[Mission Completed]

[Reward]

* 100 Minion Growth Crystal

[13/15 Missions Completed: 1x summon scroll]

“Okay, contestant #4444, Grammo Beatik. You are next in line to perform your act. Please wait here until we call for you,” the attendant quickly left after confirming that Grammo was present.

“I can’t believe we made it…hahh hahhh.” Patty took a deep breath. Hurrying through the festival with hundreds of people blocking you was no easy task. “I got tired from that.”

“Why are you the one tired? I pushed you all the way here. You just had to sit in your chair!” Grammo was on the ground, his school uniform filled with sweat, and gasping for whatever air he could get. He was the one most tired because he had the burden of chauffeuring Patty in his comfy rolling chair.

He had to navigate through rocky roads, which mind you, was the worst way to push through a rolling chair. And there were just too many people still walking through the streets during this festival. He almost ran through a whole family because of how much they were rushing! Thankfully though, the music venue wasn’t all that far from the arcade and they got here just in time.

“Why are there still people here? Didn’t the Fiend scare them off?” Patty complained.

“What do you mean? The Fiend is dead, so there’s nothing to worry about anymore,” Grammo replied coolly.

All the worry and fear he exhibited earlier was gone all of a sudden, which made Patty suspicious. Why was everyone still celebrating as if there wasn’t a massive disaster in the form of a monster that almost killed tens of people? Were people really all that nonchalant about all this? Did they all get amnesia and forgot about how scared everyone was for their lives?

“Why hasn’t the music competition even been postponed?” Patty asked.

Grammo sat up straight and gave him an angry look. “This music competition only comes once a week. The next iteration of the event will take place next week, which if you can recall, is the time limit for our bet with the professor. It will be too late by then. I need to win this competition now.”

“Fine, fine. Then win it then.”

“We almost didn’t make it here because of your side quests.”

“Hey, you were about to quit because of the pressure! If we didn't leave, you probably would have gone home because you would be too scared to go against your opponents!”

Grammo couldn’t reply to that. It was true. He would have succumbed to the pressure and doubts that he had on his mind and probably quit the competition before it even began. If he stayed in the venue and heard how good his opponents were, then his already small self-confidence would be shattered into a million pieces. In hindsight, it was actually beneficial for Grammo to leave the venue because his mind was taken off the competition and he was able to relax.

“Even still! We still have a problem. How am I going to win this competition? People still don’t understand my kind of singing.”

Patty just shrugged. “Isn’t it easy? Don’t sing.”

Grammo couldn’t understand what Patty was saying. Don't sing? Didn’t that defeat the whole purpose for the competition? Wasn’t the whole reason why they were in the competition was to be better at singing? This was a music competition and everyone was singing. How would he win it all by not singing? How would that even work?

Patty saw Grammo’s confusion and just smiled. “Tsk, tsk, you are not understanding the whole point of why we are here. The reason why we want to win this competition was to get the Voice Box Teqx, correct?”

Stolen novel; please report.

Grammo nodded.

“Then we only need to win the competition. It doesn’t matter how we win it, it only matters that at the end, you have the Voice Box Teqx in your hands.”

“But–”

“I know. But, this is not a singing competition, this is a music competition. You can make music without even uttering a single word.”

Even the banner for the whole event was titled ‘Atlas Battle of the Musics’. There wasn’t anything in their advertisements or rulebooks that stated that this was a singing competition. Everyone simply misunderstood it because the reward for winning was a Voice Box Teqx, something that was needed by singers. But it didn’t mean that only singers could join.

“Then, what you’re saying is…”

“That’s right. You shouldn’t sing. You should just play your guitar. I heard it before, you were actually really talented at playing.”

Grammo was actually really skilled in playing his guitar. However, people quickly tend to forget this fact when they hear him sing. His bad singing always overtakes the good guitar strums, therefore they aren’t able to recognize his skill in the guitar. It was a shame, really. If he was actually good at singing, his guitar sounds would quickly enhance his singing and he would be considered a nation-wide level talent.

“But…can’t I just sing and do my best?”

“No. Don’t sing.” Patty was quite adamant. He was sure that their chances of winning would pummel once he started to sing.

“Just a little?”

“No.”

Grammo felt like it was against his credo to win the tournament without singing. He wanted to win on his own merit. He wanted to prove that his singing was actually good enough to win a competition with other better singers.

It looked like he relaxed too much. Grammo now believed that he could win by singing, despite how tough the competition was right now.

“If you can win the competition, then we wouldn’t be here in the first place. We are only here in the competition because we want the Voice Box Teqx, which will make your singing better.”

But no matter how reasonable Patty’s argument was, Grammo’s feelings couldn’t be reasoned with. It was a sort of ego and belief in himself that wanted to sing, no matter what. Even if people didn’t understand what was good in his singing, he still wanted to sing to them until they understood.

There was only one way for Patty to understand why he wanted to sing: it was to sing to him!

“I goT the VoICe oF a FiGHter, a LiGHter

siNGiNg tHroUgh at yOu hiGhEr

caUsE i aM A sinGeR

aND yoU’re GonNa hEAr mE siNG”

Grammo wanted to sing and prove to Patty that he can sing. However, it seemed that he was not the only audience during this. One of the contestant’s friends heard his song and felt like his ears would fall off from the incessant noise. He couldn’t take it anymore and shouted at Grammo.

“Uh! What is that horrible noise?”

“It’s that guy! Is that a mental attack of some sort?”

“No, man. I think he’s singing.”

A group of three men walked up to Grammo and Patty with their fingers plugged in their ears. This was supposed to be a place where contestants could practice how much they wanted to–no matter how bad it was. So, when they approached them, they were clearly there to cause some trouble.

“Don’t you know this is a competition? They award the best musician, not the worst!”

“This is why they should start auditions, so that they can filter bad ones like him.”

“Don’t hurt the judges’ ears man.”

Grammo looked at them and instead of shutting his mouth, he actually sang even louder.

“caUsE i aM A sinGeR

aND yoU’re GonNa hEAr mE siNG”

Their cocky expressions quickly died down as they actually felt pain on their ears and got disoriented. They had to run with their tails tucked behind their butts as they ran away from Grammo. It felt like an actual attack on the mind, which unfortunately, worked.

“Is my singing that bad?” Grammo lamented. His singing was causing actual damage to his opponents. He was suffering from success. After all, this was a very useful ability in combat, as shown with the effects it had on the Fiend, but it was very bad when it came to people liking his singing.”

“...well, you try your best. At least you can use your singing to become a hunter or an adventurer. You can stun Fiends, isn’t that great! They’ll be recruiting you in no time.”

“Great. My singing is so bad that it is actually used to hurt people.” Grammo was despondent. It was the exact opposite of what he wanted. Nobody would want to listen to him sing if it hurts their ears.

“It’s fine. Just win this competition, and the Voice Box Teqx will fix your singing.”

“So I shouldn’t sing at all? I should just play my guitar and that’s enough to win the competition?”

Patty nodded. “Yeah. Do you want to practice your guitar?”

Grammo nodded and proceeded to take out his guitar from its case. He never noticed his own guitar skills ever since he wanted to become a singer. Was he really that good at creating rhythms and strumming the chords with the guitar? To test this out, he started to play his guitar.

“It’s time, contestant Beatik. You can go on to the stage now.”

Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to practice his guitar. He went up the stage, with Patty giving him a thumbs up and reminding him to never sing.