My Extraordinary Achievements #Chapter 33 - I am a Champion - Read My Extraordinary Achievements Chapter 33 - I am a Champion Online - All Page - FREEWN
Chapter 33: I am a Champion
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"Ding! Good job! You've ran 10 kilometers, elapsed time; 1 hour 15 minutes and 35 seconds."
After receiving the notification, Meng Fan used all his strength to spring another 50 meters before slowing down his pace. His body looked like it'd been drenched in rain, and he was panting like a dog in hot weather. But there was a grin hanging on his face.
Not only did the speed match Meng Fan's expectations, but it also exceeded them by an extra 5 seconds.
"I just have to work a bit harder, then I'll be able to run at a regular person's pace!"
10 kilometers in one hour, his pace evened out at 6 minutes per kilometer, which was a pace that most people who ran regularly could reach. For some athletes who were talented in sports, it was the standard, but this was Meng Fan's long-awaited goal, a dream come true!
"If I can finish a few more tasks if I can become skinnier, if… It should be doable!"
He took a look at the next task.
Task phase 5: Requires a total mileage of 200 kilometers; reward: Accomplishment points 200, endurance 2. Current progress: 108/200 kilometers. The total requirements had doubled, but Meng Fan was confident.
The first 100 kilometers made Meng Fan recall a feeling of embarrassment, but the second 100 did not feel so difficult.
The beginning is always hard!
After surviving the beginning, everything else should go smoothly. At least he was confident now.
Meng Fan was confident, without incidents, and enough time, he could run 10 kilometers every morning and night, completing the task in just five days!
"You're pretty good!"
Wu Tong, who had completed her add on exercises, saw Meng Fan slowing down and headed over. Although she didn't hear the prompt on his phone, she had basically confirmed that Meng Fan had run 10 kilometers.
"Were you waiting for me?"
While Meng Fan was running his laps, he saw that she didn't leave after finishing her laps. Seeing her approach, he was more certain, he huffed: "Do you need something?"
"Do you know An Li?"
Wu Tong asked enthusiastically. She saw Meng Fan's expression and immediately turned soft on her feet. She smiled and finally asked: "You are using some running software right?" Meng Fan nodded. She continued, "Then have you heard of the "one meter for one grain" event?"
Meng Fan thought about it. "I think I've glanced at it before, is it the one where for every meter you run and they would donate one grain of rice?
"That's the one." Wu Tong nodded. "This event is linked to some other ones that are offline. We are here at the Xi Zi lake charity mini-marathon, do you want to sign up?"
"Mini-marathon, the 10-kilometer kind?" Meng Fan had regularly researched running before he began to run, so he was very knowledgeable as to what a mini-marathon, half marathon, and the full marathon were…"
Wait!
Another task has been triggered!
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"Beep! You've triggered accomplishment task [I am a Champion]."
"This task requires you to receive 100 Champion honor points."
"Upon completion, you will receive the accomplishment title [I am a Champion] (All attributes 50%)"
Meng Fan didn't have time to go into task details, it only took one look at the title and the attributes to know—might have triggered an epic level task!
No, technically speaking it was Wu Tong who helped him trigger it.
This is the second time!
The task [Famous Streamer] was triggered on account of her word, now [I am a Champion] was as well!𝐍𝑜𝗏𝔢𝐥𝗇𝖾xt.𝓬𝞸𝗆
Meng Fan stared at Wu Tong incredulously and blurted out: "Are you an NPC?"
"What?"
Wu Tong did not understand why Meng Fan had such an expression, nor what his words meant. Did his mind short circuit?
Wu Tong hesitated for a second. "I am one of the leaders of this offline activity student group, does this count as an NPC?"
"Eh, I guess so…" Meng Fan returned to reality, feeling some guilt, then quickly said: "Then I will sign up. " Then he proactively asked, "When is it?"
"Next Sunday, as for the specific time and process, I will send you. As well, I'll send you the registration link… Oh, I don't think I have your WeChat."
Meng Fan removed his armband and took his phone out. "I'll scan you."
"And…" Wu Tong hesitated again, before saying. "The organizers will have some video records, you're okay appearing on camera for videos and photographs right?"
"Of course."
"… I mean, they might film you more. Because…" Wu Tong thought it was better to clear things up with Meng Fan in advance, and gestured to his figure. "Because your figure is good for advertisement, as there is positive energy to it."
"No problem, it's all for charity right?"
Regardless if Wu Tong explained or now, even if she hadn't said anything, Meng Fan would still bow down to the NPC.
After adding each other on WeChat, Wu Tong Left, and Meng Fan stretched while checking the details of his new task.
After going over the whole thing, Meng Fan began to chuckle.
He had imagined it too perfectly.
Meng Fan thought his task triggered by the mini-marathon would not be too difficult, for even with such a powerful title, the requirements wouldn't be too outrageous.
However, reality proved how naive his ideas were.
The tasks and processes of this mission were different from before, as previous tasks were segmented into phases and relative rewards, but this time, with each championship honor point won, he would receive a reward. The reward is outlined as "Achievement score 100, all attributes 0.5%".
In other words, earning one champion honor point was equal to 100 achievement points, plus a 0.5% attribute increase bonus.
If he finished all of them, it would be equal to doubling all his attributes!
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Championship honor points: Each time you participate in a competition and win it, you will be awarded the points. The amount of points depends on the difficulty level of the event.
Internationally reclaimed events, 5 championship honor points; International (intercontinental) events, 3 championship honor points; national-level events, 2 championship honor points, provincial and municipal events, 1 championship honor point; anything below provincial and municipal level will be judged by circumstance.
In other words, for events like the Xi Zi lakeside charity mini-marathon that Meng Fan was about to participate in, even if he won, there would be no guarantee he'd receive the championship honor point. Of course, at Meng Fan's current level, it was impossible to win the championship.
Originally he had accepted thinking he would familiarize himself with the competition environment, and along with his efforts in running and losing weight, maybe one day he could win the championship.
But now, even winning it would be of no use.
For more advanced events, he estimated that he wouldn't even qualify to participate!
As for this title, Meng Fan was pretty sure he wasn't achieving it for the rest of his life.
100 championship honor points, what kind of a concept was that? That's twenty world championships!
Is that a realm that someone as fat as him could touch?
"Garbage task!"
No matter how great the rewards were, or the titles, to Meng Fan, it was all garbage.
Even more garbage than [Wealth Distribution Cherub]!
Thankfully, triggering tasks took no space, otherwise, Meng Fan would break into tears.
After experiencing several ups and downs, Meng Fan stretched and headed back to the dormitory. After showering, his clumsy actions woke his three sleeping roommates.
"What are you doing? What time is it? We don't have class this morning!"
"It's great you're working hard okay, but you don't need to hinder us from waiting for death!"
"Mmm… Ah yes"
To build one's happiness on someone else's suffering, this sort of thing… Felt pretty bittersweet if done on the rare occasion.
Meng Fan, who was in a good mood, left the dormitory and went to the cafeteria. He ordered a lard bibimbap, two pancakes, one serving of Cha Siu dumplings, and a bowl of soy milk.
Although he was fat, his soy milk had to be salty. He added pickled vegetables, shrimp skin, shallots, soy sauce and a little bit of ground meat, then sprinkled some golden fritters on top.
If he hadn't been trying to lose weight lately by dieting, Meng Fan would have begun at 2 bowls!
Not long after, the items on the table disappeared. The lack of a full breakfast seemed slightly imperfect, but in order to lose weight, Meng Fan would endure it.
Once he left the restaurant, Meng Fan leisurely headed towards the studio. He took out his phone and browsed WeiBo for a while, upon seeing Wu Tong's information about the mini-marathon, Meng Fan clicked into the link and registered. He then opened Wu Tong's profile.
Wu Tong was obviously a girl who very seldom posted in her WeChat moments. Not to mention selfies, there weren't even traces of her daily life. The newest post had been related to the mini-marathon. The one before that could be traced to over two months ago.
This is really a rare species!
Meng Fan casually gave her marathon status a 'like'.
Then…
He had triggered another god damn task!
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Chapter 34: Adoration Fever
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"Beep! You've triggered the achievement task [Adoration Fever]."
"Task requires you to manually hit the 'like' button one million times."
"Upon completion, you will receive title [Adoration Fever] (Validation 5)"
The task was divided into three phases.
Task phase 1: Requires 10,000 manual 'likes'; Reward: Achievement score 10, validation 1.
Task phase 2: Requires 100,000 manual 'likes'; Reward: Achievement score 100, validation 1.
Task phase 3: Requires 1,000,000 manual 'likes'; Reward: Achievement score 1000, validation 1.
There was no equipment listed below it.𝐍𝑜𝗏𝔢𝐥𝗇𝖾xt.𝓬𝞸𝗆
Meng Fan read the relevant details of the new trigger task, not knowing what to say at the moment.
This was triggered for real!
What kind of a being is Wu Tong?
Speaking to her could trigger a task, even giving a thumbs up on her WeChat moments could trigger one. When he 'liked' other people's statuses he wouldn't… Thinking carefully about it, Meng Fan was stunned.
Had he not 'liked' any posts after he'd been reborn?
It seemed like it!
After his rebirth, he'd instantly triggered the [A Good Person] task that leads him on a confession fever, following that he'd triggered the running and drawing, as well as streaming tasks. These days have been too full of events, giving him much less time to browse WeiBo than before. Even if he did have time to browse, he'd always been in a hurry, so he had no time to give his friends' statuses 'likes' as he had before.
But in any case, Meng Fan had added Wu Tong to his list of noble persons to his close friends' contact list, making her more accessible and easier to talk to.
As for this [Adoration Fever] task, Meng Fan had already seen enough strange things from the [A Good Person] task and [Wealth Distribution Cherub]. At most, he'd just complain about it for a while, then get back on track.
Validation.
Although he's been very lowkey since he was a child, Meng Fan was not lacking in this attribute. Before the age of ten, he'd been tossed around by his seven sisters, so that wherever he went, there were at least two next to him, making it difficult not to draw attention. After he turned ten, the sights and stares that accompanied his lumpy capacity also made him stand out, so even now, Meng Fan and his heavyset figure were hard to ignore no matter where he went.
Meng Fan didn't want to be famous, so he didn't have much desire for this attribute. However, he did long for the points that came with it.
You could get a thousand or so points from just tapping a few likes. This was going to be much easier than previous tasks. Even if the amount is higher, it was only a slight effort away.
Meng Fan opened up his WeChat moments again and began spamming likes.
Seeing the numbers soar in his 'mind', Meng Fan was in a great mood.
The entire way to the studio, Meng Fan deduced that one person's statuses can be liked an infinite number of times, but he also confirmed that it was ineffective to like again after unliking… Okay, this was a useless attempt, even if it was effective, unliking then liking posts over and over again would not improve efficiency.
Nearly four hundred friends should be nearly enough, right?
It's time to release the spam account holders from his blocked list!
His left hand scrolled, his right hand tapped like. This process was almost too efficient.
He arrived at the studio and saw it wasn't opened yet. He had arrived early, simply sitting off to the side and continued giving 'likes'.
One hundred.
Two hundred.
Three hundred.
Four hundred.
When he was at his four hundred and twentieth like—the studio administrator arrived.
"You're here already?"
After seeing Meng Fan, the studio administrator's face broke into a smile, gesturing to the breakfast in her hand. "Did you eat breakfast?"
"I did?"
"Did you really? Breakfast is important for young people like you, almost as important as having to trash talk Er Qing every day!"
Still smiling, she opened the door. Upon seeing Meng Fan handily opened the window to let some air in, she became even more pleased with him, pouring a cup of water and handing it to him.
"Thank you!"
Meng Fan went to his old spot and sat down, taking out his drawing paper and other tools. Once they were properly arranged, he still wasn't in the mood to draw, so he continued to browse his phone and give out 'likes'.
"In the hundreds now… Only f*king five hundred!"
After his emotions resided, Meng Fan realized the task was not as simple as it seemed.
He had calculated that even if his hand speed was above average, counting the scroll time, he could give about two likes every second, and even that was tiring.
Giving a like in simple terms takes only a second of a second to do, however, you can't click more than once in a second. You have to find it, you have to scroll, and then hover over the symbol in the lower right corner of the image with a "heart" or some other figure before you can click it.
Supposedly, the process of 'liking' was only a momentary task, but the previous procedures that lead up to it could not be done in the blink of an eye.
Even with his added hand speed, it was hard to click more than two in one second.
If that was so, averaging 80 clicks in a minute could be considered good.
No, no, no.
There was still reading time to account for.
First of all, you can't help but look at the content before you liked it.
Secondly, if he liked something without reading it first, there would be trouble. Suppose it was a sad post, what would they think if you liked their status?!
Therefore, the actual operation would be lucky to get 60 likes within an hour.
60 a minute, 3600 in an hour. If he wanted to complete task phase one, he'd have to scroll and like for three hours without interruption!
Meng Fan could draw for three consecutive hours, but to like statuses for three hours… The more he thought about it the more terrifying it seemed, terrifying being the keyword—not to mention the psychological burden it came with.
Gotta improve efficiency.
Gotta reduce the psychological burden.
Switch up the battlefield!
Meng Fan exited WeChat and opened WeiBo.
The like button on WeChat is hidden and requires you to hover before you can click, however, the WeiBo button is directly displayed and can be clicked in an instant.
WeChat is a social platform for acquaintances and WeiBo is a social platform for strangers. Compared to the latter, the emotional cost of the 'likes' is considerably less, and the people who spill their sad stories on WeiBo probably do not care about others' reactions.
Another point is that WeiBo can be infinitely refreshed for new content, but WeChat cannot.
After some more intensive analysis, Meng Fan found that his speed really had improved, easily liking 100 posts in a minute, much more quickly than his WeChat progress.
However, it only lasted a few minutes before his efficiency was reduced, falling to even lower than his previous speed on WeChat moments.
Not because his hand was sore, but because he couldn't help but look at the contents of these WeiBo posts. The bloggers that Meng Fan followed on Weibo were way more interesting than his circle of friends, he couldn't bear to miss any content they posted!
That's really something to laugh at!
Forcing himself to ignore the content, Meng Fan had felt guilty towards his friends on WeChat, but Weibo, he felt bad for himself.
In the time he effectively managed to ignore the posts, within an hour, his progress had increased to almost 3000 likes.
No matter how much he calculated, he would see facts eventually.
When he wanted to resume browsing, his phone ran out of power.
He searched around, realizing he forgot his charger.
He looked left and right, then decided to ask the administrator if he could borrow one.
He could charge for a while, and draw for a bit to clear his mind.
When the administrator heard Meng Fan needed a charger, she immediately pulled out her own and gave it to him, asking: "Do you think my trash-talking is awesome?"
As she spoke, she handed her phone over to Meng Fan.
Meng Fan took a look at the live comments blazing across the screen. As for the content… looking at the amiable administrator, he couldn't guess her firepower to be this strong. He couldn't help but stick up his thumb. "That's bold!"
Wait!
Meng Fan saw the progress bar go up by 1 in his 'mind'.
Could it be… This [Adoration Fever] counted manual 'likes' as well, outside of social media?
"The four words 'advise you to be kinder' are too good!"
Meng Fan wanted to confirm his theory, adding another sentence, not forgetting to include another thumbs up. As he spoke it, the numbers went up again.
Not only did it work in reality, but it also worked on the same person for different 'situations'!
"Really, I think so too." The administrator smiled happily.
Meng Fan couldn't help it, and gave her another thumbs-up, without talking. The result… Still increased!
Could it be because the lady's state of mind a second ago was different from now, so it worked again?
It seemed to be the case. The state of mind of the people on his WeChat moments are fixed, but the state of mind of a person who was alive in front of him could be changing at any time and place.
If this was really the case… Then this task would be easy.
It was much easier to point his thumb up at strangers than it was to find content on his phone.
Based on Meng Fan's hand speed, he could give ten likes in a second without trouble!
Wait no, Meng Fan remembered he had given other people thumbs up after he'd been reborn.
Did it have to be triggered on social media? Or, did the system itself not consider the stupidity of this possibility when it was setting up the task and scripted it according to the literal meaning of 'like'?
"Who cares, the system is dead, but people are alive, the key is how they are used! I'm a motherf*cking genius!"
Without hesitation, Meng Fan turned his hand and gave himself a thumbs up.
His progress did not grow.
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Chapter 35: This Works?
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"It seems like the BUG isn't that big huh!"
Meng Fan gave up trying to give himself likes after his thumbs up didn't work. The system was stupid, but not this stupid. This fact, Meng Fan could still accept.
After his phone was charged, Meng Fan wasn't in the mood to continue drawing. He looked around to make sure nobody was looking at him, then secretly, gave a thumbs up to the girl in front of him.
Nothing!
This baffled Meng Fan. Was the previous time just an illusion?
It shouldn't just be useful for administrators, right?
Or, was it because the other party didn't see his thumbs up, so the system didn't establish it as progress?
Praise them to their faces and talk trash behind their backs, is this how the system interprets people getting along?
To confirm his guess, Meng fan thought about it, then stood up and strolled over, pretending to be taking a break from extended drawing. As he neared the girl, he peeked at her drawing, then stepped in front of her and gave her a thumbs-up within her sights. "Nice drawing!"
Although the girl was surprised, she was happy to hear the praise of her artwork. She lifted her head and smiled at Meng Fan. "Thank…"
Before she finished, her face sunk.
Eh.
Meng Fan blanked out for a second as well.
Wasn't this the same freckle-faced girl he'd encountered in the library while completing his [A Good Person] task? Petite and cute, they had reached for a book at the same time. His memory of her was still clear in his head.
Meng Fan saw the fear in the girls' eyes. She didn't think he was a stalker right? That would be awkward!
It seems he should refrain from disturbing others in the studio, god knows who he will disrupt!
"Yes, especially this color, it's got so much depth!"
What could he do at this point, except pretend like he didn't know her? He boasted a sentence and give another thumbs up.
He confirmed, both events counted as progress.
It seems like the praise had to be seen by the other party to count.
He sped up on the way back to his seat, sat down obediently, then began to draw. He was still absentminded, plus the girl in front kept turning to look at him, her eyes were worried.
Fine.
If he wasn't in the mood to draw, he shouldn't make it hard for the girl to draw as well.
It was time to go.
Meng Fan looked at his phone. Although there was only an uncomfortable 20% battery left, it was enough not to shut down. He collected his stuff, returning the charger to the admin, passing out a few thumbs-ups along the way.
"Leaving early today?"
The administrator felt strange, as she watched Meng Fan's hefty body leave, her attention shifted to the petite girl with freckles.
Just now she'd seen Meng Fan talking to the girl, and suddenly felt the desire for gossip burning inside her stomach.
Do all chubby boys like cute petite girls?
Interesting!
It was only 8:30, but there were still a lot of people coming in and going out of the campus. Despite the increasing temperature, students still had to attend class.
Class could be skipped once, but not forever.
"Good morning!"
Meng Fan, carrying his picture tube had just left the classroom when he greeted a fellow male student, not forgetting to give him a thumbs up.
To Meng Fan, it didn't matter what they responded, even if they didn't talk, as he just needed them to see his thumbs up.
"… Morning."
Obviously, this was a student who had been forced to wake up, bedhead still in place, expression blank. Even as Meng Fan walked over, he couldn't tell who it was.
Did he know him?
I don't recall knowing someone this fat!
Also what's wrong with his hand, did he pull a muscle?
"You're in a good mood today!"
"Your hair looks really good!"
"That lipstick shade matches you!"
"That dress is so fresh!"
"Your legs must be 1.2 meters long!
"Why are you so arrogant, isn't it just because you're good looking?"
"Your pear-shaped figure is really nice, kind of like someone famous. No, two. From the left it's Li Zi, from the right it's Jia Ling.
"Your mole is so chic… Can it come off… Like a Sesame! Sorry, sorry!"
…
"Are those AJ.6s or AJ8 s, they look real!"
"Your teeth are so white!"
"You're so tan… Very pretty!"
"Your… shoelaces are really impressive!"
"The sound of your bike bell is really nice!"
"From one look I can tell you must be really good at Ping Pong!"
"You look like a tough lad!"
…
If hand speed was a reward for [A good Person, then being thick-skinned was a by-product of this task.
After experiencing his confession craze, Meng Fan was still able to remain calm and speak in front of unknown women. As for the guys, Meng Fan had never been afraid.
Meng Fan thought it was very impolite to directly give people a thumbs up, as it also caused trouble on the odd occasion. Therefore at the same time, he'd provide some encouraging words and compliments.
Smiling at strangers could cause a series of chain reactions, not to mention the additional flattery of his added banter, who knew how much positive energy he'd be able to transmit!
Under the influence of such compliments and Meng Fan's thumb ups, it was impossible to be angry with him. At least, they wouldn't think he was a psychopath…
If you want a bountiful harvest, you must work hard for it.
If it could acquire points with ease, then he had to take advantage of it!
He genuinely believed that he should work harder after acquiring the system.
Other people might not have the motivation to work this hard, the system pointed out. But the system could 100% confirm that other people might worry that there is no return for their efforts.
If he didn't work hard, then there was really no excuse!
After a few more deep reflections, Meng Fan got his energy back.
That is… After he survives this havoc, his chances of succeeding in finding love are even lower!𝐍𝑜𝗏𝔢𝐥𝗇𝖾xt.𝓬𝞸𝗆
What happened to "live my best life", I didn't even get to be in a relationship, what kind of a good life is this!
As soon as he thought of this, Meng Fan slowed down his pace.
At least, walk a bit further away.
This kind of face to face form of 'liking' is still valid to Meng Fan, even though the efficiency wasn't as high as browsing on his phone, he found it way more interesting.
Of course, staring at his phone and giving out likes was nowhere near as interesting as handing them out face to face.
He'd been irritated after a few minutes of phone browsing, but when it came face to face, the more he gave, the more exciting it got—If he didn't think about being in a relationship.
He no longer had any intention of drawing, nor did he have classes this morning, and his afternoon class was at 3 pm… Meng Fan turned and walked toward his dormitory, ready to put away his drawing tube and distribute likes outside of the campus.
He was less likely to be greeted by people on this path while giving out likes, but most of the subjects of the praise happened to be guys.
"What are you doing?"
As he walked, he saw a few people inclining to him heading over. One of them was Wu Tong, carrying her art tube. She was heading for the studio.
There were two girls next to Wu Tong, curiously looking at Meng Fan.
He's really fat.
They felt a bit uneasy looking at him.
From afar, they saw him furiously giving them a thumbs up.
"Huh? No-Nothing, uhm, I just ate breakfast, so I'm walking it off."
Meng Fan didn't expect to run into Wu Tong. He smiled and said hello to the girls, quickly changing the subject. "You're going to the studio this early? You guys are so hardworking!"
As he said it, Meng Fan instinctively gave them a thumbs up. He was on the verge of flattering them with a cheesy line but stopped himself. He didn't want Wu Tong to think of him as a psychotic person.
This interaction could at least be considered social etiquette.
Heh?
Wait a minute!
Meng Fan saw the progress bar in his 'mind' go up by 3.
He had only done it once. Could it be his hand speed was so fast even he couldn't control it?
"It's obvious that all of you can live off to your looks, but you're still so hardworking. You're going to make other people jealous!"
Meng Fan fawned at them, slowly sticking out the thumb he had just retracted.
This time, Meng Fan was 100% sure he had only gestured once. But the progress in his 'mind' increase by 3 again.
Could it be, a group 'like' counts too?
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Chapter 36: This Works Too?
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"Wu Tong, who was that? Why is he so weird?"
"Weird is weird, but he's chubby and pretty cute!"
After Meng Fan had left, the two girls curiously looked towards Wu Tong.
Wu Tong thought that Meng Fan had acted strangely as well, but aside from their interactions on the track, she had no idea what he was like normally. From watching several of his streams, the possibility of him being like this in real life was quite high. Of course, to the outside, she was very protective of her running pal. She smiled and agreed. "Yeah, it's pretty cute."
The two girls didn't ask more. They didn't need to provoke any gossip to know that there was something between this traditional Chinese painting departments goddess and the fat 'Iron Tower'.
The three girls walked towards the studio, giggling and chattering. When they arrived at the studio, Meng Fan had arrived back at his dorm.
"You're back?"
Chen Dan Qiang was already up, as he had a tutoring job this morning. It was not far from the school, teaching a junior high student how to draw a tranquil life.
Among the four of them, Chen Dan Qiang did not have the best drawing skills, but he was the most patient. Since the beginning of his first year, Chen Da Qiang had begun home tutoring. Presently, he had three students, all of whom were recommended by his previous students' parents.
The other two were still wrapped around their blankets.
Meng Fan put down his drawing tube. "Don't want to draw anymore, I'm gonna take a walk and look for inspiration."
Zhang Zhou Wei flopped over. "You're going to look for inspiration in this heat? Are you not afraid of being roasted stupid?"
'Heat?'
Meng Fan heard this, then considered using the Panama hat Meng Cai Tang had brought him.
Would he be cooler if he wore a hat?
Of course not.
The main purpose of wearing a hat is to cover his headband, otherwise, it seemed weird to wear a headband out in public. The headband had the function of automatically adjusting body temperature, so even if the sun was poisoned, he wouldn't feel hot.
Now that he thought about it, this headband had black magic technology that when used outside of running, was still very ludicrous! It wasn't an exaggeration to say he was basically bringing an air conditioner out with him!𝒏𝒐𝑣𝓮𝗅𝚗𝗲xt.𝒞𝒪𝔪
"Hey hey, you two should wake up."
As Meng Fan prepared to leave, he snickered as he woke Zhang Zhou Wei and Xing Ta Ge. He then called Chen Da Qiang over. "I learned a new dance recently, let me show you guys some new knowledge."
As he spoke, both hands gestured a thumbs up, sticking it in their faces, hands alternating back and forth in front of him, like small fists punching his chest.
Also, Meng Fan was screaming "Like, like, like" while twisting his clumsy body from side to side.
All three of them stood dumbfounded!
Then, howling ensued.
How could I have seen such an impure act, my eyes are burning!
"GAGAGAGA!"
Seeing nearly a two hundred point increase, Meng Fan felt great about himself. He grabbed his bag, also stuffing Zhang Zhou Wei's portable charger into it and left the dormitory cackling.
Where did you go near the academy to find the biggest gathering of people? Definitely Song Cheng.
Although Xi Hu was not far, in this weather, Song Cheng's was more populated in terms of density.
He jumped on a bus at the campus gate. There were quite a lot of people, so during the short journey, Meng Fan gave another round of thumbs up and got a few hundred progress points.
When he arrived at the entrance of Song Chen, Meng Fan bought a ticket and entered. Albeit there weren't many tourists, but due to the lack of performances happening at this time, there were many people wandering around, easily spotting a chubby guy beaming and giving them the thumbs up.
What did it mean, they were being congratulated for waking up early, or they had a good taste for visiting Song Chen?
As the weather warmed up, the number of tourists increased as well.
At eleven o'clock, the performances began without end. 'Feng Yue Beauty', 'Crossing the people', "Miss Wang Jia Xuan Tossing the Silk Ball', 'Crossing the Characters flash show' etc; For the more shows there were, the more tourists they attracted. The more viewers, the tighter the performances were scheduled.
For the shows required tickets to see, Meng Fan was determined not to go. It wasn't that he was too cheap, but mostly because people who paid to watch it would want to concentrate on the performances, therefore lowering their chances of noticing him.
Aligning to the schedule of the program, Meng Fan took turns guarding the entrances to the performance venue. Once the show began or ended, while visitors were passing through, Meng Fan would send out his 'likes'.
The door wasn't that wide, and Meng Fan had picked a good spot, so anyone who entered and exited the venue would be able to see him and receive his blessings.
Once he dropped the first thumbs up, at least twenty or so 1's appeared in his progress bar. A few more motions and each tourist that passed him averaged at least five or more "1″s. The points came like water flowing through a river.
When faced with Meng Fan's awkward blessings, most of the tourists responded with a smile, some even returning a thumbs up. Some of them looked expressionless and doubtful, while a handful were disgusted and didn't look back at him. There was also one that had muttered 'psychopath' while passing, but at least nobody tried to beat him up, especially with his bulky figure looming by the door.
The staff definitely noticed Meng Fan's strange actions, but seeing that he didn't get too close to the tourists, nor had the tourists complained about him. Naturally, it was better to have one less trouble than one more.
Let him give all the thumbs-up he wants, as long as it's not the middle finger.
"Beep! You've manually 'liked' 10,000 times, completing task phase 1 of [Adoration Fever]. Reward: Accomplishment points 10, validation 1.
Around 11:30, Meng Fan's mind rang with the completion tone, acquiring ten accomplishment points and one attribute point. Meng Fan was very satisfied with this efficiency. It was worth the eye rolls and vulgarities.
If he continued with this efficiency, he could reach the remaining 1100 points in a short period of time.
He didn't care about the validation, but the one thousand or so achievement points.
When he receives these points, he could exchange several black magic tools.
Meng Fan headed to Shi Jing street, buying some food to eat as he walked around. The prices in this tourist spot were not cheap, but he was satisfied as long as the food entered his mouth.
As it neared noon, the weather heated even more, but the tourists kept coming.
For a person who usually lived in an air-conditioned room, who was even unsatisfied with frozen watermelon on a hot day, Meng Fan was extraordinarily cheerful once he arrived here, squeezing through the crowd in the blazing heat.
Some people had forgotten about the heat and exchanged a hundred HXB to rent a set of historical costumes, unknowing of the heatstroke and suffocated ticks that would await.
Meng Fan, who was still wearing his headband wasn't hot, however, once he looked at the people around him, he began to feel the heat.
Coming out in this blazing weather, there are no words. Have a thumbs up!
Collectively he motioned it to them all. The more people there were, the higher his progress bar grew. Before 12:30, he had accumulated 20,000 likes!
The more people that saw him, the more efficient he was. Meng Fan didn't think anything of it at first, but slowly, he discovered something different in the reactions before and after.
"It almost seems like the number of people who are turning their heads have increased!"
With Meng Fan's figure and his crazy thumbs up, the amount of head turns he received were not low to begin with. Now, it felt even higher.
He was really looking at it. Some of the people he didn't provoke began straightening their necks to look at him. It seemed as if… They were purposefully looking for Meng Fan.
"Could it be?!"
This change had occurred after lunch, and the only thing that had changed since then, was undoubtedly the completion of task phase one, receiving the points and… Validation 1!
