Chapter 236: Chapter 236 – No Rest For the Wicked
After logging out from the VR world, Max didn't step out of the capsule immediately. He watched it open for him and stayed seated inside. His sweat fell down his forehead and nape. He needed a few seconds to regain his composure.
"Fuu…"
Letting out a tired sigh, he wiped the sweat around his eyes before stepping out. His foot was wobbly, a sign that he pushed himself a little bit too close to exhaustion. Even though he rested in his Lobby for a few minutes, that wasn't enough to regain his energy.
"Water, water." He muttered as he went to the kitchen and took a glass, drinking the water from the tap.
The feeling of liquid sliding down his throat felt refreshing, even though it was lukewarm. His body was still too hot to drink cold water from the fridge. Then, he took out a soft bread and ate it without any jam or anything. He was hungry enough to make the bland, soft bread taste heavenly.
Sleepiness crept up after he filled his stomach. His eyelids felt heavy. However, there was no time to rest yet—many things needed to be finished today, starting from the easiest one.
"I need to check my quest first. Has NoFeet aired their ad yet, I wonder?"
<Quest:
- Handsome Actor
Are you famous? The answer is yes!
A streamer is not just a streamer in this age! You are a star! A star is bound to attract attention, unwanted and wanted one. You are shining brightly and different from normal people!
This is your chance! Use this to spread your name to normal people. Get fans to spread your new ad to everyone in the world!
Be celebrity. Get recognized by 1000 people outside of your streaming circle and get a hundred thousand likes for your ad video on Punchtube.
Progress 1: 176/1000
Progress 2: 16,217/100,000
Reward: 1x A-Grade nutritional supplement + Secret Reward.
Deadline: 1/30 days (Counting after the ad is released)
Failure to complete this mission will result in the deletion of your Lobby's items. You are a failure and don't need parkour equipment if you can't even get a hundred thousand likes!>
The number 0 from before had changed into 1. And the progress had increased pretty fast, considering it was only a few hours since he last checked it when it was still 0.
"Woah. They already got more than 10K likes? That's really amazing."
Looking at the people who recognized him and the number of likes, the ad seemed to be well received.
Curious, he opened Punchtube and typed 'NoFeet ads' on search. Many ads showed up, but Max used the filter to sort them from the newest to oldest. Then, the one he searched appeared on the top. This video was uploaded 3 hours ago and had a catchy title.
[New sports shoes! As light as a feather, as soft as a cloud! Feel the breeze with your passion!]
Reading the title, he couldn't help but chuckle. Feel the breeze. It seemed like the company got inspired by his name.
'Thankfully, they put my name under Director Hugo in the description. That's why more than 100 people recognized me.' He mused.
The thumbnail was him wearing the shoes. Of course, the shoes were the main focus and filled almost half of the frame. But that didn't matter. He wanted to watch his first ad video.
Pressing play, the upbeat music suddenly rang. The screen showed two youngsters playing around in the tag house. The first one had difficulty catching up with his friend.
"Hahaha, what's wrong? Catch me if you can!" The first youngster, Brian, laughed as he climbed the obstacle and escaped his friend's chase.
"S-Slow down!"
Appearing to be exhausted, the second young man, Max, wiped the sweat from his forehead. At this moment, he was truly exhausted because he played around too much before screening.
"Hahaha, I won't!"
The scene continued with them chasing each other. After a while, it changed and showed Max slumped on the ground, tired.
'The transition is so seamless. Damn, the one who edits it must be skilled. Maybe that's why BloodSucker wanted to scrap his perfectly fine work. He must've watched this yesterday, considering that his friend was probably the editor of this ad.'
On the screen, he was breathing heavily and looked at the obstacles with an unfocused gaze. Then, his eyes shifted to a pair of bulky white shoes, the main product in this ad.
He grabbed them and wore them before pumping himself up.
"Let's do this."
The atmosphere around him changed, and he became more spirited and cheerful. His movement also became a lot better. This footage was taken after Max finished taking his. All parkour movements he knew were integrated into the video.
Vaulting, jumping, rolling, landing, and even flipping. They were beautiful together, but there was still something it lacked.
