433: Chapter 433 Is this an obsession with art?

Chen You's voice grew increasingly high-pitched.

"First, they incited the City Lord to step in and apply pressure, and now they have let this group of eliminated rejects jump out to cause trouble! They say I rigged the results? Pfft!"

He turned his head abruptly and stared fixedly at Bobo: "Do you call that singing? That is noise pollution! You ask me why I gave you a 0?"

"Because I cannot let the children of Cangxing City grow up thinking that art is just spitting on stage like you!"

Bobo was scolded into taking two steps back, her face flushed red.

Chen You turned to face the players again and spread his arms.

"Today, even if they kick me off this judge's seat, even if they use the City Defense Army to arrest me! I must say—"

"Art belongs to everyone!"

"The championship belongs to Number 10!"

Boom—!

The emotions of all the players in the venue were instantly ignited!

Who are the players?

In the game, they are the lowest, most miserable existences.

Every day they are sent by NPCs to kill pigs and fight monsters, and even buying a potion gets them eye-rolls from the grocery store owner.

Now, a player had finally won the championship in a city-wide talent show, and yet these NPCs couldn't accept losing and were teaming up to flip the table?

Can this be tolerated?!

"Damn it! These NPCs are going too far!"

"Death to capitalism! Monsters, get off the stage!"

"If you dare touch a single hair on our Lin Miao, I'll tear down Cangxing City today!"

"Brothers, grab your weapons!"

Clang, clang, clang—!

A series of weapons being drawn echoed across the plaza.

Tens of thousands of players drew their swords and staves, and colorful skill lights ignited within the crowd.

The warrior players in the front row rushed forward, building an impenetrable human wall with their bodies at the edge of the stage, protecting Lin Miao and Chen You firmly behind them.

"Don't be afraid, God You! We support you!" A burly Berserker player turned back, gave Chen You a thumbs-up, his eyes red.

"You're right, we can't let capital treat us like fools!"

"Number 10, fly bravely, Mommy will always follow!" several female players shrieked.

The situation was completely out of control.

The players' anger converged into a torrent, directly scaring Bobo and the other NPCs into retreating again and again.

"Wh... what are you doing! This is Cangxing City, do you dare to rebel?!" Bobo screamed, her voice trembling.

"Rebel your grandfather! Today I'll let you know what the Fourth Calamity is!"

The players pressed forward step by step, looking ready to start a slaughter at the slightest provocation.

In the center of the stage.

Lin Miao looked at the players going crazy for her off-stage, completely stunned.

She blankly turned her head to look at Chen You, lowering her voice: "Ch... Chen Team Leader, what exactly is going on? Why do I feel like we're about to trigger a riot?"

Chen You said in a voice only the two of them could hear: "Don't panic, basic operation."

"Remember, as long as you stand on the moral high ground, even if you call a deer a horse, someone will help you bend the antlers."

Lin Miao swallowed, looking at Chen You's calm face, and a strange sense of awe suddenly rose in her heart.

This man was too terrifying.

He had single-handedly used his mouth to whitewash a blatant, rigged score-fixing scandal into a great class struggle against capital!

At this moment, the City Lord Sander, who was standing to the side, was completely dumbfounded.

She looked at the tens of thousands of angry Adventurers off-stage, then looked at Bobo and the others who were cowering in a ball, and the mush in her brain was finally stirred.

"Mentor..." Sander carefully leaned in close to Chen You, "Is this really a conspiracy of capital?"

"What do you think?" Chen You glanced at her sideways and sighed, "Sander, you are still too naive."

"You have peerless talent, but you don't understand the dangers of this world. If I weren't here today, you would have already been used as a pawn by them!"

Sander shuddered, cold sweat instantly soaking through her overalls.

She turned around abruptly and glared at Bobo and the others: "Very well! You bunch of despicable villains, how dare you exploit my pursuit of art!"

"City Lord, we've been wronged! We didn't—"

"Shut up!"

Sander roared, her two-meter-tall physique erupting with terrifying pressure, instantly causing Bobo and the others to collapse to the ground in a heap.

"Guards! Throw this scum who disrupted the venue and attempted to subvert the art world of Cangxing City into the dungeon!"

Just at this moment, a deafening explosion suddenly came from the sky.

A voice appeared in the minds of all the players present.

[Warning! Warning!]

[Critical deviation in the operating logic of the Cangxing City region detected! Collective consciousness fluctuation exceeds threshold!]

[Source Realm rules are being restructured...]

All the players and NPCs in the venue looked up simultaneously, staring in horror at the system announcement in the sky, which was as crimson as blood.

The smile on Chen You's face froze.

He looked at the blood-red characters gradually appearing in the sky, his heart skipping a beat.

Did I go too far?

[Regional Event Triggered: Man vs. Machine War.]

[Due to the abnormal operation of Lack of Virtue · Chen You, a hidden punishment mechanism has been triggered.]

[Cangxing City is about to enter 'Purge' mode, countdown: 30 minutes.]

A crimson light curtain rose from the four corners of Cangxing City, closing at the top of the firmament.

The entire city was sealed off by a huge, translucent red barrier.

All teleportation arrays were extinguished, and return scrolls turned grey and became unusable.

Seeing this, Bobo and the other NPCs suddenly burst into wild laughter.

"The gods have manifested!" Bobo pointed at Chen You, "You outsiders who twist black and white are all going to die here!"

[Regional rule restructuring complete.]

[Core event of this conflict detected as: Artistic Ideological Divergence.]

[Purge mode execution condition confirmed: Artistic Judgment (Dance BATTLE).]

[Faction division complete: Artistic Avant-Garde (Players and supporters) VS Old Order Guardians (Protesting NPCs).]

[Rule Description: Both factions are forced to engage in one-on-one dance battles. The losing side will be completely purged.]

Meanwhile.

The swords and weapons in everyone's hands instantly turned into colorful glow sticks.

The players froze for a second, then erupted into earth-shattering cheers.

"Holy shit! An epic-level faction war!"

"God You is amazing! A talent show can actually trigger a hidden expansion pack!"

The players had no idea what "erasure" meant for Chen You and Lin Miao; they only thought this was a super big event.

Chen You looked at the "Absolute Art" light board that had suddenly appeared in his hand, stunned for two seconds.

He turned his head to look at Lin Miao.

"Does this game developer have a hole in their brain?"

Lin Miao nodded silently, holding the glow sticks with both hands, at a loss.

Sander, however, was trembling with excitement.

She puffed out her two-meter-tall chest, strode to Chen You, and knelt on one knee.

"Mentor! This is divine will! The system is also craving true art! Our special training was not in vain!"

The ground in the center of the plaza cracked open with a boom, the original stage was submerged, and a huge neon arena slowly rose.

Red and blue beams of light swept across the venue, forcibly separating everyone.