2 2. Growing up again

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and works. If you recognize it from somewhere else, surprise, it isn't mine.

Instructions:

"words" means a dialogue said out loud.

'words' means an internal dialogue, just thoughts.

[words] means a system panel or Information from the system.

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Recap of previous chapter - The MC Devon dies in a bus accident in 2023 he was in his 40s. Gets reborn into the past makes up his mind to pursue his dream of becoming the greatest director ever in Hollywood.

Pov Mark (MC) -

After discussing about my dreams with my father in further detail. I decided to tell him about my future plans, after all I wanted his help to publish my finished book under my pen name Marc Spector.

I told him about my ideas for my upcoming books and how I wanted to write a murder mystery novel after being inspired by the books of Christie Agatha. How my obsession with dinosaurs from childhood after reading The Andromeda Strain - a book which deals with the aftermath of a biological weaponry research program gone wrong, gave me ideas on DNA strains and cloning.

Which finally led me to the bizarre idea about writing a novel where humans have actually harvested the DNA of dinosaurs from ancient parasites which were found well preserved in amber. And decided to create a Jurassic themed park out of it of all things, bizzare choice of business indeed.

Yes folks, I am talking about writing The Jurassic Park. Along with that, I got the idea to write a zombie survival horror novel dealing with ancient plagues, viruses and parasites centered around an evil corporation with the top-down view of an umbrella as its logo of all things.

All this writing business was enough to keep me busy from ages 11 to 15. Four out of four of my published novels even became New York Times bestsellers ranked on the top of their genre list to my parents' immense joy. And obviously Ben 10 was my number 1 best seller with over 42 million copies sold world wide, it is my most liked and bought book. With it's simplistic language, captivating artwork of the aliens and the superhero theme disguised as an alien transforming adventuring young kid was very well liked by young kids and young adults who dream of going on adventures themselves. It was simply a formula designed for success.

My second best selling to my surprise wasn't jurassic park, no the Dino park themed novel was actually my 4th on my list of best sellers with a total of 2.6 million copies sold. It was my most recent work but still i expected it to catch up I guess. My third best selling novel was "Knives Out: A Murder Mystery" with over 5 million copies sold world-wide. It was especially well received with the British readers according to the sales statistics.

My second best seller was actually "Resident Evil: Outbreak in Racoon city" with over 26 million. When I decided to adapt this franchise into a novel I never expected it to become such a big hit. But I could also understand why it was so well received. I gave the readers and horror enthusiasts a new kind of zombies rather than just plain old stumbling slow poke zombie, I introduced different kinds of zombies from jumpers to crawlers. I even introduced the special controlled bio-weapon named Nemesis squaring off against my main protagonist, The dual shotgun wielding certified badass Alice. Resident Evil was a hit with both male and female readers. The supporting cast of characters were also a hit with my audiences and with a varied cast of different ethnicities there was something for everyone.

We celebrated my success with a few close family friends and had a backyard wood fired pizza party. I had already written and published 4 well received novels by an astonishing age of just 15, with over millions of copies sold for each novel, worldwide. If I just count the authors' royalties alone, I am already a millionaire but I didn't let the success go to my head. My father always taught me a very important lesson.

"Always celebrate your successes but never let it become your arrogance, because arrogance is a poison that blinds people and hinders them from truly becoming successful".

He was a wise one my dad, after all being a well renowned lawyer in New York city had allowed him to see the true darkness people hide in their hearts. He taught me the importance of a close knit friend circle, about how to win over your friends, influence them to become better with subtlety so you also benefit from it, indirectly at least.

But my biggest challenge at home was convincing my mother to allow me to pursue a career in Hollywood as a film director. She was somewhat against it because i was already very successful as an author and didn't need to dirty my conscience by dipping myself into the cesspool of sex, drugs and debauchery that is the Hollywood. She wasn't wrong, it was all true. The rumored casting couch, boosting box office numbers through buying tickets, sexual offenders not being persecuted due to no witnesses or lack of evidence.

