Chapter 124: A Deity of Cuteness?

“So, we can release it now?” Dai Xinhua asked, hugging the drawing board in her arms as she gazed at Luo Chen expectantly.

“Yes, it’s ready. Upload it to Bilibili’s anime channel. Just let Yanhe know later.”

Looking at the girl before him, her eyes narrowed slightly with a faint smile, Luo Chen felt the irritation caused by the earlier incident vanish without a trace.

After discussing the general direction of the upcoming plot with her, Luo Chen returned to his room. Since he still had some time, he decided to look into Ruan Hongyi’s background.

Under deliberate manipulation, the storm online had yet to subside. In fact, several media outlets had even reported on it that day.

Luo Chen logged into his personal page on the Starlight Platform. The comment section was filled with demands that he publicly apologize to those celebrities. Though it was obvious at a glance that the comments had been posted by paid trolls, they were not particularly inflammatory, so Luo Chen had no intention of deleting them. In any case, his fans had already cursed them to the top of the comment section. It hardly mattered.

Ignoring the haters, Luo Chen entered “Hongtian” into the search bar on the Starlight Platform and clicked search. Information on the master of the parody section immediately appeared on the screen.

Platinum Streamer: Hongtian

Verified Title: King of Cuteness

Followers: 3.97 million

Submissions: 172

Highest Views for a Single Work: 6.7 million

Latest Update: Why Is the Parody in My House So Strange?

...

The figure of 3.97 million followers was more or less what Luo Chen had expected. The platinum stars of the Starlight Platform generally had between three and five million followers. As the former king of popularity in the parody section, Ruan Hongyi’s following would not have fallen below that range even if his popularity had diminished somewhat.

But what was this “King of Cuteness” nonsense?

Luo Chen looked at the title displayed in gold lettering on the screen and tugged at the corner of his mouth. The title “King of Cuteness” was simply... far too embarrassing.

Remembering what Li Hua had said that morning about acting cute during a livestream, Luo Chen felt gooseflesh rise all over his body.

On the Starlight Platform, information about a platinum star generally ended with an official verified title. Naturally, the title was not decided by the platform itself, but by the fans. For instance, Luo Chen had initially been known as the Filthy Demon King, but later the title had changed to Little Angel. Verified titles were always based on the name most commonly used by one’s fans.

Since Ruan Hongyi’s fans had all acknowledged the title “King of Cuteness,” Luo Chen had nothing to say about it. He could only shake his head helplessly before opening Ruan Hongyi’s latest work.

Someone capable of becoming a platinum star naturally needed no introduction. An utterly ordinary parody subject had been edited into one hilarious moment after another. The barrage was filled with messages professing love, making it obvious just how popular he was.

Still, when most of the barrage in a parody video consisted of declarations of love and enthusiastic support, Luo Chen could not help wondering whether the viewers had come simply to cheer him on or actually to watch the video.

Title: Why Is the Parody in My House So Strange?

Views: 5.753 million

Favorites: 362,000

Barrage Comments: 250,000

...

Nearly six million views did not surprise Luo Chen much. If the king of popularity in the parody section could not achieve even that much, he would hardly deserve the title. Before Luo Chen had risen to prominence, given Huang Ying’s lazy and irregular update schedule, any new video released by Ruan Hongyi would presumably have climbed to the top of the popularity rankings in no time at all.

Things were much more miserable now. Ever since Luo Chen had begun releasing videos, he had completely monopolized the top spot on the popularity rankings. Every so often, he would even dominate the entire chart. The top ten were either Luo Chen’s works or works related to him. It would have been strange if Ruan Hongyi had not lost his temper.

Luo Chen then skimmed through the rest of Ruan Hongyi’s parody works. However, he did not find any clips from his livestreams, which left him slightly disappointed. He was rather interested in seeing Ruan Hongyi act cute during a livestream.

Still, he had gained something. At the very least, he had not seen any works jumping on the bandwagon of the parody all-stars trend. As a master of the parody section, Ruan Hongyi could not possibly have failed to recognize the advantages of such material, yet he continued to insist on creating original works.

Was he disdainful of following trends and copying others, or was it...?

At the same time, in front of the director’s desk at the production office of the Angel Interviews program—

A young man in his thirties stood with his head lowered and his shoulders slightly hunched. A thin sheen of sweat had formed on his forehead as he waited to endure his superior’s fury.

“Don’t tell me that after all this time, you still haven’t found anything out. All I asked for was contact information—contact information! I didn’t ask you to bring the man here. And you can’t even handle such a trivial matter?”

After a furious tirade, producer Liu Longhua finally felt a little better. Frowning, he glared unhappily at his assistant. He had sent someone to contact the Angel Almighty several days ago, yet so much time had passed without the slightest news.

Were these idiots of any use at all? Could it be that they were nothing but useless freeloaders who knew how to collect a salary and eat their fill?

Liu Longhua carefully memorized the names of all these people. If they ever came begging him for help, they had better not expect him to be merciful. Hmph.

“Producer, I’ve already contacted the Starlight Platform,” the young man explained cautiously after noticing that Liu Longhua’s anger had eased somewhat. “Unfortunately, they refused, saying that it would be inconvenient to disclose the information. We haven’t found anything through the other channels either. It seems the Angel Almighty has no intention of revealing his real identity or contact information. We sent him private messages through his Starlight Platform account, but he doesn’t seem inclined to reply either. I estimate that...”

It was not that he had failed to put in the effort. They truly had been unable to find any way to contact the man. When he had accepted the assignment, he had assumed that persuading the other party to accept an interview would be the most difficult part. He had never imagined that they would not even be able to locate him.

By now, Liu Longhua’s anger had mostly subsided. What infuriated him was not merely that his assistant had failed to complete the task, but also the attitude of those major companies toward their Angel Interviews program.

It was not that nobody knew the Angel Almighty’s identity. The problem was that their program lacked a reputation. The moment people heard they were an obscure media outlet, who would be willing to disclose even the slightest bit of information?

Every one of those people acted as though they were untouchable. So what if their companies were a little larger, their income a little higher, and their popularity a little greater?

Liu Longhua had memorized all their faces. They had better never come asking him for help later. Otherwise... just wait and see.

“Producer, what do we do now?” The assistant glanced at Liu Longhua, who seemed to have calmed down, and asked cautiously. It looked as though he had survived this round. Hopefully, he would not be handed another impossible assignment later. If he failed again, he might really be fired.

“If we can’t find the Angel Almighty, then change targets! Go find out who played Zhuge Liang in the old Three Kingdoms series. If you can’t contact him either, you’d better pack up and leave!”

Liu Longhua was still seething with pent-up rage. The unfortunate young man was subjected to another merciless scolding, then could only force a bitter smile as he went off to gather information.

(Author’s note: Thanks to reader Moonlit Pure for the five-hundred-point tip, and thanks to readers Lonesome Solitude and Three-Foot Cat for their hundred-point tips each. Showering you all with flowers!)