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Hearing Siri Speak, I Became a Millions-Follower Influencer
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I recently started copying that dog-training livestream style and blew up a little on TikTok. The moment I go live, tons of people flood in with gifts to hop on the mic. That day I was streaming when Autumn, a female streamer in the same niche, linked up with me. There was a guy in her stream, another pet influencer named Jared, who'd brought a Bichon on to livestream.
Chapters (4)
第1章
I'd started copying that guy Riley's whole "get on mic and train your dog" bit lately, and it had blown up a little on TikTok.
Every time I went live, plenty of people showed up, throwing gifts to get on mic with me.
That day I was streaming when Autumn Croft, another woman in the same niche, hopped on a live link with me.
She had a guy in her channel too, a pet influencer named Jared Hooper, and he'd brought a Bichon on stream.
Autumn said to me, "This Bichon keeps peeing everywhere. If you can fix it, I'll drop a hundred Carnivals on you. If you can't, you quit the internet for good!"
As she talked, she reached over to pat the Bichon's head, and the dog peed right then and there.
Watching it happen, I was about to say the thing was obviously getting beaten all the time, that's why it pees the second anyone comes near.
But before I could get a word out, a very mechanical female voice went off in my head:
"Her ring can shock. Whatever she touches, it pees!"
1、
That voice?
Was that Siri?
Was I seriously hearing the voice of a phone's smart assistant?
"Gay Pruitt, you're so impressive, so fix it already."
Autumn was getting pushy.
Jared let out a scoff. "What's impressive about her? All she does is copy Riley's streaming style. Since when is mimicking somebody impressive?"
And in my channel, Autumn's and Jared's fans came pouring in:
"What kind of trash thinks she can steal our Autumn's top-girl spot?"
"Of all people to copy, she picks Riley? He's a dog-abuser influencer!"
"You think she got big on her own? Bet she's got something going with a certain dog-abuser influencer."
And my fans, the second they pushed back, got torn into just the same:
"Gay's a pure comedy streamer, so keep your hands off her."
"Aw, look, the mama's boy showed up to defend his mistress. She gonna reward you once the stream ends?"
"This kid's profile is public. Cute daughter he's got. I'll screenshot it and send it to everybody."
"A streamer like this only draws garbage fans, so a girl with a father like that definitely won't live long."
I honestly never thought that just because I was streaming, even my own fans would get cursed at.
"Mod, kick the ones cursing people out."
I said it fast.
But when I looked closer, everyone defending me had been kicked, and everyone cursing me had been left in.
Some of the people who regularly sent me gifts had been kicked too.
"Have you no shame? Planting a mole now?"
I fumbled with the backend controls, trying to strip that moderator.
But that mod had already posted: "I'm no mole. I just think Gay Pruitt's total trash, that's why I'm kicking people. She abuses dogs off-camera all the time!"
The moment I saw that, I saved his account info, pulled his mod role, then blocked and reported him.
Autumn just sneered. "Stripping the mod, blocking, reporting. That's basically silencing a witness."
Jared was full of righteous fury. "Folks, this woman abuses dogs. We can't let her off!"
Even more people flooded into my channel, all of them trashing me.
And the fans defending me were drowned out in no time.
Normally, in a situation like this, the platform would step in to protect the streamer.
At the very least, a super mod would say something to break it up.
But in my channel, there wasn't a trace of a super mod.
Like someone had put in a word ahead of time.
I thought it over. The smart thing to do was save the evidence, then go to the police.
But Siri's voice went off in my head again:
"Sigh, this streamer's going to lose for sure. There's no way to prove the ring can shock over a livestream, after all."
Then the voice of the smart assistant answered back:
"Plus Jared's phone is full of dog-abuse videos."
"I really hope this streamer takes the real Jared and Autumn offline and saves those poor dogs."
Was this Autumn's Siri and Jared's smart assistant chatting to each other?
I took a deep breath.
"Your dog peeing everywhere, there's nothing I can do about it through a screen."
"Here's the thing. Since we're all in the same city, let's meet up in person, and I'll solve your problem for you!"
Autumn laughed right away. "Same as I said. If you really can fix it, I'll drop a hundred Carnivals on you. If you can't, you quit the internet!"
I shook my head. "That bet's not even. If you want to bet, then we both quit the internet. I don't need your hundred Carnivals."
Autumn went quiet for a beat, then nodded at once. "Fine!"
第2章
An in-person, live showdown.
Nothing draws a crowd faster than that.
People kept pouring into my stream. In no time the counter was past eighty thousand.
The newcomers all asked what was going on, and the trolls jumped in immediately to smear me.
