Vincent was giving orders to three other cameramen, hired for the day. Being the only full time employee of Angel-Minet, he had the authority to direct today’s shoot. It was a really important one : The concert for World Music Day.

  He took his pce, right in front of the stage, and waited for the lights to dim.

  ‘I’m so excited ! This will be incredible !’

  Clumsily controlling his emotions, he took out his camera, a new model gifted by the company, and turned the lens towards the stage. In the dark, music started pying. It was a song he had heard before.

  ‘Starting with an original song right in the beginning ? So cool !’

  Suddenly, lights turned on and Mademoiselle Cyrielle, sitting on a beautiful golden throne, appeared. She wore a sleeveless turtleneck covered in glitter, with assorted cuffs on her wrists. On the bottom were cargo pants, with different pictures embroidered : Her concert at Bordeaux’s boat, the photoshoot with Coline, her magazine cover for Femme Frenchy… It was a masterpiece, a garment that represented her career so far.

  With the spotlights on her face, she stood up and started belting the notes. The fans were screaming, and pointing their phones towards the stage to take as many pictures and videos as they could. After finishing her song, Cyrielle walked to the front of the stage.

  “Good evening, I am Mademoiselle Cyrielle. Did you enjoy this first song ?”

  The audience screamed again.

  “Then, did you recognize the melody ?”

  They shook their heads, confused.

  “It’s normal, it’s an original one. It will be on my album tracklist, and will come out next week. You are the first to hear it.”

  All the people in the concert hall gasped, except for Angel-Minet’s employees. But this wasn’t the end. Cyrielle opened her mouth, and repeated her statement, this time in perfectly fluent english, and all hell broke loose.

  “Did she just… Is she fluent ?!”

  “I have it on video ! I’ll post it to the fan group right now !”

  “She even thought about us, international fans ! She is so cute !”

  “Will her entire concert be in two nguages ?”

  “Wait, she said the album is coming out next week ? So, we have the exclusivity for an entire week ?!”

  Some reporters mixed in the crowd were taking out their phones, calling their offices.

  “I tell you, she is fluent ! Maybe she is from abroad ? That’s why we couldn’t find her past in the french fashion industry. Yes, write the article like that. But that’s not the most important thing, her album is coming out next week !”

  Ignoring the agitation of the crowd, Cyrielle continued her concert with popur covers and original songs alike. During the break, the Internet was blowing up.

  {Mademoiselle Cyrielle’s new song, heard at her concert !}

  {[Compition] All of Mademoiselle Cyrielle’s original songs from the first part}

  {[Weekly issue] Mademoiselle Cyrielle’s fluent english. Is she from abroad ?}

  {The angel of the Internet, Mademoiselle Cyrielle, proves her thoughtfulness by performing a bilingual concert}

  When she came back for the second part, dressed in a splendid blue cocktail gown, some crowd members had started live-streaming her performance. Julie had asked her earlier if she wanted to forbid it, but Cyrielle had shrugged.

  ‘They will do it in secret anyway, it’s better if it’s allowed and they film it properly.’

  Involuntarily, her concert became the biggest talk of World Music Day, even though famous artists were performing all over France at the same time. When the event ended and the audience exited the concert hall, the number of people who saw Cyrielle’s concert was mind blowing. There were only 500 seats in the room, but if you added the number of spectators of the live-streams and the views on the videos, 300,000 people had witnessed Cyrielle singing.

  ***

  “The expectations are getting higher and higher. If it continues like this, your album might get the n°1 spot on the french charts !”

  Cyrielle shook her head at Julie’s words.

  “I don’t think I have a chance, Ma?lys Christophe is releasing his album this month. He has a twenty year long career, and even became famous internationally, I don’t hold a candle to him.”

  Julie furrowed her brows.

  “He is only famous with the older generation. Younger people don’t like his nasal voice, and his lyrics are so cliché !”

  Cyrielle smiled elegantly. Not liking the artist is one thing, but it didn’t change the fact that Ma?lys was a powerhouse, and that his album would come out in the same month as hers. It was unfortunate.

  They got out of the van. Anyway, the album wasn’t out yet, and today they had a job to do. It was about the interior design for the leather goods brand, the one who had asked for a remodeling of their headquarters.

