Chapter 8: 008. Are you a living person? _1
Translator: 549690339
Lu Ban was awakened by an incoming call on his cell phone.
He normally had excellent quality sleep, always slept through until dawn, and never let fatigue or stress carryover to the next day; even doctors said he was very healthy.
Glancing at his phone, this was the second incoming call, and the caller was lucky; Lu Ban quickly answered.
"Hello?"
The caller ID showed it was his university class leader, a top-performing girl, and to be somewhat ashamed, Lu Ban remembered that during his four years at university, he seemed to have spoken no more than thirty sentences to her, and these included a lot of "okay," "fine," and "received."
After graduation, Lu Ban barely kept in touch with his classmates, but it was only this class leader who would send him a message every couple of weeks just to check in.
"Is this Lu Ban? I'm Feng Yu. You haven't run into any trouble over there, have you?"
Hearing that voice as fine as a nightingale singing, Lu Ban slightly frowned.
As for his situation, he could consider it trouble, but not quite full-blown trouble.
"No, what's up?"
"You really haven't run into any trouble?"
The voice on the other end sounded somewhat cautious, as if knowing something.
"Well, if I have to mention something, I did encounter a fraud attempt through Fruit Chat before, but I am self-disciplined and didn't fall for it; I even reported it. The police said I did a good job."
Pfft—
Lu Ban heard a gentle laugh come through the phone.
"Looks like you're really fine. I thought you had really gone and done something foolish when I saw that video. But now that I think about it, those were just special effects, right?"
The bubbly voice came through, causing some confusion for Lu Ban.
"Video? Ah... you saw it?"
It was only then that Lu Ban remembered the video he had uploaded that morning; he hadn't expected a classmate to have seen it.
It was awkward.
It was like the embarrassing feeling when a novel posted on a literature website, full of one's fantasies, is discovered by one's mother who happens to be a language teacher and then meticulously criticized for its language errors.
"Yes, though it was quite scary, it was also interesting... By the way, are you still in Jiangcheng?"
"I am."
"Do you have time to meet up for a meal? We haven't seen each other since we graduated, right..."
"Sure, if I have time... definitely next time!"
He vaguely agreed, staring blankly at the phone screen after ending the call for a while, before he recalled what the old class leader had mentioned.
It definitely wasn't because the old class leader had always had a secret crush on him and thus had kept an eye on his old video website account and saw the video through there.
So there was only one answer left.
He turned on his computer, accessed the old video site, and as soon as he opened the homepage, he saw that the automatically captured Netherworld cover appeared at the top of the hot recommendations.
The old video site used big data algorithms, with very low weight on manual recommendations; appearing on the homepage as a hot recommendation was 100 percent because of a surge in data such as view counts.
Upon closer inspection, he realized that the video had reached 1.5 million views and over ten thousand comments in just half a day.
Could it be that the video had really taken off?
"Could it be true?"
Lu Ban clicked in, curious to see what those ten thousand plus comments said about him.
[I was watching this video on the subway, and nearly got taken away. How can people be so heartless nowadays, messing with this kind of stuff!]
[The stuff done in this Netherworld video couldn't possibly be done by living folks!]
[I was somewhat sleepy, but after watching, I'm wide awake. Hang on, my closet just moved. I'll go check it out.]
[Got guts to try this game tonight, warriors?]
[All evils scatter, no offense meant!]
[I've watched it all, it's obviously just special effects editing, not scary at all, mainly good creativity, definitely a professional team.]
[No, I have to like, comment, and share this video, I can't be the only one duped!]
[Here I am, enjoying this video in bed early in the morning, and I couldn't resist touching my wife's cold hand next to me, wait, where did I get a wife from...]
[I just want to ask, is the person in the video still alive?]
Comments like these were mostly from people who got scared by the video and then lashed out at Lu Ban, or lashed out while sharing, liking, and tipping the video to return the favor to society.
Lu Ban, seeing these disparaging comments, not only wasn't angry, he even felt like laughing a bit.
After all, for a creator of horror content, the audience's fear is the best reward. If he could scare a few more people into cursing out loud, the creator could be said to have accumulated some merit.
Moreover, Lu Ban's videos didn't rely on too many sudden scares or disgusting shots, but almost entirely on environmental ambiance. Because the level of horror and scariness wasn't that high, this ironically became an advantage for spreading the content.
People who got scared kept sharing it, not wanting to be the only victims, continuously boosting the video's heat as they tried to let it rank higher and trap more people.
This was the direct reason the video went viral in a short time.
Jiangcheng's old video platform's private messages were already full. Lu Ban took a cursory look. There were those simply repeating comments from the video, those checking if Lu Ban was still alive, those inquiring about the game details wanting to try it themselves, and even some talent agencies looking to collaborate.
[Dear Mr. Motionless, we would like to invite you to star in our web movie...]
There were even talent scouts.
Lu Ban temporarily didn't pay any attention to them.
After he finished washing up and returned to the computer, the views had increased by about fifty thousand.
At this rate, by tomorrow at the latest, the video would reach five million views. Keep in mind it's not even noon yet, and the majority of viewers were sneak-watching while commuting. Lu Ban guessed the real spike in views for the video would occur in the evening.
From this perspective, Lu Ban was actually quite grateful to his [Under-bed Friend].
"..."
Lu Ban couldn't help but look under the bed again, and of course, there was nothing.
He thought for a moment, picked up a broom and mop, and cleaned the room thoroughly, making sure the area under the bed was spotless, leaving the whole house feeling refreshed.
Going back and refreshing the page, the view count had reached 1.6 million.
This refreshing process was pretty addictive.
However, the number of followers on Lu Ban's own account had only grown by a little over two thousand. Compared with those big content creators on the old Jiangcheng video site with millions of followers, he was insignificant.
Some classmates might ask why the view count was so high, but the increase in followers was so low.
As Lu Ban found from his research before, a video going viral involves many accidental, non-replicable factors, and reaching a million views required historical progression.
The fact that a newcomer like him managed to get his video to this level was honestly just good luck.
The number of followers, on the other hand, is a reflection of genuine strength, a symbol of the audience recognizing their production skill. A single paranormal horror video can't carry Motionless to viral fame as well.
Lu Ban didn't need to worry about this for the time being as the System task was five million views, not one million followers.
Encountering such good fortune, Lu Ban didn't stay cooped up at home; he decided to go out for a walk, have lunch, and then stop by the library to look for some paranormal-related books to enrich himself.
He went downstairs and entered the Braised Chicken Rice Shop at the entrance of the neighborhood. He ordered a medium pot of braised chicken and was about to take out his phone to check the view count on his video when he noticed the girl sitting at the next table was staring at him.
So, Lu Ban looked up and stared back.
Staring—
After ten seconds of looking at each other, no sparks of romance flew, but the other party suddenly jumped up and asked with an odd expression.
"...Are you a living person?"
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone