009 It's me, Xiao Chen, your agent.

["Superstar System" reminder: Reputation +233,333]

[Host: Li Jie]

[Works: "The Vastness of Heaven," "The World's Best Mother," "Orchid Grass"...]

[Talents: Acting 38, Singing 25...]

[Reputation: 233,464,466]

Li Jie was overjoyed, lying on the empty bed of the deserted dorm in Jianye Art Academy, grinning from ear to ear. That damned system kept pushing him to shoot films every day—but to what end? Scrolling through Weibo, he saw his followers had surged by over 300,000. Li Jie felt like he was about to take off; next on the agenda was to start live-streaming and cash in, a delicious prospect.

But a gain of 300,000 followers had only translated into a little over 200,000 reputation points. Clearly, many people hadn't felt any real emotional stir. "The masses are too indifferent. I literally performed a 'shattering the darkness with thunder' and still—"

Sweeping through the comments, it was clear the "son-fans" who'd steadfastly trolled him for years had finally been disarmed. Li Jie immediately posted a Weibo response to his decade-old haters like "Brother Guo" and "Brother Forcer": "Let me clarify—yes, the 'Masked Man' was me. Handsome, right? Show your old man some respect from now on."

After posting, he switched apps to check "Big Thunder," intending to reward himself with a particularly striking, fair-skinned beauty, when suddenly a video call popped up on his chat app.

It was his wild-card agent, Brother Chen.

"What on earth is going on at a time like this?" he muttered.

Planning to abide by the principle that "life is movement," Li Jie considered ignoring it, but decided to answer Brother Chen's video call.

"Li-ge, are you okay?" came the greeting.

Li... ge?

Brother Chen's face was a picture of flattery. "Li-ge, we've got to seize this opportunity! There are over twenty interview requests, seven or eight program invitations, and a radio talk show lined up. Three years, Li-ge—three years, and we've finally glimpsed the dawn of victory!"

"Who the hell are you?"

"Aw, come on, Li-ge, you’re joking, right? It’s me, your agent, little Chen."

"Damn it, Chen, you have no shame."

"Of course! Can you eat shame for dinner? I still need eighty grand for my bride price!"

"Are you marrying the Princess of Turtle Island or what—eighty grand?"

"I don't expect a well-off guy like you to understand. That's the going rate!"

"You’d be better off letting someone else cultivate immortality—an immortal in their tribulation stage could offer a hundred 'Black-bone White Phoenix Pills' as dowry."

"Cut the crap. Where are you right now? I’m at your school gate, but the guard says enrollment hasn’t started yet. Where are you staying?"

"In the dorms—there are empty ones, so I’m squatting here for a few days."

"Come out, quick. We need to talk! We have to ride this wave of buzz to the fullest! When the 'Model Citizen' awards come around next year, we’ll hype things up again. And the mask you wore during the rescue—I’ve already talked to a toy factory. We’ll have prototypes tomorrow, and the day after, we’ll open a web shop and sell direct. That’s way better than endorsing counterfeit liquor, isn’t it?"

"Don’t move from the school gate. I’ll be right there."

...

There were a few others registering that day, but not many. Like Li Jie, they were staying in the empty dorms; most people on campus were returning upperclassmen busy with work.

Li Jie had styled his hair in a tousled look today, giving off a sharp, spirited vibe. Combined with his youthful yet masculine face, some of the older girls on campus immediately felt the need to walk with their legs squeezed shut when they saw him.

High school girls might not get it, but the women in college were worldly and experienced. It wasn’t just the older ladies at the gym who appreciated "Little Li’s" sparring services.

Sporting a pair of sunglasses and holding himself with perfect posture, he certainly looked the part.

But while the girls admired him from afar, the guys on campus were much more direct—they just walked right up.

"Damn, man, how did you train your arms? I feel like I’ve hit a plateau..."

"Bro, what’s your routine?"

"Whoa, those biceps! And those traps—damn!"

Ever obliging, Li Jie lifted his T-shirt, turned to the side, and revealed his abs.

The girls might not scream, but the guys’ exclamations of awe were endless.

"That symmetry, that definition—goddamn, you’re gifted, bro."

"Add me! Add me! Give me some tips sometime, seriously..."

When they learned Li Jie was a freshman, the upperclassmen were full of respect, promising to send any gigs his way in the future.

At Jianye Art Academy, students had plenty of ways to earn a living—if they didn’t go into the system, they had technical skills to fall back on. A guy like Li Jie was a "scarce commodity" in the scene—a "muscle hunk" with a natural physique was a rare find anywhere in the world.

He hadn’t gotten a single girl’s contact, but had added more than a dozen guys instead. A slight letdown, but not a total loss.

After this little episode, Li Jie arrived at the school gate and spotted Brother Chen hiding from the sun under the security booth eaves.

"Old Li!"

Brother Chen trotted over, fanning Li Jie with a plastic fan from a "women’s clinic." "Hot? Thirsty? Hungry? Let’s find a classy restaurant and draw up our grand commercial blueprint."

"What blueprint?"

"Tsk, there are tons of people looking for us to endorse their stuff now!"

Circling from Li Jie’s left to right, Brother Chen bowed and grinned. "The lowest is fifty grand, highest is two hundred fifty. The one offering two fifty is a local Pingjiang business, though they’ve been struggling lately, so that’s all they can manage."

"What do they do? Men’s fashion?"

"Nope. Personal intimate products," Brother Chen replied, dead serious.

"What the hell?"

"A six-in-one high-speed vacuum electric cup."

"..."

"Not a fan? No worries—there’s a two hundred grand one, for a multi-functional height-increasing insole..."

"..."

All bottom-feeder businesses, flexible on their morals.

And still, they managed to think of Li Jie first.

Eventually, the two found a restaurant—though Chen talked about going somewhere upscale, it turned out to be a fried chicken and cold drinks joint, and the clincher was he had a coupon for the place.

Life really isn’t easy.

They ate and chatted. It was clear that none of the endorsement deals were reliable, and Li Jie wasn’t desperate for the twenty or thirty grand anyway, so he turned them all down—though he kept the sample "high-speed vacuum electric cup" the manufacturer sent. No point in wasting it.

When they got to the subject of the mask, and Chen heard it was Li Jie’s own design, he slapped the table in delight. "Excellent! I was worried it was a knockoff and planned to sneak it in under the radar. But since it’s your own design, that’s perfect—I’ll up the factory’s order!"

Normally, small factories have a minimum order of five to ten thousand, but Chen, shameless as ever, placed an order for just a hundred to "test the market." Maybe it was because his business card read "Chen Pi, Planning Manager, Product Development Division Two, Pingjiang TV’s Tertiary Industry," but the factory was actually convinced.

Naturally, with a face as thick as his, he soon doubled the order for a total of two hundred units.

The factory manager on the other end could only curse his rotten luck...