198: Chapter 198 Are you ready?

On this day, there were three days left until the final ranking deadline for the "Group Streaming Star" event.

Every party was doing their utmost to climb the rankings, but they all fell short in the face of Starlight X, Era Girls Group, and JK Girls Group.

Almost all viewers following the "Group Streaming Star" event had already concluded that the first-place winner would emerge from these three.

Various analysts appeared on the scene, dissecting the strength comparison between the three.

One side was Emperor Shan, the domestic internet philanthropist whose rise was as fast as a rocket, while the other two were consortiums famous in both the kimchi and island nations.

Most people pessimistically believed that Emperor Shan would definitely be the first to fail, as an individual was at a massive disadvantage compared to a consortium.

Once this sentiment was voiced, it immediately drew dissatisfaction from many of Emperor Shan's fans.

They left comments under various analysis videos to strike back, claiming that Emperor Shan had never tasted defeat and certainly wouldn't lose to the island nation and kimchi folks.

Emperor Shan indeed had many fans, but there were even more rational viewers who advised them in the comments: "Don't be blindly confident, recognize reality, don't smear Emperor Shan's reputation, watch your words, etc."

Upon seeing this, Emperor Shan's fans realized that just saying he was awesome wasn't working, so they decided to switch tactics.

Their narrative shifted collectively; they started posting and making videos boasting about how powerful the island nation and kimchi consortiums were, claiming they were unstoppable domestically, while belittling domestic capital entertainment companies as nothing, unable to even secure first place in an event.

"They usually brag about having hundreds of millions in monthly revenue, but when it comes time for the real deal, none of them can fight."

Some even listed the rankings and event values of several top guilds and capital entertainment companies, pointing at the data and saying, "With this kind of strength, don't bother participating in the event."

After cursing these companies, they shifted their tone again, playing the patriotic card, saying, "Our great nation is actually watching people from the island nation and kimchi lands fight for first place? Are we out of people? Can no one stand up?"

After being hit by such negative news, viewers immediately wanted to stand up and refute it: "How can mere islanders and kimchi folk ride on our heads and poop?"

"We just didn't consider them rivals; if we got serious, we could wipe them out in an instant."

Then someone stepped up to refute: "Who says we have no one? Emperor Shan is single-handedly fighting against the encirclement of the two major island and kimchi consortiums, and is still firmly in first place."

"You call that 'no one'?"

"All that talk about the islanders and kimchi folk being unstoppable is just a tactic they use by hiring internet trolls to boost themselves and smear their opponents. Everyone, don't believe it."

Immediately after, they hyped up how difficult it was for Emperor Shan to resist the two major consortiums alone, saying, "We should unite and help Emperor Shan overcome this difficulty," and so on.

Ordinary people were immediately spun around by this, remembering only the patriotic sentiment, so they confusedly followed the rhythm, shouting slogans to support Emperor Shan and joined in.

Once this momentum picked up, more people joined in to promote it, using the patriotic slogan to earn plenty of traffic.

Some enterprises even stood up to show support: "Although our factory's annual output value is barely a hundred million, we are willing to take out all our profits to support Emperor Shan."

If small factories could see the traffic code, big factories certainly couldn't miss it.

A bunch of famous brands also declared they would take out their entire annual marketing budget to support Emperor Shan, never letting him fight alone.

After Zhang Shan received the news, he curled his lips in disdain. "These guys sure know how to play; their ability to seize every opportunity is truly strong."

"However, will I let you get your wish?"

"Why should I share the empire I conquered with you all?"

"In that case, let the show begin early."

Zhang Shan went directly into the Starlight X Livestream Room, and amidst Xiang Zai's excited welcome, slowly typed a line of text.

[Lv75 Qingshan: Invite me to a duet!] (Floating Screen)

Seeing Zhang Shan's floating comment, Xiang Zai was stunned for a moment, then reacted and immediately said, "Okay, Emperor Shan, please wait a moment, I will invite you right away."

