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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Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood #Chapter 321 - Read Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood Chapter 321 Online - All Page - FREEWN

As the shooting for [Agnas] was going on rapidly, Aiden didn't really give much thought to Wade. More like, he didn't have any time to think a lot about it.

Everyday, there were shots after shots. They were also travelling to different places for some scenes. Only Agnas and the shooting was in his mind.

Though, he did notice that Wade was looking a bit more tired than usual.

That's why, one night, when he knocked on his hotel door, he wasn't surprised to hear the words that came from his mouth.

"I think I need a break. At least for a week, I need to relax a bit as I'm not able to work properly these days. I know that it would be a problem. That's why—"

"Take it. You don't have to explain much."

Aiden said, looking up at Wade who wasn't expecting Aiden to accept it without any questions.

"That was fast."

"I observe a lot, Wade. You look tired these days. Feel like you are ageing fast. We have been working a lot for a long time now. Even my body feels like it needs a break. I would probably take one too after the shooting is over."

Aiden said with a sigh. Movies are hard work when one is passionate about it. Aiden's style of work meant that the people working with him were also working nonstop.

It obviously takes a toll.

For a job like an agent where one needs to attend so many meetings and handle so many things, a lot of people become very stressed. So, a break was necessary.

'I hope he is refreshed after the break.'

Aiden thought in his mind.

"I will explain Sasha and Jody most of the work. I already talked to Tom. He is going to be with you all the time, so there won't be any problems. If there are—"

"There won't be and even if there are, I won't call you. Just enjoy yourself."

Aiden said and Wade smiled faintly. They talked a bit more before he left.

As Wade walked off, Aiden didn't notice the complicated expression on his face. It was like he was in some sort of inner conflict.

The break wasn't for him to relax but for him to come to a decision on a question that he was trying to find the answer to these days.

A very difficult question.

"This sounds pretty nice."

A woman said, pressing headphones close to her ears. There was a sense of wonder in her eyes as she listened to the song that was playing.

It was a tune created by Joseph and it has a very happy feeling about it. One could easily make it into a children's song because of the nature.

"It took me a long time to get this tune right. The melody was incredibly hard to control but the hardest part was the lyrics."

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"Lyrics?" The woman raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, you need matching lyrics to go with it. Because of how the song is, the lyrics are a part of it to tell the anxiety of Agnas and how he knew he messed up in the relationship."

As soon as Joseph said that, the door to the room opened and Aiden walked in. He glanced at the people in the room.

Today, they were at a recording studio to record 'Remedy'. One of the main songs from the movie.

He greeted a lot of people inside including a few actors and Baz before walking upto Joseph and the woman.

"Are you explaining the song to Vanessa, Joseph?"

"Yeah, I'm."

Joseph said. The woman besides him greeted Aiden. She was Vanessa Hughes, an actress who was playing the role of one of Agnas's girlfriends in the movie.

'Remedy', the song was also about her relationship with Agnas.

"I read the lyrics but still, I didn't understand the special point in them. Am I missing something here?"

"Well, let me explain." Aiden said. "It's not particularly the lyrics but the happy go lucky manner the song needed to be sung in. Here, Agnas knows that his girlfriend is suffering because of his relationship and he is too. But rather than making it sad, the song is extremely happy, giving it a bittersweet feeling. The lyrics match it because they are something to be sung with a smile even if the situation itself is paunful."

Vanessa nodded as she finally understood more about the song. 'Remedy' was a very special song and Aiden liked it a lot for what it stood for.

It has a unique vibe for it that was unlike the rest of the movie.

"Anyway, Aiden get to the booth. Sing it in the way I taught you during our sessions."

"Okay."

Aiden entered the booth at Joseph's commands. Everyone else focused at him as he stood behind the mic.

"Let's do a few tries. Let your voice gets used to it."

"Okay."

Aiden took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He thought about Agnas and his relationships. How everyone of them have broken one way or another and how much pain it has caused him.

All the feelings that have bothered and pained him. He had decided to tell them with a smile on his face.

A bright smile. Albeit, a bit anxious.

He opened his mouth with all the feelings.

"I got lost in a room full of sounds."

"Lots of happy moments and some wounds."

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"But there's something I need to say to you."

"About me making you feel bad about me feeling bad."

Just like that, the recording started as Aiden's voice made a silver light that slowly enveloped the room. A silvery light that seemed to flow around easily like the wind.

Listening to him, Joseph smiled. The old man had an expression like he was seeing his old friend singing in front of him.

As Aiden was busy working, Wade was taking all advantages of his break. Even without all the conflicting thoughts in his mind, he was actually very tired.

So, it was good for him to just live without thinking of work.

He didn't travelled anywhere for the vacation and just decided to enjoy himself with his hobbies. He watched a few TV series he wanted to catch up on and then went to a shooting range to try out some guns.

As an American and fan of zombie movies, Wade had always strived to become better in handling guns. In case, some billion dollar company really tried to end the world.

One more thing he did was to spend more time with his girlfriend.

"What are you thinking?"

Wade looked at the woman in front of her. Her name was Amanda Carlie. She was a red hair causacian woman who worked as a fashion designer.

They have met two years ago and for some reason, she had taken a liking to him, saying how he looked like a reliable person.

As both of them have gone through failed marriages, there was a lot for them to bond over. Though, one thing that Wade didn't like was how perceptive she was to his thoughts.

"Nothing." He said, taking a sip out of the coffee.

"There's something. You know I notice these things. Something to do with work?"

She tilted her head and for a second, Wade wondered if she was really a mind reader.

"Yes, actually."

"Want to talk about it?" Amanda said. "I'm a good listener."

Amanda smiled and Wade hesitated for a second. It wasn't easy for him to talk about it as this was directly related to his insecurities but he still decided to do so.

"I was just thinking about Aiden. He's became too big now. When [Black Saints] has just released, I thought it would take few years to solidify him as a good character actor, then go for main roles. But he achieved far more and every role of his brought more fame to him. Now, I wonder if he even needs me."

"Why do you think he don't?"

Amanda asked and Wade frowned.

"Because there are better agents. With more resources. Some that rate him high enough to cast him in any movie he wants."

She curled her lips, understanding what was going on. Placing her hand on Wade's hands, she opened her mouth.

"Your worries are understandable but I don't think Aiden would want to work with someone other than you and you are good enough. Never think you are not. Maybe you don't have the resources you would like but your skills are something that no one could take from you."

"Still, it's his decision."

Amanda shook her head at that. Suddenly, she recalled something.

"I know it's his decision and you need to let him make it. But you remember one thing that you told me once."

"What?" Wade tilted her head.

"You said that a person's character is shown only after he achieves stardom in Hollywood. If a person forget those that knew him when he was nothing, then he's going to live a life of lies." She smiled. "That's why, belive in yourself and your dream. Let Aiden take the decision of who he wants his agent to be."

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[Agnas] as a movie had multiple schedules that panned over three months. The movie that started in June was shot over a dozen locations with built in sets and a crew that was way larger than the previous movies that Aiden had been a part of.

Zero International producers, including Theodore, would visit the set a lot to make sure that everything was going according to the studio's plans.

Though, even with producers on the set, the final control was still in the hands of Baz who presided over the set like a dictator and made sure that everything happened according to the vision in his mind.

Finally, in the first week of September, Aiden got ready for the final scene.

"How does it feel?"

Baz asked as he looked at Aiden. They were standing in a corner.

"A bit empty if I'm being honest." Aiden replied, looking up at Baz. "I feel this after every movie but the feeling is strong with Agnas. It's almost like I will miss a part of myself after it's over."

"That's normal."

Like Baz said, it was normal for actors to feel like the characters they are playing are a part of themselves. That's why, when they finish up a movie, they feel like they are missing a part of their soul.

In some strong cases, an actor's personality gets influenced by the character he's playing. Agnas's case with Aiden was a bit similar as he had felt a change in his thinking due to this role too.

'Maybe because I connected with Agnas and actually saw his life but it's a bit different. His life and stardom also changed a bit of my thinking.'

He thought as he noticed Baz patting his shoulders.

"You have done a good job in the movie. Take your time with the last scene and let's go celebrate with a wrap party after that."

Baz left after that, leaving Aiden to think about the scene alone.

The last scene was actually also one of the last scenes in the movie. It was a scene from the last show that Agnas had done in which he had suddenly started crying while on stage. No one has given it much thought at that time as they have thought that he was just too engrossed in his music.

A lot of singers feel such emotions during certain songs.

But the reality was obviously very different.

'He was crying because even with so many cheers and fans, he felt cold and lonely. Even though he achieved what most couldn't, he lost something big.'

He thought and closed his eyes.

[Agnas3 September-2018Act 9Scene 7Take 1]

Agnas took a deep breath.

He was standing in a position where he was very comfortable. Thousands of fans cheering his name all over the venue. Huge cutouts with his name written on them and fans waving posters with his face around.

The band behind him was enjoying the atmosphere and making sure that this was another hit show. Agnas had just finished one of the introduction songs that was supposed to be the starter.

After that, he was supposed to sing more popular songs. Something that he has in abundance.

So many voices mixed in the air. Agnas noticed each of them.

He should have already been pumped till now. Normally, that was the case. His anxiety has decreased a lot in recent years.

More like, he had gotten used to acting as a superstar who always looked confident. He has truly embodied the quote that a lie told a hundred times becomes the truth.

But even with that, he couldn't explain what he was feeling at the moment.

He didn't feel the usual and just stayed still, his eyes fixed at the air like he was spacing out.

'This just doesn't make me happy. Something is still missing.'

He thought and blinked his eyes. His gaze looked down on his guitar and a small laugh escaped his mouth.

Another frown followed it before he shook his head.

'No, I can't do that. I need to play the part. I have sacrificed everything for it. I can't stop now.'

His fingers strummed the strings of his guitar. A loud cheer went up.

Agnas looked up at the crowd. Whenever his gaze followed, a cheer would come up. His fans loved him. They treated him like an idol. Someone to be revered.

He wasn't close to them but they were content in seeing him from a distance.

'I need to smile for them. Like always.'

He muttered in his mind, trying to keep his conviction to not disappoint the people who had come to watch him. No matter what was going inside of him, he needed to look normal and smile.

Thinking that, he started singing. The cheers got louder at that. People went crazy for the song.

"Agnas!"

"Agnas!"

"Agnas!"

The smile on his face widened hearing the chants of his name. But suddenly, he felt something streaking down his cheeks.

A drop sounded out.

Agnas looked down and realised that he was crying.

'But why?'

He asked himself and in just a moment, he realised the reason. Even with all the love from his fans, he wasn't happy. Agnas the superstar was but Agnas the person wasn't.

Standing on the stage, he just felt lonely.

Still, he needed to sing.

So, he sang with a smile on his face. Just this time, tears accompanied the smile.

"Congrats!"

"The shooting is finally over. It was hard but I'm glad we were able to be satisfied with it. I feel like this movie would work really well."

"Yeah, it's a blockbuster certainly. This is the best project I have worked on."

"Director Baz was extremely strict but we were able to finish it on schedule because of him."

"Yeah, all the actors did an amazing job, especially Aiden."

"Hey, we are all going to the Hilton hotel to celebrate the end of shooting."

"Yay! Let's go!"

Aiden walked up outside after removing his makeup and donning his normal clothes. He touched his hair a bit and realised that he didn't need to keep his hairstyle now.

He could go back to his normal one but he felt like he should keep it for a bit longer.

'Maybe a week more.'

Aiden thought and looked around. He was trying to look for Wade and Tom but suddenly, someone approached him.

"Excuse me."

"Yeah?" Aiden looked up to the man in front of him. He looked like an average causacian. Maybe a background actor wanting an autograph?

He guessed in his mind but the words from the man were quite different from what he imagined.

"Do you mind coming with me? Someone wants to meet you."

"Who?"

"Franco Li. You must know of him. He really wants to meet you so can you please give him a bit of your time?"

The man spoke politely. Aiden guessed that he was Franco's assistant but he didn't know why he wanted to meet him.

"Why does he want to meet me?"

Aiden asked and then the man quickly replied.

"He has something to discuss with you. He's sitting in his car, waiting for you. It would only take 5 minutes and not more than that. He even said that he would drive you to the Hilton hotel if it takes more time."

'This is weird.'

Aiden thought in his mind.

For a second, he wondered if Franco wanted to meet him because he found out Aiden was the main reason behind Zetflix getting a great deal on [Disconnected]. But that thought didn't last long.

Even if that was the case, there was no reason for him to come for him a year later when everything was done and dusted.

But there was no point in rejecting it. At least Aiden was curious enough to follow the man.

"Okay, let's go."

As Aiden walked away, two pairs of eyes followed him. One of them was confused as he looked at Aiden.

"Who is Aiden following?" Tom asked.

"He's Franco Li's assistant. He's probably taking Aiden to meet him. He's probably around."

The person beside him replied. He was Wade who was smoking.

"Why does he want to meet him?"

"Franco Li rates Aiden highly. He wants to get him in SGA. He probably wants to offer Aiden a deal for him to move to SGA. An offer he can't refuse."

"Oka— Wait! What?"

Tom looked at Wade with a stunned expression on his face. An offer from SGA? And from Wade's expression, it looked like he already knew about it.

"Isn't it better if you go with him? You are his agent."

"I know but this time, I want Aiden to make his own decision."

Wade said, puffing out a cloud of smoke.

"I just hope he makes one which is right for him."

[A/N: Sorry, I was sick. Weather changed here. Got sick because of that. Better now so uploads are resuming.]

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Aiden entered the car and looked at Franco Li who smiled when he saw him. The car door closed as Aiden settled in.

"Why did you want to meet me?" Aiden asked with a straight tone.

"Not even going to introduce yourself?" Franco asked.

"I think both of us know each other. Just not in person."

"Correct." Franco's snake-like eyes looked over at Aiden. Knowing that he didn't want to waste time, he came to the main topic. "There's not much reason other than the fact that I want to work with you."

Aiden had expected this to a degree. What else would the star maker come for him other than wanting to recruit him? He didn't even have to think much about the answer.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Li. That won't happen and as my decision is fixed, I don't think anything would move me. So, please let me excuse myself."

Aiden tried to open the door of the car. He was tired enough from the shooting that he didn't want to waste time here. But some words stopped him in place.

"I talked with Wade. Your agent. You know he was really like you in his stance at first."

Franco Li laughed at the end of his sentence. Aiden looked at him but his face didn't look like he was lying.

He was confident as usual.

'Why didn't Wade tell me about it?'

As he thought about this, Franco continued talking in a dubious manner.

"You know after a while, that guy started doubting himself. It was clear on his face. I don't blame him. You grew more than he could handle. After a while, even he knows that a wall would appear in front of you if he keeps being your agent. He's very smart. I appreciate that about him."

Aiden didn't know if Franco was insulting or complimenting Wade.

"That's still not your concern, right?" Aiden looked at him.

"It is. After all, you are a talent. I don't want to see any talent go to waste, especially after you have come such a long way."

Franco looked at Aiden like he was genuinely worried for him. But Aiden didn't trust him. He was not a morally good person.

If most of Hollywood was a lighter shade of black, Franco was a darker one. Unfortunately for him, Aiden liked to stay in the grey territory.

"I am thankful for your concern but I'm going to handle my career myself. If a wall comes, I know how to leap over it."

"You don't know anything." Franco muttered, shaking his head. "Compared yourself to any other celebrity with an agency to back themselves. See someone like Tristen Musk. He started two years ago but he's already a heartthrob and is getting favours by top studio executives. Why do you think it is? Talent? No, obviously not."

"I know it's because of his agency."

Aiden muttered. Tristen Musk was heavily backed by the Red Ant agency. Already making to A-list in two years after his debut. It was because he was able to sign the best movies and he was promoted just the right way.

"Don't you want something like that?"

Franco asked, raising an eyebrow. A crooked smile hung on his face.

"I'm happy with what I have for now."

"Don't be like that. Do you think I'm a greenhorn?" Franco looked up at him. "No actor is happy with what he has right now. You all are a breed that wants more. Always."

Aiden wasn't able to refute it. Franco wasn't wrong here. As an actor, he would have liked to have better opportunities. Projects that only a select few could look through.

"I will do that on my own."

He simply said that.

"No, you won't be able to. Do you think really think your agent would be someone good enough to get you to be a top star? I asked him this when I met him. His answer has hesitation in it and you can't afford that in this buisness."

Franco came strongly at Aiden and even he had to admit, his persuasion skills were top notch. Aiden still sitting in his car was a proof of that.

Seeing that Aiden was listening to him, Franco continued.

"I believe that every celebrity has decisions in his life when he decides how his future would look like. We work in an industry where people become irrelevant every year. In this kind of industry, longevity Is just a miracle for any celebrity. Do you think you would experience that miracle or become irrelevant? I think it would be decided by the choices you make."

Franco was clearly implying that being with Wade was going to make him irrelevant sooner than later. And only signing up with an agency was a way for him to change that.

Aiden didn't say anything and just listened to him.

"You should see this."

Franco took out a document suddenly and passed it to Aiden. Reading the title, he glanced at him.

"What's this?"

"Something that would help you make a decision."

At that moment, Aiden noticed something. The expression on Franco's face was something that he hadn't seen before.

It was the expression that said that he was confident that Aiden would easily agree to join SGA after reading the document. He wasn't even thinking of a scenario where Aiden would reject him.

'Just what is in this document.'

He thought as he opened it.

"How could you even let Aiden go away? It's been so long. He hadn't returned yet."

Tom said with a concerned expression on his face. He was looking at Wade who had already chugged down too many glasses of alcohol that Tom had lost the count.

His face looked a bit bloated already.

"I did what I thought was right. I told you that already."

Wade shrugged, picking up another glass. They were at the wrap party at Hilton hotel and Tom was anxiously glancing at the entrance, hoping Aiden would come soon.

He felt like there was a weight in his heart. So much so that he didn't even feel like going around talking to people to get more gossip. He was anxious about Aiden and Wade.

"Tell me one thing. What if Aiden actually agreed to Franco Li's offer and joined SGA. What about you? And what of us?"

Tom asked as he bit his lips in frustration. Wade thought about it for a second before replying.

"Knowing him, he would take you all in." Wade chugged down another class. "As for me, I don't know. I'm not joining SGA. I don't want to work under Franco. So, I will choose—"

"Aiden's here."

Tom suddenly said, prompting Wade to look back at the door. Aiden was walking in, looking around.

Some people approached him, congratulating him on the wrap of the project while others called him to their table. But he rejected them and kept walking.

He stopped once he reached their table. A serious expression dawned on his face as he looked down on the both of them. No, his eyes were fixated on Wade.

"I want to talk to you."

"Sit down then." Wade said and glanced at the third seat in the middle of both of theirs.

"Why didn't you tell me you met with Franco Li?" He asked straightforwardly after sitting down.

"I wanted to but I didn't want to bother you with these things when you were so busy shooting."

Wade said and tried to drink another glass but Aiden held his hand and stopped him.

"Let's talk first."

"Ah, okay." Wade looked at him, his atmosphere changing a bit. The moment he was dreading had finally come and he had no other way than to face it.

"Franco showed me the documents. Told him about how SGA is planning to invest in a person with the sole goal of a global superstar. It was a very unbelievable but exciting prospect."

"I know right. If they could really pull it off, then they would have a person to be the face of their largest projects. And they would easily get a lot of benefits for 30-40 years."

Even in the past, agencies with superstars were the places where aspiring actors wanted to go as they felt like the agency was much more efficient to help them reach their goals. Though, most of these superstars would get their own team later on as soon as they are out of contract.

Hearing the conversation, only Tom seemed confused.

"What are you two talking about?" He asked and Aiden told him all about the plan that SGA has and how they are planning to execute it.

Tom's eyes widened hearing that and in a split second, he quickly asked.

"So, you accepted it?"

That was the question that Wade wanted to hear. Did Aiden accept the offer that would directly get him on the easiest path to be a superstar? He looked at him and awaited an answer.

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"I wanted to—"

Wade chugged down a whole glass as Aiden said that. No, he didn't even drink as the glass was empty but he still tried to. He fumbled after realising that it was empty and put it down on the tray.

"At least fill it before drinking." Aiden said but Wade just looked at him with an indescribable expression.

"Continue what you were saying."

"I wanted to for a second but I didn't. It was an impressive offer but it wasn't worth it."

"So, you are not joining SGA?"

"I will never. There's no point after I have stayed away from agencies for so long. Franco actually thought I was joking and his face was a good sight to see back then."

Aiden laughed a bit.

Wade didn't laugh at it. He felt like his soul had just left his body. Though, it was just stress and worry that had built up in all these weeks.

He felt a bit empty in a good way. His shoulders relaxed and eyes became clearer.

"I actually thought you would join SGA after I got to know about their offer from Wade. I thought it's an offer most celebrities in Hollywood would take."

Tom said, letting out a sigh of relief.

"It is. I mean they literally are saying we see a lot of potential in you, enough to take you global and we have every resource to do it. So why not join us?"

Aiden impersonated Franco Li while saying that. Then, he turned to look at Wade.

"Franco told me what happened in the meeting he had with you. I thought you were tired but it seems like it was something else all along."

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Don't say that." Aiden said. "I didn't think that you would feel like that but it does make sense."

Aiden thought about it clearly. As Wade didn't knew about him having a system, his growth was obviously something that he hadn't expected.

In one sentence, it was too good to be true.

In that case, it was easy to see that he was feeling pressured and thoughts such as 'Am I even good enough?' have sneaked into his mind. His meeting with Franco just solidified it.

"I just thought that you would be better off with someone with more resources. I know it was dumb of me to assume that but the situation was just like that."

"Did it change?" Aiden looked at Wade.

"It did. I have a good talk with someone." Wade smiled. "I decided to just let you make a decision and not think about it much. Though, I did expect you to not join SGA."

Tom looked at Wade like he didn't believe him. He was about to open his mouth to say something but when Wade glared at him, he shut up.

Looking at Aiden, he quickly changed the subject.

"Didn't Franco try to get you to join at any cost? If he was that interested, he would have given you a lot of promises."

"He did."

Tom perked his ears at that. Now that the heavy atmosphere was over, he was back to his secret job as "Gossip collector".

"Just the normal stuff that would entice any actor. A lead role in a superhero movie. Being the face of a franchise based on a popular novel about sand creatures. Getting a movie with an Oscar winning director. Collaboration with a famous k-pop boy band to enter the Korean market and even being an UN ambassador. He literally offered everything."

Wade blinked his eyes repeatedly hearing that then laughed.

"What the heck? You should have accepted it. Are you an idiot? Even I would have accepted it."

His tone was not serious but Aiden replied seriously.

"I would have just been a slave if I have accepted it. I mean it's all great but fame is fleeting. I learned that after reading about Agnas. His whole life was just that, you know." He closed his eyes for a second. "He started hating his music in the end. Became a joker whose only purpose was to entertain people. My idea of fame completely changed in the recent months."

"What is it now?"

Tom asked and Aiden took a sip of wine.

"I realised that it's not really after who has the most number of hit songs or hit movies. It's not even about how many fans you have. It's literally about the fact whether your art is making a difference in a common person's life or not. You need to make it in people's heart. Being number one and other stuff is just secondary. I will forget why I'm an actor if I chase after fame so much."

Aiden seriously felt that when he acted through the events that happened in Agnas's life.

He got into music because he liked it and genuinely felt that it was beyond any discrimination. But the industry and some decisions made him a prisoner of his fame. If he had tried to take more control of his life at some point, then he would have lived a better, happier life.

He was feeling like he was in some sort of a race recently with all the talks of him becoming an A lister. But due to Agnas, he decided to not involve himself in the rat race and just do what he's doing till now.

Doing movies and singing songs that struck a chord with him.

"You have matured a lot." Wade said and smiled at him. Inwardly, he was glad that Aiden really wasn't becoming a typical celebrity.

"I could say the same thing about you." He said, then thought about something and added. "One more thing, we need to be prepared. Franco Li doesn't like getting rejected."

"I know. He's going to do something sooner or later. He has a history of fucking over people who disagree with him. But don't worry, I will handle him."

Wade said, gesturing to Aiden to leave everything to him. Now that there was no anxiety in his heart about Aiden, he felt much better.

"I will leave it to you. I don't think he will do anything soon." Aiden said. "But I still want to do other things to prepare."

"Like what?"

Tom asked and Aiden told them the things that were in his mind all these days.

Something that he had been pondering over for a long time.

"I want to create a brand."

"A brand? Are you planning to get a sportswear or cosmetic company?"

Wade asked. A lot of celebrities would get their own companies. It was a great way to build a fortune and in some cases, celebrities have been able to become billionaires by playing smart.

Though, some have also lost billions due to just acting stupid.

"No. Not yet at least. I don't have any idea on these things. I just want to start investing in things like say some movies that I find good. I want to get into production slowly. It would help me get more creative power which I feel like would be good for me. Sportswear and cosmetic brands could come later."

"Don't you think it's too early? You have not really earned the big bucks yet as you have mostly just done indie stuff."

Wade said and Aiden also agreed with him.

"It is. That's why, I want to start slow. I wanted to change a bit in the contract stuff and just take up a percentage of the box office instead of taking a straight up fee."

"That's risky. Only top actors do that for a reason."

"I know but I need to take risks. If it's successful, I will get more and if it's not, then I will share the burden with the producer."

Aiden explained his thoughts on the matter and talked about a few other things. He felt like a shift was happening in his career as he moved towards being a much more popular face than before.

As he has started being trusted with movies and lead roles, it was a shift in how he had worked till now. The movie's successes depended a lot on him.

In the end, he said one more thing.

"By the way, I also want to start investing in any project I find interesting. Not only movies but also other forms of entertainment like comics and games."

"Games?" Wade raised an eyebrow and even Tom looked at Aiden with a confused expression.

"I can understand comics since you did have one of them. Even something like promoting new authors, I get it. But games? I didn't know you were interested in video game development."

Wade asked, tilting his head.

