Chapter 33: 33 - Journey to Stardom

Chapter 33: 33 - Journey to Stardom

"Take this, boy, you did well to help us out today, if you need a place to perform, you can come back here." The manager said as he handed me a $100 bill.

Looking at the $100 in my hand, I was surprised because it was the first money I'd ever made in my music career!

Considering it was a four-piece band, I thought $400 was a fair amount for how much we'd rocked the bar. As I sang, I could see that the place was getting fuller and fuller, to the point where the bouncer at the entrance had to stop more people from coming in so it wouldn't get too crowded.

When I reached a table near the stage, the manager finally introduced me to the customer he wanted to meet.

Looking at her, damn, she was a beauty. A beautiful blonde woman with green eyes, her appearance made her look about 20, but from the clothes she was wearing I'd say she was about 24.

Her body was very nice, even though she was in a dark bar, she was the kind of woman who had the right curves in the right places.

Of course, I wasn't analyzing her body like a pervert, these observations were the result of a simple glance for a second.

When she saw us coming, she smiled and stood up to greet me with a big smile.

"Hi, I'm Selena Sinclair, agent for American Journey and Performance Entertainment, or as everyone calls it, AJP." She said as she held out her hand to me. T/his chapter is updated by nov(ê(l)biin.co/m

(Selena's Visual Representation is at the Characters Tab)

Surprised, I smiled back as I replied, although I had never heard of AJP before. "Hi Selena, I'm Noah Black."

"Hi Noah, I watched your performance from the beginning and I can see that you have a lot of potential, are you interested in becoming an artist?" She asked with her big green eyes looking at me curiously.

I wondered if I should say that and thinking about her profession, I thought I could. "Actually, I've already started my career, of course, I'm just at the beginning."

Upon hearing this, Selena was shocked. "Jeez, are you already signed with another agency? Because I've never heard of you."

"No, I'm an independent artist. I just make my music, put it on my MeTube channel and try to grow on my own." I replied.

"What is your rank?" She asked curiously.

"Rank?" I asked back, confused.

"Your star rank, you know, the rank that shows how popular you are?" She tried to explain, but I didn't really understand what she was saying.

"You mean my listener rank on Spokify?" I asked, trying to understand.

Upon hearing my question, Selena was even more confused than I was as she stared at me, trying to understand. "Are you serious that you don't know what star rank is? Rank C, B, A, and S... none of that makes any sense?"

Thinking about it for a moment, I think I've heard of it somewhere, mostly in some comments on my songs or Jacob's artwork, it also came up when I looked up the names of some songs on the internet, but I never really looked into any of it to find out what it really meant.

To me, those ranks were just a way for fans to classify artists.

"I guess not...?" I replied a little unsure.

At that moment, Selena was really shocked by me, her little mouth actually dropped open as she struggled to formulate a sentence.

"Have you been living under a rock all these years?" She asked incredulously. "How could someone grow up without hearing anyone comment on an A-list artist, or even an S-list artist, it's in the news all the time..."

Listening to her explanation, I really realized that this rank thing is apparently something very common in this world, and that neither I nor the former Noah really bother to watch newspapers or gossip sites talking about famous artists.

The only thing I know about famous artists are the artists from my old world that I looked up and couldn't find here.

"I never consumed much news content about artists, I just posted my music and responded to compliments." I replied uncertainly.

Looking at me a little skeptically, Selena took a few seconds to decide if she believed me or not, but after a small sigh, she asked while picking up her cell phone. "What's your stage name?"

Hearing me interrupt her, Selena frowned and spoke. "Let me finish, please. AJP would take 50% of all your earnings if it were a normal situation, but since I see a lot of potential in you, I'd be willing to sign a Rank D Artist contract now, which would lower the amount AJP receives to 30%."

Hearing that she would sign a better contract for me calmed me down a bit, but considering that it was still 30%, it still seemed like a lot.

So after a little thought, as she stared at me with those big green eyes, I shook my head. "I'm sorry, Selena, but 30% of my income, as I see it, is still a lot. Even though it might be fair in the eyes of the industry, for me, who didn't even know about these ranks and grew quietly at my own pace, taking all the profits, I think in this case I'd rather continue as I am."

Hearing my refusal, I could see the reluctance on her face, she was probably new to this, right? I don't think it's good to show so much of what you're thinking...

"Wait Noah, I only have the authority to sign a rank D contract, can you wait for me to call my manager and ask if he'll approve a rank C contract for you? Since you already have experience and are doing a good job managing your social media, I can remove that as a benefit in the contract and increase the likelihood of my boss accepting the deal, how about that?" She asked.

Thinking about it for a moment, if it was just 20% of my income, with no one to control my social media and the agency just focusing on finding new work and gigs for me, that might work.

"All right, I'll wait." I replied with a smile after some thought.

Sighing in relief, Selena nodded and left the bar, cell phone in hand.

Meanwhile, the waiter brought me another glass of Toxic Lake and I picked up my phone.

[Hey, are you hitting on that blonde?!] - Olivia

When I saw the message Olivia had sent me, I almost choked and had to stop for a moment to catch my breath.

[No, she's offering to be my manager."] I replied, explaining.

[Oh I see, I thought for a second you were talking to a fan hehe...]

[I don't even have fans to interact with like that yet].

I replied, not knowing that my Instabram DMs already had dozens of messages from girls who had listened to my songs.

I took the opportunity to look up AJP and saw news about some problematic artists in the company, but no major scandal involving the company itself.

After a few minutes, Selena returned and I looked at her, who had a big smile on her face as she held out her hand to me.

"Noah, we have a deal! I convinced my manager!"

Smiling back, I shook her hand and replied, "Good Selena, how about we arrange to sign the contract tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow? I've already had the contract printed out, if you want you can sign it now." She explained confusedly.

Laughing, I said. "I'm only 17, legally I can't sign it, you have to explain it to my parents again so they can sign it for me."

As soon as I said that, I pointed my hand at my parents' table and Selena saw the two adults, a teenager and a child, looking in our direction.

"You're only 17?" She asked in shock.

Unbeknownst to me, that was the moment my artistic career finally began.

From that day on, BlackVelvet would begin the journey from being a Rank F artist to becoming the world's superstar.

[?? End of Volume 1: Towards the Stage! ??]

I hope you've enjoyed the story so far!

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