Skills disappeared after fusion?
Legendary talent?
The first thing Luke noticed was that the three "Master-level Skills" on his status panel had completely vanished.
The once cluttered skill list now looked a lot cleaner.
In their place appeared a new Legendary Talent called "Life Is a Stage."
Unlike the blue text of the Master-level skills, the golden letters of this new talent made it look far more distinguished at first glance.
Luke carefully checked what kind of ability he'd gained from sacrificing those three Master-level skills.
[Life Is a Stage: As long as you are still performing, you will never reach perfection — because true acting is not acting. From now on, every movement and emotion of yours is both performance and life itself.
Your every action will subtly influence surrounding beings. Please use this ability wisely.]
Reading the description, Luke quickly understood the difference between a Legendary Talent and a Master-level Skill.
Simply put — skills required him to actively use them; he had to consciously perform an action to see results.
But once they evolved into Legendary Talents, they became passive abilities, constantly active without his direct control.
He didn't even need to think about it — it would still produce powerful effects.
And this one didn't just affect people. It could even influence animals.
Acting, at its core, is about conveying emotion — usually from one person to another.
But with this Legendary Talent, Luke could now transmit emotions to animals to some extent as well.
For example, through his body language, tone, or facial expressions, he could make animals feel his friendliness, hostility, or other emotional cues.
Of course, it worked better on mammals — creatures with higher emotional and cognitive capacity. Simpler animals wouldn't respond as well.
Overall, this cross-species emotional transmission was the strongest aspect of Life Is a Stage.
On top of that, the talent also made people (and animals) around him instinctively like him.
Even if Luke were asleep, unconscious, or just relaxing, anyone who saw him would feel that he looked peaceful and pleasant — some might even feel their own sleep quality improve just by watching him nap.
Years later, the internet would see influencers with this kind of inexplicable charisma — people who could attract fans just by eating instant noodles or talking about mundane things.
In contrast, most regular folks had to keep grinding, pulling stunts, or doing extreme things just to get a little attention.
Who wouldn't want to be naturally likable? But that's something you're born with — a gift. And now, Luke had that gift too.
Still, he reminded himself not to get carried away. The influence of this talent had limits.
If he wanted people to toss him some tips, likes, or small favors — sure, no problem.
But if he tried to get someone to hand over a month's paycheck or something outrageous like that, of course, it wouldn't work.
They weren't hypnotized — unreasonable requests would still get rejected.
All in all, Luke was pretty satisfied with his first Legendary Talent.
He also realized that fusing more Master-level skills could lead to even more Legendary Talents down the line.
At the moment, he had three possible upgrade paths:
1. Close-range combat skills.
He needed five Master-level weapon skills, and he already had three — swordsmanship, spear technique, and knife fighting.
2. Mobility skills.
He had Master-level parkour and gymnastics, but still needed Master-level jumping and footwork.
3. Martial arts.
He had Master-level hand-to-hand combat, but still needed Master-level grappling.
Luke was already looking forward to what kind of Legendary Talents these would unlock.
Aside from those three, there was another Master-level skill he was dying to see —
Master-level Time Management!
He was really curious what kind of ability deserved that title.
[System Notice: Upon establishing intimate relationships with four different types of women, Host will be rewarded with the skill "Time Management (Master-level)."]
Figures... that's so on brand for this system.
Luke still needed to find two more suitable women to build close relationships with.
It wasn't just for the skill or to push his limits — it also tied into what Mr. Eisen had said earlier: he needed trustworthy people to help him manage resources he couldn't hold directly.
Just as he finished digesting all the information about his new Legendary Talent, another line of golden text flashed before his eyes:
[Legendary Action Superstar Mission – Phase 3: As a true king, you must crush every strong opponent in your way with undeniable results.]
[Objective: In the year 2003, release two action films that take both the #1 and #2 spots at the worldwide box office.]
[Rewards will be based on performance.]
Oh come on!
Another mission already?
And this one was way more absurd than the last!
The difficulty just jumped several levels.
The system was basically telling him to go head-to-head with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
That movie made a staggering $1.14 billion worldwide.
Luke's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl had reached $1.08 billion only thanks to perfect timing and public hype.
But when that hype faded, pulling off another billion-dollar miracle would be tough.
And The Return of the King wasn't just a box office monster — it was a critical triumph, sweeping both audiences and professionals off their feet.
At the 76th Academy Awards in 2004, the movie won a jaw-dropping 11 Oscars, including:
Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Song, Best Sound, Best Art Direction, Best Makeup, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, and Best Visual Effects.
A clean sweep. The list alone was dizzying.
The movie's perfect conclusion even paved the way for The Hobbit trilogy to be greenlit years later.
So… the system wanted him to compete with that?
And not just win once — but twice?
Where was he supposed to find two movies that could outperform The Return of the King in the same year?
Luke's mind kicked into overdrive, scanning through every possible candidate.
In the original timeline, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (released in 2006) grossed $1.06 billion.
If he could push production ahead to 2003, maybe the numbers would be a bit lower — since the global box office was smaller back then — but it might still have a shot at beating The Return of the King.
That could serve as one of his options.
But what about the second film...?