Anime Production, Starting by Healing the Audience: Part 3

Star Dream's viral explosion had filled the entire internet with discussions about this New Work. As the original author of Star Dream, Fang Zheng naturally received widespread attention as well.

Fang Zheng looked at the online chatter and smiled, shaking his head. From beginning to end, he had believed Star Dream would become popular, but he had never imagined that his first work would explode in such an almost prank-like way by the audience.

Star Dream's sudden popularity would probably leave plenty of people dumbfounded. After all, its rise to fame was simply too bizarre. Compared to those celebrities who paid to buy trending searches, Star Dream would absolutely make them green with envy.

Fang Zheng stood up with a smile. No matter what, Star Dream becoming wildly popular could only benefit him. It was also a natural opportunity for free publicity.

Ring-ring! Ring-ring!

Just as Fang Zheng was about to check how much his Reputation Points had increased, the phone on his desk suddenly rang.

Fang Zheng picked up the phone, putting aside the matter of checking his Reputation Points for the moment.

"Hello, who is this?"

"Hello, this is Weibo Official. May I ask if you are Mr. Fang Zheng, the author of Star Dream?"

Fang Zheng froze, thoroughly confused. Why was someone from Weibo Official calling him? They seemed to have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

"That's me. May I ask what this is about?"

"Ah~!"

On the other end of the call, the customer service girl suddenly let out a scream upon hearing Fang Zheng confirm his identity. The high-pitched shriek made Fang Zheng instinctively hold the phone away from his ear.

"Cough, cough. Sorry, Mr. Fang, I got too excited. You're my loyal fan... Ah, no, I'm your loyal fan!"

After a while, amid Fang Zheng's wry smile, the customer service girl finally calmed down. Even so, her tone still made her excitement impossible to miss.

"Thank you for your support. Is there anything else?"

Although it felt quite nice to have a little girl he had never met call herself his fan, he did not want to waste too much time talking to her. He still had far too much work to do.

"Sorry for disturbing you, Mr. Fang." The customer service girl on the other end clearly knew she had talked too much and hurried back to the point. "Mr. Fang, now that Star Dream has made it onto the trending searches, have you considered opening a Weibo account while the buzz is still hot?"

"Opening a Weibo account?"

"Yes. As long as you open one, we'll immediately verify your identity through our official channels."

The customer service girl sounded somewhat nervous, as if she were afraid Fang Zheng would refuse.

Fang Zheng was not unfamiliar with Weibo, and he knew that many major influencers needed identity verification. Since Weibo Official was willing to verify him, it would save him some trouble.

However, Fang Zheng also knew that this was mutually beneficial. He could gain recognition through Weibo, while Weibo Official could gain traffic from his popularity.

It was not a matter of who was taking advantage of whom. It simply benefited both sides.

"Alright, then I'll trouble you with it."

In the end, Fang Zheng agreed. He needed exposure right now, and he needed opportunities to promote himself. Weibo was undoubtedly an excellent channel for that.

"A Brief Discussion of the Cultural Form of Star Dream."

"The Cultural Impact Brought by the Hit Work Star Dream!"

"Shocking! The Author of Star Dream Is Actually This Person!"

"..."

The internet was filled with curiosity about the author of Star Dream. Countless viewers eagerly anticipated Fang Zheng's identity, wanting to see what kind of person could create such a healing work.

"I'm seriously speechless. It's already been a month since the Annual Best Creation Award Competition selections ended. Why haven't these reporters found any news about the author yet? It's all nothing but useless articles!"

At Modu University, in a men's dormitory, Chen Qian finished reading the news on his phone, collapsed helplessly onto his bed, and let out a miserable groan.

Normally, those reporters were incredibly efficient. Which female celebrity had cheated, which male celebrity was two-timing—every one of them had noses sharper than hounds.

But why did they suddenly go mute when it came to the original creator of Star Dream?

Chen Qian had started following Star Dream ever since the Annual Best Creation Award Competition. Although the work was incredibly healing and absolutely heartbreaking, there was no denying that, in a market overrun by all sorts of trash, it gave him one of the few moments that truly moved him.

It had even made a grown man like him break down in tears!

After watching Star Dream, Tieba and Weibo naturally became the places he paid the most attention to. From the beginning, when only a handful of people discussed Star Dream, to its current explosive popularity, he had been part of it all.

But what he was most curious about was the author of Star Dream. He loved this style of work and loved Hoshino Yume from Star Dream. Her innocence made even a grown man like him feel heartbroken.

So, many viewers were both eager and furious about the mysterious identity of Star Dream's author. Chen Qian, who had been among the first to be baptized by Star Dream, was especially restless.

He wanted to mail that old thief of an author some local specialties, but he did not know the address. Was there anything more frustrating than that?

Just as Chen Qian was feeling disappointed and sighing over another day without news of the author, his phone began to vibrate and ring brightly.

"The original author of the hit work Star Dream, Fang Zheng, has opened a Weibo account. Everyone, come take a look~"

Chen Qian stared at the Weibo notification and froze.

