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 353.Negative Publicity - Read Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood Chapter 353.Negative Publicity Online - All Page - FREEWN

The marketing team and Aiden planned a whole strategy for people to talk about the bet which will divert their attention to the movie.

They discussed how they were going to approach their plan and made measures in case things don't go right.

Marketing strategies were way more fickle than what people think. They will fail more often than not and that's why studios would often go for safer marketing for a movie rather than trying something new.

'Will it go well or not?'

'Won't it just become some sort of joke that people will forget about in a day?'

'We don't have any other plans. So, we need to give everything to this one.'

'If it fails, it fails. Let's not worry about the results right now.'

Those were the conversations happening in the marketing team when they were planning the whole strategy.

They were clearly nervous.

Even Aiden was a bit nervous as he didn't know if a bet would be interesting enough for people to talk about it. Negative or positive didn't matter as soon as people discussed the movie.

Any sort of publicity was nice for the movie.

After everything was ready, they leaked the whole bet that took place between Aiden and Arno.

For the first day, the response wasn't much and the marketing team felt like the plan had failed but they waited. And it did work.

After a while, a lot of articles came up talking about it.

Hollywood Weekly, LA times, Vanity Magazine… Every big media company wrote an article on it and soon, people were also talking about it.

Like Aiden had thought, it seemed like a fun topic for people to discuss. Like it had spreaded in the production company, it spread on the internet too.

Aiden Silvereye and Arno Laurent apparently made a bet on the box office potential of Aiden's next movie [The Black Saint]. Find out about what the bet is.

Will we see Aiden Silvereye in the next Aron Laurent movie? Here's what the latest internet gossip tells us.

A person who attended a private screening of [The Black Saint] gave us an interview on what happened after the screening. Aiden Silvereye challenge to Arno Laurent on his movie doing 500 million dollars at the box office.

Under these articles, there were a lot of people talking about it. Though, a lot of them were just taking jibes at Aiden for overconfidence.

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[56 million likes Egg: I needed to check if it was really Hollywood Weekly or some sort of parody news site. Damn! I wonder if we will really see Aiden in Arno's next movie free of cost just because he got too overconfident.]

[Spending money to finish my video game: I don't know how this leaked but this is truly hilarious. I really wonder how the conversation went that two successful celebrities ended up making such a bet. Both of them can't back out now no matter what.]

[You can't Cena: Never took Aiden for someone so overconfident. The first movie earned around 180 million dollars worldwide but it wasn't R-rated. I like his acting but even superhero movies are struggling to make that much money right now.]

[Dildo swaggins: If this is true, then I need the stuff Aiden is smoking. I lack confidence and my man has too much of it.]

[Edward Cocaine: My thoughts on this are that Aiden deliberately made the bet to lose so he could be in the next project of Arno. He's leaving no choice for a hugely successful commercial director to cast him. He's playing 4d chess.]

[My surname is Gaylord: I don't know if this is a joke or is it for real. Has anyone confirmed it yet other than the media? And I really don't understand how [The Black Saint] will earn 500 million dollars. I mean I'm going to see it but I will be surprised if it even did half of that number.]

[A Fluffy Cow: I never understood why Hollywood celebrities have this almost arrogant level of worldview. Aiden has done great movies but I doubt a dark thriller will do that much in the current landscape. A dog will learn how to speak English but that movie won't earn that much.]

Like that, there were over 4000 comments on a post like that and on other places, more and more people gave their opinion on this.

Hashtags such as #Aiden, #Arno, #Bet and #500 million even started trending on Sparrow. A lot of people were of the thought that Aiden had become too over confident and he was going to lose the bet.

Some even took sharp jibes at him, calling him narcissistic and dumb.

And the controversy got big like this.

But it did its job.

From nowhere, people were talking about [The Black Saint]. Social media activity was a proof of it and the first part of their marketing strategy was becoming a great success.

To add to that, reporters started trying to contact everyone who was in that private screening. Aiden and the rest of the cast for [The Black Saint] got tons of calls for an interview.

He was sure that this was surely going to come up in most press interviews that they were going to do.

Reporters even started asking Arno questions regarding the controversy, hoping to find out whether this was actually a thing or not. In an event that Arno was attending, a reporter asked.

"On the internet, there's a recent controversy on the bet that you made with Aiden Silvereye regarding his next movie. Is that true? Or false news?"

Arno was already privy to the controversy on the internet and didn't hesitate to answer on this topic.

"I don't think it's a controversy but the bet did take place. I guess now that everyone knows about it, it will be more fun when the results come out."

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Hearing this, the reporters were very excited. They quickly started asking more and more questions regarding the topic.

Seeing the heated response, Arno started talking more and more about the bet, what had happened between him and Aiden and his thoughts on [The Black Saint]. Soon, the event became a kind of a press conference.

In the end, Arno just said, "While I think [The Black Saint] is a great movie in its storytelling and would make waves, I doubt the commercial ability of the movie."

All his statements were enough to drive the controversy that the marketing team was also trying to keep afloat. More and more people talked about the bet and the movie like that.

Though, it was not wrong to say that Aiden's image was taking a hit here.

"Arno really loves the camera and attention."

Aiden remarked, looking at his phone. He was reading a few articles on things Arno had said to the media. He didn't want to comment on his words but it was achieving the effect he wanted.

"He sure does." Zavier, who was sitting next to him muttered. "He sometimes has cameos in his movies and he's always central during the promotions. He knows how to sell himself."

"Let's hope he gives more such interviews. We need more people talking about it."

"Yeah…"

Zavier's voice trailed and Aiden looked at him with confusion. There was something wrong with him.

"What?"

"Nothing. It's just the marketing strategy is becoming successful but the social media image about you is becoming worse. People think Arno is right and you are overconfident. This will affect you long term, even after [The Black Saint]. Aren't you worried?"

"I'm not, if I'm being honest."

Aiden straightforwardly said. He looked unfazed even with all the negative social media comments around him. People were labelling him as a guy who got too over confident due to the success he got.

"Why? If those things were said about me, it would be hard to even breathe."

Aiden smiled hearing that.

"Social media is fickle. It doesn't matter what they think today because it's easy to change their impression. I anticipated this when we were making the marketing strategy. I feel like it's a good risk to take, especially because it's working."

The marketing team had told him that the interest towards the movie had suddenly increased a lot.

It had come at his expense but he was okay with it. Just because of one thing.

"I know that the impression would change in the future. And even I admit that it's a big number that I made the bet on. Anyone will think it's stupid but it's because of that, people are interested. Now, they are focusing on us, the movie. If I actually won the bet, then all these comments would turn in an instant."

"What if you lost the bet?"

Zavier asked with a bit of hesitance in his throat.

"Then, I will live with a bit of embarrassment." Aiden smiled. "Though, I truly believe that I will win. After all, I'm doing my best to win. It will be more clear after the second and final stage of the marketing strategy."

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The first part of the marketing strategy was a big success. It got people to talk about the movie. Now, whenever someone searched about the movie, the articles about the bet would also come up.

The most important thing was that people were talking about it.

Even at ground level, one would hear conversations of the bet when they would see a movie poster. Advanced bookings for the movie were increasing.

Now, the marketing team was sure that the movie would open up to 13-15 million dollars.

That was an excellent number for a R-rated movie.

Now, Aiden was trying to amp it up a bit more.

A lot of people were merely spectators in the controversy. Although they were placing bets themselves on whether the movie would cross that number or not, they weren't obliged to go to the theatres.

But it was changing bit by bit as more and more promos came out from the marketing team. A lot of press interviews also happened but surprisingly, Aiden was missing from them.

Ray Hardy and Zavier attended most of them. It was because the marketing team already knew that the reporters would just ask questions about the bet from Aiden.

Rather than answering them in a press interview that only a small number of people would watch, they decided for Aiden to appear on 'The Rory Chambers Show'.

It was a talk show that a lot of the American public used to watch and the clips of it on MeTube would get tens of millions of views. Aiden had appeared on it before and had even hosted a small comedy segment.

So, he was very familiar with the setup and the host, Rory Chambers, was pretty respectful and good to work with.

The interview was a big part of the second stage of the marketing plan.

"In the last few weeks, a lot has happened in America and around the world. From a prominent world leader accidentally shitting on his pants to the outrage about a black mermaid, there's a lot of cover but before all that, we have a very special guest today whose movie is releasing next month. He had been part of several hugely successful movies in the past three years. Let's welcome, Aiden Silvereye."

Rory Chambers, a brown haired man, said with his iconic smile and Aiden appeared amidst cheers from the audience who was attending the live show.

He shook hands with Rory and sat down on the seat before the interview began.

"So, Aiden, [The Black Saint, people are hugely excited to watch you return as Kai. What do you feel about it?"

"I'm happy that they like me so much as a psychopath." Aiden said, causing a few in the audience to chuckle. "It's the first time I'm going to act in a sequel, so it's a great thing to continue a character's story and reveal it more to the audience."

The first ten minutes of the interview was generally more informative talk about the movie, Aiden's way of playing Kai and how the idea for a sequel had been conceived.

It was a pretty interesting talk as Aiden explained his fears towards returning as Kai and how the character just sucked him in.

It was still a tad too informative for a talk show and soon, Rory moved towards the more juicy bit that every studio audience wanted to listen to.

The bet.

"So, I heard this very interesting piece of news recently."

"Which one?"

"About your bet with Arno Laurent. What's the whole deal about it? There's already conspiracy theories on the internet about how you made it to play a part in Arno's next blockbuster."

Aiden smiled hearing that.

"It would be great to work with him but I would rather not use those sorts of methods to get a role. The bet is as genuine as it could be."

"So, you really believe your movie will cross the mark of 500 million dollars. Genuinely, you believe that with utmost confidence?"

Rory squinted his eyes at him and Aiden didn't hesitate for a second before nodding his head.

"Yes, I do believe that. I understand that people think I'm overestimating myself but I'm very optimistic. It's on me if I lose but I doubt that."

A few people in the crowd whispered among themselves hearing that. Some sentences were heard by Aiden of the people who were sitting in the front row.

"He's a lunatic. I really need his confidence though."

"I thought it was a joke but it's really true."

"I don't think even superhero movies find it easy to earn that much money with all the inflation."

"He's very overconfident. The Internet is gonna chew him alive after the box office results come out."

These types of whispers were something that Aiden had expected. He just focused on the interview at hand.

"What are you going to do if you lose?"

"Do a movie with Arno." Aiden said. "He did like me as a villain during the private screening."

"Villains are the hardest to play though."

"They are but I think I could do a good job. I'm trying my best."

As soon as Aiden said that, a voice came from the crowd.

"You aren't a good villain!"

This time, it wasn't a whisper but a loud shout that everyone in the studio could hear. Both Aiden and Rory turned their heads to look at the man who had shouted that.

'Who is he?'

Aiden thought in his mind.

The man who had shouted looked young, barely in college. At the same time, Aiden recognised that he was wearing clothes from reputed brands.

He had gotten a good eye after sponsoring rich brands.

"Boy, that shout was from you, right?"

Rory asked and at the same time, he looked towards the producer of the talk show that was standing besides a couple other staff members.

The producer shook his head, meaning that he had no idea who the young man was.

It was a random person.

"Yeah, I said that. I feel like Aiden isn't someone who could play a good villain."

He shouted on the top of his lungs.

When he said that, everyone in the studio looked at him. A staff member handed him a mic as they felt like things were becoming good enough for them to continue.

If this didn't get out of hand, then they would have good footage of themselves. Extra TRP without doing anything was always welcome.

"Why do you think so?" Rory asked, tilting his head.

"He just isn't the type. I saw [Black Saints] and he was overdoing a lot in it. Just wasn't upto the mark with his acting. I think he should focus more on other teenage roles in rom coms as those are right for him."

A few people gasped in the audience.

The young man had basically insulted Aiden's acting skills and to add to that, he referenced teenage roles that mostly were considered easier roles that don't need too much acting chops.

A lot of rom com actors also were told that they can't do anything more than that because they are not talented enough.

'He's not using any cuss words and trying to keep it civil but he's just dissing me. Is someone recording it?'

Aiden took a long walk around in the audience but didn't find any camera flashes. He was pretty sure that the guy was either a hater or was doing it for a clout.

The latter was a more possible case.

After all, the internet made everyone think that they could also be famous but never taught them the right way.

Anyway, now that it was happening, Aiden had to do something. Suddenly, an idea came to his mind as he looked at the young man who was talking with Rory Chambers.

"You don't think that I'm a good villain, right? Or a good actor?"

Aiden asked, looking the young man straight in the eye.

"Yes." The young man said without batting an eye.

"What's your name?"

"Thomas."

"So, Thomas, how about I try to prove to you that I'm a good enough actor to play a villain. Why don't you come on the stage?"

Thomas hesitated a bit when he heard that. He was expecting Aiden to say something rude or be angry at his comments but that hadn't happened.

Instead, he looked calm.

'He won't try to punch me or something right? No, that's better.'

Thomas said as he walked on the stage. Rory looked at Aiden as if asking what he was planning but Aiden just gave back a blank stare.

"I'm here."

"Yeah, sit down." Aiden gestured towards a seat. "There's not a lot of ways for me to prove that I'm a good actor as you probably already watched my movies. So, why don't I act out a scene from [The Black Saint] right here. Everyone can judge for themselves like that."

Aiden said and Thomas nodded after thinking for a bit.

In his mind, Aiden felt like it was the best place to use his new skill.

'Domination.'

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Thomas was a serial offender of sorts.

He was a short video creator who would often do weird things to stay in the limelight. That was his business model.

In the past, he had crashed celebrity parties, award show functions and done a lot of crazy things. It was safe to say that there wasn't much reason as to why he did that.

Doing something unexpected to celebrities with a lot of followers was just the way for him to get more views on the internet. It being right or wrong was never in his mind.

After all, more views meant more money and followers.

Currently, one of the most trending topics on the internet was Aiden and his bet with Arno.

Even in the content creator community, people were discussing who was going to win the bet between these two. Whether [The Black Saint] is really that good for Aiden to feel like it would earn that much.

When he had gotten to know that Aiden was going to appear in 'The Rory Chambers show', he knew that this was his chance.

So, Thomas had made a plan to disrupt his interview with Rory Chambers. In his mind, all of it was worth it even if he ended up in jail or banned from entering the talk show.

Originally, if Aiden had gotten angry with him, his plan would have succeeded.

Thomas was wearing a secret camera on him that was recording everything. So, he just needed a rash reaction from him.

The best scenario was still Aiden punching him like a certain black celebrity. He would be an internet sensation with people sympathising with him.

Thomas was half expecting that when Aiden called him up on the stage.

But the reality was very different.

"So, why don't I act out a scene from [The Black Saint] right here. Everyone can judge for themselves like that."

At first, Thomas wanted to reject it. But a huge cheer went up from the audience.

He looked at the people who seemed to be excited about the prospect. He was pretty sure that a lot of them were thinking that all this was staged.

'I don't have a choice now.'

Thomas thought in his mind and nodded towards Aiden.

"Okay, then sit down."

Aiden gestured towards the seat of Rory and the host quickly stepped away, giving way for Thomas to sit on it.

Aiden sat in front of him and took a deep breath.

"Don't be scared no matter what. This is just an act." Aiden said, looking straight at him and Thomas wanted to snort for a second.

"I won't be."

He wondered how one would be scared with just acting like this. At least, he was someone who would rarely get scared by even horror movies.

'He looks confident. Let's hope he can take it.'

Aiden thought and closed his eyes.

In the next second, he activated the skill 'Domination'. He had tried out the skill a couple of times before and had found out that he could direct it at one person or a lot of people depending on what he wants.

The power was more if he only directed it at one person.

A sharp and heavy aura filled with negative energy came out of Aiden suddenly, blind to everyone who was watching.

The aura went towards Thomas and suddenly, he felt like someone was grabbing his heart. He let out a surprised voice as Aiden looked at him, his black eyes staring into his soul.

In a second, sweat had started forming on his face.

Giving off the iconic smile of Kai, Aiden opened his mouth.

"Thomas, do you like the colour red?"

"Ah… yeah."

"I like it too. There's peace in it. Much sharper and brighter than other colours and it's easy to stand out wearing red. There's a reason why dead bodies look the best in a pool of dark, red blood."

Thomas gulped hearing that. Fear was on his face and his legs were suddenly shaking.

Aiden was speaking to him in a very soft voice but it looked like the most dangerous voice to him. The sharp aura enveloping him made it worse but the audience had no clue about it.

They were all mesmerised by Aiden's acting.

Only Rory who was still on the stage felt a different kind of pressure. But it wasn't at the same wavelength as Thomas who felt like he would pass out soon.

His whole body had started to shake now as Aiden continued his words.

"Imagine you are just laying down in your home in a pool of red. A knife plunged in your chest, going as deep as it could. What will you feel? Will you think that you have lived a good enough life or will you think that your life has been full of regrets?"

"I… don't know." Thomas managed to stutter out.

"Then, how about you think about who plunged the knife in you? Your wife? Your friend? Or was it just a random person? What do you think? Though, will it matter who killed you if you are already dead?"

Aiden asked, looking at him as innocent as he could. But that look was just creepy to Thomas.

He was already imagining a devil in front of him instead of Aiden. 'Domination' and Aiden's acting was too fatal to him.

"I'm…"

Thomas's words never left his mouth and he suddenly passed away from all the pressure. Rory, who was standing on the side, quickly caught him as Aiden quickly retracted the skill and all the pressure disappeared.

Thomas felt a pressure lift his chest and he got a bit better.

"Is he okay?"

Aiden asked as he quickly checked up on him.

"He's breathing. I will get a doctor to look at him." Rory said. "But going by how his legs were shaking, he passed out due to fear. He wasn't able to take your act."

Rory let out a sigh and wondered how big of a monster Aiden was. His portrayal was bone chilling and even he had felt it.

He wasn't surprised that Thomas had passed out.

'I should go and check out the movie.'

Rory thought in his mind. As a host, his job was only to interview people and although he liked movies, he wouldn't watch every movie that celebrities came to promote on his talk show.

But this time, Rory felt an urge to go check out [The Black Saint] on the first day of its release.

Apparently, most people in the crowd were also thinking the same.

"Man, that was chilling."

"I know right. I felt like I would pass out or run away too. I was genuinely feeling so scared. Who said that Aiden can't play a villain?"

"The one who said that already passed out."

"Let's go watch [The Black Saint]. I want to watch the movie if I get more of it."

"Yeah, it's been so long since I have seen a good, crazy villain on the screen. Let me check if there are tickets available."

"If this was all staged, then this is the perfect marketing I have seen of any movie. I got sold in an instant."

Although it was unexpected, luck favoured Aiden. Seeing the reactions around him, he quickly walked up to Rory.

"Can we have this in the episode? I don't want you to cut it out."

"I understand." Rory said, taking a look around. He understood where Aiden was coming from. "Though, even if I want to take it out, I doubt the producer will let me."

He laughed.

"These types of things are unexpected but they sometimes make the best part of an episode. Only an idiot won't let it broadcast."

After the shooting for the episode, Aiden didn't have much to do aside from a few more events where he promoted the movie.

Day by day, the interest in the movie was just increasing.

Aiden knew that after the broadcast of the next episode of 'The Rory Chambers show', the interest would blow up.

And exactly that happened.

No one was expecting it, so when the episode broadcasted a week before the release of the movie, a lot of people were shocked to see Aiden acting as Kai.

Thomas fainting was just cherry on top as it provided the best dramatic effect.

A lot of media articles came up right after the episode.

Thomas Benjamin, a serial crasher of celebrity events tried to do the same on the sets of 'The Rory Chambers show'. Unfortunately for him, things didn't end well for him.

Rory Chambers clarified that nothing was staged while talking about the last episode of his talk show. Said that Aiden is one of the best actors around and he just proved it.

The public interest in [The Black Saint] soars after the recent episode of 'The Rory Chambers show'. It's expected to garner a huge collection on the first day as the R-rated movie gears up to make history.

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A day before the release of [The Black Saint, the movie was still trending on social media platforms, especially Sparrow. Out of nowhere, the movie had managed to get a lot of interest.

A lack of other movie releases also contributed to it but it was no lie to say that the marketing strategy had been a huge hit for the marketing team.

Granite films were fully expecting that the movie would make good returns. Though, it was safe to assume that the number of 500 million dollars wasn't in their mind.

They have now started seeing it as Aiden's plan to promote the movie instead of something he said seriously.

It was strange but Aiden didn't try to clarify it and let them think whatever they wanted.

After all, the time for results was finally here.

On Sparrow, all the latest tweets about [The Black Saint] were about who was going to watch the movie. And a lot of people were talking positively about going to the theatres.

[Can I be Sparrow CEO: Who's going to go watch [The Black Saint] tomorrow. My wife heard that the movie has a bit of horror elements and got tickets. I'm hoping it's a good theater experience.]

[Hanging with my gnomies: I wasn't sold out on the movie until I watched last week's episode of 'The Rory Chambers show'. Man, I want to see more of Aiden as a villain. It was bone chilling in a good way.]

[Chris What's my Worth: I decided to get a ticket after that episode too. It was probably very effective as a high percentage of people came across it on TV and it later went viral on the internet.]

[Ray Hardy's girlfriend: Heh, I'm going because Ray is in it. I'm still unhappy he's not the focus of the sequel of his own franchise though but he's big hearted and had no problems. So, I will support the movie.]

[Chad Putin: I have made a special booking in the cinema with the generals to watch it. Kai is scary. The generals need to learn how to be scary just like me.]

[Puppy issues: I wanted to catch it on a streaming platform. My Zetflix account is very useless these days anyway but everyone around me is going to the theatre to watch it. So, I need to go too. Sad how human relationships work.]

[Video game leaker: I loved the first part and am just excited to go for Kai. I hope they go a bit comedic route with him when he's killing people as he always seems to talk very random things before killing others. I imagine him saying 'A heterosexual guy is gay because he likes someone who likes guys'.]

"What is the expected opening day figure for the movie?"

"Around 27-30 million dollars. It's going to rake in 100 million dollars in three days due to the weekend if the word of mouth is positive. Even if the movie falls hard on the second week, we are looking at 250-300 million dollars gross worldwide."

"We have a huge winner in our hands!"

Anthony McCarthy, the CEO of Granite films, shouted with a very excited tone in his voice. He found it hard to control himself and not dance on the spot.

Only because he felt like his respect among his employees would diminish if he showed that kind of behaviour, he calmed down.

"We should get gifts for the cast and the crew. And Aiden, who came up with the marketing strategy, I'm going to give him a great car. Do you know what kind of cars he likes? Lamborghini or Porsche?"

The CEO asked his assistant who quickly tried to tell him to wait a week more.

"CEO, you should wait till the movie is out of the theatres. A lot of the money would be taken by the theatre chains, you know." The female assistant shook her head.

"I know that well but we never had this kind of movie before. It's a gem. None of our movies have made this much before. After the success of [The Black Saint, we could try to expand more."

Granite films came to existence over ten years ago and it had been fairly successful but even then, it was not huge and there was risk of falling hard if they went for a big project.

[The Black Saint] was a big risk in the hands of the company but they were optimistic because it was a sequel. After its success, they could branch out more.

"CEO, how about we host a party after the movie's run is over. We could invite other bigshots too."

A bespectacled man said, looking at him. He hoped that the movie would really be a huge success and then, they could ask for bonuses.

"Yes, yes. Let's do that." Anthony said. "A 300 million dollar movie is something to show off. Give the first invitation to Arno Laurent. We have used his name a lot to promote the movie in a way."

"Yeah, we should definitely do it."

"He's been a lot of help indirectly."

"I always liked him as a director too."

Everyone nodded when they heard that. A lot of reporters had asked Arno about the bet and he had acted out like they had expected.

Due to his interviews, the movie was promoted a lot.

There were even rumours that Granite films had paid a lot for Arno to do the promotion for them. They were fake but many people in the industry actually believed it.

As Granite films employees were already in a celebratory mood while deciding who to send the invitations to and where to host the party, one of the employees said.

"What if he loses the bet though? I heard he had a lot of pride and would only come to the party if he won the bet."

At those words, few people laughed.

"Nah, the bet has been one-sided since it began."

"I know right. There's no way it will cross the 500 million dollar mark."

"The highest earning R-rated movie is 468 million dollars and that was the adaptation of one of the highest selling horror novels, so it's a bit far-fetched to believe that it could top that."

Even though it was their movie, the employees were being realistic and practical about its prospects.

It was then that the employee countered.

"No one expected it to even touch 200 million dollars a month ago. What I'm saying is that the box office is fickle and Aiden's luck on it has been superb."

Everyone quieted down hearing that. Gazes were exchanged between them as they thought about it.

Although it looked impossible, box office was truly fickle.

There was no doubt about it.

The only reason they were confident about 300 million dollars box office potential were the reviews from the private screening and advanced bookings that gave them confidence. But if the movie could earn 300 million, then 500 was still not out of reality.

Stranger things had happened at the box office before.

"If that actually happened, then we would make history."

Anthony said after a while, licking his lips. He was now actually thinking whether it would be the case or not.

"We will know what will be the conclusion soon."

[The Black Saint] is an upgrade on the first movie by all stretch. It's a piece of art that is hard to top. Although it took a different approach from the first movie, it was worth it as the movie was able to give a great character a great origin story. It truly makes you think about life and the society we live in.

-@Criticye.

Kai August is the best character of the year. The man's journey to sacrifice everything to reach the place of godhood told a strange tale about society and humans. It's hard to ignore the movie and although many people might think that it's too violent and dark, the movie would be very different without it.

-LA Times.

