OFR – Chapter 72 The person behind the scenes.

He searched for *Modu Li Shao*’s QQ contact, and within a second or two, the result appeared.

The QQ nickname was simply “Li Shao.” Mu Bai clicked to add him as a friend and indicated that he was the owner of *Zhenpin Tian*.

After sending the friend request, he didn’t wait around for the confirmation.

Instead, he casually scrolled through his *QQ Space* feed and noticed that nothing new had been posted by his friends in the past few days.

As usual, it was full of selfies, game shares, or melancholic quotes and life reflections.

Mu Bai merely glanced at these updates and didn’t spend more time on them.

When he saw that his friend request hadn’t been accepted yet, he decided not to wait any longer.

After all, if the other party was busy, who knew how long it would take?

He logged out of QQ and checked the time on his phone. It was almost noon, so he ordered a hearty meal from a well-reviewed food delivery platform.

After placing the order, Mu Bai thought that a week had passed since his last extravagant online spending spree. The buzz should have died down by now.

Indeed, disappearing for a few days was enough to cool down the excitement surrounding a wealthy streamer.

The online world moves fast. It’s exciting but also ruthless.

If you don’t stay active for long, your presence fades quickly from people’s memory.

Take Wei Zexi from a few years ago as an example. Back then, people were furious, standing on moral high ground, accusing Qiandu and the Putian medical network.

Yet, after all these years, nothing has changed. The Putian system is still the same, Qiandu remains unshaken, and Wei Zexi’s name has gradually faded from public memory. People may occasionally remember him and sigh, but that’s it.

That’s the nature of the internet—a fast-paced virtual world where hype rises and falls quickly.

In the streaming industry, there are countless wealthy patrons. On Douyu TV alone, many such figures have made their mark with legendary actions.

However, only a few of these stories are remembered now.

Mu Bai logged into Douyu TV. As soon as he entered, he saw that Wang Yuwei, whom he followed, wasn’t live.

He also noticed many unread messages in his inbox, mostly from Zhao Zhi, the Douyu manager who contacted him a few days ago.

It was indeed an official account, which confirmed that what Zhao Zhi said previously was true.

Mu Bai reviewed the messages and found they repeated much of what was said before, though the tone was even more sincere this time. Zhao Zhi even offered additional incentives if Mu Bai was interested in starting his own guild. Not only would he get a 30% rebate on streamers’ earnings, but Douyu would also favor his streamers with prime placement in their recommendations.

The level of support was incredible, something most teams aspiring to create families or guilds could only dream of.

But precisely because of this level of support and Douyu’s eagerness, Mu Bai felt something was off.

After thinking about it for seven or eight minutes, Mu Bai concluded that Douyu likely wanted to exploit him.

The reason was twofold.

First, money. Douyu wanted to keep this wealthy patron and didn’t want him spending on other platforms.

Second, Douyu saw his potential and wanted him to create a guild that could challenge the established family guilds. If a battle ensued, it would surely become a spending war, and Douyu TV would profit from it!

This way, Douyu could not only suppress the old guilds but also generate huge profits!

“Hah! What a plan!”

After figuring this out, Mu Bai couldn’t help but chuckle coldly. He was now certain of Douyu’s intentions.

After all, if they weren’t trying to use him, why would Douyu be so eager for him to establish a guild?

As the saying goes, “When someone is overly eager to please, they’re either up to no good or trying to rob you.”

Just as Mu Bai’s gaze turned cold, Zhao Zhi sent another message from his official Douyu account.

Zhao Zhi: “Coldhao, you’re online? Haha, long time no see! Would you like me to explain the benefits of starting your own guild again?”

Mu Bai looked at Zhao Zhi’s message, smiled coldly, and didn’t reply. However, Zhao Zhi continued to persist, sending more messages.

Some of the sensitive content was quickly deleted after Mu Bai had a chance to read it.

Zhao Zhi: “Coldhao, there are many benefits to creating your own guild! For example, that small streamer *Xiao Xiao Xing* you like—if not for the prestige of your recent 9 million yuan splurge, many established guilds would’ve already tried to recruit her. Once a streamer is recruited by another guild, they’ll be bound by various restrictions, making it hard to leave. Do you really want to see her become prey to others? Wouldn’t it be better if you created a guild and nurtured her under your wing? You could also recruit many other beautiful, talented new streamers…”

Zhao Zhi sent a lot of messages, even revealing some of the dark secrets of family guilds.

Family guilds, especially those with wealthy patrons, wouldn’t simply promote streamers for nothing. After all, even the richest patrons don’t want to spend their money making someone famous only to lose control over them.

Smaller guilds had many restrictions and took a large cut of the streamers’ gifts, while bigger guilds had even more hidden schemes.

