《Gamer Superstar》 Chapter 1: 01 - New Life Chapter 1: 01 - New Life When I looked around and saw a completely unfamiliar room, I couldn''t even think before a flood of memories flooded my mind. Unlike what I had imagined, this huge influx of memories didn''t hurt at all, it was more like remembering things I had forgotten. So now I''m Noah Black... As I slowly got up from the bed I was lying on, I could already see the reflection of the new body I would have from now on. In my past life I was also called Noah Black, but unlike this Noah, who lived in a house, had food on the table every day and could go to school with peace of mind, I wasn''t so lucky. I lived with my "father," but the man was just a drunken sailor who brought me the bare minimum so I wouldn''t die. Because of problems at home, I had problems at school, and because of problems at school, I had problems at home, and so on in an endless cycle. The last thing I remember about my last life is that one day, on my way home from school, an old man asked me if I liked my life. Honestly, I don''t even know why I answered him then, because if it had been any other day, I would have told him to fuck off. But I said I didn''t like it. To my surprise, the old man snapped his fingers and showed me that there had been a boating accident and that only one man had died that day, my "father". The shock that my "father" had died was so great that I didn''t even realize that the old man had performed magic in front of me by showing me my father''s accident. I was sure that I would be happy if I knew that my "father" had died one day, but I wasn''t... I wanted to be happy, but my chest hurt a little knowing that the only person who cared about me at all had died that day. Seeing how sad I was, the old man snapped his fingers again, this time showing me the life of a boy my age who looked just like me. This boy had a passion for singing, so much so that when this boy performed in the bar next to his house, he had the biggest smile on his face. I followed the most important parts of this boy''s life, even though he wasn''t famous, he made a few dollars as a singer, but he still had to keep his day job as an assistant on a ship, which made me raise my eyebrows suspiciously. I even watched as he met a woman in the bar he ran, they went out together, started dating, and she even got pregnant. Being with this woman was the happiest time of this boy''s life, standing next to him when he performed in the bar. The problem was that when the baby was born, the woman didn''t resist and died, leaving the boy alone with the newborn. As soon as the woman died, the man''s life, which had been very colorful, became grayer and grayer until he became addicted to drinking and began to take out his anger on the child. Surprisingly, when he hit the child and heard the child crying on the other side of the door, he would also start crying, and several times he even wanted to open the door to apologize, but he never had the courage. At that point I understood, this was my father''s life! Now I understood why the only time my father didn''t swear at me was when he found out I was learning to play the guitar. I expected him to beat me when he saw me doing it, but surprisingly he just looked at me with the guitar in my room and walked away as if he hadn''t seen anything. For someone who treated me so badly, his indifference was a great moment for me. Seeing my surprise, the old man smiled and asked me. "Do you feel sorry for your father?" Hearing his question, I thought for a moment and answered, "No, even though he went through a lot of shit, he was still an asshole to me who wasn''t to blame for anything. The old man continued to smile and nodded. "Before he died, your father only asked me for one thing." The old man said, making me look at him curiously. With all the things this old man had done, I should have been crazy with surprise, but it was as if there was a calming aura about him that kept me calm and relaxed, making me just look at him, curious, waiting for the answer. "The only thing he asked me was if I could give his son the life he deserved." The old man said. Hearing that, I felt my eyes water a little. For someone who hardly ever heard words of affection, knowing that my father''s only request before he died was for me to have a better life moved me a little. I didn''t forgive him, but the hatred I felt was a little less. I don''t think I can ride a bike at this weight, but I think I can walk. I thought, I am going to start my routine for a healthier life today. As I was making my decision, a blue window appeared floating in front of me. [Mission: Walk 3 km (1.8 miles) in 1 hour. Rewards: +1 CON, Mysterious Title Accept?] Looking at the floating blue screen in front of me, the first thing I remembered was what God had said. "Of course, I will give you a gift that will help you in the afterlife..." So that was the gift?" I thought as I began to get excited. I knew exactly what it was, as I had read novels where the MC had a system just like this, so I was really excited. Accept it,'' I thought, making the window disappear from my view. When I thought of opening a window where I could see the missions, this window opened immediately, allowing me to see the mission I currently had. Status? I thought uncertainly, wanting the famous Status window to open in front of me, and to my surprise, it did! ========================= | Character Status ========================= | Name: Noah Black | Level: 01 |------------------------ | HP: 30/30 | MP: 90/90 |------------------------ | Strength (STR): 4 | Dexterity (DEX): 2 | Constitution (CON): 3 | Intelligence (INT): 9 | Wisdom (WIS): 9 | Charisma (CHA): 3 | Agility (AGL): 2 | Luck (LUK): ?? |------------------------ | Skills: |------------------------ When I looked at my status screen, despite seeing so many low scores, I started to get extremely excited because I knew that with a system like this, as long as I was dedicated, I could improve my skills much faster, as well as be able to track in real time whether I was improving or not, which would give me a huge incentive. With an excited smile, I opened my closet, put on a football shirt, and silently left the house to go for a walk. Chapter 2: 02 - Change Chapter 2: 02 - Change When I left my room, the first thing I did was brush my teeth before heading down to the kitchen in search of a water bottle to take on my walk. But when I got to the kitchen, I was surprised by what I saw. Jonathan was at the kitchen table, looking at a handful of papers, which I assumed were bills, with a tired expression while holding a coffee in his other hand. When he heard my steps, I could see the surprise on his face as he quickly tried to hide the papers from me, probably afraid I would find out about the possible financial problems the family was having. "Hey Champ, up already? Or did you stay up playing late?" My new dad asked me, trying to pretend nonchalance. I pretended not to notice his concern with the bills and tried to respond in a more natural way. "Just woke up, felt a bit off and decided to take a walk." I tried to speak normally, without using the submissive tone of this world''s Noah, or my old aggressive way of speaking. If I were to rely on the experience of this world''s Noah to have this conversation, I could hardly say more than three words, but fortunately, I had some friends at school in my past life. The problem is that my friends were all troubled, just like I was, so our way of talking was much more aggressive than normal people are used to, like us cursing at each other, speaking angrily, or things like that. It was really good for us since we could vent our anger about other things on each other, but without offending anyone, since no one there cared. As much as I tried to speak normally, I could notice the surprise on my father''s face at seeing me saying so much. I didn''t intend to act like the old Noah, so showing small changes like this was something I had planned. "That''s good, son. I think this is the first time I''ve seen you wearing that shirt I gave you, it looks great on you." He said excitedly as he got up and grabbed two slices of toast from the toaster. One stayed on his plate while the other he put on a plate for me. I was surprised by the concern he was showing for me, and it seemed like he was really happy just with this little interaction we had. Maybe the time he spends working away from the family is affecting him more than I imagined. Seeing his expectant look, I sat down in front of him at the kitchen table and ate my toast with him. But since I didn''t know what to say, and apparently, he wasn''t used to talking to me either, we both just sat in silence while we ate. Even though no one said anything, I was very happy with this simple moment, since I can''t even remember a moment of such peace in my previous life with my old father. And from the smile I saw on Jonathan''s face, it was clear that he was also happy to have company for breakfast. (NunuNote: Hi guys, Author here, just to explain about these comments. Just like I used in my iCarly fanfic, I also felt that this would add to this novel. These comments are basically like in a SitCom, where an interviewer talks to the characters to know what they''re thinking. Of course, the characters in the real world don''t know they''re in a story, or that they''re "being filmed", it''s just something to give more depth to the characters.) -------- Jonathan Commentary -------- Sitting on the interview couch facing the camera, a little nervous, Jonathan didn''t really know how to act. "I was surprised to see Noah waking up so early... having company for breakfast was really nice..." He said with a smile on his face. "He even wore the shirt I gave him from the Emerald Thunders, it''s been so long since we talked..." "I think what made me happiest was knowing he would be exercising, his weight was starting to worry me, knowing he''s going to start exercising gives me a little relief." Jonathan sighed as he thought about his son''s weight. He didn''t really know how to bring up this topic with Noah when he thought about it before, but seeing that Noah thought of it on his own made him feel relieved. -------- Commentary Ends -------- When I finished, I washed my plate and got ready to leave. "I''m going for my walk..." I said, not knowing what else to say. My dad smiled as he replied. "Alright, have fun Champ." "Enjoy your day at work..." I replied as I left the house. [CHA +1] Seeing this notification suddenly pop up in front of me left me very surprised, as I didn''t imagine I could raise my stats like this. ''So it''s not just the missions that can give me stats?'' I thought excitedly as I started walking. Moving a body of 150 kg was much more difficult than I imagined, especially over long distances. After just 10 minutes, I was already feeling my breath going away. At 15 minutes, I was having trouble catching my breath, seeing that I had already walked 1 km, I decided to take a 5-minute break before continuing to walk. Even though 5 minutes seemed like a lot, I was still very tired when I resumed walking, but this time I didn''t stop to rest and kept pushing myself. When I reached 30 minutes, I decided to do a 60-second sprint and another notification popped up! [DEX +1] As soon as that notification came up, I felt like my body got a little lighter and the movement I was doing before to walk 6 meters, now I could move at least 9 meters in the same time without getting any more tired! Considering my Dexterity was only 2 points, now that it went up to 3 points it was like a 50% increase from my previous total! ''It''s gonna be tough to complete 3 km in an hour, but with this Dexterity point, I can do it!'' I thought motivated as I continued walking. My endurance was terrible, as I was all sweaty and very tired, but I didn''t give up. At 48 minutes, I received another notification. At this point, I was so tired it was hard to even think, but I kept walking and tried to read the notification. [Hair and Beard Done: Effect: When Hair and Beard are well trimmed, the user receives a +1 CHA bonus. Duration: 71:59 Hours.] Looking at my reflection, I was quite satisfied, the CHA buff was really deserved with how much better I looked. Even though this buff only lasted for 3 days, I wouldn''t have a problem touching it up every day, since with the appearance I had, any extra point in CHA helped. But thinking about how I got the Hair Cutting skill now, but hadn''t received a Running skill, made me realize that maybe the technique I used to do something influenced it, so as soon as I left the bathroom I turned on the computer and searched for videos explaining the correct running techniques. To my happiness, I was right! [New Skill Acquired!] [Walking Lv 1: When walking with the intention of exercising, you know which techniques to use and how to maintain the best posture possible to train the muscles. Effect: When walking, your muscles develop 1% faster and your body gets tired 1% slower.] With this new skill of mine, I was more confident in losing weight even faster. And knowing how I could learn new skills, countless possibilities began to emerge in my mind of how I could develop in this new life. Especially when remembering how small the video site of this world was currently compared to the YouTube of my previous life. What they called MeTube in this world, was practically YouTube a few years after it was launched, something with few people accessing and only with a niche audience, something that could benefit me with my knowledge. But my thoughts were cut off by a knock on my mom''s door. "Come on Noah, you can use the bathroom, your sister has already finished getting ready." Knowing the challenge it would be to interact with these new people, I was a little worried, but thinking that none of this would be worse than interacting with my old man, I relaxed and became more confident. I just took one last look at my Status screen to gain more confidence. ========================= | Character Status | ========================= | Name: Noah Black | Title: Perseverant | Level: 01 |------------------------ | HP: 50/50 | MP: 90/90 |------------------------ | Weight: 150 Kg -> 149.3 Kg | Strength (STR): 4 | Dexterity (DEX): 2 -> 3 | Constitution (CON): 3 -> 5 | Intelligence (INT): 9 | Wisdom (WIS): 9 | Charisma (CHA): 3 -> 5 (4 + 1) | Agility (AGI): 2 | Luck (LUK): ?? |------------------------ | Skills: | (Aerobic Exercise Lv 1), (Hair Cutting Lv 24), (Walking Lv 1). | ----------------------- | Buffs: | (Hair and Beard Done) ========================= But before leaving, I was surprised to see an unexpected change in my HP! From what I remember, my HP before was only 30 points, now it went up to 50! Seeing a relationship, I quickly understood, as my constitution increased from 3 points to 5, then my HP is 10x my constitution, which really makes some sense, since it''s like my body is healthier and can deal much better with injuries. With the change in my HP, I looked at the Mana bar right below it and became a little pensive. So far I hadn''t gotten any skills that involved Mana, or needed Mana, I hadn''t even been able to feel the Mana, but it was still in my Status. Did I need some special condition to unlock the use of it? Chapter 3: 03 - How did you do that? Chapter 3: 03 - How did you do that? Since I had already showered and put on the clothes I was going to wear to school, I waited a little longer in my room while I continued to work on my computer. This was a parallel world, something I had heard from God himself, but I was still surprised to see that many of the songs that had been successful in my previous world didn''t even exist in this one. Since I didn''t listen to music while walking, I hadn''t noticed this before, but now I was surprised to see Noah''s playlist and realize that I didn''t know any of these bands. I liked rock in my previous world, from heavy rock to indie rock, I knew a huge amount of music off the top of my head, with the lyrics perfectly memorized. Would this be a good idea to make money?'' I began to think. Considering my current appearance, it might be a bit difficult to get gigs in nearby bars to make a quick buck, but I could learn to sing while playing guitar and put it on MeTube to make some long-term money and spread my music. Following the path of music was the dream of many people, but most lacked individuality. Luckily for me, I had so many ideas of bands from my previous world that I could take ideas from several of them to have "originality" in this world, as well as a huge repertoire of lyrics that had already been successful that I could use to be successful in this world. Of course, since I didn''t have time to develop this because I had to go to school, I just decided to look for singing lessons on the Internet and practice them in the spare moments I had until I got home. After a few minutes, I saw that it was time to wake Ethan up, so before I did, I made my bed and organized my things. This was one of the things that little Ethan used to argue about with old Noah, but he just ignored it, thinking it was his little brother''s annoyance, but I knew that an organized environment was a great ally for someone with ADHD. When everything was in order, I woke Ethan up. "Come on, big boy, it''s time to wake up." I said in a calm voice beside him. He was a little confused at first, not understanding what was going on, until he figured it out and woke up quite easily. Although I could see that he wasn''t fully awake, he just went to the bathroom on autopilot, not even noticing the difference in my hair. Seeing that he woke up without any problems, I also left the room and went to the kitchen with my backpack. As soon as I arrived in the kitchen, I saw Olivia touching up her makeup in front of a small mirror, while my new mother was making some eggs for breakfast. "Good morning..." I said, not really knowing how to deal with these two. Exxploore uptodate stories at novelhall.com Honestly, they were the two most difficult people in the house to deal with, both my mother with her perfectionism and Olivia with her self-centeredness, and it got even worse when she went to high school, as she joined the popular group while I was one of the outcasts, which drove us even further apart, as she probably felt that I was a better person than her. "Oh my God! Noah, what happened to you?" She screamed in terror as she ran up to me and looked at my freshly cut hair. For a woman like her, such a rebellious haircut was as scary as a horror movie, but I had already imagined this would happen. Little did she know that I was still itching to bleach that hair, just like my hair in my previous world, but I would leave that for later. At my mother''s call, Olivia also looked in my direction, curious, which made her raise her eyebrow slightly as she nodded, probably liking my new cut much more than our mother. Considering that the average person''s stat is 10 points, I, who had gone from 3 to 5 charisma points, had taken a big step forward in looking visibly nicer, which Olivia clearly noticed. At least if she liked it, it meant that this cut wasn''t something weird in this world, as I had feared. Now looking at the distraught woman in front of me, I sighed as I replied. "I just felt like cutting it, my long hair was too much work to take care of and it was too ugly, so I cut it myself." Hearing that I''d cut my own hair, the two women had different reactions, with Olivia surprised that I''d managed to get a good cut on my own, and my mother shocked that I''d used my head as a guinea pig to cut my hair for the first time. "Are you crazy? What could have happened to you? Did you cut yourself somewhere?" she said as she started looking for a cut on me. At this point my patience was wearing thin, I wasn''t used to dealing with someone who demanded so much of me, I only got to this point because of the old Noah, so I took a deep breath and answered trying to keep calm. "Mom, calm down. I didn''t hurt myself, my hair is fine, nothing bad happened, you know? There''s nothing to worry about, I watched a lot of videos before you did this to me. Now calm down, okay?" I said in a serious voice as I put my hands on her shoulders and spoke in a calm tone. It''s good that cutting Ethan''s hair can help me level up my skill faster. When we''d all finished eating, my mom took us to school, dropping Ethan off at his school first and then Olivia and I at ours. Knowing what I was going to face at school, my mood had already taken a turn for the worse. I''d always had trouble learning my subjects, so my grades had always been low. The only reason I liked going to school before was because I was away from my dad and my friends. Now at Noah''s school, not only does he not have many friends, but his friends are clumsy people who don''t know how to talk properly, they only talk about subjects that I don''t really care about, and to make matters worse, the ''bullies'' at this school still pick on him. I hope those kids don''t come and bother me because I''m not going to listen quietly. I thought sulkily as I walked into the school, leaving Olivia behind while she went to talk to her friends, and made my way to my first classroom. And to start the day off right, I have to start studying math... how great... I mentally sighed as I walked into the classroom and sat down in my usual spot, the last chair in the last row, since my height would block the view of the other students if I sat in front of anyone. [Buff Acquired! Math Classroom Effect: +50% bonus when learning math related content. Duration: While in the classroom]. When I saw this buff that appeared out of nowhere, I was shocked. Since I had no one to talk to, I decided to pick up the math book and try to learn something. Just looking at those complicated formulas made my head hurt, but I was surprised that it didn''t seem as difficult as I had imagined. In just a few minutes, I was able to study and fully understand the content explained in that chapter of the book, which caused a notification to appear in front of me. [Intermediate Math Lv 1 (+18 levels) Effect: +19% easier to understand and apply intermediate math concepts]. As soon as I learned this new skill, the speed at which I could learn became much faster. What I used to have to read five times to understand, I was now able to understand after reading only four times! Before I knew it, classes had started and I was still focused on studying the math textbook, which used to seem like torture but was now quite interesting as I understood the applications of these formulas. Despite my large size, I was usually quite unnoticeable in class, as I hardly disturbed the class or tried to participate, but because of my new haircut and the 2 charisma points I received today, I think my appearance stood out a little more than usual, and the teacher asked me. "Black, can you tell me the result of the calculation on the board?" The teacher asked me, trying to draw my attention away from the manga he probably thought I was reading. Looking at the question on the board, if I relied on my previous knowledge to answer it, I would probably have a hard time, but fortunately it was part of what I had just learned in the book, so I thought for a few seconds and answered. "The result of X is 16, teacher." I said in a confident and slightly disinterested voice, because learning from my book was much more interesting than answering the teacher. Hearing my answer so quickly, I could hear some mocking laughter around me, but when the teacher confirmed that I was right, everyone fell silent. With an intelligence of 9, where the average for a normal person is 10, which meant I was slightly below average, I probably wasn''t the dumbest person in the room, but I was still in the bottom half, so it was really surprising to them that I got this question right. Ignoring their comments, I went back to studying my math book until a new message popped up. [+1 INT] Chapter 4: 04 - I hit the trash Chapter 4: 04 - I hit the trash By the end of the math class, my Intermediate Math skill had gone up two more levels, reaching Lv 21! For the first time in my life, I was a little disappointed when I heard the sound of the bell indicating that the class was over and that I had to go to my classroom for the next class. Luckily, when I arrived at the Biology classroom, the same Buff appeared, but this time with a focus on Biology. As in the previous class, I also received a Biology Skill, but the Biology Skill was only Lv 16, since it was my worst subject. By the end of the lesson, I''d managed to move up two levels in this skill as well, reaching level 18, giving me 18% more ease with Biology related subjects. The next lesson was Physics, which was the same as the other two, then English, which was also the same. When the break came, I was surprised to find myself disappointed that I couldn''t stay in a classroom and study. The system is really powerful, just seeing my knowledge increase like in a game, as well as time limited learning bonuses, made me want to study and learn...'' I thought surprised. I thought, surprised. When I arrived at the school cafeteria, not wanting to talk to anyone, I just took my lunch and sat alone at one of the tables while I read on my phone about singing training and how I could practice to improve the quality of my voice. While I was trying out some singing exercises by humming with my mouth closed, the message I''d been waiting for finally appeared. [Singing Lv 1 Effect: +1% efficiency when practicing singing, +1% chance that whoever hears your voice while singing will like what they hear]. Great, not only will it increase the efficiency of my practice, which will increase the speed at which I improve, but it will also increase the quality of my singing, so people will enjoy hearing my singing voice more! I thought excitedly as I continued to practice humming with my mouth closed using the technique I''d seen on my phone. Once I had the skill, it would be a little easier to perform the correct technique, which would surely increase the speed at which I could improve my singing even more. I wonder if there''s a music room at the school,'' I thought curiously, because if there was a music room, the chances of a buff being there while I was practicing were very high. However, considering the way I was treated at this school, it would be better if I waited until I improved my body a bit more before going to such a place to avoid the humiliation that would probably come with it. Although I wouldn''t mind beating up anyone who came to talk shit to me, I knew that it wouldn''t solve all my problems, so it would be best for me to just be patient while I improved myself, even learning some martial arts skills would be very useful. In my previous life, I was very fond of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu because I watched MMA, but considering the practicality of street fighting, it''s better to learn Krav Maga... Putting it on my list of things to learn, I went back to practicing my singing until I suddenly felt something hit my back. Looking at what it was, I saw that it was a paper ball. If it was the old Noah, he would probably ignore it and nothing would happen, but I wouldn''t put up with that shit. In my previous life, I was the one who caused most of the problems in my school, now here, am I going to accept these little shits doing this to me? Hehe. Getting up from my chair, I looked at the little shit who threw the paper ball at me and laughed. "Sorry dude, I was trying to hit the trash can." He said as he laughed, making his friends laugh too. Hearing that, I laughed too as I bent down and picked up the paper ball. As I stood up with the paper ball in my hand and walked toward him with a smile, he laughed even more, thinking that I would be stupid enough to give it back to him after he threw it at me. But to his and his friends'' surprise, when I got close enough to him with my outstretched hand to give him the ball, I quickly put my other hand to his throat. Shocked, he quickly tried to scream, but as soon as he opened his mouth, I took the ball and shoved it into his mouth. "Sorry dude, I hit the trash can." I said as I continued to smile and squeeze his neck. Even though I wasn''t that physically fit for my weight, my strength was still decently high, so he tried to hit my arm to release it and I just ignored the pain as I kept my wrist wrapped around his neck. When his friends realized what was going on, they also got up to try to separate me from their friend, but as soon as they got up, I threw the little shit in their direction and started walking away. Instead of asking my mom if I could do it, I just asked her if she wanted to help, which already satisfied her helicopter mom mode. This was going to be my first time cutting someone else''s hair, which was easier than I''d imagined because I had a lot more control over my hand doing something I was looking at directly rather than a reflection in a mirror. Within minutes, Ethan''s hair looked exactly like mine. He was like a mini me, only thinner and smaller. "After you shower, do you want to do our homework together?" I said as I ruffled his hair. Ethan''s eyes lit up when he heard this, because he knew that it would be much easier to do his homework with someone else, the problem was that his mother didn''t have the patience to teach him, and the only one who liked it was our father, who took a long time to get home. "Yeaah!" Ethan shouted happily as he ran to the bathroom to shower and clean up the cut hair that was stuck to his head. While Ethan was showering, I went into our bedroom and looked at my manga collection. I think I can get about $80 if I sell all this... I thought as I decided to sell everything to buy a guitar. I didn''t like this stuff anymore and it would just gather dust in my room, since my parents probably don''t have the money to give me to buy a guitar, I can get rid of it and get what I want. The guitar is the only instrument I knew how to play in my previous life, so if I learned the guitar skill, it would probably be at a higher level, which would leave me more time to practice my singing. So while Ethan showered, I grabbed a bag and put all my manga away. Since I finished quickly, I used the rest of the time to speed up my homework, which was very easy once I''d learned most of the content. I even got an extra level in math and physics. When Ethan arrived, I had already finished my homework and helped him with his, explaining it much more clearly and patiently than the others had with him. [Teaching Lv 1 Effect: When teaching other people, as long as you know what you''re teaching, they have a 1% higher chance of understanding what you''re explaining]. ... [Teach Lv 2] ... [Teach Lv 3] ... ... [Teach Lv 4] By the time I''d finished helping Ethan with his homework, almost an hour had passed. Fortunately, the higher the level of the skill, the faster Ethan learned what I was explaining and the easier it was for him to do his homework. Even though it was only a 4% buff, it was still a much bigger buff than 4% compared to the inefficient teaching method the others were using with him. -------- Ethan''s Comment -------- Sitting on the sofa with a big smile on his face, Ethan looked into the camera while happily holding his superhero notebook. "Today my brother helped me with my homework...it was so easy!" He laughed happily as he opened the notebook and showed it to the camera. "It seems that the more he taught me, the smarter I got and the easier it was to understand what he was explaining!" Ethan looked around carefully and spoke quietly. "Just don''t tell my dad I said that, because learning from my dad is cool too, it''s just not as easy as learning from Noah." -------- Comment End -------- After Ethan left to play, I took the bag I''d put my manga in and went to sell it. Chapter 5: 05 - Money Making Chapter 5: 05 - Money Making "Why do you sell your comics?" My mother asked confused. "I want a guitar." I said good-naturedly, not really caring about these manga since I didn''t really like them anyway. Not to mention that I could read them on the computer if I ever felt like it. But my mother felt differently. "You know we can give you a guitar, right?" she said uncertainly. Seeing the way she looked, I knew she was thinking about what she couldn''t afford to buy to get me the guitar, but I knew about the financial problems at home, especially after seeing how my father was worried about the bills this morning, so I just shook my head and answered. "It''s okay, I''ve already read it and I''m not going to read it again, it''s a waste of money to have it lying around in the bedroom." She realized I noticed the way she was acting, so she nodded and smiled a little embarrassed. -------- Lauren''s comment -------- Sitting on the sofa with her head down, Lauren said in a sad voice, "I think Noah has realized that we''re in financial trouble... Jonathan is looking for a better paying job, but even though he''s a great stock assistant, the company he works for has no plans to promote him..." With a disapproving smile, Lauren looked into the camera as she sighed. "He''s only doing this because I can''t work... I''ve tried everything, but since Ethan was born, I can''t take my mind off things for a second, thinking that the kids at home might be in trouble, and I don''t know anything about working from home..." "I just hope Jonathan gets a less tiring job that pays better..." She sighed disappointedly to herself. -------- Comment End -------- Negotiating the price of manga has given me a new skill haha. [Negotiator Lv 3 When you negotiate the price of something, you have a 3% higher chance of convincing the other person to accept your price]. Yes, the skill was already at Lv3 because of the time we spent negotiating until I got $136 for my manga collection. That was a lot more than I thought it would be, which made me very happy. With cash in hand, I quickly went to a used instrument store and asked for the cheapest guitar they had. Looking at the faded brown guitar in front of me, which the clerk said was $48, I gained another level in my [Negotiator] skill, raising it to level 4, and managed to buy the guitar + a set of new strings, a capo, and a cover for $50. When I tested the guitar with the new strings, I quickly gained my new skill. [Guitar Lv 14 By playing the guitar, you learn 14% faster and have a 14% higher chance that other people will enjoy listening to you play]. I can save the remaining $86 for an emergency. I thought with satisfaction as I walked out of the store with the guitar on my back. Since my guitar skill was at Lv14, the level was already somewhat acceptable as I could play the songs I liked from my previous world, but it was still nothing impressive and I still made a few mistakes. So my goal was to get my guitar and singing skills up to Lv 20, and as soon as those skills reached Lv 20, I would record my first song to post on MeTube. With my plan set, I returned home satisfied. When I arrived home with my guitar, both my mother and Ethan looked at me in surprise. My mother because she never imagined that I would actually buy a guitar, and Ethan because he was curious to know what was inside such a big case. Smiling a little, I explained the same thing I''d told my father: "I''m just unhappy with my body and I''ve started to exercise, this morning I went for a walk, now I''ve done some weight training, all very carefully so as not to overload myself, don''t worry mom." Seeing the relief on her face, the affection I felt for her grew a little. I had never felt anything like that in my life, it was a very good feeling... When I got to the bathroom and looked in the mirror again, I was shocked to notice another change in myself. Not only was my face a little prettier because of the point I''d gained in Charisma, despite the fat it hid, but I had apparently lost a little fat. When I stepped on the scale, I was surprised to see that my weight had changed again. From the 149.3 kg I weighed myself this morning, I was now 148.6 kg, which was 700 g less, a total of 1.4 kg that I lost today! I''m losing weight much faster than I thought! I thought excitedly as I took a shower and practiced my singing skill, getting it up to level 6. When I got out of the shower, I was surprised to see my father and mother looking at me with pride. My mother must have told him that I was practicing, and he must have told her that he saw me walking in the morning. Ignoring their expression, as I didn''t know how to deal with it, I just went back to my room and started practicing my singing skill again, looking for another useful skill to learn on the computer to make quick money. Considering that I needed quick money to stop the copyrights of the songs I wanted to release, I remembered a skill that the old Noah had. Opening PhotoArt, I looked at the illustrations of manga characters that Noah did in his spare time and was quite surprised by the quality, especially considering that he did it all with his computer mouse since he didn''t have a tablet to draw on. I decided to try something similar and tried to draw a werewolf. As soon as I finished the drawing, I got the notification I''d been waiting for. [Digital Illustration Lv 27 With Digital Illustration, you get better 27% faster and have a 27% higher chance that other people will like your art]. Level 27?! I was shocked when I looked at this, this was the highest level skill I had so far, and it was 5 levels above Math, which was my highest level skill at the moment! There, now I knew what I had to do to make money fast. If there was one thing I remembered from my previous world that shocked me, it was a girl in my class who made a lot of money just by drawing animal characters to sell on Twitter, apparently she sold each drawing for at least $100... what was it called? Furra, Furre, Furry! I can start selling these artworks for $30, which will help a lot to pay for the things I need in the beginning, but if I gain fame, I can raise this price in the future! Decided, I made a Twitter account for this world, Twipper, and used the werewolf art I made as my profile picture. Of course, I used a pseudonym because I never wanted others to find out that I drew this kind of character to sell, especially considering that if I became famous in the future, it would be a stain that would be hard to erase from my history... So I created the persona @JacobTheWerewolf, something that probably only I would find funny in this world, since no one would know this character since his movie doesn''t exist in this world. While writing an ad, I realized that I still lacked a portfolio to convince the public to buy my art. Anyway, I''ll publish the ad with just my werewolf drawing as a portfolio, then I''ll make more art...'' I thought. I thought without worrying too much as I posted. I saw that the furry community in this world was much smaller than in my previous world, as if it was still in its early stages, the other art still had a bit of the amateurishness that my current art no longer had after copying some of the style of art I saw in my previous world. Even though I wasn''t part of that community, and even made fun of it with my friends, every now and then some art in that style would pop up in my feed, and after a few years of seeing it, it''s hard not to pick up on the style behind it. Seeing that it was bedtime, I turned off the computer and went to sleep, as did Ethan, who was already passed out in his bed. Unbeknownst to me, shortly after I went to bed, a message arrived in my inbox from someone interested in one of my artworks. Chapter 6: 06 - Finally the Day! Chapter 6: 06 - Finally the Day! I set my cell phone to wake up at 04:50, just like yesterday, and to my surprise, I woke up without any sleep at all! Not only was I sleepless, but I didn''t feel any pain in my body, as if my body had returned to its peak state after sleeping! Is this the Game Body?'' I wondered, remembering how authors used it in the fanfics I read in my previous world, but since there was no skill with that name, I wouldn''t be stupid enough to try to cut myself and see how my body would react. Putting on some gym clothes, I went downstairs to have breakfast and saw my father looking at me with an excited smile from the kitchen. I looked at the table and saw two plates of toast, eggs, bacon and two cups of coffee, one of which was probably for me. -------- Jonathan''s Comment -------- At this point, Jonathan had a huge smile on his face as he sat comfortably on the sofa and looked into the camera. "I was nervous when I was waiting for Noah to come and have breakfast with me and he didn''t show up, but after 5 minutes he did haha!" he said happily as he laughed. He said happily as he laughed. "I would have been really sad if I had made extra toast for him and he hadn''t come to eat, but I wouldn''t have blamed him since he hadn''t even promised to come back." "But I was very happy to see him anyway." Jonathan said excitedly. -------- Comment End -------- "Good morning, Champ!" my dad said with a big smile. "I''ve already made you breakfast, since you train twice a day, I also made you some eggs and bacon, protein is very important!" Seeing his concern really touched me. My previous father had never done anything like this for me... not even on my birthday... I replied with a smile as I sat down in front of him. "Good morning, Dad." Just like yesterday, the two of us just ate in silence, but instead of yesterday when we were uncomfortable and didn''t know what to say, today we just enjoyed the silence and ate relaxed. When I''d finished, I took our plates and glasses and washed them before going for my walk. Unlike yesterday, I didn''t have a mission today, but I didn''t worry about that, I made my own mission today. Today I''m going to walk 5 km in 1 hour. I thought resolutely as I started to run. My current Constitution level was 60% higher than yesterday''s, so since yesterday I ran 3 kilometers with 3 Constitution points, today that I have 5 Constitution points, I want to run 5 kilometers! As soon as I started, I felt that it was really taking too long for me to get tired. Within 14 minutes, the first message appeared. [Walk Lv 2] ... Within 30 minutes, another message appeared. [Walk Lv 3] ... Another message appeared in 47 minutes. [Walk Lv 4]. ... Another message appeared in 56 minutes. [+1 CON] ... In 61 minutes, I''d finally walked the 5 km I''d been aiming for! Even though it took me 1 minute longer than planned, I was very happy! Just like yesterday, I was really tired, so I just lay down on the grass and let my body and head rest. My Buff was also updated! [Aerobic Exercise Lv 2: Performing aerobic exercise increases the user''s metabolism speed by 2% for 24 hours]. After a few minutes, I finished walking the few meters to my house and took a shower before everyone woke up. When I weighed myself, I was surprised to see my new weight! From 148.6kg I was down to 147.7kg! A loss of 900g since the last time! Of course, I didn''t lose all of that on the walk. Part of the loss was also due to my diet yesterday, which was much more controlled than Noah''s old diet, and the system probably amplified the results of my workouts as well. My charisma hasn''t gone back up yet, but just because my body fat has gone down a little more, I feel a little better when I look in the mirror. What bothered me wasn''t just that I was fat, it was that I was fat and ugly, so the fat just made my ugliness worse. Fortunately, the system gave me some charisma points that slowly made me more attractive, so I wasn''t too worried. And so the next 3 days went by. For all three days, my routine was exactly the same. I had breakfast with my dad, went for a walk, did some art before going to school, learned what I could at school, came home and helped Ethan with his homework, practiced my singing and guitar, did some more art, did some weight training, and went to bed. Looking at my status screen and the changes in it, I had a satisfied smile on my face. ========================= | Character Status ========================= | Name: Noah Black | Title: Persevering | Level: 01 |------------------------ | HP: 70/70 | MP: 110/110 |------------------------ | Weight: 149.3 Kg -> 142.3 Kg | Strength (STR): 4 -> 5 | Dexterity (DEX): 3 -> 4 | Constitution (CON): 5 -> 7 | Intelligence (INT): 9 -> 11 | Wisdom (WIS): 9 | Charisma (CHA): 5 -> 7 (6 + 1) | Agility (AGL): 2 -> 4 | Luck (LUK): ?? |------------------------ | Skills: | (Barbering Lv 24 -> 25), (Running Lv 1 -> 12), (Bodybuilding Lv 1 -> 12), (Teaching Lv 6 -> 13), (Negotiation Lv 4 -> 5), (Singing Lv 9 -> 20), (Guitar Lv 16 -> 24), (Digital Illustration Lv 27 -> 31), (Intermediate Math Lv 22 -> 29), (Intermediate Biology Lv 18 -> 25)... | ----------------------- | Buffs: | (Beard and Hair Done), (Aerobic Exercise Lv 1 -> 5), (Muscle Exercise Lv 1 -> 5) ========================= In just 5 days I lost almost 8kg! Not to mention, since my weight training increased the amount of muscle I was building, the amount of fat I lost is probably around 9kg, but since I must have gained 1kg of muscle, the scale only says I''m 8kg lighter. The level 5 buffs, which increase the speed of my daily metabolism by 10%, helped me lose a lot of weight, and as long as I controlled my diet and exercised constantly, it certainly paid off. Not to mention a change that really surprised me during those days. While I was studying, regardless of the content I was learning, I noticed that it was slowly contributing to an increase in my INT, and as a result, something was changing in my status. My Mana, which was only 90 points, had now risen to 110, along with my INT, which went from 9 points to 11! And mana wasn''t the only thing that changed, because when my INT increased by one point, the speed at which I could learn something also increased significantly! This increase of 2 points for me, who only had 9 before, represented a 22% improvement in my learning speed and mental processing speed, not to mention the skills I had in knowledge, the speed at which I learned school subjects was now at a completely different level. At first, I had to read something in class a total of 5 times to learn it, then that dropped to 4 times when I unlocked the skill, now it had dropped to 3 times, and slowly I was getting to the point where I only had to read it 2 times to understand it. With this progress, I was excited to think that it could get to the point where I could read it just once and understand it without any difficulty, or even read something halfway and be able to deduce the rest! I understand why games are addictive, because when you see the results of something you''ve worked hard to improve, you get really excited. I want to learn more, I want to get better. Speaking of improving, since my singing skill was finally at Lv 20, today was the day I was going to record my first song to post on MeTube. And I had already decided which song I was going to record! Chapter 7: 07 - Numb Chapter 7: 07 - Numb Even though I was excited to record the song today, I still had to go about my normal routine until after I finished helping Ethan with his homework. Surprisingly, with the help I''d given him these past few days, Ethan was starting to need less and less help. As I helped him catch up a little on things he should have learned but hadn''t yet understood, now that he knew more about these things, it was much easier to teach him his homework since he already had the basis formed to learn these things. Just like the other days, when I finished teaching Ethan his homework, I picked up my guitar and started tuning it. I had already requested the copyright for the song I want to sing yesterday, which gives me the right to use that song from today onwards without any worries. Of the $181 that I had saved, in the last few days I managed to sell enough artworks to raise $493, ??and that''s because I only wanted to make two artworks a day, as the number of customers queuing up to get an artwork was increasing every day. I even decided to increase the price for the next arts, but they still continued to queue, especially when they saw that my art was getting better and better as my Skill level rose and I got used to drawing this style of characters. Of the $493 I had saved, I had to spend $130 to get the copyright for the song I was going to sing. Thinking about how much money I could potentially earn from the video for this song, this was clearly a waste of money, but my focus would not be on the income I would earn from views of the video, but on how much I could earn later on from playing shows. Th/e most uptodate novels are published on n0velbj)n(.)co/m So, asking Ethan to stay downstairs with my mom, I finally started strumming my guitar, feeling the beat of the song I wanted to play. I didn''t choose this song because it was the most successful song I knew, nor because it was the song that was most successful before I came into this world, but the song that most resonated with me in the most difficult times I went through. in my previous world. And oddly enough, in the memories I reviewed of the old Noah from this world, if he had this song it would also have resonated very well with what he was going through here. ?????? "I''m drained playing the role you expect... Lost in the hush beneath the willow''s affect..." ?????? When I started to sing this part, even after so long, I felt like my voice was getting heavier, while my nose was burning, but I still continued singing. ?????? "Uncertain of the expectations you reflect... Bearing the weight in shoes, your script has decked..." ?????? Everything my father put me through, and everything I tried to do to get even the slightest bit of attention from him... ?????? "Each step I take feels like an earth-shattering quake. Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow I''ve become so numb. Can''t feel the drum. Worn out and tired. Much more inspired. Transforming into this. All I long to do. Is be genuinely me. And less like you." ?????? (NunuNote: You know what this song is, you also know why it''s different, I had to edit the song to make it more original, but the message the lyrics send is still the same XD) When I finally sang the chorus of the song, I couldn''t help it and let the little drops of tears fall from my eyes. I wanted to sing a more upbeat song, even a song about some heartbreak, since I wouldn''t be able to relate to it and I would be able to remain impartial, but something in me asked me to sing this song. I had no idea where this desire to sing this song was coming from, until when I finished singing everything, I heard the sound of the door slowly opening. Just like me, there was a crying face on the other side of the door, and then I finally understood why there was something in me wanting me to sing this. This was the Noah of this world, who probably understood the lyrics to this song and knew that there was someone in this house who really needed a song like this. And on the other side of the door was Olivia, crying as much as I was, looking at me with a mixture of anger and fear, that I could imagine where they were coming from. Without saying anything, she just turns and runs to her room, without having the slightest idea of ??how to control the feeling that was probably exploding in her chest at that moment. [New Skill Unlocked] ------ Olivia''s Pov 5 Minutes Ago ------ "I''ve become so numb Can''t feel the drum Worn out and tired Much more inspired Transforming into this All I long to do Is be genuinely me And less like you..." ?????? That chorus of the song... damn, not only did it sound great, I started to understand why I probably didn''t know this song. This was done by him, right? Haha... Since when did my idiot brother have such a talent for music, and probably no one in this house knew? But... how did he write this song? He doesn''t even suffer what I suffer in this house. Everything he did was always applauded, or at least ignored, me? Everything I did wrong was always criticized until the end. Even when I thought I was doing something right, it was like in the end I messed up and in her view I was wrong... Wait! He wrote this song for me, right? If it wasn''t for me, at least he watched me write this... it could only have been that! Is he really the only one who understands me in this house? But he never did anything to try to help me... I didn''t even notice when tears started falling down my face, but I just ignored it and continued listening to this song from behind his bedroom door. ?????? "Struggling within shadows where doubt takes flight Chasing dreams in someone else''s light..." ?????? When I heard this part, the first thing I remembered was the violin performance she forced me to go to when I was younger, even though I didn''t like it, I was too young to understand that she wasn''t doing it for I liked it, but it was to make her dream come true! ?????? "Lost in the silence where emotions alight Trading truth for lies in this scripted night" ?????? Damn Noah... holy shit, how long have you watched me go through this alone and done nothing?! Damn, on the one hand I''m glad someone finally noticed this about me, but to write such profound lyrics, he had to have watched me suffer for a long time, right? Was he using me as a guinea pig for his music? Suddenly, while I was crying and leaning against the door, apparently the door wasn''t locked and it opened... Looking at Noah, who was also crying inside the room, a part of me was a little happy, but I was still angry, so I just turned around and ran back to my room, the only place I had a little bit of peace in this house. As I ran to my room, I passed my mother, who was carrying some laundry. I don''t even know if she saw I was crying, but I tried my best to hide the crying as I ran to my room and locked the door. ''Crap!'' I thought irritated. I don''t know what''s going on... My chest hurts so much... ////NunuNote///// Every 1k Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter :) I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 8: 08 - Older Brother Chapter 8: 08 - Older Brother When Olivia left the room, a notification appeared in front of me. [New Skill Unlocked] [Hearth Voice Lv1 Effect: When you sing something that resonates with your heart, you increase the chance that the listener''s heart will resonate with your song by 1%; this value is doubled for targets who have experienced something similar to the lyrics, as well as doubling the effect of resonating with the lyrics]. Looking at the effect of this skill, Olivia probably fell under the effect of this skill, and from her reaction, it also doubled the effect of the song''s resonance on her... Remembering how fragile she was, with so many tears in her eyes, the little bit of anger I''d felt towards her over the past few days for how she''d acted evaporated. I know her attitude wasn''t great, but I could see that maybe it was her way of defending herself, that she was crying like that, that her arrogant, narcissistic facade was hiding a very broken heart. But my song opened up that defense and exposed that fragile, broken heart. I stopped my cell phone from recording, leaving it to edit this song later, now I had to go and help Olivia. Ne/w novel chapters are published at novelhall.com Using the sleeve of my shirt to dry my tears, I walked slowly toward her room, looking around to make sure she wasn''t anywhere. When I arrived at her room, my mother was there, holding a basket of clothes with one arm while raising her other arm to knock on the door. But her raised hand never touched the door and hung there for at least 30 seconds until I decided to intervene. "Let me talk to her..." I said in a low voice, scaring her a little, but when she saw me, and especially when she saw my red eyes, her doubts arose. "What happened, Noah? I think I saw her crying..." She asked worriedly. Shaking my head, I know the last thing she wants to do right now is talk to my mom, but their relationship is something I can help her deal with slowly in the future. Picking up my phone, I found the recording of the song I''d just made and handed it to her. "She heard me sing a song I wrote...listen to this and I think you''ll understand." As she took the phone from my hand, the confusion on her face was obvious, but she trusted me and left with my phone in her hand while I went to her room to listen to the song. -Knock Knock- I knocked on her bedroom door, leaning against it to try to hear something inside. Her room was silent for a few seconds until I heard a question. "Did you give her the recording of the song to listen to?" I could hear a kind of fear and anticipation in her voice. "Yes, it will be good if she understands what the lyrics mean." I said in a low voice. The room was silent for a few more seconds until I heard the sound of the door unlocking and someone running into the room. Slowly opening the door, I saw Olivia huddled under the covers of the bed, covering her head, probably very embarrassed. "Why did you give her that?! What am I going to do?" She asked a little anxiously. I sat down next to her on the bed, put my hand where her head was and began to stroke it lightly. "You know it''s for the best, even if it''s hard to face it, but if she knows that what she''s doing is hurting you, she''ll be able to get better, won''t she?" I said in the calmest voice I could muster. She was silent for a few more seconds until she suddenly asked. "Since when?" "What?" I was confused. Even if I had the confidence to learn enough editing in a few days to make my music sound studio-ready, I didn''t want to. But I could have spent a few hours learning how to edit... I thought as I looked at the program and didn''t really understand how it worked. Fortunately, with System, it was easy to learn with a few tutorials on YouTube. In just one hour, I had already leveled my new skill to Lv 4. [Music Editing Lv 4 Effect: +4% easier to understand and apply music editing concepts, +4% more likely that your audience will like your edit]. Over the past few days, this has been one of the things I''ve been trying to understand about the system. When Skill said that there was a +4% chance that someone would like something I did, it wouldn''t make them completely like my work and become my fan, but it''s more like the person recognizing the quality of it. Just like a normal person doesn''t like to listen to opera, it''s undeniable that an opera singer''s voice is very good, even if she''s not singing a song that the listener doesn''t like. Of course, if I can maximize all the skills and make a person like every little detail of the music, the likelihood of that person actually liking the music as a whole is very high, but as long as there''s one little thing that the person doesn''t like, that''s probably enough to make them dislike the music even if they like everything else. But I didn''t worry about that, having a good voice, good playing and good lyrics is already a huge advantage for social media musicians, and with my [Heart Voice] skill, my advantage is even bigger! With the song finally edited, I thought it best not to post this today. If I ask Olivia''s opinion about it, she''ll probably accept it and it''ll look less like I just chose the song to make a hit, right? So aside from that, I decided to make two pieces of artwork. One artwork I sold on the Internet to the Furrys, who surprisingly had already increased my Twipper profile to 3,000 followers in the last few days. Due to the high demand, the artwork I''d promised to do today had sold for a whopping $100! Just like the girl from my school in the other world, I had already managed to sell the artwork for a very high price! [Digital Illustration Lv 30 With Digital Illustration, you get better 30% faster, and you have a 30% higher chance of other people liking your art]. My Digital Illustration skill is already at Lv 30, which is fantastic, but I felt something new now. The time it takes to level up the skill has increased. I used to level up at least 1 level a day, but today I didn''t manage to level up that much. When I looked at the quality of the WereTiger I made, I knew that I had reached a very high level in this style of drawing, but I was still miles away from the artists who worked in game art in my previous world, so my theory is that at level 30, it''s as if I''ve completed the basic level to become competent in this skill, and from there I''ll start training to get to a really professional point. If I were to decide which would be better according to this theory, it would be that instead of releasing my music now, since my [Singing] and [Guitar] are at level 20 and 24 respectively, I would wait until the two skills reach level 30, but there was one thing I considered. Since I want to go the indie artist route, starting out as someone who already sings perfectly might hurt me more than help me, so having one or two songs recorded before level 30 of these skills will be very good in the long run. So that''s what I decided to do, I recorded Numb with [Sing Lv 20] and I intend to record the next song when it reaches Lv 25. Looking at the raw file, I knew that this song wouldn''t be very nice to show my parents before submitting, so I just decided to save it and let Olivia know about the submission tomorrow. [New Mission Unlocked]. ////NunuNote///// Every 1k Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter :) I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 9: 09 - Siblings Chapter 9: 09 - Siblings [New Mission Unlocked] When I saw the new message, I was surprised to see that I had another mission after such a long time. The first and only mission I received was on the first day I arrived in this world. I got to the point where I thought I wouldn''t get any more missions and that it was only for newbies. [Mission: Get your song 1,000 views in the first 24 hours. Reward: +1 CHA, Mysterious Title]. Looking at the mission and the reward, although the +1 CHA is very useful, I was most tempted by the Mysterious Title. My current title, [Endurance], is already extremely useful because it helps me exercise and train my physique, and that came from a reward related to a physical training mission, right? Since this mission came from something related to music or fame, the title can also be related to that! Now, what can I do to get my song to 1,000 views in the first 24 hours? Just posting the song on MeTube and letting it generate organic traffic is out of the question, because relying on the algorithm to start promoting my song when it wants to can take several days. Even if I have faith in the music, there''s no point in the music being good if no one hears it, so I''d have to do it in a proactive way. -Ding Looking at the notification that had just appeared on my phone, the answer came to me! At present, my Twipper was growing very fast, as long as I post there to promote the song, it''s possible that a few hundred people will click to listen to it, and as long as those people listen to the song, the likelihood that they''ll listen to it more than once is high, not to mention that they can send it to friends, showing how good the song is, giving me a good start on the platform! But there''s a problem... There''s a very high chance that they''ll suspect that I''m the person who makes these furry drawings, and I don''t want my image associated with that... This was a problem that left me a bit lost. Unsure what to do, I started pacing around the room trying to come up with a solution. Several ideas came to mind, but within a few seconds I found something that would make it go wrong. Th/e most uptodate novels are published on n0velbj)n(.)co/m [+1 INT] After thinking so much and working so hard on refuting my theories, my INT went up, probably because I was practicing my logical thinking. Then I suddenly had a very good idea. This idea might burn my image a bit for some people and make me look a bit desperate at first, but considering everyone''s beginnings, maybe it will become something funny to talk about in a while. My idea was basically to create a Twipper account for my profile as a singer and tag some pretty famous accounts, but from completely different genres, including my furry drawing account in those tagged accounts, so that having tagged that artist''s account wouldn''t look suspicious, and if JacobTheWerewolf shares the song, it will seem like a natural thing to do. As if Jacob received Noah''s tag and really liked the song, so he decided not to repost it and let his fans go and see what song the artist they liked was listening to. Considering how problematic the Furrys'' relationship with their parents is, it''s likely that they''re even more connected to music than other audiences. Wait, maybe I can even use this as an excuse to get Jacob to draw the cover of the song on MeTube because he thought the original cover was too ugly while he liked the song, so it will seem even more natural and the audience will be even more curious about the song! Deciding to do just that, the first thing I did was work on my MeTube and Twipper accounts. But here was the problem... I still hadn''t decided on a name... When I was thinking about a name, there was only one name that came to mind, but I still wasn''t sure if I wanted to use it as my stage name. Black Velvet. Considering that my last name is Black, this would really suit me, but the problem is the origin of this name... Black was not only my last name, it was also the last name of my current father, as well as my asshole father in my old world, and that was the name he used to introduce himself when he met my old mother... I wanted to think of something else, I even considered copying the name of a band that already existed in my old world, but come to think of it, in the end that was the name I went with. Even though I hated that asshole, I think I''ll use this as my only tribute and way of thanking him for asking God to bring me here. So today Black Velvet was born. For my logo I decided to just use the letters BV drawn inside each other in a cursive style, a bit simple but quite unique. When I weighed myself on the scale, I had lost another 1 Kg, of course counting what I lost while sleeping, but that brought my current weight to 140.3 Kg, so by the evening I would have probably dropped from 140 Kg to about 130! Unlike me, who woke up as if nothing had happened, Ethan''s whole body was sore. Seeing him walk like a robot to the kitchen table after getting dressed was very funny. "How about it Ethan, do you want to work out with me again today?" I asked, smiling as I ate the eggs my mom had made for me. I practically ate two breakfasts every day, with two pieces of toast with my dad before I went for a walk, and two eggs with bacon after I came back from my walk with my mom and siblings. For the amount of calories I burned on a daily basis, eating these eggs was the best I could do, maybe even increase it a little, since this protein served as a nutrient for the muscles that were developing in my body. Ethan looked at me suspiciously and asked. "How come you don''t feel anything? My body hurts so much!" Laughing, I replied, "I''ve been training for a week now, with time your body will get used to it, it''s just that yesterday was your first time and the first time always hurts. Hearing this, Ethan still looked at me a little suspiciously and replied. "I''ll try again today..." -------- Ethan''s comment -------- This time, Ethan sat on the sofa with perfect posture, not because he was good, but because that was the posture that hurt his body the least when he sat down. "You know, when I woke up today, I didn''t want to train with Noah again..." He said. "I''m in so much pain that I think I''m going to turn into a real rusty robot, but it was really nice working out with him yesterday..." "Since I don''t have any homework today, I guess I can train with him, right? That way we can spend a little more time together." He smiled innocently as he looked into the camera. -------- Comment End -------- Looking at the little boy, I couldn''t help but smile. Ethan was very cute, just like everyone else in our family, he also had black hair, but because of his age, he still had cheeks with a little bit of fat, characteristic of children, and very big, curious eyes that stared at everything around us because of his ADHD. "Can I too?" A slightly shy, deep voice spoke up. Hearing her ask to join in surprised everyone at the table. Olivia was so embarrassed that she quickly regretted asking to join us. But I quickly replied: "Of course you''re welcome. But why do you want to work out with us?" Honestly, Olivia didn''t need to work out. While I was the fat and ugly one of the family, and Ethan was the short and very cute one, Olivia clearly showed why she was part of the popular group. With long, straight black hair and white, well-groomed skin, she was one of the prettiest girls in school. Hearing my question, I noticed that Olivia quickly looked down at her legs before answering. "It''s nothing, it''s just that I think I can lose some of the fat I''m gaining by eating a slice of bacon every day." I realized that this wasn''t the whole truth, as she had thin legs, she probably wanted to make her legs a bit thicker, and from the tone of her voice, I have no doubt that after our conversation yesterday, she really wanted to try to get things closer and this was just an excuse. -------- Olivia''s Comment -------- Sitting on the sofa a little embarrassed, Olivia looked into the camera and spoke very quietly. "I actually have two reasons for going to the gym." She began to explain. "The first reason is that seeing Noah lose weight so quickly has motivated me to start working out and lose some of the fat that has started to appear on my legs and butt." She said a little embarrassed. "The second reason is that the conversation we had yesterday was really good, I thought if we work out together we could have more conversations like that, right?" She asked a little hopefully as she looked into the camera. -------- Comment End -------- "Sure, so today the three siblings are going to train together!" I said a little excitedly, feeling how good it was for the family to want to be with me. When we finished breakfast, I saw Olivia heading back to her room and called out to her. "Hey Olivia, wait a minute, I want to ask you something." I called out, causing her to turn to me in confusion. ////NunuNote///// Every 1k Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter :) discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 10: 10 - Numb Release Chapter 10: 10 - Numb Release "Hey Olivia, wait a minute, I want to ask you something," I called out, making her turn to me in confusion. "Hi." she said. "Oli..." she said. "What?" I asked confused. "You can just call me Oli. That''s what my friends call me..." she mumbled while looking away a little. Smiling, I nodded and asked, "So, Oli, I was thinking about posting that song from yesterday on a MeTube channel I made. Is there a problem?" "A MeTube channel? What channel?" Hearing that I was going to post the song, instead of being sad, just as I imagined, she got excited. Taking out my cell phone, I opened the newly created channel and showed it to her. "I decided to make a channel to post the songs I''m going to make in the future. For now the only song I''ve made is Numb, but I intend to write others when I get inspiration," I explained. "Woah!" Hearing my idea and seeing the channel logo ready, Oli was getting more and more excited. I wonder what she was imagining. "Of course, you can post it! Send me the link when you finish; I want to hear it again." "Alright." I nodded and went back to my room, ready to begin my plans. -------- Olivia''s Commentary -------- Sitting on the couch excitedly, Olivia was looking at her cell phone while dragging her finger from top to bottom as if she was refreshing a page. "When Noah told me he was going to make a MeTube channel, at first I was just surprised, but when I remembered how well he sang, that surprise turned into shock." the girl replied to the camera with a smile. "Why shock? Because of how well he sang! I know it''s very possible that he can make his channel go viral. Have you ever wondered what it''s like to be the sister of a famous MeTuber? Maybe he even knows my favorite makeup MeTuber and will introduce me to her in the future!" she answered excitedly as she began to imagine what it would be like in the future when Noah was famous. Th/e most uptodate novels are published on n0velbj)n(.)co/m -------- Commentary End -------- Arriving in my room, the first of my plans was to find a Krav Maga tutorial video. Each day that passed at school I felt like that group of idiots was getting closer and closer to doing something shit to me, and with how busy I was during the week, I hadn''t had any free time to learn a fighting skill. Finding a tutorial on MeTube was easy, so the next few hours I spent imitating and practicing how the instructor taught in the videos. [Requirement for Krav Maga Mastery Lv1: Effect: Develops an improved understanding of Krav Maga, accelerating learning by 1% and promoting more efficient body adaptation by 1%. Additionally, improves technique retention and practical application during practice or combat. Gain a tangible advantage by absorbing the fundamental principles of Krav Maga.] ... [Krav Maga Mastery Lv2] ... [Krav Maga Mastery Lv3] ... [Krav Maga Mastery Lv4] ... [Krav Maga Mastery Lv5] I still heard the song, and bro, what song is that? This is fire! I''m now one of your subscribers and look forward to more music! Ps. I liked the song so much that I decided I''m going to make some complimentary art for its cover. If you like it, you can use it for free.] [WTF, did you hear his music and like it Jacob?!] [Just because his music is good he''s going to get free art?!] [I''m in line for my art and I''m only going to receive it in 1 week, and this dude got free art and won''t even need to queue? I have to see if this song is that good.] [...] Even though Jacob only had 3k followers, the amount of engagement he received was very high to the point that any art posted by the account would usually get between 5k and 10k likes, so that was the main source of publicity I was counting on for my song to reach 1k views in the first 24 hours. Finally, the last thing I did was set an alarm on my cell phone to go off in 4 hours, which was the time I would pretend Jacob took to draw the art for the song, and in the meantime I would do other things. My time during the week was quite busy because I had to spend 7 hours at school every day, but on the weekends I had those 7 hours free, so I would make good use of it. One skill that I knew would be extremely useful to me would be computer programming. To be honest, I had tried to learn it in my past life, but since I probably had no talent in it, the speed at which I learned was excruciatingly slow. I had tried for a week, dedicating myself as much as possible and I hadn''t managed to understand anything, so after a while I had just given up. But I knew that in the future a Skill like this would be one of the most useful for me, both for practicality and for the money I could potentially get with it, not to mention the security I could potentially guarantee for myself and the people I care about. So, I decided to start learning programming, and to my disappointment, my talent at it in this life wasn''t all that high either. It took me an hour of studying to finally unlock the skill. [Programming Prowess Lv1: Effect: Deepens understanding in programming, accelerating learning by 1% and facilitating more effective adaptation to new languages ??and concepts by 1%. Additionally, it improves algorithm retention and practical application during software development. Gain a tangible advantage by absorbing essential programming fundamentals and honing your practical skills.] When I unlocked this Skill, it was as if the programming concepts I had been having so much difficulty with were finally becoming slightly simpler for me, probably because the advantage in absorbing the essential fundamentals of programming and the speed at which I learned things had increased a little. To raise the Skill to Lv 2 it only took me 50 minutes. For Lv 3 it only took me 48 minutes, and considering how the speed at which I learned was increasing, I was very excited. I had spent a week studying this in my previous life to no avail, and now, what little I had learned was only a miniscule fraction as much as this Skill currently at Lv 3. I think it was because of my poor understanding that the Skill started so slowly at Lv 1, but I didn''t mind that much. As long as my learning speed remained high, I was very satisfied. In another 47 minutes, the Skill managed to reach Lv 4, giving me enough experience to follow in the footsteps of most accomplished programmers and be able to make my first calculator alone without consulting anything on the internet. If I studied a little more, maybe I could make a simple game, but that would have to be put aside for now, as now was the time for me to post the image that Jacob made for Black Velvet. Looking at my Tweep as Black Velvet, I was surprised to see that Jacob wasn''t the only person I had tagged who responded to me. In fact, 2 other people I tagged also responded quite excitedly about my song. Before reading through these people''s comments, however, I made Jacob''s post with the art I drew, which was a marionette doll that was being controlled by chains, but a padlock holding those chains had opened, causing the doll to fall and it finally began to loosen, coming out of the dark and into the light where it was more colorful. The art really looked beautiful, to the point that it would probably attract a lot of attention from anyone who saw it on MeTube. My biggest concern when making the art was the choice of colors. My focus was on using the contrast of two opposing colors using watercolor to attract even more attention from the public who would see this Thumbnail on the MeTube page. After posting this image, I went to see the comments of the other influencers I tagged. [Damn, this song... I have to admit, it made a small tear run down my eyes...] One of the people I tagged responded, making that person''s followers curious to listen to my song. Out of curiosity, I saw that my song on MeTube already had 401 views, which was much more than I imagined it would have at that moment. Confused, I looked in the comments to see if anyone said how they had found the page. ////NunuNote///// Every 1k Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter :) discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 11: 11 - Fighting Chapter 11: 11 - Fighting From what I saw in the comments, a large part of the day''s viewership came from the Tweep I made and the replies that the people I tagged made, but there was a small part that came from some girl''s stories on InstaBram? Unfortunately, I couldn''t tell who had posted it, but if I could I would have thanked her. It helps a lot to have a bit of help in spreading the word. Out of curiosity, I pressed F5 on the page and the views, which were previously at 401, had now jumped straight to 570. Surprised, I pressed F5 again and now it was 583. Views were rising extremely fast! Wondering where these people were coming from, I quickly opened my Tweep to confirm, and just as I''d imagined, the image I''d posted of the artwork that "Jacob" had "done" currently had over 400 likes, and the number of likes was rising rapidly. I knew that the vast majority of people who saw this Tweep wouldn''t listen to the music, but as long as 10% of the people who normally liked the art I posted listened to the music, that would be enough for me to complete the System mission, but seeing how fast the song''s views were climbing, I realized that more than 10% were listening to the song! With Tweep''s likes reaching 1k in a few minutes, the song''s views were already at 848, very close to the 1k I needed, and that was still less than 5 hours since the song was posted. I was feeling that I was getting too anxious, so to calm myself down I decided to go for a walk and keep my mind occupied. As much as I knew I would reach 1k views, I knew it wouldn''t do my head any good to let my anxiety inflate so much in such a short space of time. To my surprise, when I came out of the bedroom, my father was at home, watching television with my mother. Then I remembered, although he worked on Saturday, he only worked until 4pm, so he had part of the day off today, and the whole day off tomorrow. "Hey, Champ. Your mom told me that you''re also working out at night in the yard. A coworker of mine said he had some old weights and equipment that he used to work out with at his house, and since he wouldn''t be needing it, he told me he could sell it to us for a low price. How about it? Do you want it?" He asked with a smile when he saw me. From the first day I started waking up early and spending time with him before he went to work, I felt that our relationship has improved a lot. Even though we didn''t talk about anything specifically, the awkward atmosphere between us from before has improved a lot now. "Sure, what time can we go?" I asked a little excitedly, since having equipment to work out on would probably speed up the rate at which I would lose weight and gain muscle. "He said he''d be home in an hour, as he was going to stop by the market before he got home from work. How about we go out in a bit?" he asked, also a little excited. "No sweat," I replied with a smile as I continued walking out of the house, wanting to take a short walk to calm down. As I left, I could see the surprise on my mother''s face at how my father and I were now. -------- Lauren''s Commentary -------- Sitting on the sofa, lost, Lauren was a little uncomfortable. "You know... before I felt that the relationships in our family were a mess, but as long as I was dedicated enough we could handle it well, but now I don''t know what to do," She said, confused. "I thought I would need to do the right thing for us to act like a normal family, but from what I''ve seen of Noah and Jonathan talking, and from what I''ve remembered of how Noah is acting with Ethan this week, even how Olivia started acting today, it seems they don''t need me to do that?" Staring into the void, Lauren said thoughtfully. "It seems that Noah has started interacting with the family again. Everything has started to go back to the way it should be, as if he can see where each of the family''s problems are and can solve them all by himself..." "Was what he was singing really what they felt?" She said a little sadly. -------- Commentary End -------- Leaving the house, I saw my father''s old bike in the garage and was tempted to take it for a spin, but thinking about my current weight, even though I''d lost more than 10 kg, my 139.8 kg was still something a low-quality bike like that couldn''t handle. So, just to be safe, I started walking down the street at a slow walking speed, feeling the nutrients of the summer sun flow into my body. As it was still late summer, the sun was a little hotter than ideal, but it still felt good to have the rays beating down on my body. When I turned a corner, I was surprised to see a group of children playing, but I was even more surprised to see that there were two children sitting away from the group that was playing. The two children, far away, were sitting on the sidewalk, just looking at the other children playing with a ball. What puzzled me a little was that one of the estranged children was Ethan! Just as I was getting close, Ethan quickly noticed me and came running towards me with an excited smile. Behind him came a little girl who was somewhat shorter than him with short blonde hair and very thick glasses on her face, which was probably why she was sitting apart with Ethan. "Noah!" Ethan shouted excitedly as he ran to hug me. Picking him up by his outstretched arms, I smiled as I lifted him up and spun him around a little before placing him on the floor. While I was walking with the children, suddenly Ethan, who was distracted while talking to his little friend, bumped into someone. Seeing him fall, I quickly went over to him, worried. "Hey buddy, are you okay?" I asked as I looked at him. He didn''t even seem to hear what I was saying and just focused on the ice cream that had fallen on the floor, trying to control his crying. Seeing what he was worried about, I smiled as I handed him my ice cream. "Here, eat mine. I''ve had enough," I said while messing up his hair. "Really?" He asked with shining eyes looking at my ice cream. "Sure," I laughed as I handed him the ice cream. While he was distracted, I saw that he only had a slight scratch on his arm, which was no big deal for a kid his age, so I just distracted him again with the ice cream and was getting ready to leave until an angry voice spoke to me. "Hey, aren''t you going to make up for the shit that kid did, Black Whale?" As soon as I heard the nickname this person called me, I knew who Ethan had bumped into. Unfortunately I didn''t have my backpack now, and my metal bar had been left in it, so the only thing I could use to protect myself now were my fists. Fortunately, I had raised the level of my Krav Maga Skill to Lv5, which was probably the same as the average person who trained in that martial art for a few months - far from being a master, but already better than the average person. [Krav Maga Mastery Lv5: Effect: Develops an enhanced understanding of Krav Maga, accelerating learning by 5% and promoting more efficient body adaptation by 5%. Also improves retention of techniques and practical application during practice or combat. Gain a tangible advantage by absorbing the fundamental principles of Krav Maga]. Turning around and looking at this fucker''s face, I knew that at some point I had heard his name, but I couldn''t really remember it, so I started staring at him, trying to remember his name. "What? You want to blame a 7-year-old while you''re walking around like an imbecile without worrying about your surroundings?" I replied sarcastically while trying to remember his name to think of an insult, but his name didn''t really come to mind. When he heard what I said, he was furious. "That brat must be your brother, right? That explains why he looks like a retard, being the brother of-" He was starting to laugh as he insulted Ethan, but this time I didn''t sit still and listen. I just ignored the urge to remember his name and ran up to him, punching him in the face. That little shit could insult me and I could pretend I didn''t hear anything, but talking about my brother? Calling him retarded? My brother may have ADHD, and occasionally he might act like a doofus, but insulting his intelligence like that was not going to go unanswered. After all, he''s MY little brother! ////NunuNote///// Every 1k Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter :) discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 12: 12 - Helping out at home Chapter 12: 12 - Helping out at home When my punch hit him in the face, I felt my right hand stinging slightly, making me think that gloves for moments like these could be good. Seeing him fall to the ground, instead of waiting for him to get up and take revenge on me, I just came closer and put my foot on his chest and leaned my weight on it, making him look at me with his eyes bulging as the air rushed out of his chest. "I told you to leave me alone, you piece of shit. Do you think I''m going to keep listening to you talk shit to me while I keep quiet? As far as I''m concerned, you''re just an insect that I could crush at any moment," I said, as he tried to use his hands to get my foot off him, but my weight of 139 kg was no joke. No matter how hard he tried, I just had to push down a little harder to keep my foot on his chest. "Please let me go..." he wheezed out with what little air he had, while looking at me with a desperate expression. Knowing he was about to break down, I lifted my foot slightly off his chest, allowing him to finally breathe, until I moved my foot to his stomach and stomped down hard, pushing all the air he had managed to inhale in that second back out, even making the rest of the food in his stomach threaten to leak out. With a shocked expression, he stared at me without knowing what to think, just feeling the oxygen running out in his head to the point where he almost fainted. Looking at him, I said nothing more and just turned to leave. As I turned back to my brother and the girl, I imagined I would see both of them with frightened expressions, but to my surprise both Ethan and his little friend were looking at me with eyes as bright as two pairs of headlights! "Woah, Noah, that was amazing!" Ethan said excitedly as he ran up to me and imitated the punch I threw at that piece of shit. "Where did you learn to fight like that?!" Even his little friend, although a little shy, was looking at me with shining eyes as she clenched her little fists. "I learned it on the internet," I said as I rubbed Ethan''s head and left. If we had been in a secluded place, I''d have had no problem breaking some of that dirtbag''s limbs, but as we were on a busy street, I''d be arrested if I did something like that. Looking around to see if there were people watching was a habit I picked up in my previous life, since at that time I was very used to fighting in the street. Breaking someone''s legs wasn''t something that happened very often, but I had done it once or twice. "Can you teach me?" Ethan asked expectantly. "Do you need to fight?" I asked while raising an eyebrow. At my question, Ethan became silent and didn''t know what to say until his little friend answered. "Yes, there''s a boy at our school who occasionally tries to pick fights with Ethan," she said, making Ethan look at her shocked, while turning to look at me worriedly. -------- Ethan''s Commentary -------- On the sofa, Ethan was scared as he looked at the camera. "Shit, now that Isabella''s told Noah, is he going to be disappointed in me?" He said a little sadly. "The way he fought that bully looked so cool! I imagined myself punching Tony like that when he was fighting with me at school... It would be really cool to punch Tony like that!" he said excitedly, but soon became worried again, wondering how Noah would react to what Isabella had said. -------- Commentary End -------- So I decided to tell him about my art. "Dad, I don''t think you''ll have to pay for me..." I started to explain, until he interrupted me. "Noah, don''t worry about it, son. This little bit of money your father can afford," he said, trying to remain firm, "You can save the money from the sales of your comics in case you want to buy something else." "No, dad, I don''t think I''ve ever told you, but I''ve always had a hobby of drawing characters from the comics I read, and recently I posted a drawing on the internet. Someone came and asked me to draw their own character and paid me for it. Since then I''ve been receiving drawing requests every day and I even have a queue of people wanting drawings," I explained, leaving my father shocked. "You mean you''re making money by drawing characters for other people on the computer?" he asked incredulously. "Yes, I only started this week, but a lot of people are liking the drawings," I explained with a little pride. I took the puppet art I''d done for the cover of the song Numb on my cell phone and showed it to my dad, and he was shocked by the quality of it. "Woah, that''s amazing Noah! But still, don''t worry. Save that money you''re earning to buy something you want." He tried to stick to buying the equipment for me. Shaking my head, I knew that this would be a matter of pride for him, so I didn''t insist any further, but I knew that he still didn''t understand how much money I was making, so I thought of something. "All right, Dad, but I want to help with the household bills too. How about I choose some bills to pay? The drawings make me a lot of money." Surprised, my father took his mind off the traffic while he looked at me with a mixture of surprise and pride. "All right Noah, in the glove compartment of the car there are some bills that I''m going to pay tomorrow. Pick one. I would recommend the gas bill, which is the lowest," he said with a big smile on his face. Surprised, I opened the glove compartment and saw several pieces of paper with bills to pay. Leafing through the papers, I found a bill for $130 and I decided to pay it. When my father saw that I had chosen the bill I had selected, he was surprised and told me, "Noah, that bill is too expensive. Pick a cheaper one; it''s fine." Laughing, I replied, "Dad, now I get $100 for every artwork I do, and I can do 1 or 2 artworks in a day, so you don''t have to worry. I''d even like to pay more bills, but I don''t have that much money on me right now since I just started this week." Currently I only had $463 on me, so I couldn''t afford more than that, but considering that if I did one artwork a day from Monday to Friday, that would be $2,000 a month, and if I did two artworks a day that would raise my income to $4,000 every month. Setting aside 20% of that to help with household expenses wouldn''t be a sacrifice for me, but it would be a great help for my parents, and consequently for my siblings too. And from the amazed and thrilled look on my father''s face, I could see that it was all going to be worth it. ////NunuNote///// Every 1k Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter :) discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!!Th/e most uptodate novels are published on n0velbj)n(.)co/m Chapter 13: 13 - Growing Chapter 13: 13 - Growing When I got home with my dad, carrying in the new weights we bought, I was excited to see how much faster I would gain muscle with these and quickly went to the backyard to start working out. Seeing me excited to work out, and curious about the new equipment we bought, Ethan also went with me to the backyard, accompanied by my father, who decided he would also start working out. Even though he didn''t have much free time during the week, Dad said he would try to find some time every day to work out, or if that wasn''t possible, at least work out on the weekends to maintain his health. I realized it was more a way for him to try to get closer to us, which I didn''t expose, and I was just happy with what he was doing. As soon as I started working out with the equipment, I didn''t notice much of a difference, but within a few minutes I was surprised by a notification that appeared in front of me. [Bodybuilding Lv 12 -> Lv 13: Effect: When doing weight training, your muscles develop 13% faster and your body tires 13% slower.] My Bodybuilding Skill leveled up in much less time than it had when I trained yesterday! Out of curiosity, I grabbed my phone and opened an explanation of a workout that a personal trainer had posted on MeTube and tried to do the workout exactly as he was instructing, and not surprisingly, my bodybuilding level rose even faster. Ne?w chapters will be fully updated at novelhall.com Ethan and my dad were curious about the training I was doing, so I started explaining to them what routines I had chosen and how each exercise should be done and because of my Skill Teaching, they were learning everything much faster than what they would have if they were to do it alone. Because of Ethan''s age, I still avoided having him do any weight training and focused on calisthenics training. After 30 minutes, Ethan was exhausted and went to take a shower. My father stayed for another 15 minutes after Ethan and also left exhausted, leaving me alone, still working out. Every few minutes I would receive a notification. [+1 STR] [+1 CON] [Bodybuilding Lv 13 -> 14] [Bodybuilding Lv 14 -> 15] Because of the possible Gamer body I received with the System, the speed at which I was gaining stats with each set of reps I did was increasing by a lot. Of course, this was also because I was increasing the weight I lifted every time my STR went up a point, which made me demand more from my body and consequently increased the speed at which I would receive another STR point. When I was an hour into training, I was surprised by who walked through the backyard door. "Olivia?" I asked in surprise, noticing the workout clothes she was wearing. "Do you still have time to work out with me?" she asked, a little embarrassed. Smiling, I waved at her and asked back, "What do you want to work out?" Looking at the equipment scattered around the yard, she was a little lost. Turning her gaze to me, I noticed that she was looking at the muscles that were beginning to appear on my arms with mild surprise. -------- Olivia''s Commentary -------- Sitting on the interview couch, Olivia was still wearing her workout clothes as she looked at the camera in surprise. "Is it possible to develop muscles in just one week of training? Before he was training just using his body weight, without any training equipment, and just today he picked up a weight for the first time, and as he was wearing a tank top I could see that his arms were actually getting a little more defined!" she said with surprise as she shifted her gaze to her own slender arms. Black Velvet - Numb (2.477 Views) Seeing that the video had slightly more than doubled the number of views since the last time I watched it approximately 3 hours ago, I was surprised and went to analyze the channel''s Analytics. Of these 2,477 views, 2,301 came from external links such as the Tweeps that Jacob and other influencers made on Tweep, as well as the girl who promoted the song on Instabram. The other 176 views came from promotions that MeTube had started to make. This meant that now the music could really start to grow at warp speed! Looking at the door Olivia passed through, I quickly thought of something. Opening Instabram, I quickly found her profile and opened the Stories she posted. Surprisingly, one of the Stories was her promoting my music! With a big smile on my face, I liked her Stories and replied with a "Thank you". But the next Story left me even more surprised. It was a photo of her taken in the bathroom mirror with a message. [Today I started working out with my brother, and damn, he''s better than many Personal Trainers I''ve seen out there. I think I''m starting to like working out.] Seeing this compliment from her, even though I knew that no one would believe that a fat guy like me would know how to train and would probably take it as mockery, still warmed my heart, since I knew that she was speaking very sincerely. Checking out her profile, I realized that my BlackVelvet profile currently had 90 followers on Instabram! On this social network, this profile only had a profile photo with the logo I had created, so I thought of a good strategy to grow my audience and accelerate the growth of my popularity, as well as possibly generating engagement for my profile. Now feeling more rested, I got up from the grass and organized the workout equipment in a nicer way in the backyard and took a photo of it with the night sky in the background. As the quality of my cell phone''s camera wasn''t good, the photo wasn''t as good as I imagined, but as I had the System, I had an easy way to solve this. Opening tutorials on how to edit photos to make the quality more beautiful and have a cooler aesthetic, I spent 40 minutes learning as much as possible and I finally managed to make the photo look really cool in addition to getting a new Skill. [Photo Editing Lv 2] Although this Skill was still at a low level, it was much better than posting the photo without any editing, so I posted it with a caption. (Thank you to everyone who listened to my song "Numb", liked the video, and commented. Know that seeing the feedback from each of you motivates me more and more to continue following my dream.) Was this my dream before coming to this world? No, but the fusion I had with Noah is influencing me in some ways. One of those things is the great desire he had to reach out to and influence people positively with his songs. Even though the lyrics of the song weren''t mine, seeing people''s reactions to the song, seeing how it was positively affecting them - how it was slightly changing people''s lives - was something that was really making me very happy. I would even be able to improve my composition skill and compose my own songs in the future in addition to using already established songs from my previous world... but all this, all this change that is happening in my life... it''s all so magical... ''I hope you''re satisfied Noah. Our life is only going to get better from here on out,'' I thought as I smiled, seeing Ethan bring me a bottle of water. ////NunuNote///// Every 1k Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter :) discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 14: 14 - Difficult Choice Chapter 14: 14 - Difficult Choice After drinking the water Ethan brought for me, I went to shower and took advantage of the time alone in the bathroom to check my Status window after weighing myself. ========================= | Character Status | ========================= | Name: Noah Black | Titles: Persevering, Tuned Ear. | Level: 01 |------------------------ | HP: 70/70 | MP: 120/120 |------------------------ | Weight: 141.3 kg -> 139 kg | Strength (STR): 5 -> 8 | Dexterity (DEX): 4 | Constitution (CON): 7 -> 8 | Intelligence (INT): 11 -> 12 | Wisdom (WIS): 9 | Charisma (CHA): 7 -> 8 (7 + 1) | Agility (AGL): 4 | Black (CLOSE): ?? |------------------------ | Skills: | (Haircutting Lv 24 -> 25), (Walking Lv 1 -> 12), (Bodybuilding Lv 1 -> 16), (Teach Lv 6 -> 15), (Negotiator Lv 4 -> 5), (Sing Lv 9 -> 20), (Guitar Lv 16 -> 24), (Digital Illustration Lv 27 -> 30), (Intermediate Mathematics Lv 22 -> 29), (Intermediate Biology Lv 18 -> 25) (Krav Maga Lv 1 -> 5)... | ----------------------- | Buffs: | (Beard and Hair Trimmed), (Aerobic Exercises Lv 1 -> 5), (Muscle Exercise Lv 1 -> 7) ========================= My Status was very different from the last time I saw it. In addition to the new Skills I received, all of my other Skills had leveled up at least once. With the development of these skills, I realized that every 10 levels was always an important milestone, to the point that Skills from level 10 onwards really affected me a lot, as if it were something I had already been training on for at least a year. The System was greatly accelerating the speed at which I learned and practiced things. Glancing up, my father saw that his hair was already long and messy and he asked a little shyly, "Can you cut mine too? I haven''t had time to cut my hair in the last few weeks." Nodding my head, I agreed. "Of course, but first come, first served. Ethan will have to come first since he was first in line." Hearing this, Ethan had a big proud smile on his face as he looked at me, while my father looked at us with a smile as proud as Ethan''s, but for different reasons as he tried to feign sadness and accept that he couldn''t be first. After breakfast, the three of us went to the backyard while my mom sat in a chair on the porch and Olivia went up to her room. Since our yard faced the street, some neighbors saw me cutting Ethan and my hair and asked me if I could cut their kids'' hair too. Honestly, I was planning on refusing, since I didn''t even need their money. I especially didn''t want to do it when I saw the neighbor''s son. He was one of the children who were playing that day when Ethan was excluded. Why should I give a [CHA +1] Buff to a kid I don''t even know, and worse, who treated my brother badly last time? So I just politely declined, saying I had something else to do later. I could train my Haircut Skill more by cutting other people''s hair, but I don''t want to be a professional barber, so why bother? "Which cut do you want? Something more social or a cooler cut like mine and Ethan''s?" I asked my father while laughing. Looking at me and Ethan, he replied, "I think I want to go for a younger look, just like you!" Surprised, I looked at my mother on the porch, who even more surprisingly had a smile on her face upon hearing this, which she quickly tried to hide when she saw me looking at her. But it was too late. So she too liked my haircut, haha? "Okay, with this haircut you will look at least 10 years younger!" I said, laughing as I started cutting his hair. What I noticed was that well-cut hair gave a [CHA +1] buff to anyone I cut. Even Ethan and my dad also looked a little better after I cut their hair, and to a greater extent than it should with just a normal haircut. Maybe higher level Skills have a bit of magic in them? Leaving that doubt for later, I put away my barbershop stuff and went to my room to practice my guitar and my singing a little more. [Singing Lv 20] [Guitar Lv 24] Since I could train Singing anywhere, I had trained it much more than my guitar in the last few days, so it was not surprising that this Skill had already almost reached the other. But as soon as Singing reached level 20, the difficulty of leveling up had doubled. At that moment I had a doubt. What song would I sing next? I had already posted a song on MeTube, but I wanted to maintain a high frequency of songs posted, since now I would be able to keep buying the copyrights of all the songs until I created a first album. This way I would increase the chance of going viral and being successful. But I had to keep something in mind. I currently had a few hundred followers, and these people were following me because they liked my music which was in a rock style, telling them about something sad that related to their lives. If I decided to sing an upbeat, happy song it would be like shooting myself in the foot, as my current audience probably wouldn''t like it very much. They wouldn''t listen to it as much as they did the first song, and consequently, MeTube would recommend my songs less. On the other hand, I could sing different things from the beginning and not let my audience think that I only sang one style of music. If I chose the first method, I would have faster growth in the short term. However, the other option would take longer to grow in the beginning, but in the future I would have more openness to do what I wanted. So I was in doubt as to which one to choose. ////NunuNote///// Weekly Power Stones Goal! 500 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter 1.000 PS = 2 Extra Chapters 2.000 PS = 3 Extra Chapters ... 6.000 PS = 7 Extra Chapters! discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 15: 15 - Now that鈥檚 enough! Chapter 15: 15 - Now that''s enough! After thinking for a while, I realized that I was still putting too much pressure on myself. It''s not like if I posted two songs in the same style that people would think I''m a person who only knows how to do one thing. If I did this for several months, or even years, then they would probably think that''s true, but for an artist with only two songs I still had time and the right to decide what to do. So I decided to take advantage of the hype that Numb was generating and make another song by the same band that made Numb in my previous world. The song I wanted to do now was "In The End". It was a song with sad lyrics, which would match the first song, pleasing the public who liked it, in addition to being a song with very good sound. Of course, it helped that it was also extremely popular. Ne?w chapters will be fully updated at novelhall.com The lyrics, also, like with Numb, could be interpreted in different ways. The most common interpretation, which was how I understood the lyrics, was a song telling about a person who had tried everything to maintain their relationship, but in the end it didn''t do anything for them. Also, another way to look at it that fit more with the audience that liked Numb was that it described someone who did everything to try to be accepted in society, but in the end, no matter how hard the person tried, nothing worked and he remained excluded, lost, without fitting in anywhere. Having decided on the song, I decided to start training for it. Despite being a song by the same band, In The End was a little more demanding on the vocals, as the song had a part sung with the voice being pushed to the limit, while another part was done in RAP, which took extreme precision in terms of diction. This was not to mention that even the part for the guitar would also be more difficult, since I would have to replace the sections that were played on the piano for something done on a guitar, so the training would be intense. All this aside, I was excited. Fortunately, my [Tune Ear] title was taking effect even on the songs I remembered from my past life, so even without being able to listen to the songs here again, it was easier to figure out which notes were used to play the song. Without me realizing it, time passed and I had trained for 4 hours straight. [Guitar Lv 24 -> 26] [Sing Lv 20 -> 22] Going up 2 levels in each Skill was great news, as it decreased the time I needed to learn how to play the song. At this point I already had the sheet music for the song almost ready, but I still needed more training to play the song proficiently. I also need to improve my intonation when singing the song as well. Looking at my fingers, despite seeing that calluses were forming in the right places, it was possible to see that I was almost at the point where blood was coming out, so I stopped training and went to rest for a bit. Picking up my phone to check how the song Numb was going, I was shocked by what I was seeing. [21.000 views] Holy shit! Looking at the analytics, it was even more surprising that of 21k views, 15,000 had come from promoting MeTube, and given the click rate that was increasing, this only meant that MeTube had found the right audience to promote to and that the song would possibly go viral even more. Excellent! In a very good mood, my day went by faster than I imagined. As my father was at home, when I had nothing to do I would go downstairs and watch some television with him and talk a little. Seeing how much he liked football, I even asked him to play a little catch with Ethan, which my little brother loved. This also earned me a Skill. [Football Mastery Lv3: As soon as those words left my mouth, I saw him turning pale and nodding his head like he was a chicken. "Alright, alright Black, I''ll, I''ll talk!" the boy pleaded as he nervously took out his cell phone and showed me what they were all looking at. When I saw the cell phone screen, I felt my blood boil and for the first time in this world I felt like killing someone. On the cell phone screen was an image of two whales, one with a photo of my face plastered over it, and a smaller one with Ethan''s face on a low-resolution photo, probably taken from a long distance. The caption read: The family of Black Whales. Seeing the nickname I didn''t even need to ask who had made the image. Letting go of the stranglehold I had of the idiot I was holding the cell phone of the other idiot I had been threatening, I left them behind and walked huffing to the school board room. I would give this shitty school one last chance to do something right for a change. When I talked to Director Adams and showed him the photo on my cell phone, the director just said that this kind of thing was simply child''s play, but that I shouldn''t worry, that he would find the culprit. I knew he wouldn''t even try to find out who did this, because as soon as I saw the name on his desk I remembered something very important: The name of the jerk that kept annoying me that I couldn''t remember finally came to mind - Jackson Adams, coincidentally the same surname as the director. Knowing that I wouldn''t have the patience to stay at school today, I discarded the other guy''s cell phone somewhere in the school after transferring the photo to my cell phone and then I left. Walking through the city streets, I managed to calm down a little while planning what I was going to do with that bastard. Fortunately, this time I had my backpack, and in my backpack, just like last week, I had an iron bar. ''I already wanted to ditch this shitty school once and for all. Now I''ve found a reason to leave,'' I thought angrily as I walked into a CyberCafe. Jackson Adams wouldn''t be the only one I would fuck, no. By the look on the director''s face, I knew he must have some shit going down, so nothing better than a little programming skills and a little phishing to get the information I needed. ////NunuNote///// Weekly Power Stones Goal! 500 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter 1.000 PS = 2 Extra Chapters 2.000 PS = 3 Extra Chapters ... 6.000 PS = 7 Extra Chapters! discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 16: 16 - Revenge Chapter 16: 16 - Revenge Phishing is like a clever fisherman trying to fool an unsuspecting fish, thus the name. The fisherman uses something appetizing, like bait, to attract a fish, and when it bites the hook, it ends up being caught. Similarly, in the internet world, phishing is when hackers try to trick people by sending fake emails or messages that look legitimate, but are actually full of tricks to steal personal information, such as passwords or bank details. So it''s like a magic trick, but instead of making a rabbit suddenly appear, they try to make your information appear. The first time I used phishing was to get my chemistry teacher''s password in my previous world to change my grades after I failed one of her exams. Even as a complete novice, fooling an almost 60-year-old woman with a psychological tactic mixed with technology, something she had little mastery over, was very easy. The only thing I had to do concerning her was have my message posed as a member of the IT team who looked after the school''s network system and ask her for her login and password after pretending to confirm that she really was the chemistry teacher. Because I was the person who asked for confirmation of her identity, it made her more likely to trust me because of the distrust I supposedly had for her. I knew that this kind of tactic might not be enough to fool Principal Adams, so at that point I used the next few hours to train my programming skills. Instead of posing as an IT employee who would ask for Director Adams'' password, I would do it in a more professional way. I would still use the identity of an IT employee, but instead of asking him for the password he used to access the site and the password for his email, I would create a fake site with the same appearance as the school''s site, where instead of connecting him to the site directly, I would ask him for his login, guarantee he made a mistake, and ask him to log into his email as well to confirm the password with a fake page that similarly used the same appearance as his email provider. Ne/w novel chapters are published at novelhall.com Copying the appearance of these two pages wasn''t too difficult, since I only needed the appearance and not the functionality of these pages, and in just 3 hours I had already studied what I needed to learn to do this, as well as reproducing the two fake pages. Now the only thing left to do was to send him the email. [Dear Mr. Adams, I hope you are well. I would like to ask you to kindly access the school''s website and confirm an important option. It is necessary that we make this confirmation as soon as possible to ensure the integrity and security of the company''s data. Please go to [Website URL] and find the [Public Data] section. There, you will find the option to confirm [Keep Public Data]. If you need any further assistance or guidance, I am happy to help. Thank you in advance for your attention and cooperation. Sincerely, Brian Johnson IT Team]. Brian Johnson was my computer teacher, who I knew also worked in the school''s IT team, so he was a good cover to use as an identity. With the email sent, I only had to wait. Just as I''d imagined, in less than 10 minutes I''d already received the data he''d filled in on my back end. [email protected] aaadamspassword123 Right, with the email and password he used to access the school website, it would theoretically be easier to get the other logins, but I just had to wait and see if he''d fall for the other bait. "I''m sorry, Black. It was just a joke!" He tried to shout, but I didn''t care and slammed the bar into his arm. I had the strength to probably break his arm with a blow like that, but I didn''t want to make it so violent that the police would worry too much about me. I''d already broken someone''s leg in my previous life and I know how annoying the police get depending on how serious the crime gets. But the reverse also happens; just a small fight won''t yield anything more than a sentence that''s more than a slap on the wrist." And that was the goal I was going to aim for. I was going to dance on the thin line between a light crime and a medium crime with Jackson. Using the metal bar, I started hitting him on several different parts of his body, but I didn''t break any bones. Okay, maybe I broke a rib or two, but that was still a minor offense. "My father is the head of the school, Black! I''m going to get him to expel you and send you to jail!" Jackson shouted angrily between the tears and snot that ran down his face. "I hope he''s not in jail himself by then..." I laughed, as I held the bar with a satisfied smile, "And if I hear you using my name from that filthy mouth of yours again, I''m going to knock every one of those teeth out with this metal bar. Is that clear?" Despite his anger, the only thing he could do was nod as he moaned in pain. In order not to waste time exposing myself here, I just walked away, leaving Jackson lying on the ground. Honestly, I wanted to break his various bones, but I knew it would attract the attention of the police. They would come to my house and it would not only worry my family, but if something like this leaked out in the future, it could tarnish my career. So I tried to deal with it as best I could. Of course, with access to his father''s email, I was going to use that as a means to get Jackson''s logins as well and return the attack he made on me. Two can play the same game Adams, and I know how to play much better... ////NunuNote///// Weekly Power Stones Goal! 500 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter 1.000 PS = 2 Extra Chapters 2.000 PS = 3 Extra Chapters ... 6.000 PS = 7 Extra Chapters! discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 17: [Bonus Chapter] 17 - New Mission Chapter 17: [Bonus Chapter] 17 - New Mission When I got home, my mom hadn''t arrived with Olivia yet, as they were still going to Ethan''s school to pick him up, so I quickly went to the computer in my room and used the phishing from Principal Adams'' email to Jackson''s email. Unlike his dad, Jackson would probably take a while to reply, while I just minimized the tab and checked my MeTube video. [56,523 views 1,813 subscribers]. Looking at these numbers, I had a big smile on my face because I was just over 23,000 views away from the 4,000 hours I needed to monetize my channel! As far as I knew, the RPM I would receive per thousand views would be around $0.70, but even though it was a low number, it would still be good extra money to receive. Thinking about money, I had another idea. Opening my phone, I realized that this world actually had an app called Spokify, which as you can imagine is a music streaming app, but since it was focused on music, the amount this app paid was much more than what MeTube paid. According to my research, every 1000 views on this app paid about $4, which was almost 6 times more than MeTube, but unlike MeTube, on Spokify I could only post the song once, maybe twice, singing in a different style. On MeTube, on the other hand, I could post the song in an acoustic version, I could post a music video, I could post a collab, and of course I could also use the visibility of the channel to post vlogs and other things as the channel got bigger, generating a lot more potential revenue. Not to mention that MeTube was much better for promoting my music and making a name for myself, while Spokify was better for those who already had a name and people were looking for them there. At the moment, my music will probably get few views there, but over time, keeping my profile updated there might surprise me with some extra revenue from people who start looking for my music there to put on their playlists. Just as I finished setting up my Spokify profile and posting the acoustic version of Numb, my mom arrived with Olivia and Ethan. As expected, the first thing she did when she got home was come into my room and ask me. "What happened, Noah? Why did you leave by yourself?" she asked, worried and suspicious. Luckily, from the way she asked, she didn''t know that I had missed class. This school really sucked, they didn''t even notify the parents when a student didn''t show up for school? At least I could use this to my advantage. "It''s okay, Mom. I felt a little bad in my last class and asked to leave early. Since I''ve always been a good student, they let me go." I lied. Still suspicious, my mother looked me up and down and asked. "Why did you feel sick? Why didn''t you call me to pick you up?" "I was feeling a little claustrophobic at school, I needed some fresh air, so I went back and took the time to think about the next song I wanted to write." I said. As soon as I told her about the song, she became visibly depressed, which made me feel very bad. "Ah... okay..." She replied sadly as she turned and left the room. If it was Noah from my old world, I probably wouldn''t have cared, but with the memories of Noah from this world and the feelings I had for her, I felt like crap for saying that and making her feel bad again, so I couldn''t control myself and explained. "This new song isn''t about you, Mom, don''t worry. When the song is done, can I show it to you?" I asked. Hearing my request and the explanation that she wouldn''t be the subject of the next song, she became more excited, but still a little sad. "Sure, when you''re done call me and I''ll be the first to hear it." Seeing her leave the room still a little shaken made me feel bad. Luckily, shortly after she left, Ethan came into the room with his little backpack and asked me to help him with his homework. His happiness cheered me up, and seeing my Teach skill level rising gave me a small dose of dopamine to lift me up. [Teach Lv 15 -> Lv 16 Effect: When teaching others, as long as you know what you''re teaching, they have a 16% greater chance of understanding what you''re explaining]. With this buff, Ethan''s improvement was clear as day. Content that he had struggled to learn in the past was now much easier for him! This was good news for everyone, as Ethan was finally reaching the level of knowledge he should have for a child his age. When I''d finished helping him with his homework, I decided to take advantage of the feeling I was getting and went to practice In The End some more. When I went downstairs for lunch, I ran into Olivia on the stairs, who stopped and stared at me. "Are you okay?" she asked worriedly. "I''m better, did you see the picture?" I asked. "Yes... I was furious, but I didn''t know what to do... when I looked for you, you were nowhere to be found..." She said as she slumped her shoulders in frustration. "I''m sorry, I could have talked to you before I left." I said as I put a hand on her shoulder. "All right... did you manage to find out who did it?" she asked as she looked at me expectantly. "Yes, we probably won''t see him or his father again after today." I said, smiling proudly. "His father? Who was that?" She asked interestedly. "Did you see Principal Adams'' FaceShoot?" I asked with a laugh. "No? Does that have anything to do with this?" She asked as she picked up her phone and quickly searched for his FaceShoot page. "He''s the father of the idiot who took that picture, I guess after what happened with his FaceShoot, neither of them will be showing up to school tomorrow." I replied, laughing as I walked down the stairs, leaving Olivia staring at her phone screen in shock. ////NunuNote///// Enjoy your Bonus chapter for reaching the PS goal! :D Monthly Golden Tickect Ranking Bonus Chapters Goals: Top 80: 1 Chapters Top 60: 2 Chapters Top 50: 3 Chapters Top 40: 4 Chapters --- Weekly Power Stones Goals: 500 PS: 1 Chapter ? 1.000 PS: 2 Chapters 2.000 PS: 3 Chapters ... 6.000 PS: 7 Chapters Maximum of 7 Weekly Bonus Chapters --- Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. --- Every month, you will have a maximum of 30 Bonus Chapters up for the grab! [29 Left] discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 18: 18 - Talent Show Chapter 18: 18 - Talent Show The rest of the day went by as usual. I did the usual things: practiced my Krav Maga, did the drawing to earn my daily $100, worked out with Ethan and Olivia. After all that, my skills changed a bit. [Krav Maga Mastery Lv 9 -> Lv 10] With Krav Maga at Lv 10, I was already much more confident in using my martial arts. The difference from Lv 9 to Lv 10 was that before it was like I had trained for a year with insecurity as a practicing amateur, but now I was similar to someone who had trained for a year with a lot of gained martial arts experience. Even though level 10 is supposed to be as if I''ve trained for only a few more months, it''s as if the quality of those training sessions had been improved and the quality of my fighting and overall training had been completely improved. Of course, I was still at level 10; it was not like I''m a professional fighter, but I was already at a point where I could safely defend myself on the street. [Teaching Lv 16 -> Lv 17] Since I was also helping Ethan and Olivia with their training, my Teaching skill increased by one level, which was very useful because I could better help my family with the things I knew. This made it much more useful for me to learn things faster, because with the system I could continue to learn things faster, and with the Teaching skill, I could teach my family the things I knew easier and faster as well. [Bodybuilding Lv 16 -> Lv 18]. The advantage of studying strength training with the lessons on the Internet was that the speed at which the skill improved was much faster than the walking skill, and on a daily basis I could see the difference in the ease with which I could lift weights that had previously seemed too difficult for me. As I was lying on the grass in the backyard looking up at the sky, I was surprised to see Olivia running up to me. "Noah, did you see that there''s a talent show on a MeTube stream?" she asked excitedly as she showed me the stream. Looking at her phone, I was surprised to see that on a call-in show like Discord there was actually a host with two other judges watching a performance in front of an audience of 3,000 people. It wasn''t a very large audience, but considering they were doing an open talent show like this and the people participating probably didn''t have any talent, it was understandable. The stream was apparently based on the judges making fun of the performers. "That''s nice," I said as I handed her her phone back and went back to looking at the sky. "You''re not interested in participating?" She asked, confused. "I don''t know. I''m not sure if I could get a place on it. There must be a lot of people applying, right?" I asked, looking back at her. "Let me see..." she said as she fiddled with her phone. In a few seconds she got her answer. "They have a queue room on their discord. There are only 20 people left in the queue, so there''s still time for you to join!" When I heard that, I thought for a moment. "The prize is a $2,000 microphone." She then said something important. Hearing that, I quickly got up from the grass and went to take a shower. "I''m going to shower. Send me the link to this server and the stream; I''ll join!" "Okay!" she said excitedly as she sent me the links. As I ran to the bathroom, thankful that Ethan had already finished his shower, I tried to mentally ask the System a question. ''System, if I sing another otherworldly song at this talent show, will it count as my second published song?'' I asked worriedly, not knowing if a sad song would go over well on a stream where they made jokes. I think I''d look more like an Edge Kid trying to look cool if I sang a sad, serious song at this talent show. The best thing to do would be if I also sang a funny song to fit in. [After analysis, the system will not consider the song sung at this event as the second song released]. Seeing this, I was satisfied and sped up my shower. [Ding, new mission!] [Win the Talent Show with a stellar performance! Reward: +1 CHA, +1 Singing, +1 Guitar]. [Accept?] Of course! With a mission that gave me free rewards, how could I not accept?! My shower lasted only five minutes, and I was already tuning my guitar while waiting in line for my turn to perform. From what I could see, the host of this talent show was a streamer from a game like CraftMine from my previous world, but because he was bored with his friends, he decided to host the show in-game. Each contestant logged into the Discord server and waited for their turn. When it was their turn, the server admins would send them the link to the world the streamers were in so they could introduce themselves and use their characters as avatars. Luckily, old Noah already had an account in that game, so I didn''t have to buy another one. The only problem was the nickname and the account skin. I didn''t have time to make another skin for my character, and the anime girl skin with the maid outfit wasn''t my style, so I just changed the account skin back to the default skin and changed the account nickname to BlackVelvet. When I''d finished setting everything up, I got a message from one of the server admins with a link to the server they were on. As I entered the server, I found myself in a waiting room with another player who was probably next in line to perform. I had everything ready, so while I was practicing how to play this song on my guitar, I watched the stream. "Hey Quacktus, his impression of you looks pretty good!" one of the judges said with a laugh. "Don''t joke about that! It has nothing to do with me!" Quacktus laughed as he pressed a red button, eliminating the contestant. "I liked his Guapo impersonation. He gets a yes from me!" Another streamer laughed as he pressed the green button, leaving it up to the last streamer. "Wait, can I tell a joke to get your vote?" the contestant asked desperately. "Hmm... you can try it!" The last streamer saw that this would generate more content and didn''t refuse. [This song sounds a bit relaxing...] ?????? "No desire to grab my phone, no buzz or ring... So just leave a message, let it ding... ''Cause today, I promise, I won''t do a thing..." ?????? "Haha, I like this song!" Quacktus used a dancing emote on his character as he danced slightly to the camera. "The rhythm of that song is really cool!" Phill laughed while also using a dance emote. [This song is really good lmao!] [I want to post this on my Stories on Saturday, "Cause today, I promise, I won''t do anything... lol!"] [DancingEmoji.GIF DancingEmoji.GIF DancingEmoji.GIF DancingEmoji.GIF] ?????? "Yeah, gonna prop my feet up, gaze at the ceiling fan... Flip on the TV, hands in my pants, man... Ain''t nobody gonna tell me I can''t... Lounging on the sofa, Snuggie clad, feeling grand... Switching to JTV, to learn how to dougie... In my own domain, feeling like the king bee..." ?????? "Hands in my pants?! LOL, did he really put that in the song?!" Guapo started to laugh when he heard that part. "Bro, this song makes me want to relax like this..." Phill said as he leaned back in his chair, smiling. [This is my song lol, I want to learn how to sing this!] [Bro, this BV is definitely like me, I do it every Sunday when my parents leave the house lol!] [There''s no better feeling than having your hands in your pants when it''s cold...] ?????? "Oh-oh, yes I said it, I said it, I''m saying it loud and clear... Sing with me! Today, I''m feeling quite lazy, it''s true... Just wanna stay cozy in my room... No desire to grab my phone, no buzz or ring... So just leave a message, let it ding... ''Cause today, I promise, I won''t do a thing..." ?????? Surprisingly, when I asked them to sing the chorus with me, I thought maybe only one of them would sing, but all three of them started singing together! Watching the chat, the emoticons changed from the initial vomit emoticons to dancing or singing emoticons as I sang the chorus. That reaction from the live audience was really cool. It''ll be truly exciting when I get to do a real show... ////NunuNote///// discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 19: [Bonus Chapter] 19 - Results Chapter 19: [Bonus Chapter] 19 - Results The difference between the reaction of a live audience and the reaction of the audience of a posted video was great. In one, you could see a person''s comment while performing. I could see if they were enjoying it while I was singing, and that gave me even more motivation to sing, to sing better, to sing more, to improve while I was singing! On the other hand, although it was still very rewarding, I saw the comments there more as a quieter form of thanks. "Woah dude, what was that?!" Quacktus asked abruptly as he looked at the screen with excitement. "BV, my boy, you didn''t say you had such a bomb to show us today. Had I known, I would have let you perform last!" Guapo said with a laugh. "Tell me BV, did you really compose this song and the instrumental for it?" Phill asked excitedly. Laughing and a little out of breath, I replied, "Yes, they''re both my doing. You know when you have a lazy day and you don''t want to do anything? I made this song on one of those days. Usually the style of music I make is heavier, but when I wrote these lyrics I knew that style wouldn''t fit the music, so I tried to explore a more relaxed and upbeat style. I still don''t think the instrumental is perfect, so I want to polish it before releasing the song." "You said you''re going to release the song... are you a real musician by any chance?" Quacktus asked in shock, his expression exaggerated. "''Real musician'' might be too strong an expression, but I recently started my music career. I currently have one song out, haha," I replied, taking the opportunity to promote my channel. When Olivia showed me the stream, there were 3,000 people watching, as it was getting close to the voting time for the best candidates, and maybe my music had helped a little, since there were currently 5,000 people on the stream. "Woah, so we have a potential up-and-coming musician on the stream! What''s the name of your channel, BV? Is it BlackVelvet by any chance?" Guapo asked, trying to guess. "Yes Guapo, the name of the channel is BlackVelvet! If you like the song, don''t forget to search for the channel on MeTube and Spokify. Maybe you''ll like my other song," I spoke in a voice like a product salesman on TV. "Is that right? I''ll put the link to his channel in the chat. Anyone interested can click on it to support him!" Quacktus said as he put the channel link in the chat. -------- Quacktus'' Commentary -------- Ne/w novel chapters are published at novelhall.com Sitting on the sofa in front of the camera, Quacktus looked at the interviewer with a very excited expression. "Bro, the stream broke the record for the most viewers of my entire career!" he said as he plopped down on the couch, "If I had known this was going to happen, I would have done this talent show a long time ago." "The biggest surprise of the show? It was definitely BV with the song he did. I saw in the comments that practically everyone liked it, and it''s rare that a lot of people like the same thing, so listen to me: this kid has a future!" Picking up his cell phone and confirming something, Quacktus cracked a smile. "If you want to get into this business, you have to be smart, you have to know the people to get close to and the people to stay away from." "Black Velvet is in the first category. With the talent and creativity he has, I know that at least this song ''The Lazy Song'' is going to be a hit, so why not give him a hand at the beginning when he needs it the most, and when he grows up he''ll return the favor? -------- Comment End -------- I was surprised to get a friend request from Quacktus on Discord right after my presentation. Looking again at the number of viewers who were online for the stream, his friend request was understandable. Even though I imagined that he might be doing it to use some of my songs to get views, wasn''t that the same reason I was on his stream in the first place? I only agreed to participate in this talent show because of the number of viewers and the prize, which will be very useful to me. If either of those criteria were not met, I probably wouldn''t have even opened the stream. It would be naive to think that my path to fame will only be filled with true friends, girls who are truly in love, and people who only want to do me good. The moment I decided to take this path, I already accepted that mutual interests would arise, and the best thing I can do is benefit from it. If this friendship lasts and we can help each other for a long time, what''s the harm? While I was watching the last contestant, the door to my room opened. Walking through the door were Olivia, Ethan, my mom, and dad. "That was amazing, Noah..." Ethan shouted excitedly as he ran up to me and looked at the guitar with bright eyes. "That song was really cool, Noah!" Olivia said with a smile, pointing to the screen of her phone, which also had the stream open. "Noah, your song managed to perfectly describe my perfect Sunday..." My father laughed as he sat on the bed next to me with a relaxed attitude. "The song was really good, Noah, but that part about making the word with an S... is that true? Have you ever done that with anyone?" my mother asked. As soon as she asked the question, the atmosphere in the room froze. Olivia''s face was completely red and she tried to hide behind her phone screen. My dad looked at me for a split second and gave me a thumbs up while proudly whispering, "My boy!" Ethan was completely lost because he didn''t even know what the word S*x meant. "I think it will be good for our children. I think it will especially be good for Olivia as well," he explained as he gave her a side hug. Accepting the hug, Lauren snuggled into Jonathan''s embrace and they stayed like that for a few minutes. -------- Comment End -------- With the results already announced, Quacktus called me over to say a few words on the stream before ending the show and asking for my address so he could send me the microphone. Even though it was his old microphone, it was still much better than the microphone on my cell phone that I was using to record my songs. Even though I wanted to keep the look of an indie musician starting out on his own, I could still do that with a good microphone that would improve the quality of my audio; I just had to be careful not to make the music sound like studio music too quickly. I want to keep the idea that I''m an indie musician, which I really am, for a while. But what I didn''t know at the time was that a viewer had taken a clip of the stream where I was singing and posted it on other social networks and that clip went viral! ////NunuNote///// Enjoy your Bonus Chapter for the PS Weekly Power Stones Goal! Monthly Golden Tickect Ranking Bonus Chapters Goals: Top 80: 1 Chapters Top 60: 2 Chapters Top 50: 3 Chapters Top 40: 4 Chapters --- Weekly Power Stones Goals: 500 PS: 1 Chapter ? 1.000 PS: 2 Chapters ? 2.000 PS: 3 Chapters ... 