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Although she’d already discovered them, Emilia didn’t have to go through the trouble of preparing the rest of the ‘crew’ for the incoming wave of ‘actors’, and it wasn’t just because she was confident in her ability to handle them.
With Penny’s ‘helpers’ having placed appropriate equipment along the way, the manager ended up receiving the details of the ‘second team’ well in advance, including not only where they would be coming from and their numbers, but also the general direction of their performance.
As the person with the heaviest responsibility on the set, the manager naturally had no time to pay attention to the ‘slackers’, and frowned while considering the unrealistic demands of the higher-ups.
Considering how Crystal had been treating the little girl so far, she’d been worrying that little Emi’s real talents would never be truly polished, and that she would become more and more spoiled over time, but it looked it that wasn’t the case at all.
Perhaps the blonde girl wasn’t the type to spoil the ‘children’ she loved, but be even more demanding of their success instead.
It might not sound like a bad thing, but the manager knew very well just how destructive the combination of overly high-expectations and ruthlessly harsh reality was, and how effectively it shattered the hopes and dreams of otherwise talented children.
But knowing was one thing, and preventing it was another. Not to mention that she couldn’t change Crystal’s mind, even if she could, the manager didn’t feel that she had the guts to try.
After all, Crystal represented not only herself, but also the will of her princess.
What if little Emi was the daughter her princess wanted to adopt, and this was all a test meant to ‘polish’ her to be more deserving of that position?
In the end, she could only turn to ‘little Emi’ with a sigh. “Emi! I know you’re pretty good at pretending not to be tired during practice, but how long can you hold on while fake fighting at your ‘full strength’? Be real with me, okay? No jokes!”
Emilia naturally wasn’t aware of the manager’s ‘deep’ thoughts, and only contemplated telling her the ‘truth’ just to see her reaction for a moment before rejecting that thought.
It wouldn’t be funny if her ‘director’ also joined in during the fight to beat her up, right? And she couldn’t very well just knock the woman out, or there’d be no one left to lead the staff!
She smiled. “An hour, I think?”
Although the manager thought that little Emi was probably being overly boastful, it was only to be expected. After all, which little girl didn’t want to blow her own horn with pride when given the chance?
But since little Emi mentioned she could hold on for an hour, letting her ‘fight’ for fifteen minutes should definitely not be a problem.
The manager decisively shook off any hesitation out of her mind. ‘In that case… I might as well do my best to make it all work!’
Nodding to herself, she patted the little girl on the head, much to the envy of everyone who was itching to do that but desperately resisting the urge. “Then just do as you like when they ‘attack’ you. You can go wild, really, as long as you don’t exhaust yourself.”
Obviously, it was impossible for a little girl to really hurt grown men in her eyes. Even if she ended up accidentally hitting a few in the crotch, it was their own fault as far as the manager was concerned.
After all, who told the opposing team to come on such short notice, and not even give any of them the chance to plan out some movements in advance?
Even if Crystal might have had something to do with the increased difficulty of little Emi’s first shoot, the manager refused to believe that the ‘attacking team’ didn’t make things worse.
‘Maybe it’s because of me, actually. Since I’m not ‘qualified enough’ in the eyes of many to be receiving this type of treatment from the White Deer’s leaders, I know many people must be jealous of me already!’
The more that the manager thought about it like this, the more it made sense, and she couldn’t help but be furious.
It had to be said that compared to skill, the coordination between actors was even more important when it came to making things look good on camera, and this ‘impromptu’ approach was sure to reduce the quality of her final work by more than a few degrees!
Not to mention, with limited footage and only one take, there was only so much that could be cut out and used for a final advertisement, and it would be a miracle if they could get a decent message out of it in the end.
It was impossible for the manager not to be mad.
If the beautiful relationship between a ‘parent’ and ‘child’ was to be ruined because of the petty jealousy of a bunch of idiots, she would definitely smash their heads in with a chair!
Unfortunately, her heated head cooled down almost immediately when the ‘actors’ finally turned the corner on the street heading their way. Even if none of them were rushing, the sheer aura of danger and fury that palpated off of their bodies invisibly almost made her breath hitch in fear.
Even the ‘well-prepared’ staff was momentarily stunned by the menacing energy rolling off of the gangsters before they managed to stabilize themselves and focus back on their work.
The spiky bats and knives might look scary, but in the end they were just harmless props, and these people had already been paid by the higher-ups for the shoot.
Just a bunch of ‘extras’, what was there to be scared of?
Luckily, the gangsters couldn’t hear their thoughts, or some of them might have suffered quite an aneurysm from sheer anger.
As it was, they were just slightly surprised at the fact that no one was scared into pissing themselves on the spot upon noticing their arrival, and many even dared to point cameras their way, but they soon scoffed in disdain.
Did these idiots think that the Blue Hydra wouldn’t dare do anything to them under the threat of the camera? Or did they believe that they could seek justice later even if something happened?
Whatever the case might be, their thoughts were just incredibly naïve.
Not to mention that a recording could be easily destroyed before it ever got anywhere it shouldn’t, even if the whole thing was being live streamed, there wasn’t much that the Blue Hydra needed to fear.
No matter how unreasonable or unpredictable the Empress of Blue Dawn might be, she couldn’t possibly charge into Carmen with her army just to settle the grievances of a bunch of nobody losers, right?
“You bunch of losers! Since you idiots don’t know what’s good for you and refuse to pay the price for working here to our Blue Hydra, it’s time to teach you morons a painful lesson!”
With a nod from the boss, the gang quickly started splitting into three groups, not wanting to allow anyone to escape in the chaos that was sure to follow after their first strike, but Emilia naturally had no intention of allowing them such an opportunity.
If the gang really split up and started attacking multiple people at the same time, it would definitely make her task multiple times more difficult!
Not to mention the overly confident gangsters, even the ‘eight super weapons’ and the leader himself only saw a blur of crimson, followed by a muffled bang.
Blue Hydra’s leader found it a little strange that suddenly all he could see was the wide blue sky, and it was only when he felt the tangy, metallic taste of blood rapidly filling his mouth that he realized that something must have hit him. “Y-You cowards, h-how dare you sneak attack me?!”
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