The Road to Glory

‘Racism’ refers to discriminatory thoughts or prejudices, consciously or unconsciously expressed, against a particular race.Racism took shape in the 18th-19th centuries but was met with a backlash in the modern 20th century. With the Civil Rights Movement and increased human rights awareness, racism became legally prohibited and sanctioned across all social and economic spheres.Of course, racism still existed. It disappeared from public spaces to avoid punishment, but the deep traces left in the human mind could not be completely erased.The 21st century saw further progress.Racism became not just a legal issue, but also a social issue subject to public condemnation.Like this.└He is also white:)(Dislikes 1024)However, what irked Halo was not merely that the reply had done something wrong. If that were the case, he would have ignored it since it was already being criticized.What was unpleasant was simply the question:“Are you excluding me?”It was that kind of issue.If the person who left that comment intended to stir up trouble, it was a magnificent attempt, as even Halo was paying attention.He left a reply.Most people criticized the commenter as a racist, while someone argued that Halo could be black or of another race. Some said it didn’t matter whether he was white or not.There were also those lowkey supporting the comment.The dozens of ‘likes’ suggested agreement unless it was high-level sarcasm.Moreover, the commenter claimed they were not being racist but merely deducing Halo’s identity, arguing that someone with a posh British accent must be British.Halo clenched his jaw.No matter how many times he was reborn, whether as a white or black, or even as a blue-skinned alien who could whistle enemies away, he was confident he could create music his fans would love.So if they loved his music, shouldn’t they love him regardless of who or what he was?Halo wondered if he was paying more attention because he was Roh Haeil, no longer appearing white.Would ‘Halo’ have just shrugged off the same comment if he still looked the same?“No.”Halo refuted it instantly.If someone told him he succeeded because he was white, he would argue against it, saying:‘Whether I was white or a stray dog on the street, I would have become like this.’Instead of deleting the distasteful reply, Halo wrote a response for the first time – his first ever interaction on the channel he had created.Halo didn’t attach much significance to this first or second interaction.He vaguely recalled his former manager advising him not to react to such trivial provocative comments.But then again, didn’t he tell him not to?Halo then closed NuTube and opened Midi, revealing his half-finished third album.He tapped the desk and opened a new folder.Although he hadn’t planned anything, he felt like adding one more.At twenty-one years old, after releasing his third album, he would release a single album.Halo smirked, thinking it would be fun – a message to those talking about him.[I am HALO]#Halo’s third album was quite divisive. While his first album “Struggle” was polarized due to excessive emotion and a rebellious concept, the third album featured experimental tracks using unfamiliar sessions. The overall mood was gloomy or eerie, causing some to avoid it for fear of developing depression.Due to this divisiveness, his third album initially struggled to gain traction.Many comments emerged at this time – one-hit wonder (although he had succeeded until his second album), has-been, out of luck, stick to what you were doing before, and so on. Even after eventually reaching number one a week later, the comments persisted for quite a while.Some even tried to dissect the reasons behind Halo’s past popularity.Comments about luck were so common as to be unnoticeable, but there were also remarks about his appearance – a backhanded compliment that no one would have bought his albums if his face was slightly distorted.And one more thing: someone pointed out his posh accent, claiming it appealed to people’s admiration for the elite class.‘I am HALO’ was created by compiling such comments.He narrated the pointed remarks like a poetic monologue or a musical introduction.He didn’t include much melody, as the focus was on the lyrics.Speaking in a posh accent, he then introduced himself in a Cockney (commonly associated with the working class) accent, as if to say, “Doesn’t this suit me too?”He also mocked rumors about himself, responded to jokes with jokes, and sang about the imagined version of himself in other people’s minds.This song didn’t perform very well commercially among Halo’s works. His fans seemed to enjoy the fun of it, but some were angry, asking if he was mocking them, while others lamented why he would write such lyrics to a good melody.Above all, it was banned from radio and TV broadcasts due to explicit content.Still, Halo liked this song. Apart from never being ashamed of his music, this song held deep meaning for him.It allowed him to shake off the inexplicable gloom that had pervaded his third album.He giggled as he compiled rumors about himself into lyrics, an act his manager viewed as insane.Halo was satisfied seeing his fans enjoy the song and the “friends” whose words became the lyrics turning beet red.He chuckled for a month.Even if someone said he had a strange form, was not beautiful at all, or was not like himself, Halo liked this song.It might have been the one he wrote with the most unrestrained joy.However, the current situation differed from back then. Previously, it was “You became famous because of this or that, or not because of this or that,” but now, there was affection and interest in the form of “You must be this kind of person.”Halo wanted to tell them that no matter who or what he was, they would come to love him.He hoped everyone would enjoy it.Halo sang about himself:No matter who I amOr what form I takeYou will call me glory.That line lingered deeply in his mind.