Chapter 0036: The Play (1/2)

Back in his apartment, he checks his quests tab.

<Quests>

[Main Quest: Entrepreneur]

[Side Quest: No lonely bitches here]

[Side Quest: She belongs on the streets]

[Side Quest: No Heartbeat]

[Side Quest: Shy Roseate (!)]

[Side Quest: Income source]

[Daily Quest: Shape up]

[Daily Quest: Learn to defend]

[Completed Quests… (!)]

}

‘It worked! Fuck this just makes completing these quests so much easier.’

He focused on the completed quests tab, completely ignoring the unseen quest.

[Completed Quests:

]

[Side Quest: Get that girl (Completed) (!)

You met a cute Tsundere who’s a perfect girlfriend in any situation. At least when she’s acting as one. If you like her, then go get her.

Objective: Get Chizuru Ichinose to agree to be your girlfriend.

Rewards: Specialized Entertainment Industry Knowledge (Includes basics of related trade skills.)]

‘I’m curious about the stuff that I get from this. This knowledge isn’t some trade or some skill-related knowledge.’

’I should be getting all kinds of information about the entirety of the entertainment industry from this. I doubt that it’s going to include information about the peak of the field in the future like the AI and ML knowledge pack.’

‘Enough speculation, let’s just get it over with. I want to see if this stuff is going to help out Chizuru in some way or not. It isn’t going to do much for me unless I open up a sister company for Nexus Tech that focuses on the industry… That’s not a bad idea. I’ll think about it later.’

Already familiar with the experience, he lies down on the bed and chooses to accept the knowledge.

This time it took him around 6 hours to complete the process.

When he woke up he realized that this knowledge wasn’t just valuable, it was priceless. He knew about most of the history of the entertainment industry starting from its conception up to now. His head was filled with so much knowledge that he could easily predict any trend related to the trade.

Although he couldn’t act or direct like a pro. His theoretical knowledge was higher than any living person on the planet.

He knew almost all of the major people that were related to the industry in some way or the other. At this point, he was doubting how the system was even able to cram so much information into his head.

Sadly for Chizuru though, didn’t get any information about the play or that specific director who wanted to cast someone from the play. It was probably because people had to fulfill certain criteria to be considered relevant to the industry. And that director wasn’t.

‘Even if this play doesn’t pan out for her, I’m sure that I could easily help her make an award-winning movie by myself. Although I hope that the play does work out for her… With the amount of hope that she seems to be putting on this… Who knows how devastated she’d be if she failed.’

…

Soon, a few weeks after the talk with Chizuru, It was time for Kazuya’s app to get launched.

He’d gotten all the approvals and set up everything that he’d need to run the AI perfectly.

’The Alpha build will be launched tomorrow. I need to do some marketing to get people to use the app. In ideal conditions, it should take about a week to finish the testing and training of the AI algorithm. At that point, I can launch the beta build to look around the nooks and crannies and fix those issues. I should be able to finalize the complete launch of the app by the end of March at the latest.’

‘I should just look for a company with cheap labor to work on testing the alpha build of the AI, marketing it right now wouldn’t be that efficient.’

‘I need someone to manage my company… Guess I should start looking for people. The kind of people that I need aren’t the ones who’ll just run over to interview at a new startup business. I need to look for a decent person who’ll do well as my CEO.’

Kazuya put these thoughts to the back of his head as walked to the Tokyo Ensemble Theatre. Chizuru had already given him his ticket beforehand.

He was both curious and excited to see Chizuru’s play, especially with his newly acquired knowledge related to the entertainment industry. He’ll be able to gauge Chizuru’s chances of being selected based on her performance.

He was also curious about the director that was attending the play.

When he finally reached the place, he directly went in since he had the ticket and entered the theatre, the play would be starting in 10 minutes.

He was here early to observe the people and see if he could gleam some information.

5 minutes passed while he was looking around in the audience. He’d already found the director since he was the only one who seemed to be receiving some sort of VIP treatment. There was no separate area for VIPs in this theatre but there were people around him acting subservient and bringing him things.

