Chapter 40: The Line Formation

"66666666666666666!"
"Master Cannon is unstoppable!"
"Master Cannon is just that awesome—his words are escorted by a fleet of aircraft carriers, making sure everyone on the site sees them. That's how you leave a comment! Losers, learn something!"
"Is today's special interview going to be this way throughout? Master Cannon isn't showing his face, just smashing people with aircraft carriers from the other end of the livestream—how can anyone prove it's really him? If someone said he was Pig Third, the big-spender from Zebra, I'd believe it too!"
"This definitely isn't Pig Third. My wife just bumped into him, she's queuing at the hospital to sell blood and raise money to support Master Cannon!"
"Master Cannon is provoking the Top Ten Tycoons of Zebra! Tycoons of Zebra, you've got a challenger today!"
"Does Master Cannon even need to provoke? Those Top Ten Tycoons from Zebra are all talk. I'll boldly guess: even if all ten strike together, they couldn't even match one of Master Cannon's pinkies."
"Extra, extra! Zebra's number one tycoon, 'Brother Mourning Love,' is borrowing money from friends. He wants to crush Master Cannon today!"
"Reliable sources say Brother Twisted is preparing to join the battle. He's kneeling on a washboard, forcing his wife to return his private stash."
"Zhang Cannon, don't think you're hot just because you're rich! The Xuan Love clan has thousands upon thousands, we'll make sure you have nowhere to hide!"
"Master Cannon, are you going to crush Li Sweet with your fleet? Look, she's already ecstatic, hahaha!"
...
The audience was ecstatic, and the two female streamers grew even more excited.
They hadn't expected Zhang Qiyang to be watching their livestream.
Qin Xueyang, realizing what was happening, frantically tried to grab Zhang Qiyang's phone, exclaiming, "What are you doing! I remember I told you, gifts from this livestream have a 20% deduction for tax and operational fees! Sending just one aircraft carrier fleet costs you a thousand bucks!"
Zhang Qiyang replied briskly, "I know. It's just a bit of money—what does it matter? In public, I can lose money, but Master Cannon’s aura can’t be lost!"
Qin Xueyang thought, "Aura, my foot! If you were really so bold, you wouldn’t cash out Zebra’s gifts!"
She sternly reminded him, "You might not even make a thousand in gift money for this whole stream. No, you've already lost two thousand! If you keep this up, your appearance fee will all go down the drain!"
"Stop underestimating me! I’m sending aircraft carrier fleets to stir up momentum among the tycoons." Zhang Qiyang said confidently, "Just wait, soon some tycoon will challenge me. If I trade four fleets for their one, I won’t lose money and can establish my dominance. Why not?"
"What trade! Don’t let those stupid netizens get you going! No tycoon would be dumb enough to go head-to-head with you!"
"That’s not necessarily true. You haven’t been a tycoon for years, you don’t understand their world anymore. They’re the real honey badgers—don’t care who you are, if they’re not convinced, they’ll go after you!"
Qin Xueyang was nearly infuriated by Zhang Qiyang's logic. She had a vague premonition: tonight was going to be disaster!
This young master was on a high, never treating money as money!
He was bound to get tricked by that bunch from Zebra livestream!
Zebra could rake in his entire appearance fee just from operational fees!
Dong Huan and Li Sweet weren’t aware that the gifts in this livestream were being cashed out by Zhang Qiyang. They thought this special stream was like previous ones, where Zebra took all the revenue, but their performance would count, and at year’s end, their bonuses as signed top streamers would be calculated.
Seeing Zhang Qiyang’s extravagant gestures, clearly a super tycoon vibe, the two exchanged glances and instinctively slipped into their routine.
Dong Huan laughed and asked Li Sweet, "Sweetie, you’re stunned, aren’t you? Master Cannon just roasted you. By the way, have you ever seen such a big tycoon before?"
Li Sweet slipped into her routine, "Actually, I have. Brother Mourning Love once watched Big Cat’s stream, splitting every sentence into three characters, sending an aircraft carrier for each segment, calling it the ‘Three-Character Carrier Classic.’ He sent over three hundred fleets that night—that was real dominance!"
[Less—Master Cannon himself]
[One—Master Cannon himself]
[Bit—Master Cannon himself]
[Routine—Master Cannon himself]
[Path—Master Cannon himself]
[,—Master Cannon himself]
[More—Master Cannon himself]
[One—Master Cannon himself]
[Bit—Master Cannon himself]
[Real—Master Cannon himself]
[I’ll destroy you, Zhang Cannon!—Xuan Love exclusively against Zhang Cannon]
[Sincerely—Master Cannon himself]
[.—Master Cannon himself]
[No—Master Cannon himself]
[Wrong—Master Cannon himself]
[,—Master Cannon himself]
[I—Master Cannon himself]
[Wild on Zebra’s turf?—Brother Twisted]
[On—Master Cannon himself]
[Say—Master Cannon himself]
[You—Master Cannon himself]
[,—Master Cannon himself]
[Su—Master Cannon himself]
[I’m joining the fun, sticking my pay-to-win finger in Master Cannon’s rear—Pig Third]
[Li—Master Cannon himself]
[Zhen—Master Cannon himself]
...
