June honestly thought that having his skills downgraded by one level would be better than Mei's team winning against Mina's team.

As soon as it was announced that they won, there were already lots of speculation among the trainees.

"How?"

"I mean, Mei's subteam did a great job, but I can't believe Mina's team lost."

"If we're going on skill alone, then Mina's team did better!"

"However, Mei's team is honestly more popular.

"Yeah, because they're pretty."

"It's also because Mei is from Azure."

With June's announcement, the girls from Mei's subteam couldn't even celebrate.

Although they weren't able to hear the other girls' speculations in verbatim, they could somehow feel that the others weren't pleased with their win.

Moreover, Mina's team looked utterly dejected since they fully expected to win against Mei's subteam.

In the end, Yeri settled with patting everyone on the back for a job well done.

However, even then, they couldn't be genuinely happy.

After that, June announced Heemin's subteam's victory, rendering them with the most acquired benefits in the entire first mission.

June, who was still stuck on his failures for the night, decided to end the shoot quickly.

"That's it for the results of the first mission. Do not be dejected if you didn't get the results that you wanted. It just means that you still have the opportunity to improve," he continued.

"All of the benefits will be added directly to your votes on the first elimination, which will be held on Friday morning," he announced. "After that, we will go straight ahead with the announcement of the second mission."

The trainees nodded, not having the strength to respond after all that had happened.

With that, June gave back the microphone to the staff before going back to his waiting room.

As soon as he was alone in his room, he plopped on the couch, let out a deep breath, and closed his eyes.

He felt dizzy yet again, and he wondered if all of this was happening because he was in such close proximity to his sister.

Just then, he recalled Mei's stats in his mind.

[Vocal: C

Dance: C

Rap: C

Visual: SS]

It was honestly ridiculous how she was able to improve her skills in such a short amount of time. She was even able to achieve those stats faster than June!

[Congratulations, host! You have completed your mission: Brotherly Love!]

[With that, you are eligible for another skill upgrade.]

[What would you like to upgrade?]

"Visual," he said with no hesitation, knowing that it was already in the SSS range.

[You have upgraded visual!]

[Visual +1]

[Current grade: X]

June's frown deepened as he stared at the unfathomable grade once more. He looked at his overall stats and saw the three Xs staring back at him.

He tilted his head to the side as his mind raced of what it could mean.

Then, just as he was about to click off of his user interface, he suddenly realized that the three Xs were a different color than that of the rest of his grades.

It was subtle...very subtle that it was almost unnoticeable. However, with June's keen eyes, he was able to spot it.

Out of curiosity, he clicked one of them...and before he knew it, his vocal aspect disappeared.

He stood in surprise, and he repeatedly closed his eyes to see if what he was seeing was right.

June even rubbed his eyes and tried slapping himself to see if everything was a dream.

However, even with all of those measures, his user interface stayed the same—his vocal aspect was still gone!

June internally panicked and decided to sing a song, wondering if it affected his skills in any way.

"Oh, oh, oasis," he sang a small portion of their very first title track.

Then, his eyes widened once again.

"What the heck?" he exclaimed, holding onto his throat.

This wasn't how he sang before!

He continued to sing different songs, all with different ranges and even found himself having difficulty by the end of it.

"Fuck," he muttered, pacing back and forth.

It wasn't like his voice changed entirely. In fact, it would be barely noticeable to the fans and the audience.

However, June felt a shift in the ease of using his voice. If before, he could bust out a high note for a good ten seconds without breaking a sweat, he found himself having difficulty this taround.

"Fu, bring back my vocal aspect," June said.

However, he didn't get a response.

"Fu, I'm not fucking joking," he said, raking his hands through his hair as he felt his frustration bubbling up.

"Are you really not going to respond?" June asked.

[First strike.]

June's eyebrows furrowed as he finally stopped pacing. He stared at Fu's message and couldn't comprehend what he was trying to say.

"You're being philosophical again!" June exclaimed. "Just tellwhat's happening so I can fix it."

He went back to his user interface, and out of rage, he clicked on the X next to his dance aspect.

Like the vocal aspect, it disappeared in the blink of an eye.

[Second strike.]

Just then, a wave of realization hit June.

Strikes.

"Life has three strikes," he muttered, suddenly remembering what Fu had told him back then.

It didn't make sense to him before, and it didn't make sense to him now, but June felt like he somehow had to receive three strikes to be able to understand everything that was going on.

So, he went in front of the mirror to look at his face, remembering every aspect of it—every contour, every slope, and even every pore.

"Fucking handsome," he cursed as he continued staring at himself, wondering if his next choice would lead to his utter downfall.

After much hesitation, he went back to his user interface and shakily brought his hands up to the last X next to the visual aspect.

His hands shook more erratically as he went closer to it. He felt like he would regret choosing to press on the X, but he also wouldn't be able to answer the questions in his mind if he backed out now.

"Ah, to hell with it," he muttered, finally pressing the button.

Then, he focused his gaze on the mirror once again, waiting for a couple of seconds to see if there were any changes.

"Oh, thank goodness," he muttered when he didn't see any changes in his face.

However, his user interface, which was usually blue, suddenly turned red, making him perplexed.

Then, it flashed erratically, causing him to hold onto his head as an ache suddenly emerged.

[Three strikes.]

[Gover.]