A Social Gathering Gone Sour

"Fame and fortune?"

"I'm afraid it's more likely to turn from a fan into a hater!"

The moment Chen Jue heard this, the peace of mind he felt upon returning vanished, and his mind began to run wild.

Because he was just an ordinary worker, although he had intended to use skills like Darts and Stone Skipping to earn some pocket money online.

However, he had planned to remain anonymous, purely to show off his skills, attract some traffic, and make a little extra cash.

According to Zhu Hongbin, once he accepted the interview, he would inevitably be exposed under the lens.

When the sharp-eyed netizens eventually dug into it, they would discover that Chen Jue only played a small part in the rescue; the real credit belonged to Wu Fang and that sanitation worker.

Chen Jue had only cleaned up the tail end by taking down the fleeing Pit Bull.

If it were truly published online, people would surely step forward to say he was chasing clout and taking credit for himself.

By then, it wouldn't be fame, but infamy.

Besides, Chen Jue had no intention of becoming an overnight internet celebrity.

Did he not know that the end of an influencer's career was peddling goods?

Shouting at the camera, "Family, buying this is definitely the right choice," and then cashing in on some dirty money—no matter how Chen Jue tried to wash his hands of it later, he wouldn't be able to clear his name.

He did want to make money and live a good life, but not by peddling garbage.

After expressing his concerns over the phone, Zhu Hongbin laughed heartily: "Little brother, it's fine if you don't want to be famous! After all, fame brings trouble!"

"But this is a great opportunity to promote our club. I'll have the TV station pixelate your face, I guarantee your privacy won't be leaked."

Since things had reached this point, Chen Jue had no choice but to agree.

Zhu Hongbin had helped Chen Jue once before; if not for his connections with the big shots, he wouldn't have been able to get into a top-tier company like Hengtong.

Accepting the interview would just be paying off that favor.

After hanging up, he went online and ordered several different types of darts.

From Short Sword Darts to Willow Leaf Darts, Meteor Darts, and Steel Needles, Chen Jue planned to practice them all.

Because after Darts leveled up to Lv4, the difficulty increased; he had to try more dart techniques and challenge higher difficulties to accelerate his leveling.

However, what Chen Jue didn't expect was that in just half a day, the incident of the vicious dog biting the little boy in the park had become known across the entire internet.

It even climbed to the top of the trending searches!

The footage of the incident, found in the park's surveillance, had been edited into short videos by enthusiastic netizens and uploaded online.

Later, even different versions appeared.

Some had special effects, some had background music; in short, this rescue had truly gone viral.

Clicking into the comment section, various top comments emerged one after another:

"My heart aches for the little boy. I was bitten by a mad dog when I was a kid (praying). Hope he's okay."

"Walking a dog without a leash is just a dog walking a dog (doge)."

"The young lady who saved him is so cool! Love it, love it (heart)."

"This guy is something else! Took down a Pit Bull with one dart! And that's a large, vicious dog (666)."

"They're both dart practitioners; they wouldn't happen to be from the same sect in real life, would they? (curious)"

"A pair of dart-wielding heroes has emerged in the martial arts world of Hang City (tongue)."

As he scrolled further down the video, Chen Jue found it amusing.

"Dart-wielding heroes?"

"I've already earned a nickname in the Jianghu?"

Chen Jue's face flushed, and with a flick of his hand, he forwarded the video to Wu Fang, whom he had just added as a friend, with the note: "I guess we're famous now?"

Wu Fang had likely received the news by now, and she replied with a (facepalm + cold sweat) emoji.

Her phone and WeChat had long been blown up by relatives and friends because she had been doxxed by netizens.

As a high school PE teacher who was also beautiful, kind, and talented, Wu Fang was already quite famous in the school and the park area; once the netizens dug a little, her identity was naturally revealed.

As for Chen Jue, he was lucky; his face wasn't captured clearly in the surveillance, and as a workplace nobody who had just changed jobs and hadn't even worked a single day, it was normal that no one recognized him.

"Have any reporters contacted you?"

"My phone is about to crash from all the calls and WeChat voice messages (dizzy)."

"If it keeps vibrating, I'm turning it off to sleep tonight (facepalm)," Wu Fang messaged.

Seeing Wu Fang so distressed, Chen Jue filled her in on his own plan to accept the interview.

