FPE Chapter 18

Amusement Park Goes Viral

On Sunday, Jiang Zharen slept until noon before finally opening his phone, intending to check his stats while still in bed. The moment he opened the backend dashboard, he discovered he had lost ten thousand followers.

What was going on?

Jiang Zharen sat bolt upright, thinking he must have misread.

He immediately started going through the data and found that the video he had posted yesterday was still steadily gaining views, with comments and saves growing even slightly faster than usual — nothing seemed wrong. He clicked into the comment section and found that what had been a completely harmonious space yesterday was now flooded with people defending Fantasy Amusement Park, mocking him for chasing clout at any cost. Even worse, a highly upvoted comment exposing his dirty laundry had been pinned near the top.

This was something that had never happened before. Jiang Zharen frantically hit the report button trying to get that comment removed, but it didn’t work. Furious, he slammed his fist against the bed, then immediately contacted his team. “This Fantasy Amusement Park is way too arrogant — just because they have money they think they own the place? They’re buying bots, fine, we’ll buy bots too. I refuse to believe some little amusement park out in the countryside has that kind of money!”

His colleague sounded panicked. “This is bad, Brother Jiang. I’m afraid this one might be real. This morning an up-loader called Xiao Zhou started a livestream, and now tons of people are watching the replay — the view count is skyrocketing. You should take a look!”

The colleague then sent over a link.

Jiang Zharen clicked on it, watched it through, then let out a cold laugh and fired back a reply. “It’s obviously fake! It’s just special effects!”

Seeing him dig his heels in, his colleague gave up arguing. “It was a livestream replay, and there were so many people watching live at the time — they all saw it. How could it possibly be special effects?”

Jiang Zharen was indignant. “If it’s not special effects, how could it look that real?”

His colleague said, “Even if it really were special effects, no source for these creatures can be found anywhere, domestically or internationally — which proves they genuinely belong to Fantasy Amusement Park. And to achieve effects at this level would cost at minimum several hundred thousand yuan. Even calculating at five hundred thousand per creature, the various videos so far have featured seventy-five different magic beasts combined — that’s at least thirty million yuan burned through. What kind of person could throw money around like that? Either the park owner is obscenely wealthy, or they have extraordinary special effects capabilities — in which case, why aren’t they working at one of the country’s top effects studios instead of running an amusement park? Brother Jiang, there’s only one possibility: Fantasy Amusement Park has genuinely developed holographic technology, and at incredible efficiency, and on top of that they have an extremely skilled effects team. There’s even another possibility — they’ve developed software capable of high-speed rendering and high-speed computation for loading movements. Fantasy Amusement Park might just be their unconventional marketing strategy. If that’s the case, they could break into the rich list on software sales alone. Brother Jiang, this is not someone we can afford to cross!”

Jiang Zharen said, “How do you know all this?”

His colleague replied, “The CEO of Hongxuan Technology posted on Weibo this morning. Everything I just told you is what he analyzed. He also publicly announced his intention to go back to his hometown of Jin’an City to visit the owner of Fantasy Amusement Park.”

Jiang Zharen was taken aback. “The CEO of Hongxuan Technology is from Jin’an?”

His colleague said, “What else would he be?”

Jiang Zharen immediately switched over to Weibo and found that CEO He of Hongxuan Technology had indeed posted a lengthy entry, with content that matched almost exactly what his colleague had summarized. His expression darkened.

His colleague continued, “Brother Jiang, maybe we should just delete the videos we’ve posted about Fantasy Amusement Park these past two days?”

Jiang Zharen’s videos had decent traffic in the past, but they had always hovered somewhere below a few hundred thousand views. Thanks to Fantasy Amusement Park’s viral momentum these past two days, his videos had climbed to over two million views. The thought of deleting them made him genuinely reluctant. He dug in stubbornly. “What Hongxuan Technology says isn’t necessarily true either.”

His colleague was speechless. “Would the CEO of a company that size really allow himself to be bought off by some little park?”

No matter how the argument went, Jiang Zharen simply refused to believe Fantasy Amusement Park could have developed holographic technology. This was something modern science was completely incapable of achieving. Just listen to what Little Daze Cutie and Xiao Chi You Yizhen described — you could smell scents, touch solid objects, hear sounds. Modern technology couldn’t even manage glasses-free 3D, so how could it leap all the way to full holographics in one bound? That would be a miracle.

But with Hongxuan Technology’s CEO personally speaking out, he couldn’t entirely ignore it either. Jiang Zharen said, “Real holographics? Impossible. But developing efficient special effects production software — that’s plausible. Still, that would mean it’s fake holographics! There’s nothing wrong with the videos we posted.”

