A brief introduction, and then this bear starts singing. William Clark immediately covers his ears—what the heck is this?

"Boom... duang... duang..."

A strange sound suddenly rings out, and Lucas Turner immediately interrupts: "Waste of time, next!"

"Judge! Judge, please give me another chance!"

The bear cries and refuses to leave. The on-site technician operates something, and suddenly, the bear actually flies up, heading straight for the camera, and splats right onto the screen.

This is obviously a special effect, made just for the audience; it definitely doesn't look like this in person.

"......"

Watching this scene, William Clark suddenly finds the show a bit interesting.

One contestant after another takes the stage, some for a few minutes, some for just a few dozen seconds. There's a big screen next to the stage, showing each person's number of likes in real time. The rules are very simple: one episode per week, and within a week, the top three with the most likes enter the finals. The one with the most likes in the end becomes the annual champion.

William Clark watched for over an hour, felt it was enough, and turned off the livestream.

How to describe the quality of works in this world?

There are good works, of course, but the overall environment is already like oil on a raging fire—it's self-destructing.

It's like in 2021, if thousands upon thousands of newcomers debuted every day, even if a song was a pile of crap, it would still be snatched up like crazy—anyone would break down!

He felt even more confident, pacing around the room, suddenly pumping his fist.

"What are you doing?" Evelyn took off her glasses.

"I'm being a chuunibyou."

"Huh?"

William Clark turned around, spreading his arms: "Comrades, let's have a Renaissance!"

Chapter 12: Everyone's Expectation

William Clark landed in the stacked building district, a very peculiar place, but he didn't feel any exaggerated sense of difference.

But ever since he decided to sign up, his pace of life picked up all at once. The costs are low, everything is handled online, and you can even sign up just a couple of days before the competition starts. Even the copyright registration for entries is reviewed super quickly.

He asked why the Supernova competition rules were so simple—no semifinals, no revival rounds, none of that. Evelyn answered honestly: the audience doesn't have the patience!

Fair enough.

In the days that followed, William Clark was busy making singers, and Evelyn absolutely refused to spend a thousand bucks to buy [Virtual No. 3], so they had to make do with [Virtual No. 2]. The realism of the characters was about the same, but No. 3 was smarter and had more features.

Luckily, it's just a singing competition, so average intelligence is enough.

He got up early every day to go to Evelyn's place, staying there all day before heading home at night. After just a couple of days, even his beard started to grow out, and he looked completely worn out.

To be safe, he picked another group of singers, meaning there were two songs in total.

One of them was a later work by a certain singer, whose condition had declined by then. But that's the beauty of virtual stars—he used the singer's youthful, peak appearance as a template, then paired it with the song.

Perfect!

That evening, Building Six.

Evelyn wasn't back yet. William Clark was cooking; since he was freeloading and spending her money, he took the initiative to handle the chores.

His cooking skills were average, but as long as it was edible, it was fine.

After years of recovery, basic needs were met here, though there weren't as many varieties as in 2021. He cooked sweet potato rice, stir-fried some greens, and made two cups of nutritional supplement.

Just as he finished, the girl came back, sweaty as usual, carrying a big box. The war had left behind mountains of garbage, and even today, they hadn't all been dealt with. These places had become a source of livelihood for the lower classes.

Find something, clean it up, fix it, and you could resell it.

William Clark had only been here for less than ten days, five of which were spent at the relief station, but the two of them already seemed very familiar. He served the food and said, "I think double insurance is safer, so I made another one. You go register the copyright again."

"But you don't have an ID card—how will you sign up?"

"Who's reliable in the community? Let's ask them for help."

"Mr. Carter, I guess. He's not exactly proper, but he's definitely reliable."

"Alright, I'll talk to him tomorrow. Also, we're using [Virtual No. 2], which isn't very smart. There's a Q&A session on site, so someone has to handle the process."

"Ah!"

Evelyn remembered this too, and nervously said, "What if I can't speak?"

"No worries, I'll train you."

"Are you sure you can do it?"

"Come on, do you even know who I am?"

He put on a look of nostalgia and sighed, "Back in the day, I commanded a million-strong entertainment industry water army!"

……

"Hey, dad of Er-ge, if you can catch some, bring some back tomorrow, wouldn't that be great!"

"Alright, don't worry about it. I'll go fishing tomorrow!"

"You're really something. After you go out, buy a fishing rod, and when you come back, Er-ge's mom, make me a sugar pancake!"

At the club.

It was time again for the regular social gathering with a bunch of middle-aged and elderly friends. William Clark was on stage performing a revised version of "Fishing." The dialects were similar, but the details differed. For example, the price "one yuan for four jin plus two extra fish" had to be changed.

A group of people were laughing so hard they almost fell over. When William Clark got off the stage, he happened to run into Mr. Carter, so he pulled him aside and explained the situation.

"No problem, just signing up, right? I have the equipment. Oh, and my new online name!"

Mr. Carter showed off his username, and William Clark broke out in a cold sweat: I Love Monica Bellucci.