Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

Zhao Youyue did not expect such a drastic rise in viewership, just because she had erroneously played a money spamming card game by accident.

The effect of live streaming a Summoner’s War’esque game is not exactly harmless. It was probably similar to those types of ship collection games. One could have great fun by playing alone. It would give a sense of accomplishment, as one’s collection grows. But when it comes to a whaler live streaming, it would only give rise to the envy and jealousy of viewers who played the same game.

Usually, active, unpredictable streamers who were constantly on the move, killing their enemies would attract several viewers. Audiences would be placed in the very seat of the gamer as he or she carves up a path of destruction.

In this case, the huge increase of viewers was related to Zhao Youyue’s sudden change of her live broadcast style. She did not go against the pop-ups anymore. Instead, her speech was calming, soothing, almost therapeutic. Whenever someone gives her a present, she thanked them, instead of being disdainful, ole ‘Yu Shengfan.’

These little bits of gift money certainly made no difference to Zhao Youyue. But whenever she thinks of what people are putting through to gift her something, she simply had to express her appreciation. This action was out of common courtesy, while also being Zhao Youyue’s usual habit.

If Zhao Youyue notices those local tycoons entering the live broadcast room, she would welcome them warmly. The Douyu platform had implemented a cash-based hierarchy that was loosely inspired by Aristocratic terms. It was divided into Knight, Viscount, Earl, Duke, King, Emperor.

Of them all, the Emperor stood atop it all. One would have to spend 120,000 RMB on subscriptions alone, and keep that up for the following months. But, it had the most privileges, even being able to speak to beautiful female live streamers through the mic, at the ‘good-looking’ section.

Zhao Youyue’s cousin, Zhao Hao for instance, owned an ‘Emperor’ Douyu ID, with its level exceeding 100, meaning that he had already spent two to three million RMB on Douyu.

To a person like him, that sum wasn’t much. Do not forget that Zhao Hao’s father, Zhao Jiaren is the director of Douyu live broadcast platform. By relying on this relationship, Zhao Hao would receive a discounts when he fills the shark fin[1]. His ID was “boss Hao,” also known as “CEO Hao.” He was once obsessed with a female live streamer for a period of time. After ‘playing’ with her, he no longer had interest in her.

Nowadays, Zhao Hao would seldom get obsessed with female live streamers on Douyu. He loved to watch the more interesting live broadcasts. He even does some live-streams of his own in his free time. Lots of audience loved watching local tycoons spam money, they would feel the fun as well.

Now Zhao Hao pays attention to the style when he ‘plays’ with a woman. He specifically plays with those second-rate and third-rate female celebrities. They were not very widely known. They looked just as good as first-rate celebrities, and they were far cleaner. He also would not need to worry about them utilizing their own influence to cling onto him, because they did not have much influence.

Therefore, it was said to better play with second-line or third-line female celebrities. This was Zhao Hao’s experiences accumulated over the years. He was very skilled.

Today was a coincidence. Zhao Hao, who rarely logs on to Douyu to watch live broadcasts, did exactly that. He habitually went into the gaming area. After noticing a title called, “Douyu Yu Shengfan” under the ‘gameplay’ category, his interest was instantly piqued. He intended to enter and see how ‘Yu Shengfan’ looked like in the real world.

By the way, Zhao Hao had abandoned the book when ‘Yu Shengfan’ was written to death by Rosemary. He did not even read the pirated version, even if he is in the real life Golden League[2] of “The Strongest King.” However, he gave the opportunity to his cousin, Zhao Youyue to show off on Qidian novel website.

Zhao Hao was not sad, angry or any of that sort because of Xiao Yu’s death. He was not as sentimental as his own younger sister. In his case, the plot lost its appeal with the departure of that character. There was no more passion and the desire to know more, like it was, during the moment he first read the book. Besides, rich folk like him had lots of other creative methods of entertaining themselves. Why should he waste his time on novels?

But even so, Zhao Hao still remembered the girl named ‘Yu Shengfan.’ It had recurringly haunted his thoughts. If there is really such a girl in reality, he would recruit her into his own E-sports team.

