On May 4th, Kevin woke up really late.
His room was a mess. His drafts are scattered all over the place. The sun was shining outside the window and aimed precisely at his face, forcing him to get those lazy eyes open.
His telephone rang nonstop. Kevin sat up groggily and picked up his pillow to throw it precisely at the telephone.
It missed.
RIIIIINGGGG RIIIINNGGGGG
The telephone continued to blast his ears with its horrible noise. Kevin groaned.
He flipped the blanket and get down from the bed. Walking from the bed towards the telephone at his desk only takes ten steps. His small single apartment is filled with towering paper trash and a thick pile of books. But Kevin was able to masterly avoid them to answer the damn call.
"Yeah?"
"Have you finished it?" The other person's fierce tone greeted him early in the morning. This made him frown.
"Already send it in your email. Don't you have your eyes to check?"
The other person scoffed and their fingers flew over the keyboard.
"Just got it. I will scan through this. I will send you a copy of my correction later this afternoon."
Since he received it, Kevin felt it was unnecessary to talk to the other person and hang up the phone. Because of the sunlight and the irritating mess in his room, Kevin's sleepiness immediately disappeared.
"Fuck." He scrubbed his palm over his face and got up to clean. He cleaned the trash and placed the books he piled up on his desk last night.
Kevin just spent an all nighter revising his new story for that blockhead editor. He already revised the story seven times. Change the details, change the plot, change the ending.
The editor complained about the mere fact that the main protagonist died in the world of Constellation. In the first chapter, he died and came to the Constellation World. He was given a choice whether to accept death or go to the Constellation World and survive. If he passes, he will be given a chance to come back to the real world.
The protagonist was on his way to the hospital when he got into a car accident. He could not accept his death so he accepted the offer of going to the Constellation World.
And that's where the story begins.
The start was actually good. Kevin's readers were thrilled and excited about the new journey of this protagonist fighting his way to survive in the Constellation World. However, when the story reaches its climax, Kevin dropped the ball "Then the protagonist died because of his teammates' betrayal. The end."
This statement infuriated the readers and the editors. His novel has become one of the best selling online however the ending turns out like that!
The readers could not accept it.
So the blockhead editor, backed by the manager of the company, came to Kevin's house to convince him to change the ending of the story. They wouldn't have utilized his personal information and located his address if it wasn't for the fact that he keeps ghosting them online.
This incident leads to where they are now. Kevin is an author who lives day by day writing and freelancing his way online. So he could not afford to ignore the blockhead editor because his salary depends on them.
But Kevin won't give up his principle, his initial intention in writing the story.
He will still kill the protagonist in the end, no matter what they say.
After two hours, he was able to clean his house and arrange everything on the shelf. Two hours, only two hours but it did not take long for the blockhead editor to call him back and twist his tongue out because of his ranting.
"I told you everything was fine but the ending! You don't have to change the plot! The settings! Everything is fleshed out and the dynamic of the characters is already good! Kevin, we only ask you to change the ending! Is that too much to ask?"
Kevin was listening calmly to his ranting while sipping a coffee in the late afternoon and holding a book in his other hand.
"But I changed the ending."
"Sure you did! Previously, you killed the protagonist because his trusted teammate backstabbed him. Now you killed him because he sacrificed himself trying to save his teammate. What's the difference? The protagonist both die in this ending!"
"Isn't a different ending what you want? I initially arranged for the teammate to backstab him, but you don't want it so I changed it to him sacrificing himself. Wasn't it better this way?"
Editor: "...." This cold blooded animal! Why is this brat so creative in killing the protagonist in multiple different ways?!
The editor tried to calm himself. Before controlling his tone of voice. "Kevin, rather than talking about it on the phone, how about if we speak face to face? This way we could -"
"Not going out."
"But - "
"You still haven't given me my salary this month. Why should I spend the last bit of my money going out to talk with you when there's a telephone?"
The editor's face could no longer be recognized. His blood boiled just by talking to this brat!
"Just come. Okay? I will reimburse every cent of expenses you spend coming to the office."
Kevin on the other line did not respond. The editor thought he was going to make up another sarcastic excuse again but surprisingly, Kevin relented.
"I'm going."
"That's great!" Has this brat been finally showered with conscience today?
"If you give me my salary tomorrow plus the reimbursement for the transportation, I will come."
The editor: "...." Can he petition for an author replacement? The editor is not sure whether he could still keep his blood pressure in the normal range whenever he's dealing with this brat.
In the end, the editor managed to convince Kevin of other 'benefits' if he showed up in the office. By the end of the call, the editor is still not reassured whether that brat will show up or not.