บท 4: An Agent & A Busker

"So you quit too hmm? Just like all the others" a man in his early-forties said to the young twenty-something year old actress standing before him.

He was pristinely dressed in fitting black suit, showing off his moderately buffed build and yet, it did nothing to brush off that certain intellectual feel about him.

The man, obviously, looked far wiser beyond his years and he was named Oliver Stone.

"Yes. I do" the pretty actress with blonde hair and brown eyes, named Ellen Walker, replied in a pretty drab manner, almost as if she was doing Oliver, her soon-to-be ex-agent, a favor.

Oliver calmly stared at Ellen for a minute, and then spoke while pulling the contract on the table she had requested for to be terminated, close to him.

As he did, he began to speak whilst signing;

"Well I hope you make it at your new agency" he dryly commented, unperturbed by Ellen's mannerisms.

Tossing the signed contract back to her, the agent made the actress herself feel bad for her rudeness, her eyes turning towards the ground like an ashamed daughter in front of a disappointed father.

Oliver had been the one to notice her talent and pull her out of the crowd.

He had also granted her the rare opportunities to star as the female lead in movies like [Firefly], [Lovely Day] and [Nine Bullets] among many others; all of which were movies that turned out to be box office hits!

And yet, the moment a much bigger agency with plenty of resources scouted her and proposed a contract to her, she did not hesitate to cut off her ties with her free agent in an instant.

That being said though, the man in question didn't allow her to have any second thoughts about her choices as he instantly switched tones and spoke to her in a low and extremely cold manner.

"Now scram."

Quickly, Ellie grabbed her terminated contract and left in a jiffy.

The room was once again silent as Oliver gently relaxed into his cushioned leather chair with a small twirl.

Removing the reading glasses which had been framing his gray eyes, Oliver slightly loosened his tie and brushed his hands through his slicked back dirty blonde hair, messily tussling it.

'Am I being too nice? Is that really what keeps screwing me over?' the man questioned, an introspective mood setting in.

With a sigh, the man thought about how he had invested quite a lot into Ellie and all the other actors and singers before her, hoping they would stick around long enough for him to make them into big stars.

But none stuck around the moment they got a bit of money and fame, leaving him with just a string of unsuccessful endeavors.

They would either lose themselves to the fame, drugs, sex and other forms of depravity that sometimes came with stardom, or just straight up terminate their contract with him because they felt he wasn't needed any more for their success.

He especially had big plans for Ellie, a career path for her in which he was sure would make her an A-lister in the next two to three years, still with all the freedom of being an independent artist.

But even she had fallen into the trap of big agencies, not realizing that there was a literal haggling for resources on a daily basis and getting them to focus on you was an impossibly daunting task.

There was that saying in Hollywood after all about how one star is produced at the expenses of a few hundred others whom had failed.

But Oliver wasn't deterred in the least.

One day, he knew he was going to stumble upon a singer or an actor that would stick around, long enough for him to make them into a big star.

That had always been his dream.

It was Hollywood after all, and there was no shortage of individuals who wanted to be made into stars on a daily basis.

He just needed to lay his hands on the right one.

Wanting to get a change of scenery after thinking for a few more minutes, Oliver decided to head out and clear his mind.

* * *

Walking through the park, fallen maple leaves littering the floor in a vibrant green with people relaxing, having passionate discussions or just having small picnics, Oliver felt a certain sense of calmness washing over him.

Enjoying the soothing atmosphere of the late summer air, the forty-one-year-old agent soon heard a soft humming tune, along with acoustic strings of a guitar, gently cascade over into his ears.

Out of sheer curiosity, Oliver decided to move closer to the source of the tune and soon enough, he found the source of it.

Surrounded by just two to three people, was a raven-haired young man with big, square glasses, framing his almost obscured sapphire eyes.

He seemingly looked to be twenty years of age and was singing while playing a pretty easy acoustic tune.

🎸 ♪

Tides are changing,

Autumn's knocking,

These clear summer skies,

Wish they'd stick around longer…

🎸 ♪

'Oh a busker…'

'Haven't seen those in a while…' Oliver thought to himself while standing a few fair meters away.

As a habit he had picked up over the years of being an agent, the well-dressed man began to analyze Kyle's singing.

'The lyrics seem to be made up on the spot. Not bad' the agent kept musing to himself.

'Hmmm…'

'He really isn't bad… his voice even has a distinctive gentle feel to it too…'

'But at the same, he isn't all that good. Barely touches average"

"He'll probably get much better in the next year or so if he keeps this up though' he made a pretty solid analysis of the young busker from his own years of experience managing a few artists.

As Oliver kept gazing at the busker in question, he soon noticed that said person didn't have his guitar casing opened before him.

Wondering why that was the case, Oliver's phone suddenly rang and he casually retrieved it to receive the call.

Speaking to the individual on the other end of the call, the agent after discussing with said person for a few more minutes, soon wrapped up the phone call.

"Thank you for the information Hank. If by chance I do find a talented actor by next year, I'll have them audition for the role"

Cutting the call after giving a few more pleasantries, Oliver decided it was time he went hunting for fresh new talent he could mold into becoming a star.

Hopefully, maybe one would also come his way soon.

Before leaving the area though, Oliver casually walked over to the busker and stuffed a $100 bill into his front pocket while commending him;

"Nice singing kid. Keep it up and hopefully, you'll improve nicely in the next year or two"

With that being said, Kyle watched as Oliver casually walked off, a deep wave of surprise evident on his features.

