Jian Ji was just as his name suggested: a video creator who made videos purely out of personal interest.
He had barely over ten thousand followers on C Station. It wasn't many, but they were all loyal old fans. Thanks to his solid skills and serious attitude, he had earned a bit of fame among the UP creators.
He had been lucky enough to pass the Intelligent Brain's screening and, as an invitee of Fall of the Gods's official team, participate in the inner test.
It was worth mentioning that although Fall of the Gods was entirely managed by the Intelligent Brain, the game's publicity and later operations still required the official team to step in.
Thus, to build anticipation for Fall of the Gods's public release, many video creators had been invited to participate in the inner test.
Over the past half a month, Jian Ji had nearly finished his first draft. To make an excellent video, he had worked ruthlessly hard.
For example, he had ventured into all kinds of dangerous areas to film scenery, been bitten to death more than a dozen times while filming monsters, and even flirted with a widow in the village to give his fans some benefits, nearly getting hunted down by the entire village.
Although he still felt that something was missing, Jian Ji decided to upload the video to the inner-test forum first and see how it performed.
However, when he opened the game forum,
Jian Ji was dumbfounded.
A huge bounty for Vivian's location!!
Everyone, I'm planning to go to Huodian City and join the Witch. Anyone coming with me?
A casual Vivian cosplay
Bishop Eugenia is so huge~
A rational analysis of Vivian's current strength
I'm crying. Why am I so far from Huodian City? Boohoohoo!
Question from someone who doesn't know: Since Vivian is a Witch, is she a villain?
Miss Vivian, I want to be your dog!!!
What... what's going on?
Jian Ji rubbed his eyes. He had only stayed away from the forum for half a day. How had so many posts suddenly appeared?
And it seemed like...
All those post titles were somehow related to the three words "Vivian"?
But that wasn't all. When Jian Ji clicked into the video section, he was even more startled.
Good heavens!
What the hell were all these countless videos with "Vivian" in their titles?
Keeping up with current events was the most important quality for a video creator.
Jian Ji no longer had any interest in posting his own video.
He hurriedly sorted the videos by view count and selected the top-ranked viral video, titled At That Moment, Miss Vivian Remembered Her Main Account.
It began with a brief black screen.
Well, it couldn't really be called a black screen, because it had long since been flooded with barrage comments such as "Congratulations, you found a treasure," "Play it another billion times," and "Mom, I'm in love."
Jian Ji had no choice but to pause the video and set the barrage-blocking level to maximum before he could barely make out the image.
Finally, the video's actual content began.
The very first shot followed a countryside girl dressed in coarse hemp clothing as she cautiously entered an underground lair deep within the forest.
The lair was bottomless, with no end in sight.
The enormous, exaggerated cave entrance seemed to imply that some terrifying monster beast was living inside.
Especially when combined with the heroine of the shot: the girl's small frame, thin clothes, and the only weapon she had on her—a sickle clutched in her hand.
In an instant, the tension and oppression reached its peak.
The barrage flashed by with comments like "I'm already getting scared," "Is something going to suddenly rush out?" and ".." (red eyes)
But then, just as Jian Ji thought the plot would develop like a conventional monster movie, he discovered that as the girl ventured deeper into the cave, the light inside grew brighter instead. Torches even appeared along the surrounding rock walls.
The answer was revealed soon afterward.
It turned out that this place, which should have been the lair of the Claw Forest's area boss, the Magic Tyrannosaurus Terror Claw, had been occupied by someone else.
Large patches of purple grass grew throughout the cave, eerie and mysterious.
A group of Fire God Cult followers in their robes knelt in unison at the feet of a woman seated in a bishop's chair.
Through the ensuing conversation between the girl and the woman named Bishop Eugenia, Jian Ji learned that the Fire God Cult was conducting an evil ritual here, with the purpose of cultivating those purple grasses.
And the purpose of this mysterious country girl coming here was to stop the ritual.
It was obvious that whether in numbers or in sheer presence, this female Bishop was far superior to the girl, who still carried a strong air of a little village girl.
The Bishop, who looked thoroughly superior, seemed to want to toy with the girl. She proposed playing a game: if the girl could withstand five of her attacks, she would stop everything.
Just as the atmosphere became unbearably oppressive and Jian Ji was anxiously worried for the girl, who could have guessed that this seemingly frail and helpless girl would also display powerful magical strength?
She raised a sturdy Magic Barrier and prepared to receive the other's attack. But at that moment, the situation changed again. The female Bishop seemed to have anticipated this and dropped an iron cage holding the players from midair into the molten flames, distracting the girl.
Sure enough, the girl fell for it. She diverted her magic to rescue the players in the iron cage and was sent flying to the ground by the female Bishop's long whip.
At this point, the barrage began furiously scrolling with curses such as "Despicable and shameless" and "Bad woman."
