"Welco back to my favorite contestants! I’ve missed you all. How was your break?"
MC Ryan Leary, who was dressed in a gray school uniform, once more cheerfully greeted the contestants as they sat in the audience chairs.
On stage in front of them were the six judges, who were all dressed nicely, as well as the pyramid with seats that had been present for the last ranking ceremony.
- Good!
- Too short!
- h.
As various positive answers ca from the sitting contestants, Ryan Leary laughed before getting to the agenda.
"Good good good! How many of you watched the first episodes at ho? Did you like it?"
- kind of
- sorta
- well...
This ti, mixed reviews ca from the audience, and Ryan Leary nodded knowingly before changing the subject.
"Well, the last ti I saw you all, you were all performing amazingly on stage. And as ntioned, public voting opened up once the first episode aired, so today we will have our first publicly decided ranking ceremony, and unfortunately, we will have to say goodbye to 10 of our dear friends today."
Even though they knew that 10 of them would be going ho today, many of the contestants couldn’t help but flinch when they heard the MC repeat the words.
Ever since the first episode had aired, most of them had spent all their free ti stalking the different communities, watching fan cams and analysis videos, and keeping track of the number of votes that each contestant had received while convincing their families and friends to vote for them.
"mbers of the top three teams from the last challenge get 10k, 20k, and 30k votes added to their audience votes and that is being reflected with the ranking announced today. With that said, let’s begin the ranking ceremony. When your na is called, please co forward, say a little sothing if you would like, and then take a seat on the pyramid. Okay?"
As the seated contestants nodded, MC Ryan Leary smiled gently as lodic piano music began to play.
"Coming in at rank 79, right above the elimination cut off, with 11,632 votes, is Contestant TJ, congratulations, and please co forward."
As a slightly chubby-cheeked boy with straight brown hair stepped up on stage with slightly watery eyes, Ari clapped along with everybody else while waiting for his turn to co along.
Although it sounded bad, he was much more at ease now that soone had been announced.
Since his team had won, gaining him 30,000 points, and the second-lowest non-eliminated person, having 11,000 votes, he was no longer worried about being eliminated.
Instead, he was waffling between checking William Forbes’ status now, or listening to NOVA and checking when his visual stat had properly reached A-rank.
His main concern was what to do if sothing happened to his stats. He currently didn’t have any spare stat points and didn’t want to ss around too much in case NOVA couldn’t protect them like it said.
’Hmmmm, should I or should I not?’
’But then, the consequences?’
’Screw consequences, I’m curious!’
’Safety first, besides, what’s the worst that could happen?’
’Never say that. It’s a jinx!’
’Jinx, schminx! Just do it!’
"...Tant Ari"
"Estant Ari, please co up!"
As an angel and devil went back and forth on his shoulders, Ari felt sobody shake him hard.
He almost instinctively elbowed the person before rembering that he was currently being fild and turned to the side to see Jamie’s panicked face.
"They’re calling you on stage." The blonde boy whispered before
"It seed that the contestant dozed off, haha. Once again, Contestant Ari cos in 69th place with 36,821 votes. Please co forward."
A quick calculation showed that Ari had barely gotten 6,000 votes, and without his team winning, he would have been eliminated.
Considering how badly he had been portrayed in episode 1, Ari was pretty shocked that he even got votes at all.
He had fully expected to be carried by the points his team received during this elimination.
As the rest of the contestants politely clapped, Ari strolled onto the stage before grabbing the microphone.
"Is there anything you would like to say to the voters?" Ryan Leary asked him with an encouraging smile.
Since he was the MC, he had naturally watched the released episode and as soone in the entertainnt business, he knew how much show runners and production directors exaggerated things for drama.
Unfortunately, the young man before him had been sacrificed, and he hoped none of the negativity got to him.
"Thank you to those who voted for . I hope to show you a better in the future." Ari replied casually, his tone as unbothered as usual, as he turned to head to his seat on the pyramid.
"As always, a short and sweet ssage from contestant Ari." Ryan Leary patted his back before continuing his announcents.
Alfonso was in 60th place.
Mathew jumped impressively from 79th place to 56th place.
Carlos rose up to 47th place.
William Forbes had jumped from 40th place to 21st place, and as the blonde boy smirked while giving his speech, Ari wanted to check his status then and there, if only to ss him up mid-word.
Fortunately, he sohow restrained himself and continued paying attention to the announcents.
Levi stayed in 9th place.
Jamie had moved from 13th to 7th place.
Rex had dropped from 1st to third place.
Vishal ca in at 80th place.
And for the top two-
A shorter Korean boy with bright orange hair stood next to the tall British boy with golden skin and a wide smile.
"And the number one contestant, as voted by the public, with 134,209 votes, is..."
"Contestant Benjamin. Congratulations"
The British boy clasped Daniel’s hand before walking to the microphone stand and speaking with his crisp accent.
"Thank you, thank you. I appreciate it. Big ups to the teammates who worked hard without a fuss, big ups to myself for putting in the work, and most importantly, big ups to those who voted for . You’re the real ones who brought this far and raised up to such a high position. I’ll continue to do my best to make you feel like you made the right choice."
As Benjamin turned around, Ari swore he saw him glare in a particular direction. Turning his head slightly to gaze upward, Ari could see William Forbes grinding his teeth with a tight smile on his face.
Well, he guessed that the two still hadn’t made up after their big fight.
Since he still didn’t know the full backstory, Ari was waiting to find out once the episode dropped.
Shrugging to himself, Ari just clapped along with the others as Daniel gave his second-place speech before sitting down.
"Unfortunately, it’s ti to say goodbye to the 10 contestants who weren’t able to make it. When I call your na, please step forward to say a few words. Starting with the contestant who ranked 81st place, Contestant Sloane."
As the red-haired boy who was in 90th place last ti stepped forward with tears in his eyes, once again, Ari thought that the production team was exceptionally cruel to make contestants co by only for them to be eliminated a couple of hours later and sent ho.
Seeing the eliminated contestants cry their eyes out while expressing gratitude to the voters and production team, Ari thought it was truly sad.
As he joined the remaining contestants in comforting the eliminated contestants, Ari had one thought.
There had to be a better way to do this, rather than dragging teenagers around while recording their every move.
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