Exclusive Rights to An Online Voice Actor

Chapter 51

Editor: Mashiro

Even for Qi Jing, it was the first time he had seen a YY channel with more than five digits of people online, much less Shen Yan.

This was the official site for the《Order to End the Heavens 5》dubbing competition semi-finals.

There was still fifteen minutes to 6 PM but the number of people online had already soared to twelve thousand. The channel was currently in admin mode and the staff for the competition were making the final adjustments for the competition. People in the channel could hear the sounds of microphones being tuned, the discussions, and sound tests in the background from time to time—this was all to ensure that the flow of the competition would not be affected by technical issues. After all, there were thirty contestants who had made it through into this round, with not much time allocated to each of them. If something goes wrong, it will also affect the rest of the contestants.

This time, the organisers prepared an MC, production coordinator, and three guest judges.

The schedule for this evening’s competition has already been placed on the bulletin board.

Firstly, the MC will give the opening speech when the competition officially begins at 6 PM. They will briefly introduce the competition judges and then announce the three scenes selected by the organisers—the contestants will go through a total of nine lines. These are all kept hush-hush before the competition to test the contestant’s ability to perform on the spot.

Next, the MC will take control of the microphone and bring the participants onto the “stage” according to the order given in the preliminary selection. After confirming that there are no problems with the equipment, they will hand over the mic to the contestant for 120 seconds. The contestant has to finish all their lines within the stipulated time. If they are unable to complete these requirements, they will be disqualified; if they finish early, they are free to improvise as they like for the rest of the time until the 120 seconds are up.

Lastly, after each contestant has finished their performance, 30 seconds will be reserved for the audience to vote on the spot, during which the judges will be scoring behind the “stage”, and the MC will announce the final scores after they have been tallied.

The competition will take roughly three minutes per contestant.

After everyone has finished, the judges will send a representative to go on the microphone and give their comments, which is expected to take at least 20 to 30 minutes. At this point, the backstage staff will list the top ten finalists according to their scores and announce them on the bulletin board.

The list of finalists will not normally change once it has been confirmed, except in one case: if the contestant signed up for three roles and qualified for all three, then the roles with the lowest ranking will be removed. At this point, the next contestant outside the top ten will fill in that spot.

Qi Jing chose to put it on speaker mode; he turned on the speakers, grabbed two chairs, and dragged Shen Yan over to listen together with him.

The lines for “Old Man Xiao Shan” have not been released yet so there was no possibility of them practicing before the competition. Since they’ll be waiting around anyway, they might as well listen while waiting.

“You don’t have to be stressed over this,” Qi Jing reminded beforehand.

Sometimes, it’s less stressful to just go right at it without listening to anything else. Qi Jing was a little worried that getting Shen Yan to listen would backfire on him.

“I’m not nervous. To improve one’s dubbing, they must be able to take on some negative criticism,” Shen Yan said with a smile.

Just counting the MC and the three judges and ignoring all the others that he can’t see, Shen Yan could just take it that there were only four people listening to him. “Besides, I don’t have a part in this round so I can listen to the judges critique others and take note of it if I have the same faults.”

Sometimes, the requirements for commercial dubbing is not quite the same as that of online dubbing; they’re not so insistent on the voice but are more stringent on the performance. Moreover,《Order to End the Heavens》has many fans, most of whom have never been exposed to the online voice acting scene so they don’t care who’s a great god and who’s a transparent nobody—here, individual strength speaks louder than anything.

“It’s starting soon.” Qi Jing glanced at the bottom right corner of the screen; it was already 5.59 PM.

The public chat was already going wild and wherever one looked there were fans of CVs doing fan chants, sending red flowers, making sure their idol is known to everyone. Besides Crossing the bridge noodles, there were also other CVs from the online voice acting circle who successfully made it into the semi-finals and more or less had their fans over to support them.

Right now, the MC, with their orange username, had already gone up to take the mic.

“Good evening, dear contestants and listeners! I am your MC for this competition, Yang Chunqu. Right now, it is 6 PM on the dot, Beijing time, and the dubbing competition for《Order to End the Heavens 5》has officially begun! Welcome everyone!” The MC, Yang Chunqu sounded just as her name suggests, a young lady with this big sister type quality to her voice. Her voice was similar to that of those formal hosts on TV, dignified yet not losing that youthful brightness.

The public chat was suddenly in a hubbub with rows of red flowers pouring out one after another.

“First, can I please get all contestants to change your username in the format of your number, dash, followed by your competition ID. If you’re unclear, please refer to the announcement on the top right hand corner. If you’ve forgotten your number, it can also be found on the announcement. This is an extremely important step because the coordinator will search according to your number and ID and arrange the order accordingly when the time comes.”