[The Black Saint] is one such movie that's going to be studied for years. It might not be the greatest movie ever but it's very close to perfection in what it tries to be. A movie that people need in the times that we live in. It explores the dark side of humanity perfectly and doesn't try to hide anything. Kai August is a very complex character portrayed with such nuance that it's hard to match. Aiden Silverye deserves a few awards for his portrayal. The man is truly left out of so many of them when he's one of the best actors in the world.

-The Hollywood Reporter.

Normally, reviews would come out a day or two before the release but for [The Black Saint, there were hardly any critic screenings or premiers.

The only screening was the private screening that Zavier hosted. It was because he wanted everyone, including the critics to watch it at the same time, in a packed theatre.

And it was safe to say that it was a good decision.

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Lisa Silvereye was someone who felt like the odd one in her family. Like someone who was so different from the others around her that she sometimes wondered how she had become like this.

Most of the people in her family were movie buffs, people who lived for stories and particularly movies. Even her mom was like that to a certain extent.

As for her, she only saw it as a form of entertainment and never went beyond it. She never sensed passion in it like her father and the allure of storytelling had passed her without touching her.

If a lot of people talk about a movie with her, she would watch it. Otherwise, she would rarely watch them.

It was completely different from her father who watched even bad movies and had played 20 year old games after knowing that they have an interesting story.

Her father was a very eccentric person and although those antics have calmed down a lot since he had aged, she still found herself unable to know what attracted him so much about movies.

He not only watched them. He knew most of the people working in any movie he would watch. He would talk about stories about those people like he knew them since childhood and even the process of how they would have shot a particular scene.

Lisa understood it as it was her father's previous job but she still was unable to have a proper conversation about him on movies as she never sensed the amount of passion that he did with movies.

To add to that, her cousin had become a big movie star. She was happy for him as she had seen him struggle, drive taxis to pay rent and eat in temples for free.

But somewhere, she saw the same passion in his eyes like her father. And that made her feel a bit disconnected to him.

Though, they still have a good relationship as he had hardly changed since becoming famous and she was comfortable enough with him to even mock him.

"Did you really make that bet?"

"Yes, I did."

"You have become stupid after becoming a big actor."

Lisa clicked her tongue as she looked at her cousin. He had aged nicely in the last few years and maybe because he had grown exponentially in his career but he gave off a mature vibe.

Though, his actions seemed childish to her.

"Heh, it's not stupid."

Her father, Uncle Sam, stopped the car and said. He gave his daughter a disapproving look and got out of the car.

"Actors should be proud and arrogant of their work. If they are not, then there's something wrong with them."

"That doesn't mean to do things like that. Now, Aiden had to work in a movie for free. What if it's a movie with a long shooting schedule of a year?"

Lisa said, making a pretty good point and he just shrugged.

"It won't come to that. You will see."

"If you say so."

As both of them bickered, Aiden pulled up his mask and glasses and completed his look with a cap. It was the first day of [The Black Saint] release and he was off from promoting it, so he was having a free day.

Uncle Sam wanted to watch [The Black Saint] and Lisa wanted to come along too, so he had gotten tickets and now, he was standing in the parking lot of a mall, ready to watch an afternoon show.

"You two should stop fighting. We are here to watch the movie. Let's focus on that."

Aiden said with a sigh.

Both of them nodded and they walked inside. The theatre was on the third floor, so they took the escalator to go up.

On the way, Lisa looked around suspiciously, like she was scared of something.

"What happened?" Aiden asked her.

"I'm just worried that someone is going to recognise you. There will be a lot of people who would be asking for autographs if they know you are here. I don't want a ruckus like that."

"I don't think so." Aiden lightly shook his head. "Celebrities often go to watch their own movies secretly and most of them are very used to hiding their faces. Moreover, people are mostly in groups in a mall and they would rarely focus on others."

She nodded and they reached the theatre and outside of it, there were a lot of people standing. A screening had just ended and a second one was going to start soon.

It seemed like people were very excited about the movie.

Lisa perked up her ears to listen to a few conversations.

"Did you hear from someone who watched the movie?"

"My friend watched the morning show and he's been blabbering about it since then. I guess it's a very good movie."

"Some reviews called it the best movie of the year."

"I think they are exaggerating. After all, you can't add too much in a movie about a serial killer that's never explored before."

"Yeah, but I'm very excited to see Aiden."

"Yeah, he's my favourite actor."

"I loved him as Kai in the first movie too."

Hearing all those things about her cousin, she felt a bit proud and looked at him.

"A lot of people like you."

"Yeah but they are here to see Kai, so I'm sure he has more fans than me."

"Aren't you two the same?"

Lisa raised her eyebrow. Someone being a fan of Kai automatically made him a fan of Aiden in her eyes.

"Not necessarily. Yes, I play him but he's different from me. He's a part of me yet he's his own self too. It's hard to explain but people would like Kai and not like me. It happens way more than you think, especially when a character gets too famous, it's actor suffers."

He spoke with the same passion that she was so familiar with. His eyes were shining as he explained.

'He seems to be in his own little world while talking about his character. Must be nice.'

She thought as they walked. Like Aiden had told her, people rarely looked at them despite Aiden dressing like that. They were all busy in their own little worlds.

There would be a glance or two but it was just that. No one seemed to earn harbour the thought the one who played Kai was among them.

As they sat down in the theatre, she asked her cousin.

"I heard it's a dark movie."

"Yeah, it's about violent things and about society."

"Did you get hurt while filming it?"

The question came to her mind as they talked. Uncle Sam chipped in at the moment.

"Didn't you get injured during [Agnas]? I heard about it."

"You did?" She asked.

"Yeah, I did. A small injury. Needed a day or two to fully heal. I was back on the set shortly. Nothing like that with this one. Though, there were a few incidents with some extras but it was nothing major."

He said and passed on the popcorn to her. The theatre had already filled to the brim and the movie was stroking. The logo of Granite films appeared as the opening credits started.

While watching it, Lisa wondered whether she would be able to go back on set after an injury right away. She was obviously not an actor but it was an interesting thought.

She knew that her answer would be no as she would try to rest as much as she could. Work was a burden in her mind that was necessary but she didn't like it.

Her definition of it was very different from Aiden or her father. Maybe that's why she felt lacking in their presence.

'I hope the movie is good.'

She thought in her mind as the first scene started. It was then that she heard a voice.

It was a couple sitting behind them. They were whispering something to each other but as they were sitting right behind her, she was able to hear it.

"You know my friend worked on the set of [The Black Saint]. He heard that Aiden pushed himself too much during the shooting that he would have to go out of the set to just breathe to calm himself down."

"What?"

"Yeah, he gave off a dangerous and crazy vibe in the whole shooting. And looked very troubled by the end of it. Some people were scared that he was going to get long term mental health issues due to portraying the role."

"Poor him but if it's really that, I'm pretty sure the movie will be good."

Her eyes widened a bit hearing the conversation and she looked at her cousin who was sitting besides her.

Did he really put his mental health on line for a movie? Knowing him, it might very well be the truth.

Even her father had mentioned that Aiden was giving his all for his next movie. But was it really worth it?

'Is his passion really that important that he could give up anything to make a good movie?'

She thought in her mind.

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Lisa was still wondering about her cousin when the movie began but given minutes in, she felt herself focusing more on the screen.

She knew that Aiden was very passionate about his craft but on the screen, she only saw Kai.

She had watched the first part, so she was familiar with the character. Still, she felt like Aiden's acting had improved a lot since the first part.

'Had he been trying to improve himself regularly? He became famous a few years ago but it seems like he had not gotten lazy.'

She felt like there was a different kind of sharpness to Kai this time. At the same time, there was a sense of vulnerability especially in the scenes that depicted the past of Kai.

The vulnerability was nowhere to be found in the parts where Kai was already dead and it was clear that the character had become something else after all this time.

When she noticed it, Lisa felt impressed.

It was another mark of her cousin's talent. Something she felt like she lacked.

As the movie progressed, it focused more on Kai's mentality and his state of mind. In a way, it was something that Lisa had also experienced.

Feeling discontent with the world and the hunch that something was lacking. That you are not chasing what you are supposed to chase.

A lot of others in the theatre seemed to think the same.

All of them looked to be in some sort of a trance as they watched the movie. With every unexpected scene, their expressions would change to shock before they focus on the movie again.

It wasn't a big experience movie but it seemed to have a certain effect on the audience.

Half an hour into the movie, Lisa had also joined them in a trance-like state.

It was because Kai before becoming a criminal was very much like her. A man with no purpose or passion and someone who was surviving.

One of the lines he said early on was something that she fully agreed with, "In this world, there are people who survive and those who live. The latter lives by making sure that the former only thinks about surviving."

It was a very powerful line and it showed a shift in Kai's thinking.

Halfway through the movie, she wondered something.

'It's weird that I have a lot of similarities with a psychopath.'

She looked at her cousin while thinking about that.

A part of her wondered whether he would understand her more because she was somehow similar to Kai. The thought only lasted a second before she turned her head towards the screen.

And she had to say that the next hour was one of the best experiences of her life. Even if she was following the story of a psychopath, chaos and anarchy was weirdly attractive to normal people.

It was because they have been shackled by society for their whole life that watching something like that was exhilarating.

A lot of people cheered at a scene where Kai killed his boss and they were mesmerized when Kai danced through a street because he found his purpose.

After that, it was just the journey of a guy who built himself in a way to become a god even after dying.

His every plan was genius and even though he acted like he was just spreading anarchy, everything was always in his control.

That's why, in the climax scene, when Kai finally became the god he always wanted to be, there was a scene of his cult members spreading chaos in his name and a person in a mask was watching them from the sidelines with the iconic smile of Kai.

Lisa knew that it was not as simple as Kai being alive. The last scene was more of a perception of the cult members that their god was with them.

'It was a pretty good movie.'

She thought as the credits started to roll. She had liked a movie after a long time and throughout it, she could feel that Aiden had given it his all.

Around them, other people also praised it.

"It was one of the best experiences I have had this year."

"Damn! I should watch it again. I feel like I missed a lot because time went by very fast."

"I really loved it too. People were right when they were labelling it as the best movie this year."

"I feel like this will be a cult movie in the coming years."

"The main lead wasn't crazy to be overconfident about the movie after all."

"I feel like I should cosplay as Kai for Halloween this year."

Smiles were all around Lisa as people began to walk out of the theatre, satisfied with the experience they had. Some even wanted a repeat of it.

It was then that she heard her father patting Aiden's shoulders.

"I actually believe that this movie could get 500 million dollars, Aiden." He said. "I'm very proud of you."

"That's the first time you have said that."

"Because you never did a movie like this till now. This is probably my favourite in your filmography."

They talked like that for a while before her father turned to her.

"How did you like it, Lisa?"

"It was good." She said without taking any time. "I liked it a lot."

Her eyes stayed on Aiden as she said that. He smiled towards her as they left the theatre.

Thankfully, no accident happened as they came out. No one recognised that Aiden was in the theatre watching the movie with them.

Lisa was glad about it as if someone had found out, she was sure that people have swarmed them for a long time going by how much they liked the movie.

They decided to have lunch at her father's restaurant and sat in the car. In the entire way, her father kept talking about the movie with Aiden and she chipped in from time to time.

It looked like she was in some thought of her own the entire way.

When they reached the restaurant, her father said, "I watched a good movie today. So, how about I cook you some seafood today? I think I have all the ingredients ready."

"Are you sure?"

Aiden asked as Uncle Sam rarely cooked but whenever he did, the food was excellent. Apparently, he had learned it to impress his aunt and it had worked too.

In his words, there's nothing better than a man who could cook in the woman's gaze.

Looking happy, Uncle Sam went to the kitchen to cook lunch, leaving Lisa and Aiden alone.

Now that they were alone, Aiden asked something that he was wondering for a while.

"Did you not like something in the movie? You seem to be thinking about something for a long time."

"No, it's not that." Lisa shook her head and hesitated as to how to talk about it. "It's just I felt a little jealous."

"Jealous? Of what?"

"You, your passion for acting and how you try to do everything for a role. I lack the sense of purpose that you have and watching the movie made me realise just that."

She said, looking a bit disappointed. Then, she added, "I even thought that I'm similar to Kai in the initial phases of the movie. Though, I won't make being a god a purpose."

Hearing that, Aiden widened his eyes a bit, taking in her words. He always knew that Lisa was very laid back but he never thought that she felt inferior to others because she lacked passion and purpose.

"I think you are better than Kai." He said, making Lisa confused.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that even if Kai seemed right in a lot of things, he had mental health issues and his life didn't have any empathy or kindness. His purpose was dark because of that and it appeals to the dark side in humans. You are better because you have good people around you and trust me, passion isn't everything in life."

Lisa clicked her tongue hearing that.

"It's easy for you to say that."

"Maybe it is but even with passion, I will eventually get tired. That's human. A passion might drive you but it doesn't mean everything."

Aiden recalled a conversation he had with Jeremy, the actor he worked with in [Sherlock of the Shadows].

He had asked him what role he would remember as the best part of his career when he eventually retires. The old man had answered immediately and it was something that Aiden had not really expected.

He had taken the name of a movie called [Gary Brook's Crazy Night]. It was an average rom com that had only done average business at the box office.

No one would remember it as one of Jeremy's highlight performances either but he told him that it was the best because he had the most fun with the cast while shooting. All other movies and roles, no matter how good, just didn't have great memories.

Humans remember fond memories in the end. Not the highest point of their careers.

"I feel like you should focus on little things. Look around and relax. Life moves too fast and you need to see the things around you that are there."

"So, you mean I don't need passion? Not even in movies like you?"

Lisa asked after hearing that.

"Yeah, you are not me. Nor are you like Uncle Sam. You are you and you should be happy. You can hate movies and I doubt Uncle Sam would be bothered. I won't say he won't be happy with you doing something in a creative field but it's not the point where it's a necessity. I'm pretty sure if there's something you are meant to do, you will find it."

Lisa was about to reply to that when Uncle Sam appeared from the kitchen.

"Any of you would like to give me a hand?"

He looked at the two of them and Lisa stood up to follow him inside the kitchen. She wanted to continue the conversation but she felt like it could be shifted for later.

Moreover, her father rarely cooked, so her helping him in the kitchen was a good addition to the little things that Aiden just mentioned.

In the end, she was happy that she got to watch a good movie today.

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Collections of [The Black Saint] were pretty shocking to everyone when they came out. A lot of people were expecting it to do good but even with those expectations, they have never thought of these types of numbers from the movie.

Released on Thursday, the movie's box office collection was a slap on the faces of people who believed that only superhero and big budget movies were capable of doing exponential business.

Day 1 - 34 million dollars.

Day 2 - 37 million dollars.

Day 3 - 46 million dollars.

Day 4 - 53 million dollars.

Day 5 - 33 million dollars.

Day 6 - 31 million dollars.

Day 7 - 29 million dollars

In a week, it earned 263 million dollars worldwide and although the movie fell by a lot after the weekend, it still was way above the expected mark.

263 million dollars was a figure that even Granite films weren't expecting and when they saw those numbers, a lot of them thought that it was fake.

It was only after a while that they were able to accept that the movie had already become a huge hit in a week and recovered every bit of its

cost. It was already making them a lot of profit.

It being a good movie helped the viral marketing campaign and just two days after release, a lot of people started cosplaying as Kai.

It became a Skygram trend, helping the movie do way more business as every college student and young adult felt pressured to watch the movie for them to be able to follow what was going on online.

Though, that wasn't the only reason.

According to data reports, the majority of the audience were well in their 30s and were corporate employees. Kai going through abuse at home and work was something that they connected with and his arc about purpose was universal.

After all, every human is sold some sort of purpose in life.

Industry insiders even wondered if the movie was going to break the record for the highest grossing R-rated movie as even with a 70 percent downfall in the second week, the movie was going to cross 350 million dollars and in the third and fourth week, it was expected to go well beyond 400 before eventually stopping down.

At that point, most people would have already watched the movie.

Some people were now taking Aiden's bet with Arno very seriously and not just a marketing gimmick.

After all, the movie was actually very close to 500 million dollars and it had already made half of it in the first week itself.

Though in the end, people shook off that possibility as the fall in the second and third week was going to take out the movie according to anyone who kept up with box office.

At most, it was going to touch the record for the highest grossing R-rated movie. There was also the threat of other movies releasing in [The Black Saint] third week.

500 million was still a figure that was too big. Even then, people were already lauding it as a great piece of cinema.

Zavier was being hailed as one of the greatest directors from the 2000s. And people were praising his ideas and views a lot regarding the movie.

[The Black Saint] was already hailed as one of the best from this year in Hollywood.

Though, that was also a result of the hype in the first week. It was inevitable that a few critics were going to not like the movie or talk about the effects it might have on society.

One of the critics from Vanity Magazine wrote, "Although [The Black Saint] is a great movie and a box office juggernaut going by its credentials, the movie shows a lot of things that might influence people in the wrong direction. There's already incidents of people shooting others after being inspired by gangsters in movies. We should really look at these types of movies with a squinted eye."

While the critic from Vanity Magazine talked about the bad impact of movies on society, another critic straight up disliked the movie.

The critic from The Box magazine wrote, "[The Black Saint] fails on a lot of its promises and is saved by a great performance from Aiden Silvereye who gave his career best in the role that seemed to be made only for him. But in every other aspect, the movie failed and seemed to try to be something philosophical while failing at it."

The critic only gave 2 stars out of 5 to the movie and fans of the movie didn't like it, calling the critic biased.

This was normal and even when Zavier read the negative reviews, he didn't feel bad as in his heart, he knew that he had given his all to the movie and had connected with the audience.

Like that, the second week for the movie came and it was then that something strange happened.

Day 8 - 21 million dollars

Day 9 - 17 million dollars

Day 10 - 24 million dollars

Day 11 - 25 million dollars

Day 12 - 13 million dollars

Day 13 - 12 million dollars

Day 14 - 11 million dollars

In the second week, the movie grossed 125 million dollars in the box office, taking the joint collection to 388 million dollars.

It was a very strange number and was beyond the expectations of a lot of analysts. The movie had fallen by around 50 percent which was way less than the usual 70 percent.

This shocked a lot of people who were keeping a close eye on the box office.

After all, it meant that the movie needed only 112 million dollars more to touch the 500 million dollar mark. And this was just the box office. The streaming and other deals were going to rake in more money.

But the focus was purely on box office because of the bet.

One of the analysts tweeted after the end of second week, "In the last decade, only a few movies are able to survive the fall in the second week. Most movies rarely do business in the second week but [The Black Saint] is an exception. If not for it being R-rated, I'm pretty sure it would have crossed the 1 billion mark. Teens these days like edgy stuff and this would have spread between them easily if not for the violence in the movie. The movie is already becoming a part of the internet pop culture. Now, the focus is on the third week and whether it would do more than 50 million dollar business."

The third week was the funeral for movies in modern day. Even with popular movies, it won't be lucrative as most people would have watched the movie already. The fourth week was the funeral and after that, new movies would take over, making a month old movie a fourth or fifth choice for the audience.

They would rarely be housefull after that and shows would start to end with a streaming deal coming in the next few months.

Everyone in Hollywood had a keen eye on the box office as the third week for the movie approached. Especially Arno Laurent who had become a bit scared of the potential of the movie.

He had already been proven wrong as [The Black Saint] was a big hit but the bet was what he focused on. He didn't want to be humiliated by losing it.

In the third week, the collections fell again.

Day 15 - 9 million dollars

Day 16 - 7 million dollars

Day 17 - 12 million dollars

Day 18 - 16 million dollars

Day 19 - 8 million dollars

Day 20 - 5 million dollars

Day 21 - 4 million dollars

The third week collection hung up to 61 million dollars, taking the total to 449 million dollars.

Just one million below the 450 million dollar mark. At this point, everyone was sure that the movie would break the record for the highest grossing R-rated movie in the world in the fourth week, getting a world record.

Granite films employees and CEOs were already dancing around by that time and giving out paid vacations to Hawaii.

But the main question was still whether the mark of 500 million would be crossed.

At this point, a lot of people were sure that the movie had lost its steam. A 20-30 million dollar fourth weekend awaited it and after that, a famous spy action franchise was going to make a return and people would watch that.

The movie might crawl up to the mark but there was no guarantee.

Like that, the end of the month arrived.

Day 22 - 3 million dollars

Day 23 - 2 million dollars

Day 24 - 7 million dollars

Day 25 - 9 million dollars

Day 26 - 2 million dollars

Day 27 - 1 million dollars

Day 28 - 2 million dollars

In the fourth week, the movie got 26 million dollars, taking the total to 475 million dollars. At this point, 25 million dollars were still left and although the record of highest grossing R-rated movie was broken, people were sure that it wouldn't cross 500 million dollars.

The lifetime verdict was estimated to be 490 million dollars, just short of the 500 million dollars figure. Arno was able to take a relaxed breath after the fourth week, thinking that he was safe.

But in the fifth week, something that no one expected happened.

/Dream note/

Merry Christmas to all of you.

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Movies were always hit by each other and that was true because no matter what, a movie would only get a gap of 2-3 weeks before another good movie appears on the market.

People were going to talk about that now and the movie that was already running would lose its business. Only in rare cases that a movie would top the North American box office for more than a month.

A lot of times good movies would actually lose a lot because another movie had released around it.

For example, a fantasy action franchise had released its sequel recently but a week after the release, an action comedy movie had been released.

The fantasy movie was praised by critics and everyone who watched it enjoyed it. But the business in the end was only 234 million dollars while the action comedy movie earned double of it.

Both the movies were good but the latter undoubtedly ate a lot of the business of the former. This was just one of the rules of the movie industry anywhere in the world.

[The Black Saint] had been expected to suffer from the same fate after the fourth week. It had still earned most of its collection, so it was lucky.

In its fifth week of running, a famous spy action franchise was making its return and the opening of it was estimated to be over a hundred million dollars.

There was already a large number of advance bookings done.

The effect was very clear in the fifth week as the collections for [The Black Saint] fell a lot.

Day 29 - 1 million dollars.

Day 30 - 700k dollars.

Day 31 - 2 million dollars.

Day 32 - 3 million dollars.

Day 34 - 800k dollars.

Day 35 - 500k dollars.

It made around 8 million dollars in the week, taking the collections to 483 million dollars.

Compared to it, the spy action thriller movie crossed 100 million dollars in the first week, making it the new king of the box office.

Like everyone had thought, the movie looked to end around 490 million dollars. But in the next week, the spy thriller suddenly lost most of its momentum.

It didn't have a 70 percent fall like most movies but a straight 90 percent fall. It was unheard and unseen when it comes to franchises but the clues of cracks were apparently evident in the first week too.

Although the spy action thriller promised to give a great experience, the critics bashed him and after the initial audience had watched it, the movie had no word of mouth to continue.

Some people were praising it, saying how it was a good movie for entertainment but for a lot of people, it wasn't something they have not seen before and the movie just felt lazy to them, especially with such a high budget.

So thanks to that, [The Black Saint] got an advantage. Most people have already watched the movie but in the sixth week of its running, with the action spy thriller already being bashed, a lot of people went back for a second watching.

Many also just wanted the movie to gross 500 million dollars as the bet was still in their minds. As the movie was great, Aiden's fans increased and they wanted him to win.

Apparently, his fangroup and followers started giving out free tickets to support the movie. They ran the hashtag #Roadto500million as they campaigned for it.

This led to a spike in numbers again in the sixth week.

Day 36 - 600k dollars

Day 37 - 400k dollars

Day 38 - 3 million dollars

Day 39 - 5 million dollars

Day 40 - 2 million dollars

Day 41 - 1 million dollars

Day 42 - 1 million dollars

The week got 13 million dollars out of the box office, making it stand at 496 million dollars, a number that was out of reach for a lot of people.

Due to Aiden's fans and a bit of luck, the movie was very close to making Aiden win the bet.

It was inevitable at this point and every single person was aware of it. This led to more eyeballs being set on the box office.

In the seventh week, the number was finally touched.

Day 43 - 700k dollars.

Day 44 - 500k dollars.

Day 45 - 1 million dollars.

Day 46 - 2 million dollars.

Day 47 - 400k dollars.

Day 48 - 250k dollars.

Day 49 - 150k dollars.

The movie got approx 7 million dollars on the seventh week of its running, taking the gross to 503 million dollars.

A number that was never thought of when the movie was first released. It was unprecedented but now, it was a reality.

[The Black Saint] became the highest grossing movie of Aiden till now and with it crossing the 500 million dollar mark, it had also won the bet.

Even though no one had believed him at first, Aiden had proved everyone wrong by winning the bet against Arno.

Everyone celebrated when the news came out that the movie grossed 500 million dollars but Aiden was actually unaware of it.

"One more chapter completed."

Aiden muttered as he looked at the screen in front of him. He had just completed the 360th chapter of his webnovel.

Almost three months after starting it, Aiden was very close to the last arc, planning to end the novel in two more months. The reception of it had grown a lot over the past month, especially after it crossed 100 chapters.

It now stood at the number 2 position in the whole website, getting a lot of visibility and because of that, his readerbase had expanded rapidly.

That had given him more motivation to write it.

'Let's take a break. I should cook some ramen.'

He thought and stood up from his chair and at that time, his eyes passed through a stack of scripts that were just sitting on the table, waiting for him to touch them.

Wade had sent them to him. Actually, he was sending him a few scripts every other day and he was barely able to read a few of them. Around 30 more scripts were left to read and these scripts ranged from action to dark comedy.

He was told to decide on a few of them for next year's lineup of his. But it was proving to be very hard, simply because there were too many options.

One day, he would like something else and the next day, he would feel like trying out something new.

Aiden has been in hot demand lately but as he was only focusing on his web novel and a few other things, he had barely gone out.

He had gotten tired of promotions and the usual celebrity life. He also needed to host some fan events, thanking people for watching [The Black Saint] after the third week where the movie had already been declared a big hit.

That's why after finishing everything, he had taken a break.