Zhao Hao entered the live broadcast room. As an ‘Emperor,’ and also a Douyu celebrity, his appearance brought up a storm. Lots of pop-ups greeted him——

“CEO Hao has actually visited Xiao Yu’s live broadcast room. Does he want to boost Xiao Yu’s status?”

“Boss Hao has seldom logged on to Douyu recently; we seldom see him spam money anymore.”

“Doesn’t CEO Hao have a motorcade? What a king!”

“Does CEO Hao want to play ‘count the helicopters’ today as well?”

…

The so-called ‘Douyu motorcade,’ was organized by the tycoons themselves. If they wanted to appear in one of the live broadcast rooms, they would do it together. It was pompous, but they enjoyed the feeling of being worshipped by live streamers and loser audiences.

Although Zhao Hao did not bring his ‘motorcade’ along, he still very much enjoyed such a feeling of being pursued and admired by most audiences. Then, he happened to hear Zhao Youyue spreading poisonous chicken soup[3], and putting herself down along the way——

Failure isn’t scary. What that is scary is that you still believe in that sentence.

Suffer more when you’re young, so that you will get used to suffering when you’re old.

Looking back in the past, I realize that I have lost so many precious things. Yet, I am not sad, because I know that there is more to be lost in future.

Whatever that Yu Shengfan typically did unto others was now being done unto herself. As a result, this particular stream produced a comedic, satirical effect, and brought life to the atmosphere.

Zhao Youyue suddenly found that deprecating others would make them unhappy, and they would respond in kind, only ending up with both parties being unhappy. Self-deprecation on the other hand, can bring happiness to more people, at nobody’s expense.

This is because, no matter how she deprecates herself, those poisonous chicken soup statements are all invalid to her. She did not win at the starting line; she was born at the finish line…

There were also some poisonous chicken soup statements such as “Girls will only look prettier when they have a bit of confidence, but there aren’t any pretty girls who are not confident!”, “There are two causes towards the princess disease, either she’s ugly, or she’s poor. Then how about those who are pretty and rich? They were originally princesses, okay?!”. Such soups were even more invalid in her case, because she ‘is’ both pretty and rich.

Although Zhao Youyue lacked some confidence, in the process of acting ‘Chu Luoxun,’ she was unknowingly learning more about the source and workings of ‘Chu Luoxun”s optimism, self-confidence, and fortitude. These most beautiful qualities were the parts of this character card. ‘Chu Luoxun’ had moved her heart the most. As for the musical talent, that was just an unexpected bonus…

Zhao Youyue saw the ’emperor'”Boss Hao” coming in. She certainly did not know him, since her total time spent on Douyu had not yet been long enough. However, she still expressed her welcome calmly, insincere yet unperfunctory. Such is her typical demeanor.

Talking about poisonous chicken soups and self-deprecating with such a calm tone turned out to be the biggest highlight, apart from her current live broadcast of whaling. She spat out witty, quintessential phrases, one after another.

Zhao Hao heard Zhao Youyue’s voice and felt that it was familiar, but he did not think that it was her at the moment. How could his closeted, dull sister possibly become a female live streamer?

Translation Note:

1.Shark’s fin Shark’s fin is a newly added item onto Douyu live broadcast platform. The audiences can send them as gifts to the live streamers, activate ‘reward missions,’ encouraging the live streamers to have more live broadcasts. Live streamers can use the obtained shark fins to exchange for rewards in the personal center. Currently, 1 shark fin costs 1 RMB.

2.Golden League Golden League refers to the RMB fan title of a book, which can be obtained through giving tips. In order to receive the ‘Golden League’ title, one has to tip a book a total of 10,000,000 Qidian coins in one shot, converted from 100,000 RMB. Only the first person who fulfills the requirement is able to receive the title of the book he/she has tipped.

3.Poisonous chicken soup The opposite of ‘love chicken soup.’ Love chicken soup refers to a phrase/sentence that warms your heart; poisonous chicken soup refers to a phrase/sentence that misdirects you, makes your heart feels like stopping. Another way to understand is that, love chicken soup gives you a beautiful fantasy, whereas poisonous chicken soup tells you what reality is.