After a while, she looked up and clicked her tongue in amazement.
“Master, you’ve really gone viral.”
“Judging by your expression, don’t tell me I went viral because of strength?”
She glanced suspiciously at Xiao Ya’s complex expression, a mix of surprise and teasing, then cautiously asked.
Xiao Ya cleared her throat.
“Ahem, actually, you could say it’s because of your skill. Being good at telling ghost stories counts as skill too!”
Xiao Ya waved her small hand, and a screen appeared before Su Yan’s eyes.
“This is one of the more popular short-video platforms on Nick Star. The video about you here has already broken several million likes.”
She played the video, which was a compilation of Su Yan telling ghost stories, even pointing out her habit of stalling in stories.
The caption below caught attention—
“Bedtime stories for Earthlings, let’s purify our souls together!”
Su Yan: ?
With a bad feeling, she opened the comments section.
Sure enough, it was filled with questions.
Luckily, the questions were all directed at the uploader of the video.
“Where’s your conscience?”
“If you say Earthlings listen to this before bed, I don’t believe it.”
“Ahhh, I believe in your evil!”
“Purify the soul???”
“When I type this question mark, it’s not because I think there’s something wrong with me, but because I think you have a problem!”
“Filthy thing, come out and die! I’ll crawl out of bed at midnight to get you!”
“I knew you wouldn’t really promote any soul-nourishing stuff. As expected, it’s good material.”
“The style is as always, no humanity.”
Besides these, the comments on Su Yan as a ghost story teller were quite positive.
“This young lady’s got some skills!”
“Look at the background, are these guests from ‘Childhood Variety’?”
“What a dream crossover!”
“Double kitchen madness!”
“Following first, can’t wait to hear first-hand ghost stories in the future.”
“Am I the only one who finds that ghost story chain game interesting?”
“There’s a ghost story that’s terrifying when you think about it deeply!”
Su Yan looked away from the screen and met Xiao Ya’s eyes.
After a while, Xiao Ya clapped.
“Master, you should try some more flashy moves. Maybe we can go viral in the metaphysics niche next.”
Su Yan raised an eyebrow; this was indeed a pleasant surprise.
But it would be hard to replicate.
She couldn’t exactly retell mythology stories from the dungeon to Nick Star’s audience, right?
Besides the question of whether she could tell them well, whether the Nick Star audience would accept mythology was a huge issue!
The reason ghost stories went viral was twofold: first, Nick Star itself didn’t have ghosts, so it was novel; second, Su Yan was a horror novelist, so she could bring people into the atmosphere.
Most importantly, Nick Star’s population loved this kind of spooky vibe, or else the “Childhood Variety” show wouldn’t be so popular.
Ghost stories essentially added new material to their otherwise dull yet longing-for-terror lives, which is why they could go viral.
The two chatted a while longer before Su Yan logged out of the app.
Although this was just a one-off case, it indeed brought her quite a bit of attention.
And Su Yan knew, as she told more ghost stories, this attention would only grow. Even if other guests tried to imitate her path, it would eventually benefit her.
After all, as Nick Star’s first ghost story teller, she had blazed a trail.
No matter who followed, they’d always be compared to her.
This back and forth would only attract more fans for her!
The next day at lunch, Zhao Qian looked at Su Yan, hesitating to speak.
Several times she opened her mouth but didn’t say anything.
After Su Yan’s mother left, Zhao Qian finally approached and asked, “Sister, do you really not have a boyfriend?”
Su Yan was momentarily puzzled, then a knowing light flashed in her eyes.
It had to be Cui Hao telling Zhao Qian about Chu Yi for her to ask that.
And judging by the envy and jealousy hidden in Zhao Qian’s expression, Su Yan guessed Cui Hao had probably taken a photo of Chu Yi as well.
She swallowed the words she was about to say—no.
“What does it have to do with you? I’m already in college; my mom isn’t going to forbid me from dating, right?”
She hadn’t admitted anything, but Zhao Qian, seeing the photo, immediately assumed Su Yan had a boyfriend—though she didn’t want to bring it up.
Thinking of the handsome profile in the photo, jealousy darkened Zhao Qian’s eyes.
Pretending to be close with Su Yan, she said, “Sister, I’m on your side! How can you date and hide it from me?”
A cold smile appeared at the corner of Su Yan’s mouth as she pushed Zhao Qian’s hand away.
“I’m still on my mom’s side! If you want to date, find a boyfriend yourself. Don’t try to find your existence through me.”
Zhao Qian lost to Su Yan but was far from giving up.
After all, even if the photo was blurry, she could feel how handsome the guy was.
Such a handsome man was really a waste for Su Yan.
If she could snatch him away, it would not only be impressive but also hit Su Yan hard—two birds with one stone.
Su Yan grew impatient with her pestering and locked herself in her room, not letting anyone in.
