Seeing the black giant leopard's smug look, Xie Sen rubbed its neck and praised, "Smart."
He looked at the other contracted beasts and reminded them, "When I'm out, the giant leopard will turn on and off the live stream. You can broadcast whatever you want. I'll have Sun Mao look after you. You can contact him if you need anything. I'll watch the live stream when I have time."
The contracted beasts nuzzled him gently, "Don't worry, Xie Sen, we'll be fine."
Xie Sen glanced at the live stream chat and smiled, "I'm leaving tomorrow morning. You can start your own live streams in a bit."
The black giant leopard raised its paw to press the start button, but Xie Sen said, "Wait a minute." He stepped out of the camera's view and said, "Okay."
The giant leopard pressed the start button accurately, and the viewers in the live stream found that the live stream had reconnected. However, the contracted beasts were all gathered by the wall, so they couldn't see their heads, only most of their backs.
For the live stream, Xie Sen had two cameras installed: one on the wall directly in front, a frontal view, and another in the upper center, a full-view view.
Currently, only the front camera is on, so the positions near the wall are outside the camera's view. The quantum computer is mounted on the wall, and the giant leopard beast has to walk to the wall to press the button. The other contracted beasts, curious, gather around the wall.
"Is the streamer hiding in the corner again?"
"Streamer, come out quickly! Don't lead the contracted beasts astray! I want to see them all!"
Xie Sen, watching the screen without speaking, pointed towards the center, reminding the contracted beasts to move to the center facing the camera.
The contracted beasts were clever; following his prompting, they all moved to the center. They huddled together for a brief discussion before playing with their own toys.
Xie Sen kept watching the live chat, which was no different from usual, with everyone praising the contracted beasts, occasionally exclaiming in amazement at their actions, and discussing animatedly. After
watching for an hour and confirming everything was fine, Xie Sen waved to the contracted beasts and left Zones 4 and 5.
Near the end of the afternoon, he asked Sun Mao for leave, also asking him to look after the contracted beasts, not to interfere much, but just to pay extra attention if anything seemed amiss.
Sun Mao readily agreed, though he was curious about what Xie Sen was going to do, but didn't ask further.
Mei picked Xie Sen up from work, and Xie Sen kept watching the live stream on his way back to his apartment. The contracted beasts, tired from playing, were huddled together chatting and frolicking, a perfectly normal scene. Even though the contracted beasts weren't doing anything, there were still many viewers, praising each beast from head to toe repeatedly.
"Ahhh! When the giant lion beast raised its neck, its golden mane fluttered, it was so cool!"
"Did the giant tiger beast just yawn? Look at that big mouth, even if it just opened it casually, it could scare someone to tears!"
"The way Little Spot rubbed against the black giant leopard beast was so cute, I want to rub against it too!"
The system announced: "'I love contracted beasts' gifted the streamer a watermelon rain—the contracted beasts are so lovable, streamer, can you sell me one?"
The following words were special effects, broadcast along with the gift announcement.
Xie Sen typed in his reply: "Can't sell. They don't belong to me. They have their own thoughts and are not for sale." After writing it, he clicked send.
When he looked at the comments again, he was startled. The number of comments had suddenly surged, filling the entire screen.
"Did they just shake their heads?"
"Oh my god, is the streamer standing in the corner giving instructions? That head-shaking motion is so synchronized!"
"So smart, the way their big heads are shaking is so cute."
"Huh, the comment color was different just now. Was it the streamer replying? Is the streamer feeling unwell? They haven't said anything."
"Yeah, no wonder they had their contracted beasts answer for them!"
Xie Sen looked at the contracted beasts still huddled together discussing something, showing no signs of anything amiss. He hadn't known what was going on until he saw the comments.
They didn't know he was watching the live stream. Hearing the announcement, they shook their heads to indicate that they couldn't.
Xie Sen couldn't help but admire their intelligence. This made him feel more at ease. They could understand human speech, and if anything happened, they could figure out a way to handle it.
He remained online the whole time. Around 8 PM, the giant leopard beast walked to the corner of the wall, and the chat was filled with curiosity: "Huh, is the streamer still here so late?"
Contracted beasts rarely went to corners; when they did, it was usually to find Xie Sen. Therefore, when the giant leopard beast walked to the corner, the viewers assumed Xie Sen was there.
A moment later, the giant leopard beast let out a soft roar, and then the live stream disappeared, ending abruptly.
"Huh? Is it disconnected or has the stream ended?"
