4: It's noon! I haven't even made a move yet, and you've already broken through my defenses?

There was one day left until the livestream.

On the invisible interface in Jiang Ming's mind, the emotion points finally stopped at 7,800.

Over ninety-nine percent of it came from negative emotions.

An interesting phenomenon had emerged: the more "rational and objective" Li Hao's analysis appeared, and the more "self-righteous" his fans' comments became, the higher the emotion points they provided.

The anger and disdain erupted by these self-proclaimed guardians of science while defending the boundaries of their knowledge were the most efficient energy sources.

Far from feeling annoyed, Jiang Ming was actually enjoying it.

This "Scientific Iron Fist" was truly a good man.

He was practically the power bank of the year, the kind that brought his own rations and volunteered for overtime.

Jiang Ming opened TikTok and even entered Li Hao's livestream room with great interest.

At this moment, Li Hao was passionately educating his audience on avian habits, laying the final groundwork for tomorrow's "fraud-busting" session.

Jiang Ming didn't hesitate, clicking the gift button and sending out all the few free "Little Hearts" he had on his account.

The gesture was small, but the insult was immense.

This action was instantly caught by the fans in Li Hao's livestream.

"Holy crap! That scammer is here!"

"He actually dares to show up in Iron Fist Bro's livestream?"

"What's with the gifts? A provocation! This is a blatant provocation!"

Soon, a screenshot began to go viral online.

The image showed Li Hao's righteous face during his science popularization, while at the bottom of the screen, the system notification for the ID "Jiang Lai" sending Little Hearts looked exceptionally piercing.

A new round of mockery arrived as expected.

"LMAO, is he coming to pay his respects because he knows he's finished?"

"I think he's just giving up. Since he's going to face social death anyway, he might as well make a bigger scene."

"With that psychological resilience, it's a pity he's not in sales."

Watching his backend negative emotion points surge by several hundred points again, Jiang Ming satisfiedly closed all social media apps.

The outside world's turmoil had nothing to do with him.

The bait was fragrant enough, and the school of fish had gathered; next, he just needed to wait quietly for the moment to pull in the net.

Jiang Ming walked to the window.

The city was shrouded in night, and the outlines of distant skyscrapers were blurred.

His will began to focus, his spirit concentrating like never before.

At the edge of his vision, he firmly locked onto a raven perched on an antenna atop the opposite building.

It was a wondrous sense of connection, as if an invisible thread extended from the depths of his brain and precisely latched onto that tiny life.

[Land].

A simple, clear command formed in Jiang Ming's mind.

The next second, the raven that had been standing still flapped its wings and took flight.

It didn't fly far, only circling once in the air before landing precisely and obediently on a bare utility pole nearby.

The entire process was smooth and natural, without any hint of awkwardness.

Though it was the simplest command and there was only one target.

This was enough to prove that the Raven Summoning Technique was real and completely controllable.

This gave Jiang Ming absolute confidence.

He checked the equipment he would use tomorrow.

Phone battery at 100%.

The newly purchased high-capacity power bank was also fully charged.

Network signal at full bars.

Finally, Jiang Ming pulled his cleanest white T-shirt and a pair of casual pants from the wardrobe.

These were the most photogenic clothes he could find.

Everything was ready.

The next day, 11:00 AM.

Jiang Ming arrived at Jiangcheng Central Plaza an hour early.

People came and went across the plaza on this workday, fountains danced to music, and bright, glamorous advertisements played on the surrounding large screens.

He expertly navigated to the edge of the plaza and found the spot behind a flower bed he had scouted beforehand.

This place was relatively quiet, yet it could perfectly capture both the central fountain and the vast sky in the frame.

Jiang Ming unhurriedly set up his phone stand, repeatedly adjusting the angle to ensure he appeared clearly in the bottom right corner, while the main view was a wide shot of the sky and the plaza.

11:30 AM.

Jiang Ming took a deep breath, opened TikTok, and started the livestream.

The livestream title used the same phrase from the teaser video.

"To Witness is to Participate."

As soon as the livestream started, the number of viewers began to jump wildly from single digits.

Dozens.

Five hundred.

One thousand.

Under the organized "group spectating" of countless busybodies and Li Hao's fan club, the popularity of the livestream room was quickly ignited.

The bullet chat was instantly covered with dense text.

"He's here, he's here! The clown has started broadcasting!"

"Selling seeds, peanuts, and mineral water in the front row! Come witness the drama of the year!"

"Where's the streamer? Why is it just an empty shot?"

"I've got my screen recording ready; this will be evidence in court later."

"@Jiangcheng Cyber Police, someone is promoting feudal superstition here, suggest handling it."

Jiang Ming didn't appear in the frame immediately, simply letting the phone point quietly at the sky.

A few seconds later, he slowly walked into the frame and sat on the edge of the flower bed.

Jiang Ming didn't speak or look at the camera; he just sat there quietly, took a bottle of mineral water from his backpack, unscrewed it, and took a sip.

He looked perfectly composed.

To all the viewers, this calmness of his was just a final desperate front.

"Still acting. Let's see how long you can keep it up."

"Feigning composure, huh? I'll see how you wrap this up once twelve o'clock hits."

"This psychological resilience is truly something. Remaining unfazed while Mount Tai collapses before him—is the competition among scammers this fierce now?"

11:50 AM.

Ten minutes remained until the predicted high noon.

Driven by various traffic redirects and the spread of news among busybodies, the number of concurrent viewers in the livestream had stabilized at around three thousand.

For a new streamer with zero followers, this was a terrifying number.

Meanwhile, at the TikTok Content Audit Center.

At Zhao Lin's workstation, the system warning light flashed yellow.

On the main monitoring screen before her, one livestream frame was automatically enlarged and pinned to the top by the system.

It was precisely Jiang Ming's livestream.

The backend data showed: abnormal popularity, viewer count severely inconsistent with streamer level, associated with big influencers like "Scientific Iron Fist," and a very high risk of public opinion explosion.

Zhao Lin set down her coffee and tapped on the keyboard, raising the monitoring level of this livestream to the highest.

She wanted to see what kind of trick this young man was up to.

On screen, Jiang Ming still sat quietly, as if he were in deep meditation.

Just then, the livestream screen suddenly split in two.

A system prompt popped up.

"Streamer 'Scientific Iron Fist' has requested a PK connection with you."