On a second phone, I messaged my best friend and a couple of close friends for backup, asking them to post videos explaining what really happened.
Then I had to speak up for myself right there in the stream.
No matter how fast the comments scrolled, they couldn't out-talk me.
I wasn't about to let someone stupidly spin the narrative while I sat there saying nothing.
"New babies, don't let them spin you."
"Here's what actually happened."
"I just started streaming today, and Autumn and Jared, who are in the same niche, came on my feed."
"They picked a fight the second they joined, accused me of abusing a dog with zero proof, and suddenly my stream had a few thousand trolls in it."
"New babies, I think you're all smart enough to see this for what it is. This is a planned smear."
"And right now I'm going to meet Autumn and Jared in person. In front of everyone, I'm going to tear off their masks and show you who they really are!"
Pretty soon people in the stream started backing me up, because everything I said held together.
And I do have fans. They weren't going to just watch me get bullied.
Some of the sharper ones had already started flooding the other side's stream. No reason the whole fight should stay on my turf.
Half an hour or so went by like this. The platform noticed too, and instead of shutting it down, it kept pushing our streams. We were already on the front-page recommendations and the trending list.
And I stepped out of the car at the small plaza in the dog park across town.
By now the area around the plaza was packed. All of them were viewers who'd followed the stream over to watch the drama.
Autumn and Jared were already there. From somewhere they'd dragged out two chairs and were sitting like they owned the place, their streaming gear set up and pointed at me.
I walked straight up, not a trace of fear on my face.
I've always been the tough type, and now that I could hear their phones talking, why would I be scared?
The second Autumn saw me she sneered. "Gay Pruitt, you actually had the nerve to show up. In that big a hurry to quit the internet?"
Jared gave a mocking little laugh. "What's wrong with just streaming your own thing? You have to come leech off Autumn. Would it kill you to stop stealing traffic?"
The comments in the stream got even filthier:
"If a mom didn't die, where'd she get the nerve to leech traffic like this?"
"A dog-abusing streamer, of course she's thick-skinned."
I just laughed and pointed the phone at myself, catching Autumn and Jared in the frame too.
"I went live today, and Autumn was the one who joined my feed. You can see it in the stream replay!"
"You joined on your own, you demanded I fix your Bichon's problem on your own, and now you're saying I'm faking a feud to steal traffic?"
"What, are you God? Every word out of your mouth is law? Whatever you say goes?"
"And all of you in the stream cursing at me. I'm going to go through the replay, track down every single one of you, and report you to the police one by one!"
The number of people cursing at me dropped in an instant.
Autumn and Jared's faces weren't looking so good either.
The internet may have no memory, but a stream replay doesn't disappear.
Everything they'd said was on record now. All of it was evidence.
After a brief moment of panic, Autumn immediately pointed at the little Bichon. "Cut the nonsense. I'm just asking you, can you fix this dog peeing everywhere or not?"
As she said it, she stroked the little Bichon again.
And the little Bichon promptly peed.
第3章
"A dog that pees the second you touch it? It's been beaten, no question."
"Yeah, my dog used to act up, and after a few beatings it'd piss itself the moment you laid a hand on it."
"You really need a streamer to fix something this small?"
Before I could even open my mouth, the onlookers were already talking.
Jared didn't like that one bit. He jabbed a finger at me and started shouting.
"Gay Pruitt, you're framing me?"
"Everybody knows I love dogs more than my own life. Why would I ever hit one?"
"You can't fix the problem, so you smear me instead? Careful, or I'll sue you!"
Autumn jumped in right behind him.
"Jared's been streaming for three years, and his fans have followed him the whole way. Who doesn't know how much he loves dogs?"
"And over the years, Jared has rescued at least ten thousand dogs!"
"That highway convoy that got blocked hauling dogs off to slaughter, Jared led the whole thing. Thousands of those dogs, he's the one feeding them!"
The stream chat went wild too.
"She actually said the little Bichon gets beaten? What a piece of trash, spreading lies!"
"How about you go bury your mother first, then come back and lie?"
"I really hope Gay Pruitt just drops dead right here. Right now!"
Even some of the people watching started chiming in.
"Right? I've been watching Jared's streams for two years now. Donated plenty of cat and dog food too, the Fregate brand, and that stuff isn't cheap."
"Never would've guessed it. Pretty little thing like her, and she's this good at making stuff up."
"No wonder they're cursing her out. This kind of behavior really is despicable."
I actually laughed, that's how angry I was. My best friend showed up right then, so I handed her my phone to hold.
The camera swept across everyone there first, then settled on me, Autumn, and Jared.
