noveldepot Chapter 10, Special Attention
Chapter 10, Special Attention
The magic circle is called "Imprisonment Spell".
This was just one of the ordinary skills that Cheng Chen had casually learned back then, thanks to his extraordinary talent and a little help from the system.
In the later stages of his career as the Demon King, he primarily used a beast-taming style... which involved sending Ginkgo to attack and bite people. This minor skill naturally became useless and was relegated to a corner of his skill bar, where it remains to this day.
Breaking the magic array is not difficult; this is just a small test to get a feel for it.
About twenty minutes after Songlan left, Zhulei, who had been huddled in the chair trembling, stirred.
She was the second person to break the magic circle.
Although she tried her best to minimize her presence, as if she wanted to hide in a hole, a little fright could still get her moving.
The third one to be solved was Lingxia.
She was just going through the motions from the very beginning, constantly resting her chin on her hand and absentmindedly drawing circles in the air with her wand, putting on a show. It wasn't until she realized that Cheng Chen really didn't intend to let them go if the magic circle couldn't be broken that she actually started trying.
By this calculation, the time she took to break the magic array was actually less than that of Zhu Lei, and the overall time was about the same as that of Song Lan.
Unfortunately, his personality was really awful.
The moment the magic circle was broken, Lingxia immediately sidled up to Zhulei, who was huddled up like an ostrich, and praised him in a sincere yet exaggerated tone, "You're so amazing!" and "How did you do that? Can you teach me?" Before leaving, she gave Cheng Chen a sweet smile and waved.
"See you tomorrow, producer~"
As for the painted crows...
Cheng Chen looked at the last person.
The sunlight turned into a golden-red glow, spreading out and slanting across the tabletop from the window. The sparse voices outside the round-table lecture hall were no longer audible.
The company campus became quiet. Even the kittens that had run off to play somewhere came back, sleepy, and snuggled into his arms, fast asleep.
The raven relentlessly bombarded the enemy with its light spear for two hours, even panting as it recovered from its depleted magic power, only to continue its relentless bombardment once its magic was fully restored.
Throughout the entire process, there were no curses, no pleas for mercy, and not even a single glance at Cheng Chen.
Rather than being reckless and inflexible, trying to exhaust his magic power with brute force, it's more accurate to say he was punishing himself in a self-destructive way.
It seems that her problem is the biggest among the three.
Cheng Chen stopped scrolling through his phone, tossed the kitten off his lap, and slowly walked over to Huiya.
The girl stood disheveled before the table, a few strands of sweat-dampened hair clinging to her fair, translucent cheeks. Her raven-feather wand had lost its luster, and the black rose decorations adorning her layered skirt were almost withered from exhaustion.
"Why not try not to do what everyone else does?" he asked.
Ignoring him, Huiya raised her slender arm, which was covered by a black gauze glove, grasped the light spear that appeared in the air, and stabbed it fiercely into Cheng Chen's eyes.
boom!
The light spear encountered the magic array in mid-air and instantly disintegrated into countless shimmering fragments.
Cheng Chen didn't even blink, his gaze quietly piercing through the scattered magical fragments, meeting those deep purple eyes, stubborn like those of a trapped beast.
Huiya looked away.
Her body went limp, and she slumped backward into the chair, breathing heavily.
"Can I go now?" she asked.
Cheng Chen frowned slightly, then relaxed.
"certainly."
He casually released the magic array from its confinement.
Meow~
Bai Xing lazily bowed to the cat, then jumped onto his shoulder. Cheng Chen stroked the cat's chin and walked out of the classroom without looking back.
Eiya gritted her teeth, clenched her fists tightly, then helplessly loosened them and closed her eyes.
……
"Looks like we can now identify our first key target."
In the corridor, Cheng Chen suddenly spoke.
The assistant, Congcong, lagged half a step behind, holding a tablet, and asked, "Is there anything I can help you prepare, producer?"
"Just send me a copy of the detailed information for 'Magical Girl Eja'." He paused slightly, then asked, "Are the three of them participating in the general training courses for trainees?"
Congcong checked the information on the tablet for a few seconds: "It's been suspended since last month, mainly due to changes related to the change of producer..."
"Starting tomorrow, let them resume their classes."
Cheng Chen interrupted her, "As for whether they actually participate, we don't need to worry about that. Just record their attendance and classroom performance accurately."
"Okay." Congcong quickly wrote it down.
As Cheng Chen walked, organizing his thoughts, he casually asked, "What is the company's internal evaluation mechanism for trainees?"
Congcong immediately replied: "For magical girl idols who have already debuted, we determine the bonus and subsequent marketing resource allocation based on their activity level, number of commercial deals, and association ranking for the month."
"For trainees, a scoring system is used. Those who achieve 'excellent' or higher in the ability assessment can apply for the debut assessment; those who achieve 'average' will have their courses and training volume increased; those who achieve 'poor' will have their commercial activities completely suspended, be suspended from their jobs, or fully participate in various courses..."
