In the interstellar era, the spread of all kinds of information became even faster.
The Sea of Stars Network spread throughout the entire universe, completely synchronized in real time, with information reaching countless star regions in an instant.
In an era of highly advanced technology, aside from necessary real-world industries, a large number of industries relied on StarNet for support. Not to mention that many people completely immersed themselves in the virtual world, with their home StarNet consciousness pods automatically filled with several months’ worth of nutrient solution and all kinds of expenses automatically deducted from their accounts, allowing them to stay indoors for several months or even several years.
Compared with the high costs of crossing star zones and star regions in reality, it was much cheaper in the virtual StarNet. Not to mention that StarNet completely simulated reality. Beautiful scenery that could not be seen in reality, places one could not go, delicious food, holographic games, simulated lives, meeting relatives and friends from other star regions on StarNet—all kinds of enjoyments could instead be realized on StarNet.
During the period when Luo Zhao exited StarNet and went offline, the news that a Dream Maker from Flying Fish Planet in the Xike Star Zone completed an S-rank dream-making in three minutes already spread rapidly, farther and farther.
The matter still had to be told starting from the end of Luo Zhao’s dream-making assessment, after the dream-making showcase ended, Luo Zhao went offline, but the viewers still online in the livestream room could not suppress the primordial power surging through their bodies,[1]洪荒之力 (hónghuāng zhī lì) – Literally “the power of the primordial age.” In modern Chinese Internet usage, it humorously means an overwhelming burst of strength, energy, or … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3685960_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3685960_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); calling friends and companions and spreading the news everywhere.
Especially in Luo Zhao’s livestream room, many viewers were local residents of Flying Fish Planet. Their purpose in entering the livestream room in the first place was to support a local Dream Maker from their hometown.
Although they were somewhat disappointed at first, Luo Zhao pulled off an absolute reversal: S-rank dynamic object-simulation in the final three minutes, with built-in scenery creation. It simply left the crowd of viewers dumbfounded.
Such a strong Dream Maker was from our Flying Fish Planet!
A sense of planetary pride naturally welled up. How could they not hurry out and publicize it?
Especially within the Xike Star Zone, Flying Fish Planet was widely known as the “garbage planet,” and residents who mingled around the local star-zone sections of StarNet would sometimes encounter some discrimination: “Yo, someone from the garbage planet is here ah.”
Of course, sometimes it was also merely an unintentional remark from others: “Oh, oh, oh, Flying Fish Planet, I know it. The garbage planet is very famous.”
The person saying it might not care, but some sensitive residents of Flying Fish Planet were deeply hurt by it.
Now, Flying Fish Planet produced such a highly capable person, who got an S-rank in the assessment battle of the Dream-Making Livestream Competition. They absolutely had to hype her to the heavens!
Don’t you all say that our Flying Fish Planet is garbage?
Look at this “garbage Dream Maker” from our Flying Fish Planet. Tsk tsk, what a pity ah, you guys can’t even compare to garbage.
Originally, some viewers only promoted it within Flying Fish Planet’s internal channels. Afterward, it spread to the Xike Star Zone, and there were even people who spent money to go all the way to the Tana Star Region to brag.
Now things really got lively. StarNet exploded all at once.
S-rank mental power? Although that was genius-level, a star region or star zone would always produce a few.
An S-rank dream-making rating? What just ended was only the most basic object-simulation dream-making, and it was not as though no other contestants received one.
But add in dream-making in the final three minutes, and that was different.
Who did not know that every Dream Maker was completely focused and wholly concentrated during dream-making, proceeding little by little?
Especially something capable of receiving an S-rank rating—how much effort and mental energy would that require? Anyone able to complete it within one star-hour was already a genius.
Three minutes, what kind of joke was that? It had to be fake right!
A gimmick, it was definitely a gimmick!
Hype, it was absolutely hype!
Although they said they did not believe it, many netizens personally ran over to Flying Fish Planet’s channels. Some even entered the Sea of Stars Dream-Making Livestream Competition, found Flying Fish Planet Contestant Luo Zhao’s personal channel, and prepared to directly rage at her.
However, Luo Zhao’s personal channel was set to private and was not publicly accessible, which immediately made the netizens who wholeheartedly came to rage unhappy.
For every contestant participating in the Dream-Making Livestream Competition, StarNet would automatically generate a personal channel. Netizens could follow them, subscribe with one click, send flowers, leave messages within the channel, and even create subchannels. It was equivalent to the contestant’s personal fan group.
Generally, contestants who came to participate in the competition opened their channels from the moment they registered, in order to increase their popularity and earn income.
This Contestant Luo Zhao still kept her channel private even now. Wasn’t that obviously suspicious?
