Luo Zhao’s adaptability was always extremely strong.
As a folklore researcher, she went to different regions, different ethnic groups, and different settlements to conduct fieldwork, integrate into the local area, and obtain first-hand materials.
Even when she suddenly transmigrated and found herself in the dream-making assessment battle, she still extremely calmly resolved the predicament before her.
Quickly resolving unexpected situations was a basic ability of Luo Zhao as a folklore researcher.
As a folklore graduate student at Huaxia University, Luo Zhao began following her advisor on field research while still an undergraduate, traveling across countless rivers and mountains, crossing continents and oceans, and studying the folk-life cultures passed down by different ethnic groups and different countries.
In the past, she followed her advisor and went together with the large group of her classmates. Later, she herself became a senior schoolmate capable of handling things independently, leading yet another group of junior schoolmates into the field.[1]师姐 / 师弟 / 师妹 (shījiě / shīdì / shīmèi) – Senior and junior members studying under the same teacher or advisor. In an academic research group, these terms reflect seniority … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3686406_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3686406_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
Before transmigrating, Luo Zhao’s field research was already nearing its end, and she was organizing her field notes in preparation for her thesis. Although she was thousands of li away from the university, she also shouldered the research work of her advisor Zhang Xinghuo’s project group, the Huaxia University Institute of Folklore Research’s folklore culture inheritance “Passing the Flame” Plan.[2]薪火 (xīnhuǒ) – “Fuel and flame.” It is commonly used for the passing down of knowledge, culture, or a tradition from one generation to the next. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3686406_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3686406_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
There were still many unfinished items on Luo Zhao’s notebook’s to-do list.
That unlucky advisor of hers dumped the intangible cultural heritage research task behind and ran off who knew where, to some godforsaken place where even birds did not shit, to conduct research again. A bunch of newly admitted little radish-head[3]萝卜头 (luóbo tóu) – “Little radish-head,” an informal and somewhat affectionate way of referring to young or inexperienced youngsters. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3686406_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3686406_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); Junior Brothers and Junior Sisters in the group were waiting for her, their Second Senior Sister, to lead them.
Within their academic lineage, there was also their Eldest Senior Brother, a severe Internet addict who soaked himself in front of the computer every day doing rather cutting-edge research on contemporary Internet folklore. Who knew how long he stayed shut inside during this period, or whether he still looked human.
A Junior Sister from the neighboring research group still needed her help pulling connections so she could enter a certain Daoist temple complex[4]宫观 (gōngguàn) – A traditional term for Daoist temples or monastic complexes. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3686406_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3686406_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); to conduct in-depth fieldwork.
From the moment she transmigrated, Luo Zhao prepared herself to adapt to this current interstellar society.
For folklore researchers conducting fieldwork, going deep into the local area and living together with the people was a good opportunity to obtain first-hand materials.
Anthropologist Morgan went deep among the Iroquois and was adopted by a clan as a member; Barley integrated into local life in Africa to study Dowayoland; even Luo Zhao’s advisor Zhang Xinghuo once disappeared for three years, and it was said that he ran off to Shennongjia to become a wild man.
Of course, every time the wild-man matter was mentioned, Advisor Zhang Xinghuo flatly denied it. The students who knew, knew.
When conducting fieldwork away from home, entering deep mountains and old forests, remote and impoverished places, and even undeveloped areas, the conditions were difficult, but for the sake of research, everything was worth it.
In order to integrate into the local society of their research subjects, they sometimes had no choice but to cast aside much of the education and upbringing they received since childhood and enter another form of society.
There were even times when, because medicine was insufficient and diseases ran rampant, they contracted malaria and all kinds of illnesses.
After staying out in the field for a year or half a year, becoming accustomed to the local society, communicating through shouting and yelling, using one’s hands whenever possible rather than arguing, strange local customs, combining shamanic treatment with medicine when sick, and using all kinds of unofficial methods to solve problems—when one’s entire mind became stuffed full of all this, then the research ended and one left, returning to civilized society, the two completely different sets of rules for conducting oneself made it feel, in a daze, as though one had undergone a transmigration.
From when she was young and first became interested in mythology, customs, crafts, and all sorts of things, to learning that all of this was called folklore, entering university, and joining a research group, Luo Zhao immersed herself in it and was endlessly intoxicated by it.
