Idol Revive: If I Don't Debut, I'll Disappear
Chapter 176: Ranking

Chapter 176: Ranking

Underdog... That wasn’t a word in Rayen’s dictionary right now. Just seeing how terrible his rank was agitated him. He did move up one rank, but he knew it wasn’t enough.

Sigh.

’I guess I’ll witness another culling.’

He truly didn’t want to witness that moment again. Just recalling it made his scalp go numb.

"Hey, it’s not yet the end of the world, but you look like it does," Adrian remarked beside him. "We’re still filming, you know. The cameras might record you."

Rayen immediately fixed his expression after seeing how dark the look on his face was with the Eye of the Beholder.

Suddenly, Yeo Haru also chimed in. "Don’t worry, Bro. You’ll move up in ranks after this."

Rayen shifted his gaze away from the result board and toward Yeo Haru. He bit his lips before sighing.

"At the expense of others?"

He recalled Binh’s words earlier.

"No. What do you mean?" Yeo Haru said, dispersing the thoughts in Rayen’s head. "You’re not supposed to be even down there."

Rayen turned his attention back to the ranking. During the brief moment of their conversation, six more names were called.

[11. Kayla

12. Oh Heejun

13. Miyuki

14. Cha Taeho

15. Nana

16. Ryeon]

Nana’s rank dramatically rose after the second round too. After watching their performance, Rayen could now guess how she was bribed by Ren to side with him on kicking out Ryeon’s roommate — her line increased, probably given by that manipulative pretentious geek.

Aside from her and the nearly invisible Ryeon, Rayen knew nothing about the other names.

Ryeon’s rank, however, was completely the opposite of Nana’s. Instead of steadily rising, it steadily went down. At the start, Ryeon was at the 4th rank. How come he is now 16th?

Just then, another familiar name was called.

[10. Navin]

"No improvement, huh?" Adrian remarked.

Last round, Adrian had also finished as the 10th ranked. Now that Rayen noticed it, aside from himself, his other teammates were in the top 10.

Sigh.

Feeling envious, Rayen congratulated Adrian for his stable votes. If this keeps up, he would undoubtedly be able to debut — considering if he doesn’t encounter the same situation as Rayen.

He almost did, though. Fortunately, it was intercepted on time. Not that Rayen was wishing for it to happen.

’It’s just unfair! Why were they able to prevent it for Adrian while it happened to me twice?’

Despite Rayen’s inward complaints, the 9th ranked participant was called — Ara.

Adrian squirmed for a bit before calming himself down. Noticing this, Rayen couldn’t help but glance at his roommate.

’There’s something fishy going on here...’

Maybe he’ll question this guy later.

After Ara, Xi Huan was called at 8th place.

"Aww, I went down one place," Xi Huan exclaimed then pouted her lips. "Who took my place?"

She glanced around the participants, moving restlessly on her seat.

’You won’t be able to know it just by looking at their face, though...’

Soon, her question was answered.

[7. KLi]

"Who’s KLi?!" Xi Huan raised her voice as though trying to provoke the person into showing himself.

The guy did glance toward them. With sharp eyes, Xi Huan noticed him.

"Are you KLi?" she asked.

"... Yeah."

Xi Huan only nodded and remained in her seat. Puzzled, Liam gazed at Rayen with inquiring eyes. Rayen shrugged in response.

’How do I know what this person thinks?’

Rayen was actually surprised. Back then, Liam wasn’t even in the top 10. He steadily rose in ranks.

’While here I am, steadily remaining in place.’

At sixth place was Iris, followed by Zbigniew at the 5th rank. Rayen just clapped along and congratulated his current and former teammates. Although he felt envious at the bottom of his heart, he still felt happy for them.

Yet, his mood soured after the 4th rank was announced.

[4. Ren]

Rayen wanted to gnash his teeth, but only smiled because of the cameras. Raising his hands, he clapped unenthusiastically.

’Why’s this damn guy so high in the ranks?’

For him, Ren wasn’t even that impressive. Yet, how did he get into the top four?

Was there any insider work that happened? Knowing this guy and his underhanded tricks, there was a possibility.

’Damn Plotter.’

Just then, he heard Yeo Haru curse under his breath. It must be because his voice wasn’t that loud, so it wasn’t censored.

Rayen frowned.

’This kiddo needs a filter in his mouth.’

Rayen had never even heard a single curse coming out of Xu Jiji’s mouth, who was the same age as him. Kids nowadays really...

"Third place?!" Yeo Haru complained. "Why am I in third place?!"

Finally, Rayen understood what made this kid get so worked up. He just went down to the third rank from the first rank.

"It’s fine. You said it’s not yet the final rank," Rayen comforted him.

Finally, Yeo Haru shut his mouth. Though he still harbored a displeased look on his face.

Xu Jiji still remained in second place. During the audition, Rayen thought this kid would be hard to pull down from his first rank seat, but now, he was always at second.

But if Xu Jiji was second, and Yeo Haru was third, then who was the first?

Rayen glanced around to determine who among the 24 participants hadn’t yet been called. All eyes turned toward the same person.

Ayumi sat there calmly while her round black eyes stared at her name on the screen. She blinked.

A few moments later, she finally realized that everyone was looking at her.

"Me?"

Rayen and the others nodded.

"Why me?"

’How would we even know?’

After the initial rankings had been announced, Yeon Miwol raised the microphone in her hand toward her mouth.

"Now then. Let’s view the total votes each of you have."

The participants all turned back toward the screen. The points they got were finally displayed beside their names.

[17. Rayen: 624,769]

The last time Rayen checked his status window, he had just passed the 500,000 mark. Now that he could see that his points had risen by more than a hundred thousand in two weeks, the dark feeling in his chest slightly subsided.

At first, he thought he wouldn’t even reach the 600,000 mark because of how low he ranked.

Now, he realized — of course, if his points had risen, the others would also rise.

And now that he was seeing it more clearly, the gap between him and the others from the top 10 wasn’t that large. It was a hundred thousand point gap at most.

’A hundred thousand...’

Rayen laughed self-deprecatingly inside. Even with the bullying issue giving him numerous impression points, he would only gain 1000 points at most everyday.

After this round, they’ve only got two weeks before the final round.

’375,000 in two weeks?’

His head started to ache. Should he beg Madame Sophie to make him another ad opportunity?

"For today’s round, we’ll be introducing a new rule," Yeon Miwol said, her voice deepening.

The sudden change in her tone shifted the atmosphere inside the studio. The participants watched her intently with their wide eyes.

Rayen felt his hand get colder.

’What’s this about again?’

Yeon Miwol wasn’t smiling like usual.

"We might hate it, but we still have to say goodbye to some of our participants today," she said. "From the last round, we only have the danger line to determine who will be at risk of elimination..."

The familiar graph from the first round introduction was displayed for everyone to see. The danger line that Yeon Miwol mentioned was at the 500,000 mark, with a yellow color.

Just then, that line had risen toward 700,000.

"The danger line is now at 700,000," she announced.

The faces of the participants in the studio turned grim.

Only the top 10 had passed the 700,000 mark. Rayen sighed in relief for his own teammates, while the others looked at him with worry.

"I guess, we really have to win now," Adrian said, uplifting the mood.

Rayen smiled.

’If only that was easy.’

However, Yeon Miwol wasn’t yet done speaking.

Thud!

A loud noise caught their attention. They turned back to the screen.

A new red line appeared at the bottom of the only yellow line earlier.

The participants buzzed.

"What’s that? What’s happening."

"Red line?"

"This is the new rule," Yeon Miwol announced. "The cut-off line."