Let's give space a touch of Chinese horror!

Chapter 53 Public Opinion Reversal

The StarNet has been quite lively lately.

Since "囍" was banned from the Holographic Horror Game Competition not long ago, it seems that the fact that "囍" plagiarized "Dawn of the Apocalypse" has been confirmed.

So during this period, players of "Dawn of Doomsday" were triumphant, swaggering around in all the comment sections related to the event, and randomly picking out players with the character "囍" to mock.

This makes players who like the character "囍" feel very frustrated.

In particular, after the character "囍" was banned, its author, "Red Robe," never came out to explain it once, as if he had simply tacitly accepted it.

In a player-created discussion group for the character "囍":

"I just got mocked by players from 'Dawn of Doomsday' again. I don't know if I should keep defending '囍'..."

"I still believe in Hongyi... After all, '囍' is only temporarily suspended, not removed from the platform, which means the official team is still verifying the information and there's no concrete evidence yet. But I'm still a little disappointed that Hongyi hasn't even given a single response..."

"Exactly, even if the woman in red was just trying to appease us players who support her? If she had just said she didn't plagiarize, I would have immediately rushed to her aid. But she just did—"

"Friends! The response is here! Go check it out!!!"

"What?!"

The players in the group immediately rushed to the "囍" game page, but found no response.

They rushed to Jiang Yi's personal platform again, but there was still no updated content.

"Where? You're lying, aren't you?"

"Here! [Webpage sharing link]"

Others clicked the link, assuming that the person in red had created a dedicated game account to respond, but it turned out... well, it seemed to be someone they knew.

A...acquaintance who seems to have absolutely nothing to do with games—

"@Luofeng_FirstLegion: I was wondering why that screenshot of the chat history looked so familiar? Isn't that the one I posted before?"

But I seem to remember that this is not what you said before, producer... @LostWhale

[Chat screenshot 1][Chat screenshot 2]

The two accompanying chat logs clearly show that a few hours after Luo Feng sent the message to inquire, Lost Whale replied that he had not deleted any maps, because his game had never included any hidden maps or ancient-looking buildings.

He even thought that Luo Feng had encountered some strange bug that caused maps from other games to get stuck in his game.

These two screenshots were posted, and the comment section was already buzzing with activity less than five minutes after the post was published:

"Okay, okay, so there's such a long part to come... Then why did some people not capture the whole thing in their screenshots? The reason is hard to guess..."

"Who tagged all the players of 'Dawn of Doomsday'? Let's be frank, I want to see them make a fool of themselves."

"Huh? I was all prepared for 'Dawn of Doomsday' players to say this chat log is photoshopped and that the blogger is a shill hired by 'Xi', but where are they? They admitted it so quickly?"

"Whether they admit it or not, I don't know, but making a scene... they probably won't dare. Don't you even look at the suffix of this blogger's ID..."

"@LostWhale @LostWhale, my good brother, now it's your turn to make excuses."

The lost whale that was tagged is now... in a complete mess.

He was frantically sending messages to the Jiang family: "Didn't you say you'd handle that player who messaged me?!"

"Why didn't you tell me that the person who messaged me earlier was from the First Legion?!"

If he had known that the person who sent the private message was Luo Feng from the First Legion, he would never have listened to Jiang Lifeng and sent that ambiguous screenshot!

"What should I do now?! Netizens are tagging me like crazy, demanding a response! How am I supposed to respond?!"

However, his message went unanswered, and the Jiang family did not give any reply.

Because the Jiang family's current situation is not much better than that of the lost whale.

"Still haven't found it?!"

While Jiang Shu was busy getting people to control public opinion online, he was also busy... searching for Jiang Lifeng, who had suddenly disappeared.

After a busy night, Jiang Shu wanted to discuss something with Jiang Lifeng. When she returned home in her wheelchair, she found that all the servants had fainted in the living room, and Jiang Lifeng, who should have been in the old house, was nowhere to be found.

When the servants were woken up, they had no idea what had happened, and they didn't even know that Jiang Lifeng was missing.

Jiang Shu immediately checked the home security camera footage.

As a result, the more I looked, the more alarmed I became.

Because Jiang Lifeng's state in the surveillance video was exactly the same as Tan Yajun's at that time - shouting at the air, trying to attack the air, and finally inexplicably falling to the ground and convulsing.

