Chapter 90

Alexia was finally done reading the manuscript, and as soon as she took her eyes off of the manuscript, she saw Will, who was sweating profusely, and his whole face was red as if he had a heart attack.

'Will? What happened? Are you alright?!'

Alexia got up hurriedly and went near Will. She took out her napkin and cleared the sweat from his forehead, and poured some water into a glass from Will's office. As she was about to make Will drink some water, he gestured with his hands to make her stop.

He took the water glass from her hand and gulped down every single drop, heaving a sigh, he finally said something.

'Yeah, I am fine. Don't worry. And don't give me that look. I definitely wasn't having a heart attack, and I am still way too young for that.'

Will said teasingly to lift up the atmosphere, although his meek and tired voice didn't help much in this situation.

'Are you really fine? Let me call a doctor to check on you at least.'

Alexia still seemed unconvinced and had a worried look on her face. Will just smiled, seeing that and said.

'No. I said it's fine. Just leave me alone for a moment; I would like some private time to think about something.'

Will said as Alexia just sighed.

'Okay, I will go. But be sure to call for me if you need me with something.'

'Yeah, definitely.'

As Alexia was about to leave the office, Will stopped her.

'Arrange for the third round of auditions. I had promised Jeffrey that I would be present seeing to it myself.'

'Most certainly.'

Alexia left his office, and Will was finally alone.

'Haaah!'

Will let out an exhausted sigh as he summoned his system screen again.

[Quest - Write, Produce and Direct an Original movie with your own original soundtrack that had never existed in your previous world or this world.

Quest Clear Conditions -

→ Earn $100 million dollars from your own original movie during the first four weeks of its run.

→ The system will remain non-functioning during the quest duration; you can use the existing Skills.

→ All the Fame Points collected can't be used to buy skills or be withdrawn during this period of time.

Quest Clear Rewards -

→ System Upgrade

Quest Duration - 8 Months

Quest Failure Penalty - The system upgrade would stop. You would still be able to use the existing system.

Time Remaining - 242 days 23 hours 52 minutes 19 seconds remaining]

No matter how many times he summoned his system, be it status screen, shop or just skill description, only this window popped up.

'So it's either I complete the quest before the due date and get an upgraded version of the system, or I simply wait till the Quest duration runs out, and the existing system functionality is restored. Haaah, Sigh.'

Will let out another sigh as the frown on his face deepened. For some time, he was totally confused, and after a while, he understood what was going on.

'The system is testing me.'

It was Will's assumption, which he thought was the truth most likely. The system was trying to test Will and see if he was even worth having the system. After all, from the time of his transmigration till now, all he did was use the system's resources that were at his disposal and create movies without making an effort to make his own originals and such.

Anyone at Will's place would have done the same, so Will thought of one more possibility, and that was that the system was designed to make this quest at some point to test out Will's potential. After all, it clearly said that some kind of condition had been met and that's how this quest was initiated.

'Is it perhaps related to the withdrawal of all the fame points?'

Will wondered, then immediately shook his head at that thought.

→ All the Fame Points collected can't be used to buy skills or be withdrawn during this period of time.

This point clearly proved that this quest could have initiated when he had fame points, and he wouldn't even be able to use it.

'I dodged a bullet here, huh.'

Will thought, after all, if he hadn't taken out all the fame point and the quest had initiated, he would surely face more difficulties than he would face now after withdrawing all of it.

'It's either related to the skills that I purchased or the script that I bought.'

The former was less likely, as he bought two massive skills back to back. On the other hand, the latter seemed entirely plausible and made a lot of sense.

'It's the sixth skill that I received from the system, and Harry Potter was a novel series instead of a script.'

So basically, after he received five scripts for the system, the quest would have initiated when he received another script via achievements or bought another script from the system.

'Good thing I decided against buying a lot of cheap scripts.'

Will thought. At some point, he had thought about buying a lot of scripts, writing them down and selling them. It would give him a lot of small profit, but he decided against it and just bought scripts when it was absolutely necessary.

