CHAPTER 71: CHAPTER 71: VIDEO UPDATE

EDITOR: DRAGON BOAT TRANSLATION

"So, Miss, remember not to casually disclose what you’ve seen, to avoid causing public panic."

Stepping out from the Luolong Public Security Bureau of Luoyang City, Ren Qingqing looked at the sun outside and felt as if she had crossed into another world.

"That really scared me to death." Her roommate complained as she emerged from the police station, "Qingqing, don’t walk so fast."

"Shall we head straight back to the dormitory now?"

"How about we grab a meal to calm our nerves?" Ren Qingqing suggested, looking at the high sun. "We rarely get to go out, and I heard there’s a Flourishing Sakura Cuisine nearby offering a forty percent discount... Let me check my social feed..."

It took Ren Qingqing and her roommate half an hour to find the restaurant. Just after sitting down, her roommate couldn’t suppress her excitement. She looked around and whispered, "Qingqing, do you think there could be monsters like the one we saw earlier here?"

"Would a monster come all the way here just for sushi? Stop overthinking it." Ren Qingqing glanced at her and started looking at the menu. "The usual: seaweed, octopus, and conch, right?"

However, her roommate didn’t let it go and continued, "Qingqing, do you think we could be as badass as those people in Black Body Armor we saw earlier?"

"Rich people rely on technology, poor folks rely on mutations. Have you mutated?" Ren Qingqing clicked her tongue in a rather unladylike manner and passed the menu over. "I’ve ordered. Your turn."

"Not necessarily," her roommate said. "Those few in Black Body Armor just now didn’t seem like rich people. They looked more like ordinary soldiers or police officers."

This morning, Ren Qingqing and her roommate had planned to go hiking. They hadn’t gone far from the school when, taking a shortcut to the subway station, they witnessed a bizarre scene—

A decaying monster, its belly completely split open with intestines swinging about, was being chased by several individuals in Black Body Armor!

They were instantly too scared to move. The people in Black Body Armor weren’t using guns; they subdued the monster with batons and their bare hands. The monster tried to Counterattack, but when its claws scraped against the Black Body Armor, it was as if a membrane on their bodies deflected the Attack!

After the individuals in Black Body Armor dealt with the monster, the two of them were ’invited’ to the Public Security Bureau. The officers explained the situation and had them wait for a while. Ren Qingqing suspected they were calling the school to check her information.

After some back and forth, it wasn’t until noon that they were released. They didn’t even have to sign any confidentiality agreement. However, they were searched from head to toe by female officers and even had to factory reset their phones in front of the police.

This wasn’t a big deal for Ren Qingqing, but her roommate, who used an Apple phone, even had to clear out her iCloud...

Although they suffered some minor losses, on the whole, it was a close shave. So, when they went out to eat, their relief outweighed their alarm.

Observing the people around them, Ren Qingqing and her roommate even felt a subtle sense of superiority. A bunch of ignorant mortals! We’re the ones who know this world truly has Extraordinary Strength and Demons and Ghosts!

Just as DOTA players look down on LOL, and CS players look down on CF, Ren Qingqing and her roommate now felt like they were playing ’Transcendent Earth.’ Naturally, they looked down on ordinary people still immersed in ’Scientific Earth.’

"Maybe, but we’re just ordinary people, destined to be bystanders and gossip," Ren Qingqing said. "Perhaps Sects will emerge in the future. That would be our chance to keep up with the ’version updates.’ Then we wouldn’t need phones; we could directly use Magic for beauty filters, voice changers, and Healing nearsightedness..."

"’Version updates’... You’ve played too much Sword Spirit," her roommate said, looking incredulous. "I doubt Sects will appear. If there was a way to teach Immortal Law or Magic, it would definitely be controlled by the government. Yes, the government would surely be the biggest Sect, or rather, the biggest Sect *is* the government."

"Whatever the case, it’s none of our business," Ren Qingqing shrugged. "Maybe you can go home and see if there’s an ancestral Martial Arts Secret Manual. Don’t so many protagonists find a chessboard, Jade Pendant, secret manual, or Ring in their homes and start their epic comeback story?"

"My family has been poor peasants for eighteen generations," her roommate said, rolling her eyes.

"Poverty doesn’t last more than three generations," Ren Qingqing said. "Theoretically, if your ancestors were truly poor, the line would have died out by the third generation. So, your ancestors must have had their moments of glory. Keep at it, girl!"

