Goddess Kaleidoscope

“Mr. Hugo, this is a truly amazing performance. It is an honor to work with such a genius as you.”

“You flatter me, Ms. Marilyn. This is the result of everyone’s hard work, not just my achievement alone.”

"But without a doubt, your contribution is the greatest! Without your imaginative ideas and your strategic planning these past few days, this performance would not have been a success at all. I am now looking forward to the premiere of the play in a week, but unfortunately my theater is not big enough, and I always feel that it is not worthy of it."

"Senior Marilyn, please don't say that!"

After exchanging pleasantries, Marilyn asked Ludwig how he planned to promote the premiere.

Judging from the current performance, there is no need to worry about the attendance rate for the premiere. Marilyn is even considering whether to temporarily renovate her theater in the first few days of the show to increase the number of seats from the current 800 to about 1,200.

However, in evaluating the success of a new drama, besides attendance, the level of important figures you can invite to attend is also one of the criteria, which makes things a bit more difficult.

However, Lu De wasn't thinking about that at the moment. He didn't care whether any important figures would come to support the new play; he only cared about how to increase the number of viewers, and ideally, how to have it screened in theaters so that everyone in Yanmu City could see it.

At this point, the limitations of live performances become apparent.

It's important to know that the script for "The Cave King" is currently exclusively owned by the Rainbow Dance Troupe. Only they can perform it, and the actors can only manage three to four shows a day at most. The Sky Opera House is only so big, and even if every show is sold out, the number of audience members per day is only two to three thousand. Moreover, the audience is limited to the wealthy class in the city, and the vast majority of poor people do not have the spare money to come to the theater to watch a play.

Lude couldn't simply replicate the Pine Town model here, relying on fancy ticket giveaways to increase audience numbers.

Fortunately, Rudd had put the development of the "camera" on the agenda long ago. The three sisters were in charge of the development. The image storage device based on divine magic had been completed, and the magic-based device had entered the testing phase, so Rudd took it directly.

For the previous preview performance, Ludwig had arranged for Shanis to film simultaneously in the second-floor box. Next, he planned to use Marilyn's local connections to negotiate with other small and medium-sized opera houses in the city to have the filmed trailers played in their theaters as well.

After the premiere, they can also take the completed drama to these theaters for screening, further accelerating its spread.

All of this has only one purpose: to use the "secondary setting" added to the play "The Cave King" to change the original belief in the god of thieves, thereby creating differentiation, so as to separate Hume from counterfeiters, and then it will be a competition of who has more believers.

As Lude was planning his next move, a commotion suddenly erupted at the backstage entrance. Lude and the others looked in the direction of the noise and saw that some audience members, who were too excited after watching the trailer, were trying to force their way backstage, and the theater's security guards were trying to stop them.

The green-haired (cyan) youth wasn't particularly strong, but three or five burly men couldn't stop him. He jumped up and shouted.

"Master Shakespeare, I'm your fan!"

End of this chapter

The green-haired youth's noise attracted the attention of many people on the stage. Lud and Servis were both curious about who this person was. Granny Marilyn glanced at him and turned to Lud and said.

“That’s Sans.”

"Sans, the one who wrote the scripts for the Fei Xia Dance Troupe?"

"Yes, that's him. But this guy had a falling out with Katie a while ago, and Katie said she would blacklist him and not allow any musical troupe to perform his plays. Ha! Her tone is incredibly arrogant."

When Katie's "blacklist" was mentioned, Marilyn's mother-in-law gave a cold smile.

If these words came from the mouth of Lord Duke Crude or Archbishop August, it wouldn't be so bad. At the very least, if they came from the Navarro family or other big shots of the same level, they would have some intimidation power. But who is Katie? Just an actress who runs a cabaret troupe. She's slept with some big shots a few times and has even forgotten that she's just an ordinary person without a surname.

Grandma Marilyn utterly despised Katie's bullying behavior and completely ignored her barking.

"Would you like to see him?"

"Let him come over."

Seeing Ludwig nod, Marilyn clapped her hands, and several burly security guards immediately released Sans, letting him into the backstage area.

Sans jogged over, first thanking Grandma Marilyn, then looking around before his gaze quickly settled on Lud.

"You...you are Shakespeare?"

"No, Shakespeare is my teacher. My name is Hugo."

"Oh! And what about Shakespeare?"

“Our revered master has passed away many years ago.”

"Oh no! How could this happen?"

Upon hearing that his idol, Shakespeare, had passed away, Sanz looked as if struck by lightning. He stood there stunned, then suddenly collapsed onto the floor, wailing and pounding the ground.

"This heartless heaven, this biased god, why do you make human life so short! Waaah... I really want to see my idol!"

No one expected that Sans would suddenly break down in tears and tantrums because of Shakespeare's death. Everyone looked at each other, not knowing how to comfort him.

