Chapter 26, Second Round of Competition
The cloud-shaped display was temporarily painted with Giants Entertainment's livery, and the staff coming out of it were all dressed in neat suits.
The moment Yunlie appeared at the entrance of the Ice Sail Stadium, dozens of cameras were set up simultaneously, and flashes went off in a frenzy.
"Please line up in an orderly manner with your media pass to enter the cloud queue. Each media pass can only bring four people."
The photographers in the front row, carrying cameras, looked at each other in bewilderment, while reporters jostled each other to hand microphones to the staff of Giant Entertainment.
However, as several media outlets took the lead in raising their hands to verify their documents and entering the queue, the people behind them gave up their idea of conducting interviews and gradually began to queue up obediently.
As the cloud train headed towards the central city of the main star, the chatter of various media outlets inside the train never stopped throughout the journey.
"What exactly is Giant Entertainment trying to do? Why did they take us to Central City? And how did they know there were media outside Ice Sail and even sent Yun Lie to pick us up... This is terrifying."
"Didn't you say it was at the Ice and Sail Sports Center? Yu You, is your information wrong again?"
"Is Juyu planning to take us to the main city area to film promotional materials first, and then send us back to Bingfan after the live broadcast starts?"
"I always feel like I've been tricked, but I have no proof."
Yu You huddled in a corner of the cloud formation, put his index finger to his lips, and made a furtive shushing gesture.
The incident of secretly filming the 45 Star Film and Television Base was not exactly honorable, and he was still in Yunlie at Juyu Entertainment. He was afraid that his muscular assistant would find out and beat him up.
Although she couldn't figure out where Juyu was trying to take them, Yu You secretly turned on the live camera on her mobile device, deliberately lowering the brightness and luminance, and also reducing the resolution.
With these parameters, even the best locations can be photographed looking as shabby as an old hotel.
He said softly to the live broadcast camera, "Family members, Juyu has detained all the media with cameras at the entrance of Bingfan and taken them to Yunlie. I don't know where they will end up sending us."
His tone was inflammatory, quickly resonating with the comments section.
[Are you crazy? Is Giant Entertainment afraid that Bingfan will have another accident like the toilet explosion this year, so they deliberately sent all the media away beforehand, and then brought them back after the show starts?]
[Sorry, I just laughed so hard I almost fainted, and I just got up from the floor... What kind of antics is Juyu Entertainment up to now?]
[You can't even afford a garbage venue like Bingfan, can you? Don't tell me Fang Gege was returned by Bingfan because he couldn't pay the rent.]
[What kind of image quality is this? It's so dark and blurry. Can the main client please switch to a newer version of the terminal?]
The topic of the Juyu Group Broadcast Competition is now a traffic magnet. Yuyou's live stream room had only been open for a few tens of minutes when the number of online viewers quickly exceeded 50,000, and the barrage was filled with heated arguments.
The journey from the secondary city to the central city usually takes only forty minutes. As if in response to the speculation in the chat, Yunlie's movement speed was unusually slow today, and he only arrived in the central city half an hour before the start of the live broadcast.
However, when the cloud formation circled twice in mid-air and finally stopped at the entrance of the Federal Center Stadium, all the media personnel had a look of great surprise and astonishment on their faces.
Didn't the Central Gymnasium just close for maintenance two weeks ago?
Not only the media present, but even the chat in Yuyou's live stream room was buzzing with excitement.
But Yu You couldn't respond to the comments, because he noticed everyone around him was desperately running into the venue—
The Federal Center stadium is not large, and there are not many seats in each row. If you can grab a row further forward, you can take a clearer picture.
In particular, the fact that Giant Entertainment has not yet announced the venue indicates that this is an internal event that only invited the media, and their only competitors for the seats are each other.
Everyone was panting heavily from running. Just as these media professionals had set up their tripods, stabilizers, and other equipment inside the venue and started their live broadcast, the entire venue suddenly went dark.
As the undisputed leader among five-star venues, the Federal Center Stadium offers numerous exquisite and luxurious facilities for rent in addition to the regular venue fee.
A typical concert might use only one or two of these devices, but at this moment, the effects created by all the equipment running at full capacity were presented with unparalleled clarity to hundreds of thousands of audience members and all the media present.
