I'm Really a Superstar

Late at night.

At Zhang Ye's parents' place.

It was already the deep of night. In the district, almost everyone had turned in. Only the sounds of two cats mewling in the garden downstairs could be heard. The breeding season of cats was beginning again and it was becoming slightly noisier than before.

"Meow!"

"Ouh…"

Zhang Ye, still in bed under his blanket, was browsing Weibo with a depressed mood. Having just won the award and title of Most Unpopular Celebrity, he could only swear and grumble at his luck. He felt that those Weibo netizens were really too wicked. Even if this bro could not get the Most Popular Celebrity Award, surely he did not deserve the title of Most Unpopular Celebrity? Weren't you guys just teaming up against me!?

Heh, forget it.

As long as everyone enjoyed the process.

So be it. If it's the most unpopular award, at least he was still crowned champion, right? If there were any others who wanted the title, they would not be able to get it. It was still somewhat a reflection of being popular. Like those small-time celebrities who really attracted a lot of hate, like those who behaved like they were divas, like those who had terrible acting skills, like those whose singing would go out of tune—even if they wanted to win the title of Most Unpopular Celebrity, they were still not qualified enough to do so, not to mention winning it with a record of more than 20 million votes. This record had broken the previous one by more than 10 times. Zhang Ye fully deserved being the most "Most Unpopular Celebrity" of all time. With all the votes added up from the previous rankings for this award, it would still not be able to surpass his vote total!

Though it might be called the Most Unpopular Celebrity Award, in actuality, if it were truly an award of unpopularity, the people would not remember your name in the first place or even know who you were. So how could they vote for you? They wouldn't even be bothered by you. This award was pretty much similar to the Golden Raspberry Awards (Razzies) in his previous world. So the reason for Zhang Ye being selected for this award was not a true reflection of him being unpopular. It was done more so for entertainment's sake, to make the event more lively. Furthermore, even if it was a title of being the most unpopular, it would still give Zhang Ye some additional fame and reputation points. Compared to being average in the polls, he still gained some positives out of this. He could only make the best out of the situation and think positively this way.

Oh, right.

Speaking of reputation points, he suddenly remembered.

Zhang Ye looked at the game ring on his pinky and remembered that he had not checked it for some time now. If he recalled correctly, the last time he used the game ring was back at Summer Palace during the International Math Olympiad to search through his memory for the topic on Fermat's Theorem, also know as this world's Dale's Conjecture. After he bought a memory search capsule and used it to prove the mathematical conjecture, he had not checked his total reputation points again. The memory search capsules he had used to write Legend of Wukong were eaten earlier, before he went on to prove the mathematical conjecture. As the pace of events was too messy, he had forgotten all about it.

But this was his greatest asset.

Zhang Ye's focus immediately shifted from the Weibo polling awards back to the game ring's reputation points. He estimated that he would have gathered a large amount of reputation points this time. He was excited by the prospects of this since he hadn't played the lottery draw in a long time now. After having had his ban lifted and being able to start work again, he knew that he needed to gain some items to help him in his future endeavors. With a spot on the B-list Celebrity Rankings so close, Zhang Ye was full of energy and confidence!

Activating the game ring.

He brought up the virtual screen.

The display looked as the same as always, with the menu listings:

[Items]

[Merchant Shop]

[Lottery]

After them, [Reputation Points]: 224,570,003.

Since it was possible that people from all over the country were noticing Zhang Ye's new or old works, his reputation points were increasing constantly. For example, the recent Legend of Wukong, the Weibo Celebrity Rankings, or the essay "On Horses" and poem The Road Not Taken from the past few days, and so on.

+3!

+2!

+11!

+8!

+6!

It continually added the relevant amount of reputation points in real time.

During the times when he had no new works, this counter would increase less often with a lower rate.

Zhang Ye was not too shocked by the 200 million reputation points he had gained. By now, he had already been expecting it. However when he saw it, he still felt a sense of surprise. He knew that some of these reputation points came from the novel Legend of Wukong and some other written works, but they probably did not form the main bulk of it. The majority of the 200 million reputation points should be due to him causing a sensation when he proved Dale's Conjecture. Although math had never been something that most people paid attention to, or rather, it was something that people did not bother about. But with Zhang Ye proving one of the top ten most difficult math problems that had eluded even the world's brightest mathematicians, even those who didn't know what a mathematical conjecture was or had never heard of Dale's Conjecture would understand just how unbelievable this achievement was. With that kind of admiration, shock, and praise, all of that had naturally propped up Zhang Ye's popularity. It, in turn, became reputation points for him through the game system.

200 millions worth of reputation points!

This was the largest amount of points that Zhang Ye had gained ever since he had the game ring. Compared to what he had earned in the past, this was on a whole different level!

It was too much!

So much that he did not know how he should spend it!

Zhang Ye was smiling very happily. Just as he was about to bring up the next screen, and his fingers touched the virtual screen, the command did not go through but up came a notification message.

[System update detected.]

A system update?

The system could even be updated?

Zhang Ye was a little stunned and could not react.

The message automatically closed before a detailed description appeared.

[Update instructions]: Upgrade conditions have been met. The upgraded system will require 200 million reputation points. After the upgrade has been completed, there will be improved lottery functions and special category item rewards.

[Confirm] / [Cancel]

Finally it gave two options to choose from.

