“Good morning, everyone,” Zeno greeted as he arrived at the set.
The staff members found him handsome, but the atmosphere didn’t improve due to Jean’s announcement.
“Ah, really. How do they expect us to make it work with only two cameras?”
“And we don’t even have a director.”
“This is a disaster. I don’t want to do it anymore.”
Zeno smiled so brightly that they were caught off guard. He walked to where Young was and shook his hands.
“Nice to meet you,” he said.
Young, despite being disappointed due to the change of plans, still felt delighted to see Zeno.
“Wow,” he muttered as soon as he saw him. “It’s really you.”
Then, he bowed deeply. “Thank you so much for accepting this offer. I’ve been a fan the moment you appeared on ‘Broken Chains of Justice.'”
Young tried to cheer himself up. Despite everything happening, his idol was still going to be acting out his work.
Their conversation was interrupted when a white van pulled up to the site. Zeno narrowed his eyes. Until now, he was wary of white vans. He got kidnapped way too many times with it.
However, as the door opened, he realized it wasn’t kidnappers. It was just influencers!
“Hey guys! Right now, I’m on the set of my new series. I hope you all watch it,” a man who smelled too much of musk said.
“Everyone, shut up! Like, literally shut up right now. I’m actually here,” another one with sparkly pink lipgloss exclaimed. “This is the best ever, guys.”
“Yo, what’s up, my ninjas! Jordie is here with the best updates in town. This place is surreal. I can’t believe we’ll be filming in a high school set when I didn’t even graduate!” This time, a man with a muscular body, almost as buff as Doha, said to the camera.
The last person to come out of the van seemed the most normal one. However, she was too shy to even look up at the others.
Zeno’s head was already hurting.
Meanwhile, Young was excited to meet the actors of his very first series.
“Good morning, everyone,” he said. “Welcome to the set. Thank you for coming here so early in the morning.”
“Oh, this is our director!” Jordie exclaimed, wrapping one arm around him and nearly choking him. “He’s the G! The GOAT! I didn’t even have to audition for this role. What a great man.”
Young chuckled nervously. Zeno watched them and felt he was in a simulation. Humans actually acted like this? He shouldn’t be surprised anymore, really.
Fortunately, after a few more minutes of yapping at the camera, they finally turned off their phones. Out of the presence of their gadgets, their demeanor completely changed—well, except for Jordie.
“Ay-yo!” he said when he saw Zeno. “I’ve seen you a lot on the internet. Aren’t you getting famous?”
“Who is he?” the girl with sparkly gloss said.
“He’s the guy who stabbed someone in the neck,” Jordie responded.
Zeno didn’t speak and merely looked at him, making Jordie frown.
“What’s with the look?” he asked. “Do you think I’m noisy, huh?”
“Yeah,” Zeno said without any hesitation.
Their eyebrows raised in surprise. It seemed Zeno was the type to speak his mind.
Young cleared his throat, sensing the tension. “Well, why don’t we go inside for a bit and discuss the details, hmm? Just so the filming could go smoothly.”
“Sounds good to me,” Zeno said, not bothering to glance at the other actors.
Jordie found him weird, and he wanted to retaliate, but Young smiled at them and gestured for them to follow after him.
The six of them sat at a round table inside the school, and Zeno took a moment to use his latest penalty item. It was already embedded within him, so he might as well make the most of it.
“Hi, everyone!” the buff guy exclaimed. “I’m Jordie—your fitspiration. I post my lifestyle online, my daily routine, how I eat, and how I manifest. This is my second acting project. Nice to meet you all.”
[F-lister with E talent]
So, he was below average to the core.
Zeno’s dream.
“Hey, I’m Sammy! I do makeup content on YouWatch and Tick. You can all follow me on Sammy.Makes.”
[F-lister with D talent]
Next to her was a tall man with a kind smile. However, Zeno saw right through him. He should have been more afraid of Sammy and Jordie, but in reality, these types of people were the scariest.
They hid their real selves and used a fake persona to be liked by the vast majority.
“My name is Jaehyun Lee. I make acting POVs on Tick. I have a million followers, and I’ve been taking acting classes for this role,” he said with a small smile before bowing.
Jordie and Sammy appeared impressed. Young, too, sighed in relief since it seemed he would be the most decent out of all of them.
[D-lister with C talent]
Lastly, the shy woman, who appeared like she wanted to go home, smiled nervously at them.
“Hi, I’m Shelly Lee. I make dancing videos along with acting POVs like Jaehyun. I’m also in a Tick House with Kim Kim. It’s called Beast House.”
[D-lister with C talent]
Zeno was confused. He did not understand half of what she just said. A Tick House?
Shelly must have sensed the confusion in Zeno’s house because she began to explain.
“Tick, the popular short-video platform,” she softly said. “We live in a mansion as famous Tick stars.”
Tick. That seemed to be a fitting name for the app. There must be a lot of blood-sucking content creators within it.
“And who is this Kim Kim?” Zeno couldn’t help but ask. He had heard it during Young and CEO Jean’s conversation, but he had no clue who that was.
They gasped collectively, looking at Zeno like he had grown three heads. However, he seemed unfazed.
Young cleared his throat. “Kim Kim is CEO Jean Kim’s niece,” he answered. “She will be starring in the series to be aired around the same time as us.”
His voice weakened by the end of his statement. With that, too, the once confident content creators cast their gazes to the ground. Jaehyun cleared his throat.
“I thought Kim Kim was going to star in this one,” he muttered.
“I thought so, too!” Jordie chimed, causing Shelly to bite her lip.
“Kim Kim,” Zeno muttered. He didn’t have a Tick account, so he had no clue what kind of influence she held.
Sammy sighed, also seemingly disappointed. “It would have been nice to have someone with three million followers on the show.”
Zeno’s eyebrows raised in surprise.
Three million followers?!