Ten minutes later, the viewers realized that the stream had truly ended.
Seeing that the giant leopard beast remembered to turn off the live stream, Xie Sen felt relieved, turned off his bracelet, and looked back at Maine, who was holding him: "They're very smart. When I go to A Mining Star, I won't have to stop the broadcast." Maine
kissed his cheek lightly: "Yes, there's signal in most places there, so you can see what's happening in the live stream. Don't worry."
Early the next morning, the two went to the spaceport as agreed. When they saw Huo Feng, Xie Sen was surprised: "You're going too?"
Huo Feng nodded: "I wasn't planning to go. We just formed a contract, so I'm taking Xueyue out to see the world. A Mining Star has many mountains, and the undeveloped ones are covered in lush vegetation. The environment is quite nice."
Xie Sen asked: "Xueyue? Is that the name of the giant wolf beast?"
"Yes," Huo Feng looked at Tuantuan, who had landed on his shoulder, and a look of surprise flashed in his eyes. "Is that a white-headed eagle beast?"
Tuantuan flapped its wings and chirped at him. Xie Sen said: "Yes, its name is Tuantuan, a white-headed eagle beast chick. It's coming with us."
The three boarded the spaceship. The spaceship was private and not very big. In addition to the three of them, there were two employees from Huo Feng's company and eight mercenaries accompanying them.
Huo Feng led them to the door of a lounge: "The journey will take about eight hours. You can rest in the lounge. This is your lounge. You can contact me anytime if you need anything. You can have lunch at the restaurant, or have it delivered to your room."
"Thank you, thank you for your trouble."
Huo Feng said, "It's nothing."
At four o'clock in the afternoon, the spaceship landed on Mining Planet A. After disembarking, Xie Sen and his group were released after undergoing identity checks.
"Mr. Huo." A man in a suit greeted him; he was the resource manager of Radiant Mechs. "Why did you come in person?"
Huo Feng said as he walked out, "Don't worry about me. You decide on the resource procurement yourself. What are the results of the investigation into the gold crystal mine?"
The resource manager followed him, shaking his head with a sigh. "Sokto denied hoarding gold crystal mines. The military investigation yielded no results. The missing gold crystal mines have completely disappeared. This time, the procurement quantity is very likely insufficient."
Huo Feng said, "Then let's talk to the military about compensation for breach of contract!"
The manager said, "Yes, we're preparing. I've already arranged accommodation for you. Please come with me."
The accommodation arranged by Huo Feng's company was a three-story building, quite large, with a rough architectural style, but fully equipped.
Xie Sen and Maine stayed in the room on the west side of the second floor, while Huo Feng stayed in the room on the east side.
After resting in their rooms, they went downstairs at six o'clock for dinner together.
After finishing their meal, Xie Sen asked, "Do you have a map of Planet A?"
"Yes, I'll send it to you," Huo Feng said, handing the map to Xie Sen. "Currently, only a small portion of Planet A's southwest has been mined. The rest remains undeveloped, preserving its pristine environment. The areas near the mining zone are alright, but going deeper would be very dangerous."
Xie Sen opened the map, zoomed out the virtual screen, and turned to Maine. Maine put his arm around Xie Sen's shoulder, and they looked at the map together.
The lower left southwest corner of the map was the White Plains region, marked "Under Mining." The rest of the map consisted of large green plains, uninhabited areas.
The upper left corner showed the map scale and the specific areas of the two regions. The White Plains region didn't look large on the map, but its actual area was quite significant, equivalent to a modern province.
They were located in the middle of the White Plains region, in a residential area.
Xie Sen called out to Adan in his mind. Adan's voice was cheerful: "Asen, you're amazing! You got to Planet A so quickly! I can sense the aura of earth energy, but it's a bit far from here."
Xie Sen asked, "Can you sense the exact range?"
Adan: "Yes, just a moment."
Xie Sen noticed that the peony on his right shoulder was gradually getting warm. He knew that Adan was sensing the location of the earth energy, so he remained calm. Maine
had his arm around Xie Sen's shoulder. Since Xie Sen was only wearing a T-shirt, Maine immediately felt the heat on his shoulder. He frowned, placed his hand on Xie Sen's shoulder, and considering that others were present, did not pull down his shirt directly. He looked at Xie Sen with concern: "Asen?"
Xie Sen smiled at him: "It's nothing."
Huo Feng looked at them in confusion: "What's wrong?"
