Rise To Stardom - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: A Gift, From Us, To You
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⸢ Hello, Son.

This might come off as a big shocker to you when you finally realize it but, this is our gift to you.

You always dreamed of being a star. Your own, unique, type of star.

Well, this is our way of ensuring that those dreams come true.

Thank you for filling our lives with warmth and light over the past few years.

But now it’s our turn to fill yours with it.

So go on child. Go make your own legend!

Love,

– Ollie, Mary, Joel, Rebecca & Paul. ⸥

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Reading the message before him, another round of fresh tears began to spill down Kyle’s eyes as he struggled to control his emotions.

‘No. You didn’t need to do this. I would’ve just been content with having been able to attend your burial. This is too much for me…’ Kyle rested his head on the edge of the basin, unable to even hold back the tears again.

And for a fairly long while, the young adult just sobbed in silence, even as some college students who walked past him, gazed at him in pity.

* * *

Currently sitting in the lecture hall, his heart much less heavy now, Kyle began to ponder over what he needed to do from here on out.

‘I definitely want to finish college this time since I never got the chance to in my other life…’

‘But I also want to pursue my dreams of being a star…’

‘And there’s also the issue of the college fees…’

A small, tired sigh escaped the young man’s mouth as he scratched his head.

“Can this day get any worse?” Kyle rhetorically asked himself with a mutter, gazing at the professor who was explaining something regarding Quantum Physics using the projector.

A bit bored, since he pretty much knew understood what was being explained, the young man decided to explore his system’s interface properly.

Search every nook and cranny of it.

Pulling up the pulsing translucent screen, knowing fully well no one else asides him could see it, he began exploring whilst using mental commands.

After about an hour or so, long after the lecture had ended, with only him present in the now empty hall, Kyle slowly stood up while compiling all that he knew about his system via an instruction manual he had found on it.

First, the system wasn’t sentient at all and functioned more like a game screen.

Secondly, he could create skills that would possibly boost all his artsy performances and his body’s capabilities, all at a ridiculously expensive usage of his points.

That being said, Kyle doubted if he would ever need to go full-on superhuman in the normal world where mundane things happened more often than anything remotely out-of-place.

Third was how the max level cap he could reach, according to the system, was level 20.

And lastly, there was no shop where he could purchase items or skills but considering he could make skills with his points, he considered it a good trade-off.

The young man however, didn’t rule out the possibilities of the system being more capable than what he had explored.

For all he knew, he felt like he might’ve just being scratching the very surface of its capabilities.

Exiting the lecture room and moving back into the sprawling lawn full of students, Kyle soon passed by a drop-dead gorgeous young lady who was excitedly discussing something with a similarly gorgeous friend of hers.

“Yeah! They said I could skip all the preliminaries and just go straight to the second auditions in three weeks’ time”

“Really! That’s fantastic Lily!” her friend replied after which she then added.

“I kinda feel bad for anyone that would have to go up against you though. Even I would love to avoid you like a bad habit…”

Lily just giggled innocently at that as she and her friend kept walking on while discussing, seemingly in their own world.

Overhearing their conversation without even turning his head over, Kyle quickly whipped out his smartphone and began to search for any singing reality TV shows that would be airing in the next few months.

It didn’t take long for him to find ‘Rising Voices’ as he scrolled through the internet, navigating over onto their official website.

‘Rising Voices’ was a global singing, reality TV competition series that had just recently started airing a few years back.

Due to how unbiased and open the series was, especially with its committed focus to showcasing hidden gems and talented singers, it had quickly become a massive hit on the ‘Inkstone Broadcasting Company (IBC)’.

With so many branches around the world, the television and radio network ensured to meet everyone’s expectations, both the viewers and investors, without sacrificing quality content at all.

This was one of the major reasons it had become a massive hit for viewers around the world!

Reading through the website and getting all the information he needed, the young man soon realized that the very first round of auditions would be happening in a week and three days, right here in Canada.

Registering as a contestant only took him a few minutes and he was satisfied with the things he filled up on the digital form.

With a small nod, his mind made up, Kyle returned his phone back into his pocket while thinking;

‘Let’s take that first step’

But before that, the young man knew he had to upgrade his stats if he ever wanted to go far in the reality TV show.

And so, with that in mind, he also began to search up for popular busking sites here in Canada where he wouldn’t be breaking any laws if he played.

He definitely didn’t want to get arrested for creating noise and disturbance or busking at the wrong place.

Also, moving over to an empty outdoor seating bench, Kyle once again whipped out his system’s interface while also retrieving his packed lunch of just a few slices of bread.

‘Which kind of skill can I create that would give me an edge over everyone asides [Soulful Vocals]…’ he thought to himself, ready to create his very first skill.

