Versatile Superstar Rise In Hollywood

by Stayrr

"To be a star is to own the world and all the people in it." ... Two years ago, Aiden came to the United States to experience the American Dream. But after sleepless nights of struggle, just when he was on the verge of giving up, a translucent screen flashed in front of him - it was a System! A System that would make him embark on a journey to Hollywood. And today, he takes his fir

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In the crowd of people that looked uncountable, a man was smiling while looking at Aiden performing on the stage. At that moment, he was glad that he had decided to attend the concert.

The man was a high school teacher that barely got time outside the working hours. So, when he saw tickets for Aiden's concert, he immediately bought them.

Actually, it was an interesting story as to how he had discovered Aiden.

It was because of a friend of his.

One day, his friend asked him if he could stay at his house for a few days. Apparently, he had been kicked out of his apartment by the landlord as he wasn't able to pay rent and had nowhere to go.

The man had let him stay at his place, and during that time, he used to play 'Revolution', the song that Aiden had composed for the anime [Attack on Freedom].

His friend had told him that the song gave him the strength to believe that he was just going through bad times and that one day, he would actually get somewhere. It was a source of motivation for him.

Because of hearing the song too much, the man had gotten curious about Aiden and had searched up on him. Hearing his other songs, he had become entranced, thinking that he was actually a good musician, and after that, every song of Aiden had gotten a lot of commercial success.

Even an Oscar nomination was earned by him.

That's why he had even spent a chunk of his savings to get a ticket for the concert, and the man had to say that it was really worth it.

He hadn't enjoyed himself more in recent years than he was currently. He almost felt like music was flowing through him.

On stage, Aiden was walking on the stage, waving at the audience and singing. He was in the middle of 'Roles', one of the songs from his newly released album.

The concert had truly started greatly with the performance of 'Firefly' by him and Rachel. After it had ended, she stayed for two more songs from his album, and the man had to say that the female touch to the song wasn't bad.

It gave them another dimension, and it sounded awesome live.

Before coming to this concert, the man had surely wondered whether Aiden was going to sound good on stage. A lot of singers have a tendency to sound good in the recording due to the effects, but their real singing would be very subpar.

Turns out Aiden sounded the same as the recordings live. There was a clear difference, obviously, as a lot of effects and tuning were done to a recorded song, but his singing skills were undoubtedly there.

Because of that, the man enjoyed himself a lot, singing along to the songs and just being a part of the electrifying atmosphere.

Not only him, but others were also feeling the same as they enjoyed themselves at the concert.

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[Aiden Silvereye's concert in Radio City Music hall emerged as a huge hit. A few videos of it went viral on the internet last night as the audience uploaded them on social media sites.]

[Aiden Silvereye won't be doing any more live shows for now as, according to rumours, he's going to start preparing for his new role in a Zetflix series that hasn't been announced yet.]

[Fans said that the concert was one of the best that they have attended. With the rising sales of his debut album 'Stories' and a concert, Aiden is taking giant strides toward becoming one of America's leading young stars. Let's find out what it means for Indian representation in Hollywood.]

These articles were soon published after the concert ended. A lot of people tweeted about being at the concert and posted photos that his fans spread.

With this, he didn't need to bother a lot about singing for a few months. With [Sherlock of the Shadows] being an important project and Wade also realising the importance and potential, they decided not to do any more shows or interviews.

Money wasn't an issue now; they were going to earn more than just a few million dollars with the album sales. Moreover, the royalty was going to keep coming.

Even Behind the scenes had earned Aiden a good amount of money.

He was now far above the time when he needed to save up every penny, so he could focus on the project for the time being, but there was the release of [Disconnected] before that, which was pending.

Promotions were going on everywhere, and SGA and Black Line Cinema were working hard for the movie to get a big opening. It seemed like they were confident that it was going to pick up slowly due to the quality.

"Thanks for doing everything."

Rachel said, looking up at Aiden. They were currently standing outside the airport, and it had been a day since the concert had ended.

After having a successful concert, Aiden wasn't able to take a break due to [Disconnected, but he still made time to say goodbye to Rachel, who was flying back to Los Angeles with Linda.

"It's all fine. I just needed your voice for the song, and it went pretty well, fortunately."

"No, still, I'm extremely grateful to you." Rachel said, not hiding her intentions behind her cold face this time. There was a smile on her face. "Due to you, I have again become relevant, and my label is also going to promote me now."

"Really?"

Aiden tilted his head, and Rachel nodded.

"Yeah, we are going for a single and seeing the response, I would release a few more and then an album if everything went right."

Linda had told Rachel just last night that the company had a few meetings about her, and they were going to give her a long rope to prove herself this time. A lot of executives were very happy with the response she got due to featuring in Aiden's album.

Aiden also understood why exactly she was in such a great mood. All she ever wanted was another chance, and she was finally getting it.

As he had been important in her getting that chance, it seemed like Rachel had finally opened a bit of the wall surrounding her to Aiden.

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"It's good news. You worked hard on 'Firefly', and I feel like you will be able to do better in your own songs. Just try not to give up when you are good at trying something new. Focus more on songs that require high notes, and that's when you shine."

"Thanks." She smiled. "I will try to watch your movie after it releases. Only a few days are left in it. Less than even that, actually."

"Yeah, I will be busy with the release after this."

Aiden said, and they talked a bit more about other things for a while before Linda called out Rachel to leave. Before leaving, she looked up at Aiden.

"I hope the next time we meet, I will be a bigger singer."

Rachel walked away after that, and Aiden thought that he wouldn't be seeing her for a while. She was going to get way busier from now on, as this was probably her last chance to get a good start in her career.

If she failed, then gods have truly abandoned her.

'Next thing would be the premier for [Disconnected]. I hope it impresses the critics.'

Aiden thought as he walked towards his car. A very exciting period was awaiting him, and he was praying that it would go fine.

Jesse felt that nothing was going right with the post-production of his movie.

After he had finished up the movie, Jesse was excited to hop on to start the post-production as a lot of major work happened during that, and as the director, he wanted it to blend together well.

He needed to make sure that he had used the right camera angles, colour palette and sequence of scenes in a way that made sense. A lot of movies would be ruined due to bad editing, so Jesse was very careful.

Black Line Cinema had also let him work on it peacefully, and the trailer of [Disconnected] was also something that he had personally overseen.

But after that, he had heard rumours that SGA was pressuring Black Line Cinema to let them handle the editing work, and the latter had even agreed, angering Jesse, who wanted to make sure that everything was going his way.

When he had asked for an explanation, no one had replied with a concrete answer, and by their attitude, Jesse had remembered that after the movie finished, he didn't have a lot of power, especially with him not being one of the producers of the movie.

It was a classic case that he had seen and heard a lot before.

The thing was that it was happening for the first time with him. He didn't know what was going to come out in the editing that SGA would do.

He just hoped that it would be similar to his edit.

That's why, standing in the premier of [Disconnected, Jesse felt a bit uneasy about the fate of the movie. He didn't know which one cut would go on to become the chosen one.

He just wished that the movie would be good.

Otherwise, although it was a bad decision by the planning team, a lot of blame would be on him.

…

/DreamNote/

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"Aiden, you are finally here."

"I was hoping to meet you today. I loved your work in [Black Saints] and was hoping you would have time to hear out a script I'm working on. It's a musical, something I'm very sure you would be great in."

"I loved your songs. Are you free after the premiere? I think we might be able to have some talk in private."

"Hey, it's the first time we are meeting, but I just want to say that I'm a huge fan of yours. You are very talented."

Everywhere he went, people kept flocking to Aiden. The sight of him was enough to make them walk towards him to greet him.

Maybe that was the effect of being a hot topic.

Although there were a lot of other people who were the talk of the night, like Seth Douglas, Aiden was the only one who recently had a very successful album launch, and now his movie was going to release in a few days.

It was not wrong to say that he was established as a young star in Hollywood.

"Isn't it tough to remember the names of all the people in the premiere? How are you even going to carry that many business cards?"

Dustin asked him, looking at the business cards on the table. There were at least 15 of them.

They were currently sitting in an area that was right of the theatre.

"I don't know. I can't even throw them away. That would be disrespectful."

Aiden said and sighed. It was going to be a headache.

"Just carry them somehow." Dustin smiled. "Think of it as the price of getting famous. A lot of people in the premiere are seeing you for the first time, and making connections is always important. I got my first role due to talking with a director at a party accidentally."

"I know. Anyway, let's go to the theatre. I think it is about to start."

"Yeah, I'm excited to see myself on the big screen. Going by trailer, both of us are going to have a lot of scenes."

Dustin said with a smirk, and they walked off to the theatre. When Aiden looked around, he saw a lot of familiar reporters and critics around, along with some celebrities and other cast members.

Wade was in a corner talking with a bald guy who Aiden remembered as the director of a fantasy action movie about dragons.

Seth Douglas and Franco Li were also present at the premiere, and they were talking with some people he didn't recognise.

For a second, when their eyes met, Seth gave him a smile that looked very annoying.

'What's up with him?'

He thought, shaking his head. Seth's attitude towards him had just gotten worse and worse as the shooting had gone. It was to the point that Aiden had stopped caring about it.

"You two are here."

"Jesse."

Both Dustin and Aiden looked at Jesse, who was wearing a cream-coloured suit, as he approached them.

"Let's go sit there. The premiere is about to start."

"Okay."

Around them, other people were also taking their seats, and some critics looked interested to know how the movie was going to turn out.

The previous works of Jesse were pretty good, so everyone had high expectations.

As they sat down, Jesse turned towards Aiden as he whispered.

"I was busy with promotions, so I wasn't able to congratulate you on your album's success. I should have made you compose a song for the movie if I knew you were so good."

"Thanks and I would have rejected you even if you had asked. I was too busy at that time making the album."

Aiden said with a smile.

"It seems like you were pretty overworked."

"Yeah, but it worked out fine in the end. I wouldn't have gone for it if I thought that my body wouldn't be able to take it."

They talked like that for a while about Aiden's album, and then Jesse took a glance at Franco Li, who was sitting in a row behind them. Seth Douglas and a few other SGA executives were also sitting with them.

Jesse's face became a bit troubled as a thought entered his mind once again.

A premonition that he wanted to be false.

"What happened?"

"Nothing. It's just that SGA interfered a lot in post-production, so I'm a bit worried."

Hearing that, Aiden tilted his head.

"You didn't see the final product?"

A movie was vastly different when it came on screen. Normally, the footage would easily be around 120-150 minutes long and some movies just become too different if edited in a certain way.

So, the final product needed to be perfect.

"I didn't," Jesse confessed, frowning. "I made a director's cut. Studios usually cut down on it a bit and just use it as the final version, but SGA has interfered a lot from what I know. It might just be too different."

As he said that, the theatre screen in front of them turned on.

Looking at it, Aiden opened his mouth.

"I guess we are about to find out."

John Longbottom was a movie critic that was a big fan of Aiden. On the internet and particularly Sparrow, he went by the name @Criticye, and he had become a fan of Aiden after watching [Blank Saints].

The character of Kai was presented in a very simple way yet having complicated interiors. Aiden played him so well that John became a fan.

He subsequently liked [30 days of Happiness] and even his role in [Searching for the One]. That's why he was very excited about [Disconnected].

He felt like it was a chance for Aiden to get the tag of an actor with box office hits early in his career. He wasn't the male lead but going by the rumours and trailers; John was sure that his role would be of significant importance.

Being a critic, he wasn't allowed to be biased, but as a person, he wanted Aiden to do well in [Disconnected].

That's why, sitting in the theatre during the premiere, he was giddy when the movie started and the first scene involving Seth appeared on the big screen.

He had a good feeling about the movie, and he wasn't disappointed for the first 15 minutes. The initial parts were brilliant.

The main character, Mark Knight's personality and ambitions were established pretty early on and John felt like the set design, the slightly greyish colour palette of the movie and especially the dialogues looked amazing.

The movie obviously had taken a lot of inspiration from real-life tech billionaires during the tech boom of the 90s, but it managed to hold its ground with a great screenplay and good acting.

Unfortunately for John and the others in the theatre hall, the movie went downhill from that point.

It was like the director changed in the middle of the filming as the tone shifted a lot. Rather than following a straight narrative, the story started shifting from here and there.

It was like there were two parallels going on at the same time that was going to connect in the future.

But the connection never actually came.

Characters started appearing out of nowhere without any prior warning or introduction. One of the examples was the character played by Aiden, Andrew Kingston.

The first scene he appeared in was in Mark's dorm room, where both of them talked about technology and what was the purpose of it. John was happy with the look and character of Aiden in the movie when he first appeared.

But it looked weird, too, at the same time.

It was because, at the beginning of the movie, it was established that Mark didn't really have friends as he was too arrogant and would often misbehave without realising. A superiority complex was clearly hinted at.

But when Andrew appeared, he suddenly had a friend who he saw as an equal. There was no prior hint to the character or any introductory scene, which John found a tad bit odd.

Unfortunately for him, it was just the start.

The choppy editing continued after that too as there were a lot of evident cut scenes, characters that didn't actually get enough time that they deserved and the movie started to gloss over a lot of important things, only to reveal them later.

Hence, the focus was more on Mark and how he slowly became worse and worse as the company and his idea took off.

John didn't hate that and felt that there were good moments with that kind of character arc, but he strongly felt that it was coming on the expanse of the overall story.

'The trailer promised something completely different.'

He thought in his mind and looked around. Even the others didn't seem to be enjoying the movie a lot. One of the critics was even texting someone on the phone.

The trailer for [Disconnected] had focused more on building up a billion-dollar company and the price to pay for so much wealth and fame. That was very intriguing, but the movie focused a lot more on a single character and less on how the company and characters were going forward.

It created a very weird narrative.

John still felt that one of the worst parts was the ending in which Mark betrayed Andrew and literally kicked him out of the company. The scene of it wasn't anywhere and it was only shown by the conversations of other people.

He felt like a confrontation scene between Mark and Andrew would have made total sense.

In the end, it was only told that Andrew was suing Mark to get back his shares.

After the movie ended, John undoubtedly felt sad and he was constantly frowning.

In his mind, he was only thinking one thing.

'It's a bad movie. Too bad.'

…

/DreamNote/

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[Disconnected] is a movie that seems very confused in its narrative and what it's trying to do. The scenes don't match well with each other, and the editing is best said to be choppy. The acting does stand out as good alongside a lot of technical things, but you never get the chance to connect with the characters. Overall, a massive dud from Director Jesse Ross and for the talented cast.

-Hollywood Weekly.

Imagine going to a Michelin star restaurant and ordering their signature dish that you are very excited to eat after hearing a lot about it, but when you try it, you realise that it's not as good. That's the case with [Disconnected]. The premise could have made a great story, and it does shine in scenes with dialogues clearly standing out but overall, it fails. Seth Douglas needs to get better scripts and more challenging roles to break in as a big star.

-Vanity Magazine.

The cast might not want to see this project in their filmography in the future. The movie tries to sell itself on the main character, played by Seth Douglas but fails to make a connection with the audience. Seth's acting, while being good, was nothing out of the ordinary that was needed to save the movie. Other characters come off as more interesting but are never explored. A massive, massive letdown from a great director.

-@Criticye.

Reviews quickly came out after the premiere and it was safe to say that SGA wasn't happy with them. Not a lot of critics liked the movie and how it turned out.

Reportedly, a lot of them left straight after the movie, not wanting to say anything bad about it in front of the cast and producers.

Jesse, the director, was even seen blank-faced after seeing how the movie turned out. The other cast members were also not really happy as they had not expected the post-production to make the movie like this.

But they were quite powerless.

Everyone had obviously watched and studied a lot of movies and were aware of the taste of the audience, so having doubts was perfectly normal, but they had no choice but to trust the movie.

After all, no one knew which movie was going to work at the box office. In the past, movies that the critics hadn't liked had worked well.

For the critics, it had a lot to do with the technicality and message of the movie and how it was being portrayed, but for the audience, it was mostly about having a great experience.

Maybe [Disconnected] would actually work? That was the thought in their mind as they hoped for it to do well.

Anyway, they couldn't jump off the ship when it was still in the middle of the ocean. Results were going to be cleared in a few days. They could just wait till then.

However, Jesse Ross didn't think like that.

He was unable to trust the movie like the cast. The quality that he had envisioned just wasn't there, and he was never the type of director who worried about the box office first.

He was someone who wanted to present a good story.

Box office was important but secondary, and in his eyes [Disconnected] was just not the movie that he had thought of in this form.

The movie he saw was completely different. A lot of important scenes had been omitted, making the story seem like it was lacking a lot of things and the main highlight of the movie — The scene in which Andrew would confront Mark after finding out he's betrayed was nowhere.

SGA and Black Line Cinema had edited it out completely.

It had made the ending unsatisfactory. Jesse wasn't an idiot.

He knew that SGA had cut off so many scenes that didn't involve Seth to make it look like it was a one-man show of his and maybe, their line of thinking was that the audience would see it as the story of the transformation of a genius due to greed, but they forgot that Mark's company was there because of the people around him.

If he wasn't even being confronted about his actions, then there's no drama. It looked too lacklustre, like the movie didn't have a lot of substance to keep it going.

The studio had completely destroyed a good movie.

After the premiere had ended, Jesse had also talked to Aiden about it. He directly said, "They have destroyed something I worked on extensively without even consulting with me. I might be powerless due to them having most of the control, but I'm not going to stay shut. If I let these studios get away with anything, then I would have to compromise my ideas to get movies. I'm not going to do that no matter what for fuck sake! I will make them accountable!"

Hearing that, Aiden calmly said.

"I think the movie won't work well. Do you have a director's cut of it?"

"Yeah, I do, and I know it won't work well. The audience ain't stupid to watch a movie with such choppy editing in this age, and they were going to just get a headache. They fucking ruined my movie."

After saying that, Jesse directly strode off to the Executive producer of the movie, Rishi Suman and asked him about it.

Rather than asking, Jesse had gone all guns blazing, asking for an explanation of such bad editing and accusing Black Line Cinema of a lot of things better left unsaid.

Rishi obviously hadn't taken well to the critics, and they had a big fight in the office. It had only ended after other employees had calmed Jesse down and he had simply left Black Line Cinema's building and refused to do any more promotions for the movie.

In his mind, he already knew that the movie was trash and it was going to flop hard because the studio had interfered wrongly.

Due to his anger, he had even left a tweet on his Sparrow account.

[Best advice for people aspiring to be a filmmaker one day — Always have a lot of control over your movie, even if it means being the producer yourself. That's the best way to ensure that your movie isn't being tampered with by some stupid idiots who think they know everything about making a movie.]

The tweet obviously spread very quickly, especially with it not even being a cryptic one. Anyone with a little brain was able to connect it with the initial bad reviews of [Disconnected].

In his short career, Jesse had gotten a pretty good group of core fans and they were engaged in reading the tweet. All of Jesse's previous movies had been good, so they were already wondering what had happened this time.

The tweet confirmed that it was the studio that was to blame.

It also meant that Jesse was not going to get any work with Black Line Cinema for a while. The fight with Rishi had ensured it, and the tweet was the final nail in the coffin.

SGA also wasn't happy with this tweet because it gave people the perception that the movie wasn't good. They quickly called Jesse to delete the tweet, but he just told them to fuck off.

In this enraged state, he wasn't going to listen to anyone, especially not SGA.

SGA was very offended, and Franco Li immediately banned actors of SGA from working with Jesse. He was a person who cared a lot about respect and was sensitive to these things.

The only good thing was that SGA wasn't able to focus on Jesse a lot as [Disconnected] was still yet to release. They were surely hurt by the bad reviews they had gotten from the critics.

The premiere had backfired, so they immediately started the PR to make it seem like the movie was good.

They contacted critics that had worked with them before and even told media companies to write good articles about the movie.

They also took advantage of the fact that they were a talent agency and had tons of famous actors. They made a few top stars comment good things about [Disconnected] in an attempt to overshadow the bad reviews.

Only a few movies are able to make you glued to the screen. [Disconnected] was definitely that. The themes of greed, the tech industry and power really come off well and Seth Douglas shines in probably his best performance so far. Definitely a movie worth watching.

-The Box.

Black Line Cinema and SGA produced a gem of a movie that surely is something you should not miss. The technical details shine in almost all scenes and the characters are very complex and Seth Douglas comes off as very good as the arrogant genius who was shown the dream of a billion dollars. It should be one of the few big hits of the first half if everything goes well.

-ET Magazine.

Just watched [Disconnected] sign my brother Seth Douglas. One of the best movies I have watched in recent months. Almost feel sad that I wasn't a part of the cast of the movie. You all should check it out when it is released.

-Drake Crimeworth, a leading actor from SGA.

All these helped the movie, but people were still pretty sceptical as rumours of a rift between Jesse and SGA were the new headlines of tabloid magazines.

A juicy topic to profit from.

The surprising thing was that it actually helped the movie instead of making people not go to watch it. As Jesse never directly attacked SGA or Black Line Cinema by taking their names, a lot wondered if the rift was just a lie.

So, they themselves went to watch the movie, wondering if it was going to be good or bad. If it was bad, then it was almost guaranteed that the tweet was about SGA.

Sadly, they were indeed left disappointed.

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 228.Reactions

'Should I go for the movie or not?'

That was the question in the woman's head as she looked up at the trailer of [Disconnected] on her laptop screen. It had 23 million views and over 400k likes, and 7.7k comments.

Going by the trailer, the movie looked interesting, but she wasn't really sure. It had just been released today, and tickets were still available on the websites, so she was interested, especially with it being a weekend.

The only reason she was hesitant was that the last time she went to watch a movie, it hadn't turned out good. Sighing, she looked up to reviews, and they were mixed, with some saying that it was good and some just roasting it.

In the end, the woman had only one alternative.

'If there's nothing good to watch on Zetflix, I will book the ticket.'

She opened up Zetflix and looked through the list of recommended shows and series that were trending, but nothing really interested her. It was either a zombie, a generic rom-com or some other stuff like that.

Her Zetflix account apparently turned out to be useless, and she booked up a ticket at the nearest cinema hall.

On the weekend, she just wanted some good entertainment. Her friends were now mostly married, so she didn't have a lot of people to hang out with, so she chose to watch the movie alone.

When she reached the theatre hall, she saw that a lot of people were already present there and the crowd outside the screening of [Disconnected] was quite good.

Due to SGA and Black Line Cinema promoting the show a lot, many people had still come up. They were expecting a first-day estimate of around 12 million dollars and were hoping to go higher as the days went by.

Anywhere close to over 150-200 million dollars was a big profit for the studio, and they were expecting that the movie would achieve much more than that. Sixty million dollars was just the budget of the movie, and they additionally used 40 million dollars for marketing.

They needed it to hit 100 million dollars just to break even.

'It looks like the movie is getting a good amount of interest.'

The woman thought as she entered the cinema hall and sat down on her seat. The seats around her started feeling in slowly, and she could see that almost 80 percent of the seats were occupied.

It was a good sign that the movie would be good.

A lot of people had just come because they liked Jesse Ross's previous movies, and some were also curious due to Seth Douglas, as a lot of magazines had started labelling him as the next big thing.

At the same time, there were also fans of Aiden. There were a few scenes of his in the trailer, so his fans were quite excited to watch him on the big screen again.

A lot of people now think that Aiden was a capable actor after his last movie emerged as a sleeper hit.

He hadn't promoted the movie a lot, but they knew that he was in it, and it was enough of a reason to watch it.

'It's finally starting.'

She thought as the screen turned on and the opening credits started.

After the movie ended, the woman came out of the theatre hall with others. Her expression didn't look good as she was constantly frowning, wondering what she had just seen.

'That movie was bad.'

She felt like it was another case of a bad movie with a good trailer. Other people around her had the same expressions, and some were even looking angry.

All of them felt like they had wasted their time and money.

Next to a woman, a couple was talking about it.

"Why did you bring me to watch such a movie? I don't even know what was going on in the second half. What kind of a movie was that even?"

The guy in the relationship asked.

"I thought it would be good. You saw the trailer yourself."

"Yeah, but the movie was bad. It felt like the makers stopped being serious about it in the second half."

The woman also felt the same about it, actually. The first half was still average, but the plot was clearly lost in the second half. It was to the point that she felt like they were two completely different movies.

Somehow she felt cheated as the reviews promised that it would be a great experience.

'My money and time are already gone. The least I could do is to leave a review in retaliation.'

She thought and took out her phone. Opening up the website 'Do you like the movie', she left a review that was obviously not a good one.

She left a long review, and like her, a lot of other people also were leaving bad reviews. Unlike the critics, the audience had no hidden agenda, so they just left reviews without any bias.

Most of them were bad, and at the end of the day, the ratings for [Disconnected] were barely 5.1 out of 10.

On a movie entertainment website called Zenya, people were talking about the movies running in the theatres around this time of the year. Aside from [Disconnected, there was an action-adventure series called [Unguarded] that was running in the theatres.

Due to the high budget and good action scenes, it was at the top of the box office. Aside from that, there were only a few small-budget movies running in a small number of theatres.

The forum members talked about these movies, and one of them suddenly asked a question.

[Big Black Chicken: Anyone here watched [Disconnected]? It was released just today. I wanted to go check it out but don't know what to expect.]

To his question, there were a lot of replies.

[President Potato head: Go at your own risk. The movie could be contagious, and you might not come out alive, but life is all about risks, so you might as well take this one too.]

[Women over 25 are too old for me: I watched it, and it was something at the level of those paintings you admire in art galleries just to come out as mature and complex when the paintings don't make any sense.]

[Winning women of the year in my first year as a woman: Felt like they were trying too hard to show just anything. I mean, I'm pretty sure they have a vision with those cool-looking sets and great dialogues, but they don't help when the audience feels like they don't know the story anymore. Won't recommend it, to be honest.]

[Too many bad female superheroes: I heard that the occupancy rate in the theatres dropped to 60 percent in night shows from 80 percent in the afternoon shows. People these days are fast and check up a lot of reviews.]

[Cancel culture is intolerable: I watched it today. Went with a lot of expectations as I'm a fan of the director from his old movies, but it was not engaging enough. The story felt lacking, and they should have really edited it better. I would rather watch my cats fight for 2 hours than watch this movie.]

[Cat wars: Apparently, the director, Jesse Ross, had a fight with the studio, and he left a tweet too. It's still not deleted, so it feels like there's something clearly off, especially because the movie is turning out to be. Good drama for others though.]

[Edgy male lead: I don't think the movie is even going to recover its budget. I would be surprised if it didn't drop dead tomorrow. Response from the audience is very negative.]

It was clear only a very few had good thoughts about the movie. They were in the minority, and the movie clearly failed to create a connection with the audience.

On the first day of its release, it earned merely 8 million dollars which were lower than the estimates. SGA expected it to pick up the next day, but the numbers fell even down to 6.4 million dollars only.

On the third day, it somehow managed to reach only 5 million dollars.

The first three days of any movie are always very crucial as it decides the fate of the movie, and it looked like the fate of [Disconnected] was clearly sealed.

SGA did try to increase the marketing and try to get more people to the theatre, but they were not interested when there was a better alternative present.

[Unguarded] was something that was getting much more audience than [Disconnected] despite running in the theatres for a month already.

There was no doubt in anyone's mind that this movie had turned out to be a disaster.

Analysts had already predicted that the movie wouldn't even reach 50 million dollars and would emerge as a massive letdown of the year.

At the same time, it was also Aiden's first flop.

He had been very good with scripts till now, but this time, nothing had worked, and the movie turned out to be a dud.

…

/DreamNote/

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'[Disconnected] fails to connect with the audience.'

That was the headline of a lot of newspapers when it was evident that [Disconnected] wasn't going to be a successful venture. In the first week of its release, the movie was only able to earn 27 million dollars which was not a good number.

The movie was going to be off the theatre in two weeks more like this and won't even go for more than 40 million dollars which meant that the losses were too much to handle.

