FMLB Chapter 110

Chapter 110 – Poverty Alleviation Target

 

Xi Guican walked towards He Ruge. The cubs surrounding He Ruge instantly scattered, standing timidly in the distance and looking at Xi Guican. Ruanruan, however, was whispering to Autumn Dream Valley, perhaps due to the influence of the golden python, Ruanruan had an unusual affection for snake cubs.

 

“Look,” Xi Guican said, setting his light-brain to share with He Ruge, who then saw the familiar game mode:

 

[Skip Scene]

 

[Yes?]

 

[No?]

 

He Ruge chose “No.”

 

The game switched to a god’s-eye view. After the text disappeared, numerous live stream channels from the platform appeared on the screen. Channels like “Sexy Kitty Live,” “Lonely Little Fox Awaits You,” and “Blood and Fire in the Underground Arena” turned into small light dots, merging into a data stream and flowing deep into the star network, forming a mysterious live streaming website.

 

Wu Chengdeng appeared like a marionette, sending the captured violating streamers to the mysterious live streaming website, providing monsters with a continuous supply of labor.

 

Once a streamer crossed the line for the sake of traffic, they were targeted by the monster. With the temptation of money ahead and the monster’s invisible hand behind, they inevitably walked towards their doom…

 

[Scene Ends]

 

[Game Begins]

 

[Main Quest: Select two streamers from the vast sea of people and train them to become key pieces to break the situation. When the selected streamers have a high belief value towards the player, the game will provide the secret technique of possession!

 

Note: The possession technique allows temporary possession of the selected person with their consent, without causing harm to their body.]

 

[Warm Tip: Team mode, divide and cooperate. Players’ choice of streamer type may differ. It is recommended that player Xi Guican selects suitable streamers from the virtual arena.]

 

He Ruge logged into the game on his light-brain and saw the game’s suggestion for him to choose streamers from the cold-themed live channels on the star network.

 

Based on the game’s introduction, the streamers Xi Guican would train should be related to “violent aesthetics,” while the streamers He Ruge selected would involve the erotic aspects of the mysterious live streams.

 

He Ruge had never thoroughly explored the cold-themed channels. He randomly clicked into a channel.

 

The first channel he stumbled upon was called “Newbie Dad’s Self-Improvement,” where a bearded man passionately read children’s stories to a realistic doll. He Ruge had never heard interstellar children’s stories before and listened for a few minutes.

 

Next, he browsed other cold-themed channels involving singing, dancing, and playing instruments. These channels were uniformly deserted, with very few viewers. 

 

Just as He Ruge was about to leave one channel, the streamer suddenly said, “Friend, can you stay with me a bit longer? You’re my only viewer.”

 

He Ruge, feeling a bit guilty, stayed a while longer, donated a hundred star coins, and anonymously left an encouraging message before quietly leaving.

 

This experience reminded him of when he wrote his first book. Back then, he had no contract, no exposure, and only one reader. 

 

That reader, perhaps out of pity for a new author, not only provided the first favorite, the first collection, the first comment, and the first mine but also stayed with him until he signed his contract and contributed the first subscription. 

 

Then, that reader disappeared.

 

He Ruge sighed softly and clicked into the next live stream. This stream featured a dark brown tabby cat lying on a desk doing homework. When the little tabby saw a new viewer, it jumped off the desk in fright, then transformed into a blushing girl.

 

The girl was beautiful, with a slightly fierce look, triple whites in her eyes, dense eyelashes naturally forming eyeliner, much like her feline form.

 

She nervously greeted her sole viewer, “Welcome, welcome.”

 

He Ruge sent a comment: “Are you streaming your homework?”

 

A refreshing and original idea, he admired it.

 

The tabby girl shook her head in denial, “No, no, I’m a storytelling streamer. Just that no one was here…” 

 

She started doing homework because there were no viewers.

 

He Ruge glanced at her homework and realized he couldn’t understand it at all, like looking at a foreign script.

 

Faced with her only viewer, the girl began her storytelling stream. She narrated “Cinderella,” saying, “This fairy tale is my favorite streamer Ruge once read. I can’t tell it as well as he did…”

 

He Ruge, caught off guard by her confession, quietly watched his little fan. The girl’s voice was sweet, incongruously sweet compared to her appearance. Perhaps cats naturally had sweet voices, perfect for telling fairy tales.

 

He Ruge listened quietly to her story.

 

Meanwhile, Xi Guican was also engaging with the game. Seeing the new player guide, Xi Guican frowned.

 

[New Player Guide:

 

Please select a streamer you appreciate.]

 

The word “appreciate” was synonymous with He Ruge in Xi Guican’s dictionary. Asking him to name anyone else he admired was challenging.

 

He reluctantly entered the virtual arena he hadn’t visited in a long time. His account name was the simple “20,” and the badge on his account belonged to the arena’s top rank, the golden number “1”.

 

Xi Guican had not entered the virtual arena for a long time. Originally, he ranked first not because of his strong desire to win, but because someone from the Federal Military Academy provoked him, claiming the top spot.

