And the Show Begins

I still do not entirely understand why I agreed to her father's request, but I believe it must have something to do with my sympathy towards her. After hearing her father's explanation of the game's rules, I immediately concluded that I am the only possible candidate for her partner in this game. The time of live streaming was at night, meaning that it will be a difficult time for high schoolers still living with their parents to leave their homes. Therefore, the only one that can possibly come to Irina's aid and help her was me.

Even though I know that what I had done was to help Irina avoid an awkward situation before the entire empire, I sort of regret my decision. Before I walked into view of the cameras, I was already nervous. However, when I saw those many cameras pointed in my direction with the lighting crew providing bright lights in the back, my nervousness went overboard as this was a situation that I had never been in. I could feel beads of sweat starting to form on my forehead as well as the back of my neck. The back of my neck was fine since no makeup was applied there, but as for my forehead—well, my face in general—a light layer of makeup has been applied prior to my journey towards Studio 3-C. Therefore, I was worried if my sweating would possibly ruin it.

"That was fast!" Leiry exclaimed as he saw my arrival. "Whose friend are you?"

"That's my friend," Irina quickly snapped out of her dazed state and back to the professional celebrity that she was, keeping a smile on her face.

"That's not fair," Shol complained. "He was here before we even started streaming."

"For those of you that don't know," Boro started explaining to the cameras. "This young man actually accompanied Irina to PBS tonight."

"Oh?" Yordan raised an eyebrow and said in a joking manner. "Are you sure you're just friends?"

"I just saw him walking while we were headed here," Irina calmly explained. "I originally thought that we'll just get some food together and one thing leads to another and now he's here."

"Stop prying into other people's privacy!" Yrel added.

"Alright, alright," Yordan laughed as he faced the scrutiny directed towards him from the others. However, there were no hard feelings as everyone knew that this was simply for comedic effect.

"Since most of your friends aren't here yet," the director then continued, "You guys will have to entertain the viewers so that none of them would switch channels. I will finish explaining the rules once everyone is here."

"Come on," Shol whined. "You should've notified us beforehand."

"Don't worry," Boro said to him. "We're professional entertainers."

"But what're we going to do to pass the time as we wait?" Lindsy asked.

"Let's guess who's friend will be the first to arrive," Yordan said and started explaining what the rules for this improvised minigame will be.

In a nutshell, what happened next was that each person describe and introduce who their friend was and whether or not they think that person will be the next one to show up. This might be boring in theory, but due to the presence of many big names in the entertainment industry, it wasn't as bland as one would think it would be. Whatever time the entertaining minigame did not cover, it would appear that it was used for commercials to be played. Ultimately though, time seemed to pass quite quickly as well since not too long later, maybe about twenty minutes later, everybody had shown up.

"Now that you're all here," the director continued to explain the rules. As he did so, the assistant directs of each person's crew approached each pair and started tying a paper wristband around each person's wrist. "As you go around the city to complete missions and games, if you're bracelet is broken, meaning if it's torn or anything like that, you will be out."

"Woah!" Shol exclaimed. "So that means we can't separate?" He then held up the hand of his partner which was a man in his twenties. " Are you serious? What if we want to use the restroom?"

"The camera will be off during those situations," the director clarified, "but the wristband stays on. Now, if a civilian were to break your wristband, then it doesn't count. It can only be broken by people of other teams or our Hunters that're scattered about throughout the city."

"How much money went into making this episode?" Yrel commented as his mouth and eyes were wide in astonishment.

"That you do not need to worry about," the director chuckled. "Now another rule is that every hour, there will be a viewer check. Whoever has the least amount of people watching their stream, which counts the number of people tuning in to that group's channel on television or on our streams online, that person will have to make their way to the punishment zone where they will have to play a punishment game and forfeit their collected Holiday Orb. Therefore, provide entertainment to your viewers and attract more or face punishment. If you have zero Holiday Orbs and you're the one being punished, then you will be out as well. Therefore, there are two ways that you are out of the game. The first one is if your wristband breaks and the second one being you owe us a Holiday Orb and cannot pay up."

"Got it," Yrel nodded.

"The game officially ends when the last Holiday Orb in circulation," the director continued. "And once the last Holiday Orb is given to a group, everyone will relocate to a location that will be disclosed to you all at the end for the final event which we'll keep a secret for now. Everyone got that?"

"Yeah," the group said in unison.

"Alright," the director said as the assistant directors handed each person a smartphone. "The phone that is given to you, the new Sumsong Star 13 with its high res camera as well as long battery life, will be your main communication device. There's an interactive map of the city along with the different orb locations on it."

"Wow," Leiry commented as he scrolled through the phone. "It feels so nice in the hands."

There it is, I thought. That infamous product placement.

"If you're all ready, then let us head towards the front entrance of PBS," the director said. "Oh and one more thing. There's no need to worry about fans swarming you as each of your filming crew will be assigned with police officers from the Palisia Police Department."

How much money did this episode get? I thought to myself as I walked down the hallway while following the other celebrities and their partners. I then glanced over my shoulders and at the many cameras and the large production crew. I guess it's a lot...

The entire production crew which consisted of over a hundred people gradually spilled out into the front parking lot of PBS. Not all of them were with us from the start as many of them were actually security personal with each group led by a police officer that was sent from the Palisia Police Department. It was only when we were in a large, open space that I truly realize how big the production crew was for this one episode of the show since prior to this, the majority of the crew were concealed in the offstage darkness of Studio 3-C.

"Alright," the director announced and spoke into a microphone that was connected to one of the speakers on one of the vans parked nearby. Immediately after he had finished saying 'alright', the lights flashed on from the rooftops of the modified vans and a flag was raised. "When the flag is waved, the game begins. Take note, in the initial ten minutes, you are not allowed to break any other group's wristbands. Good take."

Then, the countdown began from three and started towards one. I was quite nervous as the lights shined on my face and the cameraman for our group trained the cameras on Irina and I. I dislike being in front of a crowd and being in the center of attention, so it is only normal for me to dislike being on television, let alone a show as popular as this one. However, since I'm just an ordinary person in this roster filled with celebrities, maybe I'm not in the center of the spotlight after all.

I then glanced over at the monitor display above the camera that was pointed in our direction. On it, there displayed the number of people that were currently tuned in to our channel on television as well as watching us using the online streams. In addition to that, there were also comments that flashed by at a rapid pace. Subconsciously, I checkd the viewer amount and was immediately horrified when I saw that it was at around five hundred thousand.

"Alevian?" Irina whispered to me as she looked over in my direction and up so that she could see my face. "Are you nervous?"

"Yeah..." I whispered.

Then, I glanced over to both of my sides and at the other pairs. Even though they weren't celebrities or people used to being on television, the friends of the other celebrities appeared quite calm and collected. In addition, I saw that each pair were holding hands using the hand that had the paper wristband tied around it so as to offer it the most security and protection.

Just as I was observing the other groups, I felt a cold and soft sensation from my left hand which was then followed by fingers intertwining with mine until my hand was clasped with another. I looked down at it and then back up to observe Irina's face. She was blushing somewhat, but she still maintained a clean image and acted as if it was no big deal. Maybe it is no big deal since the other groups were doing it too, but it was still quite embarrassing for me and somewhat awkward. However, when she gripped tighter on my hands, it seemed to have a tranquilizing effect on me as it seemed to calm my mind and my rapidly beating heart.

"ONE!" the director said into the microphone and the flag-wielder in the distance immediately started waving his flags.

Then, everyone took off towards the open streets of Palim as the show officially began.