"I do play games."

"That's a different thing. I watch movies. It doesn't mean I want to make them."

"Well, actually, I'm in talks with someone about a game idea. It's very interesting so I wanted to invest in it."

Aiden said, revealing something that no one has any idea of.

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A man left a room and a lot of eyes gathered on him. He looked straight at the people glancing at him and smiled. He was holding a box in his hand, containing all the valuable items that didn't have any meaning in the office anymore.

The man's eyes had dark circles under them but they were bright. A sight that not many people have seen in the past few years but it looked like the soul in his eyes had returned.

Giving another glance, the man started walking, heading straight towards the elevator.

A few people started talking after seeing this.

"So, the rumours were all true after all."

"Yeah, I heard he was tasked with making the next Call of Honour games and even the next Assassin King game but he got sick of the head of the studio constantly butting in during the game pre production and accused him of making the games very formulaic and not much fun. There was a big fight about it."

"Wasn't that a long time ago?"

"Yeah but people don't forget. Especially those at the top. He was sidelined to make small games but after those came to be successful, he thought the studio would trust him more but they still have a lot of friction."

"In the end, he…"

'Decided to leave. Yes, I did. Got too suffocating for me.'

The voices became a small whisper before eventually disappearing. The man smiled thinking he won't have to deal with them now.

Waiting for the elevator to come, the man glanced at the walls and looked at the game posters that were displayed there.

All those were successful and most popular games from the studio. The first few Call of Honour games alongside the first trilogy of Assassin King games. His eyes stayed on them for a while.

In all those posters, a name was written.

'Directed by Cory Daniels. Well, it was a great past for sure. Never thought it would turn out like this but I need to look ahead now.'

Cory thought as the elevator came up.

He got onto it, ignoring the faces of people already on it. It was a new start for one of the most famous game directors and developers in the gaming industry and he hoped to face it with a smile.

After getting out of the elevator, Cory walked out of the company and headed straight to the parking lot.

Sitting in his car, he called a number.

"Aiden, are you free to meet? I want to start work."

"I don't remember the last game I played. Probably something at the arcade."

Wade said as he felt like he was walking on to an unfamiliar territory. Something he wasn't familiar with at all.

"Just be there. It's like making a movie in a way. You can just operate as the main character."

"I don't think it's like a movie."

"There are cinematic games too."

Aiden said and shook his head. He told Wade to stay silent as he rang the bell. Currently, they were here to meet Cory at his house.

Since their first meeting, Cory had taken a liking to Aiden and his ideas. And they were constantly talking about video game ideas and other things. In the end, they have decided to work on an idea together.

Cory had already decided to make his own company, so when Aiden heard his ideas. He decided to invest in it and came on board as the story developer for the first game.

"You are early."

Cory said, opening the door to face Aiden and Wade. His eyes landed on Wade as he introduced himself to him.

"Where's your beard?"

Aiden commented, looking at his clean shaved face. His hair was shorter too.

"Trying to look a bit younger now that we are making a fresh start."

He laughed as they walked inside. Cory's house was like any other house in New York but there was a serene atmosphere to it. He lived alone but the place didn't look messy at all.

"Let's go to the living room."

They walked to the living room and Aiden noticed a lot of games lying around. Some famous ones and some titles that he had no idea of. They looked very indie and some even looked like they were from the 90s.

There was a whiteboard in the middle of the room and sofa where they sat down before the discussion started.

Wade was the first to open his mouth.

"Now can you explain to me about this game? You keep saying it's going to be a very cinematic experience."

Aiden hadn't explained much about the game to Wade, so he was still very confused.

"Well, it's about mythologies and the end of the world in one sentence. Both me and Cory wanted to do something with this."

Aiden said but Wade still seemed confused. Cory smiled seeing this and started talking about the plot that they have discussed till now.

"The story starts…"

When they first started developing the story, Cory had let Aiden figure out the game's story with him taking care of the gameplay mechanics.

Aiden had a lot of themes in his mind but one theme that he absolutely wanted to do was mythology. But he didn't want it to be a game about exploring a certain mythology.

That was a very cool idea but a certain god game about a bald guy with a fetish of ashes was already doing it. He wanted to do something different.

That's when a certain idea had struck him.

The idea was simply about gods from different mythologies coming on earth one day and bringing it what could be described as the end of the world. It sounded messy but there were already different parts of the world where pantheons were situated.

The main character was going to be someone who's trying to reverse this phenomenon and send the gods back from earth and return to normalcy. At the same time, there was going to be a very interesting power system in place.

"For the gameplay mechanics, Aiden gave an extremely good idea."

Cory said and Wade blinked his eyes. Till now, whatever he had heard sounded pretty nice as an epic fantasy novel but he didn't know how it would happen in a game.

Obviously Wade was someone who had no idea of the strength of modern day video games and how they could present stories that movies aren't capable of.

"To get better skills and abilities, I decided to not have stuff like skill trees and instead of the usual way, players could hunt for prophecies. Obviously, there would be a usual system in place with some skills that players could perform from the start. But Prophecies would be the way forward for most of the game and would be used to make players explore."

"How will that work?" Wade raised an eyebrow.

"Well, in mythologies, there were a lot of prophecies. But in games, we would have our prophecies with players getting major power ups for actively hunting for these prophecies and fulfilling them. Obviously, gods would play a big part of it with some of them giving hints about certain prophecies that players could claim for themselves. There would be some that would give the title of a god killer like players searching for a mistletoe to kill someone like Baldur from Norse mythology or looking for Rama's bow to kill Ravana according to Hindu mythology."

Aiden explained and from time to time, he would write up some important points on the white board.

As he was handling most of the plot and world building, he was very excited to mix different mythologies with each other and create a world that's unlike any other in video game history.

After all, it was the first time he was investing his own money in a project. It needed to be good.

Franco Li frowned. For the past few days, it was a constant for him as in the decades that his career had snapped, no actor had ever rejected him.

No, a few had in the beginning of his career but even then, he had never given someone such an offer. An offer that he himself knew was the most enticing thing to an actor.

Franco still remembered what Aiden had told him.

'Honestly, the offer is extremely attractive but I don't think I want something like this. It looks good but I want to reach that position with my own strength. I feel like I would lose a lot if I accepted that.'

'You need to sacrifice things to reach the top.'

Franco had said in an attempt to make him reconsider.

'I feel like I will stop liking acting if I accept it.'

The conversation had ended there but Franco was still infuriated about it. It wasn't like he had no other actor to go with his plan.

But Aiden was his first choice.

Now that he was thoroughly rejected, he could only give up. Still, it wasn't in his nature to just forget this and not do anything about it.

'I will surely get back to you one day.'

He thought in his mind.

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'What do I want to do?'

That was the question in Aiden's mind when he had first started discussing a game with Cory. Being a very experienced game creator, Cory had a lot of ideas that he had shared with Aiden.

After all, in this age, games were extremely flexible and anything was possible. Cory could go for an open world action game in a fantasy setting or a fps in a futuristic world. Even something like space exploration or survival.

But he wanted it to be unique.

Talking to Aiden, he had realised that he was a very creative person who had different ideas for different things. He was someone who understood stories well and had a different way to look at them.

That's why he had asked Aiden one day.

'What type of game do you want to do?'

Aiden had taken his time with this question and in the end, he had come up with the idea of an unique game with different mythologies.

It was an interesting story on how he had gotten an idea to do something like this. It was just because he had seen a movie in which humans would be chosen as avatars of gods and it felt interesting to think about how two gods from different mythologies would talk to each other.

Though, it felt too big.

That's why, he had toned it down into a personal story of a journey amidst such a world with gods bringing the end of human dominance.

When he had told his ideas to Cory, he was very impressed and after a few more discussions, he had asked Aiden to collaborate as a writer. Aiden was interested but as he felt like he should ask for more to have a better control, he had decided to invest in Cory's new indie studio.

He had enough money from his endorsements and movie deals, especially because he had never used a lot of money in maintaining a lifestyle unlike other celebrities.

So, he invested 3 million dollars in Cory's studio which was named 'Silver games'.

At the same time, he also came on board to write up the story for the first game of the indie studio.

"So, the basic story. It mainly focuses on just one main character and is a more linear style experience."

A woman raised her hand and asked. Aiden looked at her and smiled. Currently, he was in a conference room in a place that they had rented for Silver games office.

It had already been a week since the shooting for [Agnas] had ended and Aiden had moved on to having long discussions on the game. It felt like a natural shift for him as he was very passionate about this, maybe more than even making a movie.

"Yeah, some parts of the game would be free to explore. Especially the parts where one could encounter gods and take part in side quests to fulfil prophecies. The linear focus is more because it would be less time consuming and would make for a stronger narrative."

Cory replied, looking at the woman. She was someone who he had worked with in past games. Someone from his old team.

When he was starting his own studio, a lot of his team members came on board. The small group of people gathered inside the conference room have all worked with him in the past.

"You said the story is more of a coming of age title, right? And the main character is a human? How is he going to fight with gods?"

A man asked. He was a lead developer of combat mechanics. Cory didn't answer and just looked at Aiden who stood up.

"The story is more or less a journey of self discovery." Aiden said and all the eyes gathered on him. "The main character will go on an adventure and in the first 30 minutes of the game, he would run into a fallen god who would bestow his powers to him, thus giving him the strength to fight other gods. At the same time, it would be a tale of how he handles this power and interacts with the world that has gone through a drastic change."

Aiden explained and from time to time, a question would come up. He answered them all with patience. As the one developing the game's story, Aiden had a lot of ideas that they could incorporate into the game. Though, not every idea fits into the world.

"We are going to finish the discussions in a few days and start making character sketches and demos. At the same time, the script written by Aiden would be sent to everyone."

Cory said and ended the meeting there.

Everyone dispersed leaving Aiden and Cory alone in the room. He let out a deep sigh before looking at Aiden.

"I have not been the director for a project like this in very long. So, I feel a bit pressured handling the team but I can't say I don't enjoy it."

"The team will increase in the future, so you need to get used to it. You have done it before."

"Yeah but a few months would go just like that. We will make a few demos and stuff. We need to get more investors too. The budget isn't going to be low if we want to really execute this type of game."

Both of them have talked about this before too but a good action adventure game needed a huge budget to properly execute the vision.

They would need at least 20 million dollars of investment from here and there to properly do the same. Even then, there's no saying if it won't take more.

Thankfully, Cory had a reputation in the industry and knew a lot of people.

"I'm going to hold a meeting with some investors in a week. A few console owners are already interested but I don't know how it would go with them. Most of them would want exclusivity and even then, they want a lot of control."

Cory expressed his views and Aiden pondered on it before patting his shoulder.

"I will leave it to you. You know the industry better than anyone else. Anyway, I have an appointment today. Need to leave."

As Aiden said that, Cory looked at him with a weird expression. It was a familiar expression to Aiden as he would see Tom and Wade having it often.

"An appointment? Haven't you just finished shooting a week ago? I was already worried I'm overworking you."

"Well, it's a script narration. I already said yes to this movie at the start of the year. Moreover, it's a very special movie."

Aiden smiled and Cory couldn't help but tilt his head.

"A special movie?"

"Yeah, a very special one. That's why I'm excited."

"It's been a long time. You have been looking a bit weak. Did you lose weight?"

"A bit. [Agnas] had scenes that made him look very weak. We shot all those at the end, so I was on a diet. I will look better in a week or so." Aiden said. "What about you? How have you been?"

Aiden looked at Zavier in front of him. His look was clearly changed from the last time he had seen him. He looked a bit more rugged and had longer, messy hair.

The dark circles under his eyes were particularly noticeable. They were currently meeting in his home.

Wade wasn't available as he wasn't required in the script narration.

"Ah, I have been good. It's a bit lonely here but I realised one thing while being alone."

"What is that?"

"When you are alone, you don't have anyone else to talk to, so you think about yourself. A lot. Mistakes you made, your actions, their consequences — It helps in the end."

Aiden nodded, knowing how much Zavier had gone through in the last few months. His perspective on life had surely changed.

"What were you even doing being alone? Even the last time I called you, you were doing something."

"I was writing the script for [Black Saints 2]. All alone but with focus." Zavier said, then picked up a script and passed it to Aiden. "Check it for yourself."

There was a certain gleam in Zavier's eyes that told Aiden that the script was something he was very confident in. He opened up the first page and noticed a title.

"[The Black Saint]."

"Yeah, [Black Saints] wasn't suited as the theme of the movie was several gang leaders posing as a saint to the city. This would only follow Kai. Thus, the title. Though, I wanted to name it [The Prince of Darkness] almost but that felt too long and medieval."

Zavier explained and Aiden nodded. He felt like the name was good enough as it gave a nod to the first movie while maintaining an identity of his own.

"Anyway, read it. It won't be as effective if I narrate you the story. So read."

Zavier gestured to Aiden and he started reading with an excited heart.

Each page he turned, his eyes would widen or have various emotions ranging from confusion to shock. In the end, when he completed it, he only had one thought in his mind.

'This is too dark for me…'

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"You don't like it. Your expression wasn't the one I had expected."

Zavier asked as he looked at Aiden's face. He looked a bit worried like the script wasn't at the level he had thought it would be. At least Zavier guessed that and became a bit reserved.

Fortunately, Aiden shook his head.

"It's not that. The idea and theme of the script. I truly feel like this is the best way to go with Kai. When the idea of a sequel first came up, I didn't want it to be some 'fake death' gimmick because that would really be contradicting the ideas and motives of Kai. This is what I think we should go for to do justice to the ideology of Kai."

He stopped his words there and his eyes looked at the script. They held the same expression of concern.

'Even the system is showing the script score at 89/100. That's the highest I have seen till now, so the problem isn't the quality.'

Aiden didn't fully believe in script scores at this point in his career as [Action Hero] itself had an average script score of 60 yet it grossed over 100 million dollars.

Even the system has clarified that script scores don't judge the commercial value of a movie. But it does judge where the story stands in various ways. And [The Black Saint] was at the top in that regard.

But…

"I just feel like I will truly lose my mind if I play something like this. Kai, I played him well in the first part. It was doable but we never took a peek into his thoughts a lot. This sequel is totally about that. It's one of the most tragic stories I have read."

Aiden voiced out his concerns and Zavier gave an expression of realisation. He had lost himself in writing the script so much that he forgot how much of a difficult character Kai was.

Yes, he was a maniac killer but his thoughts were the bitter truths of reality. He believed that people were animals in the true sense and society was there to tame it. He was the personification of the darkest sides of a human.

People related to him because of that.

If you took a deeper dive into his story and what made him like that, then that made for a very tragic story. It was basically about him getting out of the gripe of society and fighting towards a singular goal.

That was to rise above morals and truly become a god.

"But you need to do it. No one other than you could."

Zavier said, trying to persuade Aiden.

"I know that but I was in therapy just at the start of this year. I feel like I would go back to it again after this role."

He laughed, trying to ease his nerves. With the growing level of immersion, it was hard to say what would happen if he did this role.

Kai August might become the end of him.

"I understand where you are coming from. I feel like you would only be able to make a decision after thinking about it for a few days. That's completely fine with me. I was going to give you time anyway since you just returned from a shooting. I am going to have some meetings with Granite films on it and hopefully start the first schedule of this in December."

Zavier informed Aiden. For the record, Granite films were extremely excited about producing a sequel as [Black Saints] was a huge hit for them. Hollywood strived for sequels and they didn't want to fall back on this successful formula.

'December — [Agnas] will release then too.'

He thought in his mind. It was currently the last week of September, so Aiden had two months in between. He was going to finish up Morpheus and do some drafts on the game. Deciding on [The Black Saint] was an additional worry on top of it.

He felt like he would be thinking about it a lot.

"Okay, I will contact you in a few days."

Aiden said and gave one last glance to the script.

"This is looking like a nice scene. God's World is the draft title, so I need to borrow a lot of small things from mythology."

Aiden said. It was late at night and he had just finished one of the starting scenes for a main quest.

It was the scene in which the main character would meet a talking monkey which was obviously a reference to Sun Wukong from Journey to the West. Just besides Aiden's laptop, books containing tales from different mythologies were placed.

He was going to use small and big characters from a lot of mythologies. Sun Wukong was one of his favourites.

He looked through the scene again before sending it to Cory. It looked right.

Then, he took out his phone and saw that there were a few messages from Wade, Zavier and Ava.

He texted them back and although it seemed like Ava wanted to talk longer, he dismissed it by saying that he needed to sleep early.

'Sigh, what should I do?'

He leaned against his chair and started thinking about [The Black Saint].

The script has truly shocked him to the core.

The sequel didn't really start with some sequence of Kai surviving and starting a new life as the new god of Night City. No, in just the first scene, it confirmed that Kai was well and truly dead.

Yet, his ideas were now all over the city. Politicians were cowering due to him and the public was scared of him. There were even cults that were starting. Revolutions on the back of his name.

And this was something that Kai had envisioned.

The story didn't really focus on these things either apart from the initial minutes. It moves quickly to Kai's past and what made him give everything to chase after being a god.

It goes to explore his psychological nature and the shocking thing was that for most of his early life, Kai was actually just a very smart person who played the role of a maniac.

But slowly, his mask became his true face and after that, it was just a conquest for him to rise in the world of crime.

There was one scene that stayed in Aiden's mind for longer than others.

It was a discussion about religion. A topic that was always going to be controversial.

'You know religion is a funny thing. It's supposed to show the way of life. God will heal everything. It's going to be fine until you embrace him but no one asks if God is embracing me or not.'

'God's ways are different.'

'Maybe but his followers are extremely simple. I mean they talk about minority oppression everyday but when minority becomes majority, they oppress too. It's like a cycle like everything else. You know, I feel like if God exists, he would think of every one of his followers as dumb. After all, they think that God is looking after them but is he really? Do you think he's looking after you? Do you think he will save you?'

This conversation happened with a guy who Kai killed with a scissor the next second. It was a very short conversation and these types of conversations are everywhere in the script but they tell a lot about the nature of Kai.

His views were different but it was hard to argue against them.

'Ah, I'm surely going to therapy after playing him. Should I talk to Dr. Penny about it? Nah, she's just going to tell me to not do it.'

Aiden thought in his mind.

He stood up from his chair and walked towards the window. A cold wind was blowing at night and it sounded peaceful.

Thinking of something, he took out his phone. He called a number and after a few rings, it was picked up.

"Uncle Sam, how are you?"

"Aiden, I'm extremely good. Why are you calling me this late at night? What do you need? A key to my restaurant? Address of a strip club or just something else?"

Uncle Sam's cheerful voice came out from the other side. And as usual, he was trying to sell the experience of a strip club to Aiden.

Even if he goes there, he won't be with his uncle.

"I need advice."

"Advice? What kind of? Are you thinking of proposing to someone? Wade did told me you are into some—"

"No, it's a movie."

Uncle Sam quieted down hearing that. He was mostly serious whenever it came to work or Aiden's career.

"What kind of a movie? If you are calling me, it's not an issue of you wanting to do it right?"

"Yeah, I do want it. I really want to."

Aiden said as he took a deep breath.

"Then, what's the problem?"

"I'm just a bit scared. It's not a role that would be easy and I might change in some way after doing it. I guess, I'm scared I will become more like the character I'm playing."

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When Aiden voiced out his worries, Uncle Sam went silent for a while. Aiden felt like he heard a sigh before a voice came out, calm and concise.

"Every character becomes a part of an actor's soul, you know."

"I know that. It's the same case with me but this time, I feel like the effects would be severe."

Most of the characters Aiden has played were still with him.

The same was with Kai.

In the past, he had even acted like Kai to get out of some situations but till now, he had never explored the character after a certain point.

"Every actor has characters like those. These are the ones that become iconic because you just can't sleep through them. You need to give your all to them or else the characters are ruined. But your concerns are legitimate too."

Uncle Sam said and Aiden asked.

"So, what should I do?"

"Ask yourself if you can let go of playing this character or not. Think about the risk and whether the rewards would be worth it."

"What about my mental health?"

Aiden asked. In his mind, he knew that his system would give him a boost on playing villain characters which Kai was. It meant that the affinity was surely going to be over 90.

"If you can play a character, you can control it. I know you, Aiden. You have a knack of coming out of bad situations."

Uncle Sam laughed and hearing his voice, a certain ease swept inside of him. He would always say this one thing whenever Aiden would talk to him about a problem.

For better or worse, it was true too.

It was also the reason why Uncle Sam never helped him to get a career in Hollywood despite his connections. He always believed that he would do something on his own.

'Aiden, you have a gift of facing against the odds and coming out. Never forget that.'

Those were the words he had told him a long time ago.

Maybe he just needed to follow it.

"Okay, Uncle Sam. I think I know what to do."

"Yeah, good then. Just think if the role is worth the trouble."

Uncle Sam cut the phone after that and Aiden took another look at the night sky before walking towards a mirror.

His reflection was clear on it.

Since entering the industry, he has gone through a few changes. His facial expressions looked better now thanks to keeping his health in check and exercising. Moreover, there was an aura around him now.

A certain aura that made him stand out.

'Is the role worth it?'

He thought of his uncle's words in his mind and suddenly, his aura changed. It became cold and sharp.

Aiden's expression also changed. This was him trying to get into the character of Kai. Due to his system, he could do that in a second.

In the mirror, Aiden saw himself as Kai. A cold, bloody maniac killer with philosophies that made him attractive.

But was he ready to take his role further? To tell a story that was not going to be easy?

'Take it.'

A voice said inside of him and for a second, he felt like it was just Kai who was telling him that. It sounded out again and Aiden shook his head.

'Maybe I resonate with him more than I thought.'

He had the answer right there.

Time went by quickly after the shooting of [Agnas] ended. A week after he saw the script for [The Black Saint, he agreed to it.

Wade told him to contemplate a bit more but his answer was ready. There was no need to think more when he knew that he wanted to take the story forward.

So, he texted Zavier about his answer.

Aside from that, his celebrity life was pretty calm.

With no shooting or promotions, he was mostly free while doing a few live shows here and there. He also gave most of his time to develop the game's story with Cory.

Apparently, he was already able to get investments, so the game's demo was already out in works.

Aiden had worked hard in the story of the game and he was sure that it would turn out good.

Finally, at the beginning of November, the promotion and marketing for [Agnas] finally began.

It also marked a return of excitement in Aiden's fan group that was largely silent as Aiden didn't have a release for a few months and was pretty low-key.

[Milk Sheikh: Did you all see the new poster for [Agnas]. They are going to release a trailer next week. I heard that the songs in it are going to be superb.]

[Born to be a burden: Yes, yes, I saw it! It was really good. I've been extremely excited for [Agnas] from the time it was announced. It's a return for Aiden on the big screen. I really hope it earns a lot and gets him to A-list.]

[Qatari tradition officer: This fan group has really happy short term memories. His last movie released just a few months ago and it earned over a hundred million. I bet he's already on that A-list.]

[Hollywood Insider: No, my less knowledgeable friend, it doesn't really work like that. Aiden is seen as probably the most commercial actor in the indie scene but he's not there in the A-list. He's in a strange and uncomfortable line between A-list and B-list. Anyway, [Agnas] becoming a big hit won't really do anything for him in that regard until he gets a lot of awards which should be the case.]

[Moaning Frodo: Why is that?]

[Skyneves: Probably because the success of [Agnas] isn't on the hand of Aiden. People won't go to the theatres to watch him but to watch Agnas's backstory.]

[Horny all Morning: I'm going to go to the theater to see Aiden.]

[April on Roof: Well, you are in the minority. People trust Aiden to give a great performance but overall, it would only help him critically. A few years ago, a biopic earned 600 million dollars but the main actor's next release opened up at 3 million dollars and was a massive flop. It really depends on the movie rather than the actor in Hollywood.]

[My daily job is protesting: Pretty great analysis. Hollywood is really without star power. Though, it can be made with enough luck and talent.]

[Corn manhwa maker: I feel like it's more to do with the fact that there's no one in Hollywood that actually makes people feel like he's a person one should support. Social media exposes most of these celebrities.]

[Talking to my imaginary friend in the sky: That's true. Anyway, I hope [Agnas] is a huge hit. I'm going on the first day with my family for sure. My dad was a huge fan of his.]

[Young Fruit smiley: Anyone know where is 'Aiden's wife' these days?]

"Hey, what are you doing?"

A man turned around hearing the voice of a person he was very familiar with. A fragrance entered his nose as he looked at the person who was towering over him.

She was an employee he was familiar with. Someone who got along with most of the people in the office. Yet, she would always bother him.

"Finishing up an article on the phase of superhero movies and how it's going down."

"You're going to get a lot of hate from their fans for that."

"I know but the editor wanted it. Moreover, the stats say that. The numbers are very down even for sequels and stats are never lying."

He said and the woman just smiled at him. Both of them were employees of a news firm working in Los Angeles, the hub of Hollywood, so it was one of the topics that was common for the employees.

"So, what do you want?"

The man asked and the woman simply said.

"I got an event to cover. Not a big one. Just an early premier of a movie. I need someone to go with me."

"Just go alone or take Robert down there. He looks like he don't have anything to do on weekends other than changing TV channels."

The man glanced at a colleague who seemed to be bored and was wasting time.

"No, I would need you. The editor wants me to do a critic on it and talk about the buisness of biopics. A full blown article. I need your analysis to help me on it."

The woman said, her words being as polite as they could. She really wanted him to go with her, the man could tell.

"The business of biopics? Which movie is it?"

The man focused on that and the woman quickly replied.

"It's [Agnas]. There's a lot of rumors on how it's going to be a big blockbuster. They do an early premier for specific critics to gauge reactions."

"Ah, I don't think it would be a blockbuster."

The man said, surprising the woman.

"Why?"

"It's going against a big opponent. Holiday season and all the big studios are bringing their top weapons. There's no sure shot blockbuster."

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"We all know that one of the most anticipated superhero flicks this year is [Judgement]. It already made a lot of buzz around its teaser way back in July and every bit of news regarding it is highly positive. Are you taking it as a competition as both the movies are going to be released just a week apart?"