 

The virtual arena had both battle and spectator modes. In battle mode, players must use holographic game pods, while in spectator mode, they can directly use light-brains to watch.

 

Xi Guican chose spectator mode. Upon entering the virtual arena, he needed to select which arena to enter. At the moment, there were millions of arenas in competition. Xi Guican clicked into the arena with the highest number of spectators, a five-star arena. 

 

The reason was simple: the arena’s attraction was “Following Xi Guican, the second player to challenge the top 100 player Xue Yuexiao is about to create another miracle.”

 

Quietly appearing on the highest platform of the Roman-style arena, a masked spectator went unnoticed amidst the uproar of the arena. The crowd’s cheers almost shook the arena, yet no one noticed Xi Guican on the highest platform.

 

This was a five-star arena, the highest level in the virtual arena, and its scale was also the largest among the arenas. In the center of the arena was a circular stage used for performances, surrounded by ascending tiers of stands capable of accommodating three hundred thousand spectators. 

 

The higher the spectator’s privilege, the higher their seat on the stands. As the first-ranked player in the arena, Xi Guican could sit in the highest seat and overlook everyone else.

 

Aside from ranking, privileges could also be purchased with money.

 

This privilege system stimulated some wealthy spending, as each match required purchasing seats, similar to buying tickets for a concert. However, the difference was that the prices for seats were uniform, with only privileges determining the seating quality.

 

With high privileges, regardless of the arena entered, the seat’s position would be high. Moreover, those with high privileges for purchasing seats enjoyed discounts. For Xi Guican, ranked first, he didn’t need to buy tickets to enter any arena and could also have an exclusive supreme seat. Of course, he could choose any seat if he wished.

 

Sitting on the supreme seat, Xi Guican looked down impassively at the people below. He coldly watched Xue Yuexiao shine in the arena, the disdain and indifference in his eyes succinctly summarized as “trash.”

 

Feeling that everyone present was trash, Xi Guican left the arena with an air of nobility and aloofness.

 

Xue Yuexiao raised his head to the empty seat on the highest platform and wondered if it was his imagination.

 

The opponent continued the attack, and Xue Yuexiao pushed aside this doubt, focusing on the battle…

 

Next, Xi Guican browsed several arenas and found each one worse than the last. He could barely watch Xue Yuexiao’s match for about twenty seconds, and he quickly withdrew from the following matches. 

 

After browsing and withdrawing from more than thirty arenas, Xi Guican felt a bit tired. This time, he casually entered an arena, randomly chose a seat, and prepared to see how trash the match would be.

 

The arena he entered this time was a one-star competition arena, with very few spectators. Most people who could enter were here to pass the time since one-star matches were free.

 

The two players in the arena were using system-provided beginner mechas. The defining feature of these system mechas was their ugliness. One player chose a balanced mecha, capable of both offense and defense without notable weaknesses or strengths.

 

The other player chose an offensive mecha, which was fragile, fast, with strong attack but weak defense. However, this player’s speed wasn’t much faster even though they were using an offensive mecha, perhaps because their reaction speed was too slow.

 

More fatally, for some reason, this player’s left hand had remained inactive. He could only use his right hand.

 

The mechas clashed, appearing to Xi Guican as noobs pecking at each other. He watched with an expression of indifference, thinking they could be trash to such an extent.

 

At that moment, the few spectators let out a gasp. It turned out the offensive mecha pilot suddenly abandoned all defense and rushed in for close combat.

 

In Xi Guican’s eyes, this move was foolish for the offensive mecha pilot, as their slow reaction speed, weak defense, and single-handed operation meant their only advantage lay in the frequency and trajectory of their strikes. The player who could inflict more damage within the same timeframe would win.

 

However, to Xi Guican’s surprise, the offensive mecha pilot he had underestimated ultimately won. This pilot possessed exceptional predictive abilities, anticipating the opponent’s strike frequency and trajectory to dodge most attacks. 

 

Moreover, relying on a slightly faster strike speed than the opponent, he defeated them when both mechas were left with only two percent health.

 

Xi Guican raised an eyebrow in surprise.

 

A person with strong predictive abilities couldn’t possibly have a slow reaction speed. He was also curious why the opponent didn’t use his left hand. In holographic games, disabled individuals were on par with able-bodied players.

 

Curiosity piqued, Xi Guican rewarded the pilot with a thousand star coins and asked from his seat on the stands, “Why don’t you use your left hand?”

 

The mecha pilot bowed ninety degrees to Xi Guican. 

 

“Thank you for your reward. My left arm is broken,” came the voice of a middle-aged man. 

 

“I’m currently using a holographic game helmet that restricts my ability to use my left hand.”

 

Holographic game helmets had become obsolete. For leisure or romantic games, they could still barely keep up, but for competitive games, they limited the player’s speed. Nowadays, almost no one used holographic game helmets.

 

Xi Guican thought to himself that this person was both trash and poor, old and miserable.

 

Kind of pitiful.