I didn’t get what was interesting about this to have such a high view rate. It seemed my doubt was clear on my face as the grandmaster said:

“Surprised again? You’re still a green kid in this career,” he sighed before adding, “listen and learn… You aren’t a fighter in an apocalypse, you are an entertainer. You need to make your audience interested and enjoy staying in your channel.”

“Does someone seeking love make them stay and enjoy the show?” I didn’t argue with his logic. After all, as he just said, it was me who was new to this business.

“It’s not love, it’s variety and disparity,” he said and his words just made me more lost, “look… If your channel always broadcasted wars and fights, then it will be boring after some time. Even if you got defeated, or made great achievements, your audience will get bored after a while and leave your channel like they did with many, many more channels before yours.”

“Really?”

“What? Did you perhaps think that all the subscribers who came to your channel had no other channels to watch? Did you think that? Seriously kid! This is just wrong! You know nothing about our industry, nothing!”

I felt like a kid in a school, getting reprimanded from his master for not doing his homework.

“Listen and learn… The audience you have already has tons of other channels. They all started with excitement and interesting stuff. Each channel has what makes it stand out from the rest at the beginning. But later on? Things will get much different here. Sissy…”

He suddenly turned to the girl next to him. After all this time, Sissy got adapted to his presence and seemed to totally forget all about what happened with that bastard elder.

Her shaking stopped and she looked collected like the first time I saw her.

“What’s the rate of channel dropping after quest fifty in any apocalypse?” he asked and she didn’t even pause for one second as she instantly answered:

“Ninety-five percent.”

“See?” he returned to me, “this is a frightening rate of dropping. And that’s not because these channels did something wrong or their content wasn’t special. Any early stage successful channel must have a thing or two special about it to succeed.”

“Then why would they all decline?” If they all had such a unique thing in their content, then why would they drop after being a trend.

“Adaptability,” the grandmaster raised one finger in front of me before raising another, “and the channel’s lack of creativity.”

Again he started to speak in riddles!

“Listen and learn…” it seemed he was the kind to start his words with this typical phrase, “the life of any influencer is made of three main phases, the early phase, the middle, and the later phase. You are now in the early phase of your career, just establishing your channel and reaping success from it.”

Why did I get the feeling that this phase was bad and not good? Dude, didn’t you just praise me and my channel for my current success or what?

“This phase is the initial test for any streamer. Do you have nice content? New things to add? Cool, then your channel will gain more subscribers fast, even faster than others like in your case. But there is one big problem here… your fake confidence in future success.”

“Won’t I succeed in the future?” I couldn’t help but ask in doubt and he smiled.

“Listen and learn… It’s normal to have such thoughts and feelings. But you must also put in your mind how moody and changing your audience are. Even if they are now cheering for you, that’s because you provided something new to them. But sooner or later, that thing would grow old and turn slowly to be boring. And that’s when the middle stage comes.”

This time I listened and didn’t speak or show anything on my face. I wanted to see where this would end.

“The middle stage is where the carnage happens. Most of the channels will fail in this period, and many will stagnate to slowly die down at the final stage. And that’s all thanks to two things… Do you know which ones are?”

“Adaptability and lack of creativity, right?” I said in a tone that was void of any excitement, “you just said these two and I still don’t get their role here.”

“Be patient, listen and learn…” again he repeated his usual phrase, “your audience will get used to what you provide to them. You are a mighty fighter who can always kill and dominate his enemies? They’ll get used to that. You are a prodigy ruler who will triumph using his mind and tactics? They’ll get used to that. You are someone who is blessed with luck, always finds a way out of any hard and desperate situations? Even in such exciting scenarios they will also get bored eventually.”

I didn’t know what I’d say to him. In fact my channel could be described to be a mix of all of that. I planned to keep gathering up followers and subscribers thanks to these tactics. And now he just said my channel would die if I kept going down this path!

Damn!

“Don’t give me that look… Just listen and learn…”

Damn this again!

“Your audience seeks entertainment. Just feeding them the same food over and over again for days and weeks will leave them unable to like it again. Even if it was the most tasty food ever in the entire universe. So that’s when creativity and diversity will kick in.”

“I need to be creative in providing more content?” I slowly asked, “but sir, this is the apocalypse! I can’t think of anything else besides fighting and trying to dominate others to survive.”

“That’s wrong,” he pointed at his head, “you must use this. Didn’t you tell me that Leo’s channel high view stats were strange and illogical to you? That’s because you didn’t think outside the box.”

“Does seeking love really matter?” Again I asked, and he shook his head once more.