Black Line Cinema was just a medium-sized studio, and these many losses were pretty horrendous for them. In the first place, the only reason they went for a 60 million dollar production was because of the backing of SGA.

Now they were in trouble, and the studio had to take their next steps very carefully to recover their losses.

Out of all this, the most enraged person was obviously Franco Li.

"Our losses are massive. Black Line Cinema CEO is asking for a meeting with you, and Jesse Ross is really angered, and from what we know, he might give out a few interviews talking about us badly. The marketing team is already informed, and we are going to control the mess."

"What about the people in the company?"

"They are talking about it. Seth wanted to meet with you. He's very depressed, according to his manager and has been drinking since last night."

Franco Li frowned hearing that. Rubbing his temples, he leaned against his chair and thought about the whole ordeal.

'The response to Seth's role isn't good. His perception among the public would just fall after this massive disaster, and it would take another two years for me to get him to a steady career path again. The losses would be dealt with, but the loss of reputation would be the main dent.'

For an agent of his calibre, a loss like [Disconnected] was not that much of a big deal, but he would take some loss in reputation. SGA management would also ask questions from him as he was the one who handled the packaged deal with Black Line Cinema.

He even pushed the project, thinking that it was going to change his career of Seth.

"I won't have any meetings with anyone. At least not yet. Black Line Cinema is just going to ask us to handle the losses alongside them."

Franco said, looking up at his assistant.

"What about Seth?"

"He's not useful anymore. We invested a lot in him, and he's just being a burden. We tried our best to make [Disconnected] a big break for him, but it didn't work out. His previous projects just got lukewarm responses too."

According to Franco, Seth Douglas was in the zone of an actor who's fine in movies but didn't have any charisma to carry a project on his back. He didn't have the X factor in him that was required for him to become more than a mediocre actor.

Franco had way better candidates than him, and he was tired of promoting it. This flop was the final nail in the coffin.

It seemed like giving sexual favours wasn't enough in the end.

Hollywood was all about profit, as actors could be replaced at any moment.

"Should I tell that to him?"

His assistant asked, thinking inwardly that another actor was going to be replaced. He had been working with Franco for five years, and he had seen countless actors go in and out.

"No, I will talk to him myself. As for Jesse Ross, he can complain all he wants. The movie is a flop no matter what, and fights between producers and directors aren't uncommon. Tell the marketing team to do press releases in which they blame Black Line Cinema for it. We can't leave any scar on SGAs reputation."

After giving all the instructions, Franco Li stood up and took out a bottle of champagne. It was an antique one that he would only drink with esteemed guests.

Pouring a glass of it for himself, he thought that a lot would take to handle the losses incurred. They would need to minimise them as much as they could.

Drinking the wine, he looked up at his assistant.

"We have a deal going with Zetflix, right?"

"Yeah." His assistant nodded.

"See if they are interested in the streaming rights for [Disconnected]."

Originally, the plan was to wait for two months before selling the streaming rights. Their value would have increased a lot if the movie had been a hit.

But now, they needed to sell it for a lower amount and as soon as possible.

After all, a lot of flop movies won't even find a streaming platform and would just fade away.

"I checked the theatre near my town, and half the seats were empty. I asked a few people about the movie, and they didn't like it."

"My neighbour went to watch it, and he said he hated it. He didn't want to see another Seth Douglas movie in his life. Said something about now his face is too punchable."

"I got my parents to watch it. They found it very average too."

"To be honest, I also didn't like the movie."

Everyone chartered around in the lounge area of Aiden's office with sad depositions. All of them were obviously talking about [Disconnected].

It was their first movie after becoming Aiden's team, and the start was completely opposite of the album release. It was easy to say that everyone was left disappointed.

Especially Tom, who was waiting for the critics and the audience to hype Aiden as the best part of the movie. He wanted to read articles on how he overshadowed Seth Douglas with his performance.

But nothing like that had happened.

The best scene that Aiden shot didn't even make it in the movie, and Tom felt like it was the worst thing that the editing team behind [Disconnected] could do.

As they were talking, they suddenly heard footsteps, and Wade and Aiden emerged.

Their faces became uneasy seeing Aiden, who looked calm, but in their eyes, he looked too calm. Celebrities have different ways of handling their failures.

Some would act upset and angry with everyone, while others would go into depression. A lot of them would even take breaks to analyse where they went wrong or get a vacation.

All of them knew that because they had worked with celebrities before.

Compared to them, Aiden was odd.

He looked the same as before, but he also seemed to be in some sort of deep thought. Seeing them looking at him like this, Aiden couldn't help but ask.

"Why are you looking at me like this? You are acting like you just got my medical report, and I have cancer."

Wade chuckled at that.

"It's kind of like that. You could equate it to a flop."

"Nah, I'm not dying due to a flop. It's more like a fever."

Seeing Aiden and Wade engaged in silly conversations, the team relaxed a bit, and Jody opened his mouth.

"We thought you would be very upset by the movie flopping. Why are you two laughing like that?"

"I am upset," Aiden said, then smiled. "No actor likes seeing their movie flop. It's weird if I'm laughing due to my movie flopping."

"Then?"

"It's just that I kind of expected it after seeing the premiere. Moreover, it's not like I'm the reason the movie flopped."

Wade nodded at that and sat down. Normally, actors and directors would be at the forefront for the reason of the movie flopping, but in [Disconnected, Aiden only had around 20 minutes of screen time which wasn't a lot by any standard, especially because his character was a major.

"A lot of critics aren't even mentioning Aiden's name in their articles and reviews. They are treating his role as an extended cameo."

Wade said, and Aiden further explained.

"Yeah, SGAs strategy backfired heavily on them. They made it look like Seth Douglas is the one carrying the movie. It wasn't sold as a 'Jesse Ross's movie' or even 'Black Line Cinema's production'. It was sold as a 'Seth Douglas movie'."

"Yeah, so other actors never got any attention, and a lot of the audience doesn't even know who is in the movie until they watch it. Even now, after it failed, critics and media reporters are targeting Seth Douglas."

The flop would also not affect Aiden too much in terms of finding further work as he was playing a supporting actor, and the acting was good. Just the edited scenes made him look forgettable.

A lot of actors would have small roles in flop movies early on in their career, and as he has a good agent, his career would not halt here.

Though Aiden still didn't like that the movie flopped, it was not something he could avoid in a creative field like Hollywood.

It was all about hits and misses here.

"I'm pretty sure Seth won't get more movies. At least as the lead." Sasha commented, and Wade nodded.

"Yeah, that bastard would either go indie or would be satisfied with smaller roles. He needs a big break to make it as the lead again."

They talked like that as the atmosphere became more relaxed.

His team was happy to see that Aiden was still fine after a flop. It said a lot about his mental fortitude, which was absolutely necessary if he wanted to be a superstar.

As they talked, Aiden remembered something and said.

"By the way, I have something to show you all."

…

/DreamThree/

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[Disconnected] was a very special movie for Aiden. It was his next project after a very successful movie and the momentum was with him, especially with his growing popularity. He wanted to leave a mark this time and hopefully continue his streak of hit movies.

He was a little disappointed about losing out on the lead role but in the end, he couldn't do much.

Having good backing in this industry was normal and if he looked closely to it, it wasn't even Seth's fault. It was his agency who was pushing for him to get the lead role and any actor would want to play the lead of a movie.

That's why, instead of bearing a grudge against him, Aiden just wanted to give a great performance.

Something that made people think that he was the most memorable character in the movie and as the shooting had gone by, he was confident that his performance was getting better and better.

It was his way of saying that no matter what role, he could still leave an impact.

The scene in which Andrew found out that he was betrayed was his favourite and it had also been labelled as a 'Breakout scene' by his system.

Due to this, Aiden was very confident that the movie would do well but his expectations had been completely broken when he had seen the final edited version.

There were obviously hints that this was going to happen.

One of them was SGA promoting Seth Douglas so much like he was the only person in the movie. Seth's role was the biggest but there were other characters too that were equally important.

Just the movie was from his perspective.

The other hint was Jesse telling him that SGA had interfered with the editing a lot right before the premiere.

A bad feeling had engulfed his heart at that moment and the movie had turned out to be a choppy mess in the end.

While watching it, he had a feeling that it wouldn't work.

Many times a movie turns out to be way different than the script as there were a lot of factors involved like the budget, the feel and editing.

This was the same case.

The script of [Disconnected] was very well written but during the editing process, they had taken out every scene in which Seth wasn't looking good.

Aiden was obviously enraged to know what SGA had done by interfering. He had even asked Jesse and Wade if they could edit it better before the release but it was not possible.

They didn't have that much authority.

While Jesse had become too angry and started speaking against Black Line Cinema and SGA on the internet, Aiden had been thinking a lot about how he could turn the situation around.

Obviously, the cinematic release was something that no one could save but it was also true that the movie was much better than the version that had been shown on the big screens.

It was then that an idea had struck his head.

"What do you have to show?" Tom asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You will know it." Aiden said, taking out a pen drive from his pocket. "Connect it to the TV and play the movie that's in it."

"Okay."

Tom was confused as he held the pen drive in his hand. He walked up to the TV that was in front of the sofa and looked around to find the spot to connect it.

After connecting it, he picked up the remote and played the movie. Opening credits came soon and after two minutes, the title of the movie came.

Everyone blinked their eyes in surprise seeing that.

"Why are we watching [Disconnected]?"

George asked, his eyes glancing between the TV screen and Aiden who was just smiling.

"It's not the version that we all saw in the theatres."

"Then?"

"It's a director's cut. Jesse edited it himself before SGA came and destroyed it. He saved a copy for himself and I asked if I could borrow it to watch it."

Everyone finally understood what was going on.

Every movie would always have a director's cut as directors didn't like to edit out a lot of scenes from their movie. If they could, they would want to keep every scene.

Studios would mostly cut down the director's cut to an appropriate length before releasing the movie but the director's cut had become a special edition of a movie as cinema moved forward.

In the early 2000s, director's cut of famous movies would be released in the form of DVDs and fans who loved the movie would buy it, even if it meant paying a higher price.

Even in the current age, superhero movies would release versions of their movies with additional scenes that didn't make it to the actual release.

There was even a very interesting incident in which fans of a franchise protested online for months for the studio to release the director's cut of the movie. In the end, the studio relented and the director's cut became a big hit.

"Is it any different from the theatrical release? I heard that Jesse had a big fight with SGA and now they are in a conflict against each other."

Jody asked and Aiden nodded his head. The tabloids were having a field day due to that fight.

"Yeah, Jesse becomes a monster if someone ruins his work. He doesn't even care about anything else. As for your question, yeah, the cut is way better than the release. It has a lot of important scenes and the editing is smooth."

Aiden had seen it last night and was very surprised by it.

"It should be fun then."

Sasha commented and all of them watched the movie. The first 20 minutes of it were almost the same as the versions they had watched but it changed after that as new characters were introduced properly.

Unlike the theatrical release, Andrew had a proper introduction scene in the bar where he would impress Mark. Other characters were also explained a lot.

Their past, the motives and their actions were very clear as both Andrew and Mark struggled to build a company worth million dollars.

It was then that the scene in which Andrew would get the idea of snapbook would appear and he would urge Mark to think big. Not a million dollars but billions.

After that, the story would become very fast as lots of things would come up. New partnerships, accusations and the changing personalities of the characters.

It was very clear.

'It's like I'm watching a whole new movie.'

Tom thought and wasn't able to stop himself from wondering of a scenario in which this version was released in the theatres. It would have surely appealed to the people way more and would have emerged as a hit.

The opening of the movie was good anyway. It was only due to so many bad audience reviews that the movie had flopped hard.

This version was better in so many ways than that as it actually presented the arcs one by one. Every scene was connected to each other and the sequence was in an orderly manner.

Moreover the movie was giving time to get the characters to connect with the audience.

Like the scene in which Andrew broke up with his girlfriend.

It was missing from the theatrical release but due to the director's cut having it, it gave a whole new dimension to the character and portrayed how much he was willing to sacrifice.

Dustin's character Sebastian was also done justice this time. He was introduced alongside an 80s track that just made him look cooler. Playing the role of a cunning douchebag who gave people the hope of a rich life, Dustin nailed it.

He had a screen presence that was hard to miss and his way of talking and actions was surely something that had the ability to make people hate him.

As the movie was going on, Wade whispered to Aiden.

"You are not thinking of making Black Line Cinema release this version in the theatres right? They are never going to agree with it because of the loss they had. I'm pretty sure they hate [Disconnected] more than the audience at the moment."

"No, why will I do that?" Aiden asked, looking at him strangely.

"You suddenly pulled out the director's cut out of nowhere to show us. It's odd." He glanced at the others who were engrossed in the movie. "These people don't know you but I do. You have a knack of turning situations in your favour."

Wade thought about the time when Aiden had lost out on the role of Kai in [Black Saints] to Tyler Reed. He had given up hope but Aiden had solved the situation quickly and in a way that was too discrete.

The same had happened in the case of [30 days of Happiness].

In the end, one had become an iconic role for Aiden and the second had gotten him his first solo hit.

Wade couldn't take Aiden lightly.

"I pulled it out to see their reactions and confirm my thoughts about the director's cut." Aiden finally muttered.

"What thoughts?"

"That it's a masterpiece compared to that choppy version."

Wade nodded at that. This version was miles better and gave a much better story. Rather than focusing on one character entirely, it focused more on the creation of a billion dollar company and the price for power and greed.

"Even if it is, it won't reach the audience."

Wade frowned, shaking his head but Aiden didn't think like that.

"No, it would." He smiled. "You earlier mentioned that Zetflix was probably going to get the streaming rights."

"Yeah, they're getting it for pretty cheap but what are you thinking?"

"It's a bit hard to explain but just know that I have a good plan in mind."

He said with a firm expression.

…

/DreamNote/

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Just two weeks after the release of [Disconnected, the screens allocated to it were dropped to 300 from 1500. Theatre chains didn't want to show a flop movie that won't attract an audience.

Other movies were also released at the same time. There were no big franchise movies, but there were still movies like [The Lost Bird] which was an adventure movie that was inspired by 90s classics. It was an original movie with a good cast, so it attracted a good number of people.

There was also [Evangeline, which was a movie on the life of a robot in a fictional world and her story of bonding with a young man who had no one else in his life.

It was a very niche melodrama, but it was still way better than [Disconnected].

It was predicted that in just another week, [Disconnected] was going to be out of most theatres in America and even other parts of the world.

It was a very sad state for the producers.

That's why they were trying their best to recover the losses elsewhere. One of those was selling the streaming rights, and as both Black Line Cinema and SGA had good connections with Zetflix, they obviously went for it.

Rishi Suman, the executive producer, working on [Disconnected] and the person who had let SGA run rampant to curry favour with them, was the person tasked to get the best deal from Zetflix.

The studio needed to get as much money as possible.

"Our platform has decided that if we are going to reach a mutual agreement, then it should be established that Zetflix is going to buy out the movie for an amount. It would be less complicated for both of us like that."

A bald man said, looking at Rishi. He was currently in a meeting with one of the senior managers from the content creation department. Alongside him, there were some other people, including a lawyer.

Licensing the movie to a streaming platform had a lot of complications, and the platform and a studio would negotiate and renegotiate a lot of times.

One also needs to be careful of clauses like the expiry date of the license agreement. Some movies just moved platforms after a few years because of clauses like this, and there were a few more that decided the total price of a movie.

But for a movie like [Disconnected, Zetflix was sure that it was going to be an easy deal.

"We are fine with it."

Rishi said, smiling. That was what he wanted in the first place. He was clearly desperate.

The bald guy smiled seeing that. Rather than a pay-per-play agreement which was more complicated, straight-out buying made everything very easy.

"Let me be honest then. We are willing to pay 2 million dollars for the movie."

"That's a bit low."

Rishi's face scrunched up hearing that, but the bald man continued.

"You yourself know that the movie was a flop at the box office. There's not really a whole lot of excitement among people to watch it on a streaming platform either. No hype, so it wasn't going to get a lot of watch hours."

He was basically implying that they were buying the movie, not for the quality, nor did they have any confidence that the movie was going to do well on their platform.

Only reason they were buying it was because of their relationship with Black Line Cinema and to get a few more movies in their library.

For a streaming platform, having a good quantity of movies was necessary.

"You will get hype if you try to create it." Rishi countered back, but the bald man shook his head.

"People already know the movie is not good. The ratings are around 4-5 stars out of 10, and most critics didn't like it. How will we hype it? It's not like it's a straight-out fun, silly and entertaining movie either that you could watch when you are bored."

Both of them argued like that for a while, giving different arguments and trying to negotiate a deal that both parties could agree with.

But Rishi was having it hard, trying to increase the price of the movie.

'It's way easier to sell a successful movie as I could talk a lot about the points, but it's already a good thing that Zetflix is interested in buying out a flop movie. Just 2 million is too low of a price.'

That was the thought in his mind.

No matter what he said, his arguments were something that he himself didn't believe in. There were not a lot of good points to highlight about [Disconnected].

At the end, when Rishi was on the verge of just agreeing with the bald man, a woman from the Zetflix side whispered something in the ears of the bald man.

He nodded his head with a smile and looked at Rishi.

"Actually, we have an offer. We heard something very interesting, and we are very curious to know if it's true. There's a director's cut for [Disconnected, right?"

"Ah, yeah."

Rishi said, tilting his head. He was curious to know why they were asking about that.

"So, we are actually willing to give 5 million dollars if the deal includes the director's cut. We do want a screening of the cut before, but if everything goes well, we could pay up to 5 million dollars for it."

Hearing that, Rishi wondered if it was true.

'5 million dollars.'

That was an amount that he instantly agreed for.

As [Disconnected] flopped at the box office, the people who were the most disappointed were Aiden's fans. A lot of them had gotten very high expectations after [30 days of Happiness, and they were massively disappointed.

A lot of them had gone to watch the movie but realised that Aiden didn't even have much of a role.

A lot of them even bashed Black Line Cinema for the movie.

It was then that Aiden's next project [Sherlock of the Shadows] was announced on the official handle of Zetflix. There was no poster and not a lot of information was revealed.

But the post clearly mentioned Aiden.

Aiden Silvereye is Finn Wheeler in the supernatural detective series [Sherlock of the Shadows].

That was the title of the post, and they had also attached a photo of Aiden alongside the director Phineas Flinch.

Soon after the announcement, other notable websites and magazines also released articles on it with further information on the project.

One of these websites revealed in their article, "Apparently, [Sherlock of the Shadows] would follow the journey of a character who could see ghosts and juggle between the supernatural as well as being a detective."

That was enough information for people to be interested in the show. Aiden's fan group was also excited as this was some good news when they were feeling down with disappointment.

[Skyneves: [Sherlock of the Shadows] is such a cool title. I'm also glad that people are thinking of using superpowers in different ways. I'm tired of always being a superhero when one has superpowers. There could be a lot more that could be done with them. A mystery, conspiracy theory show or even a show along the lines of trying to be normal while having superpowers.]

[The Frog Queen: I feel like anime is much better in that regard. Anyway, I feel like this would hit the home run if the trailers look good. They are apparently shooting it with a lot of VFX.]

[Doing your mom: Finally! Aiden in a high-concept series. I'm pretty sure it would be better than the garbage that [Disconnected] was. At least we know that the focus would be on Aiden since he's the lead of the show.]

[Rich countries create problems because they are bored: Man, I don't know about it. My expectations are zero after [Disconnected]. I would only watch it if the reviews are good.]

[Twerking green monster: Time to get a Zetflix subscription. Although I really wish they stop making stupid shows and testing the IQ of the audience. Even erotica like [The Pleasure of Pain] is better than those.]

As they talked, suddenly, Hollywood Insider sent a message filled with very interesting info.

[Hollywood Insider: I just heard that Zetflix brought up the streaming rights for [Disconnected] for more than 5 million dollars. Something interesting is going to happen for sure. #Smirk]

[Why are feminist characters masculine: 5 million dollars for that? They overpaid a lot. Their business management surely doesn't understand the value of things.]

[Hollywood Insider: No, they are very smart. From what I heard, they are soon going to start a marketing strategy for [Disconnected]. I'm telling you something very special is going to happen in the next few days. #Know it all.]

No one in the fan group understood what Hollywood Insider was talking about.

Newer members ignored him as a guy speaking nonsense, but the older ones knew that his username was absolutely true.

He was someone who knew everything about Hollywood and had never given any false information. It was like he had information about every news in Hollywood, even if it wasn't released.

So, they took his words very seriously.

At the same time, people were curious.

Why was Zetflix going to do a marketing strategy for a flop movie? Did they have too much time and money? How were they going to make people interested in a flop?

Two days later, all these questions were answered as Aiden's plan started to be revealed.

…

/DreamNote/

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Zetflix soon revealed that [Disconnected] was coming on their platform by a social media post but it didn't get any reactions.

The movie was still running in the theatres and yesterday, it had only earned 56k dollars. It was going to be taken out as soon as possible and the North American box office had already announced it as a flop.

No one cared about it and even Black Line Cinema wanted to forget it. They were just glad that they were able to get a good deal out of Zetflix.

Now whatever they would do with the movie, it wasn't their problem.

It was then that one of the most famous critics in America and all over the world, Vito Morello made a tweet.

This particular tweet of his got a big response.

Vito was an old man in his 70s and was someone who had closely monitored the changing industry of Hollywood since the 60s.

He had co-authored a lot of books from famous celebrities and his voice was one of importance in the film fraternity.

The reason why his tweet got a heated response was because Vito wasn't known for reviewing or talking about every movie in this age. His health had become a major issue for him, so he had already semi-retired as a critic.

On top of that, his tweet was not about just any movie.

The post was about [Disconnected, the movie that had just flopped.

It was a long tweet but had some very interesting information.

Just yesterday, I watched a pretty good movie after a long time. [Disconnected] felt like a movie which would be remembered for a long time for the writing and tight screenplay that never drags. Every scene is just enough and even the scenes which are there to give the audience a better understanding of the characters are kept short. The direction and acting really shines and the idea of accidental billionaires and the price of greed really appeals to me a lot. The best scene is still kept for the climax and it just satisfied me because it was totally worth it.

When people read that tweet, they were surprised and confused.

Many of them even thought that it was a paid tweet. Critics being biased was not a surprising thing but it still baffled Vito's followers.

The old man was someone who had repeatedly talked about how he had never made friends in the industry to be unbiased. He believed in judging the art rather than the artist and he was well respected for that.

Someone like that doing a paid tweet was almost impossible.

Moreover, the tweet was not for a movie that was going to be released next week. It was about a movie that had already been released and flopped. Did that mean Vito actually liked the movie?

Was the audience too dumb to appreciate a good movie?

As people wondered about it, more and more critics started releasing their reviews on [Disconnected] and all of them were positive.

These also included critics who had bashed the movie before.

One of them was John Longbottom aka @Criticye who was very disappointed after watching [Disconnected]. He had only given it 3 stars out of 10 due to the massive disappointment he had felt.

But now, his latest review gave the movie a 8.5 out of 10.

[Disconnected] is probably one of the best movies to come out this year. It's no action movie and the drama is not the intense kind, barring a few scenes but the engaging screenplay and gripping narrative makes it one of the better to watch. Aiden Silvereye as Andrew Kingston was phenomenal, especially in the climax.

Seeing that review, a lot of people wondered if there was actually some sort of prank that the critics were doing.

@Criticye had just roasted the same movie three weeks ago and now he was praising it like he can't get enough of it. A lot of people in the comments asked whether he had accidentally written [Disconnected] in the title and was reviewing some other movie.

By the review, it actually felt like he was talking about another movie in itself.

One by one, famous magazines like Vanity, Hollywood Weekly, The Weekend Tribunal and The Box started releasing good reviews about [Disconnected]. Even the harshest of critics gave a good rating to it.

All of this made people very confused.

They didn't know what was going on.

It was then that Zetflix made another post about [Disconnected] and revealed that on 29th May, the director's cut of the movie was going to be on the streaming platform.

They also revealed that earlier, a test screening was held for different critics for the director's cut and posted a few positive reviews alongside the poster.

Only after that people realised what was going on.

All the reviews were of the director's cut and not for the version that had been released in the theatre. At the same time, people became curious.

The reviews of the theatrical version and the director's cut were too different. It was really like they were very different movies.

For a while, people thought that Zetflix was just trying to create a perception that the director's cut was a far superior version by getting the critics to give out positive reviews.

But a famous Sparrow user by the name of 'Dunphy Dad' posted a tweet about it, giving out his opinion on the matter.

He tweeted, "I don't think Zetflix is trying to create a wrong perception. Hear me out, they are a billion dollar platform and spend more than 500 million dollars on new shows every year as well they produce new shows and movies every month. Why will they pay off so many reputed critics for a movie that flopped hard? It just doesn't make sense. Anyway, I feel like the director's cut is surely going to be different than the version released in the theatres."

Agreeing with 'Dunphy Dad' tweet, a MeTuber by the name of 'Cinema Guy' that makes content on the production side of the filmmaking also tweeted about the same topic.

He wrote, "If people don't know, post production is one of the most important aspects of filmmaking. It could literally change a comedy movie to a horror one by the use of colour palette and background music. A director's cut is the version of the movie that the director imagined in his head. Studios normally edit it further to suit themselves but a lot of times, a director's cut could be way better. I think that's the case with [Disconnected]. Jesse Ross made a tweet about it too. Things probably weren't well between Black Line Cinema and him."

A lot of people agreed with his tweet. Jesse Ross did speak out about it and although it didn't straight up take names, everyone could guess who he was talking about.

Going by the way the movie had performed at the box office, he wasn't wrong either.

But the question was whether the director's cut was actually that good.

The reviews were positive but the audience was bound to be skeptical. The good thing was that they weren't releasing it in the theatres again.

A streaming platform was very accessible and one could just watch the movie in their home at any time. Moreover, if it was really the same as the theatrical version with a few tweaks, they could just stop it at any moment.

Due to that, a lot of people suddenly got interested in a flop movie.

Days went by and [Disconnected] was totally out of theatres around the world. Anyway, the focus had shifted to the director's cut that was going to be released on Zetflix.

To promote it, Zetflix asked the cast members and the director to do interviews for their MeTube channel and talk about their experiences while filming the movie. The cast was fine with it as one by one, all of them watched the director's cut.

It has restored their faith in the movie and they wanted it to at least gain an audience on Zetflix.

Out of all of them, only Seth Douglas refused to take part in the interview and promotional content, citing reasons that he didn't want anything to do with the movie.

Jesse was actually very happy about it as he blamed Seth a lot too for the failure at the box office. If not for him wanting to get the most attention in the movie, SGA wouldn't have been so tyrannical.

At the same time, Aiden was also thinking of a few things.

The months of April and May had become a big change in his life as he lost out on the Oscars and his movie flopped.

Reasons could be a lot but blaming them was just the easiest route. He felt like if he just dismissed them as things out of his control, then the same things would happen again and again.

Due to that, he became a bit more serious and calculative about his career.

If he had more power and was a bigger star, then SGA wouldn't have cut down so many of his scenes and he would actually have the power to give his opinion on the movie rather than just being a paid actor that could be replaced at any moment.

At the same time, he decided that he needed to be more careful while selecting projects.

In the industry, there was no saying which project was going to be successful but Aiden was different. He had skills that were almost like superpowers.

He knew which was a good script and which wasn't.

There were a lot more components to a successful movie but a good script was basic.

That's why he needed to rely on it more and try to only work with people that won't sabotage a project for their own interest.

These types of thoughts flowed regularly in Aiden's mind.

The flop had clearly affected him.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote this novel with your power stones and golden tickets

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On 29th May, Zetflix released the director's cut for [Disconnected] on their platform. Their content team had already verified the quality of the movie and they were very confident that the movie was going to do well.

Moreover, the marketing strategy for it had been quite good till now.

Having the critics that disliked the movie before watching it again and reviewing it was something that had worked well. The contrasting opinions of theirs had made the audience curious.

