Chapter Five: The Blockade That Failed

It passed ten million views before full time. Wildfire peaked at 1.73 million simultaneous viewers, not counting street crowds. Distributed local nodes kept the servers alive. Liang rushed into the control room, shaking. "Advertising revenue is 4.7 million! Last year we made 3.2!" "So we won?" Zhao asked. "No," Chenzhou said. "Wait until they calculate it for us." Skyvault announced twenty million more for county promotion. Three beverage brands began bidding. The first television station to reject Blaze called for highlight rights. Chenzhou's answer was simple: "Triple the price from before kickoff." Then other clubs rebelled. Hanhai broadcast only popular matches while preventing teams from licensing the rest.