Devil’s Music

Chapter 404: Coming Soon (4)

The video played again. This time, it was Paul, not Jens, who started the video from the scene featuring Arthur spinning his drumsticks in front of a large drum set against a white wall.

Arthur, who was not demonstrating outstanding technique, began to play the drums precisely in time with the ticking of a clock's second hand.

As Arthur continued to play in exact rhythm, Jens's eyes widened.

Jens, who was not knowledgeable about the entertainment industry, poked Paul on the shoulder and said with a trembling voice.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"You have no idea how amazing this is, do you?"

Paul, who had been focusing on the screen, turned his head.

"What? It's just drum playing."

"Oh Lord, forgive this ignorant fool."

"What are you talking about? What do you mean I'm ignorant?"

"Man, no matter how much time passes, the beat doesn't falter. Playing continuously with the same rhythm as the clock's second hand is incredibly difficult. This is world-class."

"Really? A CTO of a clock company is playing drums at that level? To a world-class standard?"

"Yes! Any decent drummer would be shocked by this level."

Paul paused the video briefly and skimmed through an article he had written. After searching for a moment, he pointed to a part of the article and said.

"Look here, there's an interview saying that the most influential thing in his movement development was his precise sense of timing. During the interview, whenever the reporter asked him the time, he could tell it down to the second. I was amazed then, but now I see how he uses this ability."

Jens, hearing Paul's words, looked closely at his article and exclaimed with wide eyes.

"What? That happened? This is a truly blessed ability for a drummer."

Paul closed his laptop and looked at Jens.

"At the time, I just thought, 'Oh, so that's why he could develop his own movements.' I never imagined he'd use it in music. Anyway, it's incredible, being chosen by the world-class Kay because of his abilities."

Jens tilted his head and said.

"Wait a minute. That's not quite it..."

Then Jens scrolled down his laptop screen and searched through his old articles. After searching through folders, he pointed at the laptop and shouted.

"Look! I was right, it's not recorded as Arthur Hodgeson, but four months ago, an official article from Fantagio mentioned that Kay discovered a genius in time and nurtured him as a drummer. At that time, there was no mention of taking him into his own band, so I just thought Fantagio was nurturing a new genius drummer."

Paul murmured as he looked closely at the screen.

"So what, Arthur didn't develop his skills on his own, but the genius Kay recognized it and nurtured him as a drummer? Wow... How impressive is it to recognize and develop someone else's abilities?"

"Speechless, really. Kay is like an onion, peel after peel."

"Phew, us mere mortals can't understand the thoughts of geniuses, but Kay is really too much, it's too much to feel inferior about this person."

"Exactly, it's daunting even to think of catching up even a hundredth of it. Let's just watch."

With a resigned expression, Jens rewound the video to where they had paused and pressed the space bar.

Arthur, who was playing the drums, glanced at his wristwatch. The screen then changed to a display of four clocks on a shelf, all still ticking loudly.

Exactly 5 seconds later, all clocks struck 12 o'clock, and the screen shifted to show a door opening behind Arthur. Kevin entered wearing a black suit, white shirt, and black tie, with sunglasses on.

The screen zoomed in on his sunglass-clad face, paused, and beneath his face, elegant cursive script displayed 'Montana' with the name 'Kevin Winston' before resuming to show Kevin with a blue bass guitar.

Kevin fiddled with the guitar strings as he looked at the displayed clocks, which now all pointed precisely to 12:01.

As Kevin turned towards the door, the screen shifted again, and Shizuka entered wearing a black leather rider jacket, her usual pure and innocent image replaced by decadent, sexy makeup, giving her a chic look as she smiled at the two.

Shizuka, who seemed to have been chewing gum, stopped moving her jaw for a moment and looked back at the clocks, focusing all their attention on the time.

The black and white video, with only the ticking sound of clock second hands, zoomed in again on the four clocks.

As the sound of the clock second hands gradually began to grow louder, the screen split into three below the clocks, showing Shizuka, Kevin, and Arthur each in their own frame, all seeming to wait for something as they smiled simultaneously.

The floating clocks began to spin and swap positions slowly at first, then

picked up speed and rapidly spun, leaving afterimages before the screen suddenly burst into red flames.