"Anyway, I’m just an ordinary girl struggling to make ends meet right now," her roommate said. "Aren’t you from the great Tai An clan? If anything, you seem more like the protagonist."

"What great clan? It’s just that people with the same surname all live in the same village," Ren Qingqing said. "You wouldn’t believe it, but when I first went to the town school in junior high, I realized how few people actually have the surname Ren. Before that, all the kids in my village went to the same elementary school, so I thought the surname Ren was as common as Chen, Li, Zhang, Huang, or He."

When the sushi arrived, they both took out their phones to scroll through Weibo and their feeds. Suddenly, her roommate exclaimed, "Huh? Has that UP master uploaded another video?"

"What UP master? An anime reviewer?" Ren Qingqing asked casually.

Ren Qingqing and her roommate got along well because one was a game otaku, and the other was an anime otaku. They mostly stayed in their dormitory, completely different from their more outgoing and socially active roommates.

They had decided to go hiking this time because they felt that if they didn’t get some exercise soon, they might just waste away in their dorm. That’s why they’d made a special effort to go out.

"No, it’s Ren Naiser! The one who posted *Assassin’s Bloody Banquet* and *If You Are Strong, Climb Ten Thousand Meters*!" her roommate said excitedly.

"Oh, him," Ren Qingqing nodded, but didn’t pay much mind.

She had watched *Killer’s Blood Feast*, but *If You Are Strong, Climb Ten Thousand Meters* hadn’t interested her much. That mountain-climbing girl was too fake; it must have all been special effects.

Wait a minute. Before, Ren Qingqing hadn’t seen any Demons. But now that she had, and knew this world wasn’t strictly scientific, she began to reconsider Ren Naiser’s videos... Could it be...?

Her roommate mused, "What’s the new video... Hmm? *Over My Dead Body*? So it’s not the handsome assassin this time?"

Ren Qingqing remembered this roommate of hers loved the Fairy Palace Assassin from *Assassin’s Bloody Banquet* and even had a screenshot from the video as her phone wallpaper.

Ren Qingqing remarked, "The name is certainly interesting. Sounds like a Skill name."

"Thank goodness there’s free Wi-Fi here... What the hell?"

Her roommate cried out in surprise, piquing Ren Qingqing’s curiosity. "What are you yelling about?"

"He’s not uploading those supernatural power videos anymore! He’s started a whole TV series!"

"A TV series?" Ren Qingqing laughed too and sat down beside her roommate. "Let me see... It really is! And there are six episodes already."

As they were discussing this, a notification suddenly popped up on her roommate’s phone app: 「The UP master ’Ren Naiser’ you follow has updated.」

"What?" Her roommate clicked on the message. "He actually released another episode... Wait, has he been updating every six hours for the past eighteen hours?"

Ren Qingqing leaned in and saw the notification list:

「Ren Naiser has updated *Over My Dead Body - Episode One*.」

「Ren Naiser has updated *Over My Dead Body - Episode Two*.」

「Ren Naiser has updated *Over My Dead Body - Episode Three*.」...

This update frequency is enough to make a mother sow bow her head in shame!

"Let’s watch it together on your phone," Ren Qingqing suggested. "Your screen is bigger; it’ll be more comfortable."

The video began, showing a vista of green mountains and clear waters, accompanied by a narrator’s voice:

「This is a legend from two thousand years ago.」

「This is the story of a family’s rise and fall.」

「It all began in A.D. 190.」

Next, it naturally transitioned into... an opening theme song?

The music began, played on instruments neither Ren Qingqing nor her roommate recognized, weaving a mournful tune.

And although there were vocals, the song itself felt more like background music, because as it played, various characters faded in and out, each delivering a distinct line—

「Brother, the food you cook... really is terrible.」

「Remember to wake me up for meals. If I don’t wake up, just split my share among yourselves.」

「From here on, I can go it alone.」

「There are many things that can be pondered upon after death... Now is the time.」

「Finally, no need to wake up early every day... But I won’t be able to do Cultivation with you all anymore...」

「Sigh... I actually wish I could be cherished like a girl too...」

Suddenly, her roommate paused the video. Pointing at a female character who had just flashed on screen, she exclaimed, "Qingqing, doesn’t she look like you? Did you secretly go film a TV series?"

Ren Qingqing peered at the screen. The girl’s profile did look a lot like hers; she even seemed a bit younger, and her skin looked smoother...

Even the voice sounded a bit like hers.

Looking at this character, for some reason, Ren Qingqing felt a strange flutter in her heart...