"What were the evaluation results for my three trainees?" Cheng Chen asked.
The assistant smiled awkwardly and did not answer.
The standard for judging excellence is for regular trainees; those thrown into the "Nirvana Project" have no need to participate in the evaluation at all.
Cheng Chen understood the situation and sighed inwardly with a sense of helplessness.
He used his access privileges to review the internal financial reports, quickly glanced at them, and got a general idea of the overall situation of Yinfu Entertainment.
The difference is like night and day, with the departure of the lone goose six months ago as the dividing line.
Six months ago, Yinfu Entertainment's monthly and quarterly financial reports showed very impressive revenue figures, with net profit steadily increasing.
At that time, Yinfu Entertainment had signed a total of 63 magical girls, of whom 17 officially debuted as idols, and the rest were trainees.
Currently, only nine magical girls remain under the company's contract, and only Matsuri remains as a debut idol.
It's hard to say how many of those who stayed felt a sense of belonging to the company, and how many wanted to leave but were deemed unsuitable by the company.
Cheng Chen saw a trainee's resume; the trainee had been with the company for almost two years but still hadn't made a formal debut.
"Why can't you officially debut after two years of working here?" he asked, a thought suddenly occurring to him.
Congcong paused, a helpless expression on his face: "Because... it doesn't meet the standard."
"Standard?"
"Magical girls can use their instincts to cast spells and fight, but becoming an idol is not such a simple thing."
Congcong replied with mixed feelings, "Magic is a combat skill. To render it harmless and only retain its gorgeous effects for performance, one needs extremely precise magical control, imagination, aesthetics, basic magical skills, and an understanding of one's own magical lineage... These things can only be developed through practice and improved little by little."
"Or rather, the most important thing for a magical girl to become an idol is... talent."
One's total magical power increases with age, but one's understanding of the nature of magic does not.
Understanding depends on learning, and the effectiveness of learning varies greatly depending on individual talents.
Congcong pushed up his glasses, somewhat embarrassed to speak, and said, "Miss Songlan is a true genius. Many of the stage performance simulation courses in the company are based on her practical experience; people without talent, like me..."
"You?" Cheng Chen raised an eyebrow and looked at her.
Congcong nodded, quite frankly: "I was also a trainee for over a year, but I never met the debut standards until the end of my magical girl career."
It's not that simply becoming a magical girl guarantees you a spot on stage as an idol.
Cheng Chen's brows furrowed and then relaxed, his understanding of "magical girl idols" deepened once again.
Let's look at the information next.
Because of the reasons Congcong mentioned, many trainees who voluntarily joined the company made slow progress and stagnated, but Jiang Fei tolerated them all.
High base salaries for artists, numerous public facilities built specifically for magical girls, and corresponding salaries for support staff.
This group of people has essentially not generated any revenue and has simply been consuming company resources.
Previously, the entertainment system of Yinfu was very unhealthy, even deformed.
As long as it's a magical girl, they'll give you money and resources...
Perhaps in the past, they could expand and make a profit by relying on a few super popular idols such as "Songlan" and support these guys who were drawing salaries without working, but what about in the future?
There will always come a day when the balance of payments collapses and we can no longer hold on.
The fundamental difference between Guwu and Jiang Fei stems from this.
The former hopes to eliminate magical girls who cannot generate revenue through more commercial means; the latter hopes to maintain its original intention and make the company a sanctuary that protects immature magical girls, teaches them, and allows them to realize their life's value even without fighting against monsters and demons.
Jiang Fei explained all of this to him yesterday.
Cheng Chen closed his eyes.
The ideological conflict was irrelevant to him; he was here to find a breakthrough opportunity, and the key was how to gain the magical girl's dependence.
While he was reviewing the financial statements, Congcong had already forwarded Huiya's personnel file to him.
【『Painting Crow』 Yan Xi | Fire Sprout | 18 years old】
[Lineage: Oath | Career Length: 4.5 months | Rank: Trainee L1]
[Risk Warning: Kaleidoscope Prison is currently marked as such]
Recent Ability Assessment: None
The photo accompanying the file shows the girl in her transformed state.
Her long hair was tied up with a black feather hair tie, and her deep purple eyes stared directly at the camera with hostility.
My fingertip swiped across the phone screen until I reached the resume section.
[A freelance hunter who fought a demon in a residential area of the city two months ago, which led to her being discovered by the Yincheng Magical Girl Affairs Bureau, which then forwarded the information to the association for contact.]
[During contact, it was discovered that this person had participated in the trading of gray magical items. Their level of corruption was at a basic level. They have been marked by the "Black Judge" and, under the coordination of the Secretariat, have been handed over to the jurisdiction of "Sound Palace Entertainment" for further training.]
……