Chapter 43 - Increase That Charm

Chapter 43: Increase That Charm
Translator: 
Dragon Boat Translation 
 
Editor: 
Dragon Boat Translation

Young Noble, young noble.

Two family members who came down to see Meng Fan strolling up the stairs retreated in their steps and caught up to him. One of them continued,
Young Noble, our minister asked us to ask you if you’re going to perform your dance for us?

They were pretty engrossed in the character.
Meng Fan became alert immediately.
Wait, am I not allowed?

What the hell was he doing there if he wasn’t allowed to dance?

No no no of course not.
The actor that had a hair sticking out of his mole looked at his partner and continued,
My minister has commanded that you cooperate with his procedure first before beginning your dance.

Meng Fan was suspicious.
Really?


Really.


Alright then.

Meng Fan reluctantly stepped down. If anything went wrong, then he would have to quickly give out his thumbs ups.
Of course, Meng Fan was certain that Miss. Wang had intentionally tossed the silk ball to him—for it certainly wasn’t a stroke of luck—as Meng Fan’s bulk and validation score had made sure of that.
It was probably because of his recent success with that Tik Tok video. Otherwise, they would avoid him like the plague.
Five minutes later, after going through the stage’s procedures, Meng Fan stepped forward.
I’m already here; let me dance for you all.

This time, the minister did not stop Meng Fan, letting him dance for more than a minute. Meng Fan managed 200 ‘thumbs ups’ in this time, 200,000 experience points falling into his lap. He had already caught up with his total gains from yesterday.
Presently, he had accumulated 480,000 total ‘likes’.
Meng Fan went down the stairs followed closely by the family servants. They specifically told him that they wouldn’t be calling him up again today, for it was not good for him to appear too frequently.
Upon hearing this, Meng Fan confirmed his suspicion and eagerly asked,
Then, can I come back tomorrow?

The servant nodded furiously.
Once Meng Fan descended the wall, he left the city with a trail of blessings. He went around giving people compliments and a thumbs up until he reached 500,000 likes before leaving Song Cheng.
Although there was no clear explanation, Meng Fan felt he had formed a connection with the minister. With this stage, Meng Fan felt no more use in running around fishing for likes. He was already getting lazy, and he had no more willpower to gesture with his arms.
Regardless, it was a talent in itself to pretend to be stupid while running around handing out positive energy.
Ideally, he could send out even more thumbs up gestures tomorrow so he could complete the task in the next few days.
To the minister, this collaboration was just another attraction for tourists outside the city wall. But to Meng Fan, it was a platform for self-promotion. A one-time opportunity to gain infinite points.
Both felt like they had benefitted, making it a win-win situation.
In addition, there was a class at 2:30 in the afternoon that Meng Fan couldn’t miss, hence his early departure from Song Cheng. With his poisonous ‘validation’, Meng Fan couldn’t guarantee he wouldn’t be caught in the net this time around.

Meng Fan, I didn’t look carefully last night, but I realized you really seem to be… a bit skinnier.

After class, Wang Ya Nan, who had been sitting next to Zhang Zhou Wei, curiously asked him,
Are you really running every day?

Meng Fan was happy to hear this.
You think so? It seems like running is effective after all.

Wang Ya Nan nodded intently.
No wonder, yesterday Dot couldn’t stop talking about how cute you were getting when we got back to the dorm.

Dot shared a dormitory with Wang Ya Nan. Her nickname was Small Dot; however, her size was not dot-like at all. She was a tall girl, towering at 180 cm tall.
She had played volleyball since she was a child and joined the provincial reserve team when she was 14, then the official team at 16. At the age of 17, she had to forfeit out of high-intensity competition due to an accidental shoulder injury. Unwilling to retire at such a young age, the next year she applied to the art academy and became top five in her class. She gave the impression that some people were just born badass!
As for why her nickname was Small Dot, it was because her legal name Jiao Xiao Ran contained a lot of dots in its spelling.
As for why they had to include the ‘Small’ in front of it… They probably hoped it would compensate for something.
Wang Ya Nan looked at Meng Fan with deep sincerity and continued,
Now that you mention it, the only person who could really call her Small Dot would be you.

Meng Fan was speechless.
And we’re back to the subject of me being fat.

Wang Ya Nan smiled.
I was talking about your height.

