Dad, Please Let Me Solo Main!

Time seemed to slow down, until the system's countdown reached ten. Only then did it suddenly accelerate, flowing wildly as the stage lighting system kicked in and the prelude to candy boomed.

But what truly stunned everyone was:

The audience that instantly filled the hundreds of seats below, and the roar that washed over them like a tidal wave.

In that instant, the very air seemed to be sucked out, and a terrifying suffocation gripped the performers on stage!!!

PS1: I originally wanted to write more, but I was accompanying a friend for their birthday and only got back to writing at two or three in the morning. When I scheduled this chapter, it was already eight in the morning. I'll definitely work hard after I wake up tomorrow! ()

PS2: For the sake of the distorted plot to come, building up the ensemble cast is unavoidable, so... it's understandable that Qing Bao didn't appear in this chapter, right!

PS3: Vote for me! (No reason!)

Volume 1: 61. Xie Qingxuan's Obsession, the True [Flow State]. (5K)

Virtual Reality System.

This black technology, which had provided much assistance to the top A contestants, acted like a demon come to collect its debt the moment the countdown hit zero. It deceived the retinas and senses, projecting a realistic illusion that could have led to a stage accident.

The hundreds of audience members, some pleased, some fervent, some in tears, some ecstatic. Some held handmade banners, some waved glowing support sticks in their fan colors, some shouted the names of the performers on stage.

In just a moment, it elevated the setup to that of a world-class stage.

If this had appeared at some point in the future, it would surely have become a beautiful memory to last a lifetime.

Because it would signify that the contestant could stand on a world-class stage, a moment of dream fulfillment worth celebrating.

But under the current circumstances, this maneuver could no longer be described simply as abstract or a prank.

-- The Chinese Entertainment Industry has no stage, it's never been a joke.

Among the trainees in the Great Xia Nation, even someone as skilled in choreography as Ji Shuzhu was limited to certain dance variety competitions in the Chinese Entertainment Industry. Usually, the finals didn't even have that many audience members, and it couldn't compare to even a tenth of the current spectacle.

Keep in mind, this was only the second evaluation for a survival show!

Contestants who had never touched a real stage were, without their knowledge, subjected to such treatment the moment they stepped on it. Forget about performing brilliantly; if they could even stand there with a blank mind and manage to halfway get through candy without forgetting to sing, it would be considered good.

What's more, they might even develop a psychological fear of the stage due to this failure, collapsing and never recovering.

In other words, the second evaluation of Flash Dance was a complete trial. Only those who truly overcame it would be qualified to continue fighting and competing in the next round.

But at this moment, the tens of millions of viewers in the live stream held their breath.

For a few short seconds, while they could instinctively understand the severity of the situation, they didn't have time to deeply ponder what incredible stunt Flash Dance had pulled off. All their energy was focused on the reactions of the contestants on stage.

Xie Qingxuan missed a beat.

Or rather, the instant the music played, the sudden surge of sound from below, the gazes and shouts of thousands, made the spotlight on stage feel scorching hot. The intense nervousness clenched her heart, bringing on waves of suffocation.

These numerous negative factors instantly stiffened her entire body, causing the muscle memory ingrained in her body to almost cease, and she missed the initial beat.

Xie Qingxuan didn't have time to think further. She abandoned "falling to the mortal realm," abandoned infusing her dance with full emotion, and with a detached posture, directly entered a state of meditation.

Subsequently, her mind sank into a state of sluggish yet clear emptiness.

The world seemed to be filtered, as if separated by a layer. The waves of sound and the gazes, the illusory expectations and nonexistent desires, the tension and unfamiliarity that threatened to swallow her whole like a swamp...

All of it, in the blink of an eye as she entered meditation, turned into unfamiliar, dreamlike bubbles.

Xie Qingxuan's perception of the outside world dulled, replaced by an almost perfect control over her body.

The difficulty of candy was already low. Without external interference, both the control of her movements and the execution of her vocals became effortless.

Thus, under the stunned gaze of the live stream, she, with an almost unbelievable reaction, slightly increased the tempo with a smile, smoothly and seamlessly matching the rhythm of the music. She seized the precise timing, shifted her vocals, and began to sing with a sweet, honeyed voice.

Her stage presence was so steady, her aura so powerful, like a gleaming frost blade drawn from its sheath, facing all difficulties and dangers head-on.

"OMG OMG OMG, as expected of the Great Demon King. She didn't know Flash Dance had this kind of trick, right?"

