Chapter 3
Xia Anran was stunned by the sheer density of the bullet comments. They layered over one another until her face was completely obscured.
She tried to find some useful information in the deluge, but all she saw was a dizzying blur of the words “fruit” and “plants.”
“Hello, everyone. I’m your host, Xia Anran. Please, try to calm down for a moment. First, I’d like to ask, where is everyone from?”
Her four years of teacher training paid off. Treating it like a classroom, she calmly asked the one question that mattered most to her.
Who—or what—were these viewers?
As soon as she asked, the comments filled with places she had never heard of.
“I’m from City Five, Fourth Planet, United Star System!”
“Second Planet, United Star System!”
“Eighth Planet, assemble!”
“Why is everyone from the United Star System? Are there no people from the Interstellar Empire?”
“Empire reporting in!”
“United Star System people, step aside. Have you even finished evolving yet?”
“This is the United Star System’s network! Kick out the Empire scum!”
“The Star System and Empire networks merged. Don’t tell me some low-level System dwellers didn’t know?”
The Interstellar Empire was composed of the star system’s native inhabitants. Compared to the migrant humans from Earth, they possessed an innate ability: psychic power.
This ability, which could almost be called a superpower, had caused Earth’s humans no small amount of suffering. Powerful psychics could even withstand Earth’s most advanced thermal weapons at the time. To make matters worse, the fierce Beastmen tribes surrounding the system were another formidable neighbor. Trapped between two such powerful forces, the newly arrived humans had a difficult time.
But humanity’s strength was its ability to forge a path no matter how dire the circumstances. Surrounded by powerful enemies, they relied on multi-pronged diplomacy and rapid integration and development. They managed to extract and modify the star system’s ambient radiation, creating a defense against psychic attacks. Since the ambitious Beastmen attacked indiscriminately, the United Star System and the Interstellar Empire found themselves with a common enemy and now coexisted in a state of relative peace.
….
Inside the United Star System’s Life Science Research Institute, all the senior professors were gathered in a conference room, watching Xia Anran’s livestream on a large screen.
The director of the Science Academy was Li Sheng, a man over one hundred and fifty years old. Director Li’s hair was white, but his eyes were bright and full of vigor. He had been just a few years from retirement, never expecting to encounter such a miracle at the tail end of his career.
“The Empire’s people are joining the fun now, too? This is our mother planet!” Professor Cheng Yao, the most hot-tempered member of the academy, slammed his cane on the floor in frustration.
The only young man in the conference room stared at Xia Anran’s bewildered face on the screen, his eyes burning with an undisguised, almost fanatical thirst for discovery.
“Professor Cheng, ancient humans were a marvelous species. That holds true for interstellar humans as well,” the man said, pushing up his glasses. His gaze swept over every corner of the livestream, rapidly taking notes.
“Little Ye is right. The Empire seems to be quite interested in our mother planet,” Director Li chuckled.
Professor Cheng Yao snorted coldly.
Since the last broadcast, Xia Anran’s short stream had been trending at the top of the StarNet. The Science Academy had quickly released an official report authenticating that the fruit in the stream was indeed a product of ancient Earth. Furthermore, archaeologists had analyzed the furniture and decor, confirming it was also unique to ancient Earth.
A livestream from their mother planet, from ten thousand years in the past, had sent the entire United Star System into an uproar.
The StarNet was flooded with posts about Xia Anran. The Science Academy had tried to send her a private message to communicate, but received no response. The entire population could only wait anxiously for her to go live again.
This livestream connected to the United Star System’s mother planet and should have had nothing to do with the Interstellar Empire. However, as the Imperials were spectating on the StarNet, some with exceptionally keen psychic abilities discovered that just watching the video of the fruit magically soothed their psychic power and even gave it a minor boost.
