Computer Graphics (11)
Anita Vermont.
A woman from Nebraska, she had come to Los Angeles in her early twenties, chasing the dream of becoming an actress.
Like so many unknown actresses before her, she scraped by on part-time jobs, went from audition to audition, and handed out her résumé wherever she could.
Then came the event that changed her life: meeting Darian Heralson.
On the set of Flower Moon, Darian spotted Anita, who was only an extra, fell for her at first sight, and asked her out.
Once Anita started dating Darian, everything changed.
The paparazzi chased her everywhere. TV shows and talk shows wanted her. Invitations flooded in for fashion shows and events that only stars and celebrities were allowed to attend.
And despite the twenty-year age gap, the two of them married just two months after meeting.
After marrying Darian, Anita became famous. She worked steadily as a model and actress.
Her marriage was not a happy one.
As Darian himself had admitted, he had not been a good husband. His acting was flawless, but he was arrogant and impossible to deal with, and on days when he wasn’t filming, he was always drunk.
In the end, after a year and a half of marriage, she settled for a divorce and walked away with ten million dollars in alimony.
After the divorce, Anita thought her real life was about to begin.
Because of her marriage to Darian, she had become famous, and she had also gained access to money so vast she had never even dared imagine touching it in her lifetime.
Unlike Darian, who was middle-aged, she was still in her twenties. Now that she had fame, she would finally make a name for herself as a film actress.
But then......
As soon as the divorce proceedings ended, the public cut her off completely. The directors and production companies that had once shown such interest in her did the same.
That was only natural. The reason they had tried to curry favor with her, the reason they had wanted to cast her, had all been Darian. Once she was no longer with him, there was no reason to cling to her.
Darian remained one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, while Anita was reduced to going from audition to audition again.
This can’t go on.
At first, she claimed she was being victimized, saying Darian was using his influence in the industry to block her casting.
But that wasn’t enough to attract attention.
Anita went on talk shows and into the press to talk about how miserable her marriage to Darian had been, and claimed that he had physically assaulted her multiple times.
Then the public took interest in her again, and many people rallied behind her.
Darian, who had initially responded with silence, filed a lawsuit against Anita when the situation became serious.
Hollywood was full of toxic couples. Still, a war of exposure and lawsuits at this scale was rare, so the trial stayed in the spotlight the entire time.
For Anita, the trial was a show.
Every expression on her face, every word she said, was instantly turned into an article. It felt like she was one of the most important people in the world.
Everyone was watching her. Everyone was cheering her on.
“I will fight to the end for alienated women and women who have suffered abuse!”
Some politicians publicly supported her, and women’s civic groups voiced their solidarity.
While Darian was forced to step down from the film he had been shooting, Anita became even more active than before.
Thanks to that, she was able to land important roles.
But then the situation suddenly began to change.
After a trip to a resort, Darian came back as though he had become a different man. He quit drinking and started seeing a psychiatrist seriously.
He fired his entire legal team and assembled a new one.
Unlike before, when he had been eager to settle, he took a hardline stance and revealed the abuse he had hidden until then.
In the end, Anita lost the lawsuit.
While Anita was left facing crushing damages, Darian returned to Hollywood at once.
Even selling her private jet and her house would not have been enough to pay the judgment.
So Anita decided to appeal. But the outlook was bleak.
The public, which had once believed her and condemned Darian, now condemned her instead. Online, meme images of her composited with a dog circulated everywhere.
Anita was completely cornered.
She had enjoyed watching Darian sink all the way to the bottom, and now the same thing had happened to her.
Before, plenty of famous people had contacted her. Now the only calls she received were from cheap gossip magazines and tabloid reporters.
Then she heard that Darian could no longer act whenever he stood in front of a green screen because it made her come to mind.
Serves him right. He ruined my life—what, did he think his own life would stay fine?
Some psychiatrists said that, for treatment to work, Darian would need her help. They said he could only get past the phobia if he made peace with Anita.
At that, she practically crowed to herself.
Who would ever cast an actor with a green-screen phobia?
If she refused to help, Darian’s acting career was finished too. In a sense, Darian was still in her hand.
And if Anita stepped forward and helped him through the treatment?
The press would splash the story across every front page, and the public would be moved by the warmth of the woman who helped her ex-husband after they had even gone to court against each other.
The public opinion would turn, and I wouldn’t even have to pay the damages.
Anita waited for Darian to contact her.
But contrary to her expectation that he would call soon, Darian never did.
Why isn’t he contacting me? Should I call first and offer to help? No. Let’s wait a little longer.
But the news that came afterward was completely unexpected.
Darian was able to continue filming without any problem thanks to Surreal Screen.
Anita was utterly dumbfounded.
No, what is that now?
Just then, her manager called.
“What is it?”
[Director Roy Tatum called. He says he wants to cancel your casting.]
“……Pardon?”
It was a film about the life of a female laborer who fought a giant corporation in court.
How much had she struggled to get that role?
Because her image fit the part so perfectly, Director Tatum had chosen her over hundreds of other applicants.
And now he wants to cancel my casting?
Before the shock had even worn off, the manager kept talking.
[Atom Film called as well. They’re going to delete all of Demeter’s footage from Poseidon and reshoot it.]
