After dropping out of school, I chose to join a girls' band.

Upon hearing this, Yue walked over and was greeted by a gleaming grand piano. The piano's exterior was meticulously polished, its black body reflecting soft light, giving it an exceptionally noble and elegant appearance. The lid was inlaid with gold patterns, and the legs were also decorated with gold, exuding an unparalleled aura of luxury.

"This...this piano looks so expensive." Yue's voice trembled slightly as she carefully approached the piano, afraid that she might accidentally break it.

She examined the piano closely and discovered that it was from the world-renowned Steinway brand. Such pianos are usually only seen in top-tier concerts or private collections, and each one is priceless.

Although Yue felt shocked enough today, she still thought that Tsurumaki Shin was far too rich, leaving such a precious piano out in the open without any protection.

Just as Yue was pondering whether all her possessions would be enough to compensate for the damage she might cause to the piano, the room suddenly went dark, followed by the faint sound of a mechanism turning.

For some reason, Yue felt the voice sounded vaguely familiar, even a little eerie. She felt as if she had heard a similar voice somewhere before. Vague memories surfaced in her mind, memories that seemed to be accompanied by this voice, tinged with mystery and unease.

"This voice...why does it sound so familiar?" Yue murmured to herself.

As she struggled to recall, the sounds of the mechanism gradually became clearer, as if the entire room was changing in response to these sounds.

Yue felt the floor tremble slightly, and then the five members of Hello Happy World rose up from underground, with spotlights shining on them.

Looking at this scene, she complained, "How come this cruise ship has these kinds of stage mechanisms? This is so illogical!"

Under the spotlight, Michelle greeted everyone and said, "Welcome to the Smile!"

Senior Kaoru then said, "Next, please enjoy this fantastic performance."

As the background music began, the joyful and energetic song "Egao no Orkestra!" resonated throughout the stage. Kokoro Tsurumaki sang the first line with her uniquely bright voice, her voice seemingly capable of dispelling all gloom and bringing boundless hope and happiness.

Matsubara Kanon sat in front of the drum and began to play a vibrant rhythm. Her fingers directed the drumsticks as they danced across the drumhead, creating a strong sense of rhythm, with each note brimming with power.

Xun was the highlight of the performance; she walked around the stage with her guitar, making various gorgeous playing gestures.

Listening to everyone's performance on stage, Hinasaki Tsuki entered a hallucination mode that hadn't appeared in almost two hundred chapters.

Yue stood on the long-awaited stage, still wearing her Revue outfit. However, unlike the previous times, she was now accompanied by Chihaya Aine and Shiina Tatsuki.

Before Yue could figure out what was going on, Aine asked first, "What's going on? Weren't we just listening to the Hello Happy World performance?" Aine's voice was full of doubt, and she looked around nervously, as if searching for an answer.

Shiina Tatsuki also looked puzzled. She looked at Hinasaki Tsuki, hoping to get an answer from her, who knew the underground theater best. "Tsuki, do you know what's going on?"

Yue shook her head, her eyes filled with helplessness and confusion. "I don't know what's going on either. I've experienced this before when I listened to your performances by Crychic and Morfonica, but I always thought it was just my imagination."

"Now it seems that the previous two times were probably because of the giraffe? Or perhaps... because of the stage girls?" Yue thought to herself as she looked at the two newly-formed stage girls beside her.

Ai looked up at the ceiling, trying to find any clues that could explain it. "Could it be some kind of magic? Or are we dreaming?"

Lixi looked around, trying to find any exit or explanation. "So what should we do now? Continue waiting here? Or should we look for an exit?"

Yue shook her head and said, "Based on my previous experiences, everyone from Hello Happy World will be here soon. (镏0児侕% 陕是罢思)"

As soon as they finished speaking, the curtain of the stage behind them was pulled up, and the five members of Hello Happy World appeared in front of them, just as Yue had said.

Yue nodded, confirming that the current development was exactly as she had predicted, and said, "Next, their music will probably turn into something like the various stage devices in a Revue and fly towards us."

As soon as she finished speaking, she heard a long sword fly straight towards her as she sang, and then Yue casually knocked it away.

However, before she could rest, a series of attacks followed. Ai Yin and Li Xi rushed to help, but their defense was bound to reveal weaknesses. In the end, all three of them were pierced by hhw's "lyric swords" and turned into hedgehogs.

As a slight pain spread through their bodies, the three of them emerged from that strange space. They were back inside the cruise ship, and the members of Hello Happy World were still playing their music, as if nothing had happened.

The three of them exchanged a brief glance and understood each other's opinion to discuss the matter later.

