After gender swapping, my best friend and I hardcore BL (Boys' Love) became top influencers.

Happy times always fly by. After the first public performance, the trainees had barely caught their breath before facing elimination again.

The ticket pool was locked at 10 p.m. on Wednesday.

The studio was packed with trainees and staff, but the recording hadn't officially started yet.

Ling Tinglan, hiding from the camera, secretly followed Jiao Wangshu and whispered in her ear:

Do you think we'll be able to leave this time?

Jiao Wangshu rolled her eyes at him. "It's still early. Our votes are still pretty high, so we probably can't leave for now."

He thought for a moment and added, "No matter what, it should be after the third round of voting, right? Then we can slowly lower our vote count until we're just close enough to secure a spot."

Ling Tinglan nodded in relief, "Then I'm relieved."

"Didn't our uncle already infiltrate the fan group? He should tell the fans to stop voting and just use up the free votes the platform gives them. Don't spend money to buy votes."

Speaking of this, Ling Tinglan began to feel melancholy. "It's really not worth it. I'd rather save the money and go out and make some money. I'm determined to make a living in this industry. But we're not going to debut anyway. Now, if we throw money into this platform, we won't even see a ripple. I'm starting to feel bad even though it's not my money."

"There's nothing we can do about it."

Jiao Wangshu also sighed, "My uncle has already contacted the head of the fan club privately under the guise of a staff member, and made it clear that our two fan clubs will not raise funds or hold centralized voting events, but will encourage individual fans to vote and exchange votes. If he says that, the fans should understand what he means."

As he spoke, he glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw that the camera was about to be set up, so he quickly signaled to Ling Tinglan to perk up and stop talking.

Jiang Ruyao arrived late, wearing a bright-colored dress, a high ponytail with wavy hair, and her makeup and styling made her look more youthful and casual, but this did nothing to lighten the somber atmosphere of the scene.

As everyone knows, today is the day the elimination list for the first round of performances will be announced.

The first public performance was a group battle. Everyone already knew the outcome of the A and B group battle at the performance venue, so everyone was well aware of the extra 10,000 votes each person in the winning group would receive.

What everyone is concerned about is that, in addition to the members of the winning group receiving bonus votes, the person with the highest number of votes in each group also receives extra bonus votes.

The individual votes in the group were not announced on the spot, and this suspense has remained until now.

There are also 10,000 votes here.

Li Shu was extremely uneasy; he was truly an honest but unlucky kid.

The production team said the contestants weren't allowed to bring their phones, and he obediently handed them in. As a result, he has no idea that his ranking has already escaped the danger zone. He still thinks his ranking is like the ranking announced during the theme song, which is outside the top seventy.

This is a rather dangerous position, so these 10,000 votes are of paramount importance to him.

There are quite a few trainees who share the same thoughts as Li Shu. Generally, lower-ranked contestants like them can only accept their bad luck when they encounter a group with a high-popularity contestant in a group battle.

Unless there are particularly outrageous events such as a high-popularity group collectively crashing out, a stage accident, or automatic withdrawal from the competition, they basically have no hope of winning.

These trainees can only pin their hopes on these 10,000 votes. It's a case of choosing the best among the worst; everyone's skill level and popularity are about the same. It all comes down to who has the luck to survive one more round.

The rankings are displayed one by one on the big screen. These are the rankings that have not yet been added after the vote pool was locked.

Ling Tinglan and Jiao Wangshu's rankings dropped a bit this time, but they were still quite satisfied with their "sixth" and "seventh" rankings below their headshots.

But I couldn't help but complain in my heart about the show's clumsy vote-rigging methods—couldn't they have made a few more rankings? Every time the rankings were announced, the order dropped one by one. Were they trying to find a pattern?

Ignoring the various expressions on the trainees' faces, Jiang Ruyao pointed at the big screen and said:

"As everyone can see, this is the ranking before the additional votes were taken into account."

She then gestured to the staff, "Now we'll add the 10,000 votes each member of the winning team received."

As the numbers changed, the trainees at the top were doing alright, but the rankings of the trainees slightly behind changed dramatically.

Tyrande player Kael even exclaimed, "Oh my god! I'm finally out of the elimination zone!"

Kael's skills were average and his popularity was low. He had been hovering around 65th place, but he was lucky enough to team up with a strong opponent during the group stage. His group won the match, and his popularity soared.

He wasn't the only lucky one; many people couldn't help but show their joy.

But just as some are happy, others are worried. The trainees who have gained more votes have risen in the rankings, which means that some of them will inevitably be pushed down.

Jeon Sang-hoon's face was particularly grim. His ranking was only slightly higher than that idiot Song Se-jun. Although he was still within the top sixty, his ranking was very dangerous. If the rankings ahead of him changed even slightly, he would be kicked out.

Not to mention the others, they were all crammed onto the "sixty" kill line, and for a moment they looked at each other as if they were enemies.

Completely oblivious to the surrounding smoke and fire, Li Shu stared blankly, mouth agape, "...Thirty...nine?!"

"Wow, my ranking is actually that high?"

Ye Zhile, who had secretly hidden the phone, already knew everything, but he deliberately mischievously didn't tell Li Shu, just to see his dumbfounded expression now.

"I told you a long time ago not to worry. Look at your current ranking, aren't you feeling much more at ease?"

One sentence really enraged Li Shu. "Then why did you just stand there and watch me pack my bags this morning? You didn't even remind me. I really thought I was going to leave this time, sob sob (T⌓T)."

"Can I tell you now?"

Ye Zhile shrugged. "Sigh, you really are a fool with a fool's luck."