After the opening ceremony was successfully held, the first Starry Sky Cup was in full swing.
Xu Sili’s actions at the opening ceremony successfully boosted the popularity of the Starry Sky Cup. This caused the competition, which had originally lost popularity due to the long duration of the auditions, to once again attract a lot of attention.
For this competition, Xu Yuheng had prepared a lot of tricks.
In addition to continuing to project on the open space near the experience stores, they also did a live webcast and even managed to get it broadcasted on TV. Of course, it was a less popular sports TV station.
The ratings were bad, but it was at least a good start.
After all, Starry Sky Age was different from traditional online games. The live broadcast screen showed a real two-player fight. There were no dazzling and complex interfaces, and the characters weren’t 3D models. Combine this with the cool special effects, and it was definitely better than traditional e-sports in terms of watchability and universality.
Even if one didn’t understand online games, they could basically understand it as long as they liked watching fights.
As a result, some viewers who didn’t pay attention to games accidentally turned on the sports channel and were stunned when they saw such a fancy e-sports competition.
The camera on TV kept cutting to the battle scenes from a long distance and close-up. The two players fighting against each other looked handsome and sophisticated, no less handsome than the little stars. One even had pointed ears like an elf, and the clothes he wore were fashionable and cool. There wasn’t the seriousness and solemnity of a sports game.
Out of the two players, one kept throwing out wind blades while the other one dodged in a panic, dodging and moving on the ground that had grooves cut into them. He was clumsy but agile.
The question was… what was this?
Was this really a competitive game? Wasn’t this a special effects movie?
Of course, it was quite interesting if they ignored this point. After all, selecting 500 players from 10 million was harder than selecting one from 10,000. Naturally, those who remained were elites in PVP.
Moreover, this was filmed directly in the arena of Starry Sky Age and was done by the officials. This made it possible to set various tricky camera angles. Even if it was shot right in front of the face, it wouldn’t affect the player’s combat. Then a professional director would choose the appropriate shots.
If it was accompanied by background music, it wouldn’t be much different from the fighting scenes in action movies, even though this was a magic-based competition.
When viewers first discovered this program, many people complained about it and some even called the TV station to report the problem.
Later on, these people realized that this was indeed an e-sports competition. There were live commentaries during the competition.
It was just that this e-sport was conducted in a holographic game that was 99% real. It looked like a real-life fight, but it was actually e-sports.
This increased the popularity of Starry Sky Age, and also caused the ratings of this unpopular sports channel to skyrocket.
As for the live broadcast on the Internet, many famous scenes were edited and became classic shots of the first Starry Sky Cup.
Of course, in addition to the broadcasting platform, Starry Sky Age launched various joint activities.
For example, inviting friends to watch the game could redeem game items such as the Starry Sky Cup special costumes, launching many merchandise products in the system mall, designing exclusive team uniforms for participating teams, releasing linked merchandise, etc.
Xu Yuheng also submitted an application to Xu Sili, asking NPCs to join in the events. He even purchased a time slot at the original arena to broadcast the players’ game videos. After all, there were grand events like the Genius Competition, so the NPCs accepted it without finding it strange.
This grand event that originally belonged to players had become more interesting due to the participation of NPCs.
The Starry Sky Cup was carried out vigorously, but it didn’t affect the operation of the Food City.
Nearly 10,000 passengers arrived in the Roland Empire one after another. These people had seen the relevant information during the flight, so most of them went straight to the beauty salon after arriving at the Food City and checking in.
For this reason, the beauty salon had to expand and Wen Jishan recruited another group of players.
At this moment, in a room on the second floor of the beauty salon, an alien traveler was undergoing a water healing package. In order to avoid boredom for the guest, a video screen was installed in the room.
What was playing on the screen was a TV series that had been very popular in the Roland Empire recently.
The TV series was naturally filmed in cooperation between players and NPCs. It brought together all types of bold and bloody plots from ancient and modern times, both from China and abroad.
The people of Roland had just stabilized and hadn’t seen much of the world. Where had they ever seen something like this? For a time, it caused a craze for following dramas in the Roland Empire. The audience couldn’t stop watching it and the ratings remained at the top.
Unexpectedly, these alien tourists were also fascinated.
It was heard that some female tourists saw the show at the beauty salon and simply stayed in their rooms to watch the TV drama when they returned to the hotel. Unexpectedly, they spent their short one month vacation time watching TV.
However, this drama was currently only broadcasted in the Roland Empire and wasn’t available in other nations. They couldn’t watch it elsewhere.
The tourists undergoing the water healing package were attracted by the dog blood plot on the screen.
Regardless of whether the plot was nutritious or not, it was definitely addictive.
At this time, the plot had reached a critical moment and the tourist was watching it with great interest. Then the commercial break came.
“Oh, why is there a commercial again? Can’t we just watch it in one go?”
Paris said angrily.
The person who prepared the water healing package for her was a player named McSpicy Chicken Wings.
She couldn’t help being speechless when seeing the woman’s frustrated look.