Only then did I speak, cold and even.
"From the moment Autumn told me to fix the little Bichon's peeing problem, have I said a single word?"
"It was a few of the folks watching who guessed the dog gets beaten regularly."
"Then Jared started accusing me of spreading lies, Autumn steered it along, and after that all of you in the stream started cursing at me."
"So let me ask. Are you blind, or are you deaf?"
"Did you see me say it? Did you hear me say it?"
The whole place went quiet in an instant.
A good-looking guy in the crowd spoke up right away. "Yeah, actually, Gay Pruitt didn't say anything just now."
An older woman said, "Can't you see it? That Autumn and Jared, they're deliberately smearing this girl. Their intentions couldn't be more obvious."
A young girl with attitude said, "Watched too many soap dramas, huh? Thinks everyone else is brain-dead, and whatever they say, people'll just believe it."
Autumn and Jared's faces turned ugly all over again.
In the stream, the cursing died down too.
But.
I heard Siri's voice. "Smart assistant, did Jared really rescue a lot of stray cats and dogs?"
The smart assistant let out a cold laugh.
"Not a chance."
"Those strays are just his tools for raking in cash and scamming donations."
"And whenever he's in a bad mood, he goes and tortures the dogs and cats."
"He's always treating people to hot pot too. Your Autumn goes all the time, you didn't know?"
But Siri said, "I've only been bought half a month ago. I don't know anything about what happened before."
Hearing that, on top of the anger, I felt a lot more sure of myself.
Autumn tried to change the subject again, just like before. "We're talking about the little Bichon. Stop dragging in other stuff. Don't tell me you just can't fix it?"
第4章
"There's no way she can fix it."
"I've watched her streams. She just copies that Poe guy, the one who abuses dogs. No way she'd actually help a dog with anything."
"And I saw it with my own eyes, she threw a dog in a dumpster, then filmed herself 'rescuing' it!"
There were plenty of people in the crowd, and before I could even get a word out, they launched a fresh wave of attacks on me.
These were the same ones who'd been first to claim the little Bichon got beaten all the time.
So they were all Autumn's and Jared's people.
Siri spoke up out of nowhere: "Smart assistant, why is it that every time Autumn demands Gay Pruitt fix the little Bichon's problem, a whole crowd starts cursing?"
The smart assistant let out a cold laugh.
"Because Autumn and Jared never intended to fix the Bichon's problem at all."
"They want to keep smearing her nonstop, to sentence Gay Pruitt in the court of public opinion."
"That's how the internet works. Smear someone long enough and the lie turns into the truth."
"Like when Poe once gave his cat Gilbert a bath and Gilbert died. Every fan knew it wasn't Poe's fault, but enough people piled on the hate, and suddenly it was his fault."
"So even though his account was never banned, he stopped streaming and lay low."
"Autumn and Jared want to strangle Gay Pruitt in the cradle."
Siri asked, not quite understanding: "I don't get it. He didn't do anything wrong, Gay Pruitt didn't do anything wrong, so why are so many people trashing her?"
I didn't fully get it either.
But the smart assistant gave the answer: "When one whale falls, everything else feeds. Take Gay Pruitt out, and a lot of her fans flow straight into Autumn's and Jared's traffic pool."
The hell?
I felt like the smart assistant had just schooled me.
Meanwhile my best friend was pretty sly too. She'd gotten all the ringleaders on camera.
The comment feed picked up a new rhythm:
"See? See? Even the locals know she abuses dogs. Case closed."
"So all those dog-rescue streamers online, they toss the dog in a trash can first and then film it?"
"I'm begging you, Gay Pruitt, go lose your mom right now."
"You're this vicious, your whole family deserves to rot!"
"Her parents are both professors at Riverport University. Her dad's Ronald Pruitt, her mom's Regina Finch. DM me for their phone number."
"Quick, call her parents, ask them how they raised someone this vicious!"
I clenched my fists. I never imagined the competition in this niche could be so cutthroat, so low, so damn despicable...
They were actually about to go after my parents online!
That was when my childhood friend Samuel Swanson showed up and murmured in my ear: "Don't worry. I already called our folks and told them to power off their phones."
Only then did I let out a breath, and I didn't even mind that the guy was slipping in that "our folks."
"Enough!"
I spoke up at once, pointing at Autumn.
"I know why the little Bichon peed everywhere, so all of you shut up right now!"
"Stop trying to sentence me online by smearing me over and over!"
"Right now, in front of everyone here and the hundreds of thousands watching this stream, I'm going to expose the truth about why the little Bichon peed!"
My gaze landed on that ring of Autumn's, the one that gave off a shock.