98: Chapter 98 Under the Spotlight, Playing with the Whole World

December 17th, Saturday. The sunshine in Los Angeles was impossibly good.

Alex slept until ten in the morning before waking up naturally.

He leisurely made brunch and even had time to watch half an episode of a mindless comedy variety show.

The 【Mental Pillar】 and physical enhancement bestowed by the system had completely cured him of insomnia or restlessness before major events.

He now felt like he was about to attend a long-awaited large-scale party, and he was the protagonist and most popular player of said party.

At two in the afternoon, he arrived at the livestream venue—a rented, renovated industrial-style art warehouse.

The team was already in place, and there was a sense of static in the air, as if something was about to erupt.

Marcus walked over quickly, his speaking pace half a beat faster than usual: "The final pre-heat data is explosive. We occupy three of the top ten trending topics on major global social platforms. Universal said they will mobilize all cooperative channels to push notifications half an hour before the broadcast starts."

Hank: "The perimeter has been cleared, and the internal security check has passed again. Rex is in the control room watching all signal entry points."

Lauren: "Legal and public relations statements are ready, and the emergency team is online."

Technical Lead: "All equipment has passed the final self-check, the streaming server load test is excellent, and Organization D confirmed that their 'barrier' has been activated."

Alex listened and nodded, a reassuring smile on his face: "Very good. Now, listen to my instructions—" He paused, and under the slightly tense gazes of everyone, he grinned, "Relax your shoulders, take a deep breath, and then think about what you want for a late-night snack. It's on me."

A burst of light laughter and exhales broke out, and the atmosphere loosened again.

Alex patted each core member on the shoulder, said a few encouraging words, and then walked toward the break room prepared for him.

In the break room, Taylor was already waiting for him.

She was dressed simply today, but it was clear she had been carefully groomed, like an inadvertently shining pearl.

"Nervous?" she asked, handing him a bottle of water.

"A little," Alex took the water and admitted honestly, but his eyes were shining, "It's the kind of… can't-wait-to-get-on-stage-and-see-what-kind-of-tricks-I-can-pull-off kind of nervous."

Taylor laughed: "That's more like you. Remember, no matter what theme is drawn, there are many people off-stage and in front of screens who just want to hear a good song and have an interesting night."

"Golden words." Alex bumped fists with her gently, "See you in the control room later."

At six in the evening, he began simple vocal warm-ups and body relaxation.

He didn't rehearse any specific melodies repeatedly; he just kept his voice and body active and sensitive.

He checked his guitar, tested the keyboard's tone, and confirmed the monitor mix with the sound engineer. Everything was perfect.

At seven-thirty, he put on the prepared outfit—a high-texture dark gray shirt with the sleeves rolled up casually, paired with black slim-fit trousers and a versatile pair of leather boots.

It was simple, stylish, not overly formal, and fit the positioning of a "creator" rather than a "performance star."

The stylist tidied his hair slightly, letting a few strands fall naturally over his forehead, adding a touch of casualness.

At seven-fifty, he stood on the side of the main stage.

The stage was set up very cleanly: in the center were the keyboard and guitar, a microphone stood next to them, and a large screen behind them was used to display notes, fragments of inspiration during the creation process, and the real-time audience voting data for later.

The lights focused softly on the central area.

He could hear the vague clamor from outside, filtered by soundproofing materials.

Those were some of the specially invited audience members and media who had arrived early.

Online, millions of virtual seats were being filled.

Marcus's voice came through his earpiece, filled with irrepressible excitement: "Boss, three minutes to countdown! The number of real-time global viewers has broken our estimated peak!"

Alex nodded to the void, adjusted his headset, and took a deep breath—not out of nervousness, but to adjust his state to the most focused and open mode.

【Master of Creation (Intermediate)】, 【Emotional Resonance Field (Intermediate)】, 【Pulse of Pop (Trait)】... all relevant abilities were running silently in the background of his consciousness, like a precision creative engine fully warmed up.

Eight o'clock sharp.

The stage lights dimmed, leaving only a spotlight on the stage entrance.

