Chapter 452 - 293: The Positive Significance of the Internet

Chapter 452: Chapter 293: The Positive Significance of the Internet

As the number of internet users grew, more and more people realized that making a living off the internet was a viable path.

Even the Church joined in on the fun, extravagantly purchasing a full set of live streaming equipment.

At the current level of technology, live streaming wasn’t something you could do with just a phone or a computer; it required the support of an entire broadcasting team and production crew.

And the Church spent all that money just to launch a live streaming channel where, from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, a Priest would lead the audience in prayer.

Meaning, they would begin to pray.

Occasionally, there would be interludes with a Priest giving a sermon or leading a Holy Song.

And you know what? They had a surprisingly large audience.

It was almost always the channel with the most live viewers, though part of the reason was that there weren’t many live shows to begin with.

The most incredible part was the donation channel. Of course, they couldn’t call it "donating." It was custom-made by Zog, complete with exclusive special effects for two types of payments: Contribution Gold and Atonement Gold.

Donating a certain amount would summon a Holy Image of the Goddess and play an audio clip.

"The Goddess appreciates your pious contribution."

Or, "The Goddess forgives your wayward sins."

It had a strange feeling of being both old and new.

That audio clip was even recorded by Saintess Astrid herself.

Every time Zog saw a group of people praying, shaking their heads back and forth, with the occasional special effect popping up, he would hallucinate hearing, "Life is a journey such as this..."

The vibe was pretty much the same.

The Church’s method of using the internet was a high-end strategy that ordinary users couldn’t imitate.

For most people who wanted to earn a little money online, posting videos was a more feasible option.

Among these up-and-coming video creators, a portion quickly grasped the ultimate secret to gaining views.

Chasing trends and piggybacking on hot topics.

As for the biggest hot topic on the internet recently, it had to be cars, and everything related to cars.

The data clearly reflected this: on YouTube’s top 50 trending videos, over 40 were car-related.

There were videos introducing cars, explaining traffic laws, and doing car reviews.

There were only a few car models available right now, so he had no idea what those review channels would test after they ran out.

There were videos explaining how to get a driver’s license, and some from the first batch of test-takers who directly recorded their driving exams.

After Twin Tower City announced its car-related policies, many Lords from other regions chose to immediately follow suit.

However, to show that their decrees weren’t just blatant copies, they had to make minor adjustments to certain details.

Zog could just imagine how many rules there would be to keep in mind when driving across different territories in the future.

Thankfully, the adjustments were minor. It wasn’t so bad that you’d drive on the right in Twin Tower City, only to have to switch to the left in the next territory.

And Twin Tower City’s own traffic laws didn’t completely copy the template Zog had provided, either.

For example, in Twin Tower City, driving after drinking was permitted, but drunk driving was not.

The subtle difference between the two was determined by a series of small "sobriety" tests.

Twin Tower City and the neighboring Winterless City had also settled on an inter-city expressway project.

They unanimously agreed that Zog’s idea of adding speed limits to the expressway was superfluous. Expressways were for speed, so you should be able to drive as fast as you want.

They also expressed bewilderment at the regulation making seat belts mandatory.

If a seat belt is to protect yourself, then not wearing one is just being irresponsible with your own life. If someone insists on courting death, why bother stopping them?

Zog’s reaction to this was that the local customs of the Otherworld were truly savage.

Car-related content becoming the biggest hot topic was partly because it was genuinely novel, and partly because Zog had given it a little push in the background.

This traffic boosting also led to another small change.

Nobles from all over discovered that this "internet" thing was incredibly convenient for announcing new decrees, much faster than the old way of relying on Civil Servants to travel to different places and make proclamations.

And so, they collectively set up shop on the YouTube platform.

Zog went to take a look. These official accounts mostly posted rather serious content.

He wondered how long it would be before they started trying to force the popular memes of the younger generation, creating all sorts of awkward, bizarre things because they didn’t understand them, all while masterfully employing the curated comments feature.

Zog followed a few car-related accounts that seemed relatively professional and had the potential to become long-term ventures, intending to observe their development.

’If their followers grow quickly, I’ll turn them into mouthpieces for the "evil" Zog Group!’

"Wait, what the hell is this?"

While browsing the car videos on the trending list, Zog suddenly noticed a title that didn’t quite fit in.

The Devil on Earth: Unforgivable Evil Deeds

"Hmph—"

A few sparks shot out of Zog’s nostrils.

’A provocation! A pure and simple provocation!’

’I worked so hard to whitewash the Devil’s image a bit, and now someone posts this? What’s the big idea?’

’And on my own turf, no less!’

’They can’t possibly think this video will stay up, can they?’

Zog was about to ban the video outright, but then he had a second thought. ’Wait, no. YouTube is, in name, a platform for free speech.’ ℴℴ𝘮

’It doesn’t matter if that’s true in practice; the banner of democracy and freedom has already been raised on the surface.’

’This video is on the trending list now. Deleting it outright would be too conspicuous.’

’It would expose the lies I’ve been peddling.’

’No. I have to use the backup plan.’

Of course, Zog had long been prepared for this kind of situation. The backup plan was to first throttle its traffic, preventing the video from being pushed to users’ homepages.

Next, he would restrict its searchability. Unless someone typed the full title into the search bar, word for word, it would be impossible to find.

Finally, he would employ the grand technique of secretly docking view counts. No matter how many times the people who could find the video replayed it, the view count wouldn’t rise, and any new follows for the creator would be secretly canceled.