“Um… Mr. Sans, could you please calm down? Although my master has been gone for many years, his works still exist. I came to Yanmu City to fulfill his wish before his death and to bring his works to the stage so that more people can see them.”

"Really?"

"It's true, absolutely true."

"Then...then I should die even more!"

"..."

Sans burst into tears for a simple reason: Katie had bribed an insider to steal two scripts from Servis, claiming them as his own, and then premiered them. Sans disliked this kind of behavior to begin with, and now that he knew they were Shakespeare's "posthumous works," he felt even more guilty towards his idol.

"No way! This matter must be clarified publicly. I'll go to the entrance of the Tianlai Opera House tomorrow and put up a banner demanding that the works of our predecessors be returned to their rightful owners!"

"Uh... don't be impulsive!"

Seeing Sans's indignation, Lud thought to himself, "Can you stop messing things up for me?" He was determined to get the stolen script back and make Katie pay for it with interest, but his first priority was to ensure the smooth release of "The Count of Monte Cristo." He had his own plans to deal with Katie afterward.

To be honest, Servis was initially quite wary of Katie, her sister who had completely fallen into depravity. Their Rainbow Dance Troupe was new to the area and couldn't compare to the Flying Clouds Dance Troupe, which had been operating locally for many years. Katie was also a super bitch who was extremely adept at using her beauty and body, and there were quite a few big shots in the city who had affairs with her.

In terms of stage acting skills, Servis believed she was absolutely on par with her opponent, but she was afraid that Katie might not be able to handle the situation and would directly call on those "off-stage supporters" whom they couldn't afford to offend, to launch an irresistible attack.

However, Ludd felt that Servis's concerns were unnecessary, or rather, excessive. The fact that Kitty had slept with many powerful men didn't mean she wielded great power. A promiscuous actress was, in the eyes of those powerful men, at best, a plaything, even lower in status than a mistress.

The best that these powerful figures could offer Katie was, at most, "indulgence," turning a blind eye to her underhanded tricks.

And indeed, just as Lude had predicted, when Katie learned that Servis had a new script and was using an unprecedented performance style, creating an extremely explosive "preview performance" specifically for the new play, she felt an intense sense of crisis.

So, in order to thwart the Rainbow Choir and prevent their new show from starting, Katie went to several influential figures she knew overnight and begged them to take charge and use their influence to put pressure on the Sky Opera House, ideally to drive Servis and her choir out of Flamewood City.

As a result, all those stinky men who usually called her "little darling" and "sweetheart" were just making small talk and none of them were willing to actually help her, which made Katie extremely annoyed.

"Pah! These powerful and influential men, not a single one of them is any good!"

Emerging from the back door of the Cathedral of Light in Yanmu City, Katie gritted her teeth and spat a glob of yellowish "phlegm" into a roadside flowerbed, then pulled out a handkerchief and vigorously wiped her mouth. Her negotiations with Archbishop August had also ended in failure, leaving her cheeks aching from exhaustion.

The repeated setbacks made Katie feel frustrated and regretful. She was too young back then, thinking that the more powerful people she could cling to, the better. In the end, she went too far and turned herself into a "public bus." The big shots who had been with her knew that she was just a pretty face toy, which actually lowered her own value.

If I had fawned over someone back then, I wouldn't even need to become a wife or concubine with a title. Being a mistress would have been better than what I am now. Whispering sweet nothings in private would have been much easier than begging around like this.

Fortunately, although none of these bigwigs wanted to get involved, they all hinted to Katie that as long as she didn't cause any major trouble, they would turn a blind eye to her.

So Katie changed her approach. Since she couldn't get what she wanted by groveling, why not seek out dogs who would come to her willingly?

To most people, Katie is still the radiant opera queen on stage, an unattainable goddess. Every day, she receives countless love letters from fans, and she doesn't even bother to look at them before throwing them into the fireplace to start a fire.

Among these sycophants were some local gang leaders. Normally, Katie wouldn't even give such people a second glance, but now she suddenly realized that these people could be of great use.

End of this chapter

Rude, using the alias Hugo, is meeting with the owners of small and medium-sized opera houses in Yanmu City through the introduction of Granny Marilyn, hoping to screen the trailer for "The Count of Monte Cristo" in their opera houses.

At first, these small business owners were puzzled. Wasn't the Rainbow Dance Troupe collaborating with the Sky Opera House? Why would they come to perform here? And it was the senior Marilyn who personally introduced them, which they found somewhat incomprehensible.

So Lude didn't offer much explanation, but instead showed them the "projector (magic version)" he had brought. When these bosses saw that all they needed was a machine and a white sheet to create a lifelike performance on stage without any actors, they were all dumbfounded.

"What...what is this!?"

"This is a projector, and what I call the projected video is the footage. The images are all pre-recorded using another machine called a video recorder, and stored through this recording crystal. You can play it anytime by simply pressing this button. There's no need for complicated stage setup, and you don't have to worry about the actors' poor performance. We just need to record the actors at their best."

