Chapter 180: Entertainers, Actors, Singers, and Bards

"Hmph, do you truly intend to save this dragon hatchling?"

The Actor playing the Witch on stage let out a cold snort, slamming her staff hard against the ground.

"Ye-yes, I do."

The Young Girl named Liuliya spoke firmly, even though the fear in her eyes was hard to conceal.

"Good."

A trace of an Evil smile appeared on the Witch's face. She glanced at the Dragon Egg the Young Girl carried on her back and said softly, "Let us make a deal."

The two leads stood on the stage, their exquisite acting making people forget that this was merely a play.

The audience's breathing gradually grew shallow, their eyes unwilling to leave the stage for even a second.

"They are Transcendents of the 【Entertainer】 series; it looks like they are 【Actor】 professions of the Second Rank," Brenna whispered to Yun Mu.

"There are professions like this?" Yun Mu asked, feeling quite surprised by Brenna's words.

"Of course," William, who was nearby, whispered to her: "As long as a concept is recorded within the Ether, any mundane profession can achieve the pinnacle of the world."

"Transcendents of the 【Entertainer】 series gain power from the emotions invested by the audience."

"Could you explain this profession simply?" Yun Mu asked with some curiosity.

"No problem!" William nodded immediately.

"Unlike most incomplete professions created by unofficial organizations, the 【Entertainer】 series of Transcendental professions has a detailed advancement process from the first to the fourth rank."

"A First Rank Entertainer possesses stronger control over their body and flexibility, allowing them to complete performances that most ordinary people find difficult."

"Like most First Rank professions, Entertainers possess a certain degree of physical enhancement and melee ability, it's just that their combat style is... well, a bit special?"

When William said this, his expression became somewhat strange:

"Throwing flying knives or poison needles is understandable, but I have even seen people use playing cards as weapons. Besides that, there are those who hide blades under their shoes, throw firecrackers, or swing swords while riding a unicycle..."

O. o "I can only say that this certainly matches my impression of an entertainer," Yun Mu imagined that combat style in her mind.

It had to be said, although it was a bit flashy, it truly matched people's impression of street performers.

"Then what about the Second Rank Actor?"

She glanced at the play currently unfolding on the stage in the distance.

As a Transcendent, multitasking was not difficult for her at all; even while chatting here, she could record what was happening on stage.

"Actors are much more impressive," William also glanced at the Young Girl on the nearby stage and said, "An Actor's abilities are not fixed."

"They can use the abilities of characters they have played before, and the deeper the audience's impression of that character, the higher the intensity of the manifested ability."

"Therefore, every Transcendent with the Actor profession has a wide variety of abilities, and the strength of some characters will far exceed that of a normal Second-tier Transcendent."

"But conversely, once they are forgotten by their audience, the intensity of their abilities will drop significantly. That is why Actors of the Entertainer series need to frequently show their faces to the public and constantly perform in plays."

"Wouldn't they be easily targeted by official Transcendents then?" Yun Mu thought for a moment and asked.

"That's right, so most Transcendents of the Entertainer series are in a state of cooperation with us officials," William nodded.

"Just like the Painter Association."

"Oh~"

Yun Mu nodded in understanding, then refocused her attention on the stage.

Only at the end did she ask about the Expert-level and Master-level profession names of the 【Entertainer】 series.

Singer and Bard? Truly an eye-opener.

To think there are such professions that rely on the audience to gain power. I wonder if this world also gets the internet in the future, will these professions see even greater development? Without dwelling on it further, Yun Mu, along with Brenna, settled in to enjoy the play on stage.

The Witch named Paduola made a deal with the Young Girl Liuliya, choosing to help her remove the Curse on the Dragon Egg.

But this Curse was extremely vicious; even the Witch Paduola could only suppress it, unable to remove it completely.

In order to allow the dragon hatchling in the Dragon Egg to be born successfully, Paduola told the Young Girl that she could use a contract to transfer the Curse that leaked from the seal every day into the Young Girl's body.

This way, the dragon hatchling in the Dragon Egg would not be affected by the Curse.

However, this was only a temporary solution, because once the Young Girl died, those Curses transferred into her body would still flow back into the hatchling.

