“It’s not fair.” Derrick grumbled. He sat in front of the school as the crowds of students flooded out of the front doors, having finished their second exam. He had spotted Eli walking out looking too carefree for his liking. “Stop smiling like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you just came back from an amusement park or something.”

“Oh, should I look more like this?” He forced a pout.

“Yes please, thank you.” Derrick felt better.

“Hey, Winters!” Keldan shouted from behind them, rushing through the crowds with a sense of urgency. The two stopped as he caught up, catching his breath for a moment while holding a paper. “Th-that was really fun last night, eh? What a fight. I guess I’m the one who needs to learn how to play, hahah.” He laughed awkwardly.

“What do you want?” Derrick said what Eli was thinking.

“So uh, funny thing, about the stream last night. It was a big hit, but the clip got removed from my channel. I can get it back, but only if you sign this form.” Keldan anxiously held the paper out.

“Huh? Why? I mean, I didn’t turn the filter off so you shouldn’t have gotten in trouble.” Eli replied confused.

“Y-yeah, it’s not that. Something to do with your dad, not allowed to stream you on purpose without your permission.” Keldan replied. Eli’s interest piqued, he pulled the paper out of Keldan’s hand and read over it, remembering what David had told him about networks bugging him.

“Why would I sign it?” Eli replied coldly.

“Well, because it was so much fun, right? Everyone got to see how cool you were?”

“I’m not going to sign it.” Eli shoved the paper back in his hand.

“Wha- but tha-'' Before he could finish his sentence, the female player behind Vriflow came from behind Keldan and grabbed him by his ear, tugging him away. She looked similar to her in-game avatar, but brown hair instead of red and no pointed ears.

“We promised to leave him alone, so leave him alone.” She spoke without looking at Eli or Derrick. A few seconds later, Jeremy walked past as well and gave them both a nod. Once they had disappeared back into the crowds of students, the two looked to each other.

“Your da- David is suppressing you? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“Pretty sure it’s a good thing, so guys like that don’t bug me.”

“But you can make a ton of money streaming, you know that right?” Derrick asked.

“I’ll only get Makaroth’s viewers ogling me like I’m some trophy of his. Not interested.”

“Man you really hate that guy don’t you.” Derrick shook his head. As the two descended the steps to the street they saw the crowds of students in front of them parting like a wave on rocks around a beautiful asian woman with shining black hair that reflected the sun, wearing a skin-tight white dress with white high heels and black tinted sunglasses. All of the male students that walked around her had turned back to get a second look, some staring longer than others.

Eli’s immediate reaction was to avoid someone like that, he walked as far around her as possible, but when he glanced back, her head had turned to face and follow him. He felt a sinking sensation in his stomach and tried to walk faster, doing his best to avoid eye contact, but he heard the sound of her heels clicking on the pavement behind him getting closer. He pretended not to notice, despite Derrick nudging him to point out that she looked like she wanted to talk with him.

He tried to play it cool, standing at the bus stop looking straight ahead at the street, patiently waiting for the bus to arrive. He watched as the people standing near him backed up to make room for the woman until she moved to stand right in front of him, putting her hands on her hips.

“Eli Winters?” She asked with a smile, her eyes were impossible to see through her tinted sunglasses though. Derrick’s face lit up as if he had fallen in love at first sight. Eli pretended not to see her still - he thought someone like this was probably nothing but trouble.

“You are Eli Winters, right?” She tried to confirm.

“My mother told me not to talk to strangers.” He replied back nervously. She chuckled shyly.

“Oh, so charming.” Her laugh became uncomfortably forced very quickly. “I’ve been waiting for you, Eli. You know that you are very special to me, right?” She leaned in, squeezing her minimal cleavage together under her dress to make sure Winter could see it.

“A-ah!” Selena’s feet moved on their own, normally too shy to greet him, she couldn’t help but do so this time and she walked up to Eli and Derrick, drawing their eyes away from the woman. “Hi Derrick, H-hi Eli!” She butted in, causing Hae-won to pull back looking slightly peeved.

Winter turned to see her and looked relieved. “Oh, good, you’re here, now we can go shopping!” Winter replied forcefully, walking down the street away from the bus stop quickly, trying to get away from the woman.

“But, we’re taking the bu-?” Derrick looked confused.

“You forgot, we said we’d go shopping after exams today with Selena, no need to wait here for the bus. Right Selena?” Eli replied. Selena looked confused for a second before nodding in agreement.

