Chapter 7 - Doing Things Differently This Time

As expected, he passed the exam way above the passing grades of each subject. Proving his "newfound" self-sufficiency to his parents, he was allowed to travel by himself to Ouigab, look for a dorm near Northwestern University, and buy the required textbooks for the coming term.

He was also able to convince his parents about him moving to Ouigab a month earlier in July 25th, than the initially scheduled August 25th to take part time jobs before the term starts. Thankfully, during this time, Tuengeb had not yet adjusted its eligible age of opening a bank account to 18 years old, so he was able to open an account for himself.

Before opening his bank account though, he went first to the Social Security Administration Office and got his Social Security Card. He also went to Ouigab's Internal Revenue Service to apply for a TIN Number.

In his old life, he initially only planned to polish his English pronunciation to cover English songs, but for some reason; he polished his English fluency that unintentionally resulted with him hooking in foreign clients for his company, and makes English speaking clients more comfortable working with him.

Presently, he used his English skills for something else. He was able to immediately land a job as online English tutor for Chinese and Japanese kids for 34 BGC (17 USD) an hour. For a 17 year old who just graduated high school, 34 BGC is more than a generous salary and he actually out-earns most fresh college graduates.

With his teaching skills and English proficiency he displayed to his employers, he proved him more skilled a teacher than most of the tutorial company's employees. With these, the employers decided to sign a short – term high paying contract with Tayaw, a privilege only given to freelance veteran tutors.

It was also convenient for him that the tutorial company is only a ten minute walk from his dorm.

Seven days on the job, working 6 to 8 hours a day, he was finally able to save up to buy himself a brand new Lenovo Thinkpad X201s. A reliable laptop that Inson, his bassist friend in his old life, used until 2018, if he remembers correctly.

This computer will be his partner for writing and editing his audition videos in the future. For now, he is to use it to write down the literary works he received from the giant roulette.

He transcribed 100 stories, around one half of all of the stories within the Grimm's Fairy Tales in both the 19th century dark originals, and the 20th century child-friendly version into the computer. He named the darker version of the Fairy Tales as "Grimm's Fairy Tales for A.d.u.l.ts – Vol. 1" and the child-friendly version as "Grimm's Fairy Tales for Children – Vol. 2".

The "Grimm's Fairy Tales for A.d.u.l.ts – Vol 1." ended up being thicker than the kids' version because there are stories in the original version that just cannot be translated into the kids versions. The a.d.u.l.ts' version also is a lot more descriptive than the kids' version. After his final editing and formatting, he applied them for copyright.

His world, the popular culture is fifty percent occupied by athletes and other types of sports personalities. Despite that, he has not chosen to publish the literary works about sports that he received from the roulette.

There are a few reasons why he decided to open up with the fairy tales. First, he is to publish as a rookie author, so he knew he will be low-balled by any publishing companies he will contract to publish his work to, which is normal.

Second, in his eyes, the literary values of the fairytales are much lower than the rest of the literary works he was blessed with, so him not earning much from the fairy tales will not hurt that much.

Third, the market is over-saturated with both fiction and non-fiction works in the sports genre. Therefore publishing fresh and good fairy tales as a debut author may give him a unique quality among other authors that makes his name distinct, a good boost to his name as an author. If he published a sports novel, he will only be buried along the countless authors who also write sports novels.

Tayaw surprisingly found that copyrighting a literary work is actually pretty easy. It is not free, and with the copyright fees for both the US Copyright and his country's Tuengeb copyright, his remaining savings for the week he worked were wiped out.

If his first of two theories is right, then the "View Points" in his eyes would increase if he could share the works he got from the roulette to the people of his world.

Another week has passed, and another week's worth of savings refilled his bank account. It was more than enough for him to buy a decent mid - level quality acoustic guitar. His trip to the music store though, was very fruitful. Because he knew more than the music store clerk and owner, he was able to spot a very well-made acoustic guitar that was overlooked by the owner and bought it at a great deal.

He guessed that the guitar owner did indeed buy the acoustic guitar from its maker at a price of a mid-range level guitar due to its mid-range wood and lacquer. Despite its inferior materials, it was given the best sound and comfort it could achieve. The guitar, crafted to the limits of its materials made it almost as good as a professional level acoustic guitar.

Had the materials been better, the guitar would have been at a professional level, one that is like what is commonly used by touring musicians. Tayaw, who regularly played guitar in his old life for a long time, noticed this and considered it a minor jackpot.

His family has a guitar, but he left it behind at Okuba because it is a beginner level guitar and it will not sound good enough for a gig. A music bar owner with good experience and ears would smash that guitar at a singer who dares bring and play such guitar with them in a gig.

The reason he bought a decent guitar is to look for a place where he can do gigs at. If his second of his two theories is right, then the "View Points" in his eyes would increase if there are people who would watch him perform.

The savings left, he used to buy a decent digital camera.

One day, after finishing his daily self-set tutoring quota at the company, he went home to pick up his guitar and find a recording studio to record his audition tape. Thankfully, he was skilled enough with the equipment and the software that he was done recording three songs just after an hour, and saved the mp3 of his recording to his flash drive.

After that, he decided to head for ROH Factory, his old life's weekend retreat with The Percussive Corrections. If only he knew where his old friends are at this time, he would look for them to form the band two years earlier than the time they formed it in his past life.

It was 4:30 pm when he arrived in front of the ROH Factory and saw that the doors to the bar are still closed. He knew though that the employees and the owner are already inside restocking their shelves as it would soon open at 5:30 pm. It was also the time when the staff inside is just finishing up and would just take a break as they wait for the opening time, so it's a perfect time to enter without causing much disturbance.

The ROH Factory, at this time was still half the size it will have in the future and it is still in rivalry with the music bar the street across from it. The flower shop on its right, and the convenience store on its left, will be gobbled up by ROH Factory in the future. This gave him a round of nostalgia as he remembered how the ROH Factory grew in his past life.

Despite the ROH Factory being its early version, Tayaw knows the backdoor is still in the same place even in the future, and headed for the alley behind the building. The backdoor in the alley is where owner, employees, and sometimes the musicians use as their entrance.

Arriving in front of the steel door in the back of the bar, he made a fist and pounded at the door three short times and one thumping one; a code implying that the one knocking at the door is someone the owner knows.

The door opened was opened by a tall, muscular man. Seeing Tayaw, he was confused and asked "I haven't seen you before, kid. Are you lost?" Tayaw didn't take any offense to this because indeed, currently he looks like a kid.

He just smiled and said "No sir. My name is Tayaw, is the boss man looking for a new musician?" The man, pondered for a while while giving Tayaw a once over, before making way for Tayaw to enter.