Chapter 109 - The Beautiful And Charming Idol Has Arrived (2)
The sudden appearance of the notification left him confused a little—but it was what he needed right now.
[ You Have Gained 'Mental Fortitude' Skill ]
This skill allows the user to take control of their senses and combat against thought influence, mind control, memory manipulation, mind-breaking and other mental and psychic attacks if used properly. This is a Skill harnessed from the Innate Will or Intelligence of the user-host.
The crowd around him now seemed wild and reckless like he would have thought the first time he came here. And yet how exactly was he going to stop this? Did he need to stop this? The idea of influencing a crowd was already present in marketing. This was basically inserting a certain need into the masses and influencing their emotions to produce decisions that would benefit an individual, group or organization.
But this one was through supernatural influences.
"I don't think you should do anything—backlash and all, chief." Bao gave him a look. "Cultivator or not, you're going to get thrashed by the crowd.. Especially because I don't think you'd want to hurt other people."
Li Yang sighed, but nodded. He already knew that even without the creature speaking up, reputation-wise this would be terrible and he wouldn't hurt the civilians who clearly didn't know what they were doing. At least he wasn't going to be fooled and toyed around anymore and that was the important thing to him.
Someone forcing you to think certain things and enforce their will to you was something that he despised. It was far too easy to look at the world in a view of black and white, that people influencing others were instantly wrong and manipulative, that everyone should be free to do as they wish, but even then—
"Mister Li!" Ying Yue He tapped his shoulder and smiled at him. There was a certain flush to her face after all the cheering and jumping, but there was no look of change on her face. She seemed normal and it was as if everything was innocuous.
"Thank you to everyone who came here~!" Bai Minghua bowed politely and with a pleasant smile on her face. "I hope to see you guys at our next concert—I'll be waiting alright~?" Her words elicited cries of yes from some of the people in the crowd, but Ying Yue He only looked thoughtful and motioned to ID hanging around their necks.
"Since we're part of those who have VIP tickets, we're actually granted access to the 'private meeting' that she and Sun Aoyun will be granting."
The CEO looked at her. "Do you wish to go there?" In his mind, the words 'It seemed like a waste of time' already voiced out in his head with some slight annoyance… and yet he had decided to devote his entire day to Ying Yue He. If she wanted to gush over some—would the performers repeat what they did in private?
"I do, it would be great to get signatures—did you know that you can sell them for a great price online? Some bidding can even happen."
"I doubt the amount is really that great." Li Yang rolled his eyes for the moment but then saw the expression on his secretary's face.
She pursed her lips and sheepishly smiled. "I acknowledge that the money will probably not make you bat an eye, but I do want to take advantage of the entire experience, boss."
He couldn't help but wonder if this was a common thing with women gushing over celebrities, performers and stars. Li Yang knew that he couldn't and wouldn't do something outrageous like dying his hair blonde and wearing contact lenses, much less wear skinny jeans and dance around the stage like some sort of monkey—but he didn't want to contradict his decision to make the woman happy today.
Li Yang finally nodded. "Alright."
He would take the opportunity to investigate and perhaps understand what exactly it was that both performers were doing. Was it through some kind of qi technique of sort? His spiritual sense was still developing but he didn't feel any influx of qi in the air or anything like that.
Rather, his mind remembered someone he cared about when the idol had sung and directly looked into his eyes. Eye-skill? Was it in their voice?
He would find out.
.
.
.
In the backstage entrance to the employee's only area and where both performers were probably waiting for their fans… he found himself in a sea of people that wasn't as large as that of the entire coliseum, but it was a sizable crowd that probably still reached at least more than a couple of hundred.
Did that mean that he and the others wouldn't be able to meet with the individuals one by one?
Now that wasn't surprising, but at least somewhat relieving. He found it doubtful that something dangerous could occur with having so many people to confer and greet with. He tried to think of putting himself in the performers' shoes—they had influence, fame, wealth and a certain amount of power.
If they had a desire to truly dominate over people and enforce their wills on them, conquer and rule then they would have formed a cult rather than become an idol or singer.
But this was simply him hypothesizing over the situation. Celebrities, idols and performers had a great power to influence even without using something like religion, business or propaganda. While nothing extreme like commanding people to obey rules instigated by the head and such… they were good at making people idolize them.
It could be similar or different to other leaders in different industries.
The CEO shook his head and simply looked around. He then saw familiar faces amongst the crowd. The first one he saw was Bo Lifen with a group of women. And Li Yang was pretty sure that she made eye contact with him, but decided to not greet him and instead talked animatedly with her group of friends.
She was the last one he'd assume to be in this kind of concert, but people were surprising.