Chapter 44
He couldn’t preview the quest reward in advance, but the moment Xie Xingchen saw the words “Workshop”, he admitted he was tempted!
As great as a starship was, it wasn’t a factory complex.
He could still make do by stuffing everything onto the ship for now, but he couldn’t keep storing everything on a starship forever, could he?
What’s more, his starship was only a small one. Even if he spread things out, it still couldn’t hold much.
There was enough space to live in, sure. But everything else was “barely acceptable.” A proper workspace? That was genuinely hard.
To be honest, if the system didn’t reward him with a workshop, Xie Xingchen would probably have to hire people to build factories himself sooner or later.
But now… staring at the workshop’s panoramic miniature on the quest page—shrunken countless times—Xie Xingchen was practically drooling.
A traditional, antique-style workshop district!
And not just one factory or two—more like an ancient city’s market ward, packed with countless workshops.
Even if all the factories were empty, the buildings were already there, which would make moving in incredibly easy.
And—most importantly—it was classical Chinese architecture!
Grand and beautiful.
One glance was enough to make him happy.
This was exactly the style Xie Xingchen had once wanted to use for decorating his StarNet Mall shop!
But—he wasn’t a designer. He really couldn’t draw buildings like this.
He could doodle something that looked okay from the outside, but the level of detail required for StarNet Mall’s approved decoration specs? No chance.
Xie Xingchen: starry eyes.jpg
Enchanted out of his mind by a system quest reward he’d triggered by accident, Xie Xingchen stared at that ancient-city-like workshop district and let his imagination run wild. Then, once he finally snapped back to reality, he straightened up and started analyzing the quest requirements seriously.
Seven days. The seaside. One hundred thousand fans.
Those were the three key points.
And once those three were put together, only one thing remained in his mind—
a shore-foraging livestream.
Thinking that, his gaze drifted toward the beach. For some reason, he felt full of confidence.
Foraging the shore, right? How hard could it be?
It was just carrying a bucket and picking things up!
Remembering the seafood-overrun beach, Xie Xingchen’s confidence shot through the roof.
He logged onto StarBlog, posted a livestream announcement—and moved fast.
After exiting StarBlog, he thought for a moment, then left the beach with the three robots: Get-Rich, Prosperity, and Long-Life.
He admitted he had ambition—he didn’t just want to livestream shore foraging. He also wanted to livestream food for everyone!
Seafood: universally recognized as delicious in the 21st century.
Cooked, or even marinated raw—either way, it was good!
Xie Xingchen once had a classmate from the south whose hometown had a tradition of eating raw-marinated seafood. People there loved it and claimed the texture was like ice cream—so good it was unreal.
And it wasn’t just some southern regions. Nearby countries—like Korea and “Sawadee-kha” land—also loved raw-marinated seafood.
Unfortunately, Xie Xingchen had never tried it before: first because he was poor, and second because of parasites.
Now money wasn’t a problem, seafood ingredients were everywhere for the picking, and parasites were easy to deal with—just toss them into a machine and sterilize.
But he was still limited by something else—
no seasonings.
Xie Xingchen: This is ridiculous!
Sure enough, life was full of “surprises.”
Good food couldn’t exist without seasoning.
Seasoning was humanity’s greatest invention, bar none.
In this culinary wasteland, if he wanted to eat well, he had to gather the seasonings first!
Xie Xingchen took one last reluctant look at the ocean, then said to the three robots, “Get-Rich, Prosperity, Long-Life—let’s go find some fruit.”
Since he was doing shore-foraging + food livestream, he needed to prepare.
The scarcity of seasonings made him want to dig up supplies locally.
After all, this was Qiongzhou—Hainan. The island was incredibly rich in produce, with more tropical fruits than you could count. Historically, because transport was inconvenient, there were times when sweet fruit was so abundant it was even used to feed pigs.
So surely it wouldn’t be hard to find a few useful things, right?
He wasn’t totally sure—but his gut said yes.
Once he left the beach area, the vegetation grew dense.
Evergreen tropical plants were everywhere, and some were even fruiting. Mangoes were all over the place—so many that Xie Xingchen was practically stuck drooling in place.
