The backstage tunnels were in absolute chaos. Managers were crying, security guards were staring blankly at their phones, and Mr. Min was frozen in place next to his shattered tablet.I didn't look at any of them. I walked straight toward the stage elevator, my platform boots clicking loudly against the concrete. I felt completely detached from the panic around me. For the first time in my life, I wasn't following a script. I was just breathing."Lille, wait!" a voice crackled through my earpiece. It was static-filled and weak, but I knew it instantly."Leo?" I whispered, pressing my hand to my collar mic."I’m here," he said, his voice trembling with a mix of fear and excitement from his hidden garage in Sector 7. "The global feed is at one hundred million views and counting. The whole world knows the truth. But Mr. Min is right about one thing... the crowd out there is completely silent. They’re in total shock. Are you sure you want to go out there?"I looked down at the smooth green stone in my hand, then looked up at the massive stage doors. "I have to, Leo. I started this on the stage, and I’m going to finish it there."I stepped onto the elevator platform. The mechanism groaned, slowly lifting me up out of the dark tunnels and into the massive, open air of the Osaka Dome.The moment my head cleared the stage floor, the sheer scale of the silence hit me. One hundred and eighty thousand people were staring at the stage. No one was cheering. No one was waving light sticks. The giant 100-foot screens behind me were dark, still sizzling from Leo's broadcast hack.The blinding white spotlights slammed onto me, reflecting off my sleek silver blazer and my bright, candy-pink hair.I walked out to the very edge of the stage, right to the front spotlight. I didn't smile my practiced, robotic smile. My face was completely serious, and my hands were shaking. I raised the microphone to my lips."My name is Lille," I said. My real, human voice echoed through the massive dome without any vocal tuners or artificial filters. It sounded smaller than A.R.I.A.'s voice, but it was real. "I am ten years old. I am not a machine, and I am not a lie. I love the music, and I love this stage. But from now on, I play by my own rules."The silence stretched on for three agonizing seconds. I braced myself, wondering if they were going to boo, or if they were going to walk out of the stadium completely.Then, down in the very front row, the tech-savvy boy who had first cracked my Morse code blinks raised his pink light stick high into the air. He didn't scream for A.R.I.A."LILLE!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.Like a wave crashing over a beach, the person next to him turned on their light stick. Then the next row. Then the next section. Within ten seconds, the entire one hundred and eighty thousand seat stadium erupted into a blazing, blinding sea of flashing pink lights. The roar of the crowd was so powerful it felt like a physical shockwave hitting the stage. They weren't just cheering—they were screaming my real name.Behind the curtains, Mr. Min watched the decibel meters on the wall literally break from the noise. The fans didn't want a perfect robot. They wanted Lille.
