Chapter 51

The shooting went okay and I performed Canon in D to my best ability. They told me they'd send a quickly edited file on my phone after a while and I'd upload it to my Instagram.

It's nice that they're giving me freedom on this, rather than taking up a manager that would supervise my every action on Instagram. I am still a pretty new recruit after all.

Felix did get inspiration from listening to my performance and he quickly went away to a quiet room to write on his inspirations.

Jessica left and John supervised my classes with Blake for a while. I think he just wanted to see my quacking but fortunately, Blake said there'd be no more quacking for the rest of the time.

"We'd normally stop now but seeing as you're still very revitalized we can go over some simple expressions and hand gestures quickly."

I took out the notebook from my backpack.

"Yeah, that'd be great."

John nodded in approval and Blake took out his phone.

"Honestly, I wasn't expecting for us to advance this soon so please bear with the small screen of the phone. We'll be using a projector next time."

"That's fine."

He opened up a slideshow and there were some pictures and drawings of gentle and calm expressions.

"Well, based on what I was told about you and how you've been so far you definitely fit the refreshing role."

He skipped to the next slide and there was a picture of concert-Felix wearing a devilish expression. In the background, many fangirls and fanboys were yelling.

"You and Felix have the same fitting feeling and emotional aura. This is also one of the reasons why he's here right now."

"Ah, I see. He was sent here because we'd get along?"

"Could be one of the reasons, yeah," he continued,

"We'll first be learning these gentle and calm expressions and move on to the more engaging ones such as the one Felix is presenting right now. Since he's a pop performer he had to learn these but you don't have to."

Well, I am interested in singing later on so I might want to learn these.

I nodded.

He went back to the past slide with the drawings and simple expressions.

"Look at yourself in the mirror."

I looked to the side and saw my expression. Due to help from the system and the charm points, I already sported an expression similar to the ones in the slide.

"Smile."

"What type of smile?"

"Polite smile."

I used the same smile I use in the cafe.

"Raise your eyebrows."

"Slightly suck in your cheeks so that there are no air pockets or bubbles inside."

"Stick your tongue to the top of your palate. Behind your teeth."

"Press tightly."

"The very back of your tongue as well, paste it to your palate."

"Suck the air in once again."

"Your neck is a little too forward, make it relax on your shoulders."

In the mirror, I saw a celebrity looking at himself politely and gently amusedly in the mirror.

I looked different than my usual self. I look more refined, elegant, and even more confident than I used to look before. It feels like I went from a noble to a prince.

[Modeling has earned 200 points.]

[Modeling has earned 3.3 points.]

"Incredible."

I voiced out and Blake nodded amusedly.

"Try to keep this same face for the longest you can. It'll devolve into a habit which will then turn into your new resting face. Remember to keep the tongue pasted to the palate and sucked in. If it starts burning, you're doing good."

I nodded and looked at myself in the mirror.

"I will."

He nodded.

…

"You barely got here in time," she tapped her phone, displaying the time.

"Haha," I laughed awkwardly, "I was doing some stuff."

She smiled, "It's okay, just don't leave your gym buddy all alone."

She had fitness clothes on and had her hair in a ponytail. Her big caramel eyes looked at me brightly.

I smiled back at her.

"Cardio first?"

"Ugh, I hate cardio."

"Too bad, so sad." I tapped her on the shoulder.

She walked to the treadmill next to mine and we started walking.

"So you met Felix, huh?"

"Yup. He's a pretty fun guy. You like his music?"

"I've heard of it before. It's decent."

…

...

"You ready to run now?"

"Uh, okay."

I followed her as she turned up the speed. Following the basic routine I was given by Blake, I set the speed according to the instructions.

We ran in comfortable silence for a while until I began stumbling along the treadmill.

Ratchet duck walk! My legs are still weak from walking around like a little duck.

"You okay?" She looked concerned.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Thanks," I smiled.

Her eyes turned to crescents.

Glad that she���s got my back.

…

I finally arrived home after walking her back.

She insisted on her walking me back seeing as how tired I was but I vehemently refused. It was getting dark outside and no way I was letting her go back by herself and experience what Charlotte did, even if it was just a misunderstanding. Rather, it'd be more terrifying since I wouldn't be there.

With these thoughts in mind, I closed and locked the door a little tightly.

Ah well, time to grind Modeling points once again.

I was still wearing the expression Blake showed me and by now even my tongue was tired and sore.

Doing this face gave me 3.3 points constantly, though. And I want to think that the 5x points from streaming to thousands of people will also apply to the 3.3 points.

I have to keep doing it.

I knocked on Charlotte's room.

"Charlie?"

"I'm back home Charlotte."

I heard her thudding footsteps and she opened the door.

She was about to hug me when she smelled my sweat and backed off.

"Gym. Sweaty," I pointed at my drenched shirt.

"You should've warned me first."

"Oops."

"Go take a shower."

"So you're my mother now?"

She pushed my back out of the room.

…

[bzoomster: "Charlie get on alreadyyyyyy. You're taking yearssssss."]

"Okay okay, going."

I relaxed my expression and morphed it into the one earlier shown by Blake.

[Modeling has gained 16.5 points]

[Redde: "You're not ready for what you're about to see."]

"What did you guys build?"

[Poodlefluff: "Oh my god… You guys really finished building that?"]

