An Audience's Perspective: Fan Gege's Live Stream and a Battle of Wits Made Out of Nothing

The Real World.

At night, a big-nosed man wearing black-rimmed glasses sat in front of his computer and started a livestream on a certain video site that never went offline.

The title of the stream was, naturally, "Welcome to Fan Gege's New Anime Wonderful House."

"First!"

"I'm the real first!"

"Wherever Fan Gege is, I'll be there!"

As an anime-section content creator, everything Fan Gege did online drew attention from his fans.

As soon as he started streaming, many people got a notification from the video site. They opened the app and poured into his stream to see what Fan Gege had in store tonight.

During his streams, though, Fan Gege rarely did anything out of the ordinary.

He saved that sort of thing for his videos.

"Good evening, everyone. I'm your favorite Fan Gege."

After a brief introduction, the big-nosed man with black-rimmed glasses opened the list of new anime and said, "Now that April's here, lots of new shows have premiered."

"Today, Fan Gege will take you through them and see what they're like."

As he scrolled through the list, Fan Gege found himself torn between several shows that had already aired their first or even second episodes.

A few months earlier, he'd made a video introducing these shows in detail.

Aside from the original anime with no source material, he'd already read the original works for the rest and knew how their stories unfolded.

"So... I guess we should start with the original anime after all."

Fan Gege filtered out the shows whose source material he'd already read and searched for original anime.

Then a show with the word "LIVE" in the upper-right corner caught his eye.

"A livestream anime?"

Fan Gege frowned. Was it an anime about livestreaming?

He opened the description and discovered that the show was actually broadcast in the form of a livestream.

Unlike ordinary anime, where the entire video was uploaded and viewers could move the progress bar however they pleased, this show, Classroom of the Elite, split each episode into two time slots.

On Fridays, it aired as a livestream, and viewers couldn't skip ahead.

After the stream ended, that episode would be uploaded online as a standalone video, at which point it became an ordinary anime.

"I've never seen a gimmick like this before." Fan Gege's eyes lit up.

Even as a veteran of the anime scene who'd reviewed and poked fun at countless shows, he couldn't help but remark at the sight.

"You're such a tease."

He moved his mouse and clicked on the anime marked "LIVE." He seemed to be talking to himself, but he was actually addressing the viewers watching his stream. "Today, we're checking out Classroom of the Elite."

"I think I missed it when I made my new-anime preview, so I don't remember anything about it."

Fan Gege assumed he'd simply overlooked it at the time. He didn't give it another thought and soon got absorbed in the anime.

The story opened on a bus packed with students in red uniforms.

"Why isn't Fan Gege watching his favorite isekai anime?"

"Don't make things up. Fan Gege's favorite is obviously the NTR genre!"

Ignoring the viewers' teasing comments, Fan Gege watched the show and shared his thoughts. "I think that brown-haired guy is probably the protagonist."

"He looks kind of expressionless and emotionless. You don't see many protagonists like him in anime."

"People like that can usually stay calm and think things through when they face a crisis. He shouldn't be too frustrating to watch."

But it wasn't long before the show proved him wrong.

An old woman boarded the bus, but all the seats were taken, and there was nowhere for her to sit.

The brown-haired boy, the protagonist, didn't give up his seat. Instead, he voiced his thoughts internally.

"We young people are more useful than the elderly, so we have more right to sit here."

Fan Gege grinned as if he were enjoying the show and muttered, "That's insane. A little too insane."

As far as he was concerned, if the protagonist had gotten some kind of treasure and didn't want to give it up, then he could understand saying something like that.

But all the protagonist was doing was taking up a seat on the bus. Wasn't it making a mountain out of a molehill to justify it with such a long-winded argument?

Thinking that, Fan Gege paused the video and gave his opinion.

"I think the protagonist's making a mountain out of a molehill. He just doesn't want to give up his seat, but he's got a whole list of reasons for it."

Fan Gege laughed so hard his shoulders shook. "It reminds me of a joke some webnovel editor posted."

"Apparently, after reading a bunch of authors' work, this editor said they all had a huge problem: the cultivation worlds in their stories were so short on resources that even fighting over a mouthful of shit was difficult."

"Then, after a thousand trials and tribulations, the protagonist finally managed to snatch a mouthful of shit from one of the supporting characters."

"I don't know anything about webnovels, and I've never written one, but I think the editor was basically making fun of authors for making a mountain out of a molehill."

Fan Gege moved his mouse, pointing the white cursor at the expressionless Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.

"I think this story's protagonist is just like that. He seems to think a lot, but all he thinks about is... well, shit like that, right? It's just hilarious."

"That fits my stereotype of people from that side."

"Now that Fan Gege's put it that way, I can't help laughing too."

"I saw 'mind games' among this anime's tags. Is this what they mean by mind games?"

"That'd be pretty brainless."

After sharing his thoughts, Fan Gege continued watching.

The camera shifted to the girl sitting beside the brown-haired boy.

She had long black hair, sharp, resolute scarlet eyes, and a pretty face that gave off a chilly, keep-your-distance aura.

"Yukinoshita?"

"She looks like she has long, straight black hair too. That's my wife Yukino, for sure."

"Don't slander her. If my wife Yukino were here, she'd definitely give up her seat."

"You're all wrong. Yukino's my wife."

Fan Gege furrowed his brow, his expression turning a little strange.

Something about the show's first impression just didn't sit right with him.

Logically, the protagonist, the black-haired girl, and all the other students on the bus were students. They shouldn't be so cold. Surely they'd have at least some sympathy for an elderly person.

But none of them were doing anything at all?

Just as Fan Gege was wondering about it, a ridiculously handsome boy stepped up to the protagonist and pulled out a thousand-yuan bill.

"Excuse me. Could you give your seat to the old woman?"

"I'm willing to pay you a thousand yuan."