6.000 PS: 7 Chapters Maximum of 7 Weekly Bonus Chapters --- Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. --- Every month, you will have a maximum of 30 Bonus Chapters up for the grab! [28 Left] discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 20: 20 - Gains Chapter 20: 20 - Gains I was surprised by the notifications that popped up on my phone after the stream. [Benjamin Johnson has subscribed to your channel.] [Emily XOXO has subscribed to your channel.] [Kiiiitty has subscribed to your channel.] [anniegameplays has subscribed to your channel.] [...] Looking at the notification history, I was really surprised at how many people started following me during the stream. Before the stream, I had 56,523 views on my music video and 1,813 subscribers on my channel. After participating, my views went up to 60,213 and my subscribers went up to 2,999! With only one subscriber left to reach 3,000! I think that since these people had already come to my channel to hear the song I had just sung, they must have subscribed to the channel to be notified when I officially released Lazy Song. Since I had nothing else to do, I bought the copyright to the lyrics of Lazy Song and went to sleep. I don''t know if it was because I sang this song yesterday, but my sleep tonight was much more comfortable than on other days. In fact, if it hadn''t been for the alarm clock on my phone, I probably would have slept late and not woken up in time for my morning walk. After waking up and brushing my teeth, I was surprised when my dad struck up a conversation with me during breakfast, since we usually just eat in silence and enjoy each other''s company. "Hey champ, I was thinking we could go to a bar this Saturday, how about it?" He asked a little excitedly. Looking at him in surprise, I thought for a moment and asked, "Sure, but why a bar? Wouldn''t it be better to go somewhere where Ethan could have more fun?" Hearing that, he smiled. "Yes, but your mother and I thought that since you''re interested in the artistic side of music, it might be nice to go someplace where there''s live music." "Live music? Is there a band that plays there?" I asked, more interested. He just shook his head and laughed at my question. "Some days of the week there are actually hired artists, but on Saturday it''s more like an open mic, where anyone can get up on stage and sing, and if someone sings well they can even get a few drinks from the audience." Hearing that, I started to smile, but he quickly noticed and shook his head. "In your case, no drinks yet, but if they buy drinks, I''ll drink for you." He said, laughing and looking at me to see how I would react. "Hey, kid, you lost a lot of weight, huh?" Surprisingly, an older woman commented as she walked past me. "Really? Glad it''s working, haha!" I replied, earning a nod from her. I think I''ve run into this woman a few times on my walks, and considering I''ve lost 16 or 17 pounds since I started, I think my transformation is beginning to show. Not only did she comment, but an elderly man who was watering his lawn also commented to encourage me to continue. "Well done boy, you seem to be doing much better since last week, keep it up!" He said as he waved at me. Smiling, I waved back and continued alternating between walking and running. My body was tiring much faster than usual, but I persevered and completed my 1 hour workout. Since I had been running at times, I think that instead of walking the 3 km I usually do, I must have walked at least 4 or 5 km this time, which is a big improvement! And even though I was tired, I was still able to walk home, much better than when I started! My lung capacity is getting used to this intensity of exercise, and probably because there''s less fat squeezing my lungs, it''s easier to breathe. After showering, I weighed myself and was very pleased with my current weight. [Weight: 139 Kg -> 133.2 Kg] (306 lbs -> 293 lbs) My weight was dropping fast! Out of curiosity, I even looked up on the Internet what the BMI (Body Mass Index) chart was for someone of my weight, and I had just gone from Class 3 Obese to Class 2 Obese! I would need to drop to 115 kilos to become class 1 obese, which considering I was losing about 2 kilos a day with my 3 daily workouts, would only take 9 days! Not to mention that I was working out and training my muscles, which also increased my weight... Looking at my arms, it was hard to see a clear change in the muscles, so I squeezed my right arm with my left hand while I was flexing the muscle, and you could really feel a strong muscle there, unlike last week when I hadn''t started training! How good it is to have the system, not only does it speed up the rate at which I learn things, but also the rate at which I lose fat and even gain muscle! ////NunuNote///// discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 21: [Bonus Chapter] 21 - Monetized! Chapter 21: [Bonus Chapter] 21 - Monetized! Today at school was much quieter than yesterday, mainly because high school students have short memories. Yesterday I was the topic of gossip, today it was Jackson and his dad. Apparently a lot of students had added Principal Adams to FaceShoot and as soon as I made the post with the screenshots of the pedo shit he was doing to the students, the students saw it, showed it to their parents, the parents called the police and Principal Adams is no longer here today. Unfortunately, Jackson didn''t respond to my phishing email, but since he wasn''t here today, I didn''t care, as long as he disappeared from my sight, I was fine with that. Even though the subject of today''s gossip was Principal Adams, I noticed that some people were still commenting on me. My anger started to rise again until I realized that the reason for these comments was not to make fun of me and Ethan, but because of my weight. "Hey, did you see that Noah Black is thinner?" One girl commented to her friend in surprise. "Thinner? He''s still as fat as ever." Her friend replied indifferently. "He''s definitely thinner, look at his baggy clothes, even his face you can see him better now." The girl said. "Really? That''s kind of true...is it because of Jackson?" Her friend asked intrigued. "I guess it could be, Jackson bullied him so much that he probably wanted to change." The girl tried to guess. "This change is actually good for him." Her friend commented, apparently trying to analyze me. When I realized that the subject of their gossip was my weight, I just ignored it and went to my classroom. I''m still wearing my fat clothes, so even though I''ve lost 18 kilos, the change isn''t so clear because my shirts are still as big as they were before. And I could even feel good about these comments, but considering how shitty this school was and the people who studied here, why should I care? I had already set a goal to move my siblings and I to another school when I started making more money. This decision was more about Ethan and Olivia''s future than my own, since I was in my last year and would only be at the school for a few months, so the education there would be of little use to me. But for them, who still had a few years of study ahead of them, going to a better school would certainly help them get good grades in the SATs. Of course, even though I went to a bad school, I still had some advantages. [Math Classroom T/his chapter is updated by Effect: +50% bonus when learning math related content.Duration: While I''m in this room]. This bonus really helped me learn everything. The best thing was that because I really studied these subjects with an interest in learning, I didn''t just follow the books blindly, but looked for points that could be useful to me and dedicated myself to them. For example, instead of trying to study the best way to calculate the angles of a triangle, I used Math Buff to speed up my learning of programming, as well as the possible applications in the world of music. Having to focus on other areas instead of just learning what the books taught was more difficult because not all the information was available in the books with good explanations, so I used my cell phone to look up the subjects I wanted, even if I had to read university articles, and learned from there. "You sang In The End in school?" I asked in surprise. Ethan froze when he heard my question. I could see his expression instantly change to one of regret. "I''m sorry, Noah, I... I didn''t mean to..." Ethan began to apologize, almost crying when he realized that he had shown Noah''s song to all of his friends at school. -------- Ethan''s comment -------- Sitting on the sofa, Ethan was almost in tears as he clutched one of the pillows. "I didn''t want to spread Noah''s music at school..." He said sadly, trying to hold back the tears. "I just thought the song was really cool and that I would sound really cool singing it, and it really worked!" Getting a little more animated, Ethan explained. "Tony made fun of me again and to answer him I said my brother is a famous singer!" "Ethan really is a famous singer!" He said indignantly. "But when Tony heard that, he started laughing and dared me to sing one of my brother''s songs." He said, rubbing his face. "When he dared me, I thought I''d look as cool as Noah when I sang, so I sang In The End." Getting up from the sofa, Ethan excitedly told the camera. "You had to see it, everyone looked at me surprised after I sang it, even Tony was shocked at how cool the song was, so when I got home I told Noah!" He sadly sat back down on the sofa. He sat down sadly on the sofa again. "But I forgot that I couldn''t show his song to anyone, because imagine if one of my friends stole his song and gave it to a very famous singer? What could Noah do?" -------- Comment End -------- When Ethan explained what had happened and why he was so scared, I had to stop myself from laughing. There was no risk of anyone stealing my song because I had already secured the copyright for it, so even if someone sang it, they couldn''t make money off it without my permission unless they wanted to get sued. And who would be afraid of 9 or 10 year olds stealing their music? "It''s okay Buddy, if you want to sing my songs at school, no problem, just wait until I release the songs first." I said as I stroked his head. "Really?" He asked, his eyes shining with a mixture of tears and hope. "Sure, if you want I can even teach you how to play the guitar!" I laughed as I handed him the guitar. Shocked, Ethan held the guitar and tried to imitate my playing, but looking at the difference in size between the guitar and Ethan, I thought maybe that wouldn''t work? "Or maybe I could teach you how to play the ukulele first?" I said a little insecurely, thinking that buying him a ukulele might be easier for him to start with. ///NunuNote/// Thanks to Requien for the Magic Castle, enjoy your 2 Bonus Chapters! discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 22: [Bonus Chapter] 22 - In The End Chapter 22: [Bonus Chapter] 22 - In The End After I told Ethan that I was going to teach him how to play the guitar if I bought one his size, he was very pleased and sat quietly on his bed looking at me expectantly. I think if I were someone who was afraid of audiences, I would be embarrassed for him to see me sing, but since I''ve chosen this artistic career, what''s an audience of one child compared to a concert of tens of thousands of people? So I just waved at him and set my phone to record while I got ready. The microphone I got from Quacktus wouldn''t arrive for a few days, so I''d just use my phone again and if the difference in quality was too great, I''d re-record the song with the new microphone and post it again, it might even get the song out to a wider audience and get me more views. At night, in an upscale house, a young woman lay in bed, hugging her pillow and listening to a song that had been on loop for a few hours. This girl''s face, though very pretty, was currently all red and smeared with messy makeup from her attempts to wipe away the tears that wouldn''t stop flowing. "That idiot..." She muttered angrily as she pressed the pillow even harder against her chest. Suddenly, despite having her headphones in, she heard the sound of someone knocking on the door. "Leave me alone!" She yelled in frustration, trying to ward off the person on the other side of the door. "It''s me..." A low, shy voice spoke from the other side of the door. Hearing that voice, the girl was a little tempted to open the door and change the pillow she was hugging for that person, but she was in a very bad way and didn''t want to make her little brother as sad as she was. "Not now Tony..." She replied in a deep, guilty voice. "Okay..." Her little brother''s reaction made her feel even worse about the way she had spoken and she wanted to stand up to apologize, but she was so sad that even her body did not respond to her commands. The only thing she wanted to do was to keep listening to the song on loop while she cried and tried to get rid of the bad feeling she was experiencing. The song she was listening to was called Numb, a song by an indie artist she had recently discovered when she was curious to see what songs were on her friends'' playlists on Spokify. Surprisingly, Numb was one of the songs on one of her friend''s playlists, a song she had never heard before and which had only 83 views when she discovered it. Curious, she clicked on the song to see what it was like, because if her friend was going to put it on her playlist, it had to be at least acceptable, right? How wrong she was, not only was the music unacceptable, but as soon as she heard the song, the first thing she did was put it on her private playlist so she could listen to it every day. Technically, the music was good, but not as good as it should have been. The quality of the microphone was poor, probably the artist had recorded it with a cell phone or a cheap microphone, the guitar was probably a cheap guitar too, because to trained ears like hers, it was easy to notice some imperfections in certain notes, and even the level of singing and the artist''s mastery of the guitar were not high enough to please someone like her, but what touched her the most were the lyrics. A song that sang about an abusive relationship where the person had to be perfect for the other person, without any mistakes, acting like a puppet... that was exactly what she was going through when she first heard this song. Unfortunately, because she heard this song and realized how toxic her relationship was, she decided to confront her boyfriend with the song and instead of apologizing and trying to make things better, he just cursed her, the artist of the song, and broke up with her! The breakup happened this morning, which is why she was crying. The only thing she could do at the moment was cry while listening to Numb in Loop on Spokify, trying to hold on to the feelings she had for her boyfriend, or rather ex-boyfriend, from when she first heard the song. She had listened to this song so much that from the 83 views the song had when she first met it to the 800 views the song currently had, Charlie was sure that at least 30% of that was hers alone, if not more. But suddenly, the song she had been listening to nonstop changed! Charlie became even more upset as she picked up her phone and prepared to see what had happened, because the app had changed songs when she had specifically set it to play Numb! But when she looked at the screen, she saw that she had not set it to play Numb non-stop, but had actually set it to loop songs by the artist BlackVelvet, but since there was only one song, Numb was the song that had been playing on loop for the last few hours. The reason Spokify changed the song it was listening to was because a new song had appeared on BlackVelvet''s playlist! When she saw the name of the song, she was confused as to what it meant. [In The End - BlackVelvet] The cover of the song was the same puppet as the cover of the song Numb, but while on the cover of Numb, the puppet was hanging from chains like a puppet, on the cover of the song In The End, the puppet was falling as it reached up, trying its best to reach the chain holding it, but failing. "Does the name of the song mean that the puppet couldn''t hold on in the end and fell?" Charlie wondered confusedly as she listened to the music playing in her headphones. Currently, only the instrumental was playing. ?????? I tried my best, went so far... But in the end, it''s just a scar... I had to fall, to lose it all... But in the end, I just needed a call... ?????? "Fuck BV, why?!" She screamed into her pillow, crying harder and angrier. It was as if he had written this song for her. She tried, she tried everything, she tried her best to keep the relationship going. Even with everything going wrong, with her ex-boyfriend not caring about her at all, she still managed to make it very far. Unfortunately, it wasn''t enough... what''s left is just a scar... and all she wants is a phone call... "How did you get BV? Are you watching me now?!" She shouted angrily as she turned up the music. Even though she was sad and angry, this song was the only thing she wanted to hear. Numb was very good, but In The End was like a nice abusive boyfriend, telling her everything she wanted to hear, but unfortunately making her feel everything she didn''t want to feel... ///NunuNote/// Thanks to Requien for the Magic Castle, enjoy your 2 Bonus Chapters! Monthly Golden Ticket Ranking Bonus Chapters Goals: Top 80: 1 Chapters Top 60: 2 Chapters Top 50: 3 Chapters Top 40: 4 Chapters --- Weekly Power Stones Goals: 500 PS: 1 Chapter ? 1.000 PS: 2 Chapters ? 2.000 PS: 3 Chapters ... 6.000 PS: 7 Chapters Maximum of 7 Weekly Bonus Chapters --- Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. --- Every month, you will have a maximum of 30 Bonus Chapters up for the grab! [26 Left] discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 23: 23 - Waking up in the middle of the night Chapter 23: 23 - Waking up in the middle of the night I posted In The End today as soon as I finished editing the song and designing the cover. Since JacobTheWerewolf had already designed the first cover, it was okay for me to pretend that BlackVelvet had paid Jacob to design the cover for the second song. The only thing I did was to include Jacob''s Twitter handle in the description of the video as a form of credit, which might even help increase the number of clients for him and possibly even increase the price per design. What surprised me was that In The End did very well! In just 3 hours after I put it up on MeTube, it had over 10,000 views on the first day! Looking at the analytics of the video, I saw that these views were mainly coming from people who had already heard Numb and recommended it on MeTube. The number of new viewers was still small, but I knew it was only a matter of time before it increased. This meant that the number of subscribers to the channel didn''t increase that much. Some people who listened to Numb and didn''t subscribe subscribed when they heard In The End, but it wasn''t that many people, so the number of subscribers I had only jumped from 4,611 to 5,244. It wasn''t, however, a bad number, so I was happy. In addition to the number of subscribers I currently had, another number I was keeping an eye on was the number of loyal fans, because that was the requirement for the mission I was doing. [Current Loyal Fans: 1,823/5,000]. When I saw the big increase in the number of loyal fans, I was very excited. I was still 37% of the way through the mission, but In The End hadn''t even started to hit yet, so I had a lot of audience to reach and a lot of people to convert into loyal fans until the next song was released. With both songs getting views, I finally saw the numbers on my MeTube account start to climb. From the 10,000 views of In The End and the 4,000 views that Numb got that day, I made a total of $10, haha.l! It wasn''t a huge amount of money, but I had to start somewhere, right? Looking at the comments, a proud smile appeared on my face. [Fuck BV, how am I supposed to get over my ex-girlfriend if you keep posting songs like this?] [But in the end... Bro, how did you come up with such catchy lyrics? I''ve had the chorus of this song in my head for a long time and it won''t go away!] [I sent this song to my ex-boyfriend and he blocked me :) lol] When I saw the last comment, I started to laugh. By then I had done my exercises and was just relaxing in bed, so I decided to go downstairs. As I came down the steps, I realized I didn''t even have the chance to show my mom my song, because when I got to the living room, Ethan was already showing it to her with my channel open on her cell phone, which he was holding while singing along with my voice. Once I started my daily practicing with Olivia and Ethan, Olivia also commented on the song to me. "This song turned out really well, Noah...but did someone break your heart to make you write this?" she asked worriedly as she did knee bends, following the list of exercises I''d given her to practice today. Y0ur favorite novels at novelhall.com Laughing as I lifted 12 kg weights on each arm, I replied, "No, no one has ever given me enough of a hard time to break me hearth, haha. I wrote that after watching some oriental series." "Oriental series? Really?" she asked me as she let out a small laugh. "Noah, look at this son of a..." Olivia said angrily as she pointed her phone at me. Still confused, I instinctively took the phone from her and looked at the screen, trying to understand what was going on. After a few seconds of staring at the moving pixels, I finally managed to focus enough to understand that the video was of a streamer singing a song and saying he made it up. If it was just that, I wouldn''t have a problem, but what bothered me was that the streamer was singing The Lazy Song and saying that he was the author of it! Just to make sure, I checked to see if his name was Bruno, but no, his name was Logan Steele! When I watched it again to make sure, I was furious to realize that this Logan guy was actually claiming to be the original author of The Lazy Song, and when I looked at the comments, I noticed that there were even a few people who commented that it wasn''t his song, but those comments disappeared almost immediately. Seeing that I was deep in thought, Olivia looked at me worriedly and asked, "What are you going to do, Noah? Is there anything you can do?" Turning my attention to her and looking at the clock, I saw that it was 2:00 a.m., so I just sighed and walked over to the computer after handing her the phone. "Let me see who this Logan is first," I said as I started to research this streamer. Seeing that I was about to try to solve it, Olivia, who was furious, took the chair from the table Ethan was using to study and sat down next to me, also looking for the details on her phone. With the two of us searching, we managed to discover something important. Logan Steele was known for getting into a lot of controversies, and his audience followed him because of it. He used those controversies to promote himself and grow whenever he had the chance. "I think that''s his goal this time too. He must want you to answer and create a controversy between you about who is the creator of The Lazy Song..." Olivia said angrily. "But what would he gain from that? I have so few followers, I''d probably generate little involvement for him in this controversy," I remarked confused. Instead of answering me directly, Olivia handed me her cell phone as she said, "You may not be that famous, but the clip of you singing The Lazy Song on the Talent Show stream has gone viral and people are singing The Lazy Song even if they don''t know who the singer is." Looking at the clip, I was surprised that it actually went viral, but unfortunately the person who made the clip edited the image to put in some pictures and memes so that my avatar name, BlackVelvet, which I used while singing, didn''t appear, so apparently no one knew it was my song. And to take advantage of the hype it generated, this Logan guy sang the song while trying to imitate my voice and say it was his... ///NunuNote/// Vote with your power stones, you still have 26 Bonus Chapters to grab! discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 24: [Bonus Chapter] 24 - Preparing for revenge Chapter 24: [Bonus Chapter] 24 - Preparing for revenge "What are you going to do about this asshole, Noah?" Olivia asked as she read the things this Logan Steele had done in the past, getting angrier and angrier. "First of all, I don''t have to worry about him trying to say it''s his song." I began to explain, leaving Olivia confused. "Why?" she asked. "Do you want to use the stream you participated in as proof that you''re the original singer of the song?" Looking at her, I just smiled mysteriously and replied. "Don''t worry, I have a way to prove it, now my question is how can I get my voice heard... because there''s no point in me proving that it''s my song and only 10 people see it, I''d have to find a way for what I post to spread." T/his chapter is updated by As I thought to myself, Olivia started looking on her phone as well, but neither of us came up with a good idea. Until Olivia had a good one. "You know, he''s posting on Instabram and streams singing the song and saying he''s the singer of it, why don''t you give him back by also posting that you''re the real singer and showing your proof?" "That might be useful, but it still doesn''t solve the problem of how people could know me and know that I''m the singer of this song". I replied, trying to keep thinking. But while we were both trying to think, I got a notification on Voicord, the Discord of the world. [Hey BV, are you awake?] Looking at the message, I saw that it was from Quacktus. [Sup Quacktus, I''m here] I replied. [Have you seen the shit Logan Steele is doing?] [Yeah, my sister just showed it to me, I was sleeping and she woke me up pissed about it]. [I''m glad you know, I was thinking, since you did the song on my stream the first time, how about you do the response to it on my stream too? I can help you spread the word so it reaches more people]. When I saw his suggestion, I thought about it. It was obvious that Quacktus was trying to use the hype that this discussion would generate to get more viewers for his stream, but from my point of view it wasn''t a bad idea. I could take advantage of this to create a stream channel, because I know from my previous world how lucrative it was if you already had an audience. But remembering that the streamers who made a lot of money usually spent several hours a day doing streams, I don''t think that''s what I wanted for myself. With my system, I could learn a lot during the day, but if I had to stream all day, it would be a big waste of time. So I think just being on the Quacktus stream and promoting my music and my MeTube channel would be enough. [I think that''s a good idea, do you have anything planned?] I asked after a bit of thought. [I''m already in contact with my manager, I think he can think of a way to promote the stream to get more attention, so we can do it tomorrow or the next day, is that okay with you?] [That''s fine with me, I''ll try to research some things too and if I think of anything I''ll let you know]. [Nice! Oh, one more thing, your new microphone should be here the day after tomorrow."] He replied. [In The End - 19,476 views] + 9,400 views [6,666 subscribers] + 1,422 subs Numb had gotten another 9,000 views since the last time I saw it, it was almost at 100,000 views! The growth of the channel was going very well, for an amount of views like that, almost 10% of the people listening to the songs were subscribing to the channel, which was great. But what I noticed while reading the comments was that some viewers were starting to talk about Logan. [Hey BV, did you see that there''s a streamer singing your song and saying that he made it?] [BlackVelvet, show people that you''re the original singer of The Lazy Song...] [BV, I met you singing The Lazy Song on Quacktus'' stream, I know you''re the original singer, reply to Logan!] [Don''t give Logan the attention he wants, BV]. [It''s not about giving attention, if BV doesn''t answer, people will continue to believe that Logan is the original singer]. There were few comments about this bullshit because not many people knew that I was the original singer of The Lazy Song, most of the viewers of my channel were people who only liked Numb and In The End, which had a completely different style than The Lazy Song. So much so that some people saw those comments and were surprised. [You mean BlackVelvet is the singer of The Lazy Song?!] [What do you mean my idol of sad songs sang that happy song?!] [Stop being idiots, look at the style of music BV sings, do you think he would sing a song as cheerful as The Lazy Song?!] Seeing those people''s doubts and some already labeling BV as a sad artist who might only sing emo songs, I knew that I couldn''t just focus on that style to make people''s impression even stronger. [BV, are you there? I think we''ll be able to stream today!] Quacktus sent me a message on Voicord. ///NunuNote/// Enjoy your Bonus Chapter for the 2,000 Power Stones Goal! Vote with your power stones, you still have 25 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 25: 25 - Exposed Stream Chapter 25: 25 - Exposed Stream [BV, are you there? I think we''ll be able to stream today!] Quacktus sent me a message on Voicord. When I saw this message, I got excited, because now I was excited to do this stream with Quacktus. Being patient had never been my strong suit, so seeing that asshole on the internet talking shit about being the original author of Lazy Song made me angry, but luckily I had time to prepare. My goal wasn''t just to prove that I was the original singer of The Lazy Song, because from what I had seen of Logan''s personality, being the typical influencer who grew up with controversy, lies, and just being an asshole that kids and idiots like, he wouldn''t stay quiet even if I proved that it was my song. So instead of just showing him that he was wrong to lie about being the original singer of the song, I sat down with Olivia and got some interesting things to talk about on the stream. Since Olivia had a lot of free time, I asked her to help me research the biggest controversies Logan has ever been involved in, and knowing what those controversies were, it was easy for us to find information about them on the Internet - moments when he contradicted himself in his explanations, as well as hidden things we hadn''t imagined. Unfortunately, my programming skills weren''t very useful in helping to get this information, but I did get another useful skill. [Investigation Lv 3: Effect: Develops a better understanding of investigation techniques, speeding up the analysis of information by 3% and promoting more efficient interpretation of clues by 3%. Also improves retention of details and practical application during an investigation or interrogation. Gain a tangible advantage by absorbing the basic methods of investigation and evidence gathering]. Raising the level of this skill to 3 was a great help, because at one point while I was looking for a detail about one of the lies he told, I suddenly remembered that he had told another lie in one of his streams and I connected some dots, gleaning more evidence against Logan to use in the stream. As for how helpful my new ability was right now, was 3% a lot? Of course not. But having an extra 3% on something positive was a big help. [All right Quacktus, when you''re ready let me know, I''ll be getting ready here too] I replied. After talking to Quacktus, I finished setting up the character I had made for the next song and put it on my profile picture. Then, to give my audience some satisfaction, I posted on my Stories that I was going to do this stream with Quacktus to prove that the song was mine and I was going to post some truths about Logan, which started to get more views than usual. Since I started my Instabram, I''ve maintained a frequency of posting at least one story a day, and considering I had just over a thousand followers, 300 to 400 views on my Stories thread was already a good number, but this story I was posting was getting more views than usual. In just 15 minutes, it already had 200 views, and according to the statistics of this story, it was being shared by my followers to their friends. Seeing this, I knew something big was about to happen, because if my followers were sending this to other people, it was probably because those people were Logan fans and my followers wanted to prove them wrong. But convincing a fan that their idol is lying is no easy task. Even Quacktus saw my Stories post and reposted it on his Stories post to the thousands of people who followed him, so even more people saw the hype that had started to build around the stream. Olivia also saw this and was excited with me as I tried to find out how people felt about it. Quacktus had scheduled the stream to start at 9pm, so there was very little time left for it to start. Of all the new views that appeared on my Stories, one that surprised me was from a verified account: Logan Steele. He had also seen my post... This was going to be interesting. I opened Voicord and sent the screenshot to Quacktus. [He saw my post... it''s possible he wants to retaliate.] [LOL, I hope he retaliates] Quacktus replied with laughing emoticons. [What are those people laughing at?] Quacktus: "That''s funny, right BV? Because if I''m not mistaken, Logan is not the real original singer of Lazy Song". BlackVelvet: "Yes Quacktus. Haha, for sure the song wasn''t originally sung by Logan." [What do you mean? It''s obvious that the song was invented by him, he wouldn''t lie about being able to do that]. [Logan sings so well, it''s obvious you guys are jealous]. [LMAO, I''m laughing with you both, these people really can''t see that Logan lied to them...] [How can you prove it''s not Logan''s song?] Quacktus and Noah continued to talk for a few minutes, dropping hints and clues to attract as many viewers as possible to the stream. Quacktus: "But BV, if it wasn''t Logan who sang that song the first time, then who was it?" Seeing the smile on Quacktus'' face, the audience became even more curious. The stream, which started with 4,000 viewers, now had 9,000 viewers, and that number kept growing as people loved a little gossip. BlackVelvet: "To answer the comments of those who wondered how I was so sure that Logan wasn''t the original singer of the song, it''s because, to simply put, I''m the original singer of The Lazy Song." ///NunuNote/// Vote with your power stones, you still have 25 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 26: 26 - The difference in The Lazy Song Chapter 26: 26 - The difference in The Lazy Song "I''m the original singer of The Lazy Song." Noah said in a confident voice, causing a smile to appear on Quacktus'' face and the chat messages to quickly increase. [What do you mean you''re the original singer?] [Stop lying, obviously Logan is the original singer of the song]. [What an idiot, he must be a frustrated singer who wants to surf on Logan''s hype by lying that he''s the original singer of the song]. [How many stupid comments, you haven''t even seen any proof and you already believe that Logan is the original singer]. [I was here when the Lazy Song was first sung, I can confirm that BlackVelvet is indeed the original singer of that song]. [Do you have proof?] "Do you see these comments, BV? They want to know if you have proof." Quacktus said, laughing. It was obvious why he was happy, the number of viewers on the stream was already 10,000, and it was getting higher and higher. I also laughed and replied, "Of course, the first proof is that the first time the song appeared on the Internet was on your stream, Quacktus, where I sang it to win your talent show. Nodding his head, Quacktus agreed. "Yes, from what I saw, the first time Logan sang the song was the day after my stream where you first sang it." [You just heard the song somewhere else and sang it at the talent show!] [If you were that talented, you wouldn''t be unknown]. [Two idiots trying to ride the Logan hype!] [How many clowns comment defending that asshole Logan...] [F] When I saw that there were still people who didn''t want to believe me, I wasn''t surprised, because I already expected this kind of brainless fans to come after seeing how much my stories were shared. "Of course, aside from the proof that the moment I sang the song was before anyone else in the world had sung it for the first time, the audio of the song that went viral and the audio of the stream I sang are exactly the same, I have other proof." I said confidently. Hearing this, Quacktus became interested because he didn''t know what my other proof was. "You know there is such a thing as copyright, right Quacktus?" I asked with a smile that they couldn''t see because I didn''t show my face, but they could tell by my voice. "Sure, I''ve already lost the monetization of some videos by putting copyrighted music in the background..." He replied. "Right, in addition to the copyright of a song, the lyrics can also be copyrighted, and as the original singer of the song, of course I have that too." I said as I sent Quacktus the proof of the song''s copyright in the stream with my personal information blurred out. Seeing this, not only was Quacktus surprised that I had registered the copyright for this song after I sang it on the stream, but the audience was also surprised that I actually had proof that I was the real owner of this song! [What?] [What do you mean?!] [OMG] [LOL, I knew you had hard proof!] [That''s a lie!] "Hey BlackVelvet, it seems there are still people who don''t believe that the song was originally written by you, how about singing it again for them to hear?" Quacktus asked. "No problem." I replied as I picked up my guitar. "Just ask me one question BlackVelvet, why haven''t you recorded this song and posted it officially on your MeTube channel and your Spokify?" Quacktus asked, genuinely curious. This was not only his question, but also the question of several people in the chat. "As you might have noticed from the quality of my voice, I sing by recording everything on my cell phone while playing a guitar I bought used since I don''t have much money to invest in my career... since I won the microphone you gave away as a prize, I was planning to wait for the microphone to arrive and record the song in the best possible quality to post as a surprise for the public haha... too bad I had to stop that surprise because there''s someone pretending to be the original singer of the song". I replied sincerely because it was really my idea. My mission looked like this before the stream started. [Current loyal fans: 2,423/5,000]. So I planned to increase the popularity of my persona to get more audiences and more fans before releasing the next song, which would give time for the new microphone to arrive and for me to record Lazy Song with the new microphone. [Current loyal fans: 2,991/5,000]. The number of loyal fans has increased a lot since I started the stream, mainly because the trust that more people have in me has increased even more, so the number has increased a lot. Of course, it''s worth pointing out that I don''t think these loyal fans that System is talking about are hardcore fans like those of the most popular pop singers, where girls stand in line for days to get a ticket to a sold-out concert. I think these Loyal Fans are people who like my music, identify with what I sing, and are interested in what I put out next. (Oh, my God, this is bliss) yeah ?????? To my surprise, the part where I usually did a funny singing voice, just like the original singer of the song in my old world, wasn''t me this time. The voice that sang that part actually came from my side with Olivia holding her nose and singing that part, which for some reason, the way she spoke sounded very familiar to me. Surprised, I looked at her and had to stop myself from laughing, while she also cracked a smile and smiled at me, apparently proud of having sung this part of the song. -------- Olivia''s Commentary -------- Sitting on the sofa while controlling her laughter, Olivia looked at the camera and confessed. "Don''t let my mom hear this, when Noah sang that part in a funny voice the first time, the first thing I thought was that this would be really good with my mom''s voice complaining." She said laughing out loud but trying to control herself. "Whenever my mom used to fight with me when I was a kid, I would run out of the room repeating what she said while covering my nose and trying to imitate the way she talks. From what I saw in Noah''s expression, I think he realized who I was imitating Haha!" Olivia laughed even harder. Even though her relationship with her mother had improved over the last few days, it was impossible to repair everything so quickly, so Olivia still had moments like this when she had fun making fun of her mother to vent some of her frustration. -------- Commentary End -------- Focusing again on the song I was singing so as not to waste time, I continued. ?????? Maybe I''ll even earn that college degree... I know my old man will beam with pride, you see... But sorry, pops, patience is the key... ?????? While listening to these new parts of the song, various comments appeared on the screen. [Wow, this version of the song sounds funnier!] [Funny? My mom is mad that I listened to a song that said "sex" at full volume and now she''s hitting me]. [LOL, I''ve never heard this version before, the part with the girl screaming is really good!] [I still prefer Logan''s version...] [Listening to this version of the song, it sounds like Logan''s version is a $2 store bought version of the original song!] ?????? "Oh-oh, yes I said it, I said it, I''m saying it loud and clear... Today, I''m feeling quite lazy, it''s true... Just wanna stay cozy in my room... No desire to grab my phone, no buzz or ring... So just leave a message, let it ding... ''Cause today, I promise, I won''t do a thing..." ?????? When it got to the chorus that the audience knew, I could see the emoticons popping up again in the chat, encouraging me to keep singing. Throughout the 3 minutes of the song, I saw many people changing their minds and realizing that my lyrics were much more compatible with the song than Logan''s version. And as I watched my mission numbers go up, an even bigger smile appeared on my face. ///NunuNote/// Vote with your power stones, you still have 25 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 27: 27 - Results Chapter 27: 27 - Results If before it was only my sadder, more rock-oriented songs that found loyal fans, now Lazy Song was finding a whole new and different audience than I had before. Numb and In The End were songs that focused on the sad side of things, on abusive relationships, on toxic relationships, songs that required people to have problems in their personal lives to be able to quickly relate to the music. Both songs had good musicianship so that people who didn''t have those problems could like the song and it could even become a favorite song of many people over time, but that''s the point, it would take some time for people to listen to the song several times before it became their favorite song. The Lazy Song was different. It was a happy song, a song about staying at home, about doing nothing, about enjoying doing nothing and living well with it. So it was a much easier song to relate to, with a rhythm that would easily stick in a person''s mind after hearing it once. That''s why it seemed to go viral so easily. So once people trusted that I was the real writer and singer of that song, their loyalty as fans of that song shifted from Logan to me, at least as far as the song was concerned. But this was where I wanted to break those people''s relationship with Logan. I didn''t intend to end his career, because that would be very difficult and most of the people in the stream didn''t care about a lot of the things I was going to say so much that they stopped following Logan because everyone knows what a liar he was, but my intention was to put myself in a good light for these people as someone who has uncovered a lot of hidden truths and other wronged people, while revealing Logan as the liar he was. "I hope you enjoyed the original version of The Lazy Song. Honestly, when I first heard the version Logan was singing, I was so embarrassed and disgusted, because the original song is so good. If he''s going to copy the song and pretend it''s his, why not look up the original source and copy the song in a good way instead of just creating lazy new lyrics for it?..." I pretended to vent a little frustration. [It''s true, Logan''s version is much worse.] [If he had sung the original version, it would have gone even more viral...] [I''ll check out BlackVelvet on MeTube!] [I like you!] Of the 15,000 people on the stream now, I think at least a few hundred to a few thousand were looking for my channel to follow me, which was fulfilling one of my goals for coming to this stream. "Don''t worry, BV. I think when you post the full version of this song, people will definitely realize which version is better," Quacktus said, trying to console me. "No problem," I replied, "But now, while I was researching who was copying my song and claiming to be the original singer, I found some interesting stuff. How about we show it here with the public?" Hearing this, Quacktus'' eyes lit up, knowing that this could increase the number of viewers even more. "Great, but are you sure about these things you''ve found?" Knowing his concern, I explained, "Don''t worry. Everything I found has the source from where I found it so that the public can look it up and also check if what I''m saying is true." "Haha, that''s great! Well, let''s just take a one-minute break and then you can show it all to us, BackVelvet. I really need to go to the bathroom," Quacktus said before quickly getting up and leaving the view of the camera. Feeling that I too was in the mood, I told the audience that I was going to leave for a minute as well and got up to go to the bathroom. Olivia sat down in the chair I was sitting in and started reading the comments that were coming in. When the stream came back from the break, I started explaining some information about a lawsuit Logan suffered for plagiarism and lost, another one he lost about copyright, and most interestingly, an old Tweep of his complaining that his Spokify account was deleted because the app said he was infringing copyright. These kinds of things weren''t things that were going to destroy Logan''s career, but when the public saw these other proofs of the person he was when it came down to it, they came to believe in me even more and helped promote the song I sang on Stream to show the internet that I was the original singer of the song. When the stream finally came to an end, I had some changes in my MeTube and my System. [9,021 Subscribers] + 2,355 Subs In just one night I had gained more than 2,000 subs! I was less than a thousand subs away from reaching 5 digits! [Current Loyal Fans: 4,186/5,000]. My number of loyal fans had also increased significantly, almost reaching the 5,000 loyal fans I needed to complete the mission! I would probably complete it this week, so I was excited to find out what the reward would be. "How was it? Were you happy with how it turned out?" I asked Olivia, who was a little sleepy but still had a big smile on her face. "Yes!" she replied, "I''m glad people liked your song. I''m just disappointed that we didn''t find anything really relevant to end Logan''s career." Smiling as I stroked her head, I replied, "I think it''s fine for now. With his personality it''s not impossible that he will try to do something like that to me again, so until then, we can look for something that will finish him off when the time comes." | ----------------------- | Buffs: | (Beard and Hair Done), (Aerobic Exercise Lv 1 -> 6), (Muscle Exercise Lv 1 -> 7) ========================= Since I wore baggy clothes all the time, which were the clothes the old Noah wore, the difference in my weight was noticeable, but it didn''t seem as big as it really was. The baggy shirts and pants hid the difference in my weight very well, especially considering that I have lost 21 kilos since I started working out. So to others it might look like I have only lost about 7 kilos, which seems like a lot, but they have no idea how big the change is. Since the day after tomorrow would be Saturday and we''d be going to a bar, I thought I''d go to a store and buy some new clothes to look nice in. I feel very uncomfortable wearing these old clothes of Noah''s. Considering that I make $200 a day from the drawings I do, spending a few hundred dollars on nice clothes isn''t a bad investment. The only thing I need to do is buy a few clothes, or clothes that will look good even if I lose a lot of weight. Since I''m not going to continue with the body as it is, it''s not a good idea to buy a lot of clothes that won''t be useful in a few months. After waking Ethan, I went to the kitchen early and went to my mother who was getting ready to make the scrambled eggs we were going to have for breakfast. "Good morning, Mom," I said as I walked up to her. "Good morning, Noah," she replied warmly. As I looked at the eggs she was getting out of the refrigerator, something occurred to me. "Mom, how hard is it to make scrambled eggs?" I asked, confused. Of course I knew how to do it in my old world, seeing as my garbage former father didn''t care what I ate, but since I''d never set foot near a stove in this world, I''d have to pretend I didn''t know. Looking at me confused, she tilted her head and replied, "I guess pretty easy... Why?" "I was thinking of trying to learn how to cook. I saw some diets on the internet that could help me lose weight and gain muscle mass, so I thought it might be fun. Do you think you can teach me?" I asked, this time really interested. Everything I''d learned in my old world had been on my own, or at most with the help of video tutorials I''d found on the Internet. My level of cooking must be very low. When Lauren heard my question, I could see her eyes light up. "Yes! Of course I can teach you, Noah!" Stunned by her answer, I began to wonder why, remembering that she had apparently already tried to teach Olivia how to cook, but what my dear sister has in beauty, she lacks in talent in the kitchen, so our house almost burned down in the three days my mother had the patience to try to teach Olivia until she gave up. Smiling, I nodded and went to her side so she could teach me how to cook. I had three reasons to learn: The first was to try to get closer to my mother, who was the person I was least close to at home. The second was that I was really interested in learning my way around the kitchen to see what level of a cooking skill it would take to make the food I wanted. Since I really wanted to learn how to make food that would improve my muscle gains in training, making it as tasty as possible was essential. And the last reason was to test what was happening to me in school. If I had a 50% bonus in math learning in a math classroom, what would happen if I had a cooking teacher in my home kitchen? Would the speed of leveling my cooking skills also get a buff? ///NunuNote/// Vote with your power stones, you still have 25 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!!Y0ur favorite novels at novelhall.com Chapter 28: 28 - It鈥檚 not the right time yet Chapter 28: 28 - It''s not the right time yet [Buff Acquired! Cooking with an Instructor! Effect: +40% bonus when learning cooking related content. Duration: While I''m in this kitchen]. Unfortunately, the bonus from learning to cook with my mother wasn''t as high as the bonus from learning in a classroom. Looking at this, I could only come up with two hypotheses. The first was that the problem is that the kitchen in my house is not characterized as a real study environment, and if I studied in a real kitchen to learn, this bonus could increase. The second is that my mother is not a very good teacher, and if I studied with a more capable teacher, this buff might increase. But even though the buff is only 40%, it''s not like this 40% bonus is too little, especially since the system already greatly increases the speed with which I learn things. Adding the speed of the system to the 40% buff would be a great improvement. "All right Noah, making an egg is very simple. First you have to put some oil in the pan and let it heat up for a few seconds." My mother began to explain what to do. Just as she said, I did it. "Now that the oil has warmed up, you''re going to take an egg and tap it lightly on the edge of the sink, just enough to make the egg crack, but not break," she went on to explain. When I gently tapped the egg, it just cracked, and I managed to crack it open on top of the pan. It may have seemed like my first attempt to her, but with all the eggs I''d had to eat in my other life because I didn''t have anything else at home, at least I had the confidence to do it. More complicated dishes? I didn''t even have the ingredients to make them, so at that point I really had to rely on my mother to teach me how to do things like that. While I was preparing the eggs, listening to her tips on how to make each egg the way each of my siblings liked it, a notification appeared in front of me: [New Skill!] Surprised by the notification, I looked around to see how my cooking skill was improving. [Cooking Lv 1 -> 7: Effect: Develops a better understanding of cooking techniques, speeds up the learning of new recipes by 7%, and promotes more efficient execution of cooking techniques by 7%. Also improves flavor retention and practical application during food preparation. Gain a tangible advantage by absorbing the fundamentals of cooking and harmonizing ingredients]. When I saw that the skill was at level 7, I wasn''t too surprised. Even though I knew how to cook in my previous world, it wasn''t like I was a good cook; I just knew the basics. So it was understandable that the skill wasn''t even at level 10. But as soon as I learned the skill, it became easier to understand my mother''s tips and control both the fire and the pan. Some simple ideas even popped into my head about how to make this egg a little better. By the time I''d finished making all 8 eggs, 2 for each of us, my skill had risen to Lv 8. Even though the gain from this skill wasn''t much, and I didn''t even need this skill that much, I noticed that my mother was smiling a lot more since I offered to learn to cook from her. -------- Lauren''s Comment -------- Only Noah''s old friends didn''t talk to me anymore now that Jackson wasn''t at school anymore, but considering that we wouldn''t have much in common to talk about, I didn''t have too much of a problem with that. I could use this free time to continue studying at school and improve my academic skills. Would this knowledge be useful after graduation? I don''t know... But who knows? It''s not like I have anything better to do at the moment. During classes I studied the subjects in the textbooks or used my cell phone to look up more advanced books on the Internet, during breaks I studied programming while practicing my singing, and everything would still be normal if it weren''t for something I heard during the break. Sitting alone at a table, the only sound I heard was my humming, which I was humming softly, and the conversation of the other people around me. What surprised me was not anyone''s conversation, but a boy singing a song to his friends while it played on his cell phone. ?????? I tried my best, went so far... But in the end, it''s just a scar... I had to fall, to lose it all... But in the end, I just needed a call... ?????? As soon as I heard the guitar, I knew I knew the song, even though the volume on his phone wasn''t very loud, but when he sang the chorus of In The End, I knew it was my song. I tried to look at him covertly and realized that the boy was singing it to a group of friends while showing them the screen of his phone with a clip playing. Judging by the look on his friends'' faces, they were surprised but didn''t quite know how to react. Fortunately, they were bobbing their heads to the beat, which was a good sign! It''s hard to like a song you''re hearing for the first time, but it''s easier to like the rhythm of it, and from what I saw, I was doing well with that. I didn''t want to go up to them and tell them it was my song; just watching from a distance was fine with me. It was the first time I''d seen the approval of people other than my family for my song in person, and it was pretty cool. Seeing that boy singing my song made me want to sit next to him and sing along, but I know now that wasn''t the time. ///NunuNote/// Vote with your power stones, you still have 25 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 29: 29 - Stats Chapter 29: 29 - Stats For the next few days I just followed my normal routine and watched my skills improve with practice. (Haircutting Lv 25 -> 26), (Hiking Lv 13 -> 14), (Bodybuilding Lv 18 -> 19), (Teach Lv 19 -> 20), (Negotiator Lv 5), (Sing Lv 24 -> 25), (Guitar Lv 27 -> 28), (Digital Illustration Lv 31), (Intermediate Mathematics Lv 29 -> 30), (Intermediate Biology Lv 25 -> 26) (Krav Maga Lv 10 -> 13) (Music Editing Lv 4 -> 6) (Programming Prowess Lv9 -> 13), (Football Mastery Lv1 -> 3), (Investigation Lv 3), (Cooking Lv 8 -> 11)... With these changes in Skills, I was much more confident in several different areas. My skills in Teaching, Intermediate Math, Programming Skills, and Cooking crossed the ten mark, and these skills saw a small qualitative improvement. Even if some only went up a single point, going from level 9 to 10, 19 to 20, or 29 to 30 made a big difference, to the point that I found it much easier to do these things. It''s not that my progress in other things was negligible, but in these specific skills, the progress was much more pronounced. Not to mention, not only did those skills go up a level, but I''ve also gained some stat points. [+1 STR] [+1 DEX] [+1 CON] [+1 INT] [+1 AGL] I haven''t trained these things to the extreme, but it''s more like I''ve been accumulating these stats over the last few days and just yesterday while training I gained several points in one go. Most noticeable to me was my STR, which finally broke the 2-digit mark, making it my second skill after INT to have 10 or more points. [Strength (STR): 9 -> 10]. Just like my skills, when STR went from 9 points to 10 points, it was as if a small qualitative change had occurred. Instead of just getting 11% stronger, which is what should happen when you go from 9 to 10 points, I feel like I''ve gotten at least 30% stronger, which I think is because I went up a dozen points. When I looked at my Charisma stat, I was confused that I didn''t feel it when it reached 10 points. Y0ur favorite novels at novelhall.coma (CHA): 10 (9 + 1)] But when I saw that I only had 10 points because I had the Haircut Buff, it was understandable that I didn''t have that qualitative change. It made me wonder when I would get the missing point to get to 10. If I needed 10 points to be average for a normal person, then the difference between 9 points and 10 points of charisma is not just 10%, but probably just like STR, it should be around 30%. So with the extra point from the buff, I was probably still a little uglier than the average person, but it was pretty unnoticeable. With the new clothes I bought and my hair cut short, at least I wasn''t ugly anymore. I did 2 drawings a day, so even though I bought a set of clothes for $50, I still had a $350 profit for those two days, bringing the total money in my account to $910. I was already halfway to class 2 obesity, with only 8 kilos to lose to reach class 1 obesity, I just had to be patient and dedicated and by next weekend I''d be there. Even my arms were starting to show muscle as the large layer of fat I was wearing disappeared and the muscle I was developing underneath began to show. It wasn''t a big deal at first, but considering that this was my evolution with System, it was probably the result of a few months of training like a normal person. When I finally got really thin, I''d probably have enough muscle to look ripped with it. As I walked out on the balcony with my father, he looked at his Toyota Camry and then at me. "I guess I haven''t taught you how to drive yet, have I?" He asked, a little insecure and embarrassed. Thinking about it for a moment, I realized that he hadn''t really taught me how to drive, and considering that my old fucking father hadn''t taught me either in my previous world, I didn''t know how to drive in either world. "Not yet, why? Do you want to drink tonight and have me drive back?" I asked with a laugh. "Negative, you haven''t even had your first driving lesson and you''re already thinking about driving for us? You''re far from it, kid!" He replied, feigning a little anger, but then laughed and continued. "But I can teach you how to drive so you can get your license this year." Thinking that sounded interesting, I agreed. Having a driver''s license would be very useful, even more so now that I was earning my own money, I could also buy a car for myself to go to school by myself, be able to go to the stores in town without having to take the bus, the practicality was very great. "Count me in!" I replied, smiling as I thanked him. After that, we spent a few more minutes chatting outside the house, just talking about random things while Olivia and my mom finished getting ready. My mom finished tucking Ethan in shortly after we left, and he stayed with us while he played with a toy car he liked. Remembering this collection of cars, Ethan seemed to like customized cars, especially Japanese cars, so when I got my license and had enough money, it would be nice to buy him a car he liked to drive around town. After another 20 minutes, Olivia and my mom finished getting ready and we got in the car to go to the bar. Olivia was very excited because it was her first time going to a bar, with Lauren''s helicopter at home it was impossible for her to go to a place like that, so she was all dressed up. Looking at my parents together, you could see that they were wearing clothes in the style of the clothes they were wearing when they went to the bar, which was 90''s rock style clothes. Considering that rock style hasn''t changed much since then, it was funny to see that their clothes and mine were more similar than I had imagined. The bar was a few minutes away from my house. When we arrived, you could see that the place was quite crowded, but strangely, instead of having a happy atmosphere, people were a bit stressed about something that was going on inside. ///NunuNote/// Vote with your power stones, you still have 25 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 30: [Bonus Chapter] 30 - My Brother Knows! Chapter 30: [Bonus Chapter] 30 - My Brother Knows! "Good evening, may I take your order?" The waiter asked politely as soon as we sat down. My father asked quickly. "Is the house special still a Blood Mary Jane and Smiling Jack?" Hearing this request, the waiter was a little surprised and replied. "That was the old house special, it''s no longer on the menu, but I can ask the bartender to make it for you." "Then we''ll have a house special, won''t we, kids?" my father asked with a big smile. Looking at the menu, there were a few non-alcoholic drinks, but I think it''s best to stick to coke. "I''ll have a Coke." "I''ll have a Blood Mary Jane." Olivia asked. But my mother quickly added. "Hers is non-alcoholic." Which made Olivia roll her eyes. "I''ll have a Coke too." Ethan decided as well. Nodding his head, the waiter finished taking our order and left. Looking around, I found it strange that people were complaining all around us. Curious, I started to listen to their conversation to find out what they were complaining about. Y0ur favorite novels at novelhall.com "Dude, the band was supposed to go on stage over 40 minutes ago... why haven''t they started singing yet?" One guy complained to his friend. "I don''t know, bro, I''ll see if there''s another place on the internet with real music." His friend replied while apparently picking up his cell phone to look elsewhere. "Good idea, if they don''t come up to sing in 20 minutes we''ll leave." The man exclaimed. Listening to this conversation and others around me, I more or less understood what had happened. Apparently today was the day that the bar''s main band was supposed to play, which was the day that most people came to the bar to hear that band, but the band was 40 minutes late, and since they played for 2 hours, the next band after them hadn''t even arrived to fill the empty spot. At least the bar wasn''t silent because the manager had put some music on Spokify. "So did your mom tell you that you''re learning to cook with her?" My father asked, trying to break the silence at the table. Olivia was taking pictures, Ethan was looking around curiously, and my mother didn''t know what to say. "Yes, I want to learn how to make food to enhance the results of the training." I replied. "Really? How does that work?" He asked curiously. After thinking for a while about how to answer, I managed to come up with an explanation. "Muscle needs protein to grow, while the body takes fat and stores it for times of need, so I''m looking on the Internet for a diet that decreases the amount of fat I eat and increases the protein available to my body to build muscle faster." Nodding his head, my dad found this interesting. "Noah cooks very well, now he''s making breakfast for us so we can train." My mom added with a smile. When the singer saw me coming and noticed how young I looked, he complained even more. "Look at his age, do you think he can play with us?" "If you don''t try, the loss will be on you." The manager replied dismissively as he walked away. "Arrrggg..." Angrily, the group''s singer grunted as she turned to the sofa in the restroom and began punching a pillow. While she was taking out her anger on the sofa cushion, a man of about 26 years came up to me with an apologetic smile. "Sorry bro, she''s a little stressed, don''t mind her." He said as he extended his hand to me. He said as he shook my hand. "I''m Mark, the drummer of the band, this is Jannet, the lead singer, this is Frank, the keyboarder, Harry was our guitarist, but as you might have heard he ate something bad and couldn''t get out of the bathroom at his house." I nodded my head and held out my hand as I introduced myself. "I''m Noah." "Can you show us your level, brother? No offense, but we really need someone with a good enough level so the public doesn''t get the wrong impression of us." Mark said. I nodded my head, I understood his side of things, even more with the way he spoke, Mark seemed like a nice guy. "No problem bro, you have a guitar right? I didn''t bring anything." I explained. "Sure, here, this guitar is from the bar since our guitarist couldn''t make it with his." Mark replied as he picked up a guitar from a corner and handed it to me. I took it and played a little to adjust the pitch and tuning, Mark handed me the sheet music and it took me a few seconds to read and get used to it, but soon I was playing it naturally. My guitar skills helped a lot. [Guitar Lv 28 By playing guitar, you learn 28% faster and have a 28% higher chance of being liked by other people]. Learning 28% faster was already very good, and increasing the chance that the audience would like me was also very good, especially now that I had to "convince" them to like my music. I looked around and saw Mark nodding, Frank in the corner looking at us with a small smile on his face, and even the lead singer stopped her angry outburst and looked at me in fascination. When Mark gave me another score, it took me only a few seconds to read it and visualize how it would work, and I started playing, with much less adjustment this time. The quality came out as good as the first one, which made Mark''s face break into a big smile as he looked at the other bank. ///NunuNote/// Bonus Chapter!! Vote with your power stones, you still have 24 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 31: [Bonus Chapter] 31 - Gift Chapter 31: [Bonus Chapter] 31 - Gift "I think he''s passable..." The lead singer said with a bit of disdain, but she didn''t manage to throw me off. "He''s good." Frank said as he nodded. "So you''re in." Mark smiled as he shook my hand again. If it wasn''t for Ethan, I don''t think I would have tolerated this woman, but considering that my little fan was waiting for me to play for him, I put my anger aside and shook Mark''s hand. "Everybody, the moment you''ve been waiting for has arrived, Midnight Echoes are about to take the stage!" The manager said into a microphone as he called the band out. As the three original members entered the stage, the crowd screamed with excitement, especially the lead singer, who was called "hot" by some guys, which made her smile even wider. The surprising thing was that when I came on stage, some people also celebrated, calling me their savior. It was just a few drunk guys, but it was nice. "Hi guys, even though there were a few setbacks, we''re finally here!" Jannet said, standing in the middle of the stage and getting some applause. "Today our level might be a little lower, but we''ll try to give you the best show we can!" She said the last part while looking at me out of the corner of her eye... seriously, how could Mark put up with this woman? Ignoring her idiotic attitude, I just stood aside, arranged the sheet music on the podium and waited for them to start. "To start, we''re going to play your favorite song, Midnight Call, as an apology!" Jannet said as Mark tapped the drumsticks to set the tempo and we began. Looking out into the audience, I could see my family looking at me with excited expressions. Olivia had her cell phone pointed at me as she probably took a picture of me, Ethan had a big smile on his face as he looked at me excitedly, my dad had a proud smile and my mom was worried as always. Seeing everyone looking at me made me excited. Little by little, I got used to the music and felt that playing it was getting easier. REad updated stories at novelhall.com [Guitar Lv 28 ->Lv 29]. Because I was so focused on playing the song, I didn''t even notice the notification that popped up while I was playing. My vision was just switching between the guitar, the score and the audience. In the audience, the vast majority of people were only looking at Jannet, who was the protagonist, but I could still catch a few glances at me with a smile, which encouraged me to keep improving. At this point, my two titles were in full use. [Perseverant: Only those who persevere to the end in a difficult task will receive this title. Effect: +10% ease when doing a task that requires a lot of effort]. [Tuned Ear: Obtained by those who take the time to tune their hearing. It surprised me that I was able to catch the eye of a pretty girl even though I still weigh so much. I think my prejudice against my original body is affecting me more than it seems. It''s not like I still weigh the 150 kilos I did when I got here, so I might as well start changing that personality of mine. When the glass arrived and I took my first sip, it was a very sour drink, which really must be Toxic, but after a few more sips I got used to it and looked over at my parents'' table, where my father had a big smile on his face as he sipped his drink and waved at me. Laughing, I raised my glass as I toasted him from afar, causing his expression to change slightly and an even bigger smile to appear on his face at the sight of my glass. Seeing this change in him, I realized that I had ruined everything, as he must have noticed that I was using a dark glass to hide what I was drinking. Luckily he just ignored it and laughed as he looked at my mother, seeing that she didn''t notice, I sighed in relief and he laughed even harder at my sigh. Olivia and Ethan were also very excited to see me playing, but I avoided looking at their table now, so my mother wouldn''t suspect anything, and went back to playing when the break was over. It seemed that playing guitar while drinking worked wonders for me, because everything flowed even more naturally. [Guitar Lv 29 ->Lv 30] When the guitar skill reached Lv 30, I felt that everything was even easier. I could play these songs as if I''d practiced them before, and I even risked the solo parts more, which made the audience even more excited. But when the show was about to end, Jannet looked at me with an expression I couldn''t quite understand because I was a bit confused by the drink, and spoke to the audience. "Our show is finally coming to an end, this evening has been incredible, thank you so much!" She said as the audience applauded and asked for one last song. With a mischievous smile that I couldn''t quite make out, Jannet pretended to hear the audience''s request and asked. "How about you ask for a song and we''ll play it on the spot?" As soon as she said that, the already drunk crowd got very excited and started shouting out the names of the songs they wanted us to play. But while the crowd was excited, Mark and Frank were surprised and started looking worriedly between Jannet and me. Only I guess because of the drink I wasn''t worried at all and smiled as I listened to the audience asking for songs. I didn''t realize that I didn''t know how to play most of the songs they were asking for, and that Jannet was probably doing it on purpose, just for that reason. ///NunuNote/// Vote with your power stones, you still have 23 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 32: 32 - My music! Chapter 32: 32 - My music! I was so excited and a little drunk that I didn''t realize the trap Jannet was setting for me. The night was very lively, everyone was having fun, and without realizing it, I was drawing more attention to myself with my guitar skills than she was with her singing. Then, in an attempt to reduce the crowd''s excitement for me, Jannet wanted someone to pick a song that I didn''t know, so that I would have to learn the new song before we played it, since this new song would not have sheet music. If I stopped to learn the song, according to a normal person, I would have to spend a few minutes practicing to be able to play it well, the problem is that because of "my fault" the audience would be quieter, and by putting me on another song, people would probably focus on it again. Did I care about that? Not at all, I was only on stage as a favor, if I wanted I could go downstairs and have fun with my family, so I didn''t realize Jannet''s intention at that time. But she wasn''t so lucky. "Play the song Numb!" Olivia shouted amidst the other shouts of the people in the bar. She thought no one would hear her, but to her surprise, as soon as she shouted, Jannet stared at her with bright eyes and took the microphone to speak. "The beautiful girl back there, I love your suggestion! Me and the boys heard this new song called Numb 2 days ago and we think it''s amazing! I think it would be a good idea to play this song for you guys to get to know it!" She said excitedly. But even though it sounded like she was excited, inside she had different thoughts. Numb was a very new song with very few views, it just appeared in her feed by chance, then she showed it to her partners and her boyfriend and everyone liked it. But since it was a new song, the likelihood of me not knowing about it was almost certain. She just didn''t know that the person who requested the song Numb was the sister of the original singer-songwriter, and that person was now playing guitar for her. Unlike Jannet, who feigned naturalness in choosing this song to play, Mark and Frank looked at me with concern when they heard this. They realized Jannet''s intention and were pretty sure that I didn''t know how to play this song because it was so little known. "Come on Mark, count the time!" Jannet said as she encouraged Mark to start playing, ignoring the fact that I didn''t know how to play. Mark ignored her and looked at me worriedly. "Is everything okay, Noah? Do you want some time to learn how to play this song?" I was already relaxed, when I heard that they wanted to play Numb I didn''t even worry too much and just smiled as I nodded. I think Mark realized I was a little drunk and was even more worried, but since Jannet insisted he start right after my confirmation, he could only sigh and start counting. "5.. 6... 7... 8..." He said as he tapped his drumsticks together and began to play. Jannet had a sinister smile on his face that I couldn''t see, but that smile soon faded within a few seconds of Mark starting to play, as a guitar with the distinctive feel of the song began to accompany him. Unlike the original song in my old world, where the main part of the song was played on a keyboard, in this world I only used the guitar to play it, so the most famous part of Numb became a guitar solo. Check new novel chapters at novelhall.com When she looked back, Mark and Frank noticed her annoyed expression, not even managing to hide the anger she was feeling. It''s a shame I didn''t even realize it, I was playing my song in front of so many people, I was very excited, so I just gave in to the moment and enjoyed it. Out of anger, Jannet lost the time to sing and by reflex I started to sing myself. Although I didn''t have a microphone, because there was no one else singing in the audience who didn''t know the words to this new song, only my voice was heard. ?????? I''m tired of being what you want me to be... Feeling so faithless, lost under the surface... Luckily, the show was over and as I was leaving the stage after thanking the audience, even though Jannet was angry, a waiter stopped me on my way and gave me another glass of Toxic Lake. "This glass was sent by the same girl from table 17." He said with a wink before walking away. Looking at the glass and then at table 17, I saw the same girl sitting there, bored with her two friends while the three boys at the table were obviously trying to get her attention. Smiling and raising her glass, she responded by doing the same in disguise as she again tried to pay attention to what the boys were saying. Enjoying the green drink in my glass, I went backstage with the rest of the band while Mark finally couldn''t resist asking me. "No, how did you sing Numb so well?" As soon as he asked that, Jannet accelerated the speed at which she was walking and took off faster than us, stomping hard on the ground. Ignoring her, I replied after taking another sip of Toxic Lake. "This is my song, it was my sister who called for it." Hearing this, Mark''s eyes widened in shock, imagining that this could be the reason, but not believing it. "OMG dude, we''ve been listening to this song non-stop for two days, Harry, our guitarist, Jannet''s boyfriend, has been trying to learn how to play the riff of this song since he first heard it hahaha!" Mark started to laugh out loud at the thought. Even Frank, who was less expressive, had a smile on his face when he remembered this detail. "I''m glad you liked it! I liked the work you did with the drum and keyboard arrangement to fit the song, did you come up with that?" I asked, surprised because I hadn''t noticed it at the time, but remembering now that the original version of the song only has an acoustic guitar, Mark and Frank managed to make a drum and keyboard arrangement that was almost as good as the original in just two days without ever having heard it! If I could just polish the details, it would be as good or better than the original from my old world. The talent of these two seems to be greater than I imagined. "Haha, we did this last night over pizza. Jannet and Harry had a fight and left my house, so it was just me and Frank playing around with the song and this arrangement was done. Mark said a little embarrassed, realizing that he had made up an arrangement and performed it in front of the original creator of the song. "Nah, don''t be embarrassed brother, I don''t think even I could do it better". I replied truthfully. I didn''t even have a drum and keyboard skill at Lv 1, let alone the knowledge to do something like what they did. If I had to guess, the two of them must have Drumming and Keyboarding skills that were close to level 40, or even at level 40! My highest skill was still at level 31, which was Digital Illustration, and I felt that was already a very high skill. Thinking about how these two had so much talent in a virtually unknown band with a troubled lead singer and guitarist, an idea popped into my head. But before I could talk about it, the bar manager approached me with a smile. "Hey kid, your name is Noah, right? There''s a customer who wants to talk to you, she said she saw potential in you." When I heard this I was surprised, what client was that? ///NunuNote/// Vote with your power stones, you still have 23 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 33: 33 - Journey to Stardom Chapter 33: 33 - Journey to Stardom "Take this, boy, you did well to help us out today, if you need a place to perform, you can come back here." The manager said as he handed me a $100 bill. Looking at the $100 in my hand, I was surprised because it was the first money I''d ever made in my music career! Considering it was a four-piece band, I thought $400 was a fair amount for how much we''d rocked the bar. As I sang, I could see that the place was getting fuller and fuller, to the point where the bouncer at the entrance had to stop more people from coming in so it wouldn''t get too crowded. When I reached a table near the stage, the manager finally introduced me to the customer he wanted to meet. Looking at her, damn, she was a beauty. A beautiful blonde woman with green eyes, her appearance made her look about 20, but from the clothes she was wearing I''d say she was about 24. Her body was very nice, even though she was in a dark bar, she was the kind of woman who had the right curves in the right places. Of course, I wasn''t analyzing her body like a pervert, these observations were the result of a simple glance for a second. When she saw us coming, she smiled and stood up to greet me with a big smile. "Hi, I''m Selena Sinclair, agent for American Journey and Performance Entertainment, or as everyone calls it, AJP." She said as she held out her hand to me. T/his chapter is updated by (Selena''s Visual Representation is at the Characters Tab) Surprised, I smiled back as I replied, although I had never heard of AJP before. "Hi Selena, I''m Noah Black." "Hi Noah, I watched your performance from the beginning and I can see that you have a lot of potential, are you interested in becoming an artist?" She asked with her big green eyes looking at me curiously. I wondered if I should say that and thinking about her profession, I thought I could. "Actually, I''ve already started my career, of course, I''m just at the beginning." Upon hearing this, Selena was shocked. "Jeez, are you already signed with another agency? Because I''ve never heard of you." "No, I''m an independent artist. I just make my music, put it on my MeTube channel and try to grow on my own." I replied. "What is your rank?" She asked curiously. "Rank?" I asked back, confused. "Your star rank, you know, the rank that shows how popular you are?" She tried to explain, but I didn''t really understand what she was saying. "You mean my listener rank on Spokify?" I asked, trying to understand. Upon hearing my question, Selena was even more confused than I was as she stared at me, trying to understand. "Are you serious that you don''t know what star rank is? Rank C, B, A, and S... none of that makes any sense?" Thinking about it for a moment, I think I''ve heard of it somewhere, mostly in some comments on my songs or Jacob''s artwork, it also came up when I looked up the names of some songs on the internet, but I never really looked into any of it to find out what it really meant. To me, those ranks were just a way for fans to classify artists. "I guess not...?" I replied a little unsure. At that moment, Selena was really shocked by me, her little mouth actually dropped open as she struggled to formulate a sentence. "Have you been living under a rock all these years?" She asked incredulously. "How could someone grow up without hearing anyone comment on an A-list artist, or even an S-list artist, it''s in the news all the time..." Listening to her explanation, I really realized that this rank thing is apparently something very common in this world, and that neither I nor the former Noah really bother to watch newspapers or gossip sites talking about famous artists. The only thing I know about famous artists are the artists from my old world that I looked up and couldn''t find here. "I never consumed much news content about artists, I just posted my music and responded to compliments." I replied uncertainly. Looking at me a little skeptically, Selena took a few seconds to decide if she believed me or not, but after a small sigh, she asked while picking up her cell phone. "What''s your stage name?" Hearing me interrupt her, Selena frowned and spoke. "Let me finish, please. AJP would take 50% of all your earnings if it were a normal situation, but since I see a lot of potential in you, I''d be willing to sign a Rank D Artist contract now, which would lower the amount AJP receives to 30%." Hearing that she would sign a better contract for me calmed me down a bit, but considering that it was still 30%, it still seemed like a lot. So after a little thought, as she stared at me with those big green eyes, I shook my head. "I''m sorry, Selena, but 30% of my income, as I see it, is still a lot. Even though it might be fair in the eyes of the industry, for me, who didn''t even know about these ranks and grew quietly at my own pace, taking all the profits, I think in this case I''d rather continue as I am." Hearing my refusal, I could see the reluctance on her face, she was probably new to this, right? I don''t think it''s good to show so much of what you''re thinking... "Wait Noah, I only have the authority to sign a rank D contract, can you wait for me to call my manager and ask if he''ll approve a rank C contract for you? Since you already have experience and are doing a good job managing your social media, I can remove that as a benefit in the contract and increase the likelihood of my boss accepting the deal, how about that?" She asked. Thinking about it for a moment, if it was just 20% of my income, with no one to control my social media and the agency just focusing on finding new work and gigs for me, that might work. "All right, I''ll wait." I replied with a smile after some thought. Sighing in relief, Selena nodded and left the bar, cell phone in hand. Meanwhile, the waiter brought me another glass of Toxic Lake and I picked up my phone. [Hey, are you hitting on that blonde?!] - Olivia When I saw the message Olivia had sent me, I almost choked and had to stop for a moment to catch my breath. [No, she''s offering to be my manager."] I replied, explaining. [Oh I see, I thought for a second you were talking to a fan hehe...] [I don''t even have fans to interact with like that yet]. I replied, not knowing that my Instabram DMs already had dozens of messages from girls who had listened to my songs. I took the opportunity to look up AJP and saw news about some problematic artists in the company, but no major scandal involving the company itself. After a few minutes, Selena returned and I looked at her, who had a big smile on her face as she held out her hand to me. "Noah, we have a deal! I convinced my manager!" Smiling back, I shook her hand and replied, "Good Selena, how about we arrange to sign the contract tomorrow?" "Tomorrow? I''ve already had the contract printed out, if you want you can sign it now." She explained confusedly. Laughing, I said. "I''m only 17, legally I can''t sign it, you have to explain it to my parents again so they can sign it for me." As soon as I said that, I pointed my hand at my parents'' table and Selena saw the two adults, a teenager and a child, looking in our direction. "You''re only 17?" She asked in shock. Unbeknownst to me, that was the moment my artistic career finally began. From that day on, BlackVelvet would begin the journey from being a Rank F artist to becoming the world''s superstar. [?? End of Volume 1: Towards the Stage! ??] I hope you''ve enjoyed the story so far! I''m counting on your support for Volume 2! [?? System Alert! ??] [This book will soon go premium. Please continue supporting the author!] Chapter 34: 34 - Mission Reward! Chapter 34: 34 - Mission Reward! Since we had both been drinking today, Selena and I just exchanged contact numbers and said goodbye, promising to meet tomorrow to sign the contract. I still had a few things I wanted to ask her, because since our contract made it clear that I would be the administrator of my social media accounts, in my opinion, the money from the income from MeTube and other social media should be exclusively mine, since they weren''t doing anything about it. Of course, over time, the money I would make from gigs and speaking engagements would far outweigh the money I was making from MeTube and Spokify, but I knew it was possible that I would be making a few hundred thousand or even millions of dollars a month from it in the future, and since I was the only one in control of it and responsible for making it grow, I didn''t feel it would be fair to share that amount with them. So that was one of the things I put aside to talk to Selena about tomorrow. But for tonight I just wanted to enjoy the bar! A new band took the stage to continue their set while I quickly went backstage before returning to sit with my parents and enjoy the evening. I went backstage to get Mark and Frank''s phone number, without Jannet seeing me of course. I really enjoyed playing with them and felt that they had a lot of untapped talent. With the three new contacts on my phone, Selena, Mark and Frank, I was relaxed because I had nothing else to worry about today. Until I sat down at my parents'' table and everyone looked at me strangely. "What happened?" I asked confused. Looking down at my glass and then back at me, Olivia said in a strange way. "You know Noah, a waiter came over and put a drink called Toxic Lake on the table." As soon as she said that, she started pointing desperately with her eye at my mother. Looking at them, I noticed that my mother''s face was frozen with a deadly expression, while my father at her side was having a hard time not laughing. Thinking quickly, I tried to remain calm without looking nervous while pretending to sip slowly from the glass, but in reality I was trying to swallow all the remaining liquid without looking desperate. After I finished, I replied to Olivia. "I think he must have made a mistake when he wrote it down, because I ordered a non-alcoholic version." "Really, Noah? Because I could swear I''m sensing a little drunkenness coming from you right now..." My mom said in a serious voice as she stared at me. "I don''t think so Mom, maybe it''s just a placebo, you know? That I''m drinking something that''s supposed to have alcohol in it and my body thinks it has alcohol in it and acts like it''s really drunk." I tried to make an excuse. "Give me that glass..." She said as she extended her hand. I gave her the empty glass, she didn''t seem to mind that it was empty and sniffed at it, even licking some of the drink left in the glass and looking at me with a deadly expression. Shit, I shouldn''t have paid for a toxic lake... I thought ruefully, knowing that the Lauren helicopter was about to take off. From that moment yesterday, my mom kept an eye on us all the time, even checking all the glasses to see if I was sneaking alcoholic drinks. If my father hadn''t calmed her down, she would have made a fuss about the bar selling alcohol to an underage person. The only way to calm her down was to tell her about Selena and that she wanted to sign a contract with me, which made everyone curious about how it would work. When I told them that I was about to become a Rank E celebrity, they were very excited and shocked, which showed that I really was the only one who had no idea what it meant before. That kept the helicopter quiet for the rest of the night. When I got home, I realized that I was really drunk, and simple things like changing my clothes were much more difficult, which made me laugh, and I finally gave up and slept in the same clothes. The surprising thing was that even sleeping like that, unlike the hangover I imagined I''d get when I woke up, I woke up early without any pain! So doing my morning run and selling the two drawings didn''t get in the way at all. After everything was done, I decided to open the system screen to see what my status was. ========================= Vissit for updates | Character Status ========================= | Name: Noah Black | Title: Perseverant, Attuned Ear. | Level: 01 |------------------------ Especially now that I was going to start doing shows, it was great to know the best songs to sing! Of course, my first priority was to build up my repertoire, because it wouldn''t do any good to go out and do shows without any songs to sing, and have to sing covers of other artists all the time. So while I waited for my family to wake up and Selena to arrive, I decided to spend some time thinking about what songs I could record next. Now that the mission was complete, I could record and post as many songs as I wanted since I no longer had a limit on how many songs I had to post to get loyal fans. Of course, the first song I wanted to record was "The Lazy Song," which finally introduced my new microphone, now all I had to do was choose another song to record as well. Since I''d played The Lazy Song before and was already used to playing and singing it, the only work I had to do for this song was to design the cover art. In order to decide which song to play next, I decided to test the Music Selector feature first, as it could help me with this selection as well. I had a few criteria to fill in the filters. First, the style of music I wanted to sing was rock, and that was the main style I wanted to pursue for my career. I wouldn''t have a problem adding songs of other styles to the repertoire, but the main focus I wanted to maintain was that of a rock singer. But even though I''m a rock singer, I didn''t want to do another depressing emo Linkin Park song that I''ve done before, I wanted something more upbeat, something more confident, so I put that in the filters as well. Another filter I put in was that the song would be good with just an acoustic guitar and my voice, without needing multiple instruments to make it good. I made it a song that I could sing by myself, and finally I clicked the [Start Selecting] button. When I clicked it, I thought the system would immediately show me the song to sing, but I was wrong. The screen changed to [Analyzing Data] and stayed that way for a few minutes until I decided to wait and let the system do its work. I trusted the system to pick a good song, I just hoped it wouldn''t take days. Unbeknownst to me, the data System was analyzing wasn''t just the choices I''d made, but the people who were likely to listen to my music and what they were going through to be most affected by my music. If I were at a live show, this selection would be quick because System knew exactly who would be listening to my music and who to analyze, but since I was about to post a song online, this selection was more detailed and complicated. ///NunuNote/// Vote with your power stones, you still have 23 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! ///NunuNote/// --- Monthly Golden Ticket Ranking Bonus Chapters Goals: Top 80: 1 Chapters Top 60: 2 Chapters Top 50: 3 Chapters Top 40: 4 Chapters --- Weekly Power Stones Goals: 500 PS: 1 Chapter ---- COMPLETE 1.000 PS: 2 Chapters ---- COMPLETE 2.000 PS: 3 Chapters ... 6.000 PS: 7 Chapters Maximum of 7 Weekly Bonus Chapters --- Chapter 35 [Bonus Chapter] 35 - Reviewing the contract 35 [Bonus Chapter] 35 - Reviewing the contract While the system continued to analyze the data, I took the opportunity to open my MeTube channel and check my analytics while Ethan was still asleep. It was still 9 a.m., and since it was Sunday, I thought it would be rude to wake him up just because I was excited about recording a song, so I continued doing tasks I could do in silence. b - 127,983 views] +16,973 views [In The End - 58,808 views] + 19,698 views [10,356 subscribers] + 421 subs The growth of my channel has been very good! The songs grew a lot and at a very good rate! For a channel that only had two videos, I already had 10,000 subscribers and almost 200,000 views on my songs, which was a huge number! It was a very small number compared to the people who were viralizing their songs on TikTok in my old world, but it still showed that my growth was going in the right direction. Monetized views: 101,005 Since my channel''s RPM was about $0.70, this meant that my channel had earned about $70 in monetized views. Was that a lot of money? No, but it was money that I had earned through my own efforts. I wouldn''t be able to withdraw it until I earned $100, but it was very satisfying to see the number grow for the time being. After an hour of analyzing the channel''s views and how I could make it grow faster, Ethan woke up, giving me enough time to record The Lazy Song. Since it was a song I already knew how to play and sing, it only took me 3 minutes to record the song, and man, the difference between the cell phone microphone I was using to record before and the quality of the microphone Quacktus gave me to record was gigantic. Comparing the quality of the songs I''d recorded before with The Lazy Song clearly showed the difference in quality between the two microphones. Since I had created a 2D character to represent myself in the clips I would make for the songs, instead of just leaving a static image on the screen while the music played, I decided to use my skills to create an animation of The Lazy Song. Following the idea of the original song from my old world, I made my character wear a casual outfit in his room while 5 other guys were around him in casual clothes but wearing animal masks. To avoid getting into political arguments with people trying to understand why the guys around me were wearing monkey masks, I just decided to have each guy wear a different animal mask. But even though each guy wore a different animal mask, I just used the same structure of each character doing the same thing that those characters did in the original video. Since making a 2D animation was much more difficult than just making a single frame, it took me 2 hours to make just 20 seconds of this animation. But I was very happy with the quality, it''s not like it was a Pixar animation, but for a music video it was very good quality. I just had to stop developing this clip because lunch was ready and I went out to eat with my family. When we finished eating, I got a call from Selena saying she was outside my house, so I went out and said hello. "Hey Selena." I smiled as I opened the door and waved to her, who was still sitting in the driver''s seat of her car. Seeing me, Selena got out of the car and came to meet me with a smile. "Hi Noah." Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! ///NunuNote/// Thank you JKing for the Golden Gachapon!!! There will be 6 Bonus Chapters for you! --- Monthly Golden Ticket Ranking Bonus Chapters Goals: Top 80: 1 Chapters Top 60: 2 Chapters Top 50: 3 Chapters Top 40: 4 Chapters --- Weekly Power Stones Goals: 500 PS: 1 Chapter ---- COMPLETE 1.000 PS: 2 Chapters ---- COMPLETE 2.000 PS: 3 Chapters ---- COMPLETE 3.000 PS: 4 Chapter ---- COMPLETE ... 6.000 PS: 7 Chapters Maximum of 7 Weekly Bonus Chapters --- Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. --- Every month, you will have a maximum of 30 Bonus Chapters up for the grab! [15 Left] discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, I really need your support for this competition!! NunuXD Chapter 36 - Noah is like an onion 36 36 - Noah is like an onion Fortunately, the contract was pretty straightforward. Although there were a few small details that my mother suggested I change, Selena emailed it to the company''s legal team and within minutes they returned it already edited and ready to sign. After confirming with me that this was what I wanted, my parents signed the contract for me, and our partnership finally began. "So, Noah, do you have any songs already written or do you want me to find a writer to write a new song for you?" Selena asked after signing the contract. "I don''t think I''ll need writers for me, I already have some separate lyrics that I wanted to sing, if you want I can show you the one I recorded today." I said as I looked at her. Surprised, Selena nodded and I got up to go to my room with her following me. "Have you heard The Lazy Song?" I asked as I opened the animation program I was using. "The Lazy Song... The Lazy Song... I don''t think I know it." She said a little embarrassed, but I just shook my head. "No problem, it was a song I wrote and sang on an internet talent show, luckily I registered the copyright after I sang it, but a streamer started saying he was the singer of the song after it went viral." I explained about Logan''s case. "But I was able to turn it around a bit and get some of the music public back to me." When Selena heard this, I felt the atmosphere around her freeze. "Our legal team is very powerful, with the copyright and videos of him saying he''s the original singer and writer of the song, we can sue him. How about that?" On second thought, I had no problem. The best way to avoid future problems with Logan would be to nip this in the bud and make sure he didn''t get any more ideas about claiming the song as his own. "Sure, I can get the proofs and send them to you." I said smiling, pleased that I was already seeing the benefits of signing with AJP. "The song you want to release is this Lazy Song?" She asked, curious about the song, since it was obviously good, right? If even a big streamer lied and pretended to be the original singer. "Yeah, I''m working on an animated clip to post on my MeTube channel, for now I''ve got 20 seconds of animation done, check it out." I said as I opened the music video and showed it to her. ???????????? Today I don''t feel like doing anything... I just wanna lay in my bed... So leave a message at the tone... ''Cause today I swear I''m not doing anything... ???????????? At the beginning of the song, not much was happening, so the animation was just BlackVelvet''s character bobbing his head in his room in a comfortable outfit while 5 guys in animal masks stood around him bobbing their heads to the beat. When they talked about picking up the phone, all the characters made the phone move with their hands, and when that verse ended, the characters moved away from the camera and were about to start dancing, but I hadn''t animated that part yet, so the screen went black, but the song kept playing. Selena started listening to the song with a serious expression as she stood with her arms crossed, but as time went by, I noticed that she relaxed and let the energy of the music infect her. I could even see a small smile appearing at the corner of her mouth, which was usually just serious and focused, which was good news. ???????????? Nothing at all Woo-ooh, woo-ooh, ooh Nothing at all Woo-ooh, woo-ooh, ooh Nothing at all ///NunuNote/// Bonus Chapter for this Week: 0/7 Thank you JKing for the Golden Gachapon!!! There will be 6 Bonus Chapters for you! Vote with your power stones, you still have 15 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! ///NunuNote/// Bonus Chapter for this Week: 0/7 Thank you JKing for the Golden Gachapon!!! There will be 6 Bonus Chapters for you! --- Monthly Golden Ticket Ranking Bonus Chapters Goals: Top 80: 1 Chapters Top 60: 2 Chapters Top 50: 3 Chapters Top 40: 4 Chapters --- Weekly Power Stones Goals: 1.000 PS: 1 Chapters 2.000 PS: 2 Chapters 3.000 PS: 3 Chapters ... 7.000 PS: 7 Chapters Maximum of 7 Weekly Bonus Chapters --- Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. --- Every month, you will have a maximum of 30 Bonus Chapters up for the grab! [15 Left] discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 37 - Uncertainty and new music 37 37 - Uncertainty and new music Selena''s reaction was quite different from what I''d imagined... "Are you sure?" I asked uncertainly. "Yes, can you make her look cute drinking English tea?" She asked excitedly as she stood very close to me, our faces almost touching. Seeing how close she was because she was so excited about what I was doing, I just sighed and answered. "Sure, you want a white cat with a pink bow on its head, drinking tea on a sunny day in a coffee shop in England. Right?" I confirmed. "Yes!" She said, jumping up and down excitedly. "Just wait a bit..." I said as I opened my drawing program and began to draw the character she had asked for. As I had discovered when I started drawing, the furry culture in this world was still in its infancy, so hardly anyone knew what Furrys were, and Selena was one of those people who didn''t know. When I showed her my drawings, the first thing she thought of were the cartoons she used to watch as a kid, and she wanted me to make a white cat version of her. At least I could see that she wasn''t a furry, she just liked the aesthetic and wanted a cute drawing of her that way. So I did what she asked. While she sat on the bed next to the computer and watched me draw, I concentrated on drawing the character she wanted, alternating my gaze with hers. To make the drawing more realistic, I took the opportunity to look at her more closely. Selena was really pretty, with a very slim body, but her hips were a little wider than her waist, and her skin was white and very well cared for. Of course, I wasn''t staring at her breasts, since she obviously saw me staring at them, so I just tried to keep my gaze as professional as possible. "Are you using me as a model?" she asked, a little confused and shy. "Yes, I thought you''d like it better that way. Does that bother you?" I asked, trying to act natural. The situation would only get weirder if I acted like a weirdo, but if I kept it professional, she would probably be more relaxed as well. And as I imagined, she answered more calmly. "It''s okay. It raises my expectations." [+1 DEX] Getting another Dexterity point was a big help with the drawing. In just 40 minutes, the drawing was done just the way she wanted it. During the drawing time, we talked and got to know each other; since she would be taking care of my career, it was important that we know about each other''s lives. She had graduated that year from MIT with a degree in business administration with a specialization in music career. From what she told me, I was her first artist, as she was very careful about who she chose to work with. As I had imagined, she was 22 years old, but since she was too young to inspire confidence in others, she preferred more serious clothes and more mature make-up to appear older. As for me, I told her about Noah''s old dream of becoming a singer and being able to influence people and help his family. I also told her that I was learning martial arts, programming, and was interested in learning other languages and instruments. As we talked, the initial embarrassment of being seen modeling disappeared. When the drawing was finally finished, she got out of bed and came over to my side to take a closer look at the computer monitor and began to observe the drawing. "That looks amazing!" She said excitedly as she moved even closer to look at it. "You even got her to wear my earrings!" "Yeah, I noticed they were the same earrings you were wearing yesterday, so I thought it would be a nice detail." I replied, smiling as I stepped back to let her look more comfortably. It was very satisfying to see her reaction. "How much is it?" She asked. "Normally I charge $100 per piece, but since we signed the contract today, I won''t charge you anything, this will be my gift to you so that we can have a good partnership." I replied. Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. discord.gg/NunuXD I really need your support for this competition!! ///NunuNote/// Bonus Chapter for this Week: 0/11 Thank you Pastor123 for the Spaceship!!! There will be 4 Bonus Chapters for you! --- Monthly Golden Ticket Ranking Bonus Chapters Goals: Top 80: 1 Chapters Top 60: 2 Chapters Top 50: 3 Chapters Top 40: 4 Chapters --- Weekly Power Stones Goals: 1.000 PS: 1 Chapters 2.000 PS: 2 Chapters 3.000 PS: 3 Chapters ... 7.000 PS: 7 Chapters Maximum of 7 Weekly Bonus Chapters --- Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. --- Every month, you will have a maximum of 30 Bonus Chapters up for the grab! [11 Left] discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, I really need your support for this competition!! NunuXD Creator''s Thought Comment 49 View All hey, I was wondering would bartender mixing and cooking will be separate skills because I know they do weird tricks plus also mix different types of drinks alcoholic and non-alcoholic and I imagine it also comes with how to make healthy drinks as well I thought it would be something weird and fun he can have in his skill set[imgs] middle of the night by loveless would be a pretty good pick, can be sung by both men and women. Chapter 38 38 - Thirst Trap Chapter 38 38 - Thirst Trap ??Looking at the title of the song and the lyrics, I remembered which song it was. If I remembered correctly, this song had gone viral on TikTok in my previous world, it was a song where a girl sang something that made a lot of girls dream. But when I looked at the lyrics again, I was a little afraid to sing it, especially in a live show... The lyrics weren''t ones that would make the boyfriends of the girls in the audience happy... but I guess I could understand why System had chosen this song for me to sing next. My image to the public with the three songs I had was of a singer who was suffering, with abusive relationships, with relationships that didn''t work out in the first two songs I recorded, and of a carefree boy in the second song. The two songs didn''t speak to each other in terms of an image for me, which meant that the public''s vision of me was confused. But that confusion wasn''t a bad thing, it also meant that I was open to adopting any image I wanted, so I could make a song like the one System chose, sticking to an image of an attractive bad-boy man, which, since the public hadn''t been able to define me yet, wouldn''t be confusing. Those who liked my first two songs would be able to relate to me because they think we suffer the same way, and normal kids would probably listen to The Lazy Song and identify with it a lot, creating an image of me as a chill guy who would be cool to hang out with. This fourth song, on the other hand, would be focused on the female audience, a song to get girls interested in my persona. But because this song was so focused on portraying me as an attractive guy to the female audience, I couldn''t perform on stage and record this song with my current appearance. Since I had just signed with the agency, this could be a problem if my agent was a jerk, but considering what I knew about Selena, I don''t think this will be a problem. [Hey Selena, are you home yet?] I texted her. [Yeah, I''m at my parents right now, why?] She replied with a confused cat gif. [I have an idea for my next song, but I''m going to have to work on my image for a few weeks for this song. My current weight will get in the way...] I explained my point of view on the public''s view of me and my goal with this new song. [I think you have a wrong view of your appearance, even though you''re overweight, your image is not bad]. She replied, trying to cheer me up. Seeing my dedication, Olivia, Ethan and my dad got motivated and started training even harder. Over the next few days, my routine was already set in my mind. I would do my aerobics in the morning, help my mom cook breakfast to improve my skill level since my knowledge of school subjects was already at a good level, use my time at school to learn another language and improve my programming level, after returning home I would help Ethan with his homework, do two drawings, edit a few more seconds of the Lazy Song animation, do my weight training in the evening, and practice my guitar and singing before going to bed. My days would be very busy, especially editing the animation for Lazy Song, but I knew it would be worth it. The next day I had little time to rest as I adjusted to this routine. The language I decided to learn was Spanish. Since it is a language derived from Latin, it would be easier to learn French, Italian, and Portuguese in the future. It''s as if I was learning a new style of drawing, but that in the future my skills in that style of drawing would be useful in learning a similar style. Not to mention, the size of the audience I can reach with these languages is huge. By knowing how to speak these five languages, English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese, I can already open many doors across the American continent and at least half of Europe! So, following this routine, the Lazy Song video was finally finished in 6 days, and my gains in the skills I practiced in those days were not small either! ///NunuNote/// Bonus Chapter for this Week: 0/12 (11+1 Bonus Chapter From 1k Power Stones Goal!) Vote with your power stones, you still have 10 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 39 [Bonus ] 39 - Gains and Hobby Chapter 39 [Bonus ] 39 - Gains and Hobby ??I can say that I''ve been through 6 days of intense grinding. The only thing I did for fun in the last 6 days was to improve my skills and teach Ethan how to play his ukulele. I have to say the little boy has a talent for playing the ukulele, he''s been taking it everywhere since it arrived. The first song he tried to learn to play was The Lazy Song because I told him it was the best song for the instrument. Even though he struggled with his motor skills to change the notes of the song quickly, he got better and better. I think the skill teaching that I did further improved the speed that he learned with his high talent, to the point that in just a few days he was playing the Lazy Song all over the house. But other than that, I didn''t do anything really fun anymore, everything I did was focused on improving my skills and losing weight, which over time started to take its toll on my mental health. I think since I came into this world, my only focus has been on the system and how I can use it to develop faster in various areas, but as interesting as that is, I was afraid of burning out, so after I finished editing the Lazy Song video, while I had sent it to Selena and showed the video to my family, I got lost in thoughts of what fun things I could do to pass the time. While I was thinking, I took another look at my status screen. ========================= | Name: Noah Black | Title: Perseverant, Attuned Ear. | Level: 01 |------------------------ | HP: 100/100 | MP: 140/140 |------------------------ | Weight: 125 Kg -> 110 Kg | Strength (STR): 9 -> 11 | Dexterity (DEX): 6 -> 9 | Constitution (CON): 8 -> 10 | Intelligence (INT): 12 -> 14 | Wisdom (WIS): 9 -> 10 | Charisma (CHA): 10 -> 11 (10 + 1) | Agility (AGL): 4 -> 7 | Luck (LUK): ?? |------------------------ | Skills: [Guitar Festival Project]. The name was still tentative, but just the thought of developing it over the next few months got me excited, not to mention that if it was successful, it would be a possible great source of income for me. But with my current level, I was still far from being able to do that, so I would take my time. "Noah, answer me." Olivia huffed angrily as she looked at me. "I''m sorry, Liv, I got distracted thinking about some things." I apologized regretfully for ignoring her in the middle of her speech. Sighing, she replied. "You''re too focused these days, even in the middle of our conversation you''re focused on something else. Take it easy Noah, you have time." I was surprised that she recognized that, so I smiled as I reached out and stroked her head. "Thank you." Unlike the other times, this time she didn''t let go of my hand and let me stroke her head. In the last few weeks our relationship has developed very well, with training together and talking about my channel and my music career, our friendship is much better, and she trusts me more to talk about routine things, even to get things off her chest. I was surprised when she came to me this week to vent about a girl at school she didn''t get along with. Luckily, Liv wasn''t as much of an idiot as the old Noah, instead of just keeping quiet, she fought back and taunted the girl in the same way the girl treated her, which earned her my thumbs up. I realized she was telling me this because she was afraid I would find out at school and be disappointed in her for acting like the boy who bullied me, but after I supported her, she felt more comfortable talking about this kind of thing, so every day during practice she would fill me in on the school gossip and the things she and this girl had been discussing. "Noah, this cartoon is awesome!" Ethan exclaimed as the song ended. I looked at my parents and noticed that they too had big, proud, shocked smiles on their faces. "I never knew you were so good at this, now I can understand how you make so much money..." My father said in shock as he looked between me and the drawing of my character on the screen. Laughing, I added. "People on the Internet wouldn''t be stupid enough to pay that much for a drawing of someone who does it badly." Looking at the screen, my mother also had a big, proud smile on her face. "I thought it was funny how you made the other dancers in the video dance to the lyrics, I just think you should change the part where you say the word that starts with S..." "Mom..." I mumbled jokingly, since we''d already had this conversation when she heard Ethan singing the song and singing the part that says s*x. "Sorry, it''s okay, I''ll stop..." She laughed, knowing this wasn''t the time to talk about it. As I chatted with them and asked them a few questions about the process of making this clip, Selena also answered me excitedly. ///NunuNote/// I made a channel on Discord with the songs Noah sang and a playlist in case anyone wants to listen to the songs and see the music video Noah based them on: Discord.gg/NunuXD Bonus Chapter for this Week: 1/12 Vote with your power stones, you still have 10 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 40 [Bonus ] 40 - Bonus from AJP Chapter 40 [Bonus ] 40 - Bonus from AJP ??[Noah, this song is amazing with this clip!] she sent excitedly. [This version, recorded with a good microphone instead of a cell phone, increased the overall quality of the song by at least 30%, not to mention the very well done music video, overall the chances of this song going viral are very high]. She continued. [I think so too!] I replied. Looking at my channel''s analytics for the last 6 days, I was very pleased. Monetized views: 304,969 = $228 [Numb - 229,185 views] +101,202 views [In The End - 161,570 views] + 102,762 views [12,356 subscribers] + 2,388 subs The growth of my songs was amazing. The two songs had been getting close to 20,000 views a day for the last few days and, incredibly, it just kept growing! For a channel from a new and unknown artist with only 2 songs, even the increase in subs was very high. Not to mention, on Spokify, my songs were finally being heard by other people who liked the songs, and it was finally starting to make money. Spokify music plays: 20,087 = $80 Adding up the two accounts, I had already earned a little over $300, which wasn''t much, but considering how small I still am, it''s already a good number. In the future, when the channel has a lot of videos and I can finally record myself, I can see those views increasing rapidly and exponentially increasing the revenue the channel will earn me. With my current weight of 110 kg, I had finally fallen into the class 1 obese category, which finally surprised the people around me. With a total weight loss of 40 kg, even wearing baggy clothes, it was becoming impossible to hide how much I was losing.Discover new chapters at novelhall.com What used to look like I''d lost only 4 kg because of the baggy clothes, now looked like I''d lost more than 20 kg even wearing those clothes, which shocked my parents and people who saw me. Even at school it became an issue because some people thought I was smoking crack to lose weight so fast. The upside was that now that I was so lean, it was much more obvious how much muscle I had gained. And fortunately, the system didn''t leave my body with the excess skin that fat people get when they lose weight. Every day when I woke up, it was like my skin had become tighter, hugging my body better and defining my muscles better. But I had to confirm something first. "Mom, is the basement going to be used for anything?" I asked my mother, who was ironing clothes in the living room while watching TV. "I think there''s just some old stuff in there, why?" she asked confused. "I was thinking of setting up a studio there, is that a problem?" I asked. "I don''t want to disturb Ethan when he needs to sleep. After thinking for a moment, my mother smiled and nodded. "No problem, you can do it there, if you want I can clean the basement for you when I have time." "That would be great!" I smiled as I gave her a hug of thanks. I could clean it myself, but with how little time I had free every day, adding one more thing to my to-do list would complicate things even more. [I think we can use this money to buy equipment, the basement of my house is unused, so I can make a studio here]. I replied to Selena. [Okay, I''ll talk to my manager and show her your video, I think after she sees it she''ll approve this money without too much worry!] Selena explained. Seeing that it still needed someone else''s approval, I was a little worried, but I put that aside and went back to focusing on the things I could do. I had so many things to learn, and thinking about making more videos for my channel in the future made me want to learn how to edit videos, another thing I''d put on my list to learn in my spare time. Fortunately, now that the Lazy Song clip was finished, I had gained 3 more hours in the day that I could use to develop other things and rest. With the Lazy Song music video scheduled to be released in a few hours, I started my social media promotion campaign to attract the maximum audience for the song''s release. Meanwhile, Selena was at the AJP headquarters talking to her manager to try to get the funding for me. What I didn''t know was that the $4,000 that Selena had told me was double what the company normally gave, and she was going to try to get that amount by showing my results and using the statistics she had on me. So at that moment, even Selena, who had seemed very confident every time we talked, was a little nervous as she went to talk to her manager about getting this funding. ///NunuNote/// I made a channel on Discord with the songs Noah sang and a playlist in case anyone wants to listen to the songs and see the music video Noah based them on: Discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, you still have 10 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 41 41 - Stream Chapter 41 41 - Stream ??Knock knock Selena knocked a little nervously on the door. "Come in." A woman''s voice came from inside the room. Opening the door slowly, Selena looked at the woman sitting behind a pile of papers, typing on her computer. Looking at the door, the woman saw that Selena was acting a little anxious and was confused. "What happened? I don''t think I''ve ever seen you like this before, Selena..." The woman asked. Realizing the mistake she had made, Selena tried to straighten up and return to the passive expression she usually wore. "It''s nothing, Aunt Megan, I just wanted to show you the video clip my artist made for the song he''s releasing today." This surprised Megan because Selena was usually quite reserved and only shared important things in her weekly reports. So it was surprising to see Selena come over and show her the video clip her artist had made. She had heard one of his songs on Spokify and approved of its quality, seeing the potential that Selena had also seen in signing him, but she hadn''t imagined that Selena would come to show her his next video clip in person. So her expectations were a bit high. "All right, do you have the video on your phone?" Megan asked. "Yes." Selena nodded as she opened the video Noah had sent her and showed it to her aunt. "Here it is." As she picked up her phone, Megan tried to imagine what this music video that Selena''s artist was going to make would be like. For someone who was just starting out, the most normal thing would be to use his cell phone to record himself alone in his room without any worries, right? Especially since he apparently recorded it alone. So what made Selena come over and show it to her? Maybe the music was really good? Clicking the play button on her phone, Megan tried to see what this boy looked like, since she only knew roughly what he looked like from Selena''s description, since the boy had no photos on social media. But to her surprise, instead of seeing the boy''s camera, what Megan saw was much more surprising! In the center of the picture was a drawing of a boy with bleached hair wearing a large black shirt, surrounded by five other boys in similar clothing and wearing animal masks. If it weren''t for the more mature art style and the rock look of the boy in the middle, Megan might have thought it was a children''s video. ???????????? Today, I don''t feel like doing anything... "Sigh..." Megan sighed. "It''s okay, girl, but only because this is your first artist and this is the first time you''ve asked me. But in situations like this, let me know first and we''ll decide before we do it next time, okay?" "All right, thanks Aunt Megan!" Selena smiled as she ran to hug Megan. Looking down at my phone, I was surprised to see the message Selena had sent me. [I got a $5,000 loan, so send me the things you want to buy and your address and I''ll buy them for you. That way it''s easier to keep the bills to report to the company]. When I saw that, I was surprised. This was already more than the $4,000 she said she would get, which was great! I had made a list of the equipment I needed to buy for the studio, so I just sent it to Selena and told her to pick what she thought was most important. At this point, I was in the process of realizing an idea I had to increase the hype for Lazy Song, a song my followers had already heard, as well as trying to generate hype for the next song I was going to sing. I had already posted on all the social networks and now the last step was missing. Since I had time on my hands, my idea was to do an Instabram stream for my followers, either reacting to the Lazy Song or singing a snippet of the next song as a teaser. My Instabram already had 4,000 followers, and with how engaged those people were, I think I could get at least 800 people to watch the stream. So when it was 30 minutes before "The Lazy Song" went live, I warned my family that I would need some privacy for an hour or two and set up the lights in my room. I made the room very dark with the computer screen with a blue light to brighten it up a bit. To make sure my face didn''t show, I pointed the camera straight ahead, but for extra security I put on a cap that covered most of my face. My idea was to just point the camera at the computer monitor. "Okay, everything ready, just press the button to start the stream." I said as I took a deep breath and started. ///NunuNote/// Bonus Chapter for this Week: 2/14 (+2 Bonus Chapter From Daoist_Iveyflame Magic Castle Gift!!) Thank you Daoist_Iveyflame for the Magic Castle!!! There will be 2 Bonus Chapters for you! Vote with your power stones, you still have 8 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 42 [Bonus ] 42 - Boyfriend Chapter 42 [Bonus ] 42 - Boyfriend ??As soon as I started the stream, my followers got a notification and a lot of people started to join curiously. When I looked at the number of viewers, I noticed that it was going up and up. 21... 35... 49... 63... 87... 101... "Hey guys..." I said a little nervously. Although I''d participated in streams before, doing my own stream was a new feeling. [Hey BV!] [Will you show your face?!] [Show your face!] [Good night BlackVelvet!] [...] As the number of viewers increased, so did the number of comments. "I didn''t come to show my face, I just wanted to show you and see your reaction in real time to the clip I made with Jacob. I think you know him, right?" I asked. [The furry artist?!] [The covers he did for his other songs turned out really well!] [If he wasn''t a furry artist, I would follow him...] [I like his drawings!] [He''s very talented!] [I think this is disgusting...] [What did you hire him for?] "I think you noticed that I changed the visual identity of my social networks to a character of my own, right?" I asked as I used the computer to show the drawing I was now using for my profile. [Yes!] [It''s really cute!] [I thought it was really cool!] [I can''t believe a furry artist did this...] "Well, I really liked the drawing too, so I got the idea to ask him if we could make an animation out of the Lazy Song music video, and he said yes!" I explained as I opened the music video and showed the first frame with my character in the middle and the other five dancers around him. [Woah, that''s really cute!] [How cool!] [Will this be an animation?] "The animation is finished, I''ll post it on the channel today. So I opened the stream to see your reaction to the song recorded with a better microphone and the animation, are you ready?" I asked. [Yes!] [Let''s see!] [I''m excited!] The number of viewers had already increased from 100 at the beginning to more than 500, and the number continued to increase as unsuspecting people arrived, so to wait for more people to arrive, I began to explain some things about the song and answer questions that fans were curious about. "Yes, I''m only 17... I started making music as a hobby, but so many people liked it that AJP contacted me to manage me". I explained excitedly. [Woah, you''re already signed even though you''re a rank F artist!] [Don''t tell me you signed the Rank F contract?] [Oh no...] "For legal reasons, I can''t reveal exactly what my contract is, but I can tell you that it''s much better than the Rank F contract, and if my rank goes up during the term of the contract, it might go up as well, so don''t worry." I reassured the audience. I was happy to see their concern, I had the same concern when I heard about the slave contracts these agencies made for artists in my old world. But after reading the contract, I was reassured. I can''t believe, I almost went home... What are the chances? Everyone''s dancing... And he''s not with you... ???????????? [Hey, heyo, don''t tell me he''s going...] [Woah, doesn''t BV sing sad songs?] [In this song you want to make someone sad BV?!] ???????????? The universe must have divined this... What am I gonna do? Not grab your wrist? I could be a better boyfriend than him... I could do the shit that he never did... Up all night, I won''t quit... Thinking I''m gonna steal you from him... I could be such a gentleman... Plus all my clothes would fit... I could be a better boyfriend... ???????????? [WTF, are you stealing someone''s girlfriend?!] [This song is just a display of perfection. i love your voice omg i love you. don''t stop what you''re doing. this is amazing!] [I''m taking notes to say this to girls at parties...] [This song is fireeeee!!!] [This fits so well! Ahh..the deep voice and the lyrics!] [You''re an asshole singing this... but it''s hard not to like it...] Seeing people''s reactions, I was happy. It was exactly what I wanted. Boyfriend'' in my old world was a song that could make people love it and hate it. People who liked it, liked it because they liked who was singing it and the fantasy of being flirted with by that person. People are flawed, the forbidden is more attractive and that''s the feeling this song gives. The possibility of being at a party where your boyfriend has left and hasn''t treated you well, and suddenly an attractive person you like comes along and tries to win you over. Just imagining this scenario brings out something different in people. The problem is that whether he likes it or not, the singer of the song is an asshole because he knows that person is his girlfriend and he''s still going to try to flirt with her. But the people who are really bothered by it are those who have been through it recently, otherwise most people will like it because the song is good. "I think you like it? The song isn''t finished yet, but I think you can get an idea of what it''s going to be like at this point". I said, laughing as I continued to play the melody of the song on the guitar to provide background music while I talked to them. ///NunuNote/// Bonus Chapter for this Week: 3/14 Vote with your power stones, you still have 8 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 43 43 - Going Viral! Chapter 43 43 - Going Viral! ??Because of the lyrics of this song, I had to postpone my plans to play concerts in the city. Because if BlackVelvet''s picture leaked and people saw that instead of the handsome man they imagined singing this song, the person on stage was an ugly, fat boy, instead of feeling that the singer of the song was cool, they would just feel that the singer was creepy. So my plan, as long as I didn''t lose enough weight to be able to sing the song on stage and not ruin my image, was just to keep building my fame on the Internet and let the songs grow. It''s not like this was going to be a bad thing for me, because if I got more followers and climbed higher in the artist rankings, I would also get better paychecks. Selena explained to me that in bars like the one where I met her, the amount of money you get depends a lot on the rank of the artist. A rank F artist would probably only get 70% of what a rank E artist would get, who in turn would get less than what a rank D artist would get. This amount would only increase as their rank increased, but of course, rank wasn''t everything. An elderly Rank B singer wouldn''t be paid as much as a young Rank C singer in a nightclub, because the owners knew who would bring in the most customers. But considering the normal average, climbing to Rank E was a priority. With the audience''s reaction to The Lazy Song clip, I think that alone will be enough to get me out of F Rank Top 97 and maybe into the Top 5, or even up to E Rank, since it wasn''t that difficult to move up from F Rank. Even though there were so many people at F rank, most of them didn''t even try to become professionals, which is why a lot of them were stuck at F rank for so long. As long as the average F Ranker really tried to perform in bars and post songs on the Internet, it was only a matter of time before they climbed to E Rank. Rank E is where things really got difficult. But that wasn''t a problem for me, with a gamer system and thousands of songs from my old world to use, I still had to be afraid of taking too long to grow up...! "Okay guys, I''m glad you liked the song "Boyfriend", I''m still finishing the lyrics to it and perfecting how I''m going to present it. I still don''t know if this song works well with just acoustic guitar or if I can make a more electronic beat with a keyboard or something more romantic with a piano. What do you think?" I asked. All the time I was playing the guitar to make a quiet beat so that the stream wouldn''t just be quiet. This raised my level of guitar playing a lot because it was very difficult to do this for a long time without stopping. I had to concentrate on reading the chat, talking to the viewers, and continuing to play. [+1 DEX]. But as soon as that message appeared, a lot of the difficulty went away! I quickly looked at my statistics and realized why, my Dexterity had increased to 10 points! Great! I thought excitedly as I increased the difficulty of what I was playing while reading the viewers'' responses. [Would you like to play a romantic version of a song about stealing another guy''s girlfriend?]Updated chapters at novelhall.com [I loved that version played on the guitar]. [Your songs are all on the guitar, maybe playing this on the keyboard would make it a little different]. [Can you play piano too?] [Take the test and show us the difference after you''ve practiced, how about that?] Seeing this last comment, I was surprised that it was really a good idea! Looking at the name of the person who gave this idea, I replied. "Thanks Requien for the idea, I think I''ll do just that, so I hope you''ll be here when I go to show it, okay?!" [Sure! And if it doesn''t look good, I''ll talk, lol! CheersEmoji.GIF] [Woah! I hadn''t seen how well that was going!] I sent the reply to Selena. [Yeah, I''m getting excited so we can start doing shows, how''s your diet and training going?] She asked. Thinking that just telling her that I''d lost 15 kg in the last few days would probably scare her more than it would cheer her up, since losing such a considerable amount of weight in such a short time is scary, I came up with a better idea. I tidied up my clothes a bit, opened the camera on my phone and took a selfie and sent it to her. Although I''m thinner than the last time she saw me, since she only saw me in baggy clothes, it''s harder for her to know how much I''ve lost. But looking at the photo, I''m sure she would realize that I''ve lost a lot of weight! Looking at the screen of the cell phone in her hand, Selena was shocked! As it was almost 10:00 p.m., she was lying on her bed in pink pajamas talking to Noah. She only asked about his weight loss to see if he was working out and how soon they could start doing shows, but she didn''t expect him to send a selfie to show how much he had lost. Looking at the photo, Selena didn''t even know how to react. "He''s so much thinner!" She said, startled. "How did he get so much thinner?!" Not only did she feel that he was much thinner than the last time she saw him, but she was surprised that he looked better after losing weight! She didn''t know that he had gained another point in Charisma, much less the difference that going from 9 points to 10 points made in a statistic, but she could see that the difference in his appearance was very big. It was obviously still him, but his face had become more refined, his smile in the photo, because he was thinner, was more attractive, and even though he was wearing baggy clothes, his exposed arm showed clear signs of muscle. "Even with that bad camera on his phone, you could still see those details, imagine how different he must look in person..." She wondered in surprise. "Oh my God..." She sighed after realizing that she had been looking at every detail of his photo for more than 10 minutes and hadn''t even answered his message. Trying to act natural and pretend that she hadn''t been looking at it for so long, Selena opened the Messenger conversation with Noah. [Okay, your change is very noticeable, I''m happy about that, but I think we need to get you a new phone, right? With that camera, it''s going to be hard to post pictures for the public.] Seeing that her message seemed very natural, Selena was satisfied and waited for Noah''s response. Seeing her very natural response, I have to admit that I was a little disappointed, but I put it aside and went back to talking to her naturally. I still wanted to know if I could buy a keyboard, learning new instruments has been a lot of fun, and with my current level of guitar playing, I have been able to use some of the time I spend practicing guitar to learn something else. With my rapid improvement in learning a new skill, it gave me a huge advantage over other artists! /////NunuNote//// Requien''s character has already appeared thanks to the Magic Castle Gift he gave, and will appear more in the future! If you also want to have a character in the story, in addition to adding 2 Bonus Chapters to the queue, also give a gift! :D (JKing, Pastor123 and Daoist_Iveyflame, I haven''t forgotten you, your characters will follow XD) Bonus Chapter for this Week: 3/15 (+1 For 2k PS Goal!) Vote with your power stones, you still have 7 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 44 44 - How Much Each Skill Level Improves Chapter 44 44 - How Much Each Skill Level Improves ??The next day was Saturday, so I woke up, did my normal workout routine, and went home to watch my MeTube channel. Monetized views: 501,698 = $473 [Numb - 253,863 views] +24,678 views [In The End - 193,998 views] +32,428 views [The Lazy Song - 139,623 views] +121,756 views [18,677 subscribers] + 6,321 subs Spokify music plays: 20,087 = $80 The growth in songs and subscribers was amazing! Especially after I calculated the channel''s monetized views according to the channel''s CPM, and I was shocked. Because The Lazy Song had an interesting music video, the video''s retention increased, which increased the video''s revenue per mille, which increased the average I earned per thousand views on the channel from the original $0.70 to $0.80 today. "Yesterday was officially my first day making over $100 on MeTube!" I said excitedly as I looked at the stats. I knew that this number could go down if the songs stopped getting so many views, but the opposite could also happen, my daily views could go up and my income could increase even more. After my conversation with Selena yesterday, we decided what equipment to buy for my small studio. There were four main pieces of equipment, the first was an acoustic guitar of a good brand, an electric guitar of a good brand, a keyboard of a good brand, and finally an audio card so that I could record the audio from the instruments directly into the computer without having to use a microphone. The quality would be much better that way. Even if I had a very good microphone, it didn''t mean that the recording quality of the microphone was perfect. Sure, I could buy this equipment for a total of $1,000, but if I could afford the best quality, even if I had to buy it piece by piece, why not? It''s not like I''m in a hurry to have a professional studio in my basement anytime soon. Since I had some free time today, I took the time to help my mother clean out the basement, and soon it was usable. It wasn''t the most luxurious or comfortable place, but I was confident that I could improve it bit by bit. The first priority was to get an air conditioner, as it was very stuffy down there. But in the meantime, I could bring my computer down here and not have to bother Ethan when I wanted to record a song or practice an instrument. The atmosphere was very comfortable and cozy. More than I thought it would be, so that''s good. My computer worked fine, I was able to run the internet cable all the way down here, the wifi worked fine too, so I didn''t have any problems. While I was surfing the net to test the connection, I remembered that I had decided to make a game as a hobby. Now that I finally had some free hours in the day, and today was a Saturday where I didn''t have to go to school, I decided to think more about how to make this game. As far as I could tell, there was no music game that was really successful. I was surprised at how quickly I improved. When I was training during the week, even if it was just for a few hours a day, it didn''t go up as fast. But I realized why. I wasn''t training efficiently. I could get points in cooking by reading books about cooking, but if I never put it into practice, my rate of improvement would be very slow. Now that I was practicing and putting it into practice to make a game to the best of my ability, the skill took off. And when I reached 20 points in the skill, it was as if the doors of programming had opened in my mind and everything became much easier. I was always amazed at how increasing the points from one ten to another made such a difference. From what I understood from looking at each skill level, the points had different weights. From level 1 to level 9, it was as if a skill level was equivalent to one month of training, so a skill at level 9 was as if I had trained for 9 months. But when the skill went up to level 10, the skill would directly gain 3 months and complete 1 year of training. From level 11 to level 19, it was as if the skill gained 2 months of training for each level. So at level 19, I would have 1 year (Lv 10) and 18 months (Lv 9) of training, for a total of 2 years and 6 months. But when the skill went up to level 20, it increased by 6 months at a time, giving me the experience of 3 years of training. So even though I''d only started learning to program a few weeks ago, it really felt like I was an experienced programmer with more than 3 years of practice. And it got even more shocking when the skills reached Lv 30. For example, my digital illustration skill was at Lv 32. From Lv 21 to Lv 29, it increased by the equivalent of 3 months of experience per level, so at Lv 29 it increased by 27 months on top of the 36 months it already had from the previous months, bringing my total experience to 5 years and 3 months at Lv 29, but when the skill reached Lv 30, it immediately increased by 9 months of experience, giving me 6 years of training! And over the next few levels, it went up by 4 months per level, so by the time the skill was at level 32, I had 6 years and 8 months of practice, which increased my digital illustration skills to the extreme. That''s why it was so easy for me to create the animation for the music video of The Lazy Song. Even though I had practiced before, each skill level taught me so much that my rate of improvement was very high. When I learned to calculate these practice times for each skill, it gave me a new perspective on how much I knew in each area. And now that the programming skill was at Lv 20, my mind was full of new knowledge and new applications, which greatly accelerated the development of my game. /////NunuNote//// Bonus Chapter Queue: 3/16 (+1 For 3k PS Goal!) Vote with your power stones, you still have 6 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 45 [Bonus ] 45 - Improving Relationships Chapter 45 [Bonus ] 45 - Improving Relationships ??The amount of effort and focus I put into making the game on Saturday was so surprising that even my family came over to ask me what I''d been doing for so long. When I told them I was making a game, the most excited was obviously Ethan, who wanted to be the first to play to test his brother''s game, which I agreed to without thinking twice. Liv was surprised and asked me to explain how the game worked, so I told her my ideas. When she heard that it was a music game where you could play the songs of the artists you liked, she got interested too, even though she had never liked electronic games before. My parents just supported me, but they didn''t really understand how it worked. I knew that I could make a game like Flappy Bird and try to make as much money as possible from the people here if the game did well, but I know that Flappy Bird was successful in my previous world due to a large series of factors and coincidences that I could try to replicate here and make a lot of money from it, but at that point I would have already lost my original purpose of making games. I wanted to do it for fun, as a hobby. If I just focused on the money, I''d have to think of another hobby, and even though my family wasn''t in the best financial shape, it was only a matter of time before I could help them out even more. My artwork was earning me around $5,000 a month, which was already a big help, not to mention my MeTube channel and Spokify, which were already earning me good money. Soon I''d be making over $10,000 a month, and taking some of that money to help my family would be enough. I''d be able to use my time to relax and have fun until, in time, we''d achieve our financial freedom and I''d start earning even more. I discovered that Rank C performers were already making an average of over $1,000 a night, not counting how much Rank B and A performers were making. So I wasn''t so desperate to trade my hobby for a way to get rich quick.Updated chapters at novelhall.com Although I spent a lot of time developing the game, I didn''t neglect training with my family. To my surprise, even my mother joined us today, so the whole family stayed in our backyard to train. Liv stayed away from our mother for a while, and I could see that they were both getting hurt a lot, so I knew I had to do something about it. They were both having trouble controlling and expressing their emotions, and it was really affecting their relationship. I didn''t want them to become best friends, I just wanted Liv to stop trying so hard to get away from her. So after they finished training and I was the only one left doing my Krav Maga training, I asked her to stay a little longer. It''s not hard to see how quickly he learns anything he tries to learn. He started learning to play the guitar and was already performing on stage with professionals! He started learning to sing and had an amazing voice. He started studying harder for school and now Ethan had a great teacher by his side to teach him every day. Even in our workouts, Noah explained each exercise so well, he even explained what each exercise did for each muscle, why he asked us to do that exercise, and surprisingly, he developed different workouts for each of us! "I guess I could try." I replied a little embarrassed, but with more confidence. With him by my side, I know I can do it. And when I saw the smile on his face after I said that, I was happy to make him proud. He''s been helping me so much lately that I feel a little obligated to help him back. Especially with the success he''s having, it makes me so proud. When I saw the smile on his face, I realized how different he had become. His big cheeks were almost gone, leaving a very charming smile on his face. His body, even though he tried to hide it with baggy clothes, I could see that he was much thinner than before. Hehe, I can''t wait to see how he''ll shock people when he actually decides to show this transformation. ////NunuNote//// Bonus Chapter Queue: 4/16 Vote with your power stones, you still have 6 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 46 46 - Pizza Night Chapter 46 46 - Pizza Night ??Since Liv had agreed to let me help her improve her relationship with our mother, practically 50% of the work was done. I had to do the other 50% of the work with my mother. After taking a shower and looking at the changes in my statistics, I went to the kitchen where my mother was deciding what to make for dinner. Since it was Saturday and my father had come home early, I thought of something else. "Hey Mom, how about instead of making dinner we order a pizza?" I suggested. My mother looked at me in surprise and thought for a moment before answering. "Is that a good idea? Aren''t you trying to lose weight?" Looking at my body and her, I laughed. "I''m already losing weight Mom, eating junk food one day a week is good for me. Come on, I''ll call and order two large pizzas for us, okay?" She thought for a while and finally accepted. "Okay." She replied, smiling and putting away the things she was going to use for cooking. Like me and my siblings, my mother had black hair, but instead of the blue eyes we got from my father, she had green eyes. Because she had showered after practicing with us, her long black hair was damp. She was a beautiful woman, but because of her excessive stress and anxiety, her age was beginning to show. Although she was only 50, she looked older, with wrinkles showing and a few strands of white hair on her head. When I earn more, I''ll try to help her more so that she can relax. After she put away the things she''d picked up for the kitchen, I leaned against the kitchen counter next to her and said. "You know, I was talking to Liv about you two." I said. When she heard that, she looked at me in surprise. "Really? What did you talk about?" "About you two getting better. I noticed at practice that she was avoiding you while you wanted to talk to her but were afraid to." I said as I looked at her. But she was embarrassed and tried to look away. "Was my observation correct?" I asked. "Yes..." She replied, her shoulders slumped. "I want to improve our relationship, but ever since that song of yours, I''ve started to realize the things I did wrong, things I thought were best for her, things I projected onto her and didn''t even ask if it was what she wanted..." "And you''re ashamed of that?" I asked. "Yes..." She replied. "And do you regret it?" I asked again. Lowering her head, she replied. "Yes..." "Why don''t you tell her that?" "I..." she was lost. "I''m ashamed, I don''t have the courage to go to her and talk about these things, not after seeing how much she has suffered over the years..." "When I asked her why she was still angry with you even after you tried to change, do you know what she told me?" I asked. My mother stared at me with hope in her eyes. "What was her answer?" When I read the other messages, they were more normal. [Thanks for the song you made BV, I hope you''re doing well]. [Hey BV, I heard the preview of the song you showed on the stream and I thought it was amazing, I