Divine Celebrity 132 (Patreon)

I was amused that the day after my great victory, I was being targeted once more. Admittedly, going down to give that little spoiled man a beatdown was tempting, but even with my growing reputation, I had no doubt that it would end up with me being arrested and fired.

Luckily, there were more ways to humiliate people than a direct confrontation. 

And, what better way to do that than to use their own tools to achieve that. The studio already had many cameras, and the asshole friend of Coach Spencer looked just stupid enough to actually record things that had been going on in his studio. 

I moved forward immediately. Not because I was feeling impatient, but because the security cameras in the corridor were placed horribly, allowing me to easily weave through them. I followed the cables, expecting to find a little juncture box that connected the cameras to the main security system. It would be challenging to hack through that connection, but not impossible. 

Instead, I found a nice surprise. A door, hidden behind a secure keypad, the distinct sound of a server coming from inside. 

And, a little telekinetic push was enough to open the door by pushing the hatch from inside. No lengthy lock-picking was necessary. 

And, I found myself in the security room. There were only a dozen screens, which was not enough to observe a company of this size. It didn’t take long for me to realize the reason. It was just to handle the cameras of the studio, separate from the rest of the building. 

I put on gloves not to leave fingerprints, then pulled the chair, ready to browse the recordings, ready to use several password crackers to see if I could break in … only to realize there was no password. “Weird,” I murmured. 

Then, I glanced around, realizing that the room had too many expensive knick-knacks to belong to a security guard. He probably didn’t allow anyone but himself to enter, thinking that a locked door was enough to provide security. 

With a smirk, I had gone through the hard disk, my eyes widening as I took the recordings. Not only it had recordings of the owner and several friends having a good time with the models, but also had many hidden camera shoots. 

There were even several recordings where he was explicitly blackmailing the models. 

“A moron and a criminal,” I murmured. Either of them was bad enough, but combined, it was devastatingly horrible. 

“Amazing,” I murmured even as I watched Marl return, unable to hide his fury as he rushed back to his office, ignoring Megan while he started shouting at someone on the phone. I used the opportunity to play around a bit more even as I copied every single thing I had found in his hard disk. 

“Maybe you’re even more stupid than I realized,” I murmured as I realized he actually kept the company account open. 

“Why not turn it into a criminal crisis,” I murmured as I started poking around a bit. I used his authorization to transfer a great amount of money outside, using some dubious financial practices, and purchased a lot of dubious digital assets, then sent them into some newly created accounts. 

Unfortunately, I had no chance to actually recover those funds — as any digital financial transition was extremely easy to track regardless of the situation — but I didn’t care much about that. Just sending them out, while framing them as payments to unknown parties, would add some financial crimes to his situation. 

I might have felt bad to frame an innocent person, but he was a criminal. I was just adding a few that even his dear daddy would have trouble saving Marl from.

I was tempted to push for more, but I was afraid to leave stronger evidence. Instead, I installed one last trojan, one that I could continue to use the cameras without visiting again, and made one last check to make sure there was no evidence of my presence. 

There was no chance the trojan wouldn’t be discovered once the police got involved, but that was intentional on my part. With the Trojan there, the police would have a reason to believe the system was hacked, and would have no reason to search for a break-in. 

Then, sneaked out, leaving Megan behind — though not as helpless as that statement implied as I continued to watch the security cameras, and could easily intervene. 

Until I decided otherwise, Megan was one of my girls, and I didn’t abandon mine.

Since my car was still in the parking lot, I couldn’t just sneak out. Instead, I used a window to sneak into the bathroom, and left. The receptionist was there, listening as someone shouted at him. 

I waved to the people, not bothering to hide my laughter as I left, making sure people remembered me exiting the bathroom. Then, I took my car, and drove to a nearby cafe, one that could see the entrance, waiting for Megan to leave. 

I was wearing a cap to avoid people noticing me. 

As I waited, I leaned back on my chair, and a smirk on my face as I uploaded the first video after some editing. I didn’t bother much, just making sure that there was no identifying information about poor models that were trying to make a living — as they were not the ones that were trying to ruin my life —  and instead chose one that displayed Marl together with a few of his friends. 

Spencer was not included, just to make sure. As much as I wanted to ruin his life as well, our beef was well-known, and his presence in the first video would be suspicious. 

Instead, I decided to create a hacker persona. ’Laws can’t touch the strong,’ I added as an opening, then added a signature.

The Cloaked Hero. 

I chuckled even as I created a new hacker persona, the kind that would be created by a thirteen-year-old little kid — another distraction. 

My tech abilities were helpful to turn that into an immediate scandal. A hundred bots — the ones that I hadn’t used to boost my own social media presence — were ready to upload the video on different platforms, blasting without restriction. 

However, I was waiting for one last detail. Before that, however, Megan called. “Where are you?” she asked. 

“I’m here at a nearby cafe,” I said, and sent her the location. 

“Why?” she asked. 

“Because the receptionist made a point of not letting me in,” I said. “Did you know that the owner was a friend of Coach Spencer,” I asked, deliberately sounding angry. I had already checked and knew she was unaware of the important details, but it was a good lesson for her.

Due diligence was important. 

“N-no,” she stammered. “But I can explain.” 

“As you wish,” I said as I ended the call, giving the impression that I was furious, having no problems making her sweat a little. And, maybe, I could finally make her talk a bit about her weirdly professional strategy to manage her image.   

As I waited for her to arrive, I played with the upload a bit, setting a few layers between me and the bots to make sure it couldn’t be traced back to me. 

Then, before I triggered it, Megan arrived, wearing tasteful jeans and blouse combo, her beautiful face contorted with an unusual display of shame. 

She said nothing until she sat next to me, her arm already around my waist. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. 

“Sorry for what,” I said, but this time, I didn’t bother faking anger. The ride was enough as punishment. Her gaze widened as it clicked I was faking my earlier anger, but she didn’t say anything.  

After all, even if my anger was fake, her mistake was clear. 

“Sorry for jumping to an offer without doing a background check. The offer was too good, and I thought …” 

“You thought they were trying to latch onto my recent fame, and that explained their sudden hurry and their amazing offer.” She nodded, a rare genuine blush covering her face. “What exactly they offered you to make you feel this anxious. Normally, you are much more careful.” 

“It’s your fault,” she murmured with a pouty tone. “I had a very good plan. Two more years until graduation, while I did my best to slowly play up my fame, every step calculated.” 

“Then what?” I asked, curious. “Don’t tell me you want to be an actor or model?” 

Megan let out a derisive laugh. “Of course not, I know I don’t have the talent or the passion to be a top-tier actress, and no one else has any power in the industry. Models are even worse. I might as well be an escort. It’s the same thing,” Megan mentioned dismissively. 

Admittedly, knowing what I had just pilfered from the archives just minutes ago, she wasn’t entirely wrong. “And, what do you want to do? Why bother for fame?” Even as I said so, I stretched my intent over her, curious if I would sense any flicker of magic in her. She wouldn’t be the first one that used fame for magic in a more literal sense, after all. Arthur was one such example. 

I was another. 

I only relaxed when I felt no hint of magic from her. No need to ruin things. 

“I want to establish my own business empire, of course,” Megan answered, her expression uncharacteristically serious. 

How interesting.