Chapter 465 - 233: Dream or Reality?

Chapter 465: Chapter 233: Dream or Reality?

"My backend is blowing up right now! Everyone’s demanding you stream. They’re saying if you don’t come on soon, they’re going to come looking for you at the botanical garden! Holy crap!"

Xie Yuan looked at the video on the trending list and nodded.

"Alright, let’s go stream now."

Wang Yibing immediately stomped on the gas.

"YEEHAW~"

Once they got home, Wang Yibing personally moved a chair into place for Xie Yuan and set up the equipment. Seeing him sit there with a calm expression, he tutted.

"Yuanzai, how come you don’t seem excited at all? I used to be so happy I couldn’t sleep when I gained a few dozen followers. You’ve got a million people waiting to watch you, but you look like you couldn’t care less."

"It’s like... what do they say in novels? ’A tranquil heart.’ Hah, what an act."

Xie Yuan scoffed.

"Thinking too small, aren’t you? This is nothing."

"You’re all talk."

Xie Yuan smiled, then said suddenly,

"If you were in my situation, you’d be the same."

Wang Yibing thought he was referring to his accident and just nodded silently. He then patted him on the shoulder and said in a low voice,

"We’re starting."

"What’s up, fam! I’m here! I brought the vegetable back from the botanical garden!!!"

Xie Yuan had already discussed with Wang Yibing what they would stream.

They decided on high-difficulty action games, like Elden Ring, Sekiro, and so on, performing no-damage speedruns.

These games had a large audience, plenty of viewers, and gorgeous graphics. Plus, it was easy to make the gameplay look spectacular, so even people who didn’t know the games could enjoy the show.

The hype from yesterday hadn’t died down. The moment Xie Yuan started his stream today, countless people, drawn by his reputation, immediately flooded in, once again pushing the "Please Call Me a Vegetable When I’m Gaming!" stream to the front page of KuaiDou Live.

Wang Yibing watched as the viewer count once again shot past a million, and the number of followers on his account rose every second. He was grinning from ear to ear.

Before the stream yesterday, he had 30,000 followers. After it ended, that number had already doubled to 60,000.

After posting one video, he had broken 100,000 by this morning.

And now, after going live, many of the people who had been waiting saw Xie Yuan appear again and immediately hit the follow button. The count was about to hit 200,000!

He’d really made it big!

...

For the next few days, Xie Yuan would come to Wang Yibing’s place in the afternoon to stream. He’d pick a game to speedrun each day, and if he couldn’t finish it in one go, he’d split it over several days. His popularity remained sky-high.

Of course, part of the reason was that his gaming skill was on a completely different level from everyone else, but his experience as a comatose patient was an even bigger factor.

Wang Yibing kept all sorts of documentation permanently posted in the stream’s info, wishing he could make sure every single person saw that this was a real former comatose patient.

Neither factor alone would have generated this much hype, but the combination of the two was both inspiring and somewhat surreal. It perfectly catered to the current internet culture, creating a phenomenal explosion in popularity.

Add to that the fact that he’d started by capitalizing on the sky-high popularity of Black Monkey, the swarms of clout-chasers online trying to debunk him or accuse him of cheating, the local TV station’s live interview with Xie Yuan as he was discharged from the hospital, and the news of his original accident.

All of this material combined on the viral medium of short-form video, creating a veritable tidal wave of attention.

Watching the follower count shoot up, fast approaching one million, Wang Yibing sighed with emotion.

"Yuanzai, this is a fortune falling from the heavens! We have to catch it!"

Xie Yuan nodded silently. ’A month of this should be enough.’

’Pay off the debt, buy back the house for my parents... it’ll be more than enough.’

「One week later.」

Xie Yuan was at home eating lunch when there was a sudden knock on the door.

When Xie Yuan opened the door, he saw Wang Yibing looking rather grim. He raised an eyebrow.

"What’s up?"

"It’s nothing... You eat first."

