Livestreaming To Fame In An Infinite Flow World Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Reality (3)

Liang Yan guided Jian Yuntai through the steps on his phone and helped him book a “cell” from the Central Marketplace.

The price of the cell wasn’t expensive—3 livestream coins for 24 hours, which converted to 300 yuan. There were different types available: water cells, underground cells, electric cells, and so on. Jian Yuntai had chosen the underground cell.

Liang Yan said that these cells were usually booked by streamers to torture their enemies. Because they were backed by the Alliance, the livestream team turned a blind eye, and everyone tacitly understood the arrangement.

Perhaps for that very reason, when Jian Yuntai said he was going to the underground cell, the little assistant’s face immediately turned green.

Especially when he realized that, aside from Jian Yuntai, only he and Liang Yan were left in the car.

Who did Jian Yuntai want to torture?

He couldn’t possibly torture Liang Yan, right? A manager and a streamer were on equal footing. So who else could it be?

It could only be him—the subordinate!

The little assistant hugged himself in fear, clinging to a last shred of hope as he said, “It’s already two in the morning. Aren’t you going back to the dorm?”

“I’ll go back after daybreak,” Jian Yuntai replied casually.

Sitting in the back seat with tears in his eyes, the little assistant opened his phone and sent a message to his aunt: “Auntie, I’m not going to survive tomorrow, wuwuwu!”

His aunt hadn’t gone to sleep at that hour and quickly replied: “That’s wonderful. I’ll buy you the highest payout death insurance right now.”

Little assistant: qaq

The closer they got to their destination, the more anxious he became. By the time the car stopped, his mentality had completely collapsed.

Carrying the resolve of someone about to die, he got out and followed the other two forward with forced courage. The underground cell was located on a desolate hillside in the suburbs. The main gate was tightly shut, and only an old man sat there with one leg crossed over the other, checking orders.

“Identity verified. You can go in.”

The old man took a string of bronze keys and opened the iron gate. “The underground cell you booked is a private room. Go right after you enter. Follow the cell number—it’s about a kilometer from here.”

They walked inside. Over that kilometer, the little assistant dragged his feet, moving painfully slowly.

Finally, Liang Yan said impatiently, “If you don’t want to go, stay in the car. Don’t waste everyone else’s time here.”

“?!” The little assistant said in surprise, “You’re not here to throw me into the underground cell?”

“Why would you think that? Who would spend 300 yuan just to mess with you? If we wanted to mess with you, we’d just do it directly.” Liang Yan looked puzzled.

Only then did the little assistant feel relieved—she was right. Three hundred yuan was treatment he didn’t deserve.

He finally stopped dawdling and quickly caught up with the two ahead, though a trace of doubt still lingered in his heart.

If it wasn’t to mess with him, then who were they here to mess with? Could it really be to torment Sister Liang Yan?

That question wasn’t answered until they reached the underground cell’s entrance.

The little assistant kept watch at the opening and saw with his own eyes Jian Yuntai and Liang Yan walk inside together.

Soon after, he heard the sound of a lock fastening.

He secretly peeked inside—and was immediately stunned.

The lock had been fastened onto Jian Yuntai!

The underground cell was dimly lit, yet even so, the heavy chains on Jian Yuntai’s body were extremely conspicuous. He was bound by three massive iron locks, his head tilted back as he fell backward.

With a dull thud, he dropped into the sunken pit of the underground cell, stirring up a cloud of fine dust.

Seeing this, the little assistant was completely dumbfounded.

Jian Yuntai had booked this underground cell to imprison himself? What was going on?

He couldn’t help but step closer and lean in to look.

※※

Hungry. Extremely hungry.

Come to think of it, Jian Yuntai had gone nearly two days without properly eating. At most, he had only drunk a glass of milk that Song Yulu had handed him and eaten a plate of mung bean cakes.

That little bit of food, in front of his enormous appetite, was like a drop in the ocean—nowhere near enough.

After only two hours in the underground cell, Jian Yuntai’s consciousness had already grown hazy, and waves of darkness repeatedly clouded his vision.