think the lyrics of it really fit a more electronic style of music, how about trying that?] [Hey BV, I broke up with my boyfriend because of your song Numb, now I''m alone... don''t you want to talk?] [...] There were several types of messages. Those who sent me messages talking about music or wishing me luck, I replied politely and wrote down their ideas. As for the girls and even some boys who sent messages with other intentions, I just ignored them. Even if there were pretty girls among those who sent messages, I''ve seen so much shit in my previous life from artists who replied to fan messages like that and ended up getting screwed, so I just ignored that kind of thing. It''s better to just keep focusing on my career and let time find me someone good. What was nice about seeing those messages was the idea that one of the followers gave me. I could do an electronic version of the song. Since Selena had already bought the keyboard for me, it would arrive next week, so I could learn how to set it up and use the programs to get the most out of it and try to make a really good version of the song. It''s not like learning it would get in the way over time, so I might as well perfect it slowly until in the future I have a lot of experience and can make even better music in this style. Surprisingly, the pizzas arrived and the two were still upstairs talking, so I went upstairs to check on them, not wanting them to get cold. Arriving near Olivia''s room, I heard the two of them laughing softly through the door. I slowly knocked on the door and spoke. "It''s me, Noah." After a few seconds of silence, Liv replied. "You can come in." When I opened the door, I saw them both with red eyes from crying, looking at an open album between them on the bed. Curious, I looked at the album and was surprised to see that they were looking at photos from our childhood. "Are these our photos?" I asked. Laughing as she wiped her eyes, my mother replied. "Yes, I had this album saved and I took it out to show Olivia the good things and to apologize and explain myself for the bad things." Seeing her admit it so openly brought a big smile to my face, and seeing Liv''s relaxed expression, I knew it had worked. "Let''s eat, the pizzas are here." I said as I took a deep breath, trying to show the smell of pizza entering the room. Liv sniffed curiously and was surprised to smell it. "Are we having pizza?" She said excitedly. ////NunuNote//// Bonus Chapter Queue: 4/16 Vote with your power stones, you still have 6 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 47 [Bonus ] 47 - My Son is a Genius! Chapter 47 [Bonus ] 47 - My Son is a Genius! ??When Liv and my mother stopped fighting, the atmosphere around the table became much lighter. Family conversations were much more harmonious now that the two of them were talking to each other and Liv was taking a more active part in the conversations. Before going to sleep, Liv came to thank me, as did my mother. Remembering the mission God had given me before I was brought into this world, I was satisfied that I was doing what He had asked of me and feeling good about it. At first, I only cared for them because of the mission God had given me and because of the love old Noah had left for them in this body. But as time went by, now that I had been in this world for more than 20 days, living with them every day, interacting with them every day, getting to know them better, getting closer to each one of them, it filled a boat that I didn''t even know I had. A lack that I felt in my old world for a real family, something that my old drunken father never gave me, I could feel from these people and it was a great feeling. Today I can say that I really care about each of them and want the best for them. Even though they each have their own flaws, I manage to care about each of them despite those flaws. These were the last thoughts I had as I lay in bed before falling asleep. The next day, I did my morning routine and took the opportunity on the way back from my walk to stop at a bakery and buy some different things for us to eat for breakfast. Even though buying these things was a bit expensive, costing a total of $60 for everything I bought, it was nothing considering how much I was making per week. And seeing Ethan''s big smile when he looked at the beautiful Morando cake I''d bought him made every penny worth it. "Noah, do you want to learn to drive today?" my dad asked me, making me raise my eyebrows in surprise. "Absolutely!" I said excitedly. I''ve always been a fan of cars, and I have to admit that one of my goals with the money that would come with my career would be to be like the artists I saw on TV with a big garage full of different cars. But the first step was to learn how to drive. "I think you really learned and memorized everything I said..." He said in surprise. I smiled and nodded, lightly patting the steering wheel as I spoke. "Now can we hit the road?" But to my disappointment, he shook his head as he got out of the car. "Let''s go to an empty parking lot first, it''s dangerous to let you drive in a residential area yet." Understanding his point of view, I just sighed and let him drive the car to a nearby parking lot. - Jonathan''s Pov - As I looked at Noah sitting in the passenger seat enjoying the music on the radio, I couldn''t help but sigh. I always thought the best of my children, but how could I have imagined that my oldest son would be a genius? When I heard Lauren say that he was very intelligent, that he was learning to cook faster than she could imagine, I thought she was exaggerating, because I know how mothers are. But seeing it in person was something else. I was already surprised when I saw how much he learned to sing and play the guitar in a short time, but that could be attributed to his musical talent, then he showed that he is also talented as a personal trainer, because he managed to learn everything very quickly and training with him teaching was much easier and painful the next day... But add to that the talent he showed in learning everything I''ve talked about, and it could only show that he really is a genius... hahaha, what would you say, my son a genius?! I just couldn''t say that to him, I saw how confident he was now, saying that might turn that confidence into arrogance... ////NunuNote//// Bonus Chapter Queue: 5/16 Vote with your power stones, you still have 6 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 48 48 - Help From a Friend Chapter 48 48 - Help From a Friend ??"Have you ever driven the car hidden from me?" my father asked, confused and suspicious. Which was understandable, since my driving skill had already increased twice in just one hour of training. [Driving Mastery Lv 3]. This meant that at this point, I was practically a person who had been practicing driving for three months, more than the time it took to learn to drive and pass the driving test. So if my dad took me to the driving test today, the chances of me passing were very high, since I had only learned for 2 hours with him! While I was driving, he was looking at me all the time with eagle eyes, trying to find some flaw in my driving technique, and he did find some because I was still learning, but as long as he told me once, I wouldn''t repeat it. That''s why the skill increased so fast. My father worked harder than I did to get me to learn, which raised my level very quickly because every little mistake was immediately corrected. Even though I didn''t have a buff like cooking or school, it still went very fast. "I swear this is the first time I''ve ever driven a car, Dad." I said, but he still didn''t believe me. "I think with your level we can book your driving test this week and you''ll pass." He smiled at me, which made me smile back in excitement. Being able to drive had always been a dream of mine, so to see me so close to it was nice. "I''ll arrange it for this week then." I said excitedly. "Okay, now go back to the house, you can take us now." My father said as he relaxed in the passenger seat and I enjoyed the experience of driving on the road for the first time. I must admit that it was a good experience, even though I was driving an old car, it was a well-maintained and comfortable car, so I just enjoyed the ride back and increased my skill by another level. [Driving Mastery Lv 4]. When I got home, I went to help Ethan learn to play the ukulele, while I tried to learn how to make electronic music in computer programs. The tip in the message I received yesterday was very interesting and made me curious to learn it. But to my surprise, this kind of music beat I was making on the computer, instead of giving me a new skill, actually gave me a level of a skill I already had. [Music Editing Lv 8 -> Lv 9]. Since the program was the same as the one I used to edit music, the mastery of both was combined into the same skill, which was good for me because I found it even easier to do. Boyfriend in my old world was a multi-instrumental song. As far as I remember, the song had bass, piano, violin, but the main thing was the electronic beat of the music, which gave the song a macabre and attractive vibe. I didn''t have a bass, but I could simulate it with the guitar and some editing, which wouldn''t be bad. For the piano, I could use the keyboard Selena bought, which would also be fine. For the electronic beat of the song I would try to do it in the editing program I was just learning. The problem was the violin. The violin sound in that program wasn''t very good, it sounded very artificial. I wanted a better quality. My previous three songs I had done with just my voice and acoustic guitar, mainly because of lack of money, but also because I wanted to maintain the image of an indie artist who was starting to grow. "Sup guys!" I said smiling as I walked over to the car and looked for something to grab to help them. "Hey Noah!" Mark said smiling. Looking at Ethan from my side and seeing our resemblance, he also said hello. "Hey lil Noah!" Hearing Mark call him Lil Noah, Ethan was confused and replied. "My name is Ethan, Noah is my brother." "But you two look alike. You look like a little version of your brother, so I called you Lil Noah." Mark explained with a smile, causing Ethan''s expression to take on a surprised look. As I helped them move the stuff down to the basement and set it up, I talked about the music. "I didn''t know you were good on bass too Frank." I said as I looked at the bass he''d brought. With that I wouldn''t even have to use the guitar as a bass. "I like bass, but I only like to play slap style." Frank explained with a laugh. Frank explained, laughing. "Harry hates it, so I only play keyboards in the band." "What''s this song you''re doing? Didn''t you put a new song up on your channel this week?" Mark asked confused. "You follow my channel?" I asked in surprise. "Of course I do! I was already following your channel when I met Numb, now that I know I played with you in the bar, I''ve even turned on the notifications so I know when you release a new song." He replied laughing. "Thanks bro, this song I''m doing is to try a different style." I said as I picked up my guitar and started singing the chorus of Boyfriend to them. I could be a better boyfriend than him. I could do the shit he never did... Up all night, I won''t quit... Thinking I''m gonna steal you from him... I could be such a gentleman... Plus all my clothes would fit... ???? Listening to the song and me singing it, Mark and Frank''s feet started tapping the floor in rhythm, enjoying it. But Frank asked a question I hadn''t thought of. "What does the ''Plus all my clothes would fit'' part mean?" He asked confused. And that confused me too, because I hadn''t thought about it. ////NunuNote//// What do you think about this change of style and emoticons to show the music? Do you prefer it like this or the old style with 3 emoticons before and after the part of the song? I thought this would make it clearer what part is being sung and replace the (") Bonus Chapter Queue: 5/16 Vote with your power stones, you still have 6 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 49 [Bonus ] 49 - Violin Chapter 49 [Bonus ] 49 - Violin ??"What does the part ''plus all my clothes would fit'' mean?" He asked confused. Thinking about it, I didn''t realize that I had just copied the original song and hadn''t paid attention to that part of the lyrics. The original song was about a girl who was in love with another girl at a party, but who was waiting for the girl''s boyfriend to leave the party to hit on the girl, saying that she would be a better boyfriend than her boyfriend. This part of the song meant that if the girl dated the singer, they could both wear each other''s clothes because they were both women. Since I''m a man, that part made a little sense when I sang it. But Mark didn''t even wait for my answer before making an assumption. "Are you imagining her boyfriend with a little guy? So she can''t wear his clothes, but since you''re taller than her, if she gets your clothes, she can wear them and feel comfortable?" Mark tried to guess, which made my eyes light up. "Yes!" I replied in agreement. "In the music video, I was thinking of having the protagonist be a guy like me, and her boyfriend be a very skinny little guy. It would be an interesting part of the music video to have the protagonist wear his coat on her, which would match his personality and pique the interest of the girls listening to the song," I explained. I explained. "You want to do a Thirst Trap?" Frank asked in surprise as Mark started to laugh. Smiling a little embarrassed, I nodded as I explained. "Stop laughing bro, it''s not like I want to focus my career on doing TT''s, but I thought it would be good to do a song like this once in a while to help my career in the long run, you know how female audiences are..." Controlling his laughter, Mark agreed. "Yeah, I know it could help, but it''s still funny." "Do you have all the lyrics ready?" Frank asked. "Yeah, it''s written here." I said pointing to the computer screen. "If you want, I can also try out the rhythm I made so you can get an idea of how to add the bass and piano." Nodding their heads, they both agreed and focused on me singing while I played the guitar. If I knew how to play bass, I would probably know how to play the bass in the song and explain it to Frank, but I didn''t understand it very well, and knowing how talented they were, I preferred to just sing and let them figure out the best way to do it. ???? ... I would never have left you alone... Effect: +11% easier to understand and apply music editing concepts, +11% more likely that the audience will like your editing]. [Bass Guitar Mastery Lv 3: Effect: Develops a deeper understanding of bass techniques, increasing skill and confidence when playing at 3%. This includes advanced fingering, rhythm, and improvisation techniques. It also improves music theory retention and practical application during performance by 3%. Gain a tangible advantage by absorbing the fundamentals of bass and improving your musical performance]. The Bass Skill was only at Lv3, but the increase in knowledge and application it gave me was huge! So much so that when I was studying with Frank, I was even able to ask more advanced questions and make some suggestions based on what I knew of the original song, which I now understood a bit from what I heard, which helped us make an even better bass beat for the song! It was the same with Mark. As I watched him make the beats for the song, I started to learn even more, and when my skill reached Lv 10, I was able to understand even more about the things I remembered from the original song, and I was able to give Mark tips and ideas to put into the song he was making. From what I observed of the two of them, Frank was probably around Lv 24 of Bass, while Mark was around Lv 19 of Music Editing, which wasn''t much, but he was already much more experienced than me. With their help, something that would have probably taken me days to study and learn was now much easier to do. The only problem left was the violin. But to my surprise, just as I was thinking about how to deal with it, I heard a violin noise coming from upstairs. Confused, I decided to go upstairs to see where the noise was coming from while Mark and Frank finished their parts. ////NunuNote//// Bonus Chapter Queue: 6/16 Vote with your power stones, you still have 6 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 50 50 - Music Done Chapter 50 50 - Music Done ??I followed the sound of the violin while Frank and Mark continued to test how to make the music fit the new instruments. The higher I climbed, the louder the noise got. I knew it couldn''t be Ethan, he was just learning to play the ukulele and had no idea how to play the violin. Unless he was such a monster on the ukulele that he had mastered it in a few minutes and was able to reproduce the sound of a violin through a ukulele, but that was impossible, so there were only three other suspects. My father had already been ruled out because he had no knowledge of any instrument. That left my mother and Liv. They both knew how to play the violin. My mother learned when she was older, just to try to encourage Olivia to learn, while Olivia learned because she was forced to by my mother. The surprising thing was that as I followed the sound of the violin, I came to the door of Liv''s room, and at the door, my mother was hiding with a big smile on her face and red eyes, probably holding back the excitement of seeing Olivia trying to play the violin again. I could understand where this happiness was coming from, since Olivia had practically hated her for several years. Seeing her play the violin again was like seeing her overcome her anger at my mother and wanting to move on. When my mother saw me, she was scared and embarrassed. "Don''t tell her I heard." I laughed softly and nodded in agreement as I knocked lightly on the door. "Come in." Liv said as she stopped playing. Entering the room, I looked at her with the violin on my shoulder and smiled. "Looks like yesterday''s talk was productive." I said proudly. "Yes... she told me why she taught me to play the violin..." Liv replied. "I still don''t agree with the way she did it, but she apologized. Seeing you, Ethan and your two friends so focused on playing instruments and having fun made me want to play again...but I''m a little rusty." "You played that very well." I replied. I replied. "Did you know I need a touch of violin for the song I wrote?" Looking at me a little skeptically, she replied. "You don''t have to make something like that up, I''m happy just to be practicing again, you can go and have fun with your friends." I shook my head and spoke again. "I''m serious, I was really wondering how I could get a violin to play a detail of the song. I don''t know how to play it, and that was a taboo subject between you and my mom, so I didn''t know what to do. How about it, do you think you can help me?" Seeing that I was serious, Olivia was surprised and I could see the sparkle in her eyes. "If you think I can be useful... I''d be happy to help." She said a little embarrassed but excited. Smiling, I called her down to the basement where we were trying things out and showed her how the song went. When she heard the lyrics for the first time, she looked at me with a strange expression. "Did you make this song to pick up girls?" She asked. Maybe solving the problem with Liv had taken a weight off her shoulders, making her lighter and more tolerant. Which was great news. After celebrating my Sunday, I prepared for the Grind. I currently weighed 108kg, while my goal for next Saturday was to be at least 94kg. Considering how much muscle mass I''m gaining, I''ll have my ideal body by next Saturday! Of course, I probably won''t be perfect, which is my goal at some point, but I will be able to wear short, tight clothes that define my body without making me feel insecure. And most importantly, I''ll finally be able to start playing gigs! When I thought that this could start as early as this week, I started to get excited because I loved the feeling. Thinking of something, I decided to send Selena a message explaining that I felt good enough to do a show this week. Surprised at how quickly I had lost weight, she was concerned, but I assured her that I was healthy and would be able to perform, so she said she''d look for a good place for my first show. ------ Lauren''s POV ----- When I looked at Noah in the car mirror after listening to his song, I had to control myself not to ruin the mood. And it''s not because the music is bad, it''s because the music is so good! That''s the problem! Because if the song was bad, I don''t think any girl would be interested, but seeing how handsome and slim he''s become, combined with his voice and the lyrics, it''s going to be hard for girls to resist... I just hope he doesn''t turn out to be a creep who breaks girls'' hearts, because the way this is going, that''s probably what''s going to happen. And looking at that confident smile on his face, I''m afraid that''s exactly why he makes this kind of music. Looking at Jonathan next to me, I think I need to tell him to have this conversation with Noah. Since he hasn''t been around a lot of girls, we haven''t worried too much about talking to him about it, but now that he''s getting attractive and girls are going to want to approach him, I think it''s safer for his father to talk to him about it. Unbeknownst to me, Jonathan got a chill next to me, sensing that something bad was about to happen, and so did Noah in the back seat of the car, causing them both to have a confused look on their faces as they looked around. (Olivia''s ''Liv'' Visual Representation is available in the novel''s main page and at discord.gg/nunuXD) ////NunuNote//// Bonus Chapter Queue: 6/17 (+1 From reaching 4k Power Stones) Vote with your power stones, you still have 6 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 51 51 - Boyfriend Reaction Chapter 51 51 - Boyfriend Reaction ??Charlie stared at the computer screen, excitedly watching the countdown that appeared on the screen. Right now, she was lying on her bed in her room with her laptop open in front of her, waiting for the premiere of her favorite artist''s new song. Black Velvet had won her over with the first song she heard, Numb, causing her to add it to all of her playlists. After he released the song In The End just after her boyfriend broke up with her, she felt even more affection for this singer.Updated chapters at novelhall.com It was like he was singing all those songs to her. As if he saw her life and turned it into a musical! As a student at the most prestigious music school in the country, she knew how difficult it was. Not only the need for technical knowledge, but also the inspiration needed to make so many songs... She saw that he was the singer, songwriter, arranger, everything of all the songs, which showed the immense talent he had. When she followed him on Instagram, she saw that he was the same age as her, which surprised her even more because he was an independent artist who did everything himself! Last week he had released the song The Lazy Song, which managed to be even more successful than his other songs! While Numb and In The End had around 400 to 500 thousand views, despite being released for 3 and 2 weeks respectively, The Lazy Song, which was released just a week ago, had already reached the 1 million view mark! Seeing this singer, who she met when he didn''t even have 1,000 followers, now have more than 20,000 was something she was proud to follow. What surprised her was the lyrics of "The Lazy Song," which, unlike the other two songs that focused on sadness, this time came with a lot of happiness, making this song the one that helped her stop suffering from the end of her relationship. Whenever she felt bad, she would put on The Lazy Song, lie in bed, and enjoy the tranquility of the music. Once she even tried to do what the lyrics said and put her hand in her pants, but being a girl, she didn''t get the feeling that boys get when they do that, so she didn''t try again. But that didn''t make the song bad for her, because as the days went by she got better and better, until now she didn''t care about her ex-boyfriend anymore. The problem was when she opened his channel to choose a song to play while she studied, and she saw that he had a song scheduled to be released today in premiere mode. That fact alone wasn''t a problem for Charlie, in fact it was great news, the problem was the name of the song. [Boyfriend - BlackVelvet] "You''re kidding me..." She said in frustration as she looked at the name of the song. "Just when I''m done mourning that idiot, you want to make me mourn again, BV?" Charlie actually considered not listening to this song, afraid that it might actually make her feel bad again. She had felt so good the last few days, she didn''t want to lose that. "Maybe I could just listen to some of the music? If it''s bad, I''ll stop listening and just go back to Lazy Song..." She said softly with a slightly insecure tone. Charlie was in doubt for so long that she didn''t realize she had wasted an hour thinking about it and the song finally started counting down to the beginning. At that moment, 3,943 people were watching the live premiere of the song, which was a very large number for such a small channel! That was almost 20% of his subscribers live on the channel ready to hear his next song. [Looking forward to the song +1] [+2] [...] [+151] [BlackVelvet, don''t make me suffer for my friend again] [BV, be my friend!] [Will this song be about another breakup?] [I hope it''s a happy song like the last one]. [I''m waiting with my hands in my pants]. [Eww] Reading the comments made Charlie laugh a little because there were some really funny people on the Internet. 10... 9... As the countdown began, the comments died down and people focused on the video. 3... Even more so when BlackVelvet''s character put his jacket around the girl in the song when he sang "Plus all my clothes would fit", Charlie was thrilled to see it. [I''m going to faint!] [This... my God, I''m running out of air watching this...] [Bro knows how to make a girl like him...] [I need to learn more from you, Black Sensei!] [I just want my boyfriend to say these things to me, even though he''s already my boyfriend, I''d think it was amazing...] ???????????? I don''t have to tell you twice All the ways he can''t be enough If I could give you one piece of advice I would leave with me tonight The universe must have foreseen this, mmm, mmm Ladies first, baby, I insist ???????????? As he sang this part and left the party with her, enjoying a night on the town, Charlie imagined the same thing happening to her and realized that their relationship was very similar to the one in the video. Although her ex-boyfriend acted like she wasn''t enough for him, she realized that he wasn''t enough for her either, it seems that she was so comfortable with the way their relationship was that she just accepted a lot of things. But when she saw how much fun BV and the girl were having as they walked around the city after the party, Charlie realized that she''d probably never had that kind of fun with her ex- boyfriend. ???????????? I never would have left you alone Here alone, glued to your phone Never would have left you alone For someone else to bring you home I could be a better friend than him I could do the shit he never did Up all night, I won''t stop I will steal you from him I could be such a gentleman And you know my clothes would fit... ???????????? As Charlie listened to the rest of the song, a big smile appeared on her face as she realized that her breakup was actually a good thing. Her idiot ex-boyfriend had left her alone, a beautiful, intelligent girl, when there was a lack of boys interested in her, wasn''t her ex just leaving her alone so that someone else could take her home? Thinking that this was exactly what was happening, Charlie enjoyed the rest of the song while she made a decision, she would finish studying today and tomorrow she would go out with her friends to have fun. "And I''ll make sure to post this so he feels bad!" She said excitedly as she told her friends that she wanted to go out and have fun. What she didn''t know was that the next day she would probably hear this song live without even knowing that she was going to her favorite artist''s first concert. ////NunuNote//// Bonus Chapter Queue: 6/18 (+1 From reaching 1k Power Stones) Vote with your power stones, you still have 5 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 52 [Bonus ] 52 - The Ideal Appearance Chapter 52 [Bonus ] 52 - The Ideal Appearance ??"How?" Selena stared at me in shock, noticing the glaring difference I''d made since the last time she saw me two weeks ago, when we signed the contract. When we signed the contract two weeks ago, I still weighed about 120 kg, when I weighed myself today, the number that appeared on the scale was an incredible 93.7 kg! That''s a loss of over 25 kg since the last time I weighed myself, and considering the muscle mass I''ve gained with the high-protein, high-fiber diet I''ve been eating and the amount of exercise I''ve been doing every day, the muscles that were once covered in fat were now quite visible. The big proof was the difference I saw in my status. ========================= | Character Status ========================= | Name: Noah Black | Title: Endurance, Tuned Ear. | Level: 01 |------------------------ | HP: 100/100 | MP: 140/140 |------------------------ | Weight: 108 Kg -> 93.7 Kg | Strength (STR): 11-> 13 | Dexterity (DEX): 9 -> 12 | Constitution (CON): 10 -> 12 | Intelligence (INT): 14 | Wisdom (WIS): 10 -> 11 | Charisma (CHA): 11 -> 13 (12 + 1) | Agility (AGL): 7 -> 9 | Luck (LUK): ?? |------------------------ | Skills: | (Barbering Lv 27 -> 29), (Hiking Lv 17 -> 22), (Bodybuilding Lv 20 -> 24), (Teaching Lv 22 -> 25), (Singing Lv 28 -> 29), (Guitar Lv 31 -> 32), (Digital Illustration Lv 32 -> 33) (Krav Maga Lv 17 -> 22) (Music Editing Lv 8 -> 13) (Programming Lv 17 -> 21), (Soccer Mastery Lv 5 -> 8), (Cooking Lv 15 -> 17), (Spanish Language Mastery Lv 9 -> 10), (Driving Mastery Lv 4 -> 5). .. |------------------------ The difference in my stats was striking. The more weight I lost, the harder I could train and the more stat points I could gain with each workout. But the indicator that my appearance had improved so much was that my charisma was now at 13 points. It was a level I could match with the Thirst Traps on the Internet, making me a real pretty boy, but that alone wouldn''t get me very far, since my looks weren''t that good, so I needed another talent. That''s where my music came in, which along with my looks would be a great catalyst to increase my popularity. Now that I was in the pretty boy group, it was easier to get the public''s sympathy. "Are you nervous about your first show?" she asked after the shock of my change had worn off. "Nervous? I don''t think so, but I''m very excited...it seems surreal that after such a short time in my career, I''m going to be able to perform for the first time and get paid for it, haha." I said excitedly. Smiling, she replied. "You''ve become a Rank E artist, even if you''re still at the bottom of Rank E, you''re already officially a Rank E artist, so it''s not surprising that you can already get places to perform without much difficulty. Normally, the hardest thing to get is when the artist is still at Rank F, so in your case, this is no longer a problem." I nodded in agreement. Since the release of The Lazy Song, which exceeded 1 million views in one week, I had risen from F Top 97 to E Rank. Now, officially at Rank E and looking the way I wanted, my career was really starting to take off. And with the results I saw on my MeTube channel from the release of Boyfriend yesterday, I was confident that today''s show would be a good one. Of course, no one would know me there, I would only be filling a slot, there would be other artists performing before and after me, but I was confident in how much I had improved with the system to convince people that I would be one of the best, if not the best, tonight! ------ Charlie''s POV ------ When I arrived at the bar my friends had asked me to go to, I felt a little strange. It''s a different feeling to be in a place like this right after a breakup because it feels like you''re doing something wrong, you know? Even though there were a lot of guys trying to get close to me, I still felt a little guilty and couldn''t really let go. What I started to do during the party was to focus on the band that was playing and try to enjoy myself when they played a song that I knew. Most of them were trying to show off some of their bad original songs, but I couldn''t blame them for trying to promote themselves. They were mostly rookie artists who were still learning at Rank F or frustrated old artists who couldn''t rise from the low Rank E. Even though I was still a student at a music school and was already a Rank F artist without trying very hard to climb the ranks, if I really dedicated myself, the chances of me being above these people in rank were very high. So in order to have fun, I just tried to turn my mind off by going into trance mode and enjoying myself when they played really good music. My friends had already disappeared after some guys came to talk to them, so in order not to be alone on the dance floor, I approached the stage and took a closer look at the bands playing. What surprised me was when the manager came on stage and announced the next artist. "Good evening everyone, thank you for coming tonight. Now we are proud to present an up and coming artist doing his first show!" The manager said, getting some of my attention. "He just started his career a month ago, going from an unknown artist to an E-list artist!" When other people heard this, they were shocked to hear how rare it was, but I didn''t think it was a big deal, hadn''t BlackVelvet done the same thing? I really doubted that this artist that was coming up was going to be better than BlackVelvet. "Give it up for BlackVelvet!" The manager said excitedly, while part of the audience clapped politely and the other half clapped with a little interest. But I stared at the stage with a slow mind, trying to figure out what he''d said. "Are you kidding me?!" I asked myself in shock as I tried to process if this was true. ////NunuNote//// You can see what it currently looks like on discord.gg/NunuXD Bonus Chapter Queue: 7/18 Vote with your power stones, you still have 5 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 53 53 - Let the show begin! Chapter 53 53 - Let the show begin! ??NunuNote: I edited the end of the last chapter to add Charlie''s POV. This was an addition of 500 words, so if you want the full experience, I suggest you go back to the previous chapter and read the end again. There''s a warning where her POV starts. :) -------------- Going on stage was an incredible feeling... Looking at the largely indifferent audience didn''t affect me at all. I knew that I would get this kind of attention because probably nobody here knew me. Although I already had a few thousand followers, that number was not only spread all over the country, but there was also a part that came from other countries, so my fame in the US wasn''t that big, since it was even smaller in my state and almost insignificant in my own city. If there were a hundred people in the city who knew me, that would be a big number. But I wasn''t worried about that. If I started playing shows from now on, my fame in the city would only grow more and more. When I took the microphone from the host as I entered the stage, I smiled as I looked out at the audience. But even though I had the microphone in my hand, I was still silent for a few seconds as I just stared at the audience, smiling, which made some people feel a little uncomfortable. Realizing my mistake, I laughed a little and spoke into the microphone. "I''m sorry I got lost for a few seconds. This is my first time on stage alone and I felt like I wanted to remember this moment forever..." Listening to my explanation, even the people who were a little uncomfortable smiled after hearing it. "To start the evening, I thought I''d sing my first song, but I thought one of my other songs would be better to liven up the evening, so stick with The Lazy Song!" I said excitedly as I swapped the electric guitar I was holding for an acoustic guitar. This was the equipment that Selena had bought with the AJP money. ???????????? Today I don''t feel like doing anything I just wanna lay in my bed Don''t feel like picking up my phone So leave a message at the tone'' Cause today, I swear I''m not doing anything ???????????? When I started playing this song, I noticed that people were already dancing to the upbeat beat. Although it was a little different from the style of music I had been playing before, not only was it my most famous song, which was true because I even saw some people who probably didn''t know who I was singing it, but it was also a good song to set the mood for the evening. What I found strange was that there was a girl in the front row of the audience just standing there staring at me while humming the lyrics to my song! ----- Charlie''s POV ---- It was really him! It was the real BlackVelvet singing on stage! When the host announced that the person who would be on stage was named BlackVelvet, I thought it might just be a coincidence that two artists had the same name, even though the host explained that the BlackVelvet who would be on stage had started his career a month ago and was already in the E Rank, just like the BlackVelvet I knew. When I saw the boy my age walking on stage with his hair dyed and wearing black clothes, the first thing I thought of was the 2D BlackVelvet character he used in The Lazy Song and Boyfriend, who looked exactly like this boy. Under the pressure of walking in your shoes ???????????? When he started to sing, his voice changed completely. From the cheerful, relaxed voice he used to sing The Lazy Song, his voice now changed to a fuller, sexier voice when he sang Numb... This time there was no one to sing his song apart from a child somewhere in the bar because Numb was less known than The Lazy Song, but the audience''s reaction was even greater than when he performed The Lazy Song! As soon as he started playing the song, people gathered even closer to the stage to get a better look at him as they started jumping and bobbing their heads! Looking back, I could see several people holding cell phones and filming, while others just held their drinks and enjoyed the moment. When the song reached the second chorus, people started singing along! ???????????? I''ve become so numb... Can''t feel you there... Getting so tired... So much more aware... I''m becoming this... All I want to do... Is to be more like me... And be less like you... ???????????? With the people in the audience singing, more and more people got up from the tables they were sitting at and came to enjoy the show, making the place I was in, which was starting to feel cramped before, even more so now. But at this point I didn''t care, because I was one of the people who started jumping and singing along. Even BlackVelvet on stage was excited as he played and jumped around. This show was amazing! ////NunuNote//// Thank you very much Gilly1210 for the Magic Castle!! Your 2 Bonus Chapters will be released as soon as I can!! Bonus Chapter Queue: 0/17 (+2 Bonus Chapters from Gilly1210''s Magic Castle Gift!! + 1 Bonus Chapter for 2k Power Stones Goal +3 Bonus Chapter for Top 42 Golden Ticket Ranking Last Month!) Vote with your power stones, you still have 24 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 54 [Bonus ] 54 - Enjoy the show! Chapter 54 [Bonus ] 54 - Enjoy the show! ??[+1 CON]Discover new chapters at novelhall.com [Singing Lv 29 -> 30] [Stage Presence Lv 1: Effect: Develops an enhanced understanding of stage presence techniques, increasing the singer''s confidence and skill by 1%. This includes mastery of posture, body expression, audience interaction, and emotional control during performances. It also improves lyric retention and practical application during performances by 1%. Gain a tangible advantage by absorbing the fundamentals of captivating and engaging stage presence]. Although the quality of my singing during the performance improved even more when my Singing skill increased to level 30, when I gained the Stage Presence skill, it was as if I''d been performing for over a month and all the experience I''d gained in that month of performing had come back to me, making me behave better to excite the audience, talk better to the audience, and hold more of the audience''s attention. This made the quality of the show even better! What was once just a talented singer with some charisma on stage, but who clearly had some doubts about how to behave on stage, had now become a singer with some experience who at least knew better how to interact with the audience and how to behave, thus improving the audience''s experience many times over. Hearing people singing the chorus of Numb and seeing them dancing in the audience at that moment was completely different than when I sang it with Midnight Echoes the night I met Selena. Being on stage by myself and being the center of attention was a lot cooler than just playing guitar in the corner. People singing along with my voice was a great feeling and now I understood why Jannet liked being the center of attention so much. But while I thought it was fun to sing on stage by myself, I also thought it would be really cool to have my friends with me. Wouldn''t it be nice to finish the song and have a joke with Mark? To have other buddies on stage to entertain the audience, one making fun of the other while the people downstairs laugh and enjoy it? I think I might try to invite them to perform with me one day. Even if it meant taking a smaller cut of the payment for the show, if the experience of performing with them was better than performing alone, it might be worth it. The only thing I would have to see was if BlackVelvet would become a band or if I would remain the singer of BlackVelvet and hire them as a backing band. Both sides had their advantages and disadvantages. Turning BlackVelvet into a band would be like giving them a part of what I''ve already built on my own, but in return I''d get 100% of their dedication to make it grow with me. Hiring them as a backing band would keep me as the sole owner of BlackVelvet, which would avoid potential drama if fights broke out, but they wouldn''t have to be 100% dedicated to making it grow either. That would be something I would have to consider in the future, for now I just wanted to enjoy my show. By the time I finished singing Numb, the sweat was pouring off my body as if I''d been practicing for a long time. To rest, I sat down in the chair on stage and started strumming a tune in the background while talking to the audience. "How about it, I saw that there was only one person who could sing this song, may I ask what your name is and where you learned the words?" I said as I swept my eyes over the audience until they landed on the girl in the front row. The girl was quite cute, with long straight brown hair and dark sparkling eyes, wearing a short pink shirt that showed part of her belly. When she saw me looking at her, the people around her looked at her too, but unlike normal girls, she didn''t get nervous and answered. Having material like this that showed my stage presence and the audience''s reaction to my show was very good for getting better opportunities to perform and better payments for my shows. I would still be responsible for editing and production, but just having a professional cameraman to capture everything and good angles was much better than just a stationary camera. ???????????? I could be a better friend than him. I could do the shit he never did Up all night, I won''t stop Thinking I could steal you from him I could be such a gentleman And all my clothes would fit ???????????? Just like when I sang Numb, when I sang the second chorus of the song, the crowd in the audience also started singing along with me, but this time the predominant voice in their chorus was female, which made it clear how appealing this song was to that type of audience. But even though the girls liked it more, the guys also enjoyed the song, especially those who had come to the bar to pick up girls and now used the song to look for girls to pick up. The only ones who weren''t so comfortable were the guys who had come with their girlfriends, who took the opportunity to hug the girls from behind to protect them and make it clear that they owned them. The guys who got the most out of the situation were those who were dating the girls for the first time. After seeing how the other men acted, they also had the courage to hug the girls from behind, and most of them accepted it, imagining that they were the protagonists of the lyrics and the guy they were going out with was singing it to them. It was clear that the libido in the air when I sang that song was very high, but I didn''t worry about it. If people liked my music, I was happy. When the song finally ended, there was a round of applause from the audience. Unfortunately, my repertoire of original songs only had In The End, I could still sing and play other songs from my old world, but I didn''t think it was a good idea to do a show 100% of songs that people didn''t know, so at that point I started playing songs that people liked, that were famous in this world, leaving In The End as literally the last song of the show. When I started playing the songs they knew, the audience got even more excited. ////NunuNote//// Thank you very much Gilly1210 for the Magic Castle!! Your 2 Bonus Chapters will be released as soon as I can!! Bonus Chapter Queue: 1/17 Vote with your power stones, you still have 24 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 55 55 - After Show Chapter 55 55 - After Show ?????????????? I tried so hard and got so far But in the end it doesn''t even matter I had to fall to lose it all But in the end it doesn''t even matter... ???????????? Singing the last line of In The End to the applause of an audience of about 100 to 200 people, I finally finished my first show. As I bowed to thank the audience, you could see the drops of sweat dripping from me. It was a 50-minute show with only a few breaks between songs to interact with the audience, but those 50 minutes were more exhausting than my 2-hour workout I do every day. "Thank you so much to everyone who came out to Moe''s Bar tonight, I hope to see you here again when I come back in the future!" I said excitedly and tiredly, gasping for air with a smile. The audience whistled and clapped as I picked up my things to leave the stage. While I was gathering my things, the host of the evening came back on stage to address the audience. "That was BlackVelvet guys! If you like him, don''t forget to follow him on social media and Spokify, the kid''s got talent!" The host said excitedly. "Now the next artist to take the stage..." I didn''t hear what he said after that because I had already left the stage to find a place to sit and rest. Selena was at the side of the stage talking to the cameraman she had hired to film me. When she saw me, she gave me a big smile and pointed to a sofa next to her, which I didn''t think twice about and threw myself on it, exhausted. After paying the cameraman and receiving the memory card, Selena smiled as she turned to me. "Hey, how was it being the only star on stage?" "Tiring, about 10 times more tiring than just being the guitarist..." I said, breathing heavily. "And the fun, was it more fun?" She asked. "At least 10x more fun too..." I replied with a thmubsup, without raising my head, earning a laugh from her. After a few minutes my family came to celebrate with me. "THAT WAS AWESOME, NOAH!" Ethan said excitedly as he ran up to me to take a closer look. Smiling as I used my sweaty hand to mess up his hair, which took on a look of disgust as he tried to pull away from me, I replied. "I heard you were the only one singing Numb on the first chorus!" "Really?! Did you hear me?" he asked with bright eyes. "He kept asking if you were listening." My father laughed. "That''s why he asked me to put him on my shoulders afterwards, so you could see he enjoyed it." "I don''t think anyone enjoyed your show more than he did." Olivia said with a laugh as she looked at Ethan. "That''s why he''s my number one fan!" I laughed. "We already got the ticket and a coupon for internal use, do you want to stay or go?" Selena asked, since it was my first concert and my family was with us, she wanted to let us enjoy this moment. Maybe next month, if I can continue to earn this amount or even increase it, I can convince my father to quit one of his jobs and have a normal work routine. "So how tired are you?" Selena asked as we drove back to my house. Since Ethan was very tired, he went with my parents in their car while he slept, leaving just me and Selena in her car. Thinking for a moment and analyzing how I was doing, I replied, "It''s a different routine, but I think I can do about three shows like this in one night once I get used to it. She nodded her head and said. "I have the contact details of some bars and clubs with free times tomorrow, do you want to try and do 2 shows tomorrow? I think trying 3 at once might be dangerous, we can take it slow." "Sure, what time are those shows?" I asked excitedly. "One starts at 9pm and the other at 11pm." She said. "Those are good times, I can do my routine during the day and still go to the concerts at night. What about the middle of the week?" I asked curiously. "Since you''re a minor, we can''t put a workload on you that would interfere with your school performance, of course, if you went to a school specializing in music, we might be able to get you some extra time off, but in your current situation, the company protocol is to only do concerts on the weekends while you focus on developing your social networks during the week." She explained. "If you could get into a rhythm of doing at least three shows a day on the weekends, it would be a huge boost for your career and for the company to recoup some of its investment in you." Remembering the $4,000 the company invested in the animation for my music video, I realized that if they took 20% of the commissions from my shows while keeping me on such a low income, it would take a long time for them to get it back, not to mention the salary of Selena, who is currently my exclusive agent. But that''s because the amount I was being paid was that of a Low Rank E artist, which would increase as I moved up a rank. If I did 3 shows a night and got paid $5,000 a show like a lot of higher ranked artists, that would be $3,000 a night for them too, which would be a total of $24,000 a month just from commissions for the shows I did, not counting when I got older and could do shows during the week, or not counting any promotions I might do, which not only pay more, but they would be entitled to 20% of that. But if they were responsible for finding those campaigns for me, which I had no idea how to do, I wouldn''t have a problem. "One question, would you have a problem playing for weddings, corporate events or birthdays?" Selena asked something she thought would melt my heart. I thought about her question and wondered why. Since such shows were probably much more problematic to do, as well as more boring for the artist, few people would accept them, but they also paid better. "I guess it depends, if it''s not too much trouble I might do it." I replied without worrying too much. I may not be someone who''s crazy about money, but having a little extra money, gaining more popularity, and being able to help my family at home more would be things I wouldn''t turn down. If doing shows like this would help, I wouldn''t have a problem with it. "What about benefit concerts?" She asked. "No problem. As long as it''s not some kind of money laundering scheme, I''d be fine with it." Nodding her head in satisfaction, Selena just stood there ponderously as she drove the rest of the way, which I figured meant she was possibly planning my future path, so I didn''t interrupt and went back to paying attention to my cell phone. ////NunuNote//// Bonus Chapter Queue: 1/17 Vote with your power stones, you still have 24 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 56 [Bonus ] 56 - Musical family Chapter 56 [Bonus ] 56 - Musical family ??After dropping me off at home, Selena didn''t even get out of the car and drove away. She said she was going to make a development plan for me, with plans for shows I could do to boost my career, and think about future possibilities for shows I could appear in to also boost my popularity. I didn''t worry too much about that kind of thing. I wasn''t the kind of artist who thought I shouldn''t do anything useless and just focus on my art. The way I saw it, as an artist, I had to take the opportunities that came my way and grow. Of course, without trying to get ahead of anyone and without acting like a jerk. After Selena left, my focus turned to what I thought about the band I could use. With the time we had in silence in her car, I thought about it a bit and realized that the best alternative for me would be to just focus on myself and grow my name as an artist. I already had all the advantages that bands had, like I could learn all the instruments and arrange the songs the way I wanted, I didn''t need other people to help me write the songs, not to mention I didn''t have to put myself in situations of band fights where one member wants something and the other member wants something else, the band breaks up and in the end I would have to kick them out of the band or even break up the band and have to change my stage name. BlackVelvet was the name of my dad''s band in my old world, but I didn''t have to make it a band in this world. So I decided that I would be BlackVelvet instead of BlackVelvet being a band with several members. Even if I didn''t get 100% of their dedication, I know there are many talented musicians in solo bands, I could do the same thing. With that decided, I was already more relaxed. This was a doubt that had been bothering me ever since I remembered how tired I was on stage. "Hey Noah, do you think you could make a song for me even if you can''t play the violin?" Liv came into my room a little embarrassed, but I could see how excited she was to think about it. "Did you like the feeling when you saw me on stage?" I asked, smiling. She nodded. "Yeah! You looked so cool playing the guitar on stage while you sang and people danced, I thought it would be cool to do that one day... but I play the violin... that stuff is only good for old people''s songs..." When I heard that, I laughed. Hearing that, I laughed. "Of course not, if no one has ever made a violin song with a youth theme, why can''t we? Believe in yourself!" In my old world, there were a few girls who grew up a lot on YouTube with songs that focused mainly on the violin. Girls like Lindsey Stirling or Taylor Davis were just a few who used the violin as the instrument and the voice of the song, which made the experience very unique and interesting! "Learn to play the violin?" I asked confused. "No, I want a song!" Ethan said excitedly. "I want to learn how to play a cool song like you so that one day I can get up on stage at school and impress everyone with how good I am." When we heard Ethan''s reason, Liv and I started to laugh. "If that''s your motive, then I''ll help you. Let''s make you the coolest kid in school, Buddy!" I said as I ruffled his hair. Since he was learning to play the ukulele, there were a lot of cool hit songs he could play. Not to mention that the image of a cute little boy like him playing with me would also be nice, I think the audience would enjoy seeing him play with us. After I decided to help them find songs, I realized that my family was slowly orbiting around the music industry. Liv was interested in learning to play the violin and I wanted to help her pursue that dream, while Ethan enjoyed playing the ukulele and learning to sing and play my songs. Although Liv''s talent wasn''t as monstrous as Ethan''s, who seemed to be born to play it, her talent was still okay, and with the years of training she already had, it was only a matter of time before she could perform as well if she really wanted to in the future. After we talked some more and Liv went back to her room, Ethan picked up his ukulele and continued practicing while I opened my Instagram to see if there was anything about me. Looking at the messages I''d received, I realized that several people in the bar had posted Stories from my show and tagged me, which meant that some of my fans had seen them and were surprised that I was doing shows where my face was visible. But the people who saw my face were still a small minority. I even wanted to post those stories on my profile, but considering that it was the first time I''d shown my face online in the clip the cameraman shot of Boyfriend, I controlled myself and didn''t post it. Since it was my first performance, the adrenaline was still pumping through my body and I could not sleep for a long time. Ethan had even finished practicing his ukulele and was falling asleep while I was having trouble sleeping. Although I did manage to fall asleep after a few hours, as the day began to dawn, this was the first time in my life that I woke up late. Little did I know that while I was sleeping, some unwanted people came to visit the house. Chapter 57 57 - Karen Chapter 57 57 - Karen ??"Long time no see, Jonathan!" A woman who looked a lot like Jonathan said while pretending to be excited as soon as Jonathan opened the door to his house. Seeing this woman, Jonathan was a little embarrassed while pretending to act naturally on the outside. "Yes Karen, long time no see..." He said as he cracked an unnatural smile. Next to his wife, Jonathan nodded to her husband, who nodded back, also a little embarrassed. Behind them, a fat boy with an arrogant expression on his face listened to music on an expensive headset without bothering to greet Jonathan as he looked around the house as if searching for something. "Aren''t you going to invite us in?" The woman asked in an arrogant voice as she glared at Jonathan. "Of course, please come in." Jonathan led the way for them to pass. As the woman entered, she acted as if she were in her own home, as did her son, while her husband acted politely and somewhat apologetically toward Jonathan, Seeing the three people enter, Lauren felt guilty as she came out of the kitchen to greet them, and Olivia, who had just come out of the basement with Ethan, saw these people and tried to quickly turn around to go back to the basement, but the fat boy''s gaze was quicker and saw her immediately. "Olivia!" He shouted excitedly as he ran towards her. Stopping in her tracks, Olivia knew there was no escape and turned to the boy with a sigh. "Hi Jerry..." Seeing Olivia in front of him, Jerry broke into a wide smile. "You look so beautiful Olivia, let me show you the games I bought on my phone." Saying this, the boy took out his cell phone and without waiting for Olivia to say no, he opened the screen of the cell phone and began to explain each game he had bought, completely ignoring Ethan. Ethan was used to this by now and just slowly walked away as he went upstairs to his room where Noah was sleeping, leaving Olivia to deal with Jerry, their cousin. As Ethan went upstairs, Karen was with her husband talking to Jonathan and Lauren. "Jonathan, I know the money I loaned you was a lot, but I need that money back now. Jerry is going on an exchange trip and he''s going to need this money for his expenses in Spain." Karen said as she looked at Jonathan with a slight smile. Karen was Jonathan''s younger sister. While the rest of his family were normal people, Karen grew up feeling that money was the most important thing, so much so that her husband, David, was chosen only because he was the son of the owner of a car dealership, which guaranteed her a promising future. Because of the family''s financial difficulties, Jonathan had to borrow money from Karen, which was only considered a possibility because he had no other option but to sell something they needed, like the car. Unfortunately, since he was asking Karen for money, she took it as proof that she was the right one in the family to prioritize money in her life, so the rest of the family had to listen to her say how right she was to be rich while they were poor. Looking at the contract in front of him, Jonathan saw that this was indeed what she was talking about. The contract said that the $10,000 debt he had borrowed from her would be forgiven in exchange for the inheritance rights he had. As he considered all the possibilities, looking at Lauren, Olivia, and thinking about Ethan and Noah, Jonathan really thought about signing the contract. As he picked up the pen to sign it, making Karen''s smile even bigger, a voice interrupted him. "Dad, stop!" Surprised, everyone looked at the stairs and saw Ethan coming down with a handsome young man with messy bleached hair who looked like he had just woken up. Looking at the boy with disdain, Karen scoffed. "Haha, now you''re even letting Olivia''s boyfriend stay with you? That explains why you can''t afford anything, Jonathan." But her statement made everyone look at her in confusion. "What are you saying, Karen, that boy isn''t Olivia''s boyfriend, he''s Noah, my son." Lauren explained in confusion. Hearing that it was Noah, Karen was shocked because the last time she''d seen Noah he was so fat he looked like he''d eaten someone else. "That''s impossible, Noah was much fatter than me!!!" Jerry shouted in confusion and anger at the room, ignoring the way Olivia was looking at him now. "Too bad, now you''re the only fat one in the family, Pig Jerry." Noah replied indifferently, not even looking at Jerry as he walked toward the kitchen. But when Jerry saw Noah talking to him and ignoring him like he wasn''t even worth his time, Jerry got angry and ran up to Noah. Because of his weight, Jerry wasn''t used to running and tripped on the carpet of the house, causing his headset to fall off, but he still managed to balance himself in the end and come face to face with Noah. When he finally looked at Jerry, Noah stared into the face of the boy who was at least ten centimeters shorter than him, crossing his arms in front of his body. "What do you want, Pig Jerry?" Noah asked without patience. Because of his physical experiences, he didn''t like to mock people like he did in his previous world, especially when it came to the person''s weight, but for people like this who came to his house to try to extort money from his family, Noah had no mercy. Even more so with [Krav Maga Lv 22], Noah felt much more confident to deal with anything. Seeing Noah with his current muscles standing in front of him and staring at him, Jerry swallowed hard and regretted trying to intimidate Noah. Chapter 58 [Bonus ] 58 - Dealing with the problem Chapter 58 [Bonus ] 58 - Dealing with the problem ??"What''s the matter, Pig Jerry? If you''re not going to say anything, get out of my face." I said as I approached him, invading his personal space and making my cousin even more uncomfortable. Jerry, though fat, is a little thinner than I was when I weighed 150 Kg, so not only did he make fun of me for not having money at family parties at my grandparents'' house, but he also made fun of me for my weight as a way of self-affirming that he wasn''t as fat as he looked. But now that I had lost weight, this boy no longer had a reason to tease me about my weight, and as my career progressed, he would soon have no right to tease me about my money. Feeling intimidated, Jerry took two steps back and one to the side, clearing the way for me to reach the kitchen. Ignoring him from that point on, I entered the kitchen in silence, staring at and analyzing my Aunt Karen and her soft-ass husband. David was a very well born man, with a good education, a very pleasant man to keep company with at a barbecue, the problem was that he could never assert himself, so Karen took advantage of that in him and did what she wanted with his money. While Karen looked at me angrily, David looked at me as if to apologize, which made me sigh for the poor man. Standing next to where my father sat, I began to read the contract to understand exactly what was going on. I didn''t know about my father''s $10,000 debt, otherwise I would have worked even harder to get the money to pay Karen, but now that she was here, the only thing I could do at this point was get it over with quickly. When Ethan woke me up, I looked at the notification on my phone and confirmed that MeTube and Spokify had transferred the money I had received over the last 30 days, which was great news. When I added up all the money I had, it was $1,680 from MeTube, $1,728 from Spokify, and $3,210 that I had saved from the artwork I had sold over the past few weeks, plus the money I had earned from the two shows I had participated in. That came to $6,618 in my current bank account, which was still $3,382 short of what I needed to pay the bill. "Dad, how much money do you have on hand right now?" I asked him. Embarrassed, my father pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened the banking app to check. "I only have $1,400 in an emergency account..." Hearing this, I nodded; with his $1,400, I was only about $2,000 short of the full amount. Thinking of something, I picked up my cell phone as I decided to try a solution. "What do you think you''re doing, kid? You think you''re going to get the $8,600 you need to pay off the debt with your low-level job?" Karen asked with a scornful laugh. "If you had more than $600 in your bank account, I''d walk home upside down, haha, and don''t think I''ll accept anything less than the $10,000 today, if you don''t pay me that right now, I''m going straight from here to my lawyers to file a lawsuit against your father." "Are you selling drugs, child? How did you get so much money in such a short time?" She shouted in confusion and anger. "How does what I do have anything to do with you?! Just tell me your fucking account number before I take the phone out of your hand and see for myself!" I replied angrily, causing her to jump and look to David for help. But just as David didn''t have the courage to face her, he also looked at me and cowered, not having the courage to protect his wife from a 17 year old boy. Seeing that she wasn''t going to be helped, Karen simply gave her the account number and I made the transfer. "Okay, I''ve saved the transfer receipt for the $10,000, and whatever shit you come up with in court, I can prove it''s already been paid and you''re lying." I said this while feeling a little sorry for transferring so much money at once, but knowing the reason for it, I relaxed and left it for the future to recover even more. After saying this, I started walking towards Karen, making her jump with fear because of our height and size difference, but I just walked past her and opened the door of the house for them to leave. "Please come out." I said as I pointed to the open door and waved at them. Looking at me in disbelief, Karen couldn''t believe that I would kick her out of our house in such a humiliating way. "Are you really going to let your son treat me like this, Jonathan?" She turned to my father and asked indignantly. "The boy is going through a rebellious phase, Karen, I''ll talk to him later." My father replied dismissively this time, while laughing and enjoying Karen''s indignation. He was really ashamed of owing his sister money, but the realization that she had only lent him that money to get his share of the inheritance from her parents who were still alive made him lose all consideration for this woman. Seeing that my father had no intention of stopping me, Karen became even more indignant and quickly gathered her things as she quickly left our house and got into David''s Porsche Macan. As David passed me, he stopped to say something, but sighed and just nodded as he walked back to his car. As Jerry passed me, I "accidentally" kicked him in front of the house, but before he could say anything, I closed the door and went back inside. "Noah, where did you get the money?" My mother was the first to ask with great concern. I smiled as I noticed the tears in her eyes and started to answer, but Olivia ran over and hugged me as she started to cry as well. I think she felt really bad about everything that was happening, thinking of all the possibilities of bad things that could happen to her family and she couldn''t do anything about it. So instead of answering my mom right away, I just stroked Liv''s back to make her feel better while I looked at Ethan, who practically had stars in his eyes when he looked at me. Chapter 59 59 - Solving Problems Chapter 59 59 - Solving Problems ??When Liv finally calmed down and managed to let go of the hug, my mother asked me again. "Noah, what did you do to earn so much money?" she asked worriedly. Even though she knew I was making money from my artwork, she not only had no idea how much I was making, she had no idea how I managed to make more than $8,000 in one month. My father, on the other hand, knew how much I earned from each drawing, and this made him even more confused because he could see from the calculations that even if I saved all the money from last month''s drawings and drew every 7 days of the week, I would still have a maximum of $6,000.T/his chapter is updated by So I explained: "Mom, you know I draw pictures to sell on the Internet, right?" I began to confirm. She nodded because I''d said that before. "I get $100 for every piece of art I make, and I usually make two pieces of art a day." I explained, leaving her shocked at how much money I made. "You draw people''s characters and they pay you $100 per drawing?" she asked in shock. "Yes." I nodded. "I was paid less at first, but over time my reputation grew, and now the amount I charge is $100 per drawing." "But even if you were paid $100 for the last 30 days and did 2 drawings a day, that would still only be $6,000, where did the rest of the money come from?" my father asked confused. "Actually, the money came from several sources. The initial money was just $3,200 that I had saved from the artwork and the shows that I did, but for every thousand people that listen to my songs on the Internet, I get a share of the advertising money, which was another $3,400 of money." I explained to their surprise. "For every thousand people who listen to your songs, you get money?! So how much did you get for The Lazy Song?" My mom asked in shock. Since that song had over a million views, the calculation was easy: "About $1,000 on MeTube alone, it probably made another $1,000 on Spokify, so that song alone was responsible for $2,000 of the money I used." I explained. "2,000 for one song..." My mom was very surprised. She had heard of people making a lot of money on the Internet, but since it was always far away, she couldn''t imagine that I, her son, could make so much money in such a short time by posting things on the Internet. "But even if you add all that to the $1,400 I sent you, you''re still $2,000 short, right? Where did you get the money so fast?" My father asked worriedly. He''d seen the messages coming in on my cell phone about transfers from various people, so he was worried that I was borrowing money just like he was. "The waiting list of my clients for the artwork is quite long, so I just accepted some commissions for the drawings and asked for payment in advance. Those who paid had priority for the drawings. They also offered a gift of a cute, simple drawing of their characters to those who paid in advance," I explained. I explained. "How many pieces did you offer?" my father asked as he began to mentally count. "I received an advance of 50% of the value of 40 pieces of art..." I said laughing as I scratched the back of my head. "Now for the next 20 days I''ve already got my schedule set." "Can you deliver all that, Noah?" my mother asked worriedly. "You don''t have to commit so much, if you need any help, just let me know." I shook my head in denial. Shaking my head, I denied it. "It''s okay, even though I take so many orders, I was going to take them anyway, so I just moved the process along." What I didn''t say was that I don''t usually like to work on Saturdays and Sundays, and with my plans to do weekend shows, this time became even more precious. "Just ask me one thing Dad, did you borrow money from anyone other than Karen?" I asked with a worried voice. I didn''t even bother to call this woman an aunt anymore. Embarrassed, my father nodded. "Yes, but it wasn''t that much money. It was $3,000 for my parents and $1,000 for my other two uncles. I had only borrowed $1,000 from Karen as well, but she offered $10,000 at the time." He continued. "At first I thought it was strange that Karen would offer money, but since it would really help with the bills at home, I accepted, thinking that she had improved and started to value family more than money, but now I understand why she offered so much..." "All right, Dad, let''s work together to pay off the $5,000 we still owe and then we''ll be free of all this." I smiled and tried to calm him down, which partly worked. This was something he already felt pretty bad about, so at least knowing that his son was going to help him pay made him even prouder. If it had been my old dad, I wouldn''t have worried at all, because he would probably have borrowed the money to spend it on booze, drugs, or gambling, but my current dad didn''t do that. All the money was spent on the five of us, so I wasn''t angry. "Let''s make a big dinner to celebrate today, we''ll each get to choose a dish." My mother said, relieved that she no longer had to worry about the money my father had borrowed from my aunt and that all the debts would be paid off in the near future. "I want a hamburger!" Ethan was the first to respond excitedly. "I''ll have a salad..." Olivia said sheepishly, making me look at her with a raised eyebrow. Seeing me look at her like that made her even more embarrassed. "Are you really just going to eat a salad?" I asked confused. "I''m on a diet..." She said, making me look up and down and frown. "But don''t your measurements go down with the exercise we do together?" I asked confused since we measured each other every week and she started to look slimmer after we started training. "But my weight on the scale hasn''t gone down." She complained a little. "Silly girl, when you lose fat and gain muscle, your weight stays the same, but the fat is more voluminous, which makes you thinner...you can eat something more caloric, which with the intensity of our training, will hardly make you fat." I laughed as I explained, making her relax while I actually started to think of something she could order to eat. "I''ll have fries, lots of fries." I said excitedly. After all the time I''d spent on my high protein diet so I could eat during the week, being able to indulge in junk food on the weekend was something I''d been waiting for. Especially now that I was very close to my ideal weight, I could give myself a little freedom to eat junk food on the weekends. Of course, my mid-week eating would still be controlled, and the system would help me avoid regaining my previous weight. But to my surprise, as soon as I answered what I wanted to eat, a notification beeped on my phone, alerting me to a message Selena had sent me. Chapter 60 [Bonus ] 60 - They Heard About You Chapter 60 [Bonus ] 60 - They Heard About You ??[Hey Noah, is everything okay for the shows today?] Her message came. [Shows? Wasn''t it only one?] I asked in surprise. [Hehe, it was only supposed to be one, but I managed to book 2 shows for tonight, one of the bar owners got wind of how the audience liked your show yesterday and decided to test your performance in his bar as well, because one of his artists got sick]. She explained and sent a big smiley face emoji. [Woah, this came at a great time...] I replied a little relieved. [How much will these two shows cost?] [Each will still only be $300 because even though the bar owner has heard of you, you''re still a new artist with no name]. She explained. [Mar, why do you say this came at a good time? Do you need money?] Seeing as it''s $300 for each show and taking out AJP''s 20%, I''d still have $480 left over! Hell, if I could do 2 shows like that a weekend, I''d be making almost as much as I make from art... [I had to help my family pay off a debt, now I''m getting money together to finish paying off the rest]. I explained it to her honestly. Since Selena was my agent, it was ideal that she knew about this kind of thing to help me get projects to raise money as soon as possible, it''s not like she would stop liking me because of it, was she my girlfriend by any chance? [Hmm, I think I can help you get some corporate work this week. There are some events that need a singer, but maybe you need a song in the style they want, is that okay with you?"]. She asked. [Is there a preference?] After thinking a bit, I thought it might be a good idea to play at a wedding, with the great romantic songs from my previous world, not only could I get more money from playing at weddings, but I could also get more followers if I put these songs on my MeTube channel. [No problem, I''d prefer weddings or 15th birthdays, I''ll just need some time to write a song for that and I''ll send it to you so you can get the copyright, okay?] [Okay!] She replied. [I''ll pick you up at five in the afternoon]. [Okay, see you then!] With that settled, I felt more excitement coming over me. Now I was not only excited about getting money to help my family out of debt, but I was also excited about writing new music and doing more gigs. When I saw how much I could get paid for gigs, there was no way I couldn''t get excited. And since I was still only a Rank E artist, imagining how much I could get paid at Rank D or Rank C would make today''s amount seem small. I heard Selena''s Tesla Power Plant and said goodbye to my family as I left the house to get into her car with my guitar and acoustic guitar. "Hey Selena, you look beautiful." I said with a smile as I looked at her. Unlike the black and white dress I saw her in the first time, she was now wearing a more casual outfit, a black dress shirt and tight jeans. Considering the clothes I was wearing, she was still more formal than me, but since she was my agent, it was normal for her to look more formal. But even though she wasn''t as elegant as the first time I saw her, she still looked beautiful. Surprised by my compliment, she also looked me up and down and complimented me in a neutral voice that I couldn''t tell if it was sincere or not. "You don''t look bad yourself." This woman was complicated; when she wanted to hide what she was thinking, it was very difficult for me to really understand what she meant. "How is this going to work? How did you pick me up at this time, I think you picked me up to do an opening show?" I asked excitedly. "Exactly." She replied. "The artist who was supposed to do the opening show at the Viper Poison bar got a bad stomach after eating yesterday and won''t be able to do the opening. Since the bar''s other contracted artists were already booked, they contacted AJP to get someone for them. "Wow, should I avoid eating and drinking there?" I asked, a little worried. "Theoretically, you shouldn''t worry, but considering that we have another show today, it might not be a bad idea not to eat or drink anything there except water." She explained, making me nod. "The funny thing was that when he asked for a list of AJP''s Rank E artists to do the opening tonight, he didn''t think twice when he saw your name and asked to contact you." "How did he find out about me so fast?" I asked in surprise. "Not only are these bar owners around town very attentive to the artists who perform in competing bars, but it seems that the audience itself showed how much they liked you by how discouraged they were about the shows after you that day." She explained. "What do you mean?" I was surprised. "After you stopped performing, the next artist still managed to keep some of the crowd, but since all the other artists that night were Rank E newcomers, they didn''t have the experience to keep the crowd going like you left them, and people ended up being disappointed and left early." Selena explained to my shock. "But wouldn''t that be bad for the Viper Poison Bar? Since they want me to be the first performer tonight, couldn''t that happen again?" I asked worriedly. Looking at me with a smile on her face, Selena replied sarcastically. "You already think you''re great, don''t you, Noah? Don''t worry, even though you''re very good, the other artists who will perform after you are rank D artists and the last artist is rank C, so you don''t have to worry, they have experience in dealing with the audience. When I heard that, I was surprised and laughed at what she said, I really thought a lot about myself, I couldn''t do the same thing again today, right? Chapter 61 61 - Good strategy! Chapter 61 61 - Good strategy! ??"In a concert, the best singers usually stay at the end, because if you''re too good in the beginning, people have something to compare it to in the middle of the show and like who''s performing less. But by the same token, having a good opening act would be a great way to improve the overall quality of the show by a huge margin. Selena told me as we got out of the car and walked to the bar. "That would be good because I''d get everyone excited and more receptive to the next artist, right?" I asked, guessing. "Exactly, if you''ve managed to get the crowd going, the next artist''s job will be a lot easier, because if they can maintain their level, the crowd will be excited all night, spend more money on drinks, generate more profit for the bar owner, and have a lot more fun." Selena explained, causing me to nod in agreement. "Hi, are you in charge of the opening show?" The man holding the door asked as he looked at Selena. "Yes, I''m Selena Sinclair, the AJP person in charge of BlackVelvet, the artist opening tonight." She explained as she handed him her business card, causing him to nod and make room for us to pass. Even though I was playing the opening gig now, the bar had been open for a few hours, so there were already people in the place enjoying the music from some playlist on the speakers. When they saw me coming in with the instruments, some of the already excited people gave a celebratory shout as they raised their bodies in a toast in my direction, but that was only a small part of the crowd, the rest just carried on partying as normal, which made me better understand what Selena had said. With a crowd like that, it would be really hard for the artist to come on stage and cheer them up as much as possible, so the ideal was to have an opening show at the beginning to warm up the crowd, get them more excited, get them drinking more, and pave the way for the main artist to come on stage and greet the audience in the best possible condition.T/his chapter is updated by So my new skill will be very useful. [Stage Presence Lv 1: Effect: Develops a better understanding of stage presence techniques, increasing the singer''s confidence and skill by 1%. This includes mastery of posture, body expression, audience interaction, and emotional control during performances. It also improves lyric retention and practical application during performances by 1%. Gain a tangible advantage by absorbing the fundamentals of captivating and engaging stage presence]. Although the skill is still at level 1, considering that this is the equivalent of a month''s training, it''s as if I''ve been performing for a month and already have some experience in dealing with the public. I wouldn''t be so lost when I went on stage to interact with people, but I would still be lost if a very unusual situation arose. But that would be a big help to me, especially in the role of the opening act. "Hi, you''re in charge of the opening act, RedVelvet, right?" A woman with a manager''s badge came up to us while we were talking to Selena. "Yes, this is ''BlackVelvet'' in charge of the opening act." Selena replied, emphasizing that it was BlackVelvet and not RedVelvet. Although the bar owners wanted to lower the amount they would pay for him because of his rank, the results of Noah''s performances constantly disrupting the shows of Rank D performers would show that he would command a salary at least similar to that of Rank D performers, which was great for us. Now, whether this would affect the careers of the Rank D artists he was interrupting was not our problem. Only the fittest survive in an artist''s career, if this artist''s manager had the guts to let him play after Noah, it can''t be our fault. Just deal with the fact that your artist gets a higher salary than mine. Thinking about things like that, I couldn''t help but smile. These were the things I wanted to feel, these were the challenges I wanted to face when I came to work in California. The difference between the fight my artist was having on stage while I was fighting for him backstage was so much more fun than managing how many products to buy for my father''s company... But my thoughts were interrupted when Noah took the stage. "Good evening everyone, I''m BlackVelvet and tonight I''m opening for Viper Poison Bar!" He said in a charismatic way while looking at the audience and adjusting the tuning of his guitar to make sure everything was perfect. Looking around the stage, I think he was looking to see if anyone there knew him, but imitating him, I realized that no one seemed to know who he was, which was a bit sad, but something that would change in a short while. When I looked at him, expecting to see him a little disappointed, I was surprised to see that he didn''t let his disappointment show and kept a smile on his face. "To start the show, I was debating whether to sing a standard song that everyone has to sing at opening concerts or to start the evening with one of my original songs. Currently this song has over a million views on MeTube and 300k views on Spokify, so I hope you''ll give it a listen and let me know if you like it. He said smiling as he started to strum his guitar. "This song is called The Lazy Song!" As soon as he said that, he started to play the beat of the song, which was an upbeat and cheerful tune, a good choice to start with when moving up to the bar level. When I looked at the people around me and realized that he had managed to get people''s attention, a smile appeared on my face. Little by little, people were paying more and more attention to him, and more and more people were coming to the stage to see him play. This was a very good performance for a rank E artist on a night when even a rank C artist was going to perform. His strategy was very clever... Chapter 62 [Bonus ] 62 - This is going to be fun! Chapter 62 [Bonus ] 62 - This is going to be fun! ??Noah was very smart about how he chose to interact with the audience. First, he introduced himself as BlackVelvet to see if there was anyone in the audience who already knew him to show some credibility, but since there was no one, he decided to use a different approach. He used the fallacy of authority, which basically consists of showing a case of his success, which was the song The Lazy Song, which had more than 1 million views on MeTube, something that only the most famous songs of C-list artists have, to show the audience that he had the talent and potential to surprise them, and then he started to play the song. Since this song was upbeat and happy, it would be a great opening song for his show, which would make the audience more excited and enthusiastic to watch him.Nne?w n0vel chapters are published at novelhall.com The crowd liked rock, but not as much as in the Blackout Bar, which would have made them even more disinterested if Noah had started with Numb, a song with rather sad and melancholic lyrics. But now that he''s started the show with The Lazy Song, he''s got the crowd in a good mood and after that he''s free to play Numb and In The End without any fear. If I''m not mistaken, he''ll use Boyfriend as a joker, a song he can play at any time to get the crowd back in the mood and keep the show going. It''s really hard to believe that he''s only a new artist doing his second show... The show was only 50 minutes long, so including each song and the breaks he had to rest and interact with the audience, Noah had time to play 11 songs. Of these 11 songs, 4 were his original songs and 7 were songs by other artists that we chose to cover. Although the crowd''s expectations were higher at this bar than at the Blackcout Bar we went to yesterday, Noah managed to keep the crowd''s spirits up the whole time. Surprisingly, In The End was the most popular song with the crowd. Towards the middle of the show I felt he was getting more comfortable and his stage presence was even more evident. It was impossible to tell that this was only his second show. The level of naturalness with which he did it was very high, as if he was born for it! As the show went on, it was as if he had become more comfortable jumping, dancing, singing, playing and joking with the audience. His voice sounded better, the way he played the guitar sounded better, it was like watching a walking metamorphosis... At the end of the show, Noah even received a few drinks as a gift from the fans, but he gave them to the waiters or left them for the next artist and left without drinking, afraid that there was something in the drink that might make him sick. [Stage Presence Lv 1 -> 2]. Increasing Guitar and Sing by one level was the same as increasing my experience time by 3 months, while increasing Stage Presence by one level was the same as increasing my experience time by one month, but the difference in the ratio of the two made the difference seem bigger. Since Singing and Guitar gave me 3 months of experience in skills I already had over 72 months of experience in, it was only an increase of less than 5% of the total, but Stage Presence gave me 1 month of experience in a skill I already had 1 month of experience in, which was a 100% increase in just one level! I myself noticed that I was already more natural with the audience and they were more comfortable interacting with me on stage, but as I watched the D rank artist who came after me, I saw that my Stage Presence level was much lower than his. Because he had years of experience, it was still a big difference for me, who had only been in the system for two months, but I was happy to see my progress. He was very clever in how he handled the audience to try to keep as many people interested as possible, and I have to admit that most of the people who stayed were because his stage presence was better than mine and won them over, but the people he lost were because of the difference in the rest. Both because of the difference between the quality of our original songs, our difference in appearance with charisma, and our singing and guitar levels, which were lower than mine. After taking a few minutes to learn how he interacted with the audience with his stage presence, I felt like staying to watch the C-level artist who was performing today to see the difference between the two of us, but since we didn''t have time for that, I had to leave with Selena so we could go to the next bar. After taking AJP''s 20% of the $360, I was left with $288, which was already a good increase, bringing the total amount of money I had at that moment to an incredible $388, which wasn''t that much, but considering that one of the debts my father had with one of my uncles was only $1,000, it brought me closer to paying it off than I thought I would be in just one day. "This next bar we go to, am I going to be bartending for someone?" I asked curiously. But Selena just shook her head in the negative. "No, the owner of the bar we''re going to now asked me what I thought of your level and which would be the best place for you, and I recommended one of the latter." She continued to explain as we got into the car. "Since this bar is smaller than the Viper Poison Bar, the artists who play there are mostly rank E, just like in the Blackout Bar, only the last two artists of the night are rank D, which is why the owner of the bar hired you to be the last rank E artist to play tonight." "That''s quite a responsibility..." I said laughing. "Go on, show them that it would have been better to put you under the D ranks." She said with a smile at the corner of her mouth, which she quickly hid. But this time I''m sure I saw it! She was laughing her ass off, she wants me to finish the D rank show... This girl seems to be just a serious, straight girl, but apparently she wants to see chaos descend upon the world. Hehe, that makes it all even funnier. Chapter 63 63 - New strategy Chapter 63 63 - New strategy ??Just like she said, when we arrived at the venue for the second show, I was going to be the last Rank E artist of the night, which was much better for me than being the first artist like at the previous bar, because I could see the difference in the crowd. Even though there were fewer people here, these people were much more excited now than they usually were when I started the show. The artist on stage was still only a Rank E artist like me, so he didn''t have as much stage presence as the artist I saw play after me at the Viper Poison bar, which meant the crowd wasn''t as excited as it should have been. But that was okay, I was confident that I could lift these people up better than anyone else, and since Selena wanted to see something interesting happen at the Rank D artist''s show after me, my idea was to do just that. "I hope you enjoyed the Soul Sinners show!!! Let''s give them a round of applause!" The host said as he took the stage and cheered the crowd on while the band took down their equipment and waited for me to come up. "For our next artist, this is a new kid who played his first show yesterday." The host said, making the audience look confused. The host said, making the audience look confused. "But don''t think he started yesterday and already has the best spot of the night for a Rank E artist because of some connections, this kid just played a gig at the Viper Poison bar and I heard he played really well there!" Upon hearing this, the audience''s confusion was replaced by surprise. "Holy shit, Viper Poison takes Rank E artists?" One person in the audience asked his friend in surprise. "Normally there''s only one spot for Rank E artists, which is for the opener, the first artist of the night, but as far as I know they''re pretty selective when choosing the artist. This person''s friend replied in surprise. Although the bars were competitors, they weren''t like TV stations that avoided mentioning each other''s names so as not to attract viewers, these bars had different offerings. While the Viper Poison Bar was a place that focused on rank D rock artists, but gave opportunities to one rank E artist per night and had a main rank C artist every night, the price they charged was also proportional to that. The bar we were in now was a place that focused on Rank E artists, with two or three Rank D artists playing every night, which made it cheaper than Viper Poison because of the level of artists. Everyone wanted to set up a bar to host high level artists, but it was a process that couldn''t be skipped. Normally, bars, like artists, had to build up their reputation before they could bring in bigger artists and charge more. That''s why the owner of this bar didn''t mind mentioning that I was playing at Poison Bar tonight, since they were in different categories, the customers here wouldn''t stop coming here to go to the other bar. "Welcome our last Rank E artist of the night, a boy who has only been playing for a month and has already achieved what many artists take years to achieve, welcome to the stage, BlackVelvet!" The host said. As soon as he finished introducing me, I walked on stage with my guitar around my waist and waved to the audience, who whistled in celebration even though they didn''t know who I was, showing that the host was good. It wasn''t easy to get people excited to hear someone they didn''t know play. I took the microphone he gave me and smiled, "Good evening everyone, you''re really excited tonight!" As soon as I said that, a few men in the background whistled and raised their glasses, cheering people up even more. "Since you''re excited, I''m going to start with one of my favorite songs, for those of you who have recently ended a relationship, who gave everything for the sake of the relationship and in the end it didn''t work out, for those of you who feel frustration in your chest after trying so hard for something you wanted and in the end it didn''t work out, this song is for you, this song is for you to scream out loud and let that feeling out, for you to release what has been held from you and for you to feel lighter after this show, sing with me In The End! " I made the introduction and began to play the song. In The End is an upbeat song, but the lyrics are a little sad, so I realized that when I started playing it, people would go through a few processes. I had to fall to lose it all... But in the end it doesn''t even matter... ???????????? As I sang the chorus of the song, I realized that the attention of almost everyone in the room was on me. By putting my passion into singing the song, my voice helped me to easily reach a level of notes that I had previously found difficult. When the first chorus ended, the crowd''s eyes lit up. Every second I saw more people coming from the tables onto the dance floor to get closer to the stage to get a better look at me, more hands raised with the rock symbol on their fingers and more heads bobbing, but the highlight of this song was the second chorus where not only was I singing with passion, but the audience who had just heard my song was singing along! People who didn''t know me, who had never heard my music, some who even thought I had done something wrong to get the best spot of the night to sing, were now singing my chorus together as they enjoyed the evening. When In The End finally ended, I was a little breathless, but a message gave me more strength to carry on. [+1 CON] With one more Constitution point, I could already feel my body becoming more resilient, my energy reserves growing, and the only thing I wanted to do was keep singing. "Woah, I got goose bumps from this crowd..." I said as I ran my hand up my arm, causing the audience to laugh and whistle at me. "As you liked In The End, which is a song about trying something and not succeeding in the end, this next song has a similar style but with lyrics that focus on someone who has suffered in an abusive relationship and had to move away to please the person and despite trying everything, the person was never satisfied." "To the girlfriend or boyfriend of yours who didn''t accept you for who you really are, to your parents who didn''t like your style and wanted you to be like your cousin or the neighbor''s son, to all those who wouldn''t let you be who you really are, sing it with me, Numb!" I tried to do the same thing I did with In The End, but with Numb, to see if it would help get the audience''s attention. From what I could see in their eyes, it seemed to work as people were looking at me expectantly to find out what I was going to sing and if the song I was going to sing would be as good as the previous one. ???????????? I''m tired of being what you want me to be... Feeling so faithless, lost under the surface Not knowing what you expect of me... Under the pressure of walking in your shoes... ???????????? The more I sang the song, the more people''s attention I attracted, mainly because of the beat of the song, but as their attention grew more and more on the lyrics, their heads kept bobbing, making the smile on my face bigger and bigger as I enjoyed the stage. Chapter 64 [Bonus ] 64 - The difference between the two Chapter 64 [Bonus ] 64 - The difference between the two ?????????????? I could be a better boyfriend than him... I could do the shit he never did.... Up all night, I won''t quit... Thinking I''m gonna steal you from him... I could be such a gentleman... Plus all my clothes would fit... ???????????? By the time I finished singing the last chorus of Boyfriend I was exhausted, but it was amazing to see practically everyone in the bar around the stage having fun with the songs. Especially with the lyrics of Boyfriend, which made the girls in the bar get even more excited and approach the stage as they brought their glasses close to my mouth for me to drink from theirs. Taking advantage of the situation, I quickly took a few sips, which caused people to get excited and several other people to want to give me a drink as well. I couldn''t take them all, but I took as many as I could. One thing I noticed was that for the audience, offering a drink and the artist drinking it in gratitude made them feel even closer to you and enjoyed the show even more. At the end of Boyfriend, my 50 minutes on stage were finally up, but as the host came on stage, we were both surprised by the shouts coming from the audience. "Encore, encore, encore!" I stared at the host in surprise, not knowing what to do, this was the first time this had happened to me. "Okay, it''s been a few weeks since you asked for an encore for an artist, and that was for our golden newcomer! What do you think, BlackVelvet? Can you do one more encore for the audience?" He asked with an excited smile when he saw how much people enjoyed it. I took the microphone from him and cracked an excited smile on my panting face, despite my tiredness I had to do it. "This is the first encore I''ve been asked to do since I started performing, so since you''re the first one to ask me, I''m going to do something special...this is a song I''m still working on, right now I only have the guitar part done, so I won''t be singing anything, but I guarantee the guitar alone is great, I hope you like it!" I thought about singing something, but considering that I was tired and had already sung the songs that I thought were good, the idea that popped into my head was to play the guitar of one of my favorite songs that I used to practice at home. Since I''d been practicing it for weeks, I thought it would be a good idea to use it at the concert. This song was one of the most classic rock songs from my previous world, one of the songs I wanted to bring to this world, but since I hadn''t found a good opportunity yet, I just played this song at home to practice my guitar skills, because playing only 4 songs to practice was very boring. "Yeah, I guess it must feel good. The manager has already paid me, but he said if we want to stay a little longer he''ll buy us a drink as well." She said, making me interested. Not because of the drink, but because I wanted to see how the Rank D artist would treat the audience the way I had left them. "You''re mean, Selena." I laughed as I walked towards the tables. "You''re no saint yourself, Noah." She laughed as she walked with me. We both went to the bar with the same intention, maybe we really were the bad guys? We didn''t do anything wrong, I just did my best and we wanted to see how someone theoretically better than me would handle it, I could even learn from him, it was like a field study, right? I have to say that even though I was a rank D artist just like the singer who sang after me at the Viper Poison bar, the difference in stage presence between the two was huge. While the singer at the Viper Poison had a Stage Presence of between level 10 and 14, this singer on stage now had a Stage Presence of probably only 6 or 7. Even though they were both rank D, this performer had a much worse stage presence, but he had a little more musical quality. The musical quality was good to help the artist grow with songs on CDs or views on the internet, but in concerts the stage presence had much more weight. So when he takes over the stage after I leave, even if his stage presence is a little better than mine, it doesn''t make up for the difference in musical quality and charisma. This meant that the audience, who had been very close to the stage with high energy, slowly returned to their seats and fewer people stayed close to the stage. Sure, it was still more people than when the other Rank E artists played, but it was still less than when I played on stage. Realizing there wasn''t much more to see, Selena and I left and she gave me today''s money. It was $288 from Viper Poison and now another $240 from this bar for a total of $528, a great amount for just one day''s work. If I can keep up this average, I''ll be able to make another $4,000 a month, adding in the money I make from art, which is another $4,000 a month, and at least another $2,000 a month that I could make from MeTube and Spokify, that would total $10,000 for me every month, which would already help a lot with the household bills, as well as get me out of debt. "Do we have anything planned for next week?" I asked curiously as Selena drove back to my house. "Right now I''m trying to book at least 2 shows for Saturday and 2 shows for Sunday with guarantees, maybe I can get some corporate events for you on Friday, but right now it''s not for sure." She explained, making me nod. "Okay, if you do get something, let me know in advance so I can get the music ready in time, whether it''s a birthday, wedding or whatever, I can try to make a special song to make the event more special for whoever hired it." I said as I took out my phone and looked at my numbers on MeTube and Spokify, satisfied with how much the song was growing. Tomorrow I would edit the music video for Boyfriend and post it on my channel, finally showing my face to the public for the first time. I thought about hiding it for a while and trying to cash in on the mystique of who BlackVelvet was, but when I thought about how much more I could benefit from the good looks System was giving me with the charisma points, the fat I was losing, and the muscle I was gaining, the most logical choice was to stop hiding. Chapter 65 65 - New student Chapter 65 65 - New student ??Although I took a break from my exercise routine yesterday, today, Monday, I had to start exercising again. With the amount of weight I''ve lost in the past few days, instead of just running 6 km in an hour, I managed to increase that to 8 km in an hour last week, and this week I want to try to increase that to at least 9 km in an hour. I have lost a lot of weight and my current appearance is that of a normal person, especially compared to how I was before, but I''m still not in my perfect state. When a person looked at me, he could see my arm and shoulder muscles, but only a small line outlined them. There was still a thin layer of fat covering everything, and the biggest indicator of this was my stomach, which although I could feel my 6 pack forming when I touched it, it wasn''t noticeable because of the fat on top. So my goal for the week was to dry out the fat I had on top of my muscles so I could get as lean as possible. My goal was not to get bigger and bigger like a bodybuilder, although I thought that aesthetic was beautiful, I knew that among the public it wasn''t the most pleasant thing, there were people who liked strong men, there were people who liked thin men, the best place to be was in between. A muscular body like a swimmer was my goal. With how quickly I was able to gain muscle, I realized that I had to be careful not to overdo it and go over the limit of how much muscle I wanted to gain. Maybe I just needed to focus on gaining muscle for another week and then just work out every few days to keep it up, which was good news because I''d have at least two more hours a day free to do other things. Although I enjoyed the training, I enjoyed the free time even more. With my current routine as it is, I need some time to just enjoy myself. Now that my body was pretty close to where I wanted it to be and I''d bought some clothes that were actually my size, I no longer had to wear baggy clothes and hide my appearance, so you can imagine how people reacted when I arrived at school. "Hey, who''s that boy?" One girl asked in surprise as she pointed at me. "I don''t know, his bleached hair looks really cool..." A friend replied. "I think he must be a new boy...should I go and introduce him to the school?" Another friend suggested with a smile. "Who is this punk? If he gives me any trouble, I''ll smash his face in..." A boy said as he looked at me as I walked down the hall. Apparently my change was too drastic for them to understand. Not only was it as if I had lost 30 or 40 kilos when I changed clothes, but I also had a different color of hair while walking with a straight and confident spine, making it impossible for them to relate my current state to how I was when they saw me before. "Hey new guy, want to join the soccer team?" One of Jackson''s old friends asked as I passed them. "Fuck you, Dylan." I replied without even looking at his face as I walked past them.Yo?ur favorite stories at novelhall.com Hearing me call him by his name, Dylan was shocked as he looked at his friends around him. "Wtf, he called me by name? Does this guy know me?" Dylan didn''t know how to react. If this was a normal situation, he''d probably try to pick a fight with me to show himself as Alpha like Jackson did, but I think my reaction was so unexpected for him that his mind went blue. She replied with a sigh. "All my friends could talk about was how hot the new student was, how they wanted to sit on the new student and a bunch of other crap... so I got tired of it and came to live with you." Realizing something, I asked, controlling my laughter. "Do you know who the new student is?" "No, and I don''t even want to know..." She replied angrily. Laughing, I didn''t press the issue and went back to eating. Finally, her curiosity got the better of her and she asked me. "Do you know who the new student is?" I replied laughing. "There is no new student." "What do you mean? Of course there is, everyone is just talking about this new student with bleached blonde hair, blue eyes, a chiseled body..." She started to explain until she started to look at me as she defined each of the characteristics of this new student. My smile got bigger and bigger as she realized that all of these characteristics she was talking about fit me. "Are you kidding me?" She asked incredulously. "Yes, your friends probably think now that you were the quickest among them to come and talk to the new student." I laughed as I opened my arm and put a hand on her shoulder, making people who knew who I was think it was normal, but those who didn''t know I was her brother were shocked. Realizing the misunderstanding this could cause, Olivia quickly shook my shoulder to make me remove my hand while looking at me angrily, making me laugh even more. As gossip spreads quickly in schools, by the end of the lesson everyone knew that there was no new student and that the boy everyone was curious about was "just" the Black Whale. There were even theories that I''d had weight loss surgery after what Jackson had done to my and Ethan''s picture. While some girls with less shame even had the nerve to give me their phone number at school, which I just politely accepted and then threw away. I was not interested in these girls. It''s not like I had a shortage of available girls. With the amount of messages I got on Instabram every day, and with 60 or 70% of those messages being from girls, if I really wanted to go out with someone, I could pick one of those girls and it wouldn''t be that hard. Thinking about those fans, a face came to mind. That brown-haired girl who could sing Boyfriend at my gig at the Blackout Bar on Saturday, I think her name was Charlie, that girl was a good example of someone who was probably worth several times more than the girls at this school. Not to mention that I still had Selena, who I could give a shot if I wanted to. Even though she seemed to be much more difficult than the others, when you choose someone, isn''t it better to choose the best and not worry about the difficulty? Too bad I was still focused on my career for the time being. I just didn''t know how hard it would be to keep that focus when the song Boyfriend, which I was going to edit today, was released, because with my face on the internet, girls would probably be even more interested and my Instagram DMs would be even fuller. Chapter 66 [Bonus ] 66 - Hes better than I thought! Chapter 66 [Bonus ] 66 - He''s better than I thought! ??In an apartment in New York, two twin girls were fiddling with their cell phones while listening to a song on the TV. They usually left the music on the TV because they liked to watch music videos while doing other things. Since their parents were out all day, they were left alone until they got home from work, which meant they could keep the music as loud as possible and no one would complain about the volume. Not even the neighbors complained because the apartments in this building were well soundproofed. At that moment, they were listening to the music of a new artist they had met last week. Although they had a very good life, when they saw how cool the lyrics of this artist''s songs were, how catchy the beats were, and most importantly, how sexy this artist''s voice was, the two girls were hooked on him. The first to find him was Madison, who had seen a video of someone singing a cover of a song called The Lazy Song. When she looked up the original artist, she was surprised to find that the original artist had fewer followers than the person covering his song! Curious, she clicked to listen to the original song, which he happened to post the same day, and was shocked at how good it was. The quality was very high for a new artist, even more so when she saw that this artist was still a rank F artist! She was even more surprised when she saw that the song she heard, The Lazy Song, was responsible for him being promoted from Rank F to Rank E, which made her even more curious about this artist. Listening to his other songs, Madison couldn''t really relate to the lyrics of Numb and In The End, even though she had a good life and didn''t have a boyfriend yet, but she still liked those songs, which had a very different style than The Lazy Song. But what really made her like BlackVelvet was the song he released a week later. "Boyfriend". Listening to this song for the first time, Madison, who had never been on a date, felt her heart race as she imagined the scene of a handsome boy saying this to her at a party like this. Even if she didn''t date, if she felt wanted like the girl in the song, she would be more than satisfied. When her sister heard her listening to the song, her reaction was the same as Madison''s. The two girls listened to the song together a few more times. The two girls listened to the song together a few more times, and it took a few repetitions for them to stop blushing while listening to the song, but even though they didn''t blush while listening to the song anymore, both girls still had big smiles on their faces while listening to the song and imagining themselves in the place of the girl in the song. What made it even more interesting was the animated clip showing the situation at the party, with BlackVelvet''s handsome character flirting with the girl. "Hey Maddie, do you think he looks like his character?" Mia asked curiously. "I guess so? His voice is very nice, it''s not possible that he''s not as handsome with his voice, right?" Madison replied after some thought. "You think so? I''m curious if he hides his face because he''s not handsome? That''s normal, right?" Mia explained her theory, making Maddie look confused. "That''s a possibility..." Maddie replied, worried. While the two of them were discussing this, the song Boyfriend, which had just been playing on the TV in the living room, started playing again for some reason. Although they liked the song, they had already stopped listening to it on loop, so they were confused when they looked at the TV to see what had happened. But the next scene took their breath away! The camera, which had been showing the girl in the audience singing, now cut directly to BlackVelvet''s face for the first time in the music video. The sight of this rebellious and beautiful taste made the twins fall backwards on the sofa as they ran out of air. Noah''s 13-point charisma had quite an effect. Not only was he in the handsome category, but the sum of all the factors made the girls see him as even more handsome! This was the sum of his looks, which were already worth 13 points, as well as his voice, which was currently on with a Singing skill that was above Lv 30, making his voice both pretty and sexy while he sang this song, which probably increased his charisma for them by at least another point, as well as the fact that he was singing a song with lyrics that made them feel good, which probably added another point, and lastly, they already had a good impression of him because they liked his songs, which probably added another point. All of this added up to BlackVelvet on the screen not being just a boy with 13 charisma points, as he would be to a normal person who just saw a picture of him, but with the background the girls had of him and what they had already imagined, BlackVelvet had become a boy with 16 charisma points at that point! Considering that the average person has 10 Charisma points, the twins thought that with the pink filter they had on him, Noah was one of the most charming boys they had ever seen in their lives! It was exactly this effect that Noah wanted to achieve with the idea of making a Thirst Trap song. He wanted to take advantage of the fact that girls, like men, are very visual creatures and attract a large audience. In his previous world, there were many examples of how this would work, the most notable being the group One Direction, the Jonas Brothers, or even Justin Bieber. Noah admitted that they had very good songs, but he knew that despite the good songs, the songs they sang were romantic, and the prettier they were while singing this style of music, the better the result would be for the female audience when they heard it. "He''s exactly how I imagined him..." Maddie said as she sat on the sofa with her hand on her chest, staring at the TV screen. "He''s better than I thought..." Mia said. "I thought since he was hiding his face that he probably had a problem, like those kids who only wear masks and when they take them off their faces are ugly? Just to make sure, I even lowered my expectations..." "You didn''t even have to lower your expectations..." Maddie commented without taking her eyes off the TV. "I know..." Mia replied, also without taking her eyes off the screen. Until the end of the music video, the two girls just sat on the sofa and watched BlackVelvet''s performance, the audience learning the song on the spot and singing along. Especially the girls in the bar or the men who accompanied some of the girls. The scenes of the girls'' boyfriends hugging them and looking around for other men who might want to steal their girlfriends was a funny detail that the cameraman captured. When the song finally ended, Mia and Maddie could breathe again. "Do you want to watch it again?" Maddie asked her sister. Mia looked at Maddie and just nodded, which made Maddie smile and use the remote to play the song again. This time their idea was to watch as many details as possible that they had missed the first time. Scenes like this were repeated in many homes across the country. Noah was shocked to see that this version of the song surprisingly got more views than the version he created the animation for. Chapter 67 67 - Vlogs? Chapter 67 67 - Vlogs? I looked at his analytics screen and smiled when I saw the difference since the last time I looked at it 2 days ago. |------------------------ Monetized views: 422.295 = $358 [Numb - 438,717 views] +36,876 views [In The End - 465,071 views] +47,976 views [The Lazy Song - 1,368,032 views] +194,684 views [Boyfriend - 167,876 views] +106,438 views [Boyfriend Live - 36,321 views] +36,321 views [48,240 subscribers] +6,131 subs [Spokify Music Plays: 519,000] +78,000 views = $312 [Instabram: 23k followers] +6k followers |------------------------ The amount of views I''d been getting over the last few days now that I had other videos on the channel was very high, as all the videos were growing, and adding it all up made the daily channel views skyrocket! Not to mention how surprised I was to see that the Boyfriend Live Version video was doing so well! In just a few hours, the video had already gotten 36k views! That was still a little less than The Lazy Song had gotten when I posted it, but it indicated that the song would probably get more views than the other songs on the channel, which was great news. Adding up the views from MeTube and Spokify, I had earned over $600, but I could only withdraw that money every 30 days, so even if these two sources of income increased the amount I earned, I would still have to wait until the beginning of the next month to receive it. One thing I was happy to think about was promoting my Instabram in the video I posted today. Since the Boyfriend Live Version video showed my face, I had no reason to hide it anymore. Looking at the comments on the video and the messages I received on MeTube and Instabram, most of them said the same thing. [I''ve literally played this 100 times and I''m not exaggerating...] [OMG, BlackVelvet finally showed his face! He''s so beautiful!!!] [Help, I wasn''t prepared for so much beauty! This music video is amazing, and he''s wonderful!] [I''m speechless! He''s too perfect!] [I''m in love! He''s even more handsome than I imagined!!!] [Bro has voice, looks cool, makes good music, now we can see that he is even handsome, how can I compete?!!] [I saw my girlfriend watching this and came to see what it was, now she is not my girlfriend anymore :)] [...] Despite the messages from guys complaining about their girlfriends, I can''t blame them for getting angry about the lyrics of a song like this, because I''d be angry too if it was my girlfriend listening to it that often. From what I''ve analyzed of the MeTube Analytics difference between my songs, while Numb and In The End had an audience ratio of 65% male and 35% female, The Lazy Song had a ratio of 55% male and 45% female, but Boyfriend is on a completely different level. "That''s a great idea Liv!" I laughed as I hugged her. Unlike before, when she would pull away or try to push me away, she didn''t do that anymore. She just accepted the hug and her face turned red with embarrassment. "The problem is that it''s going to be very difficult to record..." I thought of a problem. "Don''t you have an agency? Tell them that, they take 20% of your salary, you have to have a reason to pay them that." She complained, rolling her eyes again. I laughed at her explanation, it made sense. Selena herself told me that if I had any problems I could just talk to her, if I asked her for a cameraman like the one she got to shoot my music video, wouldn''t that be easy for her? "Let''s have dinner, you can talk to her in the meantime." Liv said as she got up and went to the kitchen. I followed her and started to send the message to Selena. [I''m thinking of starting vlogs to capitalize on the popularity of my channel, can you get me a cameraman?] I sent. This time she didn''t answer right away, probably busy with something else. It was only after dinner that she replied. [Yes, I can, but since the income from MeTube is yours, we can''t afford a cameraman]. Reading this, I nodded, it made sense, since I wanted to keep the profits from MeTube, she can help me find a good cameraman, but the cost of keeping that person would be mine. [No problem,] I replied. I didn''t know what the average price of a cameraman was, but as long as the price wasn''t like $500 a day, I thought I could afford it. I looked at it as an investment, even if I spent money now, that money would come back quickly. If I posted one video a week with 50k views, that would make me $300, which was close to what the cameraman could charge, so if the video made more than that, that was profit, not to mention the hidden profit the videos would make on my songs as well. Within minutes, Selena sent me a list of names of videographers with their portfolios. Some were extremely professional, with impeccable quality, but their prices were also very high, charging $2,000 a day. Others were very amateurish, but the price was also low, only $100 a night. Looking at the list, I looked for a young man who was willing to learn and had decent qualities. With time, I could learn more about him and use [Teach Lv25] to teach him how to improve so that he could have a level in the future. Among the names with these criteria, there was a very promising young man with talent who didn''t charge too much. The quality of his recordings was good, his price was only $200 a day, and he was only a few years older than me. When I looked at his name, I was surprised that instead of putting his name out there for other people to contact him, he used a nickname. [JKing] If it wasn''t for the contact information he left explaining his status in the portfolio, I wouldn''t have even known what he looked like since his profile picture was a white and blue tiger. A little suspicious, I decided to at least do a test. If the quality was good, it would be good to train him and increase his salary over time. Adding his contact number to my phone, I decided to send him a message first. [Hey, your portfolio was recommended to me, are you free to shoot this weekend?] While waiting for his reply, I took the time to develop my game a bit more and relax my mind. Chapter 68 [Bonus ] 68 - Getting better Chapter 68 [Bonus ] 68 - Getting better ??The next day I woke up to the cameraman''s reply on my cell phone. [Hey man, sorry for not answering yesterday, I was very tired and ended up going to bed very early. I think I only have time to record in the evening, how would work be?] JKing replied around 4 am. [I''m a Rank E musician who is starting to do shows now, I need someone to record the backstages of the shows and the show itself for me, the job would be Saturday and Sunday, which I would probably put the two days together to make a single video for the week. What do you think?] I asked. I thought he would take a little longer to answer, but this time he answered almost immediately. [That looks cool, I usually charge $200 for a day''s work, which would be $400 for the two days, but since you want both days guaranteed, I can do $300 for both]. He replied. When I saw that, I was excited because it wasn''t as much as I was willing to pay. With that amount of money, not only could I pay for it with the income from the artwork, but maybe I could use the income from the shows, or if the video got 50k views, that would also pay for itself. Even if it started out at a loss, over time the views on the channel would increase, and that would mean that the amount I made from the videos would increase over time until it made a profit. [It looks good to me!] I replied. [If there''s a special concert on Friday, do you think you could make it?] [Yes, but it would be an extra $150 for each extra day.] He replied, making me nod. That was fair enough for me. [No problem, I''ll give your contact to my agent and she''ll send you the address of the shows, ok?] [Cool. But if you want to record a backstage vlog, wouldn''t it be better to start from home?"] He asked. He was right. Recording my routine from leaving the house to getting in the car and driving to the show, with us talking in the car, would be much more interesting and intimate for the audience. The only thing I didn''t want was to have my address and family in the videos. [I think that''s a good idea, I''ll send you my address and when we''re recording you''ll come over and we''ll start]. With that, I had a cameraman ready to start recording my long videos. Could I try to record it myself? I certainly could. But it would take too much out of me. I get very tired while I''m singing, and when the show is over, all I want to do is sit somewhere and rest without thinking about anything. If he came with a camera and recorded me, it would be easier for me to create some content, but if I had to take out my phone to start recording, I probably wouldn''t do it. Not to mention the difference in quality between holding my phone with my arm and having a professional record it for me. So I continued with my routine for the next few days. In the morning I still did my run and cooked breakfast for my family, thus increasing some of my skill levels, then I went to school and took the opportunity to train other skills that I found interesting while I was there, came home and helped Ethan with his homework, practiced guitar and singing, did the 2 arts of the day, did another Krav Maga weight training session and at the end of the day I just answered the comments from the MeTube viewers. When Saturday came, my status had changed from the last time I saw it. ========================= | Character Status Of course, I couldn''t see it without straining my abs because there was still some fat covering it. I think I''d need to lose at least another 10 kilos for it to be visible, and maybe 15 kilos for it to be extremely defined, but that process would be slower now that the amount of fat on my body was much less than before. This was something I realized in the last few days, instead of losing the 2 kg I used to lose every day, I started to lose less, for now I was down to 1.8 kg, which wasn''t a huge difference, but it showed that I wouldn''t be able to lose weight until it disappeared with the system, which was good. That way, I would just have to control my training so that I didn''t end up with gigantic muscles, without having to worry about stopping burning calories so that I didn''t become anorexic. But when I looked in the mirror and saw how I already looked, I had a big smile on my face. Going from 150 Kg, with probably 70% of my weight being fat (disregarding the weight of body water), to 85 Kg, where my bones and organs would weigh around 15 kg, muscles should weigh at least 55 Kg, left me with about 15 Kg of fat. I could still see the fat slightly scattered around my body, but the amount of muscle hid it very well. I now had a more normal body for someone my size; if I didn''t take my shirt off, people couldn''t even imagine how fat I was. In another week, I should be able to dry out the fat and look the way I want. As I listened to the faint sound of violins coming from the basement, I was proud of Olivia''s dedication. This week, she had put a lot of effort into improving the level of her violin, to the point that I think she must have gained at least 1 Lv in skill in a week, which is a lot for a normal person! Of course, she probably already had enough experience to improve the skill, but her improvement was very fast. Considering that 1 Lv of skill is practically the same as 1 month of training for a normal person, you can see how much Olivia is putting into it. Ethan wasn''t far behind either, practicing his ukulele and leveling up monstrously. The little boy''s talent was so great that he had increased the level of his Ukulele skill several times this week, plus the bonus I gave him with the Teach skill! It would have been nice to have an observation skill like I saw in the novels of my old world, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn''t learn it. If I had such a skill, it would be even more rewarding to teach it because I would see numerical progress, unlike now when I have to guess the level based on the knowledge I had at each skill level. [I think I''m at your door, can you come out and make sure I''m in the right place?] JKing. [Yes, I''m coming.] I replied as soon as I saw his message. As I left the house, I saw a 19-year-old looking around with a cell phone in his hand. The young man had black hair with black eyes and an unshaven face, but his most striking feature was the tired expression on his face. "Hey, JKing, right?" I asked as I shook his hand. "Yeah, you can call me Jason." He replied with a smile as he shook my hand. "Nice Jason, in a little while we''ll be leaving to go to the venue of the first show, tonight I''ll be performing in two bars, so I need you to help me record from the moment we get into Selena''s car, my agent, while we''re going to the first show, until the time we get back to my house. The camera doesn''t have to be on all the time, you can decide what''s interesting to record or not, and if possible, you can also record some scenes of the surrounding scenery for me to use in the editing later". I explained the idea of how this would work. "Do you have any questions?" Hearing this, he shook his head. "No doubt, it sounds like a solid idea." With us and everything planned out, I was excited and a little embarrassed to find out what it would be like to record a vlog, as it would be the first time I had done so. Chapter 69 69 - Generate content! Chapter 69 69 - Generate content! ??One of the reasons I chose Jason as the cameraman I wanted was because of the scenic shots he had in his portfolio. The shots he took of different places in the city that looked ordinary, through the lens of his camera, looked like places so beautiful you wanted to put them as wallpaper on your phone. Before we got into Selena''s car, he gave us two microphones to put in our shirts so that when he started recording, the audio quality would be much better, even with him sitting in the back seat of the car. Since I thought it might get boring with just me and Selena interacting, I also told him to put a microphone on and ask things he wasn''t sure about, as this would be a good way to get a sense of how the audience might feel about what was going on and make the video less confusing for those who didn''t understand. One thing I noticed was that Selena was embarrassed when she realized that she would also be recorded, but she wasn''t against the idea. "So you already have a plan for how you''re going to perform today?" she asked a little embarrassed. At that moment Jason, who had been filming around us to get some shots of the set, moved the camera forward and started filming us. "I have a plan for how to start, since they didn''t want to hire me to open the show, I thought I would first analyze how the audience will be, what song the previous artist will play, and then choose between Numb or The Lazy Song to start". I explained. Nodding her head, she simply agreed. "Why not start with Boyfriend?" Jason asked curiously. He had researched my songs and Boyfriend was the one he liked best. "BlackVelvet always ends the show with Boyfriend." Selena replied, rolling her eyes. "Why?" Jason asked even more confused. Smiling, I looked back at him and the camera and answered. "Imagine you''re in a bar with your girlfriend, the night is wonderful, you''re enjoying each other''s presence, and out of nowhere a guy comes on stage and starts singing about how he''d be a better boyfriend than you, and your girlfriend happens to be interested in the music, how would you feel?" "I''d hate the guy..." Jason replied laughing. "Yeah, for me it''s better to sing the other songs first, let the audience like me, let the guys feel like I''m their friend, and then sing Boyfriend at the end, because they already liked me a little bit, they''ll hate me less, or if they still hate me a lot, I''ll be off the stage haha!" I replied laughing. Jason was surprised when he heard my explanation. "Woah, it''s true!" He didn''t mention that for some reason I had also done this to the Rank D artists, maybe he didn''t know that I had also ended their night? To my surprise, before I could say anything, a group of young people started whistling and yelling. "Hey BlackVelvet! Sing The Lazy Song please!" Smiling at this group, I laughed as I took the microphone from the host. "Good evening everyone, I''m BlackVelvet, a Rank E artist who just started a month ago. When our friend over there called and asked me to sing The Lazy Song, one of my favorite songs, I think it will be a great song to start the show, I hope you like it!" I started to play the beat of the song on the guitar and the audience started to move as I started to play. Just like other gigs I''ve done, this one went very well, in this bar the song they liked best was Numb, they even asked me to play it again just before my time was up, which I was happy to do. Since we were now being recorded, Selena and I didn''t stay around to see if the next artist did badly, as that would not give the audience a good image. So when my show was over and I recorded myself saying a few things to the camera, we went to the next bar, the Blackout bar, which to my surprise, put me on after a Rank D artist, after putting me on as the last Rank E artist didn''t work out too well. This also served as a good source of content for the video, as I was trying to create a narrative with Jason and Selena to see if I could do well after a Rank D artist. While I was on stage doing my show, Selena was focused on counting how many people came near the stage and how many went back to their seats. When the show was over, we got together to calculate the results, as I was curious too, since I couldn''t see any difference from up on stage. "How was it? Did I lose a lot of people?" I asked. "No, maybe I missed one or two people, but in the end you managed to keep the audience the way the previous artist left it, which is great!" Selena said excitedly. "Woah, you''re like a Rank E artist competing with Rank D artists in bars?" Jason was shocked because he had never seen anyone do that before. "Yeah, the artist who played before me was very good." I said. "Even though I was an asshole." When the Rank D artist who played before me found out that we were going to buy our audience, he got mad at me and tried to humiliate me, not knowing that Jason''s camera was recording him. "You''re lucky you had a good show kid, put yourself in your place, you''re only a rank E artist while I''ve been in this industry for 5 years and I''m already rank D. Have respect for your elders." The man said as he put down his guitar. Jason, with a keen nose for content, pointed the camera he was shooting around at the two of us. Chapter 70 [Bonus ] 70 - Opportunity! Chapter 70 [Bonus ] 70 - Opportunity! ??"Oh, and the way for me to have respect for you would be to do what? By not being happy that you managed to do three good shows?" I asked dismissively. "You''ve only had three great gigs, kid, I''ve had hundreds and I don''t go around telling people I''m amazing." The man complained. He was about 24 years old, with spiky blue hair and a lot of makeup on his face. From what I could see of him in the dim light, his charisma was low, probably around 7 or 8 points, I think that''s why he covered his face with so much makeup. From his reaction, I don''t think he realized that Jason had pointed the camera at him. "Really? What do you want for it, a cookie?" I asked dismissively. "You''ve done hundreds of great shows, good for you, but how many shows have you done in total?" "I''m almost on my thousandth show!" He said with disdain, as if it were emotional pride. "Woah, a thousand shows in Rank D?! Gee, that explains why you have hundreds of excellent shows... you''ve only done hundreds of excellent shows out of a thousand because that''s your limit, I''ve only done three excellent shows because I''ve only done three shows in my career. Do you see the difference?" I asked, looking him up and down. Was this my normal way of dealing with things? Definitely not, if it was normal I could have just punched him and got on with my life, or even just ignored this clown, but with Jason recording wouldn''t it be better if I just tried to add to the bullshit by inflaming his anger? Just as I imagined, he stood up angrily and faced me. Although I was eight years older than him and the same height, we had a difference. My arms crossed in front of my chest were larger than his arms, and that seemed to intimidate him. But he didn''t lower his head. "I guess I''ll have to teach you to respect your elders, boy..." Hearing that, I laughed in his face. "Haha, I respect those who deserve respect, losers like you who can''t succeed and take out your frustration on the happiness of newcomers deserve nothing more than the insignificance you will continue to have." When I said those words, I could see his anger growing even more, to the point where I really thought he was going to attack me right then. But just as he was about to attack me, Jason came closer and turned on the camera flash, almost blinding the man. "What the fuck?" He asked startled. "He''s my cameraman, I think he''s got some good content for my MeTube channel." I said with even more contempt, watching his face turn white. "You''re not going to post that, are you?" He asked with a dark face. "Of course I am, this will make a great first video for my channel." I laughed as I approached Jason in case this man tried something. "If you put my face on it, I''ll put your family out on the street with all the debt you''ll get." He said snorting as he turned to leave. I didn''t need his face, I could just erase it and it would be fine, but I wanted to cause more confusion. "Selena, do you know who this man is?" I asked. "Ryder Stone, a singer signed to Sunshine Entertainment 4 years ago, he had a promising career at first but because of drug scandals and drunk driving he was out of the media for a few months and when he came back his career never took off." She explained in a voice as she watched him leave. My mood wasn''t too affected, after arguing with him I just went on stage and did my show. The next day, when I woke up, Jason had already sent me the file of the footage he had taken, which amounted to at least two hours of raw footage that I would have to watch and separate out the useful parts. Although she kept up the facade of a serious and responsible girl, at times like this it was hard not to think of her as just an excited girl who wanted to be patted on the head. [Well done, thank you Selena! How much is the payment?] [Since this kind of event is already more expensive than normal bar gigs, and this was originally for a Rank D artist, the total amount will be $1,500, it''s not that much compared to what the really big artists get, but for you who are just starting out, I think it''s a good amount, what do you think?] She asked. [This is great! Just by singing at this wedding, I''m already going to get paid more than I would if I performed at four different bars all weekend! Thank you, Selena!] [Good that you''re grateful.] She replied with a proud emoji. [But there''s a catch.] When I saw this, I was worried. [Does this have anything to do with why the other artists were rejected?] I asked worriedly. [Yes... the contractor said they want the artist to sing something original based on the story of the bride and groom, even if the song isn''t that good, they just want to hear something personal]. Selena explained. [Hm... that''s not impossible, do you have a copy of their story to send me?] I asked. [Yes, you have until Wednesday to make the song, if you don''t get it by Wednesday, they said they''ll look for a normal Rank D artist to sing it. But if you come up with a song they like, they''ll hire you and pay you the same as a rank D artist]. When I saw that, I was excited, the money would be very welcome, and with the large repertoire of songs I had from my previous world, I knew I would have at least one song that would suit the bride and groom. Soon after, Selena sent me someone''s description of what the bride had said about her past. [From the beginning, the groom was attracted to all the clever things his fiance?e said, but although she showed interest with her actions, her words always pushed him away and he was confused as to whether she really liked him. Once they went to the Caribbean and almost broke up because he joked that he was drowning, but at that moment he had a snorkel in his mouth to breathe, which drove her crazy. The groom said that an important detail is that whenever they play video games, if the bride is first, she wins, but if he''s first, she changes the rule so that whoever comes last is the best, which has become a joke between them. The bride said that she hates it when her groom makes her cry, but that she''s happy when he compliments her crying, saying that she''s beautiful even when she''s crying. But they both agreed that even though they understand each other''s imperfections, they manage to love everything, both the good things and the imperfections. They were both sure that for the rest of their lives they would have no problem giving everything to each other while loving every detail about each other]. Reading your description of the bride and groom''s story, I had a few possibilities of songs I could use for them, but out of all those possibilities, only one song came to mind that would fit this story like a glove. In fact, I was surprised at how well it fit. "I think this song is meant for her." I laughed as I took the pen out of my mouth and began to write the lyrics to one of the most classic songs played at weddings around the world in my previous world. "This may be a song that won''t go viral as quickly as others, but while other songs like "Boyfriend" may lose their audience or become outdated over time, this song will only get stronger and stronger, with the possibility of becoming a classic!" I said excitedly as I wrote the song faster and faster. Since the wedding was on Friday, I had to practice my piano and get it up to speed as fast as possible. As good as this song was on the guitar, it really came into its own on the piano! Chapter 71 71 - Suspicious look Chapter 71 71 - Suspicious look ??The song was written very quickly, but I didn''t want to send it to Selena right away. If I sent her such a good song just a few minutes after she told me the story I needed to do, it would look very strange. So I would leave it until tomorrow or the next day. "Noah, Dad asked if we wanted to go to a restaurant for lunch!" Ethan excitedly entered the room. Surprised, I nodded. Even though I liked cooking with my mom, it was great to have a day to rest and eat different food with a different flavor. "Yes, we will." I smiled back. "I''ll just take a shower then." But when I got up to take a shower, Ethan stopped me. "Olivia''s in the bathroom..." Hearing that, my stomach rumbled and I sat back down on the bed. "How long has she been in the bathroom?" I asked. "Five minutes..." He replied. Hearing that made me feel even more desperate and my stomach rumbled even more. I always showered before her when I got back from training, but now that I woke up a little later on the weekend, I remembered why the old Noah didn''t like to shower after Liv, because she took too long... Since she had just entered the bathroom and didn''t come out until she was completely dressed, I had an hour to spare until the bathroom was empty... "Hey Champ, do you want to learn a song I thought of for you to play?" I asked Ethan about an idea that had popped into my head. I was trying to think of a song to teach him to play on the ukulele, and I was debating between two songs, Over The Rainbow or Toxic. While Toxic was a very good song, the words BoyWithUke used in the lyrics were too difficult for Ethan, so I thought Over The Rainbow would be a better choice. "Really?!" Ethan asked excitedly. "Yeah, I want to learn!"Discover new chapters at novelhall.com Picking up his ukulele, I began to play the melody of Over The Rainbow. Since it was a simple song, the melody was also very simple. The biggest difficulty for Ethan would be the part where he had to sing the song, because while his talent for playing the ukulele was very high, I didn''t know about his singing talent. ???????????? Somewhere over the rainbow... Way up high... And the dreams you dream... Once in a lullaby, oh... ???????????? As I sang the beginning of the song, I saw Ethan smile. Not only were the lyrics simple, but they fit him very well, with things he knows and things he could have written himself. ???????????? Turning my attention to Ethan, I began to help him with lyrics and how to improve his ukulele playing with my Teach skill, which increased his learning speed even more. [Teach Lv 26 Effect: When teaching other people, as long as you know what you''re teaching and what you intend to teach, the person has a 26% greater chance of understanding what you''re explaining and increases the speed of learning that content by 26% during that learning session]. Not only did the skill give me the experience of someone who has been teaching for four and a half years, or 54 months if you count each level of the skill, which already brought the quality of my teaching to the level of a professional instructor, but it also gave Ethan a very powerful learning buff that increased his learning speed by 26%. Now calculate that with his high talent for ukulele, the speed at which he improved was staggering. Even for Sing, who wasn''t as talented, the speed at which he learned was also very fast. While we were practicing, Olivia finally finished getting ready and I went to take my shower, leaving Ethan to practice longer. Since my shower was faster, I was ready in a few minutes. Ethan was quick too, so we went out for lunch at a Chinese restaurant that had just opened. The place was very nice, with nice decor, and the price wasn''t expensive either. As we ate and talked, I began to feel a strange sensation. It was as if something was watching me. When I looked around, I couldn''t see anything, but the strange feeling didn''t go away. Even when I talked to my family, I still felt that something strange was there, and the feeling didn''t go away... After a while my family also realized that something was wrong and came to ask me if everything was all right. "Everything is fine, I just have a strange feeling..." I said, trying to pretend that nothing was wrong. [+1 WIS] When I realized that my skill had also increased, I became even more alarmed. If I felt something was wrong and my skill increased by one level, it only showed that I was right. As my Wisdom gained another point, the feeling became clearer, as if a sixth sense within me was beeping stronger and stronger. What is going on here?'' I asked myself as I looked in a certain direction. To my surprise, when I looked in that direction, I saw a pair of eyes staring at me in shock before looking away to hide it. But confirming that there was indeed someone looking at me, I began to stare to understand who it was. As far as I could see, it was a girl who was also eating with her family. In her group were her, her younger sister who looked a bit familiar, her father and her mother. As I looked in that direction, Ethan noticed my gaze and saw the girl''s little sister staring at me. "Isabella!" He yelled as he waved his hand. Hearing Ethan''s call, the little girl looked around in confusion, but when she saw Ethan, she broke into a big smile and came running toward us. Chapter 72 72 - Frowning eyebrow Chapter 72 72 - Frowning eyebrow ??