When Olio hugged Aiden, everyone in the room was surprised. The director who had just bashed one of the leading actresses in Hollywood for asking for a few script changes was acting like old buddies with another actor.
Why were they so close? They have never even worked together before.
Those types of questions were thrown around in people's minds. Emma Landen was stunned, not even able to comprehend what was happening.
"Why is Olio hugging Aiden?"
"Are my eyes having a delusion or is it really happening?"
"Wait, is he gay?"
"Maybe that's it. Olio is gay!"
"Idiot! He has five kids. During the time he was not directing, he got 2 more kids. How can he be gay?"
It was only then that the middle aged actor who had worked with Olio before revealed the truth to everyone.
"Olio and Philips Fraser hated each other and that man was partly responsible for him not getting investments."
Hearing that, everyone, including Emma understood why Aiden was getting special attention from Olio.
It also made an early end to any tactics that Emma was planning in her mind to use against Aiden. After all, if Olio got to know, then it won't be good for her.
Olio liked Aiden more than her.
It was very clear!
She was one of the victims of the star complex but she wasn't entirely dumb to not look at things with a clear eye. She knew when to play meek.
That's why, she just shrugged her shoulders and sat in one of the corners. Her agents tried their best to cool her down during the whole script reading session.
'Let's see how you act during the shooting.'
She said in her mind.
As for others, it was very clear to them that Aiden was going to have the biggest bargaining chip in his hand during the whole shooting.
So, it was wiser to cosy up to him.
***
Barring a few awkward conversations with Emma who really didn't seem to like him, Aiden had a pretty good time during the whole script reading session.
With Alberto not looking over it and Olio being nice to him, he was able to relax.
The other supporting cast also looked like good people that seemed fun to work with.
Aiden was sure that his time on [Hex] won't be bad and he just needed to focus on his character.
After the script reading session, there was still a week before the actual shooting started.
This one week, Aiden was again going to read up on the <Hex> novel series to get another look at the whole world of it.
Moreover, he was also going to get more comfortable with his costumes and stuff.
Although [Hex] wasn't a superhero movie, there was a distinct style to the tradition of the world and the main character.
The costume designers working on the movie had done a great job on them and Aiden just needed to get a better feel of it.
During all this, he hadn't forgotten one thing that he was still working on.
That was his web novel.
<Archer's Ascension>
The novel had been posted on Wuxia updates, the largest directory of webnovels in the world for a few months now and at his peak, Aiden used to write 4 chapters of it daily.
But as he had gotten busy, the chapters daily have lowered. Now, he was just posting 10 chapters a week.
Actually, at this point, the novel didn't have to be boosted with a lot of updates as it had already gathered a large fanbase.
With each chapter update, a lot of comments would appear straight away.
That was the proof that the novel was doing well. Though, Aiden was now already on the final arcs in the novel.
His main character had gotten a good amount of proficiency in his skills and it won't be wrong to say that he was already one of the strongest characters in the world of <Archer's Ascension>.
He had also solved the mystery of his background and founded a kingdom and was learning the tricks of becoming a better king.
By this point, there was not much for him to do.
Aiden could still keep the novel going by bringing in new enemies and maybe, just a completely different dimension into play like other cultivation novels but he felt like that would just be a dent on an otherwise good novel.
So, he wanted to end it. And a grand way to end a novel was only one.
'An all out war. A conclusion to start a beginning into the next epoch of the world.'
He had planned this arc even before starting the novel as he always felt like an author needed to know the beginning and the ending while writing a web novel.
The middle portions are often made after the reader's opinions.
Aiden was planning to end the novel before the shooting of [Hex] begins. Otherwise, it would be too hard to write it as he will get busier with the shooting.
But when Aiden sat down to write the starting of the final arc, he didn't feel like writing it.
'Umm, Is this writer's block? Why am I getting it now?'
Aiden thought in his mind and frowned.
No matter how much he tried, words weren't coming to him suddenly. It was not the first time that this was happening to him, so he was still mostly calm.
He opened up the previous read and read through it before looking through the comments too. There were a few of them that were bad as some readers didn't like a few characters dying.
But mostly, the comments were positive.
[Heyyy boy: The author is probably ending the novel soon. I feel a bit sad but this has been a very enjoyable novel of mine.]
[Harem slut: Man, is he really not going to get a harem? He's a king now, he needs to get more kids out. Why is the author such a pussy to not go for harem. This is a 3/5 novel just because of no harem.]
[The Fool: I hope the author releases a new novel soon as this seems like the start of the final arc. It Has been a great experience till now. Great job, author. How about writing about Showbiz next? I need more of it.]
The comments made him feel a bit better and he felt like he would be able to write now. But for some reason, he still felt like there was something on the back of his mind that was bothering with him.
Something that seemed like a regret.
'Umm what is it?'
He thought before his mind finally told him why he was like this.
'Ah, yeah. The rankings!'
He quickly opened up the novel rankings on the Wuxia updates page and saw that his novel <Archer's Ascension> was still on the second rank.
The first rank was occupied by <I'm the Son of the Villain> by 'Soulless'. It was a novel that Aiden had read and in one word, it was like the perfect web novel.
Not because of a mind blowing story or anything. The web novel was pretty simple and the story was nothing new either but it incorporated every single trope of web novels with a great amount of comedy.
A overpowered protagonist, harem, great female characters, Sigma main character and a rich world with a system in place.
It was like an AI had written the novel by taking in every single popular trope.
Actually, Aiden had been trying to defeat the first ranker since the time he had reached the second rank and there were even times when he was close to becoming the number one.
But somehow, 'Soulless' would always increase the difference between them.
It was a bit frustrating to Aiden but he couldn't do anything about it.
Still, he wanted to reach the first rank even for a little while before ending the novel. It was a wish of his.
That's why, he even felt like not writing as right now, it didn't look like <Archer's Ascension> would be able to defeat <I'm the Son of the Villain>.
He didn't want to have this one regret as he closed his novel.
'Should I make one last attempt to defeat 'Soulless'? Maybe, writing more chapters will work but I have done that in the past, it didn't work out. Moreover, my novel seemed to have already hit his peak.'
Aiden thought in his mind and wondered about this problem.
But there didn't seem to be any solution.
Not getting anything, he decided to ask a fellow webnovel author that he had become close with. As his popularity had rose, a lot of other authors had texted him to get to know him better.
He had gotten a few online friends like that. Though, he never got a chance to talk a lot due to his real life.
[The Dreamer: Hey, Dragon, I need a bit of help.]
He texted 'Dragon Eternal Sunshine', the third ranked author on the website. A minute later, a reply came.
