Chapter 2105 - 2103: Michiru Hyodo’s Resolve

The minor clashes before the exhibition began did not have any substantial impact. As the exhibition officially kicked off, countless otakus began to indulge in this feast. Naturally, the Magical Girl Festival, a highlight of the exhibition, drew considerable attention and popularity, even attracting foreign girls who cosplayed as Magical Girls to participate. This in itself became quite a spectacle.

Of course, among the attendees were some of varying weights—from lightweights to middleweights to heavyweights—cosplaying as Magical Girls... Hmm, Fang Zheng was really fortunate he didn’t agree to Eiriri’s request to have Little Sakura and the others participate. Otherwise, just witnessing this scene might cause Nanoha to pick up the Heart of the Rising Sun and demolish the entire venue.

The whole competition was divided into preliminary rounds, semifinals, and finals, though it seemed lengthy, it actually didn’t require much time. Essentially, each participant only had a few minutes: typically just a brief appearance, striking a signature pose, or reciting a few famous lines, and then exiting the stage.

Incidentally, Fran only appeared on stage to wave at those otakus, but her mere presence had them shouting "so cute, so cute," almost pushing the concept of "Cute Attribute" to exceed Flandre’s limit of endurance. Thus, Fang Zheng was forced to excuse her from the semifinals, claiming she needed rest due to poor health.

Speaking of which... a Chaos of a star system couldn’t even bear the grievances of thousands of otakus at this exhibition...

Hmm, otakus are indeed terrifying.

The Magical Girl Festival concluded successfully, with a girl named Kurusu Kanako clinching the championship. She portrayed a local animated character from the Game World, looking exactly like the character itself. Had Little Sakura, Fate, and Nanoha been present, they might have put up a good fight, but now, she stood out alone.

By the way, this girl Kurusu Kanako has a voice very similar to Nanoha’s, which startled Fang Zheng at first when he heard it.

Upon reflection, he seemed to have heard Nanoha’s voice across several worlds. For instance, in the Superpower City, Fang Zheng once encountered an LV2 girl simmering with resentment after her boyfriend shifted his affections to another. Her voice sounded identical to Nanoha’s. Fang Zheng even recorded her lament of being abandoned by her childhood sweetheart boyfriend, disguising it as Nanoha’s cry to himself and played it for others.

The result was almost a bloody mess... Fortunately, the concept of Nanoha having a boyfriend does not exist in this world, otherwise, he would probably have been destroyed by humanity long ago.

And Lydia from his own family has a voice similar to Nanoha’s too. However, due to the major difference in their personalities, it’s generally hard to detect, but upon close listening, it’s discernable.

Now came another Kurusu Kanako...

Could she also be some kind of virus mutation like Shana?

The "Baka Pervert No Way!" in the Heavenly Dao Palace is already troublesome enough...

At this moment, Fang Zheng was seated in the resting room, extending his right hand to touch Flandre’s forehead, who was asleep at that moment. Through Fang Zheng’s palm, strands of golden radiance emerged from all directions and gradually coalesced. These were thoughts from those who watched Fran’s competition video and found her "so cute", which Fang Zheng now served as a filter to sift through, injecting those emotions into Flandre’s body to stabilize the concept of "Cute" forming Flandre and enhance her further.

Luckily, most of these thoughts contained emotions such as "this kid is so adorable, I wish she could be my sister (daughter)", relatively simple sentiments. Of course, there were also some ideas like "hehe, really want to take this tender little girl home and do this and that to her", which Fang Zheng naturally deleted decisively.

Chaos is known for easily twisting and amplifying emotions. If such thoughts were to infiltrate, who knows what they might turn into under the chaotic distortion!

The simpler the emotion, the easier it influences chaos, the more complex the thought, the more prone it is to being twisted by chaos. Hence, Fang Zheng filtered out those overly complex emotions and reinjected the simple parts...

"......"

