Paid Internet Trolls

After finishing his morning routine, Qin Gengxin sat down in front of his computer.
He turned it on, logged into his messaging app, and opened forums, news websites, Tieba, and Weibo.

Content related to "Wu Qingchen" and the "Medieval World" dominated most of the feeds.

"The Nutritional Structure of the Medieval World."
"The Correlation between Bees and the Yield of Cross-Pollinated Crops."
"Complete Map of Eclis Village."
"Conjectures on the Barony of Akefuwei."

These were the topics Qin Gengxin enjoyed.
There were also topics Qin Gengxin did not enjoy quite as much.

"Global cooperation is an inevitable trend, there is absolutely no need for Country Z to cling stubbornly to Wu Qingchen!"

The content came as no surprise to Qin Gengxin. A certain user, riddled with an inferiority complex, used a conspiratorial tone to continually accuse Country Z of selfishly hoarding its treasures and ignoring the bigger picture. The user was brimming with righteous indignation over Country Z erecting various barriers to prevent other countries from intervening on a large scale in the celestial phenomenon event.

Qin Gengxin replied: "Oh, absolutely! Foreigners are so noble in character that they will surely be willing to bear all the losses themselves without making any demands of Wu Qingchen. By the way, would you prefer Wu Qingchen to sleep during the day or at night?"

A topic in a certain messaging group: "From theft to fraud, stopping at nothing—where is Wu Qingchen's bottom line?"
Qin Gengxin's post: "Wherever the bottom line of safety is, that is where Wu Qingchen's bottom line is!"

A Tieba headline: "Can traps be cleared away immediately? It's too cruel to let animals struggle for a whole day."
Qin Gengxin's reply: "Try going hungry for three days before you say that!"

A Weibo influencer: "The apocalypse has arrived, will you miss the final redemption?"
Qin Gengxin's comment: "No donation link attached, unprofessional!"

As usual, Qin Gengxin's replies, posts, and comments were quickly drowned out.

Just as Qin Gengxin was lamenting the intelligence of certain netizens, a friend request popped up on his messaging app.

Applicant: Joint Venture. Additional note: Seeking partners, paid posting, generous remuneration.

Qin Gengxin had never imagined that one day he would actually receive an invitation to become a paid internet commentator.
It was not that Qin Gengxin harbored any innate hatred toward paid commentators.
If taken as a part-time job, earning some extra cash by moving one's fingers in spare time, such a gig wasn't entirely without appeal.
It was just that, fundamentally, he loved digging into the truth and couldn't stand people talking nonsense with their eyes wide open. Qin Gengxin felt he was quite incompatible with this profession.

Therefore, Qin Gengxin casually clicked reject.

Less than a second later, the other party applied again, with the additional note: Sincerity! Let's talk!

In view of the other party's prompt response, when Qin Gengxin clicked reject once more, he tapped out a few extra characters: I don't believe rumors, and I certainly don't spread them.

Still less than a second later, the application arrived again, with the additional note: The content is true, absolutely no coercion.

Was this going to go on endlessly?
Regardless of whether the other party was a scammer or legally blind, since they were so persistent, Qin Gengxin didn't mind wasting a little time to witness a new routine.

Qin Gengxin accepted the friend request from this ID.

"Hello, Mr. Southern Dynasty Victory." The other party addressed him by his online ID: "Your stance and qualifications have passed big data screening. Our company sincerely invites you to join our commentator team."

Qin Gengxin was in no mood for pleasantries and cut straight to the chase: "How much per post?"
"One yuan for ordinary posts, one thousand yuan and up for featured posts, with no upper limit."

"Tsk tsk."
In front of his computer desk, Qin Gengxin was clicking his tongue as well, having already mentally categorized the person as a scammer: "Thanks, boss, the boss is rich!"

The other party seemed long accustomed to such skepticism and immediately pasted a line of reply.

"Reliable cooperation, payment method can be chosen by you: weekly settlement, daily settlement, hourly settlement, or per-post settlement are all available. We support multiple payment methods: QR code transactions, bank transfers, messaging app top-ups, etc. To show our sincerity for our initial cooperation, our company can provide a certain amount of good-faith money in advance."

