Rewind With A Superstar System

<🎧 Song Recommendation: Struggle by NEFFEX>

...

Aside from Von’s unnatural need for Emily to always be in his line of sight, his body began to fail him all of a sudden.

His head was seriously throbbing from sheer exhaustion. Despite his upgraded physique, it was baffling that Max was faring a lot better than him.

Normal caffeine wasn’t helping Von anymore. He had to resort to taking some pills just so he wouldn’t sleep off in his chair.

By the time evening arrived, they were about ninety percent done. Von checked his interface. He only had 220 EXP left, which meant he only had exactly eleven uses of the Director’s Eye skill remaining. He had to use them incredibly sparingly to finish the final cuts.

Emily, who had been sleeping soundly on the couch, finally shifted and stood up, stretching her arms.

"You guys aren’t done yet?"

Von’s head snapped toward her the moment she spoke. "You’re awake," he said as a genuine smile broke through his tired face. "Are you hungry? I can get Marcelo to make you something."

"I’m fine, Von," Emily smiled softly, touched by his concern. She stretched her legs. "I’m going to run to the kitchen to grab some water, though. I’ll be right back."

"Wait," Von said immediately.

He didn’t even realize he had spoken until the word left his mouth. The thought of her walking out the door, even just down the hall, sent a cold chill in his spine.

Emily looked back at him in confusion. "What is it?"

"Just... stay here. Max needs to focus. I’ll text Olivia to bring the water to us. You shouldn’t walk around."

Max paused his clicking and stared at Von like he had two heads. "Bro, what do I have to do with this? And let the lady do her thing, don’t be a creep," he added with a light laugh that Von didn’t find funny at all.

"I said I’ll text Olivia!" Von snapped in a aggressive voice that made Max instantly shift back in his chair.

The room fell into a sudden, awkward silence. Max slowly turned back to his screen, clearly weirded out, while Emily slowly sat back down on the couch, staring at Von with deep concern.

"Okay, Von," Emily said gently, deciding not to push him. "I’ll stay."

Von exhaled a shaky breath, his racing heart rate slowly returning to normal. "Thank you. Sorry. I’m just... stressed about the deadline."

They worked together for another five hours straight in silence

By about some minutes past ten o’clock at night, just over an hour before the Quest deadline, Max finally dropped his mouse. He leaned back in his chair, staring at the timeline which was now fully rendered and color-graded.

"It’s done," Max whispered in awe. "Bro, I think we actually did it."

At that point, Von couldn’t even see him clearly. His eyes were blurry as he tried to find the screen, while his head throbbed like it was going to explode into pieces. The edges of his vision were turning dark.

Emily stood up, seeing his terrible condition. "I think you need to rest, Von. This is getting serious."

She walked over and touched his arm, instantly pulling her hand back. His temperature was crazily high. Panic rose immediately in her chest.

"Where’s Emily?" Von mumbled, his eyes completely unfocused. He pulled out of her hands and wanted to walk toward the door, completely unaware that she was standing right next to him.

Emily went after him immediately to catch him, but she didn’t arrive in time. Von’s legs gave out, and he ended up collapsing on the floor.

"Von!" Emily screamed. "Max, help me!"

Emily didn’t waste a second. She pulled out her phone and called the private doctor right away. It was the same concierge doctor that Zack had retained for Von back at the Venetian mansion when the heavy couch had fallen on his legs.

Back then, it felt like an unnecessary luxury, but now, with the strict lockdown protocols in the city, having a private doctor on call was proving incredibly helpful.

In about an hour, the medical team arrived at the Pinecrest estate.

Because of the high fever Emily reported over the phone, the doctors had already explained to her that Von might have caught the H-19 virus, even if he didn’t experience The Drop yet. That was why they all entered the mansion wearing full protective gear while handling him.

The doctors were the only ones allowed in Von’s master bedroom. During that tense period, Emily sat in the study. Because she knew how much Von desperately wanted it, she manually uploaded the final music video to his InkTube channel before finally going to take a bath to wash off the tiring marathon.

By the time she was done refreshing and changing into some clean night wears, the doctors were already done with Von.

When Emily walked into his bedroom, Von was lying in the center of the large mattress. A heart rate monitor was attached to his chest, beeping steadily, and a clear IV drip was set up next to his bed, feeding fluids directly into his arm.

The lead doctor, the same familiar man who had treated Von before, pulled off his mask and sighed in relief.

"You’re very lucky," the doctor explained to her and Max. "It isn’t H-19. In fact, his heart and brain are perfectly healthy. The temperature spike was sudden and unexplainable, but the fever has already broken. There is technically nothing wrong with him. He just needs a lot of rest."

Emily frowned, stepping closer. "But what about his behavior? He was acting so strange, panicking whenever I tried to leave the room."

The doctor shook his head slowly. "I can’t help with that. That sounds purely psychological, likely brought on by the extreme stress and exhaustion. You’ll just have to observe his condition and let me know if it continues when he wakes up."

