Chapter 67: Chapter 67: The Open Audition Begins
"No."
Gabriel refused without a second thought.
But after he spoke, he turned and said, "Dad, Ethan, Chloe asked me to tell you to go grab a coffee. She’ll come find you after her audition is over."
When they heard this, the two men looked utterly opposed to the idea.
Ethan’s eyes darkened. He walked over to Gabriel. "And what about you?"
"Of course I’m going in with her. It’s not hard for a Best Actor like me to get a look inside a TV station."
The moment he finished speaking, the looks on Mr. Sinclair and Ethan’s faces changed completely.
Ethan said coolly, "Oh, is that right? So it wouldn’t be hard for you to bring Dad and me along, then?"
Gabriel: "..."
He finally realized he’d been tricked.
He was fuming but didn’t dare show it, his eyes filled with indignation.
Even after leading them backstage, he remained so angry that he stood with his back to his father and brother.
Chloe sighed in exasperation when she saw this.
The audition hadn’t started yet, so she ordered coffee for everyone, which earned her another round of compliments.
Half an hour later, the auditions officially began, and Chloe prepared to leave the backstage area.
A full three thousand people were participating in this audition. She had drawn her number online two days prior and was assigned to the final group.
Each group had one hundred contestants, and each round of auditions took about twenty minutes to complete.
Chloe went to the main hall with the others, found her assigned seat, and sat down.
There were over twenty cameras in the hall. The moment she sat down, she noticed quite a few of them were pointed directly at her.
Even though it was just the open auditions, the production team was taking it very seriously. After all, they could edit the footage and post it online later for publicity.
He was in the control room backstage, monitoring the recording. He was taken aback when he saw that fifteen of the twenty-seven cameras were aimed at the same contestant.
When he got a clear look at the girl’s face on the monitor, he was stunned.
"Camera one and three, focus on contestant 99. The rest of you, cover the other contestants."
After giving the order, he stared intently at Chloe’s image on the screen, and his heart suddenly jolted.
He’d been thinking the girl on screen looked familiar, but he couldn’t quite place her.
’But just now, it hit me. Isn’t that Chloe Sinclair? The one who’s been causing such a stir online lately?’
’What’s she doing at this audition?’
’Then again, I heard she placed first on her exams, so she must have some real talent.’ With that thought, it all started to make sense.
"Release the question."
The moment the director spoke, the crew backstage got the message.
And so, "Number Klotski" appeared on the large screen for the audition.
Everyone was stunned when they saw the rules on the screen.
Everyone had expected questions on things like astronomy or geography. When the actual challenge was revealed, they were all dumbfounded.
The challenge before them was actually a game.
For a moment, some people were completely at a loss.
Number Klotski is a very simple puzzle. The goal is to slide numbered tiles into their correct order.
The less time and fewer moves you take, the faster your brain is processing.
It tests a person’s overall cognitive abilities.
The challenge this time was to arrange the numbers 1 through 30 in the correct order in the shortest amount of time.
"Victory or defeat can be decided in a matter of milliseconds. I hope you all give it your best shot."
"The timer starts now!"
The moment the mechanical voice sounded, many of the contestants lowered their heads and began to work on the puzzle.
The director in the control room grew tense as well. But when he looked at the feed showing Chloe, he froze.
"Camera one, close-up on her face. Camera three, get a close-up of her hands."
