(My original novel is here! You can read 5 chapter on Royal Road. The title is My 10th Transmigration.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/129193/my-10th-transmigration
You can also read up to chapter 12 on my patreon for free. It's open for Public.
Pat.reon.com/relifewithkarmicgacha Search for the 10th Transmigration collection)
[Edward POV]
Ness and I sat at the couch together.
"So, do I have to give you back the ring?" Ness asked, fiddling with the golden ring on her ring finger. The ring with the musical notes decorations I made for her before.
I shook my head and said, "No. I want you to have it."
Ness smiled bashfully and said, "No wonder all of your exes are crawling back to you."
I chuckled and said, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means… you're quite special." She placed her hand on my cheek gently.
She stretched her arms up in the air and said, "Ah, I feel like a burden was lifted off my shoulder. The burden of expectations. It's tough being your girlfriend and being scrutinized for every little thing I did."
I nodded in agreement and patted her head, "Yeah. You've worked so hard. If anything, I'm the problem here."
"No—That's not what I mean—Forget it." She rolled her eyes and then held my hand gently.
"If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back home and cry," she said, forcing a smile.
I said adamantly, "Yuri's going to send you home in the helicopter. I wanted to drive you myself, but I think it'd be better if she did it."
"That's right… the helicopter." She suddenly realized something and grinned, "I don't have to ride in that death trap anymore now that I'm no longer your girlfriend. Excuse me, but I'm taking the car back."
I chortled and said, "Whatever you want."
"Whatever? Then, I want a billion dollars." She joked.
"Sure. That's all?" I asked with a smirk. She was taken aback and said, "I'm just joking—Don't send the money to me! I mean it!"
…
The next morning.
We sat in the dining room with the glass ceiling and were having breakfast together as a family.
Frankie, my mother, Aunt Camila, my dad, and also Vader were there. Maggie decided she was on Vanessa's side, so she wasn't going to come by—well, at least not officially.
Vader ate some caviar-filled salmon while a small, blue robot fanned her with a green plastic fan.
Yuri pushed a trolley to the dining room and served pancakes to everyone. Each plate had 10 stacks of pancakes on it. She also served bacon and eggs to my dad before pouring coffees.
"Edward. Your medicine is working wonders. My morning sickness is gone now, and I no longer have any aversion to poultry products, and even the eggs your dad's stuffing himself with."
My dad froze for a second. I turned to Frankie and said, "You don't have to give me a product review. I already knew the medicine would work."
Then my dad sighed. "Edward, your breakup—does it hurt less now that the country's about to erupt over the tax overhaul?"
I blinked. "What?"
Frankie widened her eyes slightly. "You didn't hear?"
"No. I knew about the tax reform. It's how you knew about my breakup. I didn't tell anyone yet. Maybe Maggie knew, but she said she won't tell people."
"She lied," Frankie replied with a dry cough. "She told me this morning."
"That bitch—" I cursed underneath my breath.
"She had to. Vanessa wanted to pick up her stuff, and she didn't want to bump into you. So Maggie asked me to tell her when you're out of the house." Frankie tried to explain.
I shrugged and said, "Just tell her to come after this. I'm so busy I don't think I'll be home for a few weeks."
"Are you going to throw yourself into work now that you're single again? Like the last time?" my dad asked with concern.
I chuckled and said, "Maybe…" I paused slightly before continuing, "Definitely. Yes."
Frankie said, "Is there anything involving… you know?" She hinted.
I shook my head and said, "I don't know. I cannot plan for that."
"What—What is it? You guys kept it a secret but constantly brought it up in front of me. It's unfair, don't you think? Let me into the secret." My dad complained, aggrieved.
Frankie teased him, "Sorry, Ted. We promise not to bring it up in front of you again."
"That's not what I mean!"
I laughed and then poured syrup on my pancakes.
"Oh yeah, the tax thing is today?" I asked.
"Why? You're afraid they're going to come after you?" my dad teased. "Are you going to be part of the resistance?"
"I mean, the new tax is going to be better than the previous one. The conglomerates only clamor that they were being robbed because they cannot use the tax loopholes anymore."
