Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System

"I didn't come up with a name for this song," Angelo said, sitting down on a stool.

He was given both his keyboards, but he only used one.

Angelo switched the instrument setting to make it sound like a normal piano, then emotionlessly performed a festive melody that sounded like something that could play in a supermarket during Christmas holidays.

It was so utterly unremarkable that everybody who was stunned speechless by Angelo's previous performance was left gaping in shock again—especially since nothing in his movements showed he was unsure of himself.

"What an incredibly boring performance!" Kira Montez exclaimed.

"Mr. Omen acted like a student who knew he was going to fail the exam, so he gave up his paper early. What was the point of wasting our time competing at all, then?" Isaiah complained.

Angelo looked at the judges.

"This was what I came up with in half an hour."

He went to sit back at his spot without a single glance at Tristan, while stagehands removed his keyboards from the stage.

Your journey continues on мѵʟ

There was almost no applause for him, and the judges kept grumbling about people who could improvise better with no preparation at all. But Angelo didn't react to all that mockery, staying entirely indifferent.

The contest's host found his voice again and stepped into the center.

"Well, not everyone works at the same speed, and not everyone can improvise. At least he tried, right? Maybe this will make others braver!"

It didn't. Not at all.

With a huff, Tristan stood up.

"I can't cowardly wait until everybody else goes to the stage. It's bad enough that I'm second. I hate being the second!" he said with a joking smirk.

Since he didn't have a microphone, his voice was only heard by the front row, but it made several people smile, among them the host.

"Tristan Gemello decided to show who intends to be the winner here! All the favorites of the contest are performing at the beginning of this round—but will Tristan deliver on his promises, or be just as disappointing as Angelo Omen?"

"Of course I will deliver," Tristan said into the microphone attached to a tall tripod.

He hit the strings of his guitar, starting with the simple melody he had come up with earlier.

It wasn't hard to make a cheerful, festive Christmas tune. But he had to make it stand out, at least in one aspect, because otherwise he won't do much better than Angelo.

'Quickly… I need something… Like the dumbest idea ever, anything will do… Judges love me already, they just want something for the TV ratings!'

He glanced around the rows of people in the audience, searching for inspiration, until his eyes fell on Rafael. The Mexican man's dark skin and even darker head tattoos became the match which lit Tristan's inspiration.

They were just so distinctly not-American that it reminded Tristan of where exactly he and the audience were.

Suddenly, Tristan's light-hearted melody became fast and aggressive.

He swung his head in the song's rhythm like a death metal singer, and began shouting the lyrics, not even caring if they rhymed, as long as they fell into the beat.

"This is December!

But there's no snow!

WE ARE IN LA!

WHAT KIND OF CHRISTMAS IS THIS?!"

The audience was taken aback by this sudden whiplash, but Tristan continued like nothing happened, returning to the previous festive string-strumming melody.

Now he was smiling at the audience and singing with exaggerated cheerfulness.

"Santas fill the stores' shelves,

And people rush to buy the gifts.

And they won't tell themselves,

That it's a corporate grift!"

Now that Tristan got his inspiration, the rest of the song almost made itself right on in his fingertips. Thanks to the whooping 1724 points in his songwriting skill, Tristan could easily make up rhymes on the fly.

It was raw in places, but it was well-executed, funny and incredibly fresh. There was a powerful rhythm in it, both in harder and softer parts, which made people nod along even while they were grinning and laughing.

If they knew the words, they would've tried to sing along, too!

Even when the word Tristan chose wasn't perfect, or a note could've been chosen better, people were so swept away by Tristan's performance that they barely noticed!

When the last chord of Tristan's song stopped echoing in the hall, people immediately began applauding.

[Ding!]

[You had incredibly impressed an audience of 2000 people with your performance. Reward: your CP increased by 1000!]

[Ding!]

[You had greatly impressed an audience of 48 people of high status and skill with your performance. Reward: your CP increased by 1500!]

"I will call this song 'Christmas in LA'," Tristan said after the applause ended. "And I dedicate it to all the people living in the south of the USA who can't afford a snow resort vacation this Christmas."

There were chuckles from the audience again.

"Well, Gemello certainly didn't disappoint us, don't you agree?" Rebecca Hale ashed the other judges.

"Absolutely!" Montez agreed immediately. "You can hear some lack of polish in this song, but after some work it could easily become a hit among the younger audience. I hope you develop it further."

Tristan had already planned to.

The judges praised him some more, he bowed to the audience, and went to watch the rest of the finalists perform.

As expected, they were mostly failures.

Some improvised decent songs, but put under the intense pressure of Tristan's earlier performance, half of them missed their notes entirely, forgot the words, and failed in the most miserable manner! Among the other half, some improvised decent songs, but they didn't even stand close.

The host acted like a 'good cop', cheering them up, while judges competed in scathing comments and sometimes outright mockery.

It was already clear who would become a winner.

***

Half an hour later.

All the finalists stood on the stage again, waiting for the final verdict. Even second place would be good enough! There were small cash prises for them, too.

"And the first place, together with the grand prize of $15000, goes to… Tristan Gemello!"