Novel Wait
Chapter 78: Upgrade upgrade upgrade
Tristan looked at Nel, then at Derek.
"No. Back to the plan of co-promotion—I and Nel should talk about the story we are ready to share with the audience. But the documentary is a good idea, and I want it done quickly so I could focus on the competition."
Whatever twisted feelings were the reason for Jane's invitation, Tristan just hoped she got even hurt by his refusal and blatant dismissal. For someone who loved attention as much as Jane did, it would surely sting.
Nel blinked.
"Wow, you really don't like her. Did you have a beef with her in the past?"
Tristan shrugged.
"I just don't like her type."
Derek mentally noted that down.
"I will tell Ms. Greenpawl's manager about your refusal, Mr. Gemello. And while I know you need more time to prepare the backstory, we can talk more about the covers you want to make. It will speed things up if I can arrange the shooting and recording set and crew now."
"Right!" Nel sat up. "So, I thought since the song is called 'Dragonfly', I should play it outdoors! You can make good audio quality outdoors, right?"
"Well, it would be easier to just record sound and video separately, Mr. Mayar…"
***
After discussing the song plan for a couple of hours straight, Tristan felt great about it. Derek proved himself to be very knowledgeable and professional, too.
He feared before that he'd need to push Garstean with blackmail threats more often, but so far Derek was already very willing to do whatever Tristan wanted.
Garstean definitely instructed him to be as helpful as possible.
Now they were walking toward Tristan's parked car so Tristan could drive them both to their homes, but the conversation wasn't over yet.
"So what are we going to tell in our 'friendship story', Tris?" Nel asked. "Ah, damn, I hate lying to the public, but I'd hate being in prison more…"
Tristan opened the car door and sat in. Nel followed.
"We did nothing strictly illegal, but stuff like that certainly could damage our rep."
Nel snickered as they both put seatbelts on. That was a hard rule in a car with Tristan.
"And as I remember, you were a bit of an asshole when we first met. Actually, you are still a bit of an asshole. Well. In a good way?" He looked sheepish.
Tristan just laughed and started the car.
"Don't you know? You can't get far in showbiz without being a bad bitch. Or a bad asshole, since I'm a guy. Bad ass?"
"You sure are a badass. I'm lucky to have met you."
"Even if you would've won the first round of the contest without me? You got second place."
"Yeah, nah! If you weren't there, I'd be beaten up or shot by these thugs you had scared off."
Tristan chuckled again and pressed the gas pedal. He drove off the parking lot, talking all the while.
"Anyway, it's alright if I appear bitchy at first. It will actually seem like a more authentic story this way. And I have an image to maintain, you know?"
"I thought you would pretend to feel bad about it to gain sympathy…"
Tristan laughed.
"No way. A badass can't be apologetic, don't you know?"
Nel nodded.
"Alright, and then what?"
Tristan shrugged, throwing Nel a glance.
"Let's say we bumped into each other again later, and I was impressed by your conviction to be an altruistic goody-two-shoes."
Nel hummed.
"This would make a good picture. A bad boy and a good boy. An angel and a demon? Oh, we should do a photoshoot like that sometime!"
"We should tell that to Derek. It will work with the documentary's visuals, too."
They talked more about the details on the way to Nel's home, where the artist waved Tristan goodbye and ran off.
***
Back at home, Tristan opened his status panel.
Now that he had a plan for what he wanted to do for his musical career, he knew what to put his Pop-star Points into. A lot of Pop-star Points.
First of all, he opened the system shop, as every day.
[======]
[===Shop===]
['Hypnotic Voice' talent: 3000 Pop-star Points]
[Playing flute skill: 10 Pop-star Points]
[Level IV hard body armor: 3000 Criminal Points]
[======]
The selection today was scarce. Tristan felt like he was slowly buying out skills available within the system.
He bought the flute skill immediately, then checked the talent's description.
[Hypnotic Voice: you can make your voice mesmerize people who hear it, making them more receptive to your words. This effect doesn't carry over records.]
This was very vague, but it reminded Tristan of the trick Jane used to charm her audience.
Of course, he bought the talent.
He immediately felt new intuitive knowledge. Despite its description, like 'Bullet Time', this talent will activate by itself when Tristan made his voice sound a certain way.
With his voice control skill, it was easy for him to add the right timbre to his normal speech. Doing the same with songs was harder, but Tristan knew this was easily solvable.
He still had a ton of points to spend on skills!
"I wish I had something to test this on right now," Tristan said in the hypnotic timbre. It didn't sound very different from his normal speech, and he didn't feel any effects on himself.
Tristan shook his head and began generously spreading the remaining points across his skills and attributes.
[Ding!]
[Singing skill increased from 657 to 1357.]
[Ding!]n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
[Dancing skill increased from 628 to 1078.]
[Ding!]
[Playing guitar skill increased from 794 to 1494.]
[Ding!]
[Music theory skill increased from 279 to 679.]
[Ding!]
[Acting skill increased from 413 to 813.]
[Ding!]
[Songwriting skill increased from 532 to 1232.]
[Ding!]
[Voice control skill increased from 408 to 808.]
[Ding!]
[Stage presence skill increased from 159 to 759.]
[Ding!]
[Appearance attribute increased from 80 to 150.]
[Ding!]
[As a result of attribute changes, your charisma attribute increased by 20.]
[Ding!]
[Charisma attribute increased from 167 to 237.]
When he was done, he was left with zero points. Zero points of any kind!
At this point, his skills barely advanced naturally, and Tristan was sure it was because his skills were so high already.
But he intended to get his 10x reward as soon as he released the video with Nel.
'Now, system, what does my status look like?'