As soon as Nicole finished speaking, she bent down, grabbed a piece of filming equipment, and bolted outside.
While running, she shouted,
"Sam Li, Anby, Nekomata, Billy, grab the filming equipment and retreat! Don't let the Ethereals damage it!"
Nicole was fast.
Sam Li, Nekomata, and Anby quickly picked up the equipment and followed Nicole, leaving Billy behind shouting,
"Hey, hey, Nicole, boss! I'm stuck in my Ethereals costume! Someone help me, I'm surrounded by Ethereals! Oww, they're gonna eat me..."
Hearing Billy's cries,
Nekomata asked urgently, "Shouldn't we go back and help him?"
Anby shook her head. "No need. His body's tough. He's not afraid of the Ethereals' claws or teeth. He'll beat them soon and catch up."
Nekomata said, "Alright..."
They ran nonstop for two kilometers before finally finding the director in an abandoned restaurant.
Nicole, panting, said, "You look pretty ordinary, but you sure can run. Makes me wonder if you've had some training."
The director collapsed onto the ground, exhausted. "No one can damage this filming equipment. By the way, where are your people? Did they save the rest of it? I'm warning you now, if anything's broken, it's coming out of your commission..."
Nicole answered confidently, "Relax, they'll be here soon."
Sure enough,
right after she spoke, Anby and Sam Li arrived.
Nicole asked, puzzled, "Where are Nekomata and Billy?"
Anby replied seriously, "Nekomata's slower, she'll be here soon. Billy's handling the Ethereals, he'll be back in no time."
After that,
she placed all the equipment she was carrying onto the ground.
The director hurried over and carefully checked the equipment, hugging it like a precious treasure.
Just then,
Nekomata finally arrived.
Catching his breath, Nekomata pointed at the director and said, "Nicole, he's a fraud."
Nicole looked confused. "What fraud?"
Nekomata said angrily, "He's not the director of the Star Emblem Knight movie at all. I picked up his phone on the road. I saw his chat logs with an investor. He's a fake director who's never made a movie. No investor was willing to fund him. Plus, the bank sent him a message—he doesn't even have a single Dennies in his account. He can't pay the follow-up commission."
As he spoke,
Nekomata pulled out a phone—the one the director had accidentally dropped.
Hearing this,
everyone turned to the director, waiting for an explanation.
However,
instead of explaining, the director suddenly shouted,
"No! I'm not a fraud! He's the real thief! He stole the Star Emblem Knight I designed! He stole my ideas, stole the Star Emblem Knight!"
It was clear—
the director wasn't yelling at them, but at someone else.
"He didn't just steal the Star Emblem Knight; he ruined it! The real Star Emblem Knight isn't anything like what's shown in the movie..."
As the director spoke,
tears started falling uncontrollably.
Years of suppressed grief finally burst free.
Seeing this,
Nicole and the others exchanged looks, not sure what to make of it.
Nicole said seriously, "Anyway, I don't care if you're really the Star Emblem Knight's director or not. You're not getting away without paying a single Dennies."
The director, overwhelmed with emotion, kept repeating, "I'm not a fraud, I'm not a fraud..."
Nicole: "..."
Sam Li: "..."
Nekomata: "..."
They could tell—
there was an untold story behind this man.
Seeing the director sobbing so miserably,
they suddenly felt a little sorry for him.
Nekomata crouched down carefully and asked, "So, Director, what's really going on? Who are you, and who's this con artist you're talking about?"
Nicole chimed in, "Yeah, if you've got trouble, tell us. We can help you. Since you're a returning client, I'll even give you a 30% discount."
Hearing this,
after a moment,
the director slowly calmed down. He looked like he had aged ten years in an instant, his face worn and weary.
"I'm sorry I deceived you. I only have 50,000 Dennies—I can't afford the follow-up commission. But aside from the fee, I haven't lied about anything. I really am the original director of the Star Emblem Knight. That was supposed to be my film. He stole it. He didn't just steal the Star Emblem Knight; he ruined it. The real Star Emblem Knight isn't anything like the one in the movies..."
The director spoke at length.
Nicole, Sam Li, and the others listened patiently, but still didn't fully understand.
Seeing their confused faces,
the director wiped away his tears, sighed deeply, and leaned against the wall, slowly recounting his past:
"It all started ten years ago, when I was still young. I hadn't yet come to the New Eridu metropolitan area. I was just an ordinary Outer Ring resident."
"I had just graduated, with nothing but an old handheld camera. Fueled by passion, I traveled everywhere, writing script after script, hoping to create a great hero movie. But without professional filming equipment, I only met failure."
"One day, I gathered a few cheap actors and started filming at an abandoned building. Suddenly, a Hollows disaster broke out nearby. The actors fled in panic. I stayed behind to protect the camera equipment, but was swallowed by the Hollows. A group of Ethereals surrounded me. At that moment, I thought I was going to die..."
"But just as I was hugging the camera equipment, ready to die with it..."
"A red knight descended from the sky. Deafening gunfire rang out. The knight easily defeated the Ethereals, reached out a hand to me, and said, 'Yo, you okay...'"
"Unfortunately, the sunlight was too blinding, and I was badly injured. Before I could see the Star Emblem Knight's face clearly, I fainted."
"When I woke up, the Star Emblem Knight was gone."
"I searched for him for an entire year but never found him again."
"So I created the Star Emblem Knight based on his image, and wrote a script based on my experience—that's the script we're filming now..."
"At that time, I was just a poor kid. To bring the Star Emblem Knight to life, I struggled to reach the New Eridu metropolitan area and finally found an investor. But to my shock, not only did he refuse to invest, he stole the character I created and plagiarized my script. In just a few years, he made four Star Emblem Knight movies, while I still haven't been able to secure any funding..."
As the director spoke, he leaned against the wall and let out a bitter, broken laugh.
His laugh sounded even worse than if he were crying.
...