The background music (a minimalist electronic track he had pre-recorded, full of anticipation) began to play.

Alex Su, with that signature relaxed and confident smile on his face, stepped into the light, stepping into the center of countless screens around the world.

"Good evening, world." He spoke into the microphone, his voice carrying through the top-tier sound equipment to the venue and countless terminals—clear, steady, and warm, "I am Alex. Thank you for choosing to come here tonight, to enter this small, experimental space."

A simple opening, no flowery language.

He walked to the keyboard and his fingers pressed a clear chord casually.

"As you know, there is no setlist tonight, no rehearsed tracks. Just me, you, some preset but unknown thematic directions, and... the time we will share. The rules are simple: I will randomly draw a theme, and then, in the time that follows, I will try to compose and write lyrics for it, completing a song that belongs to tonight. During the process, you have one vote to decide the direction of a key part of the song."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the audience (though he couldn't see their faces clearly), as if looking directly at every viewer in front of a screen.

"That sounds a bit crazy, right? I think so too. So, let's get started and see what craziness can bring."

He walked to the center of the stage, and the big screen behind him lit up, displaying a simple input interface.

"Tonight, there is no theme list prepared by me. The theme comes from you."

Alex smiled wider at the camera, "Now, open the comment section of the livestream page, or use the link we provided, and in the next two minutes, send a keyword that you think represents what touches you most under the broad concept of 'connection'. Just one word is enough. It can be an emotion, an object, a state, everything."

Once the instruction was given, the audience in front of screens worldwide was instantly ignited with a sense of participation.

For two minutes, a massive amount of keywords began to wash over the specific submission channel of the livestream page like a waterfall.

On the big screen at the venue, keywords began to flash randomly and rapidly: "Wi-Fi", "heartbeat", "eye contact", "rope", "memory", "starlight", "wound"... thousands, all sorts of things.

"Marcus, background screening team, activate." Alex whispered into the headset.

This was something communicated with the team beforehand: a team led by Marcus would monitor the stream of submitted keywords in real-time, using preset algorithms and human judgment to quickly select five keywords that were semantically focused and could be covered or cleverly linked by the core creative directions Alex had prepared for the "connection" theme.

This wasn't cheating; it was necessary crowd control to ensure a global livestream wouldn't be derailed by overly bizarre or unmusical keywords (like "quantum entanglement" or "sewer").

What the audience felt was their participation in the decision, while the team was performing agile guidance behind the scenes.

The two-minute countdown ended.

"Time's up! Thank you for the global inspiration bombardment." Alex said.

At this moment, the waterfall of keywords on the big screen stopped, the screen switched, and five keywords that were finally "luckily drawn" were displayed side by side:

【Eye Contact】

【Echo】

【Bridge】

【Signal Bars】

【Old Photo】

These five words were all closely related to "connection," but each had its own focus, from concrete to abstract, from momentary to long-lasting.

They were indeed quickly selected by the background team from the massive submissions, representing the audience's true wishes while falling within the range Alex could flexibly handle.

For example, "Eye Contact" relates to emotional resonance, "Echo" relates to searching and responding, "Bridge" relates to crossing and building, "Signal Bars" relates to the fragile connection of the technological age, and "Old Photo" relates to the bond of memory and time.

"Five wonderful options." Alex looked at the screen with a thoughtful expression.

This thoughtfulness was half-genuine (evaluating which word could best inspire him at this moment) and half-performance (making the selection process more suspenseful), "Now, I need to choose one from them as a more specific anchor for our song tonight. How should I choose?"

He looked around the venue, his gaze sweeping over the audience in the front row, and suddenly pointed to a young girl who looked a bit nervous: "Hey, you, the one in the blue sweater. Can you tell me, what is your lucky number? Between 1 and 5."

The girl was stunned, her face turned red instantly, and she said in a low voice amidst the kind laughter around her: "...3."

"Okay, lucky number 3." Alex looked at the big screen, "Then, the third word is—【Bridge】."

