[Hyde POV]
'I wonder what will happen when the new season starts. I think I got all 10 out of 10 needed to rise through the character ranks. But it didn't show me anything yet.'
{12 hours until new season start}
I checked the system while I wrapped up the final scenes.
"Good job everyone. We really made it in two weeks." I said with amazement.
The actors were in disbelief.
Julia Samberg, the supporting actor approached me and said, "Thank you for your hard work, director."
I waved her off and said, "Don't do that. That's too cringy."
I strictly avoided Hollywood speak around the shoot. Stuff like ass-kissing and whatnot.
"What?" Julia smiled, baffled by my reaction.
Ophelia approached me and said, "Good job Hyde."
"Lia. You're coming to the wrap up party?" I asked.
"Of course I'm coming. I'm the lead actress." She giggled.
Once we got back from Paris, Ophelia and I had become close friends. To clarify, we didn't have any romantic feelings for each other.
She loves that I trusted her call for the character. I was excited because I didn't have to do much work when working with her.
"Once I edit the movie, I might call the actors again for a reshoot. Hopefully, it won't come to that." I said casually.
Donnie, Ophelia, Julia, and the other actors all nodded, smiling slightly.
"What about your next movie?" Ophelia asked.
I said honestly, "In this shoot, I realized that I'm way out of my head here. I'm going to need to structure the film crew better for the next movie, since it has a lot of practical effects scenes."
I added, "I'm postponing it for three more weeks while I'm figuring things out."
The wrap up party would be held in one of the properties I bought.
A small house that we used for scenes in a dirty, abandoned house.
It was shot in the dark, so people couldn't figure out that it was shot in another house instead of Megan's house.
I used my Build Mode for that house after we finished shooting scenes in it. The house was in a good condition despite being sold for only 15 thousand dollars.
It was a 1500 square feet house on a half acre land, located on the outskirt of the town. I installed a new roof, insulated the house, and used the bamboo charcoal wood veneer here.
There was a trend of wood panelling in the 70s so these panels didn't seem out of place, but it looked really high end.
The bathroom was made with tiles instead of bathroom panels so it looked better.
"The best part is, the pool."
It wasn't hard to install the above ground pool. It cost me like 800 bucks to set it all up.
Then, I put the furniture inside the house. I put a pool table, a foosball table, darts, and even a basketball court in the backyard.
I was thinking of turning this place into a short term living arrangement for guests that come to the town. Like an AirBnB.
It has 3 rooms, and 3 bathrooms. Every room has its own TV.
More than 20 cars were parked in front of the house when I got there. I went back home first to pick up some food for the party.
"Happy Birthday to you!~"
People sang for Julia as I brought the cake to her. I bought a couple of Baskin Robbin's ice cream cakes online for the party.
The party was in full swing. The song, 'Rock N Roll All Nite' by KISS was playing in the background.
People danced in the living room while a few of them played in the pool.
"My goodness Hyde." Donna was in disbelief as she saw the place. "When did you do all this?"
"Just a couple days ago." I lied to her. "Why don't you change into a bikini and play in the pool?" I teased.
"What– I'm not going to do that, you perv." She snapped at me angrily.
"Wait, you're not?" Eric was taken aback. "I thought we're here for the pool."
"We're not!" Donna pulled Eric away angrily.
I shrugged and turned around. But then, I caught someone doing something bad.
"Jackie. What are you doing?" I called her with disbelief.
Jackie grinned and turned off the music. I saw my cassette tape in her hand.
"Did you steal that from my car?" I asked, annoyed.
"Steven, I stole this two weeks ago." She put on the cassette on the player, and skipped a few tracks to listen to her favorite song.
Winner Takes it All, by ABBA.
As the intro played, Jackie danced slightly and walked towards me, with a full on intense eye contact.
I rolled my eyes back and said, "Are we still doing this?"
"We are. I told you, I'm not giving up on you." She twirled slightly, dancing around with the music.
"What if I told you, I'm dating someone?" I asked.
Jackie froze abruptly. "What– Who?!" She was astonished.
I looked around the party and pointed at Talia– Megan's sister. "Her."
"Her?!" Jackie snapped. Then, she furrowed her eyebrows and asked, "Who is she?"
"Megan's sister. She's a very talented artist." I waved at Talia from afar. Talia saw me and waved back with a confused expression.