"Tsk tsk."
Were they planning to hack his account, or trying to defraud him of his personal information?
Qin Gengxin clicked his tongue again, stroked his chin, thought for a moment, dug out a rather obscure and dormant account from his memory, and then tapped the keyboard: "Can you top up an account on a website instead?"
"Please provide the account."

Well, I'll be damned!
Hugging the mindset of wanting to see a new routine, Qin Gengxin entered his account name: "Rain Qingchen Updates Every Day."
"Recorded. 100 yuan good-faith money has been topped up."

At the same time, on the right side of the computer desk, Qin Gengxin's phone screen suddenly lit up, popping up an app top-up notification: Your Motie account has been successfully topped up with 100 yuan.

"What the fuck!"
In the quiet room, Qin Gengxin's eyes widened instantly, and his hands flew across the keyboard: "Who are you?"

"Mr. Southern Dynasty Victory, please do not doubt."
After the top-up, the other party's confidence increased significantly: "This is neither a scam nor a joke. Repeating the notice: Your stance and qualifications have passed big data screening. Our company sincerely invites you to join our commentator team."

"I can't pull off spreading rumors," Qin Gengxin grew serious as well and continued typing. "Besides, there's a strict crackdown right now, the cost of spreading rumors is too high... Your good-faith money, should I return it to you via a red envelope?"

"We do not require you to spread rumors, nor do you need to break the law. You only need to act just like you do now, following your own attitude to continue posting, replying, and commenting. We will evaluate every single piece, and on top of the guaranteed base pay, we will grant a certain reward."

"Then why on earth are you contacting me? Giving me money for nothing?" Qin Gengxin found it quite incredible.
"Your attitude, qualifications, and stance align relatively well with our company's interests. Spontaneous enthusiasm is hard to sustain long-term, and labor should be compensated."

An outdated term floated into Qin Gengxin's mind: "Fifty-Centers! You guys are genuine Fifty-Centers!"
"No," the other party immediately denied. "Our company is a joint venture. Additionally, our company currently has no plans to expand operations; please maintain information confidentiality."

Thinking of the subtle official recruitment rumors circulating on the internet recently, Qin Gengxin roughly figured out what was going on.

"Then shall I give it a try?" Qin Gengxin asked somewhat excitedly and tentatively.
"Please wait a moment, I will input your information into our system."

A few minutes later, Qin Gengxin learned what "inputting information into the system" meant.
When posting again, Qin Gengxin discovered that the review speed for the content he published was nearly instantaneous, and it was virtually no longer harassed by sensitive words.

Moreover, the account, after having its "information inputted," possessed extremely high weight. No matter what the content was, it could easily rank near the top of hot replies or hot comments.
The most delightful part was that when encountering certain unreasonable or foul-mouthed brain-dead trolls, Qin Gengxin only needed to gently click report, and these puppet accounts and their spoken content would soon be completely cleaned out and disappear forever.

After one day of probation, Qin Gengxin was pulled into the "Joint Venture Special Invited Commentators" group by the administrator of the "joint venture."

Upon entering the group, Qin Gengxin became even more certain of his suspicions.
Inside this group, Qin Gengxin saw many familiar IDs: Truth Emperor, Data Emperor, Textual Research Emperor, Rumor-Buster, Spontaneous Fifty-Cent—everyone had gathered under one roof.

Just like that, after enjoying himself for two days.
May 14, 2012.
After finishing his morning routine, Qin Gengxin sat down in front of his computer again.
He turned it on, logged into his messaging app, and opened forums, news websites, Tieba, and Weibo.
Content related to "Wu Qingchen" and the "Medieval World" still dominated most of the feeds.

"Lu County Miracle! Medical Miracle! Wu Qingchen's Miracle! Paralyzed Girl Makes Magical Recovery!"
"Lose Weight Just by Lying Down! Medieval World Exercise Effects Cover All Mankind!"
"0 to 1: What Secrets Does It Contain? Exercise Effects Cover All Mankind, Coverage Effect Consistent with Time Ratio!"

Lunatics! Leave it to these unscrupulous merchants to come up with such things!
Stretching his hands, Qin Gengxin started blasting away out of habit.

