Chapter 2588: Chapter 1730: Unknown Effects (Shrinking Into a Chubby Furball)

Regarding Ruoya Mu going to SPACE, Duanmu Huai simply sent a text message to Sen Minami over the phone saying that her daughter had found another place to stay and wouldn’t be coming home recently, and that was it.

Yes, this is Duanmu Huai’s confidence.

Although in the eyes of ordinary girls like Chihaya Aion or Banai, Ruoya Mu’s parents are true art masters, very famous, and not easy to mess with.

But for Duanmu Huai... what do these two count as!

Comedians are at the bottom of the entertainment circle, alright? Duanmu Huai, who is of the screen faction, looks at them with his nose in the air. Even Wakaba Takashi, who is called a comedy master by the outside world, has to lower his head respectfully and greet Duanmu Huai.

Sen Minami, even more so, Duanmu Huai watched as she rose to fame, and after getting married, she was pretty much withdrawn from the frontline, only able to do interviews and shoot advertisements to maintain some flow and fame. If she were to meet Duanmu Huai, she’d have to bow her head and call him senior; that’s the value of age equaling career age!

That’s why when organizing the band, Duanmu Huai went directly to the two of them, saying he wanted to take Ruoya Mu to form a band, urging them to stop those useless ballet and piano classes to avoid interfering with his performances, and neither of them opposed. A top dog in the entertainment circle directly asking you for someone—are you going to not listen? Unless you don’t want to continue mixing in this circle!

Duanmu Huai thinks the Japanese rank-and-seniority culture is really a good habit, especially when you’re the beneficiary; it’s even sweeter. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Actually, Duanmu Huai also noticed that Ruoya Mu seems to really like SPACE. He’s already thought it through: if Ruoya Mu’s thoughts don’t change in the future, he might as well gift SPACE to her and let her be the manager. After all, Ruoya Mu likes music and has skills herself, managing a live house wouldn’t be difficult, and SPACE seems to be a sort of holy land in the minds of those indie girl bands. It’s quite nice to pass on such a place.

This way, Ruoya Mu finds her home, and he can let go of this asset—a win-win situation.

As for the response after the performance?

Duanmu Huai couldn’t be bothered to look; he could guess, right? After doing so much, how could it go poorly?

Regarding those nitpicking comments, he’s even less concerned; he’s not singing for those idiotic armchair pundits, but to save the world. Their jabbering has nothing to do with him.

Besides, Duanmu Huai has already given notice to all media under him that those trouble-finding reports, whether online or print, are completely forbidden from being published!

A physical gag order—are you afraid?

Of course, there’s no wall in the world without cracks. Duanmu Huai gave notice here, and naturally, there were speculations about some relationship between the band and Duanmu Huai over there.

However, even so, the most they could guess was that the band was supported by Duanmu Huai; they couldn’t possibly guess it was actually assembled by him.

This is quite normal, as Duanmu Huai has always been seen as the villain in everyone’s mind; he doesn’t at all look like someone who would play a Holy Woman!

So Lin Zhengying stopped playing Taoists to act as zombies? How would I dream such things?

A normal person couldn’t conceive of it.

Indeed, when Duanmu Huai sent Ruoya Mu back to SPACE, the online discussion about the first performance had already exploded.

This time, the focal point of discussion wasn’t just Duanmu Huai’s song, but those bizarre decor layouts!

Yes, bizarre!

This was everyone’s first reaction upon attending the first show.

Do you know what these hopeful audience members first saw when they walked through the door?

The band’s poster? Personal photos?

NONONO.

It was a giant golden skull, framed with gears, with a hammer standing upright inside!

What hardcore death metal is this!?

Almost every audience member’s first reaction upon entering was to take a step back, check their ticket, and examine the venue number on it.

Did they walk into the wrong place?

Moreover, the entire venue was surrounded by flags and carpets with red bases and golden edges, paired with ubiquitous skull motifs, making it seem like a particularly rock venue.

Was Inquisitor going to sing rock today?

Of course, Duanmu Huai didn’t intend to sing rock; he sang his usual songs, then turned off the lights and left as swiftly as an office worker clocking out.

However, for the audience at the scene, the situation was entirely different.

Among these audience members, quite a few had attended previous ritual night events, feeling at that time that the atmosphere was already sacred and solemn. Many were even willing to pay big bucks for tickets just to re-experience an atmosphere one can rarely feel—a sense of the holy, ethereal, capable of allowing one to forget everything and immerse themselves wholly in prayer.

But the reality was... this concert had an atmosphere severer by multiples compared to the night event!

Especially those originally out-of-place skull decorations, radiating a sort of shocking pressure when Duanmu Huai began to sing! They even felt that those golden skulls seemed to transform into some cold, heavy steel, weighing upon their souls, leaving them almost breathless!

Never had they thought those rebelling, terrifying skulls could unexpectedly make people feel so—holy!

