Chapter 573 - 352: Fake at a Glance (Part 2)

Chapter 573: Chapter 352: Fake at a Glance (Part 2)

Barossalis, that chatterbox of a Brass Dragon, would be perfect for live streaming.

First of all, the guy could talk. And I mean, *really* talk.

He was in contact with most of the Dragons on the Continent. Was that something a typical member of the Dragon Race could pull off?

Second, he had his specialties.

Besides researching weapons, he was also highly accomplished in appraising cultural relics, gemstones, and artisan crafts.

In truth, most Dragons knew a thing or two about appraisal.

They mainly relied on their sense of smell to identify certain components and the age of common materials.

Dragon-body carbon dating, so to speak.

But Barossalis didn’t need his sense of smell. He could appraise items by examining details and could even explain his reasoning, which made for great on-screen entertainment.

So, Zog headed to the laboratory he shared with El and the Brass Dragon.

"Hey, Baro, any interest in doing a live stream?"

"I don’t believe live streaming is part of my contract, is it?" Barossalis replied, adjusting an Inscription as he spoke.

"Ah, how can you call it work? What’s a live stream? It’s a continent-wide platform for making friends! You can chat with countless strangers. Is that really work?"

"Chatting?"

"That’s right. In the stream, all you have to do is look at photos of items that other people send in for appraisal."

Due to technical limitations, live video-call appraisals weren’t supported yet; users could only upload photos.

However, as long as the photos were uploaded in strict accordance with the format requirements, appraising them was not much different from using video.

Furthermore, since Feilin’s "photo editing" was done with Elf Magic, any altered images would be detected upon upload due to residual traces of Elf Magic. Thus, there was no need to worry about people faking images by editing them.

Zog continued, "And you, while determining if an item is authentic, can use your vast knowledge to explain to thousands, or even tens of thousands, of viewers *why* it’s real, what makes it real, and its related history. Or, if it’s a fake, *why* it’s a fake..."

The more Barossalis listened, the brighter his eyes became.

’Tens of thousands of people, listening to me speak.’

’This sounds interesting.’

For a chatterbox, this was an incredibly tempting offer.

After all, in the past, the only way to get an audience that large was to give a speech in the biggest stadium, and opportunities like that were rare.

"You can also interact with the audience. Their real-time comments will appear in the chatroom, and you can discuss things to your heart’s content."

"I can discuss things to my heart’s content?"

This was something Barossalis hadn’t expected. When you gave a speech in a massive stadium, nobody talked back.

"And if you don’t like what someone’s saying, you can even mute them!"

"I’m in! When do we start?" Barossalis asked eagerly.

"Soon. Oh, right. When the time comes, just remember to drop the product links for everyone..."

—————————

「Deepwater City. Elsa’s parents’ home.」

Elsa’s father, the major YouTube influencer and renowned creator of "instruments of torture," Robert Stone, was in his workshop recording audio.

His videos were getting more and more professional these days.

The topic of this video was a fully automatic snowball gun that could suck up snow, automatically pack it into balls, and fire them in rapid succession.

"Now, some of you might be asking, ’How can I get a fine toy gun like the one in my hand?’ Well, head on over to the Zog Platform, with its ten-million Gold Coin subsidy!"

After recording a perfectly smooth ad plug, Robert finished his work for the day.

His workshop was at home, meaning zero commute time. He could work whenever he wanted.

Leaving the workshop, he found his wife in the living room, wearing glasses and hunched over the table, writing something.

In their family, there was a huge educational gap between the parents and their son and daughter.

It wasn’t that the two parents were illiterate, but Robert, for one, had never done something like wear glasses to write. The scripts for his videos were either written by his team or he would just come up with a mental draft and start filming.

As for Susan, he’d never seen her write anything either, not even song lyrics.

"What are you doing?"

"Researching money-saving strategies," Susan replied without looking up.

"What money-saving strategies?"

"The Zog Platform’s sales promotion."

"The ten-million Gold Coin subsidy?"

"There’s more than just that. They have lots of other events, too. I’ve already watched several strategy bloggers, and if I buy according to my current plan, I can save at least several dozen Gold Coins." Susan’s tone was full of pride.

’Several dozen Gold Coins?’

Robert thought for a moment. "Then how much are you planning on buying?"