Over ten years, people around her came one after another. There were Junior Brothers who could not endure long-term fieldwork and withdrew, and colleagues who developed mental illnesses and left with their spirits dimmed.
Luo Zhao always knew that this was the career she intended to remain steadfast in for her entire life.
Everything she loved was engraved into her soul. If one lifetime was not enough, there was still the next life.
At the desk and in the field were the things she dearly loved and was obsessed with.
On the campus and along the streets were the things she was attached to and accustomed to.
Doing folklore research did not mean one could stop eating or stop living.
In the field, she could endure loneliness, looking at the sky full of stars and conversing with heaven and earth.
Yet she also missed the ceaseless flow of traffic through the streets and alleys, the lively human world filled with everyday life.
When she was outside writing field notes and her stomach went grumble grumble,
Luo Zhao would miss the mushroom soup with rice from the Second Cafeteria. Nothing could be more comforting.
When conversation with the locals grew lively, yet there were no fine dishes to accompany the talk,
Luo Zhao would miss all kinds of snacks in the research room and chatting over tea all night until dawn.
Late at night, when the hour was deep, the dew heavy, and everything silent without a word,
Luo Zhao would think of her talkative Little Junior Sister, animatedly sharing the latest gossip.
Humans were social creatures after all, living in settlements rather than dwelling alone in isolation.
Even when Luo Zhao crossed oceans and continents and ran off to a small South American country to study settlement myths, there was always an attachment in her heart.
Her thoughts flowed like a current, surged past, then settled.
Luo Zhao closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she watched a green-feathered winged person beside her, wings folded in, leading a flower-tailed flying fish past her. Hover vehicles came whistling along the tracks in the sky, and the dim glow of artificial light sources shining over her body brought a strange feeling.
She took a deep breath and wiped the smartbrain on her left hand.
En?
Why did so many more messages come from StarNet again?
【Oubu】: Big shot! Big Shot Jiejie[5]姐姐 (jiějie) – “Jiejie” means “older sister.” It can also be used as an affectionate or respectful way to address an older girl or woman, even when she is not actually related to … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3686406_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3686406_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, you actually followed me. Sea of Stars above! I’m really too excited!
【Oubu】: I actually got to mutually follow Big Shot. I couldn’t help standing up and turning around three times. It actually isn’t a dream! Being able to participate in the same edition of the competition as Big Shot, with both of us from Flying Fish Planet and both of us human race, I really can’t suppress how happy I am.
【Oubu】: Big Shot, don’t worry. I reported all those people talking nonsense on StarNet. Wantonly spreading rumors about a seeded contestant of the Dream-Making Livestream Battle, insulting and belittling Dream Makers, stirring up species-hating and planet-hating, I already sent an email reporting it to the Dream Maker Committee. They’ll definitely give Big Shot an outcome!
Luo Zhao raised her brows. It was that little wealth-bringing benefactor ah, sending so many messages.
Moreover… the other party was typing.
Looking at Oubu’s messages, Luo Zhao thought for a moment, then first replied with one,
【Luo Zhao】: Thank you.
In the original body’s memories, she knew very little about things like ancient civilizations. After all, she only just came of age and received only the most basic Federation general education.
Even when she searched for things on StarNet normally, she only used the free public Sea of Stars search. She never used paid searches before. As for the Dream Race invasion Oubu spoke of, because it was far too distant from her everyday life, what she knew was limited.
The Dream Race was the great enemy of many races in this world.
In the current sea of stars, whether under the Federation or the Empire, multiple races coexisted: the human race, Yao-race, insect race, all kinds of flesh-and-blood races, energy races that did not exist in Luo Zhao’s previous life, and niche groups all lived together.
Although the various races normally fought endlessly over resources and interests, when it came to facing the Dream Race, all groups, all flesh-and-blood races, stood on a united front.
The Dream Race was their mortal enemy.
Dream Makers were the front line resisting the Dream Race.
The so-called Dream Race was a special race in this world. Unlike lifeforms such as the human race and Yao-race, whose flesh and mind coexisted, the Dream Race was a race of pure mental entities.
There was a saying: the more you lacked something, the more you wanted it.
The Dream Race was exactly like this.
