Chapter 57
"You are a difficult man to meet, Mr. Black."
Aiden, now as Kai, stepped closer to the desk of the audition staff who was playing the role of Mr. Black, a rival gangster.
Kai's face had a smile on it. Not a menacing kind but the one that would make people drop their guards down.
"I never wanted to meet you."
"That doesn't matter."
Kai said, glancing at a chair and moving it up before sitting down on it. Then, he leaned forward and put his hand on the table and tapping it with the tip of his index finger.
Seeing his actions that seemed to entail that he owned the room, Mr. Black squinted his eyes at him before saying his lines.
"Why are you here?"
"To see your face. After all, I need to at least know who owned the town before I killed him to take it for myself."
Kai said those words casually, like he was saying 'hello' to someone but it angered Mr. Black a lot who slapped his hand on the desk.
He was one of the oldest gangsters in New York and no one had talked to him like that in years.
"Do you realise what words you are speaking? Or where are you? One word and my men will come in and shoot all the bullets they have in your brain."
Kai smirked, not really caring about the threat. If he really was scared so easily, he would not have come here. In the first place, he wasn't someone who would do things without thinking them through.
'Life is too random, one needs to learn to control your luck.'
He wouldn't be here if he didn't have a way to control the probability of being killed. He had everything planned out and that's why he was being this frank.
Clicking his tongue, he leaned towards the table and asked, "Have you not heard of my reputation?"
Mr. Black stayed calm and after a while, he gave off a nod before speaking out about all the things and rumors that Kai had achieved till now.
"You killed two policemen with a pocket knife two years ago, the police weren't able to find you and six months after the incident, you joined the Don Morelli gang. Two years after that, Don died in a car accident and you took his seat."
Mr. Black stared at him for a moment before the last part. The death of the Don wasn't a coincidence. Anyone in the city would be able to tell that much.
An accident related to someone in power was normally the result of other parties' interest and less of a random event.
There were a lot of things that were missing in Mr. Black words but Kai didn't try to remind him of them. The truth was that the actual horrifying things he had done were something that no one knew about.
They just flew around the city like rumors, making his reputation far more devilish. Making him a symbol for anarchy.
"What did you learn from it, Mr. Black?" Kai asked, but went on to give the answer himself. "I achieved the position you are sitting in less than three years while it took you more than a decade. Doesn't that tell a lot about us?"
"It doesn't say anything."
"I think it does. What do you think I can do in the next one year? Maybe kill you… too. Take your place. Powder gets a lot of money in the market these days."
"Don't cross the line!"
Mr. Black shouted but it didn't seem to have any effect on Kai. The latter just sighed, giving off a smile and leaning on his chair.
"What if I cross it?"
Kai directly asked this time. The smile on his face faded like it was never there. A hint of dread appeared in Mr. Black's eyes and the aura around Kai turned a bit creepy, something that will send chills down the former's spine.
No, that creepiness was always there. It was just concealed until now and was only revealed now.
"I will kill you. You won't go out of here breathing."
"Then do it." Kai said, making a firm face before adding. "You misunderstand me a lot. I'm not another gangster out there wanting to take the city for myself. I'm a symbol. Kill me, my fear will still haunt the city."
Kai's words seem to have dug into Mr. Black's soul. For the first time, he gulped, truly scared by the presence of the man in front of him.
"What do you want?" In the end, Mr. Black asked.
"I am gonna make an offer you can't refuse," Kai unexpectedly smiled, "A part of your drug trade. I want a portion of that powder's profit. It's a sweet offer, a lot more worth than your worthless life."
"You're asking for too much…"
Mr. Black replied with all the courage he had left in him.
The smile on Kai's receded. He leaned forward and stared dead at Mr. Black.
"Black, be careful what you choose. Once you cross me, it's f*ck you and everything about you."
Mr. Black gulped. Even if he was an old gangster, Kai had already become what the city calls the devil - someone who couldn't be killed and even if someone did try, how was one to kill the devil himself?
And with that, the scene ended.
At that exact moment, his immersion ended and some system notifications suddenly appeared in front of him. A bit surprised by them, he nearly yelped.
[You have gotten a lot of experience.]
[You have advanced to Intermediate Grade 1 from Basic Grade 10. Congratulations on achieving such a huge achievement. Rewards have been given.]
[You have unlocked more functions of the system.]
[Your immersion has gotten stronger. Now, the personality of the character you are playing might affect your real one a little.]
[You have gained the skill 'Script appraisal'. Now you can check the score of your scripts.]
[A special reward has been given due to reaching Intermediate Grade in both singing and acting.]
[The unique skill 'Charisma' has been given.]
[You will unlock more skills of the system and other rewards as you level up and achieve extraordinary feats on your path to stardom.]
Seeing the system prompts, Aiden widened his eyes before a sharp pain hit his head.
***
Aiden splashed water in his face in an effort to calm himself down. His emotions were in a disarray and after the audition was over, he quickly went to the bathroom to cool down his mind.
He didn't know if it was because of him getting new skills, but his head seemed to be overflowing with emotions and information that he couldn't really pinpoint.
Nothing like this had happened last time so he was a bit confused.
'It hurts so much.'
He thought, gritting his teeth.
Finally, after a while, the pain lessened before eventually subsiding. Aiden splashed more water on his face and finally felt like he was fine.
Now, having calmed down, he opened up his system inference to check out his new skills.
[The skill 'Script appraisal' has been gained. Now you can check the scores of the scripts you recieved.]
Aiden clicked on it and another window popped up explaining the skill.
[Script appraisal
-Now, you could check the skills of the script you are given. To check the score of a script, put your hand on it and think of the skill.
-The score of the script doesn't reflect the popularity of it.]
He felt like this skill was more or less the same as 'Song appraisal'. Just for different talents and both of them were very useful to him.
One of the skills of an actor was choosing good scripts.
Although a good script doesn't always mean the movie would be commercially successful, it was still a very necessary skill for an actor.
There were many actors who didn't have a good script selection. There were even actors who would choose any script, not caring whether they found it good or not.
There was a famous legend about an actor that had gone on to do a lot of mediocre and below average projects to pay off his debts. None of them worked but he did get rich through them.
Like him, many just cared about money but for Aiden, he cared more about leaving behind a good enough filmography and doing a project he was really invested in.
'Script appraisal will come in very handy in the future.'
He thought, before moving on the second skill that he had received. He was much more excited about it just because of its name.
[Charisma
-The ability to attract people towards you with the charm oozing out from your aura.
-Gives a bit of an edge to both singing and acting.
-With a higher charisma, it's easier to win over people or get them to agree to your words.
-As your skill level rises, the effect of Charisma rises too.]
Aiden stared at the skill description in a bit of awe. He knew how important of a skill it was.
Every celebrity has a bit of charisma, especially in certain actors. Rather than their acting skill, it was their charisma that attracted people towards them and was also their most talked about trait.
'If I did the same audition again, I feel like I would do much better.'
Suddenly, he felt a bit regretful that he hadn't asked Zavier or Anthony if he could retake the audition.
His head was hurting so much that he had immediately left after his audition had ended. He didn't even know if his audition had even left a mark.
'I can't go back now…'
He thought regretfully and closed his eyes. It was already half an hour since he was in the bathroom and even Wade would be looking around for him.
He needed to get back.
...
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