Chapter 39: Chapter 39: The Officials Step In

While Barto and Cook were out bathing, Gu Ning returned to her room to prepare the props and set for her upcoming video shoot.

Two days had passed since she posted the video trailer. The tips had already maxed out at one million.

But her Favorability Rating was only at fifty percent.

The reason could be found in her comment section.

Gu Ning sat cross-legged amidst a messy pile of props and set pieces, opening the comment section for the trailer.

The pinned comment contained the preview profile pictures she had released for several Beastman clans. Below that were a few top comments that had amassed tens of thousands of replies.

On Anzhua, aside from top comments manually pinned by the video creator, other top comments were automatically sorted by discussion popularity.

Some Beastmen spammed endlessly to get their comments to the top, but this was against the rules. If the system detected particularly egregious spamming or verbal abuse, it would issue warnings or mutes to the account.

However, this behavior was rampant and couldn’t be stopped, especially under Gu Ning’s videos.

A number of Beastmen were constantly spamming her comment section. Some urged her to post a new video, some praised her, and some cursed her out. Among them, Leo from Zone 11 was particularly conspicuous.

Gu Ning immediately spotted the snarling husky profile picture among the top comments.

These days, she didn’t even have to click on this little dog Leo’s comment. Just seeing that profile picture told her the husky was cursing her out again.

She couldn’t even be bothered to delete his comments. The more she deleted, the more fired up he got. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Gu Ning’s gaze shifted to another top comment.

This one was from the Anzhua officials. It was right below her own pinned comment, automatically pinned and featured, with colorful text that made it exceptionally eye-catching.

It was this very comment that caused her Favorability Rating to stagnate. It was repeatedly downvoted, getting it stuck in the middle, unable to go up or down.

The official comment had copied the clan images from her pinned comment and used them to create a poll with options for each of the clans from her trailer.

There were five options in total: Dog Clan, Wolf Clan, Cat Clan, Tiger Clan, and Fox Clan.

Originally, Gu Ning had planned to do the Fox Clan for her next video. With Barto the fox parading in front of her every day as a reference, she had already finished a pair of beast ears similar to his and was halfway done with the tail.

But after the officials created this poll, her Favorability Rating, which had been about to max out, was quickly downvoted.

After a moment of confusion, Gu Ning quickly figured out why.

It was because the officials had personally stepped in to create this poll.

Not only had the officials created a poll, but they had also used their official account to vote for the Tiger Clan and even equipped a special-effect Tiger Clan profile picture.

This series of actions practically screamed that she was colluding with the platform.

The Beastmen hated it when the officials got involved, especially with such a blatant attempt to push their own agenda.

The tiger special-effect, with its constantly open mouth revealing long fangs, seemed to be taunting them.

’So you made a poll, fine. But then you use the official account to vote? What’s that supposed to mean? Isn’t that just blatantly telling everyone that Gu Demiao Ning’s next virtual female is from the Tiger Clan?’

’Voting is one thing, but they even gave themselves an exclusive poll profile picture!’

Immediately, the Beastmen flooded the official comment to furiously curse out the officials’ entire family, and they threw in a round of abuse for Gu Ning while they were at it.

For Gu Ning, this was a completely undeserved disaster. The platform’s ridiculous shenanigans had almost made her pass out from frustration.

She had only posted those clan pictures to maintain discussion and keep the hype going. She never intended to create a poll for the Beastmen to vote on, fearing that some would spam votes or resort to extreme measures.

If she did this kind of thing too often, she’d easily end up being led around by the nose by the Beastmen, losing all control herself.

Besides, she was well aware of the conflicts between the Beastman clans. Creating a poll was tantamount to deliberately starting a war.

She never expected that even though she’d avoided it, the officials would land a heavy blow on her anyway.

She’d seen the officials getting into flame wars while browsing videos on Anzhua before, so she already knew they weren’t very reliable.

’Even if Beastmen are more straightforward thinkers, using an official account to do this is just straightforwardly stupid!’

