Capítulo 1: The protagonist
**Thud! Thud! Thud——**
The urgent knocking suddenly sounded in his ears, followed by a man's impatient voice coming through the door, "Matthew, why did you chase the makeup artist out? The director and the leading lady are already in place, the whole crew is waiting for you, the male lead, you have fifteen minutes left!"
The voice's owner seemed quite assertive, "If you don't come out in fifteen minutes, I'll come in and kill you!"
These words echoed in his ears, drilling into his head. Matthew tried to open his eyes, but couldn't. It wasn't until the footsteps receded from outside the door that he mustered all his strength and finally managed to open his eyes.
They were a pair of pitch-black eyes, full of confusion.
The dark eyes quickly scanned the room, confirming, "I've never been here before!" Then he looked down at himself, "Huh? Why am I lying here?"
He was lying on the wooden floor, his head next to the door, no wonder those voices sounded so loud in his ears.
Then, countless pieces of information suddenly flashed through his mind, two completely different scenes, intertwined like two movies playing on the same screen, causing him to instinctively clutch his head.
As time passed, the confusion in his eyes gradually disappeared, and he involuntarily propped himself up with his hands, slowly standing up. Standing in front of a huge makeup mirror, he looked at the reflection.
The person in the mirror was wearing only trousers, about 1.85 meters tall, with well-defined muscular contours on his upper body, quite strong. Looking further up, his hair was dark brown, and his face had a high nose and deep eyes, with facial features as sharp as if they had been carved by a knife, except for the pitch-black eyes, there was no resemblance to anyone he knew.
Looking at the person in the mirror, he bit his lip hard, feeling an instant pain. Then he stood there for about five minutes, gradually confirming some incredible things that had happened.
His final memories were very clear. He was working under the scorching sun and high temperatures on a construction site, lifting cement. When he wiped the sweat and took a drink, a nearby colleague's hammer head suddenly flew off and landed squarely on his face. After that, he couldn't remember anything.
Perhaps that miserable twenty-year life had come to an end?
He had lived a very hard life before, born in a poor mountainous area, forced to work after graduating from junior high school due to family finances. When he was eighteen, his parents, who had been ill for many years, passed away, leaving him alone to fend for himself, becoming a typical uneducated, inexperienced, backgroundless, and unskilled newcomer, only able to do some rough work. He had originally planned to earn enough money to learn a skill, but unlucky encounters with wage arrears and bosses fleeing made it impossible. He couldn't get his wages, was suppressed when he tried to claim them, and was stuck doing the hardest labor on construction sites without earning any money...
Maybe ending that miserable life and starting over wasn't so bad after all? Thinking of the hardships of his previous life, such thoughts unconsciously came to mind, after all, he could say he had nothing to lose.
However, this new life didn't seem to be much better...
Standing in front of the mirror, he forcefully slapped his handsome face, once again confirming that this was not a dream or an illusion.
The foreigner in the mirror was named Matthew Horner. To describe it with the wuxia novels he had read before, he had successfully taken over, or in the words of his hometown, he had possessed this man...
Fortunately, Matthew Horner who had probably gone to meet Yama... No, he should say Matthew Horner who had gone to meet God, had left behind plenty of memories.
But as these memories flashed through his mind, he, or rather Matthew's face, twitched uncontrollably!
Because the past was too painful to look back on!
This Matthew Horner came from the slums of Texas, born in 1980, just nineteen years old—meaning he had returned to the beginning of the 21st century, the beginning of 1999. Like most Americans, he was a mixed-race product of many countries, with a quarter of Chinese blood, but unfortunately, this heritage was not obvious in his appearance. The only thing it brought was his black eyes.
Apart from the black eyes, whether it was his skin color or appearance, he looked more like a Westerner.
Nineteen-year-old Matthew Horner was also without any skills. Due to only completing a third of his high school education, his level of education remained at the stage where he could barely read newspapers and books, and he couldn't understand complex English or grammar at all, let alone writing. It was unthinkable what such a person could achieve in this era.
In the memories left behind, Matthew Horner delivered newspapers and milk, worked as a car washer, washed dishes in restaurants, drove after getting his driver's license, and then worked as a laborer on a construction site for a while. His hard work and life had forged his strong muscles.
