“Brand new streamer just started broadcasting—does anyone want to see a talent show?”
Xia Zhi spoke softly to the livestream camera.
Her acting audition had failed, and her savings were running dry. A senior she knew had told her that building up a fanbase as a streamer might give her an edge at the next audition.
But she hadn’t expected streaming to be this hard either—no one was staying in her livestream room.
Xia Zhi let out a soft sigh and was about to turn off the stream when a software update prompt suddenly appeared on her phone screen.
[Livestream room upgrading… Livestream room upgrade complete.]
[Leona, Marshal of the Nado Empire, has entered your livestream room!]
Marshal Leona of the Nado Empire? What kind of weird, cringey username was that?
Xia Zhi was still marveling at it when the viewer count in her livestream room suddenly jumped from 0 to 1.
She widened her eyes in surprise and asked in a soft, gentle voice, “Welcome to my livestream room, Mr. Leona. Would you like to hear a song, or would you prefer to watch a dance?”
Suddenly hearing a female voice, the male lion shrouded in black mist trembled slightly and lifted his head.
In the last battle, Leona, as Marshal of the Empire, had been surrounded by 4S Xenobeasts.
He had exhausted every ounce of strength to kill all the beasts, but had been infected by the Dark Matter formed upon their deaths. His Pollution Value had reached a staggering 99.7%, and he could no longer maintain his human form.
All females had been summoned to the Royal Hospital to perform purification on him.
But because his evolution level was the highest—4S—the females’ Matching Rate with him was far too low.
So their purification efforts had no effect; they only delayed the time until he was completely corrupted.
Now, Leona’s golden eyes—once praised by the Empire’s citizens as the Light of the Empire—had already been more than half overtaken by the black mist.
Once Leona’s eyes were completely corrupted by the Dark Matter, the percentage displayed on the wall monitor would turn to 100%.
At that point, Leona would transform into a mindless Frenzied Beast, attacking every living thing he saw.
The nation would restrain such males with Energy-Suppressing Shackles and send them to the Tower of Banishment. Inside were all beastmen who had degenerated into Frenzied Beasts, where they would slaughter each other until death.
Not executing them outright was the final mercy all beastman nations granted to males who had rendered great service.
Leona knew he was at the end of his rope, but he did not want to go to the Tower of Banishment.
As a soldier, even if he lost himself, his hands should never be stained with the blood of any beastman.
While he was still lucid, Leona opened his wristband and logged onto StarNet, wanting to leave behind a final message requesting death.
But the pain brought on by the fluctuating Pollution Value caused him to accidentally tap the screen, and his smart terminal inadvertently connected to this livestream room called “Zhizhi.”
Leona stared at the small female on the screen.
She only showed the upper half of her body, dressed in a white gown, with collarbones so prominent they showed clearly at her slender neck. She had a delicate, palm-sized face with exquisite, striking features—long curled lashes, bright eyes, and full lips as plump as flower petals.
But there was hardly any flesh on her cheeks.
Pretty, yet far too thin and small—she looked like someone who had endured food shortages and hard times.
Leona fell silent.
Could it be that the little female Zhizhi was born on a poor-planet, and because her information had never been registered on StarNet, she hadn’t received the support and care of male mates, which was why she was so thin and small?
Females were the most precious existence in all beastman nations. Even if Zhizhi had been born in a poor district, the local administrators should have reported her so that she could receive the resources she deserved as she grew up.
Once she reached adulthood, she would be free to choose a male mate she favored to support her.
That brief thought brought pain surging from her Mental Sea.
As the black mist invaded the Crystal Core within her Mental Sea, Leona let out a weak, pained whimper.
The Pollution Value monitor blared an alarm, spiking rapidly from 98% to 99.999%.
If the number ever hit 100%, the Energy-Suppressing Shackles in the ward would be removed by the mechanical arm, and the former Empire Marshal would be bound and sent to the Tower of Banishment.
Leona bit down hard on her arm, trying to hold onto consciousness for just a little longer.
He refused to give in like this.
“Mr. Leona? Are you… are you still there?” Receiving no response from Leona, Xia Zhi spoke up again.
She wanted to turn this viewer—the first one to stay this long—into her very first fan.
After a moment of thought, Xia Zhi decided to take the initiative and show herself, directly pulling up the instrumental track for a song.
“How about this—I’ll sing you my best song, ‘Plain Face.’ If you think it’s decent, please give me a follow. Thank you.”
Xia Zhi couldn’t see where her only viewer was, and naturally had no idea that as she spoke, the number on the monitor on the wall had dropped from 99.999% to 99%—and was still falling.
When she paused to start the instrumental, the number shot back up instantly.
Just as the digit 99 flickered rapidly, on the verge of turning into a solid 100, Xia Zhi cleared her throat and sang the first line along with the music: “Another quiet night falls…”
A voice uniquely soft and feminine, turning into a melody both pleasant and moving, streamed out from the smart terminal on Leona’s wrist.
Each word drifted over Leona’s body like a gentle breeze, wrapping the drowsy great lion within its embrace.
The searing pain in Leona’s Mental Sea suddenly vanished, and the black substance on his Crystal Core began to peel away bit by bit.
The 99% Pollution Value also dropped steadily, decreasing by one percent with every flicker and pulse.
Leona, who had been fighting desperately against the agony, froze in shock.
The Pollution Value that no female in his entire empire could counteract was slowly dissipating with the song of the little female on the screen!
Unable to believe it, the Empire Marshal sat there dazed, listening to an entire unfamiliar ballad.
When the song finally ended, Leona was jolted awake by a shy question from the little female: “Mr. Leona, since you haven’t left, I guess I sang pretty well, right? Could you give me a follow and a like? It’s all free.”
Like? Follow? What were those?
The Empire Marshal, who had never watched a livestream before, was utterly lost.
He glanced at the number on the wall monitor, his heart skipping a beat, and his golden eyes were suddenly flooded with pure joy.
“70%…” Just from listening to one song, his Pollution Value had dropped by 29%!
If he listened to a few more, wouldn’t his Pollution Value return to his personal stable range of 30%?
Leona stared at the little female in the livestream as if she were a treasure of the world.
He rose from the ground, flicked his tail, and lifted a paw to type on the virtual screen.
[Excuse me, besides liking and following you, what else do I need to do to hear you sing more?]
After asking politely, Leona used the search function.
He quickly followed Xia Zhi, setting her as a special follow. Then he purchased an auto-clicker to continuously like her livestream.
Xia Zhi noticed the attention and the rapidly rising like count, her lashes trembling slightly, her eyes sparkling. “If you send me a fan light badge, you’ll be able to hear the next song.” Leona glanced at the tutorial he’d looked up and found the fan light badge option.
A recharge interface popped up in the livestream.
Without hesitation, Leona recharged two-thirds of all the funds he could mobilize. In an instant, the number displayed next to Leona’s balance began with a 6, followed by an endless string of zeros.
After recharging, Leona first sent Xia Zhi the fan light badge she wanted.
Noticing that the badge was especially cheap, he furrowed his brow, growing even more certain of what he was thinking.
This little female was having a hard time of it—so much so that when she asked males for gifts, she only dared to ask for the cheapest ones.
How could that be? Wouldn’t that mean any random male could trick her into becoming his mate?