The Fall of a New Star

In a luxurious apartment, a young man in his early twenties was lounging on the sofa, with some athletes' clothing and sports equipment such as baseballs and bats placed not far away.

He was a standout athlete in the Koshien High School Baseball Tournament.

Immediately after graduating, he was recruited by a well-known team because of his excellent performance in the game, quickly becoming a substitute player.

His future could be said to be very promising, and now he already had a fan club online, with a fan base of over ten thousand.

Recently, he also had the opportunity to appear frequently on TV programs, which further increased his influence.

According to his agent, the number of fans was rapidly increasing, showing a trend of breaking through twenty thousand.

Every time he thought of these things, he felt quite good.

At this moment, he seemed to remember something and casually picked up the phone to dial his agent's number.

"Hey, Kuroki-san, are there any talk shows on TV these days? I haven't had training recently, so I can spare some time to go to the TV station and show my face."

On the other end of the phone, his agent Kuroki said helplessly, "Sato, you promoted the game from Surai Electronics in the live broadcast on those four TV stations last time, which is considered taboo for them. They don't want to invite you to participate in interviews anymore."

Sato frowned, "Just because I mentioned it? Besides, this was also a requirement from Surai Electronics. As long as I say a good word about them on TV, I can get over five million yen. Such opportunities are rare."

Agent Kuroki said, "Of course, I know that. So, since you're going to be excluded from those four TV stations for the sake of that money, they are very resistant to electronic games and consider them as destructive as a flood. In short, those talk shows on the TV stations won't invite you anymore."

Sato was a bit dissatisfied, "These old guys from the TV stations are really conservative. I just said a few irrelevant words."

"It's inevitable. But don't worry, it's not a big deal. When you truly mature in the future, you will still become a guest on these TV stations. It's not a big problem."

"What about the other two TV stations? Tokyo TV and NHK TV, aren't they not opposed to electronic games? NHK even advertises for Surai Electronics regularly. Can I participate in a few talk shows on these two TV stations? Or maybe some variety shows."

Since tasting success in the last live broadcast, Sato began to feel that he should make efforts in this aspect and maybe bring unexpected surprises.

Agent Kuroki hesitated, "Hmm... I'll ask around. NHK might be possible, but as for Tokyo TV, Sato, forget about it. Tokyo TV seems to have a deep tie with GameStar Entertainment, and they have a strong cooperative relationship. Going to Tokyo TV will definitely be a lost cause."

Sato shrugged indifferently, "Tokyo TV? It's just trash. It claims to be the sixth largest TV station, but it's not even worthy to polish the shoes of the top five TV stations. If I can't go, then so be it."

"Please watch your words, Sato. It's fine for us to talk like this in private, but outside, we absolutely can't. Even if Tokyo TV is relatively weak, it's not something we can afford to offend."

"Alright, alright, I got it. Oh, by the way, have any fans contacted me recently? The good-looking ones, I mean." Sato suddenly changed the subject, with a slight smirk on his lips as he asked his agent.

"No." Agent Kuroki directly gave a negative answer, then said, "Sato, I must remind you in this regard. You are no longer just a middle school baseball player, but a professional athlete now. Your previous bad habits need to be corrected!"

"Uh, I'll pay attention."

Sato was not very pleased.

You're my agent, I'm paying you, and yet you're being managed by your employer?

Forget it, this guy is really unreliable. It seems I have to find out for myself.

The fan base of the fan club has been increasing recently, maybe there will be some good opportunities.

As he thought about this, he walked over to the computer and casually opened a forum webpage.

It was a fan club forum specially established for him, with many fans who admired him.

Every day, there were hundreds of posts on this forum, some discussing Sato's games, while others were constantly praising him, making it seem quite lively.

However, about seventy percent of the liveliness in here was superficial.

In the current internet environment, there had gradually emerged an industry chain of water armies.

In order to increase his exposure, he decisively spent money to increase the traffic on his forum every day, so that more people would pay attention to him.

The remaining thirty percent, even if they were real fans, was actually quite good.

Not long ago, he was lucky enough to find a good girl here and dated her for a while. Recently, he was getting a little bored and thinking of trying something new.

As he was eagerly watching the forum updates, a notification email popped up.

The title of the email was: Sato, look at the bad things you've done. Dare you say you're a pure athlete? Trash.

Sato frowned when he saw this email.

What's going on?

What bad things have I done?

Sato hadn't reacted yet when he subconsciously clicked on the email, inside of which was a compressed file.

And the name of the compressed file made his heart skip a beat.

It was a very familiar name.

It was his childhood sweetheart from junior high school.

The two of them used to get along very well, their relationship so close that they were almost likely to get married right after graduation.

But as Sato became more and more successful, he began to drift away, and there were several instances of him being caught cheating.

Later, the two gradually grew apart, and their relationship could never return to what it used to be.

He hastily opened the compressed file, which contained some old photos and some text records about him being caught cheating.

Hmm... it doesn't seem like a big deal. These text records are meaningless, and I can simply say that they were fabricated by someone to maliciously slander me.

As for his childhood sweetheart, he had given her family a sum of money a long time ago, instructing them not to reveal his past, otherwise he would make her suffer social death. This was handled by his agent.

Looking at these photos, mixed in with some sweet photos of him and his childhood sweetheart, but at this moment, all he felt was disgust.

Could it be that my childhood sweetheart is trying to disgust me? Or is someone trying to extort some money from me?

That won't do. If this continues, something bad might happen at any time. I have to call her family again and warn her.

He casually intended to delete these files, but suddenly he found that he couldn't control his mouse anymore.

And the mouse was moving on its own at this moment.