Maine stood up: "Let's go back to the room first." He grabbed Xie Sen's hand, "Let's go back to the room."
Xie Sen knew that Maine was worried, so he got up with Maine's help. He had just left the stool when he was suddenly picked up by Maine. He was startled and instinctively gasped.
There were quite a few people eating together, and suddenly everyone's eyes fell on them. Xie Sen's face instantly turned red with embarrassment. He patted Maine's shoulder, "Put me down." "
No." Maine refused decisively, her brows furrowed. She nodded to Huo Feng, then picked him up and strode away.
"This?" The resource department manager asked, puzzled.
Huo Feng said, "Don't worry about it, and don't be curious. Prepare some allergy medicine or medicine for water and soil acclimatization. Maybe he's just feeling unwell."
Maine carefully placed Xie Sen on the bed, then pulled down Xie Sen's shirt on his right shoulder. Peony looked no different than usual, and her temperature had returned to normal.
Xie Sen raised his hand and rubbed Main's brow: "Don't worry, it was just at the location of the energy it was sensing, it's fine."
Main's expression softened slightly, and he hugged him tightly: "If you feel unwell, you must tell me."
Xie Sen bit his chin: "Hmm, you're too nervous. Even if it's a fever, it's not a big deal."
Main lowered his head and kissed his lips, his eyes deep: "You said you'd stay with me for life, and you wouldn't allow anything to happen to you!"
Xie Sen exchanged a long kiss with him, then reached out and pushed his shoulder away: "Let's check the exact location of the energy first." Main pulled him up, put his arm around him against the headboard, and held him completely in his arms.
Xie Sen leaned against Maine and asked in his mind, "Adan, how are you?"
Adan replied, "About 220 kilometers northeast, Xie Sen. Find me when we get there!"
Xie Sen heard its weak voice and replied in his mind, "Okay, you get some rest."
He marked the location Adan indicated on the map and turned to Maine, saying, "It's probably around here."
Maine raised his hand to zoom in on the map: "It's all mountains here, walking will be difficult. We'll need to borrow a flying vehicle."
Xie Sen patted his arm, signaling him to let go: "I'll go find Huo Feng for help. He should be able to borrow one. It's too late today, so let's discuss it now and set off first thing tomorrow morning."
"I'll go," Maine pressed his shoulder, "You rest first."
Maine released Xie Sen, got out of bed, and left the bedroom.
Xie Sen went straight to the bathroom to wash up. Although he had stayed in the rest room the whole way, the spatial jump and the long spatial journey were exhausting, and he felt somewhat tired.
He dried his hair and stepped out of the bathroom to see Tuantuan fly in. He waved to Tuantuan, "Found something to eat?"
"Chirp!" Tuantuan nodded its little head, flapped its wings, and twirled around, looking very happy.
Xie Sen felt relieved. "We're going to the mountains tomorrow morning. You stay here and wait for us."
Tuantuan shook its head, raised its wing, pointed at Xie Sen, and then at itself. Xie Sen asked, "Do you want to come with us?"
Tuantuan nodded. Xie Sen said, "Then you can't run around, or you might encounter danger." Tuantuan nodded obediently again, landed lightly on the windowsill, and preened its feathers to groom itself.
Xie Sen leaned back on the bed and opened the live stream of his contracted beasts. As soon as he entered, he heard the system gift announcement: "'Cute' sent the streamer a watermelon rain! Ahhh, can I see the Giant Tiger Beast raise its paw?"
Xie Sen raised an eyebrow, marveling at the charm of his contracted beasts.
The Giant Tiger Beast raised its paw and shook it at the camera, like a giant lucky cat, super cute. Xie Sen couldn't help but think, "So cute."
"Ahhh, so cute!"
"Super adorable!"
"So smart!"
"'Little Spotted Little Fanboy' is sending the streamer a watermelon rain, wanting to see Spotted Beast act cute towards its brother!"
"'Water Water Water' is sending the streamer a watermelon rain, wanting to see Giant Elephant Beast spray water, forming an arch!"
Xie Sen listened to the continuous watermelon rain announcements, watching the contracted beasts in the live stream react to the announcements one by one, and suddenly rubbed his forehead.
Something seemed wrong!
He opened the streamer's backend interface, looked at the account balance, and realized that his income for the day had exceeded 100 million!
My God!
Xie Sen was completely stunned. He counted the zeros at the end of the account to make sure he hadn't miscounted, and quickly switched to the fan section, scrolling down from top to bottom. The number of people with the Advanced Guardian title had exceeded 10,000.