The selection was completed in this seemingly random way that relied on real-time audience interaction, completely dissolving the stiffness of "having a corresponding theme prepared in advance."

The audience felt that it was their and their peers' participation that decided the direction, and Alex gladly accepted this result.

"【Bridge】..." He repeated the word, walked back to the keyboard, his fingers fell, and a chord progression with narrative and forward momentum flowed out, as if building some kind of structure, "A bridge can connect two shores, it can also connect two people, connect the past and the present, and even connect different frequencies..."

His creation began.

In his mind, the 【Master of Creation (Intermediate)】 ability activated quickly, lightning-fast adapting and transforming the core imagery of "Bridge" with one of the "core motifs" he had prepared for the "connection" theme—the skeleton of a future pop-rock song about crossing barriers and building understanding.

The melody naturally tilted in that direction, but it sounded like a completely improvised exploration.

As he played and developed the melody, he hummed tentative lyric fragments: "On both sides of the river, building silent hope...", "Using the bricks of understanding, to fight the waves of misunderstanding..."

The process was still silky smooth, full of sparks of inspiration, but because of the "randomness" of the theme source and the "audience interactivity" of the selection process, the texture of the whole "improvisation" felt incredibly real, vivid, and full of the irreplaceable charm of the present moment.

The venue was silent at first, then erupted into warm applause and cheers.

Online, comments and gifts completely filled the screen.

"I witnessed the birth of a song with my own eyes!"

"So good! Requesting the audio source!"

"Where are the haters? Come out and walk a few steps?"

"Phenomenal! Absolutely phenomenal!"

Alex panted slightly, with fine sweat on his temples, but his eyes were startlingly bright.

He bowed deeply to the camera.

"Thank you. Thank you for your participation, thank you for listening. This song, wavelength》, belongs to this night, and belongs to every one of us who craves real connection."

He didn't leave the stage immediately, but sat casually on the piano stool, picked up his guitar, and in response to the audience's frantic "encore" calls, simply sang the chorus fragment, and answered a few interesting questions about the creative process selected from the rapidly scrolling comments.

His posture was relaxed and approachable, completely turning a test that could have been full of pressure into a successful, intimate global interactive party.

The live broadcast signal ended around nine-ten in the evening.

The moment the screen went dark, Alex heard Marcus's almost cracking but forcefully suppressed roar through the earpiece: "Boss! It exploded! The whole platform exploded! Viewership, interaction data, topic popularity... everything broke records! Universal has already called my phone off the hook! Phenomenal! They admit it's phenomenal!"

Alex took off his headset and walked into the side stage.

He was greeted by the excited faces and hugs of his team members.

Hank patted his back hard, Rex gave a thumbs-up, Marcus's eyes were red, and Lauren also showed a rare brilliant smile.

Taylor walked over quickly from the control room, said nothing, and just gave him a tight hug; everything was understood without words.

Back in the lounge, temporarily isolated from the noise.

Alex leaned on the sofa, only then letting his consciousness sink into the system.

【Global Livestream Improvised Creation Event "Connection" Completed】

【Influence Assessment: Phenomenal】

【Fame Points Settling...】

【Settlement Complete!】

【Fame Points Gained in This Event: +5,847,330 points】

【Current Accumulated Fame Points: 16,212,550 points】

In one go, it surged by nearly six million points!

Even though he had expected it, Alex's heart skipped a beat.

Looking at that number breaking through sixteen million, a rush of heat mixed with a sense of accomplishment and greater ambition flooded his whole body.

A real, expensive extraordinary ability was within reach.

Alex exited the system and opened his eyes.

In the lounge, the team members were still excitedly discussing the data details and the upcoming celebration plans.

He stood up, putting that harmless, happy smile back on his face.

"Alright, let's get the celebration party started! All expenses tonight are covered by the 'big winner' of this livestream!" He announced loudly, drawing an even louder cheer.

Everyone was immersed in the joy of huge success, planning where to celebrate.

Only Alex knew that for him, this carnival had just entered a more exciting and secret stage.

The spotlight was temporarily extinguished, but the next light on the road to godhood had already been lit.