Time seemed to slow down. Only when the system countdown reached 10 did it suddenly accelerate and begin racing forward. The stage lighting system activated, and the prelude to candy rumbled to life.
What truly shocked everyone was—
The audience that instantly filled the hundreds of seats below the stage, along with the wave-like clamor that crashed straight at them.
In that instant, it was as if the air between heaven and earth had been sucked dry, and a terrifying suffocation suddenly clamped down on the person onstage!!!
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PS1: I originally wanted to write more, but I was celebrating a friend's birthday and didn't get back to write until two or three in the morning. By the time I scheduled this chapter, it was already eight in the morning. I'll definitely work hard after I wake up tomorrow ()
PS2: For the twisted plot later on, developing 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 needed)!
Xie Qingxuan's Obsession, the True [Flow State]. (5K)
Virtual Reality System.
This cutting-edge technology, which had once provided the top A-Class contestants with so much help, became like a debt-collecting demon the instant the countdown reached zero. It deceived the retina and senses, projecting a realistic illusion capable of causing a stage accident.
Those hundreds of audience members were delighted, fanatical, teary-eyed, or wildly excited. Some held handmade banners, some waved Glow Sticks lit in support colors, and some called out the names of the people onstage.
In an instant, it elevated the setup to the level of a world-class stage.
If this had happened at some point in the future, it would surely have become a beautiful memory to cherish for a lifetime.
Because it would have meant that the contestants could stand on a world-class stage—a dream-fulfilling moment worth celebrating.
But under the current circumstances, this stunt could no longer simply be described as absurd or a prank.
—The Chinese Entertainment Industry having no stages had never been a joke.
Among the trainees of the Great Xia Nation, even choreography masters like Ji Shuzhu were limited to appearing on certain dance variety competitions. Even the finals usually had few live spectators, nowhere near one-tenth of the grand spectacle before them.
One had to remember that this was merely the second evaluation of a survival idol show!
For contestants who had never touched a real stage, being subjected to this the moment they stepped onstage without any warning—forget performing brilliantly. It would already be impressive if they did not freeze blankly in place, barely pull themselves together, dance even half of candy, and remember to sing.
Worse still, some might even be left with psychological trauma toward the stage after this failure, breaking down so thoroughly that they could never recover.
In other words, the second evaluation of Flash Dance was a trial through and through. Only contestants who truly overcame it would be qualified to continue battling and competing in the next round.
Yet at this moment, the tens of millions of viewers in the Live Broadcast Room held their breath.
Though they could instinctively understand the severity of the situation in those brief seconds, they had no time for deep thought about what insane stunt Flash Dance had pulled. all their attention was focused on the reactions of the contestants onstage.
Xie Qingxuan missed the beat.
Or rather, the instant the music rang out, the sound waves suddenly rising from below the stage, the thousands of gazes and calls, made even the spotlight onstage seem scorching hot. The intense tension rumbled as it gripped her heart, bringing wave after wave of suffocation.
All these negative factors instantly made her whole body stiff. The muscle memory carved into her body nearly ground to a halt, causing her to miss the opening beat.
Xie Qingxuan had no time to think any further. She abandoned "Fallen Mortal," abandoned the idea of filling the dance with rich emotion, and entered Meditation State directly with an attitude of detaching herself from everything.
Afterward, her mind sank into a sluggish yet lucid emptiness.
It was as though a filter had separated her from the world. The tidal waves of sound and watching eyes, illusory expectations and nonexistent desires, the tension and unfamiliarity that swallowed the self like a swamp...
All of this, the instant she entered Meditation State, Turned into dreamlike bubbles she had never known.
Xie Qingxuan's perception of the outside world became dulled, replaced by nearly perfect control over her body.
candy had not been difficult to begin with. Once the outside interference was gone, controlling her movements and handling her vocals both became effortless.
Thus, beneath the stunned gazes of the Live Broadcast Room, she reacted with something close to the unbelievable. Smiling, she slightly quickened her tempo, smoothly and fluidly matched the rhythm of the music, seized the exact timing, shifted her vocal style, and began to sing in a sweet, honeyed voice.
Her stage presence was as steady as ever, her momentum as grand as a frost-edged blade drawn from its sheath, facing every hardship head-on.
"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit. As expected of the Great Demon King. She didn't know Flash Dance had this kind of gimmick, did she?"
"Xie Qingxuan clearly froze for a moment at the beginning. She probably didn't know! She just reacted too quickly and recovered too well, so it looked almost as perfect as a rehearsal."
