Chapter 99: Chapter 99: Boy Band or Music Band

The first three acts to take the stage were the kind that completely bombed.

A few of the teams that came on later were decent enough—they followed the rules, at the very least.

The compositions had no real high points, but the singers coordinated well enough. Compared to the chaotic messes from before, they were at least listenable.

Still, no one was particularly satisfied.

This was a selection for the top twenty, not the top hundred!

If this were for the top hundred, an ordinary but fundamentally flawless performance with no glaring mistakes would have been enough to avoid a low score.

But… this was for the top twenty.

How could the twenty composers selected from so many races across the entire Interstellar be such an unremarkable bunch?

So, the judges and the audience grew harsher.

Even after seven or eight acts had finished, they had barely cast any of their votes.

As for the judges’ scores, not a single team had managed to break 90 points yet.

[The judges and the live audience are still being rational.]

[It’ll be a real joke if this season’s top ten can’t even break 90.]

[Seriously, it’s just a band song. Is it that hard? Or are all these composers just frauds?]

[And the singers! They’re supposed to be superstars, so what is this chaotic mess they’re singing?]

[Let’s not be too harsh, everyone. Three days is probably too short.]

[Yeah, my idol’s group only got the song from the composer this morning. How are they supposed to practice?

Under these circumstances, it’s amazing they can even remember the score and lyrics.]

…

This situation continued until Master Finland’s piece was performed, at which point the crowd’s tension finally eased.

Compared to the other acts, this team could be described as polished.

Even those who had been clamoring for refunds and demanding compensation for emotional distress from the production team started to calm down.

Finland’s team was matched with five male singers.

She chose only one lead vocalist, relegating the other four to being backup dancers who occasionally provided harmony.

To be honest, while this kind of arrangement could be put together quickly, it wasn’t easy to pull off.

First, she had to get the singers to willingly accept her arrangement.

After all, such an arrangement meant four of them would be relegated to the background.

They were all on equal footing and had come for the exposure, so who would truly be willing to be a mere prop for someone else?

It wasn’t unheard of for composers to force singers to cooperate; while the singers wouldn’t dare breach their contracts and quit the show, they could still sabotage the performance.

A seemingly “unintentional” stage accident would be enough to get back at the composer.

As mentioned before, the singers didn’t need votes; they needed exposure. If a win-win situation wasn’t possible, why should they play nice?

This was also why the earlier teams’ performances had been so disorganized.

No one was content with being a backup.

Therefore, to have assembled such a team so quickly was already quite an achievement.

The only flaw was probably that the four backup dancers looked very unpracticed.

But Finland still received a low score.

The Mainbrain judged her performance as off-topic and gave her a low score for it.

Even with the support of the judges and the audience, it wasn’t enough to raise her score by much.

Jiang Qin had predicted this outcome from the start. ’After all, how can a song-and-dance routine be considered a band? That’s called a boy band.’

’Interstellar People abandoned instruments so long ago they have no concept of what a band even is.’

’In their eyes, a band is probably just three to five singers, each singing a few lines and doing a little dance.’

’That’s why, out of the ten teams that have performed so far, not a single one has used an instrument!’

Honestly, she felt like she had this in the bag.

’Even if my team performs last and doesn’t get many audience votes, with the base scores from the Mainbrain and the judges as a safety net, my ranking won’t be too low.’

’Besides, only twenty million audience votes have been cast so far.’

’Finland herself got thirteen million votes.’

’The other teams combined only received seven million.’

’If the remaining teams are all at this level, the audience will probably have plenty of votes left to cast.’

’It’s not like I have zero chance of getting a high vote count.’

***

Time ticked by.

On the Star Network, this episode was met with a chorus of disapproval.

[Well, I’m calling it. This elimination round is a total wash.]

[A few songs were okay, but they fell far short of everyone’s expectations.]

[No wonder this theme has never come up before. Turns out it’s this difficult.]

[At this point, I only have any expectations left for Jones’s and Jiang Qin’s teams. I can’t even stand to listen to the others.]

[Here we go, here we go—it’s Jones’s team!]

Jones was the 22nd act to perform, so he was also near the end of the lineup.

His initially heavy mood had lifted the more he watched. After a quick mental tally of the remaining audience votes, he started to think, ’I might actually take first place this time!’

His team took the stage.

Two female singers, and three male singers.

The two women were the lead vocalists, while the three men… were holding Interstellar synthesizer-type instruments.

Playing this kind of instrument was practically foolproof.

Each key produced a pre-set synthesized sound. Once a score was loaded, the instrument would light up the corresponding keys in sequence according to the music.

The “player” simply had to press the keys as they lit up.

It was a bit like one of those mini-games on phones from back on Earth.

In the Interstellar era, these were considered children’s toys.

Very few adults would bother with something so childish and simplistic.

So, upon seeing these instruments in their hands, the audience was beyond surprised. They even began to suspect Jones was deliberately phoning it in.

But when the song ended, the Mainbrain gave it a high score.

It was a high score of 85—the only one tonight to even come close to 90 points.

The entire venue erupted in an uproar.

“Why did Jones get such a high score? Wasn’t his team pretty much the same as Master Finland’s?”

“It’s more than that! Jones didn’t even get points deducted for being off-topic. You have to remember, every single team before him did.”

“Looks like Jones is going to take first place in this round.”

“See? The composers from our Empire are the best! Hahaha, those others couldn’t even break 80.”

“Not necessarily. Jiang Qin still hasn’t performed yet.”

As for the other composers, they had already been completely disregarded by the crowd.

But as it stood, everyone believed the show’s top three would emerge from among Jiang Qin, Jones, Karl, and Finland.

The rest were just also-rans.

Full of anticipation for a dark horse, the audience watched as the episode finally drew to a close.

The host, reading the room perfectly, said, “I’m sure quite a few of you have been waiting for our grand finale act, haven’t you?

Well then, let’s welcome to the stage… Miss Jiang Qing’s band!”

There was Cang Hong with his wild style, the elegant and handsome Trant, Yina with her twin ponytails, Chu Rou in a leather skirt, and Hugh Dean, who was gentle with a hint of swagger.

The five of them—a group of handsome men and beautiful women, each with their own cool and edgy style—made their entrance.

Once they took their positions, the instruments they had prepared rose up from the stage floor.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep