Rise To Stardom - Chapter 206

Chapter 206: Live Shows
Over the course of the rest of the month of May, June and July, Kyle’s live performances became one of the most sought after shows to look forward to for fans and music enthusiasts alike in the industry.

Sure his album being a mega-hit and his announcement at Games Con was one of the driving factors at first but, soon, those same factors, quickly became an after-thought as there was something so much interesting every fan who attended his live shows, looked forward to.

The fan interactions!

Literally, after each song Kyle performed, he’d make fun, interesting and engaging small talk with his audience before moving on to the next.

On the 15th of May, at Kyle’s very first live show for his album promotions at The Opera House in Toronto, the young man, having just sung [Back to The Start], noticed a peculiar looking banner from a fan in the audience.

To that, he had paused mid-dialogue while playfully reprimanding his screaming fans whom were once again throwing stuff and instead, squinted his eyes in a noticeable hint of familiarity as he said, fingers pointed in the lady’s direction;

“I might have questionable eyesight but that sign says–– Benson and Megan says Hi! Please come to our 56th Anniversary! ––right?!” he asked with an elated tone as his fans chuckled humorously at his self-jab.

To that, the entire audience in the auditorium watched as the lady holding onto said banner, screamed in response!

“YES!!”

“I’d love to!” Kyle responded instantaneously as the crowd screamed in enthusiasm after which he then asked;

“But, wait a minute, are you their granddaughter?”

“YES!!!” the lady responded with a noticeably heightened scream of elation this time!

“It’s so lovely to meet you! Your grandparents are the sweetest! By the way, what’s your name?!” Kyle returned her energy whilst also asking another question.

“Maggie!!” the teenage girl practically bubbled with unrestrained fervor as she kept conversing with Kyle.

“Well Maggie, it’s such a pleasure to meet you.” Kyle warmly smiled after which he then promised;

“That said, I’ll have Owen, my assistant, contact you about the details. I’ll be sure to attend the anniversary so remember to save a spot for me and some fruit punch!”

This time, Maggie, alongside every fan in the Opera House, roared in a mix feverish elation and amused laughter as Kyle then moved on to the next song.

And indeed, in the coming days after his promise, Kyle did in fact, attend the two lovely elderlies’ anniversary.

The pictures the trio took, alongside their other family members, ended up going viral as the internet, found Kyle’s gesture to be extremely sweet.

In fact, his fans had started attributing the young star the title; Hollywood’s Cinnamon Roll; a title the young man himself had humbly yet bashfully replied to at an interview for a popular magazine that he found ‘Equal parts heartwarming yet way too much for him’.

On the 22nd of May, at another live show, this time at The Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, after Kyle was done performing [Hazy Night] in a beautiful sing-along moment with the audience, a trio of fans at the frontlines, offered him an interesting gift.

“Kyle~! KK! Here!! We have a gift for you!!” they all waved him over while jointly presenting the small, white gift box wrapped in a red bow, one that Kyle upon receiving, curiously opened.

“A friendship bracelet?” the young star inquired with a surprised yet appreciative expression on his features as he kept staring at the metallic bracelet with his name engraved onto it.

“Yeah!!!” the trio of pretty ladies in their early twenties responded enthusiastically!

“Oh?” Kyle arched an amused eyebrow after which he then said;

“Never used one of these before, but, then again, there’s a first time for everything.” he slipped the bracelet onto his wrists and winked at the ladies who were practically screaming their hearts out in joy.

Literally, they all also had the same on their wrists with their own engraved names so, the fact that Kyle was also wearing his, made them feel connected to him in a special way as fans.

But little did the group of friends know, just how much mayhem they’d cause for themselves with that simple gesture of theirs because, something they had expected Kyle to wear, only once at that live show, was something he practically began to wear, everywhere as pointed out by his fans, paparazzi and the media alike.

Before the ladies knew it, they started getting bombarded with calls, offers and requests from many of Kyle’s fans to have a similarly personalized bracelet with their names on it, made!

The trio of friends had unexpectedly stumbled on a lucrative business and instantly, they capitalized on it.

And at the same time, by Kyle’s next live show, much to his genuine shock, practically all his fans had matching bracelets, similar to his!

On the 9th of June, Kyle having been invited to Capital FM’s Summertime Ball to headline the opening act, made a splash with his energetic and entertaining performance of [Electrified] and [Light A Fire], although his fellow artists whom he sang those songs with, weren’t chanced to attend the Ball itself due to their own busy schedules.

Still, what really made his appearance at the mini-festival in London go viral despite the absence of his fellow artists, wasn’t just the fantastic performances even in their absence.

Rather, it was the moment where Kyle had asked a curious question after performing [Electrified], minutes before he then performed [Light A Fire].

“Question. What do I call you sweethearts? I mean, I know most artists have a name they refer to their fans as but we’ve never had that discussion, have we?”

“Thoughts?” he curiously gestured to the crowd.

To those string of questions though, a lot of fans in the audience soon began pitching pet-names instead!

“Sweethearts is okay!!” a teenage fan stated with playful mirth.

“Sugar Plum’s perfect!” one lady, belted out her opinion, her intentions clear.

“Honey Buns would be chef’s kiss!” another fan shamelessly added.

To that, Kyle could only watch on in a mix of amused disbelief as the rest of the fans at the venue, burst into an almost unified wave of laughter.