The officials had actually sent her a private message after she posted the pictures, asking which clan’s virtual female she was preparing for the next video.

She figured they were the Anzhua officials, so there was no harm in telling them. Maybe they would even give her some extra traffic.

So she told the officials her next video would be for the Fox Clan.

And then, without a word, the officials went and created this poll.

Gu Ning looked at her Favorability Rating, stuck in the middle and even threatening to drop, and the "pleasant" greetings filling the comment section, and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration.

If the officials didn’t have a habit of using their official account for personal matters and getting into arguments all over the place, she would have suspected they were deliberately trying to screw her over.

Gu Ning glumly set aside the finished fox beast ears in her hand and picked up another pair of round, brown ones.

’Thankfully, Bear Clan beast ears aren’t too hard to make.’

After the stunt the officials pulled, it was obvious they were pushing the Tiger Clan. Gu Ning refused to follow their lead, but that meant she couldn’t release the Fox Clan video for the time being either.

Still, she didn’t dare offend the officials.

After all, she still had to rely on Anzhua to make money.

Her tips had already maxed out at one million Beast Coins, which she had withdrawn and transferred to Barto.

To get new tips, she had to level up to the next tier.

She still had over two hundred thousand in her account, but Purification Crystal Stones were too expensive. For Cook to survive the winter, she had to buy more of them, and two hundred thousand-plus was nowhere near enough.

If she wanted Cook to get better, she’d have to buy Inhibitors, which were more effective at treating his degeneration. When she did the math, Gu Ning felt even more broke than before.

Gu Ning stared at the undeletable official comment in her comment section and ran her hands through her hair in frustration.

The comment section was a warzone, with several different factions hurling accusations at her.

[If the next video is Tiger Clan, I’m downvoting, downvoting, downvoting, downvoting, downvoting, downvoting!]

[It’s definitely going to be the Tiger Clan. The officials already got involved, isn’t it obvious?]

[Shitty officials pushing their own agenda! Report! Report! Report!]

[If you’re going to pick the female’s clan based on the poll, then at least be fair about it. The Dog Clan has the most votes right now, so give us the Dog Clan! Otherwise, we Dog Clan members aren’t pushovers! We’ll show you the power of the Dog Clan and let you see what a negative Favorability Rating looks like.]

[Bumping the comment above!]

[Dog Clan bump!]

Gu Ning didn’t know whether to laugh or cry seeing the stream of Dog Clan comments and their skyrocketing poll numbers. The Dog Clan were the ones cursing her out the most, yet they were also the ones voting the most.

[Can the Wolf Clan get it together! Don’t let those puppies overtake us!]

[Can’t be helped. Those dogs are the loudest barkers.]

[Where’s our great Meow Meow army? I want to see a Cat Clan female!]

[Hey creator, your name clearly has ’Miao’ in it, so why aren’t you making a Cat Clan video? Meow? Meow? Meow?]

[Maybe this creator is from the Tiger Clan. Don’t forget, tigers are felines too.]

[Disgusting! Since when do tigers ’meow’!]

[The Tiger Clan and the little kitties are not the same clan. Remember that.]

[Who wants to be in the same clan as you big, dumb tigers who are all muscle and no brain? You shameless Tiger Clan members hiding behind the official account, you dare to push your agenda but don’t have the guts to show your face?]

[Why are all the options carnivorous-gene Beastmen? There isn’t a single herbivorous-gene Beastman. Is the creator a carnivore-gene?]

[This creator discriminates against herbivore-genes. From now on, I’m downvoting every video of theirs I see.]

[Gu Demiao Ning, you better hope I don’t find out where you are. Otherwise, we’re fighting one-on-one offline, and I’ll show you just how hard an herbivore-gene’s fist is.]

Gu Ning wasn’t discriminating against anyone, nor did she want to find out how hard a Beastman’s fist was.

She just wanted to seriously focus on making money.

Gu Ning put on the Bear Clan beast ears and opened her terminal’s camera function.