Chapter 32: On Camera
Over the next few days, the biggest news on the Moonfall Starsinking server and the hottest gossip on the Quest for the Azure Heavens forums were Cold Sword Shadow's grand confession scene and Misty Autumn Rain finally accepting his pursuit. The two had become Dao companions.
The entire Little Veggie Guild was shocked. Well, not everyone. Endless Time and Thousand Feathers weren't surprised.
Thousand Feathers was completely immune to gossip—everyone had figured that out by now. As for Endless Time, he simply wasn't interested, even when the people involved were a beautiful female player who had once pursued him and his former guild leader.
Because Xiao Chi was streaming, everyone avoided discussing it in-game and moved the conversation to the WeChat group Blue Sky Beyond had created.
After their hasty retreat from Mount Bianchun that day, Xiao Chi had ended the stream.
The moment he logged off, Blue Sky Beyond sent over a QR code and invited him into the group chat.
It was the first time Xiao Chi had ever added online friends on WeChat.
In truth, Xiao Chi rarely played MMORPGs. Most of the games he played were single-player titles, and when he first started editing gaming videos, they had all been for single-player games. Quest for the Azure Heavens was only the second online game he had ever seriously played. The first time had been back when he was attending vocational school.
He had always played games alone. A lone wanderer.
Until now.
During the weekend, Xiao Chi barely logged into the game during the day. He focused on editing videos and doing homework instead.
His phone vibrated every so often. Every time it buzzed, he picked it up to check. Almost all the notifications came from the "Little Veggie Guild" group chat, with the occasional message from his class group discussing homework and the upcoming final exams.
[Sister Dog]: Look at this forum post: "Cold Sword Shadow Smashes 52 'One Life, One Love' Fireworks in Front of Endless Time, Passionately Confesses to Misty Autumn Rain, Finally Wins the Beauty's Heart"—HAHAHAHAHA what kind of street-stall romance novel title is this?
[Lime]: Still not enough homework.
[Blue Sky Beyond]: "Endless Time Leaves the Guild in Despair, Cold Sword Shadow's Grand Confession Leaves Misty Autumn Rain Torn Between Two Men"—What is this? What even is this? Leaves in despair? That's slander against Brother Shi!
[Sister Dog]: "818: Why Did the Number One Expert on the Server Furiously Leave the Moonfall Starsinking Server's Top Guild for an Unknown Small Guild?" What?! We're the Little Veggie Guild! The Little Veggie Guild! Our guild leader is a famous streamer on this server! His stream has reached three thousand concurrent viewers! I'm going up there and tearing them apart!
[Lime]: Three thousand?
[Blue Sky Beyond]: Peak concurrent viewers reached three thousand before. I wasn't wrong.
[Lime]: Brother Chi [Thumb up]
Xiao Chi, silently lurking in the chat: ...
Everyone in the group had changed their display names to match their in-game IDs. Quietly, Xiao Chi tapped on Endless Time's profile picture.
Shi—Endless Time's WeChat ID consisted of only a single character: Shi, the same Shi from Endless Time.
His profile picture was a saber cultivator carrying the Kunwu Blade on his back.
Chi Zhen found himself wondering whether Endless Time's real name also contained the character Shi. Otherwise, why did Blue Sky Beyond always call him "Brother Shi"?
He couldn't see the man's Moments feed. They hadn't added each other as individual friends yet.
[Thousand Feathers]: Guild Leader Chi, the crops in the fields need watering.
[Xiao Chi]: Okay, I'll water them when I log on later.
[Lime]: I watered them for you.
[Xiao Chi]: Ah, thanks.
[Lime]: I saw another flowerpot that also needed watering. After I watered it, I got a notification saying I wasn't the owner and couldn't do that.
[Xiao Chi]: Thanks. I'll take care of it later. Only I can water that flowerpot.
[Blue Sky Beyond]: Oh, the Unknown Seed one. Endless Time, you've really screwed over our dear Brother Chi. Scumbag!
[Endless Time]: ?
Blue Sky Beyond launched into a lengthy accusation against Endless Time.
Xiao Chi hurriedly followed with an equally long explanation that he didn't mind; it was fine, the seed had already sprouted, and maybe it would grow into something valuable.
[Blue Sky Beyond]: A Nüyi Flowerpot costs five hundred thousand! Five hundred thousand! And you have to climb a mountain every day carrying water. What kind of treasure would have to grow out of that thing to make it worth all the effort?
[Endless Time]: If it doesn't grow into anything good, Blue Sky Beyond will pay you back the five hundred thousand.