  ‘The outside is looking good, but the parking space is a catastrophe…’

  Vincent was already recording, and he didn’t miss the moment Cyrielle took out her sketchbook in her handbag, and started working. Someone, probably the CEO, came to welcome them.

  “Good morning Mademoiselle Cyrielle ! I am gd you accepted our request. We could really use some help.”

  She politely nodded.

  “It’s nothing. Thank you for thinking about me.”

  After talking for a bit, they entered the building.

  “As you can see, the entrance was st renovated in 1983, it’s quite outdated. We also had some water leakage problems ten years ago, and the paint lost its color.”

  Cyrielle was diligently listening to the expnations while scribbling away. After touring the entire building, she sat in a conference room to expin the concept she had thought about, and her ideas.

  “Considering the luxury of the leather goods, I thought about a modern style with muted colors. As you can see on this sketch, adding pictures of handbags or wallets in the hall will immediately draw the attention of any visitors.”

  The staff was really enthusiastic, they listened attentively to her presentation and gave their own ideas. After finishing the meeting and greeting everyone, Cyrielle and her team went back to the van. It wasn’t a project that would be finished in one day anyway, she needed to come back with solid pns and a moodboard.

  ‘I really want to do something for the rest area. Maybe a green wall, covered in vegetation ? But I should probably research the pnts I want, and how to care for them…’

  After spending a few minutes on her phone, a chat bubble appeared.

  [You are taking an unprecedented route, Path of Destiny is having trouble organizing your abilities.]

  ‘What do you mean ? Isn’t it automatic, or something like that ?’

  [No, the abilities are unique to the person who owns them. Wait a minute.]

  Cyrielle felt that the system was loading.

  ‘What is it doing ? Did I break something ? It was working fine before…’

  After more time passed, figuratively because time had slowed down, Cyrielle finally saw a new blue bubble.

  [‘Home and Attire design’ has become ‘Home and Garden design’, paired with a new ability ‘Character and Attire design’. The capacity of ‘Home and Garden design’ also triggers the appearance of ‘Architecture’.]

  ‘What ? Wait, so designing outfits becomes separated from designing a house ? And I gain ‘architecture’ too ? And what is that about ‘character design’, is it like those people who design characters for videogames, or something ?’

  Before she could obtain an answer, a new message popped up.

  [‘Home and Garden design’ interacts with ‘Character and Attire design’, ‘Architecture’ and ‘Makeup art’. Creating an ability category ‘Aesthetic’. All the cking abilities in the ‘Aesthetic’ category are enhanced.]

  ‘Path, can you slow down and expin ?!’

  She had to wait a bit more, but eventually the chat bubble came back.

  [What did you not understand ?]

  ‘Everything ! What just happened ?’

  Cyrielle felt a bit of amusement coming from the system.

  [To sum up, this is not a game where an algorithm unlocks skills that are already written in the program. Every ability is given depending on the opportunity to come, or your own achievements.]

  ‘Yes, I got that.’

  [And you will not always act like we expect you to. You have your own thoughts and feelings and, as a human, you tend to be unpredictable at times.]

  ‘It makes sense.’

  [So when we give you an ability because we expect you to go in a certain direction, we can be wrong, and you will do something completely different.]

  ‘But that’s what I don’t get. Can’t you see the future ? You know which opportunities will come in advance, you should know what I will do !’

  [You do not have the authority to know that.]

  ‘Oh, come on !’

  Cyrielle whined internally, but she couldn’t do anything about it. The only thing she had learned from this conversation, was that ‘Path of Destiny’ could make mistakes, and that they didn’t know everything about her. It wasn’t much to go off of.

  She opted for a change of subject.

  ‘So, for ‘Character and Attire design’, can I design characters like people do for a videogame ?’

  [You can. Designing a character requires you to create their outfits too, so it makes sense for it to be grouped with attire design.]

  ‘You won’t have to change it again, right ?’

  [If I do, it won’t affect you. You will simply gain more abilities, like today.]

  Cyrielle nodded internally. When she thought about it, she had gained the ability to create characters, design gardens, and draw up pns for an entire building. It was a fruitful day.

  Something suddenly came to her mind.

  ‘Wait… Earlier you said ‘we’. Are there several of you ? Do you have an administrator ?’

  [You do not have the authority to know that.]

  ‘That’s it, I’m not talking to you anymore !’