Song Yunyan's support arrived very quickly.
Or rather, so quickly that even Lu Ban found it hard to imagine.
When he returned home in that extended black luxury car of some unknown make, Lu Ban's phone immediately displayed a news notification.
"Historic Jiangcheng Grand Theater to be demolished today; surrounding area has already been sealed off."
He tapped it open and took a look. It was a very routine report.
"Oh, so she planned to release a news story telling everyone that it was going to be demolished, then use the ensuing trending topic to boost attention for my video?"
Lu Ban considered Song Yunyan's methods. Only a rich person could pull off something like this.
After lying down for a while, the self-disciplined Lu Ban opened his books on folklore and continued studying. He also planned to watch a horror movie that evening and analyze its filming techniques.
After studying for an hour, his phone displayed another news notification.
"It is said that the demolition of Jiangcheng Grand Theater was caused by the discovery of an ancient Han-dynasty battlefield underground. Abnormal phenomena have occurred frequently in recent days."
Lu Ban opened the article. It was the sort of nonsense written by a public-account marketing operation, full of wild speculation. However, it had cited screenshots from Lu Ban's video as evidence while removing the source.
"Did they forget to credit me?"
Lu Ban didn't quite understand.
At noon, Lu Ban took a short lunch break, then continued studying diligently, preparing to resolve the question of Maya civilization's beliefs that day.
He glanced at his phone and saw another notification.
"The last person to see Jiangcheng Grand Theater was actually an Uploader from Old Days Video Network!?"
The article first described the history of Jiangcheng Grand Theater in vivid detail, looking back on its former glory. It then described the theater's current state with regret before lamenting the poverty of people's material and cultural lives today.
Finally, it mentioned Lu Ban's video and called on everyone to take one last look at Jiangcheng Grand Theater.
"This uploader from Old Days Video Network, Motionless, combined secret-realm exploration with special effects to show us the once-glorious Jiangcheng Grand Theater in its current state of decay. With terrifying and shocking visuals, he played a requiem for Jiangcheng Grand Theater. What he explored was not a dangerous forbidden area, but the original aspiration already lost in our memories. We sincerely thank him for his personal efforts to protect our intangible cultural heritage."
Lu Ban nearly cried as he read it.
"So my exploration actually had such profound meaning? I didn't even realize it."
He put down his phone and decided to continue studying for the sake of his own original aspirations.
In the evening, Lu Ban finished a day of studying. Just as he was feeling deep melancholy over the disappearance of the Maya civilization, another notification sounded on his phone.
"Jiangcheng Grand Theater trends online; horror short video becomes its final memorial."
This was a Weibo notification. After taking a look, Lu Ban saw that the news about the building's impending demolition had made the trending list, and his video had ridden the wave as well.
Originally, a video like Lu Ban's would have been considered an extreme attempt to capitalize on the trend. But when people looked at it, they realized, huh? Lu Ban had posted the video a full week before the demolition announcement.
Moreover, even before the demolition announcement was released, other streamers had already gone to see the place after watching Lu Ban's video.
It couldn't possibly be that the owners of Jiangcheng Grand Theater had seen Lu Ban's video and only then remembered to demolish the old building, could it?
After ordering takeout, Lu Ban watched a horror movie with his meal and saw another notification.
"Compilation of Jiangcheng Grand Theater's supernatural incidents! This place is not as simple as you imagine!"
He opened it while eating. Lu Ban found that it was full of theories that sounded plausible but were actually hollow and baseless, built on rumors and speculation. The most interesting one claimed that Jiangcheng Grand Theater was a ritual site suppressing certain unclean things, and that those evil entities were the ones captured in Lu Ban's video.
Then someone suggested that these unclean things were the work of an extraterrestrial lord from Aldebaran, and that merely catching a distant glimpse of those towering monstrosities would drive people insane.
"Wait, isn't this what I replied?"
Lu Ban raised an eyebrow.
Once the supernatural incidents began, many more people started riding the trend and joining in the spectacle.
Some explained the theater's architectural style as popular science.
Some used science to explain the strange phenomena.
Some took the opportunity to promote the deities they believed in.
And some tried to muddy the waters so they could sleep with their female fans.
By the time he went to bed, Jiangcheng Grand Theater had already attracted considerable attention. Lu Ban's video was being tagged every day as well, and both its view count and his number of followers had increased substantially.
Qin Tiantian, who had seemed likely to launch a midnight sneak attack, truly didn't come to disturb Lu Ban. Perhaps she was a little afraid of her roommate.
Managing to get a girl who was afraid to sleep alone to turn off the lights and sleep by herself still counted as accumulating a little virtue, Lu Ban felt.
Qin Tiantian would surely thank him.
Five days later.
Awakening to the pleasant melody of the Spring Festival Gala song list, the first thing Lu Ban saw was the ceiling lamp twisting and transforming into the indifferent text of the system.
Congratulations, you have completed the Career Development Task. Settlement will now begin. Task exploration: 75% Task completion: Spectacular Only by standing at the forefront of the times can you make your name known to more people. You have proven yourself. One hundred thousand people have shouted your name, yearning for new fear. Silence Points obtained: 2,800 Settlement complete. Silence Department Store has been upgraded. Custom Selection Mode has been enabled. As a highly acclaimed creator, your stage should not be limited to this alone. Explore a broader world and seek out more memorable footage! Please complete the task to receive your reward.
The ordinary patterns on the ceiling lamp transformed into an eerie design, like three small holes that made people instinctively want to peer inside and see what lay on the other side.
Lu Ban cleared his head a little. He knew that his follower count had reached one hundred thousand.
Five days was too slow for an overnight sensation, but it was still a speed that ordinary people could hardly achieve.
Most of these followers had come to watch the spectacle and see what Jiangcheng Grand Theater was really like. As for why they followed Lu Ban, aside from doing so on a whim, perhaps they simply wanted to see where he would explore next.
The comments were all urging him to update, leaving Lu Ban helpless.
I'm just an ordinary, promising twenty-three-year-old young man. Where am I supposed to find that many forbidden places for you to explore? In modern society, any place that should have been a problem was sealed off long ago.
Some followers asked, can't you just explore some abandoned factory or something?
On this point, Lu Ban had to clarify.
He didn't explore places simply for the sake of exploration. He explored to reveal the unknown in this world, to remind people to cherish their lives, and also because of his own curiosity and the need to complete tasks.
A perfectly ordinary abandoned factory—go in, walk around once, and come back out. A video like that would lack quality. It would be boring.
Better to have none than to settle for something inferior.
Lu Ban's standards for quality were just like his self-discipline.
"I need to renew the Captain's subscription. That hurts a little."
Lu Ban muttered as he brushed his teeth and washed his face. While eating the breakfast he had bought downstairs, he looked toward the computer screen.
A small hole formed from gray text abruptly appeared on the computer screen, as though it had been pierced by a bullet.
Beside the hole, Pale text emerged.
"Strange?"
He noticed that the description in the text seemed somewhat different from before.
*
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