[Three-Year Kaifu Veteran Player Really Doesn’t Want a Celebrity to Replace the Xie Feiran Who Accompanied Me Through the Early Days, Draining His Blood—Please, Real Life, Don’t Exploit This 2D Paper Character]
The original poster is a Kaifu Veteran Player, and Xie Feiran has been my main character, accompanying me for a long time.
I have deep feelings for him; during the early stages, it was all thanks to him helping me fight monsters.
Now that he’s disappeared due to the game version update, I was already upset.
I never expected someone would try to drain his blood and ride on his coattails.
Yes, I’m talking about that youthful trainee Xie Feiran, who made headlines on the very first day with the hashtag #Tina Continent Runaway Character#.
Disgusting!
He just wants to leech off the paper character!
As a dedicated fan of Xie Feiran, I can’t tolerate this.
After finishing the main post, the original poster uploaded various game merchandise pictures of Xie Feiran they bought themselves.
The photos showed merchandise piled high throughout their entire study.
Soon, Song Qiusheng’s water army flooded the thread, disguised as players, agreeing with the poster, harshly criticizing the youthful Xie Feiran for shamelessly leeching off the paper character, for being unable to stand on his own, and for exploiting the paper character.
They even gave examples of the miserable fates of those paper characters who were successfully drained.
Just as Song Qiusheng predicted, after a few clashes between the fan community and the gaming circle, the gaming community started to develop a strong animosity toward the fan circles.
Originally, fans of in-game characters really hated when others exploited paper characters.
Now, since it’s related to the entertainment industry, they practically wanted to tear Xie Feiran apart.
A few calm and rational players pointed out in that thread that #Tina Continent Runaway Character# was a hot topic created by the players themselves, but once the water army showed up, their voices were quickly drowned out.
On top of that, onlookers who thrive on chaos flooded the entire game forum homepage with posts insulting Xie Feiran.
Some even went to Xie Feiran’s Weibo to hurl insults.
Once Xie Feiran’s fans discovered this, the battlefield immediately expanded.
By the time Cheng Yuan, who manages Xie Feiran’s Weibo, realized what was happening, hundreds of mutual insults had already been posted under Xie Feiran’s account, and his private messages were flooded with indecent words.
Cheng Yuan frowned at the Weibo bickering and quickly instructed the Xie Fan Club president to restrain the fans and prevent them from fighting back.
In the fan group, many fans felt aggrieved upon hearing this request: “Should we just let Feiran be insulted without reason?”
Cheng Yuan quickly comforted them, assuring them that Xie Feiran’s team would handle the matter properly and make those irrational players apologize.
In the end, the fans stopped arguing with the players and instead helped control the comments on Xie Feiran’s Weibo, pushing the indecent words further down.
After calming the fans, Cheng Yuan let out a breath of relief.
Just then, Xie Ling came out of the office carrying a cup of coffee.
“President Xie,” Cheng Yuan greeted respectfully.
Xie Ling nodded, then glanced at the content on Cheng Yuan’s phone.
“Someone hired water armies?”
Xie Ling asked after taking a sip of coffee.
“Yes, but I can handle it,” Cheng Yuan smiled confidently.
Xie Ling clicked his tongue with a hint of contempt.
He didn’t need to guess who hired these water armies.
That morning, Song Qiusheng had appeared as a special guest on the show Youthful Days, and by the afternoon, the game forum was stirred up, drawing players to insult Xie Feiran.
Apart from Song Qiusheng, Xie Ling couldn’t think of anyone else who would target someone like Xie Feiran, who had only just touched the edge of the entertainment industry.
“There’s cooperation news from Tina Continent. I’ve already agreed,” Xie Ling said softly.
Cheng Yuan’s smile paused briefly, then brightened excitedly: “That’s good news.”
Xie Ling shook his head when he saw Cheng Yuan’s smug expression. He didn’t think it was good news at all.
Given the current public opinion, rashly announcing cooperation would probably spark a backlash from players.
After speaking, Xie Ling opened Weibo and followed the trail in the comments to find the Tina □□ game forum.
Once the forum opened, a hot thread immediately caught Xie Ling’s eye.
He smiled as he looked at the picture of merchandise worth tens of thousands, then handed the phone to Cheng Yuan, saying, “Check where this picture came from.”
His finger lightly tapped on the photo.
If this person was really a water army, they wouldn’t have enough money to buy so many items. So this picture was likely stolen.
Half an hour later, Cheng Yuan found the source.
The picture came from a foreign forum where someone showed off their purchased merchandise. Because the forum had few users, the picture hadn’t spread widely.
Song Qiusheng’s water army was dedicated enough to find even such a niche picture.
Looking at the source, Cheng Yuan asked, “Should we release this picture now?”
“No rush.”
Xie Ling lowered his gaze to the coffee in his hand.
“Check the IP addresses of the alternate accounts in that thread and see if they match the original poster.”