The retractable supports on the stadium roof first formed a huge lotus pattern. As the petals gradually peeled away, the light passing through the translucent film gradually disappeared until the entire stadium was plunged into darkness.
As ethereal instrumental music filled the air, the walls around and above the stadium transformed into a scene of clear ice blocks colliding with each other.
Through the image displayed on the large screen of the quantum computer, everyone present seemed to be enveloped by a pool of seawater, surrounded by clear, light blue water.
The same mesmerizing and dreamlike scene was also presented in Juyu's official live stream.
The Star Federation's holographic technology is highly advanced. The Central Stadium is one of the very few venues equipped with a full set of intelligent holographic equipment, allowing online viewers to experience the feeling of being there in person from the comfort of their homes.
Once the computer is turned on, the stadium's smart devices can connect to the audience's smart homes, causing the indoor temperature to drop slightly, making the audience feel as if they are actually sinking into ice water through a thin layer of foam.
As the ice cracked, dozens of screens descended from above into the arena, each displaying a half-body profile photo of a different streamer.
The media professionals' cameras were at a loss for what to shoot, sometimes focusing on the floating wall, sometimes on the meticulously crafted official photos taken by the anchors.
Yu You then snapped out of his daze from the exaggerated special effects on set, clicked to check the live stream on his terminal, and discovered that only one or two thousand people were still online in his live stream room, and most of the comments were cursing him out.
[Fish, you've really taken poor care of me. Look at this blurry 1080P resolution, tell me what's clear in this?]
[Did the streamer get paid by a rival company? The brightness and picture quality are both appalling.]
[Could you please learn from how the other media outlets broadcast this live? You really need to get your eyes checked.]
[Aaaaaah, so how did Giant Entertainment manage to rent the Central Stadium? And on such a convenient weekend!]
[This year, several top entertainment companies joined forces for an auction, which only lasted six days in total. How come Giant Entertainment is still able to hold events here when the venue is closed? Is no one going to do anything about it?]
[Fine, fine, Old Wang, you're really good at this kind of differential treatment, going back on your word.]
[Is the curator's action a sign that he doesn't plan to open the museum to the public next year? So all those years of closure for maintenance were just empty promises? Why is it okay to rent it to Juyu Entertainment, but not to other entertainment agencies? Is Mr. Fang a relative of the curator?]
[Stop bidding, everyone. The Central Gymnasium has issued a notice saying that there were VIP dates that were not open to the public this year, and Juyu was the highest bidder among the participating companies.]
[Fun fact: No businessman will refuse money, especially a lot of money]
[Damn, I really want to know how much Brother Fang gave him to make a certain institution, which usually acts so arrogantly, so obsequious. Is there no law anymore?]
[I'd guess it's at least five times the price of this year's public auctions.]
[Well, if they really give that much, then I have nothing to say. If I were the curator, I'd be ungrateful too.]
[I'm so envious of this stage! It feels like the quality of today's live stream from Giant Entertainment is much better than other concerts held at the Central Stadium. I've never seen a screen falling from the sky and a wave-patterned wall before.]
[Maybe it's because these devices all cost extra ^^]
[The holographic projection is so cool! If I were there, I'd probably cry. Why were only the media invited? I'm so jealous I'm rolling around in bed! Who stole my press pass?]
[Why hasn't the streamer come on stage yet? What are the voting rules for today?]
[Forget about the streamer for now, folks, could you please report this paparazzi's livestream? He was the one who secretly filmed the set last time, speechless...]
Before the comments could refresh, Yu You angrily turned off the live stream.
A series of clanging sounds, like jade objects colliding, emanated from the center of the stage, followed by the raising of a three-tiered stage, 100 meters wide.
A beam of ice-blue light seemed to slowly grow from the very center of the stage, lighting up one by one along the path of the climbing vines, circling the central path twice, and then suddenly connecting with the spotlights projected from mid-air.
Fang Zhuo appeared in the very center of the beam of light and announced:
"Please bear with us. Today's competition to narrow down the top 20 to 12 will be conducted using a blind voting format."
"Each host will take turns to present for six minutes, and viewers can choose to place bets at any time."
"But unlike before, the official rankings will not be released during this live stream, meaning that during the voting period, no one will know the specific ranking order of each streamer."