[Beep-beep. Reminder from your light-brain: 20 minutes until your scheduled livestream. Please prepare as soon as possible.]
Xie Xingchen raised his eyebrows in surprise. “That fast?”
He hadn’t even walked far from the beach!
At that moment, the three blunt robots said in unison, “Boss, that’s because you spent too long sightseeing!”
Xie Xingchen blinked. “Really? That long?”
He felt like he’d only looked around for a moment.
The robots nodded. Xie Xingchen regretfully tore his gaze away from the mangoes.
He’d only reserved one hour to prepare before going live.
Now it looked like that time was nowhere near enough.
But that was fine—he could just let the audience do the “pre-quest” with him.
Ahem. It wasn’t that he wanted to scam people—it was just that he had no idea how long it would take to find fruit. The time was there; wasting it would be worse!
[Beep-beep. Reminder from your light-brain: 10 minutes until your scheduled livestream. Please prepare as soon as possible.]
Xie Xingchen pulled out a livestream orb from the “land-reclamation toolkit bundle” he’d received as a bonus.
He didn’t actually know why a land-reclamation kit would include a livestream orb, but it was definitely convenient.
The orb needed to link to his light-brain, verify his identity, and then he could start a personal livestream in the StarNet live platform.
Opening a personal channel was easy—if you had a light-brain ID, it was basically one click. Once the room was created, it could sync the info and link to StarBlog. That way, every time he went live, StarBlog would automatically post a “live now” notification.
Xie Xingchen had the “link accounts” option checked by default, so the moment his room went up, StarBlog posted the corresponding update.
In Xie Xingchen’s mind, today’s livestream was just a trial run. You could tell because he didn’t even take out the orb until the last ten minutes—he wasn’t stressed at all.
But because of that “whatever happens, happens” attitude…
He absolutely wrecked the netizens.
The boss of Earth Shop is going live!
The news spread instantly.
Less than a minute after Xie Xingchen’s post, countless people were obediently squatting on StarBlog waiting for him to drop the room ID.
But the infuriating part?
They waited over twenty minutes, and the boss basically vanished like a ghost.
Netizens: ?
Where’s the room ID?
Since when did announcements not include the person themselves?!
Everyone panicked.
This was the first time Xie Xingchen had ever said he’d livestream. With Earth Shop’s current hype, the number of fans paying attention was enormous.
But what could they do? The man was too strong.
A plant with 5% green-matter content selling for only 9,999 star-coins—and as more people posted unboxings, they discovered it wasn’t just “5%.” It was 5.99%!
Is that really “5%”? Any other shop would’ve called it 6%, but Earth Shop insisted on 5%.
Once that came out, the sunflower hype exploded again—completely dominant. But for buyers, that was bad news: the hotter it got, the more people fought for it, and the harder it became to grab.
And now the sunflower’s boss—Xie Xingchen—was going live.
How could people not start imagining things?
A certain guess floated into everyone’s mind. Unlikely, sure—but what if?
Boss, are you livestream-selling?
No one wanted to miss that.
So the moment his StarBlog post went out, the whole network boiled.
But the boss was unreliable—he didn’t even leave the room ID!
People were on the verge of collapse, terrified he’d start selling on stream and they’d miss it. They didn’t even have time to criticize him—everyone rushed to StarNet Live to hunt for his channel.
Small streamers and newbie streamers watched in confusion as waves of viewers flooded in and out, out and in…
It was so weird it sparked curiosity.
They asked what was going on—
and that only spread the news further.
Earth Shop’s boss is going live?!
Small streamers: hyped.jpg
Why would they keep streaming then? Of course they’d go watch the boss!
Without hesitation, they forcibly ended their own streams and, since they knew the platform better, searched far more efficiently than ordinary netizens.
But Xie Xingchen hadn’t even created the room yet.
No matter how “efficient” you were, you couldn’t find a room that didn’t exist.
Finally, with less than ten minutes left before the scheduled time, StarBlog auto-posted the linked livestream room ID.
Seeing it, everyone felt like they had a lump of air stuck in their chest—neither swallowed nor spat out.
What the hell, man!
Another “Star Alliance Can’t Even” event!
Who announces a livestream… without even creating the room?
