The Red Dragon Lord is OP, but Insists on a Pop Culture Invasion!

Chapter 265: Chapter 218: The National Belongs to the World (Part 2)

More human than any of the other bosses.

They’d worked here for so long that they’d gotten used to this treatment and forgotten that most jobs weren’t like this.

’Yeah, why aren’t most jobs like this? Isn’t this how it should be?’

’The Church says we should rest on weekends. Something about the Goddess spending a few days creating new magic, then leaving two days for rest.’

’We’re clearly producing more and more things, so why is life getting harder for everyone?’

’Shouldn’t everyone’s lives be getting easier?’

’Where exactly did things go wrong?’

Elsa was suddenly lost in thought.

’It’s a brain-melter. This question is just too much.’

So much so that she was completely distracted during the pre-show interview segment.

The executive director in charge of the interview tried his best, lobbing several questions at Miss Elsa. She was the boss’s assistant, a key figure of real power within the Zog Group—a fact she herself remained oblivious to.

All he got in return were answers like, "Mm," "Oh," "Okay," and "Right."

Her tone was cold and distant.

This made the young executive director wonder if he’d somehow offended Elsa, and he grew terrified.

He worried he might get fired tomorrow for stepping into the studio left-foot-first.

So, after the interview, he decided to find Elsa and apologize. He didn’t know what he’d done wrong, but apologizing first couldn’t hurt.

Heart pounding, he approached Elsa. Before he could even open his mouth, he heard her mutter, "Stop overthinking it. It has nothing to do with you."

He was absolutely petrified.

Of course, Elsa was just talking to herself.

The question of where things went wrong was far beyond her ability to comprehend.

All the show’s contestants, along with their friends and family, were led to a private room equipped with cameras and a Magic Vision Device.

This served as a secondary set for filming reaction shots.

Her mother, Susan, had originally wanted to invite a huge group of friends and family. Since it was hard for people from their hometown to make it, she invited new friends she had met in Twin Tower City instead.

Elsa vetoed the plan.

The reason was simple: there was no way that many people would fit in the small room.

Elsa truly couldn’t understand how her mom had managed to make so many friends in just two weeks.

The lady next door was already calling her "sis."

’Such a social butterfly.’

Unlike Elsa, who had lived there for over a year and had barely exchanged two words with her neighbors.

If she saw a neighbor leaving for work at the same time in the morning, she would deliberately wait inside for a moment to avoid the awkwardness of forced small talk.

"Welcome, everyone, to Feilin’s Best Songs!"

The host’s booming voice rang out from the Magic Vision Device.

Then came a long spiel explaining the rules and thanking the various sponsors.

Watching the live taping of a variety show was much slower-paced than watching the final edited broadcast.

A single contestant’s performance, combined with the mentors’ deliberation, usually took forty to fifty minutes.

Elsa had already sat through this routine several times and was nearly dozing off on the sofa.

Yuno, meanwhile, had taken out his notebook and started working.

’Just what you’d expect from the R&D department’s most notorious overachiever.’

Zog didn’t require overtime, but that couldn’t stop some employees from insisting on it.

For Yuno, his hobby, his ambition, and his job had merged into a startling trinity.

In his eyes, he wasn’t just working himself to the bone; he was achieving self-actualization. Money was merely an afterthought.

Her mom and dad, however, were completely engrossed in the slow-paced show on the screen.

Elsa suspected they would watch anything on the Magic Vision Device with the same rapt attention.

"Sit up straight," her mother said, unable to stop herself upon seeing Elsa’s slumped posture. "It won’t look good if the audience sees you like that."

"Don’t worry, they can’t see. It’s not live; they’ll edit it in post-production," Elsa explained.

"But if you’re slouched like that, does that mean our family will get less screen time in the final broadcast?"

What a sharp angle to take. Elsa was speechless. She, for one, would prefer not to appear in the final broadcast at all.

She knew exactly what people on the internet were like.

When they were looking for a laugh, they didn’t care one bit about respecting others.

’With Mom’s current getup—that folksy, traditional outfit and her somewhat chubby figure—she’s bound to be ridiculed the moment the show airs.’

’I can already picture Mom’s smile being turned into a meme and plastered all over the internet.’

’And then there’s the folk singing style from our hometown.’

’To be honest, it’s rare and strange. A lot of people just won’t get it.’

