Chapter 183: Recording Progress

Henry held a screwdriver in one hand and bit down on a penlight, silent. If he didn't have this skill, would Gigg have bothered teaching him his secrets—and acted so familiar?

Precisely because this old relic was understood by so few, Henry had this chance to draw closer to Gigg.

For a Kryptonian who had studied audio equipment and hand-built a home-theater-grade sound system in his rented apartment, repairing this vintage mixer wasn't a problem at all.

The wiring of this mixer was so chaotic not only because the original builder had bad habits, but because the mixer had been modified multiple times.

Subsequent modifications seemed designed to retaliate against the original builder's mess—each modifier refused to tidy the wiring, instead adding their own tangle, making the chaos worse.

Seeing this, Henry dared not rashly cut all the wires and rewire them neatly. Wire length affects sound quality—even if the effect is minuscule, those who can hear will notice.

Gigg kept using this mixer not only because the company couldn't afford to replace it with a new, high-quality one, but because this vintage unit performed no worse than expensive new mixers.

Under these circumstances, preserving its original state was the best choice.

The reason the knobs no longer worked was indeed, as Henry had first suspected, poor contact. Loose screws, aged wiring, brittle plastic casings—all caused the mixer's failure.

The fix was simple: tighten the loose screws; the copper-core wiring wouldn't degrade. Just rewrap the casing with insulating tape—so long as no wires shorted against each other, it would suffice.

And with this mess, there was no need to consider magnetic interference between wires—those weak fields were already a tangled knot, repulsive to anyone who saw them.

When Henry crawled out from under the mixer's base, Gigg's ugly face wasn't surprising—but Audrey and Deborah were both watching the Kryptonian who had just repaired the machine.

"Fixed?" Audrey Hepburn asked. "We're ready to record."

"Boss, it's fixed," Henry said to the sound engineer. "Gigg, test it. If it's good, let's begin."

Gigg, wearing headphones, adjusted the previously unresponsive controls. Once everything checked out, he gave Henry a thumbs-up.

"OK, let's start." Henry reinstalled the base panel and took his seat as assistant. Audrey Hepburn entered the recording studio, tested a few tones, and began today's recording session.

During recording, the sound engineer only needed to ensure the audio was captured correctly—there was little adjustment required. The producer, however, had to focus entirely on vocal performance to give timely feedback.

Even with Audrey Hepburn, a legend of the screen, Deborah Raffin dared not slack off. Don't assume a screen legend can nail every take in one go.

After each passage, Audrey herself would listen to her recording and discuss with Deborah whether the performance was appropriate.

For Deborah Raffin, an active actress, this was like a private masterclass from a screen legend. Though not a full acting tutorial, vocal delivery and psychological nuance were interconnected—so she couldn't help but give this work her full attention.

With nothing to do, Henry could comfortably sit aside and read. During recording, he had no tasks.

But Gigg, in this low-focus, distractible state, would seek conversation. If he started dwelling on his own affairs or became overly absorbed in external matters, it would harm the recording progress.

So during moments like this, Henry would chat quietly with Gigg.

Most often, Henry would also put on a pair of headphones—listening to Lady He Ben's voice while also catching Gigg's feedback on the recorded audio.

But today Henry asked about something else: "Gigg, do you know how Michael's progress is going?"

Gigg thought a moment, then replied: "Michael hired Lauro Schifflin as conductor and rented another large recording studio used by symphony orchestras. The rent there isn't cheap, and hiring the orchestra costs even more. He's keeping a tight eye on the schedule."

"According to the production plan, it should wrap up in the next day or two. Lady He Ben is also recording her final story—the Empress of the Pagoda. Once both are done, we can move to the next production phase."

Henry nodded. "Everything going smoothly—that's excellent."

"Any plans after this?"

"Lady He Ben must travel to the West Coast for medical treatment in early November. If we finish here smoothly, I'll likely stay in New York to see if any recording adjustments remain. By November, I'll have no time."

"Do Michael and Deborah know?" Gigg asked.

"Yes, I told them earlier," Henry explained. "When we started, we still had over a month. Considering the lady's health, we didn't schedule anything too intense."

"But we worried—if something unexpected delayed production and interfered with her medical appointment, what then? Now that everything's going smoothly, it's truly a relief."

Gigg made the sign of the cross over his chest. "The Lord watches over the good."

Henry was surprised. "You believe in God?"

"Don't you?"

The question left Henry stunned. Should he believe? Which god?

Faith demands reverence because it is unknowable, immeasurable, and inviolable. Distance creates beauty.

But this is the Marvel Universe—"gods" here aren't all benevolent. Better to believe in a dog than in those things.

Besides, I'm almost certainly a Kryptonian template. Even if I'm not Superman, the god among men, I'm at least a degraded version. What god could survive one of my punches?

But if you separate "faith" from "god," can't even a god among men have faith? Superman himself is as devoted as any believer—just not to a god, but to his own convictions.

So what is my own faith—or conviction?

……Certainly not something like "world peace." Even if World War III broke out and nuclear bombs rained down, Henry wouldn't lift a finger to stop it.

But he also lacked the drive to actively pursue anything.

Rarely, for the first time since arriving in this world as a Kryptonian, Henry confronted his own heart.

(End of Chapter)