To his surprise, Wu Fang had also been forced by her school leadership to do the same.

They said it was to give the school some exposure, so she had also accepted the interview invitation from 1818 Golden Eye.

"Isn't that just a coincidence?"

Chen Jue's mouth curled up at the sight, his inner lecherous heart beginning to stir.

Whether it's flirting with men or women, the only real fear is the other party ignoring you.

As long as there is a shared experience or topic, once the conversation starts, it's a good beginning.

Plus, they were both into darts and shared the same hobbies.

With such a perfect opening hand, whether they would eventually end up together would depend entirely on Chen Jue's own skills and efforts.

Chen Jue felt as sweet as if he'd eaten honey all night long.

As a closeted lecher like him, whenever he saw a girl he liked in the past, he had the heart but not the guts—daring to look but never to flirt.

If it weren't for the shift in his mindset thanks to the system panel, he probably would have agonized for half a day just over how to reply to a message.

Waking up the next morning, he found several new messages on his phone.

One was from a reporter at 1818 Golden Eye who had added him privately, hoping to get a preview of the situation so they could prepare their talking points and script for the formal interview.

The second was from Zhu Hongbin, who said the arrangements had been made and the interview could be scheduled as early as this morning.

The efficiency truly shocked Chen Jue!

But on second thought, wealthy men like Zhu Hongbin generally didn't care about the money; they were just looking for a good reputation.

The International Darts Club hadn't been well-known in Hang City before, but after this wave of exposure, it would surely attract a new batch of members.

For a club owner like Zhu Hongbin, this was naturally a win-win for both fame and fortune.

As the saying goes, no one gets up early without a profit motive!

Chen Jue had still underestimated the influence of this incident.

He opened his phone to scroll through the news, and several trending topics were related to the incident of the dog biting the little boy.

The dog lovers who usually threw their weight around on the internet had collectively lost their voices, and even the dog owner's personal information had been doxxed, making them the target of public outrage.

Seeing such refreshing news first thing in the morning, Chen Jue was in a great mood.

He went downstairs to pick up a package, and upon opening it, found it was the ancient face mask he had ordered online.

Thinking it might come in handy for the morning interview, Chen Jue took it with him and drove to the darts club.

Because of the interview scheduled for the day, the club staff had been scrubbing the place from top to bottom since early morning.

The marble floor was so shiny it reflected people's silhouettes.

As soon as Chen Jue arrived, he saw Zhu Hongbin directing his staff on the floor, fussing over minor details.

Whether it was the honorary plaques not being prominent enough, the trophies not being aligned, or the potted plants blocking the view, everything had to be shifted.

Seeing the man being so nitpicky, Chen Jue's impression of this big shot dropped a few notches immediately.

It was just like when a leader came to inspect the school, and the teacher would call on all the students to do a deep clean after hours.

The face was given to the leaders, the honor was taken by the school, and the ratings and bonuses were collected by the teachers.

And the students?

After working hard as janitors, they ended up with nothing but a verbal "good job" or perhaps a "Model Class" banner to hang on the classroom door.

In short, the boss opens his mouth, and the employees break their legs running.

However, out of courtesy, Chen Jue didn't call him out on it, merely walking up to greet him with a calm tone.

Seeing Chen Jue arrive, Zhu Hongbin immediately became very enthusiastic, calling him "Brother Chen Jue" and "our star member" in every other sentence as he led him to the club's reception room.

The room was already filled with people; besides a few television crew members, there were two young men in jackets.

Both had large logos on their clothes, clearly the two professional players and club coaches he had seen on the promotional board at the entrance.

In addition, a sophisticated urban beauty was sitting in the adjacent president's office.

"Brother Chen Jue, let me introduce you."

"This is Liu Li, General Manager of Golden Culture Media Company." Zhu Hongbin invited Chen Jue to sit on the sofa.

He first introduced the identity of the urban beauty, then shifted the tone of the conversation to explain.

It turned out that behind the 1818 Golden Eye program was a large MCN company; once reported by them, it was highly likely to go viral and become a new generation of internet celebrity.

What do internet celebrities rely on to make a living these days?

Naturally, it's livestreaming and selling goods, turning traffic into cash.

And for ordinary people to become famous, they cannot do without the promotion and support of these MCN companies.