"Could this be the effect of the validation attribute?"
Meng Fan was still pondering when—boom! Something flew at him from a distance. A ball, with tassels and spikes on it, was hurtling towards him, catching on Meng Fan's outstretched thumb.
He jumped in place.
What the hell is this?
A silk ball?
Meng Fan looked up, noticing he was on the set of 'Miss Wang Jia Tossing the Silk Ball'. He had received the silk ball, or rather, it had hit him!
Was this the power of "Validation 1"? Did this count as freaking metaphysics?
The crowd of people outside the city wall looked up toward Meng Fan and broke into applause.
When Meng Fan saw this, he instinctively stuck out his already upright thumb.
Emerging from the crowd, two staff members dressed up like house servants approached Meng Fan, with the initial intent of carrying him up the city gate to further interact with the audience. However, they took one look at his figure and decided against it, submissively guiding him up the stairs instead. Best not to make extra work.
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Chapter 37: A Big Scene
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
There were many performances within Song Cheng, the most famous one among them being, 'Song Cheng's Thousand Romances'. "Miss Wang Tossing the Silk Ball' could also count as one of the most popular ones.
The venue was located just below the city wall, hence there was no need to buy an extra ticket. The performances took place throughout the day so that everyone who passed could see it happening. Everytime it got to the part where the silk ball was tossed, the grounds were filled up with people.
This program had two main attractions. One was naturally the silk ball toss, for some people desired to be hit by it, while others prayed it did not hit them. The rest of them, heh. Most were conflicted between receiving it or not, making them rowdier than the other batch. One could never desire too much drama.
The other attraction was the dialogue between the"son-inlaw" they invited up and the Wang manor's owner, the esquire. This was by far the most interesting element of the show. Yes, what else could be more interesting than watching a crowd?!
Meng Fan had been to Song Cheng several times and seen this show several times. Before he thought it was fun to watch the attraction, but now, he was the attraction.
When Meng Fan's 'steel tower-esque' figure appeared at the top of the city walls, the crowd below immediately began jeering and applauding.
A person of Meng Fan's proportions might not be welcomed elsewhere, but in this 'attraction', he was definitely considered a hot commodity.
Even the esquire began to smile. TV stations valued ratings, movies valued box offices, and the performances here naturally valued its visitor count.
Undoubtedly, Meng Fan was the most 'valuable' tourist who had been hit by the ball in the last few days.
Miss Wang also smiled, a very pretty one at that. It's not like she had to marry him for real.
Nothing needed to be said about the servants behind her.
The esquire began: "What is your surname young noble, who is this person seeking her hand?"
"I am no noble, my last name is Ji…"
Meng Fan looked down from his post on the city wall. Hordes and hordes of people were looking up, and even more were rushing to see. His mouth forcefully swallowed back the final vowels "Yi Ao".
There were a lot of people. Meng Fan couldn't count how many, but there must be 800, if not 1000.
In front of this kind of big scene, Meng Fan would be shaking in his feet if it had been before.
As for now, his feet were still shaking, but he was excited!
They were people, right?
To Meng Fan, it was just a big boss waiting to be defeated!
"Ji, what an ancient surname! Has your family arranged a marriage partner yet?"
The esquire was stunned by the surname Meng Fan had provided. After all, he had read the book 'On the self-cultivation of actors', and quickly immersed himself in his character, setting the rhythm for the following scenes.
Meng Fan had seen the following procedures before. The opportunity was so rare. How could he follow the rhythm given by the esquire? He gulped, and a sly smile formed on his face. "Mister, you should be able to see, based on my figure, I should be next door in Gao Lao Zhuang!"
Meng Fan bit the bullet. His skin was so thick that he didn't even stutter. However… People with talent were also daring? Either way, Meng Fan thought he couldn't go wrong by dissing himself when he first arrived.
A well-intended laughter broke out among the audience.
The esquire was stunned again. He'd seen all kinds of tourists, but this model was his first time. He sneered a little. "I did not expect the young noble to be so humorous."
The following procedure was not going to follow the original, racking their brains, the esquire was confident he could settle all the issues on this acre.
Only, Meng Fan did not allow him to display his wisdom. He took a step forward and covered the esquire with the area of his body.
Meng Fan said to the strangers below. "Gather around, let me show you guys a dance!"
"Okay!"
"Let's see it!"
The audiences did not care for the show's intended program, as long as there was a commotion, they were satisfied. Not to mention, this commotion was way more interesting than the original!
"Like like like like like like like like like like like like!"
Meng Fan began to twist his body, hands outstretched with thumbs upright. Pushing back and forth, his mouth screaming the rhythm—as regular rhythms wouldn't satisfy Meng Fan's alternating hand speed. When accelerated, his arms became blurred like a ghost.
What the hell!
Whether it was the high-level ministers on the stage or the tourists in the audience, like Zhang Zhou Wei, the people who saw his dance felt the burn in their eyes, looking petrified.
The difference was that instead of screaming at him like Zhang Zhou Wei had done, the tourists began to laugh and cheer in applause.
This was much better than the regular commotion, what a great day!
As for the actors playing the high ranking minister, he were very embarrassed, heart pumping, thinking that an accident was going to happen. Once they saw the cheering from the audience below, they collectively let out sighs of relief. As long as the audience didn't start screaming profanities, this was an acceptable turn of events.
Of course, they couldn't watch the lump of a man dance around forever.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
The esquire had enough, rushing forward and smiling awkwardly. "The young noble is indeed humorous!"
He turned to the audience and said: "Since this young noble has his eye on Miss Gao from next door, then I will continue tossing the silk ball in search of a new son in law!"
Usually, they waited a while before tossing again, but with Meng Fan's shenanigans, they couldn't wait to throw it immediately.
"Young noble, this way please."
The staff dressed as the family members escorted Meng Fan down the steps.
Meng Fan blankly followed.
"Task phase two is now done!"
It wasn't until Meng Fan descended the wall that he snapped back to reality.
What an awesome experience that was, and it had been less than a minute!
Meng Fan had gestured at least 150 times, and there had to be about 1000, if not 800 people in the audience. He had directly brushed out 127,000 likes in one go!
He'd completed the required 100,000 likes for task phase 2 in seconds!
If it wasn't for the hindrance by the esquire actor, he could have given out least 365 blessings on the dot.
"Beep! You've manually reached 100,000 likes, completing task phase 2 of [Adoration Fever]. Reward: Achievement points 100, validation 1."
This was the alert that had sounded while Meng Fan was doing his 'Thumbs Up dance'. If he counted the 20,000 or so likes he'd accumulated from before, his total count should be over 150,000.
If he could grasp this kind of opportunity seven or eight more times, 1000 achievement points would be in his grasp.
"Sir."
Meng Fan took the opportunity and grabbed the hand of a family member actor, asking sincerely: "When is your next silk ball toss?"
The actor was scared by Meng Fan's sudden outburst, and replied: "They just said they'd be tossing it soon."
"Thanks."𝒏𝒐𝑣𝓮𝗅𝚗𝗲xt.𝒞𝒪𝔪
Meng Fan let go of his hand and thanked him again, squeezing back into the crowd.
Although the chances were slim, he still wanted to try. In case he got hit again, it didn't matter what he said once he got on stage, as long as he stuck out his thumbs, he could easily get at least 100 motions out.
Only, even if he gained another point in 'validation', it was still just a sense of existence, not the god tier attribute of '100% catching a silk ball'.
Miss Wang, who was perched above the city gate had obviously seen Meng Fan, who was eager to catch the ball again. Remembering his momentous 'thumbs up 'dance, her hands shook. Without any fancy action, she hastily threw the ball towards the direction that Meng Fan could not possibly reach.
Meng Fan was fast and his body was large, but even that would not help him reach the ball among the sea of people. Seeing the silk ball being received by a handsome glowing young man, Meng Fan felt pitiful.
What now?
He directed an array of thumbs up towards this young man.
You're great!
Taking it full circle, he attracted all the visitors around him.
Not bad, he got more than 4000 in one go.
After all, he had just come down from above. And he had just performed a brilliant 'thumbs up' dance for everyone present. And he had just gained another point of validation. A lot of visitors had noticed him.
Only it was a pity that the tourists farther away couldn't see him even if they wanted to, therefore unable to receive his blessing. There was no height advantage now.
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Chapter 38: This Attribute is Poison
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Whoosh!
After the esquire finished his skit with the handsome young man, he proceeded to let out a sigh of relief. These three acres of land have finally returned to his control.
"Let's take a break."
He told the other staff members, and then took out a dozen red bulls and some iced mineral water from the fridge in the corner and handed them to the other members of the cast, particularly focused on the four new actresses playing servants. One of them smiled and turned down the red bull and the water. Silently he remembered. From now on he won't have to bother with this girl for the next few days.
Holding a red bull in one hand and a small electric fan in the other, the esquire looked down, still seeing the 'tower-esque' fatman.
"What do you guys think he's doing?"
He closed the mic, curiously asking the servant actresses next to him. "At first I thought he was purely being humorous, dancing and jumping around, but no matter how I look at it now, something seems wrong? See, he keeps giving people a thumbs up, is he a positive energy ambassador, dedicated to cheering on others?"
The esquire was very satisfied with his own words. He had opened up a discussion on a topic that was interesting and engaged everyone to talk, as well as showing off his own sense of humor and keen observation skills.
"Yeah, he does look a bit weird, but he doesn't seem like the type with mental issues."
"Who knows, young people nowadays are sneaky, you think he made a fool out of himself, but he might be the one who had us fooled!"
"I don't think so, he's so chubby and cute, and I died laughing from that dance."
The actress for Miss Wang took off the outer layer of her costume, pulled up a stool and sat down to eat some watermelon. She sharply glanced at the three young girls who had just entered the community—then at the actor playing the esquire, who was not much older than herself. Here they go again.
She didn't know if it was because these girls were really stupid, or just pretending to be, to be able to willingly chat about low IQ subjects with pervy scum like him.
"He's still gesturing!"
"Why does it look like expressionist art?"
…
Meng Fan also knew that his chances of being hit again by the silk ball and going up on stage to 'perform' was slim, so he wasn't stupid enough to stay in the venue and wait to be picked.
However, after the 1 point increase for validation, Meng Fan could clearly feel he was gaining more and more likes from people looking over.
For example, before when he had given someone a compliment, only two or three would look over, confused. After adding the first validation point, that number had gone up by one. After the second validation point, this number increased by another one, maybe two.
The higher his validation score was, the more people noticed him, the faster he would be able to collect his adoration points.
As he had his thumbs-up, Meng Fan continued to stroll through Song Cheng. By 3:30 in the afternoon, he had gained another 60,000 likes, reaching a total score of 21,000.
"Alright, that's enough for today."
Meng Fan, who had just garnered 100,000 likes completing task phase 2 in one day was very pleased with his accomplishments. Now, his score had been doubled. If he continued in this efficient manner, even if there wasn't a silk ball toss, Meng Fan was 100% confident he could complete the entire task and receive the remaining 1000 points in five days.
He leisurely walked out of Song Cheng, jumping on a bus headed back to campus, then returned to his dormitory. The entire trip, Meng Fan did not rest, managing to collect another five thousand likes.
From the Xing Ta Ge's minifridge, he pulled out the ice marble cola he had put in before, then opened it. Hearing this soulful sound, his entire body felt cooler before he even drank it.
After a few gulps, the pores on his body opened up, singing a song of praise.
"This song seems a bit extraordinary."
He pulled out his fully charged phone, beginning to read the novel, preparing his stream content for the night.
"Hey fatty, you're screwed."
After a while, Zhang Zhou Wei and Xing Ta Ge walked in, gloating all the way. "Mr. Ma called you out today!"
"What happened?" Meng Fan put down his phone curiously.
"Hehe, Mr. Ma took attendance today!" Xing Ta Ge said. "Once in a thousand years, Mr. Ma took attendance this afternoon, besides you, there were five other people who skipped today's class. However, it was as if he had forgotten about the other five, only remembering you, even mentioning it several times. Mr. Ma is such a nice person, but even his face went red with anger because of you! Mr. Ma said you can say goodbye to taking his professional class!"
"I only skipped a few classes, and I wasn't even close to him, how could he be so angry?"
Meng Fan's mouth twitched. If Mr. Ma, who took attendance once in a millennium had mentioned himself several times, there must be more to it, besides his memorable appearance.
Validation!
This must be f*king related to the 2 validation points!
Goddammit!
When Meng Fan understood this was for sure related to this metaphysical attribute, he almost spat out blood.
What kind of bullsh*t system is this?!
Shouldn't the System help the protagonist achieve success and conquer the four seas and eight continents?
Even if there was no business success, at least it should help the protagonist achieve a better life, not troll your life!
I knew that people should stay low-key, what's the f*cking use for such a strong sense of validation? (‵′)︵
The more he thought of the increased chances of being called out for skipping class, the more his balls hurt.
He had finally come across a task that was easy and fast to complete, but as a result, the rewarded attribute is toxic!
Sinking in his chair, Meng Fan wanted to die.
"Stop pretending to die! Hurry, get up and go apologize to Mr. Ma! His heart is still soft, if you say it, he won't give you trouble!"
"Write your guarantee letter first, then go!"
"Mr. Ma must still be in his office! Hurry, hurry! Hurry hurry hurry! Run like the wind!"
Meng Fan straightened himself out, then went to apologize to the professor as Zhang Zhou Wei had suggested.
An hour later, Meng Fan walked out of Mr. Ma's classroom, exhaling in relief.
Mr. Ma was indeed soft-hearted. After scolding him for half an hour, Mr. Ma finally loosened up and said he will see how he behaves.
This matter finally came to an end, but… It would be really hard to skip class from now on. And who knew what stupid circumstance would arise.
Buzz buzz buzz.
An unknown number. Meng Fan answered,
"Hello, I am currently at Hang Zhou harbor…"
Hung up.
Buzz.
Just after hanging up, Meng Fan received a text message.𝒏𝒐𝑣𝓮𝗅𝚗𝗲xt.𝒞𝒪𝔪
"Hello, I'm Messi. I am in trouble right now, I've been taken over by the gambling/soccer corporation…"
Buzz, another one.
"Hello, we are the Hua Xia construction bank. I just inquired about your bank card, and it says you just spent 1.2 million dollars in Thailand yesterday. Is this your own consumption?"
"Yep, I bought an elephant, what now?"
"You're such a liar. F*k, you ruined it!"
Buzz buzz buzz.
As if it was planned, Meng Fan received three more sales calls and four fraudulent messages on his way back to the dormitory.
"Is this mayhem related to my increased sense of validation as well?"
Meng Fan was really panicking now!
He downloaded an app to block the unknown numbers and texts, then pretended he hadn't seen them.
Duang!
He'd just entered the dormitory building, when a guy came running straight into Meng Fan's embrace, only to be bounced aside.
"What the Fu…"
"It can't be this eerie!"
This attribute was poisonous, and did all the metaphysical influences appeared at once?
Hm. Meng fan thought about it. He couldn't blame this on the validation points, maybe this guy was too rushed, and Meng Fan was a very big roadblock.
Yes, that had to be it.
He had to remain calm!
Get bit by a snake once, be scared for… No, it was the initial snakebite he couldn't afford to stand!
Meng Fan walked over and helped the guy up. Instinctively, he reached his thumb out only to immediately pull it back. He was a bit weary of completing this task now.
"Fatty, something happened!"
Meng Fan had just entered the room to change and go running to dissipate his anger when Zhang Zhou Wei's wail rang through.
"What in god's name is wrong now?"
Meng Fan's heart had officially collapsed.
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Chapter 39: Internet Famous
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"What's wrong?" Zhang Zhou Wei saw Meng Fan's ghostly expression and reined in his excitement. His brow creased as he asked, "Did Mr. Ma did not let you get by?"
Meng Fan shook his head and flopped onto his bed. "Mr. Ma's issue is resolved. Speak, what's wrong on your end now?"
"Nothing went wrong with him? Then why is your face so sour?" Zhang Zhou Wei sighed in relief, then became excited again. "This is a good thing!"
As he spoke, Zhang Zhou Wei took out his phone and handed it to Meng Fan, clicking open the screen and let out a laugh that sounded like a croak."The dumbass in this video is you, isn't it?!"
"Like, like, like…"
Isn't this a video of Meng Fan's '"thumbs up" dance performance on the city wall at Song Cheng? It was edited to include a horrifying accelerated rendition of the 'Gong Xi Fa Cai' song.
"Who are you trying to kill?!" Zhang Zhou Wei cackled. "You said you were gonna take a walk and look for inspiration, is this your f*king inspiration? It's too amazing!"
"It's got almost 1 million likes! Fatty, you've become an internet-famous fatty!" Xing Ta Ge added to the clamor on the side. "You don't say, you look pretty good when you're shaking like that! Look at these comments, a chain of them saying you're cute and your dance is fresh, and one netizen even said they were blinded by your eyes!"
Chen Dan Qiang who had also returned from his day said with a serious expression. "Chic, you're real chic! We both came from the same 9-year educational system, yet you are so much chicer than us!"
Meng Fan snatched Zhang Zhou Wei's phone, turning on the sound. It was probably filmed by one of the tourists there, then uploaded it with music to the APP.
980,000 likes!
After seeing the like button to the right, Meng Fan felt very conflicted.
These likes had nothing to do with him!
His hours spent in Song Chen spamming 'thumbs up's' paled in comparison to a video someone had filmed.
Okay, there was still a difference. One was a click, the other was a collective.
But even then… Meng Fan suddenly perked up. This many likes meant even more people had seen the video. They definitely saw his array of thumbs, so how could there be no 'experience' to gain?
Unless his form of 'liking' had to be done in person for it to count as 'experience'?
When recorded on video, was it useless to the people across the screen on the internet?
If the internet likes counted, and real-life 'likes' counted, then could the two be combined?
Meng Fan didn't know if his guess is right, but he was certain it was useless to give 'likes' through a video. As for his live broadcast, he had to confirm tonight.
Stupid bullsh*t system with its bullsh*t settings!
Are people this bored now? Filming a random passerby, and the video got so many likes, too!
Are the times changing too fast, or was he just getting left behind?
"Meng boss, you're back?"
"Meng Boss is that really you? Haha, you're great!"
"Dear internet Famous Mr. Meng, please take us away!"
Several classmates had poked their heads in the dormitory with fresh smiles on their faces.
They said all sorts of things, but none of them asked Meng Fan to perform the dance again. At least they had some dignity.
Of course, most of it was kind-hearted laughter, some to make trouble, but none were making fun of him.
Meng Fan was fat, but at least he wasn't greasy. Even though nobody accepted his confession—after all, they had to consider the possibility of being crushed by someone of Meng Fan's weight category—many people, both boys, and girls were happy to be friends with him. At least his popularity was passable.
"Go, go, go go go." Zhang Zhou Wei began to hustle people out. "My fatty just found out he is famous now, he needs time to process, if you want autographs you'll have to wait. Wait until my fatty accepts the reality, then his manager yours truly will arrange a meeting for you, handshakes, autographs, hugs and anything of that sort."
If the validation attribute hadn't been so poisoned, Meng Fan was ready to stick his thumbs in the faces of the guys who had come in to see the fuss.
As for his unexpected fame on TikTok, Meng Fan was not too phased by it. After all, it didn't really benefit him. But the disadvantages, heh. At most, people will recognize him, increasing their head turn rate. At least, this wouldn't be unusual anyways with his added validation points.
Moreover, because of Meng Cai Wei, he knew what internet fame was, compared to actually being 'known'. The two were completely different things.
The situation wasn't too bad. Besides the validation attribute, there were other tasks that remained unfinished.
At least the attributes obtained from running wouldn't screw him over.
"Being drenched in sweat from running won't make a person skinnier, but at least it can wash away some troubles and anger."
Meng Fan recalled this quote by Mr. Lu Xun. It was wise indeed.𝒏𝒐𝑣𝓮𝗅𝚗𝗲xt.𝒞𝒪𝔪
Amidst the laughter of his hysterical roommates, Meng Fan changed into his running clothes and prepared to leave. Even though the students next door had seen Meng Fan leave to run, they were still not accustomed to it. Many were doubtful as to how his titanic figure could actually be moved.
But if you think about it, the Meng boss in the video had been very flexible. Could this be related to him running?
As he walked towards the track, even with his call intercepting software installed, Meng Fan received two calls from high school classmates, ones that he didn't talk to. They weren't calling because they saw his video on TikTok, but… They dialed the wrong freaking number!
Can you stop for a minute?!
Meng Fan blankly shut his phone off. Anyhow, he still had his black magic running shoes to record his data and provide feedback. His armband was mostly just for show anyway.
He gritted his teeth and redeemed a black magic headset from his [Travelling Deity] taskbar. Embedded in his ear like a tiny mole, the earbuds prevented sweat, shock, and as long as Meng Fan did not give the order, they would never fall out.
It could play music, audiobooks, talk shows, interviews, cross talks, dramas, relationship advice, speeches, presentations and lectures, fashion, and various stories in the voices of many males and females; essentially containing any form of audio that existed.
Like his running shoes and his headband, there was a virtual screen which could be opened and adjusted anytime, anywhere.
After selecting some music recommended by the headset for running, Meng Fan cranked the volume to its max… The whole world suddenly went quiet!
These earbuds cost 30 points, costing much more than the 10 point headband. After experiencing them, Meng Fan deduced that the function was not as good as the headband, but worth it nonetheless.
He had had 283 points, with 253 remaining now.
This time, Meng Fan started out by driving his first-kilometer time under 7 minutes and 30 seconds. His breathing was slightly faster than before, but after the first kilometer slowly began adjusting his breath to the standard set by his running shoes.
After three kilometers, Meng Fan grew accustomed to the pace. He then increased his pace up to 7 minutes and 25 seconds, reaching an impasse on his 5th kilometer. Meng Fan dropped the pace back to 7 minutes and 35 seconds, then managed to finish the seventh kilometer, but from there on maintained a steady speed of 7 minutes and 30 seconds per kilometer until the 10th kilometer. He even squeezed out the last of his strength into a sprint for the last 200 meters.
In the end, Meng Fan's 10-kilometer time was 1 hour, 14 minutes and 47 seconds, beating his morning time by 48 seconds.
After sweating profusely and feeling the soreness wash over his body as if his soul had been scooped out, Meng Fan was still in a pleasant mood.
After running his 10 kilometers, Meng Fan paid extra attention to his post-run stretches. Running music was definitely not suitable to listen to when stretching. He switched to the seductress/big sister's voice…
"Meng boss~~~"
Meng Fan shuddered and felt his legs go soft.
He knew that the voices could be customized, so he was not surprised, but when he felt the air in his ear as the voice spoke… This is too real!
No no no, he could listen to this a little when his physical state was okay, but right now he absolutely cannot!
After swapping it to an abstinent male voice, Meng Fan calmed down.
After stretching, he returned to the dorm to take a shower, then proceeded to devour the dinner Chen Da Qiang had brought him. Chubby and content, Meng Fan had completely forgotten about the fear he'd felt from his validation attributes, and strutted off to studio humming a small tune.
"Like like like."
When the studio caretaker saw Meng Fan her eyes lit up, immediately sticking her thumb in Meng Fan's face. She beamed at him. "I didn't know you could dance, you're pretty good."
There weren't that many people in the studio at this time, but all the ones who were, suddenly turned their heads.
He had finally outrun this fear. Why did it have to come back so fast?!
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Chapter 40: Smells Good
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"You know too?"
All Meng Fan could manage was an awkward laugh.𝒏𝒐𝑣𝓮𝗅𝚗𝗲xt.𝒞𝒪𝔪
"Of course, so many faculty members have been sharing in our group chats, I recognized you in an instant." The administrator chuckled. "This dance is really something, watching it made me very happy. You were really good too, very lively."
"Even better than trash-talking Er Qing?"
The administrator sternly considered it for a moment. "The happiness gained from these two things are not the same. Trash talking Er Qing is venting negative energy, and watching you dance gives me positive energy!"
"Positive energy? Alright, as long as you're happy."
What else could Meng Fan say, he had done the deed, it'd be foolish to judge others based on their thoughts.
Of course, Meng Fan could see the adminstrator was telling the truth, not necessarily making a joke of him.
As for the students in the studio who were looking at him… Who cares about them?!
Finding his old spot, Meng Fan sat down and set up his tools, taking out the phone stand that Zhang Zhou Wei had brought him on behalf of Wang Ya Nan. He adjusted the position, sent a few notifications to the group chat, and prepared to enter his channel at 19:30 sharp.
Soon, over two hundred people had entered the channel.
"Today is American comics special."
Meng Fan put the texts into the announcement. Originally, he planned to draw more novel illustrations, but his trip to Song Cheng had hindered his preparations, so he switched it to characters from American comics.
Japanese anime and American comics were the two leading countries in cartoons, in terms of the manga market, American comics could not rival Japanese ones, but in terms of comic adaptations, the American market was far above Japan, especially when it came to movies.
Out of all the movie adaptations, the most famous ones had to be the Marvel and DC universes.
When speaking of animations, Japan's anime dominated the top half of the animation industry. As for the bottom half, Disney had that covered.
All in all, American animation was on par with Japanese animation.
There were many characters and scenes American comics that he could draw, even if he hadn't finished the books, Meng Fan knew he'd have to draw American comic characters, and one special would definitely not be enough. Aside from illustrating his novels, American and Japanese animations were also segments of his stream.
Before he began his first drawing, Meng Fan under false pretenses had inadvertently tried sticking his thumb up at his screen several times. The data did not rise one bit, confirming his previous guess.
Online, he could only rely on 'clicked' likes, not physical thumbs!
He had already guessed this to be the case, hence Meng Fan wasn't too disappointed. Besides, he still wasn't sure if he wanted to complete this [Adoration Fever] task.
A two-point increase was already this bad. The consequences of all six points… Meng Fan shook at the thought.
He collected his thoughts and began to draw.
The first character he drew had to be the first superhero in American history, Superman.
The two characters that followed were Meng Fan's favorite antagonists, one was the joker from the DC universe, and the second was Hela from the Marvel universe.
The Joker was easy enough. As for Hela, she was the daughter of Loki in the Marvel universe, but in the movies she had been portrayed as the first child of Odin, father of all gods, basically becoming the older sister of little hammer wielder Thor.
Undoubtedly, Hela's image in the film had left a great impression, so Meng Fan decided to draw the movie adaptation of her that was beautiful and domineering.
The fourth character he chose was the first American comic character Meng Fan had known, the smurfs.
After he drew Clumsy smurf, Meng Fan felt a wave of inspiration wash over him. He drew an arrow in the paper and wrote the words "After he grew up" on the other end. Beside it, he drew a grown-up smurf.
"Avatar!"
"Hahaha, Mr. Host are you ok?!"
"You're killing me!"
"Smurfs can grow up to be an Avatar? This isn't growing up, this is straight-up evolution!"
"Is the blog host also a fan of new-age stand-up comedy? Hahaha, can you please draw super Mario standing on teenage Mutant ninja turtle?!"
"Top line: Eat mushrooms and grow up healthy; bottom line: but stepping on a turtle with a brick on your head will make you live forever."
"The smurf said to the avatar: When I grow up, I'll be you."
"How is everyone on this channel a genius?!"
"I accidentally entered this channel, but after a minute I don't plan on leaving!"
"The drawing speed of this stream host is too fast! He's pretty funny too!"
"You must be new? This streamer's hand speed is no joke. When he wants to be fast, it's like watching smoke from a firing gun. If he drew a normie, it would surely blow-up, and can make even the best teachers fall in love with it within seconds. Only the national football team can hold out for more than 3 seconds!"
"Meng fatty's stream is popular today!"
After drawing the avatar—Although he wasn't an American comic character—Meng Fan began to draw the fifth character. This was one of Meng Fan's most beloved characters, not from Marvel or DC or Disney, but from an animation by MGM. Tom from 'Tom and Jerry'!
'Tom and Jerry' was the only foreign show that Meng Fan could understand in its original format without subtitles.
Moreover, he had understood it ever since he was young へ!
Meng Fan's rendition of Tom was of him mid-run. After drawing him, Meng Fan left a blank space below him to continue drawing. This time, the character wasn't from an American show but Naruto Uzumaki, from the Japanese anime. Below him, he drew Nicole from 'Love – live', and then added a domineering Mikasa from '[The] Attack Titan' below her. These three were all running in a similar manner, with their arms stretched back like a ninja.
Looking up, Tom was in this position as well.
"Hahaha the founder of the ninja run, Tom!"
"Does he run like that because of the reduced friction (serious emoji)"
"I tried it and fell flat on my face!"
"I tried it too. Before it happened, I was a wholesome bright young boy who loved to laugh, the kind with bright white teeth that reflected light. After trying, well… heh. Nobody makes me laugh before I get my teeth fixed!"
"Please stop talking, the more you speak of it the more I want to try!"
"Those of you who study animation, let me tell you why you should draw like this—because it's convenient and lazy!"
"Hey Mr.Host, are you happy toying with us?"
"I was randomly browsing and found this incredible content!"
"Randomly browsing 1."
"I clicked the wrong button and ended up here."
"Clicked wrong button 1."
"I like this stream, I'm not leaving this channel for the rest of my life! This streamer draws so fast and is so funny too, plus all the netizens on here are all geniuses, everything they say is hilarious!"
On his seventh drawing, he drew a seductive and bodacious black widow. Meng Fan then realized something was wrong.
At this time, the number of current viewers had reached 3800, creating a new peak record!
And even better, the total viewer count in his 'mind' left him even more surprised. 6300!
This had exceeded the amount he'd received on his first day of streaming illustrations.
That day, Mr.Sleepy had pulled a lot of people, FlatHeadBro as well. But today, these authors didn't specifically help to pull people.
"Randomly browsing? Wrong channel?"
Meng Fan suddenly knew the reason. Validation!
The metaphysical attribute 'validation' was not only effective in scamming Meng Fan through texts and fraudulent calls but was also useful in bringing traffic to his live stream.
What an absurd attribute!
Not only did his own sense of validation increase, but his presence in his stream channel had also gone up as well!
When this sense of presence is used on the internet, the result was much more exaggerated than it had been in real life.
The internet had a prioritization mechanism. As the number of online users in his channel increased, his ranking naturally jumped up on the front page. This meant his chances of appearing in the recommended section for the 'Drawing category' would be higher too, and the more times he appeared, the more people would see him. Under a positive cycle, his validation attributes would increase along with it!
