Chapter 110: You’re Actually Competing For Real?
“Running a nonexistent competition must be exhausting, right?”
Yu Wei had only seen this kind of comment in the comment sections of games that hadn’t obtained a license yet, with the account operation vividly detailed, but the game launch indefinitely delayed…
He never expected to see it in his own book review section today.
In the readers’ eyes, he made this competition seem completely real. If not for the complete lack of related information online, everyone would almost believe it.
It was one thing for the novel to solemnly introduce the program rules, but who would have thought Yu Wei even prepared competition posters?
Apart from not publicly advertising, there was no difference from a legitimate program; in fact, the popularity was even higher than some real programs.
In recent years, variety shows were no longer novel; various platform companies all wanted a piece of the pie, with online variety shows and television variety shows everywhere, and many new programs that netizens had never even heard of.
Obscure variety shows were completely ignored, the guests invited were bottom tier among bottom tier, and the program team posts only got single-digit likes, with the few comment sections having people asking what the program was called…
But Yu Wei’s “Enthusiastic Praise Top Streamer” was different; even though it didn’t exist, Yu Wei’s novel had high popularity.
Coupled with Zhang Lingye, Fei Hong, and Zhou Mumu each fanning the flames with their own popularity, this nonexistent program’s popularity wasn’t small.
Some friends who didn’t surf the internet much brushed past it and thought there really was such a program, already silently expecting the program to air.
As if it could air—Yu Wei’s program wasn’t even filed, no license at all…
A fake program without a single project approval ended up with higher popularity than many real programs on the market—who could you reason with?
And this wasn’t even the most unacceptable part; what other variety show people couldn’t accept most was that Yu Wei’s fake program had zero cost.
Damn, he wrote whatever guest he wanted, inviting stars to the program without spending a dime on appearance fees—was this zero-yuan purchase in the entertainment industry?
Now stars recording variety shows, which appearance fee wasn’t starting at a million? But with Yu Wei, he could invite a bunch without spending a cent.
He gained the popularity without spending a dime…
In other novels, just writing a name made it awkward to thick-skinnedly demand money; this was a solid open scheme.
He got the popularity and traffic of the variety show, but didn’t suffer any of the hardship of producing it.
No project approval, investment promotion, filming, post-production—none of that existed; just write it as assumed!
The fake one was domineering, impossible to pin down.
Yu Wei didn’t have time to keep reading netizens’ views on the competition; calculating the time, the star fans should be arriving at the battlefield.
“Congratulations to Mu Mu on the cameo, looking forward to new works.”
“Can Yu Wei give our Mu Mu more scenes, positive role.”
“Why is Fei Hong everywhere? Refuse binding!”
Leading the charge were Zhou Mumu’s fans. Yu Wei originally thought among these three, Zhang Lingye’s fans had the strongest combat power, since he was an idol.
But the top three floors in the comment section were firmly occupied by Zhou Mumu’s fans, leaving Old Zhang to cling on barely at the fourth floor.
As for Fei Hong, there wasn’t even a shadow; looks like after growing ugly, he really cooled off…
The entertainment industry boiled down to looks in the end; as long as the face was there, the kingdom was secure. No matter how poor the acting skills, people would buy it; even stepping on a sewing machine would have fans summoning his soul.
If ugly, then he’d fall into Fei Hong’s predicament: good personality, hardworking, solid acting skills, but just not many fans.
Especially after his romance with Zhou Mumu was exposed, Zhou Mumu’s fans refused to acknowledge it, feeling he was climbing high.
The third floor in the comment section meant just that; even in the novel, they had to debunk the rumor.
Stars dating was like this; they still had to pass the fans’ test. If not recognized by fans, it was small drama every two days, big drama every three—hard to withstand.
Yu Wei had somewhat underestimated Zhou Mumu’s popularity: child star debut, appearance that could compete, representative work of well-behaved and cute, many female fans ate this up.
Her mom fans proportion was high, with strong protective desire. Seeing a male star, and an ugly one at that, trying to take their little white cabbage, of course they wouldn’t agree.
But mom fans had one good point: relatively reasonable. Unlike brainless underage girls, mom fans were fierce for their idol but could talk nicely when it didn’t involve their own idol.
So the novel’s comment section was relatively harmonious; few said Yu Wei wasn’t right, and some were even his and Zhou Mumu’s double fans.
Watching the novel data continue to grow, Yu Wei slept until late morning. The next day, he was surprised to find quite a few people urging updates.
Yu Wei hadn’t seen these two words in a long time; ever since his celebrity writing novels was exposed, most netizens came for fun.
Updated, they’d read; not updated, they wouldn’t; interested, read; not, don’t. They weren’t there for the plot, so naturally wouldn’t urge updates.
But now it was different; he fabricated a variety show competition out of thin air, plus a few real stars, and many people really wanted to know how the development would unfold…
So these few real stars were already set to reach the finals? They had names, so definitely main roles; anyone could guess they wouldn’t one-round out.
A bit curious how exactly they would advance.
“Not bad.”