"Won't this take away the actors' jobs?"

"No! On the contrary, this will benefit more actors and small and medium-sized opera houses like yours, bringing greater prosperity to the entire industry!"

Contact with theater owners went smoothly; basically, as soon as Lude showed them the projector, none of these small business owners would refuse.

Everyone's smart enough to understand; with just a little guidance from Lu De, they'd immediately grasp the wonder of this thing. This meant that small theaters like theirs could now also screen the hottest, most popular plays in their own venues.

Take, for example, the currently popular "The Count of Monte Cristo"!

Two days ago, the Rainbow Dance Troupe's preview performance amazed the audience, turning the hundreds of people present into enthusiastic "word-of-mouth promoters." While eagerly anticipating the official release of the series a week later, they enthusiastically recommended it to their friends and family.

The rapid increase in popularity has made premiere tickets highly sought-after, making scalpers in the city eager to buy them.

Given this unexpected level of popularity, Ludwig thought it might be worth taking a bigger step.

As long as you have enough strength, you don't have to be afraid of making a mess of things!

Soon after, about a dozen small and medium-sized theaters in Yanmu City, having received the projector lent by Lude, began showing trailers for "The Count of Monte Cristo" in their own theaters.

Following Ludwig's advice, instead of showing the trailer as a standalone segment, they bundled it with performances by other small theater groups and played it again at the end of the show.

This left many small theater troupes with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the trailer did increase their attendance, but many audience members came simply to see the trailer. There were even some impatient and rude people who shouted loudly from the audience to see the trailer for "The Cave King" as soon as the show started, which instantly made the actors on stage feel very bad.

Despite their resentment, these lower-level actors in the industry all knew that this was how it was—the law of the jungle, where the strong prey on the weak, was everywhere. They couldn't afford to offend the wealthy and powerful troupes. Moreover, compared to the domineering Feixia Opera House, the Rainbow Opera House was much better. Although the forced trailer overshadowed their performance, it at least helped increase their attendance, so everyone gritted their teeth and tolerated it.

However, soon after, a young man, supposedly the financial backer of the Rainbow Opera House, approached these small theater troupes, expressing his desire to invite them to join a major project. Many troupes initially wanted to refuse out of pride, but the offer was simply too much.

In Lude's view, traditional performances relying on opera houses as a platform are still too slow in terms of dissemination efficiency. There are only about thirteen opera houses in the entire Yanmu City that can be called well-known, and of these, only four have more than five hundred seats. If you remove the Tianlai Opera House, the remaining twelve opera houses together have less than four thousand seats, and their main consumer group is the city's middle-class.

Ordinary people do have cultural and entertainment needs; they actually want to watch, but they don't have the money or are unwilling to spend money to go to the theater.

Therefore, Lude must expand his reach to a wider range of people, including millions of people in Yanmu City and its surrounding areas, so that they can contribute to his next plan and, incidentally, change the traditional model of the performing arts industry in Yanmu City. So these days he has been frequently contacting local small and medium-sized theater troupes, trying to get them on his bandwagon.

On this day, Ludwig left the Sky Opera House, preparing to meet a small choir he had arranged to meet. His only companion was the Heroic Spirit, Aylvit, whose public identity was now that of young Master Hugo's bodyguard.

However, when the two of them arrived at the meeting place, what appeared in front of Lud was not the head of the dance troupe, but a young woman dressed like a noblewoman in a flamboyant manner.

Lude paused for a moment, then guessed the other person's identity.

"Team Leader Katie."

"It is I. I have long admired Mr. Hugo's name, and today my wish has finally come true. However... I did not expect you to be so young and so handsome."

As Katie spoke, she gracefully rose from her seat, lifted the hem of her skirt, and bowed to Ludwig. Her forward-leaning upper body perfectly displayed her ample bosom and cleavage to Ludwig.

Katie had made careful preparations for this meeting. After learning that Hugo was a young man in his twenties, Katie, who was extremely confident in her figure and appearance, felt that she had it in the bag. Servis was indeed very beautiful and her figure was in no way inferior to hers, but she was almost thirty years old, three years older than her, and her financial situation was far inferior to hers, so she was sure she could not lose this time.

So Katie specially put on her "ultimate battle outfit," a light gauze dress that could reveal her entire shoulders and collarbone, almost her entire Northern Hemisphere. Many of her men, as soon as they saw her wearing this outfit, would not only turn into wolves on the spot, but would also have their hearts aroused by her. With just a flick of her finger, she could make them completely fall for her.

However, when she looked up smugly, she found that although the man in front of her did indeed glance at the large expanse of her exposed skin a few times, just as she had expected, his expression was unexpectedly calm, and his slightly raised eyebrows seemed to say something.

"Huh? That's it?"

"...(Damn! What's wrong with this guy?)"