Chapter 24 Thirty to Twenty

As soon as Fang Zhuo announced the rules, the activity value in the real-time ranking in the upper right corner of the screen immediately began to rise rapidly.

Within just two minutes of the start, before the streamers even took the stage, the activity value for the top streamers had already soared to over 200,000.

Zhou Zongyun was in third place campaigning, silently counting his rankings on the big screen before going on stage. Seeing that he was indeed in last place, he couldn't help but feel nervous, unconsciously tugging at the hem of his shirt.

The rise of other people on the overall leaderboard is simply astonishing. At this rate, it will be difficult for him to break into the top 20 today.

Yu Yu's ranking wasn't much better; the two of them were ranked 26th and 19th respectively, one on the outer circle and the other just barely making it into the top spot, neither of them seemed to be doing too well.

This is the ranking before the competition even starts. They might fall further behind when the voting gets heated tonight.

Judging from the situation, Mr. Ruan is probably going to have to spend a lot of money.

Today, the stage for Juyu's live broadcast room was set up even more luxuriously than usual—a three-tiered, liftable platform was placed in the center, and blue hydrangeas flown in from the air were placed all around the platform.

Layer upon layer of circular plaster hemispheres covered the entire platform, while semi-transparent silk curtains that ran from the edges of the hemispheres to the ceiling hung from the edges.

A small, warm white, crescent-shaped boat carrying the anchor slowly descended onto the stage, while various three-dimensional cloud and mist effects floated on the huge circular screen, making the person seem as if they were truly descending from the clouds.

The anchors lined up one by one on the second-floor mezzanine. Through the gaps between the metal supports, Zhou Zongyun could clearly see the soft smoke spreading across the stage and the petals constantly falling in the air.

Before joining Juyu, he had never seen such a meticulously crafted stage.

Even when you go to a music festival, the venue setup is usually just a simple frame. Such a lavish and dreamlike set is unique to Giant Entertainment. Perhaps only the large-scale tours of top singers from Star Entertainment can barely compete with Giant Entertainment's stage design.

Finally, it was his turn to sit on the crescent-shaped boat. Zhou Zongyun closed his eyes and took a deep breath, feeling that performing on such a magnificent stage was as unreal as a daydream.

The small boat traversed the clouds and landed on a high platform shrouded in white mist. The director's enthusiastic voice brought the live broadcast to a climax.

Zhou Zongyun gripped the microphone tightly and said loudly and shyly:

"Hello everyone, I'm Zhou Zongyun from Group Six of Giant Entertainment. I've prepared a short dance, and I hope you enjoy it."

The deafening music started, and he had prepared for this dance for two days in advance, meticulously studying every little movement.

The dance style was very refreshing, without any large-scale movements like chest shaking or hip thrusting. Since most of the movements were concentrated in the upper body, the director even cut to several close-up shots of him.

Even though it only lasted half a minute, my heart was beating so fast it felt like it might jump out of my chest at any moment.

He tried his best to control his facial expressions, and finished with a refreshing smile.

With four minutes left in his individual performance, he quickly took the microphone after finishing his dance and only then realized that his ranking was rising rapidly.

This competition format attracted a large number of casual viewers who don't usually watch live streams, with the number of online viewers even surging to 300,000, and the gift refresh rate being five or six times that of the previous few days.

He wasn't the only one; the two streamers who went on stage before him also received several times more rewards than usual. Duan Jiancen, who was the first to go on stage today, even earned more than one million activity points in just six minutes.

The comments section was flooded with messages. Some passersby took the opportunity to promote his fan group, some praised his facial expressions for not being greasy, and others asked which row he was in in the overall picture.

Zhou Zongyun choked up as he campaigned for votes; he never dreamed that he would be seen by so many people one day.

Just ten days ago, he was jumping for joy because he had snagged a chance to walk the runway, but now he is standing on a luxurious stage with more than 300,000 people watching online, enjoying the flowers and applause of the audience.

Zhou Zongyun excitedly thanked the gifters along with the director. In just six minutes, he received more than 400,000 yuan in tips, which was equivalent to a whole live broadcast a few days ago.

As the countdown in the mechanical voice ended, he raised the microphone high and quickly left the stage following the assistant director's instructions.

At that moment, he finally understood why some artists have a "fledgling complex" towards their first company.

An idea seemed to be taking root in his mind. Zhou Zongyun gripped the railing and looked in the direction of General Manager Fang.

Fang Zhuo was quietly looking at the rankings in the upper right corner when he asked the backstage director, "What's the average number of votes per person now?"

"Mr. Fang, it's been 42 minutes since the start. The six live streamers currently on stage have an average activity value of 620,000 each. There are also some other anonymous individual votes that haven't been counted yet."

This amount was already higher than Fang Zhuo had initially anticipated. He opened the online event script and adjusted the order that Deng Jiaqiang had initially planned:

"Move Jian Yujing's group to the third match, so they can come up three rounds earlier."

