Chapter 1: The Punishment is Strange

The war of the gods has ended.

The battlefield, where a fierce battle had been raging until just moments ago, was now filled with sacred light and songs of purification.

In the center of it all, the shackled Demon God raised his head.

His breath came in ragged gasps.

Beads of sweat still trickled down through his pitch-black hair.

Streaks of blood flowed from the small wounds on his exposed upper body.

Yet, the Demon God remained unbroken.

“No matter what punishment you bestow, it will be in vain. I have already attained a status that cannot be extinguished. Eventually, one day, I will recover my strength and reappear.”

It was a low murmur, but at the same time, it was a declaration directed at the gods.

A declaration that he would not yield to any punishment and would return to strike them down.

The gods stirred.

“The Demon God is right. Since he cannot be destroyed, we have no choice but to imprison him or banish him to another dimension.”

“How much time can we buy with such a punishment? Ten thousand years at most?”

“What should we do? Let us pool our wisdom.”

Of course, when so many gods gathered, there were always those who said the most unexpected things.

“By the way, the Demon God is really handsome.”

“Right? Doesn’t the fact that he’s actually dangerous make him even more attractive?”

“What are you talking about! Who is the god spouting such nonsense in this situation?”

The God of Order shouted, but there was no way to find the culprit.

After a moment of commotion passed, the Demon God looked at the leader of the gods with gloomy yet defiant eyes.

The leader, the God of the Throne, merely wore a thin, benevolent smile.

‘What is it? That smile?’

The Demon God flinched.

Whenever the God of the Throne wore that kind of smile, something bad always happened to him.

“Demon God. Do not be so tense.”

The God of the Throne spoke.

“As long as you carry out the punishment I am about to bestow, I can release you in just seven years instead of ten thousand.”

“Seven years?”

Releasing him, even though they had gone through such trouble to capture him? In just seven years?

“…What are you plotting?”

As expected, things were turning strange.

“It is no plot. Listen closely.”

Just what kind of punishment could it be?

“Bring happiness to the humans.”

What? Me? This Demon God?

However, the next words were even more incomprehensible.

“In other words, I am telling you to become an idol.”

Suddenly, his mind went blank.

***

“I-Idol—”

The Team Leader glanced back toward the sound coming from the rear seat of the van.

It was the sleep-talking of the new member, Sun-woo, who was fast asleep in the furthest corner.

While he was at it, he checked on the other members, finding them either sleeping or sitting in silence.

“Whew…”

A sigh escaped his lips involuntarily.

He had turned off the music since they were close to the event venue, but he regretted it.

The gloomy silence hanging in the car was laid bare.

The Team Leader pressed a button himself instead of the manager who was driving beside him.

Whirrr— The internal window separating the driver’s seat from the back seats rolled up and closed.

The manager looked at the Team Leader briefly and spoke.

“Will they be okay?”

Pantheon.

A boy group only eight months into their debut.

The members, who should have been full of energy to succeed, were completely demoralized.

“They’ll be fine. They have to be. What else can we do?”

The company’s CEO was a famous producer from the giant agency ‘Izm.’

Because he had such a reputation, the trainees who gathered when he established his own company were of high quality.

Pantheon was the group created by picking the best among them.

“I didn’t think Izm would sabotage us to this extent. They acted like they would cooperate in the future until the CEO left without any noise.”

“I know, right? Who would have thought they’d block us from music shows as soon as the group debuted?”

The new management at Izm did not want people who left Izm to succeed.

Even though they were the ones who cleared out the staff, they considered those who left to be an insult to the new Izm.

Pantheon hit a wall from the very beginning.

Not only was it difficult to appear on music shows or variety programs, but investors also backed out, likely due to someone pulling strings behind the scenes.

Even if they wanted to produce good self-made content, that required money. Without investment, the quality was bound to drop.

They had been stuck in the abyss for eight months like that.

“The kids were holding up well, but now it seems like their mental state is completely shattered.”

“Ugh, I’d be the same way.”

A member who had been with them since their trainee days had recently deserted.

Specifically, the visual center.

And specifically, to Izm.

To put it nicely, it was a desertion; emotionally, it was closer to a betrayal.

“What can we do? He left after paying the penalty fee cleanly.”

Izm had easily burned hundreds of millions just to blow away Pantheon’s center. It wasn’t just interference; it felt like malice.

The visual member they took was said to be re-debuting in a group Izm was preparing.

It was only natural for the members’ mental states to collapse.

Moreover, it wasn’t just a mental issue; there was a setback in their upcoming mini-album promotions.

Under the circumstances, it was impossible not to think they were destined to be a failed group.

This was why the Team Leader found it hard to say anything to the discouraged kids. He just pretended not to notice.

Perhaps it was a relief that the penalty fee from the visual center covered their urgent expenses.

“Sun-woo needs to do well.”

The CEO brought in a new member while saying the cliché phrase that a crisis is an opportunity.

Not a company trainee, nor a new face known on social media.