Was this actually a good movie?

Can the director's cut really have such a big impact?

Can they rectify the inconsistent pace of the story?

These were the questions that had made their way into people's minds. Most of them still thought that this was not a good movie and it was just a marketing campaign without anything to back itself up.

But they weren't sure about their thoughts.

A 'What if' was always in their mind.

In that case, the only way to know about it was to watch the movie. Anyway, it was on Zetflix.

Those who already have the subscription didn't have to pay for anything and could just watch it in the comfort of their homes. There was still a mixed response to the director's cut with some of them completely not interested in it and others wanting to watch it to know if it would actually be any good.

The latter applied to the woman who had actually gone to watch the movie in the theatre but had been left disappointed and in an angry fit, she had written a bad review for the movie.

'Should I watch it again?'

Currently, she was in a dilemma wondering if she should watch the movie again or not.

She still remembered how bad a day it was when she had gone to watch [Disconnected] in the movie theater. She had felt like kicking the director for giving her a bad time.

When she heard the news that a director's cut was coming to Zetflix and the early reviews said that it was a way better movie, she felt interested.

Her anger towards the movie had died down as time went on and the only reason she was even thinking about it was because she had nothing else to watch on her Zetflix account.

She also wanted to see if the movie is actually good in the director's cut. If it was, then at least she would feel much better.

'Whatever. I could watch the first thirty minutes and if it's the same, then I would just close it.'

Thinking that, she played the movie and the opening sequence came up.

'The colour palette is a bit lighter and the first scene is also a bit longer.'

She thought, quickly noticing some details.

She still remembered a lot of details of [Disconnected] that she watched in the theatre. She had a habit of observing things and remembering them for a long time since childhood, so she was easily able to compare both the versions.

Just twenty minutes into the movie and her verdict was clear.

'It's really like a different movie. The plot still follows the same storyline but the details and scenes are a lot more. All the unnecessary things are edited out that made the theatrical version boring.'

She thought as the movie went on.

The woman particularly loved the scene in which Mark first met Andrew as it clearly showed the differences between the two of them and Mark's personality of only being friends with someone if he sees something special in them.

She really wondered why such a scene didn't make up to the theatrical version.

In the end, after watching the whole movie, she logged in to the website 'Do you like the movie?' with a smile and left a positive review.

This movie is very good. Not the version they released in the theatre but the one on Zetflix. I want to apologise to the director for cursing on him after watching the movie before. His cut is the best and makes up for a great viewing experience. Loved the climax scene. Andrew completely owned everyone. I don't know that actor but he's fab.

After writing the review, she felt a bit satisfied.

Just like her, other people were also watching the movie and those who completed it quickly gave a positive review. Most of these were people who have cursed the movie before online.

Now all of them were saying the opposite things.

Just three days after the Zetflix release for [Disconnected, an unexpected data came out that shocked everyone. When the management team saw it, their eyes were all wide and the thing that they had never expected have came true.

[Disconnected] was trending at number 6 in Top 10 movies to watch list. Not only that, it was trending on over 34 countries in the Top 10 list.

These numbers were truly shocking.

For context, just last month, Zetflix had brought up a blockbuster gangster drama for 130 million dollars and it had only managed to reach Top 3 in America and has trended in 52 countries in Top 10 in the world.

Compared to that, [Disconnected] was bought for just 5 million dollars and was already in 6th position in just three days. Like that, it was almost confirmed that the movie would be higher at the end of the week.

At the same time, the reviews from the audience were extremely positive.

All of them were comparing it to the theatrical version and saying that the movie was totally different and worth a watch. One of the reasons behind such a reception was also because most of these people have very low expectations after watching the theatrical version.

But that reason only applied to people who watched it in theatres.

A lot of people just found it on Zetflix and wondered why it wasn't successful at the box office.

When the old Executive director of the content department got to know about it, he quickly ordered, "Get [Disconnected] a banner on the front page and try to promote it more on social media accounts. Also, try to make up more hype for it. We need to make sure that it reaches more people. This time, we have surely hit the jackpot."

The marketing team quickly got to work after that and promoted the movie further. Jesse Ross who was finally feeling at peace after seeing such a great reaction to his movie himself helped in the marketing by giving out as many interviews as he could.

In those interviews, he didn't hold back against SGA and Black Line Cinema and spoke about how they pushed up their own version despite him not agreeing with it.

As results were very clear to everyone, the audience sided with Jesse.

A lot of insiders from Hollywood wondered if Jesse had decided to retire as no one in their sane mind would go against SGA like that until they want to endanger their careers.

But they didn't know what kind of a person Jesse was.

He had already decided to open his own personal film studio to produce his movies. If SGA actually came after him, then he had plans to just focus on independent, low budget, festival movies.

It's not like they were going to personally stop him from making movies.

All this just gave fire to a controversy that helped [Disconnected]. More and more people got to know about it as the days went on.

Just on the fifth day of its release, [Disconnected] was already in the 5th position and was getting a crazy amount of watch hours which meant a lot of profit for Zetflix.

At the end of the first week, it was in the 3rd position and people have started to wonder whether it would top the list.

On a Hollywood gossip sub, few people were talking about the movie and how it was faring at Zetflix. With a totally unprecedented amount of watch hours, it was the first time that a flop movie was doing so well on Zetflix or any other streaming platform.

A lot of people were even calling it the second coming of [Disconnected].

At the same time, a lot of people online were hating on Black Line Cinema and SGA. All of it was giving a lot of topics for the gossip sub to discuss about.

[Boycott Living: SGA and Black Line Cinema are in serious trouble. They are denying the allegations but everyone could see that the version they put out was shit compared to the director's cut. They messed up and won't accept it.]

[Cats have OCD: Yeah and Jesse Ross got support from some directors. A lot of them just don't like their movies being tampered by the studios. Even famous directors face this issue but SGA clearly ruined a great movie. I would have regretted missing out on it.]

[What movie you want next: I think it's good that happened. [Disconnected] got a large audience on Zetflix and I don't think it would have earned more than 200 million dollars at the box office. It's a good movie but not a high concept one.]

[Dirt in your eye: I think it's Zetflix who got lucky here. They got the movie cheap and now it's a big hit. I heard that they are giving out bonuses for hitting a jackpot. Their subscribers are happy and Black Line Cinema are probably crying themselves to sleep.]

[Jack died because Rose was over 25: Hey guys! Check this! One of the clips from [Disconnected] just got viral.]

…

/DreamNote/ (5 September)

I have an exam tomorrow, the second chapter is only half done. I might finish and upload it in morning if I get a chance, or it will be uploaded tomorrow evening when I return home.

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Normally, people would crop out scenes from movies and just post them on MeTube for some views. Sometimes, some people would even try to post entire movies on it, but in the end, they would get copyrighted.

Studios or large companies would send a strike, and it would be taken off soon.

Like that, a random user carefully cropped the scene that he loved the most in [Disconnected]. It was the scene in which Aiden learnt about Mark's betrayal and confronted him.

Just the sheer satisfaction one would get after watching the scene was a lot, and as soon as it was uploaded on MeTube, it got viral.

It was a time when a lot of people were still wondering whether they should watch the movie or not, and this clip gave them the reason to check out the movie for themselves.

A lot of users on Skygram and Sparrow also uploaded the clip, helping it to reach more and more people.

Various videos of it emerged and due to that, even sending a copyright strike was hard. In the end, Zetflix itself released the whole scene on their MeTube channel, trying to cash in to get the movie more popular.

It got over 1 million views in just a few days, and a lot of people connected to it.

[Intelligent Zombie: Wow! That clip is sick. I love the whole scene. I wasn't going to watch this movie, but I feel like I should now. It looks very interesting.]

[Morgan Lockman: I watched it last night. Aiden killed it with his performance. I really liked his character. He was the only guy who was likeable, and I would be surprised if he didn't get a few awards for it.]

[Tom Cruiser: Always loved Aiden as an actor more. His music is too bright for my tastes, so I hope he focuses more on his acting. His eyes are too expressive. Want him to act in more grey or villain roles, to be honest. Maybe even try a few action movies. Doing your stuns is the greatest kick you will ever get. I'm talking from experience.]

[Mia Lover: The scene gave me chills even if I don't know what is going on here. The last part was great, and that little smirk at the end. Definitely watching the movie.]

[My little sister: I honestly don't know what type of weed SGA and Black Line Cinema were on when they decided not to include the greatest scene in the movie in the theatrical release. They surely don't know what will sell, or they were very high and were thinking that they were making a masterpiece.]

Like that, more and more commented under the video, and the watch hours on Zetflix just kept increasing.

A week after the release of [Disconnected] on Zetflix, a big thing happened.

It reached the top spot in Top 10 movies in America while trending in over 50 countries on Zetflix. As soon as it happened, articles soon came up.

[Disconnected, the movie rejected in theatres, finds a newfound audience on Zetflix and becomes the top movie on it. The whole saga shades serious light on what is going wrong in Hollywood.

Director Jesse Ross is happy with the love his movie is receiving on Zetflix. He decided not to go after Black Line Cinema and SGA anymore because his movie eventually got accepted by the audience and announced a new project which would be completely independent.

Black Line Cinema lost out on what could have been one of the summer blockbusters of the year due to their negligence and arrogance. [Disconnected] is a movie that is surely going to be studied in the future — Both for its content and the drama surrounding it.

"So, how's it?"

Aiden asked, looking up at Ava, who was sitting in front of him. His eyes stayed at the earphones that she was wearing for a second longer.

He was sipping on a coffee that he didn't really like, but Ava had brought it for him, so it was rude to complain.

Currently, Ava had her eyes closed, and her expression was serene, devoid of any emotions or excitement.

After a second, she opened her eyes and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and replied.

"It's pretty good. Way better than I expected it to be. It's almost like a ghost is screaming in my ear, but it's not unnecessarily loud and feels like something that would just give people chills."

She said with a smile, and Aiden's expression finally brightened.

"I tried to give that impression. It seems like it worked well."

"It worked great. How did you even come up with it?"

"Well, I just did when I was going through the script of [Sherlock of the Shadows]."

Aiden blatantly lied. He had no way to explain that he had made a track because of getting inspiration from seeing actual ghosts. In a way, it was his way of trying to face the ghosts that he was having nightmares about by letting that experience be developed as a track.

He was just glad that Ava had liked it.

Both of them were currently sitting in a cafe outside Zetflix's office. Aiden was here because today was the day of the script reading session of [Sherlock of the Shadows].

The whole cast was going to be here and he was going to meet them for the first time.

When Aiden was hanging outside Zetflix's office, he had seen Ava and she had asked him for coffee. During their talk, he had mentioned the track he had made recently due to [Sherlock of the Shadows, and she had asked to hear it.

For the record, the track was simply named 'Ghosts Vol 1'.

"Even if you say that this work is very impressive," Ava said, looking up at Aiden with interest evident in her eyes. "I feel like you have a lot of things that you don't show to people. Just some weeks ago, you changed the fate of a flop movie."

Hearing that, Aiden just smiled, "I just use the chips in my hand."

"So, I'm just one of the chips in your hand?"

"I only know you who had connections in Zetflix. I didn't have anyone else's number."

Aiden shrugged, thinking of the whole ordeal. After he had watched the director's cut of [Disconnected] and heard about Zetflix buying up the rights, a plan had formed in his head.

He had immediately dialled Ava, whose number he had gotten at the Oscars after-party and told her about the director's cut and what had gone wrong with the movie and how he had a good plan to make the movie a hit on Zetflix.

She was the only person who could influence Zetflix that he knew of. Being a director of Titan studios meant that she had a lot of powers, especially with her working on a project with them.

Ava had listened to Aiden and had told him to send her the director's cut.

After watching it, she realised the potential the movie contained.

She had immediately told the executive in Zetflix who was handling the deal about it and told them to get the director's cut at all costs. It was smooth sailing after that as Ava applied the marketing tactics that Aiden had suggested to her.

The idea of using critics who had bashed the movie before to create curiosity was given by him. It was very quick after that as a lot of people checked it, and as the content was good, it spread like fire.

A lot of people were shocked that a movie could have such a difference based on editing alone.

Due to that, it was now the number one movie on the platform, and praises were still coming in.

"Anyway, I wanted to say thanks for that. You did a huge favour on me."

Aiden said with a smile.

Ava could have simply rejected him based on the fact that [Disconnected] was a big flop. It was not like they knew each other a lot either.

Still, she had helped him out.

"Don't worry about that. I don't think it's a favour at all." She said, "Zetflix was struggling with subscribers and no popular stuff for a while and [Disconnected] helped a lot. We also got it for such a low price. I'm pretty sure Black Line Cinema is cursing their luck at the moment."

"They deserve it." Aiden laughed, and Ava nodded.

"They do. Anyway, the point is it's me who should be thankful to you. I've been in this industry for a while now, but I have not seen something like this."

Ava looked very impressed with Aiden and after thinking for a bit, she said.

"Call me if you are in trouble next time. You don't have an agency or a big backing, so you will come across tough situations no matter what."

"Are you going to back me in the industry?"

Aiden raised an eyebrow. Though his tone was like he was asking it in a joking manner.

"I will until we are working together," Ava said seriously. Then, a smile appeared on her face as she added. "Don't worry, I'm not like Franco Li."

He ignored the hidden meaning of that sentence and nodded. Having some connections in the industry was always a good thing.

Suddenly, Ava looked at Aiden's phone, which was on the table. The audio recording of the track he had shown her was displayed on it.

"By the way, I think you should show that soundtrack to Phineas. We still have not decided on a good soundtrack, so if Phineas liked it, I would make sure it's selected as the background track for the show."

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote for this novel with your power stones and golden tickets

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Aiden and Ava talked a bit more before he realised that it was going to be the time for the script reading session. As he was a pretty new actor in the Industry, it was just respectful for him to arrive early.

Before leaving, Ava said something to him that made him anxious.

'Try to be careful around the set. [Sherlock of the Shadows] has a pretty diverse cast, and not everyone would like you. You are very young in the industry, and even though you have impactful roles, they are going to be skeptical of you as the lead.'

To that, he replied.

'I feel like I need to prove myself every single time.'

'Yeah, that's how it is in the industry. You prove yourself more and more with every single project. People doubt you and think you could only do a certain type of role. So, you prove that you have a better range. You do it until you have nothing left to prove, and everyone knows how good you are.'

Thinking of that conversation in his mind, Aiden made his steps towards the room where a lot of people had already gathered.

Tom was also accompanying him to the reading session as part of his staff.

When he entered the room, a few people's eyes landed on him.

Just five minutes before Aiden arrived, a group of actors was talking about the series and what were their aspirations and thoughts about it. At the same time, gossip about the current trending topics was also being discussed from time to time.

It was then that one of the actors said.

"[Disconnected] is getting pretty rave reviews. I really wonder how the cast is feeling currently. They must have been depressed when the movie flopped, and now everyone loves it. A lot of people are calling it a strange phenomenon."

He was an actor in his late 30s and was going to play the role of a teacher.

"You could ask the main guy in it about the movie when he comes." Another actor replied, and a girl next to him made a confused expression.

"Who are you talking about? Seth Douglas isn't a cast member, right?"

"Not him but Aiden. Seth is the main character, and no one liked the movie when he was the focus. Now everyone loves it when the focus is less on him and more on the other characters. Aiden benefitted the most despite the movie being a flop."

The girl nodded when she heard that. She was a social media influencer who had blown up for her short-form dance videos on Skygram and had moved to LA to try out for her modelling and acting career.

"Yeah, Aiden is doing pretty well. There's a reason why he got the lead role."

"Yeah, I feel a bit jealous because I auditioned for it too, but he's the hot topic currently."

"Actually, his audition was so good that Phineas decided on him on the spot. I don't think it's just because he's a hot topic."

"Yeah, being bitter won't do anything now. You will get better chances in the future."

As the actors discussed things about Aiden, the actor who had started this discussion about [Disconnected] opened his mouth.

"Even if he's good, Jeremy Hill is still going to nitpick something and give him a hard time. I'm feeling bad for him because of that."

Everyone nodded at that like they had seen it themselves in the past. Only the girl who was a social media influencer seemed confused.

"Why will he give Aiden a hard time? Both of them don't like each other?"

As she was very new in Hollywood and didn't know a lot about the personalities of actors, she was unaware of it.

"They have never met each other before I think." One of the actors said, and the girl got more confused.

"Then?"

"It's just that Jeremy Hill has a habit of nitpicking young actors and giving them a hard time on the set. He won't completely start bullying them, but he would sometimes act rudely and is a very tough person to get along with."

Another actor also added.

"Yeah, he has issues, and he doesn't like the new age actors because he thinks they don't particularly care about the art involved in the profession and just want to earn money. Think of him as an old, strict traditionalist that doesn't like the young generation."

Jeremy Hill was an old actor who had played a diverse range of roles since the 80s. He was a staple villain back then, but as he got older, he played a lot of different roles.

Because of his experience and seniority, he expected people to respect him, and at the same time, he had considerable influence in the industry too.

"Ah, he came!"

Suddenly, all the talk halted as someone walked in. He was wearing a brown coat over his shoulders and his face was filled with wrinkles. There was a cold air about him, but when he approached the group of actors, his face changed into a smile.

He was Jeremy Hill.

"It seems like I'm a little late. My car was stuck in the traffic, but it seems like we have not started reading yet."

"Yeah, there's still ten minutes left. We are going to start once the other actors come. Director Phineas is still out talking to a few crew members. Apparently, they want to shoot the reading session for the behind-the-scenes montage."

Hearing that, Jeremy tilted his head.

"Who else among the actors isn't here?"

"Aiden Silvereye. He's still not here."

Jeremy made a meaningful expression hearing that and didn't say anything, but other actors knew that he didn't appreciate the lead being late for the reading session.

It was then that the door to the room opened, and Aiden walked in. Everyone's eyes gathered on him as the actors wondered what was going to happen now.

Watching the scene in front of him, Tom remembered one of the episodes from his favourite reality TV show — [Famous for being Famous].

In one of the scenes, the main female character would get cast in a TV series and on the first day of the shoot, she would be stared down by a more experienced actress, and a verbal spat would go on.

In the end, there would be an entire arc over the power struggle between both of them. It was silly but very fun to watch for Tom.

Now, he was experiencing it in front of him as Jeremy Hill stared down at Aiden. The atmosphere was exactly like a reality TV show, and if there were popcorn, Tom would already be munching on them.

"Hello, I'm a big fan of yours. I have watched [Mafioso] a lot of times."

Aiden said, pushing his hand towards Jeremy and talking about his most acclaimed performance in a gangster movie [Mafioso]. Jeremy had played the role of a villain in it.

"It's nice to meet you too."

Jeremy said, shaking his hands and for a second, everyone felt that the atmosphere had cooled down and the old actor won't try anything and let Aiden off the hook.

But in the next second, he again opened his lips with a condescending tone.

"You are the lead of the series and a relatively young actor. Don't you think you should have arrived a bit earlier? You are the last of the actors to arrive."

The atmosphere froze for a bit as people wondered what type of response Aiden would give. Rather than making a counter, it was best to just accept the mistake.

If he did that, then Jeremy won't be able to drag it more or else he would be seen in a bad light.

But Aiden handled it calmly.

"I was trying to come early."

"Then?"

"I just met someone and got engaged in a talk. That's why I was a little late."

Jeremy clicked his tongue at that and frowned.

"Who did you meet that you were late for the script reading? As a young actor, don't you think you should give extreme priority to the show—"

"It was Director Ava Adler I was talking with. She's one of the producers on the show from Titan studios."

Aiden suddenly cut off Jeremy and said. For a moment, the old man's expression scrunched, but he soon calmed himself down.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, we were talking about the show."

Jeremy wasn't able to say anything else and simply left Aiden alone while other actors looked at him with wonder.

'It looks like I should pretend that I'm pretty close to Ava to not get any trouble on me. Anyway, she told me that she was going to back me until we are working together.'

He thought in his mind secretly.

No one was going to be rude to him if they knew that one of the producers was backing him. In a way, it was protection.

Aiden wondered if that's how people from big agencies felt. As they had a lot of backing, they could do anything and would get away from it. Obviously, Aiden wasn't going to act like Seth Douglas or Tyler Reed.

He was just glad that he could get away from power struggles that didn't suit adults.

Though, he knew that Jeremy was still going to be a problem.

'Wade warned me about it, but I do know how to shut him up.'

He thought, glancing at Jeremy Hill.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote for this novel with your power stones and golden tickets

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A man in a hoodie was walking in a hallway with a tensed expression on his face. He was constantly frowning like there was something that was irking him.

Suddenly, his steps stopped as he heard the conversation between two people.

"Did you see the rating of [Disconnected]? It reached 7.7 after the release on Zetflix. It was not even 5 when it was in theaters."

"They are two different versions. The executives are actually fuming because they lost out on so much money. The movie could have earned hundreds of millions and they only earned 5 million dollars from the Zetflix deal and are still in a loss when the movie is a raging hit online."

"I think it's just karma."

"Huh?"

"Apparently, Seth Douglas was the one who wanted more scenes for himself to stand out. He wanted the story to revolve around him when his character should revolve around the story. It's a classic case of ruining things because of wanting attention."

The two people seemed unaware of the man's presence.

The man listened to the conversation for a minute and clicked his tongue. If it was before, he would have gone there and insulted the two people but it was not the right time.

There were more important things to attend to.

'It's currently my bad phase. Just endure it.'

The man was Seth who had come to the SGA office to talk with Franco Li. These days, he wasn't leaving his house and was just cooped up there.

Franco had asked him to meet him and Seth was sure that it would be a discussion about the superhero movie that he had earlier talked about.

If he was being honest, he would have been stressed if it was before as [Disconnected] had failed massively but due to the movie becoming a big hit on Zetflix, he was relieved.

Seth made his way up to the elevator and talked to Franco's assistant about the appointment. For some reason, the assistant was looking at Seth with sympathetic eyes but he ignored it.

"Franco."

Entering his office, Seth said and Franco looked at him with his fox-like eyes and gestured to Seth to sit down.

"[Disconnected] is a huge hit on Zetflix with great reviews, both by critics and fans. It's even getting International recognition."

Franco started the conversation with that and Seth smiled.

"Yeah. I was scared that the movie would fail but it did find an audience on the streaming platform. I'm very glad it worked this well."

"I'm not glad."

"What?"

Seth made a confused expression and Franco Li's eyes became cold. A heavy atmosphere set in suddenly as a bad feeling engulfed Seth's heart.

"Yes, the movie is an international hit due to Zetflix's reach but we didn't get any profits. The rights were sold to them for only 5 million dollars. We are still dealing with the heavy losses of marketing right now and at the same time, SGA's credibility has been questioned due to a director who can't keep his mouth shut. Tell me, do you think I should be glad that the movie succeeded?"

"No, I mean I didn't know that we didn't benefit from the deal with Zetflix."

Seth tried hard to make up words in his mind, knowing full well that Franco was really angry. His face was cold and he was gazing at him like he was an ant that Franco was ready to crush.

"You don't know anything, Seth."

Franco frowned. The movie becoming a hit on Zetflix was just salt on his wounds and he had no one but Seth to blame for it.

Giving Seth a glare, Franco continued.

"All this happened only because of you."

"Me?"

"Your ego. We wouldn't have gone with such atrocious editing if you had not begged me to not let others steal the spotlight. If not for that, the movie would have worked at the box office."

Seth immediately fired back at that.

"You were the one who approved of it."

"Yeah, I know that and that was my fault but it was only because I thought you have the talent to be an A-lister in Hollywood but you can't even handle the burden of a movie on your shoulders. That's why, I have decided something."

"What?"

Seth asked and flashing a grin, Franco took out a few papers that looked like resumes. Seth looked at them, completely baffled.

After looking at them for a few seconds, he realised that they were resumes of actors.

"These are the actors that I have chosen. One of these is going to replace you as one of my actors. You see, I have no use for you anymore and I don't want to test my patience more, thinking that you are going to achieve something worthwhile."

"Yo-you can't do anything like that to me."

Seth stuttered, looking up at Franco, hoping that he was just joking.

"I'm doing it. The contract is over at this moment. You will be given a fee as I can't wait for the contract to get over with time."

Franco leaned over at the table, enjoying the expression of Seth at the moment. It was like he had lost his world.

"I did everything for you. Every single fucking thing you asked me! Whether I liked it or not! You forced me!"

Seth said, his expression changing to anger. He had given far more than he had wanted to get under Franco but in the end, he was thrown away in a moment.

"I didn't force you. You can't prove that."

"I could. I have the text messages that you—"

"Do it and the next day, your career will be over. Not only that, SGA would reveal every single thing about you. You may not be a creep but you have done some dark things and we know how to escalate it in a way that your entire existence is over."

With those words, the conversation was over.

The next day, Seth Douglas was out of SGA and it became the talking point for a day but a lot of people have already guessed that it was coming.

His career was going to be a rocky ride after today and one could only say that in the game of life, Seth played his cards wrong.

As for Franco Li, he was unaware that the whole plan to make the movie a hit on Zetflix was of Aiden. Even if he knew, he wouldn't have been able to do anything about it other than just being bitter about it.

But in the future, it was inevitable that Franco and Aiden would clash again.

Despite Jeremy Hill trying to belittle Aiden from time to time, the script reading session was fairly successful. In a script reading session, one only had to read out their lines and it was more of a bonding activity to get used to the cast.

Aiden introduced himself to the other cast members and tried to be accommodating to them.

As a celebrity, one thing that he had learned was that he needed to make others feel special rather than thinking that he's special. If he could do it, then they would have a good impression of him regardless of what happens.

It was a quality he had learned from a celebrity in his home country.

It also worked as he made a good relationship with the other cast members. Though he didn't know if it was just because he was the lead of the series.

At the same time, he also showed the track to Phineas like Ava had said and he had liked it a lot more than he had imagined.

Actually, when Aiden had made the track, he wasn't aiming for anything as it was a way for him to let out the inspiration but Phineas loved it so much that he immediately decided to use it for the show.

He even asked Aiden to do the whole background of the series as in his words, "The track has a special quirkiness and creepiness to it. Perfect for the theme of the show. I feel like it could be iconic."

Like that, Aiden had been finalised to give music to the series.

It was easy as Ava and Phineas were the two most authoritative people on the show and both of them liked the track.

He also got a fat paycheck for the show as he was getting 200k dollars per episode which meant that he would get 1.2 million dollars for 6 episodes and an additional 300k for the music.

It was a good enough amount for Aiden who had already started practicing for his character in the series. Before this, he only needed to get into the mentality of the character but in [Sherlock of the Shadows, there was a lot of action too.

Finn Wheeler was a character that had a lot of hidden abilities because his father had trained him since childhood as he himself was a boxer who succumbed to his injuries after a fight.

Because of that, Finn was physically fit alongside having a sharp brain and magical powers. Obviously, it was not like he was a Mary Sue character.

He has his own struggles and his powers would just worsen it for sometime before he would get control over them.

Because of that, Aiden was already exercising and learning boxing since getting the role. Actually, he wanted to train for a few months to actually look like a boxer but the schedule for [Sherlock of the Shadows] was tight.

So, he was only able to learn some basics in a month.

Thankfully, Phineas felt like it would be enough.

…

/DreamNote/

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"Can't you hit with more strength? Are you a sissy? If you are not, prove it by hitting me."

A tough looking guy said as he provoked Aiden. His body was on guard as he was prepared to dodge everything coming his way.

From time to time, he was provoking Aiden by calling him 'sissy', 'weakling' and 'slowpoke' but Aiden's face was still calmed, devoid of any emotion as he looked to find a weak spot in the tough guy's stance.

'Don't get provoked by whatever Ezra is saying. Remember that you just need to hit one punch and the training session will be over.'

Aiden thought in his mind as he looked at the guy named Ezra. He was a boxing trainer in his late 30s who had worked with celebrities before too in giving them some boxing training for the role.

