Yunlu Village.
The sky was beginning to brighten, and wisps of cooking smoke curled up from the village. Lu Xuan walked out of his home carrying a wicker basket and encountered several villagers carrying hoes on their way to the fields.
They all greeted him cheerfully. “Young Lu, where are you off to for fun?”
“Be careful, and don’t take another tumble.”
Lu Xuan nodded to them in response and continued walking toward the outskirts of the village. Even after he had walked some distance away, he could still faintly hear them marveling at how he had turned misfortune into a blessing—falling and bumping his head had cured his foolishness, and that the Lu family’s days of hardship were finally coming to an end, among other similar sentiments.
When he reached the foot of the mountain, he ran into Miao Jinfeng, the village chief’s wife, and her eldest daughter-in-law, Wu Yinyin, who were gathering wild vegetables.
Both women were surprised to see Lu Xuan. Upon learning that he intended to enter the mountains, Miao Jinfeng asked with concern, “Can you handle it by yourself?”
“Don’t worry, Auntie, I’ll be careful,” Lu Xuan replied. He nodded to the two women and brushed past them, heading toward the mountain.
After walking for about half an hour, there was no longer anyone else in sight.
Lu Xuan whispered “Open livestream” in his heart. A transparent, futuristic screen, visible only to him, instantly appeared before his eyes. It was the interface of the interstellar civilization’s livestreaming system that he had inexplicably bound to after arriving in this world.
To enrich the leisure lives of their citizens, the interstellar civilization had spent decades researching a cross-plane livestreaming system before randomly deploying it throughout the universe.
The system automatically detects planets with intelligent life, finds a host to bind with, and then allows the host to provide cross-plane livestreaming services for the people of the interstellar era.
He was one of the hosts chosen by the system.
The content broadcast by these hosts varies according to their status; some stream farming, some stream palace intrigue or workplace dramas, and others even stream world wars.
The planes involved range from ancient to modern times. To the interstellar people, the “ancient” times he remembered were considered prehistoric, while the “modern” era had effectively become the ancient past to them.
To this day, it had been a century since the plane livestreaming system was deployed, and the initial hype had long since faded.
Not every host bound to the system is skilled at livestreaming, and with the presence of native interstellar streamers offering plenty of fancy tricks, the audience is unlikely to buy into content that isn’t interesting enough—even if it is a “prehistoric” livestream.
However, the term “plane livestreaming” still carried some innate popularity. Even though Lu Xuan was a newcomer, his livestream room attracted several hundred viewers the moment he opened it, and the number of online viewers continued to climb slowly.
Lu Xuan said lazily, “Morning. Didn’t some of you say my streams were boring these past two days? Today, I’ll show you something interesting: hunting in the mountains.”
After speaking, to avoid obstructing his view, he minimized the livestream screen to the top right corner and continued deeper into the mountains.
[Barrage]:
[Finally, something fresh. If you kept streaming your daily routine, I would have really unsubscribed.]
[Who wouldn’t? Isn’t the whole point of watching prehistoric streams for the food? Yet the streamer’s family has been eating watery porridge and side dishes every day—it looks less appetizing than nutrient paste. So speechless.]
Lu Xuan agreed with the comments after reading them.
The food he had been eating since he transmigrated had indeed been mediocre.
The Lu family was not well-off; every day was simple, coarse food. The breakfast his older sister, Lu Qing, prepared this morning was just thin porridge, corn buns, and one egg.
The egg was only boiled because she saw he had bumped his head a few days ago and wanted him to recover. Usually, the family’s eggs were saved to be sold for money; they couldn’t bear to eat them.
He gave the boiled egg to his younger brother, Lu Chen, who was quietly swallowing his saliva while pretending not to care, and settled for the thin porridge and corn buns himself.
But honestly, given his appetite, this amount didn’t even count as half-full; it barely served to fill the gaps between his teeth.
Therefore, whether for his own stomach or to improve his family’s living conditions, this trip into the mountains was essential.
[Come to think of it, the streamer said he’s going hunting. Does he have any prior experience?]
[Did you not watch the stream two days ago, upstairs? The streamer used to be a fool; he only recovered after binding to the system. How could he possibly know how to hunt?]
[He doesn’t know how to hunt and he dares to go into the mountains? I don’t see any weapons in that basket on his back either. Hunting empty-handed? Is he that reckless?]
[Emmm… although the animals in the prehistoric era haven’t mutated, going in without even a weapon… is the streamer here to be a clown?]
[Blind guess: the stream is going to end in failure today! Hehe.]
[Forget returning empty-handed, if he encounters a ferocious beast, he’ll be lucky not to get eaten.]
