Rise To Stardom - Chapter 211

Chapter 211: Dirty Tricks
(A week later…)

Hector hardly ever found reasons to be angry.

In fact, maybe it was safer to say that the GameSoft Studio CEO, avoided getting angry altogether.

Because he more than anyone else knew, just how irrationally destructive his anger could be.

But this time, he was.

And without restraint, he lunged at the Executive whom had posted the now deleted tweet as the other GameSoft Execs, did their best to hold him down in their meeting room!

“You, dumb fuck!! You just couldn’t keep your mouth shut huh?!! Half the time you bastards don’t even know what’s going on but still, you think it’s alright for you to just spout whatever comes to your mind?!!”

Even the culprit Exec, despite being dressed pristinely in a high-class vintage-brown tux, was terrified by the violent anger he was witnessing, solely through Hector’s burning eyes of utter fury!

His back was drenched in cold sweat and words were unable to escape his lips as he kept quaking in his boots.

Meanwhile, as all these was happening, investors of a [A Pirate’s Odyssey] were similarly quaking in fear at the financial losses they were about to incur as the games, hadn’t sold past a million copies since the initial release day!

In fact, sales had dropped exponentially and so had GameSoft’s resulting shares on the stock market.

Evidently, this was as a result of the multiple investors and shareholders in the company, jumping ship with immediate alacrity to the most lucrative gaming company as of the moment.

5.4 million units sold in a freaking week!

That was an estimated revenue of roughly $210 million!

SpawnPoint Studios had achieved an astonishing milestone the gaming industry hadn’t seen in years and it was all over the internet and tabloids, both in the gaming and Hollywood sphere!

Industry analysts even projected that sales could reach roughly 50 million units within a year—a highly feasible estimate.

And if this was achieved, the now-renowned gaming studio would be on the track to generating, nearly two billion dollars in revenue within the same year!

And so, in an effort to be among those who profited from the big pie, many investors had immediately dashed over to the stock market!

One of such investors, was none other than Griffin himself, the panic in his eyes evident as sweat licked his skin profusely.

Yet, upon thoroughly searching SpawnPoint Studio on the market for hours on end without any success, same as many others, a certain realization soon dawned on him.

And upon digging for more information to ensure that he was not overthinking things, the former CEO, soon found an article, one that briefly stated in passing, how SpawnPoint Studios had taken themselves off the market and gone private, around the middle of last year.

With a regretful expression, Griffin’s worst fears had come through as he buried his head in his palms in defeat.

The former CEO, had lost out on an extraordinary opportunity to have been the owner a company whom had gone on to create of what would ultimately go on to be the most successful game of the year, both critically and commercially.

But more than that, he had lost to Carlos, the one person he always felt was beneath him all his life.

…

…

…

Having thrown a small yet fancy celebration party for all of his employees (his team included) due to the success of [Tech Wiz], Kyle was currently leaning on the balcony railings of the rented building, the music behind him quietly thumping as he and Carlos conversed.

“Griffin?”

“He’s my younger brother.” the Studio Head nonchalantly stated, earning a swift head swivel of shocked surprise from Kyle!

“Younger, half-brother, to be exact… by a few months.” Carlos clarified properly, his choice of tone and demeanor, still very much laid back.

“Well,” Kyle muttered audibly in response.

“I most certainly wasn’t expecting that.” he added with a noticeably perplexed gaze, after which he then inquired, a hint of genuine concern in his tone;

“Bad blood?”

“Nah. Nothing of sorts.” Carlos waved Kyle’s words off with an air of nonchalance, his smile slightly bitter-sweet as he contemplated for a few seconds, after which he then spoke, a small sigh escaping his lips;

“It’s just… I’ve been in his shadow my entire life, I guess.”

“Wasn’t exactly the golden boy growing up and for Griffin who seemed to be much more forward thinking than I was, well…” Carlos played with the rim of his glass cup, his voice lowered.

“It wasn’t particularly fun being compared to him all your life by your parents, was it?” Kyle inferred with a sombre smile and the Studio Head simply nodded in response.

“You know what the funny thing is though?” Carlos inquired rhetorically, his gaze travelling over the busy streets of the city.

“What?” Kyle followed along, clearly interested.

“Despite all that, Grif was always so cool when we were growing up, I often forgot that I was even being compared to him half the time.” Carlos chuckled, a hint of lingering nostalgia in his voice.

“Then college happened. He got lucky with his foray into trading stocks on the market and voila, instant personality shift into a douche…”

“Or maybe that was his real personality the entire time. Can’t say…” Carlos sighed, after which he then stated wistfully;

“I guess money does bring out the worst in people.”

In response to that, Kyle had a contemplative demeanor on his features.

