Chapter 26: Rules Change, Good Days Are Over
Qin Shu's identity as the God of the Underworld has caused a sensation throughout the entire e-sports community.
The number of viewers in the "Win and Lose Couple's" live stream also surged instantly, reaching the top spot on the website's real-time popularity chart.
Just then, the scheduled live stream ended, and before the other guests could figure out what was going on, they were automatically logged off and summoned to the first floor.
"Some people are so shameless in their pursuit of victory, blatantly padding their stats! Coach Bai, you can't ignore this!"
As Song Ying and Qin Shu came downstairs, they overheard Zhou Ruoyu complaining to the director.
"Someone is manipulating the data?" The director was taken aback. "Teacher Zhou, don't worry, if that's really the case, the production team will definitely give everyone an explanation."
"Director Bai is fair and impartial. With your words, I am naturally at ease."
As Zhou Ruoyu finished speaking with a smile, she turned around and met Song Ying's gaze.
Zhou Ruoyu's smile vanished. She glared at Song Ying, snorted, and turned her face away.
When the results were announced, Qin Shu and Song Ying unsurprisingly took first place.
At this moment, Zhou Ruoyu angrily raised her hand.
"Director, this isn't fair! The livestream viewership data for Song Ying and Qin Shu is clearly inflated!"
"What? It was obtained through bots? No way?"
"How could they not! At the very beginning, although they gained some popularity by giving out red envelopes, after they stopped, they were always second to last. Their popularity was just average. But in the last few minutes before the end, they somehow managed to surge ahead and jump to the top of the platform! Don't you find such an outrageous increase strange?"
After Zhou Ruoyu finished speaking, she looked at Song Ying and Qin Shu and sneered, "I don't believe that no one can see the anomaly in this data."
The director understood: "So you mean they're sending out red envelopes to inflate their data?"
Before Zhou Ruoyu could respond, Director Bai remembered something else: "But didn't you also swipe? You swipe the most of everyone."
"I... I wasn't talking about sending red envelopes!"
Zhou Ruoyu choked for a moment.
She gets angry whenever the topic of red envelopes comes up.
Those heartless online beggars took the red envelopes and left, causing her to waste hundreds of thousands of yuan.
She's spent the money, but if she ends up being accused of manipulating data, wouldn't she be losing a fortune?
"Besides, how can giving out red envelopes be considered manipulating data? It's clearly just giving fans a legitimate treat. Are we allowed to let fans tip to boost their rankings, but not allowed to let streamers thank their fans? That's too heartless!"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Yueyao looked at Zhou Ruoyu.
She wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt like Zhou Ruoyu's words were trying to drag her into it as well.
However, she quickly dismissed the idea.
With Zhou Ruoyu's pig-brain, how could she possibly think that much? It must have been a slip of the tongue.
"If you're not talking about sending red envelopes, then what are you talking about?" the director asked Zhou Ruoyu.
"I'm referring to the last few minutes when the data in Song Ying's live stream was abnormal!"
"This..."
The director stroked his chin, looked at the parties involved, Song Ying and Qin Shu, with a meaningful expression.
"It is indeed worth discussing."
Who would have thought that his impromptu livestream arrangement would inadvertently uncover the true identity of a big shot in the e-sports circle who had been hidden for many years?
Currently, half of the top ten trending topics are about Qin Shu.
This young couple is his precious darling!
Only Zhou Ruoyu, with her short-sighted 2G network, still dares to bite people.
The more the director likes the winning and losing couple, the more he hates Zhou Ruoyu.
"Since Teacher Zhou has doubts, why don't we watch the replay of their live stream?"
After saying this, the director instructed the broadcast director to replay the live stream of the winning and losing couple at double speed, and didn't forget to remind Zhou Ruoyu to check the comments section.
This time, not only Zhou Ruoyu, but everyone else was stunned.
Especially Qiao Yu, who had been listless all along.
"Mr. Qin is actually the legendary God of the Underworld!"
Ever since his argument with Zhou Ruoyu yesterday, Qiao Yu has barely spoken. Even during group activities, he stands alone in a corner like a pillar, his dejected state quite obvious.
But now, his eyes shone with a light as he gazed at Qin Shu with almost fanatical fervor, and he couldn't help but step forward to shake hands with Qin Shu.
But as soon as he stretched out his hand, he seemed to remember something, so he rubbed his palm on his clothes before nervously and expectantly extending it.
"God of the Underworld, I... I'm Qiao Yu, and I've been a fan of yours for many years. It's a pleasure to meet you!"