Before Meng Fan ended the stream, his online viewers had reached 6100, and total views hitting 9300!
If he could draw a few more, breaking 10,000 would be no problem.
Presently, [Famous Streamer] had about 35,000 total views collected. He wasn't far from reaching the 100,000 required for task phase 2.
Ding.
Before he logged off the stream, a notification flew in.
Promotional notification!
Next Monday, or tomorrow, at 8:00 pm, the stream channel would be listed in the 'Drawing Category' under recommended. This had to be the best time slot in the entire section.
To be on the recommendations list meant more people would watch, and the more people that watched, the faster Meng Fan would complete his task. That meant he would be closer to reaping the 'charm' attribute that came as a reward.
He had already decided from the bottom of his heart to reject gaining more 'validation' points from the task [Adoration Fever ] as it was a poisonous attribute, but now—Yes, victory smells good!
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Chapter 41: A Fat Man's Ambition
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
6300 online viewers, 9300 total views!
This wouldn't have been possible without his accumulated popularity over the last few days of streaming, and FlatHeadBro, Mr. Sleepy, and the heavy promotions done by other authors. Even with these factors, Meng Fan still couldn't shake the fact that this had been a result of his 2 validation.𝒏𝒐𝑣𝓮𝗅𝚗𝗲xt.𝒞𝒪𝔪
Especially considering the discrepancy between the total viewers and total online viewers, he could imagine how many people had clicked by accident or wandered in. Even if these people didn't fancy art streams or didn't like his stream, they still contributed to the number of views Meng fan received.
Those were precious numbers indeed.
Marketing phone calls and fraudulent texts were annoying. Having his classmates call the wrong number also made him hopeless. Even more tragic was catching the attention of his teacher so he couldn't skip class… These were nothing compared to the inability to feel the burning passion of being in love.
Who hadn't received a scam phone call or felt the fear of being picked out by a teacher? But Meng Fan really hadn't been in a relationship before!
Once he gains validation, he would be able to complete his streaming task faster and get the final charm attribute award as soon as he finished.
The streaming mission would add a total of 15 points of charm if completed. Meng Fan wasn't trying to become an idol, only seeking entry into the 'normal' ranks so he could compete fairly for a chance at love with all the other players.
"Increased validation will definitely make more pretty ladies notice me, and one of them is bound to like my type!"
As a decisive man, after considering the trade-offs, Meng Fan managed to convince himself in one sentence.
He was willing to give up video games for love; this was just a bump in the road!
It looked like he had to keep performing his 'thumbs up' dance.
"It's over?"
It was rare that the administrator who usually watched TV shows was painting today. However, she was not very focused, as every ten or so steps she would smile at Meng Fan.
"This must be the Lei Feng pagoda at sunset, right?"
Meng Fan glanced at her aisle, and his eyes suddenly lit up. This drawing wasn't done, but it was enough to see talent.
The administrator put away her brush. "I can't seem to get it right. I've been to see the pagoda several times, but I just can't recall the feeling. Well, I'm done drawing for today. I should go back earlier and watch my TV shows!"
"No wonder you said you never finished a product within a month. Your excellent working spirit is very admirable!"
Meng Fan gave the administrator a thumbs up. This really wasn't a compliment, nor was he trying to gain experience—or else he wouldn't have just given her one thumbs up. It was sincere admiration.
The studio administrator dressed in neutral colors with a smile hanging off her mouth was not just any person. This was a real artist who held onto the title of 'lecturer' at the art academy by teaching two classes a month. Even though she only produced a piece every two or three months, if she really wanted to sell it, she could buy a parking spot in any of the neighborhoods next to the university.
A real-life hidden master!
Meng Fan had heard his mother mention her when galleries were trending. Ms. Chen Fu had followed the trend and opened up a large-scale gallery in the city of Hu known as China's gateway for oil paintings. Later due to issues between Ms. Chen and her business partner, she resolutely chose to pull out and declare bankruptcy. Some people thought it was arrogant; others believed her to be plain stupid. In short, from then on, Ms. Chen Fu disappeared from the public eye.
Apparently, she had returned to the HuaXia Academy of Fine Arts five years ago. It was only in the last two years that someone had learned that this unassuming studio manager was the famous Ms. Chen Fu.
Even now, there were few who knew about this hidden monk. If he didn't hear it from his mom, a plumpish homebody like Meng Fan would never have known about her.
"What do you mean by excellent work ethic? It's just OCD."
As she spoke, she lifted her hand to look at the time. She turned and reminded the remaining three students in the studio to close the door when they were done.
Obviously, the administrator was not happy having her time wasted.
"Where are you going?"
Meng Fan had just left the studio when he saw Zhang Zhou Wei approaching.
Zhang Zhou Wei grinned. "I'm here for you. I knew your stream was over so I came to get you."
"It's not like I don't know the way. The hell are you doing? You just dropped off Wang Ya Nan at her dorm and ran into me by coincidence, right?" Meng Fan didn't believe a word Zhang Zhou Wei had said.
"Actually, I wasn't, but it does have to do with Wang Ya Nan. Zhang Zhou Wei continued, "Remember when you bought all the girls in her dorm cakes to apologize for your crazy confession spree? Ya Nan said her dormitory wants to invite you over for a late-night snack. Let's go! They're already at sister Ma's. Da Qiang and Pigeon are headed there too."
"Seriously?"
Meng Fan thought this couldn't be because his increased validation had caused them to think of him.
It might be due to his 'thumbs up dance' that had made its way around the entire art academy.
"Are you sure it's not you three animals hanging out with your girlfriends dragging me along to third wheel?"
"What are you prattling about! Besides, even if it was one on one, your brothers would have asked Ya Nan to bring you a girl. Not to mention, I just heard from Ya Nan that there was a real kawaii girl on her floor that was into chubby boys. She had seen your 'thumbs up' dance and especially asked Ya Nan to inquire about you. Ya Nan sent me her photo. Do you want to see?"
"I'm not fat! But I can always look at cute girls. Unless she's a catfish."
"If you want to know if she's catfishing or not, find her tomorrow! Or let Ya Nan call her and ask her if she wants to come out!"
"This is not… good. The key is that she likes chubby guys. I'm not fat, so we're not compatible."
"Do you not own a mirror or a scale at home, or do you have no mental capacity to compare?"
"At least I have a skinny heart! Think about it, if she likes fat guys, and I'm losing weight, once I slim down, she won't like me anymore! How embarrassing is that!"
"Where did all of this confidence come from! Okay okay okay. Let's say you did slim down, but it will take half a year, if not a year, right? You can be in a relationship! Not like you have to be together forever, half a year or a year is more than enough!"
"Does Wang Ya Nan know about your thoughts?"
"We're different, of course, we are soulmates."
"Don't make it sound so nice. Aren't you just missing an X life?"
"…"
The two continued to jest back and forth until they reached sister Ma's barbecue store. This time, it really was Wang Ya Nan and the 4 girls in her dormitory treating Meng Fan to a late-night snack. Zhang Zhou Wei and his other roommates were just freeloaders.
In this process, they evidently did not invite the cute girl who claimed to like chubby boys. After all, based on the photos he saw, she wasn't Meng Fan's type either.
Not every roly-poly guy was attracted to cute girls.
That was true. Meng Fan desperately desired to be in a relationship, but he wasn't that easy to please.
For some, they were willing to settle for whoever just to experience a relationship, while other people insisted on being selective. Meng Fan was the type that had colossal trouble getting into a relationship yet still harbored high standards for his girlfriend.
He was fat, but he was also a 'face-judger'.
Or according to him, he had high aesthetic standards.
After all, his seven sisters were all considerably attractive.
Meng Fan's first victim of confession Tang Wei Wei was considered attractive. In addition to her pure lily-like disposition, she could be considered a school beauty throughout the academy.
The scariest thing was that Meng Fan not only judged by appearance…
Looking back and reflecting, it really served him right that he had never been in a relationship.
At the beginning of his second life, Meng Fan insisted on maintaining his high standards. The addition of a system only solidified his perspective, if not setting his standards higher.
Fat men who've never been in love can still be ambitious!
Very, very ambitious.
If his ambition before had been at Tang WeiWei's level, then his ambition now was upgraded to…
After eating the late-night snacks, it was already midnight when they got back to the dormitory. Wang Ya Nan used her super social skills to easily bypass the school gate, even helping them get past the boys' dorms' locked gate.
Meng Fan was full of guilt after the meal and woke up at five in the morning the next day to go running. Could last night's barbecue weight be shed in just ten kilometers?
The track was rather empty in the morning, but there were a lot of people passing by. Therefore, Meng Fan, who had decided to level up his validation points, began screaming at the passing students as he ran. He stretched both of his arms out and did a thumbs up.
'Classmates, we must seize the day, today will be full of energy!'
"Morning!"
When Meng Fan finished his fifth kilometer, Wu Tong appeared on the track. After exercising, she caught up to Meng Fan to say hello.
The 'wind' flew over, only to be stunned.
Meng Fan felt like he was filled with energy.
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Chapter 42: Won't Be Ugly
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"Another 10 kilometers?"
Wu Tong quickly finished 6 or so kilometers and kept her speed under 6 minutes for each km that she ran. After seeing that Meng Fan had finished, she slowed her pace down too.
Meng Fan was gasping as he nodded. He was huffing and puffing for air like a drum.
"You're really something, huh? Respect!"
Wu Tong juggled with her long legs stepping forward three steps, then back two to keep in line with Meng Fan. She was adjusting her breath. Her hands pounded rhythmically at the spots where her muscles were sore.
Quickly, her breathing returned to a less noticeable normal state, leaving Meng Fan feeling slightly regretful.
"Are your knees really okay?"
Wu Tong still found this to be very unscientific, but gradually got used to it. Maybe it was after their conversation about her brothers at home. She found out that she was more at ease talking to him.
"It's not too late. I think it's better to combine work and rest. You can run every day, but every once in a while, you should reduce how much you run. Or you can combine running and physical training, rotating the parts of your body that you abuse. That is more healthy and more scientific, not to mention more effective." She smirked and teased again, "Would you like to know more about fitness swimming classes?"
Meng Fan grinned a bit. He was still breathing heavily. He then groaned. "Yeah, I'll be more careful."
Sports injuries were serious issues that shouldn't be ignored, but Meng Fan had used the most scientific warm-up techniques, along with foot posture, stretching, not to mention the black magic running shoes and headband. He had completely minimized—if not eliminated—all chances of injury.
As for alternating between fitness methods, Meng Fan agreed that combining aerobic and anaerobic exercise would be more effective. But he was too lazy!
He was only motivated to run because it had hung from one of his missions, otherwise, no matter how determined he was to lose weight in his second life, it would probably be like trying to fish for three days while drying the net for two days.
If he switched methods, he would have no perseverance.
Of course, Meng Fan also believed that trying other sports might trigger similar tasks, but for the time being, he didn't dare think about attaining more missions. His current physical ability was already being challenged to the extreme from running; there was no way he could withstand doing another sport.
If he triggered one, he would have to look at it every day and ruin his mood, so it was better not to try it.
Besides, if he maintained 20 kilometers every day, there wasn't another exercise that could rival the results running provided.
He mumbled to himself, "The results aren't that great. After running all these days, my physical state seems to be better, but I don't think I've lost any weight."
Although he hadn't weighed himself, Meng Fan was convinced that he hadn't lost any weight based on his intuition. However, the cellulite on his stomach had reduced by a few rings.
"Does this have to do with my eating habits?" asked Meng Fan with a distressed look. "I run more now, but I also eat more too. I want a scientifically nutritious diet to go with it, but there's no way to prove if they're healthy or not. Do you have any suggestions?"
The black magic running shoes had been programmed with this specific nutritional intake program, specifically customized to fit Meng Fan's physical shape and appetite.
How considerate, he couldn't help but feel a flutter in his heart.
"Diet is very important. Although there is the saying—letting go and running is so you can let go and eat—but if you really want to lose weight, you have to control your stomach." Wu Tong shortened her steps. She no longer needed to step back every three paces to match Meng Fan's speed. "I have a brother who's a sports nutritionist. I'll ask him."
"Really? Then thanks in advance!" Meng Fan saw that there was a lot of follow up to the topic he had brought up. He was happy in his heart until his face turned sour again. "Uhm, he won't prohibit me from eating, or make me eat gross stuff right?"
"Eat ugly food or be ugly. You pick one."
Although Wu Tong knew Meng Fan was just playing around, she still maintained a serious tone and emphasized the rules.
"To be honest, your facial features alone look pretty good, only they're buried too deep in fat. If you slimmed down…."
She then gestured to Meng Fan again, then said very convincingly, "You won't be ugly. And your height is another plus."
Wu Tong suddenly became more and more interested as she talked. She wanted to see what a hefty guy like Meng Fan would look like if he slimmed down.
This should be a very interesting and positive experience!
"Are you complimenting me or roasting me? What do you mean by buried? What do you mean 'won't be ugly?!" Meng Fan felt the compliment in his heart but still displayed discontent on his face. With a serious expression, he tried to change the subject to something more solemn. "Hmph. I think appearances should come second; the most important thing is to be healthy, and the positive outlook it will bring to my life."
"…"
Wu Tong left the track to do her stretches. She was suppressing the desire to roll her eyes into her head.
At 9 o'clock in the morning, Wu Tong sent a large chain of information with a cringey title 'Sports Nutrition and Diet Guidance for Patients with Severe Obesity', followed by a section she especially attached titled 'Regarding sports for severe obesity: Scientific Training Guide for Fat Loss and Weight Reduction.'
Even without looking at the content, one could lose two pounds just by reading the title.
Although there was enough scientific guidance in the program that came with his running shoes, Meng Fan still read through the articles, in case Wu Tong asked about it.
As for food, Meng Fan was willing to follow the guidance of his black magic running shoes, which stated to eat a normal diet with less oil and salt.
This seemed easy enough, and it suited him.
When it comes to exercise, running came first. Giving people thumbs up came second.
At 9:30, he had the course 'Law of animation and movement'. Normally, Meng Fan could skip this class, but now… he was too scared to escape. He obediently arrived on time. He picked a seat farther away from the front. He took out his notebook, pencils, and drawing paper. Regardless of what the lecture content was, all he needed to do was look up at the professor every two minutes, then continue drawing with his head down.𝒏𝒐𝑣𝓮𝗅𝚗𝗲xt.𝒞𝒪𝔪
Through the duration of one class, Meng Fan noticed the teacher had looked at him more than ten times, the kind of look that lingered for several seconds. Thankfully, this wasn't high school, otherwise, Meng Fan would think he was about to be called to answer a question, maybe even three.
By the end of class, Meng Fan had completed 260 drawings for the task [Illustrator]. He was closing the gap to complete task phase 3.
After drawing so many, Meng Fan had felt his drawing skills 'naturally improve' under such a short duration, the System attributes aside.
As soon as class ended, Meng Fan headed for Song Cheng. Since he had already decided to furiously collect validation points, he had to go to the best place for it.
Once he arrived, he headed out to find food. He had food in one hand and a thumbs up in the other. He strolled around passing blessings to tourists. After he ate, he began gesturing with both of his hands.
"Look look, the little fatty is back again!"
"Did you know, I saw a video of our chubby brother dancing on the city gate on Tik Tok yesterday; it had over a million likes!"
"I saw it too, but I didn't expect for it to be posted by a tourist."
"Do you guys want to find a way to hit him with a silk ball so he can come up again?"
"Are you sure he'd be willing to dance again?"
"You didn't see him giving everyone the thumbs up? Of course, he'll be willing to! Why else would he come here today! Maybe this chubby man is trying to get famous!"
The actor playing the minister, technically speaking, did not like having Meng Fan on his stage as he couldn't control the dynamic. But after weighing the pros and cons, he decided that he could afford to lose control just this once. He smacked the table. "I think it's doable! Xiao Chun, it's all you."
The actress playing Miss. Wang nodded with confidence. She had been tossing silk balls for three years, so she was completely confident she could hit anyone she wanted to. Not to mention the fat guy was a looming target amidst the crowd.
Whoosh.
The silk ball traversed a beautiful arc towards Meng Fan.
Meng Fan had noticed the silk ball long before and had been conjuring a way to attain it. He didn't expect the ball to come flying towards him. Immediately, he thrust open his arms and created a two-meter range of empty space around him.
'Got it!'
Didn't they avoid him after his spectacle yesterday? Why were they so supportive today? Did the actress for Miss. Wang had a change of heart?
No need to press for answers. Meng Fan strutted forward on his own.
The crowd was bigger today than it had been. He had to distribute at least a hundred 'blessings'.
They were all points!
Chapter 43: Increase That Charm
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"Young Noble, young noble."
Two family members who came down to see Meng Fan strolling up the stairs retreated in their steps and caught up to him. One of them continued, "Young Noble, our minister asked us to ask you if you're going to perform your dance for us?"
They were pretty engrossed in the character.
Meng Fan became alert immediately. "Wait, am I not allowed?"
What the hell was he doing there if he wasn't allowed to dance?
"No no no of course not." The actor that had a hair sticking out of his mole looked at his partner and continued, "My minister has commanded that you cooperate with his procedure first before beginning your dance."
Meng Fan was suspicious. "Really?"
"Really."
"Alright then."
Meng Fan reluctantly stepped down. If anything went wrong, then he would have to quickly give out his thumbs ups.
Of course, Meng Fan was certain that Miss. Wang had intentionally tossed the silk ball to him—for it certainly wasn't a stroke of luck—as Meng Fan's bulk and validation score had made sure of that.
It was probably because of his recent success with that Tik Tok video. Otherwise, they would avoid him like the plague.
Five minutes later, after going through the stage's procedures, Meng Fan stepped forward. "I'm already here; let me dance for you all."
This time, the minister did not stop Meng Fan, letting him dance for more than a minute. Meng Fan managed 200 'thumbs ups' in this time, 200,000 experience points falling into his lap. He had already caught up with his total gains from yesterday.
Presently, he had accumulated 480,000 total 'likes'.
Meng Fan went down the stairs followed closely by the family servants. They specifically told him that they wouldn't be calling him up again today, for it was not good for him to appear too frequently.
Upon hearing this, Meng Fan confirmed his suspicion and eagerly asked, "Then, can I come back tomorrow?"
The servant nodded furiously.
Once Meng Fan descended the wall, he left the city with a trail of blessings. He went around giving people compliments and a thumbs up until he reached 500,000 likes before leaving Song Cheng.
Although there was no clear explanation, Meng Fan felt he had formed a connection with the minister. With this stage, Meng Fan felt no more use in running around fishing for likes. He was already getting lazy, and he had no more willpower to gesture with his arms.
Regardless, it was a talent in itself to pretend to be stupid while running around handing out positive energy.
Ideally, he could send out even more thumbs up gestures tomorrow so he could complete the task in the next few days.
To the minister, this collaboration was just another attraction for tourists outside the city wall. But to Meng Fan, it was a platform for self-promotion. A one-time opportunity to gain infinite points.
Both felt like they had benefitted, making it a win-win situation.
In addition, there was a class at 2:30 in the afternoon that Meng Fan couldn't miss, hence his early departure from Song Cheng. With his poisonous 'validation', Meng Fan couldn't guarantee he wouldn't be caught in the net this time around.
"Meng Fan, I didn't look carefully last night, but I realized you really seem to be… a bit skinnier."
After class, Wang Ya Nan, who had been sitting next to Zhang Zhou Wei, curiously asked him, "Are you really running every day?"
Meng Fan was happy to hear this. "You think so? It seems like running is effective after all."
Wang Ya Nan nodded intently. "No wonder, yesterday Dot couldn't stop talking about how cute you were getting when we got back to the dorm."
Dot shared a dormitory with Wang Ya Nan. Her nickname was Small Dot; however, her size was not dot-like at all. She was a tall girl, towering at 180 cm tall.
She had played volleyball since she was a child and joined the provincial reserve team when she was 14, then the official team at 16. At the age of 17, she had to forfeit out of high-intensity competition due to an accidental shoulder injury. Unwilling to retire at such a young age, the next year she applied to the art academy and became top five in her class. She gave the impression that some people were just born badass!
As for why her nickname was Small Dot, it was because her legal name Jiao Xiao Ran contained a lot of dots in its spelling.
As for why they had to include the 'Small' in front of it… They probably hoped it would compensate for something.
Wang Ya Nan looked at Meng Fan with deep sincerity and continued, "Now that you mention it, the only person who could really call her Small Dot would be you."
Meng Fan was speechless. "And we're back to the subject of me being fat."
Wang Ya Nan smiled. "I was talking about your height."
After some more cheerful banter, they left the classroom. Wang Ya Nan and Zhang Zhou Wei headed off on a date, while Meng Fan headed back to the dormitory to prepare for his evening run.
From the classroom to the building exit, Meng Fan didn't distribute a single 'thumbs up'. However, he did receive a messy array of them from passing students.
The entire school knew about him, never mind the people in his class.
After recharging with two bananas, Meng Fan quickly completed his ten kilometers and headed back to feast until he was content. Who cared about scientific nutrition?
In his evening stream, Meng Fan began drawing three illustrations for his novels. Once 8:00 hit and his name was listed on the recommended list, he changed his channel name to ' Cute Pet Special."
He had initially wanted to do a male character special tonight, for he had gained newfound confidence from his added 'drawing skill' attributes, but these skills still didn't compare to his knack for drawing female characters and mythical creatures.
The first drawing was of Chopper. Previously, he had drawn him in a chibi gender-bent fashion, so this time he decided to draw an adorable version of Chopper eating cotton candy.
The second and third illustrations were both of Nyanko-sensei from 'Natsuume no Yuujinchou.' One was him as a seifuku cat, one was him in monster form, one was of him being stupidly cute, and the last one was an explosively handsome rendition of him.
The fourth drawing was Sadaharu from Gintama.
For the fifth drawing, he transferred his attention to American animations. He drew Toothless from 'How to Train Your Dragon', followed by a minion…
The recommended section of the 'drawing category' on 8th Station was quite helpful. However, it was still a relatively unpopular category, so there was no way it could be compared to gaming and entertainment categories and no explosive bursts of viewers.
After streaming for two hours, the online viewer count was at 20,000 by the time Meng Fan was ready to log off. This had been twice the previous amount, but it didn't satisfy Meng Fan's expectation of gaining tens of thousands or even 100,000 viewers overnight.
Nonetheless, the recommendation had been very helpful.
Because of the recommendation and his increased sense of validation, the number of people who had wandered in 'by mistake' or 'randomly' also shot up. Tonight's stream alone, the number of total viewers reached an astounding 46,000. That ratio had put a smile on Meng Fan's face.
His total number of views was 81,000 now. He could almost see the light at the other end that was the reward from task phase 2.
It was worth mentioning that Meng Fan's follower count for his stream increased a lot as well. Currently, he had 23,000 followers.
Compared to the number of viewers, this ratio was surprisingly high.
The next day, streaming began at the same time. Similarly, it went on for two hours. When he logged off and checked the numbers, Meng Fan was surprised. His peak reached 11,000, consisting of 17,000 online viewers and 98,000 total views.
Evidently, yesterday's recommendation had been very helpful, and its follow-up effect was brilliant as well.
It appeared his stream had the ability to retain an audience.
On the third day, Meng Fan had been streaming for five minutes when the alert sounded in his 'mind.'
"Beep! Total stream viewers have reached 100,000. You've completed [Famous Streamer] Task phase 2. Reward: Points 10, Charm 1"𝒏𝒐𝑣𝓮𝗅𝚗𝗲xt.𝒞𝒪𝔪
"Gotta go to the bathroom."
Meng Fan whispered to his stream viewers, then got up to leave. He took a long look in the bathroom mirror. Honestly speaking, he didn't see any change in his appearance after the 1 Charm.
"This better not be another metaphysical attribute!"
Meng Fan considered it. Maybe he was too familiar with himself so he didn't notice it. As for how to verify it, that was another problem. He couldn't just run up to a random person and ask if he got more charming.
Silently, he returned to his seat and continued his stream.
Today's stream attraction remained above 10,000 the whole time, attracting a steady 15,000 online viewers.
"You look like you're in a good state today."
The administrator who had been pursuing her TV dramas greeted Meng Fan.
"Good state? Is this the impact of my increased charm?"
Meng Fan mumbled to himself as he left the studio. He didn't dwell on it too much and planned to get a good night's rest once he got back. The next morning, he had to head to Song Cheng after class.
The last two days Meng Fan had gone to Song Cheng, he gained about 20,000 'likes' each day.
If he could earn 6 validation points at once and receive the power that would come with it, both good and bad, Meng Fan felt intense just thinking about it.
"Hello, can you help me again?"
Meng Fan just left the studio when a girl called him.
He looked up. Wasn't this the cute petite girl with freckles?
The girl had been 'frightened' twice by Meng Fan, yet here she was asking him for help. Could this be the effect of his added charm that had earned him her trust?
Or did this girl come for revenge under the cover of asking for help, setting a trap?
She wouldn't!
Chapter 44: Real • Adoration Fever
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"Me?"
Although Meng Fan knew his figure and his extra validation made him impossible to miss or be mistaken for, and he had thoroughly impressed the freckled girl, he still felt the need to confirm.
The petite and cute freckled girl had fear written all over her face but nodded vigorously. Then, as if she did something wrong, she whispered in a small voice to Meng Fan, "I think I lost something on the fifth-floor studio or on the stairs. Can you come with me? You don't have to help me find it, just accompany me."
"It's from my grandma, so it's very important to me."
"The lights on the third and fourth-floor stairs are broken; the flashing is really scary."
"And there are no more students on the fifth floor."
The freckled girl was a bit anxious, maybe because she was too urgent, thinking her request was asking for too much. Of course, it could be that she was still afraid of Meng Fan.
Meng Fan understood.
"Are you sure the flashing lights are scarier than me?"
As he asked her, he opened his eyes wide and stared at the expression on the girl's face.
He could tell she was hesitant, making his heart send out a signal of caution.
Of course, when he thought about it, maybe he was only scary because he was acting like this.
Well, the world wouldn't be so malicious now, would it?
But something did seem off.
Everything else aside, this seemed a bit strange…
"Classmate, hold on."
Meng Fan saw a boy wearing glasses walk out, probably driven out by the administrator. He jumped at the opportunity and grabbed the guy's hand, filling him in on the girl's dilemma after rattling off a few words. Meekly, he said to the guy, "Actually, I am very afraid of the flashing lights too… How about you come with us."
Meng Fan gave himself a 'like'. This way, if the girl really wanted to retaliate against him, she wouldn't do it while the other boy was present. If she really needed the help, then it wouldn't hinder her to bring an extra person, plus she wouldn't have to worry about going alone with just him.
Hitting two birds with one stone.
The guy immediately recognized Meng Fan. Not only did he recognize him from the internet-famous videos, but he was also the iron giant that had stopped the thugs. While being grabbed like that by Meng Fan, it was also hard to reject.
As for Meng Fan's fear of the flashing lights, he could only suppress a smile.
When the freckled girl heard this, she said no more. She wholeheartedly just wanted to find the purse that her grandmother had given her. Smiling at the boys, they walked up to the stairs together.
"You don't say, people very seldom go to the fifth floor at night. Generally, the other studios would have to be full before someone goes to the fifth floor unless you're someone who prefers a quiet space."
Meng Fan smiled awkwardly. Hopefully, she hadn't gone up to the fifth floor because she had been trying to avoid him because of what happened the last time.
She didn't respond and continued searching along the stairs.
"These lights seem fine."
The glasses guy reached the third floor, then the fourth to fifth. He didn't see any broken lights, let alone flashing ones. He looked at Meng Fan and realized what was happening.
Buddy, this was obviously the girl's deliberate attempt to be with you!
No wonder, how can some stupid light be that weird!
Her intentions were so obvious, did you not see it buddy?
And he f*king dragged me along!
Serves this lonely bastard right!
"I found it!"
The girl found her purse at the entrance of the fifth-floor studio, beaming as if she had struck gold. Then she proceeded to apologize to Meng Fan and the boy.
"Good thing you found it. You should head back soon."
Meng Fan chuckled. After he discovered that the lights were not broken, he took great pride in the caution he had expressed.
He looked at the glasses guy. 'Thank God for you.'
They walked towards the second floor.
"Huh, the lights are fixed?"
As they were heading up, the freckled girl had only thought about finding her purse, not bothering to notice the lights at all until they were going back down. Afraid that Meng Fan and the glasses boy would mistake her for pulling a cheesy move, she said to them embarrassingly, "The lights just now really were flashing."
The glasses guy took a look at Meng Fan and sighed. He gave the girl an "I feel you" glance.
It's not your fault you liked a guy that is so braindead.
"Maybe it was a coincidence."𝚗𝑜𝑣𝐄𝓵𝗇𝔢xt.𝒸𝓞𝓶
Meng Fan smiled as he spoke. Once he arrived at the ground floor, he bid his farewells and left.
"Wait, something doesn't feel right."
After Meng Fan had walked some distance, realizing maybe everything had just been a coincidence, and the girl wasn't out for revenge.
No matter what, at least she found what she was looking for.
Not bad.
…
"Fatty, your phone's ringing."
Chen Da Qiang was pointing to his bed when Meng Fan stepped out after his shower.
Are there marketing scam calls this late?
Meng Fan walked over to take a look. WeChat video call notifications were bombarding his screen. When he saw the avatar, Meng Fan did not want to answer it. However, he was wary of the consequences if he didn't pick up the call.
"Fan Fan."
Before Meng Fan could even plug in his earbuds, a very pleasant female voice rang from the other end. Immediately, his three roommates turned around. They focused their eyes on the source.
"It's my sister."
Meng Fan didn't want to be misunderstood, so he put on his headphones. "I'm not busy today, you have time to see me?"
"What's wrong with you lately, you've become so thin!" Meng Cai Wei's tone across the line sounded concerned. "I Saw that Tik Tok video and almost didn't recognize you. You're so thin that you've lost your features!"
Meng Fan almost spat out a mouthful of blood.
Running had slimmed him down, but not that much. In the words of this charming woman, it sounded like he had shed a different skin.
Also, shouldn't she be more curious as to why he was dancing on a city wall after watching his dancing video, rather than dwell on his weight?
His older sister was definitely poison!
…
"Here he comes!"
At 12 o'clock the next day, Meng Fan appeared near the Song Cheng city gate. He had just showed up when the staff spotted him.
