I live my life in Tokyo

"Higuchi-san is also very busy." The boy agreed.

This sentence attracted the attention of Mai Sakurajima and Madoka Higuchi at the same time. He felt the gaze and raised his head in confusion, "What's wrong? I follow Noctchill's Twitter. Aren't you going to release a new song recently and shoot a new MV? You are very busy."

"Yes." When work was mentioned, Higuchi Madoka, who had been looking at the boy as if he were a pervert, retracted her gaze and stated calmly, "We are going to shoot at the beach again this time."

"I hope that the filming locations for the summer season will be near the beach, so that I can enjoy the beach and sea water after filming." The boy leaned back in his chair, unscrewed the bottle cap and took a sip of tea. He thought of Higuchi Madoka's blue and white performance costume, which really matched the sea.

As the group chatted, a staff member pushed open the door of the lounge, holding a list in his hand. "The auditions will start in five minutes. Four people will be auditioned at a time. Actors whose names have been called, please be ready."

"Four people auditioning at the same time..." Higuchi Madoka pondered the meaning of this sentence.

"What do you think, Higuchi-san?"

Higuchi Madoka raised her head, her amethyst eyes and ocean blue eyes blended for a moment, "It should be a rivalry."

Mai Sakurajima explained, "Usually auditions are individual performances, but for the TV series Daily Life of High School Students, we auditioned individually."

"But this is a Snowstorm Mountain movie based on a class, which means that the director and supervisor need to see the interaction, cooperation, or rivalry between actors. During the audition, improvisation is a must."

Yu Kashima snapped his fingers to thank Mai Sakurajima for her explanation. Kaede Sakakibara nodded and felt more confident about the upcoming audition.

"Mai Sakurajima, Enka Higuchi, Kaede Sakakibara, Yu Kashima."

The four people's names were called and they stood up at the same time. They looked at each other and walked towards the audition room.

Out of the corner of his eye, the boy saw Nakano Ichika waving and cheering him on, and he smiled and nodded slightly.

Then he followed Higuchi Madoka into the audition room.

In the empty room, six directors sat behind a long table. After they finished writing the audition summary for the group just now, the one sitting in the middle crossed his fingers and said, "Before the audition begins, please introduce yourselves first."

This is normal procedure.

Although Mai Sakurajima is famous, this is a normal rule. The four of them are from STARS, so there is less tension than in other groups when introducing themselves to each other.

"Hmm..." He pondered for a moment, glanced at the list, and then said, "Thirty seconds to get into the role. There is a killer chasing you from behind. The four of you escape into a small room, and the killer keeps banging on the door, trying to break in."

"Play the role of a student in desperate situation."

The countdown begins.

The four of them exchanged glances.

It's simple. The director wants to see the actors' emotional transformation, to see their natural interactions without a script, and to see their ability to improvise and their creativity as actors, Mai Sakurajima thought with her eyes narrowed.

A feeling of fear? . . . Higuchi Madoka secretly glanced at Yu Kashima and Mai Sakurajima, who were developing feelings, and then looked at the boy who was holding his chin and keeping silent. If this was the real Snowstorm Villa, then who among these four people could she trust and who could she rely on?

Thirty seconds passed in a flash, and accompanied by the crisp ringing of mobile phones, the audition of four people officially began.

The boy slowly opened his eyes. The pure color of the white room quickly faded, and there were damp spots on the mottled walls. When he looked closer, he found some small brown spots - these were coagulated blood.

There was an elegant classical painting hanging on the wall. The boy recognized it. It was Edvard Munch's The Scream, which was set in the Oslo Fjord, full of trembling, blood-red, and distorted illusions. Not only that, the screaming person in the painting had bloodshot eyes and a pale face, and a green tentacle extended from his right ear.

The strong wind outside the window was like a woman's wailing. There was a thing wandering outside the door. The sticky, charred black liquid was crushed across the ground by its tentacles, and some of it had seeped in, emitting a stench of rotten food.

The boy took a few steps back and leaned against the wall away from the door to make himself feel at ease. Only then did he have time to look around him.

Sakurajima Mai hugged her arms and sat on the ground. Her face turned blue. She kept moving her body backwards and finally hit the wall with a thud, making a dull sound.

The voice seemed to have pressed a switch. Higuchi Madoka half-knelt on the ground with her head in her hands, "No... Don't do that."

"This is a dead end, what should I do?" Kashima Yu took a few steps back in disgust, making sure that the blood on the ground would not get on his feet.

"I'm going to die here." Sakurajima Mai collapsed, her body shaking like a sieve.

"Don't panic!"

The boy held onto Mai Sakurajima's shoulders. Although his voice was not loud, there was a sense of stability. Hearing his voice seemed to put her at ease. It was too early to give up now. There must be a way to escape that we haven't found yet."

Several directors and supervisors who were writing with their heads down had their eyes lit up when they saw the boy's performance, and they nodded slightly at the same time - among the panicked students, there is always someone who takes the lead in calming the panicked hearts of the classmates, and this role is usually a leader-like figure in the class.

The topic they gave was "A Student in Desperate Situation". Normally speaking, most actors who received this topic would show the same thing during the audition, like Mai Sakurajima and others, showing a frightened, crazy student.

