The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era

WHILE the audience was enjoying his 'little performance', Astrid was already cringing inside. When asked to do something 'cute', this action was the first thing that came to his mind.

During his time as an actor in his past life, idols were everywhere. It's like there was a factory mass producing them. That's why, as someone from the same industry, it was inevitable for him not to see some of their performances.

After they performed on stage for some music show, the camera would always zoom in to some of the members of the group. Those who were chosen would then do poses that would make them look 'cute' or 'adorable' to the audience watching them. Which was also a part of their fan service.

Astrid did what was commonly known back then as a 'heart bite'. It was the first thing that came to his mind when thinking of something that was cute and easy to do. Of course, he also imitated the 'idol smiles' he saw then.

And what he did just now was the result.

Seeing as how the audience erupted into cheers, it seemed that he succeeded somehow.

"What's this? I suddenly want to go over  there and pinch you," the emcee said, looking as if he was really about to do just that.

"Please, don't," Astrid said while protecting his cheeks.

This elicited laughter from the audience, as well as the other guests.

The emcee then turned to Lance. "How about you, Lance? Don't you feel the same urge?"

"Please, don't use the word 'urge', our audience might misunderstand," Lance said jokingly.

Although he tried to laugh it off, deep inside, Lance was already complaining a thousand times. Why was this guy trying to rope him in on that cuteness whatsoever thing? What if Leland misunderstood that he was back to his usual antics if he agreed to this guy? So, it's better to just divert the topic.

After that short interlude, the quiz continued.

The next question stopped on the Geography category. It was another easy difficulty. Then, the screen changed and a picture of the Statue of Liberty appeared.

"For five points, in which city was this—"

Astrid quickly pressed the buzzer. "New York City."

"Correct!"

Five points appeared on Astrid's podium after that. Although he decided to do it moderately in order not to be suspected of cheating, answering easy questions should be fine. He would just act like he's struggling when it came to the medium and hard questions.

Then, the quiz continued. The first one to do a penalty was the fourth female lead – Myla Cruise. Yes, it was her again. It was because she accidentally pressed the buzzer when the question was on hard difficulty.

Thankfully, the penalty she had to do was not that hard. Well, at least that was the case for Astrid. She only had to drink some questionable green juice. The moment she took a sip, she gagged almost reflexively. But she pushed through and drank everything despite gagging multiple times in the middle.

Although after that, her face seemed to have also turned green. It's like she would vomit at any seconds.

The second penalty happened to Yujin. He had to hold a slime like creature for 30 seconds. Although this penalty couldn't be considered as difficult, the feeling of that slime on one's skin must be worse than it looked.

Because from where Astrid was standing, he could literally see Yujin's hands holding it tremble. It's probably even worse because the slime was alive and moving. But Yujin didn't show any disgust on his face. The only thing people could see was calmness. Which was quite commendable. Especially since he was probably feeling the opposite inside.

As the quiz continued and their points accumulated, the number of penalties also increased. Except for Astrid, the other three had gone to two-three penalties already. He knew that it would be troublesome later on if he didn't suffer a penalty at least once, that's why he's planning to get the answer wrong on the next question.

It didn't really help that the questions were on the level of a general knowledge trivia. If it was asked on a quiz program in his past life, the show would definitely draw flak from the audience because of how easy the questions were. That's why it was getting harder and harder for him to act like he didn't know of wasn't sure of the answer when it was the complete opposite.

"For 50 points, what planet is the closest to Earth?"

Astrid quickly pressed the buzzer. "Mars?"

He knew that the answer was Venus, but he deliberately gave the wrong answer in a very unsure tone. His and Yujin's points were very close. So, it might have looked  like he was trying to get ahead by answering the question even if he wasn't sure that his answer was correct.

As expected, the sound indicating that the answer was wrong rang in the studio. Astrid made sure that he would have a dejected expression right after. Then, he quickly tried to smile as if it didn't matter.

The emcee asked the question again. This time, no one pressed the buzzer immediately. If after five seconds passed and no one answered, then the question would be void and they would move to the next question. Letting five seconds passed was what most contestants would do. That's way, they didn't have suffer a penalty just in case they answered and guessed wrongly.

But when just a second was left, Yujin pressed his buzzer. "Is it... Mercury?"

The sound indicating that it was the wrong answer echoed in the studio again. An embarrassed expression appeared on Yujin's face.

The emcee asked the question again, but this time, the five seconds passed quickly without anyone pressing the buzzer.

"Is this the first time in today's episode that two people would be penalized?" Lance asked.

"Yes. Wouldn't this be interesting?" the emcee asked the audience in which they cheered loudly, as if enjoying this situation.