[Edward POV]
A week had passed since the quarantine started.
"Ed, we're ready for you," Annie said with an excited smile as she entered my trailer. Her hair was tied up in a bun, held in place with a pencil.
She had slight eye bags under her eyes. She dressed like an old lady but wore a pencil skirt and leggings.
"Annie, how do you like the current The Office episodes nowadays?" I asked her as I sat on the couch, watching the show on the 50-inch TV.
She blinked and took a deep breath before sitting next to me nervously, peeking at my face from time to time. "Well… I love that you didn't make Pam stuck."
"Oh, so you like her going the digital creator route?" I asked with mild intrigue.
"I like the fact that she's not just a housewife and an ordinary worker. She has something going on for her too." Annie explained, inching closer to me.
"I'm going to watch Community next." I muttered casually.
Annie took the chance and said, "I love that series too. We should watch it together."
"Sure. But I'm going to binge it when I have some free time from work, so it's hard to figure out the exact time I'm going to watch it." I said with a slight reluctance in my tone.
Annie was disappointed, but tried to keep a straight face, "Oh. Okay. I… I guess you're really busy."
Abed suddenly knocked on the trailer door and yelled from outside, "Annie! We need him now! Flirt with him later!"
"WHAT?!" Annie was flabbergasted. "I'm not flirting with him!" She shouted back.
"You're not?" I flashed a disappointed look, teasing her.
"Un… Unless you want me to?" She hinted with a blushing cheek.
"ANNIE! COME ON!" Abed shouted again.
"COMING!" Annie snapped angrily.
"Well, if you want, I'm going to watch the first episode of Evolve or Die tonight. You can come–"
"I WILL! I WILL COME!" She agreed immediately.
I chuckled and said, "You might have to sneak into my home since there's a perimeter around it, but if you really want to, I'll help you get into my house."
"Wait. If there's a perimeter, how did you get here?" She muttered in confusion.
I chuckled inwardly. I didn't even think the perimeter agents knew I had left the house. As I had replicated the sling ring, I used that to get away.
Haley and Ness were still inside the mansion, and they thought I left using my stealth jet.
I wore a scrappy military uniform costume as I got to the Canvas studio set.
My hair was scruffy, there's a small scar going down my cheek, my hands were bandaged, and I wore a ragged cloak on top of it all, looking like a vagabond.
Abed helped me with the production as even if I was directing it myself, I still needed someone to handle the costumes, the casting, and so on.
Even though he was a well-known director, Abed volunteered for this job as he wanted to study the way Canvas set work.
"Scene 137. Take 1. Ready! Action!"
We were well into the seventh episode of the show, where I finally took down the humongous witch after coming back to the city I escaped from.
After being betrayed by my girlfriend, I decided to kill the Witch to take revenge on the squad member before I died.
My shirt was burned slightly, revealing some abs– something that Annie vehemently recommended, and I stood in front of the charred corpse of the Witch, digging out her core.
The zombies began to circle around the area, seemingly attracted to the core.
Luci– my name in the series, smirked and said, "So, I did all the work, and you guys decided to fight for my spoil? No. That's never going to happen."
Feeling suicidal, Luci ate the core. He only had regenerative powers at that time, while everyone else was shown to have more versatile powers.
His body began to crack under the strength of the evolution seed, but it kept getting repaired by his regenerative power.
He flopped to the ground, veins bulging all over his skin, and he screamed.
"CUT!"
As the scene ended, Abed was stunned by what he saw.
"God damn. Edward, we should really get you an Oscar." Abed commented happily.
Annie gleefully added, "He is nominated for the Emmys with his show Psychopath Diary."
"I forgot about that show." I blinked slowly. "Too many things had happened this year, I completely threw that to the back of my mind."
After a 16 hour shoot, which I split into two shifts to avoid the staff being worked to their bone, I was finally done with today's scenes.
We're shooting for 6 episodes now, yet the first episode didn't even come out yet.
As Canvas could record from various angles at the same time, and even had a quality camera to do closeup shots, most actors only needed to record their scenes once.
Even the assembled scenes needed to only be shot once. Although sometimes people may still mess up their lines though.
"Good job everyone! Make sure to catch the episode tonight!" I told the entire crew and let them leave early to watch the episode.
There would be a two episode drop today. Both episodes are 40 minutes each.
I went back to my place using a portal again without anyone seeing me, and greeted Haley as I met her first.
She was in the living room, video calling her sister Alex.
"Hey Mr Criminal. You're done early today." She greeted me affectionately, grabbing and holding my hand.
Alex pretended to gag as she saw that.
"You're not going to say anything?" I asked her weirdly. "You always say something."
"Not going to anymore." Alex said decisively. "Not when you have become a quasi-messianic figure in all of humanity's eyes. I don't want to be burned at the stake for daring to say anything to you."