- POV Unknown Girl - My family and I used to go out to different restaurants for lunch every Sunday. Each week it was someone''s turn to choose where to eat, usually Bella would choose a restaurant we went to that had a big playroom, my mom liked to choose a quieter place, while my dad loved a Brazilian steakhouse on the other side of town. I liked Asian food, both because of the anime I watched and because of Asian dramas. Last time we had Korean chicken, but this time I wanted to have Chinese food, so we went to this restaurant. Bella wasn''t a big fan of that kind of food, but she could eat it anyway. I enjoyed it, especially with the spicy chicken I chose, which was delicious, but I was surprised to see a family come in.Yo?ur favorite stories at novelhall.com The parents of this family were normal, the girl in the family was a little familiar to me, but I couldn''t remember where, while the little boy in the family I could recognize right away. I think his name was Ethan Black, the boy Bella liked at her school. I could only recognize him because of the picture Bella had put next to her bed. But what surprised me was the boy who came in behind them. Because of how close he walked to the family and because of the color of his eyes, I thought he was Ethan''s older brother, but what shocked me the most was not that, but that I knew him! If it was just his face, I could probably be confused about who he was, but with that bleached hair, I knew the chances of it being someone else were very slim. But I still had a little doubt and wanted to be sure who it was. My eyes couldn''t leave him, even if I tried to look away. To compare what I was seeing, I took out my cell phone and looked at the screen as I looked at him, trying to see any differences. The only difference I could see between them was their clothes, because in the video he was on stage with a guitar wearing black band clothes, while here in real life he was wearing a blue shirt with the normal Nike logo without the chains and necklaces he was wearing in the video. But even without those details, it was clear that he was BlackVelvet! While I was excitedly realizing that it was him, he suddenly turned around and stared at me! "What are you staring at, Emily?" My mother asked confusedly as she looked at me. Seeing that she caught me looking at another table, I quickly lowered my eyes and put my phone away, hoping he wouldn''t notice me looking at it. "It''s nothing..." I replied a little nervously. I knew it was impossible for him not to notice that I was looking at him, but could he think it was a coincidence? Seeing the way I was acting, my father began to look around suspiciously. But just when I thought it was over and we''d get back to normal, a childish voice shouted from the restaurant. "Isabella!" Hearing this, my little sister became confused and looked around to see who had called her. We were also surprised and looked around to see if someone had really called her or if it was just a coincidence. Remembering something, her mother asked. "Next Sunday is Isabella''s birthday, if you want to come and take Ethan, we''d love to have you." "That would be great, I think Ethan would love that, wouldn''t you, Ethan?" My mom confirmed with a smile. "Yeah!" Ethan laughed as he got excited. When Ethan confirmed that he wanted to go, I could see Isabella''s eyes sparkle, causing me to smile knowingly as I looked at the two of them. Out of curiosity, I turned my eyes to the table where Isabella was sitting, and once again my gaze met that of the girl at the table, the one who had been staring at me before Ethan called Isabella over. When our eyes met again, she quickly looked away as I felt her cheeks blush. Did she recognize me?" I wondered. While the two mothers confirmed the time of the birthday, I overheard Ethan and Isabella talking. "I''m getting really good at the ukulele, and Noah is teaching me a new song. If you want, I can sing it for you on your birthday!" Ethan said smiling. Hearing this, Isabella became even more excited as she nodded her head as fast as a chicken pecking at rice on the ground. Noticing her excitement, Ethan got excited too as they talked about it. Would this be Ethan''s first concert? I asked myself, thinking it was funny. After Isabella and her mother went back to their table, I kept looking at them out of curiosity and saw that the girl at the table was very nervous for some reason. Looking at the girl, she seemed to be the same age as Liv, or maybe a year younger? I''m terrible with ages, but if the girl was nice, it would be interesting to make her and Liv friends. Just then Selena sent me a message on my phone and a smile appeared on my face. --- Emily''s POV - When my mother returned to our table with Bella, my father asked what had happened. "It''s the Blacks, Bella''s little friend''s family." My mother explained. "Ahh, the little boy Bella plays with?" He asked. "Yes! His name is Ethan!" Bella said, very excited for some reason. "What were you two talking about?" my dad asked curiously. "I was telling them about Bella''s birthday, which we''re having next Sunday, and I invited them." My mother explained. "Is his brother going?" I asked startled, causing the three of them to stop and stare at me. My mother looked suspicious with a smile forming on her face, while my father was also suspicious, but with a frown as he stopped looking at me and looked at the Black family table. Damn it... I''ve ruined everything...'' I thought in despair. "Yes, Emily, apparently he''s going to Bella''s birthday party too." My mother replied with a laugh, which made my father''s eyebrows furrow even more. "Hehe, Ethan said that Noah is teaching him to play the ukulele and that he''s going to play me a song for my birthday!" Bella said with a silly smile on her face. And that was enough to make my father''s eyebrow furrow so much that you couldn''t even see his eye. Chapter 73 73 - Piano Skill! Chapter 73 73 - Piano Skill! ??When we got home, Ethan was even more excited to learn the song I was teaching him because he was going to have his first concert and most importantly, he was going to show it to someone he liked. To help him do that, I put a lot of effort into teaching him everything I could so that he could improve as quickly as possible. With my help and strong motivation, Ethan was learning and improving much faster than before, so the time passed quickly as he practiced and I used my free time before going to the concert. Unlike yesterday, where the show had a lot of drama because of the arrogant singer, this time it was much more relaxed, with me just enjoying myself while Jason recorded the show and the audience''s reaction. Since I was performing in different bars, in most places there were still no people who really knew me well, at most there was one person who was in another bar I sang in who could sing my songs from the beginning. So I used that to create more content for the audience. Since there was someone who could sing my songs, I paid some attention and interacted with that person enough that other people saw me as more approachable and paid more attention to the show. By using this strategy, my skill level also increased again.Discover new chapters at novelhall.com [Stage Presence Lv 2 -> 3]. Having another level of Stage Presence increased the quality of my performances even more, made me more comfortable with the audience, and helped me interact with them even more easily. The difference from level 2 to level 3 was big, but not as big as from level 1 to level 2. When I came home from school the next day and weighed myself, I had a big smile on my face. [Weight: 85 Kg -> 81.5 Kg]. It''s a great change that has already reduced the size of my belly even more and made my muscles on my body even clearer. Since I wanted the first video to be of good quality, I wasn''t in such a hurry to post it, as long as I posted it by Friday, I would be satisfied. Ethan was next to me practicing his ukulele while Liv was in her room practicing her violin. She usually practiced in the basement as well, but the mix of the three songs we were practicing got in the way, so she went back to her room to practice. Having the three of us practicing at the same time could drive anyone crazy, but my mom took it very well, coming in every few hours with a big smile on her face to bring us some snacks. When I asked her the reason for that big smile, she told me: "My three children are so dedicated to something as beautiful as music, should I feel anything but pride?" With that answer from her, I also got a big smile on my face as I continued to practice and improve my skills. [Piano Mastery Lv 1 -> 2: Effect: Develops a better understanding of piano techniques, increasing confidence and skill in playing by 2%. This includes advanced skills in technique, musical expression, and interpretation. It also improves retention of music theory knowledge and practical application during performance by 2%. Gain a tangible advantage by absorbing the fundamentals of agile and expressive piano...] With another level of Piano Skill, I was learning everything faster and the quality of my learning was getting higher and higher. Concepts that I didn''t know when I first started were now gradually becoming ingrained in my mind, as if I had really been practicing them for 2 months, even though I only started to really dedicate myself to them today. 2 months of practicing a single song meant that I could play it well enough not to be embarrassed, but that wasn''t what I wanted. My goal was to focus on the skill levels while practicing just that one song over the next few days so that I could play it almost perfectly. I knew I couldn''t reach perfection on a song with at least 40 levels, but if I could get the skill to Lv 10 by the day of the wedding, that would be great. Unlike Stage Presence, which I only practiced for 4 hours over the weekend, Piano could be practiced for several hours every day, so the level should rise very quickly! Chapter 74 [Bonus ] 74 - Birthday Party Chapter 74 [Bonus ] 74 - Birthday Party ??For the next two days, I focused on practicing my piano skill and editing my video. With the time I spent editing my video, my skill went up one level, which further improved the quality of the video I made. [Video Editing Lv 4 -> 5 Effect: Develops a better understanding of video editing techniques, increasing the user''s skill by 5%. This includes mastery of video editing software, editing techniques, transitions, visual and sound effects, color correction, and filter application. It also improves your ability to tell stories visually and create compelling videos by 5%. Gain a tangible advantage by learning the fundamentals of creative and professional video editing]. With the skill at Lv 5, I felt much more comfortable editing, which accelerated the time I spent editing. I was still halfway through the video, but the quality was better than I expected. My piano skills have gone up 2 levels in that time. [Piano Mastery Lv 2 -> 4]. This greatly improved the quality of the level at which I played the music. Since the skill was complex, I not only increased the efficiency of what I had learned, but I also improved my advanced skills of technique, musical expression, and interpretation of the music each time it went up a level, which allowed me to understand the music better and find the best way to play it to evoke the feelings I wanted. During this time, Selena obtained the copyright for the song and sent it to the client, who approved it after listening to it, but didn''t show it to the bride. From what Selena told me, the bride and groom had no idea how the song would turn out, so their reaction at the time would be genuine, for better or worse. I would be playing to an audience that would be expecting as much as possible because this was their moment, a song made for them, telling their story in a way that should be beautiful. This only put more pressure on me to improve my piano skills even faster so that this wedding would be unforgettable. After I paid Jason on Sunday, I also checked with him to see if he could play for me at the wedding, which he confirmed, so the amount I had to pay him over the weekend was $450, a high amount, but compared to how much I would make from the wedding and the gigs, it was still good money for me. With how much I get from the videos, I can increase how much I pay him...'' I thought. I thought. Since I got along well with him, it wouldn''t hurt to pay him more so that I wouldn''t have to find someone else to replace him in the future. Especially considering that I found out that he''s a student at a film school, it''s better to develop him as a future cameraman to accompany me everywhere than to get someone who''s been doing it for a long time and can''t be molded. "You can take a shower, Noah." Liv opened the basement door while drying her hair, so I nodded and went to my shower. At that moment, we were getting ready for Isabella''s birthday party, Ethan''s little friend. With the free time I had at school, driving skill was one of my focuses to learn and enjoy my time there. I didn''t want to pick something boring and complicated to learn, so studying Driving Skills was really cool. I have to admit that a lot of my time was spent learning how to chase, drift, race and shift efficiently, but that counted as experience, right? Of course, I wouldn''t drive like this with my family, but I could get my license next week. "If I drive well today, I''ll register for the driving test next week." I said excitedly and my father nodded. As we left the garage, Liv and my mom were worried in the back seat while Ethan was very excited, but as time went by they calmed down as they realized that I was driving carefully and prudently. When we arrived at Isabella''s party, we saw that there were a few cars parked in front of her house, but not that many. In the backyard, a few children could be heard yelling and running around, but as we got closer, I saw a very familiar scene. Several children were playing together, while Isabella sat in a corner, looking a little disappointed. "Isabella!" Ethan shouted excitedly, completely losing his nervousness as he ran towards her. When she heard his call, her disappointed face quickly changed to a big happy smile and she also came running towards Ethan in the cute princess dress she was wearing. Looking around, I realized why there were only a few cars in front of the house. Those cars were probably just Isabella''s relatives, while most of the guests were the children playing. Since our group was one of the few adults at the party, it was easy to introduce everyone, and with my father''s gregariousness, we were soon sitting at the table with Isabella''s parents and her uncles. There was no one my age in the group, so I just sat and listened to the men talk, occasionally joining in if they were talking about something I could join in on. Even though I didn''t participate much in the conversation, the other men were surprised at how naturally I spoke to them. "Nah, the R35''s twin-turbo V6 offers quicker throttle response and a more linear power delivery than the 911 GT3''s flat-six, although I have to admit the 911''s rear end is very nice..." I commented when I heard a man bragging about the Porsche 911 compared to the Nissan R35. "I know, right? The rear of the 911 was the reason I bought that car, the line they made... it''s beautiful..." The man commented happily. As we talked, I was forced to drink only soda, keeping an eye on Ethan and Isabella and noticing that the two of them just ignored the other kids and played by themselves. Suddenly I felt the same sensation I''d felt in the restaurant, and when I looked around I saw the same pair of eyes staring back at me, surprised once again when I looked at them and tried to look away. But before I could think of anything, I felt another pair of eyes staring at me. Looking in that direction, I saw Isabella''s father looking at me suspiciously. Chapter 75 75 - Over the Rainbow Chapter 75 75 - Over the Rainbow ??Despite George''s suspicions, we continued to talk as if nothing had happened during the party. Every now and then I felt Emily''s eyes on me, but I shook my head because Emily was even younger than Liv. From what I''ve heard from George, she looks about 14, which would make her a really good friend for Liv, but with the way she''s acting towards me... The only good thing about this situation is that I can get used to how I''ll deal with it when I get really famous, because the most loyal audience artists can have are girls like Emily. What I have to do is just keep a clear line between the attention an artist gives to a fan and anything beyond that. Not only would it be bad for my image if I was seen to be a little more intimate than I should be with a fan, but if that fan was young, it would be even worse, even if I didn''t mean anything by it. I often have to consider what others will see in addition to what I really think is going on. If I''m just being polite to a girl and take a photo with her, but someone takes that photo out of context and tries to post it on the Internet, I always have to be careful. Fortunately, while we were chatting at the men''s table, Liv and Emily started to hit it off, which was good news for me. Although Liv had a lot of "friends", they were the kind of girls who only treated you well when it was convenient; if Liv made real friends, it would be much better for her. After a couple of hours I finally reached the end of the party and Ethan came running up to me and asked me to go with him to play the music. I nodded and went with him to the car to get our instruments, and when we came back, everyone was staring at us. From Isabella''s excited expression as she chatted with the other curious children, it looked like she had told everyone that Ethan was going to play a song for them. I nudged Ethan lightly on the arm and laughed. "Hey buddy, looks like you''re getting the crowd''s attention a lot easier than I did at my first gig." Ethan just looked at me sheepishly as he continued walking to the center of where the "stage" would be. As he opened the case of his ukulele, Ethan suddenly froze, his eyes alternating between the ukulele and the dozens of people looking at him. I could see his eyes sweeping over all the children, lingering on Isabella for a few seconds, and then returning to the ukulele. Isabella had an expectant look on her face as she nodded at him. "Come on Buddy, I''m here with you, just do what we used to do at home." I said as I put my hand on his shoulder. Feeling my hand on his shoulder, Ethan looked at me and nodded as he finished picking up his ukulele. While he was checking the tuning of his ukulele for the sixth time tonight, I took my guitar and sat down on the floor next to him while I looked at the people around me with a smile and played a few notes to keep the place quiet like I always did at my gigs. When Ethan finally finished, he looked at me: "Shall we play?" "Like a good performer, you need to say a few words to your audience." I patiently explained, nodding so he could see people''s expectations. This made him more embarrassed, but he asked me. "What should I say?" "Tell them why you''re singing this song and thank them for their attention." I smiled. Waving to me, Ethan walked to the front of the crowd and looked at all those expectant faces as he took a deep breath. "Hi everyone, I''m Ethan Black, today I''m going to play a song that my brother Noah taught me, I''ve been rehearsing this song all week to play for Isabella today, I hope you like it, thanks for listening!" He said in a robotic voice, very nervous. Dreams really do come true-ooh-ooh... Someday I''ll wish upon a Star... Wake up where the clouds are far behind me... Where trouble melts like lemon drops... High above the chimney tops, that''s where... You''ll find me, oh... ???????????? The lyrics weren''t about difficult things that kids couldn''t relate to, like betrayal or anything like that. I chose Over The Rainbow because the lyrics were so simple and cute, and perfectly matched the purity of a 7-year-old''s singing. When Ethan finally finished singing, the people around were shocked for a few seconds, some adults like my parents were red-eyed with emotion, while the majority finally caught on and started clapping, causing the children to clap too and Isabella to run up to Ethan and hug him. George froze at the sight but didn''t say anything. Liv looked at Ethan with a smile on her face very similar to mine as she watched the two children getting along well, while Emily, next to her, looked at her little sister with embarrassment for some reason. When Ethan''s performance was over, we went to the car to put our instruments away and then came back to enjoy the end of the party. Today I was just the opening act for the night''s performer, Ethan, and I was okay with that, because seeing him interact better with the other kids and having more fun with Isabella made it all worthwhile. Although some of the children were jealous of Ethan, the children were only jealous because Ethan was acting cool while playing, and because he was acting cool, the children accepted him into their social circle more easily, and even Isabella felt more comfortable playing with everyone on her birthday. "Did you teach your brother to play the ukulele, Noah?" One of Isabella''s uncles asked me in surprise. "Yeah, when he saw me playing the guitar he wanted to learn too, but since the ukulele is smaller and has fewer strings, I thought it would be better for him to start there because it''s easier." I explained as I grabbed a mini hamburger to eat. "That was really good, I think this will make your brother much more popular at school haha, if I could play an instrument like him at his age, I''d probably be the king of my school!" The man joked, making everyone laugh. As we were leaving, the families of the other children arrived to pick them up. Since I didn''t have much to do, I just sat in the car while I used my cell phone to answer some comments about the songs for a few minutes while my family finished greeting the others. When they arrived, I got in the car and drove back to my house. What I didn''t know was that someone other than Emily recognized me there. When the family of little Tony, the little boy I''d seen Ethan fighting with the whole party, arrived to pick him up, a girl in the back seat of her family''s car saw me leaning against the car and was shocked to recognize me. Charlie only came to pick up Tony because her mom wanted company in the car, but she never imagined that she would also find BlackVelvet waiting to pick up a kid from the party! And from what she saw, his whole family seemed to be at the party, so was he there?! Realizing this, Charlie was determined to ask Tony all the details about this party. Chapter 76 [Bonus ] 76 - Vlog Release! Chapter 76 [Bonus ] 76 - Vlog Release! ??"So you''re going to post your first vlog now?" Selena asked confused as she looked at me and my computer screen in the basement of the house. "Yeah, I spent the whole week editing and I think the quality is good enough to post it now." I replied proudly as I looked at my skill. [Video Editing Lv 5 -> 9] With this skill at Lv 9, it was as if I had 9 months of experience in video editing, which was already a big leap in everything I could do. At first, I could only edit the most basic things, such as silent cuts or simple zooms, but as the skill level increased, I started to have better ideas and things to improve the quality. Of all the things I learned, the one I was most proud of was motion tracking, where I used it several times to make the video more dynamic and keep the audience''s attention, as well as smoother, more fluid zooms. Instead of just zooming from point X to point Y in 30 frames at a fixed speed, I started doing several tests and several presets of zooms where the speed started slow, increased halfway through, and then decreased at the end, making everything much more fluid and enjoyable to watch. The level of editing I wanted wasn''t something like the ytb poop of my previous world, but I wanted to reach a level similar to Mr. Beast''s. Of course, I didn''t want to clog it up. Of course I wasn''t going to clog the video with things happening every 3 seconds to overdose the viewer with dopamine, but I wanted to use 3d visuals and more dynamic transitions to increase video retention. If there''s one thing I learned from YouTube in my previous world, it''s that if the video is good and captures the viewer''s attention, the platform will promote your video and you will grow. An example of this was my music, which I didn''t promote beyond the first thousand views of Numb, but the views kept growing because of MeTube promotion. |------------------------ Monetized views: 2,160,000 = $1,836 [Numb - 555,909 views] +117,192 views [In The End - 598,349 views] +133,278 views [The Lazy Song - 1,867,958 views] +499,926 views [Boyfriend - 427,154 views] +259,278 views [Boyfriend Live - 764,247 views] +727,926 viewsT/his chapter is updated by [68,208 subscribers] + 19,968 subs [Spokify Music Plays: 979,000] +460,000 views Spokify Monetized Views: 538,000 = $2,152 [Instabram: 35k followers] +12k followers "Considering how much you make from the 20% of my shows, doesn''t that make little money for you and the company?" When she heard this, she nodded as she drove away. Her explanation was that even though she earned little commission from me, the company still paid her a high fixed salary, not to mention that when I became a Rank A artist, the amount of commission would be several times her current salary. Usually, agents like her had several artists under their umbrella, so even if they earned little from each artist, it would still be a few thousand dollars a month when all the artists were added together. But Selena preferred quality over quantity; she felt it was better to focus on developing me and earning a lot from me in the future, rather than signing several other E-list artists and earning little for many years to come. Which made sense to me. We soon arrived at the place where the wedding was to take place. - Charlie''s POV - After hearing from Tony that BlackVelvet''s younger brother was his school friend, Charlie was completely shocked. She never imagined that the singer she admired so much was actually so close to her and she didn''t know it. The problem was that when she asked Tony to get close to Ethan, BlackVelvet''s brother, Tony refused and no matter what she did, he wouldn''t accept since the two of them were like arch-enemies at school. No matter how much she tried to offer Tony things he liked, Charlie didn''t come out on top and just had to accept that there was nothing she could do about it. Can I try to think of something else to convince Tony in time? She thought as she picked up her phone and opened BlackVelvet''s MeTube channel to see if there was any new music. Even though she knew he wouldn''t be releasing any music just yet, since they hadn''t posted anything on Instagram, it couldn''t hurt to check, right? To her surprise, there was no music, but she did see a new video! [The Backstage of My Shows! - Vlog #1] Looking at the title, Charlie laughed at how self-explanatory it was, but what caught her attention was that in the thumbnail, you could see him on stage singing on one side of the screen, and on the other side of the screen, a man with a speech bubble saying swear words! What is that? Did he get into a fight during a performance?" she wondered, as she clicked on the video to watch. The video began with a scene of BlackVelvet talking to a girl in a car; from their conversation, the girl appeared to be his manager, which made Charlie sigh with relief. The things that happened in the video were very common, but oddly enough, even though she had watched 70% of the video, she didn''t even notice how quickly it went by and was very entertained by everything that happened. Instead of videos where the artist talks to the camera as if the camera was the audience, the camera in the BlackVelvet video gave the impression that the viewer was a member of the BlackVelvet team, making the intimacy they felt much greater. The scenes of BlackVelvet making jokes, him getting tired while asking for water, their conversations about general things in the show, all of it was nothing too extravagant, but the feeling Charlie got was like she was there! Other subscribers like Charlie, who were surprised by how natural and interesting the video was, watched it for so long that the retention rate became very high, causing MeTube to start spreading the word to people who liked similar content but didn''t know about BlackVelvet, resulting in several people across the country discovering this channel for the first time and having different reactions to this video. Chapter 77 77 - Vlog Reaction Chapter 77 77 - Vlog Reaction ??In the dormitories of a university campus in the United States, a girl was playing with her cell phone while lying face down with her legs up on the bed. Her name is Zoey, a veterinary student who had completed her assignments but was now bored to death. Her fingers were dragging across the MeTube screen, looking for a good recommendation from the algorithm, but everything that came up was too boring for her. The MeTubers she used to watch when she was younger didn''t hold her attention anymore because their content was still geared towards kids, the artists she followed hadn''t released any new music, there was nothing very interesting to watch. Then an interesting video appeared. The first thing she noticed was the video''s thumbnail, which was a boy about her age singing on a stage with a lively audience watching him, which made her curious. It''s been a while since I''ve come across a new artist, shall I see if this one''s any good?" she wondered. On the other side of the thumbnail, a man was cursing the singer. Does he even get hate? Is he really any good?" Despite her suspicions, Zoey''s curiosity grew. Seeing that this artist''s channel didn''t have a verified icon, Zoey quickly deduced that he was a newcomer. But the number of views on the video showed that he wasn''t so new, as the video had been posted an hour earlier and already had 37k views. Finally clicking on the video, Zoey looked at BlackVelvet''s channel and saw that he already had 70k subscribers, which was not a small number, which increased her curiosity about this artist. As far as she could tell, this channel was only used to post his music, but now he was starting to post vlogs, which was worrying. It was hard to find someone who knew how to vlog from the beginning. People who started vlogging tended to make the videos very boring, only after a few years did the videos get interesting, but by then most people would have given up. Zoey knew this from experience, she had also tried to start a vlog channel, but it didn''t work out, so she just gave up and focused on studying. Pressing the play button with a little trepidation, Zoey watched the video. Unlike what she had imagined, where the video would just be the artist sitting in front of the camera talking in a boring way, this BlackVelvet video was different, it was recorded as if the viewer was present at the singer''s routine, apparently. [The other singer was right, you are very arrogant kid, improve your humility before you feel like the best singer in the world, you are just a rank E singer, so act like one!] [I was curious about the songs you sang in the video, I''ll look for more]. Looking at the comments, Zoey noticed that the approval rate of the comments was over 90%, which was already a very good number considering that there were always people complaining about things in the comments tab of every video. In the time that she had clicked on the video so far, the views had already increased from 37k to 41k views, which showed that the video was doing very well! The number of likes for the video was at 7k, which was almost 20% of the views converting to likes, something that she, having tried her hand at being a MeTuber in the past, knew would make BlackVelvet''s channel do very well, as the site would recommend the next videos to those people who gave likes, increasing the chances of the next videos getting even more views. Feeling that this MeTuber was worth following, Zoey got excited about this channel and decided to listen to his other songs to see if she could hear the full version of Boyfriend, which was the song of his that caught her attention the most. - Noah''s POV - Arriving at the wedding, the bride and groom were still going through the ceremony while me, Selena and Jason were moving things from the car to the stage while we talked. Jason had already recorded some parts of our arrival, our preparation, and left everything organized so that when I went to edit, I could add another narrative to the video to keep the audience''s attention. All the while, I was excited to open my channel on my phone and see how many views the video was getting, but I controlled myself and left it until I got home. If the video had 20 or 30,000 views in the first 24 hours, I would have been satisfied. "Let''s just confirm the structure of the show, the bride and groom and the guests like rock songs, but they also like upbeat pop songs, what we need is for you to follow that style and try to keep the audience as excited as possible for the party until the moment I come back to tell you to sing the song you made for them. That''s okay, right?" The party organizer came to me to confirm again. I nodded. "Don''t worry, this kind of music is my specialty." The woman nodded her head in agreement. "Yes, I''ve researched your songs and I''m very pleased with your rank, the only song I''m going to ask you not to play is Boyfriend." Surprised, I thought about it and realized that Boyfriend isn''t really the most recommended song to sing at a wedding, is it? Even if it was just one song, singing about how someone''s boyfriend isn''t so good and that there''s someone else waiting for the woman would be a big problem if that was really the case with any of the guests at the party. Considering that at weddings there was almost always someone who liked one of the bride and groom and didn''t want it to work out, singing a song like that would be asking for disaster. So I nodded quickly, agreeing with her and making sure I wouldn''t sing that song. "Okay, the ceremony is over and the guests will be arriving in a few minutes, you can finish warming up and play something so they don''t arrive and everything is quiet." She said. Chapter 78 [Bonus ] 78 - Convincing the guests Chapter 78 [Bonus ] 78 - Convincing the guests ??When I looked back and saw that it was just me on stage with Jason recording all around me and Selena sitting backstage, I began to realize that performing alone wasn''t so good. Even though I had performed alone in bars, the atmosphere was completely different and people were already used to it, but at a wedding it was different, the audience was very diverse, ranging from children to older people, people who liked my style of music and people who didn''t. If I had a backing band, I would have had a variety of bands. If I had a backing band, the variety of instruments on the night would probably help me win over even more of the audience with the richness of the music. But thinking that there was nothing else to do now, I decided to keep this in mind for other events I would do in the future. This wedding would serve as an experience for me to learn what to do and what not to do. I''ve already learned one thing about what not to do, which is to come up on stage alone. From Selena''s thoughtful expression, I think she was thinking something similar, because the sound of my guitar in a bar was completely different from the sound of the guitar in an open place like this. The closed environment of the bar created a more welcoming acoustic for the guitar, but an open wedding stage like this made the guitar feel a little lonely. Suddenly I saw the guests arriving and shook my head. Whatever, if the guitar isn''t enough for something like this, now that I''m here I have to make do with it as best I can. If the guitar isn''t enough, I''ll try to use my charisma to make it even better and make people not notice this problem! While people were arriving, I played a well-known song that was relaxing. You had to be able to read the mood in a situation like that. People had just left a wedding ceremony, a very calm, relaxed and emotional situation, if they came here with super upbeat music playing, it would be very strange! So I just followed the mood and let people organize themselves as they sat down at the tables. When I was on the third song, I still hadn''t interacted with the audience and just kept playing and singing quiet songs to keep the mood pleasant for the guests. But when the third song was over, I noticed that the guests were already holding glasses of beer and starting to really celebrate the wedding, which made the mood even more lively and conducive for me to liven it up even more. So, with a smile on my face, I turned up the volume on the guitar and started to sing the next song louder. This next song would be the song before I played The Lazy Song, so it was just another famous song from this world, but while I was singing this song, I noticed that the audience''s attention was now more focused on me. Some people had gotten up from the table and were chatting standing up with their bodies turned towards me, which was already a big improvement from how they were before, just sitting there chatting and not paying attention. So to take advantage of these people who were already paying a little attention, I would finally sing my song that got the crowd going. From a distance, I could even see the bride and groom dancing a little while they took pictures with the guests, which made my smile even bigger. With each new lyric, I saw people laughing and enjoying the music as the dance floor became more lively. By the time "The Lazy Song" was finished, the number of people on the dance floor was large enough for the clapping to get quite loud. "I guess the women''s husbands identified a bit with this song? Or is it just my dad who acts like this at home?" I asked, laughing as I watched people''s reactions. Since the party had just started, no one was drunk, so even though they were excited, everyone was much more reserved. So to keep the mood up, I chose another song that they liked in this world and started singing. In situations like this, encouraging people to sing along with a song they already know was just as effective, or in some situations even more effective, than me singing an original song of mine that''s really good but nobody knows how to sing. So my plan was to balance that out over the two hours of show I was guaranteed to have ahead of me, keeping the audience on their toes while occasionally singing one of my original songs. After an hour into the show, even the bride and groom had finished taking pictures and had come out on the dance floor to enjoy their moment. Knowing that the bride loved music, I decided to pick some popular songs that I knew she could sing and called her and her husband up on stage to sing along with me, further engaging the audience and getting more people to pay attention to the stage to keep the crowd''s spirits up the whole time. And it worked very well, the bride and groom loved being able to sing on stage for their guests while I played the accompanying guitar, while I also loved being able to rest my already tired voice. Several times Selena came on stage to bring me a bottle of water, but it wasn''t enough. But at some point my salvation arrived. "Hey Black, take this glass, it''ll help your throat!" An older man, whom I recognized as the father of the groom, handed me a glass with a big smile on his face. Wondering what could be in that glass, my eyes lit up and I took it with a smile and took a big sip. "Whiskey neat!" I shouted excitedly as I felt the delicious taste of the warm, wood-aged drink trickle down my throat, healing the dryness that had appeared. Seeing my reaction, the groom''s father smiled even wider as he held the glass out to me, and I quickly bent down with my glass and toasted with it. "What is your name, sir?" I asked politely from the microphone. "Thomas!" He smiled back. Picking up the microphone again, I smiled and replied, "Okay, thanks to Mr. Thomas, this next song I''m going to sing is my most challenging song for my voice, I didn''t even think about singing it today, but now I''m so invigorated I''m going to sing it! I hope you like it!" Hearing this introduction, the guests were curious what song I would sing that would be so demanding on my voice, so I started singing Numb! Chapter 79 79 - The Music! Chapter 79 79 - The Music! ??Ever since I accepted the glass offered by Mr. Thomas, the guests seemed to see me as much more approachable and people started coming closer to the stage to interact with me. Some came to request songs, others came to offer me drinks, while some even offered me their cell phones so I could record stories for their social networks while I sang. Of course, I did all this, singing the songs people asked for, accepting drinks, and recording videos for people to post. This made everyone''s spirits soar, which made the show soar, to the point where we were approaching the two-hour mark, which was the time limit for my show. Jason had shot several scenes from different angles, even setting up additional cameras in addition to his main camera to capture the audience''s reaction as I sang the song for the bride and groom. Since I was also wearing a suit, the difference between my current image and my normal image was very big, so I was excited to see what the audience''s reaction would be to how I was dressed. Although I have few original songs, whenever I sang one of my original songs, I liked to see the audience''s reaction to these songs. Even though they were older people than my standard audience, they still enjoyed the songs as much as the young people, which was nice to see. As soon as I finished one of the songs I was supposed to sing, Selena came to the stage to say something to me, so I just took a water break and went to talk to her. "Hey, is something wrong?" I asked tiredly as I drank water from a 600 ml bottle. I''d never done a show longer than 60 minutes, and now that I was up to 120, I was getting exhausted. If it weren''t for the statistics I had gained in the 72-minute show, I don''t think I would be able to continue singing. [+1 CON] The difference of getting this point in the total amount of stats I had wasn''t that big, but just by getting this point, I felt like my stamina had recovered a lot, which was a great help. Smiling at me, Selena shook her head as Jason approached to film our conversation. "There''s no problem, in fact it''s the opposite, the bride and groom liked your show so much that they want to extend the time from the initial 2 hours to the full 4 hours that we had set as the maximum time." She said smiling, but that smile soon changed to a worried expression when she saw me with a tired smile on my face. "Will you be able to stand and perform for those four hours?" I took a deep breath and sighed. "I think I can, but I''m not sure. I think it''s better if we just accept an extra hour and make the total time just 3 hours... I''d rather perform less and deliver a great performance than have to lower the quality and perform longer to make more money..." Nodding her head thoughtfully, Selena agreed. "Really, if we only want to focus on quantity, she will start to sacrifice her potential, we''d better accept just one more hour then." I smiled at her and nodded. "Another thing the party organizer told me is that you can sing the song for the bride and groom now, since everyone is drinking a lot, she wants people to still be conscious when you sing it, so as soon as you can you can start." Selena explained, making my eyes glaze over. "Okay." I replied excitedly. I was excited to sing this song, I knew people would love to hear it, I knew their reaction would make the song do well on MeTube, and there was something else that excited me. Since this song is perfect for weddings, if this song does well on MeTube and becomes popular, the likelihood of more people hiring me to play at their wedding is very high! With more people wanting to hire me, I could charge more and get paid more and more for each event. My head''s under water... But I''m breathing fine... You''re crazy and I''m out of my mind... ???????????? While listening to this part of the song, the bride and groom were surprised by the double interpretation of this part. "He managed to mix our fight in the Caribbean about him pretending to drown with a metaphor about us sinking together and breathing well as we fall in love!" The bride said in shock as she listened to the song even more animatedly. Even the groom, who didn''t like music very much, began to wonder how I could go on like this. ???????????? ''Cause all of me... Loves all of you... Love your curves and all your edges... All your perfect imperfections...Give your all to me... I''ll give my all to you... You''re my end and my beginning... Even when I lose, I''m winning... ''Cause I give you all of me... And you give me all of you, oh-oh... ???????????? Without them realizing it, at some point during the chorus, instead of hugging each other from behind, they started facing each other and danced a beautiful waltz together in the middle of the guests. As I played the keyboard and sang, I could see the bride and groom''s wet eyes, red faces, and big smiles on their faces as they danced. Not only were the bride and groom emotional as they danced, but I also saw many tearful red eyes around the guests looking at the bride and groom and smiling. Couples who loved each other would stare at each other and cry together as they put themselves in the shoes of the music and realized how much they still loved each other and were happy to be together. In just one song, I completely changed the mood of the party from a lively moment where everyone was getting drunk to an emotional moment where guests were staring at each other with watery eyes. That was exactly my goal, and seeing how Jason focused on capturing the reactions of the bride and groom and the guests, I was sure this song would go over well on MeTube! Chapter 80 [Bonus ] 80 - All of Me Chapter 80 [Bonus ] 80 - All of Me ??As soon as I sang the next part of the song, I could see smiles appearing on people''s faces. ???????????? How many times do I have to tell you? Even when you''re crying, you''re beautiful too... The world is beating you down, I''m around through every mood... You''re my downfall, you''re my muse... My worst distraction, my rhythm and blues... I can''t stop singing, it''s ringing in my head for you... ???????????? Since almost everyone was crying, hearing me sing about how beautiful she looked crying made people smile at the irony of the situation, as if I knew they would be crying right then! Unlike the upbeat songs I used to sing, even though I was singing the third chorus of the song, the audience didn''t sing along with me, and I didn''t ask them to. This kind of music had more effect on how much they would enjoy it if I just let them enjoy the music and the feeling that was rising in their chests, rather than if I was annoying enough to spoil the moment by wanting attention for myself. As a singer, it was important to know how to distinguish between these moments. At various times during the party, having the guests focus on me would liven the party up a lot more than just letting them chat at the tables, but at other times, like now, it was much better to just let them enjoy each other''s company while they silently absorbed the music and let that feeling take over. When I finally finished singing, I even played the piano for a few more seconds so that they would realize the song was over and the bride and groom would kiss beautifully. As the bride and groom kissed, the emotional guests around them began to clap and celebrate. After waving and thanking everyone, the bride and groom looked at me on stage with tears in their eyes and bowed to me, which surprised me very much. I smiled at them and clapped my hands as I nodded. "Would the bride and groom like to come up on stage and say a few words to the guests at this time?" I asked as I made room for them at the center of the stage and began to play only the instrumental of All Of Me on the piano as background music. Hearing this, the bride''s eyes lit up and she pulled the groom up on stage to make a speech. With the melody of All Of Me playing in the background, the bride''s speech became even more emotional as she spoke, and I took advantage of this time to rest as I still had another hour of show to do. I said goodbye to Selena and Jason and went into the house after taking the instruments out of the car and slowly entering the house while loading them into the basement. It was over 2 in the morning now, so I was very careful not to after taking the instruments out of the car and slowly entering the house while loading them into the basement. wake anyone, but even my greatest care wasn''t enough. "Hey Noah, are you just getting home from the wedding?" Liv asked with a sleepy look on her face as she came downstairs to help me carry the instruments. "Yeah... I was supposed to arrive later, but I was so tired that I couldn''t play anymore..." I said. Hearing this, Liv looked at me in surprise as she nodded and carried her things back downstairs. You do so much for us, Noah...how can I not feel guilty about this?" she thought a little frustrated after seeing how tired I was and how wet my clothes were after the gig I''d done. I didn''t know it at the time, but the return of that wedding was a turning point in Liv''s mind, making what had once been just a fun desire to try to pursue a career with the violin, now a real burning desire to be able to do it. The next day, Saturday, I woke up later than usual because my mind was exhausted. My body was able to rest with just a few hours of sleep, to the point where I could sleep only five hours a night and wake up in perfect condition, but my mind didn''t recover as quickly. Because yesterday''s concert was so exhausting, I couldn''t recover mentally in such a short time, so when I woke up, it was already 11 o''clock in the morning. To my surprise, when I went downstairs, I could hear the background noise of Olivia''s violin coming from the basement of the house. "Good morning Mom..." I greeted my mother, who smiled back at me. "Good morning, Noah!" she replied. "Has Liv been playing for long?" I asked curiously. "When I woke up she was already practicing, I had to take her breakfast down to the basement for her to eat because she was so focused..." My mother replied a little worried. Although she was very proud that all three of her children were pursuing careers in the arts and that they were all doing well, she was still concerned about the excessive practice and training that we showed from time to time. Both me, when I started practicing something new, and Ethan, when he wanted to practice to perform for Isabella, since Liv was now practicing the violin non-stop in the basement. "And where is Ethan?" I asked. "He went to take a bath, his little friend Isabella is coming to play with him. As soon as he heard that, he ran into the bathroom to take a bath, hehe." My mother laughed with a knowing smile. When I saw that laugh, I laughed too, because I understood exactly where it was coming from. "Do I have to give him a hint to win her over?" I asked myself, laughing. Chapter 81 81 - Vlog Results Chapter 81 81 - Vlog Results ??As I entered the basement, I saw Liv practicing her violin while looking at the score on her computer screen. If it was just that, I would have thought everything was normal, but when I saw how red her eyes were, I realized that something was wrong. I slowly approached her, put a hand on her shoulder and asked in a calm voice. "Liv, is everything okay?" Startled, Liv looked into my eyes and quickly looked away from me to the computer as she tried to get back to practicing her violin. Noticing this, I slowly put my hand on her violin and turned her body to look at me. "Liv, talk to me, I''m your older brother. What were we talking about last time?" I asked as I placed her violin on the table and pulled her into a hug. Feeling the hug around her body, Liv froze for a second, but quickly felt relieved and returned the hug with force. "That you''re my big brother and that you''re going to help me through all my troubles..." She replied in a low, embarrassed voice. "Yeah, so tell me, what''s going on?" I asked worriedly as I stroked her back in our embrace. "I feel sick..." She replied. "Feeling sick about what?" I asked confused. "About not being able to help at all... Dad''s working two jobs, Mom''s taking care of the three of us, you''re working and already earning more than Dad and helping with the household bills... I want to help too, I want to get better at my violin and be like you, be able to earn money with music and help with the bills..." She finally got it off her chest as tears welled up in her eyes. I looked at her in surprise and didn''t know how to react. "Liv, look at me." Hearing what I said, Liv was very obedient and looked at me with red eyes. "How old are you?" I asked, although I already knew her age. "I''m 15 years old..." She answered confused. "And how old am I?" I asked. "You are 17 years old..." She replied. Smiling, I explained. "You''re 15, at your age all I thought about was watching Japanese cartoons and playing video games, it''s only now that I''m 17 that I started to worry about the financial problems at home and those problems are already being solved, you''re still 15, that''s two years you have to prepare to develop like me at 17." "But I also want to help now..." She said frustrated. "Do you know why I''m worried about making money?" I asked. "Because of the bills?" She asked. "No, because of you." I said as I smiled at her.Geett the latest novels at novelhall.com Curious, I looked at the comments on the video. [Bro looks like a cool dude...got my sub!] [Must be fun to do shows like this!] [What a fun vibe you have with your team, even Selena, who I thought was a serious and boring girl, is actually a lot of fun too!] [lol, this guy thinks that just because BlackVelvet started now he has to be polite and lower himself to please singers like him?] [What an arrogant singer, being an artist for so many years and never leaving the D rank, BlackVelvet has reason to be proud of his success]. [I will find this singer''s Instagram page!] [I didn''t like this BlackVelvet guy, he seems very arrogant to me just because he''s handsome...] Seeing that there were mixed comments about me, I just smiled as I stopped for a while to answer the comments. Until my nose caught a whiff of something starting to burn and I remembered I was making my whey pancakes and quickly put my phone down to get it out of the fire. Fortunately, my nose got a lot better when my cooking skills went up a level. [Cooking Lv 19 -> 20] When the skill reached level 20, I felt another wave of knowledge coming into my head, and I began to realize several things that I could do better, as if I had been practicing making that pancake for several more months. As I felt this new information come into my head, I just closed my eyes and enjoyed the feeling. The feeling of knowledge entering my mind without any effort on my part was very good and addictive. After a few seconds the feeling disappeared and I picked up my plate and went to the living room table to eat, staying close to my mother, but when I came out of the kitchen I was surprised by what I saw. Ethan had just come downstairs with wet hair, probably excited that Isabella had arrived after hearing the doorbell, and besides Isabella, her sister Emily was also here. Seeing Emily chatting animatedly with Liv, even though she seemed a bit shy, I was happy for both my siblings, while Ethan has his little friend who likes him for who he is, Liv is also making healthier friends apart from those annoying girls at school. When I arrived in the living room, the smell of the pancakes in my hand wafted through the air and drew everyone''s attention to me. The reaction of Liv, Ethan, and my mom was more normal, because although they were a little surprised, they were already used to the smell of my food, since I always cooked for them. The ones who were really surprised were Isabella, who looked curiously at the pancakes in my hand, and Emily, who instead of looking at the pancakes in my hand, looked at my arm, which was holding the pancake with a sleeveless shirt. Girls this age are trouble...'' I thought as I waved at her and sat down to eat, not worrying too much about it. Chapter 82 [Bonus ] 82 - Beta Test Chapter 82 [Bonus ] 82 - Beta Test ??After eating, I went up to my room to change, because if it was just my family at home, I wouldn''t have bothered to dress like this, but with Emily here, I didn''t feel comfortable. If she was my age, or at most a year younger than me, I wouldn''t have cared, but the girl was still 14, it wasn''t cool of me to dress like that when she was in my house, and I knew how she felt. Being the oldest, I was responsible for making sure nothing went wrong, so I had no problem changing into something less revealing. When I left the room, I could hear the two girls talking and laughing in Liv''s room, which gave me the freedom to go down to the basement and watch the video Jason had sent me. With how well my vlog #1 went, I realized the potential that my vlog #2 could have, as it would be a very different point of view than normal, as I don''t think I''ve ever seen the backstage of a concert at a wedding myself. Not to mention that I could use it to start the song All Of Me, so I''d have to edit it twice. Once to make the vlog and once to make the song. Now I had a question, what would be more worthwhile for me, to release All Of Me first and then the vlog, or to release the vlog first and then the song? The two could boost each other, meaning I could release either one first and the other would probably get more attention, but there would be a difference in how much one would boost the other. If I released the vlog first, leaving only small snippets of the song, when the song was released, people would click with great curiosity to find out what the full song was like after seeing the teaser in the vlog. If I released the song first, people would think it was really good and would probably click on the vlog to see what the full show was like. But after making this summary, I realized that it might be better to release the vlog first. Even though the vlog was longer than the song, editing the song was more difficult because the vlog was just Jason''s main camera, while the music video required me to carefully select the image from each of the cameras that Jason had installed on stage pointing at me and the audience. The difference in quality requirements between the two was too great. So after setting up the basic editing part and starting to edit some of the vlog, I took a break and went to do my daily exercises and practice the other things I needed to do in my routine. Today was still Saturday, so my grind had to continue. Even though I was slimmer, there was still fat on my body and my goal was to lose it completely, leaving the compact muscles more and more visible. For my weight training, I made a change and went from lifting weights to a full gymnastics workout. The weights I bought from my dad a few weeks ago were already getting too light for me, and if I kept buying heavier and heavier weights I''d end up looking like an orc after a few months, so I decided to switch to the calisthenics workouts I learned on MeTube and focus on training with my own body weight. [+1 DEX]. When I was halfway through the song, I got a notification and was surprised, so I missed the next notes and ended up with an A in the song. But I didn''t worry about it, I was amazed when I saw the improvement in my stats! Training by playing Osu meant that I had to push my hand dexterity to the max, which trained the skill to a high level and made it earn a point, a game point! That was great! "Noah, what was that weird version of your song?" A curious voice came from the basement stairs as he looked at me curiously. I glanced at Ethan and saw his eyes flicking to the computer screen with curiosity, while Isabella stood behind him with a shy, curious expression as she looked around our basement. Since we kept our instruments here, it was understandable that she would be curious to see so many things, so I just treated it as normal and smiled as I stood up from the chair. When I looked at the two of them, I didn''t see my younger brother and his little school friend, in fact, what I saw as I looked at them were two powerful beta testers for my game. Who better than two kids to test a game like mine? I could use their feedback to make the game more accessible to children and gain an even wider audience in the future, while my music that would be in the game could also be promoted to an even wider audience! When I think about how many times I listened to a song while playing it on Osu in my previous world, many songs I had never heard of became my favorite songs after playing them on the computer. The old man I called Dad in my previous world didn''t buy me a computer, so I had to make do with the old computer he had at home. Osu was the only interesting game I could download at home, so I spent many hours playing it. Now I want to see the next generation of this world enjoy it too! ////NunuNote//// Bonus Chapter Queue: 5/22 (+1 from 3k PS goal!) Vote with your power stones, you still have 15 Bonus Chapters to grab! Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. Chapter 83 83 - Collabs? Chapter 83 83 - Collabs? ??"You made a game?!" Ethan asked in surprise as he ran over to the computer and sat down in the chair I was sitting in, looking at the screen with curiosity and excitement. In my little brother''s mind, it didn''t even seem to occur to him that the game I was playing could be bad. Seeing Ethan running, Isabella also came running quickly while standing next to Ethan, looking at the computer screen with curiosity. "Yeah, I was looking for something to do in my spare time, so I started studying programming to make this game." I explained as I picked up the computer mouse and set The Lazy Song to play on easy so Ethan could try the game out while I explained how it worked and showed him a few seconds of the song. With a nod from him, I released the mouse and let him play. When I saw the delighted look on his face and Isabella''s sparkling eyes, I realized that I might have won my first player! Haha. Unfortunately, I couldn''t use them as much of a reference because I think Ethan had a pink filter on everything I did, seeing those things as the most incredible things in the world, while Isabella probably had the same thing for Ethan, seeing everything he did as the most incredible things in the world. But I could see that they were really enjoying themselves, and that was enough for me. When Ethan finished The Lazy Song, he got a C, which wasn''t terrible, but he missed a lot of notes. What surprised me was that when Isabella started playing, she did very well and got a B on her first try. This ignited Ethan''s competitive spirit and he started playing much more seriously and focused on beating her score. This led to him getting a B grade, scoring 290 points more than her, which made Isabella get competitive as well and raise her own score to an A rank, which led to Ethan playing the song again with more focus and also getting an A rank, but he was a few points behind Isabella. Seeing the two of them having fun competing made me realize that this was going well. Even though the game wasn''t finished yet, the players were already happy with the game, and there were no bugs while they were playing, which was good news. "Noah, can you install this game on my tablet? I want to practice more!" Ethan said suspiciously. And seeing the way Isabella was looking at him, I figured there was something wrong with that, but I couldn''t figure out what it was. "I haven''t made a mobile version yet, buddy, but I can do that in a few days." I said, shaking my head. I was getting tired of listening to my own The Lazy Song, but they didn''t seem to mind. Later, Emily and Isabella''s mom came to pick them up, so Ethan and Liv went back to practicing their instruments and I went back to the computer to edit the videos until it was time for my show. When it was time for my show, while I was on stage at the bar, I realized how much easier it was to perform here. Also, this was my second time at this bar, so it was the first time I was performing in a place where a large portion of the audience already knew me, which made it even easier! This was a feeling that other artists usually had before me, because they usually got fixed spots in the bars and always performed at the same times, unlike me, who had been performing in several different bars since I started. This was all thanks to Selena, who, unlike the other Rank F and Rank E artists, who were practically ignored by their agents, making them take the easy way out, Selena with me was 100% dedicated to my career and didn''t care how much work it would be to book me to perform in several different bars. The advantage I had was that I got to perform for a much bigger audience than the singers who always perform in the same place, the disadvantage was that every show I did was the same because it was my first time in that place. Luckily this time I was back at the Blackout Bar and the audience here already knew me, so singing here was very relaxing. This time there was no one to hassle me while I was performing among the Rank D artists, in fact there were even a few artists who came up to me and tried to make friends with me. I was happy at first, but when they started showing me their MeTube channel, I began to understand why they were so excited to talk to me. Many of them didn''t even hide it and directly asked me if they could record a song with me to post on my channel. Which just made me roll my eyes and politely walk away. When they showed me their channel, I saw that unlike me, who had quickly gotten my 70k subscribers by focusing on quality instead of quantity, their case was the opposite. There were Rank D artists with over 100k subscribers, with more total views than me, but that only grew with their songs getting 40 to 60k views, but they posted so many songs over the years of their careers that the channel grew little by little. From what I saw of their music, the songs were very generic and soulless, which also just captured a generic audience that didn''t care about them, even though they had over 100k subscribers. It''s not that I''m trying to say that I''m much better than them, because I took finished songs from my old world, but I dedicated myself to producing the songs, editing them, focusing on other ways to make the channel grow with the vlogs, thinking about the best marketing strategies. Instead of just focusing on the easy part, like them, which was just singing and putting a video with the lyrics on the screen, I really dedicated myself to improving everything in general. Thinking about it also made me curious about writing a song myself in the future. Of course, I didn''t think about it as a rule, since it would be easier to make a career with songs from my old world, but it might be fun to make an original song, right? Chapter 84 [Bonus ] 84 - Moms channel?! Chapter 84 [Bonus ] 84 - Mom''s channel?! ??As the evening wore on, I just continued my show, politely treating even the artists who tried to approach me with interest. Why? Because Jason was recording and this could be good content for my next vlog. My next vlog was only going to focus on the wedding scenes, but this weekend''s recordings could be used for next week''s vlog. The good thing about this would be that I would always have enough footage to have a video in advance, so if I didn''t make it to a weekend show, I would still have enough content to keep the videos coming. As my videos have grown well over the past week, my rank has also changed. [BlackVelvet - 11,736 -> 7,376th Rank E]Fi?ndd new updates at novelhall.com I was getting closer and closer to Rank D, even though I was already performing among the Rank D artists in the bars, which didn''t make me a real Rank D artist, but Selena was trying to get more benefits for me. Since I was only getting $300 per show and the bar owners were putting me among the Rank D artists, Selena was trying to increase how much I was getting per show. From what she said, Rank D artists were getting $500 per show in bars, so she started negotiating a raise for me that resulted in the value of my shows going up to $400. Although this still wasn''t as much as the Rank D artists, it was good value and increased my weekly income from $1,200 to $1,600! After fees, I would now be making $1,280 per weekend instead of the $960 I was making before, which made me even happier that I agreed to sign the AJP contract with Selena. If it was up to me to handle this part of the job, it would be a lot of stress and I probably wouldn''t even be taken very seriously because I didn''t have an agent, but since Selena was putting so much effort into it, I just had to smile, do my show, and watch my monthly salary go up! When I got back home I had an extra $490 in my bank account, since I had to pay the 20% to Selena and $150 for Jason''s per diem, plus the $100 I got from the two pieces of art I did today, this brought my bank account up to $2,990! Smiling contentedly when I got home, everyone was asleep, I just took my shower to wipe the sweat off my body and went to bed. The next day I looked at my vlog stats to see how it was doing and the video already had 136k views, which made me realize how lucrative this vlogging market was. Now I could understand how all the vlogging YouTubers in my old world drove Lamborghinis or Mclarens. Although the reality of such luxury cars was far away, I was still close to my driving test, which would take place tomorrow! My father also had a big smile on his face, not because of the extra money that would come into the family, but because I could see how proud he was of her for being able to find something she liked to do that made her feel useful. - Jonathan''s POV - Seeing the smile on Lauren''s face made me very happy. For years now, I''ve noticed that she''s been acting sadder and sadder, to the point that when I''ve asked her if she''s depressed, she''s just denied it and started pretending even more that she''s happy, but having lived with her for almost 20 years, I know that she''s not really happy. Even when I saw her happy at times, I knew it was very brief and that she would soon return to the sad world she was entering. When I offered to pay for a psychologist for her, she got angry with me and said I shouldn''t waste money on her, and as much as I tried to insist, she kept denying it and telling me to just save the money for the children. But as Noah has matured over the past few months, I''ve noticed Lauren getting happier and happier, especially after Noah started learning to cook with her. I would catch her smiling by herself a few times while I was home, which was great. But the smile she opened up with the opportunity to work and help around the house was a smile I hadn''t seen in over 10 years, a smile of genuine happiness, as if she had truly found herself. Watching her excitedly ask Noah about video editing reminded me of that beautiful girl from college who loved to study and learn new things. Before I knew it, Olivia and Ethan were looking at me with smiles on their faces as they giggled at the passionate expression on my face. It was like seeing the girl I fell in love with when we were young come home, thinking about everything we''ve been through together, thinking about what we''ll be able to live together from now on, it all makes me think that these years have been worth it. Even though I''ve been very tired, and sometimes I''ve had to go to work with my body in shreds from exhaustion, looking at my children and my wife smiling at that moment made me feel that it was all worth it. And when I looked at Noah, I knew he was responsible for it all. The boy who, with the little he had at his disposal, managed to change completely from an isolated person to the new pillar of this house, a man with a successful career as a singer, as a MeTuber, as a painter, everything he did worked. Although I regretted not having helped this talent develop earlier, I was already very happy with how things were going. "I love you all..." I thought in a voice so low that no one else at the table seemed to hear it, but when I saw the smile on Noah''s face widen and he stared at me, I felt ashamed and put my head down to go back to eating my breakfast. Chapter 85 85 - Driving test Chapter 85 85 - Driving test ??With my video editing level, I could easily edit my mom''s video, but what we wanted was something for her to occupy herself with and feel useful working on, so instead of spending a little time editing her videos when she needed it, wouldn''t it be better if I just used my Teach skill and taught her how to do it? Even if she struggled with the technology, we had time, it''s not like her channel was an urgent priority that she had to post a video tomorrow, I saw her as Liv, she would invest in training so that when she started everything would go smoothly. But there was a problem with my mom learning to edit. We only had one computer in the house. That computer was already shared between me, Ethan and Liv. Ethan even had a tablet to look up things for his school, so he hardly used the computer, but I used the computer all day long, whether I was editing my videos, making art, learning to code, programming my game, the only time I wasn''t on the computer was when I was practicing my physical activities or when I was practicing my music. Then I realized I needed to buy a new computer. Looking at the options available, I found a laptop with a very powerful spec, 8TB of SSD storage, RTX 4090 graphics card, i9 processor, 64GB of RAM and of course Windows operating system. With this laptop I knew I wouldn''t need to upgrade this hardware for several years and it would be useful for everything I wanted to do, from playing games, testing games, editing videos, everything would be perfect. The problem was the price... a desktop in this configuration would be expensive, but a laptop is even more expensive because of the difficulty of putting the parts together in such a thin device. From what I''ve seen in the pictures, they''ve managed to make it slim enough to not get in the way of the user carrying it around, despite being a bit heavy, and they''ve even put a small second screen on the bottom to act as an auxiliary monitor in case you want to do two things at once. But the price was $3,500, which was more than I had available. When I looked at the specs of this computer and compared them to the current computer I had, the difference between the two was miles apart. While my current computer would crash from time to time while I was editing videos or producing music, and it would take more than an hour to render a finished video, the new computer would not crash and would reduce the time it took to render videos to a maximum of 5 minutes. When I opened my MeTube and saw how much I would earn the following month, I saw that it was possible to buy this laptop with the money from the channel, as long as I used a credit card and paid it off next month. So I went to ask my father. He was sitting on the sofa in the living room watching TV, enjoying his Sunday off. "Dad, do you have a credit card with a high limit?" I asked. He looked at me in surprise and replied. "Yes, Noah, but why would you want a credit card? You know it''s dangerous to get into debt with a credit card, right?" "Yes, Dad, I know it''s dangerous, that''s why I made sure I would actually have the money to pay off this debt next month before I considered buying anything with a credit card." I explained. "I want to buy a more powerful laptop so my mom can learn to edit videos on my old computer without worrying about it getting in the way of the things I do on the computer during the day." Looking at my face, despite the sweat dripping from it, I really felt that I looked better, my face was more refined, the lines of my face were more angular, and by dividing my face in half, the two halves were becoming more symmetrical, which made me more pleasing to the eye. It wasn''t like I had become a different person just by gaining one charisma point, but that charisma point made me even more attractive than before. That''s probably why Boyfriend got a bigger response from the female audience, because the Thirst Trap I developed was becoming more and more effective, both on my face and on my body, which was already much better than last week. I just couldn''t understand why Selena was staring at me. But since she didn''t want to talk about it, I didn''t want to push the issue either and we left with my family to enjoy the rest of the party. Jason came with us as well and we enjoyed the evening together, with only me and Selena not drinking. Me because my mom was watching me and Selena because she was driving and had to go back to her house, which wasn''t very close. The next day, after I woke up and did my routines, I had two important things to do. The thing I was most excited about was going to the store to buy the new laptop I wanted, because I was excited to see what it would be like to work with one. The other important thing I had to do was to figure out why I wasn''t going home with my siblings after school. Today was the day I was supposed to take my driver''s test, and the test would be held in the school parking lot. When Liv and Ethan heard that I was going to take my test today, they both got excited and didn''t want to leave, so my mom just smiled and came with them to watch my test. To avoid having to go home and come back, we just had lunch at a restaurant near the school and then went back to my test. "Are you Noah Black?" A chubby man asked, looking me up and down with an irritated voice. Confused, I looked at him, not understanding the reason for his irritation, and nodded. "Yes, sir." I replied naturally. "Get in the car kid, let''s finish this quick." He said without looking at me as he got into the passenger seat of the car. Seeing the way he was acting, I was worried that this test wasn''t going to be as easy as I thought it would be. Chapter 86 [Bonus ] 86 - Hot Asphalt Chapter 86 [Bonus ] 86 - Hot Asphalt ??"Come on kid, just follow this course of cones and get it over with," the man said as he picked up his cell phone and started sending a message to someone. Realizing that this man''s attitude was garbage and thinking that something bad might happen, I put my phone in audio recording mode while keeping it in my pocket just to be safe. After what I''ve been through, it''s almost an obligation to have it recording now. Remembering everything I''d seen about the driving test and the tips my mom and dad had given me, I checked all the mirrors, put on my seatbelt, but looked at the instructor and saw that he wasn''t wearing a seatbelt. "Could you put your seat belt on, please?" I asked, trying to remain polite even though this fat man''s attitude was getting on my nerves. If this were a normal situation, I wouldn''t have minded him not wearing his seatbelt, but my father said that one of the driver''s responsibilities in the driver''s test was to check the safety of the passengers and make sure everyone was buckled up. If I drove off without all the passengers buckled up, I''d lose a point, and just like in baseball, if I got three strikes, I''d be out. "You can go, kid, I don''t need a seat belt." The man muttered, never taking his eyes off the screen of his cell phone. "Please put on your seat belt or I won''t drive the car." I replied in a firm voice while looking at him. Surprised, he looked at me to confirm that I was serious, but even though he saw my face, he just gave me a small smile and replied. "If you don''t drive this car in 5 seconds, I''ll declare your test a failure and you''ll have to pay another $180 to take the test again, kid." The man said dismissively. "I''m doing exactly as the rules of the road dictate, you''re doing the wrong thing and stopping me from starting my test, with what I suspect are ulterior motives other than me doing something wrong, right?" I asked in a firm voice as I continued to stare at him. This made him raise an eyebrow, but he didn''t flinch and replied dismissively. "Really? You seem to be very well educated on how to pass the test, would it be a shame if I didn''t care at all and decided to fail you?" "If you did that, you''d not only have to deal with the legal consequences of abusing your power as a public school driver''s test instructor, but you''d also have to deal with other possible misfortunes that might befall you." I replied without making it too clear, because I was recording on my cell phone so I wouldn''t be stupid enough to incriminate myself. "You think it''s that easy, kid? Now, you''re going to do what I say, or I''m going to get out of this car and you''re going to have to pay another $180 to take another test with me, where you''re going to choose whether to obey me or pay again." He replied dismissively. "All right, that''s what I needed." I replied as I took off my seat belt and got out of the car, leaving the fat man confused. When he saw me getting out of the car, he laughed. "You''re dumber than I thought, kid, now that you''re out of the car I can easily fail you." "Just tell me, why are you acting like this to me?" I asked as I reached for my cell phone in my pocket, but left it recording. Anything I did to him in the next few seconds until he was subdued would be considered self-defense. After he was subdued, the police could consider it excessive self-defense and accuse me of intentionally hitting him, but as long as he wasn''t subdued, I could do whatever I wanted. So, with a smile on my face, I quickly put my cell phone back in my pocket, reached forward with one hand, and delivered a powerful punch to the fat man''s chest. I wanted to hit him in the stomach, but he had so much fat protecting it that hitting him in the chest would be more efficient and fun. As my punch hit his chest, I saw in slow motion his eyes go wide and he began to fall backwards as he ran out of air. efficient and fun. As my punch hit his chest, I saw in slow motion his eyes go Knowing that he was about to be knocked out, I took advantage of my last few seconds of freedom to do whatever I wanted to him and ran towards him while punching him again in the shoulder, making him spin backwards as he fell, turning his back to me, and I used his back to throw another very hard kick to his back, making him fly even faster towards the ground. After that, I just stared at him, grunting on the ground, his face rubbing against the hot asphalt, cutting himself. "Aaaaarrrrghhhhh..." He screamed after he managed to get some oxygen back into his lungs, but he couldn''t get up from the ground, just rolling around pathetically on the ground, covering his face with his hands. When I saw what his face looked like, an even bigger smile appeared on my face. The skin on his cheek was scraping and burning against the hot asphalt, giving him a large cut and burn on his face from the rapid friction as he screamed, making him even uglier than he already was. After watching this pathetic scene unfold for a minute, I finally got fed up and yelled. "Get up, pig!" Hearing this, he was startled and quickly stood up, looking at me in fear. I pointed to my cell phone and said in a cold voice, "I still have the recording on my cell phone, I want you to give me a perfect score on this driving test and make sure my license is in my hand in the next 30 minutes or I''ll send this shit to whoever needs to know to end your life." Startled, he looked at my phone and then at me and nodded as he ran to the office where he worked, while I found a shady spot and rested, waiting for him to bring my provisional license. Of course I wasn''t going to leave it at that, first I would make him get my license so I wouldn''t have to take the test again, and in a few days I would send this audio to someone to fire him so I could still get my revenge. If he was only related to the director and Jackson, but wasn''t a bad person, I wouldn''t worry about him and just take my driving test normally, but he wanted to abuse his power to get in the way of me getting what I wanted in an unfair way, so I don''t mind acting the way I did in my old world... Chapter 87 [Bonus ] 87 - Video Ready Chapter 87 [Bonus ] 87 - Video Ready ??In a few minutes he came back and handed me the paper with my temporary license. From what I read on the paper, the law said I couldn''t drive with a young passenger, which meant I couldn''t drive with Liv or Ethan in the car, which was understandable. When I saw the name of the man on the seat of the instructor who passed me, and confirmed with him that it was his name on his ID, I nodded and went to meet my family to celebrate getting my license. When they saw the paper in my hand, all three of them were very happy and we went out for ice cream together to celebrate. Of course, it was Ethan who enjoyed the ice cream the most. Taking advantage of the fact that we were already close to the computer store where I wanted to buy the laptop I wanted, I asked my mom to take me there and in no time I was out of the store with the laptop. The configuration was exactly what I wanted, and as a gift, the salesman gave me a wireless mouse to use with the laptop, which would be very useful.Nne?w n0vel chapters are published at novelhall.com When we got home, after I''d finished helping Ethan with his homework, I called my mom down to the basement and showed her a complete video tutorial on how to use Adobe Premiere. As a sample video, we found a cooking video of a woman who hadn''t edited anything, and I downloaded it for my mom to practice her editing skills. I know that she spent the first few days just getting familiar with the program until she knew how to do the most basic things so that she could start editing things herself. The advantage to her was that if she had any doubts, I could explain it to her with my Teach skill, and she would learn and memorize it much faster than if she had to learn on her own. [Teach Lv 27 Effect: When teaching others, as long as you know what you''re teaching and what you intend to teach, the person has a 27% higher chance of understanding what you''re explaining and increases the learning speed of that content by 27% during that study session]. Since she was always asking me questions, the 27% increase in learning speed during the study session was active for her all the time, which made it much easier for her to learn things from the video tutorial, to the point that by the end of the day she had memorized how to import a video, how to edit a video, and how to export a video with its original quality. She still didn''t understand most of it, but that in itself was very good. My plan for the videos on her channel was to have her do a tutorial on how to make a recipe, but in a style as dynamic as the TikTok videos from my previous world. It''s not like my dad was an ugly man either, he was Liv and Ethan''s dad, so he had some good looks. Currently, he''s only around 12 points in charisma because he''s tired from work and doesn''t take care of himself, but looking at the photos from when they met and I was born, my dad was easily around 16 points in charisma too. With our family earning more money, it''s only a matter of time before my father doesn''t have to work so much and can rest more at home, take better care of himself, exercise, improve his diet, dress better, with all these changes he can easily get back to at least 15 points in charisma. Considering his age, 15 charisma points was pretty good for a man of his age. While my mom was busy learning how to edit, Ethan was practicing the ukulele, and Liv was practicing her violin, I set up the laptop on a table that we had brought down to the basement and started editing my vlog for the week after I finished setting up the laptop. As I was editing the video, I started to notice things that I hadn''t even noticed on the old computer. On the old computer, when I pressed play on the media player, it took about a second to actually play the video, whereas on this new laptop, it didn''t even have a delay and played the video instantly. When I tried dragging files into the program, it took a fraction of a second to read the file and it was already there for me to use! Not to mention the small screen between the keyboard and the main monitor, which was very useful for me to look up references or multi-task while editing. Something that was probably very easy for other people, as my family didn''t have much money in either life, this was my first time using two monitors and I realized how useful it was! With this rhythm of the four of us focusing on our things at home and my dad working, our week went by very quickly. Within a few days, my vlog was completely edited and ready to post. The way I made this vlog was completely focused on creating hype for the music. The whole vlog was wedding-themed, focused entirely on the history of wedding music, and the whole video revolved around the narrative that I had made a song for weddings that I was sure the bride and groom would love. I even put scenes of the bride and groom crying at the beginning of the video to increase the audience''s attention and anticipation of what was to come, hoping that people would watch it to the end. When I finally got to the music part, I just showed the chorus while focusing on the reaction of the bride and groom and their guests until the video ended with the date when All Of Me would be released on my channel and on Spokify. Chapter 88 [Bonus ] 88 - A Brides Reaction Chapter 88 [Bonus ] 88 - A Bride''s Reaction ??Sarah, a young woman of 27, was about to experience one of the most important moments of her life. After dating for 6 years and living with her boyfriend for over 2 years, she was finally getting married. Her wedding had been planned for over 6 months and would take place in just over a week. The problem Sarah had was that she and her husband had just had a huge fight. Sarah was upset because her husband wasn''t paying as much attention to the wedding details, while her husband was working hard to pay for the wedding. Despite being upset with her husband, Sarah was still researching a lot of things about marriage to try to have the perfect wedding of her dreams, and while she was researching these kinds of things, she was surprised by a video that popped up in the recommendations for her. Unlike the videos she''d seen before, which focused on the perspective of wedding guests or brides giving their opinions on things they did right or wrong at their wedding, the video that popped up for her was apparently a video from the perspective of the singer who sang at someone''s wedding! [I made a song to sing at a wedding! - Vlog #2] Just by seeing the title of the video, Sarah was interested to see what a wedding would be like from a singer''s perspective, since she had already seen it from all perspectives except this one. Looking at the thumbnail, she saw that the singer was a young, handsome man wearing a black suit with a gray shirt underneath and a blue tie, while on the other side of the thumbnail she saw the bride and groom crying with emotion. Just seeing the reaction of this bride and groom piqued Sarah''s curiosity to the point where it would be impossible not to click on this video, so she did. As soon as the video started, Sarah saw the young singer in the thumbnail looking into the camera on stage as he explained what the video would be about with a quick synopsis. "Hi guys, I''m BlackVelvet and today you''re going to see about the event I performed at last week! Unlike the presentations I usually do in bars, this time the challenge is not how to cheer up a bar crowd, but how to cheer up guests of different ages and different groups at a wedding, while I have to sing a special song for the bride and groom at the end!". With each thing he said in that summary, the video cut to edits of those things, both showing him performing in bars and the audience getting excited about his show, and showing the wedding and the difficult start with the audience discouraged. But when Sarah saw that at the end of this summary, almost everyone at the wedding was on the dance floor and the bride and groom were crying, she was surprised. She didn''t even know that the performer had to worry about these challenges while singing. To her, the performer would just pick a playlist and sing it until it was time to leave, but as she watched this child explain it, she realized that being a singer was different than she had imagined! Without her realizing it, the fast-paced editing and various uses of triggers and expectation controls that BlackVelvet used in the video were responsible for making her watch every second of the video with great interest. Seeing how he interacted with his team made her sympathize more with the young singer, seeing how he struggled with the discouraged audience at the beginning, but that he managed to use an idea to get people''s attention by talking about the bride and groom and asking them to clap made her surprised at how clever he was. Even watching more and more people come up to the stage to dance while listening to him sing gave her a very strong feeling of satisfaction, as if she was the singer who was gradually winning over this audience. ???????????? The part where BlackVelvet sang the song only lasted a few seconds, it was just the beginning of the song and the chorus of the song, which wasn''t very long. But it was enough to make Sarah''s eyes water, especially when she saw how happy and emotional the bride and groom were as they embraced, Sarah became even more emotional to the point of crying so hard that she was sobbing. Her eyes were so blurry that she couldn''t even see the date of the official song release, which was the following day, Saturday. Unknown to Sarah, her husband had just come home from work a few minutes earlier. Michael worked as an accountant in a bank, which wasn''t a bad job, but he was often forced to stay late to deal with client problems, and this caused a lot of conflict between him and Sarah. When he came home and didn''t find his fiance?e, which was strange because she always heard him coming and came to greet him, Michael ran into their bedroom where Sarah usually stayed and looked in worriedly but tried to keep quiet so she wouldn''t see that he was there. He wanted to know why she hadn''t come to see him before talking to her. Luckily for him, she was standing with her back to the door, so he had a perfect view of the video she was watching. Seeing that it was a wedding thing, Michael had to stop himself from laughing, knowing how excited she was about it and how cute she looked because of it. Since Sarah didn''t see him at the door, Michael just stayed quiet and watched the video with her. Like Sarah, Michael was surprised by the difficulties and challenges a singer has while performing and was very impressed by this BlackVelvet. As someone who worked in a bank and dealt with different types of people every day, seeing someone like BlackVelvet who was very good at something he didn''t even know he needed to be good at gave Michael a very high level of confidence in BlackVelvet. As if knowing something that no one talked about showed how professional he was, because while other artists didn''t even talk about it, for BlackVelvet it was the main focus of improvement at every show. When BlackVelvet finally sang the last song of the video, Michael couldn''t help himself, just like Sarah, and felt tears welling up in his eyes as he imagined that this song was made especially for him and Sarah. Without Sarah noticing, Michael wrote down the name BlackVelvet on his cell phone and decided that he would contact the singer''s agency to hire him to sing at his wedding. Even though there was already another singer scheduled to sing at the wedding, Michael wasn''t worried about spending a little extra and changing the singer in the last few hours. It wouldn''t be a problem to have the original singer sing for the first few hours if that singer couldn''t get the guests going, at least he had BlackVelvet to sing afterwards, who seemed to handle it well from what he saw in the video. With that said, Michael put his cell phone away and slowly walked inside to hug Sarah and spend a romantic moment together while listening to All Of Me again, finally realizing the song''s release time and deciding that they would go on a romantic date tomorrow to listen to the song''s release together. Chapter 89 [Bonus ] 89 - The vlog is going very well! Chapter 89 [Bonus ] 89 - The vlog is going very well! ??Selena was shocked when she looked at her phone. Tonight alone, she had already received more than 4 emails from clients interested in hiring Noah to sing at their wedding! Unfortunately, most of these weddings were on the other side of the country, making it impossible for her or the client to fly Noah and his team to the venue, so she had to decline almost all of them. But there was one email from a neighboring city that Selena thought might be possible. When she contacted the client and told them about the slightly higher cost of hotel and lodging, even though Noah was only a Rank E artist, the client accepted it and didn''t mind paying a little more. The total she was able to negotiate for this gig was $3,000 for a two-hour show! Even remembering that Noah wanted to hire a backing band for the next few shows so he wouldn''t get so tired singing alone on stage at weddings, Selena realized that this money would make it possible even if they took a band with them.Geett the latest novels at novelhall.com The only thing that confused her was why so many emails had suddenly arrived. Wondering where these people could be coming from, Selena opened BlackVelvet''s channel and saw that Noah had posted the vlog of the video they recorded at the last wedding they attended. [I made a song to sing at a wedding! - Vlog #2 - 47,791 views] In just a few hours, Noah''s video had nearly 50,000 views, leaving Selena completely shocked. "How does this kid have such a talent for making things work?" She wondered in a low voice as she lay down on her bed with her white legs dangling up. Since she was at home, Selena wasn''t wearing the formal clothes she always wore, now just a thin, light pink dress that she wore to bed. "He manages to learn how to act on stage very easily, he manages to learn new instruments very easily, he manages to learn how to sing better and better with more and more ease, he manages to learn how to draw and make animations all by himself, he even manages to learn how to edit videos and become a successful MeTuber all by himself... how can someone be so talented?" she asked herself as she opened his Instabram out of curiosity to see what he was posting. Selena''s curiosity for Noah had been piqued since the day she first saw him sing on stage, and since then her curiosity for him had only grown with each day she discovered something new he could do. Looking at his Instagram, she thought he would just post photos of himself or something banal like other artists, but the reality was completely different. If she hadn''t known that Noah worked alone with his social media, she would have been sure that he had a team of people taking care of it for him, but that only made it more fascinating to her. There were several different stories on his Instagram, both stories about his workout routine, him answering some questions, posts about the new song to generate engagement and hype, as well as him promoting today''s vlog and answering questions about the vlog. All of this was probably done by him while he was at home doing various other things without her knowing. Whereas the first time I got a photo like that I was extremely tempted, now I just saw it as something that was slightly tempting that didn''t affect me as much. I think my mind was finally getting used to it and not taking it so much for granted. It was good not to act like an animal when I saw something slightly attractive and tempting. I didn''t want to be the kind of artist who got involved with a lot of selfish girls, had children with girls I didn''t love just because one of them sabotaged the condom or something, and then had to raise a child who probably wouldn''t have the structured family that child deserves. Even if it took me a while to find my partner, eventually I would find her, and then it would be the right time for me. Maybe in the future I''ll pick someone up at a party? It''s possible, because I won''t be a virgin until I get married, but when that happens, I''ll take as much care and responsibility as I can. With that settled in my mind, I smiled as I grinned at the video''s likes and dislikes. The video had an incredible 51,000 views, 9,200 likes, and only 71 unlikes, which was a very good rate. I know it''s impossible to please everyone, so the 71 unlikes didn''t bother me. If that number had been 10 times higher, I might have worried that something was wrong, but with only 1 unlike for every 718 likes, that was more than enough approval! So, to enjoy the rest of the evening, I started answering the comments on the vlog. [I didn''t know it was so important to have plans for how to get the audience excited!] [Now I know why there are shows that are so good and shows that are so bad, and apparently both shows are the same!] [How nice it must be to go to a Black Velvet concert...] [The song at the end was so beautiful...] [I got very emotional listening to that song...] [Thanks for posting this vlog tonight BlackVelvet, I needed a video to go to sleep]. [How did you learn so much about dealing with the public?] Surprisingly, looking at who made that last comment, the one who posted it was a singer who was at the top of rank D, almost reaching rank C! Chapter 90 90 - Plans Chapter 90 90 - Plans ??When I saw that this singer already had a verified icon next to the name of her channel that she commented on in my video, I already imagined that she was a bigger singer than me. When I opened her channel, I saw that she already had 190k subscribers, which was just over twice what I had, but the surprising thing was that she wasn''t an American singer like me, her channel was in Japanese! Although her growth wasn''t as explosive as mine, her channel had obviously grown quickly, since the first video she posted was only 10 months old. But I could understand why she was growing so fast. Instead of a channel like mine, which grew very fast by singing only original songs, her channel focused on singing famous international songs, but in a Japanese version. This was a good move because she was able to win over the Japanese audience who liked to listen to music in their native language, and also win over a global audience of otaku who liked to listen to a girl singing in Japanese. Remembering the question she asked in the comments of my video, I searched for her channel and found that she didn''t have any live shows. Thinking it might be due to her shyness, I thought I could help a little and replied to the comment with some tips on things I observe to understand the audience and how I can improve. Even though these tips weren''t that relevant, as someone with [Stage Presence Lv 6], they would be useful to someone like her who was just starting to think about performing live. What I didn''t know was that my explanation through the comments also activated my [Teach Lv 27] skill, so not only was it much easier for her to understand, but other singers and aspiring singers could also learn a lot from my simple comment. Of course, they didn''t learn other things that I didn''t say, but everything I said and explained was much clearer to them than if they had tried to learn it on their own. Satisfied with answering several comments, I looked at the All Of Me song and set it to premiere so that the video would appear with a timer so that people could set a reminder to watch it later when I posted the video. A few minutes after I set the song to premiere, there were hundreds of people with the song open waiting for the premiere to happen, even though it was scheduled to happen tomorrow. With everything set up, I enjoyed the evening and went to bed, as I had a gig tomorrow and wanted to get as much rest as possible before I left. When I woke up the next day, there were several messages from Selena on my phone. [Noah, you have no idea how many people are contacting me asking about your availability to sing at weddings!] [Just last night I got over 7 emails and this morning I woke up to another 10 emails asking about you and if we could perform at their wedding]. The audience for Vlog #2 was mostly female, so maybe that meant that all the attributes I had developed for it were coming into play. My good looks, my charisma when talking to the camera, my didactic way of explaining complex things about the art world in a simple way to a lay audience, my concern for the wedding guests, and my sensitivity when writing a song like All Of Me may have multiplied as the predominant factors that made the audience for this second video much more engaged than for the first. That wasn''t a bad thing, I wouldn''t have a problem with a mostly female audience, I just didn''t want to limit my male audience either. I didn''t want to be like Justin Bieber in my previous world, who was loved by the girls and hated by the boys at school because they were jealous. My goal was that even if more girls liked me than boys, the boys would still enjoy my music and not be prejudiced against me. That''s why I didn''t focus so much on Thirst Trap in my career. As I went about my daily routine, I also noticed that the changes in my body were becoming less and less noticeable. At my current weight, the amount of fat on my body had already decreased a lot, to the point that my stomach was already showing my abdominal muscles and my arms were already showing some veins, even when I wasn''t pushing myself. Looking at these veins on my arm and knowing that I could take advantage of them, I took a random book that old Noah had already read off the bookshelf in the bedroom and took a picture of myself holding the book as if I was reading it. I tried very hard to make it look unintentional, but I let the veins in my arm show in the photo with my hand in a very natural way while posting a story. Within minutes, I had dozens of responses to that story from girls commenting on it, trying to talk to me, asking about the book, trying to guess what book it was, even saying that I could talk to them if I needed someone to talk to about the book. If old Noah went through that, he''d probably pass out... The rest of my week wasn''t spent just editing the video either, my game was at a point where I could officially post it on the internet and test the waters to see how people would react to it. The only thing I had to talk to Selena about before that was the game and the music rights, since it involved AJP''s rights to the songs I''d signed with them. Since they were entitled to 20% of the revenue I made as an artist outside of my social networks, this included the use of my songs in products such as games. The profit from making the game was mine, Noah Black''s, but in this case, Noah was supposed to pay BlackVelvet for the copyright of the song, of which AJP would get 20%. This was very confusing, so I called Selena over to my house this morning so the two of us could talk about it and I could show her the game. My idea was to see if I had to pay anything or if I could include it as a marketing fee for BlackVelvet. Chapter 91 91 - Monetization Chapter 91 91 - Monetization ??Watching her concentrate on controlling the mouse while looking at the screen and shaking her head brought a proud smile to my face. Selena was very surprised when I told her I was making a game, and even more surprised when I showed her the gameplay and how much fun it was. Since she tried to play The Lazy Song in easy mode, the goal became to get an S in The Lazy Song at least once. She did very well, the problem was that there were some jumps between the last notes, she wasn''t used to moving the mouse that fast, and she missed one or two notes, so her grade dropped to A. It wasn''t until the 12th try that she finally got the S she so desperately wanted. I could see a big excited smile on her face as she looked at it. "What did you think of the game?" I asked. Staring at me as her smile turned into a more stoic face, she answered objectively. "As a music game, it''s the most fun game I''ve ever played, the way you thought of making the players play the notes while clicking around the screen is really cool, I''m sure it will do well when you release it on the internet." I nodded at her, that was exactly what I was thinking for the game. "But how are you going to monetize it?" she asked confused. She asked confused. "Or rather, do you intend to monetize it at all?" "Yes, I intend to monetize it, but in a different way." I said. One thing I realized was that there are almost no free to play games in this world, the vast majority of games use the pay to play system where the player pays $40 to $60 to play the game, and within the games there are still microtransactions. "My idea is to keep the game free, but have a $5 a month subscription with some perks for players, like customizations, badges for the profile, letting the person put gifs on the profile, customizing the banner, and things like that. Just aesthetic things, nothing that affects the gameplay," I said. I said, causing her to raise an eyebrow in surprise. "But then you make a lot less money, right?" she asked confused. To which I nodded. "Yes, I know that if I release this game for $20, I''ll probably get a few thousand sales and that''ll already make me a few thousand dollars, but my goal is to make this game something sustainable... even if I only get $5 for every 50 players, that''s a good way to attract new players and grow the player base of the game. My goal with this game is not to become a millionaire, but to do something I enjoy in my spare time and to get a new platform to promote my music. "But how much do you think the songs would cost?" I asked worriedly. I should know how much it would cost first to know if it would be worth it, after all, if the price was $10,000 per song and I had to buy 10 songs, I would just be taking on a gigantic debt for something that the game would take months or even years to pay off, depending on how many downloads it got. With a small hand on her chin and her head down, her long blonde hair covering her face slightly, Selena began to mentally calculate how much it would cost. "I think it would depend on the artist''s rank, with rank D artists it wouldn''t cost more than $1,000 per song, rank C artists would be around $2,000 and rank B artists that figure should come to at least $5,000, rank A artists I''d say at least $10,000..." She thought as she spoke, making my heart race. "Those prices... they''re pretty high..." I was shocked. "That''s because of the promotional opportunities your game has, if I remember correctly, when a company buys the rights to a song to use in a movie or game, those values are at least 10 times higher. Since your game would give a good boost to the artists'' careers by making these downloaded songs available in everyone''s games, the price would drop a lot because the artists would gain popularity from it," she explained. She explained. Even though I thought the prices were high, I thought that if someone wanted to use my songs in their game, I''d think the same way she did, and it made a lot of sense... "How many songs do you think I should buy?" I asked a little worried. "For Rank E artists, the songs are cheaper, you can get as many as you think are good, I''d say your own songs already cover as many songs by Rank D artists as the game needs, even if you''re not Rank D yet, your popularity is almost there. I''d say it would be good to have at least five C-rank songs and two B-rank songs in the game to try to attract a larger audience," she explained. She explained, but nodded in agreement. "For the rank E songs, I was thinking of promoting the game as an opportunity for these new artists to promote their songs, so instead of saying the game needs their songs, I would say something like they need the game so I can get the rank E songs for free." I explained, causing Selena to look surprised and nod. "That''s a good idea." She replied. "I''ll talk to AJP''s manager and see how we can work out the payments for the songs in the game, knowing how well you get paid by MeTube, I don''t think she''ll be afraid of you not paying." Hearing this, I nodded, even though $20,000 for these songs was a lot of money, I didn''t worry too much from the point of view that these songs could help promote the game and possibly make me more than that per month. If I only got an average of 30,000 players playing, if every 50 players paid $5, that would be $3,000 a month just from that monthly fee, not counting the advertising that would run in the game, which would potentially make more than that subscription. It wasn''t impossible to get at least $6,000 a month for those 30,000 players, and as the number of players increased, that number would also increase significantly. When I thought about how many ways I could make money, I realized how much I was diversifying my income. Millionaires would be proud of me haha...'' I thought laughing. I thought with a laugh. Chapter 92 [Bonus ] 92 - MV Release! Chapter 92 [Bonus ] 92 - MV Release! ??After Selena and I decided on the game, Jason came over and I showed him the game. Jason loved the game, even though he wasn''t as much of a music fan as me and Selena, he still thought the game was a lot of fun and wanted to keep playing to get an S rank as well. When we finally left to do my show, I took one last look at my phone and saw that the song All of Me would be released in a few minutes and there were already 5,000 people in the waiting room to see it. In keeping with tradition, I just closed the app and left to see the results when I got back from the gig. - Sarah''s POV - Sarah, who was getting married the following week, was sitting on the sofa in the living room of her house drinking wine and eating snacks with her fiance? while they waited for the song All of Me to be released on BlackVelvet''s MeTube. Since they had agreed to do this the night before, they had planned their whole day around listening to this song. Sarah had already heard the teaser of the song on BlackVelvet''s vlog several times and was very excited to hear the full song. And she wasn''t the only one, the number of people in the room, which had been 5,000 a few seconds ago, increased rapidly, until 2 minutes before the song premiered, there were already 13,000 people waiting for the song to start. Reading the comments with curiosity, Sarah was surprised that she wasn''t the only bride who was excited about this song. [I''m forcing my boyfriend to listen to this song with me, maybe he''ll propose after hearing this?] [This song sounds so beautiful...] [BlackVelvet is really beautiful...] [Does anyone know how old BlackVelvet is?] [Be my groom, BlackVelvet!] [I''m getting married in a few months, if this song is good, I want BlackVelvet to sing it at my wedding...] [I want BlackVelvet to sing it for my birthday...] [Does anyone know where he performs?] [I''m a friend who''s forced to listen to this music...] Seeing the comments, Sarah and Michael, her fiance?, had a good laugh. "How can there be such funny people..." Sarah laughed at the man who said it was her boyfriend who was forced to listen to the song. Having already had a few glasses of wine, Sarah was much more at ease as she lay cuddled up in Michael''s arms and read the comments on the TV. After two minutes, a 30-second countdown appeared on the screen and people got excited. Sarah even got up from the sofa and stood to get a better view of the music, which made Michael laugh. There were currently 16,812 people watching this premiere and the number was increasing by the second. Finally, the countdown reached zero and the video began. Unlike BlackVelvet''s other music videos where the video started with the music, this one was different. The video started with BlackVelvet calling the bride and groom to come closer to the stage, just like they had seen in his vlog, and he gave a short speech to the bride and groom to set the mood very easily. With one camera focused on him and the other on the bride and groom, when he started to play the song, it was clear to see the bride''s eyes turning red without her even having heard him sing anything yet, just the piano playing. ???????????? Even when I lose, I''m winning... ''Cause I give you all of me... And you give me all of you, oh-oh... ???????????? As she sang this, tears began to well up in Sarah''s eyes, causing Michael to also get up from the sofa and hug her from behind as the two of them slowly swayed and danced as they watched the music video. Even Michael had to admit that the Black Velvet boy was handsome. Although he looked young, probably no more than 21, the boy had a charm that made Michael sure he was enjoying life as a rock star. The camera control of the video was also very good, always changing to a different angle without making the audience dizzy or nauseous, and never forgetting to show the bride and groom on the screen to make the viewers of the song on MeTube even more emotional. Looking at the comments next to the screen, Michael laughed at how many crying emoticons were posted. The chat was going so fast that he didn''t doubt that thousands of people were commenting at the same time. The song already had 26,000 people watching the premiere and the number was still growing! After a few minutes the song finally ended, but Michael and Sarah didn''t let go and continued to hug each other in the living room of their house, turning to each other and smiling, both with tears in their eyes. Suddenly, the music on the TV changed to a different song with an upbeat beat. ???????????? Today I don''t feel like doing anything. I just wanna lay in my bed... Don''t feel like picking up my phone... So leave a message at the tone... ''Cause today, I swear I''m not doing anything... ???????????? "Pfft..." Listening to the lyrics of this song and watching the video on the screen, Michael couldn''t control himself and started to laugh, completely breaking the cute and romantic atmosphere that had formed between them. Sarah even wanted to get angry at him for ruining it, but she knew it wasn''t his fault... she just wasn''t laughing because she had heard The Lazy Song a few times and had gotten used to it. But Michael, who hadn''t heard the song before, found it a very new and funny experience to suddenly hear it played. Knowing that it wouldn''t be possible to continue the romantic mood, Sarah just shook her head with a laugh and sat back down on the sofa with Michael, who was practically hypnotized by the music playing on the screen and the animated clip of the character who was clearly the All of Me singer dancing with 5 people with animal heads in his room. To enjoy the rest of the evening, Sarah decided to show Michael the BlackVelvet songs and see his reaction. Just as she thought, his reaction to the other songs was also great, making the rest of the evening very enjoyable. What Sarah didn''t know was that Michael had a change of plans. Instead of hiring BlackVelvet just to sing at the post-wedding party, he also wanted The Lazy Song to be played as he entered the wedding. As Michael thought about how this song represented him, he began to like BlackVelvet even more. Scenes of couples coming together to listen to All Of Me played in thousands of homes across the country, and brides received the link to this song as a recommendation for their wedding music. In just 30 minutes, the All Of ME video had 60,000 views, an even higher number than The Lazy Song when it was released, indicating that Noah had another song that could potentially go viral on his channel! Chapter 93 93 - $10.000! Chapter 93 93 - $10.000! ??Unlike the other songs I had released, like The Lazy Song, All Of Me had a success I hadn''t really imagined. When I came back from the gig and looked at the number of views the song had, I was completely shocked. [All Of Me - 111,673 views] +111,673 views. This song had gotten over 100k views in less than 24 hours! Out of curiosity, I opened my MeTube Analytics to see how my channel had been doing over the past few days, and the results shocked me. |------------------------ Monetized Views Songs: 3,411,000 = $2,899 (+$1,063) Monetized Views Vlogs: 469,000 = $3,048 [Numb - 735,655 views] +179,746 views [In The End - 750,158 views] +151,809 views [The Lazy Song - 2,115,233 views] +247,275 views [Boyfriend - 656,666 views] +232,512 views [Boyfriend Live - 1,094,108 views] +329,861 views [Backstage at my shows - Vlog #1 - 308,108 views] +66,241 views [I made a song to sing at a wedding! - Vlog #2 - 161,166 views] +61,798 views [All Of Me - 111,673 views] +111,673 views [98,176 subscribers] +29,968 subs [Spokify Music Plays: 1,800,000] +821,000 views Spokify Monetized Views: 538,000 = $5,436 (+$3,284) [Instabram: 50k followers] +15k followers |------------------------ This month alone, I had already earned more than $11,000 from my social media! If I added up how much I would make from the shows I''m doing and the artwork I''m finishing, my income would be over $15,000 for the month, even if the channel didn''t get as many views anymore, but considering how much it''s growing, I''d probably get at least $20,000 for the month when I add it all up! What I did notice changed this time was the shape of my nose, which became thinner and more delicate, as well as my jaw, which became a little wider, and, unbelievably, my eyes, which became a little brighter. It wasn''t that my eyes glowed in the dark or anything, but rather that my eyes were now a shade of blue that seemed to sparkle when someone looked at me. This became even more noticeable when I noticed Liv and my parents staring into my eyes for a few seconds, lost in thought, which I pretended not to notice and just acted naturally. Since Ethan was using my laptop to play games, I took out his tablet and put on an acting class video to watch. My sense of acting was as low as any normal person''s. I had never practiced or been interested in practicing anything like this in my previous world, so I had to learn everything slowly. Since today was Sunday, and it was my day to go out for lunch with my family, in addition to the duties I had to perform in my daily routine before it was time to go out and do my show, I only managed to unlock the acting skill at Lv 1. [Acting Mastery Lv 1: Effect: Develop an enhanced understanding of acting techniques, increasing your confidence and skill by 1%. This level includes advanced skills in technique, emotional expression, and character interpretation. It also improves retention of theatrical theory and practical application during performance by 1%. Gain a tangible advantage by absorbing the fundamentals of agile and expressive acting]. With this new skill, the knowledge from 1 month of acting training came to my mind and I felt that I could start to interpret simple things. When I tested my current level, I realized that it was much easier for me to act in different ways than I normally would, but I was still at such a low level that I couldn''t rely on it for anything because it was obvious that I wasn''t like that. But if I practiced it every day for a few months, wouldn''t it get to the point where by the time I needed it, I''d be at a high enough level that I wouldn''t embarrass myself? I laughed it off and enjoyed the rest of the day with my parents, picking up my phone every now and then to check the song and video views and respond to a few comments. I didn''t have the courage to open my Instabram messages around my family because I knew that some photos that weren''t very family friendly might appear, so I settled for just replying to the MeTube comments. When my parents found out how much I could earn from MeTube the following month, the relief was palpable for both of us. But my dad also talked to me about not feeling like money was infinite and that I should spend it wisely, and encouraged me to invest some of that money as collateral, which wasn''t a bad idea. I was terrible at investing in my previous world, but with System in this world, couldn''t it become easy after months of study? So one more thing for me to devote myself to was added to my list, but with less priority than the other things for the time being. Although investments will be useful in the future, for now I want to focus on laying a solid foundation for my artistic career so that I can develop smoothly, and then I can focus on these other less important things. [Noah, the show for the wedding this Friday has been confirmed, have you talked to the two artists who will be part of your backing band at the show?] Selena sent me a message asking me to confirm. With the certainty that the couple would want me to perform at the show, with a budget of $3,000, I could pay Mark $400 and Frank $400, plus other expenses, and end up with $1,300. Could I take the $800 for myself and perform alone? Yes, of course, but in the end I''d still be tired and I''d miss an opportunity to make a better impression on the audience. I''m confident that as long as my show and my songs are as good as they can be, even if I earn less now, it will come back to me in the future! Chapter 94 94 - Wedding Chapter 94 94 - Wedding ??The rest of the week went without a hitch, from Monday to Thursday I just went about my normal routine without worrying about releasing a new song so quickly since the song All Of Me was doing very well on the channel. It was better to let this song do well first and let MeTube continue to promote it than to release another song that could negatively affect the relevance of this song on the channel. The only thing I focused on was recording episode 3 of the channel''s vlog, which I had finished editing on Wednesday and planned to post on Friday, according to the channel''s normal schedule. My skills had gained a few more points by adding up what my status page had looked like since I had last looked at it. ========================= | Character Status ========================= | Name: Noah Black | Title: Endurance, Tuned Ear. | Level: 01 |------------------------ | HP: 150/150 | MP: 140/140 |------------------------ | Weight: 85 Kg -> 76 Kg | Strength (STR): 13 | Dexterity (DEX): 13 | Constitution (CON): 14 -> 15 | Intelligence (INT): 14Vissit for updates | Wisdom (WIS): 11 -> 12 | Charisma (CHA): 14 -> 15 (14 + 1) Considering what a helicopter mom my mother was, it must have been very difficult for her to act like that and encourage me to follow my dream and enjoy the adventure of performing in another city. Smiling, I walked over to her and hugged her. "Thank you." I said softly in her ear. She hugged me back and returned the hug as she wiped tears from her eyes. The concert was tomorrow at 7 p.m., but I wanted to skip school, even if I didn''t have to. I wanted to get everything ready as early as possible so there would be no chance of anything happening. Mark and Frank would go in Mark''s Subaru, while I would go with Selena in her Tesla. We thought about going in one car, but we couldn''t fit all the instruments in one car, especially with Mark''s battery taking up the entire back seat of the Subaru. So with everything organized, Mark and Frank came to my house on Friday morning so we could practice the repertoire we were going to play and the possible songs the guests might ask for for a few hours before Selena arrived a few hours later for us to go. Although the concert was scheduled for 7 p.m., we had to arrive earlier to organize things, and considering that it would take us at least 2 hours to travel between the cities, it was ideal for us to leave at least 2 p.m. to ensure that no unforeseen circumstances would cause us to cancel the concert. Since we had more time to prepare for the show this time, I even bought a video projector to hook up my laptop and put the name BlackVelvet on the wall behind us with some effects and prepared animated clips of my songs to play when I sang my songs, which would add more value to the performance and make it more interesting for the audience. - Ashley''s POV - Ashley had just arrived at Sarah and Michael''s wedding, but she was extremely bored. Being 16 and a bit antisocial, Ashley didn''t like events that required her to interact with her family so much. Luckily for her, her two favorite cousins, who had similar tastes to her, were also at the wedding, so the three of them chatted from time to time. Still, Ashley was very bored, especially since her mother wouldn''t let her use her cell phone during the ceremony, which made Ashley even more lost. Looking around, Ashley saw a boy about her age carrying a box on his back to the wedding venue. What caught her attention was the boy''s bleached hair, which stood out among so many people with natural hair and made her feel very familiar for some reason. But Ashley couldn''t remember where it was familiar. When she saw that the ceremony was about to begin, Ashley had to get up and see where the bride and groom were going to enter. The surprise for her and her cousins was that when the groom''s song began to play, even though it was just a piano version with no vocals, they immediately recognized it. Staring at each other in surprise, the three girls saw the shock on each other''s faces and started laughing when they realized that they all knew The Lazy Song, and possibly for the same reason! Chapter 95 95 - Shameful Chapter 95 95 - Shameful ??"Do you know BlackVelvet?" Ashley asked her cousins in surprise, since BlackVelvet was an artist she had met this week when she found his song Boyfriend on one of the playlists she was following on Spokify. "Yeah... I''ve known him since In The End!" One of her cousins, who was into rock and emo music, said excitedly. "I met him this week because of his vlog." Her other cousin explained. "When I saw that another artist wanted to fight with him, I got curious and clicked on the video... after that, I got hooked on his videos and songs..." "Do you know Boyfriend?" Ashley asked excitedly, getting a big smile from the two girls who were about to answer but were silenced by Ashley''s parents. "Shh, talk after the ceremony, girls." Ashley''s mother scolded them in a low voice. Hearing The Lazy Song played in a slow, melodious piano version made this song sound like a normal romantic song that the bride and groom used to enter the wedding, but those who knew this song, like the three girls, knew that this song had no romantic lyrics at all. Unfortunately for the girls, they didn''t look around the room to see who was playing the song, because if they had, they would have found the author of the song himself, BlackVelvet, playing the piano in the same suit he wore to record All of Me. The ceremony was quick because Sarah wasn''t late and everything went according to plan. Ashley and her cousins spent the whole time whispering about various things instead of paying attention to the ceremony, until they finally left the place where the ceremony was held for the party. The first thing they noticed was the stage, where a drummer and a keyboardist were setting up, while in the middle of the stage was an empty microphone, probably where the singer would stand. "Do you know who''s going to sing?" Ashley asked curiously. "I don''t know, Sarah usually likes more romantic songs, is this a romantic band?" A cousin replied. "Could be, too bad I don''t know either of them, maybe the singer is more recognizable?" Another cousin commented. "Maybe..." Ashley replied as she thought about it for a few seconds, but then pushed the thought to the back of her mind and focused on the food that was being served. One by one, the waiters arrived with several different platters of appetizers for the guests to choose from. Ashley and her cousins sat together as they chatted and began to sample the food. Unfortunately, alcoholic beverages could not be served to teenagers, so the three of them drank only juice or soft drinks. Suddenly, they heard a familiar ring tone. It was the same ringtone they heard when Michael entered the wedding, the ringtone of The Lazy Song, and just like when he entered, at this moment only the piano version of the song was playing, making the girls roll their eyes. "Aren''t these singers ashamed of playing BlackVelvet''s song non-stop?" Ashley complained. I just want to lie in my bed... Don''t feel like answering my phone... So leave a message at the tone... Cause today I swear I ain''t doing nothing... ???????????? When the guests who were waiting to hear some gossip about Michael''s life, thinking that he would be doing something wrong alone at home, heard that the lyrics were actually about being lazy alone, they were a little disappointed, but soon were captivated by the lyrics and the music video that was playing. Gradually, more and more people approached the stage with glasses of drinks in their hands to pay attention to this interesting band and this charming singer. Among the people approaching the stage, the three most excited were Ashley and her two cousins, who recognized BlackVelvet and wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to interact with him. But they weren''t the only ones who knew him, there was also a boy among the guests who liked to listen to BlackVelvet normal songs and was shocked to realize that it was the artist he liked who was singing at his cousin Sarah''s wedding. Although he was focused on singing and interacting with the rest of the guests, the three girls at the front of the stage were clearly the most excited about his show, and Noah would occasionally look at them and smile, making the girls even more excited. Considering their ages, this made Noah even more attractive to them, as they were girls of 15 and 16, while Noah was only 17, although he looked a little older. Ashley was shocked at how cool this show turned out to be, not only because the band made the songs much cooler than she normally knew them to be, but also the way BlackVelvet acted on stage to keep the audience''s attention, how he interacted with everyone was much better than she had imagined. The way he spoke to the guests, how he joked back, accepted drinks as gifts, all of this was something she felt was too distant for artists who were normally arrogant to do, but BlackVelvet did it naturally and it made her feel that he was becoming much closer to her and the audience than just a random singer. At one point, Ashley decided to get over her shyness and handed BlackVelvet her cell phone. I hope he understands and gives me his phone number...'' she thought as she handed it to him. But Ashley didn''t realize that she had given him the blocked phone. In the middle of the song, BlackVelvet saw the phone being held out to him and picked it up, looking at the screen. Surprised to see that it was locked, he didn''t think twice and clicked on the camera icon in the corner of the phone, put it on the front camera and started recording a selfie video of himself pointing at Ashley behind him. This video of him singing on stage while pointing his phone at her in the audience was very cool, but unbeknownst to Noah, he had just demonstrated a possibility that hadn''t occurred to the other guests. Seeing that he was so helpful in recording a storys for Ashley, several people thought it would be nice to ask him to record it as well to post on their Instabram profiles, and soon several cell phones were pointed at BlackVelvet on stage. Chapter 96 [Bonus ] 96 - Unusual request Chapter 96 [Bonus ] 96 - Unusual request ??Looking at all the cell phones in front of me, I was worried that I wouldn''t be able to record them all, but thinking that this could also be a good way to promote myself, I had no problem taking the phones and recording videos of a few seconds for people to post on stories. Considering that dozens of phones were handed out to me, and that each of these people must have around 100 to 1,000 followers, this would mean exposure to at least a few thousand people, not to mention that I remembered that this type of post also contributed to popularity in the GAA''s algorithm for calculating my rank. The good thing was that it also got the audience more involved, and more and more people came to the stage to hear me sing and participate in the show. It was much more fun to perform with a lot of people listening to me and dancing to my songs than it would have been with just a few dozen people. While I was performing, I analyzed the audience and realized that at least 40% of the guests were Latino, probably the family of one of the brides and grooms. I noticed this because although they liked the songs, I noticed that they didn''t enjoy them as much as the American audience. With an idea in mind, I decided to use my Spanish skills for the first time. [Spanish Language Mastery Lv 14] With this skill at Lv 14, it was as if I already had 20 months of practice in this language, which wasn''t the perfect level of a fluent Latino, but it was a level where I could talk to them easily, understand them, they could understand me, and I could sing some songs in Spanish. So to cheer them up, I decided to try interacting with them in their language as well. ~ Hi guys, would any of you like to request some music? ~ I asked in my almost fluent Spanish. Hearing me speak Spanish so naturally on stage, I noticed the shock on the faces of not only the Latinos, but also the Americans in the audience. ~ Que? pasa amigo, your Spanish is very good! ~ One of the Latino guests, apparently one of Sarah''s uncles, shouted out in surprised Spanish, making the other guests laugh. ~ Do you speak Spanish? ~ This time it was Sarah''s turn to exclaim in Spanish, surprised to hear me speak in her native tongue. ~ Hey BlackVelvet, do you have any original songs in Spanish? ~ Sarah asked me, her eyes shining with excitement. I hadn''t chosen a specific song to sing, but it was hard not to say that I could sing Despacito, right? But would Despacito be a good song to sing here? Pretending to be deep in thought, I mentally opened the System screen and looked at the Music Selector. [Music Selector: A device that analyzes the audience, the moment, the expectation, all available information to select the best song that the user can count on to please as many people as possible]. The Music Selector''s cooldown had already reset in the last few days. I found out that the cooldown was actually 30 days, so if I used it now, I would have to wait another 30 days before I could use it again. Looking at Sarah, who was very excited about my answer, and the other Latin and American guests looking at me expectantly and curiously, I thought that this might be a good time to use this feature again. Even if it takes a while before I can use it again, it''s not like I''m dependent on the Music Selector to choose my repertoire, isn''t that the best thing about this feature for moments like this? With that in mind, I nodded internally and activated the Music Selector to search for an ideal song to play. "Yes, there is a song I''m working on in Spanish, but it''s more of a side project for me to practice my Spanish than something I was thinking of doing for the commercial side. If you want, I can sing this song for you, just don''t laugh at me..." I made up a story, used my acting skills, and waited for the music selector to choose my song. With so many options in the previous world, it only took a few seconds for the Music Selector to analyze the audience and decide which song I would sing at that moment. Jason had already been alerted to the fact that I would be singing an original song and was prepared to record me and the audience''s reaction to my song. Mark and Frank were worried, but when the song was chosen I went to them and explained the song, which they quickly understood and we were able to play it. Chapter 97 97 - Bailando Chapter 97 97 - Bailando ??The song that System chose for me was one that was very successful in my previous world, not as much as Despacito, which was something extremely unusual, but if you add up the versions of this song in different languages, it got over 5 billion views. The version with the most views was the Spanish version, which had 3.5 billion views, but the version that the system chose for me was something different. It was the version of the song that mixed English and Spanish. I could understand why the system wanted that. At that time, as BlackVelvet, my audience was mostly English speaking, there were people from other countries who spoke other languages, but the vast majority for now were English speaking, if I released a song in a completely different language with no English at all, I would completely disenfranchise my American audience. This would probably cause the retention of my videos to drop to a much lower number, possibly decrease the number of clicks on the song, and cause MeTube''s algorithm to stop promoting that song to the public, which could even affect other videos. So mixing two different languages was the safest model. Just like the Kpop artists have done so masterfully. Although 80% of the songs are in Korean, just having the chorus in English and a few words scattered throughout the song in English gave audiences around the world parts that they could understand and sing along to, and opened up opportunities for these Korean artists around the world. Looking at the mixed audience staring at me, with the Latinos looking forward to the song I was going to sing and the Americans just curious, I knew I could surprise them. So, smiling, I started to play my guitar. "This is a song I''ve been using to practice my Spanish, currently the song doesn''t have a definite name, but I call it [Bailando]." I said smiling as the Latin reaggeton began to play on the guitar, with Mark and Frank following on keyboards and drums. It wasn''t easy being a rock band, but I could tell by the smiles on the Latinos'' faces that they were having fun. [Enrique Iglesias - Bailando (English Version) // You can search for it on Youtube or join the discord server to get the direct link at Discord.gg/NunuXD] ???????????? You look at me and, girl, you take me to another place... Got me feeling like I''m flying, like I''m out of space... Something ''bout your body says: Come and take me... Got me begging, got me hoping that the night don''t stop... ???????????? The beginning of the song was in English, which confused the guests, but I still saw that there were people who enjoyed the dance rhythm of the song, who didn''t mind and started to like it. But then came the chorus, which was short but entirely in Spanish. ???????????? Bailando... bailando... bailando... bailando... Tu cuerpo y el mi?o... Llenando el vaci?o... Subiendo y bajando... ???????????? Smiling as I sang this part, I saw that the people who were confused before were now excitedly dancing on the dance floor and starting to enjoy the music. As I sang this part, I could see the amused looks on the faces of the Latin and American guests as they realized how I had mixed the two languages like a beginner learning a new language. ???????????? And dance contigo... Para have contigo... Una noche loca... (With you, girl) Con tremenda loca ... ???????????? As I sang this part of the song, the mood of the party was at its highest as my eyes wandered closer to the stage and the three girls bounced their hips as they looked at me, not even hiding how thirsty they were. When the song finally ended, I needed to cool down, so I grabbed a glass of drink offered by one of the guests and drank the whole thing in one gulp. "Woooooo..." I heard the crowd yelling and clapping for me as I drank the glass, making me wonder if it was because of the music or the way I drank it. But smiling, I took the microphone back as I sat panting in a chair and asked, "What did you think of my song? I''m still learning Spanish, so it''s hard to do a song only in Spanish..." ~ The song was amazing! ~ said one Latino guest excitedly in Spanish, and the other Latinos agreed by shouting excitedly and raising their glasses. "I think it was the first song in Spanish that I liked." An American woman also said excitedly because it was a song she could understand and she enjoyed the rhythm. ~ You sang that very well, thank you for singing that song for me, BlackVelvet! ~ Sarah said happily as she hugged Michael excitedly. Michael also had a big smile on his face as he nodded at me. Seeing the reaction of the audience made me very happy. Looking back, I could also see the surprised and excited expressions on the faces of Mark and Frank, who seemed to be experiencing for the first time what it was like to have the audience so excited about their work. From what they told me when we rehearsed at my house this morning, they were thinking of quitting their band with Jannet because the band wasn''t growing anymore and playing concerts was getting boring after she started fighting with her boyfriend and the audience didn''t like their songs that much. But seeing how they reacted to the audience''s reaction, I imagined that maybe I could have rekindled the spark of excitement in them to play shows. I hadn''t told them of my intention to hire them as a permanent backing band because I wasn''t big enough to pay them and still make a profit, but with the income from MeTube it was getting closer and closer. Even if the shows didn''t make me a profit, with MeTube revenues skyrocketing and Mark and Frank joining the vlogs to help me create content, wouldn''t it make me even more? But I put that thought aside and went back to focusing on singing the normal songs I used to sing at events like this. The only thing was that I had to sing [Bailando] a few more times for the Latin audience because I didn''t know any other song from that world in Spanish to sing for them and I didn''t want to sing a whole new repertoire in Spanish. So the focus of the evening was on the English songs, with a few of my original songs in between, which got a very positive reaction from the audience. The most surprising thing for me was that one of the girls in the trio, who was dancing at the front of the stage, asked me to sing Boyfriend for her, which caused the other girls in the trio to scream with excitement as they looked at me expectantly. Hearing this request, I was a little at a loss as to what to do, as I didn''t feel it was an appropriate song to sing at a wedding, but when I looked at Sarah and Michael, the bride and groom, and saw the look of expectation on their faces, with Sarah even joking about the girl named Ashley, I realized it would be okay to sing it. "Okay guys, this song I''m going to sing next, at Ashley''s request, is one of my songs that''s been very successful, with over 1 million views on MeTube and hundreds of thousands of plays on Spokify, I hope you like it." I created a context for the song to explain it to the rest of the audience, made sure I was singing it at the girl''s request, and ignored the girls'' screams when they realized I knew the name of the girl who asked me to sing the song. Chapter 98 [Bonus ] 98 - Beautiful view Chapter 98 [Bonus ] 98 - Beautiful view ??While I was singing Boyfriend I began to feel hot and took the opportunity to remove the jacket I was wearing from my suit, leaving me with just a gray shirt and my blue tie, which I pulled back a bit to give myself more room to breathe, and unbuttoned the first button of my shirt. Although I had done this because of the heat, I was aware that Boyfriend was a thirst trap and with these actions I was feeding that feeling even more in this song, but that was my goal. With Jason recording me, I could post it on my Instabram to get more of an audience and even save the full version to post on the channel at some point. Of course, while I was thinking about this, the faces of the three girls near the stage, other girls around the party, and even some older women were getting thirstier as they stared at me. Especially the girl Ashley and the girls around her, who looked a bit gothic in their black dresses and dark make-up, but were still very pretty. And to think that this type of girl was the one who usually acted the quietest and most shy...'' I thought. I thought, finding the situation funny.Vissit for updates Even more so when I saw Ashley stick out her tongue to lick the rim of the glass of drink she was holding, I had to look away and focus my attention on the other guests, trying my best to look unaffected, but it was difficult. Fortunately, after this song the girls calmed down a bit and I was able to continue my show as normal. As with my previous gig, the initial agreement was for a 2 hour show with the option to play another 2 hours for an additional $500 per hour, which the bride and groom accepted without a problem, bringing the amount I received for the night to $4,000. Of course, this also increased the amount I paid Mark, Frank and Jason, who also worked more than originally agreed. In the end, of the $4,000, there was $1,000 for Mark and Frank, $400 for Jason, $200 for the trip, then on top of the remaining $2,400, Selena took her 20%, leaving me with $1,920, an increase of $620 over the $1,300 I would have received previously. Even though MeTube paid well, I realized that the real gold mine was in the gigs. I was still a Rank E artist and I was already getting paid so much, imagine how much a Rank B or A artist doesn''t get paid per night? I couldn''t even imagine how much a Rank S artist got paid because it was way out of my league. When it came time to sing All Of Me, the excitement in the audience went up several notches. For this song, I asked Frank to play the keyboard and I played the song myself because it would be more real since I know the music better. Just as I''d imagined, tears began to flow between the bride and groom and the guests as they watched the bride and groom dance in the middle of the dance floor. Jason took the opportunity to record everything in great detail, leaving everything ready for me to record and edit for next week''s vlog. I was anxious to see how my Vlog #3 was doing in terms of views, as I had planned to post it today during the show. "That''s good, I''ll write the version completely in Spanish and send it to you later." I said smiling and made her nod as well. But Selena''s confident smile changed to a frown when she saw the three girls who had annoyed her coming towards us. When Frank and Mark looked in the direction of Selena''s curious look, they started to laugh. I also looked in that direction and saw the three girls who had enjoyed my songs the most, which was good, but when I saw the look on their faces, I started to worry. If I wanted to follow the path of a rock star, this would be the perfect time to go out with all three girls at the same time and do something that all men dream of doing all their lives, but at what cost? Was it worth it to go out with these three girls I didn''t know for a few hours of pleasure, but who might have big problems following me in the future? The answer was obvious. But my two minds gave me obvious but different answers. My lower head said it was obvious it was worth it, especially looking at the neckline of Ashley''s dress, but my upper head said it was obvious it wasn''t worth it for my future. Fortunately, I had a savior on my side. "Can I help you?" Selena stood up and activated her serious mode again as she crossed her arms and stood between the girls and me. Looking at Selena, who was beautiful and had a more mature temperament than they did, the girls frowned and looked her up and down. "We just want to talk to BlackVelvet." Ashley replied as she looked away from Selena and towards me, winking with one eye and trying to look seductive. But Selena stepped in front of them again, standing between the two of us as she replied. "He''s very tired right now and he''s taking a break from the show, how about you come back another time?" I couldn''t see the girls'' reaction, and I couldn''t even hear what they were saying very well because something much more attractive entered my vision. When Selena stood between me and Ashely as I sat down and she was wearing high heels, what covered my view of the girls was a beautiful view of Selena''s ass. With the tight dress she was wearing and how beautiful the curve of her waist was that went down to her ass, I was distracted for a few seconds only to wake up again when Selena moved out of the way and the three girls were nowhere to be seen. Disguising myself, I averted my eyes and went back to eating as if nothing had happened, so I didn''t see the small smile at the corner of Selena''s mouth as she sat back down and continued eating. Only Mark and Frank were staring at each other, exchanging smiles about something I had no idea why. Curious, I took the opportunity to pick up my cell phone and see how my vlog #3 was going. Chapter 99 99 - Ranks Chapter 99 99 - Ranks ??