novelraw Chapter 401 - 420: Round 1: Scan, Round 2: Share, Round 3: Private Message, Round 4: Recruit—It’s All a Scheme
Chapter 401 - 420: Round 1: Scan, Round 2: Share, Round 3: Private Message, Round 4: Recruit—It’s All a Scheme
And so, another long line quickly formed.
The sight of a crowd standing around, each person holding a bowl with a satisfied expression, was even more eye-catching than before. It quickly drew in yet another group of passersby.
About an hour later, the queue had cycled through, and people were starting to come back for a second round.
The person trying to get food was the same old man from the beginning of the line. The young boy running the stall shook his head. "You’ve already followed us, so you can’t get a second one."
"...I can’t?" the old man said with a soft "Oh." He immediately pulled out his terminal. "Then I won’t take it for free. I want to buy it."
When the boy didn’t reply, he added, "I’ll buy it no matter the price." His tone was firm and resolute—the very picture of a domineering CEO.
"No, no, no, you’ve misunderstood, sir," the boy said quickly. "We aren’t charging for it."
As they spoke, the people behind them in the queue pricked up their ears to listen in.
"You can get a free portion up to four times. The first time, you just have to follow our account. The second time, you need to share it on your Star Network feed. The third time, you have to private message ten of your friends. And for the last one, you need to bring three people here to follow us."
None of those tasks sounded too difficult, except for the last one.
After all, anything that could be handled instantly on a terminal wasn’t considered a problem.
So, the old man agreed. Sharing to his feed was quick, but ten friends—
"I’m sorry, sir, but you have fewer than ten friends on your terminal."
The comment sent a ripple through the crowd. ’Holy crap, fewer than ten friends? Who in this day and age has fewer than ten friends on their terminal?’
No one meant any harm—they were just curious—but the chatter was still hurtful. The boy realized he shouldn’t have spoken so loudly and apologized to the old man, who just shook his head. "It’s fine. Just give me a portion."
"I’ll have this one." He pointed to the fried tofu, which he hadn’t tried yet.
Tatami was also in the crowd. Hearing the people around her muttering about how reclusive and strange the old man was, she felt a pang of discomfort and called out loudly, "How many friends are you short? Why not just add some right now?"
Before the old man could speak, the boy, feeling a bit guilty, answered first. "He’s just two short!"
"Well, that’s perfect."
"Would you like to add us as friends to make up the number?" You could tell at a glance that the old woman, Tatami, was a frank and open person.
The old man hesitated for a moment before walking over.
After he walked away with two portions of food, the people behind him followed his lead and took two portions at once as well.
Some people wanted to go find three friends immediately to complete the final task, but the two running the stall turned them down. "It’ll take a while to go and come back," they explained. "We’ll probably be out of tofu and gone by then. It’s better to wait for tomorrow." They announced they would be back with their cart at nine o’clock sharp the next morning.
Everyone thought that made sense. It would take time to round people up, so waiting until tomorrow was a perfect solution.
Tatami and Wang Chichi were already wondering which of their old friends they should invite to come along tomorrow.
As the sun climbed higher in the sky, the tofu on the cart was visibly dwindling. In the end, they had to call a delivery bot to "recharge" their stock before they could finally serve everyone in the queue.
The two of them pushed the cart and quickly vanished down the street.
「An hour and a half later.」
In a conference room for the "Surprise Project - Haiyun Star Branch," hundreds of young people were gathered.
Wanxing was leading the meeting.
"Alright, everyone, please report today’s results in order."
"This is designated area one, stationed at the Qiufeng University cafeteria. Today, a total of 9,324 people scanned the code to follow Juju. Of those, 7,933 completed the second step of sharing and the third of private messaging, and 311 completed the fourth step of bringing in new followers."
"This is designated area two, stationed at the Ruonan University cafeteria. Today, a total of 8,111 people scanned the code to follow Juju. Of those, 5,901 completed the second step of sharing and the third of private messaging, and 309 completed the fourth step of bringing in new followers."
As they reported one by one, the most impressive numbers came from the teams stationed in the university cafeterias.
The next highest numbers came from malls, public squares, and residential areas. The lowest numbers came from more specialized locations, such as elderly activity centers or universities for seniors.
"This is designated area 104, stationed at the bus stop next to the Sea Treasure Elderly Activity Center. Today, a total of 190 people scanned the code to follow Juju. Of those, 173 completed the second and third steps. We ran out of time, so no one completed the fourth step of bringing in new followers."
At that moment, no one could have predicted that the Sea Treasure Elderly Activity Center, despite attracting what seemed to be the fewest people, would end up generating the biggest news of all.