"So, give up. You said you don't want to become like Laurie and stole another person's boyfriend, right?" I said with a mischievous grin.
Jackie stomped her feet in frustration and said, "You're going to screw it up with her sooner or later. I'll give you two weeks!"
She went away angrily.
I sighed and shook my head slightly, then I walked towards Talia who was talking with Julia Samberg, the birthday girl.
"What's that all about?" Talia asked me.
"She's mad, because I said you're my girlfriend." I said casually.
"What?" Talia widened her eyes in shock.
"You're not dating anyone right? Can you help me with this? Just pretend to be my girlfriend for now. Till she moves on to another target." I asked, locking eyes with Talia.
She looked at me with a surprised expression.
"Okay. I don't have anything to do anyway." She shrugged. "Just come watch movies with me, and we'll be fine."
"Great." I grinned and said, "I'll grab you a drink."
"Is this how this works in a small town? Just so casually becoming someone's girlfriend?" Julia looked at us with intrigue.
Talia turned to her and said, "We do have a surprising number of swingers party here."
"We really do." I nodded along.
Julia froze in shock after hearing it.
…
People began leaving around midnight. I went inside a room and laid down on the bed as I had been drinking too much.
"Ugh, 7 more hours… so it's starting at 7 am. What's the plot going to be?" I groaned tiredly. "Maybe continuing this isn't a good idea after all?"
I heard a soft knock on the front door. Talia entered the room with a wine glass in her hand.
"Hey. I wanted to ask you to drive me home, but you're also drunk huh?" She said with no change in her expression.
"Why don't you call your sister?" I asked her. "She can pick you up."
"She's asleep at this time. I can call my other sister, but I don't remember her number."
I nodded in understanding and said, "Want to just sleep here?"
"Sure." She sat on the edge of my bed, taking off her slippers.
I looked at her with confusion and said, "I mean, in the other bedroom."
"There's no other bedroom. Everything is full." Talia turned off the lamp, crawled underneath the blanket and said, "Scooch over. I have no space here."
I groaned and rolled to the left side of the bed. She covered her entire body, and slept perfectly still like a vampire.
I rubbed my head in frustration and wanted to stand up, but she said, "You can sleep next to me. I don't mind."
"Oh I am going to sleep here. Just want to know how many people are left in this house."
She nodded and closed her eyes.
I checked the deck and the living room, turning off the lights one by one. I also put on the pool cover to prevent bugs from getting into the water.
Donnie and his girlfriend Serena were sleeping in one of the bedrooms. Ophelia and Julia were in the other room.
All of them were too drunk to drive. I locked the front door and went to sleep, but I set the alarm to wake me up at 6.
"This room is really pleasant." Talia said suddenly as I came back to the room.
"It's the air conditioning." I smiled and crawled underneath the blanket too.
"You know about the music festival next weekend?" Tali asked.
"Yeah. I do." I replied. "I'm the organizer."
"Oh." She exclaimed flatly, still covering her eyes. "It is pretty weird to combine cars and music festivals. But it's not that weird if you're the one who planned it."
"Are you saying I'm weird?" I laughed.
"You are." She teased.
I turned to her with a slighted expression. She opened her eyes and giggled as she turned to me.
"Can I draw a mural for the festival?" She asked.
I thought about it and said, "Sure. I'll ask my staff to build a wall for you. It can be a backdrop for photos. I can charge people… even better, I'll just do an instant studio thing there."
She grimaced and said, "I'm not doing it for people to pose in front of it."
"Yes yes. The artistic expressions…and such." I replied lazily. "I'll give you a 50% cut."
"Deal." She accepted it instantly.
We talked for an hour before we finally went to sleep.
The alarm clock woke us up abruptly.
Talia whined and said, "Turn that off."
I hunted down the alarm with my eyes half open. It was a struggle, but I managed to turn it off.
"Damn. I need to go home now." I grimaced and walked groggily to the car, still hungover from last night.
…
I came home and slept on the basement couch. Mrs Forman walked down cheerfully and said, "Steven! It's time!"
"Huh? Did it start?" I jolted awake, fully confused.
"Yes! Breakfast has started!" She giggled and walked upstairs again. "Be there in five minutes."
"Ugh." I groaned and forced myself up to go to the breakfast table.