Creating it only a few minutes before going live—what is that?
Rich and reckless?
Or just assuming people would watch no matter what?
Heh… we really would. ( :??? )
With a resigned sigh, everyone clicked into Xie Xingchen’s live room.
Unlike other streamers with flashy names, his room name was simply his own name.
And because the account was linked to his personal identity, not a corporate or group identity, his channel automatically verified him as a planet owner.
Everyone entering could see the Earth icon next to his name.
[Damn, finally found it—why was this so hard?!]
[Three minutes left! I’ve been dying waiting!]
[Same! I didn’t get a sunflower—do I have a chance today?]
[Same suffering. I didn’t even get the food either. Seriously, there are so many beasts online—so many portions and they still sold out instantly.]
[Yeah I didn’t get any. When will the Star Alliance improve net speed for edge planets? Our connection can’t compete with the core planets at all!]
Those who missed out were full of resentment. The world felt cruel.
But—
[Uh… are you all overthinking it? Boss Xie never said he’s selling on stream, and you’re already dreaming of grabbing sunflowers?]
[+1. Not trying to ruin the mood, but think about it—does Boss Xie even need livestream sales?]
Fans: damn you (a kind of plant), and you call that “not ruining the mood”?
A bucket of cold water poured over their heads. Everyone’s hearts turned icy.
Still, no one left until the very last second.
Same line as always: what if?
What if he is selling on stream?
And even if he isn’t, there could be giveaways!
A brand-new livestream room—how could there not be chances to speak, win favor, or hit a raffle?
If they left a strong impression, maybe a “backdoor” wasn’t impossible.
Convinced they could be the lucky one, they believed all the discouraging comments in the chat had bad intentions.
Hmph! They just wanted to scare others away and take the benefits themselves.
Hadn’t they seen how friendly streamers were with fans in early streams?
Boss Xie had just started—he’d definitely interact. If they stood out now, then…
Everyone rubbed their hands, burning with excitement, watching the countdown and muttering prayers.
In an instant, the screen shifted from black to color.
Blue sky, white clouds, tall trees, plentiful fruit, adorable animals, and… that heart-stirring ocean.
The blue–green–white palette looked fresh and natural—one glance cleared the mind.
And then a long shot captured everyone’s attention.
As the camera glided, they felt like seabirds over the waves… free and happy.
The lens swept down from the sky, and before anyone recovered, it had already reached Xie Xingchen.
Still dazed by the scenery, the viewers froze again at the sight of the bright, sunny, refreshing-looking boy on screen.
Wait—this is Boss Xie?
How is he prettier than a celebrity?
Especially those clear, bright eyes—when he smiled, it gave the illusion that starlight had fallen into the sea.
[Oh my god—Boss Xie is that young?!]
[Wait—has he even come of age?!]
[Holy—he’s the looks ceiling of all bosses!]
Triple shock. Everyone felt their worldview wobble.
And weirdly… they also felt that only a boy like this could be Boss Xie. Only someone so youthful and sunny would not love money.
Those greasy old bosses were shrewd as hell—how could they ever “share profits” with ordinary people?
With that thought, everyone’s view of Xie Xingchen gained a filter. Especially the merfolk civilization viewers—their favorability shot up instantly.
His looks were one thing, but more importantly, the livestream was pure merfolk bait: the ocean, their favorite.
Xie Xingchen waved at the camera and asked with wide-eyed curiosity, “Hi everyone—can you see me?”
[Yes!!]
[555 Boss Xie is so cute, I want to steal you home!]
[Sending Boss Xie a kiss!]
One sentence and the chat exploded. Then gifts started pouring in like madness.
Flowers, mines, rocket cannons, depth charges… and in the end, even a spaceship appeared!
A spaceship gift cost 100,000 star-coins. Knowing that, Xie Xingchen saw the spaceship effect and was so shocked his mouth fell open.
His “country bumpkin” reaction made everyone laugh, and people hurried to screenshot it.
After a moment, Xie Xingchen finally recovered and hurriedly thanked everyone in a fluster.
He glanced at the top gifter—“Kitty Meow-Meow”—and said, “Thanks for the gifts, everyone, but I didn’t start streaming to receive gifts, so please stop throwing them—especially the spaceship. That one’s too expensive. It’s not worth it.”
