Chapter 1 The Summer Nation

The Xia Nation, Life Evolution Bureau, four in the morning.

Waves lapped at the shore.

Secretary Guo gently knocked on the door.

"Come in," a voice sounded from inside, and the door opened automatically.

"Director," Secretary Guo said, seeing Director Zhou sitting at his desk, watching a replay of the competition.

Secretary Guo said, "The second round of the Torch Cup competition has ended, and the top eight teams have been decided. Should the media promotion that follows still follow the old rules?"

"Promoting the competition and these experts is the old rule," Director Zhou said with a smile, "but we still need to be flexible. For example, of tomorrow's four matches, the first three are not very controversial, but the fourth is different! Both teams are strong enough… it's a great topic for discussion. Increase the promotion of the fourth match, especially for Fang Yu and Xu Jingming. Raise their promotion level to Level One."

"Level One?" Secretary Guo was surprised. "Currently, only Lei Yunfang is at promotion Level One. With so much hype right now, won't it spoil them? Xu Jingming is fine, but Fang Yu is only twenty years old. If we over-promote him, I'm worried…"

"Liu Hai's promotion level is Special Grade; everyone knows him," Director Zhou said with a smile. "I haven't seen him get ruined. For true experts, mental fortitude is also important. If they can be so easily spoiled, they have no future. If they get ruined, so be it."

"Yes," Secretary Guo replied respectfully.

"We don't have much time left for Blue Star," Director Zhou said softly. "We must seize the time and try every means to cultivate batches of experts. Our Xia Nation's strategy is already considered moderate. Sakura Nation is going ten times crazier."

"I understand."

Secretary Guo nodded. "I will immediately deploy the mission according to the Level One promotion level."

Director Zhou nodded.

…

In the morning, Xu Jingming's entire family was having breakfast together. Nowadays, family gatherings are usually at breakfast.

Because after a night of virtual world gaming, breakfast is when there's the most to talk about.

"Grandson, the rewards for your match today were really high," Grandpa Xu said, particularly sensitive to rewards, lamenting, "Over ten million for one match."

"I only get a little over a quarter of that," Xu Jingming said.

"Still complaining about little? You brat…" Grandpa Xu glared.

Li Miaomiao, who was next to him, said, "Because people have seen too many god-level battles now, they've gotten used to all sorts of amazing performances. It's getting harder and harder to get them to give rewards! Even in the Torch Cup, if you perform very well, it's already difficult to get a reward of one million. Jingming's match yesterday had over ten million in rewards, which should be the highest since the start of the Torch Cup. Fang Yu's defeat of Zhou Yi seems to have only gotten over three million."

"He's stupid."

Grandpa Xu immediately said, "Rewards also require stimulating the audience's excitement. For example, grandson did very well, first dealing with the three members of the Golden Roc team, making people excited with each kill. Killing three in a row constantly increased the audience's excitement, and then he fought Tie Lianyin… The audience was excited enough, so they naturally gave rewards."

"Fang Yu is different; he didn't show much strength at the beginning."

"One-on-one, he only erupted against Zhou Yi! Once he erupted, he was unbelievably fierce and violent. The audience was still dumbfounded when he had already killed Zhou Yi. After the kill, the battle ended. There was no way to give more rewards! Many viewers hadn't even reacted yet; the match was over before they came to their senses," Grandpa Xu shook his head. "He simply doesn't understand the way of rewards. Rewards require stimulating the audience's emotions and giving them time to vent those emotions. He didn't give the audience enough time to vent their emotions."

Xu Jingming gave a thumbs up.

Li Miaomiao also exclaimed, "Grandpa, I've also done livestreams, but I never thought so much about it."

"How many times have you streamed? Not even a fraction of mine," Grandpa Xu shook his head. "Back then, I streamed for at least five hours a day, non-stop all year round. After streaming for so many years, these are all basic skills. It's a pity that I don't have grandson's spear and shield skills. If I were as powerful as him… If I were to livestream, I'd be modest, but I'd easily be one of the top three streamers on the entire viewing platform."

"Sometimes, simply showing all your strength won't attract attention," Grandpa Xu said. "You even have to deliberately act to create the battle situation you want and completely detonate the audience's emotions for them to get excited."

"Act?" Xu Jingming and Li Miaomiao were puzzled.

"Most of the audience knows you're acting, but if your match makes them feel happy, joyful, and satisfied, then they'll like your livestream," Grandpa Xu said. "Simply put… in a livestream, you're a performer who has to put on a wonderful show. Whether it's anger or roars, these are all acting. If you act well, the audience will give rewards."

Li Miaomiao nodded. "I understand."

"Can't learn it," Xu Jingming shook his head. "Martial arts weapon combat is my lifelong pursuit."

Grandpa Xu glanced at Xu Jingming. "Perhaps that's why you're so strong, but the so-called 'lifelong pursuit' isn't exclusive. You can pursue martial arts while also increasing the entertainment value of your matches."

"Too troublesome," Xu Jingming frowned upon hearing that.

"Sometimes, you don't even need to act; you can simply change some combat methods to increase the entertainment value," Grandpa Xu said.

"I'm not short of money," Xu Jingming said. "I really don't want to bother. I haven't even started livestreaming yet."

That's right.

