The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era

AT first, the comments were still a bit cordial. Most of it were from people expressing their disbelief.

[Although I don't know who this Astrid Townsend is, since you said he's a newcomer with no other works under his name, I don't think the director of [Blind Justice] would give such an important role to someone like that. Not unless he completely gone bonkers, that is.]

[This Astrid looks good though. No, he looks way better than good. He's beautiful. But just like what the others said, I don't think the person on the trailer was him.]

[Yeah, I mean, he's just a newcomer. No matter how good he looks, normally a newcomer would start with a small role. I don't think being Remi's childhood sweetheart could be considered as a small role.]

Comments similar to those followed. But soon, a rather 'discordant' comment appeared.

[What are you people saying? It's obviously my baby, Astrid. That slender and beautiful back could only be him. Just look at how lustrous his black hair is. How could you think that it belongs to that Yujin Wells? His hair isn't even that black. Besides, he wasn't that good at acting. Why is it that if it's Yujin you people are alright with it, but if it's Astrid it's suddenly impossible? What's so different between the two? They're both newcomers. That Yujin only had one drama before this and he's not even the male lead. Why are you treating him like he's some kind of son of destiny? Astrid definitely looks way, way better. And he's from Polaris. I'm sure he's much more talented compared to Kaleido's factory produced artists.] 

At first glance, this comment seemed to be Astrid's fan and was defending him passionately. But if one looked more closely, it's obvious that this person was trying to sow discord.

In just a few sentences, they managed to pit Astrid against Yujin Wells. The latter was already slowly making a name for himself and had already accumulated enough true fans. With this comment, it managed to anger Yujin's fans. Even some people who was just there to watch the fun seemed to think that the comment was a bit exaggerated. 

Then, as if making the situation much worse, it was followed by comments simply goading everyone to hate on Astrid.

[Yes, yes, I agree. Astrid is definitely much better than Yujin Wells.]

[He's even better than the other actors you guess would play this role!]

Many more comments similar to those appeared one after another. These comments made people's impression of Astrid fall to rock bottom. Even those who weren't a fan of Yujin Wells had a bad impression of Astrid. 

[Aren't you people daydreaming too much? Let me return to you what you said earlier, is this Astrid Townsend the son of destiny?]

[I don't even know who this Astrid Townsend is and you're telling me he's better than everyone else? I think you have a problem with your brain.]

[True! Even if Yujin only played one role so far, his acting in that role was very good and loved by everyone. And now you're comparing him to some no-name artist?]

[So, what if this Astrid is from Polaris? Does being from that company equated to being a good actor? Hah! I can tell you some artist from there who aren't even that good. And who knows? Maybe this Astrid seduced someone from the upper levels of Polaris that's why he got in.]

[Don't you think this is just Astrid hyping himself up? Maybe that one who commented about how 'great' he is was someone he paid or something. I mean, look, aren't we talking about him right now?]

After that comment came out, more and more malicious comments appeared. Some were even below the belt, calling Astrid all sorts of name. Degrading him as a person. As if he's someone who's guilty of killing another person. 

But this was just something natural. Once things got heated and emotions heightened, people couldn't help but say the meanest thing they could think of at the heat of the moment. 

And just like that, Astrid's prediction really did come true.

---------

At the capital's military base, a certain general was looking intently at his Terminal. The more he looked, the darker his expression became. If there was someone around him right now, they would definitely freeze because of the cold aura emanating from him.

These people--! How dare they say these things about Aster? – That's what Wulfric thought as he was reading the comments under the trailer that the official account of some show posted. 

He had his [Cyberspace] set up in a way that he would receive notification every time the name 'Astrid Townsend' was mentioned in a post, comment, or reply. So, when he received a notification earlier, he thought that Polaris finally released Aster's schedule of activities. Like, you know, the movie he would appear on or a fan meeting or something. The latter was a term he learned just a few days ago.

But the notification took him to a video. When he read what was posted together with the video, his immediate thought was Aster would be in this said video. So, he quickly played it. 

When it ended, he immediately understood why he received a notification. Because Aster was in the video! Even if only his back was shown, Wulfric could still tell that it was him. He was impressed that someone aside from him recognized Aster. But more than that, he felt happy for the other. Because it meant that Aster now had true fans that they could recognize him just by looking at his back.

So, with a good mood, he scrolled down. But what he saw was completely different from what he expected. Everyone was simply scolding Aster as if there was no tomorrow! The comments and replies he read made him want to strangle the people who posted those mean things.   

How dare they say all those things about Aster?!