Life would be so much easier if he could just break into places in real life. This was his conclusion he gradually reached during the past four days. He explored a total of five houses in the community in the ethereal realm , skipping the ones protected by the strange auras. He encountered creatures and spirits in three of them, but all of which were "regular" enemies and nothing like the painting.
All of these spirits and creatures appeared to have been influenced by the environment to a certain extent. For example, one of the spirits he encountered in a two-storey brick house with a castle-like design at the further end of the community all took the shape of medieval warriors and archers. But since he could only watch those houses from the outside, he had no way of further confirming this theory.
He reached level 4 and almost a third way to level 5, gaining two skill points. Since he had no access to the other skill trees, he assigned them to the next skill on the Confucianist Tree: "Scholar: increase experience gained, grant active skill 'Law of the Words'." With this newly granted active skill that cost two skill points, he finally had some means to attack at range. With it, Wu Xiaoming could utter words with basic, universal meaning and manifest energy attacks or shields in a certain area around him. After some experimentation, it seemed so far the words of "attack", "slash", "shield" and "up" were the most effective, which would manifest a small energy blast, a short ranged energy slash attack, a thin energy shield and lift a relatively light object up in the air and move in low speed, respectively.
Current currencies owned: 2331 Spirit Fragments, 45 Vision Slivers.
"Slash." Sitting in his room, Wu Xiaoming said to a piece of paper in front of him. A corner of the paper flew off, exposing a clean cut. He needed a time and a space of privacy to test how powerful the skill could be when he used his skills in the real world. But so far, it seemed that it was very noticeably less powerful than it was in the ethereal realm.
A vehicle parked in front of the house and honked. It was Douglass Kirkland, also known as Ke Daoji, a Chinese name gifted to him by Wu Wentao.
"Xiaoming! Douglass - " Wu Wentao came to Wu Xiaoming's door, just in time to meet him walking out, dressed and freshened up: "Oh, good! You look good!"
"Do I?" Wu Xiaoming scratched his head: "Thanks Dad. Hope I'll be good with the role today."
"It's just a cameo, so you'll be fine." Wu Wentao chuckled as he walked by Wu Xiaoming's side to the door: "It's half a day's work, at most. And you can take the time to get familiar with the feel of the studio again. "
"Of course." Wu Xiaoming took a deep breath as he opened the door.
"Hiyoo - time for a ride to Haoliwood!" Douglass Kirkland greeted them with a wide smile.
Haoliwood - a name so bizarre that Wu Xiaoming had to look into it the moment he got a chance. There was quite a lot of detailed information out there regarding where and how the name came about, and long story short, it came to be around twenty years ago, following three decades of decline of Hollywood. The inpour of Chinese capital led to huge inflow of Chinese population and corporate entities, and eventually a petition was filed and passed to rename Hollywood into Haoliwood.
To Wu Xiaoming, it was quite a ridiculous turn of events. But alas stranger things had happened already.
"So - nervous?" Douglass Kirk asked as he drove into a tunnel.
"A little, yes." Wu Xiaoming took a deep breath, trying to dig up memories from the previous Wu Xiaoming for any usable experience and knowledge to help him handle the whole situation. He accepted this gig just so he had something to do and some place to be other than his father's home. It shouldn't be that big a deal, yet he was still nervous when the time came.
"Well, don't worry, you've got the right experience." Douglass Kirkland took a quick glance at Wu Xiaoming before fixing his eyes forward: "And the director specifically asked for you, because he likes your personality and your style. So - relax, and try to impress, huh?"
"Sure - sure." Wu Xiaoming chuckled.
Before long, the familiar mountain appeared in Wu Xiaoming's sight. Several big white letters spelled out the name of the place: "Haoliwood".
Douglass Kirkland showed his personal badge to the gatekeepers two times as he drove into the Worldly Entertainment Corp studios, and one time they got to pass the gate just from the gatekeeper recognizing his personal license plate.
"There you go." They stopped in front of studio 31, with a few trailers parked out front. Douglass Kirkland handed Wu Xiaoming his badge: "Make us proud."
"Wait, what's the movie about again?" Wu Xiaoming smacked himself on the forehead and asked Douglass Kirkland.
