Starting from a Bar to Sign Internet Celebrities-Chapter 44 - 42: One Punch to Deter a Hundred

"Tell me what’s going on." Hearing Sister Hong’s words, Chen Jincheng didn’t seem too anxious.

It wasn’t strange for someone who gained a lot of traffic to be targeted. After all, everyone was chasing clout.

Before he transmigrated, he had seen plenty of this kind of thing online.

The difference was the era. After several internet clean-up campaigns and rectifications, the methods for chasing traffic were no longer so unscrupulous. Instead, they proceeded in an orderly fashion. The standard practice was to find whoever was popular, collaborate with them, pay them an appearance fee, and shoot videos together, all focused on mutual benefit.

It was just like Hua Xiaolong from his past life, who got famous for his fitness and self-discipline. During the period when he went viral, all the major influencers started a trend of "being self-disciplined with Hua Xiaolong," shooting videos together to co-create traffic and pool their respective audiences.

Of course, this was also related to the maturation of MCN agencies. Guild development had entered a legitimate commercial era that emphasized rules. Disorder was tantamount to destroying the market.

However, during the initial explosion of MCN agencies, there was a chaotic and disorderly phase. For the sake of traffic, there were far fewer rules; people were unscrupulous, harming others for their own gain.

Sister Hong frowned. "It’s a PK influencer named Li Lisheng. He saw the announcement that you’re streaming tonight and sent you a PK battle invitation. He wants to have a PK battle with you tonight."

"That fucking asshole. Do I even know him? And he wants a PK battle?" Upon hearing the name, Chen Jincheng said bluntly, "Just tell him we don’t do PK battles."

Having transmigrated, he naturally had some understanding of the current influencers on this world’s Tiao Yin. Among the current top-tier influencers, he only recognized two from his previous life. One was Gao Yanyan, who had just hit 10 million Tiao Yin Waves in a PK battle, setting a new gift record. The other was Hui Zi, who was still famous for her dancing and had backers.

The other top-tier influencers were mostly different from his past life.

And this Li Lisheng was an influencer hovering on the edge of the top tier. He was a purely provocative PK streamer—the type who built his brand on promoting cult-like "family" slogans, engaging in exaggerated and bizarre behavior, deliberately stirring up trouble for traffic, slandering others, and stopping at nothing to get ahead.

In his past life, Tiao Yin had many such influencers, like Hong Da Pao, Lin Changmao, Brother Li, Yashu, Brother Zhong, and so on.

During that era, the famous guilds of later years hadn’t appeared yet. Tiao Yin’s number one, Wuyou Media, hadn’t been founded. Changwan Network hadn’t established Changwan Culture and entered Tiao Yin. OST Media was just starting to explore Tiao Yin, and Ancient Wheat and Rice was also in a dormant period, feeling things out from the shadows.

Even the future e-commerce giant Three Sheep was still a nobody back then. When encountering a streamer like Brother Li, they would have to press their palms together, bow respectfully, and call him "Brother."

That disorderly and chaotic phase on Tiao Yin was also caused by these provocative PK streamers. They used unscrupulous PK methods to attract a huge following, amassing massive traffic and dominating that era.

But it was this distorted trend of prosperity that nearly caused Tiao Yin’s e-commerce and sales-streaming sector to crash and burn. Tiao Yin mistakenly used this distorted prosperity as a benchmark.

When the time came for the real test, Nami, the reigning PK popularity queen, had a complete Waterloo moment with her sales stream, stunning everyone.

Coupled with the government cracking down on this phenomenon, Tiao Yin finally made timely adjustments, restricting and modifying the PK rules.

After the adjustments, the era of rapid MCN agency development began.

Guilds were no longer run like amateurish outfits. They evolved into increasingly professional media companies, developing into guilds that could sign tens of thousands or even 100,000 streamers at a moment’s notice.

In the e-commerce sector, sales volumes reached the billions. A new record of 1 billion in sales was set in just two hours, making Lin Changmao’s supposedly unbreakable sales record of 80 million a complete joke. Subsequently, many others also broke that 80 million figure.

All of this seemed to mock that disorderly, chaotic, and distorted era of PK battles.