“Y-yes, we need to buy, uh, lots of apples.”

“Apples?” Hae-won replied confused as she watched the three awkward highschoolers walk away from her. Selena and Derrick followed after Eli as the nearby students watched the scene unfold, but they were slowly losing interest. Hae-won rushed to cut Eli off and stand in front of him, gently touching his shoulder to get him to stop.

“W-wait a moment, Eli. I have the business proposition of a lifetime. How would you like to live stream for our network and make lots of money?!” She said enthusiastically.

“No thanks.” Winter replied coldly, brushing her hand off. Selena seemed happy that he answered her in such a manner, and the three began walking faster.

“But you didn’t even hear the proposition!” Hae-won called after him, but she got ignored. “Hrraaah.” She huffed angrily to herself as Shinji walked up behind her.

“Tsk tsk tsk. You just don’t understand a man's heart.” He padded his hand over his chest. “You can’t win him over with such cheap tactics, old lady. Don’t worry, uncle Shinji is here to save the day.” Shinji replied confidently. Unlike Hae-won, he hadn’t changed his clothes yet, nor showered.

“Are we really going shopping for apples? I wanna go to the Sim Center…” Derrick complained as they kept speed walking away from the suspicious woman.

“There’s another bus stop up here. Thanks for the save again, Selena.” Eli replied.

“N-no problem.”

“What if she had a good deal though?”

“Probably someone sent by David, too suspicious. Who dresses like that to talk to high school students?”

“Y-yeah!” Selena agreed. The two reached the next bus stop and stood around it, waiting patiently for the bus. “W-well, I can walk home, s-so, I’ll see you in-” She was interrupted as a sickly looking asian man dashed in front of the three of them and dropped into a full on dogeza, nearly splitting his head open on the stone.

“Eli Winters, please listen to my proposal.” All three of them pulled back in disgust and fear, going quiet. After a moment, Shinji looked up from the ground, his sunglasses had shifted off his face slightly revealing his horribly sunken eyes and he cringed at the sunlight. “Ah, too bright, too bright.” He quickly fixed his sunglasses back over his eyes.

“What is with you guys?” Winter replied.

“Z-zombie?” Derrick mumbled under his breath.

“I believe that I have a proposition for you that will be greatly beneficial to both of us.” Shinji said with an ugly looking smile.

“Live streaming?”

“Yes.” Shinji nodded.

“I thought Makaroth told you all that you can’t bother me.”

“That is true, the major networks won’t go near you now, and we can’t stream you without your permission. But I don’t represent a major network, I represent the Fanta-see Network.” Shinji replied, and in the distance the group of them saw Hae-won running to catch up with them, her ankles wobbling in her heels as if she’d never worn a pair before.

“She’s with you?” Eli asked.

“Y-yes, if you were to join us, she would be your commentator and narrator, and I would be your editor.” Shinji replied. Eli turned to Derrick.

“I’ve never heard of the Fanta-see network, you?” Eli whispered.

“Nope.” Derrick shrugged.

“Hey, I appreciate your enthusiasm but, like I said, I’m not interested in live streaming…” Eli replied apologetically. As Shinji stood up and sighed, Hae-won arrived and stood behind him out of breath. The two looked at each other worriedly.

“Could I ask why? If you don’t mind…” Shinji replied dejectedly.

“No offense, but, you’re just looking to capitalize off of Makaroth’s name, right? You seem like nice guys but, a smaller network trying to use me to get to the top, there’s no way someone would accept that, right?” Eli replied, he thought he’d been a bit harsh but they were starting to remind him of Keldan - so he was quite surprised when both of them grew gigantic smiles across their faces.

“So that’s the reason.” Shinji smiled.

“I knew it wasn’t because I’m not pretty enough.” Hae-won back at Shinji while elbowing him.

“So if you don’t mind…” Eli motioned to the bus that was now pulling up to the stop. The door opened and he and Derrick got on. Selena waved them off, but to her surprise, Shinji and Hae-won got on the bus behind them. Not sure what was happening, Selena didn’t want to miss out and quickly rushed on the bus as well at the last second.

When Eli and Derrick found their seats, Hae-won and Shinji sat across from them, and a moment later Selena sat a few seats away. Eli looked at all of them with an annoyed expression.

“Look, the answer is going to just be no, over and over again. This is getting into stalking territory.” Eli sighed.

