Cannon Fodder Cheat System

Chapter 80

Supermodel Competition (Arc 7.1)

When Jing Yang woke up, he felt that his entire body was powerless and sore. He opened his eyes and found that he was lying on the floor, probably all night, or else his body would not be so sore.

He crawled up from the ground and sat. Straightening his legs and rubbing his muddled head, he casually looked down, and immediately froze. These legs were quite long and straight, but what's going on with this loose thigh flesh and the ring of fat around his waist?

Jing Yang stood up and went to the bathroom, looking at his body in the mirror. He had been reborn so many times, yet the shape and condition of this body should be the worst it had ever been.

He raised his hand and touched his face. Even though the features were quite good, the skin was rough and loose, and there were still dark circles under the eyes. This made this face look like it was a piece of high-end furniture that had been left out to sit too long and no one had taken care it. Thick dust had covered his original beautiful appearance.

Not to mention the body. The height ratios could be said to be perfect, and even though he couldn't be called fat, there were absolutely no muscles anywhere on his body. It seemed like it had been at least three years of no exercise or maintenance.

Such a good foundation, but it had been spoiled to such a decadent extent by the original owner. He must have suffered some great blow in order to have lost his confidence in life and in himself, and completely given up his own sense of self.

Jing Yang took a simple shower and went back to the bedroom and lay down. He activated the system's memory retrieval function.

The original owner's name was Arthur Yang, a professional model. Or he should say, he used to be a professional model, because he had not received any work for three years.

Arthur was born into an ordinary family, the kind that wasn't rich but wasn't worried about food or livelihood. When he was a teenager, his parents died in an accident. With his hard work, as well as his outstanding appearance and figure, he was admitted into the world's top international modeling institute.

This is a technologically and culturally advanced futuristic world, in which people who appear on screen for any form of performance or display are collectively referred to as models.

The competition in the modeling industry is very intense, and all kinds of requirements for the model's own body and abilities are also extremely high. But if you can become famous, not only would you have a certain social status and honor, but you could also make a lot of money.

So there are countless people who want to enter this profession. Some do it for the fame and money, and some are like Arthur, they really like the profession. But no matter what reason they have to enter this line of work, wanting to become a top supermodel is very difficult.

Models not only have to perform a variety of shows, but also need to display a variety of different products. If you only had one kind of style, you would definitely not be able to succeed. But if you want to express all kinds of styles to the pinnacle, that is an extremely difficult thing. In addition to needing to work hard to hone themselves, they still needed a certain degree of talent.

Arthur was precisely this kind of both talented and hard-working person. In order to become a top model, he had endured a lot of suffering. But because of his love for the career, he was happy.

Arthur had a very good friend since he was young called Conley. Conley had originally also prepared to enter the modeling profession, but had given up because he felt that the training was too hard. He later went to a modeling agency and became an ordinary broker.

After Arthur graduated from school, Conley came to him and told him that he wanted to set up a studio, and hoped that Arthur would become his first model.

At school, Arthur already had a certain popularity. Of those extremely outstanding students, he could also be considered a more prominent presence, so he had many very good companies to choose from. But he and Conley were childhood friends, and the relationship between the two people had been ambiguous for many years, but had never been punctured.

Arthur was caught up in entanglement and hesitation. On the one hand, he was eager to help Conley, but a studio with only the two of them and no resources or funds wanting to succeed, the hope was really too slim. If he entered a big famous company, Arthur's path to modeling would be a lot smoother, and his chances of becoming a top model would be high, because he was good enough.

In order to persuade him, Conley finally broke through the two people's many years of ambiguous relationship and confessed to him. And he said that with the two people working together, even though the process would be very difficult, but after success, the victory would be even sweeter.

Even though Arthur had good feelings for Conley, he actually had haphephobia. Only when he was practicing or at work, and his professionalism could make him forget himself, his thinking would reach another realm, and he could come into natural contact with other people. But in private, anyone touching him would make him feel uncomfortable, including Conley. That's why they had never been properly together after so many years of ambiguous behavior.

Conley knew that he had this phobia. He said that they could overcome this difficulty together, and when the two people worked hard together they could deepen their feelings. When their feelings were deeper, he might not resist his touch anymore.

After some consideration, Arthur agreed to Conley's request. He felt that if he could not even accept Conley, who he had grown up with, in the end, he might not be able to touch anyone in his life. So he wanted to give it a try.

That period of time was truly really hard. It took money to build a studio, and the propaganda and packaging took even more. Arthur had three houses, one left by his grandfather, one left by his parents, and one that his parents had prepared for him.

He took all three homes to mortgage. The high interest rates almost forced him breathless, so no matter how low the price was, as long as he had work he would pick it up. Sometimes he simply could not earn any money, but he would take jobs that would make him lose money, just to expand his network and build his popularity.

Every time he earned a tiny bit of money, he would first take it to pay off the loans, and then the rest of the money would be used for living expenses. On several occasions, because he was too exhausted, he would faint once he finished his work.

Arthur was enduring all the suffering and bitterness, then what was Conley doing? He was also doing his best to help Arthur promote, and trying to help him get a better job, so that they could achieve their goals, but he had no power. The only jobs that he could help Arthur get were ones that wouldn't earn any money or build any popularity.

Arthur later being able to achieve such a good result was because he had an insurmountable determination, and coupled with his strength and his luck being good enough, he finally became known.

As Arthur's popularity grew, their studio also became better and better, and Arthur was also able to get work with some big brands. Finally they paid off the loan and began to make money. Since they were starting to make money, they naturally also wanted to start training new people, so that they could make more money.

Cultivating new people was something that really burned through money. Even if they came from a professional modeling school, they still had to specifically ask for teachers to help them continue training. With all kinds of expenses for the new people, the money flowed out like water, but the good thing was that they had cultivated two quite good people.

