Chapter 401 - 360: That Gu Demiao Ning Guy Actually Posted a Video?
Chapter 401: Chapter 360: That Gu Demiao Ning Guy Actually Posted a Video?
The terminal had been ringing for several seconds before Deviant even reacted.
’Gu Demiao Ning actually posted a new video?!’
He set down his coffee, took off his glasses to rub his dry eyes, put them back on, and clicked the pop-up notification.
The last time he had communicated with Gu Demiao Ning and that fox was several days ago.
Besides being unable to contact them, he had also been too tied up with other matters to get away.
For other Beastmen, the start of winter meant resting or hibernating at home; at the very least, their workload would lighten up considerably. But for him, not only had his workload increased, he was also stuck dealing with a bunch of difficult characters.
Deviant stared at the screen, full of anticipation and apprehension. But unexpectedly, when the page tried to load Gu Demiao Ning’s personal profile, it froze.
’What’s going on?’
Deviant waited for a moment, but the page didn’t load. Instead, Gu Demiao Ning’s normally static profile page started flickering, as if it had bugged out.
Deviant had seen this kind of thing before. Either Claw’s servers were glitching, or too many people were trying to access the same profile or video at the same time.
Given Gu Demiao Ning’s popularity, it was obviously the latter.
Deviant forced himself to be patient, closed all running applications, and logged back into his account.
The page wasn’t frozen anymore, but now he was in a login queue.
Deviant looked closely at the number of people in the queue: 675,937.
Apparently, quite a few people had been kicked out by the lag and were trying to log back in, just like him.
Deviant ran his fingers through his slightly messy hair, tugged at his wrinkled shirt, and sat down at his office desk to wait patiently for his account to log in.
He stared at the queue number on the login page, which wasn’t decreasing very quickly. He pushed up his glasses, rested his hand on the desk, and began tapping his fingers rhythmically on the surface.
After about thirty seconds, the sound of his fingers tapping on the desk became urgent and erratic.
Another thirty seconds passed. Seeing the queue number growing even larger, Deviant stood up and made a call to the operations department at Claw.
"What is wrong with you people..."
"Too many people are watching the video. We’re fixing it. If you want to yell at someone, yell at the engineering department. Call us to complain again and we’ll ban your account."
Deviant had just started speaking when the customer service rep on the other end—without caring who was calling or what they were saying—shot back a rapid-fire response and hung up.
Clearly, he wasn’t the first Beastman to call them and complain.
Now, Deviant was even more curious about the new video Gu Demiao Ning had released.
’This guy... After keeping me hanging for so many days, he’d better deliver something satisfactory to make up for it.’
While he waited, Deviant drank two large cups of coffee. He even kept his eyes glued to the login screen while going to the bathroom. After nearly twenty minutes, he finally managed to log in successfully.
The page jerkily loaded Gu Demiao Ning’s profile, and just as jerkily, a pop-up for the latest video appeared:
[This Is Our Shared Winter]
Deviant held his belt with one hand, his breath catching slightly as he read the video title.
The video screen was black. If not for the progress bar showing it was playing, he would have thought it had frozen again.
A soft CRUNCHING and CREAKING sound emerged, like boots stepping on snow.
"The winters here... are colder than I imagined."
Deviant froze when he heard the voice.
The faucet at the sink was still GUSHING. He thought he must have misheard, but a second later, that soft voice spoke again:
"How are you all?"
The voice was slow and gentle, like a languid, warm spring breeze caressing Deviant’s ears.
It was as if an electric current shot up his spine to the top of his head, making his scalp tingle.
Before he could snap out of it, the video slowly brightened.
The video showed a simply furnished room. The camera was centered on a window, outside of which heavy snow was falling.
Deviant was no stranger to this room. After repeatedly watching and analyzing Gu Demiao Ning’s previous videos, he knew this was the room used for filming Yuanbao.
This also confirmed for him that Gu Demiao Ning was a Beastman living in the Lower District.
