The Dead Were More Useful Than the Living
"Mr. Leon, what are your thoughts on the death of your colleague?"
During the interview, the host asked a question with ill intent.
In response to the host's question, Leon shrugged and said:
"I told him a long time ago not to use anything just because the price for selling goods is high. Ghost hunting is a high-risk job, and the tools you have are very important. If he uses goods from Pinduoduo just because they pay more, he'll run into trouble sooner or later."
Listening to Leon's unreserved criticism of the XiXi Group, the host suddenly felt a little intimidated and quickly changed the subject with an awkward laugh:
"Since this job is so dangerous, why did you join this industry?"
"In this day and age, what other reason could there be besides money? You don't think I'm doing this to realize my personal value, do you?"
Leon bluntly retorted to the host, then sighed:
"High Cost of Living is a problem everyone faces, and Xixi offers you a high-quality, affordable shopping experience..."
"Ahem..." The host never expected that this ghost-hunting anchor, who had just been criticizing his deceased colleague for promoting all sorts of products, would suddenly become a spokesperson for the company that caused his colleague's death. He couldn't help but ask, somewhat recklessly:
"Didn't you just say that Pinduoduo's products are unreliable?"
"Sigh, so you haven't grasped the main issue at all." Leon immediately dropped his sales-host persona and explained seriously:
"My criticism is not about the quality of Pinduoduo's products, but about Oseus's lack of understanding that every product has its own positioning."
"It's like a fountain pen. The Alesuhode brand, which focuses on luxury, can cost up to 70,000 Credit Point, while the Norma brand, which is more affordable, can be bought for just 1 Credit Point. If you only need it for writing, then buying a Norma pen is fine. But if you're negotiating a big business deal, using Alesuhode pen will obviously give the other party more confidence."
"The most important thing for a product is to place it in the right position and figure out its product positioning. For example, I can promote any product in this kind of talk show, even a notoriously bad brand, and I can talk about it fluently because it has its own meaning and value."
Watching the replay of yesterday's interview, Feng Xue quietly felt the changes brought about by the Tag. She had to admit that even in the Cyberpunk era, "appearing on television" was still an excellent way to increase one's fame.
He felt no regret about Oseus's death, nor did he intend to resurrect him as a "ghost." In other words, from the moment he began spreading the "ghost," he never intended for it to interact with human souls in any way.
Even Dunn, the Ghost Catching Master, repeatedly emphasized in his teaching that "ghosts are not the souls of humans after death, but rather False Thing created by the perceptions of the individual and others."
The reason why Oseus had to die in front of everyone was not because he wanted to reduce the mental burden of playing multiple roles, but because he had to die.
After creating the Supernatural Tale Entry "[Research a Ghost]", he realized that even the same Weird Tale should be treated differently for different groups of people.
Just like the example he gave in the interview, even when it comes to buying pens, different groups of people have different purchasing tendencies.
Similarly, people's different attitudes toward Weird Tale can greatly affect their cohesion.
Why did he use five people to create an atmosphere of "ghostly presence," but the first one to materialize was [Research a Ghost], which was created by casually selling ghosts?
The reason, in essence, can be summed up in four words:
"Stakeholder"
Because the study of ghosts is related to their own interests, researchers have to invest a great deal of enthusiasm. This enthusiasm deepens their expectations for understanding ghosts, while the inability to conduct further research exacerbates their disappointment. These different emotions fluctuate and conflict with each other, which is why the Trait "[Research a Ghost]" circulating among a few people became the first term to become a common expression.
Conversely, for most ordinary people, whether it's a mayor, a resilient livestreamer, or a livestreaming e-commerce host, it's far removed from their personal interests. They watch livestreams just for fun and naturally won't pay much attention. If they're just having fun, they may have a lot of knowledge, but they can't condense it, so the speed of creating relevant Trait naturally slows down.
Following this line of thought, Feng Xue suddenly realized why her previous Trait had been condensed so quickly—it all boiled down to "personal interests."
Therefore, to make the Trait about catching and preventing ghosts accumulate faster, we need to add a direct connection between the ghosts and ordinary viewers, so that the viewers can feel more pressure.
To achieve this goal, Oseus died.
His death made viewers realize that ghosts really can kill, and even the top-notch Blackthorn Ghost Catching Agency can suffer death due to a moment of carelessness.
It's not that there haven't been examples of ghosts killing people before, but the sense of danger is completely different when a ghost can kill ordinary people versus a Ghost Catcher Master.
This is similar to a fantasy movie where a zombie bites and kills an ordinary person; the audience won't be surprised because it's not beyond their expectations.
But if a zombie were to bite Uncle Nine to death, the impact on the audience would be enormous.
Oseus's death also served a similar purpose. Don't be fooled by his status as a live-streaming e-commerce host. If we were to use a fantasy film analogy, Dunn's persona is similar to Uncle Nine, while Leon is like the Four-Eyed Daoist, who seems greedy and unreliable but is actually dependable in crucial moments. Oseus, on the other hand, is like the Thousand Crane Daoist, who only plays in the peak tournament.
Now that "Master Qianhe" has failed, the goal of enhancing the audience's awareness of the danger level of ghosts has been achieved. Next, it's time to squeeze out the last bit of remaining value from the Gambling Ghost and Oseus.
Thinking this, Feng Xue, having changed his clothes and altered his appearance, stood up, unlocked his personal account using facial recognition, and opened his Live Broadcast Room as he walked out of his house. As the live stream indicator light came on, a standard smile appeared on his face as he addressed his Live Broadcast Room:
"Good evening, everyone! This is the Live Broadcast Room of anti-superstition host Burrlett Wall. Today, I will continue to lead you in debunking Feudal Superstition! But speaking of which, the more we fight against superstition lately, the more superstitious people become. Even TV stations have started spreading rumors about ghosts killing people. This is not good. So, I've decided to go to the place of that so-called ghost that killed a Ghost Catching Master to see if it was a real evil ghost killing people, or if it's just a publicity stunt that disregards human life!"
Unbelievable! I ran into a complete idiot today who insisted on arguing with me about some so-called Aristotle...
Putting aside whether this person's existence is reliable or not, the fact that a massive work of tens of millions of words was written on parchment is simply absurd...
Leaving aside the question of whether there were that many sheep or ink back then, the idea that parchment preserved for two thousand years could be restored to its original state is simply absurd. What has become of the parchment containing the Declaration of Independence?
Let me tell you, it's unbelievable. When you discuss the shelf life of parchment and ink with him, he says, "Bamboo Slip and papyrus can last for two thousand years, so why can't parchment...?"
There are all sorts of idiots these days...