Lu Xuan scanned the barrage, his face indifferent, and replied in his heart: “What if I do catch something? Are you guys going to do a handstand while having diarrhea, or livestream eating sh*t?”
[Eww! The streamer has such an intense taste!?]
[Let’s skip the handstand-diarrhea part, but if you can actually catch prey, I’ll throw gifts at you! At least a flower!]
[I’ll bet a heart, then. I bet the streamer won’t catch anything at all.]
A few more curious viewers followed suit and placed bets. The stakes were mostly “hearts” and “flowers,” which, at 50 and 100 star coins respectively, were the cheapest gifts available besides the 10-star-coin nutrient paste.
Better than nothing.
Lu Xuan said calmly, “Get your gifts ready and wait for your faces to be slapped.”
The viewers thought to themselves, everyone can talk big; it remains to be seen who will actually get their face slapped in the end.
As he spoke, Lu Xuan quickened his pace.
Because villagers often came to gather wild vegetables and firewood, the traces of human activity at the foot of the mountain were obvious. Naturally, there was no hope of finding any valuable prey there, so Lu Xuan kept walking into the deeper reaches of the woods without stopping.
The deeper he went, the tougher the mountain paths became. Yet, Lu Xuan, dressed in his old clothes, maintained an air of casual composure throughout.
After walking for about an hour, when there were almost no signs of humans left, Lu Xuan finally stopped and surveyed his surroundings.
The mountain forests of this era were almost identical to the ones in his memories from before the apocalypse.
The trees were not oversized, twisted, or emitting pungent odors, and the vines hanging from the branches didn’t dangle like living creatures ready to coil and strangle him like snakes.
To others, this was just an ordinary, unremarkable forest, but to Lu Xuan, it felt like a dream. It had truly been too long.
Lu Xuan sighed in his heart before quickly pulling himself together. He walked to a suitable tree, jumped lightly, caught a high branch with one hand, and then with a clean, fluid flip, stood directly on the branch.
[??? I stood up too quickly. How did the streamer get up the tree in the blink of an eye!?]
[That branch must be at least three and a half meters high! Is that something you can just jump onto!?]
[This streamer seems to have some real skills!]
[…Why do I have a bad feeling about this? Is he really going to slap our faces?]
Lu Xuan ignored them and observed the surrounding environment from his vantage point.
It was mid-summer in July; the trees in the mountains were lush and green, and the ground was covered in vibrant grass. At a glance, everything was filled with greenery.
The scenery was nice, but it severely limited his line of sight.
Fortunately, it didn’t affect Lu Xuan much.
Not long after, he had a plan in mind and jumped down from the tree. His movements remained clean and effortless, landing without making a sound, which left the viewers in the livestream room feeling astonished once again.
But they soon realized their astonishment was premature; the best was yet to come!
Lu Xuan, who had just been walking aimlessly, suddenly moved with great purpose in a certain direction. After walking about twenty meters, he parted the grass to reveal a pheasant nest hidden inside, containing an entire clutch of six small, tempting pheasant eggs!
Lu Xuan held the eggs up to the sunlight to inspect them. He put the four unfertilized eggs into his basket, covered the nest back up, and changed direction again, walking about thirty meters to the right. He repeated the process, found another nest, and collected three more eggs.
Then a third nest, a fourth… the harvest in his basket increased at an astonishing rate. In the blink of an eye, he had over twenty!
Along the way, Lu Xuan even climbed trees two more times to get bird eggs from nests and found a cluster of dense mushrooms under a shaded tree.
The hundreds of viewers in the livestream were stunned.
[Wow! What kind of heaven-defying luck does the streamer have! This is possible??]
[Are you stupid, upstairs? What luck? Can’t you see he’s searching with precision? Every time he finds one, it’s a direct hit. How could it be luck? It’s clearly a pre-calculation!]
[How did he do that? Was climbing the tree earlier just to locate the nests?]
[? How come I didn’t see anything? The grass is so thick, you couldn’t see a ghost in there.]
[Then how do you explain finding so many pheasant eggs in such a short time?]
[…Maybe it really is luck?]
Lu Xuan added casually, “My luck has always been good.”
[Now that you say that, I think there’s even more of a problem! Could it be an ability?]
[A visual-enhancement ability?]
Lu Xuan’s expression remained unchanged. “You guess?”
The viewers were speechless. Some remembered the bet earlier and reminded him: [Eggs don’t count as prey! It doesn’t count! It has to be a living animal!]
Lu Xuan nodded. “Don’t worry, I won’t welch on your gifts.”
As he spoke, he leaned down and picked up a few small pebbles.
