The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era

ONE of the staffs entered the room where Astrid and the others were waiting. He told them that it's time to go and that the live broadcast would start the moment they left this room. And as they did, the three – Astrid, Miria, and Lauren – should give their Terminals to their agents. Since they're not allowed to carry them.

The three did as they were told.

"Just have fun out there, okay?" Ellis told Astrid. "I'll watch the broadcast from here."

The agents would be left here and wouldn't be able to accompany them to the location where the three of them would shoot this episode. The only ones accompanying them were the cameras and some of the program team members.

Astrid nodded at what Ellis said and told the other to not worry.

After bidding farewell to their agents, the three walked out of the room. The moment they did, three small cameras floated around each of them.

Since the live broadcast was already starting, Astrid looked at the camera assigned to him and decided to greet the audience and also promote the movie while doing so.

"Hello to everyone who's watching," he said, waving and smiling at the camera. "Have you already watched [The Sleeping God]? If not, then go and watch it now at your nearest cinema. I promise you won't regret it."

"Yes, watch [The Sleeping God] now!" Lauren interjected, sticking beside him and doing a 'V' sign in front of his camera.

Although Astrid couldn't see the comments in the live broadcast, he wasn't even sure if there were already people watching, he could somehow already imagine what they were saying. No doubt that some would continue to ship him with Lauren.

He shook his head, looked at the camera, and then smiled again.

They followed the staff to where the aircraft they would be travelling in was. As they did they saw three more people from a distance. The three were also walking towards another aircraft.

Even without asking who the three were, they knew that they were cast members of the movie [Stardust] – a sci-fi flick that was showing at the same time as [The Sleeping God]. According to the Movie List of the day, they were currently number two in the box-office ranking. Of course, [The Sleeping God] was the first by a huge margin.

[Fieldtrip] usually casted guests from rivalling movies or shows to generate topic from the public. It seemed that this time, it's [The Sleeping God] versus [Stardust].

Astrid was just glad that with the format of the show, they didn't have to interact with the other crew. In [Fieldtrip], the two groups would go to different locations and compete. How you say? By doing the same missions given by the program group.

Since the two were not in the same location and they didn't have their Terminals with them, only the audiences watching the live broadcast could monitor the progress of the two teams.

With such an arrangement, any sort of dramas that might happen between the two teams could be avoided. Which was inevitable otherwise considering that the two teams were 'rivals' of some sort.

That's why Astrid was glad for such an arrangement. This was his first variety show. He just wanted to have some fun and not worry that some people might scheme against him.

After getting on the spacious aircraft that seemed more like a small spacecraft, one of the assistant directors travelling with them started to explain what they needed to do once they arrived at their destination.

"I think you already know how our program works, so I won't be too detailed with explanation," the other started. "Once we arrived at our destination, you will be given a mission. The other team will also be given one. Although it will be different since you're filming in two different locations, the level of hardness will be the same. There will be three rounds of missions overall. The one with the most win will be the winning team.

"The win I'm talking about is of course based on the missions given to you for each rounds. The one who accomplished the mission first will be considered as the winner of that round. We will tell you who the winner is at the end of the show. So, you can just comfortably do the mission without feeling pressured."

That's actually a good strategy. – Astrid thought. At least with that, the guests in the show wouldn't think that they had lost the chance to win. And they would continue to do their best to win.

"There's really nothing much more to explain other than that," the assistant continued. "If you don't have any question, do enjoy the flight. The aircraft has a lot of snacks and drinks. You can also watch some show during the flight."

Then, the assistant bid farewell. After that, the aircraft took off.

Lauren sat down unceremoniously. "Wow, they even blackened the windows. They sure do not want us to know where we're going."

"Isn't the 'surprise' part of the show's charm?" Miria said, walking to the built-in refrigerator and opening it. "Do you two want drinks?"

"Any carbonated drink is fine," Lauren said.

"Orange juice for me, please," Astrid said.

Miria gave the drinks they requested to the two and she also took a bottled tea for herself. She sat down on one of the free seats. "Where do you think our destination will be?"

"Hmm... maybe somewhere in the mountains," Lauren said. "They would leave us there to fend for ourselves or something. Maybe one of the missions is us hunting game."

"I do hope you're wrong," Miria said, then she turned to Astrid. "What about you, Astrid? What do you think?"

"Well, there's a lot of possibility, really," Astrid said. "But whichever location, the most important thing is for us to do our best. Of course, having fun is also a must."

"Having fun is definitely a must," Lauren said. He looked at the camera following him. "You also want to see us having fun, right?"

"Not too much fun, I hope," Miria added.

Astrid chuckled.

The people watching the live broadcast could see the strong chemistry between the three. And among them was a certain white-haired prince.