Then Landon Shaw began to accept the identity of Ryan Chandler. It was easy— the original host had no parents, no contact with relatives, and had basically no social interactions from 1992 to 1994, completely friendless. As a result, after he hastily absorbed some fragments of the original host’s language and common knowledge, he directly became the new Ryan Chandler. Next, it was time for him to consider how to survive in this era of Japan’s Great Recession.

Otherwise, what could he do? He couldn’t explain things even if he returned to his own country, and Chinese citizenship is notoriously hard to obtain. He could only resign himself to being a migrant worker abroad.

As for the usual benefits that come with transmigration, he didn’t really get the full package either...

Before being “struck by lightning,” he was writing a thesis on his laptop (mainly about the history, characteristics, and future predictions of the Japanese film and television industry). His hard drive was filled with a large number of Japanese dramas, variety shows, and movies as reference materials, along with some related documents, literary works, and a few artsy action romance films.

Now, in this parallel world, the person had changed, so these works were ownerless and all became his. As someone who could see reality clearly and had clear goals, once he figured out his environment, he only thought for three minutes before deciding to work in the TV station’s production department. At the very least, it was better than doing odd jobs!

Otherwise, as a university dropout with no capital and no connections, was he really supposed to start from scratch? Better to support himself first—he could barely afford next year’s rent!

But there was a problem: all these video and text materials were fragmented, some even incomplete. He would need to spend a lot of time sorting and restoring them, piecing them together like building blocks. Some would have to be completed from memory, and it was unlikely he could stay completely faithful to the originals.

But that wasn’t urgent for now—things had to be done step by step.

He sold almost all of the original host’s personal belongings, and with the little money he had, started asking around about the TV stations. Finally, from a security guard at Tokyo Broadcasting TEB, he learned about Ian Murphy, thought she was the most suitable, and ultimately managed to sit in front of her, waiting for her to finish reading the script and see if she was willing to push for its production.

Set a goal, recognize reality, make a plan, execute strictly—now all that was left was to calmly accept the result.

Chapter Six: A Question Worth Pondering

“This script is very...” Ian Murphy read it carefully twice. Not to mention the story was novel and highly original, even just from a writing standards perspective, it was professional and clearly took a lot of effort. She really couldn’t find any problems, so she could only speak honestly: “It’s very interesting, very good, but unfortunately, it’s too short.”

Japanese dramas are generally divided into four seasons—spring, summer, autumn, and winter—three months per season, about twelve episodes per season, one episode per week, filmed and aired simultaneously. No matter how much Ryan Chandler’s short script was expanded, it probably couldn’t fill 700 minutes of airtime. If it were filmed, it could only be considered a student project.

The teacher would probably give it a high score, which showed that Ryan Chandler was a promising talent. Although Ian Murphy didn’t plan to use his script, she was moved by his potential and planned to recommend him for a screenwriter assistant position—helping him today wouldn’t take much effort, and maybe ten or twenty years later, this would be a valuable connection. It seemed like a good deal.

She hadn’t yet figured out how to phrase her suggestion when Ryan Chandler pulled out several more stacks of paper from his briefcase: “This is a series. Each episode consists of two or three short stories like this. It’s a multi-element anthology drama. I plan to call it ‘The World’s Strange Tales.’ Here’s the overall project proposal, and here are two similar short stories...”

He was directly copying the “The World’s Strange Tales” from his original world, not even changing the name, as a final gesture of respect for intellectual property. But he picked many of the most classic stories from various seasons—after all, it was best to make the first shot as impressive as possible.

“Oh?” Ian Murphy looked at Ryan Chandler in surprise. The plan was so thorough—she hadn’t expected that!

Only now did she truly take him seriously, and for the first time, she carefully sized up Ryan Chandler.

Short black hair, looking a bit messy, pale skin, delicate features, overall a bit haggard, but as he sat there, his back was straight, seemingly unchanged from the start, as if he could sit like that until the end of time—it gave the impression of remarkable willpower. If you asked a blond punk to sit like that, he’d probably go limp in five minutes.

Standing like a pine, sitting like a bell—it’s not as simple as it sounds. Without good self-awareness and a tenacious nature, most people would give in to their desires and slouch or lean.

Moreover, this young man’s eyes were very striking. They say the eyes are the window to the soul, and through this man’s eyes, you could see the word “focus.” When he looked at someone, it felt like all his attention was on you, with a slight sense of pressure, yet his expression was calm, as if he didn’t mean anything in particular.

In short, this man had a very unique aura. To exaggerate, he had the legendary air of a gentleman—gentle as jade, yet with a sword hidden in its sheath.

Ian Murphy glanced at him twice and actually felt a faint sense of goodwill, took the papers, and began to read even more seriously—was this meant to be a late-night drama? Was it feasible or not?