Next day.
With the need to lie low, Tristan was stuck in his Gemello identity for a while.
This meant he finally had time for a proper rest. The last days were physically and mentally tiring, despite their successes.
Early in the morning Tristan laid in bed and relaxed by counting the cash in his hands. The bills from Leon were crisp and new. The bills were as real as Tristan could confirm, and smelled like paper and riches.
'I'm going to need better clothing, and rent a place in a recording studio later, and maybe a new guitar that's not made from shitty plastic and crushed dreams of bad musicians? Or perhaps I can afford a car? A very, very, VERY cheap car, and I will have to buy a driving license in the system shop... Yeah, no way.'
Tristan wrote a brief list, but after spending all his money at once last time, he decided to be more careful and hold on to the cash he had now, at least for a while.
Just in case.
Instead, he looked at his status.
[======]
[Tristan Gemello (Tristan Hayes)]
[Current identity: Pop-star. Second identity: Criminal.]
[Pop-star rank: Opened The Door.]
[Criminal rank: Rook.]
[Pop-star Points: 2000]
[Criminal Points: 1150]
[===Attributes===]
[Appearance: 34]
[Charisma: 32]
[Fearsomeness: 28]
[Strength: 19]
[Dexterity: 24]
[Toughness: 42]
[===Skills===]
[Singing: 179]
[Dancing: 8]
[Playing guitar: 164]
[Music theory: 21]
[Music production: 8]
[Acting: 392]
[Songwriting: 14]
[Voice control: 53]
He went to his laptop and opened the page of a music contest he discovered during his research.
"Californian Young Star" contest was a large competition, with the final round pitting the performers from the entire state to compete on a state TV channel.
When Tristan lived with his family, they all looked at these contents with disdain, saying that they were made just for "feel good" stories of poor people rising to fame.
Even winning a contest like this would not be a worthwhile slap on their faces. But it was an actual pathway to fame. And of course, there was a cash prise of $15000 for the first spot!
The rounds before that were held between contestants in a single city, and even before that was a preliminary round.
There, contestants only had to send videos of their performances. And the time to send the contest applications was already coming to a close.
The songs for a contest had to be original ones—not necessarily made by the contestant, but made for the contest. The topic was up to the contestant.
After confirming all this, Tristan took his guitar and sat down.
His fingers fell on the strings. They moved in a rhythm not of any song Tristan had memorized, but in the rhythm of his inspiration.
With his advanced skills, he didn't have to painstakingly imagine every beat of music before committing it to melody. He was a master of the sound, able to hear the entire composition form in his mind while playing it on the guitar.
Tristan was like a painter puts splotches of paint on the blank canvas that make no sense, until suddenly, he puts one more stroke and they become a forest scenery.
He didn't need to sketch anymore, he could just play and create music.
Tristan's melody started slow and melancholic. It was brought on by bitter memories of being alone on the streets...
And like in these memories, there was a slow, but strong beat coming through the melody, created by Tristan tapping his leg on the floor.
That was Tristan's pride, which made him run from home in the first place.
But soon, the melody changed, becoming more energetic and positive. The tapping rhythm stayed the same, but the song became the song of glory and victories.
It was the song of taking the arm the life slapped you with and wrangling it until the life cried and pleaded for mercy!
Tristan repeated a part of the melody for the future refrain verse of his song and ended it on a high note that promised even better things in the future.
It rang in the quiet of his apartment for another second.
Tristan smiled to himself. He could already tell that there were imperfections in the melody he made. It could be improved.
He also had to actually write lyrics for it, and make it abstract enough to not give out Tristan's personal information.
For now, Tristan quickly went to his laptop and wrote down the notes of the raw melody.
After that, he refined it, running between the laptop and the guitar for several hours, occasionally being interrupted by notifications.
[Ding!]
[Songwriting skill increased by 2. Reward: your CP increased by 20.]
[Ding!]
[Playing guitar skill increased by 2. Reward: your CP increased by 20.]
[Ding!]
[Music theory skill increased by 1. Reward: your CP increased by 20.]
But eventually Tristan looked at the time.
"Shit! I can't be late for work again! And I forgot to go to the gym today, too! And forgot to have lunch—fuck, I'm so hungry..."