Life is tough, so Honglong resorts to performing?

Chapter 111: Production of the Album Begins

On Thursday, Loren got up very early.

Because the Thousand-Day Fruit was helping him digest the high-level magic crystals in his body, Loren had been unable to feel any new hunger since the panic-like hunger he experienced last night. He could only feel a unique sense of satisfaction from the fullness of his body and soul.

"The absorption is really fast. After another nap, my body should start to grow significantly."

The little red dragon raised its wings, carefully observing its dark red scales and the energy-filled body inside, and muttered to itself.

The effect of the Dragon Thousand-Day Fruit is a rather interesting cyclical process. It seems to mimic the metamorphosis effect brought about by the Dragon's Sleep. On the first day, the body and soul are replenished. On the second day, the body and soul are transformed. On the third day, the body is stabilized. On the fourth day, the first day is repeated until the entire fruit is consumed.

During the metamorphosis process, additional items such as Dragon Hundred-Day Ointment can be used to enhance the strength of the newly formed dragon scales and improve the dragon's defensive capabilities.

"I have to go shoot an album today."

Loren recalled the action plan that Morris and the independent music producer had made the previous night.

This morning, before the Jade Leaf Zoo opened—or more precisely, before the morning rush hour—the flying magic crystal trailer that Sisos had specially ordered would come to take Loren to the filming location.

The trailer was open, and Red Dragon had to ride in it through the entire Midtown area until he arrived at the Music Wonderland, a place specializing in music album filming.

This is for the sake of generating buzz.

After all, since it went viral on Magic Crystal Network last weekend, Little Red Dragon has not been working at the Emerald Leaf Rare Animal Zoo for three consecutive days and has not appeared in the public eye.

This is almost unreasonable for someone who has just become a sensation. Fortunately, there have been enough events in Cuiye City recently, which has made viewers overlook the affairs of this newly popular zoo celebrity.

Unlike Lorenbenlong's silence, his memes have become increasingly popular, with more and more fan-made versions and wider circulation, and of course, they have also changed more and more.

As a non-professional stage actor, Loren imitated cartoons from his past life when he performed. Many of the body language and performances in those cartoons were already exaggerated. With the addition of memes and netizens' antics, they became even more abstract and diverse.

In order to boost album sales, and given that Loren was temporarily unable to move around the city in his transformed state, this street parade to generate buzz was planned.

"Tsk, we've finally arrived."

Upon seeing the message Morris sent him via the magic crystal network, Loren immediately spread his dragon wings and soared into the sky.

He left the Lava Heart arena and appeared in the sky above the zoo.

In the blink of an eye, Loren arrived at the entrance of the zoo, where a beautiful red flying trailer was waiting.

The surface of the trailer was wiped very clean, as if it were waiting for the arrival of the red dragon.

Beneath the trailer, Sisos and Lyra were smiling and chatting with a sparse audience while livestreaming.

It's normal that there aren't many viewers for a live stream on a weekday morning.

However, Loren retracted his dragon wings and switched from flying to walking when leaving the zoo.

After all, his age doesn't meet the city's takeoff standards. Flying in a park or other non-public area is fine, but there are cameras broadcasting the live stream there. If someone with ulterior motives reports him and he gets arrested and fined, that would be quite a sight.

He even made a legal joke about flying in his performance before, and some busybodies dug up the picture and turned it into memes. Knowing the law and breaking it is an even more serious crime.

"Please get in the car, esteemed Mr. Spark."

Lyra and Sisos pointed the camera at the red dragon, and Loren, unfazed, raised his dragon claws in front of the audience and effortlessly settled into his seat on the trailer.

"Let's go. It's a workday today, so let's not let people say we're obstructing traffic."

"No problem! Everyone, let's get ready to go!"

With a shout, everyone boarded the vehicle. Then, to Loren's somewhat surprised look, a bionic mechanical raven equipped with a camera took to the sky and pointed the camera at the somewhat astonished red dragon.

Drones? When were they developed?
Loren looked at the little metal creature in front of him. It must be the creation of those mechanical alchemists, probably from another city.

However, unlike the cutting-edge weapons that changed the nature of warfare in my previous life, in the world of Ellen, this is currently just a toy in the city.

