Rewind With A Superstar System

Chapter 151: Bundle Release

<🎧 Song Recommendation: Nightmare by NEFFEX>

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(Saturday, 28th March, 2020 — 8:49 AM)

Swoosh!

Von dashed through the ruined courtyard of a massive fortress, his character moving like a phantom. He was playing as the Ghost class, so technically, he was a phantom.

Armed with nothing but a dagger and his wits, around him was a squad of twelve heavily armored soldiers sweeping the area, their laser sights cutting through the dust.

He didn’t panic. He stayed crouched behind a crumbled stone pillar, waiting for the exact right moment.

When one of the soldiers stepped too close, Von struck. He lunged forward, burying his dagger into the soldier’s neck gap.

Before the rest of the squad could open fire, Von grabbed the falling body and used it as a human shield. Bullets tore into the dead soldier’s armor as Von backed toward a narrow alley.

He dropped the body and activated his stealth ability that had just finished its cooldown. His character’s pixels blurred and it became barely visible.

The soldiers started shooting blindly. Von easily weaved through the crossfire, jumping off walls and sliding under the chaos.

He wasn’t just worried about the soldiers, though. The real threat was miles away.

Phew!

Von heard the air tear violently right next to his ear. A heavy sniper round slammed into the concrete wall just an inch from his head. He breathed out a heavy sigh of relief, knowing he had survived by a fraction of a second. The sniper had been hunting him all game, waiting for the perfect angle.

Von saw his opening. He sprinted toward a broken window, aiming his grappling hook to pull himself out of the kill zone and secure his escape. He launched into the air, flying smoothly toward safety.

Crack!

He didn’t even see the bullet. He only heard the deadly sound of the gunshot a millisecond after his screen instantly turned gray.

His character dropped from the sky, dead before he hit the ground.

"Damnation," Von sighed out loud.

He watched his pixels dissolve and reappear in the lobby room. He glanced at the match timer on his screen. He had survived for eight minutes and forty-two seconds.

The round was only supposed to last ten minutes, but he had set the game to an impossible difficulty. He wasn’t just fighting an endless swarm of soldiers; he had to constantly watch out for the ridiculous sniper who refused to miss.

"Good game," a soft, melodic voice echoed through his headset.

At the exact same time, another player materialized in the virtual lobby next to him. It was an anime-style girl with bright blue hair, matching Aura’s real-life signature look.

However, slung across the back of the small avatar was a massive sniper rifle that was almost as big as she was.

"Yeah, you’re unbelievable with how quickly you mastered the game," Von admitted with genuine praise in his voice. "I was moving at full speed, in stealth, and using cover. How did you even hit that shot?"

"Props to you too. I had the best teacher," Aura replied playfully.

Von smiled proudly with a highly smug look that Aura noticed from his webcam and burst into laughter.

"The tournament begins by 5:00 PM today," Von said, checking the digital clock on his desk. "Should we do a 1 v 1 duel before then, or would you prefer to get some rest?"

They hadn’t actually dueled yet. Von never saw the need to. Aura’s play style was more sniper-oriented from long range, so Von would hold a massive advantage if they fought face-to-face in a small arena. Still, it would be fun.

Through the webcam, Von saw Aura glancing at the corner of her own screen.

"We’ve played for so long already," Aura said with a tired sigh. "I have a dozen missed calls from my agent. I think I should get some sleep and rest up so I can be fresh for tonight."

She was currently staying in an exclusive condo in Los Angeles. And was among those that were loving the lockdown period.

Von agreed with her completely. They had spent the entire night practicing, setting up their traps, and deciding on their communication tactics.

Even though Von was barely tired, thanks to his superhuman body, he definitely couldn’t expose that fact to her.

"What a coincidence," Von laughed, picking up his buzzing phone from the desk. "Emily and Olivia have been trying to reach out to me for some time now too."

"It’s probably the same issue on my end," Aura said. "They want to let us know the first-day streaming numbers."

"Most likely. Alright, get some sleep, partner. I’ll see you in the lobby at five."

"See you then, Von."

Aura’s avatar vanished from the screen as she went offline. Von closed the game, took off his heavy headset, and powered down his PC.

He stood up and pushed the heavy bookshelf back into its natural position, fully concealing the not so secret gaming room.

He pressed a small button on the wall beside his bedroom door, changing the light outside from yellow to green. It was the signal that he was finally available for people to enter.

He walked into his master bathroom, washed his face with cold water, and brushed his teeth. He felt really good.

Just two minutes later, there was a soft knock on the door before Olivia stepped inside. She was carrying a large tray of food, which she carefully dropped onto the center of his large bed.

Von walked out of the bathroom and his eyes immediately locked onto the food. It was a massive breakfast prepared by Marcelo: a stack of fluffy pancakes dripping with syrup, crispy bacon, scrambled eggs, potato chips and fresh fruit. His stomach let out a loud rumble at the sight.

"Thank you, Olivia," Von said, practically diving toward the bed. "Am I meant to come downstairs to meet Emily?"

"No," Olivia replied politely. "I’ve informed Madam Emily of your availability already. She said she will be here anytime soon."

"Oh, okay," Von replied, grabbing a fork and digging into the pancakes.

"Do you need help with anything else, sir?" Olivia asked.

"Nah, I’ll handle it all myself. You can go. Thanks."

Olivia nodded respectfully and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Less than a minute later, the door swung open again. Emily walked in, completely bypassing the formalities. She was dressed down in comfortable, oversized silk pajamas. She looked like she had been awake all night too.

She walked straight to his bed, climbed onto the edge, and lay back against the pillows next to him.

"Were you seriously playing video games the entire night?" Emily asked, crossing her arms and giving him a scolding look.

"Yes, it’s for the tournament," Von replied through a mouthful of bacon. "Don’t you want us to win?"

"It would really be of great help if you do," Emily said, a highly smug expression suddenly taking over her face. "More so after what I did today."

Von paused with his fork hovering in the air. His interest was now piqued. "What did you do?"

"We’ll get to that," Emily said, sitting up straight and crossing her legs. She casually reached over and stole a potato chip from his plate, popping it into her mouth. "But first, the first-day streams are in."

Von’s heart rate increased slightly. He really hoped for the best numbers. Far Away was more than just an average track and this was its second shot at doing well.

"So," Emily began, her eyes shining with excitement. "The remix debuted at number eleven on Musicify’s New Releases Daily chart. It pulled in 850k streams. And the original track picked up 1.2 million streams yesterday alone."

"That’s... crazy," Von remarked in pure bafflement.

While it wasn’t close to the massive debut numbers of the Lost & Found album, where some songs picked up ten times that amount, this was a completely different scenario.

"The original song only had 2.1 million total streams over its entire lifetime before this," Von said, doing the math in his head. "We just got a fifty percent increase in a single day. That’s insane news."

Emily smirked, stealing another chip from his plate. "What if I told you I have even more insane news?"

"Yes, tell me. Why must you always keep me in suspense?" Von groaned, setting his fork down completely.

"Okay, okay," Emily laughed and sat back up. "So, I had a call with the executives behind Citadel. And I managed to not strike just one, but two music deals with them."