Chapter 4: The Monster in the Machine
The "set" for Light Yagami's bedroom was a masterclass in poverty engineering.
Kenji and Mike had scavenged three walls from a cancelled sitcom about a dysfunctional family, repainted them a sterile, academic beige, and shoved them into the corner of Soundstage B.
The desk was Kenji's own office desk, dragged down three flights of stairs.
The bed was a mattress on crates covered by a pristine duvet.
But through the lens of the RED Komodo camera, with Mike's moody, high-contrast lighting cutting through the gloom, it didn't look like a pile of junk. It looked like the sanctuary of a genius sociopath.
"Lighting check," Mike called out, adjusting a barn door on a tungsten light. "We're going for 'noir isolation', right? Not 'power outage in a basement'?"
"Sharp shadows, Mike. I want Julian's face to be half in the dark," Kenji directed, checking the monitor. "When he smiles, I only want to see teeth and one eye."
Julian Thorne sat at the desk, spinning a pen. He was wearing the classic Light Yagami outfit: a tan blazer, a white dress shirt, and a red tie loosened just enough to suggest a long day of pretending to be normal.
He looked bored. But it wasn't the boredom of apathy anymore; it was the boredom of a tiger waiting for the cage to open.
"Director," Julian said, his voice echoing slightly in the empty soundstage. "You said we're filming the meeting today. The first time Light sees the Shinigami."
"That's right," Kenji said, walking onto the set holding a long pole with a tennis ball taped to the end.
Julian raised an eyebrow. "And that tennis ball is... the God of Death?"
"This tennis ball is your eye-line," Kenji corrected. "We don't have the budget for an animatronic, and I'm not hiring a guy in a rubber suit to ruin the immersion. We're going full CGI."
Mike peeked out from behind the camera. "Uh, Boss? We have a budget of ninety grand left. A Hollywood-level CGI character costs about... ten million? We're gonna need a lot of bake sales."
Kenji smiled. It was the smile of a man who had a cheat code.
"Don't worry about the render, Mike. I'm trying out a new... experimental software. Just keep the frame steady."
[System Item Activated: Ryuk's Shadow (Holographic Overlay)]
[Mode: Real-Time Augmented Reality Monitoring]
[Cost: 500 Points]
Kenji wasn't actually going to use the tennis ball for the whole scene. The System item he had purchased wasn't just a post-production tool; it was a directing aid.
"Julian," Kenji said, stepping back. "I need you to imagine something eight feet tall. It has limbs that are too long for its body. It smells like rotting apples and ozone. It's not standing on the floor; it's hovering just an inch above it, defying gravity."
Julian closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them. "Understood."
"Action!"
The scene began in silence. Julian was studying. The scratching of his pen against the paper was amplified by the boom mic, sounding like insects skittering.
Then, Kenji signaled Mike. Mike adjusted the focus, shifting it from Julian to the empty space behind him.
To the naked eye, there was nothing there. Just the beige wall.
But Kenji was looking at the Director's Monitor, which was linked to the System.
On the screen, the air shimmered. Pixels coalesced into a nightmare. A towering, hunched figure materialized in the darkness behind Julian. Leathery black wings, studded with spikes, wrapped around a skeletal frame. The face was a frozen, permanent grin with bulging yellow eyes.
It was Ryuk.
The CGI was flawless. It didn't look like a video game model; it looked like a physical object that absorbed light. The texture of the skin was pore-perfect.
"Kenji..." Mike whispered, his voice trembling. He was looking at the monitor too. "What the hell is that software? It looks... it looks like it's actually in the room."
"Focus, Mike," Kenji hissed.
On set, Julian couldn't see the monster. He was acting against empty air. But Julian Thorne was a prodigy. He sensed the camera move. He sensed the shift in the room's energy.
Slowly, Julian turned his chair around.
He looked up. Not at the tennis ball, but exactly where Ryuk's face would be.
The script called for Light to scream. To fall out of his chair. It was a natural human reaction.
Julian did fall. He scrambled back, knocking the chair over with a loud clatter. He pressed his back against the bed, his breathing ragged, eyes wide with terror.
"Who..." Julian gasped, his voice trembling perfectly. "What are you?"
Kenji watched the monitor. On the screen, the CGI Ryuk leaned down, its face inches from Julian's.
"I am the Shinigami, Ryuk," Kenji read the lines from off-camera, pitching his voice low and raspy. He would dub it later with a professional voice actor—or maybe use a voice modulator—but for now, he had to be the monster.
Julian stared at the empty air, sweating. Then, the transition happened. The moment that defined Light Yagami.
The fear in Julian's eyes didn't vanish, but it was conquered. It was replaced by a sharp, calculating coldness. He slowly stood up, dusting off his pants, regaining his composure as if he were just straightening a tie.
"I wasn't surprised because I was scared," Julian said, delivering the iconic line. "I've been waiting for you."
"Cut!" Kenji yelled.
The tension in the room snapped. Julian slumped against the wall, letting out a long breath. "How was it? It felt a bit silly talking to a wall."
"Come look," Kenji beckoned.
Julian walked over to the monitor. Mike rewound the footage.
When Julian saw the playback, he froze.
On the screen, he wasn't talking to a wall. He was staring down a demon. The lighting matched perfectly. The shadow of Ryuk fell across Julian's face, obscuring his eyes just as Kenji had planned. The interaction was seamless. When Julian had flinched, Ryuk had jerked its head.
