127 The Second Match

Although the first round of auditions involved a great many contestants, each battle lasted no more than five minutes on average, so the entire process was completed without taking too long.

There were naturally quite a few contestants who made a strong impression. Aside from Quinn, whose combat ability was extraordinarily difficult to gauge, the flame-haired girl who had exchanged a few words with Joss earlier also performed exceptionally well.

After a series of deliberations and the elimination of several contestants who had violated the rules, the first round unexpectedly reduced the total number of participants to fewer than one hundred, eliminating nearly three-quarters of them.

Even so, that number was still quite far from Joss’s expectations. Since this was his first venture into producing performers, he had envisioned an idol group with fewer than ten members.

After all, the fewer people there were, the easier everything would be. Whether it was training, performances, security, food, lodging, or any other aspect, every additional person would cause his workload to increase dramatically.

However, the first audition had been a battle that consumed a great deal of physical energy. As a result, the second round did not begin immediately after it ended. Instead, everyone was given a day off, giving Joss time to finish preparing everything that remained.

As for the girls who had failed to qualify, Joss arranged other work for them according to their wishes, or simply allowed them to stay.

After all, idols were only the first step of his plan. Having read countless stories about the entertainment industry invading other worlds, how could Joss possibly pass up the opportunity to open up another path for himself in the future?

As things stood, Thanos was indeed the ultimate boss, but that fellow was merely the great calamity that would arrive within the next few years.

Once Thanos had been dealt with, Joss would still have decades ahead of him—no, judging by the lifespan of people who had used the Super-Soldier Serum, perhaps even centuries.

Naturally, he could never be content with a life of tranquility.

Of course, those plans were still far from taking shape. It was not merely that the first stroke had yet to be written; the ink, brush, paper, inkstone, and even the desk had yet to be prepared. In the end, they existed only as ideas in his mind.

Still, the girls who had remained behind could be put to use immediately. The things Joss planned to do would require people to handle everything from clothing to lighting.

Moreover, with so many of them being women, many matters would be much more convenient. Having the girls handle them would be far better than relying on that group of crude brutes led by Sohe.

…

The night passed without incident.

Early the next morning, Joss brought the girls who had passed the first round into a room that Sohe and the others had transformed overnight into a concert venue.

“Ah… At last, the style is starting to look normal this time.”

Looking at the completed stage, Joss finally let out a sigh of relief and voiced an inexplicable感嘆—no, an inexplicable exclamation.

The second round contained no unexpected complications. Joss simply showed the contestants a song-and-dance routine once, after which they took the stage one by one to perform.

As for the song they had chosen, it was naturally the one with the greatest recognizability and overwhelming popularity: “Dance of the Graveyard”—no, no, that was not right. It was “Gokuraku Jodo”!

What? You say that was an otaku dance and not a proper idol performance?

Sakaarian idols were a unique creation of Joss’s in the entire Marvel universe. Naturally, the final authority on the matter belonged to him!

As the music began, Joss’s figure…

Of course, that was impossible. Ilsen, dressed in an exceptionally cute outfit resembling a kimono, had already stepped onto the stage.

It was a lightweight garment embroidered with butterflies and flowers, something no one on Sakaar had ever seen before. One arm and one shoulder were exposed, while two slender, long, fair legs stood beneath the hem as Ilsen took her place onstage.

Everyone possessed a love of beauty. Even on the bloody, chaotic world of Sakaar, every girl still cried out in astonishment when she saw Ilsen dressed like that.

Yet this was not the end.

As countless lights descended, Ilsen’s appearance became even more radiant and beautiful, instantly capturing everyone’s attention.

Although Sakaar was a massive garbage dump whose apparent level of civilization seemed inferior even to that of the Middle Ages, the planet had received refuse from countless worlds. Precisely because of that, all sorts of things could be dug out of its mountains of trash.

Without exaggeration, if Joss had been the protagonist of a modern urban fantasy story, then he could have picked up almost anything from here and taken it back to Earth. There was an eighty percent chance it would have been world-shaking advanced technology.

These dazzling lamps and various stage props were precisely what Joss had spent the past two days collecting through various contacts. He had obtained all kinds of musical instruments through the same channels.

Although he had never touched an instrument before, once he had spent a little time figuring out what sound each instrument made when pressed or struck, things became simple.

Music ultimately depended on coordination between the hands and the mind. With Joss’s superhuman reaction speed and hand-eye coordination, as long as he remembered the original melody, he could force himself to play it without understanding the slightest thing about musical theory.

If one had to offer an example… Never mind. There was no need for an example. Put simply, it was just a matter of functioning like a human replay machine.

As for the dance, that was naturally something Joss had taught Ilsen as well.

It had to be said that Ilsen was genuinely gifted in this area. Even though Joss could reproduce the movements of “Gokuraku Jodo” almost perfectly, differences in physique, understanding, and temperament meant that no matter how accurately he performed it, he could not make others feel the same beauty as in the original.

Ilsen, however, had forcibly corrected that faint yet subtle sense of incongruity!

The only reason she had not corrected it completely was that there had been too little time. Ilsen had practiced only once or twice before being sent onto the stage. Although she had barely memorized the movements, the transitions were still somewhat stiff and lacked natural fluidity.

Even so, this was exactly what these girls—who had never seen anyone sing or dance before—needed to witness. After all, they would be taking the stage themselves in a moment.

The song was not long. After finishing the dance, a faint sheen of sweat appeared on Ilsen’s forehead. Yet when she looked at the gazes of the girls below the stage, she felt a kind of satisfaction she had never experienced before.

“Is this… what an idol is? Are they really such incredible beings?”

On Sakaar, the only way to obtain a position that commanded the attention of everyone present was to become a champion of the arena.

But what had she done? She had merely danced for a while and sung a song, and she had ended up receiving this kind of response!

An enormous sense of accomplishment filled Ilsen’s heart. It was far greater and more substantial than the feeling of having eaten her fill, obtained a powerful weapon, or defeated another gang.

Her reaction did not belong to her alone. Even the girls below the stage were infected by it, and an indescribable light began to shine in each of their eyes.

Joss, who had been observing silently from the side, merely smiled faintly before taking out the notebook he carried with him and continuing to write and sketch.

This was only the beginning.

Sooner or later, he would make those people who came from different planets specifically to watch gladiatorial combat understand that idols were the ones they ought to follow!