Translator: Yang_Wenli
Seated in a judge seat, Joshua has been staring at the projection screen behind Holme the entire time.
From the initial pitiful number of two hundred and forty-two votes, the quantity of votes continued to rise progressively.
While watching the votes rise, Joshua was also paying attention to the Mage Forum for posts about Holme. He ultimately concluded that the initial two hundred and forty-two votes were all from Squirrel Street’s bottom rung individuals or people who had experienced life living at the bottom rung like Holme.
They voted for Holme and not the well-dressed Roa purely out of sympathy.
Nevertheless, the number of votes continued to rise. It ultimately passed a thousand, a relatively decent amount.
But, those sympathy votes only continued until Holme decided to ‘barf’ on the stage.
The audiences were all deeply disgusted by Holme’s improper behavior.
There was even an user on the Mage Forum who posted that if Holme’s sung performance was to end like this, he would be the first contestant to perform ‘vomiting’ on the World’s Singers competition.
However, Holme’s sung performance post-vomit gave a ruthless beat down to the person who made that post as well as the others who commented below in agreement with him.
Holme stood back up and, following the music, performed his own version of ‘Lose Yourself.’
Even Joshua was astonished by his performance. It was like Eminem himself was on the stage.
Rather than ‘winning over the audience,’ Holme’s performance was more of a vent... It was like he was trying to grab the collars of the audiences that questioned him in the past. It was also like he was trying to renounce his former powerlessness.
Regardless, his murderous and oppressive rapping managed to shut the mouths of all the audience members. Even Roa, the nobleman opera singer standing next to him, was staring at the wretched-looking kid with an astonished look.
Right when Holme began singing the first chorus, the votes on the projection behind him exploded. The rapid increase continued all the way till Holme finished rapping.
“Only nineteen thousand votes in the end?”
Joshua was staring at the vote counter behind Holme. It was slowing down. There were simply too many less votes compared to the young opera singer contestant before Holme.
“His song is much more interesting than that guy’s ‘Nosmo’s Forest.’ If it wasn’t for the fact that Phoenix Down Theatrical Troupe’s opera singer was the first to sing, he would be able to receive even more support,” Gallolie was the first person to voice her discontent toward the number of votes Holme received.
“That’s because Miss Gallolie grew up listening to operas. That’s why you felt operas to be dull.”
That said, Joshua admits that Holme’s performance was excellent, it was so much that he, a non-singer, cannot find any fault. If he must give it a superficial evaluation, then it would be that he felt his blood surging slightly after listening to Holme’s sung performance.
“Indeed, it is as Mister Joshua said,” Gallolie lifted her chin with her hand in a slightly unhappy manner. Her wine-colored eyes were staring at the projection screen at the back of the stage.
“This is already my forty-seventh time listening to ‘Nosmo’s Forest.’I’ve heard many renowned opera singers from Farucci performing that famous song. Now, I’ll feel like yawning just from hearing the starting melody. Besides, the sung performance of the young man on the stage can’t match those other opera singers.”
Joshua listened to Gallolie’s complaint without saying anything. He was a bit glad that he had the Day Banshees focus their cameras on the stage. Else, if the audiences were to hear the complaint made by Gallolie, it would shatter the image of the dignified Black Swan Goddess for countless people.
Gallolie’s character was growing further and further away from the character she played in movies and theater plays. After she came to Norland and came in contact with ‘Minecraft,’ her character started to lean toward becoming one of those terrifying creatures known as ‘social recluses.’
Sure enough, she needed Madam Schoder to discipline her.
“Gallolie, not all the citizens of Norland are able to accept all-new genres of music like you.”
Even though Holme’s sung performance was outstanding, there were still a lot of people in Norland not fond of this ‘special sort of music.’
In this world where the most popular style of music was opera, rapping was simply too ahead of its time.
“But, from the posts on the Mage Forum, there are a lot of people that like his sung performance. There’s also a lot of people that wanted him to sing that song again,” said Gallolie.
“Time is needed for the masses to accept a new trend,” Joshua recalled the bumpy road for the introduction of online games in China, “Holme has been acknowledged by over twenty thousand people. That is already sufficient.”
“Argh... he needs a bit more votes. This sucks. That opera singer’s ‘Nosmo’s Forest’ sung performance wasn’t good at all.”
Gallolie couldn’t help but puff her cheeks. To the Black Swan who has been trained by the best musicians of Farucci, that young opera singer’s sung performance cannot be considered to be excellent at all.