He has been training with him for a month now and although they were just keeping it as light and basic training, Aiden felt like he had improved a lot.

"What? You are not going to attack now?"

Ezra said, grinning as he stared at Aiden like he was looking down on him but Aiden still didn't move and just stayed still in his stance.

His trainer had told him that he wasn't going to attack him no matter what, so he didn't have to worry about anything and could just take his time.

Although he was a newbie, Aiden had a ton of patience to spend.

'Why is this guy not doing anything? Is he playing a trick?'

Ezra thought in his mind, becoming a bit irritated but Aiden didn't move. It looked like he was waiting for Ezra to make a mistake but how could he do that when he had no intention to attack him.

Finally, he lost his patience and again opened his mouth.

"Hey, why are you—"

It was at that moment Aiden moved. Putting his foot forward, he aimed for Ezra's shoulder but he quickly tried to defend the attack.

But he forgot that the area around his ribs was unguarded. Aiden attacked it with his left hand and he managed to land a strike.

Though, the punch was very weak, so Ezra didn't feel a lot of pain but Aiden still won the practice session.

"I guess it's over now."

Aiden said, taking a sigh of relief. It was only the second time in two months that he had managed to land a punch on Ezra.

The first time was more of a lucky day for him.

"Yeah, it is." Ezra said, then muttered to himself. "Fuck! I lost to a rookie again."

"It's not even a real match."

Aiden said but Ezra shook his head.

"It doesn't matter." He took off his gloves. "You are a new student and I've been doing this for 25 years. I should have defended that but you have too much patience for someone in this sport."

"I'm just following your rule — Patience is the first key to boxing."

He took off his gloves too and revealed boxing wraps on his hand. Ezra glanced at them for a second and replied.

"Yeah but not like everyone, especially rookies follow it. Other celebs just want to prove that they are great in front of me and embarrass themselves."

Saying that, he changed the topic and asked.

"Are you really planning on wearing boxing wraps on your hands till the end of the shooting?"

This was something that Aiden had told him.

"Ah, yeah. The character I'm playing has the habit of always wrapping his hands with boxing wraps as an indication of his father. It developed into a habit and I'm doing it to feel a bit closer to them."

"Yeah, you actors do go to insane levels for the job. I know someone who actually became a druggist to portray a drug dealer. I really hope no one starts molesting people because he's playing the role of a sex offender."

Aiden just smiled hearing that joke and opened up the system notifications in front of him.

[Your affinity with the character 'Finn Wheeler' has grown.]

[You have gotten experience.]

[You are close to breaking into Intermediate Grade 5 in acting.]

His eyes hung over the last message for a while.

He was hoping that during the shooting of [Sherlock of the Shadows, he would be able to get past the grade and improve his acting ability. It was getting extremely difficult to level up as he was reaching a high level.

Most good to great actors in this world are at Intermediate Grade 7 to 10 and only the legendary actors are in the Advance grade which Aiden didn't even know if he would be able to reach in the coming future.

'I should not think of it so soon. Anyway, the shooting for [Sherlock of the Shadows] will start tomorrow.'

He thought, anticipating the day his first big role in a series would begin.

The shooting for [Sherlock of the Shadows] was happening in the town of Georgia, Atlanta.

Phineas had decided to shoot a lot of the scenes here while the scenes involving heavy VFX were going to be shot in a studio.

The reason they have decided on this town as the filming location was because Phineas had decided that it suited the essence of the town he had in mind. Actually, the original story was going to take place in a fictional town called 'Riftain'.

Although the series was following Finn Wheeler entirely, there were other things in the town also and some secrets that would slowly come out during the course of the series.

But the narrative would just focus on Finn, his powers and solving mysteries.

Originally, Phineas had made a cast of a few friends who are famous for solving mysteries and catching ghosts but he had felt like the premise was too dull and overused, so he had instead decided to focus more on getting superpowers suddenly and having to deal with them.

At the same time, the inner struggle of the main character was one of the most vocal points of the series. Finn was a character with a complicated past and it was something that had affected him a lot growing up.

It would take a very convincing performance to pull it off and Aiden was enjoying the challenge of it.

"I like the scent of the city. Feels like my hometown."

Wade said, attracting Aiden's attention away from the script. Both of them were currently sitting at the spot and the shooting was going on in front of them.

The set looked very busy but both of them looked too used to the atmosphere of a set.

"Just take a vacation and go there." Aiden said but Wade shook his head.

"I am being nostalgic about my town doesn't mean I want to go there. You don't know it but it's horrible when you go back to the place where you spent your childhood and meet your ex girlfriend and friends. It's only fine if you are super successful. Here I'm just an overworked, divorced agent."

"We both are overworked."

Aiden laughed and Wade wasn't able to refute that. Suddenly, he felt a gaze on himself and looked to his left.

Some distance away, Jeremy Hill was sitting with a few actors and was talking about something with a grin. A few actors were laughing with him.

Jeremy was clearly looking at them like he was joking about Aiden but they weren't able to hear what he was talking about.

"I don't like that guy."

"Others seem to like him."

Aiden glanced at the actors laughing with him.

"He's a pain in the ass but he's a veteran and a lot of them would side with him, so he doesn't go after them. I'm telling you right now. He's surely going to do something and term it as educating the younger generations or something."

"He won't."

"You don't know that. He's surely plotting something."

Wade frowned and rubbed his forehead. He felt like they were finding trouble everywhere these days.

"I know he's plotting something but I will make sure he can't do anything."

Aiden explained and Wade made a perplexed expression.

"How?"

"He's an actor. Not a star but an actor. He has a bad personality but he's not Seth Douglas who just wants a bigger role for attention to himself. Think of him as that old neighbour who always complains about things."

"So?"

"So, it's simple. The best way to make an actor like you is to show him that you are a great actor yourself. There might be jealousy but Jeremy Hill isn't a kid. He's a veteran, so I expect him to not be jealous."

Actually, during the script reading session, Aiden had checked up the stats of his co actors and out of all of them, Jeremy Hill was Intermediate Grade 10. Someone who was on the verge of breaking into another entire grade.

At the same time, his special skill was called 'Perfectionist'.

With that, Aiden had guessed that the only reason he gives hard time to actors is because he was someone who wants everything to be perfect in the show and thinks that some actors won't be able to do that.

Earlier, Jeremy had scolded another actor too when he had messed up a lot of times and even after that, the scene hadn't been captured well.

So, it wasn't just Aiden he was targeting.

'I need my acting to speak for myself here.'

He thought in his mind as he glanced at Jeremy.

…

/DreamNote/

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"Buckle up everyone. We are going to start the shoot in the next five minutes. Get the actors ready and check the cameras. Hey, slap that guy up. He's yawning in the middle of the shooting. I need you all to be energetic."

Phineas shouted and the steps of the crew member got faster as they worked hard to place up the cameras. They were currently shooting a scene in a church that was one of the symbols of the town they were in.

It was a very important scene that would happen straight at the start of the first episode.

In Phineas's mind, the scene was one in which Finn's personality would be set up for the whole series as a person who was questioning a lot of things. He was a detective but it was not like he was just playing pretend.

It was a calling for him and he has always felt conflicted about it.

So, Phineas would go to the church to make a confession to a Father who had helped him once in the past, using him as a way of letting his thoughts out.

"Aiden, do you have more questions?"

Phineas asked, giving Aiden a gaze. They have gone over the scene quite a lot.

"I just wanted to know where the cameras would be placed and how the scene would move forward."

"Well, we are going for two cameras on your side. One on the side, giving a full view of your body and one taking a shot of your face from the bottom that would mostly be still. As we need shots of Father Johnson too, one of our teams would be shooting in the confession booth where he would sit."

Phineas's style of directing was very quick. He didn't like to waste even a minute during the shooting and was someone who had divided his assistant directors into a few teams who would be handling capturing the scene from the narratives of different characters.

Sometimes, two scenes would even be shot at the same time like that.

After that, Phineas would go over them, so the crew had no time to rest.

"I understand. Just give me a few minutes and let's start with the scene."

"Okay."

Phineas left after that and Aiden took a deep breath. In his script, this scene was marked with special notes, meaning that it was a very important scene.

He would need to show a lot of emotions in just his voice and tone. Conflict, confusion and the craving for answers that Finn was looking for. Phineas had told him that the focus was going to be entirely on the conversation.

'Tension needs to be felt during the conversation.'

Aiden thought and briefly glanced at Jeremy. This would be the start of him showing Jeremy that he wasn't a bad actor.

'No, not just Jeremy.'

He shook his head.

He needed to make [Sherlock of the Shadows] and Finn Wheeler a character that no one other than him could play in the eyes of the audience.

In his point of view, Kai was the only other memorable character that he had played who had more inner conflicts than outer and in that, they weren't explored a lot.

Kai was his most iconic role till now and this time, Aiden wanted to up it with Finn.

[Sherlock of the Shadows12 July-2017Act 1Scene 3Take 1]

"Father, I'm not here to confess a sin as I have not done anything."

A voice which sounded young said as a slightly heavy tone set in the atmosphere. Another voice came out on the other side of the latticed opening. This time, the voice was a little old.

"Why are you here then?"

"I have a story to tell."

The young voice that belonged to Finn said. Father Johnson who was sitting on the other side didn't say anything, indicating Finn to go on.

"When I was little, my dad used to talk a lot about the mysteries that surrounded the world. He called himself a conspiracy theorist just on the reason that accepting everything simply on how they look and seem was boring. He used to tell me, "Everything in the world has reasons behind them. Some are proven and some just stay hidden until someone discovers them. So, observe every single thing, analyse and then try to discover — That's the most interesting part of life". He was a boxer, my dad."

A smile crept on his face as he said that.

"Not the champion kind. He was just the guy who would be paid to lose to make others look good. He only won 12 matches in his career but earned a lot of money. Lot more than other boxers. Then, one day, he got into an actual fight with the best boxer in town."

"I know that one."

Father Johnson said and Finn nodded his head.

"No one expected him to win. They thought he was a weakling who won't even stand for five minutes. Actually, the fight did end in five minutes but my dad was the one who won. After the fight, I asked him how he won when he had never shown the skills before. He said that everytime he was in the ring, he lost but he also survived. He could have always won. Just it was his choice not to as he was getting more money for my education like that. That day, he told me about a gift he has."

His eyes flashed as Finn remembered the time. He was a kid back then and his dad seemed like a hero.

"He was able to notice minor details that helped him to know what the boxer was going to do. A lot of it was also intuition, he said but that was his gift. He told me that I have one too."

"Did you find your gift then?"

Father Johnson asked and an almost maniac-like smile hung on Finn's face.

"I did." He said. "But it's not something ordinary and it scares me. It's dangerous."

"You should not be scared of your gifts no matter how they are. You should be proud of them and use them for the good. Not everyone gets to know their gifts so early."

Finn shook his head hearing that.

"You misunderstood me, Father."

"How?"

"My gift, it's dangerous not for me but for others." He smiled. "Father, I hope you have a lot of time. You heard my father's story but mine is going to be a little longer."

"Cut. I like the scene. Aiden, it came out really good."

Phineas said after the scene was over. Some people alongside him surrounded the camera to look at the scene on the monitor and couldn't help but marvel at how good it had come.

"The expressions are on point. Damn, Aiden gives off a scary vibe. His atmosphere is very heavy and kind of creepy. Shouldn't it be a little brighter?"

"No, it suits the narrative of the story. Don't forget that this scene is after the events of the series and here, Finn has control over his powers according to the timeline."

Phineas looked at the assistant directors who had said that. Overall, he was the happiest person out of all of them as the scene went really well.

He could already imagine how the scene was going to fit in the final narrative.

"Okay, let's quickly go over the next few scenes before lunch. I don't think we need to do more takes. We got enough footage from all the necessary angles."

He said and the crew scattered, preparing the next scene. They were shooting the scenes in the order as Zetflix wanted the first three episodes to finish as soon as possible.

Some distance away, Jeremy Hill and his 'minions' that involved a few supporting actors were sitting together.

Currently, there was a perplexed expression on his face.

Jeremy had watched the scene with a very focused gaze to find out flaws in Aiden but he wasn't able to find a lot of them. Maybe Aiden's voice modulation and accent could have been better? But those were little things and the atmosphere he was able to create was working in his favour.

Next to him, the girl who was a social media star said.

"Aiden was really good in the scene, right?"

Another actor next to her replied.

"Yeah, like I said before, he's a good actor and is improving with every project. I hear a lot of good things about him for a reason."

"Yeah, Jeremy, what did you think—"

An actor was trying to ask Jeremy about it but his words stopped in the middle as he recalled that Jeremy was after Aiden and it was better not to praise him in front of Jeremy.

Everyone looked at the veteran actor for a second before he opened his mouth.

"No, it was good. The scene was pretty well done."

He said. It would be embarrassing and childish for him to not admit that when the scene was good.

As someone who was a self labelled perfectionist who wanted the projects he worked on to be perfect, he could say that Aiden had done a commendable job.

Slowly, Jeremy's perception of him was changing.

'He did well in one scene but in a show like [Sherlock of the Shadows, the main scenes would be one with the horror elements.'

Jeremy thought in his mind

He didn't know that those scenes were something that Aiden can't mess up due to bad acting even if he wanted to.

…

/DreamNote/

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[Sherlock of the Shadows13 July-2017Act 2Scene 1Take 3]

"I need help."

A blonde-haired guy who looked to be a teenager said. He had a burly body and looked like the typical person who would be part of the football team in high school.

"Why me? I thought you didn't like me and even wanted to kill me."

"It was just a small fight."

"I endured several punches from you while your friends watched and cheered. I had two broken teeth and several bruises, and it took two weeks for me to heal."

"It took me four weeks." The blonde-haired guy frowned. "And you slept with my girlfriend. I am pretty sure I left you off easily."

Finn didn't say anything to that and just shrugged his shoulders. He just had a small habit of playing around, and from time to time, he would get into situations like this.

The guy in front of him was Billy Williams, the captain of the football team and someone who had been Finn's enemy throughout high school right after the incident that Billy just described.

"Look, I wasn't the one in a relationship. Your girlfriend was. Don't you think you should question her instead of fighting with me? I say I did a great job sleeping with her. At least you know she's someone who doesn't think twice before sleeping with someone. She was quite eas—"

"What?"

"Anyway, get to the point. What help do you need from me?"

Billy frowned hearing that, and his expression cooled down. This wasn't the time to argue over someone who had cheated on him before. The matter was much more serious, and he didn't know anyone who could help him other than the person in front of him.

No matter how much he hated Finn, he was the only one who could help him at the moment.

"My sister… she's dead."

"I'm sorry for you." Finn immediately said, the air around him changing a bit as he got serious. "What help do you need in that?"

"The police called it a suicide and are trying to close off the case as there's no evidence against murder or something else. Her body was found below her office building. She jumped off apparently, and there's no clues."

"Any security cameras?"

"There's one on the outside, but it just showed my sister going inside early in the morning at 4."

Finn made an interesting expression upon hearing that. He had solved a few cases till now and had helped the police in a few too, but those were small ones. Kidnapping, burglars and those kinds of crimes.

But a murder case was different.

It was something new.

"Why do you think your sister is murdered? She could have committed suicide. There are several reasons that depress women in their 30s and 40s." He squinted his eyes.

"It can't be suicide. My sister was very happy. We are close to each other and we meet often, and she was very happy in her married life. Just last week, she looked so cheerful while saying that she would give me a big surprise in a few weeks."

"A surprise?" Finn tilted his head.

"I don't know what it is, but she was very happy. My brother-in-law is also devastated and has no clue why she would jump off the rooftop."

Billy explained the whole story about what had happened and what conclusion the police had made. Hearing all that, Finn put a finger on his chin and wondered why someone who was so happy would suddenly jump off.

The only reason it was called a suicide was that there was no evidence whatsoever of it being something other than suicide.

'This would be an interesting case for sure.'

Finn thought and looked up at Billy.

"I will look into it."

"Cut! I think that's a good take."

Phineas's voice came out as the scene ended. This was one of the scenes in the first episode where Finn would try to solve the murder mystery and at the end of it, he would realise his powers.

The second and third episodes were about him trying to juggle between cases while handling his powers.

In a way, it was an origin story of a detective, and Aiden was just getting started.

The shooting continued with a lot of vigour as Aiden tried his best on every take. As the shooting progressed, he became more and more like Finn Wheeler, and it was a good way for him to gain more affinity with the character.

Playing a teen detective with a lot of traumas and superpowers wasn't easy as Aiden needed to keep a balance between showing his inner struggle and cool nature.

One had to say that Finn was a vulnerable character who knew when to show it.

That was one of the things that made him dangerous.

A lot of his scenes were with other actors, but there were almost no relationships with Finn that could be considered close. He was written as a loner, especially because he always felt that other people would come in danger due to his habit of getting into mysteries and trying to solve them.

One of the other reasons was also the hunch of his that he was a bit more special than others due to the dreams he kept having.

Though, there was one character in [Sherlock of the Shadows] that was extremely vital, and that was the character played by Jeremy.

He was playing the role of Mike Rodriguez, another supernatural user who would warn Finn about his powers while he tried to solve a peculiar case of a lot of kids suddenly missing.

"Can we go over the scene together?"

Aiden asked as he opened the door of the vanity van of Jeremy. The old man was scrolling through his phone when Aiden came in.

For a second, his eyes wavered before he nodded.

"Sure."

Aiden came in and sat down in front of him before putting the scene down. Jeremy gave him a dry smile and looked at the script before asking.

"What's your analysis of the scene?"

"It's a reckless scene from the perspective of Finn. His lack of experience and an avid curiosity towards his newly found power made him trust Mike and this scene is an eye opener for him."

"Yeah, on the surface," Jeremy said. "As the scene progresses, Mike scoffs at Finn and lets him see the true horror of ghosts and other supernatural powers to tell him that it isn't fun and games. He wanted to see how Finn would react but at the same, he's testing him to know the extent of his powers and mental fortitude."

"Yeah, and it's going to come in a full circle at the end."

Both of them discussed the whole scene and the intricacy of their respective characters.

As it was a scene consisting of VFX, they were shooting it in the studio with miniatures of ghosts that they would later sharpen up to look like real ghosts.

A lot of imagination goes into scenes like this.

As they discussed, Jimmy, who was trying hard to find anything to nitpick over in Aiden's analysis of the scene and characters, couldn't help but think inwardly.

'This guy… he is actually serious about his craft.'

Jeremy was an actor who could do anything for a project that he was working on. That's why he would only choose projects that he liked.

Even when he was a struggler, he rejected projects because he felt like they weren't good enough. His conviction towards his work was known to everyone.

But he had noticed that a lot of actors wouldn't do the same.

He knew that everyone had a different method of approaching their acting, but he couldn't stand people being lazy. That's why he had a few fights during the 90s but after that, his stature increased in Hollywood.

So, he was easily able to get away with anything he said to the actors.

Obviously, he would leave them if he saw that they were doing a good job and were very engrossed in the project. The only reason he was going toward Aiden was that he was late in the script reading session, and at the same time, Jeremy felt that there were better actors for a complex role like Finn Wheeler.

But the production team had ignored his views of getting a better actor.

That had made him observe Aiden way more but until now, he had given everything to the role. Jeremy hadn't even seen Aiden trying to laze off in between the other scenes.

'No, it's too soon.'

Jeremy thought and looked up at Aiden.

"Have you done these types of scenes before? They are very hard for new actors."

"No, I have not till now, but I feel like I could do it."

Aiden simply said, but Jeremy wasn't convinced.

"It won't be easy. Anyway, we will know only after you perform the scene."

In the end, he left it there.

There was no point in telling Aiden that he won't be able to do the scene currently. Jeremy decided that he was going to let Aiden fail first before saying anything.

Unfortunately, it was never going to go the way Jeremy was thinking in his head.

…

/DreamNote/

I had an emergency so couldn't write any chapter yesterday and because my next few days are going to be hectic, yesterday will be considered an off day. Apologies.

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"Everyone in positions. You all know how the scene would go on. We might have to go several takes but try to follow everything according to what we have discussed."

Phineas yelled and everyone nodded. These types of scenes were always well planned, and the crew would discuss a lot about how they were going to go about it as the final product would be vastly different from the ones that they would shoot.

VFX would change the look of the scene completely.

'This is one of the scenes that are the most important in the whole series.'

Aiden thought, glancing around the cameras, trying to remember how they were going to move. Knowing the positions of the camera was one of the basic things in acting in a movie.

At the same time, Aiden was a bit scared, knowing that he was going to see ghosts again. It was his first scene with them on the set, and he knew that he would need to get used to them and overcome his fears.

But it was going to take some time.

'Whatever, I have seen them enough in my nightmares. I need to rush towards the danger instead of running from it.'

He muttered in his mind.

His eyes wandered off to Jeremy, who was standing a small distance away from him, wearing robes. He knew that Jeremy was trying to find an opportunity to bash him.

Honestly, Aiden felt like it was a bit childish, but the man was someone who had done things like that in the past and had gotten away with it.

He did know the reasons, too, and although the execution was wrong, his intentions had been to make the project look superior.

Anyway, Aiden had a feeling that after this scene, Jeremy was not going to come after him.

[Sherlock of the Shadows14 July-2017Act 4Scene 2Take 1]

"You were there at the cemetery last night."

Finn said, staring at the old man in his robes. He was known to be a crazy person living on the outskirts of the town. A rich, old man who had isolated himself from everyone else.

A lot of people didn't even know that someone lived in the mansion that was on the outskirts. There were only theories about what had happened to the family that once lived there.

One day, a whole family was found dead, and only the man in front of him had survived — His wife and kids were dead.

"How can you say that?"

The old man asked, scoffing at the kid in front of him, and Finn took out a half-smoked cigarette and showed it to the old man.

"It's a special brand of cigarette. Quite expensive, I must say. I found it at the crime scene and asked in the Smoke shop by Third Street. The owner said that you are the only one who buys it, so he gets it every few months. Then, yesterday, I found the same cigarette in the cemetery after the fight. You were there last night."

"I give out some packets to the cleaners who come here once in a while."

The old man feigned ignorance, and big Finn wasn't having any of it.

He wouldn't have confronted him in his own home if he didn't have any proof. Smiling, he opened his mouth.

"13 May. Isn't it a very special day for you?"

That was yesterday.

The old man's face scrunched up hearing that.

"Get out of here." He ordered in a loud voice, but Finn didn't move an inch.

"13 May — The day your whole family died off. Don't you think it's the day where someone would find a man like you in the cemetery, moaning about your family?"

"You have no right to talk about my family!" The old man screamed.

"Just accept that you were there. You weren't the one to attack me, but you did help me out. You were the one with the demon-looking ghosts. You are like me. Look, I have nothing against you, I just want to know what is going on in this godforsaken town. Serial suicides, murders and then a necromancer. I know you have the answers—"

"I told you to shut the fuck up."

The old man said, and suddenly, the world went dark for Finn. It was like someone had turned off all the lights in the room, and cold, winter-like wind hit Finn as fear engulfed his heart.

'He's finally showing his powers.'

Finn thought, knowing that his plan to provoke Mike to reveal his powers had worked, but it also seemed like he had misunderstood the extent of his powers.

In the centre of the room, Mike's eyes went red like he was a demon and some strange symbols appeared on the floor. From the centre of them, a ghost walked out with a scythe in his hand.

Rather than a ghost, he looked exactly like a grim reaper. There were green balls of fire in his eyes, and his face was a mix of bones and rotten flesh, making him look grotesque.

Finn even felt like vomiting seeing him, but more than disgust, he felt pressure clenching down on him as the scythe-wielding ghost walked towards him.

"I told you to leave. You didn't. I warned you."

Mike said from behind the ghosts.

Finn didn't reply to him and just tried to concentrate. He was a supernatural being just like Mike, and although his powers were new, they were unique and powerful.

Aside from seeing ghosts, he was also able to have mental control over them.

But it only happened when he wasn't busy running away from them. He needed to keep his mind calm to use his power, and it was a major drawback as it was hard to calm down when a tall, grim reaper was walking toward you.

Still, he hanged on, remembering his father's words.

'Only the weak lose their calm in tough situations. Every time I'm hit, I feel like hitting back, punching back, but if I do that, I lose money. That's calmness. Control. I have made a lot of money doing that, and you need to have it too if you want to do something no matter which walks of life.'

Although his father never mentioned that facing ghosts was a walk of life, his words were true.

His powers needed control.

One lapse in concentration and his power would be useless.

The reaper got close to Finn and hissed, exposing his disgustingly long tongue and attacked with a swipe of his scythe, but Finn dodged.

His eyes kept fixed on the reaper's face. In his mind, he was slowly sending out a command and trying to get control of the reaper from Mike.

'I'm your master.'

'You are my servant.'

'I'm your master.'

'You are my servant.'

Finn kept repeating that in his mind, and the reaper ignored it, continuously trying to swing his scythe in front of him, which he was dodging every time.

Sometimes by crouching and sometimes by rolling around, but Finn knew that the reaper was going to catch up with him sooner or later.

"You are not going to get away from me. Quit running away."

Mike's voice came from behind the reaper and suddenly, the speed of the scythe swings increased.

Suddenly, a wild swing came straight down at Finn. Noticing it, he quickly jumped to the side, hitting the wall in the process.

Crack!

'That was close.'

Finn glanced at the floor. The scythe had made a small hole in it and he had barely dodged it. His back was also going through a sharp pain due to hitting the wall.

'I need to finish this now.'

He thought, trying to focus every bit of the power he had under him. If he couldn't control the reaper, then it was all over for him.

But the reaper seemed to have no effect as he again wildly swung his scythe at Finn.

This time, it created a crack in the wall as Finn stood up. The next moment, the reaper swung it again, and this time, he crouched down.

This went on for a while as Finn used his athletic abilities to dodge by the barest of margins.

Any swing could have killed him, but he was surviving somehow.

At that moment, Aiden suddenly hit the wall.

'I'm fucked.'

He thought, knowing that he had nowhere to run now. The reaper also hissed like he was happy that his prey couldn't run away anymore.

Hissing, the reaper rushed towards Finn and swung his scythe, but when he was just an inch away from hitting the flesh, the scythe stopped in mid-air.

'It worked.'

Finn took a sigh of relief.

His powers finally were able to entrap the reaper as he dropped off the scythe and kneeled down.

The scene ended there.

At that moment, some notifications appeared in front of Aiden.

[You have managed not to let the realism of your skills come in the way of your acting.]

[You have gained a lot of experience.]

[You have advanced to Intermediate Grade 5 from Intermediate Grade 4 in acting skills.]

[As a gift for your rapid development and reaching the halfway mark to Advanced grade in one of your skills, you are given a special consumable item.]

[2 Luck Coupons have been given.]

[You could use it to get an hour in which only good things would happen with you. They are extremely rare coupons that are advised to be used wisely.]

/DreamNote/

Please continue supporting this novel with your power stones and golden tickets

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The impact of seeing ghosts again was clear on him as his back was drenched, and his heartbeat was still on the up. It was so much that he wasn't even able to concentrate on the system notifications.

At the same time, one of the fingers in his hand was shaking.

Every scene with the ghosts was a mix of acting and actual fear of ghosts. It was only after a while that he calmed down, and his eyes moved toward the system notifications.

'Luck coupons.'

It was the first time that he had seen something like that as a reward from his system. Normally, it would be some experience or an increase in skill level.

This was new, and it had left him surprised.

He also had levelled up in his acting skill, which was a good thing for him. He had found out that doing challenging roles gave out more experience, so the role of Finn Wheeler, who was a very complex and special character, was enough for him to level up.

Aiden guessed that he would be halfway through Intermediate Grade 6 till the end of the shooting.

'Let's check out how to use these Luck coupons.'

He thought and a screen appeared, explaining about the coupons.

