Page 5

[I turned the sound off. You Shu looked pretty good singing]

[He actually sings English songs without linking the words...]

[Fu Hanyu: if you ask, he regrets it]

[Did I get myself a beautiful good-for-nothing?]

A startling piece of information flashed past, but Lai Yudong had no attention to spare for it. His body and mind were completely under the control of "Lose Heart."

Forget lose heart; he was about to lose life.

Unsurprisingly, the two performances that shook heaven and made ghosts weep earned the unanimous worst rating from the mentors: Class F.

The rating didn't matter. What mattered was that he was free for the moment.

Lai Yudong breathed a sigh of relief. As he walked offstage, his steps were as feeble as a ghost drifting through the air. The fabric on his back was soaked with cold sweat, and his racing heart wouldn't settle down anytime soon.

After that eye-searing initial-stage performance, he wouldn't get cyberbullied, would he?

But on the bright side, the embarrassment would only last a while.

Miura Yuki from a parallel world was the one taking part in a boy-group survival show. What did that have to do with him, Lai Yudong?

Lai Yudong was almost convinced by his own ingenious logic. In a daze, he had an "F" sticker placed on his name tag by a staff member, then found a relatively secluded spot in the Class F area and sat down.

More important than watching the next trainee's performance with the intention of learning from it was finding the system and getting a clear explanation of what he hadn't had time to ask about earlier, especially the overseas identity that had inexplicably been slapped onto him.

A hell start was naturally something to avoid if possible.

But just as Lai Yudong was about to demand an explanation from the system, Fu Hanyu's voice rang through the studio, amplified by the microphone.

"Please welcome our next trainee, Xu An from Shang Le Culture."

—Xu An?

Lai Yudong froze for a moment, suddenly remembering several bullet comments that had flashed past. His expression instantly became a sight to behold.

The real-time bullet comments also reminded him of the bombshell he'd overlooked.

[Did the production team do this on purpose? 23333]

[Here comes the drama, here comes the drama]

[I feel embarrassed for the last little brother...]

[Xu An actually came too?]

[What bad intentions could the production team possibly have? They just wanted to grant the wishes of viewers who enjoy a little wicked fun.jpg]

[It'll be even better if Xu An sings that extra-test song]

[You Shu's expression is so cute hahaha]

Lai Yudong: ...

It was showing off his axe skills before the master, plus edition. He'd embarrassed himself right under the original singer's nose.

There was no rock bottom for social death, only a deeper one.

Master, he had achieved enlightenment.

Lai Yudong: [Requesting a restart.]

System: [Sorry, that technical support is unavailable.]

The damned system couldn't save him in his hour of need, so Lai Yudong could only sadly face the sorrowful reality and look toward the figure walking into the studio below the stage.

A young man with medium-length black hair came to a stop in the center of the stage. He looked to be about twenty. His youthful face showed no signs of wear from the years, but neither did he have the spirited confidence of a young genius. His awkward smile was a little nervous, making it hard to imagine that he was the powerhouse vocalist who had fought his way out of a competition filled with experts three years ago.

Lai Yudong studied him for a few seconds and confirmed that he hadn't mistaken him for someone else.

Wait, it was Xu An?

The overall champion of the first season of "Listen to My Voice."

Why had he come to take part in a survival show?

Lai Yudong couldn't figure out why a max-level big shot would come slaughter the newbie village, but that wasn't something he, a member of Class F, needed to worry about.

He was just a pitiful low-level slime in the newbie village.

Lai Yudong: [Did you find the bug? What happened?]

System: ["Miura Yuki" is a screen name you once used.]

Lai Yudong: [...]

No wonder he'd kept feeling that the name was familiar.

Lai Yudong had once been a chuunibyou sufferer obsessed with two-dimensional culture. His greatest hobbies had been watching Japanese anime, playing mobile games, and buying merch. He'd also done plenty of stupid things that made him want to flee the Earth whenever he remembered them. Later, academic pressure had forced him to drift away from the fandom.

He'd thought he would pick up his hobbies again after the college entrance exam, but unexpectedly, he had gradually become a normie after entering university instead.

Miura Yuki was one of the screen names he'd given himself back then, representing that chuunibyou dark history he couldn't bear to look back on.

But he'd never imagined it would be dug up at a time like this and have its corpse whipped.

System: [The internet has a memory.]

Lai Yudong: [All right, all right. So what's going on now?]

System: [A technical error occurred while importing the data. The ID "Miura Yuki," which you once used on Tieba, was entered as your real name.]

Lai Yudong: [...So?]

System: [We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.]

Lai Yudong: [That's it???]

Lai Yudong was furious at the shameless system. At this very moment, he deeply empathized with the lowly workers squeezed dry by black-hearted capitalists.

The only thing he was grateful for was that his ID hadn't been written in non-mainstream Martian script. Otherwise, the picture would have been too beautiful for him to imagine.

Just then, it was Xu An's turn to perform.

The music started, the lyrical accompaniment carrying a faint sorrow that perfectly captured Lai Yudong's mood. But before he could sink into the melancholy atmosphere, an unexpected development yanked him right back out.

Xu An had his head buried like a startled ostrich. The veins stood out on the hand gripping the microphone, and only by putting all his strength into it could he ease its trembling slightly.

The trainees whispered among themselves—

"Huh? Did I hear that wrong?"

"No, I heard it too."

"No way... He's Xu An..."

"Maybe he's too nervous."

The bullet comments suddenly exploded in number—

[What's going on? His voice cracked on the first line?]

[No wonder he lowered his status to come on a survival show. Turns out his singing has gotten worse]

[Is this the first time Xu An has crashed and burned on camera?]

[It's over, it's over. He won't make it into Class A]

The walking CD player had made a mistake.