Rise To Stardom - Chapter 200

Chapter 200: Kyle The Hermit
“Christina! Christina! Any news on what Kyle’s next plans are?!”

“Where are you headed to? Romantic rendezvous with Kyle?!”

“What do you have to say about the rumors that he’s releasing a new single soon?”

Despite the barrage of similar questions she had been subjected to for the past week, swiftly and adeptly, without a single moment wasted, Christina opened the door to her vehicle parked nearby and dove in!

A few seconds later, the engine to her vehicle was ignited and she was off, quickly making her way to the publishing company she hoped would accept her manuscript.

Eventually, upon reaching her destination, Christina carefully brought the vehicle to a parallel park like the newly-approved driver that she was.

Before heading out of her vehicle and into the building though, the lady inhaled and heaved a deep breath a few times to calm her rapidly beating heart.

A few seconds later, now feeling less tensed, she then retrieved her smartphone from her bag and finally, took the chance to read all the supportive messages from family and friends.

The first was from her mom;

Christina, darling, I keep reading the rumors about you and Kyle on TweetTalk and wow, I’m convinced… almost ;). Still, let him know that your father and I loved his album–– although he keeps complaining that he’ll never give his daughter to anyone. Also, good luck on your manuscript submission dear! Let me be the first to know how it goes, okay? Love you sweetie! Hugs and kisses!

Quietly chuckling in a mix of hearty appreciation at that message, Christina replied and then read through the ones that came from Maria, Lily and Katie with a genuinely appreciative gaze as she also replied to those.

I say, pitchforks, if they don’t accept it. Also, I might be a hermit at the moment but, I’ll be casting voodoo spells from the comfort of my home in support so don’t you worry. Break a leg, blondi–– cough–– I mean Goldilocks.

Immediately, Christina saw that, she heartily burst into laughter, shaking her head in amusement at Kyle’s message as she felt her tensed nerves, ease up even more.

Then, with a warm yet witty response of appreciation, the lady, gently grabbed her stuff, exited the vehicle and then, made her way into the publications building with brimming confidence.

Now although Christina didn’t know it, she had just taken one of the biggest steps in her life towards becoming a renowned author.

Her manuscript, titled [Evergarden], based off of an expansive fantasy tale that had been brewing in her head since she was in her early tweens, would go on to become one of the best-selling YA fantasy books in the coming months.

That said, just as Christina was headed into the publication building to chase her dreams, Kyle on the other hand, currently had a game pad controller in his hands.

Simultaneously, the young man mashed two buttons and watched as Tech Wiz, whipped out a constructed photon longsword for one of his core, special abilities.

In an instant, the hero entered a state of flow and effortlessly began dismembering a slew of robotic wolves and robotically-advanced tin-can assailants without taking damage, the addictive nature of the game’s free-flow combat kicking in.

Currently, Kyle was running the game, not on his newer, high-spec laptop but, on his very old laptop from his college years with a mix of optimized settings that still made the game look good nonetheless.

Considering the videogame had excellently stunning graphics that leaned less towards photorealism and more towards a vibrant, life-like, aesthetically-pleasing, comic-inspired art style, it was still quite the eye-candy, even on lower settings.

And, for a fairly low-end laptop that he had scrounged money to get, way back in the day with its limited amount and measly dedicated video memory of only two gigabytes, Kyle was proud to see it at least maintaining a stable frame rate, well above the mid 30’s.

Even in more intensive scenes and set-pieces, the game held up very well, not dipping below unplayable frame rates.

What Kyle was essentially doing here, was playtesting.

The young man, as the CEO of the company and an average gamer, needed to know if everything he had asked of his employees to do, had been effectively touched upon.

And so, for the next few hours, Kyle kept playing till he was completely satisfied with what he experienced… for his second playthrough at that!

Part of the things he had told Carlos and his employees that they needed to work upon, extensively, was the game’s optimization for various computer rigs, especially the lower end ones.

Sure it was tedious work on their end as game devs but, since their boss wasn’t rushing them, they had been able to efficiently do what needed to be done.

And, with what Kyle himself had experienced over the past week, it was safe to say that his employees had delivered, flawlessly.

No bugs.

No glitches.

Smooth framerates.

Flawless co-op experience.

Tons of cheat codes that would definitely cause chaos in-game for a ridiculously fun time, all of which had been purposely coded and well-accounted for…

Everything was as it should be for a complete and polished experience that would be releasing in a few months.

Exiting the game with a contented smile, Kyle then placed the game pad aside and stretched lazily.

Casually angling his gaze out the window though, the young man sighed in resignation as he noticed that just outside his building’s apartment, were a multitude of cars and vans, parked outside the gate.

Paparazzi, once again, were back to their annoying shenanigans and unfortunately, this time, Kyle couldn’t blame them… although he did feel quite bad for his fellow neighbors who had to deal with their shit every blessed day for the past week now.

Typically, most artists, after releasing a successful album, would often go on to begin promoting said album, heavily at that.

But in Kyle’s case, reverse was the case.

Despite the multiple offers he was constantly getting every single day, he had politely rejected each and every one of them.

This decision of his, came across as very unconventional to music enthusiasts and fans alike, all of whom frequently discussed about it on various social media and entertainment platforms.