As a lucky newcomer who got the beauty salon mission twice in a row, McSpicy Chicken Wings had been constantly refreshing her previous understanding of NPCs.
She knew that the NPCs of Starry Sky Age were very intelligent, but she never imagined the personalities of these NPCs would be so diverse. Not only did they follow melodramatic TV dramas and curse when the commercials were aired, but they would also chase stars and ship CPs!
His Majesty Snow and Marshal Si Sheng not only made their relationship public at the event of the braves, but they also held a press conference the next day to announce the news to the people of the empire.
At the press conference, the usually cold and dignified marshal had a smile on his face the entire time. His Majesty Snow also didn’t shy away from intimate actions with him. They were just like a couple in love.
This report was naturally seen here in the Food City.
As a member of the Interstellar Alliance stationed here, Paris fell silent.
In fact, some nations had tried to poach Si Sheng before, but no matter how good the conditions offered, they were rejected by the marshal. Due to Si Sheng’s strength, they didn’t dare to go too far.
Now those people could probably give up. Looking at the attitude of the Guardian toward His Majesty Roland, it would be impossible to poach him unless…. their relationship broke down, right?
Those who wanted to poach a person but failed were very upset, but the other tourists watched with great interest.
Different interstellar nations had different views on homosexuality. Some were accepting of it and even developed various high-tech solutions to fertility problems. Others were still in a very unfriendly stage.
But no matter what, people with good looks always looked particularly pleasing to the eye when they were together.
Under the recommendation of the players, many tourists actually started to support Snow and Si Sheng as a couple and even ordered merchandise of the two from the players.
Speaking of merchandise, one had to mention the illusion staff engraved with inscriptions.
In the technologically advanced interstellar space, such immersive illusion products did exist. They were available in virtual game cabins. A person could even make them as long as they had enough mental strength.
However, there was basically no one who couldn’t carve their own experiences into a staff. Not only could they carry it with them to show off, but they could use it to view what was engraved in it anytime and anywhere.
Therefore, the souvenir of the illusion staff was welcomed by all travelers.
Almost everyone wanted to buy one of these souvenirs. The price was very high, but it couldn’t resist people’s enthusiasm for magical items.
In view of the hot sales of the illusion staff, Wen Jishan saw a business opportunity and inserted advertisements in the TV drama to promote various specialties of the Roland Empire.
These things, which were already commonplace in the eyes of the Roland people, aroused great interest among the tourists. They were particularly yearning for magical items and were very willing to spend a lot of money to buy them. They were really high-quality… tourists.
However, Paris clearly wasn’t one of them.
She pursed her lips and turned her gaze to McSpicy Chicken Wings.
“Little sister, what is your name?” She asked.
McSpicy Chicken Wings replied while casting water healing magic on her, “Just call me McSpicy.”
“How long have you been working here?”
“Two days.”
Paris couldn’t help feeling stunned. Then she realized that this Food City had been newly built by the Roland Empire. It made sense that McSpicy had only been here for two days.
She held the mirror and watched her skin become visibly healthier under the nourishment of the water healing technique. Then she saw the simple and innocent appearance of the girl called McSpicy. Her eyes shone and she couldn’t help asking, “McSpicy, you have such a magical skill. Have you ever thought about developing it on a bigger stage?”
Paris tempted her. “Have you ever been to the world outside the Roland Empire? Don’t you want to go out and take a look?”
McSpicy Chicken Wings looked at her in confusion and even forgot to use the water healing technique.
Paris smiled. She felt that the fish had taken the bait.
A magical civilization was indeed amazing, but human nature was universal. Girls of this age were the easiest to deceive.
She continued to persuade the girl. “I see that you and I are very compatible. I can help you if you want to leave the Roland Empire and take a look at the vast universe.”
“You have seen the business of the beauty salon and should know how popular your skills are. You can go to any beauty salon and you will have no problem finding someone to hire you. They might even offer you a high salary. That is an offer no one can refuse. Aren’t you tempted?”
“I happen to know a few good content agencies. If you need them, I can introduce them to you.”
Paris was confident. She saw the girl’s eyes widening and knew that she was about to succeed.
If she could really successfully trick a magical beautician away, it would make up for the losses of not being able to poach Si Sheng.
“How about we exchange contact information?”
Paris was about to reach out to grab her, but McSpicy Chicken Wings jumped away, screaming in a panic, “No! Don’t come over here!”
Now it was Paris’ turn to be confused. She tried to hold the little girl’s hand again, but the girl already showed an expression of resistance.
“I belong to Roland in life and belong to Roland in death. Don’t even think about harming me!”
It was no wonder that McSpicy reacted so strongly. It was because a system notification for changing factions had already appeared in front of her.
Who didn’t know how severe the penalty for changing factions was in Starry Sky Age? Only a fool would change factions!
Seeing the girl’s stupid expression, Paris became even more confused.
Were Roland’s people poisonous? Why were they all harder to recruit than the last one?
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