“You misunderstood us. We’re not here because of Makaroth at all, actually it’s almost the opposite. I saw the clip of you fighting those level 30 players…”

“That was just last night... You’re here that fast?” Derrick replied skeptically.

“VGN has software that identifies clips that receive unusual amounts of activity, yours was one of them so I saw it right away. I’m an editor, I sometimes look for highlight reels.”

“But you said you work for Fanta-see Network or whatever.” Eli replied.

“Work for now, yes. I quit my job last night. Because VGN won’t go near you. Your Dad has his lawyers telling the three major networks to stay away from you, or he’ll cut ties with them. And he’s signed a C.O B24, so no one can display footage of you without his or your consent.” Shinji replied while leaning in across the bus aisle.

“You’re telling me you quit your job to try and sign Winter?” Derrick asked in disbelief.

“He’s a bit eccentric.” Hae-won commented.

“That’s a bit…” Eli pulled away.

“I bet it on you, Winter. I saw how you play, I see the sort of person you are. You’re the kind of guy that’s worthy of my editing skills. You are the one that can tell a story worthy of my editing skills.” Shinji replied with a twinkle of passion in his eyes.

“He is one of the best Simstream Editors in the world.” Hae-won commented.

“L-look, I appreciate all this, but, no matter what, the moment I start streaming, I’ll just be compared to him the whole time. Everyone will just look at me because of him. And that’s not how I want to go up. I’m not good with all that live streaming stuff anyway, putting on a show or whatever. I just want to play the game the way I want to.”

“Tchaaa, I’m falling in love with him.” Hae-won replied with glee. Once again, they had the total opposite reaction to his words than he was expecting.

“That’s exactly the sort of person we want. And look…” He reached into his bag hanging over his shoulder and pulled out the re-customization forms. “If this isn’t proof enough, I don’t know how else to convince you. We’re not interested in Makaroth, it’s you we want.” Shinji replied.

Eli took the form and saw there were more copies of the same forms, handing them to Selena and Derrick as well.

“You want me to change my avatar’s appearance and name?” Eli asked, confused.

“Isn’t that really expensive?” Derrick commented.

“We’ll handle the fees, don’t worry about that.” Shinji replied.

“But why?” Eli asked, confused.

“Truth is, your father, Makaroth, has his lawyers being pretty heavy handed. They’re claiming any usage of your name in a broadcast is the same as profiting off of his image and would be attempts to profit off his brand. Even if you signed the B24 form, it’s likely they’ll still try to claim revenue or something else from your stream. Honestly, a good lawyer would be able to stop something like that, but it’d take time and money. The easiest way to shut out all of that is to have you start out without any relationship to him.” Shinji went on. Hearing this, Eli suddenly smirked at Shinji for the first time, his ears perked up with interest.

“He’s a bit of an overprotective father, huh? So much that you might even mistake it for him trying to block you from getting any fame for yourself.” Hae-won made an offhand remark as she leaned back in the bus seat. Her remark got more of a reaction from Eli than she had expected, he turned to look at her with inquisitive eyes.

“Of course, to make things easier for you and your friends, we’d be willing to pay for their re-customization as well, so that no association can be made to your stream and Makaroth. The form also entails blocking enquiries from other networks trying to learn your real identity, so there wouldn’t be a repeat of what happened last week.” Shinji added. Eli turned to look at Derrick and Selena. Derrick shrugged to him, seeming a bit overwhelmed while Selena kept reading the fineprint on the paper.

“They need to change their avatars too? Isn’t that a bit much?”

“In return, the 6 month contract with our network will be extremely beneficial to you.” Shinji replied confidently. Eli sat back to think about it for a second.

“Honestly, this is alot. Like I said, I don’t even know how to live stream…”

“All you have to do is sign the contract and our network will have access to the direct feed of your stream. You hit the livestream button and it’ll be sent to us, where we will handle the advertising, promotion, editing, everything. You just play the game as you normally would, and every month you get a cheque in the mail.” Hae-won replied.

Eli sighed as he looked out the window of the bus. “Contracts and all that though... I won’t sign anything until I’ve talked to my mom about it.” Eli replied.

“That’s perfect, is she free to meet us right now?” Shinji replied with enthusiasm.

“I… I guess…” Eli was surprised how desperate they were. “If the contract will mean they have to re-customize-” Eli motioned to Derrick and Selena.

“Are these your party members? Silentwire and Davoth?” Shinji asked.