As the flagship group broadcast of Giant Entertainment, the boy group centered around Jian Yujing has the undisputed number one popularity among all groups.

Following a typical entertainment industry approach, Deng Jiaqiang naturally planned to have the group with the highest viewership perform last.

But Fang Zhuo was thinking about how to earn more.

If the group with the highest traffic is placed in the middle, the overall vote count can be boosted directly in the middle of the live broadcast, quickly raising the vote count required to enter the top 20 ahead of time.

Sure enough, the activity value in the real-time rankings saw a significant increase after Jian Yujing's group took to the field.

[Aaaaaaah, Momo's about to fall out of the top 20! Someone save her!]

[An assassin has appeared in the event rankings; we watched helplessly as Jia Tao dropped four places.]

[The line for the top 20 was just 860,000, how did it suddenly jump so much?]

Everyone in this group is so strong! Can anyone tell me the name of the guy standing in the middle?

[If it were an hour ago, I would have typed a long reply, but right now I can only tell you his name is Jian Yujing. I suggest you search for him manually and do it yourself. My pick just dropped to 18, and I'll wholeheartedly help Momo recruit new users!]

Look at this beautiful 12-year-old, 168cm tall, 46kg girl! She's sweet, dedicated, and definitely worth investing in! Let's quickly get this sweetheart into our top 20!

[I've been lying in bed watching these videos all afternoon. How come every single one of them is so incredibly good-looking? They're even more handsome than some of the rising second-tier celebrities!]

[My fellow fans are so talented! They're just letting Jian Yujing coast to the final round, okay? Our first-generation crown prince of Juyu Entertainment was meant to be the center from the very first day he signed in!]

[Today's stage setup was even more supermodel-worthy than the past few days, and the makeup and styling were visibly exquisite. It's been six days, how come no one has figured out which studio did the styling?]

[Don't worry, the celebrities in the industry are even more anxious than the audience. This styling studio will probably be overwhelmed with bookings after the competition ends.]

[Fang Ge has a pretty accurate grasp of the audience's mentality; longtime fans are totally hooked QAQ]

The competition with the lowest probability of vote rigging has emerged. Who understands the peace of mind that comes from seeing all the gifts openly and transparently? I'm really fed up with those talent shows where votes are rigged in an arithmetic progression.

It's not really about precisely controlling the audience's mindset; it's that they've finally stopped treating the audience like they're Japanese.

[Didn't everyone agree to just watch the fun and not vote? Who betrayed the freeloaders?]

[I miss the days when it first started, 500,000 RMB was enough to guarantee a spot in the top 20. Now, the minimum investment is over 120... Tears well up. Did you guys earn your money legally? Are there any money-making methods outside of criminal law that you could share?]

Since Jian Yujing's group took to the field, the nineteenth and twentieth places on the real-time leaderboard have been changing almost every second.

Just staying on this stage for one more day will generate huge traffic, and the top 20 will also receive a large poster in a physical shopping mall as a reward. No fan group wants their favorite streamer to miss out on a spot in this round.

Around 7 p.m., just halfway through the individual performance stage of the last girl group, the activity value of the 20th place group completely broke through the 1.5 million mark and soared toward 2 million.

Countless eyes were glued to the screen; the preliminary round of the 30-to-20 competition alone dominated the trending topics on several platforms in just one afternoon.

Seven or eight clean syringes were thrown onto the screen one after another, causing a corner of the electronic screen to become completely unusable and leak liquid, casting several colored streaks of malfunction on the face of the streamer who was dancing in the live broadcast room.

“This screen costs eight thousand yuan. Instead of getting angry here, you should save the money and vote for those two good-for-nothings.”

Ruan Zihan threw the plastic box onto the sofa with a backhand motion. His eyes were red, and he was breathing heavily.

"What do you mean? You think I'd be short of money?"

A splash of hallucinogenic liquid from the plastic box landed on her earlobe. Chi Yingying wiped it away with disgust and stated the facts:

"If you weren't short of money, you would have already made up for those two people's votes. Why did you hesitate all afternoon and then fly into a rage of impotence?"

Ruan Zihan cursed loudly, provoked by her, and immediately picked up the internal phone on the table to dial his assistant:

"Right now, let's get Yu Yu and Zhou Zongyun's votes into the top 20. If anyone fights, we'll keep voting for them."

After finishing the call, he calmed down a bit, sat at his desk, and shrugged.

"It's not that I'm short of money, it's that all my cash has been used for investment, so I'm a little tight on cash for the time being."

"I can cash out the stock whenever I want. I just don't intend to let a small company like Giant Entertainment affect Xinghan's investment strategy."

Chi Yingying scoffed upon hearing this.

Half an hour later, the assistant called again: "Brother Ruan, the activity value of the top 20 positions has exceeded three million. Should we continue?"