Yes, holy!

Especially when leaving after the concert, many felt those skulls gazed at them like silent guards, staring silently at them. It made them tread carefully as if avoiding disturbing something...something they didn’t yet know.

After this, it also broadcasted online, and after watching the performance, many audience members were shocked.

Wasn’t this a religious group?

During the ritual night event, due to the location, the religious vibe wasn’t that strong.

But switching to this exclusive performance, one felt the religious atmosphere was maxed out!

And precisely because of this, Inquisitor’s performance soon spread across to Europe and the United States.

After all, the band over there likes that kind of deathcore vibe, rebellious metal mixed with death rock; the modern internet is quite advanced, and it spreads quickly.

Moreover, the reaction Inquisitor has sparked in Europe and America is stronger than in Japan!

On one hand, the religious atmosphere in Europe and America is more intense, so when faced with Inquisitor’s songs that are full of religious vibes, it’s undoubtedly shocking.

On the other hand, they genuinely can’t understand the words in Inquisitor’s songs!

Although the lyrics of Inquisitor were previously discussed and analyzed in Japan, it didn’t garner much attention. After all, the Japanese themselves speak foreign languages poorly; how can you expect a country that pronounces ’R’ as ’L’ to speak foreign languages well? Mary didn’t want to stay in Japan for long at first, saying she feared staying too long would make her unable to speak English upon returning home.

She is genuinely from the highest ranks of London! Look how the Japanese have tortured her English.

Initially, Europe and America saw this topic as a joke, considering that the Japanese speaking poor foreign languages is a stereotype, so people’s opinions were that "it’s probably a Japanese band singing English so badly that even their mom wouldn’t recognize it."

But after they watched the online recordings, everyone was stunned.

Whoa, the pronunciation and wording are very standard, not like that muddled thick accent of A San.

But the question is... what language is this?

The first to speak out were genuine British netizens, claiming it’s not English, maybe American English.

Then, Californians stepped forward, saying it’s not American English, maybe it’s redneck English.

Then French, German, Italian... Netizens from various countries chimed in, saying it’s not their language.

Even indigenous netizens from small places stated they’ve never heard this language before.

Upon investigation, they found it’s actually a language created by the band itself!

Everyone got interested! Tolkien once created the Elf language in "The Lord of the Rings," and people have created Esperanto for worldwide communication, so creating a language itself isn’t really surprising. But creating a language specifically for singing is a fresh idea to many!

With the spread of Inquisitor’s songs, impacts that even Duanmu Huai hadn’t anticipated emerged in places completely unseen by him.

Like in a certain remote archaeological site...

An elderly man wearing a thick cotton coat walked in, looked at the scene before him, and slightly furrowed his brow.

This is an archaeological base near the Antarctic, and the reason they arrived here is to study the mysterious ruins discovered here. Satellite images showed the ruins are located beneath an abandoned whaling station in the Antarctic, clearly a man-made structure.

But it doesn’t stop there.

According to their preliminary investigation of the structure, they found it has existed for tens of millions of years and it’s not made of stone but some special steel forged construction!

Publishing this would be enough to shock the world!

As a result, members of the archaeological team were eager, swearing to unravel the secrets of these mysterious ruins!

Unfortunately, the ideal is beautiful, but reality is grim.

Reality is, they can’t even get through the door.

"Sigh..."

Looking at the massive black door embedded in the thick stone wall, composed of gears and skulls, the old professor helplessly sighed. They tried many methods to open this door but failed, even using explosives for demolition didn’t make a dent on the door.

Of course, the amount of explosive they could use was limited. If too much, the entire site might collapse.

But they’ve been here for half a year and still haven’t found any way to open this door...

Today, the old professor was still troubled by this issue, so when he saw his student bobbing his head wearing headphones, anger inexplicably flared up, and he smacked the back of the student’s head.

"What are you doing! Haven’t found a way yet?"

"There’s simply no way, professor!"

The startled student yelped in response.

"Didn’t I ask you to check the literature?"

"This place used to be a no-man’s land; there’s no literature to check from before the whaling station was established in 1860! We’ve gone through all the information on this whaling station but found no clues at all."

As he spoke, the student put his headphones back on and began to bob his head again, making the old professor fume even more. He immediately grabbed the headphone cord and yanked it off.

Soon, with the headphones disconnected, the student’s phone played a sacred, melodious song...

"...What is this?"

A bit stunned by the chanting that stirred the soul, the old professor asked.

"Oh, professor, this is a song by a band that just went viral online recently; it’s called Hymn something, it’s quite good..."

[Boom—!]

However, before the student finished speaking, suddenly, a mechanical rumbling sound interrupted their conversation. They turned their heads in surprise and looked toward the source of the sound within that thick stone wall. The previously silent and unresponsive steel giant door began to tremble.

Then the gears spun and separated, and the heavy steel door, under the shocked gazes of the crowd, slowly opened...