The concert had so far followed Mike's plan perfectly. As the HG's last song "happy girl" ended, the concert was also about to finish. However, the crowd lingered and didn't want to leave.
The concert had already lasted over two hours; the HG went to the backstage after the "Happy girl." The lighting on the stage dimmed down. However, no one came out to the stage to announce the end of the concert. Everyone was wondering if Mike had planned a surprise.
Suddenly the light at the corner of the dark stage lit up. It was Mike himself stood in a DJ pit, dressed in a tuxedo.
"What is happening?"
Mike had retired long ago, and it had been ages since his last performance.
Another stage light lit up at the center of the stage. It started with a tiny spec and increased its size gradually to reveal a person in the middle.
By then, the audience knew a surprise had been in store for them, and the mysterious guest heightened their curiosity.
As the light turned brighter, the audience noticed a cold glint on the performers face; he was wearing an iron mask.
The music started. It was a dance performance!
Was Mike crazy? This was HG's concert, and it would make sense if a dance artist opened the concert for them. But why would Mike arrange to have the dancing as the final show?
The pitch of the music changed, and the audience watched as the dancer's unique moves started to gain more energy.
Most of the stage was unlit except for the two stage lights following Mike and the dancer. This was an unconventional setup since most of the shows would utilize the virtual environment to heighten the audience's experience.
Mike seemed to have broken every rule of conventional stage design.
Mike had decided to cancel the visual aid at the last moment before the show started. It had occurred to him that Wang Tong's stage needed only himself and any other elements were unnecessary, if not a distraction to his audience.
He wanted to show the audience the power of pure art.
Mike changed the tempo, and the dancer's steps also pick up speed. While everyone enjoyed the dance moves, they found Mike's DJ work had depicted the dancer's emotion precisely.
On the stage, Wang Tong had forgotten everything, including himself. His performance completely absorbed him. The larger the stage, the easier it was for Wang Tong to deliver a better performance.
Wang Tong thought about the lonely time he had spent on Norton. He thought about the helplessness while being chased after by Zergs, and the darkness of the mine cave. However, he remembered that he never gave up his hope, and had believed that he would live to see another sunrise.
Suddenly, the music's tune took a turn and started to sound stressful, eerie and pressing. The sudden change made the audience's heart caught in the throat.
Wang Tong's Zerg-like moves suddenly changed into a robot dance. He was commemorating his only friend on Norton, the little Charcoal. The music then exploded into an almost frenetic craze, and so did the dancer's moves.
Someone had lived a meaningless life and would soon be forgotten, and someone had died with a purpose and would be remembered forever.
In Wang Tong's eyes, Charcoal was no longer a robot, but a real soldier. He would never leave his friends behind and had faced the danger alone to save his command's life.
The music reached its climax as the dancer was twirling and swirling like a wind across the stage.
The dancer's powerful steps trampled the stage floor, making the stage shake, and so did the audience's hearts.
This was an entirely different form of art than HG's teenage pop music.
It was..unstoppable!
Wang Tong had almost entered a trance as he danced as if his dance had transcended into a display of the power of the soul.
Finally, the audience heard a blare and watched as the dancer executed a 360 degree elevated
conical flip. The dancer's body shot straight up in the air while spiraling like a bullet out of a grooved gun barrel.
Every sense of the audiences was stimulated to the point they were starting to become dull and blurry. The only feeling left in them was the feeling of their warm emotion; it was the closest to the feeling of their own soul.
The masked dancer landed back to the floor on the last note of the music.
Mike's eyes were flooded with tears. This was the first time in five years he had cried, because it took him five years to finally break his creative bottleneck that he had been criticized for.
This was real music and real art.
This was the meaning of life.
The center stage light shrunk in size until it had returned to a tiny spec. The masked dancer disappeared.
The stage returned to total darkness, contrasting the bright and hopeful emotions in everyone's heart.
Ten seconds later, the lighting in the theater turned on, and an explosion of cheers and applause erupted from the audiences.
Everyone was crying, shrieking and rushing towards the stage. The music had touched their soul so profoundly that it had hollowed their minds. They could think only one thing: to reach the stage and touch the dancer. Soon the theater fell into chaos.
The media were shocked by the development, They rushed back to their studio, trying to be the first to claim this sensational news.
"What kind of dance move was that?"
The dancer's ability to touch people's heart using his dance was unprecedented.
The industry would soon recognize Mike's achievement of discovering such a real gem. It was only a matter of time for the dance industry to be dominated by him.
The post-concert meeting with the media had run late for two hours as everyone demanded the organizer to disclose the identity of the masked dancer.
Compared to an average audience, and the dance impressed the soldiers in the military to an even greater extent. They had seen not only dace moves, but also a series of military combat stances rearranged into a coherent and passionate dance.
Also, the soldiers had noticed that the dancer had portrayed not only a human warrior but also another creature, the Zerg, by imitating the Zerg's march.
After seeing the Zerg's moves, some experts realized that the steps could be easily turned into an effective and damaging combat technique.
While the soldiers were still mesmerized by the dancer's Zerg moves, the dancer had suddenly changed character again into a lone star gunner, fighting his enemy in the vast expanse of the desert.
Wang Tong's dance not only touched the ordinary audiences and the stony-heart soldiers, but also the enchantresses. Li Ruoer and Zhou Sisi had felt the rise and fall of their emotions while watching the show.
Li Ruoer's face was taut after the show had ended. The fact that someone would be able to affect her mood was unheard of, and it stressed her out.
Ma Xiaoru had an entirely different experience than Li Ruoer. She felt the dance had awakened something inside of her that used to be very important to her, but she couldn't remember what it was no matter how hard she tried.
Karl led his friend to the backstage. They lifted Wang Tong and cheered for him in excitement. They were much luckier than the feverish fans still outside.
"Hey Boss, how about you teach me some of those moves. Chicks dig that!"
"Wang Tong, you ROCK!"
Zhou Sisi and Luo Manman's eyes flashed with admiration.
Mike had ordered everyone to leave Wang Tong and his friends alone after the show. Mike watched Wang Tong from afar and heaved a sigh," I think I would never touch a mixer again."
Like knew like. Wang Tong also looked in the direction of Mike and marveled at his ability to stimulate his creativity with music.
Wang Tong walked toward Mike, and for the first time, he shook the hand of this feminine looking man and said," Thank you."
So many emotions and meanings were wrapped in these two plain words, but to Mike, this was more than enough.