Chapter 2

The following day arrived.

At 5:30 in the morning, Edward woke up early to prepare breakfast for his parents.

By 6:30, both of his parents had left the apartment for work, leaving him alone once more.

Observing that it was still dark outside, Edward decided to take advantage of the quiet morning to go for a run around the community.

In his previous time-space, a lack of exercise and proper sleep had taken a toll on Edward's physical well-being, leaving him with a height of only 165 centimeters (approximately 5 feet 5 inches). This diminutive stature had posed a significant obstacle in his quest to secure stable employment.

However, now that he had been granted a second chance in his youth, Edward harbored a strong determination to correct his past mistakes. He understood the importance of maintaining good health and physical fitness to open doors to better opportunities.

By 7:30, after an hour of running, Edward found himself in a computer shop, commonly known as an Internet cafe.

Upon entering, he was immediately greeted by loud background music, the sounds of gunshots, and a chorus of trashtalking (TT) from the teenagers present. (Note: Trashtalking was a significant part of gaming culture in the Philippines, especially during the Dota era.)

At this time, the most popular games included Dota 1, Crossfire, Red Alert, and Plants vs. Zombies.

Ignoring the cacophony around him, Edward rented a computer for an hour, donned his headphones, and played a calming background melody to drown out the noise.

He delved into researching topics that had occupied his thoughts the previous night, including YouTube's ad-sharing revenue model.

Edward discovered that content creators received approximately 50% of the revenue generated on their channels. For every $100 an advertiser spent, YouTube paid $50 to the content creator. On average, a YouTuber earned about $0.001 for each view, equating to $1 for every 1,000 views. However, this rate was applicable in the United States. Due to differences in consumption levels, in the Philippines, it was much lower, ranging from $0.10 to $0.25 per 1,000 views.

At 8:40 in the morning, his time in the Internet cafe came to an end. Despite his reluctance, he left the computer and headed home, armed with valuable information for his plan.

Now that he understood YouTube's policies and regulations, the next step was to determine the content he should create. What were his strengths? What could attract views?

Edward believed he had answers to these questions. In his previous time-space, he had practiced the guitar for over 15 years. While his skills weren't at a professional level, he was confident that with dedicated practice, he could competently play most songs.

With this foundation in guitar, he could create content related to it.

Singing an original song seemed like a good idea, considering it was the fastest way to earn fame.

Edward had a good knowledge of various songs, but a common issue he faced was that their lyrics were frequently incomplete.

Despite dedicating the past month to this new time-space, his endeavors to fill in the missing lyrics had yielded limited success, leaving him somewhat frustrated with the process.

Another thought that crossed his mind was to create guitar fingerstyle covers.

During this period, there were relatively few guitar fingerstyle songs to cover, which could work to Edward's advantage.

However, Edward knew that his guitar skills hadn't reached the level where he could expertly bring out the guitar's melody on its own.

Finally, he considered making song covers.

This seemed promising as it was one of the easiest ways to go viral, with a broad market.

Wasn't Justin Bieber a living example?

Moreover, there weren't many content creators doing song covers at this time, so the competition wasn't as fierce as it would become in the future.

Edward's eyes gleamed with excitement.

At 5:00, Edward took a break from his work to prepare dinner, and by 6:00 in the evening, his parents had returned home one after the other.

After dinner, Edward approached his mother, requesting the use of her smartphone for his project. It wasn't easy to convince her, but eventually, she relented, partly because she had noticed a positive change in his behavior recently.

Time passed swiftly.

Edward spent the majority of his time fine-tuning his plan. Before he knew it, several days had already gone by.

On the fourth day, all preparations complete, with a guitar on his hand, he made his way to a vast grassland not far from their apartment.

Why did he choose to shoot outdoor instead of indoors?

First, he found the apartment's background unappealing.

Second, the constant noise from neighbors and barking dogs outside would disrupt the recording process.

Over the past few days, during his morning runs, Edward had been scouting for the perfect filming location, and he had found it: a vast grassland under the shade of a Big three.

With precise camera placement and some thoughtful color editing, he felt confident that the final video would be more impressive.

Upon arriving at the site, Edward set up his smartphone and began recording.

The smartphone was a second-generation iPhone from 2008. While it offered good picture quality, the drawback was its 2G mobile data connection.

For internet access, it required a Wi-Fi connection.

After hitting the record button, Edward sat on a wooden chair and began strumming his guitar.

The song he chose to cover was "Your Song" by Parokya Ni Edgar.

As the song flowed from his fingers and vocal cords, Edward's face darkened. He couldn't help but want to curse.

"Sure enough, singing is not for me."

He had anticipated this outcome, knowing that singing had never been his forte, even in his previous time-space.

With a few clicks, Edward opted to delete the video and reposition the camera for another take.

His voice may not be as good as others, but does he have a choice?

He doesn't know anyone who knows how to sing, and even if he did, there's no guarantee that they would cooperate with him for free.

Instead of finding someone else to sing, it is better to do it yourself. Edward believes that as long as he shoots hundreds of times, there will be one or two versions with above-average quality.