Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System

Two days later.

After Tristan's incredible appeal to the people (or shameless gathering of sympathy, as he called it himself privately), people from all over the world began shaking off their previous Gospel-inspired opinions.

Even without extra power from the hypnotic voice, Tristan's sympathy-inspiring act made people cry with emotion as they watched the video!

And those among these people who had written bad things about Tristan or Nelson before felt incredible shame over their actions.

The video let everybody see Tristan and Nelson not as celebrities, but as people. And not any people, but people to whom they could relate. Someone who shared with them their deepest, most vulnerable parts.

Only a genuine huge asshole would kick someone when they are down unjustly like that—and those were rarer than it could seem sometimes. Most people were just too self-centered to care about others—but Tristan punched through even to these people and made them care.

As a result…

Tristan's public email was overflowing, but he still painstakingly wrote responses to every well-wishing message sent to him. Derek was too busy to do it himself, because he was replying to messages sent to Nelson's or GTG agency's mails.

And an entire room in his mansion was now full of gifts sent by fans. Each of them had already been checked by the security team. There were handmade "get well" cards, handmade items of all kinds—from knitted clothing to a paper-wrapped clay figurine—and so many flowers that Tristan's house smelled like a floral shop.

Tristan made dozens of selfies with these gifts to let the fans know they were appreciated. Now, more than anything, it was incredibly important to keep these people on Tristan's side. It was why he bothered responding to every positive message, too.

In the morning, as soon as the visiting hours began, Tristan picked two random but pretty bouquets of flowers from all the ones gifted to him and drove to Nelson's hospital.

The young man inside beamed at Tristan in greeting.

"Tris! I didn't expect you to come so early."

"I'm an early bird, you know," Tristan replied, grinning back as he put the gifts on the nearest flat surface. "I see that you've finally got enough sleep in here, Nel?"

Before him was the proof that Tristan's efforts weren't for nothing.

Yesterday Nelson woke up for a solid four hours at a time. Today, he looked like he was bouncing from the walls with unspent energy.

Gone was Nelson's former gauntness. He looked well-rested and fully awake. Just like Tristan was feeling right now—without any mind fog or weakness in the limbs.

[Secret task complete: ensure that Nelson Mayar recovers to full health. Reward: your CP increased by 3000!]

Tristan blinked at the notification, but quickly refocused on what Nelson was speaking.

"Hell yeah! This morning, the doctor told me I can go home today, but they'd like to run some tests just in case. They still aren't sure what was wrong with me, besides general 'stress'." Nelson shrugged. "What you told me about the psychic nuke theory makes much more sense."

When he visited yesterday, Tristan had shared with Nelson Asher's interpretation of the source of Nelson's illness, although he didn't mention his sources.

He had told Derek, too, but the manager was much more skeptical of it.

"True, if you could've fallen sick from stress like that, you'd do that much earlier," Tristan said. "Are you going to stay for the extra tests, though?"

Nelson frowned.

"Eh. I can do them later, I'm sure. Right now, I just want to… do something really cool. Derek said they have all the gifts sent to me in the GTG office—I should go and take a photo with all of them!"

Tristan nodded.

"Good plan. Before that, though—you know who else stays in this wing besides you?"

Nelson hummed thoughtfully.

"A lot of people, I bet. That psychic nuke was radioactive as hell. But none of our pals had gotten THAT sick, didn't they? They weren't in the epicenter of the shitstorm."

"Remember Asher Ilom, though?"

"Asher… Oh, the guy who helped you out with the concert venue! The snappy weird filmmaker! Huh, did he make it that big already?"

Tristan shrugged.

"His movie seems to gather a lot of hype even when it's only in progress. I just heard he's here when I was walking around, and I thought we might visit. Share some of our fans' well-wishes with him, you know. I actually brought a spare bouquet for this."

"Oh, that's an amazing idea! We will be like… sharing our psychic defense with him," Nelson said, nodding eagerly. "We should go to other rooms, too, see how many people we can help."

"I'm unsure it really works like that… Besides, these people might not let us enter. But hell, if it works, it will be a blow against that fucker Gospel and everybody who's still on his side—so yes, let's do it!"

The duo had to go to the registration desk for visitors' passes to Asher's room. This time, however, it went without a hitch—Asher was awake enough to accept visitors, and he let Tristan and Nelson come up without a fuss.

The man, too, looked much better than before, although he was still hooked to an IV. Damien wasn't around—nor was he supposed to be.

"What are you doing here?" Asher asked instead of greeting.

He gathered his knees to his chest and half-hugged them, eying the pair of visitors suspiciously.

"We came to share the well-wishes!" Nelson announced, coming into the room.

"And this bouquet. For your speedy recovery. You seem to be doing better already," Tristan said.

Asher scrunched his nose.

"Take it away, I'm allergic. How did you even know I was here?"

"Oops, sorry." Nelson smiled sheepishly and took the flowers from Tristan. "I can leave it in the hallway, I guess?"

He ran off; as soon as the door closed behind him and Tristan was alone with Asher, the paranoid man shriveled on himself even more.

"Relax," Tristan said. "I just heard that you are here from my cousin, Mr. Ilom. He sends his gratitude, by the way. We both really hope that you recover from the thing we were all sick with."

Before Asher could reply, Nelson returned with empty hands.

"Hey, I'm back! So… Mr. Ilom, since you don't like visitors, we might leave now… But would you want us to mention you for our fans?" Nelson asked. "Just so they could wish you well, too?"

"The wishes are what made Nelson so chipper this morning. And they seem to be helping you, too."

Asher ran a hand through his shaggy black hair.

"Fine, I guess. Just my name. And… Thanks for that video. My secretary told me all about how touching it was—and about how many apologetic messages my public account got afterward. I could feel the positive emanations from there. It was like an actual counter-cyclone."

Nelson blinked.

"You heard about the cyclone theory, too?"

Asher opened his mouth, then closed it, then started talking again.

"It's not a theory, it's a fact. Gospel is a warlock. And with what Tristan did—well, I knew for a while that he's not an entirely natural presence in this world, of course."

"Like an angel," Nelson supplied.

Tristan watched this conversation from the side, blending with the wall. He wasn't sure if he should be amused or alarmed… Nelson was way too up for the supernatural stuff for Tristan's liking.

"I felt something special in him when I first saw both of you. But my psychic sensibility was dimmed back then by my meds. I couldn't make sense of it, so I rationalized it away," Asher rambled.

Nelson nodded some more.

"I thought he was an asshole—but he was cool, too. And he was too cool to be JUST an asshole, you know?"

'Alright, that's enough.'

Tristan coughed in his fist.

"Nel, if we want to visit more people and still have some time to do anything else, we should go now. And at least I HAVE a lot to do…"

Nelson almost jumped at the sound; Asher actually did jump a little, rattling his IV stand.

"Ah… yeah. It's been nice to chat, Mr. Ilom."

They bid a goodbye to the man and went to visit other incapacitated celebrities. It took some negotiating, but the hospital staff agreed to tell that Tristan and Nelson were up to visiting people. After that, it was up to them whether to invite them.

Almost everybody who felt well enough was eager to invite the pair over and talk about their latest public exploits.

Not everybody who was hospitalized recovered equally quickly, but it was clear that it was only a matter of time until they would be back to full health.

[Secret task complete: negate the destroying influence of Gospel's post. Reward: your CP increased by 5000!]

Tristan smirked.

And now he had something to counterattack Gospel with. With these extra points, hacking was going to go much, much faster.