As his rationality faded, he kept growling and struggling, trying to break free from the chains binding him. The chains were made of special materials that could restrain even Sinister Monster Types, let alone someone like him, who wasn’t even one.

After struggling for a long time, the chains had only loosened slightly.

No one knew how much time had passed before a faint glimmer of light appeared in the dim underground cell. Outside the opening, the morning glow emerged; dawn broke, and an orange-red halo shone straight in.

But Jian Yuntai could no longer see anything. He seemed to have fallen into a near-death state, his eyelids half-closed.

Drip, drip—


Drip, drip—

The sound of clear spring water echoed.

How could there be spring water in the underground cell?

Jian Yuntai slowly opened his eyes and once again saw the lotus pond with rippling water. His gaze trembled, and he quickly climbed up from the ground and hurried over.

This lotus pond… had actually turned into a stagnant pool!

The last time he had seen it, the lotus pond had been like a mirror-like blue sea. Though the water hadn’t moved, it had still radiated vitality. But this time… it wouldn’t have been an exaggeration to call it a muddy puddle.

The bottom of the pond was murky and filthy. The black lotus looked like a hunched old man on the verge of death. Its branches bore an abnormal grayish hue, bent and drooping as if unable to bear the weight of the blossom. The black lotus petals were the same—their edges had turned a scorched yellow, and one petal had already fallen into the pond.

The red lotus wasn’t much better. It still maintained its original form, but upon closer inspection, it too carried a heavy air of decay.

What was going on?!

Jian Yuntai crouched down and gently touched the water in the pond. His fingertips became damp.

The lotus pond did not pull him in like it had last time.

It was a pool of dead water now, no longer brimming with vitality.

※※

“His stomach isn’t moving—he’s not breathing anymore!” The little assistant leaned over the top of the underground cell, anxiously slapping Liang Yan’s arm. “What are you waiting for? If you keep waiting, he’s going to die!”

Liang Yan’s brows were tightly furrowed as she remained silent.

A camera was set up to the side, recording everything. They were testing Jian Yuntai’s Sinister Type—she shouldn’t interfere recklessly.

Time passed second by second. The report sheet in Liang Yan’s hand trembled continuously, and the worry on her face deepened.

“How could this happen… Every previous time, after about five minutes of death, he would wake up…”

After muttering to herself for a few moments, Liang Yan found herself unable to decide. She hesitantly glanced at the camera.

The camera lens was pointed directly at the bottom of the underground cell. On the screen, the young man was already unconscious. The orange light of sunrise enveloped his pale cheeks, and all color had drained from his face.

“Th-this…” The little assistant had no idea what the two of them had come to the underground cell for. He only knew that Jian Yuntai was about to die.

So he gave up on persuading Liang Yan, turned around, and jumped straight into the underground cell. He fell in a dizzy heap and let out a miserable howl.

Liang Yan’s expression changed. She hurried to the edge and shouted down in a low voice, “What are you doing? Get up here now—he’s dangerous!”

What Liang Yan meant was that Jian Yuntai would become dangerous after switching personalities. But in the little assistant’s ears, it sounded like Jian Yuntai’s physical condition was critically dangerous.

The little assistant didn’t dare waste another second. He rushed forward and began performing CPR, flustered and clumsy in his frantic attempts at first aid.

After several compressions, there was still no response.

Watching from above, Liang Yan grew increasingly anxious. She glanced at the camera, then gritted her teeth and jumped down as well.

When it came to emergency treatment, she was far more professional than the little assistant.

Thanks to Liang Yan’s efforts, Jian Yuntai suddenly sucked in a sharp breath, and his heart finally began beating again.

Seeing this, Liang Yan let out a sigh of relief and then began undoing the heavy, twisted chains that bound him.

“How do you feel?”

“Hungry.” Jian Yuntai covered his stomach as he sat up, feeling a hollow emptiness spreading from the inside out.

Liang Yan opened the small pack on her back and took out the compressed biscuits she had prepared in advance. “Eat quickly. Get some energy back.” As she spoke, she used the key to open the underground cell door and dragged the little assistant back out.

After instructing him to guard the entrance properly, Liang Yan walked back in and began writing and sketching in a small notebook.

She wrote very seriously, pausing from time to time to think.

