The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era

DURING the recording, Nadia could see how almost all the audience's eyes were on Astrid Townsend. Even when it was her turn to be interviewed, most didn't even pay attention to her! And it didn't really help that the video chosen by the program team was from a past she's trying hard to forget.

That's when she hadn't yet debuted as a member of her former idol group. Looking so ugly and cheap while struggling in the mud. She hated that period of her life so much. And yet, it was broadcasted for everyone in the Empire to see.

She tried to get the attention of the audience by putting the spotlight on her and stealthily attacked Astrid along the way. But the other surprisingly avoided her attack and reflected it back very skillfully.

Nadia couldn't take that and thought of another way. What she planned was to take a picture with Astrid and make a somewhat ambiguous post about the two of them. Then she would pay some gossip account to post an article implying that Astrid admired her very much.

If such a hot newcomer with that kind of face showed interest in her, her stock would definitely rise. But before she could even take a photo, that annoying writer, who barely had any presence, suddenly intervened and took Astrid away.

It was a good thing that she had already asked one of the staffs to take a photo of them to make it look like it was taken accidentally, thus giving it more credibility. It's just that, the photo taken was not the one she wanted. But that's fine. She could still spin that to her advantage.

The first thing she did was to buy a blank Terminal. It's a term used for Terminals that were not registered to real people or people that had already died. It's a common thing that some professional trolls used so they could freely spread malicious comments without worrying that they would be tracked through their Terminals.

Of course, IP address was also another way to track. But that wouldn't be a problem as long as one used an IP address that wasn't remotely connected to them. She was being this careful because  she had also seen how one of Astrid's fan was able to doxx a group that was intentionally spreading malicious comments about him. The same could happen to her if she wasn't careful.

That's why Nadia didn't hire anyone and just planned to do it herself. Well, she only needed to use the blank Terminal and connect to a network that was far from her home and company address.

She only needed to do one thing and her fans would do the rest. And just as she already expected, everything was happening accordingly.

Nadia was about to smile when she saw a post while browsing on [Cyberspace].

[@oneleaf: I just want to clarify something because of the post and comments that are circulating around <Cyberspace> right now. Astrid didn't ignore Miss Beck. I was the one who pulled him away before the two of them could take a picture. So, if you wanted to blame someone, then blame me.]

=====

"Fiona, didn't I tell you not to post anything until the company sort everything out?" Theo scolded from the other end of the virtual screen, he quickly video called Fiona the moment she posted what she just posted. His expression was dark, as if torn between helplessness and frustration.

Fiona bit her lower lip. "B-but Astrid did nothing wrong. I- I can't just let him be slandered for something he didn't even do."

Theo sighed. He almost asked if Fiona had never thought that she was the one who would end up being hated because of what she just posted. But he stopped himself because he knew that that definitely didn't cross her mind. Fiona did it just because it's what she thought was the right thing to do.

He was sure that she would have never even imagined that all of this was just a targeted harassment perpetrated by a single person. Yes, that attention-deprived woman, Nadia Beck.

But at least in Fiona's case, it was because of her inherent belief in the goodness of people. Unlike Nadia's fans who were obviously lacking in common sense and would just believe anything their idol threw at them, Fiona was definitely better.

But then again, weren't all famous people had die-hard fans? He bent even the prince who everyone was afraid of had people admiring him senselessly.

Anyway, that's not the point now. It's important to fix this situation first.

"Theo- are... are you mad at me?"

Fiona's voice brought Theo's attention back to the other. And once again, he sighed. It's not like if he said 'yes', the other would reflect. So, he could only say, "No, I'm not. Just try not to post anything for the time being, okay?"

"Okay," Fiona nodded.

"And don't look at the comments in [Cyberspace]," Theo added.

Fiona nodded again. She wasn't planning to anyway. She had already seen some of the comments under the post she made. All of them were saying mean things to her. She really couldn't handle things like that, so she quickly closed [Cyberspace].

But that situation was definitely much better than having Astrid be slandered by people because of something that wasn't his fault. That's why she could close [Cyberspace] without much feeling of guilt.

Theo ended his call with Fiona and planned next to call Ellis Payne. It was a relief that the two of them exchanged numbers. He was told by the company to coordinate with Polaris regarding this issue and quickly fixed it.

=====

On planet Alluna, a certain price was reading all the comments on his [Cyberspace].

Wulfric was thoroughly infuriated by the things that he's reading. He remembered how Aster didn't want to get revenge on this Nadia Beck. And yet, here was this b*tch making trouble like this.

Aster had told him that he shouldn't deal with things like this. But it should be fine if it was done by his number one fan, right?

=====

And while all of these were happening, Astrid was sleeping soundly on his bed.