Feature Shows Extravaganza - Chapter 54

Chapter 54: Director Meng Is Amazing

Jiangchuan, Yulin Middle School.

Meng Lang was back at his alma mater again and was amazed by how many school scenes he had included in his shows.

The old principal no longer found him a rare guest. After all, Meng Lang was only here in the previous term to film Balala the Fairies, and now, he was back to shoot Explosive Boys.

The school gave him their full cooperation, and Meng Lang had more than enough extras that he could choose from.

Meng Lang loved the students!

They were so gullible and jumped at the opportunity when Meng Lang mentioned a new show. Before he even took the presents out, they had already started signing up.

Of course, there were two sides to every coin.

Having the students as extras would save Meng Lang a lot of money, but they had next to no acting skills.

“Luckily, our show doesn’t depend on good acting.”

Meng Lang felt rather lucky.

If he had been shooting a high-quality show that needed great actors, he would be driven crazy by all their expressionless faces.

Even with the feature show he was shooting, the scenes including the extras would still need some post-production maneuvering.

How would it be done?

Easy! Whenever it was their turn to get filmed, the shot would be switched to a wide-angle one. If that didn’t work, Meng Lang could always switch the focus to the main characters and blur the extras in the background.

With those tricks, it didn’t matter how bad their acting was.

Because they were filming on campus, it was inevitable that the students would learn some undisclosed contents of the script, including the popping balls.

The second day they started filming, all the students working as extras found out what popping balls were and how they worked.

Since Meng Lang had been promoting popping balls for a while on his Weibo account, he didn’t stop them from asking and had even given them a demonstration of how to battle with popping balls.

Hence…

Popping balls soon gained popularity among the members of the crew.

All students working as extras had their own popping balls and played them nonstop using the cards provided by the production team.

“Go! Gallon Flaming Dragon!”

Wang Bin’s Gallon Flaming Dragon was specially made to meet the needs of the filming. It had been carefully designed, and the popping value had been set at 500.

That figure had made it one of the top popping balls!

Wang Bin was playing against the chubby Li Yu, who played Ah You. He had his own popping ball as well, which was Rady the Flame Lion.

However, his popping ball was…

Click!

Li Yu pursed his lips. “You’re always picking on me with your Gallon Flaming Dragon. Will you dare to battle me with a popping ball that has the same popping value as mine?”

Wang Bin laughed. “Why should I? I’m Zhou Yihuo, so of course I should use Gallon Flaming Dragon!”

“Tch…”

Putting away his Rady the Flame Lion, Li Yu couldn’t help but complain to his director.

Director Meng had given Wang Bin a special popping ball with a popping value of 500, whereas his Rady the Flame Lion only had 300.

That was pure discrimination!

Speaking of discrimination, Li Yu sighed in resignation when he saw a white popping ball that Director Meng had stuck to his monitor.

Director Meng was the expert in cheating!

An idea struck Li Yu and he asked Wang Bin, “Hey, did you see Director Meng’s popping ball?”

“Yes. Why?”

Putting away his card, Wang Bin asked in bewilderment.

Li Yu raised an eyebrow. “Would you like to have a battle with him? I was told that Director Meng loves playing popping balls. He would accept a challenge even if he’s working.”

“Really?” Wang Bin found that claim suspicious.

“Of course!” Li Yu reassured him.

Director Meng indeed loved playing popping balls and it was also true that he would accept a challenge at any time. However, who would be stupid enough to play against a cheating player?

Wang Bin took the bait. He walked over to Meng Lang, who was instructing the extras, and asked, “Director Meng, do you play popping balls, too?”

“Of course, I do!”

Meng Lang was intrigued, and he smiled at Wang Bin. “Why? Do you want to challenge me?”

Yes!

Wang Bin was pleasantly surprised. “May I?”

“Of course! Let’s do it!”

Meng Lang led Wang Bin to the round table, took off the white popping ball stuck to the monitor, and spoke in an excited voice. “Now, show me what you’ve got!”

Wang Bin was probably the only person who had ever challenged Meng Lang after Li Yu.

He blamed Li Yu for that. The boy was the leak. Had it not been for him, it wouldn’t have been so difficult for Meng Lang to find a fellow popping ball player.

Finally, an ignorant boy showed up, and Meng Lang was elated.

But the rest of the crew didn’t think that way.

All crew members who had received the information from Li Yu were all giving Wang Bin sympathetic looks.

The boy didn’t look very bright…

Putting down his basic card on the table face down, Wang Bin took out his invincible Gallon Flaming Dragon and grinned. “Director Meng, I’ll go first, then!”

“Go! Gallon Flaming Dragon!”

With a skillful movement, Wang Bin threw the popping ball precisely onto the card.

Then, it was Meng Lang’s turn.

“Go! Core of the Earth!”

Meng Lang’s popping ball was also a common small-sized one.

But that was only to mislead his opponents!

The Core of the Earth was already very powerful; if it was a crystal one, no one would dare to challenge him.

Meng Lang was pretending to be weak just to lure other players into the trap.

Wang Bin had indeed fallen for the ordinary appearance of the Core of the Earth, so he smiled and said, “Director Meng, you’re going to lose. I remember that the basic small Core of the Earth has a popping value of 500 at most. Even if yours has that figure, it’s about the same with my special edition Gallon Flaming Dragon.”

Both popping balls had fallen onto the basic card Wang Bin had put there. The card had 250 points in fire attribute, but only 50 points in light.

“Is that so?”

Meng Lang smiled enigmatically. He then pointed at his own popping ball that had opened. “Take another look.”

Wang Bin blinked and followed Meng Lang’s finger.

It was the Core of the Earth.

It was not a crystal version, so the popping value was… wait a minute!

“1, 2, 3, 4, 5…”

Wang Bin counted the zeros inscribed inside and was dumbfounded.

That was cheating!

How could a popping ball have an initial popping value of 10,000?!

“You lose!”

Meng Lang guffawed, and the expression on his face irritated Wang Bin.

“No, I haven’t!”

Wang Bin took out another card.

[Special Command Card: Swap]

This card could switch the popping values of the two balls around. With this effect, Wang Bin would win.

“It won’t work.”

The lighting operator patted Wang Bin on the shoulder and said sympathetically, “Director Meng’s popping ball has a default effect.”

“What is that?” Wang Bin was worried.

“His popping ball is immune from any effects, so no card will work.”

That was the biggest cheat ever!

The lighting operator shook his head.

“What’s wrong with the boy? Why would he want to challenge Director Meng?”