Vanguard of the Eternal Night

translator: xiin

editors: bear & celtic

Tyron stayed up all night and accomplished many things.

By dawn, he had disguised himself as a young punk, completely changing his style as he wore a cap and sat in the audience of the conference Victor was holding.

Not surprisingly, White Thousand Degrees had sent someone to pay attention to the conference, and the person he sent was precisely Qi Xun, his faithful dog of a subordinate.

Qi Xun had also brought three or four other people with him. They all held props they had prepared in advance as they charged into the venue.

Victor was currently making a statement along with several creators from the platform. Seeing Qi Xun and the others rush in, he froze for a moment, and the reporters who filled the venue also turned around to watch their entry.

Qi Xun spoke first, "Vicker is truly shameless! They dare to take the initiative and accuse others of wrongdoing when they clearly were the ones who plagiarized from our artists!"

The people he had brought with him moved quickly as they slapped up a multitude of copies of the artwork around the venue and shouted, "Vicker plagiarized! These are our works, and we've already signed contracts with Leway!"

Qi Xun added, "The video made by White Thousand Degrees, the god of our platform, was also stolen away by you guys! White Thousand Degrees never gave you permission to host it; you're infringing on our copyright!"

There was actually a counterattack, and there were now people framing Vicker for plagiarism?!

Victor really hadn't expected them to use this trick and was incredibly shocked by their boldness as he said, "This is our press conference. Please don't cause a disturbance here!"

Qi Xun didn't care at all. He had come precisely for the sake of making a scene as he continued to post up images along with his people, spouting more fabricated stories about the Vicker platform's wicked deeds as he did so.

The journalists who didn't know the real truth could only record everything first as they whispered amongst themselves, unable to understand exactly what was going on here.

.

Qi Xun felt quite proud of himself. He felt that with this trick, he had managed to successfully land an attack on Victor.

And this was when Victor spoke up. He said, "I already warned you, but you didn't listen. In that case, I'm calling the police!"

Po, police?

These little brats had never seen anyone who would call the police over a scene that wasn't even a fight. Qi Xun thought about it, then said, "Report it, then! In any case, White Thousand Degrees never gave you the authorization for that video, but you guys still continued spreading it on your own! We have no reason to fear being reported!"

Victor didn't say anything else and simply called the police.

.

The police in the interstellar era came very quickly. Two additional people stood inside the venue within a minute.

Qi Xun went up first and complained, "Police buddy, they were the first to infringe on our copyright!"

Police: "What infringement? We aren't the internet police, that's not within our jurisdiction."

Qi Xun: "???"

The police assessed the situation, then asked Victor, “You’re the one who reported that someone was blatantly vandalizing private property, right?”

Victor’s expression was very well behaved as he nodded and said, “Yes, yes. We spent over a thousand dollars on the walls for this venue, and the camera they smashed was worth 200,000 dollars.”

Qi Xun: "?!" Wait a minute! What the heck! How come you're not behaving as expected!

The two policemen took photos of the pictures posted on the walls as well as the broken camera, then said, "We'll have to trouble you to come with us."

Qi Xun's expression was still bewildered as he said, "Wait a minute! Police buddy! I want to sue them for infringement!"

"I've already said that infringement isn't within our jurisdiction." The policeman said.

.

Qi Xun's heart felt as if there were ten thousand mud and grass horses galloping over it. Victor was really not playing cards according to the rules!

He looked left and right and felt that the situation was no longer favorable for him. He whistled sharply, pushed the two policemen out of the way, and led his brothers to rush out the door!

Police: "……" What kind of situation was this? They were only planning to bring them in for questioning, but their reaction was so fierce, making it seem as though they were about to arrest them or something?

In fact, after behaving too much like thieves, people would naturally feel fear in their hearts when they encountered the police. Even if the matter was very minor, Qi Xun was still unwilling to follow the police to the police station.

Therefore, he rushed to the door and at the moment where he happily pushed open the door--

There was a loud bang.

A transparent glass cage dropped down and covered Qi Xun and his gang completely.

The police's expressions were a little strange as they used their system authority to stick Qi Xun's hands together. "Do people still run off like this in this day and age? Don't they know that we can catch people directly? How unexpected."

Victor gleefully came forward and shook hands with the police. "Comrades, it's been tough. Thank you."

Police: "Oh, it's fine. Little brother, you look like an upright person. In the future, just make a police report when dealing with people like this."

Victor: "Alright, alright. We are all law-abiding citizens, right?"

.

Outside the room, Tyron couldn't hold back his smile as he pulled his cap a little lower.

… He had originally intended to help out when it became necessary, but he hadn't expected his Little Vic to be so impressive.

As the police left with Qi Xun and his people, Tyron quietly walked over.

People were coming and going on the street, and nobody paid any attention to Tyron in his disguise.

He casually walked through an alley, holding a large copy of a famous painting, 'Starry Night', in his hands as he passed a group of people.

The policemen's footsteps only paused for a second as they let him pass first, and they didn't notice anything out of the ordinary when he walked by.

But Qi Xun happened to see the picture of a starry sky as it passed by.

He froze for a moment, and his eyes became unfocused.

Qi Xun: The sky is so beautiful, I… I should be an old dog. Am I looking at the sky? Ah, right, I'm an old dog!

The next second.

The police abruptly discovered that something seemed to be wrong with Qi Xun?!

Qi Xun first barked, 'woof', then fell to all fours, turning three and a half circles on the spot before whining and biting down on one of the policemen's hands.

