Entering the Entertainment Industry

Xiao Ming never expected that he would suddenly feel dizzy while writing his thesis and pass out, only to wake up and find that a whole year had passed. Even more absurdly, someone as rigid and boring as him had actually "entered the entertainment industry."

"Rigid and boring" was the unanimous description of Xiao Ming used by everyone who had known him since childhood, and he had no way to refute it since he truly wasn't very good at interacting with people.

In truth, Xiao Ming's inner self deeply yearned for freedom and even an unconventional life, but having a pair of high-IQ researcher parents meant that regardless of what his actual IQ was, he was inevitably forced into the rat race from a young age.

He had spent his childhood grinding through all sorts of subjects, leaving no time at all for socializing, and through middle and high school, he had pushed himself to the absolute brink of exhaustion in pursuit of the college entrance examination.

Pity that he hadn't inherited his parents' ultra-high intelligence; the sweat he poured into his studies far exceeded any innate talent, and he had barely managed to test into a popular major at a top-two domestic university, whereupon he began grinding for GPA and professional academics, with the graduate and doctoral entrance exams looming like two massive mountains—you could say he never caught a single breath.

Upon graduating from university, he plunged straight into his advisor's studio without stopping, and the day he passed out, he was writing an academic paper intended for publication in an international journal.

Because the dizziness was so intense, Xiao Ming thought he was going to die back then, thinking to himself that the paper still lacked an abstract and he had only received his graduate offer a few days ago.

Facts proved that he was simply worrying too much; he wasn't dead, he was living just fine, only that a year had passed.

Classmate Xiao Ming announced that he was not panicked, not panicked... my ass!

How on earth did he transform from a dutiful, earnest, and suffering academic grindstone into an entertainment rookie!

What, was he going to go and stare blankly through an entire performance?

He really had to thank that guy so much!

One hour ago.

Within the hazy consciousness of the still-unconscious Xiao Ming, a transparent, nameless entity had suddenly appeared, and he almost scared himself to death on the spot.

According to the nameless entity's description, the other party was a small actor who had never managed to gain much traction, having passed away from an accident and leaving behind an obsession that refused to let him move on to reincarnation, until a year ago when Xiao Ming fainted and became a vegetable, allowing him to seize the opportunity and borrow the other's body for a year.

The reason the other party wasn't popular before was because his looks were rather ordinary, so he had set his sights on Xiao Ming's cold, aloof, and strikingly handsome face to approach him.

He had used Xiao Ming's face to act as a minor supporting role in a drama, and recently, as the drama aired, it became a hit due to the subject matter and the hard work of the other lead actors, dragging him—this minor supporting role—along to popularity.

The other party's previous obsession had always been a lack of fame and his acting skills going unseen, but now it was great—he had shot to fame through his acting combined with the face Xiao Ming had provided that he had excavated.

When chatting about this, the other party even condemned Xiao Ming for not knowing how to utilize his own advantages; who would have thought anyone could care so little about their own face.

Xiao Ming was quite speechless; busy with studying as he was, who would care about things like that.

Now that the other party's obsession had dissipated, the body was naturally returned to Xiao Ming.

"You didn't use my body to do any weird things, did you!" Xiao Ming looked at the other party with a face full of vigilance; anyone who suddenly had their bodily usage rights hijacked for a year would find it hard to give the other party a pleasant expression.

"How could that be! I'm not that kind of person!" Perhaps feeling that his words lacked persuasive power, the other party coughed guiltily a few times, trying hard to prove himself, "Although it was wrong of me to occupy your body without your consent, in a sense, it was a win-win for both of us too.

I see you're so young, how did you manage to run your body down to such a frail state? If it weren't for me sleeping well and insisting on exercise this whole past year, you would have already dropped dead from overwork."

Although the other party's words sounded somewhat sophistical and evasive, Xiao Ming still had some impression of the moment he collapsed, and that feeling really was just like dying.

"Then I should really thank you, huh."

"You're welcome, you're welcome!"

Xiao Ming: ...

Do you see me wanting to speak?

Pity that whether he wanted to speak or not, the person opposite gradually vanished.

"Right, I also..."

Before he could finish speaking, the person... no, the soul was gone, leaving a pile of messy aftermath for Xiao Ming.

Fortunately, even though the person had fled, the memories of the past year were left behind for Xiao Ming, perhaps because memory retention also came with a delay.

The other party still had some conscience; he had helped defer his graduate studies for exactly a year, and his unfinished paper was safely kept untouched, except for having even less contact with his researcher parents.

Though that was a normal state of affairs; after all, his parents preferred doing research over interacting with him, and having them home for three to five days out of the entire year was already a good thing.

What he hadn't expected was that this lord had actually signed him up for a variety show before leaving! The breach-of-contract penalty was the kind of figure he currently couldn't possibly afford to pay with his own savings!

Habits cultivated since childhood meant he didn't even have the slightest thought of asking his parents for help, not to mention that the older couple had no idea "he" had entered the entertainment industry over the past year.

In the past year, the only time they had gathered was to eat a meal on New Year's Eve before each returning to their respective paths.

A sudden sharp pain came from his heart, and Xiao Ming couldn't help recalling the night he almost died from overwork.