Yu Wei had long thought up the specific program rules. Since it was a competition, it had to show the competitive aspect: battle for refreshment!
Traditional talent shows where mentors decided were too watered down, with countless cases of program teams scripting to protect people.
Yu Wei’s format skipped the vague and empty stuff: straight 1v1, strength decides.
77 contestants directly paired battles, 38 winners and the 1 bye directly advance; 38 losers wouldn’t be directly eliminated but enter the quarantine zone to fight for the last nine spots.
Who wins or loses, all decided by readers’ likes; the program starts with full gunpowder flavor—this was a real competition.
However, if the competition outcome was completely decided by readers’ likes, then the protagonist and mentors had no meaning, weakening the protagonist’s influence was a big taboo in novels!
So Yu Wei cleverly arranged a best-of-three system: mentor vote counts one point, on-site audience vote one point, network audience i.e. readers’ likes one point.
To make the outcome fully depend on reader votes, he’d write the mentors and on-site audience outcome as 1:1 in the novel.
Written this way, it preserved the protagonist’s prestige and influence as mentor, while giving off-site readers a sense of immersion in stirring the winds and clouds.
The everyone’s praise was the crucial one, the weight breaking the balance…
Seeing everyone’s enthusiasm so high, Yu Wei didn’t hold back; he quickly typed out today’s first chapter, simply introduced the program rules, then wrote to Zhou Mumu taking the stage to sing.
[The stage spotlights suddenly dimmed, leaving only a beam of soft warm light falling in the stage center.
Zhou Mumu slowly walked onstage, her white skirt swaying gently with her steps, like a cloud soaked in moonlight.
She slightly nodded to the audience in greeting, fingertips lightly touching the stand microphone; when she opened her mouth, her voice was clear like mountain stream: “The next song is called ‘The Secret of the Time Thief’.”
The faint hubbub below gradually quieted; her gaze swept over the darkness in the audience seats, as if dialoguing with every line of sight.
“What you can hold tight, don’t let go
What you can embrace, don’t pull…”
This song was really chosen by Zhou Mumu; yesterday when writing the new program, Yu Wei asked if she was willing to be an extra in the novel, and Zhou Mumu specifically requested to sing this song.
She was an actor by training, could sing but not expertly; this song was gentle, easy to sing, and suited her timbre.
Yu Wei immediately had her record the song quickly; for a simple concert video, it could probably be done today.
After the new chapter was released, as expected, it stirred up the readers; just using real people’s names was one thing, but arranging her own song—this was clearly a guaranteed pass?
“I really do want to hear Mu Mu sing this song.”
“Real star plus real song; I have to cry foul for the rack-world natives—black curtain, definite black curtain!”
“Zhou Mumu not advancing would be the black curtain, right? At least professionally trained; even if not a pro singer, first round advance is easy.”
“Support, Yu Wei arrange for our Mu Mu to advance, no black curtain.”
The fake competition’s flaw was obvious: Yu Wei had final say, writing however he wanted—no black curtain, only the author’s big hand.
Realizing this, many readers already saw the format was unfair…
If Yu Wei was dead set on a real star winning to the end, wouldn’t this book become a tool for hyping?
This wasn’t a real competition; if the outcome relationships between real stars later couldn’t convince, what then?
“I’m not doing black curtain.”
Yu Wei had foreseen this; if victory or defeat was all up to the author, the competition truly had no meaning, so he arranged reader immersion voting channel.
At this moment, Zhou Mumu’s concert video arrived; could tell she prepared carefully—the video recording background was actually a not-too-small stage, probably the company’s real scene.
The broadcast hall was too spacious causing slight echo in the singing, but Yu Wei felt it was just right, very real; readers would definitely have more immersion.
After confirming the video content was correct, Yu Wei copied one to Qi Luo An to post on the short video alternate account, while he himself posted one in the Easter Egg Chapter.
””Enthusiastic Praise Top Streamer” First Round Zhou Mumu Contest Song “The Secret of the Time Thief””
“Ah?”
“No way?”
Wasn’t this competition just made up by Yu Wei? How was there really a singing segment, and actually having Zhou Mumu herself sing—didn’t need to restore the novel this much.
You’re really doing the competition?
In the novel Zhou Mumu’s singing was real; what about the other stars, and later competitions and performances—would those be real too?
Yu Wei was making the fake competition have the momentum of a real one: with plot and video, immersion directly maxed.
And Zhou Mumu sang really well; though not as technically strong as Yu Wei’s original, her clear female voice undoubtedly suited the song better.
Hearing their own idol sing, fans were definitely happy, but the more real Yu Wei’s competition, the more they worried about him writing nonsense.
“Such a wonderful performance, you can’t eliminate, right?”
“No black curtain; I recognize this song.”
“Update fast; I want to see our Mu Mu full votes advance!”
With the concert video released, Yu Wei’s fake program really started tasting like a competition—not only audience expectation, but worry about their own idol losing.
“Whether can advance isn’t up to me; it’s up to you all.”
Yu Wei wasn’t rushing readers to vote; he was waiting for Zhou Mumu’s opponent’s singing video.
Gentlemen, I love war!
