Rayen stared at the screen intently and noticed an abnormality in the Performance Unit. Just like what had happened with him earlier, Xu Jiji’s name was being repeatedly replaced by another.
And the name that would always replace him was Yeo Haru’s.
’What’s going on with everyone?’
Noticing the situation as well, Miles couldn’t help but snicker. "Now, I get it."
Rayen turned to him. "What about it?"
"It’s just my guess, but these people..." Miles paused, a smirk playing on his lips. "They’re kicking participants they don’t like out of the group."
With Miles’s words, it finally dawned on Rayen.
Back in the first round, Rayen had seen Yeo Haru eyeing Jiji from the backstage, his gaze filled with the fire of rivalry — albeit one-sided.
It was possible that Yeo Haru didn’t want Jiji in the same group as him, and he was able to convince his sponsors with a sound reason.
After teaming up with Haru, Rayen had realized that the guy could be petty at times. He wasn’t a bad guy though, just the kind to treat people based on his own subjective opinion of them.
Now, it just came to whose sponsors would be able to beat the other. Jiji had three more sponsors than Yeo Haru too, so it would be a hard fight for him.
’But that Ren... What did I do to this dude to make him try to kick me out of the Vocal Unit?’
Rayen didn’t even know this guy. The only time he’d heard Ren’s name was during the private broadcast’s first segment, when the list of participants who had passed was announced.
In the first segment, they faced a trial based on which of their two primary skills was lower. Ren belonged to the vocal challenge then.
’But wouldn’t that mean he had a lower vocal stat? Why’s he challenging a spot for the Vocal Unit now?’
Other than those few pieces of information, Rayen had no recollection of this person at all.
Meanwhile, in another meeting room, Ren sighed deeply.
’I hope he doesn’t think badly of me...’
It wasn’t him that was trying to kick out Rayen but his sponsors. And it wasn’t because they disliked Rayen.
The reason was simpler. It’s just that Rayen had the ability to steal the spotlight from everyone in this unit.
Despite his current average ranking, Rayen had proven himself to be a highly competent vocalist from the very start of the show. His ability to capture attention both on and off stage was formidable too.
If Rayen ended up in a unit where he could truly shine, he would undoubtedly overshadow the other members, and Ren’s sponsors didn’t want that.
So, they wouldn’t allow that to happen. No matter what.
Ren could understand their reasoning. After all, they were doing it for his sake. He was even grateful for it.
All he could do now was hope that Rayen wouldn’t hate him for it.
’Really sorry. This is a game of survival, after all.’
Four minutes passed in a flash.
In Rayen’s room, his sponsors monitored the bids on the screen with intense focus. All the bids for the Vocal Unit had skyrocketed to over 300,000 memorial coins due to the fierce competition.
Rayen figured it was probably because most participants felt more confident in their vocal skills.
Dancing took a lot of effort and practice. Most of them didn’t have a background for it. In their previous lives, they were busy making big moves in their own fields, so hobbies like dancing just weren’t a priority. Thus, their dancing skills were much lower than their singing.
Most thought they could probably pull it off in this unit — as long as they weren’t tone deaf.
But Rayen thought differently. As a vocalist himself, he wouldn’t rely on that assumption.
If this round was a position battle, the songs assigned to each unit would likely be tailored to the specific skill. So, it was entirely possible that the song would be hard.
The Visual Unit, on the other hand, was an even more vague concept. How would they perform "visuals"? Because of its vagueness, few participants risked bidding for it.
’But what happens if someone doesn’t secure a spot in any unit?’ Rayen wondered. ’Would they be automatically placed in the unit with the remaining empty slots?’
With the stakes climbing higher as the time passed, several participants began giving up on the Vocal Unit. Some shifted to the Performance Unit, while others filled the empty slots in the Visual Unit. Only two slots remained empty.
The bidding was set to last ten minutes, and they were down to the final minute. Rayen’s sponsors prepared for the last push.
"Are you guys ready?" Sophie asked, her voice cutting through the tension.
"How much could you fork out at the moment?" she asked another question.
This was important. During the last few minutes, the bids had surged to nearly 500,000 coins per slot. They needed to confirm if they had enough coins to even bid for a spot.
"I can probably give less than a hundred thousand more. Seventy-seven thousand, to be exact," Yuzuka said.
Since she was the youngest here, she also had the least amount of accumulated coins.
One by one, the sponsors announced their contributions. Rayen’s ears tingled as he heard the astronomical sums.
Altogether, his sponsors had amassed 545,000 memorial coins.
Rayen wasn’t even sure how he could spend it all in this performance.
And remember, it wasn’t just this amount they could use. The Vocal Unit had twelve slots, and each one was being bid for at nearly the same amount as what Rayen’s sponsors had gathered.
With 15 seconds left, Sophie began entering the bid on her monitor. She didn’t immediately submit it though.
"I’m doing it now," she said, pressing the enter button.
Rayen’s name appeared in one of the slots for the Vocal Unit.
Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief. Surely, there wasn’t enough time left for anyone to outbid them. Entering a new amount would take at least two seconds.
Yet, when the timer hit the final second, Rayen’s name vanished from the slot — replaced by a familiar name.
[Ren: 700,000 Memorial Coins]
Plotter’s filtering system instantly censored Sophie’s curse. For now, Plotter had only added some curse words to the list of the banned words to decrease their editing workload since he still hadn’t had the chance to hire a Librarian.
Just how much did Ren’s sponsors have?