14.1 – He could rely on his face to make a living, so that"s what he did
translator: xiin
editors: BlueBug & Macabre
This was a world where the entertainment industry occupied a large portion of the mainstream market, reigning supreme. In a society like this, everyone in the entertainment industry was extremely popular, regardless of whether they were actors, stars, writers, or anyone related to the industry; they all provided spiritual nourishment and were highly respected.
Similarly, there were many people in high society, and there was a very clear division between ruling families; the major families and their respective groups ruled the world. Although the common people weren"t very clear regarding the so-called seven families and their inner workings, various rumors about the families would still circulate in the upper echelons of Hua Country"s society.
And Xue Ling was very far removed from these things. He had just stepped out into society and had become a very small, vase-like… star?
He himself didn"t know why there was a question mark after the word "star". Perhaps it was because he also had some doubts about his own ident.i.ty. He woke up one morning and found himself to be completely unfamiliar with the world. He was then told that he had been tied to a so-called "Entertainment World Counterattack System", which recently left Xue Ling very confused.
Fortunately, he had only turned a little silly due to b.u.mping his head, and soon adjusted to exactly what his ident.i.ty was and what he needed to do.
In the final a.n.a.lysis, everything started when Xue Ling reached 18. As an orphan, he was a self-reliant, hard-working "internet star". He officially lost the social allowance he received as an orphan when he reached 18, so he relied on being an online voice actor to gain a small amount of fame. After he was discovered, thanks to his looks, he signed with an agency and officially began to move from behind the scenes to the front stage. In truth, he was not any kind of amazing "G.o.d" in the field of voice acting, but paired with his excellent appearance, he became recognized as a G.o.d by a bunch of people within a brief, six-month period.
Basically, he was an unparalleled beautiful vase that could make a living with his looks. He had always relied on his face to be successful.
He accepted several jobs through the agency, but because his acting skills were practically non-existent, he could only take on some vase roles. After all, people who were good looking from all 365 degrees with no dead angles would be pleasing to the eye no matter where they were placed. Most likely because he was obedient, clever, and did not make others worry, most people had a good impression of him. Even though some directors regretted that it was a waste of his good looks, n.o.body had much hope for his acting skills, so most of the scripts that landed in his hands had zero acting requirements and only required him to be present.
Generally speaking, his life had no major ups and downs. Perhaps after he had saved up enough in a couple years, he could leave this circle, but now was not the time. No matter what, he could still be considered to have entered the bottom of the entertainment popularity circles and had a number of fans; his company wouldn"t give up on him and push him out, and since he didn"t have any personal plans, he could just coast on peacefully for now.
After waking up in the midst of such mediocrity, on a certain day, Xue Ling found that he was bound to an "Entertainment Circle Counterattack System".
It was a very strange feeling. From that morning onward, he felt that something was off about himself. Especially when the system greeted him in a very pleasant tone and told him about how useful it was, Xue Ling inexplicably felt a strand of familiarity.
That was also why he was willing to listen to the nonsense that the system had to say instead of flat out rejecting it.
The function of the system was exactly as its name indicated. Its purpose was to "counterattack", and what they were going up against was the entertainment industry.
It was a very fantastic feeling. Xue Ling had never expected that the first person to suggest "you should dominate the entertainment industry" would be a system that looked like a little fox. It did not even seem to be a real creature, but it seemed particularly familiar with him and had a precise grasp of his personality. Even though it spoke such ridiculous words, Xue Ling found that he didn"t really want to refute it.
The heavens knew that he had no acting ability, but even though the system praised his acting skills up to the sky, Xue Ling didn"t feel disgusted about it at all, and in fact, found himself mildly agreeing with it internally.
This was Xue Ling"s rest period, but he hasn"t been idle during this time. Based on his previous plans, he intended to use this time to finish off all the audio recordings that he owed in the online circle. Xue Ling ignored the system"s chattering and calmly turned around to prepare recording.
Although he didn"t know why he had no impression regarding the audio drama he was about to record, he still steadily opened up the script that the manager had sent over, entered his personal room on the virtual network, and began recording.
