One thing that I fully understand about my recent bragging about being able to create a better Live-Service game to Emily and Bella, was to not be a loud mouth. To even be able to do that, I need a lot of money, like billions of dollars. I am not the kind that wanted to do stuff half bake, if I were to do something it had to be thorough and proper, or not do it at all.
"Hah~". I was sprawled in my chair, one leg hooked over the armrest, lazily scrolling through the analytics for my Sael VT MeTube channel. It was a habit now, a little daily ritual to see how my little musical side project was faring.
"Sunday, pull up the growth chart for 'River Flows In You,' will you?" I mumbled around a mouthful of the protein bar I was eating.
A new graph materialized in the air, lines and numbers painting a picture of steady, if unspectacular, success. "[View count is up 2.3% from yesterday. Subscriber acquisition has increased by eighteen percent week-over-week. The like-to-dislike ratio remains at ninety-eight percent positive]," Sunday reported in her calm, measured tone.
I nodded, chewing thoughtfully. My channel wasn't a viral explosion, but instead it was a slow, steady burn. The initial viewers were the die-hards, the ones who'd follow Meteor Studio into the depths of hell and back, knowing that Sael VT were attached to Meteor Studios main accounts, they were willing to give it a chance. And their comments were a testament to that.
"OMG NEW METEOR STUDIO CONTENT!!!"
"Is this a teaser for a new game soundtrack??"
"Wait, this is just a music video? Who is this, Sael VT?"
But then, further down, the comments shifted. The initial hype gave way to something else.
"I've had this on repeat for 3 hours. I'm crying. It's so beautiful."
"This isn't from a game. This is just… art."
"Whoever this pianist is, they're a genius. The composition is flawless."
A slow smile spread across my face. Personally, this was better than a viral spike, it was a slow conversion. Sure, a lot of People were here for the studio name; but they ended up staying for the music. They were feeling it and touched by it. The 'Master Composer' skill wasn't just about helping me writing notes on a page and makes a compelling good song, it's also helps weaving emotion directly into sound, made the listeners easily immersed and connected to the song.
"Not bad for a first try," I said to myself, a warm feeling of pride spreading through my chest. This was a different kind of satisfaction than the terror of Silent Hill. To me this was pure, simple and quite satisfying.
"Ahh~ I like it that they loved it,". The warm, fuzzy feeling lasted for about another hour.
Basking on the feeling of hearing the familiar tunes echoed all around me. I take the time to zone in, sketching out rough map ideas for the battle royale game on my tablet, when Sunday's voice cut through my concentration, a rare note of urgency in her synthetic tone.
"[Sir… We are experiencing a significant anomalous traffic event... Incoming data flow has increased by four hundred percent in the last three minutes and is accelerating.]".
"What? Anomalous how? Is it a bot attack? Did someone try to DDOS us?". I stopped working and looked up. By now, Meteor Studios isn't a foreign to attacks, a we are basically the hottest target these days.
"[Negative… The traffic is organic and is being directly driven from a single point of origin: the Chirper social platform.]".
A new window snapped open in my holographic display. It was a Chirper post. The profile picture was a stunning, glamorous shot of a beautiful Black woman I'd never seen before, but something about her aura screamed 'superstar'. The name attached to it was Mariah Kari.
'Mariah Kari. Mariah Carey…. Probably?'. My brain did that thing again, the one where it tried to map this world's celebrities onto my old one.
So, I researched about Mariah Kari, and sure enough, it was this world version of Mariah Carey, they looked exactly the same. The only difference was, here she was only 32 Years old, and 'Kari' instead of 'Carey' she got the same vocals and status as proper diva, although her song catalogue was completely different. Not a single Mariah Carey song ever existed.
"Cool, I guess,". I Thought and read the post.
{'Just stumbled on something truly special. I think this is a new artist from the @MeteorStudio folks? Whoever he is, he's good. Like, really good. That's a whole mood. #NewMusic #Piano'}
Attached was a direct link to my 'River Flows In You' video.
My jaw went slack. "Holy shit….".
Before I could even process that, a notification pinged. A comment on Mariah's post. The profile picture was a man with kind eyes, a sharp goatee, and an air of immense, composed authority. The name: Hans Kimmel.
'Hans Kimmel…. For sure this is Hans Zimmer…. Of course…'. I thought and checked and my assumption were true.
His comment was like a king bestowing a knighthood.
{'You're late to the party, Mariah. I found him last week. Hands down the most compelling piano composition I've heard this century. Bravo. #RiverFlowsInYou #SaelVT #Masterpiece'}
I just stared. The pop diva and the legendary composer. In a single, casual exchange, and they had just lit the fuse for the interest on me. I could literally watch the view counter on my video spinning upward like a slot machine, the subscriber number ticking upward every second.
