"Nadia, do you want to shoot a movie?"
Alex made the call while carving out a little time before flying to the island to play someone's "father" for once. His tone was casual, almost lazy, as if he were asking whether she wanted coffee, but on the other end of the line, Nadia, who was still on the set of Thirty and Thriving, felt as if happiness had fallen straight out of the sky and knocked her dizzy.
She had only returned to work half a year ago. She had not even finished filming her first television role yet, and Alex was already offering her a part in a movie?
Even Bella, that younger girl from the same hometown circle, had not received this kind of treatment yet.
"Alex, you're so good to me," Nadia said, her voice turning so sweet it could almost melt through the phone.
"Uh… don't get happy too soon. That role… isn't exactly likable."
Alex scratched his head as he spoke.
He had just heard from the pop star that the actress originally chosen to play Natsuki Mogi was a fourth-tier island celebrity backed by one of the investors. The moment Alex heard that, he simply thought: why not kick her out and put one of his own people in?
If the role had been played by the pop star's own wife, Alex would not have bothered.
Of course, if the pop star knew what Alex was thinking, he would probably want to hit someone. How could he possibly let his own wife play that kind of role? He did not have that kind of hobby. Even if it was only acting, asking his own wife to play a woman who betrayed him on-screen… what man could tolerate that?
Alex's main impression was that, after getting married, the pop star had always liked supporting his wife's career. Even though, in Alex's previous life, she had never produced any truly memorable work by the time he transmigrated, her sense of presence had always been impressively strong. She had almost managed to brush shoulders with second-tier celebrities in terms of exposure alone.
The next day, at the airport before the flight to the island, Nadia spotted Alex and immediately threw herself into his arms.
"Alex, I missed you so much…"
They had not seen each other for two months, and the moment they met, she clung to him without hesitation.
Behind them, Chloe Young stared at the two people already kissing as if her brain had briefly stopped working.
She had recognized the woman. This was her senior, Nadia, Alex's former assistant. Back when Nadia had still been working as his assistant, Chloe had often seen rumors online accusing her of latching onto a powerful man and climbing up through him.
Looking at it now… it honestly did not seem like people had completely wronged her.
She was so proactive that, if they had not been in a public place, Chloe had the terrifying feeling things might have gone much further right there.
A nervous thought quietly crept into her mind. Would she one day end up walking the same path?
Heavens. That was too frightening. She had only just become an adult.
Inside the first-class cabin, Nadia was wrapped around Alex's arm like a koala, her entire body pressed against him as she glanced toward Chloe.
"Alex, who's this little sister?"
"My new assistant."
"Assistant… really?"
Nadia looked at Chloe's soft, youthful face, still full of tender collagen, and felt that even she wanted to take a bite, let alone Alex.
Still, relying on her sharp observation skills, and especially on the way Chloe kept her legs tightly pressed together, Nadia could basically confirm that the girl was still untouched.
As for how long she could hold out… well, that was harder to say.
"Enough about that. Take a look at the script for the character you'll be playing."
Alex tried to change the subject.
Ten minutes later, Nadia's expression turned resentful.
"Alex, why are you making me play this kind of role?"
If the offer had come from anyone other than him, Nadia might have suspected that the person was deliberately trying to mess with her.
"Uh… this female character actually has quite a lot of screen time. She's just not very likable. If you don't want it, we can pass."
Alex knew very well that Natsuki Mogi was, to put it mildly, a little controversial.
And Nadia had already accepted the role of Lina Hayes, a character who, in his previous life, had collected enemies all across the internet. Add another Natsuki Mogi on top of that, and she might be dragged even harder than she had been before.
To be honest, Alex still did not quite understand how a young woman like Nadia, who had neither taken drugs nor done anything truly unforgivable, had been hated to that extent.
After thinking it over, the only real reason seemed to be that she had once dated a famous leading man with a devoted fanbase.
After all, the combat power of that so-called fairy's supporters was nothing to laugh at. People always said fans resembled their idols, and with those people, the phrase had been displayed almost too perfectly.
On top of that, Nadia's beauty naturally leaned toward a seductive, eye-catching type, the kind that easily invited hostility from other women. So she had been blackened and mocked for years, only finally warming back up after another celebrity's scandal exploded and shifted public opinion.
"No! I'll do it!"
Nadia pouted.
She had just looked through the script, and the role really did have a decent amount of screen time. Besides, Nadia had never planned to walk the pure, national-first-love route that Rebeca Verne once followed. Her style was red-and-black popularity from the start.
Back then, when she gave up her almost guaranteed position as Aurora Entertainment's future leading actress and ran off to become Alex's assistant, she had already been cursed half to death. People said she was only trying to use Alex as her ladder, that she was ungrateful to Aurora, that she had no loyalty.
Even now, people still used that incident to attack her.
At first, Nadia had tried to clear her name. Later, she simply gave up.
Let them curse. As far as she was concerned, every insult was just free heat.
"Alex, your beard is so prickly…"
After kissing him several more times, Nadia touched her own smooth, delicate cheek, then curiously brushed her fingers over the beard Alex had grown out.
Alex rubbed his beard, then placed his palm against the back of Nadia's head.
Seeing that, Nadia obediently opened her mouth.
Well, since he was going to play someone's "father," keeping a little beard did make him seem more flavorful.
