Director of a Suspense Film

Ch13 – May the First Movie Commence

No one was as clear as Zong Qi about what the Ouroboros mark meant. 

In an instant, he felt the countless emotions he had felt back when he fought against the serial killer and was unknowingly framed to wash over him like a wave, settling at the bottom of his stomach. 

After that, what followed after were thoughts full of confusion and surprise. 

Is this dude someone with higher qualifications than Chen Lihong? Did Ouroboros even infiltrate the actors? Or… Were actors what made up the Ouroboros organisation? 

The more Zong Qi thought about it, the more shock filled his heart. 

A big reason why he wasn’t scared of the Ouroboros organisation was that he had the Director System in his hands. That was his largest card. 

He could unlock countless props that would be otherwise impossible to get if it wasn’t for the system store. Not to mention the contract he signed with ghosts that will make them work for him. His future strength was limitless. It could even be said that with time, he wouldn’t be scared if they were a snake organisation or a dragon one. (t/n: Ouroboros in chinese incudes the character snake, but he was playing a pun or smth i dunno manz) 

But he just saw an actor’s wrist have the Ouroboros mark tattooed onto it. 

Even the serial killer he helped lock behind bars didn’t have such an obvious mark on him. 

The only thing he was lucky enough about was that he didn’t choose to decide to reveal his identity as a Director back in the mental hospital, which also meant that the reason an Ouroboros member appeared here was nothing more than a coincidence. 

Because he ended up staring for too long, the Crow that had his head lowered and eyes on his phone seemed to notice it, turning his eyes sharply away from the screen and accurately catching the black-haired youth’s eyes. 

Oh shit!

Zong Qi quickly showed an awkward yet polite smile, lowering his head. 

But he was quickly shocked again by Godsend’s exclamation. 

“What the fuck?!” 

He glared at the phone, saying in disbelief, “How the hell did I manage to get a 70-year-old grandpa as my role? How the hell am I supposed to act that?!” 

Godsend had been assigned a role that required him to act like an old professor. He was heading to the desolate village with his students to teach them. Due to his injury from last year, he has a problem walking properly. 

“Haha, congrats bro.” Blondie laughed at his misery, “This is actually a lottery you won this time. It’s even better than the cripple I got last time.” 

But the next second, as he looked at his screen and saw his character information, his face collapsed. 

Fixer put down his phone first, “Has everyone finished looking? Let’s share some of our information, but remember not to say anything about the secret box part or you’ll lose points.” 

Although Crow had the highest rank out of everyone, he didn’t say anything. That’s why everyone decided to let Fixer become the leader of the movie this time. 

“I got the character dating Anna and I’m following the party to learn in the desolate village.” Fixer started first. 

“I’m Fixer’s girlfriend. I’ve been pregnant for three months and am preparing to get married after this time’s expedition.” Anna nodded, continuing. 

“I’m the old professor’s assistant,” Crow went next. 

“I’m the cameraman that wishes to help the poor.” Blondie said, “I’m following this group to go film the desolate village.” 

Professor Wang wiped the sweat off his forehead, “I’m the person that came here as the teacher and I’m secretly in love with Anna… Ah, that’s something I can say by the way.” 

“Holy shit,” Godsend looked at him with huge eyes, “It’s that kind of show?” 

If he considered all of this, he suddenly felt that his role as the old professor was much more normal, at least he wouldn’t be unsolved in some love-hate relationship. 

“It’s common,” Blondie shrugged, “The secret to a successful horror film is basically to have a messy relationship and sex scenes. It’s better to have those, at least with one more speciality, you’ll be able to get more character points when acting.” 

As they were busy introducing themselves, Zong Qi’s mind kept spinning and working. 

Just as he opened the Director System on his phone, he found that the box with his character information only had one short sentence. 

[Director is not required to act, completing your requirements will be considered a pass]

In other words, Zong Qi could act as an actor and whatever else he wanted. 

God bless my good Director System! The black-haired youth shouted with tears in his eyes. 

Although the few veteran actors here didn’t reveal much of anything, he could tell solely from what he heard that the Actor System was much more heartless compared to the Director System. 

Knowing that it would be hard for him to play two roles, it was nice enough to open the back door for him. 

But the joy in his heart could only be a joy in his heart, he still had to trick the actors in front of him. 

Luckily, everyone else had already said what their character was so Zong Qi only needed to add another quality to the foundations of their characters. 

“I’m one of the students that followed the old professor to the village, I like old things and adventures.” 

Since there were Ouroboros members present, Zong Qi decided not to say too much. After all, accidents happen to people with big mouths, he might reveal something by accident. There were people here that loved to lead the newbies here so all he needed to do was to pretend to be someone that has never seen anything before and get more information. 

