"Alright, let's figure out the projected global box office for Pirates of the Caribbean and how much money we've made so far," Mr. Eisen said.
"The global estimates are already out?" Luke asked.
"Yeah, they came out last night. Take a look." Mr. Eisen pulled a folded sheet of paper from his pocket and handed it to Luke.
Luke took it, unfolded it, and couldn't help but smile when he saw the first line:
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl — projected global box office: $1.08 billion.
That was nearly $430 million more than its box office in the original timeline, which had been $654 million.
It even surpassed The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, which made $936 million.
That meant—Luke's second phase mission was complete!
"The production budget for Pirates of the Caribbean was $140 million, and our studio invested $40 million. That gives us a profit share of roughly $150 million."
Since Disney was the lead producer, Luke's film studio only held a 28.5% stake in the investment.
Still, that kind of return was nothing short of amazing.
"Adding in the profits from Hero, our studio's cash flow is now over $770 million."
When the studio was founded, Mr. Eisen had injected $500 million in capital.
After the massive success of Hero and Pirates of the Caribbean, not only had the cash flow stayed stable—it had grown.
As for employee salaries, those were already factored into the numbers.
Even though the production staff were paid through the studio, their wages were covered by the film projects themselves.
So as long as there were enough productions, the studio staff didn't drain funds—they actually helped the company's cash flow grow.
"What's next for you in terms of movies? We've got more than enough firepower now," Mr. Eisen said with a grin.
He wasn't exaggerating. Outside of the "Big Eight" studios, there were very few with more financial muscle than Luke's.
They had enough funds to shoot six top-tier blockbusters simultaneously—though of course, that wasn't realistic.
The whole operation revolved around Luke, after all. No matter how much money they had, he couldn't star in half a dozen films at once.
"Give me a few days," Luke said. "I'll come up with a new production plan."
He was actually waiting for the system to confirm his mission completion, so he could decide what kind of movie to make next based on the next goal.
And just as that thought crossed his mind, golden letters appeared before his eyes—
[Mission Phase 2: Star in a Hollywood action movie and achieve the year's global box office #1 ranking.]
[Phase 2 Mission Complete. Host receives 11 Allocatable Attribute Points!]
Luke blinked in surprise. So the system wasn't going to make him wait until The Two Towers officially released and lost at the box office—it just compared the historical records and rewarded him immediately.
...
Back home from the cemetery, Luke immediately opened his attribute panel:
Name: Luke
Age: 20
Strength: 20
Agility: 20
Constitution: 17
Allocatable Points: 11
Skills:
Master-level Swordsmanship, Parkour, Throwing Knives, Martial Arts, Dialogue Delivery, Acting Technique, Advanced Acting Insight, Gunplay, Blade Combat, Japanese, Gymnastics, Driving, Aquatic Sports, Massage.
Action Scene Danger Level: B. Host Success Rate: 68%.
He had 11 attribute points to assign again.
Since Strength and Agility were already maxed, Constitution was his only option.
And once Constitution hit 20, his "Advanced Acting Insight" would evolve further.
Without hesitation, he assigned the points:
Constitution: 17 → 20
Allocatable Points: 11 → 5
The moment his Constitution reached the human limit, he immediately felt an incredible boost in stamina.
But it wasn't just about lung capacity—though his was already around 7,000 ml, far above the 4,000 ml average for adult males and even better than most athletes at 5,000 ml.
Top swimmers could reach 8,000 ml, and the Guinness World Record was around 16,000 ml.
But human bodies have limits—there's only so much room inside. Simply inflating lung capacity wouldn't be practical.
The system didn't go for that kind of crude enhancement.
Instead, it improved his oxygen utilization efficiency and lactic acid resistance.
That meant he could use oxygen more efficiently and feel much less fatigue during intense physical activity.
Combined with his superior lung capacity, his stamina became almost superhuman.
At this point, running a marathon would be child's play.
But more importantly, it meant he could now handle even more physically demanding action scenes—like underwater fights or deep-sea dives.
His bone density and ligament strength also got a serious boost.
He remembered that time filming Jurassic Park III when he fell from about 16 meters up. Even with branches breaking his fall, he'd burst blood vessels in his eyes and bruised half his body.
It took him days to recover.
Now, if that happened again, he'd probably just dust himself off and keep shooting.
That was the real benefit of maxing out Constitution—less downtime, fewer injuries.
And there was more: his Achilles tendon length had increased too—from 38 cm to 43 cm, matching Usain Bolt's theoretical limit.
Still, he couldn't help but joke to himself, Why not 48? It'd sound cooler.
Anyway, there was still room for improvement in the future.
As soon as his Constitution hit 20, more golden text appeared:
[Host's Strength and Constitution at 20. Advanced Acting Insight upgraded to Master Acting Insight.]
He expected the usual memory infusion or enlightenment moment, but instead, the system displayed another set of golden lines:
[Detected: Host possesses Master-level Acting, Master-level Dialogue, and Master-level Acting Insight.]
[All three fields have reached perfection. Merging into a higher-tier skill…]
[Skills merged successfully. New Legendary Talent unlocked.]
[Legendary Talent: Life Is a Stage.]