Chapter 25
At 8 PM, Lu Chen opened his live broadcast on Whale TV punctually. There were already 520 people online!
When the image of him carrying his guitar, with the help of the high-definition camera, passed through the internet and appeared on the screen, the fans immediately sent a barrage of warm greeting messages.
"That’s great, Lu Family Army has been reborn!"
"Wow, I finally meet General Lu! I’m so happy (*^__^*)!"
"I warmly welcome General Lu Fei to Whale TV! The time when you will be well-known is iminent!"
"Anchor must sing a few songs tonight. Please sing You Who Sat Next to Me!"
"Brothers, let’s make the Fish Balls fly!"
1
"..."
Lines of gift messages continuously flooded the dialog box on the right of the screen as soon as he appeared.
System Prompt: Small Apple (Black Iron VI) gifted the anchor 100 Fish Balls!
System Prompt: Super Awesome Man (Bronze II) gifted the anchor 100 Fish Balls!
System Prompt: Kitty (Bronze V) gifted the anchor 100 Fish Balls!
System Prompt: Crystal Jelly (Bronze II) gifted the anchor 100 Fish Balls!
...
Whale TV used Fish Balls as their virtual currency unit. 100 Fish Balls was equivalent to 1 RMB. Although there were only a little more than 500 viewers in the newly opened live broadcasting room, whether it be the commenting or gifting, the momentum could be considered impressive!
This aspect was not something that is easy to achieve. There were hundreds of thousands of fans hopping around the various anchor rooms. However, the amount of fans that a streamer could retain was usually only around one-tenth of it. There is even less reason to mention small anchors. There are numerous cases of anchors changing platforms because nobody paid attention to them.
System Prompt: Call Me Li Bai (Silver I) gifted the anchor 1 Aircraft Carrier!
The next moment, the animation of an aircraft carrier majestically sailed across the screen. Amongst the rumbling sounds of the cannons, thousands of bright fireworks exploded, blinding everyone’s eyes with their brightness!
Comments like "wow, nouveau riche!", "begging to hug your legs", or "asking for a date" followed behind the aircraft carrier.
The Aircraft Carrier of Whale TV was similar to StarryLive’s Star Battleship. Each one was equivalent to 100,000 Fish Balls or 1,000 RMB. By gifting an Aircraft Carrier, the whole platform would be flooded red once!
The person of such generosity was naturally Li Bai. He also had a member account in Whale TV. Only, it’s rank couldn’t be compared to his account in StarryLive. Furthermore, he did not want the administrator to adjust his rank.
This nouveau riche wanted to earn his rank back himself!
"Thank you everyone, thank you for all your support."
Lu Chen spoke through the microphone, "I’m most grateful towards our Lu Family Army’s Chief of Staff, Li Bai. Not only does he write well, he also knows how to make Aircraft Carriers. Even I feel like asking him to provide for me!"
Laughing comments flooded the entire screen.
Lu Chen looked at the continuously increasing viewer count and continued to speak, "this is my first live broadcast on Whale TV. To be honest, I was quite nervous earlier on, as I’m afraid to let down everyone’s expectations. However, looking at how supportive and affectionate all of you are right now, I told myself that I don’t need to be afraid and I must work hard!"
"The first song that I’ll be singing today is called Thank You!"
2
The intense prelude was like the rain that suddenly arrived in the summer. The sound produced by the friction between Lu Chen’s fingers and guitar strings fiercely attacked the microphone and crashed into everyone’s ears.
Thank You was a gentle rock ’n’ roll song and had been a smash hit in the nineties. Even now, many people still performed covers of this song. It was an old classic that everyone was familiar with.
This song wasn’t easy to sing and it was easy to make a fool of oneself if the song was sang poorly. Singers that didn’t have the adequate skills don’t even dare to attempt this song.
Lu Chen did not use any software for accompaniment and had completely relied on the guitar in his hand. Thus, the difficulty of performing this song had undoubtedly increased greatly.
Lu Chen’s performance was perfect from the start of the prelude. His fingering skills were skilled as if he had practiced it a thousand times. In the ever-changing and complex movements, he did not miss a single note.
With the melody flowing smoothly, he began to sing.
All the spectators who were familiar with Lu Chen or had listened to his singing before had a light in their eyes, without exception. This was because, right now, Lu Chen sang in a completely different style from his previous performances. There wasn’t the nostalgia of You Who Sat Next to Me, nor the sentimental feelings of Cinderella. The style he was showcasing was hot-blooded passion and overflowing red-hot emotions!
"Thank you for accompanying me every minute of my life, allowing me to have sunshine, allowing me to have strength!"
