".Achoo!"
Lu Ban sneezed, rubbed his nose, checked the air conditioner's temperature, and turned it up by one degree.
He had watched Qin Tiantian's livestream from beginning to end.
The results were quite good.
In the two hours since Qin Tiantian ended her stream, Lu Ban had gained more than five thousand followers.
It wasn't that Qin Tiantian had such a powerful following. Rather, after she shared it in the small streamer group, several streamers clicked on it. For a while, several virtual streamers in Old Days Video Network's livestream section were watching the same video.
For streamers, pleasing the audience was very important. Anyone could simply sing or play games, and those things could be shown through videos, so during livestreams, what they needed more was the ability to create entertaining moments and adapt on the fly.
Some streamers couldn't sing, played games terribly, and were useless at everything else, but they knew how to create entertaining moments. They were first-rate at that, and ended up attracting quite a few fans.
After all, income from captain memberships and livestream tips made up the bulk of a streamer's earnings. So, in pursuit of better entertainment value, streamers also loved finding interesting videos to watch during their livestreams.
Horror videos, for example, were excellent material. Audiences found watching them tense and thrilling, and liked seeing other people's reactions to the same videos. There was probably some schadenfreude mixed in as well.
That was especially true for horror videos they had already seen. Since they knew where the shocking parts were, they looked forward even more to the streamers' reactions.
As a result, Lu Ban's video quickly spread among the streamers.
If it had merely been a horror video, everyone watching it together would have been the end of it. But then someone noticed the uploader. Whoa, isn't this the author of that heartbeat-counting video from last time?
The streamers were milking him dry again.
That previous video had briefly become popular in streamer circles. It had also provided more material for Old Days Video Network's ghost-content section, making it look as though Lu Ban himself might enter this year's ghost-content all-star lineup.
During those first few days when it became popular, people watched Lu Ban's original video, then watched ghost-content videos about Lu Ban, and then watched ghost-content videos about those ghost-content videos. It really did make everyone remember the face of this handsome man who loved courting death.
But it didn't help Lu Ban's follower growth much. It was like many memes: everyone used them, but very few people actually knew the stories behind them or who they belonged to.
Most people were simply parroting and overusing a worn-out joke.
Lu Ban didn't mind people parroting things or running jokes into the ground. As long as he gained followers, that was enough.
He watched the video's view count rise with every refresh. The bullet comments, regular comments, and likes also climbed steadily, giving him the satisfying feeling of playing an idle game and watching the numbers keep increasing.
Lu Ban casually skimmed a few comments.
Brothers, I came here from Chuanbao's stream. Fill the screen with "protect"!
I'll remember this uploader. He specializes in doing the kind of sinister stuff ordinary people couldn't even imagine.
I finished the video. The final effects were great, and very realistic. Is the uploader a professional?
What was that final piece of background music? Does any expert know?
Where is the uploader planning to explore next? I think that haunted hotel in North City would be perfect.
Am I the only one here for the uploader's mukbang? What brand was that self-heating rice?
A video this good can't be watched by me alone. I have to boost it and give back to society.
Of course, those were the more friendly comments.
There were also malicious comments, or people who directly insulted Lu Ban, but he didn't care.
As mentioned before, getting frightened and then coming over to curse at him only proved that his video had worked.
This wasn't Lu Ban's first time editing this kind of video. While editing it, he had paid attention to four points.
The first was manipulating the audience's emotions.
He couldn't keep the audience tense the entire time. If they remained nervous throughout, they would be mentally prepared for frightening and horrific scenes, weakening their impact. That was why Lu Ban had edited in footage of himself eating, to ease the pace.
Horror movies often showed the protagonist escaping danger and returning to daily life. Such scenes gave the audience a sense of security, only to suddenly shatter it afterward, producing a better effect.
The second point was that the incident couldn't actually be resolved.
What Lu Ban had experienced in reality was far more dangerous than what appeared in the video, and he had practically resolved the incident completely. But what he showed the audience was his helplessness, ending with him fleeing in panic after knocking down only a few mannequin dolls. On the one hand, leaving the incident unfinished kept the audience hanging and made them anticipate Lu Ban's next exploration.
On the other hand, completely resolving the incident wasn't frightening at all. The essence of horror was keeping the truth behind a curtain, making the audience unable to understand what had happened. Only then could their imaginations take over.
The third point was that although it was a horror video, it couldn't be too sinister or terrifying. Lu Ban's goal wasn't to scare people to death, but to gain more views, more attention, and more followers.
If a video was too frightening, its spread would definitely be greatly reduced. Many people wouldn't even click on it after hearing its title, much less follow him.
That was why many enduringly popular scary videos had ordinary names and mundane openings: they were designed to trick people into clicking so they could scare them!
