Chapter 004

Chapter 004

After another inspection of Dandan, Bai Xiaoyu followed his memory back to the room.

This was the room assigned to him by the breeding facility—a one-bedroom apartment with a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and balcony, looking about eighty square meters in size, spacious and comfortable.

It could be considered quite nice.

Even before the apocalypse, apart from the large ancestral home of the Bai family, when he lived alone in City S, his mother had an apartment of similar size, though it was a two-bedroom. His nephew would occasionally come back for holidays, but most of the time, he lived alone and liked it very much.

So he was satisfied with this room, but the original owner despised it.

He recalled the luxurious villa where the original owner lived with his mother, bought by his cheap father, complete with many servants.

Dismissing such a small house, the contrast was too great after coming here; he couldn't stay more than a few days and desperately wanted to go back.

Bai Xiaoyu instructed the equipped robot to clean the place again while he entered the bathroom for a shower.

Only now did he have the chance to see himself. Looking at the familiar face with phoenix eyes and thin lips in the mirror, his eyes gradually curved into a smile.

The original owner had a face almost identical to his, just a bit more childish. Twenty-two was a young and beautiful age.

Bai Xiaoyu touched his abdomen, feeling the softness. Looking at this pudgy belly, he started to miss his six-pack abs.

The original owner's "white chicken" appearance had been ridiculed by his siblings no end.

Was this what an F-grade physique looked like?

During the time Bai Xiaoyu had taken over the body, comparing his experiences, it was slightly worse than an ordinary person's physique before the apocalypse—slightly leaner and weaker, but not problematic.

However, in the interstellar era, it didn't work that way. People here might carry beast genes and had evolved, making their innate physique and mental strength better than Earthlings.

Interstellar human physiques were graded, with F-grade being the lowest and SSS-grade the highest.

Mental strength was similarly graded.

Bai Xiaoyu was no stranger to this. After the apocalypse began, humans and zombies could evolve, leading to grading systems. The direction of evolution for physique and abilities was similar to the interstellar era.

The original owner's physique would have found it hard to survive after the apocalypse, especially in later stages, as even ordinary people were evolving subtly.

In the interstellar era, physiques and mental strengths continued to improve. Almost every interstellar human's physique improved with growth and exercise after birth.

The higher the grade, whether for physique or mental strength, the longer the lifespan.

Interstellar humans below C-grade could live up to three hundred years.

Those at E-grade could live to two hundred and fifty. The original owner, with dual F-grades, was advised by doctors during a physical examination to achieve any dreams before turning fifty, or else he might lack the energy later.

Bai Xiaoyu: "..."

Was there no end to this?

Bai Xiaoyu walked out of the bathroom, drenched in water vapor, feeling much more relaxed. He opened his optical brain once more.

Opening the message sent by the main brain, he clicked on the live-stream application.

A prompt popped up on the optical brain, "Given that the live-stream application requires a holographic environment, are you ready to enter the Star Network?"

Bai Xiaoyu clicked yes. In the next moment, his vision blurred, and upon regaining consciousness, he saw passersby moving around.

But these people were so tall!

And he was on all fours, with his tail swaying gently.

Wait, on all fours and with a tail? What was going on?

Bai Xiaoyu froze, opening his personal homepage and falling silent at the sight of himself.

There stood a small brown tiger with beautiful stripes, looking utterly bewildered, its ears flattened in shock.

He remembered the original owner didn't have a beast form, yet he had set up this image for himself?

And then there was the ID above his head: Interstellar Super Invincible Emperor.

This...

At this moment, some people stopped to look at the dazed little tiger.

"This kid must be new to the holographic Star Network. With a name like that, he's probably still a cub, looking so cute and dazed."

"I wonder if I can hold him. Dear Interstellar Super Emperor, may I hug you?"

"Your Majesty, can I kiss you?"

Bai Xiaoyu snapped back to reality, seeing the crowd gathering around him, setting off alarm bells in his mind.

He wanted to run away but found himself using his hind legs instinctively, leaving his front legs stationary.

Thus, in the next second, he stumbled in front of everyone, rolling forward like a ball of fur before barely stopping.

Bai Xiaoyu was completely stunned, his furry ears drooping, his eyes wet and innocent.

The crowd felt their hearts tremble, unable to resist wanting to hold the little guy.

Seeing countless hands reaching towards him, Bai Xiaoyu's tail instantly bristled, and he clumsily ran away, stumbling and rolling.

Growing up maintaining an elder's image in front of his nephew, always composed, Bai Xiaoyu had never felt so embarrassed.

Hiding in a corner, Bai Xiaoyu said, "Little Spirit, change this image."

He had just remembered that on the Star Network, every user had a guide sprite.

As soon as he finished speaking, a palm-sized sprite with white wings appeared before him. "Changing your avatar requires credit points, Master. You don't have enough credit points to switch."

Bai Xiaoyu's tail flicked faster as he asked, "Are there no default avatars provided by the system to choose from?"

The sprite blinked its eyes. "There used to be, but you deleted them because you found them too ugly. Isn't your current avatar good? I remember you liked it very much. Although your mental energy only allows for the more expensive cub version, you spent five million credit points on it in one go."

The little tiger's tail stood straight up and then shook fiercely after a moment.

"Can this be resold?"

The sprite smiled and replied, "Master, bound virtual items cannot be resold."

The little tiger's tail instantly drooped, and his ears flopped down. After a while, he seemed to finally accept reality. He waved his paw. "Then take me to the registration place for the live-streaming of the incubation center."

The registration for incubation live-streams was on the official community website of the incubation center. Thus, the people in the incubation community were fortunate enough to see a white sprite leading the way, followed by a fluffy little tiger stumbling along behind.

After much effort, they reached the registration office, and Bai Xiaoyu submitted his application.

