The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era

ASTRID was about to enter the small spacecraft when he felt a rather intense gaze looking at him.  He glanced back and saw a girl pointing her Terminal at him, obviously taking snapshots.  The girl seemed to be surprised by this and started to panic.  Astrid only smiled and nodded to her before walking inside the aircraft.

"She seems to be a fan," Ellis, who was walking beside him, commented.

She also saw what happened.  Even the reaction of the girl right after Astrid smiled back at her.  She was obviously panicking after being discovered.  But after seeing Astrid smiled, her whole body froze and then her face became as red as a cooked shrimp before an excited look appeared on her face.

That was the typical reaction of an excited fan after seeing their favorite celebrity.  It's also the reason why Ellis didn't stop the other's action.  Because she didn't feel any malice from the girl.  She just genuinely wanted to take a picture of Astrid.

"No, I think she's probably just one of those people who liked my face," Astrid said with a helpless smile.

"That's fine too.  After what happened just now, she would definitely turn into your true fan."

Astrid chose to not comment on that.  Of course, he didn't mind if that were to happen.  Because right now, he probably didn't have any loyal fans yet.  Even though his followers on [Cyberspace] had increased to around 350,000, he believed that none of those were truly there to support him as a fan.  Once he didn't meet their expectations, they would surely unfollow him.

No, wait, maybe he did have one fan.  The person with the username @astridsnumber1fan came to mind. 

After he read the post tagged to him by that person, he visited the other's profile because of curiosity.  Just like what he thought, it was a newly made account.  Aside from the post they tagged to him, their personal space was filled with replied to some comments and posts about him.

The other's response to those was a bit comical that he couldn't help but laugh when he read them.  They were very straight-forward and full of sarcasm.  It made him amuse and happy at the same time. 

Because of that, he secretly paid attention to the other.  There was a function on [Cyberspace] where one could read any posts and comments from a person without the need of following them.  But it would only work if the person involved had set their account to public.  Good thing that person did just that.

Astrid didn't know what came over him to do that.  Was it because the other called themselves their 'number one' fan?  Or maybe it's because they reminded him of a certain 'wolf'? 

Well, whatever the case, he had no intention of stopping paying attention to this person.  Who knows, maybe the other would bring more amusement to his life in the future.

"Maybe this incident would put you on the trending topic again," Ellis commented as she was looking around for their designated seats.

"I think it's more likely that the reason for me being on the trending topic list again is because you're with me," Astrid said, honestly stating his opinion.

After all, Ellis was still known in the agent circle.  If people saw her with him, they would immediately think that she had come back to the industry and was now working under Polaris as his agent. 

He just trended the other day.  Some media outlets had already been saying that he's a strong newcomer.  That if he could back this hype with genuine talent, then, he could go far in this industry.  But once people knew that his agent was that talented agent who almost put Olivia Crane at the top of the Star List, it would definitely create a buzz. 

The two finally found their designated seats and sat there.

"I sure hope that that would happen," Ellis responded to what he said.

Astrid glanced at his agent.  He suddenly understood why the other told him to not wear any mask or hat when they left for the space port.  Apparently, this was what she was aiming for.  That someone would take pictures of them together and post it online.

"Are you not worried that some people would smear us and say that we're simply hyping me up unnecessarily?" he asked.

He was just a newcomer with no works in his name.  And yet, he had already been attracting people's attention like this.  There would definitely be some who wouldn't like it.  Especially those newcomers who were in the same position as him.  Envy could force a person to do a lot of stupid things.

"Are we hyping you up?  No.  It's not our fault if people wanted to talk about you," Ellis said.  "Besides, those netizens would definitely notice that we boarded a spacecraft to a Film Studio planet.  They're resourceful that way.  Once speculations accumulated to the extreme, we will announce your guesting at that web drama.  Then, it would definitely create another trending topic for you."

Astrid shook his head helplessly.  Although Ellis wasn't really hiring a team of what he would call 'water armies' in his last life to hype him up, this strategy was almost the same.  Except that the people talking about him were real people and not paid trolls and keyboard warriors.

He's not really fond of hype or fame.  He became a movie emperor in his past life not because he's the hottest star around.  But because he's a damn good actor.  But he knew that in this era where humanity was united under one banner – the Empire, making it big as an actor would be hard if he didn't have fame or popularity. 

After all, when there were hundreds of actors and actresses debuting every month, it's important to be noticed.  If you couldn't capture the attention of the masses, then you wouldn't go far in your career. 

"By the way, are you ready for the shooting today?" Ellis asked, changing the topic.

Astrid smiled.  "Yes, Sister Ellis shouldn't worry."

That's right.  They were on their way to film his guesting on that popular web drama.  This would be his first official job as an artist of Polaris.