his water bottle as a microphone.

"Ey, dominoes. 15 or less, that’s our guarantee; I said, "Ey domino, our drivers are racers, your food will never be free."

Smiling cheekily, he held the bottle up to Rex, who quickly joined.

"All the toppings you can dream; wings, fries, pasta with the cream; low prices to feed all of your team."

"Jamie, give us a chorus." Benjamin moved his microphone over to Jamie, who immediately began singing a catchy melody.

"Everything you want is at dominoes, dominoes, dominoes, dominoes. You can get it all at dominoes, dominoes, dominoes, dominoes."

"Finish us off, mate."

As Benjamin held his water bottle-turned-fake microphone toward Ari, Ari briefly thought about it before adding some dramatic sound effects.

"DUN DUN DUN DUN!"

Fully expecting his part of the impromptu song to be over, to Ari’s surprise, Benjamin seemed to have no plans on moving and was expecting a full verse.

"Keep going. Give us a rap verse, big man Ari." Benjamin urged Ari, ignoring the dirty look shot his way.

What happened to finish us off?

Rolling his eyes, Ari thought for a moment before grabbing the water bottle.

"Hey, Dominoes, My wishes like toppings you’re going to fulfill."

"Mmm," Benjamin added an adlib while still beatboxing the beat.

"Receipts like dominoes, black and white target instead of a bill."

"Bang bang."

"With one hit, knock them over,"

"Ey~"

"Big Ari, the sharpshooter."

"Eyyy~"

"Achieved everything with just the power of will."

As Benjamin continued staring at him expectantly, Ari repeated his earlier line with extra emphasis.

"I’m DONE DONE DONE DONE!"

Ari tossed the waterbottle back to Benjamin, who burst out laughing.

"Rah! I like the double entendre! The Raps are getting better, mate." Benjamin slapped Ari on the back before moving on to his next freestyle victim.

As Ari relaxed, Jamie kept looking back and forth between him and Benjamin.

"What?"

"I like the beat. And the lyrics."

"On a song about pizza?"

"And the double entendre. It’s catchy. The beat is empty but still works, and it can be dramatic. I like it! Especially the DUN DUN DUN DUN! I need to note this down for later! You never know when it can be sampled into a song." Jamie exclaimed, then pulled out his phone and began recording.

Music genius is at it again.

Hard at work even during his free time.

While Jamie was humming and muttering random sentences into his phone, Ari just smiled dotingly.

Continue working hard, Mr. Producer, you’ll be slaving away for the group for years, so you might as well start building your stockpile of songs now.

Otherwise, it’s you who has to suffer later when you have to come up with something on a tight deadline.

I’ll even let you have some of my food today so you can keep your strength up.

Ari felt that he had to do his best to support the group’s music-producing genius.

As for himself? His time to relax was coming soon.

The program was almost over; he was 60% sure he would make it unless something drastic happened, so he had been doing some research and consulting with the resident expert, Grace.

Having learned and researched the term maknae, Ari discovered that it fit him perfectly.

The life of the youngest and cutest member of the team, who just did what he was ordered to do by the leader and the company.

While he couldn’t say he was the cutest in appearance or personality, he was definitely the youngest, so it fit.

Excellent!

Life would be good.

And, as long as William wasn’t in or near the group, Ari would be content.

As for William’s uncle, who was supposed to be in charge?

Well, wouldn’t he have to calm down and get along with him?

After all, the group was formed to make lots of money.

If William didn’t make the group, even if his uncle hated Ari, he would still want the group to do well since it would affect his and the company’s financial bottom line.

Nobody would let a personal grudge affect a company’s financial bottom line, so truly, once this hellish program was over, the only suffering Ari had to deal with was the system, and prepare to debut with peace of mind.

When Levi came back, carrying the giant stack of boxes, he was watched like a pack of starving hyenas eyeing a singular water buffalo.

And the moment the food was put down, after the host took his plate of food, the ravenous animals, I mean boys, descended on the boxes and quickly emptied them.

And after eating their fill, when it was time to watch the episode, everyone arranged themselves in Levi’s home theater, which was nicer than some fancy movie theaters that Ari had been to.

A large, high-definition LED screen that took up an entire wall.

Comfortable love seats and armchairs that reclined and had leg rests, drink holders, chargers, and more.

It was the perfect place to sit and watch except....

Ari: "....."

There’s so much space, but why am I squished in the middle???! I got here first!!!!

He had somehow ended up between Jamie and Levi on one of the loveseats, and it seemed the two of them were competing to see who could take up more space.

No matter how he shifted, there was somebody’s leg or shoulder in the way, and neither of them wanted to give him leeway.

Finally giving up, Ari slid to the floor and spread out his monitoring setup as the episode began.

In one hand, he held his phone open to Twitter; in the other, his laptop’s split screen displayed the Pop Star Academy community and a custom bingo board, while his eyes were fixed on the large screen.

Today, he really wanted to see what people would be saying about him live and what nonsense the production team would do for the edits.