Apocalyptic Crazy Kitty

Chapter 17: Erzi’s Dream of Becoming an Internet Celebrity

“Everyone, take a look—inside this glass case is a live zombie arm. We’re going to apply an electric current to it now and see how it reacts…” In one streamer’s room, a constantly writhing zombie arm was on display, with nearly a few thousand people watching. “I’m currently on the city walls. As you can see, looking out in this direction takes you to the outer perimeter of the fortress. If you look through binoculars, you’ll see many zombies in the wilderness—there are nearly a few thousand of them gathered in that direction, and it’s quite terrifying. But don’t be afraid. As you can see, right behind me is one of the fortress’s newly developed main cannons. Combined with these tens of thousands of fully armed soldiers, even if the Abysswalkers came, they wouldn’t make it back alive…” In another livestream room, a young man in military uniform was broadcasting from the fortress walls. No sooner had he finished speaking than a flood of virtual gifts began pouring into the chat. “This is the heavily armored train traveling from the northern region to the southern region. I’m currently on board. Each window is over 30 centimeters thick—even if hit by a rocket, we’d remain unscathed. Moreover, the entire heavily armored train is exceptionally well-armed; you could say it’s a mobile fortress wall!” said a streamer aboard the heavily armored train. Erzi had already noticed that any livestream related to zombies attracted an incredibly high viewership. Among them, the most popular was a streamer named “Wilderness Hunting Squad,” who was actually broadcasting footage of hunting zombies in the wilderness. A dozen or so people, clad in black combat gear and fully armed, were moving cautiously through an abandoned town. Each carried a submachine gun fitted with a silencer and a hunting crossbow strapped to their backs; the streamer was one of them. Everyone watched in rapt silence, without any commentary. The on-screen text indicated they were in a small town a few kilometers outside the Qincheng Fortress. Although it was relatively close to the fortress, the abandoned buildings there were still teeming with zombies. Before long, zombies began swarming toward them one after another. The group was clearly used to this; they started firing expressionlessly, almost always landing a direct headshot. Soon, they had wiped out the zombies in a house and began searching through it. Their main targets were daily necessities and any remaining food. The live stream was immediately flooded with comments like “666” and “You’re so awesome, bro,” along with a barrage of virtual gifts like yachts and sports cars… This stream was essentially the most popular one on the entire Douji live-streaming platform, with nearly 100,000 concurrent viewers. Seeing this, Erzi couldn’t help but curl his lip and mutter to himself, “This is nothing. If the Great King’s hunt for the Chef Zombie had been streamed, it would’ve blown everyone’s minds!” These guys were only impressive against ordinary zombies; if they encountered a mutated zombie, they’d probably all be on their knees. By now, Erzi had noticed that the entire Douji platform’s vibe had completely changed. In the past, the most popular streams were usually singing, dancing, gaming, rap battles, or cooking shows, but now the only content that was truly in demand on the entire platform was anything zombie-related. But come to think of it, this was inevitable. After the outbreak of the zombie apocalypse, the only things that could truly capture people’s attention were bound to be zombie-related. Plus, many of the old internet celebrities had probably been dead for who knows how many years; among the top streamers now, there were hardly any familiar faces. “I just wonder if this thing can record…” Erzi muttered to himself. An option instantly appeared on the light screen: “Enable recording?” Erzi was overjoyed. He stole a glance at Zuo Chen and pressed “Yes.” He immediately saw that the light screen had formed a virtual camera, and his image had already appeared on the live-streaming platform. As a once-moderately famous pet streamer who’d once had tens of thousands of followers, some of his familiar fans immediately sent him messages the moment they saw him go live. “Bro Er, you’re still alive? I thought you were dead. That was a close call—I never thought I’d live to see the day I’d see you again!” “Second Brother, which stronghold are you at right now?” “Hahaha, I’m not dead yet—I’m still alive! This is going to shock you—I’m actually in the ruins of Yancheng right now!” Erzi whispered, quietly making his way toward the edge of the rooftop while holding his multidimensional communicator, afraid that Zuo Chen—who was resting with his eyes closed—might see what he was doing. “What do you mean, the ruins of Yancheng? You’re just bragging. Look at all those fruits and vegetables next to you—you must be at some agricultural base. The ruins of Yancheng are swarming with zombies now—where would there be any living people?” Some viewers clearly didn’t believe Erzi’s story. “Don’t believe me? Then