Meanwhile, the music began playing on the screen in the resting room, Fang Zheng raised his head and looked over, observing the appearance of the purple-haired girl named Michiru Hyodo and her three companions on the screen.

How to put it...

"She has potential, but she’s not exceptionally outstanding..."

Fang Zheng, having once debuted as a manager with 765 in the World of Love, naturally had extensive experience in this field. Just listening to a single song, he almost gauged the band’s capabilities. To simplify, Michiru Hyodo’s singing ability was slightly stronger, though not to the extent of being comparable to 765’s Three Giants, while the other three reached barely professional standards.

Put it this way, they could have minor fame as a second or third-tier band for a while, but expecting to perform at Budokan seems unlikely.

In the entertainment industry, throwing money around can be effective, but ultimately, it boils down to one’s capabilities.

Fang Zheng was not solely focused on potential. Take Black Cat’s fanzine level, which was third-rate, now just barely second-rate by relying on a hardcore worldview—completely incomparable to bestsellers like Eiriri or Yamada Elf. This did not affect Fang Zheng’s perception of Black Cat; the focus lies on... their own thoughts.

Black Cat’s goal was merely to promote her fanzine and find like-minded friends, so she wasn’t particularly concerned about the sales volume, as long as it wasn’t embarrassingly low.

Though if Black Cat’s aim were to become a bestseller like Eiriri and Yamada Elf, Fang Zheng could only advise her to abandon the idea.

Hence, it’s crucial for individuals to have self-awareness.

So what about these girls?

Watching Michiru Hyodo and her team singing and dancing on the screen, Fang Zheng narrowed his eyes. If their goal was to become top singers or perform concerts at Budokan, it would be far too unrealistic.

Not long after, the Magical Girl Festival ended, along with the exhibition reaching its conclusion.

"Phew... Thanks for your hard work, everyone!"

Descending from the platform, Michiru Hyodo greeted the others, and upon hearing her greetings, the other three girls smilingly responded in chorus.

"You worked hard too, Michiru."

"Let’s go grab something delicious to eat after! We need to have a celebration feast!"

"Well..."

Upon hearing her companion’s suggestion, Michiru also smiled, just about to say something when suddenly, her phone rang. Picking it up and glancing at the message, Michiru Hyodo’s expression slightly changed.

"Sorry, I have some urgent matters to attend to, I’ll have to leave first."

"Michiru?"

A bit taken aback seeing their companion planning to depart early, the other three girls gazed at her in surprise.

"Is something up? Do you need our help?"

"No, it’s just a personal matter of mine, apologies. You guys go ahead and eat, I’ll celebrate with you next time."

After saying this, Michiru Hyodo also hurriedly changed her clothes and then left the dressing room. Watching her departing figure, the other three were somewhat surprised.

"Did something happen?"

"Could it be related to Aki...?"

"Speaking of which, it’s really unexpected that Aki would become like that..."

"Yeah, Michiru must be having a hard time too. Really, I don’t know what happened to Aki to make him so neurotic..."

At this point, all three sighed, and then one of the girls suddenly clapped her hands.

"Alright, alright, let’s not talk about this anymore. How about we go have a feast! Celebration dinner! Celebration dinner!"

"YEAH..........!!"

While the others were cheerfully going to celebrate, Michiru Hyodo had already left the venue and came to a car parked not far away. The car window opened, revealing Fang Zheng.

"Here? Get in the car."

"Yes......"

Hearing Fang Zheng’s instructions, Michiru Hyodo clutched her bag tightly, nodded, and got into the car. Fang Zheng then stepped on the gas and drove away from the venue.

".........."

Naturally, the car Fang Zheng drove was not cheap, but Michiru Hyodo was not in the mood to admire this. She just sat there, keeping her head down and silent.

After a moment, Fang Zheng suddenly spoke.

"Do you know why you have to do this?"

"Eh?"

Hearing Fang Zheng’s sudden question, Michiru Hyodo was taken aback for a moment, then she bit her lip and lowered her head.

"I, I just don’t want everyone’s efforts to go to waste..."