The guy seemed to be in his 50s or 60s with long white hair.

‘He seems like the type of guy who’d go for the party that gives him more benefit. I remember Chizuru mentioning that the female lead has some sort of sponsor. I guess, that this play just wasn’t meant to be the big break for her after all.’

Kazuya sighed when he realized what kind of director Chizuru was trying to deal with here.

‘Though this is good too. Who knows what kind of stuff this kind of director world force Chizuru to do since she’s a newbie actress? Especially someone as beautiful as her. A director has far too much sway over a newbie’s career. The poor girl would be forced to choose between her dream and her dignity. It needs to be the right person.’

‘I can’t do anything about this for now so I’ll just watch the play and enjoy her performance. I hope she does well. I’ll be there to cheer her up after this…’

As Kazuya was lost in his thoughts, his supposed plus one, to whom Chizuru had given her other ticket, had arrived.

“Sumi?” Kazuya looks at the cute pink-headed girl in front of him.

Seeing Kazuya look at her she put her face down and put her hands together in what he thought was a bow of greeting.

“Still shy, huh? Come on take a seat.”

“Than… Kazu…san.” Her voice is so low that Kazuya isn’t able to hear her words completely, but does understand what she wanted to say.

“You’re welcome.”

Kazuya knows that she’s shy about talking too much so he doesn’t try to engage her in small talk, waiting in silence for the play to start.

Soon, the lights dim slightly and the curtains finally start opening up, revealing a group of figures standing on the stage.

’The scene has started…’

The main lead was a girl, probably the same age as Chizuru. She had blonde bangs and was wearing tomboyish clothes per the Edo period.

As the characters started interacting Kazuya judged their performances.

Most of the people were sides who didn’t have much to do, except for the princess and her aide.

‘She’s decent, but then again… aren’t they all.’

Soon another character appeared whom Kazuya recognized from the character roster of the play.

‘That’s that Umi guy, huh? Chizuru told me that he was the one who got her the role in this play… He seems pretty charismatic.’

‘Why are they acting so emphatically? It’s unnatural… It’s not bad for a relatively cheap comedy play though. Okay, the princess running into the Shogun’s arms is just…’

The concerned Shogun, aka, Umi called some ‘Onene’ person who was supposedly a shinobi to protect the princess.

’There’s my girl, that’s a perfect entrance. Your timing is impeccable.’ Chizuru ran onto the stage wearing a sleeveless yukata-like outfit that was tightly clad around her, emphasizing her figure. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail.

‘Behold my shuriken…? I guess it’s not your fault, babe. I didn’t come in expecting some sort of world-class play after all.’

With that horrible line, she threw a few shuriken-shaped objects at the ground near the shogun.

”This is no shuriken. This is a jelly-filled donut.”

‘I don’t think jelly-filled donuts were a thing back then… They came around in the 1800s, this play is set somewhere around the 1500-1600s… Fuck, do your damn research. Okay, now I just sound like a critic that’s looking for issues.’

“I had a little snack earlier, so…” Her embarrassed expression combined with the timing was very well executed.

’Hehe, Even with those shitty jokes, her acting is making them seem funny. You’re a talented actress, Chizuru. I’ll give you that.’

“But why are you carrying them?”

“Emergency ration of course.”

‘Her posture’s a bit stiff, she should change her position soon.’ She had said a couple of different lines standing in the same spot.

“With this even if they try to starve us out, we’ll be fine.”

“Who’s going to starve you out? You’re going hunting. You fool.”

“I am no fool!”

‘You’re doing great babe, everyone’s loving you.’ Kazuya was cheering his girl on in his heart as well as many people in the theatre who were laughing at the Chizuru’s comedic performance.

“Stop eating the donut.”

“What are you doing, that’s her ladyship’s horse. Aren’t you a shinobi? You should walk.”

“Buuuut walking sucks.”

As the play went on, Chizuru’s performance captured the audience more than the main lead’s performance.