Chapter 739 - 371: Horrifying, Very Horrifying

Chapter 739: Chapter 371: Horrifying, Very Horrifying

Wu Teng was truly shocked. Who could possibly understand what he was feeling right now?

He was in charge of the economy, yet he hadn’t done a thing. His subordinates had gone off and partnered with some internet celebrity, quietly launching a promotional campaign for some ancient city.

At first, the matter had caught his attention because of the 100 million yuan promotion fee and the internet celebrity involved.

The digital economy had indeed become a hot topic of discussion among his colleagues in various regions. Many places with the right conditions were already inviting companies like Mou Bao and Mou Dong to conduct inspections, hoping to establish partnerships.

Some smaller cities had even started reaching out to internet celebrities for collaborations. Livestream e-commerce was booming, so that was another potential avenue.

Then he discovered that the celebrity promoting the Ancient City collaboration was the most formidable one in the entire livestream e-commerce scene.

That was when he started paying attention to this influencer.

The guy was Tiao Yin’s top influencer and hailed from Coastal City, which made him far more impressive than the average celebrity.

Moreover, Radiant Square had been created by this very influencer and had become a famous photo-op spot in Coastal City.

What happened later was truly astonishing. Jinglan City’s promotional videos and various events snowballed, eventually reaching a terrifying level of popularity. It even got to the point where everyone online was talking about Jinglan City.

It was an absolutely astounding success.

When Fu Zhan and the others reported that they might attract 150,000 people the next day, he decided he had to meet this internet celebrity.

’An ancient city tourist attraction, one that wasn’t even in my plans, can actually boost the GDP—and for the long term, no less.’

But what he hadn’t expected was for the man to claim it would be far more than 150,000 people—and for that to actually be the truth.

150,000 tickets had sold out in an instant.

The words "150,000 tickets sold" were a profound shock to everyone present.

"They’re sold out already?" Wei Weili, who considered herself knowledgeable about the internet, had predicted they would sell over 250,000 tickets, but she never imagined the first 150,000 would vanish just like that.

’At this rate, the final number of tickets sold might really exceed 250,000.’

"Hurry, release more tickets," Wu Teng ordered immediately.

But the person in charge ran over, his face grim. "Mr. Wu, we can’t release any more tickets for now. The ticketing system crashed from the sudden surge. Ours is just a standard system for a tourist attraction."

At these words, Fu Zhan couldn’t help but facepalm. "You didn’t prepare for this in advance?"

The person in charge said awkwardly, "We based our preparations on the data from the tourism bureau, planning for a normal 150,000 visitors. We can’t be expected to set up a dedicated server room just for our attraction’s ticketing system, can we?"

Hearing this, Fu Zhan facepalmed again. So this was their fault, too. How awkward.

Chen Jincheng, however, didn’t hesitate. He looked directly at Sister Hong.

She understood what he meant, immediately taking out her phone to contact someone from Second-Life Star’s gaming department. "Send a few programmers over to Jinglan City right away. And bring a set of backup servers."

Seeing this, Fu Zhan breathed a small sigh of relief. "Don’t worry, Mr. Chen. Jinglan City will reimburse all the expenses."

The instantaneous sell-out and subsequent system crash for Jinglan City tickets left many would-be buyers stunned.

Chen River was certain he had tried to grab tickets at the fastest possible speed, only to see a pop-up message: Tickets sold out.

’What the hell? How could they sell out so fast?’

When he looked at his girlfriend, his expression turned awkward. "Um, the tickets are sold out."

His girlfriend’s gaze was practically murderous. "Did you do this on purpose? You looked so pained when we were buying those Hanfu, didn’t you?"

"I didn’t! I really didn’t!" Chen River was floored. He was being totally wronged.

Wang Kai, on the other hand, was even more bewildered. He’d encountered an even more awkward situation: he had successfully snagged a ticket and paid for it, but the ticketing system hadn’t issued it.

This prompted him to quickly contact customer service. Even though it was only two tickets for a little over 100 yuan—not a huge amount of money—running into a situation like this was just plain aggravating.

In response, he received a message from customer service: there were too many people trying to buy tickets, and the system had crashed.

He was completely dumbfounded. ’Just how many people does it take to crash your system?’

However, after waiting so long for the tickets to go on sale, many people who found they couldn’t even buy one began to cause a stir.

After all, they had been looking forward to this for so long and had even bought Hanfu for the occasion. Those who discovered the tickets were sold out were especially vocal, demanding that more be released.

But there was no response, and repeatedly clicking on the Jinglan City ticketing system yielded the same result.

This triggered some online drama. The news that Jinglan City’s tickets had sold out instantly became a trending topic, which also brought out some troublemakers. Certain bloggers who liked to stir up controversy started trying to ride the hype, seemingly with the intent of creating conflict and opposition.

In Jinglan City, Sister Hong reported to Chen Jincheng, "Boss, this blogger posted a video to stir up drama and ride the hype. They’re saying we’re playing the ’hunger marketing’ game again by deliberately holding back tickets."

With that, she handed him her phone and played a video.

It was a video published by a social media account called "Luoloko."

"As you all know, everyone’s been looking forward to Jinglan City for so long. People even bought tons of Hanfu to support Chen Jincheng, helping him break another livestream sales record. But for the tickets to sell out the moment they’re released is just going too far."

"This is another classic case of ugly business tactics. Are they really still playing the hunger marketing game at a time like this? I know a little about how attraction ticketing works. Even if they sell out, they’ll quickly release backup tickets, or even add more."

Chen Jincheng understood immediately. This was just someone trying to ride the hype. ’But if you’re going to leech, don’t do it so recklessly. Isn’t this just asking for trouble?’

’Especially since Mr. Wu is here to hear it.’

’Right now, he and Coastal City care even more about Jinglan City than I do.’