Chapter 320: An Ruo’s Livestream: It felt as though he were being publicly enjoyed by his male on a livestream, but Ulysses knew his male was simply nervous...

The livestream was scheduled for the afternoon. An Ruo informed Ulysses in advance and stayed in the study.

Facing the light screen, he gave himself one final mental pep talk.

The gaming company hadn't specified what time he needed to start streaming or how long he needed to stream. Everything was entirely up to him.

If he didn't want to, he could even skip the livestream altogether.

After thinking it over carefully for a long time, An Ruo decided to go ahead with it.

It was partly to promote the game, partly to meet his readers' expectations, and partly to gather writing material. Perhaps there was even a little curiosity of his own mixed in.

Since he had decided to stream, An Ruo resolved to do it in one go, without giving himself a chance to hesitate or change his mind.

He placed the plushie on the desk and held it in front of him. After adjusting the electronic camera floating in midair, he confirmed that it would capture only the plushie, his hands, and part of his clothing. Only then did he choose a name for the livestream room and go live.

[Virtual Zerg Romance: Brand-New Version Update!]

A name so ordinary that Zergs would scroll right past it.

For an author, such a title was completely unacceptable. But An Ruo only wanted to get the task over with and had no intention of coming up with anything particularly eye-catching.

He could always be a little cheeky and add a line afterward: "If you love Zergs, come hack me to pieces (crossed out)."

The word "hack" obviously wasn't suitable for a romance game. Should he change it to something more appropriate, like "kiss me"?

No. That was even worse.

Thinking of Ulysses' chilly gaze, An Ruo wisely abandoned the idea of being cheeky.

That would make Ulysses absolutely furious, and the consequences would be unimaginable.

He didn't want to give any other Zergs the wrong idea or any false hope, either.

With such an unremarkable livestream title, a newly registered account with no existing followers, and no advance publicity because even the gaming company wasn't sure whether he would go live, An Ruo figured hardly anyone would click into his livestream.

He stared at the light screen for a while and didn't see any bullet comments, so he felt relatively relaxed.

But An Ruo had forgotten that he was using a terminal account verified with his identity information, rather than his old anonymous account.

Even with that anonymous account, Zergs had managed to identify him through its string of garbled characters. This account, meanwhile, was directly linked to his identity as "An-shen."

Even without that identity, his gender as a "Male Zerg," combined with his rank of "S-rank," which had been updated after his marriage to Ulysses, was enough for the livestream platform's algorithm to automatically promote him to the homepage and issue a platform-wide announcement.

This was an S-rank Male Zerg.

There wasn't a single Zerg who didn't want to see such a lord.

There was no need for the gaming company and livestream platform to collaborate on advance publicity. The moment he went live, he automatically appeared before every Zerg.

Countless Female Zergs and Male Zergs held their breath as they faced the livestream's light screen, not daring to look away for even a moment.

Yet the livestream room was utterly silent.

All that could be seen was some clothing in the background and a black-haired plushie held in someone's arms.

Not a single Zerg sent a bullet comment to disturb the scene. But in private group chats and discussion forums elsewhere, countless messages erupted in a frenzy.

[Is that An-shen on StarNet Live? Is it really An-shen?]

[There are only two S-rank lords, and the other one would never participate in something like this. It can't be anyone else.]

[New fans are still guessing whether it's An-shen, but us old fans recognized An-shen's hands at a glance (lick lick lick). I'd never mistake them! (Attached: Marshal's official marriage announcement picture)]

[I can vouch for that! There are so few images of An-shen that I look at the picture from the Marshal's official announcement, where his hand is resting over An-shen's, eight hundred times a day!]

[As a CP shipper, I can confirm this. Every picture of them being sweet together is precious. I study them over and over every day. Of course I recognized him immediately.]

[The Zerg race actually has CP shippers?]

[How long have you been offline? We've had them since Xi'an and Claire in the first book. We envy Claire, but we also think they're a perfect match. An-shen and the Marshal are practically the entire nation's favorite couple. Even those Female Zergs who still haven't given up on marrying An-shen love this pairing.]

[Don't ask. I just got back from a mission, and the entire Zerg race has changed while I was gone. I'm desperately catching up on the previous novels and the story of An-shen and the Marshal.]

[I'm still surprised An-shen would actually do a livestream.]