[Vlog #3 - 26,432 views]. Looking at the 26k views the video already had, I was satisfied with it. It was a much lower number than my previous vlog had, but the comparison wasn''t fair either. Vlog #2 was my first wedding vlog, a vlog where I showed a lot more cool stuff and at the end there was a teaser of my next song. Whereas vlog #3 was just a normal vlog, but one that still got a very good amount of views, which will probably get 100 to 200k views after a few weeks. I didn''t expect that all my videos would go viral and that I would become the next Mr. Beast, so I was happy with the steady growth of the channel. Not to mention the fact that the views of the videos had continued to increase in the last week, everything was going very well. After eating and drinking a lot at the wedding, we picked up our equipment and went to the motel where we were going to spend the night. Since it was just a motel, we took 3 rooms, one for Selena, one for Mark and Frank and the last one for Jason and me. Due to our tiredness we just passed out in bed and woke up the next day when Selena knocked on the door to call us in for breakfast. Since everything was quite separate, Mark and Frank left immediately while Selena left Jason at home first and then dropped me off at my place before going to her place. "Noah!!!" Ethan was the first to notice that I had arrived through the window of the house, soon followed by my mother and Liv. Since it was Saturday morning, my dad was still at work. "Hey buddy!" I laughed as I ruffled his hair. "How was the concert, Noah?" Liv asked, excited and curious. "It was amazing, the bride and groom were really nice, their family was really nice too, I even sang a song for them in Spanish hehe." I laughed. "Really? In Spanish?! Since when do you speak Spanish?" Liv asked in shock. "I''ve been studying it for a while now, I think it''s a good language to learn for the future of my career." I explained, which made her nod, and surprisingly Ethan too. Maybe he would focus more on learning Spanish at school to learn to sing as well? It would be a good reason for him to focus more on learning another language. After a few hours I received Jason''s recordings and realized that he had recorded a lot of the three girls who danced a lot during the show. "Noah, I''ve finished editing the video you gave me, I think it''s finally good, do you want to watch it?" My mom asked me expectantly. All week she had been practicing her editing on the computer in the basement, learning new things and new effects to use in the videos. With the tips I gave her with [Teach Lv 29], she was picking it up extremely quickly, so I was curious to see how it was going. "Yes, let''s finish eating and you show me the video." I smiled in agreement. Ethan and Liv were also curious and wanted to see how the video turned out, since it was the first time they''d seen our mom so focused on learning something new that wasn''t mom stuff. After dinner, the four of us went down to the basement and my mother put on the video she had edited for us to watch. Remembering what the original video was like, just a video of a normal woman who didn''t do any editing, my mom managed to cut the video down from the original 30 minutes to just 12 minutes, which was quite a change. She took out a lot of the useless parts of the video, kept only the interesting parts, and managed to focus on the things that really mattered and the things that would hold the audience''s attention. Overall, she took a video that probably had a 3/10 rating and turned it into a 6/10 video, which was already a big improvement, but I could still see points where it could be improved. "You managed to make this video much better than the original, Mom." I smiled as I reflexively lifted my mother up to her head and started stroking her head, just like I did with Liv. My mother was confused because I had never done that to her, but she didn''t complain and looked at me expectantly. "Do you think I can start recording and posting?" She asked. But I had to shake my head in the negative. "I think there are still things you can practice more, for example, when she was talking about the ingredients she used in the video, you could have put text on the screen showing the values of those ingredients, another very important thing is when she was talking, instead of just leaving the camera still, you can also learn to use zooms and tracking to give the camera more dynamism, how about that? That way the video will be more interesting and you''ll be able to keep the audience''s attention for longer. Hearing my suggestion, my mother was thoughtful and a little disappointed, but since she already knew she had a long way to go when she decided to start, she wasn''t too disappointed and nodded her head, ready to go back to learning the tips I had given her. With her current level of editing, it was possible that her channel would grow into a regular cooking channel, but that wasn''t what I wanted for her. With the knowledge of successful Youtubers from my old world, wouldn''t it be a waste not to teach her how to make videos so good that even people who don''t like or care about cooking would watch them? Helping her create narratives for the video, so that instead of just posting a recipe, she made an interesting story that also happened to teach a recipe, would completely change the dynamic of her channel and open many more doors and opportunities for her in the future. While my mom was editing, Liv and Ethan also wanted to show me how much they''ve improved on their instruments, which I was happy to do. It''s funny that they acted like I''d been away for a week when I was only gone for a day and a night. But I can''t deny it, it''s very nice to receive this affection and attention from the family... Chapter 100 [Bonus ] 100 - Tempting proposition Chapter 100 [Bonus ] 100 - Tempting proposition ??After helping Ethan and Liv with their instruments, I went to rest before my daily routine of practicing and training. The feeling between sleeping in my own bed and sleeping in a motel bed is completely different. I only woke up for the show because Selena arrived at my house and came into my room to wake me up. It''s not even like I was that tired, because I had the system that didn''t keep my body physically tired, but sleeping in my bed was much more relaxing than sleeping outside.Yo?ur favorite stories at novelhall.com Selena was immaculate as always, as if she had just left a luxury spa and slept in her bed without a problem tonight. Fortunately, Jason arrived just as tired as I was, which made me feel less guilty about thinking I was the only one who was that tired. Despite the tiredness, we still recorded this vlog as usual, and tonight''s show managed to be even better than the other nights'' shows, as the number of people who knew me grew more and more every night. It was very difficult to get the public to know me at first, but now that I was performing frequently in these bars, it was inevitable that people would get to know me, and with the quality of my music, the vast majority liked me and were waiting to see my show. "Kid, if you keep this up, I''m going to have to put you on last..." A bar manager sighed as he handed me the $400 for this gig. "Isn''t that nice? You''re paying $400 for a rank E artist to make your bar fuller and livelier than the artists you''re paying $500 for." I laughed as I took the money he handed me. "Yeah, the problem is with how fast you''re growing, it''s obvious you''re going to rise to D rank quickly, how can I keep paying you $400 there?" He laughed as he sighed and said goodbye to me. I just laughed and handed the money to Selena, who kept the physical bills and then transferred the money to me via the banking app on her phone. While an E-ranked artist would make $200 to $400 at bar gigs, D-ranked artists would make $400 to $800. This rank system was a great excuse for bar owners to pay less to artists like me, who despite being E Rank, was still better and made more sales than D Rank artists, but the fact that he was willing to pay me $700 was already a great sign. For C-rank artists, Selena told me that the average they received for bar gigs was between $1,000 and $4,000 per show, but C-rank artists could now stop doing bar gigs and focus on doing solo shows, which brought in much more money. If an artist was able to sell $20 tickets in one night to close a bar for him, he would only need 200 people to get the $4,000 that a high C rank artist got, not to mention that for someone that big, it is not difficult to close a venue that holds 500 to 1,000 people, so it would be $10,000 to $20,000 in just one night and one venue, without having to share a stage with other artists and getting attention just for himself. B-rank artists got even more of an audience, which meant even more money. Not to mention A or S Rank artists who were potentially making millions from every show they did. That''s why it was so easy to see big artists driving million dollar cars, buying private jets costing tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, mansions worth tens of millions of dollars. Making money for them was as easy as saying a few words, not to mention the big festivals with tens of thousands of tickets that these artists were invited to sing at, all of which generated so much money that I got dizzy just thinking about it. When I came back to reality, we arrived at the bar where I was going to perform. Even from the outside you could see how crowded the place was. Even though I hadn''t played here before, I could tell that the place was much fuller because the line to get in was gigantic, not to mention the view from inside the place, which showed that there were several hundred people inside. Shaking my head, I picked up my guitar case and walked into the bar with Selena and Jason. Chapter 101 101 - Confusion Chapter 101 101 - Confusion ??As I approached the bar, people in line began to recognize me and wave to me. "Hey, BlackVelvet!" A girl in line shouted excitedly. "Hey bro, are you playing here tonight?!" A guy also shouted excitedly. The people who recognized me weren''t that many, but I was happy that in a bar where I hadn''t played before, there were already people who knew me, which meant that the crowd at the gig would be a lot easier. One thing I''ve noticed in the shows I''ve played in the last month is that having a group of 5 to 10 people who know you in the audience is enough to make the show a lot easier, because those people get excited, which makes the people who don''t know you curious and make them pay more attention to you. Of course, the quality of your music would have to be as good as the expectation and curiosity of these people who don''t know you, but achieving that at the level I was at was good enough. As I waved to a few people on the way to the backstage area, I became more and more confident. The problem was that when I got backstage, I started to overhear some unpleasant conversations. "You mean a Rank E singer is going to sing after me, really?" An irritated and slightly drunk man''s voice came from the artist preparation room. "Calm down, Fedrick, the boy who will be singing after you is BlackVelvet, he is causing terror in the other bars for the rank D artists, so in order not to damage your image, we thought it best to let you sing first..." A worried woman''s voice also came from the room. Jason, clever as he is, had his camera rolling since we entered the bar and was already recording everything around him. "Calm the fuck down, do you think that just because my popularity has dropped a bit that I''m worse than an E Rank brat?! I''m about to reach C rank, maybe I''ll reach it in a few months, but do you think some unknown E rank brat is going to put on a better show than me?" The man complained as he shouted louder and louder. The man, on the other hand, slowly turned to me, his eyes burning with anger, and snorted as he clenched his fists. "What did you say, kid?" He asked, trying to take a deep breath to calm down, but would I give him the chance? "Are you so old that you can''t even hear what I said? Then I''ll say it again, your shitty ego won''t let you accept that someone more talented and hardworking than you has arrived and you can''t accept that this younger person is taking your place," I said. I said as I crossed my arms over my chest. This was a good moment to point out how much bigger my forearms were. I didn''t look very muscular, but when I crossed my arms over my chest, it was clear that my arm was not natural and that I had spent a lot of time training it. I noticed his eyes roaming over my arms as he approached me and gave up trying to get any closer. "Shut up kid, if you come near me in the rows I might think about answering you." He said as he pushed a chair away and stared at me, trying to show bravado. "Ohh, since I''ve been here I''ve only heard you talk about Ranks this, Ranks that, it seems like the only thing you know how to talk about is Ranks or yelling at women, don''t you know how to solve things any other way?" I asked with disdain as I walked closer and faced him. Looking into his eyes, I could feel the fire of hate rising as he stared at me, wanting to tear me apart. But he didn''t seem to know how to react. "Hey, what''s going on?" A playful female voice came from the door of the room and a group of people entered, looking at the situation curiously. Looking at the door, I had no idea who the person who had just entered was, but looking at the surprised expression on the woman Fedrick was yelling at and Selena''s raised eyebrow, I guessed that maybe this person who had arrived was the C- rank artist who would be singing after me? Chapter 102 [Bonus ] 102 - Musical Battle Chapter 102 [Bonus ] 102 - Musical Battle ??"So one of them is an arrogant veteran who cannot accept that the new generation is stronger than him, and on the other side is a youngster who takes no crap and does not care about offending a veteran?" The woman laughed as she sat down on the living room sofa and looked at us as if waiting to see what our reaction would be. Although it seemed arrogant of her to act this way, I didn''t feel bad about it, because what I wanted to do was generate entertainment for my video, and if she found it interesting, wasn''t that just proof that I was on the right track?Yo?ur favorite stories at novelhall.com Especially with her comments about Fedrick and me, it was even better news that I wasn''t on the wrong side of the argument. "You''re early Lady Lila, I''m embarrassed to let you witness such a scene..." The bar manager who was arguing with Fedrick went to apologize to the woman who had just arrived. But the woman didn''t seem to care. "Don''t worry, I''ve seen worse on my way to C rank, I''d only worry if I saw blood, haha." The woman laughed, making me raise an eyebrow in surprise. I had no idea that the world of show business was so crazy. Fights with blood were so common? Even though my eyebrow raised just a little, the woman seemed to notice and laughed as she looked at me. "Does that surprise you, boy? Are you thinking of giving up this career?" She asked with interest. When I realized she was talking to me, I wasn''t intimidated and answered with a smile. "Afraid of fights? Pfft, if fights are the only obstacle on my way to S rank, I''ll even relax". Hearing this, the woman stared at me for a few seconds in surprise at my answer before she started laughing again. "All right, dream big." Looking at her, Lila was a woman of about 30, with long brown hair and a body worthy of any woman in the entertainment industry, but the most striking thing about her was the cowgirl outfit she was wearing, which clearly indicated the style of music she sang. So in that moment you could see our eyes shining. Jason took advantage of the moment to take even more detailed pictures of both of us, having decided that he didn''t need to hide the camera any longer, which caused Fedrick''s expression to become surprised and he looked at me with even more anger. While my smile grew even wider, practically taunting him with my eyes and smile. Even Lila had a big smile on her face, feeling that she had found the best entertainment for the evening. Not only did she get something fun to watch, but she might also get a good singer to open her shows tomorrow. "Are you two okay with this?" The manager asked as she looked at us worriedly. "Yep." I replied nonchalantly, looking at her. While Fedrick just nodded without taking his eyes off me. "So as soon as the current artist leaves the stage, I''ll go up and let you know what''s going to happen next. In the meantime, you two get ready for the show and come up together when I call. Since you''ll both be competing to see who''s better, we''ll alternate your time on stage and in the end the audience will decide who they prefer. She explained seriously, making me nod as I went to a corner of the room with my guitar and started talking to Selena to come up with a strategy. Fedrick also went to another side of the room, and when his agent arrived, the look of shock on his face was priceless. This made him look at us with as much hatred as Fedrick, especially Selena who only stared at him for half a second before looking away and ignoring him, which made the man even angrier. Chapter 103 [Bonus ] 103 - Planning Chapter 103 [Bonus ] 103 - Planning ??"So, do you have any plans?" Selena asked me curiously. "Planned? Nothing, but I think I can think of something... the first priority is to make sure that as many people as possible like my music. Do you know anything about the normal audience in this bar and what kind of audience is here today?" I asked. To win over the audience, I had to get to know the audience. If it wasn''t for this musical battle, I would probably just sing my normal songs and not worry so much, because if I had to make a customized repertoire for every bar I went to in the evening, I would be screwed. But since there was the musical battle tonight, I could put a little more effort into it and secure Lila''s $4,000. After thinking for a moment, Selena asked me to wait while she got up and left the room, leaving me to think while Jason took the opportunity to film everything as best he could. My mind was racing with different things I could sing. Among my songs, Boyfriend was a must, but I had to leave it until the end, as it was better to win over the male audience first than the female. The Lazy Song was also a good move to use in the battle because it was a song that almost everyone liked and it was my most famous song so far, which would possibly earn me some points if people recognized me as the singer of The Lazy Song and stopped being just a random singer. I think The Lazy Song might even be the first song I sing that night. All Of Me was definitely a song I didn''t want to sing, even if I could get points for singing a beautiful song, I couldn''t get many points for completely ruining the mood of the night with lyrics like that? The ideal was to focus on upbeat, exciting songs that would get the audience as excited as possible. "That''s a good idea... I''m not even going to ask you where you got the lyrics for an original country song, because I''ve given up trying to understand how you come up with so many new songs so fast..." Selena sighed and shook her head. "Frenk... Frederick... Fedrick! Fedrick, my rival, do you know anything about him?" I asked curiously. Selena picked up her cell phone and began to tell me what she already knew. "Fedrick Davis, D Rank Artist, active for 5 years, 43,000 subscribers on Metube and 3.5k followers on Instabram. His focus is on romantic rock songs. He had a very promising start to his career, but got into a lot of fights in LA bars and was banned from almost all of them. In the end he had to move here to San Francisco where he is trying to get his career back on track, but because of his bad reputation in LA, both the public and the bar owners in San Francisco don''t accept him very well. He''s probably going to do his best in this fight to make sure that he gets to be the opening act for Lila Brooks, because that might open a lot of doors for him. Selena answered with a ton of important information that I was shocked to realize as I looked at her. "How do you know so much about him?" I asked in surprise. "I''m his agent, it''s my job to know about the possible artists you''re going to meet that night. I found the most specific details on the Internet." She answered seriously, as if she doubted that I would continue to question how professional she was. I raised my hands in surrender and laughed as I accepted. Then I''ll have to make a lot of effort, too... I thought as I looked in Fedrick''s direction and wondered what he was planning. Since this would be my first musical battle, I have to admit that I was a little nervous, but when I thought about how good my songs were and how far I''d come, the nervousness faded. After all, as long as I played as well as I usually did, wouldn''t that be enough? At this point, what would be most tested would be my stage presence, which might not be as good as his, so it would be a good time for me to learn as much as I could from him and use that as a catalyst to improve my skills even more. After all, even if I lost, it''s not like I''d lose anything, right? I''d still get paid for the night as usual, I''d gain a lot of experience in my first musical battle, and if all went well, I''d even get the music video for a new original country song that I''d be singing. Chapter 104 [Bonus ] 104 - New Music Chapter 104 [Bonus ] 104 - New Music ??As for the country song I wanted to sing, this would be a great time to have the Music Selector available, but there was still 28 days of cooldown before I could use it again... So I''d have to rely on myself to think of one of the country songs from my old world and choose one that fit the place and situation. Thinking about where we were and the vibe the audience was probably in, I think I could come up with a good song to play now. I just needed to practice the rhythm of the song a little on the guitar and that would be fine. Jason took the opportunity to record me practicing and I started thinking about how to make a story out of it. I didn''t want to pretend that I composed the song on the spot, because that would not only be a lie, but it would also seem very untrue to the viewers, who would hardly believe it. So I just pretended that I had practiced and made this song before, but now I was just perfecting it. This song that I was considering was one of my favorite country songs from my previous world, even though it was a more modern version of country, it was a version that I felt suited me much better than the more classic version, after all I''m not a country singer, nor do I intend to be, so I felt that it would be much more interesting to sing a version of the song in a more modern, rap-oriented style than a very Texan country. The country beat was very easy to get the hang of, and with my [Tuned Ear] it was very easy to remember the songs and be able to play them. [Tuned Ear: Achieved by those who take the time to tune their listening skills. Effect: +15% ability to recognize musical nuances, making it easier to learn new songs quickly and improvise during performances]. With my guitar level and Tuned Ear, I was able to learn to play songs much faster, not to mention remembering song lyrics, which became easier and easier as my INT increased. As soon as people heard this, the screams in the bar became very loud as people''s anticipation for the next shows grew even louder. I have to admit, this woman is smart. She knows that if she told people that Noah and Fedrick were fighting backstage, it could look bad for the bar or for one of the artists, so she just hid the information and pretended that the two of them were supposed to be competing for Lila''s spot from the beginning. This wasn''t so good for Noah, because it was good publicity for his next video. If people knew the reason for the fight was going to be on his vlog, wouldn''t he get a few more views and subscribers for his channel? But that''s okay, it''s not like his video is bad because of it. After a few seconds of watching the audience''s reaction, the woman on stage smiled with satisfaction and continued. "Since the two of them wanted to decide this through their music, the two of them made an agreement that they will decide who will open Lila''s show through a Music Battle! And you will be the judges!" As soon as she said this, the crowd around her got even more excited, and rightly so. Attending a concert was fun, but how much more fun would it be if you had the power to decide which artist would open for the singer you liked, where you could support the artist you liked the most? "So welcome to the stage, Fedrick Davis, D Rank Artist, frequent singer at our bar... and BlackVelvet, the biggest dark horse in San Francisco bars, a kid who has been dominating the bars in just over a month and is making his way to the top of the E Rank!" she said excitedly as she spread her hands and waved for Noah and Fedrick to come on stage. As they took the stage, I looked around to gauge the crowd''s reaction and noticed an interested smile on Lila Brooks'' face. This could be an opportunity for Noah...'' I thought with a smile. Instead of AJP using resources to invest in him and make him grow, Noah is growing on his own much faster than the other artists the agency has invested in... which is opening so many doors for him that he has no idea... Chapter 105 [Bonus ] 105 - He knows how to use his weapons Chapter 105 [Bonus ] 105 - He knows how to use his weapons ??"So who do you think sings better of the two?" Lila asked her agent as she watched the stage with interest. Through her eyes she could see two generations of singers with similar personalities but completely opposite talents. "If I had to guess who will win, I would say BlackVelvet, the kid has talent, but since this is a musical battle, if I had to bet on someone, I would bet on Fedrick Davis. The 6 years of experience he has is very important in a stressful situation like this. Their agent said as he cupped his chin with his hand and analyzed the two. "It makes sense, although BlackVelvet''s talent is high, in a situation like this it''s very likely that Fedrick can handle it better. What do you think, we could get BlackVelvet to sing at the last show after he loses?" Lila made a suggestion that made her agent frown. "You know Fedrick will be furious if he wins and finds out about this, right?" Her agent asked, looking at her. But Lila just shrugged and replied. "So what? He''s going to do what? Give up one of the only chances he has to get out of D rank?" Her agent sighed and replied. "You know what, if you want, I can arrange it for you." Smiling, Lila turned her attention back to the stage and was disappointed to see that Fedrick would be the first to perform. When she had scheduled the two shows in San Francisco, Lila''s agent had researched the up-and-coming artists and names to look out for in the city. The surprise to her was that there was a completely unknown name on that list that was almost D Rank! BlackVelvet. rank artist, which made her even more disappointed that there was a possibility of BlackVelvet winning. If it weren''t for Fedrick''s personality, it was almost certain that he would be in the C rank by now, but he can''t handle frustration well and it always ends up making him fight with people he shouldn''t be fighting with. I just hope that BlackVelvet can at least put on a good show...'' Lila thought a little worriedly as she watched Fedrick''s three songs. The audience loved him and Lila knew that this was going to be a difficult show for BlackVelvet. Fedrick had stage experience, singing experience, musical battle experience, guitar experience, life experience... he knew very well how to deal with different situations like this and would not be shaken by the battle that came out of nowhere. But when the kid stepped on stage, Lila was shocked to see that he wasn''t the least bit nervous. "Hey guys, I''m BlackVelvet and yes, I''m a little nervous about the musical battle we''re going to do today, haha." He said with a friendly smile on his face that made Lila sigh in surprise. He''s smart, knowing that confidence would look like arrogance against a singer like Fedrick, he preferred the humble approach to win the audience''s sympathy, even though he obviously wasn''t nervous at all... Lila quickly realized BlackVelvet''s intention and had to admit that he was good. He knows how to use his good looks very well... if it was an ugly man doing this, people would think he was just a poor sod who got dragged into a music battle and now didn''t know how to get out of it, but because he is a handsome young boy, people''s first instinct, especially the girls, is to take him in...'' "Wooooah!!!" As an incentive to help BlackVelvet overcome his nervousness, the audience clapped and shouted excitedly, clearly showing that BlackVelvet''s intention had worked perfectly. This made Lila even more curious about the boy. He knows what his weapons are and how to use them... BlackVelvet... BlackVelvet... I''m getting more and more curious about you and what you''re going to present to me at this concert...'' Lila thought with a smile as she looked at BlackVelvet on stage as he prepared to play his first song. Chapter 106 [Bonus ] 106 - The Zone Chapter 106 [Bonus ] 106 - The Zone ?????????????? Oh-oh-oh, today, I don''t feel like doing anything... I just wanna lay in my bed... Don''t feel like picking up my phone... So leave a message at the tone... ''Cause today, I swear I''m not doing anything... Nothing at all (ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh) Nothing at all (ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh) Nothing at all... ???????????? Seeing BlackVelvet on stage singing such a different song, one that was neither rock nor country, and getting this audience full of rock and country fans so excited, made Lila''s curiosity even greater. "Thank you to the guys in this group!" BlackVelvet said on stage, pointing to a group of overjoyed friends. "If it wasn''t for your help, I think I might even be able to hear my own voice..." Hearing what BlackVelvet said, the audience began to laugh. Especially the guys in the group who were singing so loudly that BlackVelvet could hardly be heard when they heard him joking with them, the people there were so happy that one of the men even turned his beer bottle over when he saw everyone in the bar looking at him. Lila realized that BlackVelvet, despite being a bit immature, was very good with the crowd. If it was just a presentation and singing competition, I could win more easily because I could use my singing to attract the audience''s attention with my appearance, but his stage presence level was too high. He probably had a Stage Presence of around level 20, which was different levels from mine, so I had to use a different way to win. I was lucky that the audience was younger, which gave me a big advantage. As far as I could tell from the audience, as long as I sang Boyfriend between the last few songs, I would be able to capture a large part of the young audience, but I don''t know if it would be enough. "Are you confident?" Jason asked as he filmed me. "Honestly? Not very..." I replied, looking worriedly into the camera. That was reality. "But if there''s a little bit of confidence, it''s because you know you can do something to win... right?" Jason asked. As soon as he asked that, a smile appeared on my face. "Of course, if I didn''t have that, I wouldn''t have the confidence to accept the musical battle, haha." I replied laughing. I replied laughing. "My confidence lies in my original song...if I can captivate the younger audience with Boyfriend, I will rely solely on my new song to captivate the difference in audience between me and Fedrick...it''s a risky bet, but it makes me excited!" As soon as I said that, the smile on my face got even bigger. Since I started my career in this world, I don''t think I''ve ever faced such an intense challenge, and it made me very excited. What I didn''t know was that this wasn''t the first time I''d felt like this... at my first gig, when I was just filling in for the guitarist in Mark and Frank''s band, when Liv asked me to sing Numb and I sang it on stage for the first time, it was like I was in a hyper- focus zone. And now I was in that zone again for the second time. Chapter 107 [Bonus ] 107 - Watching Chapter 107 [Bonus ] 107 - Watching ??When I went on stage for the second time, it was like controlling a Mech. My body still belonged to me, but the movements were so fluid and automatic that it didn''t even feel like it was my own body. The interactions I had with the audience were so natural that I didn''t even notice a message popping up in the corner of my vision. [Stage Presence Lv 8 -> 9]. When I started playing In The End, it was like my fingers were greased with butter and everything I played came out so naturally, but I didn''t even realize how that was changing. [Guitar Lv 34 -> 35] Before I took the microphone to play, I took a glass of whisky and drank the whole glass, so when I sang, my voice came out as sweet as I''d ever heard it. [Sing Lv 33 -> 34] I didn''t see any of these messages appearing in front of me, all I could focus on was continuing my show, continuing to give my all to the audience, and I could feel it, I didn''t need to analyze them, I could feel that they were enjoying it as much as I was. After In The End I played a song from that world, followed by Numb, and the reaction from the audience was just as intense, if not more intense than the reaction to In The End. But as I left the stage, watching Fedrick sing and looking out at the audience, I realized that even though I was doing my best, I still wasn''t winning them over as much as he was. Everything I put so much effort into, Fedrick was doing like it was second nature to him. I realized that he wasn''t in a special state like I was, but he was performing so well that it felt like he was! Think, Noah... what can you do to improve this?! I said to myself as I looked at Fedrick, trying to analyze everything about him to understand where I could improve. Until another message popped up in front of me. [You have unlocked an Active Skill due to the host''s tireless and sincere efforts]. [Observe Lv 1 Effect: When you focus 100% of your attention on something, your body automatically channels the available mana to absorb as much knowledge as possible about the object or situation you are observing. This allows for an intuitive and in-depth understanding, improving your ability to learn and analyze accurately]. When I looked at the skill that appeared in front of me, I was shocked. |------------------------ Looking at the amount of mana on my status screen, I really found the reason why I was so weak... my body was running out of mana and it was exhausting me! I remember seeing videos about Mana exhaustion on Youtube in my old world because of a game I was playing on my cell phone, and I was surprised at how accurate it really was. It''s a good thing I stopped in time...'' I thought. I thought, surprised to imagine the possibility that I might actually use up my mana until it reached zero. Luckily, that didn''t happen. Despite my weakness, I was still well enough to play. Out of curiosity, I opened my profile to see what changes I''d made in the meantime. [Stage Presence Lv 9 -> 11] [Singing Lv 34 -> 35] [Guitar Lv 35 -> 37] When I saw the change in my stats, I was shocked! Not counting Stage Presence, which also increased by two levels, but what shocked me the most was that my Guitar level increased by two levels just by watching him play for a little over a minute! With Guita above level 30, for every level he got, I gained 4 months of experience, so it was like gaining 8 months of guitar experience in less than 2 minutes! Not to mention Stage Presence, which went from Lv 9 to Lv 10, giving me 3 months of experience, and then from Lv 10 to Lv 11, giving me another 2 months of experience! I had just gone from someone with 9 months of experience to someone with 14 months! A 55% increase in how I acted on stage in just a few seconds of remarks to Frank! Excited by this, I opened my status again to see how much mana I had recovered in those minutes to see if I could use the skill again, but I was disappointed... Mana: 27/150 Even though I had spent so many minutes thinking about and exploring my new skills, I still hadn''t recovered a single point of mana, which meant... it would take me hours or even days to fully recover my mana... But looking at how I had improved in that time, and looking at my new music... I was confident that my chances of beating Fedrick would be even greater now! Chapter 108 [Bonus ] 108 - He knows how to use it... Chapter 108 [Bonus ] 108 - He knows how to use it... ??Looking at BlackVelvet coming back on stage after Fedrick''s turn, Lila was surprised to see how much he had changed! Instead of coming on stage and interacting directly with the audience, BlackVelvet decided to act differently this time, with a calmer and more confident attitude, he already came on stage this time while playing a song on his guitar. Although he was playing the same guitar as before, the difference and quality between the two songs he played was noticeable! Was he saving the songs he knew best for last? Lila wondered as she watched him play. It''s not like he became a rock god overnight, but Lila noticed that BlackVelvet was playing more while he was playing, he was having more fun, he was doing harder things while he was playing for fun. The edge she had seen in Fedrick''s guitar playing was now gone with this song BlackVelvet played, it was as if BlackVelvet had watched Fedrick play and learned almost everything he knew in that time! The most surprising thing was when the song was over and BlackVelvet started interacting with the audience, the way he interacted was much more natural and he was able to get the audience excited with much less effort than before. It was as if he had watched Fedrick interact with the audience and learned a few secrets from him! Especially when she compared the way BlackVelvet interacted now to how he interacted before and how Fedrick interacted... the way BlackVelvet interacted now was much closer to how Fedrick interacted before... but even though it had changed, it still retained the essence of him that made young audiences like him. Even though he had improved a lot, Lila still noticed that Fedrick was still better at it than BlackVelvet, but that didn''t lessen her shock at how much he had improved in such a short time... "Have you noticed that too?" She asked her agent curiously. "Yes... it''s as if the boy has made a lot of progress in just a few minutes... I just can''t understand if he always had this level and hid it, or if he really learned it from watching Fedrick." Her agent commented as he looked at BlackVelvet on stage with even more interest. If BlackVelvet didn''t have an agent from a big agency, he would do everything he could to try and sign BlackVelvet under him, but since BlackVelvet was with AJP, the man knew he didn''t have to do much to steal the boy. With the talent he was seeing, the man realized that it really would only be a matter of time before BlackVelvet climbed to B or even A rank if he didn''t get into any controversy and trouble along the way... Focusing on the lyrics, she was very curious as to what they were and how they could be useful to the boys in the audience. The universe must have divined this... What am I gonna do? Not grab your wrist? I could be a better boyfriend than him... I could do the shit that he never did... Up all night, I won''t quit... Thinking I''m gonna steal you from him... I could be such a gentleman... Plus all my clothes would fit... As BlackVelvet sang on stage, Lila noticed that his demeanor was slowly changing to a more confident and dominant attitude... The way he walked around the stage, the way he looked at the audience, the tone of his voice... everything showed a confidence that he didn''t show so much in the other songs, which began to captivate not only Lila, but also a large part of the female audience in the bar. And because of how he acted and what he said before to the male audience, he didn''t attract as much hate as he could have. But seeing that he was now using it to gain more favor with the public, Lila was confused. What will he use to win the audience even more when he returns to the stage for the last time? Wouldn''t it be better to save that song for the end?" She was interested. Chapter 109 [Bonus ] 109 - Shot of Whiskey Chapter 109 [Bonus ] 109 - Shot of Whiskey ??While performing on stage, I felt the difference between the two levels of [Stage Presence] and [Guitar], as well as the new level in [Sing]. All in all, I was surprised at how well I performed on stage. Even though I had just done a performance where I was practically "in the zone", I felt that my performance was even better now because of this difference in skill level. Especially Stage Presence, which I felt I had a good level of before and was used to doing, now I realized that I should focus even more on this skill to improve the quality of my show as a whole. If my stage presence was as high as Fedrick''s, I would completely dominate him because of my charisma, but because of this big difference in our skill levels, he had the upper hand... However, seeing how his final show was, I had to be very careful not to use my Observe skill on him again... I couldn''t risk having my mana dwindle to zero and not even being able to finish the show. Meanwhile, I just watched him normally without using the skill. Looking at his choice of songs, I had to admit that he chose well, but I felt that something was missing. Since I always use an original song in special moments to handle more difficult situations more gracefully, I felt he was missing that. Most of the songs he sang weren''t his, and he only sang 3 of his originals, one less than I did, which seemed to make his show lack a bit of personality. For an artist with a 6 year career, he should have dozens of songs to choose from, right? But that was fine with me, even though he acted and sang very well the last time he was on stage, it wasn''t at such a high level that I wouldn''t have a chance. If I sang my new song, I''d have a chance to win over the audience and win this musical battle. "For the next two songs, since these are the last two songs before Lila Brooks comes on stage, I thought I''d sing something special..." I said smiling, causing the audience to surprise and celebrate with curiosity. "I''ve been working on an original country song for a while, so since today is a special occasion, my first musical battle with the awards is to sing the opening of Lila''s show, I thought I''d sing this original song of mine today!" I said with an excited smile. "Wooooo!!!" The audience shouted excitedly, curious to see what I was going to do. "But before I sing my original song, I''m going to prepare you by singing ''Last Night'' for you, I hope you like it!" I said, making them excited and celebrating even more. Because "Last Night" was a famous song in this world, the country audience was happy for me to sing it, and the normal audience didn''t think it was a bad song. So it was a good transition song to prepare them for the song I was going to sing next. As I sang, I saw that just singing a country song was enough to get the audience excited, especially since I had chosen a good song. Now that I was going to sing my original song, I felt that I really had a chance to win this musical battle. "Guys, for my next song, I want to know who''s drinking whiskey?" I asked as I raised my glass and looked curiously at the audience. Hearing my question, dozens of hands went up, holding glasses full of whiskey like mine, which made me smile. "All right, let''s have a sip of whiskey for the next song, and for those of you drinking beer or other drinks, I want to see you drinking too!" I said as I raised my glass to my mouth and looked at the audience, who got excited and did the same. The scene of hundreds of people drinking at once in the bar made not only my eyes light up, but also the bar manager''s eyes light up as she knew that just that one sip I was asking everyone to take from their drink meant several hundred dollars for the bar in sales of other drinks afterwards. "Now for the music!" I said as I swapped my guitar for an acoustic and started to strum the tune. Chapter 110 [Bonus ] 110 - A Bar Song Chapter 110 [Bonus ] 110 - A Bar Song ??[You can find the link to the song on discord.Gg/NunuXD, or search for "A Bar Song - Shaboozey" on Youtube to listen to the song during the chapter :D]. While holding the guitar and playing the melody, my lips opened into an "o" shape and I started whistling lightly near the microphone. ???????????? My baby wants a Birkin, she''s been tellin'' me all night long... Gasoline and groceries, the list goes on and on... This 9 to 5 ain''t workin'', why the hell do I work so hard? I can''t worry ''bout my problems, I can''t take ''em when I''m gone, uh... ???????????? As I sang this part, I could see people staring at me in amazement and concentrating on the song, just swaying from side to side in the same spot while their attention was completely focused on me. Looking across the bar, I saw two girls on the table and a smile appeared on my face as I turned to them. ???????????? One, here comes the two to the three to the four... Tell ''em bring another out, we need plenty more... Two steppin'' on the table, she don''t need a dance floor... Oh my good Lord... ???????????? Listening to me sing this while looking at the girls on the table, they both started laughing as they raised their beer bottles and drank, making the crowd in the bar scream with excitement, thrilled at the coincidence of the lyrics talking about this and actually having two girls dancing on the table. Finally, the chorus of the song came. ???????????? Someone pour me up a double shot of whiskey... They know me and Jack Daniels got a history... Everybody at the bar gettin'' tipsy (at the bar gettin'' tipsy) Everybody at the bar gettin'' tipsy (at the bar gettin'' tipsy) Everybody at the bar gettin'' tipsy ???????????? From that point until the end of the song, the audience got very excited and sang along with me whenever they could. The advantage of singing this song at the end was that they were already drunk, which not only made the song fit the situation even better, but also made them more excited about the song, which would possibly last longer, to the point where they would be more inclined to vote for me in the musical battle. - Lila''s POV - Looking at BlackVelvet on stage, Lila had her mouth open in an "O" shape, completely shocked. "He... he wrote this song all by himself?" she asked in shock as she listened to the song and watched the audience''s reaction to it. Seeing how excited everyone was and how he, a young boy rock singer, had written such a good country song that she wanted to sing it herself, shocked Lila even more. Even her agent was shocked and even more sorry that he couldn''t sign BlackVelvet, because if he got this kid, he would not only get a very good singer, but also a genius songwriter! As Lila watched him finish singing and receive a double shot of whiskey courtesy of the bar for the song, she saw that several people also ordered a double shot of whiskey after the song, realizing that not only was the song good and lively, but it also made the bar''s sales soar, which was the most important thing for the bar''s owners! ''I want to sing this song...'' Lila thought excitedly as she imagined the impact this song would have on her career. "Thanks for your support guys, I''m counting on it when it comes to deciding the winner of the musical battle!" BlackVelvet said laughing as he left the stage, already showing slight signs of drunkenness, which made Lila laugh. Soon after, the bar manager came on stage to talk to the audience, building up anticipation for the outcome of the musical battle. After a few minutes, BlackVelvet returned to the stage with an animated and confident expression, while Fedrick stood next to him with the arrogant expression he had maintained all along. As the two took the stage, the crowd erupted as their names were called. "Fedrick Davis... Fedrick Davis... Fedrick Davis... Fedrick Davis..." "BlackVelvet... Black velvet... Black velvet... BlackVelvet..." As far as Lila could tell, the audience was pretty divided, and from the shouts alone it wasn''t clear who the winner was, so they would really have to wait for the actual voting to find out who would win this musical battle. If it had been before the battle, she would have had no doubt that Fedrick would be the winner, but after seeing this last performance by BlackVelvet, Lila felt that there was a real chance that BlackVelvet would win this one! Chapter 111 [Bonus ] 111 - Victory? Chapter 111 [Bonus ] 111 - Victory? ??Looking at the audience, I had a big smile on my face. Even though I didn''t win, today''s show was a great experience that helped me improve a lot as an artist. "To determine the winner of today''s musical battle, we''re going to calculate your screams using this device that calculates the noise in the room. So if you want one of the artists to win, make as much noise as you can!" The manager said smiling as she picked up a small piece of equipment in her hand. Which I thought was a good idea, because if someone decided who shouted the loudest, it was very likely that the noise would be very similar between the two and the winner wouldn''t be clear, but with a device like this it was easy to know who won. "If you think Fedrick Davis was the best singer of the night, make some noise!" She said. As soon as she said this, a large portion of the audience began to make noise, causing the device in her hand to read 110 dB on the screen. Seeing this, the confident smile and contempt on Fedrick''s face grew even wider, and he stared at me laughing. But I was undaunted and waited my turn. "Fedrick Davis has reached 110 decibels! Now... if you want BlackVelvet to win, make some noise!" She said. As soon as she said that, the audience started screaming and clapping, making a lot of noise. Even though the difference wasn''t that big, I felt that the noise this time was actually louder than when it was Fedrick''s turn. "According to the machine, you made 120 decibels for BlackVelvet!!! BlackVelvet is the winner of today''s musical battle!!! As a reward, the winner gets free drinks on the house tonight!" The manager said, causing the crowd to cheer loudly and I had a huge smile on my face. Seeing Fedrick''s sour face made the victory even sweeter! I hadn''t even thought about the compensation, I thought that recording with Lila would be a good opportunity to promote myself, I already accepted that this would be a good compensation. But since Selena doesn''t think it''s enough, I think it''s best to just wait and let the two of them work it out. Looking at Selena, the man was surprised and gave an embarrassed smile, maybe thinking that he could get this without spending anything because I''m a small artist. "Of course we thought about compensation, my idea was about $10,000 for the BlackVelvet feature in the song and the lyrics." He explained, but when Selena heard this, she frowned. "You want BlackVelvet to be a guest artist on Lila''s song that he wrote himself?" Selena asked. "Yes, isn''t that the best way? He can appear on her channel, get more of her fans, and speed up his growth." He explained as if it were normal. But Selena didn''t take it well. "I don''t think you''ve done enough research on BlackVelvet, in just two months he''s gone from unknown to near Peak E Rank, it''s not like his participation in a song he wrote for someone else''s channel is going to change his career as much as for someone like Fedrick... we need to weigh these participations with different weights." Selena began to explain her point of view, and I began to feel the alcohol pounding in my head, making her words confusing to me. When I heard a woman''s voice on stage, I realized that Lila was starting her show, and that became much more interesting to me than the two agents'' discussion going on next to me. So I turned around and focused on the stage, regretting that I did not have enough mana to watch Lila on stage and learn as much as possible from her. Since she was already a C-Rank artist, it was quite possible that she had much greater skills than Fedrick. Although I knew that there were artists who didn''t have skills that matched their rank and only grew through marketing, Fedrick and Lila weren''t like them, so even though I couldn''t use the observation skill, I still observed normally to try to learn something from her. Chapter 112 [Bonus ] 112 - Richer! Chapter 112 [Bonus ] 112 - Richer! ??After a few minutes Lila''s agent left and Selena came to talk to me. "What was decided?" I asked as I sipped my whiskey and looked at Lila on stage. Selena sighed and answered. "Although I tried to lower our price as much as possible, I managed to convince him to change the song from an appearance by you on one of her songs to the opposite, where she would appear on your song, but that she would have the right to re-record the song herself after 6 months and would also be able to sing the song at her concerts and would pay us $10,000." When I heard that, my eyes lit up. "So I''m going to get $10,000, partner with a C-Rank artist and still get promotion from her in exchange for letting her sing my song with me now, alone after 6 months, and also sing that song as her song at concerts?" "Yeah..." Selena replied tiredly, but happy to have gotten a good deal. Although any artist can sing any song by other artists at concerts, it''s different when you can sing a song by another artist, or when the song is also a part of you. As for the part where she could re-record the song by herself after 6 months, I didn''t mind that much because after 6 months the song would have lost a lot of the hype because most of the song''s listeners would have already heard the song on my channel, and even if the song was more successful on her channel, it would also serve as a great promotion for me because the song would be promoted on my channel again. "When and where does she want to record?" I asked. "Her base of operations is in Texas, where she lives and where she does most of her shows, so recording after she''s back home wouldn''t be good. Ideally, we''d like to record it tomorrow. So we plan to rehearse tomorrow afternoon and after your opening we''ll record this song as the last song you sing and the first song she sings at both shows". Selena explained. Thinking about this idea, I could see that it was good, we could get it done as soon as possible, we could test if the song would be good as a duet, and we could see the audience''s reaction. If any of those options didn''t work out, both sides had the right to cancel the proposal and act as if nothing had happened, so I was happy. "But where do you want to record?" I asked, knowing it wouldn''t be nice to bring her to my house to record in the basement. Staring at me, Selena laughed. "Have you forgotten what company I work for? AJP has a stake in at least two studios in San Francisco, we just have to let them know we''re coming and they''ll get us a room for as long as we want." Hearing that reminded me that I wasn''t as indie an artist as I thought I was. Even though I was indie and doing everything myself, I still had a big agency behind me that could protect me from everything and give me a lot of opportunities. There was even a lady who wanted to introduce me to her granddaughter, who was two years younger than me, and I had a hard time refusing. Even more so when her granddaughter saw me running on a normal day and I started to feel a look coming from the bedroom window on the second floor whenever the lady called my name to greet me. It was funny how the world worked better for beautiful and charismatic people, everything seemed more colorful. With the gas and excitement I felt, I ran at least 50% more than I normally do, but when I weighed myself on the way home, I''d lost less than 50% of the weight I normally lose. I was down from 75 kg to 74.6 kg, showing that the amount of weight I could lose was getting smaller and smaller. When I looked at my body in the mirror, I could clearly see why. The fat on my body was disappearing. The muscles were becoming more defined, to the point that I recently had to change my training again, so instead of training with as much weight as possible, I lowered the weight to something that wouldn''t exhaust me as much, and also started to decrease the frequency with which I trained. I didn''t want my muscles to be as developed as a bodybuilder''s, and building muscles as fast as I was doing was something that would get me to that level quickly. "You''re going to record a song with a C-rank artist?!" Liv asked in shock as we ate lunch. "Yeah, she heard the song I sang in a bar yesterday and wanted to sing it with me." I replied smiling. "That''s great!" My father said excitedly. "Are you getting paid for this?" My mother asked worriedly. "Yes, apart from the publicity that her name brings, which is already worth a few tens of thousands of dollars, they''ll also pay me $10,000 if the song goes well, so you can call Grandpa and tell him that we want to visit her and my aunt and uncle." I said smiling as I shifted my gaze to my father, who was frozen as he stared at me. "You won... 10... 10,000 dollars?!" My father asked in shock. "Not yet, but this afternoon I should win if all goes well, not to mention they''re paying me another $4,000 to sing the opening number for the two Lila Brooks shows, so I should come home a total of $14,000 richer." I laughed, enjoying his shocked expression. Chapter 113 [Bonus ] 113 - Recording Chapter 113 [Bonus ] 113 - Recording ??After explaining to my parents that there was even a possibility of receiving another $10 to $20,000 from MeTube and Spokify this month, they were completely shocked. Thinking about the money I would receive, I could not only start buying better equipment, but even buy the Honda NSX I saw for sale and customize that car. In my previous world, I had always wanted to customize a car with my own hands in my garage, but not only did I not have a car, I didn''t even have a garage. So I was excited to be able to do that in this world, and considering how much Ethan liked Japanese cars based on the miniature cars he had, I think he''d love it if I bought the NSX. But since I didn''t have a car, I had to wait on my balcony with my guitar for Selena to arrive in her car and take me to the studio. She arrived in a few minutes and we went into the studio. "This is your first time in a studio, right?" Selena asked. "Yeah... usually my studio is my garage." I replied relaxed. "The only difference between your home studio and a professional studio is that we have an audio technician focused on us, so you don''t have to control the audio of the song and edit everything manually, he''ll do it himself while you''re recording so everything is done as quickly as possible." Selena explained and I nodded. A few minutes later we were in the studio. Lila and her agent hadn''t arrived yet, so we went into the room reserved for us and I started tuning the guitar while talking to the sound engineer. Although he was only 23, he was a pastor of a church when he wasn''t working here as an audio engineer, so everyone just called him Pastor. "So you edit your own music?" He asked in surprise as he opened my MeTube channel on the studio computer and started listening to my songs. But when she stood next to someone like Selena, who was really 23 and even prettier than her, Lila ended up looking a little older. But neither of them cared much and they officially greeted each other. "Let me officially introduce myself to you since we didn''t even get a chance to talk directly yesterday, I''m Lila Brooks, but you can call me Lila." She said as she held out her hand to me. Smiling, I shook her hand and replied, "I''m Noah Black, or BlackVelvet, but you can call me Black, BlackVelvet, BV, or Noah." Surprised, Lila nodded. "Now I understand where the name BlackVelvet comes from! Then I''ll call you Black." She replied with a smile. After the introductions, I took the song that Selena had typed up for the copyright application and printed it out, and we began to share the song. Since this song had been sung solo in my previous world, we really had to share the song ourselves and think of the best moments to share it and not get weird. That part was more fun than I thought it would be, but after a short while it was done and we went to record. I was excited about what it would be like to record it with both of us singing at the concert! (NunuNote: Pastor123''s character just appeared thanks to the gift from Spacecraft!!! Thanks again Pastor123 for the gift! If you would like to have your name as a character in the story, just donate a Magic Castle Gift or more and comment on the nickname you would like for the character! Next in line to receive characters are: Iveyflame, Gilly, Inxialot, Peacecj (Cody Peace), Art6733 and Lord Xavier! If you''re on this list and want to choose your character''s name, you can comment in the chapter or send me a message on discord!) Chapter 114 [Bonus ] 114 - Show Chapter 114 [Bonus ] 114 - Show ??The recording of the song went much smoother than I imagined. Lila was very calm, as was I. In the same way that our two agents argued like crazy about how much the song was worth, how much we should be paid, how much our names were worth. Lila and I just focused on singing well and in less than two hours we had the song recorded and ready to go. So after we left the studio and had a coffee, we went to where her show was going to be and I started getting familiar with the place. This would be my first gig that wasn''t in a bar or at a wedding, but in a place where the audience''s attention would be 100% on me, so I was excited. Since Lila would have her backing band for the show, it would be very strange if I didn''t have anyone, so I called Mark and he confirmed for him and Frank that they would come and play with me. I offered them $200 a show, which was already double what they were getting with Jannet, and it wouldn''t be as much work as the wedding we had to travel to, so it didn''t have to be that much. Since the song I would be singing with Lila would only be played on guitar and our voices a cappella because it was recorded in the studio, we didn''t have to practice. And they already knew how to play the rest of my repertoire because of the wedding, so we didn''t have to practice too much beforehand. The first show started at 6 p.m., with 30 minutes of an opening set from me and 150 minutes from Lila, which made it 9 p.m., where we would have an hour break to clean up the place, and at 10 p.m. the second show would start, which would be another 30 minutes of me, and after that Lila would play for two to three hours. Jason was also here with us to record the music video that would be posted on my channel. People started coming in at 5:30 and I started playing at 6:00. "Hey, who''s he?" "Him? I think I saw him somewhere, but I don''t know who he is..." "Don''t you go out at night?" "Nah, I only listen to Lila!" So in addition to my normal songs, I threw in some cooler country songs, since that was the style of music they came to hear, which cheered them up even more. Mixing those songs in with my originals really got the crowd going, especially after Boyfriend. It was always fun to sing Boyfriend to a new audience. The reaction of the single girls and the boyfriends of the girls they were dating was always priceless. ???????????? I could be a better boyfriend than him I could do the shit he never did Up all night, I won''t quit Thinking I''m gonna steal you from him I could be such a gentleman Plus all my clothes would fit ???????????? By the time I finished Boyfriend, I was sweating, but looking at the clock at the front of the stage, I knew I had very little time left, so I grabbed the microphone, panting. "Uff... this was my first show that wasn''t in a bar or at a wedding, I have to say the feeling is incredible, with an incredible audience like this... it''s hard for the show to be bad, right?" I asked, making them scream with excitement and leaving me satisfied that I''d managed to get them excited for Lila''s next show. "But just so I don''t leave without leaving you with something remarkable, I''m going to sing an original song that I sang for the first time last night to win the musical battle." I said as I swapped my electric guitar for an acoustic and began to strum the country tune. Hearing the melody, the audience was already getting excited. Receiving confirmation on my headset that Lila was backstage ready to go on stage when her time came, I smiled as I looked around to confirm that Jason was ready, and as soon as he nodded, I started to sing. Chapter 115 [Bonus ] 115 - Duet Chapter 115 [Bonus ] 115 - Duet ??Harper was quite surprised by what she was seeing on stage. Since her family had recently moved to San Francisco from Dallas, she had missed seeing country artists perform here. When she heard that Lila Brooks was performing tonight, she quickly bought a ticket to go see her with her friends from college. Even though her friends weren''t fans of that style of music, they decided to come to the show to support their friend without much pretense. Since Lila Brooks was a C-rank artist, they thought that the artist who would open her show would just be a random D-rank artist, or even an E-rank artist, someone who would sing a few random songs but do nothing remarkable. But to the girls'' surprise, instead of just a random, unknown country singer, the boy who came up to sing had already caught their attention by his appearance. Unlike what they expected from a 30 year old singer in a plaid suit or jeans, the boy on stage wore a very stylish outfit, more rock than country, with a t-shirt and black blazer, black pants and white sneakers, which made both the sneakers and his hair stand out! When he started singing, instead of the country songs they were expecting, his repertoire was more focused on rock and pop music, which got them more excited than they had imagined. From what they''d heard, he was already a well-known singer in the city''s nightclub scene, something about him that made him famous very quickly without anyone knowing it. The problem was when he sang the song "Boyfriend", which made Harper look at him in a different way. If before she was just "looking at the beautiful view", after hearing this song she had to admit that her imagination started to run wild and she started to pay even more attention to him. Even though he wasn''t a singer of her favorite style of music, his good looks, good voice, and the fact that the lyrics he sang were so interesting meant that BlackVelvet was able to win a new fan in no time. When Harper heard that he was going to sing a country song that he had written, she was a little confused and worried that he would disappoint her. The other songs were so good, it would be a waste for him to come up with a country song just to please Lila Brooks'' fans... But when she heard the beginning of the song, Harper raised her eyebrows in interest. Even her friends who weren''t country music fans were interested when they saw that although he said this song was country, it was also different from the country songs they had heard before. ???????????? My baby wants a Birkin, she''s been tellin'' me all night long... Gasoline and groceries, the list goes on and on... This 9 to 5 ain''t workin'', why the hell do I work so hard? I can''t worry ''bout my problems, I can''t take ''em when I''m gone, uh... ???????????? Hearing the strum of the guitar and the way he was singing made Harper very curious. If this lyric was written for a rap song, she would have thought it would fit, but surprisingly, with the country style guitar playing and BlackVelvet''s sweet voice singing it, Harper felt it fit even more! Listening to the next verse, Harper felt that this song was even cooler than she had imagined, causing her feet, which were wearing two country boots without her realizing it, to start tapping from side to side. ???????????? While the men in the audience felt a sour feeling in their chests when they saw how the two of them interacted on stage. Although Lila was 30, her youthful appearance made her easily pass for a 25-year-old woman, while Noah was the opposite. Because of his chiseled jaw and the muscles he had on his body, he didn''t look like a 17-year-old boy, so much so that no one questioned whether he was old enough to drink in bars or at weddings, thinking he was between 21 and 24. So even though Noah and Lila were 13 years apart, it seemed to the audience that the difference between them was a maximum of 4 years! Listening to Lila sing this part of the song, Harper was surprised at how well this song suited her voice. It wasn''t as good as BlackVelvet singing the song, but the difference in their voices made the song even more interesting! On the second chorus of the song, Lila sang it alone while BlackVelvet just did the backing vocals and played the guitar while looking between Lila and the excited audience. ???????????? Someone pour me up a double shot of whiskey They know me and Jack Daniels got a history (we go way back) There''s a party downtown near Fifth Street (okay, let''s go) Everybody at the bar gettin'' tipsy (at the bar gettin'' tipsy) Everybody at the bar gettin'' tipsy (at the bar gettin'' tipsy) Everybody at the bar gettin'' tipsy ???????????? By this point, the audience had learned at least part of the chorus of the song, which made them sing along and made the performance even more interesting! But what really made the show stand out was in the third chorus of the song, when instead of singing separately, BlackVelvet and Lila Brooks sang together, with BlackVelvet taking the second voice and Lila taking the lead, creating such a beautiful harmony between their voices that fans looked at the stage in shock. "That song... what a cool song!" One of Harper''s friends said in shock as she looked at the two of them singing on stage. Although it wasn''t the style they liked, they had to admit that the quality of this song was on another level. Seeing her friends react to the song she liked made Harper smile with excitement. Unfortunately for them, as soon as the song was over, BlackVelvet thanked the audience for the opportunity to sing, while Lila also thanked BlackVelvet for doing this opening show for her, before the audience gave BlackVelvet a round of applause, thanking him for the show, and he left the stage with the cowboy hat that Lila had put on his head. When Lila''s show finally started, the crowd was in such a good mood that even Harper''s friends, who didn''t like this kind of music, were so excited that they didn''t care anymore. Lila noticed how the crowd stayed for the show and felt that choosing BlackVelvet to open for her was the best decision she could have made. Meanwhile, Noah was lying on a sofa backstage, resting with a big smile on his face. "How was it? Did you enjoy doing a show in a different place?" Selena asked him with a proud smile, alternating a strange look between him and the hat on his head. "It was great... the vibe of singing at a music-focused show where the audience is there for the music... it''s an amazing feeling!" He smiled, not noticing Selena''s strange look at the hat he was wearing. Chapter 116 116 - Solo show? Chapter 116 116 - Solo show? ??Even though my show only lasted 30 minutes, it was enough for me to realize how cool it was. Unlike the bar or the wedding, where I had to give 120% to get the audience''s attention, at a show like this, they came specifically to see the artist sing, so it was much easier! Even if they hadn''t come to see me sing, the effort I had to make to get their attention was much less than in other places, so I could just enjoy the moment on stage and have fun singing. The audience''s reaction to meeting me was really nice, but I was still looking forward to the day when I would perform in front of my own audience. "Selena... do you think I could do my own show with my current audience?" I asked curiously. Selena put her hand to her chin and thought for a moment before answering. "Even though you have a small audience in San Francisco, people really like you, not counting how many followers you have on the internet, it would be possible, but we''d probably have to do it on a smaller scale than this..." When I heard that, my eyes lit up! "How do you think we could do this?" I asked. "Instead of renting a place like this to do your show, we could talk to the owner of a small nightclub or even a bar and charge admission, while the owner of the place keeps the money from the public''s consumption." She explained. "With your popularity you could get an audience of maybe 200 people, charging a $20 ticket would be a $4,000 turnover, but then we''d have to look at the price of renting the equipment and paying Mark and Frank to play with you as well, in the end how much you''d get might be slightly less than what you get at a wedding." When I heard this I was a little disappointed, not because I would get less, because with what I was getting now I wasn''t so worried about money, especially now that my bank account already had $16,000 in it, which was how much I got after paying Mark, Frank and Selena''s share. What disappointed me was that I''d have to do the show in a bar... The Lila show we were at now wasn''t a huge ballroom with a capacity of 1,200 people, a place I would hardly be able to fill with my current popularity... Not to mention the cost of setting up the stage and equipment for this show. Lila charged $40 per ticket, with 2,000 people going through 2 shows, that was $80,000 in one night, but just for equipment, staff and organization, she must have spent at least $20,000, something I would be far from being able to do for the time being. "Would the show be better in a nightclub than in a bar?" I asked. But instead of Selena answering me, it was Frank who had just arrived with Mark after organizing their things in front of Lila''s stage while she interacted with the audience and her band on stage. "Nightclub gigs suck..." He complained. "For rock artists like us, doing nightclub gigs is like trying to get a country singer into a rap show...it just doesn''t fit." Mark also chimed in. "The crowd gets a lot drunker in nightclubs than in bars, not to mention the drug use that makes people even crazier. Unless you literally close the club and only let your own people in, it''s not worth it. Selena agreed. "Yeah, but it would be hard to control whether only his crowd would get in, and even if we could do that, it would greatly reduce the potential revenue..." Listening to the three of them, I realized that it really wasn''t worth doing the show in a nightclub, at least not as long as I wasn''t famous enough to fill the club with my audience. "Why don''t we try to team up with a bar to put on an exclusive show for you to try out? Maybe it won''t be as bad as you think." Selena suggested. Looking at her and seeing that she was confident, I trusted her. "Okay, let''s try it." It sounds like I hate doing gigs in bars, on the contrary, the experience is really nice, I just wanted to test what it would be like to do a gig like tonight with an audience that was really there just to see me. After that, we decided to go out for a bite to eat and pass the time until the second show. It would be another 2 hours and 30 minutes of Lila''s show, then there would be another 1 hour break to set up for the next audience, so I had about 3 hours free before I had to go back. "We could have booked a gig at a bar in that time, right?" I asked, eating a sandwich. But at the rate I was making money, I think I could buy that car next month! Turning my attention to Mark, Frank and Selena, I went back to eating my sandwich while we talked about how the show was going and what we could do to improve for the second time. They gave me some tips on how to interact with the audience to try to get them more excited, while I gave them some tips on how to interact so we could have some nice interactions for the audience. All of this was recorded by Jason. With the amount of content we were able to produce this week, I had to decide between making one vlog twice as long or splitting it into 2 videos. Both options had advantages, as the two short videos could increase retention to have a better chance of making the algorithm go viral, or I could make the long video, increase my view time of the video to try and make the algorithm go viral. Two interesting options that I''ll think about as I edit this. After an hour, we went back to the show and stood in the audience to see how Lila''s show was going. Looking at my status panel, I saw that my Mana had recovered 6 points since yesterday... leaving me only 33 seconds to use the Observe skill on Lila. This was a very low mana recovery rate... only 1 point of mana every 4 hours... maybe I should try to recover this mana in a more active way like meditation or something to speed it up? I was unsure if I wanted to test it out and risk using it on her and running out of mana and not being able to do the next show... I guess I could try using the skill for 10 seconds... even if it doesn''t work, I should still be okay... I thought as I waited for Lila''s song to end, as I wanted to use the skill to improve my stage presence. This was a big disadvantage I had against Fedrick yesterday and something I knew I had to work on. As soon as Lila''s song ended and she started interacting with the audience, I set my phone to wake up in 15 seconds and used 5 seconds to focus on her. I focused on everything she said, how she acted, what she looked at, where her eyes went, the expressions she made. In those 10 seconds, I observed everything she did while analyzing why she did those things. When I felt my cell phone vibrate in my hand, my attention was broken and I managed to cancel the skill, making me spend 11 seconds on the skill and lowering my current mana to 21 points... which made me feel weak... but not weak enough to be really affected by it, it was like I was just very sleepy right now. However, when I looked at the message in front of me, a smile appeared on my face. [Stage Presence Lv 11 -> 12]. A new level of the Stage Presence skill in only 11 seconds!!! Something that would have required me to spend several hours interacting with the audience at concerts, I was able to accomplish just by analyzing Lila for a few seconds while she was on stage! Of course, I think I was only able to do this with so little observation time because of the difference in our skill levels. While I was at Lv 11 of the skill, Lila was probably at least 20 points into it because of her years of experience, so it was like my Skill Teach, but in reverse. Instead of teaching the person faster based on the difference in our levels, with Observe I was learning things from people based on the difference in our levels! As I analyzed the new knowledge I had gained from the skill in my mind, a satisfied smile appeared on my face. Chapter 117 [Bonus ] 117 - Quit Your Job Chapter 117 [Bonus ] 117 - Quit Your Job ??The opening of the second show was practically a repeat of the first. If I could put a difference between the two shows, it would be that at the second show, not only was I more comfortable interacting with the audience because I had received another level of Stage Presence, but I was also lucky enough to have more people in the audience who knew me, so it was even more fun to play because there were more people who knew my songs. When Lila came on stage and we sang our song together, the reactions of shock and excitement were even more fun. Since it was our second time doing this, our rapport on stage was much more natural this time, and we even joked around a bit for the audience and my vlog camera. When my part of the show was over, I left without waiting for the end of Lila''s show, as I had already seen her full show once and was so tired that I didn''t want to see it again, so we just left after splitting the payment money between our parts and everyone was happy. To create hype for the vlog and the music we were going to release, Lila and I recorded some stories for our Instabrams at the show and in the studio and made a post with a photo of us that Jason took while we were recording in the studio. When I got home and looked at how much engagement this generated, I was surprised to see that my Stories had over 20k views! With the 75k followers I currently had, my stories only got between 8 and 12k views, but this story with Lila was already over 20k! Surprised, I went to read the messages that fans were replying to, curious to know what they were thinking. [Are you going to record a country song now, BlackVelvet?!] [Are you having an affair with Lila Brooks?] [Who is she?] [Focus on one style of music... I don''t like country music...] [Come to Brazil!] [You''re going to record a duet? How cool!] Although there were some negative reactions from people who were worried that I would release a bad song because it was country, the vast majority of people were positive about the song and excited about when it would be released. Seeing that my audience was taking it well, I got curious and clicked on Lila''s profile to see how her audience was reacting. [Damn, that boy is hot!!!] [Heyhey, who is he?] [Are you going to record a rock song, Lila?!] [I think I know this guy from somewhere...] [How can a rock singer collaborate with a country singer?] [Do you know BlackVelvet?! I''m excited for your collab!] I saw his red eyes, which he was probably controlling to keep the tears from falling, and I just smiled as I nodded at him. For the rest of breakfast, we just sat in silence, enjoying each other''s company, until I left to do my exercises and he left for work. Unfortunately, he didn''t want to just stop going to work because that would put his boss in a bad position, but he would try to stay at work for just one more week while he helped his boss find a replacement. Since it was a simple job, he wouldn''t have to find a specialized person to take over, which made things easier. Knowing that my father was going to quit his other job, I went for my walk quite happily. When I got home and saw the hours of footage Jason had sent me, I was shocked. There was enough footage for at least three videos! One about the wedding, one about the musical battle, and one about the concert with Lila. I could decide to edit these three videos together into one long video or try to release three separate videos. Since I thought I could use the musical battle video and the concert with Lila video to create hype for the song "A Bar Song," I decided to split the videos. This week I''d post the two vlogs to create hype for the song and on Saturday I''d post the song, while next week I''d post the wedding video, the vlog I''ll do next weekend and I''d already post the video for the song "Bailando". This is the first time I''ve ever had so much to post, and since I had to post 6 videos in the next two weeks, 4 of which were vlogs, I could already see the money in my bank account going up fast. With that taken care of, I went to school and started to feel more and more that going to school was becoming more and more pointless... Although I could use the time to develop some skills and rest my mind, I could do that at home without wasting so much time coming here five times a week. So I started to think about graduating early. With the level I had in my school subjects, I already had more than enough knowledge to graduate with ease, not to mention that with how much I was earning from my career, going to college at this point would just be another waste of time. Time that I could put to much better use. Thinking about it, I decided to ask Selena, who may have more experience with this than I do, what would be best for the other AJP artists. Maybe she even knows a way to stay enrolled in school and not have to go every day? So I took out my cell phone during class and sent a message. [Hey Selena, I''m thinking that staying in school might be a big waste of time, do you think it''s worth it for me to try and graduate early?] She replied in a few seconds. [Maybe I have a better alternative for you.] Chapter 118 118 - New school? Chapter 118 118 - New school? ??[I may have a better alternative for you.] Selena replied, leaving me surprised and confused.Ne/w novel chapters are published at novelhall.com What could be better than just finishing school and being able to dedicate myself to my career? I thought intently. [What would that be?] I replied confused. [In Oakland there is the Oakland Arts Academy, a school that specializes in teaching and developing future artists. It''s not as demanding as what they do in Korea with the internship agencies, but it''s a much more flexible school for students who are already artists, and with a curriculum that may help you develop artistically even more than studying on your own at home]. Selena explained via text message, making my eyes widen. A school that focuses on artistic development? I had heard of something like that in my old world, but since it was always so far away, I never bothered to pay attention to it. But now that I think about it, maybe that would be a good thing? I''d still have to go to school, which wasn''t very good, but I could study things that would really help me in the future, and thinking about the buffs I got in subjects in this current school, like a buff that speeds up my learning of math, that kind of buff might exist in this new school, too, right? Considering that it could really speed up my development, I had to agree with Selena that this might actually be a better alternative. Now that my skills had reached Lv35, the growth rate had slowed down considerably. What used to take me a day to level up was now taking me a week, sometimes even two weeks. Of course, this was still a very fast time considering that it took me a week to gain 4 months of knowledge in a given area, but for someone who was used to seeing numbers increase so quickly before, it was a little frustrating to see this slowing down. So I began to consider this suggestion from Selena. [If I''m not mistaken, this is a private school, right?] I asked, worried about how much the tuition would be. [Yes... the problem with these schools is that because they hire prestigious teachers who were once great artists or worked with great artists, the salary they have to pay these teachers is high, which means the tuition is also high]. Selena explained, which made me worry. [How much is the tuition at this school?" I asked. [As far as I remember, the cost is $50,000 a year, but they are willing to pay it in 12 installments of $4,200.] Selena explained. I was surprised at how much she knew. [How do you know so much about the school?] [I went there, a lot of my family went there, so I''m very familiar with the price and the quality. That''s why I recommended it to you, because I know the quality is good, and if it doesn''t work out, you can just graduate early]. After listening to her explanation, I agreed. Although it was a very expensive price for a school, considering that my current cost was $0 since I studied in a public school, but this school was garbage. My cell phone was another thing I needed to replace... I was using an Android phone from 10 years ago... I could trade it in for a new phone... Suddenly I got a message from Liv telling me that she had arrived. Selena arrived exactly when she said she would, 20 minutes after my class ended, so I got into her Tesla and we drove to Oakland. "Did you go to this school, do you have anything important or interesting to tell us about it?" I asked as she drove. "I did my three years of high school there, the teachers were very good. Since I focused my studies on arts management rather than developing as an artist, I can''t speak 100% truthfully about the quality of the teachers there. But if you look at the students who left there, the vast majority were able to establish themselves as D-rank artists within a few years, which was quite an achievement. She explained, making me nod. But I had a question about something important. "And how are the people there? Will I get annoyed with the students there?" Hearing this question, Selena became thoughtful. "Since it''s an expensive school... you can imagine the lifestyle of the people who study there... but among the many spoiled rich people, you''ll find some people like you who don''t let money go to their heads, or who got a scholarship, or who are just rich but had a good education at home." Thinking about the possible classmates I''d have, the spoiled and stuck-up people, already made me lazy... But thinking about the advantages of studying in a place that might have a powerful buff for my learning made me ignore that point and get excited about how much I would improve. The distance between my current school, which was close to my house, and the Oakland Arts Academy was only 15 minutes by car, which wasn''t a long time. Considering that I would be able to buy my own car in the near future, getting to school would be even easier since I wouldn''t have to have my mom drive me all the way the other way to Ethan and Liv''s school. The only downside was that I wouldn''t be able to take them to school with me when I transferred them, since my license didn''t allow me to drive with other minors in the car. Could I try to ignore that? I could, but it would be safer to just let my mom take them than to get in trouble that could affect my career in the future. There were so many cases of artists being destroyed by the media because they were caught drinking and driving, of course my case wouldn''t be as serious, but it was better to have a clean record. When we arrived at the school, I was surprised that the place looked like a university campus, with people walking around, people sitting on the grass playing instruments, groups practicing dances? And how many beautiful people... while at my old school there was an average of 4 beautiful people for every 10 normal people, at this school the average was 5 beautiful people for every 5 normal people! Of course, these beautiful people weren''t people with charisma over 15 points, they were people with 11 points, which was just above average, and people with charisma over 15 points were quite rare, but there were still a few! Looking at the cars in the parking lot, I could see the standard of living of these people. The vast majority of the cars were sports cars or luxury cars, with even a few super sports cars in the lot, which made me raise an eyebrow at the family who gave a Ferrari to a teenager. Selena parked her Tesla at an electric car charging station and we took a walk around campus so she could show me the places I might be most interested in at the school. Chapter 119 119 - Is that BlackVelvet?! Chapter 119 119 - Is that BlackVelvet?! ??To my surprise, Selena had already told one of the school''s teachers, who was a friend of hers, that she was coming to visit, and she was given access to all of the school''s facilities. I must admit that the place itself was very nice. There were several rooms for practicing instruments, recording studios, chroma key rooms, rooms with several computers for editing... The curriculum included the normal classes that all schools have, while there were extracurricular classes for training in singing, instruments, dance, drama, painting, and many other courses that can be useful for artists or professionals who want to pursue a career in the arts. As Selena led me into a room where a class had just finished, a message appeared in front of me. [Good Dance Classroom Effect: +60% bonus when learning dance-related content. Duration: While you''re in this room]. When I saw the buff that appeared, my eyes lit up with anticipation. Not only could I really improve a lot by practicing in these classrooms, but because it wasn''t a normal classroom, but a good classroom, the buff was 10% stronger than in my old school! Thinking about how much faster I could learn things other than normal subjects like I did at my school, I seriously considered that studying at this school might be a good option for me. This was practically paying System $4,200 a month to get a boost in my skills, which was clearly worth it. With the improvement of my skills, my shows would get better, my songs would get better, my videos would get better, and with the sum of all this getting better, I would gain more popularity, rise in rank, and get even more out of my shows. It''s not like I was spending money on something superfluous, but it was more of an investment that I was making. The $4,200 I spent now could mean $40,000 more I''d get at the end of the year, so the more I watched this school for the things Selena showed me, the more satisfied I became. "So, do you think you''ll want to study here?" Selena asked me with a small smile at the corner of her mouth. "Do you have any doubts? Now I understand why you''re so eager to introduce me to the school. If I study here, I''ll improve a lot as an artist in much less time!" I said excitedly. "Exactly, if you come to this school, our path to your future fame will be much easier. I even have a list of classes I would recommend you take that will really help your career in the future, the most important ones we can put on that list are acting and dancing, two things you don''t know how to do, but which are indispensable in the artistic world. Of course, if you just want to pursue a career as a rock star, these two skills won''t be useful, but if you want to maximize your results and make the most of your fame, these two skills are indispensable," she explained. She explained. Nodding my head, I agreed with her. Even if I didn''t want to make TV shows or movies in the future, I would still need acting to make commercials and advertisements if I wanted to earn more money. Looking at her friend, Charlie was a little embarrassed as she replied. "Remember when I was having trouble with my relationship with Trevor? One of BlackVelvet''s songs was on one of the playlists I followed on Spokify and I got hooked on the song, since then he started releasing a lot of songs that perfectly matched what I was going through with Trevor, and some friends called me to go to a bar to forget about Trevor, guess who played the first show of his career at the bar that night?" The girls were shocked to hear Charlie''s story. "Lies?! You''re not telling me that the gig you went to was BlackVelvet''s first gig after being addicted to his music for so long?" "Yeah... don''t tell anyone else because if Trevor finds out he''ll go crazy, but when he wanted to get back together, I didn''t get back together with him because of BlackVelvet''s songs." Charlie said quietly, getting the girls even more excited about the gossip. "I can''t believe it!" One of the girls said excitedly as she picked up her phone and handed it to Charlie with MeTube open. "Put his channel on MeTube, I want to hear his songs to see if they''re as good as you said." "Put on the song Boyfriend, I''m sure they''ll like it." The other girl who knew BlackVelvet recommended the song. "Wait... I felt like the girl in the video was familiar, you''re not telling me that girl was you?" Charlie was embarrassed to remember that she had appeared in the video of BlackVelvet singing Boyfriend in the bar, and nodded as she put on the song Boyfriend with the music video. Hearing that Charlie had even appeared in the music video for the song, the girls'' curiosity grew even more, and more than 8 girls crowded together to watch the music video together. The video began with BlackVelvet on stage, the camera capturing his sweaty face, sweat dripping down his neck and into his shirt, his strong arms holding the guitar, a confident smile on his face. Since they had seen him from a distance a few minutes ago, they couldn''t recognize him very well or notice the important features on his face from this distance, but seeing how handsome he looked in the video made the girls very excited. "He''s really cute..." One of the girls commented, causing the others to nod. ???????????? I can''t believe we''re finally alone. I can''t believe I almost went home What are the chances? Everyone''s dancing. And he''s not with you... ???????????? Listening to the lyrics, the girls'' hearts raced as they imagined the scene he was describing in the song. Even the two girls who already had boyfriends were surprised to see him sing it and their hearts were racing in anticipation. As the song went on, the girls'' attention became more and more focused on his music and his actions, until Charlie appeared in the audience and the camera showed as if BlackVelvet was singing specifically to Charlie, causing the girls to scream with excitement, drawing the attention of other people around them. Chapter 120 [Bonus ] 120 - Hes going to study with us?! Chapter 120 [Bonus ] 120 - He''s going to study with us?! ??When the song ended and the girls started to stare at each other, you could see the blush on their cheeks and some girls were even panting. This was the power of a thrist trap, while girls who used this focus for their career could make guys get horny just by looking at them, men who followed it weren''t much different for girls either, but of course to a much lesser extent, since getting girls horny was a more complex process than for men. Still, the girls were slightly breathless as they watched the video and thought about those lyrics. "Wow, he''s something else..." One of the girls said. "Yeah..." Another girl said as she picked up her phone. "I''m going to subscribe to his channel now and follow him on Spokify." "Me too!" Another girl said. The other girls did the same. Until Charlie asked a question. "I wonder what he was doing here at school?" Hearing this, the other girls were surprised. "Really... why was he here? Is he going to perform in the school talent show?" "It''s possible." Another girl said. "He''s an E Rank artist, is he going to come and give a lecture?" Another girl said. "Or maybe he''s visiting the school to study here?" Charlie made an assumption that shocked the girls. "No way...is he our age?!" "He looks 20..." "Is he going to study with us?!" As soon as Charlie made this assumption, the girls were shocked to think that it was possible. Although he looked older with that bad boy look, it was quite possible that he was really the same age as them and was coming to study at the school. If he was a C-Rank artist, the probability of him coming to give a lecture would be higher than if he was a student, but there were other students who were already F-Rank artists or even E-Rank like him, so a lecture from an artist who was the same rank as some students wouldn''t be so possible. Thinking about these details, the likelihood of him being a student became greater and greater, to the point that when they went to talk to other friends at school, they commented on it, so without Noah knowing, his name had already become known as that of a possible transfer student at the school. - Noah''s POV - While I was editing the video of my musical battle with Fedrick Davis, Selena sent me the school''s tuition rates for me based on my artist rank. Artist F Rank - 20% discount. Artist E Rank - 40% discount. Artist D Rank - 60% discount. Artist C Rank - 80% discount. Artist B Rank+ - 100% discount. Looking at the table, I was surprised to see that my current rank already gave me a 40% discount on tuition, and if I managed to move up to D rank, I''d get another 20% off! [The school encourages students to start their artistic careers early by offering discounts on tuition in order to bring more fame to the school, so it''s very common to find F rank artists among the students, with the vast majority of students being F rank artists, while E rank artists are rarer, with only about 5% of students being of that rank. D rank artists are extremely rare, with probably no more than 5 students of this rank in the school. C Rank artists at your age are very rare, I think there was only one C Rank student when I was a student, but he dropped out of C Rank a few months later]. Selena explained, which surprised me. For a school like this that focuses on students'' artistic careers, I would have thought there would be more E rank students, but on the other hand, it takes years for people to become E rank artists, even if they perform in bars every day and post songs on the Internet, if it were that easy, there wouldn''t be so many F rank people even today. And considering that these students probably didn''t have very long careers, it was understandable that many of them hadn''t made it to E Rank yet. Most of the E Rank artists are probably 12th graders like me who have had a long career, while the D Rank artists are probably those who are lucky or have a lot of talent. It should be interesting to meet other people my age who have higher artist ranks than me. With the 40% discount I would get for being an E rank artist, the monthly fee would drop from $4,200 to just $2,520, making it much easier for me to pay each month. Even if something went wrong with the channel and the views dropped, I wouldn''t have to worry so much about not being able to pay for school the next month. After discussing it with my parents, I decided to transfer to Oakland Arts Academy this week, so I already sent a message to Selena asking her to help me with it, and she assured me that we could go to the school tomorrow afternoon to transfer. The only thing she asked me to do was to clear it with the current school. Since the new principal of the school didn''t seem to be a bad person, I was more relieved to deal with him than with Jackson''s father, whom I had helped to expel. The thought of that man and the news that had spread around the school that he was in jail brought a smile to my face. With all of this planned for tomorrow, I was excited to get back to editing my video while my Instagram was being followed by 7 girls at the same time. Since I had my follower notifications turned off because I was getting thousands of followers every day on Instabram, I didn''t know that a group of girls from the school I would be studying at in the future were already commenting on me and following me on Instabram to find out more about me. Even less did I know that boys would soon find out about me, and that one particular boy would get angry when he saw his ex-girlfriend in my video. Chapter 121 121 - New Video Chapter 121 121 - New Video The transfer process went smoother than I thought. The new principal wasn''t too keen on losing a student like me since he knew about my improving grades over the last few months and my growing fame since almost the whole school knew about it, but when I told him what this school had already put me through, all he could do was apologize and sign the transfer papers. With these transfer papers I went with Selena to Oakland Arts Academy and the transfer process there was also very easy. After confirming my Artist Rank and doing another presentation of the school with me, they accepted my transfer and I would start studying at the school on Monday of the following week. I had to pay $4,000 to enroll plus $2,520 for the first month''s tuition, which wasn''t a problem for me with the over $16,000 I had in my account. That brought me down to just under $10,000, but it was still more than enough for me. When I got home, my mom and siblings wanted to celebrate and we went out for ice cream. After that, my routine returned to normal and I focused on editing my videos. The music battle video was almost finished, my idea was to release it today, so I dedicated myself to editing it for a few more hours, listening to the pleasant sound of the system every now and then. [Video Editing Lv 14 -> 15]. [Video Editing Lv 15 -> 16] Since my skills were already at a very high level, I had received fewer and fewer notifications like this lately, so it was good to improve a low-level skill like this. Especially since each level of the skill gave me so much knowledge about video editing and so much practicality in doing it that the quality of the video increased while the time I needed to edit it decreased considerably. By 17:00 my video was finished and I wasted no time in posting it to MeTube. [My First Music Battle! Did I Win?! Vlog #4] Of course, instead of just posting the video, I set it to premiere mode and programmed it to go public at 6:00 p.m., leaving that one hour as time to attract more viewers to the video. As I imagined, as soon as I posted the video and subscribers received the notification, the number of people waiting to watch the video went from 0 to 3,000 in just a few seconds. The video chat, which had been empty, was suddenly full of people who were surprised to see it. [Eita, is this week''s video coming early?] [A new video on Tuesday?!] [Woaahh, will there be two videos this week?!] Or when he decided to sing The Lazy Song at the beginning of the show to get the crowd going instead of Numb or In The End, which were just as good but weren''t as catchy as The Lazy Song. Seeing that his next vlog was going to be about a musical battle, Charlie was very excited to find out what his thought process was when choosing the songs and how he interacted with the audience. Thinking back to when she saw him at school yesterday, a silly smile appeared on Charlie''s face at the possibility of seeing him in the next few days. Unfortunately, she didn''t see him at school again today. But there was a problem. One of the girls commented to other friends about BlackVelvet being able to study at her school, which spread the news to other students in her class, and soon everyone was hearing that another artist AND Rank were coming to the class. Her class had a total of 40 students, with only 3 students who were D-rank artists, while there were 10 E-rank artists, 20 F- rank artists, and another 7 students with no rank because they hadn''t officially started their artistic careers. Charlie was one of these 7 students without rank, but this did not affect her or the treatment she received in class. The students with no rank and the students with F rank were practically the same, the students with E rank were a little more popular, but not by much, while the students who were D rank artists were really popular, and most of the other students tried to please them. Even though they had only recently become D rank artists and were still at the lowest D rank, they were still D rank artists who were respected. Her ex-boyfriend, Trevor, was a D-rank artist who focused on classical music, especially piano. The way he spoke intellectually made Charlie fall in love with him, but with BlackVelvet''s music she realized he didn''t love her that much, so after a short time their relationship ended. The problem was that since people knew that BlackVelvet was going to study with them, they searched for BlackVelvet''s videos and found her in the audience of his concert singing the song "Boyfriend". And since BlackVelvet seemed to be singing it to her in the song, it seemed that the reason they broke up was because she liked BlackVelvet better after hearing him sing that song and wanted to change Trevor. Charlie knew that this was partly true and partly false, but she didn''t care too much about it. She didn''t care much for Trevor, and him being angry and jealous of BlackVelvet, who was taller, better looking and more talented than him, made Charlie happy, even if they had nothing. Even more so, considering how fast BlackVelvet was growing, she knew it was only a matter of time before BlackVelvet''s fame surpassed Trevor''s, and the only thing he could be proud of would no longer be such a source of pride. Smiling at the possibility, Charlie looked at the timer ticking down on her screen and lay down on the bed to watch this new video of herself, belly down, ass up, legs dangling in the air, a scene that would please any boy her age, but unfortunately there was no one there to appreciate it. [BlackVelvet is starting a vlog now, open his channel to watch it too!] She sent a message to her friends in the chat group, but most of them replied that they were already watching the countdown and waiting for it to start after seeing his Instabram post, and the girls who didn''t know quickly opened his MeTube to watch it too. In the chat group, the girls wondered which E Rank artist BlackVelvet would be fighting, while trying to guess who it was, but little did they know that the artist was someone D Rank, almost reaching C Rank! Chapter 122 122 - Video Reaction Chapter 122 122 - Video Reaction ??Staring at the screen in excitement, Charlie watched as the countdown went from 10 seconds to 0 seconds and the video began. "So am I going to be the last artist to sing tonight?" She saw BlackVelvet ask his agent with curiosity, leaving her very surprised that she hadn''t imagined he could already be the last artist of the night. "Sort of, you''ll be singing after the last D-rank artist, but after that there will be a performance by a C-rank artist." Selena explained to Charlie and the video chat audience. Cut to the scene of them arriving at the bar and people already recognizing him, which made the audience very happy to see him growing and becoming more famous. Even people who weren''t on the path to becoming an artist felt good about following BlackVelvet''s vlogs and seeing him become more famous with each passing week. Without anyone realizing it, it was as if they were following a successful career, and because they were watching the vlogs every week, they were participating in that success and feeling the dopamine from seeing the improvement as if it were their progress too! "You mean I have to play in front of an E Rank boy?" A rude, angry voice was heard from the other side of the door, startling the video audience. Seeing this, Charlie was surprised and immediately thought, "Could this be the person BlackVelvet is going to have a musical battle with? The number of people watching the live video increased by the second and by now there were 17,000 people watching the video. When BlackVelvet entered the room and started arguing with Fedrick, Charlie was surprised to learn who Fedrick was. Not only did she recognize him, but so did some of the viewers on the stream. [Isn''t that Fedrick Davis?! That guy''s almost in C-Rank!] [Don''t tell me BlackVelvet is going to have a musical battle with him?!] [Woah!!] [Who is he?!] [The last time he performed here in LA I was at the bar, he got so mad at a customer that the two of them started fighting in the middle of the bar, after that I never saw him again, I thought he was banned or something]. [LOL!] [Will BlackVelvet and this guy get into a fight?] [Bruh, look at the size of BlackVelvet, if that dude tried anything with BlackVelvet he''d probably destroy him!] [Look at the video, BlackVelvet is intimidating him by crossing his arms!] [He looked at BlackVelvet''s arm muscles and got scared! LMAO!] Seeing the comments, Charlie was worried that BlackVelvet would get into a fight, but seeing how Fedrick was scared of BlackVelvet, she was relieved and found the situation funny. When she saw Lila Brooks enter the room, even though she didn''t know who she was, there were a few people in the chat who did know who she was and explained it to her, so she was surprised that it was the C-Rank Artist of the Night who suggested it. To see him thinking about what he could do better when he left the stage, how he could make the audience like him more than Fedrick. To see the audience''s reaction to Boyfriend... to see how they were amazed by Fedrick''s ability, but didn''t know how to get past him. Until the moment that shocked the audience the most, a moment that felt like the world had stopped and BlackVelvet was extremely focused on Fedrick, watching everything he did and how he could improve. And what was most surprising was to see how much he had really changed in just a few minutes of observation, how much better he was acting, how much more natural his interactions with the audience had become, how much more relaxed he was playing the guitar on stage. How can anyone be so talented?! Charlie asked herself in frustration as she saw how much better he looked in his last performance compared to the first time he took the stage tonight. As someone who had also studied and practiced, she was frustrated that in only 2 months he was already so much better at it than she was, and at the rate she saw him improving, by the time she actually decided to start her career, he would be flying so high it would be unreachable! [He''s improved a lot...] [Bruh, he just watched Fedrick for a few minutes and managed to learn so much about how Fedrick acted... Can you imagine what he would do if he had more time?!!] [I wish I was at that show...] Looking at the comments and the number of people watching, Charlie was surprised to see that the number of viewers was already over 20,000, an amazing number for a channel with only 140k subscribers! Suddenly they heard BlackVelvet''s explanation of the new song and everyone''s attention turned back to him on the screen. My baby wants a Birkin, she''s been telling me all night... Gas and groceries, the list goes on and on... This 9 to 5 ain''t workin'', why the hell do I work so hard? I can''t worry about my problems, I can''t take them when I''m gone, uh... Seeing BlackVelvet actually play and sing a country song made Charlie and the video viewers freeze. It''s not possible that he''s actually doing a mix of country with rock and rap and the song turns out this good...'' Charlie thought shocked. Charlie thought in shock. Not only was the rhythm of the song fun and interesting, the lyrics of the song were very interesting, but it fit incredibly well with country music and gave the song his personality. As a non-country artist, wearing black clothes, bleached hair, a rebellious look, very rock star style, if he just sang a regular country song, it wouldn''t fit. But this little change he made to the song made it much more interesting and suited him much better! And when Charlie saw the audience''s reaction in the chat, she saw that she wasn''t the only one who thought so. Too bad that instead of finishing the song, BlackVelvet just put it up as a teaser and jumped to the results of the musical battle, which he surprisingly won by a narrow margin! Seeing that despite being an E Rank artist, he had won a musical battle against an artist who was very close to C Rank, not only surprised Charlie, but also made other curious eyes that were watching pay more attention to this talented young boy. BlackVelvet''s rise was becoming more and more consolidated now that it was possible to compare him with other artists of similar rank. Chapter 123 [Bonus ] 123 - A motorcycle?! Chapter 123 [Bonus Chapter] 123 - A motorcycle?! Seeing the public''s reaction to my video in real time was more fun than I imagined. Since I always set the video to post and then went off to do something else, seeing their reaction, their comments, what they were thinking at that very moment was something that left me with a smile on my face the whole time. When the video was over, I used my account to reply to some of the comments, which led to even more people commenting. After a few minutes, I refreshed the page and was excited to see how many views the video had. [My first music battle! Did I win?! Vlog #4 - 36,912 views]. Nearly 37k views in just 20 minutes, a great view rate for the channel. When I opened the channel, I confirmed that the day my earnings would be paid would be Friday, the day I would post the next vlog, which would mean I wouldn''t get the money from the views of that next vlog. At least I had posted this vlog today, which would already help with a few hundred dollars for my monthly payment. When I looked at how much I already had on the channel and how much I could possibly withdraw, I smiled even more. If it weren''t for paying off family debts, helping with household bills, and tuition at the school I''m transferring to, I might even be able to buy the NSX I so desperately want next week. Unfortunately, after paying all these bills, I''ll still be a few thousand dollars short. But I wasn''t that eager to get the car so soon. If I could get it as soon as possible, it would be ideal for me, but since I couldn''t, I had no problem taking the bus to school for a month before I finally bought my car. Then I had an idea. If I didn''t have enough money to buy a car, couldn''t I just buy a motorcycle? Out of curiosity, I opened a website selling motorcycles and saw that the price of motorcycles wasn''t that high compared to cars. I could buy a CBR1000R for only $8,000, so I could go anywhere I wanted without worrying if my parents needed the car, I could go to and from school every day without bothering anyone, and I wouldn''t have to worry about buses either. The only problem would be the driver''s license I would need. But I had a solution for that. I still had the number of the fat man who was my driving test instructor, and I still have the blackmail note I kept for him because I forgot to report him. I could just ask him to schedule a driving lesson for me tomorrow and get my motorcycle license! Smiling, I quickly picked up my cell phone and called him, and within seconds he answered. [Hey buddy, remember me? I asked during the call with a smile. [My phone doesn''t have your number. Who is this?] He asked confusedly on the other end of the line. As long as I got Lv 1 in a motorcycle riding skill, that would be enough to give me a month''s experience, which would make me fit enough to ride on my own. Of course, just to make sure, I''d watch some motorcycle riding videos during my lessons at school and try to get as much experience in that skill as possible. I think with at least Lv 3 in this skill, I would already have the confidence to ride a motorcycle on the street by myself. "All right, I have a friend who owns a used bike shop, I can take you there to look at the bikes he has available." My father said with a sigh. "You know, when I met your mom, I used a motorcycle to impress her." Now that was information that surprised me. "Don''t tell me my mother liked you to accelerate fast on the bike while she was on the back?" A big, proud smile appeared on his face. "Yes, she loved the adrenaline rush. There was even a day when I had a few drinks in a bar and the police wanted to stop me, so I drove between several cars and disappeared from their sight hehe, your mother almost killed me, but after taking out her anger on me, she got all excited about the adrenaline rush." He said. But when he noticed the stars in my eyes, he realized that he had said more than he should have and tried to correct himself by saying that I shouldn''t do something like that, how dangerous it was, but I didn''t pay attention. After a few minutes I went outside to do my exercises. While I was running, the only people who were awake were the old people who got up very early. They all greeted me as I passed by, and I smiled and waved back. As I passed a certain house, I felt a girl''s gaze coming from the upstairs bedroom window, which made me shiver a little, but I pretended to ignore it and accelerated my running speed. With my current body, I could run much faster in the same time than before. Whereas in the beginning it took me an hour to run 3 to 6 kilometers, now I could run 12 to 15 kilometers in an hour. But despite the increase in intensity, the amount of weight I lost decreased even more. Today I had lost only 300 grams, which was a fraction of what I was losing every day. But even though it wasn''t working for me anymore, I still enjoyed the routine of waking up early to do these exercises. With no music playing in my headphones, no podcasts in my ear, just the noise of the world around me, it was one of the rare moments when I didn''t think about anything. Or rather, I spent most of the time imagining the bike I was going to buy. Despite being a car guy, what kind of guy doesn''t think a sports bike is cool? Wearing a black leather jacket, with a black helmet with a black visor, while riding a sports bike wrapped in matte black... bruh... I wish I could buy the bike today, but I had to wait until I got the money from MeTube to buy the bike, since the money I had was now earmarked to pay off the $5,000 family debt. When I was in school, I spent a lot of time just watching motorcycle videos and learning how to ride, so I got the motorcycle riding skill, and that skill went up to Lv 3 before I even took my driving test! ///NunuNote/// Thanks Requiem for the Magic Castle Gift! Your 2 Bonus chapters has been added to the chapters queue! Chapter 124 124 - Worried Mom Chapter 124 124 - Worried Mom ??At the end of the lesson, I looked at my new skill. [Motorcycle Driving Mastery Lv3 Effect: Develops a better understanding of motorcycle riding techniques, increasing confidence and riding skill by 3%. This includes advanced maneuvering skills, riding in adverse conditions, and efficient navigation. It also improves retention and practical application of motorcycle knowledge while riding by 3%. Gain a tangible advantage by absorbing the fundamentals of agile and efficient riding]. This skill was basically a motorcycle version of my Driving Mastery skill, which made me wonder if there was a possibility of these two skills merging in the future? Of course, I still didn''t know, because I hadn''t had any skills that merged with another, which could mean that there was either a hidden condition, or it depended on mastering the skill, or there was no such possibility at all. With [Motorcycle Driving Mastery Lv3], I already had the knowledge of someone who had trained and studied motorcycles and riding for three months, which was more than enough as theoretical knowledge, what I lacked now was only practical knowledge. So after the lesson I went to the place where the driving test was held and found the fat man waiting for me next to a simple motorcycle. I couldn''t really remember his name... but I didn''t feel bad calling him fat. As someone who used to be fat and was called names by others without doing anything wrong, and now a jerk like him wanted to screw me over, I''m the one who really has the right to call him fat. So I didn''t bother to remember his name. "How much do you know about motorcycles?" He asked me without really knowing how to act, knowing that I had his dirty stuff to this day and that it could get him fired. Without worrying about his attitude, I simply replied. "I''ve been studying this for a few months, but I''ve never ridden a real motorcycle." Hearing this, he sighed as he nodded and spoke. "Do you want to try to get on the bike yourself, or do you want me to demonstrate first and you try later?" "I can get on by myself while you correct my mistakes." I said and he nodded. Although he was a jerk to me the first time we met, he knew how to teach well, and in the one hour lesson he gave me, my skill went up two more levels. [Motorcycle Driving Mastery Lv5] By that time, I was very familiar with the motorcycle and was able to pass all the driving tests for the things I needed to know and experience in order to use it on the road. Surprisingly, he even taught me and gave me some tips on how to do lane splitting, which is when you ride a motorcycle on top of lanes, riding between cars to pass or avoid heavy traffic. But he told me that I could only do that in California because it was illegal in most other states. After an hour, he printed out the certificate for me and said my license would be at my house in a few weeks. My father also smiled as he spoke next to her. "See? I told you he''d understand." Smiling, she got up from the sofa and hugged me, obviously very relieved. My mother had a law degree, and if she wanted to, she could start practicing law today, but of course, since she hadn''t practiced for so many years, she would have to study for a few more months before she could start working, where she would have to find a job in a law firm, and as it was, a personal office where she could work from home, but if she managed that and dedicated herself, it wouldn''t be a problem to consolidate things. Not to mention that lawyers are paid very well, and if my mother could get a foothold in that profession, it wouldn''t be impossible to earn $200,000 a year, which would give them a lot more financial freedom than depending on me to pay the bills. Looking at this, it might seem that if my mother had wanted to work from the beginning, the family would have been in a much better financial situation in the past, without having to ask family members for money, which might have been true, but my mother always wanted to work, she just couldn''t because of a psychological block. But now that my father has more free time and I''m bringing the family closer together and resolving the internal conflicts they had before I was born, it''s been a great help in getting her out of those mental blocks. It finally made her willing to try to go back to work. I could see that my father was very happy about this, not because of the money she could make, but because of the change she was having and how much more she was opening up. To celebrate, we took the opportunity that night to order two large pizzas, which Ethan loved, and we ate them while watching a movie together in the living room. The next few days went by with my normal routine. On Friday, my video of the show with Lila Brooks was posted, which was also very well received by the public, making it my most viewed vlog video in the first 24 hours. Unfortunately, I wouldn''t get any money from this video this month, so I''d have to wait until next month to get my earnings from this video. But I wasn''t too worried. Yesterday I had already received my MeTube payment on my bank account, and now I went with my father to his friend''s semi-new car shop. From what he told me, the prices at this store were very good, so I could rest easy about choosing the bike I wanted. Knowing how Ethan, Liv, and my mom would look if I came home with a motorcycle, I already planned to buy two helmets to take my siblings out for a ride. As for my mom, my dad asked me if he could take my mom for a ride to remind her of when they first met. Of course, I didn''t refuse. While we were going to the store, I decided to open my phone to check how my channel was doing and how many views my video I posted yesterday had. Today I would be posting the official music video for "A Bar Song", which I was also looking forward to posting. Chapter 125 [Bonus ] 125 - Motorcycle Bought! Chapter 125 [Bonus ] 125 - Motorcycle Bought! ??Unfortunately for me, Selena didn''t have any weddings to book for yesterday, which would have brought in a few thousand dollars more for one night, but she had already secured a wedding for me to sing at next week. As my popularity grew, so did the price, which was great news. When I looked at the MeTube report of how my channel had grown in the last month, I had a big smile on my face. |------------------------ Monetized Views Songs: 6,269,000 = $5,327 (+$1,212) Monetized Views Vlogs: 1,137,000 = $7,390 (+$2,860) [Numb - 1,105,832 views] +181,993 views [In The End - 1,118,624 views] +192,598 views [The Lazy Song - 2,577,275 views] +230,909 views [Boyfriend - 936,190 views] +145,467 views [Boyfriend Live - 1,651,325 views] +265,461 views [Backstage at my shows - Vlog #1 - 421,969 views] +53,861 views [I made a song to sing at a wedding! - Vlog #2 - 380,517 views] +128,351 views [All Of Me - 938,065 views] +413,719 views [One of my best shows! Vlog #3 - 238,209 views] +161,777 views [My first musical battle! Did I win?! Vlog #4 - 195,118 views] +96,693 views [Me at the Lila Brooks concert!!! Vlog #5 - 133,000 views] +133,000 views [180,000 subscribers] +39,829 subs [Spokify Music Plays: 3,640,000] +1,020,000 views Spokify Monetized Views: 1,358,000 = $12,796 (+$4,080) [Instabram: 95k followers] +20k followers |------------------------ Adding the total I got from the songs on MeTube and Spokify with the vlogs, I got a huge total of $25,513! I''ve never had so much money in my bank account before, especially when I added up how much I got from the concerts, the total on my bank account was now $36,900! Which would theoretically be enough for me to buy the NSX I wanted, but I restrained myself from buying it, because out of that $36,900, $5,000 would be used to pay off debts, bringing it down to $31,900, plus $4,000 I would give to my dad to help pay the household bills for the month, bringing it down to $27,900, not to mention the car license, transfer fees, maintenance I would have to do on the car after I bought it, which could possibly be between $1,000 and $2,000. - "Your boy''s got a sharp tongue, is he looking for a job?" Steve asked as he stood next to Jonathan while they both watched Noah ride the bike down the street to test it out. "Haha, he''s already working, he earns more than me these days. This bike was bought with his work money." Jonathan explained proudly as he looked at Noah on the bike. He had to admit that his son looked pretty cool on that bike. Because of his training, his muscles were already much more developed, so with him wearing a tighter black shirt, with a black helmet, with black gloves on a black bike like that, even Jonathan couldn''t deny that his son looked very attractive. He''s going to a new school on Monday, just looking at him, you can imagine how the girls will react when they see him. Jonathan thought as he looked at him. "He works and earns more than you?! What does this boy do?" Steve asked in surprise. He knew it wasn''t easy for a young man to get a job that would allow him to buy a $10,980 motorcycle so easily. Smiling, Jonathan pulled out his cell phone and opened the video of him opening the Lila Brooks concert and singing with the audience. "That''s his job." He said as he handed the phone to Steve. Seeing Noah performing in front of such a large audience and looking at the nearly 200,000 subscribers to Noah''s channel, Steve broke into a smile as he handed the phone back to Jonathan. "You''re lucky John, your boy is talented, handsome, polite and has a sharp tongue, hahaha." He laughed. Jonathan also laughed when he saw Noah walking back to where they were after the bike ride. "Like the bike, kid?" Steve asked smiling. "Yeah! I want it!" Noah said as he slowly got off the bike and stroked the side of it. This bike was nicer than the one he wanted, more powerful than he wanted, and he even got the helmet and gloves he wanted. Looking at the black shirt squeezing his white arms and imagining how he looked on the bike, Noah began to think even more about getting the tattoos he wanted. He''d had a few tattoos in his previous life, but they''d all been very ugly because he didn''t have the money to pay a more talented artist. But now that he had a lot of money, and with the rock star image he was creating, the tattoos would not only not get in the way of his image, they would complement it! Within minutes, the papers were signed and the money was wired. From that point on, the bike was Noah''s. "Are we going home?" He asked his father as he accelerated the bike, enjoying the roar of the engine. "Yeah, just don''t go too fast because my Camry won''t be able to keep up with you..." Jonathan joked as he walked back to his car. Noah nodded and followed Jonathan to his car so they could drive away together. Even though he had a powerful motorcycle and was eager to ride it fast, Noah wanted to level up his skill first and then go fast on the bike because he had a big number on his status screen that showed he wasn''t good enough at it yet and he didn''t want to risk screwing it up. But he was excited to see the reaction of the three who were home now. Chapter 126 126 - Ride Chapter 126 126 - Ride As I slowly made my way home, following my father''s car, I noticed a lot of people on the sidewalk staring at me. Wearing this tight black shirt, which showed off my muscles even more, combined with the black helmet, black gloves, and black motorcycle really drew attention. As I passed a group of women, I noticed that some of them were smiling as they pointed at me. This made me want to give the bike a little gas, which scared them a little, but made them smile even more. Since my helmet was black and the visor was reflective, people couldn''t tell what I was looking at, which was great. Instead of going straight home, my dad stopped at a motorcycle shop and I bought another helmet. I could have bought it at the store where I bought the bike, but I forgot. I was so excited about the bike and riding it that I didn''t think to buy another helmet. So I went back to the store and bought a black helmet just like mine and took advantage of the fact that it was already there and bought a leather jacket to wear when it got cold. Since the helmet and the jacket were of really good quality, I paid $500 for the helmet and $400 for the jacket, making a total of $900. Was that a lot of money? Sure, but considering that the helmet was literally the only piece of safety equipment that would keep me and my passenger from dying if something happened, I wouldn''t be stingy about saving on something like that. The jacket was also motorcycle ready and was both comfortable and safe, protecting me from minor injuries if I fell off the bike. After buying the bike, gear, and transferring $4,000 to my father to help pay the household bills, my bank account had dropped to $21,000, which was still more than enough to get me through the rest of the month and buy most of the things I needed. We finally got home in a few minutes. If I hadn''t had to keep up with my dad, I would have gotten there much faster by weaving in and out of cars, but the slow ride home made me realize that there was a lot of fun to be had enjoying the road and the view. I had left my jacket and extra helmet in his car because it wasn''t warm enough to wear a jacket and it would be uncomfortable to walk around with another helmet. When I saw my dad parked in front of our house, I gave the bike a little gas to make enough noise to get my family''s attention, but not so much as to disturb the neighbors. Just as I''d imagined, the first curious head to peek out of the window was Ethan, who was shocked to see me through the window. Seeing my dad next to me, Ethan ran to the front door and slowly made his way towards us. Since I was still wearing my helmet, I noticed that he was confused and worried about who I was. Through the visor of the helmet I could see his eyes searching the area and a smile came to my face. Lifting the helmet slightly, I asked. "Buddy, this helmet is still too big for you, so how about I take Liv to the helmet store first and buy a helmet in your size? Or we can both go for a ride now, but without going too far for your safety." I asked his opinion. Hearing the two options, Ethan was confused. He wanted to go for a walk now, but when he thought about being able to go further if he went after Liv, Ethan finally resigned himself to the fate of going later. "All right Noah, I''ll wait for you to buy this for me." He said as he handed the helmet back to me with a cute little face. "But I want a helmet as cool as yours!" Smiling, I ruffled his hair and replied, "Sure buddy, I''ll get one as cool as mine." Then I turned to Liv and handed her the helmet. "Do you know how to put it on?" She shook her head a little insecurely. "No... I''ve never ridden a motorcycle before..." So I approached her and carefully helped her put the helmet on her head with the visor facing up. Coincidentally, she was also wearing a black shirt, so when she put on the black helmet like mine, she looked extremely like me! When I got on the bike first, I pointed to the footrests on the side and said to her. "First you''re going to get on the bike like you would on a bike, then you''re going to put your feet on these footrests and to keep your balance you''re going to hold on to my waist, okay?" Nodding her head, Liv did just that. With great care, she managed to get on and support herself, and when I felt her hands holding my waist, I nodded and put on my helmet, started the bike, and slowly moved away from where we were. I noticed that when I started to accelerate, Liv was still scared and started to hold me very tightly, but I didn''t worry about it and kept a slow and comfortable speed, which she gradually got used to and managed to let go of. By the time we reached the motorcycle equipment shop, she was holding on to me with normal strength, while I was able to enjoy the ride and look around. Seeing the looks of amazement and envy that both men and women threw at us, thinking we were a couple, made her laugh and mock me. "Look, I''m getting in the way of you getting girls with your new bike." She laughed. "Nah, who are those girls next to my beautiful little sister?!" I replied pretending to be angry, which made her laugh even more and hold me tighter, probably to provoke the girls and guys looking at us on the bike. I just thought it was funny and let her have her fun. As people on the street looked at her holding me like that, I could see that there were looks of envy, looks of surprise, and also some looks of admiration. After all, I had a very chiseled body, with lots of muscle and little fat, while Liv also had the body of a cheerleader, so the way we both looked on the bike was very pleasing to the eye. Could I ride with her on the back? Not legally, I was still a minor, but my muscles made me look like a guy in his twenties, so no one would suspect me of doing anything wrong. Chapter 127 [Bonus ] 127 - Black Velvet Again? Chapter 127 [Bonus ] 127 - Black Velvet Again? ??