[Luck coupons: Rare coupons that could only be used once. Think about the coupons in your mind if you want to activate it, and for the next one hour, nothing bad will happen to you. Every decision, even if it's weird in nature, would work out, and the world would help you to achieve your goals.]

'The last line is interesting.'

Aiden thought, musing over it and suddenly, someone grabbed his shoulders out of nowhere, scaring him for a second. He was too engrossed in his system that he hadn't noticed someone approaching him.

Shaking his system off, his vision finally became clearer. He looked at Jeremy, who had a very serious expression on his face.

"What happened? Did the scene not go well?"

Aiden asked. He missed Phineas's voice due to the notifications, so he didn't know if it was a good take or not.

"No, it was a good take," Jeremy muttered and smiled. "I would even say that was a great take."

"Uh, thanks."

Aiden said, not being able to understand what was going on. He felt like there was some kind of pressure on him as Jeremy had a wide smile on his face, like something good had happened to him after a long time.

"How did you do it?" Jeremy asked. "I have been in movies with heavy VFX. I have worked with shooting scenes like this before, and they are extremely hard. It's not easy for actors to project the right emotions as they need to imagine a lot. So, how can you do it so effortlessly? You looked flawless with the scared but determined vibe. You projected it so well I nearly forgot one of my lines watching you."

"Ah, I just have a vivid imagination."

"It can't be just that. You are a method actor, right? What's your process of getting into the role?"

Jeremy suddenly started asking a lot of questions that Aiden didn't know how to answer properly. Even if he talked about his process with Jeremy, he couldn't mention immersion, that was the core of his acting.

It just made things too easy.

Especially for projects that involved a lot of VFX and CGI like [Sherlock of the Shadows]. Fantasy and superhero flicks would also be the genres that Aiden would shine in no matter what.

Unlike other actors, he would see everything as real, and with enough analysis of the character, his acting was going to come out good even if he tried his best to fail.

As Aiden was busy explaining himself to Jeremy, other actors on the set were very shocked. The actress, who was a social media sensation, was even rubbing her eyes in disbelief.

Phineas was also giving an interesting expression seeing Jeremy being so friendly with Aiden.

He had worked with him before on a project, so he knew his personality very well. After all, he was the one who kept getting complaints from other actors from time to time.

But Jeremy had never changed himself.

Due to him being so good at acting, alongside having a lot of Oscar nominations and a few wins, Phineas and other directors would keep giving him roles because having a good actor improved the quality of a project.

'I guess he has finally acknowledged Aiden. It was bound to happen.'

Phineas thought in his mind.

From what he had heard, Jeremy looked like someone who almost had a split personality. He would be a mean bastard to actors until he personally acknowledged their skill.

But if one managed to prove himself, he would be that generous friend who would always help out no matter what the problem.

'At least, the atmosphere on the set would be a bit better now.'

Phineas thought and started preparing for the next scene.

'I need my acting to speak for myself here.'

Tom was there when Aiden had said those lines. He had felt ecstatic hearing that and felt that this was going to be another chapter in the reality TV show 'Aiden's Rise in Hollywood'.

He knew about the issue from the first day on set. Though it had started in the script reading session itself.

At the same time, Tom was also collecting information on Jeremy Hill, mainly for two reasons. He was just tired of narcissistic and childish actors who would try to get their way but end up getting hit by karma. Second reason was just that he wanted to get a different point of view.

It was one of his old habits. If he was interested in any issue, he wanted to know everything about it from every possible perspective.

One of the reasons was also to prepare for a situation in which Jeremy started making too much trouble for Aiden. In that case, Tom, as his assistant, would need to back him up and information was the best way to get back at someone.

After all, in the self-made reality TV show in his mind, Tom himself was also a character.

So, he talked to a few actors.

"Well, Jeremy is always hard. He's kind of an asshole to a lot of people, but well, he's an inspiration for many, too, as he's one of the oldest actors we have. If you are asking me reasons, I only know that he feels that actors these days ain't disciplined."

"Jeremy is good to only some people. I have worked with him before. He's not bad if you do your job well. He's Satan otherwise."

"If he targets someone, that person would feel like leaving the set, but if he likes someone, that person would feel like he's in heaven on the set."

Those were the words that he had heard about Jeremy, and after hearing them, Tom had come to one conclusion.

'Jeremy is that guy in a fantasy novel who would only be nice to the main character after he proves his skill. Then, become a loyal companion. Very interesting.'

With every day on the set, Tom was anticipating the moment when Aiden would prove Jeremy wrong. With his eagle-like eyes, he was already noticing that Jeremy was slowly finding out that Aiden was a good actor.

Though it wasn't complete acknowledgement, and Jeremy was still a cold douchebag.

Finally, after waiting for a long time, the scene that made Jeremy acknowledge Aiden did come, and Tom had to say that, in his observation, it was one of the best-acted scenes. Aiden completely nailed it, and after that, Jeremy got super friendly with Aiden, like they were friends from childhood.

A complete transformation, and Tom would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy it.

From the next day, things around the set completely changed.

Jeremy was probably the richest guy in the crew, having made hundreds of millions in his career, so he had his own vanity van and a personal chef that used to cook in a Michelin restaurant.

He let Aiden eat with him and even discussed a lot of things about acting. Not only that, Jeremy even told Aiden that he could use his vanity van to rest.

It was obvious to say that Tom and Wade also benefited as they got the same food as Aiden.

Wade even wanted to come to the set just for the food daily, but that wasn't possible as he needed to fly to LA for a few things that he was looking for Aiden.

Seeing Aiden eating such good food daily, the other actors on the set kept feeling jealous. Aiden was playing the lead role and even getting delicious food, it was simply unfair in their eyes.

But they could do nothing.

The only way to get the delicious food was to make Jeremy like their acting skills, so a few actors even started working very hard on their own. Not for the script but for the food and the royal treatment.

Observing all this closely made Tom feel glad that he was Aiden's assistant. Not only was he getting a daily dose of a reality TV show that kept breaking his expectations, but he was also getting special privileges on the set.

For now, he was enjoying it, but a thought kept lingering in his mind.

'What would be next?'

Tom wasn't going to be satisfied with something that was not dramatic and was just simple. He had gotten used to seeing Aiden defy everyone's expectations and upping his game every time.

….

/DreamNote/

I will resume 2ch/d from tomorrow. Haven't been able to write any chapters for the last few days due to some personal reasons. Please support this novel with your power stones and golden tickets

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"We are trying out something new this week. As you know, the format of the program keeps it from not getting boring, but for the last few episodes, the contestants haven't been great. None of them did as we expected, and we can't really do a lot on that. We already have all sorts of tests before the contestants appear on the show. We can't make it tougher to get better contestants."

A man with a bushy beard said as he scratched the back of his hair. If one had to describe him, he gave off a manly impression despite having a beer belly.

"So, the ratings aren't doing well?"

Wade was sitting in front of him, and he nodded at those words before asking. Both of them were sitting in a lounge area on the ground floor of the Panther network office, Los Angeles.

For the record, Panther TV network was the same channel that had the rights to X-Star. Though, Wade wasn't here for anything related to X-Star.

It was for a different reality show.

"They are fine but stale. I think that's the correct word."

The man who was actually the producer of the show said. It was not a good feeling to say that a show he worked so hard on wasn't doing good.

"It's still one of the highest-rated shows in the history of TV, so I'm pretty sure it would pick up the pace again."

"Yeah, but the channel wants us to try different things. That's why we are going with an all-celebrity ensemble cast in two weeks' time. It's a fun and unique opportunity that we are very optimistic about."

Having famous celebrities in a reality TV show always meant that there were high chances of the ratings increasing depending on the fanbase of the celebrity.

"It is a very interesting idea, I will tell you that," Wade said. "How many have you already got?"

"We are going with 10 celebs. The format of celebrities is just for the weekend, so 10 is more than enough. I'm pretty sure half of them won't even do much. You need to be very smart to get anywhere in the show."

"Yeah, you must be particularly looking for the smart ones."

The producer nodded his head.

"Yeah, but we are trying to keep a mix. Just people with a good enough fanbase who we feel could be an interesting addition. It's a bonus if they are smart. So, what do you say? Aiden will be free?"

Wade didn't say anything right away about that. The shooting of the reality show would go in two weeks, and Aiden would still be busy with the shooting of [Sherlock of the Shadows] then.

"Actually, he is currently in the middle of his Zetflix series shooting."

"Oh." The producer was appalled, not knowing about this, but he wasn't one to give up. "Can't you ask for a break from the shooting? Actors do that all the time to shoot different things. I don't think the filming crew would mind since it won't take a lot of time. They could shoot other scenes till then."

"I would need to ask them."

Wade said, not giving a straight answer. He didn't want to agree without discussing it with Aiden and Phineas. This was certainly a good opportunity but appearing in a reality show, even for two episodes, could go either way.

After all, there would be others aside from Aiden, and he could easily be overshadowed by them. Wade would have immediately agreed if Aiden was going to be the sole focus.

"I understand that you want to think about it, but we are trying to finalise the celebrities in the next few days. As you see, we are pretty tight on time."

"I know that. I will get back to you with the final answer as soon as possible on Aiden's involvement in 'The Million Dollar Game'."

Like Wade said, the reality TV show they were discussing was a game show called 'The Million Dollar Game' where common people were chosen to participate in the show to get a chance to win a million dollars by giving correct answers in a multiple choice answer quiz.

It was a very simple game show, but the chance to win a million dollars was a big one, and it would make everyone excited about it. Although, in recent times, the game show had declined in popularity, it had a major impact on the reality TV show industry, being one of the consistent shows that's popular all over the world.

There were even more than 50 versions of it in different countries that explained a lot about how it appealed to a large number of people.

"Okay." The producer opened his mouth. "We have only finalised 4 spots out of the 10, and we are in talks with a few more celebrities, so please hurry up and give a response soon."

[Sherlock of the Shadows19 July-2017Act 6Scene 8Take 4]

Finn and Billy entered a bar together after paying off one of the security guards as both of them were still under 21. Walking into the bar, Billy was a bit anxious as they took a seat in one of the corners.

"Tell me again, what are we doing here?" Billy asked, his eyes wandering to a couple who were making out with each other.

"We are here to investigate."

"What exactly?"

"Your brother-in-law frequents this bar, and one of his office workers told me that he has a nice friendship with one of the red-haired waitresses."

Billy turned to look at Finn with a bewildered expression.

"You are talking about an affair?"

"Friendship? Affair? Friends with benefits? The relationships get pretty complex with time and no, I'm not sure of it. I'm just collecting every single piece of evidence that I could."

Finn simply said and looked around the bar, searching for any red-haired women. From the information he had gotten, he knew that the waitress worked at this hour.

"There's no red-haired waitress here."

Billy simply said, and Finn sighed, taking another glance and not finding any red-haired women in the entire bar.

'A sick leave? Running late? Or something else?'

Finn thought as Billy looked at him with suspicious eyes.

"Are you sure about the information you got?"

"Yeah, unless that janitor in your brother-in-law's office was lying. I'm pretty sure he didn't though."

"Then, do you have any idea how you are going to find that red-haired waitress? If you go up and ask about her, then I'm pretty sure people are going to give you weird looks. Trust me, you do fit in the bracket of how a creep should look like."

Billy asked, scoffing at him, and Finn stayed silent, ignoring the comment and running his mind on what to do in this situation. An idea struck his mind at that moment.

"I have a trick."

Saying that he looked at the three waitresses working in the bar and gestured to one of them to take their order.

She was a pretty woman with black hair. As she came close to it, she asked.

"Are you two college students? I never saw you here before."

Billy visibly fumbled hearing that, but Finn just gave off a smile.

"Yeah, we just decided to check up on this bar. Heard good things about it." His eyes wandered to her hair. "By the way, your hair looks great today. I always wished my ex-girlfriend had black hair. She had red hair, which was fine, but black just suited her more."

The waitress smiled at those attempts of flirting. As a woman in her 30s, it was not every day that a young guy would hit on her. Enjoying it, she said.

"I actually used to have red hair too. I just dyed them black last week. Now, I really think it suits me more."

As the waitress rambled on, Finn gave a grinning look to Billy, who was surprised to see Finn find out the red-haired girl so effortlessly.

After they gave their orders, the waitress left, and Billy couldn't help but ask Finn.

"How? Just how?"

"It's quite easy. A waitress is a very social job, and you need to have good conversation skills, especially in a bar where you handle a lot of drunk guys and people hitting on you. I just threw in a keyword about red hair, and she spoke on her own." Aiden explained.

"How did you get it right the first time though?"

At that question, he just shrugged.

"It was a wild guess."

The scene was over then and the voice of Phineas quickly came, breaking Aiden from immersion.

"Cut! I think this is a great take."

Like that, yet another scene was done.

The shooting was going on rigorously every day, and Aiden was enjoying it a lot. In the past few days, he was pretty much in a great spot where Jeremy was being nice to him, and they had even become friends, discussing acting and movies in their breaks.

Aiden had to say that without having to go against another actor on the set, it was pretty peaceful. A feeling that he enjoyed a lot.

One night when he came back to his hotel room after the shooting, he suddenly got a text from someone he wasn't expecting.

It was from Marshall White, the owner of Vikings publishing who had published his first book Behind the scenes.

/DreamNote/

Support this book with your power stones and golden tickets

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[Marshall White: Aiden, are you free? Can we talk?]

Reading the message on his phone, Aiden wondered why Marshall had texted him. The sales of Behind the scenes had dwindled down in recent weeks, but it was still a good hit, having been featured in the New York Times bestselling list.

After that, they had not talked.

[Aiden: Yeah, sure.]

As soon as he texted back, a phone call came, and he picked it up. Marshall's silvery voice came out from the other side.

"I didn't disturb you, right? I heard you were shooting for another project."

"Yeah, but the shooting for the day has ended, so I'm free. Why did you want to talk to me? Is it something about Behind the scenes?"

Aiden got straight to the point, not wanting to spend too much time on pleasantries. He was tired after a long day of shooting and just wanted to rest.

"Yeah, it's about Behind the scenes."

Marshall's voice suddenly became serious, and Aiden tensed.

"What about it? Something bad?"

"No, it's actually good news." Aiden relaxed, and the next few words he heard made him widen his eyes. "A film studio wants to buy the rights of the novel. For a movie adaptation, obviously."

"Really?" Aiden's voice became higher in pitch.

"Yeah, it's a good studio. Not one of the Big 6 or anything but a good studio that we have done business with in the past. They really like the novel and think that it could be adapted into a good script. Anyway, the novel focuses a lot on Hollywood, so they probably want to use the setting."

"So, it's really going to be a real movie."

For a second, Aiden wasn't able to hide his excitement. Something he had created and worked hard on was going to be adapted and find a bigger audience, he couldn't help but be happy about it.

Marshall smiled, hearing his excited voice and quickly calmed him down.

"Calm down. The studio is just interested in buying up the rights for now. They don't even have a director for it yet, and there's no guarantee that the movie would be made in the next two years."

Aiden's smile faded away hearing that.

He immediately realised that a studio buying up rights didn't equate to the movie becoming a reality. A lot of studios would just buy up the film adaptation rights of popular novels early on but won't immediately make the movie.

They would first see where the industry is heading and what type of movie is popular among the audience before deciding whether to start on it. Then, finding the right director, cast and crew was a difficult job itself to get the movie right.

'The current trend in Hollywood is just big budget blockbusters full of special effects. Behind the scenes comes more under the banner of small budget movies that are screened at festivals.'

He thought in his mind.

"I understand that, but what's the name of the studio?"

"Gravity Media."

"I know them."

Aiden had heard about them as they had created a few underrated movies that had found their own audience slowly. He had also watched them and made sure to remember the director and the studio.

"Yeah, we have worked with them in the past, so we are going to negotiate a deal with them and see how it goes. I just wanted to inform you about it. You could join the meeting with Gravity Media too."

Marshall said, and Aiden nodded his head.

"I will need to see the schedule, but I will probably be there."

"That's good and… yeah, one more thing."

"What?"

Aiden raised an eyebrow, wondering if there was something else.

"Are you working on another novel? Like, have you thought of it yet?"

Marshall asked, and Aiden understood where this was going. As his first book had worked well, there were going to be expectations on his second work and Vikings publishing wanted a hand on it as they already had a partnership.

More than that, Marshall wanted to see Aiden's growth as a writer, having a good opinion of his creative talent.

But Aiden's answer disappointed him.

"No, not yet. I've just been busy with a lot of things in the past few months. I have not really written anything. Not even a word."

"Oh." Marshall's voice was clearly a bit disappointed. "So, do you have any idea about your next book? Are you going to continue writing, especially with your celebrity career going so well?"

"Yeah, I'm going to continue it, and no, I don't really have any ideas for now."

Aiden was sure of it and assured Marshall, who finished the call with one last sentence.

"Take your time with the next book. I know you are busy but if you get an idea for your next book, discuss it with me. You have a good hit this year, and it was your debut too, so there are a lot of expectations on you. So, don't rush, just give your best whenever it may come."

Aiden thought a bit about the whole conversation with Marshall after it ended.

He was happy about his book becoming a movie. At least getting the rights bought, but the thing he thought more about was his next novel.

Aiden was sure that he wouldn't be working on any songs in a while, as he was exhausted in that regard after his album and wanted to focus more on the acting projects but on the other hand, he didn't mind writing another novel. It was a pretty fun thing to do, after all.

But he had no ideas in his mind.

His first novel was easier to write as it was set in Hollywood and was just the story of a struggling actor, something which Aiden had himself gone through. Richard's suggestions in the end also helped to fine-tune the characters, making it a better product.

In the end, the novel had also become a bit dark.

For his second novel, one thing was sure, Aiden wanted to take a lighter theme. He wanted to do a fun story that people would laugh about while reading.

'I could just try a children's novel and hope that the adults would like it too because it's too simple to read and even get a whole movie franchise of it in the end.'

He thought in his head but wasn't able to decide. There were a lot of genres he could try, and he would need to lock down on the theme of the novel first before starting.

For the time being, Aiden just decided to focus on the shooting. It was already July, and the shooting was going to go till early September, so he was only going to be free after that to write the novel.

Every day on the set was pretty great, as the shooting was progressing very smoothly. One common thing in the shootings was that the actors would get close to each other or grow hostile toward each other.

Either one of the two was going to happen for sure, depending on the cast involved but in the case of [Sherlock of the Shadows, the cast was getting along quite well.

At first, many young actors were envious of Aiden since he was the same age, yet he had bagged the role and even gotten Jeremy's recognition. Envy was apparent as they wished to be in his place.

But as the shooting continued, they soon realised that Aiden was a good person. Jeremy was already not a problem, so it was a pretty great atmosphere, and it was helping the shooting.

Currently, some of the actors were sitting together as the crew was setting up props for the scene. Jeremy had struck up a conversation about how they had begun acting.

"Well, I dropped out of USC (University of Southern College) in the last year because I was offered a role in a movie and was like fuck college, I'm going to become a movie actor. It just appealed to me a lot more, and those days, I was finding a reason to get out of college."

Jeremy said, and everyone looked at him in wonder. Dropping out of USC, a big college, was a daring move, and just the Oscars on Jeremy's trophy cabinet would tell that it had turned out quite good for him.

Though in those days, the atmosphere was completely different as there was no internet.

"What about you, Aiden? You studied acting too?"

Jeremy asked, and a few glances gathered at him.

"No, I didn't. I was in a famous theatre group back in my hometown. Started from the bottom and learned as I observed the more experienced guys there. I also learned a lot from the movies since my childhood and just tried to emulate them."

His answer surprised a few as he looked like one of those guys who would top the grade in an arts school.

'So, he's a natural. God is truly unfair.'

A few actors thought like that as Jeremy raised an eyebrow.

"So, you never really studied acting or gotten classes on filmmaking?"

"No, I didn't. Not formally. I did learn about the basic things an actor should know. As I worked as an extra here and there on small, indie ventures, I asked the professionals there more about it, and the internet helped too."

His answer didn't seem to satisfy Jeremy as he frowned.

"That's a pity."

He muttered, and Aiden wondered what was wrong. Why was Jeremy frowning just because he didn't have a formal education in acting?

….

/DreamNote/

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"Why is it a pity?"

Aiden couldn't help but ask, and Jeremy was quick to respond as other actors simply listened to their conversation.

"Well, simply because learning about movies could actually make you a better actor. I dropped out, but the things I learned in college stayed with me. The technical side of stuff and how a movie is made. I know that you don't need a formal education to be an actor but trust me, those things help even if most of it is just theory. You get experience by working, but it's backed by the theory you have learned."

Hearing that, a few other actors nodded.

"Yeah, that's true. I have a Bachelor's in performing arts, and I wouldn't have gotten my first role if not for the years in college."

"I have a degree in filmmaking, so I think it's going to help me out in the future."

"Dammit! I have not even gone to college."

As people threw their opinions around, Jeremy again opened his mouth.

"Well, a degree might or might not help but just learning about these things helps. Acting is pretty simple if you think about it. You come on the set, you do the scenes, and then go back to your hotel room, but if you know more on the technical side, there's a whole new horizon out there that could help you in many ways. It's also beneficial as an actor in the longer term."

"How?" Aiden asked, getting interested in the conversation.

"Well, as an actor, you are going to have a turbulent life, so having extra skills help in having work all around, but for actors like you who are slowly going towards earning the big bucks, it would help if you ever tried to get into production."

Aiden finally got the whole context of it. Acting was a good job, but for a lot of actors, they also wanted to dabble in filmmaking and production later on in their careers. It was to get more power in their hands as a producer could easily change parts of the script or the story and have a say as to who will be cast.

Because of that, a lot of actors would start their own production studios to control the movies that they were working on.

As the producer, they would put their own money and control most of the aspects of a film which was way better than having no power over the movie they were working on.

At the same time, a lot of them also just become filmmakers, directing movies. Jeremy himself had directed one in his career, but he realised that he liked acting better.

"Learning more about movies and acting in general sounds like a good idea."

Aiden said in the end, and Jeremy nodded.

"You should think about it, Aiden. You are a good actor, but you have a lot of other capabilities. I heard you have a book out too, so you do seem like the type of person to embrace such a thing truly."

Jeremy said, and soon after that, the topic changed to something else as the actors discussed different things about movies and the general trends in Hollywood. A few of them even talked about their next movies and their expectations of them.

All this time, Aiden was only thinking about the conversation of filmmaking and learning acting. He was sure that going back to college to learn acting wasn't going to help him.

His system would do that faster. After every level up, he could feel himself getting better and better.

His mind would also get clearer on how he should approach a certain scene. Like at first, Aiden always had trouble in romantic roles during auditions, but after levelling up, he had a better idea of how to do them.

Charisma also played a huge part in it.

But…

'Filmmaking — It might get me another skill.'

This was the idea in his mind.

Aiden was quite motivated to explore more skills, knowing full well that they could come in handy in any situation and skills related to filmmaking sounded like something that would make him a complete package.

He would be able to act, direct and compose in a movie.

For now, it was still a pipe dream as Aiden was way more invested in acting, and directing would mean getting huge funds to produce a movie himself until he found an investor who would be willing to bet on a young actor who turned director.

Even Omar, who was his friend, would be skeptical of something like that.

'In the future, for sure.'

He thought in his mind.

"Okay, let's wrap up today. Everyone, you all did a great job! Let's go get some drinks now."

"Yay!"

"Thanks, Phineas."

"Director, you sure know how to take care of the crew."

After the filming for the day ended, Phineas invited all the crew and cast to go have drinks with him. It was something he would frequently do to get a good relationship with those who he was working with.

He was someone who understood work relationships quite well, so those who were busy could just say no and go their own way.

There was no forcing.

Aiden was also not going with the rest of the crew today as he had to meet Wade, who had returned from his trip to LA and wanted to talk about some important offer.

Knowing that it was a hurried situation, Aiden had told him that he would meet in the hotel right after the shooting ended.

"Ah, you two are here."

Wade said as both Tom and Aiden entered his hotel room. The burly agent had just returned a few hours earlier and looked tired.

Both Tom and Aiden greeted him and sat down on the sofa.

"How's the shooting going?" Wade asked, and Aiden replied with a shrug.

"Tiring. It's just one scene after another. Pretty fast as Phineas doesn't like wasting time. I also think that I'm getting more into the character." Wade nodded with a satisfied smile at those words. "So, let's cut to the main topic. You and I both look tired. What's the offer you got?"

Aiden said, and taking a deep breath, Wade leaned towards him and started talking.

"It's a reality TV show offer."

"X-Star?"

"No, I don't think they will call you this year. They have good ratings for now, and because of you, the perception spread that those who lose out do better than the winners. One of the ex-contestants gave an interview saying, 'I will be better than the winner. Those who win are just cursed'. It made headlines."

Wade rambled on about it.

Aiden smiled at that. He wasn't the one who actually started the perception. He just solidified it by doing way better than any other person in a short time.

"So, what reality TV show is calling me if not X-Star? Is any other singing show running currently?"

"Not a singing show. You got an offer to participate in the weekend special episodes of 'The Million Dollar Game'. You do know about it, right?"

Before Aiden could react to it, Tom's eyes shined. As an avid viewer of most reality TV shows, he obviously knew about it.

"'The Million Dollar Game' is pretty much the staple game show where a common man goes in the hope of becoming a millionaire. Though the show doesn't talk about the rigorous rounds before a contestant features on the show and the heavy taxation, it's still one of the best game shows to watch. Fuck taxes by the way." Tom said. "It's my favourite program. I even tried to get into it so many times. I still remember so many episodes of it, especially that one in which a man, after winning a million dollars, talks about going to Las Vegas and blowing it all on strippers and casinos. His wife beat him a lot after that, according to internet articles."

Wade was a bit stunned hearing all that from Tom, who was mostly silent in his view.

"Ah, yeah, you are right, Tom. You seem to know a lot."

Tom quickly realised that he spoke too much and corrected himself. His hobby was something he wanted to keep to himself.

"Ah, just a little. I used to watch it a lot, you see."

"Anyway." Nodding, Wade looked at Aiden.

"I know about it. India has a version too. Pretty good show." He tilted his head. "They want me there?"

"Yeah, let me explain…"

After that, Wade told Aiden about the talk he had with the producer and the format they were going for in an effort to raise ratings.

There were also a few other things like how even if the celebrities won some money, they couldn't keep it as the whole idea of the show was to give the common man a chance to be rich, and celebrities are mostly rich.

So, all the money won would go to a charity, and producers would publicise what amount went to which charity.

It was a good chance to earn brownie points from the audience for the celebrities.

In the first place, a lot of donations done by celebrities were really just for names, and a few of them even run fake charity foundations to scam people. Only a few people do it because they want to help people.

A lot of the reasons were just to make yourself look good in front of the public.

"It seems like something interesting. I am not really in the public eye outside of live shows and movies. A change of pace for me."

"Yeah, you are just continuously shooting after the album release anyway," Wade said, then asked. "So, should I say yes to the producer? It won't be hard to get a few days off the shooting, and it's a good idea to get relations with producers in TV channels for the future."

"Yeah, I will do it."

….

/DreamNote/

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"So, we have every celebrity that is going to be a part of the show? We need to go through each of them, take a few mock tests and ask them to study a bit or they won't be able to answer any of the questions."

In a meeting room, the man with the bushy beard — The Producer who had met Wade was heading the meeting that was called to ensure that everything went well.

As they were going to deal with celebrities, it was best if they could have meaningful conversations. The audience would like anyone entertaining, so they were marking down people who they felt could be the ones they could focus on.

The program team couldn't afford to mess this up after all.

"I think out of all them, Rake is the most educated among all of them. He has a master's degree from Harvard, and I heard he's very smart."

One of the female employees said. Rake was a singer who was doing quite well in recent years and was trying to break into worldwide popularity by collaborating with different artists.

"Yeah, he could be the one to become the main selling point. Let's hope he can have good chemistry with the host."