'The story is good but too simple, and they focused on the shoes a little too much. Well, considering it's an ad, that's understandable. They want the product to shine, not the story.' He thought as he watched the video finished.
A shoot from the front, showing his satisfied face, followed by a panning toward the shoes, became the closing bit. After the screen became white, the NoFeet logo appeared in the middle, and the video ended.
"Let's watch the video BloodSucker sent me then. I have no time to watch it earlier." He muttered curiously and opened his file.
All the things he needed to stream were put in one folder, which branched into two: Streaming and Video. All edited videos went into the latter and were named by upload date. Only one had no upload date yet; it was the ad video BloodSucker edited for him.
He pressed it and brought it up into a different hologram screen. Then, he pressed play.
Unlike the upbeat music from NoFeet's ad, BloodSucker chose a slow ballad like those from spy movies. The opening showed Max playing around with pillars in the park, moving up and down, parkouring as if he didn't care about the danger.
Max was pretty surprised. He didn't think the footage he sent three days ago would be used in this video.
'That guy… So he truly starts from 0 again?' He mused in surprise. 'His effort is praiseworthy.'
The lighting created a rather mysterious background. Once again, Max immediately found something different from this video and the ad. The camera movement was a bit shaky and panning fast. Many transitions happened in just a few seconds, causing many changes in the videos.
And then, he stopped after hearing claps. The scene changed after that. The transition was smooth, especially since the action camera took the footage from 1st PoV.
The scenery around him changed as if he had woken up from a dream. He was now in a tag house, wearing the shoes from NoFeet. When the shoes were in the frame, the brand popped up like a hologram for a second before disappearing.
Then, he began to run. Different perspectives, different movements. It was way faster, agile, and skillful. Only hands and legs were visible, grabbing the pipe and climbing it up. The shaky camera gave the viewers a little bit of discomfort, but that was what it was like doing parkour in real-time.
After crouching for a second on the pipe, the camera moved, showing a man in red clothes coming closer.
"Heh!"
Scoffing, Max began to move. He jumped to the highest point of the obstacle and taunted the man. This was the reason why he looked back many times while filming this. While he had no other actors, he believed BloodSucker could put CGI into the video, making it come alive.
The game of tag started. However, no matter how hard the red-clothed man tried, he couldn't even get close to Max. Once again, the shoes appeared in the frame. It gave out a status-like game panel, showing speed and protection at maximum.
When he saw that, Max couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"That bastard has done it, hahaha! This is what I mean by giving it a story. Showing off is fine, but the viewers will need concrete details. I should give him extra pay if this video blows up more than NoFeet ads."
The video ended with him standing on top of the obstacles, spreading his arms like a god. This part was taken from the 3rd PoV, using the footage given by Director Hugo. And the video ended after that, with words appearing under NoFeet's logo.
"Starring: Breeze."
"Editor: Viscount BloodSucker."
"Sponsored by: NoFeet."
Once again, Max burst into laughter. The sleepiness from earlier was gone, and the frustration from getting involved in something troublesome was replaced with pure joy.
"Pfft! Viscount BloodSucker."
What a grandiose name. It fits his personality well, so Max only found it funny.
"Yeah, this video is far better than the ad. I will upload it right now."
Without hesitation, he uploaded the video and gave it a short title.
[I AM MOVEMENT GOD! #NoFeet_Ad]
No need for further explanation. The description was copied from NoFeet's ad, deleting unnecessary details like links and stuff.
After it was ready, he made the video public and made a post on his Strike account with this video link. Many people still visited and pinged him. Those Midnight Heist's players were still waiting for his explanation video and stalked his account.
"Heh, they can wait for a little more. Be useful for me, and like this video first.' He commented as he wrote the caption.
[This is my take for the NoFeet ad! I have starred in their ads and created a video myself, because why not? I am allowed to!
Also, don't forget to like and subscribe! I really appreciate your support.
P.S. Explanation video will be uploaded in my Strike soon. In the meantime, do watch this video first.]
He had finished his quest's preparation. Now, he just had to make a short video explaining the point acquisition before he could rest for the day.
'Let's finish it fast.'