I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

The fourth person will then move forward and fill the empty space where the first person was, and the game will end.

Because at this point, the fourth person doesn't have a lit candle, so in the end, there will only be three candles left on the field.

However, when the fourth person started moving and appeared in the video, for some reason, the room lights dimmed a little.

Then, Lu Ban quickly noticed that in the direction the fourth person was moving, the spot where the first person had been standing, which should now be empty, now had an extra person.

The person was holding a lit candle and was waiting for the fourth person to come.

In other words, there are now people in all four corners of the room, and the last person to leave will come to the side of the extra person after reciting the poem and light their own candle with his.

It's a very strange situation.

[Holy crap, when did this extra person appear?]

[It seems like it came out when the third person replaced the fourth person.]

Don't worry, based on past patterns, as long as the uploader has uploaded the video, the ending will definitely be fine!

How do you know the person who uploaded it is really the content creator?

[Maybe this isn't even human anymore.]

[Got it, so this is how I see autumn leaves. Goodbye everyone, I'm off to the world of anime!]

The barrage of comments reached its climax at this point.

Lu Ban frowned.

He saw that the number of people had increased from four to five. After playing for a while, in the second round, the third person went to the fourth person.

A face suddenly appeared in the center of the screen, pale and glowing with a green light, making people exclaim "Holy crap!"

Lu Ban raised an eyebrow, looking at the barrage of insults in the comments.

[Up, this is way too creepy!]

Get lost, I've blocked you!

So it's all just acting, right? How could any supernatural events possibly happen?

【Red leaves, my red leaves, will I never see you again?】

The patient in heat should not go into the hallway.

[So you're just a brat trying to ride the wave of popularity, get lost!]

Such complaints all accuse the content creator of misbehaving.

Lu Ban naturally realized that the key issue was that the audience didn't know how many people were in the room at first.

Actually, there was a fifth person all along. He took advantage of the third person walking to the fourth person's side and blocking the phone to go to the corner and pretend to have been there all along. He was also the one who made the scary face at the end. In the end, this was just a prank played by a few naughty kids to scare people.

However, Lu Ban thought...

Just now, when the fourth person walked towards the fifth person, the candlelight in the room did indeed dim slightly.

With Lu Ban already understanding the essence of the game, [True Vision] came into play.

He could see that some kind of hidden door was slowly trembling in the very center of the room.

However, the game is too rudimentary, and the people involved are quite ordinary, so the door is suppressed by reality and difficult to open.

Even if another hundred people came, it might not be enough to complete this ceremony.

But perhaps... one day in the future, in this already strange world, that door will be completely opened?

Lu Ban felt something was amiss.

He immediately took action, cutting out a portion of the "Hyakunin Isshu" game, transforming it into a form that ordinary people could not replicate. Although it was fine for the time being, what if someone with extraordinary talent succeeded in courting death in the future?

Subsequently, Lu Ban contacted the operators of several websites to replace the video source, and then posted another update.

【Stand still】: Please do not attempt the game "Hyakunin Isshu" related to the video, as it may cause unimaginable serious consequences.

Lu Ban's post received hundreds of replies in less than a minute.

This uploader is quite dedicated; they're even acting to make the video more realistic.

[No way, no way, there are actually people who are afraid of this game?]

I've watched videos of people playing this game, and they're all nonsense; there's nothing of substance to them!

[This content creator is pretty good, they get quite into the role, I've followed them!]

Nobody paid any attention to things like that.

However, two hours later, when people who had watched the movie a second time noticed that the movie was a little short, Lu Ban's seemingly funny post resurfaced.

[No way, they actually changed the movie's content? Is there really something wrong with this game?]

[I feel like there haven't been any changes; it should be exactly like this. You must have remembered it wrong.]

This movie can't be downloaded, and it seems there's no way to confirm if it's the same version from this morning.

This is called the Mandela Effect; the movie wasn't actually changed, but everyone feels like they've seen another version before—it's a collective illusion.

[I have a guess, it might not be right, but could it be that there's something wrong with this movie?]

My classmate and I tried this game, and apart from feeling a little depressed when we closed our eyes, we didn't have any other problems.

Stop spreading rumors! My uncle teaches folklore at a university, and he says there's no such thing as a supernatural game; it's all made up in movies!

No, I need to go see it again.

So, to Lu Ban's surprise, his viewership numbers suddenly surged again.

Chapter 131 One Million!

A week later.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the weather became cooler.