“What, what did you say?”
Her role was Demeter, Poseidon’s second wife. Since it was a major supporting role, it accounted for about a third of the film’s total runtime.
The movie had already finished post-production and was only in the process of negotiating a release date.
If they postponed the release and reshot everything, it would cost an enormous amount of time and money.
Even if the production budget ballooned out of control, the fact that they were willing to go through with reshoots meant public opinion about her had turned that badly.
No one in Hollywood would look for her now.
[And JD Law Firm has requested that you pay the $150,000 in unpaid attorney’s fees within ten days. Otherwise, they will stop representing you in the appeal.]
Even after the call ended, Anita stood there in a daze for a long time.
How did it end up like this?
Where had she gone wrong?
Everything had been going so smoothly.
Anita traced her memories back. Then she realized that Darian had changed after his trip to Barbados.
According to what he had said on a talk show, a young man he met there had given him advice.
What? Was all of this because of that bastard? What kind of guy was he? Who was he to stick his nose into someone else’s family business?
If she ever met him, she would bite into him until flesh came off.
“Aaaaagh!”
A moment later, she screamed like a madwoman and smashed everything she could see.
* * *
I crossed over to the neighboring building through the basement.
I’d come here so often that even the secretary’s face had become familiar.
“Is the chairman in?”
“Just a moment.”
The secretary spoke into the intercom.
“You have a visitor.”
Then the door opened, and a middle-aged woman came out. When she saw me, she dipped her head slightly in greeting.
Inside, Chairman Yoo Jae-ho was waiting.
We sat down on the sofa.
“So the Yokohama Electron acquisition issue is ending up in court after all.”
Rupert Liu still had control of Yokohama Electron China, and the Chinese government was sitting on its hands.
The Enple alliance had voided the contract and demanded the deposit back, but SoftBox had refused—not only would they not return the deposit, they were demanding the remaining balance be paid.
With both sides deadlocked, there was no choice but to settle it through litigation.
Most experts judged that getting the deposit back would be difficult. That was why contracts had to be handled with caution from the beginning.
Chairman Yoo Jae-ho seemed to recall something and said, “Ah. And the matter we discussed before should be settled within the month.”
“That’s a relief.”
I’d been waiting quite a while, so it looked like it was finally going to happen.
It was better to tell me only after everything had been confirmed, since an expectation that might go nowhere could be worse than no expectation at all.
“Who was the person who just left?”
“Kim Seok-young, Executive Director of the display division.”
Chairman Yoo Jae-ho said with admiration, “Surreal Screen. I never would have imagined something like this.”
“It was possible because Yuseong Electronics was there.”
No matter how good the software was, it was useless if the hardware couldn’t support it.
Surreal Screen could exist because there was an LED screen capable of implementing it.
It was Yuseong Electronics’ display product called The Screen, built two years earlier on the foundation of micro-LED technology.
8K resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 1,800 nits of brightness, and so on.
Its bezel-free modular design meant it could be connected together to any size needed. Because it was thin enough to bend, it could be installed in any shape, flat or curved, and it could even be extended across floors and ceilings to cover an entire space.
It was easy to install anywhere, and just as easy to disassemble.
“It really is an outstanding product.”
“Haha! Thank you for saying that.”
It was a good product, but unfortunately sales had been poor.
Chairman Yoo Jae-ho explained why.
“It was too expensive.”
Installing a 100-inch setup cost roughly two hundred thousand dollars.
From the beginning, it had been sold mostly to businesses rather than households. At the moment, it was a second-generation product, and since sales were underwhelming, they were debating whether to develop a third generation at all.
But Surreal Screen changed the mood in an instant.
“I hear orders from Hollywood production companies are pouring in now.”
“Yes. We’ve already taken orders for two full years. To handle all of that, we’ll probably need to expand the production lines.”
It wasn’t the kind of thing that generated huge profits on its own, but in terms of proving that Yuseong Electronics’ display technology was the best in the world, it was a very positive development.
TV sales, which were a mass-market product, would likely rise as well.
“Earlier, I spoke with CEO Tom Scott and discussed several things, including the progress of the Legend Deck development.”
Console production was, by nature, outsourced.
Sonyu and NS paid manufacturers a fixed amount and let them handle production. Whether the venture made a profit or a loss was the principal’s problem.
But the Legend Deck was being developed jointly with Yuseong Electronics from the design stage onward. That meant Legend Games and Yuseong Electronics would share both profits and losses together.
Thanks to Yuseong Electronics’ wholehearted cooperation, development of the Legend Deck was proceeding smoothly.
“I never expected we’d end up making consoles again.”
It wasn’t widely known, but Yuseong Electronics had a long history of producing consoles in the past: Super Game Child, GigaDrive, Vega Jetan, and more.
They had even released console games themselves, handled localization, and managed distribution.
But it hadn’t made enough money, so they had pulled out completely, and after that they hadn’t even looked in the direction of games again.
“What kind of sales are you expecting?”
I thought for a moment, then said, “If we give it five years, couldn’t we sell a hundred million units?”
Consoles didn’t leave much room for profit, but if we sold that many, wouldn’t there be quite a lot left over?