"Holy crap, someone just gifted a Carnival!"
"Someone gifted a Carnival to this boring food stream? Did they click the wrong button?"
"Little Mei, be honest. Did you secretly gift yourself that to create hype?"
The comment section exploded with skepticism. Little Mei was speechless. This was her first time seeing a Carnival—a 3,000 Yuan ($420 USD) gift, a month's worth of her living expenses!
Just as Little Mei was about to see the gifter's name and thank them, her screen flashed again. Another Carnival!
Little Mei was stunned, and so were the followers. Before she could recover, a third Carnival appeared, then a fourth, a fifth...
Ten minutes passed, and Little Mei's phone was starting to overheat. The comment section was dead silent, only the constant notifications of new viewers joining the stream scrolling up. No one dared to question Little Mei anymore.
The Carnival effect lasted for 8 seconds. In ten minutes, the user named "Jimmy" had already gifted 75 Carnivals. That was over 200,000 Yuan ($28,000 USD)!
After the silence, the comment section erupted into a frenzy.
"Holy sh*t! Witnessing history right now!"
"I'm honored to see a God-Tycoon descend! Please accept my knee!"
"What kind of person is that 'Jimmy'? 75 Carnivals in ten minutes! Too crazy!"
The Carnivals didn't stop even as the comments went wild. The mysterious user "Jimmy" kept flooding the screen with the gift effects. The stream's popularity surged from 788 to 9,999. In the blink of an eye, it hit 30,000+, then briefly 100,000+.
"I heard there's a God-Tycoon here! Just checking in!"
"Is the stream lagged? Why is the Carnival effect constantly running?"
"Idiot, that's Daddy Jimmy gifting!"
"Holy sh*t, that's brutal!"
"I've never seen anyone throw money around like this before. It's more violent than burning paper money!"
The comment section was completely taken over. People flocked to join, take screenshots, and record videos, nearly crashing the server.
...
In the TikTok data center, an engineer returned from making tea to find the server room alarm going off with an overload warning. His first thought was a hacking attempt. Upon checking, he realized a small streamer's room had exploded in popularity. The concurrent viewership was about to break one million! A million concurrent viewers was the kind of data only top-tier streamers achieved. It was impossible for a small streamer. The panicked engineer immediately switched "Little Mei Eats" to the top-tier server line, capable of handling up to two million concurrent viewers.
Just as the engineer finished switching, the alarm went off again. He mumbled a curse. "F*ck, is it a bug?" He checked the alert and froze. The viewership, which had just crossed one million, was quickly approaching two million. The engineer lost his composure and immediately reported to his supervisor. They activated the emergency expansion plan, linking two server clusters to increase the capacity for "Little Mei Eats" to three million viewers.
...
In front of her phone, Little Mei was dazed. Twenty minutes had passed, and the screen only showed her forehead. New followers hadn't even seen her face; the bottom half of the screen was completely obscured by the Carnival effects. Little Mei couldn't count how many Carnivals had been gifted. Luckily, enthusiastic viewers were keeping a running tally.
150...151...152...153...
Just as the count hit 154, the stream suddenly went black.
Little Mei looked crestfallen in her corner. Everything happened too fast. It had only been twenty minutes since the first Carnival, but it felt like a dream. 154 Carnivals. Her TikTok direct message inbox was at 99+, and her follower count had exploded from 13,000 to 3.15 Million! Little Mei pinched her cheek. It's not a dream.
Not far away, Jimmy looked at his phone, wondering if he had been banned for spending too much. But soon, large words appeared on the black stream screen: [DUE TO TECHNICAL ISSUES, STREAM HAS BEEN PAUSED. STAFF ARE ACTIVELY REPAIRING.]
This TikTok backend is terrible. It crashes all the time. Jimmy grumbled to himself. I have 100,000 Carnivals. How long will it take to gift them all? I've been tapping for half an hour and only sent 154.
"Xiao Chuan, what are you doing? Hurry up and eat!" Su Xiaoyan saw Jimmy constantly on his phone and thought he was handling business, so she hadn't disturbed him. But after nearly half an hour, she couldn't help but remind him. "The food will get cold, and that's not good for your stomach."
Jimmy put down his phone and gave Su Xiaoyan a small smile.
Just then, the System prompt appeared.
[CONGRATULATIONS, CHALLENGER!]
[SIDE QUEST COMPLETE: SHARP EYE FOR TALENT]
[REWARD: ACQUIRE THE JINGDU ESTATE "KING OF VILLAS" MANSION]
The reward was a mansion in the Jingdu Estate—the legendary King of Villas! Jimmy was slightly surprised. He remembered an influencer who bought a villa in the same community for their mother, spending a massive amount of money.
He quickly dismissed the System screen. This time belonged to his Big Sister Xiaoyan. Just a King of Villas wasn't enough to get him too excited.
Jimmy looked at Su Xiaoyan. Though two years had passed, she had grown even more stunning. Being one year older, her eyes and demeanor carried a mature charm.
Su Xiaoyan's phone rang. It was her tutor. After a brief call, she apologized profusely to Jimmy. "Xiao Chuan, I'm so sorry. Something came up at the university, and I need to rush back."
Su Xiaoyan looked extremely anxious. Jimmy didn't press her. "I'll take you back to school. I'll have the clothes we bought delivered to your dorm later." Su Xiaoyan's bright eyes dimmed slightly. She had so much she wanted to talk about with Jimmy, but something at school had intervened.
Just as Jimmy and Su Xiaoyan were about to leave, the lobby manager approached, holding the two bottles of Romanée-Conti. Seeing them leave, he asked, "Mr. Qin, are you leaving?"
"Yes."
"Then I will keep these two bottles of Romanée-Conti stored for you until your next visit."
Jimmy shook his head. He pointed at Little Mei in the corner. "Give them to her. Tell her it's my thank you gift for speaking up for me at the door earlier."
With that, Jimmy took Su Xiaoyan's hand and walked away.
In the corner.
After the staff's desperate repair work, Little Mei's stream finally returned to normal. As soon as she went live, the viewer count instantly shot up to one million! The stream was packed with people who had come to witness the God-Tycoon's spending spree. But after a few minutes, the familiar Carnival effects failed to appear.
"I saw on the hot search that there was a God-Tycoon here, but I've been watching for a while and haven't even seen a membership badge."
"Are they just scamming for hype? Who would gift 154 Carnivals?"
"Exactly. The record is only 82. Who could be richer than that guy?"
"I think someone fabricated this. 154 Carnivals is nearly half a million Yuan! No matter how rich you are, you don't spend money like that."
The comments were relentless with doubt, and Little Mei didn't know how to defend herself. Tears welled up in her eyes.
Just then, the lobby manager, holding the two bottles of red wine, accidentally walked into the camera frame.
"Miss, Mr. Qin asked me to give you these two bottles of 1974 Romanée-Conti as a gift for helping him out at the entrance."
The manager's voice was not loud, but the phone picked it up clearly for the live stream...