Chapter 86: Chapter 86: Narrow Victory

After the melodious song was over, the judges began a new round of torment.

They struggled to pick out the slightest differences from a pile of songs that were all on the same level.

Jiang Qin had to admit, she was impressed. She knew she couldn’t do it.

She had originally planned to ’know her enemy to win every battle,’ but as she listened on, her mind started to wander.

Her mind was completely filled with thoughts of her system.

That was because she had just received another notification:

[Congratulations, Host, you have reached one hundred million reputation value. System upgrade commencing—]

[Unknown error. System upgrade failed. Compensating Host with one deluxe gift package.]

’One hundred million reputation value… I can buy so, so many works now. It’s enough for custom clothes and jewelry, too.’

Jiang Qin guessed it was probably because of this livestream.

’Any Federation people with even a shred of patriotism would probably support me, right?’

’That must be why so much reputation value suddenly appeared.’

’Promotion on a major platform really is fast. Even though I’ve been on the hot search list a few times before, there were still many people who didn’t pay much attention to this kind of news.’

’Participating in a show in the Empire is different, though. It’s a must-watch program for everyone in the Federation.’

’It’s like the Olympics—it doesn’t need any promotion. Countless people will set their alarms to watch it.’

***

Late at night, those who had been up for hours finally saw the last of the scores being released.

One hundred songs in the competition!

The judges had already chugged two refreshing potions. If it weren’t for the conditions they’d agreed to when buying their tickets, some audience members would probably have wanted to leave early.

Everyone powered through, finally making it to the end.

Plenty of excellent songs appeared during the show, but most were just unremarkable.

The twenty composers eliminated at the end were all from the Myriad Races. The singers, however, were not eliminated; all one hundred were kept.

They were kept so the composers could draw them as partners.

The two hosts came on stage with smiles.

“Although we’d love to maintain a bit of mystery, the show’s results have always been fair, just, and transparent.

So I believe everyone already knows who the top three composers are for this episode.”

“That’s right! And now, let’s welcome our third-place composer!

The composer from the Empire, Mr. Jones!!”

Jones, dressed in a tuxedo, walked onto the stage with a slightly reserved smile. Standing beside him was the singer he had collaborated with.

“Next, let’s welcome our second-place winner, Mr. Karl, and his partner, Miss Yue Ji!”

Yue Ji was a diva from the Empire who had been famous for seven or eight years. At 43 years old, she was a female Beastman with the Mermaid Gene.

She was the same singer who had collaborated with Miss Finland during the debut performance.

This time, the piece Karl chose was a perfect match for her, and the stage performance was also superb. The only difference between him and Jiang Qin was the vote count.

So where did he lose out? His disadvantage was performing too late. Some of the casual viewers had already cast their votes for Jiang Qin, who performed earlier.

Therefore, his vote count was much lower. While his score was actually two points higher than Jiang Qin’s, it wasn’t enough to overcome a difference of tens of millions of votes.

In the end, he lost to Jiang Qin by a slim margin.

When it was time to announce first place, the backstage crew knowingly switched the music.

The host’s tone rose several notches. “And finally, let’s welcome the winner of our first elimination round, Miss Jiang Qin, and her partner, Mr. Sak!!!”

The two went on stage one after the other, both wearing white shirts. In terms of appearance, they did look somewhat well-matched.

However, when the Jiang Fan thought about Sak’s age and his race, they resolutely refused to approve of this “marriage.”

Even as he walked onto the stage, Sak was still in a daze.

’Oh my god! First place… It’s… First place!!!’

Sharing his sense of unreality were the Federation people and the Sea Clan who had been watching the livestream all night.

“We got first place, just like that?”

The person next to him was equally incredulous. “The Sea Clan actually gets a seat at the big table this year?”

“Oh my god, so Sak is actually this talented? Does that mean we can get a good ranking this year?”

You have to understand, to attract people to the competition, the Empire offers extremely generous rewards.

For example, the purchasing rights for certain monopolized materials.

“Could it be that the composer deserves more of the credit?

It’s obvious the piece written by this female composer was a great fit for Sak. If he gets matched with a less-skilled composer next time…”

But no matter what, at the very least, this result was already better than in previous years. It couldn’t get much worse from here.

Netizens from the Federation felt the same way.

In the past, the top three spots were basically carved up by the Empire and the Elf Clan. It was already considered good if the Federation ranked seventh or eighth.

Although everyone had hoped for first place from the start, most thought second place was more likely!

Unexpectedly, Jiang Qin had really come through and actually taken first place!

On stage, the host, Judith, asked Jiang Qin, “Miss Jiang, do you have any thoughts on winning first place?”

Jiang Qin was very practiced at this sort of thing.

First, thank the Federation. Then, thank Tianwen Entertainment. Finally, thank the production team, and then praise her hardworking partner.

She also stated that she would keep working hard and not let her fans’ expectations down.

It was a very standard spiel.

As formulaic as the host’s smile.

Lan Yuyan, who had stayed up all night, couldn’t help but chuckle. ’It’s almost as if she’s being held hostage.’

’You’d think she’d prepared a draft of her acceptance speech in advance.’

The top three were each interviewed by the host for two or three minutes.

Aside from Jiang Qin and Sak, who were smiling genuinely, the smiles of the other two pairs were clearly forced.

When they were leaving the stage, Karl even snorted coldly as he passed by her. “This is just the first round. No one has given it their all yet. Don’t get cocky.”

When Jones passed by, he didn’t say anything, but his smile was rather meaningful.

Sak’s excitement instantly cooled.

’Right, this is just the first elimination round.’

’In the second round, I might not be so lucky. If I offend several of the Empire’s veteran composers just for winning the first round, my career as a singer will probably be over.’

So, Sak reined in his emotions and quietly left the backstage area.

He didn’t even say goodbye to Jiang Qin, probably afraid that people would think they were close and that he would be targeted as a result.

Jiang Qin didn’t say anything either.

In this show, singers only had the right to perform a composer’s song once.

If he wanted to sing the song again later, or upload his own version of it, he would need to negotiate the copyright fees with the composer.

So she wasn’t bothered. After all, it was unlikely they would collaborate a second time.

***

She returned to her seat in the guest area and sat down.

The host began to draw the theme.

The second elimination round would take the 80 contestants down to 50.

In this round, not only would they have to redraw for partner singers, but the theme for the composition would also be restricted.

So at this moment, everyone’s eyes were glued to the large screen on the stage.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep