Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System

It took half an hour and another call for Derek to respond properly.

"This is a very unfortunate situation we found ourselves in, Mr. Gemello."

"An understatement," Tristan bit out. "I know people whose careers were crushed over less. At least I wasn't accused of doing things to minors."

In the last half an hour, his mood only became worse. In a large part, because he made a mistake of researching the situation deeper and reading all the hate comments. Most of the haters definitely didn't hear a single one of his songs in their entire lives.

"But there are also plenty of people who came out of these situations on top, Mr. Gemello. It's still only a media scandal, and not the worst one. If you had a band, someone would've been demanding that you'd be kicked out, but since you are on your own, they have nothing to grasp. And you have plenty of support from your own fans."

"Small blessings."

"So, conspiring everything, you should just relax and let it blow past. I will release a statement from your name explaining the situation. It won't calm down the unreasonable people, but it will give others a reason to mock them instead. The Internet is a vicious place like that. A real jungle."

Tristan huffed.

Yeah, it'd be better if the statement was written by someone more level-headed.

"Alright, Derek. But if you, by chance, find whoever made the original post, I want to sue that person for slander."

"That… that will look petty in the eyes of the public, Mr. Gemello."

"Well, make it not look like that! I'm the victim in this case. Show it to people! I can make a really sad, but dignified face on the camera and tell how I was hurt by all the absolutely UNFOUNDED hate thrown at me."

On the other side of the call, Derek's face turned sheepish.

"Mr. Gemello, please, don't take this situation too close to heart."

"If it affects the sales of my album, I will take it even closer," Tristan grumbled. Then he took a deep breath and put on a mask of someone slightly more amiable. "I will leave you to it, Derek. Call me if you need me to say anything. I imagine that my public mail is exploding with questions, but I didn't look at it."

He was too distracted.

"Understood. Have a good day, Mr. Gemello, and don't strain yourself. There's been a lot of good business offers thrown your way, and I'm sure you want to be fresh and ready for a meeting when we will decide which ones you will take."

'Oh, that.' Tristan smiled.

There really were plenty of offers. Taking part in advertisements, visiting events, and so on and so forth. Nothing too grand, as far as Tristan knew, but a nice source of extra visibility.

"Sure. See you, Derek."

He ended the call.

Then, a thought entered his mind, and he hurriedly called Nelson and told him to not interfere in this. At least, without coordinating it with Derek.

"Damn! I… I was just about to send my reply." Nel sighed. "Stupid. Should've thought about it, of course. But what did this bitch even try to achieve? Ugh!

Tris, I really hope you sue her."

"If social media gave out the personal information of their users so easily, I'd do it already. And the poster didn't use a real name… Bringing them to court won't be easy."

Tristan considered pumping up his hacking skills and trying to find the information anyway. But even he had to admit that it would be a waste of his time.

If he could hack protected databases of global social pages, then he could hack protected databases of the Los Angeles Police Department and dig up (or plant) some dirt.

In a few hours, Derek wrote a message, imitating Tristan's usual manner of speech. In it he explained the situation and firmly, but politely, said that it was self-defense as confirmed by numerous witnesses, and that no actual harm was done to the woman in question.

It worked as well as Derek predicted. Not only now people were throwing hate at each other and not only at Tristan, the controversy brought Tristan more fans.

[I never heard about Tristan until today, but after seeing that he didn't bend over backwards for the crazy woke people, I began listening to his songs out of spite! They are 10/10, by the way.]

[Stop cancel culture! I'm not Gemello's fan, or even like rock music, but I can tell that he did nothing wrong. And he's talented, and are you really going to cancel another talented artist just because someone said so?]

Those messages were a pleasure to see.

Tristan thought that by evening he could largely forget about it, and by the next two weeks, the scandal would pass entirely.

Then, he saw a new post sending waves over the social media.

It was from the crazy woman—Gabriella was her name.

Unlike the first poster, she had an established social page, where she posted her art and gushed over Tristan. And drew a very idealized version of self in romantic situations with him…

Tristan scowled at that, but not as hard as he was scowling at her last post.

[This is me. I was the woman Tristan attacked at the concert. Thank you so much to everyone who stood up to me! I was afraid to speak up. His manager threatened me with the police… When I did nothing but love him! And in return, Tristan spat in my heart.

He called me "ugly" and "fat" with a smile on his face. He scribbled all over my art… I'm still devastated by that. My idol was crushed.]

As a proof of her words, Gabriella posted a photo of her sketchbook, with a black-and-white picture of Tristan scribbled all over with a purple marker.

But it was an entirely different picture from the one she showed to Tristan!

He clenched his fists on top of the keyboard.

[New task: deal with the crazy bitch. Value: 100.]