Rise To Stardom - Chapter 39

Chapter 39: Hello World!
Two days had passed since Kyle had been eliminated from the reality TV show.

Of course, when he had gotten back to college, there was the usual five-minutes of fame one usually experienced by being on live television that was broadcasted around the world.

Questions were asked, praises were showered and consolations were given, among other things.

And after all that was done, most started behaving normally with him again, the initial thrill leaving their body, something the young man was ever so grateful for.

The ladies who kept making advances towards him though, now that was another story entirely because most of them were quite utterly, relentless!

However, the young man ensured to make it very clear that he wasn’t interested in any form of romance whatsoever.

There was no underlying reason for his decision really, contrary to what most people probably thought, because, honestly, Kyle just wasn’t interested in pursuing a romantic interest period.

Sure he could be an absolute gentleman and offer compliments and basic courtesy towards ladies as was necessary but, at the end of the day, Kyle’s intentions towards every lady he had met so far never amounted to anything past that and even Lily was not exempted from that rule.

Though speculations and rumors had arisen about he and Lily having a thing for themselves, Kyle just like Lily, had come to understand that the reason they were both exceptionally comfortable with themselves, was due to the fact that they never searched for any deeper meaning into each other’s words like most people would have already done if they were in their shoes.

To both of them, although they never said it out loud, they knew well enough that their relationship was purely platonic, one they were very keen on maintaining just as it was.

Currently though, early into the night, some of the guys in the same dorm with Kyle were inviting him over to a party of a popular guy on campus, one Kyle politely declined.

Parties weren’t really his thing and besides, he had a lot of ground to cover-up academically.

“Well then. No qualms man. We’ll see you around!” the guy who came to invite Kyle spoke for all of the three friends behind him as they left.

“Yeah sure. Later” Kyle waved slightly and then, retreated back into the comfort of his room, ensuring to lock the door behind him.

Staring around the room, his college textbooks littering the ground, Kyle sighed and then began to pack them up one after the other.

Considering there were so many classes he had yet to catch up on, he was really putting the effort into reading up on all the topics he hadn’t covered yet.

Having arranged all his stuff neatly on his desk, Kyle removed his glasses and placed them carefully on the desk too, all while massaging his temples.

Slumping face first onto his bed, tired and fatigued, the young man pondered over a peculiar thought.

‘Hmmm… It should work? Right?’ he mused, his face buried within his pillow.

Realizing he’d begin to find it hard remembering everything he wanted to memorize, Kyle casually created a skill in his mind that would also be very useful for singing and acting too.

___________________________

Passive Skill – [Recollection]

Effectively and easily remember anything that you’re keen on reading or remembering.

Exp. Points Available – (3579)

Exp. Points Consumed – (3000)

Exp. Points Left – (579)

___________________________

“That’s a lot of points it consumed. Well, I’m not complaining. It’s worth it” he lengthily mumbled to himself, his voice further muffled by the bed.

Knowing fully well that as he kept writing more and more songs in the future, it might become harder to remember all the lyrics along with also remembering the lines from scripts in movies or series he might eventually act in, Kyle felt that it was a worthy investment.

‘Should clock out… I’m so tired…’ the young man thought to himself as his eyelids got heavier and heavier.

However, quickly remembering something, Kyle turned over on his bed and then retrieved his phone.

Finally, his songs were going to be released onto [GrooveBox] tomorrow!

That being said though, Kyle had yet to actually create his MediaGram and TweetTalk account to further promote them due to college stuff taking up his time, and, the entire thing just skipping his mind generally.

Taking now as a time better than ever to do so, the young man navigated to the apps individually, and then, after filling in all the necessary details, the new photo of him included, created the accounts.

Now, thinking of the best way to promote his songs, Kyle pondered to himself and after a while, decided to just go for a simple greeting.

Simultaneously using his profile picture as his very first post, the simple description written under the photo being ‘Hello World!’, he then also added a link to the post that led to his songs on [GrooveBox].

Having done that, he then navigated over to a small notepad app where he had written Oliver’s, Jennie’s, Ryan’s, Lily’s, Joe’s, Steven’s and Katie’s social media handles, tagged them to the post, and then, finally posted it, both on MediaGram and TweetTalk.

Putting his phone on silent and placing it on the bedside table after all that was done, Kyle finally succumbed to his fatigue and dozed off, completely unaware of the wondrous numbers that single tweet and post from him were going to do to his song the very next day.

* * *

(12:46am midnight).

Jennie, the pretty burgundy-haired lady whom had helped Kyle and Oliver with the production of his song, was mindlessly scrolling through her MediaGram account after a tiring day in the studio when she received a sudden notification from ‘Kyle Kestis’.

A bit skeptic and confused, especially when considering that she had searched up his social media handles a few days back after he had been eliminated from the show and had still not seen a thing, the lady wondered if bots were just at work again or someone was simply trying to prank her.

