"The votes are now in," Kim San?said after a couple of minutes, finally closing the voting period for the first duet of the first round.
The audience started discussing their votes as soon as it was closed.
"Who did you vote for?" Cindy asked her daughter.
"Tongman," Jia answered without any hesitation. She could watch with her eyes closed and her ears covered, and she would still vote for Tongman without any doubt.
"How about you?" Jia asked, expecting her mom to have voted for Tongman, too.
"Pearl Boy," she answered, causing Jia to turn to her with furrowed eyebrows.
"What are you talking about? Is your hearing impaired? How can you vote for Pearl Boy when Tongman did so well?"
"That's exactly the reason," Cindy cryptically said, making Jia frown in confusion.
"You're speaking in riddles."
Cindy sighed. "Look around the venue," she instructed.
Jia silently followed, her eyes met with a myriad of Guitarman banners.
"What exactly am I looking for?" Jia asked.
"You're looking at a bunch of Guitarman enthusiasts," Cindy pointed out. "Tongman, undoubtedly, did better out of the two of them. However, in the ten weeks that Guitarman had reigned as the 'Disguised,' he had garnered quite a number of fans."
"In that sense, they would vote for the least threatening challenger—which in this case is Pearl Boy," Cindy explained.
Jia pursed her lips as she listened to her mom's explanation. She thought the show was as simple as the alphabet; however, it also involved a lot of favoritism.
In the beginning, she was confident that Tongman would win. However, now, she feared that Guitarman's fans would lead to his unfateful and undeserved loss.
Two numbers appeared on the LED screen—just right above the two challengers.
Tongman and Pearl Boy gazed at the back, waiting for the numbers to stop moving.
Then, one of them finally did, stopping at the number of votes that the challenger had garnered.
A small smirk emerged from one of the challenger's lips.
Then, the victor's score finally appeared, showing the gap between their scores.
42-73.
"Tongman wins the first round and moves to the second round!" Kim Sanexclaimed, causing the crowd to burst into cheers.
There were some worried fans in the audience; however, some of them ultimately voted for Tongman because they thought he genuinely deserved it with his vocal tone and skill.
Jia sighed in relief when she saw that Tongman had won, feeling more excited for the next stages to come.
"Tongman will move on to the next round and compete with the challenger who wins the second duet!" he excitedly said. "Then, if he wins the next round, he will have the opportunity to battle it out with Guitarman. Ooh, I'm already excited just thinking about it."
"However," Kim Sanquickly added, turning to audience. "I'm really curious about Tongman's identity. Why don't you make this guy lose on the next round so we can finally know who he is?"
The audience, including June, chuckled in amusement.
Jia, however, sent daggers toward Kim San's way through her gaze.
"This darn host," she whispered.
"Unfortunately, Pearl Boy is eliminated from the competition and will need to reveal himself to the public. However, to not let his effort go to waste, he will be singing the song he prepared for the second round!"
The people cheered for Pearl Boy, who bitterly bowed to the crowd. Then, his gaze snapped toward Tongman.
Although Pearl Boy's face was covered, June could still feel his scrutinizing glare under the thick material.
June shook his head and went down the stage to give Pearl Boy his time to shine.
As he walked down the stage, he saw Pearl Boy singing a pop song that suited his voice a lot more than 'Life of the Party,' making the audience enjoy his performance better than the duet song.
Then, after the first chorus, a countdown was heard before Pearl Boy finally revealed his identity to the audience.
June smirked when he saw that it was, indeed, one of the younger members of MATCHSTIX—the group that Jay had told EVE to watch out for. Similar to them, they debuted through a survival show, so the comparison might be even worse than with OCTA's.
However, seeing the young man's cocky attitude, June already thought that there was no use thinking of their team as a rival.
OCTA was a worthy rival…especially Uno.
June had no time playing with little kids who were nearly Minjun's age!
With that, he started walking back to his waiting room.
However, with only one step forward, Fu appeared before him with a new mission.
[Lucky mission! Lucky mission! June has stepped on a lucky mission!]
June sighed and massaged his temples through his disguise as Fu sang inside his mind.
[The title of the mission is: Steal the Throne!]
[Disguise Surprise Singer is one of my favorite shows! Congratulations on being invited!]
[As the host knows, Guitarman has reigned as the 'Disguised' for ten weeks straight now. Break the streak and take the throne! Improve your vocal aspect as soon as you sit on the throne!]
[Failure to win against Guitarman would result in vocal skill deduction by two grades.]
June read Fu's messages and felt a bit conflicted. At first, he was determined to increase his vocal skill to an SSS purely with his hard work and determination. However, seeing the demerit made him think otherwise.
It was hard getting his vocal skills to where it was now, and he wanted to protect it at all costs.
Still, June wanted to increase his stats right before the second round. He had been practicing intently after King of Kings ended, and he was sure that his hard work points must have accumulated at this time.
"Show me my current vocal hard work points," June whispered, knowing that Fu was capable of showing his stats whenever they improved, even by a mere fraction.
[The host requested for it to be shown only when it reached a hundred.]
June sighed as he shook his head. "That was because you notified me every second when I was trying to write 'Luster' back then. Now, I need you to go back to that format."
[No can do.]
[Figure it out yourself.]