"Yeah, but the others don't look too good. Liz seems like a good character, and she's pretty, and Rapper Lil Dog is a podcaster on the side, so he might do well on the game. Oh, yeah, Aiden Silvereye too. He seems to have a pretty sophisticated and cool personality from what we have about him, but the rest look pretty weak."

Everyone nodded at those words, and a few people sighed. There was a perception that a lot of celebrities were dumb because of saying things that they don't know a lot about due to trends or just because it's a prevalent issue.

Although the program team had tried to bring in smart people, a lot of them weren't free. They also weren't able to go for top-rated celebrities due to schedule and if they actually did it, the attention of the whole show would be on one person.

They didn't want that.

Those that they gathered were people from all sorts of professions: Singer, Actor, Rapper, Model and even Comedians. Due to the diverse cast, the program team didn't know who would do well among these.

"It's fine if others are weak. We just need a few smart guys. Not like everyone would reach the main game."

The producer again opened his mouth and seeing that the attention was back on him, he continued.

"Just make sure that the celebrities are well behaved and don't go around throwing tantrums. At the same time, try to get them to cooperate with each other. It's going to be embarrassing if some of them made it to the main game and weren't able to earn a lot."

"Won't it be better if they mess up? They are going to get trolled and a lot of attention will come to our show. Internet is vicious after all."

The producer shook his head at that comment.

"It might give momentary interest from the public but it's going to die down as soon as something else more interesting comes up. Moreover, these types of things only blow up after the program ends."

By his words, it was clear that he wanted to give a good program to the viewers watching the show. He didn't want to rely on something like devil's editing or waiting for the celebrities to make a fool of themselves.

"I want good episodes. No matter how, make sure that this week, our program is a big hit. Find a person among the celebrities that could truly get our ratings up!"

After deciding that Aiden was going to be a part of 'The Million Dollar Game', Wade quickly handled everything and talked to the crew about it. They were fine with it as the shooting of the reality show was going to just take two days.

Phineas even told him to go for a million dollars, so the focus of the audience would be on him going into the release of [Sherlock of the Shadows]. Of course, he was not serious and even Aiden knew that he realistically won't be able to answer every question successfully.

But he had the Lucky coupons that he was excited to try.

If he used them, then for the next hour, he would be extremely lucky and Aiden wanted to test them.

Though, he had decided to not use them until he really needed to. As he only had two of them, he needed to be a bit smart.

So, he hopped on a flight and moved to LA where the set of the 'The Million Dollar Game' was.

"You were on X-Star right? So you have some experience of reality TV shows already."

"Yeah, but I have never been to a game show before."

"Don't worry too much. You would do good. Not like we are a live show. Just enjoy the atmosphere and don't hesitate if you make it to the main game."

Aiden nodded at those words. He was currently talking to a tall, distinguished looking man in a suit. He had begun his career as a radio host before entering the TV industry. Aside from being a great host, he had also worked in a few movies and series in small roles.

His name was Nicolas Roberson, the host of 'The Million Dollar Game'. He was an old guy in his 50s who has brown hair and a few wrinkles on his face but he still appeared quite good.

Last Aiden saw of him was when he played an aristocrat in a medieval fantasy series about dragons and the role suited him a lot.

"Anyway, complete your styling. I will go visit the other contestants for today. Let's see each other on the stage."

After saying that, Nicolas left and Wade who was sitting in a corner opened his mouth. Next to him, there were few general knowledge books that Tom had brought for Aiden.

"He looks friendly."

"Yeah, I have heard good things about him. Looks like they aren't off."

Aiden sat down on his seat and the stylists started setting up his hair and doing light makeup on his face, so that he looked the best on the stage. He was casually wearing a white shirt and jeans that looked good on him.

His look would be complete after donning a jacket on top of it. Obviously, all his clothes were sponsored.

"We both know that Nicolas isn't going to cause any problems but I'm worried about the contestants. Wade started speaking as the stylist did his hair. "Other than you, there are a few that have a problematic past. At least rumors."

"I don't think it matters. I'm not competing against anyone other than the qualification round. If I reach the main game, then I would only have to talk to Nicolas."

"Still…"

Wade's voice trailed off and Aiden shook his head.

"Don't worry, I have a good feeling about today. Luck would be in my favour."

The shooting of the show soon began. Cameraman panned the cameras on the stage and the lighting crew did their work like the professionals they were. The producers and writers of the game show were backstage, keeping an eye on everything.

Reality TV shows were a lot of work and it was evident by the amount of time a program team had to give to shoot one episode.

Soon, Nicolas Roberson appeared on the stage with the introduction that the audience was already accustomed to.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to 'The Million Dollar Game'. Tonight, we have some special contestants that will be playing to win a million dollars in spite of a lot of them already being millionaires."

The jibe at the end made a few people in the audience chuckle. Nicolas took a glance at them and saw a few familiar faces working in the Panther TV network.

A lot of the employees get free passes to the live recording.

After that, Nicolas explained the whole segment that the weekend episodes would take and then invited all the celebrities participating today one by one.

His introduction of them was on point and it seemed like the celebrities were also given instructions on how to act but some of them still messed up. Like a comedian accidentally stuttering while speaking to Nicolas due to nervousness.

This was a very small thing but Aiden was sure that it could be edited out in the final edit.

He had first hand knowledge on how reality TV worked and how they could use anything to up their ratings. It was a game of life and death for them.

Aiden's introduction came at the very end.

"Now, for the final person that would be joining us today, it's Aiden Silvereye, a singer and actor that is taking America by storm."

A short and precise statement and Aiden was greeted by a round of applause.

After shaking hands with Nicolas and talking about how he had followed 'The Million Dollar Game' a lot and was grateful to be here, he sat down in a corner seat.

Nicolas turned to face the audience after the introductions finished.

"Now that everyone is here and everything is in place, let's begin 'The Million Dollar Game' and see if these celebrities would be able to go till the end and tell the world that they are worthy to be here."

The sounds of cheers and applause filled with the studio as the reality TV show began.

….

/DreamNote/

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Aiden was sitting next to a red-haired guy who was smiling to himself. He recognised him as Rake, a singer who was doing quite good these days.

He had not gotten a chance to meet him before.

They were sitting quite close in one of the corners, so a conversation couldn't help but start.

"Hello, I have heard your music before. It's quite good."

Rake said, looking at Aiden, who nodded.

"Thanks, I have heard yours too. I heard your latest single was in the top 10 of the Melody charts."

"Yeah, it was. It's quite an honour, to be honest. I'm trying to aim for the top spot in a couple of months with my next single that I'm working day and night on. Have you ever touched the Top 10 in Melody charts? You will understand my feelings better if you have."

"Yeah, one of my songs hit the top position once on the Global Top 50 singles."

"What?"

Rake's smiling expression fell completely upon hearing that. Had Aiden topped the charts before? That was something that he didn't know because he had never followed his music before.

He had heard a couple of songs, but that was it. He didn't know a lot about him aside from that, as Rake had the mentality of only caring about the singers ruling the entertainment industry for years.

He wanted to dethrone them.

But right now, he felt humiliated. His manager had certainly not given this information to Rake.

He had thought that he would start a conversation and try to make Aiden know that he was a senior and that he should be respectful, but it backfired badly.

Licking his dry lips, he quickly thought of another topic and opened his mouth.

"This game show looked like only educated guys would be able to do something. I'm pretty sure most of these have not gotten a good degree."

At that, Aiden responded.

"Yeah, but I don't think they need it either. They are doing good in their respective fields. The field of arts is a dead land, but you could still stumble upon gold here, and these people are doing pretty great if they are here."

Rake took time to collect his thoughts before speaking again.

"Your thoughts are very interesting. By the way, which college are you from? I'm from Stanford University. You obviously know it."

"Oh, I'm just from a college in India. Nothing major, and I dropped out early on to learn more about acting. So, you could say that I'm just a high school graduate."

"Ah, anyway, good luck."

Rake didn't say anything after that, but he secretly despised Aiden in his mind.

'He's just a high school graduate. I was silly thinking that he would do better than me.'

As a proud person, Rake wanted to go for the million-dollar amount as he felt like he had vast knowledge of a lot of things in the world and he would be able to surpass every expectation.

At this point, he didn't know that being educated doesn't mean being smart. Stupidity is something prevalent in both educated and uneducated people.

The show started with Nicolas beginning the qualification round in which the contestant had to organise four answers in a specific sequence stated within the question (earliest to latest).

It was typically something that was played more than once in an episode.

It was won by Liz, an actress that Aiden knew of as she was a big star in a hit British television series. Rake frowned when he lost the qualification round on the first try as he was only a second later than her.

But other people relaxed.

It was better for someone to face the main game first before them. Aiden also kept looking at her, and he had to say that she was pretty good. She talked about how her dad was a researcher, and that generally helped her be better at knowing lots of stuff.

She also played well as she was able to reach the first milestone of 5k dollars without wasting any lifelines. But after that, as the questions got tougher, she lost a few lifelines and was barely able to cross past the 50k dollar milestone.

There were no more milestones after that, so she needed to tread carefully. Unfortunately for her, just after crossing 100k, she gave a wrong answer, and in the end, she was left with 50k dollars as the winning prize, which was still pretty good.

Most contestants would also end up at this amount.

"She did pretty well."

"I know right. I don't even know if I will be able to cross 50k. I'm already scared."

"Pretty sure the program team is going to put on a lot of her scenes. She earned only 50k, but she has fun conversations which are going to work in her favour."

Whispers about her performance were rampant among the contestants as Liz came back to her seat. After that, another qualification round began and this time again, Aiden lost.

'I really need to do better.'

He said, looking at the timing at which he had given his answer. He was in the third position. He decided that if he couldn't win the next time, he would use the Lucky coupon.

Till then, he needed to see Rake, who finally won the round, move to the main game.

'Let's see how good you are.'

Aiden thought in his mind as he closely observed him, wondering how he would do when he was so confident.

Rake started out pretty much the same as Liz with a strong start, but he lost a lifeline while reaching the first milestone.

His journey was smoother till the second one as he played much better, only losing one more lifeline. Having crossed both lifelines, Rake entered the final part of the game where he could earn the big bucks.

He seemed pretty excited as he talked about how he was sleeping with general knowledge books after getting an invitation to the show.

To that, Nicolas sarcastically commented, "You must have a lonely life to be sleeping with books. Who said that being famous gets you laid?"

It was a funny joke, but Rake's face was something to be seen. He was trying to gather all the acting he had in him to keep smiling, but he clearly looked baffled by the joke.

Aiden saw the cameraman zooming on Rake's face as he struggled to smile and immediately guessed that it was going to be on the final edit.

After that, the show moved as Rake quickly wasted too many lifelines, and by the time he had reached 250k, he didn't know the answer, but he was very stubborn as an individual.

If he had just walked away, he would have gotten 100k as the prize money, but in the end, he played and just made a wild guess, hoping that it would hit the mark.

But that didn't happen.

He lost out on 250k and went straight to 50k. When he returned to his seat, he was constantly frowning, feeling angry at himself for not being able to achieve what he wanted to.

"This game is too hard. I bet the other contestants also won't be able to get more than 50k."

His words were clearly heard by Aiden, who just shook his head.

"We have two exciting contestants already who did pretty well. Now, let's start the qualification round again and see who gets to sit with me to fight his way to a million dollars."

Nicolas said and started the qualification round again. This time, Aiden was pretty fast as he quickly arranged the answer in the correct sequence. The question was to arrange rivers in order of shortest to longest.

Thankfully, he knew about it as he had read it.

After a while, the results were out and taking his time, Nicolas revealed it.

"Now, let's see who the winner is."

On the big screen, the names started to come up from the celebrity who had done the worst to the best. Aiden's name came up only after a while, and it was at the top this time.

'I got it the fastest.'

He thought and looked at Nicolas, who also looked back at him and clapped his hand.

"So, this time, the contestant we are going to be playing with is Aiden Silvereye, someone who is talented in a lot of fields and has shown signs of a great and illustrious career going forward."

Nicolas shook hands with Aiden as he gestured to him to walk towards the seat. In the crowd, he could see Wade smiling while Tom looked a lot excited and at the same time, he was almost regretting that he couldn't take pics from his phone.

As Aiden sat down on the seat, Nicolas introduced him to the rules of the game.

There were going to be 12 questions, and the difficulty was going to increase with each level. He would also have 4 lifelines, all of them very different from each other in nature, and he could use them whenever he wanted to.

Till he reached the second milestone, there was going to be a timer of 60 seconds, and if he failed to answer in that time, he would lose.

"Now that the rules are clear let's begin the game."

Nicolas said, and taking a deep breath, Aiden nodded.

The first question appeared on the screen, and seeing it, Aiden smiled. It was something that he knew.

….

/DreamNote/

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The first question was for only 100 dollars, and it was probably the easiest question of the game.

[Which of these mythical creatures breathe fire?]

It was a question that most people in the world would know of. The choices were Unicorn, Dragon, Centaur and Griffin.

Aiden already knew the answer without relying on the choices.

"Dragon."

He said, and the answer was locked, and as everyone expected, it was the right answer.

But there was hardly any excitement in the air. The first few questions were supposed to be really easy, and most people could answer them.

The game moved on as Aiden correctly answered the second and third questions. Wade and Tom were relieved seeing him easily handling the game.

It was only on the question of 1000 dollars that Aiden's streak stopped as he didn't know the right answer.

'Um, this is a difficult one.'

He thought, looking at the question.

[For over 50 years, what treat was traditionally included in packs of baseball trading cards?]

Aiden didn't watch baseball, so he had no clue about it. The options also didn't incite any hope.

Chocolate wafer, Gummy bear, Mint stick, Bubblegum — These were the four options, and Aiden was smart enough not to make a wild guess.

"Are you going to use a lifeline? The timer is ticking."

Nicolas said, glancing at the timer, which was on 35 seconds. Aiden didn't have a lot of time, and the expression on his face was clear enough for Nicolas to know that he didn't know the answer.

But Aiden shook his head.

"No, I think I will try on my own."

Using lifelines was something that was of no use to him because he had a bigger lifeline in his system. Deciding that it was the moment to test up the Luck coupons, he opened his system and used one of them.

A golden light flashed upon him, but Nicolas had no idea. No one in the studio could see it other than Aiden, who suddenly felt a bit giddy, but it soon died down.

Another type of sensation took over him. This time, it was a good sensation, making him feel like he could do anything.

"Only 15 seconds are left."

Nicolas brought him back to the question in front of him, and Aiden quickly went with his instincts and made a guess.

"D. Bubblegum."

"Are you sure? Should I lock it?" Nicolas asked to confirm, and Aiden nodded his head.

In the crowd, Wade looked visibly nervous, and Tom was already biting on his nails, anticipating Nicolas' response.

"You have selected Option D and it's… correct."

Nicolas said, and on the computer screen, the option became green, signalling that it was indeed the correct one.

Aiden took a sigh of relief.

'I could rely on it.'

He thought in his mind and became more confident about the game. They quickly moved on to the next questions after that, and Aiden kept making blind guesses.

[A parasol is a lightweight form of what accessory?]

[Seaweed is a form of what?]

[Which is known as the oldest religion in the world?]

To Nicolas and everyone's surprise, Aiden answered them all correctly and without wasting any time. It was like he already knew the answer to every question.

His atmosphere was completely different than before, and he seemed unstoppable suddenly.

He answered every question really quickly and soon, he had passed the second milestone of 50k dollars and was at the question of 100k.

It should be noted that this was the last part of the game. After 100k, there were only 250k, 500k and 1 million, but as it was the tensest part, most people would lose.

"What happened to Aiden suddenly?"

Sitting in the crowd, Wade couldn't help but ask that of Tom, who had a wide smile on his face.

"I don't know. Maybe my general knowledge books helped. He's dominating the game till now and hasn't used up any lifelines. That's the big part."

"Yeah. Like this, he could easily end up with 250k or 500k even if he uses all his lifelines."

"No, I think he wants to go for the million dollars."

Wade didn't say anything to that and just focused on the stage where Nicolas was explaining the last part to Aiden and how the time limit won't be present in it, so he could take as much time as possible.

"A lot of people would fail at this part as it gets pretty tense. How about you? Do you feel nervous?"

Nicolas asked, trying to make small talk to keep the audience engaged. The personality of the contestant and chemistry with the host was also a part of the show.

"Not a lot. It's good to know that I would earn 50k thousand dollars even if I failed from here."

"Having all your lifelines would also give you a sense of relief."

"Yes, I'm happy that I have that."

Aiden smiled, thinking to himself that the Lucky coupon was working very well. Only 30 minutes have passed since he had used it, so he could very well end up at a million dollars.

"Now, the question for 100k dollars on your screen."

[In 1911, what did explorer Hiram Bingham discover between two peaks in the Andes mountain?]

It was another question that Aiden had no idea about, but like always, he went for a blind slog.

"A. City of Machu Picchu."

Nicolas was a bit surprised by his swift answer. He thought that Aden was in a hurry due to the time limit, but even without it, he had answered 10 seconds after the question had come on his screen.

'Is he just guessing? No, the expression on his face is one of confidence. He probably read about it.'

He thought in his mind before asking.

"Are you sure? You can take your time if you want?"

"No, I'm confident. It's option A."

Nicolas wasn't able to say anything back to that confident tone and locked the answer.

On the seats where the celebrities were sitting, Rake couldn't help but mutter to himself.

"He's too proud. I'm pretty sure that's the wrong answer. He didn't even take time to think before answering."

Other celebrities were thinking at the same time. In their view, Aiden seemed like a proud guy who was sure that his answer wouldn't be wrong.

These types of people would often lose in the end.

But nothing like that happened.

"That's the correct answer!"

As soon as Nicolas said, wild applause rang out as people stared at Aiden. All of them were impressed with Aiden and had the same thought in their minds.

'He probably read about it, so he knew straight away.'

It was a logical conclusion that they drew.

But on the next question for 250k, the same thing happened.

Nicolas asked the question, and without even wasting a second, Aiden gave out his answer. The host was baffled, but he still locked it, and it turned out to be the correct answer.

A commotion went up when that happened.

"How's he doing it? He's now at 500k."

"All the lifelines are still there. Damn, is he too smart, or he already knows which questions would be asked? Don't tell me they are manipulating it?"

"There's no reason to. There are other celebrities in the show. If they favour someone too much, they won't like it. Moreover, the program team is smart enough not to kill their own show."

"Yeah, the audience would be on their backs with knives if there's really cheating involved."

"Aiden is too smart."

The audience members talked like that while their gazes kept fixed on Aiden. The celebrities were already shocked to the core and had lost their ability to even say anything.

Especially Rake.

No one had expected something like that.

Behind the stage, the writers, crew members and producers were also present. The producer with the bushy beard was talking with an assistant with a perplexed expression on his face.

"Did you check if everything is good? There's no malfunction, right? Don't tell me the computer is correcting any answers?"

"No, they all are correct. He's answering them right, and you know better that there's no cheating involved."

The assistant quickly said, and the producer looked at Aiden on the stage before muttering.

"Then, how's he doing it?"

One of the staff members who was standing nearby opened his mouth at that time.

"Sir, Aiden is very smart. He's a musician, actor and a novelist — A man with so many talents would obviously be smart."

"Yeah, but he's answering too quickly. That's what is baffling everyone."

Another staff member said, and the producer clicked his tongue.

"Let's see if he could do the same for the 500k dollars question."

Their gazes moved back to the stage, where Nicolas swept off the sweat on his forehead with a handkerchief before continuing the game.

He had gotten too nervous watching Aiden.

The question for 500k came on the screen.

[When three celestial bodies form a straight line, what is it called?]

It was a question related to space, and most of the audience had no idea about it. Most of the options were words they were seeing first time in their lives.

Some people in the audience wanted to just request Aiden to take his time as he was too high to answer so fast, but he didn't listen.

He again wildly guessed the answer in a second.

"B. Syzygy."

Sighing, Nicolas locked it and then, in the next second, the option turned green.

A wild cheer rang out.

Everyone was stunned. The audience, Wade, Tom, the other celebrities, producers and crew — It had been a complete wild ride.

Aiden had made his way through a million dollars and was on the verge of making history.

This was simply unprecedented!

….

/DreamNote/

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In the history of 'The Million Dollar Game', there has never been a moment where a celebrity had earned a million dollars.

Only 3 times had a contestant won the grand prize, and every time that happened, people went crazy.

It was not like no one had reached 500k dollars before. More than a dozen people had, but only 3 of them actually became millionaires.

Just being in this position was something that most people couldn't deal with.

After all, it was too hard of a thing to do.

The pressure, the feeling where you didn't know if your answer was correct even if you thought it was, and the fear of losing out on 500k dollars if they actually went for the million dollars.

It took real courage to even attempt the question.

But unlike them, Aiden looked like he was on a vacation. A slight smile was on his face, his body was relaxed, and he was having a short conversation with Nicolas. People were stunned to see him like that.

He was going to attempt the million-dollar question, but the audience looked more nervous than him. Did he not feel the pressure? Or was he too confident?

Going by his style of playing till now, it was probably the second.

After all, he had passed every round like it was nothing. Only at the start had Aiden taken his time, but after getting used to it, he had given answers as soon as the question had come up.

His every little action reeked of confidence.

Moreover, he still had all the lifelines available to him. In the entire history of the game show, never had something like this happen before.

Aiden had already made history. Whether he would win the million dollars or not would be an entirely different thing, but just reaching this position with a reckless playing style was bound to make a few headlines.

"How do you feel? A lot of people just feel surreal when they are about to try out the million-dollar question."

Nicolas asked, very interested in knowing what was going through his mind. As Aiden looked too calm, it was hard to read his face.

"Well, I'm obviously nervous." At that remark, Nicolas always mouthed out that he didn't look like that. "A million dollars is a lot of money, so it feels like I'm on the verge of achieving something big. There's pressure because of that."

"I don't want to add up to the pressure, but if you are able to be successful in answering the last question, then you will be the first millionaire of our season, and all the money would go to a charity organisation, so you would be doing a massive thing."

A few people in the crowd clapped for that.

"Am I really a millionaire if I'm not getting the money?"

Aiden joked, and Nicolas laughed before becoming serious and looking at his computer screen.

"Jokes aside, let's go to the last question."

He said, and the audience tensed up. The atmosphere felt like it was pressing their hearts as the last question appeared on the screen.

[Which insect shorted out an early supercomputer and inspired the term 'Computer bug'?]

The options were Moth, Roach, Fly and Japanese beetle.

The people in the audience whispered as the question came up. Most of them obviously didn't know how that term had come up and about its origin.

A lot of them wondered whether Aiden knew it. Even if he didn't, they wanted him to think carefully about it and then think of an answer.

At least most of them expected him to do that.

"I'm ready with my answer."

When those words left his mouth, a lot of people in the audience made complex expressions. Nicolas sighed and shook his head like he was already expecting it.

Sitting in the audience stand, Wade wanted to run up to Aiden and just punch him a bit and tell him to take his time with the question. Not like they had a flight to catch.

Tom had his eyes and ears closed with his hand, not wanting to see this. He was sweating too much, even if the studio had AC.

"Are you sure?" Nicolas asked to confirm.

"Yeah, I'm. The answer is A. Moth."

"It's a million-dollar question. Don't you think you should put more time into it? You might miss the mark this time."

A couple of people in the audience nodded their heads hearing that.

"If I think too much, then I might start doubting the correct answer. Just lock it."

"Okay."

Nicolas had no choice and the answer was locked.

A second passed by and the atmosphere in the studio just got heavy. Nicolas finally opened his mouth and looked at Aiden.

"What made you select it as the answer? You could have taken your time. You have all the time in the world."

"I was just sure of it. Moth was the reason behind the term 'computer bug'."

"It could have been a roach."

Aiden's expression fell upon hearing that. Was the time in his Lucky coupon over, and he had actually given a wrong answer?

'No, there's still five minutes left.'

He thought and assured himself.

"It's not a roach for sure."

"Okay then." Nicolas took a deep breath. "If you have locked down a roach, then you would have lost out on a million dollars. Congratulations! Moth is the correct answer! You won!"

Golden petals were showered over it as Nicolas announced the result. Aiden stood up from his chair with a big smile on his face as Nicolas gave him a hug.

"Congrats."

He muttered, happy to get a million-dollar winner.

Both Tom and Wade hugged each other as Aiden won the million dollars. They weren't able to believe it.

Before the show, they had expected Aiden to win 250k at best if he was lucky. They had never expected him to get the highest prize — A whole million dollars.

Although it would go to charity, just having the capability was a big thing. Wade very well knew what this episode was going to do for Aiden's brand image.

"He actually did. I never knew he was so smart."

"He looked smart. Didn't you see him? He has that serene air around him, and he looked so cool, answering without any worries like he knew everything."

"It really seemed like he knows everything."

"He probably does."

"No, he doesn't know when I would lose my virginity."

"If that's a question on the show, then three options would be never, and the fourth one would be you dying young."

"I never knew celebrities could be this smart. I should get his autograph and follow him on social media."

"Shouldn't he be a scholar or something with this much knowledge?"

Audience members chatted among themselves like that as on the stage, Nicolas presented Aiden with the cheque of a million dollars. The camera zoomed on them as the host announced.

"All this money would be going to charity and this young man today has done something incredible, truly incredible for his age. Let's give him a round of applause."

Everyone cheered and clapped on that. Even the other celebrities did that and a few female ones were even getting a crush on him. No one hated a smart guy.

Even Rake had to admit that Aiden was simply unbelievable.

He was still wondering how Aiden had managed to do it. It almost seemed like a child's play from an audience's perspective.

On the other hand, Aiden was pretty happy.

'Lucky Coupon is great. It's really powerful.'

Every guess of his had become the correct answer.

He had checked the power of Lucky coupons, and he knew that the remaining one needed to be handled well and he could only use it in a major emergency.

On backstage, the producer with the bushy beard couldn't help but feel elated, seeing such a scene in front of him.

'The ratings are going to blow up.'

The ratings of the show had always gone up when a contestant had reached the million-dollar question and he instinctively knew that Aiden's playing style would be very popular among the audience.

He was even a celebrity, so the reception would be far more.

At the same time, this was also going to cause trouble as audiences would doubt and some would say that it's a scam. In the first, it happened with a few million-dollar winners.

As a celebrity, Aiden would be scrutinised way more.

So, the producer needed to prepare for a situation like this when the program aired on television.

"Damn, Aiden sure has a brain. I heard that Indians are smart but didn't know this."

"I think it's not because of race. He just doesn't look like a smart guy, or you won't expect something in showbiz to be knowledgeable. They are more likely to be cunning, so it comes as more shocking."

"Should I get Aiden on my show? It's a dating show, but he might be fit. A segment of smart guys."

"Hey, don't say that. I already decided to ask him to be a guest on my dance reality show."

"You all… at least ask him first. You don't even have his agent's number yet."

As the producer was thinking of ways to edit and market the episodes, the backstage had been filled with producers from different shows who were shooting in the vicinity and had heard the commotion about Aiden.

So, they came here.

One of them was Gary, the producer of X-Star, whose eyes couldn't help but shine seeing Aiden.

…

/DreamNote/

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After Aiden won the million dollars, the crew took a break for the shooting as everyone needed some time to process what they had seen.

Aiden moved to the backstage where Wade and Tom were already waiting for him.

"What had happened to you back then?"

Wade asked, staring at Aiden's face. One of his hands was on his shoulders as he shook it with excitement. Tom stood next to them smiling equally.

From time to time, he would mutter something like "This is a great episode. I never expected this", to himself.

"Nothing happened. I just tried to do my best."

"And won a fucking million."

"Not like I'm getting that."

"Yeah, but do you think it's something of a small feat? 'The Million Dollar Game' is a big show, the top rated game show in America. You winning the million dollars would have caught social media on fire. We are going to benefit so much from it. Even if we use a million dollars on your marketing, it won't have this effect. Moreover, your style of playing…"

Aiden tilted his head as Wade tried to gather words.

