I became a girl group idol for my sister.

He knew that Naoki Sakurako was planning to graduate, so he wondered if she had already thought of who would succeed her.

“Miyu-chan is fine. Although she hasn’t reached a high enough level yet, there’s still time. She’s constantly growing, more stable than anyone else, and faster than anyone else. She keeps moving forward like this. Even in Team K, Miyu-chan is considered to be working very hard.”

Miyamoto nodded. He had watched Miyu Nagaan grow up, so he knew how hard she worked. She worked even harder than him and was the absolute hardest worker among the graduate students at the time.

The place Miyamoto and Naoki Sakurako went to was not the place Miyamoto rented himself, but a dormitory prepared by SKR. This was also the reason why Miyamoto did not go back to prepare in advance. At least he had a dormitory to stay in temporarily, so he would not need to go home to pack up his men's clothes and the like.

Upon arriving at the dormitory, I immediately ran into someone I knew.

"Nana-chan!"

It was Shimada Yurina who came up. She came up behind Miyamoto Sei with an extremely tricky move, and her hands naturally reached out from behind to grab his chest.

Miyamoto immediately took a sidestep, shifting his position and dodging the opponent's clutches with an extremely skillful movement.

"You ran really fast. Are you so alert now?" Shimada Yurina pouted, looking quite unhappy that her sneak attack had failed.

I'm going to be living with an older man now, so of course I need to keep a close eye on him all the time!

Miyamoto thought to himself, but said aloud, "All the training I've put in for the movie shoot these past few days wasn't for nothing!"

"Training for the film?"

Yurina Shimada didn't quite understand what this had to do with the movie.

"Because the filming required the use of swordsmanship, my memories of my past training have gradually returned, and naturally, my body has also recovered to its former state through continuous filming," Miyamoto said with a grin. "Now you are facing a samurai's daughter, Miyamoto Nana!"

Upon hearing Miyamoto Sei's self-designation, everyone laughed.

Yurina Shimada said, "Nana-chan, you're always playing yourself in movies, right?"

"No way! I'm not an assassin, how could I possibly act like that?!"

"Shouldn't you be keeping a straight face because you're not used to killing people?"

"Don't talk like I actually killed someone!" Miyamoto immediately protested.

"Just kidding, but I didn't expect you to actually not use a stunt double. You'd better be more careful in the future, or you might get injured!" Shimada Yurina added, "This is not only bad for your health, but it will also cause a lot of problems for the theater performances."

As soon as Shimada Yurina finished speaking, Naoki Sakurako also said with a serious expression, "That's right. Don't think that using a stunt double is a bad thing. In fact, it is the optimal solution to consider the problem from all aspects. It's not just for theatrical performances. Even in the filming of movies, if you, as the lead actor, get injured, then you simply can't continue filming."

Because they know that filming may be dangerous and cause physical injuries, stunt doubles are needed. If the lead actor is injured, the entire filming process will be delayed.

This would directly cause enormous losses.

Miyamoto knew that the other person was teaching him how to shoot better, so he could only obediently accept the criticism.

"I understand, I'll be more careful next time." Miyamoto said somewhat helplessly, "I had no choice this time. If I wanted to save time and money and make the filming as good as possible, I had to do it myself."

“However, from a promotional perspective, the fact that active idols perform all their own action scenes without using any stunt doubles is a good form of publicity. Considering it from this perspective is a sound judgment. But if I were the director, I would never want the lead actors to perform too many dangerous stunts just for this kind of advertisement, for fear of something going wrong,” Naoki Sakurako said.

"Don't worry, senior. There shouldn't be anything else for me to film. I'm busy with my nationwide assignments." Miyamoto Sei laughed. "Even if they come to me, I'll refuse. I hope to focus my energy on my idol career from now on."

"It seems you're determined to win the next general election." Naoki Sakurako looked into Miyamoto Sei's eyes, as if trying to see right through him.

Miyamoto Sei didn't dodge the other person's gaze at all: "Hehe, that's right, I must enter the Kami-Hachi!"

"It's not just Shenzhou-8, is it?"

Miyamoto smiled and said, "Sakurako-senpai, maybe you'll graduate next year."

"I won't hold back."

"It wouldn't be good if we held back, so please give it your all, senior. I will also use all my strength to deal with the next general election!"

"Alright, alright! A god and a monster, let's not declare war on each other yet," Shimada Yurina said quickly, watching the two of them.

"I'm a monster?!"

Miyamoto was stunned.

“That’s right, SKR’s monster, everyone thinks you’re a prodigy, but that’s not the point.” Shimada Yurina pointed to a room in the corridor: “Come on, everyone’s waiting, we’ve prepared a sumptuous hot pot for tonight!”

"Hot pot for tonight?!" Miyamoto sniffed the air and, sure enough, smelled the aroma of food. "You didn't even tell me beforehand!"

"Sakura-senpai, please come too! Everyone has prepared a lot!"

Naoki Sakurako laughed and said, "Okay, let's go together then. I won't be polite!"

Please don't be shy!

Amidst laughter and banter, the three of them walked together toward the room.

Chapter Seventy: Possible Crisis

"Now let's change the scene. I'm the host, and I'll ask you questions. You'll answer them. Of course, what you answer isn't the point; the point is how to create a good enough effect."

In the dormitory where the two were temporarily staying, Naoki Sakurako spoke to Miyamoto Sei.

"I understand, Sakura-senpai, please give me the question!"

Miyamoto took a deep breath and quickly got into the zone.

