Chapter 57
鈥淵ou are a difficult man to meet, Mr. Black.鈥?
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鈥檚 face had a smile on it. Not a menacing kind but the one that would make people drop their guards down.
鈥淚 never wanted to meet you.鈥?
鈥淭hat doesn鈥檛 matter.鈥?
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.
鈥淲hy are you here?鈥?
鈥淭o see your face. After all, I need to at least know who owned the town before I killed him to take it for myself.鈥?
Kai said those words casually, like he was saying 鈥榟ello鈥?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.
鈥淒o 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.鈥?
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鈥檛 someone who would do things without thinking them through.
鈥楲ife is too random, one needs to learn to control your luck.鈥?
He wouldn鈥檛 be here if he didn鈥檛 have a way to control the probability of being killed. He had everything planned out and that鈥檚 why he was being this frank..
Clicking his tongue, he leaned towards the table and asked, 鈥淗ave you not heard of my reputation?鈥?
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.
鈥淵ou killed two policemen with a pocket knife two years ago, the police weren鈥檛 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.鈥?
Mr. Black stared at him for a moment before the last part. The death of the Don wasn鈥檛 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鈥?interest and less of a random event.
There were a lot of things that were missing in Mr. Black words but Kai didn鈥檛 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.
鈥淲hat did you learn from it, Mr. Black?鈥?Kai asked, but went on to give the answer himself. 鈥淚 achieved the position you are sitting in less than three years while it took you more than a decade. Doesn鈥檛 that tell a lot about us?鈥?
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 say anything.鈥?
鈥淚 think it does. What do you think I can do in the next one year? Maybe kill you鈥?too. Take your place. Powder gets a lot of money in the market these days.鈥?
鈥淒on鈥檛 cross the line!鈥?
Mr. Black shouted but it didn鈥檛 seem to have any effect on Kai. The latter just sighed, giving off a smile and leaning on his chair.
鈥淲hat if I cross it?鈥?
Kai directly asked this time. The smile on his face faded like it was never there. A hint of dread appeared in Mr. Black鈥檚 eyes and the aura around Kai turned a bit creepy, something that will send chills down the former鈥檚 spine.
No, that creepiness was always there. It was just concealed until now and was only revealed now.
鈥淚 will kill you. You won鈥檛 go out of here breathing.鈥?
鈥淭hen do it.鈥?Kai said, making a firm face before adding. 鈥淵ou misunderstand me a lot. I鈥檓 not another gangster out there wanting to take the city for myself. I鈥檓 a symbol. Kill me, my fear will still haunt the city.鈥?
Kai鈥檚 words seem to have dug into Mr. Black鈥檚 soul. For the first time, he gulped, truly scared by the presence of the man in front of him.
鈥淲hat do you want?鈥?In the end, Mr. Black asked.
鈥淚 am gonna make an offer you can鈥檛 refuse,鈥?Kai unexpectedly smiled, 鈥淎 part of your drug trade. I want a portion of that powder鈥檚 profit. It鈥檚 a sweet offer, a lot more worth than your worthless life.鈥?
鈥淵ou鈥檙e asking for too much鈥︹€?
Mr. Black replied with all the courage he had left in him.
The smile on Kai鈥檚 receded. He leaned forward and stared dead at Mr. Black.
鈥淏lack, be careful what you choose. Once you cross me, it鈥檚 f*ck you and everything about you.鈥?
Mr. Black gulped. Even if he was an old gangster, Kai had already become what the city calls the devil 鈥?someone who couldn鈥檛 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 鈥楽cript appraisal鈥? 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 鈥楥harisma鈥?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鈥檛 know if it was because of him getting new skills, but his head seemed to be overflowing with emotions and information that he couldn鈥檛 really pinpoint.
Nothing like this had happened last time so he was a bit confused.
鈥業t hurts so much.鈥?
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 鈥楽cript appraisal鈥?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鈥檛 reflect the popularity of it.]
He felt like this skill was more or less the same as 鈥楽ong appraisal鈥? 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鈥檛 always mean the movie would be commercially successful, it was still a very necessary skill for an actor.
There were many actors who didn鈥檛 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.
鈥楽cript appraisal will come in very handy in the future.鈥?
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鈥檚 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.
鈥業f I did the same audition again, I feel like I would do much better.鈥?
Suddenly, he felt a bit regretful that he hadn鈥檛 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鈥檛 even know if his audition had even left a mark.
鈥業 can鈥檛 go back now鈥︹€?
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.
鈥?
//DreamNote//
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