The more Jiang Shu looked at it, the more ashen his face became.

If this video were seen by outsiders, or even by other members of the Jiang family, they might immediately demand a change in the head of the family.

A madman cannot be the head of a household.

Jiang Lifeng didn't get up from the ground until the very end of the surveillance video. However, the more Jiang Shu watched the ending, the more bizarre it became—

After standing up, Jiang Lifeng headed towards the stairs. However, his posture was somewhat strange; his left hand was always extended out to his side, as if... he was being led by something.

Holding hands, Jiang Lifeng walked up the stairs and into the shadows where the surveillance cameras couldn't see him.

Then, Jiang Lifeng disappeared.

After he went up the stairs, Jiang Lifeng was never seen again in any of the subsequent surveillance videos.

Jiang Shu felt like she was going crazy.

He has been studying the surveillance footage over and over again these past few days and has mobilized all the servants to look for Jiang Lifeng, but he still hasn't found a single clue.

He was too busy taking care of himself to comfort the lost whale.

The lost whale, receiving no response whatsoever, began to wonder if the Jiang family had abandoned him. Seeing the increasing ridicule online, and even his fans and players falling silent, he gritted his teeth and had no choice but to log into his account.

@LostWhale: I'm sorry the previous chat logs caused a misunderstanding.

As a fellow creator, I am well aware of the harm that the charge of "plagiarism" can cause, so I never said that "囍" plagiarized "Dawn of the Apocalypse". However, due to my imprecise expression, it led to unnecessary misunderstandings, and I sincerely apologize to everyone here.

I will take this as a warning and pay more attention to my words and actions.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Unfortunately, netizens... don't seem to be buying this response.

"To summarize for everyone: I'm not wrong, you've all misunderstood."

"Save money: Apologize to netizens, but not to the victims."

"See, everyone? The lost whale is taking you for fools..."

"Okay, I understand. The answer is it was all done by the fans. You, the Lost Whale, are completely innocent and clean, haha..."

……

One sarcastic comment after another appeared in the comments section. His apology letter not only failed to improve the situation, but also alienated his fans who had initially stood by him, causing them to stop speaking up for him.

Just when the lost whale thought things had gotten really bad, reality told him—

not yet.

Because the woman in red, who had been silent for so long, finally appeared.

She registered a new account using the identity of the game's creator, "Red Dress," and posted her first update on the account:

Because the organizers of the holographic horror game competition banned her game without verifying the information, she felt extremely disappointed and disheartened, so she decided to withdraw from the competition.

This news shocked not only the onlookers and the lost whale, but also the organizers of the holographic horror game competition.

The competition platform organizers quickly unblocked "囍" and apologized to the woman in red on their official account. They stated that they had conducted an internal investigation and found that a staff member had accepted bribes and violated regulations, but this did not represent the official stance. Currently, they have dismissed the person involved and will compensate "囍" for the traffic lost during the suspension period.

Although netizens still mocked the response, saying "whenever something goes wrong, it's always the employees' fault," they were generally satisfied with the attitude.

Judging from the official compensation plan that gives "囍" a prominent featured spot on the homepage, "囍" may not only make up for the lost traffic, but also surpass "Dawn of Doomsday" to become number one.

Some even sourly speculated that the woman in red deliberately threatened to withdraw from the competition in order to force the organizers to provide a compensation plan.

Just as everyone was discussing when the woman in red would come forward to accept compensation, someone discovered that "囍" had actually withdrawn from the holographic horror game competition!

"No way? I thought the woman in red was just joking to scare the platform, but she actually did it for real?!"

"Wow! That's so cool! I love it!"

"No way! Red-clothed girl, what am I supposed to do if you withdraw?! My mental strength depends on this game to stay stable!!!"

"However, wasn't the woman in red acting a bit impulsively? The platform hosting this event is already a top-tier distribution platform. She might feel good about withdrawing now, but she's offended the platform. What will she do in the future?"

……

Seeing the heated discussions online, Jiangyi sent a message to someone she had just added as a friend: "I've already finished my part."

The reply came quickly: "Okay."

"Now, just wait and see how sincere we are..."

The other party even confidently sent an emoji: "Don't worry, it's definitely worth the price."