Chapter 32 Video Diary.

Chapter 32: Video Diaries.

"Can't wait to meet you."

That username was too direct; no one could possibly misunderstand its underlying meaning.

Before Yu Xin could even react, the chat exploded:

"?? Did they really just say that?"

"Hinting at off-stream contact??"

"Spending so much money just to meet the streamer? Rich people move in mysterious ways."

"Hmm, while private contact between streamers and top donors is common, isn't being this blatant a bit much?"

"But the streamer hasn’t even shown his face! What’s this whale after?"

"He’s after his gaming skills, his delicious cooking, and his pleasant voice—isn’t that enough?"

"Exactly, private contact doesn’t necessarily have to be what everyone’s thinking… that kind of thing…"

"Whatever the case, if the streamer isn’t comfortable, he should definitely refuse! Who knows what the other person’s intentions are? We live in a lawful society!!"

Cheng Zikun’s first reaction to seeing the ID was also one of stunned disbelief. He instinctively turned to Yu Xin: "Xin-ge, this…"

Anyone who could donate so many Star Coins in one go was certainly no ordinary person. Now, by openly expressing a desire to meet Yu Xin, even if they had ulterior motives, Cheng Zikun wasn’t sure if he could protect Yu Xin.

His Xin-ge was in his early twenties, drop-dead gorgeous, with a youthful glow, amazing at gaming, and a great cook—who wouldn't be captivated by that?!

What if it was some old man trying to take advantage of a young man?!

He panicked: "No way! I don’t agree!"

"……"

Yu Xin couldn’t be bothered with him.

Compared to everyone else, his reaction was remarkably calm. Mainly because he felt he had nothing worth scheming for.

In his original world, people were too busy fighting tooth and nail to survive to entertain other desires, let alone appreciate beauty. Good looks earned you exactly zero privileges.

Yu Xin completely underestimated his own appeal—in a way, he was "unaware of his own treasure."

He thanked the generous top donor once again. By then, the scheduled stream time was almost over.

The two streaming rooms, which had been neck and neck, suddenly saw a huge gap open up. Last Road's Mad Dog, who had been slightly ahead, was now completely left in the dust.

Thanks to the unexpected big spender on Yu Xin’s side, Yu Xin became the undisputed winner of this PK.

"GOAT streamer!! Big shot, you’re amazing!!"

"An underdog victory!! This is more thrilling than any esports match!!"

"We won fair and square! No matter how many tricks Last Road's Mad Dog used, he still lost, hahaha!"

"Where are those toxic stans who were so loud earlier?? Why are they silent now?"

"LMAO, hurry home and tell your ‘dog-daddy’ to get ready to call the streamer ‘daddy’! And it has to be in front of the whole internet~"

"Hahahaha, after years of being bullied by Last Road's Mad Dog and his toxic fans!! This round!! We finally got our revenge!!"

The chat was filled with cheers and celebrations, as lively as if a star team had just won the Interstellar Cup.

"That’s great, Xin-ge! I knew you could win!!" Cheng Zikun felt even more excited than when his dad gifted him the latest luxury spaceship for his eighteenth birthday.

You can always trust Yu Xin!!

He wanted to pick Yu Xin up and spin him around, but seeing Yu Xin’s firm, resistant gaze, he reluctantly gave up.

"Thank you all for watching. I’m honored." Compared to everyone else, Yu Xin was remarkably composed as he gave a slight bow.

On the other side, the atmosphere was completely different.

Qing Xiaoyao, sensing the bad vibes, had left early.

Last Road's Mad Dog sat slumped in front of the camera, his face ashen.

I'm done for…

Despite all his elaborate schemes, he had still lost.

The chat was flooded with mockery and ridicule. Under normal circumstances, he would have muted, banned, and blocked users without hesitation, but now, he had no energy for it.

"Last Road's Mad Dog, what goes around comes around. Did you ever think you’d end up like this when you were doing all those shady things?"

"When you let your rabid fans attack others, did you ever think you’d eventually mess with the wrong person??"

"This is called karma. This is so satisfying, hahahahaha!"

"Hurry up, you were the one who proposed it—whoever loses has to call the other ‘daddy.’ We’re all waiting, hahaha!"

"Given that Last Road's Mad Dog calls the new streamer ‘daddy,’ and I’m the same generation as the new streamer, what should Last Road's Mad Dog call me?"

"Given that Last Road's Mad Dog is the ‘daddy’ of his toxic fans, and the new streamer is Last Road's Mad Dog’s ‘daddy,’ and I’m the same generation as the new streamer, what should the toxic fans call me??"