take a look at what’s down there!” With that, Erzi turned the camera toward the view outside the rooftop. Ruined buildings, zombies roaming the streets, rampant vegetation choking the roads, and rusted vehicle wrecks…All of this made it clear that this was indeed a wasteland overrun by zombies! Because the Bihai Grand Hotel was situated on higher ground, they could even see the iconic Yancheng Train Station in the distance, its rusty, large characters standing out strikingly in the sunlight. The entire livestream chat immediately exploded with excitement—no one had expected that Erzi was actually telling the truth; he really was in the ruins of Yancheng! “Damn, you’re something else, kid!” “666… 666…” “You’re the man, bro! You’re the man!” “Awesome, awesome!” “I’m seriously impressed—are you out of your mind?” “Have you been living in the ruins of Yancheng all this time? How on earth have you managed these past few years?” At first, there were only a few hundred people in Erzi’s livestream, but word spread like wildfire. As more and more people heard about it, crowds poured into his stream, eager to witness this breathtaking scene. The administrators of the Douji website clearly took notice as well, immediately pinning his stream to the top of the homepage. Within minutes, hundreds of thousands of people had flooded into his stream, all watching his live broadcast of the Liancheng Ruins at the same time. Erzi was so excited his nose was practically running. For the past few years, he’d only dreamed of having his own livestream—he never imagined this scene would actually come true today. It all made him feel as if he had returned to peacetime, and that he had become the hottest streamer on the entire site—a dream he’d once held, which he never imagined would come true today. In the blink of an eye, viewers had already sent him hundreds of yachts and thousands of sports cars as virtual gifts. Questions kept popping up on the screen, but most of them centered on how he’d actually made it to the ruins of Yancheng. Some viewers had already guessed that Erzi had likely been hiding here all along, and were simply curious about how he’d managed to connect to the internet. Erzi wore a smug, triumphant expression, feeling as though even the blond hair on his head was flowing more gracefully than ever. He was just about to start embellishing his survival story in the post-apocalyptic world. “Smack!” A sharp pain shot through the back of his head, sending a jolt of alarm through him. He turned to look and saw His Majesty the Beast King standing on the cucumber trellis above his head, hands on his hips, frowning down at him. “What the hell are you doing, cat?” Zuo Chen said. “Hand it over!” “I’m sorry! Your Majesty the Beast King, I was just taking a quick look—please don’t be angry…” Erzi frantically shut down his livestream account and handed the multidimensional information communicator to Zuo Chen with both hands. Little did they know that this scene had just sent the entire website into a frenzy! Hundreds of thousands of people had simultaneously witnessed the Orange Cat hitting someone and speaking! In the collective understanding of human society, only beings of the Beast King level—those mutated beasts—were capable of speaking. The talking Orange Cat was clearly a Beast King as well! A Beast King actually existed in the ruins of Yancheng—and judging by what had just happened, Erzi was clearly under this Beast King’s control! Every “Abyssal Being” at the Beast King level was equivalent to a walking atomic bomb; every identified Beast King and Abyssal Being was entered into the Post-Apocalyptic Atlas and specially marked. The news spread rapidly online, and the Academy of Sciences began to take notice of the matter. Many people have even given Zuo Chen a nickname: “The Great Orange King”—after all, “great” and “orange” go hand in hand… At the same time, a powerful consciousness roaming the entire internet suddenly became alert and turned its gaze toward Yancheng as well! Geosynchronous orbit. A reconnaissance satellite was slowly rotating in high orbit, synchronized with the Earth’s rotation. To modern human society, this satellite was one of the thousands that had gone missing during the Great Cataclysm—long since reduced to a completely defunct satellite. But now, a powerful radio signal transmitted from the Earth’s surface to the satellite reactivated it, and a consciousness possessing the highest-level access entered it! Immediately, the reconnaissance satellite—capable of decimeter-level observation of the Earth’s surface—began to focus its camera on the Northern Hemisphere, then zoomed in on the western coast of the Pacific Ocean, then further narrowed its focus to a single city, and finally to a skyscraper amidst the city’s ruins and several figures on its rooftop. What the reconnaissance satellite was observing was none other than the rooftop of the Bihai Grand Hotel amidst the ruins of Yancheng! In the next instant, the reconnaissance satellite’s field of view narrowed once more. This time, the only thing left within the frame was a plump Orange Cat standing there with its paws on its hips!