Chapter 51: The Era Two Roulette
Tuesday, December 8, 2015 (Night)
Michael was in his studio. The laptop was closed. The hype from 'Drugs You Should Try It' continued to flood his phone, which he had put on silent mode on his desk.
It had worked. Better than he had dared to imagine. His "SoundCloud Era" was complete. Ten songs. And the success of the last track had been massive.
He leaned back in his Herman Miller chair. The work was done. It was time to collect.
He closed his eyes and summoned the System interface. Cyan light filled his vision, a familiar glow against the darkness of the room.
He looked at the top right corner. The final number, after a week of the viral explosion of "Drugs", was staggering.
TOTAL BALANCE: 236,645 IP
It was a fortune. Earned with ten months of grueling work, sleepless nights, finger pain, and constant stress. And now, he was going to bet it all.
He navigated to the store. He went to the golden "Milestones" tab, which was blinking softly.
The option was there, shining, tempting.
[CREATOR MILESTONE REACHED: 10 SONGS PUBLISHED!]
You have completed your first catalog. You have demonstrated your commitment to creation.
As a reward, the System gives you the option to purchase a special "Milestone Roulette".
This unique offer allows you to launch 10 new songs in exchange for all your current Impact Points.
[COST: ALL YOUR CURRENT IP BALANCE (236,645 IP)]
Michael stared at the figure. 236,645 IP. Every point earned with a connection, with a view, with a piece of his soul. And the System was asking for it all in exchange for ten new songs.
It was the same bet he had made with Ethereum. All or nothing.
There was no hesitation. This was the plan.
With a clear and decided thought, he pressed the "Buy" button.
The interface flickered. And his balance, the fruit of ten months of work, plummeted.
TOTAL BALANCE: 0 IP
He felt an instant emptiness, a lightness. He was at zero again. It was a new beginning.
The store screen faded. The screen went black.
And then, a new ring of cyan light appeared in front of him.
It wasn't the simple ring of his first spin, the one that gave him 'Ghost Boy'. This one was more complex. It shone with a more potent energy, with small arcs of static electricity crackling around it. On its surface, not only genres spun, but artist names, fragments of lyrics, everything moving at breakneck speed.
Michael leaned forward. The game had just started again.
'Okay', he whispered in the empty room. 'Era 1 completed. Let's go for Era 2.'
With a thought, he activated the roulette.
The ring of light exploded in a blinding motion, a blur of power and potential, the sound of a million songs screaming at once in his head.
The ring of light stopped. The sound died down.
Instead of a list, twelve holographic "envelopes" appeared floating in the darkness of his studio. Ten were a shiny silver color. One was an intense gold. And the last one, the one at the end, was a prismatic diamond.
Michael felt his mouth go dry. His IP balance was zero. All his work of the last ten months had turned into these twelve cards.
"Okay," he whispered in the empty room. "Let's see what I bought."
He focused on the first silver envelope. He was expectant.
The card materialized and spun slowly.
['Betrayed' - Lil Xan]
Michael let out a breath. 'Okay. Sad Trap.' He recognized it. He remembered the simple piano melody and the catchy chorus. He opened the guide. The complexity was low. It was a song of pure "vibe". It was a safe continuation of his sound. He filed it away.
He focused on the second silver envelope.
['Beamer Boy' - Lil Peep]
A genuine smile. 'Beamer Boy'. It brought back memories of his previous universe, driving his first beat-up car, feeling like the king of the world while this song played. He opened the guide. The production was more complex than he remembered, a mix of flexing and melancholy. 'The perfect bridge between 'White Iverson' and my darker material.' He filed it away, feeling good.
Third silver envelope.
['Save That Shit' - Lil Peep]
"Yes," he said out loud. It was one of Peep's anthems. He remembered the energy, the unforgettable chorus. He opened the guide. Its complexity was high. The way the vocals intertwined, the clean production. It was a "sad trap" song for stadiums. He filed it away.
Fourth envelope. Silver.
['Hope' - XXXTENTACION]
The cover hit him. He remembered this song. Short, beautiful, dedicated to the victims of a tragedy. A song of pure compassion. 'I'll keep it,' he thought. 'For when people need it.'
Fifth envelope. Silver.
['I'm Gonna Be' - Post Malone]
The sequel to 'White Iverson'. He remembered the introspective tone. The song about the hangover of fame. It was the perfect next chapter for his 'White Iverson' persona.
Sixth envelope. Silver.
['Boss' - Lil Pump]
Michael frowned. 'Okay, now the ugly.' He remembered this energy. Pure SoundCloud aggression.
Seventh envelope. Silver.
['Gucci Gang' - Lil Pump]
Michael let out a laugh. 'Gucci Gang'. It was, in his opinion, a brilliantly stupid song. It wasn't a work of art, but it was a virus. He remembered how it dominated 2017. It was catchy, simple, and a tool of pure virality. He opened the guide. The complexity was ridiculously low. A piano loop, an 808. 'Well, at least it will be easy to make.' He filed it away as a biological weapon.