Before we could even recover from the leisurely holiday, it's already the National Day holiday again.

It feels like the last holiday was just yesterday.

Lu Ban doesn't have a home, so there's no need for him to take a holiday and go back to his hometown. In fact, he's a freelancer now, so every day is a holiday for him, but he also has to work every day.

When you gain freedom, you also lose freedom.

Lu Ban wholeheartedly agreed. He may seem like the freest person in the world now, but in reality, he is the least free person in the world.

When Lu Ban opened his eyes in the morning, he felt a little tightness in his chest.

Those who have owned cats can understand this feeling: your big orange tabby quietly climbs onto your chest in the morning, sits there with its paws tucked in, and when you open your eyes, it yawns and sprays its bad breath onto your face.

Lu Ban lowered his head slightly. The curtains blocked most of the sunlight, making the room very dark. He saw a thick black mist curled up and pressed against his chest. The mist swirled around him, sometimes dispersing and sometimes condensing, as if it were breathing.

Good guy.

Lu Ban exclaimed, "Wow!"

Was this a genuine case of sleep paralysis?

It must be suppressed by physical properties!

"..."

Lu Ban reached out from under the air-conditioned blanket and gently poked the cloud of black mist.

The contraction of the black mist seemed to pause for a moment, but soon, the mist undulated, slowly shifted its position, and then continued to expand and contract at its original rhythm.

"Going back to sleep?"

Lu Ban glanced at the eyeball peeking out from under the bed, looking at it with a reproachful expression.

He reached his hand into the black mist, but felt no contact with anything.

The black mist suddenly contracted, then spread out like a cat encountering an enemy, quickly flying up the wall and disappearing through the cracks.

clatter--

The cabinet seemed to move, making a slight noise.

"Good morning."

Lu Ban greeted the seemingly invisible friend sitting in the chair politely.

He went to the bathroom, washed up, and saw that Lu Ban's face looked a little pale. After brushing his teeth, he wiped the mirror with a cloth, making it sparkling clean. Even Lu Ban in the mirror gave him a thumbs up.

Back at his computer, Lu Ban opened a webpage and checked his data.

The number of views on the old video website has exceeded three million, but the number of valid views is less than two hundred thousand, and the revenue is about three hundred thousand.

The number of clicks on Tomorrow Online has reached five million, but the number of valid clicks is less than 50,000, indicating that most of the clicks are from people who don't actually click.

Surprisingly, although Aishouyi Video Network only has one million views, it has more than 200,000 valid clicks, and the paid ratio is more than five to one.

Daocaoren Video Network is in a similar situation to Aishouyi, except that Daocaoren Video Network is currently promoting an idol trainee variety show, which has attracted a lot of traffic, so its data is slightly lower than that of Aishouyi Video Network.

After a quick calculation of his earnings, Lu Ban realized that he was very close to his goal of one million, and should be able to reach it by today at the latest.

Thinking of this, Lu Ban felt happy.

But he still maintained the mindset of an apprentice, immersing himself in studying acting-related content.

Because of several films, professional film critics are dissatisfied with Lu Ban's acting skills, feeling that they are too exaggerated.

Then Lu Ban needs to hone his skills and amaze everyone!

He discovered that in modern film and television drama, acting can be divided into three schools: the method school, the performance school, and the expression school.

The method acting approach involves experiencing the character's situation firsthand. For example, if you're playing a blind person, you would blindfold yourself; if you're playing a worker, you would go to a construction site and carry bricks. Through this experience, you can achieve the subconscious, instinctive reactions you need to perform.

For example, if Lu Ban wants to improve his acting skills through the method of experiential learning, he might have to go to mental hospitals and communicate with them to understand how real mental patients live and talk.

The method approach is a branch of the experience approach. However, while the experience approach involves fully immersing oneself in the role, the method approach believes that "good enough" is sufficient, the object of the action is not important, and the key is the behavior.

For example, if Lu Ban wants to play a mental patient, from a methodological perspective, he doesn't need to actually go to a mental hospital. Instead, he can chat and learn from psychologists, read case studies, and use these methods to learn the behavior of mental patients to achieve his performance.

As for the performance school, it means that I don't care how the character should actually be; he should be the way I present myself.

Just like Lu Ban is playing a mental patient, he doesn't need to know what a mental patient's state is. As long as he designs a set of performances and performs according to these rules, then he is his own mental patient.

After some research, Lu Ban felt that he was best suited for the method school.