----------

After the performance, Genmaki Shin came over to Takamatsu Akari and asked, "How was today's performance, Akari?"

After thinking for a moment, Takamatsu Akari replied with a smile, "Kokoro-senpai's performance was dazzling...it gave me a lot of inspiration."

"Xiao Deng has a really nice smile on her face!" After seeing that her performance had been effective, Genmaki Shin also showed a very bright smile.

Seeing this, Seta Kaoru tossed her hair and exclaimed, "How dreamy (Hakana)!"

"Were the people in Haneoka's drama club like this before?" Yue looked at Seta Kaoru in front of her and subconsciously recalled the legend that had circulated in Haneoka before. It was said that she would often set up a stage with cardboard at the entrance of Haneoka and perform, attracting a lot of audiences to watch.

Genmaki then turned her gaze to the three of them, Yue, and asked, "Where are the smiles on everyone's faces?"

The three of them quickly put on genuine smiles. Although the Hello Happy World performance was wonderful, some strange things had happened after all.

They just wanted to get away as soon as possible to discuss what exactly had happened during the paranormal phenomenon.

--------

I suddenly realized that writing about HHW's performance was unexpectedly difficult. I originally planned to introduce the band's Revue segment while watching Roselia's performance, but a reader mentioned that HHW was surprisingly suitable for the Ragnarok Online universe, so I brought HHW into the discussion.

When the Stage Begins: Chapter 164 Let's Explore the Smile Ship Together (Part 1)

After finishing "Hello Happy World", it was already past eight o'clock.

Having just finished her performance, Tsurumaki Shin invited everyone, "Why don't you all play on the Smile Ship for a while longer, and then have the women in black take you to school tomorrow morning?"

Kaoru Seta gracefully extended her hand to everyone, inviting them, "I can perform some new pieces for the kittens tonight, especially for Ms. Hinasaki. I would like to discuss some script-related matters with you under the dreamy moonlight tonight."

Yue looked at Seta Kaoru in front of her, pondered for a moment, and nodded: "Since Shin-senpai and Kaoru-senpai have invited us, it would be impolite to refuse."

Seeing that Yue had agreed to Genmaki's request, Michelle said somewhat helplessly, "Then let's all look around first. We'll go change out of our performance costumes."

"Oh right!" Genmaki Shin nodded belatedly. "Then see you all later."

Watching everyone leave after saying "Hello Happy World," Yue turned to look at them. Although she, Aine, and Riki all wanted to discuss the hallucination they had just experienced, Yue was still feeling anxious.

However, considering that there were two people present, Lenai and Xiaodeng, who had not participated in Revue before, they felt it would be better to discuss the relevant content later when they had more free time.

However, Takamatsu looked at the three people walking behind her in tacit agreement and asked with some confusion, "Everyone... is there something you need to do?"

Yue realized that continuing to keep her distance seemed a bit too deliberate.

"No, it's nothing." She shook her head and walked to Xiaodeng's side. "Xiaodeng, where do you plan to go first? This cruise ship is quite big; we probably won't be able to see it all even if we spend the whole night."

Gao Songdeng thought for a moment, then looked at the woman in black beside her, "Excuse me, is there a place around here where I can see the stars?"

The woman in black nodded when asked, "Because Miss Xin also loves stargazing, this ship has professional stargazing equipment. Please follow me."

Just as everyone was following the woman in black to the room for stargazing, Rakuna-chan suddenly seemed to smell something when she passed an intersection, so she followed the scent and left the group.

The stargazing room has a transparent glass dome ceiling, allowing a clear view of the night sky. The room also houses an advanced astronomical telescope with its body extending through the glass dome, enabling users to directly observe the starry sky.

Several devices of unknown purpose were placed around them. After the woman in black skillfully turned off the lights, took out a remote control from her pocket, and pressed it, the surrounding environment instantly transformed into space.

"Wow..." Chihaya Aine couldn't help but exclaim, "This place is so beautiful."

"It really feels like we're under a starry sky." Shiina Tatsuki was also stunned by the beautiful scene.

The woman in black explained, "This is because the observation equipment synchronizes the starry sky that this telescope can see and projects it onto the ground. Ms. Takamatsu, you can try adjusting the angle of the telescope, and the surrounding environment will also change."

"Hmm." Takamatsu walked to the telescope, excitedly adjusted it, and the surrounding starry sky environment that was originally projected changed.

Yue reached out to try and touch the projected stars around her. As expected, her hand passed right through them, but she couldn't help but silently marvel at how advanced the projection technology of the String Scroll Group had become. Now she had to question whether the urban legend about the String Scroll Group having a soul-swapping device was actually true.

