Chapter 106

Chapter 106

The marriage proposal scene between Kaisisen and Nevi at the Live Streaming Gala kept gaining traction in the days that followed, almost single-handedly overshadowing the entire event's buzz and dominating the top of the interstellar network's hot search list for a full week, making every other blogger at the gala look like an afterthought.

However, many savvy bloggers took the initiative to tag Nevi and leave congratulatory messages. Nevi, feeling guilty, replied with a thank-you to nearly all of them, which in turn brought these bloggers a considerable wave of traffic. Among them, bloggers who were already long-time fans of Nevi saw their popularity surge dramatically—many tail-end bloggers gained nearly a million followers overnight, catapulting themselves straight to the top of their channel's rankings and cashing in big time.

Nevi would sincerely reply with thanks to bloggers who offered genuine congratulations, but for those who seemed to be riding the trend while acting overly warm in a way that felt a little too flirty, Nevi flat-out ignored them.

Of course, there were also bloggers who secretly resented what happened, but without exception, when they saw Nevi, they couldn't bring themselves to hate him. Instead, they could only take it out on the smug-looking female insect standing next to him. Some female insects who had learned of Kaisisen's identity on-site just felt annoyed, but some who were unaware tried to quietly stir up public opinion, trying to get netizens to pile on Kaisisen online.

Naturally, this dumb move was shut down before it even got started—their posts got deleted in review before they could even go live, right after that, their agent blew up their phone.

Compared to the varied reactions of the bloggers, the netizens, who had zero filter, went way harder and were way more hyped.

Netizens clipped every single second of Nevi's time at the gala and compiled it into a collection, even the few seconds where the camera just happened to pan to Nevi in the crowd.

Among them, videos titled "My Cyber Male Master Came From the Screen Into Real Life...", "Dream Come True: My Male Master Said Yes to My Proposal...", and "My Male Master Cooked for Me While My Cubs Ate Happily Next to Me..." stayed at the top of the trending charts and got shared all over the place. These were respectively a clip of Nevi walking on stage at the opening ceremony, Nevi tearing up as he said yes to the proposal, and an old livestream clip of Nevi smiling at the camera.

Many insects who didn't know Nevi, and even those outside the livestreaming circle who rarely watched streams, stumbled across these videos. Blown away by how good-looking Nevi was, they immediately clicked through and followed Nevi. However, their little crushes got crushed just as fast by long-time fans' explanations.

Nevi already had a female mate he deeply loved, and they had two cubs together. They met and fell for each other when they had nothing, and there was no room for anyone else in their relationship. So if you think your family, status, or rank makes you good enough, and you're dreaming of becoming his secondary mate—wake up.

As the whole Live Streaming Gala thing kept blowing up, compilations of Nevi's old and new videos spread faster and faster. Nevi's popularity just kept skyrocketing, his follower count growing at a speed that was almost hard to believe, finally landing at a number that was almost unreal. Nevi also became the number one blogger across all livestreaming platforms in terms of followers, and quietly slipped into an official, authoritative ranking that ordinary insects wouldn't even dare dream of.

"The Official Interstellar Network Ranking of Top 100 by Follower Count"

Everyone on that list was a big name, no exceptions.

Politicians, scientists, philanthropists, generals and marshals defending the empire, even royalty.

Even male insect celebs, who were crazy popular with fans, could barely scrape into the bottom of the list—and who knows how much of that was even real.

And even so, their fans were already bragging about it everywhere.

And livestream bloggers? Forget it—that was even more impossible. Before Nevi, the most-followed blogger on any livestream platform could barely crack the top 1,000 of the interstellar network's private platform follower rankings.

Sure, top bloggers were adored by fans and could do whatever they wanted within their platforms, looking all glamorous on the surface.

But the second they stepped off the platform, their fame and attention dropped off a cliff.

Though no one said it openly, everyone knew there was an unspoken pecking order among entertainment figures. At the top were promo celebs backed by the government or the military, then entertainment celebs signed to companies owned by the privileged class... and at the very bottom were indie studio celebs with zero backing.

What about livestreaming platform bloggers? Sorry, but they weren't even considered celebrities—they didn't qualify for the list at all. They were the ignored, overlooked bottom of the barrel.

Nevi was currently sitting at #65 on the "Official Interstellar Network Ranking of Top 100 by Follower Count."

But the scariest part? His follower growth had only slowed down, not stopped. Where he'd finally land on that list? No one even dared to guess.

For insects both inside and outside the circle, this whole thing felt absolutely unreal.

Who exactly was Nevi? How did he go from some nobody blogger to the biggest name on the entire interstellar network?

Insects who'd never seen Nevi definitely had those doubts.

But the second they watched one of his videos, all that confusion vanished.

Ordinary beauty might not be rare, but such insane, next-level beauty, like the goddess of beauty herself had come down to earth, would be difficult to find a second example of in the entire insect empire. That kind of one-of-a-kind rarity was basically proof of heaven's favor.

And honestly, his looks were just one of his many good points.

Nevi just had this magic about him. At first, you're drawn in by his face, but the more you got to know him, the harder it was to just focus on his looks—his personality and who he was on the inside were just as intoxicating.

