An unexpected obstacle appears

After reading the notification, Tristan chuckled to himself and relaxed again.

The guard job was really uneventful, and did nothing besides increasing his observation skill a little, but this notification just made Tristan's day.

***

Three weeks later.

[Ding!]

[You have passed the preliminary round of the Californian Young Star contest. Your status had improved. Reward: your CP increased by 500!]

[Ding!]

[Your Pop-star rank has changed from Opened The Door to Vying Young Star! Reward: your CP increased by 1000!]

At the same time as Tristan saw these pop-ups, there was a notification of a new email from his laptop.

With his heart beating faster from excitement, Tristan closed YouTube and opened his email instead. His eyes fell on the header of the new letter.

[Sender: CYS Contest Jury Committee]

[Header: You have passed the preliminary round of the Californian Young Star contest.]

Tristan did it!

Even if he was sure about himself, there was always a chance of failure. But from now on, at least Tristan will see his opponents as he competes.

He opened the letter, reading the details. The next round of the contest was based in major cities of the state, one of which was Tristan's city.

Tristan had two more weeks to prepare for it. Then the entire contest would happen in two days. All of it will be recorded, and the best parts will be shown later on TV.

On TV! Even if it was a Californian TV channel that few people watched even within the state itself.

Still excited, Tristan almost jumped away from his table and ran to his musical setup.

In the last two weeks, he had done more shopping. He had two salaries, after all.

Since Quixada gave up in fear and let Tristan be, he didn't get targeted by anyone. Compared to the fight with Quixada's mercenary, the jobs Tristan Hayes got from Pierce after that were easy, but they paid well.

Tristan often had to beat up or kill someone, just threaten them, or destroy some property. Sometimes Pierce sent Tristan to work together with a team, but most of the time, Tristan was on his own.

He still learned a lot about the members of the Good Lion Gang and their dealings from his jobs and from listening to the bar's patrons in evenings.

The earned money went to better furniture, better and more clothing, better food, better instruments, and the better guitar Tristan picked up just now.

He turned on the amplifier and began playing on it, releasing his excitement by putting it into the music!

The resulting wild riffs sounded almost like laughter.

After half a minute of that, Tristan felt much calmer. He put his guitar back and went to the fridge.

Long past were the days when it was empty half the time. Now, from the well-stocked shelves, Tristan picked a can of cold beer and went back to his laptop, sipping on the beer.

He read the letter again.

The rules of the next round were explained there. They weren't known until now, and they changed from the previous year—doubtlessly to make it harder for contestants to prepare beforehand.

Every contestant will play the song they used for the preliminary round. However, they also had to perform on stage with it. Then judges examined the entire performance live to pick one and only one winner out of over thirty contestants!

The only exception was that if the singer didn't play himself, he or she could use recorded music.

This added an entire extra dimension to the performance. Besides a song being harder to perform live than in a studio, the singer had to look and move beautifully.

People who could sing and dance at the same time definitely had an advantage.

Tristan smiled and made another sip of the beer.

This meant he definitely had an advantage!

In the last three weeks, he gathered plenty of points for both identities. Part of them came from terrifying people as a criminal, the other part—from posting a couple more videos with song covers for his own channel.

Besides that, there was just a gradual improvement of his attributes and skills.

Although Tristan spent 4000 points on "Sleepless" talent, and 1000 points on a driving license for his Gemello identity, he still had plenty left. And thanks to the talent, he could work two jobs, do side-projects, and still have some leisure time.

He opened his status panel.

[======]

[Tristan Hayes (Tristan Gemello)]

[Current identity: Criminal. Second identity: Pop-star.]

[Pop-star rank: Vying Young Star.]

[Criminal rank: Rook.]

[Pop-star Points: 1420]

[Criminal Points: 1890]

[===Attributes===]

[Appearance: 80]

[Charisma: 40]

[Fearsomeness: 44]

[Strength: 222]

[Dexterity: 227]

[Toughness: 144]

[===Skills===]

[Singing: 447]

[Dancing: 8]

[Playing guitar: 684]

[Music theory: 279]

[Music production: 521]

[Acting: 412]

[Songwriting: 532]

[Voice control: 299]

[Stage presence: 152]

[Playing piano: 694]

[Video editing: 217]

[Sneaking: 843]

[Close-quarters combat: 1023]

[Observation: 900]

[Driving: 116]

[Pickpocketing: 532]

[Firearms shooting: 611]

[Athletics: 216]

[===Talents===]

[Clark Kent Effect] [Sleepless]

[======]

All his skills gradually improved with practice, although Tristan improved his driving and athletics with CP on purpose.

If he only improved skills naturally, Tristan would need several years to reach his current level. But thanks to his Second Identity System, he basically learned at 11 times the normal speed. And that without counting the bonuses from status and rank increases!

Now Tristan tapped on his dancing skill.

[Ding!]

[Dancing skill increased from 8 to 608.]

Tristan closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the new knowledge.

Now his skill level was around that of a professional backstage dancer.

He had only two weeks to plan his performance!

Also…

Tristan checked the date of the contest. It was a workday.

'Correction. Two weeks to plan my performance and convince the bar administrator to give me a leave day. I hope I won't have to convince Pierce, too… Couldn't they have made the contest on weekends? Maybe I will have to pretend to be sick—shit, but what about my other identity? I can't do gang work on that day either. But if both Hayes and Gemello call sick at once, it will be suspicious!'

What an unexpected obstacle.