Initial Evaluation

[Whoa! A cool, cold-faced guy!]

[Oh, oh, oh! He's my initial pick based on looks alone!]

[Instantly fell into the rabbit hole]

[His face stands out so much, and his aura leaves everyone else in the dust. You can tell they barely Photoshopped his official photo]

[This contestant has such a big-shot aura! He must be really talented!]

[Seems like a complete rookie? Never heard of him before]

[Stage name?]

[Blind guess: he's the dance specialist]

The bullet comments pushed Lai Yudong's nerves to their peak.

Please don't spread rumors. He was none of those things.

Lai Yudong took a deep breath and bowed ninety degrees. His voice burst out, with impeccable diction and forceful enunciation:

"Hello, everyone."

Then he fell silent.

The room fell silent too.

[?]

[Such standard Mandarin]

[Holy shit, his voice sounds amazing. Who is this??]

[Did the production team poach him from a TV station? Hahahaha]

[I thought my dad was watching the evening news in the living room...]

[Everyone else is a Class A, B, C, or F trainee, but he's a Grade A1 trainee.]

Lai Yudong: "..."

Not Grade A1, Grade B1.

That wasn't the point! The point was, he'd actually let his broadcaster voice slip out!?

Some people, when extremely nervous, would unconsciously disguise themselves by showing the side of themselves they were better at and more confident in. It was much like how a cat encountering a stronger enemy would arch its back and puff up its fur to make itself look more powerful, and he was one of those people.

But he didn't need that! At least, not right now!

Because his persona was an overseas contestant! Wouldn't speaking such standard Mandarin make him OOC!?

Fu Hanyu, seated among the mentors, was the initiator of Ascend to Stardom and an all-round entertainer from a first-generation boy band. He glanced at the information in his hand and gave an approachable smile. "Did you train especially for that?"

"..."

Lai Yudong didn't dare answer.

He had trained, but could he say that?

Looking at it another way, couldn't his persona be an overseas contestant who was good at Chinese?

Lai Yudong hesitated for a moment, abandoned the foreign accent he'd imagined, and lowered his voice to a mumble. "Yes."

[Is he shaking?]

[He really is. I thought cool guys didn't get nervous hhh]

[But the way he's standing with his chest out and head high makes him look totally at ease]

[A big shot's confidence.jpg]

What big shot? What confidence?

There was no such thing!

Lai Yudong stared at the bullet comments, wanting to cry but shedding no tears. He wanted to dispel the rumors himself and say that wasn't his persona, but he couldn't even join in.

Admittedly, with his light blond hair, loose black suit, and Korean idol makeup, his styling was already designed to make him look cool and handsome. The posture training from his major had long since been engraved in his DNA, making him look even more upright and stylish. Add in the expressionless face caused by his nerves, and at first glance, he really did have a bit of that cool-guy vibe.

But his real personality and a cool guy couldn't be linked with an eight-foot pole!

"I hope your performance will be just as wonderful," another mentor, Wu Xihe, encouraged him with a smile.

The Mandarin part was skipped over, and Lai Yudong secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He'd nearly died before his campaign had even begun, but he soon grew nervous again. The mentor's words pressed down on him like an invisible mountain.

Could someone tell him what presentable talent he had to perform?

The tai chi from his compulsory freshman PE class?

Just as Lai Yudong was agonizing over whether to bring out the talent he'd kept at the bottom of the chest, an electronic voice suddenly rang out in his mind.

It was the system, whose appearances never brought anything good.

[Next, the host will be provided with a beginner tutorial exclusive to the initial evaluation.]

A beginner tutorial?

Before Lai Yudong could think about what trick the system was up to again, music suddenly blared.

[Dance mode, on.]

The next second, a projection appeared before him that only Lai Yudong could see. A fashionable guy rendered in 3D animation stood directly in front of him, with an anti-obstruction mode thoughtfully activated so it wouldn't block anyone's face. Bullet comments floated past behind the guy.

Lai Yudong stared blankly at the projection, trying to understand this so-called beginner tutorial.

To be honest, his first thought was QQ Dance.

A few seconds after the music started, strange arrows and circles appeared beside the 3D guy.

In a flash, Lai Yudong seemed to realize something.

He hurriedly looked down and, sure enough, the stage beneath his feet had changed too. Five foot pads and four hand-wave buttons representing different directions had appeared.

Oh! It was a dance machine!

Chapter 2: Initial Evaluation

Dance machines, commonly found in major arcades, were the ultimate nemesis of the socially anxious.

The biggest difference from QQ Dance was that in one, you only had to press buttons to make a character dance, while the other required the player to dance in person.

Aside from not being socially anxious, Lai Yudong had no advantages whatsoever. First, he'd never heard the song; second, he'd never practiced on a dance machine. Sharpening his spear at the last minute couldn't save him at all. It was like putting a lead dancer in front of him and having him copy the moves at the same time. If he managed to dance well, that would be a real miracle.

Its only use was sparing him the awkwardness of freestyling. At least there was a "Xi Shi" for him to imitate like Dong Shi aping her frown.

Seeing the lead dancer move with the music, Lai Yudong couldn't worry about all that anymore. A beginner tutorial was better than nothing, so he hurriedly gave a stiff wave of his hand, following the glowing circle that popped up.

Then a "Miss" popped up.

Lai Yudong: ...

Sorry to bother you.

Although he'd gotten off to a bad start, reality wouldn't give him time to recover, and the music certainly wouldn't pause for him.

Lai Yudong could only continue clumsily imitating the dance moves, raising his arms, kicking his legs, jumping, and spinning as if he were doing broadcast calisthenics. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't avert the disaster of his movements falling out of sync with the music. A string of "Miss" and "Bad" judgments left him numb, and a spectacular "Combo" was out of the question.

His dancing itself, on the other hand, was "spectacular" enough.