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Chapter 94: Info Dumping
🕑 Added 2025-05-07 13:38:09 +0000 UTCA few days later, the recording session with Ellie Goulding finally happened.
Everyone was gathered in the studio lounge, watching through the glass as Marshmello and Ellie stood inside the recording booth. The room was dimly lit, focused entirely on the two figures behind the soundproof wall.
Ellie adjusted her headphones and gave a small nod to the producer. Then, as the track began to play, her voice floated effortlessly into the room
Outside (Carlvin Harris)
♪Look at what you’ve done Stand still, fallin’ away from me When it takes so long Fire’s out, what do you want to be?♪
I stood a few steps beside her, hidden behind the Marshmello helmet, letting the music guide the mood while I observed every detail with calm intensity.
Back in the lounge, Laura leaned forward in her seat, eyes fixed on the booth. "I'm still kinda in disbelief about all this..." she said, trying to enjoy the music.
"You get used to it after a while," Cher said with a knowing smile.
"But looking at it now," Regina added, "maybe it's because we've been here from the start, and we’ve become a little numb. Because really, it is unbelievable if you stop and think about it."
She continued, "We’re basically witnessing the birth of another song that’ll probably be a hit across the entire country."
"It’s more than that—he’s becoming a global phenomenon," Pepper added seriously. "He’s already top 10 in some European countries."
The three of them looked at her, slightly astonished.
By the end of the session, I had recorded more than just "Outside" and "I Need Your Love"—we ended up doing a third track: "Burn."
It wasn’t exactly the kind of song I imagined Marshmello performing, but Ellie’s voice had impressed me so much that I figured... why not?
---
A few days passed, and we were already past the midpoint of April.
I was in bed, still in my pajamas, the early afternoon light filtering through the curtains. Pepper had sent me the latest report, and I was flipping through the printed pages, head resting against the pillows.
"$88.829.870 gross revenue domestic, in 2.875 theaters. $37.134.255 international—but that’s because it started later, totaling $125.964.125 worldwide, already surpassing our analysts’ projections" I murmured, reading the numbers aloud. Paranormal Activity had just exploded at the box office.
"Paranormal Activity is already the dark horse of the year... and based on our analysis, we could end up closing with more than double that—$250 million in revenue," I continued.
And Pepper said to use something like multiply by around 0.4 to know our real profit, as we need to pay theaters, distribution, and marketing.
"So we've already made around $50 million," I murmured, "and we could be looking at more than $100 million."
"Eeh, I prefer the Bet... less job," I chuckled to myself. "Pepper would probably hit me if she heard that, considering my only job every week is to record a song (and love doing it) and discuss one or two things here and there."
Just then, my phone rang. I glanced at the screen and smirked. "Speak of the devil," I muttered.
"Hello, Pepper."
"I wasn't thinking anything bad about you," I added quickly.
Pepper didn’t respond to that. "Jake, we just signed that song with Jennifer Lopez. That’ll be next week."
"Nice," I said. "Are you already working? It's 7 a.m."
"I'm a morning person," Pepper replied casually.
"I won't tell you how to do your job, since you do it incredibly well," I said. "But take care of yourself. I know you work until late at night. We're flooded with money—hire more people and delegate."
"Learn from me," I added with a grin. "I even delegate the singing part of the music."
"Really, not even a smile?" I said, half-joking.
There was a pause on the other end before Pepper finally replied, "I smiled. You just can't hear it through the phone."
I chuckled. "I'll take that as a win."
"So, Pepper, did you receive the resume for the Harper Management Fund?" I asked smugly, flipping to a different page.
Jake: $61.7M, Charlie: $28.9M, Alan: $5.28M, Judith: $5.28M, Pepper: $10M, Evelyn: $23.6M. Harper Management Fund Total: $135M.
And that wasn’t even counting the 10% stake in JD Company.
Pepper had put $5 million into the fund. The money had already doubled for most participants—thanks to Nvidia stock soaring—except for me, since I also received the performance fee.
"Yes, your bonus would make even some CEOs envy," she said.
"But not you," I replied. "Because, besides the fund, our company isn’t doing bad in cash either."
Pepper snorted. "Not bad? We have $140 million in cash and investments—and that’s not even counting the money that will come in from Paranormal Activity."
"Great," I muttered. "We started with $110 million from the Bet, minus the $7.5 million loan, $102.5 million net. That initial $1 million I invested was fully spent setting up the company. Then came the cost of the four movies—Paranormal Activity, Brokeback Mountain, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and Lost in Translation—totaling $32 million, and another $10 million to expand our company. And still, we’ve got more money than when we started—and that’s without receiving a single penny from the movies yet."
"All thanks to the stock market," I added with a grin. I hadn’t let the money sit idle in the bank—I invested it in stocks, as cash flow was not a problem to us.
"You mentioned hiring. There's another round of recruitment today—want to sit in?" Pepper asked.
"Nah, I'm good," I replied.
Pepper added, "You know only three people in your own company know who you are, right? And one of them has no idea you're the owner..."
"Anthony, our CFO" he’s the one with the most Spartan contract, (even though he’s Pepper trusted right hand). Tons of NDA clauses—he's the guy who buys, sells, and moves all the money around. I just say what to buy or sell and he executes it.
"Then there's Harvey Spencer—our best lawyer". I think he was from a TV show or something, never watched though.
"And Susie, our Chief of PR" she's even colder than Pepper. She doesn’t know I’m the owner, but she does know about the Marshmello identity. Marshmello PR team is on pair of Super celebrities’ ones
"Hey, there is you too, so it’s four!"
