Tokyo: The evil god doesn't want to be the top star

Chapter 250 Performance Selection
"For the first performance, the 'International Group' and the 'Local Group' will each form seven teams, and they will each draw the same program and compete against each other in pairs..."

"During the official performance, four instructors and 1,000 audience members will rate the overall performance and individual performance."

"The winning group will receive 5 million popularity votes, which will be distributed to each trainee based on their individual performance..."

The trainees, wearing the same suit uniforms and with exquisite makeup and hair, lined up obediently under the stage and listened carefully to the program rules.

"After this performance ends and the show is officially broadcast, there will be two days of online audience voting."

"After that, the production team will eliminate the 51 trainees with the lowest rankings based on the accumulated popularity votes!"

"In addition, the popularity votes of personal direct-shot videos will continue to accumulate, and the popularity votes corresponding to the initial stage ratings in the early stage will also be added to the individual's name from now on."

At this point, Kimura Goro's expression also became very serious.

"what?!"

"51 people will be eliminated... that means more than half of the people will leave..."

The trainees in the audience couldn't help but burst into an uproar.

Although they knew the general rules in advance, when the crisis of having a 1 in 50 chance of being eliminated really came, they had a more real understanding of the positioning of the program as a "survival talent show"...

This so-called talent show is essentially an indiscriminate battle royale among 101 people, and stage performance, talent, appearance, popularity, etc. are all just weapons in their hands to fight each other.

"If that's the case... those five-star guys... have already survived, right?"

"Damn it... I can't be eliminated in the first performance... I must get... the bonus tickets for the performance..."

The gazes cast upon those "five-star trainees" were filled with jealousy and resentment.

After all, several five-star trainees were already ranked high in popularity in their personal straight-shot videos, and now they also had 500,000 extra popularity tickets awarded during the ratings...

You know, Xia Fan, who ranks first in the straight-shot video ranking, has only 1.3 million popularity votes in total.

The second-placed Hirano Yuta received less than 600,000 votes.

This is only the first performance, and the audience's investment of emotions in the trainees, as well as their willingness to spend money to vote for the shows, are still at a relatively low level.

The trainees after the top nine want to make a comeback. The five million popularity votes divided among the winners in the first performance are the only golden key...

The trainees, who had been particularly friendly after not seeing each other for a few days, suddenly changed from a harmonious atmosphere to a tense one.

"Yes, the rules of the show are cruel, but the real industry is even crueler than the show..."

"If you don't even have the awareness to face the challenges of the show and compete with fellow trainees, even if you successfully debut, you will be crushed by the competition in the industry."

"If you can't give yourself strength, how can you give strength to the audience? How can you become an idol?"

"Everyone, keep calm, prepare for the stage with all your strength, and shine the light you have accumulated through hard work to every producer in the audience and in front of the screen without any regrets!"

Seeing that the trainees looked strange and absent-minded, Goro Kimura suddenly spoke in a serious tone and shouted to encourage them.

"Yes, that's right... Even after we debut as a group..."

"Whether it's other teams or teammates in the same group..."

"As an idol, we are facing more brutal internal and external competition than we are facing now, anytime and anywhere."

As a retired top boy band idol, Goro Kimura's words are indeed from the heart.

These words awakened the trainees from their dreams, and they calmed down, with only the high will to fight left in their eyes.

"Nice look..." "Well, the first thing to do is to divide into groups and select songs."

Seeing that the bowl of chicken soup for the soul that he had prepared had taken effect and the atmosphere on the field had returned to normal, Goro Kimura nodded and quickly CUE'd the next process.

"The top seven trainees in popularity will serve as captains for the international and local groups respectively. Please step out in order if your name is on the form."

Then, according to the list on the screen, seven international trainees led by Xia Fan and seven local trainees led by Hirano Yuta stood up amid the complicated looks of other trainees.

"On the opposite wall are the seven competition songs that the program team has carefully prepared."

On the wall opposite the stage, the staff tore down the curtain and revealed the names of the seven competing songs.

"Hey, there don't seem to be many foreign songs?"

"I know the choreography for that song. It's super difficult!"

"The original singer of this song is not a female voice, how can we sing it?"

A group of trainees glanced at the song titles on the wall and discussed in low voices.

The songs and choreography that can be performed on the stage must have official commercial authorization, so the works here are mainly well-known works from the idol groups of the three companies S, J, and A...

There is also a small part, which is obviously to take care of international trainees. The program team has specially purchased the copyrights of foreign singing and dancing works that have a certain degree of popularity in District 11.

"Captains, please select the songs one by one in reverse order of popularity."

"Attention, those who choose the same song will automatically become competitors in the competition."

While everyone was examining the music as carefully as if they were marking exam papers, Goro Kimura had already started the next step.

"It seems that we have to separate..."

"Let's each do our best."

"Don't give up easily."

Xia Fan, Basong and Jack looked at each other encouragingly.

The three roommates are all ranked in the top seven in popularity and automatically become captains. They each have to lead their team to compete with local trainees.

Then, under the guidance of the staff, the fourteen captain trainees, starting from the least popular, stood under their favorite songs one by one...

The selection of performance repertoire may seem random, but it is actually very crucial and can be said to be a step that determines fate, so the team leaders and trainees are very cautious.

These pieces are not only sung in different languages, but also have different levels of difficulty in terms of singing and dancing.

The captain trainees who are selected in front of them will choose the songs they are most confident in performing according to their own areas of expertise in order to ensure their own stage performance...

The captains who are then selected must consider all the tracks they like and choose the one that will PK with their weaker opponent.

Among them, songs in the language of District 11 are far more popular than foreign songs because they are more popular with the audience...

Even international trainees who are a little confident in their language skills will consider the audience's empathy and give priority to songs in the language of Region 11.

But when it came to Xia Fan, none of the above factors caused any trouble at all...

Because, as the most popular trainee and the last one to exercise his right to choose, he no longer has any choice.

(End of this chapter)