CHAPTER 92: FAMOUS [500PS]

Leaving her to rest, Tony pulled out his phone and scrolled through Twitter. Unsurprisingly, most posts were flooded with praise for Sekiro.

Then a trending post caught his eye. "Already? People are too fast, there is already tons of Sekiro fanart, and some are... quite spicy."

"Already?" Tony muttered in disbelief. It had only been a few hours since Natalie ended her stream. Were artists this fast?

He glanced at Natalie, making sure she wasn’t looking at her phone, then sneaked to the corner, opened some art, and checked for himself.

The homepage was already flooded with Tifa fanart, her in countless outfits, most of them quite revealing. Each pose was so refined they could be used as reference material.

Not that Tony was surprised. Ever since Tifa had been released, she’d become a sensation online, dominating fanart and 3D modeling communities. She had already become the undisputed ’Number One’ of the scene.

Still, most 3D works looked rough. Tony briefly wondered if he should release Tifa’s official model data so players could make higher quality content. But that might risk exposing New World’s tech. Forget it, worst case, he could always use a small account to ’leak’ some short Tifa clips himself...

He scrolled further, and sure enough, Sekiro fanart had already appeared among the flood of Tifas.

"Hmm, this Emma piece is actually pretty good."

"Eh? Why is the Divine Child here? They’re still a kid, for god’s sake!"

"...Wait, why is the Sculptor drawn together with Wolf?! What the hell??"

Tony’s face twisted into the same bewildered expression as that old man in the subway meme.

"What are you looking at?" Natalie noticed Tony’s odd expression and asked curiously.

"It’s nothing." Tony shook his head quickly. He definitely couldn’t let her know what he’d been doing just now, otherwise she’d think he was a total pervert.

Natalie didn’t push further. Instead, she said, "Tony, the glucose drip is almost finished."

"Then call the nurse yourself, don’t rely on me for everything." Tony muttered, but still pressed the nurse button for her. At the same time, he hurriedly closed the app. If the nurse happened to see that... the shame would be unbearable.

A moment later, a pretty young nurse walked in, gently pulled out the infusion needle, and smiled. "Your boyfriend really cares about you. He was so nervous when he brought you in." Then she frowned and scolded lightly, "But why did you faint? Did your boyfriend starve you, or are you dieting again?"

"He’s not my boyfriend, he’s my little brother!" Natalie jumped in panic to clarify.

"Ah? Really?" The nurse’s eyes lit up. She immediately turned to Tony, her tone suddenly softer, "Hey, do you play Subnautica? I’ve been at it for two weeks already, and they just opened the online feature. Let’s play sometime?"

"Uh... I don’t play that anymore," Tony replied flatly.

"What?! You don’t play Subnautica?" The nurse looked at him like he had just confessed a crime.

After all, New World was too popular. Among young people, not playing Subnautica was almost like not having a TikTok account.

"Yeah. I don’t play Subnautica," Tony repeated firmly. He wasn’t lying, between game development and his own side projects, he barely had time for anything else. When he did play, it was casual little games like Fishing games. Thirty minutes in and out, very relaxing.

"Then... can we at least add each other?" The nurse pressed.

"Of course." Tony nodded casually.

The nurse’s face brightened like spring flowers. "Great! Add me!"

They exchanged Game IDs. Then, almost as an afterthought, the nurse said, "By the way, there’s been a group of people waiting outside your ward. I’m not sure if they’re your friends."

"Huh?" Both Tony and Natalie blinked. When they stepped out into the corridor, sure enough, several young men and women were sitting there, all staring at them.

The moment they saw Natalie, they jumped up in excitement.

"Natalie! It really is Natalie!!"

"Wow, no way, it’s actually her!"

"I told you I recognized her just now!"

"Natalie, can we take a picture with you?!"

The fans swarmed forward.

Natalie hadn’t expected to be recognized at a hospital in the middle of the night. Flustered, she quickly pressed her finger to her lips. "Shh, don’t be so loud. We’re in a hospital, keep it down."

In the past, she might not have drawn such a crowd. But ever since becoming the official spokesperson for New World, her popularity had skyrocketed. Some second tier celebrities weren’t even as famous as she was now.

Tony immediately understood. Someone must have recognized her when he brought her in earlier, and these fans had waited outside all this time. Their persistence was honestly impressive.

The fans were polite enough not to cause a scene inside. But once Natalie finished her discharge paperwork and stepped outside the hospital, their enthusiasm exploded.

"Natalie, can I get a photo?"

"Me too, me too!"

"Please, an autograph!"

Natalie had always been patient with her fans, so she smiled and interacted with them one by one.

At first, Tony stood off to the side, ignored. Until a sharp-eyed female fan suddenly pointed at him and exclaimed.

"Wait... Are you the New World dev?!"

Whoosh!

The atmosphere instantly shifted.

That single sentence was like a spark tossed into dry grass, every fan present whipped their heads around, their eyes burning with excitement.

After all, the dev’s allure was even greater than Natalie’s!

Rumors had long swirled about Natalie’s close connection with the mysterious game developer. Now here she was, walking out of the hospital in the middle of the night with a man at her side. The implications...

If you connected the dots, wasn’t this super suspicious?!

"W-wait, don’t misunderstand! I’m not the dev!" Tony panicked at their fervent stares, taking a step back in alarm. "I’m just Natalie’s younger brother, nothing more!"

"Yes, yes! He’s my brother, not the dev!" Natalie quickly chimed in, terrified the misunderstanding would spread.

Hearing their insistence, the fans calmed down. Thinking about it carefully, Tony really did look far too young. Could someone barely out of university have created such a legendary game? Impossible. At the very least, the dev had to be in his thirties.

Plus, Natalie had mentioned a younger brother on stream before. That sealed it.

The misunderstanding dissolved, and the fans happily continued taking photos with Natalie. Some even asked for pictures with Tony, but he flatly refused.

In real life, it was better to stay low profile. Otherwise... too much trouble was bound to follow.

1212 Words.