The Uploader ID was Dawn Lord
An LV4 newcomer UP, the account seemed to have been registered only yesterday.
Uploads: 2. A normal number.
Followers: 390,000.
This data was clearly manipulated. For an account registered just one day ago to grow from zero to nearly 400,000 followers overnight, it would require a massive UP transferring accounts, a famous figure joining, or an extremely rare viral sensation.
This growth was too explosive to be natural.
Adding to the suspicion, the UP's two videos were a short, less-than-20-second introduction, and an anime mix—specifically, a One Piece fan video. Frankly, the only way a video of this genre could net 400,000 fans overnight on YT was if the creator was Oda himself.
With the mindset of watching a clown, Takumi clicked on the video. He skipped the self-introduction and went straight to the 43-minute-long video.
1.35 million views, 9600 comments, 40,000 coins.
This bot user really splurged. They're both stupid and malicious.
Takumi entered the video and was immediately greeted by a deluge of comments covering the screen.
"Ahhhhh! Divine creation!!!"
"The light of Advance animation—even though it's a One Piece fan project, it's incredible!!!"
"Oh, that lighting, that water. The Guy should be executed."
"The choreography is too high-quality. And the mechanical details on the Gundam... it's a bit bloody and OOC, but the impact feels professional, not amateur."
These were the few useful comments among a sea of meaningless "Ahhhh" and strange fan-related comments like "Katakuri's mom loves you."
Takumi's interest was instantly piqued. He turned off the comments and dragged the progress bar back to the beginning.
The video started in darkness, but a realistic sound of ocean waves filled the air.
The camera slowly pulled up from the deep, dark sea to reveal two fleets clashing on the surface.
One side consisted of pirates sailing ships that looked like cakes; the other, Marines clad in "Justice" capes. Anyone who followed One Piece could instantly identify the warring factions: the Big Mom Pirates and the Marines.
A long, single-shot followed. A Marine Vice Admiral with a mohawk brandished a long blade, darting through the pirates like a phantom. The movements were fluid and fast. There were no flashy effects, just a violent masterpiece conveyed through flying blood.
On the other side, a pirate dressed like a boxer wielded blazing hands, maniacally and cruelly incinerating Marines.
"Is that... Vice Admiral and Oven?" Takumi exclaimed in disbelief, mouth agape.
He had no recollection of this scene in the One Piece anime. The animation studio was notoriously poor; how could they possibly produce combat scenes this fluid, with visuals comparable to, or even surpassing, Half-Life: Alyx?
As the battle intensified, the camera pulled back again, revealing the most popular character from the Whole Cake Island arc: Charlotte Katakuri.
He began with a barrage of cannon fire. Every high-speed camera sweep captured the overwhelming scale of the naval battle.
This is ridiculous! This level of spectacle and combat choreography felt like it belonged in a movie, no, even a movie wouldn't achieve this!
These days, which studio would seriously produce such extremely difficult, high-quality hand-drawn combat scenes? Forget animation peaks like Sword of the Stranger or Cowboy Bebop; One Piece's combat production quality was barely half that of Naruto.
And the silky smoothness… honestly, this couldn't be hand-drawn. Was it CG?
Then, Takumi saw something even more surprising.
The camera pulled back further, showing a complex mechanical cockpit interface displaying the battle between the Marines and Pirates, and Big Mom devouring food in the distance on Cake Island.
"Target locked. 'Dainsleif: Sword of Ruin' targeting... complete!"
A deep, captivating voice sounded. The camera focused on a person wearing a bizarre, black I-shaped mask, operating a Gundam. As a die-hard Gundam fan, Takumi couldn't immediately recognize the model.
The Gundam's detail was incredibly high! The mechanical textures, the transforming details, the morphing weapon systems, the particle effects of the boosters... are you sure this isn't Transformers?
Wait! This character—isn't this the UP's avatar?
Takumi quickly switched tabs and opened Dawn Lord's self-introduction video. He looked at the identical, gentle, steampunk figure introducing himself. Takumi felt a surge of unreality.
This is actually an original fan work? Is this even reasonable?
Takumi resumed the video. The unknown Gundam model leaped from the sea, its massive, grotesque sniper weapon aimed at Big Mom. A single shot was fired!
The entire pirate fleet was nearly wiped out by this blast. The camera tracked the spear-like projectile as it flew, stirring up a tsunami, tearing through mountains, and finally impaling the fully armed Big Mom through the shoulder, pinning her to the landmark cake behind her!
Amidst Big Mom's earth-shattering roar, Katakuri engaged the Gundam. While the previous battles had no comparable benchmarks, this fight directly invited comparison to the anime's high-budget battle between Katakuri and Luffy.
Crushed. Absolutely crushed!
Even though it was less than 30 seconds of combat and not a direct confrontation, the detail and combat execution made it look like a real fight.
The video ended as the Gundam, fighting while retreating, streaked across the sky like a meteor.
The screen went black, revealing Dawn Lord's face.
"For future video developments, please continue to follow me."
A gentle voice concluded the video. Takumi was speechless, only managing a constant stream of "holy s***."
Incredible, absolutely incredible! This fan project even surpassed the super fan work Astartes in quality!
He had to tell others. Takumi immediately opened his phone.
"So... this video actually went viral?"
Shin watched the video's views approaching two million, clicking his tongue lightly.
"Even though it's this popular, you only gave me 74 appraisal points?" he asked quietly.
"That's enough. It's just a 'fan video' after all. If this video was about how to manually build a nuclear fusion reactor, you would have harvested a large amount of appraisal points," the System chuckled.
Right, Shin shook his head. He hadn't expected to gain much from this video. Despite the current hype, the video was already being restricted.
The sharp drop in the playback curve two hours ago clearly indicated it had been removed from the trending list, and related hot topics and recommendations were blocked.
As for why, you could see the reason in the comments Chapter.
Five percent of the comments were praising the UP and demanding more. Three percent were arguing about power levels—who was Admiral-level, who was Yonko-level, etc. The remaining two percent were questioning copyright.
On YT, almost all unlicensed clips of popular anime are heavily restricted, either by adding terrible background music or limiting the video to under three minutes, due to major copyright concerns.
Even for fan-made animations, in the era of major copyrights, a single report can get you taken down. Not to mention Shin's sudden rise made him an eyesore, so reports were certainly flooding in.
And "Boss Y" (referring to YT's management), who built his career on ACGN but now wants to distance the platform from it, certainly wouldn't risk copyright infringement for a high-quality fan work.
"They tried to delete this video from the backend an hour ago, but they couldn't do anything. Forget deleting the video, they couldn't even delete the comments and bullet screens," the System's tone was cheerful, as if watching an amusing show.
"I've been toying with them for a long time. In short, all your future videos might be restricted, severely restricted, actually~~~"
"...Are you helping me or hurting me?"
"No, what I mean is, next time, go straight to live streaming," the System laughed playfully.
"Do something big. Start a live stream."
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