Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System

"Welcome the next competitor—Tristan Gemello! He prefers to stay quiet about his origins, surrounding himself in the air of mystery. But he certainly won\'t be quiet on the stage!"

Tristan walked from behind the curtain, past the host, and toward the middle of the stage.

The moment spotlights hit his figure, the audience began applauding in greeting.

For this performance, Tristan dressed in a black vinyl jacket thrown on top of a simple white shirt. His jeans were just as simple, except for the several dozen metal bits in them that sparkled in the light.

And his sneakers were black, with tongues of fire drawn on their bottoms. They made it look like Tristan was walking on fire.

Although every individual piece of clothing Tristan chose for this performance was simple, and his makeup was relatively light, the overall impression was still dazzling!

Tristan\'s costume had just enough shine to catch eyes without blinding, and then Tristan\'s charm and appearance did the rest of the work.

He waved his hand to the audience and grinned, bathing in the attention.

From head to toe, Tristan was a picture of ease, walking with an air of utter self-confidence that he spent hours practicing in the mirror (even with the points he spent on his acting skill).

Nothing charmed people like confidence.

"Hello, everybody! I hope you aren\'t tired from all the performances yet. But I sure won\'t waste more of your energy on boring words. You came here for music, so you will get… music!"

Tristan hit the strings of his guitar, making it shout in excitement and charge the audience with the same feeling.

The people in the audience hall all had seen plenty of aspiring stars already, and were, indeed, tired. But the energy Tristan\'s introduction exuded still woke them up a little.

Even the juries, who had seen plenty in their lives, leaned forward in their seats slightly.

"This is \'Dragonfly\'!" Tristan announced and began to play.

The notes and riffs of his song came to him like second nature after all the practice.

His fingers danced on the strings with incredible dexterity, reaching the heights of inhuman precision that Valerian achieved by cheating.

When he sang the words, it was with the same passion that Nel put into his lyrics. It was the passion that came from the heart and showed in the way Tristan moved around the stage in the rhythm of his own music.

And although Tristan didn\'t single anyone out with his gaze, his confidence reeled people in as well as Jane\'s tricks!

It was a confidence Tristan projected with his every movement and action.

In all centuries of history, people always followed confident leaders, prophets, kings—anyone who could give them the direction and confidence they lacked.

Tristan\'s appearance told to anyone that he was going to do whatever he wanted, and nothing and no one could sway him off his path.

People in the audience were breathless as they watched Tristan\'s performance. The judges watched with widened eyes.

And then the first chorus verse came, and Tristan began dancing in the earnest.

Even if his hands were taken by guitar, his legs were still free!

"Dark and below, I am no more!

Find the light, break the night!

Take flight!"

He spun energetically, then jumped high in the air as if taking off into flight, and landed in a low crouch, only to spring up again.

And all that without breaking the song or the melody for a single moment.

The audience gasped, shocked and enthralled.

"I soar toward glass dreams,

Dragonfly!"

And when Tristan sang it, many people in the audience were so caught by this, that they shouted "Dragonfly!" together with him like they were at an actual rock-concert.

[Ding!]

[You had impressed an audience of 303 people with your performance. Reward: your CP increased by 300!]

[Ding!]

[You had impressed 13 people of high skill with your performance. Reward: your CP increased by 1000!]

[Ding!]

[You had awed and enthralled a person with your performance. Reward: your CP increased by 100!]

At this very moment, many other contestants watched the performance from the screen in the waiting room or from the audience hall.

Among them was a beautiful woman with doll-like features, wearing a blue dress—Jane.

She had recognized the young man on the stage immediately as the person who saved her on the stairs. Even back then, she recognized how strong and charming he was.

But now, watching his performance from the waiting room, she couldn\'t stop her heart from beating faster.

Even though Gemello was rude to her earlier, Jane began thinking that he had good reasons for it. With a handsome face and an incredible charm like his, surely girls fell into his arms on a daily basis.

He was probably annoyed by it at this point!

Jane sighed dreamily.

So what if they were rivals? This was just some small competition where she went because she wanted bragging rights. Jane already almost forgot about her original desire to get the prize and show off before her peers.

She already decided that after the competition, she will come up to Tristan and introduce herself properly and try to seduce him. In her mind, after he saw her performance that bewitched many men in the past, there was no way for him to ignore her like before.

At the moment, Tristan himself was blissfully oblivious to Jane\'s thoughts, or that he was observed by her at all.

Only the Second Identity System\'s notification hinted at it, but Tristan paid it no mind.

Even when he finished playing the song, he was still reeling from the high of performing on stage in front of all these people.

As soon as he hit the last chord, the audience began applauding thunderously. Whatever the juries wanted to say about him was drowned in the sound, which followed Tristan for some while even after he left the stage.

And there, he immediately stumbled into Nel.