The username sounded like a minor, so he worried a kid might be spending a parent’s money. He added, “Meow-Meow, don’t throw spaceships at me again. That’s really expensive. If you clicked it by accident, you can message me and I’ll refund you later.”
Then he fumbled in the backend, found the “gifts” panel, and clicked Disable Gift Receiving.
That move stunned the fans—and made Kitty Meow-Meow’s face go green.
Kitty Meow-Meow was a famous rich whale in StarBlog livestreams.
Since bursting onto the scene ten years ago, he’d been crowned “Tycoon,” and his money-splashing style had never been surpassed.
Throwing one spaceship at Xie Xingchen was nothing—just a drop of water.
And yet… the streamer basically called him a minor? And even offered a refund?
Kitty Meow-Meow: This is insane.
[HAHAHA I’m dying—never thought Cat Boss would see this day!]
[A MINOR?! My god, is Boss Xie trying to kill me with laughter? In Boss Xie’s eyes, Cat Boss is a minor?! Not only that—he’s a minor who might be stealing a parent’s money to throw gifts!]
[So is this Boss Xie’s fault… or Cat Boss’s username’s fault?]
It was definitely the username’s fault!
Xie Xingchen went numb reading the chat.
So the guy wasn’t a minor—he was a rich whale.
Which raised the real question: if he’s a rich whale, why pick a name like that?
It looked exactly like a kid’s name—how could Xie Xingchen not misunderstand?
Xie Xingchen cleared his throat twice and pretended nothing happened.
He smiled with youthful energy at the camera. “Ahem—everyone, look over here. The livestream is starting!”
He clapped, trying to pull the room’s attention back.
At that moment, as if to encourage him, the system directly displayed the quest progress.
[Make Everyone Jealous: 0/100000]
Great. Not a single “loyal fan” yet.
Looks like the system’s definition of “loyal fan” was pretty strict.
Given the quest name “Make Everyone Jealous,” Xie Xingchen had to suspect that these loyal fans might need to be converted from envy and jealousy.
If that was the case…
Then don’t blame him for becoming a full-time show-off!
He didn’t want to, but reality forced him!
He glanced at the lively chat, feeling genuinely apologetic inside: Sorry, my fans… because of me, you’re about to step into the abyss of envy.
[Boss Xie, what are you streaming today?]
[Boss Xie, are you selling? We’ll buy a lot!]
[Sunflowers! Sunflowers! Sunflowers! I want sunflowers!]
Fans were wailing, but Xie Xingchen couldn’t help.
He shrugged, smiled awkwardly, and said sincerely, “That’s really not happening. You all know—I only became a planet owner recently. In such a short time, it’s impossible to mass-produce plants. Just cultivating what Earth Shop is already listing took me a lot of time and money.”
No one doubted him; it was common sense.
Still, everyone knew the beginning was the hardest part. Once the foundation was set, things would get easier. So they kept urging him.
In the end, Xie Xingchen could only promise that once production increased, he’d increase listings immediately.
That finally satisfied everyone, and they shifted the topic to the surroundings. Xie Xingchen nodded and smiled. “Yes, this is Earth. I’m on vacation right now.”
[Vacation? Not exploration?]
It was exploration, but Earth was different from other planets. In this environment, it didn’t look like exploration at all. Xie Xingchen didn’t want trouble, so he simply said vacation.
He shook his head. “Not exploration—vacation. Exploration bots have already been here, and security bots already handled things.”
[No wonder! This place looks really safe!]
[And there are so many plants—Earth looks great! Hope there are more safe plants!]
[Maybe not that many? Boss Xie is still wearing a protective suit.]
Xie Xingchen had expected people to talk about the environment. Without blinking, he lied smoothly: “Earth really is great. It’s remote, but overall it still qualifies as a habitable planet—so some areas will definitely be better than other planets. As for plant safety? I spent a lot of time and effort treating the plants in this area, so it’s very safe and not very harmful. The protective suit is just in case—this is my first time here, after all. Better safe than sorry.”
He was lying.