[Blue Sky Beyond]: ???
[Xiao Chi]: No need. Really. Growing things is fun because of the uncertainty.
Chi Zhen spent the entire day editing videos. When he got tired, he took breaks to memorize study materials for his final exams. By the time he logged on in the evening, he discovered a new member had joined the group chat. Explosive Red.
The moment she entered, the message count between her, Sister Dog, and Lime instantly shot past ninety-nine unread messages. Explosive Red tearfully complained that she wanted to follow Blue Sky Beyond and Sister Dog into the Little Veggie Guild too, but her master and martial aunt were still in Way of Heaven. She couldn't abandon them. Back when she had been a clueless newbie, her master and martial aunt had picked her up in the beginner village and guided her ever since. Their kindness weighed heavily on her heart.
Sister Dog immediately got to the point.
[Sister Dog]: Stay in Way of Heaven and be our spy. Now hurry up and tell us what's going on with Misty Autumn Rain and the former guild leader???
What followed was another flood of ninety-nine-plus messages.
Chi Zhen read everything from beginning to end. Explosive Red talked extensively about Misty Autumn Rain and Cold Sword Shadow. Yet after finishing, Chi Zhen still didn't understand what exactly had happened between them.
[Explosive Red]: Anyway, there was one time when even Frost Purple Jade was secretly complaining about Misty Autumn Rain. She said the guild leader treated her so well, so why wouldn't she accept him? Why did she keep chasing after Endless Time instead? Endless Time was so cold to her. He barely spoke to her, and he was stingy too. After all the raids they'd run together, he'd never once bid on gear for her. Then Misty Autumn Rain said it was because Endless Time was the number one expert on the server, and that was cool. Seriously, what kind of logic is that?
[Endless Time]: ...
[Blue Sky Beyond]: Stingy! Hahahahaha!
[Sister Dog]: Probably vanity. She thought having the server's number one player as her partner would be impressive. If she couldn't get the number one player, then the leader of the server's number one guild would do. Something like that.
[Sister Dog]: She's beautiful, rich, and highly skilled. If she was going to choose someone she didn't even like as her Dao companion, what exactly was she hoping to gain?
[Lime]: Maybe she just likes stirring up trouble.
[Xiao Chi]: ...
[Explosive Red]: Wow, Xiao Chi and Endless Time sent exactly the same message. You two really are on the same wavelength!
Chi Zhen nearly coughed up blood. He hurriedly closed WeChat.
He organized all the gameplay recordings he'd accumulated over the past few days and edited them carefully.
He paid special attention to Endless Time's heroic tree-exploding performance, syncing the footage to fast-paced music with powerful drumbeats. The result was incredibly hype.
The videos Chi Zhen had uploaded over the past two weeks had all performed well. But the one featuring Endless Time blowing up trees exploded in popularity. He uploaded it that evening under the title: "The Server's Number One Expert Leads a Team Through a Hundred-Person Encirclement." Twenty-four hours later, it had already surpassed three hundred thousand views.
Chi Zhen was stunned.
Forty-eight hours later, it had passed five hundred thousand views and was still climbing.
Meanwhile, his livestream viewership was rising as well. His streams now averaged over three thousand concurrent viewers every day.
The rapidly increasing traffic left Chi Zhen no time to process what was happening. He hadn't even gotten used to all the new attention.
Then, before long, he received an invitation to the platform's annual streaming event.
Chi Zhen opened the invitation link sent by the platform administrator and carefully read through the details.
Every summer vacation, the Pineapple platform held its annual streaming event. Participating streamers could receive varying levels of front-page promotion based on popularity and might even land advertising partnerships arranged through the platform. Not only would they gain exposure, but they could also earn a substantial amount of advertising revenue.
At the end of the event, rankings would be determined by a combination of stream popularity, gifts received, flowers received, total comments, and other engagement metrics. The top three streamers would receive generous cash prizes.
Top three on the entire platform? Chi Zhen didn't dare dream that far. Even a front-page recommendation felt out of reach. But in order to encourage smaller streamers to participate, Pineapple had included a special incentive: During the event, gift revenue would be split 80/20 between streamer and platform.
Normally, the split was fifty-fifty. Now all he had to do was click the participation link, and he would immediately get an eighty-twenty split.
He didn't even have to do anything special. Just stream as usual.
Chi Zhen was extremely tempted. Who didn't want to make more money?
There was only one requirement that left him troubled.
To participate in the annual event, streamers had to turn on their webcams and appear on camera.
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