12. Player Rankings
Feeling the strong smell of vinegar all over her, Pi Min didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
This guy is ridiculous, he's actually jealous of those cats and dogs.
If he had seen her browsing profiles of borderline male celebrities, wouldn't he have blown up the entire internet?
In order not to completely offend the other party and continue to exploit their labor, she could only carefully reassure them: "Don't misunderstand, I'm doing a good deed by watching the live stream!"
The man didn't speak, but just pursed his lips and stared intently at her.
Pi Min could only grit his teeth and continue explaining, "Look, as long as the viewing time exceeds five minutes, the other party can get a bit of popularity points. Don't underestimate these popularity points; they might save someone's life in a crucial moment! Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda, you know?"
The man in front of her curled the corners of his lips into a smile that looked undeniably sarcastic.
Pi Min, in a fit of despair, deliberately complained, "Why is it in animal form? Where are the abs? Where are the V-lines? It's cute, but it doesn't help me sleep at all!"
She complained while secretly stealing glances at the man's expression. The beating she'd just received seemed to have awakened a hidden joy within her; she was happy as long as the man was unhappy.
Unfortunately, the man didn't react much to her words. Instead, he explained with a blank expression: "This is a mechanism to protect minors. It's to prevent viewers from feeling uncomfortable seeing humanoid creatures similar to them fighting each other. You were right to turn on the special effects. Those players who appear on screen will be pushed to a higher level of viewers. The level of perversion of those viewers is beyond what ordinary people can imagine. To put it simply, it's about all ages versus restricted content."
Pi Min's focus was instantly shifted by his words, and she couldn't help but ask, "Didn't you say it was a live broadcast across the entire universe? Does that mean that intelligent beings from other civilizations in the universe are also humanoid?"
After a moment of silence, the man replied calmly, "Do you know about convergent evolution? Like whales and sharks, hedgehogs and echidnas, pangolins and anteaters. Species capable of giving rise to intelligence must have similar evolutionary backgrounds, and humanoid form is the optimal solution."
【Wait, how did he know?】
This cat is unusual; it seems to know too much.
[Wasn't it said that this region is only at level zero civilization? Could it be a bug?]
Is it really okay for you guys to casually reveal civilization levels in the comments?
[It's alright, the game has a filtering mechanism; viewers from lower civilizations can't see the comments from higher civilizations.]
...
Having almost been ambushed by some scoundrel, Pi Min realized the hidden use of the live stream chat. Afraid of missing important news, she specifically turned on the chat listening function, treating it as some kind of background noise. Little did she expect that in such a short time, she would hear such shocking news.
Just as she was shocked by the amount of information revealed in the comments, the man froze as if struck by lightning, and then quickly pulled up the blanket on the bed and wrapped them both under it.
"Stop watching, turn off the lights, go to sleep!"
His movements were flustered and awkward, and he seemed to be guilty no matter how you looked at it.
As expected of the only human who could remain uninvolved, he indeed knew a lot of inside information that ordinary people didn't.
It wasn't until she drifted off to sleep that Pi Min suddenly realized she had let a man into her bed without warning. Unfortunately, exhausted from the day, she was too weak to kick him off the bed and could only let him be.
I was so exhausted that I didn't dream at all that night.
In the pitch-black expanse of space, there is neither day nor night; time can only be determined by the quantum computer. In order to capture as many supply pods as possible, Pimin specifically set an alarm for himself based on the frequency with which the supply pods appeared.
As expected, the game system's supply pod deployment was ready. She had just finished washing up when she saw a supply pod rushing towards her from the star map. She hurriedly threw down her towel, changed into her spacesuit, and flew out.
Having learned from yesterday's experience, capturing the supply pod was as easy as taking candy from a baby. It was, as always, crammed full of food and water, offering no surprises whatsoever.
To encourage active gameplay, a player leaderboard has been introduced in this region, allowing players to easily check their ranking and adjust their game pace and strategies accordingly.
Upon seeing the system notification, Pi Min casually clicked on it and took a look. What she saw immediately left her speechless with astonishment.
The player ranked first was none other than her own nickname, "Playing Mischief is Fun," with a total score of 60,012 points.
The second place was quite unexpected; it was "I'm really not unlucky" with a total score of 10,314 points.
This unlucky guy actually turned misfortune into blessing. Although he lost a lot of points due to a series of misoperations, it aroused the audience's sympathy. He not only won the 1,000-point reward in the house-showing contest, but also attracted many viewers to stay in his live broadcast room to see what other blunders he would make.
The third place is well-deserved, belonging to "*** is my brother," whose gameplay is quite flamboyant. No wonder he dares to kick the supply pod directly into his own residence. He has a total score of 9658 points, which is a good result.
...
Thanks to "I'm really not unlucky", all players have realized that everything in the residence is a valuable resource. Few people will actively exchange resources for points. Currently, most of the players' points come from a small amount of internal resource exchange and the complete recycling of supply cabins in unavoidable circumstances. The rest is converted into live stream popularity points at a one-to-one ratio.
