Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System

Kevin worked fast.

The next evening, Tristan already exchanged the information he wanted for cash.

"When I told them I was a fan of Nelson's, these two almost closed the door in front of me," Kevin recollected with a small scowl. "And when that didn't work, they did all they could to convince me to stop being Nelson's fan. Luckily for me, that made it easy to get the information you needed from them."

"And?"

"This interview wasn't their idea—the journalist who took the interview approached them first. He called himself Logan Brooks, but it might be a pseudonym. That's all they know."

Tristan nodded thoughtfully.

So, as he feared, there was someone else behind this. Someone at BuzzBeat, the gossip news website that published the slandering article, had to know more about this.

'I could pay a personal visit to their office—if there's even anyone here. Not to mention, it's in another city. No, I should use a more delicate touch instead.'

***

The BuzzBeat newspaper had an online page, as everything in modern days. Its journalists also had their own pages, linked to the main one. Although Logan Brooks was definitely not his real name, Tristan easily found the journalist's online profile.

The journalist even offered people to submit juicy gossip to a specified e-mail address.

'This is so easy.'

In half an hour, Tristan wrote and sent a message from a disposable email.

***

Another day later, it was actually fished out from the deep well of other messages and opened by Brooks.

[Topic: I walked past Golden Talent Group offices and saw THIS! They didn't notice me filming.]

The body of the email was empty, but there was a single video fail attached.

Perhaps it was a prank—God would know it wasn't the first in Brooks' career—but perhaps it was a jewel that will win him a Pulitzer award. It was his job to check.

He opened the video… and immediately closed it, cringing and rubbing his forehead.

It was gay porn, cut right to the nastiest parts.

Now Brooks wanted a shower for his eyes.

***

In another city, Tristan chuckled when he read that his Beholder virus successfully infected a computer.

He could've chosen any other harmless video or photo to send Brooks, but he felt like some harmless—for now—revenge was in order. Even if it was really immature.

'Even I can't be cool 24 hours a day. I will leave myself a minute to be uncool and just relax!'

Another day later, Tristan had most of Brooks' passwords. With the modern methods of protection like two-step authentication, it was bothersome to actually use them, but Tristan's hacking skill gave him hints about how to avoid that.

With some work, Tristan was free to read Brooks' work emails.

There was so much celebrity gossip… Some of it could've worked as blackmail, some of it was just trash, trash, trash.

But after actual hours of scrolling carefully through the message history to not miss anything, Tristan found what he wanted.

The messages were from a personal chat with Brooks' editor—a clear like day proof of guilt.

The editor actually gave Brooks a task to investigate Nel's past, which he did until he found his parents. In the process, they gossiped about the person who gave that task.

[Greenpawl? Why is she even interested in some small fly? Not that SHE is a huge fly. Unless you were talking about Mrs. Greenpawl earlier. I bet I can make an article out of it.]

[You don't want to cross the Greenpawls. Anyway, they were together at the contest recently. Don't you remember?]

Greenpawl!

The name made Tristan seethe.

"She again!" he hissed, alone in the silence of his office in the Good Lion Bar. "She just doesn't learn, doesn't she? Then I will have to leave her with no opportunities to cross me anymore."

He tapped his fingers on the table.

Murder was the most assured option. Dead women told no tales and didn't ask journalists to slander anyone.

However, even Tristan felt like this would be a disproportionate punishment to the crime. The thing that suffered the most was Nel's nerves, and even they recovered in no time when the slandering article got no traction.

It got no traction because Nel wasn't popular enough, but that wasn't the point.

'I'm going to remind her which of us has actual blackmail material on the other.'

***

Next day.

"I can arrange a meeting between the two of you, Mr. Gemello, but may I ask why? If these are personal matters, you don't have to say, but at least I should know what to put into the message."

"Just say that I want to talk with her. Personally." Tristan put a smile on his face and forced it to stay charming instead of showing his true anger. "If she is curious, tell her that I had regrets since our last meeting."

Derek looked at Tristan with palpable concern.

"Mr. Gemello, there won't be any gossip articles about you after this, right?.." he chuckled weakly. "Well, I suppose it's inescapable. Just be careful, please. Your preparations for both the contest in Los Angeles and the music video release go so well, it'd be terrible if something happened."

Tristan nodded.

"Don't worry. I just hope she replies soon."

But that would take some time. Meanwhile, Tristan had something to tell Nel.

***

The next time they gathered to eat out together after music practice, Tristan told Nel about what he found.

"What? Jane?!" Nel shook his head. "Tris, we didn't even talk to each other! What does she have against me? Where did you find that info from? Why were you searching for it, I told you not to!"

"Calm down, Nel. I'm 100% sure about this information. As for how I found it… I hired a hacker."

Nel dropped his head into his palms and groaned.

"You are so stubborn. And so… You know that law exists? Even if law enforcement is…" Read new chapters at m_v-l'e|m,p| y r

"Yeah, the law enforcement indeed is. And Jane Greenpawl tried to slander you. And might try again. Are you going to do something about it?"