Some of them paid less than a middle-class family in the country. The new tax reform was going to take the pressure off a lot of the ordinary people.
But some states didn't want federal interventions on their land. I had helped with some states, basically using my Sharingan to make them comply with the changes, but the citizens themselves were also quite troublesome.
Decades of conditioning made them react to something beneficial as socialistic, oppressive, communist manifesto, and so on.
If the president could do this, then he was going to become the best president in modern history.
A lot of economists, teachers, and the ones who were oppressed by the system were working hard on social media, trying to change people's minds.
I didn't want to get involved directly in the conversation.
By afternoon, I was in my lab when I decided I didn't know what to focus on in my work. So I decided to do a livestreaming.
"Hello everyone." I greeted. 40,000 fans jumped into the livestream the second it started, and the chat became chaotic almost instantly.
The numbers kept climbing higher and higher. A minute passed, and over 1 million people were watching the livestream.
…
[General POV]
"What is he doing now?" Taylor grumbled as she entered the livestream. She was walking down the hallways at the Entertain office and was going to the recording studio.
Edward greeted her as he saw her name, which made a lot of the chats greet her too.
"Oh shit, I forgot to change the account." She muttered in shock.
She greeted people too and then watched the livestream silently.
Renaldo told Pepper about it, and Pepper asked in confusion, "Was it planned? Did he notify us about this?"
"You're not the CEO anymore, Pep," Harvey said teasingly. "He is. He doesn't have to notify you anymore to do something."
Pepper sighed and said, "I miss being the boss."
Back to the livestream, Edward told everyone that his cat was pregnant and showed Vader to his fans.
"When the time comes, I'm going to need your help to name the kitties." Edward joked to the chat, making them come out with suggestions.
Edward read some of the comments and muttered, "Why do I look so sad? That's really obvious, huh?"
"Well, I just broke up with my girlfriend."
Edward dropped a bomb on the entire internet.
An entertainment journalist immediately called his editor and said, "Huge News! I need the front page for tomorrow!"
Dozens, hundreds of entertainment reporters around the world mobilized themselves with just one sentence.
The chat went silent for a while before it exploded into a frenzy.
-RachelBrosnahan: You broke up with someone?! Who did you date?!
-Corensweet: Are you sure to do this publicly?
+1
+1
+1234
The messages kept pouring in, and even with the built-in Sharingan Edward couldn't read all of that. So he used his AI to compile people's biggest questions.
"Well, I'm not going to hide it. I don't have the right to do that." He said with a self-deprecating tone.
Taylor was extremely astonished when she heard it and muttered, "He loved Hudgens that much?!"
People kept asking who it was, and Edward replied, "I'm still not going to tell you who it is. She can do it if she wants to."
Some joked, "Maybe you can write more songs about heartbreak."
"Maybe. But it's not a bad breakup."
"Whose fault was the breakup?" someone asked.
"It's my fault." Edward replied, which made a lot of the girls start swooning and volunteering to take his sadness away.
He was already a heartthrob, now, he was a heartthrob with a broken heart.
"We're veering away from the original topic. I actually want to ask you guys, what should I do next?"
'Sing a song!' The majority commented before Edward could finish speaking.
"I mean, scientifically, but sure. I can sing a song. I have a song that has stuck in my mind since yesterday." He said before he raised his finger to the camera and said, "Be right back. I don't have my guitar here."
'Bring us with you! We want to see your house!' The people begged.
"Alright then." Edward replied and then took a walk with them across the beautiful garden before entering his music room.
There was a grand piano in the middle of the room, rows of classic, acoustic, and electric guitar at the side, a synthesizer, drums, violin, trombone, and most of the instruments in the world were there.
People were shocked when they saw his room. Edward set up a camera, the left side displayed the guitar while there was a window on the right side, shining natural lights into the room.
Edward picked an ordinary classic guitar and said, "I hope that you guys will enjoy the song. It's called, "Love Like You." It's a new song, more or less."
[Steven Universe- Love Like You]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZOmdQhd9vQ&list=RDNZOmdQhd9vQ&start_radio=1&ab_channel=NoahRed ]
As he strummed a sweet melody, Edward began singing with a melodious, soul-touching voice.