"Is Xie Qingxuan for real?? Her ability to handle pressure is maxed out. Her expression barely changed at all."
"Seriously, if it were me, I'd have been completely lost. Dancing? It'd already be good enough if I didn't cry on the spot."
"If this assessment is testing instantaneous crisis management, then the Great Demon King practically deserves full marks, right?"
The Bullet Comments in the Live Broadcast Room were full of praise. No one had any intention of picking apart this performance.
Meanwhile, amid the passionate atmosphere outside, the girl presented both the song and dance with the precision of a machine, every detail immaculate.
When the BGM entered its ending and the stage lighting system slowly dimmed—
Only then did Xie Qingxuan suddenly wake up and realize that the performance had ended.
Beyond the stage, those realistic projections shattered with a rumble.
The deafening cheers and roar, the atmosphere that had instantly fired up everyone's adrenaline, all departed like fading light, leaving behind only cold darkness, as though silently mocking her.
The girl's whole body was soaked in a thin layer of sweat. An indescribable exhaustion surged into her heart, and for a moment, she felt as though she had been separated from this world for ages. The clarity in her consciousness plummeted and shattered.
That abyss-like fear, intense shame, and anger forcibly dragged her out of Meditation State. She passively completed a humiliating Fallen Mortal in the ocean of negative emotions.
Xie Qingxuan lowered her eyes, making her expression impossible to see clearly. She had no intention of speaking. Silently, she left alone, walking into darkness and into a bathroom without surveillance cameras.
The girl looked towards herself in the mirror, full of frustration and unwillingness. Her eyes grew increasingly hollow as she murmured as if making a vow:
"I have to... find a way to immerse myself in the stage."
High difficulty was no excuse.
She understood only one thing.
In other words, she had failed to pour the proper emotion into her dancing and singing as she had intended. Instead, she had been forced into Meditation State, barely managing the sudden accident through what was practically cheating.
If it had been Sister, she probably would not even have felt nervous on a stage of this level, right?
But what about herself?
As long as she thought of that, intense unease, irritation, anger, unwillingness, and competitiveness blended into a fine scorching heat that rose from her heart and bones, as if it wanted to burn her entire person to ashes.
Warm water rushed into the bathtub with a splashing sound.
"There won't be a next time."
As soon as her words fell, the bathtub overflowed.
Xie Qingxuan removed her clothes, revealing her overly developed, smooth body. Like a fish plunging into the deep sea, and like a patient suppressing her emotions, she slowly lay down in it, slowly tilted back her head, and allowed the water to drown her mouth and nose.
The girl's platinum hair spread slowly through the water like diffused light. Her pupils were lifeless as she calmly kept her eyes open, reflecting the orange-red lights on the ceiling through the heavy medium.
Time passed second by second.
Just like this, for five minutes, she forced herself to experience that terrifying suffocation.
And the less air remained in her lungs, the thinner the outside sounds became. Her mind seemed to replay scenes like a flickering montage.
Xie Qingxuan used this trait to repeatedly recall the confusion, fear, panic, stiffness, and suffocation she had felt while standing onstage, surrounded by countless gazes and drowned beneath endless waves of sound.
Only when she was nearly unconscious from oxygen deprivation did she forcibly enter Meditation State and use her slender arms to push her body out of the water.
"There won't... be a next time."
Xie Qingxuan murmured again. As though craving the lingering aftertaste of that fear and suffocation, or perhaps merely out of sheer obsession, even punishing herself for failure alone, she rested for barely any time before lying back down in the gradually cooling water...
At the same time.
The Live Broadcast Room erupted.
Xie Qingxuan's performance certainly deserved praise and surprise.
But Flash Dance's outrageous stunt was even more worthy of attention and investigation.
And Dream Weaver Rabbit, as the chief mentor, seemed to have no plans to offer any explanation for such a design.
On the mentors' side, they began evaluating Xie Qingxuan's stage.
Luo Siling heaped on praise:
"Xie Qingxuan's stage presence is as consistent as ever. Even the test of the Virtual Reality System could not break her will. She is an exceptionally steady contestant with the bearing of a great general."
After considering for a moment, Zhao Dapan said:
"If we set aside the outside factors and judge only the stage presentation, then for Xie Qingxuan's singing, out of ten, I could give her an eight."
"Her breathing was a little rushed at the beginning, but it stabilized quickly afterward, which deserves praise. Her technique in interpreting candy was perfect, but also formulaic. It lacked some sweetness and an atmosphere that could draw people in."
