The live broadcast signal was cut, and the stream ended, causing Jimmy to relax in that instant.
He stretched.
"This recording session ended perfectly! Thankfully, nothing went wrong, and everything was smooth."
Bai Luan put away the acoustic guitar in his hand.
"Yeah, it was quite fun."
"Thanks to Mr. Bai Luan, the number of viewers for our show this time directly broke a new record; it's probably going to be hard to see such a grand occasion again."
Jimmy was about to say something more, but Bai Luan interrupted him with a raised hand.
A message arrived on his phone.
Bai Luan generally disliked suddenly picking up his phone to reply to messages while talking to someone else; it was a bit impolite.
But the phone made a special notification sound, which meant it was a message from Herta.
This couldn't be delayed; he had to reply.
Seeing Bai Luan's gesture, Jimmy immediately quieted down, making his presence as minimal as possible.
Bai Luan picked up his phone.
Herta: I didn't expect you to be quite bold.
Bold about what?
Bai Luan didn't react for a moment, but in the next second, he understood.
Herta was watching the live broadcast?
Then wouldn't she have... heard everything?
Bai Luan's cheeks flushed slightly.
Confessing in front of the entire universe was fine, but being watched by Herta was a bit...
Then Bai Luan's phone's front camera suddenly activated on its own, taking a picture of Bai Luan's face.
It captured his flushed expression and then automatically sent it.
???
Everything happened so fast that Bai Luan didn't even react.
Herta: A nice expression.
Bai Luan showed a helpless smile.
Bai Luan: Ms. Herta, what kind of strange things have you installed on my phone?
Herta: I'm quite satisfied. Next time we meet, I'll give you a small reward.
This reminded Bai Luan of Herta's last reward—the one that almost turned him into a love-struck fool.
Can I endure it this time?
『If you ask me, you're just asking for trouble』
Get lost.
Bai Luan put away his phone, smiled at Jimmy, and said,
"Sorry, I just replied to a message."
Jimmy quickly waved his wing:
"No worries, no worries, please feel free to do as you like, don't mind me."
Bai Luan smiled and said,
"Thank you for your understanding. It was a pleasure working with you, and perhaps we'll have more opportunities to collaborate in the future."
"Really? If there are any more collaboration opportunities, please be sure to contact me; I'll definitely come."
"Of course, see you next collaboration."
Bai Luan extended his hand to Jimmy.
"It's a deal!"
Jimmy extended his wing and shook Bai Luan's hand.
Bai Luan walked out of the recording studio and saw the backstage crew lying on chairs, looking completely burnt out.
To prevent the live stream from crashing, they had pushed themselves to the limit; they had never been so tired in their lives.
They lay in various postures, giving off a sense of bodies strewn across a battlefield.
Bai Luan couldn't resist taking a picture with his phone, then went forward to ask if he could use it for a social media post.
After some friendly negotiation, Bai Luan exchanged the right to post the picture for a chance to take a photo with him.
Bai Luan captioned the photo with a line.
"If you're feeling stressed, come take a look at the backstage crew of the 'Into the Starry Sky' live stream. They just endured the live stream's viewer count, which spanned the entire universe."
This post sparked heated discussion, though most of it was gratitude for the crew's efforts.
Soon, the people in the photo also appeared in the comment section, posting their selfies with Bai Luan, each smiling more brightly than the last.
"Yi Mu merely made a slight move and cured their fatigue; what a miraculous doctor."
"No, their faces have completely changed."
"They don't look like they just worked overtime, smiling like that?"
"You're smiling even brighter than Yi Mu in your selfie with him."
Watching their comments, Bai Luan boarded the spaceship.
Since the live broadcast wasn't very long, Bai Luan simply didn't have the spaceship leave; it stayed parked there, waiting for him to finish recording the show.
Anyway, because he had taken this flight so many times and was always generous, he had already been marked as a VIP.
It seemed that after his alternate identity was exposed and he was confirmed as a Genius Society member, his status was upgraded again.