In the second half of last year, he didn't know who persuaded him, but he believed that his handsome appearance and tall figure were the material for becoming a star. So he foolishly came to Los Angeles to be an actor. Perhaps it was his lucky day when he worked part-time as a driver for a party service company, and he met a talent agent who admired him very much...
It was because of this talent agent that he came here, to this temporary studio in downtown Los Angeles, transformed from independent houses, where he suddenly collapsed in the makeup room...
"Ah..."
Matthew sighed, and the information in his mind told him that he was now in Los Angeles!
He looked around, whether it was the posters on the wall or the various decorations on the dressing table, wherever there were inscriptions, they were all in a string of letters.
Sitting down, Matthew sat on the chair and continued to sort through the memories in his mind.
The spiritual wealth left behind was really suffocating!
Before, he was uneducated, and now he was still uneducated; his previous level of education was only enough to read novels in some respects, but now even reading complex things was obstructed; his previous hard work, but he had a nest on the construction site, now his predecessor quit his original job for the dream of being a Hollywood star, and came here to be the male lead...
The male lead? Matthew stood up suddenly, remembering the words of the man outside the door in English, which immediately relieved him. He could understand English!
Then, he was pleasantly surprised that the man's words mentioned the director and the leading lady, and even the whole crew, were waiting for him, the male lead!
He was the male lead! Even if it was the male lead of a TV drama, there was still a lot of money to be made, right?
Wait... Matthew felt that something was wrong again. Male lead? What male lead? Could it be the male lead in a Hollywood movie?
Instantly, he thought of those young movie stars who became famous overnight and became famous all over Hollywood.
Although he was not highly educated, there were so many Hollywood popcorn movies, and he would watch some typical popcorn entertainment in his spare time while working hard. He also recognized some Hollywood stars.
For example, he really liked the "Transformers" series, and he remembered the typical overnight fame of the female lead called Fox!
Matthew couldn't help but jump up from his chair and walk to the door of the dressing room, quietly opening the door and looking outside.
The space outside was much larger than the dressing room, decorated luxuriously, and he could see six or seven people gathered around a black camera, apparently busy setting something up. Across from the camera was a beige European-style sofa, with two people standing next to the sofa talking.
One was a middle-aged man wearing glasses, and the other was a woman.
"Could that be the director and the leading lady?"
Like most men, Matthew's eyes naturally fell on the woman, who had straight blonde hair and was very beautiful.
She must be the leading lady! Matthew immediately confirmed this point, and it wouldn't be bad to act opposite such a leading lady.
He couldn't help but smile. That guy from before wasn't completely useless, he hadn't left behind any skills or anything useful, but he had found this job which seemed very good.
"Could it be that I'm about to embark on the road to Hollywood?"
Such thoughts jumped into his mind, diluting the discomfort of Matthew's arrival in this world. After all, there was nothing to miss about his previous life, and it would be nice to live grandiosely here. "If I'm lucky, can't I become a Hollywood superstar?"
Thinking of the information he had seen on his smartphone before, Matthew suddenly realized that becoming an actor, a star, didn't seem to require much education. Many Hollywood stars hadn't even finished high school, but they still made it big. Perhaps this was a way out?
Since he was here and faced with the current situation, complaining would be useless, it would be better to adapt as soon as possible.
At that moment, the blonde woman turned her head in their direction, probably seeing Matthew's face through the crack in the door, and couldn't help but smile slightly, nodding gently.
Matthew nodded back, then looked at the woman's face.
"Why does she look familiar?"
He closed the door and retreated back into the dressing room, scratching his head, unable to remember where he had seen her before, or in which Hollywood movie. He simply set it aside and began to recall information about this male lead.
It seemed that filming was about to start, and he had to figure out what was being filmed. If he couldn't even figure this out, he would waste this great opportunity to be the male lead!
Fortunately, after a careful recollection, Matthew's face turned pale instantly, fine beads of sweat forming on his forehead and rolling down his cheeks, as if he had been greatly frightened.
He staggered back a few steps, sat down on the chair in front of the makeup mirror, unable to say a word.
The male lead he was about to play... was the male lead of a porno!
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