"Hahahaha, let me go figure it out at the mall entrance and get back to you all (dog emoji)."

More and more viewers flooded into Last Road's Mad Dog’s stream, urging him to fulfill the bet and call Yu Xin "daddy" in front of the entire internet.

As for his mindless, foul-mouthed fans, whether they were truly defeated or just lying low, not a single one showed up.

Last Road's Mad Dog’s expression was grim. Seeing the situation spiraling out of control, he hastily ended the stream.

A while later, he posted an extremely perfunctory update—just the word "daddy," tagging Yu Xin—and then logged off without waiting for a response.

Last Road's Mad Dog knew that, after this battle, the career he had painstakingly built over the years had taken a massive hit. Even if he shamelessly continued streaming in the future, it would never recover.

Perhaps, as the chat said, this was his retribution.

Reflecting on his actions over the years, Last Road's Mad Dog felt a rare pang of regret.

In stark contrast, after this battle, Yu Xin became an overnight sensation on the Flying Fish streaming platform.

A newcomer who had only been streaming for three days challenging a big-name streamer was both audacious and remarkable. The most unbelievable part was that he actually won!

His gaming and cooking skills became the talk of the town, especially his cooking. While cooking streams weren’t new, previous attempts had seen little success. Yu Xin was different—watching him cook was a weirdly captivating experience, both enjoyable and torturous, yet utterly addictive.

Moreover, the final dishes he created were absolutely irresistible. Some fans edited clips of his finished dishes and posted them on other platforms, where they garnered astonishingly high views. Most comments were variations of "Aaaaaah, I’m drooling!!" and "Tell me what this is!!" The response was overwhelmingly positive, bringing a massive wave of new viewers to Yu Xin.

The heir of Flying Fish Platform was overjoyed, sending numerous messages to thank Cheng Zikun for bringing him Yu Xin, such a gem.

There were even companies hitting him up, offering to pay him to teach them how to make Crab Xiaolongbao. However, Yu Xin wasn’t ready to reveal his identity just yet and declined. They then changed their request to buying the recipe from him, which was no problem—Yu Xin sold it without hesitation.

With the earnings from the live-streaming platform’s revenue share and the money from selling the recipe, Yu Xin suddenly found himself out of his financial troubles. Not only did he repay Cheng Zikun for the items he had bought for him, but he also ended up with a decent chunk of savings.

Yu Xin had never been one to deny himself. As soon as he had money, the first thing he did was look for a new place to live.

Cheng Zikun offered several of his empty properties, which were in great locations and fully furnished, suggesting Yu Xin could just pack his bags and move in without paying any rent.

But Yu Xin declined again. Cheng Zikun had already helped him a lot, and by nature, Yu Xin wasn’t one to impose on people. Besides, he was quite independent and didn’t plan to get too deeply entangled with Cheng Zikun for the time being.

During this period, he spent his days searching for a suitable apartment, his evenings live-streaming and gaming with Cheng Zikun, and his free time packing, working out, and learning about this new world.

Life was incredibly packed.

Cheng Zikun had invited him out several times without success, and during their evening live stream, he complained, "Xin-ge, I’ve asked you out so many times. When are you going to actually grace me with your presence?"

"No time," Yu Xin swiftly swapped stabilizers on his gun and continued focusing on his targets.

"...You’re so heartless," Cheng Zikun whined.

"Aren’t we good bros? How can you bear to turn down a good brother’s invitation? You can always make time if you want to—I know these are just excuses to blow me off..."

"Hahahahaha!"

"Master Cheng, do you remember your original cool guy persona? How did you turn into such a 'simp'?"

"With skills like the streamer’s, I’d simp too, okay?"

"I’d grab a streamer like this big shot and simp all over him (prprprpr)."

A few gunshots rang out as Yu Xin took down two opponents. Annoyed by the chatter, he shot back, "I need to find a place, pack my things, and stream. Can’t you be a little more considerate?"

"But I offered to let you stay at my place, and you refused!"

"I already said no. Stop bothering me about it." Yu Xin had truly had enough of Cheng Zikun. The guy was as talkative as ever, and he’d been nagging about Yu Xin’s refusal to move into one of his properties for ages.

"Sheesh, these two give off such a 'toxic top and desperate bottom' vibe somehow."

"Hahahaha, toxic top (referring to the streamer), desperate bottom (referring to Master Cheng)."

"Hmm... why can’t we ship it? It’s not impossible..."