Without hesitation, Cheng Yuan ordered the investigation.
An hour later, they found over a hundred alternate accounts with identical IP addresses.
Seeing this, Xie Ling smiled slightly, his sharp, handsome features fully on display, making Cheng Yuan unable to look away.
“That’s enough,” Xie Ling waved his hand.
“Have someone count how many people discussing #Tina Continent Runaway Character# are actual players and how many are bystanders.”
“Yes,” Cheng Yuan complied.
Xie Ling knew players hated being treated like fools above all else.
They naturally placed themselves high, believing those who pay are their “dads.” If things didn’t go their way, they cursed the planners.
If handled properly, this incident wouldn’t hurt Xie Feiran at all; instead, it would help solidify his fanbase.
As for Song Qiusheng, he was probably going to bring this on himself.
“Should we tell Feiran about this?”
Cheng Yuan asked while handling the situation.
“Not yet. Wait until the dust settles tonight,” Xie Ling said, then turned and walked into the office.
Watching Xie Ling’s retreating figure, Cheng Yuan hurried to get to work.
Soon, a new post appeared on the Tina Continent game forum.
[I want to ask the poster who claimed to be a Kaifu Veteran Player—do you dare to say this picture is yours?]
Then, the original poster released the source of the tens-of-thousands-worth merchandise photo.
The photo was posted several months earlier on a foreign forum.
Poster: Are you living abroad?
Why does this photo appear on a foreign forum?
Could you please write your ID on a piece of paper and take a new photo?
@Kaifu Veteran Player
Comment 1: Posting my butt here, waiting for the drama.
Comment 2: So it’s stolen.
Comment 3: Actually kind of sudden. When it trended before, no one mentioned exploitation, but this afternoon it suddenly came up. Quite a delayed reaction.
Comment 4: Waiting for @Kaifu Veteran Player to explain.
***
Poster: An hour has passed, and the Kaifu Veteran Player hasn’t appeared.
Probably afraid their identity is exposed.
Poster: I don’t usually meddle, but I hate seeing the game and players I love used as pawns.
After posting this, the poster uploaded the IP addresses of hundreds of alternate accounts—all identical to the Kaifu Veteran Player’s IP.
This enraged the players who had come for the drama—someone was using water armies to treat them like monkeys.
Poster: We can ignore the entertainment industry fights. If you have energy, better ask the official to restore Xie Feiran quickly.
After scrolling through several pages of this thread, someone asked: Should we apologize to Xie Feiran?
This was truly an undeserved disaster.
Many agreed, while others were sarcastic.
Comment 630: Forget the apology. Some people really want to blend into the fan circles.
Meanwhile, Xie Feiran Studio issued a statement: The resemblance between Xie Feiran and the Tina Continent game character Xie Feiran is purely coincidental. There has been no name change or intention to replace the Tina Continent game character’s identity or his position in players’ hearts.
Fans below commented that Feiran was suffering unfairly and had been wronged.
Tina Continent players weren’t unreasonable—they realized they had been manipulated and apologized.
Some even pointed out that #Tina Continent Runaway Character# first appeared in the Tina Continent super topic, and the players themselves had initially pushed it onto the hot search.
Player: Face hurts.
Players who felt “face hurt” naturally disliked whoever bought the water army to stir trouble.
A post titled [In-Depth Exposé: Who Really Bought the Water Army to Use Us as Pawns?] appeared.
Though the post lacked direct evidence or named anyone specifically, everyone knew it was about Song Qiusheng.
Most players’ opinions of him plummeted to rock bottom.
At 10 p.m., Xie Feiran finally emerged from the Practice Room.
Just after finishing his shower, he received a message from Xie Ling.
“I’m exploiting myself?”
Xie Feiran looked a little confused.
Only then did Xie Feiran realize he had ended up exploiting himself.
At the same time, he understood that the real-life version of himself and his in-game character had become two different people in the players’ eyes.
Pay-to-win Whale: I’ve settled this mess.
Xie Feiran was suddenly a bit touched.
A pay-to-win whale is indeed a pay-to-win whale.
Pay-to-win Whale: I’ve agreed to the cooperation with Tina Continent. You’ll need to spend a day shooting videos.
Xie Feiran: Okay.
Pay-to-win Whale: I can help you gain favor among Tina Continent players.
Xie Feiran: No need.
I can win their favor myself.
Pay-to-win Whale: ???
Xie Feiran: Esports—being bad is the original sin.
Pay-to-win Whale: ??????
Xie Ling watched Xie Feiran’s messages and fell into deep thought. Is he getting chuunibyou again?
Having accompanied those players for so long, Xie Feiran naturally understood them very well.
Besides the “XP” faction, there were the “strength” faction in the game.
To win the strength faction’s favor, one must be strong first.
Xie Feiran decided he would personally get back to playing the game.