Chapter 19: Get Ready for a Hive Shock

The suffocating silence in Li Jiajun's livestream lasted for a full dozen seconds.

During those dozen seconds, the screen was completely empty, as if all two hundred thousand online viewers had their internet cables pulled at the same time, or had been struck collectively speechless by the surreal scene before them.

Then, the bullet comments erupted with a ferocity and madness greater than any time before!

"Holy f*ck, holy f*ck, holy f*ck, holy f*ck, holy f*ck!!!"

A single bullet comment composed of five bright red "Holy f*cks" kicked off the prelude to this internet carnival.

Immediately after, thousands of bullet comments with similar content but equally intense emotions flooded the screen like a dam breaking, instantly painting it white, with the refresh rate of the comments so fast that phones started to heat up.

"What did I just see?! My God! Is this real?! Someone slap me and tell me I'm not dreaming!"

"Special effects... is this f*cking special effects?! I declare that after Cameron watches the Main Streamer's live broadcast, he'll have to quit his job overnight to sell sweet potatoes! No! He'll have to catch a plane overnight to kowtow to the Main Streamer and beg him to take him as an apprentice!"

"Too exaggerated! Too outrageous! This isn't just awesome anymore, this is a miracle! This is a hymn to industrial civilization! A miracle of human wisdom!"

"I take back everything I said before! Streamer, I'm kneeling to you! My knees are no longer my own! Please take my kneecaps and use them as drone parts!"

However, amidst the exclamations bordering on worship, there were still stubborn "special effects truthers" putting up their final, albeit pale and weak, resistance.

"Brothers, calm down! Don't get excited! This is definitely special effects! Can't you tell? It's made with the latest UE5 engine, real-time rendering! Look at the light and shadow effects, they're so realistic that they look fake! What's awesome about the Main Streamer is his CG technology, not that he actually made this thing!"

As soon as this bullet comment appeared, it was immediately met with ruthless mockery from the "realist" faction who had completely defected.

"UE5? Can your UE5 render the airflow and dust kicked up from the ground by thousands of rotors? Look carefully again; the light and shadow changes left on the fuselage as each drone flies past the searchlight are independently calculated! If this were special effects, the rendering load would be enough to bundle up Alibaba and Tencent's servers and burn them on the spot, believe it or not!"

"Exactly! Is the guy above an idiot? Didn't you see the game controller in the Streamer's hand? He's been controlling it the whole time! This is clearly the real thing! Is there any need to doubt it?"

The special effects truthers didn't show any weakness and immediately seized the point to counterattack: "Controlling? Doesn't that just prove it's fake? Thousands of drones, and he controls them all by himself with one controller? Who do you think he is? Skynet? Ultron from *Terminator*? This must be pre-recorded CG animation; he's just pretending to control it and lip-syncing! You've all been fooled!"

Just as the two factions were arguing incessantly, Li Jiajun in the video began his next performance (x), showing off (√).

He looked at the massive black cloud in the sky, a relaxed smile on his face. As a qualified "contractor," he had to fully demonstrate the fun and playability of this "toy" to his "artist" client.

So, he decided to do some fancy tricks.

His fingers flicked lightly on the controller, and the swarm in the sky responded immediately.

The massive black cloud began to stretch and deform, and thousands of blue light points, as if controlled by an invisible hand, began to flow and reorganize precisely. In just a few seconds, it transformed from a chaotic mass of clouds into an incomparably huge, flawless heart shape made of blue light points, floating silently in the night sky.

"Holy crap! A heart! What kind of god-tier operation is this!"

"Is the Main Streamer confessing to us? I'm a little shy, even though I'm a guy!"

Before the viewers could finish marveling, the huge heart began to flow again, the light points scattering and reorganizing like spilled mercury, turning into a cheeky, winking smiley face emoji hanging in the sky.

The atmosphere in the livestream instantly shifted from extreme shock to amused laughter.

But Li Jiajun felt this wasn't enough. He remembered his promise to his client to put on a grand "art show," and also wanted to put an end to the boring debate about "real vs. fake" in the livestream.

So, he flicked the joystick again, and at the same time, that subconscious "narration" mode, which seemed to have become a part of his body, activated once more.

While controlling the swarm to perform the most complex formation change in history, he muttered to the air in a tone that was slightly humble-bragging and compassionate:

"Look, this is the charm of art. As long as money and talent are both in place, you can make thousands of 'light and shadow elves' dance for you, presenting any pattern you want in the night sky."

As he spoke, the thousands of drones in the sky began a dazzling display of interweaving, swapping, and reorganizing. Their flight paths were complex to the extreme; thousands of units constantly crossed each other at high speeds without a single collision. Their collaborative scheduling capability had completely exceeded the scope of ordinary people's understanding.

Finally, all the light points repositioned themselves, forming a brand new pattern in the night sky, full of absurdity and humor—a stick figure made of countless light points, slowly kneeling and kowtowing.

And the direction the stick figure was kneeling towards was exactly the direction of the livestream lens, which was the direction of all the viewers, as well as that Top Supporter.

Li Jiajun looked at his "masterpiece" and continued his narration with satisfaction: "It can even offer you the most humble respect. This kind of double joy derived from wealth and talent is something you friends in front of the screen, who are still worrying about squeezing into the subway during tomorrow's morning rush, will probably never experience. Sigh, it's lonely."

These soul-piercing words once again struck hard at the hearts of all the Netizens in the livestream.

"Murder! The Streamer is starting to recite his narration and killing us again! Medic! My health bar is empty!"

"So cheap! Really so cheap! I feel like my heart has been shot! And with a Barrett armor-piercing bullet at that!"

"Talking about money and talent, and even making us kowtow to you! I beg you, be a human! I want to punch you on behalf of the Top Supporter!"

"Hahaha, I've been PUA'd by the Main Streamer! The more he says that, the more awesome I think he is, what do I do! Am I sick?"

The livestream was filled with a joyful atmosphere, with countless bullet comments like "soul-piercing," "you're showing off again," and "Streamer, stop reading, I'm scared" flooding the screen.

...

Meanwhile, in Middle East's command post, the atmosphere was completely different from Li Jiajun's livestream.

When Hassan saw the pattern in the sky composed of drones "kneeling and kowtowing" to him, his adjutant's mouth twitched, feeling speechless in his heart, 'This Chinese... is really an artist, to even come up with this way of humiliating people.'

But Hassan himself didn't feel any humiliation at all.

His body trembled slightly from extreme excitement.

He was no fool; he knew better than anyone what it meant to be able to make thousands of independent units complete such precise, flawless coordinated movements in such a complex dynamic environment!

It meant he could change this kneeling and kowtowing formation into any kind of lethal attack formation he wanted!

It meant he could instantly disperse these thousands of units into hundreds of combat teams, launching a saturation attack on an armored cluster from all directions, different heights, and different angles simultaneously!

The value of this military super-weapon was ten thousand times more terrifying than he had imagined!

And an elite officer who had studied abroad and been exposed to cutting-edge military theory watched the fluid formation changes on the screen, trembling all over, and exclaimed: "This is not a toy... this is... this is the art of war!"

"A genius... he is a true genius..."

Hassan looked at the young Chinese on the screen who was still feeling smug about his artistic conception, his voice becoming hoarse with excitement.

"Adjutant!" He turned his head sharply, his eyes appearing somewhat bloodshot from fanaticism.

"Yes!" The adjutant's body jolted, and he immediately stood at attention.

"Pass on my order!" A bloodthirsty glint erupted in Hassan's eyes, "Notify all combat units! Get ready, and immediately let those turtles of Israel prepare for a Hive Shock!"