"You can have some, too."

"I’m not hungry."

Wang Yibing smiled and greeted Wang Yafang, then waited off to the side, looking conflicted.

Xie Yuan frowned, finished his meal in a few bites, and pulled Wang Yibing into the bedroom.

"What happened?"

"Xie Yuan... a guild wants to discuss a partnership with us."

Wang Yibing’s brows were knitted with worry.

Xie Yuan mused,

"If it’s a good guild partnership, it could boost our popularity even more... Are the terms bad?"

"Yeah, I went to their company this morning to talk. The terms they offered..."

Wang Yibing took a deep breath.

"They want eighty percent of our gift revenue, and they’ll also take an eighty percent cut of our stream revenue sharing. In exchange, they’ll promote our stream."

Xie Yuan’s brow furrowed. ’Isn’t that just daylight robbery?’

’Which company is so arrogant?’

"It’s Big Shot Bro."

Xie Yuan raised an eyebrow. ’Big Shot Bro?’

’The number one influencer on all of KuaiDou? A true behemoth with over fifty million followers?’

’No wonder. If it’s them wanting to partner, I guess they really can be that arrogant.’

Xie Yuan said slowly,

"If they genuinely promote our stream, even if we’re only left with twenty percent, our income would still be higher than before?"

"That’s right. But... for the past two days, a streamer in the same niche has been hot on our heels. He’s never surpassed us, but he’s not far behind. I looked into it—the guy is Big Shot Bro’s brother-in-law."

"The viewers sent me screen recordings. He was complaining on his stream about us stealing the spotlight, and he threatened to sign us just to shelve us and crush us. He even posted his chat history with his brother-in-law. This kind of thing... it’s happened before..."

Xie Yuan’s brow furrowed sharply.

’If that’s the case, then this is just a scheme to get something for nothing. They’d sign us under the pretense of promotion, then give us no traffic, crushing a competitor without lifting a finger.’

’There’s no such thing as a free lunch!’

Xie Yuan pressed his lips together.

"And if we don’t agree?"

Wang Yibing’s expression was complicated.

"Not agreeing could be even uglier. He has fifty million followers; we don’t even have one million. He can directly influence the platform..."

Xie Yuan was silent for a long moment, then suddenly let out a cold laugh.

"Heh, isn’t this the fucking same as a local landlord or village tyrant? No matter the society or the era, the fundamental problem is always identical. Only the outward forms change!"

Wang Yibing didn’t know why Xie Yuan was suddenly making such a pronouncement. Worried he would make himself sick with anger, he quickly said,

"Yuanzai, don’t get worked up. Calm down, I’ll think of something! Worst case, we just play along with them. We should at least be able to get some scraps... probably."

After Wang Yibing left, Xie Yuan remained in his room, frowning.

’He wanted to leave something behind for his parents in this world. Even if it was just an illusion, it could make up for his eternal regret.’

’But this illusion was too damn realistic, too damn disgusting. Who has dreams like this? Aren’t they worried I’ll just stop playing?’

Xie Yuan pondered deeply. ’In this world, cultivation is money, power, and status.’

’He was originally cultivating quickly according to the rules, but who would have thought a major enemy would show up to stunt his growth and cut off his path upward.’

’Since his opponent refuses to play by the rules and insists on forcing his hand, and he has no way to protect himself here...’

Xie Yuan would just have to try another method.

A method that would allow him to "wake up."

He let out a long sigh, slowly sat down on his bed, and began to breathe using a special technique.

Suddenly, the sound of water echoed around him, as if a stagnant lake had begun to stir again.

Xie Yuan could faintly see the Profound Water around him, as if he were still at the bottom of the lake, enveloped by it.

His brow suddenly twitched, and his surroundings instantly returned to his room.

However, that feeling of being within the Profound Water...

...still remained.

’If cultivating here is the same as cultivating in the Profound Water...’

’Then how fast would his cultivation speed be?’