"As for the dance, aside from missing the beat at the start, the rest was an astonishing zero-mistake performance."
"Whether it was strength, lines, or hand movements, there was nothing worth criticizing. If I had to say something, it was too perfect and too formulaic, and somewhat inconsistent with her personal style. Out of ten, I would give it a nine."
After pondering for a moment, Chen Baijiu said:
"My opinion is similar to Teacher Zhao's. Xie Qingxuan's stage was perfect, yet it also had clear flaws."
"Her singing and dancing abilities are excellent. She made almost no mistakes throughout the dance and singing. In idol shows from previous years, this would have been a complete dimensionality reduction strike. Even members who had already debuted in groups might not have been able to do the same."
"On the other hand, failing to transform her personal style and fuse, adapt, and tame herself to the theme song was itself a failure."
"The keyword for candy is girlishness, cuteness, sweetness, and youth."
"Whether it was Xie Qingxuan's dancing, singing, or expression management, in terms of conveying those aspects, I can give her at most a six. Her stage appeal is also a six."
The mentors did not deliberate for long. Xie Qingxuan's ability was obvious to all.
In fact, after Dream Weaver Rabbit explained this stage design, they had silently lowered their expectations for the trainees' stage performances to the absolute minimum.
For Xie Qingxuan to deliver an answer like this at the opening had already exceeded the mentors' expectations. Therefore, there was no suspense in her second evaluation—she remained A-Class.
The viewers in the Live Broadcast Room were not surprised by this, and they continued mocking Flash Dance:
"Damn it, I just praised Flash Dance not long ago, and now it pulled another insane stunt???"
"Dream Weaver Rabbit is a repeat offender. It did something similar when Chu Yuanqing made her first appearance before. Now it has elevated messing with people's mindsets to a whole new level."
"Heh heh, I've already started ordering spicy rabbit head delivery like crazy???."
"So what kind of black technology is this Virtual Reality System? That atmosphere and realism—I thought I lived in a dream during those few minutes."
"I even felt like I'd traveled several years into the future and happened to see the Great Demon King on a world tour???"
"Starting to mourn for the contestants after this. Out of 168 trainees, I doubt many can finish dancing normally under this pressure???"
And afterward, just as the viewers expected, the top A-Class contestants who entered next suffered failures one after another. Five in a row performed poorly.
None of them could, like Xie Qingxuan, use Meditation State similar to [Flow State] as a cheat and forcibly make up for their lack of experience.
So under such an outrageous setup, they could not even bring out half their ability. Their renditions of candy were poorly completed, and they nearly broke down emotionally on the spot.
The mentors did not dare question the Program Group's setup. They merely completed their duties in silence and conducted second evaluations one by one.
Four of them barely remained B-Class by relying on their solid foundations.
There was also one girl with extremely poor stress tolerance. Her performance onstage was indescribable: she forgot lyrics, sang off-key, missed beats, and remained stiff in both expression and movement throughout. She was directly rated D-Class, falling from heaven into the abyss, with almost no chance of ever turning things around.
This contestant seemed to have expected her result as well. After ending her performance, her eyes reddened, and she left the stage in dejection.
But despite the consecutive poor performances onstage—
The viewers rarely attacked the contestants. Most believed that Flash Dance's difficulty setting was far too absurd.
At this moment, the contestants who had been consecutively eliminated from A-Class were among the most popular in the program, making their fans extremely angry and directly causing public opinion to become overwhelmingly one-sided.
The Bullet Comments in the Live Broadcast Room were filled with condemnation:
"Idiot Program Group, isn't this setup just forcing seedlings to grow?"
"Growth happens step by step. It's not like you can put up a gate and expect a carp to turn into a dragon by jumping through it???"
"There was really no need. The first large-scale public performance and the later group performance battles were already the most suitable training for the younger girls. Forcibly raising the growth curve will only make the whole show collapse."
"I don't understand what they're rushing for. We want to watch a growth-type show, not have them form a group on the spot."
"I'm dying. The A-Class contestants are already like this—what are the girls in the other levels supposed to do? Are they just making them suffer for nothing? If they genuinely develop a fear of the stage and psychological trauma, who's going to compensate them?"
"Fuck, I just checked Flash Dance's detailed rules. Dream Weaver Rabbit said before that injuries caused by Program Group equipment would be compensated, and that includes mental harm. The minimum compensation is five million, and the maximum is sixty million."
"Do you guys get it? The most insane part is that it really will pay compensation. Did it come prepared or what????"
Before you continue