A blonde haired woman asked as she looked at Aiden who was sitting in front of him. A cameraman was standing on the side overseeing the whole interview with a few other people here and there.

Wade and Tom were among them too.

"I personally am very excited about [Judgement] too and I know there's going to be concerns since they release so close to each other but in the end, they are both very different movies. There's a chance that both won't affect each other."

"A lot of people are predicting that it's going to affect as people won't watch both the movies with high ticket prices and inflation." The blonde woman stated. "Do you really think that both movies would earn good?"

"I'm hoping they do. You can only keep a positive mindset and I believe that inflation and ticket prices are certainly things to ponder about but in the end, people are going to choose the better movie and that's completely fine."

Aiden replied as best as he could.

[Judgment] was a superhero movie from Dream Light pictures that was made on a massive budget of 250 million dollars. It was touted out to be the biggest holiday release and starred popular A-lister John Strampton.

From what he had seen in the trailers, the plot of it was fairly simple. It was the story of a normal delivery man finding himself in a secret vault of an Egyptian god and finding himself in the middle of a century old conflict between gods.

The action scenes in it looked pretty great, so Aiden was expecting it to be a great movie for the families.

"There were calls for [Agnas] to be released on a streaming platform instead in the theatres as biopics haven't been working in the recent times with a lot of them just failing badly. Do you think the genre is just following in the footsteps of romantic comedies?"

The female reporter asked again and Aiden smiled.

"Won't we know when [Agnas] release?" He became a bit serious after that comment. "If I'm serious, then no. Biopics as a genre is vastly different from romantic comedies. There are war biopics, musical biographies and much more. It's much more diverse and I feel like people are always going to be interested in checking out stories of famous people."

Aiden explained. This was actually a question he had heard often in the media interviews he's doing.

Hollywood had a habit of focusing on the trend too much and in some ways, it was a good thing to study the market. But it wasn't always the case.

Even with recent flops of biopics at the box office, Aiden felt like [Agnas] could make a difference.

"Thanks for your time."

"You too. Have a nice day."

At the end of the interview, Aiden shook hands with the blonde reporter and walked up to Wade and Tom.

"So, what's next?"

"We have a meeting with the Zero International marketing team. So, we need to go there."

Wade said and Aiden noticed that Tom looked a bit worried. He was checking up his phone with a constant anxious look.

"What happened, Tom?" Aiden asked and Tom frowned.

"Nothing. Just checking up the online interest in [Judgment] and other movies. I feel like we are in a room with the walls moving closer to crush us. The walls are these movie releases."

"Well he's right." Wade remarked. "[Judgment] is a big worry. Originally, we would have released the movie in September but the release got moved, so we have no choice. There's family comedies like [Home means Chaos 4]. It's not a small franchise as all the sequels have gotten a lot of money at the box office. There's other small indie comedies too."

His voice and expressions were the same as Tom. With all these releases and a massive budget with marketing, it was going to be hard for the movie to come out on top.

If it was a small budget movie, then Aiden would be calm as he knew that it doesn't need much to be a success.

The case was different with [Agnas].

'I still believe it will be received well.'

Aiden thought in his mind and put a hand on Wade's shoulder.

"Don't worry too much. The initial critics viewing and internal viewing at Zero International was highly positive."

"Audience really doesn't care about it. We need to get audiences in the theatre, you know."

Wade said and Aiden just smiled.

"I'm pretty sure the marketing team would have great ideas."

Only an hour after saying these words, Aiden regretted it.

'They look like they are already crushed by the walls. No, they seem more like zombies.'

Aiden put a hand on his head and frowned. The whole office of the marketing team seemed depressed for some reason.

It's like someone has sucked souls out of their bodies.

Seeing Aiden coming through, a few people walked up to him. Leading them was a guy who looked like a middle school basketball coach.

He was apparently the head of the marketing team.

"What's going on here? Why are they so…"

"Low on confidence?"

"I was going to say dead but that works. What even happened?"

Aiden looked at the guy who bit his lips in frustration before opening his mouth.

"It's mostly because our marketing campaign isn't going that good compared to [Judgment]. We don't have to worry about other movies as we have more interest from the public until they are extremely good but [Judgment] is coming out as a huge wall to climb through."

"Didn't we already give a lot of press interviews and promote it in every major city? [Judgment] is doing the same thing. I don't see anything special from them."

Wade asked and the guy smacked his lips again.

"You can't compare it to a superhero movie. They don't even need promotions. Their fans are like the ghost under your bed constantly watching you. Every fucking movie is connected, so people watch it just to not miss out. It's extremely hard to compete with this formula."

Aiden thought back to Dream Light pictures streaming shows that aren't well made but as they are also connected, people still watch them just to not be left behind.

If you don't watch one thing, you are anxious that you are missing out.

"So, you called me here. You must have an idea."

Aiden said and the marketing head nodded, albeit slowly. A hesitation evident in his body language.

"We were thinking of you doing shows as Agnas to promote the movie. Most young people have not heard him live or even his songs but you can emulate his performances. If you are okay with it, obviously."

The man said, wondering if he was asking too much. A few celebrities just didn't like promoting too much.

But Aiden nodded.

"Sounds nice actually." Aiden smiled thinking about it. He did something similar for [30 days of Happiness] too. "I feel like we would be able to pull it off."

"Really? It would be a lot of work though."

The man asked but Aiden shook his head.

"No, it's fine. We need to promote it in a unique manner. Young people need to know what a real superstar is."

Aiden said and suddenly, an idea struck his mind.

"How about if we take it a notch above?"

"What are you thinking?" Tom asked and Aiden composed the right words to explain his idea in his mind.

"Well, I could act as Agnas on talk shows like there were few iconic talk shows episodes he appeared in. We could recreate that in modern day to promote the movie. How's it for an idea?"

"Ah, it's not bad. It's actually great."

The man's eyes shined as he heard the movie.

"We would need to contact a few talk shows to ask about it from them. But I think it would be fine. Yeah, it's a good idea."

The last line seemed to be said to himself. Aiden didn't mind it and hoped that this marketing strategy would help them out.

At that moment, an employee suddenly shouted.

"Sir, there's a problem."

"What happened?" The marketing head turned towards him.

Aiden and everyone else in the room did too. The employee who had stood up quickly replied, noticing the attention on him.

"An interview has been out. Someone who knew Agnas from the past has given an interview regarding our movie and it doesn't look really good."

"What? Didn't we get all the permissions?"

"We did but it seems like a reporter thought that he would be able to get a great story out of it. I can't confirm anything but the article is slowly getting a lot of attention online."

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"What article?"

"How could it happen just one and a half hours before our movie is released?"

"These things are just going to bring in more negative publicity."

"Do you think one of the rivals did it? I mean there's tons of movies releasing this month and everyone is trying to one up each other even if they have to resort to cheap things."

"Nah, it can be a coincidence too."

Whispers rang among the Marketing department office as a few people looked up the interview online while others discussed whether it was some sort of a conspiracy.

Theodore, the producer who just entered the room also looked around with confusion and after hearing about everything, his face went a bit pale before he sighed.

"So, what is exactly written in the article?"

He looked towards the employee who had broken the news. Aiden and everyone else also looked at him.

"Is it someone from Agnas's family?"

Aiden asked. He recalled hearing about how some of Agnas's family members were against the biopic for various reasons. To be fair, it was just most of his relatives who were worried about their portrayals in the movie.

But Baz has left them out from most of the movie and focused more on a mother-son relationship.

"No, it isn't. I think it's one of the women who he had a relationship with. I researched a bit and the media used to write articles about them. At least she's listed down as one of the women that he dated. She seems… full of venom."

The employee said and Aiden walked up to check the article on his computer. Everyone else got behind him too.

'It really seems like she holds a grudge against Agnas.'

Aiden thought in his mind.

The article was an interview with the LA Times, a famous publication that answered why it was getting so much traction.

In the interview, the woman named Anna Bathes had talked about how Agnas was an extremely awful person who used to pay reporters to write articles about her and how she was worried that the movie was going to white wash him just like a lot of other biopics.

She ended the interviews by saying, "Agnas might be a superstar but he wasn't a good human being. He was a scum and I wouldn't like to see if he's portrayed in a good light. At least when I'm alive. Yes, I'm going to sue them if they use me as a character without permission."

After finishing the whole article, Aiden frowned.

"Sounds like one of my exes." Wade remarked and Aiden looked at him. "Hey, some are crazy. She scratched 'I hate you' with a key on my car after we broke up. Very crazy."

"Feel like you are the type to attract those."

Tom joked but Theodere was not amused. He looked at the marketing head who was already sweating with a stern face.

"Handle this with priority. LA times probably wanted to fuck us over so close to release for some attention." Saying that, he turned to Aiden. "I'm asking to confirm but there was no character called Anna Bathes in the movie, right?"

"No, she isn't. I don't remember it but you can confirm. Moreover, you know Baz handled it as he wasn't able to get permissions from everyone."

In biopics, it was not easy to get permission from everyone to use them as characters, especially in biopics based in the past. So, a lot of people would use different characters in scenes that actually didn't happen.

Or just make up fictional versions of these people.

Baz chose the second option as Joseph also wanted to go with this as the important thing was to keep the essence of the life of Agnas which they managed to achieve.

"Okay. Let's get a press release out about our stance. Then, try to ignore it. We could also use statements from Joseph and others in the industry who actually knew Agnas to counter it."

The marketing head said and everyone around him nodded. They quickly got to work as he walked close to Aiden.

"We will try to control it but it's going to make some noise online. People on Sparrow love to do that and from there, it will spread."

"I understand. I will just focus on the promotions."

"Yeah, thank you for working hard."

"You too."

Aiden said and wondered if it was just bad luck that such an article had sprang at this point.

"Ladies and gentlemen, give a round of applause to Aiden who performed one of Agnas's most famous songs 'I don't want to lose you' today. If you want to see more, go buy tickets for the biopic [Agnas]. The story of America's first pop superstar. Directed by Baz McCarthy, it's a must watch!"

The host said as a round of applause went off. Aiden waved at the crowd and thanked them before walking backstage.

He had just finished a short interview and song on a late night talk show. His act as Agnas was very well received and he even said some of his iconic lines and sang in the way he used to.

'Let's hope it gets some people in the theatres.'

He thought, feeling his shoulders being a bit heavy. He was tired from constant promotion but it was only for a few days.

Rather than this, some other stuff was bothering him.

"That was a good performance. Your practice really bears fruit."

"I acted as him for months. It's very shameful for me as an actor if I can't even emulate it on a talk show. Though, his charisma is really off the charts. I struggle with that a lot."

Aiden said when he entered the room that was allocated to him. Wade and his stylist were already there. Clothes that he was going to change into were laid down on a sofa with a few other things.

"I don't think people realise that. At least all the comments I'm hearing are very positive. They are calling you a chameleon."

Wade laughed. One thing that had stayed true no matter what was Aiden's acting ability and the praise of it after each of his movies.

"People are going to think I pay critics as they constantly praise me."

"They already do." Wade said before showing him some comments saying how critics are always lenient on Aiden.

Though, only he knew that the case was very different.

As he started with small but good roles, his acting skills were hidden by them but as his level rose, he became more confident in them.

It was luck and a lot of effort.

"Anyway, are the articles still coming out?"

Aiden suddenly asked as the atmosphere grew a bit more serious.

The stylist standing in the back also frowned.

"Yeah, I think I read two from different publications today." The stylist said as she looked at Aiden.

Wade also nodded.

"It's a case of a lot of mosquitoes hovering around you to drink your blood. In this case, it's news agencies hovering around an old, bitter woman to clench their thirst for a controversy."

After one article, several have come up. Some were just copy paste from the original interviews while others were original. It seems like whoever Anna Bathes was, she had a lot of free time to give out interviews.

Aiden had even seen a reporter with 400k followers posting an article on the 'dark things' that Agnas did.

Obviously, it was nothing much as Agnas just had a troubled life and never really did anything too controversial.

But the current generation didn't know him and it was easy to change his image like that with just a few clicks.

"I wonder when it will stop."

Aiden said and Wade shook his head with a smile that said that it was not going to stop.

"If [Agnas] opened up to expectations, they are going to die down with better articles praising the movie but if it fails, then these types of articles are going to extend their expiry. We have [Judgment] releasing one week after and compared to us, they are really without any controversies."

"Yeah, their ship seems like it would reach the dock smoothly."

Aiden replied. [Judgment] media tour was very successful and anyway, the interest was rarely dwindled for a superhero movie. So, [Agnas] might have only one week to do good business.

In some cases, that was more than enough but he didn't know if it was going to be the case this time too.

'Anna Bathes. What's with this woman?'

Aiden thought in his mind.

For some reason, she felt familiar to him. Maybe because he had brushed upon her during his research to prepare for Agnas. Or maybe because he had seen her during 'Connect'.

'Things were going too fast at that time anyway. Maybe I saw her there. Can't really say but I don't know why she hates Agnas so much.'

He took a deep breath thinking that. Maybe it was time to meet her.

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[Agnas] is a movie that's in the making for a few years already and from a movie that's been in pre production hell for a long time, you would expect that the chances of things going wrong would be significantly higher but fortunately, it's not the case with [Agnas] at all. The movie is like fine wine and Aiden Silvereye might get an Oscar nomination for this role. He's just very effortless in the skin of Agnas. The climax is the heart.

-Hollywood Reporter.

For bipocs, you can go a lot of ways. Either showing the person's highs or the things that he achieved but [Agnas] focuses more on the mental aspect of a superstar. Something that's rarely done in cinema and at the end of the movie, somewhere in my heart, I was glad I have decided to review movies not make them. The final song would probably make people cry. A must watch!

-Vanity Magazine.

Agnas has a lot of drawbacks as somewhere, you would expect it to be more of an extravaganza but it's not that type of a movie. Still, it achieves what it wants to and that is the most important thing in the movie. The music and the cast overshadow the cinematography and editing clearly. Expect the Oscars jury to take keen attention to this movie in the nominations.

-LA Times.

Reviews were soon out for the movie and the pre booking was also going well. Though, a lot of people were trying to save up for [Judgment] that was going to be released next week.

But still, with good reviews, the hype was made. More people who were older were interested in the movie as they were the ones who have experienced Agnas's stardom and were very interested in knowing about his life story.

At the same time, a lot of people were also going to watch it just because of the music in the trailers and promos. The sound design was something that was better than most of the movies that have come out this year.

Discussions online about it were rampant due to this.

[Hollywood remake factory: Is anyone going to watch [Agnas] tomorrow?]

[Naming my kid Boy: My grandpa is super excited to watch for some reason. She told me that Agnas was someone who every girl has a crush on back in the 70s. I'm taking her to watch it. From the trailers, I'm interested too.]

[Superhero conundrum: I'm saving money for [Judgment]. It's extremely expensive to go to movies these days and I can't miss a superhero movie. [Agnas] isn't really interesting to me as I don't enjoy movies with no action.]

[American gun specialist: Very excited for [Agnas]. Just because of Aiden and [Action Hero]. I had a lot of fun in that movie with my friends. This seems like a very different experience but I'm pretty sure it's going to be a good one. I believe Aiden's script choices a lot.]

[My dog is a dawg: This movie should have been released on Zetflix. No interest in it. Me and my boys are gonna watch [Judgment].]

Like that, there were a lot of opinions on the movie but now that it was releasing, the results were going to come out.

"How do these reporters even get an interview with someone who lived in Texas?"

Aiden asked Wade who just shrugged his shoulders. On the backseat, Tom was looking up online reviews and ratings for [Agnas]. Besides him, Sasha, his PR manager was sitting. She was from Texas, so she accompanied them on the trip.

"Reporters will even go to Mars if it means spicy news. I'm pretty sure a few of them would be crawling around here too."

Wade looked outside the window, looking for anyone suspicious at Sasha's words. They were currently in a residential area of Texas where Anna Bathes supposedly lived.

As Aiden was getting curious about why she hated Agnas so much, he had decided to meet her. One of the reasons was also to stop her from giving venomous interviews.

"Anyway, it's that house, right?"

Aiden pointed at a house and Wade nodded.

"This should be it."

"Okay, I will go and ring the doorbell. Though, I feel like I will be chased out."

"Want me to come with you?"

Wade asked but Aiden shook his head in rejection. He needed to talk to the woman alone.

'I should have been visiting theatres to see public reaction but whatever. Here goes nothing.'

He thought before getting out of the car.

Aiden took a deep breath and walked towards the door. Looking around, he saw no one and rang the doorbell.

There was no answer. It was an old type of doorbell without any video screen to check who it was. Aiden rang it again and this type, he heard footsteps.

In the next few seconds, the door opened and a woman appeared.

"I told you all I'm not giving any more inter—"

The woman began to speak but when she saw who was standing in front of her, she froze. She opened and closed her mouth before a frown appeared on her face.

'She looks very old. Probably she's the one I'm looking for.'

Aiden thought in his mind.

The woman looked to be in her 70s with white hair. There were wrinkles on her face which were highlighted more because of her frowning. She was a head shorter than Aiden but despite her age, she looked fit.

He felt like he had seen her somewhere before. At least, her face looked familiar. Probably from the memories of Agnas he had seen.

Before Aiden could open his mouth, the woman spoke.

"Why are you here? Trying to sue me for my interviews? I'm telling you right now if you try, I'm going to sue first."

"I'm not here for that. Even if we have such intentions, you won't see me but a lawyer."

Aiden countered and the old woman who he had already assumed as Anna Bathes blinked her eyes.

"Why are you here then?"

"I want to talk to you."

"About what."

"Agnas."

They talked like that for a minute before the woman looked around, noticing a car in which Wade was sitting in the front row. Frowning again, she gestured for him to come in.

Aiden walked in with her and noticed that the house was pretty old fashioned. There weren't many accessories and Anna seemed to be living alone.

No family pictures on the wall either. When they reached the living room, she gestured for him to sit down.

"What do you mean you are here to talk about Agnas? I don't want anything to do with him."

"If you don't want anything to do with him, then why are you spewing venom against him so much? Why do you even hate Agnas so much?"

Aiden looked at her and for a moment, Anna didn't know what to say. She sighed and closed her eyes.

A complicated expression appeared on her face before she opened her mouth again.

"Agnas and I were friends. Probably more than that. It was a pretty good time in my life. At least when it started, my relationship with him. But I wasn't able to handle his stardom. Too many people used to meet him everyday. New faces everyday. I didn't even know them. Never did. The constant media around him and… me. I wasn't able to handle it. We had fights. It got over. He was devastated but it was better than waiting for things to go beyond a line. I moved out of town, away from the articles and he… rose more and more to godhood."

Anna started speaking. Aiden listened to each of her words with attention, trying not to miss anything and at the same time, he was trying to remember if he had seen this in the memories of Agnas.

"What happened then?"

"I got married to a normal guy. He wasn't really special but it was enough. My married life was good. Normal. Years went by and one day, Agnas approached me on the streets. I didn't know if it was a coincidence or not but he found out. I was happy because I felt like we both have matured. He wanted to meet and talk, and hear about how I'm doing. I already knew what he was doing. He was everywhere."

Aiden suddenly blinked his eyes as he realised something.

Something clicked inside his head.

'Wait, I know who Anna is…'

He thought and the next words from Anna confirmed his thoughts.

"We met as friends this time. It was good. He used to sing me songs. Was happy to know that I was good. Then one day, he asked me out, saying that he wanted to get things better this time and was thinking of leaving music. I told him off, saying I have a husband. He left without saying anything but just the next day, there was an article on a major newspaper with a photo of me and him."

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'She's the woman Agnas was in love with during the last phase of his life. He was heartbroken because of her and that's just pushed him more into depression. The weight of his stardom crushed him in the end.'

Aiden thought in his mind and his thoughts were only stopped by the words of Anna. While speaking, she had somehow gotten emotional and he could see on her face that this was a moment of grief for her in her life.

"Those articles ruined my married life. My husband didn't listen to me and divorced me. I tried to talk to Agnas about it, tell him to explain but his numbers weren't working. I reached out to his agent but he told me that Agnas didn't want to see me. The next time I heard of him, he had passed away but my life was already ruined."

Aiden blinked his eyes hearing that. Something was wrong.

"What do you mean his agent told you that Agnas didn't want to see you?"

"It is what it is. His agent told me that Agnas just played with me and didn't want to see me. Do you understand why I hate him now?"

"Yes… no, I mean no. There's a misunderstanding."

Aiden said and Anna's face froze right there. She was wondering what type of a misunderstanding there was. In her mind, she had explained it as clearly as possible.

"What misunderstanding?"

"Agnas never told his agent that he didn't want to meet you. In fact, he really wanted to meet you and apologize. He even fought with a reporter due to that article after he found out about your divorce."

"Don't just say anything!"

"I'm not. Agnas is a good person who's misunderstood. He never wanted anything bad to happen—"

"Bullshit!!"

Anna shouted then calmed herself down in the next moment. She looked at Aiden for a second before sighing.

"You and him… I don't want anything to do with you celebrities. You people have everything but nothing. Please leave. I promise I won't give more interviews. Just leave me alone and don't ever try to whitewash his image in front of him. You might be able to fool others but not me."

Anna looked at him with concealed anger and pain in his eyes.

That was the end of it.

No matter what else Aiden said, she didn't listen to it and soon, Aiden was thrown out of her house.

He walked up to the car where Wade and Tom were standing. Sasha was sitting inside.

"How did it go?"

"She said she won't do more interviews."

"Then that's good. At least no new interview would spring up. I think the marketing team would be able to control whatever damage was done. Let's get out of here."

Wade said but then, he noticed that Aiden's expression was strange.

"What happened?" Tom asked, also noticing it.

"I need to do one thing for Agnas. A very important thing."

Did Agnas get his peace in the afterlife? That was a question that Aiden would sometimes think about. He didn't have the life he wanted and for a long part of it, he was in pain.

So, did he find peace in the afterlife? Aiden didn't know the answer to that question.

But he knew one thing.

That Agnas won't like if Anna kept bearing such bitterness in her heart. At the same time, no matter what he said it won't have any effect on her.

So, he went straight to one person that Aiden felt would have the answers to this situation.

"Joseph, sorry to ask you to meet me so suddenly. Were you busy?"

Aiden asked as he walked inside Joseph's room. He was sitting at the sofa with the piano adjacent to it.

He had flown straight to New York to meet Joseph as he was the only person who knew Agnas well.

"No, I watched [Agnas] in the morning in a theatre. The occupancy was pretty good and people seemed to have enjoyed it. You have made a good movie."

He smiled as Aiden took a seat in front of him.

"That's good to hear."

"You have not heard how the movie is doing in the theatres?"

Joseph tilted his head. It's already been two days since the movie was released, so it was a bit strange.

"No, I was busy with something. I came because of that."

"What happened?"

The old musician got serious hearing that and Aiden narrated everything to him about Anna and what had happened. As he was not involved with the marketing, Joseph didn't know about this.

With each word, his eyes went wide and wide.

"Anna is alive. Wait! This is too much to take."

His reaction told Aiden that Agnas had indeed talked about Anna with him.

"Yeah and like I told you, there's been a misunderstanding. She hates him."

"That… that's a very tragic thing."

Joseph frowned and told him about how much Agnas loved her. And how he wanted her to be happy no matter what.

"Even after she rejected him, he wanted her to be happy. I can't believe he has a hand in the media articles. Back then, there were articles of people he used to shake hands with once. So, some reporter did it on his own and speculated. As for his agent, I'm pretty sure he lied to Anna."

Joseph said, anger clear on his face.

"Are you sure?" Aiden asked to confirm and Joseph nodded.

"Yeah, he used to control a lot of Agnas's life. He hated him. You know a bit of it."

Aiden nodded hearing it and quickly asked.

"So, is he alive? I was thinking that if he's alive, we could get him to tell Anna the truth."

"I'm afraid not. He was already in his 50s back then and used to smoke a lot. I heard he died back in the 2000s."

Aiden sighed hearing that. If the agent wasn't alive, then he didn't know what they could do.

'Is there some other way?'

He thought in his mind and an idea suddenly passed through Joseph's head as he recalled something.

"I have something that could help."

He said and Aiden perked his ears.

"What?"

"You remember the letters?"

"Yeah." Aiden said. "But there was not much mention of Anna in this. Just a few lines."

"I know but I didn't show you all of them. There were a few that I kept hidden as there were a lot of things related to Agnas's personal life in it. He wrote about Anna in them."

"Really? Then, we could use them to tell the truth to Anna."

Aiden said with a smile.

[Agnas, the biopic of the superstar earned 24 million dollars on its opening day, making it one of the highest opening movies this year. The critically acclaimed movie is being well liked by the fans of Agnas and the critics alike.

The movie earns 26 million on the second, taking it past the 50 million mark. Before the release of [Judgement, the movie is looking to do a business of around 150 million dollars, equalling it's budget but it needs around 350 million dollars to emerge as a clean hit.

Will [Judgment] slow down [Agnas]? There's bound to be a clash of the two titans when the former is released. Currently, Zero International is hoping that it could earn as much as possible before the former comes to the theatres. Till then, the biographical drama is going to rule the North American box office.

"They are trying to bid our movie with theirs. It's kind of funny as their movie only earned 24 million dollars on the first day."

A bald man said as he placed down a few newspapers on the table. His agent looked up at him and gave him a smirk.

"I'm pretty sure it's just the media. These days, they are subtly taking a dig at superhero movies and saying how the collections are going down because there are too many of them. It's their way of asking if [Agnas] will make [Judgment] suffer."

"It's ridiculous." The bald man said. "They heavily underestimate my box office pull."

The bald man was actually John Strampton, the lead of [Judgment] and a very big A lister. He was known to do huge box office movies.

"They do and the critical reviews of [Judgement] is giving them power to say things. They don't understand that it's not a movie made for critics."

"I know right. I'm pretty sure my fans are going to love it. A big billion dollar movie. I can already see it."