Deciding that he would read them after eating ramen, he went to the kitchen. It was then that his phone vibrated.

Someone had sent him a message. He took it out and saw that it was a random person. A journalist who he once interviewed with.

The guy had sent him a link to an article. Probably something that he had written. There was another text that simply said 'Congratulations'.

He wondered what was going on but thought that he would find his answer in the article. He clicked on it and the headline was enough to tell him the whole picture.

[The Black Saint] crossed 500 million dollars at the box office. The movie became the first to cross the mark this year and with that, Aiden Silvereye had won the bet he made with director Arno Laurent.

'It crossed the mark already…'

Aiden thought as he read the headline then the whole article. He had expected the movie to cross 500 million dollars but not so quickly.

He had thought that it would take one more month and after the release of the movie in other countries that didn't get a direct release, the movie would cross the mark. But it seems like even he had underestimated [The Black Saint].

As soon as he read the article, his phone started to ring. It was Wade. Before he could click on the answer button, another call came.

This time, it was from Zavier. After that, it was Ava and then, Uncle Sam.

Like that, calls and messages kept pouring in suddenly like a constant stream of rain. Aiden attended each and every call one by one, thanking everyone for the support.

Wade told him how his fans campaigned to get more people in the theatres. It was then that he realised how the movie had been able to get that much money so quickly.

He also got a message from someone he had not expected.

It was a message from Arno.

[Arno Laurent: I underestimated you.]

It was a very simple message but it seemed like he had accepted his defeat.

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[The Black Saint] emerged as the box office king once again as the movie grossed 500 million dollars in just two months.

With the recent success of [The Black Saint, Hollywood analysts predict that we might see more villain focused stories that would get more bloody and gory. It would soon be clear whether the movie was an exception or it had started a new trend of dark villain movies.

Arno Laurent reluctantly said that he's going to talk about [The Black Saint] in all of his promotional interviews for his next movie. Stated that he wasn't one to go back on his words and he had liked the movie a lot himself, so it won't be a big deal.

With the success of [The Black Saint, Aiden Silvereye had truly broken down all doors to enter the A-list category of actors.

Articles were coming up everyday after [The Black Saint] crossed 500 million dollars. The same publications had laughed at Aiden during the marketing for the movie and now the same companies were hyping him up.

Aiden was reading a few of these articles daily as Wade and Uncle Sam would often send them to him.

They were very happy for him to finally achieve something that not many actors had in the world.

But the article that he read with the most focus was the one which said that he was now an A-lister. It was an article by the LA Times, one of Hollywood's leading publications.

Although there were no written lists in Hollywood, an imaginary list was certainly a reality. A-listers were the actors who were the safest bet and had great box office pull.

If a studio wanted to do a big budget movie, the first thought they would have would be to sign an A-lister. Even if they have to pay the actor tens of millions, it was worth it because of the box office draw.

The list changes every few years as actors get old or change their filmography trajectory. New faces were rare in the A-list these days as it was too hard for an actor to be relevant in the times when the worth of an actor is going down and the worth of a character is moving up.

But there were exceptions and Aiden was one of them.

It took him a couple of days before it hit him that he was now an A-lister. It was because not a lot changed after the article but he noticed that people's perception about him certainly changed.

In the success party (It was actually the third success party as the CEO of Granite films had gone crazy in a good way) of [The Black Saint, too many studio executives from Big 6 studios, directors and other A-list actors that he had never met wanted to talk with him.

These studio executives and directors mostly didn't have a script idea for him, barring a few, and just wanted to meet him to form a connection for the time they got an idea.

As for the actors and actresses, some gave him advice on what to do now that he was at the starting of the peak while others asked him to join their cliques and groups.

He had to say that the advice he got was sometimes sincere and sometimes just straight up weird. One guy told him to get a vasectomy otherwise he was going to pay a lot in child support by sleeping around with models and other actresses.

The actor who said this had already assumed Aiden was a playboy or was going to be one.

Another actor who was a bit more sincere than him told him to not do any strong drugs and avoid superhero movies.

It was a bit unfamiliar for Aiden, not because he wasn't used to attention. He was used to attention now but this time, these people were looking at him as an equal.

Someone who had something special — Box office record and a proven connection with the audience.

All this also meant that the scripts he got increased but this time, the scripts increased in both numbers and budget.

A big 6 studio even offered him the lead role in a sci-fi mech action movie called [Armoured Wars]. The budget of it was a whopping 300 million dollars and Aiden only rejected it because the script felt weak to him.

In the last few days, he had a lot of meetings with different producers on projects face to face as they wanted to see him.

It seemed like there was a competition to nab the newest A-list actor for a project among the big studios.

According to one producer, one reason was also Aiden's age, which was not even 30 yet. He could still play a college student easily and was a great choice for a rom com or any movie that required a younger actor as the main character.

Most A-listers were above 40 and 50 at the moment and they often played married men or fathers, so Aiden was fresh in that regard.

It seemed like a few studios like Red Ant studios wanted to revive the rom com genre with a fresh take on the narrative. And Aiden was one of their first choices.

"You know I feel like I should retire right now?"

"Are you suddenly realising your age?"

"No, I just want to retire at my peak and there's nothing better than the actor I signed years ago by chance becoming one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. This is the golden period of my career and if I retire right now, then my legacy would look great."

Wade said as he drank his coffee. People around him gave him a strange look and went back to their work.

Aiden shook his head and took a sip out of his tea.

Currently, he was sitting in his office which had expanded in the last month. Jody and Wade had recruited more people to handle the work and the team was now of 20 people.

It was a gradual increase as his stature had become too big to handle for a small team.

It truly seemed like an office now and they were planning to move to a different place in a month. A bigger place that was closer to his apartment.

"Aiden, you have to see this."

A door opened and Tom suddenly walked in the lounge area with Sasha.

"What happened?" Wade asked, wondering if any problem had come up.

"It's nothing big. Just Arno in one of the promotional interviews for his next movie."

Hearing that, Aiden's interest was piqued and even Wade craned his neck to look at the mobile screen.

On the screen, Arno was in an interview and the interviewer was asking him about his movie but instead of talking about it, he went on a rant about [The Black Saint].

"Actually, after I made my movie, I realised that some parts of it are lacking because I watched [The Black Saint]. Have you watched it yet? It opened my eyes on what I could do to show more emotions. The movie is actually great…"

According to the rules of Aiden's bet, Arno had to talk for 10 minutes about [The Black Saint] in each of his interviews. And some of these interviews were extremely short.

Like this one was just 20 minutes, so he had to spend half the interview talking about [The Black Saint]. By the end of the video, Arno even looked like he had enough of it.

Frustration was clearly visible on his face.

"I feel bad for him but this is surely going to go into the internet hall of fame. Things rarely are dead on the internet and this is giving [The Black Saint] more push at the box office."

The movie was in its third month at the box office now and although a lot of theatres had taken it out, around 500 of them still were running it and it was getting decent business for a three month old movie.

"That reminds me. We need to sign at least two projects for the next year. This year, you only had one release and it's fine but you need to stamp your authority as an A-lister now."

Wade said, looking at Aiden. Tom and Sasha also followed suit. Most of the scripts had been read by Aiden and the final decision was his as to what type of a movie he was going to do.

Feeling a bit of pressure, Aiden felt like he won't be able to stay without a project for long.

Having no choice, he revealed his inner thoughts.

"It's not like I don't want to select a project. It's just I'm more worried about the box office than before now. I'm hanging on to the A-list for now but one flop and I'm going to fall back."

"That's why we need to select the best projects."

Wade said and before Aiden could reply, his phone started ringing.

He took it out and saw it was from Ava.

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Being an A-lister also came up with a lot of pressure. Aiden didn't see a path full of roses from here.

He was already walking on a path filled with thorns since the beginning. Now, he felt like a few demons were also flying above him, ready to take him down as soon as he made a mistake.

So, the pressure was way higher now.

He had just delivered the biggest hit of the year and his career but the question was what's next.

A lot of stars would falter here after giving a big hit, many of them would go on to give a few flops before landing another blockbuster. Or they might hang onto a role that became popular, doing a lot of sequels.

People might not remember actors but they always remember good and memorable characters.

But in the case of Aiden, there were no plans for Kai to make any return.

He was dead.

His story was over and none of his other characters had been so memorable that people would want to see them again and again.

So, his next project became even more important keeping that in mind.

He had read through a lot of scripts and had a couple of narrations by different directors but nothing really struck him as something that he had to do.

There was no feeling that this particular project would become iconic or at least do great at the box office because it provides something new.

He understood that too as most things have already been done to death. So, doing something new every time was not easy.

The strange thing with Aiden was that he had his skill to tell him which script was good and if he took the word of his skill, over half of the scripts that he saw were very good.

Most have a score that was above 70.

But Aiden had long since started to rely more on his senses. He just took the script score to know the quality of the movie as the score didn't mean the movie would be good at the box office.

The only movie idea that had struck him as something he should try was the rom com idea from Red Ant studios. Even then, he wasn't entirely sure.

That's why, when Ava texted him to meet to discuss a project, he didn't hesitate to go straight to her office.

"You came here extremely fast. Were you just waiting for my call?"

"I was free."

"I thought Hollywood's newest A-lister would be extremely busy. It seems like it's not true."

Ava said as Aiden took a seat. She had not seen him for a long time even though both of them lived in New York.

The last time was a screening for [The Black Saint] and after that, he had gotten too busy to contact her.

"If any of us is truly busy, it's you." Aiden said, looking at her. "I heard your stature in the company had increased due to recent successes."

Ava just smiled at that and after some minutes of small talk, they started talking about the main topic.

"So, what is this project you called me to talk about? Is this the one you told me before?"

"No, it's not." Ava gave a light smile to that and Aiden looked a bit disappointed. "It's still not a small project. Actually, it's pretty big."

Aiden looked in interest when Ava said that.

"What is it about?"

"You know of Hex?"

He thought about it for a second hearing the familiar word. It was a word that had originated from Germany and was normally used to refer to witchcraft.

But Ava was obviously using it in a different sense.

After a while, he finally recalled what it was.

"The famous novel by Mackie Mile. The author died while writing the last volume and his son finished it. The novel is very famous in talks as a lot of people wonder about what could have been if the novel was finished by the original author."

"Have you read it?"

"I did. It's an excellent adventure novel set in a pretty great world with a lot of original mythology."

It was actually one of the best works he had read in its genre. The writing is simple and easy to read — A reason for its popularity — and the storytelling is at its best with no dull moments.

The best thing about it was still the power system that used devices called hex.

"What of it?"

"It's been in development at our studio and was given the greenlight in the first quarter of the year."

Ava said and she could see that Aiden's interest in it was piqued. He knew the story of it and how it was a great novel to adapt. With so many fans of the novel still around, the movie would easily be a hit if they don't mess it up.

"Who's leading the project as the director?"

"Olio Fermen."

Aiden widened his eyes hearing that.

Olio Fermen was an Oscar winning director but he had not made a movie in years after scandals of a bad work environment surfaced.

Apparently, the man was a hassle to deal with and didn't like people interfering in his vision. He also pushed actors beyond their ability to get the best work out from them.

In one word, working with him was very toxic and although Aiden had never heard that he assaulted any actor, he had arguments in practically every one of his movie shootings.

There was a reason studios are hesitant to take him up and actors don't want to work with him.

"I really wonder if that's brave or stupid." Aiden muttered.

"He had a clear vision of what he wanted to do with the source material. He respects it a lot and you do know there's tons of individuals who look down on things that have an abundance of source material."

In Hollywood currently, a lot of writers have come under online hate after reports of them looking down on the novels and video games they were adapting.

Egos would come in the way and they would ruin it, trying to make something better when fans don't want that.

Many people feel like fanfic writers would do a better job at being true to the source material.

If you don't respect the source material, it's better if you don't make something out of it.

A popular fantasy novel's live action adaptation was ruined just because of this. And the writers even came out saying that they hated the novels and wanted to create something better.

"He already has a script?" Aiden raised an eyebrow.

"He completed it two years ago. It's not the first time he pitched his idea. Apparently, he tweaked it a lot after the project got the green light."

"So, you are the executive producer on it?"

When Aiden asked that, Ava shook her head. She seemed a bit hesitant for a moment before opening her mouth.

"The project is being developed under Alberto Dundley."

"The guy who opposed me a lot during the screening for [Action Hero] and looked at me like I had eloped with his wife."

Ava laughed and nodded her head. Alberto was that rude and bitter guy.

"He's close to Olio Fermen and only because of him, things were able to go ahead but he hates me. And because of that, he probably hates you too."

Aiden didn't have to ask about the reason behind that. Most people in the industry already knew that he and Ava were close, especially after the success of [Action Hero].

"It means he's surely not going to like it if I try to audition for the movie."

"Yes, he won't."

"And you want me to audition for it so you could indirectly get control on the production and keep Alberto in check."

That was Aiden's guess as he knew that Ava was extremely business minded on everything she sought to do.

But to his surprise, she looked at him with confusion.

"No, I think you are going in the wrong direction there."

"What?"

He tilted his head and Ava explained.

"I didn't call you here to get you to be a part of some scheme. I knew that you would be looking for good projects and thought that this might be the perfect one for you. I did it because we are friends."

Hearing that, Aiden wasn't able to say anything for a while. He realised that he had gotten too used to the schemes and complexity of Hollywood that he forgot that there were things outside of it.

"I'm sorry."

He immediately said when he realised his mistake.

"It's fine." Ava smiled. "Like I told you before, we are friends. I know that our relationship started as a way of helping each other but it's not entirely based on business right?"

"I know and thanks."

Aiden simply said that and the talk went ahead on the project.

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After the meeting with Ava, Aiden spent all his time trying to find more about Hex. He had read the book a long time ago and wasn't sure if he remembered everything well.

Though, he still remembered that the novel was extremely popular in most of Europe and America. It was even translated into 13 languages.

When he read it again, Aiden realised why the novel had been so special.

The first striking thing was how easy it was to read. The words were simple, enough to make it seem like the author has a limited vocabulary.

But when they matched with a butter-like flow, a magical sensation was created. The fact that even those who never read a book could read it helped grow the popularity a lot.

But that was the only simple thing about the book.

The characters and the world were very complex.

It was a world that was flourishing into a scientific age but the influence of gods and magic was still there, creating a weird synergy that formed the core of the novel.

The most complex thing in the book was still the power system. It was simple yet there were complex mechanisms. There was magic and there were cyborgs like humans.

While reading it, Aiden kept imagining it in the form of a movie in his head. And he wondered how a 2 hour movie would go. If it tries to tell the story of the whole novel, then it would be a disaster.

Even if it goes like one volume per movie, a lot of arcs and storylines would be left out. After all, the average length of one volume in the series was 900 pages.

That was a very big novel.

Aiden felt like Hex would be way better as a series. It was that he was not able to see it as a good movie due to how complex it was.

An average reader might not understand the hidden symbolism and references but those were the first things that he noticed.

'I don't know if Olio Fermen would be able to do justice to this.'

He thought in his mind and the next thing he did was to go through the entirety of Olio's filmography — A total of 19 movies.

It took him a whole week to go through all of them. Some he had watched before while he had no idea about the others. He even saw short films directed by him.

Even after watching them, he wasn't sure if Olio could do justice. In the first place, the guy had only directed one fantasy movie before and it was very simple — A story about a cultist forming its own religion in the dark ages.

Aiden doubted whether he would be able to truly helm the project.

All this research led him back to the starting point. He had a couple of discussions with Wade about it too.

"So, you won't even go for Hex?"

"I would like to see the script for it first but I really doubt whether the movie would be good. I just don't want to be a part of a movie that might be remembered for failing a beloved novel."

"I think you are just too critical. It will start to harm you if you are not careful."

That was Wade's opinion when Aiden talked to him. He kept thinking of his words for a while as it was true that he was thinking much more before selecting a project.

Even when something caught his eye, he wasn't signing it straight away and was instead worrying about too many different things.

It was because he wanted to select a perfect project for his next movie.

A project that would do good at the box office no matter what.

But his luck wasn't really helping him. Or was he really just harming himself like Wade said?

"Who is it?"

"Is it a celebrity? Why is everyone clamoring for that car?"

"Can't you see? That's a Porsche."

"It's someone big."

"Hey, it's Aiden Silvereye!"

"What the heck? Why is an A-lister here? I thought it was a pretty small budget movie."

"Maybe he knows the producer or the director."

"Let me take the photo."

People clammered to the car like zombies as Aiden struggled to get inside. Shouts asking him to lower the window echoed out but he didn't do it.

It just wasn't safe with so many people around.

The paparazzi hadn't expected a star like him to be present at the screening of a small budget movie by a second tier studio. It looked like even the security was surprised as they struggled to get the paparazzi off the car.

It was the first time Aiden was driving his new car that was gifted by Granite films CEO to an event and he was without Wade or Tom too.

He got to experience how much a hassle paparazzi could be. Finding a good spot to park his car, he got out and was met with a lot of camera flashes.

"Aiden, the lead actress of the movie once said that she's a big fan of yours. Are you here because of her? Are you two dating?"

"How do you feel about [The Black Saint] becoming the highest grosser of the year?"

"What's your thoughts on your next projects? Give us something."

The paparazzi kept asking him various questions and it was only after the security personnel arrived that he was escorted inside the theatre.

After giving autographs to the security, Aiden walked inside. Suddenly, he saw a group of people walking towards him.

A big man with a dad bod, another guy in a suit with long hair and a woman whose cleavage was half visible for some reason.

"Hello, I didn't know you would be here." The man with the dad bod said.

"I was invited."

"Did the producer invite you? I heard he knew pretty famous people but I thought it was an empty rumour."

The man muttered to himself as he shook Aiden's hand. The guy with long hair also put out his hand to greet him but before he could do it, the woman shifted extremely close to Aiden.

It was to a point where her breasts were sticking to him. No, it looked like she deliberately wanted to do that.

The guy with long hair gritted his teeth seeing that.

"I'm Alica. I'm the lead in this movie. You must have seen the poster."

"Yes, I did."

"Actually, I'm a huge fan of yours. Do you think we could talk for a while after the screening? I wanted to get tips from you about acting."

Although she said that, her eyes seemed to tell a different picture. Aiden took a deep breath and stepped away from her before opening his mouth.

"Actually, the producer didn't call me here. I don't know him."

"Then?"

"I'm here because my friend is in the movie. He invited me here."

As he said that, his eyes looked behind the man with the dad bod. A person was standing there.

"There he is."

All three of them turned around when Aiden said that and a shocked expression appeared on their faces.

'He? How the hell does he know an A-lister?'

They all simultaneously thought and for a second, they even wondered if Aiden had mistaken the person but soon, they saw him hug the guy and walk with him inside.

Seeing that, the lead actress who was trying to seduce Aiden earlier couldn't help but mutter.

"I should have gotten close to Harley."

The person Aiden had come to meet was Harley Martin.

"I didn't expect you to really come to the screening."

"I was free."

"Still, thank you. People are now looking at me in a new light thanks to you."

Harley said as he looked around. They were sitting at the back but a lot of people were looking towards him. Eyes of admiration were directed towards Aiden while people were whispering looking at Harley.

All of them were wondering how he knew Aiden and what their relationship was.

"It won't be any trouble right?" Aiden asked. "You are probably going to get bombarded by people wanting to form connections. In better words, they would try to use you."

"I know but the shooting is over. I don't plan to meet the director or any actors after this."

"You didn't make any friends, it seems."

"These people are going to do me more harm than good."

Harley simply said that.

His stature had risen compared to the time he had first Aiden. He was still not a big actor but after the streaming movie with Omar, he had started getting small roles in indie and small budget movies.

A few of them were good while in others, they simply needed an average actor. Good thing was that he was able to live somehow by doing these movies.

Though, people rarely tried to get close to him as he was without any agent and no one thought he had a bright future despite how good he was at acting.

"It's been so long since I have seen you acting. I'm excited to know how much you have improved."

Aiden said as the screening was about to start.

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Aiden hadn't seen Harley in a long time but he knew that he was working extremely hard on his craft, especially because now he was getting more and more roles.

No matter how small or lacking they seem, they were still roles.

Like how only rich people could say 'Money doesn't matter', only established actors could stay without active work. For people like Harley, they need to take whatever comes in their way.

Quality was the best for him right now and maybe because of that, he wasn't really confident that Aiden would like the movie when it began.

The movie was about a chef who was getting out of a toxic marriage and trying to juggle between her career and personal life. While doing that, she meets the male lead who tells her to use her adversity as a way to change things and start his own restaurant.

The long haired guy was playing the male lead. Harley was actually playing the role of her abusive husband.

He had gotten the role because the director thought he looked scary but not too overbearing. A perfect mix of ugly and handsome.

After the movie ended, Harley looked at Aiden, wondering what his expression would be and to his surprise, he looked impressed.

"You like it?"

"The movie is very much a slow burn but it's good. It's rare to see good simple movies in this age. Though, did they just give you a blank script for your role?"

Aiden asked and Harley smiled.

"They didn't but what was given was not much."

"The character looks very one dimensional because of that. Your acting was pretty great as usual but it could be way better if they have made the character more than just a guy who's always angry and violent without any reason."

"Well, the director wanted to focus on the leads only."

Harley shrugged his shoulders and they discussed a bit more till more and more started to approach him. Especially the director and the main actors.

They seemed eager to impress Aiden and although he was able to see through them, he still tried to talk to them nicely.

After all, it was way better to leave a good impression than a bad one. He had also liked the movie.

Knowing that it would be difficult to leave the longer he stayed, Aiden excused himself and left with Harley in his car who also didn't want to be there.

The production team for the movie didn't need him for the marketing, so he doubted he would wear them again anyway. Both of them decided to head to a restaurant to talk in peace.

Aiden had noticed that Harley was progressing extremely fast in his acting skill and he was curious as to how he was doing it. Was it just talent? Or something else? Aiden wanted more insight about it.

But when they were in the car, Harley suddenly saw the scripts that were in the backseat of the car.

"Are they screenplays for movies? Why are they here?"

"Well, I am reading a lot of them right now and I keep a copy in a car, so I can go through them when stuck in traffic."

"Can I read them?"

Aiden nodded as he took a turn.

Harley picked out one of the scripts randomly and took a deep breath, like he was trying to smell their scent. People would often do that for novels but it was the first time Aiden had seen someone do it for a script.

"It's fresh."

He muttered and turned a page of it. Silence hung in the car after that as Harley just focused on the script, reading each page with too much focus.

It was akin to a warrior focusing on his sword training. At least Aiden got that image in his mind seeing him like this.

"Are you going to do this movie?"

"No, I won't."

"That's a bummer. It's very interesting."

Harley said and Aiden looked at him with a bit of confusion. His eyes turned towards the title that was written on the front of the script.

It was called [Sword Ghosts, an action movie about an American finding himself in the ancient period of Japan. It was a pretty, fun premise and the Japanese history in it was on point as the writer had lived there for a long time.

But Aiden had rejected it because the director's previous movies had not worked. Even though he was an action director, the action in his movies always seemed lacking.

"The premise is interesting but the director isn't really great. I rejected it because of that. I don't think he would have great ideas to add and implement in the script."

Aiden said as a matter of fact.

"The meeting with the director didn't satisfy you."

"I didn't have a meeting with him."

"Then, how do you know if his ideas won't satisfy you?"

Harley asked a very simple question. A genuine question that came in his mind and Aiden wasn't able to answer it.

He stopped the car on the side of the road and looked at him.

"Why did you stop the car? Did I say anything wrong?"

"No, it's just that your words reminded me of someone."

Harley's question had immediately reminded him of what Wade had told him. That he was being too critical of everything.

At that time, Aiden had just ignored it but now that Harley had said something along the same wavelength, he wondered if that was really the case.

"Tell me one thing." Aiden asked after thinking for a bit.

"Would you do that movie if someone offered you the lead role?"

"Obviously. I will be an idiot if I don't. I will even do it for free."

"Now, let me add to that question. What if you became an A-lister and someone offered you this movie? Then, will you do it?"

Harley just thought about the question for a moment. He could guess that Aiden was trying to achieve something by asking him these questions but he didn't know what.

Still, he kept going.

"I probably will." He said after a while. "I mean I don't know how it is to feel like an A-lister but this is a good script. I like the idea. I will probably do it."

"Even if the movie fails at the box office."

Aiden asked and Harley looked at him strangely before laughing.

"I don't think it's my job to worry about that. My job is acting and making sure the movie is in its best possible shape. Yes, there's a responsibility as movies need to work because producers sell it on actors and directors. But I feel like there's just too many factors that make a movie successful. There's no fixed formula in the industry for a reason."

Aiden took in all those words and blinked his eyes.

"So it's fine even if a movie flopped?"

"Well, it's never fine." He smiled. "As an actor, you want every movie of yours to work no matter what role you are doing. There's a connection with the movie but it's just not realistic enough. I feel like we should not think about the box office. At least I won't even if I become an A-lister."

Aiden gulped his saliva hearing that. Every second, he felt like a layer inside of him was breaking. It was hard to explain but he felt like he was going to make a grave mistake and Harley's words were just making him realise that.

"One last question."

"Ask."

"Your movie flopped and you again slid down from the A-list. Will you accept something like that?"

This was a major fear of Aiden when he was going through projects for his next work. The fear of failing.

"That would be very unfortunate." Harley muttered. "But I sincerely believe that if I did something once, I can do it again and this time, I can do it better. So, I made it to the A-list once, I will do it again if I fall down."

Silence hung in the car for a few minutes as Harley said.

'If I can do it once, I can do it again.'

Aiden repeated those lines in his head several times before he took a deep breath and leaned against his seat.

He felt like something heavy had just been lifted from his heart.

"Thanks."

He said, looking at Harley.

"Why?"

"You kind of helped me out. I was going in a wrong path that would have made me a coward. You helped pull me away from it."