Jian Yuntai asked in confusion, “Did I come back from the dead again just now?”

“Yes. But it was different from before—this time you were revived through rescue efforts.” Liang Yan’s brows were tightly furrowed, and confusion flickered in her eyes as well. “Why didn’t you switch personalities this time?”

“Switch personalities?” Jian Yuntai caught the key phrase and straightened his back slightly, frowning. “What do you mean?”

Liang Yan let out an “Ah,” smacked her forehead, and said, “That’s my fault, that’s my fault. I was busy recording data just now and forgot to tell you. The Xiang’an Team locked you up for a month before and kept testing your Sinister Types. They had already figured it out back then, but no one dared to tell you.”

After a pause, she said seriously, “You have dissociative identity disorder.”

Jian Yuntai froze. “What disorder did you say?”

“Identity disorder—what we commonly call multiple personalities.” Liang Yan explained patiently while continuing to write in her notebook. “What we can confirm now is that after you die, you switch to another personality.”

“… ”

Jian Yuntai frowned. “You mean that after I die, I temporarily become someone else?”

“No. You’re still you.” Liang Yan knew that ordinary people rarely encountered such specialized knowledge, so she explained patiently. “Medically, it’s considered an extremely severe psychological disorder. When the primary personality encounters danger, the patient splits off a psychopathic secondary personality to protect themselves. In other words, you just have two independent modes of thinking that don’t interfere with each other, which results in completely different behaviors.”

After a pause, Liang Yan’s expression suddenly became strange. She hesitated before saying, “But just now, when you were near death, you didn’t switch personalities. Did you feel anything unusual yourself?”

Jian Yuntai immediately thought of the withered lotus pond. He shook his head and spoke with some uncertainty.

“I felt extremely hungry.” Then he briefly recounted how the lotus pond had turned into stagnant water and how the black lotus had withered.

There was no benefit in hiding this from the Livestream Team. It was better to say it outright and let the experts rack their brains over it. Once they reached a conclusion, he could simply reap the benefits.

While he spoke, Liang Yan kept her head down, taking rapid notes without stopping her pen.

When he finished, Liang Yan finally set the pen down and handed the notebook over.

The handwriting on it was neat and clear:

【Black Lotus】


【Secondary personality. Temperament violent and extreme, cold and vicious, kills without hesitation, devoid of empathy and sympathy.】


【Ability: telekinesis—can use mental force to control and move objects. Has appeared twice so far, both times when the primary personality was at the brink of life and death. After switching back, the primary personality loses all memory of the process.】


【Under extreme hunger, personality switching becomes impossible. Current hypothesis: food nourishes the secondary personality and strengthens its abilities.】

“Maybe you were too hungry just now. The Black Lotus secondary personality weakened along with you, so you couldn’t switch,” Liang Yan said. Then she warned him, “You need to buy more food and try to keep yourself full every day. That way, the secondary personality won’t perish.”

Jian Yuntai was startled. “It can perish?”

Liang Yan nodded. “According to the current research data, the Black Lotus you described is already close to becoming a dead personality. If you don’t maintain it properly, you’ll lose this support.”

Hearing that, Jian Yuntai fell into deep thought for a long while.

Liang Yan asked in confusion, “What’s wrong?”

Jian Yuntai shook his head and gave a bitter smile. “If what you said is true… then I might not have just one secondary personality.”

“… ” Liang Yan froze for a full five or six seconds. When she finally understood what he meant, her whole body trembled, and her eyes filled with shock.

“You mean you don’t just have the Black Lotus as a secondary personality—you have others too?!”

Jian Yuntai nodded firmly. “In that lotus pond, there wasn’t just a black lotus. There was also a red lotus.”

“!!!”

Liang Yan’s expression was now bordering on stunned disbelief. After a few seconds of pause, she quickly wrote this down in her notebook as well. When she finished, she asked eagerly, “Has the Red Lotus appeared before?”

“No.” Jian Yuntai thought about the red lotus’s appearance and said, “It’s just a little sprout. It looks like it hasn’t grown up yet.”

That simple sentence alone set off stormy waves in Liang Yan’s heart.

