章節 32: Chapter 27: Finally, A Day Without Anything Drastic Happening (Part 2)

[I am a machine, Cyrus. I do not negotiate.]

"...But you just did."

[Take it or leave it, Cyrus.] MEGAN's voice turned adamant, [If we're really that famous already, you need us more than we need you. There's only one Julian Winters right now—I reckon there are more of you.]

"You… Mr. Julian?" Cyrus glanced at Julian, who simply shrugged in response. Just… how much autonomy did he actually grant MEGAN? Was she… even legal?

"Ugh…" After a moment of hesitation, Cyrus sighed in defeat. "Fine. 70%. But on one condition."

"What condition?" Julian tilted his head.

"I get to interview you, right now, right here—live." Cyrus started tapping the table, "I've already hinted at this meeting to my followers, and if I announce that I'm going live with the Sword Junkie in a few minutes, people will go nuts."

"Now…?" Julian breathed out.

[Can you give us a moment? Go get Julian some water or something.] MEGAN's voice cut the conversation short as she suddenly ended the call.

"Uh… okay?" Cyrus blinked as he instinctively got up and walked away. Wait… why does it feel like MEGAN was the one controlling the entire situation now?

And while Cyrus was getting some water, Julian sat back as MEGAN's voice filled his head.

[Julian, I need you to think this through. If you agree to this live interview and this entire thing, a lot of things will change. 1. You'll lose any privacy you have left. 2. Those loan sharks might notice you and make things worse. 3. You're dumb. People will take advantage of you. You know that, right?]

"Well…" Julian let out a sigh, his hand lightly tapping the edge of the table. "That's what I have you for, isn't it? To manage all that."

[You…] MEGAN was quiet for a moment. [...You really trust me that much?]

"Of course."

[Alright…] MEGAN's voice softened slightly, [Remember, Julian. We're doing this for Ellie.]

"Always," Julian breathed out, "Let's… get this over with, then."

Moments later, Cyrus returned to the table, his phone now resting on the surface; there were different holographic displays projecting from it—a screen showing Cyrus, a screen showing the chat, and a screen for the analytics of the stream. "Alright, I've set everything up. We're about to go live in just a few minutes. Get ready."

[Remember, Julian. No extremely personal questions. If he asks anything you don't want to answer, I'll cut it off. We're signing a digital contract for this, so he can't exploit you.]

"Got it," Julian replied.

And very soon, Cyrus's holographic screen flickered with activity. A series of chats began pouring in as viewers started flooding the stream. For some reason, Julian could feel the subtle excitement in the air, though he couldn't see any of it…well, perhaps MEGAN whispering to him added to that.

"Hello, chat!" Cyrus's voice boomed as his face appeared on one of the holograms. "I bet you all were shocked by my announcement! But, I mean, can you blame me? This is going to be huge!"

<disscotastic05: Where is Sword Junkie!? Show him!>

<KittyFanatic: Move out of the way, Cyrus! Show the newbie!>

"Alright, alright, calm down," Cyrus tried his best to contain his excitement. He knew there were going to be a lot of people—but this surpassed all of his expectations, "How about let's not let them wait anymore? Sword Junkie…

…why don't you come say hi?"

"Uhm…" Julian took a deep breath as he showed himself on the screen and sat beside Cyrus. And as soon as his figure appeared on the screen… the chat just exploded.

<leah: OMG HE'S HUGE!>

<Darkxion5456: Bruh… gigachad.>

<CoolDude12: dat jawline doe. Superman adaptation, when?>

"Hello," Julian just slightly tilted his head as he heard MEGAN reading all the messages, "My name is Julian, and I'm part of the Otherworld Project. It's nice to meet all of you."

<...>

<StarlightGirl: HE'S SO HANDSOME OMG.>

<DanDanDan: His clone wasn't enhanced!? How is he this good-looking IRL?!>

<benihaniman: Wait… he's blind!?>

<Jaxthe10th: Blind!?>

<D_Roberto: No way>

<SwordJunkieNo.1Fan: Sword Junki3 has no need for eyes!>

"Oh… uh… yes. I'm blind," Julian smiled as he pointed at his eyes again. "MEGAN is reading all your comments for me. She's my… older sister, in a way."

<YesMan: He's BLIND!? No way.>

<MerylMeryl: Isn't that a MEGAN…?>

<ChristineWalter444: His AI is his older sister? That's adorable.>

<CampLeet: autism strikes again!>

"Wait a second…" Cyrus could not help but disrupt the chat as he noticed something in the analytics, "...the female viewer count is suddenly higher than the male viewers!? What's going on here?"

<SailorKiki: What's his @???>

<13thOfSpades: brooo. Chat is thirsty.>

"Uuhh…" Julian slightly adjusted himself as MEGAN continued to read the chat to him.

"Alright, alright…" Cyrus quickly sensed Julian's discomfort, "We don't have much time before we're kicked out of the cafe. So… let's focus on some questions."

Cyrus's eyes turned into a hawk's as he read the chat; his experience, almost automatically filtering the interesting ones.

"Oh, here we go. We have one from… iLuvUnicorns," Cyrus slightly turned to Julian, "iLuvUnicorns is asking if you have experience in smithing in real life since the NPCs of Artemia seem pretty impressed with you."

Julian frowned slightly. "NPCs…?" he asked.

Cyrus chuckled awkwardly. "Ah, right. For those who don't know, Mr. Julian here is a complete newbie to all of this. He hasn't played any games in his life—his first exposure to RPG elements is in Artemia, which is ironic since Artemia isn't even a game!"

The chat flooded with reactions, some groaning at Cyrus's poor joke, while others continued asking about Julian's blacksmithing.

"So, do you have a background in smithing?" Cyrus pressed since he already knew the answer.

"Yes," Julian nodded slowly, "I've been crafting weapons my entire life. But no one ever bought them."

The chat instantly reacted with curiosity, while Cyrus leaned in. "Wait, why?"

"They weren't effective against the daemons." Julian's expression turned somber, remembering all the times his work went to waste.

The chat flooded with encouragement, with some viewers even offering to buy Julian's weapons.

"Hold on, hold on!" Cyrus laughed nervously. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. You can send those requests directly to Mr. Julian later. For now, let's talk about what's coming next!"

"Ladies and gentlemen…" Cyrus's grin widened as he gestured toward the camera, "I'm excited to announce that from now on, whenever possible…

…I will be following the Sword Junkie around Artemia as his official videographer!"