The viewers were confused. What was he planning to do this time?
Lu Xuan didn’t answer.
What was he doing? They would see soon enough.
Just then, a rustling sound came from a patch of grass not far ahead. Lu Xuan’s eyes flickered, and the pebble in his hand shot out with a ‘whoosh’.
Before the viewers could even ask, they heard the sound of the stone clearly striking something.
The viewers’ eyelids twitched: It can’t be that coincidental, right? No way, no way!
Lu Xuan walked over slowly, reaching into the grass to pull out a rabbit that had already breathed its last, its body still warm, its head shattered.
He weighed it in his hand. “About two and a half pounds, that’s acceptable.” He tossed the rabbit into the half-full basket.
[Barrage]:
[…No, can someone tell me what just happened? I’m a bit confused.]
[The streamer headshotted a rabbit with a small stone!?]
[The rabbit’s head is completely smashed! It’s all bloody and messy! My eyes!!! Can we have a warning before such bloody scenes next time!!]
[Are you a student, upstairs? Why are you so sensitive about such a small scene?]
[Isn’t the point the streamer’s strength! Using a stone as a weapon is too showy! I ask everyone here, who can do this? Who!]
[No wonder he didn’t bring a weapon; it turns out he can hunt by picking up a few stones. Awesome!]
[I don’t believe it, it’s a coincidence! It must be a coincidence!]
Whether the viewers were shocked, incredulous, or skeptical, Lu Xuan’s actions brought extra traffic and excitement to the stream. More than half of the viewers who were just casually watching clicked the “Follow” button.
And then, Lu Xuan proved to them with actual results whether it was a coincidence or not.
As if re-enacting the pheasant egg search, Lu Xuan fired the remaining stones in his hand several more times, hitting his mark every single time with precision, striking prey hidden in the grass.
Wild rabbit, wild rabbit, pheasant, wild rabbit…
In less than ten minutes, the number of prey in Lu Xuan’s hands increased to five.
The barrage was quiet for a long while before it exploded as if the viewers had suddenly come to their senses. Those who had bet a flower or a heart excitedly threw five or ten at him at once.
[I bow down to the streamer! This is truly amazing! A bet is a bet! Here are your gifts!]
[Shooting prey in the head so casually with a stone, that’s too cool! I’ve learned a new way to show off!]
[It’s not as intense as an interstellar war or mecha battle, but I’m inexplicably so excited!!]
[I don’t think the streamer is a visual-enhancement ability user; this is clearly a strength-enhancement system! Without strength, how could he smash the prey’s head directly!]
[Speaking of which, does the streamer have some kind of obsession? Why are they all headshots?]
Lu Xuan glanced at the barrage. “Habit. It’s hard to break.”
[?? How do you even form a habit like that?]
Lu Xuan didn’t answer directly, only saying, “I told you my luck was good.”
The viewers in the stream were speechless. [It’s clearly skill, not luck at all! Do you think we’re stupid?]
Lu Xuan replied nonchalantly, “It’s about the same. Luck is a part of strength. Once you have the strength, your luck naturally gets better.”
The viewers: …That actually sounds somewhat reasonable.
‘Rustling’ sounds came from behind them again. Lu Xuan and the viewers knew more prey was coming.
The excited viewers waited happily to see Lu Xuan show off his skills again, but the latter heard something, and his eyes flickered slightly.
He turned around unhurriedly, the camera view shifting accordingly, allowing the audience to see the prey not far away…
—It was actually a ferocious-looking wild boar!
The livestream room fell silent for a moment before instantly being flooded with scrolling barrage comments.
[Holy cow! A huge wild boar!!!]
[It’s really over now. The streamer is done for.]
[Telling a joke: “My luck is very good.”]
Although the wild boar in the prehistoric era hadn’t mutated, the primitive wild boar itself was a ferocious beast. If it ran, it could easily gore someone to death; even if it didn’t kill them, a serious injury would be enough to finish them off.
And the wild boar in their view was clearly digging its hooves into the dirt, preparing to charge.
[Streamer, run!!!]
[Isn’t the streamer good at climbing trees? Find a tree and hide!]
While the viewers were anxious and worried for Lu Xuan, Lu Xuan, the person involved, stood still, watching calmly as the boar charged toward him.
The viewers were anxious and angry.
Could he have been scared stupid at this critical moment?
How could he choke at a time like this!
Seeing the boar getting closer and closer to Lu Xuan, the timid viewers subconsciously closed their eyes, thinking it was over; the streamer they had just started following was going to die.
But more viewers widened their eyes in disbelief as they saw what happened next.