Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System Chapter 151: A setback

By this point, Tristan had moved to Los Angeles full ti, although the King Lion Gang was still catching up with him.

With all the dirty and clean money, he could afford a spacious apartnt for each identity, full of comfortable things and storage space. Far from his best friend and close to the bunch of weirdos who were his allies in the criminal world…

But Nelson was planning to move to greener pastures too soon. And the GTG agency was eager to make a new office for themselves near Hollywood.

When the bad news ca, though, Tristan was far from his apartnt. He was networking, as in, attending one of the small-scale parties he had been invited to in a local restaurant.

The call ca at a fortunate mont—there was a girl trying to get uncomfortably close to Tristan. He liked the attention, but he didn't like her, so he eagerly escaped outside the restaurant to reply.

The air was fresh, and it was only early evening—but it was still unusual to hear a call from Derek at this ti of the day.

"Mr. Gello! I'm afraid we will have to reschedule the album release date. There was an ergency…"

"An ergency?" Tristan asked into the phone receiver. "Derek, what ergency? The release date is next month, and the album is ready for it! And so was the marketing, as you told ."

"Yes, yes. They still are, Mr. Gello. It was all a big stroke of bad luck. We all thought that the GTG agency was lucky that we could secure a place as big as we did, but… The stadium closed today without prior announcent. There was an accident."

Tristan frowned. He glanced at the restaurant and began walking toward his parked car, abandoning the party altogether.

The stadium chosen for the premiere could fit 15000 people in the audience. Far from the biggest venue in Los Angeles, but impressive enough. GTG only invested in it because of the profit Tristan already made for them with his few released songs. They all were very successful for singles from a newbie, even that improvised Christmas song.

It really was lucky that Derek could organize this, too, on a relatively short notice of a few months.

"An accident? Derek, what exactly happened?"

"Soone broke a leg when a part of the stage fell apart, and the building safety inspectors closed the entire stadium to comb it through for safety violations. I have already contacted the venue manager, and from what he told … The place won't be open anyti soon. It's not about safety violations anymore, there are legal issues. Lawsuits being thrown around, and so on.

They already opened the ticket refunds, too."

Derek sighed into the call. He hated to be the bearer of bad news, although by now, he at least had confidence that Tristan won't beco hysterical over them like many celebrities could be.

On the other end of the call, Tristan was gritting his teeth in silent rage.

"I will look into other available options, Mr. Gello. Many things will have to be moved… But the album will still be released, and I have no doubts that it will still be successful. This is just one setback, and one that's far from devastating."

Even through the phone call, Tristan could imagine Derek's kind, encouraging smile in these words.

It softened the anger in Tristan's gut a little.

"And what are the options now, Derek?"

"Well, we can find and schedule another venue for the album premiere concert, or we can forget the concert. It's good for marketing, but not necessary at all. Personally, I think that rescheduling the concert will be a smarter choice. There's been plenty of interest from your fans already, and I don't want to disappoint them."

Tristan thought for a mont.

Derek was right, but…

"But the hype from the CYS contest show will die in a few more months, Derek. The album will perform well—but not as well as it could've been!"

"It already won't, Mr. Gello. One way or another… The result will be more or less the sa. Besides, you were so excited to perform on a large stage. Aren't you, still?"

Tristan was. But he didn't like losing things, failures and setbacks.

He had enough of these in life, now he wanted victories.

'Maybe… Maybe there's still a chance?'

"Derek, put that decision off for a few days. I need to think."

"Alright. Few days won't change things drastically."

Tristan nodded and bid the manager goodbye.

With the call ended, he reached his car and sat in. His mood for partying and networking was over.

'I wasn't doing this all for no reason. Perhaps one of the people I've chard could help?'

Tristan had to make a lot of calls and send a lot of ssages now—evening was a good ti for that, the ti when people weren't working their day jobs. He took in a breath and drove toward his apartnt.

This was going to be a long evening.

***

Two days later.

Finding a person who could help Tristan arrange a venue for a concert within an impossibly short ti fra was not a matter of convincing people.

He could do that.

It was a matter of finding the right people to convince!

Tristan had dozens of acquaintances by now, and all of them were useless.

"Sorry, but I know nothing that might help."

"Oh, my agency always deals with these things… I don't even know many places!"

And so on and so forth.

Many people were also just hard to reach—too busy to reply imdiately.

When Tristan got so hope, it was a ssage from a person like that—a person who needed two full days to read and send a reply to Tristan's voice ssage.

The reply was a text. Because, of course, a recluse like Asher Ilom won't call back.

[You are lucky—I know soone… But if I'm going to ASK that person for YOUR sake, Gello, then you are going to do sothing for in return.]

[Alright, Mr. Ilom. What do you want?]