"This..." Julian touched the screen, his finger hovering over the Shinigami's face. "This is me? This is what we just shot?"
"It's a real-time render," Kenji lied effortlessly. "Proprietary tech. We save weeks on post-production."
Julian looked at Kenji, his eyes wide. For the first time, the arrogance was gone, replaced by pure awe.
"You're not just a director, are you?" Julian murmured. "This technology... this could change the entire film industry. And you're using it for a student film?"
"Not a student film," Kenji corrected. "The pilot of the greatest series ever made."
Mike wiped sweat from his forehead. "Boss, that thing is terrifying. Are we really putting this on the internet? People are going to have heart attacks."
"That's the goal, Mike. Fear is engagement." Kenji checked the System status.
[Scene Complete: Ryuk's Introduction]
[Visual Effects Quality: Legendary (System Assisted)]
[Points Earned: 2,000]
"We have the scene," Kenji said, clapping his hands. "Now, we need the prop. The Apple."
"I bought a bag of Granny Smiths," Mike said, pointing to the craft services table.
"No," Kenji shook his head. "In the show, Shinigami love apples. They're addicted to them. I need a shot that makes an apple look like the most delicious thing on earth. I need... food porn lighting."
Julian picked up an apple, tossing it in the air. "I can juggle. Tennis helps with hand-eye coordination."
Kenji's eyes lit up. "Can you eat it while delivering a monologue about the moral decay of humanity?"
"Watch me."
Two Days Later.
The editing suite at Golden Era Studios was a small room that smelled of ozone and despair. But now, it hummed with energy.
Kenji hadn't slept in forty-eight hours. He was fueled by instant coffee and the System's [Editor's Eye] passive skill, which allowed him to cut footage with surgical precision.
He wasn't just assembling scenes; he was building a rhythm.
Cut to the pen scratching.
Cut to the clock ticking.
Cut to the criminal dying on the news.
Cut to Julian's face, bathed in the blue light of the TV, a half-eaten apple in his hand.
He added the soundtrack he had purchased. 'Low of Solipsism'. It was a chaotic, orchestral masterpiece—chanting choirs, screaming guitars, pounding drums. In a world used to soft piano scores for dramas, this music was an assault.
"It's too loud," Mike said, sitting on the couch behind him. "The music. It's overwhelming."
"It's supposed to be," Kenji muttered, eyes glued to the timeline. "It's an opera of death, Mike. We're not making Law & Order. We're making a Wagnerian tragedy."
He finalized the render.
Episode 1: Rebirth.
Runtime: 48 Minutes.
"It's done," Kenji said, leaning back in his chair. His back cracked audibly.
"So," Mike asked, standing up. "How do we distribute it? Do we try to sell it to a network? Zenith TV? Channel 4?"
"No," Kenji said. "Networks are gatekeepers. They'll want to change the tone. They'll want to make Light 'sympathetic'. They'll want a love interest in the first episode. We're going direct to consumer."
He opened the browser to StreamHub, the YouTube equivalent of this world.
"We upload it. Free to watch."
"Free?" Mike choked. "Kenji, we have twenty-seven days to pay five million dollars! Adsense pays pennies!"
"We're not making money from ads," Kenji explained, though he kept the System's Point-to-Dollar exchange rate to himself. "We're making money from impact. Trust me."
He hovered the mouse over the 'Upload' button.
Title: DEATH NOTE - Episode 01 [Official Live Action]
Description: The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
Tags: #Thriller #Mystery #Supernatural #Justice #NewGenre
"Are you ready to break the internet?" Kenji asked.
Mike sighed, resignation warring with excitement. "Push the button."
Kenji clicked.
[Uploading... 1%... 10%... 100%]
[Processing Complete.]
[Video is Live.]
For the first ten minutes, nothing happened. The view count sat at zero.
Kenji paced the room. Mike refreshed the page.
"Maybe the thumbnail is too dark?" Mike worried.
"Wait for it."
[System Activation: Viral Algorithm Boost (Novice Reward)]
[Targeting: Users aged 15-35, Interest: Crime, Horror, Philosophy.]
[Injecting into Recommended Feeds...]
Suddenly, the counter ticked.
12 Views.
56 Views.
1,200 Views.
Comments started to appear.
User_X99: "What is this? The thumbnail looks like a movie poster."
BoredStudent: "Clicked by accident. Why is the production quality so high for a web series?"
CinemaSins2: "Two minutes in. The soundtrack slaps. Who is the composer?"
Then, the first real reaction dropped.
KiraKira: "HOLY S***. Did he just kill that guy? The protagonist is the killer? And that monster... is that CGI? It looks REAL."
Kenji watched the Points counter in his vision.
[+10 Points (Shock)]
[+10 Points (Fear)]
[+50 Points (Awe)]
The numbers began to scroll faster, blurring as the view count climbed. 10,000. 50,000.
Julian Thorne, sitting in a lecture hall across the city, checked his phone. His notifications were exploding. People were looking at him, whispering. Not with the usual respect for the 'Prince', but with a new kind of gaze. Fear. Fascination.
Kenji slumped into his chair, a tired smile on his face.
"We caught them, Mike," he whispered. "We hooked the world."
(To be Continued)