Reset Life with Infinite Talents - Chapter 37

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Infinite Talent Reset Life Episode 37

 

 

’A test?’

Was he checking the trustworthiness of Team Smithingtons rather than himself?

‘Maybe even me too.’

“For reference, I don’t have a Rocky Management business card, so I just gave you that one. Please don’t misunderstand.”

“…Do you two know each other?”

“I told you yesterday, Larry. That I received a casting offer.”

“Ah.”

As attention focused on him, Andrew Pearson put down his teacup and stood up.

“Well, now that the last person has arrived, let’s move.”

Johann and Larry narrowed their eyes as they followed behind.

The place they headed to was the largest classroom on the 3rd floor.

Murmur murmur.

‘Everyone’s gathered?’

Bruno Mars waving his hand, Team Smithingtons and other singers, models, actors, as well as the team leaders and second-in-commands from sales, scouting, and management teams.

All of Rocky Management was packed into the classroom.

Johann sat next to Bruno Mars, and Andrew Pearson stood at the front of the classroom.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Andrew Pearson, who will be in charge of the planning team at Rocky Management from now on. Let me introduce my background….”

Andrew Pearson wrote his background on the whiteboard behind him.

People’s eyes widened at this.

‘U, Universal Music Group? Sony Music Group?’

‘Elite Agency is there too!’

From a Yale MBA to America’s Big Four record labels, two major modeling agencies, and even Warner Brothers.

Each one was extraordinary.

The two men and women who had arrived first also introduced themselves.

“Since the term ‘planning team’ might be unfamiliar to some of you, let me explain – please think of it as a department that determines your activity concepts and helps with activities that match them.”

For singers, genre, direction, album composition, etc.

For actors, roles and works.

“For models, it would be brands, shopping malls, etc. Each department will cooperate smoothly for this purpose, and we hope the artists will trust us and follow our direction.”

“Direction?”

People stirred for a moment.

Faces contorted, and Larry and Johnny stepped forward.

“If you do just that….”

Letters written on the whiteboard again. No, numbers.

1 year – $900,000.

“This is the amount earned by the most unsuccessful person among those I’ve planned for.”

Mouths that were about to rebel closed.

“Even considering Rocky’s insufficient infrastructure, if you follow our planning team’s direction, I promise you a minimum of $200,000 per year, with an average of $900,000 in revenue. Any questions?”

‘…There couldn’t be any.’

Among the artists gathered here, few generated over $200,000 in sales per year.

Not only was their sphere of activity limited to California, but clients’ wallets had become stingy due to the economic downturn.

He had properly hit their weak point.

‘Ada.’

Despite having nothing in common from appearance to skin color, Ada suddenly came to mind.

‘Both his speech and behavior are similar to Ada’s.’

When no one spoke up, Andrew Pearson nodded as if he had expected this.

“Then let’s finish the boring introductions and proceed with individual interviews. Let’s start with the youngest. Mr. Johann Jefferson?”

“…Yes.”

Johann stood up and followed Andrew Pearson out.

 

The planning team’s office was located in the directing studio on the 3rd floor.

The space that became vacant when the modeling division rented out and moved to another location became the planning team’s office.

Swish! Swish! Thud!

Andrew closed the documents placed in front of him and looked at Johann.

“Do you want popularity, or do you want freedom?”

“…Excuse me?”

A sudden question.

But it wasn’t entirely out of the blue.

‘No, he’s pinpointed my problem exactly.’

A topic that had never been mentioned before.

However, it was a topic that would have to be chosen someday, in the not-so-distant future.

Johann looked at Larry and Johnny sitting on either side. Curiosity filled their eyes too.

‘Popularity….’

Popularity meant the recognition from people, recognition from the world that Johann desired.

Johann fell into thought.

Soon he reached a conclusion.

‘This is it after all.’

“If I had to choose between the two, I’d choose freedom.”

Freedom. Freedom over popularity.

“Why?”

It was a question asked knowing Johann’s situation, but it wasn’t an answer someone who had entered this industry would typically choose.

“Because there’s a lot you have to give up when you gain popularity.”

A simple example would be school.

“School?”

“In my judgment, school is a place where you learn common sense.”

Including behaviors you shouldn’t do among friends, behaviors you shouldn’t do when going out, behaviors acceptable toward parents and siblings, behaviors acceptable toward neighbors, and basic knowledge for living in the world like language, history, mathematics, cooperation, competition, friendship, etc.

School is where you learn all that common sense.

“But what happens when you become famous?”

It would become difficult to attend this school, and trapped in a narrow world, your thinking would also be shaped to fit that narrow world.

The absence of common sense.

“I’d probably miss a lot because of that.”

You wouldn’t even know you were missing things.

“…Wouldn’t you regret it?”

