From Thug to Idol: Transmigrating to a Survival Show

June arrived at the set of Rising Stars, and he was immediately bombarded with questions as soon as he appeared.

Gun held onto his shoulders and shook him like a cola bottle.

"Are you okay? Does anything hurt? I heard you collapsed!" he exclaimed.

Ji-hyun covered her mouth, her eyes brimming with tears as she looked at June.

"Oh, stop it," June said.

However, it was too late. She was already sobbing, with Amira coming to her aid.

Lee Sik also looked quite concerned—almost like a father gazing at his long, lost son.

"You should take care of yourself better. I know you have a lot of work, but there's a limit to how much you can take," he said.

June nodded. "I know that now."

"However, I'm much better," he said, stepping back to create some distance between him and Gun.

"I just had the flu, and I was advised to take a rest. Now, I've recuperated for the entire week and am fit to go back to work."

The mentors sighed in relief.

"Still, you shouldn't over-exert yourself too much," Gun said, to which June nodded in compliance.

"Anyway, enough talking about me," June said. "What happened while I was gone?"

"Well, they've already performed," Ji-hyun said, her voice still shaky from her crying session. "Didn't you watch the episode?"

June shook his head. "I wasn't able to watch it. I only watched the special episode."

"Well, that's good. The special episode pretty much predicted who was going to win anyway," she said.

"So, I'm assuming that Jeemin's team won?" June asked.

"Yup," Gun said. "Although, it was a shame what happened with their team."

"Why? What happened?" June asked. He wasn't able to keep up with the past episode because he was too busy trying to decode the briefcase's passcode.

He had tried several six-digit combinations, but it seemed impossible to guess.

"Mei crumbled down," Gun said. "The poor girl must be under a lot of pressure. I can see the spark slowly draining from her eyes."

"Yeah, it's unfortunate," Lee Sik chimed. "She's one of the most hardworking trainees in the show. It's a bit frustrating to see that she isn't improving as fast as the others, but she's just starting out."

"It almost seems like Azure knew she was going to be a hot topic because of her looks, charisma, and passion, so she was brought into the show despite her being unprepared."

Lee Sik couldn't have summed it up better.

"Well, how did the performance go?" June asked, sounding a bit anxious.

"It went fine, of course," Amira said. "The girls still held up well. That's the reason why they won in the first place."

"However, you could definitely tell that Mei has a lot going on inside her mind. For that reason, she didn't stand out at all. It just felt like she was...there," she continued.

"That's also the main reason why she ended up in last place," she continued.

June pursed his lips. He honestly didn't know how to feel.

This was what he wanted in the first place...but why wasn't he happy at all?

"Anyway, you're going to announce the new mission today," Gun said.

"It's going to be a tough one since we're announcing the mission even before their elimination," Amira chimed.

"Wait, what?" June asked.

"You heard that right," Ji-hyun said. "Azure is back with their cruel antics once again."

"There are still 50 girls in the competition at the moment. However, this Friday, only 25 of them will remain. However, we're already announcing the mission and dividing them into five teams. Then, after the elimination, the girls have to figure out among themselves how they're going to continue the performance."

"Something like this happened before," June muttered.

"Yeah, I still remember," Gun said. "You were kicked out of your team, weren't you?"

June nodded, remembering one of his darkest times in the competition.

"Well, we'll head to our respective waiting rooms while you announce the mission," Ji-hyun said.

June nodded and read the script that the staff had provided for him before he went and announced the mission.

***

The shoot was finally done, and June noticed that Mei was indeed worse than before.

She looked even worse compared to the special episode, which meant that there must be a lot going on inside her mind.

June wanted to approach her a while back, but she stayed with her team the whole time.

Unlike her past groups, which were filled with powerhouses, Mei was grouped with a bunch of nobodies this time around.

They were the trainees ranked from 40th to 50th, so the atmosphere in their team wasn't the best when June observed them.

It seemed like all of the hope was drained from their bodies.

Nonetheless, June knew that Mei was strong, and if she truly wanted to become an idol, then she would be able to overcome it.

However, June was ready to intervene when it got too much.

He was still her big brother, after all.

At the moment, however, June still had another problem to solve—the passcode of the briefcase.

He was now outside of his room, not minding that Akira and Jisung watched him as he tried to figure it out.

He had a notebook on his lap and a pen resting on his ear.

June inputted another code and sighed in frustration when it didn't open once again.

"What are you doing again?" Jisung asked.

Akira slapped the back of Jisung's head. "He's trying to figure out the passcode, of course."

Jisung clicked his tongue as he massaged his head. "I swear, I'm losing brain cells because of your hits."

"There isn't a lot to lose anyway," Akira smiled.

Jisung shook his head. "I know what he's doing," he deadpanned. "I just don't get why he has a notebook and is writing all these numbers."

June pursed his lips before explaining what he was doing. He continued to try different codes while speaking.

"This has a six-digit code," June started off.

"First, you guys should understand the possible combinations that can be generated."

"Each digit can range from 0 to 9, providing ten possible choices for each position in the sequence. Since the digits can repeat and the passcode can start with zero, we are dealing with a situation where each of the six positions in the passcode has ten possible options."

"To determine the total number of unique passcodes, we use the concept of permutations."

"Mutations, what?" Jisung whispered.

"I think it was permasturbation. I'm not sure. Just listen," Akira whispered back.

"Specifically, because each of the six digits is chosen independently from others, I've calculated the total number of combinations, which is ten, to the power of the number of positions, which is six."

"Therefore," he said, sighing deeply as another password was crossed out from his list.

"There are a million possible six-digit passcodes."

Jisung chuckled emptily as he stared into the distance.

"I think I just lost my remaining brain cells."