By 7 PM, Chen Zhou had finished dinner and was already camped in front of Yunteng TV, ready for the premiere of 'Neon Genesis Evangelion'.
Although Jing Yu had arranged for the drama to launch on all four major platforms simultaneously, Yunteng still received some special treatment.
On Yunteng, the broadcast would begin a full ten minutes earlier than on the other three platforms — Qingyun Video, Jixun Video, and Qiezi Video. That meant Yunteng TV viewers could start watching at 8 PM sharp, while the rest had to wait until 8:10.
Of course, this wasn't some special favor — it came at a price.
For those ten minutes of exclusivity, Yunteng TV paid a staggering 105 million yuan in licensing fees to Jing Yu.
Everyone already knew that 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' was going to be a hit — the only question was how big a hit. Yunteng TV was betting that the ten-minute lead would divert a huge number of streaming viewers to the TV channel. What's a few tens of millions, really? If ratings go up, ad rates go up. One ad client pays a bit more, and the difference is earned back immediately.
Besides, with Jing Yu's current popularity and Yunteng TV's viewer traffic, they had even bigger ambitions this season:
To break the 10% average viewership barrier.
So...
By 7:58 PM, Yunteng TV's ratings had already reached 10.03%.
For the first time, one of Jing Yu's dramas broke the 10% mark before its first episode had even aired.
Back in the golden age of TV, over a decade ago, in the era when everyone in the nation watched TV dramas, a top-tier production — featuring the country's best actors, directors, producers, and writers — could, after months of intensive marketing, open with a premiere rating above 10% and even maintain that number through to the finale.
In the past, Jing Yu's shows typically debuted at around 6–8%, only breaking 10% midway through the series. That was due to both his rising fame and Yunteng TV still being a developing platform.
But now, things were different. Jing Yu's popularity had exploded, and Yunteng TV was no longer what it used to be.
Even so, this opening from 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' was enough to send cheers through the entire Yunteng TV staff.
Naturally, Jing Yu was also monitoring the data — and he, too, was a little surprised.
He'd never been the type to obsess over ratings. If he had, he wouldn't have agreed to air this series across four platforms at once. After all, simultaneous distribution clearly splits the audience. But multi-platform release brings in the most revenue — and more importantly, the widest reach and influence. That's what Jing Yu cared about — not empty data points.
Still, seeing Yunteng TV's ratings climb this high despite all that… even he was caught off guard.
At 8 PM, all chatter in Jing Yu's fan groups ceased. All eyes turned to Yunteng TV.
Chen Zhou exhaled deeply.
The iconic theme song of 'Evangelion', "A Cruel Angel's Thesis", began to play.
Of course, it was the translated and localized version rendered by the system's exchange panel.
Honestly, when it came to older anime music, the quality was unquestionable. This song had remained a fan favorite for over twenty years in Jing Yu's previous life — and now, brought into Great Zhou...
Chen Zhou watched the screen. The opening's visuals and the rhythm of the music synced perfectly. The show hadn't even started, but the theme alone was already getting his blood pumping.
Tapping his foot to the beat, Chen Zhou thought — tastes may vary, but this OP alone had boosted his expectations for the show.
After the opening ended, the episode began.
As always, the setting was Jing Yu's go-to virtual world — Blue Star, in a country called Japan.
"That island country again?"
"Well, you can't really set shows like this in Great Zhou. It's all about global destruction and intense catastrophes — you kinda have to go with a fictional world. Otherwise, what, set it in Modo and have the city wiped out by kaiju every other episode? Someone's bound to file a complaint."
"True, but the names in that virtual country are hard to remember. So many of them are five characters long — I just can't get used to it."
"Dude, who cares? Just enjoy the plot. Stop overthinking it."
The fan chats buzzed with activity as the story began to unfold.
An evacuation order was issued for a coastal city. A boy summoned by his estranged father arrived. And then, the sudden appearance of a mysterious monster known as an Angel.
Rei Ayanami, wearing a blue school uniform, made her first appearance — only a fleeting shot.
Cold. Calm. Emotionless. Just a single image, but it got Chen Zhou fired up. He was a big fan of Xia Yining, maybe because her portrayal of Yukishiro had left such a deep impression on him. Seeing her again in a similar cold, stoic role — he was already sold.
The Japanese Empire in the story had no way to deal with the invading Angel.
Then came the worldbuilding. The main character, Shinji Ikari, was picked up by his older female handler, Misato Katsuragi, and brought to an underground base. There, through conversations with background characters, the audience was introduced to humanity's final weapon — the massive robots from the trailer.
Not everyone could pilot them. The chance of finding a compatible pilot?
0.000000001%.
In plain terms, one in a hundred billion.
Of course, any viewer with a bit of genre awareness immediately put it together:
"Yep, no doubt. Shinji's totally going to be the chosen one."
"If the chance isn't zero, it's 100% for the protagonist. Why? Because he's the MC. He's not some average Joe! Who wants to watch a show about someone completely ordinary?"
"Whatever, let's keep watching. The premise is cool — indestructible monsters and humanity's final weapon: giant mechas."
Sure enough, Shinji Ikari, summoned for the future of humanity, is asked to pilot Unit-01 — to repel the monster currently tearing the city apart.
His father, Gendo Ikari, coldly ordered him to launch. Not once did he consider that his son was just a high school student who'd never been trained to fight.
The opening half of the episode was all setup — laying the foundation for the characters, especially the strained relationship between the MC and his father, as well as key supporting roles at the base.
Here, we saw Shinji's humanity come through.
Faced with this sudden life-or-death mission, of course, he was reluctant — he was just a teen.
He'd come thinking his father had called him for some important reason. Who could've predicted that the first thing his dad would say was: "Get in the robot and fight the monster that's already killed thousands"?
"Now that's a real dad," Chen Zhou muttered sarcastically.