Speaking of which, Alex had posted a selfie of himself with the beard on his social feed not long ago, and Lena had gotten ridiculously excited over it.
Did that girl like this type?
When Alex arrived on the set of Initial D, the actors and crew came forward one after another to greet him. The leading man, the veteran co-star, and the pop star's close friend all shook his hand with warm, respectful smiles.
"Director Alex, hello, hello."
Alex nodded slightly in return. His gaze lingered on the leading man's face for two extra seconds before a thought calmly crossed his mind.
Not as handsome as me.
"The actress you brought… isn't she a little tall?"
The pop star looked at Nadia in her high heels and felt an invisible pressure weighing down on him. She looked as if she were almost half a head taller than him.
Everyone knew that a woman who was five-foot-seven always looked taller than a man of the same height.
"It's fine. She won't wear heels when filming."
Even after Alex said that, the pop star still felt pressured.
He would have to ask the camera crew to adjust the angles later and make him look a little taller.
"Um, Director Alex… are we deleting the kiss scene?"
At that moment, the director walked over with an awkward expression.
This was, indeed, a major problem.
The pop star also shuddered when he remembered that part.
If it were any other actor, such a tiny thing would not even need discussion. It was not as though everyone was Rebeca Verne's mother, threatening the director over a single kissing scene and forcing changes to the script.
"No need to delete it. I'll do the kiss instead. That works, right?"
Alex offered the solution calmly.
The entire crew fell silent for half a second, then could not help sighing inwardly.
A genius.
They had heard of stunt doubles before, but now he had invented a kissing double?
After Alex arrived, the crew naturally prioritized finishing his scenes first. In less than three days, his part was done.
Before leaving, Alex first spent a lingering, intimate stretch of time with Nadia, then reminded the pop star that the moment his work here ended, he had to come over and record the theme song for One Punch Man.
"When is your drama going to premiere?"
The pop star sounded a little nervous.
He had placed great hopes on this movie, his first major return to film after many years, and he absolutely did not want to collide with Alex's drama.
"Relax. We won't release at the same time."
Alex was not stupid.
Even though he did not think Initial D would create a box office miracle, higher earnings still meant more money in his own pocket. What kind of illness would he need to have to punch himself in the face?
Hearing Alex's answer, the pop star finally let out a long breath of relief.
Just as no one in the music industry had once dared to release an album in the same window as him, no one in the film and television industry now dared to go head-to-head with Alex's work.
More than a month passed.
One Punch Man officially wrapped filming.
The pop star hurried over from the island to record the theme song, and the explosive rhythm immediately pulled him into the mood. The more he sang, the more fired up he became.
Alex, meanwhile, had the company release an announcement to warm up the theme song in advance.
He planned to use the opening MV directly as the promotional trailer.
Under the anticipation of countless viewers, the opening PV for One Punch Man finally arrived.
It was not only posted on the official social media account. Short-video platforms, major streaming sites, and even overseas video platforms all released it at the same time.
Countless fans, especially the passionate teenagers who had fallen into the pit because of Bleach, opened the video across every platform, unable to wait even a second longer.
A fierce, surging prelude erupted first.
Then, filling almost the entire screen, an iron fist wrapped in a red glove came rushing forward.
The pop star's voice answered it like a battle cry as the title of the series blazed to life.
"ONE PUNCH!"
That very first line alone sent a shiver through countless hot-blooded teenagers and young men.
It was here.
It was finally here.
That long-lost feeling had returned.
"Three! Two! One! Here I come!"
"Here I come! Certain victory! The strongest in history!"
"ONE PUNCH! Surging forward! Winning every fight!"
"Power! Get power!"
"Saitama, you dare to face it all!"
"Look at disaster! In a flash of lightning, I'll show my hand!"
On screen, monsters with the appearance of mutated beasts, colossal creatures as massive as mountains, and mechanical horrors that seemed to come from the future appeared one after another.
And standing before them was the man played by Alex.
A white cape draped behind him. Red gloves covered his hands. Yet the most eye-catching thing was still that nearly reflective bald head.
Under his iron fist, every single monster was blasted into pulp with one punch.
The special effects were comparable to a superhero blockbuster. The pop star's passionate performance set the blood on fire. The visuals carried a sharp, satisfying impact with every strike.
At that moment, countless men sitting in front of their screens felt so fired up that they wanted to find something and punch it.
Then the promotional opening reached its final stretch, and the pop star's voice rose into the last explosive line.
"Fight on! HERO!"
"I wanna be the strongest hero!"
The comment sections across every major platform detonated almost instantly.
"This is insanely hype!"
"Damn it, after listening to this, my hands are itching. I keep wanting to punch something."
"I'm walking down the street listening to this right now, and every person I see looks like someone I could fight."
"This is my alarm from now on."
"No wonder the pop star hasn't released a new album in years. Turns out he was holding back a super move."
"Look carefully, the lyrics and arrangement are both by Alex."
"Why does this bald guy look so handsome?"
"I honestly think Alex didn't need to design the character as bald. Wouldn't it have been better to keep playing handsome men like Sosuke Aizen and Dio before?"
"Maybe he's trying to break through a bottleneck or something?"
"No matter what, just for this song alone, I'm definitely following this drama."
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