"♫♪ If I could begin to be
Half of what you think of me ♫♪"
Phil commented as he watched the livestream at home with his daughters, "Oh, this melody made me think of a children show."
"♫♪ I could do about anything – I could even learn how to love~~ ♫♪"
Millions of people all over the world were mesmerized by the song.
"♫♪ When I see the way you act! Wondering when I'm coming back ♫♪"
"♫♪ I could do about anything~ I could even learn how to love like you~~ ♫♪"
Vanessa watched the stream using a burner account. She sat on the bed, with blankets on her back, staring intently at the screen.
"♫♪ I always thought I might be bad! Now I'm sure that it's true ♫♪"
Frankie sighed. Ted glanced at her, holding her hand and giving him his tacit approval, already aware of what Frankie was thinking.
"♫♪ 'Cause I think you're so good! And I'm nothing like you ♫♪"
"♫♪ Look at you go! I just adore you! I wish that I knew ♫♪"
Vanessa was started by the lyric. Her eyes began pooling and it flowed down endlessly.
Edward's tone turned heartbreaking. "♫♪ What makes you think I'm so… special ♫♪"
The audience was surprised by the emotions Edward was displaying. Many people were asking him if he was okay.
"♫♪ If I could begin to do– Something that does right by you ♫♪"
"♫♪ I would do about anything– I would even learn how to love ♫♪"
Alex mumbled, "So there is something he's bad at huh?"
"♫♪ When I see the way you look! Shaken by how long it took! ♫♪"
"♫♪ I could do about anything~ I could even learn how to love like you~~ ♫♪"
Pepper complained, "Now. If he's doing this to get her back, I will support him. But this song is more like an apology. It means that they are never getting back together."
Taylor opened the door roughly, which startled Pepper and made him almost drop his phone. He was waiting for her at the recording studio.
Edward sang sweetly.
"♫♪ Love like you~~ ♫♪"
"♫♪ Love like you~~ ♫♪"
"♫♪ Love me like you~~ ♫♪"
Edward's last sentence changed a lot of the meaning behind the song.
Lily, the fan club president, noticed that her cheek was a little wet.
"Wait, did I cry and didn't even realize it?" she muttered to herself.
All over the world, millions of people had the same experience. The melancholy—the bittersweet feeling the melody evoked—made the song a devastating experience for many.
Suddenly, Edward's phone rang.
He ended the stream instantly, explaining the situation simply: "The President is calling me right now, so I have to go."
…
There was an incident while the President was visiting a red state for his election campaign. A team of armed forces attacked him, and his suit was unleashed for the first time in public.
The sleek-looking suit, with a medieval design on the helmet, made for a groundbreaking story in the news. It upstaged Edward's breakup announcement and went viral everywhere.
"Our current President is by far the Greatest President Who Ever Lived!" CNN, FOX, and even MSNBC hailed him.
Journalists stormed the White House for answers about the suit. The high-tech gear caused a media frenzy, and some people argued that the President had a duty to share the technology with the public.
The tax reform—intended to help 80% of the country—was being treated as a hostile maneuver by the President's enemies, and several of the nation's 'oligarchs' were not taking it well.
Hundreds of black-market bounties were posted on the dark web. Edward tried tracing them, but not all perpetrators could be found.
The President asked him to maintain and upgrade the armor, saying he would stop by California before returning to the White House.
"Just make sure no one knows I was the one who made it. Otherwise, I'll be targeted again," Edward sighed before ending the call.
He threw the matter to the back of his mind. Although he had been supporting the reforms from behind the scenes, the vision was the President's. Edward would only intervene if absolutely necessary.
…
Days passed, and the country sat atop a ticking time bomb.
On a side note, Now You See Me passed the $900 million mark at the box office.
People began noticing that in the top five movies of the year, Edward had been involved in three.
Now You See Me, at number five—he directed and starred in it.
The Avengers claimed the top spot with $1.9 billion.
The Amazing Spider-Man held second place at $1.3 billion.