Because they had no flesh-and-blood life, they especially yearned to be able to truly touch the existence of flesh and blood.
The Dream Race silently invaded, parasitizing the bodies of various flesh-and-blood lifeforms and gaining control over their bodies.
As natural kings in the use of mental power, they could skillfully draw out and devour a lifeform’s original mental essence and memories, seize the soul and capture the spirit, and occupy the body without anyone noticing, reducing the original lifeform to a puppet.
The Dream Race greatly loved flesh-and-blood lifeforms, especially major races such as the human race and Yao-race, which possessed their own different, long-standing civilizations.
Their arrival and invasion were always completely silent. Some members of the Dream Race loved traveling alone, hiding within the territories of the Federation and Empire, devouring humans on some planet and disguising themselves as ordinary members of the human race.
But even more members of the Dream Race were obsessed with collective power, collectively invading a planet, sweeping through a star region, and destroying civilizations that, in their eyes, were completely useless.
For lifeforms invaded by the Dream Race, if the invasion time was still short and their mental power and memories were not completely devoured, they could still be saved. If their mental power was severed, then they would be completely rendered incapacitated, or even die on the spot the instant the Dream Race withdrew and left.
In the history of the sea of stars, those civilizations devoured and swept through by the Dream Race and confirmed to have been destroyed were called destroyed civilizations.
Those civilizations whose territories were invaded and occupied by the Dream Race, after which no further news was ever heard and whose survival or destruction remained unknown, were regarded as lost civilizations.
Destroyed, lost, with who knew how many years already passed, the information on these civilizations might still exist, stored high away in the Sea of Stars Civilization Database, but the people who understood everything about those civilizations were already gone.
Other races did not understand them, so they were shelved high away and forgotten.[6]束之高阁 (shù zhī gāo gé) – “Shelved high away.” An idiom for putting something aside and leaving it unused, ignored, or forgotten. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3686406_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3686406_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); In this way, such civilizations also completely vanished into the dust and smoke of history.
The smartbrain once again and again and again received a new message,[7]又双叒叕 (yòu shuāng ruò zhuó) – Chinese Internet wordplay built by repeatedly expanding the character 又, emphasizing that something happened “yet again” or “again and again.” jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3686406_1_7').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3686406_1_7', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
【Oubu】: Big Shot replied to me!!! She’s alive! Big Shot Luo Zhao, could you tell this humble one what exactly the flying fish you dream-made is called? I really like it too much! Bashful.jpg
【Luo Zhao】: Its name is Wenyao. It comes from 《Classic of Mountains and Seas》.
Luo Zhao was just pondering whether to ask Oubu about those paid databases on StarNet, as well as how to obtain information on lost civilizations and destroyed civilizations, when this kid already sent over a long string of messages.
【Oubu】: Wenyao? It really is a strange yet nice-sounding name ah. Big Shot, don’t worry, I know how to keep it secret. From now on, I’m your underling. If you say go up, I absolutely won’t go down! Right, Big Shot, have you heard? The rewards for this edition of the Dream-Making Livestream Battle are simply unprecedentedly huge!
【Oubu】: Putting the star-coin rewards aside, this time, Dream Makers ranked in the top one thousand in the Sea of Stars rankings can obtain an entry ticket to the Civilization Library! That is the dream holy land of all Dream Makers, gathering all the magnificent civilizations, lost civilizations, and destroyed civilizations in the entire sea of stars! In the previous few editions, only the top one hundred received this reward!
Looking at the words Oubu sent, Luo Zhao’s eyes grew brighter and brighter.
The Civilization Library gathered all the civilizations in the entire sea of stars.
Then the civilization of her homeland must certainly exist within it as well.
【Oubu】: Ai, at most I can show off my strength within our star region. I’d already be satisfied if I could rank in the top one thousand of the star zone. Big Shot, Big Shot, are you still on Flying Fish Planet now? Did you apply for our star zone’s competition-preparation zone and training camp? Shall we go together ah?
【Oubu】: Right, Big Shot, forgive me for asking, but do you have any goal for this competition?
After a while, Oubu finally received Luo Zhao’s reply.
Seeing Big Shot’s reply, his pupils contracted.
!!!
【Luo Zhao】: First, set a small goal: top one thousand in the Sea of Stars rankings.
References[+]