156: POLARIS TOUR (II)

POLARIS TOUR (II)

"THIS floor is for the music division of the company.  It has fully-equipped recording studios, as well as a room for musical instruments that any artist of the company could freely use.  There were also practice rooms where they could practice their singing or have lessons with our company's vocal coaches," the assistant introduced.1

Astrid, just as he did with the other floors they've been to, looked around.  Like the dance division floor before this, the rooms were arranged neatly.  With the recording studios on one side and the practice rooms on the other.  And just like what the assistant mentioned, if the music division had voice coaches, then the dance division had dance teachers.

Although the entertainment company he was part of in his past life also had dance practice rooms and recording rooms, the number of it could be counted with a hand.  Unlike here where it occupied a single floor.  Really, one could probably just train here instead of going to a performance art school.

"The next floor should be the acting division?" he asked.

The assistant nodded, confirming his guess.  "But it's not just a single floor, it actually occupies three floors."

Astrid was a bit surprised hearing that.  "Three floors?  Isn't that a bit too much?"

"No, no, it's actually just normal.  The acting division is mostly made of holographic rooms filled with thousands of movie films.  An artist could go inside choose a scene from the movie library and re-enact it.  Then, based on their performance, the room would give them acting points with 100 being the highest."

That's truly… quite amazing. – Astrid thought.  Since the assistant said that the presence of this holographic rooms was 'normal', then it could be seen that entertainment companies probably also had them. 

But he must admit, hearing the description given by the assistant, these rooms were pretty useful in his opinion.  He suddenly had an urge to try one.  Since, he had already thought of it, he might as well ask the assistant.  If he could, then good.  If he couldn't, then that's fine too.  He could always try again next time.

"Is it alright if I try one of those rooms?"

The assistant was surprised at first when he heard such a request.  But he quickly became enthusiastic again.  "Of course, of course.  Since it's still early in the morning, I'm sure there's still some free rooms.  Let me check it first later when we go to the next floor."

After finishing their tour at the music division room, they went to the next floor which was the first of the three floors of the acting division.  The assistant told them to wait a moment for a while before walking to a virtual computer screen that could be seen at every floor.  This computer was like a log.  He had to check which holographic room was currently free. 

"This is a good company," Reas commented when the assistant left them.   

Astrid glanced at his brother.  "Yes, I think so too.  It would probably not be a loss if I sign with them."

This company was actually his first choice.  But he had to first check whether their reputation truly preceded them.  And from what he had seen so far, that seemed to be the case.  He was very satisfied with what he had seen so far.  At least, in terms of facility, Polaris was top-notch.  In terms of people, well, he just had to see about that.

He was just glad that this first choice didn't let him down.  He didn't want to go around searching for a better alternative.  Which was quite hard.  Since there wasn't that many entertainment companies that wasn't too big but still had a pretty good reputation and sphere of influence. 

"But you still have to be careful.  Even if this company seems to be good on the surface, one couldn't say the same with the people," Reas reminded him.

Astrid knew exactly what his brother meant.  "I know."  He smiled full of meaning.  "Do you think I would just let anyone scheme against me?"

Reas stopped and then shook his head helplessly.  He somehow wanted to light a candle to those who would try to really scheme against his brother.  The keyword here was 'try'.  Because that's probably the farthest they could go.

After a few seconds more, the assistant finally walked back to their position.  "There's an available holographic room in this floor.  Should we go there now?"

Astrid turned to the assistant and gave him his gentle smile.  "Okay.  Please, lead the way."

-----

Lauren was now on the floor of the president's office.  He should have already been there 15 minutes ago but his agent detained him.  It's because the other didn't know that he brought Astrid here.  And for some reason, the news that arrived to him was a bit askew from the truth. 

What his agent – Chris – heard was that he brought a no-name newcomer to the company because the other asked him to and he couldn't refuse.  Of course, that only sounded to Chris that this newcomer used some sort of beauty trap and hugged Lauren's thigh.  With the naïve image that Lauren had in Chris mind, he immediately believed that and became furious.  There was no doubt that he thought that he was being taken advantaged again.

It took a while before Lauren could explain everything to Chris.  It turned out that there was a miscommunication between his agent and his assistant, that's why Chris misunderstood.  But once he explained everything, his agent finally calmed down.

Yes, Chris was indeed no longer angry but he was frustrated instead.  He had also met Astrid once when he visited the set of [The Sleeping God] and saw the other's raw talent.  By then, he had the idea of pulling him to Polaris and probably even being his agent.  But he knew that he shouldn't be too excited because that might just scare the teenager away.

He planned to wait, at least before [The Sleeping God] was released to make his offer.  Who knew that Lauren – this big ancestor – would just bring Astrid here?  If that was the case, he might as well also go to their president and request to be the teenager's agent himself.  Because he had no doubt that once the director saw Astrid, he would not hesitate to sign the teenager. 

Once they arrived at the president office, an unexpected person was actually waiting there.

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