Tang Xiao clicked on the video and found that it was a recording of him answering viewers' questions while fighting a boss. Though the young man didn’t show his face, his voice carried a mix of cold indifference and slight impatience as he recited dry and complex theoretical knowledge. Meanwhile, on the screen, the boss’s health steadily chipped away with each strike. The combination was oddly pretentious, yet strangely reminiscent of a classroom lecture.
In short, it was absolutely ridiculous.
[Is this a gaming video or an educational one?]
[Did I click on the wrong thing? Why is this streamer trying to pollute my brain with knowledge?]
[He’s supposed to be talking about boss-fighting techniques, right? Then why don’t I understand a word of it? Did some pro-gamer secretly invent an encryption method I don’t know about?]
[This is the gaming section, right?]
[Look up—yeah, this is gaming, right?]
[It’s a voiceover, right? Who edited this? Were they afraid we’d get distracted during online classes, so they slapped a pro-gamer’s guide over it? Well, thanks, I guess.]
[It’s not edited, it’s a live stream. I was there. The streamer is just that ridiculous—reciting all that stuff while taking down a boss. Looks like someone who switched from scientific research.]
[Such a bizarre persona, and their skills are insane. I gotta check this out.]
[Same here, let’s go.]
That’s more or less how it happened.
But now, Tang Xiao no longer felt the same strong attachment to this field. Becoming a gaming streamer—well, it was just a way to fulfill an old dream.
And to find something to do, to clear his mind.
It was already late, but Tang Xiao was wide awake, not in the mood to sleep. He thought about what to do next.
He opened his private messages and found that most were people curious about whether he really was a researcher, some guilds asking if he wanted to sign a contract, and, of course, a few messages from people simply there to insult him.
As he scrolled, he suddenly noticed a message from a naive kid who actually believed he was a researcher, asking if he could help revise a thesis. Said they had been ‘left to fend for themselves’ by their advisor.
Tang Xiao had nothing else to do, so he took a look—and it just so happened to be a biology paper.
How to put it... it posed absolutely no threat to the academic world.
No wonder they felt safe letting others review it.
He spent a few seconds giving some revision suggestions, but the other party didn’t respond—probably fell asleep.
After thinking for a moment, Tang Xiao decided to just start a game stream.
He thought there wouldn’t be many viewers at this hour, but apparently, his recent videos were still gaining traction. The moment he went live, dozens of people flooded in.
[Finally, the stream is up!]
[Starting this late? Streamer’s a total night owl.]
“Good evening, everyone,” Tang Xiao greeted casually. “Let’s continue the game we didn’t finish last time.”
[Yes! More gameplay flexing from the streamer!]
[Hey streamer, are you really a researcher? There’s a rumor that you were involved in a top-secret project and just got released—is that true?]
[What kind of research do you do?]
Tang Xiao answered a few questions absentmindedly, then focused on the game. But after a while, he started feeling something was off—games he used to love playing just didn’t feel the same anymore.
They felt... too easy.
Tang Xiao was getting a little frustrated. What he loved about gaming was the sense of achievement that came with overcoming challenges. But now, even the games that used to stump him felt effortless. No matter how unpredictable a boss’s attack patterns were, they couldn’t compare to the chaotic data he had dealt with in research. At least bosses followed a set pattern.
After two or three hours, the sky outside had already brightened. The number of viewers kept increasing, and the haters started getting more active in the chat.
[Why isn’t the streamer answering questions like yesterday? Are you scared? Didn’t memorize new lines?]
[This regular gameplay stream is so boring.]
[Can you stop tarnishing the reputation of researchers? Someone like you doesn’t deserve to be in academia.]
[What’s up with that person above? Such a foul mouth. Did you forget to brush your teeth this morning?]
[Who says doing research means you have to memorize all that stuff? When I was in research, I couldn’t even remember the solution concentration formulas.]
[Research isn’t that big of a deal anyway. There are so many grad students nowadays—not everyone has to go down that path.]
[I just can’t stand people using this kind of persona to attract attention. If the streamer were really that brilliant, would he have to switch careers to become a gaming streamer? He’s just a failure.]
Tang Xiao glanced at the chat but wasn’t offended. Instead, inspiration suddenly struck.
“Alright then, ask away. Anything biology-related is fair game.”
Even if the game itself wasn’t challenging enough, he could add difficulty for himself.
Multitasking—he did it yesterday, and it worked out fine. It actually made things a little more engaging.
[Damn, we can actually ask? Streamer, you’re so cocky—do you really know everything about biology?]
Tang Xiao chuckled inwardly. You think I spent the past three years doing nothing but searching for ways to save humanity?