I ate like usual, but I couldn't help but shift my eyes all around.
Eric looked at me weirdly and asked, "Why are you practicing your prison manner so early in the morning?"
"I had a bad dream last night. Got framed by my best friend. So now, I have to watch my back." I joked with a serious face.
Eric laughed and said, "What if they stabbed you from the front?"
"Then I'd die."
Red grimaced as he heard our conversation and read his newspaper. "Can it. I don't want to hear your dumbass conversation so early in the morning."
"Hangover huh?" I said casually, which made Red give me a dirty look.
Suddenly, the phone rang. Mrs Forman picked it up cheerfully.
"Uhhuh…" She listened and turned to us.
"Red, it's PriceMart again."
Red sighed and said, "I already have a job! I don't have to get another one!"
"They said they are raising the salary to 20% more than what you make as a factory supervisor." Mrs Forman said giddily.
Red was taken aback and immediately rushed to the phone to pick it up.
"Hi. It's Red Forman."
Mrs Forman walked towards us and sat down. "Ooh. If he's going to that interview, who's going to help me at the store?"
"I'll go with you mom." Eric offered.
"I have nothing to do today. So I'll go with you two." I said casually.
Mrs Forman was touched and said, "Oh. Both of you are wonderful boys."
It was a really nice morning. I didn't think season 3 would start this way.
The recorded scene ended, and I finally checked the system notification.
[Steven Hyde– Main Character.
(Spin-off Favorability: 0/150)
Money multiplier: 1:10.
Story tickets: 3
Title earned: Artist.
System slot: 25 → 50
Story impact: 1/10.
–One full impact could change a character's fate.
Three gifts are waiting to be claimed.]
"Huh?" I was confused as I read it. My eyes especially went to the money multiplier.
Last time, I had a 1:5 multiplier. Now, it has evolved to 1:10.
My chest tightened and blood rushed to my head. I balled us my fist and slammed it on the table, causing Mrs Forman and Eric to turn to me in shock.
"There's a mosquito." I said casually. "I missed it."
They nodded in understanding.
I had a very complicated internal turmoil in my brain. 'Oh god. Does that mean… I could've bought the movie theater stuff even cheaper?'
It felt like such a waste to buy everything before the money multiplier changed value.
I rubbed my face in frustration.
"What's wrong with you?" Eric asked with an alarmed look.
"Nothing." I tried to calm myself down and ate the cereal angrily. Even that didn't work.
My mind kept showing me the numbers I could've saved.
'Two hundred thousand! Two hundred thousand I used for everything. I could've saved 100 thousand. That's worth around 1 million now! FUCK!'
"Hyde. You look really dangerous right now." Eric said warily.
I sighed and took a deep breath. "Nothing. Just… ignore me."
I saw a video on Instagram where it mentioned that if someone working minimum wage in 2025 wanted to match the buying power of minimum wage in 1977, they had to make 66 dollars an hour.
The current minimum wage was 2.30 dollars per hour. So that's a 28.7 times inflation factor. I thought getting 5 times was already good enough.
I didn't expect to get ten times the multiplier.
'This is great. I can expand my businesses cheaper with this.'
I tried to stay positive, but the frustration didn't go away that easily.
Okay, I was wrong. It went away when I checked the gifts that the system gave me.
My first time, I picked the bulb instead of the Mustang. I guess today's option would be better. The second time, I picked the auto tools and the 2 inch enhancement.
I guess that one was a bronze and silver gift.
In the system space, three slots were taken by the gift. It has a bronze box, silver box, and golden box.
Just like before, when I touched the bronze gift, it asked me to pick random gifts or pick from a few choices.
I decided to go with the choices.
[Pick one out of three.
Professional Prop & Wardrobe Vault (2025-grade)full costume sets (romance, military, horror, period)props, furniture, accessoriesmakeup kits
Advanced Sound Recording Kitstudio-grade microphonesportable field recordersmixing tools
Industrial 3D Printer (2025)prints props, small tools, partscan replicate rare items.]
"All three will be really helpful though."
I thought about it seriously, and decided to go with the prop & wardrobe.
I picked that one since the other two I could buy from 2025 easily. It would be hard and tedious for me to find the prop & wardrobe for everything else.
I opened up the silver gift with excitement. This time, I also picked the choices instead of a random gift. But first, I went to take a shower.
