Translator: Sy
Editor: SipsTea
Chapter 2: You’re Trending
[AAAAAAH!!!!] the System cried. [Did you see that, host?! Your Faith skyrocketed! This is amazing! What’d you end the stream for? If you had continued, your Faith would’ve been off the charts!]
Lin Ning paused from shoving rice into his mouth and shook his head mysteriously. [Take a guess, System.]
[…Hunger marketing?!] the System hesitated. For a horrible moment, its image of Lin Ning switched from a kind, mild-mannered boy to a cold, manipulative psycho.
[Nope.] Lin Ning shook his head, biting into the silky, bouncy, spicy fish juice coating over each layer of flesh. The numbingly spicy flesh was like fireworks against his tongue.
[What, then? I never would’ve thought of using live streams — you’re one hell of a guy, host.] The System mumbled.
[You really wanna know?] Lin Ning asked.
The System answered eagerly like a little boy. [I really want to know!]
[Alright. It’s nothing crazy, anyway.] Lin Ning answered. [I just like enjoying good food alone. As a chef, I love cooking and sharing that process with others, but when the dish is complete, I’m no connoisseur. I don’t like it when people watch me eat — it’s suffocating.]
[So no matter how many Rewards and Faith you receive, you won’t stream yourself eating?] The System was shocked. Who would’ve thought it’d have the wrong impression of the host? Turns out its host was a pretty alright guy.
[Ah, I didn’t say anything like that.] Lin Ning smiled so wide, his eyes curved upwards. [I’m still a new streamer, so I won’t grow much. I might stream myself eating, though, when I become famous throughout all of space.]
[……] The System had nothing to say.
What Lin Ning and the System didn’t know was that his stream viewers, denied a taste of something they’d never even smelled before their entire lives, channeled the power of their fury into making the hashtag #LemonKitchenBoiledFish trend on the interstellar net.
It was just a small trending moment, but that didn’t mean the internet had nothing to say about it. The user Fat_Bunny promoted the boiled fish video like it was the second coming of Christ, but the actual number of people who saw the stream itself were few. Many were skeptical, and even more were beginning to evaluate the channel’s genuinity.
Trying to use the Food and Drink streaming category to grab attention was basically social suicide. It was disgusting. So no streamer in recent years ever dared to attempt the Food and Drink fame method. The moment Lemon Kitchen appeared there, he was destined for pure online hate.
[Is this Lemon Kitchen some elementary school student? Are you from a village or something? Don’t you know that piggybacking off F&D’s a big no-no?]
[Exactly! Also, why does Shine even have F&D? Other apps got rid of theirs long ago, so streamers don’t even have the option to make cooking livestreams like this Lemon Kitchen guy.]
[A crash course for the comment above: Shine Livestreams relies on nostalgia as a marketing tool, and are no longer as popular as other streaming apps. Having something go viral on their app might be a stunt Shine themselves pulled!]
[I can’t agree with this. Shine still has lots of old fans!]
[Hey, we’re going off-topic! Aren’t we supposed to be pissed at Lemon Kitchen?]
[And don’t forget the Fat_bunny person spreading his channel. They’re probably working together. They’ve got skills, though. With scamming skills like these, wouldn’t it be better if they used it on a proper job?]
[Just wanted to say something… I went over to Shine to check out the livestream. Lemon Kitchen’s account only has one video, that being the boiled fish one. I opened it, and the smell was amazing… Doesn’t matter if it was real or fake, I was drooling…]
[Me, too. Who cares if he’s a fraud? Let me smell more of that! I can’t stand the taste of Nutrient Doses anymore.]
[The person commenting above can screw off. It’s so obvious they added a bunch of stuff to the food. Did they say if they were approved by the FSB? The streamer was even too scared to enable the taste feature, and he didn’t stream himself eating it, either. Can’t you see what’s going on?]
[Yeah. Even if it smells good, that doesn’t mean it’s edible. Nutrient Doses may be tasteless, but at least they’re definitely nutritious!]
