dkrc Chapter 1: Waking up to a complete online backlash
Chapter 1: Waking up to a complete online backlash
Lin Mu was awakened by a strange burning sensation in the groin area.
He suddenly opened his eyes, gasped, and instinctively reached into the blankets—it wasn't anything strange, but a smartphone that was vibrating wildly and its body temperature was almost like a hand warmer.
"Hiss... Is this crappy phone leaking electricity?"
Lin Mu rubbed his temples, which felt like they were about to crack, the nausea from the hangover still churning in his stomach. He squinted and pressed the power button on his phone.
The moment the screen lit up, the entire phone seemed to freeze like a PowerPoint presentation.
Countless pop-up notifications poured down like a waterfall. The red dot in the upper right corner of the WeChat icon displayed a shocking 99+, while the Weibo icon was even more exaggerated, freezing in the background and leaving only a continuously spinning loading icon on the screen.
Lin Mu was stunned.
He looked around.
This is a studio apartment decorated in a modern, understated luxury style. Several empty wine bottles are scattered on the floor, and a huge movie poster hangs on the wall.
On the poster, a young man wearing a tight leather jacket, with a slicked-back hairstyle, and holding an extremely flamboyant shovel is striking a pose that he thinks is very cool.
That face was almost too handsome, with sword-like eyebrows, bright eyes, and a high nose bridge, but his eyes revealed a kind of innocent foolishness.
Most importantly, that face looked exactly like Lin Mu's.
"Buzz—"
A sharp pain suddenly shot through the depths of his brain, and a massive amount of information was forcibly crammed into his mind like a flood bursting its banks.
Lin Mu groaned and closed his eyes in pain.
Five minutes passed before he opened his eyes again, his gaze less confused and more complex.
"I've transmigrated...to a parallel world, to a third-tier heartthrob, Lin Mu."
He muttered to himself, his lips twitching involuntarily.
In his past life, he was an ordinary college graduate with severe social anxiety. His greatest hobby was staying at home studying various historical documents, feng shui secrets, and being a hardcore research enthusiast who read tomb raiding novels such as "The Grave Robbers' Chronicles" and "Ghost Blows Out the Light" dozens of times.
Now, he has become a traffic star who relies on his looks and whose acting skills have been constantly disgraced.
Even worse, the reason this original owner got so drunk last night, even to the point of drinking himself out, was because the big-budget movie he starred in, "The Mystery of the Ancient Tomb," suffered an epic collapse in reputation three days after its release.
Lin Mu took a deep breath, finally waiting for his phone to recover. He opened Weibo, and without even needing to search, he found that he occupied three of the top ten trending topics.
#林木acting# (explosion)
#LinMuLuoyangShovel# (Hot)
#Lin Mu Get Out of the Tomb Raiding Circle# (New)
He clicked on the first entry, and at the top was a long video posted by a popular film and television critic with five million followers. The title was extremely eye-catching: "The Strongest Comedy Film of the Year is Born! Lin Mu Redefines What Tomb Raiding Is!"
The comment section below was completely flooded with comments, and even Lin Mu, a transmigrator, couldn't help but laugh at the top-voted ones:
["I took my grandpa to see it. He's a traditional Chinese medicine doctor. After watching the movie, he said that when Lin Mu encountered the zombies in the tomb, his facial expression was even more stiff than the zombies themselves. He suggested I get him checked for facial paralysis."]
"What the hell is tomb raiding?! What kind of decent person would wear a tight leather suit to a tomb? Are they going to plunder or walk the runway? Even zombies would give them a good lighting!"
["The funniest thing is the way he held the Luoyang shovel. My god, was he stirring up poop? That's a Luoyang shovel! Was he using it as a selfie stick?"]
"Please, Lin Mu, leave the film industry alone! You're such a handsome young man, why do you have to torture us with acting? Can't you just quietly be a pretty face?"
Lin Mu scrolled through the screen, not only not collapsing like the original owner, but actually watching with great interest.
"This generation of netizens is really sharp-tongued, but... their criticisms are quite accurate."
