The next afternoon, Lu Zhixing and Liu Bo came to attend the rehearsal for the college newcomers' welcome party.
The rehearsal was held in the comprehensive building of the Game Design Academy, and all the students who had passed the preliminary screening had arrived. They were divided into groups by categories, such as singing, dancing, and language classes, each led by different sophomore students.
The college newcomers' party had a mentorship model similar to "passing on and helping," where responsible and reliable students with similar performance experience from the previous year would guide the freshmen. After selection, refinement, and practice, the final acts were then submitted one level at a time.
First, the person in charge of the newcomers' party (usually an outstanding junior student in this area) would screen the acts before letting counselors and higher-level instructors take a look.
Currently, the newcomer's party of the Game Design Academy was still in the earliest stage, with only some decent prospects selected. As for the specific program list, it would still need repeated refining before a decision could be made.
The rehearsal conditions were rather humble, as the school had limited venues. Places like small auditoriums were often used for formal performances, and it was practically only possible to reserve them for one or two days for each academy.
Therefore, these students could only have their onstage rehearsal the day before the actual performance, and they had to find their own places to practice in the meantime.
If they could reserve a venue, they would; if not, they would have to make do with practicing in places like the sports field or the underground parking garage.
Luckily, the comprehensive building of the Game Design Academy was newly constructed in recent years, with plenty of vacant spaces suitable for these rehearsals.
Although it was not possible for every act to have its own room, different acts' rehearsals would unavoidably affect each other to some extent, but it was still much better than those academies forced to practice in underground parking garages.
Zhang Yiyang briefly mentioned some rehearsal precautions and some encouraging words before different groups started their separate practice sessions.
Seeing Lu Zhixing arrive brought a smile to Zhang Yiyang's face.
"Hey? Lu, you're here too? Actually, with your level, you don't need to attend the rehearsal. You can just go straight to the stage when the time comes."
Lu Zhixing didn't mind: "It's fine, participation is key. I still have a lot to learn, and I need to learn from the seniors."
Zhang Yiyang hastily waved his hands: "Hey! You're being too modest. Who here could teach you anything? You might as well just find a place and practice on your own, come to me if you have any questions."
Lu Zhixing nodded: "Alright."
His attendance at the rehearsal, of course, was not for his own improvement, for he was already the best singer in the academy. The main reason for his presence was to continue "Acting as a Campus Superstar."
Lu Zhixing found that completing certain "signature events" noticeably added more to his role-playing progress and points, so he aimed to engage in different events using these identities as much as possible.
Sure enough, Lu Zhixing casually walked around the rehearsal area, his role-playing progress bar immediately showed a significant increase.
The rehearsal scene also brought back memories of his college days in his previous life, unexpectedly filling him with a sense of nostalgia.
The students in the singing group practiced various singing techniques under Zhang Yiyang's guidance, improving their singing proficiency, some even changed their songs on his suggestion.
Yan Wei was leading a group of pretty girls in dance practice; although their movements were still scattered and uncoordinated, their youthful energy was still pleasing to the eye.
However, after watching for a while, Lu Zhixing moved over to the language class acts.
Compared to singing and dancing, the language class acts needed the most space, as they required room to perform their sketches. But there were not many people involved in language acts, just two groups, one for crosstalk and one for a sketch.
The crosstalk situation wasn't very good, with both performers clearly amateurs. Despite their efforts to mimic professional crosstalk actors, their actions were still very reserved, resulting in a somewhat awkward performance.
Lu Zhixing had always felt that crosstalk was the most difficult of all language acts. If students wanted to perform a language act at the evening party, stand-up comedy and sketches were better choices.
After all, stand-up could draw material from online jokes, and sketches could rely on movements and props, while crosstalk heavily depended on foundational skills.
Those with solid foundational skills could even make old lines hilarious, but those without experience would struggle to amuse the audience no matter how classic the crosstalk was.
Most college students fell into the latter category.
The situation with the sketch was equally bleak. Lu Zhixing could tell they were performing a sketch that had previously been aired on a local TV station, but whether it was the sketch itself that lacked appeal or their performance that was the issue, none of the intended laughs or punchlines worked.
A sophomore student was directing them, but his own skills were mediocre and didn't help much.
In the meantime, many students were sneakily glancing at Lu Zhixing, aware of his recent achievements in the battle for new talents.
After making a round, Lu Zhixing returned to the singing group's rehearsal area.
Having practiced for a while, everyone was tired and taking a break, drinking water and chatting.
Lu Zhixing commented, "Our academy's language class acts seem a bit weak."