With just a little promotion, Johann would shake not just LA and California, but all of America.

Golden eyes like embedded topaz, more attractive than blue eyes.

These had the suction power to absorb even a person’s soul.

“Your appearance is cute too.”

An appearance where three animals coexisted: wolf, fox, and puppy.

“Even if you were just 2 years older, women would go crazy. And on top of that, your composition and singing skills.”

He even overflowed with talent for sports and art.

Johann was born to be a star.

“I want many people to listen to my songs, but I don’t want to lose my freedom for that.”

I want to have various diverse experiences, not live trapped in a narrow world.

‘There’s so much to do, why lose freedom?’

Taking recent examples, baseball and flea market outings.

If he gained popularity, he wouldn’t be able to enjoy such things comfortably.

If popularity became a suffocating cage, he could give up everything he had shown so far.

“This is my answer. Does this suffice as a response?”

“As expected….”

A smile spreads across Andrew Pearson’s lips.

“Excuse me?”

“I mean I knew it would be like this. And how much effort my employer and this Rocky put in for you.”

The overly conservative advertising and sponsorship contracts.

Songs only exposed on SoundCloud and SNS.

“Just looking at the advertising alone, I would have increased it at least five times more.”

It was that level of an issue, and continued to create issues afterwards.

“I would have forcibly pushed the original songs to radio stations, broadcasting stations, record labels, and bloggers.”

Since Joe Walsh showed a reaction, they could have released a collaboration track with him. There are quite a few people who remember the name Eagles.

“Ah.”

‘Different.’

He was casually saying things that Larry and Johnny couldn’t say, accomplishing things they couldn’t do.

“I’m sure you got those kinds of proposals from them too. Didn’t you?”

Flinch!

Johann sees Larry and Johnny getting flustered.

“…Yes. We did.”

Not only the broadcasting stations, radio, bloggers, and record labels just mentioned, but other management companies had also contacted them. Telling them to hand over Johann.

“But….”

“That’s poison.”

For the sake of flashy issues, for views and ratings, they would have torn Johann apart and toyed with him.

“Those bastards are that kind of people. Nothing surprising about it.”

Andrew, who burst out with cynicism, looks at Johann.

“Mr. Jefferson, you’d still like to be recognized, right?”

“As long as it doesn’t restrict my freedom.”

“Understood.”

Andrew nods and looks at Larry and Johnny again.

“You’ve done well so far.”

They handled things so well that it was unimaginable for such a small management company to accomplish.

“Let’s continue with this kind of promotion and business approach, but add just three more things.”

YouTube, Spotify, and Reddit.

‘YouTube!’

Johann’s eyes light up.

However, Larry shows a cautious reaction.

“Isn’t YouTube a platform suffering serious losses?”

A platform where you could work hard to barely grow a channel, only for it to disappear overnight. That’s why he hadn’t even suggested creating an account for Johann.

Johann, who finally understood Larry’s intention, nodded, and Andrew wore a faint smile.

“Just trust me and leave it to me for now. Then I’ll make it so Johann Jefferson can do what he wants the way he wants.”

A comment that sounded like a scammer at first glance. Johann, feeling suspicious, slowly closed and opened his eyes.

And….

‘Ha.’

His briefly tensed nerves relaxed.

“I understand what you mean. You’re going to make me a star, right?”

A star, but a different kind of star.

“Is that possible?”

“Oh?”

Andrew’s eyes light up as he gives a resolute smile.

“Making that happen is my role.”

“…I’ll hand over all the photos and videos I’ve taken so far. Yesterday’s busking too.”

Johann gets up and extends his hand.

“Please take good care of Larry and Rocky.”

He was someone who could be trusted.

No, someone who would become a treasure for Larry and Rocky Management.

“I look forward to continued good work.”

Andrew smiles and grasps Johann’s hand.

“Ah, would it be okay if I pat your head once?”

“…Excuse me?”

He might have been a strange person after all.

 

* * *

 

Click!

Bruno Mars, who came out of the interview room temporarily made by renovating an empty classroom, scratches his head.

The other Team Smithingtons members are the same.

“Gene.”

“Johann.”

“Why do you look like that? Did they tell you not to do composition or producing?”

“That’s not it. But… as expected, a big corporation is a big corporation.”

“What did they say?”

“They want me to continue as a composer and producer like I have been, not as a singer?”

Johann pretends to be surprised.

“What? You were trying to become a singer?”

“I was preparing an album.”

All the skills he had developed while making many songs for countless singers weren’t satisfying him. So he decided it would be better to sing himself, and was separately making an album.

“A singer-songwriter?”

“Right. But….”

They said that would be too burdensome.

A singer-songwriter who would have all kinds of standards imposed on them from the moment of success. Not only fellow singers but also record labels and management companies would keep them in check.