Of course, this couldn't cause any harm in the virtual world, but the policeman was still given a scare!

Qi Xun didn't think much of it as he bit down, then sprang up to rush over to the utility pole nearby, lifting his hind leg… A large wet patch appeared on his crotch.

Everyone on the street: struck dumb with astonishment.jpg

.

The commotion outside instantly stirred up the people inside.

Where there just so happened to be a large group of reporters. As soon as they saw how noisy it was outside, they excitedly went to check it out and recorded Qi Xun's actions.

Qi Xun's brothers were also struck dumb with astonishment at his actions. One person cried, "Bro, Brother Qi! You never f*cking told us that you were mentally ill?!"

Qi Xun turned back and used his nose to sniff this person's scent. It was probably because he felt that it was familiar that Qi Xun immediately rushed over to hug that person's legs, beginning to twist his waist and move his butt, making a pumping movement in the air.

Qi Xun: "Woof woof woof! Aoooooo!"

Everyone: "……"

Reporters: "……" My god, this fellow is really trying to force himself to become big news.

While thinking this, the reporters also drew a question mark next to Qi Xun's words from before--the words of a crazy person held no reference value. If they took them out and wrote about it, they would be nothing but a joke.

The policeman's expression was covered in black lines. He was unwilling to get close to Qi Xun, so he used the system authority to firmly tie him up and bring him back to the police station.

.

A few minutes later, White Thousand Degrees received a message that went like this: [ Boss! Qi Xun's mental illness flared up. He thinks that he's a dog. He attacked the police and is now locked up! He'll be detained for at least three days! ]

"……" White Thousand Degrees suspected that he wasn't awake. He read over this message a second time, then dropped his phone in shock, "Mental illness?! What the hell is this?!"

He was too lazy to go to the police and protect his neurotic brother. He simply took the opportunity to step up and make an announcement: The Vicker platform had privately distributed his video without his consent (the one that had copied 'flash' and showcased 'instant cut'). He had decided to take Vicker to court!

After that, he became a very popular topic. Not because of his announcement, but rather because his buddy had given a perfect, flawless performance and acted like a dog at the police station!

Since he was Qi Xun's boss, many reporters had run over to ask him about Qi Xun's daily living conditions.

White Thousand Degrees was frantic as he tried to clarify, "You guys are the ones with problems! What does Qi Xun's mental illness acting up have to do with me? I'm just his boss! Him being sick doesn't mean I'm sick too!"

.

White Thousand Degrees desperately attempted to bring the focus back to his announcement and said, "I will definitely sue Vicker, especially their boss Victor Li. They have infringed on my rights as a creator!"

Reporter: "I heard that you personally uploaded the video to the Vicker platform, only now you've changed your mind and are saying that there was no authorization. Is this because you guys were discussing a collaboration that fell through?"

White Thousand Degrees: "Does what you say count, or does what I say count? How could I not know what I authorized?"

Reporter: "Oh. Then, what are your thoughts about Victor also going to court?"

White Thousand Degrees was arrogant and proud, "Bring it! Fight the lawsuit! Isn't he claiming to be protecting intellectual property rights? Now, it's my intellectual property rights that have been infringed by Vicker. I want to see how he deals with this!"

"……" The reporter interrupted his speculations and said, "Mister White, please wait a minute. Victor Li isn't suing you about copyright. He's accusing you of putting up false advertisements, creating groundless allegations, disseminating obscenity and pornographic literature, hard-core pornography, and glorifying violence, as well as stealing and selling customers' private information. Also… do you know that there are viruses and trojans in the advertisements on your site that have resulted in tens of millions of dollars worth of social property losses?"

White Thousand Degrees: "……"

At that moment, White Thousand Degrees' expression was exactly the same as Qi Xun's from back then.

It held a sense of confusion that was like a dog falling to the ground and eating dirt, and even before it had time to process the pain, it suddenly discovered that it had lost all of its front teeth.

White Thousand Degrees: Me… you… Victor?! Damnit, why aren't you following the routine?!!! Why!

.

Later, after the lawsuit was filed, White Thousand Degrees and Victor spoke together on the phone.

White Thousand Degrees hadn't uttered a single word when Victor began, "It's too late for you to regret now. Why didn't you think about this earlier?"

White Thousand Degrees almost vomited a mouthful of old blood onto the screen. His expression was thunderous as he said, "You just wait! Even if your lawsuit wins, my copyright lawsuit will also succeed! By then, what will you have to say about copyright protection?!"

Victor's expression was very innocent, "Don't you know that it's very easy to drag out copyright lawsuits? Since you can drag it on, so can I. It'll be a year before your copyright lawsuit sees any results."

White Thousand Degrees: "……"

Victor added, "You have viruses in your advertisements. Do you plan to apologize to your customers? Oh, I contacted them yesterday, and provided them with some legal assistance."

White Thousand Degrees almost had a heart attack. He was so agitated that he wheezed like a bull before roaring, "You just wait!"

Victor: "I am waiting. Weren't you the one who raised up this group of people who specialize in piracy? You've kept them around for so long and given them so many resources for 'free', but now they're immediately turning around to bite you as soon as they learn about these viruses. How does it feel?"

White Thousand Degrees: "A group of spicy chickens! Shameless! [Beep--]'s [Beep--]! [Beep--]!"

Victor copied Tyron's style and crossed both arms over his chest, and said, "This is nothing but spicy chickens getting angry at other spicy chickens, scum and other scum mutually tearing each other apart."