With all the filming and live-streaming equipment in place, the flying trailer slowly took off, hovering at a low altitude of about 20 meters above the ground, allowing most city residents to see the entire Red Dragon above without affecting weekday traffic.

Being well-liked by the public is very important, especially since Little Red Dragon currently lives in Greenleaf City.

The trailer wasn't flying very fast. As it slowly drove away from the Emerald Leaf Zoo and into the city, gasps of surprise began to rise from below.

"Is that a real dragon? My God, it's huge!"

"Why is he sitting on a flying trailer? Doesn't he have wings? Shouldn't he be able to fly by himself?"

"I know who he is. He's the red dragon from the Emerald Leaf Zoo. Where are they taking him?"

……

The flying trailer and the red dragon on it attracted a lot of attention, and even though it was a weekday, many people stopped to watch.

Loren thoroughly enjoyed the gazes cast upon him by the diverse crowds below and from the surrounding high-rise buildings.

He also saw a little girl brushing her teeth on the balcony next door, her eyes drawn to him as he slowly moved on the trailer, and she even dropped her toothbrush on the ground.

"Slightly~"

Facing the camera and the crowd watching him, Little Red Dragon stretched out his hand and made a face, causing the group of people who had been holding their breath to suddenly move.

Since I can't shake off the title of comedian anyway, and they've already laughed at me enough, I might as well use this humor to make some money!

That's just how easygoing I am, Little Red Dragon!
That being said, Loren didn't continue with his antics. Instead, he remained quietly seated on the trailer, observing the diverse lives unfolding in the passing houses and surrounding buildings. As a third-rate comedian, Loren's new persona was one of being normally serious, occasionally throwing in a laugh.

The biggest problem with new actors and actors from academies is that they go too far. They like to add scenes and lines to show off their acting skills, but this makes the dramas they participate in exaggerated to an annoying degree.

Although Loren has never been an actor, he worked in the corporate world and was a salesman in his previous life. His rich experience in dealing with all kinds of people still guides him on how to make a living in this special fantasy world.

The flying trailer moved slowly forward, eventually passing through the entire central city and arriving at a huge circular tower at the other end of the city. Each floor of the tower had a sign with a similar name: XX Magic Realm Company.

The flying trailer stopped on one floor of the tower, where the tower's master stood at the door, warmly welcoming everyone.

Loren didn't seem to care about the intense gaze directed at him, because during their conversation last night, Sisos had mentioned that this person might also be attracted by the dragon's charm, given that the other party had offered an extremely low discount just to secure the album's production rights.

"Welcome everyone. I hope we can get along well in the next few days."

The man greeted the crowd with a smile, but his gaze kept glancing at Loren. After all, the man in front of him was a heavyweight figure that the organization was paying attention to—a red dragon that was suspected of possessing ancient authority!
Loren got off the flying trailer and saw that the female bard Lyra had gone to negotiate with the boss. Under Sisos's signaling gaze, he walked into the tower.

After passing through the somewhat narrow tower gate, the space inside the tower was quite spacious, even somewhat rudimentary.

The large areas extending from the center of this floor are completely unfurnished, with only a few tables and chairs for guests to sit on at the edge of the tower, and the surrounding walls appear to be covered with special sensor cameras.

"That's how it is at Magic Realm. The middle part here is the shooting environment. Once Magic Realm's parameters are adjusted and it's started and unfolded, this area will become a shooting location with an adjustable size."

Hisos explained to the somewhat puzzled dragon,

"Because of urbanization and the dangers of the wilderness, most films are now shot in this way. Except for the fact that intelligent life cannot be simulated, the Demon Realm can simulate everything else."

"The entire Magic Tower is being filmed using a single Magic Core, which can simulate various world environments, but only three simulations can exist at a time. Today, we've booked filming times from 9:30 to 11:30 this morning and from 4:00 to 5:30 this afternoon. The filming schedule is quite tight, but with you here, I think there shouldn't be any major problems."

Hisos looked at the red dragon before him with a rare confidence in his eyes.

In this man's heart, the red dragon is not only an admirable presence that gives him courage, but also a lucky star that brings him good fortune and changes his destiny.

