Director of a Suspense Film

Ch12.1 – Our First Time Filming

　　Zong Qi crawled out of bed early in the morning. 

　　After he finished showering and putting his clothes on, he put some bread and water into his bag and found the clock just turning 6. 

　　It was his first time filming after all. Even if the system told him he didn’t have to pay for his living or eating expenses, Zong Qi wasn’t sure if it included supper or not. So just in case it didn’t, he brought along two simple outfits and emergency food for himself.

　　“Xiao Hong, time to go!” 

　　After finishing everything, Zong Qi turned back and called out to his only worker. 

　　Perhaps it was because he had bought back a bunch of delicacies on his way back from Jiang Zhou University, but the red-dressed ghost had a much better attitude towards him now. 

　　After enjoying the delicious medium-rare steak and roasted chicken Zong Qi made for her, Xiao Hong grudgingly agreed to the company’s request to bring her to the movie as an assistant. 

　　There is no delicacy in the world that can’t bribe a human or ghost. If there is, then just give them more! 

　　Unfortunately, part of Xiao Hong’s throat had been burnt and she couldn’t speak anymore, otherwise, Zong Qi would’ve asked her about the Actor System thing. (t/n: i realise author3 likes using the animal ‘it’ while describing Xiao Hong but im too used to regarding it as a girl so we’re just gonna stick with she)

　　“Gakjndobcvd.” 

　　Hearing his voice, Xiao Hong flew over in a flash, sticking herself to the back of his head like a wave of black mist. If you stared carefully at the ground, you could see a light, shapeless shadow next to Zong Qi’s. (t/n: also im sorry if i use 1st person sometimes my novel is in 1st person and i got too used to it LMAO)

　　AKA— Ushiro. (t/n: ushiro means behind in jp)

　　Zong Qi had studied the book the system sent him very thoroughly and found that it contained almost all the basics a director needed to know. 

　　For example, the director’s assistant must not appear on camera so Zong Qi had to make sure Xiao Hong was always hidden or his points would get deducted.

　　The assistant could only help through indirect actions and couldn’t directly go and affect the plot of the movie. So Xiao Hong would only follow beside him in the form of an Ushiro in order not to be seen, otherwise she’ll give everyone a fright. 

　　As he walked out of his door’s threshold, Zong Qi found his shadow shaking slightly, a darker shadow flashing within it as if it was excited to finally leave the house. 

　　According to Qi Ningzhou, Xiao Hong was a fierce ghost that was tied to one place. Unless she decided to run to the ends of the Earth to kill someone with her resentment on them, she couldn’t take a single step out of the apartment. 

　　It was obvious how excited she was after finding out she could stick onto the back of Zong Qi’s head and go outside. 

　　Seeing Xiao Hong today, who was completely different from the arrogant and cold one from yesterday, Zong Qi smiled. 

　　He closed the door and skipped towards the elevator. 

　　“This will be our first time filming, let’s do our best!” 

　　……

　　The sky was littered with dark grey clouds as if about to rain. 

　　[You have reached your destination, activating Directing Rights…] 

　　Zong Qi changed a few buses and made it to the film set of ‘Desolate Village’ just on time at 8.30.

　　This was basically the outskirts of Jiang Zhou city already, the roads littered with broken, old houses. 

　　When he got off the bus, thin drops of water were already drizzling from the sky. 

　　There was a blondie standing under a broken road stand, a cigarette hanging off their mouth, “You new here?” 

　　At this time, even the 996 outcasts[1] were on their way to the inside of the city, not a lot of people would rush to come to the outskirts. As one of the few people, Zong Qi stood out particularly much. 

　　He grabbed the bag on his back and walked over, greeting respectfully, “Hello.” 

　　While doing so, he looked through the person’s information through the text on his pupil.

　　[Actor Name] Blondie

　　[Actor ] D-rank 

　　[Represented work] None

　　I didn’t expect their name to actually be Blondie… Zong Qi’s palms started sweating. 

　　But since they were a D-rank actor, they must have participated in at least one Major Plot. 

　　Actors and Directors were different. Without the invitation of a Director, Actors were only capable of filming Major Plots instead of Improvised Plots[2] or Minor Plots. In other words, the latter two were just Directors forcing them to work for money. 

　　“Are you guys actors too?” 

　　Hearing their conversation, a timid man wearing a blue shirt quickly opened his mouth, stuttering, “What’s going on? The app suddenly installed itself on my phone and told me to come today or else…” 

　　Thinking about the dreams he had about not being able to make it in time and being turned into meatball soup, the fear he suppressed rose once again. 

　　The nightmare was so realistic he could still remember the feeling of being ground into meatballs. So realistic that… he might have really become a meatball if he didn’t come. 

　　It wasn’t just the blue shirt man, the youth also had a pale face. On the other hand, the white-dressed woman looked much calmer. 

　　Both of them were E-rank Actors just like Zong Qi. This meant that they have never participated in a Major Plot before and were just newbies the system just contracted. To see such supernatural happenings, being afraid wasn’t much of a surprise. 

