Leisurely Traveler with Check-in System

Chapter 344 - 154: Make Him Regret Eating Off the Internet! [Second Update!]

Xu Yusheng makes a living by exposing fake incidents, so naturally, he has long made enemies on the internet.

Every morning, he performs an intensive self-search online, looking for videos that respond to him, aiming to create the next trending topic. He’s also assessing whether the online sentiment is favorable to him.

He’s encountered numerous reaction videos from those he’s exposed before.

But it’s undeniable that exposers have a natural advantage in the public sphere.

Self-certification is a very challenging task.

The cost of creating fake content is low, the conditions for self-certification are difficult, plus once internet users form preconceived notions, they are reluctant to admit their mistakes, which would make them appear foolish. Even if they later realize you’re right, they’ll still claim you’re wrong.

In a sense, the internet is biased toward the accuser.

This is not due to the platform’s mechanism, but a chain reaction caused by the folly of human nature.

This is the main reason why a creator who debunks falsehoods can make a living—riding the wave of collective foolishness.

However, there has never been a reversal in public opinion as intense and as large-scale as this one.

When he searched, he saw many voices from the climbing community, some even quite vehement.

But after a brief moment of shock, he gradually calmed down. Although this situation is rather critical, it’s actually no different from previous resistance efforts.

It makes sense when you think about it; this time, he’s facing a major influencer with over 3 million followers, compared to the small fry he dealt with before, some countermeasures and reactions are normal.

Realizing this, he started calmly identifying the flaws in these videos, and also organized how the opposition’s counterattacks were composed.

Very soon, he found the account that initially sparked this incident—a small influencer named Ding Rui.

His words were the most intense, claiming Li Younan is his savior, while most other videos were simply supporting this small influencer Ding Rui.

He carefully watched the video from Ding Rui, and indeed, the insults were somewhat vulgar.

But after watching it, he felt somewhat reassured.

While watching, he took notes.

He then continued to organize the content from other videos, a process that took over two hours.

Soon, his notebook was filled with dense content.

He put down the notebook, a slight smile appearing on his lips.

This Li Younan’s counterattack was somewhat unexpected.

He didn’t speak out on his own but instead rallied a group of seemingly credible climbers, even inciting many in the circle to help speak up.

However, the videos posted by this small influencer contain significant holes.

The most obvious point is that all his stories are narrated by himself.

Although his video also includes clips of Li Younan, it’s evident that the locations aren’t on Gongga Mountain.

Thus, the claim that Li Younan went to climb Gongga Mountain doesn’t hold up.

And the outdoor cooking video is easy to question; by focusing on this point, asserting that they were staging it in the wild, it can be easily debunked.

The only troublesome part is a video posted by another climber named Gao Yonghui.

In that video, Li Younan shoots an arrow that shatters a rock wall.

Initially, he was shocked upon seeing the video, thinking it was special effects. But after carefully examining it for a long time, he couldn’t find any evidence of effects.

He’s slowly realizing that Li Younan indeed possesses strong arm strength, capable of using high-poundage bows. But it doesn’t matter, as his previous question was about Li Younan’s accuracy, so even if he can use high-poundage bows, it still doesn’t prove he shoots accurately, affirming his previous skepticism.

Additionally, the somewhat troubling part is another climber named Zhao Liang, along with Gao Yonghui and Ding Rui, indeed went to climb Gongga Mountain.

Moreover, Zhao Liang and Gao Yonghui seem to have actually reached the summit of Gongga Mountain; their profiles show two videos of reaching the summit.

Xu Yusheng leaned back in his chair, quietly contemplating for a moment.

Moments later, a slight smile began to form on his lips.

The whole story has been clarified: three climbers named Gao Yonghui, Zhao Liang, and Ding Rui partnered up to climb Gongga Mountain, during which Gao Yonghui and Zhao Liang undeniably reached the summit — they have summit videos as evidence.

Whereas Ding Rui evidently did not; according to him, he became oxygen-deprived and fainted near the summit, almost dying on Gongga Mountain.

Here lies a significant loophole.

According to him, Li Younan went up and then returned to rescue him, yet Li Younan doesn’t appear in their summit videos, nor has Li Younan released any summit videos himself.

Not to mention Li Younan, as a novice, going up then returning, still having the energy to rescue someone, how incredible such an event is. Simply one point can place him in an invincible position, and that is ... evidence.

Clarifying this point, Xu Yusheng almost burst out laughing. It’s truly hilarious; they rambled on and on, but lacked the most crucial video evidence.

The whole story can thus be unraveled.

It has to be said that Li Younan is quite lucky. During his disappearance, a pair of climbers happened to be climbing Gongga Mountain, and they actually made it to the top.

After the incident broke out, Li Younan immediately contacted these people and offered them a generous reward to cooperate in shooting a clarification video, even staging some camping shots near the top as evidence.