He believes that as long as Red Dragon is there, things will get better even if there are problems during filming!
"Please wait here for a moment. I'll go over there with Lyra and the boss to confirm the parameters of the Magic Realm."

Sisos left after saying that, while Loren found a spot, closed his eyes, opened the magic crystal terminal, and started reading some textbooks on basic magic knowledge.

According to yesterday's schedule, the morning's shooting work was not of much concern to him. He only needed to show a silhouette in the stormy clouds, which would also help the newcomer Honglong get familiar with the album shooting process.

His real role was in the afternoon's snow mountain scene.

During Loren's time studying, the people from the Magic Realm Company, along with Sisoslera's group, began setting up various musical equipment.

Although it was for an album shoot, the music could actually be re-recorded in the studio, but Sisos and Lyra were in the throes of their honeymoon and neither wanted to go through any more trouble.

Of course, you can't say it like that outright.

Their stated reason was that the sounds of nature were also part of Sisos's music album.

Whether the simulated natural sounds in the magical realm are truly natural is debatable, but at least they provided a reason, right?

With the music equipment set up and the lead singer and band members ready, the surrounding environment quickly changed as the clock struck 9:30.

The once cramped and narrow tower instantly transformed into a vast grassland, where the clear sound of a flute, accompanied by the powerful beat of a drum, began to rise slowly, and the wind began to blow across the grassland.

Loren, in the distance, smelled the scent of grass in the air and heightened his magical perception.

"This so-called demonic realm is quite interesting. It seems to exist somewhere between a demiplane and an illusion, a simulation of an environment that transcends reality and illusion? It must be a product retired from military combat simulations, right?"

Loren vaguely remembered seeing a similar paper title on an anonymous forum for military papers, which must have been published hundreds of years ago by a demigod who was proficient in illusion magic.

Time has passed, and the world has changed. The military-grade magic technology of the past has also been updated and replaced. Will it still be of use in this city?
Loren used his magical perception with great interest to observe the workings of this magical realm.

Perhaps because of his retirement, or perhaps because he hadn't done much encryption, Loren actually managed to figure something out.

Although the grassland was extremely realistic, he could even feel the changes in moisture and wind pressure, and the "ground" under his feet was indeed solid, but at the level of his magical perception, he could still detect a trace of discordant energy flow, like the lines of a draft under a canvas.

Sisos and Leila's band also began to get into the swing of things. The vast drumbeats and the sound of a stringed instrument similar to a morin khuur rose up, and Sisos's unique voice began to echo across the vast grassland, forming a harmony with Leila's flute. The two voices became more and more passionate.

The wind grew stronger, and what had previously only bowed the grass now bent it flat. The moisture became thicker, and dark clouds began to gather in the sky, as if a heavy rain was imminent.

The music began to somber, as if narrating the problems encountered by the protagonist. The originally harmonious harmonies became discordant, and after the intense and high-pitched music symbolizing the quarrel began, the tone of the music also turned somber.

As the dark clouds gathered and the sky grew darker, Loren knew it was time for him to take the stage when the melody began to sound vague.

With a flick of its dark red dragon wings in the distance, it soared into the sky at high speed. This speed even startled the tower master of this floor, but soon Loren slowed down, allowing him to put his mind at ease.

"This so-called demonic realm is indeed rendered in real time. It is constantly appropriating and changing, which is why only three of them can exist at the same time. This is the limit of its computing power!"

While analyzing the situation, Loren didn't forget his work. He flew into the clouds, which should have been enough, but sensing the mixed elements around him, he easily created a bolt of lightning beside him using the manipulation techniques of dragon magic.

A bright flash of lightning tore through the heavy, dark clouds, illuminating the dragon hidden within, leaving a fleeting silhouette.

A loud clap of thunder startled the rest of the band; this wasn't part of the plan!

This piece of music describes dark clouds; why is it thundering when it's not raining?

But Sisos seized the opportunity and, when all the other sounds fell silent, began to sing wildly amidst the thunder. Under his influence, the entire band also became excited, turning what should have been a reshoot into a classic scene.

(End of this chapter)