Bai Luan couldn't remember the full name, only that it was a VIP with a very, very, very long prefix.
He felt that with this VIP status, he could kick the pilot out of the spaceship and fly it back to the Space Station without any problems.
『Come on, if you were to open the cabin door mid-flight for some fresh air, they'd still ask if you needed a spacesuit』
Alright.
Bai Luan shrugged.
Such is the charm of money.
Bai Luan found a comfortable spot on a chair in the spaceship and picked up his phone.
The journey to Penacony would take a little longer than the trip to Jimmy's location.
It was a shame the Astral Express hadn't gone to Penacony yet, otherwise he would have hitched a ride using the Anywhere Door.
But there was nothing wrong with relaxing comfortably on the spaceship and watching videos.
He had only been scrolling through short videos for a while when he received a message from Silver Wolf.
Silver Wolf: You're targeting me in the new game.
Bai Luan: How so?
Silver Wolf: Why did you write that anti-cheat program so well? Even I can't break it. Isn't that clearly targeting me?
Bai Luan: It's a horror game. If you cheat, you remove the horror. Without horror, what are you playing a horror game for?
Silver Wolf: To beat up out-of-control automatons.
Bai Luan: ...
Silver Wolf's one sentence left Bai Luan at a loss for how to retort.
Bai Luan: If you want combat thrills, why don't you play devil may cry?
Silver Wolf: You're surrounded by people whose Path powers fly everywhere when they fight. Would you be interested in such a game?
Silver Wolf: I'm already tired of it.
Bai Luan: No, even so, you shouldn't be interested in MiSide, right?
Silver Wolf: I'm just curious. I want to see what kind of out-of-control automatons you, the automaton succubus, created.
Bai Luan: ...
Bai Luan: If you want to play, then you'll have to suffer!
Silver Wolf: Then I won't play.
Bai Luan raised an eyebrow.
Hmph, trying to escape?
Lightning Whirlwind Slash... No, I got my lines mixed up. Ahem, that's not what I meant to say.
Bai Luan: How about this: if you play the game seriously without cheating and complete it, I'll do something you're absolutely interested in. How does that sound?
Silver Wolf looked at Bai Luan's message, scoffed disdainfully, and replied.
Silver Wolf: Hmph, what could you do that would interest me?
Silver Wolf: Do you think I, Silver Wolf, am someone you can just toy with?
She had only typed half of the next sentence, "You underestimate me, Silver Wolf, too much," when Bai Luan's reply came.
Bai Luan: I'm planning to animate the story of a legendary character from cyberpunk 2077. Don't you want to see it?
Silver Wolf fell silent.
She really liked the game cyberpunk 2077.
She really wanted to see this.
So she sheepishly deleted the half-typed words.
Silver Wolf: Really?
Bai Luan's lips curved slightly upward.
The fish was about to take the bait.
Regardless of whether Silver Wolf agreed or not, Bai Luan had planned to make this animation.
It was just that if Silver Wolf agreed, he would get more enjoyment out of it.
The thought of Silver Wolf, who was used to dominating in reality, suddenly being stripped of her powers and forced to face the crazy mita as an ordinary person, possibly being chased and screaming by the chainsaw-wielding mita, made Bai Luan want to laugh.
The funniest part was that after watching Edgerunners, Silver Wolf would also be crying out in pain, and from Silver Wolf's perspective, this was earned by her own terrified screams.
Bai Luan: Really, I promise.
Silver Wolf: Won't it take a long time to prepare again?
Bai Luan: Don't worry, the speed will be very fast this time.
Silver Wolf: Deal!
Silver Wolf: No backing out!
Silver Wolf: If you back out, I'll have Firefly take action!
Bai Luan: Are you sure Firefly would attack me?
Silver Wolf: ...
Silver Wolf clicked her tongue in annoyance.
When did she become so helpless against this guy?
Forget it, she didn't need to specifically deal with him now.
The most important task right now... was to complete the game MiSide.
She was full of confidence.
It's just not being able to cheat, right?
It's just a horror game.
How hard could it be?