Soon though, the young man spoke, a strong hint of humor in his concerned tone;

“Ladies. Stop it. Get some help.”

Another cascade of laughter washed over the venue once more as Kyle similarly joined in, after which he then proceeded to sing [Light A Fire], the song that had finally won out against [Electrified] by a couple thousand streams.

And just like that, many other fan interaction moments from his live shows were shared on various social media platforms, (TweetTalk, TicToc and ViewTube especially) as every fan who ended up attending his live shows, thoroughly enjoyed themselves and had a good time.

In any case, as the young star kept performing at live shows, he’d also squeeze in time to attend interviews from various media publications, talk shows, variety shows and the likes, his schedule once again packed and hectic.

But even then, Kyle was enjoying every moment of it and before he knew it, June was over and July came along.

At this point, Kyle had already cumulatively made about $26.5 million from live shows alone, over the course of those two months.

Considering all the live shows his team had planned, brought about an estimated total of over 750K+ fans all in all, with the tickets sold at an average of $34.99, these returns were expected.

The returns on his album however, having already sold a cumulative total of 7.8 million copies in three months, netted him a huge sum of over $80 million dollars after he had paid off DiscoTune’s 10% percentage cut, Oliver’s 20% and the rest of his team huge bonuses.

Then there was also the payment from his GrooveBox and ViewTube streams that cumulatively combined to net him over $65 million in profit.

All of the songs on his album, having already crossed over 500 million streams, with the top songs already well over a billion streams, had first been migrated to ‘GrooveList Top 100’ last month.

And then, at beginning of July, it was duly moved over to to GrooveBox’s ‘All-Time Favorite’, a chart that only the highest-rated mainstream musicians made their playground.

Yet, without mercy, his songs also dominated those charts, further solidifying that Kyle Kestis, truly was the next big thing in the music industry.

The same also happened with his music videos on ViewTube as all three had individually cracked over a billion views, hence getting Kyle into the billion-views club, a club that only a top percentile of artists ever reached.

That said, by the time the third week of July came along, Kyle and his team finally rounded up all the live shows they had planned.

And with that, came another period of months for the young star to take a breather, especially with the Hollywood Writers & Actors’ Guild strike still ongoing.

But even then, Kyle still had a lot of things to sort out, the upcoming release of [Tech Wiz] being the major one.

With that in mind, having taken the time to relax for a day after he was back in Canada lest Oliver and the rest of his team grilled him for being a workaholic, the CEO headed out early the very next day to his Studio.

However, just before he exited his vehicle which was parked before the building, Kyle took a moment to check up on his most recent notifications;

| You have rounded up your live shows successfully! |

| Huge bonus will be applied! |

| You have obtained a massive amount of exp. points! |

| 25,000 exp. points have been awarded! |

| Total exp. points available (70,995) |

| Singing has advanced from level 15 to level 16! |

| Dancing has advanced from level 13 to level 14! |

| Instrument Mastery (Piano) has advanced from level 12 to level 13! |

| Instrument Mastery (Guitar) has advanced from level 12 to level 13! |

| Advancement in Dancing and Instrument Mastery will become even harder from here on out! |

| Advancement in Singing will become exponentially harder from here on out! |

| You are close to breaking through to level 14 in Instrument Mastery (Piano)! |

| You are close to breaking through to level 14 in Instrument Mastery (Guitar)! |

| You are close to breaking through to level 15 in Dancing! |

| Keep singing, dancing and performing to improve your skills! |

___________________________

{Kyle Kestis} – Exp. Points (70,995)

⸶Skills⸷

| [Soulful Vocals (P)], [Growth Spurt (P)], [Appraisal(A)], [Resonance (P)] – {S}], [Charisma (P)], [Polyglot (P)], [Deep Dive (A) – {S}], [Recollection (P)], [Scene Stealer (A)], [Action & Stunt Mastery (P)], [Bleeding Effect (P)], [Detoxification (A)], [Peak Human Conditioning (P)], [Flow (P)], [Choreography Master (P)]…

* Exp. Points can be used to create skills.

⸶Levels⸷

| Singing › Level 16

| Acting › Level 14

| Composing › Level 15

| Dancing › Level 14

| Instrument Mastery (Piano/Guitar) › Level 13/13

* Levels will increase in accordance to your growth.

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With a satisfied nod of his head and another grateful appreciation of Ollie and the gang, Kyle then exited the vehicle and made his way into the Studio.

And when he finally arrived, everyone was all smiles as they congratulated him on successfully rounding up his live shows.

Soon enough, most of his employees got back to sorting out their various tasks for [Tech Wiz]’s DLC which was swimmingly coming along.

Sharon too, had been done with her role as Voltress earlier last month so, asides from Kyle checking up on her from time to time via posted mails, she was back to New York and was mostly, focusing her energy on modelling.

Considering her agency were still being the irredeemable assholes that they were by purposely and occasionally giving her sub-par roles to limit her star power and keep her on a tight leash, Sharon figured she’d also divert her attention and resources somewhere else in retaliation.

That asides, now that the CEO of the game studio was seated on ground, he got right down to business.

Now that Otis, Theo and Phineas were now also employed temporarily in the studio as programmers and software developers, he wanted to run a pretty interesting idea for [FortMight] through the trio and Carlos.

An idea that had been swirling in his head over the course of the past three months, even amidst his busy schedule.