10 010. Must be used for the next time_1

"Two million views already, that was quick,"

Lu Ban shifted his gaze from the shoulder of the girl he had just seen, where the twisted and eerie System text suddenly disappeared, transforming into a pattern on the girl's clothing.

During his meal, Lu Ban discovered that he did not need to open his phone to check the click data; he could simply look at his System panel, so he took a casual glance before leaving.

The weather was nice, the sun was shining brightly, and Lu Ban soon forgot about the girl he had met, taking the subway to the Jiangcheng City Library.

The Jiangcheng City Library was just one subway stop away from Jiangcheng City Center Old Street, and a short walk from there would take you to North Lake and Clock Mountain, a quiet spot amidst a bustling area.

Near the library was a university, so one could see quite a few college students, in the prime of their youth, moving around in pairs and groups, studying in the library.

Lu Ban bought a pen and notebook at the entrance, registered, and went into the library. He picked up two books related to folklore studies and, after some thought, proceeded to the film-related section and borrowed two books on film analysis. He found a spot where the sunlight was pleasant and sat down to read intently.

This angle, this play of light and shadow, this appearance, it was like a scene from "Love Letter," like Toji Itsuki's first encounter with Toji Itsuki in the library, youthfully beautiful, enough to stir the budding affections of any tender-hearted girl.

That is, if you ignore what Lu Ban was writing.

"Theories of Horror: ① Horror is a process, providing information in stages to set the stage for horror; ② You don't need the audience to relate to the protagonist; ③ Don't be logical. If there's cause and effect, it's not scary; horror is about being illogical..."

These were the horror theories he had learned in his previous life in a classroom, from the famous screenwriter Kozumi Chiaki, known for his long hair and artistic look. His well-known works, like "Di O Ultraman" and "Count O Baby," often incorporated horror elements into children's shows, an area where Kozumi Chiaki excelled.

He had about twelve theories on horror, but Lu Ban only remembered six of them; the rest were a summary of what he experienced the previous night.

The reason he studied this was that he felt that his System-assigned role as a Director was not really that of a horror film director.

He might have to explore various eerie and horrifying places in the future and then turn his exploration experiences into short films or movies.

Since that was the case, Lu Ban definitely wanted to learn how to make something even more terrifying.

People as dedicated as Lu Ban were rare these days.

He flipped through the film theory books of this world and found that in terms of horror and thriller films, this world's progress was indeed somewhat sluggish, mostly stuck in the pattern of gory European and American horror films, without having developed the East Asian style of psychological horror. There was a lot to be done in horror filmmaking.

Lu Ban was studying these not just for filmmaking but also to deal with the tasks that might come his way in the future.

The most important thing for people is a sense of security, and what Lu Ban was facing was precisely about stripping away that security and dragging people into the unknown to create fear.

The best way to eliminate fear was to confront it, and in this, Lu Ban had unwavering faith.

While he was engrossed in reading, it wasn't quiet around him.

There was a female student sitting next to Lu Ban, holding an engineering mechanics textbook while wearing earphones and watching a video on her mobile phone.

This wouldn't normally have been worth noticing since aside from him, the rest at his table were girls, which wasn't anything special.

However, the girl's earphones were of poor quality, leaking sound.

Lu Ban glanced over and saw that on the girl's mobile phone screen was the very video of him.

"Hmm?"

Lu Ban frowned, sensing something was amiss.

The sound coming from the girl's earphones was definitely not the original audio from his video.

Although it was somewhat impolite, Lu Ban still watched for a while.

Wait a minute.

There was something off about this video too.

In the video the girl was watching, Lu Ban was repeatedly getting up and lying down on the bed, as if the tape was stuck, and coupled with the occasional appearance of the Clown's face and Lu Ban's somewhat serious expression, it wasn't scary at all but rather seemed a bit comical and funny.

More importantly, the background music of the video was "Good Fortune Comes."

Lu Ban thought that no matter how scary a video was, it probably wouldn't be frightening if it was paired with "Good Fortune Comes."

Clearly, Lu Ban's video had been turned into a ghost O video by a highly skilled UP host.

And that was only in half a day, the speed at which they capitalized on trending topics was quite fast.

Lu Ban felt that the video industry was becoming way too competitive.

"... Excuse me, can I ask what the video you're watching is called?"

He gently touched the arm of the girl sitting next to him, and after she removed her headphones, he politely asked.

"Ah, um? Oh, this, this is... Huh???"

The girl was taken aback, apparently not expecting Lu Ban to strike up a conversation with her, but as she fumbled, she realized that the handsome guy next to her looked very much like the person from the Di O video she had just been watching!

She looked at her phone, then back at Lu Ban.

They were exactly alike.

It felt like listening to "Cycle" through headphones and then running into Teacher Ge Ping, or watching a Count O Baby ad and looking up to see Captain Dongxian, as if during a brainwashing session by a professional team, you realize your chair is being lifted by six men in black suits.

It's hard to put into words.

"That's actually me."

Lu Ban guessed her surprise and responded accordingly.

The other women at the table all turned to look this way, possibly thinking Lu Ban was a celebrity from somewhere.

"May I take a look?"

Lu Ban asked politely again.

"... Y-Yes, you can."

The girl handed her phone over to Lu Ban in a daze.

Lu Ban took her phone and directly inserted one of the earbuds into his ear, pressing play. The two of them created a scene, each listening to one side of the headphones, that only appeared in the romance dramas of student days.

Envy and jealousy.

The girl seemed to feel the gazes of the other women around her.

Lu Ban, on the other hand, didn't care at all. He watched the Di O video with interest, took off the earphone, and returned the phone to her.

Well, seeing himself in a Di O video certainly did not leave Lu Ban completely unfazed.

It was quite interesting.

Simple repeating images paired with contrasting music turned out to be not scary at all.

Come to think of it, last night's task didn't specify that music couldn't be played.

If he had played "Good Fortune Comes" at the time, perhaps it would have been even safer?

Lu Ban felt he had learned something.

It could definitely be applied to the next time!

Apart from mastering a brand-new technique to counter strange incidents, Lu Ban gained something else.

He saw that the text in his film theory books had twisted into the appearance of task progress.

[Task Requirement: Publish a video online that gets enough views to complete the task]

[Publish a video: 1/1]

[Views obtained: 3318037/5000000]

["Starting from this moment, let the world feel the terror"]

During the time he was studying, his view count had skyrocketed.

And the cause of it... seemed to be this Di O video?