Chapter 42
Chapter 42
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: I Became the Gallery Master, Not an Influencer
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Once Maxy uploaded the picture she took with me to her Instagram, a massive influx of people started pouring into my account.
The number of likes on my photos, which was already high, soared, and my exposure instantly doubled.
[_Princess_Eve]
Hello ⸜(◍'꒳'◍)⸝
Likes: 27.4k Comments: 4,354 Shares: 7,685
30 minutes ago.
“27,000 likes in thirty minutes...!”
It was a number I could never hope to reach, no matter how many free burgers I gave out to those pathetic Awakening Bros. So this was the true power of an Instagram influencer...
Moreover, the comment section was flooded with overwhelmingly positive comments calling me cute and pretty. While managing the account, Ophelia diligently replied to comments asking about the brand of my clothes, subtly hinting that I was receiving sponsorships by adding, ‘I can’t tell you since this isn’t an ad-’.
Is this... the subtle art of adult conversation? My follower count shot past 50,000 in an instant, causing the rank of ‘Issue Command’ to rise to B+. Then, something even bigger happened.
[JP_Tennoji_UTH]
新羅ホテルに行ったらプレゼントもらった
A little gift from my new korean friend
Likes: 1.1k Comments: 125 Shares: 277
1 minute ago
“Wow, this woman gets eleven hundred likes the moment she posts something...”
And the photo attached to the post was the piece of paper I had given her, the one with ‘My-Life-Isnt-Ruined’ written on it. I gave her *that* as a gift...? Thinking back on it now, have I completely lost my mind?
Seeing the firepower of Utaha's Instagram account made it all feel real. It was a relief she didn't tag my account, but she explicitly mentioned a "Korean friend," and the gift I gave her was a piece of paper with ‘My-Life-Isnt-Ruined’ scrawled on it.
This was bound to stir up a huge controversy. My wiki page's controversy section was about to get a whole lot longer. I should have just prepared a proper gift...
“This will be okay, right...?”
“...Even I find it difficult to predict the outcome.”
“Hmm...”
Thanks to all this, however, the Active Hunter Gallery absolutely exploded. The guys who had been fiercely debating whether it was fake or real just a few days ago were now facing a massive backlash.
It’s only natural for the number of anonymous posters to surge when registered users from a powerful, disliked clique make a mistake.
Among those who had insulted me, the registered users who had earned the ire of other cliques were now getting relentlessly pummeled by a mysterious flood of anonymous posters (who were, in fact, logged-out registered users).
Hating on the Awakening Gallery wasn't a huge deal on the Active Hunter Gallery, but those guys had a history of manipulating the featured posts using their tight-knit clique. It seemed everyone had been waiting for a chance to take them down.
And the most amusing part? I, the one who provided the pretext for their downfall, was being hailed as a hero.
This was a perfect demonstration of just how much influence Tennoji Utaha had online. Naturally, the Awakening Gallery was also buzzing...
lol
Two years ago, when Tennoji Utaha rose to fame as Japan's new S-rank Hunter, her impact was so great that she even threatened to take over the position of the Awakening Gallery's master.
And now, that very person posted a photo of the paper with my gallery nickname on it, saying she received it as a gift.
“This feels so surreal...”
And most importantly, the other Awakening Bros who had flocked to the ‘Princess Eve’ account through Maxy's Instagram started connecting the dots to the photo Utaha had posted.
Weren't Maxy and Utaha together for the Manchurian expedition this time?
So she was really a white-haired, blue-eyed little girl?
What the heck, why do you still have this? Delete it --;;
In an instant, one of the Active Hunter Gallery's powerful cliques was taken out by the onslaught from a legion of anonymous posters, and the Awakening Gallery's age-old ‘Dagger vs. Bat’ debate was buried without a fight. The topic was just that sensational.
Yeah, a white-haired, blue-eyed, A-rank Hunter little girl (who's a gallery regular) is a much better fit for Gallery Master than some 80-year-old grandpa.
Whoa;
The Awakening Gallery, overheated by the revelation of my identity, had reached the point of replacing its old master.
It even got to the point where simply posting a picture of me eating bread was enough to get featured, giving the moderators a hard time deleting them.
[31(27) Featured★] [↓Downvotes 6]
“Hey, why are other people getting featured with my picture...?!”
Honestly, I expected some fallout, but I never imagined the reaction would be this huge. Who would have thought I’d suddenly become the Gallery Master without doing anything?
Still, having my picture constantly posted on the featured page felt a bit... weird. I needed to build a reputation, sure, but this wasn’t what I had in mind. I wanted something more subtle, something only those in the know would recognize...
“Ugh...! Ophelia! You have a spare photo that I haven't posted on Instagram, right!?”
“Yes, I do.”
“I need to use one!”
[217(77) Featured★] [↓Downvotes 7]
Maybe this will calm the storm a little? If my face keeps popping up all over the Awakening Gallery, it'll be hard for me to browse, too....
Our mischievous Awakening Bros use the faces of S-rank Hunters whenever they want, though?
“Ah.”
Fortunately, the posts that were farming likes with my face were swiftly deleted by the moderators, and excessive use was prohibited. An outright ban was pretty much impossible, though.
Just as the anonymous poster said, the Awakening Gallery was a place where they freely photoshopped and posted the faces of hundreds of S-rank Hunters from around the world.
They even frequently posted pictures of local A and B-rank Hunters they disliked. So, how did they manage to stop them from using the face of a new A-ranker like me?
Surprisingly, I was a minor. If they messed with me, the whole gallery could go *poof*! and disappear, so everyone was treading carefully. There was already one guy on the temp-ban list for posting some lewd comments about ‘Eve-chan’.
On top of that, they were short-staffed. One of the moderators, who had been absent all day, apparently got overwhelmed by the Awakening Bros and quit. Another moderator gone today.
“Mwahaha.”
“Are you enjoying yourself, Princess?”
“Huh? Ah... Ehehe, it’s more fun than I thought....”
Honestly, even without my Princess ability, becoming a big name on the gallery is something everyone has fantasized about at least once, right? Or maybe not....
“There is something you need to review, Princess.”
“Hmm? What is it?”
“Messages have arrived on your Instagram DMs, including offers for sponsorships, advertisements, collaborations, and scouting from various companies.”
“Whoa... are those already coming in?”
Come to think of it, Chae-ah, with her 24,000 followers, used to get cosmetics sponsorships and post pictures. Now that I’ve already surpassed 50,000 followers, I guess it’s not that strange.
“So, where are they from?”
“There are four messages I would recommend for positive consideration, including one from a famous children's clothing brand.”
“Four? What about the total...?”
“In total, 81 messages have arrived. These include sponsorships that are unnecessary for you, companies that could damage your image, places with controversies or issues, accounts with no search results that appear to be shell companies, and small to medium-sized enterprises.”
“Gasp.”
Then maybe...
“Is there one from Roblox?”
“There is not.”
“Aww.”
I guess I’m not quite at that level yet.