Superstars of Tomorrow

Chapter 263: He Is My Older Bro

Translator: BeetleBarker Editor: Tennesh

Headquarters’ decision was conveyed to the Yanzhou branch, and the staff at the Yanzhou branch contacted Fang Zhao to discuss matters about the endorsement.

When Fang Zhao received the news, he was surprised. He had not expected that Fiery Bird would actually want to increase the endorsement deal.

When Fang Zhao visited Fiery Bird’s Yanzhou branch, he got a detailed grasp of the situation and understood Fiery Bird’s intention.

"Diting series? That means to say you want me to endorse an entire series?"

Fang Zhao looked at the information the other person had given him. He knew that what Fiery Bird viewed as important was not his musical talent but rather his ears. Now, Fiery Bird headquarters had had a new notion because of Fang Zhao’s upcoming concert and wanted to increase the endorsement deal.

However, this notion of Fiery Bird’s, which had suddenly been proposed by Fiery Bird headquarters, was not something that Fang Zhao would reject. An increase in endorsements was also a good thing, and it was also something he needed at the moment.

Previously, he had only signed an endorsement deal for the new model of earpieces, but now, the endorsement deal would be improved on and would include the endorsement of stereo equipment. Furthermore, Fiery Bird was very detailed on this aspect.

Solely talking about earpieces, they were divided into gentle and rough uses.

Gentle use was mainly used to appreciate art. They were used when one needed calm or when sitting down, walking, around or even when sleeping.

Rough use was generally used for competitions and the like. Various aspects, such as being shockproof and waterproof, were emphasized.

And for these, they were further divided into ordinary and specialized grades.

Besides earpieces for this series, there were speakers, vehicle-mounted stereo equipment, and acoustics systems for home use, office use, bedrooms, and many others.

Qualitywise, even though the words "Fiery Bird" on the earpieces, speakers, and stereo equipment were a stamp of quality assurance, Fang Zhao still wished to inspect them personally.

After negotiating the contract and signing it, Fang Zhao freed up two days of his schedule to stay at Fiery Bird’s Yanzhou branch to shoot a commercial.

Among all these products, a gaming sound equipment series was coined the "Diting·Infernal Flames" series and was relevant to "Battle of the Century."

On the packaged box was an image of Fang Zhao’s AliveAfter500Years avatar with a "Battle of the Century" backdrop, but instead of the original emblem on his team uniform, it had been replaced with the logo of the series: a blazing red mythical beast—the Diting. Although the background was the Period of Destruction’s chaos and ruins, there was an additional ball of fire blazing upwards. Under the dark, gloomy backdrop, the brilliant red luster appeared to be blazing up from the infernal depths of hell—a purifying fire that seemed to be frantically extending outward. It was as if anybody looking at it could hear a bellow laced with killing intent.

Fiery Bird valued Fang Zhao’s ears, but because Fang Zhao had once held a stranglehold on the number one spot on the global leaderboards, even though Fang Zhao had retired from the professional e-sports circles, he still held considerable influence there.

The Diting series was mainly targeted at youngsters and had an even bolder style. The design had been meticulously planned out as well, and the abstract design of the mythical beast Diting was this series’s logo.

With a customized logo, it meant that the series would be the focus of Fiery Bird’s promotions this year!

Everytime Fiery Bird promoted a series, the advertising would be omnipresent!

This was also the reason many celebrities spent time wishfully dreaming about obtaining a Fiery Bird endorsement deal. Fiery Bird always chose their ambassadors carefully, and most of the time, nobody understood Fiery Bird’s selection process.

Thus, since the hype about Fang Zhao’s concert’s advanced ticket sales was over and there was some time till August, many people thought that the buzz about Fang Zhao would die down and fade into obscurity, but they realized that they were seeing Fang Zhao’s image appearing frequently on tall buildings or on advertisements on vehicles when they were on their way to work, school, or even traveling abroad.

"Why is he appearing everywhere?"

"Something strange is going on!"

"I just saw his advertisement on a billboard at the previous station. Why do I see his image at this station too?"

"The Diting series earpiece was being advertised at the previous station. The advertisement here is for the Diting series speakers."

"Earpieces and speakers, how does he have so many endorsements?"

After another station.

"Why is it still him?! Billboards at stations shouldn’t repeat so frequently, right?"

"This time it’s an inbuilt sound system for vehicles..."

"The f*ck! How many things is he even endorsing?"

Online.

"What the f*ck, Fang Zhao is endorsing a Fiery Bird series! An entire series!"

"For real?"

"It has already been rolled out, so how can it be false?"

"One person monopolizing an entire series? There isn’t a second person?"

"Just look at the name of the series and you will know that Fang Zhao is endorsing it on his own."

"Diting? Oh right, even since the start of the Founding Era, I think Fang Zhao is the only person who has been coined ’Diting’."

This was not the first instance where somebody had completely monopolized the endorsements of an entire series. However, in the past, every single person who had endorsed an entire series had been a superstar with very high global acclaim. Although Fang Zhao could be considered to be known throughout the world, he had only made a name for himself in the last two years and was being hyped up at the moment. Who knew whether all of this would die down next year? Given the rate of entertainment news being refreshed daily, at that time, Fang Zhao might not even be as popular as he was now.

"What exactly is the reason for this? Isn’t it reasonable to say that he doesn’t have the qualifications to endorse an entire Fiery Bird series?"

"To the previous commenter, open up your dog eyes and take a look at the series’s name!"

"According to my analysis, Fiery Bird probably values Fang Zhao’s ears highly."

"Whew, Fang Zhao’s ears are really valuable."

