030. Daily Life Uploader in the Living Area

"Achoo!"

Lu Ban sneezed, rubbed his nose, checked the air conditioning temperature, and turned it up one degree.

He had watched Qin Tiantian's entire livestream.

The effect was very good.

In the two hours since Qin Tiantian ended her stream, Lu Ban had gained over five thousand followers.

It wasn't that Qin Tiantian had strong pulling power, but after she shared it in the streamer group chat, several other streamers clicked on it. For a time, on the livestream section of the Old Days Video Network, several virtual streamers were watching the same video.

For streamers, pleasing the audience is very important. Anyone can sing or play games, and this can be showcased through videos. Therefore, during livestreams, what's needed more is the ability to create engaging content and react spontaneously.

Some streamers might not be good singers or terrible gamers, but they excel at creating funny moments. They might be bad at everything else, but they're number one at generating laughs, which attracts many fans.

After all, a streamer's income from subscriptions and tips during livestreams is the main source of revenue. Thus, streamers also enjoy finding interesting videos to watch and react to on stream for the sake of entertainment.

For example, horror videos are excellent material. Viewers find watching videos tense and exciting, and they enjoy watching others react to them, likely with a sense of schadenfreude.

Especially for horror videos they've already seen, knowing where the scares are makes them anticipate the streamers' reactions even more.

Therefore, Lu Ban's video quickly spread among streamers.

Originally, if it were just a horror video, streamers would watch it together, but then some people saw the uploader's name. "Good heavens, isn't this the author of that heartbeat-counting video?

He's always getting his content 'borrowed' by streamers.

Last time, that video not only became a minor hit in the streamer community but also provided more material for the horror section of the Old Days Video Network, almost paving the way for Lu Ban himself to be featured in this year's horror all-stars.

In the first couple of days it became popular, people watched Lu Ban's original video, then his horror videos, and then horror videos of Lu Ban's horror videos. This really made everyone remember the face of this handsome guy who liked to court disaster.

But this didn't help Lu Ban's follower growth much. It was like many memes; everyone used them, but very few people knew the story behind them or who created them.

Most people were just mindlessly repeating overused memes.

Lu Ban didn't mind the repetition or the stale memes. As long as he could gain followers, that was enough.

He watched the view count increase with every refresh, along with the comments, bullet comments, and likes. He felt the satisfaction of playing an idle game and watching the numbers continually grow.

Lu Ban casually scanned the comments.

["Brothers, here from Chuan Bao, spam 'Protect' in the public chat!"]

["I'll remember this uploader, they specialize in creating creepy stuff that normal people wouldn't dare to do."]

["Just finished the video, the special effects at the end were great, very realistic. Is the UP a professional in this field?"]

["What's the background music at the end? Does anyone know?"]

["Where is the UP planning to explore next? I think that haunted hotel in the north city would be perfect."]

["Am I the only one here to watch the UP's mukbang? What brand of self-heating rice is that?"]

["Such a good video shouldn't be seen by me alone, I must boost it to repay society."]

Of course, these were relatively friendly comments.

He didn't care about the malicious ones or those directly insulting him.

As mentioned before, people being scared and then coming to curse at him actually proved that Lu Ban's videos were very effective.

This wasn't the first time Lu Ban had edited this type of video. While editing, he paid attention to four points.

The first point was controlling the audience's emotions.

You couldn't keep the audience in a state of constant tension. If the audience remained tense throughout, they would be psychologically prepared for the frightening and horrifying scenes, which would weaken their impact. Therefore, Lu Ban edited in scenes of himself eating to ease the pacing.

In horror movies, there are often scenes where the protagonist narrowly escapes danger and transitions to everyday life. These scenes provide a sense of reassurance to the audience, which is then suddenly shattered for a greater effect.

The second point was not to resolve the event completely.

What Lu Ban actually experienced was much more dangerous than what was shown in the video, and he had almost completely resolved the event. However, what he showed the audience was his own powerlessness, his hasty escape after defeating only a few mannequin figures. On one hand, this left the unfinished event to pique the audience's curiosity and make them anticipate Lu Ban's next exploration.

On the other hand, the method of completely resolving the event was not "horrifying" at all. The so-called horror lies in keeping the truth behind a veil, leaving the audience to wonder what exactly happened, thus stimulating their imagination.

The third point was that although it was a horror video, it couldn't be too grim or terrifying. Lu Ban's goal wasn't to scare people to death but to gain more views, more attention, and more followers.

If the video was extremely scary, its spreadability would definitely decrease significantly, as many people wouldn't even click on it when they saw the title, let alone follow him.