The minister was thrilled. Because of this fatty's dance, the city gate's 'Miss Wang Tossing the Silk Ball' had garnered a larger audience in the last three or four days. The appearance was not praised worthy, but he knew that this month's bonus would be a hefty one, especially his paycheck and the actress for Miss Wang's.
"Xiao Chun, you better aim carefully."
"No problem."
Miss Wang tossed the silk ball to Meng Fan, who was waiting with open arms and snatched it out of the air. Although he hadn't said much to Miss Wang in the last few days, he still felt there was a connection between them.
Meng Fan arrived on stage and then followed the minister's procedures. He then said the most magical 3 words in the world, "I'm already here."
"Beep!"
Less than half a minute later, 80,000 likes were gathered. And an alert sounded in Meng Fan's 'mind'.
"Beep! You've given out 1 million manual likes completing task phase 3 of [Adoration Fever]. Reward: Achievement points 1000, validation 1."
"Beep! You've completed the task [Adoration Fever, receiving the title [Adoration Fever] (Validation 5)"
Meng Fan was ecstatic to receive 1000 accomplishment points, while the 6 validation points added bitterness to his joy.
However, the system did not stop beeping.
"Beep! You've unlocked the task [Real • Adoration Fever]"0
"Task requirement: Manually give out 100 million likes."
"Upon completion, you will receive the title [Real • Adoration Fever] (Validation 10)"
'What the hell is this!'
Meng Fan was dumbstruck.
'The task upgraded?'
When he saw the progress bar of the task, Meng Fan gave up all motivation to continue fishing for likes.
The task was divided into four phases, 5 million, 10 million, 50 million, and 100 million. The rewards were divided into 500, 1000, 5000 and 10,000 points plus 1 point of validation for each phase.
The task had really upgraded. The progress seemed more difficult to complete, and the points given in comparison were less than the previous mission.
Before when he completed 1 million he got 1000 points; however, in this mission, he only got 1000 points for 100 million likes. It was 10 times harder!
"What? There's an equipment bar!"
Meng Fan scrolled to the bottom and saw the only item listed in the equipment tab—a hat that made his sense of validation disappear.
The function was as the name suggests. Once worn, the wearer's sense of validation will decrease, close to zero.
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Chapter 45: I'm Not Worthy
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"This hat!"
After Meng Fan saw the function of the hat, the first thing that came to mind wasn't the subtle Tetsuya Kuroko, but another character from a different anime. In this anime, the goldfinger had also been a hat that could make one's sense of validation disappear. After putting it on, one could become…
Wait, that was an erotic manga!
It seemed like the system was a gentleman.
Of course, this hat only made his sense of 'validation' disappear, not his entire existence. He wouldn't become an invisible man, but at least it would make people notice him less. Meng Fan's chances of being noticed were reduced to zero, but if he spoke, or if there was an "action" connected to Meng Fan, then he would be discovered for sure.
For example, Kuroko Tetsuya in 'Kuroko no Basuke' also had a weak presence, but once someone passes the ball to him, the action of the ball would connect, and people would begin to notice him.
The effect of the hat was even more exaggerated than the one Kuroko had.
Before the 2 validation was added, all kinds of situations had come crashing onto Meng Fan, both good and bad. After suddenly earning 6 validation points at once, Meng Fan couldn't imagine what catastrophes were waiting to happen. This hat had appeared at just the right time; he could wear it whenever he wanted to avoid trouble.
The running shoes, headband, earbuds, and pen were all black magic products. However, the hat was in a category of its own. A metaphysical product!
Good stuff!
Only… the points required for the hat were not high—only 1000 points—but there was a premise. Meng Fan had to complete task Phase 1 of [Real • Adoration Fever] before he could redeem it.
In other words, if he wanted to get this whimsical equipment, he had to get another 5 million likes… no, 4 million now.
Because after the task upgrade, the 1 million likes from [Adoration Fever] still accumulated into mission progress.
Even so, Meng Fan was burnt out!
He was prepared to bid farewell to Miss Wang and the minister, but it seemed now, he had to finish the stupid 'thumbs up' dance.𝚗𝑜𝑣𝐄𝓵𝗇𝔢xt.𝒸𝓞𝓶
When will this end!?
Should I not buy the hat?
No way!
Before, Meng Fan only thought about collecting points. But the emergence of the 'hat' became the only priority in his mind.
The hat that could make his sense of 'validation' disappear and avoid some troubles under the public eye. No matter what class he skipped, the teacher wouldn't remember his name during attendance, right? Most importantly, even if the hat isn't as well made as the one from that erotic manga, it should still be a gentleman… a life artifact!
Meng Fan wasn't courageous, but some bold ideas in his mind came out uncontrollably.
"Young Noble."
The military-like family members were engrossed in their characters. After Meng Fan finished his 'thumbs up' dance he was escorted down the stairs by them again. Their expressions were full of concern. "Young Noble, you weren't performing so well today, are you bothered by something? Or tired?"
Because of the appearance of the task [Real • Adoration Fever, Meng Fan was indeed feeling under the weather during his performance. However, although he didn't gesture as much, the number of likes didn't decrease. He still gained over 200,000 likes.
Meng Fan believed that this must be related to his 6 validation points. The crowd below had all looked towards him, even the ones who were just passing by.
[Real • Adoration Fever] Task phase one: 1.12 million/5 million.
"I am a little tired."
"Then, will you come again tomorrow?"
"I'll see."
The family members were a bit startled at his answer. After escorting Meng Fan's colossal mass off the city wall, they ran to break the news to the minister.
"Is the chubby man tired from dancing and doesn't want to do it anymore?"
"Do you think, when the chubby boy comes tomorrow, we should give him some sort of incentive? We can't make him work for free."
"If anything, we should cover his entrance ticket."
…
Although the added hat that could mask his 'presence' was his motivation, Meng Fan was done praising people for the day.
Even without his outstretched thumbs, he could still feel eyes on him from the crowd. After the 6 validation, he could really feel the metaphysical power of existence.
Meng Fan entered autopilot mode.
When he got on the bus, he didn't give out any 'thumbs up' but received a bunch, even making a trip to the police station.
This still had something to do with his 'validation'.
After the six-point increase, Meng Fan had attracted the oh so rare bus thief, and immediately after the thief had tried to act, Meng Fan didn't even have time to react when a passenger who had been silently watching Meng Fan pointed it out.
When a confused Meng Fan heard the warning, he looked at the thief who had been glaring at the kind passenger, then proceeded to sit on the thief, crushing him to the ground.
This many people on a bus and this guy had chosen Meng Fan as a target. If he wasn't dumb, he was probably turned dumb by Meng Fan's increased 'validation'.
The power of metaphysics!
In this city, nobody took from the charity 'fridge' with cold drinks that were set aside for roadside cleaners, delivery men and women, traffic police and reinforcements and other outdoor professionals. Sometimes, fruits and other items could be seen there too, untouched, so how could something like this happen?
"To the police station!"
The bus driver screamed. The entire bus chimed in agreement, filled with indignation and enthusiasm as they drove to the nearby police station.
The thief himself had gone crazy.
Once they arrived at the station, the thug crawled out from under Meng Fan's bottom under the watchful eye of the passengers. He gave a sigh of relief.
This… Meng Fan was curious why there wasn't a task of 'righteousness' for him to trigger. Maybe it was because he was the victim, or because the system had three times the charm rule. Or there was just no such thing as a courageous setting?
The thought of the setting that gave him a hat that could mask his presence was still amazing. At least he still had that.
After the commotion, Meng Fan was late to his afternoon class. What a coincidence, it's comrade Ma's class!
Under the glaring eyes of comrade Ma, Meng Fan sourly entered the classroom and took his spot in two seats.
"Professor Ma, you won't believe me, but I was late because I was helping catch a bad guy!"
Meng fan quickly explained when class was over. After all, he had just submitted a guarantee letter.
Mr. Ma did not change his expression. "I know, you were catching heartbreakers, right? "
Meng Fan almost spat blood. F ine, if you don't believe me then don't, but it's not okay to hurt me like this!
"I didn't think professor Ma would be so humorous."
The students who had been eavesdropping suppressed their laughter. The joke of "The iron hero tackling a heartbreaker" had spread through the school alongside Meng Fan's thumbs up dance. The students didn't have to say it, as the faculty and staff basically all knew. As he was Meng Fan's homeroom teacher, Mr. Ma was no exception.
Chen Da Qiang stifled a laugh and asked Meng Fan, "Fatty, I just called you, why didn't you answer? Mr. Ma took attendance as soon as he arrived, so strange, he really does have his eye on you."
"It's more complicated than that!"
Meng Fan was really at a loss for words. As for catching the thug, he didn't want to bother explaining.
Zhang Zhou Wei completely shut down his idiom. "More complicated? You're hiding an unspeakable secret, aren't you?"
Xing Ta Ge asked in all seriousness, "Are you saying it's something that's hard to talk about? Or just something hard? "
Zhang Zhou Wei heard this and began to chide, breaking into a song. "I know you always had a hidden…"
After seeing Wang Ya Nan collecting her things and heading over them, Zhang Zhou Wei immediately stopped. He didn't dare to continue, so he shut his mouth, pretending as if nothing happened just now.
Chen Da Qiang slammed his elbow into Zhang Zhou Wei, asking him seriously, "It doesn't feel so good to swallow your words does it?"
"Get lost!"
Zhang Zhou Wei uttered the words through his gritted teeth.
Meng Fan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. His face twitched and formed a weird smile. "How was I, Meng Fan, so worthy that I got you three as my roommates?"
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Chapter 46: Famous Again
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Once he went back to the dormitory, Meng Fan changed into his workout clothes and ran his usual 10 kilometers to blow off some steam. After showering, he once again thought of the misunderstanding he had with Mr. Ma.
That won't do.
He assumed he had to make another run to the police station, not clear if proof was still attainable. He still had to try; after all, this was his professional course selection on the line.
Chen Da Qiang burst in, Meng Fan's meal in hand. He then said, "I sent you the money on WeChat."
"What money?" Meng Fan responded. "I said I would treat you. If you don't go, it'd be a waste."
As he spoke, he picked up his phone and carefully turned off its airplane mode. Suddenly, seven missed calls and over twenty text messages buzzed in along with fifty WeChat messages. It was quite a spectacle.
The texts were evidently scams, but the phone calls had been made by people he knew. But among the WeChat messages, half were accidentally sent out, while the other half were from people who were bored and were looking to chat.
Of course, there were also the casual WeChat messages asking for donations and votes.
Of these, one was the red envelope that Chen Da Qiang had sent. It was exactly 1002 HXB. Meng Fan had never mentioned how much that meal at Mu Shang cost; evidently, Da Qiang was considerate enough to remember.
Meng Fan opened it and sent the money back. "My salary from drawing illustrations is not bad, at least enough to treat you three to a meal. Count it as a gift in advance."
"Today my tutoring salary came in, plus they gave me a 500 HXB bonus. If you want to treat us, you have to at least be here. Next time, we will definitely eat your wallet empty."
Chen Da Qiang sent the money again. He looked at the time, then said, "It's settled then, I'm going on a date. Oh right, judging by how you turned on your phone, you probably don't know you're famous again, right?"
Leaving Meng Fan to ponder the ambiguous statement, Chen Da Qiang sprayed on some perfume he pulled from Xing Ta Ge's special cabinet and ran out the door.
"I'm f*cking eating."
Meng Fan, still holding his food, quickly sidestepped to avoid the perfume. As for what Chen Da Qiang had been saying, Meng Fan would find out as he continued reading his WeChat.
"Gagagaga! Fatty you're famous again!"
That was a voice message from Zhang Zhou Wei. As soon as he opened it, a toad-like cackle erupted from the other end, followed by a video message.
After clicking it open, he saw a guy who was roughly 30 years old with small eyes feeling up a fat guy's bag. A passenger next to the fatty had warned him. The small-eyed man glared at him with threatening eyes. Soon after, all one could see was the clumsy fat man sitting on the pickpocket in one swift motion, crushing the small-eyed man under his butt.
Excitement then filled the bus. The passengers were filled with indignation but still somewhat restrained. Moreover, an old man was reminding everyone to remain civilized.
After that, the bus driver shouted and drove the bus straight to the police station.
The fat man suppressed the thief for the whole trip. His expression was firm, not showing the slightest sign of compromising with the evil forces. He was witty too. For the while he was on top of him, the fatty had searched the thief's entire body, pulling out a knife from the thief's pocket that had been used to cut open bags.
The passengers all praised the fat man's unparalleled bravery.
Of course he had searched him. He had sat on the blade when he suppressed the thief. How could he sit comfortably without removing it?
That should have been a video of a brave confrontation with a thief. One's heroic effort. One depicting the united prowess of civilians. A video criticizing the actions of pickpockets. It should have been… But after looking at it this way and that, it just made one happy.
The careless arrogance to sit on a thief could be counted as something that was seldom seen.
At the end of the video was a voice message from a recorder. "This little warrior is a student from Hua Xia Academy of Fine Arts. I'm proud to be a student there!"
His 'thumbs up' dance had already blown up due to his 2 validation, but now that it increased by another 6, the attention he received was even more different.
Who would've thought someone would see a pickpocket in action from the moment he began, and they were filming as well. The recorder was a faculty member at the Academy who recognized Meng Fan on the bus from his 'thumbs up' dance.
"After adding 8 validation, I'm flammable material now?"
Meng Fan mumbled to himself. True, he was a little excited. For with that video, he could explain himself in front of Mr. Ma.
He was beyond just a little excited. Let him be famous, for he didn't think for real that he would become some sort of an internet star or idol. The former could be disregarded for most of them were short-lived. The latter, despite being glamorous, was also not easy to go long term.
On this, Meng Cai Wei had already 'presented' the reality.
Buzz.
A WeChat message came in from someone nicknamed "Comrade Ma".
"Meng Fan, I want to apologize to you for the words I said after class. I didn't ask about the specifics and misunderstood you based on past experience and prejudice. The things I've said to you were a bit offensive, and this is a reflection of my professionalism and personal quality. Please forgive me. In addition, I am proud to have a brave student like you."
Meng Fan finished reading the awe-inspiring message and quickly responded, "Professor, your words are too harsh. It's my fault for being so undisciplined most of the time. If you are going to be this strict on yourself, I'm going to be too scared to take your class in the future!"
Comrade Ma replied, "Skipping class again? Don't even think about it!"
…
"Great job!"
Meng Fan had just entered the studio when he saw the administrator slamming him with a thumbs up in praise. She had obviously seen the pickpocket video. At the same point, she pointed towards the studio, revealing the smile of a mother-in-law to Meng Fan.
Meng Fan went inside and saw the petite and cute girl with freckles.
Was the girl still scared to go to the fifth-floor studio because of what happened yesterday? Or because she didn't think Meng Fan was a bad person anymore and built up the courage to come here?
Thinking back carefully, last night must have been a misunderstanding. There was definitely no evil plot for revenge or a cruel prank. So… wait, how did the administrator know the freckled girl and Meng Fan knew each other?
Meng Fan's continuous puzzling netted no results.
At the same time, he looked at the freckled girl. She also looked at him; after all, his sense of 'validation' was sitting there, drawing all the gazes in the room to Meng Fan the moment he entered the studio. It didn't matter how dedicated they were to their painting, for everyone had to respect the "8" validation.
Meng Fan nodded in acknowledgment to the freckled girl, then walked to the other side of the room and sat down. He took out his drawing papers. He set up his phone stand and opened the 8th station streaming APP.
"I almost forgot!"
After being caught up in the pickpocket madness, Meng Fan just remembered the 1000 points he had gained from finishing task phase 3 of [Adoration Fever].𝚗𝑜𝑣𝐄𝓵𝗇𝔢xt.𝒸𝓞𝓶
Including the 1000 points, he had a total of 1253 points right now.
With these points, he had to exchange for some new equipment. If the "presence masking hat" didn't have a prerequisite, Meng Fan would have bought it without hesitation.
As for now, he had his eyes on the "Streaming Assistant" from the [Famous Streamer] task.
Meng Fan took a look around him and decided to wait until he found a quieter place before redeeming it.
He updated the announcement of his stream in the group chat. 'Stream begins at 19:30 sharp.'
For today's streaming content, he would do five drawings of Hua Xia's historical architecture style, and then five illustrations for 'Rampage and Repair the World'.
That was his second batch of illustrations for the book 'Rampage and Repair the World'. Meng Fan entered FlatHeadBro's public profile and saw the reactions to the first batch of illustrations.
Not bad.
Once he reached the third drawing, his viewer count broke 10,000!
By the sixth drawing, the peak number had reached 15,000.
The eighth one, 16,000.
The ninth one, 18,000.
After he finished the tenth drawing, his online viewers had reached 19,000. It almost caught up to the numbers he received when he had been on the recommendations list.
The 6 validation was doing its thing!
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Chapter 47: Streaming Assistant
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Before he logged off, Meng Fan's 8th Station streaming UP level had reached level 15.
UP15 required an 8th Station score of 109810, and Meng Fan had a bit more than 110,000.
Each streamer from 8th Station received a level for every 100 gourds given. If they were golden gourds, based on the 1000:1 ratio of the currency, Meng Fan had still made over 10,000 HXB worth in gifts, with half of it going to the platform.
Of course, many of these included silver gourds that couldn't be redeemed, so his actual revenue capped at about 3500 HXB.
If he thought about it, his revenue from every live broadcast was still relatively high, averaging about 400. He could make about 10,000 roughly solely relying on his live stream.
Of course, making 10,000 a month was not as good as drawing illustrations for novels.
When Meng Fan had taken the jobs from FlatHeadBro, Mr.Sleepy, and Anxious, he had also selected a fourth one to illustrate after careful consideration. Essentially, he was doing work for four novels, with each paying him 1500 a week. Added up, he made 6000 a week.
Still, the issue was that he didn't have time to read novels. Otherwise, at his speed, it would be a breeze to complete the illustrations for one book each day, easily taking on seven a week and making his weekly earnings over 10,000.
However, Meng Fan was not in it for the money.
Doing illustrations was purely for the exposure these authors would bring him. Evidently, all four of these authors were very influential.
Especially Mr.Sleepy. If he put half of his efforts regarding anything else towards updating his novels, even one-third of his efforts, Meng Fan would give him at least two more drafts per submission.
"Forty-two thousand!"
After putting away his phone, Meng Fan looked at his progress with the [Famous Streamer] in his 'mind'. The total number of viewers had reached 153,000, meaning this stream alone had gained 42,000 viewers.
The ratio of online viewers to total viewers had expanded to 1:2.1. The greater ratio indicated a higher number of people entering and leaving his channel.
For other streamers, this was a sign of inability to keep people interested. However, to Meng Fan, it meant the number of people who had mistakenly entered, or just randomly strayed in had increased dramatically.
This kind of in and out flow was exactly what Meng Fan needed to complete his mission.
For other streamers, this was useless.𝚗𝑜𝑣𝐄𝓵𝗇𝔢xt.𝒸𝓞𝓶
After adding 6 validations, it was as if he was still on the recommendations list. Meng Fan was quite satisfied.
And he knew that as time passed, the metaphysical power of his 'validation' would be stronger.
The higher his validation was, the more viewers he would have, attracting more attention and increasing the rank of his channel on the front page. Then, he would have more presence on 8th Station…..
What a beneficial cycle.
Advancing at this speed, Meng Fan felt that he could complete the final task of [Famous Streamer] and reach 1 million views. Reaching the final 10 million views was in sight as well. He could even see the tip of the 100 million goal!
Meng Fan was excited just thinking about the charisma attributes.
Meng Fan recognized that the metaphysical attribute of 'validation' was quite useful for his streaming task. The only thing that made him a little unhappy was the 5 phone calls, 12 texts and 35 WeChat messages he had received in the last two hours!
If he hadn't turned off the notifications for Weibo, there would be even more.
This made Meng Fan more and more determined to redeem the "Stream assistant" with 1000 points.
"You… Were you just streaming?"
As he put away his phone and started drawing his manuscripts, a small figure appeared next to him. It was the cute girl with freckles, who stopped three steps away from him. She looked slightly uneasy but curious.
"Yep."
When Meng Fan saw it was her, he smiled and nodded.
Perhaps it was because of the rumors regarding Meng Fan's confrontation with the pickpocket on the bus; the freckled girl had concluded that he was a good person. Once she saw Meng Fan's smile and his harmless nature, she built up the courage and pointed to the manuscripts on his desk. "Can I see what you're working on?"
Meng Fan took one out and handed it to her. He then gathered the remaining drafts and pens for his show to put away.
"Wow, you're really good."
The freckled girl was very serious as she carefully looked at his drawing. It was only when she saw Meng Fan had packed all his things that she reluctantly handed his drawing back to him. "I'm also in the animation department, going into second year."
She wanted to say something but didn't know what to say, staring at Meng Fan awkwardly.
Meng Fan felt really awkward too. He thought about it and said, "Actually, the other day at the library, I lost a bet with someone so I had to run around confessing to girls, so sorry for the trouble I caused. And before at the studio, I wasn't trying to stalk you. I really just work here."
Regardless, he had to clear up some misunderstandings.
"I know, I've heard people talking about the iron hero's confession spree these last few days." The freckled girl stopped, then continued sternly, "I think the iron hero is an endearing term, not trying to make fun of you or anything."
"I think so, too."
Meng Fan saw that the freckled girl had also packed her stuff into her art tube, so he headed out of the studio. The freckled girl also got up to leave.
"I'm leaving."
The administrator who had been munching on sunflower seeds waved at Meng Fan and the girl; a mother like smile still plastered on her face. As she watched the two leave, she couldn't help but think to herself; it must be good to be young.
"Me? I'm going that way."
At the intersection, one path led to the girls' dorm and the other to the boys.
Meng Fan was still thinking about the stream assistant, so when he saw the path to the girls' dorm had been well lit by streetlights, he smiled and jogged back to his own dormitory.
Besides, it was strange to walk a girl he just met back to her dormitory.
Yes, this was what Meng Fan—the guy who had never liked a girl, been in love, or had a relationship—thought of the situation.
It was almost 10 when he reached the dormitory. Zhang Zhou Wei was feeding away on his video game and Xing Ta Ge was basking in a face mask video chatting with his girlfriend. From the sound of it, he had a new one again. The previous one sounded more loli, while this one had a more feminine tone to her voice, sounding better than the last.
"Da Qiang hasn't come back yet?"
"He's on a date, probably not coming back tonight." Zhang Zhou Wei said a little enviously as he removed his headphones.
"He's that efficient?"
"Why, you think everyone is like Zhou Wei, living in a purely spiritual relationship?" Xing Ta Ge interrupted.
"That's still better than you, you playboy!" Zhang Zhou Wei said bitterly. Even so, to call him a playboy was already an understatement.
Xing Ta Ge didn't bat an eye, going out of his way to avoid his new girlfriend on the other end of his phone. "Do you know why playboys are playboys? Think about it yourself."
Meng Fan was speechless. This sounded like something he only said to girls.
This kind of topic was avoided like the plague by some guys, but when it came to Xing Ta Ge, it was almost a byproduct. No, it should be a giant red flag.
Makes sense.
For a self-repairing guy like Xing Ta Ge, his targets would be self-repairing as well. Not to mention, once the words were out, they were simple and direct, as to not waste anyone's time.
Meng Fan didn't participate in Zhang Zhou Wei and Xing Ta Ge's spiritual vs physical debate, so he entered the bathroom and turned on the shower, trying to drown out the sounds outside with the water. He then 'looked' towards the [Famous Streamer] taskbar and exchanged the 'streaming assistant' from the equipment tab.
His achievement points immediately subtracted 1000, leaving him with 253 left.
A brooch sized object appeared in his hand.
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Chapter 48: Early Morning Stream
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
The shoes, headband, pen, headphones he had previously exchanged all had the function of changing sizes. When used, the size would adjust to the right level. The stream assistant also had this function, but it could also be used once it was shrunken.
For example, if the stream assistant was placed on his chest, it could be used to broadcast the stream from the perspective of his chest. The frame was large as if there was a cameraman resting on his chest.
In addition, the stream assistant had a medium form and a large form. The mid-sized form was roughly the size of a regular video camera, good for attaching to the shoulder, or if he was shameless enough, on his forehead. This size was just enough to deal with the people who asked how he was streaming and where his equipment was.
The large form was the size of a drone, and it could fly. This form was very suitable for filming the entirety of Meng Fan's size; unlike the other two that had to be fixed, it had a high degree of flexibility.
For all three modes, the stream assistant could be transparent, essentially making it invisible.
The stream assistant had the same function of a 'virtual display' as the previous items, allowing Meng Fan to control the movements of the camera from his mind.
Aside from the function of a camera, microphone, sound card, earbuds, cell phone, lighting, etc; the stream assistant also contained a GPS, weather broadcast, surrounding conditions, nearby people, and a dozen more powerful features such as recognizing nearby flora fauna and minerals, etc.
As for the Internet, it was even more godly. It directly connected to the satellite for non-interrupted internet access.
Moreover, the stream assistant could be connected to devices such as cell phones and computers.
Meng Fan bound his phone to the stream assistant and immediately a pop up appeared on the virtual interface. It could directly operate any application from his 'mind', including WeChat and Weibo.
Using his mind to browse Weibo and respond to WeChat messages, it was almost too cool!
"The quality of a 1000 point object is different indeed."
Meng Fan believed that with his understanding of the stream assistant, he could invent new ways to use it.
He opened a web browser.
VPN works too!
The speed of the beauty dealers giving out cards was almost too smooth.
Only the sound that blasted in his mind was a little… too intense.
Immediately, he connected the black magic earbuds to the stream assistant and began to use it.
1000 points were not easy to come by, but this was so worth it!
…
"Jesus, this is a bit long for a shower, isn't it? Even though you have more surface area, it shouldn't take this much time! Something happened to you!"
Xing Ta Ge, who had been waiting for Meng Fan to come out, ran into the bathroom. He had held it in for too long.
"I was thinking about something and forgot the time."
Meng Fan smiled, and upon seeing Chen Da Qiang enter, he changed the topic. "They said you weren't coming home tonight."
Chen Da Qiang smiled shyly. "I came back after the movie."
Zhang Zhou Wei relaxed when he saw Chen Da Qiang return. If Da Qiang had really been a fast-moving player like Xing Ta Ge had said, he would have been under even more pressure to justify his 'spiritual practice'. If other players were this outstanding, he would surely be an even bigger failure.
Now at least, Chen Da Qiang was the same level as Zhang Zhou Wei.
He then looked at Meng Fan and relaxed even more. Happily, he continued to feed in his game.
Chen Da Qiang caressed his phone as he chatted with Wei Zhi Xue about their half-hour of separation. His sentences were simple and redundant, but exuding the thick and sour smell of love nonetheless.
Xing Ta Ge came out of the bathroom and took out the loose scripts of Watanabe Junichi and began examining them carefully. Not only was he handsome, but he was also willing to take the time to learn about sex from writers of different nationalities and their relationship with intimacy. How arrogant was he?
As for Meng Fan, he had fallen asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
The virtual interface of stream assistant was cool to use, but it was tiring. It was much more exhausting than looking at his phone or the computer. This thing was only good for using occasionally, as it made his eyes sore and his brain dizzy.
Also… It made one drowsy.
At five o'clock the next day, Meng Fan got out of bed in high spirits. He put on his running gear and left, beginning his warm-ups on the track.
"Let's try connecting to the stream channel!"
With the help of the stream assistant, Meng Fan didn't want his stream content to solely be based on drawing. He thought about a more comprehensive approach that incorporated different aspects. After all, the stream assistant was suitable for live broadcasting anytime, anywhere.
The quality of the content of the broadcast, however, came second. What was important was that he was on the stream with his 8 validation. There would always be some netizens who came, and as long as viewers came, regardless of how long, or if they thought he was good or not, his view count would rise.
Anyway, he was idle regardless. He didn't have to worry too much, as long as the number went up.
Meng Fan pinned the stream assistant to his chest like a badge and turned on the stabilizer function so that while he ran, the scene it recorded wouldn't shake or topple.
The virtual interface opened his 8th Station stream, and after connecting, the live broadcast appeared. It displayed everything in Meng Fan's vision.
Run!
Are there even people online at 5 am?
There actually are!
Two minutes later, a user entered the channel but left immediately.
After a while, someone else joined and left.
The third person that entered stopped for a minute, probably because it took him a minute to understand what kind of dumbass content this stream was about. He then sent a "???" and left the room.
But at this time, there were still two people watching the stream.
"I thought that was a die-hard fan! Hey whoever else is here, are you alive?"
"Hahaha, I thought you guys were both die-hard fans!"
"Speaking of which, what kind of stupid-ass stream is this?"
"This channel is supposed to be for drawings. This host is really a baller. I was ready to go to bed and saw that a few more viewers came online so I took a look. I'm not sure what's going on either."
"Then you should sleep. I'll see what this stupid stream is about."
"I can't sleep now, hahaha, I want to know too!"
One had woken up early and the other was up too late; they began to chat in the channel. They hadn't spoken a few words before another user entered and immediately became more interested.
Normally, nobody would be willing to jest in a dead stream channel for so long, especially when there weren't that many viewers to begin with.
"Meng boss, what are you doing up so early?"
After about a minute or so, the viewers in the room actually broke single digits. Most of them had seen Meng Fan's art stream; all of them were shocked at the content.
"Running."
Suddenly a sound appeared, successfully scaring his viewers once again.
"Running? And he's really on a track like he's running along a path."
"That's not right! I heard the boss was a chubby guy from some other netizen. His tonnage is over 200. How can he be running?!"
"Is the stream host trying to lose weight by running in the morning?"
"Hey boss, did you show your figure to us just now?"
"…"
There weren't many people in the room, but the live comments were very active as if they were chatting.
"I don't care!"
Meng Fan responded simply.
Probably after seven or eight minutes, a second student appeared on the track. There weren't many people willing to wake up this early to run, so they had probably seen Meng Fan from far away. He turned to wave as he passed Meng Fan.
"That guy is pretty handsome!"
"Catch up to him and tackle him!"
"Hey, look, it's another one, a pretty girl!"
"Host, can you hurry up? I want to stare at the back figure of this pretty girl!"
"Host, what school do you go to? There's so many good-looking guys and girls this early in the morning!"
"I'm envious of their figures!"
"Envy is useless. Think about how hard they worked!"
"Wtf! Wtf! This girl is so pretty!"
"Her figure is so good too!"
"She looks to be familiar with the stream host! She's so pretty when she smiles!"