“Triple personalities—you actually have three personalities!”

She said excitedly, “This is a major discovery! I’ll report this to the Livestream Team immediately. Just last month, they formed a psychiatric expert group specifically to study you. They’re all senior doctors from top-tier hospitals before the world mutation. Don’t worry—once they reach a conclusion, I’ll definitely tell you.”

Liang Yan was extremely enthusiastic about this matter. She immediately had the little assistant send Jian Yuntai back to the dormitory, while she hurriedly got off midway and headed toward the Livestream Tower.

There was no doubt that tonight, thousands of people would probably work overtime because of this major discovery, staying up through the night.

※※

It was around seven in the morning when Jian Yuntai arrived at the dormitory.

The place was actually just several old standalone residential buildings, located behind the headquarters of the Inspection Team. As for the environment—it wasn’t very good. The houses looked dilapidated, and cracks were even visible along the outer walls.

“Don’t be fooled by how shabby it looks. This whole area is actually very safe!” The little assistant got out of the car and led the way, pointing toward the direction of the Inspection Team headquarters. “Streamers with lowborn status all live like this. The basic facilities might be a bit outdated, but transportation and shopping are convenient. Most importantly, people seeking revenge can’t get in. After all, the Inspection Team isn’t just for show.”

“Ordinary citizens and nobles don’t live here?”

“They don’t. Once your status rises, you can apply to the Livestream Team to change dorms. Ordinary citizens live in single-family townhouses. As for nobles…” The little assistant sucked in a breath and said uncertainly, “I think it’s seaside standalone villas, or estates with swimming pools and small gardens. I can’t quite remember.”

They walked forward for a while. The little assistant escorted Jian Yuntai to the bottom of Building C, yawned sleepily, and said, “You’re in a three-person dorm on the fourth floor. Your fingerprint’s already been entered into the password lock. There’s no elevator here, and I think the stairwell lights broke yesterday. Someone should come fix them in the next few days. Be careful going upstairs—don’t fall.”

After he left, Jian Yuntai looked up at the shabby little building, a trace of joy and excitement rising in his heart.

Although the environment wasn’t great, he had been drifting from place to place since he was fifteen, wasting away in abandoned buildings. Now that he had a ‘new home’ that could shelter him from wind and rain and was especially safe, he was already more than satisfied—extremely satisfied!

Thinking of this, he felt even more eager to raise his status. In his heart, he faintly longed for the villas, seaside houses, gardens, and swimming pools he had only ever seen on television as a child…

Thud—

The consequence of spacing out was that he tripped and fell.

Grabbing onto the dilapidated stair railing, he ended up with a palm full of dust. In the dim light, Jian Yuntai reminded himself not to aim too high and get carried away—he had to keep his feet on the ground and take things step by step.

He opened the door and entered the dormitory.

The environment inside was just as old and worn, even looking a bit messy. At first glance, it resembled a cheap youth hostel from before the world mutation. The only difference was that he didn’t have to share a room with his roommates—they each had separate rooms.

He had only taken two steps inside when he heard meowing from the balcony, along with the crackling buzz of electricity. A chubby figure was squatting on the balcony, holding a pair of scissors and doing something.

Jian Yuntai raised an eyebrow and walked over.

Fatty was gripping the scissors fiercely, cursing under his breath. “You dared to abuse my cat? You even dared to mess with my cat! I’ll cut off your electricity. Damn it, don’t even think about using the internet.”

As he spoke, Fatty reached the scissors toward the breaker.

It was a parallel circuit. He fished out a wire and was just about to cut it.

“What are you doing?” Jian Yuntai suddenly asked.

“!!!” Fatty jumped in fright, nearly leaping into the air. When he saw Jian Yuntai’s face clearly, he let out a breath of relief and then said in surprise, “You got assigned to my dorm?”

“Yeah.” Jian Yuntai asked again, “What are you doing?”

“You scared the hell out of me just now—I almost thought you were that bastard.” Fatty snapped back to himself and said viciously, “It’s our other roommate. That bastard doesn’t like cats—fine, don’t like them then. Jinjin never even went near him. But last week, that bastard shaved a chunk of fur off Jinjin’s head. It even bled. I was furious. And he’s never home—sleeps all day, active all night. Totally ghost-hour schedule. I can’t even catch him.”