While psychic power was incredibly destructive, it was also prone to violent instability. This was a common affliction among Imperials, and those whose daily lives were severely affected had to rely on suppressants. The so-called suppressants worked by severing the psychic connection, which greatly reduced the user’s power. For this reason, many who pursued strength endured the agony of splitting headaches and bursting blood vessels rather than take them.
So, when the Interstellar Empire discovered that the so-called “fruit” from the United Star System’s mother planet could heal and even enhance psychic power, they immediately contacted the United Star System’s leadership. In a swift and decisive move, they paid the price of three resource-rich planets to merge the two networks, allowing Imperials to watch Xia Anran’s livestream as well.
….
Xia Anran, who had been quietly reading the comments, quickly pieced things together. These people were… aliens?
Aside from introducing themselves, the comments were filled with pleas for her to show more fruit and plants. She had gone live on a whim today and wasn’t prepared. She was about to explain when the screen suddenly cleared, and a special effect of a pink flowering crabapple bloomed across the display.
A line of golden text scrolled across the top: Science Academy’s Ye Yuxing has sent the host a China Rose~
A wave of question marks flooded the chat. Inside the academy, the gazes of a dozen top-tier experts shot toward an innocent-looking Ye Yuxing.
Ye Yuxing pointed to the ellipsis icon next to the screen. When clicked, it revealed a “Send Gift” option. The old professors quickly pulled up their own photon-computers and started tapping.
Xia Anran’s stream was then bombarded by a storm of China Rose special effects.
Watching the stream of “United Star System Science Academy” IDs scroll by, Director Hukeni of the Imperial Academy was so angry his beard trembled.
“Quickly! We send gifts too! We can’t let that bunch of old coots from the Science Academy get ahead of us. We must build a good relationship with Host Anran!”
The Imperial Academy, in a scene mirroring the Science Academy, had also gathered all its elites for a meeting. At the director’s command, someone quickly found the gift-giving function.
And so, a new wave of “Imperial Academy” IDs scrolled across the screen. The two rival institutions, already at odds, were now going all out to make an impression on Xia Anran.
The spectating audience quickly found the gift button as well and joined in.
“Send the host flowers!!!”
“That looks like the rose from the stream! It’s so pretty!”
“LMAO the Science Academy and the Imperial Academy are fighting again.”
“Go fight it out in your research papers!”
“Don’t fight here! I want to watch Anran!”
“Anran is a pure-strain, unevolved human. So beautiful!”
Xia Anran had only planned to pop on, check the situation, and sign off. But faced with such enthusiasm, she felt a little bad about ending the stream so abruptly. This was especially true after her phone buzzed with a bank notification showing her stream income had just surpassed ten million yuan, nearly causing her to drop her phone in shock.
She glanced at the “Gifts Received” counter in the bottom right corner. She had already received nearly fifty million China Roses. Her viewer count was still climbing rapidly; just two or three minutes into the broadcast, it had already surpassed four hundred million.
Faced with this wave of passion and gifts, Xia Anran picked up her phone from its tripod and walked over to the kitchen refrigerator. She opened it to reveal some fruits and vegetables, along with the cherries and lychees she had picked a few days ago.
She brought the fruit out and adjusted the camera. The fruit from the Xia family’s orchard was large, plump, and round. The deep purple cherries, just taken from the fridge, were still beaded with condensation, looking crystal clear.
“Ahhh, it’s the cherries and lychees!”
“I can smell them through the screen! So enticing!”
“I see something green in that white box! Is it another plant?!”
“My psychic power really does feel soothed… It’s amazing…”
“What’s the point of my life if I can’t eat fruit!”
“I want some, I want some! Sob, ancient humans were so lucky.”
“Drinking nutrient solution while watching this stream… I feel like the nutrient solution actually has flavor now ⊙﹏⊙”
“Science Academy and Imperial Academy, do something useful! I want to eat fruit!”
In the Science Academy’s conference room, archaeology expert Professor Wang stood up excitedly. “This should be the home decor style of the years 2000 to 2500 AD! This is of immense archaeological value!”
