Mr. Walden said, "Competitions are ruthless. No matter what happens, it should never sway the judges'' scoring. Otherwise, it wouldn''t be fair to the other contestants."


    He''d served on the panel of many major events and had witnessed more than his share of unexpected idents. Even if a performer copsed halfway through and had to be rushed to the hospital, the rules were clear-there would be no second chance. If everyone fainted during their turn and demanded a do-over, the entirepetition would descend into chaos.


    Rena chimed in, "If someone''s truly talented, that brilliance will always shine through. Our youngest contestant is more than capable; missing one round isn''t the end of the world. I checked the schedule-she''s upst in the second round of the tournament. She''ll still have the chance to face Ste and could even take the championship."


    Learning that Rachel hadn''t shown her full potential, everyone in the room seemed to breathe easier.


    Meanwhile, online viewers, many of whom had been ready to click away, found themselves glued to the broadcast as the drama unfolded.


    "My god, Rachel''s not only sick, but her hand is injured too. If she were at her best, I can''t even imagine how incredible she''d be," someonemented.


    "She''s dealing with all these setbacks and still faces it all with a smile-not a single tear. That''s real strength!"


    "Exactly! I can''t stand all those contestants who sob and y the victim. We watch these shows to rx, not to get dragged into someone''s misery. Rachel is pure positive energy."


    "She''s so inspiring! I''m voting for her!"


    "Ste sure got lucky, walking away with an easy win."


    "Hey, what are you talking about? Ste won fair and square-it wasn''t just luck! What, you think if Rachel was at her best, she''d automatically beat Ste? That''s a joke."


    “Luck is part of the game. And if Rachel is as tough as everyone says, she wouldn''t have brought up her illness at all. Feels a little like she''s ying for sympathy."


    Thements section exploded


    with debate Ste''s fans and Rachel''s fans going at each other, each insisting their idol was the true star Before long, people were digging up dirt and airing each other''s dirtyundry. The whole ce was in an uproar.


    Howard was scrolling through thements when the livestream director suddenly sucked in a sharp breath. "Director Shaw, we''ve got a massive surge of viewers-way more than when Ste performed! We just smashed her viewer record!"


    Howard immediately checked the stats. In just a few minutes, the livestream had shot up to 1.5 million viewers. The influx was so intense, the server started tog.


    He turned to the tech team. “Lacy, didn''t I tell you to make sure the server was stable? Why are we still experiencingg?"


    Lacy, sweating bullets, looked utterly baffled. "The system''s designed to handle millions of viewers at once. We''re only at 1.5 million. This shouldn''t be happening -it''s really odd."


    Another tech specialist spoke up. "I''ve seen this before. When a huge number of users join all at once, it can cause bottlenecks. But Lacy and already reinforced the system to prevent that."


    He hesitated, unsure if he should continue.


    Howard pressed, "If there''s something else, just say it."


    "I pulled up the backend data. Over 500,000 people joined the stream in a single


    second. That''s what triggered theg."


    Howard''s eyebrows shot up; realization dawned in his eyes.


    A sudden surge of 500,000 viewers in a single minute was already impressive-


    but in a single second? That was something else entirely.