[Bonus Chapter] 31 - Gift

"I think he's passable..." The lead singer said with a bit of disdain, but she didn't manage to throw me off.

"He's good." Frank said as he nodded.

"So you're in." Mark smiled as he shook my hand again.

If it wasn't for Ethan, I don't think I would have tolerated this woman, but considering that my little fan was waiting for me to play for him, I put my anger aside and shook Mark's hand.

"Everybody, the moment you've been waiting for has arrived, Midnight Echoes are about to take the stage!" The manager said into a microphone as he called the band out.

As the three original members entered the stage, the crowd screamed with excitement, especially the lead singer, who was called "hot" by some guys, which made her smile even wider.

The surprising thing was that when I came on stage, some people also celebrated, calling me their savior.

It was just a few drunk guys, but it was nice.

"Hi guys, even though there were a few setbacks, we're finally here!" Jannet said, standing in the middle of the stage and getting some applause. "Today our level might be a little lower, but we'll try to give you the best show we can!"

She said the last part while looking at me out of the corner of her eye... seriously, how could Mark put up with this woman?

Ignoring her idiotic attitude, I just stood aside, arranged the sheet music on the podium and waited for them to start.

"To start, we're going to play your favorite song, Midnight Call, as an apology!" Jannet said as Mark tapped the drumsticks to set the tempo and we began.

Looking out into the audience, I could see my family looking at me with excited expressions.

Olivia had her cell phone pointed at me as she probably took a picture of me, Ethan had a big smile on his face as he looked at me excitedly, my dad had a proud smile and my mom was worried as always.

Seeing everyone looking at me made me excited.

Little by little, I got used to the music and felt that playing it was getting easier.

[Guitar Lv 28 ->Lv 29].

Because I was so focused on playing the song, I didn't even notice the notification that popped up while I was playing.

My vision was just switching between the guitar, the score and the audience.

In the audience, the vast majority of people were only looking at Jannet, who was the protagonist, but I could still catch a few glances at me with a smile, which encouraged me to keep improving.

At this point, my two titles were in full use.

[Perseverant: Only those who persevere to the end in a difficult task will receive this title.

Effect: +10% ease when doing a task that requires a lot of effort].

[Tuned Ear: Obtained by those who take the time to tune their hearing.

Effect: +15% ability to recognize musical nuances, making it easier to quickly learn new songs and improvise during performances].

Perseverant encouraged me to keep playing and improve relentlessly, while Tuned Ear helped me to notice my mistakes, correct them, learn how to play better, and improvise when I needed to.

All these factors combined meant that at the end of the song, the audience screamed with excitement and Mark gave me a big smile and a thumbs up!

"You killed it!" Mark said.

Smiling, I was a little tired, as it was much more tiring to play in front of so many people in a stuffy place, but the feeling of playing for so many people was surreal.

When the second song started, I went into a zone where my focus was just on playing better and better.

Without realizing it, with each song more and more people started to focus on me.

My fingers, which had seemed cold before, were now warm and agile, jumping from note to note very naturally, even managing to solo a song as if I'd practiced it several times!

The rest of the band didn't expect me to try the solo, and if it had been the normal me, I probably wouldn't have done it, not wanting to risk it, but I was so focused on the song that the solo came naturally.

I even managed to put some traces of myself into that solo, changing it from what the score said, but even though it was different, it fit better with the music and made the audience laugh and sing along even more!

During the break between songs, while Jannet was interacting with the audience so we could rest, a waiter came up to me and whispered in my ear.

"Excuse me, a girl at table 17 asked me to send her a Toxic Lake and a guy at table 05 also paid for a beer for you, which one do you want first?" The waiter asked.

When I heard this, I was surprised. First, that they hadn't thought I might be underage, and second, that they had given me two drinks!

Smiling, I whispered back to him. "Can you bring me the Toxic Lake in a glass so I can't see what's in it? And the beer you can take to table 26 and say Noah sent it."

Hearing this, the waiter waved his hand and left.

Curious, I looked around for table 17.

As I was looking, I passed table 05 and saw that the man who had sent me the beer was very upset and drunk. When I looked at him, he smiled as he raised his glass to me, which made me smile back at him as I nodded in thanks.

Looking around, I finally found table 17, a table with 3 girls and 3 boys.

While the boys were chatting animatedly, the girls seemed bored.

Among these girls, a blonde holding a glass of green drink saw me looking at her and smiled covertly as she raised her glass to me in greeting.

Smiling, I nodded back and whispered a "thank you" to her, which she apparently read on my lip and smiled a little more before returning to normal and pretending it hadn't happened.

She must be accompanied by one of those boys... poor things. I thought as I shook my head, laughing.

The poor guy might even be paying for her drink and she's sending me one of those drinks... RIP bro.

But I wouldn't refuse the drink, it's not like I did anything wrong.

It surprised me that I was able to catch the eye of a pretty girl even though I still weigh so much.

I think my prejudice against my original body is affecting me more than it seems.

It's not like I still weigh the 150 kilos I did when I got here, so I might as well start changing that personality of mine.

When the glass arrived and I took my first sip, it was a very sour drink, which really must be Toxic, but after a few more sips I got used to it and looked over at my parents' table, where my father had a big smile on his face as he sipped his drink and waved at me.

Laughing, I raised my glass as I toasted him from afar, causing his expression to change slightly and an even bigger smile to appear on his face at the sight of my glass.

Seeing this change in him, I realized that I had ruined everything, as he must have noticed that I was using a dark glass to hide what I was drinking.

Luckily he just ignored it and laughed as he looked at my mother, seeing that she didn't notice, I sighed in relief and he laughed even harder at my sigh.

Olivia and Ethan were also very excited to see me playing, but I avoided looking at their table now, so my mother wouldn't suspect anything, and went back to playing when the break was over.

It seemed that playing guitar while drinking worked wonders for me, because everything flowed even more naturally.

[Guitar Lv 29 ->Lv 30]

When the guitar skill reached Lv 30, I felt that everything was even easier. I could play these songs as if I'd practiced them before, and I even risked the solo parts more, which made the audience even more excited.

But when the show was about to end, Jannet looked at me with an expression I couldn't quite understand because I was a bit confused by the drink, and spoke to the audience.

"Our show is finally coming to an end, this evening has been incredible, thank you so much!" She said as the audience applauded and asked for one last song.

With a mischievous smile that I couldn't quite make out, Jannet pretended to hear the audience's request and asked. "How about you ask for a song and we'll play it on the spot?"

As soon as she said that, the already drunk crowd got very excited and started shouting out the names of the songs they wanted us to play.

But while the crowd was excited, Mark and Frank were surprised and started looking worriedly between Jannet and me.

Only I guess because of the drink I wasn't worried at all and smiled as I listened to the audience asking for songs.

I didn't realize that I didn't know how to play most of the songs they were asking for, and that Jannet was probably doing it on purpose, just for that reason.

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