- Olivia''s POV - On the way home, I had slipped Ethan''s small helmet over my arm as I held Noah''s waist and looked out at the view around me. Riding on the back of a motorcycle was a very exciting feeling. I guess because I had never ridden a motorcycle before, the feeling was so new that it felt like I was riding a long roller coaster. When I felt comfortable, I asked Noah to speed up a bit, and the adrenaline of hearing the motorcycle''s engine roar and feeling my body being thrown backwards made me hold Noah even tighter. It''s a shame that he bought this bike now that he''s going to change schools, because I would have loved to go to school with Noah every day, taking me on his bike... Something I noticed while holding his waist was that Noah was getting ripped! I could already tell that he was getting stronger from his figure, which had changed a lot in the last few months, and also from his arms, which were much thicker, showing that he was really very strong. But since he wore baggy clothes most of the time, you wouldn''t have guessed that his belly was so defined!Th.e? most uptodate novels are published on n(0)velbj)n(.)co/m When I held his belly so he wouldn''t fall, I could feel that his belly was already defined! I was even curious to tell him if he had a four pack, six pack, or even an eight pack, but I didn''t try because I thought it might make him uncomfortable. But it was nice to see how Noah had changed over the past few months, from the depressed, chubby boy who stayed in his room to the proud, excited boy who always brought a new surprise and novelty to the family. I''m very proud of him... - Noah''s POV - When we got home, Ethan, who was waiting in the yard, heard the sound of the bike and came running before he could even see me. As soon as we parked, Ethan ran to the bike and grabbed the little helmet that Liv was holding. The helmet I bought for him was a smaller version of the one I was wearing, all black with a black visor. But even though it was smaller, it still cost the same $500. If I were Noah a few months ago, spending the $16,000 I spent today would have been unthinkable! But with how much I was making now, I felt comfortable giving myself the freedom to spend my money on things I liked, and most importantly, things that would make my family happy. At first I even considered just treating them well because that was the mission God had given me before I came into this world, but now I was doing it because I really liked them, because I cared about them, so spending that money was no big deal. And seeing Ethan''s smile as he put the helmet on his head made me feel like it was all worth it. "Ethan Black...the little boy we saw at your little friend''s birthday?" Charlie asked in surprise. "Yeah... that Ethan." Tony replied frustrated, not wanting to talk about Ethan. But while Tony was frustrated, Charlie was surprised to remember that the little boy was on the back of a motorcycle with a man on it. Since he was wearing a helmet, she couldn''t tell who it was, but remembering his muscles and how close the little boy was, the man could only be Ethan''s father or his brother, right?! If it was his brother, wouldn''t that be BlackVelvet?! Considering how young the rider of the motorcycle looked, the chances of it being Ethan''s father were very slim, so Charlie realized that she had met BlackVelvet again, but hadn''t recognized him... I thought he was going to transfer to my school, but even after so many days he hasn''t shown up there... I wonder if he didn''t like it there,'' she wondered in frustration. - Noah''s POV - Back home, Ethan was excited about how much he enjoyed riding his motorcycle and wanted to ride it every day, which I''d promised him I''d take him for a ride every time I came home from school if he wanted. My parents and Liv were still talking on the porch when we got back, and smiling, I took off my helmet and the keys to the bike and handed them to my dad. "Go and reminisce about old times hehe." I said laughing, making him smile proudly and my mom embarrassed. "But if the police try to stop you, don''t try to run away again, okay?" Hearing this, my mother''s face froze as she looked at me in fear and then turned to my father in anger, wondering why he had told me this. Seeing the look on my mother''s face, my father froze as well, but I just laughed as Liv stared at me, wanting to know more details. When they left, I told her and Ethan about my father''s past, how he used to run from the police on his motorcycle and how my mother loved the adrenaline rush, which made Ethan think about how radical our father was and Liv was shocked that my mother would enjoy something like that. Since it was Saturday, I still had to do my show, which unfortunately didn''t have a C Rank singer for me to open the show, but since today would be the day that "A Bar Song" would be released, I was excited to see how it would turn out. Not to mention that this was a song I definitely wanted to add to my repertoire to sing in all the bars, as it really fit the mood and atmosphere of the bars. The only disappointment I had was not being able to ride my motorcycle to the bars, since I usually drank and didn''t want to risk driving home drunk. Not to mention the fact that I could be fined, jailed or even have my name burned if I caused an accident because of my drinking. And I didn''t want to stop drinking at gigs, since it was usually the audience that gave me drinks. The problem I would have is that tonight would be the first time I would really end a concert. I would be the last artist to sing in one of the bars, which excited me. Chapter 128 128 - The last of the night! Chapter 128 128 - The last of the night! ??"Did you buy that motorcycle?" Selena asked curiously as she looked at my motorcycle parked next to my dad''s car. "Yep." I replied as I put my guitar in the trunk of her Tesla. "I bought it so I could go to school the day after tomorrow. I wanted to buy a car, but I didn''t have enough money for the car I wanted." Nodding her head, Selena said worriedly. "I understand, just be careful, motorcycles are much more dangerous than cars, a car accident will cost you money, a motorcycle accident could end your life..." Seeing her genuine concern, I smiled and nodded. "I''m very careful, I know I''m not a good rider yet and as long as I stay that way, I''ll ride as carefully as I can." When she heard my answer, she was still a little suspicious, but she nodded. She didn''t know that I could literally see the number of my skill level and how good I was at it, so I couldn''t blame her. But it was pretty cool to ride the motorcycle, the only thing I''d say wasn''t perfect about it was that since I''d taken a motorcycle that was practically perfect in terms of aesthetics, being very beautiful as it was, I didn''t have to do much to customize it. So I''d have to leave my artistic side to the NSX I was going to buy. A few minutes later Jason arrived. I had already posted "A Bar Song" before I left home, but I didn''t look to see how the public would react. I liked the surprise of seeing how it was when I got home. Since the shows I wanted to do today were later, since I wanted to do the last shows at the bars I wanted to go to, we also had to leave the house later so we would not have to wait so long for other artists to finish. So, to pass the time, Selena and Jason wanted to play my game for a while, taking the opportunity to try out the improvements I''d made to the game and to play "A Bar Song," which I''d added to the game when I got bored. Like Ethan and Liv, they both really liked this song in the game and the changes I made, bringing me closer to when I could release the game. With so much going on lately, I hadn''t given the game that much focus, the good thing is that this game was always just a fun side project for me. But I had an idea how to use it in a cool way. When they went to test the game, I asked Jason to record while I explained and showed the game, and then I took his camera and recorded while he and Selena tested the game. This was another part of my daily life that I wanted to include in the vlog, both to bring the audience closer to me and to have something new and different in the video, since I saw that videos that had something new and different were the videos that got the most views on the channel. While videos of regular concerts did well, videos of things other than concerts did even better. Adding that to the $400 I got from the other bar, minus the $150 from Jason''s night and Selena''s 20%, I still had $600 left over from that night''s work. It might not seem like much considering how much money I had in my account, but for someone who came to this new world with no money and only debts, getting more money was always good. When I got home, I opened my MeTube Analytics and looked at "A Bar Song" to see how well it was doing. [A Bar Song - 56,410 views] +56,410 views The song was doing well, not as well as "All Of Me," but still better than the other songs on the channel. Looking at the other songs, a big smile appeared on my face when I saw that all the other songs had already exceeded one million views! This was something to be happy about because it was difficult for other artists. They usually released songs in albums, which meant that people didn''t listen to all the songs and only focused on what they liked the most. This tactic of releasing songs in albums was good for trying to get as many places on the country''s charts as possible, which would attract even more attention to them. But since I was releasing one song at a time, I didn''t have any plans like that, let alone worry about getting multiple places on the charts. I was just happy that a lot of people were listening to my songs. The next day I woke up to an excited Ethan on his way to visit his grandparents. Today was the day we had arranged to have lunch with my grandparents and my aunt and uncle to pay off the remaining debt, so Ethan was excited to see his grandparents, who had always treated him well, and our cousins, who liked to play with him. Liv and I weren''t as interested in the interactions, as there were no other relatives close to our age, so we ended up being quite excluded from these family gatherings. The advantage was that now that we had changed, Liv could easily talk to our mother, so she could talk to our aunts, while I was no longer the chubby outcast who didn''t know how to talk to other people, and I could talk to my uncles. My parents were excited because it had been a few months since we had visited the family because my father was ashamed of the money he owed them. And since today would be the day to get rid of that debt, they could go back to having a normal relationship as relatives without the embarrassment of knowing that someone owed them money and that they didn''t even know if they would be able to pay it back. Although we had arranged to go there for lunch, the family loved barbecues, with my Uncle Carlos, who married my father''s sister, being Brazilian, and my Uncle John, who loved learning how to cook meats in different ways, so we were going to go early with some meats to roast before lunch. I wanted to go by car with my dad, but when Ethan insisted that we go by motorcycle, I smiled and agreed, although I noticed that Liv was a little jealous of Ethan, haha. Chapter 129 [Bonus ] 129 - Family Surprise Chapter 129 [Bonus ] 129 - Family Surprise ??Since Ethan wanted to have some fun on the way to my grandparents'' house, we let my parents buy the meat and things to take to my grandparents while we walked down the street. After driving around the neighborhood a few times on the way to my grandparents'' house, we finally arrived. Since my parents were going to the market to buy meat and drinks, Ethan and I arrived at my grandparents'' house first. From a distance, I saw my Uncle Carlos'' blue Mustang and my Uncle John''s black Audi RS3 parked on the street in front of my grandparents'' house, which made me smile. But that smile soon disappeared when I saw Karen''s husband David''s white Porsche Macan, which meant that Karen and Jerry were there, too, which made me roll my eyes. Even though they were there, I didn''t leave and just kept driving until I stopped in front of my grandparents'' house. Over the roar of the motorcycle''s engine, a curious head came over the back fence and saw Ethan and me getting off the bike. Both of us were wearing black shirts, gray pants and black helmets, and most importantly, since Ethan had been working out with me, his little body had gained some muscle, giving the little boy a slightly defined body, making him look like he was literally a mini version of me, which confused the curious eyes. But just in case, the owner of the eyes came to see who it was that had arrived. When I saw the man coming towards us, I smiled. It was my Uncle John, my father''s older brother. Although he was a more reserved man, he was always very quiet. Even though he didn''t go to college, my Uncle John started working as a mechanic and now had his own shop where he worked on more sporty vehicles. Having his own shop, Uncle John made good money, so much so that he even asked my father to work with him, but my father wasn''t sure about learning a new trade at that age and didn''t want to bother John with it. But Uncle John was always a very honest and kind man. Perhaps because he recognized the rumble of the motorcycle, he was the first to notice it and come over to see what was going on. When I saw him cautiously approaching, I smiled as I kept my helmet on my head, not taking it off to see what his reaction would be. Ethan, who loved wearing his new helmet and saw that I was wearing it on my head as well, kept his helmet on as he looked at Uncle John with a hidden smile. "Can I help you?" Uncle John asked intrigued as he looked at us. "Don''t you recognize your nephew?" I asked, not even trying to disguise my voice in case he didn''t recognize me. That made him look at me a little embarrassed, then he looked at Ethan, trying to figure out who it was.UppTodated from "Take off your helmet, Ethan." I said amused. "What car?" He asked interested. Being a garage owner and a car guy, he was interested in what car I wanted to get. "I was thinking of a Honda NSX 95." I said, which made his eyes light up. "I see you know what you''re doing..." He replied excitedly. "What model?" "Type R, obviously." I laughed, making him nod even more excitedly. "Well done, well done, looks like you''ve grown up champ." He laughed as he patted me on the back proudly. Laughing at his reaction, I was ready to go out to the backyard to say hello to my other uncles, but another pair of eyes saw us talking and looked over curiously. "Hey John, I need your help over here at the barbecue." My Uncle Carlos came over to call my Uncle John, but when he saw me standing next to Uncle John, he was confused. "Is he your friend, John?" Laughing, my John replied. "This is Noah, he just arrived with Ethan." Upon hearing that I was Noah, my Uncle Carlos'' reaction was exactly the same as my Uncle John''s, which made me realize that instead of explaining who I was and how I got that way, maybe it would be easier to explain it to everyone at once? Looking at the motorcycle behind me, Uncle Carlos'' eyes widened as he began to stare at it, just like Uncle John''s, but instead of a technical stare like Uncle John''s, Uncle Carlos'' was more like someone appreciating a beauty. His shock alternated between my appearance and my riding such a cool bike. As the three of us chatted, a pair of not-so-well-meaning eyes were pointed in our direction from inside the house where the women were. I didn''t know it at the time, but when Karen heard that the family was having a barbecue tonight, she didn''t realize that the reason for the barbecue was so my father could pay off everyone''s debts. She thought it was just an ordinary family dinner that my grandmother had invited her to. So she wanted to use it to further burnish my father''s image and mine in front of the rest of the family because he hadn''t paid anyone but her yet. Especially since she was sure we wouldn''t show up, as had been the case with the last few family dinners. But when she saw Ethan in the living room playing with James and Sophia, she was confused. And when she saw me standing next to a new motorcycle talking to my Uncle Carlos and Uncle John, she thought of something she could use to burnish our image even more. After all, what courage would I have to buy such an expensive- looking motorcycle when I still owed money to the whole family? So while I was chatting and having a good time with my aunt and uncle in the driveway, Karen took advantage of the fact that I wasn''t there and no one but my two uncles had seen me, and started talking bad about me, trying to paint me in a bad light with the family, as dishonest for possibly using the money they had lent my family to buy a motorcycle. Too bad they didn''t realize that the reason for today''s family meeting was to pay back the money to everyone. Chapter 130 130 - Karen... Chapter 130 130 - Karen... When I''d finished talking to my aunt and uncle, we went to the back of the house where the rest of the family was gathered. As soon as I appeared with them, I noticed the confused and curious expressions of the other people, but there was one person who didn''t have that on his face. The moment I appeared, I heard a sweet, excited voice. "Noah!" My grandmother shouted my name as she slowly approached me with a big smile on her face. When I heard her call me Noah, I smiled too as I realized that some people had started to recognize me, but the confusion of my changed appearance was glaring on their faces. At that moment, the people in the background were just my grandmother, my grandfather, my Uncle Ben who was tending the barbecue, and Ethan who was running with Sophie and James. My uncles'' wives were inside the house, as far as I could see through the kitchen window. "You''ve changed so much, my boy..." My grandmother said excitedly as she walked around me looking at how different I was. "You''re the only one who recognized me, Grandma." I said, looking at her fondly. From Noah''s old memories, his grandmother had always treated him very well, even when he was isolating himself, she would still sit and talk to him, asking how he was doing, if anything was wrong, often even giving him money to buy the anime action figures she knew he liked. So the affection that his memories had for her was partly inherited by me, who, despite not having gone through those things, could still feel the old lady''s kindness. "Of course I would recognize you..." She smiled as she looked at me with sparkling eyes. "But you''re so handsome... when are you going to bring a girlfriend for me to meet?" Hearing this, I rolled my eyes as I laughed. After talking to her, I went to my grandfather and said hello to him as well, even though he was a more reserved man due to the different upbringing, my grandfather was still a good man. I could feel his pride when he looked at me, especially at my arms, which may have pleased him to see that I was getting strong. My Uncle Ben was also a very nice man, the quietest man in the family, the middle brother between my father and my Uncle John. The only people younger than my Uncle Ben were my Aunt Kate, my Uncle Carlos'' wife, and Karen, the youngest in the family. Upstodatee from While I was talking to them, David came out of the house, accompanied by Jerry, who was wearing his big headphones and playing his portable video game, ignoring everyone. I just nodded at David without saying anything. He was embarrassed by this, especially since he knew what Karen was saying inside the house to Kate and my Uncle Ben''s and Uncle John''s wives, and he just nodded at me too. My uncles saw this, but didn''t feel anything strange. Even though he seemed like a cool guy, because of Karen, David hardly interacted with the others, usually just staying more isolated with his cell phone and listening to other people''s conversations. "Ahan Karen, I''m the liar and no one in the family could have imagined that you, a money-grubbing old woman, would have the nerve to do this." I said without paying much attention and went back to talking to my other aunts. Hearing what I said, Karen became furious and tried to think of an answer to say, but she herself knew that everyone knew how obsessed she was with money and that even without proof, it was obvious that my aunts believed me completely. Seeing my aunts ignore her, Karen angrily left the kitchen and went to sit with David and Jerry in the backyard. As soon as she left the kitchen, the atmosphere between my aunts and me became much better, and they took advantage of this to ask me various questions about how I lost weight, what my secret was, how I gained so much muscle, and they asked me various tips on how to lose weight as well. Of course, I couldn''t say that I used a system to do it because they wouldn''t even understand if I told them the truth, but since I had studied a lot about gym training, biology, and cooking for weight loss, I really had a lot of useful tips that could help them lose weight as well. And with my [Teach Lv 30] skill, everything I explained was very simple for them, even the complex explanations of how each type of food helps digest fat and how weight training exercises play a fundamental role in breaking down fat in the body and turning it into fuel for muscle development, they were able to understand everything without too much difficulty. "Woah, not only are you looking better, but you''re smarter too, Noah?" My Aunt Karen asked excitedly, looking at me even more astonished. Laughing, I chatted with them while taking advantage of the fact that they were cooking some food for us to eat with the barbecue, and I used this to learn a bit of cooking from them as well. [Cooking Lv 24-> 25] Seeing that I also had a high level of cooking knowledge, our conversation became even more fun, until after a few minutes, my parents arrived and the family was completely reunited. Another big surprise for the family was that Liv had also changed a lot. From a girl who used to fight with my mother all the time and sulk in a corner, she had become a much more communicative girl who interacted much better with the rest of the family. This caused all of my uncles to pepper my parents with questions to find out what they had done to make us change so much. My parents didn''t have an answer and just blamed it on me, even telling the family that I was now a singer and that I was about to become a D-rank artist! My aunt and uncle were shocked to hear that I was an artist, but when they thought about it and remembered my new bike, my good looks, and that we were going to pay off my parents'' debt today, it all started to fit together in their minds like a puzzle. It really made sense for us to have more money since I had become an artist, and with more money it wasn''t strange for us to pay off the debt and for me to buy a motorcycle. Not to mention it made sense for me to become an artist now that I looked better after losing weight. They were just shocked at the order of things since I lost weight after becoming an artist. When my grandmother heard this, her eyes lit up and she wanted me to sing a song for her. Unfortunately, I didn''t bring an instrument today and didn''t really know how to sing for her. Until my grandmother told me that there was a big old piano in the basement that I could play if it still worked. So with a piano, I came up with a song that I would hardly be able to play at my concerts, but that would be a great song to play for the family right now. Chapter 131 [Bonus ] 131 - New Idea Chapter 131 [Bonus Chapter] 131 - New Idea Although All Of Me isn''t the ideal song to play in bars or at lively concerts, playing it with the family or at weddings was the perfect place for it. Not to mention, for my grandparents, who were from a completely different generation than me, a more romantic, classic song like All Of Me was right up their alley. When I finished singing, the surprise on everyone''s faces was palpable, second only to their surprise at how much weight I had lost. After that, the atmosphere at the barbecue was much better. My parents brought lots of drinks and meat for us to eat, and I learned how to barbecue from my uncle Carlos and John using a mixture of their techniques, which gave me another level in Cooking. [Cooking Lv 25 -> 26] This time, I was surprised to feel the knowledge of a level that gave me specialized knowledge in barbecue, even though I already had 25 levels in other cooking styles. It showed me that even if I had Lv 40 in a skill, it was possible for someone with the skill at Lv 10 to be better than me at something specific, which was very interesting. The funny thing about singing for the family was that Karen, David and Jerry didn''t come to hear me sing, probably out of anger, which was great because the atmosphere was much better without the three of them. I just felt bad that I didn''t have anything special to sing. As much as I was looking for a song that would fit the moment, I couldn''t come up with anything. I wanted a song that would resonate well with the moment, but nothing came to mind. So I planned to think of something to sing to them in the future. But for now I just enjoyed the barbecue with the family. Even though I wasn''t working, interacting with people, eating, talking, explaining things, it was all a bit tiring, I missed my moments just being alone and concentrating on my things. Luckily my gigs were later in the evening now, so I had more time to rest until I had to leave. I used this free time to just relax and answer some MeTube comments and Instabram DMs. But one message I received caught my eye. [Requiem:Hey BlackVelvet, I noticed that in the comments of your shows there are a lot of smaller artists who comment about learning different things from your shows, maybe it could be a good idea for you to post a more didactic vlog to try to attract more of these people? I had already noticed that other artists were trying to learn from me, and with my [Teach Lv 30] skill, my teaching level was really scary compared to other MeTubers, but I hadn''t thought of doing something like this before. On the one hand, I couldn''t see many advantages to it. [BlackVelvet: What do you think could be an advantage for me to do this?]I sent a question back to Requiem, one of the followers who gave me the most career ideas. [Requiem: I think that if you manage to teach good artists, it can make their liking for you increase in the future, and just like an investment, when they get bigger, this gratitude of theirs for you having helped them can be a good thing for your career]. As I read his reply, I realized that this might actually be true, that getting other artists to learn from me would be like an investment, that there might be ingrates among these artists, but the benefit of the artists being grateful to me would be greater than the downside of teaching them, so I started planning how I could really make my videos more didactic. I''ve already explained a lot about my thought process, but I didn''t want to go into too much depth so as not to bore people who don''t want to be artists, but I thought this might be good for me, so I tried to find a way to mix the didactic part with something interesting, to get the best of both worlds for my videos. It wasn''t an easy answer to come up with, by the time Selena arrived at my house I hadn''t been able to think of anything. But I wasn''t in a hurry, maybe I could think of something interesting while I was recording... So when Jason arrived, I talked to both of them in search of other ideas to try, and we decided to do some tests today. I would try to put more time into the vlog parts where I explain my thought process and decisions for which song to choose and how to interact with the audience, but Jason would act as the lay audience and ask me the things he didn''t understand and make some jokes at moments he thought would be interesting. This made me excited to see what it would be like to record it this way and how the audience would receive it. Chapter 132 132 - Climbing the Ranks Chapter 132 132 - Climbing the Ranks ??The idea of recording Jason asking questions to a lay audience wasn''t that new, since he''d already done this in normal videos, the biggest difference being that he didn''t ask as many questions and I didn''t spend as much time explaining. But now that I was focusing on making it more didactic, he could ask more questions, and instead of just answering enough for him to understand the basics, my goal would be to explain my thought process until he really understood what I was doing and why I was doing it. "Do you know what song you''re going to sing first tonight, BlackVelvet?" Jason asked as we arrived at the bar. I looked into the camera for a few seconds and explained. "I''m still undecided between two songs. I''ve got two really good songs to get the crowd going, The Lazy Song and A Bar Song, both of which really fit the mood of the bar and whenever I sing them both the crowd gets excited". "The thing that leaves me in doubt is that I always sing The Lazy Song at the beginning of the show, which can leave the audience who already know me a little bored, but A Bar Song is great to end the show, as it''s a song that describes all the processes of the party, from the beginning to the end, where the audience is already looking for somewhere else to go". I explained it all this time. Jason nodded, understanding what I had said so far. "Look, did you notice that a lot of people recognized me and waved at me on the way here?" I asked as I pointed around. Jason was surprised and filmed around to show that there were indeed several people pointing at Noah and waving or commenting on him. "Since a lot of people know me, I don''t have to worry so much about singing The Lazy Song to get the crowd going at the beginning, so I plan to start with Numb, one of their favorite songs, and leave The Lazy Song for the end, before A Bar Song." I said as I smiled and waved to a group of girls who waved back at me. "So if you were in a bar that didn''t know you, would you still sing Numb as the first song?" He asked, pointing the camera at the girls, who were surprised to see his camera and smiled as they waved back. Maybe they knew about my vlog?" I thought in surprise. "If they didn''t know me, I would definitely start with The Lazy Song, it''s very important to use one of your best songs to start the show and get the crowd going, but always save your best song for last, because the first impression is the one that sticks, while the last impression is the one that will cement their impression of you until they see you again," I explained with a smile. I explained with a smile. Whenever Jason had a new question, I would answer it with great dedication until he understood everything. Of course, the video wasn''t just Jason asking me questions, there were also our normal interactions and jokes from other videos, and I wouldn''t put all of his questions in the video, otherwise it would get boring. I would just pick the best questions with the best answers and put them in the video to make it a little more informative but still keep the essence of just a light and fun backstage video of a new artist. Spending the evening like this was more tiring than before, but not by much. The most interesting thing was that by answering questions for him for several hours, I got another level in Teach! [Teach Lv 30 -> 31]. Over the past week, my other skills have also improved significantly. ========================= | Character Status ========================= | Name: Noah Black | Title: Endurance, Tuned Ear. | Level: 01 |------------------------ "Why are you so excited?" Selena asked curiously when she saw me smiling. "My rank, I''m already at the 1,742nd E rank." I smiled back. When she heard that, she smiled too, she probably already knew that. "In the industry, we have a description for the initial artist ranks. The F rank is the rank where those who dream of becoming artists are, the E rank is the rank where those who strive to become artists are, the D rank is the rank of those who actually become artists, and the C rank is where you actually become a real artist," she said. She said. "When you reach the D rank, our routine might change a bit. I was curious. "What might change?" "At E Rank we focus on growing your popularity, developing your fan base, growing your brand. In D rank we can start to take advantage of that, brands can start sponsoring you and we''ll have to record commercials, invitations can appear for you to participate in some smaller programs, we can even do exclusive concerts for your audience." She explained. "Why wait until D Rank to do this? Aren''t I close enough in popularity to do that?" I asked confused. But Selena just shook her head. "Even though you are close to the D rank because you climbed 1,400 places in the ranking this week, don''t think that climbing the next 1,700 places will be so easy. Popularity doesn''t consist of concrete numbers, maybe the popularity of people around the 3k position was divided into just a few hundred points between one and the other, but the higher you go in the rankings, the bigger the difference between each place, so the higher you go, the harder it is to climb". Hearing this, I was a little discouraged. "So it''s going to take me a few months to get to D rank?" But she just shook her head. "Don''t be too hasty, you might be able to get to D rank in a few weeks, but not because it''s easy to get to D rank, but because you''re growing so fast. In a few weeks, your popularity could easily be double your current popularity, so I say it''s best to just wait until you reach D rank for these things." "That''s true... I guess I was a bit hasty." I smiled as I scratched my head. "If an E Rank artist heard you complaining about staying at E Rank for a few months before moving up to D Rank, they''d probably kill you..." Selena sighed and made me laugh. She was right, normally artists take years at E rank, I climbed from there in just a few months, which was an unheard of speed for someone without an announcement from someone bigger. After I got home, I took a shower to wash off the dirt and sweat that was on my body from the concert and looked at the clock. It was almost 2:00 a.m. and I would have to get up at least 5:00 a.m. to go to the new school the next day. If it hadn''t been for the system that reduced my need for sleep, allowing me to get more rest with less sleep time, I probably would have woken up exhausted the next day with only the 2-3 hours of sleep I had gotten that night. But when I woke up the next day, even though I had the system, I still had to sleep a few minutes longer and couldn''t do my morning run that I did every day. Still, I woke up before my mother and siblings, so I took the time to make breakfast for everyone. They soon woke up and we had breakfast together, with the main topic being the new school I was going to. Since it was a private school, I had to wear their uniform, which looked like a burgundy suit with the school crest embroidered on the chest. It wasn''t my favorite style of clothing, but my mother and Liv said it looked good on me. We soon finished breakfast and I put on my leather jacket over my uniform and rode my motorcycle to the new school, curious to see what the classroom environment would be like. But little did I know that while I was curious to know what it would be like to study at this new school, among the students who would possibly be my classmates, there were people who were excited that I would be studying with them, or even people who already hated me and didn''t want me to study with them. Even if I had known that, I wouldn''t have cared. It''s not like the attitude of the people and the school I was going to was any worse than the attitude of my previous school. If it were, I''d have no problem using my influence to deal with it differently...Upstodatee from Chapter 133 [Bonus ] 133 - Powerful Buff! Chapter 133 [Bonus ] 133 - Powerful Buff! ??Riding to school for the first time on a motorcycle was very relaxing. If it wasn''t for the leather jacket and gloves, I would have been freezing, but with the jacket and gloves, I felt almost none of the morning chill. So I just enjoyed the ride and took it easy all the way to Oakland.Th.e? most uptodate novels are published on n(0)velbj)n(.)co/m Actually, this was the second time I rode alone, since Liv or Ethan always wanted to sit on the back of the bike when I went somewhere. The feeling of being free on the bike was a lot of fun, so the ride to school was very fast for me, even though it took 20 minutes. When I arrived on campus, since I already had a student ID, I was able to ride the bike into the parking lot without any problems. While parking, I noticed a few curious looks passing by, but they didn''t last long. Although the leather jacket was nice, it hid the curves of my body, but it''s not like I was going to get cold wearing something that showed off my body while riding a bike... so I didn''t even worry about it and got off the bike while taking off my helmet. Arriving in the school hallway, I quickly found my locker and put my helmet and leather jacket in there, as well as putting away some books that I wouldn''t be using right now, and was getting ready to go to my class when I noticed something strange."Is that him?""I think so, that bleached hair can only be him." "He''s taller than I thought!" "He''s also more muscular than in the videos..." They were the voices of two girls talking, but not only did I feel that they were talking while looking at me, I also realized that they were probably talking about me because of what they were saying.Looking in the direction of the sound, I searched for them, but I couldn''t find exactly who had been talking. Shaking my head, I just let it go and went to my first class.I was used to hearing people talk about me like that at my old school. I thought there wouldn''t be anything like that at this school since it was an art school, but it turned out that I was wrong.Arriving at room 403, I entered while looking around the room and observing how beautiful it was.Unlike my old school, in this school, all the chairs were padded, the desks were spacious and well-maintained, the room had air conditioning, the blackboard at the front of the classroom was huge. It was all very impressive.Looking at the students, I noticed that as soon as I walked in, everyone in the room stopped talking and looked at me in surprise, leaving me confused."Maybe they weren''t expecting a transfer student? I thought. "Good morning..." I said as I nodded at them and looked for an empty seat. "Good morning." "Good morning." "Good morning." Surprisingly, several students answered my good morning. Being used to sitting in the last chairs in both of my lives, I didn''t even think as I went straight to the back of the room and looked at the tables, wondering if there was a seat there. "The seats are empty, you can sit anywhere you want." A friendly voice came from behind me, surprising me a little. I looked in the direction of the voice and saw a handsome boy with pink dyed hair smiling at me. This surprised me. "How does that work?" "At the end of the first week of classes for the month, the teacher gives you a test, and if you manage to pass the test with 80% or more correct, you are free to miss the rest of the month''s classes, but you only get one try per month to take that test," he said with a sigh. "Did you fail your exam?" I asked, guessing the answer. "Yes..." He replied. Thinking, I had an idea. "How about you help me tell what the teacher taught during the month and in return I help you pass the exam every month? I''m a fast learner and can teach others easily." Hearing this, Julian''s eyes lit up. "Yes! Count me in!" "Me too!" Evelyn also said quietly, looking at me with bright eyes. "Okay!" I nodded in satisfaction. I didn''t know anyone else in the class to ask what the teacher had said, so it would be easier to ask them to help me ask the other students or the teachers so that I could study the right content with them for a week and help them pass the exam. Surprisingly, the class schedule for the three of us today was the same, so the three of us spent the normal class together, and I quickly learned what the teacher was explaining and used my [Teaching Lv 31] skill to help them learn as well. They were both shocked at how quickly they learned things when I explained them to them. While I was happy with the bonuses I got in the classrooms. [Good Math Classroom + Good Math Teacher: Effect: +80% (60% classroom + 20% teacher) bonus to learning math related content. Duration: As long as you are in the classroom (as long as the teacher is teaching)]. Looking at the incredible 80% increase in math learning, my math skill, which had been stagnant for a few weeks, quickly increased again. [Intermediate Math Lv 30 -> Lv 32 Effect: +32% easier to understand and apply intermediate math concepts]. Looking at this math buff, I was looking forward to my next extracurricular class. Chapter 134 134 - Laura Miller Chapter 134 134 - Laura Miller Luckily, the regular class was over in no time. The school''s schedule was such that half of the classes were normal classes, while the classes after recess were extracurricular classes where students could learn about the specifics of their careers. To attend these classes, students had to sign up for them when they enrolled, although they could change classes every month if they didn''t like them. I signed up for three different classes: singing, acting, and dancing. I also had the option to study instruments, but those instrument classes were more focused on classical music instruments, which was a waste of time for me. So I just wanted to try these three main classes. I didn''t even have to explain why I wanted to sing. I was already learning acting on my own at home, but I still felt that learning it would be very useful for my future career. Both for learning how to make commercials, for how I would act on stage for my audience, for use in my videos, and especially if I were to venture into the field of movies or TV series, having well-developed acting skills was essential. This was something I noticed from the girls'' conversations about Korean artists at my old school in my previous world. Usually, they would debut as a musical group together, but in order to increase their individual popularity, they would work on various TV shows, either acting as soap opera characters or participating in reality shows. As for dancing, it was something I learned more out of curiosity and personal satisfaction. I know I didn''t need to know how to dance so much since I was playing guitar on stage, but dancing was something I had always wanted to know... Although I was able to get with girls in my previous world, I was never able to do so because I knew how to dance, or danced well. So not knowing how to dance was always like a knot in me that I wanted to untie by learning to dance. When I told Evelyn that I had signed up for a dance class, she was very excited and asked if I was going to dance today. But looking at my schedule, I would only have dance class tomorrow, with today reserved for acting class, which left her a little disappointed, but she was still excited about us doing an extracurricular class together. "Now all you have to do is say you can paint?" Julian asked jokingly after hearing me confirm that I was going to dance with Evelyn. I looked at him with a smile and replied. "Yes, but I''m only good at digital art." Upon hearing this, Julian was shocked. "Are you kidding me?!" Smiling, I took out my phone and showed him a drawing I''d done of the character BlackVelvet, but in a slightly different style than JacobTheWerewolf. Seeing the drawing of my character on my phone, Julian and Evelyn were surprised. "Why didn''t you sign up for an art class?" He asked incredulously. I just shook my head. "I''m not interested in keeping it as my focus, although I like painting, it''s never ignited a passion in me." I''d even stopped selling art like Jacob, since it took up an hour or two a day that I could use to improve other skills or rest. "Too bad... if you need help with anything related to painting, you can talk to me..." He said disappointedly as he handed me his cell phone. "This is the new student in our class, Mr. Anderson, Noah Black, I''m analyzing him to see if he''s a good actor." She explained with a smile, but without taking her eyes off me. This made the teacher curious."Mr. Black, have you ever had any acting training?" I looked at him, ignoring Laura who was staring at me. "Yes, but not much, I only practiced for 5 months before I came to the Oakland Arts Academy. " He showed no disappointment and nodded. "At least you''re not a complete beginner." As soon as he said that, he walked away and sat down on a chair in the corner of the stage, waiting for the rest of the students to arrive. Surprisingly, the other students were surprised by Laura, but not for the reason I had imagined. Instead of being surprised that she was holding my hand, they were surprised that she was holding it for so long. Apparently Laura did this with all the new students, but she didn''t hold anyone''s hand for more than 30 seconds, while she held mine for at least 5 minutes while continuing to stare at me in surprise. "How did you develop your body like that?" She asked in a shocked voice. "I can''t feel the limit in you..." "Limit?" I asked confused. "Yes, Laura says she can sense the limit in people when she analyzes their bodies. Although it''s a strange skill to have, she got it right most of the time with the students. The longer she held someone''s hand, the greater the limit they had, which corresponded very well with the results of the lessons. One boy explained to me a little frustrated. Maybe his limit was low? Or was he just jealous that she held my hand for so long? I only let Laura hold my hand for so long because of her pleasant personality and obviously good looks. Although she was quite small, the girl had a beautiful body and a face worthy of a famous actress, as well as a soft hand that was very pleasant to hold. While she was holding my hand, I started talking to the other actors and warming up with them. From what I found out by talking to them, in this group of 30 people, there were 6 E-rank performers and only one D-rank performer. To my surprise, the only D-rank performer was Laura, who had been holding my hand and looking at me curiously. She had started her acting career as a child actress with a few appearances in smaller movies, and had grown as she gained more career space until she became a C Rank Artist. The problem was that she stopped growing, and this began to limit the roles she could get, which caused her popularity to dwindle over time until she fell back to the D rank. But that didn''t affect her too much. "I''m going to improve my acting skills to the point where they''ll want to put me in any role I want in any movie, regardless of my size." She said confidently, making me raise an eyebrow and reevaluate this little girl. Although she was small and sometimes acted childish, I could tell that she had a lot of experience in this field and that she was very mature inside. "I''m sorry Mr. Anderson, my friends delayed me a bit to tell me some important news and I just got here..." A breathless voice came from the door, making everyone look at the source of the voice with curiosity. Being one of the tallest, even though there were a few people between me and the door, I could see over them that the person who had said this was a very pretty girl, with long brown hair and light eyes, a delicate white complexion, and her face wearing only light makeup. But what surprised me was that I found this girl very familiar. Chapter 135 [Bonus ] 135 - Big improvement! Chapter 135 [Bonus Chapter] 135 - Big improvement! When I saw the girl with long brown hair and light eyes panting in the doorway, her eyes searching for her teacher. I began to feel that she was quite familiar to me. Haven''t I seen this girl somewhere before? I asked myself, truly confused. When her eyes met mine, the girl froze. And seeing her frozen expression, I finally remembered who this girl was. Especially when Julian and Evelyn kept talking about how she was the reason most of the school knew about me. "BlackVelvet?!" She asked in shock as she looked at me, causing everyone to stop and look at me as well. Many showed surprised expressions, others nodded as if mentally confirming that they were right about something. "Yes...?" I replied uncertainly. "You''re the girl from my Boyfriend video, right?" I asked. Seeing that I confirmed it was BlackVelvet, she was shocked and embarrassed, and hearing my question, she was even more embarrassed as she nodded slightly. "Yep..." She replied shyly. "All right, stop chatting, now that everyone''s here, let''s start the lesson." The teacher said as he stood up, making everyone stop and look at him as he stood in the circle we had formed. Charlie ran into the circle as well, but froze for a second when he came into my line of sight and saw the little girl next to me holding my hand and staring at me. But despite his shock, Charlie didn''t react any further and began warming up and stretching while listening to the teacher''s explanation. Mr. Anderson first looked around the circle, staring at each student''s face for a few seconds until he looked at Laura and raised his eyebrow slightly, then continued to look at the other students. Visitt for the latest updates "Today we''re going to talk about authenticity in acting. It''s important because the audience knows when we''re not being real, and that can break the connection with the story. So let''s do a simple exercise. Pick an emotion and express it without words. Remember to really connect with the emotion, not just fake it. The key is to feel the emotion on the inside before expressing it on the outside. It makes the performance more authentic. He said, getting a nod from everyone. For the first time, Laura took her eyes off me and stared at the teacher, her expression slowly changing from the curiosity she had felt before to hatred. It really looked like she hated Mr. Anderson very much and wanted him to die right now, which shocked the hell out of me! Looking at Laura, Mr. Anderson''s face, which had been dying of boredom the whole time, changed to a small smile and a nod of his head. "Well done Ms. Miller, you can get back to normal, a great presentation." He said, making Laura return to her normal curiosity as if it had never happened. This left me completely shocked, her acting skills were probably at an extremely high level! Ignoring the look in her eyes that came back to me after the exercise, I started to imagine an emotion to feel and try to act it out. Thinking about the persona I was doing for BlackVelvet, I thought I''d try something closer to what I would use with him. I was surprised to hear that since I didn''t know anyone had recognized me the day I came with Selena. "So this is the third time we''ve seen each other?" I asked. "The fourth time..." She answered quietly. "Fourth time?" I asked confused. "On Isabella''s birthday, my little brother went to the party too, I saw you there with your little brother too when I went to pick him up." She said, making me look surprised."Woah, so our brothers go to school together?" I asked surprised. "Yeah... I think this might even be the fifth time we''ve seen each other," she said, leaving me confused."What do you mean?" I asked."Were you riding a motorcycle with your brother on the back yesterday?" she asked. Hearing that, my eyes widened as I looked at her."Is your brother the little boy my brother pointed his middle finger at?" "Yes..." She laughed as she lowered her head. "I can''t believe it...haha, I''m sorry, I''ll tell Ethan not to do that to your brother anymore..." I apologized. "Don''t worry, it''s just a kid''s fight." She said worriedly as she stared at me. Seeing that she was finally looking me in the eye, I smiled as I nodded. After that, we started doing the exercise the teacher had given us, and Charlie took the opportunity to give me some acting tips. Although she didn''t have as high a skill as Laura, she was still very good at it, with a skill of maybe Lv 25 or so. This helped give me the final push I needed to get the skill up to Lv 10! [Acting Mastery Lv 9 -> 10]. This last level gave me 3 months of experience in Acting, which finally made my improvement from the beginning of the class more obvious, to the point that even Charlie in front of me was shocked at how much less mistakes I was making. As my eyes wandered around the classroom, I noticed Laura staring at me again with suspicion in her eyes, but maybe she didn''t notice such a drastic change since she wasn''t holding my hand anymore. I just smiled as I went back to practicing with Charlie, who started telling me about Trevor, her ex-boyfriend, who probably hated me after I told him my class schedule for tomorrow and she told me that the three of us would be taking English together. The thought of having to deal with a spoiled, arrogant boy made me lazy for tomorrow, but thinking about how much I''d improved in acting in those three hours of class and how much I could improve my singing skills tomorrow, I got excited again. At the end of the class, we got together to chat and I took the opportunity to meet other students to make friends, where many gave me their phone numbers and we added each other on Instabram. I noticed that many of them were only interested in me because I was an E Rank artist with hundreds of thousands of followers, while even the E Rank artists in the class didn''t have half of what I had. But I didn''t worry about it and pretended that I didn''t know about their interest. It was better to just accept their interest as long as it didn''t hurt me than to make enemies on the first day of class. Two of the few students who really had no interest in me were Charlie and Laura, who also exchanged contact numbers with me to talk about acting after class. Charlie, I felt, was more interested in me than in acting, while Laura was still almost entirely driven by her curiosity about me, without having the space or time to feel anything else. Chapter 136 136 - Two events?! Chapter 136 136 - Two events?! ??I said goodbye to the group of classmates I''d made in drama class, got on my bike and rode home under the curious eyes of the girls as they watched me ride away. After class, Charlie went to meet her friends and Laura finally let go of my hand before saying goodbye to me, saying she had other things to do as well. When I got home, Ethan and Liv had already arrived from school, so they both came to ask me all about the new school, while my mother also came to hear about things. When I told them that most of the students were already artists, with many being the same rank as me and some even being D-rank artists, they were very surprised. I also told them about the acting class, but didn''t comment on Laura holding my hand all the time. As for Charlie, Ethan was shocked to hear that I was studying with Tony''s sister, the little boy he had a rivalry with at school. "So if you see Tony on the street, don''t be too aggressive with him like the day we rode our bikes, okay? His sister was with him and saw you two fighting." I said as I ruffled his hair. Seeing that I hadn''t asked him to stop fighting, just not to fight in public, Ethan broke into a big smile as he nodded. But there was a problem. "What is this about, Ethan?" my mother asked suspiciously. Hearing my mother''s question, Ethan froze as he looked at me with a desperate look on his face. "RIP buddy..." I said as I walked back to my room, leaving Ethan with Helicopter Lauren''s conversation. With the improvement I''d had at school, this left me with very little time to practice acting at home, which, if it happened to be the same with singing, would leave me with few skills to practice at home, which would give me more free time to rest and enjoy my time editing my videos or answering comments. The only thing I still needed to practice at home was my Guitar skill, but with so much free time, it wouldn''t be a problem to study it on my own so it wouldn''t fall behind. After seeing the 80% buff, I regretted not signing up for instrument lessons. I guess I can look into it later. [Selena sent me a strange message. [I sent it back. [The after-school lessons were really good, so much so that I feel like I was learning twice as fast and half as hard as when I was practicing on my own]. [Hehe, I thought you''d feel that way, the school is really very good]. She sent. [I''ve arranged for you to perform at two more weddings in San Jose on Friday and Saturday, so if you have any extra classes on Friday, you better let the teacher know in advance that you''ll be missing them]. Nodding my head, I replied. [Two weddings in one week? Okay!] I actually had an after-school class on Friday, I would have drama on Monday and Wednesday, singing on Tuesday and Friday, and dance on Thursday. I chose this schedule so that I wouldn''t miss the only dance class of the week if there were shows on Friday, or so that I wouldn''t miss the acting classes that I felt I needed more than singing. "Yeah... a fast learner." She looked at me suspiciously. But at least she didn''t want to spend the whole lesson holding my hand again. Although I would have loved to hold her hand, when my Physics skill went up a level, she became alert and eyed me suspiciously again. I don''t know how she did it, but she sensed when one of my skills went up a level, as if she made some kind of audible alarm. The advantage was that since she wasn''t as good at physics as she was at acting, she couldn''t see my improvement as clearly. My Intermediate Physics was already around Lv34, which I noticed was a few levels above her. On the questions she was unsure of, I helped her without too much difficulty, which unconsciously brought us closer together, making it easier for us to speak quietly and hear each other during the lesson. When the lesson was over, we realized that we wouldn''t have any more lessons together that day, so she invited me to have lunch with her. Explaining that I was going to have lunch with Julian and possibly Evelyn, I told her that and she said she''d join us for lunch then. Smiling, I nodded and went to my next class, Spanish. My Spanish was at Lv 16, a level that represented mastery for someone who had studied it for two years. It wasn''t a very high level, but enough for me to be able to converse with another person in Spanish, but considering that I wanted to learn this language to mastery, thinking about the future to gain even more of an audience, taking it to the next level was essential. Since I could take two foreign language classes, the other language I chose to learn was Korean. From what I had analyzed of this world, the Korean music industry was just starting to come to the West, and there were no groups as famous as BTS from my old world in this current world. The most famous group was a girl group who, although they were A-rank artists in Korea, were still D-rank artists in the world. Unlike BTS from my previous world, who were probably S rank worldwide. So learning Korean now would be a good way to get good opportunities for collaborations in the future, as well as being one of the few international artists who could speak their language, which could possibly open many doors for me there as well. I was interested in expanding my fame in Asia after consolidating my position in America, so Korea and Japan would be my first stops, both because they are smaller countries and easier to stand out in, and also because although China is the biggest potential market, it would be very difficult to break into there, something I could only consider at the end of my career. But that thought aside, when I walked into the Spanish classroom, I smiled when I saw Charlie smiling and waving at me. So I waved back and was about to walk over to where she was sitting and sit down next to her, but someone inconveniently sat down next to her before me. It wouldn''t have bothered me if someone else had just sat there, but what bothered me was that Charlie was obviously bothered by it, and the boy sitting there was staring at me. This spoiled attitude gave me an idea of who this boy was. Chapter 137 [Bonus ] 137 - Pig Chapter 137 [Bonus Chapter] 137 - Pig The boy stared at me with disdain, while I saw Charlie next to him frowning as he began to complain to him. Could I sit somewhere else and not cause a fuss? Hell, yeah. Did I want to avoid confusion with the boy Julian had already told me hated me? Hell, no. So, pretending I didn''t notice his attitude, I walked over to where Charlie was sitting and sat across from her, finally hearing what she was saying. "Why are you sitting across from me, Trevor?" She asked angrily. "I don''t want any contact with you." "What, babe? Don''t you miss me? Weren''t you the one who called me every night crying for us to get back together?" He sneered at her as he looked at me out of the corner of his eye. It looked like he was trying to brand her as his cattle and that I shouldn''t try anything with her because she still liked him. "I only called you once Trevor, the night you broke up with me, after that I never wanted to contact you again." She snorted as she looked at him with hatred. "Good morning Charlie." I greeted her as if I hadn''t even noticed what was happening. Despite her embarrassment, Charlie smiled at me and greeted me with an apologetic voice. "Good morning, Noah." I tried to ignore the spoiled kid, but he couldn''t help himself and talked about me. "Ohh, is that the little singer you were following?" He said dismissively. "You seem to know each other well." Charlie was about to answer, but I interrupted her while she was asking. "Is this the boy you told me about yesterday, Charlie? The spoiled kid who thought it would be a good idea to break up with one of the prettiest girls in school?" I asked, obviously feigning curiosity. "It''s really a waste when delicate flowers fall to pigs." As soon as I said that, Charlie was embarrassed and didn''t even know how to answer me. "Who are you calling a pig?" The boy snapped as he stood up angrily and glared at me. "I didn''t say anything in particular, but if it fits, who am I to deny it?" I sneered, not even bothering to get up. But he was even more enraged by this and tried to push past Charlie to get close to me. Seeing this, Charlie quickly got up and stood between the two of us while I tried to hold him back. "Stop it Trevor... don''t start a fight!" She yelled at him angrily. Seeing Charlie defending me and me looking at him with disdain, Trevor became enraged and pushed her aside and came towards me. Seeing Charlie being pushed aside, even though I had no particular feelings for her, I became enraged. And when she saw the way I was holding Trevor and how he was struggling and screaming, she became confused and angry. "Kid, let him go now! Somebody tell me what''s going on!" She yelled angrily, this time in English. Without a care in the world, I just pushed Trevor forward, causing him to bump into a table and fall to the floor. Seeing me act like that, the woman became even more enraged. "You, who are you?! Why are you causing trouble in this class?" She shouted as she pointed her finger at me. Seeing her finger pointing at me, I had to control myself not to get angry with her. ~ I''m Noah Black, a new transfer student at the school, this is my first day in your class, teacher. ~ I spoke to her in my Spanish, which, while not fluent, was an intermediate level that allowed for fluid conversation. Surprised that I was responding to her in a Spanish that was clearly not my mother tongue, something that could only be achieved by studying it on my own, the anger she felt towards me subsided a little, as few people my age truly dedicate themselves to learning another language. Not only was she surprised by my answer in Spanish, but the other students were also shocked as they looked at me talking to the teacher in a way that sounded to them like I really was a native Spanish speaker. ~ Mr. Black, tell me why you''re fighting with Mr. Philips on the first day of school? And even worse, why did the girl Charlie, one of my best students, leave the room crying? ~ she asked as she eyed me suspiciously. Ignoring Trevor who had gotten up from the floor and was glaring at me with hatred, I calmly answered the teacher. ~ When I got to the classroom, Trevor was acting like a jerk to me and Charlie, which made him treat her badly and insult me, so I cursed at him and he tried to hit me. Charlie tried to stop him and he pushed her to get her out of the way. When I saw her being pushed, I stood up and caught him with a harmless martial arts move. ~ I explained patiently. Even though they could not speak so naturally, the students managed to understand at least 70% of what I said, and some nodded. Taking advantage of this, I added in English. "Everyone in the room saw what happened." Looking suspiciously at the other students, the teacher realized that everyone was nodding at her, confirming that what I had said was true. Then she sighed and looked toward the door. "Can someone go check on Charlie and see if she needs any help? I need to have a little chat with Mr. Philips here." She said angrily. A group of girls, including Evelyn, got up and left the room to look for Charlie while the teacher took Trevor out of the classroom to talk to him privately. Seeing that nothing bad had happened to me, I sat back in my seat and used my cell phone to send a message to Charlie asking if she was okay. I didn''t look up after picking up the phone, but I could hear some of the students whispering about me. There were boys who were afraid that I was too rough, even saying that my bleached hair was because I was a punk who got kicked out of another school. There were girls who were a little scared, but most just felt that I acted really cool and that they wanted someone to protect them like I did Charlie. But there was a consensus from what I heard from them that even though I did the wrong thing, Trevor was the asshole for pushing Charlie and I was only acting in self-defense, he was the idiot for trying to buy a fight he couldn''t win. Unfortunately, Charlie didn''t respond to the message I sent her, which made me a little worried. But there was nothing else I could do, I wasn''t close enough to her to follow her while there was already a group of girls talking to her. Chapter 138 138 - Leveling Chapter 138 138 - Leveling ??After a few minutes, the teacher returned to the classroom with Trevor by her side and started the lesson without Charlie and the other girls, giving them time to talk and help Charlie. Though Trevor would stare at me from time to time, I just ignored him and paid attention to the lesson. Under the teacher''s gaze, he picked up his things from next to Charlie''s desk and went to sit on the other side of the room. The 80% bonus for learning Spanish was active, so I made the most of it by paying attention in class and studying the Spanish book when the teacher explained something I already knew or understood. After a few minutes, Charlie returned to the classroom with the other girls, her eyes red but visibly better. When she saw that Trevor''s things were no longer by her side, she breathed a sigh of relief. "Are you all right?" I asked quietly as she walked past me. "Yeah... I''ll explain later." She replied as she nodded. Seeing that at least she wasn''t mad at me, I sighed in relief and went back to paying attention in class, seeing that she didn''t want to talk about it now. Even though I didn''t do anything wrong, I was hitting on her ex-boyfriend, right? Knowing that there were women who got angry at men who hit their boyfriends to make them stop hitting them, I wouldn''t be completely surprised if she got angry at me for hitting him after he pushed her. But luckily, she wasn''t one of those women. It seems that her anger and frustration was really directed at Trevor. I guess because she saw that I had good Spanish and wasn''t paying much attention in class, just looking at my book, the teacher occasionally asked me questions about what she was explaining, but after I answered the third question with ease, she didn''t care what I was reading anymore and went back to teaching normally. By the end of the lesson, with my focus on learning Spanish, my Spanish had gone up 3 levels! [Spanish Language Skill Lv 16 -> 19]. This three-level improvement in skill represented 6 months of additional training in the skill, which was great progress for just one Spanish lesson I had taken at this school. When the lesson was over, I put my things away and was about to leave the classroom. Charlie didn''t speak to me during the entire class, so I didn''t insist on speaking to her either, realizing that she just needed time to get better. But just as I was getting up to leave the room with my backpack, Charlie called out to me. "Noah... wait..." She said quietly. Looking at her curiously, I put my backpack back on the floor and sat down next to her. When I sang my earlier songs, especially Numb and In The End, the difference in my vocal level was clear because I recorded those songs when my singing level was around 20. Now that it was almost level 40, it was like the difference between water and wine. I think it would be cool if I recorded those songs again when this skill reaches Lv 40... I thought with interest as I drove home. I wanted to wait until Lv 40, because when a skill increased by a dozen times, the amount of experience was absurd. From Lv 29 to Lv 30 I gained 5 months of experience, from Lv 39 to Lv 40 would probably be my biggest gain in experience. Since at Lv 37 I had the experience of someone who had practiced the skill for 100 months (8 years and 4 months), at Lv 38 I would have 104 months of experience, at Lv 39 it would be 108 months of experience, but at Lv 40 it would possibly be 120 months of experience, with 12 months in just one level! This increases my experience in the skill to that of someone with 10 years of experience working on it! Of course, 10 years of experience is a lot, but compared to artists who have been A-rank for 10 years, not counting the time they were artists at lower ranks, I even have the level of their skills. I believe that a person''s talent determines the limit they can reach in those skills, and maybe Laura can feel this in some way, because she was shocked when she tried to feel my "limit" but couldn''t feel it. Even though it was scary, the thought that there was no limit, or that the limit of my abilities was so high that Laura couldn''t feel it, instead of discouraging me by showing me that I was far from my maximum, it actually motivated me more because I knew I had a long way to go to improve. At home, after talking to my family, I focused on finishing my video, since it was Tuesday and I wanted to post one of my vlogs today. With the videos Jason was making and how explanatory I was during the vlogs, it really wouldn''t be impossible for me to maintain a frequency of 2 vlogs a week. The only thing I would have to do would be to intersperse the vlogs with different topics so it wouldn''t get repetitive, and I think I could make it interesting for the public who just watch my vlogs to be entertained as well as for the artists who watch my vlogs to learn from me. Since I was posting my first more explanatory vlog today, I was curious to see how the artists would react to the way I was explaining things, to see if it would help them and be useful in any way. Thinking back to the tip my Insta follower Requien gave me that helping these newbie artists could be useful to me, it was hard not to get excited imagining the future where several artists would emerge and I would be the help they needed to get off on the right foot. When the editing was finished, I nodded my head in satisfaction at the result of the video. [Video Editing Lv 17 -> 18] As the level of video editing increased, I found it easier and easier to edit the basics, find the perfect timing to cut the video, and most importantly, I was able to learn how to edit my explanations in a more visual, didactic, and interesting way so that I could both convey my explanation in a more cohesive way and make it interesting for the ordinary audience. So with all that done, I put on an excited smile and started to thumbnail the video as it was being uploaded to the MeTube site. For this video, I was excited to see the audience''s reaction in real time. Chapter 139 139 - Reaction from the other side of the world! Chapter 139 139 - Reaction from the other side of the world! ??Seo-Joon was having lunch with his group mates in the company cafeteria after a training session. After years of being a trainee, Seo-Joon had finally made his debut as a K idol a few years ago. It had been a difficult start, but with the company''s investment, publicity and dedication, they had gone from an unknown group to a C-rank group in Korea in just two years, which was quite an achievement in such a cutthroat market as K idols. Dozens of new groups were created every week and dozens more were shut down due to lack of results. So being able to develop in such a rapidly growing market was great news for Seo-Joon and his group. Since his group was growing so much, the company arranged for them to learn English a few months ago in order to open up more opportunities for the future by singing some songs in English. One of the tips the English teacher gave them was to consume more English content to speed up their learning. The other boys in the group had more difficulty with English and didn''t put as much effort into it, but Seo-Joon, who was the rapper in the group, really started watching English videos to improve his English, as having better English would help a lot with songs that had English rap. At first, it was difficult to understand what the people in the videos were saying, but as time went on, he began to understand more and more, until he was able to understand what they were saying.Visitt for the latest updates Among the channels he had seen in English, there were some car channels, comedy channels, cooking channels, anything that looked interesting he started to follow. Until recently, he saw a channel of a very interesting American singer. BlackVelvet. Seo-Joon became familiar with this singer because of a song he sang called Boyfriend which, although it was in English, was very similar to the style of songs he sang in his group. So when Seo-Joon looked up BlackVelvet''s other songs, he saw that each song had a different style, but while this should theoretically be bad for an artist, it worked very well for BlackVelvet as he was growing very fast! Seeing that his channel was only a month old at the time, Seo-Joon was shocked by the speed of BlackVelvet''s growth. So he started to follow the artist and tried to sing his songs in English to practice his English. At some point BlackVelvet started posting backstage vlogs of his concerts. Curious about the difference between the routine of an American artist and a Korean artist like himself, Seo-Joon clicked on the video and was shocked at how different it was. Since he wasn''t on his group''s account, his comment didn''t get much attention, but among the comments were several people who were artists with more than 100,000 followers on MeTube! Wow, so many artists are commenting to say thank you, it looks like BlackVelvet is helping even more people than I thought... and he''s still only an E-rank artist...'' Seo-Joon thought in surprise. Seo-Joon thought in surprise. If BlackVelvet was already helping so many people when he was only an E-rank artist, who theoretically should know very little about concerts, Seo-Joon was shocked to imagine how much he would be helping if he were a C-rank or even B-rank artist! With so much knowledge at such a low rank, his path to the future would be even brighter! It would be interesting to do a collab with BlackVelvet one day, right? Seo-Joon thought excitedly. Even though they were C-Rank and he was E-Rank, he had already done a collab with a C-Rank artist singing "A Bar Song", so it''s not like he didn''t have experience or anything. During their afternoon practice session, Seo-Joon showed the BlackVelvet video to his group mates and his manager, who although they had a bit of trouble understanding English, felt that they were learning a lot from just one video, just like him! Even his manager, who I''ve been around a lot in the past to take care of their group, was surprised by BlackVelvet''s knowledge and asked Seo-Joon to send him the link to the channel. Happy, Seo-Joon quickly did so and tried to encourage his group mates to watch more BlackVelvet to practice their English better. Little did they know that this small attitude today would have a huge impact on their careers in the future. The destiny they had with the maximum rank they could achieve just changed with the attitude of starting to study better under BlackVelvet''s explanations. And for Noah, on the other side of the world, unbeknownst to him, several artists around the world started talking about his channel to their friends, which would take his channel''s growth to an even higher level. Even more so when artists posted about this video of his and viewers saw how many comments this video received from famous artists, they were shocked! It was normal to see artists commenting on other artists'' videos, but when viewers opened the comments on this video, they were shocked to see that there were more than 10 artists with a verified icon commenting, not to mention dozens of other artists who had not yet reached 100k followers! Not only was this reflected in the number of comments, but the channel''s views and subscribers skyrocketed with so much publicity. As Noah watched the video grow, there was no other reaction he could have at that moment but shock! ////NunuNote//// Hi guys, I''m sorry I didn''t post any chapters yesterday, I was ill for a while and didn''t feel well enough to write, now we''ll get back to our normal routine hehe. Thanks for understanding. As compensation, I''ll add an extra chapter to the Bonus Chapters bank XD Chapter 140 140 - Dance class Chapter 140 140 - Dance class Looking at the reception of the video, I was very excited. My improvement in editing quality and more emphasis on explanations during the video had really started to pay off. After all, from the time I started my career until now, my teaching skill had gone up dozens of levels, and my video editing skill had gone from 0 to Lv 18, which was a huge difference in quality. Even though the skill wasn''t at Lv 20 yet, this Lv 18 in video editing was already equivalent to 28 months of practice, which I realized was like being at the level of a professional video editor. Of course, not at the level of a video editor who worked for movie or film companies, but for the level of MeTube I was already very good. And not only was I surprised by the reaction of the public in the comments of the videos, but I also started getting mentions on Instagram from other artists who posted that they had seen my video and praised it! The artists who posted this were only F-rank or low E-rank artists with few followers, but it was already a very nice attitude. After reading the comments and answering a few questions or thanks, a smile appeared on my face. The next day, after a normal school day, I went to my first dance class. This was the class I was most curious and apprehensive about, since I didn''t even have any dance skills. I would literally have to start from scratch. The advantage I had was that Evelyn came to the class with me, so at least I wouldn''t be alone in learning it. "Are you excited about your first dance class?" She asked as we made our way to the dance studio. "Yeah, but I''m worried...what''s the class like?" I asked. Since I was coming as a transfer student in my senior year, I already knew that the teacher wouldn''t teach the basics in class, my concern was that he would teach very advanced things and I would be too far behind. "The class is very relaxed, the teacher usually teaches a choreography and then goes from person to person to check what the student is doing wrong and what she feels the student needs to practice more, rhythm, control or things like that. Just like in a singing class, the focus is not on the choreography you learn, but on the process of letting go and learning to dance," Evelyn explained. Evelyn explained. I nodded my head, I think I understood. Especially after she gave the example of the singing class, I got a better picture of the class. When I got to the dance room, Evelyn took me to the men''s locker room so I could change out of my school uniform and into more comfortable clothes, and a few minutes later the class began. Just as I had imagined, everyone''s level was already quite advanced. Even though it could give me visibility, it wasn''t what I wanted to pursue. I only saw dance as a tool that I could use to further myself as a singer or actor in the future, or maybe use it to impress a girl, but that would never be my main focus. Of course, I didn''t say it in such a direct way to the teacher, but with my explanation she understood what I meant. After that, I noticed that even though she taught me a lot during the lesson, she didn''t focus on me as much and didn''t give me such enthusiastic explanations. But that was okay with me. I still had the 80% improvement buff during class, I was still learning just like the other students. If I had to say anything, I think this decrease in her attention was even better, because I would feel more comfortable improving my skill and acting with the improved skill level when she wasn''t watching me so closely. [Dance Mastery Lv 3 -> 4] With only a few minutes left in the class, my skill level had increased to Lv 4, and I was already happy. Since the dancing class was very tiring, it was understandable that the class was shorter than the singing or acting classes, because while you would still get tired from practicing those two classes, the level of exhaustion was far from that of the dancing class. After I completed all three of the extracurricular classes I signed up for, I was happy to see that coming to this school, even though it was expensive with a monthly fee of over $2,000, was still very useful for my development. The 80% buff alone was very valuable, as it almost doubled my improvement, so I needed almost half as much practice to get the same results. Another interesting thing was meeting other nice people who, although they looked at me a little differently because of the number of followers I had, still treated me much more naturally than at my old school. Charlie still acted a little weird, Trevor was still an asshole in the few classes we studied together, but Julian, Evelyn and Laura were really nice. Having people like them to talk to in class or during breaks at least made the time in normal class go by faster and it was less boring. And the thought that I could skip normal classes next month because of the teacher''s exam made me even more satisfied with school. So my week went by very fast and in the blink of an eye it was already Friday, where I had one of the two weddings I had to perform at that weekend. My first weekend with more than one wedding to perform at. I was excited to sing at the wedding, as it had been two weeks since I had done so, especially now that I had a week of classes at school with the 80% buffs, which made me even more excited to see what change it would bring to me on stage. When I looked at my stats and the data on my MeTube channel for the changes I''d made this week, a huge smile appeared on my face. Chapter 141 141 - Audition? Chapter 141 141 - Audition? ??Without realizing it, time flew by. In two weeks of classes, my skills and my MeTube channel had changed significantly, even though I hadn''t released any new music. I had performed at two weddings the first weekend and another wedding the following weekend, earning me $5,000 for the weddings alone, plus another $1,000 for the bar gigs I did the rest of my free time, bringing the total amount of money in my bank account from $15,000 to $21,000! As far as my skills and stats are concerned, the changes have been very good. ========================= | Character Status ========================= | Name: Noah Black | Title: Endurance, Tuned Ear. | Level: 01 |------------------------ | HP: 150/150 | MP: 68/150 |------------------------ | Weight: 72 Kg | Strength (STR): 14 -> 15 | Dexterity (DEX): 13 -> 14 | Constitution (CON): 15 | Intelligence (INT): 15 | Wisdom (WIS): 12 | Charisma (CHA): 15 -> 16 (15 + 1) | Agility (AGL): 12 -> 13 | Luck (LUK): ?? |------------------------ | Skills: | (Haircutting Lv 32 -> 34), (Teaching Lv 31 -> 33), (Singing Lv 36 -> 39), (Guitar Lv 37 -> 38), (Krav Maga Lv 30 -> 32) (Music Editing Lv 23) (Programming Skills Lv 27 -> 29), (Soccer Mastery Lv 12 -> 14), (Cooking Lv 26 -> 28), (Spanish Language Mastery Lv 16 -> 23), (Driving Mastery Lv 14 -> 15), (Stage Presence Lv 12 -> 14), (Video Editing Lv 17 -> 20), (Piano Mastery Lv 9 -> 10), (Acting Mastery Lv 5 -> 16), (Motorcycle Driving Mastery Lv 6 -> 10), (Dancing Mastery Lv 1 -> 13). .. | ----------------------- Although it doesn''t seem like there have been many changes to skills above Lv 30, this is not the case. Singing has gone up 3 levels since the last time I checked, and that''s only thanks to the Singing class I took at school, otherwise the improvement would only be half that. But my biggest improvement was in my acting and dancing skills, which went up more than 10 levels! I now practically had the experience of an actor with 2 years of experience, which was an absurd improvement from when I started learning in school, making my acting much more realistic and convincing. Dancing was like going from a soulless, rusty robot to a casual nightclub dancer. I stopped the bike near the entrance and waited patiently for her to get off before I got off as well. "How was the ride?" I asked, smiling. Laura took off her helmet and shook her head, causing her long black hair to blow in the wind and a smile to appear on her face. "That was really cool!" Satisfied, I went with her to the front desk and just kept her company while she filled out her information and signed in for the audition. After being given a number, we went to the designated location and sat in a waiting room. In this room were four other girls our age, some accompanied by their mothers, others by agents, only Laura had someone her own age with her. "Hmph, who would have thought that someone would come to an audition with her boyfriend..." A woman''s deep voice reached my ear. Apparently the voice was too low for Laura to hear, but I looked in the fat woman''s direction and stared at her, making her uncomfortable as she realized I''d heard and changed the subject to her daughter. "Thank you." Laura thanked me, surprising me. "Did you hear her?" I asked. "Yes... but I''m used to it. It was the first time they made fun of me for coming with a boyfriend, usually they make fun of me for coming alone..." She sighed. "Don''t worry about those people, I just feel sorry for that woman''s daughter... dealing with mothers like that must be hell..." I commented. "You have no idea..." Laura sighed too, leaving me surprised. But before I could say more, the door to the audition room opened and a girl came out crying, followed by a disappointed woman. "Calm down child, it''s all right..." The woman said as she ran after her daughter. But her daughter heard nothing and ran to the car. Seeing this scene, out of curiosity, I looked at the fat woman''s face and saw that she was laughing at the situation, which made me shake my head even more. Every few minutes a number would be called and someone would go to audition, only to return disappointed before leaving. Within 30 minutes there were only two candidates left, Laura and the fat woman''s daughter. Since they arrived first, their number was called before ours, leaving just the two of us in the waiting room. "Is the part really that difficult?" I asked, confused. "I don''t know, theoretically it should be an easy role, but seeing so many people get rejected makes me worry..." She said as she held one hand in the other and began to show a little anxiety. Trying to think of something to comfort her, the first thing I could think of was to reach out and take her hand. When she felt my warm hand holding her cold little hands, Laura was surprised and visibly calmer. She avoided eye contact with me and I just stayed calm while I waited for her turn. Soon the fat woman came out of the testing room with her daughter and instead of leaving, she sat down where she had been and looked at us mockingly, even more so when she saw our hands together. But I just ignored her and waited for Laura''s turn. "Number 16, please come to the test." A weary voice came from the room. 16 was Laura''s number and she quickly got up and went to the test. Out of curiosity and to give her a little support, I got up as well and decided to go with her to the test as a chaperone. This could be a good little experience for me. Little did I know that it would be much more than a little experience for me... Chapter 142 142 - Excuse me... Chapter 142 142 - Excuse me... ??As I entered the room behind Laura, I noticed that the place was like a small theater or corporate conference room, with the entrance we were using as the entrance to the stage and the place where the show''s executives were standing as the audience. "Boy, are you her companion?" A woman in her 30s asked in a slightly surprised voice. "Yes ma''am, where can I stand so I don''t get in the way?" I asked modestly, not wanting to hinder Laura''s chances of passing the test just by being here. At my question, the woman nodded in satisfaction and pointed to one of the chairs in the corner of the audience. I nodded and sat down in the corner, wanting to be quiet so as not to disrupt Laura''s audition. "Okay, Laura Miller, Artist D Rank, 17 years old..." The woman said in a bored voice as she read Laura''s form. "Did you memorize the lines for the role we sent you via email?" "Yes." Laura nodded in confirmation. But I could tell from the tone of her voice that she was getting anxious, and I think the executives could see that as well. "So let''s test your interpretation of the scene where Harley argues with her mother about the calories in an apple pie." The woman said, causing Laura to think for a few seconds and nod. "I''m going to act as Harley''s mother and you''re going to interact with me as if you were Harley." With her eyes closed, Laura concentrated on getting into character, trying to think of everything she could use from her experience with Harley''s personality to make the role more realistic. If it was just up to the level of her acting skills, I was sure she could do it perfectly because I''d seen her act and knew how good she was. But when she started acting, I noticed that her anxiety was getting stronger and stronger...to the point where she was almost stuttering. Looking curiously at the executives, I noticed the disappointment on their faces and realized that this was probably a bad sign for Laura. And since she was getting more and more anxious, I think she noticed it too... In the next scene, Laura''s performance was even weaker... "Let''s go to the last scene..." The woman said with an even less excited voice this time. "This scene will be the scene where Jack arrives at the door of the house and Harley has to introduce Jack to her family while her mother is suspicious of him..." Nodding her head, Laura tried to remain calm, but even from a distance I could see her fingers trembling. The woman was acting like Harley''s mother and a man was acting like Jack, Harley''s boyfriend. The more Laura interacted, the more the quality of her acting plummeted, which frustrated me. I knew this girl was good, how high her skill level was, but the anxiety was completely killing her chances of getting the part... So I thought of something... The more she relaxed while practicing with me, the more her level returned to her normal level and our confidence grew. When the executives came back into the room and saw us practicing and how much calmer Laura was, I could tell that at least they weren''t as stressed. "Are you ready?" The woman asked as she sat down and organized her papers. "Yes, ma''am." Laura replied a little more confidently. The woman nodded her head. "Then you may begin." Remembering how the scene had started, I took a step back from Laura and tried to act as serious as possible. In a situation like this, as long as you played your character well, that was enough for them to infer your level of acting, but since I wanted to keep Laura calm and in our comfort zone, I acted like we did in acting class at school. So with one hand raised, I pretended to knock on an invisible door and made a sound with my mouth. Knock Knock ----- 3rd POV ----- As soon as Noah made the sound of the door, the woman and the other executives raised their eyebrows, thinking that he was overdoing it a bit. But that thought soon vanished as they were surprised by the glaring change Laura had undergone. From an anxious and very focused girl, she quickly turned into a happy girl with a strong personality, looking forward to her boyfriend who had just arrived. As if there really was a door between them, "Harley" pretended to fix her hair very carefully, and "Jack" just waited bored on the other side of the door, not seeing how Harley was acting on the other side of the door, even though there physically wasn''t a door between them. Laura''s devotion alone surprised the woman, because this level of acting was far above the level she had shown before. When Harley finally opened the door, the woman realized that the girl was quickly slipping into the role of a teenager in love with the popular boy at school who had a band, while her biggest surprise was Jack himself. She had a hunch when she saw the boy who had come to the show with Laura Miller, but seeing how naturally he played the part of Jack made her even more excited. The dynamic between the two actors on stage was on a much higher level than Laura had shown in any of her auditions, it was as if she was getting more and more into the role of Harley with every second. When the woman began to interact with them, she noticed that the two of them acted very well with her, as if they could see her standing in front of them while they played the role of a ghost. Of course, she noticed that Laura''s acting level was several times higher than the boy''s, but for the amount of lines Jack had, that wouldn''t be such a problem. Something that made an idea in the woman''s head blossom even more as she saw how good the dynamic between the two was and how Laura was playing Harley more and more the way she had envisioned when she first wrote this script. The only thing that still left her in doubt was what was more worthwhile, the stability of girl number 15, who had taken the test before, or Laura''s possible genius, which could put the recording at risk because of her anxiety... Chapter 143 143 - You Got The Role! Chapter 143 143 - You Got The Role! "Please wait in the chairs on the side." The woman said, bringing a big smile to Laura''s and my faces. Ne/w novel chapters are published at novelhall.com We knew that asking us to wait was great news. So we nodded and left the stage back to the waiting room. "Thank you Noah..." Laura said happily as she squeezed my hand. Her little hand was cold with nerves. Smiling, I replied, "I just did what a friend should do. When we got to the waiting room, it was great to see the fat woman''s face freeze when she saw us sitting down. I even started to stare at her with a contemptuous smile, which made her even angrier, but I controlled myself so as not to make a fuss that might affect her daughter''s chances. We waited about 10 minutes before they finally called someone. "Number 15, please come to the testing room." When the mother and daughter heard this, they quickly got up and went into the room and stayed there for 10 minutes before coming out with a confident expression, looking at me with disdain, but saying nothing. Seeing their reaction, I was a little worried about Laura, but I didn''t let it show on my face. "Number 16, please." Hearing this, Laura and I got up and went to the living room as well. When we entered the room, I let go of her hand and was about to head for the corner of the room where I had been sitting, but the woman said something that surprised me. "Wait a minute, come here too, boy." I looked at her in surprise, confirmed that it was me she was talking to, saw her nod, and walked with Laura to the center of the stage, a little unsure. "What''s your name?" she asked. "Noah Black." I replied. "Are you an artist by any chance?" She asked. "Yes, I''m currently a top 723rd E Rank Artist." I said, not quite understanding where this was going. "Strange... have any of you ever heard of a Noah Black?" She asked her companions a little confused. "No... have you ever acted in any major movies or series, Noah?" The man who played Jack asked me. "I''ve never acted." I replied with an embarrassed smile, realizing the reason for their confusion. It surprised them until they realized what the reason could be. I looked at the woman and nodded with a smile. "No problem!" "Very well, but for you Laura..." The woman said as she sighed and looked at Laura, making us worry. "Your acting is spectacular, the best we''ve seen out of the 16 contestants, but it was only like that when you were acting with Noah, when you were alone it was nowhere near the level needed..." Hearing this, Laura bowed her head in shame. "We talked a lot about whether to choose you or contestant number 15, and in the end we decided to leave you with this question: do you think you can show us how to perform at the level with Noah, even without Noah on stage with you?" Laura kept her head down for a few seconds, unsure. No one said anything, leaving her alone to think about it. Finally, after a minute, she raised her head and said. "Yes. I''m going to do my best to give the best performance I can." Seeing her determination, I smiled and put my hand on her shoulder. "I''ll help you at school as much as I can." Seeing Laura''s reaction, this seemed to give them enough confidence and they smiled. "All right, then we''ll retake your test for the first two scenes, without Noah on stage. If you manage to reach the passable level, we''ll give you the vote of confidence that you''ll improve even more for when we shoot the pilot next week." The woman said with a serious voice. Laura nodded and I thanked her and left the stage to sit in the corner of the room. To everyone''s surprise, Laura''s acting really improved. When she started to get nervous, she would look at me and her skill would rise again. She still didn''t show all 40 levels of acting she had, but even the current level she showed was enough to show that she was better than girl number 15 and ensure that she got the part. When everything was ready, the woman handed me her card and told me to ask my agent to call her in two weeks to talk more about my audition. Nodding my head, I accepted her card and left the room with a smiling Laura. With her small size and how happy and excited she was, Laura was like a little fairy. As we passed the woman with the daughter, we didn''t hide our happiness and I made a point of looking at her with the same disdain she looked at us. Seeing our happiness, I saw her face freeze and realized that something might have gone wrong. I didn''t worry and left with Laura. "To celebrate your role and my possible role as your character''s boyfriend, how about we go out for ice cream?" I asked. When she heard that, Laura''s eyes lit up. "Yeah!" Watching her put on her helmet, I realized that she managed to look cute and sexy at the same time because of her small body and well-developed curves. Our drinking time was a lot of fun. I already knew that even though she was small, she ate a lot when we ate lunch together at school, but I didn''t imagine that she would be able to drink a 700ml milkshake all by herself! The strange thing was that even though I assured her that I could take her home, she refused and asked me to drop her off at school so she could take the bus home. Even though I said it wouldn''t bother me, Laura refused without giving me any room to offer more, so I realized there might be other reasons for this and didn''t push the matter any further, leaving her at school and returning home excited to tell my family and Selena the news that I can become an actor. Chapter 144 [Bonus ] 144 - D rank in 2 weeks?! Chapter 144 [Bonus Chapter] 144 - D rank in 2 weeks?! As soon as I got home, the first person I saw was Ethan, who came running after hearing the roar of the motorcycle engine. "Noah! Where have you been?" He asked excitedly. "I was helping a friend audition for a TV show!" I explained as I stroked his head. Hearing this, Ethan''s eyes lit up. "Your friend is going to be an actress on a TV show?" "Yeah!" I replied. "Woah!" He was shocked. "Was she just a friend, Noah?" Liv said with a smile as she alternated her gaze between me and the second helmet in my hand. "Just a friend." I replied. "Yeah... yeah..." She replied without really believing it. When we went into the house, I told them about the test I''d done and that they were interested in hiring me for a small role as well, which surprised them. "So you get to be on TV too?!" Ethan asked in shock, as did my mom and Liv. "Yes, of course, if the show gets picked up. She said they were still going to tape a pilot episode. If the public reacts well to the pilot, the show will get the green light to continue production and then I''ll have a chance to get my part. In the meantime, I need to practice my acting skills more and get good enough for when I''m supposed to be there," I said. I said. Ethan didn''t understand it very well, but he was happy about it and that was what was important to me. My mother and Liv, on the other hand, were still shocked that I might become a TV actor! "I''ll call Selena and tell her." I told them both and went into my room. Selena''s reaction was even more shocking than my family''s. "So you went to an acting test with a girl from your school for a role in a sitcom and the producers were interested in you?!" She asked incredulously. "Yes... I helped my friend act to ease her anxiety and they were interested in me too. But the role they are interested in for me is only a small one..." I explained. "It doesn''t matter if it''s a small part...this is a sitcom, Noah! In sitcoms, as long as you perform well and the audience likes you, the chances of the producers increasing the size of your role are very high, and with how popular sitcoms are, you might even have found a secure income for the next few years..." Selena explained, leaving me surprised that I hadn''t thought of that. In my vision, I would only appear in one or two episodes per season and would only be a supporting character, but Selena told me something that woke me up. It''s true that if I acted well and the audience liked the scenes I was in, it might cause the producers to increase my screen time and encourage them to put my character in more episodes to please the audience! "What do you think I have to do?" I asked worriedly. "Since you have two weeks to prepare, I''d tell you to focus on acting in those two weeks, getting as good as you can at it, and keeping your appearance impeccable. Your strongest weapon in your career right now, aside from your voice and your talent, is your appearance. So just take care of these things and on the day of the audition, your chances of getting the part are very high. She explained, making me nod. "And for my musical career?" I asked uncertainly. "Do you prefer acting or singing?" She asked me in a serious tone. "Singing." I replied. I replied. "I see acting as more of a sideline." "Okay, so let''s continue to focus on your developing music career. Where''s that Spanish song you were singing?" she asked, making me freeze. [The Lazy Song - 2,890,275 views] +313,332 views [Boyfriend - 1,159,190 views] +223,334 views [Boyfriend Live - 1,995,325 views] +344,652 views [Backstage at my shows - Vlog #1 - 454,969 views] +33,861 views [I made a song to sing at a wedding! - Vlog #2 - 448,517 views] +68,351 views [All Of Me - 1,342,065 views] +404,532 views [One of my best shows! Vlog #3 - 289,209 views] +51,777 views [My first musical battle! Did I win?! Vlog #4 - 373,118 views] +178,693 views [Me at the Lila Brooks concert!!! Vlog #5 - 563,000 views] +430,000 views [A Bar Song - 662,410 views] +606,410 views [What does an artist think while performing?!! Vlog #6 - 501,321 views] +501,321 views [Vlog #7 - 341,361 views] +341,361 views [Vlog #8 - 178,326 views] +178,326 views [237,000 subscribers +57,000 subs [Spokify Music Plays: 5,640,000] +2,000,000 views Spokify Monetized Views: 2,000,000 = $8,000 (+$8,000) [Instabram: 150k followers] +45k followers |------------------------ In just these two weeks, I had already earned more than 20k from my social networks... which made me wonder how much I would earn by the end of the month... As I accumulated more videos, my channel began to snowball. Even though the views of the old vlogs were decreasing, it was still generating a few thousand views a day, adding up the views those old videos were generating with the views of my new videos... the snowball just kept growing, increasing the more and more I earned from my channel. The best thing I did was to make an agreement with AJP that I would keep the income from my channel and my social networks hehe. The problem with this is that for the idea I had for the Bailando music video, I would have to invest some money, and since I was the one getting the money from the channel, part of that money would have to come from me. AJP could help me with some of the costs, but I would still have to invest some of it. Looking at the $21,000 I had in my bank account, I sighed when I heard that it would decrease, but thinking about how much it would increase when I received my salary from MeTube and Spokify, I calmed down. At that moment, my focus was on planning how to record this music video while using my time to edit the vlog with the scenes from the wedding where I sang this song for the first time. While I was thinking about it, I also planned to drop some hints on my Instabram stories that I knew how to speak Spanish, which could already start bringing Latin fans to me... I had a lot of ideas in my head and it was hard to choose just one, so I just decided to write down several and send them to Selena to help me choose the most viable idea that would fit my image the best and also go viral more easily. Chapter 145 145 - Shooting the music video Chapter 145 145 - Shooting the music video Looking at the dozens of people Selena hired to shoot the music video, I have to admit I was a little scared. According to her, the cost of production would be split 50/50 between us to make up for how much AJP would miss out on by not receiving a portion of the revenue from MeTube and Spokify, which I initially accepted until she told me that the cost of the team of camera operators, equipment rental and extras had cost $14,000. "$14,000 to make such a simple video?" I asked in shock. Hearing my surprise, a smile appeared on Selena''s face. "That $14,000 is still cheap since we didn''t hire a director, sound recordist, or anything else that would add to the price, not to mention that the cost is really just paying the extras and crew, as well as renting the equipment. To give you an idea, music videos for very big artists cost over six figures..." Hearing that the cost of producing a music video can exceed 100k really shocked me... But when I thought about the production of these videos, I had to admit that it did seem expensive. Compared to music videos like this that cost over 100k, paying $7,000 as my 50% didn''t seem that expensive, not to mention that AJP''s 50% help was very welcome. So far, I think they were even negative about my career, since their expenses for me and Selena''s salary still didn''t pay for themselves with the 20% they got from my shows, but thinking about shows as expensive as Lila Brooks'', which grossed around 50k per show, I could see where they would recoup their investment. "So are you ready to record this?" Selena asked me. Holding my guitar and looking at so many people getting ready, I nodded. I had stayed up late last night recording and editing a rough version of the song Bailando for us to use as the basis for the video shoot. This version would still need to be edited and reworked, but at least it would serve to synchronize my lips with the video while I was being recorded. Looking around, I noticed that people were still getting their makeup done while I was getting mine done. Although I wasn''t a Korean artist who wore make-up for everything, there were certain make-ups that looked better on camera, and with the make-up I could intensify my rebellious style a little more, which matched my hair. So even I couldn''t escape that. To match the style of the song, instead of using my electric guitar, which I had been using more in my last few songs, I wanted to use an acoustic guitar in this music video. Since we hadn''t hired a director, I was the one who gave them my vision of how I wanted everything to be shot and organized, while Selena would oversee everything during the recording. Of the supporting actors Selena hired, she chose half Latinos and half Americans, since the song was sung half in English and half in Spanish, for a total of 40 people. I had a clear vision for the video while thinking about the original video from my previous world, so even without a director, the recording process went very smoothly! My Lv 23 mastery meant 3 years and 9 months of practicing the language, so my Spanish was very advanced. It was still clear that I wasn''t a native speaker, but someone who had really learned the language on their own, which I thought would attract a bit more interest from the audience. Those who understood Spanish might catch a little spoiler of what we were doing, as my partner would ask me to practice the dance in the video again in Spanish, but those who only spoke English would be left in the dark, or warned by other people who knew English. To thank everyone for their presence and participation in the video, we bought pizzas for everyone who participated, which not only pleased the extras and cameramen, but also provided good content for the vlog. I have to admit that recording with so many people was a lot more tiring than just having Jason record my show. We had to record the song at least 20 times from different angles, doing different things, all to have a variety of clips to use in the edit. So when I got home with the memory cards the cameramen had sent me, I started editing the video as fast as I could. The shooting day was Wednesday, so I had until Thursday to edit the vlog and until Saturday to edit the music video... That was very little time... During my breaks, I took out my cell phone to check how the public was reacting, and I was surprised to find that there was a BlackVelvet fan club page! I only discovered this because the person who ran the page also knew Spanish and had translated what we were saying and it was a post explaining what they understood about what I was doing. Surprisingly, this page that I didn''t even know existed already had 1,400 followers, which was not a small number for a page that was apparently only a week old! Who would have thought that one day I would have my own fan club? Out of curiosity, I started looking at the other posts they had made on the page and was shocked to find that they were starting to question things I hadn''t explained yet. Their first theory was about my real name and if my last name was Black like my stage name! Another one was about my age. But the most surprising was when they posted pictures of me when I first appeared on the Internet and how I look now, comparing my muscles and my body fat. Do I have to worry about these people? I asked myself, mentally surprised. Nah, I think it''s still cool for now... Putting that thought aside, I just liked the post that this fan club made translating what I said in Spanish in the stories and went back to editing the video. What I didn''t know was that that simple like I gave to the post of the person who managed that account was more than enough to make a girl from the other side of town spend an entire night without sleeping. Chapter 146 [Bonus ] 146 - Fan Club Chapter 146 [Bonus ] 146 - Fan Club ??Ayla was a huge fan of Jake Park, one of the biggest teenage pop singers. Since Jake was an A-list artist, his Instagram account alone had millions of followers, so it was very difficult to get noticed by him. Even though Ayla had a fan club account for Jake with over 200k followers, Jake never saw anything about her fan club and never gave Ayla the minimum attention she wanted. Over time, this began to make Ayla more and more disappointed in Jake, as if the love she had to give him was never reciprocated in the slightest. When scandals surfaced that Jake had abused and beaten Hannah Garcia, his ex-girlfriend, another pop singer Ayla loved, Ayla realized that the love she felt for Jake had been replaced by disgust. The page she maintained, with over 200k followers, was updated less and less... until two months ago, when she didn''t even look at the account anymore, she abandoned it completely. The problem is that for someone who started the page when she was 13 and made it a big part of her life and identity until she was 15, not following Jake and posting about him left Ayla with an empty feeling in her chest. In one of her saddest moments, Ayla heard a song she had never heard before. [In The End - BlackVelvet] With every phrase the singer of this band sang, Ayla felt more and more that this song was written for her. When the singer of BlackVelvet sang about how the person never appreciated him, about how the person always acted like he was something guaranteed in her life and that she didn''t have to do anything to keep him there. About how he felt after trying and trying for so long, only to end up with nothing and none of it mattering... Even when the song was over, Ayla couldn''t stop thinking about it. At that moment she was only listening to recommended songs on MeTube, so out of curiosity she looked at the other recommended songs and saw one called "Numb". Out of curiosity, she clicked on the song and was surprised at how good the artist''s voice was and how cool the lyrics were. Even though Ayla wasn''t a big rock fan, she really started to like this song. At the end of the song, Ayla looked at the recommended songs again and noticed that unlike Numb and In The End, which were just songs with a picture and the lyrics on the screen, among the recommendations was a song that showed BlackVelvet''s face! Ayla wasted no time in clicking on it, excited to see what the band''s lead singer looked like. [Boyfriend - BlackVelvet] To Ayla''s shock, there was only one boy on stage! By the time Ayla realized how much time she''d spent watching his videos, listening to his music, and looking at his Instabram posts, the sun was rising outside her room. "I''ve been up all night watching something about an artist I don''t even know? How long has it been since I''ve done this for Jake?" She asked herself in shock. Ayla only had two hours of sleep that night before she had to get up for school. At school she showed BlackVelvet to her friends, but although they liked it, they were still so in love with Jake that they couldn''t care less about BlackVelvet... This frustrated Ayla a bit. Trying to find out more about him, Ayla searched for BlackVelvet''s fan club pages and found nothing! How did he get 200k followers and nobody made a fanclub for him?'' she asked herself in confusion. By the time she found the answer, BlackVelvet was less than 3 months into his career! He grew to that point in just two months?! She was shocked. It was at this point that she began to see BlackVelvet as a rough diamond, slowly being cut to shine in front of everyone around him. ''I think I''ll start a fan club for him...'' She thought a little uncertainly, not knowing if she wanted to get involved in this again after what she''d been through with Jake... As a temporary thing, Ayla decided to make the page for BlackVelvet and surprisingly she got over 100 followers on the first day of the account! This started to get Ayla more excited about making some edits to BlackVelvet and posting them on the page and the numbers started to climb very quickly. The more she searched for BlackVelvet to post on the site, the more she became addicted to it. Up until 2 weeks after she created the page, Ayla received a notification on her cell phone while she was in the shower going to sleep. [BlackVelvet liked her post]. Upon seeing the notification, Ayla froze. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!" She screamed excitedly in the bathroom, scaring her mother so much that her mother opened the bathroom door, worried that something had happened to Ayla. But Ayla didn''t care that her mother had gone into the bathroom, she was just shocked as she stared at the Instabram notification, desperately trying to take a screenshot of it. Something so simple, just a like, something that didn''t even take two seconds of BlackVelvet''s life, made Ayla very happy, but it was this simple thing that Jake never managed to do... Unbeknownst to Noah, he had won the most dedicated fan he would ever have for his career, not only with good music and good looks, but the main factor was the Like he gave, which served as the recognition this girl never received. Chapter 147 147 - Bailando Chapter 147 147 - Bailando The rest of the week I had to divide my time very well. Part of the time I focused on recording ''Bailando'' again, editing the vlogs and the music video, and the other part I spent practicing my acting skills. Selena even canceled my weekend shows so that I could focus even more on this. It was like a bet. Even though the in-person shows would help me gain popularity, what I would gain from the Internet was much greater, so we would cancel the in-person shows and I would focus as much as possible on those weeks to develop my fan base to reach D Rank before the contract with the TV show team. My time was very limited, but I was confident that it would be possible. [BlackVelvet - 723rd -> 611th E Rank]. Since my songs were already getting a lot of views, the amount of popularity I was receiving every day was very high, but I still wanted to make sure that this would increase my rank in 2 weeks, so with Selena''s help, I started an advertising campaign on my accounts. Every day I did more than 10 stories to attract the public to my profile, I posted at least one photo on my profile every day, as well as more hints that something in Spanish was coming. From the comments I was getting, it was starting to work. As the number of posts on my profile increased, my photos began to be recommended to people outside my bubble who were only interested in my appearance and then discovered that I was a singer. With the Stories I posted, the public, who previously only remembered me occasionally when they wanted to hear a song, became more accustomed to seeing me every day when they opened Instabram, which also generated more engagement with my posts, causing the algorithm to promote me even more. These changes meant that my Instabram profile increased the number of followers it received per day by 30 to 40%, which was already a very good figure. As for MeTube, there wasn''t much I could do. I just had to edit the videos and continue to post them as usual, which fortunately took less and less time, even as the quality of the editing increased, since my video editing skills were improving very quickly. With the launch of my vlog on Friday, the views it got on the first day were much higher than what it would normally get after I posted it on Instabram, because of the new audience that came from there. Surprisingly, MeTube promoted my vlog even more, which was even better than usual! When I looked at the comments, I had a proud smile on my face. [BlackVelvet can speak Spanish?!?!?!] [Since when can he speak Spanish?!] [I wonder if he''s of Latin descent?] [Look at his accent, he''s learning Spanish all by himself! If he was Latin, he wouldn''t have such an American accent!] [You can''t imagine my surprise when I saw BlackVelvet start speaking my language in the middle of the video!] [I got goose bumps when I heard him speak Spanish!] [Even my parents stopped watching the video I was watching on the living room TV when BlackVelvet started speaking and singing in Spanish]. [Why haven''t you released BlackVelvet yet?!] Yo?ur favorite stories at novelhall.com [I want ''Bailando'' on my desk now!] Just today I had gained more than 5,000 subscribers with the other videos, but after Bailando was released, the number of subs I was gaining every hour had doubled! For the 250,000 subs I had when I woke up, I could see that I might have over 300,000 by the end of next week! With so many new people coming to my channel, the analytics showed me that not only was Bailando doing very well, but it was also pulling up all of my other videos. Whether it was the vlogs on the channel that people were using to find out what I was like as a person, or even the other songs from people who were curious to see what I was like singing those songs with over a million views! It all started with Bailando, and while I had a big smile on my face, Liv came into the basement shocked. "Do you speak Spanish?!" She asked. "Didn''t you see my vlog from yesterday?" I asked laughing. "No..." She replied a little embarrassed. "I''ve been learning it for a few months, so when that Latin family wanted to hear something in their style, I sang them this song." I explained. "But I''ve never heard you practice this song..." She asked suspiciously. But I just smiled without explaining anything, which made Liv even more suspicious, but she didn''t want to push the issue. I could hear my music playing on the TV in the living room through Liv''s open door, probably my parents who were home because it was Saturday night and I was curious to know their reaction. I was very surprised to go into the living room and see the two of them dancing together while listening to my song. Ethan was very happy to see them acting like that and even Liv, who was obviously a little embarrassed, accepted them acting like that. "You can even dance..." She complained when she saw me dancing with the Latin actress in the video. "I learned at the new school." I explained. I explained. "You did?" She looked at me embarrassed and looked away without answering. A bigger smile appeared on my face. "Do you want to learn?" She looked at me, thought for a few seconds, then shook her head and ran away in shame. Seeing her act like that, I just laughed, if she wanted to learn to dance, I''d have no problem teaching her. With my [Teach Lv 33] skill, she would learn it very quickly, but I wouldn''t force her to learn it with me either. So I just went back to the cellar and continued reading the comments. The next day, I got a call from Selena with some surprise news. [Your song Bailando is doing very well! Even some Latin radio stations are calling me and are interested in playing your song]. Selena said, surprising me. [Really?] I asked. [Yes, from what I can see, this song is going to go even more viral than The Lazy Song, so be prepared.] She said. Prepared for what? I asked myself mentally, still confused. Chapter 148 [Bonus ] 148 - Really viral! Chapter 148 [Bonus Chapter] 148 - Really viral! The next day, the first thing I did when I woke up was look at MeTube and see how many views ''Bailando'' had. [Bailando - 825,000 views] +632,000 views When I saw that number, my eyes almost popped out of their sockets... Almost a million views... this could reach a million views in 24 hours... Holy fuck!'' I thought in shock, controlling myself so as not to make any noise and wake Ethan. Out of curiosity, I opened the GAA website to check my popularity rank and was shocked. [BlackVelvet - 611th -> 473rd E Rank]. In just one night... in just one night I had gone from over 700th to under the top 500! With the speed at which I was growing, I could see that reaching the D rank in 10 days wouldn''t be a problem! As I went out to do my morning exercises, I tried to resist the urge to pick up my cell phone every 5 minutes to see the views of the song in my head all the time, but it was very difficult to control those impulses. Luckily, running and saying hello to people along the way helped me push these thoughts out of my head. Before long, I was back home enjoying a hot bath. Thing A notification came on my phone as I was getting dressed. I stopped before I put on my shirt, stood shirtless, my body still slightly wet from the shower, and picked up my phone to see what it was. [Laura: Heeey, your song is going viral!!!] When I looked at the time and saw that it was still 07:03, I was surprised that Laura was already awake. [Noah: You''re up so early on a Sunday?] [Laura: Ohh, you''re up too?! :o] [Noah: I did my morning workout... I usually sleep late on Sundays, but since I didn''t play a gig last night, I went to bed early]. [Laura: This life as a musician... staying up late and partying all night... what a pain -_-] [Noah: I wasn''t complaining XD] [Laura: Yeah... but congratulations on the success of ''Bailando''!!! I listened to one of your songs and was surprised by the new song, when I saw the number of views I was even more surprised! You''ll reach the D rank soon!] [Noah: Yeah! I''m shocked how well it''s going!] [Laura: Hehe, and how are you doing with your acting practice?] [Noah: I''m not doing badly... learning on my own is a bit harder than at school, but I''m getting better fast]. Since I only had two acting lessons a week, and only one lesson after the test I did with Laura, my acting skill had only gone up 3 times, twice during the lesson and once while I was practicing at home. [Acting Mastery Lv 16 -> 19]. "Fuck..." I let out through my mouth as I looked at those numbers. When I opened MeTube from my laptop to look at it through my channel analytics, I was shocked to see that I had already gained over 20,000 subscribers with this song alone! That put me at 280,000 subscribers! I was tempted to check the GAA website to see how my rank was doing, but I controlled myself and left it for later. Looking at the still slightly sleepy Liv in front of me, I smiled as I asked her. "Where do you want to celebrate?" Hearing this, Liv''s blue eyes sparkled as she thought. "Sushi! I want to eat sushi!" "Sushi...?" I asked a little unsure. "Do you have a problem with sushi...?" She also asked me a little uncertainly. "I''m not a big fan of sushi..." I replied embarrassed. "You''re not a big fan of sushi? But you used to eat almost 100 pieces of sushi every time we bought it!" She asked me in shock. Her words brought back the memory of the old Noah, and I realized that he really liked sushi. But I didn''t like it in my past life, would that taste of his pass on to me? "Okay, let''s have sushi for lunch then, but let''s go to a sushi restaurant that has other restaurants nearby, I don''t know if I still like it, if not I can have something else." I said, making her nod and a big smile appear on her face. "Thanks Noah, and congratulations!" She hugged me before running off to her room to get ready. With Liv excited about eating sushi, everyone quickly knew that my song had reached 1 million views in one day and that we were going to eat sushi to celebrate, so everyone started getting ready while I dedicated the rest of my time to the game. When I got back, I would focus on practicing my acting. Just like every time we had to leave the house, Ethan refused to ride in my dad''s car and wanted me to ride on the back of his motorcycle. And since my skill had increased by one level to [Motorcycle Driving Mastery Lv 10], I had a lot more experience and could do a lot more fun things with him on the back of the motorcycle, which contributed to him wanting to ride with me even more. I won''t deny that my pride was happy to see how much he wanted to come on the bike with me, and even happier when I saw that Liv had also picked up the second helmet and taken it to the car, possibly wanting to ride with me on the way back. So when it was time to go, we looked for a place that sold sushi by weight, so I could go there, get a few pieces, see if I really liked it, and then decide if I wanted to eat it, we also looked for a place that had another restaurant next door. The one we found had a Mexican restaurant nearby, which was fine with me. It had been a long time since I had eaten Mexican food, so I would be satisfied even if I didn''t like sushi. And oh boy, how I wished I had, but the aversion to the texture of the raw fish came with me from my old world... So I had to go to the Mexican food store to order some tacos and quesadillas to take to the Japanese restaurant next door. But to my surprise, when I entered the store, the music playing in the background was very familiar to me. Not only was it familiar, but it was my music. And when I looked at the waitress and noticed her shocked expression, I didn''t know if it was because my charisma stats were about to go up again and I had become even more handsome, or if she had recognized me. Chapter 149 149 - Tough choice Chapter 149 149 - Tough choice ??"Hey!" I waved to her as I walked in. The restaurant was relatively empty, with only two or three families eating together at tables scattered around the place. Since she was the waitress closest to me, and since the way I was going to eat was going to be a little special since I was going to take it to the restaurant next door, I wanted to explain it to her. Seeing that I was talking to her, the girl of about 19, with long brown hair and black eyes, came towards me excitedly. ~ Are you BlackVelvet?! ~ she asked excitedly in Spanish. So it''s not my charisma that''s about to go up a level... what a shame. ~ Yes, I''m BlackVelvet. ~ I replied in Spanish as well. ~ I can''t believe you came to my work! I went to your show last Sunday at the Pink Fang Bar and your songs were amazing! You can''t imagine my shock when you released a song in my native language! ~ She started talking very fast as she came closer and closer to me. Smiling, I tried to keep a respectful distance from her. Especially since... how can I put it... her airbags were quite large, so just by coming a little closer they were almost touching me, and as much as I didn''t want to complain about something like that, it wouldn''t be very polite to take advantage of the girl like that. So I replied. ~ Glad you liked it! I had sung ''Bailando'' at a wedding I did a few weeks ago, but I forgot to edit the song and post it on MeTube hehe. ~ I said as I scratched the back of my head. Hearing that, her eyes lit up even more. But suddenly a stressed voice was heard from behind the counter. ~ Camila, stop bothering the customer and serve him properly! ~ Hearing this voice, Camila froze and gave me an apologetic smile. ~ I''m sorry BlackVelvet, I got carried away... what are you going to order? ~ So I explained my order to her and asked if there was a package for me to take to the restaurant next door, to which she promptly nodded and even offered to take it to the other restaurant for me if I wanted. When I heard that, my eyes lit up. "That would be perfect!" I said smiling, so I wouldn''t have to wait here alone for my food while my family ate at the restaurant next door. Seeing how happy I was, a smile appeared on her face too and Camila said she would explain it to her parents and that I could go to the other restaurant and she would take my order for me in no time. And between the two of them, I have to admit that Laura''s excitement, cuteness, and beauty really appealed to me. But that didn''t change the fact that we were still friends, not serious and not committed to each other. So technically there was nothing stopping me from picking up other girls, right? At first I was a little afraid of the possibility of dating girls because of my fame and that it might be bad for me and my career. But Liv''s question woke me up a bit. I shouldn''t deprive myself so much, right? Camila was pretty, she had very nice breasts... as far as I could tell, those breasts were maybe the biggest I''ve ever seen on a girl I''ve ever interacted with... and she was clearly into me... It''s not like I had to go out with her, right? "Do you regret not asking for her phone number?" Liv asked, laughing at my silence. "A little?" I replied, still a little unsure. I was still a little confused about how to handle it all. The rock star life had its pros and cons, but I knew that as long as I didn''t fall into the world of drugs, I could still enjoy my Thirst Trap from time to time, right? All the way home I kept thinking about this and how I should deal with these girls in my life. Liv just sat in silence and enjoyed the ride home. When we got home, Liv and Ethan went to the basement to practice their instruments and I went to my room to practice my acting skills. As much as I was lost in thought about how to deal with all these problems in the future, right now I just wanted to focus my mind on something and forget about it. ''Please, Noah of the future, make a wise decision about this...'' I thought with a laugh. /// NunuNote /// So guys, this doubt of Noah''s is also a doubt I have as a writer, should I use his fame to let him pick up some girls, should I focus on his career and only let him be with girls who are really important for the plot, should I only let him be with the girl he will have a relationship with, or should I use his fame and live like a true rock star? Leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments, I''ll read them all and take them into consideration for future decisions. Chapter 150 [Bonus ] 150 - The end of the magic Chapter 150 [Bonus Chapter] 150 - The end of the magic Throughout the week, my focus was solely on improving my acting level in order to get the part in the sitcom that Laura was starring in. Even Selena knew that even though Bailando was very successful, if I got that role, it would be a huge step forward for my career and my future. She told me that there were several party houses that wanted me to do shows in ''La Mission'' so that I could sing Bailando, but that she turned them all down to give me more time to practice acting. So I focused on that, the only other thing I did besides practicing acting was going to classes, whether they were normal classes, dancing or singing, or editing the videos I would be posting this week. Aside from the time I spent doing these things, the rest of my time was focused on acting. By the end of my first Acting class of the week, my skill had finally reached Lv 20 and I''d made great progress towards leveling up again, so when I got home and continued practicing, the skill went up to Lv 21! The next day I felt like I had made a lot of progress, but it still wasn''t enough to level up. In the next acting class, I got two more levels, bringing me up to Lv 23! By this time, everyone in the class had realized that I had a "talent" for acting. Especially since I started as a complete novice in Acting and was now better than most of the other students. It''s worth mentioning something I noticed with the skill levels during this time. I was currently at Lv 23, which meant that I already had the experience of someone with 3 years and 6 months of practice in Acting. But I noticed that there were other people in the class who had been studying acting for much longer, but who weren''t as high level as me, which started to confuse me. So to try to understand this, I started to focus on these people during class, trying to understand their process and their training and their thinking, and I realized something fundamental. The people who were 100% focused on the class and really dedicated to learning and improving, like Laura and a small group of other students, actually had acting levels that seemed to correspond to the amount of time they had practiced. On the other hand, students who had been practicing for 6 years and still had skills around Lv 20 were the people who weren''t giving it 100% in practice to learn as much as possible, or even dedicating themselves to practicing when they got home. This showed that the time I estimated for the skill level was correct, but only if I considered someone of average talent who practiced with 100% dedication. If the person was less dedicated or had little talent in that area, even if he practiced for 10 years, his skill would probably not go beyond Lvl 19. On the other hand, people with high talents can practice for much less time and have very high skill levels. So my Lvl 23 was much more representative than I thought. And considering that it was around Lv 23 in Singing and Guitar that I started recording my songs, it made sense. Just to be on the safe side, I wanted to get my skill up to Lv 25 before I took the test for Jack, and apparently the teacher noticed my dedication and was interested to see how far I could go, and he focused a lot on my development. One thing I noticed was that after the fight I had with Trevor, Charlie was a little distant from me for a few days, but then started trying to get closer. Yo?ur favorite stories at novelhall.com But since Laura was clinging to me all the time, she practically acted as a barrier. As soon as she said that, I was disappointed to think that I might not be able to use my skill on anyone... As soon as Laura heard this, she started to get nervous, thinking about performing alone again... From what I could tell, it was quite possible that she had a lot of trauma from something that had happened in the past, especially when I thought about a 17 year old girl going to an acting audition on her own, without her parents... But it wasn''t my place to pry into something she obviously didn''t feel comfortable opening up about. Just when we thought there was no other way to resolve this, the woman who had auditioned Laura walked onto the set. "Ms. Parker!" The receptionist greeted her respectfully, causing the woman to look forward and nod at the receptionist. When she looked at Laura and me, she was slightly surprised. "Is there a problem?" She asked, looking between us and the receptionist. "No Ms. Parker, I was just letting you know that the escort must wait in the escort waiting room and that only actors are allowed on the set." The receptionist explained. Seeing that Laura was already getting nervous and that her escort was me, the woman called Ms. Parker thought for a few seconds and shook her head. "Let the boy in too, he''s auditioning for one of the characters next week, it might be good to let him observe the filming." She said as she waved at us and walked towards the set. This was great news! When the receptionist heard this, she was surprised, but didn''t ask any more questions and just cleared the way for us to enter and explained the route we should take. Since Laura was going to be an actress in the show, she had to go backstage to get her makeup and costume on. I, on the other hand, was only going to observe, so I entered the set and found a place to sit. When I entered the place, I was surprised by the sight I saw. It reminded me a lot of some sitcoms I used to watch when I was younger in my previous world, with those houses that looked real on camera, but were actually just open houses on the other side for taping. "What a strange feeling..." I commented as I looked at it. "It''s like part of the magic of television is gone, isn''t it?" A man in his forties commented from my side. Surprised, I looked over and saw that he was wearing a standard dad outfit, a dress shirt and denim shorts. From his appearance, I assumed that he, like me, was the chaperone of an actor, possibly a child actor, who had to stay on the set to give the child emotional support. "Sort of..." I replied. I replied. "But at the same time, it looks even more interesting, which makes me wonder how they get such good angles to shoot it and make it really look like a house." Hearing my answer, the man raised an eyebrow and laughed. "Yeah, when you think about it, it seems like some of the magic comes back." "Are you a new actor?" He asked. Chapter 151 [Bonus ] 151 - You dont know him? Chapter 151 [Bonus ] 151 - You don''t know him? ??"Are you a new actor?" He asked as he looked at me. "No, not yet anyway." I replied. "I just came to accompany a friend of mine from school. She has anxiety and gets nervous easily, so I came to give her emotional support." Hearing this, the man was surprised. "Really? How nice of you. What is her role?" "If I''m not mistaken, her character''s name is Harley." I replied after some thought. "She''s a little girl with black hair." The man nodded his head and asked another question, "Why did you say you weren''t going to be an actor yet? Are you still training for it at school?" "Sort of..." I replied, a little unsure of how to say it since I didn''t want to talk about my musical career. "I''m still auditioning for one of the characters, Harley''s boyfriend in the show." Talking about my career to people who didn''t know me wasn''t something I thought would be very interesting, especially because I''d seen people treat me differently just because of it, so if I could, I''d just avoid talking about it and act normal with people. Hearing this, the man looked at me with that typical fatherly look as a smile appeared on his face and he began to laugh as he spoke. "You came as her emotional support and you''re auditioning for her boyfriend''s character? That''s dedication, kid." Seeing him laugh, I smiled, but didn''t explain too much, knowing it could lead to more misunderstandings. Suddenly, Ms. Parker came over and spoke to the man: "Phil, we''re almost ready, you can go to your seat." Hearing this, the man nodded to her and nodded to me. "I''m going to work, kid, good luck with your test." What had just happened, I was surprised to realize, was that contrary to what I thought, that this man was the father of some child actor who was accompanying the child, he was an actor! And not only was he an actor, but he was an important actor, because Ms. Parker had come to see him personally. And from what I noticed when he looked at me, he also noticed that I hadn''t realized who he was, and he laughed as he went into the movie. Knowing that this show would possibly feature a B rank artist as the lead actor raised my expectations of how the show would be received by the audience. With the time I had available, I took the opportunity to hear the names of the other artists from the other people on the team and started looking them up on the GAA website. Julia, the woman who would be playing the mother of the family, the wife of Phil''s character, was a Peak C Rank Artist, while Laura was a Peak D Rank Artist. There were two other child actors in the family, the girl who would play the middle sister was a lower C rank artist, and the little boy who would play the younger brother was only a high E rank artist, which was understandable given his age. There was even another B-rank actor in the family who would play the father of the family''s mother. For a sitcom, this cast was extremely luxurious. These artists were people who charged a lot for both shows and movies, so having so many high-profile people meant that the money they had to pay per episode as a salary wasn''t low. That was good news for me. Not only because I''d have the chance to be in a show with several high-profile artists, which could bring some of their popularity to me, since having so many big names would increase the show''s chances of doing well. And also because I could tell Selena about it so she could get a fair price for my salary. Within minutes, the taping began, and I began to look forward to it. I hadn''t activated my [Observe] skill yet because I wanted to find out who had the highest level of acting first, but just watching them start to act made me learn a lot, which excited me a lot. Finally, in the second scene they were about to record, it was Laura''s turn to appear, which made me both excited and worried that her anxiety would kick in and something would go wrong. The first thing I noticed when she appeared was that she wanted to look around. I waved my hands for her to see me, and I could see that Laura was visibly less frightened. Chapter 152 152 - Observe again Chapter 152 152 - Observe again ??When Laura saw me, she managed to calm down. She wasn''t in perfect condition right away, she had to redo her scenes a few times, but little by little she got better and better, to the point where she stopped making mistakes and her acting came very close to the level we had maintained when we practiced together at school. From what I analyzed, it turned out that Phil and Edward, the man who played Phil''s father-in-law, who were the only two B-rank actors, were the two with the highest acting ability, surprisingly followed by Laura, even though she didn''t manage to show how good she really was. The character of the two had the typical standard son-in-law and father-in-law relationship in most shows that had two such characters. The father-in-law is a rich man and the son-in-law is an ordinary man who isn''t good enough for the father-in-law''s daughter, but the wife likes him anyway because he''s a good person and has a good sense of humor.Vissit for updates As soon as I noticed how well they acted together, I activated my [Observe] skill to learn as much as possible from them. Edward was at the scene with an arrogant tone, looking at Phil as he fiddled with a tool. "Do you really think you can fix this? My dog would do a better job." Phil smiled nervously, trying to keep his cool and respond with humor. "Well, maybe I should ask your dog for help next time. He seems more qualified than me, at least according to you." Edward raised an eyebrow, obviously not amused. "It''s not just about qualifications, Peter. It''s about responsibility. And you have a lot to learn about that." Phil replied without missing a beat. "Ah, responsibility! That explains why you keep watching me so closely. I''m just trying to learn from the best." During their interaction, the two of them kept up a very fast pace, really making me believe that they were arguing, as if this wasn''t real acting. Edward raised his voice to show his character''s frustration with the presence of Steve, Phil''s character, while making exaggerated gestures to make the situation even more comical. "It''s not just about learning, Steve. It''s about being worthy. Do you think you''re worthy of my daughter? She deserves the best, and frankly, you''re nowhere near it." Because this was a pilot episode, even though I felt that this dialogue was more expository than it would have been in reality, it was important for the audience to immediately understand what the relationship was between these characters and how they saw themselves in this world. Steve'' tried to remain calm, but his discomfort was palpable. He stuttered a bit, trying to regain his composure. "I may not be perfect, but believe me, I''d do anything for her. And maybe one day I''ll even be able to prove that to you." The tension between the characters reached its peak with "Eric," Edward''s character practically exploding with rage. "Anything? Let''s see how long you can stand this attitude. Patience is a virtue, but even mine has its limits." Steve" desperately tried to calm him down by showing a vulnerable and sincere side. "I know I have a lot to prove, and I''ll do my best to earn your respect. I just hope you''ll give me a chance." Watching all this, I was impressed by her skill. Edward managed to convey the arrogance and disdain of a disapproving father-in-law perfectly, while Phil captured the essence of the well-meaning but often inadequate son-in-law. Even though this was their first scene together as these characters, I was captivated by how they acted and only woke up when I felt my body getting weak. This made me quickly stop using [Observe] and look at the result. [+1 Acting]. [+1 Stage Presence]. [+1 Acting] I could see how strange she was acting as she looked at me from time to time with a smile on her face, apparently checking to see if I was paying attention to her and smiling at me from time to time. Since she was the younger sister of Laura''s character, it was obvious that she was younger than Laura, who was my age, maybe 13 or 14? The way I saw it, she looked about the same age as Olivia and Isabella''s older sister. What is it with these girls? I asked myself in surprise. When I was that age I just liked to play and fight at school, where did I have time to think about dating someone else? The worst thing about it was that she had a lot of scenes with Laura, which made me pay attention to her for Laura''s sake, who needed my emotional support, but that made the girl misunderstand that I was paying attention to her... But I just decided to ignore it and support Laura until the end of the recording. Obviously they couldn''t finish the whole episode today, so Laura would have to come back in the next two days to finish her scenes. "If you want, I can bring you here in the next few days." I said as we left the studio after Laura took off her costume. I could tell she was embarrassed because she wanted to talk to me but couldn''t bring it up. As soon as I said it, I noticed that her eyes lit up. "Really?!" She asked as she grabbed my arm. "Yeah, I might need to come in from time to time to record so I can take the opportunity to familiarize myself with the place...of course I won''t be able to come every time since I have my own things to do as well, but this week and next week it wouldn''t be a problem to come and help you out." I said. "Do you think you''ll be able to calm down after two weeks?" The first part of what I said made her very excited, but when she heard the end she became worried and thoughtful. "I think so..." She said. "I''ll try my best!" With that statement I relaxed and smiled. "Okay, let''s try to improve your anxiety in the next few weeks." I laughed as we got on the bike and rode back to school. Luckily, I didn''t run into Sophia as we left, because I was worried about how she would act and what I would have to deal with. Artist personalities were hard enough to deal with, especially when the artist was so young and had already let it get to her. So I just preferred to keep my distance and not have to deal with it. After dropping Laura off at school, I came home and was excited as I looked at my channel and ''Bailando'', wondering how many views it had and how much it had moved me up the charts. Seeing a song grow so much more than my other songs made me want to look at it all the time to see how many views it had. I knew it wasn''t healthy, but I wanted to do it anyway. Chapter 153 [Bonus ] 153 - Stream? Chapter 153 [Bonus ] 153 - Stream? ??