"Ah, a barren wasteland... late at night... and a mysterious disappearance... Don't tell me it's haunted."
Inside the recording booth, the microphone had been specially lowered for Theresa. Listening to her emotionless delivery, Yaqing and Shub frowned in unison.
Yaqing spoke to Theresa through the microphone connected to the soundproof booth, "Theresa, can you put some emotion into it? You need to express thirty percent fear, thirty percent terror, and forty percent conflict."
"Huh?" Theresa's eyes widened. She shot a fierce glare at Yaqing and said resentfully, "My throat isn't a pie chart! Besides, I, Theresa, am a Schicksal S-rank Valkyrie! Why would I be afraid of ghosts?!"
"Theresa, are you daring to say that you're not afraid of ghosts?"
Yaqing asked this soul-searching question with a playful smile.
"Er..." Theresa scratched her pretty face awkwardly and said stubbornly, "That's me, but the Theresa in the script is a Schicksal S-rank Valkyrie!"
Yaqing chuckled and said in Otto's voice, "My dear little Theresa, regardless of whether you are an S-rank Valkyrie, in the Overseer's heart, you will always be a child who never grows up. And what child isn't afraid of ghosts?"
"Shut up!" Theresa's small face flushed red. "Don't talk in Grandpa's voice!" she whined.
Yaqing shook his head and said to Shub beside him, "Shub, you take care of our little Theresa for now. I'm going to go find the voice actor for that 'Kaslana Ancestor'."
Shub nodded, looking at the small, head-tilted Theresa in the recording booth with a mischievous smile.
Theresa shivered, a sense of foreboding welling up inside her.
"Um..."
As Schicksal Far East branch's resident salary thief, it wasn't even two in the afternoon when CEO Yaqing decided to give himself a holiday. He drove ten kilometers to the World Serpent technology company.
World Serpent Technologies was less a company and more a research institution. Its network of influence was vast, covering everything from chip networks up top to material sciences down below. It was particularly famous for its three world-renowned doctors.
After parking his car, Yaqing took out his phone and dialed a certain corporate drone who was currently banging out code.
"Hey, Kevin, I'm downstairs at World Serpent."
On the ninth floor of the World Serpent building, Kevin, the corporate drone, saw his phone vibrate. He glanced at his still-busy colleagues and stood up.
In the cubicle opposite Kevin, an office lady with short, gray-blue hair and dark red eyes watched him leave with a puzzled expression. Her cowlick swayed slightly, as if she were contemplating whether reporting Kevin for skipping work to a certain Senior Manager Snake would get her a raise and a bonus.
After getting out of the elevator, Kevin saw Yaqing sitting bored on the sofa in the reception lobby. He said helplessly, "Yaqing, what are you doing here looking for me during work hours?"
Yaqing put down the tea the receptionist had brought him and said with a sly smile, "Kevin, do you still want to be a hero?"
That one sentence sent Kevin spiraling back to his high school days.
Back then, Kevin was the sunny and passionate heartthrob of the school. Because of a certain person's words, he had excitedly told Su and Yaqing that he wanted to become a hero.
Having his dark history brought up, Kevin's face turned red. "Did you come all the way here in the middle of the day just to make fun of me?" he said irritably.
Yaqing slung an arm around Kevin's neck, glanced at a security camera in the corner that was pointedly watching them, and smiled subtly. He leaned in and whispered in Kevin's ear, "I can't help you become a hero in real life, but I can create a hero for you to be in an anime."
Kevin tilted his head in confusion. When he finally understood, his face lit up with excitement. "Really?"
"Shh!" Yaqing gestured for silence.
Kevin understood instantly, though he could hardly hide the excitement on his face.
On the twelfth floor of the World Serpent building, a certain Senior Manager Snake watched the two men "whispering in each other's ears" on the monitor with a look of confusion. Seeing Kevin's puzzled yet excited expression, she let out a disdainful scoff.
Yaqing took the elevator upstairs with Kevin.
Mei's office was empty, so they had no choice but to find Mobius.
Knock, knock.
Hearing the knock, Mobius silently closed her computer screen.
"Enter."
Yaqing pushed the door open with Kevin following behind him.
Mobius looked up, her pretty face showing clear disgust at the two of them entering together.
"I never thought you'd come here with the little follower. What's wrong, your anime company going bankrupt already? Are you here at World Serpent to beg for scraps?" Mobius sneered, her words as venomous as ever.
"Senior Mobius, your tongue is as sharp as ever," Yaqing said, plopping down on the sofa in her office without a hint of politeness.
Kevin, the corporate drone, was extremely uncomfortable. First, he wasn't actually familiar with Senior Mobius. Second, as a corporate drone, being in the boss's office during work hours made his skin crawl.
Yaqing, however, was different. To be precise, he was the biggest investor in World Serpent Technologies. When Mobius and Vill-V had wanted to start a company right after graduating from university, Yaqing had invested a huge sum of money.
That was the day Kevin learned that his roommate of three years was actually a hidden tycoon, with enough funds to buy half of the Far East.
"Hah." Mobius sneered. "So you're here today for this little follower? What does your anime company need him for? To write code?"
"Of course not," Yaqing smiled. "Kevin has great potential."
"Hah, what potential could he possibly have?" Mobius said scornfully.
Kevin's face was a mask of embarrassment.
"Senior Mobius, please tell Mei for me that I'm borrowing her boy for the day."
It seemed it wasn't just Kevin who was uncomfortable; Yaqing wasn't having a good time either.
Mobius propped her head on her hand, watching Yaqing's near-escape. She then covered her face with her hands in a morbidly fascinated way.
...
Yaqing held the steering wheel with one hand and used the other to take out his phone. He familiarly opened a folder and tossed the phone to Kevin, who was nearly asleep in the passenger seat.
"Take a look at the script. Your part isn't long. Get familiar with it. We'll try to get all your lines recorded today."
Kevin groggily took the phone.
The screen had no images, only text.
As he drove, Yaqing thought about the remaining voice cast.
Amber's voice can be done by Big Sis Amber.
But who should voice the three pseudo-Herrschers created by Sirin?
Yaqing thought for a moment and decided he would have to ask some of the female students from Theresa's St. Freya Academy.
The remaining unimportant roles could be handed over to Shub.
"Hey, Yaqing, someone named Siegfried sent you a message," Kevin said, shaking the phone.
"What's he say?"
Yaqing only glanced over for a second before focusing on driving.
Kevin read aloud, "He says the meeting with Welt is set for tomorrow at three in the afternoon, at the coffee shop in St. Freya's commercial district."
"Help me reply with 'Okay'."
"Mmm."
By the time they arrived back at the Schicksal Far East branch, Theresa still hadn't left. Yaqing took Kevin to an adjacent recording booth.
Soon, Yaqing's exasperated voice could be heard from the recording booth.
"Kevin, don't be so... sunny. The 'you' in the script has been through a lot. He's not like a high school student; he's a mature senior."
It wasn't until evening...
...that Kevin finally managed to deliver his few lines to Yaqing's satisfaction.
And at that time, Theresa still hadn't left.