Hour 1–6

The first posts appeared at 3:47 AM GMT on obscure forums frequented by political junkies and conspiracy theorists. Anonymous accounts, freshly created, all posting variations of the same four words.

Reynard Vale has returned.

For the first hour, they went mostly unnoticed. Lost in the endless scroll of content, buried under arguments about Mark's latest housing policy and debates about whether the current system could be salvaged.

But then someone screenshotted them. Posted a compilation to a larger platform with the caption: "Weird coordinated posts. Psyop? ARG? What is this?"

That post got traction.

Within three hours, #ReynardReturns was trending in seventeen countries. Within six, it had gone global.

Social media erupted. Every platform—regardless of rank restrictions, regardless of Mark's attempts at algorithmic suppression—overflowed with speculation, debate, and frantic energy.

"He's alive? How? Where has he been?"

"Probably fake. Another conspiracy theory from people who can't accept reality."

"If it's true, everything changes. EVERYTHING."

"Mark must be TERRIFIED right now."

News anchors scrambled. Live broadcasts interrupted regular programming to discuss the rumor, even though none of them could verify anything. Guest experts offered contradictory analyses, their professional uncertainty barely masked by confident tones.

"The timing is suspicious," one analyst said on a major European network. "Eight months of silence, and suddenly these posts appear? It reeks of coordinated misinformation."

"Or," her debate opponent countered, "it's exactly what it claims to be. Reynard Vale, returning at the moment when Mark's approval is at historic lows. Strategic. Calculated. Exactly his style."

Conspiracy theorists proclaimed vindication. They'd been saying for months that Reynard was alive, that he was planning something, that his disappearance was tactical rather than permanent. Now the mainstream was finally catching up.

------

Hour 6–12

In Paris, President Dubois convened an emergency meeting of his senior advisors at 9:00 AM local time.

"Is this credible?" he demanded, looking around the table. "Do we have any intelligence suggesting Vale is finally making a move?"

"Nothing concrete," his intelligence director replied. "But the posts are coordinated. Professional. This isn't random internet noise. It was like Reynard himself who made these."

"Could be a disinformation campaign," another advisor suggested. "Mark trying to flush out Vale's supporters. Or hostile foreign actors trying to destabilize Mark's government."

"Or," Dubois said quietly, "it could be genuine. And if it is, we need to decide where France stands."

The room went silent. The question nobody wanted to voice directly: Did they support Mark or Reynard? The devil they knew or the one they'd abandoned?

In Accra, Samuel Osei sat in his office, phone pressed to his ear as he spoke with his security chief.

"I want confirmation within twenty-four hours," he said firmly. "I don't care what it takes. Find out if Reynard Vale is actually alive and if he is making a move."

"Sir, with respect, if he's cut communications with us and has been hiding successfully for eight months—"

"Then he's very good at it," Samuel interrupted. "Which is why I need our best people on this. Because if he's alive and making a move, Ghana needs to know which side of history we're on."

After ending the call, Samuel sat back in his chair, remembering the man who'd warned him about the World President. The young revolutionary who'd exposed Hugo Vale and triggered everything that followed.

If you're really out there, my friend, Samuel thought, you picked one hell of a time to come back.

In Beijing, the Chinese government's response was more calculated. Emergency meetings, yes, but also careful observation of how other nations reacted. Testing the waters before committing.

"Mark's approval is ten percent globally," one minister noted. "If Reynard is alive and positions himself as an alternative, that could shift dramatically."

"Or it could backfire," another countered. "Vale's reputation is damaged. Many still believe he benefited from his father's crimes. Returning might remind people why they were suspicious of him in the first place."

"We watch," Lee decided. "Gather intelligence. Prepare contingencies. But make no public statements until we understand the full scope of what's happening."

------------

Hour 12–18

Mark's compound—a converted government building in Geneva, fortified and secured after paranoia had driven him to consolidate his inner circle—received the news at 2:00 PM local time.

His chief of staff entered the private office with visible trepidation. Mark had become... volatile in recent months. Unpredictable. Prone to explosive anger at anything perceived as criticism or threat.

"Sir," the chief of staff said carefully. "There's a situation developing. Online rumors about—"

"Reynard," Mark said flatly, not looking up from the reports he'd been reading. "I know. My security team briefed me an hour ago."

"The posts are spreading rapidly. Social media, news coverage, government speculation. It's becoming—"

"A problem," Mark finished, finally looking up. His scarred face was unreadable, but his eyes carried an intensity that made his chief of staff take an involuntary step back. "Tell me. Do you think he's alive?"

"I... I don't know, sir. The evidence is circumstantial. Anonymous posts could mean—"

"He's alive," Mark said with certainty. "I should have made sure. Should have hunted him down properly instead of assuming he'd stay hidden." He stood abruptly, his chair scraping against the floor. "Eight months. Eight months of him planning. Watching. Waiting for exactly this moment."

