"Isn't all this editing getting really boring?"

That's what one of the editors of mnet dared to say, while they were working on the editing of episode 6 of Produce 101 season 2. The man leaned back in his chair to take a short break from the hard work. Those words made the PD think, they had footage of hours of practice, and they only had to keep a few minutes of them, and create those into dramatic and fake plotlines. That was what their tasks were. "I think the same..." the PD felt a new idea coming up in his head and he rubbed his chin, deeply in thoughts, "We really need to spice it up a bit, this... survival show..."

"That's it!"

When the man exclaimed these words, the majority of the employees flinched, turning towards their PD with various curious expressions. Silence took over the room as the man kept thinking of his new idea. "I don't care if you're with me, but I'm going to the CEO right now to tell him my idea to spice this season up. Right now, just keep working, we still need to finish this episode, and do NOT forget to edit out any trace of Ha Minho. That punk will praise himself lucky to have left the show..." The PD quickly headed out of the room, leaving the puzzled staff behind. Murmurs rose among them, as they were too confused to work for around a minute, but then they forgot about it and continued to do their work. They were getting paid after all, and had a tough deadline, trying to finish all the drama and deal with Minho at the same time.

"CEO-nim," the PD barged into the room without any notice, and that didn't make the man that happy. "How many times have I told y-" when he spoke with his strong voice, it didn't last long before he was interrupted by the excited PD, who was rubbing his hands together like a fly. "We really need to change up the plan of Produce 101 season 2, sir, and I just got an amazing idea to improve it all." When he heard those words, the boss calmed down and raised his brow at the other man who was standing at the other side of the desk. "How about..." The man started...

"We make it a real survival show?"

It took a few moments to get to the CEO's head, but once he understood, the man opened his mouth to speak, after a deadly silence. "So you mean like a... Battle royale between the trainees? And they have to battle each other to the death? Untill only one out of those punks is left?" The PD clapped his hands once while nodding happily, "That's exactly what I was talking about! Sir, what do you think?" The boss had to think for a while, and silence took over again.

"Sounds risky, but let's do it. You'll be able to prepare it all quickly, right?"

The PD bowed happily and chuckled, "Oh yeah, I actually know a place where we can do it. I just need a lot of staff to install all the cameras and boundaries. It will be ready in a few days. I already have thought of a whole plan. So no worries, CEO-nim, it will all go really well, and will be way better than seeing those irritating scandalous kids just train to just be eliminated anyway." The CEO only gave the PD a strong nod in approval before returning to his work, as the other bowed one more time before leaving the room again.

"Team, I have an announcement!" the PD walked into the editing room again as they all immediately turned towards him. "Finish this episode, but we will be going to overhaul the formula completely! Oh man... those fangirls will go crazy, I am looking forward to it already..." the man rubbed his hands together, imagining all the ruckus the overhaul would cause. "What's it, sir?" one of the employees asked curiously. "You guys don't have to edit anymore from now on, you will be put on another show, after you do one more task for me. There's this place in the forest, and we need to install somewhat hidden cameras there. I need a lot of staff, we need to do it asap." The PD calmly explained, and as he spoke more, the employees grew more confused. "Will that be the new location of the filming, then? Why? I don't really understand..." "You don't HAVE to understand!" the PD suddenly snarled back at him, so the employee just shut his mouth and returned to work. "This is going to be so great... seeing all those punks disappear like that... I have to go tell the trainers..." the PD murmured to himself before heading out again.

"Oh, PD-nim! Why did you ask us to gather outside of the recording schedule?" Boa immediately stood up to bow for the man who had just entered the room, and the trainers followed her immediately. "Well, I have a big announcement... We are going to overhaul the formula for the show." While Cheetah's jaw dropped, Don mills immediately had his doubts. "In the middle of the season... are you sure?" "Yes," the PD answered with a firm nod, "I am sure." "What are we going to do then?" Yumi wondered, looking at the PD with her adorable expressions. "Well, dear trainers... Don't be surprised but..."

"We're going to put them in a Battle Royale."

A huge ruckus rose in the room as all the trainers and Boa started to complain at the same time. "Does that mean those kiddos have to fight to the death??" Seokhoon was furious, while Yumi was especially concerned, "Oh poor, poor boys... How could you do that to them?!" Don mills was on the verge of just attacking the PD, but staff appeared behind him to keep the trainers under control. "Just let us be and go home, okay? We don't need you anymore..." the PD was surprisingly calm, but out of all the trainers, Cheetah was the wildest, she was kicking, screaming and biting. "No!" she exclaimed, "I refuse! I swear to god I'm going to ing kill you if you hurt those precious boys!" Her furious comments made the PD chuckle. "In this world, it is to kill, or to be killed... And for you, it will be... to be killed. In front of all the boys." All the trainers jaws dropped, and suddenly, they became a lot calmer. "Cheetah... I'm going to give you one last chance. If you calm down now, you'll be saved, but otherwise..." "Like hell no I'll calm down! I would rather die than let this slide, you !" she was even louder now, and a staff member had to cover , so she wouldn't alert anyone who didn't know about it. "Take her to the arena. You know what to do with her." the PD calmly ordered, and while they led the struggling Cheetah away, the other trainers and Boa had grown very silent, dead silent. "Seems like you know how to behave... You guys are dismissed, you can go home and enjoy your free time." And the trainers left the room. The world was cruel, and when it came to the point where it was them or someone else, most of the people were smart enough to choose themselves.

"Now... let's get those little punks..."

At that night, when the last remaining trainee had just gone to sleep, the staff broke into the dorms with gas masks and a lot of sleeping gas. If they were silent, no one would notice, because everyone was sleeping. Or at least they thought.

"Ugh... I can't sleep again..." a murmur was heard from one of the rooms, which had a lot of popular trainees residing in it. It was Lee Daehwi, who couldn't sleep because of the anxiety issues he had lately. The boy carefully climbed out of his bed, trying hard to not make a sound, he didn't want to wake up his roommates after all. The boy praised himself lucky that he didn't sleep with Sungwoon anymore, because that boy had all his stuff just lying around in the room. And he had heaps of stuff. Daehwi let out a silent, sleepy moan as the young boy tried to look for the handle of the door. When his fingers finally touched the cold steel, his free hand reached out to his pocket, grabbing his phone and putting on the flashlight mode, opening the door at the same time. But his flashlight immediately shone onto something that made the boy scream out of pure fright. A gas mask. Underneath that mask, a man was throwing heaps of curses at the young boy as his room and also a lot of the nearby trainees were awoken by the boy's loud and girly scream. "Daehwi? Someth-" Dongho immediately came barging out of his room, concerned for the young boy, but he immediately stopped moving when he saw the staff with the gas masks. "I swear to god, if this is a hidden camera prank, it's not funny," Also Taedong came out of his room, who still didn't believe it was real. "We have a problem, some trainees are awake!" the person who was keeping Daehwi from escaping yelled through his walkie-talkie. "We heard it. Fire the sleeping gas and put the cubs to sleep in 3...2...1..." and before neither Dongho, Daehwi or Taedong could react, an irresistible slumber took over their whole body, their legs grew weak, and it didn't take long before the boys fell down on the ground, fast asleep, weak like rag dolls. "Mission accomplished, now we have to drag them into the buses asap and head to the arena. Part 3 of the mission starting now, head out! And make sure to not hurt those cubs or the PD will be mad! They will hurt each other soon enough."