Chen Zhao logged into his streamer account.
A flood of notifications exploded across the screen, startling him!
First came a dense stream of tip notifications. He'd received more than a hundred gifts in total!
Chen Zhao was stunned. He hadn't even streamed today, so how had he gotten so many gifts?
Was the livestreaming industry really this popular now? People tipped streamers even when they weren't home?
The chat in his stream room was also moving so fast it was hard to keep up:
Coco Sweetheart Is Me: "So the streamer really wasn't cheating! Followed!"
NetEase Player No. 1: "Waaah, the streamer had it so rough. He got called a cheater when he wasn't cheating! Followed!"
Successor of Lao Ba: "Aoligei, get in there! You're awesome, streamer!"
Little Bunny Used by Bear to Wipe Butt: "Streamer, Wolf Brother sent you gifts to apologize. Did you see them? I sent some too."
It took Chen Zhao a good while to figure out what was going on. The accusations that he'd cheated yesterday had finally been resolved. After realizing they'd wronged an innocent person, lots of people felt bad and sent gifts to apologize. Plenty of others had turned from haters into fans. That was why his stream room was so lively.
Good. At least his name had been cleared.
He checked his profile, and saw that his follower count had already reached 17,620!
Nearly twenty thousand followers!
Nearly twenty thousand followers on his second day of streaming. That kind of growth was unbelievable. Plenty of game streamers worked themselves to the bone for years and still might not get ten thousand followers. Chen Zhao's numbers would probably make a lot of struggling streamers faint dead away.
Then he checked the gifts page, and nearly jumped out of his chair!
His withdrawal account already had 10,800 yuan in it! According to the platform's rules, new and ordinary streamers like Chen Zhao split gift revenue with the platform fifty-fifty after tax. In other words, after taxes, his fans had sent gifts worth 21,600 yuan. Once the platform took its fifty percent, he'd earned 10,800 yuan!
This was... way too fast!
Chen Zhao rubbed his eyes several times in shock before he was sure he'd read the number correctly. It really was 10,800 yuan.
Could he... withdraw it right now?
His first thought was to withdraw the money. After all, money only counted as his once it was in cash or in his bank account. No matter how much was sitting in his streamer account, it was still just numbers he couldn't spend. He was broke as could be, so of course he wanted to withdraw it.
Chen Zhao checked the streamer withdrawal instructions in the backend and followed them step by step. He linked one of his bank cards, went through text-message and identity verification, fiddled with it for a while, and then tapped Withdraw.
Three seconds later, his phone suddenly chimed. He grabbed it and checked the bank transfer notification.
10,800 yuan deposited!
The money had really gone into his bank account!
Chen Zhao was overjoyed and shocked, his mouth hanging open wide enough to fit a watermelon!
This was incredible!
His fans were amazing!
Now he had rent, food money, and enough to cover his first semester's tuition!
No more talk. To thank both new and longtime viewers, he'd start streaming right away!
Chen Zhao put on his headset, opened the game, and started streaming. Yesterday, he'd been a little lazy about going live. Today, he was energized and raring to go. The reason was simple: streaming could actually make him money!
The number of people in his stream room immediately began climbing. Lots of users who'd followed Chen Zhao got notifications that he was live, and came to watch.
In just one minute, more than four thousand people had shown up, and the number was still rising.
"Thanks for coming to watch me play Winner Winner Chicken Dinner, and thanks to all the generous viewers for the gifts. I've been pretty busy lately, so I can only play one or two rounds in the evenings. I'll stream more on the weekend," Chen Zhao said.
"For my first game tonight... let's try solo against squads! Solo against squads is the hardest, so I'll give it a shot as a way of thanking everyone for the gifts."
Anyone who'd played Winner Winner Chicken Dinner knew what solo against squads meant. You played alone, while every other team had four players. When fights broke out, other teams could cover each other and take turns attacking, while you were just a lone wolf fighting by yourself. It was one of the hardest modes.
As he chatted with the viewers, Chen Zhao picked his most-used map, Island Map, selected squads, and turned off teammate matching.
After a brief two-second wait, the game began.
Chen Zhao appeared in Quality Plaza.
Quality Plaza was as chaotic as ever. Some people bounced around like rockets, while others crawled on the ground with their butts in the air, pretending to be caterpillars. There were people throwing punches at each other, charging around like wild boars, and all sorts of other antics.
Chen Zhao wasn't in the mood to fool around. He stood still and gazed up at the sky, waiting for the countdown.
Soon, all the players boarded the plane and flew toward the island.
The voice chat on the plane was rowdy:
"Any handsome guys want to team up?"
"Everyone on the plane, listen up! Final battle in P City! Anyone who doesn't drop at P City is a loser!"
"Hey, girl I just teamed up with, where are we dropping?"
"I'll say it again! Anyone who doesn't drop at P City is a loser!"
The plane was so noisy it made Chen Zhao's ears hurt. He opened the minimap, took a quick look, marked a small cluster of houses outside P City, and jumped!
Before you continue