Chapter Fifty: The Living Cannon

“The One Emperor Four Sovereigns event has started again?”

In the imperial capital, within a certain villa district.

Zheng Lan lounged sideways on the sofa, munching on potato chips as he mumbled to his friend in the earpiece, “Will Zero Zero Demon participate?”

“Of course she will. She told me at last month’s gathering. This is a rare chance to make a name for herself… Hey, Big Cannon, can you not smack your lips while eating?”

His friend on the phone couldn’t help but complain, “You sound just like a pig in a sty.”

Zheng Lan grabbed another handful of chips and stuffed them in his mouth, muttering, “You don’t get it—only food and music are worth living for!”

“Fine, fine. I’ll see how long it takes for you to hit three hundred pounds. I’m done chatting. I need to prep my entry for the competition. If I make it through, I’ll buy you a whole crate of chips!”

After hanging up, Zheng Lan chewed a few more times before finally rising slowly to his feet.

He stood at six-foot-three, with a round face and large ears. The rolls around his waist were visible even under his T-shirt.

After a quick wash, Zheng Lan opened his laptop and logged in to Jili Gulu to check the competition rules for the “One Emperor Four Sovereigns” challenge.

“One Emperor Four Sovereigns” was a top-tier industry event that had only risen to prominence on Jili Gulu in the past two years.

The event was global in scope, divided into five major regions: Huaxia, Hong Kong-Macau-Taiwan, North America, Europe, and Japan-Korea.

The so-called “One Emperor” and “Four Sovereigns” were selected from among these five regions.

The musician crowned as the Emperor would receive a prize of ten million or a villa of equivalent value. The Four Sovereigns would each receive two million or a custom sports car of comparable worth.

Below the Emperor and the Sovereigns, outstanding contestants could also win encouragement awards.

The “One Emperor Four Sovereigns” Piano Competition had started in 2019. Now, in its third season in 2021, it had already become a sensation.

In the first season, Ronald Spielberg, the renowned grand pianist from the North America region, claimed the Emperor’s crown and walked away with a luxury Vancouver villa, in addition to endorsements from numerous piano brands.

The second season saw Hidekazu Minamino from the Japan-Korea region take the top prize, also receiving a Vancouver villa gifted by the organizers, alongside various endorsements.

Now, with the third season’s call to arms announced by Jili Gulu, all aspiring musicians were fired up.

Even wild card contestants outside the five main regions were scrambling to raise funds and sign up.

The competition was structured in three stages: the Preliminary, the Qualifier, and the Grand Finals.

The Preliminary was an open audition. Contestants would fill in their personal details, register accounts on Jili Gulu, and submit their works for review. Only after passing the official selection could they advance to the Qualifier.

Those who passed the Qualifier would compete in head-to-head matches at local opera houses, until one regional champion emerged.

Regional champions would then represent their areas in the Grand Finals on the world stage, with the ultimate winner decided by votes from base users worldwide, tabulated by official data.

In other words, regardless of the technical gap between regions, anyone who secured first place in their region would become one of the Four Sovereigns.

And if they went further, they could seize the Emperor’s crown.

The “One Emperor Four Sovereigns” event was organized by the Jili Gulu community, with a flood of advertisers and sponsors providing funding.

In simple terms, J Station wasn’t hosting this event out of charity. Without the funding, the influence and prize pool would shrink dramatically, and the event would lose much of its appeal to contestants.

Standing six-foot-three and weighing nearly three hundred pounds, Zheng Lan might have seemed clumsy, but his nickname on J Station—“Human Cannon”—was legendary among the music forum crowd.

It was hard to imagine a man of such size playing beautiful music, but when the impossible unfolded before their eyes, the impact was only magnified.

Last year, during the “One Emperor Four Sovereigns” event, Zheng Lan’s stunning performance in the Preliminaries shot the “Human Cannon” ID to the center of attention.

And in the Qualifiers, he swept through the ranks, besting many industry veterans.

Though he ultimately fell just short of the top ten in the Qualifiers, the name “Human Cannon” quickly rose to fame on major music forums, with opera houses everywhere vying to invite him as a star pianist.

A star is a star because of popularity. Once a pianist becomes famous, their performance and signing fees naturally soar.

Opera houses, driven by commercial interests, are ever more eager for renowned musicians.

Zheng Lan had tasted the sweetness of success.

So, with the third season of “One Emperor Four Sovereigns” underway, he wasted no time in submitting his prepared work under the name “Human Cannon” in the music forum’s competition area.

As he basked in the praise from the comment section, he suddenly noticed some discordant voices.

“The rookie king from next door, Asdfghj, just released a new piece—‘Unravel’! Everyone, go check it out!”

“The original composer of ‘Unravel’ has appeared!”

“Uncle A has published a new work—announcement, announcement, spread the word!”

“Comrades, hurry and witness the Hand of God—there won’t be any seats left if you’re late!”

“The composer of ‘The Fact That You Left’ turns out to be the Hand of God!”

“Finally, you’re here. I’m so glad I didn’t give up…”

Zheng Lan rubbed his eyes, and when he took a closer look at the comments, his anger flared.

“How much did you spend on these paid commenters? What kind of rookie king? Did you ask me first?”

As last year’s acknowledged rookie king, Zheng Lan was especially sensitive to that title.

Right now, he felt as if his inner princess had been stolen away, his lips pouting, hands planted on his hips in a huff…

Soon, Zheng Lan logged in and began manually deleting and banning the paid comments from the chat.

But no matter how fast he worked, the new comments poured in even faster.

Ten minutes later, thoroughly annoyed, he gritted his teeth and decisively closed the page, then went to search for the user Asdfghj.

But before he could even click the search bar, he saw a huge banner on the music forum’s front page, written by an official editor.

The cover showed a man in a black suit, his back to the camera, playing piano in a music shop.

Around the image, official captions stood out boldly.

“Heart-wrenching masterpiece ‘The Fact That You Left’—don’t miss it!”

“Rookie Asdfghj’s latest tour de force!”

“Can you believe ‘Unravel’ was composed by him?”

“The strongest contender for Jili Gulu’s 2021 Rookie King is here!”

“Trivia: Who is Uncle A?”

Staring at the slogans, Zheng Lan swallowed hard, and with his chubby right hand trembling, he finally clicked into the page…