Grandson hasn't even started livestreaming.

Grandpa Xu helplessly shook his head and left. "My lifelong livestreaming skills have no one to inherit them. What a pity, what a pity."

Xu Jingming and Li Miaomiao exchanged a glance and smiled.

Neither of them could learn it.

Xu Jingming was more focused on martial arts and didn't even want to start livestreaming.

Li Miaomiao also only streamed once a month before the virtual world. Now, she mostly livestreams playing games. She still takes singing very seriously and needs to prepare thoroughly before starting.

"Dad, you want to teach your livestreaming skills again?" Xu Hong said, eating a meat bun and smiling at his father. "You wanted to teach me back then."

"None of you have ever been short of money," Grandpa Xu shook his head. "When you're short of money, you'll know this is a good skill."

At that moment, the news was playing on the light screen on the wall.

"In the second round of the Torch Cup National Competition, there was a major upset. Tie Lianyin, who had won first place in the World Martial Arts Competition three times, was easily defeated by Xu Jingming in the Torch Cup Competition."

The family eating breakfast all turned to look.

Combat footage appeared in the news, showing Xu Jingming like a demon god, smashing the three members of the Golden Roc team into nothingness with one shield each. He also sent Tie Lianyin flying into a residential building.

"Four of the five members of the Golden Roc team, including the captain Tie Lianyin, were killed by Xu Jingming alone with his shield."

…

Penghai City.

Cheng Zihao stood contentedly in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of his office, overlooking the bustling scenery of Penghai City.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, compared to the immortal abodes in the virtual world, this new office is still a bit lacking," Cheng Zihao lamented.

The program playing on the light screen on the wall was analyzing Xu Jingming and Fang Yu.

"I'm more optimistic about Fang Yu! Fang Yu was one-on-one, forcefully and directly killing Zhou Yi. Who's Zhou Yi? For a long time, he was one of the top three experts in Xia Nation. Fang Yu is fully qualified to become one of the top three in Xia Nation for being able to kill him. As for Xu Jingming? He only defeated Tie Lianyin, who's much inferior to Zhou Yi."

"Didn't you watch the match? Xu Jingming killed them with one shield each; it was a complete碾压 (niǎn yā) (crushing victory). Tie Lianyin couldn't make Xu Jingming fully display his strength at all! Moreover, he's twenty-nine years old this year and also has international competition experience, making him more experienced than Fang Yu."

"That's right; he's twenty-nine years old. Fang Yu is only twenty years old; Fang Yu is what you call a genius."

"Let's stop talking and take a look at some of Fang Yu's information; this is first-hand information from our production team."

The program began playing some of Fang Yu's growth information.

"Boss."

Zhou Feng said with doubt, "What's going on? Today, there's news about Xu Jingming and Fang Yu everywhere, and various programs are also discussing them?"

"The Torch Cup Competition is, after all, something that the whole nation is paying attention to," Cheng Zihao said nonchalantly. "Of the four matches in the third round, the only controversial one is Xu Jingming's and Fang Yu's, so it's normal for there to be more debate."

"But this Xu Jingming really has dogshit luck," Cheng Zihao curled his lips. "A kid who retired with a broken leg has actually turned things around with the advent of the virtual world era. But Xia Nation is full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers, and folk experts are emerging one after another. Fang Yu emerged in just over a month. I believe that in a few more months… there will be ten or a hundred Fang Yus. At that time, Xu Jingming will be nothing!"

"The boss is right. Past professional players were geniuses who rose from millions of people around the world. Now, there's competition among seven billion people. The past geniuses among professional players… mostly can't be considered geniuses anymore," Zhou Feng nodded.

"It's just…"

Zhou Feng looked at the program and frowned. "Boss, I've been collecting information from various programs and livestreams, and I always feel that the discussion about Xu Jingming and Fang Yu today is exaggeratedly high."

"After all, one defeated Tie Lianyin, and the other defeated Zhou Yi. See how many people will still be discussing them if they're eliminated?" Cheng Zihao frowned. "Alright, stop mentioning Xu Jingming; it's really annoying."

"Yes," Zhou Feng understood that the boss didn't like Xu Jingming.

"Seize the time to work on our company," Cheng Zihao instructed. "Now is the period of rapid growth for our livestreaming company. The Torch Cup Competition has clearly stirred up the emotions of the whole nation. The whole nation is practicing martial arts, and the popularity of watching martial arts livestreams… is clearly much higher than in the past."

"Yes," Zhou Feng obediently replied.

…

Inside a bar.

During the day, Sun Li was getting drunk in a bar.

He looked up at the screen in the bar, which was divided into two, showing Xu Jingming killing Tie Lianyin and Fang Yu killing Zhou Yi.

The host was still excitedly talking.

"Why is Xu Jingming and Fang Yu everywhere?" Sun Li looked at the screen with bloodshot eyes.

"Golden Roc Group, you black-hearted bastards, you kicked me out as soon as the match was over? How can you be so despicable and shameless?" Sun Li angrily and dejectedly said. "If it weren't for you, I'd still be on Xu Jingming's team. The prize money from the matches alone would be more than what you pay in the Golden Roc team!"

"These big corporations are all bad news," Sun Li angrily and dejectedly said as he raised his head and drank.