My Account!

A rented room in a city in the south.

It was less than fifteen square meters, simply furnished, and a bit messy. The computer desk was covered in leftover packaging, the ashtray was overflowing, and a young man was sleeping soundly on the bed behind it, limbs tangled in the covers.

About ten minutes passed before a phone ringing startled the young man awake. He groggily opened his eyes, glanced at his phone, saw an unknown number, and then put it to his ear.

"Hello? Who is this?... What spicy strips?... Advertising collaboration... What!" Hearing the word "collaboration," the young man's eyes snapped open, all sleepiness gone. His lips trembled slightly with excitement. "Are you really going to collaborate with me? Yes, yes... I posted that meme video myself... The views are... around seven or eight hundred thousand, right?... Let me check..."

Saying that, the young man scrambled to his computer, skillfully logged into his Bilibili backend, and found his video data.

"Views: 790,000... Comments: over 3,000... Yes, yes, and they'll keep growing. This video is definitely going to be a trending hit of the year, I'm very confident. Put up an ad link... Five thousand yuan?" Hearing the amount, the young man pinched his thigh hard, his tongue stumbling a bit. "Okay, okay, we'll discuss the details later. Don't worry, I'll definitely save it for you... Oh right, how did you find me? Oh~~~ I believe it, you found me with such sincerity...

What's there to trick about an impoverished uploader like me, hehe... QQ to contact? Alright, my Q is XXXXXX67... Bank account, pay a deposit first? You're too sincere, my account is xxxxxxx89..."

The young man was so moved he was about to cry. After hanging up, his phone immediately received a deposit notification. He opened it and saw that indeed, 500 yuan had been deposited.

"Oh my god, I'm finally making money, my luck has finally turned." The young man threw himself onto the bed, pounding the mattress and shouting, unsure if he was crying or laughing.

His name was Gong Liang, 21 years old, a tech enthusiast. He could make videos and was passionate about gaming. Currently, he was a Bilibili uploader, mainly producing game videos with technical commentary.

Like him, ordinary game uploaders on Bilibili were as numerous as carp crossing a river. Therefore, after more than half a year on Bilibili, he hadn't achieved much.

Until a few days ago, when he suddenly had an epiphany. Just making game videos on Bilibili had no future. Making two-dimensional idol dances, anime episodes, meme videos, and comedy videos was the way to go.

Thus, he changed his approach, spending a day searching major websites for usable video content. Finally, he found a video of someone eating skewers on Youku.

The video, over twenty minutes long, featured someone eating continuously. While it might increase others' appetites, he, as a long-time Bilibili uploader, saw something different.

That was the humor.

He downloaded, edited, and added music, processing it in various ways to turn it into a funny meme video.

If Li Xian were standing in front of his computer, he would definitely point at him and curse, "Damn it, so it was you who messed with me."

That's right, he was on the verge of success simply because he had posted the "Kidney Bro" meme video.

After calming down, Gong Liang sat in front of his computer and logged into his backend again, casually clicking on a private message that had over 99+ unread messages.

"Idiot... Your account is gone..."

"Jerk... Your account is about to be gone."

"Your account is gone... gone gone gone..."

"Hahaha... Your account is gone..."

"..."

These messages had been flooding his inbox since the night before last, all different, making him extremely annoyed. He hadn't slept well for the past two days.

"Damn it, who's so bored? Come at my account if you have the guts. What's the use of just sending harassing messages here." Gong Liang cursed a few times and deleted the spam messages, just like yesterday.

At this moment, these harassing messages no longer affected his mood. That advertising collaboration call earlier had completely canceled out all his negative emotions.

He was making money, finally able to earn money from his videos.

After waiting for so long, he had finally made it.

Gong Liang contentedly lit a cigarette. In the current environment, very few uploaders could make money from videos. Everyone was losing money to gain exposure, and after accumulating a large amount of traffic, they would find ways to monetize it.

However, this was easier said than done.

First, traffic was a hurdle that had stumped countless uploaders, and he himself was one of the millions of cannon fodder.

Those who could monetize traffic now were all major uploaders who had accumulated popularity over many years, such as his favorites JY, Xiao Zhi, Xiao Mo, and Boxer No. 7.