Harley was confused hearing that but he didn't ask further about it. He just made a few guesses in his mind and felt like it was not his place to ask.

Aiden started the car again, a new excitement in his heart. He felt like he should read the scripts in the back of his car again.

This time, with the eyes of an actor and not an A-lister.

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"So, it's confirmed that we are signing this?"

"Yes."

"What made you change your mind?"

Wade looked strangely at Aiden and tilted his head. In just a day, he seemed different. Though, he wasn't able to pinpoint how.

He just felt like he showed more shades of the person he had met three years ago.

"I like the story enough to not worry about the box office. I read it again and realised that the only reason I rejected it was because I wasn't sure of the box office."

Aiden had read the scripts again and this time, he liked quite a few of them. Though, he only selected the one he felt was the best.

"Well, this movie will either be a huge box office hit or a major commercial flop. I don't see two ways around it."

Wade said as he looked down on the script Aiden had selected.

It was a movie that didn't have an official title yet and was only called 'Project Dream'. It was the ambitious rom com project offered to him by Red Ant studios.

More than a normal rom com, it was filled with an intricately made world and a heartfelt story in its core.

Red Ant had a habit of doing things that people say are out of trend or genres that won't work. They made western cowboy movies in the era of superhero movies and gangster movies in the era of rom coms.

Some failed while some were unexpected hits. Now, they are trying to do a rom-com, saying that they don't agree with the notion that people won't pay to watch a romcom in the theatre.

As Aiden had decided to go with this project, it would be very interesting to see if it will be a flop or a hit.

"Well, with this project, we will have a lot of time on our hands. Red Ant isn't thinking of starting the shooting till September next year. They already have a busy schedule going ahead."

"Yeah, their lineup is already pretty packed for next year."

Every studio ran differently. Indie studios would normally work on one or two movies only as that would be their capacity. While big studios, especially the Big 6 worked on several things at the same time.

Some even have projects that are being developed for years.

Red Ant also had a lot of projects filled up in their tally. Though most of them were from small projects or investments in streaming projects.

If he looked at it practically, 'Project Dream' was them trying to do something different on a bigger scale.

"Currently, let's see if you can get an audition. Though, I doubt you will require it as you are the most popular actor in the age range they are going for. With your track record and just the goodwill among the audience, they are going to sign you up as soon as possible and get the marketing around you."

Wade said as he pulled out his phone and typed something in. Probably a note about a meeting with Red Ant studios producers.

Then, he looked at Aiden and asked.

"What will be your other project? We decided to go with two for the time being right?"

His logic was basically that Aiden should sign as many projects as he could now that he was hot in the industry. But Aiden had only agreed to do 2, going for quality over quantity.

"I have been going through a few scripts. Haven't decided yet."

"What about Hex adaption? I thought you would be interested in it now."

"I'm but again, I need to see the script."

Aiden said. He didn't want to decide anything without a script.

But Wade shook his head.

"I actually tried to get it but they are very secretive about it. They are excited about your interest in it but they want you to audition first. You know like you used to do back when you were a rookie."

"Yeah, I know. Makes me a bit apprehensive."

"I understand that. I will see what I can do. I heard the executive producer is the guy who opposed you in the screening of [Action Hero]. Heard guy's an egomaniac."

Wade sighed. It was always troublesome if the producer didn't like any actor. Professionals would still work with each other but Alberto was known to have actors that were close to him and would only give them roles.

"It's fine even if I didn't get the role. Let's just try it."

"Okay."

Wade nodded and Aiden and him talked a bit more before ending the meeting.

It was already December and another year was coming to an end. Aiden hoped the next year would be as good as this one.

Though, not everything was over in this year.

A door opened and a female secretary walked in and looked at the man who was seated in the chair. Documents were all around him and he was slowly reading them.

"Sir."

He raised his head hearing that and looked at his secretary.

"I got a call from the agent of Aiden Silvereye. Apparently, he's very interested in having a meeting in regards to Hex."

"He's still interested?"

"Going by it, yes."

The secretary looked at her boss, Alberto Dundley and he laughed out loud. Leaning forward, he stopped his laughter and his eyes grew a bit sharp.

"He's a cunning guy. Even though he rose to prominence very quickly, most of his projects are not sequels. They ended with the first movie. I heard there's no plan to take Kai forward in any shape or form, so he's lacking characters he could play for a long time. Hex is a great bet to get that as we are developing it as a franchise."

Alberto muttered. There was only one actor who was able to be at the top without using sequels and that guy was extremely lucky with several blockbusters early in his career.

Times have changed a lot since then and no one could do that in this age.

"So, should I reject him?"

His secretary asked and Alberto thought for a bit before shaking his head.

"No, I will meet him. I feel like it will be an interesting meeting. He's very close to Ava, so I'm pretty sure she told him about the project."

Alberto said before telling his secretary to get a meeting with Aiden after two weeks. He didn't want to meet him straightaway and wanted to make him wait for a while.

'I felt humiliated when [Action Hero] was released.'

During that time, he was the only one rejecting it and when it had become an unexpected hit, he had heard a lot of sharp words.

No one said it in front of him but he was aware of what people were talking about.

Because of him, the company was about to lose a big movie.

Ava had used the chance to spread rumours about how his eye for movies was dwindling with age and people were wondering if this was actually the case as a few other movies under him had flopped recently.

The only reason he was meeting Aiden was because the majority of his anger was towards Ava. And he felt like Aiden was someone useful.

'He at least deserves one meeting.'

In this year, Aiden had done a lot but the majority of his time was spent on [The Black Saint] and Kai. The other major thing was his web novel which was a new break for him and had helped him tremendously.

But there was one major thing.

It was his investment.

Although it happened at the end of last year, Aiden had invested in something big.

A game that he felt would be a big hit.

Now that he thought about it, it was a bit of an impulsive decision to invest in it and work on a part of the story for the game.

Actually, the major framework of the game God's World was his. The opening story and how it would progress, he had discussed that a lot, on calls and texts with Cory Daniels, the director of the game.

It had been a year and a half since then and the game development was proceeding rapidly. Though, it would still take two more years before completion.

But they were now ready to show what they had made till now.

Normally, game companies would reveal footage or trailers of their games 2-3 years before the launch. Sometimes more than that.

It was because game development was a very long process and the interest of investors are maintained if the public reception is good.

It was also a way to make hype for the game.

Cory and Aiden were also going to follow it.

That's why, Silver Games were going to show a demo of their first game on the eve of The Game awards.

A demo that had been made with a lot of sweat and love.

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The Game awards was a major event at the end of the year for all gaming companies and fans. It was the night when the Game of the Year would be announced.

A prestigious award that every game wants to get.

But the major attraction of the event was actually not the different types of awards or which game would be crowned the best game of the year.

The major attraction were the game announcements that would be made every year. Aside from that, there would also be footage from the games that had already been announced.

With gaming becoming a huge media and entertainment industry, getting billions and billions of dollars revenue everyday, more and more companies have started taking a step into it.

That had increased the amount of games that were being made by a lot.

Though, only major companies were able to announce their games at the game awards and it cost a lot for an indie developer to do it.

Silver Games were able to do it because Cory was well connected with everyone in the gaming industry. Actually, his next game has already been talked about in whispers among the gaming insiders.

Even a lot of fans were aware that he was making something. Though they had no idea what it was.

Tonight, it was going to be the major reveal.

"You know I was very proud when [The Black Saint] made over 500 million dollars at the box office. Probably the proudest I felt. But today, you have done something that has topped it. I don't think I would be this proud even if you won an Oscar."

"Uncle, I got you tickets for The Game awards. It's certainly not bigger than an Oscar."

"Not just tickets. You are also going to be on the stage. I never knew you were involved in a game with Cory Daniels!"

Uncle Sam said excitedly. Seeing his behaviour, he looked like a kid who was going to a carnival for the first time.

He had already told Aiden to get autographs from Cory Daniels and some members of his team. He also seemed ready to bother a few big game developers at the event for photos and autographs.

Surprisingly, he hadn't asked about the game Aiden was going to reveal, saying he would rather wait for it to watch at the event.

Wade smiled from the front of the car seeing his behaviour and after half an hour, they were finally at the game awards.

Although not as much as any events related to Hollywood, there was a good amount of media reporters present.

All of them got excited seeing Aiden there and it was only after a few minutes, they were let in by the security.

"I will go inside and sit with Sam. They said it will go live in half an hour. Go backstage and find Cory, so you can be ready for the announcement."

"They are only going to do it in the second half of the show. During major announcements, I will go talk to him."

Aiden said and made his way through the crowd to reach the corridors that were only given to the gaming studio employees and other prominent people.

He quickly found out that the room was allocated to Silver games and walked inside.

Cory was already there with a few other people. Aiden recognised them as developers and other employees.

"Aiden, you are here."

Cory said as Aiden walked close.

"How's everything going? We don't have any problems right?"

"No, we won't have any problems." Cory said with a smile. "This is just a demo to show a little bit of gameplay and the world. We have already tested it and even the host, John Knightley, was excited about it. I let him play the demo and he was very impressed and allocated the announcement among the big awards."

"That's great."

Normally, small and indie games would start the event followed by footage from games that are already announced. Only after that the major announcements would come in and these were the ones that the fans would be waiting for.

"So, is your uncle here?"

Cory asked suddenly.

"Yes, he's here."

"You have not told him anything right?"

"Nope. He's going to get a good show."

Cory shook his head hearing that and put on a big smile.

"Not only him. Everyone would get a good show tonight."

A huge cheer went up in the crowd.

A man with brown hair looked down at the people clapping and cheering. Then, he looked at the man with a moustache who had just given a speech about his award.

He had won the award for Best Narrative for his game The Birds that Roam the Sky.

"We all knew that it was very easy to guess who's going to win the Best Narrative today. After all, there's no other game that came close to The Birds that Roam the Sky, a great action adventure that sees you walking on mystical lands. Now, the next item on our menu is special."

John Knightley said as the man with the moustache left the stage. The game developers from that studio were going to have a great sleep tonight as they have gotten one of the most prestigious awards in the whole show.

When people heard the last line said by John, all of them became excited. That meant that another major game announcement was coming next.

Though, the most excitement was in the live chat of the show's stream.

[Your Mom's Lover: A new major game announcement? What is it? The next Relda game? Please, let it be that.]

[Florida Man's Lover: Man, the announcements today have been extremely bad. We have gotten only glimpses of a few games that don't even look that good. Just the generic FPS and the action shooters. Nothing unique.]

[Tenshin player69: Yes! Yes! Yes! More announcements! Let's go!]

As usual, the live show chat was extremely rowdy with a lot of kids texting mixed in with a few sensible adults.

"This major announcement is something special and I'm pretty sure no one of you would expect something of this level tonight." John tried to build up the excitement in people. "To reveal the next announcement, we have a special guest here tonight. Please welcome, Aiden Silvereye representing Silver games."

Not many people in the audience had expected a movie star to be here tonight. Only a few knew about it but they still clapped as Aiden walked up to the stage.

The live chat again went wild.

[Milk Business Owner: Why is a movie actor here? Man, video games are really connecting too much to Hollywood and it's sad because I'm pretty sure games are also going to be ruined because of them.]

[Ohio Police officer: Games with actors as cast rarely work. Especially the top actors. They take away most of the money from the game and the developers are left with peanuts to deal with. Hope this is something different.]

[Dying 699 times in a game: I was extremely excited about another new IP from Cory Daniels but I'm not too sure now. Getting an actor to present it seems like he's going more into storytelling than gameplay. I don't think I like that.]

Most people in the chat have a negative opinion of Aiden appearing on the stage. And only a few were a bit excited.

It was because there have been games with actors as cast with motion capture technology but they have rarely been good. Most of the time, it was buggy even though it would sell a lot just because of the actors involved.

A lot of people don't want the video game industry to mix with Hollywood beyond a certain point.

"Thank you for inviting me here, John." Aiden said as he looked down at the audience. He could see Uncle Sam waving at him sitting besides Wade.

"A year and a half ago, I met Cory at an event and we ended up discussing a few ideas on the spot. Due to that conversation, we both felt like we should try working together and since then, a team of extremely talented individuals are working on a game that we hope would make strides in gaming."

He said, looking towards the big screen in the middle.

"Now to present to you all, God's world."

The lights dimmed as he said that. The screen lightened up and strange golden runes appeared on it. Everyone looked at him.

After the runes ended, the sounds of footsteps echoed. A man was walking through a forest, holding a gun. A sense of anxiousness was on his face as he walked.

Only the back of the man was able to be seen by the viewers.

Then, he stopped as he came to an empty area of the forest. There, a dragon was sleeping.

A big dragon that no one had expected to see as the guy was holding a gun.

But the thing that surprised the audience the most were the graphics.

It was so beautiful that it almost looked real. The rendering of the environment and everything looked perfect.

It was their first glimpse of an AAA game.

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On the screen, the man with the gun took a deep breath and muttered something to himself. Then, he jumped out of the grass and shot a few bullets straight at the dragon's face.

Blood spilled out as the dragon screeched and looked at the man.

Then, he breathed out fire straight at him as the man dodged. He shot more bullets towards him while trying to keep a distance from him.

All the people in the audience looked at the screen with wide eyes and a lot of interest. It was because the fight with the dragon wasn't a cut scene but a real gameplay video.

It was happening in real time with someone controlling the character.

"Damn, the graphics are next level!"

"Yeah, you can always expect great graphics from Cory Daniel's game but this is next level."

"He really upped his game by a lot."

"That dragon is small but he looks majestic. But what are guns doing in what looks like a medieval fantasy world?"

They whispered among themselves and kept watching. On the screen, the dragon suddenly jumped on the man and chewed on his gun. Sparks flew out as the man tried to escape and shoot the dragon in his face.

But it was to no avail.

With a crunching sound, the gun broke. The man looked in horror but repeated a few words as he jumped away from the claws of the dragon.

"Don't give strength to your panic. Use it. Control it. Let it help you."

He said and muttered a few strange words and in the next moment, a sword appeared in his hands, leaving behind particles of blue light.

Then, he jumped straight at the dragon, battling with him. His eyes kept to his claws and the tail that seemed to be ready to attack at him at any moment.

The battle went on like that and the man was ready to jump off at the dragon and aim at his neck. But the ground suddenly trembled.

The man lost his balance and the dragon looked up, sensing something. Something powerful. Something that wasn't good.

Clouds suddenly appeared. Lightning crackled right after in the sky. It felt like the sky was about to wall.

The atmosphere has changed in a second.

In the next moment, a hammer struck the dragon in his face. Blood splashed around as he plummeted to the ground.

His head was smashed and a small hole was made due to the impact. The man looked at the hammer and the dragon who wasn't moving with wide eyes.

The dragon was dead and as if to confirm it, the dragon's body turned into particles right away. A few rewards appeared as usual and the man didn't move to pick them up.

His eyes stayed on the hammer.

He recognised it. He had read about it. He had seen movies about it.

The man started to run away from it realising how much power it contained. He had no mood of dying in the hands of a hammer. No matter how mystical it is.

Suddenly, as he was running away, the ground again trembled.

He lost his balance again and fell down. Turning his head, he saw that the hammer was twitching a bit. Its master was calling for it.

The hammer suddenly moved towards the man at a rapid speed. The man closed his eyes, thinking that this was it for him.

But he only felt a gust of wind.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the hammer fly above him and a man appeared. He was flying with lightning all around him and his whole face was covered by a brown beard. To finish the look, his hair was long and the same colour as his beard.

As soon as that happened, the live chat in the stream went wild.

[My Pinky is Kinky: What the heck?? Is that what I'm thinking it is?]

[First female action star: Knowing Cory and being a fan of his work since I was a kid, I could say that the man is a great storyteller but I still don't understand what is this game. The graphics are gorgeous but guns and dragons don't make sense. Now this, this is very wild!]

[The Viral Leaker: I'm extremely sure this is either going to be the game of the year when it releases or the biggest flop in gaming industry. And I'm all for it.]

Hundreds of comments came up every second as the demo kept going on.

"Thor."

The man muttered as he tried to hide. He wondered what he was doing here. This wasn't Norway, the place where he had apparently settled.

In the next second, he got his answer as a loud shout appeared.

"Thor, don't run away from my wrath!"

The man saw a warrior that looked akin to a Spartan appeared with a long, broadsword in his hands. His look was similar to the look of an actor from a movie about Greek warriors.

Smiling at Thor, the Spartan warrior rushed at him.

'Ares - The God of War and Courage from Greek mythology. He and Thor are fighting it out.'

He didn't know why two of the most powerful gods of major pantheons were fighting each other but both of them have a reputation of being crazies that are always looking for someone worthy to fight.

Once, Thor wiped out an entire town because he had not gotten good alcohol from it. He was a maniac. A godly maniac.

As both Ares and Thor fought it out, the man kept looking before eventually they both left to destroy some other place. The dragon was just an unknown casualty in their fight and the man was able to benefit from it.

"It seems like gods could also be useful to us normal humans once in a while. Until they kill us mistakenly that is."

The man muttered and picked up the rewards left up by the dragon.

He then sighed and turned around. Two gods were fighting in the distance behind him. Two gods from different pantheons, not caring about the human life around them.

It was still not the first time. He had seen it happen a lot.

As the man left the forest and made his way to his home, the camera moved upwards and the title of the game appeared.

God's World.

As soon as the trailer ended, the sound of clapping filled the whole room. A few people were even up on their seat, giving the presentation a standing ovation.

The game had been filled with great graphics and the gameplay was very realistic. Nothing awe inspiring but there was a weight to it and it could clearly be felt.

The reveal pf Thor and Ares had just made the game way bigger in vision. Cory Daniels had clearly created something unique and a lot felt like this was the highlight of the whole event.

"I bet you all enjoyed it. This is God's World, a game where gods have came down on earth. From Thor to Zeus, the scale of this game is massive and it's filled with cutting edge graphics. How's that for a reveal?"

John Knightley, the host, said and another cheer went up. It was also going crazy in the live chat.

Most people have liked the reveal and just the theme of different gods of different pantheons fighting against each other was enough to make them intrigued. The track record and the name of Cory Daniels was also a major factor in building up the excitement.

With the demo and game announcement being recieved so well, Aiden went off the stage, feeling very excited about it.

He walked up to the backstage and congratulated Cory about it who had already opened up a bottle of a champagne he had brought.

He talked with him and his team for a while before joining Uncle Sam and Wade on their seats.

Uncle Sam was extremely excited seeing him and he couldn't help but ask him different questions about the game.

"Aiden, I never thought you were a part of something like this. That looked so good. Can we really fight Thor and Ares in it? What's the story of it?"

His questions were really like an excited child. Aiden just shook his head without giving him the answer of any of them.

"Uncle, why don't you wait until the game is out?"

"I don't think it will be out in the next 3 years. This looks like it would be in development for a long time."

"I think it will come out in 2 years according to what I know."

Aiden said. Cory and his team were veterans who knew how to make a game rapidly. Though, they wanted to take time to polish it too. So, it might be delayed once.

"That's still a long time. Can't you tell me the story right now?" Uncle Sam asked again. He knew that Aiden was writing it and he was sure that the plot would be great.

"I can but you need to do one thing for me?"

"What?" Uncle Sam raised his eyebrow.

"Be a part of the game."

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"Be a part of the game."

Those were some words that Aiden wanted to tell his uncle for a long while but he waited until the demo was out.

If he was being honest, one of the major reasons behind him investing and writing the story of the game was his uncle.

It was true that Cory's vision for a game that could rival movies in storytelling was something that had attracted him.

But he also wanted to do it for his uncle.

When he first came to America, his uncle was the only one to help him out. He had told him to leave everything to him. A few times, he had even paid up his rent.

Aiden had tried to pay him back a few times after getting money. But he wouldn't take the money.

That's why, Aiden had decided to do something that his uncle would like — That was video games.

When Cory had heard this, he had told Aiden that they should get his uncle to play a part in the game and Aiden had really liked the idea.

It was the best gift for his uncle.

Seeing himself as a video game character. When Uncle Sam heard that, he didn't believe it for a second.

"Aiden, what are you saying?"

"I'm asking you to be a part of the game. I wrote one of the characters just for you. Even Cory agreed."

He blinked his eyes and asked again.

"You are not joking."

"I won't joke about it."

Uncle Sam wasn't able to reply right away and it was at that moment, the host announced the game that had won 'Game of the Year' award. Cheers went up suddenly and whatever Uncle Sam said was crushed under the noise.

He just hugged Aiden for a minute.

That was the warmest hug of Aiden's life.

After the announcement of the game at the Game awards, a lot of articles and lists came out about the games that were revealed during the show.

Even mainstream media featured it because of its popularity and as there were also other celebs aside from Aiden there, the coverage was guaranteed.

Quite a few of them listed God's World as one of the most anticipated games.

A total of 24 games were revealed at the Game awards this year. Out of them, games like Grand Auto Racing 6 and God's World got the highest cheer out of them.

-Variety Gaming.

The reveal of God's World showed that the future of games is truly in the hands of indie companies that have less money but way more passion. Director Cory Daniels spoke to us about his upcoming game and his partnership with Aiden Silvereye after the event.

-Gameon.

Hollywood meets video game as God's World promises a story inspired by mythology and powered by strong gameplay mechanics that would surely make you want to try it.

-NGN.

Aside from the news articles, a lot of gamers also reacted extremely positively to the game.

The reveal announcement video got more than 2 million views in two days on MeTube and it looked like there was genuine excitement among the fans.

Cory's reputation worked as a charm here. A lot of people even felt like it was one of the worst decisions by his previous company to sideline him like that. He still had it in him to make great games.

Though there were still some reservations as the demo video focused more on the graphics and the world background than the combat. Although it looked beautiful, many people wondered how the final outcome would be.

Some people also felt like the main character felt too weak compared to the gods and that the background won't be a big thing in the story due to budget constraints.

That was obviously just rumours and speculations and Cory or anyone from the team didn't try to do anything about them.

They didn't have more footage to show, so they wanted to work more on the game and then, talk.

Cory just said one thing and it was that the demo didn't even show 1 percent of what they were planning. And it was not just a random bluff.

They were very motivated to work harder after the positive response.

And with that, the end of the year was finally here. Aiden had yet another successful year.

Though, one thing was still left in it. And that was signing the projects for the next year.

Aiden leaned against the hard surface of the lift as it went up. Wade was next to him and today, they have an important appointment.

"Timmy Button is known to be more of an innovator than anything else. He had a lot of titles under him but his eyes for good scripts and projects to invest in are unmatchable. He hadn't produced a lot of movies till date. 9 in 20 years but each of them had been something that had changed the industry in some way."

Wade said as he looked at Aiden. He was telling him all that, so he could have more idea of the person they were going to meet.

Though Aiden already knew a lot of it.

"His last movie was 5 years ago, right? Time went by very fast."

Aiden asked and Wade replied.

"6 years ago technically. It was called Amrit and Timmy invested in underwater technology for the director to be able to shoot a few scenes. Those technologies are now being used in different types of sectors."

"I hope he doesn't invest in developing some kind of dream technology due to this movie."

"Let's hope so."

This meeting was about 'Project Dream'. Red Ant were glad that Aiden wanted to work with them and getting an A-lister had made their project seem more powerful at least on paper.

Timmy Button, a renowned producer, was overseeing the project and working with Red Ant studios. Normally, Red Ant studio won't think twice before signing a Timmy Button's project.

But times were such that any kind of rom com was an utter failure. So, they wanted to make it a streaming movie but as Timmy only wanted it for the big screen, the plans changed and now Aiden was going to be at the center of it.

Until Timmy really hated him.

"We are finally here."

Wade said as they got out of the lift. They were now in the main office of Timmy Button. They walked up to the receptionist and told her about their appointment.

The receptionist told them to go straight in. While walking, Aiden noticed that there were a few faces that he recognised in the office.

Timmy Button was an associate producer on a lot of projects, so it was understandable.

A lot of people also noticed Aiden and started whispering.

"It seems like the rumors were really true."

"Yeah, Aiden Silvereye is going to be in Timmy Button's next. He really made a strong decision straight after reaching the top."

"Nah, he's just playing safe. One flop and people are going to doubt if he's really an A-lister. He's scared."

Aiden heard a few of these whispers but just ignored it. He reached the main door and 'Timmy Button' was written in the center of it.

After a knock, they went in and Aiden saw Timmy Button for the first time in his life.

The first thought that came to Aiden's mind was that he looked messy.

'He's pretty much like I thought he would be. Just I expected him to look a bit more formal.'

Aiden thought in his mind. Timmy looked like he hadn't cut his hair in a year. Weirdly, he had a completely shaved face, giving him the look of a musician who would often be on substance for some inspiration.

Aside from his look, everything was neat and clean and it looked like his office was very well taken care of.

"Ah, it's a pleasure to meet you. I have been meaning to see you for a long time but who knew we would meet straight on a project."

"I guess this is the right time."

"I believe so."

Timmy looked pretty happy to see Aiden and after the initial greetings, Wade and him sat down with Timmy.

"You know when the project first got greenlit, I was pretty sure that I would have to do it with a newbie actor and try to fill the cast with known faces for supporting roles as it's easier to get people to agree on a supporting role than a lead role these days depending on how much you giving them."

He said, making fun of the so called lead actors of Hollywood who have became scared of taking risks in his viewpoint.

"That's why, I was extremely curious about you. We did sent you the script but we never expected to get a positive response as the premise is bizzare. I wanted to know what made you go for it anyway?"

Timmy squinted his eyes a bit as he asked.

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The premise of 'Project Dream' was truly bizarre. It wasn't a simple love story like [30 days of Happiness]. It was more complex and was basically about a time in the future.

A time in which humans have invented machines that lets one explore what they are dreaming about. Dreams are not just things that humans forget after waking up. These machines could even influence dreams and make it a great, enjoyable experience for someone.

