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Chapter 103. The Times Have Changed
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"Victory is assured!"
Watching the scene transmitted by the full-dive device, Pucci, who was closely monitoring the performances of Jotaro and others in the script world, felt a sense of relief similar to a student who, having had no confidence in their exam, suddenly hears even the top student admitting poor performance.
No matter whether the top student's poor performance was genuine or just a ruse, if you were that student, wouldn't you feel relieved?
Pucci certainly felt relieved!
The funds had been a bottomless pit, even though Jolyne never complained and merely smiled silently at him, as if encouraging him…
But if this new technology hadn't succeeded, Pucci would have truly buckled under the pressure of that "smile."
But now, success!
With ample data collected from the first actors to successfully use their stands—Old Joseph and Jotaro—they finally had their third member of the crew, Avdol, who Pucci had been focusing on for the start of "Stardust Crusaders," also successfully use his stand!
"This is...!?"
Unlike Pucci's excitement outside the script world, within the script world, Jotaro, who didn't even know about stands and mistook the power for an evil spirit, was staring blankly at the red figure with a rooster's head, enshrouded in flames, emerging from Avdol!
"Hmm, indeed! The evil spirit you spoke of, Avdol has it too!"
In contrast to the somewhat inexperienced and impulsive Joseph played by Gintoki Sakata on the set of "Battle Tendency," Old Joseph, who played his role naturally with the advantage of age, showed a calm and composed demeanor as he explained to Jotaro, "And he can also manipulate this evil spirit as he wishes!"
"This evil spirit is called—[Magician's Red]!!"
…
A fierce battle between stands was about to begin!
But just summoning the stand was not enough.
Pucci had spent so much on the new stand template technology created by Kars, not just to allow the full-dive actors to summon a stand in full-dive mode.
Or to derive functions that enable the actor's subconscious to safely split, making it easy for traditional filming but impossible in full-dive filming—until now, no actor could play two roles simultaneously in the same work!
"Esidisi, record the feedback data from the stand template!"
Outside the script world, Pucci, nervous yet methodical, instructed Esidisi, who had been called over to help after recently wrapping up filming on the adjacent set, "As long as the data is still available, even if this filming fails."
"We can still find the reasons for the failure, locate and fix any potential bugs."
"And in the next trial shoot, Avdol will be able to successfully use his stand power in full-dive mode!"
Indeed, the real challenge of the stand template was the stand power it provided!
Of course, using superpowers in traditional filming is quite simple.
Not to mention other film crews, the Ripple energy techniques in "Phantom Blood" and "Battle Tendency" can be considered a form of "superpower."
But these superpowers are visible.
The dazzling light emitted when Ripple is produced with breathing, and the lightning bolts wrapping around the user, are visible to others and recognized as "superpower" effects!
Apart from superpowers expressed in physical prowess, most superpowers in works are like this.
It is not common for only the superpower users to see their abilities while ordinary people cannot.
But stands require that only the stand users see their stands while ordinary people do not!
Thus, in traditional filming, where special effects are created in post-production and actors perform in front of green screens, it is easy to portray the sensation of seeing nothing.
This is impossible in full-dive filming!
In fact, due to the subconscious filming, ordinary actors who are not stand users cannot even act out the expression of not seeing a stand.
So Pucci, upon seeing Avdol successfully summon a stand in the script world, felt a mix of excitement and tension.
If they could overcome this final hurdle, the stand template technology would undoubtedly be considered a success!
What remained was merely to refine and perfect this new technology.
But if ordinary people could see stands, which are meant to be visible only to stand users, then even if Avdol successfully summoned a stand, it would still be a failure for Pucci and the team.
Success or failure was riding on this moment!
As Pucci nervously pressed a button on the control panel...
The scene seemed to lose all light and shadow!?
This was not a metaphor.
Instead...
"Disappeared... It really has disappeared!?"
"Fire, and the stand, it's as if the change from coins to models in a shop—just a walk around the shop and the coins turn into models, gone!?"
"No, we can't be sure if we're not seeing the stand or if there's a bug in the stand template technology yet…"
Watching the completely stand-less scene before him, Pucci calmly asked Kira Yoshikage beside him, "Kira, how about your end?"
"Did the stand disappear, or is there some signal problem?"
"No, everything is normal." Kira Yoshikage, who had been called to assist and quickly rescued the unused full-dive data, responded slowly, "[Magician's Red] and the flames it produces are very clear."
"...In other words, we... have succeeded!"
Pucci sighed with relief and smiled at everyone present, "The stand template, this new technology, has been successfully developed by us!!"
Cheers!
Excitement!
Indeed, Pucci had added some small features and easter eggs to the stand template.
Not only did it achieve the setting where only stand users could see stands within the script world.
But even outside the script world, viewers who wanted to watch stand battles could choose to be a "stand user" themselves!
Yes, just like Kira Yoshikage tested earlier, they could witness the stand battles.
If not, they would be like them, seeing Avdol making strange poses in the air without seeing the stand.
Both viewing modes were available for the audience to choose from, enhancing the immersion in the entire work!
Just like how 3D movies made a huge impact on 2D films in traditional filming.
Pucci was confident that he could bring a little stand shock to the industry!
"Victory is assured!!"