Jack Of Arts

September 19, 2011 Monday , Nuilye St. East Ouigab.

"Pleasure doing business with you." Tayaw said as he shook hands with the previous-owner of the house in Ironstone he now owns. "No. It's a pleasure for me. That house, was supposed to be a home where I could have raised my children. Unfortunately, only bad memories remained for me in that house." The previous owner replied, appearing lighter after the deal.

Tayaw just bought the house he's been renting in Ironstone since January for 1,500,000 BGC. Despite the huge spending though, it was practically just a dent to his wealth. Last week, Tayaw told Galad the realtor and the previous owner of the house to prepare for the purchase soon after his 18th birthday.

Two days ago, Tayaw spent his 18th birthday in Okuba with his family. That time, Kilat was less displeased of Tayaw's non-visits between July and his birthday. Tayaw was also given updates by Liboo regarding the car renovating business.

Since July, Liboo was able to find an empty lot for cheap rent half an hour away from Okuba, have the workshop built, bought the equipment, and immediately bought 5 vehicles for renovation. Last August, he was able to sell his first car. Out of the 5 cars he bought was a 1987 Corvette Convertible for 23,000BGC. After overhauling the thing for another 9,000BGC, he was able to sell it for 69,000BGC. Although it was a huge profit, Liboo also knew it's difficult to even find such a car for sale. Despite that though, he was lucky that Ouigab has a lot of car enthusiasts that were willing to buy the Corvette.

After having lunch with the previous owner of his house, Tayaw drove back to Ironstone to wait for Chala. It has been a while since he released the second volume, which was in March, so he is planning to publish another book. Even though he's plenty rich now, he needs more stuff to make movies and play more. After all, he wants to live a more fulfilling life this time. Drowning himself in music should not be what a person does no matter how talented they are in it.

Regarding music, Tayaw has recorded two albums now. Since February when he acquired his perfect pitch, he was able to compose thirty-eight complete songs. Out of the thirty, he only found twenty-four he deemed good enough for people to listen to.

Another added benefit to his songs is that he received two more enhancements from two of his thirty-eight songs. His strength basically a double of his strength since his July enhancement and he can now bench press 100kg for 43 repetitions while lying down. He actually found no real use of his strength aside from the healthy body. It's not like he's planning on becoming an athlete either. He appreciates the increase in his brain power more. One side effect to him though is that it seemed as if the world slowed down a bit. It's a very odd feeling.

Many times, he would rather run on foot to wherever he wants to be rather than driving. While he can't outrun a car in full speed yet, being on foot has more mobility, agility, and most importantly, no being stuck on the traffic.

It was already 1pm when he arrived in Ironstone. The band is out to school so the house is empty. The band, just like the previous semester, enrolled to have the same schedule as each other. All the members finished their first year in university with quite good grades. Hoon, for example had the best grades among them averaging an A with the rest of the band having an average GPAs of B like Ramil and Inson has, or an A- like Jenna and Bay-an. Ike had to work the hardest because he doesn't have Tayaw's help, but still got an average of B-. In Tayaw's previous life, Hoon did not have interest in school that much and only graduated by cruising with passing grades. He felt glad he helped a lot with the band's school performance.

A few minutes later, Chala arrived as well. "If it isn't my favorite author. How come I'm only coming here for the first time?" Chala greeted Tayaw as he looked around the house. "Oh, I just bought the place today. I've been raising a band as well. By the way, how are we doing with the people looking for rights?" Tayaw asked as he served Chala a cup of black coffee and a slice of blueberry cake.

"Well, I've sold the movie/animation rights to Pixie Studios last week. Tisney offered smaller." Chala replied as he sipped his coffee. "Pixie? That company from USA?" Tayaw clarified. Pixie Studios is one of the biggest animation studios in the world, which he remembered in his past life, was worth 10 Billion USD in 2030s. They have been making animated movies based on traditional fairy tales, movies about action figures of different sports, movies about young kids training to be athletes, and more.

"Yes. It was actually difficult to squeeze them. Thinking back, I should have just started a bidding war between Pixie Studios, DreamReels, and Tisney Animation, I wonder how much we would have gotten. Damn it." Chala said as the hand holding his cup started shaking out of regret. "F*ck, I got too excited and absorbed during the negotiations. I'm sorry Tayaw." Chala continued and put his cup down.

Tayaw was wondering how much Chala messed up. "So, how much did we get?" Tayaw asked. "$25 million, 8% of gross revenue, 1% of DVD sales." Chala replied. Tayaw raised his eyebrows at this because he found it a very generous offer, especially the box office sales. "Wait. 8%? Isn't that huge? Not even some investors get that much share. Also, gross revenue isn't affected by Hollywood accounting." Tayaw asked. "I know it is. It's just I could have gotten more if I had other studios bid on it." Chala said. This made Tayaw speechless for a moment. 'This greedy f*ck.' Tayaw said internally.