Although he didn't know what Emperor Shan wanted to do, they absolutely dared not refuse Emperor Shan's request.

This wasn't just his own thought; it was the unified thought of everyone in the company, from top to bottom.

It was rumored that the company boss had personally given orders: even if they neglected her, they could not neglect Emperor Shan. If anyone dared to offend Emperor Shan, they were to be fired regardless of the reason.

Come to think of it, with a deity like Emperor Shan around, he was the company's God of Wealth; who would dare offend him?

Moreover, rumors were faintly circulating in the company that the previous Emperor Wu, Emperor Hei, and Emperor Yun were actually all Emperor Shan's alt accounts.

It was unknown how credible this news was, but after the group formation night ended, Emperor Wu and the others indeed never appeared again, whereas Emperor Shan remained as usual, not only gifting to Xi Xi but also gifting a lot to others.

Of course, if they only looked at their Starlight X, they might have some thoughts, but if they looked at Emperor Shan's operations over the past month, they actually didn't find it strange.

In these nearly four weeks, there were quite a few Livestream Rooms where Emperor Shan had gifted the entire group. Whenever Emperor Shan made a move, it was guaranteed to be gifts for everyone; the main theme was spreading the wealth evenly.

If one had to find a difference, it was that the gifts given in other Livestream Rooms combined did not amount to as much as those in Starlight X.

It could be considered Emperor Shan's special treatment for their Starlight X.

This was also the reason why Xiang Zai was so excited when he saw Zhang Shan come in; facing Emperor Shan's request, he naturally complied with everything.

Even without the company's instructions, he would have done the same.

If Emperor Shan liked it, he could even...

Ahem, enough small talk.

After Xiang Zai invited Zhang Shan to the duet, he immediately greeted him: "Hello, Emperor Shan. This is the first time I've had a face-to-face conversation with you like this. It's making me a bit nervous, Haha..."

Xiang Zai made a small joke; he was afraid that Emperor Shan might be nervous about his first duet, so he wanted to ease the atmosphere.

But he had overthought it; Zhang Shan had hosted his own livestreams several times already, so why would he be nervous about a simple duet?

Emperor Shan: "Haha, don't be nervous. I'm not a monster. I didn't come on air for anything major. Why don't you invite Star Shine 001 through 005 to join the duet for a PK? There are only three days left until the ranking closes. I'm planning to play something big, but gifting by myself is boring. Let's have a few PK rounds; that should be more interesting."

Hearing Emperor Shan's words, Xiang Zai was stunned for a moment, then fell into ecstasy. It wasn't until the operations staff beside him pushed him that he came back to his senses.

"No problem, Emperor Shan. I'll contact those Livestream Rooms immediately. We're all family, it'll be quick."

While Xiang Zai was speaking, the operations staff had already run out of the Livestream Room to call out to the neighbors.

"Duet time, duet time! Emperor Shan wants to do a PK duet; you all need to accept."

The operations staff from the other five Livestream Rooms, upon hearing the news, all ran over to ask about the situation. Learning that Emperor Shan had specifically requested a duet with their Livestream Rooms, they quickly ran back to their rooms.

Emperor Shan hadn't gifted their Livestream Rooms a small amount these days, so now that he had specifically named their rooms for a duet, they definitely couldn't delay even a bit...

As the six Livestream Rooms successfully connected for the duet, Zhang Shan continued speaking: "How is it? Are you all ready? Let's start with a fifteen-minute unrestricted PK."

As soon as Zhang Shan's words were spoken, under the shared public screen bullet chat settings, everyone saw several floating bullet comments drift across the middle of the screen.

[Star Shine 001] [Qingshan Alt Account 001: Ready!] (Floating Screen)

[Star-Shine 002] [Qingshan Alt Account 002: Ready!] (Floating Screen)

...

[Star-Shine 005] [Qingshan Alt Account 005: Ready!] (Floating Screen)