It is used by people to have a great sleep and have fun in them. Some people even use it as an adrenaline rush by influencing their dreams to be more exciting.

Although there wasn't much explanation about these dream machines, the story revolves around a guy who meets a girl in his dreams.

The girl like him was surprised to see someone and although for a while, both of them see each other as imagination, the confusion eventually gets cleared and a weird relationship forms around them.

When Aiden had first read the premise and the script, he had gotten a weird feeling out of it.

Not exactly because of the idea.

But because of the vibe he got from the story. It looked less like a Hollywood movie and more like an anime movie. As it was common knowledge that Hollywood romances are very grounded.

They barely had any romance of epic proportions but whenever it had happened, it had been a huge success. But directors tend to still go for realism over a spectacle.

Whereas in anime love stories, anything was possible. Aiden had even watched a story that was going pretty fine till the halfway stage about a high school couple but suddenly, the girl would be revealed as a robot and then, a whole plot about aliens would start out of nowhere.

Even with this, the movie was greatly enjoyable.

Just in anime, the directors let the creativity flow and see where it will go without trying to restrain it.

'Project Dream' followed that as in dreams, anything was possible. Maybe that's why Aiden wanted to be a part of the project.

"I thought it's a really fun project. I realised it on my second read of the script but I felt like I would regret it if I don't become a part of it."

Aiden said after thinking for a bit but it looked like a generic response to Timmy. He decided to push for a better response.

"I showed the script to a couple of actors before you. People who have worked with me before and they weren't ready to be a part of the movie as a lot of it felt silly to them. I made the main character younger because of that as no older actor wanted to be a part of it and it was easier to persuade a younger actor. You know what those big time stars told me that the movie won't earn much on the box office and would be termed unrealistic."

To that, Aiden smiled.

"Someone recently told me my movie won't earn much money. I'm pretty sure you know how that aged."

"I do." Timmy chuckled. "Still, those actors thought the same thing. What made you look at it differently?"

Aiden didn't reply straight up. Wade looked at him, knowing that Timmy was trying to test him by asking this. To know if it was really his love for the script or just because of the reputation of Timmy Button.

Wade looked confident that Aiden wouldn't mess it up and after a while, Aiden opened his mouth.

"There's one thing my father once told me. It was probably the best perspective I ever got on movies."

"What is that?" Timmy raised an eyebrow and even Wade looked interested. Aiden seldom talked about his father.

"He was telling me about his most favorite movie and told me that people say that movies are the mirror to society and they should be reflective of what's going on in society."

"That's true."

Timmy said. That was probably the most said quote by budding filmmakers. And it was extremely true too. Movies were an essential part in making societies better by showing them what is wrong in them.

"But my father said that he believes in something else. I asked what and he told me that his favourite movie is a children's film about a young wizard and his pet dog who can talk. He said that it's a good movie but it didn't win any awards. But it stayed with him because the movie was like his dream coming true. He said that he imagined going on such adventures before in his dream. He then told me that aside from a reflection to society, movies should also be the dreams of society. The script is like that."

Aiden liked realistic movies but if he was going to make a movie, it was always going to be something that's different from our world. Because that way, he would truly be able to show off his creativity.

'Project Dream' was pretty much that as it explored the untapped potential of the Magical realism genre.

Timmy blinked his eyes and thought about Aiden's answer. He repeated the sentence 'Movies should be the dreams of society' and felt like it was a great quote.

He also liked that his story made Aiden think of the quote because the script was written with that essence.

"You have a pretty great sense of movies."

"Thank you."

Aiden smiled and it looked like Timmy had already decided that he was going to be his male lead.

Aiden Silvereye signed his first project after becoming a top star. He is going to be the lead of Timmy Button's next.

A rom com had been finalised by Red Ant studios that would be handled by Timmy Button. The studio is going to invest 70 million dollars in the movie, making it one of the most expensive rom coms of the last decade.

Red Ant studios head said that they want to revive the genre of epic romances and they are going to do it with their next movie which would go on floors at the last quarter of the year. The studio head called it one of the biggest upcoming projects of theirs and praised Aiden Silvereye who had been signed up for a whopping 5 million dollars.

Articles came up within a week of Aiden's meeting with Timmy Button. Some of it was revealed by Red Ant studios themselves while some details like Aiden's paycheck was just found out by journalists.

Red Ant studio head officially talked about it and confirmed every detail that was out. Though, they were keeping a lot hidden as they didn't want anyone to know about the premise.

After meetings with Timmy Button, the acclaimed producer realised that Aiden and his thoughts were pretty similar. Though, he did provide him with some great ideas for certain parts of the script.

As a writer himself, Aiden could know what the script needed and Timmy told him that he would make a few changes in the next revisions.

As the filming almost had a year left, there was a lot of time to make the script even better. Most of the casting aside from Aiden was also left to do.

That's why, the production team started focusing on that, leaving Aiden to choose his second project of the year.

The next meeting was for that with Alberto.

When the announcement of Aiden's next project with Red Ant studios came out, his fan group was one of the best to rejoice.

[Ho Li Sheep: So, Aiden is going to be in a rom com. He hadn't done that a lot in his career right? I can't remember any if I'm being honest.]

[Karl Max is my daddy: He did [30 days of Happiness]. The movie did great in awards shows and box office but got forgotten after the initial few months. It's one of those movies that you enjoyed but didn't last with you.]

[Stepdad, I'm stuck: Yeah, Aiden ain't much of a romantic lead. He does have the face for it but I'm too used to seeing him in different things and after Kai, I wanted him to go for another villain role.]

[My pet's name is voldy: That would be easy. And they are actively releasing it in theatres, trying to make it an epic romance. Those types of movies need a lot of charisma that Aiden has. Just I doubt if his charisma is suited for romance.]

[Skyneves: You all think too negatively. I'm pretty sure Aiden will nail the role. I'm extremely glad he's trying out new things and not restricting himself.]

[I became a Meme: Is it only me who thinks that Aiden forgot that he's a singer too? I've been craving some good music for him for a long time now. I love that he's doing so well in movies but I want some songs too.]

[Hollywood Insider: Yes, that's only you. I'm craving 2-3 movies from Aiden in a year. Build that filmography thick just how I like it.]

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"I would be surprised if this meeting goes even half as good as the last one. Though, I am hoping it goes well."

Tom said as he passed on the coffee to Aiden. He took a sip out of it and made a frowning expression as it felt a tad bit too bitter for his taste.

But he felt like his whole day was going to be like the coffee. There were certainly a lot of unpleasant things about the entertainment industry and dealing with unpleasant people was one of them.

"Well, Alberto is still a professional. He isn't going to be that blunt." Aiden said as they walked. They were currently in the Titan studios office, walking to the meeting place.

Wade wasn't accompanying them as he was busy with negotiating down the contract with Red Ant studios. Although the signing fee was decided, there were other things in the contract that were still being negotiated.

A few people from his legal team were obviously accompanying him too.

"Actually, from what I heard, he's kinda like that sweet and spicy girl you dated sometimes in your life."

"What?" Aiden stopped in his tracks and gave the strangest look he could muster to Tom who quickly explained himself.

"You know that girl who seems like the sweetest person in the world at first but after you breakup, she makes you feel like she's the descendant of Satan even if she acts like the breakup is mutual at first. Why are you looking at me like I'm spewing nonsense? You never have that kind of a relationship?"

"You are spewing nonsense and even if it's true, your analogy is weird."

Aiden shook his head but Tom kept telling him about the rumours he had heard about Alberto.

But Aiden didn't need him.

He had heard enough from Ava about the guy and she had told him that Alberto was surely going to ask him something in return for casting him. Or try to make some kind of a deal.

So, he was prepared for that.

Though, Aiden did wonder how Tom knew so many rumours. Once, he had heard from Sasha that Tom had the subscription of every tabloid and gossip magazine running in the country.

He had dismissed it as a joke before but that might just be true.

'The meeting can't be that bad. After all, everyone is an adult and a professional here.'

He thought and just half an hour later, Aiden regretted those words.

"You must be very brave to decide to ask for a meeting even after our last interaction. I thought you were too cozy with Ava to seek me out for [Hex]. It's not wrong to say that I was surprised when my assistant told me you wanted to meet me, so I will give you that."

Aiden looked straight at Alberto and thought that he really was blunt. There were other people sitting around him but they looked too used to it.

They probably thought that it was just another day at work.

"I seeked you out because [Hex] interested me and I'm a fan of the original books. Our last interaction wasn't in my mind."

"It was in my mind." Alberto said, looking like he had no intention of being even a tad bit professional.

"Don't you think that we should not hang on the past and try to see where our mindset lies in respect to the project? And try to work together?"

Alberto laughed hearing that.

"Nope. I'm not that naive to act all chummy with someone who isn't pleasant to my eyes. I thought you knew how the industry worked as you made your way from the bottom. Or you just got lucky."

A crack appeared on the expression of Aiden.

Tom looked at him with worry. As just an assistant, he didn't have the authority to speak here and he felt like Aiden was going to lose it any second.

'I guess it's not going to work.'

Aiden thought in his mind as he looked at Alberto.

Ava had told him that the man was bitter after [Action Hero]. To top it off, Titan studios also had a distributing partnership for [The Black Saint] and they had earned a lot with that even with a minimal share in the movie.

That's why Alberto was not even trying to be polite. In that case, Aiden also had no reason to stay polite.

"You are right." He said. "I was naive to think that you would try to be a bit professional as I thought you are a respectful producer with years of experience. Guess I was wrong to accept anything like that from you."

"What did you say?" Alberto glared at him and Aiden looked him in the eye.

"You already heard me."

People around them glanced between the two of them as they wondered if the meeting had already fallen off.

It was then that Alberto smiled.

"Finally you saw your real face. I don't like talking with people who are just trying to be nice when they don't hold good feelings towards me."

"You don't really give me any opportunities for me to have good feelings towards you."

"Then, how about I give you an opportunity?"

Alberto said and with the crooked smile on his face, Aiden knew that nothing good was going to come out of his mouth.

But he still said, "What?"

"Let's make a deal. You stop trying to get too involved with Ava and I will start to ponder about you heading [Hex]. I know the little girl is trying to plot against me and has offered you quite a few things in exchange for you supporting her endeavors. But I can offer you the same and a bit more than her."

Like Aiden had thought, the deal that Alberto offered was pretty cliche.

He was literally telling Aiden to betray Ava and form a relationship with him. A business relationship where both of them can help each other.

"Sorry, that won't happen. I don't have a habit of betraying people."

Aiden said, having no need to even consider the proposal. It had a bad deal written all over with it.

He didn't trust Alberto to support him like Ava. The man was only going to use him because Aiden was pretty versatile in terms of his talents and his movies were working very well.

"That's a good habit to have in the industry you know."

Alberto just said that and with that, the meeting was over. He had nothing else to say and Aiden knew that he wouldn't want him if he's not on his side.

The meeting was ironically over even before they could talk about the movie and their ideas about it.

While Aiden was walking out of the meeting room, one thing was in his mind and that was the proud, crooked smirk that Alberto showed him.

He didn't like it.

"What should we do now? [Hex] is out of our hands now just because the executive producer attached to it is a piece of shit."

Tom cursed as they walked out.

Hearing his words, Aiden stopped in his tracks. His mind began running as he wondered if it was really the end. The mature thing here would be to just get out of the movie and find a project where he can be more cordial with the producer.

There were tons of projects like that.

But Aiden didn't like Alberto's tone. Nor he liked that he was unable to do a project just because the producer didn't like him. It just didn't feel acceptable to him as an actor.

'I need to make one last try. At least an attempt to see if I can ruin that crooked smile.'

He thought in his mind and took the lift with Tom to the ground floor. His assistant kept glancing at him as he was unusually silent.

As an avid observer of Aiden, Tom knew that he would normally laugh out failures like this and try to move on as soon as possible. So he can be ready for the next big project.

But today it was different.

He felt like something big was going to happen. And it was confirmed when the lift stopped.

"Let's sit in that lounge area."

"Aren't we going to the car? Wade had already texted me five times."

Tom asked with a confused expression.

"No, I want to try something."

Aiden said and walked to the reception. He asked a few things from her and sat down in the seat that was closest to the elevator.

Tom sat next to him and couldn't help resist asking.

"What is your plan? Are you going Gandhi mode and protesting or something?"

"No, I'm following what Wade once told me. The producer is the most important person in the crew as he had all the rights of how he wanted to edit the movie. He is like a big bull who no one could stop. Depending on his mood, the movie could be nominated for a Raspberry award or an Oscar. But before the movie is completed, he is constantly battling with the bull that is the director. We now need to impress that bull and make him fight from our side."

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Alberto Dundley felt like the wind these days was getting colder and colder. But he had warmth all around him.

He finally seemed to be walking a path of flowers instead of the path of thorns. Last year was one of the worst times of his career with several of his projects failing and he had started to lose out in favour with the company.

But after the company started its plan to start franchises, he knew that he needed to be at the top of it. Because if it worked, then he was going to be one of the most important people in the whole company.

His stature would rise exponentially and his failures would be behind him.

Though, he also felt like he was walking on thin ice at first as the chances of failure were extremely high. But things changed since Olio Fermen got on board with the project.

The man was trying to adapt Hex in a movie for a long time and just going by his record, Alberto could say that the movie would be good. The chances of failure with this novel adaptation were also low due to the number of fans of the series.

With Olio at the helm, he could be rest assured and would just need to take a backseat as he knew how he worked.

He didn't like any interference in his job until the editing part. One of the main reasons Alberto had good relations with him was because he was a master of handling directors and knew that some directors should just be left alone.

Big directors have too much ego and confidence that they don't even mind screaming at the producers. One big director recently threw things at a producer because he wanted to change a few things in the script.

Only after that, the director was left alone to work on his vision.

Olio was someone who was fully capable of doing something like that and Alberto would avoid it if he could.

"We have marked 3 actors for the lead role. Most of the supporting roles are already casted but Mr. Fermen is still in the middle of deciding the main lead."

"Why are we having problems on that front? There are enough talented people in Hollywood."

Alberto asked as he looked at his assistant. They were currently in the car, coming back from a meeting with the CEO of the VFX company that was working on [Hex].

He had mostly left casting to Olio and was only responsible for recommending actors to him. The final decision was for the director to take.

"Mr. Fermen is being choosy as he wants someone with a lot of charisma. The actors you recommended were rejected on the basis that they simply weren't big enough to portray the lead role. As you know in the story, the main lead is extremely charismatic and persuasive."

"Olio could simply write the role for a more older actor. It happens a lot."

"Yes, but he wants to avoid it just because it happens a lot. He's a big fan of the original series and wants to stay true to it."

Alberto frowned, feeling like it was pretty much a dragged mess. They needed to start on the production as soon as possible because a lot of time would be spent in the post production for all the VFX shots.

In these types of projects, post production becomes one of the most essential parts.

"Turn the car to his office."

Alberto suddenly said and his assistant looked bewildered for a second.

"Right now?"

"Yeah."

"You have other appointments, sir."

"Cancel them. I'm letting Olio do what he wants but I need to be strict too in these times. Or he would do just anything."

He said and his assistant had no choice. He told the driver to turn the car and drive to Olio Fermen's office. It was better to talk in person and decide on the lead.

When he got here, Alberto straight walked up to the main room where Olio was typically found.

All around in the office, posters and character arts for [Hex] were laid out. Olio and his team were working here for a few months and the progress was easily seen.

Alberto quickly found Olio's assistant and asked.

"Where's Olio?"

"He's in a meeting on the second floor."

Hearing the reply, Alberto wondered if it was a meeting with the crew about the filming.

"What meeting?"

"A meeting for the casting for the lead role in his upcoming movie."

Alberto was pleasantly surprised when the assistant said that. He was here to sort out the main lead issue but it looked like Olio was faster than he thought.

Now that he was here, Alberto decided to go and check what was going on in the meeting and who was the actor. He hoped that it was at least someone who was marketable and would have age on his side.

Stepping into the second floor, Alberto directly headed for the meeting room and excitedly opened the door.

But suddenly his face froze. He wondered for a second if he was having delusions as everyone in the meeting room scrambled to their seats. A few people from the crew were in the room and there was obviously Olio Fermen.

He was a bald man in his late 40s that gave the impression of a weak, scrawly man. With the proper look, he would look like a retired man who had worked his whole life in an office.

Very ordinary.

"Alberto, I didn't know you were coming here today. What a surprise."

Olio muttered, walking up to him but Alberto didn't respond. His eyes kept being fixated on the man who was sitting in front of the door.

The man his eyes had landed upon after opening the door.

"What are you doing here?" He finally blurted out.

"I'm here for a meeting with Mr. Fermen. Regarding me playing the lead role in his movie."

"What are you saying? We already had the meeting and you know very well how it went."

Alberto looked at him with angry eyes. The atmosphere quickly heated up and people noticed that there was some unpleasant air in the room suddenly.

If Olio wasn't standing besides him, he would have even grabbed Aiden by the collar.

"I know." Aiden said as she put on a smile. His voice was not confrontational and was persuasive. "But while I was leaving the company, I met Mr. Fermen just in front of the lift. When he heard that I was in a meeting for [Hex, we ended up having a long talk on the original books and the characters."

"Yes and Aiden here impressed me a lot. He actually has the same reservations about a live action [Hex] that I had and our ideas are very similar."

Olio added and it just strengthened Aiden's case. Alberto opened and closed his eyes wondering how this had happened. He had thought that Aiden would throw away his ambition to be a part of [Hex] but he had entirely skipped the producer and went for the director.

"So, Aiden is your choice to play the lead. Am I understanding it right?"

Alberto looked at Olio who still hadn't noticed the strange atmosphere between him and Aiden.

"Not yet but I like his ideas and viewpoint. I still need to take an audition but he's way better than the other candidates. Moreover, he just gave a 500 million dollar movie, so he's extremely marketable. I heard your meeting with him didn't go right? Why was that?"

"We… had a few disagreements."

Alberto said, barely. He kept glaring at Aiden while he said that.

"Well, I guess it's not something that can't be solved. Why don't you join us? We were in the middle of discussing the main character. You don't have any other appointments right?"

"No, I don't."

He sat down and wondered if he was really seeing things right. Aiden, who he had rejected, was now sitting in front of him and they were discussing the lead role.

'Bastard. I won't let you take the role so easily.'

Alberto thought in his mind and Aiden was having similar thoughts.

'No matter what you do, I'm going to fight for the role.'

As Aiden was fighting for the role in [Hex, award season was coming up. Actors who had given out great performances in the past year were now hoping for some kind of nomination in any award.

Some movies have already started campaigning for a case for the Oscars. And even Golden globes were being sought after.

Last year, Aiden had only gotten nominations for [Agnas] and had even missed out on an Oscar nomination for the best actor. But this year, a lot of people felt like he had way better chances.

Last year, there were too many great performances and Aiden's age played against him. This year, the good movies were fewer and meaty roles were only played by a few actors.

The chances of awards had never been this high before.

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When Aiden had come out of that meeting with Alberto, there was a lot going on in his mind. He had wondered how to get back at Alberto. Fighting against the executive producer of a movie was not the brightest thing to do when you wanted to be a part of it.

It was then that he had heard a conversation between the employees that were passing them by.

"Olio Fermen is again going to be here, right?"

"Yeah, our department has a meeting with him today and they are also going to have a meeting with the costume department."

"Pretty interesting work. Here in human resources, everyone just hates us even if we are just doing our job."

The only thing that Aiden took from that conversation was that Olio was going to be here. If he could talk to him once, then maybe something will come up.

Having no other choice, Aiden had sat in front of the elevator to wait for Olio. And after two hours, he finally saw him.

Knowing that it was his only chance, Aiden didn't waste time and got on the same elevator as him.

Then, as if he had just coincidentally met him, he looked in surprise.

"Olio Fermen, I didn't expect to see you here today. What a nice surprise."

Olio Fermen looked at him and recognised Aiden.

"Ah, Aiden Silvereye. I liked quite a few of your works. A few of my friends couldn't stop talking about you. Some even want to work with you. You have made a big impression on the industry in recent years."

"That's a huge compliment. I have watched all your movies actually and always wanted to work with you."

"Really? I don't hear that often."

Olio Fermen looked surprised. Due to his work ethic and environment that was too strict for most people, he was not looked upon nicely by a lot of actors.

"Yeah, I feel like you would be able to bring out my best. Sadly, I have a meeting with Mr. Dundley just now and it didn't go really well. I was hoping to be a part of [Hex]. I felt like the whole world of the novel was perfect for your style of storytelling that takes aesthetics to a whole new dimension."

The lift had stopped then.

Although Olio hadn't said much after that, he looked pleased to hear that. He also added that he was surprised to know that Aiden was interested in [Hex].

But he was in a hurry to go for a meeting and left.

Aiden had felt a bit disappointed and had walked back to Tom, thinking that it wasn't enough.

They decided to leave the office of Titan studios then but it was at that moment that a man had come running towards them.

"Excuse me, Mr. Silvereye."

"You are?"

Aiden asked, looking at the man who seemed very ordinary.

"I'm Olio Fermen's secretary. He asked you to stay back as he wanted to talk to you after his meeting was over."

A huge smile had hung on Aiden's lips when he heard that.

After that, things were way more simpler.

If it was two years ago, then Olio Fermen won't even look at him for anything more than a supporting role but now, Aiden was a big actor and that brought a lot of privileges to movies.

Just by him being in a movie, it was going to be talked about a lot more.

Olio Fermen knew that too.

That's why, with just a bit of praise about his directing style and showing interest in his movies, Aiden was able to hold his attention.

During his meeting with Olio, his knowledge of fantasy stories and movies came to work as Aiden was able to hold a conversation about how a live action version of [Hex] might look.

His ideas were very similar to the ones that Olio held.

Like that, Aiden was able to get Olio to be on his side against Alberto.

"Alberto, I do understand that you think there are better actors around but Aiden is perfect for the role. He's young, handsome and I have seen his work. The kid got screen charisma. You know how rare that is."

Olio looked at Alberto who was constantly frowning. After a few interactions with Aiden, Olio felt like he was the perfect choice for the lead.

With him at the helm, they could look for a way bigger opening than before. His box office record was extremely good and that was the hardest thing in the industry.

But Alberto was strongly against him.

"Look, I won't lie to you. I don't like him."

"Don't bring personal grudges into work."

"Everything is connected in the industry. That guy doesn't even have 10 movies in his career. Just his filmography makes me reject him."

Alberto said with resolute eyes. He didn't seem like he was going to change his decision. But Olio was always stubborn.

"It's more Impressive if he managed to make a name for himself as a leading role actor in such a short time. We don't even have any better options here. That's why, I'm pushing for him."

"Who said we don't have any better options? I just had a meeting with Terrence Stark yesterday. He's a Golden Globes nominated actor and he's just 37. He will fit right in a fantasy action adventure."

Terrence Stark was one of the more known actors in the industry. He was doing some roles for over a decade before he got his big break and now, he would often be seen in different kinds of movies in nicely written roles.

Two years ago, he had even gotten a Golden Globes nomination. Although he didn't win it, it was still a big deal.

A lot of people were sure that he was going to win the award sooner or later. These days, there were rumours that he was trying to move towards the commercial route.

"He looked like a great prospect during our meeting and he's apparently trying to earn more money these days. Actors do get greedy after a while, so we could easily bind him in the sequels."

"I have seen him. He's good but doesn't have that on-screen charisma. He's a great actor in tragedies but I doubt he would be able to do a role with a sarcastic tone and heroic charisma."

"He will adapt. And like I said, a Golden Globes nominee is way better than Aiden. There's not even competition."

Olio wanted to tell Alberto that award shows rarely matter in Hollywood and how rigged some of them could be.

A nomination in them was good but it was surely not everything. Especially when the awards were losing their credibility every year.

But he suddenly got a text from someone. He sighed and looked up at his phone that was on the table.

It was a text from a journalist.

[Journalist: I heard rumors that Aiden Silvereye is going to work with you? Golden Globes nominations just came out and he's nominated in the Best actor category. If he's working with you, can you confirm it?]

'What?'

Olio didn't reply to the journalist. He wondered who was spreading those rumors for a second before his mind fixated on the second part of the message.

"What happened?"

Alberto asked and looked up at him, Olio replied in an instant.

"Apparently, Golden Globes nominations just came out. Aiden got nominated for [The Black Saint]."

"What? You're not joking right?"

"Check it."

Like Olio said, Alberto just looked through the news articles that were very easy to find out. Aiden was indeed nominated for his role of Kai and was competing against equally great actors for the award for the best actor.

It had come off as a surprise as Alberto had thought that he would be rejected on the basis that the movie was a sequel. Actors had been rejected on the basis of that.

Although it wasn't an official reason, anyone could see patterns. Maybe on that basis, [The Black Saint] wasn't in the list for the best movie of the year.

These award shows work weirdly.

'I can't use the argument that he's not a Golden Globes nominated actor anymore.'

Alberto thought in his mind and cussed.

Golden Globes nominations came out and like every year, the nominations of the best movie and performance of the year are the most talked about. Check the nominations and most likely winners on our site.

-Hollywood Reporter.

Every year, Golden Globes nominated actors look to get an Oscar nomination after it. There's a lot of chances that the winner of the Golden Globes would also rake in big awards at the Oscar in March.

-US Weekly.

Aiden Silvereye bags his first Golden Globes nomination and would be looking for his first Oscar nomination this year too. His performance as Kai was universally acclaimed and he's also our first choice to get the Golden Globes for the lead actor this year.

-Hollywood Weekly.

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Golden Globes was undoubtedly the second biggest award show in Hollywood. It might not be as big and known as the Oscars. But its significance was massive in Hollywood.

