Chapter 590 - 288: Ominous Premonition (Part 2)
On the second day after assisting Zhu Mengtong in mastering telekinesis, Su Jiameng received an urgent message from Changxi. It stated that the Fifth Legion, led by Yun Cuixi, was three days away from their target, meaning that in three days she would once again embark on the mission to collect the Nine Dragon Bead...
Cough, cough, the grand path of slaying the nine members! She had prepared thoroughly for this day, so in the remaining three days, she didn’t need to hurriedly prepare anything but could instead relax and adjust her state of mind...
"Master, aren’t you planning to take Qian Chen with you this time? Zhu Mengtong has already developed her telekinesis abilities and is not to be underestimated in combat. As for Qiu Yexuan, she’s very clever and could be a great help if taken along." Changxi saw Su Jiameng intending to set off alone and couldn’t help but frown, "This journey is different from before, Master can’t be careless."
"I understand, but I don’t want to take any of the three with me." Su Jiameng propped her chin with her hand, speaking in a deep voice, "Qian Chen is talented, Zhu Mengtong’s telekinesis potential is high, and Qiu Yexuan was someone I favored from the start... This journey is indeed dangerous, even I can’t guarantee my own safety, why take them along to court death or meet their demise?"
"Even so, however..." Changxi wanted to say more but was directly interrupted by Su Jiameng, who now held a small box secured with multiple complex password locks. "Master... what is this?"
"If anything happens to me, I’m entrusting you and Su Mo to take care of the two little ones, and as for the contents of this box... once the Insect Race shows themselves, hand this over to Qiu Yexuan, she has the capability to crack the code."
Su Jiameng had selected some items from the data library and copied them onto a portable disk, then locked it in this small box. She had mentioned long ago that Qiu Yexuan was her chosen "successor," and after observing for some time, she found Qiu Yexuan to be qualified for this role.
Changxi sighed and said, "Every time Master undertakes such dangerous tasks, there’s always some ’last words’ to be entrusted. I just hope that this time will be as smooth as usual, kill those two, and safely come back."
Su Jiameng smiled and said, "I think so, too. This life of mine is quite tenacious... as they say, the good die young while the scourge lives a thousand years, my life is so resilient that even those sewer cockroaches can’t compare."
Changxi nodded, trying hard to ignore the ominous feeling rising in his heart. The master and servant discussed the matter for a while, and midway through, Su Jiameng received a private invitation from K3.
It turned out the television adaptation of that novel had already begun filming, and the first episode’s edited footage was completed... It’s undeniable that the efficiency in the Future Interstellar era is startlingly high. K3’s private message was to invite Su Jiameng to the set to see the actors’ performances...
After all, it’s a script adapted from a novel, and the first episode doesn’t start from infancy but uses a reverse narrative technique, starting from the end and going backward.
The first scene depicts the adult Mr. Su piloting a mecha defending against the Insect Race. The battlefield is rendered extremely realistically. The wails and greedy screams of the Insect Race, the falling wreckage of mechas, the rampaging terror species, even the mauling of Alliance Warrior corpses...
Fortunately, it’s the Future Interstellar era of advanced speech and the internet. Had it been the Earth Era, putting aside how special effects would look, the content alone would have been obliterated by the forces of censorship. Moreover, what shocked Su Jiameng was that the adult Mr. Su’s performer was a strikingly attractive woman, yet she was wrapped in thick bandages for the scene, without even showing her face...
Additionally, her mecha-piloting technique seemed competent, and with post-production treatment, she was packaged as quite the expert.
Though she never showed her face from start to finish, the adult Mr. Su’s gaze during battles, and her expressions of pain, bewilderment, and final determination facing the devastated battlefield were portrayed remarkably well.
This scene was brief, only three to four minutes, but the editing was meticulous, even ending with a voice-over of Mr. Su’s self-penned epitaph, her voice not being melodious like most women but hoarse and a bit jarring...
"Is this... dual-line filming?" Su Jiameng naturally knew that at the beginning of the series, the long part was played by a girl actress, and another actress for the adulthood. Now she saw the edited clips featuring an adult narrative...
"Yes, shooting the girl and adult periods simultaneously, which is necessary because post-production and editing take considerable time. This approach at least guarantees the quality and pace of filming. Xiao Meng, are you satisfied with the adult actor?"
Faced with K3’s question, Su Jiameng answered honestly, "Very satisfied, much better than I expected."
In comparison to the adult version of Mr. Su, performing the role in the girl period required equally high acting skills. The actress playing this role was a sweet-looking young girl. Due to age and experience limitations, and high director demands, she frequently failed to meet expectations, causing the progress rate to be much slower than the adult group. Currently, the online promotional videos have been released, with more focus and fervor on the adult perspective than the girl’s.
Su Jiameng didn’t pay attention to this, only having heard vaguely that the response was quite good, attracting a pack of enthusiastic young men...
Perhaps intuitively sensing this, Su Jiameng, aiming not to leave an eternal unfinished work, has been updating at a very high frequency lately, with each devoted reader waking up every day to see seventy to eighty thousand words of updates, a complete delight.
The plot progression is increasingly nerve-wracking, with betrayal, defections, life-and-death struggles, infiltration into the Star Thief Circle as a spy, and the people and events encountered therein, interwoven with various conspiracies that appear orderly yet are intricately interconnected...
Su Jiameng ultimately chose to obscure the player and online game world segment, disguising it with another subtle narrative reconstruction.
A reader, observing this phenomenon, felt both happy and somewhat worried, then spoke prophetically.
He said, "According to the writer Sang’s tendencies, I bet it’s a ’reward first then strike’ rhythm. With it being this satisfying now, surely a price is to be paid sooner or later. I feel like the end is still... sigh, a long way off, can someone tell me if this is just my imagination?" (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to qidian.com to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)