57: Chapter 56 The First Visitor's Appearance

President Lu Xingye waved at the live stream camera of the Fate Platform, the cuffs of her tactical jacket flipping up in the sea breeze.

Number of viewers in the live stream: 37.

Three seconds later, 142.

Five seconds later, 1,208.

Ten seconds later, 48,739.

The numbers jumped like a malfunctioning taxi meter.

In less than thirty seconds, the number of viewers broke through one million, and the barrage of comments became so dense that scrolling was necessary to see them clearly.

"They're here, they're here!" "Sister Xingye is on time!" "What are we opening today?"

President Lu Xingye was already used to this speed, but the corners of her mouth still couldn't help but curl up.

She cleared her throat, put her hands on her hips, and deliberately put on a straight face.

"First of all! I have an announcement to make!"

The barrage of comments quieted down for half a second.

"If I had this kind of live stream popularity before my Transmigration—" She used two fingers to frame a box in front of her eyes, "Wouldn't I be the number one internet celebrity in the Universe?"

After finishing, she pulled something out of thin air from her pocket—there was nothing there, but she made a motion of pushing sunglasses up the bridge of her nose, tilted her chin up forty-five degrees, aimed at the twin suns overhead, and pursed her lips into a line.

"Please call me, the noble, Young Miss Lu."

The barrage of comments exploded.

"Pfft, hahahahaha!" "Young Miss, where are your sunglasses?" "I can laugh at this air-sunglasses gag for a year." "Greetings, Young Miss Lu! May I ask which sea beast you are choosing today?"

She couldn't hold it back either, laughing until she squatted down and slapped the deck of the Houseboat.

The number of viewers in the live stream broke through eight million.

The faint blue halo of the fishing spot pulsed right on time.

President Lu Xingye put away her smile, walked to the center of the Houseboat, and gripped the fishing rod.

"Alright, down to business. Everyone, today is this beautiful girl's tenth day of the sunken sea treasure chest, place your bets!"

The barrage of comments instantly split into three factions.

"Bronze as a baseline!" "Rotten wood! Definitely rotten wood! It's been rotten wood for three days in a row, sister!" "I'm betting on Silver! Sister Xingye's aura is different today!"

"Stop dreaming, don't you know what the probability of opening a Gold chest is?" "What if! What if the Fate Master is secretly blessing her!" "Have you forgotten that her Houseboat is only of the rotten wood Rank..."

President Lu Xingye's wrist sank, and the fishing rod bent into an arc.

A knee-high dark brown wooden chest was dragged out from the faint blue circle of light, its surface covered in mottled traces of seawater erosion.

She took a deep breath and gripped the lid of the chest with both hands.

"Open!"

Light burst forth.

Pale cyan.

—Bronze Rank.

Not bad, not good.

A spear lay in the chest.

The spear shaft was copper-green, the spearhead had a serrated pattern, and the handle was wrapped in rough animal hide.

[Deep Sea Piercing Spear (Bronze Rank)]

[Medium sharpness, has an additional armor-piercing effect against crustacean sea beasts.]

President Lu Xingye froze for a second, her shoulders visibly slumping.

"Bronze again..."

The barrage of comments was overwhelmed with words of comfort.

"It's okay, it's okay! Bronze is also very good!" "Spears are practical, sister! Didn't you lack a melee weapon before!" "This is much better than rotten wood! Be content!"

"If you're short on karma points, Xingye, I, the Trading Realm, will transfer some to you—"

As soon as this comment was sent, a row of screenshots immediately followed.

All of them were the same one.

That classic screenshot of President Lu Xingye's karma points balance.

**1,000,001.**

"Brother, you're transferring karma points to her? Are you sure you're richer than her?" "She's a millionaire, okay!" "Line up!" "Line up!" "Line up!"

The uniform one-million screenshots flooded dozens of threads.

President Lu Xingye didn't know whether to laugh or cry, waving her hands at the camera: "Stop spamming, stop spamming! Really, if you have extra money, go help those who truly need it—"

"Yo, the millionaire is still pretending to be generous."

A comment squeezed in. Gray background with white text, exceptionally glaring.

"Daring to charge the Fate Master one million just for a single fishing opportunity, you're thick-skinned enough."

A second one followed closely.

"If I ran into the Fate Master, I wouldn't charge a dime, I'd give it for free, that's what you call true love. What do you call this? Taking advantage of a crisis."

A third one.

"She doesn't look like much either, I don't know what the Fate Master sees in her. Good luck is just good luck, why come out and jump around every day, afraid that others won't know you're clinging to a big shot's thigh."

President Lu Xingye's face flushed red instantly.

Not from shyness. From anger.

She gripped the newly opened spear, her knuckles tightening, and her speaking speed increased by three degrees: "I've explained this many times! That one million karma points was given by the Fate Master himself! I said I didn't want it at the time! He—"

"If you didn't want it, why didn't you transfer it back?"

