The morning after.
Aldo's cellphone, which was left on the bedside table, rang loudly, signaling someone was calling him.
Aldo, still snug in his sleep, found the sound bothersome and stretched out his hand to grab the phone.
"Who's calling this early..." he murmured with a groggy, just-awakened voice.
Feeling around, Aldo finally got hold of his phone, his eyes still bleary with sleep.
Without checking the caller ID, he answered the call.
"Who is it?"
"Good morning, Aldo. It seems I've interrupted your sleep..."
Recognizing the familiar voice at the other end, Aldo's eyes snapped open, and he hurriedly got out of bed.
"I- I'm awake, so what's the important matter, Miss Aria?" replied Aldo, shaking off his sleepiness; Aria, the producer at his workplace, was on the line.
"We have completed the romantic drama script we agreed on, so could you come to the company to memorize it?"
"Of course, I can!" Aldo answered enthusiastically.
"In that case, I'll be waiting for you here."
The call ended, and Aldo felt a bit more eager about this role than usual because it was his first time appearing on screen after years of working behind the scenes.
"My name will shine bright from now on, but... it seems I need to complete my daily mission first..." Aldo muttered with a rueful smile, looking at the transparent screen displaying his daily mission in front of him.
----------𝔐𝔦𝔰𝔰𝔦𝔬𝔫----------
[Daily Mission]
Run for 5 km
Do 100 push-ups
Do 100 sit-ups
[Reward]
50 System Points
50 Skill Points
----------𝔐𝔦𝔰𝔰𝔦𝔬𝔫----------
…
"Huff...."
Aldo exhaled deeply and stretched after completing his morning workout routine, jogging to the city park and doing the rest of his exercises there.
He had chosen this location because it was cool in the morning, an ideal place to rest after exercising.
[Daily mission completed. Reward: 50 System Points and 50 Skill Points]
The system had removed the cash rewards for completing daily missions since it deemed Aldo had enough money.
To Aldo, his current wealth was meaningless; if he could, he wished to amass wealth far beyond the current world's richest person.
Not that Aldo was greedy or lusted for wealth, but everything in this world required money.
'Money isn't everything,' the saying went, often spoken by someone with an abundance of wealth, someone for whom everything came easily, thus dismissing the struggles of the poor.
For Aldo, money was everything, and everything needed money, even eating and living...
"I should hurry to the company." Aldo mumbled before heading home to change and then to his workplace.
…
At Fortune Group Cinematic company.
"Aldo, you've finally arrived; we've been waiting for you."
"Sorry, I'm a bit late, Miss Aria."
Aldo apologized for his tardiness, as his workout had taken quite some time.
"Never mind that, take this and memorize your script." said Aria, handing over a thick stack of stapled papers, his script for the upcoming role.
"One Night of Love in France?" Aldo murmured, puzzled as he read the title of his new project.
"Could this turn out to be an adult film?" Aldo asked.
"No, this is a teen movie with a much more mature story than the usual romance."
*Isn't that essentially an adult story?* Aria's answer only added to Aldo's confusion.
"Just memorize the script and follow Director Gilbert's instructions during filming, that's all, nothing more. I still have to cast the supporting roles, so I must go." said Aria before leaving Aldo alone with his confusion.
"I'd better read through the script before jumping to any conclusions about whether it's adult content or not. If it is, I'll have to withdraw from the project since my father, mother, and Anita are sure to watch it." Aldo mused.
Aldo then began to quickly flip through the script, reading page after page.
Perhaps due to his significantly enhanced intelligence, he could quickly comprehend the vast amount of text.
Fifteen minutes passed, and Aldo finished reading the entire 239-page script.
Closing the script, Aldo concluded, "It is indeed an adult story but without overly explicit scenes like intimate relations. I just need to do a passionate kiss and act a bit aggressive.
"That should be fine..."
With just one reading, Aldo had memorized the entire storyline.
The film's story was essentially a grown-up romantic tale about a French man, the main male character with a somewhat wild or playboy nature, meeting a naive and beautiful Indonesian woman, the main female character.
The naïve woman is tricked by her so-called friends, the antagonists, ending up in bed with the French man.
This was their first encounter, which led to the woman's suffering, constantly controlled by the man and tormented by the female antagonist.
The finale is poignant with the woman leaving the man while pregnant and his ensuing regret.
It was quite a heavy story emphasizing the woman's suffering and struggle.
In this role, Aldo felt he would become a genuine rotten man, very different from his real-life persona, which was much kinder.
Even though he had dated over 100 women, that hadn't been his intention...
"Better to assist Aria with auditioning than to just sit idle here..." Aldo thought, then he headed to the audition room.
There he found Aria seated with one leg crossed over the other, holding a white piece of paper and a pen while intently observing a woman performing before her.
Soon, Aria sighed deeply with a look of disappointment, "You're not suitable, next!"
Aria crossed off the name of the woman who had just performed from her list and called on the next participant.
The rejected woman, however, did not accept the decision and insisted on redoing her scene. Aria ignored her and called security to escort the woman out.
Aria took another deep sigh; she had been casting the lead female role for over a week without success.
"Seems you're struggling. Do you need help?" Aldo offered, approaching a slightly surprised Aria.
"You're here? How's the script memorization?"
"I've got it down," Aldo replied casually.
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