"What about my style of playing?"

"It was too cool." Wade said.

"You gave the impression of a suave spy who's negotiating with the villain with complete control over the situation, at least that's the impression I got."

Tom added and Aiden thought about it for a bit. He did give that type of impression. He guessed that it was probably an effect of using the Lucky coupon.

He had felt like nothing could go wrong with him. He could go jump off a high rise building and he would get saved no matter what. An inner sense of confidence has engulfed him at that moment, making him feel invincible.

He had to say that Luck was almost a superpower.

"Anyway, your style of playing would just get you more fans when the episode airs. I'm pretty sure they are going to edit the episode with you in the focus." Wade muttered, then an idea struck his mind. "It's better if I have a talk with the producer about it."

Saying that, he left Aiden and Tom alone to go find the producer with a bushy beard.

As Wade left, a lot of eyes have gathered on him — Staff members, crew, celebrities that were appearing on the show alongside him, and a few producers.

All looked at him.

It was not like they weren't glancing at him before. Most people were looking at him with either admiration and jealousy since he had won a million dollars.

They weren't approaching because of Wade's large frame but now that he was gone, a few people decided to approach Aiden.

It was a group of producers who were working on different shows for Panther TV network.

They came to Aiden's side while smiling.

"I was very shocked seeing you do so well on the show. You do look like the smart type. I'm Jack Leecher, the producer for 'Relationship Issues'."

One of the producers said, handing Aiden his card. The others followed suit, congratulating him and introducing themselves and their shows.

Aiden easily guessed that they wanted to get a better relationship with him and invite him to their shows, thinking that he had a knack of doing well in them.

'I don't mind a few connections.'

He thought and took the cards but didn't respond positively to their offers. He can't agree to anything as without the Lucky coupon, he would at best be average in a reality show. Until it's about acting or singing.

'He don't look like the type to give in to flattery.'

One of the producers thought and looked at a guy with brown hair.

"Actually, this guy, Gary, is the producer of X-Star. You were a contestant back then, remember. I don't know if you two ever met."

Gary's expression cracked a bit as he awkwardly tried to shake Aiden's hand.

"No, I have never met him before."

Aiden said, making an expression of realisation. He had only met Marlo from X-Star and the contestants would probably only meet with the producers if they enter the grand finales.

So, he never met Gary.

"Yeah, when I saw you on X-Star, I knew that you were going to be a star. We focused a lot on you because of that."

Gary said and Aiden smiled.

"Is that why you edited out episodes to make it look like I like Rachel?"

"Ah, well… that was an old thing. A trick you might say." Gary hesitated to talk. "In the end, you did get more attention because of it."

Aiden didn't say anything to that and as the atmosphere started becoming awkward, Gary quickly added.

"Well, I'm getting a new show actually. It's basically about celebrities trying to survive in different climates with survival experts. We are thinking of a wide range for the program—"

"I'm sorry but I'm really busy the next few months."

Aiden quickly interrupted him and Gary stubbornly refused to give up.

"Can't there be any free schedule?"

"I am in the middle of the shooting for my Zetflix series. After it ends, I was thinking of taking a break. You see, I have been working nonstop for a long time. My body can't take too much pressure. So, I can't do a reality TV show."

His answer was precise and no one was able to say anything back. Gary's expression wasn't good and the other producers also understood that it was happening due to Gary editing Aiden's scenes in a proactive way when he was a powerless contestant.

But now, he is a celebrity. A true one that only seemed to be going higher and higher.

Aiden left after that, saying he wanted to drink some water and rest. After he was gone, the other producers turned to Gary.

"You reap what you sow."

"Shut up. He's forgetting that no one in the industry is untouchable. He's fine since he's taking the right steps but once he takes a bad one, he will start having it hard."

After the shooting for 'The Million Dollar Game' was over, Aiden quickly went back to the set of [Sherlock of the Shadows].

It was already August and the shooting was on the final act.

Phineas had divided the series into three acts with the first one being the introduction, second one being the middle and the last act was the one where Finn would get a good grip on his powers, solve the mystery of the suicides going in the town and become a bigger part of the supernatural world.

The ending itself was a box full of surprises, having many things in it. It was written keeping in mind that Finn was still a teenage detective and was new to the supernatural.

When Aiden returned to the set, he had goals in his mind.

He wanted to give his all to the character and try to reach better dimensions with it. The shooting of the last two episodes was the hardest with a lot of action scenes.

Here, Aiden's boxing training was coming into play.

Even if it wasn't a lot, Aiden was able to do them himself and the production crew was keeping care of any injuries, so it was mostly safe.

Most of the fight scenes were shot keeping VFX in mind, so they were pretty different from what Aiden originally had in his mind.

[Character list:

Finn Wheeler

-80 percent affinity

-You played the role with the perfect mental image of the character. The nature of your immersion helped you bring out the emotions in the most raw manner.

-You have maxed out the affinity.]

That's what the character list was telling him about Finn. His affinity was maxed out, confirming that Aiden was doing a great job with the role.

He had also been satisfied till now with his performance but he also wanted to go past it. It was getting harder and harder for him to level up his skills as time was passing and he knew that being content with the affinity won't help his cause.

When he had asked Jeremy about it, the old man had thought for a bit before speaking.

"I think that sometimes your acting gets better on its own but you need to sacrifice for it. An actor tries to keep a connection with the character and then plays him keeping his mental image in mind. Mind controls the body but the best acting comes out only if you give in to the character."

"How?"

"Surrender." Jeremy had said. "Try to not just think like the character, breathe like it. Embrace his strength, insecurities and even… fears. Until you do that, you won't reach that zone that humans could rarely imagine. Though, you would need a therapist after that. I knew a guy who was playing a psychopath and he started breathing like the character, his co-stars started getting death notes from him, written in blood."

Aiden obviously didn't want to reach that level where he becomes a criminal but he did want to try out breathing like a character.

Being so good that the character becomes synonymous to you.

For experienced actors, it comes from a state of experience and sharpening of their methods but Aiden was the most unique actor in the world.

He didn't need experience when he had immersion and there was only way for him to truly breathe like the character.

'Embrace the fear… powers… ghosts.'

He thought, making a decision to truly leave a mark on the character of Finn Wheeler.

…

/DreamNote/

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"Let's give our best, guys. We are on the last scene. After that, it's a wrap. You all have worked very hard throughout the shooting and I hope you could give a last push so we could end on a high note."

Phineas shouted, his eyes looking at the crew members that were also focusing on him. They all smiled hearing his words.

Their eyes reflected how much they had worked hard on [Sherlock of the Shadows]. From day one to today, they had given their best and all of them knew that the project was going to be a big deal when it finally got released.

Just knowing that made them feel great.

A successful project was akin to a few right steps in their careers.

"Don't worry, director."

"We are all pumped to shoot the last scene."

"It would turn out great."

"Let's go to the bar after it all wraps!"

They all let out excited shouts, full of vigour and happiness. On the side, a few actors who were present in the scene were getting their makeup done.

All of them were currently shooting in a studio as the last scene involved a lot of VFX and use of green screen. The crew had prepared a lot of props to make sure that the scene would go well.

One of them was Jeremy who was playing Mike. He would be one of the most important characters in this scene alongside Aiden.

"Jeremy, have you seen Aiden?"

Phineas asked him, unable to find him in the vicinity. Jeremy took a look around before replying.

"He got his makeup done and told me that he wanted to be alone to prepare for the scene. Just get the set ready and he will come."

"Okay. I would still send a staff member to look for him."

Jeremy didn't say anything to that and Phineas asked one of the female staff members to look for Aiden. She searched up the whole studio and asked people but didn't find Aiden.

'Where is he?'

She thought, hoping that Aiden hadn't just left the set for some weird reason. A lot of celebrities sometimes would do that but after thinking for a bit, she shook that thought of her mind.

Aiden didn't give that impression.

As she was wondering where he was, her eyes landed on Tom, Aiden's assistant who was surfing the internet on his phone in a corner.

"You are Aiden's assistant right?"

"Yeah."

"Director Phineas is looking for him. Where is he?"

Tom put the phone in his pocket before replying.

"He actually wanted to be left alone for some reason. He's just outside the studio, just standing still, trying to get into the character."

He gestured to the door that led to the outside and the staff member followed him. Turning around a corner, they found Aiden right beside the parking lot.

"Here is he—"

The female staff member's face froze for a bit, looking at Aiden's expression. His face showed no signs of emotions but his eyes… a lot was contained in them.

It was very hard to describe.

They looked full of life but empty. If she could look through Aiden's gaze, she would have noticed a few system notifications in the air.

[You have decided to remove the safety protocol.]

[Your skill level isn't high enough to control a scene with supernatural elements. You are advised to turn on the safety protocol.]

[You would be taking a huge risk.]

[Your high affinity with the character 'Finn Wheeler' would help you negate the effect of immersion but it would undoubtedly have some effects that might take time to heal.]

Aiden just needed to think of turning off the safety protocol and it automatically happened.

He knew the repercussions it might have but it was a chance to reach another level in his acting.

Moreover, if he could really leave a performance that might shock the audience, then his stakes were inevitably going to rise. Having no backing, Aiden needed to play on his talent and audience support.

That would only happen if they thought that he was someone special.

'I can't think too much about it. I just need to do my best.'

He thought, finally noticing the staff member.

The final scene in [Sherlock of the Shadows] was one in which a lot of mysteries would get solved. Every case that Finn had taken in the show would come in full circle at the end as he would solve every mystery.

Naturally, all of it was done by supernatural means.

The twist would be that Finn would get the main culprit behind all the incidents wrong as it would turn out that he was being mind controlled. It was then that Mike would come out and reveal himself as the main villain.

All the disappearances, murders were done to bring together a prophecy that could help bring the dead back to life and Mike had done it all for his family. He had been waiting for years for it.

Here, a fight between both Finn and Mike would start.

Actually, they had already shot most of the fight scenes one by one as Finn would mostly be dodging around the whole fight, his powers being very defensive in nature.

The stunt sequences were shot with the help of a stunt double. Though, Aiden did a few of them himself.

The final fight scene was divided between several shots that were taken individually and Phineas had left out the final part for today.

It was the part where Finn's powers would go out of his control and even Mike won't be able to do anything about it, making Finn experience the worst of the ghosts that he was almost used to.

He would see their lives before they died and in all that, the town would start getting affected and cracks would start to form in the reality of the spirit world and earth.

It was only in the end that Finn would be able to get a grip on his powers.

"Everyone, are you ready?"

Phineas asked, looking from behind the camera. His gaze lingered on Aiden, Mike and the actors wearing motion capture suits, playing ghosts.

"We are ready."

"Okay."

He signalled one of the assistants to drop the slate and with a distinct sound, the scene began.

[Sherlock of the Shadows15 August-2017Act 9Scene 9Take 1]

As the immersion hit, Aiden became Finn and his world shifted vastly. He was not in the studio anymore but on a grassland. Mike was facing him, looking at him with astonishment on his face.

Finn followed his gaze and saw a ghost circling around him, tongues coming out from every part of his grey, sinister body.

Half of his face was burnt and he had a sadistic smile on his face.

'You are my servant.'

'I control you.'

'You are my serva—'

Aiden tried to control him but he was unable to. While reciting, a sharp pain hit his mind and he staggered to his feet. The pain dispersed but out of nowhere, more and more ghosts appeared out of what he could only term as a portal.

"You are paying the price of being the only person capable of living in the world of living and death. Without a proper master, your powers have gone berserk."

Mike muttered, looking over at Finn who was trying to kick the ghosts at his feet.

Knowing that if he didn't do anything, Finn would die and the town would become a desolate land, he brought forth his ghosts and attacked the ghosts that had appeared out of the portal.

His ghosts slashed at them and a battle started.

"Finn, control your powers. These ghosts are coming because your power is leaking. They want to feed from it and return to the world of living."

"What?"

"Until you control it, we are all going to die. I'm not powerful enough."

Mike shouted at Finn as he dodged the attack of ghosts.

'If I could control it, I would have already done it.'

Finn thought to himself, stomping his foot on the head of the ghosts, making him yelp in pain.

In his mind, he was trying his best to control it but it was to no avail. His powers felt like they were slipping out of his grasp every second.

At that moment, a hand suddenly grabbed him from behind.

It was a red coloured ghost that looked akin to devils from folktales. Finn tried to get out of his grasp but another ghost came in front of him and held his hands tightly, its claws scratching the surface of his skin to bleed.

Finn tried to head butt the ghosts but nothing happened. The ghosts laughed at him and by the second, his hand was bleeding more and more while other ghosts kept gripping on his shoulders.

He was locked in one place.

"Let me go!!"

Finn screamed but he was met with silence. By the second, more and more ghosts that looked eerie and grotesque were coming out of nowhere, surrounding him.

All of them had a greedy look in their eyes.

"Human…"

The ghost in front of him said, his voice akin to a snake.

"I'm your master. You are my servant. Ahhh!"

Finn tried to use his powers once again but the ghosts put his hand on his face, his claws giving him scars.

As he shook his body and struggled, the ghost whispered in his ear.

"Give me your body, fears… Agree to me and I will take away your fears… forever."

The world went black after that.

…

/DreamNote/

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[Sherlock of the Shadows15 August-2017Act 9Scene 9Take 1]

As the world went black, Finn found himself in an entirely different space. Images flashed past him as he struggled to keep his eyes open.

Something hit and he felt like someone was banging on his head with a hammer. Even though he should have died, he was sturdy and hence, the hits got stronger and stronger.

"Ahhhh!!"

He screamed as the pain got too much to bear. With images, the voices also started ringing in his ear.

'You should die.'

'You don't deserve this power.'

'Your father was a coward.'

'You are always going to kill people just because you are cursed by fate.'

Those words hit him like nothing before. When he opened his eyes, he saw several lives flashing in front of him. Those were not from his life.

He instinctively knew that these images were from the life of ghosts that were trying to kill him to take away his power. As he went through their lives, he understood why the ghosts had turned so evil.

None of the lives were good. They were the lives of killers, kidnappers, harassers and every type of people that were harmful to society.

There were obviously motives behind their actions. Bad childhood, education, the overall depressing life but it didn't excuse their actions. Life was never fair and the only thing that mattered was how someone would behave even after knowing that fact.

These people had not turned good even after dying and just caused trouble.

Their memories hurt him in the worst possible way as negative emotions started eating away on his soul. He was sure at that moment that he was going to die.

'Finn…'

The images became worse as the ghosts increased their grip on his body. Every part of his body had started to bleed now and they were now tearing away at his soul — The source of his power.

'Look at me…'

He was sure at that moment that he wouldn't last. His power was too much for him and he couldn't control it. He couldn't save anyone. Real life didn't work like that.

'Get a grip on yourself. You are better than this.'

'Ah…'

Suddenly, he heard a voice that was very familiar to him. Looking around in the flashes of the ghost's life, he found a distinct light that was standing out, like a quiet corner where no noise reached.

The light slowly turned to become like his father.

"How is it possible?" Finn muttered, his eyes suddenly seeing a bit of hope.

"Don't worry about that now. You are in a bad situation. Your soul is in danger. The powers of yours are out of control and the ghosts are taking advantage of it."

"I can't control it."

"You need to. Remember the power is yours. You control the ghosts. They don't control you. You are good enough to get out of this situation. Just remember my advice."

The light disappeared like it was never there at that moment.

'Advice… What advice…'

Finn thought and he remembered it after going through his memories. It was something that his father would often say.

'Remember, everything is possible until you don't give up. More often than not, it's not about your talent or skills, it's about how much longer you could keep your ground. In the boxing ring, I was paid to stand there and take hits. If I had given up, I would have lost. Longevity exceeds everything, so hope till your body is crushed.'

Remembering the advice, Finn tried to again concentrate on stabilising his powers as the ghosts tried hard to eat it away.

But he was unable to do that.

The flowing power from inside him wasn't stopping and he was only able to stop it for a second before it would slip away.

'Fuck. I can't do it!'

He thought and it was at that moment that an idea struck him. It was risky but he felt like it was the only way that would work here.

He remembered the time when he had first gotten his powers. He wasn't able to control it and a ghost had been attacking him at that time. Recalling that incident, Finn stopped trying to control his powers.

On the other hand, Mike was still trying to fight the ghosts and trying to keep away from Finn, knowing full well that all would die if the ghosts really got Finn's powers.

It was then that something strange happened.

A big surge of power erupted from Finn, throwing away the ghosts that were eating on him. Mike widened his eyes seeing that as Finn's screams echoed in the distance.

'No way… he's not trying to control his powers. Instead…'

Finn was trying to let his powers lose, making them go out of control so much that the ghosts themselves won't be able to contain it. Feeling so much energy coming from Finn, Mike's legs started shaking and he stumbled to the ground.

"It's impossible… he won't survive."

He muttered as his eyes kept glued to the indescribable scene in front of him. The ghosts tried to consume the power coming out from Finn but one by one, the power started eating on them.

It became too much for them and they exploded, like firecrackers, their bodies turning into dust.

Finn kept screaming, the power unable to contain itself inside him. At one point, his screams turned into cries of help but there was no saving him.

'He's crippling himself.'

Mike thought as every ghost in the vicinity died. The portrals that they had come from were nowhere to be seen but a dark energy kept coming out of Finn as he struggled on the ground.

His nose was bleeding and there were scars that were forming on his body. His soul was depleting itself and it was hard for Mike to say if he would even survive.

It was only after a long time that Finn calmed down. The power flowing through him died down and Finn became unconscious.

It was then that a distinct voice came out.

"Cut!"

With that, the illusion of immersion broke and the scene returned to the studio where everyone who had watched the scene was in awe.

"Wow. That was scary!"

"I got chills on my body. See, the hair on my arms is standing."

"How can he act like that? Won't he get an Emmy for his performance!"

"Maybe. I mean, he clearly overshadowed Jeremy who's a veteran. My eyes were going to him and it really looked like he was possessed and some strange powers were leaking out from his body."

"One of the actors in the motion capture suit even got scared when he was the one playing the ghosts."

"Can't blame him."

The crew members, actors and every staff member talked like that as they all fixed their gaze at Aiden who was on the ground.

Phineas was the person who was the most happy. He was watching the scene on his screen with a few assistant directors and the cinematographer.

All of them had to say that it was much better than what he had in mind.

On the screen, Aiden's performance was only after the green screen with the ghosts being guys in motion capture suits but his expressions and flailing of his arms were on point.

Visualization was the key for most things as an actor and Aiden had nailed it.

There was no need for a retake.

It was at that moment that someone noticed that Aiden wasn't moving even after the scene was over. It was the female staff member that had been told to call Aiden before.

Mike was talking with his assistants in a corner but Aiden was still on the ground, not moving.

She nudged Tom who was standing next to her, too busy in keeping notes on the whispers about Aiden.

"I think something is wrong."

"What?"

"Aiden isn't moving."

Tom finally looked at Aiden and realised that it was true. He quickly walked towards him and crouched down.

'He's unconscious for real.'

Tom tried to feel his breathing and it was okay. Slowly, other people also realised that something was wrong and quickly came close towards Aiden.

"What's going on?"

"Someone call an ambulance! Aiden is really unconscious."

"What happened suddenly?"

"Don't know. He's not waking up."

As people crowded around, it quickly became a mess. Jeremy and Phineas looked in worry, wondering what had happened suddenly.

Why had Aiden become unconscious?

The scene had been successful, so he had gotten unconscious after that but how? Was he sick or was it something else?

The truth was just that Aiden had engrossed himself too much in his performance and without the safety protocol, he was invulnerable, so he had felt all those ghosts on his body.

He had also felt his energy getting sucked out of his body and all the pain he had felt was real. At least borderlining realism.

So, after the scene was over, he had no energy left in his body.

The only saving grace was that he had a high affinity with the character of Finn Wheeler and had gotten used to ghosts and feeling supernatural powers in his immersion state.

But it was inevitable that he won't struggle after it.

Until now Aiden had played a lot of characters but this was going to be the first time that playing a character was going to affect him in the long term.

Sadly, that was something that all method actors had to go through.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote this novel with your power stones and golden tickets

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

As Aiden was carried to the hospital, the episode of 'The Million Dollar Game' was going to be broadcasted. The episode had been edited carefully by the program team and they had done their best to not have any leaks.

If people got to know that a celebrity won a million dollars in the game, it was going to be picked up by major news agencies and would spread.

Because of that, the program team had given special instructions to everyone who was present there during the shoot, especially the celebrities.

There were cases of them blabbering their mouths.

Before the broadcast, only the regular fans of the show were waiting for it. They have had it since earlier seasons and it has now become a part of their lives.

On a forum, they were talking about it while waiting for the episode to air.

[Black Mermaid: Today is that celebrity special right? I really wonder if any celebrities even need money. Most of the time they earn a lot more than the average guy out there.]

[Twerking CGI: I guess the money would go to various charities. They are promoting it saying it's for a good cause, a try to get the ratings to go up but the show is already running for years and the ratings are still above average. A lot of people just move on after a few seasons. Not like it's a TV series.]

[Shivaaa: Well, we are here talking about the show, so we have not moved on.]

[Daddy Kratos: Who wants to bet that most celebrities would barely reach the 50k dollars mark. I read the cast and most of the people coming are pretty young. If there were old, experienced celebrities, I would expect more.]

[Cancel cancel culture: I think a few would earn more than that. They have lifelines and their teams would probably make them study hard if they appear on it. Agencies care a lot about how their artists are perceived until the artist itself is someone who doesn't care and wants to make a fool of himself.]

[Assassin Aiden: Let's just see how it is. The episode is starting in five minutes.]

The fans talked like that, having no clue of what was going to hit them. As the broadcast started with the famous theme of 'The Million Dollar Game', a lot of people tuned in, wanting to see how the episode was going to be.

A lot of them were just fans of Nicolas Roberson and his hosting. It was one of the vital parts of the show for a reason.

As the show began, families got together to watch the show. The game show was something that was originally made for families to watch together after a day's work and it had still sustained itself in that regard.

Currently, a middle aged couple was watching the show on their sofa.

The husband was a policeman and his wife worked as an editor in a small magazine. Both of them had busy lives and it was after a long time that they were able to sit together to watch the game show.

"Not one of them looked like someone who could win a million dollars. They don't have that greed in their eyes."

The husband said, squinting his eyes to watch the contestants' faces closely.

"I think they need knowledge more than greed."

"If they are greedy, they would find one way or another to get the prize. Desperation helps."

"Just watch the show."

Both of them stared at the TV as Nicolas Roberson brought Liz, the first contestant on the show and she started off pretty well.

There was confidence in her eyes and it was clearly visible to the audience. Suddenly, the husband's eyes lingered on the short dress that Liz was wearing.

"That girl is hot."

"What?"

"I, I mean smart. You know beauty with brains."

His wife didn't say anything and just clicked her tongue. Rather than arguing with her husband on a small thing, she decided to enjoy the program.

A little entertainment was something she deserved after a long day at the office.

"Ah, she lost."

Soon, Liz, who was doing well, lost and the husband shook his head, thinking that his earlier thoughts were right.

The contestants didn't have any greed in their eyes.

"Let's wait and see. Others might do better. Every episode has one guy who wins more than 50k dollars."

His wife said.

As Liz lost out, Rake came on board. A few people watching the show wondered whether he was going to do something good. Only his fans were excited about him.

On Sparrow, people were posting their thoughts while watching the broadcast.

[I'm Ratman: That guy looks too snarky for my tastes. I didn't listen to his music ever? Is he smart in the interviews?]

[Rake's wife: He's super smart. Don't you know he's from Stanford University? That's like one of the best universities in the world. He's surely going to earn a lot.]

[Internet Roaster: @Rake's wife If you don't know, getting into these ivy league universities is supposed to be the part they are famous for because of how hard it is. Not the sheer quality of education. Moreover, most of these universities are just hollow because it's way easier for rich people to get into them. Bodied!]

[Aiden's wife: I'm pretty sure he's going to lose soon. There's no way he looks like someone who would earn a lot.]

[Constantly Horny: Well, he's not doing bad for now.]

On the broadcast, Rake was playing through the questions easily, even giving his insights after his answer would turn out correct. At one point, he even looked like someone who would go a long way.

But after the second milestone, he soon lost his momentum and in the end, he gave out a wrong answer, taking him back to 50k dollars only.

Seeing that, a lot of messages appeared.

[Radioactive sperm: He lost. Every contestant that looks good, loses out in the end. That's the law of this game. I have never seen a confident guy not losing because of ego.]

[Want Bully 2: That was anticlimactic. I was placing my bets on this guy.]

[Rake's wife: Nooo!! The game is dumb! How could he lose? They should have given him one more chance. It's unfair.]

[Aiden's wife: Don't you have eyes? He lost because he didn't know the answer. It's simple. Rake ain't as smart as people think. Education is not the criteria for smartness or half of the Sparrow users would not be dumb. Anyway, Aiden's time is here. He will show everyone how it is done!]

As Aiden came on the stage, his fangroup was very excited. A lot of members got out of their sleeping chambers and started talking. After [Disconnected, there was no news of Aiden and a lot of them were pretty bored.

They knew that Aiden was shooting for his Zetflix series but the shoot was taking too much time. So when they heard about him appearing in 'The Million Dollar Game', all of them decided to watch it.

Even those who weren't fans of the show.

They knew that if Aiden was involved in something, it was going to come out great. His past record was proof and reason for them to believe in him.

One of the members of the fangroup was watching it with a few of his friends over beer. In a room, four burly men who clearly went to gym daily were watching the show while drinking beer and laughing.

"Joseph, you really believe that this guy would do well. He seems to be treading carefully. I don't think he's confident enough to win the show."

One of his friends asked as they turned to look at Joseph who glared at his friend. He was a blonde guy who worked as a trainer at the local gym.

"The bloke's tough and smart from what I know. He will do well."

At that, another of his friends quipped in.

"It's weird that you are a fan of a celebrity. Your ex-girlfriend left you and the only thing you have to hold is her obsession with a celebrity. I thought you were interested in him because you didn't have a choice."

"Yeah at first, but now, I feel like this bloke has something special. I enjoyed whatever he has worked in. And don't talk about that bitch. She left me for another girl for fuck sake."

Joseph frowned and his fans patted him on the back. They focused on the show where Aiden had just crossed the first milestone.

One of the friends suddenly got an idea at that moment.

"How about we make bets? 100 dollars that the guy ain't going to earn more than 50k dollars."

The others also liked the idea and they nodded.

"100 dollars on 250k."

"50 on 50k dollars."

"200 on 50k dollars."

In the end, all of them looked at Joseph who thought for a bit before taking out a 500 dollar note from his pocket. The beer helped him to make a weird bet.

"500 on 1 million. I'm going all out."

Everyone looked at him like he was a moron but they didn't say anything. A million dollars was something only a few contestants would even get an attempt.

A celebrity obviously won't be able to reach it.

At this point, they didn't know what kind of storm Aiden was going to bring. A storm that would entrap the whole internet.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote this novel with your power stones and golden tickets

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On Sparrow, the discussions got heated as Aiden was taking time to answer the question worth 1000 dollars.

The trend with the name #TheMillionDollarGame was getting a lot of tweets every minute.

As the camera zoomed on his face, it was clear that he didn't know the answer to the question.

Even Nicolas asked if he wanted to take a lifeline, but Aiden shook his head.

[Hard to come up with comments: He's surely not going to earn more than 1000 dollars. He looks really nervous.]

[Religious Mermaid: He would just get a lifeline and answer it. Oh, he ain't taking a lifeline. Interesting.]

[Aiden's wife: You all think that Aiden can't answer it. You are all fools. He's smarter than most people and surely knows the answer to this question.]

[Rake's wife: Hah, he's dumb. Won't even reach 50k dollars.]

[Aiden's wife: Why are you still here? Shouldn't you be on your way to buy up tissues after Rake lost because of his ego?]

