Seeing the strange movements of the white snake on the screen, Xia Zhi asked curiously, “What are you looking at?”
Axis: “You can’t see it?”
Xia Zhi was puzzled.
Then she remembered this was a game, and Axis was operating the white snake from the other side of the network, probably looking at something like a character appearance settings page. She stopped being curious and turned her attention to her surroundings instead.
On the white wall hung something resembling a thermometer, with numbers on it.
At this moment, the number read 38%.
“What is that?” Xia Zhi tapped on the display screen.
Axis’s gaze had been following the little winged white snake in front of him, watching it fly over to the monitor and look at it curiously. He found something off.
“You don’t know what that is?”
Xia Zhi: “Huh? This is the game room you set up—how would I know what that percentage represents?”
Set up? Game room?
Surprise flickered through Axis’s green pupils.
It was impossible for a female not to know that males carried a Pollution Value—unless she wasn’t a female from their world at all.
The Beastman history books recorded that the reason their world had been eroded by Aberrant Beasts was because, 5,000 years ago, some Beastmen had wanted to research the Cross-Dimensional Device to explore the mysteries of other dimensions.
It was the energy imbalance of the dimensional device that had opened the Aberrant Beast Black Hole. To preserve the peace of their lives, Beastmen had been forced to fight the Aberrant Beasts that emerged from the black hole.
This little female in front of him might very well be a female from the Otherworld. In any case, she bore no ill will, and her singing had a soothing ability—so he might as well keep it from her.
That was still better than those females who used their special status to bully males.
With that thought, Axis spoke again: “You… could you touch my head again?”
Seeing the words Axis had typed out, Xia Zhi frowned in confusion.
Back in university, she’d watched her dormmates play online games and even find in-game romantic partners. They’d get so into their game characters that just hugging one would make them scream with excitement in the dorm.
Could Axis be similarly immersed in the game, which was why he wanted contact with her game character?
That made sense—after all, even Axis’s Shanyin ID was so chuunibyou, so it was only natural he cared about the game.
Whatever. Tapping the screen a few times wouldn’t cost her anything.
Xia Zhi tapped the screen, flying back to Axis’s side: “You can touch, but only ten times. I’m about to go to sleep soon—tomorrow I need to go out and sign up for a dance class.”
Hearing that Xia Zhi was about to leave again, Axis frowned: “No way. You can only leave after touching this Major General fifteen times!”
Fifteen touches wouldn’t take much effort.
She’d already turned Axis down once during the day, and he’d run off to another livestream room. It was about time she indulged this fan a little.
Xia Zhi reached out and gently tapped the white snake on the screen.
The newly grown little horns were lightly touched, and the tingling itch was soothed. Axis, who had been holding his head high with pride, slowly began adjusting the angle of his head to be petted, tilting it toward the outside of the screen.
Those green eyes narrowed into slits.
Seeing the white snake’s movements on the screen, Xia Zhi suddenly had the illusion that she was truly petting the white snake.
Axis: “Mm…”
It felt far too good—Axis heard himself let out a strange sound. He opened his eyes, and his beautiful green eyes, like emeralds, were filled with chagrin.
How could this be? Even if she was a special Female from another world, he shouldn’t be so infatuated with her touch.
This didn’t fit his identity as the cold-blooded young Major at all!
Feeling awkward, Axis wanted to show some disdain, so he said, “Don’t think that just because you’re willing to touch me now, I’ll forgive you for refusing to sing for me earlier.”
“Ah.” Xia Zhi, lying on the bed, couldn’t help but laugh at the white snake’s words on the screen.
How childish was Axis?
[How old are you? Why are you still holding a grudge?]
Xia Zhi asked, but Axis responded instead: [Why did you stop touching?]
Xia Zhi: [Because fifteen touches are up, and I need to log off and go to sleep.]
Axis immediately frowned.
Seeing the white snake on the screen narrow its eyes in an angry expression, Xia Zhi laughed again and reached out to poke Axis once more.
This time, it wasn’t Axis’s head, but his little white tail that kept thumping against the ground in anger.