[''Bailando'' - 3,400,000 views] +2,575,000 views Looking at the huge number of views this song received this week, I had a huge smile on my face. Bailando'' had managed to overtake all of my other songs and become not only my most viewed song on the channel, but also the most viewed video on my channel! I had already earned $2,900 on MeTube from the song''s views alone, not to mention how much I had already earned from its views on Spokify, making the $7,000 investment I made to record the video completely worthwhile. "Maybe I could start investing more in music video production?" I asked myself thoughtfully. "It makes sense for big artists to make well-produced music videos, as it seems to really increase the reach and views of the songs." The two cases I had of well-produced music videos were my two most viewed songs today, "Bailando" and "The Lazy Song," both with over 3 million views. My channel had already passed 300k subscribers and my Instabram had over 200k followers! I was very excited to see all these changes. Especially when I opened the GAA website to see my ranking. [BlackVelvet - 473rd -> 201st E Rank]. My ranking was rising very fast... but was it rising as fast as I needed it to? Doing a quick mental calculation, I''d been gaining about 40 places a day in the rankings since I posted ''Bailando'', but there were only 4 days left until my audition for the role of Jack... If it stayed the same, in those 4 days I could possibly be 41st in the rankings, but that meant I''d have to count myself lucky if my growth stayed the same for 5 days to move from E rank to D rank, something that wasn''t guaranteed at all. There was no point in leaving it to luck that my popularity would continue to rise at the same rate... I had to do something to try and speed things up... What can I do...? I asked myself. Several different ideas came to my mind, but the vast majority of the ideas were things I could do, but that would take time to accomplish... I need something I can do now...'' I thought. Trying to find a simpler answer, I started pacing the room while saying my ideas out loud. "If I made videos, it would take a long time, or if I made quick videos with little editing, it might lower the quality of my channel, something I don''t want..." I said, shaking my head. "If I wanted to make a lot of posts on Instagram, it wouldn''t do much to increase my popularity in a short amount of time either..." I shook my head. "An alternative is to make a stream... yes... I can make a stream by singing or improvising songs, I can talk to the audience, with my current audience I can make my stream rise in the rankings of streams and attract even more audience... as long as I do something interesting, it''s not impossible to accelerate the speed of gaining popularity with streams... the amount of popularity I''ll gain will hardly be as big as the songs I post, but as long as it helps something, it''s not a problem..." I said, getting more and more excited. Theoretically, this wouldn''t be the first stream I participated in, since the first stream I participated in was the Quacktus talent show, where I sang The Lazy Song for the first time. But it would be the first stream I would do on my channel. So the first thing I did was get ready. I wanted to start today, there was no need to waste time. "Since you''re taking two phones, I''ll give you a discount and make them both $3,000." She said, making me raise my eyebrows in surprise as well and smile back. "Thank you." With both phones paid for, she handed me the bill and I was surprised to find a phone number on the back. Smiling, I just shook my head and got on the bike to ride home. When I got home, I went down to the basement where Liv was practicing. "Hey." I said as I waved at her. When Liv heard me calling to her, she looked at me confused. "Did something happen?" "Yeah, I bought you a present." I said as I handed her the gift box. Looking at the box, Liv was confused, not understanding what it was. But when she took off the wrapping and saw that it was the box for a pink X30 Ultra, she started screaming with excitement. "Aaaaaahhhhh, I can''t believe it Noah!" She started jumping up and down in excitement and ran over to hug me. "Thank you so much Noah..." Seeing her happiness, a huge smile appeared on my face. Hearing Liv''s screams, my mom and Ethan also went down to the basement to see what all the fuss was about, and they were shocked to see the cell phone I gave her. "You went out to buy your sister a new cell phone, Noah?" my mom asked, confused. "I wanted to get one for myself, but when I saw it was pink, I thought Liv would like one too." I explained as I pulled my phone case out of my pocket and showed it to them. Ethan was more excited than I was to see my new phone. So we stayed together to open and set up the two phones together. Transferring the data from one phone to the other wasn''t too difficult, it only took a few minutes, and all the while Liv and Ethan were looking at the two new phones with gleams in their eyes. Unfortunately, I didn''t want to give Ethan a cell phone because I was afraid that his little brain would become addicted to dopamine like the children in my former world. It wouldn''t hurt to let him have a cell phone when he got older. Especially since he already had a tablet at home, which meant he didn''t need a cell phone. With the phone finally set up and the camera approved, I asked if I could use the basement to do the stream, which Liv agreed to without a second thought. Now that she had a new cell phone, the urge to practice violin for the rest of the day was gone, haha. So all I had to do was set up my phone on the computer with a program to turn my new camera into a webcam and I was ready to do my first stream! Chapter 154 154 - First Stream Chapter 154 154 - First Stream ??The first thing I did after getting everything set up was to make a post on Instabram Stories and the MeTube Community tab. [I was thinking about doing a stream where I sing some songs and answer some questions, anyone want to join in? Just search for @BlackVelvet or click this link: xxxx] As soon as I posted this on the two social networks, I clicked to open the stream in the streaming program, but left it on a "Starting Soon" screen. It only took a few seconds for people to join the stream. In just 10 seconds, the number that had been at 0 had grown to 120, and it continued to grow by the second. The category I had set up the stream to take place in was [Arts], which wasn''t the biggest category on the site, as there were gaming categories with over 500k viewers, but since this world valued art much more than my previous world, there were still over 200k people watching streams spread across the [Arts] category. With such a potential audience, there were obviously thousands of streamers trying to carve out a space for themselves. Only for streamers with less than 3 viewers was the amount monstrous, but the more viewers there were on the stream, the more that streamer was able to stand out. From what I saw while analyzing the site, there were less than 50 streamers with more than 1k viewers, less than 15 streamers with more than 5k viewers, and only 5 streamers with more than 10k viewers, with only 2 exceeding 20k viewers. To get into the top 100, I needed at least 500 viewers, which I surprisingly achieved faster than I expected. In just two minutes I had 700 viewers. All of them came from my other social networks, which helped me stand out quickly. The problem was that these people weren''t people who normally watch streams, meaning they might not stay long and would leave quickly, so I had to use the attention they would bring me to capture as much of the new audience as possible. [This is BlackVelvet''s stream?!] [I''m waiting for BlackVelvet!] [Are you going to sing Boyfriend today?] [First time watching a stream, looking forward to BlackVelvet!] [Will he sing in Spanish today?] [I saw a clip of him singing in Spanish and I was curious!] [Hope he reads our comments!] [First time here, can''t wait to hear BlackVelvet''s voice live!] Reading people''s comments, an excited smile appeared on my face. Looking at the nicknames of the viewers, I realized that at least 70% of these viewers were girls, which didn''t surprise me too much since I was following this Thirst Trap path. But there were still guys commenting. After another 2 minutes, when the number of viewers finally stabilized at 911, I turned on my camera and smiled at the audience. "Hi guys, thanks for coming to my stream at the last minute, I didn''t think so many people would show up to interact with me." As soon as I appeared, the comments changed to show the excitement they were feeling. [Finally BlackVelvet!] Just as I said, this version of Boyfriend that I sang was much quieter, with my voice lower, while I sang it in a much more confident and sensual tone. At this point, my [Acting Mastery Lv 24] helped me a lot to play this role of the ultimate Thirst Trap, my facial expressions were much more confident and sensual, the way I moved and looked at the camera showed confidence and sensuality, but all while being very discreet. I didn''t want to look like a clown trying to be sexy, no, my idea was to use my [Acting Mastery] to make it look like all of this was something that came naturally to me, that I was naturally like this, and the music was just a way to express myself about it and let that side of me come out. And I could tell from the comments that it was working. [I''m dying here! He''s perfect!] [That voice... I''m in love!] [This version of the song is even better than the original?] [Who is this artist I didn''t know until today?!] [I can''t believe he''s singing ''Boyfriend''! Better day!] [He''s killing it! I can''t stop watching!] [Bruh, where have I come to?] [My heart can''t take it, he''s so beautiful and talented!] [This confidence is everything! BlackVelvet, marry me!] As much as there were comments from some guys who didn''t like it or felt uncomfortable or envious to see so many girls commenting on such things, I didn''t worry about them. I knew that if I decided to follow the path of Thirst Trap, I would eventually find guys who were jealous or didn''t feel good about seeing someone like me, which I completely understood. Whether I liked it or not, this awakened an animal instinct that we have when we compare ourselves to another man, and this causes other men''s masculinity to be attacked. Even if I didn''t focus my career on Thirst Trap, there would still be guys who wouldn''t like me just because I was good-looking, and there were a lot of girls who liked me, just like there were with JB in my previous world, so I was prepared for that. When the people who hated JB in my previous world grew up, they also started to like him because he sang good songs, so I knew I wouldn''t lose that audience forever. So I kept singing, and when the song finally ended, I noticed that the number of viewers on the stream had increased! From the 911 viewers I had when I first started, that number had grown to 1,173 viewers! A huge increase for a short song and a few minutes of interaction. From the comments, I noticed that there were a lot of new people who clicked after seeing the thumbnail of the stream with my face, but stayed after hearing my song. "Uff, singing a song in a different key than you normally do is a lot more challenging." I said as I grabbed a glass of water and drank it to soothe my throat. "For those of you who have just arrived and don''t know me yet, hello, I''m BlackVelvet, currently an artist in the top 200 of the E Rank, striving to reach the D Rank in the next few days!" I introduced myself. I introduced myself. "This stream is something I thought would be fun to do today, and here we are. If you have any songs you''d like me to sing, you can ask in the comments, if there''s something I like or that a lot of people want, I''ll sing it." So instead of continuing to take votes to decide the next songs, I started doing the playlist myself, because I wanted to cook up "Bailando" a little more to sing it later, since it was one of the songs they wanted to hear the most. If I sang the best songs at the beginning, everyone would leave, so it was better to save the best for last, like I did in my bar gigs. And over time, I got the feeling that I was performing just like in the bars, which made it easier for me to interact and decide on the next song. What I didn''t know was that among those almost 1.2k viewers were several people who knew me personally. Chapter 155 155 - Viewer POV Chapter 155 155 - Viewer POV ??Danna loved watching streams, especially leaving it playing on the secondary monitor of her pc while she played some game she didn''t have to pay much attention to. But recently she was having trouble finding a stream that was interesting enough. Most of the streams she watched were falling into the repetition of always having the same things happen, always playing the same things, the streamers having the same reactions, just talking about the same subjects with the chat... It seemed that even if she opened different streams of different games, she was still watching the same thing. So to change it up a bit, Danna decided to watch something other than game streams, which is what she normally watched. "Are there any cool [Arts] streams?" She asked herself quietly as she clicked on the [Arts] streams section. Looking at the streamers who were doing this, Danna''s eyes scrolled across the various thumbnails of these streams but she wasn''t that interested. Most of these streams were from streamers that she had already watched a stream of before and that she didn''t like that much. Even though these streamers were big and had a lot of followers, most of them were artists first and streamers second, meaning they didn''t really know how to interact with the audience, how to make the stream interesting beyond just singing or painting. The few who knew how to do it well were those with more than 10k viewers, but the rest below, in Danna''s view, were at best... mediocre...Vissit for updates Although she was already disappointed, Danna still continued to scroll down and look at the streamers who were online, but there was nothing that attracted her attention. Then suddenly Danna saw a stream that managed to attract her attention. This stream didn''t even look any different from the other streams from what she was seeing on Thumb, it was just a boy holding a guitar while laughing at something he was saying to his audience. From this view alone, Danna would have considered this to be one of the boring, uncreative streams and would have ignored it to look for others. But this boy''s style was more unique than that of the other streamers... Danna liked rock music and boys with that style, so seeing on the thumbnail the boy with messy, bleached hair, with light dark make-up below his eyes while wearing various accessories and a black outfit managed to catch her attention at least from an aesthetic point of view. ''Should I click on that?'' she asked herself uncertainly. ''I guess it wouldn''t hurt to try it out, right? Finally deciding to give it a go, Danna clicked on [BlackVelvet]''s stream. "Would that be interesting? Let me try." The boy said in the stream, making Danna wonder what he was going to do. Unfortunately, the reason she came to the stream, which was to stare at that eye candy, went off camera, leaving only the empty room for her to turn to. This disappointed Danna, making her consider leaving the stream to look for something else interesting to watch, but when she looked at the chat, Danna felt it might be interesting to wait and see. [Is he really going to play ''Boyfriend'' with household items? That''s going to be amazing!] To the point that now that he was getting ready to sing, Danna was just sitting comfortably in her chair while looking at the screen with a smile and paying attention to him. Hearing him finally start to sing, what a beautiful voice he had, how handsome he looked singing it, and most surprisingly, that the lyrics weren''t a love-sick song, as was often the case, but a song about how he wanted to be with another boy''s girlfriend... All this contributed to Danna''s shock. Even though the melody of the song was made up of noises from his house, Danna was loving it. [FrogDance.Gif] [FrogDance.Gif] [FrogDance.Gif] [FrogDance.Gif] Looking at the chat, where there were only viewers sending gifs of frogs dancing, even Danna put her hand on the keyboard and sent a gif of a frog dancing too, to show her support for him and this song. When he finally finished singing, Danna liked it so much that she had an idea. As a frequent stream user, Danna even looked for the Subscribe button to pay to watch his stream, but it wasn''t even available. "Doesn''t he look like he''s on the site?" She asked herself in confusion. Opening his profile, Danna was shocked to realize that this was his first stream! "How is that possible?!" She asked herself shocked. "How can he be doing something so interesting on his first stream, with so many viewers already watching it?" Curious, Danna saw that there was a link to MeTube and Instabram on his profile and clicked it. Looking at the number of followers he had on both social networks, and especially at the number of viewers he had on his songs, Danna began to understand why his stream was so good. Unlike other artists who weren''t so successful in the real world and came to stream to get some money and recognition, BlackVelvet was the opposite, he already had it all in the real world and on other social networks, while apparently he was streaming just because it looked fun... She watched a vlog of him backstage at gigs and realized that he already spoke very well to the camera in his videos, in a very similar way to how he was acting on the Stream. Not to mention that he was explaining how he was acting to the audience at the shows, and observing these explanations and how he was acting on the stream, Danna realized that he was using the same concepts he used at the shows, and treating the stream audience in the same way! ''That''s genius!'' she thought excitedly. Looking at the stream again, where he was playing another song of his using the "instruments" he had gotten, Danna realized that he was not only a good artist, but also a good MeTuber and streamer, because he knew how to do interesting things that kept the audience interested all the time! Seeing how good he was at it, Danna even closed the game she was playing and enjoyed the rest of the evening watching this new streamer she had started following. Chapter 156 156 - D Rank! Chapter 156 156 - D Rank! At the end of the night, when I finally closed my stream, I had a huge smile on my face. [+1 Stage Presence]. Because I''d been streaming for so long, my Stage Presence, which was at Lvl 16, had increased to Lvl 17, making it even easier to stream and helping me interact with the audience even more. For someone who just started streaming today, finishing the stream with over 3k viewers was a great number! Compared to Quacktus, who has been streaming for years, my viewership wasn''t far behind! Of course, I wasn''t going to go viral and get tens of thousands of viewers in a single stream, that''s not a miracle I expected to happen, but I was happy to keep the audience that came from my social networks and still get a lot of new people from the site who clicked on the stream out of curiosity and kept watching. When the stream ended, I looked at the data from that stream and saw that there were 20,000 people who had come through the stream, which wasn''t a bad number, but it illustrated even more how much my stream was retaining its audience. There was 15% of that total on the stream all the time. Visitt for the latest updates My follower count went from 0 to 1,100, which opened the door for me to apply to become a partner of the site. This partnership would not only allow me to make money from the stream with ads that would appear on the screen from time to time, but it would also allow me to get subscribers. Honestly, although the money from subscribers was quite good for me, since I would get $2.5 for each person who paid for a subscription in a month, with the amount of viewers I had, that would give me at least $1,000 a month, but with how much I was already getting on MeTube and Spokify, that money wasn''t that important anymore. But if I didn''t become an affiliate of the site, anyone watching my stream wouldn''t see ads while I was streaming. So even though I could make a little bit more money, I decided not to apply to become an affiliate of the site. At that point, my focus was on how many people I could bring to the stream and how much popularity I could get from it to make my channel even more popular. Even if I made $1,000 less by not wanting to affiliate with the site, I would make up for it once I became a D Rank Artist and signed the contract after landing the role of Jack in the TV series. So I added something else to my daily routine. While I was going to school every day, practicing acting, and editing the channel''s videos, I started doing another thing every day: streaming for 3 hours in the evening. On the second day, the number of viewers dropped from 3k to 2.5k, which was understandable because it was no longer a novelty that even those who didn''t like streaming would follow. But by the third day, the number of viewers had increased again, reaching 3.2k viewers, and by the fourth day, the stream reached an incredible 4k viewers! Tomorrow would be my audition for the role of Jack, which made me very excited, but worried about whether I could reach the D rank. Selena had already called me to tell me that the audition was confirmed as the pilot episode had been approved by the network executives and they had been given the green light to continue filming the next episodes. At this point, my growth on the channel, Instabram and streams was so good that I even decided to increase the length of my stream to share with people my reaction to my GAA ranking. [BlackVelvet - 201st -> 2nd E Rank]. Not only could I get paid more for the TV show contract, but I could also get paid more for the gigs I did! Now I''d have more credibility for Stream, more credibility for my MeTube videos, especially the more explanatory ones... everything would be easier now that I''d moved up to D Rank. So it''s not like going from the 1st E Rank to the last D Rank would completely change how the public sees me, but for the more corporate side of this airline, it would help Selena a lot. I was so excited to finally become a D Rank Artist that my morning run was the most excited I''ve ever been. In the 60 minutes I ran, I covered an incredible 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) at a very fast pace. I greeted everyone with a big smile, which made people smile back. When my family woke up, Liv was the first to find out that I had become a D Rank and started congratulating me, along with Ethan and my mom. At school, the news that I was doing a stream and had become a D rank had already spread. Surprisingly, especially among the freshmen and sophomores, whenever I passed a group of younger girls, they would laugh and wave at me and congratulate me as well. I was surprised at first, but I responded to everyone who congratulated me with an amused smile. Laura''s reaction was the best, because when she saw me, she started laughing and came running up to me, jumping on me and clinging to me like a monkey. "Congratulations Noah!!!" She shouted as she held on to me. Of course I didn''t deny her and held her in my lap as I thanked her. She knew that today would be my audition for the role of Jack, and I had told her how much I wanted to get the D rank before the audition to get better conditions. Even though I was almost 20,000 places below her in rank, I was theoretically an artist of the same rank as some of the main cast of the show, which would definitely increase my chances of getting the part compared to the other candidates. Since I had the audition today, I skipped my extracurricular classes and went to the parking lot where Laura was waiting for me to go to the audition. When she found out that I had to skip school to go, she also decided to go with me to support me, just like I did with her, which I accepted. I was just curious what Selena''s reaction would be... ///NunuNote/// That was the end of "Volume 02: Enjoying The Stage!" I hope you enjoyed this volume. I''m counting on your support for "Volume 03: Other Stages!" Chapter 157 157 - Test Chapter 157 157 - Test Selena''s reaction was different than I''d imagined. When I saw Selena trying to convince Laura to become an AJP-signed artist, I had to stop myself from shaking my head. From the first time Selena saw Laura, I noticed that she was interested in Laura. Especially after she saw Laura''s social media profile and her GAA ranking profile, which showed that Laura was almost a C-rank artist. Of course, I don''t want to say that I''m innocent in this, because I also contributed by saying how talented Laura was and that I was sure she had a promising future if she could handle her own stuff. But even with Selena''s interest in Laura and her admission that she didn''t have a contract with any agency, I started to notice that Laura was getting uncomfortable with the subject... to the point that she even started to hide behind me a bit while giving evasive answers to Selena''s questions. It was clear to me and Selena that Laura was interested in becoming an AJP-signed artist like me, especially when Selena told her that if AJP would only take 20% of her earnings if she became a C-rank artist, Laura got even more excited about it. But it seemed like there was something inside her that was holding her back. Something she didn''t like, something she didn''t want, but which forced her not to accept it... It made me think of Laura doing everything herself about her career, of her asking me to help her get to the test... of her not wanting me to take her straight home... ''There''s something wrong...'' I thought as I shook my head and waved for Selena to stop insisting. ''What happened?'' Selena made a face at me that clearly asked that question. I''ll explain later. I replied with a look that surprisingly worked as Selena stopped insisting and nodded at me. The venue for my test was the same place as Laura''s. While I talked about this with Selena, I felt Laura''s gaze on my side with great interest. Knowing how insecure and talented she was, these words would be very useful if she absorbed them, but I know it would be difficult to change her mind in such a short time. At first it was just me and Selena talking, as Laura was still a little intimidated by Selena, but as time went by she started to open up and the three of us started to talk together. Although Selena had more knowledge about music-oriented artists, she still knew more about the movie industry than I did, and from what she said, she had "done her homework" before coming with us, so I wasn''t worried about the negotiation part. After 40 minutes it was my turn. As I entered the testing room, I noticed the same three people who had administered Laura''s test looking at me with interest and fatigue. From what I had seen on the day of the shoot, Ms. Parker was the director and writer of the show, while the two men were her assistant directors. As soon as she saw me, I noticed her eyes sparkle as she watched me with great interest. "I thought you weren''t coming in today, Mr. BlackVelvet." She said, looking me up and down. "I wouldn''t miss the opportunity, Ms. Park." I replied with a smile as I looked at Laura and Selena who were sitting on the benches at the side of the room. "Well done Mr. BlackVelvet, if it wasn''t for you I wouldn''t have even bothered to come to the audition for such a small role as ''Jack''." She said as she turned her eyes to the paper, making me look a little surprised, but before I could ask her more about it, she just reached out and handed me a piece of paper. "This is the script of ''Jack''s'' first interactions in the scene, let''s see if someone like you, who only started learning to act three weeks ago, can surprise me with your performance." She said. As I looked at the paper with the lines I would have to act, my mind quickly began to work on how I could act in the best possible way, thinking about Jack''s personality, how I could bring more life to this character, what personality traits he might have that would make my performance more realistic. Several different ideas came to mind while everyone else was just waiting for me to get comfortable with the role. What I didn''t know was that I was the only one auditioning today who was learning the script that day, something Ms. Parker had specifically requested. Chapter 158 [Bonus ] 158 - Problem Chapter 158 [Bonus Chapter] 158 - Problem - 3rd POV - "Okay, I''m ready." Noah said as he nodded after reading the script paper for 5 minutes. Seeing that he was ready, Angelina Parker nodded at him and took the paper as well. "I will play Harley and Francis will play Steve, his father-in-law in the show. Now imagine you''re on the doorstep of the Duncan house." She explained. Hearing this, Noah nodded and held out his hand, pretending to knock on the door. "Knock knock..." He made the sound of the door with his mouth. Angelina stretched her hand forward and opened an invisible door, even though she was sitting far away, and played her part of the script. "You''ve finally arrived, Jack!" she said. Re?a?d new chapters at novelhall.com Despite not being an actress, Angelina was able to naturally portray how Harley would act, not on a level that Laura could interpret, of course, but it was still a convincing level for those watching. Noah even determined that her acting skills were between Lv 10 and Lv 20, which was very good for someone who didn''t have that as the main focus of her career. "Hey babe." Noah said with a cute smile on his face as he winked with one eye. "Of course I came to see you." "What do you mean?" Angelina asked interestedly. "That was an exercise our drama teacher taught to give characters more depth. It said, ''Come up with a problem that this character has in their personal life, and as long as it doesn''t change the character''s original story too much, adapt it to your performance to make it more realistic.'' So I made up a problem and used it subtly in Jack''s interpretation while thinking about how someone with that problem would act in the scenes. Noah explained, causing 4 of the 5 people in the room to raise their eyebrows in surprise, except for Laura, who already knew. "And what problem would you think of for ''Jack''?" Angelina asked. "Since Jack has a band and I''m a singer in real life, I thought I''d make it so that he had a problem writing his last song and was constantly looking for inspiration from things that were happening in the scene to write his next song." Noah explained, leaving everyone looking surprised. Remembering how Noah played Jack and how he looked at things on the set with curiosity and watched the other characters with interest, they finally understood why. As soon as Angelina heard this, her eyes began to glaze over because she thought that not only did this fit perfectly with the backstory she had created for Jack, but it was also perfect for Noah, who already had a musical background and knew exactly how someone like that acted in situations like this. Not to mention that with this idea of how Noah was acting towards Jack, Angelina even started coming up with other scene ideas for this character that weren''t even supposed to exist in the original script. Noah didn''t know this, but his simple comment meant that the character he was going to play had a slight change in his importance to the story. "I like your idea, you can use it for the next scenes." Angelina said with a smile as she looked at Noah with even more interest. Hearing that Angelina wanted him to play for more scenes, Noah, Laura and Selena were excited because they knew that if she was asking them to try out more, it was because she liked his performance and his chances of getting the part had increased. So Noah nodded and they went back to acting for more scenes, with Noah giving a unique interpretation compared to the other actors who had auditioned for the same role, as well as a much higher technical level than this character originally required. Chapter 159 [Bonus Chapter] 159 - Acting Earnings ??"If I''m not wrong, you''re an E Rank artist, right?" Angelina asked as she looked at Noah with sparkling eyes after having him act in all the scenes where ''Jack'' would appear in episode 02. Not only did Angelina see potential in the character of ''Jack'', but she also saw that with the level of acting Noah showed in the role and the ideas he gave to the character, it all made her writer''s mind come up with several new ideas for the character that she felt could add a lot to the depth of the story.Re?a?d new chapters at novelhall.com "D-Rank." Noah replied with a smile. "D Rank? Weren''t you an E rank artist last week?" She asked confused. "I became a D rank artist last night." He smiled back. This already made Angelina''s head ache. Bringing in a D Rank artist could be very good for the promotion of the series, as they already had more name and fame than E Rank artists, but since Noah had become a D Rank artist yesterday, despite being a D Rank artist, he was still at the bottom of the D Rank, so his price was higher than the fame he had achieved. "What a great time to move up a rank..." Gary sighed beside him, causing Francis and Angelina to sigh in agreement with him. Noah''s luck was that his acting level was higher than that of a D-rank actor of the same rank as him, even though he was a D-rank count, and that having him in the series as a guest artist, since his fame came from a different niche, could bring in a dedicated fandom that would bring in much more viewers than a D-rank actor, which balanced out how much his low D-rank position would hurt the price. Of course, the price wasn''t set by Rank, but there was an average of how much each Rank demanded and wanted to be paid that was hard to change in the minds of people in the industry. With Angelina''s interest in Noah''s Rank, he was relaxed because it meant that he was practically confirmed as the one who had won the role. And as he expected, Angelina asked to discuss it with Selena and Noah was allowed to leave. "In the end, it all comes down to how famous I am and how I can capitalize on that fame..." Noah sighed as he looked at the script in his hand and began practicing the scenes he would be in the next day. With his Acting Mastery skill already at Lv 28, Noah had no problem learning it, especially with such simple scenes like the ones in which ''Jack'' would appear, none of this was a problem for him. He even had time to do his daily stream. He even considered giving up streaming after reaching D rank and getting a role in the show, but since he thought it was fun, Noah decided to do it every now and then when he felt like it. Since he was only doing it for 3 hours a day, it wasn''t that much time he was wasting, as well as getting more of an audience, practicing vocals, instruments, and most importantly, stage presence. Something he realized today was that Stage Presence was probably the most important skill for him as an artist in general, because it was useful for him as a singer, as a streamer, and as an actor, because on stage while performing he had to have a remarkable presence that would draw the audience''s attention to him. Even though his charisma was 17 and that helped a lot in drawing the audience''s attention to him, stage presence was the main thing responsible for making the audience focus on him. The advantage of the stream now that he was already a D- rank performer was that Noah could use the streams to practice certain things, such as piano, which he had only mastered at Lvl 10 and wanted to get higher. So he just used this stream to practice it and entertain the audience. During a single stream, he gained 2 levels in Piano, bringing the skill up to Lv 12, which was good progress for 3 hours of practice for a Lv 10 skill. The good news was that his average viewership remained at 4,000 people, which was a great number for a novice streamer. Noah was excited for the next day, when he would finally start acting for real! Chapter 160 160 - First shooting Chapter 160 160 - First shooting Since my bleached hair was very characteristic of the image I was creating for my career as an artist, Angelina thought that using Jack with hair like mine might confuse the audience into not distinguishing the actor from the character, so she asked me to use a temporary black dye on my hair. It was a special dye that was washed off with water to bring my hair back to its natural color, which I didn''t mind and let the makeup and costume department take care of. Even though my character wasn''t that big and important to the show, since I was a guest artist, the makeup team that took care of me was the same team that took care of the main cast. So a coincidence happened while they were doing my makeup. "Looks like you really made the cut, kid!" Phil said excitedly as he walked into the makeup room. When I opened my eyes and saw who was talking to me, I smiled at him and nodded. "Yeah! Ms. Parker was very pleased with my performance and decided that I could play ''Jack'', boss." "Jack..." He thought for a few seconds. "Harley''s boyfriend?! Ohhh, it looks like we''re going to have some scenes together haha, I''m curious to see how you''re going to act. The boy went from being the emotional support behind the scenes to the girl''s boyfriend in the show..." "I will be under your care." I said in a humble way because Phil was not only much more famous than me, but he was also a much better actor than me. Acting with him was not only a great opportunity for my career, but also a great learning opportunity for me as an actor. "Don''t worry...just tell me one thing, how is your improv?" He asked as he sat down in the chair next to mine, preparing to be made up as well. "Improvisation? Hm... I''m used to dealing with unforeseen events on stage while I''m singing, but I''ve never had to deal with anything like that for acting, apart from my teacher''s exercises at school," I explained. I explained. "On stage while singing... you didn''t tell me you were a singer!" He asked in surprise. "That''s why I thought his choice of actor to play Jack was a good one, Phil." Angelina entered the room carrying a clipboard. "He is a D Rank singer who helped his friend audition for Harley, after seeing his level of acting and knowing that his career was the same as mine for Jack, I felt there was no better choice than him for Jack." Hearing this, Phil''s eyes lit up. "What an incredible coincidence!" He said. "I love improvising in scenes, so keep an eye out for our interactions." Phil seemed like a nice guy, even though he was a B-rank performer, he didn''t have even 10% of the arrogance of most of the D-rank performers I''ve met so far. Angelina gave us the order in which the episodes would be recorded, which fortunately for me would follow a chronological order. Since I didn''t have much experience with acting, recording the scenes in a messy order was something I was still struggling to get used to. My drama teacher had given me some exercises in school, but nothing too in-depth. Sure, it wasn''t the door of a real house, but at least it was a real door. In front of me, Laura, or rather Harley, opened the door and looked at me excitedly. "You came Jack!" she said excitedly, showing the true level of performance she had that day, with an act so convincing that it seemed as if she had really become Harley. "Yeah babe, I said I''d come." I smiled, acting a little more cheeky and confident as I approached her. Harley got nervous when she saw me approaching her and quickly moved out of the way of the door as she ducked her head in embarrassment. "Ow Jack... don''t act like that in here, my mom might show up any minute..." "Hehe..." I replied as the script said and walked past her, looking at the house curiously. I had to dose the amount of curiosity I showed Jack to be just right, so that it wasn''t unnoticeable, but also so that it wasn''t so disguised that the audience wouldn''t even notice Jack''s traits. As I walked through the living room, two kids ran past and bumped into me. "Be careful, Lucas! Don''t run into the house!" Martha yelled as she came towards us, freezing at the sight of me. "Who are you?" she asked suspiciously. I was about to answer when Harley stepped in front of me and answered for me. "He''s Jack, Mom, my boyfriend, the one I was going to invite to the barbecue today." Seeing Harley explain who I was and then looking at me even more suspiciously, Martha just nodded slightly and finally said something. "Alright, welcome Jack, but you should know that in my house you always have to be under supervision, don''t go into rooms alone and even less behind closed doors, understand?" "Even in the bathroom?" I asked, feigning shock. This question was off-script, which surprised Laura and Julia, who were sitting across from me, but Julia''s professionalism was high enough that she didn''t let it show and answered. "Even in the bathroom." She said as she narrowed her eyes and looked at me even more suspiciously. I just raised my hands in surrender and nodded as I turned back to the script. "All right Ms. Duncan." Martha nodded at me and went back to running after the two children who were nearly destroying the house with their play. I just followed Harley as we chatted about something and the focus of the shot shifted to something else. "Cut!" Angelina shouted, causing everyone to sigh as they looked at her expectantly. "Well done Noah, good that you weren''t nervous about your first scene and even managed to improvise a bit. You should know that improvisation is very welcome on my set, just keep everything in character and it won''t be a problem." Hearing that she approved of the small change I had made to the script, I was happy and excited about the rest of the scenes I was about to shoot. Even Laura was happy to see this and wanted to continue shooting with me. The difference in the quality of her acting from the scenes she had previously recorded to the one she had just recorded was stark! And I wasn''t the only one who noticed, the other actors also noticed the difference in Laura''s performance and even Angelina was pleased. Chapter 161 161 - Inspiration! Chapter 161 161 - Inspiration! While I was acting with the other actors, I had to admit that the technical level of their acting was very high. Even though my acting skill had gone up another level and reached Lv 29, I could see how big the difference was between my acting level and that of actors like Laura, Julia, Phil, and Edward. Of all the actors who participated in the scenes today, these four were the ones who surprised me the most with their quality. And that says more about Laura than the other actors. The fact that she was in the D-rank while having the same technical level of acting as the top C-rank artists and even B-rank artists showed how good she was and how badly her career was managed so that she didn''t grow. Because it wasn''t that she wasn''t beautiful and had to play supporting roles... no, Laura was very beautiful, to the point that if she could show 100% of her abilities, I was sure she would get the leading role in several movies or series, but there was something wrong with her career that prevented her from growing, not to mention the traumas she had that showed how mentally broken she had become. Fortunately, when I was involved in the filming, Laura was able to show much more of her acting ability than when I was just watching. Having me on the set was something that gave Laura a lot more strength and confidence to continue acting. Whenever she started to get nervous, Laura would quickly look at me and I would see her instantly return to a very high level of acting. Apparently Angelina noticed this as well, but she didn''t care and let it be categorized as something from Harley''s character. Since my character was secondary, my participation in the episode wasn''t that important, from time to time there were some scenes where I had to record interactions with characters like Martha and Steve about how they were worried about Harley''s boyfriend, where Martha was trying to convince Steve to act tough with me, to enforce the respect that a father-in-law should have. But Steve was a very nice guy and couldn''t act that way. Whenever he tried to be tough with Jack, Jack would say something nice that made Steve like him even more, so over the course of the episode the two began to develop a friendship that surprised even Harley. "Don''t you know how to fish?!" Steve asked in shock as he worked the grill. Finnd new chapters at novelhall.com "Nah, my dad never took me fishing..." Jack replied a little disappointed as he held up a glass of soda and looked away ruefully. As soon as Steve heard this, his eyes began to shine with excitement and he quickly approached Jack and said. "Then let''s go fishing together! I''ll teach you how to fish! We''ll stay in the boat and watch the bobbers in the pond go up, down, up, down, up, down..." That part of his sentence where he talked about fishing bobbers was something completely improvised, but it fit the character very well. Hearing this, Harley was shocked and looked at her father in shock. Martha''s face fell and she shook her head, knowing that there was no way she was going to ask Steve to be hard on Jack when they were already getting along so well. With Steve''s invitation, I let my face show an excited expression, but the level of excitement I showed was very different from what Jack must have felt when he heard that Steve was going to take him fishing. This caused Angelina, who was watching, to not understand and was about to ask for the scene to be cut, but Phil was quicker and asked directly. "Are you that excited about going fishing?" Steve asked in surprise as he put his hand on my shoulder. I took this guitar and tested the strings and tuned everything so that the quality was perfect. Seeing how familiar I was with the guitar, Phil approached me and looked at me curiously. "I forgot you were a singer, your performance was so good I thought your main vocation was acting." She said laughing. "This is my first time acting, haha." I laughed as I played the melody of A Bar Song to get used to the guitar. "Is this your song?" He asked curiously as the other actors came closer to watch me play. "Yes, it''s called ''A Bar Song''." I replied. "You''re a country singer?!" He asked in shock as he looked me up and down. "He plays everything... I don''t think you can even define him in one category..." Laura sighed as she also came closer. "So how about playing this song for us? I''m curious how you sing it." Sophia, the actress of the younger sister, asked excitedly. I looked at her in surprise, since this was the first time we had interacted, and I didn''t have much sympathy for her because of how she had treated Laura before. However, knowing that it wouldn''t be cool to start a fight in the middle of a shoot, I nodded and decided to play a song for her. ???????????? My baby wants a Birkin, she''s been telling me all night long Gas and groceries, the list goes on and on This 9 to 5 ain''t workin'', why the hell do I work so hard? I can''t worry about my problems, I can''t take ''em when I''m gone... ???????????? As I sang, the cast and crew just enjoyed the music and were amazed at how catchy and interesting the lyrics were. Meanwhile, Angelina was seriously looking at the role in front of her and trying to adapt something so that the song I''d made would fit into the episode without seeming forced. What surprised me was that she didn''t even ask me to sing the song first to make sure it was really good. This was great for me because it gave me more time to adjust the song to a more rock-oriented version and take out some of the country that didn''t fit Jack''s role in the show. After I sang "A Bar Song," I had another 5 minutes to tweak the song before Angelina asked us to go back to recording. Chapter 162 162 - Up Down Chapter 162 162 - Up Down "To fit the guitar into the story, I had to change the script a little bit. Jack came by car and had left the guitar in the car, so after we start recording again, Jack will say he''s going to get the guitar from the car and we''ll cut to the scene of Jack singing the song to Steve. Angelina began to explain. "Since Noah is a singer who came as a guest artist, putting a scene of him singing in the episode could be good for keeping his audience for the show, as well as adding to Jack''s character in the show." With that explanation from Angelina, most people accepted it. Singers'' audiences were much more fanatical about seeing new and different work than actors'' audiences, because actors'' audiences were used to seeing them perform all the time, so many didn''t bother to see everything that artist did. But for me as a singer, my audience would be excited to see me on a different platform, so maybe tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of new people would be introduced to the show because of me, which was a great way to promote a new show that didn''t have a huge audience. Of course, if I''d been a B-rank singer, the effects would have been many times more monstrous, but they were still taking advantage of my D-rank popularity. So we did as Angelina suggested and made up an excuse that Jack had gone to get the guitar from the car and returned with it, under the curious and expectant eyes of the other characters. Steve was excitedly waiting for me to play the song he had inspired. Martha looked at me with curiosity and fear. Ariel looked at me with suspicion and interest. Harley came up to me and looked at me with stars in her eyes, excited to see what the song I was going to play would be like. Eric looked at me with even more trepidation since I was dating his granddaughter. When I finally sat down in the middle of the yard, in full view of everyone. I started strumming a tune that was a mixture of rock and country and began to sing. [You can search for "Morgan Wallen - Up Down" on Youtube, or go to Discord.gg/NunuXD and you''ll get the link to the song I used as inspiration for this scene!] ???????????? It was Friday after five, I got here just in time ???????????? We got what we got, we don''t need the rest Can turn this parking lot into a party With an ice chest, dancing, cold beer Man, we live it up, down, up, down We live it up down... ???????????? Instead of just singing the chorus, I preferred to sing the whole song, leaving it up to the program editors to decide what part to include. When I finally finished singing it, the other characters started clapping for me, and Harley ran up to me and gave me a big hug with a twinkle in her eye, which made Martha and Eric even more uncomfortable, but neither of them said anything. Steve seemed to have to hold himself back from running up and hugging me like Harley had done, but you could see how happy he was with the song by the way he looked at me. "It was awesome!" He said excitedly. "We''ll definitely go fishing together!" "And... cut!" Angelina shouted, bringing the scene to a halt. But even though the cameras had stopped, everyone still had surprise and shock on their faces that I had actually made up a song using the line that Phil had improvised on the spot! It was completely different from the character "inventing" a song on the spot when everyone already knew the song existed in the script, to me as an artist inventing the song from an improvisation Phil had in the moment. After that, the recording went much smoother, especially when I realized that everyone treated me with even more respect after seeing what I had done. My only regret was that I hadn''t called Jason to record today, as the reaction of all these artists would make a great vlog. I''ll have to ask Angelina if I can bring him tomorrow...'' I thought excitedly. Chapter 163 163 - Rich Chapter 163 163 - Rich "What did you think of the taping?" Selena asked me when we finally finished shooting all the scenes in the episode I was in. Since my character wasn''t that important, I finished my part of the shoot in just two days. But I realized that even though my character wasn''t that important in the beginning, both my level of acting and my musical talent meant that Angeline was inspired and had some more ideas for Jack to participate more in his scenes in the episode, which increased my participation a little bit. Which was a great thing for me, because the more I appeared, the more my popularity would rise. "I found that quite amusing." I replied as I left the set. "It''s a different feeling than recording videos for MeTube or recording my songs. I feel like I could do something like this more often in the future." "I''m glad you liked it." She replied with satisfaction. "I think your participation in these episodes will not only attract more people to your career, but also possibly open more doors for you to get other acting roles in the future." "I hope so." I said. Laura was still recording the rest of her episode, and if it was a normal day, I would even stay with her to support her so she could perform well, but I couldn''t do that today. Re?a?d new chapters at novelhall.com Since I spent two days recording, the editing part of my videos was behind schedule, and I had to get back home to edit the videos and get them ready to post. This weekend I''d be doing shows again and I''d be able to charge the price of a D-rank artist, which was great. According to Selena''s calculations, with my popularity in the bars and my ability to get the crowd going, we could already charge around $600 to $700 per show, which would bring me $1,200 to $1,400 per night. Not to mention, Selena gave me some news that made me very excited. "Now that you''re a D-rank artist, I can start looking for a place to do a solo show with you. With your popularity, it won''t be hard to get a few hundred people willing to pay $50 a ticket, which would mean at least $10,000 per show." Selena explained, causing my eyes to widen. And considering how fast my career was growing, that number could get higher and higher in the future. I finally understood how the singers and Youtubers of my previous world had so much money to buy so many luxury cars. If Youtubers were getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, it wasn''t impossible to buy a $200,000 Lamborghini on one month''s salary. I''m a big fan of cars, both JDM cars like the NSX that I want to buy, classic American cars like the 1969 Mustang, and luxury sports cars like Lamborghinis, Bugattis, Ferraris, Paganis, but I was aware that all these cars were luxuries that I couldn''t afford yet. Even though I was getting paid a lot of money, it wouldn''t be a smart move to just spend all my salary on luxury cars and not have any reserves for the future. So my goal when I started getting so much money was to diversify my money with different investments, I wanted to spread my money around in different investment funds, help my parents build companies for them and take a share as an investor, maybe buy some real estate for the future, and only spend some of that money on luxuries. It was very tempting to really just take the money I was going to get and spend it all on bullshit, but thinking that the future of my life after an artistic career could go very well or something could go wrong along the way, I felt safer investing my money and having a plan B for my future. It''s not like I was going to make very little money and only have a small portion of it left for me. With the amount I was making, even if I took some of that money and invested it, there would still be a lot of money left over that a lot of people only dream about getting every month. So I was happy. With the $24,000 I had in my bank account, I only needed another $11,000 to complete the money I needed to buy the car, plus another few thousand dollars to buy the custom parts I wanted for the car. Even after spending on the car and accessories for the car, there would still be enough money left over for me to invest and easily have some more spending money. So I was excited. With my excitement, two weeks passed and the date that the episode I recorded of the TV series would be aired. Chapter 164 164 - He Is The Whole Hell Chapter 164 164 - He Is The Whole Hell Zoey, a veterinary student at Columbia University, listened to her favorite artist, BlackVelvet, while studying for her exam in two weeks. She had discovered BlackVelvet while searching for something interesting to watch on MeTube, until she found BlackVelvet''s channel and loved the content he posted. Both the vlogs he posted frequently and the music he made were great, so Zoey couldn''t resist becoming a fan. She had even set her cell phone to notify her when he posted a new video on MeTube, so she could watch it as soon as it was posted. Unfortunately, BlackVelvet had already posted a video yesterday, so she had nothing to watch today. "Hey Zoey, can we watch The Duncan Family?" Sarah, Zoey''s roommate, came into the room with a bucket of popcorn in her arms. Zoey took her eyes off the book and looked at Sarah with the bucket of popcorn and was confused and asked. "Duncan family? What''s that?" "It''s a new show that comes out on UBC, some girls said it was cool and we decided to go to the dorm and watch the episode that comes out today together." Sarah explained as she grabbed some popcorn and ate it while chatting. "What''s it about? You know we have exams in two weeks..." Zoey tried to argue. But Sarah just shook her head. "The show is focused on comedy, the episode only lasts an hour, so you don''t have to worry about wasting too much time, just think of it as a break." Hearing that, Zoey thought for a moment and sighed as she paused the music on her headphones and stretched to watch with Sarah. "Okay, but can I share your popcorn?" Hearing this, Sarah became alert and started to walk away slowly. "There''s more popcorn in the microwave, just take yours and make it..." Th.e? most uptodate novels are published on n(0)velbj)n(.)co/m As soon as she said this, Sarah turned and ran away, with Zoey running after her, laughing. "I want your popcorn!!!" Within minutes, the two girls were sitting on one of the couches in the dorm''s living room, chatting with other girls. There were a total of seven girls in the room to watch the episode, but of those girls, only two had watched episode 01, the other five girls were just there to pass the time and rest their minds from studying. "When I saw his cell phone and saw that he was talking to Alicia, I couldn''t stand it and smashed his cell phone through the window of his car, breaking everything." One of the girls said proudly, making the other girls laugh. "Hey, the episode''s starting!" Another girl said excitedly, making the girls stop talking and watch the show with curiosity. Since most of them didn''t understand the show very well, they had to slowly pay attention to the characters'' interactions to get a good understanding of the show''s dynamics. "I''m sure it''s BlackVelvet!" Zoey said in shock as she pulled out her phone and opened BlackVelvet''s Instagram. When she opened his latest photo, Zoey handed her phone to the other girls and they looked at it curiously. "Hey, did you follow that actor already?" One girl asked in surprise as she looked at the photo. "Damn, he looks great with black hair, but the bleached hair looks amazing..." Another girl commented. Seeing their reaction, Zoey explained. "He''s not an actor, he''s a D-list singer I''ve been following for a few weeks. I met him because of a vlog he posted on MeTube, where would I imagine he''s also an actor and on a TV series?" Listening to Zoey''s explanation made the other girls even more curious. As a result, they talked less during the program and paid even more attention when Jack appeared on the screen. Zoey was very focused as well. She realized that Jack''s role was much smaller than the other characters, but surprisingly, his interactions with the other characters were very nice. Both the more romantic and affectionate way he was with Harley, but still keeping that cool way of speaking... and the difference in how he was with Martha compared to the other characters, since everyone was a little scared of her, but he had no idea and treated her like a normal woman, even joking around with her, even his jokes with Steve. But the girls noticed something strange. "Hey, there seems to be something wrong with him... right?" Sarah commented confused as she looked at Jack on the screen. "Yeah... I feel something wrong too, like he''s acting like a spectator on the screen, watching everything with great interest..." Another girl commented. "Could it be because he''s new to this acting career and doesn''t know how to act well?" Zoey also offered her guess. "It''s possible..." Another girl commented. Thinking that this was the possible reason, the girls tried to ignore this point because of his appearance, but it was hard not to notice their disappointment. But then he had a conversation with Steve about fishing that changed their minds. "You don''t know how to fish?" Steve asked in shock as he checked the grill. Chapter 165 [Bonus Chapter] 165 - I think Ive become a fan Chapter 165 [Bonus Chapter] 165 - I think I''ve become a fan Seeing that this conversation could lead to something bigger, the girls paid more attention to it and realized that even though Jack was a minor character in the show, the producers had also taken care to give him a backstory and depth that characters like him didn''t usually get. It was great because it made him seem more like a real person than just a pretty face who would appear in one episode and never come back. "Then let''s go fishing together! I''ll teach you how to fish! We''ll stay in the boat and watch the bobbers in the pond go up, down, up, down, up, down..." Steve said laughing as he put his hand on Jack''s shoulder and looked at him excitedly. As soon as Steve said this, the camera showed the reaction of the other characters and the girls couldn''t control themselves and started to laugh. Both at seeing Harley happy but embarrassed by her father, and at Martha''s facepalm at Steve becoming Jack''s friend instead of a tough dad, even Ariel''s surprise and excitement, which made the girls perk up and realize that maybe there was more to it than they''d realized. But the strangest thing was Jack''s reaction. Instead of just getting excited, he started to get very excited, but excited to an extent that wasn''t normal. "Doesn''t he know how to react?" Sarah wondered in confusion. But before another girl could say anything, Steve asked exactly what they were thinking. "Are you that excited about going fishing?" Steve asked, surprised at Jack''s reaction. "No... it''s just that hearing you talk about fishing bobbers going up down, up down gave me inspiration for a song!" Jack replied excitedly. The girls were shocked to hear Jack''s answer. "Wait, was he acting like that because he was thinking about how to make a song?!" One girl asked. "Harley said he had a band, so he''s a musician!" Another girl understood. To the point that Angelina was shocked that the secondary character she had only made to appear in 3 episodes was getting so much attention! And to the girls'' surprise, Zoey''s cell phone received a surprising message. [BlackVelvet had just posted a new video! "Up Down - Jack Storm (BlackVelvet)"] Seeing that BlackVelvet had just posted a new song and even used Jack''s name as the singer of the song, Zoey''s curiosity was piqued and she quickly put the video on the TV for her and the other girls to react to. "Look, BlackVelvet just posted the song on his channel, let''s see if there''s any difference from the show version!" Zoey said excitedly, catching the attention of the other girls who were now using Twipper. Hearing this, the girls were surprised and quickly turned their attention to the TV. When they saw that the video was in premiere mode with 50 seconds to go, they were surprised to find that there were more than 15,000 people waiting to see the song, just like them. What they didn''t know was that Twipper had posted the link to the song on MeTube, and out of curiosity, thousands of people who were watching the show, and even those who weren''t, clicked through to see what it was like. So a normal song like "Up Down", which Noah thought would get a maximum of 1 million views and a few thousand people watching the live premiere, got a very big release because of the hype of the show, which he took advantage of. And this was as good for him as it was for the show, since he had posted as "Jack Storm", the character from the show, this was already an indirect promotion for the show, not to mention that the hype he was getting for this was gigantic, which would attract even more people to watch the show! When the countdown finally reached zero, the girls held their breath and saw that the music video was the scene from the show, but with time they saw some differences. Even though it was filmed on the same set, the characters'' reactions were different...even the music was complete now, unlike the shortened version that appeared in the episode. The focus of the song was more on Jack, but there were still some reaction scenes from the other characters, which made it even more fun! "I think I''ve become a fan of his from now on..." Sarah commented. She also got nods from several other girls in the room who, after watching the video, seeing him perform, and even seeing how he acted in the vlogs, couldn''t resist becoming fans of his just like Zoey... Chapter 166 - News Chapter 166 - News The response to the Duncan Family episode was much bigger than I thought it would be. Especially for the role of Jack, who we all thought would be a minor supporting character, it seems that I managed to get a lot of interest from the public just by being normal, but because I did that song, it made the public''s interest in Jack skyrocket even more. By the end of the night, [Up Down - Jack Storm] had over 200,000 views, which surprised me a lot. Chee?ck out latest novels at novelhall.com As soon as I appeared in the episode, my Instabram DMs were bombarded by followers who watched the episode and recognized me immediately. Since the show was on TV and it wasn''t possible to see the audience''s reaction in real time like the streams I used to do, I had to open Twipper and see people''s comments there. Of course I wasn''t disappointed because most of the comments were surprisingly about me, just the guest artist that was on the show. I thought it was funny that they thought my acting was so bad, to the point that Jack looked a little strange as he looked around the house in amazement, as if I was just an amateur who couldn''t hide his surprise at being on a TV show. But the difference in how Jack acted before he thought of the song and after he thought of the song was very big, making the audience realize that this was intentional and not due to a lack of skill on my part. Another positive thing that surprised me was that my GAA ranking increased slightly during the broadcast of this episode. [BlackVelvet - 40,321th -> 35,551st D Rank]. Even though it was easier to climb up the ladder from the bottom, I didn''t expect to move up 5,000 positions in just one episode! I think the reason for this was that my character really got a lot of attention and generated a lot of discussion on Twipper, so I ended up getting a lot more attention and recognition than such a small character would have. Even though the show was on a major network like UBC, I knew that I shouldn''t have gotten so much popularity for just appearing in one episode. The blue Honda/Acura NSX that I wanted so much... the car was beautiful... [Visual representation on Discord.gg/NunuXD] I bought it last weekend as soon as I received the money from MeTube. Last month''s money had been $55,000, which with the $24,000 I already had in my bank account from the shows and the TV show payment, had risen to $79,000... That was a lot of money... I had to use $35,000 to buy the car, which brought the total down to $44,000, of which I transferred $10,000 to my father to help with the household bills, leaving me with only $34,000, which I still had to pay for some equipment for my small studio in the basement, pay my school fees, and have the car serviced at my uncle''s garage, which brought the amount left in my account down to $30,000. It was still a lot of money... I didn''t even know how to spend that much money in a single month, so I used my idea to start investing. My knowledge of investing was very low, so I had to focus on a small investment without too much risk, so that while I was learning about it, there was no chance of me losing money. My way out was to invest in real estate funds, which served as a safe choice that would earn me about 1% a month, which for an investment of $15,000 meant I would make $150 a month, which was not much? Yes, but it was the beginning of an investment portfolio for me, something that I would slowly grow to the point where it would become another major source of income for me. That left me with just $15,000 in my bank account, which I treated as a fund for fun or an emergency reserve in case something happened and we needed urgent cash without having to ask anyone. The car was still stock, with no drastic aesthetic changes and no engine or performance modifications that I knew I would want to change over time, so some of the money left in my account would eventually be spent on parts to customize the NSX... Of course, the more money I had left in my bank account each month, the more money I would have to invest, not to mention that I also started researching investments to try to find more profitable ways to invest and get more than just a 1% return on my investment each month. I just had to not rush into it and give myself enough time to learn about it safely. While I was in the garage proudly looking at the car, I received a phone call from Selena with a very big surprise. Since I had been focusing a lot on my acting career the past few weeks, it was time to focus on my singing side, which has always been my passion, and with the offer Selena had received, I was excited to get back to it.] Chapter 167 [Bonus Chapter] 167 - Motivation Chapter 167 [Bonus Chapter] 167 - Motivation When I answered Selena''s call, I noticed that her voice was more animated than usual. [Hey Noah, how was it, did you enjoy your part in the finished episode?" she asked. [I really enjoyed it, it''s quite different to see yourself playing a character on TV instead of acting naturally on MeTube, it''s quite nice to see how people just call me Jack on the internet haha]. I replied as I got into the car. [I thought you''d have this reaction. You know, with your participation in the show, your market value has gone up a lot, since you''ve gained a small foothold in the acting public while still remaining stable in the singing space, the likelihood of the public knowing you now has gone up, both because of the show and because of your music. Not to mention that your idea of releasing the song after the episode was genius, which very well converted the audience that was talking about Jack on Twipper to the BlackVelvet audience]. Selena said in an approving voice. I was happy to hear that, since it was my idea and it worked out so well, it was a great thing for my career. [I''m glad you liked it hehe]. [With the increase in its popularity and price came a lot of different gig offers, which also means that we don''t have to do as many gigs in bars as we used to]. Selena said a little relieved. [Really?! That''s cool!] I replied. Even though I liked singing in bars, the amount they paid was very low. The biggest advantage for me was that I could record vlogs with Jason and make a few thousand dollars more by recording the backstage of the shows, but for Selena it was a complete waste of time as she only got a few hundred dollars per show. [For this weekend we have three gig offers that I''ve accepted for you, the first offer is for tomorrow, it''s a 15th birthday. The girl''s family is Latino and they were already interested in calling you after hearing your song ''Bailando'', but that quickly turned from interest to certainty when the birthday girl saw your performance on Duncan Family and begged her father that she wanted Jack Storm to sing at her birthday...]. Selena said as I could feel her facepalm on the other end of the call. I laughed when I heard that. [Does she want Jack Storm with black hair or Black Velvet with bleached hair? Because I don''t want to dye my hair black again...] [She said she prefers bleached hair, so don''t worry. The price of the show was $4,000 for the night, which is above par for someone of your current rank, what do you think?"]. She asked, her voice also slightly giggly. [Wow, 4k for one night''s show?! That sounds great to me.] I replied excitedly, even if I had to pay some of that to Selena and Jason, there would still be $3,000 left for me, a great amount for just one night''s show. [I thought you''d like it, that was the standard amount I was charging for the first two shows of the weekend, Saturday''s show was a nightclub that invited you to be the only singer of the night and do a longer show, while Sunday''s show would be a benefit show that I thought I would use to further enhance your image and popularity]. She explained. When I thought that I could make $6,000 profit in a single weekend, I was very pleased. [No problem, tell me more about this benefit concert.] | HP: 150/150 | MP: 150/150 |------------------------ | Weight: 72 Kg | Strength (STR): 14 -> 15 | Dexterity (DEX): 13 -> 14 | Constitution (CON): 15 | Intelligence (INT): 15 | Wisdom (WIS): 12 -> 13 | Charisma (CHA): 15 -> 17 (16 + 1) | Agility (AGL): 12 -> 14 | Luck (LUK): ?? |------------------------ Unfortunately, the value in (LUK) was still just a question mark, preventing me from seeing what the real value was... But looking up at the sky, I thought of the old man who brought me into this world, and I felt a good feeling come over me, as if he was happy to see how I was doing. This gave me the motivation to prepare something special for Sunday... Chapter 168 - Quinceanera Chapter 168 - Quinceanera The feeling of doing gigs in bars was nice, but the feeling of coming to do special and different gigs was even nicer. It was Friday and I had just arrived at the venue for the girl''s 15th birthday party. Looking at the size of the ballroom where the birthday party was to be held, I could understand where the girl''s parents got $4,000 just to pay the singer for the party. The place was gigantic, even bigger than the wedding party where I first sang Bailando. "You''re the singing group, right?" A woman with a tablet in her hand looked at us and started walking. "Come with me." Our group of five followed her curiously, looking around. Since this was one of the special gigs I would be playing for several hours, I invited Mark and Frank to play with me so I wouldn''t get so tired. Especially considering that I was already getting so much money, considering the payments from the shows, the payment from MeTube, the payment from Spokify, the payments from my acting, adding it all up, there was so much money in my account every month that paying Mark and Frank to play with me was like an investment so that I wouldn''t get so exhausted during the shows. If I can keep myself less tired during today''s show, I can perform better at tomorrow''s show without having to compromise the quality of either show. Having the two of them in the show with me meant that I would be paid about $600 less than I would have been originally, but if it meant that I could do more shows, or even extend the time of the shows to earn more at each show, it was already an indirect profit. "Hey, is that Jack?!" I heard a surprised girl''s voice. ViiSiit novelbi/n(.)c/(o)m for latest novels "Is that him? His hair looks a little different..." Another girl commented confusedly. "That''s why I think it''s him even more, because I saw on his Instagram that his original hair is bleached, just to play the character of Jack in Duncan Family he dyed his hair black!" The other girl explained. Realizing they were talking about me, I got curious and looked in the direction of the voice and saw two girls a little younger than me, wearing pretty dresses, looking at me with interest. "To start the show, I thought of one of my fans'' favorite songs to sing..." I spoke, but was interrupted by an excited girl. "Boyfriend!!!!" The girl shouted, surprising me and the other guests at the party. Seeing that everyone was quiet, the girl was startled and lowered her head in embarrassment. Laughing, I looked at her with a smile and replied, "I see someone here likes my songs haha, thank you very much, I was actually thinking of singing Boyfriend, but since the birthday girl wanted Jack to sing at her concert, I thought I''d start with the song "Up Down" to liven up the place a bit and then sing Boyfriend. When I heard that I was going to sing "Up Down", the song that Jack sang on the show and that most of the girls at the party knew about me, I heard a few screams from excited girls, especially from the birthday girl who ran up to the stage to watch the whole thing with her eyes wide open. Although it was a new song, I had already given Mark and Frank the sheet music and we had played it a few times at my house before coming here so they were familiar with it, which wasn''t hard to learn with their talent. Even more, for those of them who already knew how to read music, having it in front of you while playing the instruments was like having the answers to all the questions on your test, it was practically like playing with Hacks. So with the three of us set up, Mark started the score on drums, Frank was on keyboards and I had my guitar on my chest when I started singing. ???????????? It was Friday after five, I got here just in time. Went ahead and wet a line ''fore I went and lost my mind And I ain''t been here long, but the bobbers in the pond Going up, down, up, down, up, down... ???????????? As soon as I started singing this song, I was surprised to look out into the audience and realize that there were several girls singing along with me! Chapter 169 [Bonus Chapter] 169 - Duet Chapter 169 [Bonus Chapter] 169 - Duet My version of Up Down was different from the original version from my past world, mainly because while the original version was extremely country oriented, my version was much more rock oriented. Even though I liked some of the country songs, that style was very niche because it was also much more interesting to older people than the young audience I''ve been cultivating since the beginning. Of course, I know there are a lot of young people who like country music, especially in the South, but I already had my own version of a very successful country song, "A Bar Song," so I didn''t need another one. So I changed the rhythm of "Up Down" to something more rock-oriented to try to make it a more general and universal version, something that not only the southern part of the country would really appreciate, but anyone listening around the world would like. And seeing how the girls responded to it, it worked very well, as both the birthday girl and her friends were singing and dancing very excitedly in front of the stage. As I looked further in the background, I saw that the girls'' relatives were also smiling and enjoying the song, although the birthday girl''s father was looking at me with a strange expression. When I finally finished singing "Up Down", I took a few breaths, grabbed my bottle of water and drank a lot to soothe my throat. Since it was a 15-year-old girl''s birthday, I didn''t want to drink alcohol, so I had to make do with water. "More people know this song than I thought..." I said with a laugh into the microphone. "Everyone was watching Duncan Family when I said I was going to invite you to my birthday!" Victoria yelled at me excitedly. "Ohh, really?! So you''re responsible for everyone knowing my music, Ms. Victoria?" I asked jokingly. Seeing that I was talking to her in such an intimate way, Victoria got even more excited and smiled back. "Yes!" "I was wondering... since you were responsible for introducing them to my song ''Up Down'', do you happen to know any of my other songs?" I asked. "All of them! I know all your songs!" She exclaimed excitedly. "Really? Then how about you come up here and pick a song for us to sing along to?" I asked as I held out my hand. Hearing that, I saw her eyes light up even more and she started nodding quickly as she walked towards the stairs to get up on stage and quickly came to my side as she took my hand. "What song are you going to sing?" I asked. Since Victoria was nervous, I started singing and dancing slowly, using my [Dancing Mastery Lv 15] to lead her around the stage with one hand while holding the microphone and singing with the other hand. At first, Victoria was still a little stiff and nervous, but as I gently led her around the stage, she slowly began to loosen up as she danced more and more freely. At no point did she sing out loud, she just kept her voice low and hummed the lyrics very softly, concentrating only on the dance steps and how not to mess up the dance. Luckily for her, I had learned a lot about leading a dance partner in my dance classes at school, which was a great help for her, as she just had to follow the movement of my arms pulling her from one side of the stage to the other, while she just had to concentrate on doing the steps with me to the rhythm of the song. But finally, when it came to the chorus of the song, Victoria brought the microphone closer to her mouth and I noticed that she wanted to sing this, so I lowered my voice and changed my singing style to be the second voice, making the bass of my voice an accompaniment to the treble of her voice in this section. ???????????? I wanna be contigo And live contigo And dance contigo Para have contigo Una noche loca (una noche loca) Ay besar tu boca (y besar tu boca) ???????????? Surprisingly, Victoria''s voice was very good! Even though she had no professional singing training, she managed to keep her voice within the right notes, just slipping into the wrong note every now and then, but to lay ears like the audience, the quality was great! I only had to adjust my voice once while we were singing together to use my voice to amplify her voice even more, so everything sounded great. When we finished singing and dancing to the song, instead of just walking away from me, Victoria came over and hugged me happily. And seeing how happy she was, the audience began to applaud excitedly for our impromptu performance together. With all these excited reactions, I had to admit to myself. Even though performing was fun, this life on stage, instantly intensifying the emotions of my audience, was what really motivated me to improve as a performer... Chapter 170 - Which song? Chapter 170 - Which song? As with my wedding gigs, the owners of this party liked my performance so much that they asked me to sing for an extra hour. I have to say that when I sang Boyfriend I got a slightly different reaction from different groups of people. Victoria and her friends her age obviously loved the lyrics, with the standard reaction I usually get from girls who are interested in me. Victoria''s aunt and uncle had already had a few drinks and didn''t care much and just danced on the dance floor to whatever I was singing. Even Victoria''s mother loved the lyrics and danced with the others. ?iscover new chapters at novelhall.com The problem was Victoria''s father, who looked at me as if he could kill me with his eyes. I just pretended not to see him and kept singing my songs. By the end of the party, Jason had made some great recordings, Mark and Frank had helped me a lot to keep the mood up and put on the best show I could, while Selena got $1,000 for another hour of show, bringing my gross for the night to $5,000. After deducting $700 from Mark and Frank, there was $4,300 left, minus Selena''s 20%, there was $3,440 left for me, which I took, plus $350 for Jason, the same amount I paid Mark and Frank, and in the end there was $3,090 left for me. Getting 3k in one night was great value, especially since it was enough to boost my bank account from $15k to $18k. Not to mention that the three of them were very happy to get more than they normally get. Considering that I used to pay Jason $150 a night and Mark and Frank $200, I had more than doubled the amount I was paying Jason and increased the amount I was paying Mark and Frank by 75%. "Since you''ve been with me from the beginning, I''m not going to treat anyone badly. Since I''ve been promoted to D-rank and now I''m getting paid more for the shows, you who are helping me to improve the quality of the show will also get paid more for your appearances in the shows. I said as I explained why I was increasing the amount I was paying them. Considering that we were doing 3 shows a week together, that would give them an average pay of $4,200 a month each, which obviously wasn''t an extremely high amount to live a luxurious life, but it was a great way to supplement their monthly income or even open up an opportunity for them to not have to worry about looking for normal jobs to support themselves. And considering that the more I grew and got more money, the more I would pay them, I was giving them the prospect of future growth based on the growth of my career, as if they were shares in a growing company. Does that sound arrogant? It certainly is, but it''s the truth, they even noticed that I had a repertoire of great original songs that I was releasing very easily, and my meteoric rise only showed that staying with me was the best choice. So as a musician, wouldn''t it be ideal if I just made a song? Not only could I make a song to cheer up kids, but I could use the monetization of Spokify and MeTube to make more money for them. I would still get the fame that this song would bring me, but the money from the song would go to help the children, which would be like killing two birds with one stone. And considering how much my music was making on Spokify, if I added up the income from the vlog on Metube, the music on MeTube, and the music on Spokify, it would become a constant source of income and donations for the orphanage. In the first few months, this could be a 5-figure donation, and over the months it could even be a 6-figure donation, considering that my old songs are still earning me a lot of money today. Now the main decision was... what song would I choose to sing at this event? First, I had to choose a song that the children would understand and like. Second, the song had to have a good message for the children, something that would give them hope for the future and warm their hearts. Third, and most importantly, the song had to be good. There was no point in me making a song that the children would understand and that had a good message, but the lyrics would be bad and boring, no one would listen to it, it wouldn''t make any money, and the children wouldn''t want to listen to it again. On that point alone, I had already discarded several song ideas I''d had. While I was thinking about what song to choose, Ethan came into the bedroom to get some toys to play with, and looking at those toys, an idea came to me very strongly. Mainly because one of the toys he picked up was a cowboy doll and the other was an astronaut. It wasn''t possible that I didn''t understand that this could be a sign for one of the most classic songs of my childhood, right? Not only were the lyrics simple and easy for children to understand, they had the message that children needed to hear in times of need like the one they were going through, but most importantly, the song was very beautiful and went down very well in my former world. Of course, a large part of the song''s success was due to the fact that it was one of the most classic songs from one of the most successful children''s cartoons in my former world. But that wasn''t a complete problem for me. If I was an unknown artist, it might have been more difficult to get the song to go viral, but with my current rank and how many followers I have on social media, it wasn''t impossible for this song to reach a large audience. And with how good this song was, I was confident that it would get a few million views! Chapter 171 - Family Help Chapter 171 - Family Help Saturday night''s show was very good, the feeling of being the only singer at a bar night was much more fun than sharing the stage with other singers. Since I was already the last singer of the night when I was an E Rank Artist, singing right after the D Rank singers, now that I''ve become a D Rank singer, doing shows by myself would be more common than sharing stages. Which was great for me because not only would it be less tiring because I wouldn''t have to go from one bar to another in the middle of the night, but it would also be better for my image because I would be the one singing all night and the image that would stay in the minds of all the customers would be mine, and it would also be more lucrative... While sharing two stages in different bars I would only receive $1,400 a night, doing 3 to 4 hours of shows in one bar would increase my income to $3,000 to $4,000 a night. With the higher amount of money I was getting per night, it also meant that I could call on Mark and Frank to help me play, which made these gigs even less tiring. At the end of the night, after receiving $4,000 with Selena, we paid the three of us the same amount as yesterday, $350 each, leaving me with only $2,290 after AJP''s 20%. But getting paid less tonight was still better than having to do all those hours of shows alone. Not to mention, since each show was getting so long, I was able to turn each day''s show into a different vlog, which, considering each vlog averaged 300-400k views, meant an average of $2,000 to $2,500 more for me as a bonus for the vlogs Jason recorded each night. That''s not counting the vlogs that could potentially go viral, so I wasn''t being stingy with the little bit of money I was giving up each night to pay the people who were helping me out. On Sunday, when I woke up and looked at Ethan sleeping in the bed next to mine, I remembered that today was the day I usually went out to eat with my family. But since I was doing the concert at noon, we wouldn''t be able to go somewhere special to have lunch together. I guess I could ask them to go to the charity barbecue with me, right? I realized that since it would be a way for us to go together, they could see a show of mine that they hadn''t seen in a long time, not to mention that it could help get more people involved in the charity event. So after I showered and went downstairs to greet my parents, I saw them on the sofa together under a blanket watching an old movie on TV, which made me smile. Since my dad no longer had to work two jobs every day, he had more free time to spend with his family, which I noticed my mom, Ethan, and Liv loved. Unfortunately, we kind of reversed roles, because while my dad was spending more and more time at home, I was spending more and more time away from home, with my extracurriculars at school taking up a few hours each weekday, and on the weekends I had to focus most of my time on my career. "Hey, good morning." I said as I walked into the living room and sat down on the other sofa. "Some donations?" He asked confused. "First, I''m going to sing for free, so according to my price, that would be a donation of $4,000. Secondly, I intend to make a vlog and donate the value of that vlog to the orphanage, which should already give them $2,000 in donations from the income from the views, not to mention that I have written a song for the children that I intend to release and leave the income from the song to the orphanage, which should mean at least another $4,000 in income, which will total about $10,000 in donations, so don''t worry so much about the donations, I will already be donating a lot for us." Hearing this, my father''s eyes widened, which was quickly replaced by a proud smile. "You''re going to be a great man, Noah..." My father said as he smiled at me. I have to admit that I was a little embarrassed by this compliment, especially when I thought that it was coming from my father... a figure who had always been so controversial and difficult in my past life, it struck me differently... "Of course, everything bought there will be converted into money to donate to the orphanage, so we can donate by eating barbecue and buying presents." I said as I ignored his compliment and got up to go down to the basement. My dad just smiled at the way I was acting and I ignored him as I flopped down on the sofa down here and let that strange feeling leave my chest. I still wasn''t 100% over my father from my old world, but I feel that using the name BlackVelvet as my stage name makes it much easier for me to get over him... since it was my old father''s stage name. But to hear my current dad praise me and say he was proud of me...fuck...that was hard to deal with. It wasn''t a bad feeling, on the contrary, it was a very good feeling, I was overjoyed to receive this recognition, I just needed a few minutes to recover... So I just closed my eyes and rested for a few minutes with my eyes closed and my head a little bit off, letting everything go through my mind. After a few minutes I thought of something and decided to call Selena to confirm the situation at the orphanage, to make sure my donations weren''t being embezzled or misused. She was surprised at my intentions, but approved of them all, knowing that everything I was doing would bring a wave of positive popularity to my image that was priceless. Especially with my plans to make it clear everywhere that the profits from the video and song would go to the children, it would be a great marketing strategy. I also noticed their happiness that I was doing this on my own initiative and not just thinking about profit and fame, but really caring about the children. With that settled, I was thinking about getting my things and walking to my car when I had an idea I hadn''t thought of before. If I could get 1 charisma point for my haircut, could I get another point for something else... like... makeup? Chapter 172 - Make-up and mechanics 172 172 - Make-up and mechanics When I participated in the TV show as Jack, I was made up by the make-up team, but since my character was of little importance and the make-up artists thought I was already pretty enough, the make-up they put on my face was just what was necessary to make my skin stand out well against the studio lighting and not look weird when the camera was recording me. But when I thought about the Kpop idols of my former world, both male and female, who wore a lot of makeup and managed to go from a 7 out of 10 face to a 9 out of 10 face or even a 10 out of 10 face, I wondered if it wasn''t possible to wear makeup to look prettier and get another charisma point. [Charisma (CHA): 17 (16 + 1)] I currently had 16 charisma points that really belonged to me, plus one point for my perfectly cut hair. If I added another point for my well-made makeup, I would have 18 points... which was already a level of beauty and appearance far above normal. I was so in control of my appearance, with a score so close to 20 points, that I was sure it would only help my career more and more. It''s not that "being pretty" is a bad thing; on the contrary, the prettier a person was, the more pleasant he or she was to look at, and the easier it was to like such a person compared to an ugly person. But unfortunately, even if I wanted to test this, I couldn''t test it now because I didn''t even know the names of makeup products, let alone how to apply them to my face to make me look good. But I knew that if I had enough practice, I could use it to improve my appearance. Even if Lv10 makeup wasn''t good enough, what if this skill reached Lv20? What about Lv 30? Imagine this skill at Lv 40? What nuances would I know, how well would I know makeup to be able to enhance someone''s appearance with this skill? So I started to think about it as something really useful to learn and decided to talk to Liv about it. Arriving at her bedroom door, which was only slightly closed, I knocked with my knuckles. Knock knock "Hey Liv." I said. "Noah?! Come in." She replied from inside the room. Slowly opening the door, I looked around the room and noticed her sitting at her dressing table applying makeup to her face, the perfect moment! "I think I''ve arrived at the perfect moment hehe." I laughed as I walked over and sat down on her bed, making her stop what she was doing and look at me in confusion. "Perfect time for what? I''m just doing my makeup..." She asked. So I explained my thoughts on makeup and how much good it could do for my career, making her surprised at my idea and excited to be able to help me. "Sure, if you want I can teach you and explain everything I know!" She replied happily. With how much I''d helped her with the violin and all the other things around the house, this was one of the few times I''d needed her help, and seeing her feel so useful brought a smile to my face. Throughout her make-up process, she began to explain to me the basics of everything she was doing, the name of each product, the brand, what the product was used for, how she used the product in the best way, how she used two different products to combine the two and give a satisfactory result. At first I felt that even though she was explaining her knowledge of makeup to me, she was still looking at me from time to time to see if I was really paying attention and interested. But when she saw that I was really interested in her explanations, even actively asking questions, Liv began to loosen up more and started firing information at me, explaining everything she could, to the point that I was starting to have trouble remembering everything she said. It would even be interesting to get more girls interested in cars, because in this world the car culture was much weaker than in my previous world. And as long as I didn''t record myself doing anything illegal, like betting on illegal races or doing wrong things while recording, it wouldn''t affect my public image either, and I could even get some sponsors to give me some parts to improve the car for free hehe. It was a win-win situation that I would just enjoy the benefits of. And when I felt how well this low, sporty car glided around the track, I knew that turning this machine into a monster would be a lot of fun! After some time on the road, we finally arrived at the barbecue spot. Because I was driving faster with Ethan, we arrived a few minutes before my parents, but I quickly spotted Selena''s white Tesla and parked next to her, letting her know I had arrived so she could meet me in the parking lot. Even though I wasn''t going to perform now, I invited her to join us to enjoy the pre-performance event. ///NunuNote/// Bonus Chapter Queue: 9/17 (+1 From 1k PS Goal!) --- Monthly Golden Ticket Ranking Bonus Chapters Goals: Top 20: 1 Chapters Top 15: 2 Chapters Top 10: 3 Chapters Top 5: 4 Chapters --- Weekly Power Stones Goals: 1.000 PS: 1 Chapters 2.000 PS: 2 Chapters 3.000 PS: 3 Chapters ... 7.000 PS: 7 Chapters Maximum of 7 Weekly Bonus Chapters --- Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. --- Every month, you will have a maximum of 30 Bonus Chapters up for the grab! [27 Left] discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, I really need your support for this competition!! NunuXD Creator''s Thought Chapter 173 [Bonus Chapter] 173 - Benefit Concert 173 [Bonus Chapter] 173 - Benefit Concert Since Selena had been to my house several times before and my parents had met her at my concerts they had attended, it wasn''t strange to have Selena with us while we enjoyed the barbecue. As I looked around, there were a few dozen families enjoying the barbecue, but the place seemed a bit empty. Even though there were a few dozen people, the place could hold at least a few hundred people, so since the number of people wasn''t close to the maximum number, the place gave the impression of being rather empty. To help with this, I decided to record a story for my Stabram account announcing that I was playing a free show here and encouraging people from San Francisco to come and help out. Even though the organizers had already announced me as the singer who would be performing today, the money they spent on marketing wasn''t much since they didn''t have that much money to begin with, so not many people knew about it. As a singer who has grown a lot through social media, unfortunately my audience wasn''t concentrated in a single city like the other singers of the same rank as me, but if of the more than 20,000 people who saw my stories, at least 2% were from San Francisco and came to the event, that would mean I could help bring 400 people to the event, which was already a great number. And considering that even if my followers weren''t many, there were still a few thousand who followed me after my gigs at the bars, I think that help would be useful. The event itself was a barbecue festival where the profits from the sales of the barbecue and drinks would go as a donation to the orphanage, so even if the people who came didn''t want to help by donating, if they just ate and drank here, it would help the kids a lot. Speaking of children, I noticed that most of the children at the orphanage were helping with the barbecue, not making the meat, but helping with the trash, serving tables, and things like that. Only the very young children were playing a little farther away, so the older ones were all helping to raise money. While I was tasting some mini hamburgers I''d bought for me and Ethan and chatting with my parents and Selena, an older man came up to us. "You''re BlackVelvet...right?" he asked a little uncertainly as he looked at me. I noticed that his eyes were fixed on my hair. I guess my biggest feature that he used to decorate my appearance must be my bleached hair...'' I thought. I thought as I laughed. "Thank you so much for doing this show for us...you don''t know how lucky we are to have an artist like you helping us out today." He said gratefully as he held out his hand to me. "You''re welcome..." I replied a little uncertainly, having some doubts about his identity, but without confirmation. "He''s the director of the orphanage, Noah. He''s the one who requested an F-rank performer for AJP and organized this event." Selena explained, confirming my suspicion. Listening to Selena''s explanation, the man was surprised to realize his mistake and laughed embarrassed. "I''m Benjamin Sparks, the director of the orphanage." "It''s a pleasure to help, Benjamin." I replied as I shook his hand. "I''ve actually come up with some ideas to help the event even more, I think you might be interested." Hearing that, Benjamin was surprised. "Your presence here is already more help than I could ask for, but any ideas to help are more than welcome, BlackVelvet." So I told him that I had made the song for the children and suggested that he gather them in front of the stage so that I could sing it at some point during the show. He was surprised and quickly agreed. I also explained how I planned to donate the MeTube and Spokify monetization from the song to the orphanage, as well as donate the MeTube vlog monetization to them, which he was grateful for, but I realized he had no idea how much it would bring in. ???????????? As soon as I started singing the lazy song, the people who came near the stage and knew me started singing along with me, so that other people''s enthusiasm was also affected and more people''s curiosity was aroused. There were several families who didn''t know me, but after hearing the lyrics of The Lazy Song and seeing how excited people were to see me, it infected them and made them interested and pay attention to the show as well. The loud music from the speakers also served to attract the attention of the neighbors, who gradually arrived with curiosity and took the opportunity to stay for the free concert and eat some barbecue. I decided to sing only my more upbeat songs, leaving my sadder songs like Numb and In The End out of the repertoire, as the lyrics of these songs wouldn''t fit very well with the current environment, so this show was quite lively. With each song I sang, the crowd in the venue got bigger and more people came up to the stage to see me perform. As it was more of a family atmosphere, there were a lot of children on their parents'' shoulders to get a better view, which was a very new sight for me. "Now I have a surprise that I''ve prepared for today, I''d like to ask Ben to help me gather the children from the orphanage closer to the stage as I have a message for them." I said with a smile on my face, arousing the curiosity of the other people who began to look at me expectantly. ///NunuNote/// Bonus Chapter Queue: 10/17 --- Monthly Golden Ticket Ranking Bonus Chapters Goals: Top 20: 1 Chapters Top 15: 2 Chapters Top 10: 3 Chapters Top 5: 4 Chapters --- Weekly Power Stones Goals: 1.000 PS: 1 Chapters 2.000 PS: 2 Chapters 3.000 PS: 3 Chapters ... 7.000 PS: 7 Chapters Maximum of 7 Weekly Bonus Chapters --- Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. --- Every month, you will have a maximum of 30 Bonus Chapters up for the grab! [27 Left] discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, I really need your support for this competition!! NunuXD Chapter 174 174 - Idea to help 174 174 - Idea to help Not only the group of people who came to see me, the families who came to help with the orphanage, the children from the orphanage, and even the people who manned the grills were curious and paid attention to me. "The song I''m going to sing now is ''You''ve Got a Friend in Me''. This song is about friendship, supporting each other, and being there for each other no matter what. It''s a message that I think is very important, especially for these children who need to know that they are not alone and that they will always have someone by their side. I said as I began to strum the melody of the song on my guitar. "True friendship is one of the most precious things we can offer, and today, as we sing together, I hope we can convey that message of love and solidarity. May every child here know that they have a friend in all of us, and that we are here to support, care for, and love them. "Let''s make this moment special. Sing with me, feel the music, and above all, remember that we are all friends of these wonderful children. "Thank you for being here and for being a part of this meaningful moment." "And now, with you, ''You''ve Got a Friend in Me.''" I finally finished my speech, with everyone''s attention, and I finally sang the song. [Nununote: You can go to discord.gg/NunuXD and find the link to the song there directly, or search for "You''ve Got a Friend in Me" on YouTube and listen to the original song during the chapter]. ???????????? You''ve got a friend in me... You got a friend in me... When the road ahead looks rough... And you''re miles and miles away... From your nice warm bed... You just remember what your old buddy said... Boy, you got a friend in me... Yeah, you got a friend in me... ???????????? This song... just by singing it, I could already recall the image of a little toy cowboy thinking about his human friend and how much they valued that friendship. As one of the few children''s movies that I managed to see without my drunken father ruining the experience for me in my old world, because I went to see it on a school trip, this movie had really shaped my life. My only regret is that I didn''t have any real friends to sing it to sincerely... So my [Sing Lv 39] was used to the limit to get me to hit the tones of the song and the emotions it needed. The lyrics had to be sung in a tone that showed experience, to convey the credibility that the lyrics required, but also to convey a lightness, to show the children the positivity of the song, to try to make them happy rather than sad. Since I didn''t have the experience and background that the original singer of this song had, I had to use my singing skills to the maximum to get to the level I needed to express what I wanted in the song. But the expression on the children''s faces, the tears on the orphanage director''s face as he hugged the older children, even the emotion on the parents'' faces as they stood next to their children, was great. As I looked across the audience, my eyes met those of my father and Ethan, and it was as if a bolt of lightning had struck me, making me realize that although my father wasn''t my friend in the other world, I really did have my friends in this world, my father, Ethan, Liv, and my mother. At that moment, the song I''d had to force myself to sing as close to the original as possible began to come out naturally. I sang it as if I was saying it to Ethan and my dad, and the lyrics became more and more emotional. ???????????? You''ve got a friend in me After a few words of thanks, I left the stage with Mark and Frank, who were as tired as I was, and we went to get something to eat. When the barbecue man saw the three of us coming to his stand, he gave us a big smile and offered us the best cuts of meat. "That song... BlackVelvet, right?" he asked, making me nod as I took a bite of meat. "When you sang it the first time, I regretted not recording it, but the second time you sang it, I recorded it to listen to it with my dad... he''s going through a difficult time in the hospital and I never knew how to express to him that I''ll be there for him whenever he needs me, now I have a way to express it, thanks a lot boy." Smiling, I was even happier. "I''m glad you liked it, the song will be released on my MeTube channel and on my Spokify this week, so if you want to hear this song more often, you know where to listen." I replied. As we ate, I saw my family coming towards me and Ethan running to hug my leg, but when he felt my pants a little wet with sweat and my shirt all wet, he quickly turned away in disgust, which made us laugh. After my show, the event was over, so we were just taking down the stage equipment and getting ready to leave, when I remembered something. When the children came on stage, I noticed that many of their clothes were old and worn out, and many of them were wearing clothes that were bigger or smaller than they should have been, which broke my heart. So I decided to surprise these children. Remembering a huge philanthropy channel from my previous world and thinking about how much watching those videos made me happy and wanted to help other people, I thought I could make a nice surprise for the children with some of the money I had. With my bank account totaling over $18,000, it wouldn''t hurt to take out a few thousand dollars to make the kids happy with gifts. I could donate some of the money directly to them, but I thought it would be much better for the children to get something physical and playful than just giving money directly to the orphanage, which I would already be doing by monetizing the music and video, so I thought shopping would be much better. Then tomorrow I would have an extra job to do after school. When I looked at my car and noticed that it didn''t have a hitch on the back, I realized that I would have to take it to my uncle''s garage before I went shopping. Imagining the scene of a sporty, low-slung NSX pulling a trailer full of presents for the kids brought a big smile to my face. And thinking about Ethan, who didn''t have many toys either, I think I could use a treat for my little brother, too. ///NunuNote/// Bonus Chapter Queue: 10/18 (+1 From 2k PS Goal) --- Monthly Golden Ticket Ranking Bonus Chapters Goals: Top 20: 1 Chapters Top 15: 2 Chapters Top 10: 3 Chapters Top 5: 4 Chapters --- Weekly Power Stones Goals: 1.000 PS: 1 Chapters 2.000 PS: 2 Chapters 3.000 PS: 3 Chapters ... 7.000 PS: 7 Chapters Maximum of 7 Weekly Bonus Chapters --- Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. --- Every month, you will have a maximum of 30 Bonus Chapters up for the grab! [27 Left] discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, I really need your support for this competition!! NunuXD Chapter 175 175 - Charity Vlog 175 175 - Charity Vlog Ethan loved the toys I got him. Especially the blue Honda NSX remote control I bought him was his favorite gift of all. As for the children at the orphanage, the children who were old enough to play with toys loved the toys I bought them, while the older children were happy with the new clothes I bought them. Benjamin was once again thrilled with the gift I bought him, just as he was with the show I put on, but I just acted naturally while handing out the gifts. I also took the opportunity to record the whole project. From the part where I left the house with Jason to rent a trailer to hook up to the car, to the part where I bought the gifts, to the part where I gave Ethan the gifts I bought, to the part where I delivered the gifts to the children at the orphanage. All of those parts were great, especially with me developing a narrative and storytelling for the video. bined with my [Acting Mastery Lv 29] and [Stage Presence Lv 17], my video presentation became more fun and interesting the more I recorded my videos. This was also reflected in the number of views of my videos. While my first vlogs got between 200 and 300k views, my vlogs were now averaging 500k views, getting very close to 600k views per video. Considering how well the vlogs paid, my income only increased. So even if I had spent $3,000 on clothes and toys for the children at the orphanage, it was only a matter of posting a vlog with 500k views to get all that money back. A few sponsorship offers came my way, but they were all misleading products or things that had nothing to do with my image, so even though it paid very well, I didn''t care and just ignored it. It''s not like MeTube paid me very much. For the next few days, I just focused on practicing a lot in class, editing the videos, and posting them to my channel. Instead of putting the videos from yesterday''s event at the end of the queue, I decided that I would post the video from this event on Friday, so that I could post the song on Saturday and use the video to generate hype for it, as I always do. Unfortunately, Jack wasn''t going to be on the Duncan Family episode that week, so I didn''t have to go and record, and I could use the rest of my time just to focus on myself and improve. In my acting classes, I had raised my skill level once again. [Acting Mastery Lv 29 -> Lv 30] I have to admit that studying at this school was the best decision I made for my career, because not only did I find a great bridge to get into the world of acting, but I also made some great friends, and most importantly, my skills improved to an absurd level! Not to mention how good it was for my public image, I had gained thousands of subscribers from this video alone! Adding up the subscribers from this video with how many I had gained over the past few days, I finally reached the 400k subscriber mark! [400,000 Metube subscribers] +60,000 Subs Since I had a gig tomorrow night, I wouldn''t see the reaction of the live audience to the release of this video, but I was confident that it would do well. What I didn''t expect was a phone call from Laura with great news for me. ///NunuNote/// Bonus Chapter Queue: 10/19 (+1 From 3k PS Goal) --- Monthly Golden Ticket Ranking Bonus Chapters Goals: Top 20: 1 Chapters Top 15: 2 Chapters Top 10: 3 Chapters Top 5: 4 Chapters --- Weekly Power Stones Goals: 1.000 PS: 1 Chapters 2.000 PS: 2 Chapters 3.000 PS: 3 Chapters ... 7.000 PS: 7 Chapters Maximum of 7 Weekly Bonus Chapters --- Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. --- Every month, you will have a maximum of 30 Bonus Chapters up for the grab! [26 Left] discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, I really need your support for this competition!! NunuXD Chapter 176 [Bonus Chapter] 176 - Good news! Chapter 176 [Bonus Chapter] 176 - Good news! [Hey Noah!] Laura greeted me with the animated voice she almost always used when talking to me. "Hey Laura, what''s up!" I replied with a smile that quickly spread across my face, infected by her excitement as well. [I just watched your vlog, it was really cool! If you''d let me know that you were going to do a show and spread the word about the orphanage, I could come and help you, considering how much I''ve made from my part in the Duncan Family and how much you''ve been responsible for helping me with it, it would be nice to help others too...]. She said a little angrily that I hadn''t called her. "Haha, I decided this at the last minute, you haven''t even seen the vlog I''m releasing next week, delivering a trailer full of presents to the kids." I laughed. [Gosh, you have to warn me more about these things... I want to help too...] She complained. "All right, next time I''ll let you know so you can come and help, okay?" I asked. [Okaay!] She laughed. "Did you just call me to complain that I didn''t call you?" I asked suspiciously. [Ohh! I''m glad you reminded me, I called you to tell you some great news]. She said with a mysterious voice. "Great news?" I asked confused. I asked confused. "Is it about Jack?" [Yes!!! With every vlog you post, your name gets more and more talked about, so the show''s popularity grows along with your name because of Jack, even more so since "Up, Down" reached 800k views, this is also a form of indirect promotion for the show, which made some people complain about Jack not appearing in this week''s episode]. Laura said excitedly. It surprised me, I knew people liked Jack, but I didn''t think they liked him that much! "Don''t tell me Angelina was influenced by those comments to put me on the show more often?" I asked suspiciously. [I don''t think so...] She said thoughtfully. [It''s more like she got curious about your character and decided to do a fishing episode in the next episode to see how that dynamic would play out, so you can imagine what''s going to happen, right?] Not to mention how much the song would make on MeTube and Spokify, I could potentially donate over $10,000 in the next month! With the videos already edited, today I decided to spend the afternoon with Liv learning how to do my makeup while she taught me as much as she could. Surprisingly, Ethan was also curious to see what it would be like, but after seeing how boring it was to learn the name and purpose of each makeup product, he quickly gave up and went off to play with his new remote control car, leaving me alone to learn with Liv. I could tell that Liv was a little upset after Ethan left that it was too boring to learn. "Don''t mind him if he says it''s boring to learn, he''s just a kid... I''m having fun learning with you." I said as I reached out and stroked her head. Hearing this, Liv realized that what I''d said was true and smiled as she continued to explain. I guess my affinity for makeup wasn''t very high, because after two hours of lessons, my skill had only increased by one level. [Makeup Mastery Lv 2] This was enough to give me two months of knowledge, but I was still far from being able to make myself look good enough to gain another charisma point. Of course, it was completely unfair to compare my learning speed with other people, since I had learned the equivalent of two months in one week. But compared to the rate at which I improved other skills, it was still too slow. Fortunately, I wasn''t in a hurry, and seeing how much fun Liv was having while explaining it to me was more than enough motivation for me to dedicate myself to continuing to learn, even if my learning enjoyment wasn''t as good as it could have been. After an afternoon of studying with her, I went to get ready for the show I was going to do at a bar tonight. I even considered trying to do some basic makeup on myself, just something to highlight my face, but thinking that with my level I might look more like a gay man than a handsome guy, I just gave it up and left it until I had this skill at a higher level to really try it. Thinking about the scene of me going on stage with silly makeup gave me a good laugh. Chapter 177 - Preparing for the Recording 177 177 - Preparing for the Recording "So... this is where you wanted to take me fishing? I thought it would be something wilder," I asked laughing as I got out of my car, which I had parked in the parking lot of the sport fishing club. Phil, who was getting out of the driver''s seat of his Mercedes, looked at me in surprise and laughed as he also got into character and answered jokingly. "Don''t you think this place is wild enough?" Laughing, I approached him and held out my hand, a gesture he returned as he shifted his gaze from me to my car. "Nice machine you got there... I bought one of these when it first came out, I still have it today." He said after whistling. "But mine is red." "Really?!" I asked, genuinely surprised. "Is yours in stock?" Hearing my question, Phil looked at me out of the corner of his eye and then at my car. "My wife thinks it''s stock..." I hadn''t thought he''d give that answer, which made me laugh. "My mother thinks I''m leaving her stock too..." Entering the Sport Fishing Club, we made our way over to where the program team was while we chatted, with Phil even interested in taking the two cars for a spin sometime. Updated chapters on I told him it would make great content for my MeTube channel if he was interested, to which he was surprised and quickly agreed. "You started as a MeTuber?!" He asked me incredulously when I told him I had over 400k followers. "Yeah... since I didn''t have a record label or a producer or anything, I just edited my own songs and put them on MeTube, I was just lucky to find a great producer who is still with me today. Since I started on MeTube, I just kept investing in my channel there," I explained. I explained. Hearing this, Phil was really surprised. "I''ve already tried recording some videos for MeTube after my daughter kept asking me to do it, but I''ve never been very good at it, she makes fun of me saying I''m too ''square'' for MeTube..." He sighed. "Haha, I can imagine why... let''s try to record something together, we''ll record one video for my channel and one for yours. Maybe that way I can give you the vibe that the public usually expects on MeTube." I said, getting him excited and nodding his head. While Phil was a B-rank artist in the entertainment industry, much more popular than me, he only had 12k followers on MeTube with the three videos he tried to record with his daughter. Even though he posted the videos on Instagram, apparently the videos didn''t do as well as his daughter thought they would, so she just gave up on him. This was quite common in my former world, famous people from film and television trying to break into the YouTube market, but failing miserably because they didn''t know how to entertain the MeTube audience with shorter, more informal videos. "Hey, you''re finally here, how''s your script coming?" Angelina asked as soon as she saw us walk in. "Fresh as ever." Phil replied naturally, obviously already used to it. After his answer Angelina looked at me. "The script this time is much longer than the one for the other episode I recorded, but I think I''ve got my part down. But I''m sorry if I forgot anything." I said a little insecurely. Since this was my second time recording, and now I had a script with a lot more lines than my previous performance, I was actually a little nervous. But Angelina was pleased with my answer and nodded at me as she walked away to attend to other matters. "Dark Pistol... that rock band?!" She asked in surprise. "Yes! That''s Dark Pistol." I said excitedly, making her as excited as I was. Dark Pistol was a pure C-Rank Peak rock band, almost reaching B-Rank. When Selena found out they were playing a show here in San Francisco, she used all her contacts to get me to open for them. Luckily, it worked out. Even though I didn''t know them before, I thought it would be a great opportunity to get my name out there by singing the opening song at their show, because it would be a concert for over 3,000 people who like rock music, and considering those people would post about it on social media, I would be exposed to possibly tens of thousands of people in San Francisco who like my style of music. Too bad I didn''t know the mess that was about to happen... 17:34 ///NunuNote/// Bonus Chapter Queue: 11/19 --- Monthly Golden Ticket Ranking Bonus Chapters Goals: Top 20: 1 Chapters Top 15: 2 Chapters Top 10: 3 Chapters Top 5: 4 Chapters --- Weekly Power Stones Goals: 1.000 PS: 1 Chapters 2.000 PS: 2 Chapters 3.000 PS: 3 Chapters ... 7.000 PS: 7 Chapters Maximum of 7 Weekly Bonus Chapters --- Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. --- Every month, you will have a maximum of 30 Bonus Chapters up for the grab! [26 Left] discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, I really need your support for this competition!! Chapter 178 [Bonus Chapter] 178 - Duncan family fishing 178 [Bonus Chapter] 178 - Duncan family fishing Since the preparation scenes for the fishing trip would be shot tomorrow, today we concentrated only on the fishing scenes. The shooting started with the four of us in the car, Steve, Martha, Harley and Jack, driving to a "perfect" fishing spot according to Steve. Harley only wanted to go because she wanted to spend more time with Jack, while Martha went to make sure Jack and Harley didn''t do anything inappropriate. We got out of the car in a place full of bushes and trees that looked quite picturesque and looked around a little confused while Steve just acted like the place was perfect. Realizing that this was the place, Jack helped Steve get the fishing gear out of the car and the two of them started preparing the rods for fishing while Harley and Martha set up the tables. Once everything was set up, Jack and Steve sat next to each other holding the rods and looking out over the lake. After helping her mother set up the tables, Harley quickly grabbed a chair and placed it next to Jack as she sat down right next to him. "Jack, did you see that movement in the water?" Steve asked in surprise. "Yes Mr. Duncan, I''m ready!" Jack said excitedly as he slowly got up from the chair and held the rod steady. Findd new stories on Steve did the same as they both stood in the same position, hoping the fish would take the bait on their rod. "I bet the fish will come to your rod." Harley whispered to Jack as he approached. But before Jack could respond, Martha shouted from a distance, "Remember, we''re here to fish, not to date!" Hearing this, Harley quickly moved away from Jack while rolling his eyes. Unfortunately for both of them, the fish they saw didn''t hook either of their lines, causing them to lean back in their chairs in disappointment. Pulling out the line and seeing that there was no more bait, Jack put another worm on the hook and was about to throw it back into the lake when Harley interrupted him. "Jack... can you teach me how to cast the rod into the lake?" She asked embarrassed. "You don''t throw the rod in the lake Harley, you throw the hook, do you want me to teach you?" Steve asked. "No Dad, I want Jack to teach me..." Harley replied as she rolled her eyes, causing Steve to shrug and go back to paying attention to something. Seizing the opportunity, Jack smiled as he handed Harley the rod and hugged her from behind as he held her arms and showed her how to cast the hook into the lake. Harley pretended not to understand a few times so Jack could hug her longer, until she saw her mother coming toward them with a frown and quickly did as Jack had taught her and swung the rod. But because she did it in such a hurry, the motion was wrong and the hook caught Martha''s hat and threw it into the lake, making Harley freeze and Martha furious. Before Martha could scream with rage, Steve exclaimed excitedly. But today I really felt like I was acting and I felt how much fun it was to actually act. It gave me more excitement to continue to develop myself and my career so that I can become more famous and have more opportunities to play more important characters. If acting in such an ordinary sitcom was so much fun, imagine what it must be like to act in more exciting shows, or even action and science fiction movies? Your acting has to be so good that people don''t even know you''re recording on a chroma key, they think you''re actually in the scene. It all sounded really cool. After drying off, taking off my costume and makeup, I said goodbye to the crew and left, with Phil promising to call me over to his house so we could shoot videos for our MeTube channels with the cars, which I was obviously excited to do. ///NunuNote/// Bonus Chapter Queue: 12/19 --- Monthly Golden Ticket Ranking Bonus Chapters Goals: Top 20: 1 Chapters Top 15: 2 Chapters Top 10: 3 Chapters Top 5: 4 Chapters --- Weekly Power Stones Goals: 1.000 PS: 1 Chapters 2.000 PS: 2 Chapters 3.000 PS: 3 Chapters ... 7.000 PS: 7 Chapters Maximum of 7 Weekly Bonus Chapters --- Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. --- Every month, you will have a maximum of 30 Bonus Chapters up for the grab! [26 Left] discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, I really need your support for this competition!! NunuXD Creator''s Thought Chapter 179 - New music for the show Chapter 179 - New music for the show The next day I had to go to the set so we could record the scenes at the Duncan house in preparation for the fishing trip and the scene that would take place after we returned from the fishing trip, which didn''t take long so I could go home early. The rest of the cast stayed to continue shooting other scenes for their characters, including Laura. Back home, my idea was to get ready for the opening of the Dark Pistol concert. According to Selena, her audience were real rock fans, an audience that was a little prejudiced against music of other styles, which made things a little complicated for me, as my repertoire was very diverse. Of the pure rock songs I could sing, there was only Numb, In The End, Up Down (which I did a rock version of), and maybe A Bar Song and Boyfriend. That took The Lazy Song, All of Me and Bailando out of the possible songs I could sing. Of course, if the crowd was excited, I could add those songs to the list I would sing and they would still have a good time, even if it wasn''t the kind of music they liked, but it would depend on me really getting the crowd excited. So just in case, I had to prepare a strong rock repertoire to sing there in case things didn''t go 100% smoothly. While I was thinking about what to do, I decided to open up my analytics to see how the channel was doing and how my growth had been over the last week. |------------------------ Monetized Views Songs: 3,414,000 (+3,414,000) = $4,016 (+$4,016) Monetized Views Vlogs: 1.621.000 (+1.621.000) = $10.549 (+$10.549) (810k views of Orphanage videos) [428,000 subscribers +28,000 subs [Spokify music plays: 9,400,000] +1,760,000 views Spokify Monetized Views: 1,760,000 = $7,040 (+$7,040) [Instabram: 200k followers] +30k followers |------------------------ The two vlogs I posted for the orphanage had over 800k views combined, and one of the vlogs I posted today meant that of the $10k I received from the channel this week, I had to donate $5k to the orphanage. This song didn''t make the guys as uncomfortable to listen to because I wouldn''t sing it in a way that sounded like I was talking to their girlfriends, but the girls would be so interested in the character of the song that the result would be very similar to Boyfriend. So with the days I had available before I could sing the opening for Dark Pistol, I spent that time practicing my old songs, practicing my skills, as well as developing and recording this new song. Since it was going to be a big show, I called Mark and Frank over to my house so we could practice a few times as I wanted them on stage with me. Their reaction to knowing we were going to be singing in front of 3,000 people was priceless. From performing to small audiences of no more than 100 people before meeting me, to growing that audience to a few hundred with our shows together, and now making the leap to over 3,000 people, our improvement was clear to see. "Noah, Noah... coming to play with you was the best decision I ever made!" Mark laughed as he gave me a half hug. Frank next to him also nodded in agreement. Considering that they each made $350 per gig with me, and that they only made between $50 and $100 per gig with their old band, the difference was huge. And when they saw how much I was growing, they saw that they were going to get more and more with every show we did in the future. To open for the Dark Pistols, I wouldn''t get paid that much, only $2,500, something Selena had to give up to get them to choose me. For a show like that, her band would make a profit of over $200,000, so paying me $2,500 to open the show was very little. But considering that I was a bottom of the D-range artist, just climbing from the E-range, and they were top of the C-range artists, almost climbing to the B-range, this opening was more of an opportunity for me to get known to their San Francisco audience than an opportunity for them to have me open the show, since they didn''t need me to sell tickets. The advantage is that after opening for them, my popularity in San Francisco would be so hot that we could start organizing solo shows for me. Even if they were small gigs, gigs that could bring in five figures a night, which was a big change from what I was getting paid now. As we rehearsed, Mark and Frank loved the new song I was going to sing, especially Frank, who liked it so much that he gave me some tips on how to improve the guitar and bass parts of the song, which were the main instruments, as well as some small changes in the editing of the song that could enhance the feeling I was trying to convey even more. His editing tips were to add some sound effects or parts of a choir in the background of the song to enhance my singing voice, which we had to record in advance to be able to use in the show. With his changes, I could close my eyes and imagine this song being sung by a cowboy from the far west, rejecting a beautiful, innocent city girl. Frank said that he saw the character in this song as the jerk in Boyfriend who tried on the girl he was trying to win over and realized that they weren''t a match, so he had to reject her in a way that didn''t hurt her, but still seemed very elegant. Mark, on the other hand, said he couldn''t think of anything as deep as us, he just liked the lyrics and the melody of the beat and thought it was a good song, more to his liking than Boyfriend''s. Even though the three of them had different opinions about the song, I was sure that the public would like it and that it would be a big hit! Chapter 180 - Strange request Chapter 180 - Strange request //NunuNote// Last chapter was released wrong, now is fixed, sorry. ------------------------------- "So... is there anything special I should know about Dark Pistol?" I asked Selena as we sat in her car on the way to the concert. Jason was in the back seat with the camera on, recording everything I might need for the video. One thing we realized was that it was better for him to record everything and then I would pick out the best parts and leave out the useless parts, instead of him just recording what he thought was important and we might miss some interesting scene that suddenly came up. "Anything special...?" Selena asked herself with a thoughtful expression as she drove to the concert venue. "I think the most important thing for you to know is about the band''s style and what their fans are like... you know the punk rock stereotype?" "Yeah, long hair, black clothes, hates any other kind of music?" I asked, confirming that it was exactly that. Selena nodded at me. "Yeah, while a lot of them really don''t like other styles of music, there''s a part of the audience that doesn''t care about that, and that''s exactly the part of the audience that we''re trying to win over with this show." "Oh, what do you think about that?" I asked curiously. "Since we want to do a solo show for you, the audience that only likes punk rock isn''t going to add anything to your show, since you''re the most eclectic artist I''ve ever seen, so we have to focus on the part of the audience that likes everything." She explained. "So I would recommend that you add a few songs from other styles to your repertoire tonight, even if some of the audience won''t like them. It''s better to lose that audience now than to have them come to your show thinking it''s going to be something completely different than what''s actually going to happen." As I listened to her explanation, I realized she was right. I was so focused on completely pleasing the audience that I forgot what the real reason for singing this show was. My goal wasn''t just to give Dark Pistol a completely enthusiastic audience and give them a great show. They were paying me little because I was going to get a lot of popularity at their show, so my obligation was to enjoy as much popularity as possible with the audience that would actually consume my songs, instead of pretending to be someone I''m not for the audience that won''t like most of my songs. "That''s interesting, I''m going to change some of the songs I had planned for today." I said as I nodded. "Ahh, there''s something else too!" Selena remembered something and was very surprised. "How could I forget to tell you that?! I guess my family is exhausting me..." She sighed. "What happened?" I asked confused. "My family came from LA to see how the AJP San Francisco branch is doing, the problem is that they''re staying at my house these days... a tip for you, enjoy your mother with you every day while you''re living with her, because after you move out on your own, you''ll find that a lot of things you thought were normal before will now annoy you to the extreme..." She sighed in frustration. "I don''t know..." She sighed. "His explanation was that since the band wanted to sing your song, they didn''t want to sing it twice in the same show and asked you to let them sing it alone today." "And what did you say?" I asked. "I said I wanted to talk to you first." She said. "When I said that, their agent said that if you agreed, they would double your payment for today, making it $5,000." When I heard this, I was surprised. What happened to them wanting to raise my salary so much? Had they always wanted to pay me as little as possible? I began to wonder what was going on, but when I thought that they would make more than $200,000 from today''s show, it was not a high price for them to pay me the extra $2,500 in exchange for being able to sing the song and feel the sensation of the audience hearing it for the first time. While $2,500 might seem like a lot of money to normal people, it wasn''t that much to C-Rank artists, especially those who were already very close to B-Rank. "I guess that''s okay?" I replied a little unsure. Unfortunately, Selena was unsure as well. "I think it''s okay too? Since you didn''t mind, I''ll tell her agent that we don''t mind." I nodded to her and watched her leave the room while I sat in the dressing room, wondering what was going on that could make me feel weird. While this was going on, Jason, who was recording everything, just turned the camera on Selena and recorded her talking to the Dark Pistol agent, since there was nothing much to record now. After that we finished our preparations and went on stage with our instruments. When we got on stage and looked at the huge crowd, the four of us were surprised. Even though all 3,000 people hadn''t arrived yet, from what I could see, there were at least 2,000 people here and more were arriving every second. It was quite funny to see everyone dressed in black, but I just smiled as I excitedly looked at the crowd, thinking how much fun it would be to sing for them. And to my surprise, not only was I surprised to see the crowd, but part of the crowd was surprised to see me. "Hey, isn''t that BlackVelvet?" I heard a girl ask. "BlackVelvet? Who''s BlackVelvet?" Another girl asked. "I think it really is him!" The first girl was surprised to recognize me, even more so when I smiled and waved at her. She turned to her friend and explained. "Don''t you know BlackVelvet? He''s a singer from San Francisco who''s been quite successful lately. My cousin came to town for a few days and made me go to a bar with her, the day we went was the exact day BlackVelvet was singing, I liked it so much I added his songs to my playlist!" "Really? I''ve never heard of him." Her friend replied in confusion, but with interest piqued in me. I also overheard a few people commenting on Jack Storm of the Duncan Family, which made me laugh as we began testing the instruments with the equipment before the show. Chapter 181 - The Challenge of a Large Audience 181 181 - The Challenge of a Large Audience When we finished testing the instruments, we stepped off the stage for a few minutes and just waited for the show to begin. Soon the appointed time came and we went back on stage and saw that a few hundred more people had arrived in the audience, but there were still a few hundred to go to reach the maximum capacity of 3,000 people. But for someone like me who was used to doing shows for a maximum of 200 people, I was excited to do this show. "Good evening, everyone." I waved to the audience with a smile. "Jack!!!" A girl shouted. "BlackVelvet!!!" A man shouted. "Hey Jack!" Another girl shouted. "Ayoo BlackVelvet!" Another girl shouted. Seeing that there were more people in the audience who knew me than I thought, I was excited, because concerts are much more fun for people who already know me and my songs. Smiling at each of the people who called me Jack or BlackVelvet, I spoke again. "Good evening, it''s a great feeling to be able to sing in front of such a large audience who are similar to me in style..." I said, laughing and pointing to my black shirt. Seeing this, the people in the audience who knew me laughed with me while those who didn''t didn''t understand. "For those who don''t know me, you might think it''s strange that an obvious rock singer thinks it''s different to sing for a rock audience, right? The truth is that I don''t just sing rock, even though I love it. I said while playing the riff of The Lazy Song. Hearing that, many people were surprised to recognize the song! "Is that The Lazy Song?" "I think it is!" "Is he the singer of that lazy song? I never would have guessed!" "I think I need to listen to that song again now." I could hear some conversations from people near the stage, and I wasn''t too surprised that they were saying this. I also noticed that a lot of people weren''t excited about this style of music, as it was a very happy song, for a very emo audience, who liked sad lyrics, as it was Dark Pistol''s style. I''m becoming this, all I want to do... Is to be more like me and less like you... ???????????? In the first chorus of the song, only those who knew me or knew the song sang along, but the second time I sang the chorus, the number of people singing doubled, while I noticed the crowd getting visibly more excited. By the third and final chorus, the number of people singing along with me had reached at least 500, with a few hundred more people paying attention to me on stage and hundreds more nodding their heads while just enjoying the song. Having 500 people sing my song was already a great achievement, even though there were more than 2,000 people who didn''t sing with me. I could see that a lot of people still weren''t in the mood for the show, people in the background were just chatting and didn''t care who was singing on stage because it wasn''t Dark Pistol yet, the band they came to see. But I didn''t worry or feel bad about it. Putting on a show for such a large audience was really a much bigger challenge than just putting on a show for a small audience like I always did. And winning over that audience in the background was my goal as the performer opening the show. My job was to get people excited so that when Dark Pistol came on stage, the audience would be in the perfect mood and want to enjoy as much of their performance as possible. But convincing those people to pay attention to me and enjoy my show was not only good for Dark Pistol when they went on stage, but it was also very good for me, because I was winning over an audience that could potentially become my audience. So I started dedicating myself to winning those people over. ///NunuNote/// Bonus Chapter Queue: 0/9 --- Monthly Golden Ticket Ranking Bonus Chapters Goals: Top 20: 1 Chapters Top 15: 2 Chapters Top 10: 3 Chapters Top 5: 4 Chapters --- Weekly Power Stones Goals: 1.000 PS: 1 Chapters 2.000 PS: 2 Chapters 3.000 PS: 3 Chapters ... 