However, Kyle’s decision to go incognito wasn’t just his, as his team had majorly influenced that decision.

Checking the metrics of his ever-rising fame, Gwen, Oliver and Stuart had advised the young man to stay out of the limelight after the album’s successful release instead.

Due to the fact that the young star had constantly being in the general public’s eyes for the entirety of the year thus far, they were essentially preventing him from getting overexposed.

Unsurprisingly, this was something only a few shrewd ones in the entertainment world were able to pick up on, with the uninformed public, unsure of what to make of his unconventional choices.

Nevertheless, asides from the songs in his album topping the charts on not just GrooveBox but many, many renowned charts around the world, all in the top 10 at that, Kyle Kestis was also the very first artist in years to apparently, sell over 2 million album units in a week… independently at that!

That kind of news, coupled with his fame in Hollywood itself, wasn’t the kind of thing that paparazzi would ever want to overlook when they were looking for celebrities to make some quick buck off.

And as if that wasn’t enough, Kyle was young, eligible, rich and most of all, drama free, a very nice change of pace for most popular celebrities his age.

Just a single picture of him casually walking down the street, eating at a restaurant or doing other mundane stuff in general would sell for a few thousand dollars to many Hollywood magazines, tabloids and publications looking to profit off of his surging fame.

Added to that…

‘Maybe I shouldn’t have left them with those words at the press conference…’ Kyle mused to himself, a slightly thoughtful expression on his features.

Due to his mysterious statement at the event, the paparazzi, at least from what he had garnered from his team and friends over the course of the week, had become quite aggressive about wanting to find out, what exactly, said secret was.

Brushing his thoughts aside though, Kyle soon got off his bed while heading over to the kitchen.

However, upon opening his fridge, the young man realized he was out of all the necessary ingredients to make a proper meal.

He had been staying cooped up in his apartment for the past week after all without ever ordering a single meal, especially since he preferred his own, home-cooked meals over anything else.

Letting out a very, very long sigh of defeat, Kyle, soon changed into more fitting clothes and then, picked up his smartphone and car keys while heading out the door.

His life as a hermit was over… at least for today.

The grocery store, unfortunately, beckoned to him and he needed to answer the call.

Still, as the young man whistled merrily while casually making his way down the stairs, he soon noticed Christina’s response to his message, earning a slight chuckle from his lips.

Meanwhile, just as Kyle was about to go spend another hour of his life, dealing with the not-so-positive sides of fame and fortune in the form of pesky paparazzi, Griffin, at the moment, was currently living the good life.

Currently seated on a lounge chair by the poolside of his million-dollar penthouse in North Vancouver, Canada, his sunglass-framed eyes were casually skimming through an insider list he had obtained from one of the event planners at Game’s Con.

The list, usually in order of excitement and hype, included all the games that would be showcased at the reputed gaming convention.

However, a few seconds later, the former SpawnPoint Studio CEO and a current big investor in GameSoft Studio’s next game, had a noticeably sour expression on his features when he saw his former studio amongst the list of studios whom would be showcasing their videogame at next month’s Games Con.

And as if that was not enough, Game’s Con had actually, pushed the showcase of [A Pirate’s Odyssey] from the very last showcase of the event, to the second to the last, thereby making SpawnPoint Studio’s [Tech Wiz], the final of the showcases.

‘What, are they… up to?’ Griffin curiously questioned with a disdainful squint, unsure of what to make of the information.

Despite not even being a gamer himself, the investor, having spent a few years in almost every possible money-making industry, the gaming industry included, knew that the bread and butter of Game’s Con, was the big game reveals.

That, really, was one of the major reasons why gamers tuned in for their show.

And typically, although not all the time, the best videogame showcases, were usually reserved by the committee handling the showcases for the very last.

That, exactly, was why Griffin was evidently ticked off.

However, the more the fairly wealthy investor thought about it, the more his annoyance dissipated.

Having seen [A Pirate’s Odyssey] in action, he just couldn’t fathom any game beating it out in terms of the impact it would have at Game’s Con.

In comparison, whatever game it was his former studio was making, couldn’t even compare, especially since they had never even made a AAA, big budget game in their lives.

He’d admit they were talented yes…

…but he was also certain they ended up just making some small budget, indie or AA game that wasn’t anything near the technical and visual marvel GameSoft Studios had developed, especially with Kyle Kestis, a Hollywood celebrity for that matter, buying it off of his hands.

‘Hmmm…’

‘A movie tie-in game, maybe? That’s the only major reason most celebrities ever even bother with getting a game studio…’ the investor mused, his thoughts rational.

‘I mean, it’s not like he’d just throw a shit ton of money into the Studio to make a full-fledged, brand new, triple-A videogame considering how financially risky of a prospect it is…’

‘Probably just a last minute submission…’ Griffin soon brushed off his thoughts to bask, fully in the warm glow of the morning’s sun while setting the papers aside.

Game’s Con was in three weeks.

Whatever the stitch was, Griffin knew he’d eventually find out.

That said, the investor, honestly, had no high hopes for whatever it was SpawnPoint Studios would be showcasing.

And so, the days went on.

Weeks passed.

The month of May arrived.

Game’s Con, was here.