The livestream exploded!
Though he was interrupted three times, breaking the rhythm, Zhang Qiyang’s wave of carrier fleets, one per character, sent the entire Zebra audience into frenzy!
Never in Zebra’s history had such a spectacle occurred!
One carrier fleet for each character, not even sparing punctuation—this aura was N times more dominant than Zebra’s top tycoon, Brother Mourning Love!
Brother Mourning Love’s “Three-Character Carrier Classic” was impressive, but he sent only thousand-yuan carriers, not the top-tier fleets Zhang Qiyang was dispatching!
Zebra’s viewers finally witnessed what true tycoon energy felt like!
In the presence of Master Cannon, the other tycoons were mere cannon fodder!
Even the Zebra team, knowing Zhang Qiyang would cash out the gifts, was stunned by his “One-Character Carrier Classic”!
This was literally gold per character!
In less than two minutes, Zhang Qiyang had sent 25 carrier fleets! That was twenty-five thousand in operational fees alone! All those so-called taxes could be ignored.
At this pace, before Zhang Qiyang even arrived at the livestream, he could return all fifty thousand of his appearance fee to them, plus drive a wave of tycoons to send more operational fees, and create countless legends and explosive popularity for Zebra livestream—this business was more than worth it!
While everyone was excited and delirious, Zhang Qiyang wasn’t done sending carrier fleets.
Seeing tycoons join in, Zhang Qiyang only got more fired up—
[Idiot—Master Cannon himself]
[Moron—Master Cannon himself]
[Dong—Master Cannon himself]
[Lil—Master Cannon himself]
[Sis—Master Cannon himself]
[,—Master Cannon himself]
[You—Master Cannon himself]
[Show-off gets struck by lightning! I’ll destroy you, Zhang Cannon!—Xuan Love exclusively against Zhang Cannon]
[Good—Master Cannon himself]
[.—Master Cannon himself]
[Enjoyed being destroyed, Zhang Cannon? I’ll crush you! Long live Xuan Love!—Xuan Love exclusively against Zhang Cannon]
[Damn—Master Cannon himself]
[!—Master Cannon himself]
[Stuck—Master Cannon himself]
[Now—Master Cannon himself]
[.—Master Cannon himself]
[That—Master Cannon himself]
[Sentence—Master Cannon himself]
[Long live Xuan Love! I’m joining in to crush Zhang Cannon!—Username already taken]
[Idiot—Master Cannon himself]
[Moron—Master Cannon himself]
[Not—Master Cannon himself]
[On—Master Cannon himself]
[If you’ve got grievances, voice them. Got vendettas, settle them. Everyone, come crush Master Cannon—Grab First Blood]
[Say—Master Cannon himself]
[You—Master Cannon himself]
[Dong—Master Cannon himself]
[Lil—Master Cannon himself]
[Sis—Master Cannon himself]
[Xuan Love clan, all together! Crush Zhang Cannon! Don’t let him show off!—Magic City Carrot]
[Master Cannon, we know you’re awesome, but stop hopping one character at a time, I’m dying here! Are you trying to woo Huan? I warn you, Huan is mine! No one else can have her! If I get desperate, I’ll sell my house to challenge you!—Only Loves Huan]
[Old—Master Cannon himself]
[Man—Master Cannon himself]
[I want to experience the thrill of crushing Master Cannon too—Zebra Zebra]
[Just—Master Cannon himself]
[One—Master Cannon himself]
[Character—Master Cannon himself]
[Xuan Love brothers, where are you? Don’t let just a few of us crush him! Everyone, join in!—Xuan Love exclusively against Zhang Cannon]
[One—Master Cannon himself]
[Character—Master Cannon himself]
[Speech—Master Cannon himself]
[.—Master Cannon himself]
[Don’t—Master Cannon himself]
[Accept—Master Cannon himself]
[Dominance—Master Cannon himself]
[,—Master Cannon himself]
[All—Master Cannon himself]
[Hold—Master Cannon himself]
[Back—Master Cannon himself]
...
When no one interrupted him anymore, Zhang Qiyang finally slowed down.
The audience was completely stunned! The two female streamers were dumbfounded!
They had seen impressive tycoons, but never one so extraordinary!
Tonight, their eyes were opened—Master Cannon, son of the richest man, was truly wild, with no equal!