Spending another day of just brainstorming, Mark decided to finally beginning writing the rough draft for his very first novel. It would have a futuristic concept, but something not exactly science-fiction, not fantasy, but somewhere in between.

When the novel was originally written, it was based on the ‘present’, but that ‘present’ was easily 40 to 50 years in the future. So its genre was also skewed considerably. Of course, the novel contained many elements whose concepts did not exist among readers yet, at the very least, he would have to wait another few years before releasing the novel. Still, he would have a novel in his stockpile completely ready to publish when the time came.

‘The plan is simple, write out all the novels I intend on publishing, while gradually making a name for myself in screenwriting and improving my writing skills. I know I do not have the ability to write best-selling novels, even if I have really good memory of them, since there would be slight differences which would make it feel like a cheap copy of the original, which might not even sell well.’

That was partially why he chose this to be his first novel, due to the simple sentence structure, and relatively easier to write in that particular style of writing.

He wrote the name of the novel on an empty notebook which would store his rough draft written by hand in pencil, so he could make changes as and when he wanted, before finally typing out the final copy using the typewriter.

[Solo Leveling]

[‘My name- hah- hah- is James Frank. E-Rank hunter- hah- The Hunter Guild’s lowest rank and weakest hunter.’ James thought to himself as he pushed his exhausted and profusely bleeding body to raise the flimsy-looking sword in front of him. His eyes bloodied yet filled with determination and an unyielding spirit, blurred his vision, but he could still see what was in front of him.]

[A wall of moving stone, cold as machines, steadily made their way to James; with their 7 metre heights, each step covering what normal humans covered in three to four lunges. Their cold steel weapons in hand as they pointed it at the intruder.]

[‘I never expected this to happen to me- hah- never- hah- God-damnit!’ Just as he exclaimed in his mind with his sword raised, the closest stone giant raised its gigantic arm, with a long spear in it, and brought it onto James with all its might.]

[New York… USA… 2015]

The plot of the novel he would keep rather close to the original, except for changing the location to USA, and all originally South Korean Characters to American characters. The characters of Japan he changed to Russian characters, and the originally American characters he changed to Indian.

There were reasons for this. The simple concept was that the Japanese and the South Koreans in the original, did not have a good relationship due to various reasons, especially the hunters. Since USA was the main country, Russia would become the best nation to host issues with it, and it was also almost bordering USA on the West coast, just as Japan was to South Korea.

And India was selected to replace the fortune-telling hunter because of its high population, and moderately friendly… at least non-hostile relationship with USA, which South Korea had with USA. Despite not having nearly as good of an economy or military as America, it did have the population to produce powerful and random hunter types.

The other option for this was China, and it had a better economy and military than India, but in the future, its relationship with most of the world would fall to rock bottom due to its expansionary tactics, and he did not wish to make the mistake of portraying that notion in a good light else he might get ‘removed’ from the market due to random problems by powerful people who might not like such a message.

Of course, the angel depiction of the ‘Architect’ had to also change slightly, since he could not show a figurative and literal devil hiding behind the mask of an angel, especially not in the highly christian USA.

Finally, the aspect of the True Creator needed to be changed, and he would just not mention too much about him in the novel, just mentioning his existence, and how the other rulers did not manage to kill him, but only saddened him to the point of giving up on them; saddened by his own creation.

Which would also drove Shadow Monarch to madness and cause him to ‘fall from grace’ and turn into a Monarch. It would sort of be an analogy of Lucifer… which might get mixed reviews, or might be really successful based on how it was portrayed by the media.

…

And thus, Mark continued to write just chapter 1 till he fell asleep.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The next morning, Mark woke up, and wore his shirt and pants, and his spectacles, with an empty notebook, a stationary pouch containing pencils, sharpeners, erasers, pens, and some whiteners, in a small briefcase, he left for work.

…

“Morning Mrs. Butler! How are you?” Mark greeted her at the counter.

“Oh Mark, the same as usual. Are you here for your first day?”

“Yup! Hopefully I do well enough to get the permanent job.”

“Good luck then! Make sure not to be rude to others, it will help in your chances of getting the job.”

“Thank you!” Mark nodded his head to her before flashing a confident smile to hide his rapidly beating heart, and proceeded to walk past the receptionist area that was right in front of the door and into the bustling office.

He was stunned for a moment. He had thought the place would be similar to the dead bank he had worked in as the original Mark on the original Earth. However, the scene here was completely different. It was full of vitality and eagerness… but it was also a hot mess of a company.