The last point was also the most important.
The most important thing about making videos was having fun. Lu Ban simply loved inserting eating segments into his explorations and playing horror movies while he ate! Next time, he even planned to bring some ingredients and cook on-site!
The background music Lu Ban used while Du Danping performed was made by combining Du Danping's performance, recorded with Last Words, with that piece of Midnight Piano Melody. It had a slight effect of drawing people's attention without completely seizing their minds. The result was quite good, and children who couldn't sleep loved it.
Seeing that the data had far surpassed the growth from the previous few days, Lu Ban had another idea. He cut several key scenes—the ghost of Du Danping playing the piano, for example, and the shot of turning around to encounter a mannequin doll with strange eyes—into short videos of less than twenty seconds, then uploaded them to his personal account on Tomorrow Online.
Since followers were counted across all platforms, didn't followers on Tomorrow Online count too?
If some fans followed me on Tomorrow Online and then followed me again on Old Days Video Network, wouldn't that make one person count as two?
If they followed me on Weibo as well, that would be the forbidden trinity!
As for Lovecraft Video Network and Scarecrow Video Network, Lu Ban spent a long time trying to understand their user agreements and video copyright policies but couldn't figure them out, so he could only set them aside for now.
Besides, if he released the full video exclusively, the website might promote it. With that in mind, he couldn't be bothered.
"At this rate, I should be able to reach a hundred thousand followers in a month, right?"
Lu Ban even started thinking about finding some place to play supernatural games or conduct an exploration and ride the hype.
At that thought, Lu Ban couldn't help feeling somewhat grateful to Qin Tiantian.
Although the two of them had met only once, and although Qin Tiantian had asked whether he was alive the very first time they met, she had still come through when it mattered. In the future, whenever he found anything frightening, she would definitely be the first person he shared it with!
"The traffic diversion worked this well? I don't know whether I should be happy or sad."
Lu Ban scrolled through the comments.
What surprised him most was that all the viewers had assumed Du Danping's final appearance was a special effect, and thus concluded that Lu Ban was actually a special-effects uploader from the technology section.
He was clearly supposed to be a daily uploader from the living area.
Seeing the comments asking how the special effects had been made, he thought for a moment, then used the account to reply.
"It isn't a special effect. Please don't imitate it. It's extremely dangerous."
Barely two minutes after he posted the reply, Lu Ban saw several people responding to him.
This uploader is pretty funny. He's really committed to the persona.
I get it now. It isn't a special effect—it's a prop they made, right?
The uploader's special-effects skills are really good. It looks more realistic than any AAA game.
Is this some kind of live-action advertisement for a game?
Uploader, if you're saying this isn't a special effect, are you telling us that ghosts really exist in this world?
"."
Lu Ban thought about it, but decided not to explain any further.
Special effects it was.
Jiangcheng Grand Theater was so remote that ordinary people couldn't get there anyway. They certainly wouldn't go there in the middle of the night to gaze at the stars like Lu Ban had. There was no danger.
Then he saw someone asking about the performer.
Can I ask what this performer's backstory is? Does playing the piano make people die?
Lu Ban became interested at once.
"This performer possessed supernatural abilities while he was alive. He played in order to resist the Great Being from Aldebaran. More precisely, his performance was meant to protect other people. At the same time, there are many Great Beings we don't understand watching Earth from the starry sky. A mere glance from them is enough to bring disaster. In this world, the more you know, the easier it is to fall into madness!"
His fingers flew across the keyboard as he typed out a long paragraph.
It drew another flood of replies.
I'm dying. You're still making up lore here!
Ghosts and monsters were normal enough, but why are aliens involved too? Could it be that aliens created all the ghosts?
The uploader's persona as someone obsessed with courting death and suspicious of everything is surprisingly convincing. Love it.
It went from supernatural to science fiction just like that. What's so scary about aliens? Open an F-16 and shoot them down.
This uploader is pretty interesting. Followed!
I believe you. I also believe in Area 51, Roswell, crystal skulls, and the Tunguska explosion! Uploader, what's your address? Let's get together and exchange ideas.
".The crystal skull was a forgery."
Lu Ban replied simply, then stopped paying attention to the comments.
Sure enough, just like with a psychologist, ordinary people wouldn't accept facts like these.
Lu Ban didn't mind.
Ordinary people were unlikely to come into contact with those strange things. And ordinary people who had come into contact with such strange objects were unlikely to survive. Apart from Lu Ban, those who did survive probably weren't very normal either.
Reasonable.
At that moment, the phone on the desk vibrated. Lu Ban saw that Qin Tiantian had sent him a message on WeChat.
Wang Chuan: Which building do you live in?
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