Inside the bar, Wang Yuan felt something was off today. The bar's occupancy had been under thirty percent for a long time, practically on the verge of closing down. But today, during the early session, they'd unexpectedly gotten three tables of walk-in customers.
He had just finished serving one of the walk-ins when he looked toward the entrance in surprise. A large group of people was streaming in, led by none other than the new boss. And behind him was a line of young women.
Wang Yuan was shocked.
'Where did he find so many girls?'
Seeing the new boss wave him over, he quickly trotted over. "Boss!"
Chen Jincheng instructed, "These are my friends. Give them the three tables in the middle, and arrange for some fruit and drinks!"
"Understood. I'll arrange it right away." Wang Yuan naturally understood the implication.
'The boss brought these girls to be part of the atmosphere crew.'
'The new boss is so damn capable. I'll have to get marketing to shoot a promo video later to attract more customers.'
The girls didn't disappoint Chen Jincheng after they sat down. After just a little alcohol, their energy levels shot up and they started doing the "centipede shake," which was the most common club dance in this world!
'Some of them aren't just good-looking, their dance moves are pretty good too. Their clubbing talent stats are high. I could try filming them for videos later!'
Led by Elephant, many of them got on the dance floor, adding a lot to the atmosphere.
As the early session drew to a close, another three tables of walk-ins arrived.
Wang Yuan went to Chen Jincheng to report, a look of disbelief on his face. "Boss, the momentum is great today! We got six tables during the early session, and they were all walk-ins!"
"Mhm," Chen Jincheng nodded. He knew, of course, that this was the effect of the billboard.
As the early session ended and the mid-session began, customers with reservations started to arrive. A few of the marketing staff went out to greet their clients.
Chen Li was one of them. Working as a bar promoter wasn't easy, especially when business was bad. You had to make the customers feel your enthusiasm keenly.
As soon as she reached the entrance, she saw a few young men walk in and immediately greeted them with a beaming smile. "Young Master Chen, Young Master Guo, you're finally here! Two other groups of customers had their eye on the table you reserved, but I held it for you guys under a lot of pressure."
Young Master Guo clearly wasn't falling for it. "Xiaoli, don't try that old trick on us. You think we don't know what state your bar is in right now? Are any of the girls you have left even decent-looking? Once we use up the money on our card, we're planning to switch bars."
"..." Chen Li was a bit embarrassed, but she still led them inside with a warm expression.
When they got inside, Young Master Guo and his friends saw that there were already quite a few customers, and the group of girls on the dance floor particularly caught their attention.
"Xiaoli, I think if the atmosphere is like this every day, we'd be willing to top up our card by a few tens of thousands." Guo Feng had just sat down when he completely changed his tune. "These girls today are really young. Get a few of them to come over for us. We'll all pay the 1314 table fee!"
Chen Li looked a bit troubled. "Young Master Guo, the new boss brought these girls. They're not 'new tea.' I can only ask for you!"
"Okay, go ask. Tell them we just want to dance together!" Guo Feng immediately understood they were the new atmosphere crew.
...
Chen Jincheng had been watching the scene from a corner of the bar, contemplating his next move.
He originally had two million in funds, enough to launch the first phase of his Second-Life Star project. The plan was to sign a few girls from his cousin's bar, try shooting videos, and get into livestreaming.
But now that his cousin had screwed him over, his plans were in complete disarray.
Just then, he saw a bar employee bring several confetti cannons over to a booth, and the spotlights suddenly focused on a few girls sitting there.
Chen Jincheng was taken aback. The girls looked familiar; they seemed to be part of the group Elephant had brought over. An employee was already draping silver capes over their shoulders.
At the same time, the DJ's voice rang out, "Let's thank V8 Young Master Guo and Young Master Chen for gifting 1,314 yuan to the beautiful ladies at their table! They're the most beautiful and charming in the whole place..."
In an instant, the girls became the center of attention. The staff set off the confetti cannons, enveloping them in spotlights and streams of confetti. It was as if they had truly become the most beautiful girls in the club, complete with a celebrity's aura.