‘I suppose that’s what happens when your company hires a lot of people in a short period of time, and you are a relatively new company without an established background.

“Hey you! Mark was it? You’re the intern for screenwriting right? Quick, go and get 5 coffees for the screenwriting group. We have run out already.”

“Of course,” Mark nodded and turned to leave.

‘The real estate agent was actually a really good guy. Not only did he show me the best places, but effectively also took me around town and introduced all important places. That included the best place to bring cheap take-away coffee that also tasted good; it was a 7/11 convenience store that was only 2 minutes away by foot.

Not being in a rush, Mark went to the place, got 6 coffees, and made his way back to the company.

Upon reaching though, the cacophony he had experienced when he first arrived had vanished, and everyone was diligently working.

‘The boss must be here now…’ Mark came to the conclusion while walking towards the meeting room with the screenwriters. Currently, the only people with a meeting room were the screenwriters as they were in charge of putting Mr. Lucas’ new movie idea into a comprehensive script.

*Knock*

*Knock*

“Come in!” The horse voice of the person who had sent Mark on the errand rang clearly as Mark pushed the door open with the 6-pack of hot coffee. He silently nodded to the only one who was standing, and appeared to be in charge of the screenwriters, before handing out the coffees to everyone while softly greeting them. A total of 5 people including the one who was standing.

Keeping the sixth coffee for himself, he took a seen near the other end of the table, but not right opposite the one in charge, and instead to one side.

“Good, everyone, this is Mark; the new intern for junior screenwriter. Mark, this is the screenwriting team; Bob, Silvia, Dan, Luke, and me, Kraig. I am the senior screenwriter and the one in charge of this new project, while everyone else is a junior screenwriter. Anyways, we got work to do now boys… no time to waste.”

“Silvia, please give him a brief about what the project will be about, and what exactly we need to do. Then, have him join us in brain storming the overarching plot. We will use all the help we can get since we don’t have too long to come up with a rough draft.”

“Yes sir!” Silvia, the short-haired lady who seemed to be only a few years older than Mark brought him out of the meeting room, and explained the project.

‘Thankfully, we are indeed working on Star Wars. Looks like I need to make an impression on Kraig to be able to advance to a junior screenwriter and improve my income status.’

Mark nodded at everything Silvia said, as though he was paying deep attention to it, but in reality he was thinking about the Solo Levelling novel he was writing at home. Fortunately, the employment contract he had signed did not have some nonsensical clause that any IP he created while working for LucasFilms, or anything he did in his free time or at home belonged to the company.

There were actually companies with such clauses in their employment contracts, and it had caused quite a few issues with the common people to have their hard work being stolen by the greedy corporations. At least, in this world, the government had yet to interfere in such cases because the contracts were made with the mutual understanding of both parties.

“Alright, that is it for the list of what Mr. Lucas wants. A science-fiction movie involving a fantasy element which not everyone can make use of. The main character should be one of those who could make use of this power, while the rest of the story should focus on him, with the political plot occurs in the background.”

“I see, thank you Ms. Silvia.”

“Good, now let’s go. We need to sit in the meeting and help Kraig brainstorm a good plot.”

…

Inside the meeting room, Mark observed as the world gradually took up form.

“So, the space wizards, or as Lucas calls them; the Jedi, will possess incredible power, but they will express intense refrain from meddling in worldly affairs. But we need to find a background for the main character, Luke Skywalker, as Lucas named him.”

Mark just raised his hand in silence, waiting for Kraig to see, and he did, motioning for Mark to speak.

“Considering the currently… improving societal situation… he could be a slave.”

“A slave?” Kraig questioned.

“A slave, rising from the hellhole of a planet he was originally on, to go and save the galaxy with the power of friendship, hope, and sheer will. Or maybe not technically a slave. His parents could be slaves, and he could just have been born on the planet, free, but with no money, unable to leave.”

“We can remove the possibility of a father. We need the Jedi master that comes to bring him in to become his father figure!” Bob added onto Mark’s idea, and the room burst into discussion once again while Kraig watched the scene for a few seconds. He turned around to the whiteboard behind him, and began writing.

‘Luke Skywalker, son to a slave mother, and unknown father. Stuck on ‘Slave Planet’ until Jedi Master brings him out.’

Watching this being written on the whiteboard, everyone stopped their discussion and nodded unanimously. Everyone likes a redemption story, everyone liked rooting for the underdog. Especially if they could connect with the character on a deeper level than just looking at the world through their eyes.