For example, that actor discussion forum that they talked about, was important information. 

Seeing that everyone had finished introducing themselves, Fixer looked around the area, “Since everyone’s done, I’ll help you guys figure out your character’s qualities.” 

“I’m sure everyone has played murder mystery at least once in their lives.” He continues, “Well, horror films aren’t that much different.” 

Although the characters the actor had gotten seemed to be your normal everyday people, there were all kinds of qualities and unique qualities to them. These qualities can only be found after reading through the character information carefully, just one careless mistake and you’ll miss out on important information. 

“Since there are newbies here, I’ll say a bit more than this. I’m sure all of you already know that the score of our Character Points will affect whether or not we’ll live in the movie. In layman’s terms, the more into the act, the higher the point. Eighty per cent and above means that the actors think they are the character but we all know how hard that will be to achieve.”  

Fixer spoke passionately, “It’s basically impossible to get 80 and above but anything below 80 per cent can be increased through your acting skills. An important factor to the number of Character Points we get is how well we know our character.” 

“For example, Godsend, who is acting like an old professor. Since your character is so old, you’ll have to change the way you walk and speak to match it.” 

Godsend’s face twisted at that, “My brother, what the hell does that mean? Am I supposed to drag my words and touch my nonexistent moustache while I’m at it?” 

“Exactly so. You have to pretend that you’re an actual old man in the film.” 

Blondie added in a few points from the side, “Your information also said that the old professor has an injured leg so he can’t walk properly, right? Then you’ll have to show that you’re limping during the film or your Character Points won’t go up.” 

“Anna too.” 

Fixer continued for him, “Your info said that you’re now three months pregnant. As a future mother, the character must care very much about her health and rest. Of course, you can go based on what you can interpret from your character info. For example, laying your hand on your stomach occasionally. The Actor System counts even these small actions as acting.” 

Anna nodded her head. 

Not only was she good looking, but she also didn’t speak much, making her look an awful lot like a cold beauty. This made Professor Wang and Godsend take a few sneaky glances at her. 

“And as for Office Worker… Your character likes going on adventures and is full of curiosity. All of these can be shown during the film but you’ll have to figure out the specifics yourself.” 

Zong Qi listened to Fixer analysing the character he made up on the spot, nodding obediently. 

Fixer felt that the Office Worker’s character was the most dangerous one to have out of everyone here. The part where he enjoyed adventures and risks was like the natural enemy of Actors, putting them in danger. Even if there was no danger, they would have to go around, looking for it instead or their Character Points wouldn’t increase. 

Fixer’s character only enjoyed sleeping around at most and his character personality was easy to make out. Other than the secret that was a little too much for him, everything was easy. 

“Brother, brother, what about me?” Professor Wang asked in a hurry, “Please help me too, ge!” 

Although he had already gotten the promise of these veteran actors, every time he thought about the dangers of acting, he would start trembling uncontrollably. 

“You?” He sneered, “Your character isn’t hard at all. Just flirt with Anna and make her disgusted, isn’t that easy?”  

These actors were willing to do anything to survive in the movie. So what’s the big deal with going down and licking someone’s feet? 

“Also, since we’re filming a movie, everyone should know that movies all have conflicts between certain characters. This should be common knowledge. This is also why the system would give up a secret section we aren’t allowed to talk about. If you manage to use this secret well, it’ll be easy to increase your Character Points.” 

Everyone began staring at their phone screens after they heard that, not a single word being spoken. 

“Other than these qualities, you also have to keep in mind the personalities of these characters. A cowardly character can’t rush to the front while an arrogant or show off character can’t act too cowardly. All in all, you have to embody your character as if it was yourself.” 

Fixer looked down at his watch for a second, speeding up his explanation, “No matter what time it is or how much danger you’re in, even if the ghost of the horror film is standing behind you, you still can’t forget about your character.” 

“That’s because increasing your Character Points is the only way for actors to survive in a horror film. You probably need some props in high-rank movies too but we don’t know for sure. As for low-rank horror films, Character Points are everything.” 

This wasn’t a joke. Although it sounded an awful lot like one, low-rank films truly only required you to have a high Character score. If you had one, then no matter how close the ghost was to you, it would let you live due to all kinds of reasons. 

Horror Films didn’t have any strict separation of ranks but actors managed to make a system themselves. Most of the time, the lowest rank actor there would make up the rank of the horror film. 

This movie had four E-rank Actors participating so the movie should belong to the easiest rank, E-rank, with the simplest difficulty. 

But if you think about it another way, it’s not exactly a good thing if you get too invested in the acting either. 

