She opened the Doule app and tapped "Go live."
The Recording Crystal automatically adjusted its angle and floated into position a meter and a half directly in front of her, its lens facing her. The image was far sharper than a phone livestream—every blade of grass, every tiny particle of light drifting through the air, every layer of color in the distant treetops was rendered in exquisite detail.
The livestream went live.
The title—
"Live from the Otherworld: Chen Siyao shows you a different world"
She tapped send.
For the first second, the live chat was blank.
In the second second, a comment floated across.
"???"
In the third second, thirty thousand viewers poured in.
In the fourth second, 1.2 million.
In the fifth second—
The viewer count began soaring by more than a hundred thousand per second.
Chen Siyao smiled at the camera.
"Hey, everyone. Today's stream is... a little different from usual."
She turned sideways, letting the crystal's lens capture the blue meadow behind her and the otherworldly forest in the distance.
"Because I'm not on Earth right now."
The chat exploded.
Within thirty seconds, the viewer count passed ten million.
The comments were scrolling too fast to read individually—only fragments of reactions could be caught.
"What the hell???"
"Fake, this is definitely a green screen"
"Wait, something's wrong with the color of that grass"
"What species is that tree behind her? I'm a botany PhD student and I've never seen it"
"Clickbait, right? Not on Earth? Are you on the moon lol"
Chen Siyao was in no hurry to explain.
She reached down, pulled up a handful of blue grass, and held it before the camera.
The translucent blades refracted tiny flecks of light between her fingers. She pinched one blade between two fingers and gently bent