The more chaotic things got, the more important it was not to lose his nerve. Right at that moment, Jiang Zharen’s manager called. Many people who ran self-media accounts online were signed to companies, and Jiang Zharen was no different — the company’s promotion and support had been no small part of how he’d grown to hundreds of thousands of followers over two years. Realizing his manager had been stirred up by the Fantasy Amusement Park situation too, Jiang Zharen quickly said, “Don’t worry, it’s fine, I can handle it.”

He hung up, swept his eyes over the comment section — a mixed bag of support and criticism — let out a cold laugh, and immediately posted a status update.

— Jiang Zharen: Current technological capabilities make true holographics impossible. The videos I previously made were completely unproblematic. Time reveals all. My dear fans and followers, please don’t worry and don’t get upset on my behalf. I, Jiang Zharen, have never feared attacks or slander. I’m putting this on record right here today: Fantasy Amusement Park absolutely cannot possess true holographic technology. And if they can actually pull it off — I’ll livestream myself kowtowing one hundred times in front of Fantasy Amusement Park!

That was a bold declaration. Setting aside the question of humiliation, one hundred full kowtows — by the time it was done, he’d probably have a bloody forehead. It also indirectly demonstrated how certain Jiang Zharen was. His fans, who had been left half-believing and half-skeptical by Xiao Zhou’s livestream — too intimidated to say anything when attacked by people who disliked Jiang Zharen — now saw this post and felt as though they’d been given a backbone. Jubilant, they spread the word to each other, straightening up with pride.

“I knew Fantasy Amusement Park’s holographics were fake! The livestream was definitely staged too.”

“Yesterday I saw some idiot post saying they were going to fly across several provinces to Jin’an City today to ‘broaden their horizons.’ I just laughed. Slow on the uptake — yeah, they definitely need to broaden their horizons alright.”

“Brother Jiang, I’ll support you forever!”

The comment section was quickly reclaimed by Jiang Zharen’s fans.

Just as Jiang Zharen thought he had the situation under control, and his fans believed that justice had triumphed over evil —

Jin’an City’s official television station, official Weibo account, and official video platform account simultaneously uploaded a new interview video featuring Fantasy Amusement Park.

In the video, a young reporter with a sweet face held a microphone bearing the Jin’an City Television Station logo and asked the young park director: “Could you tell us what your original motivation was for founding Fantasy Amusement Park?”

The young man in the interview video looked refined and scholarly, with large eyes behind a pair of black-framed glasses — he looked more like a university student than the director of an amusement park. He said warmly, “Actually, I didn’t found the park. It was an inheritance left to me by my grandmother. Its predecessor was the Childhood Amusement Park. At the time, the Childhood Amusement Park closed down because it couldn’t keep up with the times, so I decided to give the park a complete makeover and transform it into something that would appeal to all young people.”

Over the course of the interview, the young director led the reporter on a tour through the park’s Magic Beast Viewing Corridor and took the reporter through a round of the Abandoned Park’s monster-hunting attraction, frightening both the reporter and the camera operator half to death — much to the delight of viewers watching the interview, who couldn’t help laughing.

Midway through the interview, they spotted a bank asset appraiser arriving on site. In response to the reporter’s questions, the director explained: “I never expected the park to be this well-received. The park is currently too small — some visitors are already having to queue to get in. To give guests a better experience, I’ve decided to lease the large plot of flat land behind the park from the government and develop several new attractions that tie in with the Abandoned Park. Of course, I have a personal motive in this too — as park director, I naturally hope to see the park grow bigger, better, and more profitable.”

The comment feed immediately filled with laughter, with many viewers saying this director was refreshingly candid, while others said earn it, earn every bit of it, they were fully on board!

The closing segment of the video consisted of edited clips from the reporter interviewing a group of visitors — middle school and high school students, working adults, young people, middle-aged people, and even several elderly visitors.

Young people generally found the park’s attractions thrillingly immersive and said it was genuinely holographic, strongly recommending it. Middle-aged visitors recognized the development potential, saying that with Fantasy Amusement Park, Jin’an City might grow into a new first-tier city. Elderly visitors said that while it had been a little startling at first, it was fine overall — they supported young people coming to enjoy this kind of thing, saying it was better than staring at phones all day and could even get some exercise in.

One white-haired elderly man appeared remarkably energetic and declared that ever since he started coming to the park to fight monsters, his headaches had cleared up, his eyesight had sharpened, and his back had straightened up more than before.

At this point the comment feed erupted with laughter again, with people saying this grandpa was too funny — could he possibly be an actor the director had hired? He spoke with such dramatic intonation it sounded like a commercial.

The interviewing reporter also pointed out that while the Abandoned Park’s format was certainly fresh and fun and could serve as a form of exercise, wasn’t it a bit of an exaggeration to say his vision had cleared up as well?