[I really have to log off now. Let’s talk tomorrow.]
With that said, Xia Zhi chose to exit the game.
She didn’t notice that the moment she clicked the X, the entire head of the white snake on the screen turned bright red.
Feeling the heat on his head, Axis tucked his tail beneath his body and pressed down on it.
That still couldn’t relieve the heat surging through his body, so he simply shifted into his human form. An overly pale male figure appeared in the hospital room.
Seeing himself like this, Axis hastily pulled clothes from his Space Knot and put them on, then administered a Suppressant to himself. Only then did the heat in his body fade.
This was Axis’s first time using a Suppressant.
A snake-type male beastman’s tail was the most private place—if a Female touched it, it meant she wanted to mate with the snake-type male beastman.
If a Female from this world had touched it, Axis would have been furious. Yet he knew in his heart that Xia Zhi had probably only touched it out of curiosity about his tail, completely unaware of the deeper meaning.
Neither angry nor pleased, Axis furrowed his brow and muttered to himself, “Damn Little Female from the Otherworld, how dare you tease this Major!”
Not wanting to stay in the room any longer, Axis walked over to the monitor and pressed the call button.
But then he saw that the Pollution Value of 38% had somehow dropped to 22%.
Just from being touched sixteen times by that Little Female from the Otherworld, his Pollution Value had decreased by 16%, already falling below his own stable threshold.
If he were touched every day, wouldn’t his Pollution Value eventually reach zero?
Axis’s emerald-green eyes were filled with joy.
Lowering the Pollution Value was important, evolution was important, and making Leona angry was also important.
Axis slowly put on the black military uniform from his Space Knot and decided to stake out Xia Zhi’s livestream. When Leona entered too, he would tell Leona the truth and give him a scare.
Early the next morning, Axis looked at the virtual screen that had remained on all night. Xia Zhi hadn’t started streaming, nor had she interacted with him offline.
Didn’t she say tomorrow? It was already tomorrow now—what was the Little Female doing?
At six in the morning, Xia Zhi was still asleep.
She slept until 8 a.m. before slowly opening her eyes. Remembering that she’d earned 450,000 yesterday, she happily opened Shanyin and withdrew the money into her bank account.
This money would be used to sign up for classes—to continue improving her vocal training, dance, and physical conditioning.
Her parents sent her a monthly allowance, but it was barely enough to cover her living expenses and rent—nowhere near enough for classes.
She had already found a classical dance instructor, and she planned to save whatever was left to see if she could afford a professional vocal coach.
Xia Zhi mapped out her days ahead, invested in better streaming equipment, bought a fresh batch of outfits, and went live.
The moment she came online, ten viewers flooded into the stream.
They were all familiar faces from yesterday, including Leona and Axis.
“Good evening, babies,” Xia Zhi greeted the camera.
The viewers who had entered the stream right away saw the bright, smiling girl on their screens, and their moods lifted.
They began responding to Xia Zhi’s interactions.
Leona’s golden eyes fixed on the virtual screen, her slender fingers tapping away, typing out two words: [Heart.]
No sooner had that comment gone out than another followed beneath it.
Axis: [Hmph.]
Leona noticed Axis’s ID and paused for just two seconds before dismissively looking away.
Last night, after leaving Bai Yu’s lab, she had checked on Axis.
The hospital records showed Axis had already been discharged, with a Pollution Value of only 22% at the time of release.
Leona had guessed then that she and her nephew might have shared the same experience. Now Axis showing up in Xia Zhi’s stream was solid proof of that.
After all, Axis was a child she had watched grow up, and it was a good thing he could recover with Xia Zhi’s help.
She only needed to focus on Zhizhi.
Leona began reading the other comments in Xia Zhi’s stream.
Axis, seeing Leona ignore him, slammed his fist against the wall on the other side of the screen in frustration.
But then he remembered that Xia Zhi would still be on that fan Interactive Game later tonight.
That way, he could keep interacting with her, and the thought eased his mood considerably. He sent another comment.