Rewind With A Superstar System

Chapter 213: Blood Money

<🎧 Song Recommendation: Tiebreaker by The Head And The Heart>

...

"I really wish Von was here. He really wanted to see this movie."

"I know, right?" Zack chuckled to Emily’s comment while picking up the drinks.

"But he’s been so busy with the press run. I feel bad for him too. But honestly, I’m just surprised. Back in our college days, Von was really lazy. The guy wouldn’t even clean his bed or wake up in time to go to class. But look where he is now. Haha."

Emily fought hard to control herself from laughing, playfully rolling her eyes at Zack.

"Stop it! Must you always find an opportunity to throw shades at him? What matters is that he’s changed for the good. He’s working harder than anyone I know."

Zack smirked while leaning against the counter. "Yeah, right. Of course you’ll defend him. You always defend your not-so-secret crush."

Emily gasped and her hand immediately flew to cover her mouth. She looked around the lobby in a panic to see if anyone heard, completely oblivious to the disguised Von standing still right behind them.

"Zack! Stop saying stuff you don’t know!" Emily hissed, her face turning bright red.

"Oh, I know. It’s pretty obvious, Em," Zack said with a chuckle. "You spend so much time with him, and you mention his name every single chance you get."

An undeniable blush crept across Emily’s cheeks. She looked down at her shoes, defeated by Zack’s observation.

"Okay... yes. I do like him," Emily finally admitted in a hushed, shy whisper. "He’s really cute, and he’s such a good person genuinely. You can’t blame me for falling for him. But I don’t think anything can ever actually go on between us, though."

"Why not?"

"Because look at him. He can easily find a much more beautiful, much younger supermodel or actress to date. He doesn’t need to date his agent. It would just complicate his life."

Zack immediately nudged her shoulder with his elbow. "Oh, please. Give yourself some credit. You’re really beautiful, Emily. And you are a perfect fit for Von. If you ask me, I think he definitely has feelings for you too. Maybe he’s just too dense and doesn’t know it yet, but he does."

Emily shook her head quickly , trying to cool her flushed cheeks.

"No... that’s not true. And can we please stop talking about this? We came to see the premiere, and it’s about to start."

"Yeah, right," Zack laughed at Emily’s desperate excuse to change the topic.

They grabbed their snacks and turned around to head back into the theater. As Zack stepped forward, he accidentally bumped his shoulder right into the frozen, disguised figure of Von.

"Oh, my bad, man. Excuse me," Zack apologized casually, not giving the bearded stranger a second glance as he and Emily walked away down the carpeted hall.

Meanwhile, Von was left standing completely glued to the floor. His mind was entirely blank from everything he had just heard.

All the jealousy and anxiety that had been suffocating him just a minute ago vanished into thin air, replaced by a warm, euphoric rush of adrenaline, and a different kind of anxiety.

He shook his head, trying to snap himself out of the daze and dispel the racing thoughts. He couldn’t let this distract him right now. He had a mission.

Von quickly stepped up to the counter, bought his popcorn, and hurried back into the theater. The movie was about to start, and he needed to see exactly what kind of performance he was going up against.

***

The lights inside the Roy Thomson Hall dimmed and as the massive screen flickered to life, the chatter of the people in the audience faded into silence.

The movie began on what seemed like a completely normal evening for Jerry, a late-night LA cab driver. This was the character Julian West was playing.

Right from the very first scene, Von was able to see just how much of a physical change Julian had undergone to prepare for the movie.

His eyes looked more matured, and his hair was now clean shaven. He had even grown beard just for the sake of the video, making him look so different from his usual look.

’He might have nailed the looks, but I wonder how he fared in his acting.’

That was the exact thought present in not only Von’s mind, but in the minds of almost everyone in the theater as they watched the opening sequence.

The plot moved quickly. Jerry picked up his first passenger of the night, a well dressed lady.