"She's so fast. She's lapped the host already, hahaha. Hey you're a bit too slow, aren't you?"
"Slow speed is fitting for a fatty of our host's stature!"𝚗𝑜𝑣𝐄𝓵𝗇𝔢xt.𝒸𝓞𝓶
As more and more people began their morning run on the track, the live comments in his channel became more and more joyful, reaching a peak when Wu Tong arrived.
Even though there were only about 50 people in the room, the barrage of live comments made it seem like there were thousands of people spamming his channel.
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Chapter 49: Reasonable Function
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
As he ran, Meng Fan would take a look at the live comments periodically. There weren't many people, but the channel was heated.
Aside from the few words he spoke at the beginning, Meng Fan remained quiet.
One, because he was already heaving from running and had no breath to break his rhythm. Two, he realized that he should refrain from answering their questions, because in reality if he was running he shouldn't be able to see their comments unless he could fake 'holding his phone' while running. That would be difficult, not to mention confusing.
Meng Fan had decided on streaming his run after he received the stream assistant. As the broadcast progressed, he began to consider some other details pertaining to his stream.
Sometimes, he had to pretend he couldn't read the live comments. This was a crucial point he had to remember.
As for the size of the stream assistant, when nobody was around, he could shrink it to badge sized, but if people were present, it had to be at least medium-sized.
The medium size could pass for a GoPro type camera, one that had the stabilization function. As for why his camera, in particular, was smaller, higher quality, had incredible stability, high def, and unending battery life… He did not plan on going into that detail.
After all, with the advancement of modern technology, there have been more and more high functioning handheld or tilt stabilizers appearing on the market.
After adding a belt that was strapped to his chest—although it looked a bit silly—people thought it was a reasonable functioning device.
With so many extreme sports like surfing and parachuting being recorded appropriately, running wasn't even on the same level.
Of course, the stabilizing feature and pixel definition could all be lowered, so it didn't pose a big problem.
He then thought of the large form, the one sized like a drone, Meng Fan reminded himself that this kind of device could not be just 'controlled' with his brain in public. He had to dispel all thoughts of streaming himself from 'god's perspective'.
Unless he could free up his hands and took out his phone and pretend to control it from an app.
This kind of operation would definitely not work while he was running. Although it could work for other situations. After all, this kind of intelligent device couldn't just be used for running.
As for its invisibility function, it couldn't ever be used during a stream.
Unless he wanted to record something secretive, in which case the transparent function would be very useful.
As he was running, Meng Fan periodically checked the virtual interface, going over what else he should take note of, thinking about the possible flaws that could occur.
After all, he had read several web novels, and despite the thrill he got out of using his black magic equipment, he had to be a bit more prudent and cautious. His 'presence' was high and could easily be spotted by someone. It was unlikely he would be caught and sent to questioning, but it would stir up trouble nonetheless.
If anything threatened his life safety—especially after he had so painstakingly been reincarnated—and beaten into a "GG", not only would the universe be disgusted, even he would be disgusted with himself for ruining such a good hand of cards!
"Ding! Great job! You've run 10 kilometers, elapsed time 1 hour 4 minutes and 13 seconds."
After 10 kilometers of high intensity running, Meng Fan was virtually improving with every run. Now, his average speed had dropped to around 7 minutes and 25 seconds, and among those ten, 1to 2 of those kilometers could reach 7 minutes 20 seconds. The tough kilometers he maintained within 7 minutes and 30 seconds.
"He's slowing down."
"He stopped."
"Is it finally over?"
"This has been the most boring stream I've ever watched!"
"You bunch are the most waste group of netizens I've ever met, hahaha!"𝚗𝑜𝑣𝐄𝓵𝗇𝔢xt.𝒸𝓞𝓶
"This had to be at least an hour?"
"He can really run!"
"Although he's slow… but damn, the man can run!"
"Hey host, how far have you run?"
"Did you not just hear the voice alert? 10 kilometers!"
"Everyone says the host is a fatty. I don't believe it!"
"See see see, the pretty girl is here again!"
"The host is walking over!"
"Kakaka this girl looks so tough!"
"Her figure, her actions!"
"Hey hey hey, can you stop turning your camera, turn back, turn back!"
"Turn back, turn back!"
Meng Fan walked another lap, then headed towards Wu Tong who had finished running and was stretching. At the same time, he removed the medium-sized stream assistant from his chest.
Show face?
Not a chance.
Meng Fan tossed the stream assistant onto the grass, pointing the camera in one direction and walked towards her, only showing his back.
By then, he figured out some technical details. Meng fan thought that running could still be broadcasted, as it could contribute to other content on his stream. He was bored anyway and as long as even a few people entered his channel, he would benefit from it.
Of course, it would be great too if more people watched.
As of now, Meng Fan displayed his large body on the live stream as another means of attracting viewers.
"Host?"
"Host is that you?"
"You're not joking are you?"
"I knew you were a big guy, but not this big!"
"Is this really the host that just ran ten kilometers?"
"I've heard fake singers, but it's my first time hearing of fake running!"
"The host seems to weigh at least 250 pounds, running 10 kilometers with this kind of weight is basically playing on hell mode!"
The stream which was erupted with anger as Wu Tong disappeared from the frame behind Meng Fan's figure was spammed with question marks.
"You're live? Streaming?"
Wu Tong had seen the GoPro like object hanging on Meng Fan's chest as she was running. After seeing that he had put it aside, she knew that some outdoor streamers used a separate camera for streaming and that the quality would be great even if it was hooked to a phone. She was just unsure if Meng Fan had been recording his weight loss journey or streaming.
"Streaming." Meng Fan knew that if he were to continue streaming his runs, the person he would encounter the most was Wu Tong. After confirming the feasibility, he found no reason to lie to her, and said, "I just bought a device so I'm testing it."
"Streaming art, thumbs up dance, catching bad guys, and now outdoor streams?" Wu Tong laughed. "You're really trying to become internet famous?"
Meng Fan didn't want to become internet famous. He just wanted to accumulate enough views to increase his charm attribute. When Wu Tong asked that, all he could manage to say was, "It's just for fun."
Wu Tong continued, "Does this count as me opening the doors to a new world for you?"
To that, Meng fan nodded fervently. "You speak the truth. I have to thank you!"
That one sentence from Wu Tong was really the one that introduced Meng Fan to the world of streaming.
Meng Fan took his phone from his arm pouch and logged onto 8th Station. He showed her the connected GoPro and handed it over. "See, even this early, there are already a few hundred viewers. They all want to see you." He quickly explained. After all, he didn't have her permission yet to show her on camera. "I caught a bit of you when you were running."
Wu Tong took a look at Meng Fan's phone and entered the frame of the stream assistant. Graciously, she waved and smiled.
The live chat exploded with clamor immediately after Meng Fan logged off.
In an hour, there were 97 online viewers; its total reaching 279. Most of the people had just wandered in for a while and left, so there weren't many who had watched from beginning to the end. There couldn't be many people who were actually that bored.
After returning to shower and eating breakfast, Meng Fan woke Meng Cai Wei with a phone call. Hurriedly, he nagged her to introduce a more experienced photographer who focused on outdoor shooting or outdoor streams so he could consult a professional about the rationality of his future live streams.
After all, his black magic streaming device was a bit too much; in case Meng Fan didn't know what he was doing, he would be classified as 'supernatural'.
However, as long as it was within the technological boundaries of the earth right now, it can be explained.
Although Meng Cai Wei was irritated that Meng Fan had disrupted her beauty rest, she still quickly recommended him a professional senior photographer.
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Chapter 50: Live Stream
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
The photographer Meng Cai Wei introduced to Meng Fan was called Wu Da. It sounded like Wu 'big', but in reality, he was a combination of Wu Song and Lu Da.
Initially, he was an outdoor enthusiast, then became a photography enthusiast. The two hobbies coincidentally merged into his current profession.
He was tall and lean, probably an avid hobbyist of several outdoor activities. A few years ago, when Bear Grylls came to Hua Xia to record an entertainment show, he had been one of the cameramen. He had also attended several national outdoor reality shows, for in his lens, not a single famous guest had been lost, and none of the famous guests could outrun him.
A while ago, he had also hosted an online series about outdoor activities.
Wu Da could probably provide pragmatic and professional answers to all the questions Meng Fan had.
Also, because of Meng Fan's status as Meng Cai Wei's sister, regardless of how ignorant and otherworldly Meng Fan's questions were, he would take the initiative to help out in his best interest with unending enthusiasm and patience.
Wu Da provided very detailed responses, in addition to linking several articles from his phone, mostly consisting of professionally accurate and understandable information, so that Meng Fan could more easily understand.
During his morning class, Meng Fan gained a firm understanding of the details.
At around 11, a well-rested Meng Cai Wei gave Meng Fan a call. After realizing what he was doing, she asked, "Why are you trying to understand this? Outdoor streaming? Also, what the hell was that video of you dancing? I also heard you're streaming your art online… Meng Fan, are you actually trying to be internet famous?"
It was undeniable that Meng Cai Wei was informed about Meng Fan's doings; and very well informed at that.
As for how she found out, Meng Fan could guess with his toe that it had been Qin Jiao.
"It's not that complex. I just think it's pretty fun."
Meng Fan couldn't go into more detail with Meng Cai Wei. The more he explained, the more trouble it would bring.
"Pretty fun? That's what I thought at first too."
Meng Can Wei sounded serious. She wasn't against Meng Fan entering this industry but just reminding him to treat his decision seriously and consider it carefully.
Of course, she was thinking a bit too far ahead.
Meng Fan knew what Meng Cai Wei was trying to get at, but he really couldn't explain why he was doing what he was doing. All he could do was to say these words, "I know. If I have any thoughts or decisions, I will immediately tell you and ask for your advice."
"That's better. You must tell me first!"
Meng Cai Wei sighed in relief, laughing as she spoke, "Seeing as how you're so well behaved today, your generous sister will give you a welfare cut. A private picture of your idol."
She hung up and sent him a photo.
After clicking it open, Meng Fan once again almost gagged out blood.
It wasn't that the photo contained any hint of 'welfare', but it was funny. The 'Shan Jing Bro' in the photo had almost no more trace of goddess vibes left.
"What's wrong?"
Zhang Zhou Wei, who had been walking to dinner with Meng Fan, saw the look on his face and asked curiously.
"Oh nothing, my face just involuntarily twitches."
Meng Fan yawned. Although this private photo was great, it would be awkward to take it out and share it, mostly causing laughter and intense questioning. But Meng Fan also knew this sort of photo couldn't be spread publicly.
It was like Meng Cai Wei's posts in her WeChat moments. Meng Fan would never let other people see it nor mention it.
There was no class in the afternoon, so after lunch, Zhang Zhou Wei had compliantly left to go on a date with Wang Ya Nan; except this time was a bit different. They were going to the library to read books.
Wang Ya Nan was a straight-A student, and she had already begun preparing to apply for a master's degree.
Zhang Zhou Wei's grades were not bad either, except he hadn't considered postgraduate employment at all up to this day. So, after he got together with Ya Nan, this problem had obviously presented itself way ahead of schedule.
Chen Da Qiang was also headed to the library with the sour air of romance. As for Xing Ta Ge… He had disappeared once class ended.
Meng Fan, harboring a stomach full of bitterness, headed back to the dormitory by himself. He packed up his drawing tube and some other things and left the empty room. He didn't head for the studio but instead left the campus to go to Song Cheng.
Coincidentally, the bus he caught was the same one that had been hijacked by the thief. Even more coincidentally, aside from the bus driver uncle, there were three other passengers on board who had witnessed Meng Fan's thief crushing. All the way, there was no shortage of cheering and commemorating his heroic feat.
The timing was perfect as he arrived at the city gate. One look and the silk ball landed in his arms.
After going through the minister's procedure, Meng Fan performed his 'thumbs up' dance. This time, he gained about 280,000 likes. The 6 validation was really effective.
Meng Fan concluded his dance. At this time, the silk ball toss had been paused as well.
He didn't head for the bottom of the stairway but instead waited at the entrance. Once the minister finished his business, Meng Fan waved to him with a smile on his face.
The minister saw him and headed over to the area where the audience couldn't see them. He smiled and asked, "Young noble, do you need something?"
Yesterday, he had prepared to give Meng Fan some free tickets and had already given them to the family member actors to give Meng Fan as he went down the stairwell. Now, Meng Fan had called for him directly, which left him a bit stunned. He was afraid that Meng Fan might pitch some unreasonable demands.
"Uncle." Meng Fan saw the minster remove his beard and changed his greeting immediately. "Brother. I have a question for you."
"Let's hear it."
After hearing that it was a question, the minister relaxed a bit.
"I want to ask if it's allowed to set up an art booth in Song Cheng." Meng Fan said. "Of course, I only need a small bit of space, and I wouldn't be collecting fees or anything." He added, trying to explain himself. "I'm a student from the art academy, and one of my homework assignments is to draw for tourists for free."
As he spoke, he pulled out three drawings he had already prepared from his art tube, all cartoon caricatures of people.
"Is this me?"𝚗𝑜𝑣𝐄𝓵𝗇𝔢xt.𝒸𝓞𝓶
The minister took it over and recognized immediately one of the drawings that had been done based on his own appearance. The other two were of Miss Wang and the grandpa family servant. He was pleasantly surprised. "This is really good. It looks just like me! There was an APP circulating a while ago that turned your face into a cartoon caricature; your drawings are even better than that APP."
Meng Fan curtly handed the drawings to the three respective people. While all three were in high spirits, he said, "My homework is to draw caricature based on tourists' torsos. I'm not trying to set up a booth to make money. Do you guys know of any spots that would be good for me to draw at? If it's a scenic spot that requires me to pay, that's fine too, as long as I can draw."
"What money? No need to pay money. We're all friends here."
The minister confirmed what Meng Fan was asking and thumped his chest to indicate he had it covered. He took off his minister robe and said, "Come, I'll take you."
"Then, thank you in advance."
"No worries."
Meng Fan followed the minister down the city wall and headed towards the Song Cheng cultural plaza. As they arrived, the staff the minister had called was already waiting. This was the manager of the cultural plaza. He was tall and skinny, and his smile looked a little sly.
The minister briefly introduced them. The guy was evidently very friendly with the minister. He was easy to talk to, and straight-up handed Meng Fan a staff member's pass, proceeding to take him to an area where he could set up a booth.
Streaming art was Meng Fan's biggest strength. He thought if he could open up his 'outdoor broadcast' to different topics, he could get more views. To be conservative, Meng Fan decided to combine the two, drawing cartoon caricatures outdoors.
The venue was specifically chosen to be in Song Cheng due to the high traffic of people passing through.
After careful experimentation, Meng Fan could confirm that the number of views not only could be gained through the stream on his channel but also from a live audience.
Watching a live stream live still counts as watching a live stream!
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Chapter 51: Don't Leave the House if You Don't Have 40 Million
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"I've already given the management a heads up so if you need anything just ask Gao. If he can't deal with it, then call me."
He moved two stools over while the minister exchanged contact info with Meng Fan, he stuck his hands in his pockets but decided not to take them out. He asked Meng Fan: "As for the city wall, are you still coming tomorrow?"
Seeing Meng Fan nod, he happily turned and left.
As he walked further away, he pulled his hands out of his pockets pinching a few tickets. He had originally intended to give them to Meng Fan after the silk tossing ceremony. But after helping him with the drawing booth, the minister decided he could save it for another time.
"Gao bro, thanks again."
Meng Fan obediently expressed that he would follow the rules.
The tall and skinny manager smiled and nodded. Before he left, he pointed at the evidently sturdier-looking stool and said to Meng Fan: "You sit on this one, its… more comfortable."
As he headed for the shaded area, his seat was across from a small door. The door was cracked open so not much cool air escaped, but it was enough for Meng Fan to feel ice and fire in the burning heat.
He set up his easel and hung one of his finished drawings on a stick Gao had found. The cartoon had been the six main characters of a recently popular drama, similar to a poster.
Below, he wrote the words; "Exclusive cartoon caricatures" and "Free" in large text, and "student homework assignment" in smaller text underneath. Then he added in bright red color; "This is a live stream, be cautious."
Clarifying what this booth was for; why he was doing it, as well as a reminder that all of it was streaming to the internet. After all, there were always people who did not wish to be filmed.
Moreover, Meng Fan wasn't sure if his stream counted as a commercial activity or not, so he had to respect people's wishes to be filmed.
He then set up the GoPro like a stream assistant, adjusted the camera to his frame with the easel to his left and an empty stool to his right. When the tourists come, they would see it there and be in view of the camera.
Meng Fan was not in the frame, with his hand and a bit of body peaking out at most.
Once he connected to the server, Meng Fan dragged the specific chair Gao had given him next to the easel. He sat down. He was officially "Open for business".
"Hoo!"
The manager who had been sitting on the other side of the door enjoying the cool air watched as Meng Fan sat down, the stool seemingly fine. The stool was fine. He took a deep breath, thankful for his own wits.
Meng Fan started streaming but he didn't alert the group chat.
He stared at the progress bar for [Famous Streamer] in his 'mind', seeing a visible increase.
Even with the 0 online users that were currently on his channel, it was still rising. Therefore, he confirmed that these numbers were provided by the tourists that were passing by to look at the stream themselves.
He hadn't noticed this when he was in the studio, as not many people had been present around him. Hence, the number of live viewers compared to online ones was unnoticeable.
It was only when he streamed his morning run that he noticed something was off and entered into a speculative state. Slowly, he realized the reality.
After confirming it once again, Meng Fan then alerted the group chat.
Before he had even updated the group, people were already entering his channel.
Meng Fan's channel had attracted 30,000 viewers at it's highest point. With the added metaphysical attribute, it was natural for people to come this fast.
Shortly after his message was sent, his viewer count hit one thousand.
The current stream announcement was: [Today, I am drawing caricatures in Song Cheng].
"What's going on? You're streaming so early today!"
"He switched locations!"
"Judging from the title, Meng fatty is challenging the outdoors eh."
"Hahaha, Meng boss set up a booth outdoors!"
Meng Fan kept in mind some details that required his attention as he held his phone to read the live comments. It was rare that he wasn't in the studio today, so there was no need to suppress his voice. "I don't have class in the afternoon, so I set up a booth outside, drawing caricatures for tourists for free."
He used the stream assistant to sweep the vicinity again before putting it back in its original position.
"There's a lot of people, but I feel like nobody wants me to draw for them."
"Give it some time."
"Feels like it's open for business but not thriving today."
Meng Fan said it as a matter of fact. Only two minutes had passed so he wasn't worried as he looked at all the live comments dissing him for being too ugly for people to approach or calling him a scam artist.
Regardless, he was uncomfortable. He thought about it. "How about while we wait, I'll tell you guys some jokes. It seems other streamers are doing this as well."
The live comments had not realized that the host was a person scared of silence when he had streamed in the studio.
"In this season, there's always typhoons. Let me ask you when a typhoon hits, how much money do you bring out?"
He paused. He didn't care if answers popped up on the live comments and said, "40 million. When the typhoon hits, without 40 million, don't leave the house." He paused again, then reiterated himself. "During typhoon season, without four don't leave the house."*
"Where did you get this kind of stupid a*s joke from haha."
"Hahaha, I thought of a similar joke—When it rains if you don't have thirty million then don't leave the house."
In Chinese, the characters for 'without 40 million' sounds like 'if you've got nothing to do', hence the pun is 'during typhoon season, if you don't have 40 million then don't leave the house' translates to 'if you don't have anything to do then don't leave the house'. Similarly, 3 in 30 million is synonymous with 'umbrella', hence 'on a rainy day if you don't have 30 million (umbrella) then don't leave the house.*
"666"
Upon seeing nobody coming to his booth, Meng Fan told a second one, "A hunter shot a gun at a fox, why did the hunter die?—Because it's a reflective fox."
Still, nobody came. Meng Fan became anxious, but could only keep telling satirical jokes.
"In Grim's fairytales, who had the smallest chest? Little red riding hood, because her grandma was eaten by the wolf."
"Hey host, are you sure you're not the grandma?"
"Grim's fairytales are in french, French people don't separate between paternal and maternal grandmas."
"To the one above, are you sure it's French and not German?"
Many people had passed by now, and most of them had noticed Meng Fan. They only gave him a look at most, with some coming by to see what was happening but left without saying anything.
Meng Fan, who had been telling 'cold' jokes felt very cold inside indeed. Although he was fat, he wasn't greasy and definitely not shameless. Was he really that untrustworthy?
He looked at the time and became more anxious.
Before, he had always streamed in the studio, a place he was familiar with. Now that he was outdoors; and he couldn't just slip out as he had after his dances on the city wall, he had to confront his 'customers' face to face.
Also, the timing of his streams would inevitably lead to someone watching his painting. If it was through the screen; Meng Fan didn't care, but if they are standing just behind him, the more he thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt.
He had to overcome his nerves.
Don't panic, just wait.𝒏𝐎𝔳𝔢𝑳𝗇𝑬xt.𝗰𝑜𝓂
He had to wait out at least half an hour before he begins begging.
It's too pitiful to beg people to do something that's free!
Meng Fan continued telling his jokes.
"Show Luo, Will Pan, and JJ Lin are going out together but there is only one bicycle, who rode it?—Show Luo, because piggies are suitable for riding." *
Show Luo's nickname is 'piggy', and a synonym for Peppa pig is 'piggy is suitable for riding'.
"Show Luo, Will Pan, JJ Lin are in a fight, who loses?—Will Pan, because a meager force is not enough to break teeth."*
Will Pan's name is Pan Wei Bo. Wei Bo sometimes sounds like meager force (but with a different spelling).
"The three of them again got sent to a remote island because they were fighting. Who lives? —JJ Lin, because the wise man recognizes food."*
JJ Lin's Chinese name is Lin Jun Jie. 'Jun Jie' means wise man.
As Meng Fan told six more jokes regarding these three people, the live comments filled with people asking him to release those 3 from Meng Fan's atrocities. Of course, it immediately changed to—
"Pretty girl!"
"It's here, finally someone who wants to be drawn!"
"And it's a beautiful girl too!"
"Boss, you've got business!"
"Everyone thank this girl for saving Will Pan, Show Luo, and JJ Lin! If you came later, who knows what kind of trouble those three would be in."
Meng Fan's eyes lit up. Finally a customer.
"Can you draw one for me?"
The pretty girl smiled at him, not asking if the service was really free.
"Okay, have a seat… It's you? What are you doing here?"
Meng Fan did a double-take, feeling like he had seen her before. He took a closer look and recognized the actress who played Miss Wang at the city wall.
It wasn't because Meng Fan was bad at remembering faces, but more due to Miss Wang looking very different in her modern-day clothes as opposed to her historical costumes.
Wang Xiao Chun, the actress for Miss Wang had already changed out of her costume and removed her makeup. "I just got off work and was passing by, so I thought I'd take a look."
"Oh." Meng Fan nodded. "Didn't I draw one for you already?"
"You drew me Miss Wang, not me." Ma Xiao Chun had no hope for Meng Fan's ability to talk with girls. "Besides, you look so lonely, not a single customer has come by. I feel bad, so I'm here to support you. You didn't even thank me, are you rejecting my business?"
"No, no of course not."
Meng Fan waved a few times and watched the well-dressed lady sitting in front of him, feeling a bit unsure.
She expected a "thank you" for a free drawing… Women are an unreasonable species indeed.
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Chapter 52: Average Drawing Skills
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Look Look, he's amazing, it sounds like Meng boss and the pretty lady have some history!"
"Is the miss blaming Meng Boss for not having good intentions, she obviously came to support him."
"What do you mean support, she's obviously here for a good time hahaha!"
"Phew, finally we don't have to listen to Meng fatty and tell those stupid jokes. Now that was awkward!"
"Yeah! It's more comfortable to watch him draw!"
"There are so many awkward streamers, but Meng Fan is the only one with god-like hand speed. Meng host, you just obediently be an honest and quiet host!"
"It's good if you don't talk because I came across all those jokes when I was browsing the promotional ads for Weibo, they almost made me barf! Who knew I'd hear them again?!"
"Finally, we can see Meng boss's hand speed again, now that's comfortable!"
"Look, another pretty girl!"
"Does this one know Meng Fan too?"
"She's asking Meng boss if it's really free, so probably not."
After Ma Xiao Chun sat down on the stool in front of Meng Fan, the pedestrians nearby became more interested, slowly filling up the area surrounding him.
Meng Fan's validation and hefty load were there. He had always been an attention grabber, since he'd been sitting here in the last fifteen or so minutes, so it was evident from the amount of viewers he'd 'gained'. He couldn't say 100% of the pedestrians would look over, but at least half was definitely plausible.
Only, most of the people in Hua Xia were introverted, and many deployed the virtue from Lu Xun's 'Han Fei Zi.' It preached to "not be the first", and not only to "not be the instigator" but also "not to be present at the beginning of a disaster" or the "first to receive a blessing".
Everyone had seen Meng Fan's 'free' sign, and several were eager to try it as well. Only, nobody wanted to be the first person to eat the crab; they wanted crab and knew it was safe to eat, but they didn't want to break the shell.
Presently, Ma Xiao Chun was already sitting in front of Meng Fan, patiently having her portrait done. The people deemed her to be the one who peeled the hard shell, so naturally, seeing the 'shell' open, even just a little bit had shown them the fresh tender crab meat hiding inside.
"What a great drawing!"
Everyone could see Meng Fan's 'poster' of the characters from that hit drama. But nobody believed that Meng Fan could actually draw like that, and wouldn't until they saw with their own eyes.
Now that they'd seen it for themselves, they realized that not only was he good, but he was fast too.
Most of the Hua Xia people followed the 'not-first' mentality, but as soon as someone started it, then everyone deployed the second most common mentality of Hua Xia people; that is to join crowds and watch the crowds.
A girl who's appearances rivaled that of Ma Xiao Chun asked Meng Fan if his portraitures were actually free and then lined up behind Ma Xiao Chun, waiting for her turn.
Not long after, there was a line of people behind Ma Xiao Chun.
Some of them loved to watch the bustle but were too embarrassed to join the crowd all circled around Meng Fan to watch him draw.
"Uhm, sorry. I'm streaming here, could you guys step back again, you're covering the camera."
He had placed the phone in front of the easel to see more easily the live comments—also for easier operation—occasionally interacting with the netizens. Seeing that the stream had been covered, he politely asked the auntie that had been standing in front of it.
The lady was a bit displeased by his comment and shifted over a bit, but didn't show it. It would seem too uncivilized, so she turned to the spectators next to her and said: "Don't push."
Who's pushing?!
The people next to here were baffled.
The aunty didn't care, and inched a bit closer, making sure to stay clear of the camera frame. Then curiously, she asked Meng Fan. "Hey young man, what school are you from? My daughter is also studying art, so I understand a little about art. I secretly hide behind her and watch her draw, but she's really slow, how are you so fast? And you seem to be better than her too, just a bit, not too much."
"I'm from the Art Academy." Meng Fan couldn't keep quiet. "This is a simplified animation, so it's faster. Your daughter is probably in another stream, so it will naturally be slower."
"That's true." The auntie nodded in understanding, then continued. "From the academy? Oh, no wonder you're so good. My daughter's goal is to get into the academy. Oh right."
The auntie pulled out her phone and browsed to a photo, handing it to Meng Fan. "This is my daughter. She's pretty right?"
Meng Fan forced a smile, asking her: "How old is your daughter ma'am?"
"She just started ninth grade, and applying to attend high school overseas, but she's confident in her abilities." Said the aunty, full of pride.
"Of course."
Meng Fan initially wanted to denounce her audacity to compare his skill to a junior high student. American high school? That's nothing. He thought about it though and held it in.
The aunty didn't stop and continued, "Can you draw one based on this picture?"
"Of course, why don't you line up over there?"
Meng Fan was ecstatically hoping the aunty would go line up with the others.𝒏𝐎𝔳𝔢𝑳𝗇𝑬xt.𝗰𝑜𝓂
"Aiyoo, we're already so acquainted, do I have to line up?" The auntie saw the long line and looked back at Meng Fan, smiling shrewdly, then said to Meng Fan heavily, "Humans… sometimes have to learn how to work around things."
What could Meng Fan say? He pretended he hadn't heard and turned his mood into his hand speed. Scratch, scratch, scratch. He finished the first drawing, colors and all.
Of course, he couldn't use his universal pen for this, and compliantly used his set of regular pencil crayons.
When he streamed at the studio, nobody was there to see him. He could pull the universal pen out of the stream frame and change it to the color he needed before re-entering the frame. With this, many people were watching and this was out of the question.
"You're done? That was fast!"
Ma Xiao Chun stood up and walked up to Meng Fan. As she got up, the pretty girl behind her had slipped her bum in one elegant motion onto the stool, not giving anyone a chance to steal her spot. The pretty girl looked around and her eyes were filled with invincible loneliness. Since childhood she'd been playing musical chairs, never losing a game. It was the same when she grew up.
"So pretty!" Ma Xiao Chun said as she saw the portrait. The previous drawing had been a dignified portrait of Miss. Wang, but this one was a fresh-looking portrait with a hint of playfulness. Most importantly, it had captured all her characteristics. "Uhm, I mean your drawing is really pretty."
Meng Fan very seldom faced girls he wasn't pursuing who had an emotional intelligence as low as his. "It's alright, I didn't bring out all of your beauty."
"Thanks."
Ma Xiao Chun brushed her hair and took a photo with Meng Fan holding her portrait. Seeing Meng Fan had already begun the second portrait, she stood to the side to watch and was unable to leave.
Without the aunty next to him to chat, and growing more accustomed to the live audience, Meng Fan began to increase his drawing speed.
Ten minutes later, he was done.
The caricatures were simpler than the illustrations he had done for his live stream and as such, required less color as well.
If he could use the universal pen, he would be even faster.
The pretty girl that was even prettier than Ma Xiao Chun was particularly excited after receiving her caricature drawing. Despite also using a caricature making APP, the feeling was not the same as holding it in her hands. After thanking him, she also took out her phone and asked to take a photo with Meng Fan.
Meng Fan's speed continued increasing, and at the same time the stream livened up. By the time he reached the 8th portrait, his viewers had broke 10,000.
A large portion of the netizens here were watching Meng Fan for the first time. They were amazed at the speed of Meng Fan's drawing, but more impressed by the fact that all the people he's drawn for were all pretty girls!
