"Plop!" With a slight noise, as the monster completely died, the girl nearby immediately sat down on the ground with a thump.
Song Shuting regained her ability to move and was now staring in shock at the direction where Zhang Xiaoman was, completely forgetting to pick up her phone that had fallen to the ground.
This situation, however, spelled trouble for the viewers in the live stream.
"OMG, streamer, what the heck is going on? Why is the screen gone? Where’s my Lord Sword Immortal? I need to see Lord Sword Immortal!!"
"I feel streamer isn’t professional enough, dude. Should’ve rushed over to chat, get a phone number or something, hugging the big thigh is the most important thing!"
"Do you guys have no humanity? Can’t you care about the streamer for a second... Streamer, ignore these jerks, are you still alive? If you’re still alive... just roll over there and interview the Sword Immortal aaaahhhhhh!!!!!"
"Haha, anyhow, it’s good that the monster has been eliminated. The streamer must have been controlled by it just now. That scarecrow thing is so creepy. If you don’t look at it, it comes over to kill you; if you look at it too long, it seems to control you, then comes over to kill you later, it’s really an unsolvable situation..."
"Scarecrow nothing, didn’t you guys hear what Lord Sword Immortal said? That thing is called Esa. It’s only ’unsolvable’ for us. Lord Sword Immortal just powered through it, forcibly subdued it—now that’s real strength!"
The barrage in the live stream nearly filled the entire screen at this moment, and the viewer count had reached the highest record since Song Shuting started streaming.
Dozens of red rockets flew across the top of the screen, drawing in a large number of viewers to the room.
New viewers felt a bit overwhelmed facing this dense barrage of comments.
Even with the barrage turned off, they could only see a pitch-black scene and had to understand what was happening through the snippets of conversation from the regulars.
"Dude, what’s happening here? Is this a horror exploration stream? Did they really encounter a monster? And a Sword Immortal came to slay it? Do you take me for a three-year-old?"
"I was just watching my cute little Mengmeng dancing, and then dozens of rockets blasted me in here. I heard that the horror exploration streamer ran into the real deal. Can someone tell me if this is for real? You guys aren’t getting tricked by a live-action drama, are you?"
"Bro, do you think the wealthy big shots are dumber than you? Can’t they see for themselves if it’s real or fake? Anyway, the scene isn’t over yet. The streamer is just freaked out, the phone has fallen to the ground. Just wait a bit and you should be able to see the video. Then, you can decide for yourself whether it’s true or not."
Song Shuting’s channel went from a moderately popular channel to the hottest front page in just about ten minutes. Most of that time was spent during her initial phase of dodging the scarecrow’s pursuit.
As for Zhang Xiaoman, from his actual appearance to the slaying of the monster, it only took a mere three to four minutes.
Back at the Tiger Fish Live office building, it was only now that Li Zhi, on the night shift, noticed the anomaly here.
"What’s going on? I just went down to buy instant noodles, how did this super hot room suddenly pop up?"
Li Zhi immediately accessed the room from the backend, and seeing the full screen of comments and dozens of rocket donations scared him too.
"My god, is this going crazy? When did our little platform ever have such a hot room? All these donations and viewers, couldn’t be that everyone on the platform has come here, could it?"
Li Zhi watched the spectacle unbelievingly.
Thankfully, their platform had an automatic room Upgrade feature. When the number of viewers in a streamer’s room reached the limit, it would automatically Upgrade to a higher-tier room, so there was no worry about having too many people.
— Song Shuting had upgraded her room four times in a row by now.
After staring at the comments for a while, Li Zhi had finally grasped the gist of what had happened.
However, even after understanding the sequence of events, he felt it was just as unbelievable as the new viewers entering the stream.
What does "walk by the river often, and you’re bound to get your shoes wet" mean?
What does "horror exploration streamer actually encountered a monster" imply?
What does it mean by "The Sword Immortal easily suppresses the grey monsters with a powerful move"?
It’s like they are telling a story!
Could it be that all these viewers have gone silly? Have they all been deceived by a live-action theater?
However, as soon as this thought emerged, he promptly dismissed it.
How many people nowadays are truly foolish?
Moreover, in a situation witnessed by everyone.
Li Zhi decided to observe more closely to see what was really going on.
He looked up at the empty hall and then shouted, "Lao Liu, Old Lu, stop sleeping! Something’s up!"
Two heads slowly rose from behind the computer monitors at the neighboring office desks, both looking drowsy.
"Stop sleeping already and help me check out what’s happening in live room 10200803. I’m going to call the manager and report the situation here first," he said.
No sooner had he finished speaking than the originally dark screen on his computer suddenly changed again.
The environment was still lacking proper lighting due to it being night, but Li Zhi saw the scene that was taking place.
It was a place overgrown with weeds, where, under the moonlight, a man completely shrouded in shadows stood quietly in front.
Around him, four men wearing blue-purple Armor were moving back and forth, and Li Zhi could vaguely make out some grey, odd-shaped objects.
"Lao Liu, Old Lu, look, there’s a picture now!"
Li Zhi immediately alerted his colleagues, and the three of them began to watch this unbelievable sight together.
The reason the live room was able to display an image again was, of course, that Song Shuting, the streamer, had picked up her phone once more.
She wanted to use the light to get a clear look at the mysterious man who had saved her, and her phone’s camera was recording the scene that countless netizens had been eagerly awaiting.
At this moment, Zhang Xiaoman had already sheathed the Mountain and River Sword, and he was directing the Star Guards to pile the monsters’ dismembered corpses together, hoping to absorb them all at once.
He didn’t know if a monster regenerating its limbs would count as an extra points income, so he decided to experiment on the spot.
"Ding, Essence absorbed from Esa, points increased by 1."
"Ding, Essence absorbed from Esa, points increased by 2."
"Ding, Essence absorbed from Esa, points increased by 1."
"Ding, Essence absorbed from Esa, points increased by 13."
After some initial trials, Zhang Xiaoman concluded that the method of regenerating the monsters before absorbing them again wasn’t effective—the points were getting less and less.
Based on his speculation, if a monster didn’t improve its individual strength, the points it provided would remain constant.
The Essence the System absorbed didn’t seem to be simply measured by the monster’s body; there appeared to be a more unique way of determining it.
Thus, the plan to exploit the situation he had initially conceived came to nothing.