If he still had a game panel, he would see that almost all his biology-related expertise had reached a PhD level. Some fields—like genetic editing—were even at the world’s top level.
There weren’t many questions that could stump him.
[In plant synthetic biology, there are several strategies to enhance the production of a specific secondary metabolite drug…]
“Overexpressing key rate-limiting enzymes; inhibiting competitive pathways and side branches; enhancing primary metabolism to accumulate more substrates; and expressing the compound heterologously in a synthetic biology chassis.”
He didn’t even need to think much—he just pulled the answer straight from his memory palace.
[Advantages of a live-cell expression system.]
“A live cell provides a natural environment for protein folding and localization, allowing the most ‘authentic’ protein expression possible. At the same time, live cells have a complete genetic information system and a robust cell expansion mechanism.”
The chat was chaotic, but Tang Xiao answered each question one by one. At first, viewers were just watching for entertainment, but as he kept answering every single question, the chat gradually quieted down.
[Wait—dude, who the hell are you?]
[Are you a walking Baidu? Or did some black-tech implant a search engine directly into your brain?]
[Even real researchers can’t do this, I swear.]
Some people had only just clicked into the stream out of curiosity—only to get bombarded by knowledge and kicked out mentally.
[Hold on, this is the gaming section, right? Look up.]
[Is my computer lagging?]
[Why are my online classes overlapping with a gaming stream?]
[Who even are you? Why did you show up in my recommended? I came here to relax—why am I being forced to listen to this? *Clutches head*.]
[Streamer, your whole vibe is just so weird.]
[Does no one care that he’s answering all these questions while still playing the game? I seriously think he’s using hacks—how can a human brain multitask like this?]
[This is too bkg. Just too bkg. (TL: "bkg" is slang, often meaning "overpowered" or "unbelievable" in a brainy way.)]
[Where are the haters from earlier? Come on out. The streamer actually answered everything—aren’t your faces hurting?]
[LMAO, he’s literally out of reach—no one can even come up with a question hard enough to stump him. The IQ gap is real.]
Gradually, the skeptical voices faded, but the questions kept coming. Now, it wasn’t just idle curiosity—some viewers were actively trying to find something that could trip Tang Xiao up, preferably a question with no answers online.
For a while, the atmosphere in the stream became uniquely bizarre. Some people were just there for the gameplay, mesmerized by his skill. Others were fascinated by the ‘walking Baidu’ and kept throwing questions at him, testing just how much knowledge his brain contained. And, of course, there were those who simply came to watch the chaos unfold.
Meanwhile, in a coastal city, a university student had just woken up. Before he could even climb out of bed, his roommate spammed him with a series of frantic messages.
[Are you up yet? The advisor’s back and wants to check our theses. Get to Meeting Room 8A ASAP.]
The student: …
After rushing through his morning routine, he sprinted to the meeting room, where the rest of the thesis group had already gathered. At that moment, the advisor had already started roasting them.
“Look at this mess you wrote. Rewrite this section.”
“Your phrasing is off, and your structure is a mess. Did you even get this data yourself?”
The meeting room was dead silent, with each student more speechless than the last. The university student handed over his paper with a defeated look, only to be thoroughly roasted, as expected.
By the end of the meeting, everyone had noted down the parts they needed to revise and left the room with drooping heads, heading back to work on their papers. The university student also returned to his dorm, sighing as he picked up his phone.
That was when he saw Tang Xiao’s message.
After comparing it with his advisor’s feedback, he realized they were saying almost the exact same thing.
If only I had let him review it earlier—maybe I wouldn’t have gotten scolded as badly.
Drowning in his sorrows, the student noticed that Tang Xiao’s stream was live and immediately jumped in.
[Sorry, streamer. You kindly helped me with my paper, but I didn’t check it in time, so I still got chewed out.]
Seeing this message in chat, Tang Xiao recalled the thesis he had reviewed in his DMs. “Oh, it was you. No worries.”
[Wait, what? The streamer edits papers now?]
[Not surprising at all, considering his knowledge base. I give up—how is someone this insane?]
[What’s his brain made of? Is it actually hooked up to some neural interface?]
[Cybernetic humans are real, and one is right here in front of us.]
It was obvious that some people would rather believe they had just encountered a cybernetic human than accept the fact that Tang Xiao genuinely knew that much.
Or maybe they just couldn’t wrap their heads around why someone like Tang Xiao not only possessed such vast knowledge but also had top-tier gaming skills and was running a livestream.
[Did he start streaming just to show us the true diversity of human potential?]
[If he’s so brilliant, why isn’t he doing research?]
