[I’m telling you, He Xi is the real skill-based character, does anyone get it?]
[Why isn’t the streamer skipping the story?]
[You can tell they just got hit with a sponsorship.]
“Stop yelling, I’m a pure story enjoyer. When I play games, I have to watch the story. Skipping the story is skipping life, you know?”
[If I didn’t watch the stream every day, I’d actually believe that.]
[What about all the stories the streamer skipped before?]
“Some games’ stories are fine to skip, but <Magic Deep Dungeon Girl’s Sin> has top-tier art and music, plus a deep story that only someone like me can understand. Are you guys really not going to buy it and try it for yourselves?”
Bai Qiu held back the urge to make a “what is this game even about” expression. She suppressed a yawn, and forced a smile while watching dialogue after dialogue play out, all while still pitching the game.
She was almost moved to tears by her own professionalism.
[Thanks for the invite, but no.]
[Only the streamer can understand the story? Well, now I know how good this game’s story is.]
[Streamer, just skip it, it’s fine, we understand.]
“Shut up! I just like watching the story!”
Meanwhile, in the dormitory of the Magic Association, He Xi was lying in bed. Her small hands held her phone, watching Bai Qiu’s stream on an alt account.
‘Senior actually likes me this much… hehe~~’
Just thinking about Bai Qiu openly calling her wife on camera made the corners of her mouth curl up uncontrollably.
Even though she didn’t really understand the game, as long as she could see Senior, she was satisfied.
She sent an SC.
[Does falling in love with Bai Qiu need a reason? Sent an SC of 1,000 yuan: Can the streamer evaluate the junior members that appear in the game? Especially He Xi.]
“My juniors, huh…” Bai Qiu thought about it.
“Nox is a typical little brat, I really want to put her in her place. But I can’t beat her at all.” Bai Qiu sighed.
“Every time I fight her, she uses her shadows to play bondage games with me.”
[Tell us more details.]
[I need to sit up for this one.]
“Alice is excellent, very elegant. As expected of a young lady, her upbringing is way better than someone like me.”
‘Senior, don’t say that!’ He Xi shouted in her heart, her fingers flying across the screen.
[Does falling in love with Bai Qiu need a reason? Sent an SC of 500 yuan: Bai Qiu always likes to put herself down, even though she’s clearly excellent too.]
“Putting myself down? Hmm… that’s true, after all I have plenty of good qualities to show. You’ve got good taste~ Living up to that ID, not bad, not bad.”
[Stop it, bro, keep it up and the streamer’s gonna be reeled in hook, line, and sinker.]
[Does the streamer actually have real fans?]
[Sigh, a Bai gachi.]
“Ehehe~”
He Xi giggled foolishly at the praise, but the chat clearly didn’t agree.
[Where are the good qualities?]
[Is thinking about squeezing money out of fans every day a good quality?]
[A perverted loli.]
[A gambling addict. The more she gambles the more she loses, the more she loses the more she gambles, dragging the whole stream into it. How has she not been banned yet?]
[Bai Qiu can’t be banned. If Bai Qiu gets banned, what would we watch? Go watch those cookie-cutter magic girls?]
[A lazy bum. Gets spun like a top when fighting monsters, doesn’t put effort into streaming either. Just laze herself to death.]
[Never seen such a weak magic girl. A miraculous loli who goes 50-50 against everything she fights.]
[An NTR master.]
“Hey, can you haters say something nice? I can tolerate being called greedy and perverted, but what’s with the NTR master thing?!” Bai Qiu puffed up her cheeks and pointed at the camera angrily, as if she’d go find them in person if they didn’t give an explanation.
[Calling other people’s wives your wife every day, truly carrying on the legacy of Emperor Wei.]
[You can deny the first few, but this NTR master title you have to accept.]
“Hey——— you little brats, my wife is my wife, deal with it!”
50SC: [The streamer’s face is red, possibly in a bad state of mind. I suggest running more to exercise your lung capacity.]
“Nagging. Shut up.” Bai Qiu clicked her tongue loudly and forcefully redirected the topic back to evaluating her juniors.
“Next is Caili, yeah, Caili. Whenever I’m with her I always want to sleep, and she always likes lying on my lap and having me give her a lap pillow. Damn! I want her to give me a lap pillow too!”
[Streamer, tone it down.]
[Caili always looks lazy no matter when it is, so cute.]
“As for Zhen Hong…” Bai Qiu thought for a moment and said the line that everyone acknowledged. “Zhen Hong is a woman who could become my mother!”
[I have no objections.]
[I acknowledge it.]
[Ah-O-ro, I’m doing something insatiably greedy.]
“And He Xi———”
Hearing that it was finally her turn, He Xi instinctively held her breath. Her expression grew serious as she carefully listened to every word Bai Qiu said.
