From Thug to Idol: Transmigrating to a Survival Show

June stared up at a tall tree in the middle of a neighborhood and sighed deeply before glaring at the teary-eyed Casper.

"You said you lost him!" June exclaimed, noticing the black blob sitting on one of the three branches, seemingly judging the two handsome idols beneath him.

"I did!" Casper defended. "Well, technically, my sister lost him. But that's beside the point. He still got lost!"

"He's literally right there," June sighed, pointing at the supposed Luther.

"Well, he's always been a good cat. Ever since he was young, he stayed at our house, bathed bi-weekly with shampoo that smelled like cookies, and was fed premium raw cat food from a famous veterinarian! Nothing like this has happened before," Casper said.

"I thought you lost him forever," June sighed.

"Oh no. Don't even go there. I might not be able to function for an entire week if that happens," Casper said. "Maybe...even for the rest of my life."

June sighed in frustration, raking his fingers through his hair.

"Goodness. Why don't we call the fire department to get him down?" he asked,

"We can't!" Casper argued. "Luther is very sensitive to other people. He's only friendly to me and pretty cats."

"Not even your sisters?" June asked.

"No," Casper shook his head. "Why do you think my sisters called me here? He really doesn't like anyone except me."

"And pretty cats?" June clarified.

"And pretty cats," Casper confirmed.

June pursed his lips and closed his eyes, wondering why he took Casper seriously.

He should have known better and listened more to his story before promising Casper that he'd join him.

[Aww, such a sweet friend!]

'Sweet friend, my ass.'

June would have continued brainstorming for their song production if it weren't for Casper.

[You don't even have an idea how to start it.]

'Why are you suddenly so noisy? Do you have nothing to do?'

[I was summoned by a cute kitty! Look at him.]

June sighed and stared up at the tree branch where Luther was chilling.

There, the black cat with round, equally-black eyes and a pink nose sat elegantly at the distal area of a tree branch.

If he wasn't so high up, then June would have let him be since he seemed very comfortable—like he was sitting on his very own throne.

Looking at him now, he actually looked pretty cute.

He won't let Casper know that, though.

Casper might ask him to co-parent the black cat if he complimented him.

"What are we going to do now?" Casper asked. "We don't even have a ladder."

June sighed in frustration.

"Here, kitty!" he loudly called, even clicking his tongue repeatedly to call for the cute black cat.

Casper covered June's mouth, looking at him with wide eyes.

"What are you doing?" Casper exclaimed.

June glared at Casper and removed his hand from his mouth.

"I'm calling him down!" June obviously said. "Isn't that what you want?"

"No," Casper deadpanned. "What if he jumps and dies?"

"He's a cat!" June exclaimed. "He probably climbed it himself, so he can most definitely come down. Besides, he probably still have nine lives left."

"He can't," Casper insisted. "We need to go and get him."

June sighed in frustration before massaging his temples.

"How are we going to go up there? Like you said, we don't even have a ladder," June said.

Casper bit his lip and thought for a while.

"I'll climb up," Casper said.

June opened his mouth to argue, but when he realized he didn't have a better idea to propose, he kept his mouth shut.

Moreover, an injury to the head might make Casper act more normally.

[...]

Maybe that was a bit too much.

[Oh, who are you kidding? Casper acting like a normal person would be scary.]

June shook his head to get rid of Fu's notifications.

"Go ahead then," June said, crossing his arms in front of his chest and taking a step back.

Casper stood before the tree and gulped when he saw how high it was.

He was a pretty fearless person. He had no trouble swimming in deep waters, and he could even sleep in a room filled with spiders if he wanted to.

In his head, spiders were also friends—misunderstood friends.

However, heights were another topic.

Falling was probably his biggest fear in life, and a tree that was as high as a two-story house was definitely a nightmare to climb.

June clicked his tongue and glanced at his watch.

"Well, we don't have all day," June deadpanned.

Casper placed his hand on the tree and hesitated to climb.

In the end, he couldn't do it.

He let go of the tree trunk and took a step back.

"Alright, I can't do it," Casper said, defeated.

June sighed and turned around. "Let's go then. He looks happy there."

"No!" Casper exclaimed, pinning June in place by gripping his shoulders.

"June, help me! You promise to help me. I'm going to be blasting emo songs in the dorm if you don't help me."

Oh, that was going to be really annoying.

June face palmed and pushed his hand away.

"After this, don't ask for my help ever again," June warned.

Casper silently nodded.

June sighed deeply as he calculated how he was going to climb the tree.

Climbing things was pretty easy for him. He even climbed concrete buildings without any safety gear.

Thankfully, the tree had small branches as low as one meter off the trunk, so June didn't have a hard time using his arm and core strength to hoist himself up.

Casper's eyes widened when he saw how June swiftly and expertly climbed the tree, appearing like he had done it plenty of times before.

"Wooh! Go, June!" Casper cheered at the bottom of the tree as June got nearer to Luther.

June shook his head as he glanced at Casper, wondering why he was going to such extreme lengths to help his teammate.

"Luther!" June carefully called the cat's name as he arrived at the branch he was sitting on.

The black cat stayed in place, not even bothering to glance at June.

June clicked his tongue and called his name again. Luther meowed, causing June's heart to swell with hope. However, like before, he stayed in the same position.

June was slowly growing impatient.

However, just then, he heard another meow that didn't sound like Luther.

June's eyebrows raised in surprise, scooting closer to where Luther was to get a better look at what was truly happening.

There, he saw another cat—almost as pure as snow, sitting at the branch next to Luther.

"Pretty cat," June whispered, remembering Casper's words.

Casper, who was waiting patiently on the ground, suddenly had an epiphany, causing him to gasp loudly.

He was so desperate to get Luther down that he sent June up the tree without considering Luther's past behavior.

Luther nearly mauled a man who tried to pet him on his stroller!

Casper looked up to the tree and placed both hands next to his mouth.

"June! Luther will attack!"

"I repeat—Luther will attack!"