Jaylen's desk was full of empty coffee cups. There are stacks of documents, and the constant brightness of multiple monitors. On-screen, the footage he had pieced together was playing on a loop. It was the damning breakdown of Roman Vale’s financial empire.Zee’s synthetic voice pulsed through his headphones.“Compilation Status: 92 percent. Final rendering in progress.”Jaylen leaned back, exhaustion tugging at his shoulders. “We are about to pull the pin on a grenade, Zee.”“Correction: We are about to detonate an entire minefield.”The video was designed for a surgical strike. It was calm, calculated but lethal. It began with short visuals of Roman Vale smiling on red carpets, cutting ribbons and shaking hands. Then, it slipped into the pull of bank statements from shell companies in Gibraltar, Panama, and Malta. Fake contracts for artist development programs that funneled money into offshore accounts. High resolution screenshots of internal memos from ValeStream’s special project

The next morning, Jaylen woke to the sound of his phone buzzing nonstop. He pulled up from his bed lazily. "Who the hell is disturbing my phone?" He complained. He lifted his hand, picked up his phone. When he checked, he realized it was different notifications from Zee. On it was a video streaming across it's holo-screen.“Public interest spike is +3.2 million mentions in the last twelve hours. Majority sentiment is undecided. Recommended decisive move is to sway the opinion.”The storm Roman Vale had stirred was still raging, but Jaylen wasn’t going to let the man dictate the narrative anymore. This wasn’t just about his reputation, it was about breaking Roman’s chokehold over the industry’s image.Jaylen leaned back in his chair, staring at the glowing interface of Zee’s dashboard.“Alright,” he said quietly, almost to himself. “Let’s take this fight where the people actually listen.” He blinked slowly, different thoughts going through his mind. Zee’s avatar flickered into focus,