"Xie Qingxuan clearly hesitated for a moment earlier. She probably didn't know! It's just that her reaction was too fast and her recovery was so good that it looked almost as perfect as rehearsal."

"Is Xie Qingxuan for real?? Her stress tolerance is maxed out, her expression barely changed."

"Honestly, if it were me, I'd be completely stunned. Forget dancing, I'd be lucky not to cry on the spot."

"If this evaluation is testing instantaneous crisis management skills, then the Great Demon King would almost get full marks, right?"

The barrage of comments in the live stream was full of praise, with no intention of finding fault with the performance.

The young girl, amidst the fervent atmosphere outside, meticulously presented the song and dance like a precise machine.

As the background music faded to its end and the stage lighting system slowly dimmed, Xie Qingxuan suddenly came to her senses, realizing the performance had ended.

Outside the stage, the realistic projections shattered.

The deafening cheers and roars, the atmosphere that instantly heated up her adrenaline, all vanished like fleeting light, leaving only the cold darkness, as if mocking her in silence.

Her body was already soaked in a thin layer of sweat, and an indescribable fatigue washed over her. For a moment, she felt as if a lifetime had passed, the emptiness in her consciousness rapidly descending and shattering.

That abyss-like fear, intense shame, and anger forcibly dragged her out of her meditative state. Passively, she completed a humiliating descent into the mortal realm amidst a sea of negative emotions.

Xie Qingxuan's eyes were downcast, making it impossible to discern her expression. She said nothing, leaving alone in silence, walking into a patch of darkness, and into the bathroom where there were no cameras.

The young girl looked at her reflection in the mirror, seeing a face full of frustration and unwillingness. Her eyes grew increasingly hollow, and she whispered as if making a vow, "I must... find a way to immerse myself in the stage."

The high difficulty is not an excuse.

She understood only one thing.

That was, she hadn't been able to pour the corresponding emotions into her dance and singing as expected. Instead, she had been forced into a meditative mental state, barely managing to handle this sudden accident through what felt like cheating.

If it were her sister, she wouldn't even be nervous facing a stage of this caliber, would she?

But what about herself?

The mere thought of it would cause intense unease, anxiety, anger, resentment, and competitiveness to churn within her heart and bones, a fine, searing heat that felt like it would burn her entire being to ashes.

Warm water gushed out in the bathroom.

"There won't be a next time."

As the words fell, the bathtub overflowed.

Xie Qingxuan shed her clothes, revealing her smoothly developed, voluptuous body. Like a fish plunging into the deep sea, or a patient suppressing their emotions, she slowly lay down in the water, slowly tilting her head back, letting her nose and mouth be submerged.

The girl's platinum hair spread slowly in the water like diffused light. Her pupils were dead, opening serenely, reflecting the orange-red ceiling lights through the thick medium.

Time ticked by, minute by minute.

For five minutes, she forced herself to experience the terrifying sensation of suffocation.

The less air remained in her lungs, the more distant the outside world's sounds became. Her mind seemed to rewind, playing back scenes like a flickering film.

Xie Qingxuan utilized this characteristic, repeatedly recalling the bewilderment, fear, panic, stiffness, and suffocation she felt while standing on stage, enveloped by thousands of gazes and drowned out by countless waves of sound.

Only when she was on the verge of passing out from oxygen deprivation did she forcefully prop herself up out of the water with her slender arms, entering a meditative state.

"There won't... be a next time."

Xie Qingxuan whispered again, as if relishing the lingering aftertaste of fear and suffocation, or perhaps simply out of stubbornness, or even as self-punishment for failure. After hardly resting, she lay down again in the gradually cooling water...

At the same time.

The live stream exploded.

While Xie Qingxuan's performance was certainly praiseworthy and surprising, the incredible stunt by Flash Dance was even more worthy of attention and investigation.

And as the head mentor, Dream Weaver Rabbit seemed unwilling to offer any explanation for such a design.

Meanwhile, the mentor group was beginning to grade Xie Qingxuan's stage performance.

Luo Siling praised her greatly:

"Xie Qingxuan's stage presence is as consistent as ever. Even the virtual reality system's test couldn't break her will. She is an extremely steady contestant with the demeanor of a great general."

Zhao Dapan pondered for a moment before speaking:

"If we set aside external factors and look solely at the stage presentation, Xie Qingxuan's singing, on a scale of ten points, I'd give it an eight."

