Investment Cashback, Billionaire God [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 27: Live Broadcast Blind Competition Mode

Chapter 27: Live Broadcast Blind Competition Mode

Two people had been dispatched, yet one had completely vanished without a trace while the other foolishly sent back incorrect venue information. Anyone would be furious under such circumstances.

No matter how many times Ruan Zihan tried to contact Yu Yu, the other party’s terminal remained offline. Their chat interface still displayed last night’s message: “President Ruan, Mega-Entertainment has started blocking Light Brain signals. Whatever Zhou Zongyun says, you mustn’t believe him.”

A sharp pain in his fingertip made Ruan Zihan realize the Hallucinogen injector’s needle had somehow pierced his thumb. He violently threw the syringe to the ground.

He couldn’t distinguish – he simply couldn’t tell which of these two was lying.

Eyes bloodshot, Ruan Zihan sent over thirty consecutive messages to Yu Yu without receiving any response. He opened the photo Zhou Zongyun had sent, zooming in until every pixel was clearly visible. After confirming there were no signs of photo editing, he slammed his fist against the sofa and instructed his assistant to invest one million in Zhou Zongyun.

The room’s atmosphere grew increasingly oppressive and stifling, with only the holographic projection from the live broadcast continuing to transmit the director’s excited commentary.

Luxurious stage effects enveloped Ruan Zihan completely as the previous red carpet host happened to be performing their talent showcase. From their initial awkwardness on the first day to now executing every movement with perfect precision, even a fool could understand how devastating this growth speed would be for fans who enjoyed nurturing new streamers.

Watching the flood of high-value gift effects popping up in the screen’s lower right corner, Ruan Zihan suddenly grabbed everything within reach and hurled it at the projection. The physical objects passed through the virtual projection without causing even a ripple, only for his Light Brain to display another message:

[President Ruan, bad news – after Cheng Jinyu took the stage, the advancement threshold suddenly skyrocketed. It’s now over three million]

Ruan Zihan hesitated briefly but found this reasonable, gritting his teeth as he invested another 1.5 million in Zhou Zongyun.

During the previous 30-to-20 elimination round, the activity value rankings had been announced in real-time, with the advancement threshold barely exceeding three million. This blind competition shouldn’t theoretically be more intense than the previous open rivalry.

Feeling reassured, he switched away from Mega-Entertainment’s live broadcast, intending to prepare another Hallucinogen dose. But before reaching the storage room, he received another message:

[President Ruan, it’s still not enough… The advancement threshold has now reached over five million. I’m sorry, President Ruan, I truly didn’t expect it to be this high]

Ruan Zihan immediately blocked Zhou Zongyun.

Perfect – now he knew exactly who had been lying.

Only twenty minutes had passed. The advancement threshold couldn’t possibly surge by millions in such a short time. Zhou Zongyun had truly been treating him like a fool.

Zhou Zongyun must have already been bought over by Mega-Entertainment’s sugar-coated bullets. Fortunately, he hadn’t sent just one person this time.

He still had a chance to recover – Yu Yu remained in the competition.

Reopening the live broadcast, Ruan Zihan called his assistant: “Invest six million in Yu Yu. If other streamers receive major gifts, we’ll additional funds to secure their advancement.”

“President Ruan, the company accounts already show over ten million spent on Zhou Zongyun and Yu Yu’s performance training fees combined. Such a large amount can’t be justified to the shareholders. Perhaps you should reconsider?”

After hanging up, Ruan Zihan began reviewing his stock portfolio.

After all, as the largest shareholder and actual operator of Starry Galaxy Media, he took the lion’s share of the company’s profits, so he didn’t mind subsidizing the company with his own money.

After quickly selling off shares in two other entertainment companies and adding some leftover cash on hand, Ruan Zihan registered a small account and gifted Yu Yu six million in presents.

The moment the gifts were sent, Yu Yu had just finished performing his second dance. Beads of sweat trickled down his temples as he stood on stage, excitedly thanking the gifts:

“Thank you [Han’s Dictionary Has No Word for ‘Lose’] for the Carnival! Thank you, boss!”

“Babies, let me see you! This competition is really important to me can I see another special effect?”

With each Carnival gift, the lights behind the host flickered once. After dozens of Carnivals, it felt as if the entire stage was cheering for him.

The director also passionately thanked the gifts at the top of his lungs, pushing the livestream atmosphere to its peak.

Unconsciously, Ruan Zihan had clenched his fists. His heartbeat quickened along with the flashing lights, his eyes glued to the screen.

Whenever he saw other hosts receiving frequent large gifts, he would top up Yu Yu’s stream with tens of thousands more Carnivals.

Time flew by in the livestream. By the time an itch crept back into his bones, it was already 11 p.m.

