Chapter 91: Soaring Popularity
Seeing that the trial mission completion rate exceeded ninety percent, Chen Ge finally let out a sigh of relief, the stone in his heart settling back down.
This two-star scream-inducing horror scene was simpler than he had anticipated, perhaps also because the ghosts in Muyang High School hadn’t specifically targeted him. Halfway through the mission, he had already realized that the specters in Muyang High School weren’t malevolent spirits or vengeful ghosts—including the Ouija board spirit, most of them had no intention of harming people. The reason Fan Yu’s father was threatened by them was his own fault, having made mistakes first.
The hardest parts of the entire trial mission were the two side quests: the classroom and the deep well. The mystery of the last classroom remained unsolved; he had only gone in for a look around, and fortunately, the ghosts of that class had shown mercy and didn’t trouble him. The difficulty of the deep well mission was no less than that of the classroom. Even with the police’s help, it took an entire night of digging to find the wellhead just before dawn. If he had relied solely on his own strength, this side quest would have had almost no chance of success.
With the trial mission completed and a new scene unlocked, Chen Ge was thoroughly satisfied. As for the hidden道具 rewarded at the end, he didn’t really care much. Legend had it that the Ouija board spirit could predict the future and fortune, but that was just a legend. His own Ouija board spirit seemed to know nothing and had no principles or integrity.
The rain that had fallen all night finally stopped. The officers from the West City Police Station didn’t shortchange Chen Ge, the hero of the hour. After taking a simple statement, they drove him away with them.
It had been an emergency call-out, and the officers in the car were so exhausted they fell asleep on the spot. Chen Ge shifted his body to give them more room, and no one spoke during the ride—it was very quiet.
At six in the morning, Chen Ge returned to New Century Paradise.
Whether it was because of the Yin Pupil or prolonged contact with evil spirits, Chen Ge always felt a chill in his body.
Not sleepy at all, he lay down on the bed in the staff break room. When he turned on his phone, he found several missed calls and over a dozen text messages.
Most were from He Shan, mainly asking if Chen Ge had run into any trouble and whether he needed to call the police.
Scrolling to the bottom of his inbox, Chen Ge was surprised to see a message from Dr. Gao. The doctor said that Fan Yu’s condition might be related to the people close to him and advised Chen Ge to be more careful.
The text was sent at half past twelve in the morning, by which time Fan Yu’s aunt had already confessed everything to Chen Ge.
After replying to He Shan and Dr. Gao, Chen Ge opened the short video platform and clicked on his personal homepage.
“Four hours of streaming without a single exchange with the chat, and I cut the stream off a few times on a whim. My popularity’s going to take a hit.”
After subduing Fan Yu’s aunt, Chen Ge had considered that it would involve Fan Yu’s privacy as a child, so he directly ended the stream. He hadn’t had a chance to explain to his viewers, and the situation at the time hadn’t allowed him to be distracted.
Once the homepage loaded, Chen Ge glanced at it casually and was surprised to see that the number of collections for his stream had skyrocketed to 39,000.
“I remember before the stream started, the collections were under 10,000. What happened in my stream last night?”
He had been busy with side quests, streaming in a completely laid-back manner, operating on the principle of tricking whoever he could into joining, figuring he had nothing to lose. He hadn’t expected such an unexpected gain.
Just as Chen Ge was trying to figure out what was going on, He Shan called. As soon as he answered, he heard a noisy commotion on the other end: “Boss! I knew you were still alive!”
Chen Ge ignored He Shan’s exclamation and asked directly, “What happened in the stream last night? Why did my collections and followers increase so much?”
“Yesterday, as soon as you started streaming, your popularity began to rise, but it was slow. Then, when you started the Ouija board game, someone posted on the platform’s forum exposing Qin Guang for plagiarism, and they uploaded the recording of your first stream.” He Shan’s voice grew louder, clearly wanting to defend Chen Ge. “Qin Guang mimicked your reasoning process in his stream, hired actors to play the culprit, and the scene layout and some of the lines were exactly the same as your last stream! It’s basically solid proof, but Qin Guang’s fans still refuse to admit it. They’re badmouthing you in the comments, falsely accusing you of copying him.”
“That’s probably paid trolls. What happened next?”
“A lot of people went to Qin Guang’s stream to ask about it, but Qin Guang pretended not to see it. Not only did he not respond, but he also banned everyone who mentioned your stream. But last night, when he was streaming, his popularity hit 800,000, with full platform resources promoting him. The chat was flying by, so there were always some who slipped through. A small number of curious people saw it and went to your stream.” He Shan got more and more excited. “Don’t underestimate your peak popularity of only 50,000 last night. It was a mix of random viewers, trolls, haters, Qin Guang’s fans, and your own followers. It was a real free-for-all! You didn’t have any moderators in your stream either. Even half an hour after you stopped, all kinds of comments were still flooding the chat. Oh, and because of that chaos, you actually made it onto the midnight streaming popularity chart. That list rarely has newcomers.”
Chen Ge could imagine the chaos in his stream last night, but it was a blessing in disguise. His collections and follower counts had indeed surged significantly.
He didn’t lack good content now; what he needed was exposure.
“Slow and steady. This is only my second stream.” After chatting with He Shan for a bit longer, Chen Ge hung up.
He scrolled through the private messages from viewers on the short video platform. Most were meaningless insults, but there were also some random viewers who couldn’t stand Qin Guang and firmly supported Chen Ge, voicing their backing.
At the very end, Chen Ge noticed a somewhat familiar small account. Its avatar was the same as that studio account from before. The person had messaged him, warning him not to pull any tricks behind the scenes, or else they’d make sure he couldn’t survive on this platform.
If another streamer saw this, they might be scared or anxious, but Chen Ge was different. Streaming and short videos were just means to promote his haunted house.
He casually deleted the small account, exited the short video page, and pulled out the black phone.
“Muyang High School (Scream Index: Two Stars): This scene has been fully set up. You may proceed to the underground first floor for a visit.”
“Note: Muyang High School is a branch scene of the four-star horror scene, Haunted Ghost School. Its area is twice that of an ordinary horror scene. Please familiarize yourself with the internal mechanisms before putting it into use.”
Reading the prompt on the black phone, Chen Ge sat up from the bed. “Twice the area of an ordinary horror scene? Did they move half of Muyang High School in here?”
He put on his shoes, ran to the first floor next to the Zombie Resurrection Night scene, moved the wooden boards aside, and looked down.
The abandoned underground parking lot had completely transformed. The stairs bore traces of fire damage, the dark hallway was littered with unfinished exam papers, classroom doors were half-open, desks and chairs were overturned, and faint shadows flickered among them.