ARRIVING at the 10th floor, an AI robot quickly assisted Astrid and Ellis. It guided the two to a waiting room where all the other auditionees were. It also gave them a number, telling them that the number given to them was the order in which the auditionees would audition.

Astrid saw that he was number ’46’. According to Ellis, there were only 60 slots for this audition. Which was understandable. This was the comeback project of a well-known director after three years of hiatus. Just by the virtue of the director’s fame alone, the shows popularity was basically guaranteed. Who wouldn’t want to be part of such a show?

If they didn’t limit the number of people, it wouldn’t be surprising if more than a hundred auditionees would appear today. Maybe even more than that. The fact that there’s a quota meant that the production team had already taken that into account. And the rest of those who would evaluate the audition probably didn’t want to evaluate that more than a hundred people. 

If they didn’t find the right person today, then, they would most likely do another round of audition. There’s also a chance that they would just give the role to the actor being pushed by Kaleido. 

Astrid didn’t have any opinion on the number given to them. No matter what order he went, it wouldn’t stop him from giving his best. He would give a performance that he wouldn’t regret. 

The waiting area was like an auditorium that could probably accommodate about 200 people. There were already people inside. Based on the number, Astrid guessed that the number given to them were based on the time of their arrival. Meaning he and Ellis were the 46th to arrive.

The moment they walked in, some people inside glanced at their direction. When they saw Astrid, they had a stunned look in their faces. Then most of those stunned look quickly turned to a number of different emotions. There were those who looked angry, those who looked jealous, and those who looked worried.

Astrid certainly understood why they felt those emotions. His appearance alone was an enough threat to these people who were fighting for the same role. Noticing their reactions, the rest of the people also glanced at their direction. While some were surprised, there were also those who didn’t have that much reaction. The latter were probably people who had better control with their emotion. 

He and Ellis walked to one of the empty seats. As they did, Astrid could hear some murmurs coming from the seats not so far from where they were. Since he had an A level physique, his hearing was pretty good. Although not as good as those S and SS levels, it’s still enough to hear what the others were saying. Most of the conversations he could hear were between actors and their agent or assistant.

“Did you see that person’s hair and eye color? If he’s good at acting, the role will definitely be his! What’s the use of us being here?”

“Stop being pessimistic, will you? Most people that have such appearance usually don’t have talent. So, stop worrying, okay? Just focus on your audition.”

Then, on the other side…

“Isn’t that boy the new artist introduced by Polaris some time ago?”

“Yes. Giving him such resources, they’re definitely optimistic about him.”

“Or there could be some hocus pocus happening with the higher-ups of Polaris. That’s why they could give a newcomer such a good opportunity.”

“I doubt it. Polaris is not some half-baked third-rate company. They wouldn’t give special treatment to an artist just because of their rare beauty.”

“Well, there’s always a first for everything.”

“Instead of gossiping about that, just focus on your audition.”

And somewhere from the back… 

“Hmm… why does that woman sitting beside that boy looked familiar?”

“Who cares about that? We should worry about that boy! I thought Yujin Wells is the only one I have to worry about. Now, this… this person suddenly appears to make my life even harder.”

“Okay. Don’t overreact. It might affect your audition later. How many times do I have to tell you that you need to be calmer? Your nerves always overcome your talent. How many roles have you wasted because you can’t force yourself to calm down?”

“I know, I know. Don’t always nag at me.”

Same conversations were happening all around. Astrid chose to block those, as if he hadn’t heard it at all. Although he was a bit interested when he heard someone mentioned ‘Yujin Wells’. He didn’t know who the other was. But based on the tone of the person who mentioned him, there’s a high chance that this ‘Yujin Wells’ was the artist that Kaleido was pushing for this role.

He glanced at Ellis sitting beside him. It seemed that most of the people here didn’t immediately recognize his agent. Well, with so many things happening in the entertainment industry every day, the news of Ellis Payne’s return might not be at the top of the list of things they were keeping an eye on. 

Astrid looked at the time on his Terminal. There were still 30 minutes before the scheduled start of the audition. Seeing that more than a half of auditionees were already here, it’s obvious how much importance they put on this audition. 

Then, he searched about ‘Yujin Wells’ on his [Starnet]. The result showed a young man who looked like he was in his early 20s. To his surprise, the other had black hair with a tinge of blue. He kept it long and looking quite silky. But unlike Astrid with obvious East Asian features, Yujin Wells had a more Westernized look with very bright blue eyes.

He was quite handsome. With how the people in this era seemed to like black hair very much, the other’s appearance was definitely a big hit. 

According to the information on [Starnet], Yujin Wells debuted seven months ago. He starred in a teen drama as second male lead. That drama blew up in popularity and he managed to enter the top 500 of Star List three months ago. 

Astrid raised his brow.. No wonder Kaleido was pushing the other.

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