Douglass Kirkland seemed slightly weirded out and concerned for a moment, but he still responded: "It's a TV show called 'The One Town Street', a paranormal cop show, horror comedy, kinda goofy. You'll play a goofy lunatic. Don't worry about the lines, they said there's room to improvise. So - have fun!"
"Alright, thank you." Wu Xiaoming gave Douglass Kirkland a thumbs up.
"Text me when you're done. I'll pick you up." Douglass Kirkland waved and drove away.
"Goofy lunatic." Wu Xiaoming pondered on the role, at the same time digging through the latent memories of the previous Wu Xiaoming to actually observe and absorb his "personal style".
The door to the studio opened before Wu Xiaoming could swipe his badge. A young woman wearing a headset over her short, slightly messy black hair was escorting another actor out of the studio: "... thank you for coming, we'll be in touch. Oh, hi!" She waved the actor, an older, slightly chubby man with gray hair away, then greeted Wu Xiaoming with a smile: "Mr. Wu! Thank you for coming! Great timing, your scene will start soon!"
Wu Xiaoming scratched his head: "Uhh - can I have a copy of the script? I think I left it in my agent's car - "
"Not a problem. We actually have a copy with your scene on it ready." The young woman took out three stapled pages from a folder under her left arm and handed them to Wu Xiaoming: "I'm one of the PAs, you can call me Christine. Let me show you the place to get ready, then I'll call you when it's your scene. Any questions for me?"
"Umm - no, not right now. Thank you!"
It only took less than twenty minutes for their clothes department and makeup artist to finish dressing up Wu Xiaoming. It was not that complex a job, really, since he would be basically playing "himself", just slightly unhinged.
And by unhinged, Wu Xiaoming could really call it so. Basically, his scene started where the main characters of the show, Kurtis, a goofy jokester of a psychic liaison of the LAPD, and Detective Lee, a clumsy female detective of the LAPD, went to a sketchy underground club to meet up with an informant at a bar. Wu Xiaoming would play a persistent alcohol salesman who kept pushing his alcohol with really strange ingredients. Then a gunfight broke out, and his character died trying to save his alcohol jars in the crossfire.
His script had basic dialogues, but with a few lines of notes here and there, some printed and some handwritten, instructing him to "be himself", "deliver with your own style". No wonder his father would want him to still do this cameo, this seemed like a perfect opportunity to get him back into acting.
"Mr. Wu, you're up in five!" The PA came to Wu Xiaoming while he was sipping a cup of coffee while reading the script.
In the scene, actor Thomas Lundt played the psychic liaison Kurtis, and actress Shelly West played the LAPD detective Lee. He was a tall man with black hair and a beautiful tan; she was a slightly shorter, red headed woman with light freckles. A really good looking pairing, really. No wonder the ratings were good even against stiff competition.
The informant was played by an actor unfamiliar to Wu Xiaoming. He seemed somewhat nervous, maybe he was a new actor.
The director, Timothy Manchester, was an artsy British man. Sitting in his chair, he announced as the main characters and the informant character were in position: "Action!"
Kurtis the psychic liaison and Detective Lee went into the bar, bickering. The informant was already sitting in front of the bar, sipping on a drink and shaking his leg.
"Hey, bud, how's it going?" Kurtis sat down to the informant's left, holding his shoulder.
"You the informant?" Detective Lee sat down to the informant's right, flashing her badge at him before hiding it back in her jacket.
"Well, yeah. I hope so." The informant shook his head, then knocked the bar table a few times with his fingers: "Cover my tab, will ya?"
"Shut it. Just tell us what we want to know." Detective Lee growled.
"If your story checks out, I'll buy you another." Kurtis followed with a curious tone.
A light lit up in front of Wu Xiaoming, this was his cue. He held the prop clay jar in his arms and snuck up behind them, slowly but in an exaggerated, dramatic voice: "Hey, my dear friends. I heard you're lookin' for a drink - "
"Cut." Timothy Manchester raised his hand. He put a plastic megaphone to his mouth: "Xiaoming, you're a little stiff. Relax a little. Remember, you're a slick, unhinged alcohol salesman."
"Understood." Wu Xiaoming shook his arms a few times.
"Let's do another take!" Timothy Manchester nodded.