Giovanni walked into the spacious office to deliver his latest report, his footsteps completely silent on the thick carpet. Stefano sat behind his grand desk, looking through a mountain of unpaid bills with a stressed expression."Aria will make her first public appearance on a cable gaming show next week," Giovanni said, his voice entirely calm and steady.Stefano dropped his expensive pen immediately, the plastic clattering against the dark mahogany wood as his eyes widened with immediate panic.He felt a sudden rush of heat flood his chest, his deep anxiety about the company's future flaring up into sudden anger."Are you completely out of your mind, Giovanni?" Stefano yelled, his eyes widening with immediate panic.He slammed both hands flat onto the wooden desk, leaning forward until his chest almost touched the messy paperwork."She is a legendary S-rank hunter who should be stepping onto a massive stage to show her true hunter ability to the world," Stefano continued, his face

The Challenger badge next to Aria Reeves's ID sat there gleaming like a small, neon-blue star against the darkened interface of the pre-game lobby. It cast a faint, almost mocking glow across the faces of the production staff, who sat entirely frozen in place like statues.The entire control booth had plunged into a state of sudden, paralyzing shock as they struggled to process what they were seeing on the high-definition master monitor. In the modern ecosystem of competitive matchmaking, only 0.007 percent of the entire global player base ever managed to scale the ranks to reach that absolute pinnacle.It was a statistical anomaly, an elite tier reserved almost exclusively for active esports professionals, hyper-focused prodigies, and legendary ladder grinders who dedicated their lives to the keyboard. To see it attached to the account of an unranked, unknown hunter from a struggling agency felt like a deliberate glitch in reality."You look like a bunch of dead dogs staring at an em

Aria scrolled through her phone with her knees pulled to her chest, the blue light washing over her tired face. Forum after forum, the same name kept popping up. Her name.She'd opened the app out of habit, expecting nothing but raid schedules and patch notes. Instead her own name sat there, buried inside threads she didn't remember being part of, attached to a show she barely understood the appeal of. It felt strange, seeing herself talked about like a rumor instead of a person."Jason." She didn't look up from the screen. "Why are these people talking about me on cable channels."He was sitting across the room, sleeves rolled up, fixing his cufflinks like he had somewhere important to be later. Calm, unreadable, the same expression he wore whether the topic was world ending dungeon rifts or what to order for dinner."Rumors. Let them talk.""That's not an answer." She finally lifted her eyes. "My magic recognition doesn't need fixing. I'm not exactly hurting for stream money either.

Chief Manager Derek Young's voice came through the phone smooth and warm, the kind of tone built for closing deals rather than telling the truth. Sean held the phone slightly away from his ear, his jaw tight."Sean. It's been too long. I hope there's no bad blood between us, considering the circumstances.""What do you want, Derek." Sean's voice was flat, stripped of the politeness their history might have demanded."Straight to business. I respect that." A pause, theatrical, designed to build anticipation. "Two spots just opened on Dungeon Exploration Team. I think Aria Reeves and Ryan Lee would make a wonderful pair. Former teammates, reuniting on screen. The audience would eat it up."Sean's grip on the phone tightened. He glanced at Jason, who was leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed, expression unreadable as always."I'll call you back," Sean said, and ended the call before Derek could push further.He turned to Jason immediately, his voice low and urgent. "That's a

The morning after Derek's call, Sean sat across from Jason with a coffee he hadn't touched, the steam long gone cold. He kept replaying the conversation in his head, trying to find some angle that made the decision easier to accept."Walk me through it again," Sean said. "Slowly this time."Jason set down the documents he'd been reading and folded his hands. "Derek offered the spots framing it as natural chemistry. Former teammates reunited. It's a story angle, not a real consideration for Aria's career.""And the reserve position.""Almost certainly Ryan's. He doesn't get airtime unless something happens to an active participant." Jason's tone remained even, but there was something sharper underneath it now, a precision that hadn't been there in casual conversation. "Either he's there to pressure her directly, or he's there to create an accident under the cover of unpredictable filming."Sean rubbed his temples. "And you're certain Ryan would actually go through with something like t