[Why isn't An-shen showing his face? And what's that plushie? An-shen actually likes plushies? That's so cute (holding cheeks, hearts in eyes). I want to buy the same one.]

[I couldn't find one anywhere (screenshot). Is it only available as a custom order?]

[Are you all idiots? That plushie is obviously modeled after the Marshal!]

Female Zergs admittedly had rather limited imaginations, but once someone pointed it out, they immediately understood.

They carefully compared the picture of the plushie with the Marshal and confirmed that it was indeed an adorable, chibi version of him.

[Even An-shen's plushie looks like the Marshal. He loves him so much! They're so loving (hearts hearts hearts).]

[I can't even imagine how happy I'd be if my Male Lord had a plushie made in my likeness and held it in his arms.]

Once everyone had confirmed An-shen's identity, they didn't dare send bullet comments to disturb him, even though they were curious about why he wasn't showing his face or speaking.

They simply held their breath and watched the livestream, unwilling to take their eyes off the screen for even a second.

An Ruo still hadn't noticed anything unusual.

He thought his livestream room was deserted.

Relieved, he waited patiently, occasionally stroking the plushie.

Then countless gift effects suddenly flooded the screen.

An Ruo froze.

["Roy" tipped Floating Island ×10.]

["Lawrence" tipped Luxury Villa ×1.]

["Bailey" tipped Starship ×1.]

...

An Ruo wasn't familiar with StarNet livestreaming.

It wasn't until the gift effects flooded the screen that he exited full-screen mode to take a look. When he saw the dark-red, blazing popularity indicator and the long string of numbers behind it that was still growing, he was completely dumbfounded.

No matter how slow he was, he understood how many Zergs were actually watching his livestream.

Wait, what?!

Why wasn't anyone saying anything?!

He'd thought there was nobody here!

An Ruo sucked in a sharp breath and instinctively leaned back, clutching the plushie as his heart pounded like a drum.

It was too late to back out now.

An Ruo smiled at the light screen. Only when he looked at the image on it did he remember that the camera wasn't filming his face.

So he waved the little hand of the Ulysses plushie and greeted everyone.

"Hi, everyone. Thank you for the gifts. But you really don't need to spend money on me. I'm only streaming today. I'm not planning to become a streamer, so there's no need to send tips."

Despite what he said, the gifts flooding the screen didn't stop.

Instead, they came even faster.

An Ruo couldn't find where to turn off tipping, either. He could only give a helpless, wry smile and wonder whether he could negotiate with the platform afterward to have the gifts refunded to their original payment accounts. He could cover any losses out of his own pocket.

Unable to stop everyone's enthusiasm, An Ruo brought the conversation back to the main topic and continued streaming.

Once he'd gotten through the opening, everything afterward became much easier.

"Why is everyone sending gifts, but nobody's talking? Is the viewer count in my livestream room real? Don't tell me the platform is padding the numbers with bots?"

As he spoke, An Ruo made a show of clicking on the popularity indicator to check.

The administrator, who had been lurking in the livestream room for some time, was so frightened that he hurriedly came out to clarify.

[Administrator 001]: No, our website's data is absolutely genuine. We do not inflate or manipulate our statistics. Please rest assured, Your Excellency.

The other Zergs hurriedly came out to prove that they were real, living Zergs, too.

[1]

[11111]

[Hello, An-shen.]

[Hello, Your Excellency. We're real Zergs.]

[We weren't speaking because we were afraid of disturbing Your Excellency. If you don't mind, we'll talk more.]

[I like you so much, Your Excellency~]

...

At first, nobody had said a word.

But once someone started speaking, the bullet comments erupted in an overwhelming flood. An Ruo could barely keep up.

Fortunately, the livestream room automatically filtered out duplicate messages, and his powerful psychic abilities allowed him to read the comments quickly.

Only thanks to those two things could he understand what everyone was saying without being overwhelmed and disoriented by the sheer volume of information.

Gradually, he got down to the main topic, answering questions from the bullet comments while talking about the game.

"Yes, this livestream is to promote Virtual Zerg Romance. A new version is coming out at the end of the month, and we're adding lots of new content..."

"That's right, the game has a pet system. You can raise gem dragons, too. The hatchling system is still in development, so you can't lay eggs in the game just yet. But there are adoption agencies, and if you meet the requirements, you can adopt instead of having your own."

"...When are the Marshal and I going to lay an egg? Ah, well, we're working on it. There'll be good news!"

