Chapter Twenty One: Scoop Gone?
21
The second round of the contest have begin and as always, the presenter of the show; Sam Barton had come out of the red curtains to give his usual speech. A round of applause was used to welcome him on stage again.
"Alright, alright. Welcome back to the second and final round of today's talent presentation. But before we proceed I would like to implement some changes around here. I heard some people here are reporters, having next to no aim of participating in this contest. Or maybe they are, but are still trying to do their job as a reporter. Upon noticing that, we did a background research on everyone's names and we found out who are who. Please if you hear your name, kindly move out of your seats. You're either a reporter or a live streamer."
A lots of murmurings had started between the contestants, there were different opinions and thoughts from every participant. Some thinking it was a good idea while some, a very bad idea. To some, it was a good idea since reporters would always want to know more information and dark secrets about you. Even secrets you do not wish for the public to know will become a headline for them. So they agreed that eliminating them right now is the very best option.
Among those who did not agree to this idea was a specific lady; Dora Barton. Her fist were tightly clenched with anger. 'Thomas, you sly snake. You're trying to hide all your dirty sins, aren't you?'
"Raven Hayley." The first name to be called turned out to be the man sitting behind Tyler.
Tyler looked behind her, her brother didn't have the best of the expression on his face. It seems like this was where the limit of their huge scoop will end.
"Don't worry brother, you know I'm not a reporter or live streamer. I can still get the information we need. Just keep that footage safe till I'm back." Tyler assured her brother, Dave, who slugglishly got out of his seat, heading for the exit.
All he had to do was trust that his sister would do a good job. Even though she wasn't a reporter, she has helped him in a lot of ways than one, and he hope this wouldn't be the last.
He got to the exit, but before he could pass through the door, Thomas had appeared in front of him. He stopped Dave and took the mini purse he placed around his neck, bringing out the camera he had hidden in the bag.
"Let's have a little chitchat outside shall we." Thomas said as he pulled him out of the arena. Tyler and everyone else could only watch as they both left.
But that only made Alex curious, this whole thing has a reason. It's not like this will be the first time a reporter would disguise as a fellow participant to obtain information from other participants, either good or bad. There must be a reason why Thomas had decided to fish them all out and that includes the Male reporter that just left with him.
Outside the arena, Thomas had taken Dave towards the exit of the main building but he still had his camera in his hands. After deleting a few footages, he then proceeded on handling it back to him.
"Dave Hayley, a Junior reporter at Freddy News Industry. I must say I'm impressed by your luck. But it seems like you're either unlucky or you ran out of luck. You must have missed the CCTVs we placed everywhere in this building."
"Shit." Dave cursed under his breath. Annoyed at himself for not looking careful enough. He was just realising how much he fucked up.
"That's right, because of your stupid actions, you got yourself and every other reporters sent out of the contest." Thomas said. "I've already warned your boss or whoever you're working for. If something like this ever happen again, I'll ensure I have you dealt with. And believe me, it could be really bloody."
Once he was done saying this, Thomas had started heading back in, leaving Dave outside in a deep mess; one, for not taking permission from his boss and also for letting his large scoop news get deleted.
....
Back in the arena, once all the reporters were gone, Sam the presenter had continued with his speech.
"Due to the number of participants that just left, the role numbers have been disarrayed, so to fix that, we'll select everyone's name in random and once you hear your name, move to the front quickly. We'll no longer call participants according to their role numbers. I repeat, we're not calling anyone's role number.
"Before we start selecting everyone in random, there are a separate group of participants that will be performing first. I'm sure you've all noticed them since you came here. They are VIP participants who are in one way or the other expert and are trained by top entertainment companies all over the nation. I heard some even studied abroad. Therefore, we will be calling on the VIP participants to come up stage and show us what they've got.
"And now our first participant will be Nox Welby, a trainee from Blu-ray Entertainment; an industry from abroad."
Nox Welby stood from his seat and started walking up the stage. He was in a nicely fitted blue suit and he looked handsome as always, maybe even more stunning as the stage light shone on him.
"Hello friends and fellow participants, my name is Nox and I'll be performing the song called Influence."
A beat had started playing as it enlightened everyone's mind, making them expectant of the lyrics that was to come. The beat flowed naturally, easing the anger and worried minds of everyone.
Eventually, Nox had opened his mouth to sing. His voice had a sweetening effect to the nice beat making it more soothening to the ears. In addiction to this, Nox moved his body in sync with the song, displaying his feelings through his motion.
'What is this?' Alex said. 'A song from my album?'