Chapter 8 - 10 Million Dollars

LAYLA IMAGE (ANNA’S SISTER)

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"I had only heard of his reputation before. I didn’t realize it was him yesterday. He’s been simping for Tina for three years with zero response, textbook shamelessness."

"People might not recognize him by sight, but he’s famous around here."

Anna said with disgust: "Some ’devoted simp’ he is. How dare he ask for my WhatsApp yesterday?"

Even though someone online debunked it as a Truth or Dare punishment, it still disgusted her.

If not for that, she would not have believed that a hick like Ryan would have the nerve to hit on her. Still, being dragged into this simp drama was genuinely nauseating.

"Never mind him. I’m going live."

Layla, still in high school, obediently went back to her room to study. Anna started her stream and began playing the piano in front of her computer.

As the arts department’s campus beauty, dance and basic musical instruments were all foundational skills for her.

She had just recently gotten into the streaming business.

She figured that with her looks and beauty, she would definitely become a big internet celebrity.

Her family’s fortune was declining and did not give her much money, so even without relying on men, she could still support herself.

But reality was cruel after all. Online, there were all sorts of ugly people using heavy filters and beauty modes, twisting around on screen, and even if you dressed provocatively, it did not matter.

Anna felt it was deeply unfair. With her qualifications and looks, how could she possibly be worse than those people?

She could not swallow that pride and wanted to prove herself.

She had even put her streaming career above dealing with Kai, though, of course, she knew exactly what kind of person Kai was.

He might look impressive, but he was just spending his parents’ money, and that was definitely limited.

That BMW fooled plenty of people, but Videl had plenty of hidden talent, he was not even the richest. The main thing was he was not generous enough, and Anna never really took him seriously.

She started her stream, barely a dozen viewers!!

Her little sister Layla was among them, and over half of those dozen usernames she recognized, all classmates from Videl.

"Anna is streaming too???"

Ryan, who had been hiding in the dorm after making a fool of himself, did not want to go out. He was scrolling through short videos when suddenly a local recommendation popped up.

Anna did not even need to wear period costume. Dressed modern while playing the piano, she looked especially elegant. The main thing was there were no filters or beauty modes, she looked completely natural.

The stream had a measly 16 viewers, even fewer than those tank-like streamers who needed beauty filters.

This was a brand new streamer, no team, no agency, no guild behind her.

Without paid promotion, it was hard to get viewers, since no one knew how pretty you were in real life.

It was not that no companies had approached her, but they all hinted at sleeping with them, and the contracts were basically slavery. Anna was too sharp to fall for that.

Ryan felt a surge of righteous indignation on her behalf. Squinting his eyes, he suddenly got an idea.

"Ding... Respected user, your recharge amount is too large. We are matching you with the appropriate channel."

He tried to recharge a 100K on a whim, but it was rejected. Instead, a so-called VIP specialist added him immediately.

"Hello, Mr. Ryan. Due to anti-money laundering regulations, we cannot allow any improper spending of funds."

"If you are an agency or a guild, I will transfer you to the relevant department, and everything will be handled via contract."

Ryan laughed and replied directly: "Private. Not an agency, not a guild. I just feel like spending. I want to sleep with a streamer."

In real life he was shy, but online, call him Invincible War God.

In real life he was timid, but online he struck hard.

The customer service was stunned and replied, "Mr. Ryan, that is your right, but I must confirm again that any gifts you send will not be returned to you in any form."

"Also, your funds must be from legitimate sources."

"I don’t care about that money. And if you’re worried, monitor my account."

"Most importantly, it’s only a 100K, why are you panicking? Just enlarge the recharge limit for me."

The customer service responded cautiously: "Mr. Ryan, how much do you plan to recharge???"

"At least one million in one go."

Hearing that, the customer service almost laughed, suspecting this guy was just a poser.

Sure, there were plenty of wealthy people and rich second-generation types everywhere, but money was not as freely available as you might think.

Even someone worth ten billion would have trouble pulling out a hundred million in cash. A billionaire would hesitate to take a million out of cash flow, considering liquidity issues.

