Chapter 53: The 53rd Day of Livestream Selling
Lin Zhao made the final decision. “Stream. You and Simba can stream as boldly as you want. Even streaming all day is fine. There’s no need to split the earnings either. All the traffic revenue and money you two earn from appearing on camera belongs to you two!”
Of course, it was impossible to actually stream all day. 1114 could not withstand that.
But three hours a day was no problem. Wei An really was a prairie dog with principles. He refused to take advantage of Lin Zhao for nothing and insisted on negotiating a suitable split.
On top of that, he was extremely dedicated to his job. Every day, he brought plenty of material to the camera. Lin Zhao seriously suspected that his ancestors were either from Northeast China or Yunnan. He was simply born to eat from the bowl of the internet.
For example, what he and Simba performed for everyone that day was how to hunt on the Pagar Grassland.
The afternoon sunlight slanted across the yellow-green mottled grassland, as if coating the entire field in an amber-like glow. The air remained dry and tense.
Compared to Lin Zhao, who streamed early in the morning, Wei An, following the habits of grassland animals, preferred to start streaming at noon. Usually, this was a good time to hunt, and also when the content was most interesting.
Wei An had been crouching behind a clump of tumbleweed for quite a while, holding his breath and concentrating. His newly grown layer of brown-gray fur blended almost perfectly with the grayish-yellow surroundings. Only his glossy black eyes stared unblinkingly at a sparse patch of grass ahead.
If there were voiceover at this moment, it would probably go like this:
[Pay attention. This prairie dog is called Wei An. He is a mouse who has made it on the Pagar Grassland. In the past, he often starved nine meals out of three days. Now, he has finally welcomed a turning point in his fate—a juvenile Krugu lion cub has become his number one underling. At this very moment, they are working hard for the underling’s brunch. Although eating it raw like this is a bit impolite, it is truly delicious.]
Not far from Wei An lay Simba, many, many times larger than him, though still in the cub stage as far as lions were concerned.
The little lion’s golden-brown fur had regained its health and shone like satin under the sunlight. Although not yet fully grown, the frame belonging to a king of beasts had already begun to show a fierce outline.
Simba copied Wei An’s posture, lowering his body as much as possible like a cat pretending to be hollowed out, tensing every solid muscle. Only a low, excited growl before the hunt slipped uncontrollably from his throat. Their beast eyes were locked on the same target—a young gazelle slightly separated from the herd, head lowered as it gnawed at grass roots.
That was the prey they had observed for a long time.
Wei An tilted his head. After giving Simba an eye signal, the golden figure shot out from behind the rocks where he had been hiding like an arrow released from a bowstring.
It caught the gazelle completely off guard.
The young gazelle was badly startled. Its slender limbs kicked hard against the ground, and then it began fleeing in panic toward the depression Wei An had predicted. It was extremely fast and graceful, carrying the alarm and explosive power unique to young animals.
Wei An darted out almost at the same time. He did not rely on speed. Instead, he used the precise positioning he had once used when defending forwards in the backfield and waited right on the gazelle’s necessary path. At the same time, he let out sharp “chirp chirp chirp” cries, kicking up dust in an attempt to further frighten and interfere with the gazelle’s judgment.
An extreme chase and escape unfolded fiercely among withered grass and earthen slopes. Dust flew everywhere, and broken grass scattered in all directions. Simba pursued relentlessly, and the distance between lion and gazelle narrowed bit by bit.
Just as the little lion pounced, bit firmly onto the gazelle’s neck, and was about to hook his claws around its hind legs—
Today’s livestream ended here.
To know what happened next, please wait for the next episode.
The bullet comments and comment section were all still unsatisfied, yelling that the director had no humanity. How could they cut it off here? However, viewers who were very satisfied with the little lion defeating a stronger opponent despite his youth sent gifts until they flew across the screen.
Wei An, who was very good at grasping traffic, was extremely satisfied with today’s script arrangement. Looking at the backend data, he nodded. In addition to youth training cooperation, he had also been responsible for part of the club’s external commercial operations. After arranging the youth training work for that year, his superiors had originally intended to let him fully transfer to the publicity side of the commercial department.
Now, he no longer needed to rack his brains making promotional videos for a group of players who, at most, had graduated high school. He only needed to promote himself and Simba.
