Chapter 88 - 'FREE ADVERTISEMENT'

"YOU'RE not going to wear a hat?" Reas asked, frowning a bit when he saw that his brother wasn't wearing anything to hide his hair color.  "What if some random people take photos of you?"

He knew that his brother trended on [Cyberspace] three days ago.  If, while they were out, some people recognized him and hounded him or something, that would be too troublesome.  What if those people tried to follow Astrid to his apartment as well?

"I wouldn't mind being photographed.  I'll even be thankful if they will post my photos on [Cyberspace]," Astrid said.

If someone recognized him and took his photo, then posted it on their [Cyberspace] timeline, that would be another way for him to be known to people.  Like some kind of free advertisement.  It would increase his fame, even if just a tiny bit.

Growing up, his photos would also be posted on [Cyberspace] from time to time by strangers.  Especially after he and Reas started going to secondary school.  But those pictures didn't really cause that much wave.  Mainly because each galaxy had their own trending topic list.  Only the stars that were really at the top could trend on [Cyberspace] in all galaxies.

It would probably be easier to just introduce himself to everyone in [Cyberspace].  But he didn't want to do that.  It would seem that he was hyping up himself.  It would be better to let other people do it for him.  At least with that, he would have a bit of mystery around him.  After all, mysterious things always had their own appeal.

Besides, he didn't have a proper [Cyberspace] account.  Only one that he used to browse sometimes to check on the famous stars in the Empire.  If he wanted to be a star, then he should at least familiarize himself with the industry he wanted to be a part of.  He didn't want to come off as rude if one day he met someone famous and then ignored him accidentally.

"You really want your photos to be posted on [Cyberspace] by some random people?" Reas asked, sounding a bit incredulous.

"Yeah, why not?  Remember, my dear brother, I'm trying to be a star here.  People taking photos of me and posting it on [Cyberspace] would be like some sort of publicity."

Although the result would probably not be the same if he didn't trend three days ago because of that hostage taking incident.  At least, that unlucky day brought something good to him.

Frankly, Reas was still kind of against his brother being a star or whatnot.  But this was Astrid's dream after all.  He had no right to interfere with it.  The only thing he could do was to support him.  Just like how he was supporting him with his dream.  Along with his support, he would also do his best to protect him.

"Fine.  I get it.  Let's just go," he could only in the end.

Astrid smiled.  He already had an idea what this brother of his might be thinking.  He crouched down and ruffled Xiao Lan's fluffy head.  The cat had been sitting near them, obediently waiting for them to leave like a good house cat.

"Xiao Lan, take care of the apartment while we're away.  Okay?"

"Yes, Master," the cat replied in its slightly mechanical voice.

Then the Townsend brothers left the apartment building.

-----

Just as Reas predicted, while he and Astrid were familiarizing themselves around the city center near the area of Redwood Academy, there were a number of people who took photos of his brother.  They probably thought that they're being stealthy about it, but how could their small action escape his eyes?

He honestly almost couldn't resist the urge to grab their Terminals and throw it on the ground.  But for Astrid, he strongly resisted that urge.

They traveled around the city center using a rented flying car.  Both of them had a driver's license.  They took it the day after their 18th birthday.  Even though the life-span of people in this era was more than thrice that of the people from his past life, the age where people were considered as adults was still 18.

But since their goal was to familiarize themselves with the road and also check the establishments and shops around, the car often stayed parked at one place and then they rode it once again when they needed to go to an area with a farther distance.  Just like now.  They were currently on their way to check Redwood Academy of Performing Arts.

Following the GPS map on the car, they soon arrived at their destination.  But since they didn't have any permission to enter the school, they could only drive around it and looked at it from a distance.

They would probably have a better view of the place if they hovered over it.  But that's kind of illegal.  There were establishments that didn't allow aircrafts to hover over it, unless they get a special permission for it.  And a school like Redwood Academy was one such establishment.

Astrid remembered all the roads around the school.  While doing that, he's also observing the school's architecture.  It had, surprisingly, an ancient style architecture.  And by ancient he meant the type of architecture you would see in his past life.  Of course, it's not just an ordinary architecture but the fancy kind.

He liked it.  Probably because it reminded him of his last life.  Now, he couldn't wait for school to start.

"Let's go eat lunch," he said to Reas.

"Where to?"

"Just pick the nearest one."

So, they went to the nearest restaurant they could find.  The place didn't have that many people inside, which Reas preferred.  They picked a table near the window and ordered food.

Astrid ordered a simple pasta dish and a vegetable salad.  While Reas ordered spareribs.  One could see immediately by what they ordered why the build of the two were so different.

They were at the middle of their meal when a man suddenly rushed to their table and grabbed Astrid's hand.

"I finally found you!" said the strange man excitedly.

Before Astrid could react, Reas already stood from his seat and pulled the man away from him.  The forced he used was too great that the man simply fell over on his butt.

"Get the hell away from my brother," Reas threatened.