“They also said performance controversies would always follow me around.”

They said industry people and the public would watch with burning eyes, waiting for him to make a mistake. But if he worked as a composer & producing team, it wouldn’t be like that.

“The more successful we become, the less singers, labels, and management companies will be able to mess with us….”

They said moral standards would also become more lenient, allowing them to move more freely.

“What? That’s basically bragging about himself.”

Saying he could succeed even doing it that way.

“Hahaha! Does it work like that? Anyway, as he was gently explaining all this….”

It was convincing.

Sorry to Larry, but listening to the planning team explain their future plans based on the premise of success made him want to follow along.

“They seem to have hired good staff.”

“It’s all thanks to Gene. They organized the planning team to make Team Smithingtons successful.”

“…What?”

Team Smithingtons freezes.

“A bottle of wine later should do it.”

“R-right! Then, Little Jefferson, what about you? What did they say?”

“They said they’d make me an internet star.”

“…?”

While it was common for famous businesspeople, celebrities, athletes, etc. to also gain fame on SNS, it wasn’t necessarily always the case.

SNS was also where ordinary people who had never been exposed in the media even once could suddenly gain fame. And some of them achieved follower counts rivaling famous stars.

“But there’s a difference in media attention.”

For example, famous singers or actors are harassed by paparazzi and fans. Whatever they do gets reported in the media and attracts public attention.

But what about ordinary SNS celebrities?

For other general audiences excluding their followers, it rarely becomes a topic of discussion since they don’t have much interest in those particular celebrities.

And most importantly, the public thinks of them as slightly famous ‘ordinary people’.

That gap in perception creates freedom.

“I can release albums when I want to release them, and draw when I want to draw, relatively freely.”

Even if I do whatever I want, there’s no one to complain.

“Why? I’m just a slightly special ordinary person.”

“…The planning team is really crazy.”

“That means we’ve all been recognized.”

This strategy is only possible because it’s based on the premise that everything will definitely succeed.

‘If it weren’t…’

“Wait. Then what about money?”

“That would naturally depend on how many followers we achieve.”

Since SNS isn’t yet hugely popular worldwide, the revenue would inevitably be relatively small.

‘But as SNS spreads around the world, it will increase exponentially.’

Andrew Pearson judged that people’s dependence on SNS, namely the internet, would increase as economic deterioration caused people to refrain from outdoor activities.

This wasn’t just Andrew Pearson’s thinking, but also the opinion of everyone he consulted, even Warner Music Group thought the same.

“…Wow.”

“Should we do SNS too?”

“With your face and mine? We’d get dragged to Area 51?”

Johann smiled watching them bicker.

‘Larry has gained amazing people.’

Starting with Team Smithingtons, and including the planning team with Andrew Pearson.

He looked forward to seeing how Rocky Management would develop in the future.

 

* * *

 

The next day, Johann gets out of the car driven by Manager Rick Bottom.

“Please contact me anytime if anything comes up.”

“Take care of your business and come back in time for dismissal.”

Johann waves his hand and approaches Mason Moon who is walking ahead.

“Hi, Moon.”

“Oh, hello? It’s a different person today?”

“Ah, that’s my manager.”

With the establishment of the planning team and individual interviews proceeding, all departments at Rocky Management would be busy for a while.

‘They said they’re creating a PR team too.’

They said they would separate the promotion work that the existing sales team handled and make it an independent department. That’s why Larry had no choice but to go to work early in the morning.

‘Though I deliberately pushed him away.’

I had to break out in a cold sweat convincing Larry, who insisted that no matter how busy he was, he should personally take care of his child’s school commute.

“Johann. Yaaawn.”

“Hi, Emily.”

Emily, who uses SNS until dawn every day. She seems like she didn’t sleep well yesterday either.

“Hi, Billy.”

“Hmph!”

Unlike yesterday, Billy disappears immediately.

I shake my head, and from far away, a wild boar comes running.

“Johann! Johann-!”

Flash, who ran over quickly, jingles his bracelet and holds out his mobile phone.

“I sent you a file by email, so download it. It’s an app my dad is making this time.”

“Michael is?”

“Yeah! Oh, Emily, I sent it to you too, so download it or don’t.”

Johann obediently downloads and installs the file.

And…

“Hmm…”

A social app with just one lonely photo of a bar posted.

“Dad says existing SNS is too indiscriminate… um.”

“Indiscriminately?”

“Right, that! Since information circulates indiscriminately, it only tells you about delicious restaurants and bars in the neighborhood, so, social lo, location…”

“You mean a social location sharing service?”

“Yeah! That’s what he’s making!”

And currently he was gathering acquaintances to conduct prototype testing.

“Ah, I see.”

“Who would use something like this?”

Emily suddenly butted in.

 

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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