7
Chloe Hayes was backed into a dead end.
She saw Julian Sterling’s defeat was certain, and the “talisman” in her belly couldn’t be hidden much longer.
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So, she decided to make a desperate gamble.
She started her first, and last, live stream since the “plagiarism scandal.”
In the live stream, she cried heartbroken beyond measure, her small face ghostly pale, looking ready to collapse at any moment.
She offered no defense; instead, she directly knelt before me.
“Sister, I beg you, please let me go, please let Julian go!”
“I know I was wrong. I shouldn’t have fallen for him, shouldn’t have been so obsessed and
done so many wrong things. But I’m pregnant now, and I really can’t take it anymore.”
“You’ve already won, you’re the queen, high and mighty. Why do you still want to
relentlessly pursue our destruction?”
As she cried, she produced a “medical diagnosis report.”
“I have severe prenatal depression. The doctor says if I’m stimulated any further, I might leave this world with the baby.”
“Sister, do you truly intend to force us, mother and child, to our deaths, before you’re
satisfied?”
This masterstroke of retreat-to-advance, threatening suicide, was played to perfection.
Instantly, public opinion was ignited once more,
Countless overly sympathetic individuals and bots flooded the comments section of my live stream teaser,
“Cassie Hayes! Live and let live!”
“She’s practically dying, what more do you want? Do you really want two lives lost?”
“How malicious! Ban this streamer!”
Julian Sterling also seized this last opportunity, leveraging all his remaining connections
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and capital to team up with several major platforms. Citing “spreading negative energy” and “inciting cyber-bullying,” they pressured the “TRUTH” platform, demanding a permanent ban on my live stream.
For a time, the storm clouds were gathering.
Liam Vance’s company phones were ringing off the hook, and every department received warning letters.
A pervasive sense of unease settled over the company.
Liam Vance, however, calmly walked over to me and handed me a hot coffee.
“Scared?”
I looked out the window and shook my head.
“I’m just wondering how astronomically high the viewership for tonight’s ‘Ultimate Truth Live’ will soar.”
He smiled.
“I’ve reinforced the servers. Go ahead and blow it all up; I’ll still have
Nine o’clock that evening.
your back.”
Under the scrutiny of the entire internet, amidst countless insults and boycotts, my live stream went online precisely on time.
On the screen was my calm face.
“I hear some people want me dead.”
The moment my words fell, the live stream screen split into two.
On the left was me, and on the right, conspicuously, was Chloe Hayes’s elegantly decorated bedroom.
She was talking on a FaceTime call with Julian Sterling, her face beaming with twisted
<
excitement, all traces of sadness gone.
“Don’t worry, Julian, the depression diagnosis report was faked by someone I hired, just to gain sympathy! After this stunt, that bitch Cassie Hayes will definitely be banned! Then, when public opinion turns, we’ll be able to crush her under our heels!”
This was the real-time playback function of [Truth Recall].
My newest ability.
Inside and outside the live stream, everyone was stunned.
The next second, I switched the recall target.
Julian Sterling appeared on screen, giving instructions to a “friend” on the other end of his phone.
“Yes, spare no expense, get rid of her! No, killing her is too easy. I want her reputation ruined, so she can never rise again!”
That wasn’t all.
I switched the screen again.
This time, it was Chloe Hayes with a corpulent, married investor, on a hotel bed.
The man, in between movements, asked her, “Whose kid is it anyway?”
Chloe giggled, “Who cares whose it is, as long as that idiot Julian takes responsibility. Once I get my hands on the Sterling family fortune, I’ll ditch him and run off with you, living happily ever after”
BOOM!
The entire internet exploded.
What was it like to be struck by lightning?
This was it.
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I watched the live stream’s concurrent viewer count instantly shatter the platform’s all-time record, seeing the comments transform from “???” to “!!!!!!!!!”, and knew this war
was over.
I looked at the camera, a genuine smile, the first one I had shown all night, spreading
across my face.
“Everyone, now, do you still think I’m malicious?”
