One Man Band System

Finally, the lecture and advice session wrapped up with a definitive decision from Miranda, Vicky, Layla, and Anna: they were giving Emma, Heidi, Priya, and Monica permission to move in with Eric, using the excuse that it would be great for their education and their futures. Of course, Eric wasn’t included in the decision-making process at all, and naturally, he didn’t protest.

The reason was simply that his brain couldn’t process this kind of stuff fast enough, and by the time he actually wanted to speak up, the decision was already final, the gavel had dropped to close the matter, and they had already moved on to the next issue.

Eric just stayed quiet because protesting would be completely useless anyway; a closed case wasn’t about to be reopened. To make matters worse, the two girls flanking him started whispering in his ears.

"Tomorrow you’re coming to my office, CJR Real Estate and Construction, and we’re talking to the board. I already gave Bryan a heads-up," Chloe said, showing him her chat history with a wide smile.

"And right after that, you’re meeting my uncle, okay," Laura added, looping her arm tightly through his.

Eric stopped trying to process any of it. He just nodded, trying his absolute best to ignore the screaming voice in his head that kept protesting this entire absurd situation.

His face remained totally expressionless and blank, not because he was trying to look cool, but because he genuinely had no idea what kind of face he was even supposed to make anymore.

"Hey... Eric," Emma called out, breaking his trance.

"Oh... yeah, what’s up?" Eric asked, instantly snapping out of his daydream.

"You heard all that, right?" Emma asked with a smile.

"Yeah... I heard... heard every single bit of it," Eric answered reassuringly, even though he couldn’t care less about whatever it was he had heard, considering nobody had bothered to ask for his input in the first place.

"Now then, I want to ask, what exactly is this?" Anna asked, setting her tablet down on the table for everyone to see.

Naturally, Eric, Emma, Monica, Heidi, Chloe, Priya, and Laura leaned forward to look at the tablet screen, their eyes widening. As it turned out, someone had recorded their school confrontation with Ruby and Jade, and the footage had already been uploaded to social media and the school forums.

Miranda shook her head and glared sharply at Emma, specifically because the video caught Emma slapping Ruby hard enough to knock her straight to the ground in tears. The comments rolling in identified them as The Empress and Eric Reed, labeling them as unapproachable and rude to fans, since the internet apparently assumed Ruby, Jade, and Mike were just regular fans.

However, people who actually happened to be at the scene were defending them, commenting that it was a private issue that shouldn’t be blasted online. As a result, two opposing sides were fiercely debating in the comments, with every single thread racking up thirty to fifty replies.

"From now on, please don’t act recklessly. Your faces are recognizable now, and you can’t just do whatever you want out in public anymore. I have a lot of experience with this sort of thing," Miranda said firmly.

"Yes, Mom... I’m sorry," Emma said. She knew Miranda’s words were directed squarely at her, even though her mother had just thrown the warning out into the open air.

Even though Eric and the girls actually understood the risks, when the incident was taking place, they didn’t feel like they were famous at all. They hadn’t checked their metrics yet, and they hadn’t understood why they had been swarmed by a crowd demanding photos just for walking across the street to the school building.

They certainly never expected an incident that felt completely insignificant to them to become a trending topic on social media. And to make matters worse, the netizens weren’t even talking about Ruby and Jade; instead, they were debating the pros and cons of Eric Reed and The Empress.

"Anyway, we just wanted to let you know, because this video was already making the rounds before you even got here," Layla said.

"Don’t worry, we can handle the damage control on this, but don’t let it happen again," Anna said.

"You guys just got a taste of fame and you already have a scandal like this... you’re truly unbelievable," Vicky sneered, leaning back and crossing her arms over her chest.

Eric could only watch the video in silence. Ruby, Jade, and Mike’s faces were clear as day right as he and the girls walked away from them. To anyone just watching the clip, it absolutely looked like they were the ones in the wrong and acting cold-hearted, without a single clue as to what had actually happened.

"If you don’t mind me asking, who exactly is that crying girl, and who are those two who showed up late?" Miranda asked.

Hearing Miranda’s question, Eric stiffened, but he kept his mouth shut, simply staring down at his clenched fists. Noticing his reaction, Emma immediately leaned over and whispered something into her mother’s ear. Miranda nodded instantly, then turned her gaze back to Eric.

"Forget I asked. You don’t need to explain who they are. The main thing is, if anything like this happens again, just don’t do anything reckless. There are a lot of haters out there with way too much time on their hands who love spreading this stuff around and adding whatever captions they want, even though they don’t know a single thing about what actually happened," Miranda said, smoothly changing the subject.

"Yes, auntie," Eric replied, lifting his head.

"I have a lot of influencer friends... I’ll introduce you to one of them later. You can learn a lot from her about how to create high-quality, professional content, manage the narrative... and how to handle situations like this to stop them from blowing up," Anna added, keeping the conversation flowing so things wouldn’t feel so awkward.

"Sounds good, auntie," Eric replied.

Eric then caught Emma winking at him, her face practically shouting, "It’s handled, let it go." Eric smiled and nodded back, sending her a look of silent gratitude that instantly brightened Emma’s mood.

They went right back to discussing various topics. Since Miranda and Anna actually worked in showbiz and had the experience to back it up, they walked everyone through the ins and outs of the industry, what to do, what was acceptable, and what to avoid at all costs to escape scandals.

Naturally, the girls listened intently, even going so far as to type out notes on their smartphones. Right in the middle of the discussion, suddenly, "vwoooong," a holographic screen snapped open right in front of Eric’s face. Since he was already used to it by now, Eric didn’t flinch or panic. He calmly read the text floating on the screen.

[Quest: Compose three songs for The Empress and one solo track. Release schedule is once a month. All four songs must reach 2,000,000 views and 1,000,000 likes.]

[Completion Reward: $1,750,000.00 and a one-time use superyacht miniature to summon a superyacht.]

Looking at the prompt, a massive grin spread across Eric’s face. His excitement surged, his blood pumped hard again, and a brand-new objective lay wide open right before his eyes.

But out of nowhere, "thud," "huh," Eric gasped as Monica threw her arms around him from behind. Priya clamped onto his right arm, Emma hugged his left arm, Heidi and Chloe dropped to their knees to lean against his legs, and Laura plopped herself right onto his lap.

"Huh... what is this?" Eric stammered.

"Let’s go home," the six girls chimed in perfect unison.

"Huh... home? Oh... right... home," Eric managed to say, the reality finally sinking in that all six girls were now officially permitted to live under the exact same roof as him.

Eric whipped his head around to look at Miranda, Layla, Anna, and Vicky, silently begging for help and some kind of explanation. But they were already completely tuning their kids out, casually chatting among themselves with bright smiles without so much as throwing a glance his way. Left completely helpless, Eric had absolutely no choice but to take the six girls back to his building.

"Ding." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

A notification popped up on Eric’s smartphone. But because he was currently pinned down and smothered by the girls, he couldn’t even reach into his pocket to check the message. Finally, he just gave up.

"Okay... okay... let’s go home, and please, get off me," Eric said weakly.

"Yay... let’s go!" the six girls chimed happily.

They immediately let him go. Eric quickly pulled the smartphone from his pocket and saw that the message was from Caleb. Eric opened the text, which read:

"Eric, what happened? I saw someone spreading a video of you... Ruby and Jade are in it too. Can we meet up? I’m with Mike right now."

"Why are you asking me? Mike definitely told you everything already. Screw it, whatever... I’ll reply later, I don’t feel like dealing with this," Eric thought to himself as he closed the message and immediately blocked Caleb temporarily.