And according to the terms of the deal, after the Young Girl and the dragon hatchling in the Dragon Egg died, everything belonging to the Young Girl, as well as the Dragon Egg, would belong to the Witch Paduola.

"This Witch is actually quite a nice person," Yun Mu couldn't help but remark upon seeing this.

She clearly only needed to do nothing and let the hatchling be killed by the Curse to obtain the materials from the Dragon Egg, yet she insisted on completing it through a 'deal'.

Could it be that in this era, stage play directors have already discovered the 'tsundere' attribute!?

"It is not too late to regret it now," the Witch Paduola said, looking at the Young Girl shivering in the center of the Ritual.

"No." Hearing her words, Liuliya just shook her head faintly and said, "Please perform the Ritual."

"Fine, you asked for this."

The Witch Paduola said with some helplessness, and then began to perform the Ritual.

She held her staff high, chanting an unknown Curse under her breath.

A gust of cold Wind suddenly blew through Warm Snow Park, causing all the audience members present to shrink their necks involuntarily.

The Ritual proceeded very smoothly, and the Curse in the Dragon Egg was successfully suppressed by the Witch Paduola. However, unexpectedly, after the special effect smoke on the stage dissipated:

The images of the two leads appearing before everyone had undergone a heaven-shaking change.

The Young Girl Liuliya's pupils turned into beast pupils, and tough dragon scales grew on her body; behind her spine, a slightly plump tail even appeared.

However, before people could feel surprised at the change in the Young Girl Liuliya's image, the Witch Paduola on the other side had transformed from a short, terrifying Witch with a face full of wrinkles.

She had turned into a graceful young woman with a slender figure, wearing a black short dress, High Heels, and a Witch hat adorned with a star pendant.

"Did the Transformation Spell fail?" the Witch Paduola muttered in a voice that all the audience members present could hear.

Snap!

With a light snap of her fingers, the Witch Paduola's figure gradually shrank, then returned to the appearance the audience had seen at the very beginning.

And the beast pupils, dragon scales, and dragon tail on the Young Girl Liuliya also gradually faded away.

When these features belonging to the dragon all vanished, as if all her strength had been drained away, the young girl Liuliya collapsed onto the ground and immediately fell unconscious.

The plot of the first act ended here; because the stage was simple, no curtain was drawn. The staff members simply turned off the lights and began to set up the props needed for the next act.

"Were those just now... illusions?"

Taking advantage of this gap, Yun Mu asked Brenna, who was at her side.

During the so-called ritual just now, and when the witch Paduola snapped her fingers, she had sensed a faint fluctuation of Spirituality.

In other words, the transformation of the witch Paduola, as well as the dragon scales that grew on the young girl Liuliya, were not special effects on the stage.

They were illusions created using Supernatural power!

"It's not an illusion; it's a Transformation Spell." Before Brenna could speak, William, who was to the side, spoke up first.

"I didn't mean to interrupt, it's just..." Looking at the gazes of Yun Mu and Brenna directed at him, William explained with a guilty conscience: "I actually know those two lead actresses."

"They are a pair of sisters. The older sister's name is Aisanni—she is the actor playing the witch—and the younger sister is the heroine Liuliya, whose real name is Luonuola."

"As far as I know, Aisanni has a mage character who can use a clumsy Transformation Spell, capable of changing the appearance of a person or object, but at any given time, it can only be effective on one unit."

"That character is the one she played when she advanced to an Elite actor. The drama's content is mainly about an ugly man who uses a Transformation Spell to change his appearance to fall in love with the heroine, only to be discovered after the true appearance under the Transformation Spell is revealed, yet the other party still refuses to leave him, and he eventually accepts himself."

"Just now, she must have used the Transformation Spell to change her younger sister's appearance, which is why the Transformation Spell on her was dispelled."

"Using Supernatural power like this, aren't they afraid of being discovered by those ordinary people?" Yun Mu asked with some curiosity.

"Of course not." William chuckled softly and said: "Normal people rarely think in that direction, and the clever people of Winter City will always come up with various reasonable explanations themselves."

