“Contestant Luo Zhao, the directed object-simulation dream-making assessment has already begun. Object-simulation prompt category: flying fish.”
“You have one star-hour to complete the assessment.”
The cold mechanical system voice echoed in the ears of Luo Zhao and the viewers in the livestream room.
Yet at this moment, the long-haired girl in the livestream room tightly closed her eyes, seemingly knowing nothing at all about everything around her.
At this moment, Luo Zhao’s brows were tightly knitted. She only felt as though rivers and seas were overturning inside her mind, stirred into complete chaos by who knew what. Countless lights, shadows, and pieces of information poured into her mind, leaving her entire person dizzy and muddleheaded.
Time passed minute by minute and second by second. The girl still made no movement for a long time, and quite a few viewers who came after hearing the news could no longer sit still. Bullet comments rapidly scrolled past.
【What’s going on? Didn’t they say this contestant has S-rank mental power? Why hasn’t she started making a dream yet?】
【Maybe she’s still thinking? After all, even with directed object simulation, you can increase your score by refining the simulated object to improve its precision. Maybe she plans to start only after fully conceiving everything.】
【Why do I feel like her expression looks a little pained? She couldn’t have “Absent-Mindedness Syndrome,” right?】
【Forget it, I’m leaving, I’m leaving. As expected of someone from a garbage planet. No matter how high her mental power is, she’s never received training. What’s the point of watching?】
Inside the StarNet livestream room, quite a few impatient viewers already chose to leave, or entered other contestants’ livestream rooms to see how things were going.
After all, many netizens from Flying Fish Planet only entered this livestream room because they heard during the mental power test a few days ago that an S-rank mental power appeared. They came with high expectations, yet after waiting so long, they still did not get to see what they wanted. It truly was a waste of time.
After who knew how long, Luo Zhao finally opened her eyes. She looked at the assessment countdown floating before her and slightly pursed her lips.
Close her eyes, open them, close them again, then open them again.
After repeating this several times, the scene before her did not change. Only the suspended countdown clock changed little by little.
No matter how unwilling Luo Zhao was to admit it at this moment, she still had no choice but to recognize the reality before her.
She transmigrated.
Not only did she transmigrate, she even transmigrated into a book.
This was a sweet and satisfying novel[1]甜爽文 (tián shuǎng wén) – A Chinese web-novel genre description combining 甜文, a “sweet” story focused on affectionate or feel-good relationships, and 爽文, a … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3670291_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3670291_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); with an interstellar setting called 《Sweet Marriage in the Interstellar Era》.
The male lead, Di Siluo, was the illegitimate son of the Empire’s Marshal, a standard beautiful, strong, and miserable character[2]美强惨 (měi qiáng cǎn) – literally “beautiful, strong, miserable,” a popular character archetype describing someone who is attractive and powerful or capable, but has suffered a … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3670291_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3670291_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. Because of his family’s schemes, he mistakenly entered a dangerous wormhole, and his escape pod fell onto a garbage planet in a remote star region of the Federation, where he was picked up and brought home by the female lead, Sophia, who relied on picking through garbage to make a living.
The cold and suspicious male lead was initially full of doubt toward the female lead, but during the process of getting along with her, he gradually became attracted to the kind and adorable female lead. They met, came to understand each other, participated in the Dream-Making Selection Competition, leveled up, fought monsters, and changed maps all the way, counterattacking from the Federation’s most remote garbage planet to become famous interstellar Dream Makers, making the family in the Empire regret it endlessly. The male and female leads achieved a perfect HE[3]HE – Short for Happy Ending, a commonly used term in Chinese web-novel and fandom circles for a story in which the main couple receives a happy ending. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3670291_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3670291_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
And she, Luo Zhao, was that cannon-fodder female supporting character who came from the same garbage planet as the female lead, possessed S-rank mental power yet could not make dreams, was eliminated in the first round of the competition, then had her mental power extracted by someone and died miserably.
The only meaning behind the existence of the character Luo Zhao in the book was to use her unfortunate experience to highlight the female lead’s good fortune in meeting the male lead.
Luo Zhao: …
Good news, she transmigrated!
She no longer needed to hurry to finish that graduation thesis with its miserably slow progress.
Bad news, she transmigrated into a book.
She transmigrated into the unlucky cannon-fodder female supporting character and almost arrived too late.
Combining her own memories with the situation before her, Luo Zhao’s gaze shifted slightly.
If nothing unexpected happened, the scene before her right now was precisely the key point in the fate of this cannon fodder—at the Dream Maker assessment livestream site, the StarNet dream-making realm.
