The bounce of a familiar Afrobeat tune filled a small, messy apartment room. The song had been out for barely a few weeks, but it was already taking over every corner of social media.

Marvin lay flat on his back on his unmade bed, staring blankly at the ceiling fan spinning above him. The infectious hook of the song played from his phone resting on the pillow next to his head.

"Harvey..." Marvin spoke up, breaking the comfortable silence. "Do you think Leviathan can actually do it? I mean, beating Rayan West at his own game That’ll be insane, seriously."

On the other side of the room, Harvey was sitting cross-legged on the floor, intensely typing away on his laptop. He wore reading glasses and had a half-burnt cigarette dangled loosely between his lips.

Harvey stopped typing for a second, taking a drag of his cigarette before blowing a thin cloud of gray smoke toward the window.

"I bet you those two movies might never see the light of day. And even if they do, Leviathan ain’t standing any sliver of a chance against West."

Marvin propped himself up on his elbows, a little taken aback by his roommate’s dismissal. "Huh. That’s some wild opinion. But why do you think so?"

"It’s H-19, obviously," Harvey replied, not even looking away from his screen. "I don’t know why most of the populace is so clueless, but this shit might ride with us for a decade. I ain’t even exaggerating. Have you been seeing the actual news reports?"

"No...?"

Harvey shook his head, showing absolutely no surprise at his friend’s ignorance.

"Of course. It’s only entertainment news and celebrity gossip for you. But there’s zero progress regarding a vaccine or a cure. The health agencies are running in circles. So just know we’re all cooked."

He resumed typing on his keyboard, clearly wanting to get back to his work.

Harvey’s focus finally sparked Marvin’s interest. He swung his legs off the bed and walked over to peer over his roommate’s shoulder.

"What’s that article about, anyway?" Marvin asked, squinting at the blocks of text on the screen.

"It’s about One Dance, of course," Harvey explained. "But mostly, it’s a deep dive on Von. I’m writing this as a freelance piece to submit to the news bloggers. I mean, it’s crazy that this guy already has four Top 3 hits in two years all while remaining completely independent. His talent is underrated, if you ask me."

"Four?!!" Marvin’s eyes went wide with shock. He quickly did a mental count on his fingers. Masquerade, It Doesn’t Even Matter, Far Away... and now One Dance. "Damn, you’re right."

"Von is like a moving train with no signs of stopping," Marvin continued, shaking his head in amazement. "And he honestly deserves the praise. He co-produced this track, and it’s absolute fire. If it wasn’t for those random TikTok dance trend songs hogging the top spots, this would have easily debuted at No. 1."

Harvey smirked, taking the cigarette out of his mouth. "I know, right? But the funniest part is that for One Dance to debut at No. 3 this week, his other song Far Away had to fall back to No. 4 on the charts. I’ll call that suffering from success."

Marvin burst into laughter. "Indeed, that’s exactly what it is. I don’t think there’s a better duo than him and Aura right now. I won’t be surprised if this new song also goes No. 1 right after this lockdown stuff comes to an end."

Hearing that, Harvey immediately burst into a laugh. "This lockdown? It’s never coming to an end, man."

"It will," Marvin insisted stubbornly. "I can feel it. And do you know something else? That movie Leviathan is making... I won’t be surprised if Von is starring in it."

Harvey stopped laughing and looked up at Marvin like he was completely unwell and spewing bullshit. "What?"

"Think about it," Marvin continued, pacing the small room as his conspiracy theory took hold.

"Didn’t you see his pattern? He released a record-setting music video, disappeared for weeks, then reappeared with a bundle, vanished again, and now he’s back again with another movie soundtrack. Where do you think he keeps going?"

Harvey was genuinely wondering how his friend could be this dumb.

"It’s called the creative process, you idiot. Artists go to the studio and lock themselves in to make music. There’s no chance Von has entered Hollywood this quickly. Especially not at this critical period in his music career. It’s not worth the risk."

Marvin put his fingers on his chin, narrowing his eyes at Harvey. "In that case, let’s make a bet."

"What bet?" Harvey sighed, already tired of the conversation.

"If I win, and Von is in the movie, you stop smoking completely," Marvin declared, pointing at the cigarette.

"Yeah, whatever," Harvey waved the condition aside, feeling confident that there was no chance he would lose anyway. "And if I win, you’ll start smoking. Cool?"

Marvin threw Harvey a creeped-out, disgusted face and took a step backward.

"What? It’s equal stakes," Harvey taunted him with a sly grin. "Don’t be a pussy. I won’t force you to finish a pack. You’ll just have to take one deep puff and hold it."

Marvin debated it for a few seconds before letting out a heavy sigh. "Fine. In that case, I agree."

"Good luck being cancer-free in advance," Marvin added, reaching down to shake Harvey’s hand.

Harvey chuckled, shaking his roommate’s hand firmly before turning back to his laptop. Marvin retreated to his bed, hitting play on his phone to keep listening to the song that was back on repeat.

***

Miles away in Miami, a completely different conversation was taking place on a private Zoom call.

The screen was split into three boxes, showing Leviathan, Marcus, and Von.

"I’m telling you, the numbers are absolutely stupid!" Leviathan was saying with a massive grin. "We just crossed fifty million streams in less than two weeks. The radio stations are begging my label for interviews. The hype for Perfect Ruins went from zero to a hundred overnight!"

"It’s a great start," Von agreed too. "The fans are eating it up."

But in the third video box, Marcus wasn’t smiling. The bearded director looked exhausted, rubbing his temples as he stared at the camera.

"The song is a masterpiece, Levy, and I’m grateful," Marcus spoke up.

"But let’s not pretend we are out of the woods. Have you guys seen the news lately? There are absolutely no signs of a breakthrough with H-19. The infection rates aren’t dropping fast enough."

Leviathan’s smile faltered slightly.

"What happens if cinemas never open?" Marcus continued, voicing the dark fear that was keeping him awake at night.

"We don’t even have a distributor yet. Going through the Toronto Film Festival next month is an absolute must now. If we don’t win the crowd there and secure a distribution deal, this movie goes straight to a cheap streaming service, and we lose millions." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Don’t panic, Marcus," Leviathan said, trying to project a strong front. "We have the hottest song in the world attached to this project. When we screen it at the festival, the distributors will be fighting each other with blank checks. Just focus on finishing the final edit."

Despite Leviathan’s confident words, inwardly, they all shared that exact same fear. The pandemic was a massive, immovable wall standing in the way of their success.

The conversation shifted smoothly after that, moving away from the grim reality of the world and focusing mostly on the technical edits of the movie.

Since the creation of the magical soundtrack, the dynamic between them had changed drastically.

They had been treating Von not just as a hired actor, but as a much closer, vital member of the production.

They were taking his creative input a lot more seriously, which was exactly why he had been invited to this high-level call to begin with.

"Alright, I’ve got a meeting with the label in ten minutes," Leviathan finally announced, checking his watch. "I’ll get going. Good work, everyone. Keep the momentum up."

"See you guys," Marcus nodded.

"Later," Von said.

The video call ended, leaving Von’s computer screen returning to his standard desktop wallpaper.

With the call ended, Von was left completely alone in the quiet expanse of his master bedroom. He closed his laptop and let out a long, heavy breath.

All along, during the entire hour-long meeting, his mind had been somewhere else entirely.

For some weeks now, he had been trapped in a dilemma. And it was all because of the single reward he had pulled from the System’s Lottery Ticket.

It was the biggest thing yet, and something that could change his career for good.

Von stood up from his desk and slowly walked over to his bedside drawer, retrieving a glowing purple flash drive.

[Item: ... (SS-Ranked)]