While people were editing their usernames, Yang Chunqu took the time to briefly recount the history of the game《Order to End the Heavens》as well as how the previous two dubbing competitions went. Then, she welcomed the three judges.

“Now, allow us to invite the first judge, Teacher Longbow to the mic.” Yang Chunqu cheerily put this person with a red username on the mic.

“Hello everyone, I’m Longbow,” Longbow greeted everyone politely; his voice sounded very affable.

Qi Jing had heard of this person.

He was rather famous in the professional voice acting field. For his early works, he mainly delved into animation dubbing and had also voiced for charity campaign videos with the ID “Longbow” on the internet. He slowly gained more popularity and was later more involved in dubbing for movies and TV shows. His real name is often seen in popular TV series these days, but he still prefers to use his internet ID online.

“For our next judge, we have Teacher Pu Yuzhi who hails from the University of Mass Communication, teaching students from the course of Broadcasting and Hosting. Welcome!”

“Good evening to all students.” True to her academic background, she ultimately couldn’t get away from the tone of a professor whenever she opened her mouth. She seemed to have realised her slip of tongue, chuckling slightly before saying even more shocking words, “Please rest assured, everyone, I will be judging these contestants as I would my own students—strictly, but without a doubt, fairly.”

As soon as she said those words, the public chat was filled with people sending the phrase “Teacher Pu is so cool”. Pu Yuzhi may not be very famous herself, but many of her students went on to become celebrities of the professional voice acting world, so it’s no lie that a strict teacher makes a good pupil.

Yang Chunqu continued with the introductions. “You may have already recognised from his ID; that’s right, for our third judge, we have one of the winners from our last competition, Northwest Road. Welcome!”

Northwest Road was your typical example of a CV who started out in the online voice acting circle and shot to fame through the competition, eventually breaking into the professional voice acting circle. However, the club he was previously associated with was one averse to BL, so his name isn’t that known in the BL area and Qi Jing was naturally not familiar with him as well.

“Good evening everyone! Northwest Road is back again!”

From his voice alone, he sounded very bubbly and friendly—as expected of a previous winner. His voice was rich with magnetism; when he spoke, it was short and powerful, like a bullet shot out of a gun. There seemed to be many fans of his in the audience, in an instant, the chat was filled with cheers: “Welcome back Northwest-sama ≧▽≦”

Qi Jing opened the browser while listening, searching up the judges’ information one by one, browsing through their personal history. These three judges would be judging for all of the male characters... In other words, they will be the ones scoring the two of them, for Shen Yan’s when his turn came, as well as for Qi Jing for his own round later on.

Longbow gave a pretty good first impression. Qi Jing just didn’t know if he would change completely when it comes to scoring contestants.

Pu Yuzhi was an older and more old school professor who has already declared that she will be strict, so she will probably be very picky when the time comes.

Northwest Road is a former contestant in this event himself so he’ll likely be more lenient?

“There are so many unknowns...” He muttered to himself.

Now that they were done introducing the judges, the coordinator has already picked out the thirty contestants and competition was about to begin proper.

“Alright, next a total of nine lines, for the three scenes will be announced. These are the lines we have chosen for the current character ‘Liu Suyu’.” The mic went back to Yang Chunqu and she asked the coordinator to put up the new announcement content.

When Qi Jing heard that, he suddenly exclaimed and gently nudged Shen Yan.

“Actually, if that’s the way it is then it’s not bad for your number to be further back on the list; at least you’ll get more time to slowly work out your lines.”

“Not really; sometimes when you have to hear the same lines over and over again some people will eventually get tired of it ultimately affecting them from judging objectively.” Shen Yan said with a small smile.

Qi Jing froze slightly—there was some sense to what Shen Yan said.

In any case, the person who’s first to go up was definitely unlucky.

Never would he have expected that Crossing the bridge noodles would be that extremely unlucky number one.

At the beginning, he didn’t really pay much attention to the contestant numbers and the coordinator removed the list of contestants after posting the lines. It was only when Yang Chunqu called out loudly, “Contestant number one, Crossing the bridge noodles, please get ready to come on the mic.” did Qi Jing whip his head over to look at the window showing people with the permission to turn on their mics and his eyes rounded in shock.

It really was Crossing the bridge noodles.

It’s really... Wow, this person is really too “lucky”...

Luckily for him, Crossing the bridge noodles had quite an impressive number of fans. The moment the MC announced his ID, the public chat was filled with a flurry of excitement with large groups of people spamming the chat with cheers for him.

Audience 1: (づ￣ 3￣)づ All the best, Little noodles!! We’ll be here to support you, mua~

Audience 2: (づ￣ 3￣)づ It doesn’t matter if you’re the first one to go up! You’re the best! Have faith in yourself!

Audience 3: (づ￣ 3￣)づ Stay in formation! All the best, Little noodles!

