Superstars of Tomorrow

Fang Zhao’s answers to the questions in the interview had caused quite a lot of reactions, especially within the gaming circles.

For the gaming circles, a person like this who had such absolute strength that he could dominate the leaderboards actually deciding not to return as a professional e-sports athlete elicited lots of sighs, and some secret satisfaction, from lots of people.

There were also people discussing the incidents during his military service and the "golden competition dog" that had appeared midway through the program.

Some people reckoned that after Fang Zhao had accepted the interview, he had intentionally revealed the "golden competition dog" on-screen to generate more buzz and discussion.

"How devious, using this interview to show off the dog that was driven out of Muzhou!"

"That dog isn’t considered a big deal after leaving Muzhou—of course he wishes to get rid of it. If he sells it now, there are many nouveau riche Muzhou farm owners willing to spend big bucks to buy it. As time passes and the dog ages, it’s competing ability will deteriorate and its value will drop."

"That’s so funny. If Fang Zhao wanted to sell the dog, he would have sold it long ago. Why would he have dragged it out till now? And even to generate buzz? Does the person who said this have a low IQ?"

"Fang Zhao’s dog forced Muzhou to change their rules. Saying ’driven out’ is just inappropriate."

"Even if he wasn’t trying to hype up that dog, perhaps his motive was to show off that hybrid extraterrestrial sea slug."

"Whether he is generating buzz intentionally or not, we just have to wait a few days for the answer, right? If he really has the intention of hyping them up to sell, he will surely reveal some intent to do some transactions in the news. If he doesn’t have that intention, all of you are just making baseless claims."

"Hahaha, my focus was different from all you people. I thought I was the only one, but it turns out there are also many others just like me! To all those who say that Fang Zhao is just generating hype, let me send you a sticker: [completely obliterate them]!"

The "[completely obliterate them]" sticker at the end of the comment had been taken from a portion of Fang Zhao’s replies during the program.

Someone had taken two of Fang Zhao’s replies from when he had been asked about the terrorist attack and mutated beasts at the start of the interview and had cut them off to create audiovisual stickers.

One was "kill them" and the other was "completely obliterate them."

For example, when that netizen had posted the [completely obliterate them] sticker, in addition to seeing Fang Zhao’s face, everyone had heard Fang Zhao’s reply that was 30% domineering and 70% laced with killing intent: "Completely obliterate them!"

Fans just loved to take their idol’s videos and turn them into stickers that they would use every day and at any time to let more people see them. If they went a day without using this stickers, they would feel uncomfortable.

Generally, these did not directly involve commercial benefits, so it was fine to use them.

When other people saw it, they felt that it was rather interesting and saved it right away.

Thus, very quickly, in all sorts of discussion forums and comments sections, this sticker appeared. Especially in the gaming community, it was like a virus that had an extremely rapid infection rate.

"Have you completed your homework? How dare you play games before completing your homework? [Completely obliterate them]!"

...

"F*ck! Somebody stole our medpack. Brothers, follow me and attack, [completely obliterate them]!"

...

"This territory belongs to us! Anybody who dares to come, [completely obliterate them]!"

...

"Hurry, hurry, hurry! Another wave of monsters is coming again, [completely obliterate them]."

...

Even if one didn’t see the sticker just hearing that audio would jolt the person’s memory into replaying the expression of Fang Zhao when he had said that line.

Fang Zhao had just stepped out of his study when he received Zu Wen’s call.

"Boss, do you know that your interview video has been made into an sticker pack?!" Zu Wen exclaimed excitedly.

Fang Zhao was stunned. "Sticker pack?"

"It’s true, let me send it to you!"

Zu Wen sent the two most widely used stickers created by netizens to Fang Zhao, [kill them] and [completely obliterate them], as well as some screenshots of discussions and entertainment news regarding this topic.

One of these was entertainment news concerning the gaming circles and gave an analysis on why these two stickers of Fang Zhao’s were trending.

If it had been any other star, it might not have been to this extent, but in the gaming circles, Fang Zhao had once held a stranglehold on the throne for first place, and some of his in-game videos had been called scriptures and were frequently taken out by people to study.

Fang Zhao’s spot in many gamer’s hearts was also different. According to certain gamers, every time they used Fang Zhao’s stickers, it was as if were energized by a holy ring of light.

Fang Zhao was somewhat astonished. Everyone had created an sticker pack from his cold and awkward replies at the start but had not taken any from the latter half where he had replied to the interview questions normally.

However, seeing netizens creating stickers of himself, Fang Zhao found it novel. As long as it did not result in a negative impact, Fang Zhao saw it all in good fun and would not put a halt to it.

"Oh right, Boss, about your concert, publicity has already started. Our department has also been allocated tickets, so we will be there to root for you when the time comes!" Zu Wen said.

Technical staff like them rarely went to live concerts, especially this kind that was held at a music hall. They always felt it didn’t suit their tastes, and tickets were expensive, so even if they were interested, they could only watch videos online after the concert. This way was much cheaper.

Zu Wen had checked ticket prices for Golden Age Music Hall, and if it had been two years ago, they wouldn’t even have been able to afford the cheapest tickets. Although they were able to afford it now, there still wasn’t much interest. However, because it was Fang Zhao’s concert this time around, even if the company had not given them tickets, they would still have personally bought tickets to show their support.

After ending the call with Zu Wen, Fang Zhao headed online. Indeed, the direction online had changed. It was rather obvious that the publicity team had started their campaigns to direct everyone’s eyes over to the concert.