"Thank you for your unrelenting support without any complaints, allowing me to escape that darkness, allowing me to no longer be a coward!"
"Thank you!"
His hoarse and deep voice excited everyone.
Lu Chen used this song to express his thanks to his supporters, and, at the same time, recall the dark times he once had. He was proud of not choosing to sink to the level of a coward. Even if he encountered setbacks and failures, he has never truly been defeated by fate.
At this moment, his mind seemed to have completely integrated with Xu Bo from his dreams, without any distinguishable difference.
"Thank you!"
Lu Chen sang towards the audience in front of the screens and also towards his own memories.
Life is so beautiful!
After finishing the song, Lu Chen held his guitar and did not speak for a long time.
The Fish Balls fell like raindrops and flooded the entire screen like a tide.
System Prompt: Call Me Li Bai (Silver I) gifted the anchor 1 Aircraft Carrier!
System Prompt: Big Brother Whale (Gold VI) gifted the anchor 1 Aircraft Carrier!
Li Bai had once again gifted another Aircraft Carrier and closely followed by an unknown nouveau riche that also sent an Aircraft Carrier.
Not even 10 minutes into his debut broadcast, Lu Fei’s live broadcasting room’s gift amount had surpassed 4,000!
Other than the amount of gifts, the number of viewers had also exploded.
When the live broadcast room was just opened, the number of viewers was only 520. However, soon after, it rose considerably, breaking through 1,000, 2,000, 5,000... Right now, the number of viewers had reached a shocking amount of 11,238!
The number of viewers had exceeded ten thousand!
His popularity managed to climb to a high point in such a short time because of the main page’s new anchors recommendation and the nouveau riche’s gifts of Aircraft Carriers. However, the crucial reason still lied in Lu Chen’s abilities.
He performed Thank You extremely well. Bluntly speaking, even the rock star who wrote the song back in the day may not be able to perform the song better than Lu Chen.
This song also ignited the atmosphere within the live broadcast room!
"Thank you to Li Bai and Big Brother Whale for the Aircraft Carriers..."
Taking a deep breath, Lu Chen calmed his over-excited emotions and said, "I am very excited right now and I feel that my heart is about to jump out of my throat. Since everyone is so enthusiastic, I decided to make a little joke before singing the next song."
In order to become a outstanding anchor, it was important to interact with the viewers and it wasn’t feasible to just know how to sing. One of the most important qualities to becoming popular was the ability to talk. At the very least, one should know how to regulate the mood.
In addition, interacting with viewers could reduce the intensity of live broadcast. Replying to a couple questions raised by fans or saying a several non-offensive jokes could increase the appeal to the audience. At the same time, the host could control the rhythm of the broadcast better.
The number of times Lu Chen did a live broadcast was still too little, but he was good at learning and had a flexible personality. Furthermore, he didn’t have stage fright as he had experience from performing at the bar. Even if his eloquence was currently not up to par, he could casually make a couple jokes.
Fang Mingyi, the freelance writer from his memories, was a famous storyteller on the internet.
"In a mental hospital, there was a patient who sang on the bed while receiving treatment. He would turn after he finished singing and sing again after turning. Then the cycle began again."
"The doctor curiously asked, ’if you want to sing, go ahead. Why do you keep turning around?’"
"The patient gave the doctor a supercilious look, ’Are you stupid? I’ve finished singing the A side, so obviously I’ll have to flip over and sing the B side!’"
3
Puchi!
4
2,000 kilometers away, Deep Sea City, in Whale Technology Headquarters operations department, the coffee that Wu Shanshan just drank sprayed out onto her work desk, computer screen, and keyboard!
"Ah!"
She hurriedly placed down her coffee cup and flusteredly pulled out tissues to wipe the mess.
Despite embarrassing herself, Wu Shanshan was still smiling happily like a flower.
Previously, the 50,000 RMB contract fee for signing Lu Chen had caused her to become a joke in front of her uncle. Although Wu Hongming did not blame her, a trace of embarrassment was stifled in her heart all along.
Wu Shanshan had been nervously watching Lu Chen’s live broadcast at night and the constantly soaring statistics made her suddenly have the confidence to face the Boss.
She believed that Lu Chen will be a big hit in Whale TV and become the most outstanding anchor!
The fish balls mentioned here are the currency of the broadcasting site but also a type of Chinese dish. Just thought that it would be interesting to mention!
The author used two different song titles (between here and the titles a few lines after. This was "Thank You Everyone" and the other ones are just "Thank You".
Don’t worry guys, I didn’t understand the joke either
This is essentially an onomatopoeia of escaped laughter.