The first career... line

The First Career... Line (Begging for Investment, Begging for New Year Investment)

Before Li Xian left, he gestured at Zhang Cheng like a phone to remind him to stay in touch, then left the company.

Zhang Cheng had no other talents, but he loved hanging around forums and all kinds of websites. Most people found organizations like paid posters mysterious, but to him, they were just like neighbors—he dropped by for a visit whenever he had nothing to do.

This useless skill was usually too embarrassing to mention, but he never expected it to come in handy today.

After Li Xian left, Zhang Cheng took out his phone and carefully checked the balance in his VX wallet again.

A five followed by four zeros—no more, no less. A full fifty thousand yuan.

Seeing that number, Zhang Cheng's little heart began pounding, his breathing grew rapid, and sweat seeped from his palms.

Fifty thousand yuan!

When had the money in his bank account ever exceeded four digits?

Zhang Cheng took a deep breath and calmed himself down. He told himself, Stay calm... Take it easy... This money isn't mine. It's Brother Xian's budget for getting things done... Brother Xian wants to hire paid posters... That's right, that's right... Paid posters.

With that thought, Zhang Cheng immediately logged into QQ and found a group called Jin Yong Heroes Biography.

"Rat-a-tat-tat..."

His fingers rapidly struck the keyboard, and a message appeared in the group.

"I have a big order. Anyone interested?"

"Private message me..."

"Private message me..."

"Private message me..."

"..."

As soon as the message appeared in the group, seven or eight people replied. Zhang Cheng filtered through them and opened East Heretic's chat window.

There were five top paid-poster bosses in this group, and East Heretic was one of them. As for the other four, can you guess what they were called?

"Old Evil Huang..."

"Boss, what kind of service do you need? I'll send you a price list. Take a look."

An image was sent over. Zhang Cheng opened it and saw that the list was extremely comprehensive. It covered everything from forums, blogs, and Weibo to all kinds of music and video websites.

The prices were also listed in meticulous detail. For example, there were four options for buying followers: basic followers (for padding the numbers, no drop-off), advanced followers (a small number with profile pictures), top-tier genuine followers (permanent, high-quality), and premium active followers (genuine and active).

The prices ranged from one hundred yuan per ten thousand followers to three hundred and fifty yuan per ten thousand followers. The higher the quality, the higher the price. Further down were all kinds of packages, including likes, reposts, comments, and more. It had everything.

"Do you offer private-message-spamming services?" Zhang Cheng asked.

"Private-message spamming?"

"Right. Spamming private messages to Bilibili creators."

"Uh... No problem. Automated messages are thirty cents each, manual messages are fifty cents. We have packages for larger quantities. Using the comment packages as a reference, automated messages are 240 yuan per thousand, and manual messages are 420 yuan per thousand."

"I want the manual package. They must be sent manually by real people, with at least one hundred people involved."

"At least one hundred people? Boss, if you need that many, it'll cost extra."

Zhang Cheng thought it over, then sent Li Xian a message explaining the situation. Li Xian quickly replied, telling him to use his own judgment and that money was no issue.

After seeing the reply, he immediately decided. "No problem. Let's start with two thousand messages."

"Okay. For manual messages from more than one hundred real people, the price is 700 yuan per thousand. Since this is our first time taking your order, I'll give you a ten-percent discount. Two thousand messages will be 1,260 yuan. Pay half up front, and settle the balance after the work is done."

"Okay, I'll transfer it to you through VX."

"{OK}... Boss, what are your requirements?"

"Bilibili. Send him private messages saying: 'Your account is gone.'"

"Understood!"

After everything was settled, Zhang Cheng leaned back comfortably. Damn it, I'll have more than a hundred people blow up your private messages. I refuse to believe you won't see them.

Meanwhile, after returning to the hotel, Li Xian immediately turned on his computer to check his videos.

He checked several video websites and found that his original videos were all there, but their popularity and traffic were nowhere near Bilibili's.

The real culprit was still the Bilibili parody video. Aside from the creator who had posted it first, quite a few others had already begun heavily modifying it. The wave of explosive popularity was now unstoppable.

Damn, we're both rich enough to have no friends.

Principal Wang is the internet's disciplinary committee, while I'm the internet's Kusotori Bro?

Damn, what a huge difference.

Li Xian was both amused and exasperated. He could already imagine himself appearing at Bilibili's parody Spring Festival Gala. In the future, he would be an existence mentioned in the same breath as Lord Führer and Zhuge Liang.

Depressed, Li Xian closed the webpage, lit a lonely 1916 cigarette, took two deep drags, and sighed. "Sigh, do I have to take the down-to-earth route from now on? No... I have to turn my image around."

After thinking it over and over, the cigarette had already burned to the end. He crushed the butt in the ashtray and logged into Weibo.

Li Xian had a Weibo account, but it had never been verified. He mainly used it to search for adult videos.

He had no intention of using that account as his main one. Instead, he registered a new account and verified it directly under his real name. This new account marked his fresh start.

He still had to keep the secondary account. Who didn't have a few alternate identities?

After registering the new Weibo account, he immediately posted two updates. One showed the sea view from the Grand Hyatt Hotel alongside a simple Emperor Beef Burger, while the other showed his Mercedes-Benz G65. He posted a nine-grid collage directly.

As soon as the two updates went up, his image instantly became much more impressive. Unfortunately, he had too few cars. If he bought two or three more, he would have more content to post.

The matter of buying cars was added to his daily agenda. He then searched Weibo for "Kidney Bro." After refreshing the page, he discovered that, just as the system had warned, people were already impersonating him to gain followers.

Harbin Kidney Bro, Chuncheng Kidney Bro, Shengjing Kidney Bro... There were all kinds of Kidney Bros, including Bin City Kidney Bro. Each account had anywhere from several hundred to over a thousand followers, and most of them had only recently been registered.

All these Kidney Bros had one thing in common: every damn one of them sold barbecue.

After scrolling through their Weibo posts, Li Xian was so angry that he laughed.

I haven't even shown my face yet, and you're already fighting over my trademark?

These knockoffs are incredible.

Fortunately, these people weren't using his name to scam anyone. They were merely riding the wave of popularity to promote their own barbecue restaurants, and there wasn't much Li Xian could do about that.

However, after some more time passed and the parody video became even more popular, someone might try to register his trademark first.

At that thought, Li Xian immediately sent Zhang Cheng a message, asking him to prepare a verified influencer, promotional articles, and paid posters. If he wanted to prove his identity, none of these supporting measures could be missing. If he was going to play, he might as well play big.

He then looked into registering a trademark.

A trademark like "Kidney Bro" might lower his prestige, but even if it lowered it a little, he couldn't let someone else benefit from it.

They're my own children. Even if I have to raise them through tears, I still have to raise them.

This parody video had effectively made the choice for him. The barbecue-city route was now inevitable.

At six or seven in the evening, Li Xian drove his G-Wagon out.

He opened the VX group in the car and sent a voice message.

"Mengzi, I'm heading out. I'll pick you up first, then Jiji, and then we'll go find Wei Shao together."

Wang Meng: "Received!"

Jiji: "I can drive over. Just tell me where to go."

Master Jin: "I despise you bunch of bastards."

Fatty Ye: "Stop randomly posting pictures in the group, damn it. If you dare make me crave it, you'd better drink yourselves to death when you get back!"

Wei Shao: "Brother Xian, come pick me up first. I've run away from home."

Li Xian: "You run away from home eight times a month. You're more punctual than a period."

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