Yet another group of people had their focus elsewhere. When they saw Fiery Bird selecting Fang Zhao to endorse an entire series and then thought back to Fang Zhao’s upcoming concert that had been all the rage the past couple of days, even if they had previously decided not to attend, after spotting these advertisements, their hearts were tempted.

If they didn’t believe in Fang Zhao, they ought to believe in Fiery Bird, right?

But when they went online to check, these people were dumbfounded.

"Live tickets have already been sold out!"

"What about steaming passes?"

"Streaming passes are actually all sold out as well!"

There were too many people who’d had the same intention, and those that had been a step slower could no longer obtain tickets.

Ticket scalpers with keen noses that had reacted quickly had already swept the tickets and resold them at a higher price.

Some people were unwilling to purchase tickets from ticket scalpers, so they visited Golden Age Music Hall’s official website to suggest increasing the number of streaming passes.

However, as one of the three major music halls in Yanzhuo, Golden Age also had their own attitude. When faced with many suggestions by the public to increase the number of tickets, all they gave was a cold reply: "Not possible!"

Their music hall’s online live broadcasts were not the same as those normal live broadcasts that were just playing around. Sound quality had to be maintained!

Furthermore, even if they were able to maintain the sound quality and open up additional broadcast channels, they still wouldn’t do so. In order to uphold their high-end and prestigious image, they had to set themselves apart from all those random subpar concert halls that only cared about profits.

Silver Wing virtual projects department. Zu Wen felt secretly pleased as he read some of the discussions online.

Fiery Bird’s global ambassador selection had already changed. Over the past year, Fiery Bird had gradually removed virtual idol endorsements and added in more real celebrities. In the past, real celebrities had only endorsed hardware equipment, but according to reliable statistics, in the past one year, under the Fiery Bird banner, the amount of endorsements by real celebrities had increased.

"2S e-Sports Club and those other people who can’t stand it are probably going mad with rage."

Zu Wen still remembered what those others had said when their Polar Light team had snagged the endorsement deal to get the tree-man Polar Light to be an ambassador for "Battle of the Century."

Back then, what those people had meant was that Fiery Bird’s strategy had been changing and they would be adopting a new approach in selecting ambassadors, so virtual idols would gradually be phased out and they would select new ambassadors from gaming stars.

However, now, not only had Fang Zhao snagged a Fiery Bird endorsement, he was endorsing an entire series!

Zu Wen really wished to sneer at those people who had ridiculed them back them. Even if there are no more virtual idols, you people still won’t get the chance!

At a certain university in Yanzhou.

Fang Yu was browsing the internet in his dormitory and discussing Fang Zhao’s endorsement of the entire Diting series with his roommates.

Fang Yu was the elder son of Fang Zhao’s second uncle. For his military service, Fang Zhao had been the one who had helped him arrange his military posting.

Back then, when people had mentioned enlisting in the military, everyone had wanted to take the easy path, but places that were more comfortable had limited spots. People with money would spend large sums to get a posting, and those who had connections would try to use them. Fang Zhao had helped Fang Yu obtain a posting then. To not attract the attention of others, Fang Yu and his family had kept a low profile and had not divulged too much about their relationship with Fang Zhao.

After Fang Yu had returned from his year of military service, Fang Zhao had had an even higher reputation. His mum and dad had exhorted numerous times not to use his cousin Fang Zhao’s name to cause trouble outside, so Fang Yu had never told his roommates about his relationship with Fang Zhao.

Thus, all the roommates knew was that Fang Yu’s idol was Fang Zhao, and on the wall of the dormitory was a large poster of Fang Zhao’s "Virtual vs Reality" image, which had been trending in the gaming and political circles back then. The image was comprised of two halves of Fang Zhao. In one half, he wore planet Baiji’s military uniform, and the other featured his in-game avatar.

All four in this dorm were gaming fans and worshiped Fang Zhao, especially because of the incidents that had happened during his military service. From time to time, the four of them would discuss this stuff.

"If only I had enlisted a little later, it would have been great if I could have headed over to planet Baiji with Fang Zhao."

This was what they all had thought after the matters on planet Baiji.

In the past, they had all followed the crowd and thought of ways and methods to get posted to a more safe and comfortable place, but then they had seen Fang Zhao, who had straightaway applied to undergo his military service at an arduous place. What was even more unexpected was that he had discovered grade A power ore there and propelled planet Baiji’s spot in the development sequence toward the front!

That was just too awesome!

When they had found out about Fang Zhao’s concert, they had wanted to attend, but live tickets had just been too expensive, so they had only purchased an ordinary streaming pass to support their idol.

The four members of the dormitory had pooled their money together to purchase one pass and would watch it together. Their equipment here was limited and definitely could not compare to that of a rich family’s. The four also weren’t that crazy about music and weren’t in the music industry, so just listening to it was good enough.

"Luckily we were quick enough. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to get the ticket!"

"Ticket scalpers have increased the prices by quite a lot. Many people have raised the issue with Golden Age, asking them to increase the amount of streaming passes, but unfortunately, Golden Age is unwilling to do so."

"Hey, Fang Yu, what are you looking at? Why are your eyes on the verge of popping out?"

At the moment Fang Yu wanted to hide it, the image displayed on the screen was spotted by the person beside him.

That person’s eyes widened as he asked, "What is this?!"

"...Concert tickets." Fang Yu had just received a message. He had also not imagined that Fang Zhao would send him a ticket. This was a pleasant surprise to him, but he had not been quick enough at hiding it, so one of his roommates had seen it.

"Live tickets!!!" that roommate exclaimed.

With a whoosh, the other two roommates gathered over and looked at the message displayed on the screen, then simultaneously looked toward Fang Yu, their eyes green with envy as they asked, "Is there something you aren’t telling us?"

"Cough, Fang Zhao, is my older bro. The kind where we share the same grandparents."

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