Of course, those paths to popularity were just ideas Chen Zhao had come up with himself. In reality, becoming popular was nowhere near that simple. He was only saying there were three possible routes.
Chen Zhao considered what kind of streamer he should be.
First, there was the looks-based route. He definitely didn't qualify. Chen Zhao had little confidence in his looks. After all, he'd been single since birth. If he were even a little handsome, wouldn't he have a girlfriend by now?
After being single for so many years, he had to have some idea why, didn't he?
So looks were definitely out.
What about the funny, flirty-banter route?
That wouldn't work either. Chen Zhao was, all in all, a fairly introverted person. Telling jokes and spouting cheeky lines might seem as simple as moving your lips, but it really wasn't! Humor was hard to cultivate; most people were born with it. Forcing it would only make you an expert at awkward conversation and a king of corny jokes.
That left only the skilled-player route.
With superb skills, he could turn the tables on his enemies again and again, win Winner Winner Chicken Dinner, and gradually attract viewers who liked watching skilled players.
Chen Zhao had always been fairly confident in his skills. Over the past three years, he'd probably spent at least twelve hundred hours playing Winner Winner Chicken Dinner. Whenever he had nothing to do, he'd play a couple of rounds, so he was definitely a veteran by now. What's more, his intelligence had skyrocketed. Reaction speed and strategic awareness were part of intelligence too! Maybe his Winner Winner Chicken Dinner skills would improve by leaps and bounds along with his IQ.
Talk was cheap. Since he was still feeling energetic tonight, he might as well start streaming and see how he played.
Chen Zhao searched online and found that the streaming platforms in this world were different from those in his previous life. The most popular platform, with the most traffic, was Fighting Panda Live, where many top players streamed. Following the website's instructions, Chen Zhao registered a streamer account too.
What should he use for a username?
Chen Zhao thought it over. A real man didn't change his name or surname. There was no point in picking some flashy, pretentious, gaudy name, so he might as well use his real name!
Streamer "Chen Zhao" successfully registered!
After fiddling around for a while, Chen Zhao learned how to operate the streaming software.
This computer didn't have a camera, so Chen Zhao couldn't show his face and could only talk through his headset. But staying off-camera was fine too; it would keep a little mystery. His voice was quite magnetic and deep. Maybe some female fans would think he was Eddie Peng?
Chen Zhao opened his stream, switched to the game, and queued for the easiest mode: solo on the island map.
Then Chen Zhao entered the spawn island.
All kinds of noisy voices came through his headset, chattering and clamoring:
"I'm selling cheats! Wallhacks, aimbots, invincibility cheats! Pay extra and I'll throw in a plane-exploding cheat!" a kid's voice shouted.
"Holy crap, are you an orphan or what? Cheat sellers should die!" an older man's voice yelled.
"Buy the full set of cheats and I'll throw in a cheat that gets you 99 kills as soon as you land!" the kid selling cheats continued to shout.
"Whoa, are cheats really this crazy these days? Blow up planes? Get 99 kills as soon as you land?" a young man exclaimed in shock.
Soon, a crowd surrounded the kid selling cheats and started punching and kicking him.
Chen Zhao was helpless. That was just how the spawn island was: once you had a hundred people, you got all kinds, shouting all sorts of things. Every now and then, you'd run into someone selling cheats. Sometimes they were genuine cheat sellers; other times they were just messing around, trying to make the other players quit while they were still in the lobby.
Meanwhile, in the stream of Wolf Brother, a streamer with ten million followers on Fighting Panda Live...
"There are more and more cheaters these days!" Wolf Brother sighed. "But no worries. As long as they're not using an invincibility cheat, I'll show you all how I take down the gods! If they are using one, I'll report them in a flash, then end the stream in shame!"
Chen Zhao had no idea that he'd been matched into the same game as Wolf Brother, the Chicken Dinner King of Fighting Panda Live!
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