From American Internet Celebrity to God Among Men

【Master of Creation (Intermediate)】, 【Emotional Resonance Field (Intermediate)】, 【Pulse of Pop (Trait)】... all relevant abilities were running silently in the background of his consciousness, like a precision creative engine fully warmed up.

Eight o’clock sharp.

The stage lights dimmed, leaving only a spotlight on the stage entrance.

The background music (a minimalist electronic track he had pre-recorded, full of anticipation) began to play.

Alex Su, with that signature relaxed and confident smile on his face, stepped into the light, stepping into the center of countless screens around the world.

”Good evening, world.” He spoke into the microphone, his voice carrying through the top-tier sound equipment to the venue and countless terminals—clear, steady, and warm, ”I am Alex. Thank you for choosing to come here tonight, to enter this small, experimental space.”

A simple opening, no flowery language.

He walked to the keyboard and his fingers pressed a clear chord casually.

”As you know, there is no setlist tonight, no rehearsed tracks. Just me, you, some preset but unknown thematic directions, and... the time we will share. The rules are simple: I will randomly draw a theme, and then, in the time that follows, I will try to compose and write lyrics for it, completing a song that belongs to tonight. During the process, you have one vote to decide the direction of a key part of the song.”

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the audience (though he couldn’t see their faces clearly), as if looking directly at every viewer in front of a screen.

”That sounds a bit crazy, right? I think so too. So, let’s get started and see what craziness can bring.”

He walked to the center of the stage, and the big screen behind him lit up, displaying a simple input interface.

”Tonight, there is no theme list prepared by me. The theme comes from you.”

Alex smiled wider at the camera, ”Now, open the comment section of the livestream page, or use the link we provided, and in the next two minutes, send a keyword that you think represents what touches you most under the broad concept of ’connection’. Just one word is enough. It can be an emotion, an object, a state, everything.”

Once the instruction was given, the audience in front of screens worldwide was instantly ignited with a sense of participation.

For two minutes, a massive amount of keywords began to wash over the specific submission channel of the livestream page like a waterfall.

On the big screen at the venue, keywords began to flash randomly and rapidly: ”Wi-Fi”, ”heartbeat”, ”eye contact”, ”rope”, ”memory”, ”starlight”, ”wound”... thousands, all sorts of things.

”Marcus, background screening team, activate.” Alex whispered into the headset.

This was something communicated with the team beforehand: a team led by Marcus would monitor the stream of submitted keywords in real-time, using preset algorithms and human judgment to quickly select five keywords that were semantically focused and could be covered or cleverly linked by the core creative directions Alex had prepared for the ”connection” theme.

This wasn’t cheating; it was necessary crowd control to ensure a global livestream wouldn’t be derailed by overly bizarre or unmusical keywords (like ”quantum entanglement” or ”sewer”).

What the audience felt was their participation in the decision, while the team was performing agile guidance behind the scenes.

The two-minute countdown ended.

”Time’s up! Thank you for the global inspiration bombardment.” Alex said.

At this moment, the waterfall of keywords on the big screen stopped, the screen switched, and five keywords that were finally ”luckily drawn” were displayed side by side:

【Eye Contact】

【Echo】

【Bridge】

【Signal Bars】

【Old Photo】

These five words were all closely related to ”connection,” but each had its own focus, from concrete to abstract, from momentary to long-lasting.

They were indeed quickly selected by the background team from the massive submissions, representing the audience’s true wishes while falling within the range Alex could flexibly handle.

For example, ”Eye Contact” relates to emotional resonance, ”Echo” relates to searching and responding, ”Bridge” relates to crossing and building, ”Signal Bars” relates to the fragile connection of the technological age, and ”Old Photo” relates to the bond of memory and time.

”Five wonderful options.” Alex looked at the screen with a thoughtful expression.