Chapter 199: A Global Broadcast

Chapter 199: A Global BroadcastThe living room was charged and intense as Camille worked with quick accuracy, arranging the livestream gear. Lights came on around the room, cameras were repositioned, and cables sprawled across the floor, winding toward the improvised broadcasting station she had swiftly put together in the corner. The whole room seemed ready to erupt into chaos, yet Camille remained systematic, composed, and concentrated. Her fingers raced across the laptop keyboard, entering commands, configuring the live streaming platform, and getting ready for what was about to happen. She wasn’t merely getting ready for a livestream; she was gearing up for a war of words, a conflict that could change everything’s trajectory. "Five minutes until go live," she announced, the screen behind her showing a countdown clock ticking away. "I’ll handle the social media push. Everyone else, get ready." As the countdown proceeded, news anchors worldwide received swift updates, their faces showing disbelief as they absorbed the fresh news. A well-known anchor in New York faced the camera, her tone calm yet strained. "In recent news, it has been officially announced that Camille Voss, the globally acclaimed A-Rank fashion designer, will be going live in just five minutes. Voss, who has long been linked to the enigmatic Reynard Vale, head of the Masked Syndicate, has been spotted with Vale several times. She is prepared to make a public appearance, and many are curious about what she will disclose regarding her involvement in the Syndicate’s operations. Keep following us for additional updates on this unfolding story." The broadcast cut to another anchor, who quickly reiterated the same information, the gravity of the situation setting in as they prepared for the inevitable media storm to follow. "Reynard," Alexis said from the couch, voice low but insistent. "You need to sit down. I’m not letting you go out there in your condition." I had been sitting in a blood-streaked undershirt for far too long, the remnants of my escape still clinging to me like an unwanted second skin. My body felt like it was held together with thread, but this moment, it needed to be perfect. The message I was about to send would echo through the entire world. "Not until the show’s on," I said, trying to stand. But the pain hit me like a reminder of everything I had been through. Alexis was on her feet before I could even make it halfway up, placing her hands on my shoulders, guiding me back down. "Rey, don’t even think about it," Alexis warned, pushing me gently back into the seat. "You’re already in too much pain. We don’t need you fainting in front of the camera." I raised an eyebrow. "Not the first time, huh?" She didn’t smile, but the corner of her mouth twitched as she retrieved some clothes from a nearby bag. "You’re going to look decent for once. Camille, give him something clean, would you?" "Not as clean as he thinks." Camille looked up from her work, her voice clipped. "You’re going to be in front of every screen in the world. You need to present yourself right. Go change. Now." I took the clothes Camille handed me: a simple button-up shirt, dark trousers, and a jacket. My movements were slow, cautious, as Alexis hovered near me. She’d warned me not to get up too fast. The bandages and stitches across my body protested as I dressed, but I kept my focus. I couldn’t afford to fall apart now. "You need to tell them everything," Camille said as I buttoned up my shirt. "Every last detail. They need to understand what the hell is going on. What’s been going on for years." "Do you think they’ll believe me?" I asked, glancing toward the girls. "You know, when I tell them the truth?" "Do you really think it matters if they believe you?" Camille shot back, her fingers flying over her laptop keys, her eyes glued to the screen. "It’s out now, Rey. The world’s already watching. The truth will be louder than any of their lies." I nodded. "You’re right." Sienna, still at the kitchen table with Evelyn, looked up, her face a mixture of concern and strength. "Rey," she said quietly, "be careful. You’re about to take the world head-on. We know what they’ve done, but... now the whole world is going to know. Choose your words carefully." "I’ve been dealing with this my whole life," I said, looking down at the jacket in my hands. "It’s time to make sure they understand it." Camille’s voice broke through the room’s heavy silence. "We’re almost there. Four minutes." "Ready," I replied. My body ached with every step, but there was no turning back. "Sit down," Alexis ordered, as I finally pulled myself together and found my seat in front of the camera. "We’ll handle the rest." I sank into the chair with a deep breath, but the weight of everything, the world, the decisions, the future, pressed down on me. But now wasn’t the time for hesitation. The countdown clock on Camille’s laptop flickered to 2 minutes, and the broadcast platform updated in real-time, showing viewers starting to pile in. Evelyn remained in the kitchen, her face