“She’s a very excellent junior, very polite to others, and very strong. If I had to make a comparison, she’s like a kitten. She’ll come comfort you when you’re feeling down, and stay by your side when you’re happy. She’s cute, really just that kind of… existence that’s so cute it feels a bit dreamlike. Even though she seems very strong normally, she’s actually a very fragile little girl.” By this point, Bai Qiu was even starting to ramble.
[True feelings showing.]
[The most human episode.]
“No joke, seriously, I really like He Xi, I mean it. She’s the perfect girlfriend, way better than your streamer. So your streamer is going to use her positional advantage to get close to He Xi and make you all green with envy!”
Just when the audience thought Bai Qiu was about to take one step closer to becoming human, she once again revealed her true nature, entirely within expectations.
[Should I say this is expected?]
[CS.] x9999
“Eh! R-really?!”
He Xi’s phone slipped from her grip and smacked heavily onto her face. But she didn’t have time to register the pain.
She only felt her neck, face, and ears burning hot, her heart in chaos, her mind buzzing for a moment.
“S-so strange, what’s wrong with me…”
He Xi instinctively unbuttoned the top two buttons of her pajamas, which slowly slid off her shoulders, revealing her pink-white shoulders and back. This would help her cool down and calm herself faster.
[Got it, Bai Qiu said He Xi is a maodie.]
[Come to CU News tomorrow.]
He Xi picked up her phone. By then Bai Qiu had already re-immersed herself in the game, completely unaware of what her words had affected.
“What are you looking at?”
“Eek!”
He Xi’s roommate Nox suddenly popped up from beside the bed, startling her again.
“N-nothing! Just studying!” He Xi hurriedly turned off her phone screen and hid it behind her back.
Nox narrowed her eyes, a smile on her lips as she jumped out of the shadows, climbed onto He Xi’s bed and slowly approached her. He Xi could only retreat bit by bit until Nox had backed her into a corner with nowhere to go.
“What kind of studying gets your clothes like this? Little Xi, you’re being naughty~” Nox’s hand climbed onto He Xi’s cheek. She leaned close to He Xi and gently blew a breath into her ear.
“B-because… I learned a lot of new knowledge I hadn’t encountered before! I got a bit excited, so, so I accidentally unbuttoned them, wanted to cool down…”
“What new knowledge? Tell me too~” Nox pressed herself against He Xi’s flat chest, one hand drawing circles on it, her night-sky purple-black eyes staring at her.
“I-it’s just filming techniques, editing skills, and———and how to better complete work!” In her panic, He Xi could only say whatever came to mind.
“But you don’t need to do the filming and editing, right?”
“I just want to try it myself once in a while…”
“He Xi’s eyes always wander when she lies~”
“Eh eh?!”
“You really are also———” Nox leaned in further, the two of them nose to nose. She smirked. “In love with Senior Bai Qiu, aren’t you?”
‘Don’t say it out loud!’
“I just think Senior Bai Qiu is a person worthy of respect, so I want to learn from her!” He Xi frantically pushed Nox away.
“Oh, is that so~” Nox shrugged, jumped off the bed, and paced back and forth with her hands behind her back, a meaningful smile on her lips. “If, and I’m just saying if, Senior Bai Qiu already has someone she likes?”
“…Eh?” He Xi froze for a moment.
Nox turned back and grinned. “There are plenty of girls around Teacher~ So, want to play a game?”
“Why haven’t I beaten it yet? How long is the full playthrough of this game anyway?”
She had been streaming for over three hours, already reached floor 300+, and still couldn’t see any sign of clearing it.
Actually, after reaching around floor 200 and finishing the BUFF selection, it was basically a smooth push all the way through. Even slightly stronger BOSSes couldn’t withstand two hits from He Xi.
“This game has the nerve to charge me over 200 yuan. Total rip-off. I could’ve bought snacks instead…” Bai Qiu couldn’t help but grumble.
[Streamer, stop talking, keep going and you’ll get your pay docked again.]
[Keep going and the client’s gonna pull the sponsorship.]
A 30-yuan SC reading [Is the streamer playing in endless mode?] caught Bai Qiu’s attention.
“No way, right? What game has endless as its default mode? And it’s a roguelike, with no tutorial?” She paused. “…Actually there really isn’t one!”
Bai Qiu quicksaved and returned to the title screen.
[New Game].
[Continue Game].
[Free Exploration].
[Story Mode].
[Settings].
“???” Bai Qiu’s eyes nearly popped out, staring dead at the four big words “Story Mode” above Settings.
[I’m telling you this episode is peak, does anyone get it?]
[I already guessed what’s about to happen.]
[Streamer, you have to hold it in!]
“Peak! What game has endless as its default mode?! And even if it’s endless, why does endless have story content?!”
Bai Qiu couldn’t hold it in anymore. All the resentment accumulated in her heart erupted at once.
“Whoever developed this game deserves to be sentenced! Death penalty! Mixed into concrete and shot for ten hours!”
