“Cooperation?” The tattooed man looked at Bai Youwei with a face full of suspicion.

Bai Youwei walked to the window and glanced up at the sky. Since everyone had turned off their streams, only Yi Zichu’s bullet comments were currently showing.

She pulled her gaze back and said lightly, “Do you know how many gifts I received just now, when you all fell on the stairs?”

The tattooed man blanked for a moment, then understood, and let out a low snort. “Probably quite a lot, right? After making us suffer like that, who knows how happy those sky-people were.”

Bai Youwei found his choice of words rather interesting. “You call the audience ‘sky-people’?”

“Yeah, that’s right.” The tattooed man said. “A bunch of people who do nothing but chatter away up in the sky — sky-people, for short.”

Of course, they could come up with a more offensive nickname, but the audience was their bread and butter, so they didn’t dare go too far. Otherwise, if it affected their ability to earn points, that would be a real problem.

Bai Youwei smiled and said, “Just now, from the sky-people, I received thirty-six roses, eleven teddy bears, three gold necklaces, and two luxury sports cars…”

The tattooed man had expected her to receive gifts, but not this many!

The expression on his face shifted again and again. It was impossible not to feel envious and jealous. In the past he would have just robbed her outright, but right now he was under someone else’s roof — he had to bow his head.

Bai Youwei calculated the result: “…Thirty-five thousand, seven hundred and thirty-two points in total.”

The tattooed man finally couldn’t hold back. “Why so much?! Even if there’s a big scene, without enough exposure, there shouldn’t be this many gifts!”

“Because I’m on the Rising Star chart.” Bai Youwei shrugged. “Last time I checked, I was third — by now I’m probably first.”

The tattooed man: “……”

The Rising Star chart came with its own built-in traffic. Many big spenders, once they’d grown tired of certain streamers, would go to the Rising Star chart to look for interesting new faces. Once they discovered a newcomer worth following, they wouldn’t hold back on gifts.

But at the same time, the Rising Star chart was extremely demanding — there were only three days. If you couldn’t attract viewers within seventy-two hours, there was no way to climb other charts afterward, creating a vicious cycle where you’d never get enough exposure.

In other words, the girl standing before the tattooed man right now — she was not just an ordinary girl.

She was quite possibly a potential rising star!

The tattooed man, arriving at this thought, carefully shifted his expression and asked solemnly, “You — how do you want to cooperate?”

Bai Youwei didn’t beat around the bush. “I have one day left on the Rising Star chart. I want to make the most of this final day and earn a big haul — ideally push my way onto the Monthly Chart.”

The Monthly Chart featured the one hundred streamers who had received the highest gift amounts within thirty days.

Similarly, there was a Quarterly Chart, a Yearly Chart, and an All-Time Wealth Chart.

Beyond these charts, viewers could also find their preferred streams through category channels — such as food, music, dance, comedy, beauty, and so on.

Not every streamer could enter the category channels; they had to purchase the corresponding tags.

For example, if Yi Zichu wanted food-lovers to be able to search for him, he’d need to spend one hundred thousand points to buy a “Food” tag.

Tags were expensive, but the returns came quickly. Streamers who weren’t short on points would typically paste many tags on themselves: “explosive,” “looks,” “loli,” “beautiful voice”…

Bai Youwei wasn’t thinking about any of that for now. She just wanted to make the best possible use of this so-called Rising Star chart, and then rent an advertising slot at the service station to put up a missing-person notice.

The tattooed man’s eyes showed suspicion. “You wouldn’t be planning to… have me bring people over again so you can mess with us a second time, would you?”

Bai Youwei smiled. “The same trick twice — what would be the fun in that?”

A sense of foreboding rose in the tattooed man’s heart. He asked warily, “What exactly are you trying to do?”

—