“That’s a refrigerator! It uses electricity to maintain low temperatures. It’s an ancient human food preservation device,” Professor Wang rattled on, his eyes glued to the screen. “I want to know what low temperatures ancient humans could achieve with a refrigerator…”
He quickly sent a bullet comment.
“Hello, I’d like to ask, what temperature can the refrigerator in front of you reach?!”
Professor Wang had secretly sent quite a few gifts, so his comment now had a conspicuous red border. Xia Anran saw his question, glanced at the user manual still stuck to the fridge, and said, “This is an older model. The fresh-keeping compartment is between zero and eight degrees Celsius, and the freezer is below minus eighteen degrees.”
Professor Wang’s eyes lit up as he nodded, jotting down her words. Xia Anran looked at the fruit in the basket. The lychees were fine, but the delicate cherries, even after just two days in the fridge, were already showing signs of softening and spoilage.
She picked out the bad ones and threw them in the trash. “It’s too hot. Some of the cherries have gone bad.” A thought occurred to her, and she reminded the two viewers from yesterday, “To the customers who bought fruit yesterday, please remember to eat it as soon as possible. Neither of these fruits stores well.”
Cheng Cheng, whose fruit had already been confiscated, watched the stream tearfully while biting a small handkerchief. Her fruit was gone, and she hadn’t even gotten a single taste! Sob, but Anran is so thoughtful and gentle!
Meanwhile, the viewers who watched Xia Anran casually throw away the spoiled fruit let out howls of anguish.
“Don’t throw it away! Give it to me, I’ll eat it!!”
“It still looks fine! Sob, sob, host, you can give me any fruit you don’t want! I’ll help you dispose of it!”
“AHHHH my heart is bleeding! If I could just eat some fruit, my psychic power would definitely stop going haywire!”
“It must be that refrigerator’s fault! It can only go down to minus eighteen degrees! It ruined the fruit!”
“For real, minus eighteen degrees is so primitive. My fruit can’t suffer like that!”
After receiving the gifts, the livestream system had quietly upgraded to Level 2. A “Giveaway” button appeared next to the “Go Live” button. Xia Anran opened it and saw that she could hold a lottery to give gifts to her viewers. Since everyone was so enthusiastic about the fruit, she decided to raffle off the remaining fruit in her fridge. The number of viewers was massive, and she wanted to give something to as many people as possible, so she decided to raffle the lychees and cherries off individually, by the piece.
When she announced she was giving away the fruit, the chat immediately erupted again, a waterfall of “PICK ME” scrolling across the screen.
She hit the “Random Draw” button, and the system quickly scrolled through and produced a list of winners.
“Congratulations to the following viewers! I’ll ship your prizes out as soon as I can. My time is almost up for today, so I’ll see you all tomorrow!”
Just as she finished speaking, the ten-minute timer ran out, and the livestream automatically ended, cutting to a black screen.
Xia Anran let out a breath and clutched her chest. This was all too incredible. Had she really connected to an interstellar livestream?
Soon, a pile of mini black boxes, identical to yesterday’s, appeared on her table, each with shipping information already attached. Just as she was about to start packing, her phone suddenly dinged.
She hadn’t closed the app yet. A small red dot had appeared on her personal profile tab. She tapped it and saw a notification.
User “Wasteland Planet Administrator” has gifted the host one (1) Cryo-Freezer. Accept?
Xia Anran: ⊙﹏⊙
She tapped “Accept.” A silver machine the size of a water cooler suddenly materialized on her table. It was clearly brand new and even came with an instruction manual. The text in the manual, perhaps replaced by the system, was in modern Chinese.
The instructions were simple and blunt. It was a household cryo-freezer, with an adjustable temperature range from zero degrees Celsius down to minus two hundred and seventy-three degrees—absolute zero.
Xia Anran’s eyes widened. Had the interstellar age actually achieved absolute zero? And a machine like this was considered a household freezer?