Naturally, after the adjustments, the fate of these PK streamers from the chaotic era was predictable. They were either permanently banned one after another, like the infamous Lin Changmao, Li Lisheng, Hong Da Pao, Yashu, and others; or they barely survived like Brother Zhong, becoming irrelevant figures on the fringe; or they simply stopped streaming altogether, like Nami, Master Tuo, and Little Qingtian.

Although the cultural and entertainment development in this world was different from his previous one in many ways, the development trend of Tiao Yin was almost identical.

This type of PK streamer had also appeared in this era. Just like in the other world, the disorderly and distorted PK era was beginning to emerge. With the introduction of the "little yellow cart," PK battles for slotting fees and kickback PKs were bound to start. The distorted, chaotic phase was likely about to begin.

Li Lisheng was exactly that kind of streamer.

If he had to make a comparison, the guy was almost the same type as Hong Da Pao from his past life.

For him to suddenly seek a PK battle now, he must have his eyes on the heat Chen Jincheng had today. He definitely wanted to use him as a stepping stone to cross the threshold from the edge of the top tier into the ranks of the truly top-tier influencers!

This kind of person doesn’t care if they know you or if there’s any history between you.

Chen Jincheng didn’t forget to instruct Sister Hong, "Our Second-Life Star should have as little contact with these PK streamers as possible. It’s not good for Second-Life Star’s development."

And that was true. To develop an MCN properly, it was best to avoid this type of influencer. One careless move and you could be dragged into the mud by these unscrupulous PK streamers.

Most importantly, he knew his own limits. His fans could send him some small gifts, but he simply didn’t have any "whales" who would casually drop gifts worth 100 or 2 million Tiao Yin Waves to top the leaderboards.

He could complain about these distorted PK streamers from the chaotic era, but he also had to admit that they dominated Tiao Yin during this phase.

In this world, the current PK record was the ten million Tiao Yin Wave gift total just achieved by Gao Yanyan.

Who knew if this Li Lisheng, in his bid to become a top-tier influencer, would try to use him as a stepping stone while also aiming to break that record and ascend?

If that happened, to win a PK battle against him, Chen Jincheng would need his fans to gift him over 1 million yuan.

A gift total of 1 million yuan was no small sum at this stage.

If his fans couldn’t gift that much, he’d have to pay out of his own pocket. Only a fool would do that.

Losing would mean letting his opponent walk all over him, making a name for them. The damage to his own fans’ morale would be significant, and his opponent might even drag his name through the mud for clout from time to time.

In short, this distorted path was not a game he could play.

He also didn’t want to become one of the targets for bans and traffic restrictions later on.

And during this disorderly, chaotic, and distorted PK phase, he didn’t want to provoke this type of influencer. He just wanted to develop his business in peace. At the very least, he needed to grow Second-Life Star to a 3-star Guild or higher. That way, when the government eventually cracked down on these provocative streamers, he would have a shot at competing in the subsequent MCN boom.

"Understood," Sister Hong nodded.

She could naturally see that her boss’s basic strategy was focused on planned content. His usual streaming style was also different from those PK streamers; they were on completely different paths.

Moreover, after learning that her boss wanted to start an MCN and put her in charge, she had specifically researched the current state of Tiao Yin. She had some understanding of these PK streamers and always felt that their approach was problematic and somewhat distorted.

Sister Hong immediately went to handle it. But not long after, she hurried back to find Chen Jincheng and reported, "Boss, I was just about to contact Li Lisheng’s side to refuse, but he’s already unilaterally announced that we’ve accepted the PK battle. He’s posted a video declaring that he’s ’marching’ on you tonight."

As she spoke, she took out her phone and showed a video to Chen Jincheng.

Chen Jincheng frowned as he took the phone. In the video, a short streamer was shouting with great bravado, "Brothers of the Artillery Regiment! You all know about that Chen Jincheng today. A lot of our brothers are pissed off at a scumbag with such corrupt values. So, our Artillery Regiment has issued him a declaration of war! He’s already agreed to tonight’s PK battle! Brothers, get your cannons ready! Tonight, we march on the scumbag!"

’...’ Hearing this kind of slogan, Chen Jincheng thought, ’It really is just like those provocative streamers from my past life.’