"Sir, our approval rating is—"

"Ten percent, yes, I'm aware," Mark snapped. "Because people are too stupid to understand that hierarchy is natural. That the strong should rule the weak. That rank-based structure is the only system that makes sense."

The chief of staff said nothing, having learned that contradicting Mark during these moods was dangerous.

"He thinks he's clever," Mark continued, pacing now. "Thinks he can swoop in as the alternative. The hero returning to save everyone from the 'tyrant.' Classic narrative. Predictable."

"What should we do, sir?"

Mark stopped pacing, a smile crossing his scarred features. Not pleasant. Not reassuring. "We prepare. Because if Reynard really has returned, if he's actually making a move..." The smile widened. "Then the real game finally begins."

---------

Hour 18–24

In the high-rank districts—the neighborhoods where B-Rank and above citizens lived in relative comfort—the news sparked nervous conversation over expensive dinners and exclusive gatherings.

"If Vale comes back, what happens to the policies?" a businessman asked, swirling wine in his glass. "We've benefited significantly from the rank-based structures. Will he dismantle all of it?"

"Probably," his companion replied grimly. "He always positioned himself as defending the common people. If he regains power, expect immediate reversals."

"We should prepare," a third voice added. "Diversify assets. Establish fallback positions. If the political landscape shifts that dramatically..."

But in the low-rank zones—the overcrowded, under-resourced areas where C-Rank and below struggled to survive—the reaction was different.

The rumor spread by word of mouth. Social media was too expensive, internet access too restricted. But people talked. In breadlines. During exhausting shift changes. In cramped housing where families shared single rooms.

"Did you hear?" someone would whisper. "Reynard Vale. He's back."

"Can't be true. He disappeared months ago. Probably dead."

"But what if it is true? What if he's really alive?"

The hope was fragile. Cautious. The kind of hope people didn't want to fully embrace because disappointment would be crushing.

But it was there.

A homeless mother, huddled with her two children under a bridge, heard the rumor from a stranger passing food donations. She held her children closer that night, whispering the words like a prayer.

Reynard Vale has returned.

An exhausted factory worker, pulling his sixteenth hour of the day, heard it from a coworker during a thirty-second break. He didn't say anything, but his shoulders straightened slightly. His movements had fractionally more energy.

Maybe everything isn't lost yet.

Across the world, in dormant resistance cells that had gone quiet after Mark's rise, old networks began cautiously reawakening. Encrypted messages sent through back channels. Contacts reestablished. People who'd given up after Reynard's disappearance allowing themselves to wonder: What if?

Interpol's databases were flooded with reported Reynard sightings. Brazil. Japan. Australia. Norway. Poland. Forty-three countries in the first eighteen hours. The reports created statistical impossibilities—he couldn't be in all those places simultaneously—but that didn't stop people from reporting them.

Some were genuine mistakes. Some were deliberate false leads. Some were wishful thinking manifesting as false memory.

The result was paralysis. How did you investigate a ghost who was supposedly everywhere at once?

In Poland, President Valeska's advisors urged her to make a statement. To condemn the rumors as destabilizing misinformation. To publicly reaffirm support for World President Mark.

She listened to their concerns with patient attention.

Then simply said: "Observe. We will observe how this develops before making any declarations."

Her advisors left confused, not understanding why she seemed so calm about something that could dramatically shift global politics.

Valeska allowed herself a small smile after they were gone.

Right on schedule, she thought. Let's see what you do next, Mr. Vale. All my resources are yours.

News networks launched a propaganda war. Some channels—those aligned with high-rank interests—declared with certainty that Reynard was dead. That these rumors were cruel hoaxes exploiting desperate people.

Others suggested leaked intelligence proved otherwise. That credible sources confirmed Vale's survival. That his return was not just possible but inevitable.

Mark's government attempted to classify the rumors as "dangerous political misinformation" and ordered platforms to suppress them. The order backfired spectacularly, creating a Streisand effect that amplified interest rather than diminishing it.

As the twenty-four hour mark approached, one thing was clear: whether Reynard Vale was actually alive or not, the idea of his return had fundamentally shifted something.

For eight months, the world had been divided into those who supported Mark's policies and those who suffered under them. Despair versus cruel optimism about natural hierarchy.

Now there was a third option: What if there's someone else? What if there's an alternative?

In break rooms and breadlines, in resistance cells and government offices, in high-rise apartments and homeless encampments, millions of people whispered the same four words.

Reynard Vale has returned.

And underneath the words, a question nobody wanted to voice too loudly:

If he really is alive... does that mean this...hierarchy...will be destroyed?

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