Amid overwhelming anticipation, Episode 12 of 'Fate/zero' finally aired one week later.
At midnight, Kamiyā Sora was sleeping soundly in bed according to her usual sleep schedule. Kamiyā Yuu sat alone beside the bed with his work laptop resting on his thighs. To avoid disturbing Kamiyā Sora's sleep, he plugged in a pair of earphones.
—China's ACG community still isn't mature enough. For now, BIUBIUBIU can barely be considered the leader of the pack. It'll need another few years and sufficient funding before it'll be in a position to cultivate China's own domestic ACG culture. There's no mighty Tencent backing things in this world, nor are there any internet giants interested in developing ACG culture. What a shame.
Kamiyā Yuu pondered silently.
In his previous world, the early development of China's domestic ACG culture had been mired in darkness. During its early stages, it had essentially been the famous internet giant Penguin that heavily supported the novel, manga, and animation industries.
The Penguin Empire could hardly be called conscientious. Compared with countries like District 11, where intellectual property protections were well established, it qualified as an unscrupulous corporation. Yet compared with China's terrible creative environment at the time, it was practically an angel in white.
The infamous Summer Island Incident, for example, was a classic example.
Click, click!
Kamiyā Yuu clicked his mouse and easily entered the official website of the BIUBIUBIU danmaku video platform.
By now, the BIUBIUBIU he had founded was developing quite nicely. Its overall interface was simple and comfortable, with video content taking center stage. Clicking on practically any video would reveal a considerable number of danmaku comments.
It was already close to midnight, yet BIUBIUBIU's homepage showed more than five hundred thousand users online.
Kamiyā Yuu typed 'Fate/zero' into the search bar and entered the anime's dedicated page.
['Fate/Zero' Season 1]
[Total Views: 14.549 million]
[Followers: 547,000]
[Total Danmaku: 1.151 million]
[11,251 users support this anime]
[Voice Cast: Amamiya Kae, Tōgi Yūko, Kamiyā Yuu, Ōyama Yōko, Nakajima Shin...]
[Synopsis: The Holy Grail is a legendary treasure capable of granting any wish its possessor desires, and the ritual conducted to obtain the Holy Grail is known as the Holy Grail War. Seven magi chosen by the Holy Grail become Masters, forming contracts with seven Heroic Spirits summoned through the Holy Grail as Servants. Famous heroes from the legends and history of antiquity appear in the modern era and engage in a breathtaking battle over the Holy Grail, a treasure capable of creating miracles...]
...
There was roughly a one-hour time difference between District 11 and China.
TV Tokyo had already aired Episode 12 of 'Fate/zero' at around eleven o'clock, but that did not mean China could watch it at ten.
Generally, after an anime finished airing in District 11, there was still a wait of around an hour before it became available for online streaming in China. This was largely done to prevent the anime from being illegally distributed online and mitigate the impact of piracy.
There were plenty of Chinese internet users who circumvented the Great Firewall to log onto Fakebook. At the same time, there were also plenty of users from District 11 and the United States who came onto Chinese websites hoping to watch videos for free.
China's Great Firewall was essentially a one-way restriction.
Chinese users needed to circumvent it to access the wider global internet, while foreign internet users, aside from a small number of exceptions, could freely access Chinese websites.
Never mind his previous world. Even the BIUBIUBIU Kamiyā Yuu had created in this world already had a large number of users from District 11.
He had even seen someone on Twitter upload a guide explaining how to register for BIUBIUBIU membership. The fifty-question nightmare exam he had modeled after the one from his previous world had left those users in absolute agony.
BIUBIUBIU had not been the first website in the world to introduce danmaku. Quite a few video websites in District 11 already had the feature.
However, BIUBIUBIU unquestionably offered the best video-viewing experience of them all. Furthermore, because of how widely Chinese characters were used in District 11 in this world, ordinary District 11 internet users could understand the meaning of simple Chinese characters.
In a sense, this arrangement really did amount to simultaneous broadcasting.
District 11 aired the episode at eleven, and China also aired it at eleven.
['Fate/Zero' Season 1: Episode 12 — [Ionioi Hetairoi]]
[Views: 1.492 million — Danmaku: 122,000 — Comments: 19,826]
Kamiyā Yuu entered the playback page for Episode 12 of 'Fate/zero'.
There was no playback option yet, although the popularity figures displayed on the page were continuously rising.
In the upper-right corner of the webpage was a chibi BIUBIUBIU-tan that Kamiyā Yuu had designed, holding a clock high above her head.
The countdown displayed:
[3:23]
"Three minutes. It's almost time."
Kamiyā Yuu opened the comments section. Even though the episode had yet to begin playing, there were already more than ten thousand comments.
Inheriting the glorious traditions of his previous world, the viewers were once again engaged in an extremely heated "discussion."
[Front-row seat. — kbk50580]
Just someone passing through.
[Finally, one Heroic Spirit has gone down! Who'll be the next one? My guess is Lancer Zhao Yun. Dying on the battlefield would at least fulfill his wish for participating in the Holy Grail War. — Living Only for Danmaku]
That was almost the correct answer.
Caster would die first, and only then would it be Lancer's turn to leave the stage.
[Bullshit! Zhao Yun is voiced by the author himself! Besides, judging by the Ultimate Move Law, whoever uses their ultimate first basically always loses. If the King of Conquerors Iskandar dies here, then this'll be a masterpiece. — Mr. Li]
Kamiyā Yuu was speechless.
The first part actually made some sense. The second part was complete nonsense.
The phrase "if such-and-such happens, then it'll be a masterpiece" had suddenly become popular after 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' aired. The dramatic reversals in its plot development seemed to have validated the saying.
However, that phrase was not suitable for every work.
If the King of Conquerors Iskandar really died here, then 'Fate/zero' would degenerate into an incoherent mess with a plot completely out of control.
[Saber is the best! — Dapper Moe Beast]
[There's something wrong with the subtitles. In a lot of places, they're barely any better than machine translation. — Sealed Sword]
Kamiyā Yuu made a note of that comment.
—I'll need to tell Lin Ye to fix this. At the very least, we should establish a proper official subtitle group.
[Poor Assassin. The first time he appeared, he got crushed to show how awesome the King of Heroes was. The second time, he got crushed hundreds of times to show how awesome the King of Conquerors Iskandar was. So here's the question: which one is more awesome, the King of Conquerors or the King of Heroes? — Outdated Magical Girl Nanoha-chan]
The answer was already upstairs.
Whoever used their ultimate first lost.
[I've been waiting an entire week! I want to see the budget explode! I want to see [Ionioi Hetairoi]! — Fluffy Furball]
[Assassin has already been reduced to a unit for measuring combat power. How pitiful.]
[I've finished gnawing through the raw Japanese novel, and I can't resist spoiling it anymore! SPOILERS!!! Fine, actually, I don't know Japanese. — Drunken Slumber Beneath the Fusang Tree]
[Doesn't matter whether you know Japanese or not. Beat him to death first! Whoever spoils anything gets my final report of the month. If anyone else posts spoilers after that, I'll buy a membership and keep reporting them! (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻ — Completely Ordinary Passerby]
Rich enough to do whatever he pleased.
Kamiyā Yuu had been the one to implement the membership system. There was a reason this much-criticized system existed throughout China's various online industries.
A membership system was a double-edged sword.
Used poorly, it injured the wielder. Used well, it was even more useful than a single-edged blade.
[I don't care! I don't care! I don't care! I don't care! I WANT ZHAO YUN TO WIN! — Raincloak Mist]