As soon as Ningnan City announced its plan to select a city mascot from West Rainbow Zoo, netizens online instantly erupted in excitement.
After all, this was the first time a city had chosen an animal to serve as its mascot and image representative.
Shortly after the announcement, West Rainbow Zoo simultaneously opened an online voting channel.
They also released photos and videos of the participating animals in their daily lives.
There were the majestic Lion King, the nurturing Sister Hua, the adorable Pallas's Cat, and the newly born Bear Cub and Little White Tiger.
These options basically covered all the animals in West Rainbow Zoo.
Even the staff members, the dog squad and the little monkeys, were included.
With over a hundred options, the release immediately caused a sensation online.
"Wow, my favorite Sister Hua is here, but I feel like she might be in trouble this time, as the other animals are also quite popular."
"Hahaha, I can already foresee that this voting will be very interesting."
"Anyway, the animal I support won't get chosen, so I might as well vote for the monkeys."
"Good point, if you don't know who to vote for, just pick the monkeys."
"I refuse, I'm voting for the dog squad."
"I'm from Ningnan, please have some decency, I don't want a monkey as our city mascot."
"Exactly, you outsiders just enjoy the spectacle, don't you?"
"Everyone, vote for the little tiger, I want people to think of Ningnan whenever they mention tigers, not the other way around."
"Is no one voting for the elephant? I think it's pretty good, Guangxi used to be called Xiang County."
"But that elephant isn't very popular."
"Shitiff, it has to be Shitiff, I'm getting my whole family to vote for Shitiff."
"Golden eagle, why isn't anyone voting for the golden eagle? A big bird is super cool, you know."
"Pallas's Cat, Pallas's Cat is also good."
"Isn't anyone going to speak up for my piggy? My piggy isn't an animal?"
"Hahaha, pigs are out of the question, I'm voting for the monkey king."
.......
Just within the morning of the event's launch, over a million people had already participated in the voting.
And this was just the beginning. As time went on, what was originally just an event to select a mascot for Ningnan City gradually turned into a nationwide activity.
On TikTok, Weibo, Tieba, and various social media platforms, messages urging votes could be seen everywhere.
Especially those Ningnan residents living abroad were desperate to mobilize all possible connections.
One of the funniest incidents was when a netizen went to the blog of a certain top male star.
The original blog was promoting his latest single, but the nature of the blog changed immediately after this netizen's comment.
"We're all gege's fans, please vote for the Lion King, and if you come to Ningnan, I'll treat you to Luosifen, calling it the Lion City is super cool, right?"
His comment instantly sparked the imagination of some netizens.
The comments that were originally supporting gege immediately turned into:
"Don't listen to him, he's just here for a tour, we love monkeys the most, vote for the monkeys."
"I'm from Ningnan, I can vouch, his pronunciation of Luosifen is incorrect, so he's not a real Ningnan person, vote for the big tiger!"
"Please give gege some face, vote for Shitiff."
"Love gege, vote for Sister Hua, please."
"You vote, I vote, Piggy will debut tomorrow, having a pig as a mascot is super cool."
"If you don't vote, I don't vote, when will the eagle get its chance? Don't ignore the eagle just because it's unpopular."
"Please buff the tiger in the next version, and fix the issue of damage loss after switching forms, sorry, wrong place."
"I think we should buff the crocodile, it's a bit weak in the early game, and it gets one-shot by the goose in the river."
......
As more and more comments deviated from the topic, everyone had forgotten the original blog post.
New song? What new song.
And it was clear that this top male star was not an isolated case.
When the number of participants exceeded ten million, almost every place where netizens gathered could see the presence of the voting army.
This move also immediately confused those stars who were preparing big moves.
No matter what they did, releasing new songs, winning awards, or promoting CPs, they couldn't get any reaction from the netizens.
However, some were smart. Seeing that they couldn't compete, they immediately joined in.
In no time, these stars posted blogs to rally votes for the animals.
And this tactic indeed worked, their low popularity instantly soared.
Seeing this, those stars who hadn't hopped on the trend quickly followed suit.
Soon, the vote for Ningnan City's mascot was all over the internet.
Such a grand event was probably beyond the expectations of Ningnan City's Civilization Creation Office.
By the evening of the same day, the number of participants had exceeded fifty million.
West Rainbow Zoo's official website had crashed several times, and if it weren't for the official personnel sent to maintain it, it probably wouldn't have been fixed by now.
By this time, the rankings of the mascot votes had gradually widened the gap.
The top ten were basically all long-time employees of West Rainbow Zoo, with one exception.
When Yang Lin saw this result, he couldn't help but smile, thinking it was exactly as he had expected.
【1. Shitiff (Black Ape) 8,450,600 votes】
【2. Monkey King (Yunnan Golden Monkey) 7,900,450 votes】
【3. Li Hei (Albino Black Bear) 7,800,370 votes】
【4. Da Mi (Mutant Bengal Tiger) 6,450,000 votes】
【5. Qiuqiu Yuanyuan (Pallas's Cat) 5,400,000 votes】
【6. Li Hua (Northeast Tiger) 3,200,000 votes】
【7. Lion King (African Lion) 2,800,000 votes】
【8. Li Shuangying (Golden Eagle) 1,500,000 votes】
【9. Li Xiaopang (Estuarine Crocodile) 1,300,000 votes】
【10. Li Bao (Leopard) 980,000 votes】
......
However, one thing Yang Lin didn't expect was that the three most popular animals, the Bear Cub, Little White Tiger, and Pallas's Cat, only ranked 345th.
Their popularity had been the top three in the entire park for some time.
What was even more unexpected was that the top two were both monkeys.
One of them was the newly added Yunnan Golden Monkey, Li Kong.
Although this little guy had gathered quite a bit of popularity when the park first opened, it was far from the level of the old employees.
This time, being able to rise as a dark horse and enter the top three was mostly thanks to the foreign netizens.
It was a bit like having your own umbrella torn apart while you're still getting wet.
Of course, Yang Lin knew that this was not the final result, as the voting would last for two more days.
And indeed, as he had anticipated, a major reversal occurred the next day.
Yunnan Golden Monkey Li Kong had a scandal.