"Sunday," I breathed, my voice full of awe. "I think we just won the lottery."
"[apparently it is, Sir]". Sunday agreed with me.
***********************
Across the city, in a bedroom bathed in the soft, pink light of LED strips, Millie Kyleish was scrolling through her own feed. As one-half of the streaming duo Octopussy, she kept a professional eye on the industry tides. The buzz around Meteor Studio was impossible to ignore, and the new post from Mariah Kari was a seismic event.
"Mariah Kari is talking about Meteor Studio?" she muttered, clicking the link with a well-manicured thumb. "Since when do they have musicians?"
The video loaded. The avatar—a handsome, anime-styled boy with striking features—appeared. Millie's head tilted. There was something… familiar about him. The sharp jawline, the set of the eyes…
"Wait a second…" she whispered, leaning closer to her screen. "Is that… Emily's brother? Sael?"
The connection snapped into place. The name 'Sael VT'. The resemblance. It had to be. Her curiosity, already piqued by the famous name attached, was now dialed to eleven.
Then the music began.
The first, simple, clean piano notes filled her room through her high-quality headphones. Millie, an indie musician herself, immediately fell silent. Her critic's mind, usually so quick to deconstruct and find fault with every song she heard. The melody didn't just enter her ears; it wrapped around her heart and squeezed. It was melancholic, hopeful, yearning, and peaceful all at once. It was… perfect.
She stopped scrolling, and stopped thinking about algorithms or clout, she just listened. As the piece swelled, she felt a familiar prickling at the corners of her eyes. She was completely immersed, swaying slightly in her chair, utterly captivated by the beautiful, emotionally devastating piece composed by her friend's weird, reclusive, and suddenly incredibly talented brother.
*************************
The single chirp from Mariah Kari had started an avalanche. Sunday's calm voice became a constant, gentle narration of the escalating chaos.
"[Traffic increase now at one thousand two hundred percent. The post by Mariah Kari has been shared eighty-five thousand times…. The comment from Hans Kimmel has been liked one hundred and forty thousand times.]"
"That is certainly a lot…". at the moment, I was watching my video slowly spreading, right in front of my eyes. New windows flickered to life across my holographic display, a cascade of notifications and alerts. It was a firehose of attention, and I was loving it.
"[Alert: Mention from verified account: Wayne East]." A new post appeared.
The profile picture was a famous rapper, baled headed and black, with intense gaze, and very fashionable looks, I know that face instantly. 'Kanye West = Wayne East. Got it…'.
His post was pure, unfiltered hype:
{'This fire! @SaelVT when you droppin' bars? Can't wait to hear you spit! #RiverFlowsInYou'}
"He thinks I'm a rapper! Damn, this guy is always funny, even when it was on this earth,". I barked a laugh.
Before the laugh could die, another alert. "{Alert: Mention from verified account: Heminem.}".
This profile picture was a grim-faced, pale man with platinum blonde hair and a look of lethal seriousness. Definitely know who that guy was. 'Eminem…. Heminem. Absolutely, of course it is him…..' His comment was on Mariah's original post, a simple, powerful stamp of approval:
{'Beautiful. Waiting for you at the top.'}
"[Alert: Mention from verified account: Bruno Moon.]" A smiling, charismatic man with incredible hair. 'Bruno Mar = Bruno Moon… well, that name isn't that too far away, I guess'.
His post was playful and challenged the industry status quo:
{'Okay… am I about to get some real competition around here? This is incredible! #SaelVT'}
I just sat there, watching the digital equivalent of Mount Olympus itself nodding in my direction. It was surreal. These were giants, legends in their own right, and they were all talking about… me. Or rather, the mysterious Sael VT. The view counter on my video was now a blur of numbers, the subscriber count climbing into the hundreds of thousands.
"[It's a positive feedback loop,]". Sunday analyzed.
"[Each new endorsement from a high-profile account amplifies the signal exponentially. The story is no longer just about the music; it is about the industry's collective discovery of a new talent.]".
"They're all here…. They all look the same, but they have none of the songs I know… nor they were as good as I know them all to be,". I leaned back, a wide, incredulous grin on my face.
It was the weirdest feeling, it was as if I was being praised by ghosts, by echoes of greatness from another world, to me each one of the were a big star, someone that even I can acknowledge were big enough to even influence the industry. But here although some of them were good, not of them had their song really that 'good'. Not a single hit that shook my old world exited here, and honestly it was kinda sad.