“Yes…”

“Nice to meet you, amazing dagger skills.” Shinji reached out and shook Selena’s hand. “Great use of Redirect.” He shook Derrick’s hand. The two of them blushed.

“You guys free to stop by my place?” Eli asked them. Selena nodded shyly.

“Are you kidding? I wanna see how this ends for sure.” Derrick replied excitedly.

------

“So, let me get this straight.” Jillian said as she paced across the living room. Eli was leaning on the wall behind her while Shinji, Hae-won, Derrick and Selena all sat on the furniture around the room.

“You watched a clip of my son last night, quit your job, got those contracts, and took a flight out here to meet him, all within the last day?” She asked Shinji.

He nodded. “I believe he has incredible potential.”

“Hm. Just how desperate are you?” Jillian replied while eying them up and down. “You want all three of them to recustomize, and you’re willing to pay the fee? Isn’t it close to $1000?” Jillian asked.

“It’s nothing compared to what we think he’ll make in the long term, if he continues to play as he has been.” Shinji replied, Hae-won nodded.

“What is the revenue split?”

“60 40. We’ll take 40% of sponsorship and ad revenue that we’re able to accumulate for his channel.”

“Isn’t that a bit high?”

“It’s standard nowadays, we’ll be making sure we get as many non-intrusive revenue streams as possible as well as handling all editing and promotion.” Shinji replied.

“What obligations does he have, what if he doesn’t feel like streaming any more one day?” Jillian asked as she pulled up the contract forms and skimmed over them once more.

“No obligations, he can stream whenever and however he wants.” Shinji replied quickly.

“Hm…” Jillian paced a bit more. “My son has been accepted into University, and needs to focus on making money for his education, or obtaining a scholarship. If you’re hoping to have him livestream for you full time…”

“We can offer to pay for the first year of tuition upfront on the first contract. It lasts 6 months. If additional contracts are signed and everything goes well, we can discuss it further during contract renewal.” Shinji replied. To this, Hae-won angrily jabbed at him while Jillian held back a squeal of excitement, throwing her hand over her mouth, and the eyes of all three highschoolers went wide.

“Tommy told you, we’re broke right?” Hae-won whispered angrily to Shinji.

“It’s fine, I got a 6 month severance package when I quit.” Shinji whispered back.

“W-well. In that case, if you wanted to maximize profits, my very talented and ambitious son would be able to stream longer if he had access to a state of the art i.Box 5, with Dream simulation enabled.” She replied confidently.

“T-two, one for my mom as well.” Eli jumped in excitedly, like his mother he’d just realized the direction the deal was going in.

“I also don’t have one, I could use one.” Derrick chimed in, Selena remained quiet.

“Th… that’s a bit much, those things are like 15 000$ each…” Shinji pulled back nervously. Hae-won gave him an ‘I told you so’ look.

“That’s a drop in the bucket compared to how much you think he’s worth, right? Or you don’t think my son is worth it?” Jillian tried her best to push the transaction forward.

“I could swing maybe one of those things upfront, as a sign of good faith, and subtract the price from your first payments.” Shinji replied apprehensively.

“Subtract from first payments? Just how much are they expecting him to make?” Derrick whispered to Selena who shrugged back nervously.

“Ok, but in that case, at least two. Final offer, or I won’t sign.” Eli replied while crossing his arms.

--------

As Shinji and Hae-won were leaving Eli’s house, Shinji hit his ear implant to contact Tommy, getting him to answer almost immediately.

“How’d it go, did you get him?”

“We got him.” Shinji replied. “One other thing, we’re roommates now, I won’t be able to afford my apartment anymore.”

“What the hell did you offer him, your entire severance package?”

“And savings.” Shinji replied shamefully.

“Hae-won didn’t stop you?” Tommy groaned.

“I tried. He’s the type of pizza guy who pays you for taking his pizza.” Hae-won hit her ear implant to join in the call.

“It’s gonna be worth it, trust me.” Shinji replied.

“How soon are they starting?” Tommy asked.

“I am scanning up the documents now.” He said as he held the papers out in front of his eye and tapped his eye implant several times. He had forms signed by Derrick, Selena, and Eli. “Averon's got a quick response time, once it goes through, the contract is active and we’ll have access to his feed.”

“Good, get some sleep on the flight back, you’re working starting tonight.” Tommy replied with a hint of joy in his typically monotone voice.