Sister Hong said, "We didn’t agree to it. All I said was that I couldn’t make the decision and had to report it. Should we issue a clarification?"

Chen Jincheng sighed. "If we clarify, they can just say we went back on our word because we’re scared of them. That would do huge damage to our popularity and our fans’ morale. The key is, I’m preparing to hit 50,000+ concurrent viewers tonight."

"But we clearly never agreed!" Sister Hong said with a frown.

Chen Jincheng gave a bitter smile. "I’ve been put on the spot. He’s using gangster tactics to force my hand."

This was a common tactic for these PK streamers during the distorted, disorderly phase.

Moreover, he knew there were people within Tiao Yin who were blinded by this false prosperity and tacitly approved of this kind of behavior.

At a time like this, any reaction other than winning—even issuing a clarification or getting into an argument—would just be playing into their hands and boosting their fame.

In other words, he was being completely set up for a clout-chasing scheme.

Even if things blew up, the people inside Douyin who tacitly approved of this behavior would come out to mediate.

That’s why, in the other world, there was a reason these kinds of streamers were either permanently banned, had their traffic restricted, or stopped streaming and left the internet.

Many people even made excuses for them, saying they’d just earned enough money.

’That’s bullshit. No one ever thinks they have too much money.’

These guys doing kickback PKs... the money they actually earned wasn’t even a fraction of what the later 5-star Guilds made.

They were just finished. Done for.

"So how should we respond?" Sister Hong asked with a sigh.

"Then we’ll fight him. And we have to give him a resounding slap in the face," Chen Jincheng’s tone turned colder.

’At the very least, I have to let everyone else know that I’m not to be trifled with. They shouldn’t mess with me. Everyone should just stay in their own lane.’

Throw one punch now to avoid a hundred later.

Otherwise, the next time he orchestrated a viral event, someone else might think he’s an easy target and try to pull the same stunt.

’But to be safe, this will require at least 1 million yuan. I can try to negotiate with President Li to get the 1 million from the advertising fee in advance.’

’If I gift myself 1 million, I’ll get 500,000 back. After taxes, that’s still a loss of 600,000 yuan.’

’Fucking hell. After I teach this Li Lisheng a lesson, I’ll publicly announce that I’m not doing these kinds of PK battles anymore, to avoid this kind of trouble in the future.’

...

「Meanwhile」

In an office, Li Lisheng was asking his assistant, "Get the paid commenters to hype this up. Drive the popularity higher. As long as the hype is big enough, it doesn’t matter how they respond. We’ve already won this round."

The assistant nodded, then added, "Gao Yanyan’s record is 11.43 million Tiao Yin Waves. Your ’big brothers’ are only willing to put up 500,000, and you have to give them a kickback later. To break the record, you’re still short by over 650,000."

"I’ve raised 400,000 on my end. For the other 250,000, I’ll trick the Artillery Regiment members into gifting it. I should be able to squeeze it out of them," Li Lisheng said with a smile. To finally break into the top tier of influencers this time, he had deliberately picked a fight with Chen Jincheng. Naturally, he had come fully prepared.

The assistant did the math. "In that case, after breaking the record and deducting Tiao Yin’s cut and taxes, you’ll only get back 230,000. That’s not enough for the kickback to your ’big brothers.’ You’ll have to put in another 20,000 yourself."

Meaning, he would lose 420,000 this time.

If this were a normal PK battle, without him raising that 400,000, he could have actually made 50,000 after the kickback. He’d just owe his backers a favor, which he could pay back slowly by participating in their events.

But there was no other way. To break the record and absorb Chen Jincheng’s popularity, he had to take this loss.

’As long as I can break into the top tier this time and gather more fans, I can earn it back tenfold later.’

Li Lisheng was very certain about this point.

There was just one thing: it seemed he hadn’t considered what would happen if he lost this PK battle.

After all, he had investigated. The guy was previously just a streamer with a stable 5,000+ concurrent viewers. He got lucky these past few days, made some videos that gained huge popularity, but his gift totals per stream were only in the 40,000 to 50,000 range.

Besides, he wasn’t a PK streamer. Even if he threw in his entire advertising fee from Jinghong Women’s Clothing, at current influencer ad rates, it wouldn’t be much. There was no way he could lose.