This intuition proved accurate. The next morning, before dawn, Nan Yue instinctively sat up in bed and prepared for his morning practice when he heard 005’s greeting and reminder.
[Good morning, host!] [Clink! Congratulations on completing the side quest – Today’s trending topic (Jan 1)!] The hotel room was quiet and dim, with the curtains tightly drawn.
Another bed remained empty—when I returned from South Vietnam last night at 11 PM, I found that the girl in my room had already left.
She felt nothing special; the opponent was nearly as strong as her own, though slightly inferior in physical appearance.
If she hadn’t made it through, both of them would probably have been eliminated together.
Nan Yue closed her eyes briefly, then opened them again. After performing a few simple stretching exercises, she settled into a yoga pose.
While entering a meditative state to absorb the subtle spiritual energy of the world, he simultaneously asked 005.
What’s trending? Seeing she wasn’t going to check her phone, I simply pulled up the Weibo hot searches and clicked on the featured posts in the topic to show her the comments below.
The trending topic is straightforward—no beating around the bush: #NanyueExcellence.
The popular Weibo post was published by the official account of the “Idol New Era” production team, featuring a high-definition clip from Nan Yue’s performance last night.
Now, all videos on Weibo play automatically, accompanied by familiar song intros—just like that, the melody echoed in Nanyue’s mind.
The moment Nan Yue heard the voice of “himself,” his eyelashes twitched slightly before quickly returning to calmness, and he began reading the popular comments below.
—is this Nanyue? The voice seems to have changed.
-Am I the only one who doesn’t know about this so-called “Nanyue”? Does it mean there’s a mine at home? Both topics trended together! – The group performance was off-key, forgot their lines, and had incorrect movements; yet in solo performances they delivered extraordinary performances—what a pure, innocent little lotus! – I truly feel sorry for Qi Xi.
After listening to the original version, I’m back again.
“That girl’s absolutely stunning in appearance, and her singing is incredible too—why are so many people criticizing her?” “Has Nanyue found a financial backer?” The trending topic is being manipulated by both paid commentators and fake users, demonstrating their masterful skills at whitewashing her image.
On stage, Nam Viet completely captivated the entire audience, earning top scores from all four judges.
The latest popular comment is buried at the bottom with few likes, but the subforum is quite lively and filled with heated discussions.
When I tried to continue reading section 005, Nanyue immediately stopped me and then opened the system store to check my remaining spirit stones.
Yesterday I completed one main quest and one side quest, collecting 110 Spirit Stones. Today I finished another side quest, which should have yielded around 120 stones, but the system shows 160 instead.
What’s the deal with Spirit Stones? [The host trended on two hot search topics today; based on their popularity, side-task rewards have been increased to 50 Spirit Stones!] [… And another one?] Character 005 acted swiftly—automatically closing the store interface and switching to another Weibo trending topic: #SheDeservesIt#.
At the sight of these three characters, Nanyue immediately understood their meaning, and a subtle mix of emotions welled up within her.
This trending topic immediately took the top spot, outperforming all others by a wide margin—and even eclipsed the popularity of the well-known name “Nanyue”.
So, all of her 50 spirit stones were made possible thanks to Sheng Jingheng.
The topic page maintains a perfectly harmonious and organized layout, featuring a continuous stream of Sheng Jingheng’s fans actively moderating comments—no malicious remarks or fake users. Even those who are genuinely unaware of the situation quickly get overshadowed by the overwhelming crowd of supporters.
Although these three characters are said to be related to her, none of the fans mentioned her full name—only the program team’s name was cited at most.
No wonder 005 didn’t show her this trending topic first—it was hardly worth watching. At best, it made her realize one thing: although Sheng Jingheng enjoys immense popularity, not everyone can benefit from it.