To Be Unboxed by the Senior

Hearing the faint sounds of daily life from behind the door, Bai Xing's raised hand hovered in the air as she hesitated for a long while before finally lowering it.

The sky was overcast, threatening rain.

Outside Room 1901, a young girl stood holding a black windbreaker.

"I should wash it before returning it to him," she muttered to herself, turning toward Room 1902.

Although she knew this was a perfect opportunity to meet his sister and perhaps stake her claim while gathering more information... when actually standing at the door, she worried that her intrusion might make her senior uncomfortable.

"Ah..."

The girl, who had been in a daze all day, pressed her lips together and floated back to her own room like a weightless ghost.

It was evening now, time to prepare for the livestream.

Bai Xing took off her shoes, set down her bag, and hung her coat on the standing rack, examining it for a moment.

Finally, she collapsed into her gaming chair, hugging her knees and spinning round and round.

"What is senior doing right now..." she wondered silently.

"When he gets home every day, with his sister's company and family's comfort, do all his troubles gradually fade away?"

Does he consider taking care of her his motivation in life?

Does he have someone to confide in when confused, comfort him when helpless, care for him when sick, and embrace him when cold?

The feelings between him and her must be mutual...

"How nice."

Bai Xing shook her head and looked at the clock on the wall.

Eight fifty.

Ten minutes until the stream starts.

She frowned slightly and touched her mouse.

As the cursor moved, the screen woke from sleep mode, revealing numerous chat windows.

[Project A: Rinae, here's your script for tonight. Just read this naturally. Our operations team will send out comments at specific timing, just read our internal comments and you'll be fine.]

[Director: By the way, there's an important point in today's topics. Our internal staff will ask about your measurements in the comments. Make a shy face and reluctantly refuse to answer. Then we'll have internal staff become a patron and send a 1000-yuan SuperChat to ask again, and you'll have to give in and tell them.

Oh, your measurements are B88-W54-H86, that's the setting. Feel free to exaggerate, don't worry about matching reality or feel burdened. The viewers are meant to be fooled anyway, it's not like they can verify.]

[Guild Leader: Listen, Rinae, what was with you interacting with that small patron during your last stream? You have thousands of patrons now, I thought you wouldn't make such basic mistakes.

Anyway... don't make the same mistake this time, or you'll unknowingly offend many paying viewers and lose potential patrons. Not worth it. Understand?]

"Looks like they won't even leave me time to breathe."

Bai Xing took a deep breath, lowering her head with dim eyes.

For her, streaming was "deception."

It was deceiving the viewers.

Selling emotional value, constructing false narratives with clever words.

The carefully designed voice, seemingly quick-witted responses, unconsciously revealed expressions, joy at receiving gifts, happiness at being noticed, shyness at compliments - it was all fake.

All lies.

Performing within lies required tremendous energy, and the slightest carelessness could expose everything.

After all, to weave one lie required a thousand more to cover and disguise it.

This led to mental exhaustion and sometimes a sense of weightlessness that one could sink into without realizing.

"I'm a fraud."

"When senior finds out what I do, will he despise me..."

Would he think I'm impure because of my identity?

Would he push me away like others, judging and speculating about me like a fallen girl?

When he discovers I'm Hoshizuki Rina, will he still watch my streams?

No... today, later, will he come?

Her eyes lit up again, all fatigue seemingly swept away by this possibility.

But soon—

"Ah... he's probably playing with his sister."

"In front of his sister, he probably won't watch streams. Or she won't let him watch other girls' streams. Even if it's just a virtual avatar."

After analyzing this, the girl lowered her head again, her expression quickly changing from hopeful to dejected.

She couldn't explain what was wrong with her state of mind, nor did she have time to think about it.

She could only silently open the streaming software, OBS, and chat overlay, expressionlessly adjust the camera to focus on her cute but lifeless face, then very reluctantly raise her voice frequency to Hoshizuki Rina's business version,

And click "Start Stream."