After drinking the physique enhancer and unexpectedly boosting his mental strength, he could roughly sense that these plants were normal. They had no green matter, but also no dark matter. Compared to interstellar plants with all sorts of strange substances, these felt more like old Earth plants.
But he couldn’t share that discovery, so he had to claim he’d “treated” the area.
After explaining the environment, Xie Xingchen began walking.
“Today I came here to find a few fruits. They’ll be safe and non-toxic, and they can act as seasonings. If we find them, we’ll go forage the shore later—and then make food.”
In the interstellar era, what were the traffic passwords?
Plants. Food.
Xie Xingchen said he’d find fruit and use it to make food—instantly the livestream exploded with cheers.
Food! Amazing!
This young planet owner was going to cook for them?
So he must be using a chef’s methods, right?
Did that mean they might actually learn how to make the food?
Cooking skill was precious these days. High-end chefs guarded their techniques closely. If viewers had a chance to learn, how could they not be excited?
Xie Xingchen nodded. “Today, our main goal is to find lemons. Lemons are sour fruits—like sourfruit, but different. The biggest difference is a fresh fragrance. Added to food, it enhances flavor.”
He described the lemon’s appearance as he spoke.
Lemons were actually easy to recognize once you’d seen them, but the problem was: besides Xie Xingchen, no one here even knew what a lemon was. People listened but didn’t understand.
The livestream orb floated around freely. Since it didn’t block his view, he didn’t bother controlling it.
Following his intuition, he chose a direction and walked while scanning the surroundings.
Before he transmigrated, most ripe lemons were yellow—a very noticeable yellow. If you swept your gaze across, you could spot them easily.
So Xie Xingchen believed that if he spent the time, he would definitely find lemons.
But what he didn’t expect was—
After only ten-odd minutes, he didn’t find lemons, but he did find…
passionfruit.
It was climbing between several trees, vines spreading everywhere. On the thick vines hung countless egg-shaped fruits.
The moment he saw them, Xie Xingchen’s eyes lit up.
His undisguised delight stunned the viewers.
[Is it just me, or does Boss Xie look really happy seeing this?]
[So… is it something good?]
[Is it the lemon he mentioned?]
[No, the color doesn’t match!]
While the chat debated, Xie Xingchen rushed over immediately, smiling as he and the three robots picked a whole basketful. Only then did he have time to respond to the viewers.
He said happily, “No, this isn’t lemon. This is eggfruit—though because its flavor is so overpowering, like the fragrance of a hundred fruits, it’s also called passionfruit… and it’s a great thing! Scoop out the pulp, add a little sugar and ice, and you can make a whole pot of delicious fruit tea. Sour and sweet and ice-cold—perfect for summer. One sip and you’ll feel it all the way down your throat!”
The viewers had been indifferent at first, but after his description, their mouths started watering.
[Damn—really?! Will you sell it? I want to buy!]
[Want to buy +1. Boss Xie is too good at business. Wuwu, my wallet says it’s starving!]
[I want to try this fruit tea too. It’s simple! I feel like even I could do it!]
Compared to those complicated cooking methods that were so hard no one could even understand them, passionfruit tea was ridiculously easy—so easy even a three-year-old could manage.
And listen to how Boss Xie described it:
Sour-sweet, and that “refreshing all the way to your throat” feeling?!
Seeing that whole basket of passionfruit, everyone’s envy turned their eyes red.
Especially when they saw the fruit growing in huge quantities, and Boss Xie couldn’t even pick it all—leaving the rest hanging on the vines—the envy surged even harder.
But Xie Xingchen hadn’t brought more robots, so he couldn’t stay here forever harvesting passionfruit. Facing viewers’ pleas, he could only sigh regretfully. “Next time. I really don’t have time today—we have to keep going and find lemons!”
And no matter how people wailed, he kept moving forward, smiling but firm.
Hehe. If he’d found passionfruit, could lemons really be far?
Haha—lemons were definitely waiting obediently up ahead!
Thinking that, Xie Xingchen felt energized all over.
He pointed ahead, grinning. “Everyone, don’t be discouraged. Our lemons are definitely waiting for us up there! Once we find lemons, on the way back, I’ll pick some passionfruit for you and do a giveaway!”
That instantly revived the chat.
A giveaway?!
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