still hidden as she stayed with Sienna. She hadn’t spoken much since the reveal, her voice a quiet but clear reminder of her own struggle. As she looked at me now, I could see the inner conflict in her eyes, the part of her that still feared her own impulses, the fear of what she might do if the conditioning was triggered. "Get ready," Camille said, breaking the quiet. "We’re going live." The screen behind us flickered once, twice, and then went black for a split second before showing the live broadcast countdown. The last few seconds dragged on in slow motion. Three... Two... One. The countdown hit zero. I straightened in my seat, the nerves gnawing at me as the world finally saw me, unmasked. The screen went live, my face now a fixture on every screen in the world. The sound of hundreds of thousands of people, then millions, watching their screens surged through the livestream data. I took a deep breath, eyes locked directly into the camera lens. "Good evening, world," I said, my voice steady but laced with the weight of what was happening. "I’m Reynard Vale, and yes, the claims that I am the leader of the Masked Syndicate are true." S~eaʀᴄh the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The room went still, the faint hum of the livestream barely audible over the beat of my own heart. I heard the sound of breathing in the room, Camille, Alexis, Sienna, even Evelyn. They all waiting with bated breath. The comments section exploded instantly, the screen filling with thousands of reactions, the overwhelming chaos of people processing the truth. "Yes, I am the leader of the Masked Syndicate," I repeated, louder, firmer. "And I’ve been the one behind everything you’ve heard. The truth about the Cain Protocol. The injustice. The oppression. All of it." In front of me, the girls were pulling up reactions from across the world on their phones. In Tokyo, a group of workers in a factory paused in disbelief, staring at their screens. In New York, two people, strangers, hugged each other in shared shock. A news anchor in Paris stuttered as the teleprompter caught up to the live broadcast: "The Masked Syndicate... leader, exposed... what does this mean for our future?" "But I need you to understand something," I said, my voice cutting through the tension. "There are two sides to this. Two opposing factions. Half of the governments in this world are aligned with me. They want me to be the next World President, to change everything. To tear down the broken system. But the other half? They want to keep the status quo. They want to keep the current World President in place, the very man who caused the Mars disaster. The man I’ve been trying to expose for the last 2 years." There was a silence from the crowd on the other end of the screen, a collective intake of breath as people digested the new revelation. "Many of you," I continued, "have been wondering who the real World President is, especially since I called his name out during the failure of the Mars landing. Unfortunately, despite many indirect conflicts, I have not been able to get his true identity. " A surge of messages flooded the screen. Supporters were speaking up, some arguing that this was the moment to tear down the old world. Others were demanding my capture. "The truth, though," I said, calming myself as much as I could, "is that the people who’ve been in control have been doing far worse than we’ve known. They’ve been conducting experiments on people, trying to push the system to its limits. Using subjects like guinea pigs, stripping away their identities, their names, their entire lives, just to test how far they could stretch the system. And I’ve got the report to prove it." A new tab opened on the livestream, showing the first page of the NovaCore Industries document, revealing the titles and shocking facts. "The following is a report from NovaCore Industries," I said, my hands gripping the phone in front of me. "There were 3840 subjects involved in this experiment lead by Hugo Vale..." I paused for a moment after reading that name, it was my father. "...and Bruce Walsh. These subjects were taken from birth. Some were from the streets, their public identities erased. They were subjected to a system that no one should ever have been subjected to." I cleared my throat as I looked down at the digital report in my hand, the cold, clinical words staring back at me. I began reading, my voice steady but heavy with the weight of what I was about to reveal. "Subject 3800: Experimentation on dual-job assignment successfully confirmed. The goal of the experiment was to test the limits of the system by assigning each subject two jobs. One of lower rank and one of higher rank. The purpose was to assess how far the system could push these individuals before they reached physical or mental failure. Subject 3800 was among the first to endure such an assignment, and unfortunately, their cause of death was attributed to severe system overload and internal organ failure. ’Further experimentation required,’ the report noted. The toll on the body was immense—each