Eighth envelope. Gold. The first gold one. Michael leaned forward.
['Jocelyn Flores' - XXXTENTACION]
The air left his lungs. He froze. Of all of X's songs... this one. He remembered the story. The pain. It was the purest and rawest piece of sadness X had created. He opened the guide. There was barely anything. An acoustic guitar sample. Two vocal tracks. It was pure emotion. 'This... this is gonna hurt to make.' He filed it away with reverence.
Ninth envelope. Gold.
['Lucid Dreams' - Juice WRLD]
"Shit," he whispered. Another generational anthem. He remembered the Sting sample, the pop-punk melody. It was the perfect fusion. The complexity of the guide wasn't the production, but the legality. The System even included a note: [Requires high-cost sample clearance].
Michael smiled. 'Good luck with that, Harris.'
Tenth envelope. Gold.
['XO TOUR Llif3' - Lil Uzi Vert]
His eyes widened. 'Look At Me!'. 'Gucci Gang'. 'Lucid Dreams'. And now, 'XO TOUR Llif3'.
The System wasn't giving him an advantage. It was giving him the entire arsenal of the "SoundCloud Mainstream" of 2017 in a single spin. He remembered this song. Dark, catchy, the heartbreak anthem that defined a summer. He felt overwhelmed. He had too many hits.
Eleventh envelope. The last gold one. The tension was high.
['Look At Me!' - XXXTENTACION]
Michael burst out laughing, this time in disbelief. 'Look At Me!' and 'Jocelyn Flores' in the same spin. The duality of X. The chaos and the pain. He opened the guide. The production was a joke: a single 808, distorted to hell. It was pure raw energy. 'This is gonna be fun.'
Michael leaned back in his chair, his mind still processing the arsenal he had just received. It was overwhelming. 'Look At Me!', 'Gucci Gang', 'XO TOUR Llif3', 'Jocelyn Flores'...
The System hadn't given him an arsenal. It had given him the keys to the mainstream of 2017, a year early.
He was about to close the interface, feeling exhausted but victorious, when his gaze drifted to the last slot in his inventory. There, floating in silence, was one last envelope.
It wasn't silver. It wasn't gold.
It was a diamond envelope.
It shone with a prismatic light, pure and white, casting small rainbows on the dark walls of his studio. It looked... expensive. Sacred.
Michael got excited. He leaned forward, his heart beating with a new anticipation.
It was the last envelope. The twelfth. And it was of a level he didn't even know existed.
'What is this?', he thought. 'It has to be something... incredible. Is it something by Kanye again? Is it something by Kanye even bigger? Is it... I don't know, 'Stairway to Heaven'?'
For being the last card, and on top of that, being a diamond envelope, his hype was through the roof. This had to be the jackpot.
With a sense of reverence, he focused on it.
"Open."
He opened it.
The diamond card spun slowly in the air, the prismatic light almost blinding. The cover was elegant, minimalist. A blurry image of a woman.
And then, the text appeared.
[EPIC SONG - POP]
'Diamonds' - Rihanna
Michael stared.
And he froze.
The hype. The anticipation. Everything crashed and burned in an instant, replaced by utter confusion.
'What?'
He looked at the card. 'Diamonds'. By Rihanna.
It wasn't rap. It wasn't trap. It wasn't emo. It was... pop. Pure global pop.
For a second, he thought the System had made a mistake.
But then, he remembered the warning from the System in Chapter 4. The one he had ignored.
"The System wasn't joking," he muttered to himself in the empty room, "saying that songs from all genres could appear, and even from girls."
He had assumed it referred to close genres. Not to... this.
He stared at the guide. It was a masterpiece. A powerful, atmospheric ballad, with global number one hit potential.
And he didn't know what to do with that song.
It was, without a doubt, one of the best songs in his new arsenal. And it was completely useless to him.
He couldn't sing it. He simply couldn't. His voice, his style, his brand of "dark trap" and "sad boy"... imagining himself singing 'Shine bright like a diamond' was ridiculous.
It would be a parody. They would destroy him.
He leaned back in his chair, a hysterical and humorless laugh bubbling in his chest.
He had just bet his entire IP fortune, earned with blood, sweat, and tears... and the System had given him the most potent rap arsenal of the decade, and as a final joke, it had given him a useless diamond he couldn't use.
'Okay', he thought, looking at the shiny card. 'So... what do I do with you?'
The answer was obvious, but it was terrifying.
The System had been teaching him to be an artist. It taught him to produce, to play the guitar, to mix, to sing.
Now, it was giving him a new exam.
'It's not for me. It's for me to produce. For someone else.'
The idea hit him with a new weight. The System didn't just want him to be an artist. It wanted him to be a mogul. A producer. A true Demiurge.
He realized that his journey had just become much, much more complicated.