To be honest, although Ruan Zhiqi's remarks were dripping with adolescent bravado and were reported by all sorts of media outlets and websites,
they had very little impact in practice.
In Ruan Zhiqi's eyes, he was someone who dared to challenge powerful opponents without fear.
But in the eyes of Dragon Country's 2D fans, he was just a doofus!
He was indeed very young, and his past achievements had just barely put him among the top ranks of the Dragon Country Animation Industry. But he was still miles away from Teacher Shui Xin and Zhao Qinyin's level. Even with Tianxing promoting him, and even with many people inside Tianxing having high hopes for his two new works, to ordinary people he was simply a young talent the media had forced into the spotlight to compete with Shui Xin.
Shui Xin had debuted at eighteen, and by the time he was banned at twenty-three, he had already had no worthy rivals in the Dragon Country Animation Industry. Ruan Zhiqi was now seventeen and already quite famous; on the surface, he seemed even more impressive than Shui Xin.
But in reality, Shui Xin's peak represented the peak of the Dragon Country Animation Industry. What about Ruan Zhiqi? Could he ever reach that level? At seventeen, he might indeed be better than Shui Xin, but what about when he was twenty-seven?
No one believed that this much-praised figure in the Animation Industry could truly threaten Shui Xin's position.
As a result, Ruan Zhiqi's Weibo post became a joke overnight.
"Where did this guy come from? The media praised you a few times, and you actually think you're invincible? You're going to take them both down next July? I'm dying!"
"You're disgusting. You're just trying every which way to ride Teacher Shui Xin's coattails.