Then he suddenly bowed deeply at a 90-degree angle.
Qin Shu: ?
Zhou Ruoyu: ? ?
Others: ? ? ?
After a moment of silence, Qin Shu politely extended his hand.
"There's no need for that, just call me by my name."
"No, no, no, you are my god! No, calling you by your name is too offensive. I'll just call you God of the Underworld! I never imagined I would actually meet you in person, it's like a dream!"
Qiao Yu held Qin Shu's hand tightly, reluctant to let go. It took Qin Shu some effort to pull his hand away.
"Yes, I'm sorry, God of the Underworld. I'm sorry, I... I got a little excited."
Qiao Yu scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly, looking a little silly.
Soon, as if remembering something, he quickly added, "By the way, God of the Underworld, don't take what Ruoyu said to heart. Your prestige in the industry is obvious to all. I believe your data is definitely not a problem!"
After saying this, Qiao Yu happily returned to his original position, only to be suddenly pulled back by Zhou Ruoyu, causing him to stumble.
"Qiao Yu, are you out of your mind?!"
I wonder if Qin Shu has a grudge against her!
As she said this, Zhou Ruoyu even rushed up and started pulling and punching Qiao Yu.
Qiao Yu, who has always been mild-mannered, quickly covered his head with his hands to dodge, but he was a step too slow and was still hit several times by Zhou Ruoyu.
"Let's talk this out, don't resort to violence!"
The director quickly pulled Qiao Yu behind him, and Zhou Ruoyu finally calmed down.
Fearing further complications, the director quickly cued the flow of the process:
"As everyone just saw, the data from Qin Shu and Song Ying's live streams showed a normal influx of traffic, so their first-place finish in this morning's PK was well-deserved."
"Second place: Sweet Bean and Big Meng; Third place: Teacher Jiang and Shen Yingdi; Fourth place: Pisces couple—any questions about the other two groups?"
As for Zhou Ruoyu, the director completely ignored her.
Speaking of the rankings of the Sweet Bean Group and the Jiang Chen Group, Jiang Chen and his team were initially slightly ahead. However, Sweet Bean was originally a streamer who was brought up by Tomato, and later, his long-time fans came to support him and showered him with gifts, directly overtaking the hard-earned Jiang Chen Group.
Both teams overtook their opponents in the final minutes, but with the previous comeback by the winning couple, the pressure from these two teams wasn't as obvious.
"Since everyone is okay with this, let's announce this week's reward—shopping credits!"
Upon hearing that the reward was money, Zhou Ruoyu immediately burst into laughter.
None of the people present were short of money, and their initial frustration from losing the game had dissipated somewhat.
However, immediately afterward, the director said...
“In previous episodes, the rewards for each event were different, mainly due to the limitations of the venue and funding. Now that we have moved to a new location, the rules and gameplay of the program should also be adjusted.”
"Starting today, everyone can no longer use their own money on the show. The only currency in circulation will be our shopping credits."
"Shopping credits can be earned through competition and used to exchange for daily necessities with the production team. Taking cooking as an example, you can exchange for ingredients to cook in your own small kitchen; or you can exchange for ready-made meals that we have prepared, but the latter is more expensive than the former."
"Alright, next, the staff will distribute shopping vouchers to everyone."
The four groups received the following amounts based on their rankings: 1000, 500, 300, and 100 respectively.
After receiving the shopping voucher, Qin Shu habitually handed it to Song Ying for safekeeping.
"A thousand yuan should be enough to eat for a week."
Song Ying held the shopping receipt in her left hand and dusted it off with her right, calculating, "If we just cook some simple home-style dishes, we'll probably have some left over when we leave. If that's the case, doesn't that mean we can just give up and admit defeat in the remaining matches?"
At this point, Song Ying had a bad feeling. "The production team can't be that kind, right? I have a feeling this is a trap."
Sure enough, when everyone saw the price tags on the supplies...
"An egg costs 100, a cabbage costs 200, a radish costs 200, a pack of mushrooms costs 300, an apple costs 300... a serving of fried rice costs 700?!... a chicken leg costs 800?!"
Song Ying instantly felt that the thousand-yuan bill in her hand was rapidly depreciating in value.
"They could have easily robbed us, but they were so kind as to give us a bite to eat..."
Seeing Song Ying's lifeless expression, Qin Shu seemed to remember something, so he pulled her close and whispered in her ear.
Song Ying's eyes lit up after hearing what Qin Shu said.
"I'll go right now!"
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