However, upon clicking on the notification, curiosity getting the best of her, a pretty smile blossomed on her face, turning into a wide grin that had her instantly sitting upright on her bed.

Swiftly clicking on the link that then navigated her to [GrooveBox]’s ‘New & Hot 100’s’, the young audio engineer was evidently surprised to see Kyle’s songs already at higher ranks on the chart.

[Spark] was already at number 48, [Embers] at 35 and [Needs To Be Loved] at 22!

All of the songs also had a simple music cover of a young man sitting by a piano in a small room as he performed.

Widening her eyes at this, another happy smile blossomed on Jennie’s lips.

Quickly, the lady listened to [Needs To Be Loved] again, her favorite out of all his three songs first, before she then made her way down the list.

Putting the three songs into a newly created playlist of her own and repeating them on loop, the lady then quickly reposted Kyle’s post with the caption; So honored to have being able to produce this with you!

Also, remembering that one photo she took with him, a pretty nifty idea ran through Jennie’s head.

Switching over to her alt account, bragging rights in hand, the lady navigated over to his fan group, added the link to the Kyle’s own post and then added the photo they took separately while commenting;

Mamma Mia: Took a picture with a future superstar ɷ◡ɷ! Go listen to his songs right now!

No sooner had she posted that, the relatively lively fan page of over 57 netizens, exploded further into a stream of an unbelievable number of messages, all while Jennie herself had a smug expression on her face as people kept bombarding her with questions!

Princess Peach: No!!! It should’ve been me not her!!! Why?! Just why?!!! Damn you universe!!!

Ana_MZ_27: @Princess Peach; Pfft! Hahaha! But seriously, @Mamma Mia; how’d you get to meet him?

Mamma Mia: @Ana_MZ_27; That’s a secret!

Peter_Writes_Fantasy: Sweet! Time to follow his page first before I go enjoy the songs. [Embers] is my favorite so I’mma be listening to it while writing my newest chapters! Peace!

Trix Or Treat: [Needs To Be Loved] just makes me all fuzzy on the inside. Help! I’m getting butterflies again! (＾▽＾)

ShrekLovesFiona: Yo! Still saw him a few minutes ago in the dorm. Dayum! My man works fast!

Darthkn: Wow. Just wow. [Embers] and [Sparks] just moved up to 25 and 34 respectively! [Needs To Be Loved] is already at [18] and is fast approaching top 10!

Christina_Writes_Scripts: @Darthkn; That’s amazing!

Alice_In_Wonderland 88: Um, I think I clicked on the wrong MediaGram link. What is this page? And who’s Kyle?

WeDoABitOfTrolling: @Alice_In_Wonderland 88; Now that you’ve joined the occult, you ain’t leaving no more! Off with your head!! Sacrifice your blood for the success of the man called Kyle Kestis!!!

Pro_noobs: @WeDoABitOfTrolling; Hello good sir. Are you perhaps the lost one? Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed today? Are you perchance possessed? What kind of drugs, or psychedelics are you on?

Kuro_uzumaki: What the?! What the actual shit is this guy doing here?!

Lost_Wanderer: @Kuro_uzumaki; He’s even more lost than I am. And that’s really saying something…

Piggy: Wow. Listening to all the songs again, I can definitely feel all the improvements in both the tune of the songs themselves and Kyle’s voice and yet, the heart of the song and the emotions imbued into all of them can still be very much felt.

Heavenascendance: I really hope he’ll be able to put out even more good songs as he proceeds onward with his music career and not just be that one-time wonder kind-of-guy.

Princess Peach: C’mon guys! Let’s get Kyle’s songs even further up the charts! No aggressive streaming though. Remember, we ain’t hardcore K-pop stans or crazed fans here. Just people who asides from wanting to see our boy succeed, also enjoy good music. Stay sane.

Requien: Roger that!

Mamma Mia: @ Princess Peach; You recovered so fast…

As the messages kept pouring out on the fan page, simultaneously, a large number of people began navigating to Kyle’s Mediagram and TweetTalk page, further leading to a rapid increase in the number of streams he had, all of which the young man would be finding out much later that morning.

* * *

Staring at the screen of his phone, a certain accomplished star had a thin smile on his lips as he watched a compilation of all of Kyle’s performance on Rising Voices.

It was a video on ViewTube which Rising Voices themselves had released and it had racked up close to two million views, beating out even Steven’s performances and coming only second to Lily’s.

‘He very much reminds me of my younger self…’

‘Hmmm. It would be nice to have him feature in a song with me…’ Carl Finch mused.

‘But first, I’d like to see how far he can go on his own…’

Making that decision, Carl Finch decided to keep tabs on Kyle’s growth, a bit curious to see if the young man would rise up from the ferocious seas of many other aspiring artists.