17 Whistleblowers P1
The attack had landed with the greatest force Vik could muster with his kick. And it had landed right between Triple G’s legs. The timing with which it had been done made it seem like Vik had been doing this for a living.
The crowd that was cheering for Triple G grew silent all of a sudden when they understood what had happened. It took a while for the men of all ages among the crowd to empathically process the pain triple G was about to feel.
No matter how strong a Metahuman Triple G was, his groin was still his most delicate body part. In addition, he had prioritized maintaining his mana defense layer on other parts of his body. The pain he felt at the time was only slightly reduced from what it could have been if he was a normal human.
Triple G felt his balls being crushed by Vik’s merciless attack. He couldn’t shout. He couldn’t even breathe as he felt his pain receptors getting overloaded.
All he needed to do at that point was to just drop the guy he was holding effortlessly to this point and bring his hands close to his already-attacked groin. He dropped to the ground and curled into a ball. Like an armadillo. A miserable armadillo.
Triple G’s face was red and his expression was frightening. It wasn’t clear if they were due to him feeling the pain or being angered by Vik’s attack. But Vik wasn’t willing to wait to find out.
Furthermore, due to Triple G’s chaotic mental state, he couldn’t maintain his mana defense layer that would usually negate most of the impacts coming from his non-Meta opponents.
The time was ripe.
“Tory, attack.”
Vik wasn’t willing to let this opportunity slide. He and Tory attacked the defenseless Triple G at the same time, on the same spot, over and over again. The crowd watched in absolute silence and horror as the series of events unfolded in front of them.
People started booing Vik and Tory for their low-blow attacks. But the duo didn’t care. Since the guy was a metahuman, they knew he could take this much abuse without permanently suffering from the injuries.
Plus, Vik and Tory had heard various legends regarding metahumans. They didn’t want the guy to make a comeback using literal magic and whoop their asses for the insidious attack they had performed on him.
Beat the man when he is down. And avoid a whole lot of trouble.
***
“Errr… young man, it was you who was the leader behind that bold plan, wasn’t you?”
The middle-aged announcer asked Vik with a curious look on his face and a voice coated in doubt and vigilance. Vik merely nodded in answer.
The middle-aged announcer sighed and commented.
“When I had said “by any means”, I could never have imagined that the term could be taken so literally by you. Anyway, here are your rewards. 2000 New World Coins.”
With the swipe gesture from the announcer’s right hand, a large screen appeared in front of him. This screen displayed a gold trophy as well as the price of 2000 NWC.
The announcer selected the deposit rewards option that was getting highlighted with extra bright colors. The 2000 NWC on the screen immediately began backtracking until it eventually reached zero. When the zero was displayed on the big screen, Vik got a prompt on his spectral display that he had received the money.
Tory was given the same amount as Vik. The announcer then asked the duo if they would like to continue their wrestling career and they readily agreed.
The announcer realized the timing was apt to create hype for Vik and Tory. In the showbiz, the dramatization of events and emotions was a key element.
“Dear viewers. Don’t judge the two winners too harshly just because of their questionable moves. They did what they had to do to survive.
You feel that they were unkind to Triple G. but do you know why they needed to win this money? We’ll show you why.”
Right above the battle ring appeared another spectral screen showing Vik and Tory’s struggle in a dramatic black and white color scheme. It was basically them getting denied various job opportunities because of their circumstances.
Then there was a story about their close ones suffering from illness. There was sad music in the background.
Soon that background music was changed to the tune of the inspirational title track as the duo found out about the tournament the announcer was used to hosting. The next scenes were meant to show the duo training for this particular match.
But suddenly, the scene on the spectral display changed to something entirely different. It started playing security footage of two guys entering a secure facility guarded by armed guards.
The spectral display was playing the scenes of a real heist.
At first, both the announcer and the spectators, as well as all the viewers watching from around the world, were confused. Then they became intrigued as they watched the scene unfold in front of their eyes. Some even started recording the show.
The announcer was stupefied because of what was being displayed on the screen. He tried to contact the backend team using his hollo–call and ordered them to stop the broadcast. But his request was denied by the high authorities of the show because they saw that the show’s TRP was reaching a record high because of the footage.
“That board and that sign… isn’t that Oasis Corp? Someone stealing something from Oasis Corp?”
A viewer in the crowd commented as he watched the video keenly. Another viewer listened to his statement and suddenly he connected the two seemingly random thoughts.
“Heist… is… is it the heist that killed Remington Roy?”
Several gasps were heard at the same time as they watched two non-Metas pull off a heist that was all the rage on and off Oasis Online these days.
Vik and Tory had decided to become whistleblowers in retaliation.