All-rounder Artist - Chapter 235: Chu Kuang is a Scumbag_1

Let’s put aside the topic of fans and their fawning online communities for a bit.

Lin Yuan is more concerned about the progress of his missions.

Speaking of missions…

Before Lin Yuan realized it, he had accumulated four system missions!

Each mission had its own level of difficulty.

Mission one: [Reach a reputation of over a million each in both Literature and Music]

Mission two: [Receive three disciples under the pseudonym Xian Yu and successfully finish their training]

Mission three: [Increase drawing reputation to over 300,000 within a year]

Mission four: [Break 100 million fans for Chu Kuang’s Tribe]

The first mission was the toughest and most crucial but as it was a long-term mission, Lin Yuan would check the progress every now and again.

As long as he steadily published books and songs, he considered this mission ongoing.

The second mission had no time limit yet, but he intended to work on it soon.

Xue Liang was his only successful disciple so far, meaning progress was only one third completed.

The third mission was drawing-related, one of the tasks that Lin Yuan was currently working on, and making the “King of the Net” comic was his method of completing this task.

As for the fourth mission, to break 100 million fans for Chu Kuang’s Tribe…

The progress bar for this mission was steadily increasing following the release of “Tales Behind the Tomb”.

Prior to the release of “Tales Behind the Tomb”, Chu Kuang’s Tribe followers were just slightly over 30 million.

In the days after the release, Chu Kuang’s Tribe followers predictably skyrocketed!

32 million…

35 million…

37   million…

38   million…

It seemed like it was just an inch away from 40 million, but the growth rate of Chu Kuang’s followers began to slow down.

That was understandable.

Although “Tales Behind the Tomb” was incredibly popular, it was understandable considering how recently the book was released, with only the first volume out so far.

Once the subsequent volumes were released, the number of followers was bound to increase significantly.

But…

Lin Yuan was still feeling antsy.

Especially after refreshing the webpage multiple times and still not seeing Chu Kuang’s followers breach the 40-million mark…

His obsessive-compulsive disorder was acting up.

Lin Yuan had a mild case of OCD.

Maybe everyone has a mild case of OCD.

Either way, all Lin Yuan wanted to see that day was Chu Kuang’s followers surpassing the 40 million mark, not achieving this target was making him feel antsy.

What to do about it?

Time for some creative thinking.

After thinking for about ten seconds, an idea formed in Lin Yuan’s mind.

A straightforward and brutal method.

That was to post a status under Xian Yu’s account: “We’re just a little short of breaking 40 million followers. Could everyone please help to follow @Chu Kuang’s Tribe account?”

Yes.

What Lin Yuan thought of was to rally Xian Yu’s followers to become followers of Chu Kuang.

As for Shadow…

The Shadow account only had a few million followers, so rallying them likely wouldn’t make much of a difference.

Plus, Shadow’s comic was an adaptation of Chu Kuang’s “King of the Net”.

So, there was already a significant overlap between Shadow’s followers and Chu Kuang’s followers, making rallying these followers not particularly productive.

What Lin Yuan didn’t expect was…

This status seemed to strike a chord with the fans, and the comments section blew up:

“Getting this direct now?”

“Can I take it as official confirmation?”

“Gay for each other!”

“Bromance goals, sharing one quilt.”

“Alright, followed, and notifications turned on.”

“Wow! You must be really close to let your followers follow someone else.”

“Chu Kuang already has more followers than you. Instead of trying to increase your own followers, why are you working on increasing his?”

“I declare that Shadow has lost this round.”

“Shadow: Is it because I have fewer followers than you?”

The comments were diverse, but the result was good. On the same day Xian Yu posted the status, Chu Kuang’s followers increased again, successfully surpassing the 40 million mark and settling around 41 million.

The conversion rate isn’t bad at all.

In fact.

On Chu Kuang’s Weibo, many followers started to:

“Just accept Xian Yu.”

“He treats you so well.”

“It’s the first time I’ve seen someone increase their friend’s followers in such a simple and direct way.”

“Chu Kuang, Xian Yu, these names rhyme quite well. They’ve got that chemistry.”

“Real bromance buddies.”

“What’s your relationship with him behind the scenes?”

“A big shot in the novel world, a big shot in the music composition world. It’s a match made in heaven.”

Too bad.

Despite Xian Yu helping Chu Kuang to increase followers, Chu Kuang did not respond. He remained as aloof as ever.

Only Lin Yuan would silently thank himself in his heart.

Anyway, seeing Chu Kuang’s followers surpass 40 million gave Lin Yuan an extreme sense of satisfaction.

However…

This incident also made Lin Yuan more worried that he might slip up someday.

If you always walk by the river, how can you not get your shoes wet?

What if someday he accidentally logs into the wrong account and posts a status on Shadow’s account saying, “Please support my new song…”?

Wouldn’t that be awkward?

With this concern in mind, Lin Yuan called Luo Wei over.

“You mean to say that I should manage the Shadow Tribe account?” Luo Wei looked at Lin Yuan in astonishment, not understanding why he wanted to do this.

“Yes.”

That was Lin Yuan’s idea, to entrust the management of Shadow’s account so as to avoid any problems.

“It’s not impossible.”

Luo Wei’s eyes flicked towards Lin Yuan, looking mysterious. Lowering her voice, she said, “Then you can tell me, what’s your relationship with Chu Kuang?”

Lin Yuan felt a little bit awkward: “It’s pretty good.”

Luo Wei stared at Lin Yuan: “Just pretty good? Rest assured, feel free to say anything, I’ll keep it a secret. I’m known by everyone for keeping my mouth shut!”

Did Luo Wei sense something?

Lin Yuan felt uneasy and suddenly became coy, ” Probably very good.”

His relationship with himself, of course, was really close. But when asked by others and without the ability to directly explain, Lin Yuan would naturally become coy.

There seemed to be a sense of inexplicable shame.

After all, his three pseudonyms had their own distinct online personalities.

What Lin Yuan didn’t know was that his reaction, in Luo Wei’s eyes, had a completely different interpretation.

Luo Wei let out a deep “Oh,” “Then can you tell me, what’s the relationship between Chu Kuang and Xian Yu?”

Lin Yuan didn’t hesitate to say: “It’s pretty good too.”

“Too?”

Luo Wei frowned, suddenly seeming dissatisfied. “I didn’t realize that Chu Kuang was such a jerk…”

Lin Yuan didn’t understand Luo Wei’s sudden mood change: “What?”

“Nothing.”

Luo Wei looked at Lin Yuan earnestly, even a little pity and outrage in her eyes, “I understand, I empathize with you! I will help you!”

What do you understand?

Why empathize with me?

Lin Yuan always felt that there was something off about Luo Wei.

However, since she agreed to manage Shadow’s account, Lin Yuan had no worries left.

There was no one more suitable to handle the “Shadow” account than Luo Wei.

Since Luo Wei had contributed at least one third of the effort toward the comic drawn by Shadow, she certainly knew how to manage the account.