If he proceeded with his earlier plan, he wouldn't have been able to make [Sherlock Holmes].

But even right now, the situation didn't seem much favourable to him.

What the system was proposing was simple to decipher.

'Prove yourself and get a lot more powers from me.'

Writing down an original script and making an original soundtrack was in no way an easy task. Will was already praising the Will from an hour ago for being decisive enough to buy the skills that would be helpful now.

The only reason he was able to make two movies in a year was because of the system. A normal college dropout won't be able to do it by himself.

After all, from the system, he could just buy scripts. What he lacked in talent, he was able to buy them as skills from the system. But now, the story was different.

He had all enough skills a person in the Hollywood industry can dream of, so he was asked to make things a normal film school dropout would laugh at.

'Something feels off.'

Will felt like something was wrong with him. He found out what was wrong after seeing his face on the reflective surface of his laptop.

'I am smiling.'

He was smiling. To be accurate, his face was red, and his lips were twitching as if suppressing his excitement.

After getting everything served on a silver platter, Will was asked to eat up. If he wasn't even able to do that, he would be a failure as a human. Hence the challenge somehow seemed thrilling, and his heart was pounding. Although he knew it was not an easy task, he was still thrilled at the thought of surpassing the own limits that he had created for himself due to having a system.

'First, I need to calm down. What am I? An eighth-grader?'

Will chuckled as he stood up, filled another glass of water and gulped it down.

Will picked up the telephone at his working table and dialled a number.

'Hello? Jeffrey? Can you come to my office right now?'

***

Jeffrey was currently seated in front of Will and was waiting for him to talk up.

'It's about what I asked you to do a few days ago.'

Will said. Jeffrey made an enlightened expression and smiled.

'Yes, the talk went smoothly. They agreed to sell the company. In fact, they are eager to sell it. After all, the owner of the company isn't profiting much from it.'

'Great! Please proceed with the deal. I want to acquire the company as soon as possible. Make sure that news about it doesn't spread, at least until all the company rights are in my hands.'

Will said with a pleased expression. Another big step in his career was going to be taken right now; he didn't want to mess it up.

'Haha, don't worry, Will. You'll have the company's papers in your hand soon. Although I still don't know why you even bothered to get this company. You are truly unpredictable.'

Jeffrey chuckled at the end of his sentence. It was true that most of Will's moves were unpredictable. But Jeffrey had learnt to believe in his decisions.

'Oh, by the way. One of the comics that they're publishing is earning quite decently for being a comic. The owner just agreed to sell it because you offered such a huge sum. I heard they are having difficulties in distribution these days.'

Jeffrey said. He himself had analyzed the company and found out that the company was worth a bit below what Will had offered them. Basically, Will had offered a better deal to the company, an offer they can't refuse.

'They just don't know what they are losing. 'You never realize the value of something until you have lost it', truly an ironic quote.'

Will said, and after some thinking, he remembered something and asked.

'The third round of auditions for DTA will start soon, right? I would be present myself too. Did you contact the persons I gave you a list of before?'

Will was talking about the list he had given Jeffrey as a personal recommendation for DTA recruitment.

Jeffrey made a face as if he suddenly remembered something and said.

'Yes, I was about to tell you about it myself, and some of them have already agreed to join. But...'

'But what?'

Will asked curiously, and Jeffrey replied.

'It's Marcus, the guy that acted alongside Zach and June in [The Blair Witch Project]. He had apparently gotten into drugs after his career failure.'

Will was shocked to hear that. Apparently, Zach had been able to get some roles for himself in ICM and was able to raise his level in the industry bit by bit. On the other hand, Marcus had been on a downward slope and ended up with drug addictions due to career pressure.

'Sigh, it's truly a waste. I'll tell Alexia to set up a meeting with me. For now, you should just focus on the acquisition of that company.'

Jeffrey nodded and said as if he was truly perplexed.

'I really don't get what you see so important in that company. What was its name again? Ah yes, Marvel Comics.'

Will just smiled lightly hearing that.

...