As a seasoned tomb raiding enthusiast from his previous life, Lin Mu also developed a slight curiosity about this terrible movie made by the original owner of the body.
He clicked on the video criticizing the movie and watched a highlight clip from the film.
In the video, the male protagonist, played by the original owner, leads a group of people into an underground space that is said to be a Han Dynasty tomb.
Lin Mu's brows furrowed deeply at just one glance.
"Who designed this set? Han Dynasty tombs are known for their 'huangchang ticou' (a type of burial chamber with a mortise and tenon joint), but the walls of this tomb are made of Ming and Qing Dynasty blue bricks? And what's with the blue and white porcelain in the very center of the tomb? Where did blue and white porcelain come from in the Han Dynasty? Did the director miss out on nine years of compulsory education?"
The video continues to play, showing the original owner encountering a trap and, in a panic, grabbing a shovel and swinging it wildly.
Lin Mu shook his head, unable to resist complaining in the empty room: "The Luoyang shovel is for probing the soil and examining the strata, not for using as Guan Yu's broadsword to chop people up. Besides, the layout of this tomb is clearly an ominous formation of a white tiger carrying a corpse. The life gate is in the southeast corner, the Kan position, yet he led his people towards the death gate in the due north... If they really went into the tomb, these people wouldn't even survive the first episode."
After venting his frustrations, Lin Mu tossed his phone onto the bed and let out a long sigh.
The original owner of this body is being attacked online, and it's absolutely no wonder. She didn't have the skills; she was just trying to do a job she wasn't qualified for.
However, since we're already here, we might as well make the best of it.
In his past life, he was an orphan with no ties. Although this life started off with hellish difficulty, at least he had a handsome appearance, and...
He picked up his phone and skillfully opened the mobile banking app.
After facial recognition, a string of numbers appeared on the screen: Balance 423,500.00 yuan.
Lin Mu felt a little relieved.
For a celebrity, 400,000 yuan might not even be enough to buy a nice watch, but for Lin Mu, an ordinary office worker in his previous life, it was a considerable sum of money.
"At worst, I can quit the entertainment industry, take the money back to my hometown, open a small supermarket, and spend my days lying around reading novels. Wouldn't that be great?"
Lin Mu made the worst-case scenario plan with extreme pragmatism.
Just then, the phone, which had just quieted down for a moment, started vibrating wildly again.
Caller ID: [Sister Zhao (Agent)]
Lin Mu gathered his thoughts and pressed the answer button.
"Lin Mu! You finally answered the phone! Where are you now? Don't look at Weibo! Don't look at Douban! Do you hear me?"
As soon as the call connected, a woman's anxious, slightly hoarse voice came from the other end.
Zhao Yaqi, Lin Mu's agent.
In the original owner's memories, she was a decisive and fiercely protective woman.
The fact that she still called when everyone was kicking her while she was down shows that she hasn't given up on herself.
"Sister Zhao, I'm awake. I've already checked Weibo."
Lin Mu's voice was surprisingly calm, without the hysteria or sobs that the original owner used to experience when encountering setbacks; it was as steady as a stagnant pool.
Zhao Yaqi on the other end of the phone was clearly taken aback.
She had prepared a whole host of comforting words, and was even prepared for Lin Mu to break down in tears on the phone, but she didn't expect to receive such a flat and emotionless reply.
"Are you... are you alright? Mu Zi, don't scare me. Don't take those things said online to heart. Those keyboard warriors are just jumping on the bandwagon to criticize..."
"I'm fine, Sister Zhao. They're right to criticize me. My acting was indeed terrible, and that movie was truly garbage."
Lin Mu walked to the window, pulled back the heavy curtains, and the blinding sunlight instantly flooded the room.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, his tone remaining calm.
Zhao Yaqi gasped on the other end of the phone.
Has this child suffered too much trauma and become mentally unstable?
He usually gets furious if someone criticizes his acting, so why is he criticizing himself today?
"Mu Zi, listen to me, the situation is getting worse."
Zhao Yaqi decided to get down to business first and divert his attention: "This morning, the three brands you endorse, including the sportswear brand and the menswear brand, all sent legal letters demanding unilateral termination of their contracts. The reason given is that your negative public opinion has seriously damaged the brand image."
