Chapter 86

[Volume 2 Start]

It was dark outside, but the blue of the morning made it clear that it was time for waking hours.

It was a few weeks after the release of the song and with it the game trailer. The trailer had been very successful, reaching dozens of millions of views as one of the most anticipated games of the year.

There had been many praises for the song. The lyrics were astounding and the effort put into mixing the different instruments into one harmonic mixture made the song a very pleasant listen.

It went well with the trailer of the video game and the epic chorus was amplified by the epic of the trailer.

There was no debate that the song had been great. There weren't many critiques nor haters. Charlie's outward friendly personality and reachability as a streamer made him a more outgoing character.

It also made it difficult for others to comment badly about him when their favorite streamers felt highly about Charlie.

He had gained a very stable foothold and foundation in the show business world.

Charlie seemed more adult-like than his physical age. With combined memories of both sides, different experiences, and the influences of the system in his brain, his mental maturity made him seem older. Perks from having an organized mind, higher intelligence, and countless hours of lessons and extracurricular work, Charlie seemed very old.

[DING!]

"...System… Please do not wake me up while I'm enjoying my sleep…"

[There is possibly no way the system could miss this! Host, we congratulate you on your 17th birthday!]

In the past, Charlie would curse the system's loud and raucous behavior. Ironically, by the influence of the system, Charlie wasn't one to swear anymore. His Silver Tongue perk would not allow for it.

He rubbed his sleepy eyes and crazy hair. His fingers brushed the soft strands and roots that were healthy as healthy. Countless different hair products had been poured into his hair throughout the whole time he'd been with the Knife Agency. Of course, the products served to strengthen and also soften his hair.

They would not allow a single imperfection on his persona.

His long eyelashes— lengthened as well with the use of hair-growing oils fluttered slightly as he opened his eyes to watch his surroundings.

Now a 17-year-old, Charlie felt older than ever. He was of the youngest in his friend group, having a very late birthday as compared to the others. Charlie often heard remarks of his friends that they felt way younger mentally but Charlie felt the opposite. He felt the oldest he'd ever been, he felt like an adult now.

Of course, this was very abnormal. But naturally, as a user of the system, he was used to being abnormal. Even more abnormal was his status as both a human-born of Earth and Pangaea. A resident of Weath and a student of Weath First.

His arms and legs were pale white. Though Charlie hated to think about it, using Eastern Asian beauty standards made him an exotic model within the country. It was a ploy by the Knife Agency that would net him more attention and followers.

Of course, it worked brilliantly and now he was the most followed 16— now 17 year old on the planet.

Still, though he hated to think about it, he wasn't explicitly against it. His job now was to be a public figure and an entertainer. His success was in part, determined by his looks.

His toned arms stretched themselves again and he called out inside his head.

'Thank you, System.'

[Of course! As a reward, the Achievement Egg that the host picked up will now be opened!]

Charlie scratched his hair with a smile.

"...So all it took was for me to turn 17 to open this… blasted thing?"

Feeling like the system was sneering at him, it replied with a uniform enthusiasm-filled voice.

[There is a limit to opening one Achievement Egg per age year! Host!]

...And you couldn't tell me this sooner?

[Surprises, surprises!]

Charlie felt like, over the time he'd been staying here, the System gained a more sarcastic personality each time…

[Congratulations Host on '...finally' opening the '...blasted' Achievement Egg!

Rewards are the following:

-Upgrade from Silver Tier to Golden Tier!

---Golden Tier Shop

---Golden Achievement Points unlocked

-Golden Pearl

---Achievement Rookie → Achievement Veteran.

---Achievement points gain 10% → 25%

---Skill points gain 10% → 25%]

Though the voice dripped with sarcasm, Charlie couldn't afford to pay attention.

The rewards listed were very generous— Charlie allowed himself a moment of happiness and celebrated.

He'd been spending a considerably long time gaining many achievement points in an attempt to open the Achievement Egg.

Of course, working so hard helped his success and he didn't regret it one bit but he wished to know that he could only open one egg per year. He'd wracked his brains trying to open the egg that was more like a treasure chest.

Charlie brushed his teeth and washed his face with enthusiasm.

Hearing his phone vibrating like crazy, Charlie walked with steady steps towards his phone. His walk had been conditioned into an elegant stride long ago.

Clicking on one of the dozens of notifications telling him to see Knife Agency's Twitter account, he quickly navigated on his phone to the most followed social media account of Knife Agency.

@CharliesAgency:

YO @Twitter HELP HELP HELP PLEASE

→Replies—

@Twitter: LMFAO

@blacklily: someones getting fired today LOL

@wipL: im crying

@Felix: Oh dear.

@CharliesAgency:

SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT

@CharliesAgency:

why is the verified not here anymore?

@CharliesAgency:

lmao what yall think about our new brand name?

@KnifeAgency:

Im boutta do whats called a pro move

@KnifeAgency:

Happy birthday to our best friend and our favorite star! Charlie Yang! Definitely way better than Felix!

Charlie scratched his nose. Whoever was in charge of the Twitter account was definitely not going to get fired. Getting the account name KnifeAgency back and the verified sign was not difficult for this high-scale agency.