“It’s the wrong question, kid. Listen and learn… It’s not about love or fight, it’s not about being a dumbass or kind, it’s not about acting smart or being a fool, it’s even about being a loser or crushing everyone and emerging the conquer. Your audience didn’t come to your channel to see these things or even enjoy them.”

“Then what?” I was lost again.

“Ask yourself this… Did other channels prior to yours provide what? I bet they also provided fighting, struggle, and even a glorious walk towards the glory of conquering their apocalypses and ruling their worlds. But did you know that the top streamers lack anyone of such calibre? There isn’t a single world ruler in any top streamer list our universe has.”

“How come…!!” I was shocked to hear that. What? Wasn’t stamping over everyone and conquering the entire world something exciting to watch?

“You must be asking yourself how come conquering a world isn’t that exciting, right?” he seemed to read through my mind, and I nodded.

“That’s the wrong mindset kid. Listen and learn… conquering a world might seem like an interesting and thrilling idea. Indeed it is, or it was. Don’t forget, your apocalypse isn’t the first ever to happen in this vast universe with a rich history of glorious fighters and legendary world conquerors. What you are desperately trying to give them is simply boring. It happened before, not once, not twice, but for many, too many times to be counted.”

I blinked twice and he added:

“You have to seek creativity, genuinely unique content that will leave your subscribers with gaped mouths and dropped jaws. Let me tell you something… do you know when a spike happened to your channel?”

“When did I get reels to expand it and gain more subscribers?” I asked and he shook his head.

“Let me check that moment and tell you about it…” he went into silence for a few minutes before suddenly exclaiming, “aha… See? This is when your channel skyrocketed and got more attention.”

“When I used my heroic calling?” I asked again, trying to guess that moment.

“It’s the wrong mindset once more,” he shook his head, “you aren’t the first to use the heroic calling kid. You are one of the fastest to get access to such a grandiose thing, but you aren’t even the fastest to get that!”

“Then…”

“It’s the moment when you went to visit a god from the death shrine,” he said, “after that visit, you gained more attention to your channel. What? Did you never expect this?”

I had to admit, I never expected this to be my turning point. I thought it might be my visit to the Bringold impact, or perhaps my fight against the dragons.

“This is because you don’t understand the mindset of your audience,” he slowly said, “listen and learn… At that moment, you decided to go against that god of death and sought another shrine, correct?”

I nodded as this was truly what happened.

“You decided to go against a god and challenge him. That’s interesting! Indeed you aren’t the first to fight against gods, but in such an early stage you made something interesting to other viewers. You gained more attention when you started your cultivation using that strange method of yours.”

“I see,” I tried to show how much I got from his words here, “so I need to keep doing unexpected stuff like that, focus on my fight against the gods and my cultivation, right?”

“Wrong,” yet he shook his head again! “You don’t get it yet. You need to think outside the box. Use that thing in your skull and think of new ways to make your audience entertained.”

I was lost again! f*ck this! Being a streamer in this universe was a real pain in the as*.

“Let me give you some advice that you might get,” he seemed to get tired of me at this point, “forget about that Leo of yours for now. Tell me, when do you think the audience got interested in your jumper?”

I thought and couldn’t find anything usual about that jumper of mine. He was filled with contradictions and intense moments with me all the time!

“Perhaps in everything he did with me and others,” I said and he shook his head once more. Damn! I started to get used to this. Dude, be creative, don’t repeat yourself like this or I’d get bored! Weren’t these your teachings or what?

“It’s the moment when you discovered his secret,” he winked to me and I got what he meant, “the secret and the way that jumper is trying to conceal it were the two main turning points in raising his views. Think also about your Leo once again and tell me, what’s the common thing in these two folks of yours?”

“They don’t have anything in common,” no matter how I thought, this was the only answer I could reach. Their personalities, their attitudes, even their interests… Everything was totally different and there was nothing in common.

“That’s right,” he finally agreed on something I said, “if they had things in common, this would be boring. Only one channel of theirs would rise and the other would fall. But as the two are different, seeking different goals, doing different things, and the two are totally different from you, then the three channels of yours hold the top views in your channel… Got it?”

I had to admit… It was f*cking tiring to be a streamer in this world!

“I hope you got it, or else you’re destined to fall in the last phase of any streamer,” the grandmaster sighed, “anyway, just keep in mind that doing repeated things won’t help. Doing the expected and most logical actions won’t help. You need to be creative, always surprising your audience, always seeking the most troublesome things in your journey. By this you can guarantee being a successful streamer in the future and your channel will keep rising up.”

This I understood! Damn man! Why didn’t you just say these wise words directly from the start!

Phew! I thought myself gone as a streamer for a second there!

“So Are my current views enough to lift this curse off my channel or what?” After this long session of teaching, I had to ask the most important question right now.