Chapter 1608 - Background, Backer, and Deeper Content
Chapter 1608 Background, Backer, and Deeper Content
Stacy pondered for a long while, so long that Luke had the A.I. housekeeper, Butterfly, bring him a pot of coffee as he waited for her answer.
In order not to disrupt her thoughts, he moved a few meters away so that his presence wasn’t as oppressive.
An hour later, after her mental turmoil, Stacy finally made up her mind. She got up and walked over to Luke. “I choose the first option.”
After a year of study, she had learned how to think systematically and logically.
The second option sounded like she wouldn’t be given any sort of responsibility, but there was a possibility that she would be “excluded.”
If a crisis happened in the future, she might be left out.
She couldn’t accept that.
It wasn’t just because she liked Claire, but also because she had the pride of a superhuman.
After more than a year of training, she was no longer as blatant about it, but it still existed.
It was like how Yao Ming could be courteous toward high school basketball players, but wouldn’t see them as “opponents” on his level.
Also, V’s circle was very attractive to her.
What she needed to think about was whether or not entering this circle would put Claire in danger.
From V’s training, she had to consider the bad outcomes first before she considered the benefits.
The chances of something going wrong were too high, so it was best not to participate unless there was no other way.
For an hour or so, she weighed the pros and cons.
What tipped the scales for her was that Claire herself was someone “on the inside.”
Even if Stacy stayed out of things, Claire might not be able to.
Luke, who had been observing her with Mental Communication, was quite satisfied. He nodded and said, “Sit down. I’ll tell you more.”
Half an hour later, the conversation ended and Luke left, leaving Stacy sitting there in a daze.
The twins dashed through the door of the training room. Both of them asked in unison, “What did the wizard say?”
Stacy’s lips moved several times, but she didn’t know what to say.
She didn’t want to lie to them.
But to tell them? V had just said that it was absolutely confidential.
It indeed wasn’t good to tell these two carefree guys about it.
After a long while, she sighed. “Stop asking. It’s about my relationship.”
The twins were confused.
Stacy said, “Go away. I’m not going to tell you… Ah, how dare you!”
Artemis had an arm around her neck. “Tell me. All I see is a bunch of geeks every day. I just want to wash my eyes out from the photos they send me.”
Stephanie grabbed one of her arms. “Tell me, tell me. The company warned me not to have any scandals, or my revenue will plummet. Also, the handsome guys in the company are either gay or scum. They’re nothing.”
Stacy said helplessly, “…But she’s a girl.”
The training room suddenly fell silent…
Luke’s mood was relaxed when he came out.
The situation wasn’t as serious as he had made it out to be to Stacy. Keeping it a secret was just standard procedure; it was better to be safe than sorry.
Stacy could contact the bigshot who sold everything through the A.I. housekeeper, Butterfly, and use V’s “existing” equipment.
Luke had mainly explained what the bigshot’s capabilities were.
He simply explained that Claire was someone who had a “backer.”
Of course, Stacy wanted to know who Claire’s backer was, but Luke simply said, “I’m your backer, but her backer won’t tell her that.”
Stacy shut up.
Clearly, she and Claire really were “peripheral members.”
Apart from being able to contact that bigshot, who was like the “central hub,” as well as their “backer,” information on everyone else had to be kept confidential.
Luke didn’t tell her who Claire’s backer was because there was no need to.
He wasn’t hoping that the two girls would join the front line. What he was doing now was just to enable them to obtain equipment through another source.
This way, there would be fewer problems.
It was like the difference between taking money from Tony himself and taking money from Stark Industries.
The latter was much less likely to draw attention.
Life was as busy as ever, and it was already the middle of April.
Luke still hadn’t taken action in Tokyo.
The Hydra branch in Japan was a professional force, and there were several hundred of them.
One month of preparation was not enough if he wanted to get rid of them all in one swoop.
Luke wasn’t a brash rookie. Naturally, he had to take it slow. In any case, it was very easy for him to earn points in Tokyo, which had tens of millions of people.
In New York, Claire and the supergirl trio had finished their training, and they returned to their regular routines.
The twin sisters sang and live streamed respectively. Nothing changed.
Stacy and Claire were still glued together as they went to film the MV for Claire’s new song.
The location of the shoot wasn’t far from New York. It was in a small abandoned town next to a lake.
Driving all the way west from New York and through New Jersey, it would take four or five hours to reach the abandoned town.
Luke asked a few questions, and Claire said that her new song was unique, so they chose a place for the MV to match the song.
After hearing Claire’s new song, Luke couldn’t help but ridicule it. “Are you switching to nursery rhymes or something?”
Claire shrugged. “I like it. It’s really interesting. Also…”
Luke saw the odd expression in her eyes. “Just tell me. Are you afraid that I’ll beat you up?”
Claire chuckled. “Also, the two songs you gave me previously were indeed super popular, but people are now saying that I can only sing bubblegum songs for a quick buck. So, why not try a ‘deeper’ ‘nursery rhyme’ this time?”
Luke rolled his eyes and smacked her on the head. “What? Don’t you like the money you make from bubblegum songs? Aren’t your clothes, shoes, perfume, scarves, and jewelry all from bubblegum songs?”
That was the nature of entertainment products.
A catchy song was easy to sing or got stuck in your head.
It would be a joke to try and force meaning into it.
The main purpose of an entertainment product was to entertain. Teaching lessons through songs was a matter for masters and educators. How could an ordinary singer do both?
It was difficult to do both, so a choice naturally had to be made.
If you wanted to be deep, forget about making money. What sold was always the biggest and smallest works.
Whether it was a subscription to an online novel for a few cents or a catchy English song which cost dozens of cents to download, it all came down to quantity.
Quality could be left to the masters. In any case, they didn’t lack money.
But Luke wasn’t serious. There was nothing wrong with Claire one-upping these brainless critics by trying for “deeper” content.
In any case, critics also had to nitpick in order to make a living.
No matter how good a critic was, if nobody saw their reviews, it would be as if they had never written any at all.
From this point of view, critics weren’t any classier than singers.
It was just that critics adopted the pretentious stance of “critiquing something for the sake of art.”