...

[Your followed streamer "Hoshizuki Rina" is now live~ Come watch!]

Room 1901.

Receiving this message on his phone, Lu Qing quickly shifted his attention.

"Hmm, should I take a look?" he pondered, picking up his phone and glancing at the screen.

Earlier, with his sister's proactive help, he had finally gotten a preliminary grasp on describing girlish charm, and made progress with the female protagonist's character setting.

With Su Ling's enthusiastic cooperation, he had successfully witnessed how an actual young girl could appear before him in eight different outfits throughout one afternoon.

Such an experience was rare but actually achievable.

Especially that completely compliant personality, which made him feel incredibly comfortable, as if she would silently fulfill any request he made.

This couldn't help but make him wonder - could the girl before him truly be a gift from the god of inspiration?

"..."

Turning his head to look at the closed bathroom door, Lu Qing thought contemplatively:

"Come to think of it, the perfect subject for description is right before my eyes. If I can make the female protagonist vivid and lifelike, using different 'accessories' might not be a bad idea."

Bai Xing's soul, Su Ling's appearance, and then...

"Right, Hoshizuki Rina's voice is quite good, seems worth referencing."

As he pondered this, suddenly inspired, he opened the livestream.

Although it had just started, there were already several thousand viewers in the stream, apparently everyone was waiting in advance, afraid to miss Hoshizuki Rina's third crucial "Information Stream."

Lu Qing put on his bluetooth earphones, turned the screen horizontal, and looked at the comment section.

[DD Executioner: "What's wrong with Rinae today? She looks listless, didn't you rest well?"]

[Wen Le Future: "Yeah, I think so too. Could it be she's too tired lately and not getting enough sleep? If that's the case, you should end the stream early, don't push yourself."]

[Kazu: "Rinae, someone just became a patron, you should thank them."]

[Black Listening Makes Me Happy: "Heh, starting a stream without preparation, not saying a word for ages, what's the deal? Is this a sleeping stream? Playing with your fans? And people are still sending her gifts, is your money growing on trees?"]

(Moderator Notice: User ID "Black Listening Makes Me Happy" has been muted)

[Made Me Laugh: "This really made me laugh."]

(Moderator Notice: User ID "Made Me Laugh" has been muted)

"..."

Lu Qing looked at these comments on screen in confusion, not knowing what had happened before he joined.

But seeing the pink-haired loli on screen with half-closed eyes, his heart skipped a beat with an ominous feeling.

He couldn't help but wonder: "Could Hoshizuki Rina have fallen asleep during the stream?"

From what he knew about VTubers, if they fell asleep, the virtual avatar would indeed remain on screen while the person behind it dozed off with lowered eyes.

While this had happened in other streamers' broadcasts before, most streamers were usually just acting, pretending to sleep.

Looking at Rinae, she should have responded by now after being criticized like this, but she still showed no reaction... it seemed genuine.

Just how exhausted must she be to fall asleep during a stream?

As he was pondering this, suddenly in the upper right corner of the screen, Wen Le sent him a private message:

"Brother, are you watching Rinae's livestream? Did you see? She seems to have fallen asleep! This is a serious situation - she might get flamed by those haters!"

"Flamed?"

"Yeah, when a VTuber falls asleep during work hours, it's seen as disrespectful to her dedicated fans. Old fans like me can accept it, but it's different for newcomers. Many toxic viewers will attack her, and spreading this around would be really bad for Rinae."

Wen Le explained.

"What can we do about this? In this situation, wouldn't staff members call to wake her up? If they just wake her and have her apologize to everyone in the stream, wouldn't that solve the problem?"

"Ah, brother, you don't understand. VTubers are virtual, and the person behind the avatar rarely gives their real phone number to directors, planners, or agency staff. At most, they might share an instant messaging contact for communication. I bet they're already bombing her with messages, but she still hasn't woken up..."