subject’s system becoming progressively more strained with each additional job assigned." I glanced at the screen as I read, feeling the shift in the crowd’s mood. The reactions were starting to pour in with a mix of anger, confusion and disbelief. Some were demanding answers, others demanding justice. I continued. "Subjects 3811 through 3840 presented unprecedented results. The introduction of job titles led to new discoveries. Specifically, Subject 3815, a male, age 24, was tasked with holding 15 jobs concurrently. The subject lasted 30 minutes before his body began self-consuming. His system attempting to absorb more energy in order to support the burden of so many jobs. The toll was fatal. The cause of death was confirmed as internal organ collapse due to excessive strain from the ’job absorption’ process. The report concluded: Subject 3815, death by self-consumption, further experiments with multiple jobs confirmed to be unsustainable. I paused for a moment, my eyes scanning the document again. "Subject 3834 showed more unusual results..." Mark...this is Mark isn’t it? "...was given a unique job title that allowed him to switch between different jobs in real time, an ability that had never been documented before. This subject displayed an unprecedented level of adaptability, able to morph his skillset instantly depending on the need. The subject referred to this phenomenon as ’job fluidity.’ We know this subject as Mark, and his abilities were unlike anything we’d encountered in previous trials. The document continues: Subject 3834—unprecedented job switching ability. Further study of ’job fluidity’ required. A murmur ran through the comments section as viewers reacted to the revelation about Mark. I took a deep breath before moving on. "Subject 3836 demonstrated another breakthrough. The subject, a female aged 28, was assigned a single job that resulted in a rapid increase in skill acquisition. Her system was able to level up skills exponentially at a rate the current system could not track. It is believed that the subject’s body was absorbing and adapting to the system’s knowledge at an accelerated rate, beyond the designed parameters. The subject’s body deteriorated from the stress, but the skills she acquired were unparalleled. The report noted: Subject 3836—rapid skill progression, level-up rate unmatched. Cause of death: system collapse due to excessive skill absorption. Potential for future experimentation on skill growth outside of job constraints. I could hear the chat exploding in disbelief. "And then," I continued, "there was Subject 3840. This subject, identified only by the title Jobmaster, became the subject of a groundbreaking development. Subject 3840 was assigned a wide array of jobs, testing not just the individual limits of each job, but the possibility of holding multiple high-ranking positions at once. The subject’s system did not break, it adapted, became more than just a collection of individual jobs and skills. Subject 3840,Jobmaster (D-Rank), held the ability to utilize multiple jobs and skills simultaneously without failure." The moment I said it, the world seemed to hold its breath. "They never stopped because of rumors or bad reputation," I said softly. "but only because they had everything they wanted." That was the main section of the report, but there were still other sections that seemed important enough to mention. "Subject findings indicate that skills can, in fact, be used outside of job-related circumstances; however, the quality of these skills deteriorates significantly when applied outside their intended context. Further experimentation is required to understand the full extent of this effect. Additionally, it was discovered that the system is hereditary. A subject’s genetic makeup can influence the skills and jobs they are capable of acquiring. Notably, children may inherit one or more skills from their parents, though these skills remain dormant until the child acquires a job title. This discovery suggests that the system is not solely a product of social structure, but also deeply embedded within an individual’s genetic code." I glanced over the comments, people questioning my motives, others backing me up. "I stand with him," one comment read. "He’s showing us the truth." "I won’t stand for their cruelty anymore," I said, lifting my gaze to the camera. "The actions of the government are despicable. It’s time they answer for what they’ve done." The comments flooded. "You’re a hero." "You’re a liar." "Enough is enough," I said, my voice stronger now, more commanding, amplified by my skills. "I’m done being silent. I’m done being their scapegoat. We’ve all had enough. And I’m going to make them pay." The crowds outside, those who were waiting, had stopped chanting. Phones were raised, everyone was watching. I used my Public Perception Management (Lv. 5), my Command Presence (Lv. 8), and my Persuasive Argumentation (Lv. 5) skills to drive the message home. "This is just the beginning. The government as failed us now and I hereby declare official war on the World President."