Many celebrities think of it as the goal they need to conquer before moving on to the Oscars. Although getting a Golden Globe didn't mean one would win the Oscar, it undoubtedly increased the chances.

It was also a great addition to any actors wiki page.

When Aiden got to know that he was nominated for it in the 'Best actor in a leading role (male)' category, he was ecstatic.

His mind was consumed by ways through which he could sign the contract for [Hex]. So, it had come out of nowhere and he wasn't even expecting it.

Actually, it was a call from Zavier who had gotten to know about the nomination an hour before it got revealed. He had decided to tell Aiden about the good news straightaway.

After that, calls hadn't stopped as everyone wanted to congratulate him.

It was only after a while that it had set in. Earning a nomination in the Best actor category in a major award show was the first for Aiden. So it was normal that he would feel overwhelmed.

"Congratulations."

"Let's party till we pass out today."

"I bought everyone a very expensive wine."

Jody opened up the bottle of wine that he had pulled out from somewhere. Everyone pushed against each other to get the taste of it.

Some people just watched and talked among themselves.

One thing was clear that the atmosphere in Aiden's office was the best it had ever been. They were all celebrating Aiden's nomination today.

In Aiden's career, his team had played a big role and even he can't ignore that. Although Wade had been there from the start, after the inclusion of Sasha, Jody, Tom and others, he was able to be way more efficient.

"How are you feeling?"

"Overwhelmed. I'm trying to not get too excited. If I lose, I will be in a pretty bad state."

Aiden's motto was that if he doesn't have too many expectations, he won't be disappointed.

Though, it was hard to do that. Any actor would want to win after getting the nomination.

Still, just getting the nomination was a big deal and Aiden had learnt why. In the past two days, he had gotten several calls and texts from bigshots of Hollywood.

He didn't even know half of them but they have started to take notice of him. Or maybe they were just doing this in case they work with Aiden in the future.

Sincerity was rare in Hollywood after all.

"Just enjoy the moment. Even with a nomination, your portfolio got a bit meatier in an instant. Even in wiki articles, you're gonna be mentioned as a Golden Globes nominated actor. We also got an edge against Alberto Dundley now. I dare him to reject a Golden Globes nominated actor because of petty reasons."

Wade said as he took a bite out of the donut in his hand. He had ordered a lot of those as he was a big fan.

"There must be pressure on him since we released those rumours about me being in [Hex]."

"Yeah, the media reported it like crazy for the whole day." Tom added, taking a sip from his glass of wine.

"That was our plan."

One of the tactics used by Aiden against Alberto were rumours. He had spreaded them deliberately to put more pressure on Alberto.

He must be getting a lot of calls asking if it was true.

It was an old but effective tactic.

"Well, if you actually won the award, then I'm pretty sure there's no way he would be able to reject you."

Wade said as he took another bite.

"Yeah, you can even ask for a higher fee and he would agree." Tom said, giving off a grin.

"I won't do that because if I really sign it, we would work together. Even if he won't come on the set often."

Aiden said and they talked like that for a while before Wade and Tom got pulled up by other people to have discussions.

People kept coming towards Aiden to congratulate him. All of them said that he would surely win and although it felt nice, it did add more pressure on him even though winning wasn't in his hands.

When he was finally left alone, he was able to take a deep breath.

'I have really come a long way.'

He thought, smiling to himself.

This was something he was thinking a lot these days but he did feel like he had achieved a lot every year. Maybe it was finally culminating into something.

A lot of people had told him that the Oscars nomination was also not far away but his mind wasn't even focusing on it. If that happened, it was good. If it didn't, then at least he has the Golden Globes nomination.

As he was thinking of that, his phone suddenly rang.

It was Dustin.

'Normally, he's one of the first ones to congratulate me but I didn't even get a text from him. He was probably busy.'

Aiden thought. Dustin was a very good actor and even a better person, albeit a bit over the top and overconfident.

They had last worked together in [Disconnected] and had been regularly in contact. Dustin was doing TV series these days and was finding great success.

"Dustin, how are you doing? I thought you got in an accident when I didn't get your text a minute after the nominations were out."

"Sorry, I was busy. Congratulations. You know, when I first saw [The Black Saint, I thought only you could play Kai. I can't even portray him like you did on the screen."

"Thanks. What are you upto these days? Are you going to be present in the ceremony?"

Aiden asked and the rusky voice of Dustin replied quickly.

"No, I won't be."

"I can get you an invitation. Weren't you there last year? I remember you saying that you would win the award in the next three years."

Aiden thought that Dustin was going to jump up at the chance of an invitation. He was someone who was always excited to see a lot of his favourite actors at one place.

But…

"No, I can't come. I'm very busy with shootings. And I don't have energy even on my breaks. Action stuff drains you."

Dustin laughed at the other end but Aiden noticed that something was off.

Even if he was busy, he was someone who would try to get time out. Or at least he won't be so resolute about not coming to the award ceremony.

His other sentences also sounded a bit weird to Aiden. Almost like he was missing his usual goofy attitude and was only trying to fool Aiden.

"Dustin, are you okay?"

He asked, not wasting any time to deliberate on it.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Why are you asking?"

"You sound off. Like something bad had happened to you. Shaken, if I need to put a word on it."

"No, I'm fine. It's just that I was shooting a very… emotional scene just today. I guess I'm still having the effects. I will be fine in a few hours."

Dustin said hurriedly but it felt like an excuse to Aiden. He again asked him if everything was okay but he only got the answer that he was overthinking.

Was it really that? Aiden didn't know.

But before he could push Dustin more, he cut the call, saying the director was calling him.

The whole interaction sounded very weird to him. A few minutes into the call, Aiden was still wondering if he had just heard wrong or the tone of Dustin's voice was really sad, like something bad had happened to him.

"Are you okay?"

A short man looked up at Dustin and asked. His eyes showed worry and concern for the person sitting in front of him.

The man was Dustin's agent.

"I'm okay. Aiden thought something was odd with me but I'm pretty sure he would forget about it. I heard a lot of people talking around him. He must be at some celebration party."

Dustin said as he sighed, a trace of hollowness in his eyes. Unlike what he told Aiden, he wasn't on any set and was at his home, sitting with his agent.

"You sure you don't want him to know anything. You are close with him, right?"

"Nothing will happen even if I tell him. Maybe he will laugh at me too."

Dustin said with a dry laugh.

"Let him have his moment. I will only ruin things for him if I talk, especially when he's about to win the biggest award of his career." He added, then asked. "What happened with the investigation?"

Hearing that, the short agent swallowed the words that he was about to say and his shoulders sunked.

"Nothing good happened for us."

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Every year, Golden Globes is held on 11 January and this year was the same. It meant that Aiden didn't have a lot of time left for the event and had to quickly do a lot of things.

After the celebration party, he got busy with stylists and the attire he was going to wear on the day. A very famous suit brand sponsored him for the event to gain exposure through him and Aiden happily accepted it.

A lot of clothes of celebrities would always be sponsored by some brand, especially on these types of events.

As a lot of people watch these types of events, the brands get visibility.

But it was still a lot of work to go over different types of suits. He also had to decide on his complete look way before the event.

His stylist asked whether he wanted a bit of a unique look as she showed him a lot of suits that could only be termed 'colourful'.

One of them even had a design of a feather which just made it look like something that would only suit a magician from the 16th century.

Aiden rejected it at a glance and opted for a more ordinary look.

According to him, he won't be able to carry a more vibrant look because that just wasn't him. Until he's comfortable in what he's wearing, he won't look confident.

His stylist understood that and his look was decided just like that.

One more issue was his date.

Celebrities would often take their wives or partners to events. It was common and if someone was alone, reporters would often ask them annoying questions like who they were taking home tonight?

Aiden had also dealt with that in the past.

A few people he knew would even take someone from their team to the event, just to avoid those types of questions. Though, that would end up with fake rumours coming up about the relationship.

Aiden had a funny interaction with Sasha and Wade about this when they were just sitting around.

"Why don't you take Ava with you? I doubt she will reject you." Wade had asked.

"I asked. She's going to be in London during the event. She wanted to come but she's busy. So, it's out of the picture."

"Don't you have someone else? Here, I thought celebrities have lifestyles that normal people could only dream of."

Sasha muttered as she looked at him.

"I'm a very boring person. You know that."

"Your movies are your girlfriends. I know that."

Sasha smiled and it was then that Aiden asked her something that made her freeze.

"Sasha, why don't you come with me? To the Globes. You can act as a sort of fake date."

At that question, Sasha had blanked out for a minute, not expecting him to ask her that.

"Aiden, if I went with you as a date, fake or not, I won't be able to live a simple life from the next day. My Skygram would be filled with messages. Moreover, I'm married. So, you are three years late."

It was the first time that Aiden got to know that Sasha was married.

Aside from all that, one more thing that happened was the progress with [Hex] went ahead.

Although Alberto tried his best to reject Aiden for the role, Olio had become hell bent on having him. A lot of it wasn't even about him liking Aiden a lot.

Somewhere, it had become the case of two egos clashing with each other.

Alberto had been against Aiden to a degree that it had rubbed Olio the wrong way. He felt like the producer was trying to have more control over the project.

He certainly didn't like it.

So, he made it a condition that he had to have Aiden on board for the movie. Alberto almost went crazy due to stress but it was impossible for him to do anything if the director was like that.

A major reason why [Hex] was greenlit was because of the director and his filmography. Moreover, a Golden Globes nomination just made Aiden's stature bigger.

Rumours were also spreading in the company about it and those weren't nice to Alberto. So in the end, he had no choice.

"I hope we will get along during the filming."

"Just don't get on my nerves. I'm already going to tolerate you with all my strength. So stay in your limits and I won't try to fuck you over."

"Obviously. We all want the movie to be successful here."

Aiden resisted as Alberto tried to squeeze his hands with as much strength he could muster. He had just signed the contract that made him the lead for the first [Hex] movie.

It meant that he won against Alberto and the man hadn't taken nicely to it.

The first movie was signed for 3 million dollars from Aiden's side. It was lower than the salary he was getting for Red Ant studios's movie but every movie was different for an actor.

[Hex] was a way bigger risk for Titan studios and they weren't willing to spend a lot on actor fees. Aiden also understood that well, so he had taken 3 million dollars only.

He felt better knowing that more money could go in VFX and other important aspects rather than his fees. In [Hex, the VFX work was going to be extremely heavy.

Both he and Wade knew that if the first movie worked, then the signing fee for the next movie would probably go over 10 million dollars easily.

Maybe even 20 million depending on how the movie does at the box office.

"Just so you know." Alberto said after they ended the handshake. His hand felt a bit numb but he ignored it. "If the movie fails, I'm coming after you with everything I get. I will blame it on you, so make sure it doesn't come to that."

Hearing that threat, Aiden gave a blank expression but there was a fire in his eyes.

"Don't worry, I will give it my best. Just don't interfere and try to make my life difficult."

"Do better than your best."

The conversation ended there. He left the Titan studios office with his lawyers after that and after parting ways, the first thing he did was to call Tom.

"Aiden, how did the contract stuff go? Alberto changed his tone or is it still the same?"

That was the first thing that Tom asked after the phone connected.

"Still the same. But it looks like he won't try to fuck me over since we in the same team now. Can't say anything after the movie though. He seems like he would send a hitman after me if the movie flops."

"It won't though, right?"

"I will do my best to make sure it doesn't."

For some reason, those words from Aiden were assuring to Tom. It was only after that they got to the main topic.

"So, what did you find? About Dustin."

Aiden had asked Tom to find information about Dustin after their awkward call. For a moment, he had felt like he should leave it alone as it wasn't his place to do anything.

But that didn't feel right.

Dustin was one of his few close friends in Hollywood. If there was something bad going with him, he needed to look into it.

"He left that action series midway actually."

"What?" Aiden was surprised to know that. It felt like the feeling he had was right all along. Dustin lied to him.

"Yeah, they were shooting in Australia and he had also shot a few scenes. From what I heard, most of the things were well but Dustin had suddenly left the series. Apparently, he wasn't well and even had to pay a fee for breaking the contract but he still backed out. He hadn't signed anything after that and has been without work for the last six months from what I know."

When Dustin had first signed up on the action series that was going to be steamed on Zetflix, he had told Aiden about it and how he was very excited.

Him leaving it midway like this and not even having work after that was very strange.

Actors normally would go from one project to another. Even if he hadn't signed anything due to the action series, he would be in contact for some small roles here and there.

"Do you know the reason why?"

Aiden asked and Tom shook his head.

"Nothing came out from the action series set. No other actors left and they all look good with the producers and directors, so I doubt the problem is there."

"Do you know where I could find Dustin?"

"I don't but I got his agent's number. I will send it to you."

Aiden nodded his head and cut the call.

A minute later, Tom had sent him the number. The bad feeling in his heart like Dustin was in some sort of trouble was increasing every minute in his heart.

After taking a breath, he finally called the agent.

/DreamNote/

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After deliberating for a while, Aiden finally called the agent and asked to meet him face to face. The agent was reluctant and tried to make excuses to not meet Aiden.

But in the end, Aiden was able to convince him.

As they were in the same city, Aiden just drove to a coffee place that was close to the location of the agent.

The agent was already there when he reached.

"It's been a long time since we last met. I don't think there were any introductions before."

"No, there wasn't. I'm Justin Short. Dustin's agent. We have been working together for years now."

Like his name, the guy was short and had features that made Aiden associate himself with a rat. But he looked friendly.

He had always seen him laughing and smiling with Dustin, so it had naturally made a good impression on Aiden.

"I will ask it directly. What's going on with Dustin? He lied to me."

Aiden went straight to the topic and Justin shook his head.

"No, he didn't."

"I got someone to look around. He left the action series shooting in the middle and hasn't even signed any other movie in these past months. That day, his voice on the phone sounded a bit dead."

When Aiden said all the facts like that, Justin wasn't able to say anything for a while. He had never thought that Aiden would use his connections to find details about Dustin.

He didn't know how to talk his way out of it now. Still, he tried.

"You should not have snooped around."

"I had to. I know something bad is going on with Dustin and—"

"What will you even do after knowing it? Don't you think there's a reason why Dustin lied to you?"

Justin interrupted Aiden and said. He stared into his eyes and hoped that he would leave it be.

But Aiden looked down and sighed.

"If there's something bad going on with him, I will try to help. I know there's a reason why he would lie as he never does that but maybe because of that, I want to know. Even if we don't hang out often, he was still a nice co star and someone who doesn't forget to congratulate me even if something small happens. If he's in trouble, I will help because I feel like I can."

Hearing that, Justin laughed, not in spite. But it was as if he had heard a man talking about fighting a lion.

"You can't help him even if you are an A-lister. Even if big studios want to work with you and talk sweet things to you."

"Why?"

"Because you can't go against the American Press association. The APA are not the guys to fuck around with and I can say this because we already tried. Nothing came out of it!"

A silence took place between them suddenly after that sentence that was filled with a suppressed angst.

Justin had revealed something important to Aiden and it seemed like he was regretting it now.

"The APA? What have they done?"

Aiden asked but Justin stayed silent. He took a glass of water that was on their table and gulped it down.

APA or the American press association was a very powerful organization in Hollywood. It had started as a non profit organization of journalists and other notable figures that wrote and reported about movies and its stars back in the early days of cinema.

A lot of influential people have joined the organisation since its inception and one major thing about it was that it hosted the annual Golden Globes awards.

The award show was created by this organisation and has since become the second biggest in Hollywood.

Though, Aiden didn't understand how APA was involved with Dustin. And Justin seemed like he wasn't going to say anything more.

"You didn't answer my question."

"I can't do that."

Aiden frowned seeing his attitude.

"I have enough information to find out what happened with Dustin. You can just say now when you blurted out that it had something to do with APA."

Hearing that, Justin wondered if he should believe Aiden but the man had indeed found out other information on Dustin.

So, maybe there was nothing to hide.

"I will tell you about this but please try to take it calmly."

"Okay."

"It started as a luncheon…"

Justin kept talking about what had happened for the next ten minutes and Aiden didn't interrupt him even once.

It was because he didn't know what to say.

Before coming here, he had rolled around with a few ideas as to what could possibly be happening with Dustin. And his best guess was that a jealous influential actor was trying to sabotage his career.

But when he actually heard what happened, he was shocked to the core.

"They said they would launch an investigation and they did. But they won't share the findings with us and just asked us to sign a non confidential agreement to never talk about the incident. I saw them threatening him that if he ever said anything, they are going to end his career. The whole organization is keeping it very tight lipped."

Justin finished his sentence with that and Aiden could only say one thing.

"Can you take me to Dustin?"

"Why are you here?"

Dustin looked in shock as Aiden stood at his doorstep. He had changed apartments a few weeks ago, so he should not know his address.

But there he was, standing with his usual laid back but calm vibe.

"He brought me here."

Aiden looked besides him and Justin appeared with a face that looked like he was ready to apologise.

"Justin, why are you with Aiden?" Dustin asked, having a lot of questions rightfully.

"I called him. Let's not talk here. Can I come in?"

Aiden asked and although Dustin wanted to say a lot, he nodded. They walked inside and sat down but before Dustin could ask questions about why Aiden was here, he opened his mouth.

"You lied about being on the sets."

Dustin was stupefied hearing that and just realised that Aiden being here meant that his lie was found out.

He wasn't able to say anything in his defense.

"I met Justin due to that." Aiden said and Dustin looked at his agent. "He told me everything. About the APA and what happened."

"Justin!"

"I had no choice. It just came out. I'm sorry."

His agent quickly said and tried to apologise. He didn't know how Dustin would take it as he had told him to hide it from Aiden.

But he wasn't able to help himself during his conversation with Aiden.

Dustin just glared at his agent and didn't say anything. He decided to deal with him later and instead turned to Aiden.

He didn't know how he felt about Aiden knowing this.

"He told you everything?"

"Yes. You should have told me about it."

"Trust me, I wanted to. I wanted to tell it to a lot more people but it wasn't wise when an entire organization threatened to end your career."

Dustin said. Aiden could clearly see that the trace of goofiness that he would often show was nowhere to be found.

He looked like he had lost a lot of weight and wasn't acting like his usual self. Which was understandable.

He had clearly gone through a lot of sleepless nights in the past few months.

"How did that happen? I heard the basic gist from Justin but I wanted to hear it from you. Is it true that APA held a half-hearted investigation?"

"They did." Dustin muttered with anger. "Those bastards. They laughed at me while asking me questions. One of them even whispered to me that it would have been better if I had stayed silent. In the end, I don't know what they found but they just asked me to sign a document and get it over with."

"Did you sign it?" Aiden asked.

"No, I didn't. It's still in my house. After that day, the phone stopped ringing about any new offers, so I'm just out of work and depressed."

It was an usual tactic done by Hollywood biggies to suppress someone. The usual term for it was 'Blacklist'.

Even if there were a lot of factions or cliques in Hollywood, they still worked together sometimes. Especially at the very top. If there is any major falling out, some studios could blacklist a person and they would never work together.

For a person like Dustin who wasn't at the top nor have major connections, an organisation like APA, which has a lot of people from different factions, could easily destroy his career.

And that was happening right at the moment.

After a while, Dustin started to narrate the story of what had transpired that day.

"It was a luncheon. A director I once worked with invited me there, saying I would be able to meet a lot of big names. I went as it was a chance to spread my name and get more work with prominent people. I didn't know that I would stumble across such a vile scene…"

/DreamNote/

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"Do you know Philips Fraser?"

Dustin asked as he looked up at Aiden. There was some unknown horror in his eyes as he narrated the events of what exactly had happened.

"He's the president of the American Press association."

Aiden muttered. An image of a man who was balding formed in his head. He was fairly average by all margins but he was a very influential person in all of Hollywood.

Aiden had met the man briefly in one of the events that he had attended. It was an event hosted by Zetflix during the time of [Sherlock of the Shadows].

He remembered Philip had praised Aiden for his performance.

"I saw him there. He was with someone young. I later found out it was a young actress who had come to the event just like me. Someone she knew invited her and she came looking for better opportunities. They were standing very close together and I could see that she was not uncomfortable."

"You mean…?"

Aiden made a guess and Dustin nodded.

"He was molesting her. I knew him by face and instinctively, I reacted, walking towards them and getting him off her. The actress quickly ran away. She looked very scared but Philip just glared at me. He didn't do anything as there were other people there. It was busy as people kept wanting to talk to him. I thought it had ended there."

Dustin let out a frown, recalling those events. His eyes turned to hatred now.

"I thought he would forget me as I was just one of the tens of other small actors there. After all, the industry is too big and you rarely remember someone until it's someone big but after lunch, he found me."

"What happened then?"

"He asked me about my career, what I have done and what I wanted to do. I didn't want to say for a moment as I thought he was just collecting information but he could get it easily if he asked around. So, I told but then, I started to feel uncomfortable around him too. The man was acting way too close for some reason. There was a weird smile on his face as he talked and asked me questions. Everyone thought it was friendly chatter but it wasn't."

Aiden widened his eyes hearing that.

What Dustin was saying was very clear to him. Philips molested him after the girl!

It was a scenario that he had never imagined. At best, his imagination had made him think that Philips blacklisted Dustin for interfering and being a witness of him molesting a young actress.

But it was way worse than he thought.

Not only Philips molested the young actress, he tried to do the same to Dustin.

He never knew that the president of such a prestigious organization was this kind of a person. But it wasn't a full surprise.

People in power are way more likely to be disgusting.

"What happened next?" Aiden asked.

"I ran away. There was no other way. Left the party as fast as possible and just got to my apartment before I felt a bit better. But a disgusting feeling always stayed with me. It was eating me like a parasite."

"You didn't go to the police."

"Not yet. I asked around for advice from a few people that knew me and they said that it was better to complain to APA rather than involving police. The police won't be able to do anything with so many people in power. He would just get bail as it was a minor attempt."

"So, you filed a complaint?"

Dustin nodded his head.

"I did. The organisation formed an internal investigation committee to look into it and questioned me a lot. They even found that young actress but she refused to say anything like that out of fear. She told me she didn't want anything like this in the beginning of her career."

Aiden sighed. A lot of people would do something like that even if they were a victim. Because one could lose a lot just by voicing out things like these in the industry against powerful people.

"Back then, I didn't understand exactly what she was saying but as the investigation was going on, I noticed that I was getting less and less offers for auditions. I first thought it was nothing but eventually, it was very clear. No one wanted to work with me now because APA had blacklisted me."

"What was the result of the investigation?"

"Nothing really. Philips Fraser admitted that he tried it but he said it was just a joke. They believed him but didn't believe me. Now they are asking me to sign an agreement to not talk about it anywhere."

Dustin stopped there and Justin, who was silent till now, opened his mouth.

"It's not asking. It's basically forcing. They have already blacklisted him. What else can they even do?"

He cursed under his breath and Aiden took in a deep breath. The whole event was very unfortunate and because of a corrupt bastard, Dustin was now suffering.

"Why don't you go to the media? Talk about it."

Aiden said and Dustin just gave a short smile like he had already thought it over.

"It's useless. You know there was a girl three years ago. A small-time actress like me who talked about molestation against a big producer. Every media channel clambered to her for an interview but after the hype was down, the producer had no troubles. His lawyers were handling it for him and the girl, well, her career is over. She would probably take 50-60k dollars from the man and end it. Her acting career will never see the light of the day as most of the industry won't work with her. No big star or director even came forward in her support when the media was around her."

Dustin was basically describing most of the allegations of sexual assault charges against rich people.

A lot of them just end outside court. Even if the media is giving you attention, hiring lawyers and everything is a hard job. A working adult can't always be involved in these things, especially if you are against a rich individual.

They have so many connections and resources that they could destroy lives easily.

In times like this, one understands how fickle everything was and how imbalance was the power system in society.

"Dustin, so are you just going to stop everything?"

Aiden asked after a while. He didn't know what Dustin's next move was going to be.

"I don't know. Haven't thought about it yet but I know I can't go against APA in any way. My career is already close to ending. I can't afford lawyers, so I will probably head out to find random small role auditions like the time when I just started out."

Dustin muttered as he shook his head. Then he smiled.

"Though, I doubt anyone will reject me with my pretty face."

It was like he had returned to his old self with that statement but Aiden knew that it was just a fake smile.

He was helpless inside and Dustin knew that. Justin had told Aiden that he had even comprehended leaving everything and flying back to his hometown.

Aiden asked whether he could help in any way but Dustin just told him to just focus on his award ceremony.

He also said that he would be watching it and rooting for Aiden. That night, Aiden didn't want to leave the house of Dustin but he had no choice.

For the next few days, Aiden's whole mind was occupied with Dustin and the whole incident.

A part of him was telling him to forget everything and move on with life. The best thing he could do was to help out Dustin with a few roles.

With his influence now, he could easily get him a few roles even if they are small. They would help him not give up on acting.

But was it really right?

Another part of him was telling him to fight for Dustin. After all, he was his friend and this was the least Aiden could do for him.

But could he really risk his whole career. He knew that if he said anything, there was a risk of him getting blacklisted too. Even A-listers have been targeted by it in the past.

There was always someone stronger and more powerful than you.

Aiden didn't know. His brain didn't work and there was no one to take advice from. After all, people were just going to tell him to stay silent.

With this moral dilemma, the day of the Golden Globes approached.

The second best award show in the world was organised by the American Press association, the same organisation that had blacklisted Dustin.

Aiden was wondering if he should just leave the show. All the excitement had left him these past few days but there was no option.

He had to attend it.

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Golden Globes had taken a hit in the past few years in terms of reputation and how many people wanted to watch it. To be clear, that was for every award show.

Even the esteemed Oscars weren't spared.

But Golden Globes took a harsher, sharper hit as the award show changed channels three years ago. In the middle, no channel wanted to broadcast it and for a year, it went with just live streaming.

