Aqua

  The next morning starts almost the exact same as the last. With me waking up, doing stretches, eating, and so on before eventually putting my armor on and lying in bed to start work. Accepting the first job of the day.

  Which is another recording session for the music video.

  It doesn’t end up taking all that long to finish though. Enough that the producer and director actually believe we’ll finish by tomorrow during the third filming and recording.

  After that job I go to another modeling job. With this one being swimsuits again. Two piece, just like the first shoot. But with a bit more variety in color and type. And once again, not as much exposure as the average two piece swimsuit as directed by Rhett.

  And no one would ever go against Rhett. Much less that old blubbery bastard of a general who is technically my grandfather.

  At least the guy has some use.

  Anyway, the photoshoot barely takes any time at all, and I end up finishing it to move onto my third job of the morning. Finally starting to take three a day again after that last incident with the shark.

  And this job is actually another variety show. Except this time it’s a quiz show.

  Unlike what most would expect though, I’m not one of the ones participating as a contestant.

  I’m a guest host for the show.

  Because apparently this quiz show is actually about me.

  So I soon find myself on set sitting behind a counter with another two hosts. The two regular hosts for the show. Jimmy and Jacob Farol. Along with four different contestants seated behind booths across the counter from us. Each with a scoreboard above their heads.

  And surprisingly enough, one of the contestants is actually someone I just saw earlier today.

  Why is Jack here?

  I understand he probably does jobs around a similar time as me since both of our worlds conveniently enough have their time and rotation set almost exactly at the usual Alliance time, but still. His planet doesn’t actually show that with the day and night cycle, so normally newly initialized worlds ignore the Alliance time for a while.

  The only reason Oceana obviously doesn’t is because the vast majority of the people live deep in the ocean. Underwater. Where you can’t even see the sun rise and fall.

  As for how they know about Alliance time?

  Some System stuff literally changing every single clock on the planet to Alliance time because a certain System Administrator suggested it to the System and the System agreed to apply the change.

  Which is odd, but convenient for the Alliance and Pioneers. So I’m not complaining.

  “Hello one and all! To the first ever Aqua Quiz Show here on Quiz Show Farol! Hosted by me, Jimmy!” Jimmy says with a wide smile on his youthful face.

  “And me, Jacob!” Jacob says with a salute, looking nearly identical to his twin.

  “But boooy do we have a surprise for you!” Jimmy says before turning to look at me as the cameras turn as well. “Welcome our guest host for the show, Aqua Orcayne!!!!”

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  My eyebrow twitches at that family name, but I choose not to make a fuss about it.

  I’m not one to bring my family drama to trillions of viewers after all. That would just make it more annoying.

  Anyway, I wave at the camera with my trademark lazy smile and say, “Hello.”

  Then go silent with a firm nod of my head. One that makes the hosts chuckle, along with three of the four participants.

  Even Jack cracks an amused smile.

  I guess it makes sense all the participants in a quiz show about me would have a favorable opinion of me.

  This quiz show should last about an hour to two hours depending on how fast they get through the questions. Which will leave me finishing at about eleven in the morning or noon respectively.

  Considering the content matter, I’d like to get done faster.

  Because it’s kind of embarrassing.

  Even more than posing in a two piece swimsuit. Mostly because I’m used to that now, and those swimsuits are both cute and cool at the same time. Without too much exposure.

  Still. They offered a fortune for me to appear on the show.

  So here I am.

  Plus Rhett said it would be a big hit having me appear.

  I let out a sigh at that thought as the twins continue talking.

  “Let us go ahead and introduce our contestants today!” Jimmy says while leaning forward in his seat.

  “First off we have Jack Verol, who many know is currently recording a MV with our guest host, Aqua!” Jacob exclaims, making Jack wave his hand and give his own self introduction.

  After him there’s another idol – a female idol this time – and two actors. And I’m not sure if it’s staged or not, but all three of them said they’re my fans. Stating that as their reason for entering the show.

  I kind of hope it’s staged. It’s awkward to talk directly with fans.

  At least with the chat I can act like I’m just talking to myself. Which I do often enough in my head while thinking as is.

  Yeah. I’ll just pretend they’re staging it, even if they aren’t.

  “Now that introductions are over, let’s begin with the first of today’s questions!” Jimmy exclaims before pulling out a deck of cards that seems too large for my liking. Then he draws one card and smiles as he says, “What was the first thing Aqua said on Oceana?”

  I blink at that.

  How the hell would someone know that? I don’t even know that.

  Are these questions curated to make them lose or something?

  The female idol suddenly slaps the buzzer in front of her, surprising me until I realize she’s probably just making a guess or something.

  “Yes! Lily, what is your answer?!” Jacob asks while standing up and placing both of his hands over the counter as he leans over it.

  Lily looks ridiculously confident for some reason as she smiles at me and says, “Her first words were, and I quote, ‘Stupid fish…’ while fighting some delfish in the tunnel after arriving on Oceana and awakening her Bloodline!”

  I stare blankly at her while wondering if she just made a random guess or something.

  Then I hear a dinging sound as a circle appears on a screen at the front of her pedestal. Following which the number one appears on her scoreboard.

  My jaw drops open.

  Excuse me, what?

  Immediately after that, a large screen appears between us hosts and the contestants with me on the screen while I’m just swimming through the tunnels of the caves. Hunting delfish.

  Then at some point, when a delfish manages to slam into my chest, sending me backwards to hit my head on a rock, I mutter, “Stupid fish…” before managing to kill it.

  I feel a blush creep up on my face after watching that even as Jimmy exclaims, “You were correct! One point goes to Lily!”

  “Why do you even remember that?!” I exclaim while staring wide-eyed at Lily.

  But Lily just chuckles while the very short and petite girl sticks out her chest in pride and says, “I told you I’m a fan and I meant it!”

  I proceed to bury my face in my arms on the counter to hide my blushing state.

  “And onto the next question!” I hear Jacob exclaim, making me groan a bit. But he just chuckles and continues, “What was the first thing Aqua said directly to her livestream chat?”

  I have a bad feeling about this… mostly because I don’t even remember.

  Without hesitation, Jack rings his buzzer, surprising me. Then he answers, “It was Aqua’s speech when she directly told any potential business inquiries that she would not be accepting any jobs until she got a safe place to stay.”

  A dinging sound echoes through the set again, making me let out a sigh of relief.

  Okay. That one wasn’t embarrassing.

  I lift my head entirely, the blush finally gone.

  Only for them to move on to the next question, which is literally, “What was the second thing Aqua said something directly to her livestream chat after that?”

  And the answer to that makes me bury my head in embarrassment again as one of the actors answers, “Something got in my eye.”

  I don’t even watch as the video appears showing me saying that.

  Just kill me now.

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