As for the motive, it’s easy to explain—after all, Li Younan is a major influencer with 3 million followers, certainly not short of earning potential. Spending some money to get these three guys to cooperate...

The only tricky part now is that there’s no way to prove Li Younan didn’t go for the hike.

In fact, before all of this, Li Younan never really emphasized he was going to climb Gongga Mountain. It was me, using some tactics, who misled the public into thinking he was going to climb it.

Li Younan will probably use this point to strike back later on.

But it doesn’t matter; most online fans are just watching the drama and won’t seriously look back at previous videos to ascertain how the whole thing began.

As long as the waters are muddied, not many will pay attention to that.

Xu Yusheng poured himself a cup of coffee, feeling great at the moment.

Making a living in this way is like dancing on a knife’s edge, constantly teetering on the brink of a crash and another step forward.

But since starting his channel, he hasn’t crashed even once. Instead, his influence has grown significantly each time he debunks someone.

This time, he’s up against a big influencer, and if the plan succeeds, his influence will grow even bigger.

Chugging down the coffee in one go, Xu Yusheng immediately started shooting his response video.

The content of the response naturally lays out his analysis just now—piece by piece.

The internet economy thrives on traffic.

Traffic is wealth.

People online see these trending conflicts as entertainment, thinking it’s all a joke, not realizing that while watching the show, they become someone else’s asset.

And there aren’t many, like himself, who truly understand this.

He truly is born for this line of work.

Those so-called big influencers, who painstakingly churn out content, always risk becoming stepping stones for others if they slip up. It’s quite laughable, really.

After posting this video, good news came rolling in. Two more sponsored video ads approached him. In the end, all the effort was for this moment.

Everything else is an illusion; only the cold, hard cash is real.

...

After Xu Yusheng’s video was released, Ding Rui, lying on his hospital bed, was furious.

He’d never been involved in such online conflicts and was inexperienced. He never expected there to be such shameless people in the world, turning black into white.

What made him angrier was that those foolish netizens actually believed Xu Yusheng’s narrative.

The reason? Simply because Li Younan didn’t appear in their Gongga Mountain climbing video.

The video that Gao Yonghui shot, showing an arrow hitting the mountainside, couldn’t be used as evidence that Li Younan climbed Gongga Mountain with them.

From his hospital bed, he released another video.

But as soon as the video was posted, he was swarmed by haters, who unleashed a torrent of mockery, frantically dissing him.

After all, the mountaineering circle is a niche community, glaringly insignificant against the vast online crowd eager to join the fun.

When under attack, everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and take a jab at you, leaving him so angry he couldn’t even focus on recovery.

Similarly, Zhao Liang and Gao Yonghui weren’t faring any better, as many mocked them under their videos: "You guys finally made it up Gongga Mountain and we understand the need to earn money, but to help a fraud commit fraud? How low."

In the face of such trends, it’s almost impossible to defend themselves.

Ding Rui called Zhao Liang, frustrated, and said, "Brother Zhao, I want to rub that Xu Yusheng’s face in the dirt. I want to expose him and ruin him!"

Zhao Liang remained calm, saying, "Don’t rush. All his attacks are based on the lack of a video showing Li Younan reaching the top. But Li Younan... don’t forget, he shot a lot of videos. With an action camera, a phone, and a selfie stick, there are multiple angles. I’ve asked him, and he said the video is still being edited. Once it’s out, all the rumors will collapse. Xu Yusheng is playing with fire; the higher he jumps now, the harder the fall later."

Then, his tone turned icy, "This Xu Yusheng has a dirty mind. Once Li Younan’s video is out, I will definitely make him regret ever coming into this line of work. Don’t fret, just focus on recovering. Don’t respond for now. Build up your emotions and save all his videos. We’ll make a big move."

Upon hearing this, Ding Rui calmed down a bit, suppressing his anger, and gritted his teeth, "Brother Zhao, you’re right. The higher he jumps now, the more he’ll regret it later. We’re just waiting for Brother Li to release his video."

Those into climbing often come from well-off families and know quite a few influential people. Zhao Liang had even started reaching out to some professional studios to prepare for their counterattack.

This time, they only had one goal: to ensure that this Xu Yusheng would never succeed in the online world again.

And Li Younan didn’t keep them waiting long.

In the evening, Liu Yu called Li Younan, "The collaboration is settled. I’ve asked my sister to finalize the edited video for you to upload directly. While there’s no Red Bull sponsorship this time, it’s still one of the top domestic sports drink brands, with substantial pay. If time had been more lenient, we could negotiate more with Red Bull. But given the current impact on your online presence, partners are concerned, so let’s expedite this."

Li Younan, however, was nonchalant, "Truth is always truth, and lies can’t become truth."

Once Liu Yu sent over the video, Li Younan readily clicked upload.