John made a wave with his hands in the air. He was very confident that the box office results of the movie was going to drown [Agnas].

"A biographical drama can never stand against my movie, especially a superhero movie. You will see [Judgment] is gonna wreck havoc next week."

He said with a haughty laugh.

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If he was being honest, Aiden had no reason to straighten the misunderstanding that had happened between Anna and Agnas.

It wasn't his place to do anything.

In the first place, Agnas was dead and Anna's bitterness has just gone cold over the years. He could tell by seeing how she was living.

But then, why was he doing that when he should try to promote [Agnas] more and prepare for the clash against [Judgment] next week.

He didn't know the exact reason but maybe he had to point out something — It would be the connection he felt with Agnas like he was a part of him, more than his other characters.

Using 'Connect' was almost like living another life and Aiden still had the emotions that Agnas had felt in his life inside of him somewhere.

When he had first known about Anna, there was a feeling of agony and torment inside of him.

He felt like Agnas was still alive in him and he needed to give peace to that part.

That's why, he went straight to Texas again. For the last time and like he had thought, he was greeted by a stone-faced Anna who didn't look happy to see him.

It looked like she would be happier if he just left without saying anything.

"Why are you here again?'

"I need to show you something."

"What?"

"Proof that Agnas never tried to sabotage your marriage. He was a victim himself and he always wanted—"

Aiden stopped there as Anna frowned with disgust. She put a hand on her forehead and muttered something incomprehensible under her breath before opening her mouth again.

"I don't want to hear anything."

"Just see this."

Aiden said and took out a few old letters. Dust was visible on them and the paper had already turned yellow. It looked like it would melt if someone touched it.

"These are letters written by Agnas. He was a fan of writing things, so he would always send letters to his close friends."

"I know that."

Anna said, obviously aware of this habit and he smiled.

"These are the letters he sent to Joseph Bryce, a friend of his. You will find your answers in these letters."

Anna looked at them for a short time hearing that. A lot of emotions flew past her eyes and curiosity was one of them. Aiden noticed it too but soon, they were clouded again.

"I don't want it."

"Why? You will have your answers in these letters. Don't you want to know the truth? Do you really want to live with so much bitterness?"

Aiden asked and Anna frowned again.

"This could just be fake."

"See the handwriting. You will recognize the way of writing and use of words to be similar to Agnas and why do you think I'm doing it?"

"I wonder why?"

Anna asked and Aiden smiled.

"Agnas let me understand a lot of things about my career and life in general. I'm thankful to him and I just want to give back to him. Look, I know you have hated him for a long time now but give these letters a chance. He's already gone but I'm pretty sure he would have found peace in the fact that you don't hate him."

That was it from Aiden.

He left after saying that without taking the letters back with him. He told Anna that she could throw them away if she isn't going to read them.

Though, he knew she would.

His instincts said that and there was nothing wrong in believing in them. For now, his job was over.

After Aiden left, Anna kept sighing due to various reasons. The young man had left the letters on the table before leaving. Her eyes would unconsciously glance at them from time to time.

She didn't know what to do with them.

Should she throw them out? Maybe. But she was curious too. She wanted to know what was written inside of them. Whether Aiden's words have really been true? Whether it all had been a misunderstanding all these years?

The wounds from her broken marriage had healed up till now. But the bad memories had remained.

She had also remarried after years but her second husband had died a few years later, making her live alone. Though, even her second marriage wasn't able to overshadow the bad memories and bitterness Agnas had left.

'Maybe I should just check it and throw it away after reading.'

Just as that thought crossed her mind, she hesitated. For some reason, she was afraid.

Suddenly, something vibrated.

She got scared momentarily before she saw that it was just her phone. She took it out and saw that it was one of her friends.

She had sent her a text.

[Do you want to go see [Agnas] with a few of us? A lot of us were fans of him in the 70s right. I want to know his story.]

Reading the message, an incomprehensible smile appeared on her face.

She once again frowned and walked towards the letters without thinking anything. Picking up one of them, she muttered.

"I can at least read it."

She opened the letter and a familiar writing came in her vision. It was the writing of Agnas. She knew it by heart as he had read a lot of letters by him.

'At least it doesn't look fake.'

[Joseph, I am hoping you are doing good on that new song. You asked about me. Well, I'm not good. I confessed to Anna in the past week, you know the girl I told you about but it seems like she already had a husband. I was heartbroken but she seemed happy with him. I snooped around a bit and found out that he's a good man. She's happy. But a newspaper wrote an article about me and her. It happened again. I'm going to sue them… again but I don't think it will stop. I'm going to apologise to Anna about it and explain to her the situation.]

Anna read the whole letter twice with widened eyes. Then, she did it a third time before putting it down.

Suddenly, her mind was in a mess.

'So, was Aiden right? Was it really a misunderstanding?'

She thought in her mind and shook her head before picking up another letter. All these letters were mainly about her that Agnas had written. He had talked a lot about it and she could clearly see that he only wanted the best for her even if she had rejected him.

In the end, her eyes landed on a letter that had mentions of his agent.

[I have a big fight with my agent. I have had enough. He controlled my life so much I was feeling like a caged bird. He's still controlling… I'm trying to break the contract by talking with my lawyers but there are complications and you know the worst thing. Apparently, Anna came to meet me but that fucking bastard misbehaved with her. I can't reach her now…]

Anna kept holding the letter in her hand with a shocked gaze. She breathed out and with that breath, she felt like something released that was trapped inside of her.

Her shoulders felt light suddenly.

"Ah, so it was really like that…"

Her words dragged on as her ears teared.

"It's good we found a theatre."

Aiden said as he looked around and put a hand on his mask and glasses. As he was currently in Texas, he felt like visiting a theatre to see the live reaction of people.

"Yeah. It looked like the show was in its climax. Let me go talk to a staff member. Pretty sure they would let us in with some photos."

"Go on."

Aiden said and Wade walked up to a staff area. He just stood there and looked around. A lot of [Agnas] posters were there but they were far outnumbered by [Judgment].

He stared at one of the posters that was right beside him. John Strampton was in a casual outfit with a dice in his hand. Around him, gods were standing and in the background, there were a few other important characters.

It was a pretty good poster according to the standards of superhero movies.

As Aiden was staring at the posters, Wade returned with a few staff members. He casually walked inside the staff room before taking off his mask. A few autographs and photos later, he was able to walk inside the theatre.

It was fully packed with a lot of people, mostly middle aged people with a few teenagers in between.

Aiden stared at the screen. It was right at the beginning of the climax and the start of 'Joker'.

"Ah, I love it. 'Joker' is extraordinary. I heard it's slowly getting a lot of streams online since we released it."

Wade said, standing next to him.

"The song deserves it."

Aiden replied and just waited for the final scene. The song that took decades was finally on the big screen that it deserves.

...

/DreamNote/

Golden Ticket Event Winners for November month will be announced in the next chapter!!!

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On the big screen, Agnas's death scene was going on. Him trying to write up a song before taking drugs and accidentally overdosing. The scene was shot in just one take and although Aiden had not taken real drugs, he had researched a lot of videos, movies and habits of people who do drugs.

So, the scene looked almost perfect.

There were even a few gasps in the theatre when the scene began. The body of Agnas twitching while he's unconscious on the floor. For a second, people even felt like there was a smile on his face as he was happy that his tragedy was finally going to end.

The scene cuts to a montage of scenes of reactions after Agnas's death. Reporters, media and literally every celebrity in America and the world grieved for him.

Then, the scene cuts with Agnas reciting a quote that he was famous for.

"One day, I might not be alive but I know my songs will live on. My ideas through them will live on and might influence someone to be like me. After all, we humans are just beings who are always influenced by someone."

Aiden recited the lines as it happened on the screen. Everyone's eyes were glued on the big screen as suddenly, the scene changed to a concert.

Agnas was holding a mic. It was the same stage where he had first started confident. The stage where his agent had perceived that he was going to be a star.

Standing there, he slowly started strumming his guitar.

A familiar tune hit Aiden's ears.

The tune of 'Joker'.

Slowly, the tempo increased and he could see that people around him looked in some sort of trance state. Just the tune of the song had enamored them.

Aiden just closed his eyes and listened to the song.

The piano, the guitar and slow humming followed by high notes that talks about a man's purpose in life and how in the end, it's just about being a joker in a circus that you don't own.

But still, Agnas took pride in the fact that his music was at least making people smile. He was a 'Joker' but that was just life.

It was well described by the lyrics in the chorus. Especially the main line of the song.

"I am a Joker in the circus called life."

When the chorus appeared, Aiden saw a few people tear up in the crowd. They have been sitting here watching the whole journey of Agnas and hearing these lines, they truly resonated with him.

Even Wade seemed to be listening to the lyrics with full attention.

When the song ended, a clap sounded out in the theatre, followed by more of them. It didn't stop there as people stood up and clapped hard for the movie they had just watched.

It had truly touched their hearts.

When Aiden opened his heart, a smile unknowingly hung on his lips and suddenly, a few notifications appeared in front of him.

[You have gained a lot of experience.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have advanced to Intermediate Grade 7 from Intermediate Grade 6 in acting skill.]

[You have advanced to Intermediate Grade 6 from Intermediate Grade 5 in singing skill.]

[Congratulations on your level up!]

Aiden was very surprised by the messages as he felt like it was a bit late. But he would take it anyway.

He had expected it in a way as he had gotten a lot of experience after [Action Hero] and [Agnas]. It was the same with 'Joker' as it was a legendary song.

So, getting these notifications right now just made his day better.

'I hope Agnas will be happy in the afterlife.'

Smiling, he thought.

The next few days were full of nice surprises for Aiden. First of all, at the end of the week, [Agnas] earned a total of 178 million dollars at the box office, breaking even on the production cost.

A lot of critics and analysts had said the movie would need to maintain momentum to earn more than 150 million dollars and it would be hard to do. But the movie has surpassed expectations.

The good reviews and the audience reaction was making it both a critical and commercial success. Though, the main reason was also the songs.

Songs like 'Joker' and 'Therapy' had gone viral in a week with both of them entering the Global Top 50 charts on Melody. Even on MeTube, there were a lot of covers on them.

Especially 'Joker'. A lot of news websites and magazines have written exclusive articles on it.

'Joker' — The song that took decades and how it was worth it in the end.

Agnas's swansong was completed by Aiden Silvereye, the lead. The music composer of [Agnas, Joseph Bryce said that it was almost miraculous.

Aiden Silvereye taking over the legacy of Agnas by completing his last song.

These articles were read by a lot of people and eventually helped more and more people reach the theatre to watch the movie. Moreover, even Agnas's original songs started being streamed by a lot of people.

The interest in his songs was minimal before the movie as most of the younger generations have not heard of him. Much less his music but after the movie, a lot of people revisited his songs both on Melody and MeTube.

One of his most famous songs even reached close to the top of music charts.

Though, everyone knew that the true test of [Agnas] was going to happen at the end of the week when [Judgment] was going to be released. A lot of people thought it was going to eat up the business of the biographical drama.

On the first day, it did happen.

[Judgment] opened up at 43 million dollars, way more than the opening day of [Agnas]. It was expected and [Agnas] was only able to earn 12 million dollars.

It was still a good number because it's momentum was good but people felt like it would close down a bit under 300 million dollars. It was a 'hit' tag for sure but something that was not enough in Zero International's executives eyes.

But on the second day of [Judgment]'s release, it earned 37 million dollars and on the third, it did 33 million.

The first three days it earned 113 million dollars which was good but the numbers going down became a big concern.

It wasn't getting stable and Hollywood analysts attributed it to a lot of bad reviews. Moreover, the movie was at its core a very simple popcorn flick.

Even with a great premise involving gods, it wasn't really a great movie. There were a lot of moments that felt underutilized.

Even with that, the audience complained that a lot of good moments were ruined by comedy. Like in one of them, a supporting character is dying but the main character is cracking a joke.

It became something that the audience didn't seem to connect with and despite being a superhero movie, the negative word of mouth spreaded.

That was not good for any movie, especially a superhero movie. They might not care for negative reviews but they did care about what the audience thought of it.

Everyday, the collections of [Judgment] kept lowering and in the end, the first week was 184 million dollars. Not the kind of opening week the movie was expecting.

With a budget of 250 million dollars and marketing cost, it was suddenly trying hard to breakeven.

The second and week were going to be harsher on the movie. Contrary to that, [Agnas] still earned 89 million dollars in the second week.

It earned 267 million dollars in two weeks and the 300 million mark was looking more and more possible now.

A lot of people were pointing out how [Agnas] had eaten up [Judgment]'s audience.

One of the film critics tweeted on Sparrow, "[Judgment] might be able to get a hit tag with overseas revenue but in the end, it's a good wake up call to superhero movies that just VFX and action scenes aren't enough to get a great hit. On the other hand, [Agnas] is a good movie that perfectly has moments that both types of audience would enjoy. The latter really won the battle this time."

This tweet was liked by many people and it talked about the situation of Hollywood very well. People were going through an overdose of superhero movies.

So, [Agnas] profited from it.

Aiden was very happy by it as it was the end of a good year for him. His last release of the year had worked so well and he was obviously overjoyed by it.

But one thing that he felt was much better was the text he received from Anna after a few days. He had left his number within the letters and seeing the text, he felt at peace.

[Thank you for everything. I watched [Agnas]. You are a lot like him. Again, thank you.]

It was a short message but it was enough.

….

/DreamNote/

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…

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[Judgment] earns 344 million in three weeks, making it one of the least earning superhero movies this year. John Strampton said that the sequel would have the momentum behind it and would cross a billion dollars.

[Agnas] surpassed [Judgment] by earning 389 million dollars in the first month. The movie would do a lifetime business of 400 million dollars, making it a deserved hit. Zero International is hinted to be going for the Oscars too.

[Judgment] and [Agnas] made their way into the most earning movies of the year at the box office. In a rather disappointing year for Hollywood, Aiden Silvereye had two hits, making him a sure contender of making it into A list with his next movie.

At the end of the year, these types of reports started coming from major entertainment news outlets. [Agnas] had truly made it big and the industry had gotten a lesson in the form of [Judgment].

With too much superhero content, you need to be better than the most. And do a better job in the VFX department which most superhero movies lacked now due to being rushed.

It was also good news that good high budget movies that aren't in the superhero genre would also work if the audience liked it enough.

In all this, Aiden's fans were the ones that were the happier bunch. With [Action Hero, Morpheus and [Agnas, this was a great year for Aiden. There were even whispers of him finally being considered an A lister but it wasn't established yet.

A lot depended on his next movie.

But for now, the fan group was extremely happy and were excited for the holiday season.

[Skyneves: 'Joker' got over 100 million views on MeTube. It's really a smash hit. Aiden's music was really missing from my life.]

[I play games for microtransactions: Shouldn't it be Agnas's song? Aiden just completed it. I feel like this is more his song than it's Aiden's song.]

[Mario Italian accent: I agree. Still, I heard no other composer could complete it and Aiden got the role precisely because he was able to complete it. He was truly meant to play Agnas.]

[Got a PS5, bitches: Yeah and I'm hoping he gets back into another album after this. He probably got a lot of inspiration from Agnas and I would love to get an album from Aiden now.]

[Hollywood Insider: I think he's already doing a movie next.]

At that comment, a lot of the lurking members suddenly became active. Insider was already a mysterious figure in the group that has been recognised as a true insider of the movie industry.

So, anything he says is mostly something that's bound to happen.

[Moaning Frodo: What movie? Give details, insider. Please?]

[Hollywood Insider: I won't.]

[Moaning Frodo: I feel like I deserve it. I sent you my secret stash of fur—]

[Hollywood Insider: Okay okay! Well, cough, this is very secret information but I think they're gonna make an announcement soon. A special role in a special movie. And I can tell you this, it will be Aiden's hardest role yet and if he cracks it well, it's sure to be a blockbuster.]

"You know I am scared to go head to head with you in a box office clash now. Everyone who has done it hasn't really made it out nicely. You are a beast for a young guy. Aren't you nearing your 30s now?"

"I'm 28. So yeah in two years."

"Still fairly young. I made my debut at your age and you have long surpassed me."

A man said with a laugh as he looked at Aiden. He had a pretty nice looking beard and there was a tattoo on his neck that was very clear. With brown hair and an extremely athletic body, he looked like a viking.

It was actually an apt description as the name had just finished the third season of a famous TV series [Valhalla Calling] which was about vikings. The man was Ray Hardy, someone who Aiden was meeting after a long time.

They have met a few times in some award shows and they always have a good relationship. It had been established when they worked in [Black Saints].

"I actually didn't expect that Zavier would be able to get you on board for [The Black Saint]."

Aiden said, being a bit careful in his words. Ray and him were meeting in the office of Granite films, the production house behind the first [Black Saints].

They were also producing the sequel obviously.

"Why? Because I'm not the main character anymore."

Ray said with a serious expression.

"Kind of. I actually wasn't sure how you would take the news. You know, the first part was about you and now, it's suddenly about Kai. There can be dissatisfaction and I don't want that."

"I get where you're coming from but don't worry." Ray put a hand on his shoulders. "Kai was a great character for me too and I personally felt like we made a mistake by not giving him enough scenes. The audience thought that too, so I was immediately on board when I heard that the sequel was based on his story. Moreover, when Zavier came to meet me…"

Ray trailed his words and stopped, thinking about the exact words to use. Aiden squinted his eyes a bit.

"His eyes looked possessed. Like he had something to prove. I get it from what happened with him last year. It's hard to not be on board when you know the director is thinking of this movie as his best work."

Suddenly, the door to the meeting room opened and Zavier walked in and looked at the both of them.

"Can someone among you click a selfie and post it on your social media accounts?"

"Ah yeah. But why?"

"Creating hype before the announcement of the movie. The team is working on a few posters to announce the movie next month. But the marketing team feels like we can create more hype by hinting at something. I don't know how marketing people's brains works but they asked me to talk to you too."

Zavier shrugged his shoulders and Ray nodded.

"I will do it. Aiden can do the same. Let people speculate for a few days before the official announcement."

"Yeah, I'm fine with it."

Aiden said as Zavier sat down. He had called them both here to talk about the dates and time of shooting.

"So, we are going to wrap the pre-production by February and start in the last week of Feb. I hope you two don't have any other schedules as I want to finish it on time."

"It's fine with me." Ray said. "I have to shoot a rom com with Grant Elliot in July and until then I'm free."

Actually, one of the reasons Ray was doing [The Black Saint] was because his role was deliberately shot. In the past years, he had shot for blockbusters like [Fury Road] and [The Black Symbiote].

Adding to it was the TV shows he was already doing.

These movies would take a whole year to shoot and he was so sick of it that he was now only taking small roles or roles that he could have fun in like a rom com or a weird indie project.

"We will be fine. Just take time to get back into your character." Zavier said before turning to Aiden. "What about you, Kai?"

For the record, Zavier was calling him Kai for a while now. It was because he wanted him to get used to it as soon as possible.

"I have nothing else planned. I'm not taking anything for a month or two because I just want to focus on Kai and his thoughts. I want to become the character."

"You take it very seriously, eh?"

Ray asked and Aiden nodded.

"Yeah, this is the kind of role that I need to give my all too. Last time, I made Kai's character as a psychopath with weird antics in my head. But he's more than that. I want to break down his character and go deeper into what made him Kai."

Aiden explained. He was a mere beginner the first time he stepped into the character of Kai. But now, he has evolved.

Moreover, [Black Saints] was comparatively different from [The Black Saint]. The first was a crime thriller and Kai as a ruthless antagonist with no background or origin worked extremely well.

It gave him a factor in which people were in awe of him but they couldn't sympathise with him, giving him an edge.

Now, this was more of an action tragedy, needing him to show the emotions of Kai.

"How are you going to do it? I'm very curious."

Ray asked, showing him a smile that said that he was very curious about his methods. Zavier also gave attention.

"I'm planning to spend some time alone and do a few things."

Aiden said, giving an ambiguous answer.

...

/DreamNote/

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"I don't think it's a good idea. I don't think it's safe either."

"The hotel is owned by Omar's friend. It's safe."

"No, the whole idea is dangerous."

Wade said as he looked at Aiden with eyes that seem to be saying that he was making an idiotic decision. But it didn't seem to have any effect.

"It's not dangerous. I heard the food is good here."

Aiden said as he looked at the hotel building. They were in the parking lot of a hotel that was owned by Omar's friend. A room was already booked by Aiden here and he was assured that no one would know that he was staying here.

"It's not about the food. You're gonna be here for a whole month, right. Locked in. What will you even do?"

Wade asked, letting out a sigh of defeat.

"I have a lot to do."

Aiden said before he took out a bag from the car that he was leaning against. He pushed it towards Wade.

"See, I have tons of stuff to do."

"What's in it?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Books, movies, journals, documentaries. Everything that could keep me occupied. Ah, I also won't be on the internet for the next month, so please handle whatever will be going on online. If a scandal happens, you know I didn't do it."

Aiden joked but Wade didn't seem to like it. He shook his head and asked.

"What types of movies are in it anyway? Not rom coms right?"

"Serial killers."

A voice sitting in the car said. It was Tom who was typing something on his laptop.

"That and some philosophical books. Anything that makes me build Kai's character better."

Even though the script was set in stone, it was still an actor's job to build his character. After all, a script might say a certain actor said this line but how he said that line would dictate everything.

At the same time, Zavier was someone who would let him add his own tics in Kai. Better than the last time.

Just he needed time to get everything right and he felt like getting disconnected with the world would just help him focus on one thing. Darkness and isolation suited Kai the best too.

'Because you focus on yourself when you don't have others to focus on.'

He thought in his mind as they started walking to the room. It was fairly early morning but a few people could be seen in the corridors.

They didn't recognise as he was in a mask and a cap — The standard disguise for a celebrity.

"You know Vince Alter, right?"

"Yeah, I got 2 movies of him in this bag." Aiden said, looking at Wade. Tom just gave a cheeky smile hearing that.

"He did something like this to get into character. He was found dead in a motel like this. Was the conspiracy of the year in Hollywood."

"He used to take drugs. He mixed them with sleeping pills and other stuff. This bag doesn't have something like that."

Aiden shrugged his shoulders and Tom laughed.

"You really think Aiden is going to meet with an accident. It's funny how much you care for him."

"I'm out of work if something happens to him." Wade said as they reached his room. Aiden walked in and put the bag down and looked around.

Then, he turned and looked at both Wade and Tom.

"Don't worry, I will put a note outside my room everyday to let you know I am fine and trust me, I need to do this to play Kai with utmost care. I can't let him down when I have the freedom."

Aiden just said that before Wade and Tom left the room. Both of them look at each other for a second before sighing.

"It's interesting. His antics. He doesn't do this for every other role. So, I can expect something good."

Tom muttered and Wade looked at him for a few seconds before nodding.

"That's true. But it increases work for me. Maintaining stardom is hard when your celebrity is isolating himself for a week. But I guess, it's worth it if I see a performance that's extraordinary."

'Kai found freedom in chaos.'

That was the first thought in his mind when he sat down to dissect the character.

In storytelling, there were absolute characters and in [Black Saints, Kai was that. He didn't get any development but he was good enough on his own. A few rumors of his past increased his reputation but the movie didn't clarify if it was right or wrong.

He just followed an ideology.

'In a world of mortals, how will you stand above society to become a god?'

The answer was by dying. Become an ideology. Then, you move forward as a whisper.

But before reaching that ideology, there's a whole story behind Kai. It was basically about a man going against society after getting crushed by it.

For that, Aiden read a lot of books and saw movies. There was a reason why he was going for serial killer movies.

He wanted to know what made them take the step to kill. Were these people just psychopaths? But even then, they have a story behind it.

Aiden looked into it and read and read.

These things were interesting to him as he realised society in the end traps a person. You go to a school then a college then a job then marriage and kids. It sounded peaceful and stable but some people just wanted something more. Something chaotic.

In the cases of these people, society acts as the prison that had trapped them and once given the reason to liberate themselves, they would do it at one thought.

After all, these people don't have a war to prove themselves. To get glory. Nor do they have a plague to survive through. It wasn't the world of kings and queens. It was the world of corporations and media companies.

And there's people without any purpose. Just trying to fit into society when they are a misfit.

A society that looks tough and stable but once pushed a little, it will crumble. Kai found that and he made it his goal to destroy the society into pieces before rising over it as he genuinely felt like that was his calling.

Though, it wasn't like Kai was always an evil person.

He started out as someone who wanted to make evil people fear him. He wasn't a psychopath. He was an extremely smart misfit who got to the edge of what he could endure.

His plan was to rise above everyone by becoming the most feared person in the city but in his quest, he realised that it wasn't possible to do this forever. His purpose was very hollow and easy to achieve.

It wasn't enough. So, he moved and towered over it.

This was Aiden's understanding of Kai that he slowly developed in the month that he was in the hotel room.

His routine was very simple. Everyday he would watch a few movies. Sometimes over and over again. Then, he would watch documentaries to better understand it.

All this was with food that was quite good. Even while eating it, he would think if this is what Kai would like. Or used to eat.

Forming habits — He wanted to develop unique habits to Kai and this was a part of it.

Aside from that, he would spend all day reading books on philosophies and arguments against those philosophies. It was pretty fun for him as he got more and more into it.

In the end, he even got into the habit of keeping a notebook with every bit of his understanding of Kai.

He named it 'Diary of Kai'.

Day by day, he found his affinity and understanding of Kai increasing. His system was a proof of it. His habits enveloped those of Kai.

[You are close to achieving a feat that's almost impossible.]

[You are close to gaining 100 percent affinity with a character.]

[You have gained experience.]

[You are close to advancing to Intermediate Grade 8 from Intermediate Grade 7.]

Breaking news! Granite Films announced [Black Saints] sequel. The crime thriller that won hearts three years ago is back with the much awaited sequel called [The Black Saint]. The story is supposedly going to focus on Kai August, the most famous character from the movie played by Aiden Silvereye. Ray Hardy reprises his role too.