Seeing that Miyamoto Sei was in the zone, Naoki Sakurako also got into the host's mindset and started asking Miyamoto Sei questions based on her own experience with other programs.

Some of these questions were tricky, while others were absurd. The absurd questions were fine, as they were purely for comedic effect. However, some of the tricky questions might cause problems if not answered carefully.

As Miyamoto dealt with these issues, he gained a deeper understanding of variety shows.

"In order to better highlight certain aspects of the show, there are many times when there is no complete script."

"The complete script?"

"Only the program producers have a complete script, while many of the participants only have half a script, and some don't have a script at all. Not having a script is not so bad, but the worst thing is that the script they have is fake."

"That's what Naoki Sakurako said."

Miyamoto thought for a moment and recalled what happened when she participated in the Hellfire Hot Show with Naoki Sakurako and Sakagami Minami last time.

"Just like last time, those three guests were clearly people with a lot of knowledge, and the questions they asked were deliberately designed to be the kind that make it hard for them to answer because they're busy with their idol careers and have little to no academic background. They were all very professional," Miyamoto said. "Was it a setup designed to embarrass Minami-senpai and the others?"

"Yes, the fact that the idols we admire fail in answering questions can increase viewership. In addition, the fact that the idols have to be punished for failing, such as being unable to eat because of the spiciness of the chili peppers, can also attract a lot of viewers."

Naoki Sakurako nodded in agreement, acknowledging that Miyamoto Sei's guess was correct.

"This is the script that the program producer had in his hands, but you guys successfully ruined it. The producer at the time definitely didn't expect that there would be people like you in the team. One of you eats spicy food like it's ice cream, and the other two happen to cover European and American music history that is not very familiar to Japan, plus knowledge of other disciplines."

"Why is it the history of Western music?" Miyamoto asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Because we can't ask questions that have nothing to do with idols, otherwise it would seem too biased. So, the questions that are related to idols are naturally singing and dancing. But if it's about Japanese music history, we can probably answer that. So, if we want to increase the chance of answering incorrectly, we should choose Western music history that is well-known in the world but is very unfamiliar to young Japanese people."

Naoki Sakurako smiled as she said this.

"The questions are carefully selected. If an idol were to go there, they would immediately fail. They can definitely achieve their goal and boost the ratings by several percentage points."

"They still achieved their goal, increasing their viewership rating by a few percentage points," Miyamoto muttered.

“It doesn’t benefit us if they fail; you can attract attention to yourself, which is a great thing in itself.” Naoki Sakurako sighed as she spoke, “However, some variety shows are very difficult and require a high level of patience…”

"Endurance? I'm quite confident in my physical endurance, senior!"

"It's not about physical endurance, but mental endurance, or rather, a strong enough capacity for tolerance. Otherwise, I advise you not to get involved in this mess..."

Miyamoto was silent for a moment, and after a quick recollection of the other person's words, he understood what they meant.

"Arranging a script to trick people into coming here and making them look bad, like last time, is already disgusting enough. Does Sakura-senpai mean there are things even more disgusting than that?"

"To attract investment, we often have to lower our heads. For example, if a program is funded by a certain company, then in order to get support, we have no choice but to participate in that program, and we can only endure the humiliation we suffer on the show," Naoki Sakurako said softly. "All we can do is try our best to protect our companions..."

"senior……"

"Even getting spanked in public can happen."

"I will definitely kick it back!" Miyamoto said without hesitation.

"Don't worry, you probably won't encounter something like that again," Naoki Sakurako said to Miyamoto Sei with a smile. "After all, that incident happened."

"That thing?"

"You probably didn't follow idols before you became one, right?" Naoki Sakurako suddenly asked.

"Actually, I did pursue it, but it was closer to the time when I joined SKR as a graduate student."

Miyamoto honestly stated that it was indeed the case in the timeline; he went to see the theater performance because of the tickets given to him by Amagai Risa, and he was indeed captivated by Higashi Hisako and others on stage.

“Many people sign up because they admire their idols and want to join their favorite idols’ teams. You’re relatively rare,” Naoki Sakurako said, then laughed. “You can’t say that. After all, whether it’s the first or second generation, many people sign up because of their own dream of becoming an idol.”

Miyamoto Sei didn't speak. His initial goal had nothing to do with becoming an idol, but that was no longer important.

"Why did you suddenly ask me this question, senior?"

“If you’ve been following SKR for a while, you’ll be more familiar with this.” Naoki Sakurako recounted her past experience: “Back then, we participated in a variety show, which was quite popular. Participating in the show would definitely let more people know about SKR, so even though we were told we might be treated badly, we still chose to participate.”

"Then I went through all the things I told you about: getting spanked in public and being thrown into the water. Hikari-chan was there too, even though she was still so little..."

"And Apple, you know? We couldn't fight back, so the only way was to stop them as much as possible and let them throw us into the water. Apple was protecting others, and then she was punished by being thrown into the water."

"And what about you, senior?"

“It went into the water too,” Naoki Sakurako laughed. “It did increase its popularity quite a bit, but it was warned by the fans at the time.”

"Warned by fans?"

"It wasn't a warning to us, it was a warning to the authorities. Even the people on that variety show were warned. The fans were furious, so from then on, they would be more selective when choosing to collaborate with other programs. After SKR got rich, they started making their own shows as well."

Naoki Sakurako spoke lightly, but Miyamoto Sei could hear the bitter experiences omitted from her easy and concise words.