Having read the description for that peculiar skill previously, he had found out that it was basically a passive skill that helped him fully express himself whenever he sang any song with an emotional depth to it.

Before he could think any further about a new skill though, irredeemable bitch and her band of no good, devil-skinned minions strutted over.

Again, Kyle’s brutal naming sense comes into play.

“We need to use this bench please so can you kindly scurry along” Haley innocently said to the young man as her and her girlfriends behind her also gave similar smiles.

However, it was obvious that they were clearly faking it.

Although most of the other benches were also filled up, it was quite weird that they would specifically come over to him, considering the larger-than-life status they had on campus.

Anyone would quickly relinquish their spot to them if they had so much as asked so, the fact that they came over to his bench, meant that they were just trying to mess with him.

Not wanting to deal with their bullshit, Kyle packed up his stuff without saying a word and moved further away from all of them, opting to sit on the open green lawns instead of a bench this time.

At least they wouldn’t be stupid enough to stress him this time or claim that they wanted his space on the vast and exceedingly spacious green lawn.

‘Again?! He behaves like I’m not even worth his time!’ Haley gritted her teeth, her friends quite taken aback by Kyle’s calm responses.

Maybe he had no spine to fight back or was now very afraid of them – is what they had thought.

But, considering his predicament, Kyle knew that not lashing out against any of them, was his best possible option.

Besides, he also knew that the girls were all very rich, spoilt brats and as a result, felt no need to indulge in their obvious shenanigans that would only be detrimental to him.

Sitting down on the now empty bench, Haley kept glaring at Kyle from across the lawn, seemingly as if trying to drill a hole into the back of his head.

She and her friends had played their usual, high stakes, truth or dare game about two weeks ago and the loser was subjected to a punishment from the winners.

This was something they frequently did every now and then so it wasn’t anything new to say the least.

Around that time, Haley and Seth were off again and so, her friends had come up with a pretty nasty punishment for her after she had lost.

That was to hook-up with Kyle Kestis, the campus loner… or well at least, to get him to believe she had wanted to hook up with him.

At first Haley had wanted to reject the punishment but, after being told by her friends that they would help her with getting back together with Seth for the umpteenth time, she had opted to do it.

Believing it would have been a piece of cake for her anyway, because who wouldn’t fall for her beauty and irresistible charms, Haley had approached Kyle.

What she hadn’t been expecting though, was how exceedingly detached the Campus Loner would behave with her despite all of her advances.

At first she had wondered if he was gay but no, after seeing him occasionally talking to and interacting with a few of his female classmates for their final year group project, she had realized that he was in fact, just plainly ignoring her.

He wouldn’t even speak to her, much less respond to her words.

Unable to understand how a man could resist a whole her, something she had never experienced even once in her life, Haley’s ego took a massive hit and she decided to go all out on him.

But nothing changed.

Kyle was as cold as ever towards her because he knew she was up to no good.

Feeling extremely annoyed and irritated due to not being able to have her way with him, Haley had gotten very bitter, upon which she then proceeded to do something really drastic – having his scholarship withdrawn by pulling a few strings here and there.

Without even consulting Kyle first or standing on their integrity, the foundation had swiftly withdrawn the young man’s hard-earned scholarship.

When Kyle had then received the news of his scholarship suddenly been withdrawn, he had tried his best to plead, inquiring for reasons as to why it was suddenly revoked, despite already having a very strong idea of who the perpetrator was.

However, he was never given the light of day and neither was he given a proper answer, further proving his suspicions right.

This was primarily due to the foundation’s fear of pissing off Haley’s father who was an extremely wealthy and well-known business mogul in the US and also, a major funder for both the college and the Maple-Grant scholarship itself.

So, regardless of whether Kyle was innocent or not, his fate was sealed the moment Haley had set her eyes on him.

And now, sadly, Kyle was stuck, dealing with the consequences of irredeemable bitch’s actions.

Not even realizing Haley’s intense glare on him though, Kyle soon decided on the skill he wanted and with a mental command, the skill materialized onto the translucent panel.

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Passive Skill – [Growth Spurt]

Able to increase levels and skills at an exceptionally faster rate than the average individual the more an action is performed. This also applies to non-skill related things.

Exp. Points Consumed – (25,000)

Exp. Points Left – (0)

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‘Well, it took all my points and all but I believe it’s a worthy investment’ Kyle thought to himself, getting up from the lawn while dusting off the dirt from his worn out, faded jeans.

He was done with his classes for the day and there was no reason to keep hanging around campus for the meantime when he could immediately be putting his skills to the test.

‘Let’s go busking’ the young man inwardly declared, deciding to head over to a music store first to get a new guitar since he didn’t have one yet in this world.