The old man waved his hands repeatedly, his expression completely serious. “At my age, why would I lie to young people like you? I had age-related farsightedness — had to wear glasses every day. After coming to the park and fighting monsters a few times, my vision cleared right up. Now I can read the newspaper without any trouble!” As he spoke, he put on a mysterious expression. “I think the park director is a person of great virtue and merit. Young people — there are some things you still need to believe in!”

The old man quickly became meme material across the internet. His face — white-haired and deeply wrinkled, but with remarkably bright and lively eyes — wore a conspiratorial expression as he looked into the camera, with the caption below reading: Young people — there are some things you still need to believe in!

The meme then spread like a virus through the comment section of Jiang Zharen’s post. Within half a day, the grandpa meme had spawned countless variations: one showed the grandpa looking stern with the caption Brat, you dare not believe? Another showed him grinning cheerfully at the camera: What? You don’t believe it? So what? Another showed him waving dismissively: Non-believers need not approach.

…

Internet users had taken the grandpa’s interview clip and run with it in every direction, and Jiang Zharen’s comment section became a free-for-all zone of maximum-level mockery.

Fantasy Amusement Park went viral again in this wave of attention. This time the trending topic climbed to the top of the Weibo hot search rankings, and netizens from all across the country encountered Fantasy Amusement Park for the first time through this incident. Later, when Fantasy Amusement Park became the most prestigious park in the country — and indeed the world — those earliest visitors still remembered the turbulent swings of public opinion that had played out online during those two days.

But that was a story for another time. At this moment, Jiang Zharen’s comment section had already been completely taken over by chaotic internet users.

The top comment with the most likes read: You made a promise — one hundred full kowtows. Don’t forget! — accompanied by the grandpa’s stern expression meme.

Jiang Zharen stared at that comment with ten thousand likes, his face going green.

But what shook him even more was that the official television station had publicly come out in support of Fantasy Amusement Park. Although Jin’an City was an unremarkable small city, Jin’an Television Station was well known far beyond its borders — it had been the first station to reform and pursue online trends during the wave of internet disruption that had swept through the media industry, and over the years it had produced several variety shows popular with young viewers. Even the dramas it acquired were chosen with young audiences in mind. Jin’an TV was frequently criticized for lacking gravitas, but it had a strong following among young people — and no matter how much it was criticized, it was still an official broadcaster that essentially never ran fabricated reports. With Jin’an TV’s interview, it was virtually a certified stamp of confirmation.

How could Jin’an TV produce a positive feature on Fantasy Amusement Park? Could Fantasy Amusement Park’s holographic technology actually be real? How is that possible? Jiang Zharen desperately wanted to convince himself that the TV station had also been bought off by Fantasy Amusement Park, but he knew that was nothing more than self-delusion.

Anyone watching could see that the creatures appearing in the interview video were completely and utterly real — there was no way it could be reduced to post-production special effects. And besides, the interview had been filmed in the morning and the video had gone up in the afternoon — in that short a window, there wouldn’t even have been time to do effects work even if they wanted to.

So this time, had he really kicked a steel plate?

Watching the comment section spiral completely out of control, Jiang Zharen finally panicked. Right then his manager called again — clearly to hold him accountable.

Jiang Zharen exhausted himself dealing with his manager, then had to face a barrage of issues from his team.

“Brother Jiang, what do we do now? Ever since the TV station posted the interview video, our followers have been dropping nonstop — we’ve lost fifty thousand already.”

“Brother Jiang, more people are digging up our old dirt. They’ve compiled evidence with photos and videos of past incidents where we went after small uploaders to leech their traffic.”

“Brother Jiang, someone sent a court summons and a lawyer’s letter to our backend inbox… it’s not from Fantasy Amusement Park — it’s a group of people filing jointly against us, saying we bought bots to attack them…”

“Brother Jiang…”

Jiang Zharen was completely overwhelmed. He scrambled to deal with it all until late that night, then, taking advantage of a slight dip in the trending heat, quietly deleted both the videos from the past two days and the post he had published that morning.

Predictably, this invited another round of mass mockery from internet users. But so what? Netizens had short memories. Once this wave passed, who would still remember something this small?

That was what Jiang Zharen told himself. It was just a few tens of thousands of lost followers — a few months of work and they’d be back. He just needed to keep a low profile for a while.

Jiang Zharen fell asleep, exhausted. The next morning his alarm never went off, but he was jolted awake by a rapid, urgent knocking at the door.

“Who is it!” he snapped angrily, yanking the door open — and froze at the sight of two uniformed police officers standing before him.

The female officer held up her badge and gave it a brief flash in front of his face, then said coldly, “Jiang Zharen? You’ve been reported on charges of workplace sexual harassment and solicitation of prostitution. Come with us.”

Jiang Zharen was reported, arrested, and thrown in a cell for running a prostitution operation.

This was nothing Chi Yizhen had arranged — he had no time to deal with people on the internet. He was busy applying for loans and overseeing the park’s fourth expansion.