Even better than that, the tweet was reaching more than dozens of thousands of likes. As lessons from Public Relations, Charlie knew that the tweet would gain a lot of attention and instead bring the company closer to fans.

It was a genius PR move on the manager's part.

He scrolled and liked the tweets and replies while laughing to himself.

Charlie clicked on the tweet button.

[@charlieyg: Thank you, everyone, for the kind birthday wishes!]

He took a selfie of himself with a sincere smile and posted it along with the tweet.

Charlie walked to the door and reached for the doorknob to open the sight of his family having a very normal breakfast.

Very different from the first day he had transmigrated, his parents smiled at him happily.

"Haaaaappy birthday!" Charlotte, his 14-year-old sister, latched onto his arm and smiled at him.

It was a harmonious and heart-warming scene.

…

…

…

I waved at my friends after the school day. While I had been busy with the song, I had not seen my friends in a long while.

Finally, not having the pressure and the constant topic of the song weighing on my mind, I was able to relax and play around with my friends.

A black car approached and stopped right in front of the gates as I walked out.

Blake, my black-haired and very strict but occasionally jokester of an instructor walked out and ushered me into the car.

"Charlie."

"Good afternoon," I looked at him with a smile.

He nodded in satisfaction. "How long has it been since we've started on your lessons? You've had considerable progress."

He also liked to nod. A lot.

"Ah, well. It's been a couple of months… Anyway, what's on schedule today? You said we'd do something special?" I tilted my head and asked him with confusion.

He smirked and nodded again. At this, I realized my 'confused' face had also been conditioned into a very charming expression.

I touched my face and looked at myself in the mirror.

Seeing that I had realized what he was so smug about, he began laughing out loud as he drove through the busy streets of Weath.

"...Anyway. Yes. I was going to ask you about your progress on singing. How do you feel?"

I looked up thoughtfully and tapped my chin.

"My singing could still do with some work. I think my… technique's getting pretty good but I have to get used to singing to a mic and playing the piano at the same time…"

As I spoke, he, again, nodded pensively.

"So it's just a matter of practice."

"Hm.. yeah."

"Alright. Good. By the way, we've been putting off some modeling jobs recently. Actually, there's one scheduled for this week."

I nodded at him. "Crocodile, again. Right?"

I was a streamer and model. Mainly a live streamer, but lately my line of work has been tilting a little towards modeling.

"Yep. Did you check the documents I sent you?"

Crocodile was a sports brand. It would be my second time collaborating with them and this time I would be promoting a deodorant.

The first time had been a bicycle ride where I had to take a sip of their sports drink while riding around. I had also learned how to bike the ride at that time.

I ended up getting a free bicycle out of the deal.

"...Yeah. The script's simple enough."

He turned to the right and began accelerating as wide and tall skyscrapers ran past us.

"Alright then. Honestly, there's nothing much that I've to teach you now. I'm more like your manager than instructor now," he cracked a grin and joked at me.

"You just need the huge intimidating build and you're good enough as a John."

He began laughing even harder.

"Alright then. Anyway, the ad will have you shirtless. Are you fine with that?"

I shrugged. "Yeah. I'm not that shy."

"Ah, that's not what I meant," his tone seemed to take a darker turn.

I looked at him, perplexed with ??? question marks on my head.

"You're barely 17 years old. Are you fine with presenting your body to the entirety of the world?"

I squinted my eyes.

"Well if you say it like that it sounds a little weirder, but it's the same thing as a swimmer? I mean, what male Olympic swimmer would go swimming with a shirt on?"

His eyes seemed to darken. In the red light stop, he turned to face me and grasped my shoulder.

"You have female fans, yes?"

I nodded, seeing where his thoughts were going.

"I don't want to scare you but you know how the world is," he squeezed my shoulder.

He continued, "It's not just about your shame or your modesty. It's also about your conscience and what you see in the future. I don't want you going into this not knowing what will be the effect."

I looked down sharing a similar serious mood with him.

What Blake meant was, simply, that I might be sexualized and would be seeing inappropriate comments or even borderline harassment.

Once images and videos were out, they wouldn't be able to be taken back. Especially with large-scale commercials like this.

"Idols in the past have been sexualized leading to them being upset and bothered. Some even wanted to leave the industry. To some, it might seem flattering but it definitely isn't something comfortable to think about. Especially with your age," he slapped my shoulder, "surely you've seen some weird comments in your stream chat, right?"

I nodded slowly.

"They're obviously jokes and good fun. But what happens when you're presented with comments like that, that aren't jokes? What if you're groped every time you're at a fan meet or are recognized outside? Or you're at a date with your wife or girlfriend and a fan admits they would masturbate to you? Even worse, what if a fan gives you a Christmas gift with their blood and their underwear inside? These are all cases that people in Knife Agency have gone through. Felix received the special treatment of the week-old pungent blood and the dirty wet panties. He vomited and wouldn't eat for two days."

Seeing my silence, he continued again.

"At first, some people are fine with the comments, but later it just gets really disturbing. You understand my point?"

I absorbed the thoughts and nodded slowly.

"Anyway, enough of that. Just think about it— there's no rush at all. Go with whatever's comfortable with you," he stared at the road while he drove, "and it's not definite that you'll experience something like that. Some people never experienced that and had a very healthy relationship with their fans."