The more you feel like you are the character, the harder it is to go back to yourself. If you get too invested during the movie, it’ll be hard for you to get out of character after the filming has ended. There were even cases of split personality disorder where you can live as two entirely different people. 

Even Fixer himself has slowly changed as compared to when he wasn’t an actor. As he acted in more and more movies, his personality underwent small changes each time, leaving behind countless scars.

Though I don’t think I need to tell the newbies about this. Fixer thought. 

When newbies first begin filming a movie, it’d be good enough if they manage to act properly and not get scared to death first. 

Is a high Character Point easy to get? You’ll need to be completely immersed in your character to do that. 

The first step to acting in horror films is to curb the inherent fear in your heart. If the fear exists, then Actors won’t be able to get into character. 

Of all the actors that have ever existed, the only person who could maintain a score higher than 80% in all the horror films they’ve acted in was the S-rank actor forever on top of a gold tower, “Artist”. They hold the most perfect record to ever exist.” 

But on the other hand, other than the Village Professor Wang, the three other newbies seemed to have pretty good mentalities. It seems that he was lucky and got a bunch of talented actors this time. If he observed a bit longer, maybe he’ll find some special qualities of the actors Director Q has chosen. 

“Oh right, I forgot to mention this. When the movie starts filming, your phone will have no signal so there’s no point trying to call for help from the outside world. Being an opportunistic asshole will also cause the system to make it personally harder for you.” 

Fixer lowered his voice, “Every time I met newbies, their first reaction is to call 110. If you have the energy to do that, you might as well shut up and start studying your character.” (t/n: 110 is the police number in china)

“What? It’ll increase the difficulty?!” 

It was as if that sentence was aimed at him, who had already sent out multiple tweets for help but received no replies from his tens of thousands of fans. Professor Wang’s face was as pale as a ghost. 

He frantically tried deleting all of his tweets but the system notification had rung at the same moment. 

[‘Desolate Village’ Act 1 will now begin] 

__________________________________________________________________________________

[Once the filming has begun, may actors get into character and avoid mentioning the words related to “system”, “actor”, and “filming”, or Character Points will be deducted]

At the same time, the Character Points appeared in the pupils of each Actor while the Director had three unchanging values. 

His Scream Value and Plot Exploration were still at 0 while the Actors Alive was currently 6. 

Zong Qi began calculating the requirements for passing. 

Actor Scream value had to be 5000, Plot Exploration needed to be 70% and Actors Alive needed to be at least 3. 

He found that Scream Value had turned into Actor Scream Value instead, meaning that the danger he faced as a Director wouldn’t be calculated into it and only the Actor’s danger counted. Only when the actors were in dangerous and threatening situations would Zong Qi be able to see an increase in scream value. Other than that, his quest was to find more information about the movie and background while ensuring that the Actors survive too. 

It was clear for all to see that, compared to Improvised Plots, Major Plots were much harder to succeed in. 

He was thinking as he studied everyone carefully, sighing dejectedly in his heart. 

After the movie began filming, not only could Zong Qi see everyone’s character information, but he could also see their Character Points. 

As he took a glance at it, he found that other than Professor Wang that had a 2%, everyone else’s was 0. 

The windows on the bus slowly got covered by a thick fog. 

The fog was very thick, thick enough that nothing could be seen through it as if the bus was the only thing in there. 

Though the fog soon dissipated and revealed a completely different road from the one they were on just now. 

The bus was now halfway on top of a cliff. On one end, there was a near 90-degree upward slope while the other end was 2 meters away from us and ended right there, leading to a bottomless abyss. They were driving on such a dangerous tightrope. 

“Holy shit—” 

Godsend couldn’t stop himself from swearing. 

Seeing that, Fixer could only stare at him, speechless. 

The old actors had the responsibility of getting the newbie actors into the movie. If the newbie actor was too outstanding or too bad at acting, it would also affect the Character Points of everyone else. 

His face instantly changed into one of concern, as if he was caring about an elder, “Are you okay, Professor Long? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?” (t/n: godsend’s chinese name is Long Aotian, so professor long c:) 

After he said that, Zong Qi found that Fixer’s Character Points had gone up by 1%. 

Crow also changed his habit of standing in the corner and putting on airs, getting out a bottle of water and carsick medicine, placing them in front of Godsend, instantly becoming the character of an assistant. 

“I-I’m fine.” 

Only then did Godsend remember that they were already filming. 

He forcefully cleared his throat and made his voice sound like something an old man would say. But as he faced Fixer’s face, Godsend couldn’t bring himself to say lines that would help him, only taking over the water Crow passed him and ended the conversation there. 

It was too common to see newbie actors who couldn’t say anything and just freeze. 

