<🎧 Song Recommendation: Test Drive - From How To Tame Your Dragon by John Powell>

...

"I can’t believe you drink.... that heavily, too." Aiden sighed as he walked to his small kitchen area to grab her a glass of water.

"I’m just a little buzzed," Camila corrected him with a smile, dropping her bag on his worn-out sofa. She wandered over to his desk and her eyes caught a notebook that was left open. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"What is this?" Camila asked, squinting at the handwritten pages and laughing out loudly. "Wait... bears and dragons? Did you seriously write this rubbish?"

Aiden froze hearing her voice, and as he turned around he almost let the cup fall from his hand. Thankfully, he had the control to put it down and snatch his book away from her.

His entire body shivered slightly knowing that his deepest secret and only escape was being mocked by the girl he actually liked.

He held the notebook tightly against his side, his violet eyes turning cold and completely shutting her out.

"Just take the bed," Aiden said in a low voice.

"What about you?" she asked, oblivious to how much she had just hurt him.

"I’ll manage."

Aiden grabbed a thin blanket from his closet and laid it out on the floor. He turned his back to her completely, refusing to say another word for the rest of the night.

"Cut!"

Marcus announced with a grin. "Nine perfect takes in a row, wow!"

The entire crew was happy seeing the director jovial. It had been a miserable, stressful last week with Von stuck in bed and the budget bleeding out, but this week, everything was flowing flawlessly.

The actors were hitting their marks, the lighting was perfect, and they were finally making real progress again.

Only Von was frowning as he stared down at his screen. The director was satisfied, but it seemed like the system would never be.

[You’ve unlocked a Redemption Quest!]

[Quest Name: Perfectionist]

[Description: You have neglected your daily duties for too long. To avoid the ultimate penalty, you must immerse yourself in your craft. You must attain a scene score of 97 or above!]

[Reward: 1,000 EXP]

[Failure Penalty: Serves the penalty for every single quest you failed stacked together and doubled in duration.]

[Deadline: Shooting Conclusion]

Von let out a quiet breath as he read the glowing blue text. He had also unlocked what was called a [Scene Score].

It was a way to check how good he was performing in each scene, and as usual, the System was really strict with its judgment.

It analyzed everything, from his personal acting to his emotional resonance with his co-stars.

His average score while shooting the outdoor scenes had just been 61, with his final scene at the overlook and the popular hallway scene being at 75 and 77 respectively.

Back then, he thought he was doing an amazing job. But clearly, the System demanded absolute perfection.

That had changed drastically since his coma, because his average had jumped to 75, and the scene he just concluded right now was as high as 85!

But it still wasn’t enough. It wasn’t even close to the 97 required to clear the new quest.

If he failed this, the stacked penalties of all his missed daily quests over the past six days, doubled in duration, would completely destroy him. He might actually end up hospitalized for real this time.

Even worse was that Von had only one scene left to act before they went out one final time to shoot the montage. He was running out of chances.

"Alright, that’s a wrap on this one!" Marcus called out, clapping his hands together loudly to get the crew’s attention. "Good job, everyone. Let’s reset everything for scene 36. Move it, we’re on the clock!"

The crew immediately scrambled to do their assigned tasks.

"Von, Chloe," Marcus pointed at the two actors. "Head to makeup and get changed. We’ll do the final scene in a few hours once the set is rebuilt."

Chloe nodded, slipping out of character instantly and giving Von a small, tired smile before walking off toward the dressing rooms.

Everyone got to work as told, but Von remained rooted in the spot. He stared at his hands, then looked back up at Marcus.

Suddenly he said, "Sorry, Marcus... But could we perhaps reshoot this one. I feel like I can do better?"

Von’s suggestion made everyone stop what they were doing to stare daggers at him.

It didn’t make sense because they could all attest that everything had been perfect.

He had been displaying a high level lately, and it was something everyone was still impressed by.

After stalling the production for nearly a week and losing his entire paycheck, nobody wanted to waste another second shooting something that was already flawless.

The cameramen exchanged annoyed glances. Leviathan, who was standing nearby today, raised an eyebrow.

"Hmm," Marcus narrowed his eyes at Von. He was a little pleased by how much he was caring, even if the kid wouldn’t receive any pay in the end.

He liked actors who wanted to push boundaries, but he also had a strict schedule to keep.

"We could, Von, but that’s a waste of time and resources," Marcus said firmly. "Trust me, I know perfection when I see it and you can’t do better. Besides, this is a simple scene, what did you want... I’m even more surprised you made your body shiver without dropping the glass of water than anything. We have it. We’re moving on."

"Okay, it’s fine," Von sighed lowly, already knowing that Marcus wouldn’t agree anyway.

He couldn’t exactly explain that a glowing holographic screen was threatening to cripple him if he didn’t score twelve points higher.

He dismissed the System interface and turned around.

But as he walked into the distance to go to the makeup room, his mind was on one thing.

’This was never the scene I thought would make it anyway,’ he told himself inwardly, feeling a sudden surge of focus. ’The next scene would be it.’

For the final scene, Von was going to do something he had never done before. The scene they were setting up right now was the emotional climax of the movie. It was a kiss scene.

That would be his very first lip kiss, but Von was determined to make sure it would also be the greatest ever. He needed that 97 score, and he was going to pull out everything in his arsenal to make it happen.

Von smirked before walking inside the room to do his makeover.