"Think about it this way. Think back. Did they even give you the chance to even have a second round of negotiations? Think back at what you felt during the negotiation when they offered that amount. Was there anything strange?" Tayaw asked. Chala thought about it for a moment, and his eyes widened.

"I found something strange! We were an hour in the negotiation, and their offer was slowly climbing up until we got stuck at $25 million for the movie rights. Neither of us would back down, and they asked for a fifteen minute break. After that, they suddenly offered the 8% box office shares and said that's their limit. I felt like I already won at that time. I tried to squeeze them for more, and that's when they gave me the 1%." Chala said. "I think that's the key part. They blinded you with the huge box office share, and stroke your ego with the DVD shares." Tayaw explained. He has seen this happen in various forms in his previous life.

"I've been had..." Chala said as his shoulders dropped. "No. It's my bad. I should not have sent you there alone. They had home advantage." Tayaw shook his head as well. "Anyway. It's not like they did not buy the rights cheaply. They had to be generous to prevent you from knocking on the doors of other studios. You still did well despite your disadvantage." Tayaw, despite feeling it was a shame; he felt that the deal was fair.

"F*ck. I should not have underestimated them. What was I thinking?" Chala said, still dazed at the realization. "Don't beat yourself up. You did well." Tayaw consoled Chala. This made Chala feel better. "By the way, we should be receiving the $25 million on your bank account any moment now." Chala said, changing the topic to a more positive one.

Tayaw opened his laptop and logged in on his online banking and his heartbeat raised at the money he currently has. He already had 50 million BGC in savings, and with the recent remittance by Pixie, his account now has 100 million BGC in it. If he puts aside Chala's share of 15% from Pixie and the 32% in taxes, he will still have a bit short of 80 million BGC.

"I bet you can retire now, Chala." Tayaw said as he slapped Chala's back. "Yeah…" Prior to this deal, Chala was already worth more than 10 million BGC if Tayaw���s calculations are correct. With Pixie's purchase, his net worth almost doubled.

"There's basically nothing left for you to do." Tayaw said. "Thanks Tayaw. I thought I would still grind until 60 to be half this rich." Chala replied, excited almost in tears. Tayaw is a god-send to him. He is already imagining how he would spend his money until he dies, when suddenly Tayaw said something to break his daydream. "Wanna have another deal? I've finished writing my new book." Tayaw mischievously smiled.

"I'm sorry, what?" Chala wanted to confirm. "You heard me." Tayaw said and opened a pdf file and showed it to Chala. Tayaw, just like he planned, finally finished his manuscript of The Halfling, all 400+ pages including the prologue and ill.u.s.trations. He was also finished registering the copyright for it.

Tayaw watched Chala as he read the manuscript in silence. About thirty minutes later, Chala looked at Tayaw with worship in his eyes. "This… Ho- Wh- y- … Glued." Chala said unintelligently. "Excuse me, what?" Tayaw chuckled. Chala took a few seconds to calm down and said. "I thought your previous book was already good. But this! This is the ultimate fairy tale!" Chala explained himself excitedly. Tayaw was satisfied at Chala's response. Even though he just transcribed it, he also hoped that this book would be something he wrote himself. He has not received any literary skills from the roulette to even start to appreciate the greatness of the book and the books that follows it.

While reading The Halfling and the Ruler's Ring in his head, he can't even begin to imagine how clever, smart, and creative the genius of an author who wrote it. Tayaw was tempted to write a book of his own, but looking at the pieces that the roulette gave him, he would only embarrass himself. Not to his world, but to the authors of the books he was given.

He is actually tempted to play the giant roulette again. He currently has 96 million View Points and he would rather wait for the white void to drag him in again. He wonders if there will be a third platform in the roulette table after the silver and gold platforms. The silver platform, which was colorless during his 1,000,000 View Point rewarded him movies. The gold platform which cost him 10 million gave him his Perfect Pitch. He is excited to see what reward a 100 million draw would give him.

"Thank you. It won't be targeted to children however. Children can still read it, but they're not my primary target this time." Tayaw said. "That's true. I noticed that the writing style you used is too advanced for children to read." Chala nodded. "Still, I think you will win an award for this though." Chala continued. "That would be good." Tayaw replied, but he is still afraid of his fame and how it would affect him.

"So. Want to work with me again on this? While we're already rich, we are still young." Tayaw finally offered Chala. "This…" Chala is moved. Tayaw could have just found another agent, but Tayaw had to wait before Chala finishes his work to release his book. "Of course. It would be an honor to work for a future legend." Chala accepted.

The two talked about their new contract. Chala being grateful for Tayaw's trust in him, decided to take less shares this time. Chala will have a share of 8% to whatever Tayaw makes from The Halfling.