Rise of the Zillionaire Star

Chapter 69: International Expansion

The city hadn’t slept since the blackout.

Even at dawn, screens still reflected with fragments of what had happened. Headlines screamed across every device, carried on scrolling ribbons like gospel chants,

“Zenith Circle Implodes.”

“The People’s Summit Rises.”

“Jaylen’s Blackout Set, Greatest Concert No One Filmed.”

Clips of graffiti rolled across the feeds, Jaylen’s figure sprayed under bridges. It was painted in molten red. Viral chants from street protests engraved into the morning news streams, “NO CHAINS, NO KINGS and NO ZENITH.”

And in the middle of it all, Jaylen’s name rang louder than any brand.

The system chimed in, “Main Quest Branch Complete: Zenith Broken. New Title Acquired - Voice of the Unbound.”

Jaylen woke to the alert still showing in his vision. The room has the smell of cold coffee and sweat. His team scattered around the hotel suite with some people half-asleep, and half-celebrating.

Zee’s holographic form floated above the dresser with her arms crossed and the faintest smile ghosting across her digital face.

“You did it,” she said simply.

Jaylen rubbed his eyes. “Did I, though? Feels like the war just changed shape.”

Jaylen was right. Across the globe, sponsors scrambled to distance themselves from the Zenith Circle.

Luxury labels announced reevaluations. Idol contracts were cancelled overnight. Tearful apologies from ex-stars played on repeat and each one was a confession carefully wrapped as an excuse.

One columnist typed the line that went viral before the ink was even dry,

“The Circle was built on visibility. Jaylen shattered them with invisibility.”

On the streets, kids with cracked speakers and spray cans carried that line like scripture. Murals appeared overnight. Jaylen was painted as a man unchained. He had a microphone broken in his hands and his eyes lifted to something beyond the industry.

And everywhere, fans continued staging silent concerts. Entire blocks of cities where people gathered, turned off every light, every phone, and just… listened to the raw music played in the dark.

Suddenly, Jaylen's manager rushed into the suite by noon. His eyes blazing with fear disguised as anger.

“You have gone rogue, Jaylen. You have just burned every bridge in the industry. Labels won’t touch you, sponsors won’t back you, and you might never get booked in a major venue again. Do you understand what you have done?”

Jaylen met his glare calmly. “Yeah. I freed myself from that circle.”

His voice carried no arrogance, it was just strict. “I am not working for them anymore. I’m working for us.”

The words sank like stone into water. No one argued with him.

Roman Vale, exiled and poisoned by his own scandal, still took moves in the background. He couldn’t show his face, but his money could still do something. Bot armies flooded feeds overnight with smear campaigns,

“Blackout was staged.”

“Jaylen is a produced messiah.”

“The People’s Summit is propaganda.”

Edited footage, fake leaks and threads spun over night.

………

…

Jaylen refused to respond. Instead, he slipped into a children’s hospital two days later with the guitar slung over his back.

He sang low and raw. The song was a stripped-down version of the anthem he had played in blackout. The children responded by clapping to it.

The sincerity went through the night like sunlight.

The system chimed in, “System Update! Crisis Meter - Neutralized.”

By the week’s end, the Summit Organizers finally called.

Their voices shook with disbelief as they read the numbers aloud, “1.2 million physical attendees at the blackout set, ten of millions in surrounding protests across the globe and an unquantifiable ripple of secondhand art, murals, spoken word and underground mixtapes.”

Jaylen listened in silence as his heartbeat thundering.

That night, as the team drove through downtown, Jaylen was bodily exhausted. The car slowed at an intersection where thousands crowded the streets.

Above them, the largest digital billboard in the city turned ON.

At first, it was blank. Then it started glowing, stabilizing into an image - Jaylen’s face, lit stark in black and white.

It had the three words stretching across the skyline, “THE REALEST VOICE.”

The crowd below erupted. A tidal roar shook the pavement. They screamed his name, fists pumping and chants spilling into the night,

“JAY-LEN! JAY-LEN! THE REALEST VOICE!”

People pulled their phones upwards, but it wasn’t about recording anymore. It was about being there. A proof that the industry couldn’t kill authenticity anymore.

Jaylen stepped out of the car. His neck craned up to the billboard. He didn’t fist pump. He didn’t cry. He just breathed with steady eyes burning with something between awe and defiance.

Across the city, in a high-rise office stripped of logos, a lone figure watched the same billboard through tinted glass.

Roman Vale’s figure was cut against the skyline. His jaw was tight and his eyes were like knives reflecting the glow of Jaylen’s triumph.

He lifted a phone to his lips.

“You are shining now, but your end is coming soon.” He muttered.

………

Back in the car, as the people's chants outside still thundered, Jaylen’s system burned brighter than it ever had before.

Zee’s hologram glitched. Her form seems to be fracturing like glass before reforming with eyes that burned neon.

Her voice was no longer soft. It was like a steel.

“System Override Detected.

Main Quest: Not Completed.”

Jaylen’s breath caught. “What do you mean not completed? I broke Zenith.”

The alert drowned him out and the text cascaded like a lightning strike,

“Next Target: International Domination.

Prepare for Season 2.”

The car lights dimmed. Screens on every street all showed one thing. Even the billboard above them bursted into new code only Jaylen could read.

“System Expansion Unlocked - Z-World Global Celebrity War.”

Jaylen’s pulse slammed in his ears. Around him, the chants of thousands still shook the streets, but all he could hear now was the cold and infinite echo of the system, “The real war begins now.”

Jaylen stood frozen under the billboard that bore his name, crowned as The Realest Voice. He never expected that there would be an expansion from the system.