But, to the majority of the audience, they were unable to tell that at all.
“It’s alright, there’s still more time for votes to come in. Furthermore, Holme had another opportunity to fight for more votes. It all depends on whether or not that opera singer called Roa will be willing to cooperate with him or not,” said Joshua.
“Another opportunity?” Gallolie looked to the stage.
Holme just finished the final lines of his song. The accompanying music gradually came to a stop. The votes on the projection screen behind him also gradually stabilized. From five to six hundred votes per second, it slowed to a dozen votes every second.
Standing on the side the entire time, Roa was holding his breath while watching Holme’s performance.
It was not only because the wretched beggar-looking fellow suddenly started to angrily shout a whole bunch of strange words...
At the beginning, Roa had thought that Holme had lost his senses. It was only later that Roa gradually came to realize that Holme’s performance was his so-called ‘rap.’
Having studied in Farucci’s Art Institute, Roa refused to admit that this strange and completely devoid of beauty sort of sung performance could be considered to be ‘music.’
Stubbornly, he believed that the citizens of Norland would hold the same opinion as him.
That poor beggar’s performance was nothing more than a completely meaningless blabbing of nonsense!
But, the votes on the projection screen behind him were rapidly rising. Seeing that, Roa realized that not everyone in Norland felt the same way he did. At the same time, Roa started panicking.
His parents were watching this performance. If he was to be defeated by this poor beggar in the first match of the semifinal, his honor and status would be forever destroyed. He will most definitely be deemed a disgrace upon his return to Farucci.
Damn it! Why would people like this sort of blabbing of nonsense?!
Roa was staring at the vote counter that continued to rise. It had surpassed twenty-one thousand.
The more the votes continued to rise, the more uneasy Roa became.
At this moment, the music stopped. Holme lowered the voice amplification originium crystal and took a glance at the completely quiet audience. Then, he turned to look at Roa who stood on the stage beside him.
Roa noticed Holme’s gaze. Due to feeling nervous and panicky and Holme giving off an oppressive aura, Roa actually took a step backward...
Realizing that he was actually afraid of this poor beggar, Roa became furious.
“Don’t think you can defeat me with your ghetto ramblings!” Unable to contain himself, Roa threatened Holme with a low voice, “How could something that vulgar and crude possible compare with Farucci’s operas?!”
However, right after Roa finished saying those words angrily, the number of votes on the projection behind Holme suddenly started soaring. It went from twenty-one thousand to twenty-four thousand votes in an instant! That was over a thousand votes more than what the young opera singer received.
“How could this be?! What did you do?!” Roa started losing control of himself as he watched the votes continue to rise. Holme was also stunned by it. He had prepared himself to be eliminated after he finished singing. But, to his surprise, he was going to advance to the next round.
He seemed to have defeated the opera those grand individuals enjoy using his own music. He defeated the opera, something he can never afford to purchase the admission ticket for by working or stealing!
Subconsciously, Holme turned to look at Joshua. Seated next to Joshua, Gallolie also turned to look at him when she saw the sudden and rapid increase in votes.
“Mister Joshua, what did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything,” Joshua spread open his hands to express his innocence. He turned to look at the young opera singer who was losing control of himself.
Perhaps he was unable to see them but Joshua, with his vision, could clearly see that there were two Day Banshees drifting around him.
“I merely ‘closed-up’ on the speech made by Mister Roa earlier. Who would’ve expected that he’s quite talented in the role of a villain. You know... the sort of feudal lord overthrown by the peasants,” said Joshua.
“Feudal lord?”
While Gallolie was able to understand what Joshua meant by peasant and feudal lord, she couldn’t quite make the connection.
“In other words, the majority of the people in Norland are commoners. The thing commoners are most fond of doing is naturally overthrowing the local nobility. Aren’t taking down local tyrants something supported by all?”
Joshua deliberately lowered his voice as he said those words. After all, if someone was to hear those words, it could lead to massive problems.
“But... Mister Joshua, I am also a noble,” As the daughter of a Grand Duke, Gallolie was part of the local tyrant that would be overthrown.
“That’s merely a figure of speech... That being said, it’s true that there are a lot of commoners who wish to see nobles suffer.”
Out of consideration for Gallolie’s feelings, Joshua tried his best to find a more suitable rhetoric.
“In short, this is simply what the audience wanted to see. A bottom rung commoner of Norland defeated a noble opera singer using his own music. Oh how great of a script this is.”