On Zhang Qin's screen, a tall, long-legged man approached the white-haired young man in white as silently as a feline.
With both hands in his pockets, he leaned toward the young man's luminous, almost translucent ear and asked in a soft, resonant voice, "What are you doing?"
The young man abruptly vanished, then reappeared two steps away. The image froze just as he looked toward the camera.
Countless scrolling comments swept past like snowflakes throughout the clip, most of them variations on "AAAAAA!"
Li Qing's exceptional eyesight caught a few that were slightly different:
[Oh my god! Since when did the infinite instance world have someone like this?]
[Opened Lord Gong Yao's stream out of habit and got an unexpected treat!]
[You have three seconds to tell me everything about this beauty!]
[Wait, did anyone notice how he suddenly disappeared? Was that an item? Or an ability?]
[Whether it was an item or an ability, you could count the people who can escape Gong Yao on one hand... Has some powerful new player joined the instances lately?]
[Hey, why did the feed cut out?]
Zhang Qin clicked his tongue twice and dragged the progress bar back. "A five-second video, and it shot to first place on today's trending instance videos within a minute of the stream ending. Team Leader Li, you might be the most famous administrator in the entire maintenance system now."
Li Qing's brows slowly drew together. "I cut the live feed immediately. Was it a bug, or did someone deliberately leak it?"
Zhang Qin said, "...If I may ask, Team Leader Li, do you have any recreational activities? Don't you watch instance streams after work?"
Li Qing looked at him in confusion.
He already had to deal with instances every day at work. Why would he watch instance streams after work, too?
Zhang Qin sighed. "That was Gong Yao! Gong Yao! Number one on our infinite instance system's popularity rankings!"
At this point, the infinite instances' popularity rankings and livestreaming system required some explanation.
No one knew which world's maintenance system had first developed the "livestreaming" system, but it had received an enthusiastic response the moment it launched.
Watching these instance streams became a regular pastime for large numbers of upper-world residents. Even the players within the instances, abducted from various lower worlds, gradually became avid viewers.
Advertisements, donations, and livestreams brought enormous profits to both the instance worlds and the players themselves, giving rise to the "popularity rankings" and "trending video rankings."
Those at the top of the popularity rankings were bona fide "superstars." Even upper-world residents who looked down on the lower worlds were generous in expressing their affection for popular players.
As number one in the popularity rankings, Gong Yao attracted tens of thousands of viewers who flooded his stream the moment it opened.
Never mind Li Qing's five-second video.
Even if he had appeared for a single frame, someone would have taken a screenshot and posted it on the system network.
Li Qing had never expected to encounter someone this troublesome.
Zhang Qin chuckled. "Good thing you ran into Gong Yao and not someone else on the popularity rankings. They'd have skinned you and ripped out your bones in seconds.
"He's different from the other venomous survivors bred in that 'arena.' Our observations show that he protects his own kind in ways that completely defy human nature. A truly good man."
"His own kind..."
Li Qing lowered his eyes and looked at the fingertips of his left hand.
"But I'm not his kind. I'm an instance administrator belonging to a higher-dimensional world. Seventy percent of my work results in more deaths among his kind."
"Haha, true. In the players' eyes, we're the culprits responsible for their predicament."
Zhang Qin turned toward Li Qing, a meaningful look entering his eyes.
"So, Team Leader Li, being exposed to the public isn't a good thing. You'd better be careful."
After a day's rest, Li Qing retrieved his administrator backend from the technical department, where he had sent it for repairs yet again. Zhang Qin thumped his chest and repeatedly guaranteed, staking the entire department's performance record on it, that nothing would go wrong this time.
Deeply skeptical, Li Qing took the backend chip to the instance maintenance center, read the mission details, and began teleporting.
[Mission description] Instance name: C9999-Fortune Star Matchmaking Level: C Actual survival rate: 13.99% (expected value: 60%) Instance description: Fortune Star Village is a small village nestled deep in the mountains. Ancient customs are still preserved here, one of which is "Fortune Star Matchmaking." Every three years, the village's marriageable men and women stay at the Fortune Lady Temple. Under the Fortune Lady's arrangements, the men choose their most suitable marriage partners. Every few years, an especially fortunate man catches the Fortune Lady's eye. The Fortune Lady then becomes his bride and visits his home, bestowing blessings upon his entire family. Issue description: This instance has an abnormal mortality rate, classified as a grade A fault. Administrator, please eliminate the anomaly and repair the loophole.
In three seconds, Li Qing read the instance description twice, finding something odd about it.
The description was written entirely from the men's perspective, while the women seemed more like merchandise waiting to be selected.
Being chosen by the Fortune Lady seemed like a tremendous blessing, but where did the bride she replaced go?
As he pondered this, the scene before him gradually blurred.
The next moment, his surroundings changed, and Li Qing was inside the instance.
Something hard pressed beneath his knees. He was probably kneeling.
Li Qing blinked, and an image gradually came into focus before him-
A filthy mirror reflected his own face, but his clothes had turned into a red wedding outfit.
A ding sounded in his ears.
[Player entry detected. Issuing mission... Mission issued successfully.]
Li Qing: "?"
He immediately brought up his backend and discovered a red error message at the bottom. In essence, a timing discrepancy had caused his identity to be misidentified.
The instance in progress had classified him as a player!
The most unreliable thing in the world really was the technical team's claim that something was "fixed."
...Although administrators often had to obey certain instance rules to preserve the instance's ecological balance, Li Qing still made a mental note to hold this against the technical team.
Next, he opened the system instructions sent to him by the Fortune Star Matchmaking instance:
[The people of Fortune Star Village have gradually moved away, leaving fewer young people for each matchmaking ceremony. What are we to do? If we cannot gather six pairs of men and women, the Fortune Lady will be furious!] [But the village chief says they can buy some wives from outside!] [-You are a bride who has been sold to Fortune Star Village. In three days, everyone will be married with the Fortune Lady as witness.] [During these three days, be sure to remember the following:] [Do not stay alone in your room at night;] [Your "husband" is not the only one who knocks at night. Please open the door for the correct person;] [If you wish to leave Fortune Star Village, make sure your partner is not a local.]
"..."
Li Qing lowered his eyes in thought.
Simply put, he had to stay with a so-called "husband" at night, and on the third day, he needed to make sure this "husband" wasn't a local?
Players assigned the role of bride didn't seem to have much control.
What about the husbands?
Li Qing instinctively began to reason it out, then suddenly remembered that although he was now considered a player, he still had access to his administrator backend.
He was just about to bring up more information about the instance when three soft knocks came from the door.
Did he need to determine who was knocking?
Li Qing didn't think so.
If it was the Fortune Lady, all the better-she was exactly who he was looking for.
Naturally, the quickest way to learn about an instance was to ask the ghosts and monsters inside it.
So Li Qing stood and pulled the door straight open.
Then he froze.
Outside stood a man in black workwear, his eyes lowered as though he were trying to formulate what to say.
He seemed utterly unprepared for the person inside to open the door outright and raised his eyes in surprise.
Then astonishment flashed across his handsome face before settling into an expression of delighted surprise.
His soft, resonant voice flowed slowly into Li Qing's ears-
"Hi. We meet again, Li Qing."
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