"The new novel, Shamir... I can't spoil that for you."

"The plushie? Yes! Isn't it adorable? Ahem, that's right, it's a Ulysses plushie. I'm letting it stand in for me on the livestream... Shh, don't tell him. He doesn't know yet."

Ulysses finished his meeting early and returned to the study.

Watching his male talk while kneading and playing with his plushie on the light screen, he couldn't help breathing faster, his face flushing.

He knew his male was simply nervous.

Whenever An Ruo got nervous, he couldn't help gripping the plushie tightly, his fingertips making little rubbing motions. He wasn't deliberately fondling Ulysses in front of the livestream audience.

But for Ulysses, it was still far too embarrassing to speak of.

Compared with the treatment of Female Zergs whose Male Lords liked to toy with them in public, what he was experiencing now was already much better.

He also liked it when his male held his plushie and played with it.

But his senses were connected to the plushie, and every sensation from his male's touch was transmitted directly to him.

Faced with a livestream whose popularity had broken records, watching the bullet comments scrolling past, and imagining all the pairs of eyes watching from behind them, he still couldn't remain entirely composed.

He was overwhelmed with shame.

It felt as though his male were publicly enjoying him on a livestream.

Although only he and An knew about any of this, and the viewers were completely unaware, he still felt as though he were being intimate with his Male Lord in full view of everyone.

The plushie's clothes in the livestream hadn't budged, and its appearance remained perfectly intact. Even the rubbing motions An Ruo's fingertips made when he was nervous were very restrained.

Ulysses let out a long breath.

Ignoring the pheromones covering his body, he raised his hand and tapped the light screen.

["Ulysses" tipped Mechanical Planet ×100.]

["Ulysses" tipped Beloved Nebula ×100.]

...

This was his Male Lord's livestream.

There was no need for him to hide his identity behind an anonymous account this time.

As Ulysses' name appeared again and again, setting off spectacular gift effects across the entire screen, An Ruo was startled.

He knew StarNet accounts used real-name verification. The only Zerg who would spend this much money sending him gifts was his own Ulysses.

An Ruo didn't even consider any other possibility.

He hurriedly said, "N-no, you don't need to! That's enough!"

Of course he was happy that Ulysses had come to watch him and send him gifts.

After all, it showed that Ulysses wanted to make him happy, too. It was Ulysses' thoughtfulness that made him happy.

Especially that "Beloved Nebula."

Just from the name, it was obviously something the platform had come up with to coax Female Zergs into spending money on Male Zergs.

Yet when An Ruo saw the name and the spectacular nebula effect blooming across the screen, he actually fell for it.

He nearly broke into a foolish grin.

Fortunately, the livestream camera wasn't filming his face.

But after smiling, An Ruo remembered that all these gifts cost money.

When Ulysses gave him money, it was essentially just moving it from his left hand to his right.

But the platform would definitely take a cut!

He immediately felt a pang of distress at the thought of all that money going down the drain.

An Ruo became even more determined to get the platform to refund the money to the original payment accounts.

The problem was that with Ulysses spending so extravagantly, An Ruo would probably have to pay quite a bit out of his own pocket to cover the losses.

Ah, the sweet troubles of love.

An Ruo gathered his thoughts and smiled.

He waved the little hand of the Ulysses plushie toward the camera, his voice growing a little gentler as he said jokingly:

"Thank you, Marshal, but you really don't need to do that. If you want to give me money, you can just transfer star coins directly to my personal account, or to our joint marital account~"

An Ruo had only said this as a playful way to stop Ulysses from continuing to shower him with gifts.

But immediately afterward, he received a notification that a transfer had arrived.

An Ruo instinctively glanced at the notification that popped up.

It was an astronomical sum, so enormous it made his eyes swim.

Huh?

Wait, what?!

You actually transferred it?!

And another thing, does being a Marshal really pay that well?

An Ruo thought of Ulysses leading the military out to conquer new territories.

He thought of the planets, and even entire star systems, being incorporated into Zerg territory, along with their endless resources.

Apparently... it really was that profitable?

During wartime, the Zerg military and its generals were rolling in wealth. They could even afford to support their armies entirely on their own.

An Ruo suddenly felt that the star coins he had handed over to Ulysses were hardly worth mentioning.

Feeling a little defeated, he gave the plushie's little butt a squeeze.