Andrew, currently chatting with Astra Yao, was completely unaware that he had been somewhat demonized in the gossip of others.
Though even if he knew, he would probably just laugh it off.
Without discussing it with her two playmates from earlier, the middle girl suddenly blurted out: "Actually, when you're not too scared to look at him, I feel like his armor is actually pretty cool..."
Sneaking a careful peek from a distance, the three of them eventually fell silent and had to admit it.
Andrew's build was tall but not slender, strong but not bulky—the type that looks lean in clothes but is shredded underneath.
His well-proportioned physique paired with the Vicious Claw Wyvern armor really did give off an incredibly cool vibe.
It was just a pity they couldn't see his face behind the mask.
Noticing the fearful looks from the young girls around him, Andrew felt it wasn't right to stay there any longer, so he decided to head out from backstage.
After glancing around, he made his way to the empty first row of the audience seating.
This spot was closest to both the backstage and the stage. If anything actually happened, being here was no different from being backstage; he could reach the scene instantly either way.
In fact, since it was empty, he might even be faster from here.
However, coming to the audience seats had its perks. Andrew got to experience the exclusive treatment of a front-row concert seat.
For the rehearsal, they basically ran through the entire concert flow. Sometimes, if the effect wasn't right, they'd even go through it several times.
He could probably post on the Inter-Knot starting a rumor that some rich guy paid Astra Yao for an exclusive private performance.
But it had to be said, the immersive feeling of being there live was completely different from listening on electronic devices at home.
What really opened Andrew's eyes was how, accompanied by Astra Yao's singing, shimmering purple energy not only supported all the performers but also displayed a high degree of mastery over all the instruments.
Just seeing this skill, Andrew could be certain.
She was indeed the perfect helper he was looking for to help reproduce that music!
Making that request earlier was definitely the right move.
Having Astra Yao help was infinitely more reliable than his previous plan of learning all the relevant instruments from scratch.
But regardless, that would have to wait until the rehearsal was over.
After a busy day, the sun had wandered to the west. Light refracting through the atmosphere painted a vast crimson sunset across the sky, changing its color entirely.
Astra Yao finally finished her rehearsal. At the same time, Evelyn, as if she had anticipated this, suddenly appeared in the venue from out of nowhere.
However, compared to her relaxed demeanor in the morning, she was now unconsciously frowning.
The whole morning's investigation hadn't turned up any leads. The biggest suspicion was that all these paparazzi came from the same newspaper agency.
But after Evelyn tracked them down and infiltrated the place, she only found new gossip templates drafted for various stars; other than that, she came up empty.
There wasn't even anyone there.
If the light in the chief editor's office hadn't been on, Evelyn would have thought she was investigating the wrong place.
Casually tossing the fabricated report about Astra Yao into the shredder, she drew her dagger and walked through the door to the chief editor's office.
The door opened to reveal a bloated man angrily writing something.
"Who's there?!"
The moment he looked up, the rage on his face instantly morphed into sycophancy the second he recognized the person opening the door was Astra Yao's manager, Evelyn.
His expression changed faster than flipping a switch.
At the same time, he flopped to his knees with a thud. While swearing he would never again make up gossip about Astra Yao, he spilled everything he had done over the past few days like beans from a bamboo tube.
The level of detail in his confession even stunned Evelyn.
After telling him to get to the main points, Evelyn soon got all the intel she needed from the newspaper chief.
A crazed fan had provided a route, stating with absolute certainty that Astra Yao would take that path for rehearsal today.
They also marked several buildings along the route, saying they wanted photos of Astra framed with those buildings, offering a very generous reward.
Broad scope, loose conditions, and lots of money.
The newspaper chief agreed immediately.
After all, running a newspaper was about making money, and sending paparazzi to snap photos was their bread and butter. The chief immediately dispatched all his subordinates to stake out the various locations.
And then?
Then they all got wiped out in one go by Andrew. Now they were all sitting in Public Security cells, leaving the chief as a commander without an army.
Knowing the commission fee and his employees were gone, the chief cursed in a fit of rage.
After a moment of hesitation, he decided to take matters into his own hands, planning to make a quick buck and recoup his losses by cooking up some scandalous romantic gossip about Astra Yao. But just as he finished writing, Evelyn showed up at his door.
And that led to the present.
Having been tracked down directly, the chief felt he had eight lifetimes of bad luck to run into this deadly duo. He made a painful resolve to never accept another commission related to Astra Yao.
This time he really lost everything—threw good money after bad.
After verifying he had indeed spilled everything he knew, Evelyn confirmed there was no more intel and returned to the venue.
The morning investigation revealed nothing unusual. Fans paying to hire paparazzi was a common occurrence; at most, this one was just a bit more lavish than usual, but not unprecedented.
The requests were just slightly odd, that's all.
There was even a fan before who paid a huge sum to hire paparazzi for a photo of Astra Yao sleeping. Though thanks to her presence, no one succeeded that time either.
But this time, there were some differences.
The other party had commissioned the job through the Proxy net and had been intentionally hiding their identity. So, based on the chat logs, there was no real intel, and Evelyn remained completely in the dark about the client's true identity.
Most importantly, when Evelyn tried to message the other party again using the chief's phone, it showed the account had been deleted.
The only clue was that the client's choice of words suggested they were from the Outer Ring.
But wording can be mimicked, so this information could only serve as a reference.
Back at the venue, she saw Andrew, who should have been backstage, sitting helplessly in the center of the first row of the audience, his shield and lance right by his hand.
Andrew, having spotted Evelyn the moment she returned, waved at her from afar. Once she got close, he asked directly, "Find anything?"
Hearing this, Evelyn was startled, looking at Andrew with a hint of surprise.
Seeing her surprise, Andrew sat up straight, clasped his hands under his chin, and said: "You frowned and ran off looking worried right after interrogating those paparazzi—what else could you be doing if not investigating? Let's hear it. Maybe I can offer a fresh perspective."
____
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