Heh! There definitely was something wrong!
Luo Zhao did not know about the countless speculations many people on StarNet had about her. In fact, it was the original body who set the channel to private. As for the reason, it was purely because she worried that if she received too many junk messages, her secondhand smartbrain might freeze.
At this moment, Flying Fish Planet’s channel on StarNet was packed with people. Some came to sightsee, some came to eat melon[2]吃瓜 (chī guā) – “Eat melon.” Chinese Internet slang for watching drama, gossip, or a public spectacle as an onlooker. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3685960_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3685960_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, and some were only just called online by friends. Text flew everywhere, arguments raged, and some people were even already starting to arrange fights.
【Your genius Dream Maker used an auxiliary intermediary object ah. I’m laughing my teeth off. Look at the Dream Makers famous throughout the sea of stars, which one still needs an extra step when dream-making? Tsk tsk, she doesn’t even dare directly guide mental power for dream-making, and she still calls herself a Dream Maker?】
【Bullshit from your Mother Empress. Our Contestant Luo Zhao only just came of age this year, heh heh, twenty-five years old. You’re comparing her with those seniors who have practiced dream-making for who knows how many years?】
【Aiyo, getting anxious, getting anxious? Why are you even cursing our Mother Empress? Insults shouldn’t extend to the whole species ah. Pitiful carbon-based human race, you don’t even dare directly externalize your mental power, and still use auxiliary objects in a competition. You treasure your short lifespans that much ah.】
Oubu was passionately arguing online. When he saw this sentence, anger immediately surged up with nowhere to vent. He was furious to death. That damned species-hating insect-race bastard only knew how to keep making an issue out of the auxiliary object!
The circumstances of different species were different. How could they be the same?!
So many Dream Makers used auxiliary objects. Why did they insist on targeting Contestant Luo Zhao alone!
The so-called auxiliary intermediary object was a common personal item carried by Dream Makers. They came in many forms and were mostly portable. Their main function was to assist Dream Makers in externalizing and guiding mental power, preventing mental damage.
When Dream Makers were novices, it was very easy for something to go wrong when externalizing mental power. And because mental power involved the brain, a single moment of carelessness could cause damage to the brain domain and the dissipation of consciousness.
Especially because human bodies were particularly fragile compared with other species, dream-making auxiliary intermediary objects were later developed. Nearly every human-race Dream Maker had one, helping Dream Makers stabilize their mental power.
However, because the Dream-Making Livestream Battle was conducted virtually within StarNet’s dream-making realm rather than in reality, directly externalizing mental power for dream-making would not result in something going wrong and causing consciousness damage. Some Dream Makers did not want themselves to become dependent on it, so they did not carry auxiliary intermediary objects.
Therefore, when a brush appeared at Luo Zhao’s assessment site, many viewers automatically assumed it was her auxiliary intermediary object.
Originally, this was not some major issue, but at the center of the current storm, even something completely blameless could become a crime.
【And another thing ah, don’t say I’m a species hater. For this flying-fish prompt, there were so many flying fish to choose from, yet your garbage planet’s contestant just had to make a flying fish nobody recognizes, and it only appeared in the final three minutes. If this isn’t a conspiracy by one of your Flying Fish Planet companies, I don’t believe it!】
【Exactly, exactly. I dare guarantee it was definitely some flying-fish breeding company on Flying Fish Planet behind this. They secretly cultivated a new flying-fish species, quietly entered it into StarNet’s species database without making it public, then found a Dream Maker to hype up a gimmick in the competition, waiting to soar into the sky in one leap and advertise it. Heh heh, what genius Dream Maker? Who knows how many star coins she took? With this level of ability, when she enters the official competition, isn’t she afraid of getting slapped in the face[3]打脸 (dǎ liǎn) – “Slap the face.” Chinese Internet slang for being proven wrong, embarrassed, or having one’s own claims backfire publicly. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3685960_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3685960_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });!】
【Tsk tsk, a garbage planet really is a garbage planet. Do you seriously think people from other planets can’t see through your little schemes[4]小九九 (xiǎo jiǔjiǔ) – A colloquial expression referring to someone’s private calculations, little schemes, or hidden plans. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3685960_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3685960_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });? You even have the nerve to promote it everywhere. When the time comes, you won’t even know how you died!】
More and more netizens poured into Flying Fish Planet’s public channel. Oubu’s two fists could not fight so many hands.[5]双拳难敌多手 (shuāng quán nán dí duō shǒu) – “Two fists cannot fight many hands,” meaning one person is at a disadvantage when facing many opponents. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3685960_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3685960_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); Looking at these malicious speculations, anger rushed to his head, but when he thought of personally experiencing Contestant Luo Zhao’s Immersive Sensory Link, he calmed down again.
