OFR – Chapter 361 New Year

At eleven o’clock in the morning, the crackling sound of firecrackers going off in the square not far from the Xuanwu Zhongshan Villa District woke Mu Bai from his sleep.

After getting up, he glanced at the phone on his bedside table, where the QQ message notification light had been flashing nonstop. He smiled helplessly.

Yesterday, he had completed two tasks within the livestreaming industry.

Although the money he spent exceeded his expectations, in the end, he had finished them, and the system rewards were more than enough to make up for the financial losses.

The random task reward was 300,000 online coins and one chance to upgrade his probing skill.

The side task reward was 500,000 online coins, plus a black-market quasi–six-star privilege yet to be drawn, and the unlocking of a “mysterious space” feature.

So, the rewards this time were extremely generous. Just the 800,000 online coins alone would be enough for Mu Bai not to worry about online currency for a long time.

As for the probing skill upgrade, the black-market privilege, and the mysterious space feature, they were even more crucial to him.

These rewards were far more useful than squandering ten billion RMB.

To be honest, yesterday Mu Bai thought that completing the “One Man Dominates” side task would take more than just reputation and prestige—it would require concrete actions.

For example, suing Douyu TV?

Or spending huge sums in the black-market network to hire shops to destroy Douyu TV?

Or riding on last night’s overwhelming popularity to tour the entire livestreaming industry and truly stage a “one-man dominance, the world falls silent” spectacle?

Fortunately, none of that turned out to be necessary.

The “One Man Dominates” side task, just as the mission description said, was automatically completed once he reached a certain level of prestige and accumulated enough points.

So after finishing it, Mu Bai didn’t stir up any further chaos.

As for the massive amount of money he, the Shenhao Alliance, and Fish King had spent on Douyu’s platform and streaming pages yesterday—strangely enough, perhaps because of Quanmin TV’s goodwill gesture or for some other reason—Quanmin TV forcefully suppressed the backlash from Douyu’s decision-makers. Excluding basic operating expenses, they donated ninety percent of the funds to charity, under his lavish spender alias.

His online ID, “A Bit Cold,” overshadowed all other donors, even surpassing Quanmin TV itself to be listed as the very first name on the charity donation leaderboard!

This honor, combined with the fact that last night Quanmin TV’s chairman personally unblocked his account and even sent him a private apology, quietly dissolved the little displeasure Mu Bai still harbored.

Now, he casually picked up his phone and began scanning through the pile of messages that had built up overnight.

Some were from the early hours of the morning.

Haiqing: “All hail Cold Hao! Cold Hao, should we pressure Douyu again, make them get out of the livestreaming industry completely?”

Jingbao: “Cold Hao, Happy New Year! My god, I admire you so much! Do you even realize how awe-inspiring you looked last night? From our perspective, you were on an entirely different level! From now on, you’re my ultimate idol!”

Zhang Yuyan: “Cold Hao, good night. I’ll always silently guard you and the Dusty Splendor team. Also, wishing you joy and happiness in the new year.”

Warm Baby: “Wow wow wow, Cold Hao, you’re amazing! Truly unbeatable in the industry! Even a legend like Fish King had to tuck tail and run. Douyu TV is definitely collapsing after this—where should we go now? Please don’t abandon me, Cold Hao. Take me with you! I’d be happy just to be a little handmaiden warming your bed at your side!”

A Wen: “Mwah! I knew my boss would be invincible. Cold Hao, you’re too handsome!”

Xiaoyue: “Cold Hao, good night. Happy New Year.”

Aside from the midnight messages, there were also recent ones—especially from Haiqing, who had been messaging since five or six in the morning, apparently not sleeping at all.

05:58 message
Haiqing: “Cold Hao, your momentum just now was insane! On top of crushing Douyu’s traffic and popularity, a lot of their top-tier streamers now want to join us. Even Guan Zong, Qian God, and Yuanyang Jun personally reached out, hoping to lead their teams into Dusty Splendor. Should we accept them? They did help out a bit in the publicity battle and streaming pages just now.”

07:01 message
Haiqing: “My god, Cold Hao, Douyu surrendered! They actually announced bankruptcy restructuring and promised to stay out of the livestreaming industry for three years. This has to be out of fear—they wouldn’t do this otherwise! Backed by the Penguin Empire, they may not be invincible, but they definitely could have kept their cash flow going.”

10:35 message
Haiqing: “Happy New Year, Cold Hao. Now that Douyu has really collapsed, where should we go next? Or will you start your own platform? We’ve already discussed it, and we’re determined: wherever you go, we’ll follow. Even if you want to kick us away, we won’t leave!”

Looking at all these New Year greetings and subtle questions about the team’s future, Mu Bai chuckled softly, then replied to them.

As for Haiqing’s question about future plans, that left him a bit quiet.

The truth was, since he had completed both the side and random tasks, Mu Bai knew the livestreaming industry would soon be just a thing of the past for him.

He probably wouldn’t appear in it again, and naturally wouldn’t be leading Haiqing, Zhang Yuyan, Jingbao, and the rest of the Dusty Splendor team around anymore.

But people are emotional creatures. Mu Bai felt that even if he left, he should at least make some arrangements for Haiqing, Jingbao, A Wen, Xiaoyue, and Zhang Yuyan—the loyal ones who had followed him from the beginning.

Especially Zhang Yuyan.

He truly hadn’t expected that this girl, once almost forced out of the industry, would endure to the bitter end during yesterday’s grand showdown, just to wait for his return—all to repay a kindness he had long forgotten.

So Mu Bai couldn’t bear to abandon them outright.

At the very least, before leaving, he wanted to leave the Dusty Splendor team with a safe harbor to protect them.

Just as he was considering whether to acquire or invest in a livestreaming platform to serve as that safe harbor, a distinctive QQ notification sound for a new friend request rang out on his phone.

“Cough, cough!”

Hearing the alert, Mu Bai opened the system notification without much thought. As soon as he did, he saw that the new friend’s identity was far from ordinary—

And the accompanying message was directly related to the very problem he had just been pondering.

This piqued Mu Bai’s interest, and he promptly accepted the friend request.