"Scared me to death, Mousey!"
Captain Harper: "???"
What the — how did the conversation suddenly jump to this?
"It's just — you can actually talk to animals? That's so cool!"
Captain Harper: "…You're overthinking it. Didn't you already start cultivating? Once you level up a few more times you'll be able to understand the secret chatter between people and spirits."
She patted the girl's shoulder, all solemn: "Train hard and watch less anime."
Officer Kim kept her mouth shut. Only after Captain Harper left did she whisper to the others, "You're no better — you showed up in cosplay at the scene. I told you that big-sister vibe doesn't suit you; you look like you sneaked into Mom's closet…"
Things moved fast. By the time the official statement came out, Rowan Tate's fans finally went quiet.
As people guessed, Jenna Carter hadn't been killed directly by him, but Rowan did have innocent lives on his hands.
Even with the police working fast, they'd only found the people locked in the villa's basement who hadn't yet been trafficked out; the ones already sold were still unaccounted for.
Luckily Jenna had managed to get hold of that ledger. With it, they at least had a clearer idea of who was missing.
[...for a moment nobody knew what to say]
[It's hard to believe someone so influential in showbiz could do something like this. Honestly, this is terrifying — can we have a full sweep of the industry for rogue players?]
[Can the people who trolled Ollie apologize to the kid? This had nothing to do with him. He probably had no idea his stream captured anything crazy! Especially Rowan's fans — they roasted him for no reason!]
[Ugh. And there are still people saying, "Yeah, you might have lost your life, but my brother lost his career and freedom!"?]
[The entertainment industry needs a serious investigation. Some fans are genuinely scary.]
[Wait — who says Ollie wasn't involved? Go look at his alt account. He knows Jenna Carter!]
The rumor mill turned from trending scandal to Ollie's alt instantly. His main account wasn't the platform for this kind of thing — it represented him and, to an extent, Starline Entertainment.
But the alt was obviously his.
The handle: TryingHardToEatToday. The avatar: a little hamster gnawing on sunflower seeds, drawn by one of his fan-artists.
He posted a long Instagram statement in three parts. First, he confirmed Jenna Carter's death and said any unfinished contractual or copyright matters tied to Jenna's works would be handled by Ollie's team.
Second, he publicly filed suit against his former company for illegally appropriating Jenna's works and slapping other names on them without permission. And third, he sued Rowan Tate for plagiarizing a series of Jenna's songs.
When Ollie listed the titles, readers were stunned.
[Over a hundred songs… Marcus Hunt basically treated Jenna like a machine. No wonder a once soulful songwriter disappeared — the company stole his output and handed it to others.]
[Wow, the more they dig on Rowan the worse it gets. No wonder people always said his style resembled Jenna's early stuff. If you literally take someone's songs, of course they'll match.]
[Jenna was incredible — writing over a hundred songs even in this situation. Ollie said some were demos or unfinished, but still…]
[Even demos are useful; somebody just had to polish them and they turned into hits. That's talent. If he'd never met Rowan, if he'd only survived until his contract expired with Marcus, maybe things would've been different.]
[At the end of the day, love makes people blind. They were involved romantically — of course Rowan could take his music and rationalize it.]
[So did Ollie know Jenna was locked up? Why didn't he call the cops sooner? Was the reality show really just a coincidence?]
[No proof. That villa was super hidden; officials searched that area for ages before they found it. Ollie probably had no idea where Jenna was.]
[And that reality show thing — maybe it was karma catching up with Rowan. Ollie's not a prophet; how could he predict Rowan would be so dumb to openly conspire on camera?]
Caleb Ross had even thought about hiring a heavyweight legal team for Ollie. Once this mess started, there was no stepping out. But Ollie's connections were deeper than Caleb expected — the lawyer Ollie hired was the country's top copyright litigator. Caleb wondered which family's scion he'd accidentally dragged into showbiz.
"'Traveling with Memories' is a live reality program. No matter what, you — stay out of trouble. Ollie, if you keep this up you're going to be the law-and-order influencer!"
Ollie felt guilty. He hadn't meant it.
He was just a small, helpless hamster — those bad guys came to him first. Why was it his fault?
Caleb dropped Ollie back at his apartment. Julian North had his assistant; Ollie didn't, so Caleb had considered finding him one, but he doubted an assistant could control him.
