"Just be honest, Michael. Who’s the leader of your team? Ari or Caleb?"
"...it’s Caleb, sir, but Ari offers a lot of input and helps guide us with advice."
"Very good. You may step back." Michael politely stepped back in line with the other contestants, and Larry continued speaking, this time directly toward Caleb.
"Caleb, at this point, I hope that you know what you did wrong. Usually, we as judges don’t interfere with how teams run themselves, but clearly, and I think my fellow judges would agree with me, it’s not working. I don’t think you’re the right one for a leadership position, so we’re stripping it from you since you clearly didn’t want to claim it or the responsibility that comes with it."
Larry Jackson ignored him and turned his head to look at the rest of the group.
"Moving on. D-Class Team (2), this entire thing, from your team structure, to your choice in leaders, to your current digestion of the song, to the attitude displayed now, has been quite disgraceful and honestly pathetic. You all need to go back to the drawing board and come up with a fix. And fast. Because the way this looks, you’re currently the worst ones here."
As the team looked saddened, Larry finally turned to face Ari.
"And finally, Congratulations Ah-ri-el. Since you were nominated twice and seem to be doing the behind-the-scenes work, you’re now the team leader unless you would like to reject the offer?"
Just as Ari was about to shake his head no, NOVA filled his vision with a blue screen.
[Surprise Mission: I Am The Leader, Hear Me Roar!]
[After being falsely accused of being the king of the jungle, top of the hill, the champion among the plebeians, the previous lying leader was publicly humiliated and deposed, and you are now being offered the leadership of this pitiful team.]
[Goal: Become the leader of this team and rank within the top 3 for this performance]
[Reward: 2 Visual Points & 1 time use of skill Monkey See, Monkey Do (B).]
[Failure: Loss of 5 random stat points.]
What kind of weird skill was this?
Before Ari could even refuse the surprise mission, NOVA provided a description of the skill.
[Skill: Monkey See, Monkey Do (B)]
[Effect: Temporarily raises a single stat of up to 12 people to match your selected stat, and increases the synchronicity of the group actions.*]
[Duration: 5 minutes]
[Note: if the target’s stat level is higher than yours, the skill will not work on them.]
[Activation: To activate the skill, pound your chest 3 times and yell "I am the best!"]
[You’ll accept the surprise mission, right?]
[The reward is your coveted Visual stat point.]
As Ari quickly glanced through the surprise mission and the request, he was a bit interested in the reward.
Given the amount of work he would have to put into it and the shoddy way this team practiced, it seemed a bit impossible to rank in the top 3, so he would rather not risk losing 5 stat points for a measly two stat point gain.
"Ari, will you take over as leader of your team?" Larry asked again.
[Will you accept the surprise mission?]
It was the response to both Larry and Nova.
Both individuals seemed shocked that he would outrightly refuse like that.
"It seems to be a lot of work and responsibility with minimal rewards, so I’m hesitant to do it. I also think the team should have an honest discussion and then decide," Ari replied honestly.
The first part of the message was for NOVA, and the second was for Larry.
"How honest of you. Fine. Have your honest discussion right here. We’ve already wasted so much time; we might as well waste a little more." Larry grumbled as he gestured for them to huddle up.
As they moved around, Ari covered his mouth and whispered, ’Better offer or I say no.’
[You drive a hard bargain.]
̶[̶R̶e̶w̶a̶r̶d̶:̶ ̶2̶ ̶V̶i̶s̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶P̶o̶i̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶&̶ ̶1̶ ̶t̶i̶m̶e̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶s̶k̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶M̶o̶n̶k̶e̶y̶ ̶S̶e̶e̶,̶ ̶M̶o̶n̶k̶e̶y̶ ̶D̶o̶ ̶(̶B̶)̶.̶]̶
̶[̶F̶a̶i̶l̶u̶r̶e̶:̶ ̶L̶o̶s̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶5̶ ̶r̶a̶n̶d̶o̶m̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶t̶ ̶p̶o̶i̶n̶t̶s̶.̶]̶
[Reward: 5 Visual Points(immediately dispensed) & 1 time use of skill Monkey See, Monkey Do (C). (New!)]
[Failure: Loss of 10 random stat points.(New!)]
[Will you accept the surprise mission?]
At the increased visual stat point reward that would be gifted immediately, Ari hid his smile and joined the tight circle that reluctantly included Caleb.
Since everyone was staring at him, Ari spoke first.
"Who wants to be the leader? Speak up now. Because if you make me the leader, I don’t think you guys will like me very much after we’re done."
"Is there really a choice? The trainers are already recommending you," Michael muttered downheartedly. He seemed annoyed that his words had led to this situation.
"Plus, you kind of boss us around anyway."
"I don’t really care, as long as it’s not him. Plus, you’re the highest ranked one anyway."
"I have no interest in being leader so just speak up if you want it." Ari reiterated.
Although a few of them looked tempted, they all eventually shook their heads, except for Caleb, who just glared at the ground.
"This is your final warning, make sure you don’t regret it." Ari truthfully warned them.
Since he planned to get those visual stat points by any means necessary, he planned to grind everybody, including himself, to the dust. By the time the week was over, sleep would become a distant luxury, and they would probably hate his guts.
He wanted them to opt out now or not complain later.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, leader."
"How bad can it really be?"
They broke the circle and turned to face the judges, who honestly looked tired of seeing their group.
"What’s the verdict? Are you becoming the leader?" Larry Jackson asked him sarcastically.
"Heh. Good luck fixing this mess. At this point, we’ve wasted enough time here, so go take your seats."
Larry Jackson stood up with the label D-Class (2) and placed it right at the bottom of the pyramid.
At the expected result, a few of his teammates winced, but Ari just kept a blank face as he sat at the very front, prepared to watch the higher classes perform.
He took out his sticky notes and pen, which were always in his pocket, in preparation for noting down what the teams did well and what could be applied to the new team that he led.
And as Larry Jackson sat down, he pointed to the MC.
"Ryan, take it away."
The MC, Ryan Leary, quickly ran a rock-paper-scissors competition for the C-class, which was split into three teams.
The first team to go was a 9-member team that included Carlos, the twins Minjun and Minho, Seobin, and some other contestants Ari loosely recognized.
He watched the team get into before the song started.
Then they danced, sang, and rapped at a decent level with no egregious mistakes, but as Ari watched it, he was completely confused.
Where the heck was Carlos?