In the safe house, Liang Jian was in his element.
In front of him was a military-grade, heavily encrypted laptop, provided by the Secret Service.
After confirming there were no surveillance devices in the room, he took a deep breath and, with practiced ease, opened a web browser.
As a veteran netizen with over two decades of experience, he knew the fastest way to understand a new world was to browse it.
He went to Twitter first.
The moment the familiar blue bird icon loaded, Liang Jian felt like he was home.
And then the information tsunami hit him.
His new handle, @realDonaldTrump, was at the epicenter of a global media firestorm. The little red notification number was a meaningless “99+.”
His new face, and the photo of him roaring “Fight!” at the rally, had gone supernova-level viral.
The hashtag #TrumpFight was the number one trend in the world.
He saw the comments from supporters, thousands per minute:
“You’re a true fighter, Mr. President!”
“We are with you! FIGHT!”
“God bless you! God bless America!”
And he saw the gleeful carnival from his detractors and the internet’s army of trolls:
“LMAO, did he mean to say ‘Fuck’ and his old man dentures slipped?”
“I just made a whole sticker pack of #TrumpFight memes, DM me for the link.”
“A tragedy that a man who governs by yelling slogans can’t even protect himself. Sad!”
Liang Jian scrolled through it all, his mind processing it not with emotion, but with cold, hard logic.
He was looking at the data.
The astronomical, mind-boggling traffic.
He began to mutter to himself, his fingers flying across the trackpad. “The assassination attempt was a perfect ‘crisis management’ event. The ‘Fight!’ slogan misunderstanding was a textbook ‘viral marketing’ campaign. It successfully converted a negative incident into a positive operational event that consolidated the core user base and purified brand loyalty. The current engagement rate, retweet ratio, new follower acquisition… all KPIs are through the roof.”
He realized that “Donald Trump” wasn't just a person.
He was an IP.
A super-IP with global, top-tier traffic, a built-in-topic generator, and an incredibly high user stickiness for both fans and haters.
And he, Liang Jian, an IT engineer who once struggled to get a hundred views on his crappy little tech blog…
Was now the account’s administrator.
A tremor of pure, unadulterated excitement, mixed with a healthy dose of terror, shot up his spine.
He could use this. He could leverage this power.
He could run this campaign, this country, like a product launch.
He closed the laptop. The room was silent again.
Liang Jian walked to the window, staring at his reflection in the dark, armored glass.
“So,” he whispered. “This is what it feels like to be a god-tier influencer.”