Time quickly passed as the day of the movie release was fast approaching.
Felix got contacted by the studio exactly 8 days before the movie official release to sign on the contract.
Of course, there was some push and pull by him and the studio lawyer over the contract condition and details. But, Felix never reduced his 39% share offer no matter what the lawyer said or threatened.
He was this headstrong about it because he already received news from a staff he bribed heavily, that the investors who got interested in competing with him pulled out, after realizing that he was merely an amateur investor without reputation.
So they retreated, not daring to take the risk with him anymore, especially after being mailed secretly by someone about some scandals during the filming.
Felix was of course the one who did this, to turn them off even more about taking a bite from his pie.
He was never worried about them releasing those scandals to defame the movie because there was no concrete evidence about those scandals, and fans only believed in hard proofs and not rumors in the UVR, the place where scams and lies were running rampage everywhere.
Thus, Felix managed to sign the contract successfully without losing his shares, and he had to reluctantly hand over the 300 million SC to the studio, so it could used fully to market and advertise Human Melodies for an entire week widely in Alexander's kingdom UVR territory.
....
One day before the movie release, Felix was currently roaming again the resources market for high-grade stones after devouring all the batches that he bought.
But sadly, every shop he knocked on and asked about them, he was sent away with a head shake, entailing that the stock was empty.
Felix was not the only one who wanted those stones, but every other 3rd stage or above bloodliner needed them to recover their energy, as the capacity of their tank gets larger after their bodies get enhanced in each replacement. Hence, low and medium grade stones had absolutely no effect on them or were too cumbersome to absorb.
"I guess I sucked this city completely dry from those stones." He sighed in dejection, as he left the shop with a slumped shoulders.
Suddenly a loud feminine advertisement was played above his head in a large screen that was placed on a building.
"Human Melodies will be available live in each Cinema tomorrow at 08:00 PM. Don't miss this chance to be the first to watch the newest form of filming and acting combined to create a unique piece of art."
After the message was played for probably the thousandth times, it was accompanied by a well-made trailer of the movie.
Felix lifted his head in anguish, as every time he saw it or heard it he felt like his money was thrown at the faces of the streetwalkers to be simply ignored.
Just like now where no one gave a crap about the movie or its content.
Maybe there might be some individuals curious enough to listen to it. But still, the majority only minded their own business and kept on walking.
Felix slumped shoulders almost touched the ground after getting smacked by the reality that his 300 million had just been completely milked dry from every coin in it.
"I hope things will go as planned tomorrow, and everyone loves the movie like before. Otherwise, I am royally f*cked."
Felix was not bullshiting by saying this, as he was truly almost broke after using more than 30 million to secure whatever high stones he found in the Alexander Kingdom cities, leaving him only with 111 million, after selling the filtered tier 5 bloodline.
But that was soon used to buy another tier 5 bloodline from Looby to be used for the 4th integration.
Unfortunately, this time he came empty-handed without getting a single drop of the Jörmungandr bloodline. Thus, ending up wasting 33 million for nothing.
Now he currently owned only 78 million, which was not a lot, considering that tier 5 bloodline had a price range of 110 to 400 million. This price wasn't even including the legendary rank, as it had its own different incalculable value.
As for the high-grade stones, he already brought drought in the Alexander Kingdom by himself, after buying more than 4000 stones from all of the stores and public auctions, leaving every 3rd stage bloodliner dissatisfied.
"Sigh, I truly do not want to buy from other kingdoms and empires, but what other solution do I have?"
Felix logged out disheartened after being cornered to only having one option, and that was to shop from far places.
In the earlier days of the UVR where it was open for everyone to go wherever they please, this was merely a simple thing to do.
But after the arrival of the greedy humans, and turning everything upside down by their vicious monetization plans, shopping from another territory became an impossibility with all the heavy tariffs one must pay for the customs enforcers, to have a product reach his place.
A small delivery that would cost normally only 200.000 SC, would have 20% of its price as tax, and for Felix who planned to buy a shit load of stones, the weight of the delivery would also be calculated, adding extra taxes above the basic tax.
This made the entire delivery at least double its price by the time it reached Felix.
This was why he always avoided buying outside of Alexander Kingdom. But now he had no other choice except to do so. Or else, he could just relocate his residence to another kingdom to remove those taxes.
Felix stood up from the bed and went to take a shower since there would be a meeting upstairs to inform the juniors on their current weekly results.
...
10 minutes later, he arrived on the 35th floor and saw that everyone was already waiting there.
After seeing that Felix finally arrived, Abraham started the meeting with his palm striking the podium out loud.
"Henry you little shit, how dare you waste a precious integration attempt by merely using 2% to merge with!" He scolded, "Do you think we shit potions for you to waste like that?"
Before Henry could retort he got smacked in his neck by his father.
"You told me you used 6% when I was with you. How dare you lie to me in my face." His father grabbed him by the collar and shoved him in the wall with bloodshed eyes.
Felix stared at this scene while yawning in boredom. He was already used to such scenes, as the same happened in the majority of the past meetings.
Juniors lying about their used percentages after realizing that the pain would come in stronger waves for each added percentage.
Felix did not pay attention to those cousins who would get stuck forever in the purification stage but focused on Noah who almost reached 15% and Olivia who was slowly catching up.
As for Kenny, he was still at 7%, due to his average 51% affinity, making his cooldown period quite long.
After a while, the farce finally concluded after the parents took away Henry to accept his punishment.
Abraham did not scold anyone again but instead praised them warmly. "Good job children, you are slowly improving yourselves. If you kept going like this, reaching lesser purity will be piece of cake." His vision focused on Olivia and Noah and continued with encouragement. "Especially those two. Who will definitely reach 15% and be the first to unlock a passive ability during their 4th Integration."
He started clapping for them, and everyone followed after.
Every week the junior with the best results receive applause as a form of encouragement. So, it became a habit to follow clapping without being told so.
Noah accepted their applause expressionlessly as always, while Olivia dug her head downward with flushed cheeks.
Meanwhile, Felix who was dozing off was awakened by the loud clapping in irritation.
'Get me out of here already, please!' He rubbed his temples, totally annoyed by those mandatory meaningless weekly gatherings.