That was indeed Michiru Hyodo’s thought. You have to know, they had spent so much time begging everyone for this performance opportunity and had practiced tirelessly for months. Now it was all ruined because of her. At that time, Michiru Hyodo really couldn’t think of any particularly good solution, so she could only grit her teeth and gamble.

However, Fang Zheng’s reaction was something Michiru Hyodo hadn’t expected.

"Just that?"

"........Eh?"

"It seems you still don’t understand the importance of the situation."

It was a red light, and Fang Zheng stopped the car, then looked at Michiru Hyodo beside him.

"You know who I am, right?"

"Um... I know Mr. Fang Zheng, you are the organizer of this event and also the president of a big company..."

"Correct, simply put, I am a well-known figure. But just now, for no apparent reason, I was dissed by your cousin in public, which was very embarrassing for me. Of course, the embarrassment is secondary; do you know what consequences this could have?"

"........I don’t really know..."

"My identity is very unique, which will attract media attention. The media won’t care about the truth of the matter; they will just ride the wave, which will have a certain impact on my personal reputation. So I have to spend money to settle this matter. Now you understand, right? Of course, if you can pay me a compensation of 30 million, you can get out of the car right now."

"......."

Hearing this, Michiru Hyodo finally understood Fang Zheng’s meaning. Indeed, if it were herself, she would have originally not had any problems but now had to spend a large sum of money to erase the impact due to a madman’s impulse. It was indeed uncalled for. To be honest, at the beginning, Michiru Hyodo was indeed very reluctant. Although she proposed it herself, Michiru Hyodo thought that just because of a quarrel, not letting them perform was simply bullying.

As a result, now Michiru Hyodo understood that even quarrels vary in nature. Student quarrels are most often embarrassing, but if a quarrel requires you to spend tens of millions to eliminate its impact, that’s a different story.

So the problem now for Michiru Hyodo was that she brought the person, so she had to be responsible for this matter, either pay the money or compensate for the loss. Money... Michiru Hyodo definitely couldn’t come up with it, so there was only one remaining way to compensate for the loss.

"This is the entertainment industry. If you want to stay in the entertainment industry in the future, you must remember that reputation is capital. This is different from school; in school, you can do whatever you like because it won’t cause you substantial damage. But in the entertainment industry, this causes real financial losses. If you don’t have enough capital backing you, don’t be hard-headed and tough."

Fang Zheng started the car again and casually said. He wasn’t trying to scare Michiru Hyodo. It was indeed the case; back at the venue, with so many people watching Aki Tomoya throw dirt at Fang Zheng, everyone would be curious. Even if they didn’t talk about it in person, they would certainly mention it to the media privately. As a leading figure of the younger generation, Fang Zheng’s personal life has always been a target of media pursuit. If the media really digs deeper, Asuna, Eiriri, and Black Cat might be exposed, and even Shiyu of Misty Hill and Chiyo might also be dug up by the paparazzi.

If Fang Zheng didn’t have Ratziel, as he said to Michiru Hyodo, he might need to spend tens of millions to settle the media and shut them up.

Although tens of millions are just a small sum for Fang Zheng and he could still use the FBI accounts if needed, he was still upset. Spending money on women is fine, but why on earth should he lose millions because of some madman’s impulse? Even if his money was blown over by the wind, he at least bent down to pick it up.

In fact, Fang Zheng wasn’t scaring Michiru Hyodo, because through Ratziel, he had already discovered that several media outlets were trying to track this incident’s origins and consequences. And someone even posted this information online; luckily Fang Zheng found out early and wiped it clean, otherwise, who knows what would have happened.

"........I understand now."

Hearing this, Michiru Hyodo finally completely understood Fang Zheng’s meaning, and at the same time, she felt a little relieved deep inside her heart.

"I, I will take responsibility."

The car had already stopped. Looking at the hotel outside the car window, Michiru Hyodo tightly clutched the bag in her hands, took a deep breath, and made her decision.