The incubation live-stream applications were reviewed by dedicated personnel. The president of the Incubation Protection Association was planning to ride the Sixteenth Legion's spacecraft over because an incubator had audaciously refused to do a live-stream for a whole week.

He intended to personally go and urge them, and also check if they had done anything bad to the eggs.

However, just as he stepped out, he received a notification from the mainframe about the review. He stormed back in angrily.

Upon logging in, he saw no one and shouted, "Why did you register so late? Are you trying to avoid supervision? Are the eggs okay?"

Realizing no one was there, his anger flared even more. "Where are you?"

A young voice came from below, "I'm here."

The president, whose beard was already white, looked down to see a little tiger sitting on the ground, sighing. His beard trembled, but his voice became stern while his face softened. "Don't think changing into a cub avatar will help you evade responsibility. Hmph. Come closer, let me pet you."

Bai Xiaoyu: "..."

In the end, Bai Xiaoyu was petted twice by the president and was finally allowed to proceed with the successful review.

However, when the system scanned his real appearance, the avatar would temporarily become ineffective, revealing his true form.

Bai Xiaoyu preferred his human form, but the president immediately changed his demeanor, criticizing him harshly for everything he hadn't said earlier.

Seeing Bai Xiaoyu's calm expression despite being scolded, he grew even more annoyed.

How could this human form compare to the fluffy, cute cub?

Once the scan was complete and Bai Xiaoyu reverted to his little tiger avatar, the president's mood improved.

"When do you plan to start the live-stream?"

Before Bai Xiaoyu could answer, the president added, "The sooner, the better. Can you start today?"

Bai Xiaoyu thought for a moment. "Once I figure out how to start the live-stream, I'll begin."

The president, looking at the fluffy avatar, wasn't entirely convinced but said, "Then do it as soon as possible, no later than tomorrow."

Bai Xiaoyu was petted once more before leaving the registration office.

After successfully registering, he automatically generated a live-stream account on the incubation live-streaming website, with the number DQ369.

D36 referred to the abbreviation of the planet he was currently on, and Q9 indicated that the incubation center was in the ninth district of that planet.

Planets like D36, which were on the edge of the war zone and had few inhabitants due to severe dark matter pollution, had limited reproductive capabilities and few new eggs. Typically, one incubation center per district was sufficient.

On more prosperous planets, each district had three or more incubation centers.

Looking at his live-stream room number, he clicked in, but the window was still dark.

He then browsed the live-stream section of the official website.

A row of windows appeared before him, each displaying various eggs from different angles, with every detail visible, including the tiny particles on the eggshells.

All the eggs made his eyes blur, but the front-row live-streams had decent viewership.

Bai Xiaoyu didn't realize he had entered the newcomers' section, where the viewership was average.

Choosing the most popular live-stream, he entered and found himself standing in front of a watermelon-sized, glowing white egg with cracks appearing on its surface.

Bai Xiaoyu was stunned for a moment, realizing that what he was seeing was someone else's main view.

Was this egg about to hatch?

Live comments occasionally flashed across his screen.

A male voice spoke, presumably the owner of the live-stream.

"This batch has thirty eggs, all healthy. Twenty have already hatched. This one is about to hatch too. Let's witness it together."

The comments immediately became excited. Additionally, sparkling stars appeared above the live-stream.

"Ding Lan, you're amazing! The third egg successfully hatched a healthy rabbit beast. Here are some stars for you."

"The color of this egg is excellent; it might be a beast cub. Can I witness the birth of a beast cub?"

"Here are some stars, Ding Lan! Keep it up!"

Bai Xiaoyu watched the stars and comments flash by, noticing the gift column with stars. He extended his paw and tapped it.

The system prompt read: "Stars cost 1 credit point. Insufficient balance to make a donation."

Bai Xiaoyu calmly withdrew his paw. Perfect, he didn’t even have a single credit point.

At this moment, the barrage of comments suddenly surged.

"Quick, look! It’s hatching! It’s a little paw."

"A Beastman!"

"Hold your horses; it might just be a half-Beastman with paws."

"If it’s a half-Beastman, part of its body would still be that of an infant and wouldn’t be as agile as this one. But it’s not impossible. Everyone, stay calm and don’t get too excited."

But everyone was still excited. Normally, only one Beastman would be born out of twenty eggs, but now, the second Beastman had hatched from the twenty-first egg, doubling the odds.

For a moment, the live stream was filled with twinkling stars.

The owner of the live stream, Ding Lan, remained calm, as if he had known the outcome all along.

He moved the camera closer, allowing everyone to see another paw stretch out and push aside the eggshell.

A wet little head appeared before everyone’s eyes.

"It’s a little bamboo rat!"

Ding Lan’s fans started sending meteor showers in the live stream.

Ding Lan was in a good mood. "It’s very lucky to have hatched two little Beastmen. I consider this a satisfactory result for my graduation project."

"As a Breeder, you truly live up to being a top graduate from the Imperial Military Academy’s breeding program. I heard that everyone from your program is exceptional and highly sought after across the entire galaxy."

Ding Lan’s expression changed, and his tone became subtle. "Not everyone. Some got in through back doors. I heard they haven’t even done a single live stream yet. Maybe we’ll see them in the Interstellar Court someday. I doubt they can hatch even one egg."

"There are always such parasites around. Do you have their live stream number? Share it so I can go watch."

"We’re both on Capital Star. That wouldn’t be a good idea; many people are waiting to see him make a fool of himself."

"Who is it?"

"He’s quite famous, a double F waste from Capital Star."

Ding Lan: "I’d like to challenge him someday."

"No, competing with him would be beneath you. Does he even deserve it?"

Xiaoyu: "???"

These days, watching a live stream could lead to encountering someone familiar and getting targeted remotely?