Zhang Ye could not process all of this right now. An update of the system? Because he had gained 200 million in reputation points, he had reached a milestone that had unlocked the upgrade notification? Was it because he had not brought up the game ring's virtual screen before this, therefore only receiving the notification now? And this upgrade came at a price of 200 million reputation points? Damn it, this bro had gone through so much before amassing such a large number of reputation points. And now, almost all of it would be required if he wanted to upgrade the system? What a scam! Do you even know how much can be done with 200 million reputation points? How many lottery draws that can be bought with that? With this upgrade, he would be back at the state before his liberation again after just one night? What kind of improved lottery functions after the upgrade are we talking about? Doesn't he have the lottery draw function already? Oh right, he suddenly remembered that in the past the lottery draw usually gave him a treasure chest that was usually labeled as "(Small)". That would mean that there were still treasure chests other than that? What about the special category reward? What kind of reward was it?

There wasn't enough information to enable his decision!

There was totally no way to judge or decide what he would do next!

Zhang Ye felt hesitant. He clenched his teeth, and then, finally clicked on [Cancel]. He really could not bear with the amount of reputation points required. After he canceled the update, the message minimized to the bottom right corner of the virtual game screen and turned into an exclamation icon. Zhang Ye tried to click on it and the message reappeared. Then he clicked on [Cancel] and it minimized back to its place again.

He needed some time to consider it.

He wanted to give it some thought first. So he decided that he would go ahead for 2 turns at the lottery draw before he made any decision. With so many reputation points, he wanted to spend some of it first, like a tycoon would.

He began his lottery draw.

His mind kept sweeping through the thought of his reputation points as he clicked on the lottery draw screen. He bought a chance for the spin at 100,000 reputation points, then clicked on the additional stakes and added 19 to it, spending a total of 2 million reputation points.

The wheel started spinning!

The needle quickly passed through the different areas of rewards!

After about ten seconds, it slowed down, nearly to a stop!

Consumption Category…

Stats Category…

Finally, it went back to the Consumption Category and stopped there!

Zhang Ye was just trying his luck in the first round and did not care too much about what items he got. He just wanted something good. He was looking forward to it quite a lot as he brought up his inventory to retrieve the 20 Treasure Chests (Small) and open them. With a flash of brightness, the treasure chests opened to reveal a green liquid, containing a test tube and a seal with a wooden cork. The inside glowed with a mysterious aura.

[Strength Potion (Small)] x 20: Effective immediately after consumption. Increases physical strength.

Since strength was something that could recover or lost, this potion did not have any time constraints but was instead considered a one-time usage consumption item.

20 bottles?

It felt like just a so-so item.

Zhang Ye lightly shook his head, not fully satisfied with what he received. But he wasn't too disappointed either. After thinking about it a little, he decided to go for another draw, but this time with a little twist. Naturally, he opened up the merchant shop to use his trump card.

[Lucky Halo].

Activate!

A dazzling white ring of light appeared over his head suddenly, emitting a mysterious and radiant glow.

Reputation points -10,000!

Reputation points -10,000!

Every second used up 10,000 reputation points. It was a very extravagant item!

It was good that Zhang Ye was "rich" at the moment. As such he wasn't too bothered by it. He immediately went back to the lottery draw screen and bought a chance at the draw, similarly adding 19 additional stakes like the first time!

The lottery draw began!

The needle spun!

1 revolution…5 revolutions…10 revolutions…

Because of the Lucky Halo's effect, Zhang Ye had some expectations for this round of the lottery draw. He was hoping to get something from the Special Category, something that he could purchase from the Merchant Shop. No matter how good an item was, it was much harder to get again after the first time. If it was limited by that, then of course it couldn't compare to those that he could easily get from the Merchant Shop. Those were the items that he would never mind having an unlimited supply of!

Special Category!

Special Category!

He kept wishing for it, hoping that the Lucky Halo would make his wish come true!

The needle was almost coming to a stop as it got closer and closer to the smallest area of the Special Category!

But when it had just moved into the Special Category area, the needle seemingly gained that last bit of strength! It moved a little more and ended up in the Stats Category area!

20 Treasure Chests (Small) appeared.

[Fruit of Agility] x 20: Takes effect after consumption, increase agility of user.

Zhang Ye immediately switched off the usage of the Lucky Halo and sighed. This time, it didn't seem like the Lucky Halo helped him much. At the key moment, it couldn't fulfill it's purpose. Thinking about it, and according to his past experiences, the Lucky Bread should be a similar item to the Lucky Halo, except that it was a consumable item while the latter could be used as long as Zhang Ye had reputation points. There was a fluctuation in the effectiveness of the luck of both items as there was a limit to how much good luck it could give to its user. For example, when he used it alongside the Difficulty Adjustment Die, if the Lucky Halo had given him maximum luck, he would probably have rolled a ten times reduced difficulty effect rather than just five times reduced difficulty. So from this round of lottery draw, the limits of the Lucky Halo could be seen and it couldn't possibly always be so effective and fulfill its promise with every use.

And so, the unsatisfactory outcome of the lottery draws this time might be down to this factor. There were only those few factors which could affect it. From the looks of the system update message, it seemed like there was also an upgraded version of the lottery draw system. Did this mean that he had no choice but to spend 200 million to receive the delivery of the system update?

To receive the update or not?

Should he do it or not?

Zhang Ye was now faced with a conundrum that all women faced when they discovered that they were pregnant!

Translator's Notes: Thank you for your support so far! Please continue to support IRAS by submitting a vote at Gravity Tales Vote Page. The top 3 novels at the end of the month will get a free sponsored chapter!