Nevi's existence itself was a miracle.

He was just too perfect.

A brilliant pearl might get covered in dust for a while, but it won't stay dull forever.

No one could question why a pearl shines, and no one could question why the ugly duckling in cub fairy tales turned into a white swan.

Because that's just how it was meant to be.

On top of that, Nevi got voted #3 on the "Perfect Male Master" list.

This list wasn't official—it was a grassroots poll run by civilian organizations.

Although it wasn't an official authoritative ranking, it was just as legit as any official ranking. Every citizen in the empire could only vote once, verified by their unique ID number.

Plus, the group behind it had some seriously skilled hackers—nobody could hack into their backend.

So honestly, this list was more fair and more trustworthy than a lot of official ones.

Every male insect on that list got there because people voted for them, one vote at a time.

People were super into this ranking. Female insects loved voting their favorite male insects onto it, and male insects were proud to make the cut.

So this list was super popular and got tons of attention.

Right now, the #1 spot belonged to His Highness the Crown Prince, Ed MacArthur.

The Crown Prince had golden hair, blue eyes, and a handsome face. He was seventy years old, still in the prime of his life.

His Majesty the Insect Emperor, Delter MacArthur, and his female mate Elijah Langer were super close. The Emperor didn't have any secondary mates, and they'd raised three kids together—the Crown Prince being the oldest.

Basically from the moment he was born, the Emperor had already marked him as the heir.

Over the years, he'd been raised specifically to be the next ruler, and both the Emperor and Empress thought the world of him.

And the Crown Prince never let his parents or the people down—he crushed it academically as a student, and once he grew up and started officially representing the royal family, he handled everything with calm and composure, carrying himself with class and courtesy while still staying down-to-earth.

In the people's eyes, he was the undisputed next Insect Emperor, and the perfect male master every female insect adored.

Every time he showed up for a royal event, the crowd went wild, with some insects even traveling across star systems just to see him—both male and female.

In second place was a civilian male scientist named Crest.

Crest came from a regular family—neither of his parents had high status. But it was like he'd won the genetic lottery—he showed crazy intelligence and talent for mechanics and science from a young age. Through his own hard work, he went from a second-tier residential planet in some remote star system all the way to the capital. He was currently the chief scientist at Nasheng Technology Company.

A lot of the products he'd led development on were super popular and well-loved. The two all-purpose household bots, Little Black and Little Blue, that Kaisisen gave Nevi? Those were his creations too.

This genius male scientist wasn't an entertainment star, but the first time he showed up at a product launch, he blew up overnight.

He had delicate features—not exactly a knockout by male insect standards—but his cool vibe, calm and logical way of talking, plus that whole scholar aura, set the internet on fire.

And once people learned about Crest's backstory, they respected and loved him even more.

If the Crown Prince was a rare, untouchable tulip, then Crest was a tough trumpet vine that clawed its way out of the mud.

Crest was a hundred and twenty years old now. Back in his day, society was pretty conservative—male insects working outside the home wasn't the norm, and extreme conservatives even saw it as shameful. They figured it meant the female mate or secondary mates at home weren't good enough, so the male master had to go out and work.

The vast majority of male masters basically enter marriage early and can't work; aside from supplying spiritual energy to insect eggs, they take no part in raising offspring. They can only travel around and have fun, attending gatherings among male masters. On the surface, their lives seem happy and fulfilling, but their spirits are utterly empty.

But that's just how society is—most male masters are so dazed they don't even realize what they're feeling empty about.

It wasn't until Kleist's debut and explosive rise to fame that many male masters realized, only in hindsight, that their insect lives could offer different choices.

To a certain extent, Kleist drove the liberation of social attitudes and sparked a wave of male masters entering the workforce.

Because of him, male masters nowadays can freely choose whether they want to work, rather than being passively pushed into domestic roles by society.

As a result, Kleist is adored by many female insects yet worshipped by even more male insects, who look up to him as a spiritual idol.

Nevi's friend Barlow is a prime example—it's more accurate to say he's a fan of Kleist than of Nasheng Technology Company. Barlow selectively purchases the company's tech products, but anything by Kleist, he buys impulsively with fervent enthusiasm.

The gift Nevi once gave Barlow was Kleist's latest product.

The authority of the top and second-ranked entries on the "Perfect Male Master" list needs no further elaboration, yet Nevi was fiercely voted into third place by his passionate fans—a testament to the public's immense fondness for him.

As Nevi's fanbase skyrocketed, a flood of fanatical delusional dreamer insects—those who fantasize about him as their own male master—mixed in among them. Compared to rational long-time fans, these irrational devotees love Nevi with equal intensity as they hate Kaisisen with extreme venom.

In response, Nevi once again stepped forward seriously, clearly expressing his defense of Kaisisen and his disgust at the actions of these irrational fans. With the voluntary persuasion of many sensible veteran fans, numerous dreamers have ceased their irrational insults and personal attacks against Kaisisen.

But some just refuse to give up.

*

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Author's note: Here we go, here we go.