Maine later set up the live stream titles and avatars. The titles were all Guardian, divided into five levels: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Super, and Sincere, corresponding to the number of Star Coins spent on gifts: 100, 1000, 10,000, 100,000, and 1 million respectively.
This meant that over ten thousand people had spent more than ten thousand on gifts!
His ears were filled with continuous announcements of watermelon showers, and the number of high-level guardian slots was rapidly increasing.
Could he have been reported for scamming people?! As an ordinary person, suddenly having so much money didn't bring him joy; he was only shocked.
He took a deep breath, reminding himself to calm down. He first checked his follower count: over four million, then the livestream's viewership: over forty million. Good, that's correct.
Then he thought, among those four million, over ten thousand are wealthy—the probability isn't exaggerated, so the gift count is normal!
He composed himself and switched to the livestream interface.
"Wow, there are so many new extraterrestrial IDs today, from Sun City and Moon City! It seems the contracted beasts have become incredibly popular throughout Brant Star!"
"It would be illogical if this didn't become a hit!"
"'Sanmu' is amazing! It only has one streamer, yet it's become one of the top ten live streaming platforms in Xingcheng. That's incredible!"
"Am I the only one curious about how the streamer trains them? These contracted beasts are so smart! I'm starting to suspect I've been underestimating them."
"Yeah, they understand everything we say and execute all commands perfectly. My son isn't even that smart."
"And their combat power is strong! I really want one!"
"By the way, the streamer hasn't spoken since yesterday. I'm curious if he's still here?"
"Hey? Is the streamer here?"
"I suddenly have a bold idea. Could it be that the streamer hasn't been here these past two days, and they've been streaming on their own?"
"I'm so envious today. The streamer's boyfriend is so lucky. If they get married, it's like marrying a treasure trove!"
Xie Sen couldn't help but chuckle. Mei Yin walked in from outside and saw him like this. She sat down next to him and asked, "What's making you so happy?" When she
saw the comments, Mei Yin frowned: "I'm not doing this for your money."
"Of course I know," Xie Sen leaned on his shoulder. "When you were with me, I was dirt poor. If you hadn't lent me money for betting and then taken me in, I would have been homeless."
He told Maine about the day's earnings from the live stream: "I was shocked when I saw it."
Maine looked at the live stream: "They're so special. It's normal for so many people to send gifts."
Xie Sen nodded and asked, "What did President Huo say?"
"We're leaving at seven tomorrow morning. The driver will take us there. He wanted to come along, but I refused. I discussed it with the driver. The mountains here are uneven, and it's difficult to land normally. Can you and I descend using vines?"
Xie Sen said, "No problem. Go wash up first. We have things to do tomorrow, so let's rest early tonight."
Maine went to wash up, and Xie Sen continued watching the live stream. After Maine finished washing up, he pulled him into his arms and watched with him, chatting quietly as they watched.
Around eight o'clock, the black giant leopard beast walked to the edge of the wall, let out a soft roar, and then turned off the live stream.
"Huh? Why did it suddenly turn off the stream again?" "
It was the same yesterday. What did that giant leopard beast's soft roar mean?"
"I think that viewer's bold idea might be true! Was the giant leopard beast's roar a notification that we were going to shut down the broadcast?"
"If that's true, the streamer is so lucky! I also want a contracted beast like that so I can make money through my own streams."
"Wake up. How many people do you think can be like the streamer, having high-level contracted beasts like him and listen to him? Besides, even if you find other contracted beasts, they won't be as smart as them. You might as well forget about streaming yourself."
Xie Sen turned off his bracelet when the broadcast ended. He grabbed Maine's hand that was messing around his waist, slightly out of breath, and turned to look at Maine, who was nibbling on his shoulder: "Stop messing around, we're going to the mountains tomorrow!"
"It's okay," Maine's voice was hoarse, "It's still early." He kissed his way up Xie Sen's shoulder, gently nibbling at Xie Sen's cool earlobe—he had long known this was Xie Sen's sensitive spot.
Xie Sen's body went limp, his neck arching back as if he couldn't take it anymore, his hands cupping Maine's head, panting softly.
Maine picked him up and turned him around, so they sat facing each other. The next moment, he kissed Xie Sen's lips deeply.
The next morning, when Xie Sen woke up, looking at the marks on his body, he couldn't help but kick Maine's foot, complaining, "Are you a dog?"