But after that, Panther TV took it up and due to a better management in place, the interest again came up but not at the level that people have hoped for.

If one wanted to look into this issue, a lot of it was just celebrities not being that exciting anymore. People didn't want to watch a two hour show just to see a bunch of celebrities together on the red carpet.

Moreover, the movie culture had changed significantly in the past few years too.

Majority of popular movies don't get nominated aside from the special effects section and no one wants to see a movie they have not watched get the award.

It just won't feel that interesting and people would think that they are giving just any movie the award. There were even categories now like award movies and commercial movies.

Many analysts had talked about including superhero and other franchise movies in the main categories but the suggestion hadn't been taken nicely by anyone.

Just in this year's Golden Globes, [The Black Saint] was not nominated because it was regarded as a sequel. By selecting movies, no one had thought that the movie was also good enough as a standalone.

Only Aiden was nominated as his performance was too strong to ignore.

That's why, the whole team of [The Black Saint] wished that he would get the award tonight. For them.

They didn't know that his mind was a mess.

"Hello and welcome, I'm Jessica Healy and I'm here at the red carpet at the Golden Globes awards. As you can see, it's a very busy atmosphere here as celebrities have started to come in. In a moment, we would go and interview a few of them."

A female reporter said as she tugged a strand of her hair behind her ear in an attempt to look cute. The cameraman gave her the 'Ok' signal and she walked towards the red carpet and looked around to see which celebrity she could approach.

Other reporters were also there, reporting celebrities who had arrived early. She needed to be quick on her feet.

At that moment, her eyes found someone walking towards her. He was a very senior actor who was once a leading man in Hollywood comedies but since the 2000s, he had stopped acting and was living lavishly with the money and investments he had made.

"Hello, Jimmy, it's nice to see you here. Do you have a minute? Can I ask you a few questions?"

"Ask away." The man said, not really looking interested in his body language but still agreeing in a slightly lazy voice.

"Who do you think would win the most awards tonight? Any movie or actor that you are supporting tonight?"

Hearing the question, the man made an expression like he was already bored. He knew that he was going to hear the question until the ceremony began.

"Not really. I'm not looking forward to anything. And does it even matter?"

"What? I think it matters. We are celebrating the best movies and performances of the year tonight." The female reporter said as she blinked her eyes.

"I really wonder about it. From my perspective, it's just rich people giving awards to other rich people. Do you think any of these people care about cinema? I don't think a lot does. Not in this decade."

"Why are you here then?"

"Because of food and the wine. I will see you."

The man said and walked away. The female reporter kept looking at his direction for a while before shaking her head.

"A lot of people say that he had become depressed and fed up with the industry in recent years. Don't like anything now. Had personal tragedies too. Probably haven't recovered from it."

"Yeah, let's move on."

The female reporter said and she looked around, trying to find someone who was nominated tonight.

More people would be interested in that and her boss had also told her to do that.

Suddenly, the crowd that had come to see their favourite celebrities started making a lot of noise. The security personnel quickly tightened their security and got on guard.

The female reporter knew that the crowd would only react like that if a big celebrity was here.

She turned her head around and it was at that moment, she found out who it was.

"Aiden Silvereye!"

He had just gotten out of his car and was with a few other people. One of them was a big bear-like person who looked like a bodyguard while another person she recognised was the director of [The Black Saint, Zavier Lamb.

As usual, his popularity was sky high at the moment and the crowd was excited to see him. A lot of cameras were also turned towards him as people took every photo possible from him.

The female reporter could hear a lot of whispers directed at him.

"Isn't Aiden the only celebrity with box office pull at the moment? Among the younger celebrities?"

"There are a few others but none have given blockbusters like him. He either goes for big budget blockbusters or indie movies that surpass expectations. I heard he has an excellent eye for scripts."

"He just doesn't have a lot of awards."

"Yeah, he was always touted to be a good actor. Just too young for major awards. I think it would change tonight."

"Yeah, he must be eyeing the award."

Hearing the chatter, the female reporter was distracted for a moment before she realised that she had to hurry to ask a few questions from him.

But it was too late.

When she reached near him, there were already a lot of people, different reporters trying to ask their questions.

'It's too hard to get a star like him for a solo interview.'

She thought in her mind and tried every possible way to get a question in.

As soon as Aiden entered the event, cameras were shoved in his face. He was used to it, so he quickly gave the answer to a few questions and left.

Reporters obviously wanted to know more but they didn't have many questions other than cliche ones.

Do you think you would get the award? Who do you think would be your biggest competitor? Are you unhappy that your movie wasn't nominated? Which actress are you excited to meet tonight?

Aiden was so used to these that he didn't have to wait for the reporters to finish their question before speaking.

Though, he also spent a bit of his time to say thank you to the people who were cheering him on. A guy had even come with a poster of Kai and Aiden gave him a selfie.

After all, he finally made his way inside.

On the surface, he was smiling and looking happy but in his heart, Aiden knew that he wasn't okay. He had even asked Wade if he could skip the event but there was no way around it.

"Are you okay?" Wade asked as he put a hand on his shoulder. Aiden decided to answer honestly.

"I'm not."

"Still thinking about Dustin."

"Yeah."

Aiden nodded his head. He had talked about Dustin with Wade and even he was shocked to hear what had happened. He had even helped him get some inside news from APA.

It seemed like Dustin complaining about Philips Fraser was the elephant in the room for everyone in the association. There were no talks about it and they were doing everything to not let it leak to the media.

"It's just that knowing that the American Press association is hosting the event, I just don't think it's moral to be here. I feel like I would be doing something wrong. My conscience has never been like this before."

Wade struggled to say anything hearing that. He didn't know what to say seeing Aiden like that.

Sadly, there was no other way.

"Aiden, I know you are struggling with it but I'm pretty sure Dustin would never like it if you don't go and take the award."

"At this point, I hope I don't win."

Aiden frowned. His interest in awards had significantly gone down, especially for the Golden Globes. It looked to have no purpose now.

It was not like he never thought that Hollywood was like this. It just was very different just hearing and having it happen to a friend of yours.

You can ignore it in the first case but in the second case, you are going to be affected.

Wade wanted to say something but he didn't say anything as they moved.

It was then that they heard a voice.

"Aiden, you are finally here."

It was Ray Hardy. Aiden looked towards him. He wasn't alone and had been talking to another person before he had noticed him.

"Ah…"

Aiden recognised the person.

It was Philips Fraser, the president of the American Press association.

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Ray had reached the venue half an hour before Aiden and since then, he had been greeting people he knew and having small talks.

Having a long and illustrious career, Ray knew a lot of people who were attending. Even top executives.

Philips Fraser was one of them that he had known for a few years. Though, he didn't know the man personally.

They would greet each other and talk about movies and Hollywood from time to time.

Philips was just congratulating Ray on the success of [The Black Saint] when the latter had seen Aiden coming through.

"Aiden, you look pretty good. Cameras are going to love you when it starts, especially when you stand up to pick your award."

Ray said as he gave Aiden a small hug.

"Thank you. You look good… too."

Aiden's gaze stayed on Philips as he said that. Besides him, Wade's heartbeat quickened up.

He didn't know what was going to happen now.

Ray noticed Aiden looking towards Philips and just thought that he didn't know who he was. So, he smiled and introduced himself.

"This is Philips Fraser, the president of the American Press association. You must have heard of him. He had been part of the organisation for years and had been a prominent part of the whole industry."

Philips smiled at that introduction and pushed his hands towards Aiden. That smile just looked ugly to Aiden.

"I have been hearing a lot of good things about you. Hollywood always needs creative people like you."

"Thank you."

Aiden said as he shook his hand but in his mind, he was just running down chances of him punching Philips and getting away with it.

In the end, it was just wishful thinking and not something Aiden would do. He had better control on his emotions no matter how much he hated a person.

"When I first watched [The Black Saint, I knew that your performance would get more than one nomination. It was probably the best I have seen in the last few years if I'm talking about negative characters."

Philips praised and his smile was just like an old man who was happy to see young people doing good. Watching him, both Aiden and Wade felt a bit sick.

But they kept it hidden with smiles.

"Does that mean Aiden is going to win tonight?" Ray asked cheekily.

"I can't answer that."

"You can give a hint."

Philips laughed and just shook his head.

"There's no fun in that. Anyway, I will see you at the after party. The nights are going to be long tonight. I hope you will be there. A lot of people especially want to talk to you."

After saying that, Philips left to talk to other people and to make sure that every arrangement was fine.

When he left, Aiden took a sigh of relief.

'I was feeling sick just standing next to him.'

He thought in his mind.

"Philips won't be like that until you have a lot of chances of winning. I feel like you would be the winner tonight."

Ray muttered, looking very sure of it.

"It doesn't matter." Aiden said. "Getting an award, I mean. Do you know Philips well?"

"Uh no. I don't really but it's more like I know him but not at a personal level. Just know that he's an influential old guy who has a fair amount of connections. Even if I don't care a lot, it's still a basic thing to talk nicely and remember names."

Ray felt a bit strange when Aiden said that but he still replied.

"Do you know anything bad about him?"

Wade gave a sharp look towards Aiden when he asked that. But he was only looking at Ray.

"No, I don't. You are acting strange. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm. Anyway, I will see you inside."

Aiden said and avoided the strange looks that Ray was giving in. He walked inside with Wade while Ray kept wondering what had happened to Aiden.

Why was he acting so strange? It was like he was just another person.

But he just dismissed it as Aiden being nervous. After all, that was very rare.

The Golden Globes award ceremony was hosted by a famous comedian, Levi Ritchie. He was known as one of the better comedians around and had also hosted the previous award ceremony.

For a lot of the audience, Levi's opening monologue was a major reason for them to watch the show.

It was because he was known to not have any fear of what he was saying and would make jokes on any celebrity no matter how influential he is.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen, I'm your host Levi Ritchie and I'm pretty sure you all know me already. But it's just standard procedure to start the ceremony. Welcome tonight to yet another year of Golden Globes, the self-proclaimed second biggest award show of the world. And by world, I mean America. Like the aliens in our movies, we all think that the world is only America, am I right?"

People laughed hearing that. And in a way, the sentence was extremely true.

Hollywood did have a habit of thinking of itself as the world cinema when there were other prominent industries in the world. Though, Aiden didn't care to think a lot on the topic as the ceremony moved.

For the next 15 minutes, Levi presented his monologue, taking quips at the celebrities present.

From jokes of a certain celebrity buying an award to questioning people for their weird script choices in a humorous way. There was everything that Levi focused on.

Though, maybe the joke that hit Aiden the most was, "You know by statistics, there would be at least one serial killer in the room. But I don't believe in that. We have serial killers, abusers, cheaters and even molesters present here. Allegedly."

A lot of people laughed at the joke while some looked very uncomfortable. Aiden turned towards Philips but the man was laughing with a smile, sitting in one of the front seats.

'That bastard. He has very thick skin.'

Aiden thought and frowned.

The event went ahead like that with a lot of other jokes from the host. Those were at the level where Aiden was sure that it would go viral after the event.

He had to say that Levi didn't fear anyone. At one point, he made a joke about a very prominent director and the allegations of minor grooming on him.

"This year, we had a lot of young actors that did great in movies. A lot of actresses that were underaged made a splendid debut and are here to impress some big directors to move their career forward. Don't worry, Allen Murphy already had his eyes on you all. I mean, your talents."

The director Allen Murphy had looked very offended as his face had just froze but people around him were laughing. He wasn't able to do anything.

Seeing this, Aiden had looked at Wade and whispered.

"Do you think Levi won't have people after him for these jokes? A lot of them look offended."

"I doubt it. People can be petty but the man doesn't care. His jokes have become more sharp as people have gotten sensitive. Once, he was close to getting blacklisted because an executive didn't like him. Then, he produced, wrote and acted in his own series for a streaming platform and got more famous. He had work because he's talented. No one can do anything to him because of his attitude. He doesn't let anyone."

Aiden nodded and after that, awards started being given out. From technical awards to other awards that didn't look a lot important but for filmmakers, those were the most important awards.

In the middle of the show, Aiden's thoughts became more and more jumbled. He was feeling like he should leave but there was no way out.

In the end, he told Wade that he was going to the bathroom to take some personal space to comprehend his thoughts.

Reaching the bathroom, he kept splashing water on himself.

Splash! Splash!

His shirt got a bit soaked but he didn't care.

'What am I going to do now?'

He thought in his mind.

The whole award show was going on in his mind, the sound of claps could still be heard in the bathroom. And he had a feeling that he was going to win.

Although he didn't know for sure that he was going to win it, he just had a feeling.

And his feelings and Instincts were very strong.

'Should I just go on the stage and take the award normally?'

He thought but that idea was not acceptable to him.

He felt more and more conflicted by the minute.

It was then that his phone suddenly rang. He took it out and was surprised to see that it was Ava.

A lot of thoughts went in his mind before he picked it up.

"Hello, Aiden. Are you okay?"

Her voice came from the other side.

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"Hello, Aiden. Are you okay?"

When Aiden heard that, he wondered for a second how Ava knew that he wasn't really fine. Her voice looked a bit more soft, like she was anxious and concerned about him.

Her next words explained why she knew that he wasn't okay.

"I was watching the award ceremony on TV and I saw you walking towards the exit during one of the awards. You didn't look good. So, I called you. What's going on?"

"I can't really explain it to you but I'm thinking of doing something that will put my career in risk. But I don't know if I'm gutsy enough to go with it."

Ava went silent hearing that. For a moment, she wondered if her ears were hearing wrong. But it didn't look like she did.

"What are you planning to do and why?"

"I can't tell you what I'm planning to do as I'm not sure about it myself. As for why, it's because I can't live with the regret that I didn't do anything when I had the chance. I don't want to just be like a puppet, ignoring things for my own benefit. That's too selfish."

Yet another silence continued for a while.

"I don't know what you are going to do but you sure it will end your career?"

"I don't know. It would at least put it at a major risk."

"Then why? Just don't do it. You have worked hard to achieve everything. One mistake would destroy all of it."

Aiden pondered on those words.

Years of hard work. Years of struggle. The days of driving a taxi and singing in bars. The days of starting out in movies and then finally, achieving a level of stardom he could be proud of.

One thing could push him right to the starting line and this time, he might not even be able to move ahead.

But maybe just ignoring things wasn't his way.

If a comedian like Levi Ritchie didn't fear Hollywood and make offensive jokes on them nonstop, then why was he fearing that much.

"It's fine if my career gets destroyed. I have enough to not be homeless and I could move back to India even if it really came to that. We have a great industry back home."

"Aiden, still—"

"I have a question."

Aiden cut her off mid sentence and asked.

"What?"

"If I get blacklisted, will our friendship stay?"

He was very curious about this. Practically, Ava wouldn't like to involve herself with him if he actually got blacklisted from the industry.

He would not blame her for that. He would just feel disappointed.

"It will stay. And don't worry, I won't let you be blacklisted. I have some power in the industry."

Her voice came out from the other side. Aiden didn't know if she was serious or not.

But it felt good.

"Then, I will hold onto that."

He said and cut the call. He had been in the bathroom for thirty minutes already and he was sure that some staff member would already be looking for him.

As one of the nominees for a major award, cameramen were sure to focus on him a lot. So, they would have already noticed that he was absent.

After collecting himself and settling his hair nicely, he went back to his table. When Wade saw him sitting down next to him, he took a sigh of relief.

He was going to get up to look for him.

"Where were you? They just gave the award for Best Supporting actors. Currently, they are announcing the nominations for Best Actress in a leading role."

"So, my category is next."

"Yes."

Aiden craned his neck to look at the stage. Apparently, Ray Hardy and a female model he didn't recognise was on the stage. They were presenting the award for 'Best actress in a leading role'.

After announcing the nominees, everyone went silent and a few people looked at all the actresses that were nominated.

The winner was revealed then and an actress in her 30s stood up to pick the award. She had given an amazing performance as a lead in a psychological action movie this year.

Aiden had liked the movie quite a lot. Though, her performance was undoubtedly the standout of the movie.

She went up on the stage to collect her award. When she was giving her speech, Wade looked at Aiden.

"Please don't do anything stupid if you are the winner. Just copy what she's saying and get it over with. When you are stronger and more powerful, you can help out Dustin."

Wade said and Aiden thought that his plan wasn't bad. Just he didn't want to wait that long.

If he really played the long game, then there are going to be way more victims like Dustin.

That's why, he just nodded his head at Wade instead of saying anything.

The female actress finished her speech and got off stage. Levi Ritchie appeared and called out the presenter for the next award.

The presenter was an old director that had retired a long time ago but was now handling important positions in a few director's guilds.

"Tonight, there have been several excellent people who have won awards. These are the people who have mastered their craft truly. The next category is very special in that regard as it includes some excellent, excellent actors who have given performances that are hard to top."

He said and proceeded to talk out loud the name of the nominees. The first name itself was Aiden and the camera quickly turned towards him.

The second name was of an old actor who was in his 60s but he had given a great performance in an indie movie about an old man teaching his grandson about old age cinema.

The third nominee was an actor who had played the role of a mathematician in a biopic. Aiden had particularly liked his performance and had felt like he was his biggest competition tonight.

In the end, the fourth nominee was an actor who played the role of a gangster in a 70s style gangster movie. It was a revenge drama with a healthy dose of emotions and the actor had nailed every scene he was a part of.

After the nominations were done, the presenter opened up the envelope in his hand and reading the name, he smiled.

Then, he took a look around the audience and opened his mouth.

"The winner of 'Best male actor in a leading role' is… probably my favourite performance of the year. Aiden Silvereye!"

As soon as he took the name, claps and cheers resounded within the whole venue. The actors who were nominated with Aiden felt a bit disappointed and rightly so but they hid it and clapped for Aiden.

Directors who were in the venue whispered to each other about Aiden while a few young actresses and models instantly got their eyes on him, knowing that his stocks were going to rise up again after tonight.

Him having no date also made him more attractive in their eyes.

Other actors — some young, some old — looked at him with a gaze like they were acknowledging his talent. Him winning the award meant a lot of things after all.

Wade, who was sitting next to him, wasn't able to contain himself when Aiden won.

"Aiden, you won. You damn bastard! You won!"

People in that table all congratulated him but strangely, he had a very calm expression on his face. Like he was already expecting himself to win.

He stood up and slowly made his way towards the stage.

It was weird but during that whole walk, his mind had gone blank. Maybe it was because of the sound of thunderous clapping or something else. He didn't know.

"Congratulations, young man."

"Thank you."

The old director who was acting as the presenter handed over the award to Aiden and shook his hand.

He took a look at the award. Like the name of the event, it was literally a trophy with a small globe on top of it. It looked like something that would look amazing in a living room.

Holding the award in his hand, he addressed the crowd.

Everyone was looking at him with smiles on their faces. He was one of the youngest winners of the award and it was the best award for an actor too.

They all wanted to listen to what he had to say.

A lot of things were also going through Aiden's mind.

'This is it, I guess.'

He thought in his mind and closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them up, he could see in one of the corners, Philips Fraser was sitting.

He was whispering something to a man next to him.

"First of all, I have prepared a speech tonight to thank everyone who has supported me till now in my career."

He began and the crowd quieted down.

"There were lots of names. Lots of people to thank as I won't be here without them. The team of [The Black Saint] helped me give my best performance till date. I'm very thankful for that."

Ray and Zavier in the crowd smiled hearing that alongside other people from the crew and cast that were invited.

At this point, none of the people in the crowd have even guessed his next words.

"That's why, I'm sorry that I will be disappointing you all tonight. I won't be taking the award!"

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The whole venue went silent in an instant.

It was like they had all heard something shocking. A few people were even expecting Aiden to say that it was a joke.

But he didn't.

His eyes looked resolute. He was serious. He wasn't joking. It wasn't a prank.

He really wasn't going to accept his award.

Wade who was sitting in the back couldn't help but frown. His worst nightmare had come true.

On the backstage, Levi Ritchie was baffled. He asked one of the staff members if something like this was planned. But he shook his head.

No one had any idea what was going on.

On the stage, Aiden took a deep breath. What he had said couldn't be taken back.

The only way forward was to continue what he had started. He needed to be strong here.

Taking another breath, he continued.

"If I'm being honest, a week ago I was extremely excited when my name came in the nominations. I even dreamt of this moment that night but a lot of things happened after that day. My friend, Dustin Redford told me something that really changed my perspective on the Golden Globes and The American Press association."

Aiden could see Philips Fraser frowning when he took Dustin's name. People started whispering wondering what was going on.

Some people already have an idea on where Aiden was going with this.

"What's going on? What is he saying?"

"What did the association do? Is there something I don't know?"

"Ah, this year's event is truly becoming one of the best."

"I thought those were just rumours. Is Aiden really accusing the association on such a stage?"

Those whispers didn't reach Aiden's ears as his eyes just looked at Philips Fraser who was stunned.

"Six months ago, Mr. Philips Fraser, the president of American Press association, molested my friend Dustin Redford. He filed a complaint in the association but got blacklisted in the end. I'm pretty sure some people in the crowd already know about it."

Another silence set in.

Some people gulped and sneaked glances at Philips Fraser who looked like he wanted nothing but to shoot Aiden in his head.

Others felt surprised but were very impressed by the guts shown by Aiden.

"When I got to know about it, I was conflicted but in the end, I can't take an award from an organisation that had become a shell of its past. That's just not me. So, I'm extremely sorry but I am rejecting this award tonight."

After finishing that speech, he just put the trophy on the stage and walked off. If he hadn't, security guards would have taken him away.

In the whole venue, people were just taking in what had just happened.

All the big celebrities were stunned!

Both Zavier and Ray just looked at Aiden with worried eyes as he walked off stage. They knew that the repercussions from this on Aiden won't be light.

Meaning, Jimmy Holder, the comedian-actor who had called the whole award show meaningless on the red carpet was laughing, holding a glass of wine.

He had never seen something like this in his career. And he had seen a lot.

"Aiden is stupid. The guy is going to not get any other Hollywood movie. Philips Fraser isn't some powerless man."

Someone muttered besides Jimmy and he just looked at him sharply and replied.

"Are we calling people with guts stupid these days? At least he has the gall to call out people and not take awards that are given by corrupted people."

The man was stupefied hearing that.

While on the backstage, the scene could just be described as panic. People were running around here and there, not knowing what to do.

A lot of people were checking up on the reactions. As the whole event was live, Aiden's accusation towards Philips Fraser was heard by all.

It was already spreading through the internet.

In all the chaos, there was only one man who had a smile on his face. It was more like a grin to be honest.

The man with the grin was Levi Ritchie.

A staff member who was checking the online comments saw him grinning and couldn't help but ask.

"Sir, why are you grinning? It's not a matter to be happy about."

"Ah, why isn't it?" He asked in an accent that resembled one of a Brit. Levi was originally from London and had settled in America.

"Because people are going to talk about this. It won't look good for the Golden Globes. I don't even know what will happen after today. Something like this had never happened before."

The staff member rumbled in worry.

"Precisely." Levi said, maintaining his grin. "The Golden Globes had become stagnant. Something crazy like this is surely going to make it the most talked about award show of this year. I should personally thank Aiden for this. I don't know what will happen to him but that lad is surely crazy in a right way."

Like Levi said, Aiden's rejection of the award for the Best lead actor and accusation on Philips Fraser spread faster than a popular actress's leaked nudes.

Ten minutes to the incident, Golden Globes was trending on top of Sparrow with Aiden's name right behind it. Actually, 7 of the top 10 trends were related to Aiden and the event.

Aiden's speech was already going viral all over the world. An hour after it, even news channels started covering it.

Even if the marketing team of Golden Globes had spent 100 million dollars, this wouldn't be possible.

On the internet, people were already talking about it in detail. Even celebrities have tweeted about it.

A sexual assault accusation on one of Hollywood biggies in such a big event had truly attracted the eyes of everyone.

[I will dance, dance, dance: I just woke up from a nap with 20 missed calls. I thought someone died but it's just Aiden making a scene at the Golden Globes.]

[Sparrow's Owner: Aiden Silvereye made me a fan tonight. I will send him a free electric car. And don't worry, this one is more sturdy.]

[Vin Petrol: I can't believe what I saw just now. If this is true, then it is big. I'm pretty sure it's true as no actor would risk their career like this for no reason.]

[Love playing with balls: I hate to say this but I doubt Aiden will get more work after this. My dad worked as a writer once and he said that it's easy for someone to get blacklisted easily. I doubt he will come out on top with this accusation.]

[Chad Putin: Blacklist? Whoever blacklists him, I will send my pet bear after him.]

[The man from North Korea: I'm with you brother. I have a few miniature missiles ready to launch.]

[Moaning Frodo: Chad Aiden heard that the Golden Globes wasn't getting any viewership and pulled out something like this. Now the whole show is viral. I think the American press association will pay him for making their boring event so popular.]

[April on Roof: I hope Aiden is okay. I don't know how he's feeling right now but something like this is very big.]

[Hollywood Insider: This could go both ways for Aiden as he had directly challenged one of the bigshots. Someone who is the head of a big Hollywood association and revealed his sexual assault case to the public. If this is true and I know it is, then at best Philips Fraser is surely going to step down from his position as there would be too much critisism but I'm also sure that the press association will try to fight this first and Aiden could potentially be blacklisted. I'm grabbing my popcorn for all the drama.]

During the acceptance speech of his award, Aiden Silvereye accused the president of American Press association, Philips Fraser of sexual assault towards another actor and called the whole organization corrupt. He also rejected the award.

-Hollywood Reporter.

Several big actors who attended the Golden Globes event showed their shock on Aiden's revelations. No one had any clue about it.

-Vanity Magazine.

No one from American press association had agreed to address this issue and have been silent. After the events, Philips Fraser was seen leaving with a few other people. It's reported that an urgent meeting had been called by the organisation.

-Hollywood Weekly.