From their conversation, the young man had been able to glean a few more things he’d been trying to piece together about Carlos’s and SpawnPoint Studio’s former CEO’s sour relationship.

“Money doesn’t exactly do that, you know?” Kyle soon spoke out loud, earning an arched brow of curiosity from the Studio Head.

“People’s obsession with getting money however…”

“Now that’s where the issue lies.” Kyle began as he angled his gaze over to Carlos with a light smile;

“You ended up reaching out to your brother when things must’ve gotten quite tough for you to handle at the Studio, financially.”

“And you’d hoped, that maybe somewhere, deep down, Griffin still had it in him to be considerate of you being family at the very least.”

“In a way, you were trying to bring him back to those times when you were proud of him. Remind him that he could be better than the average investor, morally, at least.” the young man inferred and Carlos, widened his eyes in genuine surprise at how accurately Kyle was piecing everything together.

“But all that went to bust because at an investor’s core, getting richer is the only thing they’ll ever care about 99% of the time–– interpersonal relationships and whatnots be damned.” the CEO gestured towards his Studio Head and then assured him.

“And that’s not your fault–– is what I’m trying to say. That’s a fault of their insatiable obsession with money.”

“So yes, Carlos. You did the right thing as a struggling Studio Head.”

“And you’re also a great older brother. I hope you know that.” Kyle lightly pat him on the back, after which he then resumed, staring at the bright lights of the night life’s cityscape.

The cool night’s breeze, blew past the duo for a few seconds after that and Carlos, simply stared at his CEO who had a light smile on his features.

Despite not outwardly showing it, Carlos had been worried all day that maybe, if he never made Griffin into SpawnPoint Studio’s CEO, his younger brother wouldn’t be in his current predicament of heavy losses.

But now Kyle, even with limited info on his internal thoughts, had ultimately, made him realize that he wasn’t in the wrong.

And that was why, after a few more seconds had passed, Carlos spoke again, his tone genuinely appreciative;

“Thank you, Kyle. Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.” the young man responded with a warm smile.

* * *

“Forty-four percent! You’ve achieved the impossible, Lex!” one of Atlas International’s executives exclaimed with a hearty laugh during an executive meeting.

The room echoed with similar enthusiasm as other executives joined in, commenting on the promising future of Atlas International.

“Soon enough, we’ll hit 45% before the Hollywood strike is even over!”

“Just imagine the possibilities!”

Amid the lively discussions, Lex, the CEO, remained quiet, his thoughts elsewhere.

Just yesterday, he had received the report that SpawnPoint Studios had sold nearly 5.5 million units of their game [Tech Wiz].

From there, his thoughts had wandered at the possibilities as he knew just how lucrative it would be to produce a blockbuster movie based on such a successful videogame.

But one obstacle stood firmly in his way.

Walt Brothers Comics.

Despite countless generous offers, they remained stubbornly determined to retain ownership of their company.

‘And if they continue to refuse…’ Lex’s thoughts turned deathly grim.

“Dirty tricks it is.” he resolved silently.

* * *

(A few days later…)

Kickback Radio was getting a shit ton of offers from a plethora of record labels!

Sure it wasn’t the big time record labels but still!

[Awake], despite being a song that Kyle had created, solely to elevate the intro of the videogame, had gone pretty viral on GrooveBox, amassing over fifty million streams in just over a week!

To a certain extent, it showed that there was a strong market for those kinds of gritty songs and record labels as usual, wanted to capitalize on it pronto!

Added to that, since they also knew, that the newly formed band were essentially Kyle’s session musicians for a fairly long while now, they’d hoped to be able to make some connection with the young star himself through them.

But for Caleb, Maeve and Paul, all of whom had only ever been session musicians for the longest part of their careers, they honestly had no idea how to deal with this sudden influx of recognition.

Still, they were extremely thankful and couldn’t help but contact Kyle to show their appreciation and gratitude as they’d started getting more and more gigs!

Afterall, if Kyle hadn’t given them the go-ahead to perform the song live, they would simply, still be session musicians, actively searching for the very next gig just to sustain themselves.

“I keep telling you Caleb. It’s fine! And you’re welcome.” Kyle spoke over the cell as he got out of his car.

“Also, ensure to steer clear of predatory label contracts.” he advised, his tone genuine.

“Alright. Talk to you later. Say hi to Maeve and Paul for me.” Kyle ended the phone call and then made his way into the bookstore, his features masked by a simple nose mask and his glasses.

After three months of reviewing, accepting and eventually, publishing, Christina’s book, Evergarden, was finally out for purchase at select bookstores around the world.

And Kyle was sparing no effort to show his support for the lady by being among the very first to lay his hands on it.

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PS – Read Author’s Note.