"What kind of retarded hospital? Is this a time to chase clout?"
"Weight loss pills? Fitness centers? Spare me!"
"What does 0 to 1 contain? It contains the ratio between the average human intelligence and yours!"

He picked up his cup, took a sip of tea, and refreshed the page.
Huh?
Qin Gengxin discovered with surprise that his reply had actually sunk without a trace.
Qin Gengxin posted it again, only to be submerged once more.
He kept posting, and it kept getting submerged.

Did his privileges in these topics seem to not work so well anymore?
Just as he thought of this, *beep beep beep...*
At this moment, inside the "Joint Venture Special Invited Commentators" group, someone else had discovered the same problem.

"This is a bit weird, these posts today."
"You saw it too? I have a few replies here that just won't stay at the top!"
"I have a few here as well, they won't go up either!"

Everyone posted links one after another:
The fifth domestic case, the twenty-seventh global case—huge positive news for the celestial phenomenon event!
Celestial phenomenon event—after the crisis, opportunities quietly arrive!
Average 0.5% fat burned—random sampling analysis results from the American Obesity Association!

"This seems a bit fishy." A certain Data Emperor spoke up: "These things seem somewhat connected. Everyone keep posting, wait for me a moment, I'll make a spreadsheet."

Everyone kept posting, and everyone waited patiently.
Two hours later.
The Data Emperor posted the spreadsheet.
Inside the spreadsheet:

"Patient No. 5, diagnostic results from Lu County First Municipal Hospital. Attached with follow-up examination results from five hospitals in the same city."
"Patient No. 4, diagnostic results from Yue City First Municipal Hospital. Attached with follow-up examination results from seven hospitals in the same city."
"Patient No. 1, diagnostic results from Capital Union Medical College Hospital. Attached with follow-up examination results from twelve hospitals in the same city."
"Japan Patient No. 1, diagnostic results from Kyoto Maple Blue Hospital. Attached with follow-up examination results from twenty-three hospitals in the same city."
"U.S. Patient No. 1, diagnostic results from Chicago Institute of Medical Research. Attached with follow-up examination results from three research institutes in the same city."

Diagnoses, follow-up examinations, on-site video footage, doctor explanations.
Judgments by weight-loss experts, fitness club data statistics, random sampling observations, tracked analysis results.
Categorized, logically clear, and pointing in a definite direction!

Qin Gengxin's gaze involuntarily drifted toward the group announcement:
*Attention everyone, the core task for the recent period is primarily rumor-busting. In addition, when various group members are busting rumors, try to respect the facts, understand before busting, and do not easily make subjective judgments.*

The strange announcement prompt, the eerie failure of privileges.
Qin Gengxin had no choice but to connect the dots: The content in the links had an extremely high probability of being true!

"No way!" "You've got to be kidding!" "How is this possible?"
Other group members had also arrived at the same conclusion.

"0 to 1, that's still 0.5% though! Why didn't I feel anything?"
"Only a little over a month has passed for Wu Qingchen in the medieval world, the 0.5% effect of about fifty days of exercise... indeed, only fat people and patients would show relatively obvious results..."
"Is this the time to care about that?"
"Such a big matter, why hasn't the authorities directly announced it?"
"Will they announce it soon?"
"Is the information still not enough?"
"Are the research results still not detailed enough?"
"Waiting to use it to divert attention when running into crises like the Herdsman Incident in the future?"
"Where is the group owner? Group owner, come out and explain!"
"Is the group owner pretending not to be here?"
"It seems the group owner rarely speaks directly in the group?"
"Joint Venture, come out!"
"Could it really be foreign forces?"

"Joint Venture..."
"I've become a foreign force..."

Behind the display screen, "Joint Venture" pushed his keyboard away and smiled bitterly as he looked at his colleague nearby. On the latter's display screen, a messaging group named "United Office Special Invited Commentators" was being flooded with a similar barrage of questions.

"Don't look at me, I'm being cursed out as a traitor just the same," United Office said with a bitter smile.
"Sigh," Joint Venture rubbed his face hard. "What should we do? Who knows when the higher-ups will pass down the directive..."