"At midnight tonight, Juyu will officially announce the final list, along with a list of large-value gifts for all viewers to monitor and verify."
The comments section was flooded with messages, leaving all the media present stunned.
Although everyone knew the second round should be blind, no one expected the rules to be like this.
The competition to narrow down the top 20 to 12 was like an exam. All the audience members were like people silently washing clothes in complete darkness, only finding out how clean they were when the lights came on.
Given the uncertainty of whether they can secure a spot in the top twelve, the qualification line will undoubtedly be pushed to its absolute limit by fans.
Unlike the previous round where fans of top streamers stopped voting after entering the voting pool, this time no one can guarantee that their team won't fall behind in the dark.
Even though she knew that Giant Entertainment was her boss's rival company, Yu You couldn't help but marvel at the profit-maximizing rule design.
Meanwhile, the media present not only shoved their telephoto lenses back into the center of the stage, but also released dozens of press releases, vying to put the rules of the second round of competition on their media account homepages to grab traffic.
After speaking, the delicate light gradually went out, just as it had when it arrived.
The entire venue had been plunged into darkness for less than two seconds when the lights suddenly became bright and soft, and a magnificent pavilion and tower building appeared on the stage in an instant.
Tao Mi was wearing an expensive-looking hand-embroidered traditional cheongsam, holding an ancient flute inlaid with gold and jade, and raising her right leg to the music.
Her dance had barely begun when all sorts of special gift effects, rarely seen even on top streamers on other platforms, were being thrown out like crazy.
The flow of viewers was even greater than in the previous round of competition. The stunning stage presentation and the accumulated viewership from so many days of competition directly propelled the related topic to the top of the trending searches on all platforms of Xingwang within just ten minutes.
The fact that there were over 300,000 people watching the live stream was already quite exaggerated. But shortly after the broadcast started, the number of viewers in the official Juyu live stream room exceeded 500,000. Not to mention that some accounts were also gathered in the live stream rooms of the media in the audience to watch the excitement.
Apart from the Star Federation government affairs live stream, no other top agency or well-known actor's live stream in the past two years has generated as much buzz as Giant Entertainment Competition.
And the potential of Tao Mi's fans did not disappoint Fang Zhuo. Tao Mi's six-minute solo performance today directly captured the revenue she had generated for the entire previous night.
Normally, large gifts worth over 10,000 yuan would appear in the background in an orderly manner, but today the refresh rate is so fast that it is almost impossible to see them.
[Meow!! I'm sure Mom will get you into the top twelve. If we're going to do a skit, you have to be the lead!]
[The rules for blind betting are so exciting! Even someone like me who has never spent money in a live stream couldn't resist betting a few bucks.]
[+1, this is my first time giving a gift as a pure stage fan]
Can anyone summarize who is at higher risk under these rules?
Yesterday, it seemed like Ah Xuan and Lin Yuhuai's two families were locked in a stalemate, but in reality, their fans have strong spending power. Among those ranked 12th to 20th, only four or five people are likely to fall behind, and there will definitely be some of yesterday's top-ranked streamers who will be overtaken.
These rules are really exciting; I'm hoping for a big upset!
[For those fans of Jing, if you haven't joined the voting group yet, please join now! This is when Jing needs us the most!]
[I'm crying. How come every streamer has their own exclusive stage design? Juyu, can you please save some money? I'm really afraid Brother Fang will go bankrupt.]
[Does anyone have inside information on the current promotion threshold?]
Meanwhile, on the user profile map, the small dot at the address of Xinghan Media Company started flashing steadily.
Fang Zhuo turned on his personal computer and switched to the message interface.
Zhou Zongyun, who had five or six more people before he was supposed to go on stage, only then received Fang's message. He obediently sent a few words to Ruan Zihan as requested:
[Mr. Ruan, I'm so sorry!! It seems like Juyu Entertainment has found out about me, and they've changed the offline venue for the competition at the last minute.]
[I'm secretly watching their back-end screen right now. After the rules were changed in the second round, all the fans of those small streamers gave up. The top twelve qualification line was a huge upset. They've only reached a little over a million points now.]
Along with these words, Zhou Zongyun attached a photo of Giant Entertainment employees staring at the screen with furrowed brows; the photo also showed a corner of the large backstage screen.
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