After some more cheerful banter, they left the classroom. Wang Ya Nan and Zhang Zhou Wei headed off on a date, while Meng Fan headed back to the dormitory to prepare for his evening run.
From the classroom to the building exit, Meng Fan didn’t distribute a single ‘thumbs up’. However, he did receive a messy array of them from passing students.
The entire school knew about him, never mind the people in his class.
After recharging with two bananas, Meng Fan quickly completed his ten kilometers and headed back to feast until he was content. Who cared about scientific nutrition?
In his evening stream, Meng Fan began drawing three illustrations for his novels. Once 8:00 hit and his name was listed on the recommended list, he changed his channel name to ‘ Cute Pet Special.

He had initially wanted to do a male character special tonight, for he had gained newfound confidence from his added ‘drawing skill’ attributes, but these skills still didn’t compare to his knack for drawing female characters and mythical creatures.
The first drawing was of Chopper. Previously, he had drawn him in a chibi gender-bent fashion, so this time he decided to draw an adorable version of Chopper eating cotton candy.
The second and third illustrations were both of Nyanko-sensei from ‘Natsuume no Yuujinchou.’ One was him as a seifuku cat, one was him in monster form, one was of him being stupidly cute, and the last one was an explosively handsome rendition of him.
The fourth drawing was Sadaharu from Gintama.
For the fifth drawing, he transferred his attention to American animations. He drew Toothless from ‘How to Train Your Dragon’, followed by a minion…
The recommended section of the ‘drawing category’ on 8th Station was quite helpful. However, it was still a relatively unpopular category, so there was no way it could be compared to gaming and entertainment categories and no explosive bursts of viewers.
After streaming for two hours, the online viewer count was at 20,000 by the time Meng Fan was ready to log off. This had been twice the previous amount, but it didn’t satisfy Meng Fan’s expectation of gaining tens of thousands or even 100,000 viewers overnight.
Nonetheless, the recommendation had been very helpful.
Because of the recommendation and his increased sense of validation, the number of people who had wandered in ‘by mistake’ or ‘randomly’ also shot up. Tonight’s stream alone, the number of total viewers reached an astounding 46,000. That ratio had put a smile on Meng Fan’s face.
His total number of views was 81,000 now. He could almost see the light at the other end that was the reward from task phase 2.
It was worth mentioning that Meng Fan’s follower count for his stream increased a lot as well. Currently, he had 23,000 followers.
Compared to the number of viewers, this ratio was surprisingly high.
The next day, streaming began at the same time. Similarly, it went on for two hours. When he logged off and checked the numbers, Meng Fan was surprised. His peak reached 11,000, consisting of 17,000 online viewers and 98,000 total views.
Evidently, yesterday’s recommendation had been very helpful, and its follow-up effect was brilliant as well.
It appeared his stream had the ability to retain an audience.
On the third day, Meng Fan had been streaming for five minutes when the alert sounded in his ‘mind.’

Beep! Total stream viewers have reached 100,000. You’ve completed [Famous Streamer] Task phase 2. Reward: Points +10, Charm +1


Gotta go to the bathroom.

Meng Fan whispered to his stream viewers, then got up to leave. He took a long look in the bathroom mirror. Honestly speaking, he didn’t see any change in his appearance after the +1 Charm.

This better not be another metaphysical attribute!

Meng Fan considered it. Maybe he was too familiar with himself so he didn’t notice it. As for how to verify it, that was another problem. He couldn’t just run up to a random person and ask if he got more charming.
Silently, he returned to his seat and continued his stream.
Today’s stream attraction remained above 10,000 the whole time, attracting a steady 15,000 online viewers.

You look like you’re in a good state today.

The administrator who had been pursuing her TV dramas greeted Meng Fan.

Good state? Is this the impact of my increased charm?

Meng Fan mumbled to himself as he left the studio. He didn’t dwell on it too much and planned to get a good night’s rest once he got back. The next morning, he had to head to Song Cheng after class.
The last two days Meng Fan had gone to Song Cheng, he gained about 20,000 ‘likes’ each day.
If he could earn 6 validation points at once and receive the power that would come with it, both good and bad, Meng Fan felt intense just thinking about it.

Hello, can you help me again?

Meng Fan just left the studio when a girl called him.
He looked up. Wasn’t this the cute petite girl with freckles?
The girl had been ‘frightened’ twice by Meng Fan, yet here she was asking him for help. Could this be the effect of his added charm that had earned him her trust?
Or did this girl come for revenge under the cover of asking for help, setting a trap?
She wouldn’t!