Fang Zhao might have had lots of fans, but there were not many people who were willing to purchase concert tickets. For example, people in the gaming circles or those interested in military affairs tended not to have much interest toward music, and people who could appreciate music might not necessarily be willing to spend money to purchase tickets.

Now, the staff of the publicity team wanted to divert people’s attention to the concert. Regardless of whether it was for a concert, television series, film, or game, the work of the publicity team was very important.

Advertising, public relations, even the gaming team under the flag of Silver Wing all came out to lend a hand.

"Yanzhou’s Golden Age Music Hall? If I didn’t check it out, I wouldn’t have known. The tickets for this sort of concert hall are too expensive!"

"Purchase tickets online. Streaming passes are even cheaper."

"How are streaming passes cheap? It’s still at least a few hundred!"

"Compared to live tickets, they are way cheaper. After all, it’s one of Yanzhou’s three big concert halls. The sound quality is really good."

"I think I’ll forget about it. This money can be spent to purchase enough gaming equipment for someone to last for a long time."

Tickets for concerts at music halls were divided into live tickets and streaming passess. Live tickets were unequal. The prices depended on the position, and ticket holders would experience the concert life.

On the other hand, streaming passes were not really that much different from live broadcasts, since ticket holders could tune into the music hall’s frequency to appreciate concert at the same time as people who were physically there. However, for a music hall with the status of "Golden Age" to guarantee the best sound quality, streaming passes were also limited.

Generally speaking, for musicians that were not famous globally, during their live performances, they would not reach full capacity, and streaming passes would have even more blanks. Such concerts were different from the concerts of singers. For concerts of this nature, it was not within the mainstream tastes, just like Zu Wen and the others who might suddenly have a little interest and just search for videos online to satisfy themselves.

But Fang Zhao was an exceptional case because this person’s steps had been just too huge!

The publicity department had taken the opportunity while Fang Zhao’s popularity had not dipped to do a round of promotions. If originally only 100 people would have wished to purchase tickets, after a round of publicity campaigns, perhaps there would be 200 or 300 people wishing to buy tickets.

Looking at things, the operating costs would be too much. Whether it was publicity expenditures, booking of the music hall, or internal ticket purchases, all of this added up to a lot. As a business-minded company, since Silver Wing had invested this much, they naturally expected a larger return.

A concert at a music hall was not just a stepping stone for a composer, it was also a platform to display a composer’s own works. Letting more people listen to their works would provide a chance at selling the copyrights at a high price.

Selling the copyrights, this was Silver Wing’s final goal!

As a deputy chairman of Yanzhou Music Associate, Ming Cang would naturally receive tickets from Silver Wing. Every time people held a concert at a music hall, people of his standing would normally be given tickets. Whether they chose to go or not, the decision lay firmly in their hands.

This time, after Ming Cang received his ticket, he did not ask Silver Wing for two additional tickets, instead personally wanting to fork out cash to purchase tickets for his wife and son to accompany him to Fang Zhao’s concert.

After successive days of publicity and promotion, the day of advance ticket sales arrived.

Fang Zhao had applied for Hall No.1 in Golden Age Music Hall. Hall No.1 had a seating capacity of 2000. Besides Silver Wing’s own internal purchase of 500 tickets, there were still 1500 more tickets for sale.

Silver Wing Tower 50th floor, inside the virtual projects department.

Today, nobody had other matters to attend to, and they were staying in the department to watch the sales situation of concert tickets. Although it was not their own concert, they were even more anxious than Fang Zhao.

"Quick, take a look. How many have been sold?"

"More than 600. Besides the 500 internally purchased, an additional 100 have been sold."

"That’s also too little."

"Too little? Sales have only just started. Besides, this sort of concert would not normally sell a lot."

"It’s only April now, and the concert is in August. When the time comes, as long as it exceeds 1500, everything will be fine. The venue will also seem more filled," Pang Pusong said. He was the only one in the department that actually went to live concerts.

Before he had been contracted to Silver Wing, Pang Pusong had always wanted to enjoy concerts at those celebrated concert halls, but he had been embarrassingly short of money during those times. Now, his bank account was in much better shape, and he had been to quite a few concerts, so he knew a bit about those sorts of places.

Even if the venue was unable to hit 1500 people, Silver Wing would fork out some money to purchase the tickets and make the venue more "abundant."

"How about we buy some tickets too," a newly signed newcomer in the department suggested.

However, his voice wasn’t too loud, and he spoke a little half-heartedly. As a newcomer, his finances were still a little tight, but when he had seen everyone displaying their support, he had felt that he needed to follow the team closely or he might get the feeling of being excluded. Besides, this was a chance for some *ss-kissing. After all, this was Fang Zhao, the boss of the virtual projects department.

The gaming team’s main members would be going, and the core members of the virtual projects department had all been allocated internal tickets. However, these new hires did not enjoy such good treatment and had not received any tickets from Silver Wing, as they were not qualified enough.

Zu Wen palmed his forehead. "I nearly forgot. You guys don’t have to buy them. Boss has said that anyone in our department who wishes to go just has to leave your name and he will submit an expense claim. Are you guys going?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Even if they had no interest in music, this sort of opportunity was too good to give up.

Zu Wen added up the number who were going and submitted the list of names to Fang Zhao. Although the department had new staff, the total figure did not even add up to 20.

After sending the names to Fang Zhao, Zu Wen once more refreshed the webpage. "Whoa, live tickets sales are already reaching 900? Not bad, it’s going steady. We don’t have to worry too much. On the day of the concert, it will surely exceed 1500."