[Silver gift pack. Pick two out of five choices.
Title: Budget Master.
– Everything will be under budget.
Singing Ability.McLaren 750S.Metal CNC machine.Unknown Tactical Device.]
"Why is it so simple?" I was confused. The water was still pouring on my head. "Wait. A McLaren 750S?"
My smile grew bigger. I almost pressed it, but in the end, I decided not to.
"That's just for my ego. I know a metal CNC machine, it's basically laser cutting machine fabrication. It would be nice to get one, but it has to be paired with a computer."
In the end, I decided to pick the title and the singing ability. I didn't even look at the unknown tactical device. It gave me such an eerie vibe.
[Would you like to see what's in the number 5 option?] The system asked.
"Sure."
It opened the box and revealed the weapon inside.
[Anduril Roadrunner: A reusable, twin-jet autonomous "kamikaze" drone that can land vertically for reuse if no target is found.]
I sang, "Hell NO~~"
My voice was melodious, but soulful. Like an African-American singer.
To test it out, I decided to sing in the shower. I picked the song, 'Yesterday' by The Beatles.
"♫♪ Yesterday~ ♫♪ "
I crooned, "♫♪ All my troubles seemed so far away. ♫♪"
"♫♪Now it looks as though they're here to stay. Oh, I believe in yesterday.♫♪"
The water kept raining on my head. I put soap on my body and continue singing.
" ♫♪ Suddenly~ I'm not half the man I used to be~♫♪"
"♫♪ There's a shadow hangin' over me. Oh, yesterday came suddenly♫♪"
I sang loudly and emotionally, "♫♪ Why she had to go, I don't know, she wouldn't say!"
" ♫♪I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday. ♫♪"
I finished showering and went back to my room, massaging my throat slightly.
"My range improved, but I still need a lot of practice."
Once I was done changing my clothes, I finally opened up the golden box.
It didn't have a split screen option like the rest, entering the selection straight away.
[Pick four out of seven options. 5 small random gifts after selection.]
"So I get both options at once here. Nice."
[1. Master Automotive Engineering (Passive)
– Equivalent to top-tier PhD-level knowledge + elite hands-on skill
– Can:
design vehicles from scratchoptimize engines, suspension, aerodynamics
Marketing Genius (Passive Trait)
– Instinctively understands:
brandingaudience psychologyviral appeal
Warner Brother Modular Film Production Studio (2025-grade)
– Full studio lot with sound stages + sets
Advanced Martial Arts Mastery (Passive)
– Combat instinct, reflexes, control
– Highly efficient, not flashy
– Jeet Kuno Do, Taekwondo, Jiu Jitsu.
Practical Effects & Stunt Mastery (Passive)
– Expert-level:
stunt coordination.safe fight choreography.practical effects (blood rigs, impact hits, wire work)
– Can design and execute scenes safely and efficiently.
Presence Null (Passive)
– When not actively engaging, people are less likely to notice you.
– Will allow tax evasion from authorities.
– Politics would never follow you.
50 Acre Solar farm.]
"I can pick four of these?" I was quite shocked.
I first pick 1, 2 and 3 without much thinking. I could pick one more now.
'Presence null is quite good. However, it will work for me as an individual, not as a company. My employees will suffer if I don't take care of the taxes properly.'
'The solar farm is too much. I'd definitely get interrogated if I brought it out.'
Number four and number 5 are left. I was leaning towards number five since it has a lot more stuff other than just fighting skills.
"Alright. Number 5 then."
Once I finished the selection, the bonus gifts showed themselves.
{Kawasaki Ninja H2®R ABS motorcycle}
"Nice. I can keep this for emergencies."
{Primary Weapons Systems | MK118 MOD 2 with 300 rounds of bullets.}
"Also for emergencies."
{Aprodisiac chocolate x 100}
"Is this the bedroom chocolate?"
{DNA Test}
"I can create a family court TV. 'Mr Forman, you're not the father.'"
{Aids Medicine x 1000}
"Huh?"
All of the items entered my system shop immediately.
"Aids medicine?" I was surprised by that. Even more surprised than I got a rifle in the random gift.
"I haven't done random gifts since I got the fern. Should I do ten? I have a lot of rating points."
I decided to do it later.
(Read up to chapter 170 on my patreon.
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