"Um, let me see... around six hundred Gold Coins."

"Six hundred Gold Coins!" Robert said, astonished.

It wasn’t that their family couldn’t afford it. With a singer, an influencer, a fellow of the Deep Research Institute, and an assistant to the head of the Zog Group, the Stone family was now quite wealthy.

But six hundred Gold Coins? How much stuff could you even buy with that?

"Oh, relax, it’s all very practical, good stuff. I saw it on a live stream."

"Huh? What live stream? Demon Vision Shopping?"

He would watch Demon Vision Shopping when he was bored. He had to admit, those hosts were really good-looking.

"No, it’s a live stream on YouTube. An old scholar named Barossalis hosts it. It’s really interesting. He appraises all sorts of antiques and incidentally recommends some nice products."

’Incidentally?’

Robert scoffed at that idea. As an influencer himself, how could he not know how it worked?

The advertisement comes first, then the video is made to fit it.

He believed live streams operated on the same principle.

Susan suddenly remembered something. "Hey, didn’t your grandfather leave you a bow? Said it belonged to some Duke? Why don’t you get it appraised on the stream and see if it’s real?"

"It was left to me by my grandfather. How could it be fake!"

Robert was very unhappy with his wife’s doubt.

Although, the idea of a simple village hunter obtaining a Duke’s hunting bow was, in itself, highly suspect.

「Late that night.」

Robert quietly got up, made sure his wife was asleep, and crept downstairs to find the ancestral hunting bow.

He had already secretly checked; that live stream ran until the early hours of the morning.

He had no idea where that streamer got so much energy.

Robert really did want to know if his family’s heirloom bow was authentic. He went to his workshop, used the high-end photo and video camera he normally used for filming, and took several ultra-high-definition pictures of the bow, double-checking multiple times that they met the stream’s requirements.

He uploaded the photos, opened the live stream, and got in the queue to request an appraisal.

"There are 26 people ahead of you. Please have your phone ready for a call."

A private message arrived from the stream’s assistant.

’26 people?’

Robert pursed his lips. ’Where did all these people who need appraisals come from?’

Nothing to be done about it. He had no choice but to keep the stream open and wait.

"Alright, let’s bring on our next guest."

Even though it was late at night, Barossalis still looked full of energy. This job was just too much fun.

’In all his long years, he’d never had a job this interesting.’

It fully satisfied his desire to share knowledge, gave him the thrill of showing off to an audience of tens of thousands, and provided the joy of arguing a whole bunch of stubborn "guests" into stunned silence.

It wasn’t just ordinary joy.

"Oh, this guest has brought a Dragon Bone Wine Glass from the Loman Empire era. Dragon bone... now that’s a field I’m quite an expert in."

Barossalis said this as he began to study the uploaded photos.

The screen was split in two: one part showed the main live stream, and the other displayed the photos.

"My, my, this cup... Guest, tell us its story."

"This cup... I bought it for a high price years ago from an antique shop in the Capital City when I was visiting Loman. I even have a certificate. Master Pavar appraised it as one-hundred-percent authentic. Have you heard of Master Pavar?"

"But from what I can see, this looks like it’s made from Roc bone."

"What Roc bone? Do you even know how to appraise things? This is one-hundred-percent dragon bone! Any cat or dog that smells it gets scared to death! Dragon Mighty! This is Dragon Mighty, you understand!?"

"Then it must be Roc bone soaked in Dragon Beast Blood. The color on this cross-section looks like it was soaked in Dragon Beast Blood and then bleached."

"Bullshit! Dragon Beast Blood? Do you even know what a Dragon is? Do you know what Dragon Bone is? Do you know how much this thing cost? Do you know Master Pavar? I was just testing you, to see if you even had the skill to appraise anything! Look at this dragon carving! Look at the carving!"

A hysterical voice shrieked from the phone.

But Barossalis wasn’t fazed. The more agitated the other person got, the happier he became. It was time to use his finishing move.

"Look at this photo you took of the bottom. There’s a line of small text here. See it clearly? It says, ’Artisan Souvenir.’"

However, this "finishing move" failed to "finish off" the guest.

"Never mind that line of small text! Just look at the dragon carving..."

In front of his screen, Robert was dumbfounded. ’What kind of people are these?’

But he had to admit, it was surprisingly entertaining to watch.