-Hollywood Reporter.

With a poster that showed a masked man in the middle of falling off a building with a smirk on his face, Granite films released their next movie which is going to be a sequel to [Black Saints]. Distributed by Titan studios, the movie is supposed to release this year.

-Vanity Magazine.

Fans go crazy as Kai returns in his own solo movie. The fans of this crime drama from Zavier Lamb are requesting for a sequel or a solo movie on Kai and the video of the ending has amassed 23 million views on MeTube. It's safe to say that Kai would be revived in the sequel and cause more mayhem.

-The Insider box.

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"Do we have a winner or just a time bomb that's going to blow up on us? Though, for the second option, it's like we are ourselves committing suicide. Ain't there a better term for it in Japanese?"

An old man stared into a newspaper article and muttered in a profound manner. The glasses he was wearing were making him look like a philosopher who was asking something life changing.

But to the people around him, it was a bunch of nonsense.

"What? I didn't understand a word you said. The first half was at least better."

A woman said. She was one of the project managers in the production house.

Another man, one of the producers butted in.

"Yeah, what's you on about?"

"This."

"[The Black Saint]? It's costing us 60 million dollars to make. The first movie earned over 200 million and we would at least break even. I don't think you should be worried about a—"

"It's not that."

The man looked at his boss with an odd eye. Was he getting old faster? That thought brushed his mind as he looked at Anthony McCarthy, the CEO of Granite films.

It was the production house that was working on the sequel of [Black Saints]. They also worked closely with Titan studios for distribution.

"I feel like the movie would get cancelled. It's not like the first part. A simple crime thriller with talented people at helm, making it a good risk. It paid off too but this sequel is not a crime thriller. It's going to slowly make headlines when it is released."

"It's not a comedy, you know."

The woman said. In Hollywood, only comedians were getting cancelled and it was common knowledge. Some comedy directors don't even want to direct comedy movies because somebody might cancel them for it.

"It's not a horror either but it scares me."

Anthony laughed, thinking about the script he had read. The first time he read it, he felt like a psychopath had written it.

It wasn't even about a psychopath. It was about becoming that.

"Yeah. The script is pretty peculiar but I think we will be fine. Our estimates just say that it will be a good grosser and would be well liked by critics. Titan studios said the same thing."

"Ah, they don't know anything." Anthony snorted. "They just want to get money off a sequel. They don't see anything else."

"Then, what do you see?"

The man asked Anthony and his eyes shined like he was just waiting for that question. He smiled as he said it.

"I see a story that would cater to the countless people who think their lives are mundane. It won't give them a purpose but the movie… it's going to tell them that there's someone out there who's like them. I am pretty sure it will become a case study in the future. Moreover, Aiden, he missed the table read right?"

There was a script reading session that was organised for the cast but Aiden missed it as he was still locked in the room.

"Ah, yes, he did. His agent apologized and said that he's somewhere off, preparing for the role. A few cast members didn't like it but Zavier and Ray let it go, so no one said anything. He's the lead, so have influence too."

Hearing that, Anthony looked down on the newspaper article. His eyes hung on the title.

Zavier Lamb said that [The Black Saint] will give a different look at Kai August. Something that no one would expect.

"I really hope the article stands true."

Anthony muttered, thinking about something.

Chicago was the place where the first [Black Saints] movie was shot and it was also the place for the second movie as the franchise was based only in one fictional city that was based on Chicago.

At the end of February, most of the cast had already landed here, joining the crew which had been here for two months. The movie was divided into two different timelines, showing the events after the ending of [Black Saints] and the origin of Kai.

The former was a small portion of the movie but was connected to the origin. It was mostly just Ray Hardy's character, Charlie Morgon, trying to find out about Kai's goal and to know whether he was truly dead or not.

At the same time, he also worked to show the point of view of how the city had transformed since Kai's death.

There were also new additions to the cast, including a few well known actors who were going to play various important roles. One of them was Judy Vance who was playing the role of one of the gangster bosses.

He was a very old and intimidating person who had grown a beard for the role.

Currently, he didn't look like he was in a good mood even though it was the first day of shooting.

"I have never seen a person like him. Shouldn't he be here at least a week ago? He hadn't backed out, right?"

He looked around him and asked. His voice was pretty tough and sounded heavy.

Everyone around him knew who he was talking about.

One of the actresses who was playing the role of a love interest Kai muttered.

"I don't think so but we don't know for sure. I am actually scared of that too."

"Nah." Ray said. "He should be here soon. Aiden won't back out of this role. I'm pretty sure he just got caught up somewhere."

"He should inform the cast about it then." Judy looked at Ray. "The behaviour is very unprofessional. You should talk about it too, Ray. You have worked for a long time."

"I know but Zavier looks pretty relaxed." Ray pointed towards the director who was squinting his eyes at the camera, probably thinking of the shot. "If there was something like that, he would be the first to be worried."

Judy didn't say anything as Ray's words made sense. Thinking of wanting to talk to Zavier about it, he stood up but suddenly, he saw the director walking towards him.

"Judy, how are you doing? All fresh."

"Ah, yeah. Looks like everything is ready."

He said, looking around the set. The first day was inside a studio but from tomorrow, they were going to shoot some outdoor scenes. Zavier wanted to keep most things natural and not use CGI too much in the movie.

There was even a lounge area for the cast to go check out [Black Saints] to know about the first part and a few more movies that Zavier was taking inspiration from.

"Anyway, I was hoping we could have an important scene between you and Aiden today. You know the confrontation scene with Kai."

Judy was surprised to hear that. That was an important scene but there was a problem.

"I'm sorry but I have not really practiced with Aiden yet. Actually, I wanted to talk to you about it. Where is he? I have not even gotten the chance to have a talk with him yet. Is he even here?"

"He's in the vanity van, getting his makeup."

"What?"

Judy was very surprised to hear that. He was expecting to hear that Aiden was still in the flight or that he had left the project. If he was already there, why he haven't seen him yet?

"He came very early in the morning. An hour before you and the others. He's almost ready. I have a talk with him and he seems to be in character already."

"No, still, even with him here, I have not rehearsed it with him yet."

Zavier shook his head hearing that.

"You are a good actor to get it done even without rehearsing. If you can't do it, we can delay it."

Zavier left after that and Judy kept standing there, a bit stupefied and wondering what was going on with Aiden.

"I have never seen such an actor like that before. If he was already here, he could have at least greeted me."

The door to the vanity van suddenly opened up and a few makeup artists walked in. All of them have strange expressions on their faces.

One of them muttered.

"Those were some very intense eyes. I don't think I have ever seen something like that before."

"Yeah, it was scary yet hollow. I felt a strange attraction."

"Yeah, he wasn't even smiling. It was just a… smirk. Is he always like that?"

"No, I have heard from other makeup artists that he's very friendly. But he was nothing like that today."

"Maybe he's in the character. I have seen actors like that."

"If that's the case, then I'm pretty sure this movie will be a huge hit."

They walked as they talked like that. Inside the vanity van, two pairs of dark eyes stared into the mirror.

Aiden was wearing a pitch black suit. One would think that he was preparing for a funeral but it wasn't the case. On top of it, a smirk was plastered on his face.

Eyes that were saying a lot, a suit and a smirk — Several features of Kai.

Opening his mouth, he said in a low pitch voice.

"Let's get the game started."

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The shooting for [The Black Saint] started quickly with everyone working together to take a few, small shots. No big scenes. Just a few characters walking here and there and short conversations.

Zavier was used to starting out slow and then slowly moving onto bigger scenes.

The scene with Aiden was ready to be shot in the afternoon and till then, Judy was pretty tense as to how he was going to do it. He was the type of an actor who would do better in the presence of a good co-actor.

As acting was more or less reacting to another person, he liked to have good chemistry with his co-star. It was evident by his filmography too.

Thankfully, two hours before the scene, Aiden came to find him himself.

"Can I rehearse my lines with you?"

Aiden had said while introducing himself and although Judy wanted to ask him why he had missed reading sessions and other things, he had focused on rehearsing the scene.

Not a lot of time was left and that's why, he focused on asking questions on acting, Aiden's interpretation of the scene and a few other stuff.

In the end, they just rehearsed their lines and what they wanted the scene to go like. Zavier had given them full freedom, so there was a lot of room to discuss.

To his surprise, Judy found out that Aiden was pretty well versed in the scene and his interpretation of the scene was also on point. But one thing kept prickling on his nerves.

That was Aiden's eyes.

'They looked scary, almost possessed. Intense too. He's talking normally but why is he giving such a weird feeling? His atmosphere is not normal at all.'

While talking to Judy, Aiden wasn't in the character. As his immersion was something that he could turn off easily, he had a good grasp of controlling his character.

But still, due to his high affinity, he was still giving vibes like Kai.

Halfway talking to Aiden, Judy realised that it was not only him that was noticing this. Other people on the set were also glancing at him from time to time and whispering among themselves.

'At least I'm not the only weird one.'

He thought in his mind and shook his head. Ignoring all this, he tried to just rehearse the scene like a professional.

In the end of this, Aiden suddenly asked him a strange question.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Ah, yeah." Judy looked up at him. He was a tad bit shorter than Aiden.

"Do you mind if I do some unexpected stuff in the scene. Things that I feel like Kai would do."

"What type of things?"

Judy tilted his head with a confused expression.

"I don't know. I'm asking because I feel like once the scene starts, my body would move on its own."

He found it strange but still nodded without thinking much about it. A few actors would also experience this type of phenomenon where a character takes over you. He didn't mind it because of that.

At that moment, Zavier called up to them.

"We are going to start filming the scene now."

They walked up to them as he explained the whole scene again and talked about the camera placements.

The scene was very simple with Judy playing the role of a gangster. Kai was going to barge into his office and talk to him about a deal. It was fairly simple and because of that, the actor's job here was to build tension around the characters and elevate the writing.

"So, let's go slowly and do a few takes to get the right one."

Zavier said as his eyes landed on Aiden who nodded.

[The Black Saint28 February-2019Act 1Scene 4Take 1]

Ritchie Heart was going through some files involving his illegal businesses when suddenly, the door to the room opened. Slowly, like the wind was pushing it.

A strange smell also entered his nose.

He looked up at the sound and his eyes widened as he saw the scene in front of him. A man was standing at the doorstep wearing a black suit and holding a dead body in his arms.

Ritchie identified the dead body as one of his men. He was presumably dead and there were sharp marks all over his face like someone who had made them with scissors.

Even with a dead body in his hand, the man looked clean. Not a drop of blood could be seen on his clothes.

It was a horrifying sight to see.

"Who are you?"

Ritchie asked while one of his hands searched for a gun under the table. The man gave a smirk before looking at the sofa.

"I will introduce myself but let me just put this dead body somewhere. You know it doesn't look nice if it's on the floor as we discuss things."

The man said and literally dragged the body to the sofa before putting it there and patting the cheeks to see if he was really dead.

Ritchie watched all this with widened eyes as the man turned towards him.

"Now, we can talk. And you know you should put that gun somewhere else. Don't look nice in civilised discussions you know."

"Freak. How did you come here? What happened to my men?"

Ritchie asked as he pulled a gun in front of the man. His hideout was filled with people. Trained ones. Not anyone can barge in his office like this.

"Don't worry. They let me through." He said, not scared of the gun. "That man though, he doesn't have manners. Tried to jump over me. Can you believe it? You have not taught them discipline, eh?"

Ritchie was very close to pulling the trigger hearing that but at that moment, the man smiled.

"Can't you smell, my friend?"

"Petrol."

"Bingo."

The man smiled and walked a step closer. His clothes were soaked in petrol. The man clearly didn't care about dying but he was too close to Ritchie that he was sure to get burned too.

He put the gun away, getting a round of claps from the man.

"Now, can we talk?" The man asked but there was only one question in Ritchie's mind.

"Who are you?"

"Kai. You can call me that. No need to introduce yourself. I know everything about you."

Kai smirked as he licked his lips, almost in a predator like manner.

"You know nothing."

"I do. Ritchie Heart, one of the mob bosses. 20 years in the business. Your whole family is in Korea for their protection and you go there seldom, making your kids hate you. In the business, you do quite well, especially your drug business. So much so that I want a part of it. Not much. Just half."

"Don't fuck with—"

"I'm not."

Kai said and in the next moment, Ritchie tried to attack him with a punch but Kai dodge it and pushed him against the wall.

"I told you. Civilised discussion. Why are you bringing fists into this?"

Kai asked, almost innocently. At that moment, his years of experience in the underworld and his nerves were telling him that the man was a psychopath. Every bit of his action was pointing towards it.

"Now, you know I have an interesting idea. What do you think would happen if I try to use this?"

Kai said and brought out a lighter. Holding it in his hand, he asked.

"Do you think it will leave a mark on the wall?"

"Crazy… you are crazy."

"Am I? I'm a little bit but not that much. Anyway, don't you think you need just the right amount of crazy to survive this world?"

Kai said with a laugh, almost like he found it funny. Ritchie made a frightened expression hearing that and yelled.

"Stop! Cut!"

Immersion broke right at that moment.

Ritchie became Judy in an instant and a few staff members, including Zavier ran up to him. He was clutching his chest while sitting on the ground.

People feared that he had gotten a heart attack.

"Are you okay?"

Zavier asked, crouching down next to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine too. I was just a bit scared. That lighter bit wasn't in the script, so it just made me stunned."

He said and looked up at Aiden who still looked like Kai. With those intense yet crazy eyes. Slowly, that went away as he looked at him.

"I'm sorry. I just thought of it just before the scene."

He said as he apologized. He could see that Judy didn't look good as he was sweating a lot.

"Ah, yeah. It's fine. Just can you give me a few moments to calm down?"

Everyone nodded as Judy said that. But a lot of people were glancing at Aiden. His portrayal of Kai had stunned not only Judy but them too.

Only Zavier looked like he expected it.

'What kind of freakish actor is that guy? I actually thought he was going to burn both of us.'

Judy thought as he took a deep breath.

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It took Judy a few takes before he was able to give a good take. It wasn't because he was having trouble performing his role but he would be too scared and stunned by Aiden's intense eyes everytime.

He was being overwhelmed by a far superior acting and he knew it too.

That's why, after the scene finished, his views about Aiden changed very quickly. He forgot his dissatisfactions with him and just praised him on any chance he got.

Aiden's acting had made him appreciate him. And one only needs that to win over another actor. A sense of respect for the craft would emerge.

That's what had happened here.

It was not only Judy who thought that. Most of the people in the set were very surprised and stunned by Aiden's performance.

A lot of the cast was also present during the original movie. And even they have not expected to see him grow so much in just some years.

It was almost miraculous. The speed at which he was growing.

Zavier just contributed it to Aiden having a great understanding of Kai. He had truly given it all for the role and it was there for everyone to see.

Though, so much noise inevitably meant that rumors would spread about Aiden.

Particularly among the crew that was working on the movie. They would talk a lot about Aiden.

"Do you hear that apparently Aiden locked himself in a hotel room to get into the role? He was without any internet access and didn't meet anyone else."

"That's bullshit."

"That's what I heard. Believe it or not, that's on you."

"It can be true. He did miss the script reading. He pissed off a lot of actors because of that."

"Yeah, but they are all silent now. No one wants to even approach him even because of the atmosphere around him."

"Ah, I heard that a lot of them are trying to practice more so as to not get overwhelmed by him. A lot more older actors actually."

"No one wants to be overshadowed by a comparatively younger actor even if he's the lead."

"Yeah, he's really a monster."

Those types of conversations were often seen around the set and Zavier had to remind the crew to not leak anything to the reporters. It was a common problem, especially in sequels.

Aside from that, everything was going pretty fast. Today they were shooting an outdoor scene and have gotten a permit in a street in Chicago.

"Everyone. You all understood my commands. You need to chant at the same time. Remember, we are taking a wide shot. So, it's important you all are in sync. Be in your roles!"

Zavier shouted through a megaphone speaker and the hundreds of extras nodded their heads. It was a scene in which a protest is going on against the authorities of the cities.

A time of chaos and anarchy against the elites because their dark deeds are out in the open.

Everywhere, there were cameras placed and the crew was busy handling the extras. Outdoor shoots with a lot of extras were always troublesome, especially with so many of them.

So, the crew had enough on their plates.

"How many extras are there?"

"Around 200, I think."

"I have never seen so many of them before. The production value is really high. I really wonder what the director did to get approved for so many extras."

Aiden looked around at the set before his eyes landed at the person who had spoken those words. As the shot didn't require any prominent actors, he was just sitting around with Judy, Ray and some other actors.

"He has a way of persuading people." Aiden said, looking at the female actress who had asked that.

She was an actress who had only worked in indie projects till now and from his knowledge, [The Black Saint] was her most expensive movie. Her name was Arin.

She was a bit surprised that Aiden replied to that question as he was being silent most of the time. Though, it was not awkward as they have talked a bit before.

He wanted to know her acting style as they have a few scenes together.

"I'm sure he does." Arin said. "Though, just the whole story and everything is very interesting to me. It's strange to think that someone looked so far in the future and made a plan."

After Kai's death, the public went against the authorities and elites and with the idea of Kai spreaded, it eventually took the form of a cult in the city who protested using his name.

Humans liked people with vision and followed them. Kai had done more than that and instilled a feeling that he was no mere mortal before exposing the corruption of the elites.

So, people have gathered around his idea. Just like he had planned.

"It's possible." Aiden replied, looking at her. Other actors also focused. "He's smart and he studied the psychology of people before making his plans. Think of him as an extremely smart individual who's trapped. To rise above the prison, he saw the best possible way was to become immortal, cause anarchy and his best bet was to influence the people in the city. He managed to do just that."

"Are psychopaths really that smart?" Arin asked, looking a bit frightened.

"No, it's just they are better in social conditions and know when to take charge. And in a way, it's an illusion that they are smarter because they know how to get into your mind. In the case of Kai, one can't even say if he's a psychopath but yes, he's extremely smart."

Ray smiled hearing that as he was the one who had given that idea to better understand the character during the first movie.

It was still a confusion though. Was Kai really a psychopath? Or was he just acting as one to appear crazier, to instill fear into the minds of people? It was a question that formed the baseline of his character.

"So, is he a psychopath or not?" Judy asked but Aiden shrugged.

"It's better if you don't know. That's the charm of his character."

Aiden smiled as he saw people chanting Kai's name like a cult. The scene was going on and it looked pretty good.

"We want answers!"

"Kai! Kai! Kai!"

"We demand answers!"

"I'm kind of worried about this scene." Zavier said as he looked up at Aiden who was wearing a simple shirt and a jacket on top of it. His hair was a bit messy too compared to before.

He looked way more simple. Normal.

"Well, Kai is different in this scene. This part of the movie is going to be harder for you as you have not played this side of him yet. So, I'm hoping it doesn't look worse than the other parts. You did too good of a job in them."

Zavier laughed and Aiden understood where he was coming from.

This scene was still from a time when Kai was living a life of normalcy. It was way before he had taken a path of no return.

Currently, he was just an insomniac. The scene was basically a conversation with another actor on a plane.

"Don't worry, I will do my best." Aiden said, patting Zavier's shoulders. "I have played normal people before too, you know. Leave it to me."

"Okay."

Zavier left after that and Aiden closed his eyes. He felt really good. Like nothing would be hard for him.

After all, he was even breathing as Kai now.

[The Black Saint3 March-2019Act 3Scene 1Take 3]

Kai looked outside the window as the flight took off. He was coming back from a meeting that had happened in New York. Though, his real motive wasn't his work that he hated.

It was an acting audition. A profession he was trying to get into for years. But he had no success.

'My life… it's not interesting at all.'

He thought in his mind. At that moment, the person sitting besides him opened his mouth.

"How are you? Have a good day?" He glanced from the corner of his eye to look at the man. He was out of shape and looked like he wanted to do some small talk.

'Annoying.'

He thought in his mind but his face told a different story.

"It was normal. Nothing interesting."

The man looked happy that Kai had replied with a smile.

"Those days are nice."

"Are they?"

"Yes. They are peaceful. I feel like it's a blessing if you can have those kinds of days. Just a normal, simple one."

Kai didn't react to that and just looked outside. The man's words roamed in his mind as he thought.

'I don't think I want that.'

Thinking that, he looked at the man.

"I don't like those days."

"Why?"

"Because it tells me that I have no purpose in life. There's no reason to do anything. I'm honestly sick of those types of days."

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[The Black Saint] was shot intensely as it reached the middle of its filming schedule. One third of the film was already shot and it was all going pretty great.

Though, as the shooting progressed, Aiden was finding it harder and harder to get out of his character after a shot.

He would feel like he was possessed at one second and in the next, he would feel weak. A feeling like Kai was taking over his body as he went with the shooting.

Immersion was starting to have a weird effect on him. He was sure that it had something to do with his high affinity.

He had not turned off the security protocol, so he was sure that no accidents would happen. But he still needed to deal with the overwhelming feeling.

Sometimes, he would get out of the set after a shot to cool down and smoke a cigarette. Even though he wasn't a smoker and was only doing it because it was a habit of Kai, he still felt like it was helping him a bit.

His co-stars were pretty worried seeing him like this but he told them that he was fine. Despite this, he still went with the shooting without any tantrums.

"Are you really okay?"

"I don't know but I'm handling it. It's just I am feeling more and more like my life doesn't have any meaning. There's nothing moral and how I need to find a meaning. I think it's a symptom of nihilism."

"You are really not fine."

Wade shook his head with a frown while Aiden just shrugged. Actors getting affected by their characters was normal and Kai was anyway the personification of people's dark desires.

He was highly influential.

"Like I said, I'm handling it. I will probably take a break after the shooting is over and get Kai out of my mind."

Aiden sighed. His body was taking a toll due to Kai and it was only because of his willpower that he was still standing straight.

"You should do that. Will get you your psychologist too. Just don't attack someone like yesterday. It could become a big deal if an accident happened."

"I didn't mean to do it."

"I know but it could have spread into a bad rumour about you easily."

Yesterday, Kai was doing a scene which was a bit of a violent one where he had to beat up two people. Those were extras.

He had gotten so immersed that he hadn't heard the cut signal from Zavier and had almost beaten up the extras in a desperate fight.

Thankfully, it didn't go past a certain point. Aiden later apologised to the extras and everyone on the set. But it was a reminder for him that he needed to have a better sense of control.

"Don't worry, I will be careful. Anyway, I need to go check up on the next scene."

Aiden said and walked towards the cinematographer. Wade's eyes followed him for a while.

[The Black Saint8 March-2019Act 4Scene 1Take 1]

Kai looked down at the cars passing on the road. The cloud of smoke blurring his sight a bit and the wind brushing past his neck.

It felt peaceful, boring and dead to him.

A thought suddenly crossed his mind. What if he jumped off the roof? Would that bring any excitement in his life? A sense of purpose? Though, he dismissed it after a while.

His purpose can't be to just die. Not like this at least.

"Maybe I'm not special either. My great depression is really my life."

He muttered and at that moment, the door to the roof opened. He turned back to look at the person who had just walked in.

It was Georgie, his manager. A guy who was shorter than average and because of that, he liked to be rude to everyone working under him that was taller than him. An insecurity of his had made him a very simple person.

"What are you doing here when you should be working?"

Georgie asked, looking at Kai with contempt on his face.

"Smoking." Kai replied in an obvious tone.

"I can see that. Why are you wasting time here doing nothing?"

"I wasn't doing anything in the office either. It's just the same boring work."

Kai said without batting an eye.

A frown appeared on Georgie's face but at this point, Kai didn't care. He hadn't slept for a week and his life looked bleak. Every prospect looked bleak.

"Do you want to be fired? Or are you just drunk? You know what could happen with you talking like that. Who did it before? Joseph. Now, he lives in his car down the parking lot in a convenience store. Do you think you can afford to talk to me like that? In this inflation."

He didn't know why but Kai laughed at that. It happened suddenly, like it was on reflex. The whole thing sounded funny to him.

Georgie's eyebrows ceased seeing him like that.

"Why are you laughing?"

"It's, it's just funny, you know. Hahahah."

Kai kept laughing as he held the railings of the terrace. Georgie just kept staring at him with an angry expression.

Finally after a while, Kai stopped and walked close to him. Holding the cigarette, he took a puff out of it, blowing it in Georgie's face.

"You know the city, it's really like this smoke. Poisonous. And you people, the elites as you call yourself. You all just blow it on our faces, think of us as cockroaches. You see it as your purpose to trample over us because you all are weak. Every moment, you need to do something to remind yourself that you are in power. "

Kai said, each word feeling more and more liberating. His thoughts that were roaming in his mind for so long finally touched his tongue.

He liked the expression on the face of his boss. He enjoyed it, savoured it.

Until Georgie opened his mouth again.

"You bastard. How dare you—"

The next moment, Kai's body moved on his own. He shoved the cigarette onto Georgie's eyes. He let out a sharp cry but the next second, Kai punched his gut.

"You know I don't give threats. It seems like a waste of time when I can do this."

Kai spoke as he pushed Georgie's face on the wall. He kept slamming it as blood painted parts of his face.

He did it in a vicious fashion as parts of Georgie's head splashed on the wall. While doing so, a smile kept hanging on the face of Kai.

While the shooting of [The Black Saint] was going on, a lot of other things were also happening around Hollywood. LA was bustling everyday with new rumours, scandals and stories.

Studios were working towards new movie projects and agencies were looking for new ways to promote their actors. Not to promote art but fill their pockets but that was one of the most obvious things about Hollywood that everyone knew.

One of the studios who was trying to do this was Titan studios and today, a major meeting was taking place there to discuss the future goals of the company and in which direction they want to go.

"As you all know, in the last twenty years, the genre of superhero movies and in a whole, franchise movies have earned the most profit, becoming part of pop culture around the world and earning billions. Unfortunately, we have fallen behind in this regard with our approach to make more sustainable movies with controlled budgets."

A man said as he looked at the people in suits sitting in front of him. They were all big executives and others who held significant voices in the company.