He paused, looked toward the top of the stage, and said: "It's just that I didn't expect to see them both here."

"If I'm not mistaken, they probably want to shape two more powerful characters this time..."

"A young girl with the power of a dragon and a mysterious, powerful Black Witch?" Yun Mu recalled the plot at the end of that scene just now and quipped.

The heroine, in the process of receiving the curse from the Dragon Egg, instead gained the ability for her body to dragonize.

What kind of "overpowered protagonist from another world" plot development is this?

"I think you guys are a bit too ahead of your time. jpg" "I think it's quite interesting," Brenna commented at this moment.

"Although the twist in the final scene felt a bit stiff due to insufficient foreshadowing, this way of bringing a large amount of information impact to the audience in a short time can indeed make people feel refreshed."

"And since the first act of the play happens to end here, I think the vast majority of people will want to stay here and wait for the second act to begin."

"I get it, a cliffhanger at a critical moment; I'm very familiar with this," Yun Mu said with a look of reminiscence on her face.

Whether it was when she was drawing doujinshi back then, or when she was making empty promises to her fans, she had used similar techniques.

Actually, it wasn't that she deliberately stopped there to whet the fans' appetites.

It was just that at the time, the content for one chapter was already finished, and the page count was already enough!

If she kept drawing, every extra page would be her own loss! Naturally, she could only stop there.

Therefore, whether a cliffhanger occurs depends entirely on luck and has nothing to do with her subjective thoughts.

Really, if you don't believe it, you can look at her sincere eyes through the screen and the text.

Heh~ "The second act is starting."

At this moment, Yun Mu, who possessed Dark Vision, noticed the scene change on the stage and spoke.

As the second act began, it was on a road in the wilderness.

Against the backdrop of a forest, a carriage with one wall removed so that the audience could clearly see the interior of the carriage was slowly 'driving' along the road.

"Hmph, finally awake?" The witch Paduola sat opposite, looking at the young girl Liuliya who had just woken up from the carriage seat, and said.

"Th-this is..."

The young girl Liuliya looked around in a daze, and only after noticing that the Dragon Egg beside her was perfectly fine did she let out a sigh of relief.

"Tsk." Noticing Liuliya's expression and actions, Paduola curled her lips in disdain.

"This is the road to the Tifeng Kingdom. According to my investigation, the guy who cast the curse on that Dragon Egg should be within that country."

"Don't forget," Paduola reminded Liuliya: "As long as the curse has not been removed, the curse transferred to you will only increase."

"You feel like it's nothing now, but when you are truly about to die, that dead Dragon Egg will belong to me."

Perhaps to show off the strength of the witch Paduola, Liuliya had another conversation with the witch Paduola here.

"Um, if I die, what will you do with this Dragon Egg?" Liuliya looked at the Dragon Egg with some worry.

"If you are killed by the curse, the young dragon inside this Dragon Egg won't survive either," Paduola explained.

"A dead Dragon Egg doesn't have much meaning to me, but by reviving it as an Undead, it can give birth to a young bone dragon..."

"If it is cultivated for a while, it wouldn't be impossible for it to grow into a complete bone dragon."

Speaking of this, Paduola smiled eerily and said: "Of course, I could also cultivate your corpse into an Undead Knight; by then, you two could even fight side by side..."

"Hehehe."

Liuliya: "... Th-thank you for your kindness, but I think I'll pass."

"By the way, if an actor's character can punch a planet to pieces and this character is very popular, what happens if they use this character's abilities?"

Hearing the witch Paduola talk about summoning a bone dragon, Yun Mu suddenly thought of something and asked the two people beside her.

"Nothing will happen."

Brenna said calmly.

"In the story plot, a character's power is inevitably different from the power a Transcendental can truly exert."

"It's just that in some specific settings, it cannot be changed."

"For example, the setting that the witch lady's Transformation Spell can only be effective on one target at a time is clearly something that cannot be changed."

PS: The Transcendental settings of the 【Artist】 series are also very interesting.

When I was first writing the book, I also considered whether to use this series of professions as the protagonist's profession.

But later, I thought about it, and an illustrator is more suitable.

So, let's leave this profession to the supporting characters.

(End of chapter)