Just as the opponent's next fire whip was about to strike, while the girl still had to divert magic to keep the iron cage from falling into the lava,
the players trapped inside the iron cage unexpectedly all chose to escape by deleting their accounts, freeing themselves and no longer holding the girl back.
The fact that they could force players to such an extreme showed just how oppressive the situation had become. The viewers following the video felt the same way, and Jian Ji unconsciously clenched his fists.
Whoosh!
The female Bishop's murderous whip came roaring in, flames howling through the air as they charged toward the girl on the ground, who looked utterly exhausted.
At that moment, Jian Ji unconsciously held his breath.
Then—
the suddenly oppressive BGM came to an abrupt stop, and the video's gloomy color gradually brightened.
The girl in the shot seemed to have finally awakened because of the players' sacrifice. Flames ignited around her as well, and she gripped a giant Black Flame sickle several meters tall.
With a resounding clang!
The fire whip unleashed with all the female Bishop's strength was actually knocked away by the sickle in the girl's hand!
A passionate, blood-pumping BGM entered at that moment. Just like the girl's transformation in bearing, it was as though she had truly become a different person. The frail and helpless country girl from before had vanished, replaced by a wild and domineering scythe Witch.
The barrage in the video reached a frenzied climax at that moment.
Even though Jian Ji had enabled the highest blocking level, he was still bombarded by comments such as:
"It's here, it's here! The main account is online!"
"Big sis is so cool!!"
"Giant sickle and girl—my DNA is reacting!!"
"Player: Sis Vivian, you're literally acting out my fantasy!"
"I love this crazy beauty!"
The rest of the video gave off the feeling that "once my BGM starts playing, no one can beat me anymore."
In her scythe Witch form, Vivian slaughtered the Fire God Cult members like mowing grass. Her majestic yet elegant combat style kept countless viewers riveted to the screen.
The part where she beat Bishop Eugenia senseless at the end made even Jian Ji shout out in delight.
It could be said that however stifling and aggrieved the first half had been, the second half was that much more exhilarating and cathartic.
Whew.
He let out a long breath.
The video wasn't long, barely two or three minutes. From a professional's perspective, its production was still quite rough, with plenty of room for improvement in the transitions between its special effects and sound effects.
Even so, this rushed-looking video still made Jian Ji feel that it was unbelievably good, simply because the source material itself was too excellent.
At the end of the video was a link inviting players to join one of Vivian's quests.
Jian Ji tried clicking it, but it displayed a message saying that because he wasn't within the range of "Huodian City," he couldn't accept it.
Without hesitation,
Jian Ji exited the forum and logged back into the game. After packing his belongings, he opened the world map of the Flame Domain. Fortunately, he wasn't far from Huodian City.
For a video creator, source material was life itself!
Where there's milk, there's one's mother.
Mother, I'm coming to find you!!
There were plenty of people like Jian Ji.
At first, Chang Lu Man Man's call had only gathered players in the Huodian City region. But now that Vivian's battle footage had begun spreading wildly through the forum, players from the several cities near Huodian City had also started rushing there in droves.
Of course.
While some people were delighted by these Vivian videos, others were naturally miserable.
Chang Lu Man Man belonged to the latter group.
As Vivian's die-hard fan and someone who had personally witnessed the battle, he had naturally purchased the battle footage from Liao Zixuan at the earliest opportunity.
Unfortunately, the Little Wolf had arrived at their village rather late. By the time Chang Lu Man Man got the video and finished editing it, similar videos had already become commonplace on the forum.
"Damn it! I was obviously—obviously here first!"
Chang Lu Man Man watched other people make Vivian's videos go viral. His own video, however, had pitifully few views because its style was too similar and lacked originality, leaving him unbearably sour.
This situation was actually quite common.
The answer was simple: the competition was too fierce.
Chang Lu Man Man even saw people taking unconventional approaches. Some stopped making fiery battle videos and began making parody videos, gag videos, and even—even damn geniuses were making fanservice videos!
Most importantly, the fanservice videos gave all their shots to Bishop Eugenia, without showing Vivian even once.
"What do you mean by that?! Are you looking down on my goddess's figure?!" Chang Lu Man Man roared while furiously spamming the video with negative reviews.
"Boss, but Vivian really is flat. Just look at that female Bishop—the legs, the chest, and the battle-worn look after Vivian beat her up. And—"
Bang! Crash! Bang bang bang!
"Ah, I was wrong! Boss, don't hit me, stop hitting me!"
"Stop! Ow, that hurts! Stop! B-Boss, I suddenly came up with a new idea!" Chang Lu Man Man's subordinate clutched his head, looking pitiful as he came up with an idea in desperation.
"Speak."
"Boss, look. Everyone else is focusing their videos on Vivian, but don't forget—Vivian also has a Little Wolf!"
"So, if we want views and clicks, we have to stand out. Everyone else is making Vivian videos, so we'll make a video about—"
"That wolf!"
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