As a contestant who was likewise participating in the Dream-Making Livestream Battle, Oubu entered Luo Zhao’s livestream room after finishing his own assessment early. He originally planned to go observe the other contestants from Flying Fish Planet, but after entering Luo Zhao’s livestream room, he only wanted to shout, “Big shot, let me cling to your thigh.”[6]抱大腿 / 求大腿 – Chinese Internet slang for attaching oneself to or seeking the support of someone highly capable or powerful. 大腿 means “thigh,” with the image of clinging to a … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3685960_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3685960_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
As a Dream Maker who personally experienced how terrifying Luo Zhao’s Immersive Sensory Link was, Oubu wore a mysterious smile on his face as he passionately typed away,
【Heh heh, you guys don’t know shit. A bunch of people who weren’t even at the assessment site. If you had experienced Contestant Luo Zhao’s Immersive Sensory Link, you wouldn’t say this. I’ve remembered your StarNet IDs. If you’ve got the guts, never buy Luo Zhao’s dream-making immersive experience!】
【What a bunch of ignorant people. Heh heh, I won’t bother arguing with you guys. Just wait!】
The other side also struck back without the slightest politeness,
【What tough talk are you spouting? So you’re that big idiot who bought a rookie Dream Maker’s Immersive Sensory Link ah. I’m dying of laughter. No wonder you’ve been talking here the whole time. You lost money and you’re still pretending? If you’re so knowledgeable, then tell us what exactly that unknown flying fish is ah?】
Luo Zhao had just entered the center of this StarNet war of words when she saw Oubu’s comments. She froze slightly. What a coincidence, she happened to run into this little wealth-bringing benefactor[7]善财童子 (Shàncái Tóngzǐ) – Literally “Sudhana, the Child of Wealth,” a Buddhist figure. In modern colloquial use, it can jokingly refer to someone who brings or gives money, like a … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3685960_1_7').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3685960_1_7', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); who gave her money. Remembering the ID named 【Oubu】, she clicked into his profile, discovered that he was also a Dream Maker, and casually tapped follow.
As for those remarks attacking Luo Zhao herself, and even insulting her, Luo Zhao personally did not feel much about them.
After all, she only just arrived and still did not have much sense of belonging toward this world.
Secondly, even in the modern era of her previous life, she saw plenty of storms rise and surge on the Internet. Sure enough ah, history was just a little cycle. Even in the interstellar era, it was still like this.
However, there was one thing Luo Zhao found rather puzzling. She created the Wenyao Fish from 《Classic of Mountains and Seas》 during the dream-making assessment. Since she passed the assessment and even received an S-rank rating, that proved the Wenyao Fish existed in StarNet’s database and was recognized as a flying-fish species.
Logically speaking, from the end of the assessment until now, someone should long since have found the Wenyao Fish through StarNet searches, species encyclopedias, or similar retrieval methods.
Yet even now, they still called it an “unknown flying fish,” and even speculated from this that Luo Zhao was bought off by a flying-fish breeding company to hype up this new flying-fish species.
Luo Zhao watched 【Oubu】 clack clack clack as he replied to others:
【Isn’t that simple? Obviously, Contestant Luo Zhao is a descendant inheritor of some lost civilization. These days, with the Dream Race invading and so many ancient civilizations lost, do you think knowledge is just Chinese cabbage[8]大白菜 (dà báicài) – “Chinese cabbage.” Here it is used figuratively for something extremely common, cheap, and readily available. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3685960_1_8').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3685960_1_8', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); placed on StarNet for anyone to look at? That unknown flying fish can’t be found in the StarNet encyclopedia, but she passed the assessment, so it definitely exists in a higher-level ancient civilization database. You don’t have permission to view it, so what’s there to ask? In what year of the Dream-Making Livestream Battle aren’t there a few surviving descendants from niche civilizations or destroyed civilizations?】
Lost ancient civilization… niche civilization… destroyed civilization. Seeing these words, Luo Zhao’s finger scrolling on the smartbrain paused, and her brain somewhat crashed.
She no longer had the heart to watch this war of insults concerning herself and switched to the public search interface, searching frantically,
Search 【Earth】, no relevant content found.
Search 【Milky Way Galaxy】, no relevant content found.
Search 【Blue Star】, no relevant content found.
……
Search 【Huaxia】, no relevant content found.
Who knew how many search terms she changed through. 【No relevant content found】 appeared before Luo Zhao’s eyes again and again.
She sat on a fish-shaped seat in Flying Fish Plaza, her eyelashes trembling, her fingertips slightly shaking.
Homeland, does it still exist?
References[+]