From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 145: Second Ranking Ceremony (3)

"Me?"

Jamie looked shocked as he pointed his finger at himself while looking at the judges.

"Yes, you. I want to swap with you," William replied with a smirk.

"Why?" Jamie asked, completely confused.

To be honest, Ari had the same question.

Why my team when there are 6 others for you to join!

Even then, there’s nothing wrong with your team!

Stay over there!

Even if Mathew left, William’s team was full of mostly talented people, including three people he had first performed with.

If he stayed there, he would easily get the best vocal parts for whatever song was chosen and would probably be the leader.

It made absolutely no sense moving to Ari’s team, which contained a person with whom he had a conflict (Benjamin), and the team was vocally stacked, even when considering those who specialized in dancing and rap (apart from Matthew and Vishal). ƒree𝑤ebnσvel-com

Additionally, choosing to swap with Jamie was stupid, especially because Ari and William’s voices had a lot of overlap in their tones and singing style, and they would probably compete for a part.

As someone who had been in vocal classes with William since the beginning, Ari was confident in out-singing the other boy 8/10 times as long as there was no weird tricks involved.

So he could only think that William’s brain truly did not work too well since he lived life on easy mode.

Meeting the blonde boy’s pale blue eyes, Ari sincerely wished that the judges and the PDs would tell him no.

"I don’t understand why you’re swapping with me when I just swapped to get here?" Jamie stubbornly replied to William.

"Because I want to. There’s no rule saying that I can’t swap with you, even if you swapped, right?" William turned to face PD Ji-ho, and Ari followed suit, trying to burn his message into the PD’s mind.

If there’s no rule, make one!!

All these rules are made up by you in the first place, so just add another one!

"Hmmm, this is quite a tough question. What does the production team say?" MC Ryan Leary turned to PD Ji-ho, who looked between Jamie’s distraught face and William’s confident one before nodding with a smile.

"I’ll allow it. Swap away."

"Oh, well, the God of the show has spoken. Contestant William, your team swap is allowed.

"Sweet. Sorry to Jamie. Your spot is mine." William smirked at Jamie before continuing, "But I mean no offense because I really love your voice and admire your singing skills."

"Thanks!" although he was a bit bummed about being forced to move teams, Jamie still responded brightly.

"No hurt feelings, right? I would love to exchange notes vocally with you in the future. You feel the same, right? Shall we shake on it?"

As William reached out to shake Jamie’s hand, Ari simultaneously yanked Jamie backward while covering his own hand with his sleeve and fist bumping William’s hand lightly.

"Let’s save that talk for later. For now, welcome to the team."

I’m not glad to have you.

While Jamie and William stood there looking confused, Ari shoved Jamie toward his new team while keeping his distance from William.

Seeing Jamie walk away with a confused expression but Ari staring at him warily, William’s expression darkened slightly as he stared at Ari in suspicion.

It was true that he disliked this weird face-painted boy, but getting interrupted at this moment felt suspicious.

Did he know something?

Maybe he should test the waters.

"You know, I’ve felt this for a while, but I feel like you dislike me, Ariel. Do you hate me so much that you don’t want me touching you or your friend just because I replaced him?"

Why would I care about your feelings?

And you’re right! I dislike you so much!

Ari watched William put on a one-man play before putting on an innocent tone as he replied.

"That’s not it at all. I saw you picking at your nose with your hands, and I’m extremely germophobic, so I don’t want me or anyone to accidentally get sick. You understand, right?" Ari replied as he took a step back from William, whose face was turning red as others did the same.

"No, I didn’t do that!"

"I saw it with my own eyes. You can ask the production team to check the tapes if you don’t believe me. I can wait." Ari replied confidently.

While he might be exaggerating the extent of the nose picking, he had definitely seen William wipe his nose once or twice before, flicking something away.

Whether it was dust or boogers wasn’t his concern; he just didn’t want William carrying on with his talk of Ari hating him in front of the MC and cameras, even if it was true.

William glanced around with a red face before standing beside Ari and hissing.

"Why would you say that? Are you trying to tarnish my reputation?"