Audience 4: (づ￣ 3￣)づ Go, go go!

Audience 5: (づ￣ 3￣)づ Sending Little noodles kisses. Don’t be sad even if Bronze Sparrow can’t come tonight, we’ll record for him to listen~

Audience 6: (づ￣ 3￣)づ Little noodles, let’s quickly conquer the judges with your pure voice!

......

His fans were loyal, yes, but they seemed to be on the younger side. The entire screen was covered in adorable emoticons as well as well wishes tinted with a hint of infatuation. Given how loud and spectacular of a scene they made, there was no way MC could’ve failed to notice it.

“Our number one contestant, Crossing the bridge noodles, seems to have a lot of little fans cheering him on. Looks like everyone is very enthusiastic tonight,” Yang Chunqu said with a chuckle, “Well then, Contestant Crossing the bridge noodles, I’ve already put you on the mic, please say a few words to test the equipment.”

The light in front of Crossing the bridge noodles’ ID flickered a little and a voice that sounded like it floated to the surface from the depths of deep waters could be heard.

“Sorry, I have a bit of a cold so I sound quite nasally... The microphone is fine, mhm.” Unlike his usual clear, youthful voice, he sounded like his throat was quite uncomfortable. His speech sounded pretty muffled and the clarity of his voice was severely affected.

Qi Jing couldn’t help but feel pity for him. Not only was he first to start—he just had to bite the bullet and do it—he also happened to be sick.

Crossing the bridge noodles probably didn’t mention that he was unwell anywhere because his fans were in an utter state of shock, every one of them asking about his condition on the chat.

Probably realising that it’s not good for his fans to repeatedly spam the chat, he told his fans, “This isn’t our own channel. I’m fine. Everyone please quieten down.”

His fans immediately stopped obediently at his word.

“Oho...” Qi Jing raised an eyebrow with some surprise. Just from this point alone, he was way better at handling the situation compared to his Bronze Sparrow Terrace.

Even though Qi Jing said it in front of his own computer it was as if Crossing the bridge noodles could hear him. In front of the MC, the three judges, and over ten thousand listeners, he suddenly popped this question out of the blue, “Are you there, Don’t ask for my return date?”

Qi Jing didn’t expect for him to straight up call out to him in such a formal setting; he was startled.

Shen Yan, on the other hand, turned over to look at him and when he saw that Qi Jing was utterly stunned, unable to come back to his senses, he even asked all seriously, “Do you need me to help type a reply for you?”

Only then did Qi Jing finally gather back all his thoughts. After some slight hesitation, he ultimately nodded his head. Since he had entered the channel using his account this time, and the ID was Don’t ask me for my return date, he could just send the message directly.

CV – Don’t ask for my return date: I’m here. All the best to you.

Audience 1: Yes, yes!! I see it!! He’s the one right above me!!

Audience 2: I see it too! Ladies, let’s help convey this to Little noodles, otherwise I’m afraid he might miss it~

Audience 3: Noodles, noodles, have you seen it?? Don’t ask for my return date is here!! He even wished you all the best!!

Audience 4: (≧ω≦) Little noodles, Don’t ask my for my return date is here!

Audience 5: (≧ω≦) Look here, look here, Little noodles! The person you’re looking for is here in the audience listening to the competition and even wish you all the best.

Audience 6: (≧ω≦) Do your best voice acting, Little noodles! Go and have a good rest after this, we’ll support you no matter the result!

...

“Ah, I saw it, thank you.” Crossing the bridge noodles coughed a little, cleared his throat and told that MC that he was ready to start.

Qi Jing didn’t know if that last “thank you” was directed at the fans or him; somehow, it made him feel embarrassed for being given credit when he didn’t do anything.

“I suddenly feel like this person probably... really needs encouragement at the moment.” He felt a little regretful that he didn’t get Shen Yan to type a few more words.

“Do you want to write a few more words of encouragement?” Shen Yan seemed to know what Qi Jing was struggling with; his fingers were already back on the keyboard. Qi Jing was a very sympathetic person with a soft heart even when facing a person who was once the cause of countless antis sending hate his way. This was something Shen Yan understood better than anyone.

However, Qi Jing shook his head. It was too late to say anything now and it would even affect the competition, so forget it.

“It’s good enough that we got the point through,” he said. Next, it would be up to Crossing to bridge noodles to perform.

Once everything was in place, the host, Yang Chunqu, turned off her mic and the 120-second countdown began. Even the messages in the public chat stopped as if everyone was holding their breaths.

Liu Suyu was a well-mannered, young scholar, a friend of the protagonist, Qin Tuo, according to the character background given by the organiser.