Having frequented nightclubs in his past life, Chen Jincheng immediately knew what was going on. A large portion of the girls who started working in bars were "e-girl" types who couldn't resist the allure of money.
Moreover, he could clearly see that under the spotlights, the girls' expressions were full of happiness and a kind of enjoyment.
'This is called a "flower-gifting announcement." If you think about it differently, if you see this as a livestream, isn't gifting flowers the same as sending virtual gifts?'
'There seems to be no difference between Young Master Guo and his friends gifting 1,314 yuan worth of "flowers" and a livestream audience sending a top-tier gift on TikTok to a female streamer.'
'And the DJ shouting "Thanks to V8 Young Master Guo"—isn't that similar to a female streamer shouting "Thanks, bro, for the top-tier gift"?'
'That's why, in my previous life, it was so easy for pretty girls from bars to become streamers and get signed in droves by MCNs.'
'Fervently shouting "Thank you, big bro, for the gift!" in a stream room is way better than drinking yourself half to death with customers in a bar.'
As time went on, the other promoters' customers arrived as well, finally giving the bar a lively atmosphere.
Chen Jincheng looked toward the DJ booth at Jiang Xiaobai.
While DJing, the girl was dancing to "The Feels." Since her hands were busy with the turntables, she could only sway her hips. The way her long legs and slender waist moved was truly captivating.
'No wonder the Jiang Xiaobai from my past-life world could become one of the hottest internet celebrity DJ goddesses. She had the outstanding physical attributes for it.'
He immediately remembered that besides the bar's billboard BUFF, he had also received an Internet Celebrity Debut Card. He could use it on an internet celebrity who existed in his past life. As long as he filmed them recreating one of their past-life videos, he could achieve the same effect. That meant he could just film one of her viral videos.
And Jiang Xiaobai was one of those internet celebrities from his past life.
'If I use this Internet Celebrity Debut Card on her, at least the first two videos I make of her will reach the same level of popularity they did in my past life. I wouldn't have to worry about failing to make her famous.'
'But how do I use this Debut Card on her?'
As soon as the thought crossed his mind, a game notification appeared:
[Target Jiang Xiaobai detected as a past-life internet celebrity of the host. The Internet Celebrity Debut Card can be used after she is signed to a contract.]
'So I have to sign her first.'
With that in mind, he hurried to the bar's office, logged into his email, pulled up the MCN agency contract, and printed it out.
After he was done, he took out his phone and opened WeChat. He remembered adding Jiang Xiaobai last night.
There it was!
'But her nickname, "Little White," made his mind wander a bit. She really was fair-skinned.'
He sent her a direct message on WeChat: "Come to the office when you're on your break. I need to talk to you about something!"
After sending the WeChat message, he turned his attention to the Life Simulation Game in his mind. He suddenly felt that this golden finger of his was pretty damn impressive. His future success would all depend on it.
So, while he had a moment, he started playing his character in the game, intending to study it a bit more.
The Life Simulation Game was more of a life-sim, with a lot of daily quests.
He accepted and completed a few quests in a row, earning a good amount of Game Coins.
Suddenly, a quest with a golden exclamation mark appeared in his quest log.
He clicked to accept it. The quest description read: 'The Life Media Company has invited the singer Zhou Jielun to do a tour of its subsidiary bars. However, Zhou Jielun has had an accident with his throat and needs special honey to soothe it. You must find the special honey.'
'The game developers must be fans of Chairman Zhou. Otherwise, how could they come up with a plotline where he tours bars? You could never book him for that in real life.'
But the moment he clicked to complete this quest, another game notification appeared:
[Congratulations on completing the quest to welcome the singer Zhou Jielun. A bar's business cannot do without the support of music. Music sets the mood. Zhou Jielun has gifted you a song!
Song reward obtained: "Singing the Most Soulful Song in the Most Sentimental Place" version of "Trajectory (Bar Ballad Version)," along with a USB drive containing the instrumental track.
Note: 1. The instrumental track and song have already been registered and filed with the National Music Network! 2. When the host sings this song at the Extreme Bar, the emotional effect is increased by 100%.]
Chen Jincheng stared in astonishment at the USB drive that had appeared in his hand out of thin air.