Fine then, no matter what, nothing was more important than his own life; wasn't it just a variety show? He would just treat it as going out to play.

As for his graduate studies, he would attend as normal; anyway, he had no intention of pursuing a doctorate, as he felt his parents didn't care what kind of life he lived.

Life is short, why not indulge in timely joy?

He came clean; he just wanted to slack off and be a salted fish.

Xiao Ming hadn't saved much money himself in the past due to academic research, but the entity that had occupied his body probably out of guilt left all the money he earned for him.

Looking at the bank card balance—which now reached six figures when combined with the few thousand yuan he originally had—Xiao Ming fell silent.

"Fine, it's not too bad either."

He wasn't a person with very strong materialistic desires since he had previously ground himself to death for his studies, but who didn't love money?

Glancing at the variety show script he was scheduled to participate in next week, Xiao Ming's brows slowly knitted together.

The show the other party had signed him up for using Xiao Ming's identity was a racing-style variety show called Full Speed Ahead!, which was now in its fourth season. Originally, "Xiao Ming" had no qualifications to sign up for such a show, but as fate would have it, a senior from that previous crew who was originally supposed to participate couldn't go due to an injury, so he recommended "Xiao Ming."

To ensure a good start for the first episode, the production team had also splashed out heavily, choosing the Asian Games Stadium in Ni City as the location, and further cordoning off a surrounding commercial district with an area roughly the size of the Bird's Nest Stadium.

Xiao Ming followed his memory and the address provided by the production crew to the location, then went to change his clothes and applied sunscreen without makeup. Because his constitution was poor, he just put on a natural-colored lipstick, as he really couldn't stand having a bunch of sticky stuff on his face.

Before participating in the show, he specifically went to watch the other three seasons. Full Speed Ahead! was a racing variety show that required both brain power and physical strength. The main participating members were speed runners and hunters, as well as NPC background characters.

The major theme of each season was a bit different, but the actual show content was pretty much the same—the speed runners needed to evade the hunters' capture, hide until the end, and complete the issued missions.

The background of this season was that the Interstellar Empire, threatened by Space Pirates, needed to use Acceleration Energy to power up its equipment in order to resist the other side's invasion, and thus dropped speed runners onto Earth.

The acceleration duration for each episode was 90 minutes. For every second survived, 100 Acceleration Coins were added. The speed runner who survived until the end could obtain 540,400 Acceleration Coins and win the title of Acceleration King for that episode. The top 20 speed runners with the accumulated number of Acceleration Coins across each episode could participate in the final episode. The speed runner who achieved final victory would win the title of Uncrowned Acceleration King and become the spokesperson for "Yiniu" for a year.

Perhaps considering that similar rewards had been given out before, but because the ultimate winner was a member of a certain group, this time the sponsors explicitly stated that there could be multiple spokespersons, only that the endorsement fees would be split evenly according to the number of people.

It was hard to say whether it was fair or not, but it really made a lot of people fight desperately for it.

Xiao Ming originally wanted to head straight for a "hunter" to meet his doom shortly after the start. After all, he had no intention of staying in the entertainment industry, feeling that the entertainment industry was so tiring; he just wanted to be a little salted fish.

However, words shouldn't be spoken too early after all.

As a lifelong overachiever, Xiao Ming actually still had a bit of a competitive streak in him. Plus, there was nothing fun in the Pause Room! He felt that he still wanted to give it a try.

Xiao Ming was someone who was very afraid of boredom and had a bit of social anxiety. To let him stay in the Pause Room for an hour and a half was something he really couldn't do.

Thus, the person who decided to slack off just the day before started to rekindle his fighting spirit after listening to the director's rules the next day.

Anyway... anyway, wasn't this show meant for relaxing? He could just run around more to exercise.

Xiao "pseudo" salted fish "true" overachiever Ming thought thusly.

Now, the main content of the show had not officially begun yet, and several speed runners were still getting to know each other.

Each episode of the show invited 16 speed runners to participate. In addition to Xiao Ming, this episode also invited Qu An, a child-star-turned-new-best-actor; GME (give me five), a five-member girl group that had been very popular in recent years; Guan Jun, a youth talent show champion; veteran actor Gu Xichuan; variety show heavyweights Zhong Ka and Yi Xiaoda; singers Lin Xiang and Li Zichang; child star Xing Tong; and actors Yuan Yangming and Jiang Yuan.

After arriving, the five girls of GME also started introducing themselves. The leader was You Duidui, the visual was Yan Meng, the dance ace was Wu Qiyi, the main vocalist was Lin Shange, and the youngest was Meng Na.

Except for the five-member group and Xing Tong and Zhong Ka, seven of whom were girls, the rest were all boys.

Those who were familiar with each other greeted one another, and Xiao Ming also smiled to avoid appearing unsociable.

The background of the first episode was the struggle history of a disabled athlete named Chang Le. An accident in his childhood caused him to lose one arm, but his mother did not give up on him and always cared for him well. Discovering her child's talent in long-distance running by accident, she sought out a famous teacher and led him to become a disabled long-distance runner.

Now, Chang Le was about to participate in the first major athletic long-distance running competition of his life, but some unexpected events had occurred.