Because there was no plot in the filming, everything required the actors to improvise and think for themselves. 

Fixer completely overlooked the awkward pause, continuing to act as if he was in his world, “Thank god you’re okay, Professor. Oh right, the road here is bumpy, you better sit down instead, Annie, don’t overwork your baby.” (t/n: annie is a nickname ok) 

“Ah, that’s true, okay.” 

Anna immediately began tweaking the expression on her face, quietly sitting down on one of the bus seats and placing her hand on her stomach. 

“There’ll be many old things in the village we’re going to this time, we should be able to get pictures of great things. I’m so excited!” 

Blondie also took the camera that had appeared the moment filming started with familiarity, lowering his head as he mumbled. 

Professor Wang, who was most afraid of death, ran towards Anna. His pupils were blown wide and his head was full of sweat. It was clear that he was terrified right now. But he still forced himself to have an expression of flattery, his acting so wrong and exaggerated no one dared look at him. 

Facing these actors, who were working hard to accumulate points, Zong Qi was like a merman that had infiltrated this team, even having the time to stare outside. 

“The car is still driving up but the slope is so steep. Is this village placed at the top of the mountain or something?” 

After he said that, the bus took a sharp turn. 

After it had turned, the scene in front of them changed too. It was as if the mountain had been cut into two, a forest of trees appearing in the middle of the mountain valley. 

Zong Qi didn’t know if he was seeing wrongly but his intermediate Third Eye seemed to see a cage covering the valley with black fog, blocking the sunlight. 

Xiao Hong, who was acting as his shadow, also seemed to notice something wrong, the dark shadow trembling on the dirty floor of the bus. 

Anna suddenly exclaimed, “Guys! Look over there!” 

As they followed the direction she was pointing to, they found that the valley seemed to have been parted by a giant axe. The cut section was frighteningly flat and hundreds of metres high. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that it must have been done by the gods above. (t/n: didn’t rlly get this sentence, basically like a god had striked and axe down the mountain, tis why theres such a huge valley)

However, the actors didn’t have time to observe the natural wonder that looked like it had been done by God. 

Because what made them gasp in shock was the thing hanging from the middle of the valley. 

At about the middle of the mountain valley, there were lines and webs of connecting metal chains, hanging these long rectangle things down from it. 

“A-Are those caskets?” Professor Wang was so scared he dropped to the ground, landing on his butt. 

In a mountain valley surrounded all around by forests, not a bird could be seen flying around here. Instead, there were countless caskets hanging from it instead, making people shiver in fear. 

What made even less sense was that some of these caskets had yellow talismans with red words pasted on top of them while some others had cinnabar splattered onto them. If you looked from afar, you might even think the caskets were bleeding. 

“Yeah, these are called Hanged Coffins. Did you forget already? We read the documents before coming.” 

Crow calmly filled in the silence they left, “This desolate village is completely disconnected from the outside world so it’s not weird for the villagers to have such traditions.” 

Although his character card had mentioned the desolate village and an ancient tribe, everything else was made up on the spot. 

Seeing the valley from afar, even some of the veteran actors had a solemn expression on their faces, their hearts cold. 

These caskets had talismans on the, and even cinnabar. It was as if they were screaming at them “Something’s wrong with these caskets!”. It was especially so since this was a horror film. 

Not only that, the casket hanging in the very middle coincidentally had the most talismans on it while the rest of the hanging caskets looked as if they were holding it up. 

Will the big boss of this movie be sleeping inside the middle casket? 

Three of them couldn’t help but think. 

As everyone was deep in thought, Zong Qi suddenly began creasing his eyebrows just slightly. 

The actors might not have seen the poster of ‘Desolate Village’, but as the Director, he had. 

Behind the poster was the mountain range while trees and leaves were scattered around it, the atmosphere felt oddly suppressing. 

When the bus first drove up the mountain, Zong Qi felt a little confused but now that he saw the mountain valley in between two mountains, he finally understood. 

If they took a picture from the very centre of the valley, the mountain ranges in this village would look the same as in the poster. 

Except… There were no caskets in the poster, nor were there any lenses. 

As a student that used to major in directing, Zong Qi knew very clearly that movie posters either brought out the main theme or kept tiny hints and easter eggs within it, hiding the little secrets. 

In the most simple way of taking a photograph, the very middle part of it would naturally be the most important thing. 

Zong Qi could clearly remember that in the middle of the poster sat a dry well. On top of the dry well… was wet, silky hair. 

The author has something to say: 

77: Office Worker yay! 

Xiao Hong: Office work my ass, I’m the real working one! 

Of course, if any cuties here have some high expectations for good morals then I recommend you stop here. The chapters haven’t been locked yet so I’ll see you in the next book~