"Why would you say that I hate you? Aren’t you the one tarnishing people’s reputation?" Ari replied bluntly as he purposefully stepped away from William, and William snapped his mouth shut angrily while making up his mind to get rid of the boy in front of him one way or another.

"Please make sure you wash your hands before touching anyone. So they don’t get sick." Ari politely emphasized.

"All right, boys, boys, let’s settle down. You can all chat and bond as a team later, but now, it’s time to pick the song you’ll be performing."

As MC Ryan Leary finished talking, a staff member rolled a large board with a silky black cloth covering it.

When the board was settled behind him, with a dramatic flair as if he were a magician, Ryan Leary whipped the satin sheet off the whiteboard, exposing a pie chart with 4 genres of music with two pie-shaped cards inside.

- Hyper Pop

- Ballad

- Hip-hop

- Dance Pop

"Remember, I said that you would be going head to head? Well, here we are. Each team will select a card that has a mystery song. As a team, you’ll handle your own choreography with the help of the trainers, choose the arrangement direction, costumes, and choose from the available selection of stage props, and compete head-to-head while the audience decides which team did a better job overall at the concert in two weeks."

As the contestants read the four categories, they began thinking about what songs they could possibly get and which genre would fit their group best.

"For us, it’s definitely hip-hop, right? I’m hoping it’s a rap-heavy song?"

"Nah, for concerts you need to bring the energy up, so definitely dance pop."

"This team is basically vocalists, so definitely a ballad, right? Make them cry."

Since Ari already had the category he wanted in mind, especially with his plan to reveal his face, he tuned out the words of those around him and listened to the MC speaking.

"Originally, we were meant to draw sticks to choose the category, but that’s a bit boring, so why don’t we have a little competition. Let’s play pop the balloon and sprint for our lives."

As the contestants stared at him in confusion, Ryan Leary laughed as a staff member began setting up chairs with seven balloons.

"It’s going to be a team relay battle. Seven of you will take turns popping the balloon using the body of your teammate like so," the MC took the balloon handed to him by the staff member and held it to his chest as the two of them chest bumped each other while jumping until-

POP!

The balloon popped.

"Phew. I’m a little out of breath there. Ahem, and when the final balloon has been popped. The eighth person will sprint to come and grab a card. I’ll let you discuss for a couple of minutes, how you want to organize yourself and which card you want."

"So, what are your thoughts?" Ari asked his teammates, who had gathered in a loose circle while keeping a slight distance away from William.

"You all ready know the vibes, mate. Hip hop is the way to go innit." Benjamin replied with a cheeky smile

"Dance pop for me. I’m sure we can come up with some good choreography that can accommodate everyone." Feeling Mathews’ eyes on him, Ari studiously ignored him while asking everybody their thoughts.

"Nile?"

"Hip hop! I want to rap!"

"Haruto?"

"Dance pop or Hyperpop! Edm beats are fun to dance to!"

"Kyle?"

"Hyperpop? I’ve always wanted to use autotune." Kyle blushed shyly as he responded, and Ari nodded.

"Vishal?"

"No preference."

"Carlos?"

"No preference."

"Okay, so 2 hiphop, 1 dance, 1 hyperpop, 2 abstainers. Pretty close match."

As Ari was preparing to give his opinion, William cut in.

"Aren’t you all thinking a bit too simply? Choosing what you want instead of considering all the factors is a bit ignorant, isn’t it?"

At William’s sharp words, 7 pair of eyes turned to look at him.

"Firstly, if you look at the team makeup, it’s clear that vocals are the specialty here. Almost everyone is decently good at singing."

That was accurate. The lowest singing stat belonged to Vishal and Mathew, with everyone else having at least a C-.

Since William was making sense, Ari decided to hear him out even though he could guess where the topic of conversation was going.

Seeing that he had the team’s full attention and they were waiting for his every word, William cleared his throat happily.

"Secondly, there’s only one category that is substantially different from the rest. This category happens to coincide with the majority skill set of the people here, so my recommendation is that we go with Ballad, obviously. That way, we can stand out from all of the others who are going to sound very similar."

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