Chapter Twenty: Life?

Trending searches? Top ten videos on PushNet?

Catherine was instantly excited. To be sure, she asked her viewers again for confirmation, “Really? Don’t fool me, okay? If this is true, I’ll use my precious data to check it out. The Magic Web Administration is absolutely heartless—the data fees where I am are sky-high. Watching a single HD video costs at least dozens of gold coins!”

Due to the structure of the Arcane Web, sending your own data requires you to use your own energy, so there’s almost no cost involved; the more energy the sender has, the faster the upload. But downloading anything from the Arcane Web to your local device consumes the Web’s own energy. In cities with large base stations and magic towers, the energy consumption is minimal and almost free. The less developed the local infrastructure, the higher the download fees. For someone like Catherine, who was out in the wilderness, the charges were frighteningly high—watching a few hundred videos would be enough to bankrupt you. Usually, she only kept text signals open in her left-eye display, even using the default fonts from her Magic Eye Sprite.

“It’s true, it’s true! Go check it out, streamer!”

“Yeah, you’re super popular now!”

“Maybe one or two people would lie to you, but do you think so many of us would all be lying?”

A flood of viewers chimed in to confirm it, and Catherine even recognized several longtime followers among them. Now convinced, she impatiently opened the PushNet homepage. Sure enough, right at the top right corner, a video with a dazzling golden title font stood out, its name flagrantly bold:

“Beauty Beats a Level Three Magic Beast Barehanded! Fierce Battle Against the Dreaded Man-Eating Tree!”

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven!

Catherine counted down the list one by one, finding her own video in seventh place—and still rising. She let out a silly laugh. Everyone knew how hard it was to get featured on PushNet’s front page; usually only continent-wide hotspots could last there for a few days or a week. Now that she was on it, fame was inevitable.

Grinning foolishly, she opened the video and was immediately startled by the bizarre background music. Catherine herself was tone-deaf and couldn’t say what was so good about it, but the music, paired with footage of her beset by Blood-Eyed Toads, gave off an indescribable, almost addictive vibe.

Whoever edited this was clearly a master. In just a few seconds, he managed to bring out the utter despair she had felt while being surrounded. Then, as Lin Mo appeared, the music soared. The heroic moment when he stomped the toad leader was perfectly timed to the musical climax—utterly exhilarating!

Lin Mo then turned around, his stunning figure perfectly centered on screen. Tilting his head slightly, he asked in a deep, magnetic voice, “Do you want to learn martial arts with me?”

Wait a minute, Catherine thought, that’s not right! She had nearly been abandoned to die, and only after Lin Mo somehow saw her potential did he let her learn martial arts. Plus, that voice wasn’t even her master’s! Still, she understood it was an edited video—some embellishments were only to be expected.

The video quickly skipped over her agonizing transformation, then used a breathtaking long shot to show her running by the gorgeous lakeside. The screen was split in two: above, herself in full sprint; below, footage of the reigning sprint champion from the last World Athletics Championship, Puters. Clearly marked for identical distances, Catherine’s speed blew Puters out of the water!

That should have been the video’s high point, but the maker knew his audience well—he didn’t let up for a second. He skipped over the scenes where she collapsed in exhaustion, and instead unleashed a barrage of highlights: her splitting open a Unihorned Forest Sheep, kicking a Blazing Ape out of a tree, slashing through the ghostly branches of the Demon Cypress. There was a split-screen comparing her arm-swing to a raptor’s tail, another where she reversed her grip to sever a branch, a throw landing squarely in the Demon Cypress’s terrifying face—each battle’s best moments, perfectly presented, with a background track that shifted pace but never missed a beat. The effect was nothing short of electrifying.

Catherine had to admit, the video editor was a genius. Especially the final segment—her desperate struggle beneath the Demon Cypress’s ghostly claws. In reality, she’d been so panicked her mind had gone blank, swinging her blade on pure instinct, barely surviving. In the video’s cut, though, she looked as if she was strolling effortlessly through a storm of claws! With just a few camera switches, her blade work looked so stylish that even Catherine herself couldn’t help thinking: Am I really this awesome?

