The Performance Card disintegrated into specks of starlight and vanished.
Wu Mu held his phone and browsed for a while, not noticing any changes.
He simply tossed the phone aside and began cleaning up the crime scene at home.
The previous occupant was truly ruthless, having died by slitting his wrists, leaving the bathroom floor covered in semi-congealed dark red liquid.
...
Beijing, a certain apartment
Fan Zhang Li felt disgusted looking at the walls full of Wu Mu posters.
When she was obsessed, she couldn't wait to see him the moment she opened her eyes every day. Now that she was disillusioned, just glancing at his face made her feel nauseous.
There was also the frustration and anger of feeling like all her affection had been fed to the dogs.
She had become a fan of Wu Mu back when she was preparing for the university entrance exams. At that time, she was under a lot of pressure and happened to see Wu Mu in a variety show on a friend's phone.
At first glance, she thought, this celebrity looks quite handsome and his smile is so clean.
After watching the show with her friend, she instantly became somewhat of a fan, feeling that this boy who always had a smile on his face was really sunny, and with him, the atmosphere seemed to lighten up a bit.
After becoming a fan, she went out of her way to find Wu Mu's previous shows and watched them, feeling even more excited as if she had discovered a treasure boy.
She found that this boy wasn't just some clueless happy-go-lucky type; on the contrary, he had a particular clarity, with his own understanding of hardship and life.
*Aware of the world's complexities yet not cynical, having experienced much and still oriented towards the light.*
*What a divine idol.*
She had been a die-hard fan of Wu Mu ever since, and the more time passed, the more she felt this person was full of virtues.
Friendly and approachable, he never acted like a celebrity when interacting with fans, always chatty and easy-going like a friend.
Sincere and straightforward, he never hid what he wanted with false modesty but instead worked earnestly to achieve his goals...
"What bullshit sincerity and sunshine! Damn scum, it's all an act!"
The more Zhang Li looked, the angrier she became, and she went up and tore all the posters off the walls.
"With acting skills this good, how come his movies are as dull as a corpse?"
After tearing down the posters, she still wasn't satisfied. She took out her phone, ranted a lot on Wu Mu's Weibo, deleted all her likes from Wu Mu's song albums on the music platform, and changed the ratings to one star...
When everything was done, she took a photo of the trash can filled with posters and celebrity materials, along with a one-star screenshot of the album "Farewell," and posted it in the Wu Mu fan group she had joined.
"Goodbye, damn scum!"
...
After clearing all traces related to Wu Mu, Zhang Li put the matter behind her.
The next day, as usual, she opened the Weibo hot list to check out the news of the day.
The top headlines were still about Wu Mu's scandal, and several companies had come forward to say that they had terminated their contracts with Wu Mu and demanded compensation.
The sight made her feel quite relieved.
The seventh trending topic, "#Goodbye, Damn Scum#
She hesitated for a moment, then clicked in to find that it was all support materials being thrown away or burned, accompanied by one-star screenshots of "Farewell."
Fans unfollowing Wu Mu were using this method to express their boycott of him.
"Is this the trend I started?"
She was shocked, then felt even more relieved.
"Right, this is how it should be. Does this damn scum even deserve to be an idol?"
She continued browsing.
The tenth trending topic, #Wu Mu's Digital Album "Farewell" Breaks Two Million Sales#
"What?"
Zhang Li's mind short-circuited for a moment.
This damn album previously only had sales of around a million, right?
She instinctively clicked in.
Zhang Li: "..."
"...Seriously, are you all out of your minds!? I can understand revising to one-star reviews for those who bought it, but for those who didn't buy it, why would you specifically go buy it just to leave a bad review???"
Not only was she puzzled, but other comments under the trending topic were also baffled.
"What madness, why would you buy his album after unfollowing him? A scandal leads to an increase of over a million in sales?"
"The fan circle girls' logic is truly bizarre, is this 'Farewell' or a confession? At twelve dollars a copy, one million is twelve million, isn't this just handing over money?"
"Hilarious, the sales are still increasing, refreshing once it adds tens of thousands more, refreshing again adds tens of thousands more."
"Wow, I always knew Wu Mu had a lot of fans, but I didn't realize it was this many, can unfollowing somehow result in a hundred million fans? Everyone should be buying just one, right?"
"Wasn't it always said that the number of celebrity followers was full of bot accounts, a million real paying fans? That's too exaggerated."
"Doesn't seem right, how could there be that many real people, were the sales fudged?"
"Who's dumb enough to boost sales for someone who's had a scandal? Must be the trend catching on, even those who don't usually help with sales charts are following the crowd."
...
"Tsk tsk, it's really satisfying when things are on autopilot."
Wu Mu looked at the rapidly increasing album sales on the screen, his smile particularly sunny.
The system's power was truly amazing, silently guiding and marketing such a farewell event.
Normally, even if he earnestly promoted, it would be impossible to mobilize so many people to spend money on him.
But once a trend formed, even those who usually didn't spend money would impulsively make a purchase.
"But it seems there's also a limit, the sales growth is noticeably slower than last night."
Wu Mu estimated that relying solely on this hot event, the sales could reach three million at most.
However, even with that, his Performance Card quota was less than one-quarter used; to fully achieve one billion in sales, he needed to sell over 8.3 million copies.
Adding the original one million in sales, the total needed to be over 9.3 million.
"Will it lead to other hot topics to continue the sales boom, or just slowly increase over time?"
Wu Mu discovered a hidden mechanism the system hadn't mentioned.
The effectiveness duration of the Performance Card didn't seem to be specified, and in extreme cases, it could be valid up until the day he died.
"It shouldn't drag on that long, but I should still pay attention to the projects I use it on in the future."
The choice of project obviously greatly affects the time for realization.
Value in dozens of dollars per unit, more ordinary films will naturally return the money back faster than songs. If he chose a film, one billion at the box office might be realized in just a few days.
Wu Mu had thought about this before; he hadn't put it on a film because, firstly, he didn't have any films about to be released, and secondly, even if he did, he wasn't an investor.
The Performance Card increases project performance directly, not his personal profit.
If he chose a movie he hadn't invested in, it would just be pure funding for others.
He considered "Farewell," the album he chose, with careful thought.
This album was something he made early in his career, more as a commemorative piece, without any company participation in profit-sharing, and no other composers or lyricists involved, only sharing 30% with the music platform.
With a billion in performance, he could pocket 70 million himself.
"Not too bad, after all, it's only the beginning. For sure, I'll be able to draw more Performance Cards like this in the future."
Wu Mu was quite optimistic.
"For now, I still have to think about how to earn points."
He had researched it; aside from the Starter Gift Package, the system's way to earn rewards was through point-based draws.
One hundred points for one draw.
And the points came from engaging in performance activities.
Whether it's acting in a film or TV show, or holding a concert or singing, engaging in any performance activities, the system would grant points based on his screen contribution.
"I need to find some work for myself!"