"Her breathing was a bit rapid at the beginning, but her breath stabilized quickly afterward, which is commendable. Her interpretation of 'candy' was technically perfect, but very formulaic. It lacked a certain sweetness and an atmosphere that allows for immersion."

"As for the dancing, apart from a missed beat at the start, the rest was astonishingly flawless."

"Whether it was power, lines, or hand movements, there's nothing to criticize. If I had to say anything, it's that it was too perfect, too formulaic, and also a bit inconsistent with her personal style. On a scale of ten points, I'd give it a nine."

Chen Baijiu mused for a moment and said:

"My opinion is similar to Teacher Zhao's. Xie Qingxuan's stage was perfect, yet it had clear flaws."

"Her singing and dancing abilities are excellent. She made almost no mistakes throughout the entire performance, which would be a crushing advantage in past talent shows. Even members of debuted idol groups might not be able to achieve the same."

"However, on the other hand, failing to adapt her personal style and integrate, adapt, and tame the theme song is itself a failure."

"The keywords for 'candy' are girlishness, cuteness, sweetness, and youth."

"In terms of interpreting these aspects, whether it's Xie Qingxuan's dancing, singing, or facial expressions, I can only give it a maximum of 6 points. Her stage presence is also 6 points."

The mentors didn't discuss for too long; Xie Qingxuan's strength was evident to all.

In fact, after Dream Weaver Rabbit presented this stage design, they had silently lowered their expectations for the trainees' stage performances.

Xie Qingxuan delivering such a result at the start had already exceeded the mentors' expectations, so there was no suspense regarding her second evaluation; she was still rated as A-Class.

The audience in the live stream was not surprised by this and continued to complain about Flash Dance:

"Damn it, just when I finished praising Flash Dance, it pulls another insane stunt???"

"Dream Weaver Rabbit is a habitual offender. It did something similar before with Chu Yuanqing's first appearance, and now it's elevated the art of messing with people's minds to a whole new level."

"Heh, already ordering spicy rabbit heads like crazy???"

"So what kind of black technology is this virtual reality system? The atmosphere and realism... for those few minutes, I thought I was living in a dream."

"I even feel like I've traveled a few years into the future, just in time to see the Great Demon King on a world tour???"

"I'm already mourning for the contestants to come. Out of the 168 trainees, I doubt many will be able to perform their dance normally under this pressure???"

And just as the audience had predicted, the first A-Class contestants to enter the stage, all five of them, performed poorly.

None of them could replicate Xie Qingxuan's cheat, using a Zen-like state similar to a Flow State, to forcefully compensate for their lack of experience.

Therefore, with such an incredible operation, they couldn't even unleash half of their strength. The candy they performed had a low completion rate, and they were almost on the verge of an emotional breakdown.

The mentor group dared not question the show's setup, merely fulfilling their duties by re-evaluating them one by one.

Four of them managed to remain in the B-Class evaluation, relying on their solid foundation.

One girl, with extremely poor stress tolerance, gave a performance that was hard to describe on stage. She forgot her lyrics, went off-key, and missed beats. Her expressions and movements throughout were quite stiff, and she was directly rated D-Class. It was like falling from heaven into hell, with no chance of turning things around.

This contestant seemed to have anticipated her results. After finishing her performance, her eyes turned red, and she dejectedly left the stage.

But even though the stage performances were consistently poor...

The audience rarely bashed the contestants, mostly believing that the difficulty of Flash Dance was set too abstractly.

At this moment, the contestants who were repeatedly eliminated from A-Class were the most popular ones on the show, causing their fan bases to become extremely angry, directly leading to a one-sided public opinion.

The bullet comments in the live stream were full of condemnation:

"Stupid production team, isn't this setup just forcing growth?"

"Growth is stepwise, it's not like you can make a carp transform into a dragon just by putting a gate in front of it???"

"There's really no need. The first large-scale performance, and the subsequent group performance battles, are already the best training for the girls. Forcibly raising the growth curve will only cause the entire show to collapse."

"What are they in such a hurry for? We want to see an idol-raising show, not a group formed on the spot."

"LOL, if A-Class is like this, what about the girls in other classes? Are they just there to suffer? If they develop a fear of the stage and have psychological trauma, who will pay for it?"

"Damn, I just checked the detailed rules for Flash Dance. The Dream Weaver Rabbit said they would compensate for injuries sustained due to the production team's equipment, and this injury also includes mental harm. The compensation ranges from a minimum of five million to a maximum of sixty million."

"Family, who can understand this? The fact that they'll actually pay is the most insane thing. Did they come prepared????"