And in the gradual conversation, someone will eventually lead the remaining three to find a way to escape.

At least so far, no one has played a calming leader role at the beginning of the audition, or it is human nature to ensure your own safety first and then care about others in an unfamiliar environment.

It sounds cold and callous that a friend dies rather than I die, but it is the truth. Everyone should mind their own business and not worry about other people's troubles. It is human instinct to seek benefits and avoid harm.

One of the supervisors looked at the boy's resume. He had some impression of this new actor - no, perhaps he can't be called a new actor now.

I originally thought that he could only play cold and aloof roles, but it seems that the boy is not limited to a single role.

Was this the boy's ulterior motive, or was it just natural acting? The director and supervisor continued to watch the four people's acting intently.

"There is a window here. Can I jump out?" Kashima Yu is a man of action. Although he was scared and his face turned pale, he still clung to the window and looked outside.

The four of them looked in the direction that Kashima Yu pointed at at the same time, with negative emotions on their faces. Sakurajima Mai's face looked desperate.

Outside the window were waves and tides. A strong wind was blowing and the world outside the window was grey and black. From time to time, there were screams of terror and the sound of tentacles crawling.

Below the window is a steep cliff.

The boy turned around anxiously and found Higuchi Yuanka standing still, her amethyst eyes staring in one direction, her lower lip tightly bitten, not daring to make a sound.

He followed Higuchi Madoka's line of sight and saw that densely packed, wriggling insects had appeared on the rusty wall. He exclaimed, "Parasites!"

"what!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Higuchi Madoka grabbed Sakakibara Kaede's arm with such force and a grip that the boy screamed.

"Use fire!" Kashima Yu knocked the oil lamp to the ground and pulled down the curtain on the side.

Sakurajima Mai woke up as if from a dream and helped to roll up the curtains. The boy took a few steps back with the trembling Higuchi Madoka, half-knelt down and poured the kerosene lamp on the curtains.

"Whoosh!" The flames surged instantly. The boy protected the three women behind him and grabbed the burning curtains and threw them at the parasites crawling all over the wall.

A ball of fire flew over the old, damp carpet and caught fire instantly when it touched the wall. The parasites that targeted the four people chirped and flapped their wings and legs before falling to the ground and turning into a pile of charred charcoal.

Mature acting skills of an action actor.

The director nodded when he saw this scene. During the audition, he used actions to assist words and pulled the audience, who were originally on the sidelines, into the film. This requires a certain level of basic emotional rendering ability to achieve.

At this moment, the four of them did not look like actors about to shoot a movie, but rather like actors performing in a stage play.

A stage play only needs a simple background board to perform a touching plot. Compared with actors in movies and TV series, stage plays require more basic skills from actors.

Yu Kashima pointed to the window, and the four of them showed desperate looks at the same time, which was a quick reaction to the sudden addition of the scene. The acting between Higuchi Madoka and Sakakibara Kaede was also surprising. The scene in which the four of them simultaneously pulled down the curtains and threw them at the parasites like Molotov cocktails - it was like a picture being played, appearing out of thin air in the minds of many directors and supervisors.

"Can this wall be pushed down?" The boy glanced at the burning wall and found that the structure here was made of wood. He could faintly see light coming from outside.

Is this a time of good fortune?

He nodded encouragingly to the others. Higuchi Madoka, who had been scared to tears by the boy's words, wiped away her tears, bit her lower lip with her silver teeth, and her right hand secretly and quietly grabbed the hem of the boy's clothes.

"Bah!"

Sakurajima Mai suddenly turned around, and the sturdy wooden door that was originally held in place by the bookshelf was completely shattered by the attack of the tentacles!

"Hurry up and run!" the boy urged. He grabbed the hands of Sakurajima Mai and Higuchi Yuanxiang and sent them to Kashima Yu who was running in front. "I will try to delay him for a while. I will be there soon."

The tentacles spoke a language that was difficult for humans to understand. The boy knelt on the ground with his head covered. His eyes were tightly closed and he let out a low roar of pain. He was falling into temporary madness!

"Let's go." Sakurajima Mai's voice was nasal. She glanced at the boy's back reluctantly, pulled the distracted Higuchi Madoka over, and kicked open the wall that was on the verge of breaking.

On the other side of the wall is the dark sea and a hollow space swept by the storm.

In the distance, there was a huge human shadow on the sea, with thick tentacles growing on its head and a pair of scarlet eyes looking from far to near at the tiny and ordinary humans.

San check.

(1D10)/(1D100) Look directly upon the great Cthulhu.

The result is 95, which is greater than the sanity of everyone present, and increases the madness effect on all investigators present. Oh, and there is also bad news. Looking directly at the great Cthulhu causes the sanity to be less than or equal to zero, which means that the four people present are hopelessly crazy. Congratulations, congratulations.

Bang, bang, bang. All the investigators were killed.

The directors and supervisors looked at each other and nodded. They saw too much from this improvisation of less than five minutes. They seemed to see the butcher sawing the wooden door with an electric saw outside the door, and then he stuck his head out and said, "Here's Johnny!"

