Chapter 36: 036.100,000 fans!_1

Chapter 36: 036.100,000 fans!_1

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Song Yunyan’s support funds were transferred quickly.

Or rather, so quickly that even Lu Ban found it hard to imagine.

When he returned to his warm and sweet home in a stretch version of some unrecognizable brand’s black luxury sedan, a piece of news popped up on Lu Ban’s phone.

“Jiangcheng Grand Theater, a historical building, will be demolished today; the surrounding area is now closed off.”

He clicked on it and read a very routine report.

“Oh, so they’re planning to announce the demolition with the news and then make my video more popular by trending it on social media?”

Lu Ban considered Song Yunyan’s tactics and thought that only the wealthy could afford such an approach.

After lying down for a while, the disciplined Lu Ban opened those books on folklore studies to continue learning and planned to watch a horror movie in the evening to analyze the filming techniques.

After studying for an hour, another news notification popped up on his phone.

“It is claimed that the demolition of the Jiangcheng Grand Theater is due to the discovery of an ancient battlefield from the Han Dynasty beneath it; strange phenomena have occurred frequently in recent days.”

Lu Ban clicked on the news, which was the kind of nonsense you’d expect from marketing accounts on social media, full of blind analysis. However, they used a screenshot from Lu Ban’s video as evidence, although the source was removed.

“Did they forget to credit me?”

Lu Ban didn’t quite understand.

At noon, Lu Ban took a short nap and continued his diligent studies, determined to solve the issue of the Maya civilization’s beliefs today.

After glancing at his phone, he received another push notification.

“The last glimpse of Jiangcheng Grand Theater was actually by an ‘Old Days’ video site UP owner!?”

This push notification first poetically recounted the history of Jiangcheng Grand Theater, reminisced about its past glory, described its current state with regret, and then criticized the impoverishment of people’s material cultural life today.

Finally, the notification mentioned Lu Ban’s video and called on everyone to take a last look at Jiangcheng Grand Theater.

“This UP owner ‘Immovable’ from the Old Days video site, combining the exploration of mysterious places with visual effects, has shown us the dilapidation of the once splendid Jiangcheng Grand Theater with terrifying and thrilling visual effects, playing a requiem for the Jiangcheng Grand Theater. His exploration is not of a dangerous forbidden area, but of the pure heart that we have lost from our memories. We appreciate him very much, grateful for his personal efforts in protecting intangible cultural heritage…”

Reading it almost brought Lu Ban to tears.

“So my adventure unexpectedly had such profound meaning, and I didn’t even realize it…”

He put down his phone and decided to continue his studies for his original intention.

By evening, after a day of studying and feeling melancholic about the disappearance of the Maya civilization, his phone buzzed with another notification.

“Jiangcheng Grand Theater makes the trending searches, and horror video becomes the final memento.”

This was a Weibo notification. Glancing at it, he saw the news about the impending demolition of the building trending, and Lu Ban’s video also gained popularity alongside it.

Typically, Lu Ban’s kind of video would be considered as scraping for popularity to the extreme, but people noticed that, hey, Lu Ban’s video was posted a week earlier than the demolition announcement.

And before the demolition announcement was made, other hosts had already seen Lu Ban’s video.

Surely the owners of Jiangcheng Grand Theater didn’t decide to demolish the old building after seeing Lu Ban’s video, right?

After ordering takeout and watching a horror movie with his meal, Lu Ban saw another push notification.

“Compilation of supernatural events at Jiangcheng Grand Theater! This place is not as simple as you think!”

As he ate, he clicked on it, and Lu Ban saw it was full of seemingly serious but actually empty and speculative conclusions. The most interesting was the suggestion that Jiangcheng Grand Theater was built to suppress certain unclean entities, and those evil beings were the ones captured in Lu Ban’s video.

Then someone proposed that these unclean entities were the work of a Foreign Domain lord from Aldebaran, and those majestic oddities were ones that could drive a person mad with just a distant glimpse.

“Wait, isn’t this what I replied with?”

Lu Ban raised an eyebrow.

From the supernatural events onward, many people started to join the hype for some vicarious thrills.

There were those who explained the architectural style of the theater for educational purposes.

There were those who took a scientific approach in explaining eerie phenomena.

There were those who took the opportunity to promote their own religious beliefs.

And there were those muddying the waters, trying to sleep with their female fans.

By the time he went to sleep that night, Jiangcheng Grand Theater had already caused quite a stir, and as a result, Lu Ban’s video was @-mentioned daily, significantly increasing both views and the number of fans.

Qin Tiantian, who he had thought might stealthily attack in the middle of the night, indeed did not disturb Lu Ban, perhaps intimidated by his roommate.

Being able to let a girl who dared not sleep alone succeed in turning off the lights and sleeping by herself, Lu Ban felt he had accumulated some merit.

Qin Tiantian would undoubtedly be thankful to him.

…

Five days later.

Waking up to the pleasant melody of the Spring Festival Gala’s playlist, the first thing Lu Ban saw was the ceiling light twisting into indifferent system text.

[Congratulations, you have completed the career development task]

[Now beginning the settlement process]

[Task exploration degree: 75%]

[Task completion status: Splendid]

[Standing at the forefront of the times to make your name known by more people, you have proven yourself. A mountain of a hundred thousand people call your name, yearning for new fears]

[Silence Points gained: 2800 points]

[Settlement completed]

[Silent Department Store has been upgraded]

[Free choice mode enabled]

[As a creator who commands attention, your stage should not be limited to this alone, venture into a wider world, and find more scenes worth commemorating!]

[Please complete tasks and obtain rewards]

The common patterns on the chandelier transformed into eerie designs, resembling three small holes, making one want to peek through them to see the scenery on the other side.

Lu Ban sobered up slightly, aware that his fan count had reached a hundred thousand.

In five days’ time, to go viral was a bit slow, but faster than the speed most people could achieve.

Most of these fans had come for the spectacle, wanting to see what Jiangcheng Grand Theater was really like, and the reason they followed Lu Ban was probably out of convenience and curiosity to see where he would explore next.

The comments were full of demands for more content, and Lu Ban also felt helpless.

I’m just an ordinary 23-year-old up-and-comer, where am I supposed to find so many forbidden places for you all to adventure in? In modern society, any problematic place would have been closed off long ago.

There were fans who would ask, why not just go to a deserted factory for exploration, wouldn’t that be good?

On this account, Lu Ban wanted to clarify.

He did not explore simply for the sake of exploration, but to reveal the unknowns of the world, to remind people to value their current lives, and also to satisfy his own curiosity and complete tasks.

An ordinary deserted factory, where you go in, walk around, and come out, such videos, low quality, uninteresting.

Better lack than have something shoddy.

Lu Ban’s demand for quality was as strict as his self-discipline.

“Time to renew the subscription for the captain, feeling a bit reluctant.”

Mumbling to himself, Lu Ban brushed his teeth, washed his face, and while eating the breakfast he bought from downstairs, glanced at the computer screen.

The grey and dull text formed small holes that appeared abruptly on the computer screen, as if pierced by a bullet.

Lu Ban saw pale text emerging beside the small holes.

“Strange?”

He noticed that the description of these texts seemed different from before.

*

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