The video Fat_bunny uploaded was flooded with so many hate comments, it was practically spewing smoke by the end of the hour. Even though there were some witnesses doing their best to explain what happened, they were immediately buried and forgotten by other comments.
*
Fat_bunny, whose real name was Rong Xinxin, was a girl who liked eating. She didn’t really like Nutrient Doses, but there also wasn’t really anything else she could buy to eat. That night, as she was messing around on Shine out of boredom, she saw the notification promoting Lemon Kitchen’s stream. Who would’ve expected that she’d discover a treasure?!! His hands looked really good, and his voice was passable, too, so she was willing to bet he was absolutely gorgeous. And he knew all these magical cooking techniques!!!
The only thing that disappointed her was that he really stopped streaming like he said he was going to. He didn’t even enable the virtual taste feature. She didn’t get a single bite.
Knock knock. A knock came from outside the door.
“Come in.” Rong Xinxin was playing the stream on loop. Even though all she could do was watch, she couldn’t bring herself to close the tab, hoping Lemon Kitchen might start his next stream soon. As for that disaster of a comment section, she just reported the particularly nasty accounts.
The person outside walked in and said respectfully, “Young miss, please start preparing. Mister Jiang Feng will be arriving shortly, so please begin dressing.”
“Jiang Feng? Even though he’s famous and currently the number one idol, that doesn’t mean I like him. Why does mom keep arranging…” Rong Xinxin waved her hand, rolling her eyes. “Rather than an idol, I’d prefer someone who can capture my heart through my stomach.”
“Young miss, can’t you see? Jiang Feng wants to transfer over to our Midsummer Entertainment,” the person whispered.
“What?!” Rong Xinxin’s eyes widened. “But Jiang Feng debuted from the idol trainee show with a C-position and worked hard to climb to the top! Now his company’s letting him go?!”
“They won’t let him go that easily, of course. Feihao Entertainment’s spending a lot of money trying to keep him. They’re pulling all of their strings. But Feihao is, at the end of the day, a small company. So, if Jiang Feng really wants to leave, there’s no helping it…”
*
Before sleeping, Lin Ning took a glance at the trending page without scrolling down. Naturally, he missed the little trail of virality he left online.
That’s because there was even hotter, more eye-catching news now— going so viral it was becoming a plague, it was topping the trending charts on all social media platforms. The other news didn’t stand a chance.
#MarshalInjured
#Ward6HeavilyGuarded
#AnalysingTheSuituationInSpaceThroughTheMarshalsInjury
#MarshalOurIdolUnconscious
#PrayForTheMarshal
……
Ward Six, marshal, injury, unconscious…
The guy in the airship he saw while leaving the hospital was the Interstellar Marshal?!
Lin Ning clicked on the headline. A picture of the marshal popped up.
The man in the picture was young and handsome. He wore a combat outfit, standing straight and tall. Black hair and eyes, a piercing stare, pointed nose and thin lips, sharp bones, on a cold, frigid face. The badges on his chest showed his countless achievements. Lin Ning felt an overwhelming sense of intimidation wash over him just by staring at the picture alone.
That’s a really strong aura. Is the marshal really that young, though?
Lin Ning eyed himself, then the marshal again. It was like a competition between a bug and a windscreen. So he logged into his own Interstellar account, typed in the #prayforthemarshal tag, and wrote a beautiful well-wishing post.
When he was done, he noticed that his account was plugged with the news of idols who were with him in the idol trainee show. The number of his fans weren’t small, either — eight million, though he figured they were all haters, and that all the comments below were about how crappy he was.
Lin Ning deleted the posts on idols one by one. One of them was a group photo of the top ten contestants. There he was, along with Jiang Feng.
Jiang Feng…
Since he took over this body, this body’s past — it’s gratitudes, grudges, affections, hatred — was something he had to figure out and overcome.
The author has something to say:
Marshal: Falling into a coma in front of my wife the moment I’m introduced is not very cool.
Lin Ning: ……