The woman in black smiled slightly and said, "The equipment here was specially customized for Miss Xin, so that she can enjoy stargazing on the ship."

Gao Songteng continued to adjust the astronomical telescope to observe the countless brilliant stars in the sky. She saw the twinkling Big Dipper, the bright Orion constellation, and the Milky Way, which stretched across the sky like a silver ribbon.

She also adjusted the telescope, carefully observing the craters and mountains on the moon's surface, and saw Jupiter's cloud bands and moons.

The woman in black also thoughtfully switched the projection mode in the room, giving each of them a "go to the moon" experience.

Furthermore, according to some information revealed by the woman in black, the Scroll Group is currently researching an anti-gravity system, which is said to be implemented in this room once completed. At that time, we will probably be able to truly experience the feeling of going to the moon.

--------------

It was more than ten minutes later when everyone came out of the stargazing room, and Takamatsu Akari clearly had a satisfied expression on her face.

Her eyes sparkled, and the corners of her mouth turned up slightly, making her look exceptionally happy.

Compared to Takamatsu Akari, who was simply happy to see the stars today, the three people walking behind Akari had somewhat complicated expressions on their faces.

Chihaya Aine was clearly still somewhat unable to forget the obvious high-tech she had just seen, so much so that she unconsciously used a respectful form of address: "Tsurumaki-senpai... what exactly does your family do?"

Shiina Tatsuki said she finally understood why no one objected to the fact that the astronomy club at Hanasakigawa Girls' Middle School only had one member, Tsurumaki Shin-senpai.

She sighed, "If I really went against Shin-senpai, the principal of Hanasakigawa Girls' Academy would probably change her surname to Tsurumaki the next day."

If that's really the case, then could the vice principal be Okusawa Misaki-senpai? Shiina Ritsuki suddenly thought of this question.

Yue silently thanked Genjuro for having no interest in the entertainment industry; otherwise, if Hello Happy World had launched an offensive into the entertainment industry, it would probably have topped the popularity charts and won most of the awards in less than a day.

It doesn't seem impossible that a separate "Smile Award" would be created to recognize people in the industry.

"Like Rakuna-chan, Kokoro-senpai is simply beyond the realm of common sense... Is Hanasakigawa Girls' Academy really that terrifying?"

Thinking about this, Yue suddenly felt that they seemed to have forgotten someone very important.

"etc……"

She looked around and checked the number of people; including the woman in black, there were five in total…

"Wait...everyone, has anyone seen Ryuna-chan?"

With Yue's reminder, the band members, who were still stunned by the cutting-edge technology they had just witnessed, finally realized that it seemed that Rana-chan really wasn't with them.

When the Stage Begins: Chapter 165 Let's Explore the Smile Ship Together (Part 2)

Fortunately, there were ladies in black everywhere on the Smile Ship. When Lena left the main group, a lady in black had already followed her.

This also prevented everyone from searching the entire Smile Ship for Yao Lena.

Right now, everyone is in the restaurant of the Smile Ship, watching the cat owner, Shiina Tatsuki, scold our band's stray cat, Kaname Rakuna.

Shiina Ritsuki looked at Kaname Rakuna, who was innocently eating matcha cake in front of her, and sighed deeply. Her tone was full of helplessness, "Seriously, if you're going to disappear, can't you at least tell everyone? If it weren't for the help of you ladies in black, we would have searched the entire cruise ship for you."

Lena looked up at Lixi with her bright eyes, a crumb of matcha cake still clinging to the corner of her mouth. She tilted her head slightly, as if to say, "I just wanted some dessert."

“Stray cat, do you know how worried we are about you running around like this?” Li hope’s tone was somewhat reproachful, but more so it was helpless and used to it.

She shook her head. "You're always like this, always making everyone worry about you."

Lena lowered her head and continued eating her matcha cake, seemingly not taking Lixi's words to heart. She looked just like a mischievous kitten, having done something wrong but not realizing it.

Watching the interaction between the two in front of her, Hinasaki thought to herself, "If Rakuna had done something like this when the band was first formed, Ritsuki would probably have been furious and scolded her."

Yue remembers that when Qiaqi's father and Lingqi first formed a band, Lixi was often extremely troubled by Lena's mischievous behavior. Every time Lena was late or did something outrageous because of playing, Lixi would scold her severely, hoping that she could get rid of these bad habits.

However, as time went on, she came to understand that this was just Lena's nature, and seemed to have learned how to get along with this "little cat".

“Stray cat, please tell us before you go there in the future,” Li hope said softly, picking up a tissue and gently wiping the cake crumbs off Le Nai’s hands.

"Mmm." Lena nodded obediently, though her mouth was still full of cake, making her gesture rather unconvincing.