Behind the camera after the stream ended, Lin Zhao was staring in shock as the gazelle turned into a curly-haired beautiful boy who looked only thirteen or fourteen. He took the short-sleeved shirt and shorts Wei An handed him while clumsily putting them on, and still did not forget to complain, “Simba bit too hard. If he does that again next time, I won’t cooperate with you anymore.”
Wei An hurriedly presented a basket of the best awned grass that had grown earliest after the dry season. He “chirp chirp chirped,” expressing: You’re our big star! The grassland can’t be without you!
The narcissistic gazelle raised his head. That was true. He was so good-looking. Who could bear to look away from him?
Lin Zhao: “…Hello? Can someone explain what happened?”
“Oh, oh.” Wei An hurriedly poked Simba, making the fellow who was sprawled flat like a frog and eating roasted beef ribs with great relish take time out of his “busy schedule” to translate for him. “Wei An says, munch munch munch, he discovered this is actually a beastman world. What is a beastman?”
Wei An chirped: “Beastmen are animals like you and me who can turn into humans. Adults are talking. Children shouldn’t interrupt.”
“What is a human?” A tiny lion, filled with enormous confusion.
In short, things were exactly as Lin Zhao saw. Aside from Simba being able to talk, Wei An had also, with Simba’s help, discovered and found several animals that could turn into people. He had reached livestream cooperation agreements with some of them. Today was their first trial stream, and the one appearing on camera was Lamb Skewer. Mm, one look and it was obvious this awful name had been given by Wei An.
Simba munched and chewed. “He says when he saw him, all he could think of was lamb skewers.”
“What are lamb skewers? Are they good?”
“I want to eat them too! I want to eat them! Wei An, I want to eat them!”
Lamb Skewer had already looked toward Lin Zhao, who had turned off stealth mode. His horizontal rectangular pupils, unique to gazelles, were filled with bold curiosity. “You’re the generous boss Wei An mentioned? As long as I work well, I’ll have endless grass to eat and endless water to drink?”
“More or less.”
“Then what do you think of my performance just now? Was it realistic? Was it good? I originally wanted to add a scene where, in a desperate moment, I turn into a two-legged beast, roll on the spot, escape from the lion’s mouth, and quickly climb a tree. I think that would be more realistic. After all, Simba is only a cub. Without an adult lion backing him up, as a nearly grown gazelle, would I be afraid of him? Does he not know the power of a gazelle’s hind hooves?”
Just see whether I kick him to death or not.
“But Wei An didn’t agree. He wouldn’t let me turn into a two-legged beast.” Lamb Skewer looked a little wronged and complained to the big boss. “Or is it that the two-legged beast I turn into isn’t good-looking?”
The beautiful boy’s watery eyes were full of grievance. How could there be anyone who did not love him? He was the most beautiful herbivore on the entire Pagar Grassland!
Lin Zhao: “…Although one should refuse animal performances, it can’t be helped when the animals insist on performing!”
Just as Lin Zhao thought this magical day should end here, Wei An whistled at a gaudy, unknown bird in the sky. Before long, animals appeared one after another.
Each beast carried a lidded woven grass basket on its back.
Wei An wrote on the ground: “Since you’re here, inspect these.”
Inspect what? Of course, the various vegetation and ores the expert team had asked Wei An to help collect as much as possible.
“Where did you get all this?” Lin Zhao was shocked.
[I collected them from other beastmen,] Wei An continued writing a long string of Spanish that was directly translated. [Can you believe it? Their payment is just meat. If we keep collecting like this, I reckon finding a gold mine is only a matter of time.]
One animal after another—herbivores, carnivores, scavengers—lined up obediently, waiting for inspection and meat exchange. Some still maintained their original forms, while some had already turned into bare humans. But most beastmen chose to sprawl flat like frogs. The grassland in this season was truly too hot.
On the way home from work that evening, Lin Zhao was still brainstorming with 1114. “Can we open an MCN company and develop streamers like this in other planes too?”
Wei An’s initiative was simply too strong. He truly deserved to be a prairie dog who had lived independently on the great grassland for three months, not only without starving to death, but even managing to keep himself glossy and smooth.
“I can bring goods to other planes. There’s no reason people from other planes can’t bring goods to Blue Star.” Just like today, people from another plane could line up and ask him: Do you need this? Do you need that? If you need it, what can you trade for it?
Wasn’t that also a transaction?
1114 was stunned and nearly convinced by Lin Zhao. Unfortunately, the current operability of this idea was not too great, because… there was only one 1114, and only one livestream camera that could cross planes.
