If they couldn't stir up trouble, they figured they might as well just sit back and enjoy the show so they wouldn't lose out completely.
Opportunities like this were rare. They usually couldn't bear to spend their own money on large-scale concerts like this.
Similar dramatic little skirmishes were playing out in every corner of the stadium, but they were all swiftly suppressed.
The genuine fans had sharper tongues and easily rallied the surrounding crowd to their side.
Since their manufactured outrage wasn't catching on, the hired agitators knew they had lost the crowd.
Eleanor was also among the audience.
Earlier, Seraphina had mentioned that Mira would be performing at the concert, but the older woman had stubbornly refused. "She didn't even bother coming to see me. I'm not going."
However, her sons and grandchildren all knew she was just being prideful and couldn't admit her true feelings.
In reality, she wanted to see her granddaughter more than anyone else.
That afternoon, Seraphina had waved a few concert tickets in front of her. "Look, Grandma. These were incredibly hard to get. They cost over a hundred dollars each. If you don't go, they'll just go to waste."
"Fine, I'll go. Why wouldn't I? It would be a shame to waste them."
Seraphina breathed a sigh of relief. She had finally convinced the stubborn matriarch.
Before the sun even set, Seraphina and her father, Sebastian, escorted Eleanor into the stadium.
Despite claiming she didn't want to see Mira, Eleanor's eyes were practically glued to the stage.
Whenever a disparaging comment flared up nearby, she was the first one to snap back and defend the performer.
At that moment, Eleanor was muttering to herself, "She's grown up so much. She's gorgeous and so talented. She looks just like me when I was young."
Seraphina plastered on an agreeable smile. "Yes, exactly. She looks just like you. She's as beautiful as you were in your youth."
Internally, she rolled her eyes. She looks nothing like you. I look more like you than she does.
"And she's Lune? Incredible. You need to work harder, Seraphina. Otherwise, you'll never catch up to your cousin."
"I definitely will."
Apparently, having such an exceptional cousin wasn't necessarily a good thing.
Could they be using the personnel from Verdant Springs Apothecary? That was a top-tier security network, filled with highly trained operatives capable of counter-terrorism work. But they were exorbitantly expensive and rarely took on commercial jobs.
He had severely underestimated them. When did an out-of-town startup acquire such heavy-hitting connections?
Good. High vigilance and ironclad security. This proved they were actually worthy opponents.
Ultimately, Lawrence had to settle for bribing a large number of regular people to mix into the crowd, hoping they could manipulate the conversations and sway the atmosphere.
If they could get a large chunk of the audience to turn on the performers, the concert would devolve into a chaotic mess.
There was safety in numbers. It was a crude strategy, but it was usually the easiest and most effective way to ruin an event.
He just wanted to see how this Solflare Entertainment would handle a PR crisis on the fly.
But the concert had been going on for a while now, and the crowd was perfectly fine.
"Zachary, did you hire a bunch of mutes?"
"Of course not. We handpicked them. They're usually professional troublemakers, incredibly skilled at starting arguments and riling people up. A real nightmare to deal with.

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