Based on Xue Ling"s understanding of himself, the recording should not go smoothly at all because his sense of drama was very lacking. He would always have to go over the scripts countless times, and the recording that he created after practicing numerous times would always still carry a sense of disconnect and strangeness. Most of the time, this sense of strangeness would decrease and disappear for a while in the later stages, but more often, he was criticized for being unable to show any feelings or profoundness. Since he could not showcase the character, he was generally unable to properly accomplish the task.
But it didn"t matter, because he looked good! So fans would still say: Snowy, it"s okay, muah~ You just have to be responsible for staying beautiful. We"ll deal with the rest!
However, despite having this self-awareness, Xue Ling managed to perfectly finish the recordings for three roles in a mere three hours.
This made no sense. Xue Ling himself found it very strange, and he even suspected that he had been possessed or that something must have entered his body. But other than the system that was busy acting stupid, he couldn"t find anything wrong. And he didn"t seem to feel that the matter of having a system was odd; he very naturally accepted this setting as though it was a given.
In the past, he would be unable understand the emotions contained in the script even if he read it three or four times. But now, he was able to express the protagonist"s emotions through his own voice, and no matter how strict he was with his standards, he was unable to find any flaws in the recording. Xue Ling was in a strange mood as he finished the three roles, and he finally realized that there must be something wrong.
He thought that even if he was unable to find fault with the recordings, other people would be able to, right? So he chose one of the recordings that he had completed in one shot after listening to his own voice and thinking that there was nowhere that required changes, and sent it to the manager for the script. He wanted to discover where the problem lay based on the manager"s reaction… It was too weird to have woken up one day and turned narcissistic, believing that one could accomplish everything perfectly.
[ Milk Without Coffee: !!! Oh My G.o.d!!!! Lord Fox!!! Is this still you???!!! How come I feel like something is wrong!!! ]
Xue Ling looked at the manager"s reply and thought to himself that he also felt that it wasn"t quite right.
But he still responded calmly. [ Snow Fox: What’s the problem? ]
[ Milk Without Coffee: The biggest problem is that there is no problem!!! Your voice recording actually has no faults!!! Oh my G.o.d, it must have been hard on you, madame!!! You must have recorded it many times to get this result!! This is so gratifying QWQ Although it"s not really necessary for a small role like yours to do so much, I"m still moved by madame"s att.i.tude~ Wuwuwu~~ ]
Xue Ling looked at her excited tone and instantly felt that the scene was rather odd. [ Snow Fox: I finished it in one go… ]
[ Milk Without Coffee: Madame, stop talking! I won"t believe it. I know that madame is the most considerate; thank you so much for working so hard on our audio drama. I"ll come back to madame with a good role next time!!! I need to go and praise you to my old buddies - you"re too amazing!!! ]
The girl no longer replied to Xue Ling after that. Xue Ling was silent for a while before re-entering the recording room. He had ten scripts on hand, half of which were small bit roles, three as supporting characters, and two as main protagonists. He had originally gone through the scripts based on whichever had come first. Xue Ling had never intended to finish them all in one go, but since he now had this weird ability, he was afraid it might disappear tomorrow; he hurriedly recorded for an entire afternoon and night, and actually managed to finish all the scripts he had on hand.
Xue Ling pulled up all the managers and sent each of them the appropriate recording based on their previous chat history. He finally had time to rest after accomplishing this, and left the virtual network. He stood up, went to order takeout, and took a bath.
After he finished eating and drinking his fill, and had gotten some rest, he opened the nano-computer again and was confronted with a whole pile of messages. Fortunately, his nano-computer had good performance and didn"t explode.
Not all of the managers had time to hang out online, but there were always those who became so excited that they wanted to rush over to Xue Ling"s house to sleep with him when they received five high-quality audio recordings.
The one who hara.s.sed him the most was a good friend in the circle. He was also a very famous manager within the circle, and always had various audio projects ongoing at the same time. He had suddenly received so many recordings of such an amazing quality that he could send them directly to the later stages without any editing from a cute little voice actor.
