The five Magical Girls, each possessing entirely distinct styles, undoubtedly triggered a deafening wave of cheers from the audience.
Especially Sin Mal's final look of utter disgust and her sloppy hand-heart—Shu found it hard not to suspect that it had been deliberately choreographed.
Just looking at the absolute degenerates in the audience who were instantly ignited by that gesture was enough to prove how effective it was. Although the actual number of these degenerates wasn't large, they were incredibly loud.
The sheer volume produced by this small group was almost equal to the rest of the audience combined. If an outsider heard this, they might honestly assume the entire Fire Moth was comprised of massive degenerates.
The most important point was... of the five people on stage, aside from Theresa, none of them were adults! They were all children!
Every single one of these cheering bastards deserves to be electrocuted. Did Ai-chan hire you people to steal our electricity?!
The Fire Moth is truly doomed.
Shu let out this profound realization once more.
On the stage, as Sin Mal's incredibly half-hearted yet highly effective introductory pose concluded, the lighting shifted again.
The loud, chaotic electronic sound effects rapidly faded, replaced by an ethereal, distant background melody.
Their actual performance had officially begun.
Although the stage was called The Voices of Arc City, it was not strictly limited to vocal performances.
The core objective was to discover idols. Whether you were a band or a dance troupe, there was a place for you here.
Hell, as long as you possessed the absolute confidence that your physical appearance was earth-shatteringly gorgeous—that you could subjugate the masses entirely on the sheer merit of your face—you were welcome to compete.
After all, there were no strict grading criteria. It all came down to how much the public loved you and how hard they were willing to vote for you.
And the performance the Magical Girl Troupe brought tonight was a theatrical play.
But this wasn't an ordinary theatrical play. This was a fairy tale woven by the Authority of the Herrscher of the Void!
Utilizing the residual Authority of the Dream Sirin wove a fairy tale that blurred the lines between reality and fantasy.
Although she couldn't literally grant magical powers to an ordinary person, creating dazzling, reality-warping special effects was well within her capabilities.
In fact, the effects were exceptionally good!
"A long, long time ago, in the distant Kingdom of HOMU..."
The lights on the stage gradually dimmed. Only Sirin's voice remained, acting as the narrator, slowly recounting the beginning of the story.
As she narrated with a thick layer of mystery, the entire spatial volume of the stage seemed to be twisted and reshaped by an invisible hand.
The hard metal floor transformed into soft, fluffy clouds. The backdrop shifted into a dynamic, animated picture book. Countless golden points of light drifted through the air like a sea of stars, transforming the entire venue into a genuine fairy-tale kingdom.
This was the Authority of the Dream.
"Hiss..." In the waiting room, the four of them gasped in unison. Shu felt both of his hands being grabbed almost simultaneously.
Looking to his left, Bronya stared up at him pitifully, working incredibly hard to pry open her perpetually half-closed eyelids to look at him with wide eyes.
Looking to his right, Kiana expertly deployed her "Shu absolutely cannot refuse this" expression, gazing at him with teary, shimmering eyes.
"Shuuu~"
"Bronya wants that too."
"We can do that too, right? Right? Right?"
Shu: "..."
I mean, I can... And it's not like I haven't done something like this before.
Back when he had just arrived in Arc City, he had used a massive barrage of special effects to bluff Natasha at the entrance of the Roost. So, there were no theoretical or technical barriers preventing him from doing this.
As long as Shu was willing to sacrifice his dignity, with his massive reserves of [Wish] and Authority output, he could personally deliver a genuine, reality-warping special effect directly onto everyone's face.
In fact, he wouldn't even need to use "special effects." He could just manifest the real things.
But...
"Ladies, have you considered one minor detail?" Shu silently pulled his hands free, took a deep breath, and asked a soul-searching question.
"We are a band. Our primary focus is music and singing... Why do you need special effects for that? Are simple stage lights and pyrotechnics not enough for you?!"
Bronya consciously retracted her hands and said nothing.
"Ah? Haha... Really? Is that how it is?" Kiana blinked stiffly, letting out a dry, hollow laugh.
Under Shu's continuous, unblinking stare, Kiana's forced smile gradually crumbled. Looking slightly wronged, she poked her index fingers together.
"W-Well... haven't you seen those Music Videos where they edit together clips of a story to match the music? I think those are really cool..." Kiana muttered softly, expressing her thoughts.
Bronya silently reached her hand out again and grabbed Shu's hand.
"Bronya believes Kiana is correct. Excellent music should be accompanied by excellent visuals. Only then can we provide our fans with the ultimate audiovisual experience."
"We haven't even performed yet. What fans?!" Shu pinched his forehead and sighed helplessly. However, he actually began to seriously consider Kiana's suggestion.
The ceiling for music was incredibly high, but as everyone knew, not everyone had highly discerning ears, and not everyone possessed profound emotional empathy.
For many people, pure music would, at best, earn a generic "that sounds nice" evaluation. As for the deeper meanings and subtle emotional nuances woven into the melody... they simply couldn't grasp them.
Mhm. To put it bluntly, you can't feed fine dining to a mountain boar. It was a harsh truth, but a truth nonetheless.
According to Kiana and Bronya, adding a visual narrative to their performance would indeed be highly effective. The best-case scenario would be to "edit" a complete story that perfectly matched the song.
Selling a product requires telling a good story. The same applies to selling music.
"I'll give it a try..." Shu said, falling into deep thought.
The technology wasn't the issue. The only problem was the massive time crunch.
Their performance was scheduled toward the end of the lineup, but that only gave them one, maybe two hours at most. What kind of decent Music Video could he possibly produce in that amount of time?
Shu viewed this as a massive challenge. He had one to two hours to storyboard, render, and perfect a visual narrative that aligned with their musical track—a narrative that had to be logical, emotionally resonant, and conceptually profound.
Crucially, the emotional beats of the video absolutely had to synchronize with the song.
He couldn't invert the primary and secondary elements; the video had to elevate and clarify the emotions already present in the music, rather than forcing the music to serve as background noise for the video.
If he had enough time, he wouldn't mind making the video the primary focus and using the music to elevate it. But with such a severe time constraint, even Shu wasn't entirely confident he could produce something of that caliber.
"Yay! As long as it helps, anything is fine!" Hearing Shu agree, Kiana's wronged expression instantly melted away like snow under the spring sun, replaced by a radiant smile she had clearly prepared in advance.
"You can do it! I believe in you!"
"Bronya will provide Shu with any assistance he requires, except actual assistance."
Shu remained silent for a long moment. He suddenly felt like he had fallen into a trap.
And so, he silently undid the "intelligence inhibitor" he had placed on himself to enjoy casual life, and reactivated his extreme cognitive acceleration.
Ah... What a familiar pressure...