It was group dance time now. Mega-Entertainment would announce the rankings in just one hour. Ruan Zihan stood up, prepared a stimulant Hallucinogen for himself, and sat on the sofa waiting until the countdown began.

Twenty hosts returned to the stage simultaneously. The media cameras captured every tiny detail on their faces with extreme clarity.

Fang Zhuo stood on the T-shaped stage extension, with all the spotlight focused solely on him.

Even with just two minutes left until the second round results were announced, his voice remained steady and powerful.

“An early announcement for everyone: tomorrow night’s competition finals will still be held at the Federal Central Stadium. Besides invited media and fan clubs, the organizers will release thirty-six hundred tickets to the public at 1 a.m.”

“One minute left until the second round ranking announcement. I’m sure everyone is feeling very anxious. But I want to prepare the audience in advance this ranking result might be quite unexpected.”

Before he even finished speaking, the rate of gift donations suddenly increased four to five times faster than during the competition itself.

Hearing this, the top-ranked hosts from the previous round grew fearful that their favorites might unexpectedly drop out. Even the comments went wild with mobilization efforts.

With five seconds left, the gift donation channel was abruptly closed.

All lights went out instantly. In complete darkness, everyone watching could only hear their own pounding heartbeats and Fang Zhuo’s calm countdown from the stage:

“Five, four, three, two ”

[I can’t take it these are the longest five seconds of my life]

[Feeling like I’m about to have a heart attack, someone save me]

[Why aren’t they announcing it yet? If my favorite doesn’t make top twelve I’ll just collapse on the spot]

[Politely looking for someone to watch the final round with offline]

[Have a feeling tickets will be super hard to get, suggest securing tickets first before looking for watch buddies]

[I hadn’t planned to attend offline events today, but my Light Brain suddenly malfunctioned and somehow redirected me to Giant Entertainment’s ticketing page. Before I knew it, I’d filled in my basic information and accidentally enabled auto-payment for the interface. Really, I must be more careful in the future.]

[Just tonight, Cheng Jinyu’s fan group alone pulled in over 8 million in donations. Everyone worked hard tonight – our little host needs to push forward!]

[Huh, thinking 8 million guarantees a spot? Should we hear how much Jing’s fans contributed?]

Seeing this comment, Ruan Zihan jolted awake, the effects of the hallucinogen fading rapidly.

He checked his backend spending records – in just two hours, he had donated just over 7 million to Yu Yu.

Could it be that even this amount couldn’t secure a top twelve position…

Would all his previous planning go to waste then?

The final countdown stretched like an eternity. Ruan Zihan sat with hands clasped on his knees, unconsciously pursing his lips.

The stadium lights flickered violently before all walls and ceiling panels glowed with an eerie blue light. The media’s uncontrollable cheers faintly reached every online viewer through audio equipment.

Mega-Entertainment finally announced the second round competition results – Jian Yujing firmly secured first place while Tao Mi surged from tenth to second. Previously popular Xiao Xiao fell beyond sixth place.

Whether from the hallucinogen’s side effects or not, Ruan Zihan felt short of breath, blinking anxiously until Chinese characters blurred before his eyes.

Only when he spotted Yu Yu’s name in twelfth position did his symptoms slightly ease.

Walking through the starkly lit corridor, Ruan Zihan headed alone toward the storage room in the empty suite to prepare a celebratory dose of hallucinogen.

Fireworks bloomed across screens while fresh flowers lined the corridors. Mega-Entertainment staff flanked both sides, presenting newly descended streamers with ceremonial skincare gifts and ninety-nine pink roses.

Fang Zhuo walked behind all streamers, followed by assembled assistant directors and crew members heading backstage.

“Report today’s data.”

“Yes, Director Fang. The second round competition broadcast ran from 5 PM to 12:30 AM with post-tax gift revenue totaling 61.0636 million, a 31% increase from the first round.”

“Peak concurrent viewers reached 690,000, up 64% from yesterday. Among the Federation’s eight major platforms, only Bear Live has rejected our co-streaming offer – their business department keeps manually returning our emails.”

“We estimate 3-6% total viewer growth if we add Bear Live’s co-streaming channels.”

During this phase where Group Broadcast needs breakthrough influence, every bit counts. Fang Zhuo waved dismissively: “Never mind, I’ll handle the negotiations.”

The assistant director continued: “The account you’ve been monitoring, [HanHanWillDoBetterTomorrow], donated 8.7 million over two days, with the final contribution going to creator Zhou Zongyun.”

“In addition, a new account was created under the same IP today. The account ‘[Han’s Dictionary Has No Losing Words]’ tipped Yu Yu 7.9 million tonight. Combined with the other account, the total exceeds 16 million.”

Fang Zhuo chuckled softly.

Deng Jiaqiang, following closely behind him, tapped his temple with two fingers and asked in confusion, “Did he have a high fever as a child?”

