Liam lay on his bed with his phone, the screen light brightening up the room with the little light that escaped the screen.
He glanced at the time at the top right corner of his phone, and it read 11:55 p.m.
"I need to sleep now or I'll have a hard time tomorrow," he muttered as he wanted to turn off his phone before he received a notification.
He glanced at his screen, and it was a post related to him, so he decided to check it out and see what it was about before he slept.
The post was barely five minutes old and already surging into five-digit shares.
Liam sat up on his bed in the half-light of his apartment, screen glowing cold blue against his face. His eyes locked on the viral tweet pinned to the top of financial Twitter.
"NetVigil—once dead. Now quietly acquired, restructured, and growing. Who's behind this silent comeback? Tech necromancer strikes again?"
– @FinSharkAlpha
Beneath the caption sat a leaked screenshot of a corporate registry document. Key names redacted, but the dates and shell firms matched exactly. The internet had sniffed out the hidden trail.
Comments exploded beneath the thread with panda emojis.
Memes showed images of tombstones marked "NetVigil" being dug up by a cartoon panda in a black hoodie.
A stylized GIF of bamboo growing through Wall Street's iconic bull statue, roots spreading into servers and balance sheets.
One meme had a panda photoshopped over DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street, making it rain shredded financial reports.
"The Panda Investor strikes again," one said — that was his new nickname.
"Dude just revives dead companies like it's nothing. Silent, slow in black and white—like a panda stalking the market," another retweeted under the original tweet.
He smiled at the comments and couldn't help but chuckle as well, "So I'm getting famous now, huh?"
A fan edit showed him (a panda) in grayscale, hands folded like a monk, with the phrase:
"Resurrect, Restructure, Rebound."
He stared at the meme. "That's not how I look like, is it?"
He glanced over at the system phone and noticed it also had a notification on it.
He rolled out and pulled the phone closer to him, then opened it and saw the notification:
[SYSTEM UPDATE]
Passive Skill Unlocked: Clean Slate
Effect: Reduces negative public scrutiny and gradually resets public perception of owned companies.
Accelerated by silence and indirect media attention]
He glanced at it, "So this is meant to keep negative media attention from me?" he said, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, whatever. I've got to get some sleep soon enough. If I keep looking at all these notifications, I'll never get any sleep," he said, dropping both phones on the small table beside the bed, then rolled into a comfortable position.
He lay facing the ceiling and slowly drifted off to sleep, smiling subtly as he drifted away.
●●●●●●●●●●●●
The morning sunlight shone brighter than ever, nearly blinding him by its light.
"F*ck!" he cursed, jolting upright as he nearly fell off the bed during his little panic attack.
He glanced at the window, then yelled, "F*ck you, sun!"
Then he cleaned his eyes, though everything still had red, blue, and purple colors attached to them. "Uhh, damn it! I would have been blinded by that shit."
He walked into the bathroom, staggering to wash his face.
Then after a while, he came out from the bathroom, cleaning his face with a towel.
His phone was buzzing with notifications from last night. He was too tired to check it out, but he had no choice.
He opened his phone and tapped on one of the notifications. The memes were still rolling.
One TikTok showed a guy in a panda costume sneaking into a boardroom, placing "Restructure" sticky notes on abandoned laptops.
Another had him fighting off zombie shareholders using "bamboo" USB sticks labeled "System."
"These guys and their memes," he chuckled, then went off the internet.
He immediately received a call from Mia just when he wanted to drop his phone on the bed.
"Hey, what's up?" he answered, dropping the towel on the bed.
"Liam, oh thank goodness you're okay," she responded over the phone like something happened.
"Huh? Am I supposed to be hurt or something?" he asked.
"Not that. I didn't see you at the bakery yesterday, and I thought something happened to you. You know? Because of the meet-up?" she answered, the background noise a bit louder than usual.
"Yeah, I'm fine. What's happening at the bakery though? I can hear a lot of noise," he asked, walking to a table drawer.
"Oh that, everyone's just excited, you know," she murmured, the sound of people chittering growing louder in the background.
"Excited about what exactly?" he asked further, drawing out an eye drop from the drawer.
"Excited about this guy named The Panda or something. He's all over the internet after he signed some proxy of a big company that sunk," she responded like she wasn't interested.
He smiled, knowing very well everyone was talking about him, but no one actually knew who he was — well, except Jin.
"Oh, I understand," he giggled. "The guy has really blown up and has become a celebrity."
"I actually don't really care about any of this. What's so big about signing a proxy?" she responded sarcastically. "If I sign a proxy, does that make me some sort of big shot?"
"No, no. He hasn't just signed a proxy to grow that big on the internet. He has helped so many people, sole proprietors, and even small companies to grow despite so much," he said, the last part referring to her bakery.
"Yeah, I heard that too, but I still don't get it. So many people have done that, but no one has praised their work," she continued, her voice a bit clouded like she was eating something.
"Don't overthink it. I'll be coming to the bakery today. Hope you kept some cookies for me," he teased.
"Why don't you come and find out yourself then?" she teased back.
"I'll see you then," he said before hanging up the call.
"I'm slowly becoming a big shot, Dad, just like you," he said, looking at the sky out the window, his mind now fully forgetting he wasn't the original owner of the body he inhabited.