The forum erupted in excitement as soon as the leaderboard was released. Everyone was shocked by the outrageous point difference between the first and second place winners.
"Even if this person was just being cheeky and got over 10,000 viewers in their live stream, the difference in points is still a bit outrageous, isn't it?"
"I just checked, and that rabbit's live stream only had a peak popularity of a little over 10,000 points. If that's the case, where did she get the remaining tens of thousands of points?"
"No way, this points gap is outrageous! Even a crushing defeat isn't done like this, is it? This guy is having a blast, is he cheating?"
"Can I report this game? I want to report someone for cheating, it's so fun!"
"Let's go together!"
...
Then, Pimin's system panel started popping up system messages that he had been reported by players.
Because of the uncertainty surrounding the final producer, she was genuinely worried about whether she would be successfully reported.
Perhaps guessing what she was thinking, the man, who had just finished washing up, yawned and smiled as he reassured her, "It's okay, don't worry, I didn't give you any cheat codes."
Pi Min gave an awkward smile: "Thank you so much."
"You're welcome."
The man answered with a smile and then began selecting breakfast from the pantry.
He had a good appetite and quickly picked out a plate of fried dumplings from the food cabinet, where he began to enjoy them.
Pi Min had no appetite at all. After hastily slurping down a tube of nutrient solution, she nervously continued to stare at the game panel, anxiously awaiting the results of her report.
[Upon investigation, it was confirmed that the points earned by "Playing the Fool is Fun" came from two sources: first, the popularity of the live stream, where all viewers were real people with a reasonable distribution and no abnormal traffic; second, item exchange, which included not only players' personal items but also some equipment obtained through illegal means. Both sources are within the game rules, reasonable, and legitimate income.]
Upon seeing the verdict, her heart finally settled down, and she couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief.
The forum erupted in cheers as soon as the announcement was made.
"No way! Obtaining other people's equipment through violence? Is that even human language?"
"I hugged myself tightly; I felt a deep malice emanating from this game."
"Holy crap, what did this guy do to get so many points?"
"The big shot must not be living in a single room, right? I'm really curious how his roommates are doing?"
...
Pi Min glanced at the man on the sofa not far away, who had just finished eating fried dumplings and was now happily munching on a braised chicken leg.
Sorry, you guessed wrong. Her roommate is having a great time!
However, she did indeed forcibly obtain the points from her roommate, so the players on the forum weren't entirely wrong about her.
With some time to go before the next supply pod arrives, Pi Min, having nothing else to do, found a comfortable spot on the sofa and continued watching the live stream.
The viewers were right; the comments are indeed tiered. She could see comments of various colors in her own live stream, but in other players' live streams, she could only see white comments.
This must be what they mean by the game filtering mechanism.
With the release of the player rankings, many players who originally didn't plan to pursue live streaming have gradually realized the potential of live streaming. Compared to last night, Pi Min clearly felt that there were more live streams where people were performing seriously and trying hard to please the audience.
Everyone has their struggles, so she simply kept the live stream running, no matter how bad the performance was, she would stay in the live stream until the other person successfully gained popularity points from her views before continuing to scroll down.
It was obvious that many people were doing a live stream for the first time, and their performances were so awkward that it was hard to watch. Pi Min was so sleepy watching that she couldn't help but yawn.
She got excited when she stumbled upon a live stream from a multi-person residence and saw that the number of viewers had exceeded 10,000, thinking that there was finally some interesting content to watch.
Unfortunately, after she saw the content of the live stream, she was instantly horrified.
In the dimly lit room, a crocodile was repeatedly stabbing a goat with a knife. The goat was already unresponsive, but the crocodile continued to stab it in a fit of rage until the blood stained the ground, before finally throwing the goat's carcass to the ground.
After a brief pause, the crocodile crouched down and placed its palm on the goat's carcass. The next second, the goat's corpse vanished in a flash of light. Clearly, the crocodile had exchanged it for points; the system's recycling was impeccable, even cleaning up the bloodstains on the ground completely.
After the body disappeared, a pile of clean clothes and personal belongings, untouched by blood, was left on the ground. The crocodile swept his hand across the ground again, and even the pile of items vanished in a flash of light.
If Pimin hadn't just witnessed a crocodile kill a goat, he wouldn't have believed that a murder had just taken place.
How many people has the crocodile killed now?
[This is the fourth one. Each corpse can be exchanged for 1000 points, and the deceased's personal belongings can also be exchanged for points. Counting the popularity points gained from the live stream, he is already second in the player rankings.]
[I've been watching this stream for ages and I've seen him kill four people with my own eyes. He hasn't been punished yet. This game actually lets you kill people!]
...
Pi Min opened the player rankings, and sure enough, "I'm really not unlucky" had fallen to third place, while the second place had been taken by a player nicknamed "Wild Uncle".
Knowing he was live-streaming, the crocodile suddenly looked up at the camera, flashing a provocative smile. His words sent a chill down Pi Min's spine: "It's fun being cheeky, you wait, I'll definitely beat you!"
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