Then came Skyfall—James Bond's latest outing—at $1.1 billion, followed by The Dark Knight Rises at $1.08 billion.
The Hobbit had just been released and was catching up quickly.
Newly single, extremely influential, and a kingmaker in Hollywood, Edward began receiving flirtatious DMs from girls asking if he wanted to meet up.
But Edward didn't feel like hooking up with anyone—for the foreseeable future.
Instead, he poured his energy into researching the 2012 apocalypse prophecy, diving deep into ancient history while simultaneously continuing his cancer research.
Variety and other media sites covered his breakup by writing a few articles.
{ 'I'm the problem'; Edward Newgate confessed that his relationship broke down because of him– Variety}
{ A Bittersweet Farewell– Edward Newgate's ending a relationship with a secret lover.}
It was a chaotic week for the media in the country as they didn't know which story to focus on.
…
Three weeks had passed since the breakup. It was already mid-October. For the last 21 days, Edward hadn't left his house even once.
His mustache had grown thick, and a stubble had formed on his chin. His eyes were bloodshot as he studied the thick research paper in front of him.
Suddenly, a large foot kicked the door to the research lab open.
"Edwarddddddd!!!!!!! Let's go play!" Jacob screamed as he entered the lab, lunging toward Edward.
Edward lifted his foot and slammed it into Jacob's face. "Dude. Don't come near. I'm studying the Zika virus."
"Really?" Jacob retreated immediately. His eyes widened, and his whole body shuddered. "Edward… you're not thinking of starting a zombie apocalypse just because you got dumped, right?"
Edward gave him a look of disbelief, not even dignifying that question with an answer.
"If I wanted to start a zombie apocalypse, I would've done it a long time ago," he said casually.
Jacob swallowed hard. "Thank goodness you still have us. If you were alone, I think the world would already be destroyed."
Edward smirked. "You got that right."
"You haven't been checking your messages lately. Finish your work and let's go. Enid's doing a garage sale at her house."
"Really? Alright. Gimme a few minutes," Edward said, beginning to clean up his station.
"And shave that pedophile mustache too. It sickens me," Jacob jeered.
Edward turned and said, "It sickens you, or you just miss my upper lip?"
"Bitch, I have a girlfriend. Don't flirt with me. I'm putting a wall up!" He gestured dramatically with his hands.
"Putting a wall means there was an entrance in the first place. Besides, it's a new wall. It's not gonna be that strong."
Jacob shuddered. "I'm waiting out front."
Edward just chuckled, then finished cleaning before shaving his mustache and changing his clothes.
He wore a simple white shirt and jeans, paired them with white sneakers, then picked a McLaren to drive that day. The car was mostly Jacob's idea.
Jacob had been coming by Edward's house every single day for the past three weeks to check up on him. Jenna, Enid, Elsa, Finneas, Billie, and many others kept popping by, which irked Edward—he just wanted to work.
"By the way, did you hear the news?" Jacob asked as they were approaching Enid's house.
"What?" Edward looked intrigued.
"Enid has a boyfriend now." Jacob grinned. "Too bad. She's not waiting for you anymore."
Edward shrugged. "Good for her." He didn't really care about it.
"Garage sale huh?" He thought of something. "I wonder if Manny has a garage sale too."
At the garage sale, Edward finally met Enid's new partner.
"Edward, meet Michael," Enid introduced her new boyfriend.
"Hi!" Michael shook hands with Edward giddily, squealing like a little girl and even slapping Enid's hand away when she tried to hold him.
With hair like early Zac Efron and a stylish outfit, the skinny boy fangirled for quite some time before Enid finally pulled him away.
"Michael! Come with me to see the books!" Enid created an excuse to drag him off.
"But—I still want to talk with him," Michael said, aggrieved.
Jacob and Edward exchanged glances. Edward had already recognized the guy—it was someone Alex dated in the TV series. Since Alex had graduated early, Enid had apparently asked him out instead.
"So… he's gay, right?" Jacob asked.
"Definitely," Edward nodded.
"Damn. Enid's gonna be heartbroken," Jacob muttered, glancing at her with pity.