As the intense rock music played by Arthur, Kevin, and Shizuka exploded into performance, Gun appeared in the explosion, crouching with a White Falcon guitar in hand.

The camera moved from afar to close-up, scanning the beautiful White Falcon from body to neck, and Gun's guitar playing resonated along with it.

As Gun, playing the intense rock music, smiled at the three, their expressions brightened as if a leader had emerged to guide them, and they started to play passionately.

Jens, who had been watching the video blankly, nudged Paul with his shoulder.

"This music is different from Montana's and also from Leopard's. It's like a mix of Led Zeppelin and The Doors at their peak, combining psychedelic rock and groove rock. It's incredibly intense and mysterious. Is this the Song of Fire?"

Paul checked the title at the top of the video and nodded.

"You saw it when you first pressed play, right? It's the Song of Fire. It really suits its name."

As the two were talking, Gun started singing at the microphone stand, but his voice was not audible.

Though he seemed to be singing loudly, no sound came out, making Jens think there was a problem with the jack connected to the speaker, and he adjusted it.

But still, no singing could be heard, which annoyed Jens as he picked up his laptop to check the bottom.

Paul shook his head.

"No, the sound of the other instruments is coming through just fine. They're doing this on purpose, not letting us hear his voice."

"What? Damn, this is driving me crazy."

As Gun sang intensely on screen and the camera zoomed in on his eyes before the screen again burst into flames and turned black, Jens showed an annoyed expression.

"Damn it! Teasers are supposed to make you curious and excited, but this is driving me crazy! If I can't sleep tonight, it's Fantagio's fault!"

Paul, too exhausted to be annoyed, laid his head on the desk.

"Phew, I'm not even a special fan of Kay, but if this is how the fans feel, it must feel like getting slapped by a stranger on the street."

"Heh, it's an art of expression. I feel the same way, really."

"Hey, how's the server status? Can we check the Song of Earth as well?"

"Ah, hold on."

Jens clicked the back button and moved the mouse pointer, nodding his head.

"It's responding slower than before, but it's still working. The server seems to be alive."

"Then let's hurry up and check the Song of Earth before we run out of time and can't even watch the video."

"Okay!"

Jens struggled with the lagging mouse pointer, barely dragging it to the Song of Earth video area and double-clicked it. Unlike the video that had played immediately before, the loading was long.

It seemed that tens of thousands more had connected to the server while they were watching. Jens watched the loading icon with a tense expression and then cheered.

"Yes! It's playing!"

However, the video seemed to have heard his cheer, as the Fantagio logo appeared on a black screen and then froze. Paul sighed deeply.

"Phew, so we can't watch it after all?"

Jens, looking frustrated, rapidly pressed the spacebar, but Paul grabbed his hand.

"Hey, don't. It's better to just wait quietly, if you refresh now, you'll just go back in the queue."

At Paul's urging, Jens stopped his hand and rested his chin on it, staring quietly at the screen.

"The introduction to the Song of Earth mentioned that Eminem and Snoop Dogg are featured, right? Did Dr. Dre only produce this song?"

Paul checked the screenshots he had taken earlier and shook his head.

"No, it says Dr. Dre produced all the music."

"Really? Including the Song of Fire? I understand up to the Song of Wind, but was Dr. Dre able to produce rock music too?"

"Maybe it's a kind of challenge for him. After all, he hadn't released an album for years, and the one he released with Kay didn't go platinum, but it was quite a hit."

"Hmm... Just based on the teaser's sound, it was top-level producing..."

"Kay probably helped, given his experience producing Montana's Fury."

"Right... With Kay around, who cares who the producer is. But if the Song of Earth is hip-hop and Dr. Dre's producing was involved, the music's quality is assured."

"Yeah, Kay is the composer. No matter who the producer is, the quality is guaranteed. It should rather be said that it could only get better."

"Phew... Right. These songs are also all written by Kiska Miocic? This kid really seems like a genius."

"Is he the only genius? Right

now, everyone around Kay is a genius. Eminem and Snoop Dogg look like regular people next to them."

"Heh, that's true. Oh? Oh oh oh!!"

"What? What's wrong!?"

"The video!!!"

"What??"

"The video is playing!"

"What!!??"

The two turned their heads simultaneously towards the moving Fantagio logo.

>

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