Zeno couldn’t hear what the heck they were talking about. All he did was stand there, stare straight into the camera, and let Amby do all the work.
The others observed him with neutral expressions. In reality, they were just too shocked by how great the photos turned out when Zeno was literally giving them nothing.
Contrary to his beliefs, the years he had modeled had shone through even with his lack of effort. Bobby and Moby turned to each other and began tearing up.
The debt that had piled up seemed to be getting paid at that very moment.
Even Amby, who initially didn’t want to help his father, started enjoying taking the photos. After a few minutes, Zeno finally walked away, causing the others to snap out of their dazes.
Zeno placed his hands inside his pockets like he didn’t do something amazing. He then turned to them and raised both eyebrows.
“What?” he asked.
Jace pursed his lips before shaking his head in disappointment. He felt that his rival was way too strong.
Zeno couldn’t help but smile. It must have been really bad. Bobby and Moby were also silent, so they must be disappointed!
As he thought about his meter decreasing, a camera’s flash made him snap out of his thoughts.
He turned to Amby, who was looking at the photo of Zeno smiling. He smirked and showed it to his father, who covered his mouth.
“This is it,” he muttered. “We got his famous smile.”
Zeno frowned. “What are the two of you talking about?”
“Nothing,” Bobby said, shaking his head. “We should all go out and eat lunch. Amby will edit the photos once we get home, and we’ll update the profiles by midnight.”
“That fast?” Sarang asked.
“Of course,” Moby responded. “Amby is really talented in editing.”
Amby clicked his tongue and turned to the side. “I’m not,” he muttered, going ahead of everybody else. Bobby followed after his son and tried to wrap an arm around his shoulders.
However, the latter pushed him away.
Zeno watched them from far away. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the two didn’t have the greatest relationship. Family matters were always complicated. It made Zeno feel he was lucky to not be granted a family.
Well, at least, not a family of his own. Zeno had lived 25 lives, yet none had ever truly belonged to him. In these missions, he had gone through different types of families.
Complete ones were rare… which mirrored the current society.
Then, there were times when his mother or father left to pursue their dreams or to create a new family they deemed better than their original one.
Sometimes, he didn’t even have a family!
Yet, no matter how different these families were, Zeno had unfortunately learned one truth—it mattered a lot in an individual’s life.
It was the reason people fought, the reason they held on, the reason they sought help from Avalis, desperate to mend what had been broken or to fill what had never been there.
Family was a double-edged sword. It had the power to make or break a person. It was both a burden and a gift. It shaped the hearts of those who had it… and those who wished they did.
“Zeno?” Jace called. Zeno lifted his head and saw they were already a few meters away. “You spaced out for a second. What are you thinking about?”
Zeno shook his head and followed after them. “Nothing important.”
“Well, hurry up!” Jace exclaimed. “We’re filling out our profiles in the restaurant!”
***
Midnight rolled in. Those with normal sleeping schedules were passed out on their beds, waiting for the morning to come.
However, the majority of flawed humans whose brains had been rewired by the presence of technology and media, were awake—falling into a weird algorithm, finding content to make them sleep but doing the opposite, or playing the last game which they claimed to be the ‘last’ three games ago.
Risa, who once belonged to the latter part of humanity, had recently joined the dark side as she created a Sigmoid account. At 34 years old, she finally tasted the indulgence of one of the greatest addictions in the world.
After wrapping up the filming for ‘Code Black,’ she had no other work lined up except for some modeling gigs. She was a model before she became an actress, and she loved the latter much more.
“Zeno Lee…”
“Zeno No…”
“Zeno Park…”
“Why doesn’t he have any social media accounts?” she exclaimed, sitting up on her bed. After watching what felt like a real-life drama during their disastrous filming, Risa became infatuated with Zeno Han.
Yes, she wasn’t afraid to admit it. She had joined each of his fanbases, whose profile photos were either a screenshot of Zeno from Rex’s live or the smiling scene he had in ‘Broken Chains of Justice.’
Even if she merely joined the site a few days ago, she had already become the admin of his biggest fan base with over ten thousand followers. They were coined as ‘Zeno’s Fans’ for now because they planned on changing it once there was more information on him.
“Has anyone found something yet?” Risa typed into their group chat. She had the username ‘Zenoholic,’ which she believed was fitting because she was borderline addicted.
ZeNoEscape: Not yet. He’s a ghost. I don’t have anything.
Zenaur: I thought we would know more about him once he joined the company. However, alas, it was wishful thinking.
Zenoholic: I guess we have to make do with the content we have now. But we need to do something to increase the number of our members. They’re slowly leaving due to the lack of content.
ZenoSapiens: Ah, I wish some info would fall from the sky and into our hands. I want Zeno to become the biggest star in the world… no, the universe!
Just then, Risa, who had been camping on Dreamy Entertainment’s account on her other gadget, nearly dropped her phone when a new post appeared when she refreshed.
“Meet our artists,” she muttered, her eyes widening as she read further. Then, she typed into their chat.
Zenoholic: Everyone, this is not a drill! Dreamy Entertainment has released Zeno’s information!