The doctor gestured to the IV stand. "I set up the IV because his body is completely drained of nutrients, and I honestly don’t know how long he’ll be out for. His body forced a shutdown. Hopefully, it’s just a few days, but I’ll leave behind some extra saline and nutrient packs just in case it lasts longer."

"Okay," Emily said, looking at Von’s sleeping face.

The doctor ran her through the whole process of changing the IV packs, showing her how to flush the line, and explained how to monitor the heart rate screen. After giving her some more advice on what to watch out for, the medical team finally packed up and left the mansion.

Max patted Emily’s shoulder, completely exhausted himself. "I’m going to crash in my room. Call me if anything changes."

"Sure," Emily nodded.

Once she was alone, Emily walked over to the bed. She gently caressed Von’s messy head, feeling the bandage the doctor had secured over the spot where he had pulled his hair out. She stood there for a few minutes before deciding to go grab her laptop from the study.

She turned and took two steps away from the bed.

beep beep beep

The heart rate monitor instantly picked up, beeping really fast. Von’s face twisted in his sleep, and he began tossing and turning, mumbling distressed words under his breath that she couldn’t make out. He looked like he was having a terrible nightmare.

Emily rushed back to his side, immediately grabbing his hand. "Von, it’s okay. I’m here."

The second her skin touched his, the monitor slowed back down to a calm rhythm and his face relaxed.

Emily sighed deeply. She quickly discovered that she had to stay right beside him to keep his heart rate stable. Hoping he would wake up soon, she carefully climbed into the large bed, pulling the covers over herself, and laid down next to him.

...

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Von remained asleep for the next twenty-two days.

***

The morning sun came in through the thick curtains of the master bedroom.

Emily found herself waking up to the usual, soft sound of her phone alarm. She blinked her eyes open, feeling a heavy weight draped over her. Von was holding her hands tightly, his arm wrapped securely around her waist, pulling her really close on the bed.

Over three weeks had passed since the doctor’s visit. While the world outside changed, Von remained deeply asleep.

She was originally terrified that something terrible had happened to him, since he wasn’t in a coma or suffering from any explainable medical condition.

But she got reassured every day knowing his pulse was still beating normally and his breathing was steady. He was just sleeping.

Currently waking up, she found herself completely lost staring at his face.

’How did he become this handsome?’ Emily couldn’t help but get lost in her thoughts. His face was definitely not always like that.

During his deep sleep, Von had completely transformed. He had grown taller, his skin was now completely flawless. Even stranger, the bald spots where he had torn his hair out had completely grown back. In fact, his hair had grown many inches longer than before, falling perfectly around his face.

Emily found it incredibly strange, but living with Von for the past few months, it was just the latest in a long line of unexplainable things about him.

She looked at his eyelashes, the structure of his face, and his soft lips. A deep blush rushed to her cheeks just looking at him and remembering that they had been lying in the same bed every single night for three weeks.

"You need to wake up soon," Emily whispered softly.

Acting on a sudden, strange impulse she was having, she leaned forward and gently kissed him on his forehead, hoping it might somehow pull him out of his deep sleep so he would let go of her waist.

"What are you doing?"

Von’s eyes snapped open the exact moment Emily’s lips connected with his forehead.

Emily gasped in panic, violently throwing herself backward and scrambling to the edge of the mattress. Her face turned red immediately after.

"V-Von! Von, you’re awake!" Emily stuttered loudly while pointing at him.

Von fixed her with a judgmental stare. He slowly pushed himself up, sitting straight against the headboard. He was looking incredibly refreshed.

"Of course I’m awake," Von said with a raised eyebrow. "And why are you in my bed? Did we do something last night?"

Before Emily could even defend herself, Von looked down at his arm. "Also, why’s this needle thing in my body?"

Emily felt a bit bad from his direct words, but she quickly took a deep breath and tried to explain.

"Von, listen to me," Emily said seriously. "I had to sleep here because your heart rate spiked every time I left. You’ve been sleeping for twenty-two days. You’re just waking up right now."

Von froze. "Twenty-two days?"

Suddenly, the memories of his last time awake came rushing back to him in a flood. not to leave. Blacking out in the doorway.

"A lot has happened while you were out," Emily continued speaking fast, running him the major events.

She suddenly remembered the email she had received.

"Now that you’re awake, there’s amazing news I got two weeks ago," Emily said, a massive smile breaking across her face. "The deadline to reply was literally today, but with you finally up, maybe it can still happen."

Von was still slightly disoriented, rubbing his neck as he tried to process the missing three weeks. "What deadline?"

"Leviathan is casting a movie, and he’s inviting you to audition for the lead role!"

....

[END OF VOLUME 2: INDEPENDENT KING]

...

[A/N]

Whoo~! We’ve reached the end of another Volume! 😎

I’m really proud of this moment, but the biggest thanks goes out to you for being here with Von! 🤗💜

Now it’s time to see what amazing new experience Volume 3 has in store for us all. See you there! 🎥🔥