As he spoke, he snipped the power line and said angrily, “If I catch him, I’ll beat him half to death. Abusing my cat when I’m not around—he’s got some nerve.”

Jian Yuntai understood. “So this is how you’re getting revenge?”

Fatty said indignantly, “What else can I do? The Livestream Team doesn’t stop streamers from killing each other inside instances, but they strictly forbid conflicts outside of instances. Don’t you dare tell him. If he finds out, he’ll definitely take it out on Jinjin again.”

Jian Yuntai laughed. “It’s not about whether I tell him or not. There are only three people in this dorm. You two already have a grudge. He’s not going to suspect me, is he?”

Fatty: “…” Damn it! What a miscalculation!

Jian Yuntai let out a muffled chuckle and casually scooped Jinjin into his arms.

The cat buried its head into his palm pitifully. Sure enough, there was a coin-sized bald patch behind one ear.

Jinjin had strong self-healing abilities. The wound from a week ago had already healed without even leaving a scar. But the fur hadn’t had time to grow back yet, leaving an unsightly bald spot.

“He really went in hard. The fur still hasn’t grown back. The skin tissue underneath might’ve been damaged.”

As he spoke, Jian Yuntai gently rubbed Jinjin’s little head in pity and softly comforted it. After that, he managed to swindle a pile of snacks from Fatty and returned to his room.

He was too tired—he could barely hold on.

The Livestream Team probably had someone assigned to clean vacant rooms. Jian Yuntai’s room only had a bed, a wardrobe, and a desk. Aside from that, it was completely empty, though at least the bed had already been made.

He took a shower, lay down on the bed, and ate some of the snacks he had gotten from Fatty. Only then did he take out the Finger-Operation Compass that he had kept in his pocket all this time—the weapon item he had obtained from the Six Suns instance.

He opened the Streamer Home app on his phone. There was a scan function there. Backed by the Alliance’s big data, it cataloged all items and weapons that had ever been brought out of instances. Supposedly, all you had to do was scan an item to learn its function.

It was Jian Yuntai’s first time trying it.

Soon, corresponding text appeared on the phone screen:

【Finger-Operation Compass】


【Obtained from hidden missions in D- and E-level instances, or picked up during main quest missions. This item is a one-time-use quest item that can determine whether a chosen path is auspicious or inauspicious. After one use, it will lose its effect. The direction the needle points to indicates good fortune.】

“… ” Jian Yuntai collapsed backward in anguish, flopping onto the bed. “My luck is way too bad!”

This kind of item wasn’t even as useful as his own ability. And it was a one-time-use item on top of that—completely useless!

Unwilling to accept it, Jian Yuntai sat up again and opened the Central Marketplace. After searching for a while, he easily found other streamers listing Finger-Operation Compasses for sale.

Very quickly, a look of astonishment appeared on his face.

“Why is this piece of junk selling for so much?!”

He stared stiffly at the compass in his hand, then glanced at the number on the screen in disbelief—25,000 livestream coins.

Twenty-five thousand!

His first reaction was that his own judgment was lacking—that he had failed to see the item’s special qualities. However, after reading the comments below the listing, he realized it wasn’t his poor judgment at all.

This thing might be junk to him, but for other streamers, it could save their lives at a critical moment.

In an instance, they might encounter a chase and not know which direction offered a higher chance of survival. Or the environment might be complex, and they could get lost—this item would be useful then.

What Jian Yuntai lacked right now was food and money. He didn’t lack something that overlapped with his own ability.

He did not hesitate at all. He directly listed the Finger-Operation Compass for sale, then turned off his phone and went straight to sleep.

When he woke up again, it was because of a thunderous argument outside that jolted him awake.

Fatty’s roar could be heard clearly even through a wall. “Yu Xingcao! If you’ve got the guts, come at me! What kind of bastard abuses a cat behind someone’s back? Yeah! I was the one who cut your power. I even bought a signal jammer—next time I’ll cut off your internet too!”

