Chapter 3 Military Order_1

"When you encounter a song with a particularly long main melody, you can break it down into several smaller sections, which we often refer to as phrases. The performance of each phrase will have slight differences, like this section…"

The next morning.

Music composition class.

Lin Yuan was listening to the teacher's explanation, taking class notes in his notebook.

Although the original Lin Yuan had transferred from the vocal music department to the composition department and didn't have an exceptional talent for composing, he was interested in all fields related to music.

And now, Lin Yuan was just as enthusiastic about music.

He didn't want to produce a bunch of songs in the future only to find he wasn't even proficient in reading the musical staff.

However, Lin Yuan hadn't expected that diligently attending his professional classes would bring an unexpected reward—

A prompt suddenly rang in his ear: "Ding dong, the host is detected to be studying composition knowledge, triggering a novice task."

Immediately after.

Several rows of blue text glowing with a gentle Glimmer materialized before Lin Yuan's eyes:

[Task Name: A Student's Task is to Study]

[Task Content: Enter the top twenty-five in overall scores in the next professional class exam arranged by the academy]

[Task Reward: A Bronze Treasure Chest]

The appearance of this novice task was quite abrupt, but Lin Yuan wasn't too surprised.

Is it still a System if it doesn't issue tasks?

He then pondered over the difficulty of this task:

Qin Continent Music Academy's composition department alone had ten full classes, with about fifty students in each, and Lin Yuan's class had exactly fifty students.

But this was irrelevant to Lin Yuan.

Because he didn't need to compete with students from other classes.

The novice task only required Lin Yuan to be in the top twenty-five of his class in the next exam.

For Lin Yuan, this wasn't a big problem.

He usually ranked around thirtieth in his professional class, so with a little more effort, he should be able to make it into the top twenty-five.

"What will happen if I fail the task?"

Lin Yuan curiously asked the System in his mind, "Will the System shock me with electricity? Or will it erase me? Wait a minute!"

Lin Yuan's expression changed slightly, "It won't charge me money, right? It won't, right?"

[System First Principle: Never harm the host]

[Additionally, a friendly reminder: Electric shocks, erasure, each of these is more terrifying than losing money, please prioritize accordingly, host.]

"As long as it doesn't charge money, that's fine."

Lin Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, but then he suddenly realized that even if the System wanted to charge him, he had no money to give…

This realization dampened his spirits somewhat.

…

After class.

Lin Yuan didn't go back to the dormitory but found a quiet place and dialed a number from his phone. The contact name was:

"Agent Zhao Jue."

The call connected after two rings.

On the other end was a somewhat weary woman's voice: "Lin Yuan? What can I do for you?"

Lin Yuan said, "I have a song I want to release."

The voice on the other end perked up instantly, "You want to release a song? Has your voice recovered? Can you sing again?"

"Not exactly."

Lin Yuan said, "I have switched from the vocal music department to the composition department. I have a song recently and was wondering if the company could help find a singer to perform and release it?"

"I see."

Zhao Jue sounded a bit disappointed, and her voice became low again, "You want to participate in the November newcomer season in the music scene, right?"

"Yes."

"I have to remind you that you are a singer signed with Starlight Entertainment, not a songwriter signed by the company. The company has a special department that pairs songwriters with singers, and most singers have their preferred songwriters they collaborate with…" Zhao Jue rejected him very tactfully.

But Lin Yuan didn't give up, "Can I transfer to the department for songwriting now?"

He urgently needed the company's distribution channels.

Without the company's resource promotion, even an excellent song could easily disappear without a trace. Behind the newcomers who rose to prominence during the past newcomer seasons were the support of entertainment companies.

"No!"

Zhao Jue refused outright.

The air grew silent for around ten seconds. Then Zhao Jue sighed, somewhat helpless, "Fine, use the company's internal channel to encrypt it and send me the song. If the quality is up to par, I'll find someone to release it for you, but if it's not, let's pretend this conversation never happened."

"Thank you."

Lin Yuan expressed his gratitude seriously.

Zhao Jue was the one who had signed Lin Yuan originally, and she had held high hopes for him. Unfortunately, Lin Yuan's voice suffered an accident, losing its value.

Under such circumstances, Zhao Jue's willingness to give Lin Yuan a hand was already a significant favor.

"That's it, then. I'm hanging up."

Zhao Jue hung up the phone irritably.

...

Zhao Jue's irritation wasn't directed at Lin Yuan, but it was indeed caused by Lin Yuan.

Also, with the newcomer season in the music scene next month, Zhao Jue had too much on her plate.

She had several newly signed artists under her that she hoped would make a splash in the annual newcomer season.

Originally, Lin Yuan was supposed to be one of those newcomers.

Zhao Jue had even considered inviting a few of the company's top songwriters to tailor-make some songs for Lin Yuan, so he could make a striking debut during the newcomer season, because Lin Yuan's vocal talent was genuinely astonishing.

But things didn't go as planned.

"The path of a singer is blocked, so you want to switch to songwriting?"

Zhao Jue shook her head with a wry smile. If songwriting were that easy, why would some Heavenly King level male and female singers not write their own songs, instead employing professional songwriting giants?

Is it because they don't want to?

Or is it because they can't produce the good songs that audiences love to hear?

In this day and age, the status of a song's composer is often much higher than that of the singer, especially in the current pragmatic industry ecology.

Composers are indeed the big daddies!

Because if a company has a terrific composer, they can support a whole bunch of singers.

In fact, in recent years, audiences have also begun paying more attention to composers' names.