But compared to the carefully arranged and concealed sets of the other videos, the scene this time looked like a normal, lived-in space. A corner of a sofa in the frame had some clothes tossed on it, some items were messily placed under the window, and even the lighting was naturally dim.
Although it was an empty shot, the familiar scene filled Deviant with a sense of warm anticipation.
It was like waiting for someone familiar to come home.
After four or five seconds of the empty shot, a figure familiar to him and all the long-waiting viewers entered the frame.
Deviant immediately shut off the faucet.
Yuanbao, her back to the camera, was wearing a set of fluffy loungewear. She walked to the window, and just as she raised her hand to touch the glass, the scene cut—
A small, thin hand reached out, as if to catch the snowflakes dancing in the air, or perhaps to feel the sudden gust of wind and snow. This was Yuanbao’s hand, but it wasn’t fair and plump as Deviant had imagined. Instead, it was slender and slightly rough. The palm had faint, yellowish calluses, and there were several fine lines on her fingertips and the back of her hand that looked like scars.
Following the hand, the background came into focus: coarse, gray-white buildings, a high wall in the distance, and several smoking chimneys. Deviant recognized the place almost instantly.
’This isn’t surprising. I had long suspected Gu Demiao Ning was from Zone 19...’
"Time to go. Goodbye."
The hand grabbed the camera and turned it around. Yuanbao’s smiling eyes met the lens. She lowered her voice and waved.
Deviant felt as if something had struck him in the chest, and his breath caught once more.
Yuanbao was dressed warmly in the video, wearing a fluffy black fleece hat and a gray scarf that hid the lower half of her face. As she held the camera and said her goodbyes, it was as if a real female was bidding farewell to the person watching.
Deviant thought the video was over, but Yuanbao swung the camera around, and the scene changed to her sitting in a vehicle.
It was still from the perspective of Yuanbao holding the camera. She pointed outside the vehicle, then spread her hands helplessly. Her voice was low and tinged with exhaustion. "How much longer?"
Outside the vehicle was a snow-white wasteland, interspersed with large swaths of ruins that occasionally flashed by.
Neither Zone 19 nor the scenes appearing now were places a female should be.
For the Beastmen watching, this sight, based on the concepts and instincts they’d been raised with, suppressed the notion that Yuanbao was a real female.
Instead, they all marveled internally at how that damn Gu Demiao Ning’s skills had improved yet again.
Just then, a long, sturdy hand reached into the frame and offered Yuanbao a bottle of water.
The Beastmen watching the video stared wide-eyed.
’Holy crap, a male is in the shot!’
To their relief, the male only showed a hand.
Yuanbao took the water, and the scene cut again.
"We’re here."
Yuanbao had changed out of her thick clothes and was back in her cute, fluffy pajamas. As if she had just gotten out of the shower, she sat on the floor of a dimly lit room, drying her long, wet hair.
She deliberately used a towel to cover half her face and made a shushing gesture at the camera. "It’s... still not safe here."
The Beastmen watching all held their breath, as if making a sound would bring danger to her.
As soon as Yuanbao finished speaking, the sound of a knock on the door came from the video’s background. Yuanbao leaned toward the camera and whispered with a hint of a smile, "See you at the next stop."
Her hand covered the lens. A moment later, the screen lit up again. The background was no longer a wasteland of ruins or a small, dim room, but a clean street. The blurred buildings in the background vaguely resembled the style of the Upper Middle District.
The camera followed Yuanbao as she walked ahead. She wore a wool coat, a fuzzy hat with round ears, and the same gray scarf around her neck. She trudged forward through the thick snow, head down, her breath continuously forming white puffs in the air.
Seemingly tired from walking, Yuanbao stopped.
The camera zoomed in from a distance. Standing under a streetlight, Yuanbao turned around, her completely uncovered face breaking into a smile for the camera.
Deviant’s finger trembled as he paused the video, freezing the frame on her face.