The Rise of Otaku

Edited by Xelot

Since Zhou Yu couldn’t tell other people the existence of the ACG world, it caused the staff of Beidou and Qin Zhuan to become a topic very often. Whenever work came out, some people would always ask about this. To be honest, Zhou Yu was a little fed up. To avoid this kind of thing from happening, the simplest way was to build a real Qin Zhuan studio and then recruit some people from the real world. Then it would surely quiet down.

But building an animation team was indeed very difficult. In the past, Zhou Yu wanted to set up an animation team that was made of only dazzling people, who had high Otaku power. But so far, he has only seen four dazzling people, two of which had been already recruited, and from the other two, one was an old man, which was no use to him, and the last one was still under observation.

The lack of dazzling people made Zhou Yu feel that the possibility of achieving this idea was very low, so he had to lower the standard. As long as one’s Otaku power reached 5, or if they had great potential in animation production, they could be recruited to the real Qin Zhuan animation studio that he was going to build in the amusement park.

However, how to recruit people was a big problem.

Normally, recruiting people would be very easy for the people that were very famous, just like what Zhou Yu was now. He could receive a truckload of resumes just by simply announcing that Qin Zhuan studio was going to recruit people. But resumes were not useful to Zhou Yu. Otaku’s power could only be seen with his own eyes. But if he asked the applicants to come to Luhua village just to do the interview, Zhou Yu felt like he would not be able to recruit any people who had high otaku powers.

“Uncle Fu, can you help me register an animation studio, the name will be called Qin Zhuan. Then put up a job recruitment ads, and while setting the requirements to a face-to-face interview, or submitting a self-introduction video. No matter which method it is, I must see the applicant’s face.”

Zhou Fu would naturally agree to setting up Qin Zhuan studio, but he was confused about the requirements part.

“Boy Yu, no other requirements? By the way, why do you have to see their faces? Don’t tell me that the job requirements will be based on how good-looking the applicants are. Are you hiring idols or employees?”

Zhou Fu asked a series of questions, but Zhou Yu did not answer any of them. He couldn’t just say ‘I can see people’s potential by just looking at their faces’, could he? In short, this was a non-negotiable requirement, no matter how excellent the applicants were, if he couldn’t see their faces, he would not hire them.

Another requirement was to recruit only young people, preferably just graduated from school. Young people are quick learners. Their otaku power can be easily raised. Once people get older, their Otaku power is basically fixed, all their potential is almost used up, there will be no room for improvement. Not to mention that they are usually much more expensive to hire.

Zhou Yu already knew that he would be losing money if he set up this studio. After all, they were all young people, they certainly could not make some extremely good animation. However, if they made some garbage anime, it would definitely damage the reputation of Qin Zhuan studio. So the new recruits must be trained for some time.

But the animation training was much more troublesome, although there was a director Yang Kuai, his level was only between ordinary and excellent, the highest level training textbook he could give out was the intermediate level. Converting it to the levels of the animation base, even if all the staff completed the intermediate training, they probably still could only produce the tier 2 animation.

Moreover, he didn’t know if Yang Kuai was able to handle so many students. After all, the old drunkard and the carpenter beaver only teach one student each. Now that the requirement for the Otaku power was lowered, the teacher’s skills were limited, and the student number was increased, the difficulty of training was raised more than just one level.

Originally, Zhou Yu planned to get a director with excellent attributes before setting up a studio. However, he has been waiting for so long, he still hasn’t gotten any new flower seeds. Now that Xiaobao was in need of practical experience, he could only bring forward this plan.

………….

The registration of the studio and the recruitment was left to Zhou Fu. In terms of Zhou Yu, he was still focusing on the project, the Little Muli’s incredible maze. And this project was also in the recruiting phase, and as one of the producers, Zhou Yu was eligible to select actors, so he and Xia Huan were reviewing the idol lists submitted by various management agencies.

An A+ rated variety show had signed a broadcasting contract with the Starlight TV station before it even started filming. Although it would not be shown at prime time, it was still very good. After all, it was the biggest TV station, and all the shows that could be broadcasted in the prime time were S-rated large-scale variety shows.

Even so, the idols who wanted to be on “the little Muli’s incredible maze” were still a lot. It made Xia Huan feel proud and elated.

Once upon a time, Xia Huan also had to beg other people to let the idols under his company appear in the popular variety shows, if his idols could become regular guests, he would do anything. Now that he could finally act like a boss. Looking at idol’s information slowly while using the corner of his eyes to peek at the agents who were waiting anxiously on the side.

This feeling was extremely awesome!

“The variety ability is less than 80, and you want to become one of the 12 adventurers? You must be joking. What? A sponsorship fee of 1000 Moe Coins, and a special item, the ‘little red book’? Oh, older Zhou’s Luhua village seems to need one in their prison. You clearly know how to please older Zhou.”

Xia Huan couldn’t stop his arrogant voice for a single second. Oh well, when he took over Beidou, the company was struggling on the verge of bankruptcy. Although later, it was slightly better, his company was still targeted by Nandou. If he wasn’t careful, his company would instantly go back to the original state, it was truly frustrating. If you don’t burst out of the silence, then you will die in silence, now that he finally had a chance to experience what it feels like to be arrogant, of course, he wouldn’t miss it.

Since it was a variety show, the idols who were participating, naturally required to have a good variety attribute, and it was the higher the better. The main twelve adventurers’ variety attributes must be more than 80, otherwise, the program’s effect would be very difficult to be guaranteed, this was the bottom line. So even if the agency knew how to please Zhou Yu, he still didn’t plan to invite this agency.

Seeing Zhou Yu frowned, the agent immediately jumped to his ear and whispered, “Mr. Zhou, although my Ru Yan’s variety attribute is only 71, her appearance attribute is over 80 and her dancing attribute is up to 85, which is almost as good as a top idol. If you can give us a chance, if Luhua village wants to shoot an animated film next time, our Ru Yan will only charge you half of her appearance fee, what do you think?”

The power of a good variety show really couldn’t be underestimated. In order to get a role, these agents thought of everything they could. No wonder when Xia Huan saw Oba, he was so happy as if he saw his own father. It was very rare to see a producer in the ACG world, not to mention a producer that was able to make such a good variety show. Moreover, he even had a creative tree. His future was unlimited!

Seeing this agent was quite sincere, and the aptitude of Ru Yan wasn’t that bad, Zhou Yu walked away to discuss with Xia Huan. After a while, he came back and said, “It will not be possible to give you the role of the twelve adventurers, but we can give Ru Yan a supporting role. What do you think of the character of the owner of the bloody tavern in the forest of death? Her role plays a big part in the story. And she fits the settings of the role very well. It will allow her to make the best use of her high dancing attribute.”

The agent looked at the script and had a slight idea about the role of the owner of the tavern. Although it was not as good as the twelve adventurers, as an important role of the story, this role also had many scenes. And Zhou Yu was right, there were a lot of dancing scenes. This was exactly Ru Yan’s advantage.

“Okay, we are looking forward to working with you!”

“Me too!”