[Waifu wars: I think this is more interesting than the game.]

Like that, the broadcast continued and soon, Aiden was able to answer the question without taking any lifelines.

At this point, people didn't know that this was just the start of something unexplainable.

In the house where Aiden's fan, Joseph and his bodybuilder friends were watching the show, they were all surprised that Aiden was doing so well in the game suddenly.

After hesitating on the question worth 1000 dollars, he looked much more confident and answered all the questions in a split second.

"He's doing pretty great suddenly? I'm worried about the bet now."

One of the friends who had bet that Aiden won't earn more than 50k dollars said.

"You can't take it back now," Joseph muttered and added. "As I said, he's a very smart guy. Just see it, he's going to go much higher. That guy became a star after getting rejected in a reality TV show. Do you think anybody could do it?"

"Yeah, we understand that. Like this, you are going to tell us all about your man crush for the next one hour."

"Shut up."

As both friends argued, another friend took a sip of the beer and pointed at the TV screen.

"Look, he passed the 50k dollar question easily. Man, is he just guessing? He answered before I could even read out the question."

"I don't know. Maybe he studied it and is being lucky."

"Even then, one would take a breath to think clearly before answering. That guy answered in 5 seconds. It's so weird."

Joseph clicked his tongue hearing that.

"Don't think too much into it. He's just smart, and that's showing. He hadn't even used any of his lifelines till now. You all are going to lose your money to me tonight."

All the others laughed at him hearing that.

"Even if this Aiden guy does really well, there's no way he's going to even attempt the million-dollar question. You made a losing bet, my friend."

Thirty minutes after saying that, their eyes widened with shock.

In a bar, a lot of people were talking and drinking among themselves. The atmosphere was just like what you would find in an average night bar, barring the occasional bar fights for dumb things like 'How superhero movies are bad now?' and 'How remakes of classic animated movies are just cash grabs?'.

Today in the bar, the bartender was keeping his eye on the episode of 'The Million Dollar Game' as he served drinks behind the bar table.

"Hey, old man. Change the channel. I don't want to watch a dumb game show."

One of the customers shouted, and the bartender glared at him.

"Leave if you don't like it. The bar won't miss a customer like you who says things without even paying daily bills."

The customer shut up after that, but the interaction brought up a lot of tired, drunk eyes on the TV screen.

Almost everyone had watched the show at one point in their life, so all of them were a bit surprised to see that the contestant was playing at 250k dollars.

That didn't happen every time.

"Hey, I have seen that guy somewhere."

"Isn't that an actor? I watched [Disconnected] just last week."

"That's Aiden Silvereye. Fuck, he's on 250k dollars. Look at his lifelines, he hasn't used any of them."

"How could that be?"

"Damn! Will he reach a million dollars? Realistically, he could use all of his lifelines from here and easily reach that. Talk about being smart."

"He answered it correctly!"

As people started discussing it in the bar due to Aiden just reaching the question worth 500k dollars, all of them became curious whether Aiden was going to win a million dollars.

The bartender smiled, seeing people's attention on his favourite game show. Passing up a cocktail, he kept his gaze at the TV screen.

On Sparrow, people were suddenly going crazy over Aiden as out of nowhere, Aiden had reached 500k. It had happened in a blink of an eye as he was answering every question in a split second.

A long stream of tweets appeared every minute, with more and more people from Aiden's fan group joining the trend.

[Oscars are Local awards: Holy shit! I was out for five minutes for a bathroom break. How did he go from 50k to 500k so suddenly? Are my eyes finally giving me illusions?]

[Holy Sheep: He's answering like he has all the knowledge in the world? His confident smile is giving me anxiety now. How's he answering everything right?]

[That Meme guy: When Aiden answers, the choice immediately becomes the right one. He's the type of guy who gets tipped when he goes to dine at a restaurant.]

[Hollywood Insider: He's sure a smart guy. I thought Hollywood stopped producing them a long time ago. #FeelingDumb watching.]

[Moaning Frodo: Aiden's the guy who makes a girl moan by a touch. He's the guy who thanked his parents and drove them home after being born. When he comes to class late, the teacher punishes him for coming early. A true savage guy, making a mockery of a show.]

[Rake's wife: How could it be? How's he answering everything right? He's not even getting the chance to think before he's answering. Ain't it cheating? I call it cheating?]

[Aiden's wife: Just suck it, bitch. You people always blame the game when someone you don't like is winning. See Rake's face on the back; he's petrified. Hahahaha.]

[Wimpy Kid: That laugh is really like a yandere. Are you also the owner of a knife collection?]

"Damn! He gave the correct answer to the 500k question. He's surely going to beat the million-dollar question."

"Don't say that now. He might just not know it."

"He has lifelines."

"I doubt it would help at a million dollars question."

The old couple who were watching the game show discussed as the studio audience were clapping due to Aiden reaching the million-dollar question.

Both of them had not expected anything and the normal evening had suddenly turned into something exciting, a chance to witness a big moment.

At that moment, they suddenly heard the sound of a car outside, and after a few seconds, the door to the house opened and a girl walked in.

She was their daughter.

"Emma, you came home late." The wife asked, looking back at her teenage daughter.

"I was with my boyfriend, mom. We were studying at his house." Everyone knew what that meant, but they ignored it as the daughter walked toward them. "What are you two watching?"

"The Million Dollar Game. Aiden Silvereye is attempting the million-dollar question. I'm seeing it after years. It has been iconic till now."

"What??"

The daughter shouted and quickly sat down on the sofa in between both of them as Nicolas finally asked the million-dollar question.

"I'm a huge fan of his. I didn't know he was going to appear on the show."

"For fuck sake, is he really going to win?"

"How is it even possible?"

"He's making it look like a toddler's play. Is it really that easy? Should I register for it too?"

"Just watch. We are seeing history."

The bodybuilder friends talked in excited tones as they looked at the screen where Aiden was reading out the final question.

Until now, whatever they watched had been something that they had never felt before. Aiden had completely baffled everyone as he answered so quickly.

He even had all the lifelines.

Something similar to this had never happened in the history of the game before.

[Which insect shorted out an early supercomputer and inspired the term 'Computer bug'?]

Reading the question again, one of the guys asked, unable to take in suspense.

"Do any of you know the answer?"

"Do you think we would be like this if we knew?"

"No shit Sherlock."

"There's no way I would know anything about it. I'm still using the computer I bought in 2009."

As they discussed, Aiden already had his answer ready.

[The answer is Moth.]

Hearing that, they all wondered whether Aiden had a train to catch. Why was he answering so quickly? Was he really that sure?

Even Nicolas asked him to reconsider and think more, but Aiden was firm in his answer.

"What do you think? Is it correct?"

"I don't know—"

As Joseph muttered, Nicolas announced with a loud voice.

[If you have locked down a roach, then you would have lost out on a million dollars. Congratulations! Moth is the correct answer! You won!]

"He won."

"He fucking won."

"He really, really won."

"Wait! I won the bet too. Haha, I'm rich. Thank you, Aiden!"

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Aiden Silvereye makes history! He became the first celebrity to win a million dollars on the game show 'The Million Dollar Game'.

Aiden Silvereye arguably became the smartest celebrity by winning million dollars. Netizens are going crazy by the style of playing that Aiden displayed.

For the first time in the history of 'The Million Dollar Game', someone had won million dollars without using a lifeline. Aiden Silverue is making headlines every month in his infant career.

Nicolas Roberson quotes, "Aiden is one of the smartest guys I have come across. He was very casual during the game and because of his speed, the program team even wondered if there was any mistake with the computer. In the end, he did a great job as all the money would go into charities.

Those headlines quickly came as soon as the broadcast ended. Everyone in Hollywood who had kept a track of the episode had been shocked.

Those who didn't know about it were notified by other people. It also blew up on social media as people started writing tweets saying how they were astonished.

With that, it was inevitable that negative comments were going to come up too. It was a habit of social media to judge everything and soon, a lot of people started asking if it was cheating or the program team had deliberately done it to get more viewers.

To tackle this, the producer of the game show had already prepared in advance.

As soon as people started accusing of cheating, a lot of statements of celebrities who also attended the shooting of the game show came up.

Liz, the first celebrity to play the game on the broadcast commented through her social media account, "It was a crazy shoot that day. I was sad about not making it far on the show when Aiden had started answering every question like he knows everything in the world. A lot of people were looking at him with open mouths."

Alongside that, she also posted pics of the shoot when Aiden was playing. In one of them, Liz and other celebrities with her looked shocked to the core.

The social media team of 'The Million Dollar Game' also came up quickly and released a behind the scenes clip of the shoot with comments from producers, Nicolas Roberson and the other contestants alongside the audience.

This quickly shut up the people who were talking about cheating. In the first place, Nicolas was too respected in the industry, so many people just trusted him to not do something like this.

Moreover, it didn't make sense because the other celebrities would have surely protested if it was really scripted.

Aiden's fan group was having a field day as something so big and unexpected had suddenly become viral.

Most of them didn't even know there was a reality TV show that Aiden was appearing in and most of them didn't hold interest in it.

After all, being a fan didn't mean that people were going to follow and like everything about Aiden. With such diverse types of skills, he had a lot of different types of fans.

His fanbase wasn't so hardcore like k-pop stans to follow everything about him, from airport looks to where he was going.

[Skyneves: I can't believe I missed that. Why? Just why? I'm going to go catch up on the videos I could find online.]

[Have Smex: That was really epic!! I really wonder if Aiden is so smart for real or he was just lucky? He looks good but I didn't know he had such a good knowledge about different topics.]

[Dancing Vampire: Man, I caught up with it at the last minute and he took like 10 seconds to answer. If I was in his place, I would have quit even if I knew the answer. The fear of losing so much money already is too much if I think about it but that guy looked like he was on a picnic.]

[Young Fruit smiley: @Dancing Vampire Maybe that's why you are not there and he is?]

[Easy Pop songs: I watched an episode of 'The Million Dollar Game' after so long and it was really epic, seeing someone win a million dollars. The charity should be bowing to Aiden.]

[Alpha Sleeper: I never thought that a day would arrive where I would see a celebrity winning the top prize in a game show like 'The Million Dollar Game'. Truly unexpected!]

[The IT Dog: I'm pretty sure Aiden's popularity is gonna surge after this. It's rare for celebrities to do this type of accomplishment and just the shock value is too much. Charity organisations are also going to approach him to be their brand ambassador, especially because of his proper clean image and now, a charity would get million dollars because of him.]

As everyone on the internet was talking about it, media companies were being very busy too. Employees going home were suddenly hit with overtime and were told to write articles on Aiden and 'The Million Dollar Game'.

Anything that reaches the top of Sparrow was worth publishing about, especially something to do with a celebrity.

"I hate this job."

One of the low level employees said as he typed away an article on Aiden to submit to the editor for tomorrow's newspaper. He worked in a publication that talked about every single big topic happening in America and it was just his luck that he was stuck in the entertainment department.

As he typed, his phone suddenly rang. Glancing at it, he picked it up with left hand while continuing typing with his other hand.

"Hello."

"Are you writing about Aiden Silvereye? I watched the broadcast. The news is getting heavy traction online."

Hearing those unexpected words, he shook his head in frustration.

"Yeah, I'm writing. My editor is being a pain in the ass. Making everyone write articles and he's going to just choose one of them to publish. Half of the employees are just writing it half-heartedly."

"Must be fun." The voice said before becoming a whisper. "Anyway I have some good information about you. It's about Aiden. Are you interested?"

The man stopped typing and squinted his eyes.

"What information? Don't tell me it's true that he cheated?"

"I don't know about that. Why will I even know?"

The man realised that it was true. His friend worked in a hospital as a male nurse. He would have known about it if he was working for Panther TV network.

"Then what information do you have?"

The man asked and his friend was quick to ask.

"How much will I get?"

"Hey, I thought we were friends."

"I'm short on money. Will you pay my rent as a friend?"

The man licked his lips before sighing. Thinking about it, if the information was worth it, then he might get some benefits in the office and might even be able to shift to his desired department.

"Okay, let's hear it."

An hour after that, an article was published on the website of the publication. An article that quickly became the news as everyone was talking about Aiden that night.

Aiden Silvereye gets admitted to the hospital. Apparently, he lost consciousness during the shoot of his upcoming series [Sherlock of the Shadows]. The reasons are still unknown but it's reported that he's fine.

Even though the article stated that Aiden was fine, he didn't stop people from asking about what had happened exactly.

Why was he suddenly in the hospital? Did he get hurt during the shoot? Or did he get stabbed again?

These questions came up in the minds of people who saw this article. Soon, copy paste articles also came up and other established media companies started calling Zetflix, Phineas and any other actors that were on the set to get confirmation about the news.

Soon, it was also confirmed and it just gave the entry to more articles.

Zetflix who was privy to this news quickly released a press release stating that Aiden was fine and there were no injuries or freak accidents. According to the people on the set, he had just gotten too involved in the scene and lost consciousness.

Four hours later, he had woken up and was mostly fine.

In a room that looked like the office of someone in a high position in a company, a red haired woman whose hair was binded in a ponytail was reporting to the woman sitting in the chair.

There was an authoritative air about her and the red haired woman felt an unknown pressure on her body.

The woman before her was none other than Ava Adler.

"From what we gathered, Aiden Silvereye's body is fine but it's more of an issue of him entering too much in his character that he lost control of himself during the shoot. At least the director had that opinion which was supported by other actors."

"What was the doctor's report?"

"He's all fine physically but therapy sessions are recommended."

Ava didn't say anything about that. Things like these were common with method actors. Cases of them taking therapy to get out of their characters was true and sometimes, they might not even be able to come out.

It was a serious issue.

"Arrange the best therapist for him and the best care we could afford. We can't let any of the actors working on the project produced by me suffer."

"Understood."

"Also, send the marketing head that's responsible for [Sherlock of the Shadows] to my office."

The red haired woman didn't ask what it was about and just nodded her head before trying to leave but as she was turning, Ava suddenly remembered something.

"Also, make sure my schedule is off sometime in the next few days. I would go visit him."

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He had messed up!

That was Aiden's thoughts after he woke up from his sleep. Although he knew that there was bound to be repercussions of his actions, the thought that he might just become unconscious during the climax of the scene never crossed his mind.

So, when he had woken up in the hospital, a lot of worried faces were in front of him.

The cast and important members of the crew had stayed at the hospital and aside from them, there was also Wade and Tom who were with him during the whole shooting.

p All of them were glad after seeing that he was fine.

According to the doctors, his body was also fine and he had just 'exhausted' himself.

Jeremy and Wade had asked him what exactly had happened and they could only answer that he got too much into the character and had started imagining things so vividly that in the end, they had affected him.

The veteran actor didn't seem to be surprised and had just told him to take psychological help as soon as possible.

He stated that it wasn't uncommon and won't be a big problem.

All of them talked a bit more before leaving due to something coming up. Apparently, some reporter had heard about Aiden being admitted to the hospital and had written articles about it.

They needed to go handle it and notify everyone that he was safe.

Only Wade and Tom left who wanted to talk more but Aiden asked them to leave him alone and they didn't object, thinking that he needed rest.

But the truth was that he needed to go over the system notifications that he had gotten.

[You have advanced to Intermediate Grade 6 from Intermediate Grade 5.]

[You have advanced in such a short time. Congratulations on maintaining such remarkable speed.]

[You are in the second half of the Intermediate Grade. Leveling would be harder and harder from here.]

Those were the normal system messages that he was expecting. Though, levelling up again was a surprise to him.

It seemed like the system was surely appreciating him risking his life for a scene. After those system messages, there were the ones that made Aiden freeze.

[You have ignored the warnings of the system.]

[You have experienced an immersion that is dangerous. Your body and mind have been affected.]

[Due to your high affinity with the character 'Finn Wheeler', some damage had been neglected but there would be future consequences.]

[You have reached a high affinity with your character. You are not at the skill level to control it. The personality of the character might start affecting your real personality.]

[The user is advised to not switch off the security protocol from next time.]

Reading the system notifications, Aiden really wondered about the consequences that the system was talking about.

The line 'The personality of the character might start affecting your real personality' was something that Aiden was very wary about.

He wondered how it would happen. Was he actually going to see ghosts like Finn?

A few days later, it all revealed itself.

It was very quick for Aiden to get out of the hospital. Although he had lost consciousness in the last scene, it had come out pretty well, so the shooting for [Sherlock of the Shadows] was finally over.

Only some dubbing in a few scenes and shoots for posters of the show and characters were left, but all of them were going to happen in LA.

So, for the time being, Aiden came back to New York City.

He had nothing to do now as he had no further work related activities, so he was very free and even Wade told him to rest but it was then that strange things started happening to him.

Aiden noticed that he had started being paranoid and his nightmares were just getting worse. In the middle of the shooting, he had gotten control of them but it got worse.

At the same time, he had suddenly gotten strange habits out of nowhere.

One of them was that no matter what he would wake up at 5 and would feel like going outside to run and then would do shadow boxing after coming home for half an hour.

This was not something that he has as a habit.

It was actually a habit of Finn Wheeler.

Out of nowhere, Aiden had gotten that habit like it was always there. His affinity was at striking 87 percent after the last scene, so he wasn't a lot surprised.

Day by day, his thoughts also started becoming like Finn and his talking style also became more like a teenager.

Once when he was at The Rabbit hole bar with Wade, he had even started hitting on a waitress, something that Finn was more likely to do. Aiden had been left gawking at her number with confused eyes in the end.

His changing personality coupled with his nightmares and paranoia made him a mess for a while and he quickly arranged sessions with the psychologist that Jeremy had recommended to him.

"How's your health improving? Are my pills working?"

Aiden came back from his thoughts as the therapist in front of him asked. She was a brunette woman in her early 30s, wearing a white coat and glasses.

Her name was Dr. Penny Johnson, a psychologist that had worked with a lot of actors before and the person that Jeremy had recommended.

Both of them were currently sitting on the sofa in her office. Aiden had to say that it was a very cosy office, built in a way that the patients could relax.

"They are helping me to sleep. Just that. My habits are not going away and the nightmares still keep coming. Just my paranoia had lessened…"

As he spoke, the doctor wrote it down on a notepad before putting a hand on her chin.

"Do you wake up in between sleep when you have your nightmares?"

"Yeah, I do. My back is mostly drenched with sweat too even though the AC is always on."

"Strange. Can you explain to me the nightmares you get?"

When Dr. Penny asked that, Aiden struggled to speak.

"I don't know how to. They are very unexplainable. I can't put them in words. It's like they are on the back of my mind but it would slip away whenever I try to explain it. I can't get the right words."

He was having a lot of problems due to it. Not like it was making his life a living hell, he hadn't gotten a good sleep in days.

The worst part was that the nightmares were pretty abstract. He won't even remember half of that but a creepy feeling would always be present in his mind.

"That is becoming a problem in your treatment."

Dr. Penny said, frowning. Aiden was a pretty trick client for her as he was dealing with inner demons and it was interfering in his real life.

These types of cases were very rare for her.

Normally, she would just have sessions with other celebrities on the topics such as past traumas, failed relationships and drug abuse.

Suddenly, Dr. Penny got an idea and opened her mouth.

"How about you try to write it down?"

"Write what?"

"Your dreams. Nightmares. Whatever you see when you sleep. You can't explain it in words but maybe try to write it down like a diary or even a story. It might help you release whatever is brewing inside of you. Anyway, you are a writer."

For the record, Dr. Penny had read Aiden's books to get a better idea of his personality.

"I think that might work."

Aiden said after thinking about it. He honestly didn't mind doing anything his pyschologist told him until it helps him out.

Only he knew that he was only sane because he had good mental fortitude.

"Okay, do that. And you are not working, right?" Dr. Penny squinted her eyes at him.

"No, I'm not." Aiden said. "I don't have anymore projects to do and I'm not taking any singing gigs. I'm still going out and just having a few small meetings with my agent and I need to attend another one in a few days but aside from that, I'm just reading books and trying to tell myself that there's no ghosts around me."

Penny chuckled at that and wrote it down too before opening her mouth again.

"Good enough. Just continue it. You are a workaholic from what you told me, so stay away from work and enjoy your life and heal. You don't want to ruin your image by having some sort of panic attack on stage."

"Noted."

It was then that the timer on the table buzzed. The session was over.

"It was a good session."

Aiden said as he stood up. He was early on in his treatment and although the effect was minimal, he trusted in Dr. Penny's ability.

"I need to do my best when I'm charging so much."

She laughed and Aiden said goodbye and walked out of her office. It was situated in a residential area in New York as it was built in her home.

As he got out of his house and made for his car, he suddenly got a vibration in his pocket.

Taking out his phone, he saw a surprising name there.

[Ava: Are you free? I'm in New York. Wanted to meet you?]

'What she want?'

He thought, typing out a reply.

/DreamNote/

This is a new arc that would see Aiden do a lot of different things and at the same time, he would deal with the problems his system throws his way. I hope you all would give it the time as it's something different.]

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After getting the text from Ava, Aiden quickly made his way towards the location she sent. He didn't have anything else to do other than going home and playing video games.

Anyway, Ava was kind of like his boss because she was handling the project from Titan studios. Rejecting her wasn't a good thing if he wanted to maintain good relations with her.

Having a connection in Titan studio was a great thing going forward, especially because of how much influence they held.

"She called me here?. I don't see her."

Aiden muttered after parking his car in a parking lot that he found. Ava had called him to a street that was famous for its cafes and restaurants.

After getting out of the parking lot, Aiden wore a mask and looked around but didn't find Ava anywhere. Pedestrians crowded the street and some of them were eating at outdoor restaurants.

He didn't find Ava anywhere and as he was about to call her, someone tapped his shoulder.

"It's been a while."

As he turned around, he saw Ava standing there. She was wearing a floral dress and there was a smile on her face.

"You look pretty."

"What?"

"Uh…"

Aiden made an awkward smile. Those words had come out of his mind out of nowhere, partly because it has already become a habit of him to hit on every girl thanks to Finn.

Ava was also surprised, not expecting a compliment from him. It felt a bit unnatural to her.

"Sorry, Finn is used to giving out compliments." Aiden remarked and Ava finally understood what was going on.

"I don't mind."

Smiling, she started walking and Aiden tried to get it together before asking.

"You don't have any of those meetings with people who control Hollywood?"

Aiden asked, looking at her attire. It was very casual.

"No, I had a meeting early in the morning with a foreign client. After that, I was free, so I called you up."

Aiden had a lot of questions hearing that but he didn't voice them out and just followed Ava on the street. A lot of eyes moved towards her, especially the male gaze but it looked like she was used to ignoring them.

Many of them were also directed at Aiden but they weren't quite nice.

Fortunately, there was no paparazzi around.

"I heard about your therapy. How's it going? Any progress?"

Ava asked, breaking the silence.

"Not a lot but I'm trying. Pills aren't helping as much as my psychologist hoped. The saving grace is that most of the actors get out of these things with regular therapy."

"You are going to get better."

"How can you say that?"

Aiden raised an eyebrow and looked down at her.

"Do you want to hear that you won't ever be fine?" Ava asked, giving him a snarky smile and he was speechless for a second.

'Yeah, a dumb question.'

Aiden thought in his mind as Ava suddenly pointed at a small archway. He had always felt weird whenever he and Ava had talked.

"Come with me."

Aiden followed her and after walking for a bit, they came across an old looking, vintage cafe that has a serene air about it.

They entered it and Aiden noticed that it was mostly empty, barring a few people. At least it was quiet.

"This is a place where I come often. The coffee is great and it's good because not a lot of people come here daily. I have come here with celebrities before and they were happy that no one bothered them with autographs."

Ava explained as they sat down. Aiden looked around for a bit as they gave their orders before turning to face Ava.

"So, why did you call me?"

"Shouldn't you know that?. After all, the rumours say that you know everything."

"Don't joke."

Aiden's face fell. One of the effects of winning a million dollars on 'The Million Dollar Game' was that people have started treating him as some sort of genius with an IQ on the level of Einstein. It was mostly in a joking manner but some people were serious too.

He had even read comments asking him to take an IQ test.

Ava laughed seeing his reaction before becoming serious.

"There wasn't really a reason. Like I said, I was free today and wanted to meet you. Didn't you hear what I said last time we talked?"

"That you want to back me?"

"Yeah, but not like a relationship where one is more influential than the other. Those types of relationships hardly work."

Ava explained. According to her, a relationship where she's just using Aiden as a pawn wasn't a good way forward. Her eyes shined as she looked at him.

'He's special.'

She thought in her mind.

Her instincts were something that she relied on a lot. They weren't right all the time but this time, she was pretty sure of it.

Logic was also saying that as Aiden had kept surpassing everyone's expectations till now. She felt like if she really went with this approach, then there would be a time when Aiden won't even need her.

"So, what type of relationship are you looking for?"

Aiden asked, taking a sip from his cup.

"One of friendship. Just friends who could back each other up."

"You do know I'm just starting out in my career. How am I going to back you up?"

Aiden leaned back, curious to know how Ava was going to answer that question. She adjusted a strand of hair from her ear before opening her mouth.

"It's a long term friendship." She said, "I'm sure you will become big in the future and people do say that it's better to keep friends that you feel would be successful."

"I have a question." Aiden asked after a while. "Why does a director of one of the Big 6 studios offer such 'friendship' to me? I thought that they were too high and mighty to make friends out of someone who is not walking the conventional Hollywood path."

"That's something I can't answer."

"I like honesty."

Aiden looked up at her and after a few seconds, she sighed. In the first place, she knew that she can't hide her intentions and reasons behind them forever.

It was better to be honest from the start.

"Titan studios has pretty complex management and it's hard to explain everything but in simple words, the board of directors don't really like me."

"Why?"

"They think I'm not good enough to be a director. It's not been a long time since I took the post and it's been a genuinely hard time. Only the chairman is supporting me but even he can't do much as there are a lot of objections against me. Primarily because of my age and less accomplishments as a director."

Ava frowned as she explained.

Aiden recalled seeing the photo of the chairman of Titan studios. He was one of the most influential people in Hollywood and was known as highly ambitious as it was only because of him that Titan studios became one of the Big 6.

His name was Barry Williams.

"So, you want my help to strengthen your position as the director?"

"It's more complex than that. I would need to have successful projects under me, movies and series. A big studio earns from multiple things but the face is still movies. The project with Zetflix made me meet you and I'm genuinely impressed till now."

She smiled and Aiden understood what was going on and looking at Ava, he didn't feel like she was lying.

'It might turn out to be a big connection. Even bigger than Omar.'

Titan studios had most things in Hollywood under them and a lot of actors would get influence in a studio by continuing working with them for years.

For example, Zero International, one of the Big 6, was a mid-sized studio in the 90s but then, they collaborated with an actor for a sci-fi movie about robots and it turned out to be a franchise later on.

It was still Hollywood's Top 5 highest grossing franchises and that actor and the studio had since worked on various projects together, helping in each other's growth.

"So, you are asking me to be a part of the projects you undertake? As an actor?"

"You are more than an actor." Ava gives him a grin. "You have a lot of talents and I feel like I could use them in various places. Moreover, it's just good to have a person to rely on. That's what friends are for right?"

Saying that, she pushed her hand towards him and hesitating for a second, he shook it.

'It looks like a pretty sweet deal.'

Aiden thought inwardly. He had been thinking about her since they met at the Oscar after party. She had just seemed like someone he would see a lot back then.

But then, goodwill had formed because she had helped him to make [Disconnected] reach its deserved audience.

Thinking of everything, Aiden felt like it was a good way forward for him. With Ava as a connection, he would be able to have some access to the projects that are roaming the office of Titan studios.

"You are not taking any projects for now, right?"

Ava asked, finishing up her coffee.

"Yeah, I'm going to take it easy for a while and then, see if I am interested in a script. These days, it's hard to get my hands on a good enough script."

"I feel like I might have a few great scripts under me that are only going to pre-production next year. Maybe, you might like them."

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