Another furious male voice shot back aggressively, “Do you even know how many people you hurt by cutting my electricity? The twenty thousand–word treatment plan I wrote yesterday was all on my computer, and I hadn’t saved it. When I logged back in just now, it was all gone. I have to rewrite everything. If I lose a whole day, some of them might miss their best treatment window!”

“That’s your own fault for not saving it. Who are you blaming?” Fatty retorted without backing down. “There are plenty of Sinister Spirit Types in the Livestream Team. The world won’t collapse without you. And how was I supposed to know you had that stuff on your computer?”

“So because you didn’t know, it just didn’t matter?!” Yu Xingcao exploded in rage and cursed, “When Sun Wukong stole the peaches of immortality, he didn’t know either—and he was crushed under a mountain for five hundred years. Don’t think you’re getting off easy. I’m reporting this to the Livestream Team right now. Just wait for your punishment!”

The two of them were so heated they were on the verge of coming to blows. At that moment, there was a creak as Jian Yuntai pushed open the door.

“…”

“…”

The two men outside stopped arguing at the same time and turned to look at him, anger still lingering on their faces.

The Yu Xingcao Fatty had been yelling at was a thin young man wearing glasses. He had delicate, fair features and looked to be around twenty years old.

Perhaps because his face was so pale, the heavy dark circles under his eyes stood out starkly. He looked as though he had not slept for seven days and nights.

“I can’t be bothered arguing with you. It lowers my standards,” Yu Xingcao said. He glanced at Jian Yuntai, gave a slight nod in greeting, then stormed back into his room.

As he went in, he spat in Fatty’s direction and cursed in disgust, “You won’t have to suffer seeing me every day for much longer. Once I raise my status, I’m switching dorms. Who would want to live with you? You leave dirty clothes piled up for ages without washing them, and you never even take out the trash—”

With a loud bang, the door slammed shut.

Half a minute later, Jian Yuntai stepped forward and sympathetically patted Fatty on the shoulder. “Looks like you’ve gotten yourself into trouble.”

“I’m scared of him? He’s just a damn bastard,” Fatty said, though his brows were tightly furrowed and anxiety showed on his face.

It was not that he feared Yu Xingcao reporting him and getting him punished. What he was worried about was that, with the treatment plan gone, some people might really miss their optimal treatment window.

Fatty felt a bit of regret and muttered gloomily, “If I’d known, I wouldn’t have messed with his power. I should’ve just messed with him directly.”

Jian Yuntai took out his phone and checked it. The Finger-Operation Compass he had listed yesterday had not sold yet, but quite a few people had already started bargaining in the comments, asking if he would sell it cheaper through a private transaction.

He replied coldly with a single message: “No.”

After putting his phone away, he asked Fatty, “Doesn’t the Central Market sell food? I couldn’t find any on there.”

“They don’t. You just buy food at the market. Walk a few kilometers out of the residential building and you’ll reach it. That area’s the city center—busy as hell. You have to line up for half a day just to buy anything. But when we go out, the inspection team escorts us, so the shop owners usually make things easier for us,” Fatty said casually, quickly putting the unpleasant argument out of his mind. Then he asked in confusion, “Do you even have money?”

“No,” Jian Yuntai answered honestly.

Fatty, ever warm-hearted, said, “How about I lend you some? Food shouldn’t cost that much. How much do you need?”

Jian Yuntai thought for a moment.

Back in the Six Suns instance, he had eaten three or four large boxes of compressed biscuits and had only felt about twenty percent full. After that, the Black Lotus persona had surfaced for just a few minutes before shrinking back again. That meant three or four boxes had been nowhere near enough.

Now the Black Lotus was on the verge of death, and the Red Lotus was a tiny thing crying to be fed. Both of these sub-personalities were absolute money pits. If he wanted to nourish them back to vitality, he would need at least five times that amount.

After quickly calculating the cost in his head, Jian Yuntai calmly stated a number.

“How much?” Fatty’s voice shot up sharply, as if he thought he had misheard.

Jian Yuntai said, “Two and a half million.”

“???” Fatty stood there dumbfounded, his face a mixture of shock and horror, utterly incredulous.

“Are you planning to go to the market and buy out the entire place?!”

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