Chapter 95

ChronosX CEO office

"Hehehe! Amazing! In only a day, we gained over a hundred million dollars just from the media platform, while the cameras brought in five times as much already!" Maximilian exclaimed before puffing his cigar.

"This is just not the same. You're ruining my smoke," the man scoffed while looking down at the woman kneeling between his legs. "Didn't I tell you to paint your hair pink?"

Alexandra, the woman who grew up with Nyx and was her best friend during childhood, looked up at the man with lifeless eyes. "I did paint them pink."

Maximilian slammed his fist on his desk while shouting, "This is not the same shade as hers! You don't even resemble her one bit!"

"… I'll repaint them," Alexandra replied without a single shred of emotion in her voice.

"Just stand up and leave. You soured my mood already. Don't you have a shooting in an hour anyways?"

"I do," she stated before rising to her feet and walking out of the office as instructed.

Just as she left the door, the hurried form of Maximilian's right-hand man rushed by her.

"Sir, big trouble! The punk and his sluts have a more developed mana camera than we expected!"

Alexandra couldn't help but have some life return to her soul. If there was trouble, that could only mean good things. If she could, she would burn this place down in a heartbeat.

The blonde girl who was forced to paint her hair pink leaned against the walls and perked her ears to hear the conversation.

"What do you mean?" Maximilian asked while pulling his pants up.

The secretary was panicking. "I-I-I don't even know if it's a mana camera! We couldn't tell it beforehand, but we just confirmed the man doesn't wear glasses, a headband, nothing!"

"… What do you mean?" the CEO was becoming more confused by the second. Their first-person cameras were crafted in the shape of glasses. After numerous investments and hours spent tinkering, the craftsmen of his company managed to create a mana camera that used the glasses to record what the wearer was seeing.

The issue with their product stemmed from the fact that the clarity of the recorded footage was bad. Furthermore, the glasses were heavy and ugly. ChronosX decided to use these glasses only for a few videos to market them. After that, they exclusively used their third-person camera products, their cutting-edge product that was revolutionizing the industry.

These cameras could record in incredibly high resolution, sharp detail, and true-to-life colors, making it no surprise that the company's profits were shooting through the roof. They represented a groundbreaking leap in technology.

"They released footage where both the female and the male were recording! But nothing is covering their faces! His fight with the A-ranked loser was also uploaded, and he was wearing nothing there either, and they even streamed their dungeon dive!"

*Bang!* Maximilian hit the desk with much more force this time.

"That fucker not only stole my woman, he even dares to threaten my sales! Put an entire analytics team on them and research their method of recording! Now!" The secretary strongly flinched at his boss's shout before he scurried to do as told.

For the first time in a long while, a giant grin threatened to erupt on Alexandra's emotionless face.

Blood Pact hidden HQ

"Sir, one of our warehouses was destroyed a few minutes ago," Victor Thorne's most trusted advisor, a woman called Olga, relayed.

"Hoh? Did the Fallen Angels finally muster enough nerve to bare their fangs at me?" he asked while grinning devilishly. Victor was ready to bash some skulls.

"No, sir. At least, I don't think so. We obtained camera footage from one of the nearby buildings, and it seems to be the work of a sole perpetrator."

"Hmm… Did the Flame Monarch finally have enough of our little organization? She might also suspect us for being behind the president's failed assassination," he mused once his first guess was firmly rejected.

"No, sir. The camera was blurry, so we can't be certain, but it was a short female with black hair that ended in twintails."

Victor stroked his chin while trying to remember if there was a woman with such a description among his known enemies. "No one comes to mind."

"That's because I'm almost certain it was Alice Ashborn," the woman revealed with a wry look.

"… Ashborn? I took special care not to step on that woman's toes. Why would she send her daughter to my warehouse?"

"Sir, I don't think she would send her 16-year-old daughter anywhere near such a place. Furthermore, Vespera tends to handle these matters using her own two hands," Olga replied while looking at her boss strangely. She sighed inwardly, 'Of course this cruel man would assume sending such a young child into the midst of an extremely dangerous criminal organization would be a reasonable thing to do.'

"So you're saying a teenager who should be busy fawning over boys and staring at herself in the mirror for 10 hours a day is vandalizing my property?" Viktor asked with a smirk that told Olga he found it amusing rather than infuriating.

"We don't know what reason she had, sir."

"Alright. The losses were too small for me to take offense. What about the sudden surge of rumors on the forums accusing us of being the bad guys or whatever ridiculous nonsense?"

"We identified the source of the new rumors to come from a stream under the group name 'Valhalla's Sinners.' Theodore Aster, a B-tier recruit, was supposedly speaking badly of us in one of their small-scale streams. He is currently sitting in jail, by the way."

"Free him. I'll have a little chat with the recruit. Did the streamer upload a video yet where this footage is present?"

"No, sir."

"Good. If they upload it, kill them. If not, then a small stream means nothing. Leave them alone."

Streams on the awakened media platform could only be viewed live, they would not be available for watching later. The streamer could decide to upload it as a video, either in full length or edited for a more exciting viewer experience. If the streamer of this specific stream uploaded a video of Theodore saying such stuff, many people could see it, but as it stood, only those who were present during the broadcast saw it.

"Yes, sir. Should I do something about the new A-tier recruit? His parents were calling his phone."

"He is undergoing initiation, it'll take a while. Make sure the phone can't be used to track us down."

"Naturally," Olga bowed and left.

"Cheers!" Four jovial shouts sounded in the private room of a bar.

"This is my first time drinking wine… and also my last. I can officially proclaim that I hate it," Luna announced after she was done grimacing from the taste of the beverage she drank.

"Are you okay?" Aria asked.

"Yeah… I spoke with the Gale guy-"

"Levi the Whirlwind," Nyx corrected.

"… Yes, him. He promised that Theodore would get the psychological help he needed. I can't do anything for him besides looking into this Blood Pact organization, but we're far too weak to do such a thing."

"Yeah…" Kaiden nodded with sadness. He wanted to do more for his girlfriend, but he also knew their limits.

"What's next in store for us?" Aria asked while gently stroking his hand to let him know it was okay.