Book 1: Chapter 32

Aqua The morning starts in a rather similar way to yesterday morning. Except without the broadcast of me stretching. I get up, do my morning routine, then branch off a bit to jump in the water below to clean myself and the clothes. And finally climb back up to my home to put back on my clothes and armor. Finishing it up with finally accepting the business inquiry, sending my System Phantom straight to what looks like a recording studio. With two rooms, one of which has a mic, the other has some fancy looking equipment, and a door separating them. Meanwhile there are four people standing in the room. One of them is my manager slash CEO, whereas another is the producer for this song and from what I’ve heard also director for the music video. Both, surprisingly. Then the third person is the idol I recognize from the TV before we became Pioneers. Although he’s wearing armor now, just like me. Except his armor is more tactical style armor that you’d see in the military. With some camouflage mixed in that looks like it’d work in a jungle. And the last person I can only assume is Jack’s manager. “She’s here,” the producer says with a nod. “Welcome Aqua. Let’s keep this brief as I’m sure you’re busy. My name, as you know from the message, is Exel Rivers. And I’m the producer and director of this music video and the song behind it.” I nod my head in greeting, feeling rather intrigued by how every single job has started quite different from each other. The drama meeting was very formal, the commercial was very open and do what I want sort of thing, and the swimsuit modeling was very short. Now this one is very informal as he seems to be in a bit of a hurry. “To start, please go into the recording room and sing the song that plays on the soundproof headphones in there with the lyrics on the wall,” the producer continues. “It will play twice. Listen through it the first playthrough so that you know what to expect, then sing the second time. We’ll be listening in here. After that we will go through two more songs to initially test your vocal skill, range, and pitch.” “Alright,” I answer and quickly move into the recording studio after saying a brief greeting to Jack and the man I find is in fact his manager. Then I listen to the song the producer chose for the first of the three. With the song itself being a slow and emotional one. And on the second time around, I just sing it without any hesitation. Using the words on the screen to make sure I don’t forget the lyrics. After singing it, I glance over through the glass at the people in the other room to find them all looking pleasantly surprised. Which probably means my singing isn’t bad. The producer motions with his hand as if telling me to continue. Then another song plays through the headphones. This song, unlike the first, is more upbeat and relaxed. It has faster parts and slower parts, shifting between them at differing intervals. And after it begins to repeat, I sing the song myself using the words on the wall once more. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Again, the people in the recording room look rather pleased. So I guess a singing career is probably good for me. Honestly, considering how much easier this is than acting, I might actually prefer singing. Assuming I’m good enough to stand out. I end up feeling rather surprised when I hear the third song though. Because it has a very broad range, with both very low and very high notes. Clearly meant to test my vocal range. As for the song itself? It’s rather intense. Like the type of song you’d hear in an action scene of a movie. So I sing it just like the other two when it starts playing again. Then I finally take off the headphones and head back to the other room to hear the others talking. “She’s incredible for an amateur who hasn’t sung before,” the producer says right away, making the other three people in the room nod their heads. “With just a bit of vocal coaching she could be even better. I think we can start filming the music video in just a week.” He then turns to my CEO manager as I watch, stunned from the side at the praise. “When could we fit it into the schedule?” The two immediately start making plans for next time, meanwhile Jack walks up to me with his arms crossed and a wide smile on his face. “I knew it would work,” he says right away. “From the moment I heard your voice, I knew our voices would pair well together in a song.” That makes me tilt my head a little. He figured that out just from hearing my voice? Isn’t that a rather large leap? Then again, he’s an idol. It’s his job to sing and recognize that sort of thing. I think. On that note, he seems to be rather respectful. Which is a good thing, since I wasn’t sure if he was the same as his idol persona or what. Or if that’s even a persona. I’m not very knowledgeable about idols. “I look forward to working with you,” I tell him with a nod of my head. He grins back and says, “I look forward to working with you as well, Aqua.” The meeting for the music video wraps up shortly after that, with the manager asking me about if three days from now would work for vocal training and me saying it would as long as it’s the morning again. I’d like to keep everything work-related to the mornings so that I can hunt the rest of the day. Wake up, go to meetings and the like until noon, get back and eat lunch, then go leave the cavern to hunt. It’s practically becoming a routine at this point. And the next place I find myself after accepting the next job is a regular studio. Which is an interesting change of pace. As for the ad itself, it’s a very brief one. Pretty much has me eating a mint and commenting about it. So that ad ends up taking a single shot for them to get perfect, leading to us finishing early. All while everyone on set looks at me with rather strange looks as if wondering why I’m so passionate about mints. Mints are life though, so they’re missing out if they don’t agree. Why are they shooting a mint ad if they don’t agree anyways? Anyway, the final job of the morning ends up starting earlier than planned. Which the people in charge of the photoshoot seem pleased about. As for the shoot itself, it ends up being very simple. I put on outfit A, which is a white one-piece dress with a white hat, and do some poses for them. Then I put on outfit B, which is a tank top, a jacket, and jeans, and do some poses for them. Followed by outfit C, a blouse and a skirt, with more poses. And so on. One outfit after another. Until we finally wrap up the photoshoot over half an hour before noon, letting me get back to the cavern early. At which point I quickly jump into the water and begin heading towards where I left off. Very pleased about getting back early for this. It gives me more time to hunt today after all. On another note, all of these jobs are actually paying really well. So I plan to send some of it to that cranky old grandmother back at the convenience store when the payment goes through. Which also has me feeling rather happy right now. I should send some money to the other people in the neighborhood too. They could use it. And it’s not like I’m using it right now. Plus it’ll be a pleasant surprise for them. Anyway, I continue swimming through the caves until I arrive at where I left off. In the starfish cave. Or what I’m calling the starfish cave. Then I go ahead and begin hunting starfish once more. One after another. Just using my hydrokinetic wrath skill to send blades of pressurized water down their mouths to kill them all without much trouble. And when I finally finish clearing the cavern of the things other than the big starfish, I find myself at level 24. Just one level away from my goal.