Clearly, the public had begun to realize that composition was truly the soul of a song, and singing was of secondary importance!

Other aspects like lyric-writing and arranging were very important as well, but the most essential part, even more important than singing, was composition—

With a good melody, you could throw in any instrument, and it would sound great!

Whether you wanted guitar, piano, bassoon, or even bass, when someone passionate about it played, a suona could even make the tune spectacular.

"This child is also someone to be pitied."

Zhao Jue sighed as she reminisced some past events.

At the time Lin Yuan was hospitalized, Zhao Jue, as the agent who had signed him, actually went to see him, but she eventually stopped at the door to his ward.

Because from behind the door, she could hear hoarse, whimpering cries coming from inside the ward, like a wounded puppy...

Everyone possesses a natural compassion.

This was why Zhao Jue was willing to give Lin Yuan a helping hand.

Success or not aside, she at least wanted to give that child a chance, also to let him know that in this world, many things can't be achieved just by wanting to.

"But, you really did put me in a tough spot."

Zhao Jue sighed, worry creasing her face—this was the source of her anxiety—

Once a year, the newcomer season in the music scene was when all the big companies would push their new artists.

During this period, the companies were engaged in fierce battles.

Even when compared to regional giants across eight continents, Starlight Entertainment was a well-known company.

And in Qin Continent, Starlight Entertainment's overall strength could be ranked within the top three!

However, Starlight Entertainment had performed poorly during the newcomer season for three consecutive years.

The best achievement the company had in those three years was two newcomers scraping into the top ten the year before last, both of whom were clinging on at ninth and tenth place...

Compared to peer companies, it was somewhat embarrassing.

The most infuriating for Starlight was that their archrival, Sand Sea Culture, secured a whopping four spots in the top ten newcomer list last year.

Among those four, they included the highly coveted second and third places.

This made the higher-ups at Starlight unable to lift their heads in pride—as the major entertainment companies in Qin Continent were at loggerheads—so naturally, they put pressure on Zhao Jue, the company's top agent.

Out of desperation and in front of all the higher-ups, Zhao Jue issued a military order:

A top-three newcomer must emerge this year!

If not, she would ask to be demoted.

The reason Zhao Jue dared issue this military order was not only because of the pressure from the higher-ups but also because she had just signed Lin Yuan, whose voice had stunned her, and she was eager to make a splash—

She believed Lin Yuan could help her complete the task.

But now Lin Yuan's singing voice was ruined, and yet the military order was still in effect.

The higher-ups only cared about results, and wouldn't consider any unforeseen complications you faced along the way.

So, recently, Zhao Jue frantically searched for someone to replace Lin Yuan and to fulfill the military order, having already registered nine newcomers.

But Zhao Jue was painfully aware.

The nine newcomers she had registered had a chance at hitting the top twenty, going for the top ten depended on luck.

Aiming for the top five or even the top three?

Better wash up and go to sleep—that's the stuff of dreams.

The company's resources could allocate ten spots, and now only one spot was left, but Zhao Jue still hadn't found someone to replace Lin Yuan.

She was almost in a state of giving up.

That's why she ultimately agreed to Lin Yuan.

It was just the last spot after all, and if the song Lin Yuan wrote was of passable quality, why not fulfill the wishes of that poor kid?

Right at that moment.

Her cell phone rang.

It was the email notification sound, secured and sent through the company's internal channel, and the sender was none other than Lin Yuan.

She opened the email.

After decrypting it, Zhao Jue saw an audio file Lin Yuan had sent, titled: "Life Like A Summer Flower."

Life Like A Summer Flower?

Zhao Jue didn't understand the meaning of the phrase but could vaguely make some imaginative associations.

She put on her headphones and clicked play.

Immersed in music, she quickly listened to the whole song.

Zhao Jue looked surprised, somewhat astonished.

Unlike those rough demos, the song Lin Yuan sent was very complete; not only was the melody well-developed, but even the arrangement part was completed—

This wasn't something that could be created in the short term.

The singing part was purely humming, done with a synthesized voice.

But this voice was less stiff than average synthetic sounds and seemed quite natural.

However, Zhao Jue could tell from her experience that this emotionless humming, if replaced by human vocals, could be very impressive.

"Pretty interesting."

Zhao Jue was an agent.

She might have only a cursory understanding of composition, but after years in the industry, her basic judgment was not amiss.

Her eyes subtly gleaming, she felt "Life Like A Summer Flower" might turn out to be a very good song, as she was already somewhat captivated by it, even though the song currently only consisted of a melody and synthesized vocal humming.

"Does this guy really have a knack for composition?"

She raised an eyebrow and made three phone calls in quick succession.

The first call went to the review department: "I have a song here, give it a review, make it urgent, I need results tonight."

It was a necessary checkpoint.

Technical review was to ensure that "Life Like A Summer Flower" did not sound too similar to other songs on the market in terms of melody, which would raise suspicions of plagiarism—if there was an issue, it would severely damage the company's reputation.

The second call went to her subordinate agents.

As the chief, Zhao Jue's voice carried a commanding urgency: "Record the song tonight, for the last spot in the newcomer season, find me someone reliable, don't give the sound engineer too hard a time."

For Zhao Jue, a newcomer whose vocals weren't top-notch wasn't a big deal.

At worst, it would require the sound engineers to work overtime.

The third call went to Lin Yuan, her tone was the gentlest, far from the assertiveness of the previous calls: "When do you finish classes today? I'll come to your academy to pick you up, let's go record."

"Okay."

Lin Yuan responded.

His tone seemed... unsurprised?