The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era

"WHAT are you reading?" Reas asked his brother who was looking at his Terminal as if he was reading something interesting.

"Just some comments about the trailer of that show's 100th episode where I appeared as a guess," Astrid answered, scrolling up at the virtual screen in front of him. 

A single episode had its own trailer? – Reas thought. He thought it was only for movies and dramas. But what did he know, really? He had never been interested in the entertainment industry. If not for his brother wanting to be an actor, he probably wouldn't even bother to get acquainted with it.

"There's a trailer? Why didn't you say so? We could have watched it together after dinner," he said.

"It's fine. My face wasn't shown in the trailer, so, you won't really see me," Astrid said. "We can just watch the episode together once it aired next week."

Reas only nodded. "It's on the weekend, right?" 

"Yeah. So, we can watch it together." Astrid glanced back at his brother who was in the kitchen, then he saw that the other was wearing his 'work-out clothes'. "You're going for a run?"

Reas nodded again. He was planning to go on a run before dinner. But since they decided to eat out, the time he should spend on running was then spent on going to the restaurant. That's why he decided to just do his nightly run after the returned home.

"Don't wait for me and just go ahead and rest," he said. 

The other had gone to an audition today. Even though Astrid made it seem like a simple matter, it was probably still a bit taxing for the other.

Astrid already had a guess what the other was thinking. So, he said in a teasing tone, "Yes, 'big brother'."

Reas only rolled his eyes at him before walking to the door and leaving.

Astrid smiled and returned his attention to the comments on [Cyberspace]. Just as he did, a particular comment caught his eyes.

@astridsnumber1fan: [To those saying all this bullshit about Astrid without checking first whether the things you're accusing him of were true or not, go and eat you own shit. The Empire doesn't need people with low IQ. Why don't you all do us a favor and immigrate to another star system?

As for these following people, I'm waiting for you to be sued!]

This very domineering comment was then followed by a list of handle names, tagging them directly. If one was observant enough, they could see that these names were those who praised Astrid to the sky with no rhyme or reason. As if he's the son of heaven or something.

If that was all, this comment wouldn't probably attract that much attention as it was now. But right after that comment, there were files of evidence attached. Yes, evidence. On the files, the IP addresses of the people mentioned were listed. These IPs showed that they had a transaction with someone with the same IP address. 

It's like a receipt that this person asked them to do something and they were handsomely paid for it. The time they received the money was just a few minutes after the trailer of [Blind Justice]'s 100th episode was out. Then, after that, the files showed that the owners of these IPs actually belonged to a group that specialized in character assassination.

Yes, that's right. This group's job was to damage the reputation of their target. Their targets were usually newcomers in the entertainment industry who were just starting out in their careers. Most of their victims didn't have any extraordinary backgrounds. So, they hadn't received any backlash so far and continued on with their 'business'.

This group might have purposely chosen such easily handled people so they could go under the radars and not be suspected. Under normal circumstances, the same thing would have happened today. Astrid would be ostracized and his reputation would take a dive. 

But who would have thought that such evidence would appear?

The one who posted seemed to still not be satisfied with the bomb they dropped, so they quickly added;

@astridsnumber1fan: [To that person who hired this group of people to bully Astrid, you will definitely get what's coming to you!]

Within minutes, the comments made by this person exploded. People replied one after another. At first, they expressed their disbelief, most thought that the poster was making things up. Some even thought that the person was Astrid himself. In which the person only replied;

@astridsnumber1fan: [Truly, you people's imagination really knows no bounds. Not only can you invent things out of nothing, even if the evidence is right in front of you, you would choose to think of something absurd rather than to admit that you're wrong. Well, what do I expect from people with low IQs? If you don't believe me, why don't you check if the people I listed above really have the same IP addresses? I'm sure at least one of you have the ability to do that. If not, then you really are a useless bunch.]

With this kind of provocation, what else could people do but to check? Those who were technologically savvy easily managed to check if the IPs really belonged to those handle names that the original poster posted. And the result was, it was indeed true. 

Although they couldn't check if these people really received money from someone, the seed of doubt had already been planted in their hearts. And once it was there, what else could it do but grow? Especially with people commenting, expressing their doubts, serving as its nutrient.

As if still not satisfied with that, the original poster followed it up with;

@astridsnumber1fan: [Also, to those people I tagged, don't bother changing your handle name or delete the comments you made. Because even if you do, you will still be sued. Maybe not by me, but definitely by Polaris.]

Astrid, who read all of these, only narrowed his eyes at this familiar username.