"It's not like that has been a negative for us?"

An old man said, taking attention to himself.

"Yes, our profits are good but compared to other studios among the Big 6, it's just not enough. Dream Light pictures were nowhere in the bigger spectrum 20 years ago and now, they hold 35 percent of the market. Their yearly revenues are off the charts due to franchises. One more thing is that the pop culture power they have generated is unprecedented. Something we don't seem to have."

Everyone nodded hearing the explanation. This was something that they knew more or less but it was the first time a serious discussion was going on in this topic.

"We do have plans to take a similar route, right?"

A man asked and the person who was presiding over the topic nodded.

"We do. More like we are trying to have a concrete plan for a long time now. In the past 5 years, we have 3 superheroes and 2 big VFX movies that were planned but they all fizzled out due to not having a vision in the planning department."

As they heard that, several opinions came out.

"Well, Other studios benefitted from source materials that were already present to them. Making something out of nothing is way different here."

"Yeah, we need to look more towards the novels and comic books that are already present in the market."

"I don't think that will do anything. The ones that have a following behind them are already in the hands of other studios. Then others aren't good enough."

As people talked with uncertainty in their tones, a confident voice sounded out.

It was of Ava.

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"I believe that we are thinking of this wrongly. Our approach lacks patience."

Ava's voice fell in the room, silenting all the opinions that were coming from different people. Eyes quickly went to her as she began to explain her reasoning.

"I do feel like the future forward is franchises. Maybe it's already the present, but we can't take an approach like Dream Light pictures. In the first place, they have an abundance of source material and the idea of a shared universe only came when their first superhero movie managed to connect with the audience. They laid the groundwork first instead of thinking of the future."

Her words were precise and the man presiding over the meeting felt like she already had a plan in mind. He was another executive who was given the task to crack the code of franchises for the studio.

"So, do you have a better plan than just going for a comic series adaptation?"

"I do." She said, "First of all, I think we should study the market first, especially in the case of franchises. What was the last franchise to come out in Hollywood?"

Ava asked and a guy sitting adjacent to her replied.

"Superheroes. Dream Light pictures launched their superhero universe. There's nothing after that from what I know."

"Yes. Hollywood has been rehashing their already existing franchises for years. Even superhero movies have become saturated at this point. It has a lot to do with how hard it is to launch a successful franchise."

"So, are you saying that we should give up on it?"

A sharp voice came out as Ava looked in front of her. Alberto was sitting there with a smile that looked rotten and crooked to her.

"I never said that." She countered. "I'm just saying that there's a fundamental reason why we failed in creating a franchise. It has a lot to do, having no patience and thinking too far ahead too soon. Weren't you the executive producer on the action adventure franchise that was shelved, Alberto?"

Ava asked, firing back at Alberto. He was someone who always tried to ensure that she had it hard. She had no reason to act soft.

Frowning, Alberto shrugged.

"I was but there were creative differences between me, the director and John Strampton. He wanted too much control over it and the project was already doomed when we shelved it. It wasn't my fault but the actor and director."

A few people recalled the event that had happened three years ago. They have announced the project with a lot of pride. It was hailed as a leap in the adventure genre of the films.

When it had shelved, there were articles laughing at the studio for being too overconfident.

"I'm not going to go into whose fault it was but you proved one of my points. Actors. If we want to make a franchise, we need to cast actors who aren't all powerful. There will be creative differences sooner or later as we all know the majority of the A-listers like having control on the characters and story. Especially action stars."

Ava said in a tone that was confident and stern. She was preparing for this since a meeting was called.

The studio's plans were no secret from her and she knew that it was the way for her to gain more influence and power. If only she could do it right.

In her attempt to get a better sense on why franchises do so well, she had found out that a franchise doesn't necessarily mean a famous star leading it in the lead role.

A few franchises would even make the career of an unknown actor. They do it by focusing more on the character than the actor. The character was the star in them and the studio controlled it.

"So, what are you proposing?"

"I think we should try to move slowly with it and focus more on the story and the characters rather than the star associated with it. At the same time, it's better to try this approach out with a relatively smaller budget movie which we could use to launch a franchise. The budgets would obviously increase if the first part is successful but for that, we need to make a solid movie. It's better because the risk is extremely high of creating a successful franchise. We need to start small."

People whispered with each other when Ava said that. A few people just looked to be in some thought. Alberto snorted in annoyance but he didn't say anything to her.

Ava's words were clear yet they were in a language that studio executives liked. Trying to minimise the risk while working towards making a good movie.

If it turned out successful, then there was a high chance that the profit margin would be great.

"There was already an idea for a superhero universe though. Do you think the company should give up on it?"

The executive presiding over the meeting asked. His tone surprised a few people as he was asking a question purely to get an honest opinion from her. It meant that the opinions she expressed have been taken in high regard.

"No, even in franchises, superheroes franchises are the top. The profit they generate in a year is unprecedented. We can't give up on trying to move in that genre. But currently, there's too much superhero fatigue among the people."

Ava said after thinking for a bit.

This year, superhero movies haven't performed as well as they have hoped. Dream Light pictures haven't gotten a billion dollar movie for the first time in five years and even other superhero movies unrelated to them have performed sub par.

"I saw the plans for the original ideas for the franchise. They were good but not too different from what other studios have tried to do. We don't have any source material, so I feel like it's more important that we plan at least the first movie and the world a bit more."

Ava had told Aiden about it because she had seen the initial plans. Her plan was to give him a lead role in the first movie. But her plans have changed a bit after seeing the current market trends.

There was more discussion on the topic after that. It was basically a meeting to decide a major part of the company's plans moving forward and everyone gave their opinions on how they should do things.

All the people present were veterans who have spent their life in Hollywood making and producing movies, so they have a good sense of what they could do. Though, one thing was clear that Ava's plans have been recognised by everyone.

As their plans have failed before, it was much better strategically to start with a smaller franchise while developing the superhero one in the background.

After discussions, it was decided that they wanted to take a very different approach to the whole superhero genre. Though, there were already a lot of plans for the smaller franchise that everyone agreed with.

Surprisingly, even Alberto seemed fine by it. It looked like he didn't find anything to pick on.

"So, we are going to start taking pitches for an adventure fantasy setting and if we like something, it will be greenlit. Then, we can truly move forward."

The theme or the central idea for [The Black Saint] was very simple. It was the transformation of a guy to become a crazy, psychopathic individual.

The journey to truly become Kai.

To do that, the narrative focused a lot on Kai's life and mentality. The growing feeling of wanting something more and missing something in life. A lacking sense of something exciting in life and the insomnia to make all of it worse.

Though, there were more reasons for Kai's first murder. Even without what was going on in his mind, he was treated badly just by everyone in his life. His co-workers, girlfriend and even his landlord.

He was also someone who was living at the bottom of the city's hierarchical ladder. So, corruption and inflation directly affected him.

So, he had felt liberated after his first murder.

That night, he had slept soundly, feeling himself to be someone different. It had worked wonders for him.

But he hasn't gotten his purpose at that point. The purpose is to find out the way to be a god.

He had found that purpose when he had visited a comic book shop that was close to his house. The shop owner was one of the people that was nice to him

The owner liked talking about philosophies and one day, he had a discussion with Kai on one's purpose in life and godhood.

It was an extremely important scene in the movie.

"Are you ready? We already have the set ready."

"Yes, let's get started."

Aiden said as he looked at Zavier, then the set with slightly hollow eyes. A breath leaked from his mouth as closed his eyes to transform.

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[The Black Saint7 April -2019Act 6Scene 7Take 1]

"Can I ask you a question?"

Kai asked without taking his eyes off the comic book that he was reading. It was early morning and there was no one else in the shop. It had just opened up 5 minutes ago.

"Go on." The shop owner replied, feeling it a bit strange as Kai was often silent. He was one of those customers that won't talk much but would often buy comic books.

"What is your purpose in life?"

"That's a strange question."

"I know it is."

Kai said as a matter of fact. The comic book store owner looked at him for a while and thought about the question. After a while, he opened his mouth.

"Honestly, I used to think that it was taking care of my wife. But I am divorced now. Selling comics is not enough of an answer, is it?"

"No, it's not." Kai said, finally taking his eye from the panel where a villain had stabbed the main hero of the comic. "I feel like it's a bit redundant. I'm now wondering if humans are just purposeless. Just scraping by."

"They are scraping by."

The man laughed, walked close to Kai, so he could face him. The whole conversation felt very interesting to him, especially because he won't have people asking him these types of questions.

"Everyone is scraping by. Do you think this is the middle ages where people could afford to think of a purpose like being a knight. Or is it the time of war when boys go to war for glory. We are in the age of consumerism. Smart people saw it in the 90s and got into tech. Now they are millionaires trying to sell us the dream to be like them. Even then, humans having money as a goal is just them wanting to live a certain lifestyle. Though, I doubt that's gonna satisfy you as a purpose."

"It won't. That sounds… pathetic. They won't know when money starts owning them."

Kai frowned. His eyes changed for a second as he thought about the state of humanity. The times they lived in and how comical it was.

The comic book store owner seemed to agree with him.

"Yes, you know that's why I like comic book characters. They are determined in whatever purpose they choose." The man pointed at the comic panel. "They devote themselves to an idea or an ideal. It makes their life large and it attracts people to them. No human in real life is capable of doing that. Maybe that's why, it's fiction."

The man laughed as he patted Kai's shoulders. Then, he turned back to stack up a pile of comics.

Kai just stood there, thinking over the comic book store owner's words. His line of sight moved towards the comic book in his hand as a shout came out.

"Cut!" Zavier's voice came out. "That was a good take."

It took a while for Aiden to break from the immersion and he shook his head after feeling like himself again. Though, these days, he feels like that less and less.

Taking a deep breath, he talked to Zavier about the shot and he told him that there was no need for another. Then, he walked up to a chair and sat down.

Tom came up to him with a bottle of water and Aiden gulped it down whole before feeling a bit better.

"How are you feeling now?" He asked and Aiden gave a smile which looked a bit scary to Tom but his smile was just becoming more like Kai, so he was already used to it.

"Better. Thanks."

"I wonder if you can keep going like this. Wade said you have started having nightmares."

Aiden sheepishly nodded. It started a week ago. Nightmares where he would be running away from something. The worst ones were the one in which Kai would be standing in front of him, trying to kill him to take his place.

It was clear that a lot was running in his mind.

"It will be fine. Only half of the shoot is left."

"Yeah, but the character is harming you."

"It's my job."

Aiden said and that was enough for Tom to drop off whatever he wanted to say. Though, he didn't tell him one thing that was actively running in his mind.

In front of him, he opened up his system and saw the affinity he had with Kai.

*Kai August

–99 percent affinity.]

'How to get to 100 percent?'

That was the question he was trying to get answered these days but there was no clear answer.

He was giving his best as Kai but maybe, it was not enough. Not yet, at least.

He had thought of ways to get to the 100 percent but he didn't know how he would do more. At the same time, he was extremely curious about the prospect of achieving the milestone.

What would happen then? It was a serious question in his mind. Maybe his system would give him a gift. He didn't know for sure.

'For now, I can only try to sustain myself.'

Kai hadn't survived the first part. That was thoroughly established at the start of the shooting. His surviving would have contradicted his purpose of becoming a god, so it was important for the director to show a world without Kai.

The effects of his death and the aftermath of it.

Cults, protest and a general sense of unease in the elites on whether he was really dead. Even after reports, they can't be sure.

Moreover, there were attacks on public property and people claimed that it was done by Kai.

All in all, it was a mess with him gaining a cult-like status on the internet. Websites of him popped up that caused even more chaos and anarchy.

Ray Hardy's character Charlie Morgan decided to go on a personal quest to find out about Kai and his past where he saw clues that Kai himself had left for him.

To tell him his past.

More and more days went by as the shooting progressed with Aiden somehow handling his role as Kai. More rumours also spreaded about the movie and Aiden's spectacular acting as Kai.

They also spreaded online. The crew was shooting a lot outdoors and people would get photos of the set and the actors because of that. Then they will upload it on the internet.

A lot of articles about [The Black Saint] popped up like that.

[The Blank Saint completes its second schedule. The movie is in the last phase of his shooting and the director have promised that it's going to be a dark tragedy that has been been seen before.

Photos of Aiden Silvereye as Kai as leaked from the set of [The Black Saint]. People have spotted a lot of blood on his t-shirt and the fans of the first movie are waiting for it with excitement.

[The Black Saint] could potentially earn twice as much as its predecessor if done right – Various Hollywood analyst predict.

It wasn't like all of these leaks were only from the people who have accidentally stumbled upon the shooting. Some of it was also from the marketing team behind the movie who were leaking these things to keep people talking about it.

At least, they wanted people to remember the movie with reports. If there's no news about the movie in a long time, then people could easily forget about it.

Aiden's fan club was very excited about it as it was the movie that they were waiting for. A few of the members were actively keeping an eye on the news.

[First female action star: There was another photo out of Kai from the movie in a white shirt splashed with blood. It looked extremely cool. I feel like it's going to be Aiden's best role till now.]

[Sparrow's Crazy Owner: Yeah, they took everything good from the first part and made it a movie, so obviously it was going to work. Though, I don't know how they are going to handle Kai's death. Other than that, it's almost eerie that a charismatic psychopath suits Aiden the most.]

[Skyneves: Nah, it's not. It's called acting.]

[Hollywood cynic: Yeah, but I feel like they're gonna ruin it in a way. I mean, good sequels are rare, especially when your main character died in the first movie. They are not even calling it a prequel and Ray Hardy is in it, so I don't know what type of route they will take. I would rather they not do the sequel but it's already happening.]

[Moaning Frodo: The director said that he made it because he found a story. Moreover, going by the director's personal life, I'm more interested in whether Kai is going to kill a married cheating wife in the movie or not. I have memes ready for it.]

[Hollywood Insider: In all seriousness, I personally feel the movie is either going to be the best movie of the year or the worst.]

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The final leg of the shooting was always extremely important. No matter what movie it is, directors liked to give the most emphasis the last week of shooting.

There was a quote that said, "It doesn't matter how you start, it matters how you end."

And that was true for most movies. Even in the final cut. A movie could start slow or have a slow middle part but if you end it right, people are going to remember it.

Zavier was also taking care of the fact that [The Black Saint] ended well. Honestly, the climax was the hardest part for him to write.

After all, how to end a movie exactly anyway, knowing full well there won't be any more sequels. Kai's story has already come to an end in the first movie.

Though, in the end, he was able to do it, trying to keep it simple. As [The Black Saints] was just the journey of Kai becoming what he became, it should end just as that.

Him realising his purpose, the thing that he was looking for in the entire movie and then, embracing it.

On the final day of the shoot, the crew and cast came early, looking excited to end the journey they had started two months ago. It was also inevitable that they were a little sad.

Each movie was a chapter of an actor's life and it was not easy to end a chapter to move onto the next.

It was the same for Aiden. Though, he was also glad that he would be able to get rid of Kai after today and at the same time, he was becoming worried about his performance.

"Do you think I did a good job?"

That was the question that he asked right before the first shot. Zavier looked at him like he was hearing a joke and laughed.

"Are you serious? And if you are, why are you asking it when we are at the end?"

"It's just… there's a weird feeling inside of me."

"What?" Zavier raised an eyebrow.

"I feel like I can give more but no matter how much I try, I am not able to do it."

At first, Zavier thought that it was a joke. After all, Aiden's performance was scary in a good way. So much so that a few actors, especially those who have less experience would forget their lines when they act with him.

It was haunting like he was possessed. One of the best acting performances he has seen in recent years. And Aiden was saying that he felt like he could give more?

It felt comedic but looking at him, Zavier realised that Aiden was serious.

"I don't know how you will give more. The performance looks almost perfect to me."

"Almost is the word. I'm there but not exactly there."

Aiden replied. His system was never wrong, so even if he felt like he couldn't give more, it was not true. There was still that 1 percent to cover.

Zavier thought about his words then just sighed.

"I feel like you are thinking too much about it. In the first place, I'm more than satisfied by your performance. It was way better than my imagination of Kai in my head. Anything other than that is just you trying to give yourself more headache. Tell me why you think your performance is not at the level you want?"

'System.'

Aiden muttered in his mind but he couldn't speak it out loud.

"I just think I could do better."

"Every actor thinks that but what I think is that you lack accepting the fact that your performance is good enough. Look, thinking that you could do better is good but do you think every great performance is the best of that actor? No, I'm pretty sure they also think they could do better but they also accept the fact that they did a good job. You should do that and stop worrying so much about only being almost there."

Saying that, Zavier left to handle some lightning issues. Aiden just kept standing there, thinking of his words.

Was he really not satisfied? Maybe. It was like that because he wanted to get the affinity to be at 100 percent but it had just made him forget the fact that even without it, he was doing quite well.

He never had such affinity with any character of his and he even felt like he breathed like Kai. He was also getting better at reading people.

"Sigh, I should just let it be, especially because I don't even have a way to do better. Let go. I have reached my limit."

Aiden accepted that after thinking about it a bit and said it loud before taking a deep breath.

He had taken time to understand it but now that he did, he felt much better.

[The Black Saint27 April -2019Act 9Scene 7Take 1]

Kai took a deep breath and looked around at the chaos around the city. People were running away and smoke was coming out of everywhere. The sound of gunfire hitting his ears mixed with the screams of people.

Two gangs were fighting today and it had given another dent to the city. As usual, police was incompetent and he would even say that their hands were tired by the black money coming from the gangsters.

'I really wonder if they could ever get used to it.'

Kai thought as he saw a man stumble out of his car, glass sticking out of his chest. A car had struck him when he was trying to get away from the chaos. A woman was already bleeding in the car. She seemed unconscious to Kai.

"Help me… please."

The man saw Kai and tried to call him out. He turned around and tried to stand up but to no avail.

Kai just looked down on him and even in the dark with only the moonlight shining above them, he recognised the face of the man.

"You are Senator Blake."

He was a part of the elites. The ones that have thrown the city into a situation where this was a monthly occurrence.

"You… you know me. Please help me out. My wife, she's unconscious. Call an ambulance."

"No ambulance will come. Don't you see it? The city is in chaos. I thought you knew about it as you have talked about it in your speeches. There's not enough ambulances for everyone."

"Then, please save my wife somehow."

Kai looked at the woman. She seemed like a simple woman. He let out a breath, his eyes meeting the senator.

"No." He said. "Everyone needs a lesson. I have had them. Now, you should too."

Kai lowered himself up to him saying that.

"You have eaten up the city, Senator. The things that you own end up owning you. It's the same for power."

Saying that, Kai walked away. Every step he took, the voice of the senator got lower and lower until it disappeared. Even if he survived, his wife won't. Kai was sure of it and he saw it as the right thing.

Suddenly, he felt free as he looked around himself.

The scene around him was one of blood, screams, death and mayhem but he felt like he was at home. He felt like this is the environment he would strive in.

One where he could be himself. Though, he also knew that the city needed direction. It lacked vision and was filled with parasites.

In it, one needed to sacrifice to get anywhere.

"Even if I need to sacrifice myself."

Kai said with a blank look that hid a vision that only he knew and it was at that moment, a voice came out.

"Cut! It's a wrap!"

It was a very happy shout from Zavier who started congratulating the staff and crew that was next to him.

"It's finally over! Good job everyone, well done!"

"Ah, this is one of the hardest shoots I'm a part of."

"Yeah, it was hard but ultimately, it was worth it."

"Let's go celebrate today."

"Yeah, drink on me. You all did a great job the whole shooting."

Voices of the crew and cast came out and Aiden looked around with a light smile on his face. It was finally over. Another movie. A special character.

The good thing was that he felt satisfied. Satisfied with his work.

"I guess it's time to finally get rid of Kai."

As soon as he said that, his vision suddenly went blank.

System notifications appeared in front of him.

[You have achieved 100 percent affinity with the character 'Kai August'.]

[You have achieved an unreal achievement.]

[You have become one with the character 'Kai August'.]

[You have gained experience.]

[You have advanced to Intermediate Grade 8 from Intermediate Grade 7.]

[You have advanced in a small time.]

[A special perk has been activated.]

[Beginning Synchronisation with the character 'Kai August'.]

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[A special perk has been activated.]

[Beginning Synchronisation with the character 'Kai August'.]

As soon as those words appeared in front of Aiden, he didn't even have time to collect himself. Before he knew it, he found himself in a space that was dark.

He was barely able to make what was in front of him. Fear seeped in his heart for a second before he calmed himself down by taking deep breaths.

'What is going on?'

He thought as he tried to move but he found himself unable to. It was like chains were holding his legs in place.

He started to panic the next second after the attempts to move failed. At that moment, a system notification appeared in front of him.

[Synchronisation with the character 'Kai August' has begun… 1 percent… 2 percent…]

As soon as that system notification appeared in front of him, he saw a silhouette of a person appear in front of him.

He squinted his eyes to look better at the person and found out that he was wearing a suit. The silhouette was around his height but the most surprising thing about him was that he didn't have any face.

It was just blank. Like someone has erased their facial features. Aiden felt like it was a bit creepy and he tried to not focus too much on it.

He instead looked at the system notification in front of him. The synchronisation was slowly going on and soon, he began to understand who the silhouette in front of him was.

'Kai.'

Like agreeing with him, the blank face slowly started getting its facial features back. Aiden glanced back and forth at the face and the system notification.

He realised that as the synchronisation was increasing, the silhouette was getting its facial features back.

[71 percent… 72 percent… 73 percent…]

Unsurprisingly, the facial features were exactly like Aiden's. As the synchronisation rate increased, he got more sure of it.

A lot of questions appeared in his mind seeing the weird phenomenon. But he waited for the synchronisation to end.

Finally after waiting for a few minutes, the synchronisation reached the end.

[98 percent… 99 percent… 100 percent.]

Now, it was like Aiden was looking in a mirror as the person in front of him looked exactly like him. Just in a suit with a smirk on his face.

He knew he was Kai.

[The synchronisation with the character 'Kai August' has been completed. You are now one with the character.]

[Congratulations on such a feat.]

[You have gotten perks for achieving this. Your control of the character 'Kai August' has increased significantly.]

[You have gained a few of the abilities of the character.]

[Your body has become a bit more athletic.]

[You have gotten the skill 'Domination' — The ability to instill fear and nervousness in the person you are looking at. It's an active skill that can only be used once per day. People would start to fear when the skill is activated.]

Aiden's eyes widened as he read the skill description. He felt like he was bestowed with a lot of gifts today.

First, he had leveled up and now, he had gotten a skill straight out of Kai. He didn't seem like one he would use in acting as his goal isn't to make his co-actor fear him but it did look like something that could be useful.

As Aiden looked at Kai in front of him again, he smirked and the next second, the dark space broke and Aiden felt himself standing at the same spot on the set that he was before getting the notifications.

'How much time has passed?'

He looked around in surprise and saw that the crew and cast were still around.

Though, he did look like some time had passed.

"Aiden. Aiden."

"Ah, yeah?"

Suddenly, a voice called out to him and he blinked his eyes to see Wade standing in front of him.

"What happened to you? I was calling out to you for five minutes but you stood there like a stone, not even blinking. Are you okay? Do you want to go to the hospital?"

"No, no, I'm fine." Aiden shook his head. "I was just thinking about—"

The next second, he felt like his body had no strength and he always fell off. Thankfully, Wade stopped him from falling and held his shoulders.

"It doesn't look like you are okay."

Wade said, looking at him.

"I'm. It's just… exhausted. I feel exhausted."

He let out a sigh. He didn't know why but he felt really exhausted at the moment. Maybe, it was because of his system or just because he had worked tirelessly these days.

But he wanted to rest.

Thankfully, [The Black Saints] was over now. Another movie wrapped!

Ava looked down at the sky. Birds were flying and the sun was out, shining down on the pedestrians. Tall buildings were everywhere and even if Titan studios headquarters was pretty itself, it didn't compare to some of the buildings around.

For a moment, she wondered about a time when there were no buildings in LA but before that thought reached anywhere, a voice called her out.

"This is the project file that you asked me to bring."

Ava turned around to find her red haired assistant standing there, putting a few files on her desk. She nodded her head and sat down before picking up a file.

"So, is it decided?"

"From what I have heard around the company, yes. There were other projects that were discussed but in the end, this is the only one that struck out. All the other scripts and projects were again pushed down as projects that aren't financially doable."

The assistant said, adding up a few rumours that she had heard around the company. This was one of the reasons that Ava liked her. She had good ears.

By 'financially doable', she meant that the company felt like they wouldn't be able to get as much profits as they want with those projects. Even if they are a hit.

Titan studios was hard at word, trying to make a team to work on a superhero franchise but they were also prioritising another project before it that they expected to blow up as a franchise. The setting of a fantasy action adventure was decided and a few scripts were pitched.

There were even discussions of novel adaptations.

Ava herself had tried to push for a project called [The Black Knight] but it was rejected based on the reason that it was too dark. The studio didn't want to take a different approach to change the setting.

She understood it too as it was better for a franchise to be more kid friendly. Companies are always after the merchandise sales.

"It's a bit of a mess, isn't it?"

Ava said after reading the whole project file. Her assistant nodded in front of her with a similar grave expression.

"Yes, it is. But it seems like they are very confident that this time they will be able to do it properly."

"Yeah but [Hex] is always going to be an extremely hard movie to shoot. The whole series is very complex and it's not easy to make a live action adaptation out of it. We have tried before."

Ava sighed, thinking of the last two attempts that Titan studios have made. [Hex] was an extremely popular novel series that ended in 2005. Straight after it, Titan studios have bagged the rights to it, wanting to do a live action.

Two attempts and five directors later, they have realised that it was not easy. Since 2010, the idea to make this movie has been lost with no one talking about it, seemingly giving up on it.

"It seems like they are going for it because if they manage to pull it off, the chances of success are really high. The whole series is complex but has characters that could be marketed towards a younger demographic."