Fang Zhuo replied, “Not sure, but one of the side effects of potent hallucinogens is impaired cognitive function.”

As they passed through the petal-strewn corridor, the backstage area of the stadium was filled with cheers and celebratory shouts.

Even the streamers eliminated in the previous round made appearances in the final group dance of the day. Everyone hugged each other, weeping tears of joy.

The moment Fang Zhuo stepped backstage, countless gazes some hopeful, some grateful snapped toward him from all directions.

He strode onto the low platform designated for coordination, activated the microphone’s speaker function, and said succinctly:

“Everyone has worked hard tonight. Both staff and artists are indispensable members of Giant Entertainment. Today’s live broadcast success is thanks to each one of you. Thank you.”

He gave a slight bow, and when he looked up, he saw several streamers in the front row already wiping away tears.

“Jiang Yu, please compile today’s attendance list. On top of the original live streaming performance bonuses, each streamer and employee will receive an additional 100,000 in cash.”

Even though he was accustomed to the boss’s generosity, Jiang Yu instinctively pinched the philtrum below his nose.

The company’s live broadcast coordination team usually worked in two to three rotating shifts. With about twenty staff present tonight, each would receive over 300,000 in bonuses.

While employees at other companies only got toxic motivational speeches for overtime, here they not only received overtime pay but also cash rewards equivalent to others’ annual salaries.

Jiang Yu took a deep breath he was willing to work for Director Fang for life.

The reactions from others on site were even more intense. Someone tossed a handful of petals into the air, plunging the entire backstage into a frenzy of celebration.

After announcing the rewards, Fang Zhuo left directly. On the spaceship, he had his assistant director schedule a business negotiation with Bear Live’s commerce department for 9:30 the next morning.

By the time he returned to the hotel, it was past 2 a.m. A little bit seemed to have just woken from low-power standby mode, its voice slightly drowsy: [Host, maybe you should rest a little? I’m a bit worried.]

Fang Zhuo: [Is overwork listed as a cause of death for operators?]

A little bit paused for a moment before answering honestly: [Not currently. In a healthy state without any disease buffs, the host’s life value is defaulted to full. Only fatal external injuries can cause death.]

Fang Zhuo: [Good, you know that.]

A little bit spammed a series of head-shaking emojis in his mind: [But the physical state of exhaustion and fatigue is something you can genuinely feel. How are you completely unaffected, host???]

Fang Zhuo ignored A little bit’s meltdown. The lights in the hotel room stayed on until 3 a.m. before finally turning off. Before sleeping, he spent some time searching for information on Bear Live’s platform.

Among the eight largest live streaming platforms in the Star Federation, Bear Live’s traffic was by no means the most prominent, but it had the most targeted user base.

It was known as the proving ground for game streamers, attracting a large audience deeply invested in gaming. Each year, the Star Federation’s various esports tournaments, big and small, were broadcast live exclusively on the StarNet main interface and Bear Live.

At the same time, it is also the most selective about its collaboration partners. Any livestream room types assessed as having little relevance to gaming are uniformly rejected by the business department for joint broadcasts.

At 9:30 in the morning, just as the online meeting began, the liaison from Bear Live directly stated:

“Director Fang, I’m not sure if you’re trying to hype up the topic of being the only one to gather all eight major streaming platforms, but I feel it necessary to explain to you first

We are a platform founded on gaming, which clearly doesn’t align with your Group Broadcast focused on appearance and dance.”

“Even if you open a channel on Bear Live, it’s unlikely to attract many active users.”

“Moreover, we have strict control over platform content and currently only accept collaborations in vertical categories. Sorry, Director Fang.”

The two liaisons took turns stating all their reasons for refusal and were about to close the meeting window with a raised hand.

Fang Zhuo’s expression remained unchanged throughout. He glanced at his watch and said calmly:

“Since we’re both pressed for time, please just quote me a total package price.”

“This should include not only channel broadcasting rights but also twelve hours of homepage and splash page recommendations on Bear Live’s platform.”

The two Bear Live employees exchanged glances, reading shock in each other’s eyes.

After a brief discussion, one of them operated the Light Brain for a few seconds, and then a man in his fifties appeared in the meeting interface.

Following his staff’s guidance, the middle-aged man first glanced at the draft paper listing the requirements, then addressed the Light Brain projection screen:

“Director Fang, if you insist on joint broadcasting on our platform, then instead of taking 50% of gift revenue share, we will change it to 80% of post-tax revenue from a single broadcast, with an additional one million channel fee.”

Even top Star Entertainment streamers might not receive one million in gifts per broadcast such pricing was essentially another form of rejection.

After speaking, several staff members nodded slightly to Fang Zhuo, indicating they were about to end the meeting