Chapter 754 Marketing Strategy
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While Danielle was a bit uncertain about Emilia's 'strategy' at first, once they discussed and agreed upon it, she decisively agreed to 'streaming' most of their 'gameplay' on all major platforms.
Even if they spent all their time grinding the [Boar King], most people wouldn't be able to hit level ten for a while. After all, the experience earned was greatly reduced because of the size of the crowd assaulting him.
This gave Emilia's team a golden opportunity to explode in popularity, and Danielle knew that it would be stupid to just let it go to waste, even if it ended up attracting a lot of hate and envy their way.
Before logging in, they'd already set up their 'accounts' on all popular streaming platforms, and decided to go live simultaneously.
Of course, Sylvia and Danielle weren't particularly 'social' creatures, and didn't like the feeling of the red dot blinking above their heads, constantly reminding them that they were being watched, but they were still sensible enough to not say anything stupid in front of the 'camera'.
After all, having rejected all the 'sponsors' before, their team really was strapped for cash. And since they could keep more than half the revenue of their 'individual' streams, enduring a little bit of shame was but a cheap price to pay.
"I've already paid for a few advertisements to get started, and also shared our links everywhere, so we should start getting some traffic soon." Danielle reminded them seriously. "Be mindful of your words and actions, and remember to signal clearly if there is a need for privacy, alright?"
"Don't worry, we understand." Emilia grinned and gave her a thumbs-up, and the rest of the team also nodded.
Danielle hummed. "Then… let's continue venturing deeper into the forest today."
Soon enough, a steady stream of viewers started trickling in, and it didn't take long for the message to spread.
"Ohhh, so that ad that looked like a scam was actually true?!"
"Isn't that Emilia?!"
Danielle's ads were only meant to get things started, and the real 'allure' of their streams was naturally the 'future content' that no one else had access to.
Once the message started to spread, the popularity of their streams immediately exploded, and Danielle couldn't help but start smiling.
The number of people who flocked to either 'confirm the rumors' or see what the mainland actually looked like for themselves was enough to clog even some of the more robust streaming platforms, and far exceeded Danielle's most optimistic estimates.
Not to mention Emilia's stream, which already had almost ten million viewers, even their relatively less popular channels would be able to fund the 'Crimson Witches' for a while with just one day's revenue.
Of course, Danielle knew that this kind of 'popularity' was just a flash in the pan, and would be lost just as quickly as it had been gained, but she didn't mind.
Even if only one person out of a thousand stayed, it would still be enough for them to start building a foundation for their future, completely independent of those 'sponsors' who only knew to exploit them.
The stream 'ran' at almost four times the speed at which most people watched, so it didn't take long for a lot of content to build up, even with many 'fast forwarding' it often. And with all their links shared on each stream, people were easily able to 'browse' and find their favorite host and angle of view.
It didn't take long for a lot of people from Emilia's stream to start spilling over to others, but that was no surprise.
With her movement speed and combat style, people were very likely to get dizzy and nauseous after a while, and not many enjoyed feeling so up close and personal with tentacle monsters to begin with.
But if they could watch the 'action' from a little further away, it was an entirely different thing.
Obviously, after dealing with the slimy tentacles for so long, Emilia's skill in 'handling' them had already reached its pinnacle, and now she could move in and out of their entanglement like a fluttering butterfly, easily avoiding all damage.
"Whoa… look at that… the moves in this game are really something else!"
"Didn't someone say that Arcadia doesn't have movement support? I call bullshit. Human beings can't move like that naturally."
"Have you never seen a gymnast?"
"Although I've never seen this girl in any of the competitions, I can confirm that none of her moves are as unrealistic for humans as that guy seems to think."
"But didn't Karamine have like… zero gymnasts who qualified for the world tournament this year? If they had someone who could move like that, they should have definitely sent her in."
"There's a lot more to being a gymnast than being flexible and looking like a slut."
Naturally, it was impossible for everyone to be 'harmonious', and many people mocked and hated Emilia while watching her stream.
With her previous behavior during the interview and attention-grabbing face, even if she'd established a somewhat na?ve and childish image, this was no surprise.