????

Chen Qian instinctively wanted to close the advertisement, but in the next instant, his eyes widened. He rubbed them in disbelief and shouted aloud.

"Holy shit!!!"

"Damn it, Old Chen! What the hell are you screaming about so early in the morning? You scared the hell out of me!"

"Are you mourning someone? You're ruining people's sleep!"

Several of his roommates had been sleeping soundly. Chen Qian's shout jolted them awake, and they all stuck their heads out from their beds, glaring at him in annoyance.

"Weibo!! The author of Star Dream opened a Weibo account!!" Chen Qian ignored his roommates' complaints and continued shouting.

But the moment the other roommates heard that, they moved like sprinting champions. Within seconds, they got up, vaulted over the bed railings, and rushed to Chen Qian's side at a hundred-meter dash pace.

"Fuck, after making us wait so long, he finally decided to show himself!"

"Get in there and see if there's any new news. He's been silent for a month, and now he suddenly opened a Weibo account. There has to be some important announcement. Hurry up."

The roommates surrounded Chen Qian tightly, urging him on anxiously.

Chen Qian was so excited that his hands were trembling. He tapped for ages without managing to get in, making the roommates beside him want to hit him.

When Chen Qian finally got in, he found that the page was loading painfully slowly and would not come up no matter how long he waited.

"Damn it, how many people are trying to squeeze in here?!"

As someone who spent plenty of time online, Chen Qian naturally knew what caused this sort of situation.

Aside from problems with his own internet, it had to be an issue with Weibo's servers.

Just as Chen Qian and the others were complaining about Weibo Official's garbage servers, the people at Weibo Official were quietly wiping cold sweat from their brows, finally letting out the breath they had been holding.

The instant they pushed the notification that Fang Zheng had opened a Weibo account, their servers entered an overloaded state. Faced with that sudden torrent of data, the servers had nearly crashed.

After temporarily adding several more server groups to spread the load, things finally became much smoother. They had narrowly survived the crisis.

If the servers had crashed at that moment, the Weibo CEO would probably have cried himself to death. He might even have considered sacrificing a batch of programmers to the heavens. Fortunately, they made it through safely.

The near-server-crash incident also made Weibo Official realize just how terrifying Fang Zheng's influence was. Since Weibo's founding, nothing like this had ever happened before.

"We must build a good relationship with Fang Zheng, whatever it takes!" The Weibo CEO made up his mind. This time, he had truly witnessed Fang Zheng's terrifying power.

Meanwhile, Chen Qian and the others finally managed to squeeze into Weibo.

"Holy shit, this follower count!"

Chen Qian and his roommates were instantly dumbfounded when they saw Fang Zheng's follower count.

In just a few minutes, it had surged to three million.

Was three million a lot? Compared to other major influencers, it clearly was not much. But Fang Zheng had only opened his Weibo account a few minutes ago.

His follower count had reached three million in just minutes, and that was while the servers were nearly impossible to access.

EXM?

"No wonder we couldn't get in. The fact that Weibo's servers didn't explode proves their quality is solid."

"Other people's Weibo followers go up one by one, but this Damn it guy's followers are rising by the tens of thousands at a time!"

Chen Qian watched the follower count beside Fang Zheng, the author of the popular work Star Dream, continue to jump upward, and his heart pounded wildly.

"Forget the follower count. Who knows how many more people are trying to get in? Hurry up and see what news he posted. What if Weibo crashes in a moment?"

"Right, right, hurry and check!"

Hearing his roommates urge him on, Chen Qian opened Fang Zheng's posts. The instant they looked closely, all of them began breathing heavily.

Fang Zheng had only posted two Weibo updates after opening his account.

The first was just polite formalities. He thanked everyone for their love of Star Dream and for their attention, explaining that he had not met everyone sooner because he had been wholeheartedly working on his New Work.

That post also informed everyone that he would soon be establishing a company. He bluntly stated that they were short on staff and welcomed talented people from all walks of life to submit their resumes.

But the second post was what truly interested everyone.

"I have been invited to attend the Annual Best Creation Award Competition's awards ceremony on the evening of September 30. There will be an interview at that time, which will be broadcast live on Modu TV Station. Everyone is welcome to come watch."

"To repay the love of all viewers, I will hold a giveaway during the interview program. As long as you repost this Weibo post, you can participate in the drawing. The prize is a character poster from my New Work, image attached~"

"This poster!" Chen Qian and his roommates stared at the illustration on the screen with shining eyes, their breathing growing rapid.

A New Work, and a limited-edition poster personally hand-drawn by Fang Zheng. At that moment, the group was wildly excited.

"Repost it right now!"

Chen Qian and his roommates all turned on their computers, logged into Weibo, and began reposting Fang Zheng's update.

After finishing that, they moved on to QQ Group, Fetion, and other social apps, as well as forums like Tieba.

Today, they were going to hype Fang Zheng to the skies!

"After bathing and changing clothes every day, burning incense and praying, waiting for the stars and the moon, you've finally shown yourself~"