Spoon Killer Demon

Jianghai City, blazing summer.

The old electric fan creaked as it swung back and forth, but brought little relief from the heat.

The dormitory was like a giant steamer.

Those lying in the dormitory were like buns fresh out of the steamer, steaming hot.

Lin Chuan opened his eyes. A huge face filled almost his entire field of vision.

"Chuan'er, you're awake. I thought you'd gotten heatstroke.

Ren Hang?

Lin Chuan was bewildered. Hadn't I graduated from college ages ago?

Where am I? A college dormitory?

It took Lin Chuan several seconds to slowly adjust.

While Lin Chuan sat there dazed, Ren Hang had already gathered his clothes and headed out of the dorm.

"I'm going to get something to eat. What do you want?"

"Get me a bowl of braised chicken rice. No, there's a guy selling boxed meals at the construction site next door. Bring me one of those."

Ren Hang paused. "Okay."

After Ren Hang left the dorm, Lin Chuan quietly sat up. In his sleep just now, he had unexpectedly awakened the memories of his past life.

In a parallel universe, Lin Chuan's previous life had been spent on a planet called Earth.

There, he'd studied civil engineering.

After graduating, he'd bounced from one construction site to another, a bona fide corporate wage slave.

After spending most of his life working himself to the bone, he had finally managed to buy a home of his own.

Then housing prices were slashed in half.

Thinking back on those days, Lin Chuan suddenly felt that even the dorm's old, broken fan wasn't so bad.

In this life, Lin Chuan was a freshman in the Director Department at a film academy.

Summer vacation was just around the corner.

After the vacation, Lin Chuan would be a sophomore.

Right now, Lin Chuan felt full of energy.

Although this world was technologically advanced, its entertainment industry was only just getting started.

There was little variety in film genres, traffic stars ran rampant, and the plots were completely detached from ordinary people, offering nothing they could relate to.

Fortunately, Earth in the parallel universe had an abundance of movies, anime, TV dramas, and literary classics.

Given the chance, entertainment from the parallel universe would continue to shine in this world!

Just then.

A system notification sounded in his mind.

[Binding system to host]

[Binding successful]

[Please read the instructions carefully]

The system's here?

Stay calm. This is standard for someone who's been reborn.

After taking a moment to steady himself, Lin Chuan began reading the light screen before him.

[Omnipotent Entertainment System]

[This system aims to create a godfather of entertainment]

[When the host completes missions, they can obtain the talents and skills of people from all walks of life in the Parallel Universe]

A ding rang in Lin Chuan's mind.

He received his first mission.

[Mission: Shoot a short film and upload it to a platform. Get more than 2 million views]

A short film? Countless classic shorts from his past life flashed through Lin Chuan's mind.

He immediately felt confident.

Then Lin Chuan looked down. The mission's reward was quite generous.

[B-grade Talent: James Wan's Directing Skills]

A horror movie?

There was another line of small text below.

[The system has detected that the host's living conditions are difficult. Once the video reaches 2 million views, the system will issue a subsidy of 200,000 yuan]

[For every additional 1 million views thereafter, the system will issue a subsidy of 100,000 yuan]

[Subsidies will be issued in a manner the host understands. The host need not worry about financial problems]

Holy crap, what a conscientious system!

With this money, he could rent a small place of his own.

He could buy a high-end computer.

He could replace the old appliances at home, too.

If there was any money left, he could pay out of pocket to get an air conditioner for the dorm.

At the thought, Lin Chuan was suddenly full of drive.

While waiting for Ren Hang to return with the boxed meal, Lin Chuan climbed out of bed, turned on his computer, and started writing a script.

The script Lin Chuan wrote was called Spoon Killer Demon.

It was about a middle-aged man being hunted by a killer.

The killer's weapon wasn't a knife, a gun, a club, a chainsaw, a baseball bat, or a dagger.

It was an utterly ordinary spoon.

He just kept tapping and tapping and tapping, twenty-four hours a day, without stopping.

This short film had been wildly popular in his previous life, and had even spawned several sequels.

Lin Chuan was confident it could fulfill the system's mission.

When Ren Hang came back, he found Lin Chuan typing away.

A few minutes later, Lin Chuan typed the last line and turned to Ren Hang.

"I've got a script. Would you be interested in playing an important role?"

After reading the script, Ren Hang looked baffled.

What was this script supposed to be?

The protagonist was a fat man, and the villain was a lunatic with a spoon.

The plot was just the fat man fleeing from the killer, traveling from place to place.

It wasn't exactly scary, but it wasn't exactly a comedy, either.

Ren Hang asked, confused, "Seriously, Brother Chuan, is this script even worth filming?"

Lin Chuan promised, "Don't worry. This film's going to be a hit!"

Ren Hang was unconvinced. "But I'm not suited to play the lead."

The protagonist in Spoon Killer Demon was a middle-aged fat man.

Ren Hang, on the other hand, was over six feet tall and handsome in a youthful way.

Obviously, he didn't fit the image of a greasy, worldly middle-aged fat man.

Ren Hang furrowed his brow. "Besides, this fat guy needs some acting chops. Are we supposed to get our department chair to play him?"

Lin Chuan shook his head. "You forgot about Xiao Hei?"

Lin Chuan's dormitory was a rare three-person room.

The oldest, Lin Chuan, came from an ordinary family.

The second-oldest, Ren Hang, was a rich second-generation kid, though he was fairly down-to-earth.

His family didn't usually give him much spending money.

The youngest, Xiao Hei, was actually named Liu Jiayun.

He was a bona fide tech geek.

He liked tinkering with all sorts of high-tech gadgets, was an expert with computers, and was supposedly a hacker. He just didn't stand out much most of the time.

Xiao Hei looked rather weathered. Though he wasn't even twenty, people often mistook him for someone in his thirties or forties.

Even better, after starting college and escaping his parents' supervision, Xiao Hei had let himself go.

On top of that, he was something of a shut-in and rarely left the dorm. Naturally, he'd put on weight.

He was practically a perfect match for the middle-aged fat man in Spoon Killer Demon.

Ren Hang saw the logic. Thinking it over, Xiao Hei really was a good fit for the fat man's role.

Then he had a new question.

"What about me? What am I playing? Didn't you say you'd give me an important role?"

Lin Chuan replied as if it were obvious, "You're playing the Spoon Killer Demon!"

"Huh?"

"What do you mean, 'huh'? Come help me prepare the props!"

"Oh."

Ren Hang's thinking was simple. Chuan's script was pretty unreliable, and the role he'd been given wasn't a good one, either.

But his good friend needed his help, so he might as well join in.

After the two of them finished eating, they found Xiao Hei.

After reading the script, the tech geek Xiao Hei cautiously asked, "This shouldn't be against the school rules, right?"

Lin Chuan patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry. This isn't like building an air conditioner from scratch. Maybe the department chair will even reward us for being so enthusiastic about making a film!"

Hearing Lin Chuan say that, Xiao Hei's doubts vanished.

He even generously offered to lend the crew his camera.

So Lin Chuan took the two of them to gather props.

Now, here was the question.

Lin Chuan had a total of 762.5 yuan in cash.

Would that be enough to shoot a movie?