"I’m different—I’d rather ship the streamer with that Top patron from the other day. I’m begging for some development between them!"

"Me too!! Top patron x streamer has me shipping like crazy. So, has the big shot contacted the streamer privately?"

"Streamer, spill the tea!! I want to know!!"

Yu Xin saw the comment: "No."

It had been a few days since his PK with Last Road's Mad Dog. The mysterious big shot, who had spent a fortune on him and publicly expressed anticipation to meet him, had sent no further messages.

It was as if that day had just been empty talk.

"Did the big shot get cold feet?!"

"I don’t believe it—he spent so much for love, why would he back down at the critical moment?"

"Can you all just stop with your shipper brains for a second? How did it become 'spending a fortune for love'? Can’t there be purely financial relationships in this world?"

"If you don’t think so, then fine, but you can’t stop me from imagining things, can you? Boo hoo."

……

They signed off late into the night. Yu Xin had been extremely busy these days—not only was he staying up late, but he also had to wake up early for morning workouts, go out to look for a place to live, and his sleep time was drastically reduced.

Cheng Zikun was even worried about him: "Brother Xin, you should rest a bit. I’m seriously afraid you’ll suddenly collapse during a stream one day."

"I won’t. I know what I'm doing."

"Hahaha, but then again, current gaming gear has safety and anti-addiction mechanisms. If it detects something wrong with your body, it’ll force-log you out immediately—won’t even give you a chance to collapse…"

"Wait, what did you say?" Yu Xin suddenly cut him off, his tone urgent.

Cheng Zikun was puzzled and repeated: "I said you should rest… What’s up…?"

"Not that, the next part!"

"I said current gaming gear has anti-addiction settings—if it detects something wrong, it forces a log out…"

That’s it.

He had always felt something was off but lacked some basic knowledge about this world, so he never realized it.

If the gaming helmet had an anti-addiction mechanism as Cheng Zikun described, how could the original owner have died suddenly while playing?

Something's definitely not right here.

His sudden silence confused Cheng Zikun: "Bro Xin… everything okay?"

What he said wasn’t particularly unusual—why did Yu Xin react so strongly?

"Cheng Zikun, do you know anyone who can check out gaming equipment? Can you give me their contact info?"

"Sure, I’ll send it to your terminal in a bit."

"Thank you."

The next day, Yu Xin followed the contact information and address Cheng Zikun provided and went to a shop specializing in selling and repairing gaming equipment, bringing the original owner’s gaming helmet for inspection.

"The anti-addiction mechanism on this helmet has indeed been disabled. We don’t recommend doing this, as full-immersion games are really draining—it’s very unsafe…" the technician said after checking it.

"Can you find out who disabled this mechanism?" Yu Xin furrowed his brow.

"Well, only the owner can disable the anti-addiction mechanism. So, it’s most likely that the owner disabled it themselves."

"I get it. Thank you." Yu Xin took the helmet and left the shop.

On the light rail back, Yu Xin pondered deeply.

According to the shop staff, the most likely person to disable the anti-addiction mechanism was the original owner.

But why would the original owner do that? However much he loved the game, he wouldn't gamble with his life just to play.

Unless… the original owner had lost the will to live.

This was the way out he'd chosen for himself.

Yu Xin returned home and meticulously re-examined everything left behind by the original owner.

This time, he found a portable storage device.

In this interstellar era, the internet is highly advanced, and people tend to store almost everything in online cloud storage—it's spacious and convenient, making portable storage devices a rare choice.

Unless it's something they don't want others to find.

Yu Xin connected the device and opened it. Unexpectedly, it contained the original owner's video diaries!

He clicked on the most recent one, and a projection of the original owner appeared mid-air. The room had its curtains drawn, casting a dim light. In the video, he looked no more than fourteen or fifteen years old, hadn't yet developed that later non-mainstream alt-style. With black hair, dark eyes, and a pale, delicate face, he appeared remarkably obedient-looking.

However, whether it was Yu Xin's imagination or not, he sensed a lingering melancholy in the boy's expression—something different from others his age.

The face was identical to his own, one he knew intimately, yet he had never seen such an expression on himself at fourteen or fifteen.

The video diaries were numerous and lengthy, spanning from the original owner's early teens until just before Yu Xin was reborn into this body.

Watching all of them would undoubtedly be a huge task, but Yu Xin didn’t have the time for it now.

Filming for the second season of *Wilderness Adventure* was about to begin.

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Author's Note: Late again, orz. I'll punish myself with three drinks ()

Thank you all so much for your support—I’ll keep working hard!