Many internet celebrities had risen to fame through 1818 Golden Eye in recent years—first hitting the trending list to gain followers, then debuting on shows, and finally livestreaming to sell products.

A program that originally focused on news and current events had turned into a star-making factory, truly being played like a fiddle by capital.

However, upon seeing the interview agreement and the subsequent internet streamer intent training agreement pushed over by General Manager Liu, Chen Jue's brows furrowed and his expression darkened: "President Zhu, this isn't what we discussed over the phone, is it?"

"Don't misunderstand, Mr. Chen Jue! This is just an intent agreement, it's the standard rule in the industry. If you don't want to sign, then there's no need to continue with the follow-up interview."

"Anyway, you weren't the main force in saving that little boy; you just happened to ride the coattails of the event," Liu Li said, crossing her legs as she sat on the sofa opposite Chen Jue.

She had already found Chen Jue's appearance plain and unremarkable, lacking the unique aura of a Darts master, and had felt a sense of disdain from the start.

Now, seeing Chen Jue's expression darken, this Manager Liu immediately began to speak without mercy.

As for Zhu Hongbin, who was standing to the side, he tried to mediate: "Brother! You really need to seize the opportunity Manager Liu is giving you!"

"In this day and age, if an ordinary person wants to get famous, it's seventy percent looks and thirty percent luck; hard work is completely useless."

"You've hit the jackpot now. If you take advantage of the news cycle to hype yourself up, becoming a Darts influencer with millions or even tens of millions of followers will be a piece of cake, won't it?"

"After that, you sign a professional contract with our club. The club will fund your applications for international competitions, and you can go abroad to win a gold medal and bring glory to the country."

"Once you become a sports superstar, not to mention having a net worth of over a hundred million, making a few million or ten million will be like child's play!"

Zhu Hongbin spoke very bluntly, practically laying a windfall of immense wealth right in front of Chen Jue.

As long as he signed, he could transform into Hang City's newest internet celebrity, living in a luxury flat, driving a fancy car, and enjoying the life of the elite—wouldn't that be easy?

If an ordinary person encountered such an opportunity, they would likely grab a pen and sign their name without a second thought.

But what did Chen Jue do for a living?

He came from a background in financial risk management; in the face of high-stakes interests, his first instinct was to identify the risks that were unfavorable to him.

When he saw the contract terms—stipulating ten or twenty-year commitment periods, mandatory obedience to company arrangements, and prohibitions against taking outside gigs, commercial appearances, or independent competitions—

Chen Jue knew that this "charitable" wealth was likely not meant for him.

"President Zhu, thank you for your kindness!"

"I really cannot sign these agreements."

"I've delayed your business, my apologies! I have things to attend to, so I'll be taking my leave!" Without further ado, Chen Jue cupped his hands in a salute, rose from the sofa, and prepared to depart.

Zhu Hongbin's face sank, and he tried to hold him back, saying, "Brother Chen Jue, won't you reconsider?"

"You had better think this through. Once you walk out that door, it won't be easy to become a professional athlete again!"

Hearing the veiled threat in the other man's words, Chen Jue paused his steps and looked back at Zhu Hongbin.

He felt that this face was all too familiar!

His mind raced, and he suddenly recalled a similar scene he had faced in the general manager's office at Taisheng Finance when dealing with Zhou Yong.

It seems I was still too naive! Chen Jue sighed inwardly.

He felt his previous thoughts had been too simple, too childish.

What was Zhu Hongbin's status?

Could a big shot like that truly empathize with an ordinary commoner like him?

The reason Zhu Hongbin had backed him that night was likely because he had been drinking, stimulated by alcohol, and had incidentally taken a fancy to his talent for Darts.

In the eyes of these big shots, there was no room for pleasantries or hypocrisy; everything was about direct, transactional interests.

Thinking of this, Chen Jue's good impression of Zhu Hongbin vanished completely.

He didn't bother with any parting threats like "if this place won't keep me, there's a place that will." Instead, he offered a subtle smile and pushed the door open to leave.

He left behind a grim-faced Zhu Hongbin and Liu Li, who was busy touching up her makeup with a compact.

"President Zhu, since the main subject has left, let's switch to someone else for the follow-up interview! I think Coach Wang from our club has a very suitable image..."