Chapter 13: Filming an Advertisement
Arthur spent a lot of time that night consulting information and made a special call to Eleanor Vance, asking many questions about event registration and subsequent honors.
After clarifying the misunderstandings, the conversation between the two finally returned to the same wavelength.
After that, Arthur quickly discovered that although there had been many misunderstandings, his overall direction was still correct, and he hadn't gone down the wrong path.
Although the term "trainer" now usually referred to the athletes of competitive matches, rather than combat personnel, its influence was still beyond doubt.
As the most popular and fashionable competitive sport in the world today, the heat of Pokémon competition surpassed all traditional sports and eSports. It was currently the number one competitive project in the world, so accordingly, the status and honor of famous trainers were no less than those of combat personnel in the past.
Professional trainers who could enter the Alliance Hall of Fame still possessed extremely high prestige. If they were willing to share their training experiences, they could immediately earn a large amount of Alliance merit.
This merit was completely enough for Arthur to find out the whereabouts of his past Pokémon partners.
So, his choice to become a trainer in order to obtain merit was still correct.
Moreover, trainers had no requirements for education, qualifications, or culture. With Arthur's current blank resume, becoming a trainer was still the most promising path for him to obtain Alliance merit.
The only problem was—
Modern competitive event rules no longer allowed trainers to fight on the field themselves. In this situation, Froakie's current combat power seemed somewhat inadequate.
So, the next morning, Arthur patted Froakie's back and said earnestly, "You need to train harder in the next few days."
"Ribbit?!"
At that moment, Froakie's whole body stiffened.
Newly awakened, he felt like he had heard the whisper of an ancient god...
Fortunately, he was saved a few days later.
Because Arthur had to go out to film an advertisement.
It was the advertising collaboration that Eleanor Vance had told him about earlier, which he had earned through his own increase in followers: filming a promotional video for a travel agency in Moonwhisper Mountain.
Although this was an achievement he had earned himself, Arthur himself wasn't very enthusiastic about it.
If he had the time, he felt it would be better spent training Froakie.
Unfortunately, this was not entirely up to him.
Accepting advertisements and endorsements was the primary job of an internet celebrity, and the company didn't pay you for nothing.
Moreover, he still owed Eleanor Vance a down payment, and he had to pay off Froakie's loan every month...
Early that morning, Eleanor Vance drove to his apartment building and picked him up to go to a scenic area in a nearby city to film the advertisement.
In addition to Eleanor Vance, there were two other passengers in the car, one of whom Arthur had met before, a staff member from Articuno Media whom he had met during the signing.
On the way, the Articuno Media employee joked to Arthur, "Isn't this trip to Moonwhisper Mountain scenic area like going home for you?"
Arthur replied indifferently, "Not really, the place I used to stay was much further away from the scenic area."
In the past week with computers and phones, Arthur had quickly absorbed modern knowledge. Now he understood a lot of general knowledge and was becoming more adept at lying.
For example, he now knew that scenic areas and protected areas were not the same place.
He wouldn't fall for that.
Nature reserves were a new term that appeared after humans and Pokémon achieved a great reconciliation. According to the Alliance's laws, all space and resources in nature reserves belonged to wild Pokémon. Humans were not allowed to set foot in protected areas unless there were special circumstances.
This was also why they couldn't directly enter the Moonwhisper Mountain Range from the suburbs of this city, because that area was within the scope of the protected area.
To enforce this regulation, the Alliance had also established rangers and related maintenance troops around the major protected areas to curb Pokémon poaching and stop daredevil hikers.
In this world, if hikers mistakenly entered a protected area, the Alliance wouldn't rescue them. On the contrary, if you managed to come out on your own, you would be arrested and interrogated.
Scenic areas were only a small area on the periphery of the protected area and still belonged to the human world.
The identity Arthur had fabricated was that of an abandoned human baby raised by Pokémon in the Moonwhisper Mountain Protected Area, so the scenic area was not his "past" home.
As for what his "home" in the protected area looked like? Since no one could enter, he could brag about it however he wanted.
After a four-hour drive, the group finally arrived.
The client this time was quite reliable and had arrived early. They didn't have many criticisms about the filming plan, and the process went smoothly.
But even so, the promotional video couldn't be filmed in one day, and they had to stay overnight near the scenic area.
Froakie finally had a relatively relaxing holiday.
The next day, filming continued.
Arthur's performance once again won him a lot of praise.
Eleanor Vance repeatedly heard people praise him, "This kid is very photogenic. He understands what he says right away."
This made her colleagues sigh repeatedly, "Alas, it's such a pity. This kid has such a good foundation, he looks good, he has a good demeanor, he has the looks and the popularity. If we just promote him, he might become the next elesa. So why insist on becoming a trainer?"
Unfortunately, the contract signed at the time included the betting agreement. Within a year, the company had to respect Arthur's personal career choice, unless his professional trainer selection still failed after one year, otherwise the company couldn't interfere or prevent him from becoming a trainer.
When they signed the contract, everyone except Eleanor Vance disagreed.
Now that Arthur's performance in the advertisement was extremely photogenic, and his understanding and acting skills were far superior to his fifteen-year-old peers, making the travel agency rave about him, the people at Articuno Media regretted it even more.
Obviously, being a good internet celebrity could easily lead to financial freedom, so why were they always thinking about that damned trainer profession? This was the thought in many people's minds.
Eleanor Vance couldn't say much in such a discussion atmosphere.
Just then, at the scenic area filming location, an unexpected incident suddenly happened.
"Ah!"
A scream rang out.
A monkey-like Pokémon suddenly jumped out of the mountains and snatched the purse of a female makeup artist at the edge of the set.