Zhang Yiyang nodded, "You can say that again. Ah well, there's not much we can do, it's a traditional weak spot for our academy.
"With singing and dancing, we can usually find a few good talents in every new student cohort, whether they have a naturally great voice or a background in vocal music or dance; somehow, every year we can put something together.
"But language acts are tough. Most students don't have any similar performance experience, and it's like forcing ducks onto a perch, especially since comedy is the most difficult performance genre. Making the audience laugh out loud is really hard.
"In addition, the scripts are a big problem.
"Famous crosstalks and sketches are too well-known; everyone has heard them, and audiences already know where the punchlines are. But when it comes to less common material, if the jokes aren't funny enough, it's difficult to be effective.
"Anyway, it's tough!"
Everyone knows that the welcome party is a big deal, and language-related programs are an indispensable part, just like why the Spring Festival Gala's reputation declines year after year? Isn't it because the language programs are getting worse?
But even though everyone knows, for students, this issue is ultimately unsolvable.
Lu Zhixing quietly took note of this matter, thinking about whether he could use points to exchange for a sketch script later to fill this gap.
Of course, he wasn't sure he'd be able to get a suitable one, so he didn't mention it to anyone; he just made a mental note of it.
...
That evening, when Lu Zhixing returned to his rented house, he collapsed on the sofa and took stock of his recent gains.
Of the three roles he played, Acting as a Worker had a completion of 7%, while Campus Superstar and Acting as a Paralyzed Patient had reached 34% and 22%, respectively.
During the process of playing these roles, Lu Zhixing had steadily accumulated quite a few points, and now his point balance had reached 189.
And now, what Lu Zhixing had to do was: lottery!
This was to better complete Acting as a Worker.
In fact, Lu would go to Starway Internet Cafe every so often to help out, spending not a short amount of time in the role, but the completion had been growing very slowly and was now even at a standstill.
On the other hand, looking at the other two roles.
The completion and points for Acting as a Paralyzed Patient mainly came from wheeling around in a wheelchair; although the completion and points given for some repetitive actions were reduced, it could still maintain a fairly good level.
Campus Superstar's role-playing completion had soared over 30% just from that one appearance and one rehearsal during the snatch battle, along with a large number of points, which surprised Lu Zhixing.
Obviously, the rules for role-playing different identities had subtle differences.
His actions during the snatch battle at the welcome party had matched all the keywords for a "modest, low-key, despiing evil Campus Superstar," and had created significant buzz, causing an instant high completion rate.
The slow progress in Acting as a Worker was primarily due to an important qualifier: "multitasking."
Helping out at the internet cafe did not fully align with the identity of a "Worker" (since it was closer to helping out), nor did it involve "multitasking" or diversifying into other lines of work, so the progress for that role was slow.
He had to find some other work to shore up his weaknesses.
Lu Zhixing had considered going directly to a construction site to move bricks, or contacting that courier from Jingxi Express to do some package sorting, but he decided to hold off for now.
Because with his slight build, even with the talent of a Worker, he was probably not completely up to the task of heavy labor. If he accidentally overworked himself and collapsed, that would only delay matters further.
So Lu Zhixing decided to gamble on a lottery with his points first!
His current points were enough for him to draw one artistic work and three life skills; the former could help him address his shortcoming for the welcome party, while the latter could help him find suitable work to be a laborer.
Having made up his mind, Lu started drawing immediately.
He first defined the "random artistic work" category as a "sketch," and then after some thought, entered "talent show" as the keyword.
Sketches are a form of satirical art—why not take this chance to make fun planning for the Campus Talent Show?
It's all about "despising evil," which is part of the persona, not being petty.
[Exchange Successful!]
[Artistic work: Sketch - Undercover Trainee]
There were no fancy effects, no opening treasure boxes or spinning slot machine animations; the game's various functions put forth simplicity and straightforwardness, and the lottery was completed without fuss.
"Huh, there really is such a work?"
Lu Zhixing was pleasantly surprised as he quickly reviewed the script in his mind.
The script was quite interesting; it was about an undercover infiltrating a talent show, continuously leaking and exposing the dark side of the show. During this process, he witnessed various absurd aspects of the talent shows, creating very funny effects and full of satire.
The artistic works drawn from the "Life Role-Playing Game" were neither from this world nor existed in Lu Zhixing's past life's memory.
While he could vaguely see some shadows of other works, it seemed more like a blend of many classic pieces, adapted according to Lu's current needs in this reality.
"Good, this is the one!"
With a successful find, Lu Zhixing was in a great mood.
He decided to keep up the good work and use the remaining points to draw three more life skills.