#The suspicion blog post “Who is HALO” about audio manipulation made a brief splash in the yellow press, but it was ultimately deleted due to Veil’s strong legal response. As a small online media company, they never stood a chance against the major record label Veil backed by August.Caroline thought it ended more anticlimactically than expected. According to rumors, the media outlet’s phones had already gone crazy even before Veil took direct action.‘His’ fans, while not yet global, were as persistent as some obscure cult in a remote corner of a country.The original blogger had long since fled after being beaten down. Following the deletion of the post, the blog was also set to private.They only ended up unintentionally providing noise marketing for ‘him.’ There was no need to send ‘him’ a message telling him not to worry.It was around then that…“…!”While monitoring ‘his’ NuTube channel out of personal interest and an order to keep an eye on ‘him,’ Caroline was startled to find his channel engulfed in chaos once again. It wasn’t just a minor disturbance…She soon discovered the cause. ‘He’ had posted a comment on his NuTube channel for the first time.Not in the community section, but pinning a typically controversial comment under the last track’s video from his second album.And his fans – if the endearing term “fan” even applied – responded as they had long desired.[Don’t you like me if I’m not white?]First, Caroline was relieved that ‘he’ did not side with the controversial comment. There were occasional artists under Veil who stirred up controversies over such issues.It was a rather good rebuttal, steering the atmosphere in a softer direction while precisely refuting the discriminatory tone.It seemed unlikely that similar nuances would arise on his channel in the future.Of course, there were still those who believed he was white. His words allowed for some ambiguous interpretation – they could mean he was genuinely not white, or they could be asking if people disliked him without the qualifier “white.”In the end, there were still no clues for them to deduce his identity.Caroline read the comments under ‘his’ response. Some were happy that the real person had appeared, some asked questions using specific names, a few hurled expletives at the annoying reply, and some fans were outraged that he was being called a racist for his first ever response.It was the same old Halo universe, she concluded, ending her monitoring.Next, she would analyze the trends.“Billboard top… will be difficult?”Halo’s songs were good, but if being good was enough to automatically reach number one, then no company would struggle to create a Billboard number one hit.Billboard rankings are not determined solely by “the song being good.”A good song is just one of the conditions for potentially reaching number one on Billboard. Billboard is more complicated than it seems, requiring luck and many other considerations. In that sense, his current album had many disadvantages from the start.First, unlike other competing works, his album was formally at a disadvantage. Other albums had music videos, album covers, and other basic elements that were missing from his album. Although these things don’t directly determine a song’s ranking, their presence or absence made quite a difference.Additionally, his album consisted solely of digital tracks. While Billboard includes streaming, NuTube, and digital streaming, physical album sales cannot be ignored.Of course, there have been musicians who reached number one on Billboard with only digital albums and no physical releases. She was aware that a K-pop group that led the genre’s heyday also achieved a Billboard Hot 100 number one with a digital album, and there were other examples too.However, those were globally well-known musicians with exceptionally large global fan bases.Lastly, ‘he’ was just starting to gain recognition, a ‘newcomer’ of sorts, right? While there were cases of new artists reaching number one on Billboard, most of them had established their names and faces across various media outlets. Since radio broadcast ratings hold considerable weight on Billboard, she worried whether radio DJs would even play the song once of a faceless newcomer artist.Just once would suffice.It seemed extremely difficult for ‘him’ – a faceless, new artist without a physical album, whose audio quality was also classical – to reach number one.At that moment, the cloud signaled an alert.The cloud was the best platform for preserving audio sources, and Veil had connected each artist to it. The newly uploaded file was from the one Caroline had been constantly monitoring – ‘him.’“Oh my.”Caroline’s hands trembled.She then contacted August Veil and carefully put on her headphones.Her anxiety about Billboard dissipated.She thought to herself, ‘What am I even doing here?’ Artists don’t care about such things when a release is imminent.Strangely, she had a vague expectation that it would do well.A voice echoed in her mind:[Who is HALO?]When someone asked,Halo answered,I am Halo.Hi everyone, I've fully translated this series. If you love the series and wanted to binge read until the end, you can go to my Patreon "Shop" page. Instead of buying the advanced chapters one by one, you can buy them in one bulk (with discounted price too)!