My agency went bankrupt before I even got on stage.

The comments section was filled with laughter.

[Forgot to take your medicine today: No, no, no, no! This spot is yours!]

[Xiao Ming: You're right! But I still want to vote for you!]

Today is another day of working overtime: My hands won't listen to me and insist on voting for you, what can I do?

[Auntie's unrestrained humor: Hahaha, poor Fanfan! Hurry up and unpack her luggage.]

……

Lin Fan is truly popular, not only on the show but also on social media, where he has repeatedly trended. He also uploaded an original song to a music platform, which quickly climbed the original music charts and received praise from various music critics, attracting a growing number of new viewers and converting casual listeners into fans. With the help of Wang Lingli and other influential figures in the fan community promoting him, it was almost no surprise that he reached 11th place in the voting.

However, Lin Fan lives in a dormitory and has no contact with the outside world. When he does his personal live streams, he either goes through the motions or simply sleeps. He doesn't communicate with his fans at all, so you can't blame him for being out of touch with the news.

Of course, the system also has a part to blame here.

Lin Fan originally thought he had a very good understanding of how the system calculates popularity, but it was clear that he only thought he understood, not that he truly comprehended it.

The system's rules are actually quite clear: only active fans will be counted towards popularity points. Even if a fan spends 100,000 yuan on you, that only counts as 1 point of popularity.

Talent shows all allow vote-rigging. The rules of "Morning Star" are that everyone can vote for 9 trainees a day, but only 1 vote can be cast for the same trainee. Therefore, fan groups usually exchange votes with each other. You vote for my idol and I vote for your Fan Ge. These are all very normal practices.

However, such fans will not be counted in the popularity score by the system.

While cheating is possible on the show, the system will absolutely not be fooled by these little tricks.

So, Lin Fan looked at the system's backend and saw that his popularity value was only over 70,000. But in fact, those 70,000 active fans were real, active fans.

Everyone was actively voting for him, plus the vote swapping between fan groups, not to mention that Lin Fan had a wealthy female fan who was carrying the whole show! His total votes could easily push him into the top 20.

This is because Lin Fan's persona is that of a "lazy, desiring, and pessimistic contestant," so many of his fans are casual about it, voting for him only when they remember and not when they don't. If Lin Fan put in a little more effort and spent more time promoting his work, he could easily break into the top 9 debut positions even without campaigning.

Poor Lin Fan, standing in front of the microphone, was completely unaware of all these intricacies. In his mind, he was furiously complaining: the so-called 1.5 billion views, that must be a lie, otherwise why would his popularity score only be a little over 70,000? He had long suspected that this program was fake, and now the system's popularity score had definitely confirmed it!

Wasn't that a slap in the face to my own brilliance?

That cringeworthy speech was so embarrassing!

I was wrong. I forgot the famous saying of "Sage Gou": one should not be complacent, and even more so, one should not forget one's original intention! A little indulgence has put me back in the spotlight. If "Sage Gou" were here, he would definitely punish me by copying scriptures ten thousand times!

What could Lin Fan say? His packed luggage was useless now, and all he could do was lament on stage, "Please, fans, stop voting for me. Please vote for the hardworking trainees. I really don't deserve your time, and I don't want to block others' debut opportunities. Thank you everyone, please let me leave the island as soon as possible!"

The most urgent thing is to keep a low profile again! We must keep a low profile! We can't afford to be reckless anymore!

[Today is another day of overtime: Going off the island? Dream on! Flower Island is even more beautiful at 4:30 because of you. We're serious about having you work overtime with us!]

[Don't vote, I can still show off: Haha, you've already sung two original songs while we're keeping you on the island! If we let you continue, we'll definitely hear even more great songs! So, don't even think about leaving the island!]

[Sa_Sa: Life should have dreams, those are your own words! Please eat!]

[Cute Rabbit: With me here, Consort Fan can forget about leaving the island! I want to keep listening to new songs!]

……

The rankings continued to be announced. Li Xiaodong was ranked 12th. When he heard his name, he leaned close to Lin Fan and couldn't help but cheer and jump for joy. He rushed to Lin Fan's side and gave him a big hug!

Lin Fan, with a cold and indifferent expression, seemed utterly hopeless, letting Li Xiaodong hold him like a lifeless wooden stake.

Ha, destroy it all, do whatever you want, it has nothing to do with me!

But seeing Lin Fan's expression, Li Xiaodong laughed even louder: "Hahaha, Brother Fan, you won't say you can't teach us your new song this time, right?"

Lin Fan was extremely annoyed: Whose kid is this so unruly? He's just too infuriating!

Lin Fan's former teammate Gao Yan ranked 17th, while Wa Wa ranked 20th. Lu Bingyang's ranking was relatively high at 8th. Although he secured a debut spot, his advantage was not obvious, and he could easily fall out of the competition.

Fortunately, this is only the first ranking announcement, and Lu Bingyang believes that as long as he performs well, he will definitely be seen by more people.

Then Zhuo Yuanquan, who had always presented himself as a formidable opponent, was pushed to second place by a margin of over a million votes. The first place went to a student from Class B named Li Yingqi.

This caused some unrest among the students.

However, Zhuo Yuanquan only paused for a second before quickly regaining his composure and stating that he would continue to work hard and never let his fans down. This statement earned him enthusiastic applause from the other trainees.

When Li Yingqi, who came in first place, took the stage to speak, the applause seemed much more perfunctory.

After all, although everyone knows the truth, the trainees are still young and impetuous, not very shrewd, and their thoughts are reflected in their actions.

With the rankings announced, it means the moment of parting has arrived, and the 40 trainees whose names were not called will leave the program "Morning Star".

Many were deeply saddened, some having forged strong friendships during their brief time together. Others, who had come as a group, now saw some stay while others had to leave.

Everyone sighed in dismay.

"I'll continue voting for you after I get out!"

"You must keep going for us!"

"Keep it up, you'll definitely debut!"

The eliminated trainees went to the front of the stage to encourage each other and give advice to their teammates.

The next morning, these people were to leave. They were all very sad and somewhat lost, unsure of what to do next after they left.

But Lin Fan was incredibly envious of them, because those who didn't want to leave had left, while he, who only wanted to be eliminated, was left behind. Could there be anything more tragic than that?