The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era

ASTRID picked up the juice in front of him and drank a bit. They were now inside a private box of a much more expensive restaurant. It was where Mr. Rogers took them after he said that they should go to somewhere more private to talk. 

He was not afraid that he was just scamming them and about to bring them to some dangerous place. After all, Reas was with him. With the two of them working together, there's hardly any danger they couldn't overcome.

So, while they were following Mr. Rogers' car with their rented one, Astrid took the time to check [Starnet] information about the man. It's one of the reasons why he decided to give Mr. Rogers a chance to speak with them more properly instead of just turning him over to the police. Because he didn't hesitate to show them his ID and even told him to search him on the [Starnet]. 

When he was looking at his Terminal while in their rented car, he realized that he made the right decision. It didn't take long for him to find the information about Mr. Rogers. Although the picture of him on [Starnet] was a more formal and much cleaner version and not the unkempt version that they saw in person, it's true that he didn't lie about his identity. 

Mr. Rogers was indeed who he said he was – a casting director. The movies listed under his name were all big productions and almost all of it had huge blockbuster turn-out. He even watched some of it.

Astrid looked at the man sitting in front of him and his brother. He looked like someone who hadn't rested and hadn't taken a proper bath for a few days. He wondered if he looked like this in normal times and he only cleaned up whenever there's a formal occasion. Anyhow, they should probably proceed to the much more important discussion.

"Mr. Rogers, you said that you wanted to cast me in a movie, am I right?" he asked first.

"Yes, yes. You really fit the role. Even the director agreed with me when I send him the clip of you that trended three days ago. He told me to immediately look for you and offer you an audition. If you succeed on the audition, we would immediately give you the role," Mr. Rogers answered.

"Does that mean that Mr. Rogers had been looking for me for three days?" Astrid thought of asking. 

Mark scratched the back of his head and laughed awkwardly. "Haha… yes. I only managed to find you because someone in that restaurant posted a picture of you on [Cyberspace]."

Astrid nodded. Could it be the other looked so unkempt because he was looking for him? If that's true, then wouldn't that be kind of… pitiful?

"May I ask who the director is?" he just asked instead.

"It's Director Trevane. I don't know if you've heard of him but he's a really famous director. You wouldn't regret being part of his movie!" Mark said, starting to praise the director.

Astrid was quite surprised. Of course, he had heard of Director Trevane. He was one of the most popular fantasy movie directors in the Empire. All of his movies were high budget films that always had a high box office return. He watched some of his movies and they were all very properly directed. Even if the plot was quite simple, the director managed to make it very exciting and fun. 

And now, he suddenly had an opportunity to play in the movie of Director Trevane.

It's like a pie just fell from the sky without him doing anything. Oh, wait- he and his brother did encounter a hostage taker/bomber and they also met two members of the Grimaldi family all of a sudden. Those were the reasons why he trended. Maybe this was destiny's way of compensating him?

He smiled inside. Then, he'd gladly take it. But before that, he had to ask some things first.

"What was the movie about?"

Mark secretly let out a sigh of relief seeing the interest in the teenager's eyes. "It's a fantasy/adventure movie set in a magical continent where one god rules all. But a century ago, the god suddenly went into slumber for no reason. Because of that the continent was plagued with demons. A group of heroes will go on an adventure to wake up the sleeping god to save the whole continent from the demon lord. That's really all I can tell you. At least for now."

Astrid understood. Since it's still not certain if he would take whatever role Mr. Roger was offering, it wasn't ideal to tell him the rest of the story. But despite that, he still got the gist of the story. 

It was a pretty cliched trope. A group of friends adventuring to find the thing that could defeat their enemy. 

He wondered what role Mr. Rogers were planning to offer him. If this was his last life, then he wouldn't even be considered an 18th line actor. At most he probably could only get at most three minutes of screen time. But would a casting director spend three days to look for him just for an extra role? 

He guessed it's probably better to just ask Mr. Rogers directly. "May I ask what role will I be playing if I managed to pass the audition?"

"If you pass Director Trevane's audition, then you'll get the role of the 'god'."

Astrid became silent for a moment. He didn't know how to react for a second.

Reas, who had been siting quietly beside Astrid, noticed his brother's speechlessness. He must be really surprised. Although Reas didn't know anything about movies, based on what he heard earlier about the movie this Mr. Rogers was a part of, wasn't the role of 'god' pretty big?

Astrid quickly recovered from his shocked. And then excitement rushed through his body. Just like what Reas thought, this role was indeed big. Even if at some chance this 'god' only appeared at the end of the movie, it wouldn't matter. For someone like him who's a total 'newcomer', this was probably the best way for him to enter the entertainment industry.

He smiled brightly. "Mr. Rogers, I will take that audition."