7.000 PS: 7 Chapters Maximum of 7 Weekly Bonus Chapters --- Chapter 182 [Bonus Chapter] 182 - Too Sweet 182 [Bonus Chapter] 182 - Too Sweet One hour... it only took me one hour to convince the people in the back of the venue to pay attention to me. Even though there were still a lot of people talking to each other during the show, they still paid attention to me during the conversation, which was a great sign. During the last hour, I alternated my set list between my more rock-oriented songs, rock songs by other artists bigger than me that I knew the crowd would like, while also throwing in some of my less rock-oriented songs to show them what kind of artist I was. Selena''s advice to show people what kind of artist I was, even if they didn''t like it, was very valuable. The crowd wasn''t as excited as it should have been when I was just singing rock songs, but I realized that even when I was singing non-rock songs, there were people who really enjoyed it, which was great. That kind of audience was what I wanted to attract. An audience that would not only like my songs in the style that I put on the Internet, but also an audience that would be willing to go to concerts and spend money on tickets. Considering that this would be the next step and focus of my career, this kind of audience was the most valuable. Having 200 people willing to pay $35 for a ticket is just as valuable in monetary terms as having 1,750,000 people listen to a song on Spokify or 8,200,000 people listen to a song on MeTube. In the end, these three groups would earn me $7,000 each. When I thought about how many people would have to listen to a song on MeTube and Spokify for it to make as much as a group of 200 people paying for a ticket, I wondered how many people would have to listen to a song on MeTube for it to make as much as this concert of 3,000 people... Considering that one thousand people on MeTube makes $0.85, it would take 282,000,000 views to make as much as those three thousand people at the concert! I shook my head to ignore this daunting number that I was so far away from, and just went back to focusing on the audience and singing my song. The time for my opening show was two hours, so after singing a few more songs as the show drew to a close, I sang Boyfriend first. Which has become a classic for my shows, as it is the song that the women respond to the most and the one I enjoy singing the most. The reaction of the audience today wasn''t much different, with the women getting very excited and the men looking at me a little suspiciously, but still enjoying the song because it was good. But the song I would sing next would be my new one. "Well guys, my opening show is coming to an end and Black Pistol is already getting ready in the dressing room to come on stage and sing for you!" I said, trying to get a reaction out of them. Hearing this, a few people surprisingly went "Awww..." and complained that I was about to leave the stage, while the rest of the people just applauded the show, happy for my performance. I bowed slightly and thanked them: "Thank you so much, you''ve been a wonderful audience, being my first time singing in front of such a big crowd and being so well received, I couldn''t ask for anything better." Hearing me say that, the applause got louder for a few seconds until I raised my hand and it stopped. "Now for my last song, as a way of saying thank you, I''ve decided to show you the last song I''ve written, which I plan to release next week!" As soon as I said that, they got excited and started celebrating. Even though many of them had never heard my songs before and felt that all the songs were new and original, knowing that a truly new and original song would be performed for them first hand made them excited and curious. "With you, Too Sweet!" I said as I started to play the beat of the song. [You can find the link to Too Sweet at discord.gg/NunuXD to listen to during the chapter, or search for "Too Sweet - Hozier" on YouTube as well]. The singing style of this song was very similar to Boyfriend, where I sang in a more whispery voice, with the style being more sensual than normal songs, but also maintaining a more mature and cool attitude while singing. Honestly, I never thought that my [Acting Mastery Lv 30] skill would be so useful for a song. ???????????? You''re too sweet for me... You''re too sweet for me... ???????????? When they finally heard what I''d sung, the girls'' eyes went wide! "Instead of being about the girl converting the bad boy, the song is actually about the bad boy rejecting the good girl!!!" The girl was shocked by the lyrics. "Gee... I didn''t expect that!" Her friend also said in surprise. As for the men I was listening to, when they heard the chorus of the song explained, they were surprised by the lyrics. Good guys were shocked that I would break up with a good girl who was obviously so cute and liked me, while party guys were shocked that they identified so much with this song. "Bro, this is exactly why I broke up with my ex-girlfriend!" One of the men at the show said in shock. The audience''s reaction to the song was mixed, with outraged girls, interested girls, men who identified with the song''s protagonist, and outraged men. But they all had one thing in common: they enjoyed the song and the show! ///NunuNote/// Bonus Chapter Queue: 1/9 --- Monthly Golden Ticket Ranking Bonus Chapters Goals: Top 20: 1 Chapters Top 15: 2 Chapters Top 10: 3 Chapters Top 5: 4 Chapters --- Weekly Power Stones Goals: 1.000 PS: 1 Chapters 2.000 PS: 2 Chapters 3.000 PS: 3 Chapters ... 7.000 PS: 7 Chapters Maximum of 7 Weekly Bonus Chapters --- Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. --- Every month, you will have a maximum of 30 Bonus Chapters up for the grab! [24 Left] discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, I really need your support for this competition!! NunuXD Creator''s Thought Chapter 183 - Music Videos? 183 183 - Music Videos? ???????????? I take my whiskey neat... My coffee black and my bed at three... You''re too sweet for me... You''re too sweet for me... ???????????? When I finished singing the song and looked at the audience''s reaction, I realized that this was my song that they liked the most all night. Out of 3,000 people, only a small group had been chatting in the background while I was singing, while the vast majority of people had been concentrating on me while I was singing. Receiving a warning through my headset that Dark Pistol were ready to enter the stage, I nodded in understanding and began to say goodbye to the crowd. "Thanks for your support guys, this was my last song of the night, if you liked it you can search for BlackVelvet on all the social networks and you''ll find my profile there." I smiled as I bowed slightly to the crowd before leaving the stage. When people heard I was leaving, they applauded in appreciation. As I left the stage with Mark and Frank, the show''s production team quickly went on stage to remove Mark and Frank''s instruments, while other people quickly brought out Dark Pistol''s instruments. Unfortunately I didn''t catch up with them as I left the stage, they might have been somewhere else making some final adjustments for the show. So I just went back to my dressing room with Mark, Frank and Jason. "Hey Jason, how was taping the show?" I asked. "It was amazing! I was able to get a lot of cool footage because there was such a big crowd... even for the song Too Sweet, I think it''s going to be one of the coolest concert videos because there''s such a big and diverse crowd". He said excitedly, making me nod in satisfaction. "Did you enjoy the show?" I looked at Mark and Frank who were tired. "It was a very different feeling to play for such a big audience... I loved it!" Mark said excitedly, although he was quite sweaty. Considering he was playing the drums, the instrument he had to move the most while playing each note, it was understandable how sweaty he was. "I liked it too... it''s a lot of fun to play when so many people are singing along... it must be even cooler when the audience is at the gig for you". Frank commented as well, which made me nod. Even though it was great to play for the crowd today, not many people could sing my songs. It must have been even more incredible to play in front of such a large audience that was there just to see me. Can you imagine the feeling of 3,000 people singing your song? Just thinking about it gave me goose bumps. When we got to the dressing room, Selena was waiting for us with a smile on her face as she looked at the TV. This TV was broadcasting the image of two cameras, one showing the stage and the other showing the audience. So, even though she was in the dressing room, Selena was able to see our entire show, as well as the audience''s reaction to the entire show. When they started singing, I noticed that they changed the tone of the song a bit to suit the vocal range of the band''s lead singer, which I found very interesting. But otherwise, their performance and the overall style of the song was identical to mine, which left me a little disappointed. They even copied some of my mannerisms while I was singing this song, which made the situation a little awkward. "Are they really copying you completely in the song?" Mark asked in shock. "I guess so?" I replied confused. But the strangest part came after they finished singing. "That song was In The End, available right now on our social networks and in our store for you to buy for just $1. Thanks for your support guys!" The band''s lead singer said with a smile before starting to sing another song. But when I heard him reveal this, I froze and looked at Selena in confusion. And the look I saw on Selena''s face made me feel like a lion was on the loose. She was angry... ///NunuNote// Guys, for those of you who missed chapter 179, send me a message on discord so I can send you the corrected chapter, the platform isn''t doing much to help me fix it... sry ///NunuNote/// Bonus Chapter Queue: 1/10 (+1 From 1k Ps Goal!) --- Monthly Golden Ticket Ranking Bonus Chapters Goals: Top 20: 1 Chapters Top 15: 2 Chapters Top 10: 3 Chapters Top 5: 4 Chapters --- Weekly Power Stones Goals: 1.000 PS: 1 Chapters 2.000 PS: 2 Chapters 3.000 PS: 3 Chapters ... 7.000 PS: 7 Chapters Maximum of 7 Weekly Bonus Chapters --- Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. --- Every month, you will have a maximum of 30 Bonus Chapters up for the grab! [24 Left] discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, I really need your support for this competition!! NunuXD Chapter 184 - Just Accept It 184 184 - Just Accept It "Are you kidding me?" I asked incredulously as I watched Dark Pistol continue the show on the screen as if nothing had gone wrong. Looking at the audience camera, I noticed that there were people who were so confused, maybe because they already knew my song and knew that it was supposed to be mine, but the vast majority of the audience didn''t know that this was my song because they didn''t know me and I wasn''t singing this song at the show today. But when Dark Pistol started to act like this was something normal and nothing was wrong, even the people who thought there was something wrong shook their heads, ignored what had happened and continued to enjoy the show. Looking at Selena again, I asked just to be sure. "Selena, did they discuss anything with you about copyright? Royalties or anything like that?" As a singer who grew up singing covers of other artists'' songs at gigs, I wasn''t particularly upset that they sang my song at her show, since I did the same thing at my gigs. I also wouldn''t be upset if we discussed them recording a cover of my song and releasing it as a cover, since I even found it interesting and could get residual publicity from the popularity of my song skyrocketing by a bigger artist singing it. The problem is her and her team''s apparent lack of communication with me and my team. "No... they haven''t discussed it at all..." Selena huffed angrily as she breathed heavily. "Bro, they''ve already released the song and are selling it on their website!" Mark said in shock as he stared at the screen of his phone. Hearing this, we were surprised and quickly moved closer to Mark to see his phone screen. "There''s a song preview..." He clicked play and we began to hear the song In The End playing, but with the voice of the lead singer of their band and the instruments re-recorded by the other members. "This is a studio version of the song..." Selena quickly realized and became even angrier. "If they recorded a studio version, it was planned a long time ago..." Frank commented in shock. Knock knock A knock came from the dressing room door. "Why are you doing this?" I asked, truly confused. Dark Pistol was a Peak C Rank band, almost reaching B Rank, a level where they received millions of dollars a month, they could easily buy the rights to many good songs. Looking at me, the man answered honestly. "Dark Pistol has been stuck at Peak C Rank for over a year, we''ve tried everything to get the band up to C Rank, but nothing has worked. When we heard their song, we realized it really had the potential to go viral and make the difference the band needed. So we recorded it and prepared the marketing strategy, and now it''s all up and running. Hearing this, we were even more surprised because he sounded very confident. "But why are you telling them about this now that you''ve done all this?" Mark asked, still confused. "Because if you knew before and sang the song on stage in front of the band because you refused the offer, we would have to record a music video somewhere else, we wouldn''t be able to start the marketing strategy today, everything would be delayed, a lot more money would be spent, it wasn''t worth the risk". The man replied. "Then come on, just take the $150,000 and get it over with." Thinking about his points, taking the $150,000 deal probably was the best option for me if I thought about it rationally and didn''t consider any of the emotions. But as I looked around the room, I noticed something that could change that completely in my favor. Dark Pistol was doing all this just to get more popularity out of my music, and didn''t care that they would lose some money from me because they would get it back in the future after they climbed to the B rank. So why didn''t I just help them get the popularity they wanted? As far as I could remember, their MeTube channel had 1 million subscribers, but the amount of views they got from non-music videos was extremely low. Something I shouldn''t have worried about. So if they wanted so much popularity, I wouldn''t mind giving them the popularity they wanted so much. And seeing the little smile on Jason''s face as we exchanged glances was all the confidence I needed. Chapter 185 [Bonus Chapter] 185 - Plan 185 [Bonus Chapter] 185 - Plan "You''ll regret this... don''t think that because you have some good songs, as a D-rank artist, you''ll be able to compete with a future B-rank artist." The man said with a frown as he left the dressing room. After he left, we also felt uncomfortable staying in this place, so we gathered our things and went to my house. With the amount of space and privacy we had in the basement of my house, it was the perfect place to have a meeting. Even though Mark and Frank were not really part of ''BlackVelvet'', they were my friends and were as angry as I was about how we had been treated by this agent. So when we arrived in the basement of my house, even though it was 10 p.m., no one was sleepy and our minds were working together on how we could get revenge. Yes, revenge, because Dark Pistol wanted to use my music to promote themselves and get the publicity they so desperately wanted without worrying about whether it would affect me or not, so nothing could be more fair than for me to make an effort to stop it, right? Unfortunately, while their MeTube channel had 1 million subscribers and very few views on non-music videos, the music videos got a lot of views, with several songs exceeding 10 million views, and some even exceeding 50 million... a far cry from what I had achieved so far. And considering how good In The End was, and how well it had done in my old world, it had a chance to even break their 50 million record and be the first of their songs to break 9 figures in views. Nne?w n0vel chapters are published at novelhall.com Considering that they really did have a large audience by their popularity rank, my response to this had to be right. "Do you have something in mind, Noah?" Selena asked with a frown. "I think everyone knows we have everything on tape, right?" I said as I looked at her and Jason. Hearing that, everyone nodded, but they were still worried. Since they were all used to Jason recording everything, it was understandable that they knew that Jason might have recorded this conversation, but they also knew that this recording alone wouldn''t be enough to hurt Dark Pistol if it wasn''t used in the right way. "I''m thinking of using this recording in a more creative way, in a way that I can use it not only to polish their image, but also to use their popularity to boost my own..." I said slowly, still organizing my thoughts. --- Monthly Golden Ticket Ranking Bonus Chapters Goals: Top 20: 1 Chapters Top 15: 2 Chapters Top 10: 3 Chapters Top 5: 4 Chapters --- Weekly Power Stones Goals: 1.000 PS: 1 Chapters 2.000 PS: 2 Chapters 3.000 PS: 3 Chapters ... 7.000 PS: 7 Chapters Maximum of 7 Weekly Bonus Chapters --- Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. --- Every month, you will have a maximum of 30 Bonus Chapters up for the grab! [24 Left] discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, I really need your support for this competition!! NunuXD Creator''s Thought Chapter 186 186 - Dedication 186 186 - Dedication We started planning how we were going to get revenge at 10:00 p.m., and our plans were not finished until after 2:00 a.m., when everyone was exhausted from sleep and we had to stop for the day to go to sleep. Fortunately, our discussion about it was very productive, and we managed to plan everything we could and try to adjust it as quickly as possible to prevent Dark Pistol from taking advantage of the hype of my music. Since the song was already available for sale on their website and on platforms where the public could listen to it, it was already getting views, although it was just starting to get engagement. The problem would really start when they released a music video for the song that would actually be widely publicized and attract a large audience to their band. So we had to move as fast as we could. Selena even canceled the shows I had scheduled for tomorrow and the next day because it was very important to deal with this issue at that time. And I, taking advantage of the fact that I needed very little sleep, went back to my routine that I had abandoned of sleeping late and waking up early. Even though I could sleep 4 or 5 hours a day and my body would function perfectly as if I had slept 12 hours, I would still wake up tired and with burning eyes, which was not one of the most pleasant sensations, although after a few minutes it would pass and I would feel as good as if I had had a long sleep. But since I needed those extra hours in the day now, I slept at 2am when they left and woke up at 6am before my parents and siblings woke up too. With my laptop on my lap, I started writing the script for the mini-documentary we were going to make. Unfortunately, I noticed a problem... my writing quality for the script wasn''t as good as I thought it would be... While I was able to write everything I wanted to happen in a clear and concise way, I still lacked the ability to express feelings and emotions in it in a way that would actually be interesting to people who had never heard of this story. My writing, though clear, was very... raw. So I started watching some videos and looking for books that explained how to do this in the best way possible, while dedicating myself as much as possible to learning it as quickly as possible. Like most of my skills, I got an Lv of this skill in just 40 minutes. [Writing Mastery Lv 1 Effect: Develops a better understanding of writing techniques, increasing your confidence and skill by 1%. This level includes advanced skills in narrative structure, character development, and use of figurative language. It also improves your retention of writing theory and its practical application to composition by 1%. Gain a tangible advantage by mastering the fundamentals of creative and expressive writing]. As soon as I received the skill, I felt the knowledge come into my mind, a feeling I should have been used to, given how many skills I already had and how much those skills were leveling up, but I couldn''t get used to it. The feeling was very good, I believe that the dopamine I get when I level up skills also plays a very important role in making me feel so good when I receive these new skills. 08:39 But even though I felt good when I got this new skill, and I felt that my writing level was much better than what I had written before, I still knew that it wasn''t close to what was needed for the level of video I wanted to make. Fortunately, the level for MeTube was much lower and simpler than the level for standard TV documentaries, so even if I didn''t have the skill at Lv 30 like the possible writers of most common TV shows, I would still be fine with it. Even my family was confused when they found me awake in the basement so early, concentrating on my laptop instead of sleeping off yesterday''s show. At breakfast I told them what had happened and they were also furious with Dark Pistol. When I told them my plan, surprisingly Liv and my mom quickly agreed to help me, even if I had to show them the reason for their online fight, how they had resolved it and were now getting along really well, they said that it would be okay to help me with this. Honestly, this was the part I was most worried about going wrong, because I didn''t know how they would react and if I could count on their help or if I would have to work with actresses or create animation for it. But since they were also willing to help, everything became easier, especially the script part, because I could do everything as faithfully as possible, and it would be even easier to show people the reality and emotions of the music in a realistic way. . With everyone so dedicated, it encouraged me even more to make this work! ///NunuNote/// Bonus Chapter Queue: 2/12 (+1 From 3k PS Goal!) --- Monthly Golden Ticket Ranking Bonus Chapters Goals: Top 20: 1 Chapters Top 15: 2 Chapters Top 10: 3 Chapters Top 5: 4 Chapters --- Weekly Power Stones Goals: 1.000 PS: 1 Chapters 2.000 PS: 2 Chapters 3.000 PS: 3 Chapters ... 7.000 PS: 7 Chapters Maximum of 7 Weekly Bonus Chapters --- Instant Bonus Chapters (Within 15 Hrs) Castle or above gift: 2 Chapters + 1 Character role in the novel. --- Every month, you will have a maximum of 30 Bonus Chapters up for the grab! [24 Left] discord.gg/NunuXD Vote with your power stones, I really need your support for this competition!! NunuXD Creator''s Thought Chapter 187 187 - New Point of View Chapter 187 187 - New Point of View With everyone''s help, my focus during the week was on writing and perfecting the script. The problem I found myself in was at a crossroads because of a question Selena asked me... [I talked to my aunt about our problem and she gave me another point of view, Noah...] She told me over the phone. When she heard that I was confused, what viewpoint? If I''m not mistaken, her aunt was the director of AJP, at least the San Francisco headquarters of AJP, so her opinion was very important. "What happened?" I asked, confused. [I explained to her everything that had happened, as well as our haste and concern to get this mini-documentary done as quickly as possible, so as not to let Dark Pistol surf too much on the hype of their music]. Selena explained. [When she heard my explanation, she was as angry as we were, but she quickly calmed down and thought of something we hadn''t thought of... you know how artists'' careers are full of drama and conflicts that come up along the way... an artist can be on the rise, and because of a drama, it can affect that artist''s career to the point where it disappears overnight...]. As I listened to this, I began to understand what she was suggesting, but I just kept quietly listening. [Instead of focusing on trying to stop Dark Pistol''s growth, we can allow it, let the music go viral, use that time to make the documentary in high quality, and use the popularity of Dark Pistol and In The End so that the documentary goes viral and the damage done to them is greater, and the popularity that BlackVelvet gets is even greater]. Selena finally explained it all. Listening to her, I felt it made sense, but I still had my doubts. "But do you think we could do enough damage to the Dark Pistol with just the documentary to sink them as much as your aunt imagined?" [That was also a doubt I had, but when I asked my aunt, she said that when you signed with AJP, it wasn''t just about us getting shows for you and taking 20% of your earnings, you just need to focus on making the documentary quality and leave the rest to us]. The way Selena said that brought a smile to my face. This support from a big company was exactly what I wanted when I signed with them. Ideally, I''d never have to wear something like this, let alone have to wear it less than four months into my career, but since I did, I can be carefree and just focus on my quality. "Okay, now I''m excited. Let''s slow down and focus on quality." I replied with an excited smile, even though she couldn''t see my smile. But I could tell by her reaction that she might have a smile on her face, too. [Yes, their growth is already roaring, so let''s just keep going while we do our quality work, when it''s really ready, we''ll release the documentary and use the popularity they''ve received to their advantage... in the meantime, AJP will make sure that your documentary attracts media interest and curiosity, and you can let us do the rest]. With that decided, I communicated our decision to Frank, Jason and Mark, and we began to focus on doing it the right way. Without rushing to get it done as quickly as possible, I could focus more time on just improving my writing level, which by Tuesday was already at Lv 15, the level I wanted. Unfortunately, Tuesday also saw the release of the video clip for In The End, sung by Dark Pistol, which showed that they had even recorded it before letting me sing the opening of their show. Seeing the views of their music video skyrocket gave me even more motivation to make the documentary and get back at them. Especially when I saw that the song had over 1 million views by the end of the night... Looking through the comments on the song, there were luckily a few people who commented that it was my song. [Isn''t that BlackVelvet''s song?] [Did you buy the rights to this song from BlackVelvet?] [I heard that BlackVelvet opened a Dark Pistol show, they must have negotiated it there!] But although these comments showed some people''s doubts, they were quickly deleted by the channel''s moderators... They''re even trying to hide the fact that it''s my song from the people who know it''s my song... I thought, even more frustrated. To channel that frustration into something really practical, I called my mom and Liv down to the basement and we started to formulate how we were going to make the first episode. [Writing Mastry Lv 15 Effect: Develop an enhanced understanding of writing techniques, increasing your confidence and skill by 15%. This level includes advanced skills in narrative structure, character development, and the use of figurative language. It also improves retention of writing theory and practical application to composition by 15%. Gain a tangible advantage by mastering the fundamentals of creative and expressive writing]. With my Lv 15 skill, I already had 2 years of experience writing scripts and knew that this level of quality was more than enough for MeTube, especially considering that I wanted to do something more amateur and informal, as I imagined that something like this would attract even more sympathy from the public, rather than just showing something made with large investments, as if it were made by a company. "Since the message of In The End and Numb are very similar, I thought I''d mix in a bit of the story of why you used to fight... so I''ll tell you how I made Numb and In The End because of you and how it helped our family become more united again, how about that?" I suggested it to both of them first, because they were really the protagonists of those songs, so it made sense to talk to them about it in more detail. Even though they said they wanted to help me, I realized how ashamed and regretful my mother was about the way she treated Liv, and how ashamed Liv was that she didn''t realize our mother cared so much about her. "It''s okay with me..." Liv said in a low voice, making me shift my gaze to my mother, now waiting for her answer. "I think it''s fine too... since you helped us improve our relationship, it''s only fair that we use this improvement in our relationship to help you now." My mother said with a focused and determined look on her face. Smiling, I hugged them both and began to explain how I wanted to make the script. Since it would be a documentary rather than a movie, I would have the three of us testify on camera and show staged scenes of the two of them fighting while I listened from a sad distance to show how it happened. The big problem was that they knew nothing about acting. But what we were lucky with were two of my skills. [Teach Lv 34] and [Acting Mastery Lv 30]. 34 levels of Teach meant that I currently had 7 years and 4 months of teaching experience, in addition to the powerful 34% buff to the learning of those I taught. [Teach Lv 34 Effect: When teaching others, as long as you know what you''re teaching and what you intend to teach, the person has a 34% greater chance of understanding what you''re explaining and increases the speed of learning that content by 34% during that learning session]. As I practiced this skill every day while helping Ethan with his homework, it kept going up a level, and at a time like this, it showed how useful it was. [Acting Mastery Lv 30: Effect: Develop an enhanced understanding of acting techniques, increasing your confidence and skill by 30%. This level includes advanced skills in technique, emotional expression, and character interpretation. It also improves the retention of theatrical theory and its practical application in performance by 30%. Gain a tangible advantage by absorbing the fundamentals of agile and expressive acting]. And Acting Mastery at Lv 30 may not have given me an important buff in teaching others, but it did give me more knowledge and understanding of the acting techniques needed for them to perform convincingly for the documentary. When they heard that I was going to teach them how to act so that they could perform the scenes I had in mind, their reactions were completely different. Liv was excited, curious about what real acting would be like. My mother was shy, embarrassed that she might embarrass herself in the documentary. But knowing how well I acted and how quickly I learned, they were both more confident that I had managed to teach them a tactic for learning faster, or something like that. Even if their learning speed wasn''t as fast as mine with the system, it would certainly be much faster with me teaching them than if they were left to learn on their own or with a normal teacher. The skill of teaching depended on the difference in the level of knowledge between me and the person I was teaching, and considering that their level was zero and my level was 30 in Acting Mastery, the bonus they would get from it would be gigantic. So, in addition to writing, teaching them to act had become part of my routine, and the week passed quickly. And before I knew it, the day had come for my Duncan Family episode, the fishing episode, to air. Chapter 188 188 - Start of filming Chapter 188 188 - Start of filming Although my character in Duncan Family, Jack Storm, had attracted a lot of attention, the ratio of Jack''s popularity to the rest of the cast, who actually had a lot more screen time than I did, was something that couldn''t even be compared. Jack had captured the attention and curiosity of a lot of people, but only a small niche of people who watched the show, since he had very few lines in the episode he was in. Even though there were discussions about him on Twipper, the amount of discussions about Jack was many times less than the discussions about the show in general. But now it was different, when that fishing episode aired, Jack had a lot more lines, to the point where he became one of the main characters of that episode, sharing the stage only with Steve, Martha and Harley, the other three main characters of the show. So the impact of that episode on the Internet was much greater than my first appearance. The main reason for that was because Jack isn''t one of the main characters in the show. For example. Harley, Steve, and Martha are recurring characters in the show who, in order to have satisfactory character development, must have serious lines and major personality problems that are worked out and improved over time to show progress in the story. Jack is just a guest character, someone from the outside who doesn''t have as much contact with the main cast, who, although he seems to have a backstory of relative importance to this character, is nowhere near as important as the other three. As a result, Jack''s problems don''t have to be as blatant as those of the other three, making him seem more like a normal person in the midst of the Duncan madness. This might seem to make Jack''s character a bit boring to watch, but it''s the opposite, because from what I read on Twipper, Jack had become a character that the audience could put themselves into the show, practically a self insert. Not to mention, because of my appearance, I got even more attention on social media, which gave me a lot of followers when the episode aired. [Metube: 470,000 subscribers] +42,000 subs [Instabram: 240k followers] +40k followers It was surprising that we gained almost as many followers on Instagram as we did on Metube over the course of the week, but that''s because the subscribers on Metube came from the millions of views we were getting each week, whereas on Instagram, the vast majority came from the Duncan family. "What did you think of the episode?" I asked my curious family. At this point, the episode was over and the five of us were sitting on the couch watching TV. "I loved it! Your dynamic with Steve was very funny. My dad was the first to comment. Since he likes comedy, I knew he would. "That Harley girl, is she the girl from your school that you took for a ride on the motorcycle?" My mother asked curiously. "Yes, she asked me for a ride to take her to the audition to get that part in the show, and while I was helping her, the producers took an interest in me and decided to give me a chance as well." I smiled and nodded. Hearing them smile, even though they already knew, was interesting to see Laura''s performance for the first time. I noticed that my mother and Liv were very focused on the actors'' performances during the show, just to improve the quality of their acting for the documentary. Which was very good. Especially considering that we would start filming tomorrow. Their level of acting wasn''t high, far from it, but it had gone up a few levels satisfactorily, to the point where their acting was already at an acceptable level for us to record. It''s not like they had to be Hollywood stars to be in the documentary, the biggest difficulty we would have would be in acting out what happened when I had the inspiration for the song. - The next day, Jason arrived at my house with a much bigger camera than he usually used, which surprised me. "Hey bro, what''s that?" I asked confused. Looking at the camera with a smile, Jason explained. "Well... when I told a teacher about the documentary we were going to make, he got interested and decided to lend me his camera." Looking at the camera, I could clearly see that it was much more expensive and complex than his original camera, to the point where I didn''t doubt that the price of this camera was the price of a car! "Looks like your teacher likes you a lot, huh?" I commented as I whistled at the camera. Jason laughed. "Since I started working with you, the quality of my shots has improved by leaps and bounds, to the point that my teacher has started to notice and give me more tips to improve even more, we''re almost in a state of master and student." I was surprised to hear this, but also very happy. Just then, Selena''s Tesla pulled up in front of the house. "What about the director?" Jason asked after thinking about what we had decided. Thinking about it, I replied. "We were on the fence about it, bringing in a problematic director who doesn''t understand what''s going on, or who wants to change too much of what happened to something that didn''t really happen could ruin the victim narrative we''re trying to build, so we decided to shoot this first episode without a real director, with me and Selena acting as directors, but with everyone having a say, and see how it goes...if we really need a director, Selena can get one quickly." Hearing this, Jason nodded. Selena got out of her car and walked elegantly over to us. Although she wasn''t wearing the social outfit she always wore when we were about to do something work-related. Since today''s work would only be at my house and she wouldn''t be filmed, Selena apparently decided to come in a more casual outfit. A beautiful white and yellow floral dress that went very well with her blonde hair tied up in a ponytail that showed off her long white legs. I think it was the first time I''d seen her in anything that showed her legs, and I have to admit, she had great legs! But I quickly shifted my gaze from her legs back to her face, which by this time was smiling at me as if it had realized where my gaze was. Realizing that she had seen me looking at her legs, I was a little embarrassed, but decided to do the best thing a man can do in such a situation: Play dumb. I just acted as if nothing had happened, and she did the same, so there wouldn''t be a weird vibe in the air. My mother and Liv finished their makeup while the three of us chatted on the balcony about the plans for the shoot. "Are you really going to be the script you sent me?" Selena asked curiously. Now that she was closer, I even noticed that she was wearing much less makeup than usual, which made me think that she looked even more beautiful than she did with makeup on! "Yeah, I think telling the story of what happened as it actually happened is a good idea, my mom and Liv have already been practicing it for a week, so I think that might be the best way to deal with it." I explained. "But what about the outside shots?" Jason asked confused as he remembered the script. "I remember there are parts in the script where you talk about violin lessons when Olivia was younger, how are you going to deal with that?" I hadn''t talked to them yet about how I was going to handle it, but I already had an answer. Shooting those scenes elsewhere would be a lot of work, finding places that would allow us to shoot, hiring another actress to play the younger Liv, and various other things like that if we wanted the quality of the documentary to be as high as possible. So to deal with that in a different way, I came up with an idea. A skill that I used to make a lot of money at the beginning of my career as JacobTheWerewolf, but which was now sitting on my system screen. But before I could answer, Selena spoke up instead. "Animation, right? Just like you did the animation for the music video for The Lazy Song and Boyfriend, you intend to complete the exterior shots with a 2D animation to visually represent the parts we would need from other locations or other actors, right?" Smiling, I nodded. "Yes, exactly, I intend to use my animation skills to fill that gap, even if it takes a little longer to finish the editing of the episode, it''s like we decided before, we''re not in a hurry, the focus is just to make a good show and then knock Dark Pistol off the pedestal they put themselves on, so we have time to work on it." Hearing this, Jason was shocked. "Since when do you know how to draw and animate? Didn''t a furry artist do that for you before?" He asked confused. But I froze at his question, forgetting that Jason didn''t know that I was that Furry artist... Chapter 189: 189 - The Truth... Chapter 189: 189 ¨C The Truth... //NunuNote// I posted the wrong chapter earlier, but that¡¯s already been updated in the app, if you still only have the wrong chapter available, send me a message on Discord and I¡¯ll send you the correct chapter there, sorry for the inconvenience, I¡¯ll make sure to check 3x per chapter now. ///////////////////// ¨C Yasmin POV (A BlackVelvet Fan) ¨C I am angry... very, very, very angry! How can a Peak C Rank band steal BlackVelvet¡¯s songs?! Aren¡¯t they ashamed or afraid of the consequences? And what¡¯s worse, looking at how their popularity skyrocketed with the release of the song ¡®In The End¡¯, it was only a matter of days before they climbed to B Rank! All this with a stolen song! And even worse, why didn¡¯t BlackVelvet say anything about it? When I noticed that Dark Pistol had sung his song at a gig he¡¯d even attended, I felt that there might be something wrong with it. So I waited for the day when his vlog about that concert would be posted, but BlackVelvet didn¡¯t post anything about it! What¡¯s going on? Whenever something important happened in his career, he would post a vlog on MeTube showing the truth about it, not hiding anything from his fans, which was the main reason why I liked him so much when I first met him. He was a real artist, someone who didn¡¯t hide a bad personality behind the scenes, someone who wasn¡¯t afraid to show how he was with his friends, with his agent, with the staff, a really nice person who everyone who watched felt would be fun to be friends with. Every vlog I watched I felt like I was there with them, living every moment together, laughing at the silly jokes BlackVelvet made, admiring the interaction he had with Selena, how Mark and Frank seemed like older brothers helping BlackVelvet with the instruments he wasn¡¯t very good at. The whole dynamic seemed so real and fun, but his not posting about the show with Dark Pistol left me a little lost and worried. Why was he hiding it? Could something dark be happening? Something he didn¡¯t want to show? Or worse... something he can¡¯t show? My mind raced with different possibilities of what had happened. When I saw the message on my Discord PC, I noticed that it was from my group of friends. Surprisingly, they were also commenting on the same concerns I was feeling. [He posted his second video this week and none of them were about the Dark Pistol gig... something weird is going on...] [Yeah... I thought today¡¯s vlog would show that, but this vlog was just a random vlog...] [But he was great in Duncan Family as Jack Storm...] [Yeah... I watched the episode three times already hehe]. When I saw that the girls¡¯ discussion shifted to his role in Duncan Family, I also sent some messages about it. We watched the episode together and when we realized he was in the whole episode, we were super excited. The scene where he falls into the water and his clothes stick to his body was... something else... Thinking about watching that scene again, I opened my MeTube and started typing about it until I noticed a familiar thumbnail. It was in the same style that BlackVelvet usually used on his channel, so I immediately looked at it. Follow new episodes on the "N0vel1st.c0m". In the thumbnail, BlackVelvet was sitting in a dark room, with only a lamp illuminating his face, looking like a police interrogation room... I was shocked when I saw it. [The Truth...] Unfortunately, the video was only 30 seconds long... By the time I¡¯d finished reading the title, several messages started pinging up on my Discord, possibly from girls who had also seen it and were commenting on it. To make sure I didn¡¯t get a spoiler, I just set my status to busy and clicked on the video. Unlike BlackVelvet¡¯s vlogs, which usually start with them chatting in the car in a fun way, this one had the feel of something much more formal. ¨C The video began with an image of a woman and a girl playing the violin side by side. Until BlackVelvet¡¯s voice came from the background. [Behind every song, there¡¯s a story...] Suddenly the clip changed to the woman and the girl arguing, violin in hand. [Sometimes the story can be good... sometimes not...] But then the image changed to the woman and the girl standing with their backs to each other, each going their own way. [But as much as the story isn¡¯t as good as it could be, it¡¯s still my story and my family¡¯s story...] Then the image changed to a band playing a concert. I realized that this wasn¡¯t BlackVelvet, Mark and Frank playing together, this was another band, but as their faces were censored with a black bar, I couldn¡¯t be 100% sure who it was, but I already had my guesses... [Now a band is trying to steal that story from us... Just to get some fame...] Then the image changed to two words, with a blurry image of a discussion going on in the background in what looks like a dressing room. -THE TRUTH- [And the truth will soon be revealed...] ¨C It was only 30 seconds...just 30 seconds, but it made the hairs on my arms stand up. That was it! I was waiting for something like that, for BlackVelvet to tell me what happened. But I didn¡¯t think he would do it in such a big way!!! Since he always just did normal vlogs, I thought that this would also be revealed through a vlog. But apparently he wanted to do something bigger. And I was all for it! When I looked at the date he put on the screen for the premiere, I realized that the first episode would be released in two weeks... Damn, I¡¯d have to wait that long! When I opened the discord to see the girls¡¯ reaction, a big smile appeared on my face when I saw that they were talking about this very thing. Sarah and Jenny were even on a voice call and might be talking about it! When I entered the voice call, the first thing I heard was the two of them yelling and cursing at the Dark Pistol. ¡°I¡¯m sure it was those idiots from Dark Pistol who sang his song without permission!¡± Jenny said angrily on the phone. ¡°It¡¯s obvious, you saw them discussing something in the background in the dressing room at the end, I¡¯m sure they discussed it with someone from the Dark Pistol team!¡± Sarah also cursed angrily. Seeing her reaction, I started to laugh because it was exactly what I was thinking. While we were talking on the voice call, I watched the video and noticed how many views it was getting. Since this type of content was different from BlackVelvet¡¯s usual style, something that actually involved a fight with another artist, it seemed to attract even more attention, even from people who didn¡¯t know who BlackVelvet or even Dark Pistol were and just came to see an interesting piece of gossip. This was evident in the many comments from people who admitted that they didn¡¯t really know either of them. And seeing that his video had 200k views in less than an hour, it was obvious that BlackVelvet¡¯s bubble was bursting and that it was really going to go viral. His subscribers were growing rapidly, possibly from people interested in seeing the continuation of this gossip. When I opened Twipper out of curiosity, I noticed that BlackVelvet¡¯s name was starting to get more attention there as well. Even more so when people found out that he was Duncan Family¡¯s Jack Storm, which meant that the gossip about his fight with Dark Pistol reached even more people. Because what was once just a fight between a D rank artist and a C rank artist had now become a fight between the singer and actor from Duncan Family, the high rated sitcom, against a B rank band. The fight went up a level just by changing BlackVelvet¡¯s name to put Duncan Family in the middle. Could this cause problems for Duncan Family¡¯s show? It could, but it could also draw the attention of people who don¡¯t watch the show to find out who this artist is who was involved in a controversy. Considering that the right person in the story so far was BlackVelvet himself, this wouldn¡¯t have any negative effects on the Duncan Family, fortunately... Now all I had to do was wait for the full video to appear on BlackVelvet¡¯s channel. ///NunuNote// Hi guys, sorry for the long absence. I had some problems at home, a bit of fatigue from the novel¡¯s high release rate of 2 chapters a day, something I never used to do, so I took a week off to rest, and now I¡¯m back refreshed, with more planning for the story so that this doesn¡¯t happen again. Thank you for your support, for continuing to follow the journey of Noah Black, the BlackVelvet! Chapter 190: 190 - Repercussion Chapter 190: 190 ¨C Repercussion One million views... my teaser video had one million views in less than 24 hours! Even my subs had gone up to 500k in one day! Considering I had 500k subs and the video had over a million views, it was clear that hundreds of thousands of people who saw it had no idea who I was. Some may have heard my music before and MeTube recommended this video to them, but the vast majority probably met me through this video. When I saw that, I was glad I¡¯d taken Selena¡¯s advice and focused more on quality than on getting it up as quickly as possible. Considering how many new people I was reassuring with it, it would be a huge waste if I didn¡¯t manage to convert those people into a loyal audience for me because the quality was too low. What made it even more successful was that I covered Dark Pistol¡¯s face in the teaser, but there were still people who knew that I had recently opened for them. Since these people knew who the possible band I was talking about was, the comments on the video had thousands of people discussing what had happened, wanting to know more details, and other people giving the few details they knew and making guesses together. It didn¡¯t take long for this to escalate to an even larger proportion, with other people even making videos about it and giving their opinions. People who saw that my video was doing very well and wanted to take advantage of the hype for themselves. Even though these people¡¯s videos were getting a lot of views that could have gone to me, I didn¡¯t care because what I wanted was for this topic to be talked about a lot. Getting new followers and more viewers was great, but my real goal was my revenge against Dark Pistol, and seeing how it was developing, I knew I was succeeding. ¨C Rashad POV ¨C When I saw how well the song In The End with Dark Pistol singing was selling, I had a big smile on my face. With that song alone, the band could easily make a few million dollars, and as their agent, a good portion of that would go to me. Since they were still E Rank Artistis when I signed them, even with the recent improvement in their contract, I was still entitled to 35% of all their earnings, which meant another few million in my account hehe. It wasn¡¯t like we were doing this for the first time, so I wasn¡¯t worried at all about what a D Rank Artist might do. Even if he came up with something stupid, it would just be a matter of ignoring it and the public would quickly forget about it. Knock Knock When I heard the noise from the office door, I knew it was my secretary and spoke to her. ¡°Come in Caitlyn.¡± I said, smiling. But when Caitlyn entered my office, her frown made me a little doubtful. ¡°What is it, Caitlyn?¡± I asked confused. ¡°Mr. Rashad, BlackVelvet posted a video on his MeTube channel yesterday, possibly a teaser for a retaliation against Dark Pistol.¡± She said as she handed me her phone with the video open. ¡°What are you worried about Caitlyn? He¡¯s just a D-rank artist, there¡¯s nothing to worry about...¡± But my voice stopped as soon as I saw how many views he had on the video. ¡°How is that possible? One million views in one day? 500,000 subscribers on the channel of a mere D-rank artist?¡± I asked in shock. Dark Pistol was close to B rank and still only had 1,300,000 subscribers, how could a D rank artist already have that many subscribers?! It didn¡¯t make any sense. Without waiting for Caitlyn to answer, my curiosity got the better of me and I clicked on the video. When I saw that it was only 30 seconds long, I was relieved. There was no way he could make a video that could really tarnish Dark Pistol¡¯s reputation in just 30 seconds, was there? Follow new episodes on the "N0vel1st.c0m". When I saw that the beginning of the video was just him saying some sentimental stuff and a bunch of unimportant drivel, I was more relaxed. But when the recording of Dark Pistol singing with her face censored appeared on the screen, I got a little worried. What really scared me was when it showed a blurry scene from a certain dressing room where BlackVelvet was arguing with someone. When I looked at this person, I felt that this person was very familiar. Pausing the video, I looked at the person more closely until I realized a shocking fact... that person was me! ¡°Sons of bitches!¡± I shouted angrily. ¡°They recorded me while I was offering them the money to buy the rights to their music?¡± That fact alone could completely change the course of events. I hadn¡¯t realized they had someone recording in the dressing room at the time... And looking at the number of views and comments, I knew that this issue wasn¡¯t going to go away so easily, on the contrary, it was most likely going to explode like a huge bomb with a huge PR problem for Dark Pistol... Even more, after reading the comments and realizing that there were even people who knew that the band in the video was Dark Pistol, I realized that the problem was much bigger than I had previously imagined. ¡°Caitlyn, set up a meeting with the company¡¯s PR team as soon as possible, we need to find a way to reverse this situation immediately!¡± I said in a serious voice. ¡°Yes, Mr. Rashad!¡± She said as she turned around and started organizing quickly. Knowing that they literally had proof of the things I¡¯d said, I knew that dealing with this was going to be a lot more complicated than I¡¯d originally imagined. If I¡¯d known it was being recorded, I never would have said the things I said so clearly... but what kind of idiot records in his own dressing room?! ¨C Noah POV ¨C After releasing the teaser and seeing how well it was received, both my mother and Liv were very excited to improve their acting even more so that they wouldn¡¯t embarrass themselves in front of millions of people. At first they thought that only a few tens of thousands of people would see it, which may be a lot of people, but it¡¯s not that big a number, only 5 digits. But when it comes to a 7-digit number, it really starts to show how big it can be. As they got more and more excited, I took the opportunity to teach them even better while we were recording everything. Luckily, it didn¡¯t take too long. The scenes of their fights and the interviews didn¡¯t take an hour to record. And for the animation parts that I would draw, I would just use it to represent the explanations they would make with their statements to the camera, something that didn¡¯t really need acting. But when I saw how much fun they were having, I added some scenes that I didn¡¯t really need for the video, but that would raise the quality a little bit and let them have more fun together. It¡¯s funny that I thought that recording this would do more harm than good to their relationship, which was already getting so good, because they would have to repeat and relive such a bad moment over and over again, but in fact the effect was the opposite. By reliving it, they both realized the mistakes they had made as well as what the other had done to upset them, and after a long session of ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡± and ¡°I love you,¡± their relationship got even better. Since Ethan had nothing to show for the shoot, but was still very curious about it, I decided to ¡°hired¡± him as my assistant. The little director¡¯s assistant was in charge of using the clappers during the shots, which was more useful than I could have imagined, because not only did it serve to make it clear which take of the shot it was, but the sound of the clappers closing was also very useful when it came to synchronizing the audio from the microphones with the recording from the camera. Laura called me several times during the week, worried and curious, and also talked to me a lot at school about how I was feeling and if I needed help to deal with it. But I told her that everything was going well and that she shouldn¡¯t worry. So the rest of the week was focused on getting everything done before the planned release date of the first episode. And seeing that the teaser alone had already gotten three million views, I was excited for the first episode to be released. Unfortunately, bad news came from Selena... The Dark Pistol had launched a counterattack. Chapter 191: 191 - Dark Pisto Reply Chapter 191: 191 ¨C Dark Pisto Reply ¡°Yes Noah, it looks like Dark Pistol couldn¡¯t keep quiet and decided to try to retaliate...¡± Selena said with an ironic voice. When I heard her voice on the phone, I was a bit surprised. I had already imagined that they would try to retaliate, but I honestly couldn¡¯t imagine what they would try to do. They didn¡¯t own the copyright to the song, they didn¡¯t have anything to declare that the song was theirs, let alone anything to declare that AJP or I had let them sing my song and make money from selling their cover on top of it. If I were in their situation, I really didn¡¯t know what I would do. ¡°What did they do?¡± I asked, genuinely curious. As soon as I asked, I heard Selena laugh on the other end of the call. ¡°Open their MeTube channel and their Instagram, you¡¯ll find the answer there. Call me after you watch it.¡± After saying that, Selena just hung up, leaving me even more confused. When I picked up my laptop and went to her MeTube channel, I saw that there was indeed a video. The video was called [¡®The Truth¡¯ LIE]. Seeing this, I could already imagine the content of this video... When I clicked on it out of curiosity, I saw that the video started with something that maybe every internet user in my former world knew as a ¡®YouTuber starter pack apology¡¯. This consisted of all the band members without makeup, in a bright environment, all with sad expressions, in plain clothes, and there was even the band¡¯s drummer with red eyes, possibly simulating crying. Seeing this, I had to use a lot of self-control not to start laughing. Are they really going to make a video that appeals to the emotions of the audience? I asked myself in surprise. But considering that they had no proof of anything, it really made sense for them to try to appeal to the emotional, because if they tried to focus on the rational, they would surely lose the argument. Listening to the low, sad music that accompanied the video, I finally couldn¡¯t stand it anymore and started laughing when the lead singer of the band started to speak. ¡°Greetings to our fans and the music community. We¡¯re here to clear up the false accusations that have been made against us.¡± He said in a dejected voice. ¡°Yesterday, D Rank Artist, BlackVelvet, posted a video saying that we, the Dark Pistol Band, were stealing his music.¡± ¡°In the video, he showed how he supposedly wrote the song based on his family¡¯s fights, even calling his mother and sister to act with him to make the video more believable, but we had to come here to defend ourselves.¡± ¡°We are really the original composers of this song, we just hadn¡¯t released it from the beginning, waiting for the right moment, but I believe that some hacker broke into our computer in the last few months and sold the rights of the song to BlackVelvet, who really owns the rights of the song now... so we are going to return the rights of the song to BlackVelvet, just asking him to leave us alone and not to bother us anymore¡±. ¡°Even though we love this song, our mental health is being affected by all of this and we don¡¯t even know if we¡¯ll be able to do the shows in the next few weeks.¡± ¡°Thank you for the messages of support that all the public has sent, you are our source of inspiration and will to continue being artists and it is only for you that we do this, thank you very much!¡± And the video ended. It¡¯s not possible. It makes no sense how they can be so shameless. As I scrolled down the page and started to read the comments, a laugh came out of my mouth, just like Selena did when she called me. She probably called me right after watching this video, right? The video had 40k views within an hour of being posted, which wasn¡¯t much compared to my video, but compared to the other videos on her channel, it did very well. Their last video had only 12k views in 3 days of release, which clearly shows how much better this video was doing. And out of those 40k views, the video had 6k likes and 2k unlikes, while the comments actually had people defending me and cursing me, but most people were actually defending them. Follow new episodes on the "N0vel1st.c0m". As I read the comments, I could see people who were really brainless fans who couldn¡¯t think for any reason, who really believed this hacker story, others who were just thrilled to see them so ¡°vulnerable¡±, and others who could really see the lie behind it all. But one thing was for sure, this video of them had really managed to restore a bit of their image. Suddenly, while I was reading the comments on her video, my cell phone started ringing again, and Selena was calling me again. I was confused by her calling me again when she asked me to call her. ¡°Hey, I just watched the video and read the comments... jeez, have they no shame?¡± I asked with a laugh. ¡°Yeah, I was going to wait for you to finish reading everything and call me back, but you wouldn¡¯t believe who just called me...¡± She said with a giggle. ¡°Who? Your asshole agent?¡± I asked, my eyebrows raised in amazement and laughter. ¡°Bingo!¡± She replied laughing. ¡°Guess what he wanted?¡± Thinking about the contact we¡¯d already had with him and the way he liked to solve things, only one alternative came to mind. ¡°How much did he offer to keep our mouths shut?¡± I asked laughing. ¡°Hehe, two million dollars.¡± Selena said with a proud voice. I was really surprised to hear that. Apparently he saw that my attack on them was very dangerous for the band¡¯s career and he really thought that paying me two million dollars was more lucrative than the loss they¡¯d make? ¡°How much do you think In The End made them last week?¡± I asked curiously. ¡°AJP estimated 400 to 600k, not that high since most of their income comes from concerts.¡± Selena explained. Hearing that, I was at least satisfied with the sincerity they were showing now. Two million was really a lot of money, much more than anything I¡¯d ever received since the beginning of my career. So I asked Selena. ¡°What curses did you answer to his proposal?¡± Laughing even harder, Selena replied. ¡°Just a simple fuck you before hanging up, I¡¯m not a vulgar person... Now he¡¯s calling me non-stop, desperately trying to increase the amount of the proposal.¡± Hearing that she really cursed at him and didn¡¯t think for a second about the money he was offering, a huge smile appeared on my face, making me even more certain that choosing Selena as my agent was one of the best decisions I¡¯ve made for my career in this world. ¡°Haha, you gave the answer I would give if he came to see me, well done.¡± I replied excitedly. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s not like we need money, and with the increase in popularity you¡¯ll get from all this drama, we can use that to capitalize on your career even more...even if we can¡¯t make that much money that fast, it¡¯s only a matter of time before you can get paid that much every month or even every week.¡± She said laughing. Yeah, that¡¯s exactly what I was thinking. I may not get paid much per show now, but that amount was more than enough for me. I didn¡¯t need a few million just to have a few million in my account and say I was a millionaire. The opportunity to gain a lot of popularity with an Internet drama like this was much more valuable than any money. Not to mention the fact that in order to accept this money from them, I would have to keep my mouth shut and let the public think that I actually stole their music through a hacker?! Nah, I¡¯d rather just keep doing my own thing, use their band to clear my name and as a stepping stone to my career, and only then worry about making money. Unfortunately, their audience was bigger than mine, and the post they made on Instabram went viral much more than the MeTube post, so now I had an annoying thing to deal with. The thousands of brainless fans of theirs who were giving me a hard time, attacking me and my family after hearing all the nonsense they said in their videos. The first thing I had to do was check in with my mom and Liv and let them know how they were doing. I didn¡¯t know if anyone would recognize them online or in person, which could lead to a very awkward situation if they both felt bad. But my fears were unfounded. When I called them both to show them their video and talk about what could happen, they were already so angry that they probably wanted to attack the people who wanted to attack them and make them feel bad. Of course, I gave them some advice not to let these comments and people affect them too much, to try not to do anything too drastic that could lead to something bad, but that if they really wanted to do something, I would support them 100% and help them with whatever they needed. If nothing else, it made our commitment to the documentary even stronger! Chapter 192: 192 - Episode 01 Done Chapter 192: 192 ¨C Episode 01 Done Looking at the results of the first episode of the documentary, I was quite pleased. Creating the animations for this episode was quite challenging, but I found a few ways to get around that and reduce my workload. Instead of creating realistic backgrounds, I focused mainly on the characters of my mother and Liv, keeping the backgrounds very simple, and the same was done with the other characters that needed to appear. Characters such as the judges of the violin competitions my sister participated in, the audience of these competitions, random people who said something relevant to the story, all had blank faces, no facial expressions, and very poorly detailed clothing. If I were to detail each character, it would add weeks or even months to the production time, and the time I gave myself to do this was only 2 weeks, so I couldn¡¯t waste the little time I had. So I was able to put those things aside after doing some simpler drawings and focus solely on my mother and Liv¡¯s characters. The advantage of developing this animation was that my Digital Illustration skill, which hadn¡¯t been leveled in over a month, made progress again. [Digital Illustration Lv 31 -> 33 With digital illustration, you get better 33% faster, and you have a 33% higher chance that other people will like your art]. With two more levels in the skill, my experience in this area increased by 8 months, giving me much more agility with the mouse to draw, since I had developed this whole skill while using the computer mouse to make this art, and this made my speed much faster and the drawings with much higher quality! Looking at what I could do with a mouse, I was really curious to see how I would do with a tablet for drawing. Another good thing I learned about my skills from this documentary was that even if I didn¡¯t use them for weeks or even months, as was the case with [Digital Illustration], my skills didn¡¯t deteriorate, as if I had practiced them every day to keep my level up! That was great news! With that, I knew that even if I learned dozens or even hundreds of skills at some point, I wouldn¡¯t have to worry about losing the practice of that skill and its level dropping due to lack of practice. So I could just dedicate myself to learning and improving the skills that were most important to me, and when I needed the skills that I didn¡¯t use as much, they would be just the same as the last time I used them, just waiting to be used again. This made me very happy, to the point that my good mood meant that I finished everything for the documentary 5 days before the day I had scheduled to post the first episode, two days before the time I had originally estimated I would need to prepare everything. When Liv and my mom watched the full episode, they were already a little more used to talking about the sensitive subject of their relationship because of the acting rehearsals for the documentary, but I still noticed that they both became more emotional when they saw the animated parts that represented the things they had said during the interviews for the documentary. ¡°Noah, that was really good!¡± Liv said, surprised at how interesting the whole program had turned out. The episode was only 10 minutes long and focused solely on Liv and my mother¡¯s relationship, how they fought, how their relationship was very toxic and destructive, and how I listened to it and felt bad all the time. I used that as inspiration to write the songs Numb and In The End. The first episode of the documentary would just focus on that, and the battle with Dark Pistol would be left for the next episodes of the documentary, with just a short teaser at the end of this episode. If it were up to me, I¡¯d drag this documentary out for a long time, with several episodes, just to get as much of Dark Pistol¡¯s audience as possible and burnish their image as much as possible. Especially when I saw their reaction to how they wanted to buy Selena with two million dollars, it made me even angrier at them, because I wanted to get as much out of them as possible for myself and my career. Of course, I wasn¡¯t going to continue as I was now, where I had to stop my career for two weeks just to focus on the documentary, I would go back to doing shows and making new music, but the production of this commentary would continue on my channel, attracting as many viewers as possible. Today was Monday, the day I planned to post the first episode of the documentary was Friday, so I had a few more days to practice my skills in peace at school. My singing, acting, guitar, and stage presence skills all took a break from training during this time, as my focus was completely on developing the documentary, so I could get back to practicing them so that when I returned to the stage, my level would be at its maximum! The advantage is that with the bonus I had at school, the level of singing, stage presence and acting went up very quickly. [Singing Lv 40 -> 41 Effect: +41% efficiency when training Sing, +41% chance that whoever hears your voice when you sing will like what they hear]. [Stage Presence Lv 17-> 19: Follow new episodes on the "N0vel1st.c0m". Effect: Develops a better understanding of stage presence techniques, increasing the singer¡¯s confidence and skill by 19%. This includes mastery of posture, body expression, audience interaction, and emotional control during performances. It also improves lyric retention and practical application during performances by 19%. Gain a tangible advantage by absorbing the fundamentals of captivating and engaging stage presence]. [Acting Mastery Lv 30 -> 31: Effect: Develop an enhanced understanding of acting techniques, increasing your confidence and skill by 31%. This level includes advanced skills in technique, emotional expression, and character interpretation. It also improves retention of theatrical theory and practical application during performance by 31%. Gain a tangible advantage by absorbing the fundamentals of agile and expressive acting]. Even my guitar skills, which I only practiced at home, saw a significant increase with one week of practice. [Guitar Lv 38 -> 39 By playing guitar, you learn 39% faster and you have a 39% higher chance that other people will enjoy listening to you play]. With Guitar almost at level 40, I would have a very large increase in this skill again, so I was excited to see how it would turn out. My singing skill had taken a giant leap forward in terms of how I could use my voice and the levels I could reach in both the treble and the bass. So I imagined that something of the same magnitude would happen with my guitar skill, since it would be an increase of just one level that would give me a year¡¯s worth of experience! But I didn¡¯t focus on that alone. Especially when Friday came and it was time to post episode 01 of the documentary. I had already uploaded it to MeTube and set it to premiere mode, where the public could watch and comment on what they were seeing, just like a live stream. This helped give the public more engagement and interaction, as well as giving a set time for the video to go live and adding the option for people to add reminders in the app so they could come and watch the video as soon as it was released. With 30 minutes to go, there were more than 5,000 people waiting to watch the video, and as the time until the video went live decreased, the number of people waiting to watch increased. With 10 minutes to go, the number increased from 5,000 to 30,000 people, and the number was increasing faster and faster. With 5 minutes to go, I went into the living room to watch the show with my family, turned on the laptop, and put the comments aside so we could respond to what people were saying. My mom and Liv even made popcorn for us to eat while we watched, and Ethan was very excited to be able to eat popcorn and watch with us. I noticed that even though he didn¡¯t really understand what the documentary was about, he realized that it was a story from before he was born that had made my mom and Liv sad, so we were surprised that he actively tried to make them both feel better during the weeks of taping and after. Whenever he learned a new song on his ukulele, he would get both my mother and Liv to listen to it together. It was even funny that he would ask me for friendship songs, songs about people being together, so he could play and sing to them. Because I thought it was so cute, I even took out my cell phone and recorded his attitude, which I knew would be kept as a cute souvenir for us and posted on my Instagram to show that their fight wasn¡¯t fake, to the point that even my little brother was worried about it. After he saw that they were fine with each other, he was very happy and proud, considering it a victory that he was responsible for. The little boy was very cute... Looking at the TV screen again, a huge smile appeared on my face as I saw that there were more than 80,000 people waiting to see this video. The comments ranged from people supporting me, to people who were fans of Dark Pistol and came to attack me, to people who were just curious and I would let them draw their own conclusions after watching it. Chapter 193: 193 - The Truth Ep 01 Chapter 193: 193 ¨C The Truth Ep 01 ¨C Holly¡¯s POV ¨C Staring at the screen of my laptop, I was furious. How could this BlackVelvet guy have the nerve to make a video, or rather a documentary, trying to slander and spread lies about my Dark Pistol?! As the owner of the largest Dark Pistol fan club site, I followed the guys in the band in everything they did, and this wasn¡¯t the first time that some small artist had shown up to try and take advantage of the Dark Pistol hype. It was always the same story: small artists who couldn¡¯t make it on their saw that Dark Pistol was doing very well and tried to attack them to get a little bit of fame. With the group of other girls who also had fan clubs, and with the hundreds of thousands of followers we all had together on our fan club pages, it was easy to attack these small artists until they disappeared or gave up. But this time we had found a worthy opponent. Although BlackVelvet was only a D-rank artist, he was very popular! His MeTube channel had 500k subscribers before the video he posted about the Dark Pistol, and now it has up to 600k subscribers! The problem was that those 600k subscribers were real people! All of his videos got over 300k views, with some vlogs even getting over 1 million views, which I had to admit showed that he had charisma. And that left me confused, why would an up-and-coming artist like this, who had a large and powerful fan base, want to try and ride the Dark Pistol hype? Wasn¡¯t he already growing fast enough to become a B-rank artist like Dark Pistol in a few years? Unfortunately for him, he was in our way, so last week the other girls and I teamed up to attack this Black Velvet as hard as we could. Despite a strong counterattack from the BlackVelvet fan clubs, we were bigger and managed to beat them in numbers. The problem is that this didn¡¯t stop BlackVelvet from posting the crappy episode one of his documentary. And looking at the 80,000 people who gathered to watch the release on his MeTube channel, I was rooting for this documentary to be bad... 10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... At the end of the countdown, I saw the video scene change to a scene of a woman looking at old photos. The woman was looking fondly at these photos, photos of a little girl holding a violin... maybe photos of herself? [Ever since I was a child, playing the violin was everything to me...it was where I found peace, where I could express myself, where I could have my voice heard, where I could get the attention I didn¡¯t have at home]. This woman¡¯s voice emerged as she explained what these photos were. Suddenly the scene changed to an animation of the same woman next to a little girl holding a violin. [When I had my daughter, I saw myself in her and thought about making the violin as important to her as it was to me...]. She said. So the scene changed to the woman making the little girl practice for several days, with the sky in the animation changing rapidly from day to night to represent this. [But as much as I showed her how good the violin was, how cool it was, how it could give my daughter good career opportunities, she never saw the violin the way I did...]. The scene changed to the woman alone watching her daughter playing with other things, much happier than the violin. [And out of immaturity, I thought I should just insist that my daughter would enjoy playing the violin as much as I did at her age...] With that, the scene cut to the woman being taped in some kind of interview as tears began to roll down her cheeks. Follow new episodes on the "N0vel1st.c0m". Suddenly the narration changed. [For as long as I can remember, my mother has forced me to learn the violin...] The voice this time was that of a girl my age, perhaps the little girl in the video? The image changed from the camera recording the woman crying to an animation of a scene of the little girl trying hard to learn the violin while looking at her mother expectantly. [But no matter how hard I tried... I never felt that I had that much talent, and my mother would get angry because of my mistakes...] The girl said in a trembling voice. [No matter how hard I tried, it doesn¡¯t matter in the end...] Hearing her say that, I felt a chill run through my body... As a huge Dark Pistol fan, I had listened to their latest song ¡®In The End¡¯ until I¡¯d learned all the lyrics and could sing it without thinking too much. Then, when I heard the lyrics spoken by this girl, I quickly thought of the full lyrics and realized that they really fit this girl¡¯s story. Is it possible that this song was really made for this girl? A feeling of doubt began to rise in my chest. ¡®No, the guys from Dark Pistol would never do something like that...¡¯ I tried to calm myself as I watched the video again. Unlike what I had planned with the other girls, where we would spend the whole video looking for lies and inconsistencies in what this documentary was going to show, I didn¡¯t even realize that I was so involved in this story. The emotion that both mother and daughter were showing, the animation representation of everything they were telling about their story, it was all very beautiful and well done... Not even BlackVelvet has appeared in the documentary so far and I was completely hooked... The scene in the documentary changed, the animation showed the little girl growing up and the fights between her and her mother getting more and more frequent with time... [I didn¡¯t understand what my mother wanted by teaching me to play the violin, my mother didn¡¯t understand that I only wanted her attention to be happy, while I didn¡¯t care about the violin at all... and as a result, our relationship became very strained...]. Suddenly, the scene that had been shown in animation turned into a live-action shot of the mother and daughter fighting, one yelling at the other, until the daughter ran crying into her room and the mother was left crying alone in the kitchen. Their emotions seemed so real... Suddenly, the camera moved to the corner and showed a little boy with black hair looking at his sad mother and then at the stairs his sister had just climbed, disappointed. His hesitation to speak to them was clear, several times he opened his mouth to speak to them, but he didn¡¯t know how to act, what to say... It was incredible how much you could deduce from his performance alone. [As time went on, the fights became less frequent, but so did our contact. I stopped talking to her, she started avoiding talking to me...] The girl said. Suddenly their voices came at the same time. [And we became just two strangers living in the same house...] Hearing their voices in sync, for the second time I felt my body shudder...you could feel the truth in what they were saying...it really happened to them. Now the narrator changed again, this time to a boy¡¯s voice. [It was hard... to see my mother and sister arguing at home all the time, and the worst thing was that I could see reason in both of them, but they couldn¡¯t just sit down and talk and explain their points...]. The scene changed to the boy trying to talk to them, but they would just ignore him or start arguing with him without trying to listen or understand the other side. [But then I thought... I¡¯ve always loved music... why don¡¯t I learn how to make a song to convince them like that?] As he said this, the picture showed the boy selling some things he liked to buy a guitar. Then it showed him learning to play the guitar by himself while watching videos on the Internet. It showed him writing something in a notebook, possibly the lyrics to a song... [Music is such a beautiful art, such a touching way to express your feelings, to show what you¡¯re feeling, a way of speaking that comes from your soul... and I knew this would be the right choice]. As the boy said this, the image changed to him finally starting to play the song. I immediately recognized it as the melody of the song In The End, but in a slower and more dramatic way... But instead of literally starting at the beginning of the song, the boy sang only the chorus in a low, soft voice, making me sing along with him... ???????????? I tried so hard and got so far... But in the end it doesn¡¯t even matter... I had to fall to lose everything... But in the end it doesn¡¯t even matter... ???????????? As he sang, you could see his sister listening on the other side of the door, tears falling from her eyes as she listened to the lyrics unfold. When he finally finished singing the song, the girl opened the door, looked at him angrily, and ran past her mother in tears. As soon as the mother saw her daughter running, she was shocked and worried, but didn¡¯t know how to ask what had happened, showing how broken their relationship had already become. Without realizing it, I was really interested in that story, and my mind had pretty much accepted that the song was really telling that story. As time went by, the video showed how the relationship between the three of them became confused for a while, until the boy managed to sort himself out with his sister and help her, and then he managed to talk to his mother so that the two of them could sort themselves out and the bad atmosphere in the house would end. Seeing the two of them develop their relationship from something so bad to something so good was very good to watch. Especially as the documentary showed that the boy¡¯s career as an artist was developing so fast that in less than 4 months he was even singing with famous bands! I was surprised because I didn¡¯t know he had such a short career! In 4 months he went from an unknown artist who learned to play guitar to help his mother and sister¡¯s relationship, to someone who was making a big splash in San Francisco, getting fans in bars, singing at weddings, birthdays, and even planning solo shows! All in all, a quick summary that piqued my interest in learning more about him and following his career in the future. But things went wrong when the mother and daughter were at home with the mother practicing the violin in her garage studio and the daughter was shocked to see the song from her story being sung by another band and being promoted as their product... Seeing her story, something so personal, being stolen by other people made her angry. And at the end of the documentary, the camera showed a recording, in the style of the Black Velvet vlogs, of a producer entering the boys¡¯ dressing room and asking to be allowed to sing this song at the concert... [Continue...] When I realized it was over, I was completely shocked and lost, not knowing how to react or what to think. Was I really wrong all this time? I thought in shock. When I read the comments from other viewers of the video, I saw that there were more than 130,000 people watching it with me, and in the comments, everyone was outraged by what had happened. Not at BlackVelvet for possibly lying about the origin of the song, but at this producer who obviously had bad intentions for him... And as a Dark Pistol fan, I knew that this was the real producer of the guys, and that if they had the recordings of everything, it was very likely that what he said was true... ¡°What did I do?¡± Chapter 194: 194 - Repercussion Chapter 194: 194 ¨C Repercussion The response to the video went as well as I thought it would. During the course of the video, the number of viewers went from 80,000 to 130,000, which meant that the number of subscribers to my channel went up rapidly! Not only did my subscribers increase rapidly, but my ranking also went up! [BlackVelvet ¨C 35,551st -> 21,101st D Rank]. This was the result of the past few weeks. To be honest, even before the video started, I was still around the 26,000 mark, but as soon as the video finished and people started to share their opinions about this drama on twipper, the ranking started to skyrocket, advancing more than 5,000 positions! I could imagine why... Instead of just being a video of me singing, like my normal songs or my vlogs that I often post, this was a more personal video that really showed about my life, my inspirations, how even though the song had sad lyrics, it was done for a good reason. Not to mention, the biggest factor was that I was not only showing how the song was made, but I was also showing how I was the victim of someone who wanted to steal a song that was so special to me, and I was showing that to that person¡¯s audience. Although I knew that there would be many people who would be in denial and would not accept that Dark Pistol would do such a thing, there were still tens of thousands of people who believed in me, who were not only disappointed in Dark Pistol, but also sympathized with me and showed their intention to continue to follow me. All the more so because Dark Pistol¡¯s songs and my songs were similar, showing a certain similarity due to our affinity for rock, although my songs are in different styles. While my ranking was only going up, Dark Pistol¡¯s was rapidly going down. Looking at their social networks, it was possible to see that every few seconds several comments appeared cursing them or asking for explanations. Although few people knew the Dark Pistol agent, those who recognized the man in the video explained to others who he was, and that made almost everyone sure that Dark Pistol had really screwed up. Within the first hour of the video, it had over 600k views, and the number was rising fast. Comment channels, gossip channels, news channels, all kinds of channels on MeTube realized what was happening and quickly made videos about it, also trying to get views on top of this drama. Out of curiosity, I even watched a few videos to see what these people thought. As I imagined, their opinion was as generic as possible, just repeating what happened in my video while explaining it to their subscribers, as well as giving a general opinion to get out the good side of the story. Something this type of channel always does, but this time it was very good for me because it was in my favor. There was only one channel that decided to go against it and say the complete opposite. [BlackVelvet, the big liar]. When I clicked on this video out of curiosity, this MeTuber¡¯s opinion was like the opinion of a blind fan, where he was just looking for micro mistakes in my video, trying to discredit me in every way, even attacking my mother and Liv¡¯s performance to say that I was just a liar. Seeing him talk about my mother and sister made me really angry, but when I went to comment on something, I saw that there were already hundreds of people defending me in the comments, saying that they were disappointed in this MeTuber for how he was interpreting it. With this public support, my anger was quickly washed away. Ring, ring, ring My phone started ringing. [Selena] When I saw the name of the caller, a smile appeared on my face. ¡°I thought you were going to call me sooner.¡± I said, seeing that it had been an hour and a half since the video had been released. [I wanted to, I really wanted to... but AJP is working at full speed right now because of you]. She said in a slightly tired voice. Follow new episodes on the "N0vel1st.c0m". ¡°Really? Because of the video?¡± I asked confused. [Yes... this video is taking on bigger proportions than we imagined, with Rashad not giving up trying to buy our silence, the Dark Pistol agency threatening us not to do anything we¡¯d regret, and several journalists trying to get an interview with you to talk about it]. Selena explained. When I heard that, I was really surprised. I was surprised that journalists were interested in my story, maybe after seeing how much it was resonating and seeing the potential to get a big audience with me. But I had to stop myself from laughing when I heard Selena talking about how Rashad, the Dark Pistol agent, acted and how her agency acted. It made me feel like I had offended some young master, then that young master¡¯s master came to threaten me, then even that young master¡¯s sect came to try to deal with me while threatening me. It was like being in a Chinese cultivation world. But unfortunately for them, this was a modern world, the tactics of cultivation worlds wouldn¡¯t work in real life, not to mention that I also had a powerful cult, or rather agency, behind me to protect me, so it was best to let AJP itself deal with it for me, while I just focused on what I needed to do to improve my career and become even more popular. ¡°What did you think of the video?¡± I asked curiously. [Everyone loved it, with several agents dying of envy that I found you when you were still an F Rank Artist, they couldn¡¯t believe how fast you were rising... hehe. Even my aunt watched the video with us and got interested in you]. Selena said excitedly. Hearing this, a proud smile appeared on my face. It had taken so long to make the video, it was nice to have it recognized for its quality by people who really understood this kind of thing in the industry. ¡°I¡¯m glad you all liked it.¡± I replied happily. [My aunt gave me a good idea, Noah, what do you think about using your growing popularity on MeTube to make an exclusive show for them on a stream?] She asked me. ¡°Really? How would that happen?¡± I asked. [We could organize a streaming studio and set up a stage for you, get Mark and Frank to help you, get some sponsors for the potential thousands of people who would watch it, and make a good profit from it, as well as engage the new audience that has just met you]. Selena explained. When I heard that, I was really interested. I¡¯d seen a few shows like that in my previous world, especially during a pandemic when no one could leave their homes, and the artists were all doing these online shows for tens if not hundreds of thousands of people. Even if people didn¡¯t pay anything to watch it, it would still be a great way to turn the people who knew me from the drama into a really loyal audience of mine, of people who would really follow me and maybe even go to shows in real life. ¡°I think that¡¯s a great idea! When do you think that would be?¡± I asked. [We can do it on Sunday, how about that?] she asked. Today was Friday night, tomorrow would be Saturday, just one day to organize it. ¡°Do you think you can organize everything in such a short time?¡± I asked worriedly. [Don¡¯t worry, with your approval I¡¯ll have it ready for Sunday, just enjoy your Saturday and invite Mark and Frank for me]. Selena said before hanging up. When I saw the screen and how fast it had developed, I started to laugh. Selena was really excited, a side of her I¡¯d never seen before, and it made me a little curious about her. While she knew practically everything about my life, I knew practically nothing about hers, except that she was the niece of the director of AJP San Francisco. Does that make me a bad friend? We are friends, right? Well, putting that aside for the moment, I turned to MeTube and read the comments from people who had seen my video. The vast majority of people agreed with me, with only a small portion still in doubt because they didn¡¯t have any concrete proof, and another even smaller portion who didn¡¯t believe anything and called me names. These people were simply smothered by the comments of those who agreed with me and cursed at them in my defense. It was fun to see the reaction of those people. Now I understand why artists and big YouTubers from my former world had such inflated egos, because it was pretty cool to have an army of hundreds of thousands of people willing to fight for you and defend you in every little public issue. And that could easily go to the head of someone with a weak mentality. I don¡¯t think I let it go to my head, I just kept reading for a few more minutes before going to play some Osu to relax. The game was pretty much finished, just waiting for the right time to release it, but with so much drama going on with me, I didn¡¯t have a good time to release it at the moment, so it just became an exclusive game for me and my friends to enjoy while I didn¡¯t release it to the public. But I had plans to release it soon. Chapter 195: 195 - Day Off with Ethan Chapter 195: 195 ¨C Day Off with Ethan Having a Saturday off after working so long was very relaxing. A day where I didn¡¯t want to worry about anything, where I didn¡¯t want to practice anything, where I didn¡¯t want to worry about what content I was going to post. The only ¡°work¡± I had to do was to send messages to Mark and Frank inviting them to the live show we were doing tomorrow. I was excited about that, so excited that I wanted to organize it and get more work done, even though I had just released the first episode of the documentary and needed some time off. Luckily, Selena didn¡¯t let me get involved and told me to just go to the AJP headquarters tomorrow at the appointed time and just be ready to do the show because she and the AJP team would organize it in the best way for me. From what she told me, this fight I had with Dark Pistol made AJP see me in a different light, paying more attention to my development and seeing more potential to invest in me. Although the return they were getting from me was still low, averaging just over $10,000 a month when I was doing two or three shows a weekend, they saw that this profit could rise quickly, even more so since I was still only a D-rank artist. If I moved up to C Rank, that profit would increase a lot, and at my rate of growth, it wouldn¡¯t be long before I reached the level they were hoping for. Then Selena told me that this time she wasn¡¯t the only one organizing this event for me, but her aunt, the director of AJP SF, had put together a team to help her organize everything in such a short time, both the audio and camera equipment and the stage and decorations, as well as finding sponsors quickly. Given my commitment to MeTube, Selena told me that it was likely that the sponsorship we would get for this stream would be higher than any amount we¡¯ve ever received for a concert, which got me excited. Knowing that all of this was happening at AJP because of me made it even harder for me to stop thinking about work and just focus on the rest I needed. So in order to try and clear my head, I decided to focus on something that didn¡¯t require as much deep thinking. I just grabbed a small speaker we had and put on some soft, relaxing music while I went to wash the car and my bike. When Ethan saw that I had my car and bike keys in my hand, his eyes lit up with curiosity. ¡°Where are you going Noah?! Can I come with you?¡± He asked excitedly, not even noticing that I had a rag on my shoulder and a bucket in my other hand. Laughing as I messed up his hair, I explained, ¡°I¡¯m just going to wash the rides, Champ, do you want to come and help me?¡± Hearing that I wasn¡¯t going to be riding in a car or on a motorcycle, he was a little disappointed, but still nodded enthusiastically. ¡°Then change your clothes, put on some lighter, older clothes, because we¡¯re probably going to get wet and dirty doing this.¡± I said while showing him my own clothes. At the moment I was wearing a black tank top that, although it was a shirt from my fat days, didn¡¯t fit me as loosely because of the muscles I had developed during that time. I never stopped my physical training, even though I reduced my weight training, I still kept it at a low intensity, which meant that my body still developed some muscle as the weeks went by. I didn¡¯t look like a bodybuilder, I looked more like a gymnast, only with my body¡¯s natural muscles developed to near perfection, but without the unbalanced growth that bodybuilders are so fond of. While I was washing the details on the bike, Ethan was splashing water on the NSX, wearing a black tank top just like me. Whenever someone walked by on the street, I noticed glances at us, both from people who thought it was cute that Ethan and I were washing the bikes together wearing similar clothes, and from women who were interested in looking at me for a longer period of time, which I didn¡¯t judge, since men did the same thing to women who wore more revealing clothes on beaches or in swimming pools. There were a few who were less embarrassed and even whistled at me, which made me laugh, but apart from those women, everyone remained respectful and just watched without comment. Washing a motorcycle was much more complicated than I had imagined. Unlike a car, which is basically one big closed surface, a motorcycle was open, with very deep places where dirt could get in, and it was much more complicated to clean. But after a few hours, Ethan and I finished washing them both, and it was very charming to look at these two clean beauties. [For those who haven¡¯t seen it, the visual representation of the NSX and R1000RR is available on my discord.gg/NunuXD]. ¡°Want to go for a ride, Ethan?¡± I asked, pointing at the bike. When he heard that, his eyes lit up as he nodded. Follow new episodes on the "N0vel1st.c0m". I knew how much he liked riding motorcycles and cars, but especially motorcycles because the adrenaline rush was so much greater than in the car, we were even safer, and considering how wet and slightly dirty we were, it was better to ride a bike that wouldn¡¯t get dirty at all. Picking up our two helmets, both Ethan and I wore the black helmets with those black tank tops, which matched very well, even looked like we had chosen that color of clothing on purpose. So, I left the house and started racing through the city with Ethan holding on to my waist just like I taught him, and soon we were in a San Francisco shopping mall. To thank him for helping me wash the rides, I took Ethan to an ice cream parlor he loved. I got a simple vanilla milkshake with Ovaltine and Ethan made a giant 5 scoop ice cream! As I watched him almost topple over each time, I was shocked that Ethan was able to balance it with such ease. Even though I knew he could hardly eat that much ice cream, I let him have as much ice cream as he wanted because when we came here before, I had almost no money and he just chose the cheapest ice cream to avoid making me spend so much money. Now that I had enough money, it wasn¡¯t a problem to spend a little more on him. Taking advantage of the fact that we were already on the street, Ethan and I started walking around the stores while sipping our ice cream and looking at what the stores were selling with interest. Ethan didn¡¯t show any interest in anything in particular, since as a child he wasn¡¯t likely to be interested in clothing stores, so I just went into the stores, bought the clothes I thought looked nice without even trying them on to see if they fit, and left the stores with Ethan, not taking too long so as not to bore him. There was only one store he was really interested in, which was obviously the toy store. But even though he was interested in several things, Ethan didn¡¯t ask me for anything, just looked at the toys with interest before moving on to something else. Shaking my head at the little boy¡¯s wisdom, I started to pick up a few toys, mainly a red Honda NSX remote control car that fascinated Ethan for a few minutes. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t blue, but that didn¡¯t stop me from buying it for him. As we left the store, Ethan had a big grin on his face as he held up a bag his size full of toys, which he didn¡¯t want to accept at first, but relented after a little explanation about how we could buy these things now and that he didn¡¯t have to worry. When I got home, I stayed with him for a while so he could show me him playing with all the new toys he had asked for, until later when I opened MeTube and saw that episode 01 of the documentary had already reached 3 million views, giving me a total of 60,000 subscribers! At that point, my channel already had 660,000 subscribers, very close to the 700,000 mark, a number I never thought I would reach so quickly. It was a little hard to sleep knowing that things were going so well with a concert I was going to do for so many people, so I stayed up late getting excited about it. Luckily I didn¡¯t need that much sleep because of System, otherwise I would have been exhausted and tired the next day. I grabbed my instruments that I would probably need, waited for Jason to arrive, said goodbye to my family and drove to the AJP headquarters to finally record the show. Or rather, to do this show live. This would be the biggest audience I¡¯ve ever performed for, and even though I couldn¡¯t see the people live and hear them sing or scream as I sang, I tried to think of ways to make this show as amazing for me as it was for them. If it was something really good for my career, it wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea to do it more often. Chapter 196: 196 - Problem with sponsorship Chapter 196: 196 ¨C Problem with sponsorship When I arrived at the AJP SF headquarters, I was surprised that the building was much bigger than I had imagined. Although it was only a branch of AJP San Francisco, the building was quite large and well decorated. The walls of the entrance were made almost entirely of glass, giving the place a much more elegant look. But I didn¡¯t go through the normal entrance, I went straight to the underground parking lot because of Selena¡¯s tip. Since I was bringing equipment and instruments with me, it would be easier and safer to transport them via the elevated platform that was already in the parking lot. Stopping at the entrance to the parking lot, the security guard apparently recognized my car and smiled at me as he approached. ¡°BlackVelvet?¡± He asked as he looked at me and my hair, which was possibly another clue Selena must have given him about me besides my car. ¡°Myself.¡± I replied with a polite smile. ¡°Just as a matter of procedure, can you lend me a document, Mr. Black?¡± He asked. Nodding, I took my driver¡¯s license out of my wallet and handed it to him. Nodding his head, he quickly took it to the booth and wrote down the necessary information, then quickly returned to give it back to me and let me into the parking lot. I parked in one of the spaces he recommended and all I had to take with me was my guitar, acoustic guitar and laptop. Microphone and other equipment had already been provided by AJP. When I saw a blue Subaru parked near my spot, I knew that Mark and Frank had already arrived. So I just got into the elevator with Jason and we went up to the 6th floor, the floor Selena had told me would be the studio. Even though this show was already airing on my channel, Jason was recording next to me the whole time, preparing content for the channel¡¯s next vlog. The show would be streamed on my channel, but the backstage of this show wouldn¡¯t be, so Jason would still be very useful. Arriving on the studio floor, the first thing I noticed was several people walking around while Selena and a blonde woman who looked a little older than her were talking. The two were dressed very similarly, with very professional dresses and serious expressions as they chatted and pointed at things around them. Looking around, I was amazed at what they were doing in this studio. The place was completely transformed into a concert stage, much better than most places I¡¯ve played. The most interesting thing was that not only were there several screens for me to put up any videos or images I wanted for the songs, but there were even the name ¡°BlackVelvet¡± or the acronym ¡°BV¡± in several places, showing that this was really a custom show for me. My first personalized show. Another thing that caught my attention was that there was a spot on stage where people brought various Jack Daniels branded decorations. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me this show is sponsored by Jack Daniels?¡± I asked in shock as I looked at Jason, leaving him as amazed as I was. I knew where this sponsorship was coming from because in my ¡°A Bar Song¡± I quoted ¡°they know me and Jack Daniels got a history¡± which was a good hook for Jack Daniels to do a sponsorship. And even though I was drinking at my gigs, I was only 17 years old! It was completely different for me to drink at a gig in a bar than it was to drink live on a stream sponsored by a beverage brand. Were they even allowed to sponsor a minor? Realizing the seriousness of the situation, I quickly went to Selena and asked Jason not to record this part because it could really cause serious problems. Follow new episodes on the "N0vel1st.c0m". ¡°Hey Selena.¡± I greeted her. Looking at me in surprise, Selena smiled as she greeted me back. ¡°Hey Noah, how did you like the studio?¡± I replied with a wry smile. ¡°I thought it was amazing, but I¡¯m worried about this...¡± I pointed to where they were setting up the Jack Daniels decorations. When Selena saw where I was pointing, she looked a little confused. ¡°That¡¯s the Jack Daniels sponsorship, my aunt got a $40,000 deal from them for that sponsorship during the stream, it was supposed to be good news, why are you worried?¡± Seeing that she didn¡¯t really understand the problem, I explained it to her. ¡°Selena... I¡¯m 17...¡± Hearing that, I saw Selena¡¯s expression freeze. She really had forgotten that I was a minor... I understand that I don¡¯t look like a 17 year old, mainly because of my muscles, if I said I was 23 in any club the bouncer wouldn¡¯t even ask for my ID to let me in, but Selena should have known better, she even had to sign a contract with my parents because of my age! But while I was shocked that she had forgotten, and she was shocked that she had forgotten, the blonde woman Selena was talking to started laughing. ¡°Hey, I guess your relationship is better than I thought.¡± She said amidst the laughter. Which left me confused as to how she managed to laugh knowing the trouble we were in right now. Seeing my confusion, Selena quickly explained. ¡°Noah, this is Mary Sinclair, the executive director of AJP San Francisco, my aunt.¡± Looking closer at the woman, except for the blonde hair, she was like an older version of Selena, with a face very similar to hers. ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Mary.¡± I said as I held out my hand to her. She smiled back at me and shook my hand gently as she looked me up and down. ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to finally meet the only artist Selena has deemed worthy of her agency.¡± Seeing that I was still worried about the sponsorship issue, Mary explained. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, the Jack Daniels sponsorship of your show tonight is for the launch of a non-alcoholic drink they¡¯re developing. It¡¯s a new formula of whiskey for making non-alcoholic drinks or just drinking it straight, of course they¡¯ve also sent you some bottles of the alcoholic version if you¡¯d like, you just won¡¯t be able to show that you¡¯re drinking it during the stream, as I¡¯ve seen that you really like to drink during your shows...¡± Listening to her explanation, I was quite surprised because I had no idea that such a drink existed. But hearing her comment that I like to drink during my performances made me feel a little embarrassed. When she noticed my embarrassment, she laughed even harder. ¡°Don¡¯t be so embarrassed about it, kid, it¡¯s normal for artists to like to do things like that, Selena has already assured me that your drinking doesn¡¯t reach the point of alcoholism because you only drink at gigs and parties and don¡¯t take it into your personal life. If that¡¯s enough to keep you away from the drugs that end the lives and careers of so many artists, we don¡¯t mind. When I heard that, I breathed a sigh of relief. Not because I could keep drinking, because although I enjoyed it and had more fun at gigs when I was drunk, it¡¯s not like I needed it to do my gigs. I was relieved that I hadn¡¯t burned my image with the CEO of the company I have a contract with, or even because she¡¯s Selena¡¯s family? Am I worried about what Selena¡¯s family thinks of me? Pushing these confusing thoughts aside, I just smiled and nodded. ¡°You can go to the dressing room to get ready, Noah, the makeup team should be done with Mark and Frank, your costume is there too, get dressed after you do your makeup so you don¡¯t get your clothes dirty.¡± Selena told me and I nodded and walked away. As I walked away, I didn¡¯t see Mary looking at Selena with an approving expression while even giving her niece a thumbs up with a smile, making Selena even more embarrassed. Seeing that my conversation was over, Jason quickly came up to me to ask if everything was all right, I explained what I had heard, he too sighed in relief and went back to recording as if nothing had happened. We walked into the dressing room to find Mark and Frank already laughing and chatting while eating some of the snacks the crew had prepared for us. My preparation was very similar to when I was getting ready to shoot Duncan Family, with very similar makeup, since I would be under bright lights for hours and a camera pointed at me in high definition, there wasn¡¯t much to get away from the quality of the makeup by now. I had been practicing my makeup skill with Liv for the past few weeks, but it hadn¡¯t worked out very well, and I had only increased my skill by three levels. [Makeup Mastery Lv 4 -> 7] This would be fine for a woman who had no problem making it clear that she was wearing makeup, but for me and the style I wanted, which didn¡¯t look like I was wearing makeup, it was still a few levels away from being satisfactory. The outfit was black clothes with unmarked designs in the style I¡¯ve always worn, but with slightly more elegant accessories, reinforcing the image that I was a rock artist, but showing that this was like a special occasion, not just an ordinary outfit I¡¯d wear every day. After almost an hour, I was finally ready and showtime was approaching. Chapter 197: 197 - Start of the show Chapter 197: 197 ¨C Start of the show With my costume on and my makeup done, I walked out of the dressing room to the stage and saw that everything was ready, with the technicians just finishing setting up some of the equipment. Picking up my phone and opening my MeTube channel, I looked at the stream that was scheduled to start in 40 minutes and was surprised to see that there were already 3,000 people waiting. For streamers who have been streaming for years, it was hard enough to get 3,000 people to watch your stream normally, let alone how hard it was to convince those 3,000 people to stay on a page for a stream that hadn¡¯t even started yet! Since the stream chat was already turned on, there were several people chatting. Some were talking about my songs, others about my fight with Dark Pistol. Those talking about the fight were mostly people who supported me, but there were still a few people spamming me with hate messages. Fortunately, these messages were quickly deleted by the stream moderator. Who was this moderator? At first, Selena offered to hire someone from AJP, but I remembered someone who had been following me for a long time and was very active and helpful in the comments. So I invited Requien, my Instabram follower who always gave me some useful tips. As soon as I offered it to him, he quickly volunteered to help moderate. Even though the majority of the audience was on my side, I didn¡¯t want people who hated me because of Dark Pistol to be able to keep commenting and spoil the experience for those who just wanted to enjoy a good show. Sure, Requien couldn¡¯t manually moderate tens of thousands of people, so we set up a few keywords for the chat to automatically block, and as the stream went on, he added more words to the list. Every 10 minutes, I would check my phone to see how many viewers were watching. With 30 minutes to go before the stream started, there were 5,000 people. With 20 minutes to go, there were 9,000 people. With 10 minutes to go, there were 16,000 people watching. With 2 minutes left before the stream started, there were 23,000 people. In the minutes before the stream started, the number kept increasing every second, which put a big smile on my face. There were even people who donated to make their messages stand out from the others. ¡°Okay guys, 60 seconds to start the stream, all the equipment is ready, is everyone okay?¡± The director of this stream asked aloud. Since this stream would have multiple cameras, a director was needed to be able to control which camera would be used in the stream at any given time, as well as control the stage effects and anything else that would be used for the stream. With a positive response from everyone, I looked at Mark and Frank to make sure they were okay. They were both already in their places, Mark behind the drums and Frank behind the keyboards. I was already in the middle of the stage, facing all the cameras. For stream shows like this, there is usually choreography for the singer¡¯s entrance and various other things, but considering this was my first stream and the sponsorship was only $40,000, it was understandable that it wasn¡¯t that big. The $40,000 may seem like a lot, but when you consider that this money was the income that would theoretically pay for the day rate of everyone working in that room, as well as the rental of the equipment we used, it would hardly be enough for something so grandiose. I¡¯ll probably get 10-20% of that $40,000 at most, but that¡¯s because this was my first stream. If I prove myself and show that I can deliver results and reach a large audience, the value of the next sponsorships will only increase. 5... Follow new episodes on the "N0vel1st.c0m". 4... 3... 2... 1... With the one finger of the director¡¯s hand that was still standing, now lowered, we knew that the stream had started and I felt a little nervous and lost... The feeling was strange... I knew that there were thousands of people watching me at that moment, wanting to hear my music, but just the sight of several cameras pointed at me, several beams of light in my direction, and the entire production team in silence was strange. Luckily, there was a big TV underneath the camera, showing the comments that were rapidly appearing on the screen. Seeing so many comments reminded me of what it was like to perform in front of an audience for the first time in this world, in the Quacktus Stream, the talent show I participated in. Singing and seeing the messages in the chat was an incredible feeling and that¡¯s what I should aim for this time. So, after those 5 seconds when I was a bit lost, my body relaxed and a smile appeared on my face. ¡°Good evening everyone!¡± I said as I moved my head to show that I was clearly reading the chat. ¡°Good evening Allchi, Katblack17, Ugo_Moreno, Bobby_fowler, and all the other 26,000 people who are with me tonight!¡± When they saw that I was actually reading the names of the viewers, the already fast rising messages started to rise even faster, possibly because people wanted their names to appear so that I could read them too. Unfortunately, with the chat rising so fast, it was impossible to read everyone¡¯s name, so I just looked at the chat for a few seconds before turning my eyes back to the camera. ¡°You have no idea how nostalgic it is for me to do a stream show like this... for the few people who have known me since the beginning of my career, you know that one of my most successful songs was first sung on a stream... The Lazy Song! Who in the chat remembers that?¡± I asked with a smile. As soon as I asked, tens of thousands of comments started pouring in. [Me!] [Me!] [Me!] [Me!] [...] When I saw how many people were commenting, I started to laugh, imagining the frustration of those who had really been with me from the beginning to see so many people who had no idea what I was talking about and pretended to be here as well. I remember this happening to me once in a previous life, when a streamer asked how to play the game, I explained it to him, and when it came time to thank him, he couldn¡¯t remember my nickname. When he asked who had given him the tip, I said that I had, but that thousands of other people had done the same thing, which made me angry at the other people. ¡°Gee, do that many people remember?¡± I asked, laughing as I looked at the chat. ¡°To celebrate, I thought the first song of the night would be The Lazy Song!¡± I said slowly as I looked away and moved closer to the Jack Daniels decorations, giving the production time to program all the decorations to what they had set up for that song. I didn¡¯t want to talk about Jack Daniels yet, but I would move closer to give the brand the visibility they wanted with the sponsorship and to make the audience curious as to why there was something like that on stage. When I got the OK from the producers, I nodded and heard Mark¡¯s drumsticks hit to synchronize us. ???????????? Today I don¡¯t feel like doing anything I just want to lie in my bed Don¡¯t feel like answering my phone So leave a message at the tone Cause today I swear I ain¡¯t doing nothing ???????????? When I started playing this song, the chat, which had a lot of messages saying a lot of different things, quickly changed to people sending dancing emoticons. ¨C 3rd POV ¨C Jay had just gotten home from work and was opening a bottle of beer when he came out of the kitchen and saw his daughter watching TV. Thinking she was watching one of the boring shows she always watches, he asked her to go to her room and watch TV so he could put on something more interesting. Even though they didn¡¯t have much contact and the conversation between them was a bit awkward, Jay was very tired from work and wasn¡¯t interested in almost anything his daughter liked, so it became increasingly difficult to find anything in common to talk about with his daughter. Since his wife was a nurse, she didn¡¯t get home until late at night, leaving the two of them with little to talk about at home. But when Jay walked into the living room and saw that Emma was watching a concert, he became a little interested. Over a beer, good music was a good thing. I just hope this music is good...¡¯ he thought as he sat down on the other sofa and waited to see what music would be playing. When he sat down, Emma looked at him a little suspiciously, wondering why her father hadn¡¯t asked her to change the channel like he always did, but when she saw that he didn¡¯t complain immediately, she just turned her attention back to the TV and concentrated on the show. Jay saw that the boy who was going to sing was very handsome, so much so that it bothered him that his daughter was watching. Especially since the boy was only talking and not singing at all, this began to try Jay¡¯s patience even more. Finally, after a few minutes of talking, the boy started to play! ???????????? Today I don¡¯t feel like doing anything I just want to lie in my bed Don¡¯t feel like answering my phone So leave a message at the tone Cause today I swear I ain¡¯t doing nothing ???????????? Listening to the lyrics and paying attention to the feel of the song, Jay¡¯s impatience began to subside and he began to enjoy the music without even realizing it. Chapter 198: 198 - Jay and Emma Reaction Chapter 198: 198 ¨C Jay and Emma Reaction Before Jay knew it, he was on his third beer and still watching the show with Emma. At first, Emma was worried that Jay would ask her to change the channel, but when she saw his leg tapping to the rhythm of The Lazy Song, she realized that her dad was enjoying the music too! So she turned it up a bit and just enjoyed the music and the show while chatting with some friends on her cell phone and posting on twipper about how she felt about it. [Now it¡¯s time for me to sing one of my favorite songs] BlackVelvet said on the TV screen, making both Emma and Jay look at the screen. Emma was excited that he was going to sing her favorite song, and seeing how handsome he looked, she was even more excited to hear him sing it. As more than 30 minutes of the show had passed, BlackVelvet was already sweating, sweat dripping down his body and his hair slightly damp, which only added to how attractive he was in Emma¡¯s eyes. Jay, on the other hand, was curious as to what song this boy was going to sing. So far he had sung a few songs and Jay had liked them all! There were a few that he liked best, especially the Bar Song, which was apparently the song that got the boy sponsored by Jack Daniels. The lyrics were very relaxing and went very well with the beer he was drinking, so he was curious to know what the next song would be. [To be honest, this is a song I have to be very careful with when I sing in front of a crowd]. The boy said to the screen, leaving Jay confused. [Because the lyrics of this song are about a boy who has his eye on a girl he¡¯s been dating the whole party and is waiting for the girl¡¯s boyfriend to leave the party so he can hit on the girl...]. Listening to this, Jay was surprised by such lyrics. He¡¯d heard a lot of songs about men suffering for love, which was very common in country music, but a song about a man who had his eye on another man¡¯s wife? That was certainly a first. Which piqued his curiosity. Hearing the melody, Jay started to enjoy it and became even more interested, the problem was when the boy started to sing... ???????????? I can¡¯t believe we¡¯re finally alone. I can¡¯t believe I almost went home What are the odds? Everyone¡¯s dancing And he¡¯s not with you ???????????? Unlike the other songs, which the boy sang with a lot of lightness and charisma, in this song the boy sang in a much more intimate and sensual way, which made Jay a little uncomfortable. Still, the musicianship was very good. Even though the style of singing in this song was different from what he was used to, Jay was able to adapt to it quickly and enjoy it just like the boy¡¯s other songs. The problem was when he looked over and saw Emma¡¯s rosy cheeks as she smiled silly and looked at the TV. No way, right? Jay thought as he looked worriedly between the TV and Emma. Seeing Emma¡¯s reaction and reading the comments that were rapidly appearing in the corner of the screen, Jay realized that there were thousands, if not tens of thousands, of girls who were crazy about how this boy was singing right now! This was even more intense than the way girls acted towards rock stars in his day! All this because of the way that boy sings?¡± he thought in shock. Looking at the boy singing, Jay realized that his appearance was also a crucial fact, adding up how good the boy looked with how good he sang and how enjoyable the music was, Jay could only admit that this was bound to happen. Follow new episodes on the "N0vel1st.c0m". Fortunately, the boy his daughter was interested in was a singer she was unlikely to come into contact with in the future, right? So he didn¡¯t have to worry too much. The problem was that even after realizing this, Jay still had a bitter taste in his mouth until the song ended. Without realizing it, he drank the whole bottle of beer during this song, which made him sigh and get up to get another beer before the next song. Emma didn¡¯t even notice her father getting up from the sofa to get more beer, just concentrating on typing on her cell phone and talking to her friends about things that would drive her father crazy if he could read them. When Jay returned to the living room, he saw the boy drinking some of that non-alcoholic Jack Daniels and was interested to see what it tasted like. [The next song is a song I only performed once, incredibly something I only performed at the opening gig I did for the band Dark Pistol, because of the problems and drama you already know happened, I haven¡¯t been able to edit, post or even perform this song anywhere else, so this will be the second time I perform this song in public, as well as the first time I perform it on the internet!] He said with a smile. Seeing that it was a new song, Jay was curious again and wanted to see what it would be like. Emma, on the other hand, was shocked and began to focus 100% of her attention on this song, wanting to know what it was like. [For those of you who liked ¡®Boyfriend¡¯, you might also like ¡®Too Sweet¡¯,] he said with a slightly mischievous smile on his face, without explaining any further as he began to play. Hearing this, Emma¡¯s eyes lit up with excitement, while Jay frowned, not knowing how to react. At least the feeling of this song was even better than the feeling of the previous song, making it sound like it was really a rock song of the style he liked. ???????????? You can¡¯t say I¡¯m an early bird It¡¯s ten o¡¯clock before I say a word Baby, I can never say How do you sleep so well? ???????????? When Jay heard the beginning of the song, he was a little confused. Even though he realized it was a song about a guy singing to a girl, it didn¡¯t sound as straightforward as the first song. ???????????? You keep telling me to live right To go to bed before the light But then you wake up for the sunrise You know you don¡¯t have to pretend, baby, now and then Don¡¯t you just want to wake up, dark as a lake? Smelling like a campfire, lost in a haze? If you¡¯re drunk on life, baby, I think it¡¯s great But while in this world... ???????????? Hearing this, Emma was shocked to realize that the lyrics were different from the song she had imagined. Emma was sure that this would be another song like ¡°Boyfriend¡± where BlackVelvet was trying to win her over, but it seemed that this was actually him trying to end a relationship? Was he dumping her? Jay, on the other hand, smiled when he heard this. Remembering back to his youth when he¡¯d dumped a girl for the same reason, he found himself liking this song even more. ???????????? I think I¡¯ll take my whiskey neat My coffee black and my bed at three You¡¯re too sweet for me You¡¯re too sweet for me ???????????? Hearing the relationship of the boy singing that he liked whiskey neat and seeing him pick up a glass of Jack Daniels neat and drink it with a smile on his face, Jay understood the analogy perfectly! Whiskey was an extremely strong and fiery drink, something you drank and felt like your throat was burning. You could add energy drinks or other beverages to sweeten the drink, but those who really knew how to appreciate a drink drank whiskey straight, just like the boy sang in the song. And since the song was about a relationship, Jay understood that the boy wanted something more intense, a fire that the poor girl couldn¡¯t provide because she was too sweet... Subconsciously, Jay looked at Emma, wanting to know what she was thinking and how she was reacting to this song, but what he saw shocked him. Instead of seeing Emma sad or disappointed, he noticed that she had an intense look on her face, a look he had never seen on her face before. What is she thinking?¡¯ he asked himself in confusion. Emma, on the other hand, after hearing what BlackVelvet had sung in the song, realized that she probably did look very sweet... Maybe so cute that she wouldn¡¯t attract boys? Then the idea came to her to simply change her style, to start acting in a more intense way, to change from a pleasant, comfortable flame to a stronger, more powerful one. If Noah knew what happened to some girls who heard this song for the first time, he could only laugh at the situation, because although he understood the lyrics, as a personal preference, he really liked sweet, cute girls... Too bad he didn¡¯t even know what was going on with the girls listening to him and just kept singing, enjoying every minute of the show. Especially when I saw so many comments and the number of viewers went up and up! ///NunuNote/// Hey guys, we are back at our normal schedule and the chapters will keep the daily upload for now hehe, sorry for being missing for the past days... somethings happen irl and I cant just focus on the novel. Chapter 199: 199 - Stream End Chapter 199: 199 ¨C Stream End For a stream that started with 34,000 people, seeing that number grow to over 50,000 made everyone on the production team very happy. Normally, the first stream of someone who was already famous in another niche of streams would start with a lot of views from curious people, but this would quickly diminish as these people realized that watching streams is very different from just watching the videos of exactly what they were interested in. But luckily, my stream went the other way! Because of my interactions with the audience, the songs I was singing, and the recent drama I was involved in with Dark Pistol, the audience in the stream room kept growing. To the point that in just 50 minutes of streaming, the audience was only going up with no sign of slowing down. When I sang Boyfriend, the chat interactions became the most active, with dozens of emojis popping up on the screen non-stop! And when I sang Too Sweet, it was the opposite, as the chat, which was extremely lively, went completely silent, possibly because the audience was just enjoying the song and its lyrics. Since this was my first time singing this in public, I was very excited to see how they would react to this song, and to see the chat stop without any reaction was more reaction than I could ask for. When the song finally ended, the messages that had stopped appearing in the chat came back in full force, with people commenting non-stop to say how they felt about this song. [Woooah, this song is awesome!!!] [Damn, I thought I¡¯d never find a song to top Boyfriend on my palylist, but it looks like I found this!] [I¡¯ll take my whiskey neeaatt] [I still prefer Boyfriend, but this song is awesome!] [...] There were so many comments that my eyes couldn¡¯t keep up with how fast it was going. So after a few seconds I just gave up and went back to interacting with the crowd while drinking some non-alcoholic whikey. It tasted very similar to the original, which would be a good alternative for someone who couldn¡¯t get drunk but still wanted to drink with friends. Combining this song with this Whikey, I noticed the big smile on the face of the Jack Daniels representative who was standing next to Selena, obviously very pleased with the song I had sung. And I could understand their side, because they wanted to partner with me because I had a song that quoted Jack Daniels in one line of the song, now I had released a song that clearly talked about whiskey several times in the chorus of the song! Even if I didn¡¯t mention their brand name in the song, since they had sponsored me for this concert, their brand would already be slightly merged with my image. Not to mention the fact that it wouldn¡¯t be impossible to extend this sponsorship beyond this show hehe. But I had to put that thought aside as I focused back on the show and singing my songs. The audience had grown to 56k viewers, the size of a gigantic stadium full of people listening to me, which gave me even more motivation to keep singing and dedicate myself to the quality of it. The show wasn¡¯t very long, only two hours in total, but the experience of singing like that was really nice. To be honest, it wasn¡¯t as much fun as singing in person in front of 200 people, because reading the reaction from a text or with emoticons wasn¡¯t even close to hearing people singing my songs with me. But just imagining that huge number of people watching me in their homes and watching me relax and enjoy the time was a different feeling. ¡°Thank you so much for your company tonight guys, I hope that when I do another show like this, you¡¯ll be here to support me again.¡± I smiled into the camera as we ended the stream. With the indication that the stream was over, I relaxed a lot and sat down in the nearest chair. Two hours of concert was very tiring, and even more tiring when you had dozens of people with serious expressions around you and several light cannons pointed at your face. When the lights finally went out, I felt like my face could finally relax. Follow new episodes on the "N0vel1st.c0m". ¡°That show was amazing Noah...¡± Selena said with a smile as she handed me a bottle of ice water. ¡°Thanks...¡± I thanked her as I took the bottle of water from her hand and drank it all in one go. Even though I had quenched my thirst by drinking the non-alcoholic Jack Daniels, it was still nothing compared to quenching my thirst with water. ¡°The Jack Daniels representative was extremely pleased with the show, so much so that as soon as the show was over, the first thing she did was call her supervisor to praise us.¡± Selena said with a satisfied smile on her face. She looked in the direction of the woman who was talking on the phone with a smile on her face mixed with a serious expression. ¡°Hehe, I¡¯m glad they liked it, I think this is an indication that if we do other shows like this in the future, the sponsorship amount will be higher, right?¡± I asked after finishing the whole bottle of water. ¡°Exactly.¡± Selena smiled. ¡°Considering the success this show may have caused, it¡¯s very likely that the next sponsorships will be much higher, since the first show was such a success, after that the only factor that will determine how much you¡¯ll get is how frequent these shows will be, since doing a show like this every week could decrease public interest and possibly decrease revenue.¡± I nodded, unlike the vlogs I post twice a week on my channel and get millions of views, this is because the content of each vlog is different, so the audience is interested in each video. As for the shows, my songs wouldn¡¯t change much from one week to the next, which would make the show very repetitive if it was done too often. So the ideal would really be to do it less often than face-to-face concerts. ¡°How often do you think that would be ideal?¡± I asked. ¡°From what AJP has analyzed with other artists, doing shows like this once a month is the maximum frequency before it starts to damage the other sides of the artist¡¯s career, but the ideal is once every two months.¡± She explained, surprising me. ¡°Why so long?¡± I asked. ¡°Because if the frequency is too high, people might see your show on the Internet and lose the desire to come and see you in person. And since most of a singer¡¯s income comes from in-person concerts, it wouldn¡¯t be the best choice to do something that could negatively affect that side.¡± She explained with a serious look on her face, which made me nod back at her. That really made sense. Even if 70% of the people didn¡¯t miss the in-person shows, the 30% I would miss could be a huge loss for me, so it was better just not to do it that often. I picked up my laptop and started reading the comments from the show on MeTube, and I had a huge smile on my face. [That was one of the best gigs I¡¯ve ever been to, seeing BlackVelvet give themselves so much on stage and interact with the audience like that made me want to go see a gig in person even more!] [When will Too Sweet be available on Spokify?! I want that song now!] [Thanks for the show BlackVelvet, both my dad and I watched the show from start to finish, although he didn¡¯t much like it when you sang ¡®Boyfriend¡¯ lmao!] When the stream ended, I could see the total number of views, which was an incredible 751,000 views!!! With a measurement of 40,000 online viewers on the stream at all times, the total amount of viewers on the stream was a huge number, something I imagined would happen, but not that big. After all, it was understandable that the public wouldn¡¯t watch the entire two hours of the stream non-stop. There were a lot of people who actually watched the whole thing, but a lot of people only watched for a few minutes before leaving the stream to do other things. So the attrition rate for the stream was very high. To be able to maintain an average of 40,000 viewers was a great accomplishment, and when I looked at the revenue I was getting from that stream, I had a big smile on my face. For the 750,000 views the stream got, I got a whopping $9,000! This was all from views, people who saw ads during the stream, people who paid to join the channel, and people who donated any amount. Streaming was extremely lucrative, even though my audience wasn¡¯t focused on streaming. If I was a real streamer with an audience that was really used to it, I¡¯d probably get double or triple that amount. But I was already happy with that, having more money was never too much hehe.