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Chapter 53: Netizens in Real Life
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Meng Fan had drawn five portraits already, and all of them really were aesthetically very attractive. If you calculated it, Ma Xiao Chun, the wallflower of the city wall only ranked number three on that list. There were two that were evidently prettier than her, and two who were about the same.
Looking towards the queue that had formed; except for the aunty who had boasted about her daughter's looks and drawing skills, it was all pretty girls younger than the age of 30.
You have to take a closer look. The aunty who had boasted so much wasn't bad looking either. If she had been ten years younger, she would have been able to rival most of these girls.
Do similar people gather together?
Regardless, it inexplicably became like this.
Some of the below-average looking people had taken a look at the lineup and were afraid to join.
Even some of the ones who had lined up earlier left the queue.
The men, in fact, assumed it had been an event just for girls; why else would there be no men in the line?
What do caricatures got to do with us anyway? We'll just watch it.
Seeing Meng Fan draw, and the girls he had been drawing, it was as if they were the netizens from his stream. The only difference was they were at the site, so they could see a wider range.
For example, they could at least see what Meng Fan looked like.
Hehe. He's so fat but so flexible… All of his flexibility must have been transferred to his hands at birth!
As well, they could see all the cute girls taking photos with Meng Fan, their faces were close to his.
The netizens watching through the stream channel couldn't see due to Meng Fan not turning around. They could only see small portions of the figures behind him, as every pretty girl that ended up next to Meng Fan were like dependable small birds next to a human.
Of course, with so little to see, the fickle netizens had basically confirmed that the name 'Meng Fatty', shouldn't be spoken so casually.
"Thanks, you're really amazing."
The sixth pretty lady was beaming with happiness from head to toe. This kind of joy could not be contained in just a floral dress. Once she received the drawing, her smile widened, and following the five girls before her also approached to take a photo with Meng Fan.
She also wore a Panama hat, and seeing that Meng Fan was wearing one too, had refrained from removing it. She got closer and began to snap photos.
After finishing, she took one more look. She knew that the hat Meng Fan was sporting was not a fake but one that had been fabricated in Panama, and judging by the fiber of the trim, its density was far higher than the one she was wearing. This discovery made her eyes light up.
This hat must have cost at least ten thousand HXB.
If it was only 10,000 HXB, on her body, or to her circle of friends, it could not be considered as much. Who doesn't have a few presentable purses in the 20,000 to 30,000 range?
But if this number stemmed from a single item such as a hat, it would make all the difference.𝒏𝐎𝔳𝔢𝑳𝗇𝑬xt.𝗰𝑜𝓂
This reminded her of a birthday party she had attended for a goddess level girl from her circle of friends. She had many pursuers, three of which were present that day. Two had gifted purses in the tens of thousands range, while one had gifted a brooch worth over fifty thousand HXB.
The result…
The ten thousand dollar purses had been dismissed—as if the girl hadn't seen enough of those already—and it had been the presenter of the brooch which was worth half of the purses price tag that she had praised and regarded. To her, he became a tasteful person, who was also generous, and not long after the party, he had successfully won her beauty.
Anyone from her friend group who gifted imported goods was deadly accurate.
The comparison between purses and the brooch can also be used when referring to men.
If two men; one wearing a watch in the 100,000 range, the other wearing a pair of cufflinks worth 20,000… Most people would assume if the latter could afford 20,000 cufflinks would be able to afford an 100,000 dollar watch, despite not having seen him wear it. However, if he was able to spend hundreds of thousands on a watch, he probably doesn't have 20,000 dollar cufflinks, as you haven't seen him wear it either.
Money should be spent polishing the blade, as sometimes it wasn't just enough to spend on the essentials.
"Hey there, are you streaming?" After collecting her drifted thoughts, the girl in the floral dress sounded about two times sweeter than she had when she thanked him. "What platform are you streaming on, and what's the channel called? I'll go check it out."
The seventh cutie was already in place. This pretty girl was on the heavier side, but her facial features were bountiful and on point. Overall, she was no less pretty than the previous girls.
Meng Fan continued to draw. When he heard the questions from the floral dress, he didn't process it, casually responding: "Aren't you already watching now?"
This caused collective condemnation from the fickle netizens on the streaming channel.
"Meng fatty, do you have no emotional intelligence? Do you really have no f*cking clue what the pretty girl was implying?"
"Hehehe Meng fatty is obviously fronting!"
"Could you guys not deduce from Meng fatty's conversation with the first girl why he is single?"
As the discussion began to heat up in the stream channel, a thunderous voice boomed on the live stream site. "The host Meng fatty has begun streaming, on 8th Station. I'm in the recording space right now!"
It had come so suddenly, Meng Fan jumped from his seat and looked over. He saw a guy around 21, wearing a shirt with "Shi Zhan" written on it. He was smiling at Meng Fan.
The phrase "shi zhan" was very seldom used in the Chinese language. As an anime lover and a quasi-practitioner; Meng Fan's first thought was of Ace from One Piece, who had worn items with different slogans across his chest when he was young. Evidently, this was a replica.
As for whether other people thought of Japanese culture upon seeing his shirt or not, Meng Fan had no idea. At least, he didn't think that far.
The Shi Zhan youth had a loud voice and the stream assistant had a great sound receptor, so naturally, all the fickle netizens in the channel heard his announcement.
"Hahaha, who is the hero just now?!"
"BS, there's actually fickle netizens present on site!"
"Can you tell me how fat the host really is!"
Not long after, a sentence appeared in the chat room. "Yours truly is the hero you speak of, I've made a fool of myself!"
Another comment followed. "I finally made it in, this channel is quite lively, I am that girl you guys said was cute beyond belief!"
Following up was a barrage of gifts and messages that accompanied the emergence of the cute girl.
It became a sh*tshow.
—Another one gifted. The floral suspender skirt on channel 131225 had gifted a 'center spot halo'. Hurry and come help the host advance into center spot, rewards provided.
Bam. One 'center spot halo' emerged from the mess.
Then, the netizens saw the girl in the floral suspender dress who appeared on the stream and said to the camera, "This is the real me!"
She had an angry yet proud expression.
She turned to Meng Fan and smiled, cheerfully saying, "I often watch live streams on 8th Station too, here's a center spot halo for you, add oil!"
As she spoke, she walked further away unblocking the camera frame.
A center spot halo cost 450, so in the eyes of the floral suspender dress, Meng Fan's caricature portrait had been even more valuable than this.
"Thank you."
Meng Fan didn't expect it either and smiled at her. Only he didn't know how to continue, so he went on drawing.
But in the live chat, anarchy had exploded. It wasn't unusual to gift 'center spot halos', but the way that he had attained it was too smooth.
Meng Fan's drawing speed was getting faster and faster, accelerating his progress to 5 minutes per caricature. In no time, he had gotten to the aunty, who just happened to be tenth in line.
The aunty did not sit but held the phone up for Meng Fan to draw once it was her turn. The entire time, she kept asking the online viewers if her daughter was cute or not. It was indeed… lively.
After drawing, the aunty was deep in thought, hesitating once again. She also chose to take a picture with Meng Fan holding her drawing like the previous girl had done. She held up her peace signs horizontally, palms facing inwards while opening a facetune app. How trendy!
In this regard; it was hard for Meng Fan to refuse, only after she snapped the photo, he froze.
Miraculously, a new task had been triggered!
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Chapter 54: Fearsome Aunty
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"Beep! You've unlocked the task [Group Photo Guru]."
"Task requires 100 photographs to be taken with different kinds of people."
"Upon completion, you will receive achievement title [Group Photo Guru] (Photogenic 1, Smile Appeal 1)."
He looked down, but there was only one task with no phases.
Presently, he had completed 10/100.
In other words, this was another task that was triggered after reaching a certain degree of accumulation, similar to the previous [Travelling Deity] task that was triggered after he had tallied 1000 meters.
That being the case, Meng Fan sighed in relief. He thought it had been the action of the aunty that had triggered the task, but it turns out she had just been the tenth in line.
If this aunty was really his "Task NPC"… He had difficulty just thinking about it.
Although there was only one process, there were still rewards, but only 100 achievement points, with no additional attributes.
It made sense if you think about it. The title attribute was already 1, so it made sense that phase rewards didn't exist.
As for the attributes that came with the title… Meng Fan was baffled.
The photogenic attribute was understandable; as regardless of how he went about it, the task would have to be done in front of a camera. But what kind of metaphysical attribute is 'smile appeal'…? Besides, he didn't smile while they had taken the pictures before!
And most importantly, it had no equipment.
He looked back again and decided all the rewards came down to photogenic attribute 1, Smile appeal 1, and 100 achievement points. It was definitely the most underwhelming and stingy task the system had provided so far.
Although [Wealth Distribution Cherub] only rewarded 1 for an attribute, at least it was for "Luck 1″—It even sounded more advanced than the metaphysical attributes of validation and smile appeal.
Sigh. As he pondered it over, Meng Fan suddenly remembered something. It was when he had spent 1200 HXB treating Chen Da Qiang to dinner and the transfer counted towards his task process. Later, when Chen Da Qiang returned the money to him… He took a closer look at the progress bar. Meng Fan confirmed, the system would not deduct the existing progress.
"Is it because I genuinely wanted to treat them at the time, so the system judged it as wealth distribution, and left it alone?"
He held onto the thought for a moment without too much hesitation. After all, based on previous situations, Meng Fan didn't have much need to analyze this task thoroughly.
As of now, the newly unlocked [Group Photo Guru] task was poor in terms of rewards, but no matter how he looked at it, it was by far the easiest task to accomplish. Like hunting rabbits while cutting grass, it could be done smoothly alongside other tasks. Meng Fan had to complete it.
The confident aunty saw Meng Fan's strange expression, immediately dimming her mood. "Aiyo! When you were taking a picture with that other pretty girl you weren't like this, but that's not the case with me, why is your expression so ugly when it comes to me? This sort of different treatment is not a good look!"
Meng Fan yanked his thoughts back to reality, dumbfounded by the comment. He didn't smile during the last photo either… was there really such a big difference between smiling and not smiling?
But what could he say, his environment growing up all cultivated him to never argue with a woman. It's best if you can muddle your way through it, if not, playing cute works. If those don't work, then avoiding them is the last resort.
The hardships of life had given Meng Fan wisdom. Weakly, he said, "You stepped on my foot."
"Oh? Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" The confident aunty's change in tone was quite fierce. "You're such a nice young man, you wouldn't judge someone by their appearance. Even so, I'm still passable! Even though I'm a bit older, but I'm still very good looking! Look at my daughter, you should be able to guess how pretty I was when I was younger!"
Meng Fan zealously nodded his head, feeling the flexibility in his neck evidently increase from his running task progress.
"Your stream is called…" The confident aunty thought hard for a moment. " Meng fatty breaking a watermelon, right? When I get back I'll get my daughter to send you some fan gifts! I'm very trendy too, so I'm aware of what streams and stuff are."
The confident aunty covered her awkwardness with forced laughter and stood to the side, murmuring Meng Fan's stream title the whole time. She couldn't figure out where this name came from. Meng fatty eating melons made more sense… Maybe not; eating watermelons won't make you fat.
"Young people nowadays don't pay attention to it, but back in our days, every QQ name was well thought at the time. My name was 'Crystal Romance', so full of western flavor. The kid's father's name was called 'Cool Boy', even now he's still so cool!"
The confident aunty rambled on, feeling particularly beautiful. She had long forgotten that she never actually did step on Meng Fan's foot.
The aunty stood to the side and turned to leave. Meng Fan let out a breath. Regarding his stream name, is it a good thing that she forgot?
Although her rendition of it made Meng Fan very uneasy.
He disregarded the sea of rowdiness in the stream channel and continued to draw.
Because of the [Group Photo Guru] achievement task, from Meng Fan's perspective; now is the best opportunity to collect group photo experience, and he didn't need to find people specifically to take pictures with. Hence, he had to increase his rate of production and drawing speed.
The best method that Meng Fan had thought of was to not add color, or add simple color, limiting it to three at max. He'd try to maximize areas he could use black to replace, and if there were blank spaces, that would be even better.
Additionally, there was another reason that the number of people in line had been increasing—Maybe it was due to the confidence the aunty had portrayed, for some average looking onlookers had joined the line—Although there was shade, it was still blazing hot outside. He would try his best to minimize their time in line.
He was wearing his headband so he didn't feel the heat, but he couldn't stand to see others burn under the sun.
After adjusting his strategy, Meng Fan managed to keep his caricature time below 3 minutes, becoming highly efficient.𝒏𝐎𝔳𝔢𝑳𝗇𝑬xt.𝗰𝑜𝓂
Although the colors were simple, the quality of the drawings did not decrease. The following two people had no complaints, delightfully taking their pictures with Meng Fan before leaving.
Of course, there were some picky customers. For example, the thirteenth pretty girl who's lipstick was particularly prominent. After all, there wasn't just one confident aunty in the world, only she wasn't as fierce in her language. She couldn't help but mention, "You paid more attention during the ones you drew before."
Meng Fan finally understood the concept of nothing good comes for free. If he had set the cost to 2-300 per portrait, nobody would say anything.
Following the principle of 'earning a small amount rather than no amount', Meng Fan prepared to explain that there were too many people, then try to muddle through. Suddenly, a bottle of ice cola appeared in between the lipstick girl and Meng Fan.
"Aiyo, you really like to compare huh?! You have to understand this young man, can't you see? There are so many people in line, the young man evidently just wants the queue to go faster and give everyone a drawing so they don't have to wait so long, so he increased his speed."
The aunty had left and came back with a bottle of ice cola for Meng Fan. When she opened her mouth it was like a turret, putting into play her method of 'changing the tide'. She then turned to the people in line and reiterated again, "It's better than not having any, don't you think? The young man is a kind person, let's applaud his efforts!"
"I didn't say anything!"
The lipstick girl was no match for the confident aunty. She smiled awkwardly and left.
The aunty placed the ice cola on the edge of his easel and gave him a look that said 'I'm not only pretty but I can also finish a fight', and turned ornately to walk away.
Meng Fan was speechless. This aunty was really fierce.
But this was good; the remaining customers won't be complaining about the simplicity of the colors.
Initially, he felt that the matter was more difficult to explain. After all, there was a distinct difference in treatment in the first half and the second. He didn't think that the aunty had actually solved the issue in one breath.
Of course, even if the color was simple, with Meng Fan's drawing skills, each portrait was still a masterpiece.
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Chapter 55: On the Way
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
After the confident aunty had successfully 'soloed' the lipstick girl, Meng Fan once again entered into a state of high-speed drawing; churning out a portrait every 3 minutes, resolving a picture in one minute, and immediately started the next caricature.
Since there was already a designated reward for a smile appeal, Meng Fan tried to cooperate and cracked open a smile during his next photo, in case the system had a glitch and canceled the reward because he never smiled throughout the whole process.
In any case, smile appeal also sounded like a metaphysical attribute, but it couldn't hurt to have a more appealing laugh when in a relationship, right?
Because of the previous 'tradition' plus Meng Fan's expression that anticipated a photo after each drawing, the pretty girls were all happy to take a picture with him after they'd received their caricatures. Besides, their faces were so small in these photos; as when taking photos with other obsessive individuals, they had to fight and hide around to achieve a small face. Now, they could stick their face forward all they wanted, and still, have a small face in the resulting photo.
No matter how they took it, they would always look good!
Asides from the lipstick girl who was defeated by the confident aunty, everyone who received a caricature had taken a selfie with Meng Fan. An hour later, he had accumulated 27 drawings and 26 selfies, including the 10 from before.
Excluding the time it took to take the photos, it had taken him an hour to draw 17 caricatures. His speed was terrifying.
Even the fickle netizens who knew of Meng Fan's deadly drawing speed had sent out an array of 666s and gifts when Meng Fan stood up to leave for a while, reaching an all-time peak for gifts.
"Yo yo yo, that's incredible!"
"Hahaha the pretty girl just sat down and I didn't even finish analyzing her measurements when he finished drawing!"
"If you followed this speed, Meng Boss could easily draw two hundred in a day!"
"Give Meng boss a pen, and he'll draw all of Song Cheng."
"Give a bottle of vinegar to a person from Jin Province, and he will mix everything."
"Give a pancake to a Jinmen person, and he will roll out your future."
Strangely, the quotes began to line up in the channel…
"Give the Northeasterner a pot, and they will make all of humanity into a casserole."
"Give the people of Shaan Xi a bun, and they will sandwich the world."
"Give the people of Zhe Jiang a can of sugar, and they will turn the entire galaxy sweet and sour."
"Give a Shan Cheng person a hotpot, and they will boil the entire universe."
"Give a Yun Zhen person a handful of fungus, and they will create a fantasy world."
"Give a GuangDong person a crock pot, and they will marinate an entire HuJian."
"Give a SuZhou person a roll of test papers, and they will add quotations to all of the above."
"One of these is not like the rest!"
"Hahaha I'm dying from laughter, you're all too goddamn talented!"
"I think it's quite alright."
"I'm shaking in the presence of your masters."
"Badass."𝒏𝐎𝔳𝔢𝑳𝗇𝑬xt.𝗰𝑜𝓂
"Hahahaha look now, Meng host is being fed again!"
An average looking girl with an above-average smile who had received her drawing within five minutes returned to Meng Fan with a cup of grass jelly, sweetly coaxing him to eat slowly.
"Thank you."
Meng Fan received it and hesitated for a moment before scarfing it down in two bites.
Maybe it was because of the ice cola the confident aunty had given, but this pretty girl had also found a way to express her gratitude. Every three or so customers would buy him something. This was becoming some sort of a small scale feeding ground.
The most important thing is that this kind of thing had many kinds, but not much weight. In this weather, if he left it out even for a while, they would surely go bad.
Taking into consideration Meng Fan's character, watching food go bad was the equivalent of seeing someone die and not helping.
Might as well eat it.
He couldn't forsake everyone's kindness.
What's gonna happen if he ate it all? It was only a matter of ten kilometers, if not twenty.
The road to weight loss couldn't be completed in a few days, sometimes it was okay to let go a little… right? Wasn't there a saying that had been very accurate? Perseverance is like a rubber band if you kept it stretched it will snap, so it was necessary to occasionally loosen it.
Meng Fan wholeheartedly agreed with this statement, but he couldn't remember which legendary figure had said it.
After eating the grass jelly, Meng Fan looked at the time. It was almost 4:00 pm. He took a look at the people still in line, seeing about twenty or so.
Meng Fan's drawing speed still wasn't able to keep up with the number of people joining the line. At this rate, he would never finish.
"Uhm, everyone."
Meng Fan thought about it and stood up to the spectators as well as the people in the queue. "It's almost four, so it will probably take me until dark to finish caricatures for those currently in line. So please, if you're not here already, don't line up. Sorry about that."
The crowd did not object to this.
Meng Fan flipped the "poster" over and wrote a sentence not accepting more customers. He thought about it again. In order to avoid those who had secretly snuck in and won't admit it, he made a number system that he could tear down as a marker.
"Hey, handsome."
Meng Fan waved at the Shi Zhan youth who had been enjoying himself unusually in the stream channel. "Can you help me distribute these numbers?"
"Of course."
The Shi Zhan youth distributed the numbers quickly, around twenty-three slips and returned the rest to Meng Fan.
Meng Fan smiled at him. "You still want to watch?"
The Shi Zhan youth nodded. There wasn't another performance that was this exciting, allowing him to interact with the netizens on stream but reported to the stream in real-time from the host's location.
"Then I'll draw one for you in a bit?"
"Really? Hehehe!"
Seeing Meng Fan nod, the Shi Zhan youth broke into a grin and stuck his face in front of the stream assistant. "I'm so jealous of those who didn't come!"
Uniform characters spammed the live comments on the stream. "Get Lost!"
Although Meng Fan's stream today wasn't during his regular hours or during the golden hour—it had been irregularly long, with unique content. There was an adequate amount of online viewers that was steadily increasing. After Meng Fan finished the last drawing, the one for the Shi Zhan youth, his online viewers had reached 30,000. A new record!
As for total viewers, he had reached a whopping 82,000!
As time progressed, coupled with Meng Fan's increased 'validation', the number of total viewers had far exceeded the ones online.
Also, the live audience had contributed a lot of experience.
Song Cheng is one of the most popular theme parks in Hua Xia, the highest single-day tourist count reaching 140,000. Despite tourist season still being months away, there was still a steady 20,000 visitors daily.
The cultural plaza was frequented by tourists as well, even if they were just passing by. At least half of the tourists who had passed through were able to see Meng Fan.
As long as they saw him, it counted for 1 views. If you had glanced at him; turned to look at something else, then turn back, then it would be two.
This calculation was similar to the algorithm of the webstream. Each time you entered the channel, it counted as one total view.
Adding the 82,000, his [Famous Streamer] progress had reached 235,000/1,000,000.
Based on these figures, Meng Fan had made the correct choice by moving his streaming platform outdoors.
Besides, he could also collect the points for [Group Photo Guru] while he was at it. Currently, he had already accumulated 50 photos.
With 1 charm and 1 smile appeal, Meng Fan was confident he could try smiling more in the future. Maybe he could smile his way into a relationship!
Logging out, Meng Fan faked the action of putting his stream assistant in his bag. He picked up his phone and thought for a moment. Opening the camera, he directed it towards a few girls standing to the side who were holding their caricatures and asked them for a group photo. They willingly complied.
Snap.
Meng Fan took a picture, and looked at the progress bar in his 'mind', confirming that multi-person photos would still only count as 1 experience.
It also established the fact that he only needed one unfamiliar face in each portrait for his progress to grow, so his progress wouldn't freeze when encountering the same face.
After packing up, the Shu Zhan youth helped him return the stools to the site manager.
"Where are you going?" The Shi Zhan youth asked Meng Fan, starting a conversation. They walked to the gates of Song Cheng together. The Shi Zhan youth said, "I drove here, I'll give you a ride."
Meng Fan pointed to the bus station and said, "I won't trouble you, I'll just take the bus."
"No worries, it's on the way for me regardless wherever you go."
He didn't care for Meng Fan's response as he began running towards the parking lot.
Meng Fan could only wait for him.
Not long after, a two-seater smart car pulled up next to him. The window rolled down revealing the Shi Zhan youths' vibrant smile, inviting Meng Fan onto the bus.
"Uhm, maybe I should just take the bus."
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Chapter 56: Boys and Girls in Love
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"What's wrong with you?"
Chen Da Qiang saw Meng Fan dragging his gloomy figure back and moved aside immediately. If Meng Fan really fell over, it would pose a threat to his life, and he'd be unable to support him. Seeing Meng Fan plop down on his bed; he let out a sigh, then with concern in his voice, skeptically asked him, "Did you just come back from streaming in Song Cheng? Why do you look like you want to die, what happened?"
"A word…" Remembering Zhang Zhou Wei's phone call, Meng Fan begrudgingly swallowed his words and shook his head. "I'm too exhausted to say more, I'm gonna rest for a bit and go for a run."
Chen Da Qiang pointed towards the window. "It's already past six o' clock, the sun's about to set. You're still going to run? Take a day off."
Thinking of all the food he had been fed in Song Cheng, Meng Fan shook his head. "There are still lights when it's dark, plus I'm not streaming tonight."
"Then do you want me to bring you some dinner?"
Chen Da Qiang had already eaten, and seeing Meng Fan's stream in Song Cheng decided that he wouldn't be back anytime soon, so he didn't bring any food back.
Meng Fan shook his head again. "There are fruits, that'll be enough for now."
"Are you sure you're okay?"
Chen Da Qiang asked once again, worried. Meng Fan shook his head once more. He stood up abruptly, changing into his running clothes and headed out.
"What triggered you? You look like you've been assaulted!"
Chen Da Qiang didn't understand. He shook his head and left the dorm as well, closing the door behind him. Shortly after leaving, he turned back and checked again to make sure that it had been locked before heading downstairs.
The relationship between Chen Da Qiang and Wei Zhi Xue had progressed very fast. It had a lot to do with Chen Da Qiang's calm composure during the confrontation with Wei Zhi Xue's ex-boyfriend, Zhao Zhang Gui.𝒏𝐎𝔳𝔢𝑳𝗇𝑬xt.𝗰𝑜𝓂
Girls. They always want to find a reliable boyfriend.
There were many ways of being reliable; one of which being materialistic dependability, another being spiritually reliability and bringing pleasant experiences to daily life—and of course, the pleasures brought by physical intimacy was an important form of reliability as well. But to not only be responsible in key moments but also be able to take it while protecting your woman's dignity was a very important aspect on its own.
It was normal to see very brave people and upfront regularly but cave in the face of responsibility.
Throughout a relationship, if a key point in time hasn't been experienced, some people may never know what kind of absurdity could happen in a crucial moment.
Wei Zhi Xue felt lucky that she and Chen Da Qiang could encounter such an experience with Zhao Zhang Gui. Chen Da Qiang's reaction to him had been beyond satisfactory, even after she discovered that the man was as thick as an iron tower had been Chen Da Qiang's dorm mate.
Even Wei Zhi Xue felt that the iron hero's actions were very interesting and loyal. He didn't rely on his physical advantage and adhere directly to help Chen Da Qiang scare away Zhao Zhang Gui, but rather acted as an audience and stopped Zhao Zhang Gui's two followers, allowing Da Qiang to defend his girl.
He had not only protected Chen Da Qiang's safety but his dignity as well.
Later, from the point of view of the thief they had caught, the iron hero was indeed found to be an interesting but righteous person.
Of course, Chen Da Qiang did not know that Wei Zhi Xue knew of his roommate's status with Meng Fan.
The moon rises above the willow tree, at dusk he had a tryst with me. Humanity is built upon give and take.
This had been the portrayal of their date tonight, only the willows were not present.
The date was simple, the couple held hands and walked through the campus talking all the way as if they really lived out the ideal life mentioned in songs and poems.
"Look at that guy."
Enjoying the wonderful sound of Wei Zhi Xue's voice and her delicate hands, Chen Da Qiang didn't realize they had already arrived at the track field.
The person she was pointing to was undoubtedly Meng Fan.
There were quite a lot of people on the track, but nobody stood out more than Meng Fan.
In the gradually receding night, under the lamp posts, the shadow of Meng Fan's tower-like figure had been pulled into a long skinny silhouette.
"This guy has been so popular lately! His 'thumbs up' dance, and his act of bravery on the bus. Oh right, I heard he's in your animation program, right?"
Wei Zhi Xue looked like she was itching for gossip.
"His name is Meng Fan, and he's my roommate." Without hesitation, he continued. "Also, the iron hero who came out that night was him too."
Wei Zhi Xue heard this and felt happy from the bottom of her heart, saying admittingly, "Actually, I already knew that. Thinking back, your roommate is a pretty good person, he didn't help you fight that night but found another way to support you. I believe the saying of group logic. If your roommate is this great, you're definitely also equally as brave and responsible. Even if he hadn't appeared that night, you still would have handled it well!"
She tightly wrapped her arms around Chen Da Qiang's arm, resting her head on it as a delightful smile adorned her face.
Chen Da Qiang knew that Wei Zhi Xue would meet Meng Fan eventually, so he had spoken without hesitation. Evidently, it had netted a good result.
With his arm occupied, a feeling of passion coursed through his whole body. He looked down at her delicate figure, and couldn't help bending over to kiss her forehead. Like electricity, it stimulated an array of involuntary imaginations. Under a sky where the stars were scarce; he rowed and rowed, clothing swaying in the wind, rowing past the rolling waves, waves, waves… waves. He had reached the shores of happiness, only for the sake of saying to each other, good morning.
Boys and girls in love like this. Who didn't have some small means of increasing emotional attachment? Only, they were all 0 IQ brainless actions to the people watching.
…
…
After running ten kilometers and sweating a bucket, the depression from being squeezed in, the Smart car was finally dissolving.
Presently, the total mileage for [Travelling Deity] was at 190 kilometers. He was only one run away from completing the 200 km required for task phase 5.
The reward for task phase 5 was 200 points and 2 stamina. This reward could definitely be obtained before his mini-marathon this upcoming Sunday. After adding 2 stamina, Meng Fan knew it was still improbable to run a good result, and most likely impossible to win the championship. But at least he won't be left behind.
Well, he prayed that the contestants for the mini-marathon were all ordinary running enthusiasts and not all on the same level of insanity as Wu Tong.
The next day, Meng Fan got up early, arriving at the track before five o' clock. He spent 1 hour, 14 minutes and 8 seconds running 10 kilometers.
"Beep! You've reached 200 kilometers, completing task phase 5 of [Travelling Deity]. Rewards: Points 200, endurance 2."
After gaining 2 endurance, it felt once again like receiving endurance from before. He felt his body being cooly refreshed as he recovered some of his strength.
Meng Fan was confident he could bite down and finish three more kilometers, but he only managed to finish 1 kilometer, roughly testing out the physical changes of 2 stamina.
It was Friday, so he had a class all day. He could only head up to Song Cheng during his lunch break to do a quick round of 'thumbs up' dances before heading back, gaining 300,000 or so likes.
When his afternoon class ended, Meng Fan waited for the sun to go down before heading for the track field. He had fully felt the increase in physical strength and stamina after receiving 2 endurance.
As he ran, he adjusted his speed several times to the most accurate physical condition, finally running 10 kilometers in 1 hour, 12 minutes and 5 seconds. This was a whole 2 minutes and 3 seconds faster than the previous day.
And this was only because his body wasn't familiarized with the newly added endurance. Now that he was comfortable with it, Meng Fan was confident he could run his 10 kilometers in under 1 hour and 11 minutes.
Try harder, and you'll soon reach the pace of a 7-minute kilometer!
As long as he could reach 7 minutes, he would be one step closer to the average 6 minutes that regular people ran!
He was in a great mood and showering only put him in an even better one. He then ate the Cantonese-style glutinous rice bowl that Chen Da Qiang brought him, feeling over the moon.
Taking his great mood out of the dorm, Meng Fan headed for the studio. Every time he ran into an acquaintance, he'd asked them for a selfie.
"Meng Fan, when other people become famous, it's the fans that ask them for selfies, not the other way around! Your operation is incomprehensibly strange!"
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Chapter 57: Nicknamed a Likable Idol
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"Coming!"
Ms. Chen Fu, the administrator beamed as she saw Meng Fan and began talking to herself, "Why didn't you come yesterday? Resting for a day is good though, it's important to balance work and rest."
Meng Fan chuckled and took out his phone, asking for permission before taking a selfie with the administrator. He smiled. "My mom is a big fan of yours, I have to send her a picture."