This is why many enduring scary videos often have ordinary names and everyday beginnings – it's all to lure people in before scaring them!

The last and most crucial point.

The most important thing in making videos is to be happy. Lu Ban simply enjoyed inserting eating scenes into his explorations and watching horror movies while eating! He's even planning to bring some ingredients next time to cook on-site!

The background music Lu Ban used when Du Danping was performing was a fusion of Du Danping's performance recorded with [Last Words] and that segment of [Midnight Piano Melody]. It had a slight effect of attracting attention without completely consuming one's mind, and the effect was very good; children who couldn't sleep enjoyed it.

Seeing the growth rate far exceeding that of previous days, Lu Ban had another inspiration. He edited several key scenes, such as Du Danping's ghostly performance on the piano and the shot of him turning to encounter a mannequin with eerie eyes, into short videos less than ten seconds long and uploaded them to his personal account on Tomorrow Online.

Since followers were counted across all platforms, followers on Tomorrow Online were also followers!

If some fans followed him on Tomorrow Online and then followed him on the Old Days Video Network, wouldn't that mean one person could be used twice?

If they also followed him on Weibo, that would be the forbidden triple presence!

As for the Lovecraft Video Network and Scarecrow Video Network, Lu Ban fiddled with them for a while but couldn't figure out their user agreements and video copyrights, so he had to put them aside for now.

Moreover, thinking that the website might offer promotional support for exclusive premieres of full videos, he couldn't be bothered.

"At this rate, I could get a hundred thousand followers in a month, right?"

Lu Ban even considered finding some place to stage fake paranormal games or explorations to generate buzz.

Thinking of this, Lu Ban couldn't help but feel grateful to Qin Tiantian.

Even though they had only met once, and even though Qin Tiantian had asked him if he was alive the first time they met, Qin Tiantian was reliable in crucial moments. He would definitely share any scary experiences with her first in the future!

"The traffic diversion effect is actually so good, I don't know if I should be happy or sad."

Lu Ban scrolled through the comments.

What surprised him the most was that all the viewers had assumed Du Danping's appearance at the end was special effects, thus believing Lu Ban was actually a special effects Uploader in the tech category.

He was supposed to be a daily life Uploader.

He saw the comments asking how the special effects were done, thought about it, and replied to the account.

"It's not special effects, please don't imitate it, it's very dangerous."

Within two minutes of posting the reply, Lu Ban saw several people respond to him.

[This UP is quite humorous, staying in character.]

[I get it, it's not special effects, it's a prop you made, right!]

[UP's special effects are really good, more realistic than any AAA game.]

[Is this some kind of live-action promotion for a game?]

[UP, if you say it's not special effects, are you going to tell us ghosts are real?]

"."

Lu Ban thought for a moment and decided not to explain further.

Special effects, then so be it.

Anyway, Jiangcheng Grand Theater was such a remote place that ordinary people couldn't get there, nor would they stay up late like Lu Ban to gaze at the stars. It wasn't dangerous.

He saw someone had left a comment asking about the performer.

[I want to ask about the performer's background, does his playing cause death?]

This piqued Lu Ban's interest.

"This performer possessed supernatural abilities in life. He played to fight against a great existence from Aldebaran. To be precise, his performance was to protect others. At the same time, in the starry sky, there are many great existences that we don't understand who are watching Earth. A mere glance from them is enough to cause disaster. In this world, the more you know, the more likely you are to descend into madness!"

He typed out a long message.

This again drew a flurry of replies.

[LOL, still making up lore here!]

[It's normal to talk about ghosts, but why are aliens involved? Do aliens control ghosts?]

[UP's persona of courting death and being paranoid is quite realistic, love it!]

[From supernatural to sci-fi, what's so scary about aliens? You can take them down with an F16.]

[This UP is interesting, I'm following!]

[I believe it, and I also believe in Area 51, Roswell, the crystal skull, and the Tunguska event! UP, what's your address? Let's chat!]

".The crystal skull is a fake."

Lu Ban replied simply, then stopped paying attention to the comment section.

As expected, just like with a psychologist, most people wouldn't accept such facts.

Lu Ban didn't really care.

It was unlikely for normal people to come into contact with those strange things. It was also unlikely for normal people who had encountered those strange things to survive. Those who survived, besides Lu Ban, were probably not entirely normal.

Makes sense.

At this moment, his phone on the desk vibrated. Lu Ban saw it was a WeChat message from Qin Tiantian.

[Wang Chuan]: Which building do you live in?

*

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