Every director supervises a different world. The world of investigators in the eyes of a boy may become a world of battle royale in the eyes of another person.

"Thank you for your hard work, everyone at STARS." A supervisor led the applause, which triggered the approval of others. "It was a wonderful improvisation. Please wait in the lounge until you know the results of the audition."

"Thanks for the advice."

The four of them bowed at the same time and left the audition room one by one.

Higuchi Yuanka was the last one walking, and she pulled the hem of the boy walking in front of her awkwardly.

The latter turned around in confusion, "What's wrong?"

"Um...thank you." Higuchi Madoka showed her frank side rarely, her amethyst eyes wandering, "Thank you for helping me out during the audition just now."

She lowered her eyes. Higuchi Madoka knew that she was not good at acting in real life, or that she was afraid of it. Maybe she was like those actors who were criticized on the Internet for only being able to play a single type of role.

If the boy hadn't suddenly shouted "there's a bug", Higuchi Madoka would have pinched it out of reflex.

"Oh..." The boy was stared at by Higuchi Madoka's grateful eyes for a long time. After the other party's eyes turned into dissatisfaction, he remembered and chuckled, "You are talking about the scream when you pinched me, right? Hey, you caught me off guard too. I didn't expect your actions to be so radical. I almost became a clown. Fortunately, Madoka came back."

"Humph."

Higuchi Yuanka snorted softly and quickened her pace to pass the smiling young man.

He clearly doesn't understand anything, and clearly doesn't understand himself at all, but he can still hit the bull's eye easily every time.

The boy nodded to Nakano Ichika who entered the audition room, leaned on the sofa nearby, and looked for the free cookies in the lounge.

Chapter 2: The handsome guy with academic misconduct (9/)

"How did the audition feel?" Mai Sakurajima asked the other three in a low voice.

"I'm not satisfied with my performance." Kashima Yu said with a hint of regret and a feeling of wanting more, "If the place was bigger, I could show off my athletic ability for the director. After all, it's Snowstorm Manor, and there will definitely be chase scenes inside - I'll run in front, and Sakakibara-san, you'll chase me from behind."

The boy choked and frowned, "How could a sunny and harmless boy like me chase you?"

"It's just an analogy, why are you so anxious, Sakakibara-san?" Mai Sakurajima raised a finger towards the boy and chuckled.

"In addition to the movements, the expressions were also up to standard." Higuchi Madoka recalled the performance of the four people, the fusion between the expressions and the movements, "Sakurajima-senpai's first half was a sentimental performance, and the second half was a dynamic performance. It should be a sure thing."

"Hey, it's just acting, everyone can do it."

Mai Sakurajima waved her hands indifferently. What's so great about this? She just imagined a world in her mind that only she could imagine and then acted it out. While making her companions accept her worldview, their acting competition could also perfect this world.

"I don't know. This time I tried a completely new role. I hope I won't be rejected." The boy held his chin and frowned. To be honest, it was a bit difficult to imitate real people. He was never the sunny and positive handsome guy who twisted ropes in the class. He had never experienced such a feeling before.

If the audition just now fails to achieve the desired result, then I will send it in.

"I think he's a bit like our class president." Yu Kashima raised his hand and answered, "I think Sakakibara-kun played the role very well. I can see the desire to help from your character."

"But don't you think it's a bit scary to play this kind of role?" Sakurajima Mai said softly, and her words gently struck everyone's heart, "Are there really people who help others for free? There must be a reason, right?"

"Hmm...want to start a harem?"

The boy's words made Sakurajima Mai and Higuchi Madoka glare at him at the same time. He ignored their gazes and said seriously, "Don't such scenes of heroes saving beauties appear in novels about different worlds? Men saving women, women saving men. If we simply discuss it in an academic way, it's the reproductive desire of animals."

"Animals have a strong desire to reproduce when they are dying, and the same is true for humans."

Yu Kashima nodded seriously, "I see, I got it. As expected of you, Sakakibara-san. Is this what a senior from the University of Tokyo knows?"

Higuchi Madoka looked away, as if thinking about something. Only Sakurajima Mai pouted at the boy, questioning his academic misconduct.

The waiting time is undoubtedly long and anxious.

But the boy didn't think so. He took out his mobile phone and opened Happy Match. With the free drinks and snacks provided in the rest area, he enjoyed himself very much.

If he eats more, he can save it before dinner.

The boy stuffed the chocolate pie into his mouth and swallowed it with the lemon sparkling water, burping softly in satisfaction.

The actors who received the news from their agents left with regret and reluctance. The boy knew that the screening was over and the answer to whether the audition was successful or not was now known.

"Without us..."

Kashima Yu spoke softly, fearing that if he spoke a little louder, his cell phone would suddenly ring.

The boy glanced around and found that most people in the lounge had left. He saw Nakano Ichika, who was praying with her fingers crossed in front of her face.

After a while, the sound of people moving around disappeared.

"Ahem, those who remain here are the actors who passed this audition. Congratulations."

Several directors and supervisors came out of the audio-visual room and spoke to the thirty or so actors who remained in the lounge.

“You’re going to be on a three- to five-month shooting schedule.”