Ms. Chen Fu notices this and smiled. "What a coincidence, I'm also a fan of your mom."
Meng Fan froze for a moment. It didn't sound like a joke. After careful consideration, there really was the possibility that they knew each other. "You don't really know my mom, do you?"
"I've been to your house before, but you were small at that time, and not this fat. I didn't recognize it until I saw those videos. The more I watched, the more familiar you looked, so I asked your mom to confirm. If I hadn't asked, your mom probably wouldn't have told me until you graduated." Said Ms. Chen Fu.
Meng Fan smiled foolishly, thinking to himself. No wonder this hidden master was so friendly, it turns out she knew whose son he had been.
Before, he had thought it was because of his increased metaphysical attributes in the charm department.
He'd went overboard with that thought.
However, Meng Fan didn't know Chen Fu only recognized him later on.
Meng Fan didn't know what to say when coincidentally, a figure entered the door. It was the petite cute girl with freckles.
"Let's take a selfie together."
Meng Fan jumped at the opportunity to take a photo with Freckles. He then turned to Ms. Cheng Fu and smiled before sitting down in his regular spot.
Seeing them, Ms. Chen Fu once again revealed the sly smile of a nosy aunty.
This time, aunty wasn't just a method of description.
With the addition of his picture with Freckles, the task progress for [Group Photo Guru] had reached 80.
This task could be done quickly, under the premise that it wasn't very tiring either. He also didn't need to go into a frenzy, dragging people to take selfies with him to get this number.
As long as he went to Song Cheng tomorrow, he'd finish the task for sure. The task reward wasn't that attractive either, so Meng Fan wasn't in a hurry.
Otherwise, he could have finished the task way sooner if he just squatted below the studio and shamelessly asked people for selfies.
"Senior classmate, I saw you were streaming at Song Cheng yesterday, you're incredible with so many people lining up for your drawing." Freckles seemed happy to see Meng Fan upon arriving at the studio, walking towards his direction and sitting down next to him. She spoke softly of animations and manga related topics.
Meng Fan conversed with her as he set up his station. Seeing Meng Fan prepare to stream, Freckles stopped talking and continued to work in silence.
During tonight's stream, Meng Fan continued working the five drawings of historical architecture from before. Evidently, drawing buildings was harder than figures for Meng Fan, as they were more detailed and required more time to execute.
Historical architecture was Meng Fan's most familiar field of expertise to draw after historical costumes and ancient mythical creatures. He did not particularly like ancient architecture, not in the way he 'liked' historical costumes and mythical creatures anyways, always taking the initiative to research them. This was more of a passive acceptance, as his knowledge regarding this exceeded the other two in terms of professionalism and depth of understanding because he had a father at home who was intoxicated by architecture.
Other children's fathers would buy them toys and models like transformers, but Meng Fan's dad would toss him models of ancient pavilions and pagodas. The simpler ones consisted of mountain tip roofs, pagodas, archiways, flying buttresses, while the more difficult ones had been to scale replicas of the Temple of heaven and other similar establishments.
The ones mentioned weren't even the most terrible. The most horrifying was that every time he had almost finished building a model, a random sister, older or younger would stumble over, face full of joy and worship, babbling words similar to, 'wow it's amazing you can build this you're so great, can this go here?' then… Clank. The model would collapse, shattering all over the ground.
Imagine tens of thousands of dominos almost about to complete a pattern, then suddenly all of them collapse after being stepped on… This was the level of disparity that Meng Fan felt.
Of course, aside from harvesting despair, he had gained profound knowledge regarding the structural composure and exterior appearance of ancient buildings, and it was not shallow either. Together with the artifacts of historical architecture that accumulated throughout his household, he had no choice but to like it. Professionally speaking, he had a firmer grasp on historical architecture than he'd ever had with historical costumes and mythical creatures.
On his professional foundation, Meng Fan's imagination and exaggerated whimsical penmanship were solid, not only giving the impression that his buildings were aesthetically pleasing, but pragmatic as well. He demonstrated evidence of its existence as well as the building's roots, but mostly, it was undoubtedly structurally sound.
After all, could a building done on paper collapse?
Of course. They can collapse in the frail hearts of some readers.
Animation should be exaggerated, and Meng Fan believed these exaggerations shouldn't stem from anything. Even supernatural abilities had a traceable origin, let alone physical infrastructures.
In the next five, Meng Fan drew illustrations for 'The Supreme Sword'. Following the buildings, Meng Fan drew one of the most famous architectural establishments from the novel, the watchtower. In front of the building; he added the main character in combat alongside the tower's head, a woman, who had been one of the main characters in the book.
Heh. The male protagonist in the book had seized the sword and sealed it in the pavilion, leading the lady of the tower to strangely name herself as his 'sword slave'. It was poison to Meng Fan.
To inexplicably acknowledge a master with no explanation was fine, but what kind of a f*cking thoughtless name was 'sword slave'.* Even 'Sword servant' would have been better.
The Chinese characters for 'sword slave' sounds sort of like 'cheap slut'*
Hold it in. He was the one paying you.
After the lady of the tower found her master, Meng Fan refused to draw anymore.
Because the architectural establishments he had drawn previously had taken much time, he stopped after three illustrations for the novel.
During his stream, Meng Fan noticed several live comments asking when he was going to go back to drawing pretty girls in Song Cheng, so he responded before he logged off by updating the next day's announcement—Tomorrow at 2:00 pm, drawing pretty girls in Song Cheng.
"Are you psychotic? What do you mean streaming pretty girls? Hahaha! What about pretty boys?"
"Tomorrow is my day off, I'm gonna go visit Song Cheng and pretend to 'encounter' the host!"
"The one above me, take me along. I'm near He Fang Street, are you on the way?"
"Please don't go! I don't want to see a hoard of manly nose pickers on the stream tomorrow!"
Today's stream wouldn't have as many viewers as the other day at Song Cheng, but he still had 37,000 viewers, with 270,000 total views on all of his streams.
When he left the studio, Ms. Chen Fu, the administrator was intently focused on her drawing. Meng Fan didn't want to bother her, so he watched her for a while from afar and left the studio.
"Senior classmate."
Suddenly, Freckles appeared at the door as well, speeding up her footsteps to match Meng Fan. "Senior classmate, is it okay to come to you about any future questions regarding the profession?"
Meng Fan nodded, taking out his phone. "Let's add each other on WeChat, it's more convenient. You scan me or I scan you?"
Naturally, Meng Fan had no objections, taking out his phone and opening WeChat. Just as he was about to scan her, a call came in. The contact's name was Meng Cai Wei.
This close, Freckles had seen everything. Meng Fan calmly hung up the phone and said, "10086."
Freckles paused for a moment and smiled. "You also like to nickname the 10086 number to an idol you like? Me too, mine is Peng Yu Yan!"
When he heard that Freckles was into wholesome buff guys like Peng Yu Yan, Meng Fan let out a sigh of relief. Happily, he continued to scan… Meng Cai Wei called again. He hung up again and quickly added the QR code.
After he added her, Meng Cai Wei called once again.
"Probably trying to sell a phone or something."
This time, Meng Fan didn't hang up, curtly pressing mute and shoving it in his pocket.
They walked for a distance before separating. As he watched Freckles leave, Meng Fan picked up his phone, which was still ringing. "What do you want?"
An angry clamor came from the other end of the phone. "Meng fan you dare to hang up my call! You don't want concert tickets to Qing Cen anymore?!"
Meng Fan froze. Finally, something that didn't change from before he was reincarnated.
Qing Cen surnamed Su, otherwise known as Shan Jin Brother—was a currently famous singer.
October 5th was the first stop in her concert tour, at the Shanghai Stadium.
Meng Cai Wei was the one who had given him the floor tickets.
Before the concert began, Meng Fan had gone backstage to take a photo with Shan Jin Bro.𝗇𝗈𝒱𝑒𝑙𝑵𝞮xt.𝑐𝑶𝗆
The second day after the concert, Meng Cai Wei had taken Meng Fan out for lunch.
As for the concert setlist…
Pieces of information began to emerge in Meng Fan's mind. It was surreal and vivid, but otherworldly at the same time.
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Chapter 58: Driving the Host to Madness
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Bearing Meng Cai Wei's resentment all the way back to the classroom; to her, Meng Fan had gone from 'hanging up on her' to being a meat lump that she had raised poorly. She had said her relationship with him was his fat, as she had helped to cultivate it, but what does that have to do with Meng Fan? Because he was fleshy, shouldn't she be the one to apologize to him? How could she still complain…?
Well, once Meng Cai Wei opened up the portal of resentment, Meng Fan could only bear it in silence. Other times he could return a few comebacks, but this time… Meng Cai Wei would just get angrier and cause more trouble for him.
Ding.
Finally, Meng Cai Wei concluded her rant and hung up the phone. As Meng fan walked into the dormitory, a hasty figure burst out from within, right into Meng Fan, then bounced right back.
Meng Fan was despondent in meeting the same guy from last time again. His presence was too strong, bumping into the same person at the same place twice.
"Sorry, sorry, sorry."
The hasty figure got up and dusted off his bottom, and upon seeing Meng Fan who looked to be apologetic.
Meng Fan waved it off and walked upstairs, shaking his head. Why do they keep running into his body?
Eh? Compared to last time, it hurt more. Could it be that his body was firmer? Or this time, the guy had been rougher?
Meng Fan returned to the dormitory where the other three roommates were present.
He put down his art tube and asked them, "What are your plans for the upcoming break?"
It was the end of September, and the first long vacation was coming up.
"I'm going to my hometown, I booked my flight already." Xing Ta Ge pointed at Zhang Zhou Wei and continued, "These guys were planning to go to NJ during the break with their girlfriends. If you want to tag along, I can introduce someone for you so you won't be a sulky third wheel the whole time."
"Nevermind."
Meng Fan wanted to ask what plans they had so if they didn't, they could go to Shanghai and watch the concert together.
Before his reincarnation, Meng Fan had brought along a beaten up Chen Da Qiang. The effect was mediocre at best.
After his reincarnation, Chen Da Qiang didn't get beat, nor get depressed, but got together with Wei Zhi Xue ahead of schedule.
Since they already had plans, Meng Fan didn't mention this, avoiding the fuss that it might have induced.
Particularly about Meng Cai Wei being his sister, as this was different from the case with Qing Jiao being his mom's student. The latter could be explained if someone asked, but as for the former… it would be best to keep it a secret to avoid any trouble.
This morning's ten-kilometer run elapsed a total time of 1 hour 11 minutes and 53 seconds, a higher increase than the day before. His body had become accustomed to the 2 endurance.
He still streamed it, with the number of online viewers much more than the morning before, reaching 233 at its peak. It was indeed 233 to be watching someone's running stream this early.
The total views reached 600. Even though mosquitoes are small, they are still fair meat.
"Tomorrow morning at ten, don't forget."
Wu Tong arrived at the track after Meng Fan. She only ran 8 kilometers, but she was way faster than Meng Fan. When Meng Fan finished his run and prepared to stretch, she has already finished her post-run stretches.
She was supposed to head to the event site early the next morning, so she won't be doing her morning run and took this as an opportunity to remind Meng Fan.
Remembering that she herself wouldn't be doing a morning run, she added, "You better not come here and run laps tomorrow morning."
"Yep, I remember." Meng Fan nodded as Wu Tong prepared to leave. He thought about it, and asked her shakily, "Do you have any plans for October 1st, long weekend?"
Wu Tong smiled. "My 15th brother is getting married, so I have to go back to Shanghai."
Meng Fan paused for a moment. He had remembered it was the thirteenth brother last time who was getting married. His eyes then lit up. "You're going back to Shanghai?"
"Yeah, why?" Wu Tong asked.
Meng Fan blushed a bit, then nodded, and with a stutter in his voice asked her, "Oh is that so, I have two tickets for Su Qing Cen on October 5th in Shanghai and was supposed to go with a roommate but he canceled last minute, so I wanted to find someone to go with, so I wanted to ask if you were interested."
"I'm interested! Very interested!"
Wu Tong's response came swiftly, so swiftly it concerned Meng Fan a little. He just wanted to ask her, unsure of what the outcome would be.
"I even set an alarm for Shan Jin bro's tour this time and couldn't get any tickets, I was going to buy from a scalper. I didn't know you had tickets too, that's amazing!"
Wu Tong was overjoyed and pulled out her phone from her armband and asked Meng Fan, "How much are the tickets, I'll transfer you now."
Meng Fan snapped back from his state of blissful delight and waved his hand. "My tickets were a gift from someone."
"No that won't do, they gifted it to you, I should still pay you back for its value." Wu Tong looked very serious.
This made Meng Fan a bit restless. If it had been regular tickets and Wu Tong had pressed, he could have easily given it for 4-500 HXB. But these tickets were floor seats, so it would have been awkward if it exceeded Wu Tong's expectations.
He thought about it and responded, "Someone gifted these to me, so I shouldn't sell them for money. How does this sound? When I go to Shanghai, you treat me to a meal."
"That works I guess, but you can't be polite and hold back, okay?" Wu Tong agreed with Meng Fan's argument and put away her phone.
Meng Fan smiled. "Towards other things, I might be polite, but towards food, I really can't refrain."
Wu Tong heard the words and teased him. "Then I think you have to eat a bit less!"
Wu Tong's unexpected acceptance of his invitation to go to the concert had put him in a glorious mood. He managed to maintain his high spirits through lunch as he headed out of the campus, to the bus going to Song Cheng.
Guess what Meng Fan saw then?
A Smart car!
Such a delicate body, but so conspicuous to Meng Fan's eyes.
To him, this smart car had its own 100 points of validation!
"Mr. Host!"
Evidently, Meng Fan's own presence was strong as well. As soon as he arrived at the school gate, the smart car's window rolled down and revealed once again the vibrant smile of the Shi Zhan youth.
Go!
Meng pretended as if he hadn't seen or heard anything, heading towards the bus stop with large strides. Just then, a bus had just pulled in, and Meng Fan jumped on without regard for where it was going.
Buddy, it's not that this host is looking down on you. Your car is really too ferocious.𝗇𝗈𝒱𝑒𝑙𝑵𝞮xt.𝑐𝑶𝗆
"You motherf*cker actually followed me!"
After being visibly agitated for the entire trip, Meng Fan finally let out a sigh when the bus approached the city gates at Song Cheng.
"Mr. Host, did you get in the wrong car? You must have been too rushed!" The Shi Zhan youth parked his car and bought his ticket before running up to Meng Fan. With a serious expression, he said, "Next time you're going to stream in Song Cheng, or another outdoor location, let us know in the channel. I'll come to pick you up from campus. Of course, if you could leave me your WeChat, that would be even better."
Meng Fan wanted to ask if he was doing this on purpose.
Whoosh.
Coincidentally, when Shi Zhan youth caught up to Meng Fan's location, they had been just outside the city gate. Just as they were having a heart to heart conversation, the silk ball tossed by Miss Wang landed on Meng Fan.
"This is too f*cking overpowered!"
The Shi Zhan youth looked at Meng Fan with a sour expression as he was brought up the wall by the family members, turning ten times sourer progressively as he watched Meng Fan's 'thumbs up' dance from beginning to end. By the time Meng Fan finished, the Shi Zhan youth felt queasy throughout his entire body.
'Did I take my jokes too far and drove Mr. Host into madness?'
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Chapter 59: You Look Good When You Smile
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"Mr. Host, what was that just now?"
Thinking it had been his own joke that drove Mr. Host into madness, the Shi Zhan youth abruptly caught up to Meng Fan after he had descended the city wall staircase and asked him carefully. "Actually, I was just joking with you, I promise next time I won't drive that stupid car, next time I'll bring a seven-seater minivan to escort you."
Meng Fan suppressed the urge to sit on this guy and silenced him once and for all. His mouth twitched as he responded, "It's okay, I'm just doing it for fun."
Once they reached the bottom of the city wall, Meng Fan told the minister of his streaming plans today. The minister was curious as to how this guy had so much homework but was happy to let him continue in his studies and find manager Gao at the plaza.
"Coming!"
When Gao bro from the cultural plaza saw Meng Fan, his face beamed into a grin. "Are you still drawing free caricatures for people like yesterday? I saved you a spot and set everything up for you. Two stools, and a small table for your things. Here, I'll help bring your things over."
"I got it, I got it!"
The Shi Zhan youth was eager to help, dashing off as soon as he heard. He grabbed the table from Meng Fan in one hand and picked up a stool in the other.
Meng Fan saw this and proceeded to take the other stool from manager Gao.
"Oh, you've brought an assistant with you."
Manager Gao cheerfully walked to his admin kiosk, returning after a while with a box in his hand. He rested the box on the small table and said, "Everyone in the management knows about your drawing business from yesterday. Towards talented street performers, our on-site staff is very supportive."
This so-called talent, to the management staff was directly equivalent to how many tourists they can attract.
The square harbored an abundant amount of street performers, half of which were the park's employees while the other half consisted mostly of hired staff and business partners. There was also the occasional casual onlooker who participated once in a while, Meng Fan being one.
Although he was drawing the tourists their caricatures for free so that the management couldn't officially profit from it, it was enough that he was able to retain the tourists within the site for a longer duration.
Tourist traffic was the most important element of the park, and the amount of time they spent inside the grounds followed closely as the second most important.
So as long as Meng Fan came, they would support him.
Already, the spot he was in now was much better than the day before.
And there was more.
"I saw there were a lot of people lining up yesterday, so I'll leave these queue numbers here for them to grab. This will prevent line skippers."
Manager Gao then pointed in the vicinity of his booth and said with a smile, "There's an air chiller there and some free plum juice so that the customers in line can wait comfortably."
Speaking of it, there weren't that many people in line, twenty or thirty at most. The crowded population mostly came from the spectators.
Of course, the cultural plaza had already possessed these amenities, but not all the street artists and stalls could set up this close to them, let alone receive Meng Fan's treatment. In the entire cultural square, he could be ranked top 5.
He hung up the "poster" and went live, officially opening for 'business'. This time, the location for his booth was way better than the day before. Along with his newly gained confidence and calmness from the 50 drawings he had done yesterday, he would at least look like an old-timer to tourists passing by.
Therefore, two minutes into the process, even without a pretty girl like Miss Wang there to support him, the first "customer" approached. In another stroke of luck, this person was another pretty girl.
With yesterday's accumulated experience, Meng Fan entered his ideal state of mind with the first drawing and finished the caricature in just over three minutes.
"This fast?!"
"That's so cute!"
"You're incredible!"
"Thank you!"
The pretty girl was very satisfied, even displaying her finished caricature to the spectators that had gathered around before happily walking off.
Wait she's gone.𝗇𝗈𝒱𝑒𝑙𝑵𝞮xt.𝑐𝑶𝗆
Just like that.
Meng Fan was dumbstruck!
He wanted to call her and ask if she had forgotten to do something.
But he thought about it and realized he didn't ask her for a photo.
Even Meng Fan didn't think the young girl would walk away without taking a photo with him.
This was all because yesterday had gone way too smoothly! He had Miss Wang to begin the process, and then the confident aunty to carry the audience. He'd been boosted to victory!
But today was different. This time, the girl who had started the process came in with some 'lip service', and then left the battle without using a single skillshot.
Her zero output still came second, as Meng Fan was worried that all the people following her would be equally boosted, only thanking him and leaving.
At least he could still earn points for streaming and illustrating.
But even if he didn't care much for the [Group Photo Guru] tas, it was still mosquito meat! He could achieve it easily and refused to let the opportunity go.
Should he be proactively asking for a selfie?
It might seem strange.
Hey pretty girl!"
While Meng Fan had been struggling to ask about a selfie, the Shi Zhan youth bravely stood up and stopped the young lady that had got up to leave.
"My boss man here is streaming on 8th Station, his channel name is Meng Fatty's open server, can you take a selfie with him and post it on your WeChat moments? It would help give him some more exposure."
The Shi Zhan Teen was wearing a Luffy T-shirt with a matching straw hat today. He had looked very clean and fresh to begin with, so naturally, he appeared docile and harmless.
Of course, he didn't know Meng Fan needed the selfies to raise his experience, but only hoped to increase his online viewers as he was out here streaming in the blazing heat. Besides, he had almost driven Meng Fan to the brink of madness, so in one short second, he decided he would pick up the banner and take on the role of support.
"Oh, sure."
The pretty girl was very eager, running over with her caricature to take a photo with Meng Fan. She asked him for his channel name again and sent it to her WeChat moments. After she posted it, she paused for a moment and said to Meng Fan, "You have to write your host name on there."
She was pointing to his "poster".
Meng Fan took her well-intended suggestion, immediately writing it down before turning to Shi Zhan and giving him a thumbs up.
Upon receiving the praise, the Shi Zhan youth was in a pleasant mood. He gave Meng Fan a look that said 'although I almost forced you into madness and I regret that very much, I will turn my smart car into a seven-seater and turn the back seats into one seat to compensate you, so just do your best and focus on drawing and leave everything else to me'.
Simple, and straight to the soul.
"Beep!"
About ten minutes later, an alert sounded from the system in Meng Fan's "mind".
This wasn't for the twenty caricatures he had completed in twenty minutes, but because of the promotional photos, the onlookers had posted on their social media platforms taken with Meng Fan from afar, thanks to Shi Zhan's help.
There were also people who had just treated him as background scenery, posting on their WeChat moments: Ran into a chubby man streaming his art.
As for the stream's name, most of them did not share it.
Meng Fan didn't expect that with just a scream from the Shi Zhan youth, he was able to finish his task an hour ahead of schedule.
Shi Zhan • Real • Supportive • Youth!
"Beep! You've taken 100 group photos with different types of people, completing the task [Group Photo Guru]. Reward: points 100."
"Beep! You've completed task [Group Photo Guru, and have received the title [Group Photo Guru] (Photogenic 1, smile appeal 1)."
Done!
Meng Fan had clung onto the hope that there would be an upgraded mission after he completed this, similar to the upgraded [Adoration Fever] mission he had received after completing the first set tasks. He didn't expect it to be over so soon.
Is it not logical to go from 100 photos to 1000, or even 10,000? Why is the system so obnoxious?
Moreover, he had found such a good venue for outdoor streaming, and taking selfies was so handy. How can it be so stubborn and not give him an upgrade?
He waited for a while before confirming that there was indeed no upgraded task. Meng Fan could only bear his disappointment and continued to draw.
Occasionally, he'd look up and see some people taking photos from the side of his eyes. It made his heart uncomfortable as if he had lost two kilograms of spicy dough sticks!
"Thank you!"
Another pretty girl took her drawing. This young lady had a cool looking monolid, but in the caricature, she had been portrayed with double eyelids that turned into half-moons when she smiled. Happily, she took a selfie with Meng Fan.
She looked at the picture, then back at Meng Fan. The monolid girl was surprised. "I didn't expect you to be so photogenic, you look good when you smile!"
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Chapter 60: Feeding Prohibited
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Good looking?
'Is she complimenting me?'
Meng Fan's face broke into a smile as if he'd just lost and gained 2 kilograms of spicy dough strips.
He remembered that when he was a child, he was often called good looking. When he was in elementary school, it became 'you're so cute'! And in Junior high, all he'd been left with was 'you're a good person'. Then high school, university… There wasn't much else aside from 'you're so fat'.
Ten, fifteen years?
Meng Fan genuinely couldn't remember the last time someone had called him good looking not out of sarcasm.
Although she had only complimented his smile, and it most certainly was caused by the metaphysical effect of the 1 smile appeal, he was still undoubtedly joyous.
Meng Fan blushed and said very modestly, "Then I'll try to smile more in the future."
The monolid girl smiled heartily. "Don't wait, just do it now."
Meng Fan let out a vibrant smile. Strangely, the monolid girl actually blushed after pausing for a moment.
"This pretty girls' eyes look really good when she smiles!"
"Hehe you guys only noticed the pretty girl's smile, but I've been silently observing her long legs. If I guessed correctly, these legs… could play for 7 months and 8 days!"
"Can you guys tell me accurately, is that pretty girl flirting with Meng boss or is he flirting with her?"
"Mother of Jesus, that's the legendary goddess of our school's hip-hop dance club!"
"Does Meng fatty look good when he smiles? Can the fickle netizens in the site please confirm!"
"Who was the one that said they were going to his stream site yesterday? Are you there or not? Can you send pictures, I really want to know what Meng boss looks like!"
"People who want to see the host's appearance join groups 181,948, 600."
The fickle netizens in the stream were chiding with joy, and the online viewers were in high spirits as well. After streaming for 8 hours, Meng Fan's viewer count had exceeded 20,000.
The newly introduced netizens were won over by Meng Fan's hand speed and drawing skills. The "old customers" had their interests elsewhere, mostly on the pretty girls. Their favorite content to see were the selfies these pretty ladies had taken with Meng Fan and their interaction with him during the process. If they flirted with him, then the live comments would explode for a while.
As for the most common interactions between the host and the netizens, nobody really cared for. It was even common to see fans that had sent wave after wave of gifts didn't even receive a thank you from Meng Fan; and on the contrary, it was strange for him to say thank you.
"You're number one in the drawing category and the popularity ranks!"
When Meng Fan reached the twentieth drawing, a live comment appeared on the stream channel that triggered another series of congratulatory responses.
Meng Fan, who had been occasionally glancing at the comments was stunned for a moment.
At this time, the number of viewers watching his stream had exceeded 30,000, and since this wasn't a popular time for the other stream lords, he was able to reach first place in the drawing category with 30,000 viewers.
In addition to the number of viewers online, his popularity rating was also dependent on the gifts he received.
Evidently, Meng Fan's channel was thriving in this aspect as well.
The gifts were mostly concentrated during the moments where pretty girls came over to take a photo. This was because their faces were closer to the camera, and their features more visible. As for how much was gifted, that depended on the level of interaction that occurred between Meng Fan and the girls. So when the monolid girl had initiated her flirting with Meng Fan, the chat exploded with gifts.
Following this, they were most concentrated when the girls left after receiving their painting to go buy Meng Fan food and returning to feed him.
On the topic of feeding, manager Gao of the cultural plaza had possessed incredible foresight, providing Meng Fan a table. It was perfect for collecting food and snacks he didn't have time to eat.
The most interesting thing was not only that all of the girls who had received a drawing had fed him, but that the onlookers standing to the side also invested in the business.
When visiting a park, who wouldn't have a few snacks and drinks on them. If each person casually handed out a few, his table would be filled up.
It's true Meng Fan couldn't watch food spoil like he couldn't watch someone die, like yesterday, eating everything that had been provided. But today, he just couldn't eat all of it!
In a fit of rage, Meng Fan took out a sheet of drawing paper and wrote "I'm losing weight, feeding is prohibited" on it and placed it on the small table.
Otherwise, either he ate himself to death, or he died of discomfort from watching food go to waste.
At three in the afternoon, Meng Fan stopped distributing the queue numbers earlier than yesterday. It wasn't that he had to go home to stream, but because there were way too many people in line, with over thirty still waiting.
Tourists had purchased tickets to visit the park but refused to watch any of the other performances, choosing to wait in line for a cartoon caricature. This was a perfect example of Chinese people and their crowd loving mentality, always afraid to miss out on a good deal.
By the time he finished all the caricatures, it was already 5:30 pm. He completed 86 caricatures in total, thankfully having the foresight to bring a couple of hundred sheets of paper.
Not all 86 caricatures gave Meng Fan experience for the task [ Illustrator , counting all about 30 didn't make the standard set by the system. This standard made Meng Fan feel very helpless, mostly because he didn't know what it was!
After discovering that some drawings did not increase his experience, Meng Fan began to compare, but even after comparing all of the drawings, he couldn't seem to find a pattern. Meng Fan felt powerless.
However, in terms of time and cost efficiency, Meng Fan believed that drawing these caricatures was way more lucrative than doing illustrations in the studio.
Therefore, no matter what the standard was, it was probably better to draw higher quality portraits in a short amount of time.
At this stage, task phase 3 of [Illustrator: 413/500.
He was only 87 away from completing the mission, and he was progressing much faster than expected.
He had streamed five hours already, and the amount of online viewers reached another peak high at 42,000.
In addition to the visible location of his 'booth' and today being Saturday so tourists were abundant, Meng Fan approximated about 100,000 total viewers before he logged off his channel. It had exceeded his expectations however, reaching 137,000!
The amount of total views for his entire channel suddenly increased to nearly 410,000.
All the gifts he'd accumulated through the stream these last few days had boosted his UP level to 18.
Of course, compared to these, to Meng Fan, the biggest gain from the day was the twelve other pretty girls following after the monolid girl who told him he looked good when he smiled.
Logging off, Meng Fan was packing his stuff when four onlookers surrounded him, one of them being the Shi Zhan youth.
"Meng host, they're also fans of your channel!"
The Shi Zhan youth excitedly introduced the three people, one of which Meng Fan had been familiar with through his username. The other had been pulled into his admin group chat, and they had conversed before too.
"You guys actually came!"
Meng Fan often saw people in the live chat boast of coming to the booth to watch him stream but didn't expect any of them to actually show up. Meng Fan just felt it was unexpected, but not strange; for he had also once bought plane tickets to a certain city to see a certain CV concert and attend their handshake event.
Of the three netizens, two were timid and one was an extrovert. In addition to the presence of the Shi Zhan youth who had already engaged him in face to face experience, Meng Fan didn't feel awkward being around them.𝗇𝗈𝒱𝑒𝑙𝑵𝞮xt.𝑐𝑶𝗆
The four speedily helped Meng Fan take down his booth.
Meng Fan thanked Gao, and said to the four, "Let me buy you guys dinner."
One of the extroverted netizens was shocked. "You can still eat?"
"You guys eat, I'll draw your caricatures. "
As anticipated; Meng Fan, who had been fed to the brink of collapse, was naturally unable to eat.
An hour later, Meng Fan didn't wait for the Shi Zhan youth to offer him a ride home and hurriedly hailed a taxi back to the campus.
After Meng Fan left, the four netizens unanimously took out their cell phones and entered the group chat on Meng Fan's channel. They then one by one uploaded the photos from today into the group.
After returning to the academy, Meng Fan headed to the track to run his ten kilometers. After showering, he didn't go to the studio to stream but comfortably headed back to lay on his bed and read manga on his iPad.
After his reincarnation, Meng Fan indeed worked very hard. His schedule had been packed by the system, basically filling every day with activities to do. For him, nights like tonight where he could read manga for four hours before happily gaming for another two hours has never happened before!
"Did the Meng Fan I knew came back?!"