Despite a slightly bumpy and awkward start to the ride, the two ended up sharing a pleasant conversation about their lives. By the time he dropped her off at her destination, she smiled and left him with her business card.

Shortly after, Jerry picked up another passenger. It was a man named Nathan, played by Sammy Howkins.

Impressed by the cab driver’s efficiency and knowledge of the city streets, Nathan offered Jerry $1,000 in cash to simply drive him to five different stops for the night. Lured by the easy money, Jerry immediately agreed.

However, everything changed at the very first stop.

Jerry waited in his cab in a dark alleyway while Nathan went upstairs to handle his business.

Suddenly, a dead body plummeted from a high window above and crashed violently onto the roof of the cab, shattering the glass.

Nathan walked downstairs moments later, completely unfazed, and revealed his true identity. He was a contract killer.

Jerry was instantly taken hostage, forced at gunpoint to drive Nathan around the city to complete his remaining hits.

From there, the movie simply described how they drove through the dark streets of Los Angeles, taking down hit after hit. The psychological tension between the driver and the hitman was supposed to carry the story, but for Von, the cracks in the performances were glaringly obvious.

The tension peaked when Nathan checked his final contract and announced the name of his last target. It was the lady who had left her business card in Jerry’s cab earlier that night.

Hearing this, Jerry finally decided he had nothing left to lose. He decided to fight back.

The movie rushed into its climax, ending in a very high-action, tightly packed train fight between the two men. It was a chaotic sequence.

As Von watched the screen, he guessed that it was stuntmen that were doing all the heavy lifting.

But regardless, it was still the best moment of the entire movie, ending when Jerry managed to overpower and kill Nathan on the moving train.

The screen eventually cut to black, and the credits began to roll.

’The plot is really good, but the acting ruined it for me,’ Von thought with a sigh as he watched the final moments.

Julian, especially, had been a really awful actor. Aside from looking like the character physically, he broke character multiple times.

Whenever he needed to act scared, he just yelled loudly and breathed heavily. He confused twitching with actual emotional depth.

That made Von wonder which director had allowed him to be cast in such a massive project.

Sammy Howkins was a lot better as Nathan, but he still didn’t deliver anything superb compared to how terrifying the hitman was designed to be.

He just coasted through the role.

Curious to see if his judgment was accurate, Von mentally called up his interface and checked the [Movie Score] to see if the System agreed with him.

[Movie: Blood Money]

[Directed by: Giggs Rakinjer]

[Movie Score: 61/100]

[System Evaluation: Superb plot structure, excellent cinematography, and top-tier background settings. However, the character executions fall significantly behind.

The lead performance relies purely on physical alteration, critically lacking soul. The antagonist performance is stable but heavily underutilizes the character’s true psychological potential.

Ultimately, it feels more like a rushed project than a cinematic masterpiece.]

’Sixty-one, damn...’ Von thought, his eyes scanning the holographic text. ’So I was right. I guess the movie was bad after all.’

But right after Von sounded that thought in his head, he was suddenly greeted with a deafening roar of claps.

Almost everyone around him began standing up from their seats, one after the other. The journalists, the executives, and the fans were all clapping their hands vigorously.

They were giving the movie a standing ovation.

Von didn’t bother to stand up and it wasn’t out of jealousy of his rivals, but he genuinely felt like they didn’t deserve it.

Maybe only the director and the scriptwriters deserved the applause for writing and framing such a good story.

But the movie as a whole, especially the acting, was highly disappointing to him.

Down at the front of the theater, the main cast and Director Giggs stepped forward into the spotlight for everyone to see.

Julian West and Sammy Howkins waved to the cheering crowd as the claps rained on, and the standing ovation continued loudly for over three minutes.

Meanwhile, Von was completely lost in his own thoughts, ignoring the noise around him.

’I’ve confirmed it. We stand a really good chance against this movie,’ Von thought, a confident smile tugging at the corners of his lips. He finally knew what he was up against.

’Now... I wonder how Loki is faring.’