’You sing the mid-to-low range in your chest voice and the high range in falsetto. The melody shifts rapidly between the two, with the voice constantly switching back and forth. It creates a cheerful yet comical effect.’

’Cheerful and comical is the charitable description. The uncharitable one is that it sounds like you’re having some kind of episode.’

’It’s honestly a very difficult technique. Mom’s the best folk singer in our village. She tried to teach me ever since I was a kid, but I never managed to learn it.’

’But just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean anyone will like it.’

’I’m afraid a lot of the audience will hate it. But since she’s guaranteed to advance, it’ll probably get spun into a rumor about it being fixed—an inside job. Then they’ll dig up the fact that her daughter works for the Zog Group.’

’We’re screwed.’

’It’s the perfect setup for a conspiracy theory.’

’Those kinds of rumors—a mix of truth and lies, with a hint of something dark—spread the fastest.’

’They’re just more interesting to listen to, so they spread hundreds of times faster than the truth.’

’And when we try to debunk it and say it wasn’t fixed, first, no one will believe us, and second, no one will even listen.’

’Then all the idle people on the internet will start showing the "beneficiary" of this inside job what real viciousness looks like.’

’Maybe I should make Mom stay off the internet for a while after the show airs. I’m worried she won’t be able to take it.’

Elsa calculated.

From the very beginning, it had never once crossed her mind that her mother’s performance could actually win over the audience.

Deep down, she felt that the traditional crafts and arts from her hometown were just too provincial and unfit for the big stage.

The first few episodes of the show were dedicated to the Twin Tower City auditions.

The contestants featured had all registered in Twin Tower City.

Since this was the Zog Group’s home base and one of the first places to get Magic Vision, the number of applicants was much higher than in other regions, enough to fill several episodes.

Of course, registering here didn’t necessarily mean one was a Twin Tower City native.

The contestant who had just finished performing was a young international student from the Loman Empire.

Elsa had heard of her. She had won first place in the campus singing competition at Repin Academy the year before last.

She was extremely popular at Repin Academy, ranked second highest.

That’s right—there was a campus celebrity ranking on the Repin forums, and Lady Furin had held the number one spot for several months running.

Who wouldn’t love a powerful, beautiful, and wealthy older woman?

Unfortunately for the young woman, none of the four mentors turned their chairs for her.

She had to leave the stage in disappointment.

But before she left, she had to endure a harsh critique of her various shortcomings from Lady Roline.

It had to be said, Lady Roline played her role perfectly—the designated "strict" mentor.

A little too perfectly, actually. She criticized the poor girl until she couldn’t stop wiping away tears.

There was ample reason to suspect Lady Roline wasn’t just playing a character; this was just how she really was.

The plan was that if a contestant was berated to the point of tears, Xiaode, who was in charge of comic relief, was supposed to step in and smooth things over.

However, a problem arose: Xiaode failed to play his part. He didn’t dare try to mediate while the "Queen" was in the middle of a critique.

The show was off to a rocky start. Several contestants in a row performed without a single mentor turning their chair.

’I wonder if Zog arranged this deliberately to create the illusion that the first round is incredibly hard to pass.’

This only made Elsa more anxious, because she knew her mother was guaranteed to pass.

With the standards set so high, an older woman with a bizarre singing style was going to make it through.

’And what would that be called?’

’A "smoking gun" pointing to a fix.’

As her mother’s turn to go on stage drew nearer, Elsa started to feel nervous.

She was even more nervous than her mother, the one who was actually about to perform.

Susan, with the calm demeanor of a seasoned professional, was unhurriedly critiquing the current performer.

"Not enough breath support. She’s too skinny, needs to eat more. How can you have any power when you’re that thin? And how can you sing well without power?"

"Just giving you a heads-up," the executive director said, opening the door to their small room. "Ma’am, you’re up next."

"I’ve been more than ready. Watch, I’ll make every single one of them turn their chairs for me."

She said it with unshakable confidence.

Then she turned to look at Elsa.

"Do you want me to get through?"

"I..."

Elsa hadn’t expected her mother to ask that.

To be honest, since her mom was already on the show, a part of her did hope she would do well.

They might bicker and get on each other’s nerves from time to time, but she was her mother, after all.

"I do."

"Good. Then I’ll go show them what music from the backwoods sounds like."