　　“Stop shaking already.” 

　　Blondie cut the blue shirt man off in annoyance, “Everyone’s going through this, you’re not special.” 

　　It was just like Zong Qi had assumed. There were dozens of people other than him that had a system like his. 

　　It was just that the others seemed to have an Actor System and not a Director System. 

　　Who knew where the Actor System came from? 

　　This mysterious system was like a nightmare. From forcibly downloading the app seemingly without reason, to forcibly contracting the chosen person. 

　　The people chosen were all full of oddities, coming from all sorts of occupations and large company shareholders, there were even people without a job and university students that haven’t entered society yet. It was like they threw a dice for the billions of people on Earth and chose the one it landed on. 

　　And after being contracted, they had an additional identity— Actor. 

　　The system knew everything about them. It’d arrange work for them on their leisure days and with the power of gacha, it’ll assign them different movies to act in. 

　　If they don’t follow the system’s information and go to their crew, they’ll die in any accident they can have in the next 24 hours. 

　　But it wasn’t just any movie that made them shiver in fear like this.

　　It was because… This was a horror movie in reality! 

　　Within the filming period, there could be any terrifying existence ranging from ghosts to murderers. During the filming, actors were capable of dying from all sorts of accidents. 

　　But the moment they die on set was the moment they die in real life. And most of these deaths were terrible, painful deaths. 

　　“Wait, I have a question.” 

　　Zong Qi raised his hand quietly. 

　　He wasn’t going to reveal his identity as a Director, but he wanted to find out the differences in the Actor and Director systems, so he could only use the strategy of ‘20 questions’. 

　　“Do we get rewards if we successfully finish the movie?” 

　　“A reward? At most, you’ll be able to get a better physique. After filming once, you won’t get sick as easily. It’s better than nothing, I guess. Of course, it’s a different question if you want to accumulate your rewards. B-rank and above actors can get lucky while filming and receive special equipment… But these things occurred about 1 time out of 10 and some things you can’t unlock until your rank is high enough. You can only find out what high-rank actors receive after becoming one yourself.” 

　　Blondie stomped on the cigarette, “All in all, the only goal you should have while filming is to stay alive.”

　　hearing this, the blue shirt man’s face paled further. 

　　He gripped the umbrella in his hand tightly, frightened to the point his soul left his body. 

　　Zong Qi stood at the side and revealed a pitiful expression. 

　　Not only are these people with Actor Systems forced to film movies, but they don’t even get paid? It’s too terrible, the actor system should hang together with the capitalists! 

　　“Don’t be scared, everyone.” 

　　The man that just silently observed finally opened his mouth, “Did you all see the newbie guide the system sent you? This is just a low-level horror movie, it won’t be hard to survive as long as you act properly.” 

　　He stood with his back straight, head shaved into a buzzcut and was the same as Blondie, D-rank. 

　　At first glance, he looked much more normal compared to Blondie, a lieutenant’s aura surrounding him.  

　　Hearing the words ‘it won’t be hard to survive’, a few of them let out a breath of relief and waited for him to continue. 

　　“Since everyone’s here, we’ll be together for the next week so let’s get to know each other a bit. My codename is Fixer, feel free to ask me if you have any questions.” 

　　Seeing Fixer starting with a friendly introduction, the tallest man of the group scratched his head sheepishly, “My codename is Godsend… Don’t laugh, I really thought I was the chosen one back then.” (t/n: IM SORRY IM BAD AT NAMES OK)

　　Talking about this, Godsend felt a little depressed. 

　　He had been deep in his chuunibyo back then, so when he made a contract with the Actor System, he wasn’t afraid at all, instead, he was pretty excited. He woke up early in the morning to rush here only to find that it wasn’t for him to walk up to the gates of Heaven where he could rule the world, rather, it was something that could take his life at any time. It was really unlucky. 

　　“Anyways, you big bosses have to help us out a bit. I’m nimble with my hands and can do basically everything. I definitely won’t go south if you tell me to go north!” 

　　After Godsend’s introduction, the depressing atmosphere lightened slightly, and the others all introduced themselves simply. 

　　The white-dressed sister said softly, “My codename is Anna.” 

　　Her back was pretty straight, although tensed with fear, it was clear that she’d had etiquette classes. 

　　Next, everyone looked at Zong Qi.

　　The black-haired youth looked handsome, so handsome that even the eye-catching Anna wanted to look at him a bit more. 

　　It was also because of this did the blue shirt man shoot out of his chair, “Wait wait wait. Aren’t you that supernatural streamer that went to the mental hospital?!” 

[1] The 996 working hour system (Chinese: 996工作制) is a work schedule practiced by some companies in the People’s Republic of China. It derives its name from its requirement that employees work from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, 6 days per week; i.e. 72 hours per week https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/996_working_hour_system 

[2] I’ve decided(bless my stupid brain) to change improvisational theatre to Improvised Plot to fit the other terms. Also cuz improv theatre is long as fuck and its annoying and i have to change it so the story flows better half of the time