"Sleep early. No sneaking snacks at night, got it?"
"Uh…okay." I won't sneak — I'll eat openly and proudly, hmph.
Caleb kept glancing back as he left. The kid was grown — he needed space. He shouldn't hover.
Of course, give a kid space and he'll take it to extremes. No sooner had Caleb left than Ollie ordered a feast.
Fried chicken with egg-yolk mayo, cheesy turkey ramen, and a passionfruit-orange juice. He fired up the giant projector in his living room and started a movie while he ate.
It was a horror movie he'd already seen before, but bored and out of options, he rewatched it.
Just as the ghost was about to jump-scare on screen, there was a tremendous crash — the balcony window shattered. Ollie wouldn't usually be scared by movie monsters, but with that real noise, the fried chicken nearly slipped from his paws.
He took off his gloves and marched to the balcony — who dared make a ruckus at his place?
He yanked the curtain aside and came face-to-face with a pair of deep green eyes gleaming in the night. The animal's body blended into the dark; its presence sent chills down Ollie's spine.
All his hair stood on end. He stumbled back, accidentally kicking a plushie on the floor. Thud — he toppled into a pile of stuffed toys.
"Ah!"
The black figure froze.
It nervously hopped down from the railing, stepping carefully around the glass to enter the apartment. The plushie pile no longer held the boy—he'd thought his scare had driven the critter to hide, but then the stuffed-toy heap muffled sounds of struggling.
The black cat tilted its head and padded over. It pulled aside the toy on top and found a little hamster pinned under the plushie's giant fluffy leg.
The cat blinked: "…you got trapped by that??"
Mousey: "…Aaaaaahhh! Help!!! Oh my god, Cat! Cat! Save me!!! There's a cat!!!"
The cat didn't know what to say. With a casual move of a paw, it peeled back the plushie that had pinned Ollie, freeing him. Ollie shot like a bullet and dove under the sofa, vanishing.
The cat didn't pursue. It had been the one to accidentally scare Ollie and break the glass. After a moment's thought, it caught a whiff of food in the living room…
It swiped at the air a few times and a membership card, covered in cartoon doodles, fell onto the shards on the balcony. Then the black cat leapt through the broken window and melted into the night.
When Jenna floated over later, she found the place in chaos and nearly called the police.
Since Ollie had been sent to Northridge, he'd spent idle time training with some elders who stayed up on the mountain. There weren't any ghost cultivators among them, but Northridge was rich in aura; it was easy to find techniques that fit him.
Jenna was a prodigy. With no mentor, just by reading manuals, he'd managed to build his cultivation. Though he might not be a match for Ollie in close combat, after a year of building his soul-body, he'd become one of the strongest humans across The Order and metaphysical circles.
Ollie was a little spirit being filled with pure aura, and Jenna cultivated off Northridge's energy; their power came from similar origins, so Jenna immediately sensed the trembling hamster hiding under the sofa.
"Ollie, what happened? Are you okay?"
At the familiar voice, Ollie crawled out shakily. Jenna gathered him in his palms to comfort him, then, like someone who knows hamsters well, fetched Ollie's favorite cookie — shaped like a tiny hamster — from a little cabinet.
"Waaah, Jenna! If you'd been even a minute later I might've disappeared! A huge black cat smashed the window — its paw is bigger than me! I was terrified!!!"
Jenna frowned. "You're on the fifteenth floor. How did a cat get in? Is it some kind of spirit cat?"
"Yes! For sure! It had scary murderous energy — you could tell it had taken a few mouse lives. Boohoo I want to go back to Northridge, the city is too scary…"
"That big black cat actually dared to scare you! Next time I meet it, I'll make Uncle Ned beat it up!"
Jenna hugged Ollie and walked to the balcony to inspect. The glass was utterly smashed, but…
He picked up a card among the shards and hesitated. "Mimi didn't look like she meant to scare you. She left an apology."
It was a CrunchCrunch Unlimited Membership Card — with this card, snacks at any CrunchCrunch location were free. The card was stained with the aura Ollie had described, and the word "Sorry" had been written on it with spirit energy.
Ollie glanced at the card; his little eyes lit up instantly. "Okay, I admit it. I yelled a bit too loud earlier."
"She's a good Mimi."