But still it was my dream I cant just give up on it. So after alot of requests and promises to my mom of not doing drugs and not to indulge in alcohol in excess, i was finally given the permission to pursue my dream. I knew my dad had been a huge factor to make my mom agree to my decision. He had always been very supportive of my dreams and ambition. I was glad to have them as my parents in this life.

I completed my highschool course early and at just 15 years old got admitted into arguably one of the best places to study the art of directing, cinematography, editing and screenwriting from; The New York Film Academy.

But I didn't just study, I was also writing my novels on the side to keep myself engaged in some form of creative work activity. In the five years that I was studying in NYFA my speed obviously went down but I still managed to write 2 new novels - The Boys and The Invincible; and also the sequels to my older works.

Whilst studying and writing, I didn't forget to socialize and make friends to help with my journey later on in my career and life. I had 6 very close friends whom I could say I trusted explicitly. I tested them, without their knowledge, to check their character traits, personality and behavior. After going through nearly over 40 people I chose the 6 of them because they showed the traits that I was looking for in my future friends and workmates. Loyalty, understanding, good work ethic, morals, the ability to stay calm and collected under pressure and not be offended over small things, etc.

In this period I also got acquainted with some people from Image comics who were interested in making my novels into comic books. They were especially enthusiastic about Ben 10. While it was one of my earliest works it was also one the most unique with almost constant pictures of the alien transformations every few pages along with cool alien gadgets and different alien planets and societies. With already a well established image base it would be the easiest to make into a comic book adaptation.

After getting into contact with my lawyer regarding this business. We finally came to a deal which I was satisfied with. I sold the comic adaptation rights of Ben 10, Invincible and The Boys to image comics for 5 years to test the market and see the feedback for the readers. I got a nice sum of 6.5 million in total for all 3 books.

I could have gotten more if I had extended the time period but I had other plans and I would be publishing my own comic books very soon if it went through. With all my passive income through writing novels and now selling the comic book adaptation rights I didn't just keep the money wasting around so I decided to invest the money into real estate through an agent introduced to me by my dad which gave me a very good ROI per year.

I had also invested in buying many plots of land around LA and New York. Because the land of never depreciates and with time only goes up. In one of the plots near the outskirts of LA, I had already begun to put together the first step that will be help in my rise through the ranks of Hollywood. An estate was being built upon the site.

My initial capital of around 10 million grew to a little over 25 by the time I was ready to graduate. I was pretty satisfied with this already as the age of the internet hadn't even started yet and I knew which companies would later go on to become trillion dollar giants so money was never a worry in my mind.

I just need to gather enough capital to establish a small film studio along with my friends and have enough left over to shoot at least two films. In case one fails at the box office (with my future knowledge it's rare but it's not impossible, so it's always better to be safe than sorry). And finally it came on the of my graduation.

I had just graduated from the New York Film Academy with honors and was celebrating with my friends in a bar when my life changed for a second time. I guess all my actions till now and then finally when I graduated with a Diploma in film direction, it cemented my path in this world and the system activated with some fanfare.

[Activating System 1%...33%...69%...100%]

*Ding*

[Head-hunting System Online]

'So I did actually get a system after all, hopefully it's not one where I will be forced to do missions and get punished for failing or not accepting a mission I don't like. I like to be in control of my life, thank you very much' thought Mark with his fingers crossed under the table.

"Well sorry guys but I need to get home early, my mom has prepared a family dinner which I have to get to as well. Let's all meet at our usual place after a week and I will tell you all about the plan in detail then" shouted Mark over music from the in-house band.

After getting some nods from his friends, he swiftly hailed a cab and made his way to his modest 1 bedroom apartment where he was living on rent. Finally in the comfort and security of his home. He decided to check out what this system was all about.

{Author's note: The first two chapters of this book have been written from the second person perspective to give it a summary kind of feel as I don't want to go into his childhood in detail and detract from the actual theme of the novel that is Hollywood. Also I am a first time amateur author and English is my third language. So please if you find any mistakes or have some suggestions please write them down in the comment section. Please share your feedback in your review. Thank you for taking your time to read my work.}