<🎧 Song Recommendation: Mr. Brightside by The Killers>

...

[SUPERSTAR SYSTEM — STATUS PANEL]

[BIO]

● Name: Von Varley

● Age: 20

● Class: Musician, Actor

● Title: Uncrowned King (equipped), Street Performer, Mogul, The Visionary.

● System Level: 1

[STATS]

● Vocals: A (0/3000)

● Composition: A- (0/3000)

● Charm: S (Level Up System to upgrade)

● Willpower: C+ (0/300)

[CHARACTER PROFICIENCY]

● Aiden: 83%

[PROGRESSION]

● Skills: Basic Instrument Mastery (C), Resonance (D), Emote, Advanced Choreography Mastery (B), Master Chef (A), Golden Vessel (S), Immersion (A+), Director’s Eye (A).

● EXP: 6,255 EXP

● Current Fans: 10,000,111

● Quests: 3 available.

● Star Shop: 10 Vouchers

Von stared at the interface. A vast majority of that EXP had poured in when he achieved the 10 million fans milestone.

It was a huge achievement, but as he looked at the progression bar, a heavy sigh escaped his lips.

The next one was at 50 million fans. Von knew just how daunting of a task that would be.

He honestly couldn’t see himself reaching it anytime soon.

He shook his head, focusing on the immediate problem... Leviathan’s song.

He had previously considered buying a Zone State Pill. But looking at it right now, it didn’t seem like the right choice.

It wasn’t like he only had an hour to come up with something. Leviathan had given him five days.

Plus, he had enough EXP to permanently increase his raw musical ability now.

’So it’s decided,’ Von thought inwardly, staring at the Composition stat. ’Let’s see if this is enough to make me the next Max Martin.’

[-6,000 EXP]

● Composition: A- >> A+

Immediately after the notification chimed in his head, Von felt a sudden rush.

His mind became a lot clearer than usual, as if a thick layer of dust had been wiped off his brain. But that absolute clarity only lasted for a few fleeting seconds before it was abruptly followed by a throbbing pain right behind his eyes.

Von groaned, grabbing the sides of his head and sinking onto the edge of the sofa.

"I’m really meant to upgrade my Willpower," he muttered through gritted teeth.

Unfortunately for him, his massive windfall of EXP had all come after they concluded the shooting process for the movie.

If he had this EXP a month ago, he could have upgraded his Willpower then. It would have helped him tremendously with resisting the [Immersion] skill.

To Von, it felt like a painful missed opportunity. He also wasn’t able to achieve 100% Character Proficiency by the end of the movie.

But that gave him something to look forward to.

The ache finally stopped after a few more seconds.

Von opened his eyes and took some time to understand everything he had just assimilated. The world didn’t look different, but the way he heard it certainly was.

Even though he was still very far from being a Max Martin, he knew a lot more stuff now.

It seemed like he saw music through an entirely different lens. He could mentally break down the humming of his air conditioner into exact pitch frequencies.

He understood complex chord progressions, counter-melodies, and rhythmic pockets on a deeply instinctual level.

He even believed that he just needed to get a proper hang of how the studio software worked to compose elite beats entirely by himself.

He already knew a lot of that when he originally hit the A- rank, but the only difference now was that the feeling was absolute.

There was no second-guessing. He knew what a hit sounded like.

Without missing a beat, Von stood up, grabbed his notebook, and went straight down to the in-house basement studio to start working.

Patch was absent so Von was alone, so he loaded the software and spent the next five hours straight just analyzing the song structure by structure.

He chopped up the drums, isolated Aura’s vocals, and mapped out the exact tempo changes in his notebook before finally deciding to call it a night.

***

(10th August, 2020)

Just barely three days after coming home to Miami, Von and Patch were completely done with the final work.

The track currently playing through the massive studio speakers right now sounded nothing like the flat, repetitive beat Leviathan had originally played in the hotel suite.

Von leaned back in his chair and stared at the waves.

’Inspect!’

[Unnamed 3]

[Artists: Leviathan ft. Aura, Von]

[Song Score: 90]

A wide smile stretched across Von’s face. He had actually done it.

He had expected the system to rate it much higher given the amount of sweat they put into it, but a 90 was still an excellent rating. More importantly, it would fulfill the Quest perfectly.

"Broo... This is fucking awesome. It’s deadass a movie!" Patch yelled over the loud music.

Patch was out of his seat, replaying the song while aggressively dancing and bobbing his head to the heavy rhythm. He looked like he was at a club rather than a studio.

It wasn’t just Von’s smooth, melodic lyrics on the new bridge that had made sense, but how Von had directed him to tweak the beat.

They had stripped away the boring parts of the piano chord and replaced it. Now, it had this crazy funk party mix blended flawlessly with heavy Afrobeat vibes. It was bouncy, urgent, and so many times better.

"I agree a hundred percent," Von laughed, pausing the track. "Like seriously, I didn’t expect it to turn out this good. I just hope Levy likes it. It’s a huge departure from his usual dark rap style."

Patch waved his hand dismissively, still doing a two-step. "Bro, stop playing. Trust me, he’ll be blind not to realize how crazy good this is. It’s a certified summer anthem. Just send him the email, we’ve done enough."

Patch added that last part with a pointed look, feeling that Von would inevitably request that they spend another five hours trying to make the hi-hats sound ’better’ like he always would say.

It was a lingering problem Patch had noticed in the young star lately. Patch didn’t know if it was just Von wanting to be a perfectionist, but his standards in the studio were sometimes too high to satisfy.

He would tweak a flawless song until he was blue in the face.

Von laughed out loud at the slight jab, knowing exactly what Patch was implying.

"I see what you did there," Von smiled, spinning his chair back to the monitors. "But you’re right. I’m not touching it anymore. I’ll send it to his team immediately."

Von quickly exported the final MP3 file, attached it to a secure email, and hit send.

The waiting game began.

Von distracted himself by playing video games with Max and catching up on his sleep, but his phone never left his side.

Finally, late the next evening, his phone vibrated loudly on the table.

It was a FaceTime call from Leviathan.

Leviathan’s face appeared on the screen after Von answered.

He was sitting in the back of a moving luxury car, wearing dark sunglasses even though it was night. And for some seconds he wasn’t saying anything.

"So?" Von finally asked to break the silence. "Did you listen to the bounce?"

A massive, gleaming smile slowly broke across Leviathan’s face.

"Kid," Leviathan laughed, shaking his head in disbelief. "What the hell did you do to my song?"

"I fixed it," Von smirked confidently.

"Nahh, you absolutely revived it," Leviathan praised in an excited voice. "It’s fire. Pure fire. The Afro-bounce, the funk mix, and that bridge you added? It changes the entire mood. I played it in the car for my manager and he lost his damn mind."

Across the room, Patch silently pumped his fist in the air.

"So we’re good to go?" Von asked.

"We are more than good," Leviathan nodded. "I’m showing this to the executives at the label tomorrow morning. We’re going to fast-track the mastering process. Once all the split sheets and feature contracts are signed by your agent, we might put this up on all streaming platforms in just three weeks."

"Three weeks? That’s crazy fast for."

"When you have a hit this big sitting in your lap, you don’t wait," Leviathan remarked. "My team is already drafting the marketing rollout. We are dropping this as the lead single. Get ready, Von. Things are about to get real crazy for you."

"I’m always ready."

They wrapped up the call shortly after discussing a few minor details about Emily handling the legal paperwork for his producer credits.

Now all they had to do was to wait.