Chapter 136: Second To The Last

The music video Larry, Clyde and Benjamin had made for their recent song, [Longshot], a song about simply going the extra mile to chase their dreams, wasn’t a viral sensation.

Despite what was clearly some good production values--especially with its lyrical vignettes being the only sparks of color in an otherwise black and white video reminiscent of the late 80’s as they performed on an empty stage to an empty crowd--it was a video that had only gotten a little over 80K views since the time they’d uploaded it onto ViewTube last week.

This view count, was also because they’d shared it onto their former senior year, now turned alumni group, as well as across their families, friend and various social media apps.

Even then, it was clear that they’d been extremely proud of it.

Afterall, it was their first foray into a style of music that was more in line with the mature framework they intended on keeping going forward.

Not the 18+ kind of mature, but the more grounded topics they wanted to speak to based on their own experiences with life going forward.

Still, it was pretty neat that they got that number of views in a week. That was enough to ensure that the video wouldn’t be completely buried under the algorithm in a single month.

It might not be viral, but it would definitely truck along, enough that a good number of people would hear it nonetheless.

One video that was going viral though, was Death Wish’s second advertisement.

With how viral the first ad had gone, one that had earned two million plus views in just under two months, and subscribers in the high ten-thousands across all of Death Wish’s official social media accounts, it was bound to happen.

In fact, a lot of these subscribers had tuned in, just to see if the next ad would remain just as creative as the first, and they were genuinely glad to see that it did not disappoint.

That, in addition to the beverages’ steadily growing popularity, only served to push the advertisement as the algorithm across all these sites naturally picked it up when people began searching it up to show their families and friends, as well as directly forwarding its link around.

It then went without saying, that the individual who got the most boon out of it this time, was Scott Holland--the actor whom had been involved in said ad.

Where he once struggled to get a single callback from all his auditions, he was now getting them a bit more frequently alongside landing a few modelling gigs here and there.

Not to the level of an indie star, of course, but enough that he wouldn’t have to worry about any bills for the rest of the year, and perhaps for a very long time if he played his cards right.

The other individuals who happened to have found themselves partaking in his success as well, was none other than the crew that had helped Aiden film the videos.

Asides an uptick in requests for filming gigs, the young entrepreneur had also spoken to them about being his speed dial when it came to filming anything Death Wish related, an offer they had been more than happy to jump upon.

With the amount of money they would be getting from each filming session alone--which was literally double their usual rates of $1500 to $5000 depending on the complexity of the shoot, they couldn’t refuse.

In return, they would apparently be the ones to source actors and writers for any other commercial advertisements Aiden had.

Which means all he would simply be doing in the long run, was forwarding a strong idea to them, and they would simply forward the script or video to him for review once they were done.

Truly, Aiden was giving it his all to offload and automate as much of the work as he could whilst still retaining creative control over everything.

As for the youth himself and SlurpPAK, things were going smoothly on their front as well, order numbers racking up to three-hundred thousand units.

Though Osborne’s indirect threat still remained at the back of the young chap’s mind, he saw no reason to dwell on something he couldn’t stop.

He wasn’t even going to compete with the man because that would just be a dumb move overall.

Coughing baby vs hydrogen bomb was not the way he intended to spend his time.

What he was hell-bent on doing however, was making sure his product remained relevant. That, when everything was said and done, was all that really mattered.

So, if the man liked, he could make ten competing products for all the youth cared.

What Aiden was certain of, was that he simply needed to ensure his product remained a go-to product despite the competition.

As for the man’s son though...

"Haa~," Casper let out a contented sigh as he and Aiden stepped out of the bank, his smile fulfilled as he stared at the Mastercard in his hand.

Then he suddenly exclaimed like the clown he was once they’d reached the parking lot out back, his arms raising the card into the air like it was the one ring to rule them all;

"This was promised to me, eighteen years ago!"

"Sure, sure. Happy birthday, buddy." Aiden remarked in amusement as they made their way over to his vehicle.

"Thanks, man." the blonde-haired youth laughed freely as the little thing glinted in the morning sun.

"You know, I’m not a fan of birthdays, or birthday gifts, really," he then continued, the general air of vivacity around him levelling into something more introspective.

"But this..." he waved the card in his hand a few times, then briefly tapped it against an open palm.

"This is a fantastic birthday gift." he turned to face his friend.

"Thanks, Aiden. Truly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you." he extended a fist bump.

"Hey. What are bros for?" Aiden partook in the gesture, a brotherly warmth on his features.

With all of the youth’s funds now out of his hands--about $250K+, Aiden’s current balance meandered around $100K+... and this was accounting for all of his investments all year thus far.

As for the now five million dollars in revenue from [Gothic Survivors], well he was yet to withdraw it from both Portal and AppSphere.

Rather, it was more fitting to say that Aiden had purposely stalled it and allowed it to accumulate after having a rather important discussion with his father early into the year.

Taxes.

It was also why, before the revenue for [Gothic Survivors] even began coming in, Aiden had long removed both of his banking information from the websites to avoid touching stories.

His life was not a soap opera, and neither was it the figment of someone’s imagination.

To that effect, he’d known better than to sign himself up for trouble by allowing himself to be unfairly taxed, much less his buddies.

It was also because of that reason that he’d opened a separate bank account, solely for Crashout Interactive now that he’d had it registered as an LLC.

Granted it didn’t mean Aiden would be paying any less tax than he usually would if he’d made his account the first line of contact, it at least offered some really good perks.

One of which would allow him to delegate a good, non-taxable chunk of the fund asides for ordinary and ’necessary’ business expenses to keep Crashout Interactive functioning.

To that effect, Aiden had planned out how he would ensure that he could at least set two million dollars aside for the three games they were bound to make in the days ahead.

As for the rest of the money, well there wasn’t much he could really do but suck up, raise a middle finger to the IRS and then fork out the cash anyway for his peace of mind.

It was also why, Casper wasn’t the only one with a shiny new card today, though Aiden had long tucked their company card safely into his wallet before they stepped out.

At the same time, it happened to be the second to the last thing that Aiden wanted to tick off his list before he headed to college.

As for the last thing on the list, well it was the most important of them all... and it was also one he and his father had to do together.

In any case, the journey back home was smooth, and it didn’t take too long before they arrived.

Unknown to Casper, the gang had put together a surprise birthday cake for him alongside Daisy, Richard and Clarissa.

Sure, he wasn’t all that big on birthdays... especially since the last he ever celebrated was his sixth, back when his gramps was still alive, but even he had to say that he really was happy that they did.

And so, the merriment went on for the rest of the day, and later in the evening, Aiden and Casper both waved their girlfriends goodbye.

As for the boys, well they’d decided to have one last sleep-over before they had to travel to LA in a few days’ time.

As for Aiden whom had been waiting for the right time to upgrade the stats of his friends, a more perfect opportunity couldn’t have arrived.