Gong Liang envied them for being able to promote their Taobao stores through their videos or earn money by collaborating with businesses for advertising.

This was the life he had always wanted. He used to always think about what would happen if he became famous, and now his dream had finally come true.

His first trending video had brought him five thousand yuan in advertising fees. He believed many people would be incredibly envious of him.

"Those who sent harassing private messages must be jealous that my video became popular and want to mess with my account. Go eat shit, I'm about to get rich, you failures." Gong Liang smirked triumphantly. Just then, a friend request popped up on QQ.

[My stomach hurts wants to add you as a friend!]

"My stomach hurts? It must be that merchant. This username is quite interesting," Gong Liang muttered and accepted the friend request.

"Yes?"

"I am Brother Xian Spicy Strips, the one who called you earlier."

"Hello, hello."

"I won't waste your time. Put our company's link on your video and let's see the effect for a day. If it meets our requirements, I'll immediately pay the remaining balance."

"No problem, no problem. Send me the link, and I'll add it to the video right away."

A long string of link code was sent over. Gong Liang clicked on it curiously.

He entered a very ordinary shop website. The most prominent feature was the website's promotional advertisement: a very fair-skinned, handsome young man holding a pack of spicy strips with one hand and giving a thumbs-up with the other, a smile on his face that looked a bit eerie and mocking.

Gong Liang frowned slightly and muttered, "This spokesperson is a bit too much... whatever, whatever. The sponsor likes it, why should I care so much."

After closing the webpage, Gong Liang went into the backend and pasted the link.

"It must meet the sponsor's requirements. My future depends on you." Gong Liang clasped his hands in prayer, then happily went to wash up.

About an hour later, he returned to his computer and logged into his backend, but a system message made him dumbfounded.

[Uploader Squirrel Can't Beat Hamster, due to your posting of a large number of illegal messages and a large amount of obscene content, which seriously endangers the physical and mental health of minors, severely violates the Bilibili Community Management Regulations, and severely damages the online public order environment, constituting a public nuisance to the online society. After internal discussion, a permanent account ban will be imposed on you.]

What?

Illegal messages?

Impossible!

Gong Liang frantically controlled the mouse to click on his videos, only to find that they could no longer be opened. Many functions in the backend were no longer working. He then searched for his ID on the website but couldn't find it.

He stared blankly at the computer screen, muttering to himself, "Where's my account? Where's my account? How could this happen?"

At this moment, he suddenly remembered the harassing messages he'd received over the past few days, his mind filled with the phrase "Your account is gone."

Bincheng Grand Hyatt Hotel.

Li Xian leisurely savored the Master Li Abalone Sea Cucumber Instant Noodles he had made himself. A mouthful of fragrant noodles, a mouthful of happy fizzy water – life couldn't be better.

"There's a bit too little noodles. I'll add two noodle cakes next time." Having eaten most of it, Li Xian drank the rest of the happy fizzy water with lingering satisfaction.

Just then, his phone suddenly rang. He glanced over; it was Du Ziteng calling.

This Du Ziteng was Jiji's good friend; they were classmates in the Computer Science department at Dongruan.

"Hello, Brother Ziteng. What's up?"

"Brother Xian, you absolutely have to treat me to a bath."

"Hahaha, you should ask Jiji for that. He's the one who knows the ropes."

"No way. He's too stingy; I don't like hanging out with him," Du Ziteng joked, then added, "It's done. That kid was too easy to fool; there was no technical skill involved at all."

"Heh. So, does this kind of small matter not showcase your skills?"

"Yeah. Should I get that five hundred yuan back? It's too boring otherwise."

"Forget it, forget it. Leave some room for maneuver when dealing with people," Li Xian said, and a System notification popped into his mind.

[Quest (2) A Small Lesson has been completed]

Sigh, why are kids nowadays so naive? Where are the good things that fall from the sky?

Li Xian put away his phone and logged into Bilibili to search for videos. His most popular meme video was gone, but quite a few derivative and modified videos were starting to pop up.

ps: Tomorrow, my book will be featured in a new book recommendation section. I'm a little nervous.