'It's already on the news.'

Aiden thought as he sat down inside his car. After he had got off stage, a few members from the press association had tried to talk to him and told him that they were going to take it very seriously.

By their tone, it didn't seem like they liked his speech.

He had already anticipated it, so he was ready.

It was then that the door opened and Wade crawled inside. A few flashes could be seen behind his shoulders.

Aiden's car was surrounded by reporters.

Sitting in front of him, Wade looked at Aiden and sighed.

"You really did what I feared."

"Yeah."

"What next? Are you going to wait till you get blacklisted?"

"No, I have a plan."

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[Breaking news! During the Golden Globes award ceremony today, Aiden Silvereye who won the award for his performance as Kai August in the acclaimed movie [The Black Saint] rejected the award on set, citing reasons of the corruption against the American press association. At the start of the year, this is one of the biggest controversies. He had accused the association's president Philips Fraser of sexual assault charges. We have an expert here to talk about the topic in hand…]

Ava looked at the TV screen and frowned. She was currently in a hotel room in London and had seen the entirety of Aiden's speech.

The news channel, especially the ones focused on entertainment had already picked up the news and called up experts to talk about it.

They were surely going to run the news for a week at least. More if the controversy stretches and Ava knew that it was going to stretch for a while.

"He's really a crazy guy."

She thought in her mind. Her phone was constantly vibrating due to all the calls she was getting.

Aiden was working with Titan studios for his next and was close to her, so she was getting the calls as people were very curious.

A lot had already predicted that the press association was not going to take this lightly.

They will try their best to silent Aiden and fight against the allegations.

One would say that it might just be easier to suspend Philips Fraser as at least the association knows that the allegations weren't wrong.

But it would also hurt the reputation of the organisation.

The association certainly didn't want that, so they would try to fight off Aiden's allegation. Later, they could hold another internal investigation and just push the case under the rug when the topic dies down in the media.

"Things are going to be very interesting for the next few days. I hope Aiden has plans."

Ava muttered and at the moment, her phone rang again.

This time, she picked it up as if it was her assistant. She had told her to get to the bottom of the mess and report.

"So, what have you got?"

Ava asked and her assistant quickly spoke.

"It's a very chaotic situation. The press association is a mess. I heard they called an urgent meeting to discuss and some people are opposing Philips Fraser. It was already a hush hush topic."

"So, they are going to launch an investigation seriously this time."

"I doubt it. It might be for names but they are seriously going to come after Aiden. The association hadn't taken nicely to him and would try to get him blacklisted."

Ava let out a sigh.

She was sure that he would easily lose a few projects if the press association willed it. Alberto Dundley was probably itching to remove him from [Hex] and now, he had got a good reason.

Ava had to talk to him later.

"What can he do then?"

"It's hard to say. Until the association kept backing Philips Fraser, he would have it hard. The association rarely throws one of their members under the bus, especially a president. It would take a lot for Aiden to come out on top this time. He might be able to get the media to talk about his blacklisting for a while but they would only give him attention till the next big scandal."

Ava thought silently for a while. Going against a biggie was always a hard thing, especially like this.

He has asked her before if she will help him if he ever gets blacklisted. She never thought it would happen two hours later.

Sighing, she opened her mouth.

"Try to find anything that could help Aiden against the press association. I will try to help contain the situation myself. As for Aiden, I'm pretty sure he has some sort of plan."

"I do have a plan."

Aiden muttered as he drove the car. He was not outside the award venue currently and was on the road.

He had sent Wade to do something else and was currently on the phone with Dustin.

He had called him after hearing about what had happened in the award show.

"Even if you have a plan, what the hell were you thinking pulling off something like that. The whole industry is shaken because of you."

"I did it because it was the right thing and my intention wasn't to shake the industry. It was to shake the press association and I hope it worked."

"It certainly did, you crazy bastard! People are attacking them right now on the internet."

Aiden smiled hearing that. He didn't have a lot of time to check the internet as he was making a few calls.

But it seemed like everything was going right.

Although he had acted without thinking a lot, he still had a plan ready. Though Aiden didn't know if it was going to work or not.

"Hey, thanks. I never thought you would do this for me. It means a lot."

After a while, Dustin said in a grateful voice.

"If it means a lot, then do one thing. You have reporters calling you right?"

"Yeah, Justin is handling all of them. He never got so many calls at the same time before."

Aiden smirked hearing that and stopped his car.

"Tell him to get an interview with the best reporter he could find. With the largest reach. Now that it's out in the open, you need to talk about it. And do it in a way that goes viral."

He was basically telling Dustin to put on more pressure on Philips Fraser and the press association. As he was the main victim, he was also the most important person in the whole controversy.

Dustin also understood this and nodded.

"Okay, I will give an interview. An explosive one."

He cut the call after that and Aiden got out of his car. Taking a deep breath, he looked out for reporters but there were none.

Looks like none of them had chased him.

After that, he looked up ahead and walked towards the restaurant. He had come to his uncle's restaurant as his home and office would have already been surrounded by reporters.

It was late at night so the restaurant was already closed.

He knocked on the door and his uncle quickly opened. Concerned eyes scanned his face as he walked inside.

"You can't stay without trouble for long."

"I tried to. I like peace myself."

Uncle Sam sighed but didn't say anything. He knew that there was no going back now.

"Is she here?"

Aiden asked as he looked at his uncle.

"Yeah, she's inside. Go and talk. If you need help, remember, I still have a few contacts left. Few people who owe me small favours."

"I know. I will keep it in mind."

Aiden smiled and walked inside to the staff area. Uncle Sam locked the door and just gave him privacy.

Inside, there was already someone waiting for Aiden.

"You ruined my sleep."

"I thought you were already up when I called you."

"You did that even before that. Every reporter and paparazzi in Hollywood is up right now because of the spectacle you pulled."

Katherine Huff said as she looked at him with eyes full of curiosity. It seemed like she was now seeing Aiden in a new light. As a more gutsy and stupid actor.

She was one of the reporters that Aiden was close with and she had helped him with Florence Levine in the past. Aiden felt like he could trust her, so he called her here.

It was the only safe place for them to talk.

"For a while, I wasn't going to do it. Just taking the award and going home felt like a good idea to me but somewhere in my heart, it wasn't acceptable."

Aiden said as he sat down in front of her.

"It was a pretty stupid move. You are halfway through being blacklisted."

"I didn't do anything wrong."

"Hollywood doesn't work with logic."

Katherine smiled and Aiden leaned against his seat. If he was being honest, he didn't really care if the press association wanted to blacklist him.

He was going to attack them first.

"You said that what I did was stupid right?"

"Yeah everyone would say that." Katherine replied with a nod.

"I don't believe that. It's only stupid if my career ends here and Philips Fraser is safe. The conclusion still hadn't happened. The match is in the interval right now."

Every big decision travels a thin line between brave and stupid. The results matter in the end.

That will decide if his decision was brave or stupid.

"So, how are you going to win it?"

"To win it, I need your help."

Aiden said as he looked straight at her.

"Why will I help you?"

Katherine asked and Aiden had already thought of an answer.

"Because I'm the most talked about person in Hollywood right now. If I win against Philips Fraser, that would increase even more and you will get a chance to take an exclusive interview with me. Won't that be nice for you?"

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Katherine mused on the offer. It was an interesting one and she didn't find any reason to reject it. Aiden had not given a lot of interviews even after becoming an A-lister, so an exclusive one would be great for her.

Especially in the current scenario.

She might even get a bonus from her company. Though, she was apprehensive about what Aiden might ask of her in return.

"I accept but I don't have any major scandals on Philips Fraser. He's an old player in the industry but he's mostly low key, blends well so people hardly talk about him outside a few circles."

She said and it looked like Aiden already expected that.

"I don't need any scandals. Just tell me who are the people who are close with him, people who used to be close with him and even a small rumour related to the association or Philips."

"What are you going to do with that?"

Katherine asked with genuine curiosity.

"It's simple. When one crack appears, there's a chance of the whole object breaking. Do you really think someone like Philips Fraser and the press association had everything clean about them? Or the thing with Dustin is his first attempt?"

Aiden recalled the story told by Dustin.

From what he narrated, Philips Fraser looked like he was already used to doing these types of things. There was no doubt in Aiden's mind that there were more victims and silent ones at that.

Moreover, he had looked into press association major member's history before. A lot of it looked good on paper but when someone tries to introspect a bit more, they will find a lot of shady things dismissed as rumours.

It was not a surprise that a molester like Philips was the president of the press association. There was no way other members had no clue about how he was.

The viable reason here was that they knew and they didn't care enough because no one was completely clean in the whole association.

"I know they are not clean but even if you know the people who were once close with him and just didn't speak out due to obvious reasons, how will you convince them to speak out now?"

Katherine asked and Aiden just smiled.

"Humans are weird. A lot of them don't do anything until someone else shows them how to do it. It's rare for someone to take the path less travelled as it's just easier to do something that a lot had already done. I'm pretty sure a lot of people are contemplating speaking out against Philips and the association right now."

"So, you want to push them a bit more?"

"Yup. If there are a lot of people accusing him and the association, then they can't just come after me. It's clear that the problem is them then."

Aiden said and at that moment, his phone suddenly rang. He took it out and saw that it was Wade.

'I hope it's good news.'

He had sent Wade to do something very important. Something that he felt would be very essential against Philips Fraser.

"Wade, did you find her?"

"Yeah, I found her. She's ready to talk."

Hearing that, Aiden had a wide smile on his face.

Aiden had read a quote once. "You can win any battle if you know yourself and your enemy," It was a quote from a very famous Chinese general that had actually become a victim of internet's creativity in recent years.

But the quote had a profound meaning.

Following it, Aiden had looked a bit into Philip's past and one thing he noticed was that he was divorced. Moreover, from what he heard, his wife seemed to be too bitter about him.

It wasn't the ordinary kind of bitterness a person will feel after a failed relationship. She almost seemed to loathe him and had refused to be associated with him no matter what.

In the past, she herself was an actress. Never got the fame but was a very strong actress.

After the divorce, she had left acting and was now just living her life in an ordinary residential area in New York City.

Aiden had asked Wade to find her as he felt like she could give them a lot against Philips Fraser. And he didn't disappoint him.

"You talked to her?"

Aiden said, getting out of the car. He was wearing a cap and mask, so no one recognised him. The night was also helping him stay hidden.

It was almost midnight and the night was really passing slowly.

"Yeah, she seemed to understand everything when I said I'm your agent. Told me that she will talk to you only. One more thing I noticed was that she hates Philips."

"How do you know that?"

"Her eyes were full of hatred when I mentioned him. I won't be surprised if she prays for his death every night." Wade said, then shook his head. "How did it go with Katherine?"

Aiden smiled, "It went well. She agreed to help. I already sent Tom with her."

Every member of his team was up at this moment. A lot of people were trying to attack the press association and Philips Fraser and his team were just fueling the fire.

Sasha was leading the charge as his social media manager and was also handling the media that was trying their best to reach Aiden.

On the other hand, Dustin was also in the middle of giving out interviews about what had happened, putting more pressure on the American press association.

"Anyway, here goes nothing."

Aiden said and he rang the doorbell. A minute later, a woman appeared. There were white strands in her hair and wrinkles were all over her face, displaying her age.

Seeing Aiden, she smiled.

"You are fast. I thought you would take more time."

"I didn't wanted to make you wait. Things are pretty tight as you could see."

"I know. I'm keeping an eye out."

Aiden entered her house and Wade decided to wait outside. It was a fairly simple house, hinting at the fact that the woman didn't really lived lavishly.

A simple life felt like her thing.

She introduced herself as June Williams, the woman who was once known as June Fraser.

"You know I was surprised when I got calls about what happened in the Golden Globes. A friend informed me and I thought he was joking until I looked it up. What actually gave you so much strength to pull off something like this?"

"It was for a friend."

June laughed hearing that.

"That might be one of the reasons but there is more to it, right? I could see that with you."

She looked right into Aiden's eyes but he clicked his tongue.

"I'm not here to talk about, you know."

"I know." She sighed and came to the real topic. "You want my help against my former husband. You want me to speak against him and reveal things about him that no one knows."

Aiden didn't knew how to answer that. If he was being honest, he was just here to find some secrets on Philips. He didn't really cared about June speaking up against him.

Before he could say anything, June sighed again.

"You don't have to offer me anything. I will do it since I liked your guts. No one had ever spoke against my husband like that."

For a second, Aiden noticed flashes of a past that was better left undiscovered. He blinked his eyes, thinking that the whole interaction had been easy.

Too easy that he felt like there was something wrong with it.

"Have you already decided to speak against your ex husband before I contacted you?"

"No, I was going to take all that with me to afterlife but it was suffocating to see my former husband live the same life as before like he never did anything wrong. I was excited when I heard your speech and felt like I should speak out now. Otherwise, I won't be able to ever."

June was a very straightforward individual. It didn't even look like she had contemplated the decision for a long time.

Like Aiden had thought, seeing one person act against Philips, others have also gotten strength.

"You will be okay, right? Like I don't know what he will do with you? Like you know, he's a powerful person."

"Ah, he can't do anything even if he wants to. That man is scum of the highest tier. He may look good on the surface but he's a devil incarnate. He's already lucky that I didn't say anything even during our divorce. He even tried to force me to sign a document to never speak about him once."

Listening to that, Aiden grew curious, wondering just what had happened between June and Philips.

June also noticed his rising curiousity and opened her mouth.

"Do you want to hear that story between me and my ex husband?"

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"You said that there was an international investigation done by the American press association. What came out of it?"

A male host asked Dustin as he looked at him with interest. They were currently sitting on his podcast 'Celebrity Affairs'.

It was one of the biggest podcasts in America and the man who hosted it was a former Hollywood reporter.

Like Dustin had promised, he had started giving out interviews to big media houses. A lot of podcasts like this one were also interested, so they quickly arranged an impromptu interview with Dustin.

After all, the internet was the easiest and fastest medium to spread things.

Everyone was surprised by how fast things were going.

"Nothing came out of it actually. They didn't reveal any information on what they found in the investigation and just wanted me to sign an NDA. I doubt they ever were conducting it seriously and not just in name."

"I also heard that you stopped getting any audition offers after filing a complaint to the press association. Do you think the association is that powerful?"

The host asked, delving more into Dustin's story. The cameraman and other members in the crew for the podcasts also listened with interest and curiosity.

It was a live podcast and there were already 450k people that had tuned in. The public interest in this whole scandal was sky high.

"I believe they are that powerful. It sounds strange as common people mostly don't hear of them." Dustin said, trying to pick each word carefully. "But when you stop getting the calls for auditions, you need to think what mistake you did. Moreover, even a few auditions that I have cleared were cancelled out of nowhere. Directors and producers suddenly didn't want to work with me and I have never really faced something like that before."

When Dustin said that, the comments on the live feed were numerous and all of them were in his favour. Anyone could see that he had suffered his lot just by his face.

He looked like he wasn't eating much and there was a pain in his voice as he talked about the events that had happened with him.

[I created Babylon: I have been watching movies since the 70s and I have seen people with hit movies suddenly disappearing from the scene like they were never there. It was clear back then that they have offended the wrong people and it looks like this is still happening. At least we have a medium to talk about it now.]

[My parents say I was a mistake: Man, I really hope the press association goes to the gutter after this. They really tried to destroy a man's career.]

[Who's your Buddha: I remember liking Dustin in [Never Before]. His role was short and sweet but I always got a nice vibe from him. Hollywood is really shit.]

[Ben Deflect: I don't know what would have happened if Aiden hadn't made up a scene. You really need homies like that in your life. I'm always going to buy the tickets to his movies now no matter how bad they are.]

'You are saying it like Aiden only does bad movies?'

Wade read the comment and muttered. He was currently watching the live stream of the podcast in his car.

It was at that moment Aiden knocked on the window.

"Let's go. My talk with June is over."

He said and entered the car. Wade ended the live stream and looked at him, wondering how the talk had gone.

"So, did she agree?"

"Yeah, she will start to talk about her ex husband and his activities."

"Must have been tough to make her talk. You were there for almost an hour."

Wade started the car and he shook his head.

"No, she was ready to talk about him from the start. She was just telling me about the activities her husband used to do and why she left him."

Aiden muttered in a sombre tone and Wade got curious. There must have been a lot to talk about.

"So, any details that would help us?"

He thought about it for a second before answering.

"Even if she talks a little from what she had told me, it will make a large impact. That man is a monster and I'm now sure that a lot of people are going to speak against him. A lot."

From what June had told Aiden, it seemed like Philips was really a double faced bastard of the highest order. Going against such a man was scary due to how powerful he was.

But knowing that he had done so many things that could be used against him, Aiden had found himself becoming more and more confident.

'I just wish it's all worth it in the end.'

He thought, looking outside the window.

A few hours later, what he had planned had come to fruition.

Aiden met a lot of people who were once wronged by Philips and even people who were blacklisted because of some other member from the association.

"I hadn't done anything wrong. It was an after party after the Golden Globes ceremony and that bastard asked to go home with me. I rejected it but the next day, the movie I was the female lead threw me out. Back then, the press association was really like a tyrant."

"I was also groped once but I never spoke out against it even though it always stayed on my mind. I guess I was scared back then but not anymore. If you can speak out, I definitely will."

"My case was different. I just didn't want to do anything with him but he used to stalk me. Once, I talked against him, scolded him and my offers dried out. A few producers were his close friends, so I guess it was coming even though I just wanted to ignore the association."

Aiden heard all those stories. A few people were even blacklisted just because they have spoken out against something.

One case was such where a guy had lost a movie because he hadn't invested in one of the press association's members' companies.

It sounded really petty and it was just that. Too much power has corrupted a lot of people.

Aiden tried hard to convince all those people to speak out. Telling them that they have been silenced for a long time already.

A few people agreed and a few people needed to be persuaded. And a few others just rejected it.

But all that was okay.

With the help of Katherine and Ava, Aiden had a part of the media in his hand and he used it well. Several articles soon came up against the press association.

Former actress accused Philips Fraser of sexually molesting her. She said, "He told me that if I don't sleep with him, my career is over. I guess he was right but I was never able to speak up until now."

A male model said that the press association had always been corrupted and he had to suffer because of that. His events were cancelled alongside his modelling contracts for going against them.

An old actor said that he was not chosen to be nominated for a Golden Globe because Philips Fraser had an argument with him. It had brought down a lot of questions about the legitimacy of arguably the world's second biggest award show.

With the barrage of new accusations against majorly Philips Fraser and other members of the press association, another new name had come out and this time, it is Philips Fraser's ex wife who had given an interview, revealing shocking details about her ex husband and their divorce.

The American press association had been silent despite so many accusations against them. It was rumoured that they were going to reject whatever accusations Aiden Silvereye put on them during the Golden Globes award ceremony but it seemed like with all new accusations, they would need to take a new decision.

With all this news in just three days after the Golden Globes ceremony, one thing was clear that the press association wasn't going to get rid of all this mess.

Aiden was sure that a lot of people, especially Philips would be cursing him at the moment but it was just karma that they were in such a situation.

The accusations and interviews with the people who have accused the association were going to keep running in the media for at least a month.

With all this, some lawsuits were sure to come their way. Dustin himself was going to file one of the accusations now that he has gotten the strength and platform to fight it out.

With all that, Aiden's job was over.

He only had to watch the circus that he had set on fire. He was also sure that the association won't be able to blacklist him now even if they tried.

After all, he had already given too much to deal with for the time being.

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In an office on the top floor of a large building, a man was seething while reading the newspaper reports in front of him. All the newspaper articles in front of him were from major media houses.

They weren't the random tabloids that would write anything.

In these newspapers, it was clearly written that the American press association was under a lot of pressure from the public and the media and that Philips Fraser might need to resign from his place.

Reading those articles, he was obviously angry.

"That damn bastard! I never did anything to him but he really tried to destroy me like that."

Philips muttered as he slammed the table in front of him. His hands hurt but his anger was enough to not let him worry about it.

He still recalled meeting Aiden at the start of the ceremony. He looked a bit shy but still talked like just another talented actor. Philips was even planning to make a close bond with him as he was promising.

But what he did on the stage changed everything.

At first, he was enraged and felt like murdering him as he had publicly shamed his name but his emotions were still in his control.

A large chunk of the press association supported him as Aiden had not only shamed him but called the association corrupted.

The whole conduct was acceptable!

The association was going to blacklist Aiden for good and just give the media an internal investigation to silence them until they could find another thing to divert the public's attention.

But then, more and more people have come out against Philips Fraser.

In an instant, the situation had become something huge that they couldn't just silence it. After all, Philips had only assaulted guys but girls too.

A lot of human rights organisations were now demanding that he resign and strict action should take place with a thorough investigation by an external team.

It was so much pressure that even Philips knew that the organisation wasn't going to support him for long.

'What can I do? I need to prove my innocence somehow. Even my ex wife came forward to talk bad about me. She was probably just waiting for an opportunity.'

As he thought that, his secretary suddenly knocked on the door and opened it a bit. With shifty eyes like she was hiding from him, she opened her mouth.

"Sir, they are calling you for the meeting."

"Okay."

Philips frowned. It was probably the tenth meeting he was called to in two days. Before this, he used to organise these meetings but now, with all these allegations against him, his power was dwindling.

He left his office and took the lift to reach the conference room. Entering it, he saw that most of the major members of the press association were already there.

A few of them stopped whispering when they saw him while others just looked gravely like they were seeing the end of the organisation.

"Philips, you are here."

An old man said as he looked at him. He was even older than him and was one of the founding members of the association.

"Yeah."

"We have decided something and I hope you will accept it as there's no way around it."

"I have to resign, right?"

"Yes."

Philips frowned but he already knew it in his heart. There was no way the organisation would keep him currently. A resignation was pretty much something that he had become content with.

"I don't mind it. Not like my views are going to be heard here."

"You made a mistake." A female member said in a hissing tone. "Mistakes. The whole press association is suffering because of your actions. Resignation won't be a way out for you."

Philips glared at her.

"I was not only the one at fault here. All the allegations are not against me if you don't know."

He turned towards a few members who were also accused. They turned their heads away, not looking him in the eye.

"There are but the media is targeting you as the president. Your position gave you a lot of benefits but there were always consequences of your actions."

The old man said and a few people nodded.

"So, you are going to abandon me. Put all the blame on me."

"Yes."

The old man didn't talk in a roundabout manner and just put it straightforwardly towards him.

Philips started laughing hearing that. He felt like he was going crazy. His senses were getting blank and he didn't know what to do.

His world had truly come crashing down at the wrong instant.

It was a bad joke that he can't even laugh about.

'I guess this is the end.'

A part of him wanted to protest against the press association but he knew the power they hold despite all the scrutiny currently. He had used that power a lot in the past but now it was against him.

Another part of him that was hoping that they would save him and would side him was broken. Though, it was not like he hadn't expected it.

That day, sounds of laughter kept bursting out from the tall walls of the press association headquarters.

Philips Fraser resigned from the American press association after all the charges and accusations against him. There's a chance of an FBi enquiry into the matter too.

After waves of people calling them out, press association had released an apology letter, stating the resignation of Philips Fraser and talking about reforms in the whole association.

The members of press association had welcomed any external inquiry into the matter and had vowed to stay helpful and punish those that are responsible.

Another source close to the American press association stated that they won't do anything to Aiden Silvereye as they don't want to get a fake accused of blacklisting him. They also stated that they don't hold such power in the industry anymore.

"It seems like they are letting me off the hook."

Aiden said as he looked at Wade and Dustin in front of him. Dustin was swallowing heaps of noodles down his throat.

It looked like he was really hungry. But his mannerism also hinted that he was coming back to his old self.

"They can't do anything now. They are too much in shit to care for you. Even if they did, they will just dig the grave a bit more deep, public support is really after you."

"Yeah… you are now a pop culture icon."

Dustin finished his noodles and said. Aiden's act of refusing to take the Golden Globes even after winning was gutsy and it inevitably attracted a lot of attention and became a part of the internet in a way that it was now rated as one of the most shocking celebrity moments of the last decade.

"People are going to be scared from calling you to award shows for sure in case you don't like something and just refuse to take the award."

Wade joked and started drinking the soup that he had ordered.

While Aiden suddenly recalled something.

"Hey, didn't the Oscars nominations come out yesterday?"

The Oscar nominations were pretty close to the Golden Globes ceremony and in all the chaos, they had forgotten that the nominations had come out.

At least Aiden had.

When he mentioned that, Wade stopped drinking and his face turned a bit sour.

"They came out last night."

"Aiden was nominated?"

Dustin asked. He was also busy giving so many interviews and other stuff that he hadn't thought about the Oscars.

"No, he actually lost by one vote to appear in the final category."

"That's sad."

Aiden said and held his chopsticks to eat noodles. He gulped down a few of them before Wade blinked towards him.

"You don't look sad."

"Well, because I'm not." He stopped eating and looked at him. "Golden Globes just made me realise awards are pretty useless. It kinda helped me get off the feeling that I need an award."

Aiden shrugged his shoulders.

Getting an award was good but he now doubted the credibility of a lot of them. He would still go to the ceremony to get it if he's nominated as it was a matter of pride, not only for him but for all the people who knew him.

But he isn't going to be sad If he doesn't get nominated.

He liked his current change in attitude. He now felt like if people liked and appreciated his movies, that would be way better than any awards.

Wade also noticed that and smiled. It seemed to him that Aiden had grown once again.

It was then that he recalled something.

"I forgot to tell you something."

"What?"

Aiden looked at him strangely and even Dustin glancing, noticing the seriousness in Wade's voice.

"Don't look at me like that. It's not anything bad." He shook his head, noticing the strange expression of Aiden. "Well, apparently, both Forbes and Time magazine want to feature you due to what you did against the American press association. They wants to have you on their covers."

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