Chapter 2

The First Broadcast

Chi Yulang soon arrived at his dwelling, which was starkly bare.  

Only a pile of straw beneath a tree and the remnants of a campfire greeted him.  

Though the place was rather empty, Chi Yulang paid it no mind.  

He was too engrossed in examining the new, mysterious object he had brought back.  

He gently ran his hand over the enigmatic item he had dragged to his home.  

It felt like cold metal, yet its smooth surface reminded him of fish scales.  

“What is this thing used for?”  

Wooong…!  

“!”  

At that moment, a low hum reverberated, and the object lit up.  

Startled, Chi Yulang stepped back. The large, pebble-like object emitted a clattering noise, disassembled itself, and then reassembled.  

Keeeing—Clank! Krrk-krrk!  

“What in the world…?”  

Chi Yulang stared, mouth half-open, at the bizarre scene unfolding before him.  

A pebble that moved and transformed on its own?  

He looked no different from a primitive man witnessing fire for the first time.  

Moments later, the metallic pebble had transformed into a large box.  

“It looks just like a room.”  

It was exactly as it appeared.  

It resembled a single room plucked from a house, designed perfectly for a person to live in without inconvenience.  

Blink, blink.  

Having witnessed the pebble evolve into a room, Chi Yulang cautiously approached.  

“Is this the door?”  

He turned the handle, and with a clank, the door opened.  

Stepping inside, he found it was indeed a room.  

There was a chair, a desk, a window, and lighting.  

The peculiar thing was that one wall was entirely covered in green wallpaper, while another was filled with several black frames.  

“Fascinating.”  

Chi Yulang looked around the room and then plopped down onto the chair.  

“Oh, this is incredibly comfortable!”  

His backside, accustomed to hard rocks, cold ground, or rough tree stumps, was overjoyed to meet the plush chair.  

Leaning back, he was startled when the backrest tilted, causing him to quickly sit upright.  

“…What an intriguing chair.”  

Feeling a bit embarrassed, he scratched his neck.  

After playing with the chair for a while, his gaze naturally shifted to the black frames in front of him.  

“Hmm.”  

These didn’t seem like ordinary objects either.  

Who knows? Perhaps they concealed some hidden mechanism.  

Inspecting them closely, he found a round button at the bottom.  

Pressing it firmly…  

Flash!  

The black frame lit up.  

Words appeared on the screen, and among them, Chi Yulang recognized one.  

[Central Plains Language]  

“…Central Plains Language?”  

As if entranced, he pressed it.  

[Welcome to Kwitch, the streaming platform that connects you anytime, anywhere!]  

Flash!  

“What is this…?!”  

A new world unfolded before Chi Yulang’s eyes.  

Countless smaller frames appeared within the black frame, and within them were people.  

More astonishingly, they were moving—alive!  

“What in the…?”  

Chi Yulang stared, dumbfounded, at the scene. He pressed one of the frames.  

The screen enlarged, and a voice came through.  

[Alright, our next challenger is… Jang Jin, the Iron Mace? Any martial artists out there? How about it? Is this guy famous?]  

A blonde, blue-eyed foreigner was speaking fluently in the Central Plains Language, looking directly at him.  

Though the lip movements didn’t perfectly match the voice, it wasn’t bothersome enough to care.  

[Hmm… doesn’t seem like a famous guy. Alright, let’s have a go!]  

The camera zoomed out, showing the foreigner and a martial artist.  

Without warning, a fight broke out.  

The foreigner chanted something, waving his hands, and whoosh…. Flames erupted, flying toward the martial artist and exploding.  

But the martial artist, unfazed, burst through the explosion and charged at the foreigner like a raging bull.  

At that moment, Chi Yulang noticed something rapidly scrolling on the side of the screen.  

It was the chat from the viewers watching the stream.  

- What’s this guy doing?  

- Dodge! Dodge it!  

- Oh no!  

- Is he gonna make it?  

- Finally gonna win?  

- Show the power of martial artists!  

Despite the viewers’ worried comments, the foreigner stood still, chanting another spell before slamming his hands into the ground.  

In an instant, a wall rose from the earth, trapping the martial artist.  

Chi Yulang’s eyes widened.  

What kind of sorcery is this?  

He watched the fight with growing excitement.  

The battle ended with the foreigner shooting a few more fireballs at the trapped martial artist.  

The foreigner, looking at the soot-covered martial artist, made a victorious V-sign.  

[Haha, who am I? Romero, the genius mage!]  

- Romero! Romero!  

- Magic is so OP.  

- Iron Mace Jang Jin? Total scrub lol.  