This was the unanimous feeling of all the three roommates upon seeing Meng Fan's downfall into his old habits.
The next morning, Meng Fan did not wake up for his morning run, and it was already 8 o clock. The three felt even more strange.
Strange, yet familiar!
They became dumbfounded, however, when Meng Fan woke up at 8:30 and told them he was attending a mini-marathon for a charity event.
"Are you sure you're not playing tricks right now?"
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Chapter 61: Live Streaming the Mini-Marathon
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"Mini Marathon? Marathon?"
"Charity run?"
"Event?"
"It's not a competitive event, is it?"
"Bro, are you going just to goof around or to actually compete?"
"Fatty, you've only been running for how long? Isn't it a bit overboard to be running a marathon? Or more like maraGONE!"
The three people in the dorm knew that Meng Fan had been going to the track twice a day, and they all took turns to go check on him. They didn't look for long though. After all, who was bored enough to watch someone run for hours on a hot day? So they had no idea that Meng Fan had become a crazy fatty who could run 20 kilometers a day.
"What do you mean to compete? It's supposed to be a charity run event. I'm just participating."
Meng Fan genuinely wanted the championship, but he was clear about his current physical fitness and other various conditions. Even if it was a public charitable running event, it was impossible for him to win it. The championship was out of the question. He would be grateful enough if he didn't get left behind.
What was the skill level of the others participating in this event?
Meng Fan thought even the slowest people would still maintain a pace of 6 minutes per kilometer being regular running enthusiasts. Out of these, there would also be a large amount who could do 10 kilometers in under 50 minutes and probably a handful who could do it in under 40 minutes.
Everything else aside, Meng Fan couldn't even outrun Wu Tong.
But his mentality was still correct. He couldn't force himself to go after an unrealistic championship just because of an [I am a Champion] task.
He had already run 200 kilometers, so it was time to go out and experience the atmosphere.
"Mini-marathons are also marathons; are you sure you can finish it?"
Evidently, Meng Fan's three roommates even suspected the words "participation is key".
"Worst-case scenario, I'll just walk it."
Meng Fan quickly brushed them off, knowing he couldn't explain it clearly. He then changed into his exercising clothes. He picked up his backpack and headed out.
"Let's go watch!"
"Xue asked me to go observe cultural practices in Qing Zhi Wu."
"I have plans today as well."
"So what? Da Qiang has a date. But you? Heh, aren't your dates usually at night?"
Zhang Zhou Wei forcibly dragged Xing Ta Ge along to go chase after Meng Fan.
Many students in the academy owned a car, and Xing Ta Ge was one of them. He also happened to be the only one with a car out of everyone in dorm 402.
Xing Ta Ge had purchased his car in the second semester of his first year. He had been deeply abhorred by the high housing costs around the academy and grinded his family for the entire winter break before finally getting one.
His family had originally given him 100,000 HXB to buy a temporary car, but he had other ideas. He had instead taken the money to pay several installments for a highlander which had back seats that could fold down into the rough size of a bed for extremely intimate privacy.
Xing Ta Ge's thoughts were simple.
Why would I buy a car if it didn't have this function?!
The "One meter for one grain of rice" mini-marathon was supposedly on the banks of the XiZi lake. However, it wasn't just a route along the lake, but a route from the Huang Long Gymnasium all the way to Tai Zi park.
It was past 9 o'clock when Xing Ta Ge sported his highlander with Meng Fan and Zhang Zhou Wei in tow. They arrived at the gymnasium, and Meng Fan had solved the problem of breakfast.
Meng Fan and Zhang Zhou Wei got out of the car while Xing Ta Ge went to find a parking space.
"There's so many people!"
There were many people in the Huang Long gymnasium, most of which already wearing their solid-colored sports jerseys from their respective organizers, distinguishing the competitors from the spectators.
Meng Fan asked around, finding the registration location and scanning its QR to check-in. He then received his own sports jersey.
"You, what size do you wear?"
The employees at the sign-up centre who were responsible for distributing jerseys seemed a bit lost. They even suspected Meng Fan had come to the wrong place.
Is he really here to run?
Even if he was for real, with that type of body, there are no sizes for him!
"You're here."
As the employees continued to look troubled, Wu Tong appeared from another side and said to them, "This is my friend." As she spoke, she pulled out a bag from a specific drawer and handed it to Meng Fan. "Sized especially for you." She looked at Zhang Zhou Wei and smiled. "Are you Meng Fan's roommate? Did you register as well?"
"No, no, no." Zhang Zhou Wei waved. "Meng Fan said he was running a mini-marathon. I didn't believe him, so I came to see for myself."
"He's really good. A mini-marathon should be a piece of cake for him."
Wu Tong said as she laughed, then turned to Meng Fan. "I have some business to finish. I'll find you before the marathon starts."
After all, Meng Fan had been her "first-hand" subject for publicity. Naturally, he would receive special treatment and care in the run to come; especially from the photographers.
After Wu Tong left, Zhang Zhou Wei slammed Meng Fan and chuckled. "Kid you're pretty badass! Before you said running had nothing to do with the traditional Chinese painting department's beauty, but evidence has revealed itself!"
Meng Fan did not explain, smiling in return and went off to change. He felt a bit at fault though. Although he didn't run because of Wu Tong, he was here because of her.
After changing his clothes, Meng Fan saw Xing Ta Ge approach him from afar with a sour expression on his face. Curious, he asked, "What's wrong?"
Xing Ta Ge was fuming. "I ran into a dumbass. He was occupying the road and driving wildly yet still honking his horn at me non-stop, beep beep beep; the hell you beeping for f*cking dumbass!"
"It's no big deal. Don't be upset." Zhang Zhou Wei advised.
Xing Ta Ge scowled. "When I hear the words 'beep beep' I just get angry!"
Zhang Zhou Wei paused for a moment. "What the hell does that do!"
Meng Fan also followed up with a 'the hell does that do'!
He thought it really was disgusting because when the system's 'beep' prompts kept appearing in the mornings, he had forcibly changed it to 'ding'.
Around 9:40, the gymnasium was already filled with people. They were all sporting solid colored t-shirts from the organizers, looking like blobs from far across.
"Meng Fan."
Wu Tong headed over and said, "Your starting position will be near the front. We've arranged for you to be the first echelon behind the leading section."
The leading section was basically the camp of god-tier runners who would actually achieve results. There were about 30 of them. They received special timers from the organizers for when they began while all the other contestants would have to use their own APPs to record the time.
"Okay."
Meng Fan nodded and asked, "Oh right, can I stream as I run?"
"Stream? Of course!"
Streaming was suggested by Wu Tong in the first place, so she would watch Meng Fan all along. She knew he went outdoors to stream his art, and that his viewers had exceeded tens of thousands. For this kind of public event, it was better to have this kind of promotion, so she saw no reason to disagree.
After asking, Meng Fan pulled out his streaming assistant from his backpack. The medium size of the assistant was similar to that of a GoPro, so nobody would question it as he brought it out. Besides, now that he was a streamer with a stable online presence and over 20,000 consistent viewers, it made sense to have some sick equipment.𝗇𝗈𝒱𝑒𝑙𝑵𝞮xt.𝑐𝑶𝗆
He put on the act of connecting it to his phone, opening the MouDong APP and connecting to that as well. He made extra sure to place the MouDong APP's tracking info on the top left corner of his stream.
The stream channel's title got set to: Streaming live for a charity event's mini-marathon.
He then sent a message to the group chat. Nowadays, among the fickle netizens that watched his stream, Meng Fan already knew three full groups, each one already maxed out at 2000 members.
Not long after, hundreds of people entered the channel. After a while, the number broke a thousand.
"Mini Marathon? Like a miniature marathon?"
"Ten kilometers holy sh*t!"
"Meng host, are you running this yourself?"
"That's bull sh*t! All the photos from yesterday were fake?"
"The photos from yesterday visually inspected Meng host to be over 200 pounds. How can he run 10 kilometers?"
"Visually inspected to be 200? You probably need to see an eye doctor, dude. Meng fatty is at least 230!"
"Don't you guys know Meng host runs every morning and streams it? He actually can run 10 kilometers; he's just a bit slow!"
"It's a miracle already that he can run 10 kilometers with his stature. Who needs to be fast!"
At this time, all the fickle netizens had already seen the photos of Meng Fan that the Shi Zhan youth had sent out yesterday. They were full of doubts regarding Meng Fan's ability to run a mini-marathon.
"Mr. Host, if you have balls, then show your whole body. Let us see you run the whole thing! If we can't see you running, how would we even know if you're the one running!"
"You don't have to finish it all! As long as you film yourself running 3 kilometers, I'll donate a 'C spot halo' for every kilometer that comes after!"
"If you reach 5 kilometers, I'll donate one too!"
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Chapter 62: Sports Drink
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
230 pounds shouldn't even be mentioned. Even if he was exactly 200 pounds if an athlete of this tonnage said they could run 10 kilometers, about 99% of people would not believe him or her. The other 1% would still be lost amongst the weight of those numbers.
In an instant, the channels live chat had blown up with all kinds of chatter. Some were placing bets and others were somewhere along the lines of 'stop playing around can you just draw'.
Meng Fan grinned as he read these live comments.
After being reincarnated and receiving the system, this was probably one of the most common scenarios of self-loathing tasks that were depicted in novels with systems.
After waiting for so long, he still hadn't received a task that required him to be stupid and hit himself. He was rather disappointed by this, for it was a system that didn't support its user making a fool out of himself but instead provided a bunch of tasks that disgusted the user instead.
"The non-motorized roads on both sides of the route aren't blocked right?"
When Meng Fan signed up, he knew that the main route from the stadium to Tai Zi Wan park was a running trail, hence he wanted to ask about the other pedestrian lanes.
"Of course, the non-vehicular roads aren't blocked. There will be a lot of citizens watching along the way." Wu Tong didn't see the live comments and asked, "What's wrong?"
He responded, "The fickle netizens in the channel are saying they can't see me run, so they don't believe that it's me running. They want to see the video of me running… I was thinking if the roads were open, I could get… Zhang Zou Wei to film me on a bike."
"Why me!" Zhang Zhou Wei's knees buckled as he heard this. "Why does it have to be me! Besides, ten kilometers is a lot for me, even on a bike! Get Pigeon to do it. He's good at riding."
As soon as the brazen-mouthed Zhang Zhou Wei said this, he regretted it. The traditional Chinese painting goddess is still here; that was a bit too uncultured. It was fine if he had no class and Xing Ta Ge had no class, they couldn't smear Meng Fan's image. Although, the fatty doesn't seem like he's capable of getting the traditional art goddess anyways.
Mmm, better hope she didn't understand!
Without waiting for Xing Ta Ge to respond to Meng Fan, Wu Tong smiled and exclaimed. "No worries. I'll see if I can borrow an electric bike for you."
Soon after, she turned and headed for the gymnasium.
Zhang Zhou Wei wanted to scream that he didn't know how to ride an electric bike, but it seemed he would get hit if people found out, so he had to endure it for now.
Xing Ta Ge had a grin plastered on his face. "If nobody is riding, isn't riding an electric bike pretty good? Let's hope the bike you borrow is cute."
The brazen-mouthed Zhang Zhou Wei didn't think he would be subjected to such humiliation. He gritted his teeth. "Are you the devil?"
Meng Fan did not care for the two's bickering. He thought about it and gathered his streaming assistant, directly replacing it with his cell phone. He didn't feel at ease giving his stream assistant to someone else.
"There's a portable charger in my bag. If the phone runs low, don't forget to charge it."
Meng Fan gave his phone to Zhang Zhou Wei along with his backpack and then asked Xing Ta Ge if he had an extra portable charger as a backup.
Zhang Zhou Wei and Xing Ta Ge did not persist further, thinking that the camera was only used by Meng Fan while he ran out of convenience. He tied it around his chest. Now that Zhang Zhou Wei was filming for him, naturally there was no need for the gadget.
After changing the live stream to his phone, Meng Fan took it and panned it around him to show all the contestants warming up to begin the race. He then handed his phone over to Zhang Zhou Wei and headed off himself.
Even though he was back facing the camera, Meng Fan was still nervous. After all, it was the first time the 'big lady rode the carriage'.
Big lady riding the carriage for the first time, huh?
"Uhm… Hi everyone, I'm Meng fatty."
After saying hello with his back still turned, Meng Fan felt much better. After all, it had begun, and a smile began forming on his face. Even though the fickle netizens from the channel couldn't see him, he still said, "Please forgive me for having my back turned. I really don't want to rely on my looks to gain viewers."
Meng Fan wanting to expose his whole body wasn't because he wanted to be a poser and loathe himself, but due to the thought that he would have to broadcast his outdoor activities frequently in the future.
If his future live streams all consisted of video footage from the streaming assistant strapped to his chest, many people would definitely question if his running was real and worth watching. This was not good for raising his viewer count.
Taking this opportunity, his entire body could be filmed during the process, and he would have to explain less in the future.
And with his tonnage, running 10 kilometers was a spectacle. From now on, there would definitely be many people who would watch his stream as it would spark interest for sure!
Of course, that was not the case right now.
"This mini-marathon is a one meter for one grain of rice charity event hosted by a running APP. One meter for one grain of rice just means one grain of rice is donated to an area in poverty for every meter ran."
Meng Fan introduced the event and continued, "At the finish line, there will be a charity donation point. If I reach it, and I arrive within 1.5 hours before starting, I will donate all the gifts you guys give me, regardless of what it is."
Meng Fan didn't mention the bets that had been made in the channel earlier. Actually, it didn't mean much, regardless. He didn't want to force the big talkers among his viewers to toss out their 'C-spot halos'; not that he could anyways.
It was better not to mention anything. At least now, everyone had some basis for their thoughts. If they were willing to donate, they would, and the ones who weren't could remain as they were.
—XuJiaYu's Hardware store has donated a C spot halo in channel 131225. Come help the host level up to a center spot and claim your reward!
"After what the host said, I'm going to donate one first!"
—DaysNianXiuWalked has donated a C spot halo in channel 131225. Come help the host level up to a center spot and claim your reward!
"Hahahahahaha animation department's iron hero, add oil! But this C-spot halo is for the traditional chinese painting department's goddess!"
After Meng Fan had spoken, the channel gained a few C spot halos. One of them seemed to be from a fellow student at the academy who had recognized Meng Fan and recognized Wu Tong in one glance.
Both C spot halos were broadcasted throughout the entire platform, attracting an array of viewers. Another group of viewers had entered the channel after receiving his stream notification. Of course, there were also viewers who had been drawn by Meng Fan's metaphysical attribute of validation.
The viewers noticed Meng Fan's hefty figure immediately, and upon seeing the announcement bar were all full of doubt as they waited for Meng Fan to begin running.
The mini-marathon began at 10 am sharp. At around 9:50, the contestants had already arranged themselves according to their jersey colors, forming a long dragon-like line outside of the gymnasium.
The thirty or so people who were standing at the front were all wearing their own sports jerseys.
The red jerseys were the first group immediately following the leading section. Meng Fan was part of that category. So aside from Zhang Zhou Wei who was filming from his small donkey-like bike, the organizers own cameramen were also frequently focusing their lens on Meng Fan.
Behind them followed the other monochrome colored jerseys; yellow, blue, white and black.
The difference between the colors was partly determined by the scores of the runners on the Mou Dong app, and partly by the groups under which some people signed up to.𝗇𝗈𝒱𝑒𝑙𝑵𝞮xt.𝑐𝑶𝗆
At 9:59, Meng Fan downed a bottle of sports drink that he had redeemed earlier.
The sports drink—an equipment from the task [Travelling Deity]—cost 10 points per bottle.
The function provided moisture and trace minerals needed for exercise while adjusting the physical state of the consumer to an optimal one for competition.
Drinking one every half an hour would maintain the effect.
As to what 'best competitive state' meant, Meng Fan, who had never entered any athletic competitions his whole life, had not experienced that whatsoever. But he knew a competitive state was important in any sports race.
So he had exchanged a bottle. It was not expensive, and he wouldn't have the chance to drink it regularly.
In addition, Meng Fan had also prepared the energy chews that could supplement physical energy.
Although it was impossible to win a championship, he still could run a result that he normally couldn't reach.
After all, he was streaming. It would be embarrassing to fall behind.
10:00 am. The race began.
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Chapter 63: Energy Chews
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"8th Station television channel, 8th Station television channel!"
"Residents of the realistic heaven, scholars of the sacred place, warriors who broke the 4th wall!"
"We are now streaming for you the 8102 Mou Dong's one meter for one grain of rice charity mini-marathon event in Hang Cheng, XiZi lake."
Zhang Zhou Wei perched on his small donkey scooter and had accepted the reality while wearing a safety helmet. He began to make good from what he had and fully optimized his brazen mouth and began to commentate.
"This charity mini-marathon has a total of two thousand five hundred and eighty-two contestants, mostly consisting of college students and young white-collar workers."
"Amongst all these contestants, it is difficult to not notice some bright-eyed participants that attract our attention."
"Please follow my lens and look to your left. Yes, these are the young ladies that don't want me to transfer the focus once you've seen them. It is said that these dozens of young ladies are all from ZheJiang University's Aerobics team! Everyone says God is equal, so after giving them a functioning brain, he also gifted them beauty and a good body! So everyone else gets to be ugly and low IQ. That way, they won't notice something is wrong!"
"Now, look over here again. This is a goddess running team. It is said that most of the members of this running group have a total mileage of over 500 kilometers on the Mou running APP. Then how did the rest of them enter the running team? Could the reason behind this be caused by their bodacious figures, or their beautiful faces? Let us follow the lens into the secret garden of the goddess running groups here at XiZi lake."
"Yes, it's begun. The pretty ladies have started running!"
At the sound of the pistol, the crow-like flock of people began to stir up a crowd, flowing through the gate like the tide, gushing out with increased speed.
Zhang Zhou Wei, still riding his small donkey, was shocked at the scenario. It took him a few seconds before following them out, unable to find Meng Fan at all.
"Where did this dumbass commentator come from!"
"Hahahahaha! Meng Boss's roommate is killing me!"
"You can do it, dumbass commentator!"
"If you can lose Meng Fan riding on your small donkey, then you should kiss bikes goodbye for the rest of your life!"
"I see him!"
"Hahaha, Meng boss's figure is too easy to find!"
"F*ck he's actually running. I thought he was going to walk there!"
"And he's running pretty fast too."
"The speed of this tonnage. I'm seeing ghosts!"
"Badass, badass!"
"He ran one kilometer in so long. His time seems pretty good, six minutes and thirty seconds."
"Not just pretty good, it's badass! I thought someone of Meng host's stature would for sure get left behind!"
Meng Fan's phone was in Zhang Zhou Wei's hands, but the viewers could still see the numbers in the stream room through the data provided by his running shoes.
The reason why Meng Fan was so daring to connect these statistics to his mobile phone was simple. In the past two years, running shoes with smart chips had been endlessly emerging in the market. These smart chips had precise GPS positioning and could provide data such as mileage and time.
When he ran before, Meng Fan had always wanted to know his mileage, so he mostly relied on the laps of the track, or familiarized himself with the length of the route he had been running. Slowly, along with his smartphone, he began to grasp his pace and distance when he ran on his routes.
With the smart chip, he could leave the dorm without his phone and still retain accurate and synchronized data.
And it was cheap too!
It cost around the same as regular running shoes, if not sufficiently cheaper than name-brand running shoes.
Each year, the advancement and development of technology was different.
"Six minutes and thirty seconds!"
Meng Fan saw the pace depicted in the virtual interface from his sneakers. He was quite shocked as well.
After ingesting the sports drink, Meng Fan's body was in an extraordinarily good physical state.
Under these conditions, Meng Fan could perform to his best abilities.
Additionally, once he began running, the pacing had been distributed based on a six-kilometer run.
And after running the first kilometer, he had continued to increase.
Partly it was because he was confident of his good physical state, and the other part was the energy chews which could replenish his stamina anytime.
Since he entered this kind of competition and began streaming it too, Meng Fan would not allow himself to fall behind.
Of course, with his current pace, it would be difficult to do so.
Two thousand or so people had entered. Over half of them being running enthusiasts. It was no big feat for them to run ten kilometers in under an hour.𝗇𝗈𝒱𝑒𝑙𝑵𝞮xt.𝑐𝑶𝗆
Another half, or safely speaking, a small half were the people who partake in running but not very often that had just followed the hive mind. It was easy for them to run ten kilometers, but probably not in an hour.
Hence, with Meng Fan's current speed, he could pass by being sandwiched in the middle until the finish line.
Only, once his speed was raised, his mentality became unstoppable as well. Meng Fan wanted to know what kind of level he could attain with the help of his sports drinks and energy chews.
"This guy's pretty badass!"
The organizer had found more than a dozen photographers to film the mini-marathon in its entire duration. The footage would then be trimmed and some interesting or inspirational content would be selected to be featured in their promotional campaigns.
Out of them, one of the photographers was exclusively tasked with focusing on Meng Fan throughout the entire marathon. He was one of the biggest highlights of this mini-marathon and also provided the most inspirational and positive material for promotion.
The built photographer with tattooed arms had already focused his lens at Meng Fan several times before and after he began. This time, he left the camera on him longer, surprising him even more.
"This dude is still increasing his speed!"
The tattooed-arm photographer asked the driver to approach Meng Fan, chatting with him in amazement, "This buddy's got to be at least 230 pounds; don't you think? Have you ever met someone this fat who could run this fast?"
The driver thought carefully and responded, "Spherical shaped Elton Cale could run 100 meters in ten point zero five seconds. Adebayo Akinfenwa weighs two hundred pounds and can still do the Roulette Marseilles, and the two hundred pound alien Ronaldo could still passively….." He paused for a moment, feeling like he said too much. "I'm a soccer fan. The other sports? I only know of Shaquille O'Neal."
The tattooed-arm photographer felt like he had punched a pile of cotton.
Sir are you aclass representative? Because you're so outstanding!
"But realistically, I've never seen someone this fat run this fast."
The driver was kind since he gave the tattooed-arm photographer a step to retreat. After all, he genuinely thought his tattoos were good looking.
The tattooed-arm photographer suddenly lost interest in the conversation, finally realizing why the other videographers didn't want to take this car.
Like the tattooed-arm photographer, the fickle netizens from the stream channel also were shocked by what they saw, not to mention the other contestants who were overtaken by Meng Fan.
Did a f*cking moving wall just pass me?
There was a supply point every 2.5 kilometers along the mini-marathon route. There were cups of poured out water and some chocolate and bananas. Meng Fan reached out and grabbed a cup of water.
At this time, his sports drinks had satisfied all the moisture requirements his body needed, so he only took it for show. As he poured the water on his face, he ate an energy chew.
The energy chew could restore 20% of one's physical strength and could relieve 50% of one's fatigue.
20% meant 20% of the total physical strength, not 20% of the consumption.
Meng Fan's pace had been set based on his physical fitness for a 6-kilometer route. After eating the energy chew, he basically replenished 1.2 kilometers, meaning he had only run 1.3 kilometers.
Continue accelerating!
Meng Fan could feel his stamina recover rapidly and decided to speed up once again.
3 kilometers, 18 minutes and 30 seconds.
With this time, Meng Fan recognized that he was getting close to the speed of a regular runner.
It was also much faster than his usual results.
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Chapter 64: To the Finish Line
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"3 kilometers in 18 minutes, Meng host this is basically a big show!"
"10 minutes for 3 kilometers during high school, passing by."
"I weigh 170. I've been exercising for a year, and my best score for a 3 kilometer run is around 14 minutes; pretty waste."
"I weigh 120. Last month, my company held a one-kilometer run, and I couldn't do it. Now that's a real waste!"
"I weigh 180. Three kilometers… hehe is that even something us fatties should do! Meng boss you're incredible! You make me want to run too!"
"I weigh 150. I've been lifting at the gym for four years and sometimes run. Three kilometers takes me approximately eighteen minutes. I have to say Meng boss is a badass!"
"Eighteen minutes is not badass, but Meng boss is really badass!"
"That weight at that speed. This must be what Sammo Hung flying looks like!"
"Who said they would donate a C spot halo if he reached three kilometers?"
"Where's the guy that said they would donate one after every kilometer once he hit three?"
—XuJiaYu's Hardware store has donated a C spot halo in channel 131225. Come help the host level up to center spot and claim your reward!
"I'm not waiting for four kilometers, I'm gifting now!"
—WangTianLongisBadass has donated a C spot halo in room 131225. Come help the host level up to center spot and claim your reward!
"F*ck! I entered the wrong room. I was going to celebrate China winning the first gold for the Asian esports games, but I can't keep myself from gifting!"
"Hahaha. This brother must be joking, right? You didn't enter the wrong channel. You entered the wrong website!"
"Hey, YuJiaYu and WangTianLong! you guys are watching the stream from Jakarta?"
"YuJiaYu owns a five-star store? I didn't even react, hahaha. Can someone tell Mr. Five star softshell to put on his swimming shorts, thank you!"
"This became the asian game special, hahaha."
Zhang Zhou Wei atop his small donkey bike was not very stable. The longer he watched Meng Fan, the more his heart became disturbed.
He thought that Meng Fan was really just there to screw around for a few steps and get overtaken, but he did not expect that he would surpass others.𝑛𝓞𝒱𝑒𝓁𝑵𝓮xt.𝑐𝞸𝓂
"Pidgeon."
Eager to talk to someone and share his excitement, it was then he noticed that Xing Ta Ge had not caught up.
Originally, he had wanted Xing Ta Ge to sit behind him, but Xing Ta Ge had thought the small donkey was too tight and was afraid of being stabbed so he went off. There wasn't anything for him to do anyway, so he went off on his date.
"Pigeon, if you f*cking don't come, you'll regret it for sure. You have no idea how ferocious Meng fatty is!" Zhang Zhou Wei took out his phone and sent Xing Ta Ge a voice message.
"Immature. Can't I hide in my car with A/C and watch from my phone stream?" Xing Ta Ge said, satirically.
Zhang Zhou Wei lifted his head to look at the burning sun that had been getting hotter, comparing it for a moment. He then had a thought of murdering Xing Ta Ge.
…
Three kilometers later, Meng Fan had steadily set his pace to 6 minutes for the fourth kilometer.
Although the sports drink had blessed him along with the energy chews, finishing a kilometer in six minutes was still difficult for Meng Fan. With this pace, his physical energy was being depleted very fast.
He survived until the second supply point at five kilometers. At this time, Meng Fan's total time was 30 minutes and 37 seconds.
The cool down time of the sports drink was up, so Meng Fan did not hesitate to exchange for a second bottle as well as a second energy chew. As he was collecting water from the station, the sports drink and energy chew simultaneously disappeared in front of others, pouring into Meng Fan's mouth as two streaks of light.
The effects of the second bottle of sports beverage did not diminish, as it allowed Meng Fan to remain in his best competitive state.
The second energy chew, however, did diminish the effect, probably only recovering 18% of his physical fitness. It still made him fearsome though, allowing him to speed up once again!
Ten minutes later, Meng Fan looked at the cooldown time of the energy chew. He didn't care anymore if it had actually replenished anything but slipped another one in his mouth as he pretended to wipe the sweat off his brow. This time, the chew recovered 16%. He persevered until the seventh kilometer, using a total time of 42 minutes and 35 seconds. He had managed to keep his speed below 6 minutes for the last two kilometers.
Ten minutes later, Meng Fan took the same opportunity to eat a fourth energy chew, recovering 14% of his physical energy, so that when he reached the ninth kilometer, his final time was 52 minutes and 36 seconds.
The last kilometer!
Meng Fan could see the finish line from afar.
Several people were standing there already.
The front-running leg, or the leading section, was basically the real competitors of this race. About thirty in total, most of them had reached the finish line twenty minutes ago. Out of these, the man who placed first had a time of 32 minutes and 20 seconds. This was the result of a second tier national level athlete.
Almost all the men from the leading section had scored a time within the forty-five-minute mark.
And the first place from the women's group had scored 37 minutes and 18 seconds!
In terms of level, she achieved a result of a first-tier national level athlete.
There was no doubt that this goddess was even more badass than the men's first place!
And this person… obviously wasn't Wu Tong.
Of course, Wu Tong had also finished the race at this point. Her final score was a bit more than 43 minutes, which was considerably closer to a second-tier national level athlete for women's standards. It was an impressive score.
At about fifty minutes in, more people began arriving at the finish line; at least three hundred, if not five hundred.
Meng Fan began running for his life.
Meng Fan, who was in full swing after running nine kilometers, had really forced the competitive spirit from his bones. Or maybe a competition spirit had provoked him on the event grounds. He didn't care how much physical energy he had left, or what the black magic running shoes told him his pace had to be for the last one kilometer. He instantly set the reminder to raise his speed every 100 meters.
Increase the arm swing amplitude.
Increase the stride.
Speed up the pace.
His chest undulated like a snowblower, mobilizing all the power in his body.
800.
600.
500.
He kept swinging his arms. His breathing slowly became unreliable. The only thing he could depend on was his willpower.
300!
Meng Fan did not bother to see the people already at the finish line, staring at him outlandishly.
200!
He couldn't hear the cheering. Meng Fan could only feel a buzzing sound overwhelm his ears, even drowning out the voices from the broadcast.
100!
Meng Fan began to spring with all his strength, using all the power he had left in his body.
His expression had completely collapsed, and his line of sight began to blur.
Although his speed did not improve, even slowing him down, the only good news was that his black magic running shoes began to forcefully intervene in his strides. Otherwise, forget about physical exhaustion ruining his steps, it would cause him to lose his balance completely.
50 meters!
30 meters!
The people standing at the finish line moved aside; a wave of silence washed over them.
They left four or five powerful gods to wait.
20 meters!
10 meters!
The finish line!
Meng Fan reached the finish line in a collision. The four or five powerful gods greeted him and supported the wobbling Meng Fan, compelling him along.
From the sides erupted the loud cheering of the spectators, as if a champion had been conceived!
There was a loud bang.
Zhang Zhou Wei crashed his small donkey into the railing, continuously filming Meng Fan for the live stream until the phone hit the ground. The stream's content suddenly pointed to the sky. With a peaceful background, all that could be heard was the tsunami-like roar of cheers.
At this moment, the stream channel exploded!
"Dumbass commentator!"
"How can you do this at such a critical time!"
"I was about to cry from being so touched!"
"Hurry up and let us see how Meng boss is doing!"
"You piece of sh*t!"
"What's his final time?"