For the manager, Xue Ling was now like an angel that had descended into the world, and couldn"t possibly be more lovely.
Xue Ling belonged to a non-commercial a.s.sociation with a large number of members called "Ten Years". The club not only produced various audio dramas, they also created various original songs and covers. In addition, they also did some cosplay, online dramas, music for enterprises, and all kinds of commercial dubbing. Xue Ling did not have a very prominent presence in the team. After all, compared with the various G.o.ds in the community, he was only a little G.o.d, and he didn"t have much ability. It was probably only because of his good relationship with the manager that he was always given some roles.
However, these roles were decent, and did not make him feel unworthy, which is one of the reasons why he had remained in the community up till now.
Although it was a non-commercial a.s.sociation, in fact, Ten Years" annual revenue was considerable as they also accepted commercial advertising and did some online and offline comprehensive integration. If it weren"t for the fact that they did not have an office, they would be considered as a well-organized company. Their internal responsibilities were clearly divided, and the benefits for members were very good. Over the years, as newcomers arrived, the older members slowly phased out, and the number of older members who lorded it over others could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Xue Ling"s rise to the front stage also had some relationship to Ten Years, which was the second reason why he remained with the a.s.sociation.
What’s more, Ten Years held an extraordinary significance to him. This was the first place where he felt the warmth of home. Although the current Xue Ling felt that it was a bit ridiculous to have felt this way in the past, he still chose to honestly stay in Ten Years. He watched as the manager ran wild in the main group, even going so far as to cut out a portion of his recording to share in order to show how much progress Xue Ling has made.
Watching as the crowd in the group all responded with "oh my G.o.d", the corner of Xue Ling"s lips twitched, and he quietly popped up in the group chat.
[ ”[cv Little Fox: …Was it really that bad before? ]
[ ”[cos Twilight Cloud: Aha, Little Fox finally came out. Spring Rolly already made two winding laps around the playground before you finally showed up. You really know how to hold back~ ]
[ [cv] Little Fox: I was recording for the entire afternoon, and just came back from dinner. ]
[ [cv] Below Heaven: ??? Little Fox was recording for an entire afternoon? Was it the ones you handed over to Spring Rolly? ]
[ [cv] Little Fox: The good news is~ I"ve finished all the work I owe (～￣▽￣)～ ]
[ [design] Wind, Flower, Snow and Moon: ∑(っ°Д°;)っ Didn"t Little Fox complain last night that he had 10 pits to fill? You"ve already finished??? ]
[ [manager] Spring Rolly: My dear Snowy is here ~(≧▽≦)/~ I"ll give you a kiss of love~~ So Snowy made was recording for the whole afternoon? I heard from Little Coffee that you also handed in two recordings to her~ Little Fox, did you suddenly gain some enlightenment? ]
[ [cv] Little Fox: Something like that. Perhaps I"ll be blocked again tomorrow? I also find it incredible. ]
[ [Manager] Spring Rolly: Then, how about… (*/w＼*) Little Fox, take on another role~ If there"s no problem, then it"s probably for real~ In the future, Little Fox will become a Big Fox beauty with a beautiful voice and all kinds of other beauty~ ]
[ [cv] Below Heaven: …Spring Rolly, can you speak properly? You"re currently clutching at straws, right? You only have one drama on hand right now, and you have to know that it was announced that Forgotten has been selected… What"ll happen if Little Fox does a bad job and then gets hated on?! ]
[ [cv] Little Fox: What drama? ]
Xue Ling silently looked at the task box that the system beside him had floated in front of him while clutching at his clothing, tossed it a threatening glare, and then slowly typed out those two words.
His system was telling him to take on this drama…
His system said that counterattacking the entertainment industry needed to start with becoming a hot internet star…
Although Xue Ling was surprised, he very naturally accepted the system"s guidance… He didn"t know why he didn"t have the slightest bit of doubt towards this d.a.m.ned system at all, and was even less understanding about why he would accept this system despite not having the slightest bit of interest towards dominating the entertainment industry at all.
But since there was a road laid out in front of him, he might as well take a look and see.
Wasn"t it just taking on a role in a drama?~