More people poured into Jiang Qiuqiuâs livestream as the butler and assistant bots began dishing out the food. Twenty servings of snow-white rice were piled like small mountains, topped with caramelized, dark-brown old duck, and accompanied by a sour, spicy, and refreshing shredded potato salad. This was a truly intoxicating delicacy, impossible to resist.
Once the twenty servings were prepared, Jiang Qiuqiu clicked the one-touch upload button.
The magnificent sight was laid out before you. You watched the juices from the beer-braised duck trickle over the snow-white rice, saw the chili oil on the shredded potatoes slowly seep down, and smelled the fresh and spicy aroma. Even if you were rooting against this streamer, you couldnât possibly refuse.
Because your brain would tell youâ
âEat. Why wouldnât you eat something this delicious? Besides, no one will know.â
âYour mouth wouldnât forgive you for passing this up!â
GRAB IT!!!
And so, inside the small room, a plate of fragrant beer-braised duck with rice materialized in front of each of Xiong Xinâs childhood friends.
"Thisâ"
"Is it really okay for us to be eating this? We came here to support Xiong Xin, but now, uh..."
"Itâs probably fine to eat it. Weâre not his fans, just friends showing some support. Even if we eat it, we donât have to support her."
"True."
Having apparently convinced themselves, the group of six lowered their heads.
OM NOM NOM NOM!
...
DING!
Six empty plates appeared in the room.
DING!
Six conflicted souls were born in the room.
Before eating the meal, the group had planned to pay lip serviceâeat her food, but not give her their votes.
But...
"Itâs not like you can say Xiong Xin is worse than this plate of food, itâs just... itâs just..."
"We could still vote for him. Heâs a Mecha streamer, after all," the speaker said, scratching his head. "This Jiang Jiujiu is just a food streamer. Conceptually speaking, Xiong Xin is the rightful winner."
"..."
"No, I donât think thatâs the right way to think about it. This isnât a battlefield; itâs a livestream competition. Shouldnât we vote for whoever brought us more joy? What does the âconceptâ have to do with it?"
The group began to argue.
Soon, amidst their arguing, it was nearly six-thirty.
At six-thirty, the final competition of the day would be over.
Meanwhile, a sea of bullet comments flooded Jiang Qiuqiuâs livestream.
[Sheâs on another level. Iâd call her the strongest, for real...]
[Now I get why this stream gets recommended so much.]
[Okay, okay, now I understand why my boss and my advisor love watching this. Iâll never call their taste weird again.]
[So all that stuff from before was just to set up how amazing this would taste in the end!]
"Iâm glad you all like it."
"The stream is ending soon. If you enjoyed my food, please give me a vote after the competition is over."
[Okay!]
[Okay!!]
Who could possibly say no to a Juju who cooks this well!
And so, the moment the clock ticked past 6:30, billions of viewers in the livestream immediately cast their competition votes for Jiang Jiujiu.
In a matter of breaths, her vote count had already surpassed 1.6 billion.
Xiong Xinâs votes were also increasing, but once the initial surge was over, his growth rate became insignificant.
A competition that had lasted a full month could be decided in a matter of moments.
Under the gaze of the massesâ
"Alright, alright, no need to argue."
Back in the small room, one of them announced, "The results are out."
One pillar shot up to the heavens, while the other slowed to a halt.
"It doesnât matter who we give our six votes to now. It wonât change the outcome."
Five minutes later, the storm subsided. The master AI separated the connected livestreams and announced to the entire platformâ
"Congratulations to Food-category streamer Jiang Jiujiu for her victory in the competition against streamer Xiong Xin with 5,735,981,441 votesâbecoming this yearâs Most Popular Streamer on the Federation Livestreaming Platform!"
Amidst a storm of cheers, Qiuqiu claimed the crown.
She was number one.
The number one spot she had been dreaming of!