150: Chapter 149 The Conspiracy to Bribe Judges Exposed

The scoring software on the giant screen stopped calculating.

The red numbers froze at the very top of the main screen.

31 points.

The PA system cut all background audio.

The venue plunged into three solid seconds of dead silence.

Spectators in the front rows stood up one after another, staring at those two brilliant 10s, followed closely by a 4, a 4, and a 3.

Hasegawa: 10 points.

Charlie: 10 points.

The three judges from the UK, Germany, and South Korea gave single-digit scores after Su Chen's improvised solo that transcended the technical ceiling of Street Dance history.

A massive wave of boos erupted throughout the arena.

Audience members in the inner arena grabbed light sticks and support signs, slamming them forcefully against the barrier in front of the judges' table.

Su Chen looked up at the screen.

31.

He took a towel handed over by a staff member, wiped the sweat from his neck, and walked into the player tunnel.

His retreating figure did not pause for even a moment.

In the backstage area of Huaxia Team...

Guan Heng kicked over a folding chair.

The metal back of the chair slammed into the wall with a loud crash.

Chen Yu pushed aside the partition in front of him and rushed toward the judges' stand, only to be firmly held back at the foot of the steps by four security guards.

"Are you guys blind?!"

Chen Yu pointed at the three judges who gave low scores and roared, "You give a 4 for a move like that?!"

In the South Korean Team's preparation area...

Park Jun-ho sat on his chair, curling his lips into a smirk and bursting into laughter.

In a dark corner of the backstage area...

Kim Sung-hoon, a senior director of SM Entertainment wearing a suit, put away his phone and patted the dust off his sleeves.

He pressed his earpiece and spoke into it in Korean, "Cleanly done. As long as the score is kept suppressed at the bottom, Team China won't be able to turn things around."

The screen of the online livestream was completely overwhelmed by bullet comments:

[31 points? Giving 31 points to a divine-tier live performance?]

[This is blindly rigged! Two 10s and then three 3s and 4s?]

[Definitely rigged. Big capital stepped in. SM Entertainment is fucking disgusting.]

[Withdraw from the competition! Forget competing in a rigged match like this!]

[David usually boasts that he values technique the most, yet he gave a 4?]

[Whatever about the South Korean judge giving a 3, but how much money did those two European judges take?]

[These three idiots are treating viewers all over the world like fools!]

At the judges' stand...

Hasegawa pushed over the microphone in front of him.

Charlie left his seat, pointing at David's nose and yelling a string of English profanities.

David lowered his head, not daring to look Charlie in the eye.

The fingers on his right hand, which had just pressed the keyboard, were still trembling.

Su Chen's dance just now had broken through the barriers of human nerves and muscle memory.

Having danced Street Dance for twenty years, David understood the true worth of that sequence of moves better than anyone else.

It was a miracle that every street dancer pursued for a lifetime.

But he needed the money.

His dance studio was facing bankruptcy liquidation, and the price Kim Sung-hoon offered was simply too high.

The competition entered a fifteen-minute intermission.

The boos inside the arena never ceased.

Waves of protest grew louder and higher.

Sitting in the leather chair of the judges' table, David took out his phone.

On the screen was the replay of Su Chen's transition move displayed on the arena's main central screen.

That crisp snap of fingers echoed in his mind.

Street Dance was his faith.

Today, he had personally sold out his faith.

David closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

He tapped into a hidden encrypted folder on his phone and copied all its contents.

Opening Twitter, he created an anonymous account, dragged the files into the post box, and clicked confirm.

Five minutes later...

Major Street Dance forums around the world experienced server lag simultaneously.

The top trending topic on Twitter refreshed instantly: #Street Dance Truth#.

The post contained only a single sentence: "This is the truth behind the world's highest-caliber competition. My apologies to the true dancer, Su Chen."

Below it were four high-resolution screenshots.

The first: an English email exchange.

The sender was shown as Kim Sung-hoon, Director of the International Department at SM Entertainment.

The content of the email clearly outlined the requirement to suppress the score of "Su Chen from Team China" below 5 points.

The second: a record of cross-border wire transfers from a Swiss bank.

The recipients precisely matched the private accounts of the three judges who gave low scores, each receiving one million US dollars.

The third: a photograph of a non-disclosure agreement with the signatures of the three involved judges in the bottom right corner.

The fourth: a video of David himself appearing under his real name.

In the video, David's eyes were red: "I admit I accepted bribes from Kim Sung-hoon of SM Entertainment. But I am also a dancer. What Su Chen just displayed is the pinnacle of human Street Dance. I cannot tolerate seeing this art form trampled underfoot by South Korean capital. I am willing to accept any sanctions from the international federation, but I must make the truth public."

The news exploded across the foreign internet in an instant, before immediately being reposted onto domestic Weibo.

The top ten hot searches were completely occupied by "Ironclad proof of SM bribing judges," "Su Chen's perfect improvisation," and "David confesses and turns whistle-blower."

Bullet comments in the livestream room exploded exponentially:

[Holy shit! Holy shit! Ironclad leak! A judge with a conscience couldn't stand it anymore!]

[High-res uncensored screenshots, wire transfer records all out—nailed!]

[Three million USD split among three people, the Koreans sure are rich.]

[Kick out the South Korean Team! Ban SM Entertainment across the entire network!]

[This is a massive scandal. The International Street Dance Association is definitely facing a major earthquake.]

[Thank goodness for David's final moral line. Justice is never absent.]

[Kim Sung-hoon is probably going to have to swim back to Seoul overnight now!]

In the main control room of the tournament organizing committee...

Smith, Vice Chairman of the International Street Dance Association, slammed the walkie-talkie in his hand hard onto the control console.

On the screen, the competition's four major official sponsors sent sternly worded warnings of divestment.

Patch-in requests from dozens of major international media outlets blew up the main hotline.

"Cut the livestream feed immediately."

Smith pointed at the judges' stand below. "Have security take those three to the investigation room!"

In the Huaxia Team's lounge area...

Guan Heng rushed up to Su Chen holding his phone.

"Big news! David exposed everything. All the evidence of SM bribing the judges has been posted online. The whole world is watching us."

Su Chen leaned back on the sofa, took a sip of water, stood up, and unzipped his jacket.

"That's good."

Su Chen said, "That's what they call justice catching up."

Behind the arena stands, eight tall security personnel dressed in black suits pushed through the crowd, walking swiftly toward the South Korean Team's preparation area.

Kim Sung-hoon was still holding his coffee, standing at the entrance of the channel.

His assistant came scrambling over with a tablet computer; the moment the screen was thrust before his eyes, the sneer on his face froze completely.

In the next second, two security guards pinned his shoulders down heavily.

"Mr. Kim Sung-hoon."

The security captain held up his badge, "The organizing committee and the international anti-commercial bribery agency require your cooperation in an urgent investigation."