"oh."
Lin Mu replied calmly, "Do I need to pay a penalty for breach of contract?"
"...No need for that."
Zhao Yaqi was a little confused by Lin Mu's pragmatic, old-fashioned focus: "When the contract was signed, you weren't a big shot, so our legal team made the breach of contract clauses very strict. If they terminated the contract unilaterally, we wouldn't have to pay compensation, but we definitely wouldn't get the final payment."
"As long as we don't have to lose money, that's fine."
Lin Mu breathed a sigh of relief. He had saved his 400,000 yuan in savings, so there was still hope.
"but!"
Zhao Yaqi's tone hardened: "Your biggest problem right now is that your reputation has completely collapsed. The company's senior management had a meeting this morning, and their attitude towards you is not optimistic. If you can't come up with something that generates buzz and can divert attention in the near future, the company may consider... shelving you."
Being sidelined is essentially a death sentence for a young, popular celebrity whose career relies on their youth.
Lin Mu remained silent for two seconds.
Retiring from the entertainment industry and opening a supermarket is certainly a way out, but the original owner had signed a ten-year contract with the company. If he were to be sidelined, he would be unable to do anything for those ten years and would be subject to others' control.
"Sister Zhao, since you're making this call, it means you must still have some cards to play, right?" Lin Mu keenly grasped the key point.
A hint of surprise flashed in Zhao Yaqi's eyes on the other end of the phone.
Today, Lin Mu's intuition was frighteningly accurate, and her calm communication style gave Lin Mu the illusion that she was talking to a company executive.
"have."
Zhao Yaqi gritted her teeth: "I pulled some strings last night and managed to get you a spot as a regular guest on a variety show. But this show... is a bit special, and a bit dangerous."
"What variety show?"
"Exploring the World: A large-scale live archaeological adventure program jointly produced by the National Cultural Heritage Channel and streaming platforms."
Zhao Yaqi's speech quickened: "The production team will invite a professional archaeological team and several celebrity guests to the Taklamakan Desert to conduct exploratory excavations at real ancient tomb sites. The entire process will be unedited and broadcast live online."
Lin Mu's eyes narrowed slightly.
archeology?
An adventure?
Taklamakan Desert?
Could it be...?
Why did the production team contact me?
Lin Mu was very clear-headed. How could a program endorsed by the state like this take a liking to a terrible actor who was universally hated online?
"Because they need buzz, they need controversy."
Zhao Yaqi sighed and said bluntly, "That director Liu Zhenhua is a madman. He knows you're being ridiculed online for not being able to act in tomb raiding scenes, so he specifically invited you. If you go, everyone online waiting to see you make a fool of yourself will flood into the live stream, and the show's initial viewership will explode."
"In other words, they invited me to be the clown."
Lin Mu summarized it incisively.
"You could say that."
Zhao Yaqi felt a pang of pity: "Muzi, if you feel you can't bear this injustice, I'll help you decline. At worst, we can stay quiet for half a year and wait for things to calm down..."
"I accepted it."
"What?"
Zhao Yaqi thought she had misheard.
"I said, 'I'll take this show.'"
Lin Mu looked at the flamboyant tomb raiding movie poster on the wall and a faint smile appeared on his lips.
In my past life, I read so many tomb raiding novels and studied so many feng shui secrets, but I could only talk about it on paper.
Now, a legitimate opportunity to go down into a real tomb with the national archaeological team has suddenly appeared before us.
What others would avoid at all costs is, for him, a playground he has always dreamed of.
"Mu Zi, are you crazy? Do you even know who else is on this show? Su Nianwei! That famously aloof A-list actress! And Ye Zhi Qiu! If you go with them, in that unscripted, real environment, you'll be completely overshadowed! And it's real tomb raiding, it's tough and exhausting!"
Zhao Yaqi became anxious.
"Sister Zhao, don't worry."
Lin Mu's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable certainty: "I might not be good at acting, but when it comes to tomb raiding... I'm an expert."