During meals, Zhao Qian didn’t dare act up in front of Su Yan’s mother and was at a loss against Su Yan for the time being.
Soon, it was time for the fourth episode’s recording day.
Su Yan opened her phone and clicked on that envelope.
The envelope opened, and three characters appeared before her eyes—
“Three words”
After entering the phone space, Xiao Ya was sitting there as usual.
Su Yan thought about the three words she had just seen and asked puzzledly, “‘Three words’—what kind of game is that?”
Xiao Ya shook her head.
“I don’t know either, but after entering the game, the rules will be given. Master, you don’t have to worry too much.”
Su Yan sighed. It was the first time she had encountered a game she hadn’t even heard of before.
How could she not be worried?
No matter whether the rules changed, having played a game before gave a sense of security—even if this lousy production team often radically modified games.
Before she could say more, the system prompt sounded.
Su Yan’s vision went black, and when she opened her eyes again, she was already inside the game.
This time, the map seemed to be a park, with grass on the ground, surrounded by trees, flowers, and a pond.
It was quite pretty.
Of course, Su Yan was used to such scenery.
Seeing a park with no facilities somehow gave her a quaint feeling.
Was this a return to simplicity?
There were quite a few guests in this dungeon—about fifteen or sixteen. Finally, not fewer and fewer people. Su Yan secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
To be honest, when she realized the number of participants kept decreasing in previous games, Su Yan even indulged in a bit of conspiracy theory.
She thought maybe the next dungeon would leave only three people, and the one after that only herself.
That it was deliberately targeting her.
But now it seemed she had judged too harshly.
Although the production team was unscrupulous, they weren’t that cruel.
If the production team knew what Su Yan was thinking, they’d probably be helpless.
It wasn’t that they didn’t want to do as she suggested.
It was just that doing so would be too obviously targeted, and they’d be ridiculed by everyone.
And what is “gentlemanly behavior”?
Nick Star people don’t care about that.
This lineup didn’t have many new guests.
Everyone didn’t bicker but quickly dispersed to search the map.
Su Yan carefully surveyed the area again.
Although it was called a small park, the map wasn’t that big—at most the size of a 400-meter track field, just decorated with flowers and trees to appear more complex.
After a short while of exploring, the host appeared.
It was a square-shaped host that Su Yan felt a little familiar with.
After some thought, she suddenly realized this was the same “Siri” responsible for hiding in the hide-and-seek dungeon!
Unlike the dark green slime creatures, this one was deep red, looking… like a block of fermented tofu.
Su Yan choked on her own thought and suddenly felt she could accept any kind of strange host.
Ah, the power of association!
With the host’s appearance, the live broadcast officially began.
“Ahhhh, it’s starting!”
“Where’s my sofa? Which little bitch stole it from me?”
“Set up a stool here!”
“Little Red? Today’s host is it!”
“This production team really finds all kinds of hosts; I’ve never seen any repeats.”
“Look who I found! I want to hear ghost stories!”
“Wow! There are quite a few familiar faces today!”
“This episode’s theme is ‘Three Words’! Kind of tough.”
“I don’t like this theme; it ends too quickly.”
“Yeah, forcibly dragging time isn’t interesting.”
“That ‘Yan Mirror’ is good at stirring things up; hope it won’t disappoint me.”
“I’m looking forward to it then.”
Amidst the barrage of anticipation, Little Red waved its big hand, and a white paper with rules appeared before everyone.
Three words
Elimination.
The production team will send out a pursuer to chase the guests.
The guests must avoid being caught.
Once a guest is touched by the pursuer, they can say any three words before being caught and then remain stationary.
At this time, the pursuer cannot chase that guest anymore, but the guest must wait until another guest touches them to move again.
If the guest moves during this period, they are immediately eliminated.
If all guests are immobilized, any one of them can shout “Long live Nick Star,” and all guests can move again.
If the entire group is immobilized for more than a minute, the immobilization automatically ends.
Each round lasts half an hour.
Guests who are not eliminated when the game ends are winners.
The game is played in a best-of-three format.
Also, the three words guests shout cannot contain numbers.
After reading the rules, Su Yan suddenly understood.
She had played this game before! It was a game she often played as a child, and the rules hadn’t changed at all.
Only the name was different; the game she played was called “National People’s Liberation.”
The only other difference was that when the entire group was immobilized, they didn’t shout “Long live Nick Star” but “National People’s Liberation,” which was where the name came from.
Facing this familiar game, Su Yan’s tense heart relaxed.
But soon she became wary again.
The “Wooden Man” game before had a huge cheating wooden man.
She didn’t know if the pursuer in this game was also heavily cheating.
The more Su Yan thought, the more she believed her suspicion was right.
She muttered softly, “Trash production team definitely isn’t playing fair again.”