Impact (2)

"Mr Denver, is that you in the video?"

Rin received the smartphone from the youth as a frown formed on his brows immediately. It was footage of his gameplay, alright; a skinny dude with dyed blond hair with clothes in rags. The footage was of the very first day when he was chased out by the pack of wolves.

He exchanged a look with Seth and faced the youth, who was looking at him with unbridled eagerness. The other teen was watching the exchange with deep interest as well.

"This obviously isn't me," Rin said with the utmost firmness. "How can you even compare? I am obviously more handsome than this dude in the footage."

"But," the youth tried to voice out his suspicions.

"This is obviously not me," Rin said, "but my uglier brother. He's only good at gaming, I guess."

The youth looked at him suspiciously, clearly not believing him at face value.

Thankfully, Rin had hidden his name tag on the game, or it would have been too easy to make the connection between him and Ulysses. That was possibly the last thing he would want.

Although Ulysses had a ridiculous number of fans, most of them knew him through his Avalon Online Avatar, which was too contrasting with his actual shape.

"Huh, you don't believe me?" Rin said, shaking his head in disappointment. "Huh, kids these days. Fine, I'll meet you up with him when he comes around."

Rin excused himself, leaving the older man to deal with the teen. Rin prepared to make lemonade, keeping his ears open to hear how Seth was duping the youth to sell his story.

Well, his caretaker was doing a way better job at it than he did. So Rin rewarded him with a glass of lemonade.

"Thank you," Rin said, handing a glass of lemonade to Seth while keeping the other one for himself. "How did the footage get out? I thought there was no recording feature and Avalon was protecting its consumers' privacy."

"They can possibly be using it for advertisements."

"Beats me," Rin shrugged, "though I'm pretty sure that scene wasn't something most people would want to be in."

"You didn't let me watch all the footage," Seth said, eyeing the youth who was still peeking at them with his friend. "But it looked pretty eye-catching to me."

Of course, it would be eye-catching. A single man fighting a pack of savage wolves in the most realistic view possible, and surviving? Yes, people would want more of those.

"Ask him where he got the footage," Rin said.

Seth nodded and addressed the kid again, who was pretty polite to give a straight answer.

"It is all over the internet now," the teen said, leading Rin to groan. "Apparently, some footage was released in the recent press conference. Many players recorded it and uploaded it to their channels."

Rin cursed under his breath. "Let's hope my footage was the least attractive to the public eyes," he whispered to Seth, "or even might have to leave this place behind if I see dozens of people crowding over every day like the last time."

"Well," Seth said, licking his lips, "I don't think you're that recognisable in that footage. You lost a lot of weight, dyed your hair, and most of all, you were a kid back when you became famous."

Rin gave him a flat look.

"I mean, you looked like a kid," Seth laughed. "But since the day you started to distance yourself from the game, your face has grown more masculine."

"You sounded like I went through my puberty in my late teens," Rin snorted. "Well, you aren't wrong, though."

Rin checked on his features on the reflection on one of the bottles decorated on the wall. A skinny guy with sharp features, with no prominent muscle, but an athletic figure. His illness rendered his hair to bleach out, but Rin solved it by dyeing them blond.

It was pretty hard to recognise him from the Rin of two years ago if one didn't know him in person.

Rin sighed, finishing his lemonade.

"Anyway, I thought you liked the fame," Seth said. "You haven't changed that much, do you?"

"Yeah, I like it, but there's a time for everything," Rin said as he stood up. "Besides, I like my freedom more than my fame."

With that, Rin went out on a walk. He had no pet to keep him company, but if his lady luck carried well, then he might just bring someone back with him.

That didn't happen, even though the beach had attracted a pretty good number of visitors. Single people just don't come on holiday with their friends anymore.

Eventually, Rin had to return with a heavier heart, not just because he found no one to bring back, but because there were a couple more times people asked questions, showing him the footage.

Rin cut his walk short on the third time such a conversation occurred. If this really gets out of hand, he might really have to leave that place.

Rin liked it here pretty well, considering how hard it is to get a cosy place in the world now.

So to keep his livelihood at peace, he messaged two people getting back home, both of their contexts being about the same.

First was to his friend, Luke, asking him to not upload if he received any footage of him.

As for the other person, it was Stephen Archer, but Rin wasn't that courteous to that fella. He asked to not release any more of his footage to the public in straight words.

He wasn't sure if his plea with Stephen would do any good, considering that guy wouldn't even listen to his own mother.

That only left one person. Elise. Unfortunately, he didn't have her contact and the only way to meet her was at the game.

With that in mind, Rin logged back into Apotheosis Online.

_____________

The chapters of this book will be locked in a few days after it reaches 50 chapters.

Thank you, everyone.

Also, thank you Random_Creativity_6304 for your review.