But it was indeed a line of thought. As long as Lin Zhao could draw a system clone prop, perhaps it really could be realized.
As for when this prop could be drawn…
“Zhaozhao, good luck! I believe in you!” 1114 once again waved its virtual cheerleading pom-poms.
When Lin Zhao got home, he once again saw the familiar offerings at the door. The various races of the Farris Continent were still continuously “mailing” all kinds of things to Lin Zhao through divine statues. There were animals, fruits, and they had even nearly sent over a living person. Lin Zhao had strictly refused the last one.
He had already explained to that side that he was not a god, only a merchant.
But no one believed him.
The dark elf Arland also advised Lin Zhao that there was no need to keep explaining, because he was currently speaking through divine statues. If everyone did not think he was a god, then according to Farris’s heavy religious atmosphere, the next step would be to label him as some evil entity.
An evil entity could not smoothly conduct transactions, so Lin Zhao could only accept his fate.
After habitually putting away the offerings and having 1114 return things the other side needed, trying hard to treat this as a normal trade, Lin Zhao finally lay back on his large bed.
Once he lay down, he did not want to do anything. He just wanted to lie there.
Of course, Lin Zhao was not completely idle. He sent Reinhardt a message: [Cat pics!]
During this period, Reinhardt had taken quite a few photos of his cat for him. Although every one of them looked extremely reluctant, that was exactly the feeling Lin Zhao wanted. Lin Zhao happily waited for today’s cat photos.
There was no message from Reinhardt’s side for a long time, but Lin Zhao was not in a hurry. Every photo session was like this, after all. Whether it was Reinhardt or his cat, one of them always needed to do some psychological preparation first. Little Boss Lin expressed that he could wait!
Since he had nothing to do anyway, Lin Zhao started drawing with 1114. Although he could no longer draw planes, he could still draw props. It was still ten thousand per draw. Ever since Lin Zhao had “extorted” the functional prop that allowed him to see other planes, the expert team had been very encouraging about him continuing to draw cards. What if he drew another useful function?
So Lin Zhao would draw once in a while. Only this time, he was especially devout, constantly praying in his heart: system clone, system clone, system clone!
Tonight’s night sky was like an old piece of velvet soaked in black water, pressing heavily outside the floor-to-ceiling window. The instant Lin Zhao pressed the button again, the entire world was suddenly covered by an invisible, absolute white light. It was very much like the sudden and extreme instant in a movie. Only after the “beep,” what came was not silence, but something far more real—
Impact.
Lin Zhao felt as if his chest had been shoved hard by an invisible giant hand. Fortunately, his back merely sank into the soft bed.
Then, the delayed, massive, distorted roar rolled over from beyond the horizon. It did not sound like thunder. It was more like something unimaginably enormous, somewhere extremely far away—perhaps outside the atmosphere, perhaps even deeper in space—had brushed violently past Blue Star, or had directly slammed into it.
Lin Zhao felt it most deeply. The protective shield prop given by the system outside his house seemed to have suffered a powerful impact.
Lin Xiang was still working overtime at the Special Administration Bureau today and had not returned. But one could imagine that this Blue Star anomaly would definitely be classified as caused by natural energy. Lin Xiang probably would not be able to come home tonight.
Lin Zhao’s security team had already divided their tasks clearly and started moving. One team went out to check the situation, while another rushed in to protect Lin Zhao.
But nothing happened. Outside had already returned to normal, as if the white light that seemed ready to devour everything just now had merely been a dream everyone had at the same time. Lin Zhao insisted on evacuating the villa. He kept feeling that something was outside. He could not explain it, but he just wanted to go out and look. However, all he saw was that the night sky remained deep, the stars still twinkled as usual, and the slightly cool summer night breeze brushed through the tree branches, leaving behind the familiar rustling sound.
Just as Lin Zhao almost began doubting his own intuition and prepared to turn back into the house—
“Meow.”
A faint, tender, even somewhat matter-of-course cry came from a shadowed corner. A silver tabby cat that Lin Zhao could not be more familiar with slowly walked into his sight.
Those distinctive violet eyes made it impossible for Lin Zhao to pretend this was a coincidence.
He was certain. This was Reinhardt’s cat—the tabby cat that was still his phone wallpaper.
Author’s Note:
Nonsense Mini Theater:
Reinhardt: He uses me as his wallpaper! He loves me!
Carlos: …Wake up!
The real online friends have met, hahaha.