…
The so-called Dream Maker was a special profession in this interstellar world.
Dream Makers used powerful mental power to manifest creations, construct dreams, build worlds, and fight and kill dream beasts, making them the most highly revered and admired.
And the Dream-Making Livestream Battle was an interstellar competition held once every hundred years and watched by the entire universe. Anywhere reached by StarNet, Dream Makers under one hundred years old whose mental power met the standard could register to participate for free.
As long as one’s mental power could connect to StarNet, through consciousness access using a helmet, smartbrain, consciousness pod, and so on, one could construct a body and mental power within StarNet completely identical to those in reality, with the virtual and reality sharing sensations, thereby allowing them to compete against elites from throughout the entire sea of stars.
Round after round of the Dream-Making Livestream Battle, Dream Makers from different star regions, different star zones, different races, and different ages collided in competitions of mental power, while outstanding Dream Makers of the current generation were selected.
Century after century, generation after generation, the legends of the Dream-Making Livestream Battle long since resounded throughout the interstellar world.
There were genius Dream Makers from famous families whose reputations spread far and wide, and there were also Dream Makers from weak, unknown races in remote star regions who fought their way out of the encirclement, ascended to the heavens in a single step, and changed the fate of their entire race.
There were those who were completely unknown, those overflowing with talent, those filled with hot-blooded passion, and those carrying dreams in their hearts. Until the very end, it became a clash and competition among the most genius Dream Makers in the entire universe. Dream Makers who performed outstandingly in the Dream-Making Livestream Battle were either recruited by major forces, entered the various academies, or were admitted to Federation military academies. Dream Makers who entered the Interstellar Grand Ranking also received the support of competition prize money.
For many Dream Makers, even if their talent in mental power was not top-tier, if they could display their own unique dream-making skills in a certain area during the Dream Maker Competition, such as exquisite modeling, meticulous construction, outstanding color sense, and so on, they would also receive all kinds of olive branches offering generous treatment: invitations from academies, recruitment from various forces, and employment offers from companies.
Therefore, even the lowest-level Dream Makers would gamble on participating in the Dream-Making Livestream Battle. It did not cost any money anyway, so what if they happened to strike it lucky?
It was not as though interstellar history had never seen contestants pass the opening basic assessment and then, in the later team competitions, battle competitions, and instance competitions, have insanely good luck and draw byes[4]Bye – A tournament term meaning that a contestant automatically advances to the next round without having to compete in that round. Here, 轮空 (lúnkōng) means the contestants were lucky … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3670291_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3670291_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); all the way, almost directly getting a free pass into the Interstellar Grand Ranking.
Luo Zhao quickly recalled everything about Dream Makers. So, there should be quite a lot of people watching her livestream right now, huh?
Because she received the novel’s plot and memories, Luo Zhao’s brain throbbed with bursts of pain. She only just tried to mobilize her mental power according to her memories when she felt a burst of stabbing pain, so she could only continue resting.
By this time, more than half of the assessment period already passed. Many viewers from Flying Fish Planet who kept waiting for “Contestant Luo Zhao” to display her great prowess could no longer endure it. Large numbers of viewers left the livestream room, and before leaving, they even had to curse a sentence.
【Disperse, disperse. I don’t think there’s any hope left. As expected of the lowest-level carbon-based human race. Better not to hold such high expectations.】
【I already went around watching other livestream rooms and came back. Yao-race[5]妖族 (yāozú) – “Yao race.” 妖 (yāo) is a traditional Chinese term for supernatural beings or creatures that have gained spiritual awareness or transformed through cultivation. It does … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3670291_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3670291_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); contestant Dali already completed the assessment! What he manifested was a red-tailed flying fish. It was so beautiful it killed me! I’m not a species hater, but if this Luo Zhao can’t even pass the flying-fish prompt object-simulation assessment, she should just get out of Flying Fish Planet.】
【Species haters, get lost ah! Don’t bring hate onto our Flying Fish Planet. If you’re so capable, you do it!】
【It’s over, it’s over. There’s almost no time left.】
Luo Zhao calmed her state of mind. When her brain finally stopped suffering from stabbing pain, she tentatively drew out a portion of her mental power. The back of her head still hurt, but it was bearable.
She raised her head and saw the floating countdown suddenly enlarge again. At the same time, the cold system voice once again sounded beside Luo Zhao’s ear,
“Contestant Luo Zhao, the directed object-simulation dream-making assessment is about to end.”
“You have three minutes remaining!”
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