"Yes, you do look like the kind of girl that will be burned at the stake centuries ago." I nodded in agreement with her.
"Hey!" She was offended, even though she started it.
"I'm not joking about being a quasi-messianic figure though. You better watch out for that unless you want a huge cult being built around you." She added.
Haley said, "Oh, if he's creating a religion, I want to become the high priest."
"I'm not going to create a religion." I said decisively.
"Aww." Haley exclaimed in disappointment while Alex just snickered.
"If he's creating a religion, then he should legalize polygamy." Phil came on screen from out of knowhere.
All three of us were surprised and looked at him with disbelief.
"Phil, do you dare to say that again in front of your wife?" I asked teasingly as I saw Claire coming into the room too.
"Say what?" Claire asked with an unknowing smile.
Phil became aghast and said, "That you're looking more beautiful each day?"
"Looking more beautiful, or getting more beautiful?" Alex asked, crunching her face slightly.
"What's the difference?" I asked her.
Alex replied, "Looking more beautiful can mean he's just admiring the makeup advancements in recent times. So Mom only looks beautiful, but not really."
Phil was flabbergasted, and Claire became angry. "Phil!"
"I didn't mean that! I didn't mean that at all!" Phil defended himself loudly.
I chuckled and asked them how the quarantine was treating them. Claire was fine since she could work from home, but for Phil, his realtor business was taking a huge hit since he couldn't meet with people.
After everyone left, I asked Alex, "Do you really think I'm a messianic figure?"
She blinked in hesitation before replying lazily, "I mean… yeah, you kinda are. You cured a lot of stuff and helped a lot of people. Millions and millions of them. So yeah, I'm not joking about that."
She added, partly teasing, partly serious, "You really have to keep your ego in check and don't fall into that delusion too. If you start to consider yourself a messiah, I want you to hit your face as hard as you can."
"I mean, if I hit myself and it didn't hurt, then it might have a different effect, making me believe in myself more," I joked.
Alex snorted and asked, "Hey, if you hit yourself and it doesn't hurt, is it because you're too weak, or too strong?"
I fell into deep contemplation after that.
Annie came to watch the show that night, but her face became crestfallen when she saw Ness, Haley, Taylor, Selena, Willa Holland, Barbara Palvin, and Ashley Tisdale were there too.
"What is this? Why is everyone here?" she asked, fully befuddled.
"Well, Ness invited Ashley. Selena acted in the first episode, so she wanted to watch it together. Taylor is Selena's bestie, so she came with Selena, and she brought her entire clique too."
"Stop calling us a clique. We're not a clique," Taylor retorted.
"Yeah, it's not a clique. It's a girl squad," Selena joked before all of them laughed together, clinking their wine glasses and drinking.
I rolled my eyes at them and let Annie go sit with Haley.
All of us went to the theater room to watch the show on the big screen.
The girls kept pouring wine and even drank my Euphoria alcohol before the show even started.
I laid down in the last row, on top of the mattress-type seat. It could hold only two people, but I sat alone, as the girls wouldn't allow anyone to sit with me in fear of them gaining an advantage.
"It feels lonely having to sit alone," I muttered pitifully.
"That's what you get for being a man-whore. So deal with it," Taylor snapped at me. She sat directly in front of me with Selena and Barbara.
Barbara shot a sympathetic look at me and whispered to Taylor, "He looks really sad. I can go sit with him."
"Bitch, sit your ass down," Selena said with irritation, making sure that Barbara didn't change her seat.
The first episode finally dropped on Netflix. Everyone cheered as the title flashed on screen.
The title was changed from ZomWorld to Evolve or Die, since it had mutant beasts too.
It started with the scene of a meteor falling on Earth. It cratered an entire town. The CGI was incredibly realistic, surprising most of the people watching the show.
Humans turned into zombies without warning, as the airborne virus infected people on the streets.
It then foreshadowed the final fight as the ants near the meteor started to mutate.
My hair was short in the first episode, and I looked neat and naive.
The suicide squad was introduced at the beginning, trying to hunt down a mutant beast that was destroying their solar panels.
"It's a chicken," Taylor said, confused. "They're afraid of a chicken?"
The chicken ran toward the squad at high speed, and everyone ran for cover, which made for a chuckle.
However, as soon as it got near, the ten-meter-tall chicken quickly became a terrifying figure.
"BOOOOK!!" it shrieked like a T-Rex, its talons cutting through trees. It even killed Chris Hemsworth, who was cameoing in the story.
The series went on. The scene where Selena and I made out in her room arrived.
The actresses said out loud, obnoxiously, "When I sit on him as we made out, I can feel everything underneath his pants."
I looked at Selena and the giggling girls with disbelief.
"Did the mean-girl squad come to my house?" I muttered.
We were kissing hot and heavy in the show, with her straddling me and my hand going under her shirt.
Fans who knew her from Disney Channel were quite shocked at the adult character she was playing.