[Yvettel: "Sigh…"]

[Juliamn: "Oh yeah. You're not ready for this Charlie."]

'Bobohead has joined the game.'

"So, uh. What's up?"

[Rykun: "Turn around Charles."]

"...???"

[Yvettel: "Hahaha, it's amazing!"]

[blacklily: "We spent like 3 hours on this thing. I've never dug so much dirt in my entire life."]

[Poodlefluff: "3 hours?"]

"...is this a new planet?"

[Redde: "It's a meatball!"]

"..."

[bzoomster: "He's speechless. Who wouldn't be, looking at this breathtaking beauty?"]

"...you spent 3 hours on this?"

[blacklily: "Pfffft—"]

[wipL: "I had the same reaction…"]

[bzoomster: "You were so freaked out about it too."]

"It looks amazing, yup."

My phone vibrated and I stopped staring at the dirt meatball to look at my screen.

('John has attached a video.')

[Redde: "What do you think Charles?"]

"I love it. How did you get all the dirt to do this?"

[Redde: "We spent a few hours recollecting dirt. We actually have mountains that were dug all out."]

[blacklily: "Haha yeah."

"Goodness."

[Poodlefluff: "How'd you even get the idea?"]

Recognizing that someone else took the flow of the conversation, I picked up my phone and opened the conversation with John.

I tapped the video and the deep sonances of the piano came through the speaker of the phone. The camera zoomed from the cover of the grand piano to the white and black keys being overlapped by my hands.

My fingers traveled elegantly from key to key with power and precision.

The footage was edited to have fog around me which started slowly dissipating as the piece progressed.

The producers were eccentric and told me, instead of wearing a formal suit, to wear the hoodie I had brought and the pants and shoes I was wearing at the time.

They told me it would add to my uniqueness, authenticity, and give something new to look at rather than old boring suits.

That time I shrugged in concession and just did what they wanted.

They're the ones with experience and have had some part in some celebrities' successes.

I appeared informally wearing a black hoodie and my black fitness shorts playing on the elegant and expensive grand piano. A difficult contrast for the piano elites.

The audio quality was extremely good as is what's expected on those expensive microphones and the video quality was similar.

The video was just a snippet of one of the main parts of the song. The full video would be uploaded on YouTube later and now I was just to upload the snippet to Instagram.

(John: The video is ready! Just post it on your profile page.)

(Charlie: Are there any further instructions? Caption? Tags? Comments?)

(John: You can put whatever you want in the caption. Just mention that it's premiering on YouTube. We'll be opening a YouTube account for you later. I'll inform you of the account credentials soon.)

(Charlie: Alright.)

So what about the other YouTube account I already have? The one I used to post my Instagram? Do I delete it or something? Can I merge accounts? Well, whatever.

Switching thoughts, I scratched my head. I have no clue what to write in the post caption.

Hmm.

I saved the video and switched to Instagram and clicked on New Post.

I selected the video and in the caption wrote:

Canon in D soon premiering on YouTube.

What else?

I scratched my head.

With nerves in my stomach, I glanced at the 'Post' button with trepidation.

[Redde: "So what have you guys been up to?"]

[blacklily: "Zoom, Redde, Julian, and I spent the whole day building the meatball."]

[Yvettel: "Playing a scary game with Poodle."]

[blacklily: "And you didn't invite me?!"]

[Poodlefluff: "...Check your DMs and missing calls…"]

{blacklily: "O."]

[LoafofBread: "I was trying to find a nether fortress to kill the wither for a beacon, and then I gave up."]

Hmm, should I wait until tomorrow to post it? Or just do it right now.

Nah, it's better if I post it now.

Should I add something else to the caption?

Hmm.

I brought my hand to my head and lied on my desk thinking about what to do.

The voices that were coming from the earphones were drowned out by my deep thinking.

[Modeling has gained 16.5 points]

[Redde: "...Yeah, and then Julian just watched us. What about you Charlie?"]

"Huh?"

[Redde: "Haha. Just asking what you've been up to."]

Absentmindedly, still thinking about the caption I uttered.

"Played the piano a little bit and some exercise…"

Well, I think there's nothing else to put in the caption.

I'll just do it.

I clicked on the post button.

[Redde: "You just played the pian- @Charlie has posted for the first time…?"]

"Oh did it send you the notification?"

[Redde: video audio, "Daaaaaaang, nice. Where'd you record this dude?"]

"Hah, that's a secret."

[blacklily: "You just ��played the piano a bit' huh."]

[Modeling has gained 16.5 points.]

…

I looked at the post's comments and saw that one of the most recent comments was by the account name 'felix' who commented:

'amazing playing bro. im impressed.' followed by hearts.

So this was their idea? I think they realized the song caption wouldn't fit with anything 'knife' related and instead decided for Felix to create more hype by commenting.

I liked his comment and replied, "Thanks. I'll prepare myself to be impressed at your concert."

I clicked on his account and sent him a follow request.

Damn. 50 million followers? Crazy. Just insane. I'm sure even more than 50 million people listen to his songs too.

[Modeling has gained 16.5 points.]

How many achievement points would 50 million followers give me? 100 million followers? 1 billion followers? Damn.

By the end of the day, I received a boost in followers and Felix's comment reached more than 5k likes.

[Author Note:

Thank you for reading!

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Hope you enjoyed! :)

Song Recommendations:

Nuver - Summer Breeze

RUDE - Eternal Youth