Normally, as a Douyu manager, Zhao Zhi would keep these things under wraps, but in order to recruit Mu Bai, he laid everything bare.

After another ten minutes, Zhao Zhi asked sincerely again: “Coldhao, have you made up your mind? Honestly, if you start a guild, you’ll be the king of your family. You’ll have total control.”

Mu Bai chuckled at Zhao Zhi’s persistence, feeling a little tempted. After all, power and women appeal to most men.

However, for Mu Bai, the temptation was only slight.

After seeing women like Han Mengyun and Qian Yiwen in real life, the allure of streamers, praised for their beauty through voice filters and beauty cams, didn’t really move him.

But there was another important consideration: the money he earned needed to be spent somewhere. Offline spending wouldn’t earn him any virtual currency, and constantly gifting Wang Yuwei online didn’t seem like a sustainable long-term plan.

He knew that money is a great thing, but it can also lead people astray.

If he gave Wang Yuwei sudden, immense wealth, he worried that this old classmate of his might start to believe that making money is easy.

If he stopped gifting her in the future, it was very likely she’d become like many other “online beggars,” expecting everything to be handed to her.

If that happened, he wouldn’t be helping her anymore. Instead, he’d be spoiling her, ultimately destroying her potential.

As for doing charity online, Mu Bai had no interest in that, as online charity organizations often had more dark secrets than he cared to deal with. Apart from donating 100,000 yuan to help his elementary school classmate Zhang Tiantian, he hadn’t done anything else.

His reluctance to do charity stemmed from the fact that when his grandfather was dying in the hospital, no one donated a single cent to help him raise the money for medical treatment.

Mu Bai wasn’t a saint. When he was struggling to raise money for his grandfather, no one helped him, so now that he was wealthy, why should he help others?

In his view, there was no logic to that!

However, if something truly moved him, perhaps he would donate some money. 

After all, Mu Bai wasn’t heartless. Before gaining the system, he had been an ordinary young man working hard in Nanjing.

As he read through Zhao Zhi’s messages, Mu Bai pondered many things.

Although he was slightly tempted, he wasn’t particularly interested in starting a family guild, mainly because he had no experience with it and didn’t find the idea very appealing.

He preferred to quietly spend his money online.

Perhaps noticing Mu Bai’s mood, the system very timely released its first side quest.

*Ding! We admire Douyu’s audacity in exploiting a wealthy patron like you, but in the end, they will pay for it with regret. The host has triggered the side quest: ‘Rise to Power.’ This is the first side quest, with a one-year time limit and phased rewards. When the host reaches an unprecedented level of influence in the live streaming industry, the final reward will be unlocked!*

*In the first phase, the host must either control or take down a one-star-rated family guild. The host can choose which guild to target. Controlling or defeating one one-star family guild will reward 3,000 network coins, while targeting a system-specified guild will yield 6,000 network coins. After controlling or defeating three one-star family guilds, the next phase of the quest will unlock, along with one hour of access to the Black Market.*

*Note: The reward currency will increase fivefold with each star rating of the guild. The system will automatically evaluate the guild’s rating.*

Mu Bai chuckled as he read the first side quest from the system.

He hadn’t expected the system to issue such a quest.

Controlling or defeating family guilds?

In the streaming industry, that was indeed a very costly endeavor, but for Mu Bai, it was also the fastest way to spend money online.

As he thought more about the quest, he couldn’t help but recall two famous sayings:

“I’m not in the game, but my legend lives on in the martial world.”

“I don’t sell on e-commerce platforms, but millions of sellers are on Taobao.”

Yes, for someone like Mu Bai, who preferred to keep a low profile, being the man behind the scenes of a family guild sounded perfect.

And since he was already planning to play this behind-the-scenes role, why not take advantage of the benefits Zhao Zhi was offering?

“Use me? Ha!”

With that thought, Mu Bai let out a cold laugh and typed a reply to Zhao Zhi.

…

In a high-end office building in Wuhan.

Leaning over his desk, Zhao Zhi stared at the chat window, still waiting for a response, looking dejected.

It seemed this *Coldhao* really wasn’t interested in starting a family guild.

“Sigh, there goes my bonus… and the promotion to VP,” Zhao Zhi sighed.

Just as he was about to close the chat window in disappointment, suddenly…

A new message arrived.

He quickly rubbed his eyes and carefully checked the message. Once he saw the contents, he leaped out of his chair in excitement!

“It worked! Coldhao! I love you! The future of Douyu is all yours!”

Zhao Zhi shouted in excitement. He had intended to say that aside from the official Douyu administration, no one else could challenge *Coldhao* in the family guild scene. But no one could have imagined that in the future, this man would become a king even the officials couldn’t contend with.

Thus began an era in the streaming world where one man reigned supreme, and all others fell silent.