The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era

GRANT stared at the close door where Ellis and Astrid just walked out.  Then he shook his head.  The expression on his face, a combination of helplessness and amazement.  He once again watched the footage of Astrid acting the scene from [Dreams Lost].  And he was once again amazed just by how talented the kid was. 

His expressions, his body language, his emotions, everything was in place.  It's like Astrid disappeared and was replaced by the role he was playing.  The teenager managed to completely immersed himself in the role.  Completely erasing who he was and just becoming the role he was acting in.

The current number one on the Star List – Valentine Davis – also had that habit.  Every role he played, he would embody it as if that was his true identity.  That was the reason why all the movies he starred in would always give him an acting award. 

But he heard that that method of acting also gave Valentine mental stress.  If the other didn't have an S class mental strength, he would probably have already gone mad long ago. 

Clearly, there were advantages and disadvantages of such acting method.  But the pros obviously outweighed the cons.  So, many also tried to do the same.  On paper, the method seemed very easy to do.  But in truth, not many could do it.  Because not all people could simply forget who they were and embodied another personality.  Especially if it was completely different from their own.

Not everyone could simply abandon their 'self' and become another 'self'.  If done constantly, it would probably lead to a personality disorder.  It's the reason why during the recent years, Valentine only filmed one movie a year.  Because the constant filming during his early career had taken a toll on his mental state.  Really, if not for the other's ow mental strength, he probably should have long had psychological and mental problem. 

Grant understood this.  As a talented newcomer, he couldn't let Astrid go down that path.  All that potential and talent, he couldn't let it go to waste.  He should probably have a talk with Ellis regarding that. 

He opened his Terminal and contacted his assistant.  "Prepare an artist contract."

The assistant on the virtual screen didn't ask much and just thought that the company would sign another artist.  "What contract level should I prepare?"

In Polaris, artists received a certain level of contract depending on their talent and marketability.  There were five levels in total, with level 1 being a priority and with the most number of benefits.

"Prepare a level 3 contract," Grant said.

The assistant thought that the artist they're signing was probably a bit well-known and had already established their name in the industry.  He wondered who the artist was and which company they transferred from. 

"I will prepare it immediately," he responded.

What he didn't know was that this 'well-known and established' artist in his mind was actually just a newcomer.

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After leaving the president's office, Astrid found that Reas and Lauren were the only ones in the waiting room.  The two were both sitting far away from each other and was obviously trying hard not to look at each other's direction.  In short, the atmosphere around them were awkward.

Astrid looked at the two with amusement.  So, now, they changed their way of 'getting along'.  Instead of bickering, they chose to ignore each other.  Really these two, they're like a pair of primary school students. 

But Astrid was also at fault to some degree.  His teasing might have led to Reas being guarded against Lauren which resulted to this.  He probably should tone down with the teasing.  At least until the two became comfortable with each other. 

"Your agent and assistant left?" he asked Lauren.

"Yeah," Lauren said. 

Chris had to go accompany another artist he's handling while his assistant had to leave because of an emergency.  So, he was left with Andreas for the past 15 minutes.  That was probably the most silent 15 minutes of his life.  Both of them were silent and none of them took the initiative to speak first. 

At first, he was happy that the other was not saying anything that would just annoy him.  But later on, the silence simply became unbearable.  He almost challenged the other into a fist fight.  Anything, just to break the silence.  Good thing he managed to stop himself.  Or else he would just look like a total fool.

But honestly, he couldn't understand why he would mind it this much.  Why did it matter if Andreas was not speaking to him?  Was he so deprived of attention that he would even want the attention of someone he didn't like? 

A part of him seemed to know the answer to that.  But he absolutely refused to acknowledge it.  So, he simply shook his head and removed all those thoughts from his mind.

"How is it?  Did you decide to sign in our company?" he just chose to ask.

"Yes," Astrid answered with a smile. 

Lauren jumped full of excitement when he heard that.  He was about to hug Astrid to congratulate him but quickly stopped.  Because he knew that if he did so, Andreas would definitely step between them and he might just end up hugging the other.  Just like what almost happened before. 

Thinking of that, he instinctively glanced at the annoying guy.  He was startled when he saw that the other was also looking at him.  But Andreas expression clearly showed that he was annoyed.  Seeing that he was looking at him, didn't it mean that the source of his annoyance was him?

This only made Lauren more irritated.  Did this guy actually think that he's some kind of sex offender or something?  He took a deep breath and looked the other way.  No, he shouldn't lose his temper.  Especially right now that he heard such a good news from Astrid.

"That's great!" he said, bringing back his enthusiasm.  "When will you sign the contract?  Did the president already assigned an agent to you?"

"I'm still not sure when the contract will be signed, but most likely, within this week," Astrid answered and then gestured to the woman standing beside him.  "Sister Ellis here is going to be my agent."