In fact, more people were 'outraged' by the fact that they could easily see under Emilia's skirt thanks to her agile moves than there were those who were 'concerned' about her talent possibly going to waste, which sparked another small war in their comment section.
Fortunately, Danielle had been insightful enough to preemptively label all their streams as 'adult only', which prevented them from any moderation troubles.
But while everyone was just 'observing' various 'interesting' things on the screen at first, after they'd had their 'fill', their attention soon shifted to something that many had previously missed.
"Hey… is it just me, or do some of them have like, really strange weapons and stuff?"
Some wondered if Emilia and her team had obtained these items through dumb luck as well, while the rest guessed that they might have been purchased from some shop on the mainland, which might be far more reasonable in pricing than those in the beginner town.
Of course, most of the players who might turn green with envy at the thought of a higher-level weapon were still diligently farming inside the game, and had no time to waste watching Emilia's stream.
As for the 'skills' displayed by the 'Crimson Witches', not many in the audience were very impressed. Without any way to know just how powerful the [Minor Tentacle Plant Demon] actually was, the only thing that really stood out was Emilia's ability to stay close and 'tank' its hits without actually taking much damage.
In a game without inbuilt 'evasion' mechanics, even the most unreasonable people had to admit that Emilia's skill was a little impressive, though most dismissed it as useless in late game.
After all, once the bosses and monsters got bigger, wouldn't their attacks become bigger and faster? They believed that Emilia's 'strategy' would only come back to bite her in the ass at that time.
"Now, Danielle!"
"Fireball!"
With all of Crystal's shots being infused with the light element, there was no way for people to compare its damage with her regular shots, so none of them were worried about their 'discovery' being leaked, but they still did their best to be flashy so that people didn't have much time to pay attention to things they shouldn't.
Obviously, with their 'captain' too busy with directing her fireworks show, the task of monitoring all the stream statistics fell on Nico, who was considered the most 'leisurely' as their healer, since Emilia was an extremely reliable 'tank', and she quickly noticed an interesting trend.
Ever since she changed her position to stay a little closer to Emilia, the number of viewers in her stream had skyrocketed.
While staying alert and ready to cast 'Mend Wounds' to her teammates whenever needed, Nico soon came to a realization. 'Right! Everyone's stream is set to the first-person mode by default, and Emilia must not have changed it yet! If they pick my point of view…!'
For the casuals and non-gamers, watching a skimpily dressed, gorgeous crimson-haired elf girl weave around and 'fight' was far more 'appealing' than getting a better view of the monsters, after all.
"Whoa! Did you see that giant tree monster?!"
"Oh, that thing is also there, huh."
"What the fuck…"
And after watching them fight for a while, the few players in the crowd of viewers really had no way to continue denying the truth, and some begrudgingly communicated with their friends within the game.
Obviously, since streams could be managed from within the game, the same method could be used to send messages if necessary. Though it could hardly be considered efficient, given that the player may never even notice the 'message', at least it didn't require waiting for the other person to log out first.
Some of the top-grade teams around the world who'd started taking notice of Arcadia were finally alarmed, and realized that the 'amateurs' that they didn't take seriously before might actually be a threat. 𝚋𝚎𝚍𝚗ｏ𝚟𝚎𝚕.ｏｒｇ
Not only had this small and previously unknown team of girls somehow managed to reach level ten while everyone else was still struggling to hit level eight, but based on how they could 'easily' take down a monster in that area, they might have already started making that 'gap' wider.
Some even directly exited the game and called for an emergency meeting to discuss a 'solution'.
"What level do you think they are, already?"
"Based on the requirement of experience getting higher for each level? I think they would already be considered excellent if they'd hit level eleven."
"Right. It hasn't been that long, after all."
Meanwhile, after a whole day of 'grinding', the 'Crimson Witches' finally collapsed in their room in 'Inari's Inn', and logged out before reviewing some of their streams.
After seeing so many people foaming at her in both hate and jealousy, Emilia couldn't help but giggle. "Fortunately, they have no idea that we're level twelve already, or they might just die from envy."
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