[Bro, research isn’t something you can just ‘choose’ to do. Think about the environment, the toasts you have to drink at banquets, the funding struggles.]
[Maybe he just has insane memory, like hyperthymesia. But research requires innovation.]
[Hello, let me explain why people don’t just ‘do research’—it took me a whole year to gather solid data, only to successfully prove that my idea was wrong.]
[Spent a lifetime being a good person, but—]
[Finally managed to publish a paper, only for the journal’s impact factor to drop the next year.]
[Reviewer sent back 48 revision requests.]
[And most importantly, completely broke.]
[AAAHHHHHHH WHY AM I HERE? WHY AM I GETTING TRAUMATIZED DURING MY BREAK TIME? I’M LEAVING.]
[Heh… Heh… Only fools do research. I hate it so much.]
[Am I the only one wondering if the streamer can review my paper too? Please help me, I don’t want to get scolded again. I’ll even gift you a Captain badge!]
Tang Xiao: “No need for that. Just send it over.”
[Wuwuwu, thank you, streamer!]
Five minutes later.
Tang Xiao: “Hmm, I’m playing a game right now. Can I just give you my feedback here?”
[Wait, you’ve already read it? I’m speechless.]
“Not yet. I skimmed through the literature review and conclusion, so I have a rough idea. I’ll review it while playing,” Tang Xiao said. “Your topic is about transcription and translation of protein components, right? This section is too messy—reword it. For example, ‘3D genome structure plays a role in gene expression regulation. The flipping and knockout of TAD boundaries can attract enhancers from adjacent TADs to regulate gene expression.’”
By the time he finished giving his feedback, chat was exploding.
[I don’t understand a thing. Why did I come to this stream?]
[This is the knowledge section, right? Look up.]
[Ohhh, got it. Thanks, streamer. Wuwu, my cyber mentor.]
[Damn. Cyber mentor.]
Just as Tang Xiao finished revising that paper, he checked his DMs and saw several more had piled up—most of them biology-related, but for some reason, someone even sent him a math paper.
“Just my personal opinion! You should still listen to your own professors. I’m just casually commenting—don’t take it too seriously.”
[No worries, streamer. I think you're way more professional than our school professors.]
[Got it, thanks, Cyber Mentor.]
[Let me send a Rocket for the mentor!]
As soon as the message popped up, a gift animation flashed across the stream. It seemed to remind others, and suddenly, all the viewers who had received Tang Xiao’s help with their papers woke up and started sending gifts as well.
The stream's ranking shot up by several places, and a wealthy viewer even sent a full-platform announcement treasure chest. The stream's popularity skyrocketed, surpassing even his past peak viewership.
Tang Xiao was momentarily stunned before quickly saying, “You guys don’t have to spend so much. I’m not doing this for money, and it doesn’t take much effort, anyway.”
[It’s fine, streamer. I just wanted to experience what it feels like to send gifts to my mentor.]
[Damn.]
[Honestly, I don’t even feel jealous that the streamer is making money this way. What a unique path.]
[Yeah, in the oversaturated gaming content space, seeing someone like this is a rare sight.]
[Streamer, you're so smart… You’re not secretly a superpower, right?]
That message made Tang Xiao’s heart skip a beat.
[A superpower? What is this, a new anime plot?]
[No, more like an urban legend. Lately, there have been a ton of viral videos about people awakening supernatural powers. And some remote villages have been covered in thick fog all of a sudden… Feels like the prelude to a spiritual energy revival.]
[What kind of nonsense is that? It’s just special effects improving to get clicks.]
[Those types of videos have been around forever. Someone suddenly gains powers, then gets taken away by the government or whatever. The weird thing is why there are suddenly so many of them lately.]
[Yeah, and the thick fog videos only started appearing recently too.]
Tang Xiao: “What videos? Can you send me some?”
[Huh, streamer, you’re interested? Too bad most of them got 404’d.]
[Hey streamer, what’s the scientific explanation for superpowers appearing? Is it some kind of bodily mutation?]
[Damn, how do you expect the streamer to answer something straight out of a fantasy novel?]
“C24 gene,” Tang Xiao muttered. “A mutation in the C24 gene, where its recessive trait turns dominant. The excessive expansion of C24 gene CGG repeat sequences, along with abnormal methylation, disrupts the gene's promoter, preventing it from properly encoding the IJG protein.”
[…Did the streamer just make that up?]
[It actually kinda makes sense? Not that I understand it anyway.]
Tang Xiao smirked. “Yeah, I just made that up.”
His brother had told him—once he left that place, the two worlds would no longer be connected. And in reality, superpowers couldn’t possibly exist.
…Right?
----------
No comments:
Post a Comment