"I understand that but these sorts of movies need vision. The last time, the studio hired directors that were good but they didn't have any vision. The technology wasn't good back then and they didn't have the capability to push it either."

Some directors would go so far to develop new technology to make movies. She knew of directors that have asked to develop technology to shoot just one scene.

Sadly, they were extremely, extremely rare.

"I guess, if they are serious, then they would soon start to hear pitches on the subject."

Ava muttered and at that, her assistant hesitated for a second before giving her a piece of information that she had heard accidentally.

"Actually, I don't know if it's confirmed but I heard that Olio Fermen is extremely interested in directing the movie. You know that he's a big fan of the series, right?"

"I know he has approached the studio a lot to get a chance to direct it. He even says that he already has every plan that he can execute perfectly."

Ava said, then realised one thing that just crossed her mind.

Olio Fermen was a friend of Alberto Dundley.

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Finishing up a role was always a hard thing to do for actors. Especially, when it was an intense role.

If you are too immersed into a role, then you feel like you are that person and it is hard to differentiate between your real personality and the role.

That had happened with Aiden when he played the role of Flynn Wheeler in [Sherlock of the Shadows]. It had a lot to do with him turning off security protocols that helped him stay sane during immersion.

But it was true that the role was intense.

Same was with Kai. Probably more so because Aiden felt much more close to him than any of his characters.

When he was doing the final scene, the only thing in his mind was that it was going to be the end of Kai and for a while, he even wondered if he would be able to remove Kai from his mind.

The answer was obviously no.

The characters he had played have lived on somewhere in his subconscious and the same was for Kai. Though, he does need to get out of the character after the shoot to go on with his life.

But in the case of Kai, the emotions and habits were such that it was hard to get the emotions out. When his affinity with him had reached 100 percent, the control he had on him had increased.

That helped and it got a bit easier for him. But he still needed professional help.

Even if there was nothing and he had no problem getting out of the role, he would have still gone to a psychologist. Just to be safe.

So, two days after the shooting, he got an appointment with Dr. Penny. It had been two weeks since then and he had made significant progress.

"Did you do the things that I told you to do?"

Dr. Penny asked as she looked at Aiden who was sitting in front of him. He was playing around with a rubik's cube in his hands.

"Yeah. I went bowling, tried out a few small restaurants that seemed interesting and just roamed around. Even went biking with my uncle."

"That's good. You were in normal clothes right?

"Yeah, I haven't really touched all the suits I have gathered in the last few days. It did feel a bit uncomfortable. Though, I still like things to be extremely clean around my house."

Suits and cleanliness were habits of Kai. The former was actually a metaphor for him seeing being a psychopath as a job, so he wore suits whenever he's about to kill people. Weirdly, Aiden has gotten a collection of suits out of the role.

"Going by your progress, you will be fine in a month or two. You have already processed a lot of the emotions you gathered when playing Kai. Just keep doing fun, little activities or even go on a vacation. You have money. Keep your mind relaxed."

Dr. Penny smiled and wrote a few things down before talking about exercises she had told Aiden to try out. She had also instructed him to write down his emotions if it gets too much.

That had worked extremely well last time.

In the end, she asked in a casual tone.

"So, are you writing down a new book this time too to get out of your character?"

"No, last time, I got inspired due to the artist I worked with on Morpheus. It's hard to think up a story because of a lot of things. I'm more of an author who waits to get inspired." Aiden explained, then added casually. "Actually, I was thinking of writing a book inspired by you in the future."

"Me?"

Dr. Penny looked surprised. She had never thought that Aiden would say something like that. A book inspired by her? How will that turn out?

"Yes, I have a habit of writing down interesting ideas when I come across interesting people or if I read something interesting. I have a good story in mind about a psychologist thanks to you."

Aiden had thought of a story about a psychologist after his first few sessions with Dr. Penny last year. Though, he had never really made it into something more than an idea.

Mostly because he was busy and because he felt like he wouldn't be able to do justice to the story in his mind if he wrote it right now. He just wasn't at a good enough level according to him.

"If that's the case, then I would love to read it."

Dr. Penny said, feeling a bit overwhelmed.

"I will show you when I write it. Just it won't be soon. I'm not in the right mindset to do it right now."

"Don't worry. Take your time and just write something you want to read right now."

Aiden blinked, hearing that and wondered about it.

'What he wanted to read right now?'

Probably something light and fun — That was the answer he got when he thought about it.

'Should I just sleep?. That was just a weird comedy.'

Aiden said as he looked at his screen. His break had given him time to watch all the movies that he had missed in the last year. Though, not all of them were good movies.

Currently, he had just watched a movie about a wedding in which chaos ensues because of a lot of things. The premise looked interesting but it had fallen flat on so many aspects that the movie felt boring.

Looking at the time, it was still 3 PM in the afternoon. Aiden had no schedule and he was free enough to do anything with his time.

He picked up his phone to check any new messages but there was nothing.

He sent a message to Wade.

[Aiden: Wade, do you want to go to the movies with me? I heard some nice indie movies are running.]

[Wade: Not today. I'm a bit busy with some personal stuff. Are you just bored?]

A reply came quick and as expected, Wade knew him.

[Aiden: Kind of.]

[Wade: Why don't you read the novels that you weren't able to read because of work. I remember you complaining about it to me more than once.]

When Wade sent that message, Aiden realised that it was indeed the case. Due to [Agnas] and then, [The Black Saint, he hasn't gotten any break and because of that, he hasn't gotten any time to read up on the web novels he was reading.

[Aiden: I will go read them. Thanks.]

Aiden typed and quickly opened up his browser to check up the web novels he was reading once. As expected, all of them have gotten a lot chapters and a few of them have even ended, meaning that he could go through them in one sitting.

He had gotten the habit of reading web novels early on in his life as he wanted to read books but had no money to buy them. Web novels were mostly free and it was easy to find them.

Moreover, there was a lot of variety, making them a great choice for him to read.

The habit had continued till now and it was only because of his career that he hadn't been able to make up time to read them.

'This would be a fun day now.'

Aiden thought and started going through the webnovels one by one. Time kept flowing at a rapid rate as he finished one chapter after another, enjoying a few chapters more than the others.

Five hours later, he had read through two novels and was on his third. It was then that a frown appeared on his face.

"What type of clusterfuck is this?"

He muttered in a frustrated voice. His face scrunched up in a scowl as he finished up the 1357 chapter of what was a cultivation novel.

The reason he was so frustrated was because the main character had just died for the third time. His love interest had been forgotten and he was now hitting on the finance of a powerful cultivator in what was apparently his third birth.

'I remember I read this 200 chapters ago too. Just with different characters. This novel is going nowhere.'

He thought in his mind. As a seasoned reader, he knew the problems that web novels have but it was stll very frustrating.

It was like the authors were ready to sabotage their creation just to keep it going. Aiden understood it as an ongoing novel meant a flow of constant cash but it was still something that one should rather avoid.

Scrolling down to the comments section, several of them seem to agree with his line of thought.

[Daoist Milfy hunter: It's over for me here. Why is the protagonist who's 1000 year old so dumb? He's a cultivator. He can get any girl who's normal easily. Why make enemies because you got horny?]

[My name is Suk Yu: If I was 1000 years old and did this, I would kill myself. Maturity really don't come with age.]

Those comments were displaying Aiden's exact thought and it was then that he saw another comment.

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[Average 500 chaps a day: I sometimes wish I can write. I at least won't make this type of mistake. I sometimes feel sad because so many authors ruin their novels like this. If I can write, I will probably create a better novel than this.]

It was an average comment but something Aiden picked up was the last line.

Something clicked in his hand.

It wasn't like before today, he had never thought something like this. Reading so many webnovels, he had also felt that he could write one. Maybe he won't reach the storytelling quality of the more experienced web novel authors but at least, he won't drag the novel to its own destruction.

But this idea had never gone anywhere, mostly because Aiden would get busy in one thing or the other.

Also, he had never gotten chances to study more on the writing side of a web novel. Reading so many of them, he knew that they were a bit different than the average novel in the bookstore.

They were made for wish fulfilment and enjoyment.

Maybe, that was what he needed at the moment.

'A web novel is an extremely light read. I might be able to occupy myself with it and at the same time, it would be a good shift from the dark nature of Kai.'

He thought in his mind and pondered on it for a while.

It was a pretty good idea but one thing he was worried about was that the web novel won't get any traction. If he was going to write one, he didn't want to use his real identity.

Mostly because there was no need for that. Web novel authors normally use extremely funny pen names like 'My junior is my pen' and 'I eat Mangoes'.

He wanted to do something like that too instead of just using his real identity.

If the novel got famous, he could reveal it.

'Sounds like a good plan.'

Aiden thought and without wasting any time, he began writing down a few ideas he had for a web novel.

In the past, he had thought of cool web novel ideas. Some were cultivation ideas while others resembled more like light novels.

He wrote them down one by one.

I'm the Overpowered Janitor.

I transmigrated into the body of a playboy who flirted around with yanderes.

Retired Cultivator Life.

My Cultivation Master was an Actor.

I'm the Brother of the Villain.

After writing them down, he wondered which one he should go for. He wanted this novel to just be something fun to write and nothing beyond that, so it was important to go with a story that he would have the most fun with.

It was still very confusing.

All the titles looked enticing to him but they also looked to fall into web novel cliches, something that he wanted to do a bit differently.

His thoughts were not to write just any web novel.

'Web novels have a lot of potential but in the end, they fall into cliches and worlds that seem identical to any other from the same genre. There's just no new things that authors do.'

He wanted to make something different even if he was going to play into the normal web novel formula.

Trying to take a different approach, Aiden first listed down things that he needed to avoid. The common cliches and mistakes that authors rarely seem to learn from.

Like unnecessary love interest, identical worlds and plots that seemed lazy and even a lack of innovation in the power system. Out of all this, the biggest cliche was how the world revolved around the main character instead of the main character revolving around a story.

Though, Aiden was more understandable of it as he treated web novels as wish fulfilment but he did want to tweak it a bit and give his main character more obstacles.

Even in a fantasy world, web novels always seemed like they were restricted by something.

There were only a few web novels that actually have interesting worlds and Aiden wanted to surely change that. At the same time, he didn't want to drag out any plots.

Slowly, he began to think about the plot of his web novel.

If he wanted to pick a genre, it would be eastern fantasy aka cultivation as the first web novel he had read also fell into this genre.

Aiden personally believed that it was the most interesting web novel genre that wasn't explored that much. After all, in a world where anyone could be an immortal, the possibilities were boundless.

Though, Aiden focused much more on the world structure.

In a world with cultivators, it was normal for them to have a lot of authorities but at the same time, he wondered what would happen if they followed a system like democracy instead of something like autocracy.

Aiden played around with ideas like that. He also decided to put much more emphasis on the ocean. It was a world setting that he felt was really neglected in these types of novels.

'An Atlantis type civilization in a cultivation world is interesting… But will they be humans? Maybe another race.'

He thought and thought all night. As time went by, his thoughts became clearer in what he wanted to do. He made science an important aspect of his world and mixed it with cultivation, making it an unique occupation.

This gave rise to a lot of interesting gadgets and equipment that made the world much more vibrant.

Finally, after setting up his world, he focused on his main character.

'How to form my main character? What's his ideology? His background? Aspirations.'

He slowly delved into them and tried to come up with the best character possible. He wondered whether he should make his main character a noble? Or someone from a famous clan? Or should he go the cliche way of him being the young master of a degrading clan?

There were a lot of options but in the end, he decided to make him a common person. This gave Aiden more opportunity to play around with the character and avoid any unnecessary baggage.

At the same time, he gave a lot of thought to the cultivation technique of his main character.

He wanted to make it much more interesting than just a simple cultivation technique where someone would keep getting new techniques and have a sword as a weapon.

His attention lingered on weapons and thinking a bit, he felt like a weapon based cultivation system sounded pretty interesting.

But he didn't want to go the sword cultivator route.

'An axe? Nah, it's too bulky. A dagger? An assassin cultivator sounds nice but it doesn't suit my main character. A trident? It can be an interesting weapon but it's fairly limited. Wait, I got it!'

The weapon he chose in the end was a bow and an arrow — A weapon that was extremely flexible yet it was rarely used in these types of novels.

Aiden imagined his main character using different types of arrows and focusing more on ranged combat.

'Eagle eye cultivation manual.'

That sounded like the best name for his cultivation technique. There were a lot of ways he could move with that type of power system for his main character.

He slowly built up his character and gave him a dream of looking for an artifact that had submerged into the ocean with the city of Atlantis.

At the same time, Aiden decided to add a light element to the novel by using misunderstandings for comedy.

He gave the characteristic of being extremely low key to the main character but because of his hidden abilities, people would start to doubt his background which was actually common. But they would think otherwise.

Like that, he made up a few more plot points. He even gave him the job of an engineer as a sub plot so that he could build up his arrows and innovate.

After making up a few cultures and languages, the plot was mostly ready.

Without wasting any time, Aiden started to write it.

He tried to adopt a more simplistic writing style for this novel and completed two chapters before sleeping.

The next day, he did 3 more and posted it on the largest web novel website — Wuxia Updates.

Now, it was time to see the results.

As Aiden was working on his first web novel, Zavier was extremely busy with the post production work of [The Black Saint]. He had nearly shot the footage of over 200 minutes but the movie couldn't be that big.

People already felt like the movie was dragged out when it's a little above 2 hours.

Zavier wanted the movie to have a good pacing, so that it wouldn't look like it was dragging. This was actually a complaint of a lot of people, regarding the first movie.

So, he wanted to rectify it but the problem was that whatever scene he watched, he felt like it belonged in the final cut.

There was no helping it and it wasn't just because he was the director. The editor who was working with him had the same feelings.

It was hard to take out any scene. And there was only one reason behind it.

"Aiden's acting is so good that it's hard to edit out any scene that has him in it."

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A man yawned as his eyes lingered on the laptop screen in front of him for a while before turning sideways to look at the clock.

It was already midnight but sleep still seemed like a long way ahead. He frowned, blaming his bad habits yet again.

The man worked in an advertisement company.

His bad habits had made him procrastinate when he should be preparing a presentation tomorrow. But to his defense, a football match was going on and it had gone to a penalty in the end, something he would have regretted not watching.

Though now, he had to say goodbye to his sleep to complete his presentation. He had been working on it for 3 hours already and it was still only half done.

Lowering his head in dejection, he frowned once again. His neck was hurting a bit from sitting at the table.

He tried to ease the pain by sitting a bit more upright and looked at the presentation. It depressed him instantly.

His eyes glanced towards his phone at the next second. A sudden urge came up to take a small break.

He tried to resist it but he didn't feel like he could push through.

Cursing his procrastination habits, he picked up his phone and started browsing through it. Though, there was nothing on MeTube.

He scrolled through Sparrow too but it was boring for him. In the end, he decided to open up the website that he wanted to avoid.

Wuxia Updates.

The reason he was avoiding it was because everytime he would stumble upon a novel, he would just keep reading without a sense of time.

'I should check up on newer novels as they won't have a lot of chapters. Maybe, I will stumble upon something good.'

He thought in his mind.

Scrolling through the latest uploads tab, he saw a few novels that looked good but they didn't look like anything he hadn't read before.

"Ain't there something good and unique?"

As soon as he muttered that, he saw a novel title that attracted his interest.

Archer's Ascension.

It was a pretty cool title and the cover looked pretty great too. It was the art of an archer aiming at someone with a bow with one of his eyes glowing.

It gave the impression of a serious, gritty novel.

Reading the synopsis, he found out that his thoughts were right. Though, the synopsis made it look a bit more lighthearted than what he was expecting.

The thing he was most impressed with was the fact that the main character was an archer. There weren't a lot of novels that have him play an archer, so he was intrigued as to how it would turn out to be.

Especially in an eastern fantasy setting.

'The author seems new. The Dreamer. It looks like a simple pen name.'

The man thought and wondered if he should read it. There were no reviews of the novel yet, so it could be a hit or a miss.

In the end, he took the chance and started reading the first chapter.

To his surprise, the writing was pretty intricate. There weren't any grammar mistakes and even if it was written in a simpler way, the flow was on point.

It was something that not a lot of beginner authors have (The man assumed the author was a beginner).

Before he knew it, the man had completed the first chapter. It was the same with the second and the third.

By the end of the fourth chapter, the man was already booked.

The story started out straight away without taking any time to set up the world. It had instead decided to set up the main character, the second and third chapters have already laid down the ambitions and powers of the main character.

In the fourth, the first major arc had already begun in which he was in a competition to get into a sect. It was pretty fun because the main character, Lu Ren would use unexpected tactics to fight his opponents who are way stronger than him.

Though, the best part of the novel seemed to be the supporting characters. The few of them that were introduced all looked quite different from the typical characters in this type of novel.

Those were more like caricatures than characters but the author of this novel seemed like he knew how to put soul in his characters.

Before he knew it, the man had read the fifth chapter but there was no option to read the next one.

He clicked on the chapters list and realised that only 5 chapters were released till now.

He sighed in dejection.

'I wanted to read more.'

There was no other way than just waiting and the man was already used to it, thanks to being a fan of web novels for a long time.

He left a review on the main page of the novel, giving it a 5 star rating and turned on the notification settings, so he gets an update whenever a new chapter drops.

It was only then that the man noticed that a lot of time had passed.

"What the hell? It's already been an hour."

He muttered in frustration, looking at the clock that was slowly going towards the 4 AM mark.

He had again lost his sense of time due to a novel.

At least this time it was worth it.

In an online web novel forum, a lot of people were talking about different types of novels in each thread and even roasting a few of them because of how bad they were.

It was a normal day for the forums as a lot of readers come here to either find new novels, have a discussion on them or bash a novel.

In that forum, someone created a thread titled, "Guys, you should read Archer's Ascension. It's one of the best novels I have read."

Normally, a thread like this won't get any traction as there were a lot of threads like this. A lot of authors would even try to promote their novels like this.

But these sorts of threads hardly get any comments.

But this one was made by a very famous user who was known to unearth underrated novels that were good. His recommendations were always good and he had gotten a reputation for it.

His username was 'WuxiaCreator69'. Seeing his post, a lot of people commented and only a few knew which novel he was talking about.

Archer's Ascension was extremely new with less than 10 chapters and readers would mostly like to read something with a lot of chapters.

So, they were a bit surprised as to why the user was recommending such a novel. Even before, 'WuxiaCreator69' hadn't recommended a novel with so many chapters.

[My Korean friend died Su Yung: Does 'WuxiaCreator69' really don't have novels to read? He is reading a novel that just started three days ago? Or he got paid by the author?]

[If you sleep with a girl, you gay as she likes what gay people like: I don't think someone like 'WuxiaCreator69' could be paid. He is on the path of achieving the dao of virgin monk. Then again, he borrowed money from me. So maybe, he's doing a paid post to pay me back.]

[Lazy enthusiast: Guys, I read the novel. It's actually pretty good. I'm going to wait for more chapters but it already looks to be better than most novels.]

[Harem Protagonist's dingdong: There's a reason why experienced readers don't usually give chances to novels with fewer chapters even if it interests them. It's because they are dropped a lot and it's better to wait, especially if there's an unknown author. This novel has all those red flags. I'm going to wait for more chapters even if it looks good.]

[The MC is too OP: Well, I don't really care about that tbh. I liked the synopsis. Seems like someone is trying something new. Always open to that if they do it right.]

[My Dao is Supreme reading: Meh, I trust 'WuxiaCreator69'. He's never wrong about a novel. I'm off to read this novel.]

[Dark fantasy villain: I gave up on cultivation a long time ago. It got too repetitive. Not gonna touch it just because of that. The cover is great but it's not enough.]

[Need a protagonist halo: Well, I might try it after reading my current novel. A new, promising novel is always nice. Let's see if the author updates more soon.]

[Want 10 updates a day: I will get it on my reading list. Currently reading a showbiz novel that's pretty great. Loving the progression till now.]

As people were discussing his web novel more and more, Aiden was trying to write a lot more chaps. It was more fun, the more he wrote.

With web novels, he felt a kind of flexibility that he rarely got before. Anything could happen in his novel and the tonal shifts were something he was enjoying a lot.

From two chapters a day, he was moving towards four chapters a day.

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These days, Aiden realised the truthfulness of words said by a random actor on his first audition.

He was extremely new back then and was talking to people in an attempt to get more information on what type of role that they were auditioning for.

It was then that he had asked a question from a guy who seemed pretty experienced. Apparently, he was someone who had been going to auditions for a few years.

"Why did you want to be a writer?"

That was the question that Aiden had asked. He was expecting a standard response as to how he loved cinema and wanted to be a part of it.

But the man had simply said.

"Because it has money. I don't need to be under someone and even if I do one or two projects a year, I would be able to live well if I'm smart. Even if a movie fails, you still get your payment. No job is like this. You are your own master in it."

At that point, the man had seemed extremely practical to him. But it was only after all these years that Aiden was able to truly feel what those words meant.

'Life has never been this good before.'

Aiden thought as he took another look at his laptop screen. Half of the chapter was already done and this was his third chapter for the day.

He was extremely relaxed these days. Just taking time off to focus on a few of his hobbies. With money in his bank account and no rush to do any new projects, Aiden realised how much of a good career acting could be.

In no other career could he take a few months off without notifying anyone. This was a blessing for him and he was spending a lot of time on his web novel in this free time.

For his first book, he had felt like it was difficult to write a lot of chapters in a day. Most times, he would only do 1 a day.

One of the reasons was also because he was trying to make it as good as possible.

But for Archer's Ascension, he was just writing for fun. The thought of making it as good as possible was there but in the end, it was a fun, simple story with its own tropes and gags.

Aiden was just having fun writing it and that's why he was able to make a lot of progress daily.

In a week, he had written 22 chapters and he wanted to reach the 50 chapter mark by the next week. He still has a lot of arcs and plotlines to explore.

Moreover, as he had started writing, he had gotten a lot more inspiration on how to develop his world more.

He has decided to go for a diverse set of languages which means that there will be confusion regarding it. Moreover, he was also developing different types of monsters for his world.

Aiden felt like this was something that a lot of cultivation novels lack. A diverse variety of beasts and monsters that are present in the world.

How have they developed in the world and how much have they evolved? These questions were something that Aiden was looking for an answer to.

Slowly as he wrote, he got more and more answers to his questions.

His world also looked much more real. And his protagonist was also growing at a rapid pace.

As his protagonist got to know about the world and the value of power, he came to respect it. Cultivation worlds anyway are just that.

If you have power, you are respected. If you don't, then you are no one in the wider context.

One more thing that made Aiden be motivated to write more was because of the increasing amount of comments per day.

For an author, it was the best thing to see people liking his novel. Even during Behind the Scenes and Morpheus, comments were things that were motivating him.

He had spent quite a lot of time going through every review back then.

It was the same now.

[Little sister smasher: This chapter was nuts. I never saw such a detailed world building in any cultivation novel till now. This is truly one of the best.]

[Young Master's butler: I like the protagonist a lot. He seems better. Someone who knows what's moral and what's not and doesn't hesitate to take the morally bad side. He also faces consequences for it, making the stakes feel real. Props to the author.]

[Master, I'm stuck: Man, this novel's too good. I never thought I would find a gem in a genre I thought was already dead. The release schedule is great but I hope we see more chapters per day but that's just my greed.]

Reading the comments, Aiden felt a warm feeling surge in his heart. People liked his novel and that was great news for him.

Though, he was a bit surprised that he was getting so many readers everyday. He wasn't even promoting his novel, so it was unusual.

But he thought that it was because of the cover that Bruce (The artist of Morpheus) had made him.

Aiden had requested him to send him a good cover art for his web novel and he had sent one in just a day. He was surely fast and the cover looked extremely good and attractive.

He knew that cover arts were the best way to attract readers and it had surely worked.

One more thing that had worked in his favour was that the novel had appeared in several lists like 'Rising novels' on the website.

These lists were there just to promote newly released novels and Archer's Ascension was slowly moving to the top of it.

'Like this, my web novel might even be among the top rated novels in a few more weeks.'

Aiden thought in his mind and began writing again.

As Aiden was enjoying the process of writing, a lot of people were looking at his novel. That includes an editor from a publishing firm that often recruits authors from this website.

As these novels already have a good following on the internet, they are easier to sell. Moreover, the market for ebooks had increased by a lot in recent years and the publishing company, Wiscer Publishing knew how to sell ebooks.

These days, Jeffery, an editor in Wiscer Publishing, had found his eyes glued to Archer's Ascension. Whenever a new chapter would drop, he would immediately read it.

And he had noticed that this novel was unlike any other. First of all, it didn't follow a protagonist who was like a caricature. The protagonist was extremely 3 dimensional and had its own interests.

He didn't break his character and stayed true to what he wanted. The world and the supporting cast was extremely good too, especially the detailed description of the world.

Jeffrey had never seen an eastern fantasy that had tried to take the direction somewhere else than the usual 'I want to be an immortal'. It had even developed new areas that would only be seen in western fantasy novels.

It was hard to say how it would pan out in theory but the author had done it with extreme grace and tied it up with the history of the world and the people.

"I needed to get the author to sign a contract with us. With this quality, it could become so much more than just a random web novel."

Jeffery muttered to himself and stood up from his chair and walked up to his assistant.

"Get in contact with the author of Archer's Ascension. We need to give him a publishing contract and sign him up before anyone else does."

One worry that Jeffery had was some other publishing company getting the author first. It was really about who could offer a contract first as new authors tend to just sign up at any offer.

"Sir, but he just started posting two weeks ago. Ain't it too early?"

His assistant asked as she looked up at him. Normally, they won't sign up rookie authors. At least until they are really famous.

"It is but it's an exception. The novel is too good to stay under the radar for too long. We need to move fast or it's going to be snatched away."

The assistant just nodded, hearing the confident voice of her boss.

She didn't voice out any of her personal opinions, knowing full well that Jeffery was someone with a good eye and vision.

She got to work quickly and found out everything she could about 'The Dreamer', a pretty simple yet philosophical name in her view.