Arthur and Conley's physical contact had still not progressed. Arthur still couldn't stand Conley touching himself, and could not even stand holding hands with him. But they were still very clear about their relationship, and in a world where same-sex marriage was legal, Arthur had never hidden the fact that he already had a boyfriend. His relationship with Conley had always been aboveboard, and the two would often attend various occasions together.

One of the newcomers they trained in the studio was called Dilumo. He also started to become somewhat popular, and became the focus of the studio's cultivation. Arthur used his own popularity to do his best to help him promote, and used his contacts to help him get better jobs. Dilumo was young but still very competitive. His popularity kept growing, and his achievements were getting better and better.

It was only gradually that Arthur discovered that some jobs that were supposed to be his had been replaced with Dilumo. He felt that it was strange, but Conley said to him that this was not only to better train the new people, but also to be able to reduce his burden, so that he would not be so tired.

Arthur believed Conley's words. He felt that this was also good, in any case the money had been earned by his own people. Those jobs were also not necessary for him, this way he could have more time to devote himself to more important jobs.

Dilumo's performance was becoming more and more outstanding, and he was able to replace more and more of Arthur's jobs. And Arthur? Just as he was about to be able to step into the ranks of the supermodels, and just as he was heading up to the pinnacle of the industry, he encountered a succession of problems.

Either there was a problem with the contract, a conflict with the business, or in his promotion videos, which should have shown his advantages, they not only did not exhibit them in the least, but also showed a bunch of messy pictures. In the live catwalk and filming, there would be frequent problems that were caused by his assistants and studio staff, and would ultimately end up on him.

And then there were rumors that he was unprofessional, disrespectful, and other things. His reputation plummeted, and the popularity he had struggled to accumulate was greatly reduced. And he didn't know when it started, but online a lot of people started comparing Dilumo with him. They made it like Dilumo was a heavenly being, and disparaged Arthur like he was worthless.

This kind of brainwashing approach still had some effect. Many people started looking at him unfavorably, and followed in belittling and abusing him.

Fan numbers and ratings are crucial to a model, and no big company would find a model with few fans to promote their products.

Arthur sensed that everything was very likely to have something to do with the studio. He carefully recalled all of the clues that he could still remember, and thought of the person he was least willing to doubt.

He did not immediately go to Conley to confront him, but observed him quietly until one day he caught Conley and Dilumo cheating and overheard their conversation. He finally knew that everything was their plot.

Conley had been caught by him and immediately begged him to give him another chance. Arthur was very angry, if Conley liked Dilumo and had directly told him, he could allow it. But he hid and betrayed him, and he couldn't forgive him for what he did behind his back to destroy him.

Conley saw that Arthur was determined to part with him, so he put down his hand first. He deliberately leaked the news to a reporter of how difficult it was to handle Arthur. He had carefully helped him for so many years, and paid so much for him, but in the end he had still abandoned and broken up with him, and even chased him out of the studio.

Conley seemed to have been harmed by Arthur, but privately he had already secretly transferred the studio's property away, and the so-called studio was left with only a shell.

Arthur was spurned by millions of people, and finally fell to the ground, all because he had trusted Conley too much. He had nowhere to complain and nowhere to go. He wanted to expose Conley and Dilumo's true face, and wanted to regain his innocence, but whether it was Conley transferring the studio's funds or his affair with Dilumo, he had no evidence to prove it.

Just as Arthur was in trouble, a reporter approached him, who had captured many intimate images of Conley and Dilumo together. He had also taken a picture of Arthur catching the two men cheating. He offered Arthur and Conley a high price at the same time, and whoever gave more money, he would sell the photographs to him. But he had an additional condition for Arthur, which was for Arthur to sleep with him for one night.

Although the studio's funds had been transferred by Conley, Arthur himself had a lot of savings. In order to be able to buy this evidence, as long as he could pay the money, he would definitely give it. But this condition of sleeping with him, it was impossible for him to agree.

Finally the evidence was bought by Conley at a higher price, and they re-opened a studio with the money from Arthur's studio. The newcomers in the former studio, in order to join Conley at their new studio, also came forward to smear Arthur. They made up things that didn't happen and forcibly pushed them onto him.

Arthur couldn't get a job, and still had to endure widespread abuse. He had lost his faith in life. He stayed at home for three years, and for three years, he was endlessly decadent, and had almost become a waste.

Jing Yang couldn't help but sigh. The IQ of this original owner was really moving. Clearly it was such an inspirational life, but he had lived it into such a life of dog blood. But perhaps it was precisely because he was such a straightforward person and endlessly forged forward that regardless of the other foolishness, he was able to use only his own ability to achieve such good results.

Translator Notes:

[1] Arthur Yang – 亚瑟 杨, 亚瑟 is ya se but is a translation for Arthur, just going with the pinyin for last name

[2] Conley – 康利, pinyin is kang li, MTL gives Conley

[3] punctured – 有捅破最后那一张纸, literal translation never broken the last piece of paper, basically they are ambiguous but never confessed or clarified the relationship

[4] haphephobia – 接触障碍症, basically a fear or extreme dislike of being touched

[5] Dilumo – 迪卢莫, straight up the pinyin, idk if one of these is supposed to be a last name or something

[6] was a heavenly being – 天上有地下无的, I'm assuming, basically he has all good things and no flaws

[7] worthless – 一文不值, idiom, basically no use whatsoever

[8] straightforward – 横冲直撞, idiom, literally means bashing sideways and colliding straight on, means pushing through, shoving and bumping

Random Notes:

Slightly less than one hour: 10 am – 11 am, for 4k characters to 2.6k words. First chapters of every arc are just too painful to translate, man. They’re just depressing. Took less than an hour but felt like it was taking hours.