Chapter 229: Advertisement Special

Chapter 229: The Commercial Special

I voiced 37 characters this time, and the system deemed 32 of them successful—a fairly high ratio, and far more reliable than those sketchy dating mobile games from yesterday.

So far, the system has confirmed 89 successful character portrayals; I am not far from the century mark.

However, to finally complete the "Studio Rat" achievement, I still need to log 10,000 minutes in the booth. I am currently about 2,000 minutes short, which is roughly 33 hours.

I took off my headphones and stepped out of the booth, seeing Lou Lan slumped in her seat. I felt a bit sheepish. "Sorry for the hard work."

Lou Lan sat up straight and said, "Work is always hard. Your efficiency is high, which means I earn more, too."

Just then, Director Charlie walked in. Seeing Meng Fan out of the booth, he asked in surprise, "All done?"

Meng Fan nodded.

"You actually finished them all!"

Director Charlie knew the workload Meng Fan had taken on, and he was nothing short of astonished.

The post-production team had already proofread Meng Fan’s recordings from the past few days, and some had even been delivered to the clients; the quality was impeccable. This was why Charlie was willing to entrust so many tasks to Meng Fan today. With speed and quality combined, as the head of a profit-driven studio, he naturally leaned toward allocating more resources to him.

"Well, take a break. Come to the conference room in ten minutes."

Director Charlie spoke to Meng Fan, then added to Lou Lan and the voice acting coach, "You two come as well."

Ten minutes later, when the three of them arrived at the conference room, several people were already inside.

I had met them twice before; Meng Fan remembered they were the lead voice actors for Chocolate Factory. Soon, a few more trickled in.

Director Charlie entered, followed by his assistant, who carried a stack of documents and distributed them to everyone present.

"We’ve landed a big contract."

Director Charlie looked excited. "A contract from Xuanwu Animation! I don't know if you've heard of the web novel *Nine Heavens*. It’s by the web literature master Yun Hou. The novel is a hit, the manga adaptation is a hit, and both a TV series and a movie are in development—it’s a super IP. The animation was handed to Xuanwu, and they’ve finished the production and are currently in post. Originally, they had a voice acting team lined up, but due to various reasons, the negotiations fell through. Now, this contract is ours."

"For the next while, this animation will be our studio’s top priority. What you have in your hands is the content for the 12 episodes of the first season. If we nail this season, the subsequent voice work will surely be ours, and if this collaboration goes smoothly, there will be no shortage of contracts from Xuanwu."

"This is a major IP and a big production. For the sake of your reputation and your pockets, everyone needs to seize this! Go back and study these materials; we’ll meet tomorrow afternoon to discuss the script and character distribution."

Comparatively speaking, *Forest Adventure* was far inferior to *Nine Heavens*, both in terms of voice acting fees and the subsequent benefits it would bring.

"Director."

Hearing this, Meng Fan raised his hand. "Um, I have things to attend to in Shanghai over the next two days, so I might not be able to make the meeting tomorrow afternoon."

Director Charlie frowned slightly. "Is it something urgent?"

Meng Fan didn't mention that he was going to Shanghai to help Bai Zhi and Su Qingcen shoot an MV, saying only, "It was scheduled a long time ago."

Charlie asked, "Then, do you have any requirements for the character distribution in this animation?"

As soon as Charlie said this, the expressions of the other voice actors darkened. They all knew how Meng Fan had been frantically recording in the booth these past few days. With so many characters available, it was clear how much Charlie liked, trusted, and valued him. Now, by asking Meng Fan what roles he wanted, it was clear he was being groomed as a lead voice actor.

The other lead voice actors didn't care about the minor game characters Meng Fan had voiced before—those were dispensable to them, and they wouldn't have wanted them anyway. But a major IP animation produced by Xuanwu was something they definitely cared about and would fight for!

"Requirements?" Meng Fan shook his head. "No requirements. Let everyone else divide them up first; just leave a few minor roles or background characters for me."

This wasn't Meng Fan trying to read the room; he genuinely had a requirement for the *quantity* of roles.

The voice actors' expressions softened slightly.

Director Charlie, however, was somewhat dissatisfied. He had specifically called Meng Fan to this ad-hoc meeting to help him secure an important role, yet Meng Fan had voluntarily backed down.

Since Meng Fan himself had given it up, if Charlie pushed for it, it would be unfair to the others.

Charlie could only keep his dissatisfaction to himself, nodded, and said nothing more.

The temporary meeting ended, and Meng Fan took the documents, went outside, hailed a cab, and headed straight home.

At nine in the evening, Meng Fan went live, changing his stream title to: [Commercial Special Tonight, Enter with Caution!]

"Heaven have mercy! Boss Meng finally got a commercial!"

"Why do I feel like Meng Fatty is being targeted by those shady ad agencies?"

"Hahaha, am I following a marketing account now?"

"Are we drawing ads tonight?"

"Looks pretty intense!"

Shortly after the stream started, tens of thousands of people flooded in, just like every other night. "Commercial special, enter with caution"—who was he trying to fool? Just a gimmick to grab attention!

Meng Fan adjusted the camera to face him, grinned at the lens, and pulled out a copy of the first volume of *Spirits Underground* he had received. Mimicking Jackie Chan’s voice, he began: "When I first heard about the manga adaptation of *Spirits Underground*, I actually refused! Because I thought... hey, you can't just tell me to draw, draw immediately."

"First, I have to take a look. I don't want to say... you adapt a novel into a manga, and after you're done, you add a bunch of special effects, and the art style is *duang*! It's sharp! It's hard! It's stimulating! The fans will definitely curse me, saying the novel wasn't that flashy at all! I said I have to see it first. Later, I realized Brother Kun is legit, and he *never* misses a deadline! So... after trying it this month... after this month, at least I found it very comfortable. Now... I use it every day! I even gave it to my friends! Come! Come! Come! Everyone, give it a try!"

The chat was silent for a long moment, and then it exploded.

"Hahahaha! I’m stunned, it sounds exactly like him!"

"He really emphasized the 'never misses a deadline' part!"

"I just want to ask, what are you talking about at the end? I don't understand a word!"

"Weren't we talking about reading a novel? How did it turn into 'using Brother Kun' at the end?"

"I knew you two had some shady business going on!"

At this moment, Meng Fan’s voice changed again, shifting into a deep, mature male tone: "After overworking, your waist and legs ache, your spirit is low, and you feel like your body has been hollowed out." Immediately after, a female voice popped out of Meng Fan's mouth, "Is it because Brother Kun delayed the update again?" Then it switched back to the male voice, "Afraid I can never read the book properly again."

The voice changed again, this time into a very commercial, professional tone: "The *Spirits Underground* manga volume—make up for the updates Brother Kun missed. Only by replenishing can you stay strong. Replenish those missed updates steadily."

Meng Fan even started humming: "I want a steady happiness, something I can touch with my own hands..." He switched to a female voice in a second, "Try the volume, it’s good for him, it’s good for me."

It wasn't over yet. He immediately switched to Uncle Ge’s voice: "Spirits Underground, I think it works!"

Then, he switched to Teacher Tang Guoqiang’s imperial tone: "When it comes to supernatural manga, who is the best? Come to Penguin Anime and find Meng Fan!"