432: Chapter 432 You Forced Me to Do This

"Thud."

Chen You placed his thermos on the table with moderate force.

Horn and Three Waters huddled together, trembling under the table.

Lin Miao took two steps back, ready to draw her sword at any moment.

Tens of thousands of eyes in the audience stared intently at the judges' panel.

Sander's two-meter-tall frame was like a mountain of flesh, her overalls stretched to the bursting point by her bulging muscles.

The basketball in her hands was squeezed out of shape, emitting a harsh, scraping sound as the leather rubbed together.

"Speak!" Sander took a sudden step forward, her violent aura sweeping over the entire judges' panel.

With a sharp crack, a fissure split across the solid wood table.

Sitting in his chair, Chen You maintained an expression of indifferent detachment, as if he had seen through the vanity of the mortal world.

He slowly stood up.

There was no flinching, no fear.

Chen You looked directly into Sander's bloodshot eyes. There wasn't a trace of panic in his gaze, only a deep, aching disappointment of someone who felt let down by a promising student.

"You have disappointed me so deeply," Chen You spoke, his voice tinged with the regret of a mentor whose high hopes had been dashed.

Sander was stunned.

She had expected Chen You to beg for mercy, to make excuses, or frantically try to appease her by awarding her a trophy.

"I... What did I do?" Sander's imposing aura subconsciously weakened by a notch, and she even loosened her grip on the basketball.

Chen You bypassed the cracked table and walked to the edge of the stage.

"Do you think I didn't want you to perform? Do you think I don't know about the 'Singing, Dancing, RAP, and Basketball' that you've practiced so hard? Do you think I don't know that your facial expression management has reached the absolute pinnacle?!"

This triple-strike of soul-searching questions completely bewildered Sander.

"Th-Then why did you..." For some inexplicable reason, Sander's momentum weakened by another notch.

"Because this stage is unworthy of your performance!" Chen You swept his hand toward the messy, chaotic stage.

"It's already dirty! It has been contaminated by filthy capital and mediocre talents with absolutely no artistic standards!"

He took a deep breath and looked at Sander with a heartbroken expression. "James Sander, tell me, what is art?"

Sander opened her mouth, her mind in complete disarray. "Is... Is it Singing, Dancing, RAP, and Basketball?"

"Exactly!" Chen You slapped his thigh hard, his voice suddenly rising.

"It is the peak collision of ancestral combat techniques and modern aesthetics! It is your Sonic Vibration! It is your Iron Mountain Lean!"

Sander's eyes welled with tears.

"If you had gone on stage just now, what would have happened?" Chen You slowed his pace of speaking.

"They would have seen you as an anomaly. They would have mocked your art with their shallow understanding."

"The grand entrance of the great demon king would have been reduced to a joke!"

Sander gasped.

She imagined the scene: if she had poured her heart and soul into the performance only to be met with boos from the crowd, she would have absolutely broken down on the spot.

"And so, I stopped you." Chen You closed his eyes, squeezing out a non-existent tear from the corner of his eye.

"I would rather bear the brunt of your anger and shoulder the infamy of rigging the show, just to protect you."

"I wanted to protect your pure artistic soul from being defiled by this filthy stage!"

The entire venue fell into a dead silence.

Horn and Three Waters poked half their heads out from under the table, staring at Chen You's back with eyes full of awe.

Is this the grand vision of an acting city lord?

To make a rigged show sound so refined and noble, and to frame cowardice as a righteous sacrifice.

Lin Miao stood on the stage, completely bewildered.

She finally understood why tactical team leader Zhang Yunhai had repeatedly and strictly instructed her before they departed to always listen to Chen You in the Source Realm.

This silver tongue of his could literally talk the dead back to life!

With a soft thud, the basketball in Sander's hand fell to the ground.

She felt as if she had grasped something.

But...

...her mind was still in a muddle.

"But must my art only be appreciated in self-admiration within the City Lord's Mansion?"

"Of course not."

"Cangxing City is too small." Chen You's gaze drifted past Sander, looking toward the distant night sky. "It cannot contain your talent."

"A true great demon king would never be content with ruling over a mere small city."

Sander's breathing grew heavy.

"I will take you on a tour across the entire Source Realm!" Chen You said each word with powerful emphasis.

"We will go to Stormhorn, to Sanjing City, and to the City of Gods! We will bring your 'Singing, Dancing, RAP, and Basketball' to all the players and NPCs across the entire server!"

"We will use your Iron Mountain Lean to shatter their rigid aesthetic barriers!"

"And establish a new artistic order for the entire server!"

Sander's blood instantly boiled with excitement.

What was Cangxing City? What was a talent show champion?

She wanted the submission of the entire Source Realm!

"Bullshit!"

A sharp, angry roar suddenly echoed from backstage.

Immediately after, a group of bizarrely shaped NPCs rushed onto the stage aggressively.

Leading them was none other than Bobo, the murloc girl who had an innocent face but excelled at Death Growls.

Following behind her were the Slime covered in mucus, a centaur uncle wearing fishnet stockings, and all the other NPC contestants who had just received scores of zero.

"Rigged! It's absolutely rigged!" Bobo rushed to the center of the stage and cursed at Chen You, her voice as coarse as an unrefined, boorish man.

"Why did that number ten human get a perfect score? Why did we all get zeros? This is blatant racial discrimination!"

"Exactly! How is my suggestive dancing not artistic?!" The centaur uncle lashed his tail in anger.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak! (Refund!)" The Slime wriggled frantically.

These eliminated NPC contestants were all filled with righteous indignation.

They hadn't dared to make a sound backstage, but seeing City Lord Sander step out to cause a scene, they immediately felt they had a backer and jumped forward one after another to denounce Chen You.

"City Lord! Don't let him fool you!" Bobo turned to look at Sander, who was still wiping away her tears.

"He is a fraud! He doesn't understand art at all! He rigged the championship for that number ten; we are all just victims!"

Sander stopped crying, looking at Bobo and then at Chen You, her already limited brain capacity crashing once again.

"Mentor... Is what they're saying true?"

Chen You's eyes instantly turned cold.

These NPCs, refusing to accept a way out when offered, are they?

Fine, then let's play!

Ignoring Bobo's accusations, he turned around to face the tens of thousands of players who were still in a daze below the stage.

Chen You raised the microphone and took a deep breath.

"My fellow compatriots!"

A furious shout boomed like a clap of thunder over the square.

Every player shuddered, their gazes snapping toward him in unison.

Pointing at Bobo and the others on stage, Chen You sneered repeatedly. "Do you see this? The fox's tail is finally showing! Capital can no longer keep up its facade!"

"They thought they could just send a few monsters up here to dance like demons and harvest us like chives! But they miscalculated!"

Chen You pulled Lin Miao to his side and raised her hand high.

"Because we have chosen a true champion! An ordinary person with no background, no financial backing from conglomerates, who moved us solely with her voice!"

"Now that number ten has won the championship, capital can't sit still! They're panicking!"