He hadn't been able to buy a brand new guitar with its casing and had instead opted for a second-hand one, hence why he had no way to receive any money even if people liked his singing.

"Thank… you" he quietly replied after a short while.

'Well I guess I won't be too broke for a while' Kyle thought to himself, happy that the large half of the money he had spent on the second-hand guitar in his hands had been replenished.

"That was a nice song!" a small cute girl suddenly spoke to Kyle who was still taken aback yet grateful for Oliver's kind gesture.

Angling his gaze upwards a bit, Kyle watched as her mother kept an eye on her from the lawn just opposite him, all while making a recording of her with her smartphone.

"You liked it?" Kyle then angled his gaze downwards and asked, a question to which the chubby little girl, vigorously nodded her head in reply.

"Want me to play you another?" he asked with a small smile.

"Please do!" she eagerly replied and Kyle instantly began another song.

* * *

(Three days later…)

| You have leveled up! Singing has advanced from level 4 to level 5! |

| You have reached the average singing skill for most people |

| Advancement will become a bit harder from here on out! |

| Keep singing to improve your skills! |

Taken aback by how he was suddenly bombarded with a string of texts from his panel, Kyle almost fell over on the bench he was on.

It was not the first time he had felt like this but he hadn't gotten used to it just yet.

Considering he had been practicing his singing any chance he could get, and not just at the park, but also in his dorm, it wasn't too surprising that he had leveled up so fast.

Even when he didn't level up, his system still awarded him a few measly points here and there for either singing, playing the guitar, humming a song, or even musing to himself for song ideas.

It was kind of a passive skill, similar to the gradual addition of exp. points to characters in a video game as they ticked off smaller side quests.

Something akin to a trickling tap of water left slightly open.

That aside, one thing Kyle did notice these past few days, was how he felt like he leveled up faster the more the number of people he sang in front of was.

He couldn't particularly place a finger on how it really worked but he just knew it.

Also, he had been slowly accumulating exp. points because the more people heard him sing, the more exp. points he was also awarded.

"56 points now huh…" Kyle muttered to himself as he stared at his panel, shifting his gaze over to his singing level.

'At this rate though, I should, hopefully be able to reach level 6 before the first auditions begin' the young man nodded to himself and then closed the translucent interface.

It was currently evening and Kyle, unwilling to go past his own personal curfew, quickly made his way back onto the campus.

Even though his scholarship had been revoked, the young man, for some reason or the other, was still allowed to use the self-contained dormitory that was assigned to him.

This was something the Chancellor had made sure of, although Kyle himself had no knowledge of it.

Reaching his dorm room though, the young man quickly took a shower and then settled back on his desk after he was done.

Although his desk was neatly arranged, each book a science or an engineering book, along with a few issues of [Tech Wiz], a niche comic book in this world that he really loved, there were now a few more additions to it such as The Basic Guide To Being A Good Actor, How To Dance and some few literature books.

But even then, Kyle wasn't bothering with any of them today as he was instead, focusing on the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software on his laptop, his acoustic guitar in his hands.

Placing a small pencil behind his hair, he continuously kept tweaking both the tunes for some songs he had in mind and the music sheet before him, all while occasionally strumming the guitar.

This had now become the youth's very busy schedule.

Once he was done with lectures for the day, he would move over to various areas of the park to perform in the early to late afternoons.

When early evening came, he would quickly leave the park and head back to his dorm to work on the lyrics for some of his original songs and the tunes he had in mind for them.

This would usually leave him working tirelessly into the night but Kyle was enjoying every blessed second of it.

In his previous life, Kyle had actually wanted to be an engineer.

No.

Not because he had liked it, but because he felt it would have offered him a stable life in the future.

However, he had never been chanced to pursue those dreams and aspirations properly due to having to take care of his sick mother.

His father, a wealthy drunk, died before he was given birth to and his mum, a woman who moved from place to place and settled down to work as a stripper in Miami, wasn't a particularly stable woman, usually having to depend on drugs and what-nots just to sustain herself until things got really bad for her.

Even then, Kyle never loathed her and instead, just wished that she had done more with her life.

So, due to this, when his mum eventually got really sick, he had ended up having to drop out of college just to cater to her needs and even got into a terrible case of debt just to pay her bogus hospital bills.

But even then, she had ended up leaving him while succumbing to death's cold embrace.

The only sort of salvation for him at the time to suppress all the mental baggage and trauma he was always harboring and not just commit suicide, had been music and movies.

Each, separately provided a sense of comfort for him and a world he could escape into respectively.

And in time, he slowly began to have a passion for wanting to be in the same shoes as the people who had created the music he so much loved and the varied characters they would bring to life.

Him finding Ollie and the gang though, was something that came around much later and had finally given him the push he needed to let go of all of his trauma, bringing light into his otherwise very dark world.

Kyle's life was almost close to being the exact same as that of his previous life here too.

The only exception was that both parents had died early on before he even got to know them, thus requiring him to stay at his hometown, Minnesota, living in an orphanage there for most of the younger years of his life.

Here at least though, he had gotten a scholarship for being quite the brilliant young chap from a young age and that was how he had struggled, all the way to college; with more and more scholarships.

These same set of scholarships had also been the cause of him moving away from Minnesota to reside here in Canada.

Right now though, Kyle, due to now having the memories of his other life, was far more willing and dedicated to wanting to achieve his dreams of becoming a star instead of going for engineering, though he was still planning to complete his final year.

And so, with those thoughts in mind, the youth tirelessly kept working on becoming better at singing and improving his original songs, the lyrics and its tunes, all until the day of the preliminary auditions finally came around.