The first episode was rated really high on IMDb, getting 9.8/10, and the second episode got 9.9/10.
Mostly because of the White Witch Zombie chase scene in the city, where my squad member was hunted down one by one.
I read the episode reviews online, and they were quite positive.
When the show was over, surprisingly, only Annie was still conscious and didn't fall asleep in the movie theater.
Annie quickly tried to comfort me, saying, "They didn't fall asleep because the show is boring! They were drinking a lot! Their speech became slurred before the second episode even started."
"I… know. I was there," I said teasingly.
Annie became flustered and embarrassed. "Um," she pretended to yawn, "I don't know if I can make it all the way home."
I saw through her intentions immediately and chuckled to myself. "Why don't you just stay here tonight? I have a lot of empty rooms in my house."
"Are you sure?" she asked again, acting as if she didn't want to. "What about the other girls?"
"I'm going to send them back to their places. Well, everyone except Ness and Haley, since they are staying here for the lockdown."
My duplicate opened portals straight into the girls' places, throwing them onto their own beds quite easily.
Not that I didn't want to let them stay, but Taylor said all of them had jobs the next day, so it would be easier for them to wake up at home.
Also, I was pretty sure it would bring a lot of chaos if I let them stay here tonight.
I had the feeling that the girls were planning something nefarious, but their own plans were foiled by their excessive drinking.
"I'm done," I muttered, wanting to get some sleep when suddenly Annie came to my room, only wearing a bathrobe, fresh out of the shower.
I looked at the imaginary camera with a face full of shock.
…
[General POV]
Entertainment company. Pepper received a call from his employee as the report of the two-episode premiere views became available.
He cut the call and looked at Harvey with a blank expression.
Harvey, quite worried, asked, "What is it?"
"100 million…" Pepper was in shock. "100 million people watched the show as it dropped."
Harvey was shaken too but tried to justify it, "A lot of people are in quarantine right now, so the views might be better during the lockdown period."
"This is double, you know? Even his Psychopath Diary series only had 30 million views on the first day."
"Yeah, but it went on to get over 500 million views worldwide after a few months. That's just how the Edward effect is."
While the two people were talking calmly, the marketing department of the company was receiving continuous calls from advertisers.
"Sorry, but no. How do we even include your watch brand in the show? And you want at least 10 seconds of product placement?! Be rational!"
"No, a Chevy car also can't be included."
"Cat food? I mean, Mr. Newgate may want it at his home, but not in the TV show!"
They kept rejecting advertising offers to include products in the story.
"19 billion! He spent 19 billion out of his own pocket to distribute the cure to the entire world. We have to make sure he gets his money back!" the marketing team leader said sternly.
The news about the money wasn't leaked yet, but all the employees knew. It was an open secret in all branches, not only the pharmaceutical one.
At upper management, Frankie was dealing with another meeting.
"The senator is calling again–" an executive brought up the topic.
"We're going forward with the decision to cut all relationships with the government," Frankie said decisively through the video meeting.
Another exec said, "Mr. Newgate said he's fine with it–"
"They already put him under house arrest, yet they still dared to beg for his money. We're going to cut everything. Let them handle it themselves from now on."
The executives glanced at each other before deciding to just follow orders.
"If they try to threaten us with anything, we're not afraid of permanently relocating the company elsewhere," Frankie added coldly.
Robin and Frankie were on the same page. Robin had already started the relocation process for the tech company to Cuba after Edward was put under house arrest.
Robin and Frankie felt Edward was too kind, and government officials always took advantage of him. That's why they acted this way.
The whole company shared the same sentiment. They wouldn't mind permanently migrating at all.
They only stayed because Edward was staying. That's how big Edward's influence was.
The media caught wind of the changes, and most citizens supported them.
Many people became disillusioned with the government during this incident. The act of attacking a philanthropist backfired big time.
The President of the United States was badgered by cabinet members and officials but ignored them all, leaving the government with no leverage over the quasi-messianic figure.
The lockdown was affecting everyone. Especially their mental state from being locked up in the house for too long.
When they watched Edward's new show, which people knew that he made especially from their request, a worldwide phenomenon happened.
People were responding to Edward's effort with intense, borderline fanatical goodwill.
Memes popped up everywhere, especially about the chicken. People were captioning that as the most realistic depiction of a T-rex. They called the giant mutated chicken the Chikenosourus Rex.
"This show's setting is really well thought out. It felt real." One youtube creator reviewed in his video.
"What I really love, is the depiction of fables. Fables are considered timeless in the show. We can see the characters reading the comic book from 50 years ago, and this shapes their morality."
"Stories create perception, and perception builds reality. That's why myths and legends were teaching people about something. Comic books are the new age fables– but they're not the only ones." The reviewer added on excitedly.
People continue to dissect the show, even though it was an original tv screenplay for them.