She sent him an email about the contract and whether he was interested. Normally, any rookie author would jump at the chance.

The assistant was sure that this time, it would be the same but when she got a reply back, the author had rejected the contract.

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Aiden looked at the email in front of him. It was an email from a company called Wiscer Publishing. He didn't know much about it but a simple online search revealed that it was a publishing company specialising in original light novels and eastern fantasy books.

They apparently wanted to publish Archer's Ascension.

It was a proposal that humbled Aiden and became another proof that his novel was good but he had no intention of publishing this novel. In the first place, there was no need to put it behind a paywall.

He was writing it for fun and not like it was a manuscript like Behind the scenes.

He was posting the chapters as soon as he finished writing them and the novel was getting more and more readers per day. So that was enough for Aiden who had no financial problems to look for more money.

Moreover, he knew that signing a publishing contract meant that the novel was going to be taken down from Wuxia Updates website. People who could read it for free won't be able to do so then.

It was also not a one book novel like his debut work. And he had seen first hand how stressful it could be when you are on a deadline.

Aiden didn't want to get a contract like that and due to that, he simply rejected the offer after thinking for a bit.

He didn't want his 'fun' to become 'work'.

Surprisingly, an hour after he sent an email rejecting it, a call came from Wiscer Publishing.

"Hello, I'm calling from Wiscer Publishing. I sent you an email about offering your novel Archer's Ascension a contract but you rejected it. Is that correct?"

A female voice came from the other side.

"Yes, I did." Aiden said simply.

"Can I ask why?"

The female voice asked with a hint of confusion in her voice.

"I'm not writing this novel to earn money or get fame. It's just a fun, passion project and I don't think it requires a contract."

"Our publishing firm can help your novel reach a lot more readers. You can check our record and we have helped all our authors."

The female voice said in an attempt to persuade Aiden. But he shook his head, aware of the easily discernible tactics.

"It's fine. I have no desire to sign up with any publishing company. Thank you for your time but I'm just doing it for fun. Anyway, if a novel is good, it's going to find it's audience sooner or later."

The female assistant didn't know how to process this information. There was a quote that said that the best thing you can do for an author is to give him money.

So, all authors would take any money coming their way. But it was the first time she had known such a good and professional author who was writing for fun.

It was strange but she told everything to her boss, the senior editor who just told her to give Aiden a better offer.

An offer he can't refuse.

But no matter what offer they gave him, he refused all of them and after a while, he even stopped replying to the calls and emails.

Like Aiden said, if a novel is good enough, it will find an audience and that's what happened with Archer's Ascension. And at a rapid pace to booth.

Each day, more and more people started reading it and those people recommended it to other readers.

One thing about web novel readers was that they always needed something to read. A lot of them would go from one novel to another. They were extremely quick readers.

So the news about a promising new novel quickly spreaded. Any type of skepticism ended because of the release schedule that was more than most of the novels on the website.

Aiden got a lot more comments daily. From ten to twenty to almost seventy comments a day.

[Gay guys take one for the team: This is an extremely good novel. I can't stop reading it daily. Author, keep it coming.]

[Lolimon: I gave up on the dao of cultivation two years ago thanks to getting the ability to predict the next plot point but this novel opened my eyes and taught me that I still have a lot to learn.]

[Firing a missile accidentally: Okay, it started off pretty average but the novel just keeps getting better. Just in the latest chapter, the main character actually lost his arm in trying to defend his village from demonic cultivators. He didn't regrow the limb or anything but the author used it in a way to do character development. This is true writing.]

[Web novel donkey: The donkey approves of this masterpiece. It's a must read for any cultivation fan.]

In a month, it had gotten so many fateful and core readers with a lot of casual and upcoming readers that the novel appeared in the 'Top ten trending novels' list.

This was the hardest list on the website and only the best novels appeared on it.

When Aiden got to know of this achievement, he obviously cheered as he felt a surge of happiness.

But he forgot that such an achievement also meant that there was going to be a lot of attention on him now.

Archer's Ascension has reached top 6 in the list of top trending ongoing novels. This was big news not only for Aiden but also for all the other authors.

Authors on the website would usually monitor other novels to see who was going to pose them as a threat.

Although the website was free and offered no monetary support to authors, it still allowed them to post links of donation websites and personal websites, making it important for the authors to keep being at the top to maintain the donations and fame.

That's why, when Aiden's novel started posing as a threat, the authors started wondering who this new author was.

In that group chat, they discussed.

[Black Dragon Breath: So, who's willing to bet that 'The Dreamer' is just one of our secondary accounts. One of the top authors is probably using it if we go by the quality of the novel.]

[I Eat Straight Guys: That's a dumb reasoning. There's no reason for a top author to start a new account and we are not the only ones who are good authors in this world. It's a rookie. A monster rookie.]

[Tired Coffee Drinker: Can we really call this guy a rookie when he's already better than a few of us. Like this, he's heading straight for 'Soulless' crown. It would be fun if he managed to do that, I must say.]

'Soulless' was the top author for two years on Wuxia Updates. He was called a genius who used the website as a way to gain readers and divert them to buy his published novels.

This plan of his was extremely successful, making him a best selling author.

Because of his skill and experience, hardly anyone could think of taking his crown. Even the second placed author has given up on it.

Now, this new rookie has come. So, the authors wondered whether the rookie would post him as a threat.

[Dragon Eternal Sunshine: If that rookie managed to do that, I will leave my account. It's almost impossible to beat 'Soulless'.]

The third ranked author, 'Dragon Eternal Sunshine' said, a tad bit arrogantly but to him, it was justified. In his mind, it was impossible to beat 'Soulless'.

As to confirm his words, the top ranked author himself sent a message.

[Soulless: I don't know who that author is but he's free to try. Sadly, I feel like he would have to be content with his current position.]

As Aiden was writing his web novel, time was slowly moving. Two months had passed since the shooting of [The Black Saint] had ended.

In these two months, Zavier had been working day and night to make a perfect version of the movie. A version that he could call his best work.

A version that's the best path to Kai's insanity.

In the end, he had finally managed to make such a version and Granite films had even given him full control on the final editing. It was odd to give a director this much freedom until the director is too big but the CEO of Granite films trusted Zavier.

After the post production was over, he decided to hold a small screening for the entire staff of Granite films and the crew who had worked on the movie.

Aiden also attended the movie and a few friends of Zavier also attended it. Those were also filmmakers and quite successful ones at that.

Only one thing was in everyone's mind.

How was the movie going to be? Had Zavier managed to make a competent story about a psychopath.

Only the crew and the cast were confident. After all, they have seen the crazy eyes of Aiden throughout the shooting. Even if the script was bad, the acting was enough.

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Hollywood was a social industry which meant that no matter who you are, the only way to move forward was to make connections.

Even if you are not moving forward, knowing more people was something that everyone followed.

For filmmakers like Zavier, they will know all sorts of people. Producers, writers, actors, actresses, CEOs, animators and especially other filmmakers.

Filmmakers would often try to get along with each other while trying to have a good rivalry at the same time. Though, it was inevitable that a few of them would not like each other.

Maybe it would be due to them not liking the other person's work or because of something personal like having a beef on some topic.

Anyway, at their core, filmmakers were people who were proud of their work and viewpoints. Almost at an arrogant level.

So, arguments between them weren't something uncommon. Zavier also had a few of them with other filmmakers but in the end, most of them would come to a common point and stop fighting.

After all, as people grow, they become more mature.

But there was still someone who Zavier only had rivalry with and not the good kind of rivalry.

The person he had a bad rivalry with was Arno Laurent, a French filmmaker who had transitioned to Hollywood early on in his career.

Apparently, his first movie in Hollywood had clashed with the first movie of Zavier and he had lost out to him in box office results. Although they have tried to have a good relationship in parties, their styles and philosophical viewpoint were exactly opposite.

It made them natural rivals.

Arno was invited to the private screening of [The Black Saint] too and in his heart, he hoped that Zavier's movie won't be as good.

When he entered the screening theatre, he looked around to see a lot of familiar faces there but he headed straight for Zavier.

He was talking to a person who Arno recognised as Aiden Silvereye, the lead. And an actor he found very promising but he looked too close to Zavier.

"So, you are writing a web novel? Is that some online novel?"

"Yeah, it's sort of. Just a fun, little novel people read for free. Web novels are growing in popularity these days. I feel like filmmakers are going to adapt them one day too."

"If they are good, I'm sure they will."

Zavier stopped talking when he saw Arno moving towards him. With a reserved smile, he waved at him.

"Hey, Arno. Glad you could find time to see my movie."

"I would have made time even if I had something important. After all, I heard a lot of good things about it being the best project to come out from Granite films." He then turned towards Aiden. "Arno Laurent."

"Aiden Silvereye, a pleasure to meet you."

For the record, Aiden had seen a lot of Arno movies. He was purely a commercial filmmaker who had made giant action movies, even having super soldiers fighting in them. In one of them, he broke an actual bridge while filming.

Zavier was someone who had directed more critical stuff, ranging from TV shows to movies.

"I heard that [The Black Saint] had a lot of violence. I didn't think you would go such a route."

Arno said, looking at Zavier who just smiled.

"You are not the only one who likes violence and I did try delving more into it with [The Black Saint]. Just it wasn't like this. It's much, much more graphic."

"Ah, then are you going for an adult rating? R-18?"

"I'm not going for it but I'm pretty sure the censor board won't let kids watch it."

Getting an adult rating means that the prospects of a box office success goes way down because a lot of families go to movies with their kids. Reason why kid friendly movies are always at the top of box office charts.

An adult movie had only become a box office beast a few times. Most are happy with breaking even and getting critical recognition.

"Then, I'm glad we are not clashing at the box office this time. My movie won't be released till Christmas. I hope you break even this time." Arno said casually.

"I don't think it would be a problem even if we have clashed and the movie would do much more than break even."

"Oh, you never seem that confident before."

Arno was a bit surprised as he had never seen that level of confidence on Zavier. A filmmaker would be very confident in his movies but they would mostly be about the quality as he only the quality in his control.

But here, Zavier looked like he had seen a future where his movie had shattered box office records.

"Good luck to you then. I hope the movie is as strong as your confidence."

Arno simply said that and nodded towards Aiden before leaving.

'Ah, let's see if this movie would actually do something good at the box office.'

He thought in his mind.

As a commercial filmmaker, he felt like he had the best sense of the market and which movie would attract more people.

Even though he makes action movies, he doesn't do too much violence for it to stay kid friendly.

But it seems like Zavier hadn't learnt that lesson yet.

Three hours later, the movie was over and Arno, who had been watching it, didn't have any words to say because of the fact that he was stunned.

'The movie… how the heck did Zavier make something like that. No, he was always good with the human mind but he never made charismatic characters before.'

He thought in his mind.

Even though he hates to admit it, the movie was the best work of Zavier. He would even say that it had given him a bit more inspiration for his next movie and what direction he wanted to go.

But when he thought about it clearly, he doubted this movie would go on to be a commercial success.

After all, he had too many gore scenes.

One in which Kai smashes a guy's head in the railing of a terrace and throws him from there. There were disturbing scenes of a man falling into the bottomless pit of life and changing in a demonic way from there.

Arno took a sigh of relief when those thoughts entered his mind.

If [The Black Saint] would have been a commercial hit, then as Zavier's rival, he would be in pressure as his movie was also going to release a few months later.

But it seems not.

He approached Zavier who was with Aiden after a while. They were talking to a few production employees with smiles on their faces. The reception of the screening has been extremely positive.

So, they were content.

"Zavier, the movie truly surprised me. You really hit it out of the park this time. Never expected such a story from you."

He praised and Zavier looked at the genuine look on his rival's face before nodding.

"Thank you. This story took away a lot from me personally."

"I can sense that. I really hope you win some awards in the season. You deserve at least that much."

Aiden found some of his words strange and tilted his head in confusion.

"What do you mean by at least that much?" He asked.

"I mean, with that much gore and things that made me, an adult in my 40s feel a bit scared, I doubt it will get wide appeal. Even R-18 movies have a limit and this goes way past that."

"So, you mean it won't be commercially viable?"

"I personally don't think so." Arno said confidently, then added.

"Speaking from experience."

Arno felt like Aiden would take the words of a commercial filmmaker like him. After all, he had two 300 million dollars movies in his career.

But Aiden shook his head.

"I feel like it would earn a lot though."

"Obviously because you are the actor. If you are not confident in your project, then it will never work."

"No, I'm confident enough that I can make a bet."

Aiden said, making the heated discussion more interesting. Zavier looked at him wondering what he was saying. Even other people gathered to see what was going on with amusement on their faces.

"What kind of bet and how much do you think [The Black Saint] will do?"

"500 million dollars."

When that number came out of Aiden's mouth, everyone looked at him like he was a narcissistic lunatic. After all, only those types of actors would think their movie would earn half a million dollars.

That was a mark even many Oscar winners haven't crossed in their lives.

Even Zavier wondered if Aiden was going too overconfident. He felt like the movie would earn double its budget. Around 120-150 million dollars but 500 million dollars was something reserved only for superhero and big franchise movies.

"That's a number even I have not crossed." Arno smirked. "So, what kind of bet we talking about here?"

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Since Aiden had first encountered Arno, he had felt like the French filmmaker was trying to one up Zavier a lot. Although he praised him, there were also taunts mixed up in his words.

Zavier later told him about his relationship with Arno and Aiden understood what was going on. Even though he didn't like his attitude, it wasn't his place to say anything.

Until Arno had said that [The Black Saint] won't be commercially viable. It was then that Aiden had decided that enough was enough.

The idea of a bet was something that randomly came to his mind but now that Arno also looked interested in it, and it had already gained a lot of attention, Aiden wasn't going to back out.

"So, what kind of bet are we talking about here?"

Arno asked with a smirk and Aiden paused for a few seconds, thinking about a good bet before smiling.

"If [The Black Saint] didn't earn 500 dollars, I would act in a movie for you for free. Won't take any payment no matter what role or script."

"Ah, are you sure of it?"

"Yes, you should know that I have quite a good box office record myself."

Arno nodded his head. He obviously kept an eye on the industry and knew that Aiden was a great commercial star to have in your cast.

Just now, he had seen him as Kai. A great actor who could actually pull off a villain.

'Ah, I can use him as a villain in my next. Would save a lot of money too.'

Arno thought in his mind.

The other people around jhtm started whispering among themselves seeing the conversation between Arno and Aiden.

Zavier tugged at Aiden's shirt, telling him to drop it but he didn't look like he wasn't going to back off.

"Now, although I feel like it's impossible, what is the other side of the bet in case the movie actually did that much. Though, I seriously doubt it."

Arno added the last bit of the sentence with a bit of contempt. He felt like Aiden would ask something like a lead role in his next movie but he asked something unexpected.

"You said that you have a movie that's going to be released on Christmas right? Then you are going to be busy with a lot of interviews."

"Obviously."

"If I win, then you will talk about [The Black Saint] in each of the media interviews. My movie is releasing next month so it would line up perfectly by the time the promotions for your movie starts. You can't be lazy with it though. You need to talk about it for at least 10 minutes."

Arno paused hearing that.

He wasn't expecting something like that. It was akin to doing free promotions for the movie. But it was a good idea, he accepted that in his mind.

'Should I agree? Or not?'

He suddenly hesitated for a bit. Then, he looked around at all the people that were gathered here. Everyone was from the industry and this was surely going to spread.

He would look like a coward If he rejected it.

"Okay, I accept. Bring it on."

Both him and Aiden shook hands after that as people talked more about the ridiculous bet. Most of them were thinking that Arno was easily going to win and Aiden had to work for free in his movie.

After all, 500 million dollars was too big of a mark for any movie to cross.

There were even conspiracy theories about how Aiden had only made this bet so that he could be a part of Arno's next project. Some people were going with this line of thinking while others were just excited to see who was going to win in the end.

A little while later, Zavier pulled Aiden to the side and asked with a worried expression on his face.

"Aiden, have you gone crazy? What kind of bet have you made?"

"A normal bet."

"No, it's a bet that you are going to lose."

Aiden looked at him strangely hearing that.

"I thought you would be confident in your own movie."

He said, looking straight at Zavier. It would be wrong to say that he wasn't a bit disappointed.

"I'm." He replied confidently. "But 500 million dollars ain't a small number to cross. [The Black Saint] doesn't even have any VFX nor is it kid friendly. I would be with you if you said 200 million but 500 million is too much for this type of movie."

Hearing that, Aiden understood where Zavier was coming from. If he thought about it keeping the box office reality in mind, Zavier's words made much more sense.

People only want to spend a lot for an experience filled with special effects that transports them to another world while [The Black Saint] was truly opposite of it, delving into the ugly side of humans.

So, why had Aiden been so confident?

Because he felt like it was the type of movie that people needed at the moment.

'It might not be kids friendly but I feel like it will connect with the audience.'

It was a bit strange that Aiden felt that the audience would connect to Kai who was a psychopath but psychopaths were usually charismatic and Kai was the result of problems that were faced by a lot of people.

"I just believe that. I don't know why but I do." Aiden said, shrugging his shoulders. "Anyway, if it didn't work, I would just need to do a movie with Arno. But if I won, then won't it be funny?"

"Ah, it will be. Arno is very arrogant. Way more than me. So, he won't be able to take the loss but as he would be ridiculed if he doesn't keep his end of the bet, he would surely fulfil the condition."

Zavier laughed, thinking about it. Seeing his rival like that would be another kind of experience but he would only see it if [The Black Saint] surpassed every expectation.

Looking at Aiden's confidence, he really wondered if the bet was going to end up in his favour.

At the same time, he felt happiness in his heart.

'It's nice to work with an actor who has this much trust in your movie.'

He silently thought in his mind.

The release date of [The Black Saint] was decided to be on 3 September. The production team was going for a one and a half month marketing plan before the release of the movie.

At the same time, this was also because no big movies were released at this time of the year.

Most of the releases were trying to eye a winter release, close to Christmas, so [The Black Saint] would get little to no competition.

It was great news for Aiden who had only fought with other movies as his luck had made him clash with someone always.

He had come out on top mostly but it was still not a good thing all the time.

He was kinda relaxed because of that but the bet was still roaming in the back of his mind, making him give everything in the promotions.

And like he had expected, the movie got a R-18 rating by the censor board.

The marketing team was expecting it, so they marketed it more towards adults, calling it 'A dark movie for an entire generation.'

Thankfully, there were already a lot of fans of the first movie and even in them, there were a lot of Kai fans. So, some audience for the movie was already present.

[Football not soccer: They released another poster for [The Black Saint]. They are really going all out in the promotions.]

[Penalties are not goals: So bad the movie got a R-18 rating. My high school younger brother is a huge fan of Kai and wanted to see it. Guess, he needs to grow up first.]

[I penetrate with my sword: I really wonder how much dark they actually made it for it to gain an adult rating. The first movie was much more teen friendly. I guess, it's because it focuses fully on a villain. The teaser was intriguing and if they follow just that, the screen would have a lot of blood.]

[Fighting WW3 on Sparrow: I just want to know if Kai survived his death or not. I don't want it to be a prequel of sorts without offering us anything about what happened after the climax of the first movie.]

[Enjoying Cricket for 5 days: Going by the information released till now, it's crazy how much they seem to have changed the tone of the movie. From a crime thriller to a dark drama. I even heard some scenes would be close to horror.]

[Halfway through the novel: Whatever it is, I'm going first day first show. I need something that looks to be much more than your typical movie. I want to come out of the theatre shocked if it's really a dark movie for a generation. Otherwise, I want a refund.]

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[The Blank Saint] got R-18 rating by the censor board. Director Zavier Lamb promises a dark story of a man trying to sacrifice his being for a greater goal.

One of the filmmakers who attended a private screening of the movie said that Aiden Silvereye had given a performance of a lifetime as Kai August, the character who's slowly becoming a part of pop culture among movie enthusiasts.

Is [The Black Saint] a borderline horror movie? Here's what the director talked about exploring a character that is quite different from a normal person and how his movie is about a man and a question every person want the answer of – Godhood.

Will [The Black Saint] be another successful sequel? Hollywood had seen a large number of successful sequels but there were also quite a few duds. Check out our list of upcoming sequels.

His eyes looked through all the top articles that came up on one search of [The Black Saint]. Every top movie website had an article on the movie and there were even a few exclusives.

The marketing team had at least worked quite hard to promote the movie online and it was having effects.

"I was wrong to think that Granite films CEO is a cheapskate. He allocated almost 30 million dollars for the promotions."

Wade said, sitting next to Aiden. His expectations towards the CEO who was known to spend as little as possible was shattered.

"I guess he's confident since it's a sequel."

"Yes, he is. But there were also rumours that he liked the script and the final edit so much that he's going around telling people that this movie will be a huge hit."

"Good for him."

"Though, I won't say he's the only one being confident. You yourself are over confident."

Wade laughed. Since he had got to know the bet Aiden had made in the party, he was taking a jibe at him at every moment he got.

It wasn't only him. The bet had spreaded one way or another in the production company and Aiden had gotten quite a few strange looks because of that.

It seems like it has become a great topic of gossip and some people have even placed bets of their own on how much the movie is going to earn.

If Aiden thought about it, only Tom looked like he believed Aiden. The guy was rumbling about how he wanted to see people's faces after the lifetime collection came out.

"Okay, everyone, let's start the meeting."

A woman in a long shirt said as she turned her around and clapped her hand to get attention. Aiden was currently in a meeting called by the marketing team.

The woman was the marketing head.

As he had been a part of a lot of marketing strategies in his movies, the marketing team had called him to see if he had any good ideas.

"Until now, we have been successful in getting the word out about the movie online. According to reports, around 23 percent people are interested in watching the movie in the theatres. As we will get much more on site bookings, we are expecting a first day of 11-12 million dollars."

In her words, a few voices went up as people discussed the numbers that they were expecting.

It wasn't a bad number when they needed 100 million dollars to breakeven but it wasn't enough. There was no guarantee that the movie just won't die down after the weekend.

"It's already good for a R rated movie though."

"Yeah, last month, another R rated movie came out and it barely managed 2 million dollars opening."

"It being the sequel is helping us. The popularity of Kai is there too but we need to increase the public interest fast."

Aiden heard the whispers of people around him with a stern gaze. Until now, it didn't really seem like he was going to win the bet.

The woman who was hearing the opinions until now finally opened her mouth.

"So, does anyone have any ideas? We have focused a lot on online marketing for now but the ground marketing is missing. People aren't talking enough about the movie on ground level."

When she asked that question, several answers came out.

"We already have put on a lot of advertisements. There are billboards with the posters and other information about the movie. Should we increase it?"

"No, I think we should do some fan events for actors to meet the fans. Those types of events have been fairly successful in recent times."

"Didn't they mainly only work for franchise movies?"

"The actors we are working with have great images. We should focus on that."

Different people obviously have different opinions but the question was which suggestions should they go with? There was no guarantee which one was going to work.

It was then that one person suddenly said, "How about we change it a little and use a more old school strategy? A controversy."

The marketing team looked at an old man who had said that.

"What type of controversy and why do you think it will work?"

"Just this year, a movie worked just because the lead actress and the director had a cat fight. It was rumoured that it was fake but it made people talk about the movie. And in the end, it earned 40 million dollars at the box office on a budget of 20 million. Currently, no one is talking about our movie on its own. That's the problem."

The man blabbered on and Aiden focused on his words. Although the old man looked ordinary, the words coming out of his mouth made sense.

When the old man saw people looking at him, he continued.

"As for the type of controversy, that would be a bit of a problem until we could create one artificially. If it was a rom com, we could have had an affair between the leads."

The old man looked at Aiden and smiled. In his mind, he felt like the only affair Kai will be a part of would be with a gun or a bloody knife.

"It's a good idea but I doubt we should be able to create a good enough controversy out of nowhere. If we are going for some sort of fight, then the actors would have to cooperate."

The marketing head shook her head, glancing at Aiden and Wade. Getting actors to cooperate was an extremely hard thing.

Even if they agree, it is hard to say whether their agencies will agree. It was more so because most of the actors working on [The Black Saint] had genuinely good images.

No one would want to ruin it.

'A controversy sounds nice. Sadly, this time, I don't really have a lot of awful people around to pick fights with me. Anything fake won't look authentic.'

Aiden thought in his mind when suddenly something struck in his mind.

'Wait! Don't I already have a good enough controversy baked in the oven. I just need to take it out of it.'

His mind went towards the conversations he had heard in the morning. Staff members talking about the bet between him and Arno.

"I think I have an idea."

Aiden quickly said that.

"Let's use my bet with Arno Laurent."

"What?"

Everyone looked at him when he said. They all knew about the bet. A few people sitting realised what Aiden was trying to say while others were waiting for an explanation.

"No matter how ridiculous the bet is, it does sound interesting, right? Maybe it being ridiculous makes it more like something people would discuss. Didn't a lot of you use it as some sort of gossip yourself?"

Aiden squinted his eyes while saying that. A few people tried not to look at him and he continued.

"Imagine it as something that leaks out suddenly. The media companies are surely going to write articles by themselves on the topic while using headlines like 'Aiden Silvereye ludicrous bet with acclaimed commercial director Arno Laurent'. Seeing the bet, people would probably laugh but then they will talk about it, thinking it's a bit ridiculous. Why will he make a bet like that?"

The marketing team head's eyes widened hearing that.

"It will make people talk about the bet and subsequently, they will talk about the movie."

"Bingo!"

Aiden said and by each second, the idea looked more and more genius to people. Even if it failed, it would be seen as a harmless controversy.

It will ensure that no side comes out as the villain.

Though, there was one problem.

"What about Director Arno Laurent? Won't he be angry at us for using his name? It's not like he won't realise it."

To that question, Aiden simply smiled.

"Even if he gets angry, he will enjoy it. There's one thing that people don't know about him. The man craves attention. With the media writing articles about it and him being confident of winning, he won't see it as a nuisance."

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