The video ended with her throwing a dagger that landed squarely in the Demon Cypress’s monstrous face. The monster froze, its swirling branches all retracted, and its face faded from view—giving the strong impression she’d vanquished it. In the final shot, she was kneeling on the ground, panting heavily, then smiled and spoke softly as if to the viewers: “Would you like to study martial arts with me?”

Catherine watched the video, her heart surging, spinning in place a few times before she managed to calm down and wipe the silly grin from her face. Uneasy, she asked, “I don’t know which dear follower made this, but isn’t it a bit too exaggerated? Several shots are kind of misleading, not really what happened. Is that okay?”

“No worries, streamer! You didn’t look closely!”

“It’s fine—there’s a line of small text under the video!”

“There’s text underneath!”

“A streamer who never reads—confirmed.”

Prompted by the barrage, Catherine quickly glanced below the video. There, in the tiniest, most inconspicuous blue font, she found: “Link to original footage below; please refer to the original for actual events.”

Catherine was speechless for a moment, then happily said, “Thank you all for your support! I’ll definitely work hard to bring you more excitement. All right, let’s not waste time—let’s go! Let’s see if I can make the miracle of crossing the Magic Beast Rainforest!”

“You can’t.”

Just as Catherine raised her fist to rally herself, Lin Mo’s blunt voice came: “If you try to cross, you’ll run into a level-seven Crimson-Blood Tyrannosaur. You’ll be dead for sure—no chance of survival…”

Lin Mo trailed off, catching the familiar wounded look in Catherine’s eyes. He quickly realized she’d just been boasting to her viewers and apologized, “Sorry, I haven’t dealt with people in so long I’ve forgotten how human society works.”

Catherine nodded in understanding, then suddenly had an idea. She sidled up to Lin Mo and asked, “Master, could you get used to having a bunch of translucent text floating in your view? It barely affects your sight!”

Lin Mo caught her meaning. “You mean, let me see your livestream chat too?”

“Yes, exactly! Give it a try, Master—if it’s too much, you can always turn off the chat.”

“Let’s try it, then.”

With Lin Mo’s permission, Catherine quickly tapped a few commands on her Magic Eye Sprite. The sprite split off a tiny point of light that attached itself to her palm. She held it up. “Master, which eye do you want the chat in?”

“Right eye.”

As Catherine gently pressed the light to Lin Mo’s right eyebrow, he immediately felt the difference. In front of his right eye, a perfectly square, transparent screen appeared, with lines of chat messages floating by. They were translucent—if you weren’t paying attention, you couldn’t see them at all, but when you focused, they became crystal clear. It was extraordinary.

“Amazing technology,” Lin Mo praised, then noticed the viewership in the lower right corner and was surprised. “Five hundred thousand? Isn’t this kind of wilderness adventure show considered niche? There are half a million people watching?”

“It’s not actually five hundred thousand people—it’s five hundred thousand popularity points. There’s a multiplier. The real number of viewers is much lower; I’d guess a few thousand at most. The platform keeps the real numbers secret. Small streamers like me don’t get to know.”

“Is it okay to mention the platform by name on your stream? Won’t you get banned?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Everybody knows these things—it’s an open secret.” Catherine waved her hand, signaling Lin Mo not to worry. Then she asked, “Master, where are we hunting today? I feel much stronger than yesterday—I can handle tougher fights!”

“Today, we’re not hunting.”

“Not hunting? Then what will we eat?”

“Even the fiercest magic beasts can’t fight nonstop, one battle after another. Fighting isn’t the main theme—living is.” Lin Mo patted Catherine’s head with a gentle smile. “Today, I’ll teach you how to survive in a place as harsh as the Magic Beast Rainforest.”