Maine grabbed his foot, rolled over, and pinned him to the bed. Xie Sen pushed his shoulder, exasperated, "You have too much energy! Get up, it's past six, or we won't have time for breakfast." Maine
didn't care about having breakfast, but considering Xie Sen's poor health, she had to restrain her desires. Her fingers lingered on Xie Sen's face for a moment before she lowered her head
and kissed him. When the two arrived at the restaurant, Huo Feng was already there. Huo Feng's gaze lingered on Xie Sen's neck for a moment before quickly looking away, and he nodded in greeting.
Xie Sen's face was slightly red. He had noticed it while washing up; there was a mark on his neck that his collar couldn't cover. Wearing a scarf in this season would be really stupid, so he could only pretend he had been bitten by a mosquito.
The giant wolf beast was lying next to Huo Feng, taking up a lot of space. When it saw Xie Sen, it got up and rubbed against him. Xie Sen rubbed its neck and sat down, asking, "Are you taking Xue Yue out?"
Huo Feng nodded, "Just to the nearest unexploited mountain, not too deep." He paused, "Be careful. If you encounter any danger, contact me immediately."
Xie Sen: "Okay, thank you." After breakfast ,
the three parted ways.
The aircraft pilot was a lean, dark-skinned man, taciturn. After asking about the destination, he remained silent, and once he confirmed that Xie Sen and Maine were seated, he started the aircraft.
The aircraft moved quickly, traveling at ten kilometers per minute. Twenty minutes later, they arrived at their destination. The pilot asked, "Shall we land here?"
Xie Sen asked Adan, whose voice was excited: "Right here, below!"
Xie Sen told the pilot, "Yes, descend slowly to the lowest point you can land at, then stop."
The pilot nodded.
Xie Sen used the system to exchange for twenty meters of vines. Maine moved to the hatch, reached out and grabbed his hand. He slowly moved over, and Maine hugged him. He summoned watermelon vines to bind them together.
The pilot said, "We've arrived."
Xie Sen: "Open the hatch."
The hatch opened, and Maine leaned down and kissed Xie Sen on the cheek, his voice steady: "Don't be afraid."
"I'm not afraid." "As Xie Sen spoke, he mentally commanded the watermelon vines to pull them out of the aircraft, then lower them slowly, gradually increasing the speed once they had adapted.
He kept his head down, watching the situation below and directing the watermelon vines' movement to avoid hitting rocks or trees.
Soon, the two landed simultaneously. The peony on Xie Sen's right shoulder began to burn. He summoned back the watermelon vines, and Maine put her arm around him: "Are you alright?"
Xie Sen shook his head: "I'm fine, just around here."
It was a rocky mountain with only a few tall trees growing on it. The rocks were various colors, including gray, white, and yellow. They were standing on higher ground, slightly sloping.
Adan said: "Down there!" Xie Sen
looked around, tugged at Maine's hand to indicate the direction below, and the two began to descend. The path was calm and uneventful; they encountered no living creatures, not even birds.
The closer they got to the foot of the mountain, the more vegetation there was. The peony on Xie Sen's shoulder felt even hotter. He walked and looked around, noticing many golden plants, but no carriers of earth energy.
After walking for another ten minutes or so, they reached the foot of the mountain. On the other side was a densely vegetated mountain, not very high, but lush and verdant, its interior obscured, giving it a mysterious appearance.
"Huh..." came Adan's puzzled voice, "It's even further away now."
Xie Sen turned around, surveying the area around the mountain they had just passed. Nothing he saw carried earth energy. Looking at the mountain, he couldn't help but say, "Could it be inside the mountain, or underground?"
Adan said, "Impossible. When energy dissipates, it's always on the surface, unless this mountain suddenly appeared, or... something carried the earth energy inside."
Xie Sen pondered. The mountain was solid and couldn't have suddenly appeared. If something had brought it in, there must be an entrance.
"Around here," Xie Sen pointed to the mountain and said to Maine, "not on the surface, probably inside the mountain or in the ground below. The energy wouldn't directly enter the interior. Let's look for an entrance."
"Okay." Maine had just responded when a rustling sound suddenly came from the densely vegetated mountainside behind them.
The two turned to look and saw the low-lying vegetation in the middle of the mountainside collapse like dominoes, with a wide and long black shadow pressing down on it, moving rapidly towards the foot of the mountain.
Xie Sen's scalp tingled, and a chill ran down his back.
Maine pulled him back, her voice tense: "A giant python."