“BGN score 3.0! Total garbage! Besides the art and music being somewhat impressive, what else is there??”
“The story is full of cryptic nonsense, display BUGs everywhere, character balance is completely ignored, what’s the difference between late-game and sitting in prison? I’ll say it plainly, besides their fans and review UP creators, who would waste 200 yuan on a game like this? Did anyone even playtest this internally before selling it? Can they squeeze money more than me? If they want money this badly, is the Association going to shut down tomorrow?!”
[Streamer gets fired tomorrow for stepping into the Magic Association with her left foot first.]
After releasing her emotions to the fullest, Bai Qiu collapsed weakly into her chair, staring blankly at the game screen.
She glanced at the gift count.
All gift targets had been met, most of them contributed by “Does falling in love with Bai Qiu need a reason?”.
Today’s streaming goals were done at least.
She wouldn’t have to receive her little sister’s punishment. But she didn’t feel happy about it.
She sighed, tossed the controller aside, and waved at the camera. “Ending stream, ending stream.”
[The owed push-ups and sit-ups haven’t been done yet!]
“Next time, next time. Ending it, going to eat.”
[Truly as expected.]
[Still the world’s number one magic girl who loves exercising.]
Turning off the stream, Bai Qiu stared at the game screen for a long time, unable to let it go.
It wasn’t that she was disgusted by the character balance and the god-awful default endless mode, but rather that she’d finally gotten a sponsorship and ended up ruining it again.
Maybe like the chat said, tomorrow she’d be fired for stepping into the Magic Association with her left foot first.
Bai Qiu covered her face and lay in her chair, quietly waiting for her judgment to descend.
However, after several minutes, the president’s call still hadn’t come.
‘Why hasn’t it come yet? Don’t tell me he still doesn’t know?’
Logically that shouldn’t be the case, because their streams always had someone watching. If something went wrong, the president would be notified immediately.
With the outburst she’d just had, the operations team must have blown up by now.
But miraculously, the president still hadn’t called.
‘Don’t tell me I gave the old president a heart attack?’
Whatever. If he doesn’t call, then let’s just assume he doesn’t know right now. I should think about how to make amends…
Having caused such a big mess, she felt too ashamed to face the president now, so she had to figure out a way to fix it.
‘But how? Go to operations now and beg for a sponsorship? Clearly impossible. No operations person, no matter how bold, would dare give her a sponsorship after watching what just happened.’
Just as Bai Qiu was agonizing over what to do, she suddenly remembered something her senior had told her, a line about how to get a sponsorship when you have none: Instead of looking for a sponsorship, why not create one for yourself.
“That’s right, I can just give myself a sponsorship?”
The Association didn’t know who Bai Qiu’s real identity was anyway. She could just use the identity of Bai Qiuchen to give Bai Qiu a sponsorship.
Even though it was left hand giving to right hand, even though it was giving money to the Association, at least it could salvage some of her “sponsorship killer” reputation, right? She refused to believe she could mess up her own sponsorship.
It wouldn’t immediately change people’s opinions, but small gains add up. What if one day she could recreate the miracle of eight sponsorships in January?
A person has to dream, after all.
So what sponsorship should she place…? Bai Qiu lay in her chair, staring up at the ceiling.
After thinking for a long time, Bai Qiu stood up from her chair.
It wasn’t that she’d figured it out, but that she was hungry.
Bai Qiu decided to set this matter aside for now. The pressing issue was filling her stomach. Only with a full stomach would she have the energy to think.
She hoped Xiao Mu hadn’t refused to cook for her out of anger. Otherwise she’d have to order takeout, and then she’d get scolded again…
Just thinking about being lectured by her little sister again, Bai Qiu instantly wilted, the ahoge on top of her head drooping like withered grass.
What kind of older brother gets lectured by his little sister every day?
Going downstairs to the kitchen, fortunately Bai Qiumu had left him a plate of curry.
‘Little sister’s grace can never be repaid!’
Bai Qiu pressed his palms together and gratefully placed the curry rice into the microwave.
He went to the living room to wait for it to finish heating.
Delicate jade-like little hands held a large tablet, two small feet swinging casually, the owner muttering “food, food” under her breath. While she was looking for an anime to watch with her meal, her gaze accidentally fell on the empty room on the first floor.
“…Oh right.”
Her mind suddenly lit up with an idea.
She could be a housing agent! Rent out the unused rooms in the house. A villa of this caliber in this kind of location, even a single room would be spacious.
Worst case, a single room could rent for 1,000 or 2,000 a month. With enough renters, it might even be more than a monthly salary!
She didn’t know if this would work, but might as well try.
Actions speak louder than words. Bai Qiu immediately removed the butterfly bow from her hair tip, gripped the “Heart Stone,” and released her transformation, reverting to that young man with dark circles and an air of decadence.