Idol Revive: If I Don't Debut, I'll Disappear
Chapter 156: #PricklesFightForOurCactus

Chapter 156: #PricklesFightForOurCactus

The moment Rayen sorted his thoughts out about what Ayumi said, he felt a vibration coming from his pocket. On instinct, he pulled out his phone to see what it was.

[Bonus Mission Accomplished!

Principle gained: "When building something, you need materials. But not everything has the same characteristics, use everything — good and bad!"]

Rayen’s eyes gleamed in excitement when he read the notice.

’Does that mean my production has increased already?’

Rayen dismissed the notification to see his status window. However, his production skill remained the same.

’Eh? Then what was that?’

Just then, another pop-up appeared on his screen.

[You’ve gained a principle from the Master Producer herself! After a thorough assessment, we have determined the rank and level of the principle gained.

You have a new mission! Do you want to accept it?]

Still puzzled with the turn of events, Rayen hesitantly pressed the accept button.

[Production Ranking Mission

Details: Own the principle.

Reward: Production Rank increase to S-]

Rayen gasped in surprise. "S minus?!"

The other three in the room turned to him in confusion.

"What S minus?" Adrian asked.

Rayen looked at him, still flabbergasted. "T-The, you know... The reward..."

This time, it was Adrian’s turn to be dumbfounded. "Seriously?!"

"What is it? What’s this reward?" Xi Huan skipped his way beside Rayen and peeked on his phone screen. "Whoa! Your production skill is so high!"

’Too close!’

Rayen distanced himself from Xi Huan. This person really had no sense of space.

Not wanting to clarify the matter, Rayen remained silent and read further the details of his mission.

[Deadline: 7 days]

’Seven days?’

Was this enough time? What did it mean to own the principle, anyway?

Without any clue to his own question, Rayen turned his gaze on the last part of the mission details.

[Penalty for failure: Unable to take the Ranking Mission for 30 days.]

Unlike the usual ranking mission where he had to do another mission as a penalty, this one jumped ahead toward giving him the 30-day restriction to his skill. But at least, he didn’t have to swallow his pride for the penalty this time.

Just recalling how he had to compliment Ren before, Rayen grimaced.

He dismissed the window.

"What now?" Adrian asked.

"Let’s practice."

No use thinking about it at this moment. He was glad to get the opportunity to raise his production skills in one whole leap, but he was not so stupid to neglect his priority right now.

Adrian smirked. "Okay."

...

The days passed by in a flash. Team Seven Flower’s practice routine was the same each day. In the morning, each member would practice their parts by themselves in their room, at the practice room, or the solo vocal room (the temp. waiting room).

During the afternoon, after a short lunch break, the members would gather in the dance studio to practice the whole team’s coordination.

This structure was Adrian’s idea as the leader. And Rayen could only praise him for doing a good job.

Meanwhile, the situation on the internet calmed down to a certain extent. Flower Garden agency also issued a statement of their own too.

[Hello, this is Flower Garden.

First of all, we would like to express our sincere apologies to the viewers who kept supporting the show from the start and have been distressed regarding the rumors about Participants Im Rayen and Yeo Haru.

The agency’s stance about this matter is on the sides of both parties. We are not taking anyone’s side, and we remained pragmatic about the results of the investigation.

As for the audio and video recordings spreading on the internet, the agency determined that this was clearly an act to maliciously target the participants of the show. The recordings leaked had been largely tampered and swayed to sow hate toward Participant Im Rayen.

Finally, we sincerely ask the viewers to please refrain from posting or sharing the said recordings as this was the result the perpetrators wanted to happen.

Thank you.]

When Adrian was ego-searching himself, he came across this post and showed it to Rayen.

"What do you think?" Adrian asked.

Rayen shrugged. "It doesn’t matter what I think anyway."

The post remained vague, without even explaining how the recordings were tampered. He didn’t know if it was the right thing to do. However, Rayen could clearly hear what it really meant to say.

"It was clearly heavily edited. We already told you. If you still believe it, then you’re stupid to do so."

Was it Plotter or the Director? Either way, it was clever. They didn’t mention the other participants and just clearly mentioned Rayen and Yeo Haru, ultimately isolating both incidents from each other.

Helped with the fact that Rayen stayed silent during the second leaked material, the scandalous rumors about him toned down.

Certain posts claiming Rayen’s innocence surfaced too.

[@Mimimimimi posted

Rayen is innocent. Stop saying he bullied Yeo Haru when there’s not even concrete proof about it. Prickles, be sure to vote for him everyday. Don’t let this incident affect his points. We need him to debut!]

– I already told you so! Bitch haters! Prickles, stand up and fight for our cactus!

– Haters would just point at someone whenever they could! #PricklesFightForOurCactus

– Stop Rayen hate! #PricklesFightForOurCactus

’What the hell is Prickles? Is that another nickname of mine?’

Adrian laughed out loud, holding his stomach as he pointed at the comments.

"Prickles hahahahaha! What a good fandom name!"

’Ah. So that’s it...’

It was truly too ridiculous as a fandom name. That, he could agree with Adrian. However, these ’Prickles’ were still his fans, and Adrian’s mocking tone was getting on his nerves.

"Shut up. Don’t make fun of my fans."

Adrian continued laughing though, so Rayen ignored him and continued reading the comments, spotting one particular comment that garnered many replies.

– Seriously, they didn’t even explain anything. Where’s the proof that Rayen and Yeo Haru get along?

>> Didn’t they already do a livestream of how close they were?

>> You believed that? Can’t Yeo Haru be threatened?

>> This is the problem. You ask for proof, they give it to you, but you won’t even believe it. What’s wrong with your brain?

>> A livestream isn’t enough proof.

>> Then what proof are you looking for? What? Do they need to kiss to prove they have a good relationship?

Rayen’s lips twitched as he read the last reply. He pushed Adrian’s phone back to him.

"Ah, I’m tired of looking at it!" Rayen complained.

Adrian finally got ahold of his laughter and kept reading by himself, but he couldn’t help but laugh out loud again. Screw ego-searching his name. It’s more fun reading Rayen’s matter.

"Kiss, hahahaha!"

Rayen’s knuckles was close to hitting Adrian’s head already, but he held back himself.

Anyway, with this post in place, Rayen’s situation wasn’t as bad as before. As what others would always say, "Time would heal any wounds."

Letting the matter pass will be the best thing Rayen could do right now. The world is too eventful for their problems to stay trending all the time. There got to be something else that would push it back down the list.

Then, one day after, that event really did happen.