- Martial artists be like: picking super cool nicknames.  

- But in reality, they’re weak af lolol.  

- Nine out of ten martial artists are scrubs pretending to be strong.  

- Lmao for real, they spend more time picking nicknames than practicing martial arts.  

- Magic’s just too broken. No wonder martial artists can’t keep up.  

- Don’t they get stomped by knights too?  

- You punk!  

- Here comes the salt lol.  

- Lmao.  

[Alright, let’s give a round of applause for our brave challenger, Iron Mace—er, Iron Scrub—Jang Jin!]  

- Lmao Iron Scrub Jang Jin lolol.  

- This guy’s even worse.  

- Iron Mace Jang Jin -> Iron Scrub Jang Jin.  

- At least they got his name right lol.  

Exercising the victor’s privilege, Romero performed a teabagging gesture and skillfully continued hosting the stream.  

[Hmm… next up is OnePunchYouPunch. A punk, maybe?]  

This time, the opponent had a prosthetic arm, and Chi Yulang was astonished to see sparks flying from it.  

Bang bang bang!  

[Whoa, this guy’s tough.]  

- That’s just how punks are.  

- For real, I’ve never seen a normal punk.  

- Isn’t that crazy girl a punk too?  

- Think so.  

- Yup, 100%.  

- Hey, watch your mouth. Don’t call her a crazy girl—call her a wild lass politely.  

- Right, call her the flower-crowned, nutcase, troublemaking wild lass.  

- Lmao.  

Romero raised the ground to shield himself from the barrage of bullets, calmly chanting a spell to subdue his opponent.  

[Phew, almost got hit there. Thanks to you viewers, I stayed calm and handled it.]  

- Calm (while blasting a fireball in their face).  

- This steamrolling stream is too fun lol.  

- Look how quiet that guy got after eating a fireball to the face lol.  

- A good beating’s the cure for punks, huh?  

[Oh, next up is a hunter.]  

“Intriguing.”  

Chi Yulang’s eyes gleamed with interest.  

He watched the ensuing fights, then left Romero’s stream to explore others.  

Most streams featured fights like Romero’s.  

But not all were about combat.  

Some featured calm conversations from people seated in chairs, others showed enthusiastic lectures with writing on chalkboards, and some showcased outdoor adventures.  

Among them, one stream instantly captivated the silent incarnation of destruction, Heavenly Demon Chi Yulang.  

“That… that’s…?!”  

It was a stream of a bandit-like man voraciously devouring a massive piece of meat.  

“That’s Dongpo Pork, isn’t it?!”  

Dongpo Pork.  

A dish of pork belly braised in soy sauce, sugar, and wine, tender and savory-sweet.  

It was Chi Yulang’s absolute favorite food.  

[Mmm…! It just melts in your mouth. Hear that sound? The outside is crispy, but the inside is soft like cotton candy. You poke it with chopsticks, and it just gives way. See that? Oh, the juices are just…]  

Chi Yulang’s eyes were glued to the screen.  

For ten years on this cursed island, he had eaten nothing but tasteless meat. To him, this was culinary torture.  

His mouth watered uncontrollably.  

One thought consumed his mind:  

Where is that place, and how do I eat that Dongpo Pork?  

Chi Yulang began earnestly searching for a way to use this mysterious device to obtain that delectable Dongpo Pork.  

And while he was at it, he decided to figure out what had happened to the world and where he was.  

As he navigated, he stumbled upon a place called a “forum.”  

It was a space where people freely posted messages, and there, Chi Yulang found the information he sought.  

[Title: A Brief Summary of the Dimensional Convergence from 10 Years Ago]  

As everyone knows, the Great Cataclysm happened 10 years ago.  

Worlds from different dimensions merged into one. Yup.  

It’s known that four worlds combined:  

1. Martial World  

A world where martial artists trained in martial arts using an energy called inner power.  

2. Fantasy  

A world where mana enabled the use of magic and aura.  

3. Cyberpunk  

A world of cyborgs enhanced by advanced science and technology.  

4. Modern  

A world where hunters awakened unique abilities.  

One day, these four worlds suddenly fused like a transforming robot.  

Naturally, it caused massive chaos.  

To make matters worse, “rifts” began opening worldwide.  

All sorts of beasts poured out of these rifts, devouring people left and right.  

Countless people died.  

Probably 90% of the population was wiped out?  

But as they say, even when the sky falls, there’s a way out.  

An external threat united people quickly.  

The survivors banded together.  

Even if they didn’t speak the same language, they communicated with gestures.  

