Dayo reached JD Records exhausted. The conversation with Michael had cost him a lot of energy, but it had gone the way he wanted: for now, his label was spared. He allowed himself a small, short relief before stepping into the building — then the relief evaporated.

Something in the studio felt off. People moved with purpose and panic. Phones buzzed constantly. Staff ran past him in small groups, heads bent over screens. The air smelled like burnt coffee and worry.

His phone buzzed with Urich's name.

—Urich—

"Dayo, come to the meeting room. Now."

He didn't wait. He threaded through the foyer and pushed into the room where the heads of department had already gathered. Valery, Luna, Rex, Elana, Wayne, and Urich were there, faces tight.

"Ah — Dayo, you're here," Urich said without ceremony. "There's fire on the mountain. Michael started. He moved fast."

"So fast?" Dayo dropped into a chair. He tried not to sound surprised. He remembered Michael's look; he had expected retaliation. Of course, he would react immediately.

"What did he start with?" Dayo asked with a tired tone.

Valery pushed a tablet toward him. "Watch."

Dayo accepted it. The first clip began: a stitched compilation of snippets — interviews, offhand jokes, backstage footage. The edits were clean but malicious. Audio had been manipulated to make him sound dismissive of fans and collaborators. The video cut to a deepfake clip that had him swearing at a religious group. The caption across the bottom read: "Dayo exposed — arrogance, disrespect, and worse."

Rex slammed a fist on the table. "Who made this?"

Valery scrolled. "Multiple sources. First appeared on a handful of anonymous channels, then hit a cluster of paid influencer accounts. It blew up inside an hour."

Dayo sighed. "He is starting small, so it doesn't come up as staged."

Dayo turned toward his team. "Our next line of action is to debunk it. No need to throw money at it — use word of mouth at least to fight back a bit. We already know the outcome of this battle we are about to enter."

Alice looked worried. "But Dayo, why don't—"

Dayo smiled at Alice. "There's no use fighting a losing battle. We win some, we lose some. Today we lose, but we will surely win again—"

Before Dayo could finish, his assistant Sharon rushed in.

"Sir, you need to see this," Sharon said, worry written all over her face.

Dayo looked at her calmly. "Okay, take a deep breath, Sharon. Let me see."

The moment Dayo saw it, his jaw tightened. The next attachment opened: a notice from a digital distributor — copyright takedown received. Five songs from his new album were temporarily removed from two major streaming services. The notice listed multiple claims and referenced tracks that were allegedly prior works.

"That's the first move," Valery said. "Fraudulent copyright claims."

Dayo felt heavy. This was a weak point for any artist: once your copyright is questioned, even if you're proven innocent, it leaves a stain on your career that can be hard to wash away. It cut deep.

Dayo looked at Urich. "How do you think they did this?"

Urich had already been looking and said, "They used shell companies to file strikes. That's why some streams dropped overnight — the platforms auto-blocked the tracks."

His stomach dropped. "Who filed them?"

"We traced the filing IDs to a cluster of shell accounts," Valery said. "They point back to firms connected, indirectly, to Michael's network. It's clean enough to look legitimate at a glance."

"Damn," Dayo cursed under his breath. He could have bypassed this by hacking, but the problem would keep piling up. He had to go through the normal route to clear his name — normally not less than 1 week, but considering Michael was behind it, he was looking at no less than a month, assuming no underhanded techniques were used.

This would cripple his popularity as the album sold well, and this was also a prime period for streaming, and if taken offline suddenly, it would lose momentum and credibility.

Dayo muttered under his breath, "Nicely played, Michael."

"So what's the online reaction so far to the released news?"

Alice shook her head. "Worse than expected. Michael is taking this seriously with the manipulation and paid artists. It's already trending at number nine."

Dayo sighed and looked at the fan comments.

"Heh, I fucking knew it — there's no way he could sing all those songs himself."

"Yeah, but who knew that he was a thief, eh?"

"HAHA JD — THE THIEF OF THE CENTURY."

"I don't believe this. JD would do no such thing."

"Oi, you above are dumb or daft — look at the evidence being used against him."

"What pissed me off was when he insulted my religion. Who does that?"

"Boy Scout Dayo."

"No matter what you all say, JD is a king, dud."

"Yes, of course, he is a king — KING OF THIEVES HAHA."

"Haha, I can't get enough of this hehe."

"There's someone behind all of this, I can feel it."

"Yeah, same here, but the truth always comes out."

"What truth? You JD fans should just accept that JD is a monster."

"You can say that again — a f*cking MONSTER!!!"

"JD, say something!!!!!"

"Say what? He is GUILTY AS F—!"

"There is nothing to say."

Dayo didn't read everything and just put the tablet down. He felt heavy but oddly light inside — at least some people would always choose what they wanted to believe. He saw the paid narratives, but chose to stay calm.

"Okay, we do what we do. Stay calm. Do not overreact. Let this play out. We already know the outcome, so don't spend — just contact our people to try to reduce the hate. That's all. Let everything flow the way Michael wants."

They all nodded.

"So are you going to make a statement or something?"

Dayo smiled. "It's too early to do that. That's what Michael hopes — that I react. He has more in his arsenal. We wait till he finishes, then I apologize and exit if I must — not now."

Urich nodded. "As expected of you — always five steps ahead."

Dayo smiled. "Alright. I am leaving. You all should do the same."

Dayo stood and walked out of the meeting room.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.