Even when asked where and how he picked him up, the CEO only said he couldn’t remember.

He had just suddenly brought him in this morning and introduced him.

[This is Lee Sun-woo. He’s signed the contract, so he’s a member who will live and die with you all for the next seven years. Be good to him.]

Sun-woo, who had been dragged in like a dazed scarecrow, didn’t look particularly reliable.

And while one might wonder if teamwork could be built by just shoving someone in like that.

The CEO, who couldn’t possibly be ignorant of all this, doing such a thing meant he was desperate.

Still, seeing Sun-woo shout ‘idol’ in his sleep made him think the boy had some will.

“Tsk.”

The Team Leader clicked his tongue bitterly.

Leaving the CEO aside, did Lee Sun-woo sign the contract knowing the reality of this team?

The seven years of a failed idol are far from the glamorous idol life one dreams of.

Even if you practice vocals and dance every day, opportunities to use them rarely arise.

Since there are no schedules, you stay in the dorm, yet it’s hard to go anywhere for fear of rumors starting.

Unless your parents are wealthy, you have to spend your days in poverty.

Someone might even call it a punishment.

“Team Leader, we’ve arrived.”

“Right.”

The event venue came into the Team Leader’s view.

It was an opportunity that returned only because the CEO had built good relationships with event agencies back when he worked at Izm.

The Team Leader tapped his face a few times with his palms.

“I need to cheer up first.”

He cleared his throat a few times and lowered the internal window.

“Guys, we’re here!”

At that shout, the Demon God, Lee Sun-woo, opened his eyes.

***

“Guys, we’re here! Let’s go!”

Faintly, the language of humans reached the Demon God’s ears.

“Could someone wake Sun-woo up?”

Soon after, he felt someone shaking his body.

“Sun-woo, wake up. We’ve arrived.”

Only then did the Demon God realize that he had lost consciousness and woken up in an unknown place. And that the people around him were calling him ‘Sun-woo.’

He slowly opened his eyes and asked.

“Sun-woo?”

However, there was no one to answer.

The young men who were next to him had already poured out through the door.

“?”

The Demon God sat there for a moment in confusion, and soon a man with a sturdy square jaw poked his head in.

“Sun-woo, are you awake?”

The Demon God stared at him intently.

As expected, he didn’t know who this was.

No, to begin with, the Demon God paid no mind to mere humans.

He only cared very slightly about those who formed cults to worship him; others were no different from stones on the side of the road.

“Who are you?”

“Yikes, they said your way of speaking was weird because you’re from overseas, and it’s true.”

“Overseas?”

“I didn’t know because you were quiet this morning. Sun-woo, you should probably keep your mouth shut.”

Telling the Demon God to keep his mouth shut; he was a bold human.

“I asked who you are.”

“Are you still half-asleep? I introduced myself this morning. You can just call me Team Leader.”

The person called Team Leader continued in a condescending tone, as if coaxing a child.

“It’s hectic having an event on the day you signed, right? It’s okay. You’ll get used to it quickly once you start being an idol.”

As he spoke, he grabbed the Demon God’s hand and pulled him.

Idol?

Did he just say idol?

‘In other words, I am telling you to become an idol.’

The punishment bestowed by the God of the Throne came to mind.

If so, am I now being subjected to the punishment called ‘idol’? And is this square-jawed man pulling my hand the jailer of this prison?

The Demon God was appalled.

He didn’t know what kind of punishment it was, but to send a human as a jailer.

He was the Demon God who had planted terror in countless universes.

Among the various demon gods, he was exceptionally skilled in combat, so even gods did not dare stand before him alone.

Of course, all his abilities would have been weakened by the punishment, but even so, at least four gods should have been assigned to him.

To have a single human jailer, just how much of an insult were they trying to inflict?

Even now, he felt the Team Leader still pulling his hand.

No matter if he was a jailer, he could not tolerate this body being treated carelessly.

“You scoundrel.”

As the Demon God pulled his hand back, the Team Leader, who was quite large, was dragged inside.

“Ugh. Sun-woo, what’s wrong?”

He looked up and stared at Sun-woo.

“You look thin, but you’ve got some strength, huh?”

“Hmm.”

The Demon God looked down at his own hands.

It was a human body.

The gods had given him a human body and thrown him into this world.

It seemed to be a high-performance body even among humans, but it was still far from satisfying.

When the Demon God fell silent for a moment to check his body, the Team Leader interpreted it differently.

“What’s wrong? Are you too shy to get out? We have to move quickly to the busking location.”

‘Busking’—yet another unknown word.

He didn’t even know what an ‘idol’ punishment was yet.

‘I need knowledge.’

The Demon God decided to be satisfied for now with having taught the jailer the hierarchy, and followed the man’s guidance outside.

And then.

The new world where the Demon God had arrived unfolded before his eyes.

Along with a banner that summarized this place and time perfectly.

[Guesan Chili Pepper Festival]

The banner fluttered under the clear sky.

“Chili peppers, I see.”

It was the beginning of the punishment.