Super Zoo-Chapter 402 - 398 Strange Guest

The live streaming room was in a small office within the zoo. With the help of TV professionals, the office had been transformed into something resembling a television interview studio. Except for its small size, it was fully equipped and looked very professional.

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Before the live stream began, Shen Yan’s small team had already started real-time monitoring of the data, presenting the network’s traffic in the most intuitive graphical form, displayed clearly on a computer opposite Suming’s seat, for all to see at a glance.

The bar chart representing the number of people in each room fluctuated.

The bar for the ’Me and It" column had been growing since ten minutes before the show started. Even before the broadcast began, it surged from the last position, quickly stabilizing in the top ten, and the numbers kept rising.

In the live streaming room, Suming sat to the left of the camera, with the "special guest" sitting opposite him.

Surprisingly, this invited guest was neither a celebrity nor a particularly good-looking man or woman. Instead, they appeared quite ordinary, dressed in plain sportswear, with at least sixty years’ worth of wrinkles etched on their face—indistinguishable from the elderly who took morning walks in the park.

Not only was the "human guest" unexpectedly ordinary, but the "animal guest" was even more so.

It was neither a rare national treasure nor a cute and silly pet but the most common Chinese rural dog, colloquially known as a "mutt."

A dirty yellow mutt lay quietly in the old guest’s lap.

As it was the premiere episode, Suming was guest-hosting for the day. He couldn’t host every episode in the future, so in addition to him and the guest, several off-duty hosts were also in the streaming room, out of the camera’s view, observing and learning.

These hosts would take turns presenting in the future.

The room was only around ten square meters, very cramped. Suming and the elderly guest took up most of the space. After accounting for the camera’s necessary room, there wasn’t much space left. A few hosts stood as if they were in detention, lined up against the wall behind the camera, each holding a notebook, jotting down notes.

The conditions were tough, but the hosts didn’t mind. As long as they could gain skills and broaden their horizons, it was fine. The ’Me and It’ segment was shrouded in secrecy and attracted many eyes before even airing. Being selected by Suming to observe and learn on-site was a rare opportunity that was definitely beneficial to the hosts’ careers, so initially, each one was eager to start.

However, upon learning the actual content of the ’Me and It’ segment and seeing the current guests, the hosts collectively felt a tinge of disappointment and worry for the segment’s success.

Other live streams clamored to feature the rarest animals to attract viewers. But now, with an ordinary old man and a mutt that could be found on any street corner, would the audience be interested?

The zoo’s strength lay in having animals that ordinary people couldn’t or weren’t allowed to keep. Whether for viewers or visitors, the appeal was in seeing animals they wouldn’t usually encounter.

If they merely wanted to see a mutt, why would they bother watching online, let alone spend money on gifts?

Besides, this particular mutt’s appearance was less than impressive—old, dull, barely moving as if on the brink of death. It was the sort that would be completely unnoticeable in a pack of dogs; countless stray mutts roamed around in mid-to-low-end residential areas.

Some hosts had even concluded in their minds that Mr. Su had made a mistake this time and was probably going to crash and burn.

They were employees of the live streaming platform, naturally hoping for its success as it would lead to their own advancement. However, with the broadcast imminent, it was too late to warn Suming.

While the data in the room looked promising, having surged into the top ten even before going live, that was due to curiosity. What would be the audience’s reaction once they discovered the true nature of ’Me and It’? A screen full of insults or a silent exodus from the room... Ah, just leave it to fate.

There were also a few hosts who felt a schadenfreude satisfaction. Thinking to themselves, Mr. Wang and Mr. Su were so confident, criticizing our hosting style for not fitting the zoo’s market. Well, now it was their turn.

The market is the only standard to test truth, and when this ’Me and It’ show flops and audiences are up in arms, let’s see if you’ll still have the face to criticize us then?

The anchors were filled with complex thoughts, each preoccupied with their own concerns. As the key player, Suming showed no signs of wanting to ’smash the pot’. He looked at his watch calmly—only twenty seconds remained until the broadcast began.

"Mr. He, are you ready?" Suming asked the old man across from him.

"Hmm... yes, I’m ready," the one called Mr. He coughed dryly. He was clearly still quite nervous.

Contrarily, the yellow mutt in his arms seemed to pick up on its owner’s mood. It stuck out its rough tongue and gently licked Mr. He’s hand a few times, as if to comfort him.

"Okay, get ready to start, countdown, 3, 2, 1! We’re live!"

The camera lit up, and the scene inside the room was broadcast across the internet to tens of thousands of viewers simultaneously.

"We’re doomed!" exclaimed the most pessimistic anchor, covering his face.

The image had only been up for two or three seconds, Suming had yet to speak, when a flood of comments appeared in the live stream.

"Eh? Isn’t that the director?"

"So the director himself is hosting... Sending the director 99 pee shrimps, don’t wet your bed after eating them..."

"The director turned out to be an old man! My heart is shattered, leave me alone to recover!"

"Already fainting in the bathroom, where’s the promised handsome young man?" This was from someone who had never seen the director’s true face.

Immediately, someone corrected them, "Idiot, the one on the right is the director!"

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"Time is indeed a butcher knife; director, you’re about to become damaged goods... just like these hip-hop monkeys," a parade of hip-hop monkey gifts hopped and bounced across the screen.

Without the official start of the live broadcast, comments in the live-streaming room were rolling in fast, and gifts were flying all over the screen. According to the data analysis chart, the number of people in the room was still rising steadily. The spike in gifts at that moment was even nearing the peak from when Mr. Han Yue had hosted.

It was a good start.

However, the hosts present knew very well that the audience’s temporary enthusiasm was not due to the quality of the program but rather the fan effect. It was just face-saving support for the director, who was revealing his face and hosting for the first time.

As expected, after the initial few minutes of excitement, the number of gifts started to dwindle, and the audience’s attention finally shifted to Mr. He and his mutt.

"Director? Who is this old gentleman?"

"Weren’t we promised a star?"

"Could he be some venerable artist of virtue and artistry that we’re too young to have seen in his performances?"