When Ruan Zihan delivered the two men over, he had no intention of paying them the balance. The 600,000 yuan deposit for them was his initial budget.

Entertainment companies may seem glamorous, but whether it's controlling public opinion or managing media relations, money is needed to maintain operations. A company's cash flow is far less abundant than outsiders might imagine.

Even for the top entertainment agencies, an expense of nearly ten million yuan with almost no immediate returns is by no means a small amount.

This amount of money wasn't crippling, but it was still painful to see.

He hadn't expected Juyu to be doing this kind of live-streamed competition before he gave it away, and he didn't expect the preliminary rounds of the competition to reach such a large amount of money before the broadcast started today.

Ruan Zihan originally thought that spending a few hundred thousand yuan would be enough to smoothly send someone into the top twenty, but now the price has increased by nearly ten times.

The Star Federation's economy is now too developed, and this is the first time he has realized that he is not as powerful as the big brothers and sisters in the live broadcast room.

But we've already come this far, wouldn't it be a waste to give up if we didn't continue?

Ruan Zihan used his tongue to lift his cheek and replied to his assistant, "Follow, of course we'll continue."

Just as the assistant cast several votes for the carnival using a secondary account, the live stream reached the segment where the five hosts lined up to solicit votes one after another, and Fang Zhuo happened to appear on the side of the stage with a microphone to support them.

Seeing Fang Zhuo smiling and thanking the gift on the leaking and broken screen, Ruan Zihan could no longer suppress his anger. He kicked the screen stand over, earning another eye roll from Chi Yingying.

"Thank you 'Hanhan Tomorrow Will Be Better' for sending 100 carnivals, boss is very generous."

Fang Zhuo held the microphone up slightly while making a clapping gesture.

The real-time rankings are still fluctuating wildly. After Ruan Zihan joined the battle, the competition for the top 20 became even more intense. Every streamer's online fan group was mobilizing frantically, and all viewers were racking their brains to attract new users and vote for their favorite streamers.

Those vying for a spot want to squeeze into the top twenty, while those in precarious positions aspire to climb higher, and those ranked higher fear being squeezed out of the safe zone.

The related trending search terms on Xingwang were marked with a bright red "Explosive" sign, attracting even casual viewers who don't follow the entertainment industry to click in and cast some random votes.

The six live streams ended at exactly 8:50 PM, and each group returned to the stage for a group dance.

All the comments were taking the opportunity to promote their favorite streamers, trying to get one or two more casual viewers before the rankings were locked.

By 9:00 AM, the real-time rankings had finally stabilized.

The later-stage positioning threshold was raised to a high level, and tonight's live broadcast brought Fang Zhuo 1.1 billion yuan in revenue, far exceeding his initial expectations.

Moreover, this model is difficult for other smaller guilds to copy or imitate.

Even if rival guilds can quickly produce competing group-streaming shows, this competition format requires sufficient organizational capacity and a large number of high-quality streamers to support it. This also means that when Juyu holds another competition next month, the revenue it will receive will not be significantly reduced.

The live stream assistant compiled a list of key users who had cast large amounts of votes and tagged the operations department in the group, asking them to help contact the users and customize some gifts to send over.

Fang Zhuo glanced at the form. He didn't know if Ruan Zihan's assistant was brainless or if this was just Xinghan Media's consistent practice.

The alternate account that voted for Zhou Zongyun and Yu Yu not only didn't disguise its IP address, but also openly used the name "Hanhan Tomorrow Will Be Better," as if afraid he wouldn't guess.

He asked his livestream assistant to pull up the account's transaction history and discovered that the other party had invested a total of 6.2 million yuan that night, and all of this money had flowed into his pocket with a tenfold return.

Sometimes it's more satisfying to make your opponent lose money than to make money yourself.

The system also promptly notified him that with the reward for this new title arriving in his account, he only needed one more blind box to start the next ten-pull.

[Company's current reputation value: 15, matching the title 'Showing promise']

[Conditions met; maximum dormitory capacity has increased from 152 to 176]

[We've detected that your employee dormitory occupancy rate is currently 50%. We recommend hiring more staff to expand your operations!]

The staff were still celebrating in the live broadcast room. Jiang Yu bundled up the stage bouquets that would wither after tonight and gave them to the assistant director and the remaining anchors for tonight.

Just after 10 o'clock, Fang Zhuo called Deng Jiaqiang over, and the two stayed in the office to discuss the planning details for the next round of competition.

The office windows were set to semi-transparent mode, allowing glimpses of people moving around outside.

A few minutes of loitering could be explained by someone passing by, but those two figures lingered for almost twenty minutes.

Deng Jiaqiang continued talking incessantly, oblivious to everything around him. Fang Zhuo made a shushing gesture and silently switched the glass to one-way visibility mode.

Standing at the door were none other than Zhou Zongyun and Yu Yu, their faces filled with remorse.