"I don't know how to transfer it to his account!"

"Heh."

President Lu Xingye's chest ached from frustration. She had been dealing with this set of rhetoric for several days, and every time it was the same logical loop—if you say you don't want it, then return it. She couldn't return it, not because she didn't want to, but because she couldn't contact that person at all.

But before she could continue to argue, the barrage of comments had already taken action for her.

"Shut up, you sour grape." "If the Fate Master thinks it's worth one million, then it's worth one million, is it your place to set the price?" "Does the Fate Master lack your one million? He's a person with over 13 billion in merit points." "Stop being sour here, if you have the ability, go find the Fate Master to buy your treasure chest, oh right, the Fate Master won't go to your boat because you're not worthy."

The number of comments instantly broke through ten million.

Those few sarcastic IDs were drowned out in the tidal wave of support and didn't show up again.

"Xingye, don't pay attention to them!" "They're just jealous!" "You deserve it!" "The Fate Master's judgment won't be wrong!"

President Lu Xingye stared at the screen for a few seconds, sniffled, and then revealed a smile.

"Thank you all."

Her voice was much softer.

"Really, thank you."

The live stream was quiet for two seconds. Then the barrage of comments uniformly typed out four words—

"Set off to hunt beasts!"

President Lu Xingye lifted her chin, hoisted the bronze spear onto her shoulder, and her combat boots clattered against the deck.

"Alright! Today's beast hunt!" She pointed to the sea on the right, "The compass scanned a lone Iron-Spine Ray, six nautical miles away, threat Rank C, the carapace is on the harder side but the abdomen is the weak point—just right to test the new spear!"

"Now! Let's go!"

The Houseboat started. The Silver Rank boat dock cut through the sea surface and advanced toward the southeast.

The holographic projection of the compass floated on her left side, marking the real-time location of the target—a slowly moving red dot.

"Iron-Spine Ray, body length about four meters, back covered with iron-gray bone plates, attack methods are high-speed ramming and tail fin sweeps. The weakness is the gap in the third abdominal armor plate, concentrating force to attack the gap can break the defense." As she read the compass data, she lowered the spear from her shoulder, gripped it with both hands, and adjusted her stance.

The barrage of comments was scrolling frantically.

"They're here, they're here!" "The Iron-Spine Ray is hard to fight! Xingye, be careful!" "Abdominal gap! Remember the abdominal gap!" "Last time that person from the Alliance fought an Iron-Spine Ray, it was three people surrounding and killing it! You're alone?"

A dark undercurrent suddenly swelled on the sea three nautical miles away.

Something was accelerating underwater.

President Lu Xingye's Houseboat speed dropped sharply—she had voluntarily slowed down. Hunters don't chase prey, hunters wait for the prey to come to them.

This is what she learned from the Fate Platform strategy posts. The Iron-Spine Ray has an instinctive desire to chase moving targets. If you run, it chases; if you stop, it will hesitate instead. But if you make a sound the moment it hesitates—

She slammed the spear handle against the ship's rail three times.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The undercurrent underwater stopped.

Then it turned around and charged straight at her.

"It's here!" President Lu Xingye gripped the spear handle tightly, half-squatting by the ship's rail.

The barrage of comments was screaming. "Be careful, ahhhhh!" "It's charging so fast!" "To the left! Dodge to the left!"

The iron-gray back broke through the water. The four-meter-long ray-type sea beast had its back armor reflecting cold light under the twin suns, its bony beak opening wide, emitting a harsh screech.

It rammed into the left side of the ship's rail.

President Lu Xingye had already moved to the right side. The ship's hull shook violently, she knelt on one knee to stabilize her center of gravity, held the spear horizontally, waiting for that moment when it would flip over and expose its abdomen—

"Now—!"

The spearhead pierced into the gap of the abdominal armor, President Lu Xingye pressed her entire weight onto it, and the serrated spearhead twisted into the flesh.

The Iron-Spine Ray let out a shrill, high-frequency scream, its tail fin swept across, hitting the deck, sending wood splinters flying.

President Lu Xingye was jolted back two steps, but she didn't let go of the spear.

She gritted her teeth and twisted.

Blood sprayed from the wound, dyeing half the ship's rail red.

The barrage of comments was already crazy.

"Steady!!!" "Deeper!!!" "It's struggling, don't let go!" "Awesome, Sister Xingye!!!"

Just as the Iron-Spine Ray made its last struggle, and the tail fin swept over again with the sound of wind—

President Lu Xingye's gaze swept across the barrage of comments.

She froze for a moment.

A few comments were different from the others.

Their text was in English, with automatic Chinese translation underneath.

The avatar frame wasn't the dark red standard for Yanhuang Civilization survivors, but gray.

Behind each ID followed a string of markings—"Visitor".