“Fuck it, I don’t care—just kill those damn monsters first!”  

And so, the Nine Heroes were born.  

Led by the Nine Heroes, people united, killed the beasts, sealed the rifts, and protected the world.  

And so, the survivors leaned on each other and lived happily ever after!  

The end! A happy ending!  

P.S. My opinion: without the rifts, we might’ve fought among ourselves and perished.  

- Nice summary, upvoted.  

- Kinda hunter-centric thinking. You a hunter?  

- Thinking back, it feels like a dream. A nightmare, really. How am I even alive?  

- It’s a miracle things stabilized this quickly.  

- Happy ending, my ass. Don’t you know rifts still open occasionally, and beasts keep popping out?  

└ For real, the Rift Exploration Team is still dying out there.  

└ The war isn’t over yet.  

└ Still, if we’re chilling in our rooms typing nonsense, isn’t that kinda happy?  

- Thank you, Heroes!  

- I wake up every day and bow to where the Heroes are.  

- The Cult Leader is alive The Cult Leader is alive The Cult Leader is alive The Cult Leader is alive The Cult Leader is alive  

└ This guy’s at it even here.  

“The worlds… merged?”  

It was hard to believe.  

But having seen magic and bullets flying with his own eyes, he couldn’t deny it.  

“Alright, but what about my Dongpo Pork?”  

Of course, there were many things to investigate: where this place was, where that place was, how they were connected, why he alone was stranded here, what the rifts exactly were, what happened to the Heavenly Demon Cult, and so on.  

But right now, the most important thing was Dongpo Pork.  

Soft, chewy, tender Dongpo Pork!  

Chi Yulang scoured the forum again and finally found the answer.  

[Title: How Was the FoodWarp Invented?]  

Hello, hello? It’s your nosy Speedwagon!  

Today, we’re diving into the FoodWarp, something we use a lot in daily life.  

Warp technology was born after the dimensional convergence, combining punk and modern science with magic to create magi-tech.  

Magi-tech grew rapidly during the Rift Wars through research on the rifts…  

(Omitted)  

…And that’s how this principle allows objects to be transported anywhere, anytime.  

Pretty simple, right?  

- Wow, thanks, Speedwagon!  

- Totally got it! (Didn’t get it.)  

- Skipped halfway through, upvote lol.  

- Teacher, can’t you warp living people?  

└ Speedwagon: Living beings, including people, can’t be warped.  

└ Why not?  

└ Speedwagon: As I mentioned, warp technology works through material digitization and reconstruction. Due to quantum consciousness continuity and information density limits… (Omitted)  

└ Uh… I don’t get it.  

└ Speedwagon: It’s related to the principle of living entity invariance. Unlike static objects, the “life force” sustaining living beings involves complexities beyond mere physical arrangement, which are likely to be destroyed or lost during transmission. Additionally, issues like temporal synchronization and mixed information collapse…  

└ I’m sorry, Teacher, my bad.  

“Hmm.”  

Chi Yulang nodded solemnly.  

The explanation was a bit complex and difficult, but he grasped the core.  

In short, a device called a FoodWarp would do the trick.  

“Found it!”  

Fortunately, after closely inspecting his surroundings, Chi Yulang soon found a device identical to the one in the pictures.  

“So, if I buy food, it comes out of here?”  

Thrilled at the thought of eating Dongpo Pork, he immediately searched the forum for food-selling sites.  

But he couldn’t purchase anything.  

Naturally, because ordering required money.  

“How do I make money?”  

The dilemma didn’t last long.  

The answer was right in front of him.  

[Oh, thank you, big bro!]  

A streamer was bowing deeply after receiving a donation.  

[Big bro sent 100,000 cookies! Thank you so much!]  

- Bro, can’t you change your reaction? It’s cringey every time.  

- Please, have some dignity, bro.  

- This kinda thing suits a cute bunny-like girl, not a bandit-looking dude like you.  

- (Chat restricted for 60 seconds.)  

This is it!  

Fueled solely by his burning desire for Dongpo Pork, Chi Yulang started a stream.  

The process wasn’t difficult.  

The streaming room was fully equipped for personal broadcasts, and the Kwitch platform had simplified procedures and maximized accessibility to encourage streaming.  

One click.  

That was all it took to start his broadcast.  

Tap, tap—  

[Title: The Heavenly Demon’s Broadcast]  

Using a slow, deliberate typing method, Chi Yulang carefully entered the stream title and clicked the button.  

[Broadcast ON]  

A red light flickered in the corner of the screen, and the stream began.  

The Heavenly Demon Chi Yulang’s first broadcast had started.