The platform had strict controls, mainly to prevent money laundering and unnecessary trouble.

"Alright, Mr. Ryan. We are now opening a one-million-level recharge channel for you."

The moment those words landed, Ryan’s recharge page was instantly upgraded. Without a second’s hesitation, he recharged ten times, a ten million in his account.

The customer service was dumbfounded: "Um, Mr. Ryan, why are you recharging so much?"

In her experience, there were not many genuine big spenders. Most people recharging that much were either agencies or guilds.

Even if it was not money laundering, it was carefully calculated, they would usually coordinate with middle management, not go through a low-level customer service like her.

"Like I said, to sleep with streamers. Or how about you start streaming too, and I’ll be your top donator?"

Ryan teased her without restraint, then grinned at the massive amount of TikTok coins in his account.

He quickly opened Anna’s stream. The situation had improved a bit, over 30 viewers now, with mostly teasing comments flooding the chat.

It seemed many of them knew Anna, probably students from Videl.

With all her simps, she had so few followers streaming, it was just pathetic.

The moment Ryan entered the stream, Anna stopped playing and said softly, "Family, according to the contract, even without PKs, there’s a required co-streaming segment every night."

"Let’s see if we can connect with any big streamers."

The screen flickered, showing "connecting." Before long, Anna was connected to a male streamer.

"Holy crap, girl, you’re so pretty, how many levels of beauty filter are you using?"

The middle-aged greasy guy immediately started roasting: "How about you quit streaming? With so few followers, you’re not making any money. Your Photoshop skills are great though, I can hook you up with a media company job."

Anna was instantly furious, but to maintain her image, she kept smiling and said casually, "This big bro is joking. I don’t even know how to turn on filters, let alone beauty modes."

"Pretty girl, are you a talent streamer?"

The middle-aged greasy guy said dismissively, "How about becoming my apprentice? Stream some games, act cute, call people ’brother’, you might get some tips."

"Look at you, zero gifts. Can you really make it like this?"

Ryan looked over, the greasy guy was a gaming streamer. He was decently popular, a mid-tier streamer with nearly a thousand live viewers.

No big spenders, but a steady stream of small gifts, probably a few hundred or thousand dollars a night.

On Anna’s side, it was indeed bleak. Just a handful of people, and the number kept dropping. Not a single gift in sight, it felt like staring at an empty room.

Anna suppressed her anger and said, "No thanks. I don’t need money anyway."

At that moment, a few of Anna’s simps went over to the other side to curse him out:

"Hey greasy guy, watch your mouth. Not everyone’s a beggar like you."

"Exactly. Our goddess doesn’t need filters. She’s a campus beauty, alright."

"Yeah, fat and foul-mouthed, look at that pig head."

But there were only a few of them, and the mods quickly banned them. Their insults were drowned out by the other side’s flood of comments.

Still, the greasy guy noticed, and with a ding, he initiated a PK.

Anna’s expression immediately soured. Although she was a brand new streamer, she had studied the platform’s rules carefully.

If you kept losing PKs, not only would the platform stop giving you traffic, but the daily PK attempts were limited too, very troublesome.

It was not hard for agencies and guilds to use PKs to scam gifts; they had dedicated teams to manage things. But for a pure newcomer, it was extremely unfriendly.

The other side had so many followers, starting a PK was basically bullying a rookie.

"Hehe, little sister, let me show you how cruel the world can be."

The greasy guy said with a disgusting smirk: "Look at your broke viewers, all low-level accounts under level ten. I feel embarrassed for you just watching."

"Today, I’m going to shatter your influencer dreams."

In the blink of an eye, random gifts started flying on the greasy guy’s side, anything from a few dollars to tens of dollars.

His heat score shot up to three thousand, while Anna’s side had a pathetic few dozen. It was a complete mismatch.

Anna’s face turned dark. Someone as proud as her could not stand being humiliated like this.

She hesitated, wondering if she should call a few of her simps or backups to send some gifts.