The first voiceover scene is set when the character is worriedly looking for his name on board after the provincial exam. The scene cues and tone cues are written very minimally, almost a little too simple in Qi Jing’s opinion. One should know that usually when CVs voice their characters, apart from the script itself, much focus is also placed on the tone cues. Otherwise, the CVs may easily be misled if the cues are not well-marked.

According to the timer, only three seconds had passed, but it felt way more than that.

As expected, the atmosphere on the site of the competition was very stressful even though it wasn’t his or Shen Yan’s turn to compete yet. Qi Jing felt like he had overestimated his own mental strength. It turned out that being in the situation itself was completely different from what he had expected—he would freeze up from nerves.

Just as he was sighing internally at himself, Crossing the bridge noodles spoke up.

“Should I... go over to have a look or not? What if... What if I failed to make it, how am I ever going to face my parents?”

His voice was much lower compared to the teenage voice from some of his dramas. It was the voice of a youth—someone who had barely ventured into the world, all he knew was studying and more studying despite the hardships of his circumstances; a gentle and cultured young man. Although his voice did sound a little nasally from his cold, it was perfect for this context. The slight hesitation in his tone coupled with this voice, it was as if Qi Jing could really see a slender scholar who’s naturally pessimistic and dejected right in front of him.

Qi Jing subconsciously nodded his head at his screen, acknowledging Crossing the bridge noodles’ control of his tone.

The line that came next had the exact requirement as the previous one, they were both “uneasiness”, but there was a slight change in Crossing the bridge noodles’ tone. “Um, this gentleman in front of me, will... will you be so kind to help me check if the board has the name ‘Liu Suyu’ on it?”

It was still pessimistic, but it held a trace of hope hidden at the bottom of his heart. Crossing the bridge noodles added this positive sense of urgency in his voice, and naturally, his speech also hastened.

It was then quickly followed by the last line of the scene for this character.

The tone of his voice suddenly jumped as he exclaimed ecstatically, a complete 180 from the one from before which was laden with melancholy, “Yes! I got it! I really got in! Oh ancestors of the Liu family, Father, Mother, I, Liu Suyu, finally made it to the final Imperial Exam! I—”

His words were suddenly cut short and he murmured to himself with a trembling voice, “...Me? The final Imperial Exam? ...Good lord, this isn’t a dream, right? I can’t be dreaming right now, can I?”

Listening up till this point, Qi Jing’s hand that was originally resting on his lips unconsciously relaxed and slipped down; for a moment there, he couldn’t utter a word.

Right at that moment, Shen Yan suddenly spoke up and concluded softly, “His change in tone is pretty good.”

After a slight pause, he turned his gaze onto Qi Jing and spoke in a solemn and cautious tone, “This person is quite skilled, you should take extra care when you compete in the next few days.”

Yeah, he thought so too.

Being able to differentiate between the lines through slight changes in details when the cues in the script were exactly the same was a true show of his prowess as a voice actor. And the twist in the last sentence—Qi Jing simply wanted to give him a big round of applause. Unsurprisingly, the public chat was filled with rave reviews, and deservedly so.

For the following two scenes, Crossing the bridge noodles continued his good and steady performance.

Although his voice was slightly affected by the cold, his tone was good. But overall, due to the selection of the lines, the first scene was the one that gave him the most room to play with and it was also his best scene.

“Interesting, interesting, this guy is so much better than his Bronze Sparrow Terrace. Looks like I’ll have to step up my game for ‘Fang Yisheng’.” Qi Jing’s brows had been slightly furrowed after listening to all of Crossing the bridge noodles’ lines, but in the end, as if he suddenly saw the light, he let out a laugh and the frown on his face disappeared.

Seeing his face change from one of gloom to a bright expression, Shen Yan smiled along with him and asked, “Aren’t you afraid of losing?”

Qi Jing did not answer his question immediately but instead leaned over lazily, using Shen Yan’s shoulder as a cushion for the umpteenth time.

Having just eaten dinner, both of them were still nice and warm so when they leaned against one another, it felt extra cosy. He relaxed himself and said with a smile, “I will do my best. If I give my best and still lose, then I’ll accept the loss and slowly accept more shows in the future to continue honing my acting skills.”

“Mhm.” Shen Yan smiled in turn, lowering his head to plant a light peck on Qi Jing’s hair. To Qi Jing, that was more encouragement than any word could give him.

A voting window pops up on the screen in front of them. Crossing the bridge noodles was already done with his performance and it was now time for the audience to vote.

“How is it? Do you want to vote for him?” Shen Yan asked him with a smile.

“Of course,” Qi Jing replied without a hint of hesitation and happily clicked on the button. This vote was not only his appreciation of the other party, but also a warning for himself.

Actually, Crossing the bridge noodles wasn’t the only one he had to look out for—Always remember: Just as there’s no limit to the universe; there will always be someone better than you.

Mashiro: Well, I suppose the noodles guy is not as bad as I thought.