"..."

Lu Qing could vaguely imagine what level of exhaustion would lead to this situation.

Normally, staying up all night wouldn't cause such fatigue.

Only long-term mental exhaustion piled up together, combined with physical strain and emotional ups and downs - all these factors mixed together could lead to Hoshizuki Rina's current state, where she's completely out of it and won't wake up no matter how much they try.

"I suppose a big streamer with a thousand captains must have lots to do daily..."

He pondered this as he paced around the room.

Through his headphones, he could hear faint breathing sounds.

Like a young girl's breath, soft sounds from her dreams.

It wasn't the sound of peaceful slumber, but rather an uneasy doze.

In the livestream chat, insults began to rise, too many for moderators to block.

But contrary to this, the number of viewers kept surging.

[Anti-gambling warrior: "Is this the stream of that popular VTuber with a thousand captains? Oh wow, really sleeping? How bold."]

[Creepy Crawler: "Ahhh, fresh breathing from the real person! *heavy breathing*!!"]

[Hoshizuki Rina's Dog: "Wow, you vultures never miss a chance, do you? How disgusting!"]

[Rinae's Ice Cream: "Shh, don't talk, don't wake Rinae! Let's listen a bit longer!"]

[Freeloader: "Where are the mods? Why aren't they banning people? Are they enjoying this too? You guys always keep the good stuff to yourselves, right? That must be it, right?"]...

Lu Qing wasn't sure if he should get involved in this discussion. He just felt that behind that cute avatar on screen, the person must be really, really tired.

Must be exhausted.

To be fair, Rinae's voice was very pleasant and unique, perfectly bringing to life the game character she loved, even her breathing rhythm was sweet.

It was natural to feel fondness and expectations towards her.

Although he was just a small captain, and there were many admirals in the stream who spent more money than him protecting her, and he didn't need to join the discussion, but seeing her getting flamed by a bunch of haters made him feel uncomfortable. He wanted to do something but didn't know how to express it.

"What should I do?"

Just as he was struggling with this thought—

Outside his door, a silver light split the sky, illuminating the night.

Lu Qing turned to look out the window.

Dark clouds loomed overhead, preceded by lightning.

"Looks like there's going to be some terrifying thunder soon..."

His thoughts racing, he immediately called out towards the bathroom: "Su Ling, there's going to be thunder, prepare yourself!"

"Ah, okay! Thanks, big brother!"

Almost immediately after the girl's voice—

BOOM!!!

The thunderous roar tore through the sky,

And vibrated their eardrums.

"Whew, that thunder was really scary."

Lu Qing shuddered, making this comment and about to share more thoughts.

Suddenly, he noticed new discussions appearing in the stream chat—

[DD Executioner: "Did you all hear that? That huge noise just now."]

[Future Wen Le: "Heard it, thunder."]

[Kazu: "There's no thunder where I am, the thunder came from Rinae's microphone, so which city is it raining in??"]

[Hoshizuki Rina's Dog: "Captain Kazu, are you a creep? Are you trying to doxx Rinae? Heh, so this is who you really are, we were so wrong about you. By the way, if you find out, please tell me the address, I'll do anything."]

"..."

Reading this, Lu Qing's eyes narrowed.

Because he liked listening to music, he had bought 2500-grade Audio-Technica bluetooth headphones with excellent clarity and monitoring fidelity.

He could clearly distinguish three layers of thunder—

One layer was the natural sound from outside, another was the muffled sound through his headphones indoors,

And the third was the high-fidelity thunder sound coming through Rinae's microphone in his headphones.

They were identical, perfectly overlapping.

Even the frequency range of the thunder that could be captured from his location was almost exactly the same.

"No way."

Puzzled, he clenched one fist.

As if possessed, he aimed at the wall.

Bang!

He punched it.

After a few milliseconds' delay.

Sure enough.

"Bang..."

The same tiny sound came through his headphones.

...

...